Stronger Together chapter 134 (Patreon)

Logic is important. It's a fundamental part of our society, the basis  on which we structure our world. Logic can tell you so many important  things. However, staring into the four glowing eyes of a fifteen foot  tall demon tyrant from beyond space and time, the logic voice in my head  froze up just long enough for mind numbing terror to beat it  unconscious with a sack full of bricks. The towering red skinned figure  in front of us was obviously the creature and not this behemoth. I knew  that, Raven knew that, the creature knew it.

However none  of those things mattered. The presence, the aura, the hate, it was all  there like I'd imagined, and judging by the mental breakdown my  girlfriend was having it was close enough to the real mccoy that even an  expert was having trouble with it. I knew that this wasn't Trigon, but I  BELIEVED that it was. That was scary, but what happened next was worse.  My strength started to fade, the energy in my godsteel weave draining  to replace it even as it faded but it was being sucked out of me  somehow. It took me about thirty seconds to figure it out. The thing was  siphoning my life force by using my fear.

This thing  could feed psychically by scaring us. I glanced at Raven to see her jerk  her frantic eyes from the form of her demonic father and stare into  mine in terror. I threw a shield up between us and the monster, hoping  that would somehow disrupt the drain and weirdly it worked. With the  brief reprieve I turned to Raven "Ok, Alfred didn't mention the thing  could suck out life force through the fucking fear we were feeling.  Seems like important information to leave out but not much we can do  now. Rae, you ok? I know seeing your father can't have been pleasant."

Hana  made a horrified noise between a sob and a laugh "Her FATHER? That  thing is your dad Raven? No wonder you ended up goth, jesus family  dinner must have been hell." I turned and glared at the kitsune who  flinched put her hands up "Sorry, sorry. That was shitty. I'm just kind  of terrified right now and even though I'm not getting my soul sucked  out because of it anymore the fear is making me kind of twitchy. Anyway,  quick question, why is it letting us have this conversation? Shouldn't  it be hitting the shield?"

I paused. She was...not wrong. I  dropped the shield to see...nothing. Son of a bitch, it vanished again  and it fucked with Raven's calm enough to disrupt her tracking. I felt  the drain start again, low and slow like good barbecue, but steady. The  gnawing uncertainty of being stalked by an ambush predator. I turned to  look around carefully for the thing, trying to spot a flash of movement  or a shadow and saw...nothing. Nothing except Dalton,Hana,Raven  and...where the fuck was Barb?

I almost screamed for her  but I choked it down, she might be fine. Barb was a straight up ninja  and this had Batman written all over it. I choked down my concern and  let her do her thing. If we ran into the creature it would almost  definitely use her as a hostage if it had her but I doubted even  something that old could snatch a proto angel trained by fucking Batman  without a noise. Besides it had been in front of us, Raven caught my eye  and gave me a small smile and a single nod and I breathed out a sigh of  relief. Raven had sensed her leaving but couldn't say anything without  tipping off the bad guy.

Barb might have even slipped away  before the thing showed up. It might not even realize she was here. I  caught the other's eyes and nodded to where she'd been making the  universal gesture for shut up, then we resumed our search. This place  was bigger than it seemed at first glance, the stone floor section  curved away from the wall in a manner to subtle to notice from farther  away, leaving plenty of room behind boxes for things to hide and lie in  wait. The lack of progress made the creeping dread worse, ramping up the  life drain. My teammates seemed fine for now thankfully so they must  have their own secrets.

I decided it was time to try an  old favorite. I activated my magic eye spell, scanning the lakeside  stone platform for any evidence of another being. Suddenly my eyes  focused on a shape in the distance and I kicked my aspects both to max  vanishing from where I was to appear in front of...Raven. I froze, wait  had Rae teleported here ahead of me, I started to turn automatically  before I realized what was happening and threw myself to the ground.  Several of my hairs got severed by the fucking claws that sprouted from  the hands that were obviously not my girlfriend's.

I  jumped back up, hurling myself toward the fake Raven only for it's body  to turn into a kind of slime and explode on impact, gathering behind me  so fast I could barely track it even at lightning speed and shooting  under a nearby crate to disappear. I looked around with my magic eye  again but when it had exploded it had flung magic everywhere. On the  upside the fear was fading so I wasn't being drained anymore. I was  pretty much done with scared and moving onto annoyed and pissed off.

That  said knowing this thing since it couldn't get me it would...fuck. I  barreled back to the group just in time to grab a fake version of me by  the waist and hurl it away. It's claws passed within an inch of Hana's  neck but didn't hurt her thankfully. As it hit the ground it burst  again, once more streaking off in a motion that looked kind of like hair  gel being sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Which I had to admit was really  gross.

