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Ehren frowns when his spell fails, but is not too disappointed - the demon was killed anyway, only seconds later. With Ary and Isilme already engaging the other schir, that just left the brimoraks for them to deal with.
Looking up, he sees Hinagiku fly(!) into Savash. Remembering what Ary had said about brimoraks earlier that day, Ehren slips his hand into his belt pouch, touching a finger to the magical pearl kept within. "Recall."
In an instant, the power of the snowball he had cast earlier comes rushing back to him like a long-forgotten memory.
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"Sorry, I don't think that I can do that." says Markus. He feels.. exhausted. He hadn't realized the energy that the ley had been giving him.
He points at the brimorak who isn't Savash and calls upon his magic - sending a burst of cold at the creature.
'Tu glaciem'.
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Annabelle glares upward at the brimorak that isn't the brimorak Hinagiku is assaulting. Its position in the air is... annoying... to say the least, and she wanted it to be on the ground.
She really wanted it to be on the ground.
Valaria is up.
Val grits her teeth. "Great. I'll just go kill the little one I guess." Without the ability to get in close, she's not carrying enough cold iron to make a reasonable dent in the demon's hide. "Right. I need to get my hands on as many cold iron daggers as possible once we get to the fortress or maybe back in Kenabres." She turns and charges down the last schir, her blade slashing through the air.
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Valaria charges at the schir, but he brings up his halberd to shove her blade away at the last second, sending a tremor down the swashbuckler's arm.
Savash backs away from Hinagiku, staying at the same altitude. He opens his mouth wide and hurls forth a noxious line of boiling blood at Hinagiku, but she spins out of the way in mid-air. The other brimorak spins around and takes the opportunity to spit boiling blood all over her - but this one is even slower than Savash, so she dodges it as well.
Markus attempts to blast Savash with freezing magic, but the demon is accustomed to the chaotic elemental energies of the abyss, and so Markus' spell fails to penetrate.
The remaining schir stays focused on Ary, but finds that he can't move faster than the ranger's shield arm.
Annabelle is about to glare at the smaller brimorak, but he's too far away for her to really see his eyes, so she focuses her ire on Savash instead. Savash makes the mistake of glancing into the ghost rider's narrowed, crimson eyes and he is filled with fear! He loses control of his spell, and plummets to the ground, falling prone. Hinagiku swipes at him with her longspear as he falls, scoring another wound.
Ary is up.
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"Get him while he's down!" shouts Markus.
Ary's breastplate continues to cook her up, though the ranger manages to keep her focus on the situation at hand.
Annabelle is scalded by the longsword at her side, but Valaria is only tangentially aware of the scalding heat - not that she'd be surprised - she's had innate fire resistance for all of her life.
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Ary nearly loses her weapon in the first swing, gritting her teeth against the heat building in her chest. It was so unlike the sun's warmth. It was bitter, and full of hate. With a twist of her wrist, she catches the blade, steadies it, and drives it home.
"Wen'fen, if you can move to flank with Butterfly, I can cover you both better."
With an agile swing, Ary cuts a large chunk out of the schir in front of her. Meanwhile, Hinagiku floats 20' in the air.
Hinagiku is up.
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Heeding Markus, Hinagiku closely follows Savash in is fall, landing with one foot on his abdomen.
Isilme is up.
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Isilme nods at Ary as she swings around to the creature's side slashing at it a few times to probe
its defenses as it tries to split its attention between herself, Valaria and Ary. As she does, she continues her recitation:
"These fearsome foes before us now do stand,
and grunt and bleat as our deaths they seek,
emboldened by this accursed land,
thinking those they see before them are weak."
When it seems to be distracted, she strikes quickly with a careless slash at its throat and following it up with a thrust of the rapier into its side.
The remaining schir collapses onto the ground, unconscious.
Round 5
Valaria is up.
"You read my mind Markus!" Val grips her blade and spins on her heel, feeling a bit odd bouncing between targets so wildly. Her knife goes straight for the fallen brimorak, aiming to stab into his exposed chest.
Valaria moves up and digs her blade into Savash's chest - the demon is helpless to do anything. Boiling blood splashes up from the wound and onto her skin - but it doesn't burn her abyssal-tainted flesh. She inhales the brimorak's horrible smoke, but it does not affect her lungs.
Ehren is up.
"Don't let him get away!" Ehren warns as the tide turns against the fallen Savash, wary of its ability to teleport.
