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

[LordCowCow]

As Ziun stepped off the path and into the trees everything went dark. He could hear noises off in the distance. Screams of terror. Of pain. Despair. They were far enough away he couldn't make out anything specific but close enough that he could clearly tell they were in distress. As he stepped through the darkness he bumped into a tree so he knew that he was still in the woods despite the sudden shift in scenery.

And then he could feel grasping. Weak, wispy, arms grabbing at him and trying to drag him off. A single one didn't cause him any trouble but every moment he walked through the trees more and more began to grab him.

Over by Chris the illusions that Ziun had cast began to fade and the shadows all jerked around towards him and started to make their way his direction. Moving in twitchy, but steady, steps on a direct course for him. Reaching out almost in desperation to grasp hold of him.

The nightwalker was standing again and it took several steps towards Chris as well and slammed its hand down at the young man.

Regardless of what Chris did, as the nightwalker raised its hand again yet another of those strange energies crashed into it and it dropped once more to one knee. However now the shadows would be nearly upon Chris if he didn't move quickly.

[Chaos Sonic]

It was eerie... this feeling and these noises... Ziun wasn't a fan of this, especially considering all this was coming from him stepping off the path and into the trees. Why did everything go dark? Where did these screams of terror, pain, and despair come from? Who were making these distressful noises? Ziun wished he had the answer, but alas he didn't. Especially when he had to try and navigate through this darkness... bumping into trees... "I swear... this is getting out of hand..." he grumbled a bit. But a shift in scenery wasn't all he had to deal with...

Soon Ziun felt them. Weak, wispy arms grabbing at him and attempting to drag him off. At first, it wasn't bad, but the more he walked through the trees... more and more seemed to grab him. "B-Blast it!!" he shouted, keeping on his moving on... and eventually he did pop back up down the path, no longer feeling the wispy arms. But now, before him, as he walked down the path further... a shrine and a glowing skull. "This must be it..." he huffed slightly. This whole ordeal was definitely getting to him, but nevertheless, he struck at the skull with his icicles. And once they collided against it, the skull shattered and the light flew off in the direction he came from.

Perfect!

What was not so perfect was now Ziun had to go back and try to get to the others again. And he had no capabilities of summoning a steed, at least in this moment. But he knew what zombies he had to deal with... and when he started back down the path, there were the three zombies he left in the web with the two that he had shambling behind him. "...right where I left you, unfortunately." he lamented, before coming up with a new plan.

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

Behind Ziun... appeared a Celestial giant bee this time. "Now, let's see if we can deal with this undead horde here." he said, commanding the giant bee to attack the zombies, whilst also casting the icicles straight at a few of their heads. The five zombies did end up getting taken care of... then that means this would potentially mean this would be an easier trip... right? Nevertheless, Ziun and the giant bee made their way back down the path. Down the path, there were the two zombies he left before... the two that tried to pincer maneuver him... and the one that had the icicles in its head and leg. "Alright, these two next... take care of the untouched one, I'll deal with the injured one." he commanded the bee, which simply attacked the unharmed zombie, knocking it over, while he ended up firing more and more icicles at the one zombie he had struck earlier.

Two more zombies down... and Ziun was positive his memory was serving him correctly. Once he continued the path he was on, he came across the three zombies still stuck in the vines he had conjured up prior. "And this means... we can go past them." he said, dismissing the giant bee, in order to move past the vine gripped zombies. Home free now... now he'd be able to reconvene with his allies.

[radio414]

Chris was of two minds regarding his current situation. On one hand, he hadn’t realized how much he missed solid ground until it was back underneath his feet. He’d managed, of course, running around on that giant monster’s back and neck and head for as long as he could, but the ground (probably) wasn’t going to try and kill him. At least, not the same way everything else was. On the other hand, there was still a giant monster nearby, and just because it kept getting stunned by bolts of red light careening into its chest, that didn’t mean Chris wasn’t the most convenient target for it in the meantime. And that wasn’t even the only problem he had to deal with!

Yes, there was the monster’s giant hand coming down to crush him, just as the thing had tried when he was dangling off of its back. Solid ground continued to be a boon -- Chris dove to the side, managing to finally, after all this time flinging himself away from danger, tuck and roll back to a standing position as the monster’s hand crashed behind him. He even managed to get his sword and slash at the thing’s wrist, even if it still didn’t deal the massive damage he would have liked. Still, he couldn’t help but utter, “You tried that already!” halfway between knowingly tempting fate and a self-assured war cry.

Whatever consequences he might suffer, however, were more likely to come from the other monsters approaching his way from ground level. Several shadows had shaken off whatever Ziun had done to them and were now getting way too close for comfort. They were not the sort of creatures that could be dissuaded by all his dodging and weaving, though Chris did try his hardest to prove otherwise. Maybe if he turned and ran at a full tilt, but there was no way cowardice was going to get him anywhere in the long run. They were still in the dungeon, after all.

Instead, Chris tried to rely on what obstacles presented themselves where they could. Another flash of red brought the giant monster to its knees, and so Chris ran around and between its legs to put a barrier between him and his pursuers. He also made sure to hack at the giant some more where he could. A slice around the knee here, a hack at the ankle there, it all added up. He hoped it did, anyway.

The shadows were still coming, but he’d made the mistake of being grabbed by one of the weird things on this floor already, and he wasn’t about to let it happen again if he could help it.

[Skaia]

The girl had begun her trek back, running down the path she had already taken to get up to this point. The few zombies that she had ignored had seen fit to intercept her, yet the girl hardly any time to waste. Lana charged the one that had placed itself ahead of the other, hefting her axe up and swinging down to split its skull. As her axe cleaved through the head of the creature, continuing until it stopped in the creature's chest, the girl hefted the blade out before kicking the corpse back into the shambling corpse behind it. 

Though the two's collision did little to deter the zombie the small moment of impact was all she needed. She brought her axe back and with one swift arc cleaved through the neck of the creature, decapacitating it in an instant and causing both now re-dead zombies to collapse to the ground. With the path clear, Lana began to run down once more before she got to the crossroads. While she was set to run down the final path, the bolt of light that streaked across the sky gave her a different idea. 

"Well, I guess someone else took care of that." That was fine by her, at least, it just meant that she had to waste less time on the small guys and instead go for the much larger shadow creature. The girl grimaced at the prospect of doing that, but knew there was no other way out of this hellish forest. "The sooner I get there, the sooner it dies, the sooner I get paid. The sooner I get paid. The sooner I get paid," the girl repeated this phrase over and over again to psyche herself up before shouting, "alright, I'm coming back for you!" And then charged back down the path to get to the Nightwalker. 

[LordCowCow]

Ziun and Lana would arrive in time to see Chris in a bit of a predicament. There were four shadow creatures in a rough semi-circle that were closing in on him near the edge of the path. The Nightwalker was still unmoving at the moment, with one bent leg on the path and the other on its knee outside of the path, and Chris was moving between the former leg to keep from being surrounded.

However the shadows were slowly beginning to adapt to the movement. Though they didn't seem to have much coordination they broke off into two groups of two to set upon the young man. Who would only have the option to go in the direction of one pair. Or go farther into the forest to try and shake them off. Something that only Ziun knew the outcome of which.

The nightwalker was still holding the same position but, slowly, its body twitched as though it were about to surge upwards once more.

Spoiler

The Nightwalker will continue to be stunned until my next post. Also yeah radio if you go into the forest refer to Chaos's post to see what that is like.