Into the Arcane Sanctuary
Piricus
"Okay, so before we go in, Laurella are there any of those skeletons in there?" the warrior asked as we all reached the bottom of the stairs into the next level of the harem.
The rogue concentrated and I could see a trail of stars going into the next room. "No," she assured. "In fact, I don't see anything ahead of us."
"Well that's reassuring," I said sarcastically.
"Well, there's the next staircase," the druid said, pointing down the narrow corridor about a hundred feet.
I clapped my hands together sarcastically. "Great! Who wants to go first? The rogue said she doesn't sense anything."
"Maria," the paladin asked, scanning the sides of the dark corridor, "Can you detect any traps?"
The assassin scoured every inch of what was in front us carefully. "No," she said after a minute.
"Just li' that?" the barbarian asked dubiously. For once I didn't blame him.
"It seem too easy," the sorcerer agreed, leery.
"Well maybe it is," the mercenary said doubtfully himself.
"You should go first merc, seeing as we paid you to lead us," I suggested with a laugh.
"I will send Bibo," the druid offered. "She is small, can fly, and will blend in with the darkness."
"Wow druid, you'd risk your bird's life?" I asked skeptically.
"I believe it will be fine, Laurella doesn't sense anything alive and Maria doesn't sense anything magical or mechanical," he assured and locked eyes with his bird. The bird gave a short chirp and flew off his shoulder into the corridor. We all watched carefully as the bird flew to the end of the hallway and then doubled back to us. Nothing even remotely interesting happened.
"See there?" the warrior said. "Let's go," he said and started walking forward. All of us followed him. We hadn't gotten to the end of the hallway, only about halfway when I felt a familiar rumble beneath my feet.
"Are you serious?" I snapped irritably before the floor began to give way and we all plummeted down to the level below. Luckily, the lower floor wasn't as far as the first one had been; we were all able to land safely. Unluckily, we seemed to land in the middle of a group of gigantic creatures that had been conveniently standing around doing nothing, so they were instantly alerted as well fell into their midst. These things had to have been at least fifteen feet tall and were grossly disproportionate. They looked humanoid, but their heads were tiny and their eyes were even smaller. The main trunks of these monsters were wide and thick, they seemed to have enormous stomachs. Their limbs were narrow at the points of attachment to the main body and were skinny up until the very ends of their extremities. Their hands and feet were gigantic, making their limbs look like a sling. They wore nothing save a loincloth that barely covered anything.
I watched as one swung an enormous fist at the brown mutt while it fell. The druid's bird was the only one able to keep on balance, seeing it was the only one that could fly. It dove into the monster's face and pecked at its tiny eyes, it didn't do damage but it was an appropriate distraction. The monster missed the brown mutt completely and in fact threw itself so grossly off balance with the miss that it stumbled forward dangerously.
"What the heck are these things?" the warrior asked, eyeing them uneasily.
"I don't know," the assassin admitted, a strange thing for her, who usually seemed to have the answer for everything.
"I do," our saber-cat said as we all backed ourselves into a circle, a stupid thing in my opinion, but we just didn't have a choice, they were forming a ring around us and they were so big we had no way of getting around them.
"Give us an explanation later kitty-cat, just tell me if these things have a weakness that you know of," I insisted with a growl. Right now I was more concerned with defeating them and moving on quickly than satisfying curiosity or hearing background information. I didn't care what these things were or where they came from; I just wanted to blast them into oblivion. Why is it that every place we need to go is always under several levels of something else or out in the middle of nowhere? I was quickly becoming impatient, perhaps it had something to do with the fact the amazon's energy seemed to be drawing closer the further down we went.
"They are immune to most magic, master necromancer, and their flesh is very thick. I doubt any of our weapons will harm them," she admitted seriously.
"Everything has to have some weakness," the assassin said, assessing the monsters quickly.
"These things have terrible balance, and they can't see well at all," the druid supplied.
"Then let us use it against them," the paladin announced. Move into them, and if you can, try and get between them so they hit each other."
"Can they really be that stupid?" the rogue asked, leery as she watched the monstrous demons close in on us.
The sorcerer took the opportunity to hit one in the face with an ice spire, though like our saber-cat had said, it did nothing to harm the monster. It sneezed violently, rattling the earth and sending shockwaves of sound. Apparently it sneezed into the face of another demon, which growled angrily and swung a massive fist like a lead weight into the first one's face in retaliation. The huge monster stumbled sideways and with a primal grunt it sluggishly attempted a strike of its own. The punch connected with the second demon's gut and bounced off the fatty flesh like a rubber ball.
"Apparently so," I said in amusement.
"All tha same, they're so big a strike from one could kill ya instantly," the barbarian said uneasily, watching them.
"The answer is simple, dimwit," I said plainly. "Don't get hit."
"I think we all can agree on that much," the druid said with a snort.
"Hey, blunder-belly," the warrior called to the monster in front of him with a grin on his face.
The gargantuan demon stared him down, squinting its tiny eyes, then started taking enormous steps forward, rattling the earth.
"Everyone break apart now!" the paladin called, as all of us darted towards the demons, running in different directions.
I watched as the warrior sent a fireball flying up the nose of a demon, then ran swiftly underneath the legs of one behind him. As I suspected, the monster the warrior hit couldn't distinguish that it was the warrior that attacked it and not its fellow. As far as it was concerned, the attack had come in the direction of the one the warrior ran under, and my further assumption was that these things could only really see movement and not distinguish much of anything. The monster the warrior hit plowed fiercely into the one he ran under and the two giants began clashing stupidly.
