Of Magic and Dungeons [IC/PG-16/Accepting]

[radio414 903]

Well, it wasn’t grabbing his neck and throttling him, that was technically a good thing, even if it meant it was reaching higher and seizing him by the head instead. Its thumb bones weren’t anywhere near his eyes, so at least it hadn’t figured that part out yet. Other good things included the fact that the haze was dissipating instead of whatever it had been doing last floor, so maybe they only had to deal with the things they could see. But that was about as far as he got before the pain took over. Just because he could still breathe didn’t mean the thing's fingers weren’t like claws digging into his skull. He couldn’t focus on much else besides what was in front of him. Perhaps that was the story of his life?

Still, the other difference between the last floor and this one was that Estellise had enchanted the weapons first instead of, with only a few enemies remaining. Hacking the thing’s arms off was much easier this go around, and Chris soon found himself recoiling back and away from his assailant, his head pulling free and the detached arms becoming lifeless (or undeathless?). “Guh,” he managed. He looked at the skeleton. It was completely undeterred by its predicament, now coming after him with its feet and trying to kick him while he was still recovering from the previous attack. As he scrambled to his feet, though, he caught a glimpse of something behind it. It wasn’t clear, but something was definitely lurking in the fog.

“Hey, head’s up! There’s something else coming in!” he shouted. He tried to point where he saw the thing, but it got lost again. He had more pressing issues anyway. With another quick swing, he chopped off the skeleton’s legs. If that did enough to make it dissipate entirely or if it was just left a stump desperately giving chase with its teeth, he couldn’t say. He had to get back to the group. He was the rear guard, after all, in lieu of anyone else. If something was coming up behind, he was the one that had to deal with it.

[Skaia 578]

As Lana saw the skeletons approach her in a single file fashion the girl gripped onto her axe tighter, being surprised briefly as two blasts of fire went into the crowd and dealt some damage to them. Though it was enough to take down one of them, there were still two remaining that marched over to her. The first of them in front of her had its fists balled up and brought its arm back, as if ready to punch her. Lana, however, grit her teeth and decided to stand her ground. She didn't want to retreat back into the fog wall and she figured this was as good a time to attack as any, so hefting her great axe into the air the girl brought it down in an arc. The skeletons' arm stopped as the girl's axe blade smashed into the head of the creature, going even further as it bisected the monster in its entirety. The blade clanged against the ground as she completely slashed through the skeleton, taking a moment to let out a deep breath. 

There wasn't much of a rest period, however, as the second skeleton had made its way over to her. Taking in a deep breath, with her blade already on the ground, Lana turned her body to face the skeleton and brought the axe up in a diagonal arc. The blade, without much direction to it, smashed against the hip of the skeleton and caused it to stumble, if only a little. Still having closed the distance between it and her, this one managed to reel back its fist and with unnatural strength for its muscleless body walloped Lana in the face as  she was pulling her blade from its bony body. Letting out a grunt the girl stumbled back a bit with spots in her vision as she, shaking her head and trying to get her senses back in order. Gritting her teeth, now frustrated, Lana hefted her blade up and swung it in an arc towards the creature's neck. 

In a display that had seemed uncommon to every other skeleton she had killed thus far, this one had brought up its arm to block against the girl's swing. The blade, having been enchanted, still managed to break the arm of the skeleton but the attack had been parried and its core skeletal parts were still intact. Annoyed that it had managed to actually prevent its own death, the girl grumbled more and swung her axe in the opposite direction she just had. The skeleton had forgone defense this time, instead punching her in the face yet again though leaving itself open for an axe to now occupy its shoulder. Blinking rapidly as blood started to flow from her nose, the girl let out a, "grrr...you!" Before bringing her axe back and swinging, severing the neck of the bony assailant. Now without a head, the creature crumbled to the ground. Panting, looking back to the group with her face a bloody mess she said, "front's clear." 

[LordCowCow 839]

Chris's swing didn't destroy the skeleton. However its sudden drop onto the solid ground came with some snapping noises. Though they wouldn't be able to see the skeleton anymore as its remaining parts were under the fog it didn't make any obvious advances towards them either way.

Lana had cleared out the remaining skeletons that had been coming their way. The room was seeming more empty by the moment yet even still the other skeletons continued their methodical march back and forth across the room. Seemingly undeterred by the obvious combat not far away.

A realization would hit them all at once. Despite having felled several enemies they had hardly budged an inch for some time now. Before they could do anything about that there was a slight scraping sound and suddenly another hound had leapt up and bit down on Ziun's arm. Or it would have it it hadn't grabbed a hold of his sleeve instead. Still the hound kept moving and, if nothing was done, Ziun would find himself yanked down as the hound continued to the ground.

Chris and Lana both would notice something else. More movement from the upper right. Just a couple brief visions of the growing-more-familiar form of the hounds. They had destroyed one, another was attacking, yet it seemed this fog hid even more of them than that.

