In times known as the Rising of the Demons, a hero always appears. Whether they are summoned or created isn’t known. What is known is where they will appear in this world, allowing their allies and enemies to prepare.

#Leyvna’s Perspective

The two fled from the demon elemental. Levyna was worried about that charisma check, it wasn’t what she was expecting, and she was especially worried about the (situational) part. That was all based on her appearance attribute.

When they followed the directions they were passed the wing demon and into a large cavern. The dungeon appeared to have ended, or so it seemed. They didn’t get a notification that they had left the dungeon.

“Sorry I couldn’t help back there Levyna.”

“It’s fine Mariya. I couldn’t do much against him, he had too much resistance to what I can do. I have no idea what level he was, but I think he was way too powerful for us.”

“What if we run into more like him.”

“I’m not sure if we will or we won’t. But we can only hope that we don’t. You said the world is not the system. And the world summoned me to rescue the hero. So I can only assume that it gave me the tools I needed to succeed.”

“We did get past the demon.”

“I hope you’re up for a flight. I think we’re going to need it.” Levyna moved behind the tall elf and gave her a hug from behind, “”

They flew towards the light they saw at the distance. It looked like humanoids in robes, with only a few demons around them. The robed individuals were forming a circle around a red glowing magic circle.

“Looks like they have someone in the middle of that circle. Looks like a woman all tied up and scantily clad. Not very original.”

“It’s not? There’s also some demons there, and what looks like another woman tied up, collared and chained to them.”

“Okay. We’re going in hot. I’m going to drop you down by the demons, see if you can free the woman there. I’m going for the circle. I don’t think we have much time. I thought we were under a spacial lock. They seem to have broken it.”

Black circles were starting to form in the ground of the circle with tentacles starting to emerge from holes in reality. Levyna picked up speed and the wind started to tear at their hair as they landed where she could drop off Mariya.

“ Mariya go!” She took off again towards the robed individuals.

Mariya wasn’t slow, she had a lot of emotion built up over how many years she was a slave. The that the Elementalist put up gave her relief from any arrow’s shot her way. She used her sword as a club, and the last Levyna saw before she was too far away was black blood flying in the air.

“You go Mariya!”

She approached the first robed individual, “You’re not going to win.” She says as she landed in an explosion of fire, “Time for Wildborn!” She put her daggers away and drew her staff. It glowed more than before, with the illusionary elemental orbs floating around the top.

“Time to Party!” She consciously started to dance with the staff in her arm. Her body took on a form of kata. A set of moves that she remembered from before Clan Assault. This time she had magic and opponents.

“Air! , ” As she spun through the kata she shouted spells. Air blasts shot in arcs as the staff twirled with her moves.

“Fires of Justice! , ” She didn’t moderate her moves. She just used what was available to her and put her who might into it. Her stamina and mana were dropping swiftly, but as she flowed more and more into the rhythm of her dance the drain lessened.

“Shatterers Earth! , and finally ” Her final sequence of moves started with a move to plant the staff on the ground and roll over it to bring her legs down on top of a hooded head. Her staff flashed as a giant crystal formed in the air above another foe’s head and came down as if shot from a cannon. As she landed from her kick she brought the staff down over her head and landed the end on the stone floor. A wave of rock erupted up from the floor and shot towards the final robed individual.

She turned and looked towards the woman in the center of the circle. She was bound in steel, wrists bound behind her back, ankles hobbled with chain. A collar and chain holding her to the center of the circle. The portals, or whatever they were, were dissipating.

Levyna’s eyes turned towards her companion and the demons she was facing. Mariya was not skilled with the sword in her hand, but her ferocity was making up for it. At her feet were three demons, bleeding out, and another two were holding their prisoner before them as a shield.

She stalked towards the two demons who were left. They were lower-level demons from the looks of it. She didn’t want to steal Mariya’s kills, but she also didn’t want the elf hostage to get hurt.

Levyna put her staff away and summoned her daggers again, but instead of drawing them she just drew a quick sigil she remembered from Clan Assault and shouted, “I got it! ,” and threw what she summoned at the feet of the demons.

It could not be considered a spell, instead, it was just a small item creation that caused a small explosion of light and sound. It was mostly a distraction and the distraction worked. The instance the demons turned to look at Levyna and jump at the firecracker was enough for Mariya to dispatch the last foes.

Levyna surveyed the scene of destruction. There were bodies everywhere, the robed individuals were more demons, low-class demons but still demons.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Mariya I think we’re clear.”

#Warnik’s Perspective

He was starting to get a hold of the rage that was welling up inside of him, or at least he thought he did. He noticed that whenever he did anything that was, in a word, ‘civilized’ the rage would increase. When he acted like a stereotypical dumb barbarian the rage was manageable.

The fight with the flaming minotaur was almost his undoing though. He started to enjoy the fight, despite his reservations, and in the enjoyment, the loss of control started to grow. He was barely able to keep it under control as he performed the joint lock on the bull to allow Dimitri to finish it off.

He cleaned his weapon and had a look around the room, “We better get going soon. If that was a monster that was depleted then I don’t want to see a fully powered monster.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. We want to get through this dungeon and get the World Stone if it’s here.”

“I still don’t understand why we need the World Stone.”

“I think it will be like a feat, to prove that we aren’t to be looked down on. If we get the world stone we can live in luxury perhaps.”

“Only if we sell it.”

They collected the treasure for defeating the minotaur, it wasn’t much just a few low-quality gems and some brass coins. After making sure they got everything they moved on to the next corridor.

“There’s supposed to be a firewall trap through here. Magical. But there’s a sequence of stones we can step on to get through without triggering it.”

“Might as well go with that. I don’t think the magic will affect me but I’d rather not risk it.”