I actually laughed when I saw the sorcerer teleport himself onto the shoulder of one of the ogres and zap lightning into its ear. It probably was the equivalent of having a mosquito buzz in our ear, but the monster acted just like we would have. It lashed out with its enormous hand, trying to bat the sorcerer away. In a blink he was gone as the unintelligent monster smashed its own cheek, causing it to stumble backwards, extremely off balance into another creature. Those two snarled at each other and began fighting as well.
The druid's vine snaked between the feet of another demon, just passing over the toes. The demon reached down to rip the vine off at the same moment the plant encircled the feet of another demon. The druid somehow signaled the plant to tighten itself and plunge back into the floor, and as it did, it tripped both demons over each other and they came crashing down hard to the ground in a tangled heap.
The two demons on the floor thrashed around wildly in a grappling match, shaking the very floor itself. They rolled sideways into another demon, bowling it over and collecting it in their brawl on the ground.
I felt the earth rumble as one of the enormous demons came up behind me. I had an idea. I enhanced my dagger with corroding poison, I knew it would not be enough to do any serious damage, but pain was the key factor here. Minding my placement and position carefully, I moved into the creature's foot, big enough to be the first story of a house and I slammed my dagger point first into its big toe.
It was just as I expected. The creature roared in pain as I watched the area my dagger had stabbed turn a blackish hue as it decayed the flesh around the puncture wound. Nothing more than a bug-bite would feel to us, but still painful enough to cause a reaction. The monster grabbed its foot and began to jump around on one leg. I struggled to keep my footing as I was tossed into the air by the sheer force of the vibrations.
The barbarian finished what I had started; he threw an enormous chunk of rock, which only he could lift and hit the back of the creature's skinny knee. Without its other leg, it fell onto the floor. The rogue fired into the eye of one creature, then turned around and fired into the other one of another. The two giants swung opposing arms with half-vision and managed only to collide with each other.
The paladin and the assassin were running crisscrossing patterns between the legs of two more demons, making them increasingly dizzy. One smashed the ground pretty close to the assassin. She twirled in the air and landed on her feet, but the shockwave of the monster's steps so close to her tossed her into the air once more.
The paladin caught her midair as she would have landed in the path of an oncoming monster, and instead the two of them landed atop a monster's foot. The other one that had been chasing them raised a fist and struck at them furiously. Both moved aside swiftly as the monster striking at them smashed its gargantuan fist into the other's foot like a sledgehammer.
The two howled in fury and charged each other like two fighting rams. Soon, everywhere we looked, the monsters were brawling each other all around us. How pathetic for them, but how fortunate for us. The only question was, how were we actually going to kill them? For all their fighting and aggression, none of them had struck a killing blow on any of the others. That part was frustrating, and if we didn't figure out something soon, it would also be counterproductive.
"What now?" the rogue asked, looking around at them skeptically.
"We need a way to take them out immediately while they're preoccupied," the warrior observed, rocking on his feet with the motion of the rolling ground so as not to fall over.
" Can't we cave in the rest of the ceiling and kill them the way we killed those dune beasts?" the rogue asked, eyeing the remnants above us.
"No, they're too big for that. It would feel like a shower of dust at most," the assassin said, looking around, "and, we've nothing to protect ourselves from the downfall either."
"Cloudyous, can you no split earth? Can bury them?" the mage asked the druid, referencing to the times I had previously seen him open up a vent in the ground.
"I can't open one big enough for all of them," he answered looking around, calculating.
"Can't we jus' knock 'em in one at a time?" the barbarian asked, eyeing them.
"No, there are too many and we cannot maneuver them that precisely one at a time," the assassin answered.
"There has to be something," the paladin asked quickly, looking them over.
"Kitty-cat," I asked my indentured saber-cat.
She turned to look at me respectfully with her wild golden eyes. That was one thing that made me laugh. No matter what I said to her or how I insulted her, her honor would not allow her to strike at me or retaliate. Honor. What a stupid concept.
"Yes, master necromancer?" she asked politely.
"How humanoid are these things? Do they breathe air?" I asked, cutting straight to the point.
She nodded. "Yes, master necromancer, though their lungs are deep within their chests, just like ours. We probably cannot reach them with anything we possess," she answered.
"You're thinking too hard, kitty-cat. I would think the answer would be obvious. Any type of animal moving in for the kill would strike at the—" I began bluntly.
"Nira is not an animal," the warrior hissed at me.
"This is not what master wishes to say," the she-cat said quickly. "Any predator, frasa, a full firgish or even humans, can bring down their prey more quickly by striking the—" she began.
"Throat," the assassin finished for her.
"But how do we do that? Our saber-cat has said it herself, no weapons or magic that we possess can seriously harm these creatures," our mercenary said dubiously.
"We do not possess the weapons, but nature does," the druid said, nodding to himself. "I have an idea. Stand clear," he announced. In the following moments he closed his eyes and began making strange growling sounds deep within his throat. I could feel something break through the spirit barrier, and a rush of savage energy rip through the area. This new energy had every feel of a predatory animal, it was fierce and unrefined. Brute strength and bloodlust lingered in the air from the druid's strange magic as the energy began to take shape. A ball of red light coalesced around the druid into a shape that looked like a badger's head. The ethereal fangs of the creature were the most prominent part, and I watched as the druid directed this strange new spirit into the vine in front of him.
The effects were most interesting. The vine doubled in size and thickened to the width of half the bear's body. It began to wriggle on the floor like a thrashing fish out of water as it lengthened to nearly double what it had been before and began jumping in and out of the floor like a dolphin would in water. I could feel the rumble beneath my feet as the vine ripped into the inner layers of stone. The druid placed one hand on the side of part of the vine, and a subtle glow came from his hand, my guess was his way of giving the empowered plant orders.
