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

[radio414 951]

Ziun asked how everyone was doing, and Chris was a bit too busy stabilizing himself to answer. He wasn’t even able to thank Ziun properly for giving him that armor he’d mentally asked for, even if he did acknowledge its usefulness. The pain hadn’t exactly subsided, but the existence of the magic armor gave Chris a bit of confidence as he tried to manage the issues in front of him.

The first was Lana ducking down and getting grabbed by the hands on the floor again. Chris was already moving in that direction, and now that his vision was clearing up, he could aim properly with his sword swings, making sure not to hit his teammate as he did so. He pulled Lana up again. “Dodge to the side,” he said. “Like this:” He did a little shuffle step, slipping out of the grasp of another set of hands, and hoping that was demonstration enough for in the middle of a dungeon floor fight.

He turned to face the cultist who had shot him. Just looking at the hooded figure made his shoulder flare up again, but Chris grit his teeth and tightened his grip on his sword to force it back down. When he moved, he moved almost in an arc, almost sideways to the cultist, but still spiraling inwards, juking the other way every so often just to keep the cultist from being able to lead its shot. It did not take long for him to close the gap and while he wasn’t able to knock the cultist’s crossbow out of its hands with his first swing, he did at least make sure it wasn’t pointing his way as he swung back and cut his sword deep into the cultist’s shoulder.

The cultist staggered back, bleeding profusely, but still managing to keep it together enough to raise its crossbow again. But Chris had not stopped moving, and despite the close distance, the injury hampered the cultist’s aim. The crossbow bold ended up glancing off of Chris’ Mage Armor, and such an impact did not stop Chris from stepping in and swinging into the cultist’s other shoulder.

Chris exhaled, and, as he made his way around the arms and back to Lana, remembered to respond to Ziun. “Better than I was,” he said.

[Skaia 626]

As Ziun asked his question the girl shouted, "I am so done with these hands!" The girl tried to push her legs forward to simply force her way towards the cultist that was staring her down, but found the grip strength of the hands that were on her to be far too strong for that. She was trying to think of what to do next, as she could try using a different weapon to hack the hands away but she didn't want to think about what would happen if she dropped a weapon in this sea of limbs and didn't think she could even cut through them fast enough to prevent them from just coming back and grabbing her again. As such, she could only stare down her enemy as they continued to load and ready themselves to fire at her. 

Thankfully Chris had managed to deal with whoever it was he had been fighting, freeing her from the grasp of the floor hands and allowing her to rush forward. As the cultist took aim, the girl knew she could try to duck under it again but figured that it would simply lead her back to the same situation she had just been in. So, following Chris's advice from earlier, the girl awkwardly shuffled through the hands to avoid the attack, the bolt sailing past her and her clumsy footwork having the hands start to find a grip on her legs regardless of her movements. However, with no longer having to worry about being immediately shot, the girl grit her teeth and broke into a full sprint. Using brute strength she managed to get her legs free from the hands before they could fully lock her down and made a beeline straight for the cultist. 

The cultist had already loaded yet another bolt, and with Lana unable to dodge the attack, she simply continued her forward momentum and let the bolt strike against her mage armor. Letting out a grunt as the force of the attack transferred through to her yet again, even mitigated by the magic, Lana raised her axe and brought it down onto the shoulder of the cultist, crushing the bone underneath it and forcing the man to let go of the crossbow. Tenacious as he was, though, the cultist continued to move towards Lana, trying to tackle her to knock her off balance and into the sea of hands. However Lana, taking a small step back to avoid it, shouted, "no thanks!" and swung her axe, smashing into the head of the cultist and causing its body to drop. 

Lana couldn't help but feel a bit off about how easily the cultists' bodies took damage, much easier than any of the undead they had encounter thus far, but didn't want to dwell on that for too. Instead she muttered, "alright maybe this armor isn't so bad after all." Then looking back she shouted, "exit's clear!"

[Chaos Sonic 467]

“Better than I was,”

"I am so done with these hands!"

"F-Fantastic! Good to hear you're still alive and kicking!" Ziun shouted back, already doing his best to keep himself out of harms way. The crossbow wielders were dealing with his bats, while the one with a dagger was slowly advancing on him. Meanwhile, in front of him, the one handed cultist was attempting to grab and pull him down. ON TOP OF THAT, he had the hands beneath him trying to grab and pull him down. "I'll have to echo your thoughts on this matter, Lana! ...this seems to be something similar to one of my last performances before hitting this city...except they weren't trying to kill me!"

The bard decided to make his move, to which he focused on the daggerless cult member and he fired point blank a series of icicles right at the cult member, watching it waste the poor fool. The cultist fell to the ground and he was free… from one series of hands.

“N-Now… for the others…” he muttered, looking at the ghostly and ghoulish hands grabbing and trying to drag him down. He glanced a bit between the hands and the situation he had behind him. He decided on a course of action and nodded.

“Hear the verse and rhyme that I sing...

Come forth and assist thy master…”

Like from the previous room, by Ziun's side appeared that ethereal canine, who simply barked upon being summoned yet again. Thankfully it wasn't as beat up as it was before. “Do me a favor and take care of these, will you?” he asked, watching the canine immediately start tearing up the ghostly hands, enough to where with him pulling away, it freed him. “Good boy! Truly a good boy!” he said with a smile. With another bark, the canine looked like it gave a small nod. Ziun took this opportunity and proceeded to run up towards Chris and Lana…even past them. “Let's pick up the pace, shall we? Last one there is an elf!” he said, hurrying his pace, namely due to the one remaining dagger wielding cultist

[LordCowCow 888]

By the skin of their teeth the trio was able to get out the door before the hands closed in around them and the cultists caught up. In fact Ziun wasn't quite as lucky as the other two. The nearest cultist had caught up right as they got to the exit and he was sliced by their last ditch effort dagger stab which cut into Ziun's backside on the way out the door.

