Chapter 7

Sue and Jack were worried about an ambush as they exited the Church of Satan, as they called it. A short consultation between Sue and Hat resulted in a projected spell in front of them which took on the appearance of a mirror. Sue could turn it in any direction so it was now possible to see around corners and into rooms before they actually entered. The mirror was also a barrier to physical items, but it would not stop spells, so it was only of marginal protection.

Sue projected her mirror out the door and recoiled, instinctively. Just beyond the door at either side was a great number of the succubi waiting to ambush the two heroes as they came through the door. Sue threw up the safety shield to the right of the doorway, completely blocking that group of succubi from attacking them while they were eliminating the ones on the left.

Sue attacked the succubi on the left with the fire wall while Jack took care of those who were sufficiently fire resistant to escape their destruction by the fire wall. Several times, they had to make use of the stamina renewal spell cast by Sue as they tired from their exertions. This had turned into a major fight, and they had hit the lesser of the two forces arrayed against them.

They had to rest for a while, since the stamina renewal spell did not restore them completely. Sue used her last remaining stamina to establish 3 more shield walls so that they were surrounded by what she hoped and believed to be impenetrable barriers to any thing that could be thrown at them. The problem was that they had no way to know what else might have arrived to fight against them while they were resting. They ate a snack and even slept for about an hour before attempting to overcome the enemy still arrayed against them.

They felt that they had recovered enough, so Sue, with considerable trepidation, dropped the shield to the right of the doorway and started pushing her firewall forward into the host of enemies. The result on this side was the same as the result on the other. Most of the succubi were destroyed by the fire wall, but a few survived and had to be eliminated by Jack and his trusty sword. Sue and Jack were very tired when the battle was over, but they took the time to rest again before continuing their search through this area.

Sue had found a way to make the shield self sustaining, so she could leave it to do its job while her attention was diverted elsewhere or while she was even out of its immediate vicinity. Fortunately, she could deactivate the spell from a long distance, so she did not have to return to the spell to get rid of it.

They started off down a corridor and came to a place with 2 doors on opposite sides of the corridor. They didn't want to be blindsided, so Sue blocked the corridor ahead of them and one of the doorways with her barrier spell. Jack threw open the other door and found that he faced a phalanx of mops and brooms. With a sheepish grin he closed the door. He turned back to Sue and asked her to remove the shield blocking the other door.

That done, Jack threw open the door and was hit by a blow in the chest from a monster fist. This was no mop that had flung him across the corridor! Sue dosed Jack with a healing spell, and he bounced to his feet with his battle ax at the ready. He saw a being built much like a barrel, except that it had 4 short legs and two giant arms and hands. Its head was disproportionately small and looked like the head of an aardvark. This couldn't be a natural being—it had to come from some insane wizard's distorted imagination. But, whatever its source might have been, it was intent on pulverizing Jack.

The creature ignored Sue, as if she had no importance, which was lucky for Jack, for this freed her up to cast healing spells as he might need them and to try various magic attacks on the monster. However, the monster completely ignored her fire, lightning, and cold spells; these spells were having no effect at all. Sue consulted with Hat and concocted a poison spell which she hoped would do some good. This spell seemed to work, but the rate of poisoning was very slow. Every time the monster returned from the green aura he wore while poisoned to his normal pinkish color, she would zap him with a new poison charge. There was no telling how long it would take for this spell to work.

While this was going on, Jack was trading blows with the creature. This was damned hard work! The ax was taking chunks of flesh out of the creature, but it seemed to have little overall effect. The ax cuts were working, but so slowly, that it was a question as to whether the creature would succumb first to the ax or to the poison. The Jack figuratively kicked himself, he had forgotten his war cry. He screamed out his wordless battle cry and the creature was staggered! Jack screamed again and again, as he chopped at the creature, and the ax cuts finally seemed to be having an effect. The shouts from Jack were very effective, but they were so loud that Sue had to cast a spell over her ears to dampen the volume she was hearing; Sue was sure that she would go deaf if she had to listen to these shouts for very long.

Now, the combination of the poison, the ax cuts, and the shouts were having an effect on the creature. It seemed to wilt under the storm of physical and auditory blows that were being dealt, and it finally fell to the floor. When it flopped out on the floor, it began to emit a brown vapor from its nose and mouth. As this vapor came out, the creature shrank; it finally got so small that it disappeared. Jack, Sue, and Hat were baffled by this, but they didn't care as long as the creature was no longer a threat.

Again, they rested a few minutes before resuming their trip through this ghastly level of the cellars. When they were ready, Sue lowered her shield over the rest of the corridor, and they found themselves facing more of the small demons, this time wearing leather armor colored green, and their battle axes had green blades. Sue immediately began casting her moving fire wall, sending it toward the demons. They turned to run, but Sue cast her impenetrable shield behind them, trapping them between the moving fire wall and the barrier. It took two doses of the fire wall to get every one of the demons, but the corridor was finally cleared.

Sue said, "Hat, I am bushed! Is there any way for us to transport ourselves back to the tavern for the evening and return here tomorrow morning without using the portals?"

"Yes, there is such a spell. But it only works for places that you have already been. You can use it to return to the tavern and come back here because you have already seen both places, but you cannot use the spell to move you farther on your journey, because you have not physically been there, yet."

"Great! There are a couple of things we need to do here, first, but I'd like to return for a hot meal for supper. Jack, let's make sure that the places we have already been on this level are clear. I'll block them off if they are and we can rest for a while. And I'll bet you know what I mean by 'resting.'"

They walked back through the current level, making sure that it was clear. When they got back to their original entrance, Sue cast a spell blocking that entry. "Now, I'm ready for supper!"

Sue got the transport spell from Hat and whisked them back to their room at the tavern. They cleaned up a bit and walked into the tavern's serving room where they were greeted by the owner and several patrons. Jack asked, "How long before supper?"

"You can eat right now if you would like. We have roast venison with vegetables. Is that satisfactory?"

"By all means! I feel like I could eat the whole deer, so I hope you have plenty." Jack laughed to show that he was only joking, since the innkeeper turned pale at Jack's statement. They ate supper and were prevailed upon to relate their adventures of the last two days. The listeners were all amazed at the description of the 4-legged creature, since none had ever heard of such a thing. At last, Sue and Jack returned to their room where Sue was relieved of her tensions by Jack; of course he got something from the effort, himself.

The next morning, they returned to the Church of Satan and resumed clearing out the evil creatures. These creatures were mostly succubi, so Sue's moving fire wall was the weapon most often used. Most of their loot consisted of flasks of manna, but they also picked up some gold along the way.