A quiet breeze swept its way through the narrow valley between two sheer-faced hills, rustling the grass as it passed. A few birds flitted out of a crevice high on one hill’s cliff face, their high-pitched song piercing the silence. A small puddle of water resting in the shadows at the base of the stone rippled with unseen movement.

“They’re coming,” Jay whispered, briefly touching Aila’s shoulder before stepping away.

Dys stood at the center line of the valley on one end, her oversized shield resting on one corner, tilted at an angle so she could see down the straightaway. Aila waited behind her, quarterstaff in one hand, her other free, fingers flexing in anticipation. Jay walked to the right side, her wooden mallet at the ready, putting some distance between her and Dys but keeping her other self at the fore.

Suddenly, at the other end of the valley, Syd rounded the corner of the slope, coming into view. Steel lance in hand, she sprinted forward, but not at her top speed. She didn’t want her pursuers to lose focus.

Behind her came twenty twisted wretches. A cacophony of discordant screeches and gurgling growls preceded them, their foul noises echoing through the narrow valley. Their corrupted forms were many, some of them elk-like or boar-like, others recognizable as having once been horses, aurochs, cows, and even one wolf. All were twisted into vile parodies of bipedal manhood, all carried stolen weapons claimed from slain victims, and all were intent on soaking the ground with Jadis’ blood.

Reaching a halfway point in the valley where a knee-high marker stone had been carefully placed, Syd deftly leapt forward by some twenty feet. Upon landing, she skirted to the side and took up a position opposite Jay, keeping Dys and Aila in the middle.

The demons raged forward, their bloodthirsty howls sending a chill up Jadis’ three spines. But she stood unflinching in the face of the horde. They had a trap to see through, after all.

As the demons closed in, they spread out, some continuing their pursuit of Syd, others honing in on Dys and Jay. Their line spread out just as Jadis had hoped. While they didn’t all reach the demarcation stone at the same time, they were all too far committed to their charge to stop once the first spike trap went off.

A boar-like wretch placed its malformed hoof within a circle of faintly glowing runes on the ground, barely visible in the light of the early afternoon sun overhead. Instantly a three-foot-tall spike of force magic shot up, piercing through the hoof, leg, and lower body of the demon, sending it crashing to the ground. As it tumbled from its headlong rush, leg obliterated into a bloody pulp, its warped snout passed through a second rune circle. In less than a second, a squelching splatter was the final sound made by the squealing wretch as its head was inexorably pierced by a ghostly spike.

More demons were crippled or killed outright as they charged forward through the field of twenty magical spike traps Aila had set for them. By the time they had passed through the two lines of traps, eight of the wretches had been taken out of the fight, lower limbs shredded to uselessness or worse.

With traps sprung, Jay and Syd converged back towards Dys and Aila, closing the distance. The remaining dozen demons that had passed through the mine field unharmed converged on their semi-circle.

As the enemy drew close, they split in two, going to either side of the barrier Dys presented. Dys pivoted to the left and sprang forward, slamming several wretches that turned and attempted to push back against the shield, their weapons and tentacle-warped claws digging uselessly into the solid wood. As the hapless wretches contacted the solid barrier, several more spike traps Aila had cast on the shield activated, their force spikes piercing deep into the foul flesh of the demons. They were briefly carried along by her short charge, impaled on the spikes for a moment before the magic spikes disappeared and they were flung off the shield as Dys stopped and flicked her arm out.

Jay moved in behind Dys, her mallet swinging in wide arcs as she covered her other self’s exposed back, keeping the enemy from taking advantage of the open target. One end of the mallet head connected with a demon’s shoulder and another force spike exploded outward, piercing through to the other side of the wretch in a split second. With the spike paving the way, Jay’s mallet went fully through the body of the demon, bisecting it and sending a rain of blood and gore in a wide arc across the battlefield.

Syd’s lance struck out, piercing one demon’s chest before wrenching it to the side, sending the demon sprawling to the ground. Using her massive reach with the long weapon, Syd kept any demon that tried to go around the side from getting close to Aila. She picked at them, striking bodies and legs, not killing with each strike but crippling and distracting, preventing any one of her selves from being surrounded and overwhelmed.

One demon on Jay’s flank opened its mouth wide in a familiar gesture, a sickly green light glowing around it briefly.

“Vomit!” Syd called out a warning.

Aila whipped her hand around and cast the normal version of her force spell, the translucent bolt of energy colliding with the demon’s side and sending it to the ground in a crumpled heap before it could fire off its acid attack.

At the same time, a second demon on the left also opened its maw, preparing to spew its foul bile. Swinging her shield around, Dys blocked the caustic spray, letting the dangerous liquid splash harmlessly against the wooden barrier.