The vine rocketed forward through the ground and washed over the giant demons, regardless of position. Like expected, the creatures thrashed wildly. I saw the vine tremble and for a moment I thought it was going to break, but I was wrong. The vine held and finally managed to crawl its way up to the heads of the creatures and wrap around their meaty necks like a noose. The vine swirled over itself like the coils of a serpent around the demons' necks, and just like a python, the vine began to constrict around the throats of the demons. The monstrous demons struggled fiercely, but as I already knew, it was just wasting their breath even more quickly. They began to convulse and I could feel their demented energies begin to fade. Within minutes the last demon lost its final breath, and then fell still.
The vine didn't stop after the demons were dead. Whatever spirit the druid had channeled into it seemed to still be alive, because the vine dove furiously into the corpulent corpses of the fallen demons and began decomposing them, much to my surprise. I felt an odd force wash over me as pure physical and spiritual energies flowed into my body, obviously the final life forces of the demons, but they had somehow been purified by the druid's plant, which was now giving them to us. I felt my chin tingle and I realized that the vine's energy was healing the bruise I had been developing where the horror's fist disguised as my father's had hit me a short while ago.
"Wow," the rogue said as she watched a slice on her upper arm heal before her eyes.
"Yeah, 'is is different," the barbarian agreed.
"This is not harmful, relax Maria," the paladin said gently to the assassin, whom had tensed incredibly. Observation told me that she was being affected by the druid's magic too, and she hadn't been expecting it. She seemed to detest the thought that she wasn't immune to this new force, and I could see why. As an assassin, she was supposed to be above every kind of magic, natural included.
"It's pure," the paladin assured further.
"I know," she said, not relaxing in the slightest.
"What's the matter assassin? Did you just find out you're human? Wow, bested by nature, how sad," I taunted her.
"Not really," the druid said genuinely, "If it's any consolation, Maria, nature magic is the most difficult to corrupt."
"Everything can be corrupted," she said apathetically.
"Now that these are dead," the warrior said, interrupting her, "which way do we go next?"
The rogue looked around the room. "I'm getting a strong pull that way," she announced, pointing off to the right.
"Wha' do ya mean, Laurella?" the barbarian asked. "Piricus, can ya feel Chyemme's energy down tha' way?" he asked, turning to me.
"No," I answered briskly.
"Then where?" the warrior asked.
"Below us still," I remarked simply.
"There is only ground beneath our feet, there are no more levels of this establishment," the druid informed, touching and apparently communicating with the vine.
"This place isn't a physical part of this world," the assassin said, mirroring my mind. "It is its own dimension set apart by magic," she clarified.
"That strong magic," the sorcerer said gravely.
"And extremely dangerous. No one should be that powerful," the assassin said eerily.
"Young cub, what is it that you sense? Do you sense magic like mage of the dark skin possesses? Or dark energy as it is with demons?" the she-cat asked.
"No, it feels like . . .people," she said, confused.
"Are they dead?" the mercenary asked gravely.
"If they were, then chances are Laurella would not be sensing them and Piricus would be," the paladin said simply. "It seems to me that innersight detects living life force, and if they were dead, Laurella would not be able to sense them. That is the talent of a necromancer, rather. To sense the energy of death."
"Once again, you have a wonderful talent of speaking the obvious," I told him snidely, and all of my skeletons crossed their arms, mimicking my own gesture. Sad to say, they hadn't been of much use in this last battle.
"I thought everyone that was down here died?" the mercenary asked. "I don't know how they would have survived with so many monsters around."
"Maybe they guards?" the sorcerer suggested.
"Maybe we should check it out," the warrior suggested. "We might be able to help someone out."
"Or go wandering off for no reason," I growled. I wasn't in any mood to undertake some charity mission that would only delay us further and put myself at risk. I came to find the amazon, and by that right, whatever it was that had the Trag 'Oul damn audacity to make me go through this mess to begin with.
"The chance to help someone out is a good reason," the paladin argued.
"It's a waste of time," I countered flatly. In reality, I was thinking that it was actually a race against time. I had no idea what was going on with the amazon or the sorceress and any second could be their last. I would be beyond pissed if I went through all this garbage to end up with nothing.
"Maybe they're soldiers and kin help us out," the barbarian offered.
The she-cat nodded. "I have no knowledge of the ways of human magic, but it can never hurt your chances if there are more members in a pride when going up against a strong opponent."
"That is sound logic," the druid agreed.
"Hurry up then," I snapped. "Let's get moving." By this point I guessed that I might as well go with the flow instead of argue, maybe we'd be done faster that way.
We hastily made our way around the monumental bodies of the demons that we had just slain and hurried into a narrow hallway. The hallway branched off into three different directions at the end. The rogue had taken point and was apparently honing in on this strange new energy with ease, she raced around several corners and darkened passageways swiftly until we came to a dead end.
"Brilliant, little girl," I growled. "There's a wall there."
"But there's something on the other side of it," she argued without turning around. She began running her hands over the stone surface, checking it.
The barbarian walked over to examine it for himself. He knocked on the stone, then shook his head. "Solid rock. Ain't nothin' hollow 'bout it," he announced.
It took a moment, but a faint sound, like a knock was heard. I realized it was coming from the other side of the wall. The rogue was right, something was alive behind this wall.
"That sounded like a person just now," the mercenary affirmed.
"Maybe you should break through the wall, Alminus," the warrior suggested. "You're probably strong enough."
