"Eating? The only... thing..." Charly begins to say before her voice trails off and she pales.
"There was a room that had a person that was being drained. I rescued them, then tentacles started coming after us. Was that the man you're talking about?!"
Kavax sighed, trickling smoke. "Well, let's just get this over with. If something bad happens, it was probably inevitable anyway."
And with that, he steps up, grips the ring, and tries to yank it out of the floor.
"Wait!" Charly calls out to the vampire as she turns to leave. "This man, who was he? What did he do? Why is he something out of a Lovecraft novel now?"
Carlos moved up to Kavax, there was no need for him to bear the entire brunt of it even if he himself was already injured. "I'll try to give you a hand."
He leveraged himself nearby to give him an easier hold of the ring.
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The blood drains from Charly's face as she hears the tale. Even the vampire's callousness isn't enough to shake her from the growing horror as she realizes what she has done.
"And what happens when he realizes she's gone," she asks, her eyes now fixed on the door leading down.
Captain let out a low whistle at the loud clang before she swatted away the loosened dust as best she could. Examining it with her penlight, she asked quietly, "Since blasting through the ceiling to reconnect them is probably too risky of an option, what other methods are you guys thinking?"
Charly rubs her arms, feeling like a trapped rat. She prayed the others would be alright and started to look for a way out when she spots the rings.
"Might wanna start running, then," she says as she focuses on the rings. "If this doesn't work, it's probably gonna kill anyone not behind some concrete."
She looks for the threads once more, this time seeking the one tied to the sealing ring on the bottom.
Kavax looked up at the ring on the ceiling. "So, do we really care what happens to this building at this point? I might be able to solve that problem, but I'm liable to end up causing some major property damage in the process."
Carlos looks at the structure. "Take it out. Whatever this thing is the more we dawdle the worse it becomes." He moves toward Kavax, "What can I do to help?"
Charly screams in agony as she finds herself the target of the spell. After what feels like hours, she gasps and surveys the damage. Carefully, to avoid cutting herself, she tries to undo the change.
Misfortune, it seems, is paying her a visit however.
"Ummm… try to temper this a bit, put some containment on it. Then start running away really fast."
With that, Kavax coughed up a ball of Balefire, and intoned a distressing chant in a language that nobody here should have been able to understand... and which they could anyway, it's vicious syllables clear in meaning at the level of primal fear.
[bigger]<"Chaos and Havoc, Grind Stone to Dust, Burn Wood to Ash, End that Which Does not Live. DISSOLUTION.">
He then hurled the charged ball up at the ring, and got ready to run.
Captain nodded in agreement with Carlos, though her tone was less certain, "Don't really have any suggestions or any concerns for the building to argue. Hopefully your friend will cope with this..." before she took Kavax's suggestion to speedily get clear before more magic was added to this mess. Back to the hatch, she kept an eye out on the various runes and things...
The words. He didn't know what they said. However there was one thing he had forgotten and only when he saw the ring he realized.
"CHARLY!"
The hunter had realized only too late. "Captain Rose, Charly! In the ring! Can you head up there quickly and pull he rout once it falaters!?"
Starting quickly to help stabilize the magical flames he took the nearby items and placed them in a small pyre and with some prayer and lost language he hoped he could make the pyre of children's items act as a conduit for the spell.
Captain started up the ladder, "And here I thought one of you two might want to play hero and yank her out before it all crashes - might still be needed, but I'll make an attempt."
Captain attempted to make her way back towards Charly, watching out for signs of Kavax's magic or any other unusual non-protocol going-ons.
Several things happened at once. First, hunger wracked Charly's newly changed body. It was difficult to think - but not impossible. Red edged along her vision and she could hear the heartbeats below.
At the same time the ring, empowered by Kavax's balefire, the ring began to turn the concrete to ash. It takes a hellish amount of heat to burn through concrete. But that was exactly what was flaring along the ring. Runes flared into life, apparently trying to keep the ring safe, which it did wonderfully. The ring was fully intact when it seared up and into the ring above.
Captain Rose was part way up the ladder when the next noise struck.
