RD 5 Ch 48

Over the next several hours, Circe and I watched as the demon went into no less than a dozen shops, only some of which could confirm what he was buying. Half the time, he was just buying materials. Other times it seemed like he was stocking up for some sort of fight. At least, that was my assumption based on the collection of stunning charms, armor, and healing potions.

His purchase of the healing potions had been obvious enough without needing to ask. Coming in not fifteen minutes after him, the alchemist had still been restocking her supplies by the armful. Once we were done watching the demon leave town, we headed back towards Ricky’s shop, trying to figure out what our next step would be.

Unfortunately, following him through the woods would have been far harder and it wasn’t difficult to know where he went as he was heading the direction of his sect.

“He isn’t that strong,” Circe said. “Perhaps we go up to this sect of theirs and knock a few heads, especially if they’re all demons.”

There was a vague shell of wind that swirled around us, keeping our voices from spreading far.

I shook my head. “Might as well shout from the mountaintop that we know the demons have embedded themselves in the sects. No, as much as I love smashing demon skulls, we have to ride this out.” I grumbled. “Better to know where they are and keep tabs on them then scare them and have them scatter to the winds to grow new patches of weeds.”

Circe squinted for a moment before shrugging. “I guess this is your show anyways. I still don’t like it. Not to mention, that sect isn’t very far from here. All of these people would just become more demons for us to deal with later.”

“Which is why we won’t just walk away with this knowledge forever. Once we’re done with the tournament, we’ll circle back here and make sure they’re safe.” I told her. For now we needed the demons to attend so that we could spring a trap.

That answer seemed to mollify the legendary nymph as we reached Ricky’s shop. The man threw the door open hard enough he nearly hit Circe, which would not have ended well for him.

“Oh, hello,” he said, though we were the ones who were stunned.

“Is that Ricky?” Circe asked.

As Nyx slithered out behind him, I knew what had happened. “Apparently he turned out to be a better canvas than I had anticipated.”

“I look silly, don’t I?” he said, then turned back to Nyx. “It’s too much.”

Nyx had decided to make him look like some sort of handsome professor. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail, tight against the skull of his head, with only a few loose strands falling down to make him look a touch less serious and stuffy. He had on a well fitted suit jacket, complete with leather patches on the elbows.

“You look good,” Circe said after a moment of assessment. “Not personally my cup of tea, but Kathy would be an idiot if she didn’t snatch you up. I’m certain if we bring you to one of the fortresses, there will be plenty of ladies lining up in your shop, if only to get to know you better.”

Circe’s compliment had a visible effect on the man as he stood up a little straighter.

“But you think Kathy will like this?” he asked. Apparently, Kathy’s opinion was the only one that mattered to him.

“She’ll love it,” Circe answered with conviction.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to borrow Nyx for a little while.” I told him.

“Oh, oh, yeah, of course.” He stepped out of the way in a hurry and gestured to let Nyx pass.

The Medusa looked at him as he dove back into his shop, then back at me. “I think we cleaned him up nicely now. What’s wrong?” she asked, turning to me.

“Demon,” I answered. “We saw one out and about shopping.”

My answer made Nyx frown, only for her to follow that look with a shrug. “I suppose they’re going to be sort of ubiquitous at this point. Everywhere is going to have a few.”

“This demon was a member of one of the local sects,” Circe explained with a wave of her hand. “And they seem to be stocking up supplies, potions, single-use talismans, things I’d give a group of fighters before I sent them out.”

Her explanation still did little to get a reaction from Nyx, who only turned to me even more expectantly. “What are we going to do?” She asked.

“For now, just keep an eye on them.” My eyes went to Ricky, who was still bustling around in his shop. “I suppose there is a chance that they’re here for him.”

But even as I said those words, I thought it unlikely at best. Ricky wouldn’t become too prominent until after the first Demon War, and if the Demon King had come back himself, well, his information would be limited. I took that as some consolation.

Nyx nodded slowly before a massive grin split her face. “Then you two have time to go see what Kathy’s reaction is to our project.”

I started to say it was unnecessary, but Circe cut me off. “Oh absolutely, we would love to see her reaction.”

I was smarter than to say anything else given I was clearly outvoted and missing some broader context on why we needed to be involved at all. So I simply gave a nod.

“Yay!” Nyx clapped her hands together excitedly. “Come on, Ricky, we’re going to the inn.”

“Already?” he stuttered. Clearly the thought had already set him on edge.

“Now if there was only something you could do about his confidence,” Circe said, looking less than impressed by the man’s limited grasp of the English language whenever Kathy was involved.

“Oh, come on, you look wonderful,” Nyx pushed, slithering around him and pushing at his back.

“I bet she loves the professor look, especially the leather patch on the elbows,” I said, trying to give him some encouragement, only for him to pull the jacket by its fabric and glance as if only now finding out about the elbow patches. There was still some significant work to do, but Nyx had still done a solid job considering.

“Just breathe,” Nyx continued to encourage him. “It’ll all be fine. She’s going to see you, and then you just need to talk to her slowly and calmly. Ask her how her day has been. Just the normal niceties.” Nyx continued to coach as she shoved him out the door.

I glanced sideways at Circe. “Be nice.”

“What?” she said in mock indignation. “I haven’t even done anything, yet.”

I pointed a finger at her at that last word, as if she had perfectly made my point for me.

She chuckled, and we were out the door and heading toward the inn.

Nyx continued pushing Ricky who was doing his best to run back to his shop and hide.

We entered the Inn, and from where I stood, Kathy actually seemed moderately impressed by her first glance at Ricky. But then her eyes grew sharper as she spotted Circe and I.

“Don’t think she likes you much,” I muttered to Circe.

