Chapter 455: Occult Magic

The cultist mage’s scream echoed over the sound of fire and battle, shaking the twilight sky with the pure fury and madness that dwelt within the wretched woman. Her mouth opened as wide as a cave, revealing her raw and bloodied teeth and throat. Her fingers curled like claws as she raged, her back arching in unnatural torsion. The red aura surrounding her flared like a flame doused with oil. With her screeching cry came a horrible sound, indescribable in its alienness. A meaty, bloody, cracking sound of flesh expanding and muscle hardening. All four of the cultists near the mage, including the one who Jay had knocked down, gained a burning red aura around their bodies, like candles whose wicks had just been lit. Their forms visibly expanded, causing the leather straps and buckles of their armor to creak and stretch with malformed growth.

“Well shit,” Jay growled out a curse.

No more words needed to be spoken. Jay lunged forward, aiming for the closest of the four men who was still on horseback.

The man who she attacked had a spear and shield, as did the man who Jay had knocked from his mount. Those two were the closest to Jay. The third armored cultist, a woman with a crossbow, was further back and also still mounted. The fourth man, Corpsefucker, was standing just in front of the mage who was standing on top of her possessed auroch mount. In order of threat, Jadis knew that she needed to kill the mage as quickly as possible. Whatever spell she was using to empower the Demons and the other cultists was massively magnifying the danger all other enemies posed. Of course, Jadis had no idea if killing the madwoman would cancel out her already cast spells. Whatever magic she had just used to boost her monstrous allies could just keep going even after her death. But if she were dead, then Jadis would at least not have to worry about any more spells being cast. The only issue was getting to the woman.

Jay jabbed with her right hand, punching the mounted spearman. He was on her right, so his shield was in a poor position to block her attack. Instead of using his shield, the man turned his right shoulder into the blow, letting his pauldron take the hit. Her strike sent the man flying off of his horse, ripping the leather of his saddle as his foot caught in the stirrup. The horse, however, reared up and struck at Jay with iron-shod hooves.

Grabbing the possessed animal’s front legs, Jay twisted her wrists and broke both of the horse’s front knees. Then, taking a quick step forward, she sent the beast tumbling back with a powerful shove that aimed it at the rider who had just been dismounted. She didn’t wait to see if the demon-tainted horse landed on the man. Instead, she whirled with the same movement and brought her right fist down on the first man she had dismounted in a hammer blow.

The cultist brought his damaged shield up in time to block her strike, a quick reaction that had to be empowered by the magic of the screaming mage. His wooden shield shattered like glass under the force of her blow and he was sent rolling across the ground for a second time, but Jay could tell that her attack hadn’t broken the man’s arm or even done any significant damage to him. He had withstood the attack. It was only the physics of a smaller, lighter body being hit with the strength of a giant that had caused the man to tumble.

Jay caught a movement in the corner of her eye and she instinctively reacted to it. Pulling her head back, she dodged out of the way of a bolt that had been fired by the woman with the crossbow. The cultist’s mount had not ridden forward and had instead stayed back with the mage, choosing to maintain distance so the woman could fire her ranged attacks from a safe position.

Jadis knew her armor was thick enough to block most normal attacks made by bolts or arrows, but she had no clue what abilities the cultist possessed. While the death zealots were mad, she didn’t assume they were stupid. She doubted the cultist would have taken the shot if she didn’t think it would have some effect.

The sight of the crossbow wielding woman guarding the mage reminded Jadis of the necrophile, who had disappeared from her sight in the commotion of the opening round of attacks. Acting without thinking, Jay leapt into the air.

An instant later that same unnerving light shone as Corpsefucker slashed his blade where her legs had been. Her leap had saved her from taking an attack to the back of her knee, which very well could have cut through the weaker armor there. As she reached the apex of her impromptu vertical ascension, Jay snapped her hand out and caught Dys’ tossed battleaxe. As she fell like a meteor, Jay reared the weapon overhead and brought the axe down on the cultist with all of her strength.