Spoiler

I am very subtle

Map

If you gotta collab posts to get them out then go for it just please if you go that route contribute more than a singular action/line.

 

[Chaos Sonic 442]

When Ziun woke up this morning, he didn't think he'd have to delve deep into the cavernous dungeon of this land just to deal with the undead skeleton hordes that he was having to deal with. If anything, he expected other things...ghosts, apparitions, dragon whelps...dragons themselves...maybe those from the Fae realm...those there were some merry pranksters, if the legends and myths would be believed. But no, he had to deal with skeletons...and had to desecrate the bones of the dearly departed...it wasn't something he was proud of if anything...

...but maybe this ONE specifically he could over look...

His sleeve was caught in the jaws/jawbone of a skeletal hound, attempting to really take a bite out of his arm. "Thank the divines for my coat...my FAVORITE coat, I may add!" he groaned, trying his best to pry his coat sleeve from the jawbone of this beast, but to little avail. A simple tug of war game was being had, but with Ziun not being able to truly and properly compete against this beast. "Is everyone in this dungeon a critic of my melodies?" Another groan was heard, before Ziun had enough with this losing game of tug of war. Quickly, he removed the coat and escaped the clutches of the skeletal hound...arm still in tact.

"That does it...en garde!" Ziun took his rapier and began to strike at the skeletal hound. "Taking my coat like this...keeping me from playing my melodies..." he muttered, still attacking the hound before him. "I must pose a query to you, my allies...but do we have some sort of spell or perhaps anything specific to dispel the fog surrounding us? Me thinks that would assist in the grand scheme of things...otherwise we'll be continuing to wander aimlessly...and be attack...by these vermin." That last sentence, he really brought home as he took his foot and proceeded to kick at the skeletal hound.

[radio414 903]

There wasn’t much behind everyone, which was good in the sense that it meant Chris had indeed at least incapacitated the skeleton, though that didn’t mean everyone else wasn’t still dealing with their own threats. Lana had just dispatched ones on her end while even more came at their flank, a hound nipping on Ziun’s arm. The latter was what Chris focused the majority of his attention on, charging back to the rest of his group and swinging at the rear end of the dog.

He still wasn’t used to how well Estellise’s enchantments held up. It felt like the swing could have turned the dog back into the purple smoke it deserved to be right then and there. Alas, it held itself together, though it did try to slink back into the shadows. Chris almost leapt after it, but nearly tripped on Ziun’s dropped coat. He picked it up and tossed it back the bard’s way, then turned back around, but the hound was now barely visible.

Or was it? He could swear he saw movement beneath all the fog, but it wasn’t where he expected movement to be. Then another abnormal shift in the mist, then another. There were three in total now, and while he could recognize one now that he was looking for it, the other two were still more mysteries he had to deal with.

“Keep moving!” Chris said. “The exit’s on the other side somewhere, remember!” He said it with such a brave face, though he wasn’t actually sure if he believed it or not. In the meantime, he ran ahead, towards the shifting figures in the fog, pretty sure he was about to bring his sword down on the one he’d already injured. Even if the circumstances meant he couldn’t be certain, the worst he could do here was choose wrong and be surprised as he killed (or re-killed) something else that needed killing, right?

[Skaia 578]

Still catching her breath, Lana looked ahead to see that there was no enemies immediately threatening them, making her more alert of the sudden wet sensation going down her face from her nose. Bringing her hand up and wiping it off, she let out a small, "bleh," seeing her own blood now on the back of her hand before trying to just shake it off. Looking to the others as Ziun had his skeleton taken care of, the girl thought about his comment for a moment. "That'd be really nice," then, thinking on it more she imagined a mighty gust of wind blowing through the area. A displeased look crossed her face as she said, "but I don't want more fog everywhere else."

Lana then shot back to attention as Chris had shouted to keep moving. "Right!" She hadn't any idea where the exit was, in fact she had barely made out the shifting shapes that weren't that far ahead of them. But she presumed that Chris had a keener eye and better instincts than she in these regards and found herself following his lead. With her axe in hand she followed after the boy, hefting it up as she saw that he was getting ready to engage in combat himself. She didn't know exactly where any of the enemies were, yet he moved with such confidence that she was certain that something was going to burst out of the fog any second. And so she prepared herself to swing at the first thing that emerged out of the fog near her. 

[LordCowCow 839]

They managed to make some progress. Though it wasn't long before Chris and Lana's watchfulness would bear fruit. So suddenly that they almost seemed to just appear out of the fog a pair of hounds came charging right for them. Chris was able to swing at the one heading his way, and would notice it indeed was one that had been injured previously, and cut a deep slice into it before it could reach him. Though reach him it did and it tried to bite down onto Chris's kneecap as soon as it got close enough.

The hound heading for Lana had leapt at her. She was able to take a swing that detached the creature's head from its body but it didn't stop from going forward. The mass of bones wasn't heavy but there was some unnatural strength to it and she would be knocked right off her feet when it connected. Even headless the creature still was moving and Lana would soon notice that the beast's bony paws were clawed.