Still they were able to make it to the staircase and began the familiar trip down into the next floor.

The room was long and oval shaped, with the group emerging on one of the elongated sides of it, and when they stepped into the room they had to be careful to avoid falling into a deep grove carved into the stone. Said groove went along the entirety of the room and had branches dug out leading towards the middle of the room where there sat a stone dais.

Atop this dais were several bodies that had multiple deep wounds on them that seemed to not be bleeding. This would be because all their blood had been removed and was filling the grooves in the floor.

There were three other bodies around the dais but these were standing and moving. Two of them were dressed similar to the cultists from before but their hoods were down and it was clear from their faces they were zombies. The other had hardly any clothes and their body was covered in scars and red paint. They held two knives in their hands while the other two were unarmed.

Three other cultists stood closer to the group, two with their backs to them and one who noticed them and held out a saber that mirrored the ones in the other two's hands. He called something out in a language they couldn't understand and the rest took notice.

The two zombies raised their hands and began to chant and as they did dark energy came from their hands and into several piles of bones scattered across the floor. Raising them up into misshapen skeletons that ambled towards the group.

Spoiler

And so it has begun, floor 18! Lots going on here if confused let me know. As for the skeletons, basically the piles of bones which are all over the place aren't all just one full skeleton so they're essentially a bunch of bones put together. Some might be walking with arms and hands, some have multiple hands or feet, or skulls, so on so forth. Basically walking bone piles.

Map

So the map ended up being a bit squished but for perspective the dais is big enough that 3 bodies can lay on it so there is a bit more distance than it seems but it isn't massive room.

The grooves are about 6 inches deep and 4 inch wide for the record.

 

[Skaia 626]

With the group having managed to get through the floor without much in way of injury, though for Lana's case she could still feel the uncomfortable bruising left on her torso from the bolts she had received, they began their way down to the next floor. Along the way, Lana simply grumbled, "as long as there's no more of those hands...I've had enough of being grabbed at." And as if to acquiesce to her desires, the next room they had gone to didn't have any such signs of hands ready to burst out from the floor at them. And their enemies were visible, plain as day as opposed to hiding inside the walls or on the ceiling or something. The girl couldn't help but feel a little grossed out by the enormous ring of blood that seemed to fill the room, and couldn't help but sigh as they were spotted immediately and beset upon by more bizarre undead. This room was certainly creepy in its own right, and looking at the strange amalgam of bones that were shuffling around the room now she was certainly starting to hope that the floors after this set would stand to be less gross and odd, but she still felt it to be an overall improvement over the last floor. 

Squaring up and getting ready to get into the fight immediately, the girl took stock of their situation. As always there was only three of them. To their either side there were two skeletal constructs and straight ahead there were six enemies. So, with them already basically surrounded and being encroached upon Lana thought it would be best for them to clear some kind of space on the side for them to work with before going for the actual cultists. "I'll start on this side," the girl called out to her teammates before running to the left. She noticed that the groove in the ground, covered in blood though it was, was a lot deeper than she had originally suspected and so she didn't want to just casually step over with an enemy nearby. So she opted to her new usual strategy of patient defense, waiting for the bone amalgam to walk towards her first. The monster, for its part, had five arms on one side and a foot on the other, with no head to speak of at the top but a skull instead in the midsection of its body. As it got close, it swung its collection of arms towards her which prompted her to back step away from it and avoid the attack. Looking at her opponent she said, "well, it's still a head so..." And then took a swing to strike at the skull, which upon contact shattered and caused the entire rest of the bone construct to fall to pieces. 

Glad that her plan worked, Lana had little time to recover for the next fight as one of the cultists in the back fired a magically, frosty ray at her which prompted the girl to hop to the side once more to avoid the attack. A scowl on her face, Lana called out, "I am so not in the mood to be shot at again." But all the same that was one skeleton now and there was only more left on this side. The saber wielding cultists and the other undead, however, had taken notice to their presence and had opted to do something about it, now slowly advancing on them. Looking to the skeleton nearest to her, seeing that it had two heads on top and one much lower on its body Lana couldn't help but mumble, "so, does that mean I need to hit all three?" If it got too close she figured that it'd take too much time to break all three of its head, so simply waiting was out of the question. Instead, she decided to do something she hadn't normally. 

Letting go of her weapon with one hand, her now free hand pulled a hand axe from her belt which she lobbed at one of the heads of the creature. As the weapon found its mark, shattering one of the upper heads, Lana felt a surge of pride and joy go through her as she let out a small, "got it!" And then moved closer to the skeleton, while still hugging the outside of the blood ring, letting the creature take yet another swing at her before back stepping away from it. As she got her axe ready she called out, "Chris, help me out!" She stepped forward and swung her axe upwards, shattering the lower skull of the creature and tearing through a portion of its midsection leaving the skeleton now unsteady on its feet. As she was shot at by yet another ray of frost, the girl swiftly ducked, trying to avoid as best she could and called out, "Ziun do something about them!" Whether she was referring to the saber cultists or the casters in the back was unknown but she was certainly pointing in their general direction. 

[Chaos Sonic 467]

"Ziun do something about them!"

"You need to be more specific... annnnnd you left before getting the armor again..." Ziun sighed, shaking his head slightly. Seemed like the armor was good for a floor and then done on the next. Meaning he'd have to constantly buff up his allies before they hop into the fray, quite troublesome, but he figured he could handle it. He turned to Chris and placed a hand on his shoulder (the one without the arrow in it), casting another Mage Armor on him. "She doesn't have the added buff of my conjuration magic at present, so do what you can." He turned and looked at the direction he had to face now. "...meanwhile, I'll deal with this..."

On his view was the following: three cultists with blades... two cultist mages on either side... one unknown in the back... This would be quite troublesome in the long run, but he figured things would be easier to accomplish. Taking a few moments, he hatched a small plan to deal with these six. With it in mind, Ziun adjusted his coat and smirked. "I feel like I keep having cultists as a specialty around these floors... alas, I don't know if I prefer you lot or the undead... in any case..."