"I do not think such would be a good idea," our saber-cat interjected. "Whoever was on the other side of this wall did not scream or make loud noise. If they were in some type of trouble they most likely would have roared out to us or pounded on the wall. I think, they might be trying to signal us for silence," she observed.
"I agree," the assassin said as she scanned the wall over.
"What should we do?" the mercenary asked. "If we cannot communicate, we have no idea what's going on."
"I know soldier's code," the paladin offered. "In times of battle where stealth was needed, we developed a series of knocks, so many stand for such and such letter, and so on," he explained.
"Go ahead n' try," the barbarian encouraged.
The paladin walked over to the wall and began tapping on it strong enough to make a sound, but light enough as not to bang on it. Moments followed, and then there was a response. I scowled as minutes passed and this unspoken conversation showed no signs of stopping.
"Paladin, I don't have time to listen to you preach a lecture through a wall. What the hell is going on?" I growled at him.
He held up a hand for my silence, listening intently to the knocks on the wall. At last, it was silent.
"Well?" I repeated impatiently.
"There are a group of the harem women behind this wall. The one I was talking to said they're in some type of cage and that they're being held hostage by a strange creature with four arms. I didn't get the full information," he said looking at me, clearly telling me that my interruption had cost him some words, "but it seems they are being given one at a time to some other demon. The one I was talking to said the demons will kill them all if they try to make an escape, which is why we shouldn't break through this wall. They'd all likely be dead before we could reach them," he explained.
"Then what the hell do we do then? Like I said, this has been one big waste of time," I hissed. How did I know this wasn't going to be simple in the slightest?
"Hold on Piricus," the paladin said calmly. "I wasn't finished. She said there is another way into the room they're held in that can only be reached from the outside. We just need to walk a little this way," he said and began moving to the left, "and pull down the arm on this statue," he said simply, gesturing to a marble bust of a desert man on a pedestal.
"Then wha' r' we waitin' fur?" the barbarian asked.
"Use your head—oh wait, you'd take that literally," I said sarcastically. "Do you really want to run in there blind without a plan?"
"He's right," the assassin said plainly. "Scorpious, I have an idea. Open the way and I will go first, Laurella, you come too," she said to the rogue.
The rogue looked confused for a moment, then moved into place behind the assassin. The paladin quietly pulled the switch, and a piece of the stone wall creaked sideways, revealing a small passage.
"The rest of you stay here," the assassin said to us plainly as she and the rogue disappeared into the shadows.
Moments passed, and there was no sign of movement anywhere. We all tensed as we could make out two shadows moving towards us through the tunnel.
"Well?" I asked impatiently, expecting an answer from the rogue or the assassin, neither of which responded.
"It not them," the sorcerer pointed out.
"Obviously," I said sarcastically as two terrified-looking girls came out, one in the assassin's armor, and one in the rogue's.
"Ah, I see," the druid said. "They switched you two places."
"Yes," one said uneasily. "The demons are choosing the next of us to present to their leader . . ." one said with a shiver.
"They said to wait for a few minutes, and another one of the girls will come out and let you know it's safe to come in. They were going to distract the guards . . ." the other said quietly.
"How r' they gonna fight without their armor?" the barbarian asked. "Y, didn' they take it with 'em?"
"Because it only has the scent of demon blood on it," I said snidely, "and if they were wearing it, they wouldn't exactly fit in with the bunch now, would they? And if they left it lying around, the demons would find it, and probably attack the whole bunch of them," I finished bluntly.
"But they also left their weapons," the warrior said in concern, seeing the gleam of the assassin's katars against the wall in the hall in front of us.
"That woman is a weapon," I said with a growl.
"Piricus is right," the paladin agreed. "Maria can take care of herself and so can Laurella. I doubt they are defenseless, even if they don't have their preferred combat weapons."
"Well, whatever they are doing, they need to hurry the hell up, I'm tired of waiting," I said truthfully and tapped my foot to emphasize the point.
"Patience will benefit us all in this case. If we rush we could get them killed," the paladin said gravely.
"Patience is a worthless virtue for the most part," I countered.
"For most part? Wow. You no deal in absolutes this time," the sorcerer laughed.
"Someone's comin'," the barbarian announced as another shadow surfaced into the hall.
"Hurry!" the harem girl urged as she surfaced, followed by a mass of others in brightly colored attire. "Your friend is fighting the demon guards alone!"
"Wow, you didn't stay to help? What a surprise," I said sarcastically.
"We can we do?" one in turquoise attire asked me skeptically.
"Nothing," I said with a laugh. "Because you're all useless. You probably can't even make it back topside on your own. And speaking of useless—" I said, glaring around myself in contempt, "if they die then this whole excursion will have been useless. Well, maybe not entirely for me, but—" I added.
"He's right," the paladin said quickly. "Nira," the paladin said to the she-cat, whom sprang to the ready on his command instantly.
"Yes, master paladin?" she responded respectfully.
"You and Ahmad, escort these women back to the safety of the upper level, make sure nothing happens to them, then return as swiftly as you can," he instructed.
"As you wish, master paladin," the she-cat said and she and the mercenary shared a mistrusting glance between them. I could clearly see the resentment in the mercenary's face and for a vague moment I wondered if he would actually try to get rid of her while the rest of us were not present. He'd be a fool, but I was almost sure that assessment wasn't far off base. I would take care of that right now. I didn't give a damn one way or the other about the mercenary, but the she-cat was actually somewhat useful, and more over she was my minion. No one messes with my minions without my say so.
"Merc," I said plainly as he turned to leave.
"Yes?" he asked me hesitantly.
