You can see the babau in a nearby tree, hiding behind its trunk but occasionally creeping around to sneak glimpses at you...
Xanderghul, Valaria, Ary, and Ehren are up!
Now that the area is lit, Ehren looks to the oozes further ahead, and then to the strange, naked man standing in their midst. Though he does not look familiar, judging by his horrific scars and the goggles on his head, the druid has little doubt about his identity. He quickly decides that now is not the time to ask about this development, nor about the unicorn's strange behavior.
Weighing the implements in his hands, Ehren decides to keep his wand drawn for the time being, just in case the babau decides to shroud them in darkness. However, if he is to cast any spells, then he would need his other hand free. Looking down at the rod in his other hand, he drops it onto the large branch, willing it to assume its living form. The rod changes immediately, becoming a large python.
"Fan gar liom agus coinnigh do shúile ar leataobh," the archdruid commands it with the tongue of the land, before following Annabelle onto the branch.
"The oozes are devouring the souls within the trees..." Ary whispers as she watches them suck the life force out of the living terrain. "and will do the same to us if given the opportunity. We need to destroy them from a safe distance to free the elect they've already devoured. Keeping our distance should be easy... they're slow." she pauses, "They almost assuredly already know that we're here. They're going to be immune to your illusions, Xander." she says, putting away Radiance and drawing her longbow, Faith streamlining and slivering up her arm to accomodate the change in tactics.
"You'll need to move away, Lann."
"Right, so we kill the oozes and then keep demon hunting. I wonder if they're a side effect or if it summoned them or what..." Val shakes her head, focusing on the task at hand. She draws back and sends her knife soaring at the slime.
Xanderghul is up!
Drifting around the nearby trees, Xanderghul overhears the group chatting idly about oozes. He hadn't seen any oozes before, but honestly it hardly mattered. His compatriots would be able to kill them with ease like they were able to kill anything they ran into. Xanderghul flies to a nearby large branch and plops down cross-legged so he's more secure. Then he begins to cast a spell. His eyes are closed and his hands trace complex runes in the air, and his voice echoes through the corrupted forest, speaking an arcane language.
He begins to visualize an alternate world in his head, his concentration aided by the centering language he uses.
The black oozes are slow and enormous. Valaria could hit them in her sleep, and each strike of her starknife cleaves off a segment of protoplasm, which dissolves into the air. But another ooze emerges from the shadows, sending several small projections of ooze drifting out into the air in their direction. It quivers then shoots up onto a higher branch, becoming tall and thin, before wrapping itself around it and sliding down towards Lann.
Round 2!
Isilme, Lann and Hinagiku are up!
Having surrendered her weapon--and a piece of herself--in the prior ritual, Isilme has no direct way of fighting the oozes. She moves in behind the others, and instead begins to sing.
"Though dark the forest was, their foes it could not hide. The shadows linger, as if in doubt, but light fades not and shadows rout, receding like the tide."
Lann and Hinagiku are up!
In a whisper, Hinagiku is thanking Annabelle when the Ehren lights their surroundings. An interior shudder gently ripples through her inner sea while she retains her center and calm exterior as she lays eyes on the strange goo and tortured tree. Letting the horror slide out of her mind, the monk quickly takes in the situation. Seeing the closest ooze almost on Lann, she quickly decides to move toward it in order to stop it from reaching her allies. Kule clearly was not ready for the front at that moment.
As Hinagiku takes a step forward and over a tree branch, her arms quickly make a circle in front of her, and as soon as her foot lands, she propels one of her palm forward to strike the ooze while bringing another one to her side for defense.
Lann is up!
None too fond of the prospect of having his soul devoured, Lann nods and backs away from the oozes, taking care to watch his footing. He stops right behind Hinagiku, who has no problem striking the ooze with her bare hands.
"I do have a few arrows..." he murmurs, sheathing his blade to take stock of just how many he has. Unfortunately, he would have to take his shield off if he wants to use his bow. How inconvenient!
