The Butcher of Gadobhra

Chapter 91: A Sticky Wicket

Themis roared into the fight with the two demons like a whirlwind. She only had a bit of armor

on, and was wielding a two-handed sword that glowed blue with a lightning enhancement. The paladin seemed to have the other fight under control, so she concentrated her attacks upon the new arrival.

Her weapon cleaved one of the sedge beast heads trying to gore her and cut deeply into the squishy body. And stuck there.

The four mages who were attached to the daemon twitched as the electrical pulse from the sword was conducted to them. Themis pulled with all her considerable might, but the sword was stuck fast, and she had little leverage. She placed one foot on a head, ignoring it's attempt to gnaw through her steel boot. She pulled again, pushing on the head with her foot.

The sword stayed stuck, the head pushed deep into the glue-daemons body, taking her foot and leg with it. Try as she might, her foot was stuck. "Oh, this is stupid. Alright you abomination, you asked for it.!" Once a day, her Great Sword of the Angry Skies could unleash a huge blast of lightning onto an opponent. It was a great way to finish someone off.

The glue-daemon glowed blue and spasmed, causing damage to the two people trapped inside of it. The lightning finished them off. They would have been dead anyway in a couple of rounds. The other four mages however, might have been saved. But they had no resistance against the burst of damage from the Tier 4 weapon.

Your Heavenly Burst attack strikes multiple targets!

Saphronmage has taken 261 damage. You have slain Saphronmage!

Mysto33 has taken 261 damage. You have slain Mysto33!

Arcanus has taken 261 damage. You have slain Arcanus!

VelvetTeddyBear has taken 261 damage. You have slain VelvetTeddyBear!

YmRdYurDead has taken 261 damage. You have slain YmRdYurDead!

Goondulf has taken 261 damage. You have slain Gooddulf!

As a reminder, no matter how much fun it is slaughtering handfuls of Tier 1 players, you don't get EP from them.

Glue-Daemon resists your attack. Glue-Daemon takes 130 damage.

You take 261 lightning damage.

"Oh, bloody hell, I hate this town!"

"Let go of my sword!" Themis grasped the blade firmly in both hands. The glue-daemon responded by kicking her in the shin with a hoofed leg. The hoof stuck and couldn’t pull away. A sticky mass of small parts and glue surged towards her, engulfing an trapping both arms.

Slowly, slowly, as the general struggled, the daemon trapped her inside of it.

As Arnie, Ben, and Ozzy arrived at the battle, they saw Timmy and seven other people trying to beat down a wounded sedge daemon. They were winning, but it was a close thing.

Moving slowly towards that fight was some sort of monstrous tar-baby. Dead players were stuck to the surface and General Themis was nearly engulfed by it. Not much showed except the tack of her breastplate. The thing she was stuck in was pawing the ground with sedge beast legs and waving it's three remaining cow heads around, trying to gore someone.

Ben squinted at the glue-daemon. "Ozzy, be careful, that thing is held together with that horrible glue we made. You touch it and you'll be stuck. Ozzy stopped, thinking.

Setting glue on fire would make it thinner, and might just give the daemon more mobility. Glue wouldn't burn, just heat up. The temperature needed to burn it would kill Themis and anyone stuck inside.

"Arnie, go smite the hell out of the daemon the paladin is fighting."

"Ben, go get Delbert. I'll keep the Tar-baby from joining into the fight."

Ben saluted and rushed off. Arnie leaped into the sky with a huge smile on his face.

Ozzy took his billhook, and carefully wedged the hook on it's blade onto the side of Themis's back armor. He tugged it twice, making sure the hook was set, and then started to pull. He dumped a chunk of stamina into his Push Onward skill, raising his STR to 20. His muscles seemed to all flex at once with power, but everything was working together and he felt no pain at all. The daemon was surprised to find itself being moved away from the fight.

Themis got the idea and lent what aid she could to pushing in that direction. Horrible noises came from the three heads as Ozzy dragged the monstrosity further away from Timmy and their fight.

Arnie had risen as far as his poor, burnt wings would take him, and then he fell. Sort of a controlled fall, his flaming sword held out in both hands in front of him, a prayer in his heart and a battle cry on his lips. The daemon was down to 12% of its health, but it had just killed another person, and David was low on health, a tendril strangling him. Timmy was out of mana and stamina, barely able to hold his sword.

