Content warning: This chapter contains fantasy violence and super with monsters (hellhound).
The ground was still several hundred feet away and rising fast as Laurelai opened her wings. Exhausted as she was, she needed to steal every scrap of speed she could from the fall to stay ahead of the demons that were hunting her. So, she only opened her wings just enough to steer away from the turbulent air along the jagged cliff face before she turned left and then dove even harder towards the floor. She was still naked, but at least now she had a weapon she could fight with.
Her grip tightened on the hilt of the sword, and the wind roared in her ears as she suddenly swooped off the rocky bottom of the ravine and opened her wings. Here, only feet off the ground, she converted all the distance she'd fallen into speed and cut a dizzying path between boulders and piles of scree. Whatever river had carved this path was long gone, but the evidence of its violent past was all around her, and for the next few minutes, she navigated the obstacle course she dropped into as she sought the correct path to the wide plains beyond.
Once she gained a little height, she spared a look over her shoulder again and saw that both the demons were still in pursuit, and despite her best efforts, she hadn't gained very much distance. At least she had gotten the hellhounds off her trail as they looked for the long way around. That might be the best she could do for now. They were just dumb beasts anyway. Maybe if she could strike down their masters, she could be free of them both.
Normally, she wouldn't have minded fighting a pair of greater demons. They looked to be Tremonarzi - a sort of greater imp, complete with bat wings, a cruel and capricious temper, and a poison stinger on its tail. Even without her holy weapon, they wouldn't pose much of a threat to her. Technically they were greater demons, but only barely.
They might be a hundred times stronger than their lesser cousins, but they weren't that much stronger than beastmen or succubi. As exhausted as she was, though, and as prone to giving into the base instincts of her corrupted body as she'd been lately, she didn't know if she'd be able to put up enough of a fight to take them out. Still, she might not have a choice. No matter how much she would rather flee, they were capable fliers, and if they really were tracking her mark, she wouldn't be able to shake them. They probably at least had orders to take her in alive.
That was an edge she would use to the fullest.
She led them on a chase for a while, trying to find the right battleground to face them, but nothing seemed right. She could hear them cackle or occasionally taunt her, but they were too far back to understand. As she rounded the final turn in the canyon, she could see the parched salt flats opening up in the distance. Laurelai's hand was finally forced, and she veered to a cliff just around the corner.
There was nowhere to hide between her and the distant mountain range that was still at least several days away, which meant that any further running was hopeless. If she kept flying, then in an hour or ten, when she was too exhausted to go any further, they would catch her and fight her when she was even weaker than she was now. She had to rest again, and soon, whereas they seemed to be entirely immune to this blasted heat in their relentless pursuit of her. She had to end this and end it now.
So, she waited on her precarious perch until the two flew by heedlessly in pursuit, and then she jumped. She wouldn't have much time, of course, but the blindside attack was her only option. She dove as silently as she could towards the demons in a graceful arc. They were only a few dozen feet beneath her blow, and they spent less than five seconds searching the horizon for where she might have gone before one of them thought to look behind them, and by then, it was much too late.
"Where did that bitch go," her target asked the other. "She couldn't have--Ugghhhhh."
The thing was wearing a breastplate of tarnished bronze and matching greaves, but none of that did any good when she was striking him from behind. Her dark iron sword entered the demon's back, just between the shoulder blades, severing the spine. The blow was imperfect, and she knew that she missed the heart, but that was okay. As she pushed off the demon and tried to arrest her own fall, she knew that a fall from this height would certainly be fatal all on its own.
Using the demon as a springboard, she managed to force herself back into the sky, but only just. She gasped in pain as she felt the stinger land a final blow on the back of one of her thighs, but she gritted her teeth to keep from crying out and landed a short way away from the splattered corpse.
Laurelai's chest was heaving, and even though she held her sword in a high guard position, it was all but a bluff. Her limbs were lead, and as she felt that painful poison spread like fire in her veins, she put almost all of her weight on her uninjured leg. If the Tremonarzi was as fresh as he looked, she doubted he would stand a chance. It had armor and a spear, whereas she had only this poor excuse for a short sword. It was a poor match.
Whether it was because she killed the demon's partner or because of her look of grim determination, the remaining demon didn't land to press his advantage. He just circled several times while he regarded her and looked for an opening.
"You think that one dead demon is all it takes, angel?" he yelled down to her. "You think we're the only ones after you?"
"I will kill every demon that crosses my path," she shouted back, feigning a strength she knew she didn't have. Imp poison was always painful, but the stuff coursing through her body now was some of the worst she'd ever experienced, and she needed to fight or flee to heal herself before it got too bad. If she could even heal herself anymore, she thought as she realized she hadn't tried to use that power since she'd been cut off from the light.
Thoughts of her powers inevitably circled back around the chains she'd used to snare the incubus earlier. Those would be perfect to use right now if she had any idea how to use them. All the chains in the world wouldn't stop the painful numbness that was slowly spreading up and down her leg, though. She desperately wanted to look at it, but she didn't dare take her eyes off her flying opponent for even a moment.
"Kill whoever you like, bitch, but I'll be the one bringing you back to Lord Bel in chains," the demon taunted. "You might have escaped this time, but I'll soon have my hounds again, and they'll track you no matter how far you run. They can catch your scent a dozen leagues away."