His plan was immediately set into motion, as the bard immediately cast an illusion in the form of an array of colors flashing and/or spraying the saber wielding cultists. This would disorient them, temporarily blind them was the best case scenario. After that, he pulled another spell out from his back pocket... a special number known as "Blur". With this being cast on himself, he would be harder to hit him. The way his master once explained the spell was that it messed with the perception of the enemy to where they would miss him... therefore, being harder to hit in an instant. ...hopefully this will help in the grand scheme of things to where I come out unscathed...

Ziun glanced to the left and immediately cast a series of icicles at the cultist mage, watching it hit the mage dead on. "Perfect!" he said, glancing away to notice the walking bone piles starting to amble forward towards him. "On second thought, perhaps I do prefer the cultists rather than you..." he addressed the bone pile, moving out the way as he prepared to fire another series of icicles at the other mage... though it was a bit too late. The opposing mage had fired off a fireball in his direction. "Whoa! Okay, perhaps I don't prefer either of you!" he said, dodging the fireball... only for it to hit the wall and be knocked off his feet, and even burned! ...looks like I spoke too soon on the 'unscathed' part...

[radio414 951]

Chris broke off the shaft of the crossbow bolt on the way down to the next floor so at least he wasn’t walking around with a massive stick in his shoulder -- just a normal stick. He was sure magic could fix it, but he didn’t want to do more than that just yet. The pain hadn’t subsided, just leveled out. He could still move, even if a lot of how he wanted to move was to fiddle with the arrow some more. He could still rotate his shoulder enough to swing a sword or throw a dagger.

Still, he tried to hang back as they all stepped into the next arena the dungeon had prepared for them, but the cultists in the room had other plans, immediately drawing their sabers and sending a small horde of walking bones after them. Lana broke left, keeping to the outside of the room and trying to draw the attention of some of the bones, which worked, but she also drew the attention of some of the cultists, who quickly revealed themselves to also be magic users in addition to all the other things wrong with them.

And just when Chris was figuring out just how to approach all of this, Lana called out some instructions. “Right!” Chris said, dashing left after her. The skeleton she was fighting had had three heads at one point, but Lana had managed to reduce it to just one still intact. Chris jumped up and smashed his sword through the last head, right where the nose would have gone, managing to reduce that bone pile to, well, still a pile of bones, but not moving anymore. When he landed, he landed inside the bloody circle grooves, and almost expected something bad to happen, but he stayed about as fine as he could, even as the sound of a massive explosion behind him made Chris stumble forward a few more steps.

He turned on the balls of his feet and reevaluated. Ziun was now on the ground, slightly singed, but Chris could see that the bard was at least still breathing. Chris went after him anyway, if only to help Ziun back to his feet. He had to watch his step, though. The cultists that were shooting off magic had turned their attention to him, and he had to jump a blue icy ray from one of them as he neared. “You didn’t cast anything on yourself either, did you?” Chris said, and he offered his hand.

[LordCowCow 888]

While Chris helped Ziun get back to his feet the walking bone piles ambled closer and pressed on them from the front and from the right. One of them, in front, on three separate pairs of legs and feet. Its two spines had multiple ribs sticking out like daggers and instead of a head atop the spine there was a pelvis.

The other one was hopping on a single leg but had three arms on either side as well as two heads stacked atop of each other in the middle.

While this happened the two mages got closer and the one closest to the pair looked to be preparing to cast another fireball. While the other instead cast a spell that caused two more piles of bones to begin forming back up near where Lana stood.

The cultists seemed to be distracted by the lights in their eyes but then the mysterious figure behind them cast a spell of its own. Some of the blood from the grooves near the cultists rose up and turned into a mist-like substance. This mist surrounded the cultists and entered their bodies. As it did they began to jerk and twitch and suddenly it seemed as though they grew bulkier, muscles bulging underneath their robes. And the brief flash of their faces they could see their expressions were filled with rage.

Spoiler

Full disclosure I make up the bone piles descriptions on the spot so if I forget oops. But yeah, the mysterious guy essentially raged the cultists. They are still somewhat blinded but they'll be making a move soon.

Map

 

[radio414 951]

It was entirely possible, Chris realized, that Ziun could not cast magic armor spells on himself. That could easily be one of those magic rules that was altogether too silly and one of the reasons Chris had never bothered to try learning any of it until recently (and only in a way where he could get someone else to do the actual work). That didn’t mean the overall sentiment still wasn’t there. He couldn’t be watching out for exclusively Lana when there was an equally unarmored person who also had two of those bone things bearing down on them.

Chris sized up the two creatures, trying to evaluate which to take down first. He settled on the one with only one leg. Even if he didn’t burst it into pieces in the first sword stroke, he could still take it down in a more literal sense. The other swings would be easier after that. Before he sprung into action, though, he spotted out of the corner of his eye one of the mages preparing another spell. “Spread out,” he said. “In case it’s a big one again.”

But he couldn’t worry too much about that when there were two more pressing issues. As planned, Chris’ first swing knocked the bones off its one leg, but instead of crumpling to the ground, the thing caught itself with three of its six arms, and came after Chris with the other three, grasping at whatever it could manage. “Oh, that’s cheating,” Chris said, hopping around to stay out of reach. Thankfully, the two skulls embedded in the monster’s torso were still visible, and as soon as the thing put too much into a swing, Chris stepped in and sent his sword cleaving into one of them.

He was starting to attract more attention, though. The other pile of bones was coming his way. Chris repositioned himself, at least wanting to keep the one monster he was fighting in between him and the other one. It also meant he could dodge more swipes and shift into looking for another opening. Before he did so, though, he chanced another look at the mages in the middle of the room. One of them had another ball of fire almost ready to go. “It is a big one!” Chris said. He drove his sword into the remaining skull, collapsing the monster, and immediately jumped away from Ziun’s position. There was still a monster coming after him, and he kept his sword up and at the ready, but much of his attention was following the fire, making sure he could scramble out of the way if things came to that.

