The earth spirit’s heavy swings were getting easier to read, but considering the sheer weight behind each strike there was no getting comfortable. He needed to try and finish his foe as soon as he could, so he might turn to aid the ladies against their pair of foes. So the hunter took a deliberately slow step to his left, baiting an attack, and when the expected wring came he quickly jumped back and brought is usriev’s blade down on the spirit’s forearm, cutting through the limb and adding to the pile of rubble by their feet. He returned his weapon to a high guard stance, watching his enemy to see if it could still put itself together after the latest wound.
Dounia grabbed the not-hot dagger, backed up a step, and threw it at the fire elemental. Cairee was close enough that she had to be careful not to hit her, so Dounia didn't risk throwing the second dagger. She wished the fire beast had organs she could target, but she would just have to hope that her little daggers would do enough damage to wear away at it.
Tymythy struck the earth through its' mimicked humanoid arm. A cascade of crumbling traveled to the trunk of it and, as it stumbled forward to try to make one more final attack, it fell to pieces.
Dounia's dagger skimmed across the top of the flames but it still displaced some of its' fire! The creature looked like it was fighting to stay lit.
Zahra was kept off balance by the flying, malicious creature that was intent on flaying her alive. So when the arena blocks shifted, the sorceress was unable to keep her footing.
As the blue block rapidly descended so did Zahra, screaming all the way.
Cairee stepped backwards and away from the flame and nearly tripping over the fallen Zahra. She held her staff out her other hand reaching forward with palm flat. She spoke out "You don't have to do this. You don't have to be a slave to this game!" but the creature, if it could hear, clearly didn't understand Aerthane.
She gave up and yelled, "T'sru B mrots!"
A whirlwind of rain and static charge burst from her and, like a six foot tall tornado, arced towards the fire. The aim was wild and the compressed storm shot past the creature and hit the wall.
Zahra had the wind knocked out of her...again. Her brain yelled at her to get up but her body wasn't so quick. She coughed as if trying to force air back into her lungs and then she attempted to get up. She groaned as she got to her feet.
Sounding like she'd been running for miles she managed to say, "That air thingy is no joke and it flies. Watch yourselves."
A brick slid flat to the wall. Only one brick stood out now.
All of the yellow slabs rose to ten feet sealing off the area so Zahra and Cairee couldn't get out without climbing upward.
The living flame stepped forward matching Cairee's stride. Like kerosene thrown into a campfire, it blastd forward and hit her full on!
The vortex of spinning cloud came over the yellow slab behind her and struck the sorceress in the back. It did a hard turn upward and was gone again, disappearing somewhere behind the raised slabs to the north.
Dounia head a now-familiar sound. "Those bastards! They pulled the chain! The last door is opening!"
But not time to worry about that yet. The fire elemental had moved with Cairee, making throwing daggers too dangerous. Also, Cairee was getting badly burned. Swallowing hard, Dounia stepped forward, directly across the elemental from Cairee, and stabbed out with a dagger in each hand. Her left hand whooshed harmlessly through hot air, but her right struck something more substantial in the flames. Which didn't make any sense, but there it was.
The fire elemental seemed to have no real front or back. The sparks that floated in its' body seemed to work like eyes. Although it was surrounded, the flame never seemed disadvantaged.
But it didn't matter. Dounia's dagger struck through its' body and its' body was more than flame. It had some arcane mass.
The blade passed through and cut the flame in half. Its' light failed as surely as water had been thrown on it and it was gone. Cinders marked the ground where it stood.
No sooner had Zahra said to watch themselves against the flying menace than she was slammed from behind by the very creature. She whirled to grab at it, her claws growing as she reached out to rake it down its side.
She wanted to throw more magic at it but as the words began to form on her lips, it was gone.
"We should get back to back so it can't attack from behind. As soon as it shows itself, I'll hit it with magic. I don't think it'll oblige to come down for close quarter fighting." She looked down at her raw skin, "It definitely doesn't play fair."
Tymythy cursed as his ears confirmed Dounia's exclamation. ”Nothing we could have done to prevent it,” he murmured, flinging off the remains of the earth elemental stuck to his usriev's blade with a quick slash at the air as he turned to take in the situation. Two of the spirits were down, but the last one was playing to its strengths as it proceeded to hit and run like the world’s best mounted skirmisher.
He nodded at Zahra's suggestion, wholeheartedly agreeing with the tactic, taking his position just a step in front of the ladies as they huddled near the wall, his spear held in a stance suited for quick jabs, hoping his reflexes would prove equal to the challenge.