Drawing on the element of water once more, he cups his hand, forming another snowball in his hand. He then takes aim and flings it at the prone demon, hoping to exploit its weakness to cold.
Ehren blasts Savash with an enormous ball of snow and ice, nearly knocking the demon unconscious. The flames inside of its eyes begin to dim...
Ary continues to cook inside of her breastplate, and the starknife in Valaria's left hand heats up to the point that it starts to sear into her hands.
The little brimorak in the air moves down, descending 10' to a height of 25'. It turns towards Ehren and flings a little ball of flame at him, but the ley shields him from the demon's spell.
Markus and Annabelle are up.
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Annabelle turns to glare at the other brimorak, Blossom clop-clopping over to get her within range. She had made the first fall - she could do it again.
Markus launches a second blast of cold at the brimorak still in the air, hoping that this one gets through the demon's resistance to magic.
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"I'll be right back. Don't worry... we'll get you guys out." Ary says, even as her armor is turning a bright gold-orange, forcing tears to brim from her eyes. She hisses through her teeth as she crosses the space between herself and the aerial Brimorak. Aerial or not, she looks him over. she calls out... then whispers through the link, "Target his right, he understood what I said, and he'll anticipate an attack on that side."
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The remaining demon in the air spins to avoid the main blast of Markus' spell, but is still caught up in the fringes of it. He stares right back at Annabelle's gaze and is unaffected.
Hinagiku is up.
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Hinagiku strikes at Savash multiple times, with each of her feet, kickiing at his chest and head. The battle advancing, she is regaining more and more of her focus, able to distance herself from the feelings of angers she had ealier.
"Ary, what's happening to your armor, do you need help?" she asks with a completely detached an even tone.
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"I'll be fine... as long as it cools sometime in the next few seconds. Just... end them quickly. Please." Ary calls back, the last word carrying a hint of a plea.
Hinagiku quickly finishes off Savash, and he melts into a boiling puddle of ichor at her feet.
Isilme continues her recitation as she turns her attention to the soldier who had been impaled by the Schir.
"Our cause is just, though our words might not sway
their hearts, as black as coal and hard as stone
If words won't suffice then by sword today
we shall battle and force them to atone.
For we have come now to rescue you all,
who rose up to fight and answer the call."
She kneels down beside him and checks for a pulse, hoping that he might still be saved. "Go help the others with the Brimoraks Ary, I'll check on this soldier." she says as she finishes her sonnet.
Isilme inspects the wounded soldier and finds him to be dead. The other soldiers are all in critical condition or disabled.
Round 6
Valaria is up.
Val looks straight up at the flying demon, then down at the knives in her hands. "I'll just go help Isilme then." She backs down and heads back toward the captive soldiers so she doesn't get caught up in another fireball or similar trick while the party with better ranged options finishes the demon off. "Really need those cold iron knives."
Ehren is up.
Ehren sighs, having used up just about everything he had that would be even remotely useful against the brimorak at this range. He instead carefully backs away from the air walking demon while pressing a hand to the burn on his neck, applying some healing energy.
The remaining brimorak witnesses the mighty Savash expire at the heroes' feet, and isn't about to try his own odds. He teleports away.
Combat ends
Annabelle nudges Blossom closer to Markus, grinning ear-to-ear. "Hey! Did you see that? I think I made that demon fall down from the sky."
The soldiers stir in their restraints - they are individually muffled, their hands bound behind their back, and they are chained to one another's feet in a long line.
Chaleb gets up, holding a key for all to see. "Hey. Hey, guys. Just getting these guys out of their restraints."" He starts helping to release the cavalrymen from their bounds.
"I'm really sorry, guys. I had no choice! It was either help them, or they kill me!"
The bound crusaders appear grateful at Chaleb's revelation - though of course the heroes by now know better.
Annabelle gives her fellow cavalier a long, searching look, then shrugs. "He's Commander Manaria's problem, I guess."
Meanwhile, Ary's breastplate flares with heat, before finally cooling off back to normal. It leaves her with raw, hot burn wounds wherever the breastplate hit exposed flesh. Annabelle, likewise, has a small burn wound from the hilt of her longsword.
Ary ignores Chaleb, not really caring whether he was innocent or not at the moment. Wincing from the searing breastplate, she makes her way over to the chain gang, removing what she can of their bonds, starting with their gags, since she can't do anything about the chains with Chaleb holding the key.
"Sorry it took us so long." she says as she looks over the wounded men. "Daisy, you said you could probably tell time with your body? About how long do we have until sunrise?"