"If the kitty- cat here doesn't come back and you do, I will assume that you've killed her and I will kill you myself thereafter, got it?" I said bluntly.
" Trust me, I wouldn't dare," he said submissively as he and the saber-cat started leading the group of terrified women back the way we had come.
"You don' really think e'd try it, do ya?" the barbarian asked me skeptically.
"He's really not all that intelligent, so my answer to that would be yes," I said simply and walked ahead into the hall.
"What about their armor?" the warrior asked, watching the two women wearing them disappear down the hall with the others.
"We don't have time to worry about that right now," the druid answered, "we will trust that their own skills are enough protection for now," he assured and quickly followed the pack of his three mutts into the darkness.
"They'll definitely need these," the warrior mumbled and picked up the rogue and assassin's weapons as we hurried by.
I could hear the sounds of enraged demons coming from ahead and the sounds of heavy impact. I couldn't hear any sounds that could have been coming from the rogue or the assassin.
We reached the interior chamber, which had obviously been converted into some crude type of jail cell, the demons must have used debris from the wall or ruined furniture for this make-shift prison, which was a mixture of wood, metal, and stone. To my surprise, I couldn't see any signs of murdered harem women, or for that matter, any signs of human death. Something about this wasn't making sense. What would demons want with live human women?
I felt a rush of air and saw a shadow leap aside as a massive fist came crashing down, followed swiftly by another, and then another. I could vaguely make out the tall shadow with its four arms. It must have been some variant of those sand raider things we had seen earlier down in the sewers.
The figure waited until the last second, then jumped onto one of the creature's arms. I saw another shadow and realized there were two demons present. The figure yielded sideways and nimbly flipped over the strike of the second demon, which skewered the first on accident, killing it. I heard the body hit the floor and smelled demon blood.
It must have been the assassin; there was no way the rogue could move that fast or that precisely. The second demon stepped down on one of its fellow's blades, breaking it into pieces. It was close enough to grab the assassin and with four hands it easily boxed her in. I couldn't see her anywhere, the creature's hands closed in around her. It howled in pain and I could smell the fresh blood. A few of its fingers actually fell off. As we drew closer I could see how mutilated the fingers were, they had been cut deeply by some type of large blade and were nearly torn to shreds.
The monstrosity stumbled backwards, immediately releasing the assassin. When the dim light revealed her, she was completely unharmed; it looked as if the thing hadn't been able to make contact with her at all and for good reason. Pieces of the first demon's enormous sword were swirling around the assassin in a dome, held together by some unseen force, perhaps the assassin's mind. The circle of blades had formed a quite formidable shield.
The creature leaned forward and lashed out with its hair like a streaking whip. The strike hit the bladed shield and got cut off, but not before some of it made contact with the unarmored assassin. She flew backwards with great force toward a side wall. She must have realized where she was headed, because she immediately disassembled her blade shield. A good move on her part, she narrowly avoided slamming backward into her own blades as she hit the wall.
The demon closed in on her and was intercepted by the druid's vine, which wrapped tightly around two of its limbs diagonal to each other on opposing sides. The thing struggled with itself, trying to decide which limbs to use to break free. The druid's bird flew into its face and began savagely pecking at its eyes, causing it to stumble onto the ground, where the vine managed to pin the rest of its body.
The barbarian raced over and used the opportunity to cleave straight through the monster's neck with his enormous axe and brute strength.
"Maria, are you alright?" the paladin asked, hastily making his way over.
"Fine," she insisted, though I could clearly see she was not. Wearing no armor and no padding, she had hit the wall with a fair amount of unabsorbed force. Instead of armor she was wearing a skimpy blue outfit with no middle that had left her stomach exposed, and she had slammed down hard on her left side from the looks of it. There was a deep bruise starting to form there and I could see the indent in her skin, evidence of some broken ribs.
She hissed in pain as the paladin pulled her to her feet and helped her straighten herself up. He made to heal the wound, but she stopped him.
"There's no time for that right now. They took Laurella to their leader," she insisted. "Ryelass, my katars," she said, though not impolite.
The warrior handed her the weapons without question, but the barbarian had one. "Why'd they take Laurella?" he asked seriously.
"I don't know," she admitted strangely.
I laughed harshly. "That wasn't part of your plan, was it assassin?"
"No, but it could work to our advantage," she said plainly.
"How could that girl's death be an advantage other than freeing up space and another skeleton?" I asked sarcastically.
"I didn't say her death would be," the assassin said giving me an icy look. "That would actually be a disaster."
"Which way did they take her?" the paladin asked quickly.
"This way," the assassin said, starting forward swiftly, though I could tell the pain was immense. She was definitely slower, her movements were becoming less refined, and she was having to make minor adjustments to her steps to counteract her loss of balance. But, if it was anything to her credit, she was disguising it fairly well; the others couldn't really see the changes in her.
We quickly made our way through the darkness and I began to feel an immense magical energy. We were approaching something big, and as we drew closer, I could also feel the faint pull of the amazon's energy. I could hear the creaking of bones as my skeletons moved behind me, and I scowled at the druid's brown mutt as it sniffed the leg of one like it were some sort of treat as it ran past.
I could also smell smoke. Something was burning up ahead. I saw a streak of fire flicker past ahead of us and a shimmering red light in the background.
"There," the assassin said as we reached a wide room and sprinted in. I was completely surprised. There were several long-armed demons lining the room, sitting on the floor and one that was completely burnt orange all over sitting next to an archway that contained shimmering red plasma. It's burning red eyes were like tiger's-eye gemstones, they had many layers that shimmered in the firelight. I vaguely recalled seeing this particular monster on the floor in the witch's house. We inched slightly closer, so that we were standing directly behind two beaming torches, burning steadily.