A burst of sickly black and gray light exploded outward from the necrophile’s longsword as he blocked the blow with the flat of his blade. A shockwave exploded outward from where their weapons met, causing the flowers and flame around them to ripple from the impact. The man sunk into the ground up to his shins as he absorbed Jay’s strike without buckling.

With a controlled grunt of effort, Corpsefucker threw Jay’s axe back before he quickly swung his blade at her middle. He lacked the reach for his sword’s blade to connect, but Jay was still forced to take two steps back as a pair of spears were thrust at her face. Both of the spearmen had regained their feet and had moved in to attack Jay in a coordinated strike. Jay swept both spears away with her axe, but the move gave the swordsman time to pull his feet from the earth and take up a stance next to his two cultist compatriots.

“You should just die, like the rest of your people,” Corpsefucker stated as calmly as though they were having a conversation at a market stall. “It’s the natural state of the world. It’s pointless to fight it.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up and fight,” Jay’s snarl echoed through her helmet. “This is a battle, not a debate.”

“On that, we can agree,” the man nodded once before lunging forward, followed swiftly by the two spearmen.

As Jay jumped into the fray against the three powerfully buffed cultists, Dys tore into the Demons who were trying to swarm her. She had moved to join the wild beasts who were, through whatever magical means, still defending the Dryad’s grove with all the ferocity they had within them. She had cut through a few more of bone thieves and stranglers while Jay had initiated the attack on the cultists, but now this self was the one without a weapon.

Well, not completely without weapons.

“Fucking bastards!” Dys shouted as she slammed her dagger into the armored body of a six-legged bone thief. “Get off of them!”

The Demons were attacking her, but not only her. They were still slashing and bashing into the remaining boars and bears, cutting down their numbers in their wild, magically augmented bloodlust. While the fate of the animals wasn’t a priority for her, Jay knew they were for Meli.

The Dryad had leapt into the fight like a whirling dervish. Meli’s fast movements were as hard to follow as the wights, even despite not being translucent the way they were. She juked and dove in unexpected directions, attacking from low slides and springing pounces. Her claws ripped open long wounds in stranglers and wights, though her attacks seemed to be less effective against the bone thieves and their skeletal armor. No doubt noticing the lack of impact her attacks made on hardened defenses, Meli stuck to the soft targets, ripping apart demonic flesh wherever she could.

Jadis knew that Meli couldn’t fight this hoard alone. The forest beasts, her friends, were dying for her sake. Whatever ethereal connection the animals had to her grove, they were sacrificing their lives to defend her and her home. Dys had to stay with her, and them, or they would be overwhelmed. By the same token, she knew she had to get another one of her selves over to the fight Jay was having with the cultists. She needed to end that struggle, fast, before one of the madmen got lucky with an attack.

Fortunately, she did have a third body.

“That way!” Syd shouted as she ran side by side with Tegwyn.

“Right!” Teg agreed as he angled his charge to follow her direction.

Three cultists were still following Tegwyn and the diminished herd of deer who were charging along with him. In the short time Jadis’ other selves had thrown themselves into the fight, Syd had carried on running with her Dryad friend. She had taken the time to put Thea on his back, since the last thing she wanted was for the shieldsworn to stand rooted to one spot in such a chaotic battlefield. Jadis knew that with Thea on Tegwyn’s back, the two acted as a powerful cavalry unit. She would protect him, just as he would protect her. Syd had continued to run next to them for a few seconds while looking for an opportunity to join the fight. Now, as they circled the two clumps of combatants in a wide arc, she saw the opening she had been looking for.

Syd led the charge forward as Tegwyn and the deer stampeded behind them. Together, they aimed at the mage and her possessed auroch, coming at her from her right side. With her sword staff held in front of her like a lance, she intended to spear the woman right off of her mount and let Teg and the deer trample everything else.

Suddenly, a roaring wall of flames burst forth directly in Syd’s path. The cinderman had spewed its fire to block her, anticipating where she was going. It was too late to change course, so instead Syd leapt into the air, jumping over and through the raging inferno. Doing so caused her to miss her attack on the mage as she went too high to strike her. But worse than that was the effect on Tegwyn and the deer he led.

