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35. Battle for Blue Pine Town Part 8

  There is a metallic pang sound within a home that was rigged with a number of traps and other hazards. Also some crazy bitch decided to rig the roof to light on fire. So now the house is also on fire. Inside, two women, assassins of great skill clash. Where once their movements were swift and minimalistic, they now swing their blades in wider arcs. Each of them attempt to move in for a killing blow. The one difference is that the human among the women has prepared a bit more than the elf.

  Mona steps forward, and a clawed metallic hook bursts through the floor and snaps at Mona’s feet. She steps back and a flintlock clamped to a wall fires in Mona’s direction. She tries to side step and the floor gives way to a single spike that pushes itself up from the wooden floorboards. Mona is quickly finding that no matter where she steps, something is prepared to take a stab at her.

  “Come on, bitch!” Maloon speaks in an amused tone. “Go for it! I spent a whole hour getting this place set up. Family wasn’t happy about it, though.”

  She kicks at a pile of corpses consisting of a man, woman and child.

  “I swear, heathens these days.” Maloon snickers to herself.

  Mona comes to a stand still. Seeing her stand in place, Maloon responds by throwing a knife with a dull yellow piece of paper wrapped around the hilt at Mona. Mona deftly catches the knife, but as she holds it in her hands, the paper begins to burn. Mona goes wide eyed and goes to leap away. The paper erupts into an explosion. Mona leaps back, and a spiked ball on a chain is released and arcs into her. It hits her in the side and her balance is thrown off. She crashes onto the floor and hears the click and whirling of a mechanical gear of some kind. A child’s doll opens it’s mouth and the barrel of a gun emerges trained on Mona. The gun fires and Mona tries to move out of the way, but the bullet grazes her leg despite her effort.

  “Aw, did the baby hurt herself?” Maloon chuckles to herself. “Oh! You dropped your doll. You can’t leave your toys lying around.”

  “Come on.” Mona says under her breath. “Give me a kill shot.”

  Mona pulls herself up off the floor. She took a spiked ball to her right arm and a bullet grazed her left leg. Her fighting stance is lopsided and sloppy.

  “Oh how delightful.” Maloon begins to skip towards Mona like a dandy little girl. “Let me kiss your wound with my knife.”

  As Maloon draws closer, Mona prepares herself. The both of them are just waiting for Maloon to walk into each other's striking range. In the moment when Maloon’s skipping lands her in the range of their knives. In a flash of movement, Mona clasps her other hand onto her dagger and pulls a thread from it. Maloon is less impressive and simply swings her dagger at the neck. The blades clash for a moment. The impact was minimal. Maloon steps back to steady her footing, while Mona steps forward. Mona moves her dagger to Maloon’s neck, and Maloon prepares her dagger to intercept the blade. As they do, Mona palms Maloon on the side and leaves behind a thin thread. Mona steps back and pulls on the thread. Maloon is pulled off her feet and Mona pounces on her with her dagger. Maloon rolls to her side to dodge, before hopping to her feet. As she is in the air, she feels a tug on her side. Mona dashes under Maloon. She leaps over a spike springing from the floor and then leaps up above Maloon. Mona pulls onto a thread, and it tightens around Maloon. This thread now pins her arms against her sides and lifts one of her legs up off the ground. Satisfied with her work, Mona speaks.

  “Plan A!”

  As Maloon tries to orientate herself, a scythe blade smashes through a wall and carves it’s way towards her. She has to violently twist her body to narrowly avoid the blade. As she does, a throwing knife finds itself stabbing into her arm. Even then, the assault isn’t over. From the wall that the blade struck through, a demon smashes through the wall. A feminine red skinned demon with long black hair, horns and a fine suit bursts through. It is the demon Praisegg. She searches the room and her eyes stop at Maloon. She lifts her scythe above her head and brings it down on Maloon. The blade only manages to deliver a small cut above Maloon’s brow. The demon steps forward to follow up on her attack, but as she does, the floorboards break beneath her and her foot lands on a spike.

  “A fucking demon!” Maloon shouts.

  Mona pulls on the thread that binds Maloon. Maloon swiftly cuts the threat as she sees it pulled taut. With her hands and leg free, she pulls the knife that stabbed into her arm. Thinking she has a moment’s respite, she is caught by surprise when an arrow of dark energy lances out at her. Maloon notices the attack in time and backs even further away. Soon enough, Maloon’s back hits a wall. Maloon peers over for the source of the dark energy. There she sees a blue skinned feminine figure. She lacks horns, but her silky white hair draped down past her hips, and through that curtain of shimmering strands peeked broad leathery wings and a spaded tail. She wears a very revealing robe and bends to take provocative poses that accentuate her womanly figure.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Hey! Felloice!” Praisegg rests her scythe on her shoulder. “There’s, like, tons of fire here. If that was a fire spell, she wouldn’t have even seen it coming.”

  The red tomboy demon points an accusing finger at the other.

  “Wha- what! I’m trying my best here!” Felloice shouts back. “I manipulate and charm! How do you expect me to know that?”

  “Uh! The roof is on fire! A fire spell in a burning building is hard to spot.”

