21 Chapter 21 Oh! There You Are!

As the plant demon disappeared into dust, Argen crawled out from under the tree.

"More of those things are coming," he said, dusting himself off.

"We're ready for them," said Grey, swinging her sword at the ready.

Guit shook himself as he revealed his form again. His skin was greyer than it had been, and as he straightened up, he was taller, too. Examining his claws, he shook his head.

"I don't have holy powers or fire. These things are too strong for me," he said.

"Just get a fire started, and burn the vines with a torch," said Argen, pulling his sword out.

"Oh! Good idea!" Guit quickly gathered enough wood for a sizable fire, then Grey started it burning as the first of the plant demons arrived.

Airow took it out with a bolt to the flower, but they could all easily see dozens more approaching, traveling both under the ground and across it, using the vines to drag themselves.

Grey charged into the mess of vines, cutting with her fire sword, and burning them up. Airow shot bolt after bolt of his holy fire arrows, and Guit ran around with his torch and sword, cutting the vines, then burning them before they could completely root.

Argen stood back, looking bored, as the number of vines grew and grew, with each new plant demon's arrival. Looking down at his sword, he gave a sigh, then turned to the newest arrival, a plant that had tried to sneak around behind them. Holding his sword up, it became encased in black fire. With a swing of his sword, it shot an arc of black flames flying across the clearing, cutting the flower from its stem. All of the vines immediately stopped lashing around, and it started disappearing into dust.

Even with his immensely effective ability, Argen wasn't able to help stem the tide of demonic plants. There were just too many showing up, and trying to kill them.

"Fear not!" cried a voice behind them, as they heard horses galloping towards them. "The cavalry has arrived!"

Grey saw, out of the corner of her eye, Ray and a group of his men riding towards them, holding magical crossbows that shot flaming bolts. With the new help, they were able to finally make headway, striking the demons all down.

"You looked like you could use some help," explained Ray, climbing down from his horse.

"We greatly appreciate it!" said Grey, turning off her flames.

"It seems the four of you are more than you first appeared," he said, with a gleam in his eyes, looking at each of them.

"We are," agreed Airow.

Guit had changed back into his human form, and was busy munching on a bag of something that he had pulled from his horse's saddlebags. Argen was leaning against one of the trees, watching the last of the campfire die down.

"I've brought my men, as I promised, though I don't have all of them. There were so many reports of demons across the countryside, killing and looting from the small towns all around here, that I had to split my forces to help out where they could. There's a lot of demons still in the city here, causing trouble. Do you mind if we try to take them out?"

"Not at all, Ray," said Grey. "The plant demons came from the city, but not one of the gates. I think we will trace their tracks back to see if we can find where they are coming from."

"Good luck! If you need any more assistance, we will be near!" He returned to his saddle and they rode off, back towards the city gate.

Getting on their own horses, the four rode back along the obvious trail the demons had left in their hurry to get to them. It wasn't long before they came to a sewer entrance of the city.

"No wonder none of the guards have noticed their coming and going, there's an illusion over the entire area," said Grey as they watched from the thick brush as plant demons and a new type of demon, carrying lots of stuff on their backs, came and went through the sewer.

The new demons had huge hands, with long fingers that extruded a type of webbing for use in holding the stuff they were carrying together in large bundles. Their arms and legs were extraordinarily long, but they didn't seem to have any obvious weapons.

"That's the way we need to go to get to the elder demon," said Guit, as they watched the demons.

Leaving their horses in the trees, they pulled out their weapons and prepared themselves for the coming fight. After a quick prayer from Airow, which amused Guit and Argen, Grey led them towards the entrance.

It didn't take long for the demons to notice them and react. The plants attacked, while the snatcher demons fled to the safety of the sewers.

Grey left a trail of black dust as she burnt her way through the plants, having perfected the way to kill them by now, and they made it to the sewers.

The snatcher demons now exposed why they dived back into the sewers. They may not have been very good out in the open, but in the dim, constrained tunnels of the sewers, they were deadly. Their hands shot sticky webbing, slowing their movements as they charged to attack, and the claws that grew from the ends of their long fingers were razor sharp.

Ducking under the first swing, Grey swung her sword up, cutting the arm of the demon off, but she was hit by the second hand as she couldn't dodge far enough out of the way.

"This will have to be a ranged fight," cried Airow, blasting them with his bolts.

Grey agreed, backing up and giving Airow room to maneuver. The three behind him, kept the demons from attacking from behind or the sides as they slowly made their way under the city. Though Argen walked slowly enough to stay out of the way, none of the demons that rushed at his back ever seemed to make it past him.