Lesteroth’s current D’Orc stopped ripping his right wing off in order to try and grab the snow that had started falling. Lesteroth used the brief lull to reseat his wing. Ouch! That hurt, but it would regenerate faster this way.
Lesteroth glanced down to see Talgorf sticking his tongue out, trying to catch snow on it. His D’Orc had also stopped squashing the smaller demon under his hoof to stare at the snow. All around them, D’Orcs and demons were stopping in amazement at the snow and the rapidly increasing cold.
It was suddenly a very cold day in the Abyss. Everyone knew to expect amazing things when the Abyss finally froze over. Of course, no one actually thought that would happen, but it seemed to be what was going on. Lesteroth laughed, looking at the snow.
“Wah hhabbaahnning?” came Bellyachus’s voice from a few feet over. “Asz gold!”
Lesteroth wondered why the demon’s voice was so muffled, but looking over, he quickly understood. Bellyachus’s D’Orc had shoved the demon’s head up his own butt. It looked to be a very uncomfortable position for Bellyachus, but it did explain why his voice was muffled and why he couldn’t see what was going on.
VOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
Sekhmekt killed her second knight, but no explosion happened this time.
“That is pretty impressive,” Lesteroth said.
His D’Orc tormentor nodded in shared amazement before hugging himself. “It’s damn cold here,” he complained. Lesteroth had to agree even as the snow turned to painful shards of ice, slicing at his skin.
VOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
Morok killed another knight. It was getting easier as the temperature dropped. It had to be far below freezing at this point.
Tom charged one of the knights being shot at by the D’Orcs. He came up on the knight and smashed at it using the Rod and both hands.
Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! CRRRAAAAAACCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!
CRUNCH! FFFOOOoommmshhh!!!! A sphinx squashed another knight.
The knights were slowing down quickly in the cold. Tom had no idea how cold it was, but if he were to guess based on the previous cooling rate, it was probably closing in on one hundred degrees below zero Celsius; as cold now as it had previously been hot.
THUD! Voomphsss... Everything went pitch-black for a moment. The gravity cannon had taken another knight.
Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! CRRRAAAAAACCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!! Tom took out another knight. The more he did this, the better he was getting, or maybe it was the ambient cold.
Wham! Wham! Wham! CRRRAAAAAACCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!
CRUNCH! CRACKLE! CRACKLE! The sphinx’ stomping was getting better. The knights were losing their energy to fight.
Foom! Talarius killed another knight.
Foom... Foom... Sekhmekt killed another knight, quickly followed by Morok. Only five more to go.
CRUNCH! Crackle. Another sphinx.
CRUNCH! Three left.
CRUNCH! Two.
CRACKLE! The final knight fell to Talarius and Ruiden.
Lacuna
Arg-nargoloth made his way down the dark corridor. He was tired; he’d been up since the start of the party, staying sober and alert. He had been heading to bed when the klaxons had gone off. Then chaos, planning and rousing his troops. Then the battle.
The fact that they had buried the demon army and forced them to dig themselves out had given them a huge advantage. They had been able to get into position above most of the demons before they finished digging their way out of the ground. At that point, between fourteen hundred D’Orcs and seven hundred D’Wargs, it had been more of a fun afternoon of glorious mayhem than a full battle.
At least, until the Knights of Chaos had started popping; at that point both demons and D’Orcs had slowed down to watch. It was so fascinating and the demons so beaten that the D’Orcs had only perfunctorily maimed and tortured them, the majority of their attention on the battle with the Knights of Chaos.
Of course, once Lord Tommus had started the freezing thing and draining all the mana, regeneration had slowed to almost a halt and they all became frozen and exhausted quickly. And then it was clean-up. He’d done what was absolutely necessary, but then left things to the more rested D’Orcs. Including Darg-Krallnom. The other commanders could assist Lord Tommus in dealing with the defeated demons. As far as he knew, none had died permanently, yet. Lord Tommus would decide which of the enemy would be allowed to regenerate, return to Lilith or otherwise be disposed of.
Arg-nargoloth was too beat to care. For now he was making his way towards one of the kitchens to see what food and x-glargh might be left from the party. He was not hungry, having eaten during the party. He was, however, ready to relax with some x-glargh. He had been sober for way too long. And after this battle, he deserved some x-glargh before it was all swallowed up in the victory celebration.
As he entered the nearly empty kitchen, where they had stored the extra barrels of x-glargh, he spotted a suspicious figure heading down a seldom-used and unlit cross corridor that led to an old storage room. That suspicious figure was quite distinct, as was the smell still present in the cross corridor. He grinned malevolently and went after the suspicious figure.
Arg-nargoloth had not followed this winding passage in many a century. There had not been any real need for going into this storage room. Until the recent hunting trips, there had been nothing in the room.
He entered the room to see Tisdale leaning against a barrel of something. “You!” Arg-nargoloth snarled loudly.
“Me,” Tizzy stated nonchalantly.
“Trickster!”
“Two-bit thug!”
They glared at each other in the dark for some time.
“Hah!” Arg-nargoloth shouted.
Tizzy chuckled.
“You win!”
“I do.” Tizzy grinned despotically.
“You know, I never believed you,” Arg-nargoloth stated.
“Very few did.”
“I thought you were simply spinning a fable to give people hope.”
Tizzy shrugged. “It did for some, yes?”
Arg-nargoloth sighed. “Yes, but not for enough. We lost so many.”
“I am sorry for that. Things took longer than expected.”
“And yet, you did it, and yesterday — the very day of his death!” The D’Orc commander shook his head in disbelief. “And then today? The Jilted Bride seeks to take us unaware and we see the full power of Doom restored!” Arg-nargoloth chuckled and grinned with joy and admiration.
“I had my doubts on the final timing. Afraid we might not finish the swearing in by the end of sixth period. Prophecies are such a bitch.”
“But the attack today didn’t bother you?” Arg-nargoloth asked.
“It gave me pause, but I trust him.” Tizzy shrugged. “He’s a good lad.” He gave Arg-nargoloth a wicked grin. “Plus, once I felt the World Gate open, I knew Sekhmekt would be coming.”
Arg-nargoloth chuckled. “She is good in battle. We should have involved her more the last time around.”
“Hindsight.” Tizzy shrugged.
The two stood there in silence for a moment before Arg-nargoloth said, “I should have trusted you.”
“Yeah, but again, not many do,” Tizzy said.
“I am not sure anyone does!” Arg-nargoloth said, laughing.
Tizzy shrugged and pulled his pipe out of the air with one hand and a foot-long, rolled-up, stuffed paper with another. “D’Orc doobie?”
Arg-nargoloth chuckled and reached for the doobie. “Abyss, you do not know how I have missed this. You were always the best demon weed dealer in the multiverse!”