Drifting down slightly to get a better view of the cultists coming down the hall, she ponders how best to prevent them from posing a threat. Though initially she considers using her divine runes to create a fireball, she instead settles on pulling the same maneuver that had just worked so well on the first group. Weaving her bardic magic, she unleashes confusion on the cultists down the hall, hoping to make use of the haste against them.
Hinagiku and Valaria are up!
Hinagiku leaves no chances to the cowlike creature, she keeps close to it, too close for it to reach with her jaw and horns. When the creature rears up, Hinagiku moves underneath it and strikes at its belly three times, moving out only as it falls back on its six legs. And, as the creature retreats, Hinagiku presses her advantage, stepping sideways to lock it between her and Xanderghul. The monk then throws two kicks at the creatures head, one with her right leg followed by one with her left leg as she jumps to transfer the momentum to her second strike.
[ooc]Flurry of blows, spend 1 ki for extra attack. Assuming Xanderghul is threatening for flanking. +4 ac from Smite. [ooc]
Hinagiku leaps into the air, kicking it twice across the head, then attempting to strike at its many legs, but the creature bleats out and rears away from her with the aid of its enormous, leathery wings. During all of this, Valaria darts out up the stairs and between Hinagiku and Ary to find a better position. Seeing Hinagiku duking it out with the beast in front of her, she quickly flicks her starknife out and towards the creature's neck. The spinning starknife arcs out, slicing across the beast's throat, before vanishing and reappearing in her hand.
Isilme again attempts to befuddle the stream of cultists, but finds that her magic isn't as effective this time around as the first time she did this. Despite her best efforts they continue to stream out from the doorway. One manages to climb up the stairs, and as Hinagiku turns to face them, another thrusts their glaive out from within the door way, slicing its blade through her side.
Anevia and Ary are up!
"Hold the line. Stay together when you can!" Ary calls to the others as she moves beside Hinagiku to cover her flank, drawing her motes back inwards as she eyes the battlefield, readying herself to better guard her companions.
"Daisy, you just gonna let him keep hitting your boyfriend like that?" Anevia asks as she slips into the corner, drawing silver energy into another longsword before launching it towards the oversized dragoncow... still ready to flee at the first hint of true danger.
Ary vanishes and reappears in place of her motes just in time to save Hinagiku from the antipaladin's strikes, but she finds the next one to move too carefully for her to get a good reading on her. They both watch Ary's movement's carefully, as if they were accounting for her tricks...
Meanwhile, the Bladebound renews her assault on Ehren, whipping her inky black energy-blade in an arc aimed for his neck...
Kule and Ehren are up!
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The bladebound's weapon broken, Külə moves up alongside Ehren and proceeds to backhand the cultist, unconcerned about hitting her metal armor with his hand.
Ehren is able to hold his own against the magus for a few precious seconds, but it is all too apparent that she is the superior swordswoman. With a timely swing of his flame blade, the druid manages to parry her first attack, sparing himself from having another bloody hole punched into him. But even as her unholy sword is deflected, the bladebound maneuvers it into the perfect angle for a deadly blow.
A sense of dread hangs over Ehren as he realizes that he is not fast enough to stop what is coming. Even so, as the wicked blade comes arcing for his neck, he reaches out with his empty hand for something, anything... It is only natural that he grasps the familiar presence that his been with him all along. The bladebound follows through with her swing, but by the time she does so, half of the black blade's length is missing.
The druid blinks, not entirely certain of what just transpired, but he is not one to idly let an opportunity slide by. Following Kule's lead, he steps in and thrusts his blade of fire at the Templar, eager to be done with this fight.
"Cuir srian uirthi," he mutters to his python, hoping to take advantage of the Templar's predicament. Ideally, they would take at least one of them alive.
The magus staggers back, staring at her broken blade, dumb-founded. She doesn't have time to really register what just happened, though, as she has to fend herself against a crazed naked elf and a python wrapped around her opposite leg. The two serve as an ample distraction, giving Ehren an opening. Surging with ley power, he swipes his blade across the woman's breastplate, super-heating the metal with a flash of light. White spots obscure her vision for just a few seconds...
