I don't own Naruto or Dungeon & Dragons.
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Naruto
"Are you sure he can keep himself out of trouble?" Kiba asks him while Dart seems to fade from their view, likely casting an illusion that would hide him from view as Dart heads off to scout the keep. "Why shouldn't he be able to stay out of trouble, dog breath? He's not a baby, Kiba, he's a fully grown Fairy Dragon." He tells Kiba with his arms crossed over his chest, daring Kiba to say another word on the matter.
"Troublesome. Dart is small and agile, it helps that he's a natural illusionist. True, his attention span isn't the greatest but it's good enough for this mission. Unless you want to try your hand at demon summoning and send whatever you manage to summon into the keep to scout it out for us?" Shikamaru says and he grins slightly while Kiba goes a bit pale.
"He has a point, Kiba. At the moment, Naruto's the only one that managed to recruit additional members to our group. True, Dart might not be the best fighter but size isn't everything." Neji points out. "It's not as if we've come across many places to recruit from." Kiba mutters and he shrugs.
"That's not really any of our concern. We can't stick around here just to find some village or city to gather more members, that won't get us home any faster. Our parents, friends, and clans are likely worried about us." Neji reminds Kiba and with a sigh, Kiba loses that argument.
"Just how many additional party members can each of use recruit?" Choji asks with a slight frown. "I believe the stat Charisma measures it as well as determines our combined physical attractiveness, persuasiveness, and personal magnetism." Neji says in a matter of fact way.
Likely memorized that from the Player's Handbook. He muses thoughtfully and soon, silence reigns among them as they wait for Dart to return.
)-o-(
Dart
As he flies towards the outer wall of the keep, he spots packs of Hell Hounds roaming about the ground below him. He manages to spot a few spider webs that were likely spun by one of the larger breeds of spiders as he comes to rest on a windowsill. It didn't take him long before he spots said spider too.
As he perches there, he glances about the courtyard, spotting pairs of Gnoll giggling every so often as they chatter to each other in soft tones. He takes note of the crossbows hanging at their sides as well as arrows to load onto said crossbows. Giving himself a shake, he carefully turns to face into the hallway. Crawly through the broken window and trying not to touch the web, he then takes to the air, flying higher into the air as he heads to the left.
He manages to evade the webs that were made by the ceiling of the hall. He keeps glancing about for spiders since he doesn't want to run into any of them, after all, they were, 'Troublesome.' He mentally giggles at using Shikamaru's favorite word. He takes to the rafters when he spots a large Gnoll that smell of rot, he watches said robed Gnoll walk under him.
Within seconds, he's following the berobed Gnoll. Careful to keep the Gnoll in his sight but also keeping an eye out for previously mentioned spiders and their webs. It didn't take long before the Gnoll takes him deeper and deeper into the keep, pass summon fiends from hell planes, skeleton guards, and Gnoll patrols heading out into the courtyard. He's just glad that neither of the skeletons and the fiends had glanced up or else his cover would be blown since it's more then likely they would see through his low level illusion.
Finally, this berobed Gnoll stops before a large door and knocks. Although muffled, he could hear what is said in common, "Come in, Tiviv." The Gnoll he's been trailing opens the door but he didn't go in, not when he can feel the magic that hangs about within the room. If he went in there, he'd be spotted within seconds. He moves to the top of the door and moves the side of his head between the stone and the wood, waiting for them to speak and hoping that whatever is said would be interesting.
"Any word of what where the survivors are headed?" Tiviv asks in common, which means that whoever is in charge of this army wasn't a Gnoll, likely some kind of wizard since he spotted fiends and skeletons about the keep. "They ran a foul of a party of Kobolds from the local mine. My spy abandoned them as the Kobolds gave chase as they fled from their mines. A minor check with my orb shows that the Kobolds were feasting on their flesh two days after the botched raid." The voice says with disdain.
"Mistress wishes to know when the next set of wards will be set up." Tiviv says, revealing that neither of the pair were in charge of this crew. "Next week the moons will be in position, now leave me, I have to prepare to summon something more powerful then these common fiends." The sorcerer says in a dismissive manner. He moves more upwards and within seconds, the door opens and Tiviv steps out, the Gnoll mutters under his breath as he stalks away.