Joseph looked into the sky, and saw the winged angel swooping down upon the daemon. It was one of the coolest things he'd seen yet in the game. He tossed David his biggest heal and yelled, "Stand firm, we have help coming in our hour of need!"

Arnie hit dead center of the daemons head, splitting its skull asunder. His sword continued on down until it hit the ground and stuck there. Arnie was stuck inside the daemon, only his legs sticking out. But he'd hurt it badly! The beast was down to 1%. Joseph let loose with one of his few offensive spells 'Admonish the Wicked' and struck with his mace. Timmy found the energy for one last Smite and stuck as well. Hit from all sides, the daemon died.

By the Holy Light of Saint Fandral! You have slain a foul beast of the Dark!

When Warriors of Light come together, the Dark Retreats!

Those who took part in this battle may display the Title of Daemon Slayer

Joseph and Arnoniel have earned the skill: Demon Slayer. It doesn't matter how they spell it. Daemons, Demons, Imps, Hellions, Fiends, Daevils, and Devils will take an extra 5xRAD damage from your RAD based attacks.

Sir Timothy is restored.

Arnoniel is restored.

Core Skill Points have been awarded based on contribution. A Tier 2 treasure chest has appeared!

Arnie pulled himself out of the daemon’s corpse, and spread his wings. They were restored to full, but the tips of the feathers still bore signs of the fire he had endured. That was fine by him. As was the bald look he was going to continue to rock! He was 56th legion now, after all.

Sir Timothy stared in awe as his arm regrew. The other players who had been fighting also rose with wounds restored, grinning from ear to ear. All of them had earned a good chunk of Core skill Points and received a message about moving to tier 2.

Ozzy, meanwhile, had managed to drag Themis and the daemon a block away and keep them from any further trouble. Themis was totally engulfed, but still fighting. Ozzy hoped she had a skill to hold her breathe, or good lungs. Ben came running up almost carrying Delbert.

"One Ice Wizard, as requested." Ben uncoiled his whip but didn't attack. "Can you freeze this thing solid Del?"

Delbert looked at the monstrous thing and nodded. "The only thing I can do is freeze things. You sure it won't hurt the person in there?"

Ozzy shrugged. "She's tough as hell and a couple of tiers up from us. And if we don't get her out, she dies for sure. Bring the cold, Iceman."

Delbert smiled broadly. It was nice to be appreciated. He really did only have spells to chill, freeze, and preserve food. He started chain casting his main spell that froze food solid. Waves of icy magic flowed from him, having an immediate effect. The daemon started moving slow as it first thickened, and then froze solid.

"Keep going Delbert, it's working. Walk around and hit it on all sides and then we'll turn it into ice cubes."

A couple of minutes later, the daemon quit moving, and so had Themis. Ozzy spent more stamina to again raise his STR and then started hitting the glue-deamon. He didn't bother to use the billhook, and that was stuck in the frozen daemon. He just hit it with his fists.

One Fist of Iron now had a base damage of 40 after buying all three levels. To that Ozzy added +30 for his character level, +100 for his temporary STR of 20, and finally +25 for Demon Slaying, giving him a total damage with his fist of 195 points of damage. Ozzy hit the daemon twice, once with each hand, and huge chunks of frozen glue and sedge beast parts were crushed to gravel.

Glue-Daemon is restrained. Slaughter bonuses apply.

You have hit Glue-Daemon for 585 points of damage.

Glue-Daemon mitigates 50 points of damage. Health: 3515/4000

Glue-Daemon is restrained. Slaughter bonuses apply.

You have hit Glue-Daemon for 585 points of damage

Glue-Daemon mitigates 50 points of damage. Health: 2970/3000

"Ben, see if you can loosen it up around Themis. Delbert, keep the frost coming on the parts Ben and I aren't hitting."

Delbert cast spell after spell, imagining the daemon was just another batch of pork chops he needed to keep frozen in the villages make-shift freezer.

