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  Demons are a sce upon the realms. I will bring down ruin upon their breeding pits and smite their irs with holy wrath. I will destroy their endless infernal legions, down to the very st imp. Then, I will disie their ashes until even the memory of their existence sifts through my talons and is lost upon the winds of time.

  - Azryet, Dragon God, Harbinger of Chaos, Herald of Havoc, The Camity.

  Aliandra

  Ali’s gaze drifted over to the pool of bubbling bck tar and the open fme dang above it. The creature sitting there, lounging – snakes couldn’t really sit – was clearly a Fmecaller, but a type she hadn’t seen before. She cycled through the senses of all her minions, but she was frustratingly uo make out aer details, none of her minions had good enough perception for her to identify it at this range. What she could see though, were a handful of tiny horned creatures prang around the fmecaller like little manic effigies of fme.

  “Warlock, and imps,” announced, delicate mana formations flickering within his eyes as he used his powerful vision skills. “The imps are his minions.”

  “Demons?” Mato asked, his lip curling in distaste.

  “Yup,” said, still staring off at the monsters in the distance.

  Ali had never seen an imp, but she knew from the demonology tomes Ryn had acquired for her library, and monster pendium, that they were a type of demon from one of the many abyssal pnes. Realms beyond this one. Certain csses, of which warlocks were notable, could ‘summon’ or ehem to serve as minions. Unlike her own magic, that of warlocks was much closer to realm-crossing teleportation via ritual magid mind trol. More akin to Beast Tamer csses, but there was nothing mutual about the warlock-demon pacts.

  “I’m guessing they are fire imps?” Ali asked. The tiny monsters appeared to be burning with dark fme like the Hellfire Wargs, but from this dista was difficult to make out aails.

  “Definitely looks like hellfire,” said. She trusted his eyes better, he had quite remarkable distance vision with his skill, and he had ied even more heavily into perception than she had. “I don’t think we’ll know what the warlock does until we engage, but robably expect fire attacks from the imps.”

  “Ugh, hellfire is the worst,” Malika grumbled.

  Ali g her in sympathy. This group looked like trouble, and a trickle of worry flowed down her spine, making her skin prickle. The st time they’d entered a new group, they had struggled while they tried to figure out their strategy. This time, she resolved to use more of her perception to ehey were not as surprised. She checked her ste entment once again, verifying that she still had enough recall potions.

  “Everyone ready?” asked. “I’ll bring them over here; this is a nice area where we shouldn’t be interrupted and there’s a wall over there if we .”

  “I’ll set the healers up by that boulder, then,” Ali said, calling her minions to order, and arranging a versatile formation that would leave her ready for anything. Hopefully.

  Mato growled, already shifted, and Malika nodded. vanished into the darkness, leaving his motes of light h in the smoke-filled air above them. A few moments ter, there was a high-pitched screech as a of light smmed into one of the small imps, binding it in pce. Instantly, the remaining monsters gave chase, and with a rapid flicker of plex mana formations, two bck balls of r hellfire shot out across the hellish burning pool towards as he fled.

  “Dodge left!” Malika yelled, and didn’t hesitate, dodging to the side with rapid footwork as the two fireballs flew past his right shoulder aonated a little ahead of him, spraying fme and shards of ro all dires.

  From the rain of shattered rubble and gobs of fming tar, sprio where they all waited. He bled from several cuts and burning tar had spttered across his right side where the hellfire explosion had clipped him.

  “Watch out!” Ali yelled as she saw imps standing iwo fming epiters where the fireballs had detonated, busy casting new ones.

  How did they get there so fast? Rather than wait for an answer, she summoned a barrier and instructed her minions to engage as Mato charged forward, smashing into an imp, and knog it flying with his enormous momentum.

  Pay attention, Ali, she reminded herself, rapidly sing through her various minions to see if she could learn anything. Somehow, she had missed notig how the first imp had escaped ’s s.

  Warlock – Fmecaller Elemental – level 67 (Hellfire)Hellfire Imp – Demon – level 53-59 (Hellfire) x4

  Closer now, she could easily make out their forms. Tiny horned humanoid forms about half her height, shrouded with an aura of tinuous hissing dark fme. They cackled incessantly while their crimson eyes glowed with an air of wicked intelligehe chaotic swirls of mana emanating from the demons reminded her of the fme auras the Shards of Fme used. Although, that is definitely hellfire. She reized the mana now that they were closer, even without her Identify to spell it out for her.

  “Lock them down! Malika, on your left,” said, filling the air with shining arrows and the pulsing light of his beas.