The demon’s acid spray pinned her down, however. Two demons rounded on Dys from either side, attacking from the left and right simultaneously. One arm locked in place by the need to block the spray, Dys used the maul in her other hand to parry blows with the demon on her right.

Syd lashed forward and caught the demon on Dys’ left, tip piercing its side and jerking it down, stopping its attack for the moment, though it wasn’t dead.

As the acid vomit attack ended, Dys pivoted and dropped the full weight of her door-shield on the body of the prone demon at her feet, squashing it like roadkill. Twisting her shield around to kill the downed demon revealed what was in front of Dys to her, however, showing a scene she hadn’t expected.

The demon that had been spewing acid had been ready and waiting and as Dys exposed herself, it launched its spear at her. The steel tip of the spear clanged loudly against Dys’ breastplate, failing to pierce but still sending a panicked lurch through Jadis’ stomachs. She hadn’t been able to see what the demon had been doing at all while she was shielding against it, her other two selves too preoccupied with the other demons to spare a glance in that direction.

A glowing rune circle appeared on the ground under the hooves of the demon that had launched the spear, Aila taking advantage of the wretch’s momentary lack of movement. Another three-foot spike shot upward, impaling the demon and destroying its leg, sending it to the ground.

Moving forward and letting Syd deal with the wretch on her right, Dys slipped her left arm out of the shield straps and set the edge of the huge shield down on the ground. With a creaking finality, the massive shield tipped over and crashed down onto the prone demon with an audible crunch.

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In the meantime, Jay dealt with the demons on her side, a second one hit by the other side of her maul’s head, causing a second force spike to trigger and rip the wretch’s arm off its body.

“On your right!” Aila called out and Jay glanced down, seeing the trap she’d put down on the ground there.

Jay maneuvered back, putting distance between her and the remaining three foes by her, tempting them to rush forward and step on the spike trip. To her surprise, they avoided the trap, going around it and pressing their attack on her.

“Not complete idiots, huh,” Jay said under her breath as she knocked back their attacks with her own weapon, focusing on defense. “Still fucking stupid for standing in a line, though.”

From the side Syd charged with her lance, skewering the three demons. She didn’t follow through all the way, not wanting to blunt the end of her lance by hitting it against the stone cliff face, instead letting the lance go and allowing the three demons to flop to the ground as they wildly struggled to pull themselves off from the impaling length of steel.

Without turning to look, Syd held out her hand and caught Dys’ maul that she’d tossed her. Jay and Syd then set about crushing the wretches, finishing them off before they could extract themselves or cast any more spells.

By that point the battle had transformed into a cleanup. All the demons still living were incapacitated and it was only a matter of finishing them off.

“Good work!” Dys called out as she bent down to pick up her shield. Lifting the shield up a little, she grimaced at the sight of mess beneath it. “Ugh, not going to want to eat pancakes for a while… But yeah, good job Aila!”

“You as well,” Aila replied, an exhausted look on her face. “I’m out of magic power for now, though. That trap was the last of my reserves.”

“Maybe we can lead another mob of demons over to this valley,” Syd suggested, shaking the blood off of the makeshift maul as she looked towards the field of spike traps where a few demons were still struggling to crawl forward. “After we deal with them, of course.”

There were four of the wretches still alive and two of them had cast spells that Jadis had encountered before. A pair of large sickly yellow-green orbs hovered in the air over the struggling demons. The last time Jay had gotten close to one of those, it had exploded in a poison fog that had left her half blind and coughing up her lungs. Jadis wasn’t eager to get close to one of those evil bubbles again.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to. All she had to do was—

“Are you all well? Do you need healing? Did any of that vile demon acid splash on you?”

An almost melodic voice called out, interrupting Jadis’ thoughts. She had almost forgotten about the healer, the young woman having stayed out of the way hidden behind a large boulder for the whole fight. She glanced over and saw the priestess hurriedly approaching. Jadis was tempted to tell the woman to stay back and remain out of the way but refrained. There was no use. She had already been close enough to siphon off some experience anyway, annoyingly.

The cleric High Priest Gerhardt had sent to aid Jadis while out hunting demons in the field was, truth be told, an exceedingly nice young woman who deserved none of her ire. She was, so far as Jadis could tell, simply a kind priestess who was only worried about making sure no harm came to her charges; no political or underhanded motivation, just pure concern for Jadis’ wellbeing.

Maybe a little too much concern.

“How are your feet? You walk around barefoot and there are sharp rocks everywhere here you could step on. Oh, and that terrible acid, you might have stepped in some of that! Here, I’ll just check to make sure you're unharmed.”

The priestess started to kneel before Jay, forcing her to take half a step back to catch the cleric’s attention.

