Chapter 16: Indira Calls for Aid

Sprinting down the main thoroughfare, the group gave chase in the direction that the Shadows had fled. The Astorian guard still had a lead on them due to their head start. The Shadows were nowhere to be seen, but the guards seemed to know where they were going, heading directly towards the tower in the centre of Astor. With no other idea in mind, the group felt it best to also head there and help however they could.

"I can't believe that they would attack Astor! This is worse than we thought!" Alistair huffed as he led the group. "It certainly takes nerves of steel...they must be confident in their ability to…" Garrick started, before a loud roar sounding from ahead of him cut him off. "...What was that?" he asked worriedly.

They slowed down but did not stop, exchanging concerned looks. Whatever it had been had sounded threatening...and close. A large impact sounded in the near distance, accompanied by slight tremors in the ground. This time, the sound had been accompanied by pained cries from humans. Gaining a determined look, Varus rushed ahead to investigate, the others not far behind him.

As the group sprinted further down the road, the sounds of fighting and impacts continued to get louder. As they ran into a larger open courtyard, the scattered counters and tents showed that they had reached Astor's central market. None of the market's former grandeur was evident, however, as the place was abandoned with many of the stands broken or on fire.

As they ran through the middle, another, much closer roar sounded. A large object flew up into the air, illuminated briefly by the moon as it reached its apex. "Get down!" Varus yelled as he dove to the side. Each of them followed suit, managing to avoid the large object as it crashed into a heap where they had just been standing. "What the?" Rogon scowled, looking at the object in shock.

It was a cart...or at least, had been. It hadn't fared well from its brief flight. "What in the Seven!? How can a cart get chucked through the air like that?" Rogon grumbled, regaining his feet. "...I think I might know how…" came a weak response from Indira. Looking at her, they noticed that she had paled rapidly, and was pointing down the marketplace towards the source of all the noise. Following her gaze, they looked on in shock.

Originally obscured by one of the few buildings in the courtyard area, a huge creature stomped around the corner. Currently it was snarling and swinging a large club-like weapon around at the few guards brave...or stupid...enough to attempt to attack it. One overhead strike hit the ground with a bang, just missing one such guard. This was clearly the source of the tremors from before.

The creature was humanoid in shape, but here was where the similarities ended. It was easily twelve foot in height, dwarfing the guards. It's flesh was rotting, showing it to be an undead of some description, though it's original species was unknown. The fact that large parts of it appeared to be stitched together suggested that it might even have been composed of several creatures. It's face held a grim visage, with its mouth seeming far too large for the rest of its body, it's jaw hanging low even when it wasn't bellowing. Its teeth were jagged and misshapen, all of different sizes.

"What is that thing!? How are we meant to fight that?" Alistair yelled in frustration. "We can't possibly…" Indira started, but Rogon shook his head "If we don't, who will? It'll kill more people here, yeah?"

Their panic was interrupted as they heard coughing coming from a pile of debris to their side. Turning to the source, they saw a plank of wood get pushed off and to the side, revealing the figure of Denrick, slumped on the ground and covered in dust. Garrick and Na'ish jogged over to help get the remaining debris off.

"Denrick! You're lucky to be alive if you fought that thing, friend" Garrick muttered as they threw the items off of his body. Denrick coughed again and shook his head. "...it was the Captain…" he said through laboured breaths. Garrick and Na'ish shared a worried look. "That creature was the Captain?" Garrick asked, worried about the answer.

Denrick shook his head again, regretting it instantly and holding a hand to his bleeding temple. "Not that creature...over there…" he said, and gestured to the far side of the marketplace. Following his finger, they could see another group of guards fighting something. There, they saw a shambling corpse dressed in a more formal version of the Astorian tabard, the tree embroidered in gold rather than silver.

As they watched the figure bite out the throat of an unfortunate guard, it was clear they were too late to save him. Denrick gave a slight sobbing sound "Captain Glenford…" Garrick reached down to him "Can you stand?" he asked. Denrick nodded, and took the offered hand, getting unsteadily to his feet. "You are too injured to help here. Go, get whatever help you can muster." Denrick nodded, but as Garrick went to turn back to the danger, he grabbed his arm. When he looked back to Denrick, it was to see a determined look through the tears.