"Wha—" the barbarian began.
"Shh!" the assassin urged soundlessly and I could see why. They were all transfixed, watching the rogue in the center of the room. She was dressed in one of the desert harlot's clothes, she had pink silk pants that fanned out towards the foot but were completely slit up the side, revealing part of her undergarments at the waist. At her waist there was a short embroidered skirt that went off to one side and had several golden bells on it. There was a transparent triangle of fabric covering her stomach connected to a golden- inlaid pink top with no sleeves that left little to the imagination. She had trails of fabric on her lower arms that were tied in place by several golden bracelets with more bells. She was twirling around in circles, swirling the fabric on her arms and legs, while twirling some sort of chain that was on fire at both ends.
I didn't know what the demons were so absorbed with, why the hell would they care about watching a skinny little girl dance? What was the rogue doing that was keeping them all so fixated? I considered the stimuli: The movement, the fabric, the bells, and the fire. Which one was it? Or was it a combination? If we could figure that out, we might, and I say MIGHT, could end this quickly. Trag 'Oul only knows how the simplest of tasks can get so twisted like they always do with us.
"How is she doing that?" the warrior asked silently, taking in the sight like I had and trying to analyze the circumstances.
"I think it might be—" the druid began, looking around at them, then us and our surroundings. One of his mutts inched ever so slightly forward, putting one paw into the room and suddenly they were all aware of our presence. They roared furiously and sprang to the ready, grabbing multitudes of gigantic weapons where they had been conveniently sitting around within reach.
"Spread out!" the paladin ordered swiftly as all the demons closed in on us. The rogue turned sharply our direction, catching sight of us.
"GUYS USE-!" she tried to say something to the rest of us, but that was all I could hear before the roars of the monsters overtook our ears and drown her out. The orange demon immediately attacked the rogue, its massive fist nearly crushed her in her attempt to dodge aside. She brought the end of the burning chain down fiercely atop the monster's hand, a move I thought it surely could dodge, but for some reason, didn't.
It struck at her again and again, each time coming closer to hitting her. She was fighting with the chain like a whip, and it wasn't even doing a slight amount of damage, but for some reason the strikes kept missing. The warrior was scanning the room, trying to find the best way to reunite her with her weapon, but his efforts were futile.
I tossed a fanged ball of my energy at an oncoming demon and surprisingly, the demon used its metallic bracer on one of its left arms to deflect it. I tried another one aimed at the other side, followed by a consecutive teeth spell into the same spot. I watched with a scowl as the creature blocked them both. All around me, the others seemed to be having problems as well, the creatures seemed to be able to anticipate our every move, their eyes followed us with every minor movement, there was no way anything would escape their notice. Or was there?
I watched one of my skeletons charge the creature's feet headlong while three more divided themselves and went to either side of it and the last one moved into position behind it. To my surprise, the demon seemed to be oblivious to their presence until they started hacking into its exposed legs. The skeletons' bone weapons weren't doing much good, but like the rogue, for some reason it appeared that the demon couldn't see my minions to strike at them.
The rogue gave a pained shout; I watched the enormous demon catch the top part of her foot with its enormous hand. She stumbled and fell immediately, drawing her injured leg into herself. The flame on her chain died immediately upon contact with the floor. The demon's red eyes flared and it roared in fury. I thought I was about to witness the end of the rogue, but quick as lightning, she pulled off the fabric on her arms, tied it hastily onto the chain, and whipped the chain backwards into a burning brazier near the wall. The cloth immediately caught fire; bring the chain back to burning life anew.
The rogue couldn't stand on her foot; my guess was that a few of her bones had been broken or bruised, so she remained on the floor. She began twirling the flaming chain in front of her like a fan, then off to the side, then the other side.
The demon's eyes followed the flame, gaining a focused look on its face. It smashed its fist into one side where the flame had been, then into the other. The strikes were dangerously close to the rogue's body, but they were missing like before. The demon seemed to be confused and had no idea where to strike.
I suddenly understood. I launched a teeth barb into a nearby ruined cushion. The fabric started to burn immediately. I used that moment of distraction to race behind the cushion and the flame. The demon chasing me followed after me, but like the one attacking the rogue, it had no idea where I was.
The warrior reached the rogue's side, and tried to hand over her bow, but she refused. She said something, though I couldn't hear it. The warrior nodded and collected energy into his hand before flinging a fireball into the face of the demon. It shrieked and stumbled, lashing out at everything. The warrior used the distraction to pick the rogue up in his arms and move her hastily out of the way to the wall. There, she collected her bow and took expert aim, firing flaming arrows into the sides and faces of demons all around us.
The male mage caught on. "Push together!" he shouted above the din. One by one, we started pushing the demons back to back. When he seemed satisfied, the sorcerer broke into a run and ran swiftly toward the line of demons. He began tracing a circular perimeter around the monsters, running the whole way and narrowly avoiding crushing blows. I could feel the friction in the floor and out of nowhere, flames erupted around and under the sorcerer's feet, spreading a blazing trail of inferno in his wake as he moved.
The fire corralled the demons back to back and they were all looking frantically around through the fire, but couldn't see a thing.
"Allow me," the druid said, stepping forward. He called out in a whistling noise and raised his arms over head. Stray chunks of broken rock, wood, and metal around the room from the walls, ceiling, and furniture coalesced around him, then flew overhead, superheating as they went. The molten rocks began raining down on the confused demons like a stone Armageddon.
