Maelstrom

#46

Eltra kicked off the wall with one foot while the other shot a rocket blast to sent the floran skyward. However, due tot he uneven force, it dud send him spinning around, though with systems like his that would barely bother him. He kept rocketing to ensure nothing grabbed him while he scanned for Skathi.

Tox threw her wings open and started flying, ensuring that anything that touched her would get some nice senescence and die for it. No curses.

Phoebe looked at the two. "...Are...you kidding me? ._.; How do you guys not keep mental walls up at all times when in a place like this. They're going to, like, walk into a wall that eats you or something, aren't they? The Pillar Men are going to bust out and pose at us because you tried to steal their gems..."

Jent · #47

Now without that floor, the 'new' central chamber appeared far larger than any natural cavern aught to be. Tox herself would find plenty of space to stay afloat from the ground floor by her draconic wing beats. She would find the sides of the walls widen out further down, though still gave her at least a few stories of distance from that mysterious Eldritch figure. Which by the agile Floran's calculations, appeared to show some huldra entity nestled among the mass of raw energy.

Finally I will be able to fight for real.
Before anyone could get much closer, they find themselves pushed back by a fierce shock-wave. Dust scattered in thick clouds, though not possessing mental properties like with that one smoke, still made it difficult to see at first. Beneath it all, Skathi's visage beamed with madness. "It's not a battle... Without dancing flesh and a raging blood!" She hollered in a fit of laughter, radiating out waves of aura which stained stone in her corrupted essence.

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Perhaps insulted moreso by lack of effect of its curse rather than the headbutt, a viscous oil dripped down to seal the growing cracks at the barrier. The tar like substance held resistant to Bill's strength, glaring back with its green eyes and growing serpentine form.

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"Pillar Men? They are not something you should be worried about..."

Speaking with no single source, an aura of avarice rose thorough the entire hallway. "And you are welcomed to keep your treasures," the strange, draconic growl settled on the otherside from where the group entered. It wouldn't want the two mortals escaping so soon.

"If you make it out alive!"

The soul-less being materialized in full as a golden draconian. Scales glistened with entrenched stores of cursed magic and Insanity, it struck its own offensive pose towards the adventurers."

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Solveig grimaced against the resounding blast. Only rattled, fortunately the explosion carried no shrapnel to cause real damage. The calm before the storm. She told herself, imagining that action was simply Skathi 'stretching' from being chained earlier. But for what reason?

"Watch yourselves," the Knight spoke out to the imps, carefully bringing them down to the floor with herself.

#48

Tom put a hand on the dragon's shoulder to stop it, saying "Doesn't look like that is doing too much, big guy." His pendant was glowing faintly, enough to be noticeable even under his shirt.

It was at this time they felt the shock waves through the rock.

"Sounds like the other team found something. Also felt below us - but I think we should save our energy for fighting, not digging. That leaves just one route. Shall we?" Tom said, gesturing down the tunnel.

#49

"Pffft. What the heck is a Pillar Man?" Felicia asked as she pulled more stuff of the walls, then stared at the soulless being ahead of them as they spoke. It was covered in jewels... her eyes would glitter if they weren't entirely black.

"... So... Do you want to die?" this Split was far more confident and less forgiving than her Prime counterpart.

Meanwhile

Bill snorted after listening to Tom, he didn't want to stop but at the same time he was getting a headache and the Dragon turned his back on the serpentine being before moving over to Jinx. The you girl was batting around her ears like there was a fly there. "Stop that, it's really annoying" she said to the air. "Sooner we get out of this corridor the better"

Meanwhile...

The two Shadow Imps chittered as they held on to Solveig, looking down at the Skathi with wide, bright red eyes.

#50

Eltra took a deep breath, trying to blink through the shockwave of aura where it was most concentrated and let out a few bullets into her. The floran used the recoil and a few pulse jumps to back away while doing so before blinking onto a wall and sticking there. "Floran no like thisss..." He quickly reloaded, stuffing one of the easter eggs into his mouth in the hopes of keeping corruption off.

Tox, meanwhile, kept flying around the place, watching and waiting to strike at the right time. She believed her tricks as a wild card would only really work one time at maximum effectiveness, so patience was key.

Phoebe had groaned, taking out a gun, loading it with some kind of enchanted bullets, and taken a shooting pose. She appeared more corporeal now.

Jent · #51

Those first rounds froze briefly in air, their spatial dimensions twisted just shy of three meters from Skathi, who radiated a visible violet aura much like the veil enveloping each bullet. Not that she could maintain her grip long. The huldra promptly clutched at the right side of her face, listening to tiny projectiles clatter across the floor. Apparently this source of agony stemmed from the transplanted eye.