"Please, Captain Glenford doesn't deserve to suffer like that. He was a good man. Please, put him out of his misery." Garrick gave him a firm nod in agreement, and Denrick started to jog as fast as his injuries would let him. Soon, he had disappeared around a corner.

As Garrick returned to the group, they seemed to be preparing themselves. Varus had notched an arrow, and Indira was winding back her light crossbow. Rogon held his revolver in one hand and his axe in the other. Alistair nodded to Garrick and Na'ish as they rejoined them, "So, any idea how we're going to do this?" Garrick grunted "Getting close is suicide; we're better off attempting to cripple it from afar." Alistair nodded, but drew his daggers still. "Can't say that's my style, but I don't want to get close to it if I can help it. It's smell alone is enough to knock you out."

"We may not have a choice…" Varus spoke, nodding his head towards the creature. They looked over in dread, as the creature smashed its club down onto the final guard standing against it, the man's scream cut suddenly short as it impacted. Looking around lazily now that all immediate threats had been dealt with, it slowly turned to look at the nearest living targets. Them.

As its bloodshot eyes glared at them it took a large breath and bellowed one of its roars. The sound struck several of them with terror, some taking involuntary steps back. "...We've gotta run…" Na'ish said quietly, even his stoic demeanour broken. "Run where? It will surely catch us. No, we've got to fight!" Varus scowled.

The creature took one lumbering step towards them, then another. Soon, it was moving far faster than anything its size had any right to, directly towards them. "Gauss!" Varus yelled, and the glowing fox burst from his chest and started to sprint down the path directly towards the advancing flesh mound.

"What the hell can she do? She'll be killed!" Garrick shouted, drawing his own bow and training it on the incoming creature. Varus just shook his head and remained silent, his focus entirely on Gauss. As the two got within a few feet of each other, the giant corpse raised its club above its head and swung, intending to remove the small obstacle between it and its real targets.

As it started to swing its club down, Gauss jumped into the air towards it. Before the two could connect, Gauss shone brightly, before expanding many times in size. As the club hit the space where Gauss had previously occupied, a massive clang rang out accompanied by a small shockwave that blew away all the dust lingering in the air. The group watching had to steady their footing to prevent being knocked over by the blast. They all looked to the source in confusion, trying to determine what had happened.

As the bright light died down, it was to reveal the form of an enormous crab, easily as big as the monster attacking them. The crabs' purple hue and moving dark patterns showed that this figure was a transformed Gauss. The club that had been poised to hit her had been halted by one of her large raised claws, the shockwave having been caused by the impact of wood on chitin.

The creature wore a shocked expression, clearly not expecting the sudden appearance of such a foe. Gauss gave several unusual click sounds, before sweeping the claw that had blocked the attack to the side, pushing the club away and knocking the monster off balance. As the beast stumbled, Gauss scuttled to the side in order to advance towards it.

The group on the ground watched this with shock, before turning their gaze to look to Varus. He gave them all a smug look, "What? You didn't really think that all Gauss could turn into was a horse, did you?" His smug look faltered as his visage paled slightly and he started to stumble. He caught himself quickly however, and waved Indira off as she approached to assist him. "I'm fine. Just wears me out when Gauss turns into bigger things."

Na'ish looked over his shoulder while surveying the battlefield. "Gauss may be handling the big guy for now, but it is far from the only enemy…" He then gestured with his head. Looking out, the group watched as several Shadows floated lazily into view. The corpse of Captain Glenford had also shuffled nearer, having dealt with the guards that had been attacking him. He was now surrounded by many more undead corpses of both guards and citizens.

Rogon snarled, "Good, was getting bored anyways!" He then started to charge towards the group of Shadows. Indira and Alistair swiftly followed him, Indira firing her light crossbow as they approached. It hit the nearest Shadow, simply going through and displacing some mist as usual.

As Na'ish went to follow, he was stopped by Garrick placing an arm in front of him. "They can handle that. We need to stop those corpses before their numbers become unmanageable." Na'ish gave a stoic nod, and changed directions. The two ran towards the approaching horde, Na'ish raising his shield and Garrick swapping his bow for a javelin. Varus stayed where he was, notching an arrow in preparation.

