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

[Skaia 625]

As Lana leaped off the platform she had to leap further back once on solid ground, seeing the previously mage form spikes of blood around his hand and leap down at her. The man crashed his fists into the ground where Lana had been previously before standing back up and getting ready to strike at her with another onslaught of attacks. Lana stepped forward only to then step back immediately as the mage started to move towards her with fists at the ready, taking one punch after the other in a furious onslaught that seemed to have no end in sight. As she continued to back up, she cursed under breath as she realized no matter how far back she moved the man was clearly picking up speed and closing the gap between them. 

Thinking it best to try and hamper him a little girl waited until one of his swings came at her, ducking under it and quickly moving forward, swinging her axe at the back of his legs as she moved in. Though his leg buckled under the injury from the attack, the frenzied man was able to catch Lana with a return strike. With weighty fist striking into her back, the girl grimaced as she grit her teeth, stumbling forward. Between the fire and this she was starting to feel worse for wear, but with a glance noticed that everyone else was managing to deal with their own fights. "Ugh," the girl groaned, clearly frustrated that she had to deal with this brute but said, "if that's all I got to do then...come over here!" 

The girl ran northward, taunting her foe who was had seemed to get ready to charge at her. Knowing that he would collide with her in no time, and not wanting a repeat of what just happened, the girl rolled to the side, wincing in pain from her back injury. Standing back up she just muttered, "alright, don't get hit, don't get hit," before readying herself for the next charge from the mage. 

[Chaos Sonic 467]

One of the cultists finally dropped... as a red mist started to escape from them. Ziun knew what this had to mean: Rage was ending. Thank the goddess above!! However, the other two were still running... er... more like hobbling, but either way, one was dealing with Chris... while the other...

Ziun watched as his mandril had taken a fist to it and immediately shattered and dissipated. He cursed, seeing that this one hobbling towards him was still affected by Rage. "So now I just need to wait out the clock..." he muttered, as he decided to cast another icicle that was aimed directly at the cultist's chest and he started to wiggle and thrash about to try and free himself from the blood.

While Ziun could only get everything but his legs free from the blood, meanwhile, the cultist had the icicle embedded in his chest, stepping back slightly but simply kept hobbling forward... further... further... until he was right at Ziun, preparing to swing down his readied blade.

The bard began to grit his teeth, not liking the situation he was in (or he had found himself in this entire floor, but he digressed)... I hate that I can't wield the weapons I conjure nor wear the Mage Armor, because at this point... either one would be greatly appreciated... he thought, trying to piece together a plan. Then, inspiration struck him. The weapon could be used... just not wielded. Ziun proceeded to conjure up a cloud of daggers, though he was at the edge of the cloud, but he did what he could. Thankfully he cut it close, but the cloud of daggers did just what he needed: it made the cultist lose control of the sword. The moment this happened, he took the moment to swing at him with his free arm. "Ngh... you just don't quit!" Ziun groaned, lifting his free arm up and proceeded to block the punch... though it felt bad, a nearly broken arm... but it was better than being slashed at or through. "This... hopefully should do it!" Ziun immediately fired off another icicle at him, point blank.

Ziun hoped it was the time frame where Rage would possibly drop. And thanking his lucky stars, the bard watched as the same red mist left the cultist and he watched as the one before him finally falling over. He let out a long drawn out sigh of relief, as the 'Rage Issue' was finally over. "Now... let's try and get the hell out of this!" Ziun groaned, still wiggling and thrash. Least this small problem was something he could easily handle.

[LordCowCow 888]

All that remained was the raging blood mage. While it would normally be a relief to only have one opponent this one was proving to be incredibly hard to put down. As Lana expected it charged in at her and completely ignored the other two as he made his way towards the other end of the area.

What she likely didn't expect was that, despite the rage, they seemed to still be somewhat in control of their magical ability too. As they charged blood raised up from two of the grooves and formed a wave behind the mage.

When he got close to Lana the wave moved forward and split to not crash into the mages back. Instead the two-pronged mass of blood came crashing down towards Lana and if she was hit she'd be slammed into the wall and pinned there by the pressure of the large amount of blood.

Spoiler

No map necessary I'd say. Just know they're past the thing in the middle and closing in on the wall opposite where you came in from.

 

[radio414 951]

Chris needed a breather so badly, but there was one more mage to fight on the floor, and he wasn’t about to stand around while that was happening. The last time he had thrown a dagger at the blood mage, it had barely noticed anything had happened to it. And sure, the same might be true of a second dagger, but then again, if the blood mage was using magic to just ignore its wounds for as long as it could cast, Chris wanted to make sure those wounds were worth something by the time its spells wore off, just like the other cultists.

He didn’t exactly charge -- Chris didn’t have the energy to charge forward anymore -- but he did manage to clamber on top of the dais in the center of the room. He could see why the mage chose this spot to attack from originally. He sure did feel taller, able to look down on anything as he was. It gave him a good view to see the massive wave of blood headed Lana’s way. Chris readied his second dagger. Unless the mage wanted to get swept up in its own barrage, it was going to have to do something.

The opportunity was obvious as soon as it showed up. The waters parted around the mage, literally leaving its back exposed. “Hey! Bloodface!” Chris yelled as he let his dagger fly. The distraction was the point, after all. He probably couldn’t stop the mage’s magic, but he could at least flank it and divert its attention when it really mattered.