Except that motion wasn't  under a box this time. It was back at us. It formed a shape as it rushed  us solidifying into a person already barreling toward us at top speed. I  stepped forward and used my aspect enhanced strength to slam my feet  into the floor a few inches giving me perfect stability to resist the  charge. The vague person shape changed as it rushed us, turning it into a  centaur and boosting it's speed even more. It was moving so fast it  looked quick even in my lightning perception but I just bent my knees to  take the hit,

I  managed a shield in front of me as it charged me, but despite being  literally ankle deep in rock and shielding the hit from the centaur  smashed through the shield and hit me head on, sending me flying in the  opposite direction. I lay on the ground gasping. That had been extremely  painful. My ribs were definitely bruised, and probably would have  broken if they weren't reinforced with godsteel. I groaned and forced  myself to my feet so I didn't get trampled by the followup but that  second attack never came.

The  monster was standing where it had hit me, screaming as the soulfire  infused shards of my hastily erected shield burned into it like burning  magnesium shrapnel. The shards dug into it's flesh and were swallowed by  weirdly wriggling flesh as it turned to charge at me again. It was  furious, clearly enraged by the pain and far too distracted to notice  the slight flicker in the air before Barb hit it. The veil flickered on  impact as she drove what looked like a sword made of metal so black it  appeared to be condensed shadows into where it's heart should be.

The  thing roared and spun on Barb, but she was already gone, circling  around it. as it turned it stepped on a black metal caltrop, the  material so dark it was literally sucking in the light. It roared and  it's leg jerked back, coming down on a bear trap of the same pitch black  material. Barb appeared, circling it with a chain of the stuff, and I  realized she was creating it. Barb's semblance had finally come in. She  was making these tools spur of the moment out of the very shadows she  stalked through.

It  was the perfect ability for her. I'd been planning to make her a set of  gear out of godsteel and I probably still would. But the ability to  perfectly adapt her arsenal to the situation was absolutely flawless.  Barb was everywhere, hitting the thing like lightning from all sides  using klurkor and about a dozen other martial arts and the thing was  being pushed back. THe shadowsteel (working title I didn't know what  she'd be calling it) stayed in keeping it from closing up the wounds and  even it's flesh couldn't consume a bear trap.

It  retreated as she hit it dodging every return blow by a fraction of an  inch and under a veil so the damn thing couldn't aim properly. She threw  down a smoke bomb of sorts, a wave of shadowsteel dust sucking up every  single ounce of light as she fought the thing back, pushing it further  and further away from me, further and further along the stone floor  until finally one of those hooves slipped dragging the whole body into  the black water. I didn't know what was down there but whatever it was  had tentacles, because they wrapped around the thing and started  dragging it under.

I  suspected Dalton's...Kraken I guess wow, wouldn't be able to hold it  long. But I didn't need it to. We were on a leyline on lake Michigan,  which meant we were within Demonrach's territory. I raised my voice  "Alfred, Alfred, Alfred, it's in the water!" I used his name three times  to get his attention but didn't summon him because of all the  witnesses, still I knew it would be enough. "Grab the thing while you  can because I doubt something that old is going down so easy." As if yo  punctuate my words a massive shape broke the water gnashing huge teeth  in the moonlit air.

It  looked like a mix between a shark and Venom from the Spiderman comics.  It was hideous and awful and it's hate filled eyes were burning red as  they fixed on us. It whirled in the water, obviously about to charge us  but then it froze. It's eyes flicked down to the water in horror. The  lake began to boil. The creature screamed as it slowly began to sink. It  fought and bucked but the dark water began to glow an eerie eldritch  green and the boiling increased. It was dragged below the waves and the  boiling increased for a bit before it stopped abruptly.

I  flicked on my magic eye spell but I couldn't see anything under the  water except a terrifyingly large tentacled shape I decided to  completely ignore. I turned to Dalton, who was gaping at us. "Ok, well,  that's done. I expect you have some way of finding the traitors hiding  in here with us now that that thing is gone? Because I'm exhausted and  this was supposed to be a vacation. I'm pretty sick of shit trying to  murder me on my downtime." My ribs hurt a whole shit ton too, but I was  trying not to show weakness even in front of allies and friends.

He  started laughing. Then Hana joined in, then Barb and Raven, and finally  I cracked up too. We laughed for about five minutes, that breathless  hysterical laughter you get trapped in where anything can set you off and you aren't even sure what you're laughing at.  My ribs were fucking killing me by the time we finished gasping for air.  Dalton smiled viciously at me when we all calmed down "Oh trust me.  Nothing will be trying to kill you by the end of the night." And I  believed him.