Jade blinked, the sensations in her feet were again supplemented by her vision. The glowing letters on the stone slab had lit up the room and it took her time to adjust. The screeching daemon in front of her slashed in her direction with one of its giant legs. The nimble elf dodged the incoming blow. Easy. But she had not expected the ray of light that shot from the daemons face. It hit her on her upper leg and she fell sideways to the floor. She looked down her body and saw a smoldering scorch-mark on the thick leather tunic that protected her upper legs. Jade looked from where the beam had come and saw that the daemon had four pitch-black, beady eyes. One of the eyes was smoldering like burning coal.
“It shoots fire!” The elf shouted in warning, “It shoots fire from it’s eyes!”
Morn and Acantha looked up, just in time to see a second beam get shot at them. Both of them dashed to either side and the steaming white beam hit the cave floor, leaving a glisten like that of a frozen lake. Jade saw her moment to stand up and move up to the daemon to release another blow on its monstrous leg. Acantha had by now grabbed one of the other legs with her vines, making an effort to imbalance the giant insect.
“That wasn’t fire!” Acantha screamed back at the elf, with a high pitched voice.
Jade had seen it wasn’t fire. It had been cold, very cold. The elf sensed a familiarity in her gut. She remembered seeing beams of cold. She remembered feeling cold. Jade shuddered, if the beam of cold hit her, at least she would know how to deal with that. The fire was a different story, let alone whatever the two other eyes might bring. When the daemon shot the beam of cold, its second eye had lit up. Next to the burning coal was now a bright white pearl changing color to dark blue.
Meanwhile Morn was slashing at the daemons legs. The legs were thin, but strong. Morn didn’t manage to cut through the thick armor, but the daemon screeched and was clearly not enjoying the beating.
“Keep at it, Morn!” Acantha cheered them on while she tried her best to hold on to the daemons right hind leg. They were overpowering the daemon. They were winning. Acantha did her best to grab the second hind leg with her vines so that she could properly disable the movement of the giant beast. They needed it alive, she needed its flesh alive.
The daemon seemed to think that the tiny, yellow, bulky, blob was most annoying of the three. The next shot was meant for the orc. With a loud crackle the daemons eye lit up and shot a lightening beam towards the orc. Morn was prepared and quickly sidestepped. But the third beam did not behave like the first two. It was pulled towards Morn like raindrops are pulled to the earth. Morn reacted instinctively and raised their axe to catch the blow. When the lightening struck Morns axe, an idea struck Morn quite similarly. The strong warrior swung its axe around, aiming again for the daemons leg. But this time would definitely hurt, Morn thought, the electricity had left the metal searing hot. When the axe hit the joint of the daemons front leg, it sliced right through the insects armor. The lower part of the daemons leg fell limply to the floor. Morn dashed for the severed leg, securing it within their firm grip.
Expecting another screech, Jade was surprised to hear instead a loud clicking. The daemon had turned away from the orc and leveled its head with the elf. Before Jade realized what was going on, she felt the mandibles of the giant insect close around her waist. Jade thrashed and kicked but failed to slip free. She grabbed her blade in two hands and with all her might she thrust the blade down on the daemons forehead. The blade slid right off the thick armor that protected the creature all over. Shaking its head as if to convince Jade to stop, the daemon tried to turn around. It was obstructed by the spawn girl holding its legs with her vines.
The daemon swung its hind legs to the side, sending Acantha flying. She failed to hold on and fell down to the ground. When she stood up, the daemon shot a beam at her with its fourth eye. A moss green light hit her straight in the chest. Acantha gasped for air and waved her arms like someone who’s preventing themselves from falling over. For a moment, nothing seemed to have happened. But when Acantha wanted to get away she was no longer able to move her feet.
“Morn!” She shouted at her friend, stretching her arms in a beckoning gesture, “The leg, hurry!”
Morn looked from the captured Jade to Acantha and saw their comrade unable to move her legs. They had to think quick. They had gone over the plan many times. When the daemon felt it could no longer win the fight, it would flee. But the Retriever daemon would not flee without doing its job. It would abduct an easy target, just as it had done in the woods. Morn threw the daemon leg towards Acantha, hoping that she would be able to catch it and turned to rescue Jade.
The elf was still kicking and beating the daemons face to no avail. The four eyes of the daemon were glowing in the aftermath. Morn ran towards the daemon and grabbed one of its legs. The orc had to make sure it wouldn’t be able to run away. Morn looked over their shoulder and saw Acantha hadn’t caught the leg. However, she had managed to pick it up from the floor with one of her vines and was dragging it towards her. Morn felt their axe still warm in their hand and considered for a moment to make an attempt to slay the daemon. But they couldn’t, if the daemon were dead, it’s body would disappear, the leg would disappear and they would never know who sent it. Despite Morns efforts to hold on to the daemons leg, the creature moved towards a wall opposite of the glowing slab of rock that used to be the entrance. The daemon stuck one if its front legs into a wall and a pit opened up in front of them. Jade exclaimed in fear, realizing her fate as she looked down into the dark pit.
Acantha had grabbed the daemons leg and took a bite. Never in her life had she tasted something as foul and rotten. She felt nausea come over her. She wanted to retch, but forced herself to swallow. She hoped. She prayed it would be enough. She felt things only daemons would feel, she felt tainted. But she knew, she knew the name. She stored the name in her mind. The nausea had been driven away by the feeling that her body was slowly turning solid. She prayed, she asked for help, she searched her mind for the knowledge needed to get rid of her affliction. A silver coin. She grabbed the coin and started to carve in her wooden chest the form of what she was slowly turning into. It would be her salve. It didn’t hurt to let the silver coin slide through her bark. But she was too slow. She was not yet ready and her arm stopped moving. She wanted to call out, she felt the words form in her mind, but was unable to move her tongue. She was no longer Acantha, but she had become one with the mountain.