Ahead of him, though, the cultists move out, their pace swift thanks to their leader's magic. They keep to behind the cultists that came before, who guard their allies' approach with their glaives lowered. Two of them climb the stairs up to the altar. One turns to fight Valaria, the other, Xanderghul. Ary watches this happen, but she knows Xanderghul is too far, and there are too many people between her and him, for her to do something. Instead she rushes five feet forwards, raising Faith just in time to intercept the antipaladin's glaive as it rushed for Valaria's face. She turns just in time to see another one arc its glave across Xanderghul's chest - he steps back just enough to avoid a more deadly wound, but he is so close to the edge he could stumble if he was not paying attention.
Below the altar, another cultist moves forwards, and cuts their glaive across the snake trying to strangle the distraught magus.
Just then, arcane words echo down the tunnel, and an immense pit suddenly manifests beneath Ary and Hinagiku's feet!
Round 7!
Xanderghul is up!
"Argh," Xanderghul growls low under his breath, taking a step back and away from the Templar that had struck him. Such a pointless and useless being had no right to slice him with a weapon. Without a suitable spell already prepared to smite such a foe, Xanderghul siphons a bit of the universe's magic into his body. Once it is there he channels it while speaking a simple arcane phrase that simply means "kill with fire". Xanderghul's arms erupt into flames, he points both hands at the Templar, and then a trio of scorching rays fire at the cultist, guided by Ary's confidence. "Hmph," he sighs smugly.
Thanks to her training with Transcendent Sight, Hinagiku feels the ley change under her feet before she even sees it. Quickly, she spreads her legs into a split to find herself suspended over the acid pit, just by at its corner. Calling upon the ley, she entwines her hands into its lines to propel herself out from the precarious situation and unto the nearby ground.
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Ary reaches over to steady Hinagiku, and nearly tumbles over the edge in the process, but as she loses her balance, her shield arm lurches away from the hole offsetting her fall. With a sigh of relief, she glances over to Ehren. "Can you get some sort of wall up in the tunnel to buy us time? We seem to have hammered into an ant hill, here."
With the bladebound blinded momentarily, Ehren is able to put some breathing room between the two of them. He looks down at his flame blade, still not sure why he doesn't have a sword stuck in his neck. Not that he is complaining about it. But it was a mystery he would have to solve later, when they weren't in the middle of enemy territory. Or rather, after they finished reclaiming said territory.
"I'll see what I can do. But we might be better off just stomping on them faster," he replies, while Xanderghul blasts one of them with beams of fire - he had the right idea.
Hinagiku doesn't have to call upon the ley here as much as it grabs her and pulls her back up and out of the chasm that suddenly erupts beneath her feet. Her way steady, she turns to see Xanderghul immolate one of the cultists. She screams out as she is burned alive. She does not have the same resistance to flames as she had come to expect of the Deskaran cultists, who were very often tieflings.
One of the cultists still inside of the tunnel starts crying out in a confused, unintelligible tongue.
Hinagiku, Valaria, and Isilme are up!
With the cultists upon them now, and bolstered by their caster's haste, Isilme opts to cancel out their advantage. Knowing the spell herself, she finds it simple to reverse the spell to cancel out the haste that had already been cast, though she does so by drawing heavily on her divine power again.
"The cow or the cultist." Hinagiku finally answers softly to Ary. Though with the magus bladeless, Hinagiku felt like Ehren was in a good position now, so other cultists it was. Staying by the chasm's edge, Hinagiku finds focuses on the only one in reach. In a twirl, she sweeps under their legs, and as they fall, she straighten backs up she brings down both of her fist simultaneously unto their chest, accelerating their fall to the ground. At last, she brings downs her leg in one final kick before adopting a defensive posture.
Hinagiku feels the ley wrap around her arms and shoulders, lifting her up, but her feet start to slide down the smooth surface of the pit's walls. She scrambles, and for a moment is all but certain that she is about to fall, when Ary's gauntleted hand darts out and grabs her by the wrist. The crusader Commander heaves once and pulls Hinagiku out of the pit and next to her.