"A mere brat, nowhere near my level," she flared her rows of teeth, breath seething in contempt. "And I've not forgotten about the rest of you."

Her instinct alone provoked fierce magic to manifest from her hollow back. The coalescing figures swerved in step to guard against any signs of returned fire as the chimeric trio emerged in full. Skathi's tallest pawn hovered around six meter in height, fur and feathers shimmered along residue Charm with their dark blue hue. He predominately displayed a Minotaur design in structure. Though, rather a pair of burly arms, two muscular wings locked defensive at the sockets. "So this is Eldritch magic... This will be easy enough to control," the huldra muttered, dropping her hand out to the side.

"It be a waste to kill you."

Leaning on a giant boarish-amphibian, the demigod watched her wrathful again successfully counter a thrown inflamed tomahawk. The searing heat hardly left a scratch on Sigrid, knocking the energy weapon aside with her forearm. A truly corrupted Fir Bolg. Only grew deadlier in the months under Elder influence, this single-minded weapon launched herself at the Knight. Fists exchanged between two beings of the Whimwham sect, matching strength evenly thus far.

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"... So... Do you want to die?"

Avarice merely grinned at the returned threat. Most of the rocks scattered on his scaly hide were coaxed by the Split's blooming greed, apart from chunks of warpstone. Those were certainly of this, and other realities. "It might be refreshing to see if you could kill me even once," he remarked before running up to the trio. A clawed hand raked across the wall he leaned closest in his sprint, causing a reaction in the hallway's structure in form of spiraling spikes through the ceiling.

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As the adventurer party decided to ignore the sealed exit to march ahead, the Fir Bolg 'swam' to follow along the group. Its essence slithered past the solid rock underneath. Only an occasional gurgle would emit in an otherwise silent sneak.

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The satyr quietly drew herself back through the stone entrance she had burst from earlier. Layers of vines and vegetation left a blockade to slow down whoever decided to follow after her in the underground complex.

#52

Felicia grinned beneath her mask, watching and listening as the draconian being spoke before moving towards them and digging his claws into the wall. "I'll be happy to try" she retorted back, leaping backwards from a ceiling spike that would have pierced right where she had been. The extra universal Shadow Mage/Summoner called forth her own draconic Shadow Wings and formed the explosive Shadow Spheres in her palms before launching them in a return fire at Avarice.

Meanwhile...

Jinx continued to bat at what she percieved as an annoying insect trying to whisper in either of her ears as she walked along the passage with Tom, barely noticing the occasional gurgle from their follower as Bills large footsteps were covering the noise. The iridescent young Dragon pulled his lips over his teeth and lowered his head somewhat, he felt very uneasy and emitted low, nervous growls at this point.

Jinx looked over at the pair of them, seeing the glowing Sanity Blade pendant on Toms chest. "Hey Old Man, you imitating a glowworm or something?" She joked.

Meanwhile...

One of the two tiny Shadow Imps jumped off Solveig and with its dark cloak billowing outwards revealed tiny wings, gliding over to cling to the wall and soon followed by its fellow. Once they got there they both chittered and gave her two tiny thumbs ups.

#53

"Happy to see us try?" Senka replied, reinforcing Felicia's threat. There was nothing that could beat the two of them, especially together. "I've slain Dragons before."

Rocks from the wall, carved off by the Dragon's claw pebbled Senka's dark armor while she drew her sword. Felicia was already pelting the beast with shadow balls, which gave Senka an idea. The knight rushed forward, using the detonation to propel herself toward the dragon, blade out. An explosive force driving a nail into the beast. She knew her armor could survive at least a couple of the detonations... and the faster she finished off this monster, the faster she could hoard a pile of silver to lay on.

#54

Tom glanced down to where Jinx pointed, then fished out the Sanity Blade charm. It was not only glowing - which in Tom's experience is never a good sign - it was seemingly attracted to Jinx, dangling at an angle towards the young girl for some reason

Tom: We should hurry - if it's glowing this much there is a good amount of insanity about - I don't want to be trapped in a narrow tunnel when it catches up with us...

Jent · #55

Fevered dark whispers rattled in the corridor, with Tom incapable of perceiving those sinister undertones. The rest, resilient in deflecting subtle corruption, annoyed the subterranean murmurer. Its oily being nonetheless continued to travel beneath their foots from within the stone. Relaying other messages between its other counterparts...

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The golden draconian flexed his wings, already toughening the scaly hide for imminent bombardment. Avarice, composed of higher energies, how could a few shadow bombs harm the living curse-

Snap.

Boosted by the explosions behind the Knight, her swift blade cleaved straight through pseudo-flesh and bone. The toppled draconian half face-planted into the stone, with the hind smacked along a wall as its energy vanished into the floor. Why would a human dive into such a reckless charge!? Confusion dumbfounded him, pulling up his upper body as the damage below cauterized itself. A ridiculous half-height display, not befitting for a curse.