The electricity died instantly as the magic shorted out, power channelled away by the building with a groan. The spectral crowd vanished before Rose and Charly's eyes. Another grown followed it as physics attempted to come back and the three rings and large section of floor begin to fall, and instead are supported by Carlos' magic. The fire spreads from below, forming a web to keep it in place. For now.
Rose sees the disorientated, feral looking Charly in the middle of a circle that looks distinctly unstable.
Charly snarled as she sees the Captain, then blinks and backs away as much as her current precarious predicament would allow. It's obvious she's fighting for control, and very near to losing it completely.
Once on the upper level, Captain had her rifle in one hand, the long bit of wood she'd use to open the door in the other. Approaching as quickly as cautious protocol in this environment would allow, Captain maintained a neutral-grim assessment expression as she eyed the changing, breaking ground, the rings and the nearly feral vampire.
There was protocol for this. There were protocols for nearly everything. Multiple potential threats and magic that could be assessed as on the verge of going out of control and becoming another threat was a well documented issue. While each time had it's unique quirks, Captain had been through enough similar ones that the judgements needed to assess the protocols to follow needed barely a breath of a moment.
Her fingers flexed over the engraving on her rifle. She'd yet to be in a situation where it was protocol to shoot to wound potential threats. Her rifle hadn't really built or cared for with that in mind. As things looked at the moment, it wouldn't take much. It would probably make this so much easier, if only the paperwork afterwards.
Memories flashed alongside the protocols. Captain pushed the rising memories away as she swung her rifle behind her back and reached out the long bit of wood towards Charly and braced herself for potential issues with this choice.
Kavax simply looked at the pyre-concrete arrangement and decided to take his own advice and get out of the basement before it collapsed into rubble and flames. At least he was pretty sure they were at the point where burning the entire theater down, as was likely to start happening now, was starting to look like the right choice.
Seeing the balefire work faster than he anticipated, the expert looked at Kavax and smirked.
"I think that's our time to exit stage right."
He stuck close to Kavax, knowing that the dragon-man probably had better eyesight (and sturdiness) than he.
Captain Rose is able to resist the urge to shoot. Which is probably good for Charly, given the raw might of the gun she uses. Instead, she uses a long piece of wood that was probably used to deal with the curtains to try and hook Charly out of the collapsing circle.
It quickly becomes obvious that this is going to be a less than perfect solution. While Rose quickly hooks Charly, Charly's stunned state is slowing her responses, and Rose doesn't have the best footing...
Charly looks down the hole and then back at the Captain. She's in control, but only just barely. The thirst, the hunger wracked her mind with the overwhelming need to satiate both. If the Captain managed to pull her in, she would be safe, but then she would also be so close to the Captain and her delicious blo–
She shakes herself as she feels the hook catch in her clothing. It was a single moment of clarity that gave her a chance to make a decision before it was taken from her. She blinks, her eyes now blue, the blue they had been before she was turned. Her gaze locks with the Captain's and she shakes her head sadly before trying to tear the clothing the Captain had hooked free and let herself fall into the inferno. If she died, at least she'd be the only one in this situation.
Captain struggled to keep her footing. She watched the sad blue eyes for a moment as she felt the hook come loose, but as Charly started to fall, it wasn't Charly that Captain was seeing.
Maybe, one day, Captain would figure out why the universe kept putting self-sacrificing threats in her jobs. It's not like her protocol ever changed. It's not like this time would change anything.
Scrambling to readjust, Captain swung, trying to knock Charly farther from gap. She had to at least try. She let out a very uncharacteristic for her shout, [bigger]"Carlos! Kavax!"
Kavax comes up from the hole. He hears Rose shout. He sees Charly, precariously balanced on the floor about to collapse. There is not much time to decide.
Kavax snarls, and starts to run. He drops to all fours, and sprints at the scene. Sulfurous smoke streaming from his nostrils, Kavax leaps through the flames, aiming to snatch Charly up in one arm, then digs his talons in to launch them both out of the ring with his considerable strength and momentum.
Hearing the Captain yell like that was... uncomfortable. Carlos knew that things were not going as planned and the voice confirmed it.