There was a third hound as well. However this one only emerged after the other two attacked. It slunk through the fog almost entirely silent an went for the back of one of the group trailing behind. Leaping to slam its paws into their back and biting for their neck.

Spoiler

Once more leaving the third hound up to "Whichever of doggo, yui, or chaos posts first" as to who it actually targets.

The skeletons continue to march.

 

[yui 574]

The fog in here must have been getting to her. In her head, perhaps. It certainly felt like her head was full of fog, at any rate. Robin just couldn't think straight, and was barely registering her surroundings. But after some time - too much time, no matter how she counted it - the pirate had finally come to her senses. The group was in the middle of a goddamn battle, and now was not the time to be spacing out. Once she had returned to reality, Robin wasted no time glancing around at her surroundings. Skeletons here, skeletons there, just in general a lot of sets of bones that shouldn't have been walking anymore. Among them, Robin caught sight of a skeletal hound.

Not being much of a dog person to begin with, and being even less of a skeleton person, Robin wasted no time. Swinging her arm around to face the bony beast, Robin pointed her trusty runelock pistol at the creature, and with no hesitation, let loose a fireball in its direction.

[radio414 903]

Chris’ second swing on the skeleton dog still wasn’t enough to dust it outright, but it was enough to give it some semblance of pause. Maybe he was supposed to get stronger, Chris thought, like, physically. He could imagine even Lana, someone who threw a mighty axe around, being able to handle these things much easier than he had, though he supposed she had an opportunity to since she was also engaging these things just off to the side. Behind him, he could hear Robin firing one of her guns. That could probably work too, like, if he beat up Leo or something and stole his.

He didn’t have time, though, to ponder just how he’d do that on top of everything else he had to do once he got out of the dungeon. The dog lunged at him again, and despite the huge gashes where he’d hit it before, it almost seemed faster. In the split-second decision between fight and flight, he chose the latter, shoving himself backward and just avoiding the skeleton dog smashing his kneecaps in. The maneuver threw him off balance, not enough to get him to fall, but it was still a precious few moments wasted as the thing landed from its own lunge and leapt forward again.

He needed more power, huh? He just had the one sword, and he wasn’t about to give that up, but he did have two arms, didn’t he? He brought his right hand over to grab his sword’s hilt and raised it up over his head, hoping that it would be enough.

In short, it was. The combined force of a double-handed hammer swing and gravity on top of that crashed into the skeleton dog and it crumpled into a pile of bones amidst the dust. He still raised his sword up again, expecting it to move one more time, but it didn’t, so he lowered his sword back down to a ready position. “Okay,” Chris said. “I already wasn’t really a dog person and this is absolutely not helping.” He looked around for more things that might pop out in the fog. He didn’t see any, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. “Keep moving,” he told himself, “Don’t get stuck again, especially not here.”

[Skaia 578]

Lana continued to stand on edge, awaiting the hound's attack from the fog and it seemed her alertness had paid off. Though, not in any way that would show a level headed patience, as she frantically smashed her axe down on the first thing that had jumped out. Thankfully this was a skeletal hound and she managed to smash its head in before it actually could bite her. The sense of victory that was accompanied by this attack lasted for less than a second as she realized the body had already been mid leap and was moving towards her. Quite like what she experienced with the skeleton's punching her, the force from the bony body smashing into her chest was much larger then its appearance would suggest. Being knocked off her feet and slamming her butt into the ground, she stammered out an, "ow ow ow -" wincing a bit from the pain as she tried to pull herself up. The girl's pained expression was replaced with one of irritability as the girl saw that the now headless hound was still upright and moving towards her. "Oh come on!" 

With its claws reaching out towards her and no room to get a good swing off Lana let go of her axe, letting out an "oof" as the haft landed on her thighs, before grabbing at the headless skeleton's neck. As its claws scratched into the side of her body she winced in pain, she shoved the skeletal hound away from her. As the hound scrambled to its feet the girl quickly pulled out her hand axe and smashed the blade into its rib cage. Being knocked off balance yet again, the hound wobbled away from Lana as the girl swung into its spine, shattering the creature into its second death. Sheathing her axe as it fell, the girl looked over in surprise as quick shouted out to her saying, "oh right - wait - wait up!" The girl grabbed her great axe, scrambling to her feet as she rushed after Chris. 

[LordCowCow 839]

Robin's fireball flew right past Estelle and Ziun, a bit too close to comfort and the two of them thought they could smell slightly singed hair, and struck the hound before it could reach them. Quite literally exploding on impact as the hound's bones scattered in the air and disappeared within the fog.

With the way clear for the moment the group continued on. Lana and Chris pulled up a bit ahead of the others and Chris would eventually notice something. While he still could only see thick fog ahead of him it seemed darker than it had before which could indicate a wall somewhere past it. To the right he could see the trio of skeletons marching nearly alongside of them and heading in the same direction.

