Nomius went invisible again and we entered the ballroom to discover everybody had scattered to the edges of the room… various footmen lay dead on the floor. Robert and Flynn were stood in front of the duke and Katheryn, and in the centre of the room stood… oh fuck… not again… it’s the incubus.

  Agaroth: “Everybody stay the fuck away from it. It wonae hurt ya if ya don’t get in its fuckin’ way!”

  Rosario stood himself in front of Phoenix, holding his arms out wide.

  Rosario: “I shall protect you, my lady!”

  Phoenix rolled her eyes, but let her young husband hold his pride. The various guests began to back away as much as they could when Chloe burst through the main door brandishing her great sword.

  Chloe: “I’ve been waiting for this!”

  Incubus: “Hand me the child. The rest of you need not die.”

  Chloe: “Not a fucking chance, mate. I’m ready for you this time. Tristan!”

  Tristan, who was still up on the mezzanine, suddenly looked very serious.

  Tristan: “Slow.”

  He held his sceptre in the direction of the Incubus. The Incubus paid him no heed… nor did it pay any attention to Chloe. It simply stared at Tadwick. Tadwick was hiding behind Kiyui, trembling. He must have thought he had escaped this thing. Seeing it again must be terrifying for him.

  Chloe lunged forward to strike at the Incubus. It went to move out of the way but it was being hindered by Tristan’s spell and… realising it wasn’t moving fast enough… it opted to deflect the blade with its nails instead. It may be slower than last time… but it has just as much power.

  At this moment Robert and Flynn stepped forward to join the fray. Suddenly, all around the creature, little black holes seemed to appear in the floor… out of them emerged these horrifying, black… how to describe them… arms… maybe… a cross between tentacles and arms… with claws on the end of them.

  Fortunately, they too appeared to be affected by Tristan’s slow spell. But there were eight of them. Two of them had stretched way up towards the mezzanine to try to attack Tristan, who was struggling to maintain his concentration. Lucas was protecting him by deflecting the arms with his short sword and parrying dagger. But the arms had a lot of power behind them and Lucas was clearly struggling.

  Robert was blocking one arm with his shield whilst trying to attack another with his spear. Two of the arms were attempting to attack Flynn, but his shadow-self was proving to be a helpful defence. However, the arms were still doing a good job of preventing him from advancing. Chloe was holding her own against two of the arms but the Incubus was moving towards her.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Then, out of nowhere one of the arms moved back to cover the Incubus and appeared to be cut in two… a black river of blood spewed from the arm… this blood flowed down… not onto Chloe or the Incubus… but onto Nomius.

  Since he was now covered in blood, and visible anyway, he reappeared. He began fighting the remaining arm and gestured for Chloe to take on the Incubus.

  Duke: “Who the devil is that?”

  Phoenix: “A friend.”

  Duke: “You have taken to keeping some odd company, Patience.”

  The Incubus was beginning to look irritated. It let out a low growl as it lunged towards Chloe. Chloe was only just able to keep up with the speed of its attacks, even in its slowed state. She parried it’s razor like nails, one after another, while the others held off the tentacle arm things.

  Fuck… I feel like I should be helping… I should be helping… but what the fuck can I do… I only have one dagger and it has become quite clear to me that I am not as adept at close combat as I used to think. I mean… I have that sword thing… but I don’t know how to use that… I’ve never really trained with a sword… there is that whole glowing thing… but what does that even do? Fuck… I feel so useless.

  After many attempts at hitting it, Chloe eventually managed to land a blow… it was a superficial hit to the abdomen but it was enough to really piss the thing off. It let out an ear-splitting scream.

  Incubus: “Enough!”

  Suddenly, the arms attacking Tristan disappeared… as did the severed one that Nomius had sliced open. Then another hole appeared in the ground, this time below the mezzanine. Tristan and Lucas never saw it coming. One, extra thick arm shot straight up from the ground. It smashed through the mezzanine, right below where Tristan was standing. Half of the mezzanine collapsed. Tristan fell through the floor and landed in a pile of rubble of the ground.

  Lucas: “Tristan!”

  The arm disappeared into the ground again. Tristan lay unconscious amongst the rubble. Lucas was attempting to climb down to help him when the creature regained its original speed. One of the tentacles grabbed Robert’s spear and threw it across the room… impaling one of the party guests. He tried to hold his ground with his shield but was knocked back easily. The Incubus itself brought a claw down towards Chloe at immense speed.

  Chloe suddenly switched places with Flynn’s shadow and the shadow was destroyed by the vicious blow. Chloe began batting away the arm that was now in front of her.

  Chloe: “I told you to always warn me before you did that!”

  Flynn: “Apologies ma’am. But any later and…”

  Chloe: “Shut up! We’ll discuss it later. Just help me kill this fucking thing!”

  The large arm that the creature had used to destroy the mezzanine now reemerged. It smashed Nomius in the chest and sent him flying across the room and into the wall behind Lucas and Tristan. Then the arm grabbed a large chunk of rubble from the ground and threw it straight at Flynn and Chloe.

  Chloe: “Behind me!”

  Flynn instantly stepped behind Chloe, who attempted to block the rubble using her great sword. She almost succeeded, but the weight was too much and it knocked her down to the ground, stunning her. Flynn began to try to drag her out of harm’s way when the creature spoke once more.

  Incubus: “NOW HAND ME… THE FUCKING CHILD!”