I darted forward, well as near to a dart as a man with only one real leg can make, and slashed at where I guessed the thing's tendons should be, at the same time calling upon Lyos to guide my blow. Lyos must have been listening because my sword sunk into the damn thing's flesh and it let out a roar and stood up. This finished off the roof and only my proximity to the monster saved me from burial under all that rubble. I had to drop my smoking sword in agony as some of its ichor landed on my hand. The pain was unbelievable and I had to call upon Lyos for a clear mind so I didn't curl up into a snack sized ball. This was granted, all thanks to Lyos, but with Him still aiding my vision I could see that the bloody thing was turning again to deal with me. I did what I thought was the only smart thing and jumped up and grabbed the hand axe embedded in its back with my only good hand.
In retrospect this was one damned stupid manuever. Sure it got me out of the thing's immediate grasp but it also left me dangling two metres off the ground by one hand and put me perilously close to the damn thing's tail. I hung on sending prayers to every god I'd ever heard of and thought worthy. And a few I didn't care for like Orlanth. The extra pressure on the axe must have worsened the wound because it roared again and immediately spun around. How I managed to hold on with my off hand I'll never know. Some god must have been looking after me. Probably the God of Idiots.
Thankfully it couldn't reach me and its tails blind flailings kept missing me. It stood straight up, flapped its massive wings and stalked out into the street. The axe was high enough up on its back that I could occassionally see past the damn thing as it moved to see its new opponent. It was a man in iron armour wielding twin iron battle axes. He was riding something that looked sort of like a horse but which turned out to be the source of the weird roaring I'd heard. It also had a mouthful of fangs rather than teeth so I was guessing it wasn't really a horse. Our savior had runes all over his armour that made it pretty clear that he was a follower of Urox. Strangely though his arms and armour glowed with the sort of magical aura that only sorcery provides.
The stranger bellowed out another challenge and then kicked his mount into action. The mount leapt forward eagerly, fangs bared and roaring a challenge. The cacodaemon answered with its own roar, spread its arms and leapt to meet it. I hung on for dear life as the thing slashed at the rider with both arms. Somehow the Uroxi managed to avoid or deflect the blows while striking the cacodaemon with one of his axes. The axe sheared off one of the taloned hands which fell to the street. Meanwhile the mount's neck proved to be both longer and more flexible than it looked as it had whipped around as they passed and sunk its teeth into the cacodaemon's leg. With a mighty yank it pulled it off its feet! I managed to let go as this was happening and landed heavily. The bloody thing nearly landed on top of me. Thankfully it had demonic vitality so it leapt up again. Lyos clear mind helped me to roll out of the combat zone into the relative safety of the base of a nearby wall.
>From there I had an excellent view of the end. The Uroxi was
unscratched and his mount seemed unaffected by the demon's blood.
The demon meanwhile was missing a forearm and still had the axe
imbedded in its back. It seemed unfazed though and threw its head
back for another screamed challenge. The Uroxi bellowed out his
challenge and threw one of his heavy battle axes sideways through the
air like it was a toy! A wind came out of nowhere and caught the axe
as it flew and helped send it right into the cacodaemon's throat.
The axe whipped around and curved through the air to come right back
to the Uroxi as the cacodaemon's head fell into the street. Its
body stood there for a instance before it slumped to the ground and
disintegrated into a pile of malodorous gunk before finally
disappearing back into the hell it had come from.
The Uroxi nodded in satisfaction before sheafing his axes. He rode slowly over to me and looking down at me from atop his mount said in Tradetalk. "I believe that you owe me an axe."
To be continued.
Oliver
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