Boots of Booty | ONC 2023

Part 10

23. Wormy Thoughts

Séa exhaled in relief as the point of Tash's saber protruded through the drider's chest. And she beamed in pride as the point disappeared, only to reappear through the drider's neck. "Oh, how I love you," she proclaimed.

The drider thrashed. Its legs kicked and spasmed. Tash rode the heaving carcass until it settled into a twitching heap. And then she stabbed it a few more places.

The paladin tried to shake the blood-covered cork-punch from her hand, but spider silk still glued it there. She stalked over to Oxter, who tottered like a zombie. With clumsy hands the demon rubbed his own blood into his own eyes and felt of the crumpled cavity in his skull. Séa brightly demanded, "You have a dagger on you somewhere, demon?"

What was left of the demon opened its mouth and moaned. A trail of spittle joined the flow of gore dripping down its face.

The paladin spotted the hilt of Oxter's saber on the floor nearby. A few inches of blade protruded from it still, and she set to work slicing the spider silk that wrapped her hand shut.

Tash appeared at Séa's elbow and thrust her chin toward the demon. "Is it persistent?"

The paladin glanced up from her work. "Yes. A non-persisted demon would have dissolved by now."

"Well, you know what to do." The rogue plucked Oxter's ring of keys from his belt and strode off to free Ophelle, Royal Steward of Omnius. The cage opened readily, but the steward needed support to walk. By the time Tash helped her back to Séa, the paladin had freed her hand of its bloodstained cudgel.

The paladin steepled her fingers and prayed in Oxter's direction. "By the grace of Torugg One Eye, you are banished." A glow briefly surrounded her, and the demon's scream ended almost before it began. The incubus fizzed to a cloud noxious black smoke.

Ophelle gasped. "By the gods, what—? What was that?"

Chunks of Oxter's leather armor rained to the ground.

"Oo! The armor wasn't from the Abyss? Glory and trumpets!" Tash glanced at Ophelle. "You mean Séa? That's a banishment. Séa's a paladin of Torugg. He grants her certain specific trash cleanup abilities, regarding demons."

The steward wagged her head from side to side. "Amazing. I can't believe my eyes. You defeated all of them and somehow you're both still alive."

The rogue pulled on Oxter's pants. "Feck me, I never thought I'd be so glad to wear clothes worn by a demon."

"Hey, what about me?" Séa said.

"Get your own."

The paladin frowned at the wreckage that was once Fazzet the incubus. "I dunno. He's kind of skinny." But she knelt by the twitching, scrabbling body anyway. Persistent demons were prevented from dying by a powerful, expensive spell. If injured, they healed. If maimed, they slowly reassembled. Only a sufficiently pious cleric, one unshakably blessed with the favor of her god, could shatter the enchantment.

"By the grace of Torugg One Eye, you are banished."

Fazzet evaporated.

Shortly, the paladin found she could not jam her thighs through Fazzet's pants legs. With the broken saber she hacked spiral incisions in the tough leather to provide more room.

In the meantime, Tash eyed the massive wormlike monster across the room. "What is that thing?"

The steward answered, "It's called a purple worm. Its stinger is deadly, as are its teeth. It must have an exit to the river. Fisherman have sighted it. They complain that it is depleting the fish."