Fortunately, it seemed their distraction worked.
Normally, when an ogre wandered too far from its range they'd stop pursuing their prey. However, the dark magic seemed to drive them to relentless pursuit, no matter how far they went. This was helpful, as it meant the rescue party didn't have to worry about ogres turning back to patrol.
Eventually they got close enough to catch glimpses of the vacation cabin, though Maria and Rafael had been aware of its location the whole time because of the miasma of Dark Magic surrounding it. While some legends spoke of the abyss as a tranquil, welcoming darkness, this darkness was clearly nothing of the sort. It seemed more like a river swollen by storm and flood: energetic, forceful and would rip you under and kill you. All while seemingly peaceful on the surface.
They moved quietly but quickly, drawing closer and closer to the cabin. Once it came into view however, Maria swore and had them all come to a halt.
Two ogres stood sentry in the front of the cabin, heads and limbs swaying slightly, and a third was just barely visible standing at the back corner of the cabin, facing the slop of the mountain behind it. Maria was willing to bet there was a fourth at the corner she couldn't see. Around their feet were piles of bones, rotten meat and ogre excrement. They had obviously been made to stand guard there, and had done nothing but, not even moving to relieve themselves. Fortunately, they were not upwind, but even from where the party was, Maria could detect a hint of foulness in the air.
"Well, that's disgusting," Larna Smith said quietly, trying not to be heard. Ogres were known to have sensitive ears. They were known for a lot of things, like their propensity to sit on anyone that gets behind them, their terrible eyesight, their great stench, the fact they seemed to have an instinct for setting up pincer ambushes and they had layers of armor like an onion or a cake, meaning the crossbow was a mere annoyance and Maria would have to be skillful in her use of her blade, since their thick bodies could easily wrench it from her hands.
Maria raised the rifle to her eye, carefully taking aim. The iron sights were… well, there, and based upon time-tested crossbow sights.
"Maria… what are you doing?" Rafael said.
"I will distract the ogres," she said. "You three get inside. I'll follow you as soon as I've disabled them."
"You're going to disable… okay then," Rafael said, nodding decisively. "Fine. Please don't get killed."
"I will not," Maria promised. "I suggest you hide behind those trees and wait for the opportune moment. And if you run into any women not my mother, do not hesitate to attack."
Rafael hesitated for a moment, glancing at Larna Smith and Miss Shelley, then nodded, gesturing for the two of them to follow him to the trees she's indicated, which could provide concealment for them. Maria waited for them to get into position and still. Then she made sure of her aim, carefully closed her eyes, and fired.
The flint snapped down, the powder igniting and a crack like thunder echoed through the air. It was soon followed by the scream of rage of an ogre as the one closest to her lost an eye. It roared, clawing at its bleeding eye in pain as the one next to it looked around, seemingly trying to orient towards her. The visible ogre from behind the cabin turned and began lumbering towards the front, and as it reached its compatriots a fourth ogre appeared from the other side of the cabin, just as Maria expected.
Maria drew back the hammer, already licking the convenience of the primer reservoir at the frizzen. It was almost like have percussion caps in her cartridges! She raised the rifle, the next chamber already indexed, and let the barrel hover between the other three ogres. One turned to look towards where Maria was standing and Maria instinctively took her shot. The resulting cloud of smoke stung her eyes, but she was rewarded with another roar of pain as she raised her hand to her face, eldritch light around it as she healed her eyes, blinking to wash away the smoke.
When her vision returned, it was in time to see the ogre she had aimed at collapsing like a huge pallet of bricks with its rope cut, falling to the ground with a vibration she felt through her boots. Evidently her bullet managed to damage its brain. However, her second shot allowed the ogres to orient on her, and they began a deceptively slow lumbering charge towards her, the blinded one using its hearing and scent to track her. She could see Larna Smith using some kind of Wind Magic around herself and the others, likely concealing their scent and sounds, as the ogres ignored them.
Maria tried a third shot, but the ogres were weaving too unpredictably in the even terrain and their bouncy gait. Slipping the rifle back over her shoulder, she drew out her single-shot pistol with one hand and dumped the powder as she drew one of her clay pot bombs in the other. Placing the fuse in the flash pan, she pulled the trigger. The hammer snapped down, the sparks igniting the fuse. Eyeing the fuse, Maria threw the bomb in the path of the nearest ogre, which strode over it unconcernedly.
It had reason to be concerned as the bomb exploded, sending shards of clay and pebbles up into its nethers. It roared in greater agony as it lost the ability to ravish anything, falling onto its posterior with another howl of pain and exposing its mutilated area to Maria's view.