[Skaia 626]

With Chris's assistance, the Skeleton had been felled and her path to the rest of the cultists had been cleared. However, Chris had to swiftly move back to help Ziun as he was struck by an explosive blast, causing Lana to sigh out a, "just great." With the three sword wielding cultists in the front being energized and still two in the back being able to free fire magic, Lana was tempted to go over to the other two and help buy them time. Especially as they had skeletons coming on their side now as well. However, before she could make a decision two more masses of bones were raised and began to shamble towards her. An annoyed expression clearly crossing her face Lana said, "oh, just great, so that's how you're going to be huh?" 

She had worked hard and smart to take down the ones that had already been over at this side and she'd be damned if she was going to let this cultist continue casting magic uninterrupted and make her have to deal with an endless pile of undead. Again. So to start her offensive Lana went to the closest undead that was nearby. Rushing it with her axe in hand, the girl took a quick step back to avoid the several hands that were flailing about trying to grab her, before more forward and smashing her axe into its head. While her hit struck true, the skeleton didn't collapse from the attack, and instead began to reach with its bottom hands towards her legs. 

"Tsk, I don't have time for this." She knew the longer she spent on this skeleton the more chances she'd have to be shot by a ray of frost or something and simply bolted from the skeleton instead of engaging with it any further. 

The cultist looked ready for her though, bringing up its hands and letting loose a large conical gout of flame to deter her progress. Seeing the wall appear before her, she didn't think it entirely possible to dodge and she didn't think slowing down here would be good either. So she braced herself, charging through the flame and letting let out a pained scream as the fire coated her. The heat had been worse than anything she had ever experienced, particularly feeling her eyes sting and water wildly from it, and she could feel burns starting to form across her skin as the fire continued. A wash of cool air came over her as the cultist placed its hands down and attempted to back from the berserking girl, axe already at the ready. Despite his efforts for retreat, it could not stop the blade coming down and burying itself in its undead flesh. 

The creature was still alive, reaching out its hand to grab at the girl. Anger clear on her face and ferocity clear in her posture the girl shouted, "not a chance!" Letting go of her axe, keeping its place in the creature's flesh, she grabbed the wrist of the cultist, forcing it away, as she began to use her other let loose punch after punch into its face. She could feel the skin and bone beneath her gauntleted hand begin to give, but the creature itself was still holding on to its unlife. Grabbing at her own axe, the girl dislodged it before swinging once more into the neck of the creature. 

With its head severed, the cultist fell to the ground now dead once again. Taking a step back the girl turned to face the skeletal abominations, her anger having far from subsided. "You're gonna wish you didn't get back up."

[Chaos Sonic 467]

“You didn’t cast anything on yourself either, did you?”

There he was, being helped up by Chris... again. He was always finding himself being helped by either one of his allies, though it was Chris that made him pause more. After recalling what those of Kalo family spoke of with him. And yet... still... he wasn't 100% convinced they told the full story. Chris, for the last few floors, had actually helped not only himself but the others out as well... how could he possibly be...? Questions again for later.

"Alas... as much as I wish it were possible, it's sadly not something I can do..." Ziun said, dusting himself off some. "You see, while I can conjure things, I myself cannot utilize them like say if you or our dear Lana di-..." He paused, already seeing Chris leaping into the fray against the bone amalgamation. "Perhaps a better time for that conversation will be when we aren't up to our ears in chaos..."

He had to reassess the situation he found himself. Apparently, the individual behind the sword cultists... swordists? ...they had caused the others to seem, angrier... along with bulkier. A rage buff spell, if he had to guess. There was the mage on the right... the fireball individual... and then... wait, the leftmost mage was gone. Apparently, they were slain by Lana. You have my thanks, my goddess divine... Ziun made a silent sigh, before returning to his current status here and now.

"Hear the verse and rhyme that I sing...
Come forth and assist thy master..."

Above 'swordists' heads, a swarm of bats poured out and began to swarm them, biting them without issue and without delay. However, try as they might to keep them in place, the 'swordists' kept moving despite being bit. ...truly a rage filled buff... he thought, before turning on his heel and firing off an icicle straight at the rightmost mage, only to see it meet another fireball, the two attacks colliding and causing quite the steamy display. "Of course you would be the one that remained... you're the kind that give magic users bad names..." he muttered.

He decided to shift his plans slightly. With a whistle escaping his lips and his finger pointed towards the rightmost mage, the swarm of bats left the 'swordists'... - who at this point were pretty eaten up, not by much though - ...and started to swarm against the mage. Though it wasn't before said mage cast another fireball, which Ziun immediately dodged again. "I'd ask if you had any other spells, but something tells me you don't!" Ziun shouted to the mage as the bats began to swarm. He turned his attention back to the 'swordists' before casting an Acid Splash right in the middle of the five individuals. His hope: the residual acid from the initial splash would hit and deal damage to the others... this plus the bites from the bats would potentially provide even more damage, especially if the acid got into the bite wounds.

[LordCowCow 888]

Lana had managed to slay one of the mages. It seemed that whatever magic they used to animate the bones was still going as the two ambled their way towards her. Now that she had gotten closer to the dais in the middle the shirtless mage there seemed to take more interest in her specifically. If she looked at him she would notice that while they mostly appeared human their eyes were a single solid grey color. They began to chant something and moved their hands up and down.

In the nearby groove the blood began to rise up and then darts made from blood shot out of it at Lana just as the bone piles got into melee distance.

Chris was still being pursued by the very pointy bone pile but that wasn't all. The mage had created another in the place of the one that Chris had smashed that was coming at him from the other side of the circle. This one mostly resembled a regular skeleton but it didn't have a skull. It had four of them. Each replacing two hands and two feet as it came for Chris, one arm raised and already ready to slam the skull-hand as soon as it got close enough.