With a sigh, Dart knew that he better get back to Naruto and the others. Hopefully with this information, they'll make an informed decision about exploring this keep or not.
)-o-(
Naruto
With Dart hugging his neck with his tail, he moves silently through the clearing, glancing about for any signs of Hell Hounds. Behind him, the others tried to move as silently as he did, but it seems that feline grace continues to go unmatched, something which makes him feel very smug about. His ears flicker to the sides as they scan about the area as he pauses.
He's willing to admit that it had, at first, felt odd having his ears move independently on top of his head but he's grown use to it, after all, its his fault that caused him to pick a race that had such ears to begin with. With his two swords in his hand, he's glad that neither of them were very polished since they didn't reflect the moonlight.
As he waits for a few minutes for the others to caught up, he reflects about the changes to his attire. He now sports about his wrists were dull bronze protectors with a purple stone at the center of a sun design and to protect his legs were dark brown leather shin guards. Around his neck, hanging from a leather thong was a pendent that featured a bit of amber with a small brass dragon holding said piece of amber. He also now has a better belt, his previous one finally snapped as he tried to wrestle it from Dart's grasp.
Sadly, he hasn't found any finer cloths beyond what he's wearing so he's still got the same shirt and pants that he exited out of the Goblin camp with. He hopes that he'll be able to find a larger amount of silk cloths so he has a wider selection of cloths to chose from as they continue with their mission. He frowns slightly as he realizes that before he found himself in this game, he never really cared much about the quality of his cloths or if they matched.
But then, didn't the book mention that Rakshasa were picky about what they wore. They want the highest and finest quality of clothing, which must mean they've got some kind of fashion sense. He muses before he refocuses on walking forward once more. He freezes as something catches his eye.
"Dart . . ." He says softly and the emerald peacock Fairy dragon with navy blue eyes hums softly after glancing in the direction that he's staring in. Within seconds, Dart's weight vanishes from his shoulder, taking to the air, flying towards Shikamaru.
He didn't turn to see what Shikamaru and them were doing, too intent on staring at the slowly moving shape that's coming towards him. Briefly he considers if he should try transforming into a Gnoll but he hadn't laid eyes on one so he's unsure if he'd be able to transform into one, after all, his race can shape-shift calling the ability Change Shape. Hmmm, I wonder if I shouldn't use Magical Missile... He muses to himself but then an arrow whizzes through the air and a jet of flames destroys it.
With that done and as the pack of Hell Hounds charge in, he hears Kiba use his ice spells while he casts Mage Armor around himself before charging to meet the closest Hell Hound, he's slightly shocked to see two heads instead of one, but he gets over it as he slashes at one of the heads while the other growls before snapping, causing drool to fly about. He tries to stab at that head with his other sword.
He hisses as he's forced to back up as the two headed hound lunges forward, he's privately glad that it's not using his fire breath as he parries their heads, causing minor cuts on their foreheads to appear. This causes the hound to back up slightly, tensing, likely ready to lunge forward once more, but he moves in, trying to stab them in the main body, the spot between the two head. The attack hits since at that moment, the Hell Hound tries to leap at him, causing the sword to drive deeper into the body as well as causing him to lose grip of his sword.
He hurriedly backs away from the hound as the beast yowls in pain. Not wanting to get close, he launches a Magic Missile at the beast, causing the hound to fall to the ground. He rushes in and manages to hack one of the heads off with three blows. He quickly grabs a hold of his other sword, pulling forcefully out of the main body before moving to deal with the remaining head.
Once that's done, he turns to help the rest of the group who were having some troubles dealing with the five Hell Hounds attacking them, that seem to be keeping them in a tight group which makes it hard for them to dodge. It helps that none of the hounds were using their magical breath but then, that's likely because they didn't want to harm each other. He manages to dispatch one of the five Hell Hounds by sneaking up behind it, it had been to busy tensing for a lunge which allow him to leap onto its back, digging his swords into the upper back.