Dounia nodded, and put herself back to back with Zahra. A knife in each hand, she readied herself for an arial attack. As soon as the wind demon was in range, she'd throw both daggers at it.
Yes,, and the full damage comes whether you confirm or not.
Cairee moved back-to-back with the others. She shook her smouldering sleeve and grabbed her pendant and began speaking directly to Saiph.
Yes,, and the full damage comes whether you confirm or not.
As Zahra stood back to back with her friends, she began to swirl her hands in a circle while pulling water out of the air and freezing them into a ball. She was intent on repaying the air creature for trying to pull her skin off.
She continued her movements and words until she caught sight of it and then she released her vengeance snowball.
The last brick slide flat to the wall.
A familiar kachunk sounded and all of the red slabs rose violently to ten feet high! Tymythy and Dounia were tossed into the air. They were now separated from Cairee and Zahra. The later now found themselves isolated in a 10'x10 cell.
Dounia's reflexes finally failed her, and the raising tile launched her a few inches into the air when it abruptly stopped going up. The desert thief lost her footing, and ended up painfully cracking her knees on the stone. She did her best to keep her eyes open for the air elemental, and hope that she could throw her knives even from the raised floor.
Tymythy and Dounia were tossed up into the air. Dounia fell hard but her warrior friend landed on his feet.
But now they could see it! The air creature was over thirty feet north of them. It wound up and made another fly attempt at Zahra.
Dounia loosed her two daggers from where she lay but throwing from the ground was too awkward. The first blade came within a foot of the creature! The second felt like a mile off.
The whirlwind shot towards Zahra's position but seeing two enemies on the raised slab it veered towards them! Towards Tymythy.
Zahra could only barely see the creature as it approached. She launched her spell at it but the icy sphere smashed against the corner of the slab!
Cairee called upon Saiph's aid, "Par-two d'ahs!"
And as the creature was just at Tymythy's spear point it froze in place as if its' shadow reached up and grabbed it by the tail! Just as Tymythy lashed out ...
Tymythy muttered a curse as the arena shifted yet again, breaking his stance as he was tossed up a few feet as the slab stopped as suddenly as it had begun to move, but he had been keeping up his count and while there had been no way to guess what set of slabs would change orientation he had at least predicted the timing correctly, and managed to land in a crouch, wincing in sympathy as he saw Dounia smack her knee on the hard floor next to him.
But there was no time to worry about any of that, because the spirit of air had caught sight of them and was already darting towards the two of them – the easy targets in its sights – with the speed of a squall. A conjured sphere of ice from Zahra hurled towards the creature but the gust of wind darted aside to evade it with impunity, just as it had dodged past Dounia’s thrown blades. Gritting his teeth, Tymythy pulled back his spear, knowing the window to strike their murderously swift foe was thinner than a strand of hair… but then Cairee’s voice called out, and the spirit was brought to a sudden halt mere feet from Tymythy’s position.
Knowing not how long Cairee’s enchantment would last the hunter did not hesitate. ”Lord of the Winged Hosts, bear witness!” he roared as he took two quick steps forward, ramming his enchanted usriev straight through the air spirit, then pulled the blade out in a spinning arc, twirling around to add momentum to his blow and sliced clear through the elemental from left to right, feeling the strange shadow of resistance as his blade cut through thin air… yet still seemed to touch something, as if whirling currents of air buffeted his blade inside the spirit’s material form.
Tymythy stood there as the air creature dissolved. At the far end of the arena he could see four people, the ones from gate IV, atop slabs and looking down in a panic.
Dounia staggered to her feet and looked around. "Is that it? Are they all gone?"
She took a moment to look at the sliding bricks. "Should I try to stop the floor from going up and down? Or do we keep fighting?"
"The four prisoners are out and about," Tymythy noted, gesturing towards the far end of the arena with his usriev. "As, presumably, is the thing they freed from the last cell. Those people don't look particularly happy about it, though," he frowned, squinting his eyes in an effort to get a better sense of the things unfolding there. "Perhaps the creature they freed isn't too picky on who it targets."
"Even if we do not go looking for the next battle, I have a feeling the battle will find us in a few moments. So no time to rest."
Zahra took advantage of no immediate threat to take a breath. She was disappointed by her wasted spell but at least nothing was trying to kill her at the moment.
She retrieved the gloves she had acquired and took a moment to see if they emitted a magical aura.