---
Undaunted by her close call, Hinagiku proceeds to trip the cultist on the stairs next to her, then the one behind of her, before spinning back to ensure the first one she tripped was driven further down towards the ground.
Only you can see the templars in the tunnel, thanks to your polymorphic magic. The one in front of Hinagiku draws a shortsword.
Hinagiku doesn't notice the blade jab out from the dark at her, but Ary does, and she rebuffs the blade readily with Faith. As that happens, one of the fallen Templars stands back up. "The Lord-Commander!" she exclaims, her voice heavily distorted by her helmet.
She takes a cautious step back up the stairs, then brings her glaive down, hard! But, devoted to Baphomet as she was, she was no match for Chevalier Bishop.
Meanwhile, Valaria steps away from the pit - no need to ask more of Desna than she needed to, today, and lines up her blade with the Templar on the altar that had attempted to kill her.
Anevia and Ary are up!
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As Ehren suggests just killing them all as quickly as possible, Ary purses her lips and mutters dryly. "I guess that makes us the wall, Daisy."
As the Templar rises from the ground, Ary's shield arm swipes out dangerously-fast, aiming for one of the hands on her glaive, threatening to break her grip with the strike.
"Don't give them a chance to Rally! Press our advantage!" she calls over the battle.
She slips away from the pit... and into the arms of their foes, dangerously over-extended, but pushed to do so by the sudden advent of certain death quite literally at her heels.
She drives her shield arm into the shoulder of the next Templar, before going for center mass on her original target, hoping to force them away from their own weapon... or at least buy herself some space.
Anevia calmly slinks over beside Xanderghul, allowing inky black tendrils to run down her arm and unite with the bow once more, drawing a nocked arrow into firing position. From the way she's standing, closing one eye to get a proper shot, Xanderghul can't quite be certain whether Anevia just winked at him or not as she releases the arrow towards the ill-fated Magus.
While Ary presses the assault, pulling the cultists' glaives from their hands and sending another flying into the altar behind of them, sending them tumbling into the floor, Ehren faces off against the Bladebound. Underneath her helmet she winces, her eyes still starry from the flash of light earlier. "How.... how dare you," she hisses, her voice thick with a Sarkorian accent. Keeping her broken weapon in one hand, she reaches for her belt and draws a shortsword, then swings wildly at Ehren, not even coming close to hitting him. She grunts as she feels Anevia's shot hit her square in the back, faltering for just a moment...
Kule and Ehren are up!
With a gaggle of new cultists filling the room, Külə decides to wade into the thick of it. Moving around the confused magus, he finally finds a spot large enough for his equine form and dismisses his alter self. Before the cultists know it, what was a naked, scarred elf, is now a unicorn in resplendent armor, gleaming in iridescent hues. Decidedly less morose than he once was, and unconcerned with possibly draining his allies, he holds his head high as he prepares to battle the worshipers of Baphomet.
Ehren calmly walks around the blinded bladebound, putting some distance between himself and the nearby pit of acid - the work of some other caster they would have to deal with. After a moment of consideration, he lowers his flame blade and raises his other hand, pointing a finger at the Templar.
"Nid wyf yn gwybod beth addawodd Baphomet ichi, ond nid oedd yn werth chweil," he murmurs, before unleashing a bolt of pure ley energy.
Ehren points upwards, and a focused beam of ley jettisons out from the ground with a loud whirr. The Bladebound regains her vision just in time to dodge out of the way of the worst of it, but the fallen templar behind of her is in no condition to move quickly. The beam angles into the entrance of the secret tunnel, and up and through one of its walls. The beam continues through the stone on the other end through the fallen cultist atop the altar in front of Ary, before fizzling out in the wall behind of them. The Templar in front of Ary slouches over and goes very still, and the smell of roasted meat permeates the air.
That was odd! Ehren hadn't actually willed it to fire at such an odd angle like that. It was almost like something else had willed that so.
The other Templar across from Ary switches focus to her. They don't even seem to notice the fallen cultist beside of them. They draw a shortsword at their waist and swing it in an arc against Ary, who deflects it effortlessly with her shield. The action distracts her from Hinagiku behind of her, who watches her own opponent stand unsteadily, draw her own blade, and then attempt to strike out wildly at the skilled monk. The kitsune simply sidesteps them calmly as they go barreling into the pit, and fall a very long way, out of sight.
