"Well, you tried Tarik."
Val moved out to the side so she wasn't too close to Tarik, rapier in hand. "I was doomed to die a long time ago, Gusty. It's part of being alive. Although from the sound of it, you aren't very alive anymore. Shame, that emotionless must be dull" Val said casually.
The fog and Gustav's creepy demeanor had made Val uneasy, but she tried not to show it. "I always figured I would die ignorant. It would be too much to hope for for life to make sense" she grumbled.
Val ran around Gustav, hoping to flank him with a frontal attacker. She was moving very fast, and looking for any weakness in the creepy caster.
+1 attack and damage from freedom fighter
Val's speed astounded Gustav enough for him to drop his guard against Val's first attack but he recovered in time to block the next one.
The bullet hit Gustav right in the center of the head but his helm prevent ed form going through. His head tilted in curiosity. "What a fascinating toy you have. I shall have to take from your corpse"
He made a 5ft. step away from Val and began waving his hands. A black energy surrounded him as three more black miasmic clouds appeared. One appeared behind Anya, the second behind Val, and the third in front of Tarik.
Creatures stepped out the clouds. Their emaciated figures looked like a horned human skeleton smothered within a bone-tight hide of slimy leather. Red blood appeared to dripped from their claws.
The first attempted to rake his claws into Anya's back and bite into her flesh.
The second attempted the same with Val.
The third did not attempt to attack Tarik. He instead attempted to grapple him.
Anya howled in pain as all three attacks hit. "Bloody f*@$!" She took a second to try and recognize the creature.
Anya recognized the foul creature as soon as she saw it: a Babau Demon. The book she read had this to say about it:
"The babau is an assassin, a murderer, and a sadist—certainly not traits unusual in the demons, yet the babau's penchant for stealth and surprise sets it apart from its generally less-subtle kin. With no need to eat (although most babaus relish the flavor of mortal meat on their thin, raspy tongues), a babau can wait in ambush for years or decades—their inhuman patience in anticipating a well-conceived murder also setting them apart from the other denizens of the Abyss. Babaus obsess over the act of killing and take great pride in their grisly art, often leaving behind some form of grim marker or obscure signature, whether it be a distinctive modus operandi, an unnerving token, or other profane evidence."
It also has a protective coating of slime that will damage those who attempt to strike it in melee, is immune to poison and electricity, vulnerable to good or cold iron, resists acid, cold, fire, and spells. Attempting to becoming magically invisible is useless as the creature can see invisible creatures constantly without having to cast a spell.
"Ah hell, it's a babau demon!" She scooted past Nikandros, giving the man a clear shot. "Paladin, smite it or something!" As soon as she was in her new place, she called on her magic. "I'm gonna focus on the big bad."
The demon was certainly demonic...but it was probably better to eliminate his master first. Nikandros glared steadily at Gustav before holy light gathered around his sword. Nikandros tensed up, reciting "With the power of Erastil, I smite you!" before charging forward toward Gustav.
Val inhaled sharply when the demon slashed her with its claws, but otherwise didn't react to the pain. She'd taken serious hits before, and she was tough.
"I've got it, don't worry!" she called out when Anya asked for help. Demons were well outside her area of expertise, but there was no way she was going to Anya or the others get killed.
Val sidestepped away from the babau attacking her and ran with surprising speed to put herself between the babau who had been attacking Anya and Anya. She stabbed at the demon.
Val's rapier cut through the demon's flesh. It let out a howl of rage when it saw the holy light radiating off of it.
Tarik's Babau dropped its grip on Tarik and it was shot by the strange device. It reflexively swiped at Tarik with its other hand.
Gustav studied the fight and then winced as though someone were shouting. "Demons, take them all alive. It has been decided that they will serve better that way."
Gustav's hand charges with dark magical energy as he reaches out to touch Nikandros.
The babau, once on Anya, then loomed over Val. It longed to tear Val's throat but, as a summoned creature, it could not disobey its orders.
The negative energy coursed through Nikandros' body, wracking him with pain. He was left weakened but still breathing. He could fight on but the last Babau unfortunately closed in on him.
Erastil must have interceded for Nikandros' was able to deflect the blow with his blade and remain on his feet.
"F@&$!"
Gustav managed to barely duck Anya's ray but the Babau was not as deft. It took the full force of Anya's attack.
Nikandro's hand glows with holy light as his wounds visibly start to close.
"You bastard."
He whips his sword directly at Gustav's head.
Nikandros' falchion pierced Gustav's Mask with ease. Burns spread from inside his head until it exploded outward. The headless body fell backwards quite dead. The Babau seemed unaffected by this. Being copies made of the essence of the Abyss rather than thinking creatures, they mindlessly obeyed Gustav's last order.