As he looked that direction he would see movement as yet another hound came rushing in from the same way. At the exact same time several more appeared. One of them suddenly popping up to the left of Lana and going for a bite on her calf. While another went head on towards Robin, weaving back and forth as it intercepted the girl in the gap between her and the two ahead.

The other two, somewhat behind, weren't left out either as they would hear a similar noise as before, scraping claws, as a hound leapt at each of their backs.

Spoiler

One hound for each, happy spooktober!

Map

 

[radio414 903]

They were almost at the back wall, or what was a wall, anyway. The fog still kept things from being too clear, but at the very least, something was changing. More things than one, actually. As they approached, Chris spotted another telltale shadow lurking in all that haze; he saw another skeletal hound getting ready to leap forward and attack. The usual tactic of just swinging, leaping back, and swinging again probably would have worked, but now that he was allowed a second to think, it probably wasn’t the best way to go about things. It would only take one stumble to knock him to the ground with a canine’s canines poised over his neck, and counting on his friends and fellow dungeon delvers to rescue him when there were still visible enemies in the room to keep them otherwise engaged didn’t seem smart.

As he kept going forward, his hand brushed against his magic string, and he remembered how he’d used it to dodge a sword swipe while still keeping his feet. It could work again, he thought, except the dog probably would keep lunging forward, unlike a skeleton with a sword that had to stop. Still, it was enough to at least get the spool out and place the string for some opportune moment. In the worst case, maybe he could trip the thing up.

Then an idea struck him, and, instead of charging towards the beast now emerging from its hiding space, he retreated, not quite turning tail and running -- he still had to keep an eye on it -- but definitely not running the way he was used to when it came to stunts like this. As expected, the dog kept following him, giving chase, but his string kept unspooling and, when the dog had passed that point, he gave it a pull and now found himself chasing the thing right back.

It was a weird feeling, and not just because of the whole teleportation thing. He was getting used to that. No, it was because all of a sudden he had at least a few moments where he probably wasn’t going to get attacked by anything (unless he’d caught a skeleton’s attention somewhere), so he didn’t have to worry about playing defense. Chris raised his sword, and took aim at the skeletal hound’s joints, just as he had with the human skeleton earlier in the room. It took a couple of swings, but again, he had that time now.

He looked up as he finished the job and cursed himself. Everyone else had their own hound to deal with now. He should have shouted something! “Alright, hold on, I’m coming to help!” he said and ran after the next.

[Skaia 578]

Running forward through the fog covered room, the girl's attention was suddenly turned by the familiar sounds of skeletal paws against the ground. Looking to the side to see, out from the fog wall, another skeletal hound leap from it towards her. With a bit of a panic at this sudden appearance and it already now close upon her, the girl raised her foot in an attempt to kick the dog away. Unfortunately for her, the dog seemed to have already been coming for her legs and immediately sunk its teeth into her foot as she tried to push it away. Letting out a yelp of pain Lana brought down her foot, only causing her to yelp in pain again as she could feel the teeth sink in more, the girl grit her teeth in frustration. "I have had enough of all of you!" Bringing down her axe onto the spine of the hound, causing it to crack a little, the hound only responded by tightening its grip on her foot. "Get off!" 

With another swing, this time she shattered the part of the spine she had struck earlier and in doing so caused the hound to be missing its back half. Unfortunately, its front half still seemed to be very alive - or unalive? - and still looked like it was having a grand old time enjoying her snack of a foot. Not wanting to swing her axe down on her own foot by accident, the girl dropped her weapon and started to attempt to pry it off with her bare hands. Then, hearing the call of one of her teammates the girl shouted, "Chris! It's eating my foot!" 

Rushing over, the roguish boy assessed the situation and pulled out his dagger. Getting close to the hound's face, Chris went to assist in prying open the creature's mouth saying, "okay, uh, I dunno if this'll hurt or not so it probably will."

Though Lana felt very not reassured from this, the two of them managed to pull the hound off her foot and managed to not get it stabbed by a dagger. With an almost growl of frustration, Lana pulled out her hand axe and swung the weapon down on the skull of the skeleton. Letting out a sigh, the girl decided to go pick up her weapon she had previously discarded. However, looking down and seeing the wall of mist on the ground, she swore under her breath. Crouching down, the girl let out some annoyed, "ows," as she crawled along the floor, pawing for her weapon. 

[Chaos Sonic 442]

"First off..." Ziun started, the smell of slightly singed hair filling his nostrils, as the bard immediately turned around with quite the worried look on his face, his arm motioning between himself and Estelle. "SAME TEAM, DREAD PIRATE!!! Please have your aim be a bit more truer, lest you turn us both to a pile of ash!" This was the closest he'd ever been burned...now burned in the sense of a relationship, he was used to that. Apparently he was the type of bard to just hit on the wrong type of women who would end up burning him and his chances of doing what people say bards do best...wait...where was his mind going with this?