As the Hell Hound goes down, it's friends growl while one of them moves to deal with him, this pausing in their attack proves fatal as it gives his friends time to mobilize. Hinata casts Lesser Confusion on one of the Hell Hounds while Kiba seems to drain the same one of something, he's not sure what though. Choji and Shikamaru team up to kill another and Neji seems to appear out of thin air behind the one likely getting ready to fry him with its twin fiery breaths.
As he gets off the Hell Hound, pulling his swords out of it, he quickly beheads the Hell Hound that Neji attack before the beast turns to deal with the Rogue. The last Hell Hound didn't stand much of a chance as they all attacked it together even though it did manage to use its fire breath on Kiba, no real harm done beyond the fact that Kiba's hair suffered and had fallen out, causing the Dire Werewolf to grumble darkly about never wanting one as a pet, ever.
As Shikamaru and Hinata moves between them casting Cure and any other healing spell they know, he takes time wiping the blood from his swords by wiping them on one of the fallen Hell Hounds before taking a rag from his pouch to finish the job. Dart settles down on his shoulders once more after Shikamaru helps him feel a bit better and more energetic. "Well, one pack down." Dart muses and he nods his head in agreement while Kiba gives them both a scratching look.
"Yes, well, let's head off, who knows when something will come to investigate this area." Neji says as the Drow moves to take point. He moves to fall a few steps behind Neji while the others fall in behind him.
Well, at least nobody died. He muses to himself as they head in the direction of the gate that will take them inside of the outer wall, into the courtyard filled with Gnolls with crossbows. Whatever they are, I'm sure Neji will be happy to steal one so he can do range attacks. He muses, after all, Neji kind of ran out of throwing daggers a while back. It didn't help that they were rusty to begin with and made out of copper, not the most durable of metals too.
-)T(-
"I have a plan on how to get pass the Gnoll guards." Shikamaru says from their position behind some cover. "Oh?" Neji says and Shikamaru sighs, muttering his favorite phase under his breath before he continues on, outlining his plan. "You said that Rakshasa can change their shape into any Humanoid form, right?" He nods.
"Well then, I believe Gnolls are Humanoids so you should be able to transform into one. We also need you to alter your clothing, weapons to match the type these Gnolls seem to have about them. You should have some in your pouch." Shikamaru says and he frowns. "Ok, once I do that, do you really thing they'll allow me to just walk pass?" He asks and Shikamaru sighs.
"You'll have a 'prisoner' to take inside. Once you're behind them, you can attack them before they can ring that bell there." Shikamaru says and Kiba asks, "And just who will he take with him to act like his prisoner?"
Shikamaru sighs and glances at Hinata, who seems to sigh while Kiba clearly wants to argue about putting Hinata in such danger. "I'll do it." Hinata says before anyone can try and think up a reason why they shouldn't risk Hinata in that way.
With a sigh, he moves to a more hidden spot to change his cloth, Neji and Shikamaru move to likely help him pick out the right kind of armor to dress up in. By the time they're done, he walks out already transformed into a Gnoll holding a shield and a spear. "This just feels so weird." He says before laughing slightly, it came out sounding like a giggle which caused Dart to chuckle before the Fairy Dragon moves to fly about him.
"Looking sharp, Naruto!" The little dragon declares and he gives Dart a dirty look before glancing over to Hinata. Within seconds, he's got the spear head at Hinata's back with her hands supposedly tied behind her back. Her sword hanging from his belt.
He doesn't pause or slow down as he approaches the pair of guards. The pair notice him and within minutes, before he's within a few feet of them, they stand up as straight as they can, trying to look fierce. As he gets close, he wondered if they expected him to stop and say something but as he walks between the pair, they never tried to halt his process like the gate guards at Hidden Leaf, asking for ID and what not.
Once they're behind, Hinata lets go of the bit of rope, in one smooth motion, she grabs her sword from his belt as she moves to stab the Gnoll to his right, he moves to the left and buries the tip of his spear into the Gnoll's gut. Within seconds, he has slammed his shield into the back of the Gnoll's head, stunning the Gnoll. He hears a thump and glances to find a head on the ground, next to a fallen body.
