The Heavenly Host

They had to use their demon sight to peer through the slowly resuming rain to where a giant anthrolioness with a shield as bright as Fierd, a knight of Tiernon, a tall pale D’Orc, and the Demon Lord Tommus, trailed by six giant sphinxes and a D’Orc regiment, were charging towards a formation of Knights of Chaos, who were now on foot.

“Now that is a sight you do not see every day!” Bellyachus exclaimed.

Lesteroth blinked a couple of times. “Is that Sekhmekt?” he asked in awe.

“Yes, the wife of Phaestus,” The D’Orc said, ignoring the smaller invading enemy beside him for the moment.

“Wife of Hephaestus? Also known as pêTah?” Lesteroth asked.

“Yeah. Hephaestus is the smith’s real name. Don’t know about the pêTah part,” the D’Orc said as the battle between the knights and Lord Tommus’s forces began.

“Shit! She’s the Nyjyr Ennead Goddess of War!” Lesteroth exclaimed.

“A goddess?” Bellyachus stared at Lesteroth; the two D’Orcs did the same.

“Yes, an honest-to-herself goddess!” Lesteroth screeched, raising his arms above his head. “Her husband, pêTah, is also known as Hephaestus, God of the Dwarves, and as Vulcan, God of Fire and the Forge.”

“Shit,” Bellyachus moaned.

The first D’Orc chuckled. “Phaestus is up in the turrets getting more heavy artillery ready to slaughter you guys!” the second D’Orc chuckled as well.

“More heavy artillery?” Bellyachus moaned.

“We are seriously on the wrong side!” Lesteroth whined.

“Why are you standing there?” a large D’Orc yelled, strolling over to them. He had Talgorf under one arm and was twisting the smaller demon’s head around in circles, turning the poor fellow’s neck into a corkscrew. Talgorf gave Lesteroth and Bellyachus a very pained stare.

The second D’Orc answered, “We’re watching that battle while letting our burns regenerate. This little fellow says that Phaestus’s wife, Sekhmekt, is a goddess!”

“A goddess?” The newest D’Orc said. “Hmm. I had heard rumors that Phaestus was some sort of dwarven deity, so I suppose that makes sense. Still doesn’t explain how he got such a hot wife.”

“You aren’t kidding on the hot; did you get burnt by that giant blast of wind?” the first D’Orc asked the D’Orc twisting Talgorf’s head around and around.

“Yeah, was that from her?” the D’Orc asked. “Pretty nasty; I haven’t had blisters in at least five thousand years!” He shook his head in admiration.

The first D’Orc nodded and looked back at Lesteroth. “So are you ready for me to resume slaughtering you?”

“Yeah, feeling a bit better now. But I am going to put up a fight!” Lesteroth replied, once more belligerent.

“Yeah, you can try!” the D’Orc grinned, chuckling.

∼

Talarius swung Ruiden in an upward sweeping motion to slice at the Knight of Chaos’s shoulder joint. This thing’s armor was seriously impenetrable, even by his own standards. The joints in the armor were extremely tight, making finding an opening very difficult. Add to that the knight’s shield work, which was quite impressive, and Talarius was beginning to get a bit concerned. He wished he had his shield to parry the other creature’s shield and keep it out of the way; unfortunately, that was still in Astlan.

Interestingly, the Knight’s larger size was playing to Talarius’s advantage; his smaller size combined with the enhancements provided by his Girdle of Grace was allowing him to dodge in and out. To be fair, it was being unencumbered with a shield that allowed him to do this.

Talarius dodged under the Knight’s shield, parrying its blade with Ruiden as his left hand shot outward, grasping his Rod of Holy Lightning. He jammed it directly into the Knight’s crotch and fired point-blank. Krssshhhhhh!!!! ZZZZszzssstttt!!! The holy lightning coruscated over the Knight’s purplish-black armor. Talarius jumped back slightly while the Knight of Chaos was momentarily paralyzed by the electricity zapping through its armor.

Talarius brought Ruiden down, the sword assisting with an otherwise impossible move that rotated the blade into position so that he could now sweep upward into the joint between the metal codpiece and the knight’s right leg. This scored a solid hit, wedging Ruiden temporarily in place. Talarius used the wedged sword to pull himself down and through the larger knight’s legs, twisting Ruiden in the joint.

He switched out his Rod of Holy Lightning for one of his daggers in his left hand, and coming between the creature’s legs, he jammed the dagger into the back of its right knee joint, wedging the dagger deeply into place. Talarius’s left hand came up so he could hold Ruiden with both hands and pull the sword free of the Knight’s thigh joint. Using the sword to leverage his forward momentum up and into a spin, he pulled Ruiden free.

Spinning in midair and using his Sash of Heavenly Flight to increase his altitude, he brought Ruiden around in a two-handed slash at the back of the Knight’s neck. He felt Ruiden shift in his hand as the sword more tightly aimed its blow to one of the small cracks in the Knight’s neck armor.