The rocks and earthy debris carried enough weight and force that they crushed the demons, and where they did not, they melted into their flesh. The molten shrapnel finally melded together and came crashing down in an enormous meteor into the center of them, directed by the druid and exploded.
Smoke filled the room as did the scent of burning flesh. When everything settled, the demons lie together in a mass of charred and slightly melted corpses one atop another. That was, all of them except the orange one. I didn't see it anywhere.
Not unlike the assassin could have, the demon suddenly sprang from the shadows of the room, lunging for the warrior in front of the rogue. The warrior crashed his blade into the gargantuan monster's knowing there was no way his strength could ever match the demons. The warrior's blade sparked to life with the lightning power it gained from the Horadric Malus and sent the energy rippling into the demon's sword and into its body. The demon dropped the sword intelligibly and settled for grabbing the warrior instead in one of its lanky arms. It began squeezing the life out of him. The mage craned his neck to get a better look and possibly a better aim, but from where he was standing and the way the monster was flailing, he's just as soon hit the warrior than the monster.
I was surprised. For once, it seemed, the rogue saved him. She followed the monster's movements carefully and timed her shots flawlessly. She dispatched two blazing fire arrows into each of the monster's eyes. Blind though it was, it still didn't relinquish the warrior, and it actually made to take a bite out of him. The stars of innersight lit the area, illuminating the monster. The rogue then used her own spiritual energy as a guiding mark for her arrow. She loosed an ice arrow into the creature's mouth, directly into the back of its throat, though the arrow did graze the side of the warrior's chin about a millimeter. The demon coughed and sputtered, then began wheezing. It was apparent to me that the arrow had mixed with respiratory secretions and had frozen the demon's lungs from the inside out. The creature turned blue around the face and immediately dropped the warrior onto his ass before it fell over backwards, dead.
He touched his chin gingerly more out of reflex than anything. Somehow, other than a miniscule slice, he was fine. The arrow must only have had effect if it actually lands in something. Either that or the rogue was just incredibly weak and the shot, lucky.
"That was actually impressive, rogue," I said raising an eyebrow, "for something that happened on accident," I added with a sarcastic laugh, stating the most probable scenario.
"Tha' wersn't luck, tha' wers skill," the barbarian insisted to me harshly.
"Yep, that was amazing, seeing as she actually managed to hit him too," I said snidely, eyeing the warrior's injury. "Your aim was a little off rogue, if you wanted to kill him, you should have gone a little bit to the right," I added with a laugh.
"Shut up, Piricus!" she hissed venomously.
"Ooh. Getting an attitude? You should ask our mercenary about his personal experiences walking down that avenue. Seriously, no one else would have hit him," I pointed out in humor that I'm very sure she didn't find funny at all.
The rogue cringed, though I wasn't sure if it was out of shame, or pain. Her foot was turning its own hues of blue and she slouched against the wall with an agonized expression on her face.
"My lady," the paladin said, racing to her side. "Let me have a look."
"I'm sorry," the rogue said, eyeing the warrior's chin ruefully. "He's probably right. Chyemme or Nira probably wouldn't have hit you."
"Don't be, I'm fine," the warrior assured gently. "You saved my life just now. You knew what you were doing. I don't think any of the others could have taken the shot and hit the mark as well as you did. You killed that thing just now," he reminded softly.
"Still, I—OUCH!" she squeaked miserably as the paladin moved her injured foot ever so slightly.
"Sorry," the paladin said sincerely.
"Tough up rogue. The assassin's in worse shape than you," I said, watching the mage-slayer out of the corner of my eye. Her injury seemed to be turning purple around the blue edges and there were red spots coming to the surface indicative of inner bleeding. "That's a good look for you, assassin," I added eyeing her injuries with relish. "Black goes very well with blue."
"Be quiet. I'm still not beyond cutting into you," the assassin remarked icily.
"How bad is it?" the rogue asked, looking at her own foot dejectedly.
"I think a few of your toes are broken to be honest," the paladin replied in earnest.
"Ya kin fix it, righ' Scorpious?" the barbarian asked hopefully.
"I can set them back in place, but she'll need a splint to hold them there and it will be extremely painful to walk. I can ease it temporarily, but I doubt it will last long enough to complete this mission," he explained.
"I'll live. Just do it," the rogue insisted.
"Here, I numb first," the sorcerer offered, walking over. He began gently misting the rogue's foot with ice from his hand.
The paladin carefully tested the rogue's pain reflexes gently until she assured him it was alright to proceed. "Brace yourself," the paladin said apologetically.
She nodded solemnly before he hastily pushed her toes into the base of her foot and then pulled two of them sideways back into place. She gave a pained shout, even though her foot had been numbed.
"Is it over?" she croaked miserably, looking at her own swollen, discolored toes.
"Yes, "he answered, "at least the most painful part," the paladin assured. He ran his hand over the injury, washing a subtle glow over it. Some of the bruising faded, but her foot still looked awful to say the least.
"And she's going to walk on that, paladin?" I asked skeptically.
"I hope not, Cloudyous can I ask you to—" the paladin began.
"Of course," the druid answered and removed one of his fur-lined bracers from his arm. He handed it to the paladin, whom pressed the furry side onto the bottom of the rogue's foot like a shoe. The sorcerer picked up a small slab of metal off the floor. I have no idea what it used to belong to, but he froze it over, then handed it to the paladin. The paladin placed the cold metal on top of the rogue's foot, then used the leather lacings of the druid's bracer to tie it gingerly over the top.
"That will have to hold for now," the paladin said gently.
"Thanks guys," she said, looking around.
"Your turn, Maria," the paladin said gently.
"I told you, I'm fine," she insisted.