He gives himself a shake, his body seems to melt and fold onto itself until he looks like he normally does. "Ah, much better." He says as he gives Hinata a grin, she returns the grin with a smile with a bit of red in her cheeks. Hinata nods hastily before looking away, down at the path. It didn't take the others long to join them, he didn't get a chance to change out of his cloths, he's fairly certain that Hinata would faint if he did so.
It didn't take him long to pull out his usual weapons, leaving Neji and Kiba to loot the dead Gnolls. "Well, that worked splendidly." Choji muses and he shrugs while Hinata says, "Yes, it did." Shikamaru frowns as he says, "It won't work for the courtyard though."
Once the looting of the bodies were done, they continued on their way into the courtyard. Dart casts an illusion on them as a group so they don't get spotted right away by the guards at the end of the tunnel. They dropped easily and once more the looting of their person commences before they continue on, glancing about the decaying gardens that lie between the keep and the outer walls.
They didn't way a word as they walk slowly up to the large doors. Luckily, it seems that the small band of fiends that were posted weren't doing their jobs but were gambling with some of the Gnolls that should have been out on patrol about he courtyard. With a shrug from him, the primary spell casters did their bit before Choji and him charged in, catching most of the gambling beings off guard and totally stunned by their sudden appearance.
It take about thirty minutes to kill them all, most of the fiends vanish back to their plane, following some of their already banished brothers and sisters that Kiba and Shikamaru had banished at the beginning of the assault. Neji managed to kill those that were trying to flee while Hinata managed to charm a few of them before they killed them.
They looted the corpses and the pile of coins and other items that the beings were gambling with. They motioned for Dart to take point and with a puffed out chest, the little dragon does so with relish. He pauses to glance about the area before moving to caught up with the others, he just couldn't believe their luck is all since he kind of expected the other patrolling Gnolls to hear something and come rushing to aid their comrades.
Kiba, oddly enough, has transformed into his beast form, a very large wolf and seems to be walking just behind Dart. He glances questioningly at Neji and then at Choji but they just shrug and he hadn't managed to get Hinata or Shikamaru's attention so he just left it be. He can't help but reflect at how odd their group seems to be, at least three heirs to three clans, one genius, a dog boy, and then himself, the foremost prankster in all of Hidden Leaf village.
At least I don't have to deal with that Uchiha kid. Man, you'd think he's a prince or something the way everyone fawns over him. Heck, if I fail this year's Genin examine I might make Genin with Neji's class. That wouldn't be so bad, I guess. He muses thoughtfully as he studies Neji for a few seconds before trying to focus on remaining alert, after all, Dart mentioned running into skeleton guards and he's a bit interested to see what that would be like.
)-o-(
Hinata
They were in a large room, one that kind of looks like it might have been a dinning hall once upon a time. But at this moment, she's kind of busy trying to hack off a limb that's currently holding this whip that seems to be like a scorpion's tail with the barb at the end of it being poisonous, although it's likely a more common poison that causes numbness or something along that line from seeing how one of the Gnolls try and shake off the effects of the poison. The owner of said whip seems to be a naked woman with the wings of a bat and a thin, whip like tail, something that kind of reminds her of her own tail.
She can hear Naruto curse as his swords keep hitting these chains that this one fiend wears and uses as armor and weapons. To the other side of her, Kiba fights in his hybrid form, taking on the largest fiend of the group. The fight between those two had become nothing more then fight of brute strength and underhanded tactics. As far as she knows, all of the fiends seem to be focusing on them, leaving the other three to be dealt with by the Gnolls.
She manages to evade the whip once more as the strange fiend woman manages to leap backwards to use her whip. A group of Imps as Naruto calls them, comes rushing in, causing her to divert her focus, once more, from the naked fiend to kill the Imps. Everything pauses for a split second as Kiba lets loose a victory howl before something seems to snap, she glances slightly to see that the fiend that Kiba had been fighting neck was at an odd angle.