As the two started to approach, Captain Glenford gave a shriek. The harsh sound instantly caused the corpses around him to turn and run towards them, far faster than corpses normally moved. A quick head count showed around ten of them, all charging towards them. Still, this did not cause them to falter.

Before the line of corpses even reached them, a couple were felled by arrows shot by Varus. One struck in the head killing it instantly. The other was hit in the leg, making it stumble and fall to the ground. Before it could recover and stand up once more, it got trampled by its own brethren that were still running towards them.

As soon as Na'ish reached the first enemy, his shield crashed into it and halted its attack. A quick manoeuvre around it allowed him to get past and slash the next one in the chest, bifurcating it and causing it to slump to the floor. Garrick finished off the corpse that had hit Na'ish' shield with a swift stab of his javelin, before he overtook Na'ish and stabbed the next one in the head.

However, this left him open to counterattack due to his weapon being briefly stuck in the body, allowing one of the guards to impact him bodily in the side. Thankfully, it seemed the undead had lost a considerable amount of its intelligence, as it did not even attempt to use the sword hung on its belt. It instead simply attempted to bite at him, something he was able to keep at bay with his free arm.

Na'ish was quick to assist, slashing the attacker to halt its attempt to bite him. Garrick gave him a thankful nod, before looking over his shoulder with slightly widened eyes. Na'ish turned to see two more nearly upon them. Before they could reach them, Garrick threw his javelin, glowing with green light, hitting one of them in the chest.

The impact slowed it down, but not nearly as much as the ethereal vines that sprouted and bound the corpse, forcing it to fall to the ground due to its momentum. The second one was dealt with when Na'ish struck out with the leading edge of his shield, the strike slicing its chest open. It was finished moments later from a second point blank shield bash.

As they recovered, there was a second scream from Captain Glenford. The remaining four corpses suddenly halted their approach, before they instead spread out and started to surround them rather than charge straight at them.

"That one is somehow controlling the others...or at least giving them commands." Na'ish muttered, flicking his sword to the side to remove the detritus upon it. Garrick drew his bow to replace his thrown javelin, before holding a hand out towards the Captain. "Then let's see if we can try to stop that, shall we?"

Garrick's hand was held in a claw, where a ball of greyish light that flowed almost like fog began to form. As he did, the point by the Captain where he was focusing burst out, a dense fog cloud forming over the area and completely blinding the figure within. With its vision hampered, the Captain gave another foul shriek from within the cloud.

The final corpses stopped attempting to flank them and charged once more. Before they even reached them, another was felled by an arrow shot from Varus. Garrick followed suit, also dispatching one by shooting it in the head. When the final two got within melee range, Na'ish was ready for them. Using an upwards swing to immediately take out the nearest one, he followed it up with a spin while swinging his sword low. The cut took out the guards legs, causing it to fall to the ground.

There, it writhed and righted itself, before attempting to use its arms to crawl to them and bite them. It was stopped by Garrick, who simply dropped a bear trap onto its head, the trap snapping shut in an unpleasant squelch and halting the creature's approach.

Catching their breath, they heard the shriek from the cloud once more. Clearly, the creature was still stumbling around lost within. "Only the one left!" Na'ish exclaimed. Garrick drew back his bow, attempting to locate its position based on the most recent scream. Na'ish chose to simply rush forwards into the cloud however, forcing Garrick to abort his attack.

"Damn it, a little warning next time, that could have ended badly" he muttered, listening to the clashing of steel coming from within. Was the Captain using a weapon? The other corpses hadn't appeared to have the ability to do so.

As he stood there, undecided on whether dissipating the fog cloud would help or hinder Na'ish, another arrow flew over his shoulder and into the fog. The grunt of pain that came from within suggested it had not been the Captain that had been hit…

Throwing a scowl over his shoulder at Varus, who simply blinked back with his bow still raised, Garrick snapped his finger and the cloud rapidly dispersed as if blown by the wind. Within, they could see Na'ish holding off the sword swing from the Captain with his shield. In his flank, an arrow was stuck between the joints of his armour.