"Maybe you were a minute ago, but not now," he insisted, eyeing the wound.
"You can't set broken ribs," she said bluntly.
"Drink this at least," the paladin pleaded, handing her a healing potion. "It will take care of any major internal bleeding."
The assassin looked it over carefully, but my guess was that was specifically for show. She had taken more assistance than this from the paladin in the past. My guess was that since she had gotten here into this Trag 'Oul forsaken desert and rendezvoused with Trag 'Oul only knows how many other assassins, she had begun to shape up around others considerably. It was one thing for total strangers to see you become lax even for a second, but another entirely when someone you respected or obeyed was around. This I knew from experience.
She drank the potion without saying a word, and I saw the red spots disappear from her skin and the bruising lessen. The paladin looked her over, a concerned expression still on his face.
"That's still pretty serious," he said gently.
"You know me. I've had worse," she said plainly.
"Allow me," the paladin asked sincerely, "we need everyone in the best shape they can be."
"Accepting assistance does not make you weak, lioness," the saber-cat said to her as she and the mercenary surfaced into the room, carrying their armor.
"Yes it does," I countered bluntly, "especially from him," I said with a growl, gesturing to the paladin.
"Well think of it this way," the mercenary said suddenly, "I should rather it be from one such as him, who does not expect anything in return if that were me."
"Tha's true," the barbarian agreed.
"I guess," the assassin said at last.
The paladin nodded and placed his armored hand over her bare, injured flesh. Something stirred in the assassin when he touched her, but just for a second. I could see it in the way her shoulder twitched ever so slightly. What a weakness. And to think it was one I could reach so very easily if she ever tried something on me. Who would have known? The heartless killer actually had a heart. Perhaps she herself thought that her feelings were starting to show and like a good little assassin, she was trying to curb that as quickly as possible. I would if I was her, but for me it was already too late. I'd already seen it with my own eyes. How ironic, that I, as the huntress' prey, have been watching her all along, learning her weaknesses so that when the time comes, the hunter will become the hunted. To me it was hilarious. I had been given an advantage over her just in the regards of meeting her and knowing that she was after me. Now, and attack couldn't come out of nowhere.
"Ready?" the paladin asked everyone when he was done.
"Not until we put our armor back on," the rogue insisted with a curt nod from the assassin in agreement.
"Young cub, what happened to your paw?" the she-cat asked, eyeing the rogue's make-shift bandage.
"She wasn't quick enough to move and almost shot her boyfriend while you were gone kitty-cat," I said sarcastically.
"We don't have time for this," the rogue growled, though there was a subliminal blush on her cheeks when I called the warrior her boyfriend. By Trag 'Oul I think some sort of love potion was in the air. The assassin, the rogue . . .who was next? The amazon? Well, luckily for me, I am immune to most poisons, love being one of them.
"Are you going to be able to put your boots back on?" the warrior asked in concern.
"Should be, if I cut them slightly," she said with a frown.
"Allow me," the barbarian said kindly, and carefully ran his axe off to one side of the top, parting it slightly wider.
"Thanks," she said in gratitude.
"Does that lead into the arcane sanctuary?" the mercenary asked uneasily, eyeing the portal.
"Give ya three guesses," the barbarian said good-naturedly.
"He'd use them all and still be clueless," I said simply.
"I'll go first," the paladin offered and walked up to the wavering light. He made to step through, but it was like trying to step through brick.
"What wrong?" the sorcerer asked.
"This gate requires some type of key, mage of the dark skin," our saber-cat said, eyeing it.
The druid's black mutt walked over to the corpse of the orange raider and plucked out its left eye with its muzzle, causing a squishy popping sound. The druid's black mutt crunched the demon's eye in its jaws, spewing juices out everywhere, then it spit the orb out.
"Gross," the rogue said, watching the display.
The druid's bird flew over to the remains of the eyeball and picked a small gemstone out of the middle in its beak. The bird flew onto the druid's shoulder and dropped the object in its palm.
"So wha' tha heck wers up with 'ese things anyway?" the barbarian asked, giving the fallen demons an odd glance.
"They do not see the light spectrum we do, they see in infrared," the druid explained.
"Wha?" the barbarian asked, confused.
"They see like a snake," the druid clarified. "They sense heat, and that is how they see. All living things give off heat energy, so to them, all of us, including Gaia, Bibo, Belthem and the others, even my vine—glow like torches in the dark to them. Using fire, like Laurella was doing when we first came in blurs their vision. It is, if you will, like one of us looking into the sun for an extended period of time. We are temporarily blinded by sunspots, and that is what fire is to them," he finished.
"How you know to use fire?" the sorcerer asked the rogue curiously.
"Maria and I saw how they reacted to fire when we were with the harem women. Maria stepped into the firelight of one of the torches and I noticed they couldn't sense her. That was also in combination with what one of the other harem women told me. She said that they seemed to be dazed by watching fire flicker," she explained.
"But that begs the question, what where they doing with these women in the first place?" the mercenary asked, for once mirroring my mind. "I see no corpses around and the women that we escorted said that they didn't kill them either while they were imprisoned."
"He is right. The josta told us that while they are not killed unless they try to escape, they do not come back once they are taken away," our she-cat relayed.
"What's a josta?" the mercenary asked.
"They are those that do not fight," the saber-cat clarified.
"This is disturbing," the paladin said in reference to the current conversation, "but I think we will find our answers within the arcane sanctuary."
"I agree," the druid nodded. He walked over to the archway with his animals following closely behind and pressed the small stone into a groove atop the arch. Red light blasted through the area and in moments we were gone.