Oh right...back to pressing matters, like more skeletal hounds.

Ziun let out a groan, seeing them being attacked by even more skeletal hounds. Not like one was worse enough...no, there had to be more. "And unfortunately, it seems my music and illusions are not helpful in this portion of the dungeon." he muttered, brandishing his rapier as he struck at the skeletal hound before him. "Alas, I fear that this level of this dungeon, I'm truly at a loss to be of service. These beasts don't enjoy the melodious tones and apparently have enough common sense to see through my illusions."

Another slash at the hound, it's legs being attacked at this point. "This is most uncivilized for someone like myself...I'm supposed to be keeping back and covering our tracks in order to move forward...and yet I'm fighting more than I thought I would. Truly this is the worst predicament for a bard!" he lamented, taking another swing and slash at his target.

[LordCowCow 839]

Ziun had managed to slice at the hound several times. His unfocused strikes managed to cut through in various spots yet none of them had enough behind them to truly dismantle the creature just yet. It wasn't able to strike back at him easily yet it still hadn't gone down. As Ziun struck once more the hound attempted to bite the blade itself and catch it between its teeth to prevent further slashes.

The other two hounds remaining that they could see had caught the pirate and mage by surprise. Estelle let out a surprised sound as she felt the hound hit her between the shoulder blades and she fell face first into the ground. She disappeared into the fog but the hound was still mostly visible as it went in to bite at the back of her neck.

Robin for her part caught a bite to the leg as the hound managed to reach her unharmed and clamped down on her left leg. The hound would attempt to bite as deep as it could before yanking at her leg to try and pull her down.

The other two couldn't see any more hounds at the moment however they did see that the middle group of skeletons finally seemed to have noticed them and had turned to advance in single file in their direction.

Spoiler

Map

At the pace they're going the skeletons should reach where you're at by start of my next post.

 

[radio414 903]

More were coming. The group hadn’t even dealt with all the skeleton hounds yet, and it had taken a bit of weird levering to deal with the one that had been attacking Lana, and yet more were coming. Chris swore under his breath, but tried to mentally take it back. They could deal with it. He and Lana were especially getting good at dealing with these things, and Ziun, despite his complaining, was holding his own. If Robin could keep firing her guns and Estellise’s enchantments held, they’d probably be okay.

He looked behind himself to the rest of the group and saw that both Estellise and Robin had been tackled by the hounds attacking them. He swore again, louder this time. “Uh, Okay.” He needed to make sure that they weren’t about to get more flanked than they already were, but he also had to help the rest of the group, like, if they couldn’t get out of their current predicament, they wouldn’t get to worry about the other skeletons in the room. It was like the dungeon expected him to be in two places at once.

Well, that was manageable now, wasn’t it? He still had his string. He placed his return point and charged the first skeleton in the line, not even bothering with defense as he lunged forward and chopped its head clean off. Just before he could experience the consequences of the thing’s still-moving sword, though, he pulled back on the string and he was back where he started.

Chris stumbled a bit. He’d still been moving one way when he teleported, and his need to stop and go the other way was screwing with his balance. It was a dizzy sort of feeling, actually. Stupid magic, not working exactly how he wanted it to work. There wasn’t time to catch his breath, though, so he tried to work through the grog, pausing for just a moment to make sure he was facing the right way and he had the right weapons handy before rushing over to Estellise’s side.

He tried to do the same thing he’d done to help Lana. It wouldn’t be the exact same, if only because Lana’s leg had already been bitten and Chris really didn’t want the skeleton hound to get that far on Estellise’s neck, but the principle was the same. He jammed a dagger in the hound’s mouth, at least trying to disrupt it before it clamped down, and, with all his might, tried to wrench the thing off of the mage.

[Skaia 578]

The girl continued scrambling around for her axe, finally finding it only to see that the situation behind her was rapidly devolving with three more dogs being on top of them. The girl stood up, wincing in pain as she put pressure on her foot, and tried to figure out what to do. The hounds were already attacking, and much as she wanted to help Estelle she didn't feel confident a swinging her axe with the girl so close and didn't feel confident in her ability to run at all right now. But there were also three more skeletons slowly converging on them. As her mind raced to find a solution, she blinked in confusion as suddenly Chris reappeared in her field of view and was already on top of the hound that was on Estelle. Confused at the blinding speed with which he moved, not thinking much more on it, the girl figured that Ziun already had a handle on the one he was engaged with and Robin had guns, which had to count for something. 

Turning to face the three skeletons Lana declared, "I'll handle them." Slowly, wincing with each step she took the girl made her way to meet the skeletons halfway. While in a normal situation Lana might have been liable to just charge in, with her current injuries she didn't really feel like moving all that hurriedly. So instead, she paused and started to think, waiting for the skeletons to approach her. The one closest seemed to be missing a head, and from her experience all she would need is one more solid hit on it. With it just blindly moving towards her, Lana raised her axe and in one motion swung it, smashing the spine of the creature and causing the bones to scatter. With one down, the other two started to converge onto her from either side. Slowly backing up, Lana tried to think of what next was going to happen and back to her training with Joan. When Lana had blindly charged at the woman, she had managed to parry her axe with not much trouble and then went for a swing into her stomach. In that situation Lana was "dead," so she liked to believe that the very same would hold true if it was applied to this skeleton. 