At that moment, babau appear! One bursts from the curtains on Valaria's side of the temple, but as he thrusts at the tiefling from behind of her he is repelled by something invisible and inexplicable. Val doesn't have much time to think about this development when another babau appears from thin air on the other side of her!
Meanwhile, the last babau appears in the room next to Anevia and Xanderghul! Its sudden appearance catches Anevia by surprise, who is skewered in the back by its spear. She cries out and spins around to see a babau sitting on what was previously an empty bed. It sneers at her with a fanged grin, lancing her again across the side, before leaping off of the mattress to dig its fangs into her neck with a guttural yell. Anevia screams and pulls the demon off of her, and it regains its footing in front of her and Xanderghul.
Finally, the Templar that was previously trying to kill Xanderghul shrinks against the altar in horror as the naked elf man twists and contorts into an enormous unicorn in resplendent armor. They take a slow step to their left, holding their glaive protectively in front of them.
Round 8!
Xanderghul is up!
Unlike the ineffectual punches of his human form, Külə's partially regrown horn posed a serious threat to those around him who let their guard down. Needless to say, he quickly takes advantage of opening presented by the cultist standing up next to him to gore his flank.
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As the babaus appear in strength, Xanderghul growls. "Hinagiku or Val, someone - will you go and get that summoner? This will just keep happening until they're dead."
Then he turns to the babau. Looking around, he realizes that there's really nowhere he can stand or go that he can't be struck by someone. That won't do, and he still has several powerful spells left. He wonders idly why the Templars haven't given up yet. They certainly should.
He summons his power once again, creating a phantasm of the babau's worst fear - whatever that is - in the mind of the creature. He empowers this spell with his mythic power as well, practically ensuring the creature's death. To protect himself from the creature's retaliation, he activates his spellguard bracers, which fortify his concentration.
The babau makes a move as if to lunge at Anevia again, but then stops dead in its tracks. Its eyes widen and it starts to tremble in place.
"Kýrios!" cries out Tabitha. "We are stuck! What should we do?" Virrk from beside of her watches their back anxiously.
Isilme can see the further cultist in the tunnel striking themselves with their own glaive in confusion.
Hinagiku, Valaria, and Isilme are up!
From her perch above the battle, ironically safely above the acidic pit, Isilme surveys the battle. Xanderghul was right, they needed to deal with the summoner. With everyone spread out and in melee, however, they would need an edge to push break the remaining cultists to open up a path to the tunnel. In order to hasten their demise, then, Isilme calls upon the Song of Spheres to grant her allies a blessing of fervor. Then, empowered, she charges Cygnus with arcane power, its blade glowing and seemingly sharper than ever, and alights next to the Bladebound cultist.
When his students call out, Xanderghul looks over towards them. He can barely see them from where he is, so he just sounds in their direction. "Just watch and learn!" he shouts. "If you need me, call for me and I will be there."
After a quick jab at the closest templar, Hinagiku looks down the tunnel from which the cultist had been coming from, then to Valaria and Ary who were now surrounded by babaus. The choice was simple.
”Mrs. Valaria, I will take it from here.” Hinagiku says as she steps gracefully forward toward the babau, skilfully deflecting its spear, she takes it down with a single blow to its knee. Closing her eyes, Hinagiku lets the ley guide her next steps, flowing like water she moves past Valaria and next to Ary where she slides the ground grab the second babau’s foot with her own and drag it to the ground as she stands up, just like the ebb of a wave.
"Got it," Valaria mutters back in response to Xanderghul. She darts out as Hinagiku closes in, rushing headlong into the tunnel. Getting a running start, she leaps up onto the wall and dashes past the two Templar's heads. She clears the tunnel and makes it to the other end, out of sight of the other heroes. "She's here, alone," Valaria murmurs into Isilme's spell. She readies herself for combat and continues chanting the next verse of her epic, the only thing of the tiefling the heroes could still tell, her verse echoing down the tunnel.
