Chương 83: Not Enough

Day 10 (technically)"What?" answered a grumpy-sounding kobold voice while all around us the lights went on.

"Listen closely. If there are others nearby, put me on speaker." I waited a second before I heard a faint click through the phone.

"The tower is under attack. Seven demon invaders are searching the tower for something. I can only assume they are looking for me, but they will harm you if they come upon you. Put everything under lockdown and blast anything that enters the lower floors."

"Uh. Should we, like, come and help you?" I blinked at the phone. I'd seen nothing but cowardice from the kobolds so far.

"Only volunteers. The only way I can even slightly guarantee your safety is if you stay as far away from this as possible. I'll appreciate your help, but I do not demand it." There was some mumbling among the kobolds on the other side, but it was too faint for the phone to properly pick up.

"Got it, boss lady. We'll see what we can do."

"Thank you," I said, before I hung up.

"Not what you expected?" Sarah asked.

"Not at all. I had expected them to maybe try to backstab me to curry favor with the demons."

"What will stop them from still doing so?" I considered it for a moment.

"Nothing. But the tower will tell us. And if they do, I will kill them. Did you fight those scouts before?"

"Before you spotted that one today, I didn't even know they existed. I'd only seen the other two types before."

"They aren't powerhouses like the warrior types are. But they are fast, agile, and underhanded. Nearly invisible to you when unmoving. The last one I fought nearly killed me through a nasty debuff on their weapon. I only survived because Jamie can heal for a lot. Your main priority is not getting hit. Avoid giving them clean sight lines at range. While they all look similar, demons are more like the Blessed. They have very individual skill sets." Sarah pulled No Quarter from her back.

"How fortunate that I just got a long warm-up to practice not getting hit." I paused. What was I even doing?

"Sarah, sorry I dragged you into this. I just… you don't have to join this fight. You can just leave. This is dangerous. This might get us killed."

"Fuck that. I won't even dignify this with all the reasons I'm staying."

"Thanks, Sarah."

"Thank me afterward." This wasn't a fight I could waste advantages in. I turned in enough of my banked first kill rewards to reach level 23 instantly. Three points into Intellect and Intuition each, raising them to 21 and 24, respectively. Which would grant me another +1 Strength and Agility thanks to Mind over Matter. I hadn't turned in those rewards with the hope of hitting my next perk faster. But either we killed seven demons, which would pretty much guarantee the level, or we'd die trying.

"Eve," Gabriel chimed in.

"I will coordinate the Created. The kobolds."

"I'll provide intel," Lucy said.

"Is that legal?" I asked. I responded to Sarah's confused look by gesturing at my temple, hopefully communicating that I was talking to voices in my mind.

"We won't fight, just communicate," Gabriel replied.

"Okay, thanks. I'll keep you updated through Guide chat."

"As will we," Lucy said. The security station came with headsets, one of which I handed to Sarah. We both put them on.

"Tower? Can you hear us? And reply through those?" I'd really need to figure out a name for the genius loci.

"Of course I can! Who do you think I am?" Another new voice, this time through the headset.

"Perfect." I looked at the screens and observed how the demons split up.

"Here is how we will do this." # The tower proved very valuable for distracting the demons and disguising our own movements. Elevators were kept in constant motion so we could use them without giving away our own position. Besides that, the tower was full of speakers, and it had many voice samples to play. We were now two floors lower than the furthest the demons had reached so far. I was in my own demon-scout shape, wearing the Elven Cloak, and had already activated the Cloaking spell.

It would be a tiny advantage, but I'd take those. Even the exceptional food buff we'd gotten would be very valuable in this. I put the corpse of the elf I had killed this morning down in the elevator we'd just taken to get here, before I sent it up to the demons. There were four in total on that floor.

"You think they'll bite?" Sarah asked.

"They are scouts. Their purpose is to investigate. How could they ignore a random-ass corpse showing up?" It was an incredibly cheap trick, but those often got results. I pulled the riot shield out of my inventory. The demons were awfully silent. At this distance I could have heard any regular foe. If it wasn't for the tower's intel, they could have snuck up far too damn close. On cue, another new voice came through the headphones.

"A huge success! This one is ours!" In one swift sequence, I activated Jaunt, swapped into the Baldur-touched gorilla shape, and activated Focused Fury. I had no time to inspect its traits, but it glowed from within. Cloaking wouldn't do much in this shape. Sarah gave me a quick glance but turned to the elevator door, too. The floor light indicator ticked down by one, then two. The doors parted. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. The demon was fast.

But they weren't fast enough for this. Shield-forward and with Jaunt active, I jumped at the exact moment the door had opened. The wet crunch of the demon getting splattered wasn't even audible over the scream of metal against metal caused by the shield crashing against the elevator's back wall. I sent the elevator back up and knuckled back over to Sarah.

"Six more to go."

"Brutal." From her, the word sounded like praise. I checked my traits. [Baldur-touched 20% increased Strength 50% increased Endurance 20% increased Charisma Beloved By All Things Radiant Beauty] The first trait gave me enhanced resistance against all mundane sources of damage, along with resistance against all direct supernatural sources of damage. So any weapon, claw, or fang, but nothing against debuffs—besides the massive Endurance. The second trait gave my allies minor resistance against fear-like effects.

The headset was sitting tight against my neck, but I could still make out the tower's voice. Well, the switching voices, this was once more one we hadn't heard before.

"Oh, yeah? That got you mad? What you gonna do 'bout it? Come here and fight me like a man?" My cooldown was still counting down, and I really couldn't articulate myself in this shape.

"Ask if that means they are heading down," I told Sarah through Queen's Voice. She relayed my question.