Then the fighting resumed and Kiba leaps towards the woman like fiend, she sighs but leaves the job to Kiba since she hadn't managed to make much head way in a fight with that one. More Imps join the fight, a few of them alter their form, becoming large spiders before they attack. Should have known we'd encounter foes who could do that. She muses for a brief second before moving to deal with the new threat these Imps now pose.
She pauses long enough to use a Cure on herself since she has received a few bites from said Imps, it seems that they're poisonous since she had started to feel like her arms were encased in heavy metal or something like that. Kiba yowls slightly in pain while Naruto seems to growl, she ignores what's going on with them as the Imps once more regroup.
Scowling, she cases Flare on one of the Imps that were launching itself at her. She finishes said Imp off easily and cases Daze when one of the spider Imps come charging towards him. Ok, next time Shino shows himself, I'm asking to see if I learnt any new spells. I need more attack magic. She decides as something heavy and metal land on the stone floor, it sounds like Naruto managed to kill that fiend with chains.
"Need help, Hinata?" Naruto asks and she smiles slightly as she hums her thanks. "No problem, Hinata. What are friends for if they can't help you slaughter tiny beings?" Naruto says in a joking manner, she can already picture the look on his currently furry face when he said that.
She never once regretted trying to help Naruto that day in the park, true, it lead to her being forced to find it within her to kill attacking, thinking beings and it's been pretty rough having to camp out, but she gets to spend pretty much every day and night with the boy she's grown to admire. While she doesn't know what she's feeling is a crush or something else, she's fairly certain that she'll never forget the time she spent inside of this game with Naruto and the others.
She half turns to find Dart wrestling an Imp to the floor, it seems that one of them managed to get around her without her knowing and tried to attack her from behind. "Thanks, Dart." She says to the Fairy Dragon but wasn't offended that the little dragon was too busy to reply.
It didn't take long before all of the Imps had been dealt with, or at least those that hadn't fled. With a glance over to Kiba who seems to have transformed into his human form, he seems to be concentrating and within seconds, a Gnoll that's to Choji's right freezes. "It worked! Hahaha! I knew I should be able to cast that one!" Kiba crows as Choji knocks the frozen Gnoll over onto the ground, causing some of the ice to shatter.
With that, Naruto and her move to help kill the remaining eight Gnolls, which didn't take long although they were likely all tired by then. She allows gravity to pull her to the ground, her whole body is sore, she's covered in blood and gore too boot. "Well, Dart, I believe this proves why we don't enter into large rooms." Naruto remarks to the little dragon.
"In the hallways, it forces them to attack one at a time, it doesn't cost us much to engage them in that fashion but out in the open, they can surround us and they have greater mobility." Neji adds and Dart nods in a sage like fashion out of the corner of her eye. "Hallway battles are better then room battles, I got that memorized." Dart says and she smiles tiredly at the little lizard like being who specializes in casting illusions.
Shikamaru gets up off the floor to start his rounds, healing and curing their injuries. Behind her, she hears Kiba's faint snoring, it seems that between the rage she saw him enter and then using some of his newer spells, it caused him to be more then slightly exhausted. "And they say cats are lazier then dogs." Naruto muses and she sighs.
"He did a lot of physical fighting this time around and then he attempted to use those ice spells, not knowing if he had them or not." She points out, defending Kiba's right to take a nap. "I'm not denying that, Hinata. This is one of our hardest battles yet, kind of reminded me of the first few Goblin patrols we encountered to be honest. I also say that we should check the stable when we're done clearing out these guys. I'm sure we're allowed to have mounts, although I think Kiba's going to have to find a Nightmare or something since I doubt there are any of the normal breeds of horses that would carry a Dire Werewolf." Naruto says and she felt a bit surprised at the thought of owning her very own horse.
After all, what little girl hadn't dreamed of owning a pony of her very own?
"It would also save time and help us conserve energy." Neji muses and Shikamaru hums in agreement. "I don't think there's a horse strong enough to carry me." Choji says with a sigh. "Oh come on! There War Horses that were bred to carry Minotaurs into battle! Of course there are horses in the world that can carry you, Choji! If not a horse, there are other kinds of animals that people use to get around. Heck, these people manage to tame and ride winged horses and such to fly in the air!" Naruto tells them, trying to cheer Choji up.