Tegwyn wasn’t able to leap as high or as far as Syd. He missed the majority of the fire, but as he landed on the other side, she saw that he had flames burning on the flanks of his back legs. Thea looked unharmed, fortunately, but the deer weren’t so lucky. The remaining beasts let loose inhuman screams as they burned alive, dashing in wild directions, driven by pain and fear. The oily fire that clung to their flesh spread as they dashed across the meadow, spreading the flames even further.

“Damnit!” Syd shouted as she skidded to a halt after landing.

Syd whirled, still intending to make her attack on the mage. Her Jay self was occupying the three melee cultists and it was just the woman with the crossbow protecting the caster. She knew she could make quick work of both if she could get to them. As she took a step towards the screaming woman, three burning figures charged out of the wall of flames.

The cultists who had been charging after Tegwyn had carried on through, heedless of the fire.

Syd turned and struck with her sword staff, lopping the head off of one man as he swung his sword at her. Letting her momentum carry her along, she swept her weapon low as she spun, slicing through the legs of the next man’s horse, causing both to crash to the ground. As she turned, the third rider charged in close, spear raised to lance her in the back.

The back end of Syd’s sword staff struck the burning cultist squarely in his armored chest, hitting with enough force to punch all the way through and out the other side. Continuing her spin, Syd lifted the man’s flailing body up high, then flicked her weapon to send him hurtling back into the flames he had just charged out of.

Looking in the direction the two possessed mounts had run, Syd saw that Tegwyn had turned in his tracks. His gigantic ram horns smashed into the first burning horse’s chest, crushing the beast’s bones as he flicked his neck and sent the broken thing tumbling off to the side. The second horse reared up at him, but Thea’s spear pierced the possessed creature’s neck while its hooves pounded uselessly against her shield. When Tegwyn turned to maneuver around the possessed creature, Thea’s spear was torn from the horse’s flesh, leaving a massive hole in its neck thanks to the serrated edge of the poisoned steel.

Knowing that her two companions could handle themselves, Syd continued her rush towards the mage.

It only took a few long, anger-driven strides for her to reach her target. The mage was turned away from her, face pointed to the sky as she continued to channel the empowering malediction that was strengthening her allies. The cultist with the crossbow was only just starting to turn towards Syd, but she wasn’t going to be able to block her sword staff with a ranged weapon. Syd let out a fierce, triumphant war cry as she lunged with her sword staff in one hand, the point aimed directly at the back of the mage’s head.

The Auroch’s left back leg exploded outward, sending flesh and bone into Syd’s face like shrapnel. A mass of blood red tentacles, each one as thick around as the shaft of a spear, burst out from the open joint hole. The red aura that emanated from the mage also glowed around the dozens of slick tentacles. Each one wrapped around Syd’s arms, legs, and torso, slowing her movement to a standstill.

As Syd’s momentum was ground to a halt, the screeching cultist bent even further back so that her head was upside as she looked the grappled Nephilim in the eye.

“Got you,” she crowed in a pleased tone as blood and snot dripped from her mouth, nose, and eyes.

That mad grin fell as Syd let out a dark laugh.

“That’s what you think, bitch.”

With a mighty heave of her titanic strength, Syd pulled the possessed auroch forward and out from under the mage, causing her to fall off its back. With a roar of rage, she tossed the auroch into the air as its tentacles tried to hold onto her. Jerking it back down just as it hit the apex of its arc, she threw the consumed beast down into the trampled ground with enough force to cause its flesh to burst like a rotten melon, causing more black blood and tentacles to pour out of its broken form. In the next instant, Syd’s boot came down on the beast, crushing its middle mass. A second later, all the tentacles still wrapped around her went limp as the Demon inside the auroch was crushed to foul-smelling pulp.

Sharply turning her head to look at the scrambling mage crawling away from her on the ground, Syd pointed at her with her sword staff.

“You were saying?”

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