"Why, yes, indeed. I will show you the way." This had been a woman's voice. I'd never get used to this. We followed the tower's directions to a stairwell, through which a trio of the invaders was slowly descending. I gave Sarah a nod and switched into the Might of the Meek-enhanced Garmr-touched golden retriever shape. She gave me a thumbs up and vanished into a nearby office. I crept behind a large planter and willed myself to be very still.

This shape was far too large to effectively hide, but both the cloak and the spell provided enhanced bonuses when I was motionless. So breathing had to wait for a while. My calm was surprising even to myself. But then, this attack was what I'd come to expect. It was the entire reason I picked my subclass. The moments in which I lost control were those in which I got blindsided. Sending assassins into my new home was a dick move—but an expected one. I'd do the same if I had them.

Ahead of me, the door to the stairwell opened up. From my cover, I couldn't see them, but I heard their faint steps on the carpeted floor. One pair, two pairs, and the third. Half a second before I jumped from my cover, one of them shouted out in alarm, in a language I couldn't understand. They whirled around to meet my attack, but my jump stopped short of them. Once more the plan had involved something they couldn't even dodge. I activated Sentinel's Howl.

On my home turf, defending my people, it hit them with full force. All of them froze mid-motion. On cue, Sarah rushed out of her own hiding spot. She took out two in under a second. I finished off the last one.

"Three left," Sarah said.

"They are going for a very aggressive strategy here. I'm not sure if they are desperate or impatient," the tower said. And I could hear them, too. Forsaking stealth, footsteps pounded down the stairs, all three of them.

"Incoming," I said. Their arrival was heralded by a purple mist that cascaded down the stairs, faster than any natural phenomenon ever could. That's when Sarah and I made our first mistake. In our effort to scramble away from the sudden mist, we went in opposite directions. But it was too fast for us, and we were both engulfed. Noises went dull, and I could barely see more than a couple of feet ahead. And then their leader was already upon me.

I caught the flash of impossible darkness through the mist, just in time to dodge their sword. It bled the same darkness as Inevitable End did, only that this was nearly three times the size. And its wielder was relentless. I was forced entirely into the defensive. Jamie wasn't here. Any hit with that sword could end me. All I could hear ahead was the clang of metal on metal, as Sarah was forced to hold her own against two of them. I only caught glimpses of my assailant.

They closely resembled the other scouts, aside from the mask. It looked like a plain black ballistic mask, but with three slits for their eyes. They didn't fight like the warrior had. There was no gleeful cruelty, they didn't play with me. Every fiber of them was focused on getting that lethal hit in, and this shape could do barely more than stay out of the way of their blade. It couldn't fight while moving backward, and any counterattack would leave me exposed.

As soon as my cooldown ran out, I bought myself a precious second by dropping a lit Molotov cocktail between us before I leapt away, swapped back to the gorilla, and activated Focused Fury again—the buff's extra size would make me a bigger target, but it also meant more reach and increased Agility. With the advantage of opposable thumbs, I grabbed anything I could get my hands on and pelted my attacker. When there was nothing to grab, I pulled anything and everything out of my inventory.

Which slowed them down, but not enough to give me space to come up with what I really needed. A plan. And then my devil spoke to me, answering my prayer.

"Stay calm, kitten," Lucy said.

"Keep their attention. Lure them just a bit further north. Reinforcements are coming. Elevator." Even as they spoke, I heard a horrible sound of metal tearing through flesh, followed by the sound of something wet and heavy hitting the ground. In my moment of fear, fear that Sarah had been cut down while I uselessly scrambled, my attacker closed the gap and nearly got a hit in. Then the clashing of metal resumed, and I knew Sarah was still fighting. And one of her foes had gone down. I did as Lucy told me.

We could still win this. I pulled the glaive out of my inventory. The one Liz had given me for those exact circumstances—for when I needed space. I had no hope of getting a hit in, they were far too fast. But I swung it with the force of a truck. Now a misstep meant death for both of us. Which didn't slow the demon down, not a lot. But I had only needed them to follow me a bit further. The moment they stood in front of that elevator, its doors opened. I couldn't see what Lucy and Gabriel had prepared.

I only saw the demon getting peppered by half a dozen magical projectiles. Which didn't kill them. But it staggered them long enough for me to cut through the arm holding the sword. That out of the way, I dropped my own weapon, crossed the distance between us, and slammed them into the wall opposite the elevator. One stomp later, they were dead. The mist instantly dissipated. I gave the gathered kobolds in the elevator a short nod before I ran to Sarah.

She was pressing the assault on the last attacker with a relentless precision that dwarfed even that which my opponent had shown. Behind her, the dead demon was fully impaled on the odachi. I had no idea how she'd managed to bring the oversized sword into this fight, but it had worked. Both the dead one and the remaining one wielded a combination of short sword and dagger, reminiscent of Inevitable End. But once I was behind the last demon, it didn't matter.

They had nowhere to retreat to, and No Quarter lived up to its name. The final attacker went down. We had won, and we had both survived. Sarah left No Quarter buried in the demon's corpse, which shriveled around the edge of the blade.

"Not enough?" Sarah asked. It took me a moment to understand that she wasn't talking to me but the sword. I returned to my half-infernal shape.

"What's happening?" Sarah gave me a sad smile.

"Sorry, Eve. I really wanted to have that proper date with you. Really tried not to get hit." She lifted her left arm and turned, revealing a slash across her ribcage, just under the armpit. I stared, utterly speechless. I hadn't noticed the debuff underneath her health bar, since her health had pretty much not moved at all. My vision blurred as tears welled up in my eyes.