Na'ish heaved, pushing the Captain off balance for a moment. A moment he took to look over his shoulder and scowl at Varus. Varus simply shrugged unrepentantly. "Sorry" he called, though he didn't sound entirely sincere. Na'ish reached down and tugged the arrow out with a grunt using his free shield hand.

As the recovered Captain came at him with another swing, he spun and struck him with his shield, staggering him once more. He then crouched and shield bashed him, knocking him over. The corpse screamed at him in anger, flailing in an attempt to strike him with his sword. The blade simply glanced off of his greaves however, and Na'ish crouched suddenly and drove the arrow he still held in his grip into the Captain's head.

The Captain's scream slowly died out, his movement ceasing and the hand holding his sword releasing its hold, causing the blade to clatter to the floor. Na'ish breathed a sigh of relief, and then stood up once more. He grunted in pain, his hand holding the wound on his side from the arrow.

Na'ish stomped over towards Varus, Garrick jogging over to his side. Na'ish got right up to Varus, looking up at him due to his height difference. Varus looked down at him with a bored expression, not saying a word. Garrick watched from the side with curiosity, not feeling he needed to get involved in their dispute.

Before the staring contest could continue, a crash from the fighting behemoths in the middle of the marketplace briefly distracted them. Na'ish looked back to Varus and scowled, before pushing past him and starting to run back to where the others had been, Garrick following close behind. Varus shrugged and also headed their way at a more sedate pace.


Gauss was locked in a battle of attrition. The creature was immensely strong, but not too smart. It was having trouble getting around Gauss' strong shell, instead choosing to keep hitting her on the top of the head. Thankfully, this was where her shell was strongest. Though the blows still hurt, she was able to mostly shrug the damage off.

This also meant she was free to go on the offensive herself. When the creature went for its next swing, Gauss caught its arm in a pincer. Giving a few taunting clicks, Gauss pinched with the intent of cutting off the offending limb. However, while she was able to cut the skin some and cause it to roar in pain, the limb refused to be cut all the way through. Whatever this creature was made of, it had clearly been reinforced with magic. Her pincers were able to cut through tree logs with ease, after all.

Taking advantage of her shock, the giant corpse head butted and momentarily stunned her. This allowed it to retrieve its injured limb from her grip before proceeding to smack her in the side of the shell where her defences were weaker. Gauss winced in pain, before clicking threateningly and ramming her body into it. This caused the beast to stumble and fall onto its back.

In a desperate attempt to defend itself while on the back foot, the beast swung its club at her head once more. Gauss caught it again, only this time she pinched the club itself, rather than its limb. With a flex and the sound of splintering wood, the club got sheared off at about the halfway mark. Now, without its primary weapon, Gauss was able to get close. She raised her pincers with the intention of slamming the creature into the ground.


Rogon roared as he charged at the nearest Shadow. There were currently three of them floating in the area, more than they had had to deal with before. Still, he was confident they could best them; they could die after all if given enough damage. His revolver had proven that.

He knew the Shadows didn't appear to be able to attack from afar. Well, up close and personal suited him just fine! The Shadows had noticed their approach by now, and they started to glide towards him to meet him head on. When the first one met Rogon, he reacted by swinging his hand axe through its body. This went straight through as usual, but did displace a large amount of mist on its way and left the two parts of the Shadow separated briefly.

The Shadow was quick to reform, and reached towards Rogon with a tendril of mist. Not keen on being touched, Rogon brought up his revolver and shot the limb near what resembled the shoulder. The pellet blew straight through, causing the shoulder area to disappear almost entirely and leave the limb that had been reaching for him to slowly dissipate.

While Rogon had been fighting his Shadow, the other two were still rapidly approaching him. Alistair and Indira exchanged a determined look as they ran forward. At a nod, the two split up to go either side of Rogon, leaving him to deal with his opponent without getting in the way. Indira fired her light crossbow, hitting one in the head. While it did little damage, it was distracted from targeting Rogon, and began to head for her instead.