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In the main chamber of battle, an eerie shift of sound rose from the bottom up. "... You all shall fall," Skathi bellowed out in a low, otherworldly voice. Her foul aura expanded out further to demoralize the worms she despised. Such echoes of this music would even reach even the sealed hallways beyond the demigod's attention; recognizable as Mars, the Bringer of War.

#56

"Hah! I suppose we've cut him down to size, eh Felicia?" Senka remarked, already eyeing the pebbles from the battle for collection. She would be feeling tje vibration from the explosion in her arms for quite a while... but an effective move was an effective move.

#57

Felicia let up the bombardment of explosions from the target ahead once the Curse faceplanted into the ground after Senka dived into her explosions to cut it up. Now that was cool. Terribly reckless, but very cool. "Oh yeah, I'd say so" she agreed with her friend. Certainly, this creature looked very silly now with only half its body attached. "What even are you?" Felicia asked after noticing the lower half had dissipated.

Meanwhile...

Bill the Dragon continued to be perturbed by everything around him. The strange mutterings, the strange corridor, the floor... even that music that he just started to pick up in his ears. He growled louder.

Jinx however was looking down at the Sanity Blade charm that Tom had fished out and that seemed to be attracted to her almost like a magnet was attracted to another magnet. Strange. "Isn't that what we came gere to fix? Pull the unnaturally mixed magics away from each other?" Jinx asked, tilting her head slightly however as she heard the music too "What is that?"

Jent · #58

Ã¢â‚¬Å“... I am the will of SkaÃƒÂ°i incarnate...Ã¢â‚¬Â

Avarice gradually transformed in his rise back to proper height. Unrefined darkness sculpted two new legs beneath the scars, standing firm as the golden scales faded to grey. The forgotten limbs noticed by Felicia slowly crumbled into fine white ash once their energy fully dissipated. No luck in retrieving gemstones in that pile.

The rest which rested on the cursed being swirled in awful power. Literal shards of warpstone radiating hardly visible waves of energy, the largest share concentrated along his abdomen. "... And I will eliminate anyone who gets in her way," he snarled, eyes burning with raw celestial light.

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Once the 'Insanity Trio' and their Elder escort reached the chamber, they find someone waiting off in a corner. Tired, her visage drained of any glimmer of joy, the satyr looked up at the group. "You... Won't succeed," the Slothful Firbolg spoke out to them. "It's... Not worth it..."

With hardly much effort, she command vines that laid hidden along the walls to spring downward at her targets. The chamber itself was nearly as large as the first room they encountered Hadrian inside. Should be enough space to move, provided they weren't snagged by the oil-soaked vegetation.

#59

Eltra stared at it, shivering and swallowing the egg. What stops this? This...crazy, overwhelming stuff. Well...let's start with the best plan. The floran threw a small blue ball down, small bits of easter egg across it to dull her touch. The ball, once hitting or grabbed, would detonate into an egg-charged fusion bomb. The floran was planning to gut the powers, blind the enemy, and burn them to ashes if possible. Really, though, the end goal was to make an opening long enough to try and hit her with an energy vacuum seal planned for the bad dog. The horrible, blinding light was a bonus. Eltra's armor covered what was exposed and protected his eyes.

Tox quickly looked away, waiting for the blinding flash and deafening noise to buy her an opening to surprise her. If her tricks are good once, use them on the strongest, right?

Phoebe stared at the cursed being, drawing her gun and scanning, before suddenly firing several shots into his gut to destabilize and detonate the warpstone. Blow it up from the inside while it blusters!

#60

Felicia had turned to glance at the Phoebe clone with them just in time to notice the gun and where it was pointing after listening to Avarice before exclaiming a quick swearword in Deian and leaping for Senka with her shadow wings outstretched to wrap around her fellow Knight before all hell and other Realities broke loose. She could think of only one thing that could possibly protect them from that sort of detonation and that... was to manifest a 'bubble' of Void around the pair of them.

Meanwhile...

The iridescent Dragon stared at the satyr Sloth, lips pulled back even further over his teeth before he went to bound towards her in order to get rid of the threat he percieved to his bonded companion. That and he'd been so unnerved for so long he needed to get it out somehow. The vines wouldn't be too much of a problem for this mythical beast... so long as there weren't too many of them.

Jinx however made a small 'eep' noise as she was suddenly tangled up by the vines since they'd dropped down upon them so suddenly.... however, the young Jix soon was covered in what seemed to be a type of dark fire that was nonetheless difficult and unsettling to look directly at. She was trying to keep the vines off her. "Why? Why isn't it worth it?"