Dimitri took a few moments to have a look at the ground and to figure out which stones matched the pattern in the book. He pointed with his staff, “That one first. Shall I or you?”

“You’re the one with the book. Let me go through and see if I can disable it.” He stepped onto the first stone, and with instructions from his half-demon partner he was able to make it through without triggering the trap.

“Ok give me a few moments.” He got down on one knee and started to examine the paving stones.

“What are you looking for? You’re not a thief.”

“No I’m not, but I’m an engineer.”

“Of software! That’s not going to help!”

“Maybe. But let’s see,” He had a look at one of the large stone tiles and ran his finger over the top of it, “It’s slightly higher than the safe tile. It’s a pressure trap.”

“Like a land mine?”

“You could say that.” He drew out one of the cheap knives they got in town and tried to wedge it between a safe stone and the trigger stone. He started to pry the stone up and off the pressure plate below.

“Oh, wouldn’t you know? There are wires here, which probably means there’s an electric current going through the system? Or maybe magic?”

“How would that help?”

“Now that it’s exposed, think you could overload it with some lightning or something?” He stood up and stepped back, “Give it a shot?”

“OK, just don’t blame me if it explodes.” He pointed his shaft at the exposed pressure plate, “” The third level spell shot from his staff and into the plate and connecting wires. Suddenly the wall exploded, opening a hole almost as big as Dimitri. Dust filled the areas.

“ Well that worked better than I expected. Let’s not do that again, but it should be safe to come in now Dimitri.”

After exiting the corridor they came to another room, “This is going to be the water room. There’s supposed to be an ice elemental in there. And it has a charm to protect it against fire.”

“That will be an annoying fight. How do you think we should approach it since we have a chance to prepare?”

“I might be able to overpower it with my third level spells, they seem to be a bit OP.”

“That would probably be a good start. It’s going to be cold in there, you said?”

“Yes, it is. How will that help?”

“I don’t know. It might. The floor might be icy, so we’ll just have to wa…. Oh.”

“What?”

“My shin guards, they’re spiked right?”

“Yes?”

“Did you ever read the lore of the Mountain Men’s armor in Third Shift Delver?”

“Yes I did.”

“The Mountain Men live in the mountains right?”

“Can you get to the point?”

“They’re crampons repurposed into shin guards. Give me a sec, let me see if I can figure this out.” It took him a moment to figure out the internal strapping on the shin guards, and how to remove the spiked portion of them. He then strapped the spikes to his feet.

“Ok if its icy, stay near the entrance, I’ll try to keep the Ice Element’s attention.”

Upon entering the room, they were greeted with a blast of frozen air. Warnik moved forward, unhindered by the cold, but Dimitri’s teeth picked up an audible chatter almost immediately.

“Warnik, you’re hardly wearing anything you gotta be feeling this cold!”

“I’m a Canadian Polar Bear. This is just a cool breeze.” He swaggered forward, trying to ignore the cold, it wasn’t enough to slow him down, but he knew the longer he stayed in the room, the cooler her would get. “Let’s do this.”

He charged forward, both to get the fight started and to get his blood moving. His body adapted to the cold of the mountains should be able to survive this if he could raise his body heat. He looked around the room, the only feature was the fountain cascading ice from its top.

“Ready or not here I come!” He called out.

He got to the center of the room where it was the coldest, his breath fogging up the air in front of him. “Where are you?”

#Levyna’s Perspective

There was a bound human woman in the center of the circle and a bound elf woman by the demons. “Well, I guess it’s time to free the hostages. Which one of you is the hero?”

“She is!” The elf captive called out.

Levyna moved over to the human woman, “Do you have a name?” She asked as she examined the cuffs and the chains.

“Irina… Irina Jagerin.”

“Well, who has the keys to these chains?” Irina turned her head and looked over at the elf, “She did. Lauqueuluana.”

“What?” Levyna stood up and looked over at the bound elf woman. “Is she with the demons?”

“No, I’m not! I’m a princess!”

Levyna let out a sigh and then looked over at Mariya, “There’s a story here, and we don’t have time to deal with it. The more I’m in this elven nation or whatever it is, the more pissed I become.” She looked over at the hero and reached for the collar, to see if she could remove it like she did Mariya’s.

“I don’t think that’s going to work, it’s made of fused demon-steel.” Irina explained.

“Damn it, what about the chains?”

“They’re the same. I woke up in this world, in a cage wearing them. But Lauq has the keys.”

Levyna turned her head and looked at the elf princess, “Well princess? Where are the keys? And why is she still wearing this stuff?” Her arms started to glow with the fire as her anger started to fuel her magic. She took a step towards the still bound elf.

“It’s a disguise, really!” She tried to claim, “There’s no way for her to be in the city unless she was disguised. The nobility won’t accept a human as the hero! Please…..”

“She’s right.” Irina said, “But she didn’t give me a choice about it.”

Levyna sighed again and looked up at the ceiling, “World, this is trying my patience.” She looked over at the elf princess again, she seemed to grow two sizes, “Where are the keys?” Her voice also dropped two ranges.

“That demon.” She tried to point with her bound hands, “He should have had the keys.”

“I’ll get them Levyna.” Mariya offered as she went over to the robed demon and started to go through his possessions and finally found the keys.

“Get the hero free. We’re going to get out of here.”

“Hey don’t leave me here!”

“Tell me why we should take an elf princess with us? My quest is to rescue the hero, and that’s what we’re doing.” She relented after a moment, “Find free the princess too. But know that I’m not happy with you. I was summoned to rescue the hero. Of the elves I’ve met here, Mariya here has been the most… human… The others that weren’t already demon food showed no gratitude and gave me a hell of an attitude when I saved them. It better not be indicative of the species.”