Alistair ran straight at the final Shadow. When near, he quickly ducked to the side to prevent him from running through the mass of smoke. An action that hadn't ended well for him the last time he had fought a Shadow. As he passed the Shadow, he slashed both his daggers through its flank in an attempt to damage it.

The Shadow swiped at him, managing to catch him on the arm as he attacked. While this did far less damage than the time his whole body had come in contact, it still hurt him. He gave a grunt, and jumped back to make some space. The arm that had been hit felt a bit weaker, but was still fully functional. Looking at the Shadows, he saw Rogon and Indira each engaged in battle. He could not allow this one to join the others.

"Hey, you want me?" Alistair yelled at the Shadow, before he threw his offhand dagger at it. It barely affected the Shadow as it passed through, though it did turn its attention fully onto him. Alistair gave it a come hither gesture, "Come get me!" Then he turned and started running deeper into the marketplace stalls. The Shadow rapidly floated after him.

Rogon was still attempting to fend off his Shadow. Whenever it tried to reach forward to strike him, he would shoot off the limb with his revolver, before following up with a swing of his axe. However, in the heat of the moment Rogon had not been counting his shots. When he raised his revolver to defend once more, the weapon simply clicked. Rogon had just enough time to widen his eyes before the latest tendril struck him in the chest.

Rogon roared in agony as he felt his strength wane. He swung his axe in an attempt to remove his attacker, but only succeeded in briefly dislodging it. Still this brief respite allowed him to swiftly drop his axe and pop the chamber open on his revolver and reload. Just as he was snapping it shut once more, the Shadow clasped him again.

This time it was with two tendrils, each one gripping one of his arms. The pain doubled, and Rogon had to struggle to retain consciousness. However, the hand that held the revolver was now inside the Shadow itself...a fatal mistake. Pulling the trigger, he blasted a hole in its torso. This relieved him of the excruciating pain at last, and he slumped a little to the ground, exhausted. The remaining mist of the Shadow writhed and attempted to reform.

However the distance of the parts and the damage dealt proved to be too much, and the remains slowly faded from view. Rogon breathed out and took stock of his body. It was currently withered in a few places, mostly his arms. They shook as he attempted to lift them up to inspect them, and his skin had taken a sickly pale colour.

Indira was dealing with her own Shadow a short way away. Having fired her crossbow to little effect, she hastily stowed it and took out a javelin instead. It would simply take too long to reload the crossbow. The Shadow slowly started to approach, and Indira started to step back in fear. She was starting to regret not learning more offensive magic, having always favoured more practical spells. When she had left her home, she had not thought she would need to fight such creatures on her journey!

Indira looked at the figure of Rogon, sat upon the cobbled floor, and gained a determined look. She had to deal with this one, or it would kill her and her friends! She still had something she could do, something she had planned to save until she felt she was ready. But this seemed as good a time as any. Still, it would need preparation, so she would have to buy herself some time.

Focusing briefly in front of her, she formed the illusion of a small bird. She sent it towards the Shadow as if it was attacking it. The Shadow paused and attempted to swipe at the incoming threat, only for the illusion to dodge and start to fly in circles around the creature. The Shadow attempted to follow its progress, occasionally sending tendrils out in an attempt to catch it.

Indira took the opportunity while her foe was distracted. She sat down on the cobble street with her legs crossed, before starting to meditate in her favoured position. As she did, the ground beneath her began to glow with an elaborate seal.

The Shadow continued to attempt to strike at the small bird illusion as it flew around it. Eventually, it formed enough tendrils that the bird had no hope of dodging all of them. When struck, the tendrils passed harmlessly through, the bird continuing to fly around the creature. The Shadow paused, and then withdrew its tendrils. Turning its attention back to Indira, it ignored the bird in favour of floating towards her.

Indira made no effort to move from her spot, still fully focusing on whatever spell she was attempting to cast. Rogon saw the approaching Shadow, and yelled out "Indira!" in warning. She still did not react, so he attempted to lift his revolver to attack. His arms were still badly damaged however, and he was unable to aim steadily. When he fired, he completely missed and instead blasted a nearby crate to pieces.

