After a brief side jaunt to advised the village of exactly what they''d found, and collect a reward, the group gathered once more; for the journey to the next town on the list. The town of Rockdale had a pair of bounty requests that had been passed around; one for a boar, possibly a demonic one, which was apparently spitting fire and running about causing a fuss out in the fields between themselves and the neighboring town of Allendale.


    It had gored a few people, burned down a few buildings, but didn''t seem interested in actively hunting people, just eating whatever it could find and attacking those it happened across, thankfully enough.


    And the second was... odd. Just a request to meet the Lord who ran the place for a conversation about something important, and a 500 gold reward for ''solving a mystery''.


    Praxius, of course, was extremely interested in the former; and had zero concern whatsoever for the latter. Demonic animals were a terrible issue, spreading a vile taint of chaotic, destructive evil and of course multiplying; as well as an excellent challenge for these young fools to deal with.


    The absolute worst were the demon-spiders up north; a single cluster of eggs could produce hundreds of the damn things, and despite constant hunting by both devils and the Empire, they never seemed to completely go away.


    He''d been happy to meet his granddaughter; a bit irate that she''d been in prison, granted, but she reminded him quite a bit of the only woman he''d ever truly loved. But as they arrived at the most recent farm the demon-boar had attacked, he could feel it. The true joy of his life; demon-hunting. He was walking fast enough that the horses had a bit of difficulty keeping up while pulling the cart; because he could smell it, in the air.


    Blood and brimstone. Death and fire. Demon. Somewhere, nearby, living or dead, there was something that traced its origins back to the pit; and he was either going to get to kill it himself, or, less satisfying but still good, get to watch it die at the hands of these fledglings, and probably get to tear out and eat its heart.


    Even better, it was a demonic boar; one of his favorite traits of only partially demonic creatures was that their resistance to fire was of a magical nature; and tended to fade once they died. Considering they often started fires, and enjoyed fighting amidst burning debris, there was an extremely strong possibility that by the time they finished killing it, it would already be well on the way to delicious.


    When he stopped in the middle of the trail, looking off to  the right, he grinned, and looked back at his companions.


    "Alright then. Don''t bother with fire here. Lightning is good. Poison, acid... Terra, I haven''t seen you use much other than fire and smoke. Are you good against something that doesn''t care much about fire?"


    His granddaughter looked at the other two, and grimaced. "I... generally prefer not to show it off, but yes." She studied him for a moment.. and then opened one of the pouches wrapped around her torso, dumping something that crinkled into her hand; and took hold of it with a yank.


    One moment, it looked to be a cord or wire, or an extremely fine chain. The next... the chain became far less fine. A thirty-foot long, thick, heavy chain was pooling out onto the ground, and it seemed to have spikes at various points along its length; in fact, it appeared to be a chained boat anchor aside from the misplaced spikes. He blinked.


    "Thats... well. On the one hand, I''d think using chain weapons would come naturally to you. On the other, that''s a bit unwieldy. I''d recommend something shorter; I could cut it for you if..."


    The chain suddenly lifted itself up; and while she held it in her hands, she was barely moving them; it danced around her like a snake, a living thing, as she gave an experimental swing; and the anchor slammed into a tree with an audible crack, shattered bark and chunks of wood going flying before it coiled back towards her. She gave a nod, and wrapped it over her shoulders.


    Praxius gave a slow smile. There we go. He could do that himself, but to see a tiefling do it? Excellent. "That''s my girl. Why don''t you show what it can do against a demon?"


    She had an odd, unreadable expression, and then carefully pulled out two bottles, turning to Kylie. "Here. I trust you''re familiar?"


    The priestess studied the bottles; and blinked, accepting one from her. "They had holy oil? That''s.... huh. How much was it?"


    "Four silver a bottle."


    Praxius studied the bottles for a moment. Holy oil hurt demons, devils, and undead.  Unholy oil hurt the living and angels. It wasn''t that expensive, but its use was limited. The only time he''d seen it actually be effective was when archers used arrows with bottles of it for tips. Terrible accuracy, but grevious wounds on its victims. "Sweetheart. I appreciate trying to come prepared, but that stuff doesn''t work the best on things like a flail, or a boat anchor. You''d need to oil up the whole thing. And the flail I''ve lent the priestess is... well. Not best to use holy oil on it, I''ll leave it at that."


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Terra smiled. "Of course. But if you burn it, it blinds and confuses nearby hellspawn, and breaking a bottle of it over them it burns and distracts for hours... or until they die. If we encounter a substantial group of them... pigs do have substantial litters after all... we might need it."


    Kylie, for her part, stared at the flail in her hand for a moment; it was big, menacing-looking, all black and dark grey. "Is it... unholy? Have I been using an unholy weapon this whole time?"