Ziun's dodge had much the same result at the first. The fireball exploded on the wall behind him and sent him into the ground to his left. Finding himself with a scorched back the bard would notice he's now back in front of the entrance. With two of the three cultists about to step over the circle and be in range of swinging their swords. The other had been struck by acid and delayed, their robe and part of their face melting, but they continued forward despite the injuries.

Spoiler

Map

Somehow you managed to position yourselves in a way that sorta separates this into a trio of 3 v 1

 

[Skaia 626]

With the two bone piles making their way towards Lana, the girl was ready to smash them to pieces only to realize that from behind her there was something new to worry about. "Oh give me a - ahh!" The girl ducked, swinging her axe towards one of the nearby bone piles as she did, to avoid the flurry of blood daggers that had been summoned behind her. As her axe cleaved into the skeleton, the one had destroyed the head of earlier, it reached out to grab her eliciting yet another attack from Lana towards the bone pile. With her axe smashing into the bones, destroying the skeleton pile, the girl stood back up only for the second skeleton to have bashed her in the gut with its extremely long arm. Recovering from the attack Lana looked at the bone pile, which itself seemed to have no arm on one side and one arm that was twice the length of a regular arm on the other, hobble towards her and get ready to go again. 

Looking back, the girl saw that there was yet another swarm of blood daggers being formed and, wanting to no longer deal with those, figured that dealing with the mage was more of a priority. As the daggers fully formed the girl made a break for it, running at full speed towards the blood mage. Diving under the blood daggers, the girl hastily picked herself back up before jumping over the first blood groove between her and them. The second one in front of her, however, had the blood rise before hardening and forming a wave towards her. Unsure if she could dodge in time and not wanting to get hit by the full brunt of the wave Lana could only think of one thing to do. Raising her axe, the girl brought it down and crashed it into the blood wave. 

It worked better than she thought it would have, which is to say there was any amount of blood that was dispersed from the wave. However it was still a liquid, hardened though it was, and still traveling towards her. Getting swept up in the blood wave and pushed back the girl stood back up letting out a, "bleh. Groooss." The wave hadn't settled with just being a wave, however, and rose and hardened to form a wall of solid that barred her path. Letting out an annoyed sigh the girl muttered, "I'm starting to hate mages." Hearing the clattering of bones behind her, the girl looked back and let out another sigh. Maybe she should've just tried to kill the sword guys instead. 

[radio414 951]

There just kept being more and more of those bone things, Chris thought. Part of him just wanted to stay where he was and keep wailing at them. He already knew how to deal with them, after all. But out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the cause of all of them; the mages in the center of the room weren’t just the fireball and freeze ray type. Chris hefted his sword and charged at the nearest one. He could deal with the other bone piles afterwards once he knew they’d be the last ones left.

He did have to weave his way through the two monsters to get to the mage. That was problem number one, but also a problem that was easily solved. The one with skulls for hands tried to attack Chris as he ran by, but by the time it had managed to swing, he was already gone. The second problem, though, was that Chris was still running headfirst towards a magic user, and its hands were starting to burn again.

Chris dropped into a slide as flames erupted from the mage’s hands. He could feel the heat of the magical fire even through the armor Ziun had supplied him, and Chris briefly wondered if that was even what the magic armor was for, but more importantly, he also took the opportunity to kick the legs out from under the mage. As he scrambled back to his feet, he tried to identify where exactly he wanted to strike next. The hands seemed correct, right? That’s where the fire came from. Maybe that was where all magic came from?

The hands themselves were not magic enough to stop a blade, though as Chris lopped off the second one, he noticed wisps emanating out of the first stump, eventually forming into a ghostly hand. “That’s cheating, really. Try this instead,” Chris said, and he swung his sword again, this time aiming for the mage’s neck. It connected -- obviously, it connected -- but his sword wedged itself halfway through, and since it wasn’t alive to begin with, the mage was still able to direct its ghostly new hand into seizing Chris on the hip.

A wave of what could only be described as fatigue washed over Chris. He tried to get another sword swing in, but that now felt like a mountain of effort that he could only just manage, and he didn’t even finish decapitating the mage. “That’s… even more cheating,” Chris said, now panting for air. It was all he could do to take measured steps around the mage, moving to keep it and the two bone piles in view and backing away to keep some distance. If he could catch his breath, maybe he could recover? But his breathing was so labored, it was going to take time.

[Chaos Sonic 467]

Once again, Ziun found himself knock to the ground due to a fireball hitting the wall. This time, he obtained a scorched back... wasn't the best feeling in the world whatsoever. He was starting to tire of the fireball, but this was far from the main worry he needed to deal with now. Because now, he had the 'Swordist' trio coming for him. Albeit, it was only the two for the moment, thankfully the acid strike on the one slowed him down enough, but it wouldn't be long before they were all together and striking him.

"This is truly getting me nowhere... alas, this is what happens when I forego physically fighting, unlike my last delve." Ziun huffed, his face wincing in pain due to the scorched back. Nevertheless, he conjured up a wall of ice that blocked the Swordists from him. It wasn't a high one, by no means, but this was something that would help him. They were raged up beasts in a sense, so they'd be too occupied with this to deal with him. True to his thought process, they did just that, starting to hack and break the wall.

Ziun took the moment to move around to his left, circumventing the trio as he immediately got behind them. Once the raged up cultists broke the wall and realized what happend, it was too late. Immediately, the bard cast an Acid Splash right on the three of them. Naturally, it did some damage and hurt them to an extent, but they were still raging.

"I curse the fact that I can't negate that affect... oh well." Ziun muttered, before casting an array of icicles at the trio to damage them even more, but still on they held on. In the meantime, however, Ziun began to slowly move backwards, not wanting to be in range for these Swordists or the fireball mage he had seemingly pissed off twice today.