While she contemplated whether to attempt to climb out or wait for the arena to change again, she held out the gloves to Cairee. "They look like gloves I've seen healers wear in the city. You are probably the best suited to use them. Or I can hang onto them until we know for sure. Do you have a preference?"
Squinting up at Tymythy she asked, "Can you see what is making the other prisoners unhappy?"
Squinting up at Tymythy she asked, "Can you see what is making the other prisoners unhappy?"
"Not from here. Something on the ground, as four humans are on raised slabs. Were there more prisoners? If so, might be one of them in trouble down below. If not, perhaps something nasty is trying to get up to get at them, and that would likely be whatever they just freed from the last cell."
Cairee accepted the gloves and braced herself for whichever slab might move next.
All of the red slabs fell.
And imagined the massive mechanism that must control it from beneath. Zahra had said she'd seen nothing magical about the floor. It must all be a worldly contrivance, like the stories of the great elevators in Halidor or the turbines of the underground aqueducts of Zhayalahmar.
Pry off one of the timing bricks in the wall? Would it only give her a view of the mechanism the pushes and pulls the bricks?
It would take a feat of technical skill just to get access to the machine itself. Getting one of these inbetween sections of floor pried up and climb under theses stones. Up here is a hazard but underneath must be a deathtrap of falling monoliths.
Perhaps there was a central timing mechanism. If she could find it maybe she could understand it.
It wouldn't be fast ...
But it would be glorious.
Cairee looked at the others and then towards the northeast corner. She sighed and tried to squeeze through the stones to the next space over. She listened for the familiar 'kachunk'.
With difficulty, Cairee pushed her way between the corners of the two slabs. Once through she looked back at the others and shrugged.
Dounia was ready for the thump, and managed to land on her feet as their pillar fell. She thought about trying to deactivate the pillars. It would likely take much longer than the remaining fights would last, and leave her friends short-handed. And something nasty was ahead of them, judging from the reactions of the other prisoners.
She thought about the scoreboard. 2 secrets goals, of which Zahra almost certainly found one. Also, 60 points for impressive teamwork/flare/ingenuity/grit/efficiency/subtlety. She didn't think they'd done any of that particularly well so far. Unless getting stabbed by an invisible snake lady counted.
They needed to be cool. And there was nothing cool about being thrown up and down at random. They needed to by quick, and there was no way to be fast when they kept getting trapped in between pillars. They needed to be clever, and to do that, they needed a moment to think.
"Team meeting!" Dounia called. "Can we all get to Cairee? We need to take 5 seconds to figure this out."
She squeezed through the gap pretty easily, and braced herself for the slab moving.
Tymythy grunted in annoyance as the arena shifted yet again, robbing him of his high ground and delivering a couple new bruises in the process. ”I think I’m growing very tired of this aspect of the game,” he growled as he rose back to his feet, rubbing an aching knee he had landed on a bit too heavily.
"Team meeting!" Dounia called. "Can we all get to Cairee? We need to take 5 seconds to figure this out."
”Yes, let’s try not to get separated,” Tymyhty said, nodding in agreement. ”Not counting the four prisoners out and about, there is still the something they let loose. It might be causing grief to its liberators, but it might just as well be making a beeline for us, responding to some mystical beacon that urges it to fight us and tells it where to find its prey... and we have absolutely no idea what this thing might be.”
”So stick close. Get the mystery threat eliminated. If the prisoners want to press the issue, deal with them as well. If they surrender, see if that’s good enough for the challenge, or if our hosts and his guests need more blood sports for their entertainment before we are even allowed to leave. Then, we can worry about looking for the next key piece if we may. Might be there’s something in each cell that allows us to piece together that puzzle,” he said, recalling the odd pictograms on the wall of the naga’s cell, depicting the celestial spheres.
Dounia, practiced at weaving through crowds and the tight spaces of the alKubiri underground, slipped through the space without thinking.
Tymythy ignored the scraping across his breastplate and slid through after.
Zahra moved to go through but the slab to one side made the familiar 'kachunk' sound. It didn't fall. It must have had some kind of slight mechanical failure and only dropped an inch. It was enough, however, to catch the cloth of her outfit and she was stuck.
If either of the slabs should fall, or the others should raise, it would do more than toss her up into the air.
"Zahra!"Dounia cried as the sorcerer got stuck. She turned back and looked at how her friend was stuck, so she could try to unstick her.
Tymythy and Dounia made it look simple enough. Just squeeze through the gap.
Zahra went to follow and in mere seconds was stuck. She should have gone with her gut and tried to climb but instead she had blindly followed and was now in trouble.