Ben began twirling his whip, and applying radiant damage to the daemon on either side of the general, hoping to help her free herself. Flames of the Phoenix ate into the frozen daemon, vaporizing it. With a roar, Themis managed to free herself from what would have been her death. "Damn that was cold. Warm me up a bit courier, and don't worry, i have fire resistance. Ben obliged by casting a roaring fire from his hands which rapidly burnt away the bits of glue sticking to her. He followed up by healing Themis. Despite her claiming resistance, she had taken a considerable charring from his flame bath.

Timmy and the other group had come around the corner looking to get in on the fight with the second demon. Just as they did, they heard the harsh sound of shattering ice and saw the butcher put his fists deep into the daemon, chunks of it exploding off the frozen creature. They were also treated to the sight of an imperial courier, his entire body awash with mystic flames carve the general from the frozen daemon. The Light cherished all its warriors equally, but some were obviously more equal than others.

Freed of the danger of killing the general, Ozzy began punching as fast as he could, not giving the daemon a chance to thaw. One fist of Iron lashed out and The other of Steel gave him a critical hit, followed by If one doesn't hit you, the other one will! granting him a flurry of attacks. He was spending stamina fast, but Ozzy had an immense amount to spend.

Glue-Daemon is restrained. Slaughter bonuses apply.

You have hit Glue-Daemon for 585 points of damage.

Glue-Daemon mitigates 50 points of damage. Health: 2435/3000

Glue-Daemon is restrained. Slaughter bonuses apply.

Critical Hit!

You have hit Glue-Daemon for 1170 points of damage

Glue-Daemon mitigates 50 points of damage. Health: 1225/3000

Glue-Daemon is restrained. Slaughter bonuses apply.

You have hit Glue-Daemon for 585 points of damage.

Glue-Daemon mitigates 50 points of damage. Health: 680/3000

Glue-Daemon is unrestrained!!

You have hit Glue-Daemon for 195points of damage

Glue-Daemon mitigates 50 points of damage. Health: 545/3000

Massive chunks flew from the daemon, icy bits flying everywhere. But the center wasn't solid and what was left of it was free.

Ben notice and yelled to Arnie as he ran up. "Hit it hard, we need to put it down before it regenerates!"

Ozzy landed two more blows, but they did little damage to the liquid center. Worse, he was stuck. "Dammit, the things is like a tar-baby."

"I love that story! I'll just call you 'Brer-Ozzy' from now on!" Ben’s whip cracked against the daemon. Timmy slashed at it, doing some damage, but like Ozzy, his weapon was stuck fast. He scowled when he saw Ben bring his whip down again with no problem pulling it out.

Arnie brought down his flaming sword upon the daemon. "FOR THE 57th!!" Hot glue exploded in all directions, sticking parts of hooves and horns to the nearby houses.

By the Burning Bunions of Saint Arinna! You have slain a foul beast of the Dark!

Those who took part in this battle may display the Title of Daemon Slayer

Benjamin has earned the skill: Demon Slayer. It doesn't matter how they spell it. Daemons, Demons, Imps, Hellions, Fiends, Daevils, and Devils will take an extra 5xRAD damage from your RAD based attacks.

Core Skill Points have been awarded based on contribution. A Tier 2 treasure chest has appeared!

Sir Timothy couldn't be happier. Well, he could...the angel had stolen both kill shots. But getting two demons in one night was awesome. He couldn't wait to hit Tier 2. First though, he wanted to go back and rub this victory in Brandon’s face.

Time for a couple of victory toasts. He grabbed the few people he had left and headed to the tavern.

Themis spat. "I'll never get this glue out of my hair, and the taste is horrible! Maybe I'll go join those boys in a beer."

Ben and Ozzy shared a look, and Ben stepped forward. "Actually, general, we'd like to invite you to our humble abode in the barracks. I'm sure we can supply a few mugs of a better tasting brew. And please, allow me to clean you up."

A few castings of the Clean cantrip and Themis was feeling much better. She would have bet earlier that a butcher would have a bit of corruption in him. But here was this one, killing demons, casting light cantrips and hanging out with angels and paladins. Go figure.

Themis looked at the two of them for a second, but saw nothing but innocent smiles. Which was suspicious in itself. Still, these two...no, make that three, the ice wizard had been essential...the three of them had saved her ass and killed a tier 2 daemon. They'd earned a bit of her time. "Sure boys, let's see the inside of that little fort of yours and have some beers."