It didn't have a weapon, from what she knew it was likely to either punch or grab at her, which meant the arm was still the best bet. But if she swung at the arm normally, her axe was too weighty and movements to clumsy to actually be able to get a decisive blow against it. That and it had two arms so it was likely to punch her - and always for the face - if she had any delay between her swings. "Right, so last time I..." The girl muttered to herself, moving her grip up the haft of the weapon, reducing her effective range on her axe. When the skeleton finally made its way towards her though, the girl took a quick swing, managing to instantly lop off one of its arms. The skeleton didn't have much of a reaction, instead moving with its other arm towards her. Knowing the attack was coming ahead of time, Lana swiftly ducked under the hand and then, with her axe not nearly having the lag between swings it normally did, she swiftly brought it into the spine of the skeleton, shattering it once again. 

A surge of pride and joy washed over her as she muttered, "whoa...that was awesome..." She had been able to see everything that was going to happen and reacted accordingly. She managed to fell it without it ever touching her. Which must've meant that - "Gah!" The girl let out a surprised noise as a skeleton had come up from behind her. Having been completely focused on the one, she completely neglected the third skeleton of the group, and had no real preparation for its grapple. The girl elbowed back into its rib cage, though it naturally didn't phase the skeleton at all, in a desperate attempt to shake it off. However, the skeleton still held firm in its grip and started to move its hand to her neck, now squeezing on that. Letting go of her axe, again, Lana pulled out her hand axe, again, and started to thrust the head of the axe backward into its ribs, cracking a few. Using her free hand she tried to pry the skeletal hand off of her neck, though this proved to be impossible as the skeleton's unnatural strength far surpassed her own.

"I can't handle them!" The girl called out in a strained voice.

[LordCowCow 839]

Chris felt the dagger push into the bottom of the hound's mouth, scrapping along the inside of it, and would have to struggle a moment to avoid the creature from clamping down on his weapon. As it was he just barely was able to wrench it away and the skeletal hound fell over on its side under the fog. There was silence for a moment before the creature went for Chris instead in an attempt to bite whatever part of him was nearest.

Ziun's blade meanwhile found itself between the teeth of the hound he had injured. It gave a sudden jerk of its head and the bard lost grip of the weapon. He could hear it bounce off the ground once before disappearing into the fog. Without the weapon in hand he was unable to prevent the hound from rushing in and aiming to clamp down on his thigh.

Robin found herself in a dire circumstance. The hound had already grabbed onto her leg and with surprising strength managed to pull her off her feet. She landed on her back and felt the wind get knocked out of her, stunned a moment, and the beast was soon standing with two bony paws on her stomach. The hound darted its head down and clamped its jaw around the wrist attached to the had which held onto her gun. The creature's teeth became wet with blood as it bit down on the appendage and she was forced to drop her weapon at the least and, if nothing was done soon, she would possibly lose the hand entirely.

Lana could feel the weight of the skeleton on her back. One of its arms was around her chest to keep itself firmly in place while the other was at her neck, its bony hand gripping her throat as it attempted to crush it with its unnatural strength. She would notice that in her movement she had actually lifted the thing off the ground a few inches so that it truly was hanging onto her back.

Spoiler

Things aren't going so well it seems.

Remember to get info from me to see how much you can do.

Map

 

[Chaos Sonic 442]

First it was lodged inside the skeletal hound's jaw and then it was ripped out of his hand...and with a clatter on the ground, his rapier disappeared into the mist. "Gods be damned..." he muttered at first, his mutterings would soon be halted as he saw the hound attempt to rush in and it's target: his thigh. "Blast it all!" Ziun groaned, dodging out of the way, a quick roll to make sure he wasn't literally dog chow.

Okay Castir...let's assess the situation here. First: this encounter within the walls of this dungeon presented you with skeletons, with neither a love or appreciation of music or your illusions. Second: they won't stop coming and this mist continues to hinder us. Third: I have now lost my weapon within the fog, basically unable to properly fend off these creatures. Ziun glanced at the lute he had with him and immediately shook his head. Under no circumstances...can't just use this as a blunt object and weapon...that's basically sacrilegious...

This wasn't looking good for the bard in any shape or form. Especially given that as he dodged out of the way, the hound simply rushed where he was, turned around and began to make a beeline straight for him. It was obvious it was hungry for a taste of his blood...or flesh...an ironic thing to be in the realm of tasting for, at least in Ziun's mind. But the undead had their tastes about them, they wanted certain things, so perhaps that was one of them. Nevertheless, with the hound on it's way again, Ziun put together that dodging and rolling would not be helping him now.

