The flying demon quickly flew into the miasma, and the red flames covering it became blue. The demon falls just before my black sand fighting against the blue flames that are taking over the the red flames. I split some tendrils from a nearby pool and send them under the struggling demon while others droop down from the ceiling. The miasma swirled around the demon trying to snuff out the red flames letting me see the demon underneath. Its body is covered in strange hairs and where its mouth is a hard covering that ends at a point. An Aarakocra, with flesh, slowly fell off like sludge, leaving only bone with a black tinge.
The bird flaps its wings running back to the demons but as it takes flight my tendrils from the ceiling wrap around its throat. I pull it toward me as I burrow into its flesh as it burns making it crash into the ground. The tendrils in the sand pierce its body as smaller tendrils branched out tunneling deeper. The demon fought and burned my tendrils forcing me to send even more tendrils from below and above as the blue flames drained its power. Piles of burning flesh scattered across the sand and it would be a waste to let it go to waste. From a nearby pool, tendrils fused creating thicker tendrils that wrapped around each other and tunneled under the demon still connected to the pool.
A lacerta demon and a massive imp charge past the fire imps heading straight for me. The aarakocra is still fighting against my tendrils but it's far weaker than before as my tendrils moved pieces of the aarkocra. Breaking off a mostly melted wing makes the demon thrash and try even harder to get off the floor. I dragged its wing under the sand as it tried to pull out my tendrils that had dug into its muscles and around its bones further injuring itself. I pulled the piles of flesh through the tendrils leaving those scraps in the pool that I’m using to anchor all of the tendrils under the sand. The tendrils coming from the ceiling pull away breaking off the other wing and taking it with them guiding it to my pool. The bird thrashes even more staining the sand red with its blood as it tries to get on its feet before my tendrils pull them back down onto the sand.
The lacerta demon charged into the miasma heading straight for the bird while the large imp stopped just before shaking. The lacerta started to burn as flames ate at its scales but it barely reacted to it. The imp finally charged into the miasma only to get a tendril stabbed into its eyes and dig into its skull. It yelled as its body erupted in flames as it tried to pull the tendril out as more fell from the ceiling digging into its back. The lacerta looks back at the imp as it finally reaches the bird and it struggles against the tendrils that had dug into every inch of its body. The lacerta cut the tendrils and pulled the bird over its shoulder. “Just get out of this darkness!” lacerta yelled at the imp as it rushed back to it but the imp couldn’t hear as my tendrils had pierced its ears.
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The body of an imp is far easier to break down compared to these other demons so despite it being far stronger than Dra it was easy to make all that strength useless. The tendrils dug into its skull placing a fragment next to its brain. As the lacerta reaches the imp and tries to push it out of the miasma the imp’s head explodes. The lacerta was thrown back dropping the bird as my tendrils pulled the headless imp toward the ceiling. Tendrils snake out of the bird as both it and the lacerta burn even more in blue flames. They latch onto the lacerta trying to burrow into its skin but the scales slow them down allowing the demon enough time to burst into its flames to burn them away. The blue flame grows even bigger as its scales slowly turn into sludge.
The lacerta grabs the bird and drags it beyond the miasma as I watch. I could probably stop it but I rather not push my luck. A handful of demons would be easy but if they all attack I’ll probably lose more than just a few worms. Some worms have already died to the fire imps as the wave of burning imps had mostly been dealt with. Some burning imps are among the fire imps having tried to run away from the worms but the fire imps had stopped them. They circle the lacerta waiting to hear what to do next as my worms circle the group waiting for my order.
“What should we do? Keep marching?” A large fire imp asks the lacerta and it sneers at them. “You’d be a waste. Orges died as soon as it stepped into that darkness. Just secure the line so nothing more escapes from it.” The lacerta ordered the fire imps as he continued to pull the bird along the sand. The blue flames had died down on the lacerta but some spots were still burning on the bird. The imps spread out across the white sand a bit away from the miasma standing around. ‘It's tempting just to attack them but it would be a waste. A fire imp can kill several worms before being dragged under so it would be better to take them all out simultaneously.
I look toward the black sand the worms made when attacking the imps. Some have already returned and I doubt these imps have a way to stop my worms from returning but just in case. “Return to me. Sleep in the pools.” My voice echos out but none of the imps react to it. The worms return to me by going around the imps. Some of them are injured so it will be a while until they can fight against the imps.
The lacerta has returned to the other demons and after what appears some yelling enters the pillar of fire leaving behind the bird. The clothed geitlan demon walks over to the bird that is barely alive. “Hello, geitlan.” I sneered through the bird as it lacked the power to fight against my tendrils for control. “Hello little shade, you have grown beyond my expectations.” The demon said as power wrapped its hand. It felt different compared to anything else I had felt before and the color was constantly shifting. It reached down to touch the bird and I instinctively tried to move out of the way but the body was too damaged to move properly so instead my tendrils abandoned the body digging into the sand. The original lacerta demon that I saw with the clothed demon lobs out a ball of condensed imp essence onto the bird and my tendrils burning everything away. I almost feel gratitude as I watch the lacerta and clothed demon yell at each other from afar as the connection to the tendrils is cut. ‘Almost but it will know the pain of losing a limb or two before it dies.’ I think as anger flashes through me. ‘At least I have the imp to keep feed on while I think of a way to deal with these demons.’