She felt panic welling up inside her. What if the floor changed again and she was ripped in two as one descended and the other shot upwards? She let out a whimper of despair until she heard her name.
The sorceress heard Dounia cry her name and knew that help was coming which calmed her nerves just enough to focus. She couldn't constantly be waiting for others to rescue her all her life, could she? Surely there was something she could do to help.
Out of nowhere, one of Haseena's lessons came to mind. Her mentor had been teaching her how to channel magic to slick surfaces with grease. Mostly it had been taught as a deterrent for over-eager suitors, even though Zahra preferred the method she had used at the dance last night. Regardless, she remembered how slippery the floor and other items in Haseena's parlour had been as she had practiced. Hopefully it would also work on herself and help her get unstuck.
Doing the best she could in her current predicament, Zahra coated herself with magical grease.
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Dounia went to her knees like lightning could see how the raised slab had dropped enough to draw a wide inch of cloth with it. A simple long cut with a dagger should free her friend and she drew for that purpose.
Looking up to reassure her, Dounia watched as Zahra's eyes glowed silver. The sorceress made a motion as if whipping something off her fingertips and spoke in draconic "libx". Zahra's entire body seemed to ooze plastic oils such as would cover a great wheeled mechanism.
Dounia slashed the material. Zahra was free to move.
She slipped free and into the space with the others without issue.
Zahra momentarily collapsed to her knees in relief before springing to her feet and throwing her arms around Dounia. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Then she looked at her friend sheepishly as she realized that she left a sheen on the girl where she had touched her. "Sorry"
The sorceress got down to business. "You called the team meeting. What are we discussing? Don't we just go fight whatever is left?"
Dounia stared at the mess that slippery Zahra had made of her clothes. Then she shrugged - the sorceress had been keeping her clean for weeks and weeks, she had no right to complain if she oiled her up a little.
"Just...I think we need to be smart. We get points for cleverness, or coolness, and I don't think we're doing either right now. We need to be smarter about this, but it's hard with these stupid pillars whooshing up and down! I might be able to slither down below and try to disable them, but it would take time, and I might get crushed into jelly. Or we can figure out how to use them smartly. We can all stay on the same one, and move carefully. What do you think?" She braced herself for the next change to the arena floor.
”We first need to survive this challenge to enjoy all those points,” Tymythy added, eyes and ears peeled, nervous that the forest of raised slabs around them could all too easily hide an enemy about to spring at them.
”I’d prefer for us to climb us and advance towards the enemy’s presumed location – at least on top of the raised pillars we would have a chance to see approaching dangers. True, everyone down below would be hidden, but if we stay down, everyone up above and down on our level can ambush us. And we shouldn’t take our time – even if they are no new enemies to be freed, the shifting slabs will kill us given time, as there is nothing we can do to protect ourselves from bad luck… well, other than to hide in a cell, but I’d imagine our foes will get the same idea after a few sets of bruises and we can only leave this place after we are the last ones standing, so time is not on our side. I doubt the prisoners would be stupid enough to get themselves killed by the floor before returning to take shelter in their cell to lick their wounds and for all we know, the foe or foes they freed can fly and ignore the hazard.”
Cairee joined the others so that everyone was on the same slab.
All of the yellow slabs fell violently.
With three slabs down The Black Birds could see clearly the full length of the arena both north and south and had limited diagonal visibility. But the lanes were clear.
Sound bounced off the sides of the raised slabs so that understanding where it was coming from was difficult.
But what was being bounced and echoed off the slabs was alarming.
A male voice, "Ahhhh! No, no!! SPIRITS!"
A woman's voice, "Gorigan! What are you doing! Get back up here! It's right behind ..."
First voice, "NGAAAHH!"
The woman's voice, "You muck filth! Gorigan, run!"
First voice, "Ahhhh! SPIRITS! Don't leave me!!!"
The woman's voice, "What in the rotten cellar of creation!"
Zahra's eyes widened at the snippets of distressed conversation they could hear. She pointed northeast in the direction that she was pretty sure the voices were coming from. "The way is clear right now if we run as far as we can before the floor changes again. Or did we want to plan some more?"
"That other cell had the creepy vibe so I'm not surprised that they are distressed by what they found."
Dounia caught a bit of movement from the corner of her eye, and sees one of the prisoners about 70 feet away behind a pillar.
"I think that's enough planning. Let's run while we can. Stick together!" It meant keeping to Tymythy's encumbered pace, but that would be well worth it not to leave the warrior behind.