Chapter 16: My contract clearly stated no tentacles!

Inky black tendrils oozed up through the cracks of the shield. Roxy's were wide with horror as slime surged over her ankle and toward her knees. She gritted her teeth, meeting the unblinking gaze of the malevolent face baring its fangs at her. There was a threat and a promise in the way its eyes stared up at her. Its ultimate goal was to rend her soul to retrieve the ring of nightmares but there were only a few documented ways to do that. If it continued upward, it'd try one that left many of the texts banned in the temples.

"Roxy!" Gunner yelled beyond the stifling wall crackling around her. He was becoming aware of the situation Roxy was in with the quaking in the mana filling the air. His own melee was an exercise in futility - the more he carved from the bear, the more enraged it become making it more wild in its attacks. The demon king had twisted and re-animated the demon bears of its realm for good reason, once the vile things were undead, it could not be stopped through pain.

Roxy needed more mana. Beyond the hastily erected barrier, the hospital's emergency generators struggled to maintain equilibrium, just one ill timed load would blow the power, beneath this, Roxy sensed there was something flickering. Was the main power trying to turn back on?

If that was true, she could tap the power grid and hope she didn't black out the city to burn up the demon before it fully crossed over. The creature fighting Gunner was just a distraction to divide their energy from the task at hand. Beneath her feet, lecherously glaring up at her was an aspect of the demon orb, projecting its vile intention to force its way into this reality and anything else that was it its way. Unfortunately for Roxy, she was the being the demon wished to invade first.

It was hell for her to not jerk away from the tendrils thickening into tentacles as they snaked over her calves and up to her thighs. Her clothing offered her no protection. Gunner couldn't save her. Her hair floated upward as the pressure opened a fissure in the shield, hideous laughter echoed in Roxy's mind as the demonic entity squeezed through.

A memory came unbidden from Ayla's life before. She'd been forced back into an underwater cave as a nixies clawed at her through gaps in the rocks she cowered behind. Her fear bubbled upward, robbing her of precious oxygen as he prayed for someone to save her. Once more, her back was against a proverbial wall and hell or high water, it was here and coming for her. She needed to fight back or be subject to its unholy desires for her body. Richard was deservedly dead (hopefully). Bantu wasn't here. Gunner couldn't save her because he was staving off necrotic claws and fangs aiming to rip out his throat. All the gods old and new could not reach her. There was no one left to come to her rescue.

"F*ck this!" Roxy's eyes blazed azure, the air crackled with electricity as the currents around her arms arced together, drawing more mana from the nearby electrical outlet with a deafening boom. Lighting slammed into the ginormous lidless eye of the demon as Roxy's fists tore open the quivering gel upon impact. Purple ichor splashed against her.

"Losgadh, ort b*stard!" She roared, transforming her murderous intent, and righteous outrage into magical power, forcing the concentrated mana outward in a concussive wave of ethereal blue fire that seared all demonic flesh it touched.

Laughter turned to shrieks as tentacles and tendrils burned into ash. The bear's putrid flash charred and fell over as it rapidly burned. Gunner pressed the advantage and thrust his sword into the creature's skull, watching it get swept away in the fiery tornado that whirled around them with Roxy at its epicenter.

A violet marble fell and rolled to a stop by Roxy's foot. With a stomp it shattered into dust and the garden settled back into muted silence. A perfumed fog of roses and goldenwood mingled with hickory and leather as the air settled. The demonic presence banished back into the ether, the hospital in blackout save its emergency generators leaving Gunner and Roxy breathless in the secluded moonlit garden.

"It's gone. I don't sense its presence any more." Roxy let out a heavy huff. Sweat ran down Roxy's face and back as she tried to recover. Her trembling legs gave out as Gunner scooped her up before she could hit the ground. His clothing was in tatters, and his body a patchwork of oozing scars and bruises. Even he with all his strength had a hard time dealing with the demons alone. His arms were slick with sweat as he caught his breath, his sword disappearing from sight once more.

"Now, this definitely feels like a second date." Gunner laughed, turning towards the path back out.

Roxy leaned against Gunner's chest with an exasperated groan. She jabbed a finger in his bare, muscular chest noting just how firm it was and how it the rest of his body glistened in the moonlight. "What makes you think this even qualifies as a date?"

"Well, clothing missing, dripping with sweat," Gunner grinned at her. "Hot woman eagerly eyeing her prize with her heart racing..."

"I'm not eyeing anything." Roxy playfully huffed, guiltily looking away from Gunner.

"If you were, you might notice a few things, that are better settled in somewhere more private." He added, shifting her weight in his arms as he pushed past the small gates out to the sidewalk. Roxy blushed, trying to not glance down past her side to see if it was true. "Ha. So you are interested."

"I never said I wasn't." Roxy waved her hands in protest. "I only said this doesn't qualify as a date! I didn't find this whole thing with the demons fun or pleasing, even if my blood is pumping, and you look really hot drenched in sweat in this light." She covered her mouth as she blurted her confession.

"Keep this up, and we might not make it to a shower first."

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