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Peace in her fluid movements is what kept Hinagiku's face calm when the face of the woman in front of her exploded.
As for the choice of staying or aiding the woman that had been taken away, it suddenly became much simpler. With the first oni dead, the Tian woman knew that her comrades were safe. Taking a single long step away, she avoided one more attack from the demon worm and rushed toward the water where the woman had been thrashing.
"Everyone, I will take care of the water." she whispers to the others.
Holding her breath, she dives into the river.
"It's more likely that these vermleks are just more powerful. Seems like a couple of witches if I know my magic." explains Markus. "Zombies are mindless, remember? And aren't the vermlek corpses basically zombies?"
Val smiles slightly as the demon dissolves into nothingness. "Vermleks that have more tricks than usual. Lovely. Let's finish these things off and rescue those peasants then. Hopefully they can give us some answers."
Hinagiku swims into the water and stumbles upon the man with the hostage. She finds that the woman in his arms is unconscious, but still breathing. He is holding her up with one arm, and in the other arm he has his flail. He sees Hinagiku swim by and takes the opportunity to swing at her, but he is confounded by the mist and water and misses entirely.
The other Sarkorian woman, Rione, runs until she is no longer in sight of any of the heroes. Meanwhile, Edgar lays in the mud, dying.
Ehren is up!
Left with little choice, Ehren drops altitude until his body floats just above ground level. He then plunges into the fog in search of the enemy.
Ehren can hear the tell-tale splashing as the man attempts to hit Hinagiku in vain with his flail. They're close enough - and he is fast enough - to arrive fairly quickly. What will Ehren do now?
Ehren is still up!!!
Ehren descends until he is just above water level before abruptly reverting to his human form, creating a splash as he lands. The sensation is awkward, but he manages to quickly regain his footing.
"I'm over here, Hinagiku," he murmurs, raising his shield defensively.
Ehren descends into the water, his bare feet hitting the mud bottom and digging in as he regains his balance.
Markus is up.
Markus swims through the muddy water and eventually reaches the other side. He steps out of the fog, his formerly nice suit soaking wet and covered in mud. He finds his friends standing over a headless corpse, while a vermlek woman threatens them from the far end of the island. Meanwhile, a dying peasant is being consumed by a horrific swarm of spiders. Ehren and Hinagiku are nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, the curly haired man strides out of the fog, as three dretches appear with him. Two charge at Valaria, and one charges at Markus. Valaria quickly side-steps the small demons, but one manages to leap onto Markus forearm and sink its little teeth in. It lets go, as the red-haired man finishes his spell. He evokes, negative energy healing his own wounds from Radiance, and sending out additional blasts against Markus and Valaria. Several cuts and scratches erupt all over Valaria's face and neck... but for Markus the energy suffuses into his fresh bite wound, healing it anew.
The man frowns, as clearly this was not his intended effect.
Ary is up!
Isilme whispers, letting the magic carry her words to her allies silently, "Ary, can you get to the man in the spiders? If not I'll go." she asks. She would like to get a chance to empower Valaria, but she wasn't capable of doing it and getting to the man in time to pull him out.
"The spiders will just chase us... and him... again." Ary says, getting steadily more annoyed by the situation, especially the feelings of absolute hopelessness that was permeating the atmosphere as a bad situation became even worse when the dretches arrived. "We either kill the caster, or they just keep swarming." she moved towards it, and brought her sword across in an arc. "I... don't know. Do what you can." she said, before bringing her weapon back across.
Isilme is up.
Isilme moves to the side slightly to avoid the dretches and dashes for the spiders, jumping at the last second. She easily clears them, planting her feet sideways when she lands and skidding to a quick stop before continuing northward. Along the way she grabs the man again, this time not taking any chances. She drags him as close to the shore as she can get and flips him over twice as she's dragging him, trying to get as many of the vermin off of him as possible.
Isilme heroically saves Edgar from the gruesome fate of being killed by thousands of spiders.
Round 6
The man in the water with Hinagiku and Ehren's face explodes, revealing the horrific worm underneath. He backs slowly away, out from the fog and up onto the mudbank, dragging the helpless girl with him. He clasps a wound on his chest, a gruesome gift from Radiance, and channels negative energy into it. It radiates out onto Ehren and Hinagiku. Light lacerations erupt all over their bodies.
The female vermlek gestures to herself, and the swarm returns towards her- moving over Ary and enveloping her. The Iomedaean is fearless, though. While Ary is distracted by the swarm, the vermlek withdraws into the mists, moving west.
Valaria is up.
Truth be told... Ary did not at all mind the swarm being all over her. In fact, it was a relief. Isilme was out and safe, the man had been saved... she was fairly certain that had she tried to do the same, it would have ended... terribly. It wasn't in her to just idly watch an innocent suffer... but it was better than getting him killed by trying to fix it herself.
"Thanks Isilme."