Annabelle grins, nimbly moving across the higher branch to step in between Hinagiku and Lann. "I got your back, senpai," she says, though her smile vanishes as the other ooze surges forwards, slamming heavily into the vulpine monk. The bruise is light, but the true damage is invisible to the naked eye.
Külə is up!
As Hinagiku surges to the front, and Lann holds his ground, Ary winces, before muttering dryly "Or do the opposite and directly engage them." As the inevitable occurs, golden mote fly outwards from Ary as she vanishes and reappears between Hinagiku and the slime. She shifts low and reaches out with her shield arm, allowing the Kitsune a helping hand to safely dodge the blow without fear of falling from the treetops. When she reappears in her previous position with a pwiff of evacuating air, her lips are pursed.
Külə continues to back away, memories of Hormond returning unbidden.
"Heh heh heh," chortles a voice in the darkness. "I glik i pim..." A babau leaps out from behind the trunk, thrusting a long, sharpened piece of wood into Xanderghul's side like a spear. Blood radiates out from the wound, leaving his clothes stained with blood. It then jumps on him, digging into his shoulder with its razor sharp teeth. The babau is large and muscular, rather than lithe and emaciated, and its eyes are lit up with rage.
Xanderghul, Valaria, Ary, and Ehren are up!
'The angels sent us in here to be killed!' is Xanderghul's first thought as he is stabbed and savaged by Ammoch's attacks. He staggers onto his feet, gasping but not crying out with pain. Concentrating with difficulty, Xanderghul activates the magical power of his boots, which sends a blended image of himself in the direction that he intends to go. Then, he floats up and away from Ammoch in that direction, the illusion of himself making it too difficult to tell his real location.
Despite his many wounds and the direness of his condition, Xanderghul is still an archmage. An archmage does not die screaming. Instead, he weaves together one of the few battle-ready spells he had prepared for the day. Two fingers trace three successive arcane runes in the air, and he speaks incomprehensible arcane phrases to activate the spell. His spell carves energy from the Plane of Shadows, manifesting as a silver-and-grey-and-black pelted leopard. The leopard appears directly beside Ammoch and immediately leaps at him, its attacks and physique enhanced by planar energies.
Meanwhile, Xanderghul pits the full strength of his power against Ammoch's willpower and senses, trying to bring the full force of his psychic leopard against the demon. "He's there!" he cries to the others, if the blood dripping from Xanderghul's feet didn't announce the demon's presence on its own.
The celestial leopard tackles the babau to the ground, its teeth clasped around its neck. With a roar and a surge of sheer rage-induced strength, it rips the leopard off from it and flings it against the trunk of the tree. The leopard lands on its feet, teeth bared and ready to strike.
Valaria, Ary, and Ehren are up!
"Or the demon can just come to us, that works too." Val spins and focuses on the babau instead, trusting her allies to hold off the oozes while she tries to cover Xanderghul's hurried retreat.
Valaria nails her target with a perfectly aimed shot, her blade sinking deep into the demon's exposed stomach before disappearing once more.
Ary and Ehren are up!
Ary immediately turns as she hears the sudden combat off to her left, snapping her bow up into position and training it on the demon. She lines up the shot before firing once... twice... a third time.
Two of Ary's shots fall true. The demon teeters on its feet.
Ehren is up!
"Be careful, Hinagiku!" Ehren calls out when the entropic ooze wallops her, draining a portion of her soul in the process. Unfortunately, he did not have the foresight to prepare a death ward. The mere touch of these creatures appears to be anathema, ironically making them far more dangerous than their quarry.
