>>5190878>>5190932>>5190943>>5190960“I am willing to aid you,” you begin, tentatively, “but… Not sso directly.”
The demon freezes, then its limbs twitch and shudder in an unpleasant way-unpleasant to you and, by its subtle shift in tone, unpleasant to it, also.
“Most dishonourable.” The demon twitch again, and turns around. “You will spoil the fun of my hunt. Stay out of it, then. I will permit you to kill one—ONE—human, and one chimera.”
You frown, saying “Ssneak attackss are a valid sstrategem in a hunt.”
“If you attack the mortal whom I am dueling,” the mantis-demon says as it clambers towards the edge of the roof, “I will vivisect you and eat your entrails.”
‘I don’t like this one no more,” Irinnile comments, shrinking back to the far side of your aura, away from the mantid.
The mantid leaps from the rooftop, coming to a calamitous clatters of limbs—you aren’t sure whether four or six, as it seems to shift between the two configurations as it makes certain movements—upon the next. The Paladins’ attention snaps to this monstrous entity, more fearsome than Brezzog was and with a more unsettling aura. They draw weapons, and their gryphons feathers flare into a mane about their heads as they squawk and screech.
Neither of them has paid you any heed. You suspect you’ve gone unnoticed, comparatively mundane and drab in comparison to this grotesque gargoyle of a demon.
“There!” shouts Sir Innes. “Take aim!”
Both human warriors draw up bows—they expected winged prey, no doubt , after your last escape from the Paladins. They let fly one arrow after another, but the mantid bats them away with the flats of its sickle-like blades. It leaps down, comes crashing down in a heap, and for a second you thik an arrow ahs found its mark after all… But the mantid rolls forwards and up into a leap.
“Fight me, cowards!” the mantid chitters, its voice shrill. “One by one, I will cut you down! You may even bring your birds!”
The humans hesitate. The other one, Not-Innes, casts about with his eyes, no doubt seeking out the other demonic presence he sensed. Do they hesitate to directly engage the demon out of fear, disdain, or because they sense a trap? Regardless, you duck out of his vision and…
>Draw and throw your frost-blade>Wait for him to look away, and then swoop down upon them with Bianchi’s sword-cane in-hand>Signal Roth and Brezzog to let loose dragonfire and hellfire form their hiding place below>Attempt to muddle the mammals’ minds with magic, creating an opening for the mantid>Write-in[Please also specify a target, or target(s) if you plan to attack more than one]