Val lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding as Isilme tumbles cleanly past the spiders and pulls the peasant to safety. "Nice save," she says. "Now for these." She goes to work on the summoned dretches, starting with the one on her left .
Valaria quickly incapacitates the one on her left with a quick thrust, embedding her knife deeply in its throat. It falls into the mud and bleeds out, its body evaporating away, leaving only the knife. She then slams her other weapon into the remaining dretch's forehead - in and out. As it falls, she smoothly turns to pick up her starknife from the ground.
Hinagiku is up.
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Head underwater, Hinagiku had so far been unable to tell her allies that she had found the women. Luckily, so had Ehren, and she was thankful for it.
Swimming underwater to keep some kind of cover from the attacks of the vermlek, she moves toward him and his human shield. At his feet, she emerges from the water and grabs unto its legs at the best of her skills. Her hands slipping, she calls deep inside of her for the will necessary to push her body to the extreme. She reaches so deep that she touches the very core of her being, the same force that was in the wardstone. Wisps of light start appearing between her fingers, wrapping around the legs of the oni, allowing her to maintain her grasp.
"Mr. Ehren, time to help the woman." she says with calm.
Hinagiku surges with sudden strength and grabs onto the vermlek. The monster tries to struggle free, but it cannot. It lets go of the woman. She slides into the water, face-down, and begins to drown.
Meanwhile, Edgar continues to bleed out in Isilme's arms, but his tired body fights off the spider venom at last.
Ehren is up
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"Right." Ehren grabs onto the woman and attempts to pull her onto the muddy shore, away from the vermlek.
Ehren drags the kellid woman out of the water and onto the mud. She coughs up a bit of water, but is still out of it.
Markus is up.
Markus flees from the dretch, maneuvering around it and towards Valaria - he trusts in the champion to protect him from demonic attacks in the future. He sees the dying man there, and summons magic to save him.
"Tu donum.", he intones.
From afar, Markus wills the worst of the man's wounds closed, though he is still in critical condition. His eyes flutter open, and he groans.
Unfortunately, the unarmored necromancer makes an appealing target for the sneering, red-haired man. He charges at the mage with his scythe, lodging the blade in the dhampir's body.
The remaining dretch huffs at Markus' roundabout getaway, and charges at Valaria instead. Its sharp little teeth sink deeply into her thigh.
Ary is up.
As the Vermlek flees into the fog, Ary looks to see what she's missed. She doesn't spend too long doing so, but catches Valaria swatting down Dretches like so many Babau. Nice!
With a casual heel-turn, she digs her other foot into the dirt beneathe her and presses forward across the mud drift... and past the space Valaria had just opened via exorcising a pair of demons, placing herself beside Markus. While the cultist is still withdrawing her blade, she raises her shield between the two... a bit too late, but a clear warning to the man that it wouldn't be so easy, next time.
Her cape followed suit, hurling the nasty little spiders off of itself as Ary reached the Vermlek in a man's body, Radiance crashing down and across his throat... precisely where she knew the thing would be waiting to erupt from.
Ary charges straight at the cultist who just cut into Markus, cutting into the grinning man's throat. He screams and recoils from Radiance's soft glow.
Round 7
The spider swarm vanishes. The vermlek that fled from Ary is nowhere to be seen.
The vermlek struggles against Hinagiku's hold on it. Its enormous gaping maw lunges at her face, and as Hinagiku is busy trying to hold it still, she is unable to avoid it. It tears off a gory chunk out of her shoulder.
Valaria is up.
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Isilme looks amazed as the man's wounds heal and looks up to see Markus casting. "Thanks Markus," she whispers.
"Listen to me, you need to stay down for now, pretend you're still out. I'll protect you, I promise, but I need to help my friends defeat the other demons," she says quietly to the man.
She stands up and begins to speak with an odd cadence. As she does she makes gestures suggesting she's casting a spell. "I homp nu shi kril i'li ghuk nu hil am hi azg ugh bal uti. I'g al i nu bi ank kal, dúzg I gâl i krokhi bi ghúrk kim izg. Gish'zg hisha bâl, Borz il ash oshul azg bashak skushi azg ugh bum bul," she says to the creature.
"I want to see how you're going to worm your way out of this one. I'd ask you to stay and fight, but I doubt you have the guts for it. Don't worry though, Val is an expert at bringing people like you out of their shells,"
Val groans as the dretch's teeth sink into her arm. The many small wounds are starting to add up, leaving her battered and progressively more sore. At least the demons seem to have been mostly routed. "Right. Let's just finish this then."
The man nods mutely at Isilme as she gets up to rejoin the fight. She attempts to cast a spell on the red-haired man, but unfortunately her magic is not powerful enough to do much against the abyssal creature. He grins, his smile stretching literally from ear to ear.
Valaria thrusts one knife into the dretch's chest to hold it still, then with her other knife beheads it cleanly. It vanishes into smoke and ichor.