You can see the closer templar in the tunnel drop their sword to grasp their glaive in both hands. Without Hinagiku in the way, now they have free reign to attack you. A change had come upon Isilme of late - since her time in Elysium, she had come to perceive the world as only those mortals in touch with divine could. The way she had originally as a raelis.
She could feel the forces of darkness coalescing around the antipaladin before he even struck her. The first time, she moves quickly enough to raise her shield to protect herself. The second time though, the Templar of Baphomet comes in quick and savage, cutting across her neck and cheek in a stinging wound.
"Gan yr Abyss, Steffan, tynnwch eich hun at ei gilydd a mynd i amddiffyn Zanedra!" calls out a voice in the tunnel. Moments later, a glaive shoots out from the entrance, trying to catch Isilme off guard as she squares off with the other magus. She leaps back from the first one, raising her shield to intercept the blade, but the second strike arcs across her neck and cheek, leaving a trail of droplets of blood in its wake.
"By the Abyss, Steffan, pull yourself together and go protect Zanedra!"
Ary and Anevia are up!
The sensation of the cultist drawing upon their evil patron causes the hairs on Isilme's neck to stand on end, and though it takes her a moment to realize the implications, her reflexes were sufficient to catch the first blow. The second blow, however, posed a more significant threat, and it's only by releasing a magus spell she had picked up in order to better mimic Val's fighting style that she's able to get Cygnus up fast enough to deflect the blow, causing it to miss her throat by mere inches.
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"Ha-ha-aaaaah!" Anevia starts to laugh at the Babau as it appears, sweeping back away from the first blow, then comes the next claw, which catches her... then comes the mouth. "It bit me!" she yells. "Augh... Gods, that's a lot of blood. Ary, send me some motes!"
"I can't... I didn't practice that today." Ary calls across the battlefield as she continues to hammer away at their foes, first attempting to drive the nearest cultist back, and following through as she does.
"Oh no. Kule, help. Xander, protect me!" Anevia calls out, as her shortsword falls into her waiting hand. She slips out of the Babau's reach and drives the blade upwards into the cultist, leaving a gaping wound when she simply flickers across the battlefield, leaving Xanderghul and Kule between her and the murder demon.
Ary launches the remaining templar off the pedestal, then steps up to pursue them while they are still flying through the air to slam them further into the corner. They collapse onto the ground in a heap, and Ary strikes downwards with Radiance to finish them off.
Meanwhile, Anevia makes some ruckus but smoothly slays the Bladebound fighting Ehren in one surprise stroke, before vanishing and reappearing on the altar next to a different cultist.
Kule and Ehren are up!
Külə turns his attention to the Cultist by him, looking to bring him down to give Anevia some breathing space. While the Babau could still teleport next to her, they were cowardly and unlikely to charge headlong into a confrontation with him as well. Lunging at the wounded cultist, his head down, he aims squarely for his chest, knowing even if he failed to puncture the armor, the blow could still leave him incapacitated.
Ehren grimaces, realizing that any further attempts to manipulate the ley through spellcraft would likely be a bad idea if his spell’s bizarre behavior was any indication. Fortunately, his energy bolt did exactly what he intended, if not in the way he expected. As Anevia finishes off the bladebound, the druid looks over to where the Templars’ reinforcements emerged, and where Valaria had headed. The babau are dangerous, but as Xanderghul had succinctly put it, more would appear if they did not do something about their summoner.
Eager to clear the way, Ehren draws on his own reserves of mythic power, using it to reproduce the effects of the very same spell he cast earlier. A great gout of flames comes pouring out of his mouth, taking on the shape of a great serpent, even larger than the last. The fire snake blazes through the air in a wide arc before plunging into the tunnel and the Templars within.
The unicorn turns and gores the templar above him through with his horn, discarding the body with a snort and a twist of his neck. It felt good to be on four legs again.
At that moment Ehren finishes his spell, and an enormous serpent made of fire flashes down and into the hallway. The templars scream as they are roasted alive, and the one in front slumps to the ground, dead.