[LordCowCow 888]

With the wall between them Lana couldn't quite tell what the blood mage was doing. It didn't seem to be pressing the attack on her however. Perhaps thinking the wall was enough to keep her at bay. And the wall would manage to block her for some time but it wasn't as much protection as even a wooden wall. A few strong chops could likely bring it down. However the bone pile was quickly approaching her and if she spent time on the wall it would attack her from behind.

Chris, on the other hand, was the one behind his opponent. The bone piles were approaching him from the side but the mage was the more immediate threat. It turned around towards him and, in the process, its head was now dangling by a thread. At first the zombie raised an arm, almost as though it forgot that it didn't have hands, and then it gave up on that and the spectral hand went towards Chris instead in order to grasp onto whatever part of Chris that it could.

Ziun had the unfortunate position of having his back towards the blood mage. The damaged bodies of the cultists continued forward, driven only by the rage spell that had yet to fade, all with swords raised and ready to slash down on him. However that wasn't the worst of his worries. For unbeknownst to him the mage behind him was drawing up blood from the groove on their left. Turning it into a long, narrow, sharp object and sending that swiftly through the air towards the bard's back.

Spoiler

Map

Positioning, am I right? As for the blood attack imagine it looks something like this. But its not being held its coming out of the groove.

 

[radio414 951]

Chris still couldn’t go anywhere fast, but given he had three problems still in front of him, he had to be fast with his decision. Going after the mage was a bad idea with that hand still there -- he sure didn’t want to get grabbed again if he could help it. At the same time, the two bonepiles didn’t seem to know when to quit, flanking Chris on either side as they approached. Going backwards wasn’t an option either; a move like that would just delay the inevitable, presenting a similar choice while at the same time taxing his already drained stamina. No, the best option was to gather what little energy he had recovered since his last attack and press in. He chose the skeleton thing on his left, mostly because it was the closest thing. Importantly, Chris tried to sidestep around it to keep it between him and the weird cheating ghost hand. The other set of bones was still coming, but one thing at a time.

This bone pile was the one with more ribs than it knew what to do with, but it still had a reasonable amount of legs, and that was what Chris directed his energy towards. As it charged at him, Chris swept its legs with his sword, and it tumbled to the ground. Chris would have done more then, but the other bone pile had better than expected agility for having skulls for feet, and Chris had to ready himself back up for another swing.

He aimed for the legs again. It seemed right, especially with skulls down there ready to be smashed, but as he crashed into the first of the two feet, Chris felt what strength he did have fail him, and he wasn’t able to completely follow through. Maybe he could have tried again, but the thing was already rearing its arms back for an overhead attack, and the other, spiny one was pushing itself to grab at his ankles.

Chris wished he could dodge like he used to, but he could only sidestep the attack, and not enough to get all the way out of the way. He braced himself for impact, but thankfully, the fist skulls deflected off of the magic armor Ziun had given him, and between the recoil of that glancing blow and only having one leg to stand on now, that bone pile also collapsed to the ground.

Both monsters were still moving, but his sword was already near the ground. Even in his exhausted state, Chris thought it would be rude not to. The biggest attack he still had to avoid was the skullfoot one writhing up to try and kick him, but he could just lean back to avoid that one and respond by cutting that leg off too. He kept his focus on the task at hand and carved the two bone piles to pieces. When he looked up, he saw that the mage and its one ghostly hand had retreated a ways. He would have gone right after it, but then again, he did need to stop and catch his breath first.

[Skaia 626]

With a wall of solid blood in front of her and a skeleton approaching her from behind, Lana didn't care for either and wanted to be done with both as fast as she could so to keep pressing on against the blood mage. With a hefty swing of her axe the girl struck the blood, the wall itself holding steadfast against her attack though cracking a little. "What is in this stuff?" Lana couldn't help but feel grossed out about the idea of blood this hard, but shook her head and decided to keep focused on the task ahead of her. With the skeleton with one extremely long arm approaching from behind her, Lana opted to try and kill two birds with one stone as she ducked underneath the bony creature's swing. While it struck the wall it didn't seem to do as much damage to it as her axe did, which she figure she should be thankfully about, and Lana pressed her advantage. Quickly getting back up the girl rushed behind the skeleton before moving back and shoulder checking it. 

Shoving the monster into the wall, the girl took a step back and hoisted her axe up. "Keep it to yourself!" The girl shouted as the monster reached out to grab her, slashing down on its arm with her axe and destroying the creature's primary weapon leaving nothing more than a much shorter, now jagged, arm bone. As it tried to use its new "weapon" to stab her, Lana used the flat of her blade to swat the jagged bone away, before bringing her axe back around again for one final swing into the creature's head and the wall behind it. With the skeleton's head obliterated and the wall cracked further, the creature fell to the ground, giving Lana just the space she needed to keep working on the wall, she eventually finished hacking away at the blood wall. 

As the mage was attacking one of her other companions, the girl stepped through the hole she had just created, a clearly annoyed expression on her face as she got ready to charge the mage.

[Chaos Sonic 467]

Ziun had his back towards the Mages and his front was looking down the three Swordists. This bout of things was not going in his favor, but they wouldn't go further in his favor... as the Blood Mage proceeded to send out a bloodied weapon, poised to strike at the unsuspecting bard in the back. A fitting end for some, yes. However...

Perhaps his goddess of music watched over him a bit more than before, and Ziun... stumbled on some of the bones and debris from the ground, moving and bit to his left. And it was a good thing he did, as this is when he noticed the impending blood weapon. "S-Shit...!" he shouted mid stumble, as he did his best to roll into the stumble, narrowly avoiding the blood and avoiding becoming a bard shishkabab. It fell immediately on the ground after missing the target, but now...