"How can they fly with a rider?" Shikamaru wonder briefly before he answers himself within a heartbeat later. "Magic more then likely. This world is so troublesome." Dart snores softly and Neji gets up once Shikamaru finishes attending to his injuries.
"Well now, are we going to camp out in this room and give them time to blockaded us in? Or are we going to continue on?" Neji asks as he begins to stretch, although she can tell he's eager to pick their pockets to see what they have. "We can pick their pockets later, or pick the pockets of their looters." Shikamaru says, likely reading what's going on Neji's mind. "Spoil sport." Naruto pretty much sums up most of their thoughts on the matter.
"Troublesome. Whatever happened to respecting the dead?" Shikamaru wonders and most of them shrug. "You know, funny thing is, it doesn't even bother me when I do it. The same goes for killing. Have any of you noticed some new habits? I mean, I find myself giving a bit more thought to cloths like, how they match, are they of good quality, and do these items go with it?" Naruto admits and she blinks as she turns to study Naruto's attire while the others all seem to frown as they consider just what Naruto's implying.
"I kind of find myself wishing to travel to some place in the ground. I feel alive during a fight." Neji admits after a period of silence. "I find myself composing songs." She tells them. "I feel more calm and comfortable with myself." Choji says and she nods in agreement. "I feel connected to the world at large." Shikamaru admits.
"I wonder what it'll be like, being back at the academy now that I've killed not just one or two people but groups of them." She wonders. "Anyway, we really should get a move on." Neji pipes in, changing the topic to something safer. "Well, we need to finish getting checked over and then wake up Mr Wolfy here, then we can go." Naruto points out dryly as Naruto scoops Dart up into his arms.
Within minutes, Shikamaru finishes his rounds and they began to think of ways to wake Kiba up from his nap. Naruto stayed out of it, surprisingly enough, but then, he did have a sleeping Fairy Dragon in his arms, so he could be excused from not wanting to lose the little guy just so he can take a turn waking their warlock.
)-o-(
Naruto
After hours of searching about the keep and fending off attacks by skeletons and more low level fiends, they finally arrived at the door leading into the sorcerer chambers. They break to eat and drink, Dart curls up to nap once more, not that he blames the little dragon since they're all getting tired and they're all getting affected. Hinata's head found its way to his shoulder earlier and he put his arm about her shoulders to help steady her.
As he turns to look at her, he finds that she's fast asleep. He smiles slightly at the heiress, kind of uneasy about having her fall asleep while leaning on him. It felt like something was fluttering about in his midsection as his face heats up. He didn't know what to make of his reactions to the solo girl of the party, although he did wonder if any of the others were reacting in the same way he was or if it's just him.
He turns to find Choji trying to stay awake while Neji and Shikamaru were busy meditating. Kiba seems to be busy examining a bunch of items like amulets, rings, pendants, and three scrolls. He sighs and stifles a yawn, trying to stay awake but boredom and exhaustion were lowering his defenses. Within minutes, with his back against the wall, he found himself dreaming about deer flavored Ramen while telling the Third about his adventures.
-)T(-
"Naruto... Naruto! Your catnap is over!" He hears Kiba shout into one of his ears. He growls in a throaty manner as he opens his eyes to glare hatefully up at the Dire Werewolf. "You have ten seconds to run before I neuter you!" He snarls and he hears Hinata stir to his left.
Kiba's smile seems to fade on seeing his expression, he really wished he could follow through with that threat but, unless he's got a silver knife, the damage would repair itself. Making it so that he never did it. Something that kind of reminds him how he heals before he entered into this game. He frowns as he ponders that, almost not noticing when Hinata eeps as she discovered she had fallen asleep leaning on him.
He snaps out of his thoughts as he smiles slightly at Hinata, her face seems to go crimson before she turns to look away from him. He gets to his feet and notices that Dart's already taken to the air. "You two look so cute together!" Dart comments and he tries his hardest to keep his expression neutral while Neji just seems to shake his head.
