Chapter 99: Definitely not part of the plan

Sedge beasts have a lot of parts once you start taking them apart with a cleaver. The haunches and sides ended up in the smokehouse, but that's just the start. Brains got tossed into a barrel for use by the leather workers. Livers, kidneys, and some cuts of lean meat were gathered up every day by the smoke golem for sausage makings, along with the intestines for casings.

Squirmie preferred to eat lightly charred lungs, tongue, and hearts. Hooves were saved to be melted down for glue. Several barrels of a very sticky, foul smelling, tar-like substance had already been made.

What didn't get eaten by the shepherd and his pet got tossed into a large pit in the ground. The farmers claimed they would take it all and grind it up for fertilizer over the winter. Joe had mentioned to Ozzy once that letting that much meat rot wasn't really healthy, but with how busy the butcher had been, he pushed it to the back of his mind.

The massive deluge of dark mana that rolled down the hill from Gadobhra ran roughly in the same channels that it had months before. Bennie T Bunny was delighted. The first wave had given him sentience long ago. This wave hit as he was completing the ritual that stole the power of the human necromancer. It was really too bad that Morbid Morty couldn't see just how well his plan had worked. Bennie looked over at the nearby town of Sedgewick as lights started coming on and screams echoed from the town. He could tell that big nasty things were afoot.

They could have the town. For now, he was going to have a reckoning with the Fat Mayor of the Bunny Burrow. It was time someone with more vision took over!

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Ozzy and Suzette were curled up together in Ozzy's bed when Rolly came through a window. "Hey, sorry to break up 'Special alone time.' but shit just hit the fan." Rolly was out of breath from running. Squirmie was on his shoulders, but looked like he'd already been in a fight. One wing had a small tear in it and he was missing half of an antennae.

"Daemons? As in plural?" Suzette stepped out of bed and glowing motes lit up the room, dancing around her. Rolly covered his eyes and turned around. "Geez Suzy, give a guy a warning. Squirmie is too young to see you dancing around in your birthday suit."

Ozzy grabbed his boots and his kilt. Suzette wasn't going to skimp on her outfit. "Ozzy, hand me those stockings, would you? And the dress Adrianna made for me please. I need to look good tonight."

"What's so special about tonight? You think a Sedge Daemon will kill you less if you dress up for it?" Rolly had never understood women.

"Oh, I don't see myself fighting daemons tonight. I'll have my hands full serving beer to the thirsty heroes afterwards. Timmy has been moaning about not getting the kill on the first Daemon. He won't pass up this chance to bag this one. I don't want to be near that fight. But when they come back victorious, I'll be happy to serve up beer for them. After all, isn't that my job?"

"Now Rolly, why don't you and Ozzy be dears and go transfer a couple barrels from Jon's bar to the tavern’s basement. Timmy and crew will be busy soon. Then Ozzy can come back here and bring them up to me."

Suzette left by door, Ozzy appreciating the look as she left. But that smile...that smile was a bad one.

"C'mon Rolly. Time to play delivery boys."

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Timmy had assembled his crew into a group, and then formed a raid. He had nearly everyone suited up. From the other side of town, he heard the splintering of wood and the sound of screams. The daemon was angry. But even if it was a bit bigger than the last one, he had nearly 30 people with him.

Until Brandon came looking for him. He spoke slowly, trying to get around the handicap of his jaw not moving. "What are you doing, you idiot? We have to guard the tavern! I've got people dead again, including all the people who were up at the old city. The crew that went bunny hunting never came back, and Varsil took her girls and went AWOL after a party. Let whatever monster is loose destroy the town while we sit tight here."

Timmy hated the thought of losing EP and core skill points. And it was a daemon!! He was a paladin, and he had a quest!

"Nope, I bet we lose points if that happens. I'm going to go save the town, and we'll come out way ahead on this. I'll leave you 6 people."

Brandon glared at him. "If you can't do it with three groups, you suck. I'm keeping 12 here." He pointed out people and told them to get into the tavern or on the roofs. "We aren't done with this Timmyboy, not by a long shot."

As Brandon stalked off, Timmy posed as best he could, trying to look heroic. "Follow me to victory. We fight to hold this town against whatever ACME throws at us."

"Maximum aggression people, don't hold back, this thing will be tough! Joe, your only jobs are keeping me and the other Light-based players alive. We can't have that thing gaining power like last time."

Turning around he waved with his sword and they moved in the direction of the sounds.

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A minute or two earlier, Joe had just stored the last chunk of smoked meat into his root cellar. He knew what was coming, and could feel the things hunger. It would prefer living flesh, but in a pinch it would go for any meat, and the bar-b-qued sedge beast had a ton of mana inside each carcass, even though a lot of the darkness had been smoked out of it. Best to put it all where no one could get at it.

