<~> Chapter 240As we got closer to the bazaar, even more of the cheering quickly started to turn to screams, and the sounds of fighting redoubled.

  "What's happening?" I asked Silva.

  Her brow was furrowed. "I 't tell from here, should we go look?"

  I turned around and looked at the former sves we were proteg. Most of them weren't really battle-ready, and one of them only had one arm... The hyenakin growled at me when I looked at her. "Give us ons! You look like you're sizing us up, me and my sister fight!"

  "Do you have any more o Mimi?" I asked her.

  She frowned, "I only kept your cursed two-handed sword, I gave everything else away."

  "You keep a cursed sword?" Kal'daeryn asked me.

  "The curse isn't that bad, it just makes you hungry when you use it."

  "Whatever! I'll take it!" the hyenakin practically yelled.

  Lorriene spun and pointed a dagger to her throat in one fluid motion. "Enough."

  The hyenakin froze and lifted her hands pgly. "Yes, ma'am."

  "Hey, none of that," I told Lorriene. I looked at the hyenakin. "Don't test our patience. I'll give you the on, just be careful with it. I'm more patient than some of my friends, but we're supposed to be sneaking through here."

  A box crashed to the ground behind me and I spun to see a human dressed in a guard uniform being bowled over by a demon that looked like his bones were oside. I hadn't seen a mohis disgusting since we were in the demon dungeon. It looked red and veiny with all of its flesh covered in a mucus membras bones held it together from the outside like it was i. I drew my sword and turo face it as an arrow dug into its head and khe demon off the guard. He didn't stop to say anything, he just turned and tio run away.

  "That didn't kill it," Torien warhe monster climbed back to its feet in a hunched crawl before scrabbling at us on all fours like some kind of monkey.

  Silva dashed forward and stabbed it through the chest, killing it instantly. "Go for body shots, avoid the bos bone was dehan the rest of its body."

  "Sure, got it," Torien replied.

  "More ing from the south-east!" Bel's voice called out.

  Aire horde of them were running right at us through a gap in the barricade that separated the market district from the southern quarter bazaar. I instantly began to draw a ritual circle oip of my sword using [Light Scribing]. The ritual spell resolved quickly and I began to create a wall of solid ice using the cast spell.

  "The water f ritual!" Man called out excitedly. Frankly, it wasn't the best timing to be excited about it but better than despo by the absolute throng of demons running at us. When the wall of ice finished f I had mao lock off a gap that fuhem all into one spot.

  "Is it wise to try and fight them, rather than just running away?" Man asked even as she summoned sharp icicles from all the ambient ice mana I created.

  "They're low-level, we hahem!" Silva called out.

  "If I made a wall they would just be funneled somewhere else, better we take care of them now," I replied.

  "Fair enough," Man said. Without any more fanfare, she shot the icicles into the crowd and they detonated inter fields of ice, further disrupting the terrain they had to move through to get to us.

  "I help too!" Bel said before purple vines pushed through the cracks in the cobblestones and stabbed into the nearby demons. Flowers bloomed all over the vines and a haze of pollen spread out and disoriehe demons that pushed through the gap I had left them. My two party members w together had crippled and slowed the monsters. Silva and Kal'daeryn stepped forward and easily trolled the chokepoint without ao be ordered to. They were doing a good enough job that none of the demons were able to push through the choke.

  I quickly saroblem with our strategy though. There wasn't a good enough pce for the rest of us to engage so I cast a different ritual to create a ptform just uhe edge of the wall out of hardened sand using terra magiplete with steps to reach it. Lorriene and Torien were up there in a fsh and I followed behind them. From this vantage, we could see just how many of them there were, a couple hundred easy. Not as busy as the bazaar normally would be, but the crowd was huge with them all trated in one spot.

  "That's bad!" Man said pointing off in the distance. I blocked out the sun with one hand and squi it. "It's a Bowister demon! It kill people and turn them into thralls! Be careful, it cast magic!" Man warned.

  The bone demon was crouched and looked around at the demons that were swarming beside it. It looked vaguely like a humaon with a bull's skull on a misshapen body that had extra long limbs. Like the other bone demon thralls that were mindlessly throwing themselves at us, its torso was fleshy but covered in a spiked bone ribcage that would make it hard to get a hit in.

  "Thin the horde out for me and I kill it," Lorriene volunteered. Right now she was using a sling to pelt the bone demons with stones but it was only somewhat effective. Torien had more luck but one in three of her arrows hit something bone and ricocheted off in the rushing crowd. I summoned a and flipped it into the crowd but it didn't activate. I flicked two more and the third o them in a ical area in front of where it nded. Not the best luck with that, let's try a [Bckjack].

  I drew a hand, seven and three of hearts, a low hand. I tossed the cards out anyway and it made a mild dent in the crowd. A three and an ace, better, but barely. An ad a two, what is with my luck today? I tossed the measly thirteen into the crowd. O hand, this is starting to bee a waste of mana. Jad queen of hearts, better! My twenty hand exploded and rippled into the crowd. The four that got hit with point bnk basically got vaporized and it threw many of the others around it off its feet.