Indeed, just seconds after inflicting such grievous wounds on Xanderghul, Ammoch already appears to be on the verge of death. Eager to see the bubble of ruined forest restored, Ehren decides to spare no effort destroying the babau. Taking a single hazardous step toward the closer of the two oozes, the archdruid takes a deep breath and draws on the abundance of celestial ley in the area, weaving it into the energies building in his stomach. As he learned earlier, the sensation of the heavenly power is different from that of the Material Plane, but in no way bad. Unlike the vile, writhing sensation he felt in the presence of the ley line once connected to the Corruption Forge, the ley here is gentle and soothing, accommodating him like how much of the plane had attempted to do earlier. What's more, it answers his call readily, as though it is aware of his righteous purpose.
Ehren exhales, expelling a serpentine stream of white-hot flames from his mouth. The blaze twists and turns as though it has a mind of its own, winding through the air in a heated blur as it blasts through the entropic ooze and into the other beside it. Then, with a large, leaping arc, the fire snake locks onto Ammoch and attempts to crash right into him.
The flames sear straight through both oozes, though the babau sees it coming and manages to leap out of the way before it comes. The left ooze quivers then shoots out two long tendrils at Hinagiku. Ary vanishes and reappears in place of one her motes, blocking both strikes with Faith before reappearing at her original location.
Round 3!
Isilme, Lann, and Hinagiku are up!
Isilme reaches down instinctively for her starknife when Ammoch appears alongside Xanderghul and attacks him. She hesitates momentarily, keenly feeling its absence, but is drawn back into the fight as Valaria and Ary score hits against the babau.
Reaching back, she draws her shortbow, something she'd had little call to use in a while, and nocks an arrow. Enhancing the arrow's edge with her own arcane power, she lets it fly at their target.
Another arrow hits the babau, this time loosed by Isilme, mere centimeters from a vital spot on the throat.
Lann and Hinagiku are up!
”Sorry Ary.” Hinagiku simply answer to the commander’s complaint. She did want to follow the plan, but would not allow other to be wounded before they could retreat. And, after the surprising and brief attack of the babau, to which she’s unable to respond in time, it becomes much too clear to the monk that she needs to retreat and defend her allies. The draining touch makes it all the more obvious, and so, as soon as Ehren’s cautioning cry dies out, Hinagiku turns to the two ones behind her.
”Thanks Annabelle, but if you if you fall back toward Ary with Lann, I’ll be able to back away from these creatures.”
As promised, Hinagiku retains her defensive position and slowly retreats toward her companions.
As it because obvious that she’ll need to hold the line a bit longer, Hinagiku steps forward, and keeping her hands to her sides to deflect incoming blows, she waits for the right opportunities and strike with her palm open at the pudding-like creatures.
Lann is up!
Taking heed of Hinagiku, Lann unstraps his shield and stows it on his back, before turning in Ary's direction.
"Excuse me, Chevalier," he says to Annabelle as he hops off the branch, whilst drawing his longbow.
Annabelle sighs. "Yes, Commander," she says, exasperated. First real fight she had been in for several months and she didn't even get a chance to swing her glaive! As promised, Hinagiku retains her defensive position and slowly retreats toward her companions. Without Hinagiku on the front-line, the oozes start gravitating towards Ehren, who is closest. The one directly in front of him slides closer in a rolling wave, intent on simply enveloping Ehren within its large mass. The druid manages to get mostly out of the way, but merely touching the roiling blob of chaotic energies drains him of vitality.
Külə is up!
Külə continues to stumble backwards, overwhelmed by memories of the nightmare he'd lived.
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Ammoch tries to back away from the panther and flee into the shadows, but he slips and falls off the branch screaming, apparently to his death. He falls and vanishes into the inky black mist below them.
But then the heroes hear the screaming continue on from a different direction - somewhere above them. And the babau comes hurtlng past them once more. And then again - the poor creature trapped in an infinite falling loop...
Xanderghul, Valaria, Ary and Ehren are up!
With the demon barely holding together, Val sends her dagger flying again, ready to put an end to their target.
Xanderghul, Ary and Ehren are up!