So what was he to do then?

An exhale escaped his lips, his breath being seen in the process. Without a moment to waste, Ziun did something a bit...strange, crazy even. He quickly removed his coat and held it in front of him. The moment the hound got closer, he threw the coat towards the hound, preparing to hinder the skeletal hound's sight. And once it was basically having it's head covered in coat, Ziun took the opportunity to seize the hound by the neck, wrapping his arms around the skeletal creature and forced it down. "...t-tch...didn't think I'd resort to tactics used by a hog farmer...how low can I possibly stoop?" he groaned, somewhat regretting himself asking this as he started to punch the hound's "suffocated" head.

[Skaia 578]

Lana continued to struggle against her skeletal foe, being unable to free herself from its grasp on her throat. Pulling against the arm, the girl tried to step forward to throw the skeleton off, similar to no avail as every other attempt she had made. Continuing to thrash about more and more, the girl had the sudden realization that while her situation was not improving the skeleton had seemed to be moving in accordance to her thrashing. Lana didn't particularly know what this meant, but she figured it meant she had some control in the grapple and that she could move the skeleton even if it was the one currently digging its claws into her neck with no consideration for her ability to breathe. And so, desperate for a way to get the creature off of her, Lana decided to throw her whole weight and the skeleton's to the ground. 

Jumping up and backwards, Lana both heard and felt the cracking and splintering of bones underneath her as she brought her foe back down to the earth. Coughing, Lana attempted to get her breath back as she groaned in pain. She had thought being punched in the face was bad enough, she had thought that having a good part of her foot bit into was worse, but being strangled certainly seemed to give that a run for its money. Especially having interrupted her moment of triumph so rudely. It was only the second floor, but Lana was already starting to feel her daily allotment of tolerance being whittled away at. She was in a great deal of pain and more than anything else this annoyed her. And with the sheer frequency it had happened, Lana found a need to relieve her stress. Violently.

The girl moved her hands across the ground, finding her weapon under the fog once more. Slowly, the girl picked herself back up, her expression clearly ragged and filled with frustration as she looked over to the others. Ziun had seemed to be in a grapple of his own and Chris, helping Estelle, had been fighting his hound before it vanished back into the fog. Lana did not want to kill Ziun with her axe but she was feeling awfully in the mood to smash something as hard as she could. And so, breathing heavily and slowly, Lana quickly limped forward, wincing with every step she took. And when she got close enough back to Chris the hound reared its skeletal head. 

Letting out a guttural grunt as she hefted her axe up, the girl once again brought the blade in arc down onto the skeletal hound's spine. With its body broken, it fell to the ground harmlessly though with the sound of its teeth still gnashing underneath the fog. Letting out an annoyed sigh at this, the girl brought her axe down into the fog, with the sound of chattering being silenced by the shattering of bones. Looking back at Chris, with how bad this day had been so far very evident in her eyes, the girl said, "it's dead." 

Edited November 4, 2022 by Skaia

[radio414 903]

He was dizzy, he was sore, and the parts that weren’t sore still kinda hurt. Even his fingers were starting to cramp up from holding his weapons too hard, though that could easily be fixed now that Lana had given him the time. “Thanks,” Chris said. It was a terse sort of thanks, but that was intentional. It was an undercurrent to match Lana’s, an agreement about the state of things that exceeded what mere words could describe. He pulled himself to his feet.

Chris had decided to save Estellise first because if they lost her, all these aches and pains weren’t about to heal themselves. Well, maybe they would -- that was how bodies worked, after all -- but not on an efficient timescale, and while the dungeon seemed to be forgiving about that sort of thing, this was not the day, of all the days, to test that theory. There were only a few left to deal with, and three of them seemed content with marching around aimlessly until everyone was ready. Lana had passed by Ziun to help Chris out, which he supposed was also supposed to fit in that “Thanks,” he said earlier, though he said it again, just in case, and ran over to help the bard.

Despite being without a weapon, Ziun was making a decent go at things. He’d blinded the hound with his coat and was wrestling it into submission. In Chris' approximation, he probably could have managed without the help, but this was faster. Chris made his way around the scene until he faced Ziun opposite the thrashing skeleton. His dagger was still in his hand. “Keep your head up, and watch your hands,” Chris said, and he brought the pommel of the dagger down on the dog’s head. He hit it once, twice, enough times for it to stop thrashing about and a few more for good measure, only pausing after each hit to make sure he didn’t accidentally hit Ziun’s chin on the upswing.

In the aftermath, he looked at Ziun’s coat. “Oh,” Chris said. The thing was miraculously unpunctured after having been held so close to the thing’s teeth, but it was still no place for a coat to be. “Dirt washes out,” he said. “Bone dust washes out. Only thing you have to worry about is the smoke, but you accepted that going in, hopefully.”