Zanedra grins nastily and twists her open hand in clawed motion. Her fingers are adorned with rings of solid iron. Valaria can feel the woman's magic start to worm into her mind, and she starts to lose feeling in her fingers, but the birthmark on her cheek flashes a brilliant blue, and she can feel the cultist leader's magic begin to fade.
Taking advantage of the chaos, one babau disappears and reappears in front of Ehren. The babau closer to Ary takes a chance and lunges to its feet, before backing behind the curtain behind of it and reappearing near Xanderghul, just as the wizard's first target gives one last tremble before collapsing to the ground, literally having been frightened to death. The demon's body immediately begins to bubble and fade away into a smear of ichor on the ground.
Round 9!
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul eyes the babaus on either side of him warily. This could go very poorly for him if he wasn't careful. On the other hand, babaus weren't particularly deadly or fearsome enemies, so he was certain that if he could survive a short time longer the babaus would be inexorably reduced to bubbling ichor on the ground like their compatriot.
He speaks the words to a new spell now. Necromantic magic crackles around his hands as he withdraws a small vial from his component pouch. He uncorks the vial, which emits a 'sigh' that sounds very like Xanderghul. He reaches for the babau nearer to Anevia and grasps, his hand crackling with energy. He pulls his hand back and the babau suddenly feels its lungs strained. The very air was being drawn out of the demon's mouth, threatening to suffocate it. Knowing that the babaus rely on polearms, Xanderghul also steps closer to the one that he is attempting to kill, hoping that it helps his own chances of survival.
The babau next to Xanderghul gasps, dropping its spear as it grasps at its throat. Its eyes roll back into its head and it collapses onto the ground.
A singed templar walks out of the tunnel and starts mumbling to himself. He doesn't seem to understand where he is.
Isilme, Hinagiku, Valaria, Ary, Anevia, Kule and Ehren are up!
Isilme floats past the cultist adjacent to her, executing a tumble in mid-air while diving past him into the tunnel that had opened beneath the base the statue of Baphomet was built upon. Her speed, augmented by her magic, easily allows her to catch up to Val to aid her with the cultist leader who had been summoning the Babaus.
"It seems you have run out of allies," she says to the cultist as she lunges through the air at her with Cygnus, "You might wish to rethink the steps that led you to this fate now in your final moments."
Ehren grimaces when the murder demon accosts him, woefully aware of how ineffective his flame blade would be against it. Unwilling to find out how well his cold iron dagger would fare, he decides to unleash some of his most powerful magic. He reaches to the babau with his free hand, attempting to impose his will on its physical form. Giving the head of the fallen Baphomet statue a sidelong glance, he visualizes the most appropriate form he could think of for this situation. Casting right in the face of the demon is a risk in itself, but the archdruid's crown pulsates with soft light, ready to act should the babau attempt to retaliate.
Isilme flits through the tunnel, coming out onto the other side. She finds that she is at the bottom of a ten foot deep pit. Looking behind of her, etched runes, carefully painted in what appears to be fresh blood, cover the bulging stone. The pit walls block most of her view of the room.
Inside of the pit, Valaria faces off against a red-haired Kellid woman with a blue pentagram tattooed to her forehead. Her entire body is covered in the same intricate Sarkorian-styled tattoos, forming organic patterns across her arms and chest. In one hand she has a small hand crossbow, with a holster of bolts on her opposite hip.
Isilme arrives just as Zanedra dodges out of the way of one of Valaria's hastier swings. Not wasting the opportunity, she exploits the opening, thrusting her rapier towards her face. Though Isilme's aim was perfect, she is caught off-guard as the blade drags across her skin, screeching with a noise as if the blade were caught against solid stone. Realizing what sort of trick this is, Isilme twists her blade into a spot next to the summoner's clavicle, piercing through her stony skin and deep into her shoulder. The pain from the severed tendon there would slow her down somewhat.
Hinagiku, Valaria, Ary, Anevia, and Kule are up!
As soon as the babaus around her teleport away, Hinagiku turns around and goes after them. Yet, she finds her path blocked by a the stumbling cultist. Unsure how deeply evil has ingrained itself in their heart, Hinagiku slides the ground, brings her full weight on their legto trip them. Quickly standing up, she follows with a series of punches aimed at the cultists armpits and thigh, where blows would not be lethal, but definitely effective.