The Shadow ignored the loud sound, far more interested in its latest prey. Rogon watched in horror as it started to form tendrils and reach out towards Indira. Just before they could strike, the circle glowed even brighter and Indira's eyes snapped open to glare at the Shadow in front of her.

Just before the nearest tendril touched her, the space above her burst into a circle of light. The Shadow flinched reflexively, retracting it's tendrils. From the circle of light, a small figure burst forwards, slamming into the Shadow and removing a large portion of its torso. The Shadow retreated and began to reform, observing this new threat.

Indira stood and held out her arm. The figure that had burst out landed upon it. As the light that still clung to it started to fade, it was revealed to be a miniature dragon. It was light blue in colour, with a serpentine body and two large leathery wings. Its tail ended in a wicked looking spike with barbs along it. A pseudo dragon.

Indira reached up and gave it a scratch under the chin, which resulted in contented chirps coming from the creature. "Thank you for coming to my aid, friend" Indira said with a warm smile. She then turned her attention back to the Shadow that was just finishing reforming. Gaining a sickly sweet smile, Indira pointed to the Shadow. The dragon chirped, and flew off her shoulder and rapidly approached the enemy.

The Shadow made the mistake of not attacking the approaching dragon, perhaps assuming it to be another illusion. When it floated towards Indira, it hit the dragon head on and ended up losing a large chunk of its head. The dragon seemed to get a little hurt in return due to the contact, but its scales were preventing the majority of the damage.

The dragon swerved and continued to fly around the mass of shadow, occasionally swooping down to swipe and take bites out of it. The Shadow flailed to try to hit it, but it was missing nearly every time. It was struggling to reform in enough time before the next attack struck.

Eventually, the Shadow could not keep up with the damage being dealt. It faded away, leaving a rather tired dragon to slowly flap its way over to Indira and slump onto her shoulder. "Thanks, you were great." Indira commented, scratching it once more. The dragon gave a tired coo in response. A groan from Indira made her gasp and remember her situation. She quickly made her way over to Rogon and steadied him as he sat up straighter. "Rogon, are you ok?"

Rogon managed to sit up fully and give Indira a weak chuckle. "I'm alright lass. Give me five and I'll be raring to go once more!" He chuckled again but winced as a lance of pain went through his arms. She knelt down in order to look at them, the limbs appearing withered like Alistair's legs had back at Grayben's. She looked towards the bundle of market stalls that Alistair had disappeared to earlier with a worried expression.

"I hope Alistair is okay…"


"This is not okay!" Alistair ranted as he sprinted full pelt down the middle of some stalls. Behind him the Shadow was rapidly floating and starting to gain on him. Throwing a look behind him, Alistair saw it gaining and panicked. He started grabbing random items from the stalls he passed and lobbing them over his shoulder at it.

Most items were avoided, but the occasional thing hit and displaced a little mist. Looking back ahead, Alistair noted with horror that the path he was taking was cut off due to a collapsed monument of some description. "Shit, plan B" he muttered before grabbing a pole that held the canopy above one of the stalls.

Using his momentum, he swung himself over the counter. Letting go at just the right time allowed him to throw himself and land in a crouch on the other side. He then spun around and stood, while also drawing his short sword to go alongside the dagger he still held.

"Ha! That'll slow you down!" Alistair taunted. He lost his smile however when the Shadow simply phased through the obstacle. "Ah...should have guessed that would happen…" Alistair started to back up slowly while holding his weapons at the ready. Clearly, out running this creature was not working. The Shadow started to float closer menacingly, tendrils beginning to form from its torso.

As Alistair backed up, he hit something solid behind him. Throwing a quick look over his shoulder revealed a pile of crates and boxes, all stacked up rather precariously and affixed with rope. Looking between it and the Shadow, Alistair smirked. Waiting till the last minute when the Shadow lunged at him with its limbs, Alistair quickly rolled to the side. In the same motion, he sliced through the supporting rope with his dagger.

As he righted himself, he noticed the pile still teetering in place. With a firm kick to the bottom crate, the entire pile came crashing down on top of the Shadows position. It was unable to move away in time, and as the pile crashed to the ground and kicked up a load of dust, there was a distinct black mist among the dust.