All the same, the dagger sunk into the mage’s back, and the mage kept walking forward, with its crashing wave towards Lana. Chris had managed half of his goal, at least, and in lieu of trying in vain to accomplish the other half after the failure of yelling and daggers, he drew his sword and tried to make the successful half of the plan as damaging as he could. He took out the magic string too, just in case, but he made his approach, sword readied, trying to pick out where he would swing if he got the opportunity. The ankles, he decided. It had worked out so far.

[Skaia 625]

As Lana was continuing her retreat away from the mage, she saw that he had continued his simple minded charge towards her. While she was sure that she could just keep rolling around and let the others do something about this, having the assumption that they certainly had to be done with their fights now, she was not expecting what had come next. As the grooves of blood rose once more, two waves appearing on either side of the mage, he charged once again with a rushing tide coming towards her. "Oh come on, pick one or the other!" Lana cursed the fact that she was born into this world without any magical talent of her own, though readied herself for the coming charge. 

If the blood had hit her she didn't really want to think about how much it would hurt and to say nothing of it hardened on top of her, and so she instead decided there was only one thing to do. The waves of blood parted on either side of the caster as he charged her so her only way now was forward, towards her opponent. Raising up her axe, the girl charged with the blade at the ready to slash and tackle into the man. Though he looked poised to smash his fist into her, a sudden dagger in his back had caused his movements to falter. With the blood surging past her now that she had managed to slip in the gap, the girl swung her axe down onto the man's head landing a direct hit. 

Letting out a deep exhale at her triumph of her presumably fatal blow, her grip suddenly tightened as the man continued to move. Refusing to acknowledge the fatal wound he had been given the mage moved his arms, attempting to cast once again. Lana glanced to the side to see that the blood that harmlessly splattered against the wall had formed into spikes that were all now rushing to impale her. Reflexively the girl dove the ground, only to be splattered with blood as the spikes that would have impaled the mage turned back into a harmless liquid. A look of disgust formed across her face, either from the feeling of having blood fall on her or simply the mage's persistence, as the girl quickly scrambled to her feet and backed away from the mage. 

[Chaos Sonic 467]

Finally free from the bloody casing, Ziun finally was able to move around and no longer be bound to the casing of blood. He thanked his lucky stars for this, but all that remained was... the Blood Mage. He started to grit his teeth, looking over at the direction of the imposing figure, as he was fighting Lana. He hoped the blood spikes that were heading towards the Mage would've killed then, but alas, that wasn't the case... nothing but returned to a splatter of blood.

However, this gave him an opportunity. Mustering some strength, Ziun began to close the distance between himself and the Blood Mage, although he found himself cursing himself due to not wanting to be attacked yet again... Luckily for him, it seemed to be that him and Chris started moving and working on this at the same time. The rogue seemed to be going low... so...

"Guess I'll go high..." Ziun said, closing the distance and immediately casting Color Spray in the Mage's face whilst also calling forth a swarm of bats. "Enjoy this, why don't you!"

The Mage began to swat wildly and blindly at the bats, not seeing much after the flash of colors invading their peripheral. Same time, it wasn't just this that occurred. While they did this, Chris delivered a blow on the Mage's ankles, cutting into them. It would seem that they were starting to get off balance. Perfect...

Ziun cast a series of icicles right at the Mage's chest, watching the Mage immediately fall due to being off balance. "Perfect! Blinded, dealt with bats, cuts to the ankles, and now on the ground... but you are far from done!" He began to cast and place various amounts of webbing along the Mage's body to keep them in one singular place. "T-That... should do it..."

The Blood Mage tried to push through it, starting to rip at a few of the webs, but alas... the Rage faded in the same manner as the other cultists... and the Blood Mage died there.

"That was the last one..." Ziun huffed slightly, looking at Chris and Lana, lifting up a thumb slightly. "E-Everyone good...? S-Still in one piece?" he asked, concerned with everything up to this point but was still glad they made it through another floor.

[LordCowCow 888]

The previous room had been entirely devoid of the fog that plagued the other levels. Yet the one they stepped in next seemed to have brought it back. Though it was denser, darker, and seemed more like shadows clinging to the floor walls and ceiling. Which made it hard to make out the exact size and shape of the cavern that they found themselves in.

Across from them was a massive door. It seemed to be made of some sort of black steel and there were chains covering it. In the middle of the door there was a dead body attached to the chains as if it was keeping the door closed.

In front of the door were two dozen more bodies. All of them on their knees with their foreheads touching the ground as if bowing in reverence in the direction of the door. They didn't move at all and it seemed that they were all dead.

There was movement in the room however. Two large figures stood across from each other about halfway between the group and the door. They were generally human shaped but stood at eight feet tall. Their skin were a greenish black color with brown patches. These creatures seemed to have no heads, instead just a lump of flesh, on top of relatively small torso, where the head would be. Their torso had a large mouth right in the middle that was partially open to show rows of sharp, hooked, teeth all around the inside.

Their limbs were incredibly long, with clawed hands nearly scrapping the floor despite their height, and strangely thin for their size. And coming out of their backs were four black tentacles that waved around as if constantly searching for something.

When the group entered both of the creatures turned towards them and the large mouth opened wider and let out an unsettling screech.

Spoiler

Map

Feel free to do stuff before entering the floor just remember won't have more than a couple minutes before you feel compelled to go down the stairs.