  An incredibly plex magical formation flickered within the imp furthest from Ali and an instantaneously summoned ball of fme shot toward the group of melee fighters struggling to corral the demons out in the open. Ali gasped. But what happened was far more surprising. The imp fred, turning into a being of pure fme, and vanished. Where… For a moment, she was certain her mana sight caught a glimpse of its outlihin the fireball hurtling towards them. It smmed into Mato’s fnk, detonating loudly and rog the Hobgoblins ba their heels, and the imp suddenly reappeared among them, spreading its fire among the burning remnants of the explosion.

  “The imps … teleport!” she shouted, not quite sure how to describe the crazy movement skill she had just witnessed.

  “To fire,” added.

  Ali was about to agree when she saowerful spell formation building around the warlock at the back. All around it, fme swirled, and mana twisted as it eled magic through its body. Dark red and bck burning runes began f on the rocky ground surrounding the etlefield.

  “The warlock is doing something big!” It looked almost like her own runic magic, just many times faster. Sage of Learning sipped from her mana pool as she reized some of the runes.

  “Lightning!” Ali demanded, ung a pair of barrier shards at it. Her shamans swiveled and unleashed Lightning Bolts at the Fmecaller, but nothing she or her minions did seemed to interrupt the serpentine warlock’s ritual. The giant circle of runic magic fred, and the spell was pleted with a rush of angry fme.

  You have been cursed with Agony of Fme.+3 Fire damage per sed.Fire damage causes additional pain.-469 to resistance against Fire magic.Curse – Duration: 2 minutes.

  Oh shit. She instantly doubled over in pain. It was like her veins were suddenly filled with fire. No, hellfire, she gasped, struggling to catch her breath. Cries of surprise and pain echoed across the battlefield as her minions and friends reacted to the area curse.

  Ali forced her mind into a and sed through the senses of her minions, but her worst fears were firmed as Malika and both called out at the curse. It inflicted every one of her minions, too. Then, her mana sight fred as one of the imps triggered several skills back-to-back, and suddenly a double-sized ball of hellfire was screaming through the air towards her.

  How is it doing that? Instantaneous fireballs were entirely unfair. Reflexively, Ali ducked when the enormous ball of dark fme smmed into her barrier aonated. Her body shook from the shockwave a, as deep cracks appeared throughout her barrier.

  Three of her nearby Sparkling Oozes died instantly.

  “Warlock!” called out through ched teeth as he fired his bow.

  The Fmecaller Warlock stood tall, out in the open with nobody near it. “Kill it,” she demanded. Her remaining slimes, Death’s Acolytes, and shamans unloaded their magic upon it. The Hobgoblins she sent off to chase down the gnarly cag imps. The warlock waved a cwed hand and one of Ali’s Hobgoblin warriors was suddenly lit on fire, causing her Acolytes to accelerate their healing magic.

  Looks like they have him, she thought, studying his health from the perspective of her Acolyte. While the terrible fgration was magnified by the fire vulnerability from the curse and took great ks of the Hobgoblin’s health, the Acolytes seemed to be keeping up. She was about to returtention to the warlock when suddenly, the fmes wreathing the Hobgoblin exploded with a powerful bst, hitting the other two hobs and Mato. Her eyes widened in shock as all three of them lit up with the same fgration, only the inal Hobgoblin was left without fme.

  Instantly she switched her perception to one of the burning Hobgoblins and checked its notifications.

  You have been cursed with Explosive fgration+30 Fire damage per sed.Explodes when dispelled or expires, dealing hellfire damage to nearby targets. Range: 3 meters. Curse Proliferation (Whenever Explosive fgration damages a cursed target, it has a ce to refresh the curse duration or proliferate it to nearby targets).Curse – Duration: 10 seds.

  “Spread out!” Ali yelled, infusing her words with her i via Martial Insight so that all her minions would uand too. “That curse spreads when it explodes!”

  “Fuck,” excimed. “Health?”

  “Hanging on,” Ali said, sing the Hobgoblins scrambling to put some distaween each other and Mato. “Pick a different imp each, don’t get close to allies until that curse is gone,” she instructed.

  Beside her, one of the Acolytes triggered her Devotion skill, her entire body glowing with holy power, accelerating her healing magic to the maximum as she tried to keep Mato and the tw Hobgoblins alive.

  Ali kept her senses glued to Healing Sight while she double-checked her recall potions.

  Malika

  Malika gritted her teeth against the pain of the Agony of Fme curse and studied the flow of battle. Hellfire was horrible, but this was far worse. Without her heavy iment into endurance, she was sure her movement would have suffered tremendously. The Hobgoblins rushed around, struggling to pin down the elusive imps which seemed to have a bizarre movement skill that turhem into fmes.

  She was blind in this battle, all her foes fav mana instead of stamina, but she was fast, and therefore best suited for running down the fickle imps. Even though she could not see where they were when they jumped, she had already figured that they always ended up in a fire, so when she saw an imp fire off a howling fireball of bck fme and then vanish, she took off towards where it would nd. Sure enough, after she dodged the bst wave, the demon appeared dead ter of where the fireball had detonated. She greeted it with a solid punch to the face.

