Damned sigils.
I wanted that hammer.
The pirates swapped their weapons for crossbows, and two more bats fell from the air. Even the bat who was drinking a crossbowman dry detached and fled with the other, but it was cleaved in half before it could get to the vents.
I reached back out to the minds of my minions and calmed them. These troublesome pirates were too focused, too professional, and too fucking powerful to hit with easy tactics.
It was time for some real chaos.
“Puck, get in there,” I sent my command.
“Master, it would be my pleasure,” he chuckled wryly.
Chapter Thirty
My newly-formed Shade swept out of his hiding place on the ceiling, a mass of black wings, lean muscles, and razor-sharp claws. Shadow tendrils creeped around him like a cloak of black mist as his wingbeats struck at the air.
“Fire!” Ralph screamed.
Bolts twanged as they were released from crossbows, but the projectiles didn’t puncture the Shade. Instead, his shadow-formed cloak swallowed them up, and Puck spewed them back out in a spray of splinters and metal. The adventures were unable to completely evade the attack, and the tiny shards peppered them like rose thorns. Not exactly lethal, but incredibly annoying and painful.
“Excellent,” I whispered to Puck’s mind.
“I’m not done yet, Master.”
The Shade gathered his hands to his chest, and the black mist surrounding him rushed out from him in every direction. I realized it was the same magical substance he’d used for his shadow-spheres as an imp when it seeped into open wounds, eyes, and faces. The splintered shards of crossbow bolts had produced tiny cuts and lacerations, and Puck’s magic went to work. Tendrils of acidic smoke attacked flesh and filtered into bloodstreams as the pirates bellowed. They rushed to remove potions from their belts and guzzled the glowing liquid. The shards popped from their bodies while the necrotic smoke oozed from their wounds.
Fuck, I hated potions.
Ralph blurred forward and leaped into the air, his powerful legs forcing him upward like some kind of giant grasshopper. His swords sliced at Puck, but my champion darted away and hovered out of reach.
“You are a poor dancer, Chosen One,” Puck said.
“Kill that monster. I want its essence!” Ralph screamed.
Two crossbow bolts whipped toward the Shade, but he dodged as a shadow-sphere rippled to life in each hand. He hurled them at their feet, and the balls of darkness exploded, enveloping the adventurers.
While they were confused, I managed to break my lesser minion’s fear and sent them hurtling back into the fray. Ralph used the same method of consuming essence to absorb the darkness through his tattoos and then dealt death to any minions that came within swinging distance.
With Puck vanishing into the screaming wrath of the Hellbats, he was free to hurl as many shadow-spheres as he wanted. He zipped through the pirate ranks while dodging crossbow bolts before they could puncture his wings and take him out of the air. The shadow-spheres weren’t exactly lethal, but they were forcing the adventurers to consume the majority of their healing pots.
“Slow. Far too slow,” The Shade’s deep voice boomed through the antechamber in challenge. He flipped upside down and hurled yet another ball of magic at a pirate, and the healing potion shattered in the man’s hand. “Won’t you put up a fight? This is Zagorath. Lilith’s domain. Have you no respect?”
“Shut… the fuck… up!” Ralph roared, slicing down two more Hellbats.
I directed the Storm Sprites toward the adventurer with a hammer. He aimed mighty swings at a trio of bats, but they were difficult targets that blended into the long shadows of my antechamber. The sprites I’d sent latched onto a pirate’s neck, and he twitched and jerked after they sent their stunning charge into his body.
Puck sprang off the ceiling like a trampoline and rocketed down toward the pirate. A crossbow bolt ripped through one of his wings, and I sensed the pain rocket through his mind. He must have already used all his power on that previous ‘redirection’ trick, or maybe he could only absorb and spew out projectiles when he was focusing. Razor-sharp claws tore out the pirate’s throat, and he spun backward, flapping madly, speckling my dungeon’s floor with black, steaming blood.
Black? Was that because he’d taken too much Infernal Essence?
I forced my minions to protect Puck as he made an escape. Crippled, my Shade couldn’t fly, but he could still move fast on all fours. The mist surrounded him as he slithered over the floor like something possessed. The adventurers tried to pin him with their weapons, but he snaked between them as he raced toward the stairwell.
Ralph lunged after him, but a sprite latch onto his arm and shocked him. Gritting his teeth, somehow he turned and crushed the insect under a gloved fist. Then he hurled a sword at Puck like a javelin throw, but my champion twisted, the black blade sparking off my obsidian floor before burying itself into the statue of the Hellbat.
Ralph could’ve kept moving after Puck, but something had him pause and wrench his serrated blade out of my wall. My core flickered with annoyance as he turned back to his men. Nine had become eight. Ralph absorbed the essences of those who’d fallen, and the increase in power made his eyes burn. His blue irises almost looked like a ring of crimson had appeared around them, and the veins beneath his skin were now visible as they pumped black blood to his heart.
Yeah, there was definitely something that happened to adventurers when they absorbed too much essence at once. Sure, they became more powerful, but they were also given over to bloodlust. They’d be more dangerous, but I didn’t plan on losing today.
The band tended to their wounds and drank more of their potions. From the empty pouches on their waist, I guessed they only had a few more rounds of healing tonics. Unfortunately