Hinagiku is having difficulty attuning with herself in the Worldwound. The Worldwound is ultimately a place where the Material Plane bleeds and blurs into the Abyss - logic doesn't really apply here, nor do the conventional realities of time nor space.
Perhaps with experience though, she could learn to make sense of it with the ki. But for now, this is an alien, unfamiliar place.
"I did see..." says Markus, distractedly, while he goes to collect the downed schirs' halberds. "I'm not entirely sure how that worked, either. Which is somewhat embarrassing. That brimorak looked terrified, too."
He remembers something while gathering the weapons - Annabelle, you ought to go and collect your coffin. And perhaps check out the wagon."
Then, he attends to the Crusaders, outright ignoring Chaleb for now. "Do we have enough consumable healing resources to apply to all of them?" He offers up a single potion. "I only have one left."
Annabelle smirks. "Oh! You don't know what I did? Mister expert!" She's still grinning to herself as she rides off in the direction of the still-smouldering wagon to retrieve her coffin.
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When the second brimorak disappears, Hinagiku takes a long look around to make sure there are no foes around. Once she makes sure, she calms, still not breathing in, but at least letting her muscles relax. Seeing as though Ary's armor is getting redder and redder, she runs toward the woman, arriving when the armor returns to its normal color.
"I... I don't know what time it is..." she says, after concentrating for a moment. "The flow of the world is different here. It interferes with the connection I have with my body. I really can't"
She puts a hand in front of Markus, stopping him from using his potion.
"Mr Markus, no need to use your potion, I will ask for the Master of master's power to heal everyone."
Hinagiku bows her head, and prays to Irori while holding the holy symbol hanging from her neck.
"Master of masters, lend strength to these crusaders. They have passed great trials and need to be renewed to go on, and fight this wound on the world. Let them help perfect this world, remove its greatest impurity."
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"My wand should have just enough power to patch them all up, at least," Ehren offers, approaching the crusaders. It had not occurred to him that the brimorak could simply flee like that. He too ignores Chaleb, more concerned with tending to the wounded.
Before he can pull out his wand however, he hears Hinagiku.
"Oh. I'd forgotten you could do that."
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Val starts pulling the soldier's gags free and unbinding them where she can. She turns to Chaleb as he tries to cover his a$$ and levels a burning glare at him. "So you're saying you're a slimy, good for nothing coward instead of a slimy good for nothing traitor. Right. What was the one thing you asked me about last time we me? If the demons' side had succubi? Something like that. How about you just free the men and keep your mouth shut. The commander at the fort can decide what to do with you."
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"I'd also forgotten." says Markus. "Coincidentally."
"Do your thing, then. I'll see what's necessary afterward. Then we should book it, probably."
They had ten Crusaders, and they'd have to walk out of the Worldwound, unless the cart was at least partially complete. Perhaps a set of mending spells could restore it... if Markus could still find that spell in his mind.
"In an hour, the skeletal horses will come back. Is it worth it to wait?"
When Valaria spits vitriol at Chaleb, Markus turns to offer an ameliorating word. "Valaria, perhaps anger isn't the best salve here. Chaleb may be an ass who tried to kill us... but you really have to ask yourself what you want from him. Do you want something useful from him? Do you want him to sit in prison? Do you want nothing from him? Then, you act on that desire."
"I don't think insults advances any cause you could want."
Val scowls. "I just don't want him trying to hide from what he's done. I've seen enough people get away with cruel things because they're either a good enough liar or because the law just doesn't care in the long run." She spins on her heel and goes back to freeing the soldiers without another word.
Chaleb shrinks under Valaria's gaze and shuts up.
The cavalrymen smile with astonishment as Hinagiku works to heal their wounds, pulsing out wave after wave of positive energy.
One of them, a young man with unnaturally silver hair, moves up to Ary, eyeing her shield and captain's badge. "C-Captain Bishop is it? Thank you so much. We.. we didn't think anyone would come." He kneels before her, his clenched fist to his chest. "I am in your debt."
Another crusader, a woman with hazel eyes frowns at Markus. "What are you talking about? We're not leaving immediately?"
Another crusader, a roughed up young woman with messy brown hair shudders, looking up at the endless black maw of the sky. "I.. I just want to get back to the Fort."
"We'll have to walk." says Markus impassively. "We brought a wagon that some of you could ride in, but it was struck by a fireball."
"It is a long walk, but it is better than staying here," Ehren remarks, glancing around at the valley sadly.