As the wooden beings began moving forward, towards the now clothes pair standing atop the stony shores, the only place were there, for some reason, hadn't been any wooden puppets that sprung out of the gravel, though the river had not even subjected to that same expectation, Cades cursed under his breath, condemning the archer for his rash actions.
But there was no time to fret about that, only to defend.
About a dozen of the creatures, those that stood closest to the one the archer had shot in his panic all attacked them, trying to rip them apart in a seemingly mindless rage, a rage that Cades knew too well, a rage that he still remembered from when he fought against some of the latter demons on the world before he was banished to this horrendous realm.
Yet, uncaring of that, they defended the attack of all these beings, each around the rank of apex, a rank that now that Cades had truly began thinking about it was horribly ineffective in every way.
The apex and lord ranks were similar to the first two sequences that come before them, in the first two sequences that which is summoned often looks incredibly powerful but is in actuality weak, this happens due to the simple fact that beginners of those tiers have no idea on how to hold their powers back.
And as such the difference was clear, as shockwaves resounded around them when the apex-ranks hit them while they themselves barely gave off any shock, instead directing the force into the enemy due to the simple fact that while they had regressed in rank they still had the knowledge and skills that came with the higher ranks, not much for those that had never truly trained, like Cades, except for a few years with his father, but still enough to cause an obvious difference.
Such a great difference actually that the hands of the wooden creatures that had met with theirs, those beings that had attacked taking the position of the first wave were completely blown apart, bent inwards, and pressuring the wood inside, though it was steadily "blowing" itself up once more, just like a balloon.
And within seconds they were complete once more, not during those few seconds, three in number, no, within those few seconds even more of the wooden creatures began fighting from, more collisions and more chaos, some of the smaller monsters, those resembling animals more than sentient, bipedal beings were pushing themselves through the wooden puppets that were somehow standing still despite being able to move without any problem.
Soon after the animals had already started attacking, but the archer had somehow moved far away, atop a smaller tree, standing atop one of the mighty branches and shooting dozens of arrows, a stupid act as they both soon realized, as they began seeing that the monsters began moving more and more, so much so that they were now up against half of all the wooden creatures, the very same creatures that had constantly grown in numbers while they had been fighting the first dozen, so much so that they were now about a hundred.
And every ingle one of those beings was walking closer and closer, growing more and more defined, some of them growing wings made of roots and being pushed into the air by the roots under their feet, some goring tusks and humongous muscles that contended with the smaller trees around, growing as big as them as well, albeit only about 15 feet, if one could betitle that with a 'little'.
Others were growing wings instead of arms and starting to crawl ahead, others started growing weapons, but this time not made out of wood but instead made out of cold, hard stone, an onyx stone that resembled the beautiful gravel they were currently still standing on, a mistake as Cades soon felt how something was grabbing one of his ankles, the one that was closest to the water, the left one that he had put back to catch his balance after he had been pushed over by a gigantic puppet about 35 feet in size, a humongous size only further enhancing its truly monstrous strength, a strength that rivalled even a demi-lord, which was a huge difference for a normal apex-rank.
The being that had grabbed him was covered in small scales that looked as if they had been covered in algae for over five hundred years, which, perhaps they had, it was grinning from ear to ear, so much so that its wooden face was starting to crack and a orange liquid was oozing out, a liquid that hadn't been in any of the other creatures that had been attacking them.
And Cades knew why.
As the scaly creature appeared, with its bipedal form, all other beings stopped moving, except for the archer that was still shooting at the puppets, seeing as they were now all moving and he couldn't make it any worse.
Added on top of all that the scaly creature slowly stood up, allowing Cades to take a few steps back, taken in awe by how she looked.. and yes he was sure that it was a she.
The being had fins as ears, a face resembling that of an ehetrian, and overall a body that most men would define as 'perfect', it was a oceanic succubus, a demon of lust that would kill all that fell for it, without a single exception.
Many a wizard had tried summoning and controlling it, but none had succeeded, they had all fallen for their looks and oftentimes tried to rape the beings, something that was partially expected seeing as they risked their lives summoning a violent demon of lust, though I may not tell the reason now many a person could probably guess it by now.
But this demon, did not have that impression, not on Cades at least, the archer on the other hand was indeed distracted for a moment, garnering the attention of the grinning demon, the attention that was quickly subverted as Cades swiftly sliced at the demon that suddenly seemed to have a long weapon in its hand.