The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 289: Lake Effect

Chapter 289: Lake Effect

As near to the next morning as could be estimated in the perpetual twilight’s slow crawl towards night, the three women left their cozy cave camp to find the wind had died down.

"I say we start in the middle," Darlae proposed.

"This would be much easier if we find the nest," Brigit countered. "Less likely we’ll fall into a breathing hole."

"Breathing hole?" Amarena’s imagination ran away with thoughts of falling into the maw of some enormous beast.

"Joermagrs get called serpents, but they’re really mammals. They still need to come up for air," Brigit explained.

"You’re sure about that?" Rena asked.

"Of course I am. Which is why I don’t want us wandering out there where the snow might have covered up some holes."

"Your vote then," Darlae said to Rena. "It’s your sword, so what do you want to do?"

"I agree with Brigit." Rena, like most demons, ran hot, so she didn’t mind the cold... until she actually felt it. The occasions when Halie had seen fit to toss buckets of freezing water at her had hammered home a dislike for being cold and wet.

In the end, they wound up wandering around along the southern shore until they began to see patches of broken ice and small hillocks made of wood and slime-covered lake weeds. Several had odd-looking boulders, each about the size of Amarena’s torso, like twisted spirals formed into the oblong rocks.

"A few small nests," Brigit noted. "We should stay away from the eggs."

"Eggs?"

Brigit pointed at the nearest of the strange boulders. "Poor things probably aren’t going to make it to hatching."

A sudden surge of movement revealed that one of the larger snow-rises was actually a nesting joermagr. Inches of snow cascaded down the creature, which was half the size of a house. It made a sonorous, slightly aggressive goohwn sound at the three of them, an obvious warning to stay away or face a mouth full of razor teeth.

Amarena’s eyes went right for its facial horn, and she was a little disappointed to see her sword was not there. The desire to finish her battle warred with the desire to just get this trip into the cold over and done with.

"Think she’ll attack us?" Amarena readied her borrowed swords.

"Oh if it’s guarding the nest then it’s a he. The females are much, much larger," Brigit said. "And the largest ones have multiple nests for their harems... so this is actually a good sign."

"How is this good if we don’t know where the things are?" Amarena asked, keeping her eyes on the male.

"Well... if they know the eggs are nonviable, maybe they’re out fattening up for another go? Or the female might have eaten them," Brigit proposed.

"Explains the abandoned eggs..." Darlae muttered, looking once more at the cold, splotchy boulders.

"That gives me an idea," Amarena said.

Turning, she started to hack at one of a trio of eggs, finding the surface to be like tough, thick leather more than regular eggshell.

The reaction from the male was instantaneous, a concerned, aggressive bellow rumbled across the three women but Amarena kept up her efforts until viscous, reeking brown-orange flowed out of one along with free-floating purple veins.

The desperate groons continued as she went from dead egg to dead egg, showing each with abuse. But for all his sounds, the male joermagr remained where he was, protecting his brood.

"What the hell was that supposed to accomplish?" Brigit scowled once Amarena ran out of eggs to smash.

"Watch." Amarena approached the male, only for him to extend his neck and snap at her. She jumped back and stepped to the side a bit before repeating the movements three more times, each time getting snapped at viciously.

Afterward she retreated to Brigit. "Good, he won’t move. I need one of you to hit him with magic."

"What?"

"Not enough to injure him. Just make him hurt a little." Amarena had her eyes on the nearby waters. "I could also try rocks," Amarena needed to warm up her enhancement magic anyway.

"Ohh, I think I understand," Darlae said, patting her palm with her fist.

"What do you understand? Why are we torturing this poor creature? Would someone tell me what’s going on?!" Brigit clearly didn’t like being out of the know. And she seemed less dignified about it than her son.

Darlae raised a finger, pointing at the male. A tiny bolt of magic flew out and struck it on the neck. "What do you do if you need to fight and you can’t move?" After a few more shots, the male lurched only enough to dunk his head into the water and let out a desperate sound. "You call for help!"

Help, it turned out, was not far away.

Not even five minutes after the call, during which the male hissed and snapped and slapped its clawed fins at them, a rumbling, crackling roll like thunder began to approach their position.

The midnight moons with their combined brownish glow were not enough to illuminate the area that was being broken as a tidal wave preceded the arrival of three more males, who drove themselves onto the shore with vicious, snapping bites.

"LIGHT!" Amarena shouted, and soon the area was illuminated from overhead by an orb of yellow light, brought into existence by Brigit. It made things a lot easier.

The males tried to bite their way closer, and the rocky shore was not the best footing for the three women. The overland gaits of the joermagr, however, were anything but graceful as they rotated their fins in large, flapping circles to try to get closer, pushing with their tails and rear flippers for every temporary lift off the ground.

But as easy as they were to avoid, the true danger and prize was yet to come, as an even more massive wave began to rise in the lake ice.

The matron joermagr broke through ice and water with an oddly melodic groan, staying in the lake as it stared out over the battle on the shore.

Its eyes glinted with an oddly familiar red light, but the first thing Amarena truly saw was her sword, the last sword made by her father, still lodged in its horn... pulsing red with some unknown, inner light as dark, iron-like veins spread down the horn and into the joermagr...

Mana corruption... which meant magic.

Her father had given her a magic sword, and she’d never known...

But then the matron opened her mouth, and a vicious jet of water screamed forth.

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