Xanderghul reaches into his haversack's side pockets and withdraws a vial of softly glowing pink liquid. He bites onto the cork and pulls it off and then glugs down the liquid. The curative potion salves some of his pain and slows down his bleeding. He sighs as some of his focus returns with the disappearance of the wounds.
Meanwhile, the illusory creature he summoned casts its gaze around, searching for a foe to attack. It sees the ooze that is menacing Ehren and it bounds across the thin branches. Its claws dig into bark as it springs into battle with one of the oozes, and it snarls before digging its teeth into the ooze.
Xanderghul's fake leopard pounces on the ooze, biting out an enormous chunk of protoplasm and tearing it free. The ooze writhes underneath of it, attempting to squirm free. Meanwhile, Valaria carefully lines up her shot to strike Ammoch as he falls past. A loud whistling sound is followed by a scream of agony from the demon, quickly silenced as it is beheaded in one fell swoop.
Ary and Ehren are up!
Having failed to take his own advice, Ehren grimaces when the ooze makes contact with him, afflicting him with a visible pallor. The sensation is not unlike what he felt during the days immediately following his reincarnation when his soul still bore the scars of being pulled away from the afterlife.
A hint of amusement flashes across the druid's face when Ammoch's screams abruptly cease. Deciding not to take any more chances, Ehren disengages from the grey ooze and backs onto another one of the massive tree's branches.
Ary is up!
Ary fires off a single shot towards the further Ooze, the feathers turning a soft glowing white as they leave her hand, and trailing a half-dozen motes before stowing her bow. The motes flutter towards Xanderghul, slowly toppling end over end, before beginning to return towards Ary's buckler.
After a brief struggle, the ooze absorbs the shadowy leopard into itself, leaving no trace the creature ever existed. Meanwhile, Ary lets loose a glimmering shot into the other ooze, sloughing off another section of it to fall to the forest floor.
Round 4!
Isilme, Lann, and Hinagiku are up!
Finally in a position to attack the oozes from afar, Lann nocks an arrow and sends it flying into the closer of the two oozes, quickly following it with a second arrow.
Joining in the volleys against their remaining foes, the oozes, Isilme nocks and looses a trio of arrows in quick succession against the nearer of the two.
"Our task here is almost at an end, the demon purged to make amends," she calls out as the arrows streak towards their target.
After a quick look at Ehren from over her shoulder, Hinagiku backs up further towards her allies, retreating so that they may continue taking down the ooze from afar.
While Isilme and Lann volley arrows into the closest ooze, Annabelle stands at the ready, waiting for the oozes to close the gap. One ooze surges forwards on a narrow branch towards Lann. Just before it reaches him it whips out a long, tendril-like appendage and smashes it into the Crusader's side. Ary pulls, managing to yank him free from its grasp, but not fast enough to prevent it making contact in the first place.
Kule, Xanderghul, Valaria and Ary are up!
Külə steps back again, visibly trembling.
Annabelle raises her glaive and chops off the ooze's tendril at the root, freeing Lann and causing what remains of the mass to recoil instinctively.
Xanderghul, Valaria, Ary and Ehren are up!
Val spins back around as her knife sends the babau toppling to the ground. "Demon purged surprisingly easily," she adds as her knife flickers back to her hand. She takes aim at the still mostly intact ooze and sends it flying again, seeing as the other ooze seems already near death from her allies' assault.
Xanderghul, Ary and Ehren are up!
"Everything Okay, Xander? Kule?" Ary calls to the pair as one floats nearby, dripping blood from having driven directly into the babau's den accidentally, and the other continues to mutter things in a language she doesn't understand, the half-drow having assumed he was casting spells in the beginning, but now significantly less certain.
Faith elongates and flexes as Ary draws Radiance, moving back to support the spikes of the holy symbol and enable her to fight with them. With Hinagiku just behind her, she feels perfectly safe and capable of delivering a deadly blow to the creature, lunging forward to slam into it just as Faith reaches full size once more, using her full mass to drive the shield foward.
Xanderghul and Ehren are up!