Slime Slayer

Volume 3 Chapter 8 - Temporary Party

3rd Person Pov

Riiing. She squinted in happy comfort as she rang her sounding staff. The

First wind to signal the end of summer brushed her cheeks. The carriage
rattled along. How pleasant it would have been to walk alongside it on the
road.

She came back to herself. She had nearly forgotten that she was in the
middle of an escort quest. As a member of the clergy, she sometimes felt she
could sense the presence of the gods at moments like these.

Only a few clouds dotted the sky. In the distance, a dark shadow flew. A
hawk? An eagle? A falcon?

Cleric : That bird’s quite a ways up there, isn’t it?”

Ranger : It is indeed...”

The one who had spoken to her was sitting on the roof of the carriage.
The ranger with the crossbow was not, of course, up there for the fun of it.
Someone needed to keep watch. Ranger had been trusted to keep an eye on
the surroundings and showed no sign of letting attention lapse.

So the suspicion in Ranger’s voice caused her to immediately tighten her
grip on her sounding staff. Each of the others readied their equipment as well,
preparing against something they could not see. The only one who seemed
not to notice anything was the carriage’s owner, a merchant. They ignored
him as he asked.

Ranger : What’s all this, then?”

Ranger said in a low voice,

Ranger : Don’t you think that bird’s a bit too large?”

Cleric : Now that you mention it...”

It happened as she tried to get a closer look. It was closing the distance even as she watched: skin and claws, beak and
wings the color of dark ash—

Ranger : Demon!”

They reacted to the voice of their companion, Ranger, but they were too
late to take initiative. In her case, critically too late, and the monster—the
stone demon—was painfully quick. It was not fate or chance, but a cold
difference in abilities that was her undoing.

Even as she thought Huh?! her feet were already floating above the ground. She flailed her legs, but it meant nothing; she was pulled straight up
into the air. The ground, the carriage, her friends, all grew farther away.

Cleric : Ergh...ahh...ow...eeyikes?!”

She beat at the monster with her sounding staff in her desperate struggle
to resist, whereupon it squeezed its claws into her shoulders and shook her.
She looked down and gave a squeak at the height. She felt her lower body
grow moist.

Cleric : Hrrgh— Eeegh!”

The problems didn’t stop there. Her thigh burned like it had been struck
with hot tongs. Ranger must have loosed an arrow in an attempt to do something, and the demon must have used her as a shield.

She looked down, her vision clouding with tears, to see their spell caster
chanting something. Stop, stop, stop, stop! She waved her sounding staff desperately, shaking her head No, no!
We’re wrong! This isn’t a demon! It’s not a—!

Cleric : Aaaaahhh!”

The creature dodged the flood of lightning, whipping her about. The
arrow in her thigh dug deeper into the flesh. She screamed and shook.

She shouldn’t have done that.
The claws in her elbows slipped, tearing skin and flesh and drawing
blood.

Cleric : Hrk!”