  “Well, I’m sorry. I don’t spend a lot of time in burning buildings.”

  “Fine! I’ll take you out to a burning building after this!”

  “Is that a promise?” Felloice speaks in a vulnerable and seductive tone.

  “Don’t- don’t make it sound like I’m asking you out.” Praisegg furrows her brows at her cohort.

  During this exchange, Mona and Maloon have their own conversation.

  “Really now. Working with demons?” Maloon gives the elf a glare.

  “This is only the second time I’ve spoken to you, but in truth, I’m kind of a shitty nun.” Mona says. “Besides, nothing is sacred, right?”

  “Tch. Come on, bitch! Even this isn’t enough for you to beat me.”

  “Plan A!”

  At those words, Praisegg and Felloice snap to attention. Maloon stomps on a floorboard. A loaded gun springs up from below and fires in Mona’s direction. Mona stops in place to avoid the musket ball. As Mona stops, Praisegg lunges forward. A spiked ball swings down and bounces off one of Praisegg’s horns. Spikes shoot out from the floor and she charges through them. They stab into her legs but she keeps running towards Maloon. Praisegg makes an overhead swing at Maloon. Praisegg’s scythe has much more reach than Maloon’s dagger. Maloon’s back is also against a wall. There is little choice but to try and close the distance between herself and the demon.

  “Dashing Pierce!”

  Maloon moves with blinding speed at Praisegg. Her dagger finds Praisegg’s neck while her scythe fails to find Maloon. Unfortunately, that isn’t enough to kill the demon. Praisegg grabs Maloon’s neck and raises her up off her feet.

  “Got you!” Praisegg sneers.

  The demon leaps up and slams Maloon into the burning roof before arcing her down and slamming her onto the floor. Maloon’s body is wracked with pain. Despite the two impacts, Maloon regains her senses swiftly and smashes a bottle against Praisegg’s face. It is a clear liquid. Once the bottle breaks and splashes onto Praisegg, a sizzling sound is heard and a white smoke rises from her face.

  “Ah! Ah!” Praisegg yelps in pain.

  Praisegg drops her grip on Maloon. As she does, Maloon’s eyes darts to face Mona and Felloice. What she sees is another throwing dagger and spell shooting out at her. Maloon deftly dodges the both of them before going back to stab Praisegg in the side and then smashing another bottle of clear liquid over the wound.

  “Hey! Praisegg! You could have held her for me to shoot!” Felloice shouts.

  “Ah! Damn it! Yeugh!” Praisegg thrashes violently with her scythe covering her eyes and stab wound.

  “Praisegg? Hey? Are you alright?” Felloice shouts a bit more concern in her voice.

  “Holy water! It’s holy water!” Praisegg shouts back. “My eyes! I can’t see!”

  “She’s been blinded by holy water?” Mona says. “Then Plan A may not work.”

  “Plan A was to group up and hit her until she dies!” Felloice shouts. “You and that Ren girl are some of the worst schemers I’ve ever met! And I’ve met a lot of dumb demon worshippers!”

  “Enough! Plan B!” Mona says.

  Felloice rolls her eyes. Praisegg leaps into action. She swings her scythe in the direction where she thinks Maloon is. She’s close, but not enough to catch an agile assassin. Mona and Felloice move to help. Mona is the first to close the distance on Maloon. With mounting injuries the two move in to engage in a close quarters knife fight. At least one of them plans to do so. Mona only feigns a knife fight. As they both appear to go for a stab, Mona ducks down and goes for a sweep kick. The blow connects and Maloon is tripped.

  “Grab her!” Mona shouted.

  “Come on. She’s right over there.” Felloice says.

  Felloice has her hands on Praisegg’s shoulders. She is turning her to face Maloon. At Mona’s words, Praisegg lunges out and grabs Maloon with both hands. With the strength of a demon, she grabs and holds Maloon in place.

  “Real fire this time!” Praisegg shouts.

  “Fine! You want fire! Here it is!” Felloice snaps back.

  At those words, Mona throws her dagger into the burning ceiling. A thread connects the dagger to her sleeve. Meanwhile, Felloice has a spell prepared.

  “What are you doing?” Maloon shouts.

  “I think you’re forgetting something.” Praisegg says. “We demons don’t die like you mortals. So if I get burnt to a crisp, I’ll lose this body but collect on any promised rewards. If you get burnt, well you’re just dead!”

  Malooon goes wide-eyed as she realizes what is happening.

  “Inferno!”

  Magical sparks of fire appear beneath Praisegg and Maloon. Above them, threads pulled on the burning roof. As the spell erupts into a torrent of flames and the roof falls onto the two, Maloon screams briefly before falling silent. The gentlemanly dressed tomboy demon and the human assassin are buried under burning debris.

  “Come on. I need to see a body.” Mona says to the remaining demon.

  “I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but that is a lot of fire between us and them.” Felloice points to the pyre they just made.

  “You know the rules. No body, no kill. Help me mov- Ah!!!” Mona clutches her leg wound.

  “Okay. Let’s get you out of here before you bleed out.” Felloice says.

  Felloice grabs Mona and carries her off with her demonic wings. As she does, a number of traps rigged inside the building trigger and spring out.

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