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// Chapter 5: The Black Tide 
// Story: Thy Flesh Consumed 
// by tankmanbrony 
//------------------------------//

The Baron, and Abkesh watched as a large spider like demon leaped from the pit, its front pair of legs outstretched like daggers, and it plunged them into Gorrog’s back.
He stumbled the sudden weight on his back pushing him to the ground. He collapsed to the ground, arms cushioning his fall.
“Thank you Gorrog, now the mistress doesn't have to open her own portal to Hell.”
She paused, looking around and taking note of the five, very angry Hell Knights, but then she saw the Baron and her jaw dropped.  Gorrog turned his head as a red light filled the room, in the Baron’s hands he held large red fireballs, dwarfing those of the Hell Knights and his red eyes stared down the Vargary.
Using this opportunity, Gorrog  reached his arm around her head, under the shoulder and flipped her over his head, wrenching the spikes out of his abdomen, filling the air with a vile smell as if his flesh was already starting to decay from the simple stab wounds. 
Reaching an arm around the Vargary’s torso, Gorrog stepped on her body and pushed downwards with his foot and pulling upward with his arm. The Vargary screamed, and tried to push Gorrog away, using her upper half, yet it was to no avail, as Gorrog continued she reached out a pale arm and made a pulling motion, pulling a sizable chunk of rock from the wall.
The Baron stepped in its path, digging his feet into the rock of the floor, bracing himself the intercept the stone. It collided into him, not at its full speed but fast enough to push his two tone bulk several feet. 
Gorrog, released one of his arms and brought it down on the Vargary’s, crushing several bones, and leveraging his weight to push the spider demon to the ground.
Then they heard it, the sounds of thousands of feet moving towards them.
“They are coming Hell Knights, soon the Black Tide will engulf you.” Spat out the Vargary.
“Abkesh, Baron, prepare yourselves, we will halt their advance, but should the mistress of the Black Tide come, she is mine!”
With that he tore the upper half of the Vargary off, blood and entrails spilling out, showering them in the death throes of the demon. Her lower half shaking, and trying to move, unable it seemed to know that it was dead.
Throwing aside the dissolving corpse, Gorrog faced the portal. The first demon emerged from the portal, its body resembling a cream white spider, its head was a spider’s head with ten eyes facing forward, its mouth was on top of its head, opened to reveal large fangs. 
“That is the first of many, ready plasma balls!”
Red and green plasma and fireballs appeared in their hands.  They braced themselves as the first one was joined by twenty others, soon over a hundred had walked out the portal with more pouring with ever increasing numbers.
“Drive them back to their sulking masters!” Abkesh roared, hurling a plasma ball into the growing horde, sending several flying into the air, the other Hell Knights followed suit.
Trites went flying, their bodies thrown by the explosions, yet more were surging forward, joined by creatures that looked like small white imps, but they made their difference when they started throwing plasma balls, smaller than a Hell Knight’s but still potent.  One impacted Gorrog’s chest, interrupting him from throwing his plasma ball, and Gorrog turned towards it, hurling it at the Vulgar. 
“Lord Gorrog we are seven they number in the hundreds of thousands, to stand here is to die, we must retreat.”
“Abkesh, Baron lead fall back, I will give you about fifteen minutes before I must follow you, if I cannot delay them for that long, I suggest that you run.”
The other Hell Knights started back pedaling towards the door throwing plasma balls into the ever increasing ranks of the Black Tide.
Gorrog stared at them, the countless Trites advancing towards him, their spider like bodies allowing them to swarm along the very ceiling. The Vulgary's, leaping from pillars or crawling on the floor, and a few Arch-Viles helping feed more demons through the portal. 
Gorrog stepped on the foremost Trite, crushing it. They started fanning out, like ants to the slaughter, eager to bury him beneath their countless bodies. They formed a circle around him, the occasion Vulgar throwing small plasma balls at him. Than they all surged forward.
Gorrog tried to crush them off him, and succeeded in most cases, yet more came, clambering onto his body. 
He tripped the soft corpses giving way under his foot, their blood making the floor slick. He landed hard on his back, smashing anything that was on it. 
“Gorrog, quickly with me!” A deep and gravelly voice  called out to him.
He forced his head to look towards the voice, seeing the creature that was trying to save him. It had changed considerable from its original form as a small foal. Above its eyes a pair of curved horns, curving towards its mouth, and nestled between them was a small, straight horn, he lacked the cheek on the left side of his face, with chords of muscle bridging the gap. His eyes had changed color to completely black. His muzzle had broadened and two teeth poke up from the edges of his mouth.
The foal had gone from a small pony to a powerful demon pony hybrid. His limbs had become incredibly muscled and his tail however remained the same, but jet black.
“Little Horn, back up.”
Gorrog felt the power surging into him as his pentagram burned once more. His vision went red and he felt strength pour into his limbs. He rose to a kneel and smashed his fists into the rock that made up the floor of the chamber, sending up chunks of it all around him and freeing himself in the process. 
“Little Horn, we must flee, quickly through there!” Gorrog pointed to one of the side passageways out of the chamber. 
He started running crushing the smaller demons beneath his feet, many leaping unto his back, only to be swiped off. As he was running he punched the archway of the passageway, breaking it. Little Horn was waiting inside, immediately seeing what Gorrog was doing and moved quickly down the passage.
With a second punch Gorrog destabilized the wall above them, and quickly ran into the passage. 
“Little Horn, run!”
Gorrog threw a plasma ball into the archway just as the trite horde was slipping through, crushing several beneath it and sealing it off.
“Gorrog, while I must have to appreciate you sealing the passage off, how do we know they won’t pour through the other way and trap us?”
“Then press onward, we need to leave this fortress and link up with the others.”
They ran along the passageway, Gorrog hunched over due to the low ceiling. They passed a grate and looking up saw the horde moving above them, in the direction of the main gate.
“I think Little Horn, that they are going to flood the countryside and start a larger invasion. If they follow a pattern similar to mine, than they will make themselves known by assaulting a city or attempting to kill someone important among the ponies, though I doubt that they will be able too, I gave the ponies a proper beating and they have toughened up considerably.” 
“Gorrog, do you hear that?”
“What?”
The thunder of collapsing rocks, gave testament that they were being followed.
“They broke the barricade or they opened up a new entrance, either way we need to move.”
The sound of something heavy moving above them.
“Mancubi, I knew they would be pulling their gluttonous forms from the portal soon enough. We need to get out of here before those mountains of lard catch us.”
They ran through the tunnel, following its dips and turns until they saw a small light at the end of the passage, the cramped confines of the tunnel slowly expanding into a sally port, from which several Hell Knights could stand shoulder to shoulder. 
“Little Horn, they have a head start on us by about fifteen minutes, we should catch up to them, in about one day now all we have to do is avoid getting caught.”
They turned away from the fortress, in the direction of the village, Gorrog had attacked during the beginning of the First Demon Pony War. Hoping that the Baron, or Abkesh had brought the Hell Knights there.