Hinagiku is up!
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"I can't just let these people die. It's not a problem.", whispers Markus back to Isilme.
He steps back from the man who grazed him with the scythe - that weapon was deadly to be sure. A less-experienced Markus would have fallen immediately to it, but the power of the ley and the time he'd spent fighting had toughened him to injury.
He speaks a few words, now, and negative energy courses out from him towards the man who had struck him.
'tu donum et nocere'
Hinagiku cringes at the pain, but still finds the will to use the attack of the vermlek against itself. With its teeth still sunk in her shoulder, she lifts one foot out of the water and tries to do a backflip to bring it down into the water. Still grappling it, she puts both her feet on his chest and pushes herself out of the water.
Hinagiku pulls the vermlek into the water and steps out onto the mudbank. From where she stands, she cannot see Ehren and the peasant woman, though they stand less than thirty feet apart.
"Yai aeuo sa'rs ka do axaev," Ehren says to the woman, gently pressing a hand infused with positive energy against her back.
The woman awakens, her many injuries healed. She looks at Ehren, teary-eyed. "Throm yai."
Meanwhile, back with the rest of the group, Markus blends negative and positive energy into one spell. Unfortunately, the hideous creature proves rather resistant to magic - though the healing energy sears into its corpse-flesh regardless.
Ary is up
Ary narrows her eyes as the Vermlek simply doesn't do anything... was this some sort of trap? If so, who better to step into it?
"Neck, stomach, head. Excise the the source, not the symptom." she then follows her own advice, but aims perhaps too high.
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Finally out of the water, Hinagiku whispers to the others, expecting to bring them some hope.
I found the woman and freed her. Mr Ehren is taking care of her.
Isilme allows herself to smile for the moment at the small victory Hinagiku's message represented, feeling hopeful that they had at least accomplished something. That feeling fades quickly, however, as Markus falls to the creature's attack. Rushing to his aid, she tumbles by the creature, coming up atop Markus so the creature would have to attack her to get at him. As she moves she draws her rapier and channels a small measure of her arcane energy into it, causing it to glow with energy, attacking the creature in retribution.
"Nice work," Val sends back to Hinagiku. "I think we've got all the civilians clear. Let's clean up these demons and find out exactly what's going on here."
The remaining "man" glares and single-mindedly focuses on Markus. He foolishly steps in-between of Valaria and Ary to do so. Ary does her best to repel his blows, but the monster lands two good hits. Ary manages to catch the man's scythe on Faith's spikes, only for the monster's true face to burst through the corpse, aimed right at the dhampir's neck. Markus falls to the ground, unconscious.
But he's a lot stronger now. He's not dying. Meanwhile, Ary directs her squad, and stabs the vermlek in the side. Isilme circles around and stabs the vermlek in the back.
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As Markus goes down, anger flares outwards from Ary, unbidden... and as before, everything slows down for the others, allowing them a touch of prescience, even still, she remains outwardly calm. "Stand strong. Bring him down."
Round 8
The freed vermlek lunges at Hinagiku. Hinagiku attempts to counterattack, but finds it difficult to hit the submerged creature from the safety of the mudbank, and so the demon manages to get in one good wallop with its flail. It then backs out from the mist and onto the mudbank on the other side.
Meanwhile, the missing vermlek summons another host of dretches! They appear close to Isilme, and most of them move to surround her, while the final one decides to instead pick on Valaria instead. Ary moves quickly, acting as a bulwark for the dretches to fall upon - only one creature manages to land a claw on the aasimar woman.
The offending witch emerges from the fog and cackles - and the hex that was about to expire on Valaria continues....
Valaria is up
Val groans. "Me and my big mouth. Alright then. A few more of you little pests isn't going to stop us that easily." She goes for the dretch behind Isilme first, trying to get her out of the middle of the mess of summoned demons.
Valaria cuts down the dretch behind Isilme - it falls into the mud, unconscious. She then whirls around and cuts deeply into the demon behind her.
Hinagiku is up
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"I'm going to stay here to protect the woman," Ehren says through the spell, wary of any more enemies that might come bursting out of the fog. "But I'm sending help."
Once again star motes begin to swirl around his hands as he starts to cast a summoning spell.
Hinagiku stares at the creature. She wished she had brought the longspear now, there truly was a use for it. Seeing that she was at a disadvantage if she crossed, she instead decides to pull out a wand from her robes and prepares to use it. The whole time she stares at the Vermlek.
Hinagiku heals the worst of her wounds, and feels refreshed.
Meanwhile, the surrounded Vermlek switches its focus to Isilme, determined to kill the woman standing on top of its target.
A voice in your head - in Abyssal - "I'll cut you down and move around in [i]your skin next, b*&#+!"[/i]
The monster cuts deep into Isilme, but the bard avoids any further carnage by quickly moving out of the way from the next two attacks.
Ary is up.