“And how do you know that scowl isn’t for you?” Circe laughed. “Everyone loves me.”

I was about to prove her wrong, only for a rumble to ride through the floorboards of the inn. I paused, scanning for danger.

Most people sitting in the room seemed unbothered by the noise, but there were a few others who were perking up as well. One person ran towards a window.

Circe, however, spun straight around for the door and threw it open to look out.

“What’s that?” Ricky asked, somehow managing to not stutter when it came to potential danger. Vague rumblings were apparently of less of a concern to him than talking to Kathy, which, of course, made me wonder about humanity’s survival instincts and how we manage to survive for so long.

“That is a lot of things,” Circe said, eyes squinting off into the distance.

One thought came to my head immediately. “Merlin?” I sighed. Merlin was already causing a stampede. She’d worked quickly, and honestly we hadn’t prepared at all. 

But Kathy heard my question. “Your friend’s over at the table over there,” she gestured.

I turned to find Merlin also perking up and staring over in the same direction that Circe was looking. She seemed just as shocked as the rest of us, which was not a good sign. Especially when she started walking over like she was going to ask me what we were doing about it.

I shifted back to our group. “Whatever’s making that noise is likely to be a problem. And apparently this was not caused by Merlin.” I eyed the wizard, who simply gave me a nod confirming my theory.

“So what’s the plan?” Nyx asked while Ricky looked back and forth between us, concern written all over his face.

“Plan?” he asked, looking at me hopefully. “What’s the plan?”

My mind was already jumping forward, trying to understand who or what could be causing this noise. But my mind got stuck on the same likely possibility.

I turned back to Kathy. “Which way is the Aldera sect from here?”

She looked uncertainly at our surroundings before she acknowledged my question. “Um, that way?” The shaky finger pointed off in the direction that the rumblings were coming from. That in itself did not prove my theory, but it certainly started to add up.

“Ricky, stay here. Merlin, you’re with him.” I hooked a finger at the mage and she looked put out, like she was about to start an argument. “You’re here,” I added, “because you can teleport him away should anything go wrong.” I clarified she wasn’t being benched from the fight. He was critical to my plans, and should we need to get him out of here, she was clearly the best option.

Realizing what I was saying, Merlin stuffed down any argument that had been rising in her mind. “Understood,” she said quickly.

“Circe, Nyx, you’re with me.” I told them.

The idea of what we were going to do formed quickly in my mind. This was likely a large pack of monsters or a dungeon break that was headed towards the town. Either way, it didn’t matter how it came to be.

Stampedes were deadly not just because of the number of monsters, but the chaos such events would inevitably cause. People were idiots, and scared people were ten times worse. Very few people did well when they were suddenly faced with a mounting army before them.

As a result, the most important strategy when facing a stampede was to divert it as much as possible.

As we got outside, I moved quickly. In moments I was running forward, gathering strength in my legs and leaping over the first row of buildings to slow my path, only to continue flying through the air much further than I expected as Circe’s wind gathered up behind me and hoisted me across the terrain. Nyx was practically swimming through the air as Circe aided her in the same way.

“I could get used to traveling like this,” the Medusa called out excitedly, even as the horizon turned rather bleak and we got a better view of what we were facing.

I quickly confirmed that my stampede theory was correct. The forest up ahead was being split apart by a cloud of dust as some mass trampled their way through with enough force that it shook the ground for miles in any direction. It wouldn’t be people, even an army didn’t cause the same wanton destruction of monsters.

“Is there a concrete plan?” Nyx asked.

“Yeah. Get as close as we can before we try and stop them. Nyx, you and I are going to hit the front as hard as we can to slow them down. Circe, your job will be to go in from the left side and push them right. Use your biggest, most visual abilities. Our goal right now is to make the stampede scared and change directions. This is not directly about dealing damage. Just making the path of least resistance away from the town. If they happen to be the aggressive type and turn towards you, all the better. Just lead them away.”

Circe gave me a look as if I’d grown a second head at that description.

“Just do it,” I said quickly, knowing we did not have time to get into more detail.

Circe launched me forward and I braced as I slammed into the dirt, driving furrows nearly up to my knees. But as soon as I finished skidding through the earth, I was taking steps out and running forward, a Bloodiron Blade trickling down my arm as I swiped sanguine slashes through the air, mowing through the trees and finally getting my first good look at the stampeding force.

My face turned into a grimace. I had been hoping we were facing some sort of monsters, and that part was true. But this was a different kind than I had been hoping to see emerge from the forest. 

In front of us were big, bristling bear-like creatures, black and blood-red with sticky ichor fluid dripping from their eyes and jaws. It looked like they were bleeding, but I knew from past experience it was actually constantly dripping from them. It was an acidic substance that would be flung forward whenever they lunged and tried to bite their victims. Even if their teeth didn’t sink into their opponent, that sticky, thick blood would latch on and burn holes through armor and skin alike.

They were creatures brought from the depths of the demonic world. And seeing them here, far away from any of the portals, made me wonder how they’d gotten here, especially in such large numbers.

“Nyx, you’re going to want to keep your distance,” I said, even as she had already stopped well behind me, her bow drawn and aiming at the horizon before she began to release arrows one after the other. She was able to fire up to five at once, with them splitting in the air until they became a veritable storm of arrows flying down on the monsters ahead of us.

I gritted my teeth, pulling up short before reaching the monsters. I drew back my blade first, pivoting as I swung forward in a frenzy. Sanguine Slashes rippled off my blade, becoming a dozen red crescents biting into the first rows of the monsters. This would be a prolonged fight, and I needed to save my energy while keeping them at range.

My doubts about who was responsible solidified the moment I saw these monsters. The only way these were here was if demons were involved. And given that I’d only seen one demon in town did not leave much room for the imagination.