[yui 574]

The situation was getting sticky. Robin suddenly found herself on the ground, a skeletal hound making a meal out of her arm, her gun loosed from her hand. Try as she might to shake it free from her arm, that was proving horribly ineffective. This was but one reason why she hated dogs. There was yet hope, however. Her other hand was still very much free. She wasn't quite as good of a shot with it, but at this distance, that surely wouldn't matter. It would cost her a precious bullet, but she didn't care.

"I've had it with you damned mutts! Time to put you down!"

With no time to waste, Robin reached for the next firearm in her holster, not even bothering to pull the gun out all the way, opting to point it at the hound's head as soon as she could before pulling the trigger.

[LordCowCow 839]

All but the hound attacking Robin were down for the count. Robin's shot had torn through much of the hound's skull and shattered part of it along with its upper jaw. The creature didn't let go of Robin's wrist so much as she was able to simply pull it up and out of the empty space where its teeth had once been.

It was a nasty injury still and until healed Robin would find it hard to use that hand but at least the hand was still attached. The creature still looked to be animate though and, while it couldn't bite, it did try and drive its clawed feet into the woman's chest. It wasn't a very graceful move and unless nothing was done it wouldn't even likely harm Robin.

Despite being saved from the hound, Estelle didn't get up right away. Perhaps she had hit her head as she fell for it would seem that she had been dazed from the ordeal.

They weren't out of the fire yet. As though realizing suddenly they were there the skeletons from the far side began to move straight for the group. Adding to that, from the direction that they had originally come, they could hear scrapping sounds. Movement that was louder than the previous just by the fact that, something they could tell due to having heard the hound's movements enough by now, there were many more than before. The group would need to move fast to avoid being caught up in what seemed to be a whole fresh pack of the skeletal canines.

Spoiler

On the nose? Perhaps. But yeah, make sure to get information so you can do more than one action cause soon there's gonna be a whole heck of a lot of enemies. Also if Doggo posts Estelle can get up on her own, otherwise she'll need help.

Map

 

[radio414 903]

“Keep moving!” Chris said again, though his voice had become ragged since he’d said it last. He wasn’t sure that two of them could follow his order if they wanted to. Robin had nearly been left handless (or was that left right-handless?), and was still wrapping up dealing with her own attacker and Estellise… okay he wasn’t exactly sure what Estellise’s deal was right now but it wasn’t good.

Okay, so better instructions. “Keep moving, uh, that way!” He pointed towards the advancing skeletons with his sword, because while he could hear more hounds approaching, at least this way was towards enemies they could see. They could figure things out from there. He turned back around to Estellise. He’d already endeavored to keep her alive once and he wasn’t about to let that go to waste by failing to do so a second time. “Come on, get up. At least get on my back or something.”

That got situated rather quickly, but Chris could already sense something was about to go wrong. Every single fight he’d been in, either in the dungeon or without, he’d relied on his speed and nimbleness to stay out of trouble, and now that he was carrying what felt like almost a second him on his back, there was no way he’d be able to do that anymore. Even walking was a struggle; he was normally so light on his feet, now those feet were digging into the earth. But he had to struggle on, lead the charge at least for a little bit.

Chris stared at the first of the incoming skeletons as they approached each other. “Fight defensively,” he mumbled himself. “You don’t have to create an opening, wait for them to make one and don’t let them in in the meantime. Just because that was one of the less fun fencing classes doesn’t mean you can’t do it now. This one doesn’t even have a sword anyway.”

He managed to block the skeleton’s first wild attack, but he couldn’t even have countered if he tried. The next was already coming in.

[Chaos Sonic 442]

“Keep your head up, and watch your hands,”

"My thanks Chris..." Ziun huffed, already seeing Chris drive his dagger into the thrashing skeletal hound's head.

“Dirt washes out. Bone dust washes out. Only thing you have to worry about is the smoke, but you accepted that going in, hopefully.”

Ziun rolled his eyes in a manner to show he wasn't too amused by this, but immediately took his coat and shook it once to get it clean of what was on it. "Aye. I made sure to accept what this dungeon threw at me...it doesn't mean I have to thoroughly enjoy it." he huffed again, already putting it back on. "Of course, it would have to be the undead we encounter first...the ones who have no soul for music. Truly a shame."

He moved slightly, before finally noticing his rapier on the ground. "Ah, finally...there you are!" Ziun sighed happily, immediately picking it up and holding it in his hand. "Much easier to do things when I have my weapon now." However, he did hear the sounds of more hounds, to which he groaned. "Perfect..."

“Keep moving, uh, that way!”

"Truly better than just standing here for sure, my good sir." Ziun commented, before hearing him make mention of keeping defensive. "Tis a thought, not a truly magnificent one, but it could help mitigate some more causalities." he said, keeping near Chris' left side. After all, he was the one with the plan as well as someone on his back, it was obvious he would be a target if the skeletons continued their approach...and someone had to keep him protected. ...how did you get stuck with this job? he thought, before immediately stepping in where the next skeleton was coming, basically just pushing it back away from Chris at this point.