As the dust settled, Alistair waved away the particles from his mouth while coughing. Looking at the piles, he was unable to see any sign of the Shadow. "Did that work?" He tentatively approached the pile, and gave the nearest crate a kick. Almost immediately black smoke coalesced from between the gaps and took the vague form of a Shadow once more. The Shadow then reached towards Alistair.

Reflexively, he slashed at the figure with his short sword. The blade cut straight through the mass, resulting in the smoke splitting and dissipating before it managed to reach him. Calming his breathing down and watching the pile closely, he waited for it to reform again. After several minutes had passed he relaxed, confident it had finally been dealt with.

A large crash echoed out from where Gauss and the giant corpse were still fighting, drawing his attention back to where he had run from. "Well, best not keep them waiting." he muttered, before holstering his weapons and running back to the fight.


As Indira was tending to Rogon's wounds, they watched in fascination as Gauss started to get the upper hand against her adversary. With the creature now prone on the floor, Gauss was using her large pincers to both pin it to the floor and deal heavy blows to its body. While each blow wasn't doing massive damage, the cumulative damage was starting to show.

The corpse roared with each successive hit, trying to flail with its free arm to strike back. Its body had gashes upon it, and some of the stitches upon it were coming loose. An unpleasant sight for sure.

They were distracted as Garrick and Na'ish jogged over from their respective battles. Na'ish approached the pair and gave Rogon a concerned look. Rogon just snorted, "Shoulda seen the other guy" he joked. Na'ish simply nodded; confident he would be fine if he was able to joke like that.

Garrick observed the battle of titans in front of them. "Think we should assist?" Varus continued his sedate approach, "Nah, she's got this" he said with confidence. And indeed, looking to the battle it certainly seemed that Gauss had the upper hand.

As Gauss struck with a pincer once more, however, the giant corpse suddenly changed tactics. Grabbing the attacking limb with its free hand, the corpse kicked out with both of its legs. This struck the underneath of Gauss' body with enough force to push her off and cause her to fall over backwards. With a crash, Gauss was now upside down and flailing her limbs in a desperate attempt to self right herself. Being a crab, her physiology simply did not allow this.

This turn of events caused the watching group to gasp in shock. Varus stopped walking and turned to the fight, his formerly passive look now one of concern. The corpse, now free from being grappled by the giant crab, stood up once more. It then stalked towards the incapacitated Gauss.

Once near, it raised its mostly broken club. While no use as a bludgeoning weapon, the act of cutting it in half had resulted in a short piece of wood with a sharp edge due to the angle of the cut. As it raised it above its head, Gauss started to click in panic and flail more desperately. Varus started to run towards the fight, screaming "No!"

Before the others could react or Varus could reach them, the beast brought the weapon down, striking Gauss in one of the weaker joints in her under armour. The crab's clicks turned into a screech that no crab should have been able to produce, before her flailing slowed and stopped completely as the creature drove the spike into her.

Varus stopped approaching, anger and fear mixed on his face. They all watched in shock as the now still form of Gauss glowed once more, before bursting into many streams of bright purple light. Varus looked towards his companions, his face now a look of grim determination.

"Well...shit", he said before the multitude of lights all streamed towards him. They flowed into his chest, and though he did not move from his spot the impact was visibly hurting him if the scream he was producing was any indication.

When the light finally finished receding into Varus, there was a moment of silence across the battle torn marketplace. Then, Varus' eyes rolled back and he slumped to the floor unmoving. The rest of the group were too stunned to react immediately, and before they could move towards the fallen Varus to assist a blood curdling roar came from the giant corpse.

Looking around in apparent confusion at the disappearance of its defeated foe, the beast finally looked across the clearing. Its eyes fell upon the group gathered around Rogon. It gave another roar, before charging towards them.


Character Profile:

Name: Gauss

Species: Unknown (Takes the appearance of Fennec Fox)

Gauss is an enigma. Seemingly spiritual in nature, she can take the form of a multitude of animal species. Doing so appears to take a toll upon Varus, suggesting that they are linked somehow. Certainly the fact that she regularly spends her time within Varus himself supports this.