“Dam—er, darn it, Eir, you should really stay back until we call you.” Jay said, trying not to be too abrupt.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Eir said, looking at Jay, crestfallen. A tear was actually starting to form in the corner of one of her eyes.

“It’s—look, it’s fine. Just, please try to stay back, okay?”

“Of course!” the priestess said, her expression clearing and her white teeth shining as she smiled brightly. “May I check you for injuries, Miss Jay?”

Jay nodded and watched in mild exasperation as Eir, the doting cleric, knelt at her feet and started checking them for cuts or burns, her hands glowing softly with some spell or other that Jadis was certain was unnecessary.

She looked up at Jay a second later, dark purple eyes meeting her violet ones as she grinned almost worshipfully at her.

“Oh good! You’re unharmed! Just a few health points to restore and you’ll be in perfect condition.”

“Thanks,” Jay said a little awkwardly, motioning with one hand at the elf. “You can get up now, you know.”

“Oh! Of course. Excuse me,” she said before getting to her feet and peeling off to check on Syd. “I’ll check on your sisters now Miss Jay. Lyssandria’s blessings upon you.”

“Just Jay is fine,” she insisted for the umpteenth time, but Eir simply bowed and continued to check on Syd and Dys, making little exclamations of concern as she went.

Jadis mentally shook her head. Eir was a sweet girl, but the elf was obsessed with Jadis’ health. From first meeting at the city gates and all throughout the trip into the Broken Hills, Eir had been constantly checking on Jadis as though she were some kind of delicate flower with petals a stiff breeze could damage. The absurdity of the short elf doting on her like a helpless child almost made Jadis want to laugh or lash out in annoyed frustration.

She didn’t, though. The cleric was just trying to be helpful and do the duty she’d been assigned to. Jadis found it hard to fault her for being overzealous in her approach. Part of her hesitance to be harsh had to do with her appearance, Jadis had to admit to herself. The young woman was strikingly beautiful, even more so than most of the other already attractive elves Jadis had seen around the city.

Despite her gentle, almost chaste personality and her evidently holy profession, Eir did not look the part of a divinely touched priestess. Her skin was wine red and both her eyes and hair were dark purple, nearly black. Combined with her stunning good looks, the cleric looked more like a succubus than a nun. Not even her voluminous priestly robes could help dissuade the impression; they did little to hide the fact that Eir had a more than generous bosom. Jadis was certain that if she were to put a couple of horns on her head, strap some bat wings to her back, maybe put a tail on her obviously plump rear, then Eir would be a dead ringer for a sexy demon succubus pin-up.

Not that Jadis would ever tell the pure-hearted priestess something like that. Beyond the fact that Jadis got the impression that the elf was about as innocent as a vestal virgin, she didn’t think she or anyone else on Oros would take being compared to a demon in looks positively.

Did they even have anything analogous to a succubus on Oros? She’d have to check with Aila.

Speaking of, Aila had become the current focus of the priestess’ ministrations. Jadis was glad the elf cared to check on Aila as well, even if Aila was clearly a secondary concern in her duties.

Syd took the moment where Eir was distracted by checking on Aila to scoop up a discarded spear and hurl it at one of the nearly dead demons still trying to drag themselves closer to Jadis and her group, perhaps with the intention of killing them via ankle bites. She could already hear the sound of the guards riding their horses closer from where they sat some hundred yards back, barely far enough away to avoid an experience point split.

The spear pierced the wretch through the skull, killing it and causing the green orb of noxious gas floating over it to burst into a cloud of toxic fumes.

Eir jumped at the sound, gasping.

“Oh! Foul thing,” she said, covering her mouth with one hand before looking up at Syd. “Pardon my language. Please let me know if any of that substance gets in your eyes. It can cause a great deal of discomfort and even permanent damage.”

“Sure,” Syd said with a shrug. “Just, try to keep back until they're all dead, okay?”

“Of course,” the priestess bowed. “I will endeavor to not disrupt your activities, Miss Dys.”

“That’s Syd,” Aila told her. She pointed to the left. “The one scraping intestines off of the shield is Dys.”

“Of course, thank you,” Eir said, bowing again to mask a flushed look, this time to Aila. “I’ll do my best to not confuse the three. They’re just all so identical it’s hard to keep them—”

Eir cut herself off, her hand once again flying to her lips as Syd killed off another wretch, this time by tossing an axe at it.

“What?” Aila asked, looking down at the much shorter woman.

“I just reached level fourteen. How fortunate! Oh,” she gasped, glancing up at Aila, then over at Jay and Syd who had their brows drawn down in frustration. “Oh, my apologies. I truly do not mean to be a drain on the experience you are all gaining.”

Jadis just sighed.