  Fortunately, this got the big guy's attention. The bowister off in the distaurned and stared at the icy wall we stood on top of before suddenly r at us. It stood up to its full height and from the way it was looking, it was drawing in mana. I used Succubus shifting to give myself my succubus eyes that allowed me to see magic. The difference was striking, I could see him colleg mana and verting it to fire aspect mana in the palm of his hand.

  "The bowister is charging a fireball!" I called out.

  "Leave that to me!" Man replied loudly. She began to pull water mana towards herself and quickly had enough mana in hand to cast something, but she was holding onto whatever magic she had readied.

  The mana draw from [ Flip] felt easier on my mana reserve so I decided to stick to those for a while. This seemed like a bit of a war of attrition. Tails, I thought as I flipped the into the crowd. Tothing. Again, tails! This time the moment the hit the ground a e of magic popped forward and trashed all of the demons in a straight line from where it nded. Good! Now we're getting somewhere. Heads! Nothing. Heads! Tothing again. Heads! This time the nded and took out ane k of them. Two out of five s isn't the greatest track record so far but the damage feels good when it hits.

  I felt the monster colpse the mana he had been gathering into a huge fireball. It wasn't as rge as the ohat hit the sver's guild earlier but now I know what was shooting the attacks at the building. There was cheering when this thing got through the barrier, did it turn on the crowd the moment it aplished its goal? Did all of these demons used to be people?

  The fireball arced over the sea of demht at us, just then a spear of ice shot out from Man and exploded into shards of ice that caught the fireball like a he fireball was sliced into smaller pieces that each exploded harmlessly above the crowd. The demon didn't rea any meaningful way, it just began to collect mana in its hand again.

  I nearly cheered. "That worked! It's doing it again, you keep that up?"

  "I'm good! This wall you made seems to be geing ambient ice mana!" She replied. This was something we had tested a little but never with a wall this rge, we hadn't seen a huge differe the ambient version to ice mana was noticeably stronger with the rger wall.

  "We're making headway. A little more and I go in." Lorriene calmly said while slinging more pebbles at the horde of bone demons.

  I nodded. "Good, tell me when."

  I turo the group of former sves. Other than Kal'daeryn, they all looked scared shitless but none of them were hurt. Bel was looking around behind us, making sure we didn't get ambushed while we held off this chokepoint.

  "How are you two doing down there?" I called out to Silva and Kal'daeryn.

  "Fine." Silva grunted between thrusts with her spear.

  A pile of corpses was f at the choke which was slowing the demons down further. The only problem was that the pile was starting to reach the edges of the walls. I felt Mimi touch my mind through the bond. -- "I eat the bodies! It'll get them out of the way!" --

  My brow knitted with worry. -- "Is that a good idea? It won't affect you to eat them will it?" --

  -- "I'll be fine! I used to eat demons all the time, remember?" -- Mimi replied through the bond.

  I turo Bel and spoke to her through the bo, -- "Bel! Mimi's going to eat the corpses. Make sure none of the former sves see her do it. Except for Kal'daeryn, I guess." --

  -- "Okay!" -- Bel replied without hesitation.

  "Everyone! Eyes on me! Are any of you hurt?" Bel called out to the group of former sves. All of them were startled by her sudden yelling and turo face her immediately.

  I touched Silva through the bo, -- "Mimi is going to remove the corpses but she's going to need cover. Push in a little bit and make sure Kal'daery freak out." --

  -- "Got it," -- Silva replied.

  "Forward!" Silva pushed into the crowd and Kal'daeryn followed her lead, though she did look fused about it. Mimi came in from behind and her belly opened up like a big mouth and swallowed body after body in a matter of moments. Kal'daeryn was so focused on fighting barehahat she didn't even notice the bodies were goil Silva started to retreat bato their chokepoint.

  "What happened?" The white tigerkin asked in shock.

  "Our spatial mage ed up the corpses!" Silva called in response.

  Kal'daeryn looked just as shocked but it faded as she went back to holding off the horde. That train of thought left me when I felt the fireball beginning to finish f. I turned just in time to warn Man. "Fireball ining!" I called out to her.

  "Got it!"

  Like st time, her ice spell caught the fireball in midair ao into harmless fire mana. "Now!" Lorriene called before leaping forward and disappearing the moment she touched the ground. Lorriene appeared behind the bowister and stabbed one of her long daggers deep into the creature's back, making it scream and fil as it tried to knock Lorriene off of it. With her hood on I couldn't see her face but her movements made her look unfazed by the demon's thrashing as she tio repeatedly stab it in the back.

  Suddenly, Lorrie off the monster, rolled, and then disappeared in a cloud of shadow only to reappear o me panting and out of breath. "I wasn't able to finish it off... too tired." Lorrieo one knee.

  I turned back to the edge of the wall. We had cleared most of the smaller demons now and the bowister looked bloodied, but it wasn't over yet.

  Saine

  Hello! More of an a packed chapter this time! Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger but this enemy needs a bit more than one chapter to finish off! Lilith gets to show off some more of the work that she's been doing with her ritual magiething like this seems like a good use of them even if it's a bit expensive for her to pull off. I hope you e, thanks for reading!

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