NOVEL NEXT 231 – Retaking the Fort (Part 3)
“Hahahaha! Cower! Cower with your tails tucked between your legs like the craven cur you truly are, demons! Tremble before the holy light and the purifying flames!” yelled Mother Magdalene with evident enthusiasm as she tackled two of the fourth-tier demons at the same time. “Let the world be cleansed from the stain that your existence left behind!”
The old matron’s mace flashed past with such speed that it looked as if she was merely wielding a rattan cane and was administering corporal punishment to naughty children. One of the demons she faced was a Ragah-Fiq that wielded a shield larger than their own body, and tried to block her blows, but all that resulted in were massive dents forming on said shield instead. The other demon did not even dare to be anywhere near the path of her strikes, and frantically retreated with every swing.
There was good reason for the demon to act that way, too.
Unlike most Temple Guards whose skills tended to focus more on defense, with the most common high tier skill amongst them being some method to accumulate the holy light around them into some sort of protective domain that made themselves or their allies more durable, Mother Magdalene walked an opposite path. Rather than defense, she walked the road of offense, a road of purification by fire and smitings.
All around the old matron’s impressively muscular body, the holy light coalesced into a nearly physical veil that wrapped around Mother Magdalene as well as her weapons and armor. The veil looked glaringly bright even to her allies, but to the demons, it was not just a blindingly bright distraction. It was so, so much more.
Second tier demons and weaker third tier demons would directly combust where they stood if they were exposed to the light at too close a distance or too long a time. Stronger third tiers and weaker fourth tiers would have burns appearing on their bodies, the severity of which depended on their proximity to Mother Magdalene, as was seen on the exposed skin of the weaker fourth tier demon she was facing.
Even for the stronger fourth tier demons, the holy light’s offensive domain rendered them uncomfortable and prone to distractions, which could easily turn the tables of a close fight, something Mother Magdalene relied upon during her rampages deep into the demon lines. Similarly, since the domain wrapped around her weapon as well, a direct hit from one of her strikes could inject part of the domain directly into her foe’s body, burning them from the inside out if they proved to be too fragile to resist it.
A point graphically proven as the weaker fourth tier demon Mother Magdalene was facing misjudged the range and took a hit against their side instead.
The hit itself was relatively light. Practically a glancing blow as only the very tip of the matron’s mace caught the demon. It was a blow strong enough to dent the demon’s armor, sure, but not one with enough force to crush their body underneath said armor. Even so, it was enough for the domain wrapped around the mace to enter the demon’s body.
Not a moment later, the demon screamed in agony as their side spontaneously combusted from the inside, the flames and smoke shooting out from the gaps of their armor. It was a horrific sight made worse by the demon’s agonized, sorrowful screams, and it distracted a couple of the demons fighting against others, leaving openings that their opponents exploited mercilessly.
One such unfortunate demon was a Nevilosk Alissa was fighting against, who left a bit of an opening that allowed her to slam the point of her shield against the demon’s side, likely shattering several of the demon’s ribs in the process. The demon attempted to retreat after taking the blow, but the pain hindered their movements and Alissa managed to land another strike with her shield, this time a bit lower down.
When the second blow directly struck where Alissa guessed the demon’s kidney would be, it dug in deep, and likely bruised if not directly blew apart any organs in its way, causing the demon in question to bend over in pain. Alissa expected such a reaction, and just as the demon bent over, her right knee raised up to meet the demon’s face, a direct meeting between her knee and their nose that ended with the latter as the loser.
As the demon’s head snapped back up from the force of the knee strike, Alissa thrust her spear into the exposed base of the demon’s chin, her weapon’s spearhead slipping into the demon’s skull and into its brain from below, swiftly ending their life, likely before they even realized that happened.
Over on her side. Mother Magdalene had also finished off the Ragah-Fiq, now looking more like a barely identifiable mess of burned, crushed bits of fur and flesh cocooned in a tomb of deformed armor plating. As for the other demon, all that remained of it was a charred corpse, though Alissa noted that the demon’s head had been pulverized by a heavy blow as well, likely the Mother finishing it off when she had the chance to do so.
The other demons within the citadel were panicking and attempting to escape, but disengaging from their human opponents was easier said than done, especially now that the humans had the numerical advantage over them. Out of the thirty or so demons at or near the fourth tier gathered within the citadel, less than ten managed to escape from the citadel’s back gate, most with heavy injuries.
What remained of the rest were taken down with extreme prejudice by the human task force within the citadel, while some chased after the escaping demons, who ended up rallying other demon survivors to make a break from the open south end of the fort. In total, five demon fourth tiers and around a thousand other demons fled towards the south, while the Kingdom had successfully reclaimed Fort Gurzil with minimal casualties on their side.
Of course, the demons that fled had no inkling whatsoever that the opening to the south was a trap left behind by the Kingdom’s forces. After all, a foe that saw that there was no hope of survival might turn and fight to the bitter end, but if they were left a path to escape, they would tend to rout and try to save themselves instead.
It was far easier to handle enemies that were fleeing for their lives compared to enemies that were fighting with nothing to lose.
Some of the people in the fort kept watch over the escaping demons as they fled further to the south, even after the demons left their sight range. Sure enough, around an hour or so after the demons fled southwards, a loud explosion took place to the south, one so large that even those in the fort felt the shockwave despite the distance involved.
Clearly Sir Inolet had sprung his ambush on the escaping demons, and a few hours later, they received their answer as the detachment sent to the south for the ambush returned to Fort Gurzil, telling tales of how the ambush went. Given the cheerful mood of the returning soldiers, Alissa could tell right away that the ambush had gone well.
Something she soon confirmed from Sir Inolet himself. Out of the escaping demons only a handful of the weaklings that already scattered away before they reached the ambush zone managed to escape. The rest were annihilated to a man in the ambush led personally by the old knight.