"Nicely done, Nicky. Messy, but nicely done." Val said conversationally. She stabbed rapidly at her demon.
Val's first attack glanced off the creature's hard skin but it created a gap for her second blow. The holy light struck it hard but it stayed on it's feet.
Tarik's shots hit every Babau true. The one looming over Nikandros gained a new hole in its dead and fell over dead.
The Babau retaliated swiftly. The one attacking val attacked several times with its demon appendages.
Tarik's Babau continued it's previous order of grappling him.
Anya gaped at the sheer amount of destruction that Nikandros achieved in two hits. "Remind me to never get on your bad side." After a flurry of attacks from Val and Tarik, they were left with just two demons to handle. "I've got just the thing."
Great Spears of ice materialized from underneath the Demons. The sharp points cut through them but Anya didn't see the frost upon them as she normally expected. It seems the cold really didn't bother them even with the power in her blood.
The demon hounding Val was able to keep it's footing and stayed where it was with the spear at its back. Tarik's demon wasn't so steady. The spear pierced its foot and dragged it upward until the demon hung upside down. It reflexively managed to free its foot but it was still prone on the ground it front of Tarik.
Nikandros quickly scanned what was left of the battlefield, ignoring the gore at his feet with a practiced effort of will. He walked toward the one still standing demon, his hand glowing as he did.
His sword came up, slashing edge aimed directly at the monster's stomach.
Nikandros sliced across the monster's stomach, getting snagged here and there by its tough skin. But it was just barely enough to end the demon's vague resemblance to life.
"Thanks for the help, I've never been demon hunting before." Val said to Tarik. "I'll get the last one." She dashed to the last demon and rapidly attacked.
Val skewered the demon with her rapier, the holy light causing it to disintegrate into ash.
Nearby Gustav's corspe began to shake and shutter. Cuts appeared along his body especially at his head. It soon popped clean off. Where the skull once was came a forest of horrific, unnatural tentacles, whipping back and forth as though trying to simultaneously burrow deeper into and escape from its fleshy husk.
The new creature rose speaking in a shrieking voice. Its language was strange and disjointed. None of the heroes could understand it but it could comprehend its pain and anger.
"Aww, come on... that's just not fair" Val said exasperatedly as she heard the corpse begin to move. She spun around and recoiled at the sight of the horrific thing. "What the hell is that? It's disgusting!"
She steeled herself and dashed towards the thing, stabbing at it. "You know, things like this never happened to me until I fell in with you three. I'm an ordinary person" she said to the others.
Val valiantly took up arms against the monster but, alas, the creature's hide was too tough for even Val's magical sword to penetrate.
Tarik fired his barrage at the creature and managed to hit on the first bullet but the creature's writhing caused the last two to miss.
It screams in its horrifying, alien language and lunged for Val.
Anya stared at the horrifying tentacle beast that burst out of Gustav. "F$*&! This day keeps getting better and f%%#ing better. Now get the hell off of Val!"
The monster was blasted back onto his back next to Val. The monster howls in rage.
"What. The. Everburning. Hells."
Nikandros raised his sword toward the tentacles, moving more slowly. The many wounds he had taken dripped softly onto the floor as he trudged toward the tentacle horror, his sword beginning to glow with holy light.
Arriving next to the beast, across from Val, he aimed a vicious chop for the center of mass, trying to hit some non-tentacle body part.
The creature howls in rage at the holy light and turns its entire attention to Nikandros.
Val stabbed at the strange creature. She still seemed out of her depth fighting the creature, but she wasn't scared of it.
The creature writhed in agony as Val slashed her sword across its back then exploited the opening to stab it right in its heart. The monster slump first to its knees then to finally down onto the floor where it moved no more.
The party was left alone with the twice-dead corpse. Whatever prisoners there must have been had long since been moved out. Gustav's equipment and holy symbol was still around but his mask broke when the creature erupted forth.
Val knelt down by Gustav's body and began rummaging through his equipment. "Silver, Nicky, are you all right? You took some bad hits back there" she asked. "All that fighting, and I'm still not sure what Gustav was up to."
"Are you sure you want to be touching him, Val?" Anya asked. "How do we know he won't just pop back again?" She stood defensively behind the girl, ready to cast just in case. "What even was that?"
"Good point. I don't want to touch him, but I don't want to pass up his gear." Val said, still rattled by the monster's appearance and return to life. She picked up the trident and buried it in the cluster of tentacles where Gustav's head was. "Look at me, I'm the Sky Father. Hopefully, that will keep him down."
She shook her head. "I've never seen anything remotely like that tentacle thing." She pulled the trident out and scrambled away from the creature as soon as she'd finished looting the body. She tossed up the dagger and caught it. "Nice balance."