"Anyway, hope you two feel refreshed, we're about to deal with one of the bosses of the keep. Expect a lot of underlings and spells flying about." Kiba says as the warlock moves to stand with Shikamaru. With a shrug, he heads to the door, already having one of his swords in his hands as gets ready to open the door, trusting that Neji's already checked for traps and gave it an ok.
"Ready?" He asks, Dart hangs about Shikamaru, likely to help protect the cleric by using his illusions. Most of them nod, weapons at the ready.
He opens the door and manages to evade a large fireball coming at him. He ducks and rolls while the fireball hits the wall in the hallway. "I was wondering when you'd show up. Adventurers, blah! You're always gumming up the works." The short sorcerer with a messy red bread. "You're a Dwarf?" He says in amazement as he matches book description to reality.
"Aye! I am, you have a problem with that?" The Dwarf demands, the crystal at the top of the staff blazing a sick green color. "Not really, no." He admits after a few seconds, the distraction allowed the others to enter into the large room that didn't smell too good.
The Dwarf blinks a bit, slightly surprised at that. "I just, well, you know... Never thought I'd meet one... working with... Gnolls?" He says and the Dwarf shrugs. "Well, work's work, and what not." The Dwarf grumbles and he nods in agreement. "Yea, guess so." He says as he takes the other sword from its sheath while the crystal lights up once more.
"Did I miss something?" Kiba wonders before getting hushed by Neji. Within seconds, the room fills with berobed Gnolls and sickly looking fiends. One of the Gnolls cries something in its native language, likely translating into 'Attack!' or 'Charge!' since the fiends begin to come towards them at a looping run. The Gnolls begin to cast spells as Choji and Hinata come to fight by his side while Shikamaru and Kiba begin their spell casting to counter the Dwarf's and the thirteen Gnolls.
He manages to dispatch the first fiend with ease and moves to attack a second. It likely helps that they leveled up quiet a bit since they started this dungeon crawl, he hopes he's got the name right. It's likely because of that, these fiends seem to be hardly a challenge for them. The seventeen fiends fell to Choji, Hinata, and his battle skills while Neji seemed to have managed to kill three of the mage Gnolls whole the Dwarf sorcerer exchange spells with Kiba and Shikamaru. Dart seems to have moved to help Neji with the Gnolls.
It didn't take long for him move to where the Gnolls were with Choji and Shikamaru. He hisses in pain as he gets hit by a Magic Missile in the shoulder. He returns fire by sending a Magic Missiles at the one who shoot at him, it hit the Gnoll's nose and Choji manages to toss another Gnoll into that one. He gives Choji a thumbs up while Choji just waves before moving to help Hinata.
He moves forward and spears the fallen Gnolls in the head, killing them before moving to engage the Dwarf since it seems as if the last four Gnolls were about to be dealt with by Choji, Dart, Hinata, and Neji. It doesn't help that it looks like Kiba's about to enter into a rage. And so he brings down his sword on the Dwarf's head, causing the sorcerer to drop to the ground.
"Well, that wasn't too hard." Choji admits after a few minutes. He frowns as he studies the Dwarf, he can hear swallow breathing coming from the fallen Dwarf. So he's still alive, huh? Oh well, not my problem. He decides after a few seconds as he debates what to do with the Dwarf.
"Well done, well done! Bravo!" A feminine voice says with a bit of soft clapping echoing through the room. They turn to regard a very feminine elven woman entering into the room. "Such handsome specimens we have here! A full blooded Drow and a Naztharune Rakashasa swordman." The woman says and he frowns as he gets a better view of her features, her skin is a chocolate brown, her hair copper in color with amber eyes.
She's an elf, but some kind of cross breed though. He thinks as she continues walking into the room, he highly doubts that she's harmless though, not when she managed to command Gnolls, fiends, sketelons, Hell Hounds, and the Dwarf. Sure, she seems to be dressed in a dress but considering Dart's abilities, the dress is likely an illusion over top of she's truly wearing, which he bets is some kind of magical armor.
