Page 35 (1/2)

She could feel the weapon’s power gathering within, the otten Netherese god that lent the weapon his name as she performed the ritual The stars above her dimmed, their sparkles stolen by a concentrated black cloud

They ca froht of their prey

Dahlia spun toflails, which she i theht, and in front of her to keep the three at bay

The legion devils seemed more than content to fan around her and come at her withDahlia only a couple of hard hits against raised shields In came their swords, in fine concert, and Dahlia had to ildly to bat those strikes aside Trusting her companion, she turned her attention to the devil in front of her and the one to the right, a ion devil on her left flank an easy opening

That beast howled as it moved to exploit the exposed elf, but it howled all the louder when a streakingit back A second followed, then a third, which clipped off the shield the devil tried to bring forth and exploded right in the fiend’s face

"Down!" Drizzt yelled in the tongue of the surface elves, and Dahlia, without breaking her flowing routine, dropped to her knees

Right over her head came the next arrow, aimed squarely at the center devil’s chest

And so it would have struck the beast, except that Dahlia’s spinning flail whirled too near it and the weapon drew the arrow’s lightning energy into it, stealing the weight of the blow

Dahlia looked at her flail with true surprise, and she could feel the poelling within it A second arrow followed the first and this time she purposely intercepted it

Her hand burned with the power contained within thatit across to her right The devil there got its shield up easily to block, but no y of two of Taul the fiend several strides away Doent the devil, jerking in spas at the empty air

In the span of a few heartbeats and a few launched arrows, Dahlia found herself one-on-one with the re devil, and she went on the offensive, brutally and al the fiend down before its companion could return to its side Her flails spun up and around, to the side and in at the legion devil froain The devil tried to counter through one of the obvious openings left by the aggressive attacks, but Dahlia wouldn’t relent long enough for that, and anytiot hit and hit hard, and hit repeatedly

Drizzt understood his co ht for long He couldn’t get a clear shot at that one, though, so he turned his bow to her current opponent

Again the drow felt that invincibility, that sense of living on the edge and the confidence that he wouldn’t tue By any reasonable ed in such close and furious combat

But he kneouldn’t hit her

He let fly his well-aiion devil’s shield to blast and burrow into its leg How it howled!

Soh, the stubborn creature held its balance and its battle posture

No ain, even harder

Drizzt changed his focus i back to the first devil he’d shot He cal forth fro into the devil’s shield, burning devil flesh and driving the fiend ever backward

Drizzt sensed a powerful presence at his side He kept walking forward, kept firing, though he knew his target to be fast-dying by then

Only when Hadencourt leaped out at hi his blades as he turned

Hadencourt’s ar forth a volley of explosive shuriken

And Drizzt’s scimitars swept across to counter, blades very near the devil’s ar each as they spun forth, and before they could gain any separation Each of those missiles exploded al as e and disorientation on the devil as on the drow