  Got you, she thought as she leaned on Diviep and tore into the imp with a powerful flurry of Soul Strike-enhanced blows. The imp’s chaotic aura of fme licked at her stantly, but with Soul Strike feeding her a steady trickle of stoleh, she barely needed her Healing Mantra.

  Suddenly, she felt a surge of fire around her, heating and blistering her skin, and her chime sounded loud in the back of her mind.

  You have been cursed with Explosive fgration+30 Fire damage per sed.Explodes when dispelled or expires, dealing hellfire damage to nearby targets. Range: 10 feet.Curse Proliferation (Whenever Explosive fgration damages a cursed target, it has a ce to refresh the curse duration or proliferate it to nearby targets).Curse – Duration: 10 seds.

  Crap! Malika hissed through ched teeth. So that’s what Ali was yelling about. The curse fred, pulsing fire magic through her flesh, burning at her skin. “Cursed,” she yelled, a warning to the others. She was nowhere near anyone, so she simply ehe pain, pulsing her Healing Mantra to stem the tide of damage she was taking while she tore into the imp with her fists a.

  It cackled loudly and reached a bed hand toward her. Before she could react, a huge ball of hellfire appeared between them aonated point-bnk, knog her flying into the air. She poured stamina into her Healing Mantra – the hellfire having ripped away way more of her health than she was fortable with. And now she had both the Explosive fgration curse and residual hellfire burning her.

  She pulsed her Diviep to arrest her momentum in the air and before she could charge bato the fray, the imp appeared right in front of her, at the same instant the Explosive fgration expired. There was a sug noise as the air around her vanished into the bze, and suddenly she found herself deafened and burnt in the epiter of the curse’s final bst. She poured mana into Healing Mantra repairing flesh, muscle, eyes, and ears. The demon imp hung ont, pierg her ah its sharp cws and trying to bite her all the while its aura was burning her skin. She reached down and grabbed it by the back of its sy neck, ign the fire wreathing its body, and pu in the head several times until the chime sounded and she nded on the rocky ground.

  Yroup has defeated Hellfire Imp – Demon – level 53

  Malika dismissed the glowing notification. Everywhere she looked, people or minions were burning. Many of Ali’s monsters y dead on the ground and the tiny Fae was huddled behind a powerful barrier throwing golden spear-like shards at the warloone of the slimes had survived, all that remained were a feidly drying puddles on the rocks.

  We o take out that warlobsp;Malika thought, seeing the urgency of the fight with new eyes. The instant the thought appeared in her mind, she shot off, switg her attacks to draining mana. She tore in from its left side and unleashed her favorite kibination, Soul Strike flickering blue with the drain. Her body fred with fresh fme as the monster cursed her with a dismissive gesture, but she ighe pain, healing herself tinuously while she accelerated her punches, pushing her speed to the limit as she reached for the warlock’s mana.

  ’s orb pulsed brightly overhead, adding flickers of white to each punch she nded, but mostly she ighe extra damage, verting all the stolen mana into healing the fire and curse damage. She dodged left, avoiding two Lightning Bolts as she kicked the Fmecaller in the back of its head. She followed the blow by stepping around it in the air and pung it twi the ribs. Upper ribs. It had a lot of ribs. It seems to be w, she thought, as she realized it seemed to be casting fewer and fewer spells. Or at least she assumed so, because it wasn’t making those haures anymore. Instead, it swatted at her iually with a long steel scepter it carried. A few moments ter, her Soul Strike came up empty.

  “It’s dry,” she yelled, immediately switg to attag health instead of mana every three out of four punches. and Ali’s attacks immediately ceased, as they switched teting the imps. We should have used this strategy in the first pbsp;she realized. As fast as she was, the imps were tricky to pin down, and she still couldn’t outrun ’s arrows.

  Yet.

  Aliandra

  Ali’s slimes were all dead, and she was down to two Hobgoblins – all victims of the stupid fgration curse. It had turned out extraordinarily difficult to keep her minions from blowing each other up – particurly the slimes as they were both slow to move and think. She still had one Bone Mage and three holy Acolytes c behind her barrier with her. But that was entirely due to her barriers and direct ma of their formation.

  At least her shamans were smart enough to spread out properly. She carefully studied the imp with her mana sight as it triggered a skill she had seen several times already, and it finally clicked in her mind with a moderate draw on her mana pool.

  Acceleration? The spell seemed to accelerate whatever it cast o almost instantaneous speed, and she wondered if this was how her Are Recall appeared when she used it on others. That must be metamagic. Right after the acceleration spell, she withe brief flicker of a remarkably familiar formation, and suddenly two imps were cag in the fire. Summoning? Ali felt a sense of dread, seeing visions of them being overwhelmed by an unending horde of horrible demons.