When Hinagiku steps right next to the pit again, Ary purses her lips and follows after, slamming faith into the remaining Templar as Hinagiku takes him to the ground. She winces as she realizes that Hinagiku is trying to spare the cultist... by knocking him unconscious on a slope into a pit of acid. She keeps her hand out at the ready to grab Hinagiku should she lose her balance...
Meanwhile, Anevia stands a bit taller as Xanderghul kills one babau and begins to suffocate the other. "Haha. I knew Xanderghul would save me. But... I'm still bleeding. We're gonna have to do something about that pretty soon." she says as she leans to the side and fires an arrow into the only remaining standing target... before slinking towards the tunnel and vanishing (for most) into the darkness.
Külə turns towards the babau engaging Ehren and presses the attack against it, rearing to clobber it with his hooves and then bringing his horn down from above to attempt to gore him.
Hinagiku pulls the cultist to the ground, her first punch sufficient to knock the templar out cold. Meanwhile, across the room, Anevia shoots the remaining babau once before vanishing into the dark tunnel. Kule rears up and attempts to trample the babau, who dances away from his sharp hooves. Unfortunately, it doesn't see Ehren's spell coming, and the babau is transformed into a goat. The goat bleats once angrily before winking out of existence.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the tunnel, Isilme and Valaria face off against the summoner, Zanedra. Valaria lashes out at her twice with her starknife, the metal of the blade shooting sparks out as it comes in contact with her rock-hard skin. Gritting her teeth, she steps back and carefully aims her next strike at the crease of her arm. Letting it fly, she finds a seam in her flesh that allows her weapon to carve deeper than before.
Zanedra frowns at this development, and gestures a hand towards the space above Isilme and Valaria. "All I have to do is Call and He always answers me," she sneers in response to Isilme. "Whatever comes out of His doors is a tool I can use." She laughs. "My foremothers could call but One God, I, I can Call multitudes!"
Valaria had no patience for monologuing, so she had lashed out as soon as she started speaking... but it wasn't enough, her blade barely leaving a surface scratch upon her skin despite swinging with all her might. Two babaus appear on the ledge behind of the women, catching the tiefling off-guard. She cries out in surprise as the longspear digs into her back. Isilme had managed to spin around and dodge the blade aimed for hers, but even she wasn't fast enough to evade it entirely.
Round 10!
The Heroes Are Up!
Utilizing Isilme's blessing to enhance his speed, Xanderghul rushes across the battlefield and down the hallway towards Zanedra, Isilme, and Valaria. It's too dark and cramped in the hallway to see anything except his allies, half of the enemy summoner, and the barest hint of one babau.
Xander isn't messing around, however. He wants the battle to end, and that means debilitating the opponent as much as possible so his allies could safely defeat her. He starts with a targeted blast of necromantic death energy. Hopefully he could steal her strongest spellcasting ability and make it easier for his allies to affect her with spells. This simple spell simply requires pointing a finger and speaking words of decay and death, and a ray of crackling black energy shoots from Xander to Zanedra, threatening to sap her life force.
With her free hand, Zanedra pauses to feel at her neck. Isilme's wound was fastly swelling into a visibly enlarged mass. That's all the opportunity Xanderghul needs to aim a ray of necromantic magic down the narrow hall and still missing Isilme.
At that moment, outside, the fallen templar slides down the slope into the pit of acid.
Isilme, Hinagiku, Valaria, Ary, Anevia, Kule and Ehren are up!
Isilme takes advantage of yet another opening against the bloviating cultist, punctuating her tiresome monologue with yet another sharp slash, this time aiming to puncture her lungs through the rib cage. Prepared for the resistance of her stoneskin spell, she lunges forward with extra force once she feels the point make contact.
Preferring precision to brutal might, Isilme's deftly aimed strike snakes past the summoner's magical defenses and draws blood! The cultist is caught off guard by the sudden, vicious attack, and is unable to finish her summoning.
Isilme, Hinagiku, Valaria, Ary, Anevia, Kule and Ehren are up!