(OOC: Sorry, Thanksgiving weekend was hectic, hardly got to touch the computer at all)

The shadow beast hit the ground hard and was almost completely surrounded. He wrapped one arm around where the heart was, protecting it with more layers of it's shadows, and he lashed out with his other arm, attempting to knock away all of his attackers.

ooc: welcome back

Rabbit rushed forward and sunk her scythe into the demon's arm. As she felt the arm wrench, she knew the demon would rather take the scythe to use as his own instead of simply ignore the injury and slip away from her weapon. It became a battle of strength. Rabbit grit her teeth as she fought for control.

Lunas skipped that. He slashed apart the first two arms that came at him then hopped straight onto the demon and stabbed where the heart was. Then he stabbed again. And again, and again, and again.

Nate quickly formed an ice shield to protect himself, but it didn't prevent him from being knocked back several feet. After hitting the ground, he quickly attempted to freeze the Shadow being to the ground. A still target is better than a moving one, after all.

The shadow beast was slowly being frozen to the ground as Lunas stabbed at it, with it's arms busy trying to pull Rabbit's scythe from her, it was easier to penitrate deeply. With each stab, Lunas got closeer to the heart until her finally stabbed deeply into the heart. With a screech, the demon's dark body seemed to expload, filling the cavern with darkness one last time before disappearing completely.

"Did... Did we get it?"

"Usually when things explode, they are gone. And the fading shadows reinforce that." Zaus said from behind the group.

He had purposely done as little as possible in this fight, since there was no reason for him to if the rest of the group could handle things.

Lunas stood and muttered a prayer under his breath. The ancestral hatred of his order for the demonic faded to a dull thrumming in the back of his head.

"I'd say we can assume it was vanguished. And my applause to you all. You all fought valiantly."

Paige sheathed her sword and walked deeper into the cave. "We should probably check to see if there are any survivors left." No doubt the thieves want to fill their pockets as well...

Wen walked into the cave behind even Zaus. Much like Zaus he hadn't felt like he had been needed once the others' attention had been drawn to the demon's weak point. As a result, he hadn't even bothered to give chase back into the cavern until he had heard the death screech from outside.

He reached his hands up over his head and yawned as he made his way back into the group proper.

"I need to secure the village girls and take them back to the village." Rabbit said, slinging the Great Scythe over her right shoulder. Grabbing a nearby torch, she began to move farther into the cave.

They came to an intersection. Dayfang sniffed the air.

Nighteyes waved them towards one of the branches

"Their scent comes from over here"

Rabbit nodded. "It's the only tunnel they're down, right? No need wandering into more possible booby traps than necessary."

Tyril sheathes his sword, then walks over and picks up his dagger, returning it to it's wrist sheath. "Well, that was a fun little diversion aye? I mean, what with the sending a bounty hunter and a fanatic to what might have been certain death, and making the world a better place in the process." He looks around, then mutters under his breath, "Now to get in their before all the lootings done," and starts into the cave, following after rabbit. "Good job with that demon miss."

The group walked deeply into the cave, the theives and whoever was interested stopped at the rooms of money, to bicker over who would get it. After coming to some kind of an agreement, they caught up to the others who walked into the room where the girls' scent was coming from.

A scream greeted them. One girl was alone, the girl who the group had passed on the way into the town, she was obviously terrified, but other than that, she didn't seem seriously hurt. She stared at the group in the passageway with terrified eyes, not sure what to expect. Her eyes darted from the humans to all of the half-demons, "Who-who are you?" She quickly grabbed up a rock from the ground, "If you are in league with that demon, I will kill you..." She threatened in a shakey voice.

"Demon? Ohhhhh, you mean the one we just killed. Then no, we aren't in league with him." Looking around at the otherwise empty room, Nate said, "So, you're the only one in here?"

She glanced at them warily, then when she appearantly decided she could trust them she jumped up and threw her arms around Nate, sobbing. "No, the demon killed them all, he was planning on killing me next, but you guys came," She cried.

(OOC: Zwei was the first to talk, so he gets to be hugged ^^ hehe )

Lunas sheathed his swords, and looked around.

"How long have you been here my lady?"

The girl looked at him, "I just came down here today... I was the..." She paused, having trouble getting the word out, "...the sacrfice for the demon today..." She shivered, thinking about what might have happened to her

OOC: Sadly, that was the highlight of my day.