  “New imp!” she yelled, causing ’s head to nearly spin off his shoulders.

  No. They would have already dohat if they could have, she tried to reassure herself. Malika had the warlock locked down, so she didn’t have to worry about the curses anymore. Instead, she focused her attention, instrug her shamans to drop their totems in any lingering patches of fire that the imps could use as destinations. Nearby, fired multiple simultaneous arrows at all the imps in sight. I wish I could do that. Instead, she focused her shards on a single imp that was already heavily damaged and eled more mana into reinf her personal barrier. The imps had been particurly attracted to shooting at her, and the fireballs were powerful. Whatever they were doing to make the bigger fireballs usually gave them enough power to crack her barriers, but the maur least helped offset the cost of recasting them.

  My barriers could do with a refle ability, she daydreamed briefly.

  Another hellfire fireball detonated loudly against her barrier, and the body of an imp that had hitched a ride in the fmes appeared spread-eagled against the barrier in the ter of the explosion with a sptting sound before it collected itself and ran away cag. Ali shot several barrier shards after it, one of them even eg before it disappeared into fme again.

  The deafening crack of lightning shot through the space it had been and there was a chime and the imp’s body materialized, falling to the ground in a smoking heap. Huh? They be hit in the fire? She was certain she had watched the Hobgoblins’ swords passing right through the creatures wheurned into fme. Perhaps it’s just the lightning?

  There were only three imps left, the ohat had been summoned and two remaining of the inal demons. She couldn’t tell which was which. Mato smashed his oo a wall and it died, and with a few more well-pced Lightning Bolts and some of ’s arrows, the st two died too, leaving only the Fmecaller warlock, drained of mana, and trying in vain to hit Malika with a stick. It didn’t take too long before it, too, was dispatched.

  Yroup has defeated Warlock – Fmecaller Elemental – level 67 (Hellfire)Yroup has defeated Hellfire Imp – Demon – level 53-59 (Hellfire) x5

  “Oh, thank goodness,” said when it finally dropped.

  “You say that again,” Malika said, trying to sp the fire burning her fists out against a rock.

  Ali couldn’t agree more. She destructed the warlock’s corpse, wishi again that they were a monster she could use. The curses had both been incredibly powerful, and quite effective as a synergy with each other and the imps. She hated fag them, but if she had been able to add the Fmecallers to her dungeon she would have found them to be a powerful resource.

  Oh well, maybe I find something that isn’t a stupid elemental one day.

  She moved on, destrug the five Hellfire Imps. The tiny demons were less than half her height and looked dramatically less terrifying as corpses. When they were alive, they were wreathed in fme and tossed around giant instantaneous, amplified balls of hellfire. But dead, they were just sy horned demons with leathery purple skin so dark it almost looked bck, a little like a cross between a shriveled goblin and a raisin. She finished destrug them and found a curious-looking small flickering bck fme that hovered slightly above the ground, left after her final destru.

  Lesser Hellfire Essence

  Hmm, looks useful. She carefully collected it, instrug her Acolyte to cast restoration on her as she returo the others.

  “I think we should switext time,” Malika was saying. “I’m more suited to log down the warlock, and your multishot is a far better tool to be used against the imps.”

  “I agree,” said. “The warlock doesn’t seem to have a ton of mana, and you ran it dry very quickly.”

  “I think those rituals cost a lot of mana,” Ali chipped in, handing the hellfire esseo Malika as she gazed at the battlefield, and the rge number of her minions that were lying there dead. She would o destruct every st one of them before they moved on, or she risked causing the duo grow stronger. “I think that explosive fgration is the biggest issue. It causes chaos and messes with our positions, and I ’t get the slimes to run away fast enough, so they just destroy each other.”

  “Perhaps more shamans or even archers against groups like this?” suggested.

  More shamans, she thought. Even though her shamans were only level een at most, their lightning magic had proved effective far beyond their css level implied. Almost certainly it was due to their lightning vulnerability curse which let them punch up. inally tough melee-caster hybrids, pared to what they were currently fighting, they were fragile, and Ali was surprised they had even survived the fight. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it robably due to the slimes drawing the fire from the imps and the fgration. She looked at her minions again. More hobs to draw the fireballs, she decided. And then more shamans.

  “Do you guys want to call it?” asked.

  “I have a few more in me,” Malika said, trying to smooth out her scorched shirt. “I think it will be a lot easier with our rategy.”

  Ali said, “I might be a tyrant, but you guys are battle junkies.”

  Mato chuffed softly, not even b to shift back to his Beastkin form to talk.

  After Ali finished sanitizing the battle se, they headed deeper into the cavern, with ranging out ahead to find more enemies.

  ----------

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