"The swords... again with the swords!" he shouted, rolling out of the way of the Swordists. Ziun took the opportunity to fire off a few icicles at the cultist's legs, watching them lodge themselves into their legs... but alas... they kept going. Ziun cursed this Rage boost they had. But they were slow though, he had that going for him.

This... is quite literally getting me nowhere. What I need, is for some friendly fire... he thought, finally a ways away from the swords, allowing him to get back up. At this point, he ran in the direction of where the Blood and Fire Mage were, as apparently the Fire Ball chucker moved to be with his ally. Perfect... Ziun made sure to position himself in perfect line between the Mages and the Swordists, before exhaling and producing a few illusory copies of himself, about four at the max. Of course, at first everyone would know which was the REAL Ziun. However, soon the copies and the real bard started moving and shuffling around. Now, if all goes according to plan... they'll fire, miss due to me moving out of the way and they'll hit their allies. Ziun remained calm, doing his best to win this gamble.

[LordCowCow 888]

The cultists' bodies were damaged beyond what it seemed they should be able to handle. The only thing that kept them going was the effects of the rage spell that had been cast over them at the start of the battle. They began to move towards Ziun to all attack him at once but paused for just a moment when suddenly there were several enemies to face. They didn't seem to know the difference between them, nor even realize that they all resembled Ziun, so they were just about to charge in and start swinging when something else happened first.

The undead mage had retreated back towards the blood mage standing in front of the dais. As they reached him they knelt down in front of the mage.

The blood mage placed a hand atop the undead's head and moments later the undead collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

The blood mage didn't look any different but a manic smile crossed his face as he climbed on top of the dais. He watched as Ziun cast his illusions and without moving cast a spell of his own. Blood from the groove on his left raised up into the air above where Ziun was and started to fall down on the area. Covering Ziun while passing through the illusions. And suddenly Ziun felt the blood hardening. He would struggle to move as the liquid thickened and conformed around him. Sticking him to the ground.

The cultists still didn't know the difference between the real and fake so they came in swinging and cut through the illusions, which was the only thing that saved Ziun from being immediately sliced into. But they would in moments be upon him and he no longer had the mobility to physically dodge their attacks.

Seemingly confident Ziun was about to die the blood mage then turned his attention to the other two.

Spoiler

Map

Pretty self explanatory I think? Not many enemies left but still dangerous, clearly.

 

[Skaia 626]

With Lana managing to get through the gap in the wall that she had created, she looked to see the mage on the platform turn his attention to her. With her axe gripped tightly the girl pressed forward, only for the blood mage to raise his hand, causing a portion of the blood in the ground to rise and fire off, forming a blade like arc that was sent towards the girl. "I'm not going to be stopped this time!" She knew that, before, she could cut a wall. So there was no reason for her to think that she couldn't also cut this arc. Bringing her axe up, the girl swung it down and connected with the blade of blood. The attack felt far heavier than liquid should have any right to, as if she was actually clashing with a steel sword, however it gave way under the weight of her attack. With the blade splitting in two and making its way behind her, the girl narrowed her eyes as the blood mage raised his hand and pulled back. Looking back, she saw the two halves of the blood arc she had just struck had stopped in the air before coming back towards her. 

Letting out a surprised yelp the girl ducked under the attack, the blade going over her head before they arced upward into the air. As they reached the apex of their ascent the mage swung his hand down, causing the arc of blood to suddenly scatter into smaller balls, that then shot down towards her. Not wanting to be skewered by the blood rain, Lana quickly dove forward, tumbling away from the attack before standing herself back upright. "That all you got!?" Lana shouted at the man, clearly annoyed by his keep-away tactics before jumping up onto the platform. Raising her axe up, the girl swung it forward only for it to be intercepted by a shield of blood. The attack was stopped and the blood coagulated and congealed onto the head of her axe as the blood mage stepped away, prepping yet another casting of something. 

Turning her axe to the other side and using the bloodless head, the charged forward ignoring the red mist on the ground. The mage had finished his incantation just as the girl's axe founds it way into his chest. Lana couldn't help but notice that his chest felt a lot more solid than the other mage she had just killed though. In fact, he didn't seem to be all that harmed by her attack. Looking up, she realized that the red mist had channeled its way into the man, who was now significantly more burly looking than before. "Oh, shit." 

The girl took a quick step back as he threw out a punch, barely managing to avoid it. She was pretty confident in her ability to beat a mage in a close range fight, but she was much less sure when the magic itself turned them into a close range fighter. "Cheaters," she muttered, before backing away again. She didn't have much space to work with on the platform but without space she felt like she was just going to get run over by this man. So, as he charged at her for yet another swing, the girl took a step back and leaped off the platform back to the ground below, awaiting the man to follow her to continue their fight. 

[radio414 951]

Whether it was because he killed the mage who had plagued him in the first place or just the fatigue spell wearing off, Chris did feel a bit better. Even if there was still a blood-crazed magician now standing on top of the malevolent altar in the middle of the room and three more cultists bearing down on Ziun, they were managing. Magic couldn’t last forever. Chris saw Lana step up as the altar-sorcerer turned itself into something very much unlike a sorcerer, which meant that it was his job to help Ziun. He sent a dagger after the blooodmage just in case the distraction helped Lana somehow, but he then turned his attention to navigating behind the other three cultists in the room. “Oh, you got bulked up too,” he said, comparing their current visages to his memory. “We’ll definitely have to do something about that. Hold on, Ziun.”

The navigating was either said than done, though. “Bearing down on Ziun” in this case meant that all three were, to some degree, facing Chris too, which made it harder to sneak up on them. Chris had to take a wide route to avoid all of that, darting in and out of their peripheral vision. Thankfully, they seemed pretty focused on Ziun. It probably wasn’t great for the bard, but it did make his job much easier. As he approached, he sized up the exact nature of their “bulking up.” For example, it had taken him a couple of sword-swings before to get through the shoulders of these things. But if he could maybe hit a joint that needed a bit more flexibility…

Hitting the wrist of the first cultist was difficult, but Chris seized the first opportunity he saw to try, and while he didn’t get a clean cut, he did at least manage to do some decent damage. The wrist joint hung loosely in the cultist’s hand, still hanging onto its sword, yes, but in a much less effective manner.