More Gnolls entered into the room from behind them and from another doorway, their crossbows pointed at them as their boss walks more into the room, confident about her abilities to come out of this alive it seems. "It is very rare for a Rakashasa to walk about, displaying their true identities to the world at large." The woman says, her amber eyes seem to be hungry at the sight of him. Its as if should couldn't get enough of looking at him, which kind of made him very edgy for some reason.
He lets the breath he had been unknowingly holding when the elven woman turns to regard Neji, he could tell that Kiba didn't seem happy being dismissed as unimportant. Although what really puzzles him is Hinata's reaction when the woman had been setting her sights on him. Hinata's grip on her sword seems to have tighten since her knuckles seem to be pale as her tail lashes through the air. Oddly, it kind of reminds him of these two alley cats had acted before they got into a fight.
I wonder if this is the beginnings of the infamous 'cat' fight that I heard so much about. He muses as the elven woman seemed to realize what kind of effect she's having on Hinata but doesn't seem too worried about it as the boss woman moves close to Neji, her index finger moving down Neji's blood stained cheek. Creating a clean trail through the spot of blood and then as she pulls away, she puts said index finger in her mouth for a second, humming a bit before taking the index finger out of her mouth.
Neji, surprise surprise, had a frown on his face but hasn't made an attempt to move from his position. Shikamaru and Kiba get within feet of them, he could only guess where Dart is hiding, likely using an illusion to hide. His eyes flicker to the Dwarf, wondering if the sorcerer had woken up yet.
"Ah yes, the Dwarf. What an unusual specimen he was. I was growing bored of him, but then, Dwarves are usually tiring and trying beings." The elf woman says, clearly not realizing that the Dwarf is very much alive. "If I hadn't needed a magic user so badly, I would have allowed my Gnolls to kill him once this keep came into my possession." He sighs mentally as he notices the Dwarf's one hand twitch.
Yip, he's come too. He muses and then uses Detect Thoughts on the Dwarf to see just what's going through his mind. To his luck, the Dwarf seems to be in a bit of a rage over what his previous boss had said about him. It seems that the Dwarf really, really wants to strangle the woman, so he allows the spell to fade as he moves to stand by Neji while the woman switches to trying to get Neji and him to switch sides.
"Dwarf's pissed." He mutters softly under his breath in Undercommon. Neji turns slightly to regard him with a hint of surprise before his face returns to normal. "I see." Neji replies in the same language.
He blinks as Hinata gives a war cry as she starts attacking the elven woman, clearly didn't like the mentioned of him being the woman's 'bed' buddy. Everybody seems so startled that they just watched as the illusion of the dress vanishes to reveal armor and a large mace. "Huh, she's a priestess." Shikamaru muses after a few minutes as they watch the fight going on between Hinata and boss lady of the keep.
"So... what did Naruto tell you?" Kiba asks with a slight scowl on his face, it's clear that Kiba's sore about the lady's interest in Neji and himself. "The Dwarf's not dead." Neji says in a calm voice and at his words, the Dwarf gets to his stubby feet and with a snarl, casts a spell when the priestess manages to get Hinata to the ground.
The woman screams but within seconds, the flesh from her face vanishes before the body touches the ground. Hinata pushes the corpse off of her and the Dwarf says hatefully, "At least I wasn't a elf bitch mutt!" Then the Dwarf spites on the corpse.
As the Gnolls realize what just happened, they shoot their arrows, but they're already moving to take them out. Between them and the Dwarf, they manged to kill, hopefully, the last of the Gnolls in the room.
"Well, I guess I better be heading out." The Dwarf muses after they finish looting the corpses. "Well, hopefully we won't ever meet again, huh?" He says and the Dwarf chuckles. "Aye, let's hope we never see each others ugly mugs ever again." The Dwarf says and with that, the Dwarf snaps his fingers, any of his personal effects vanish while a satchel appears at the Dwarf's feet.
Without a bye, the Dwarf teleports away, leaving the keep to them. "How come people respond like that to you?" Kiba demands and he shrugs. "I guess it's because I'm lovable?" He guesses and Choji chuckles while most of the others seem to grin on hearing that.
-)Be Continued . . .(-