IC: Nate wrapped his arms around the girl, trying his best to comfort her. "Alright, its gonna be alright..." After a few moments, he looked back up to the rest of the party. "We should probably get out of here soon. Just find that treasure, the Felix feather or something, its the most important thing here besides her. The demon's minions will likely destroy each other fighting for dominance."

Rabbit was kneeling before a velvet pillow laden with gold pieces and pearls. She turned around and looked at them, feeling eyes on her back. "Oh, God. Help yourselves. I wouldn't take anymore money then I'm entitled to. But my job's still not over. Would you mind if I returned to the girl to the village and you can stick around and loot the place for yourselves or whatever? I don't think you want to be around when they start attacking me." Rabbit stood up, the gold pieces she gathered in a cloth. She brought the corners of the cloth together and placed the bundle in a bag she had on her waist. She walked up to the girl. "I'm going to return you to your father, and I need you to tell the elder that all of the other girls are dead. Don't do it until I've left the village, all right? I don't want them attacking me because I've let little girls get slaughtered when they didn't care enough to pay me my price for doing this job."

Rabbit put the scythe away and offered her free hand to the girl.

OOC: You just insulted the girl, her family, her village, and basically spat at the lives of the girls that died before her. And youi expect her to just go along with the greedy mercenery...

IC:

Zaus shook his head after hearing the new girl ramble on, insulting the terrified girl and everything she knew.

Demon's I've met are more sane than these people...

"If all you want is money, just take some gold and leave. You don't have to insult the girl's family and friends."

Antoninus awoke at the edge of a river. His body was badly bruised. His eye was blackening. His clothes torn and covered in blood. A trail of bodies behind him. He saw the demon that did this disapearing into the water. This was the last thing he saw before blacking out.

(I asked CJ if this is how I could explain my absence she said ok)

The girl glanced at Rabbit and stayed close to Nate, for some reason, seeing him as her protector, as if saying, "I'm not leaving without him."

Aylia saw the girl staying close to Nate and said to the others, "The Pheonix Feather shouldn't be too hard to find, since it's so important, the demon probably kept it on a pedistal, so to speak." She glanced around, "You guys can take the girl back, I'll finish scoping out the cave and finding the feather." She offered

(OOC: New chapter soon, hoping to leave the cave before the next chapter, so we should head that way.)

OOC: Not really, but then again, Rabbit doesn't really care about things like that.

Rabbit sighed and withdrew her hand. "Fine. It's not like I'm going to force you or anything." Rabbit turned to leave. "I'm going to go back and give my report to the guild. Technically, my job is finished. The demon is gone, and the girl can return to her village of her own free will for all I give a damn. 'Fare thee well in your future endeavors' and all that nonsense."

Rabbit made her way out of the cave. Most of the villagers had abandoned their work when she immerged above ground. "Did you kill the demon down there? Is it really gone?!" One of the young men said. "Can I see my Jess again?" Rabbit shrugged at the responce, deciding that they'd find out sooner or later. "If the girl that was recently sent down there in the first place was Jess, then most definitely. She didn't wanna come back up with me, though. She probably hates tough bitches." The youth thought about it for a while and asked, "Just that girl? What...what about the other girls before her?"

"The girl those guys and I saved said they were all killed. I decided to take her word for it and not bother looking for bodies. At any rate, your village is demon free until some other demon chooses to set up shop down there. I'm getting out of here." Rabbit sighed and moved, but one of the villagers stopped her. "You were here since we sent down the nineth girl, and yet you didn't lift a finger because we didn't pay your price. Your mother must be so ashamed of your greed and cruelty, mercenary." Rabbit shrugged off the villager's arm, walked a few paced ahead, and turned around, her eyes sharp as razors. "Don't you dare talk about that gold-digging slut. I should feel honored for not meeting her expectations of being married off to some rich and insensitive jerk, or standing out on a rainy street as some prostitute, opening my legs for any man so that bitch can live without ever working again. And don't you dare accuse me of my greed. My asking price never strayed any higher than the contract you filled out. If you're not willing to pay the price you offered, then apparently you didn't love your daughters enough to begin with and shouldn't be breeding in the first place. You...every last one of you, sicken me to the point where I can taste the bile rising to my throat. I hope I never have to come across this village again, for both of our sakes." And turning around, leaving speechless villagers behind, Rabbit left the settlement and hit the road for the guild to go grab another contract.

Black smoke was rising from the village and extended in a line all the way down to the river.

Nighteyes looked towards the entrance

"I smell burning"

With that, he ran outside.