The second cultist was in the middle of extending itself into a strike of some kind of conjuration given that it was stabbing where Ziun wasn’t, but it meant the monster’s wrist was far enough away from Chris that he couldn’t easily get to it. He went for a different, similar joint instead: the ankle. And for good measure, he tried to hit both on the third cultist.

That all got their attention for sure. “Yeah, well, now what’re you going to do about it, though?” Chris said. He took a step backward and practically dared the cultists to fully turn around and chase him (if two of them even could). Fortunately for him, he did remember another of their important traits before they used it. “Oh right. Magic. Well, cheating aside, then…” The question stood, but he did tense up, ready to dive out of the way of whatever nonsense the cultists might try.

[Chaos Sonic 467]

Ziun couldn't do much against the raining blood thanks to the Blood Mage, and it now had started hindering his movement, and now he was facing down three cultists boosted with Rage… he was a sitting duck. He started thinking on what he could do, before coming with an idea.

Another ethereal creature to summon, one that could assist him in breaking out of the blood and attack the cultists… Ziun came up with a single idea, before trying to figure out HOW to put his plan in motion, on the count that he was in a position of staring down three cultists, high on Rage, poised to attack. Thankfully, his prayers were answered, as Chris came in and began to assault the three cultists. One was struck at the wrist, one struck in the ankle, and the last given both strikes. And now, only two were focused on him… the one with both injuries and the one with the wrist.

“Perfect…” he muttered, exhaling slightly. He closed his eyes, envisioning what he wanted. “Hear the verse and rhyme that I sing… Come forth and assist thy master…” What began to conjure forth was something that resembled a mandril… twas quite simply: a monkey. Without a second thought, the monkey did it's best to try and free Ziun, however, the cultists began their attack.

“Forget about me for the moment. Attack the cultists!” Ziun ordered, to which the mandril simply howled a bit (if you would call it a howl), and proceeded to attack the cultists. The bard proceeded to strike as well, taking this moment to cast a series of icicles towards the cultists. He took aim specifically at the wounded areas left by Chris… the ankle and wrist for the one, and the wrist for the other.

After the icicles, the mandril proceeded to attack at the one cultist’s wrist and ankle, keeping it occupied for the time being. This left the other to be dealt by Ziun.

“Here… have another… on the house!” Ziun shouted, casting another icicle, delivering it straight to the cultist's head. It apparently simply… dazed… the target. He cursed under his breath, not liking the fact that this didn't finish him off. Thusly, he immediately cast an Acid Spray, hoping that would do something. It did… something, but not what he hoped. While of course, the acid was sizzling as they were covered in the liquid… but nevertheless, they were still simply coming forward, swinging blindly. “...how in the nine hells do you die?” Ziun groaned, still not being able to move like he wanted, meaning he would be getting struck. “For the love of…” he whistled towards the celestial mandril, to which his summon heeded his call, immediately going after the swinging cultist and attacking him. He was put in between a rock and a hard place… Ziun now officially loathed Rage and the Blood Mage who casted it.

[LordCowCow 888]

The blood mage tried to grab onto Lana before she leapt off but the glancing blow to the back just slowed him enough that the move missed and Lana was able to safely hit the ground. She would have to back away as he leapt off the platform as well. While in midair the mage gathered blood around his arms which then hardened and along his fists and upper arms spikes of blood extended out and the blood mage came crashing down towards Lana. Swinging both fists down like a pair of morning stars.

One of the cultists, the one with the injured ankle, did manage to make his way towards Chris and began to take heavy, but fast, swings back and forth with its sword as they tried to catch Chris with even one of the blows.

The doubly injured cultist had gotten back up and, while they still held their sword, it seemed that their grip wasn't nearly as firm as before. Still they hurried towards Ziun. Clearly hobbling but ignoring the pain as they approached.

The other cultist's swing was intercepted by the monkey. Which was struck by the raging cultist and the fist shattered the summoned creature's chest completely and the monkey dropped to the ground and faded away.

The assailant then took another step forward to swing an even heavier blow towards Ziun's head but as the bard watched they saw the red mist around them fade away and as if all the injuries caught up with them at once the cultist died right then and there, still standing.

Spoiler

Map

The rage wore off on one of the cultists, the other two not quite. Note that 4 was affected by it a few seconds before 5 and 5 a few seconds before 6.

btw my favorite MtG card is Hellhole Flailer.

 

[radio414 951]

“Dive out of the way” Chris did. The cultist’s swings were massive, huge arcs of violence and steel, any one of them sure to knock Chris to the ground even in a best-case scenario. Of course, if he stayed on the ground, well, that was just inviting more bad options, so he had to push himself back up in a way that kept out of the way of those haymakers. He tried to deflect one -- not so much block the cultist’s sword as guide it with his away from his neck -- and it still felt like the force would rip his arm off if he did it wrong.

Thankfully, because they were wild haymakers, the swings also didn’t have much accuracy behind them. As long as Chris kept moving, he could mitigate the danger. There wasn’t anything tricky going on. He had to look out for feints just in case, but the cultist seemed too enraged to even try any. Pretty soon, Chris was out of the way before the blade was even moving in that direction. But just as Chris was getting into a rhythm and readying himself to counterattack, something strange happened:

The cultist simply stopped moving. It froze there, sword raised for another strike, but the sword never came crashing down. Chris held his sword up in anticipation, but the follow-through never came. Then Chris noticed what had actually changed: The red mist was gone. And just like that, the cultist collapsed to the ground. Chris still gave the body a good stabbing, making sure the cultist was well and truly dead, but it offered no more resistance. “You see? That’s what relying on magic gets you,” Chris said.