Viridia ran as fast as she could, cape and hood billowing, gadgets and weapons clanking slightly, her gray hair was wet with sweat from her exertions, yet they were gaining on her. Their horrifying screeching noises filled the air as they closed in on their prey. Their claws could be heard scraping the stony ground as they chased her through the forest, petrified by some evil force. The cracks in the stone ground created a lethal trap for any who would get their ankles caught in them, and broken.
Viridia cursed herself for being so foolish. She should never have taken such an old route, though it seemed forgotten and deserted. A slight whistling noise caught her attention and she reached into her sleeve, extracting a lethal looking curved throwing knife. It wouldn't normally be nearly enough to stop the demon, but it would throw it off balance, and the poison she was fond of would likely paralyze it for a few hours. Then maybe kill it. She took a moment to re-position her large hiking pack, then turned while throwing the knife. It pierced the creature's left shoulder, causing it to fall to the ground with a surprised yelp.
In the half second she had to study the creature before fleeing once more, Viridia had determined that the group of demons were simple scouts, not nearly as much a danger as she feared, based on their rather small form, almost child sized, and bloody red skin, covered with only fur cloths rather than armor. Though the elongated claws, fangs, and it's mere speed did make it a noteworthy threat, especially in numbers.
She ran a short distance further, passing the statue-like trees and normal looking boulders, attempting to find a suitable location for a stand. To her left, she noticed a small, thinning area in the stony forest, she rushed for it and took quick notes. Fairly level ground and no hiding places... for the demons, but the thicker growth of trees gave her about a 30 meter radius, less than she expected, before the stone-branch curtain closed around her.
As she bolted for the center, she grabbed several polished silver tubes from her torso weaponry straps. She hooked the thumb of her left hand through all of the small rings located at the end of each cylinder, as she threw them all across the clearing, several feet away from her, each made a small clicking noise as they separated from their rings.
She waited for them to enter the clearing, surely they were spreading their numbers all around to try to overwhelm her in a single, swarming attack. They were taking their time.
"Attack already"
She quietly whispered to herself, nearly out of breath from running, she was not a patient woman. Finally they broke through the cover of the trees, roughly 50 of them. They were closing the distance quickly. She pulled her hand up forcibly, a slight resistance was felt as hair thin wires, connecting each ring to a trap, activated the weapons.
The cylinders opened at the feet of several demons, shooting up several more silver, glittering wires into the air. The slight wind blew them around like spider webbing, dancing before the kill. As they made contact with the rough skin of the demons, they cut through them with incredibly little resistance. Several of the beasts fell, most already dead or too shocked at having lost a limb, or more, to scream in pain.
Their blood pooled around Viridia, it's blackened color and horrid stench made the remaining demons hesitate before the reach of the wires. She smiled at their failure and pulled a small wooden and metal device from the leather straps behind her right thigh. With a slight flourish that may have been unnecessary, she pointed the device at one of the demons and pulled a small trigger on the bottom of the device, it opened into a sort of small hand-crossbow. She released the bolt which found it's mark between a demons eyes, it exploded.
As fire and shrapnel slaughtered more of the beasts than most warriors would believe possible by one woman, she pulled a wooden case from her other thigh, though only the size of a small book, she slid the cover off revealing dozens of small darts made of glass. The few demons unharmed turned to run now that their numbers had been decimated by their "prey" and noticing their target was out to kill them all.
As they fled, several fell with the darts sticking out of their bodies, their hollow center drew the demon's blood into them, staining them black on the inside as well as out. Their numbers had dwindled to less ten, the few living escaped unscathed, but any who had even the slightest scratch, were dead.
Viridia waited until their fearful screams faded to quiet before pulling on the rings, still situated around her thumb, the wires drew back into their traps, their cleaning was unnecessary because they were too thin to have the sticky, black fluid of demon blood cling to them. She then gathered the now full darts back into their case, the blood to be cultivated later and sold to some aspiring alchemist or superstitious fool believing in demon blood protection, whoever paid the most.
She removed her pack and opened it to check on the cargo, it was a small orb, seemingly made of glass, but with strange metal plates ever turning inside, not connected to each other. It was a magical enigma, and held great power, what power, Viridia did not know and did not care so long as she alone held it.
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