As the other ogres passed it, Maria rushed to meet them, quickening past the two mobile aberrations and quickly flowing behind the downed ogre, who was starting to rise. The stench of filth was would have been nearly unbearable were it not for the surprisingly human scent of its blood, which covers many sins. Almost gently, Maria placed a hand on the aberration's– the beast's– back, and then slammed her right arm, short sword in hand, into its back. The strike pushed the blade into the thick, armor-like flesh, into the muscle underneath, through the fat and organs and upwards into the heart. Maria let for of the short sword without regret as her fingers closed around the beast's engorged heart.
With an almost tender gesture, she ripped it out through its back in a fountain of blood.
She immediately quickened backwards as the other two ogres got in range, their meaty arms flailing violently at her as their companion died. Maria threw the blood heart at the beast to her right, the one that hadn't had its eye shot out, blinding it and causing it to roar. Her other arm snapped up, six-shot pistol in hand, and fired into the roof of its open mouth, seeking its brain.
Either her aim was off or the roof of its mouth was thicker than she thought, for it only let out a small cry. Maria quickened out of the way as she slid to the side, drawing her saber.
Ah, well. Her firearms weren't made for beasts such as this anyway.
Snapping the blade out to her side, she lunged.
As soon as the ogres had passed their hiding place, the three of them had ran, Larna Smith using her magic to hide their sounds and smells. It also did a decent job of protecting them from the smell of ogre shit as they got closer to the cabin, passing the ogre that Maria had somehow managed to kill from a distance.
"No, we're not getting you one of those things," Rafael said before Larna could say anything. "We'd rather not let you near weapons at the best of times, we're certainly not letting you have an ogres-killer. Maybe when everyone trusts you again."
"I didn't even say anything!" Larna pouted.
"You were thinking it," Rafael said. "It's not even a magic tool, it's an alchemy tool."
"Alchemy is a classically and internationally recognized form of magic!" Larna protested as they made their way to the front door and, going for the direct approached, tried to open it.
An old man wielding a pickax greeted them. With maddened eyes, he swung it clumsily at them as they all stepped back, getting out of his range.
"He must be the caretaker," Rafael said as he reluctantly drew his sword, eyeing the needlessly thick miasma of darkness around the man. The Dark Magic wielder clearly didn't believe in moderation in the use of their powers. "Larna, do you think you can subdue him?"
"Sure thing, vice-director," she said, drawing out one of the projectiles she preferred to use with her wind magic and launching it at the man's head. It struck with a dull, meaty sound.
Rafael was already sighing and getting ready to use his Light Magic so the man wouldn't become Katarina-like when something black and fluid erupted from his shoulder. All three of them stumbled back in a panic as the black fluid exploded upwards, even as more began to bulge and grow around the man's torso, enveloping him. The man started screaming in agony as the black fluid undulated, forcing his legs to spun about until the snapped, unable to keep up. A pseudopod thrust out one side, before form long, narrow fingers with wicked ivory claws. More ivory growths began to burst from the main body, giving the impressions of spines or horns as what seemed a serpentine head with glowing crimson eyes leered down at the, the old man's body, crushed beneath the incarnation of raw darkness.
"Oh fuck…" Larna Smith swore. "Umbasa! Oh Manus, father of the abyss… "
The head spun and struck like the serpent it resembled, it's wide maw snapping towards Larna as if punishing her for speaking, even as the huge claws raked the air in Rafael's general direction. A third, tail-like pseudopod snapped out, missing Anne, who stumbled back in primal fear, the crossbow in her hands forgotten.
Wind roared, and Larna managed to thrust herself back as if thrown by a tornado. The head followed after her, snapping as it strained to reach her, pulling the rest of the body with it. Making a snap decision, Rafael grabbed Anne, and began pulling her towards the open door, his sword up and on guard before him as they tried to get out of the sight of the monster.
The inside of the cabin seemed obscenely cheerful. A few candles and lamps augmented the gloomy light coming in from the wide windows and skylight, and prism stones of various colors were piled in the fireplace like some pretend fire. Keeping his back to a wall, Rafael scanned left, right and up, but the main living room of the cabin, with its fireplace and sofas and comfortable chairs, was empty.
Even so, his stomach twisted as the nauseating feel of Dark Magic, once such a familiar part of his life, permeated the entire building. He tried to listen for footsteps that would betray the presence of someone, but all he heard were the howls of wind and the roars of the black, pus-like monster they'd left behind.
Spotting stairs, he pointed them out to Anne, who nodded, raising the crossbow in shaking hands. Rafael led the way, sword in hand as Anne came up behind him, and he hoped she didn't accidentally shoot him from behind as they began to search the cabin from top to bottom.