    Praxius gave a shrug. "Its head is made of a piece of Hellwrought Iron. It has extremely fine trace amounts of the blood of the Lady of Chains in it, and was my weapon of choice fifty years ago; much like the two I use now. The wounds it makes are difficult to heal, especially for angels and demons."


    He was amused at the discomfort of the priestess.. and even more amused when she seemed to calm herself, and look back up at him. "Well. I suppose its good there''s demons to kill. You can smell them?"


    "Even worse than normal pigs. Come along. They''re likely eating something, this way. Too strong a smell to just be one."


    ***


    The tearing, snorting, and growling sounds could be heard from a fair distance; and as they arrived, Kylie stared with horror... before gripping the flail tightly. They would die for this. They would die for this. She chanted it, over and over in her mind, as she watched.


    There was a cart, upended on its side; a massive load of what looked to be fruit spilled all over the ground. Two dead horses; and two dead people, probably a father and son, judging by the size.


    She studied its position, how it was all arranged; the boar had likely spooked the horses. The horses run off the road; the cart tipped. And then the others had moved in.


    There was one adult boar; about the same size as the horses. A massive beast, with heavy, barbed tusks, black fur across most of its body, and a slow trail of smoke rising from its mouth. It was currently tearing apart one of the corpses; Kylie deliberately ignored which, not wanting to think about that happening to a child.


    At the same time, about a dozen smaller demon-pigs were scattered around the cart; smaller being relative. Each was at least a couple hundred pounds, and their fur was almost pure blood red; some were eating at one of the horse corpses, while the others were digging through the loose fruit scattered around.


    Kylie inhaled deeply. This was it. Something inside her was growing excited at the idea of killing again; of breaking bones and flesh, seeing the blood splatter; and with the targets being demon-beasts, there was no resistance. She wanted to enjoy this.


    She glanced to either side. The tiefling girl had her chain out, and was ready; the anchor looking far to heavy to be swung by the slim girl in silver. Derek seemed to have finished fixing the crossbow; but it simply hung on his back now; there was a creature beside him that looked... like a glowing blue dot of light. It certainly didn''t seem impressive.


    The devil, for his part, seemed relaxed. Obviously, he could just butcher them all without a problem; he was going to back off, let them handle things; and catch any that escaped. He didn''t seem to like that idea; but he still had a job to do.


    She would be the one to start it. They needed to clear out the babes, and quickly, so they could focus on the mother, or they''d have to rely on the devil to save them again.


    She raised the flail; and began the now familiar spell as she started charging forward... and as she swung, the spiked ball crashing into the skull of one of the pigs, sending it limp to the ground, an apparition of a flail of golden light emerged and swung at another, nearby, pig; slamming into its back, wounding the thing but not killing it.


    At first, the pigs were panicked; the babes started to run, the boar backing off a few steps to look at the newcomers, as a swift chain slammed into a piglet... and wrapped around it, hurling it into the air, where it slammed into another... even as she grabbed another of them with the chain.


    The boar swiftly got its bearings; and seeing these attackers murdering its children, the demon-pig; which would likely have gleefully murdered them without any provocation; screamed out in rage, charging at the closest of them... and crushing one of its own children beneath its hooves as it headed towards Kylie. Both real and magical flails slammed into the larger beast moments before she struck the priestess; and as she lifted the girl into the air, another howl of rage; and a burst of fire filled the area, covering Kylie, forcing Derek and Terra to both step back, before the now-burning girl was tossed onto the grass.


    A few of the pigs had tried to run; only for the devil to rapidly snatch them up, snapping their spines with a casual jerk of the chain; while Derek unleashed a surge of lightning into the big, momentarily stunning it, even as the small orb floated about the clearing; tiny jolts of lightning hitting every nearby pig at once. It seemed perfectly suited to stunning and crushing large groups of weaker enemies; and did more damage than its summoner to the pack of them as the battle continued.


    The boar stomped on Kylie once, as  it turned to Terra, and let out another roar... charging after the tiefling girl, ignoring the glowing flail smacking against her side... and Kylie, burning, in terrible pain, struggled to her feet as she saw the boar trying to stomp down a second victim; only to be redirected and sent slamming head-first into a tree by a deft twist of her chain... ending with a boat anchor point slammed into the boar''s spine.


    It let out a bloodcurdling shriek; and tried to turn towards them to charge once more... only... its rear legs had stopped working. It was reduced to crawling, pulling itself forward.


    Kylie gritted her teeth, raising the flail with both hands, charging forward; and slammed it down onto the demon-pig, directly between the eyes... and the creature went still.


    Kylie started batting at the flames, trying to put herself out.... but even as the flames died down, the world started to look... dim. She blinked, looking down at herself. Was she always this red? And then... it all went black.