Joe had just finished shutting the doors when a ropy tendril of gristle wrapped around him and dragged him towards the daemon that had come out of the darkness. The daemon dragged what looked like an old man in overalls into its maw, but found nothing there to chew on. Instead, it felt a huge pressure build inside of it, as something forced its way out of its belly.

The beast screamed as the smoke golem rushed out of it, reforming into a large angry cloud of smoke with two arms and two glowing eyes. The hands gripped one of the long tendrils, jerking the golem off the ground. Joe swung the daemon around twice, gaining some speed, intending to throw it into the fire. Instead, the tendril broke and the daemon went flying, crashing into an empty house. The hermetic seal on the building couldn't withstand the force of the blow.

A few streets away, Aliester came awake, his head pounding and knowing that something powerful had shattered one of his wardings. "Best get up dear, and wake the girl, I think it's going to be one of those nights." Zephyr yelled from the other room. "Already awake and ready to go dad, all hell has broken loose outside."

Her mother admonished her. "No need to exaggerate dear, remember, a good raid leader gives good descriptions."

Zephyr rolled her eyes and yelled back into their room. "There's a river of dark mana a foot deep rolling down the road from the cursed city, lightning exploded up at the gates in a huge fireworks display, there are daemons out in the town, and I think I saw Ben ride by on a horse followed by an angel with a flaming sword."

Aliester looked at his wife, and redoubled his efforts to gear up. His wife yelled back to her daughter, "Apologies dear, you were correct the first time."

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Ben got to the inn and pounded on the door. The general was half dressed, her scale bearer helping her into her armor. "Sorry to interrupt ma'am, but all hell is breaking loose, and I think we need to get anyone in the inn over to the barracks. We can defend that easier."

"Good thinking, courier. But you escort them over. I'm going to go kill something." A minute later she headed into the village. Ben gathered everyone else up. "Let's go folks, we'll get you behind some stout walls. Follow the winged fellow with a glowing sword. Arnie, head to the barracks."

Arnie knew he was lucky to have been sleeping on Ben's couch when evil struck. His first intention was to go fight, but Ben had explained how real heroes rescued the innocent first, getting them out of harm’s way. Time to smite the darkness once that was done.

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"We've got this!" The fight was going well. Sir Timothy had found the daemon crawling out of a house it had destroyed. He had the fighters engage and keep the thing inside of a ring of shields. Archers and mages struck at it, and he'd charged in twice to smite the beast and then retreat. He was very aware of how exposed he was with just a sword. Stupid butcher!

The dark mana coming down the road had sloshed into the fire pit, causing the flames to roar up. Joe took notice. "Way too much of this shit. Might as well burn it off and light the place up." Flames roared into the sky a hundred feet high, pouring out huge quantities of dark smoke which the golem gathered to himself.

Everything had been going well in the fight and the daemon had dropped to under half health. That was when the second one rolled into the mages in the back of the raid. While the first sedge daemon resembled the one that had attacked earlier in the year, this one was a mass of parts held together by a huge blob of sticky, atrocious smelling glue. The second deamon had encountered a lack of parts when it had manifested and had made do with what it could find.

Multiple horned heads crowned the pile of glue, bones, and hooves. It moved by dragging itself along on multiple legs, and added bulk as more and more trash and dirt was added to its bulk. Two of the mages were dragged into it before they knew what was happening, and three others were stuck on the surface, unable to pull away. All of them were screaming, although the ones inside didn't make a lot of noise.

One of the rogues had seen what was happening and tried to get Timmy's attention. "There's two of them! We just got ambushed. Timmy was starting to get that feeling again, it was coming around more and more lately. That feeling in your stomach as things started to unravel in front of you and there was nothing you could do.

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Suzette was ready. "How do I look?" She turned in place for Ozzy. Her outfit was all of black and grey silk, made for her by Adrianna. A low-cut bodice, barely-there skirt, and dark silk stockings made for a stunning combination. Ozzy was certainly stunned. They were standing in the kitchen, and she was about to head into the main room.

"I think it will do." He said with a leer on his face. Just then they heard screams from the raid group and what sounded like a second monster. Ozzy turned towards the door, then made himself turn back.

Suzette laughed. "Oh, go play, there are twelve brave lads to defend me in here, and it will be easier to play the vapid barmaid with you gone. Timmy probably needs the help. You can ham it up and play the brave butcher defending his firepit or something."

Ozzy gave her a quick kiss, stepped outside, and called for his billhook. Flames were roaring into the sky from his firepit.

He didn't remember this being part of the plan, but damn it looked like it was going to be fun.

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