The Paladin in the Abyss

Chapter 190 - 190 - 184 Intelligence

Chapter 190 – 184 Intelligence

The Margon demon clutched its neck, slumping to the ground. As its life force dissipated, its body gradually took the shape of a humanoid creature with grey-blue skin that was smooth and hairless, and with vaguely defined facial features, much like melting metal.

“It’s a shape-shifter! A big shape-shifter!”

Cries of alarm from the Scholar rang out behind, and the battle erupted in an instant.

With a roar, Bruto hurled his hammer, flipping another demon to the ground.

“For Moradin’s beard!”

Not waiting for his weapon to return, the dwarf charged forward with his shield, toppling another demon. His hammer reappeared in his hand, and Bruto swung it furiously, hammering it like it was a mass of iron. With each of his strikes, the demon pinned beneath him gradually reverted back to the shape-shifter form, like a mound of clay.

“These guys are so ugly! Never mind the beards!” Bruto complained loudly, “They don’t even have a single hair on their bodies!”

Another demon swiped him off a clansman’s corpse with its claw, but the attack failed to breach the dwarf’s armor, only serving to give his anger a new target.

“Die, you big morpher!”

Fighting up close with the enemy along with them was Elothysia. The Succubus Paladin wore a form-fitting full body armor and wielded a treasured sword and shield made of cold iron, gifts from Tijana to her succubus kin.

Her fighting style was the polar opposite of Bruto’s. Lacking Tijana’s superior physical capabilities, most succubi, Elothysia adopted a very conservative tactic: she held up her shield to bear the brunt of the attacks, then thrust her longsword at the moment her opponent’s weapon was deflected, precise and orderly like a Knight’s attendant.@@@@

The practicality of such a tactic was undeniable. Although she seemed to be on the defensive, with the enemy attacking far more often than she counterattacked, the foe in front of her soon fell, with seven or eight clear holes puncturing its body.

In the rear, Alamir and Kalalin busied themselves casting various defensive magics and divine arts, ensuring their own safety as the team’s spellcasters when the battle commenced. Skeletal heads remained by their side, assuming the role of protectors.

Koula slipped into the shadows behind the larger figures, with a short bow in hand. As a halfling, she knew charging into the fray and facing ten at a time wasn’t what she should be doing (unless absolutely necessary). She waited patiently for her chance, occasionally loosing arrows that caught the enemy off guard.

Lancelot was undoubtedly the most efficient of them all. No demon, or rather shape-shifter, could last more than three moves before him. The dancing Frostslash was like a streak of light, bringing down one enemy after another, and before the group of shape-shifters realized just how formidable Lancelot was, their numerical advantage had vanished.

“We lost it.”

“Lost it?” The demon’s face fell in disappointment, “How did you lose it?”

“It got heavier and heavier, slipping out of the bag on its own.”

“Where did you lose it?”

“Near the Griffon Rift, close to where we were about to climb out of the ground.”

“Who instructed you to do all this?”

The shape-shifter’s face showed a look of confusion, and after a while, it said:

“I don’t know.”

As soon as the last words left its mouth, the corpse collapsed once more, its flesh rapidly desiccating, looking as though it had been dead for a long time.

“Tch.” The demon captain disdainfully kicked the corpse aside. Then it looked up at Lancelot and asked:

“Are you mercenaries, planning to go to Mogrondale?”

Lancelot nodded, it was the second time he had been asked that question today.

“Then take this.” The demon captain threw something to him. Lancelot caught it and found it to be a strange emblem, seemingly made out of a vertebra.

“This token of passage will save you a lot of trouble.” The demon spat vehemently, the corrosive saliva burning a small pit in the ground, “You did me a favor, and now I owe you nothing.”

With that, the demon captain turned around and left with its subordinates and the newly acquired information.

“They sure are a bunch of weird ones, huh?” Bruto remarked, then turned to look at Kalalin, “Scholar, what’s up with that stick that made the corpse speak?”