Larna Smith, aka Susanna Randall, was beginning to think that Rafael had a point and that she should stop going out in the field. Why go out and get into danger when she could be inside in the nice and warm, tinkering with magic tools, unlocking the secrets of the magic of the usurped elements, which could perhaps lead her to the rediscovery of the Soul Arts of sorcery? How was running around like this pursuing her goal of studying magic? Really, it was all becoming so clear to her now! she was a scholar, not some sort of spy! Rafael was totally right.
She called her Wind Magic to her, using it to push her forward, letting her leap farther and higher, and was just able to stay ahead of the monstrous abomination out of the world's darkest and most terrible myths. She recognized the shape, described in a book written in the ancient script, meant to be more read able with the fingers and not the eyes, an ancient monster not seen since the Last Days of Ash. Her younger self had always wished to see what it was like, for the description in the book had been hard to parse.
Young Susanna was an idiot.
"Susanna, you're an idiot!" she swore to herself under her breath as she jumped over the scything claws of the monstrosity. It ripped through a tree trunk that had unfortunately gotten in the way, shattering the trunk like it was made of rotted pine and giving Susanna the panicked adrenaline boost to blast wind out behind her so violently she actually managed to gain distance and altitude before slamming into another tree in her path.
She managed to keep from breaking her face on it, but taking it on the chest wasn't exactly pleasant. Yes, Rafael was totally right, she should stop all this fieldwork silliness and stay in the lab to make lovely, lovely magic tools…
Panic gave her grip, preventing her from sliding down to the ground as the monster below her headbutted the tree, which made another crack like thunder, but miraculously didn't break. Susanna was gathering wind when the monster decided to leap up at her, it's long, sinuous, liquid-looking neck extending towards her with maw open wide, crimson glowing eyes leaving strange contrails behind it.
Her magic blasted downward, catching it head on and pushing it down, where it slammed into the ground. Desperately, she tried to gather wind again, but even as she did, the monster spun, its tail-like pseudopod slamming into the tree and finally shattering it all the way. Susanna felt a stomach-wrenching sense of weightlessness before she used her wind to blast her away from the tree and cushioning her impact with the ground.
Susanna struggled to get up, but even as she scrambled, she knew it was useless. The monster's serpentine head slithered at her like lightning, maw open wide, enormous left talon arm, digging at the ground to pull itself towards her–
A bottle, its inside filled with a clear liquid and a flaming rag blocking its mouth, slammed into the monster's side, dousing it in fuel that immediately caught fire. The monster suddenly screamed in pain and fury, its entire body spasming violently as it threw itself aside. A wave of heat billowed over Susanna as she pushed herself along the ground, finally managing to stand and run. Behind her there was the sound of breaking glass, a 'whoosh' and she felt more heat at her back as another bottle of oil slammed into the creature. Then it screamed.
Susanna reached a tree and almost comically hid behind it. only then did she risk looking behind her.
The monster was wreathed in flames as Lady Maria Campbell, covered in the blood of ogres, dropped down from on high, her saber slamming into its wide back. The blade glowed with the low radiant luminescence of titanite alloy infused with the arcane powers of a wielder of magic as it bit into the black pseudo-flesh. Before the monster could retaliate, Lady Maria flipped away, and Susanna found herself staring, awestruck, as Maria proceeded to hack the thing apart while seemingly dancing through the mud, shattered wood and undergrowth, her glowing sword easily cleaving pieces from thing's black, liquid-like flesh.
A series of three dance-like cuts severed the tail, which fell to the ground and slowly shriveled as Lady Maria. A pirouette and an arcing cut cleaved the clawed hand from the spindly arm. Each stroke and step seemed like a dance, and Susanna could almost fancy she heard the music that was being danced to Lady Maria reduced a monster out of myth into a writhing, flopping, dying corpse on the ground.
When it finally fell, the dark flesh seemed to evaporate away like dust in the wind, leaving the half-naked, painfully contorted form of an old man, lying dead upon the earth. Even so, Lady Maria stabbed them in the heart and decapitated the body, as if ensuring it was truly dead. Then she turned to face Susanna.
Susanna nearly ran away again as she met those eyes. How could eyes that looked both dead, cold, and lifeless also burn with a fire?
"Larna?" Lady Maria called out, and it took a moment for Susanna to realize they meant her. it had been years since she'd forgotten her cover name. Larna Smith was much a part of her as Susanna Randall. More, in some ways. For all her acclaim, Susanna Randall led a terribly boring life. "Larna, are you hurt?"
It took her one or two tries to respond. "Only my sense of a sane world," she managed to say.
"You have my condolences," Lady Maria said, sounding strangely sincere. "That is not something Light Magic can heal. Come, let us return to the others. Who knows what other monstrosities this place hides."
Susanna's eyes went to all that was left of an inoffensive old man. A simple caretaker of a cabin.
Then she threw up.