Hellhounds and carnage demons ran amok, engulfed in flames. Even a few of the devils seemed unable to cope with the pain, though many of them were now running out of the blast radius to join their peers.
Beside her, she heard Frost make a noise of appreciation. “Where do I get one of those?”
She turned to him and flashed him a smile. “You’ve got [Armament],” she said. “I can teach you how to conjure one when you get your next weapon. I can teach you how to conjure a whole load of Hell’s weapons—ones that are designed just for our skills.”
She loaded her newly formed round and slammed it into the chamber, sighting another one of the nearest shiverhulks.
This time her bullet took it square in the forehead, and through the blast of wind made by firing her cannon she saw, for a brief moment, its face crater inward as blood geysered out behind it—then all was engulfed by fire once more.
“Have you been levelling [Armament] a lot?” she asked.
“Yes,” Frost answered. “I’ve been focusing on [Armament] and [Protection]. I can almost fire my shotgun continuously.”
“Then soon you’ll get the option for a second weapon,” she said.
By now the small army of infernals had begun to charge their position, but the two wide pools of still-burning hellfire on the ground near the front of their group had effectively cut them in half. A scattered group of attackers, notably lacking demons, rushed up the hillside path.
There were a half-dozen shiverhulks left, and she chose carefully, searching for the one whose ignition would do the most to stagger the charging attackers.
Again she squeezed the trigger and dealt instant death to the massive demon, her bullet ripping its way through the creature’s neck despite its armor and burying itself deep in her enemy’s body. Again a plume of hellfire that rose high into the sky lit the world like a second sun.
“I’m going to go help Hunter!” Frost told her.
“Good idea! Drop a few and I’ll light ‘em up,” Ashtoreth said, consuming another one of her few remaining hearts.
She had three left in the open and three in her locket. More than enough to handle the last of the closer hulks.
Whether because he’d grown a little more sense, or because Dazel was on his shoulder and had sense enough to share, Hunter was still waiting in ambush along the most likely path up the hillside.
More than good sense, he must have had a potent stealth ability, because the devils passed him by where he was kneeling in the shadows, unable to see him despite having their own limited truesight. Hunter let them pass, presumably waiting for Frost to engage.
Beside her, the skeleton mages that she’d mostly forgotten about began to throw bolts of death-energy down the hillside at the approaching demons, seemingly choosing their targets at random.
Ashtoreth finished conjuring her next round, loaded it, then killed the only shiverhulk that had made it around the pools of hellfire to charge up the path along the hillside. As it burst, she looked down at Frost and Hunter to see how they were doing.
Blue fire burst from Frost’s shotgun at intervals that were shorter than a second. Hunter watched, waiting as Frost methodically brought down the charging devils, two shots apiece.
She saw that the devils were closing in on him, tightly packed on the narrow path up the steep hillside.
A perfect chance to use her new ability.
She waited on conjuring her next round, instead beginning to charge a hellfire blast.
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Below, she saw an arrow ping off a blue barrier that appeared to protect Frost’s face. Another sprouted from his belly above his hip, but he ignored it, a look of pain coming across his face only when he stopped firing and held out his hand to conjure not a few shells, but an entire cylindrical magazine.
It was only then that Hunter attacked, taking a few steps out of his hiding place to sweep one of his katanas clean through the body of the nearest devil, shearing through its armor as if it was paper.
The devil fell away in two pieces, their nearest fellows turning to face Hunter as he became visible, moving to surround him. But Hunter vanished into wisps of smoke a moment later, arrows hissing through the air where he’d been.
He appeared behind one of the offending archers further down the hill, lopping their head from their body with apparent ease. Then he raised his other sword, wreathing it for a moment in white flames that were shot through with streaks of darkness. He brought the blade down and a crescent line of fire extended outward to engulf one two of the devils and cut their attacking group in half.
Then Hunter was gone again, disappearing into a wisp of smoke to appear out of part of his wall of flames, whipping aside a devil’s weapon with a conjured coil of shadow and running them through with thrust from one of his katanas.
Ashtoreth smiled down at him. It was clear that he didn’t know how to fight with his swords, but at least he had some idea of how take apart a group of enemies. Better still, he was smart enough to keep moving while doing it. Frost rejoined him a moment later, the sound of the shotgun resuming its regular beat.
She finished charging her fireblast, waited until she was sure she wouldn’t distract Hunter a crucial moment, and called out: “Incoming!” before throwing it into the fray.
Her missile hissed and streaked through the air, impacting the ground before blossoming into a wide sphere of engulfing violet flames. She ignited the corpses that Hunter had already left, causing a cascade of growing flames that seemed to set the whole hillside alight, including the few trees and bushes.
She ate a heart and began to conjure another round for her cannon, smiling down as she saw Hunter and Frost both drawing her violet fire into their bodies.
“Drink deep,” she whispered to them as she saw Hunter teleport to execute an oncoming devil once again, then teleport away again. “Drink deep and spam.”
Soon she was loading another round and aiming at the next-nearest hulk, her heart swelling as it burst into flames while the wave of air exploding from the muzzle washed over her.
She entered into a cycle: fire her cannon, then watch her allies as she waited to conjure another round. She was ready to descend and help them at any time, but they didn’t need it: the infernals only ever succeeded in wounding Hunter once, but when this happened he simply teleported next to Frost and lay into them with his ranged slashes while waiting to be healed.
Soon enough the scant army of devils was retreating across the field, none of them daring to get close to the hulks. Ashtoreth kept firing upon them as they retreated, bringing down the hulks until she had only a single heart left in her locket. Then she grabbed her cannon and leapt down to join her allies as they watched the few remaining devils retreat across the field.
“You guys did really well!” she said. “Great job.”
“I think we’re a bit stronger than they are,” Frost said, prodding a dead devil with his foot.
“Oh, definitely,” Ashtoreth said, setting down her cannon and beginning to tear hearts from the bodies around her. “These are rank and file soldiers. Skilled, but about the least effective devils you can find.”
Hunter came to stand beside her. “Do we chase?” he asked, expression hardening as his eyes followed the fleeing devils.
“I think Ashtoreth chases,” said Frost. “And we stay behind and look for the necromancers.”
“Right you are, Sir Frost!” Ashtoreth said, still quickly stuffing hearts into her satchel. “I just want to stock up a bit, then I’ll see how many of the rest I can turn into cores.”
“You sure you don’t want my help?” Hunter asked.
“You could probably keep up,” Ashtoreth said. “But I’d rather you stay with Frost and see if there’s anyone left in that tower. Nobody’s been raising any undead—I wonder if all the people who were here left while we distracted the infernals.”
“Okay,” Hunter said, seeming a little put-out.
“I’ll share the cores.”
This seemed to make him much happier. “All right,” he said. “We tried the tower before, but the only door we could find was barred. I didn’t want to teleport in blind.”
“Good plan,” she said, stuffing more hearts into her satchel. “All right Dazel, you’re coming with me.”
“But why?” he asked. “You don’t want a native of Hell to stick with the humans while you’re away? I could be useful.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Come on, Dazel. No time to debate.”
She still didn’t trust him at all. His change in attitude had only come after he’d learned who her father was, and it was important to Ashtoreth that she manage the expectations and beliefs of the humans so as to ease them into being fully on her side.
Dazel sighed and climbed up onto her back. He probably knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Okay,” she said to the humans. “You guys see if you can get into that tower without making the occupants distrust you.”
She dismissed her cannon and conjured her sword, planting it into the ground so as to launch herself into the air. “And I’ll go kill everybody else while they run away!”
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