Seeing the dragon get down on all fours he moved toward Captain Rose. Kavax could probably survive the inferno but Carlos most definitely wouldn't be able to. He began to think of what he could do, and remember that the things that couldn't be changed shouldn't be focused on.
He looks for an escape route and if he wasn't able to find one, he was going to make one.
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The situation became complex. Charly's blood-filled mind cleared enough to realise the danger she was putting Rose in as the floor began to collapse, Carlos' spell only powerful enough to keep the concrete afloat for so long even by burning the treasured possessions of the creature. She attempted to fall on her own.
Rose refused. For whatever reason the enigmatic operative wouldn't allow the young woman to plummet, even as she hadn't allowed her to fall even after seeing her current form. Rose re-hooked and yanked the falling woman as the rings fell to the cellar below with a massive clunk, the runes on them dead.
The two women teetered on the edge, the concrete once suspended in the middle of the rings wobbling drunkenly. Rose pulls, but the stage below her feet is no less abused than the stage in the middle - it cracks with a creek, throwing off her balance and weight. It becomes clear both women are going to fall...
...until they are swept up in a wave of heat as Kavax leaps across, grabbing both and land on the far side of the stage with a sound of cracking wood. The concrete falls into the pyre below, leaving the stage illuminated by the arcane inferno in the lower levels. All is quiet as Carlos looks down into the pit for a moment and sees...roots? Something crawling along the walls below.
The sound that hits all the Hunters is as much felt as heard.
Charly snarls and moves to bite into Kavaz's flesh, but at the last moment, she stops herself and forces the magic changing her body to undo itself. She gasps in relief as she feels the magic unravel, shrinking her claws and fangs back into teeth and nails.
Charly got control of herself, forcing her physical form back into it's usual shape. Perhaps her incisors were a little...sharper, and maybe her fingernails could do with a manicure, but she looked human. More importantly, she felt human.
Kavax stood back up, and set his passengers back on their feet as gently as he could manage.
"So, based on the ominous booming voice, I'd say this is the time when we all run out of the building as fast as we can while setting it on fire. Anybody got any objections or better ideas?"
"Dunno if it's better, but I've got one. Wanna be a storm dragon?"
Captain reached for her rifle as the chilling scream rumbled through her. She took a brief moment to dust herself off and thank Kavax for his help in a warm if tired tone, "I appreciate it, let's see what we've got -- but yes, prepare to run..." before taking the weapon in both hands and moving closer to Carlos and what she expected was the source of the horrible sound in the crater that had been made...
He weighs the options, "We need to finish the fight. Give me a moment to try to attend to my wounds." Peering down into the darkness he sees the roots crawling and shudders, "Down there. Do you see the roots?"
The magical spell doesn't work right, he knows it and gives a massive sigh of exhaustion. "I... Think were going to need to decide... Fast."
As Carlos began to cast his spell and heal the reaction of the tendrils was instant, immediate and visceral. Tendrils began moving through the walls, heading straight up towards the stage. They would start flowing onto the stage in moments. An ethereal scream pierced the air as it came.
"Welp! I hope God's not callin' us just yet," Charly says as she gathers a ball of lightning into her hand and pushes it into Kavax's chest. "Carlos! Ya might wanna get clear," she says as she backs up from what's likely to be a spectacular light show in a few seconds.
Kavax was about to comment that infusing him with power was seldom a good idea, but considering that they really did want to just level the place, maybe it would work out. Storm magic would make for an interesting mix with his own affinity for Death, Chaos, and Destruction. Figuring if they were using magic, he called up some of his own power to restore his body slightly to stabilize his wounds.
He nods and gets clear but prepares in case anything... extravagant happens.
Kavax healed himself as vines crawled from the hole...and poured towards the doors. All of them.
If you wish to escape now is the time.
Seeing the rushing roots, Kavax decided that it was probably time to get out of here. They could always light the building on fire from the outside, after all.
Taking that in mind, and jumped up on magic, Kavax charged straight for the main doors, not intending to bother stopping to open them when he could just crash through and leave them more permanently open for the others.
Seeing the small window of opportunity, Carlos rushes out, knowing full well that the best case scenario with this building is them being dead inside it.
There are things much worse than death, I don't wish to be involved in any of it.