Ari ♫ ♪ ♬ (gracenotes) wrote in emillion, |
Wolfe found himself staring at the temple ceiling, dazedly examining the cavernous recesses of faded decoration and stonework. The question loomed sluggishly: Why was he looking at the ceiling? What had happened— He shook it off, realising he was on his back. A wave of cloying Dark magic had blasted them backwards (and oh, that was a familiar chill on his soul), heaving them away from the crystal, which looked as benign as ever. But powerful magicks now thrummed within it, and a blast of Aerora now threw itself at them, rocks and rubble dislodging and battering the small party. Flinching and bruised and stumbling his way back to his feet, the geomancer knotted Firaga at the monster—but his hand dropped in dismay a moment later, as the crystal (no, crystalbug) seemed almost unaffected. His magick was only a mere scrap of what it should've been, halved. "Elemental protection," Wolfe said gruffly, hand drifting to his axe instead. He was almost useless here. The world went spinning and Rivalen found himself on the floor, dirty and dust covering his face; momentarily disoriented he struggled to make sense of what had happened before he realized it. The crystal was a facade. Rivalen rose to his feet and unsheathed his sword. A reflex more than habit. “Brilliant.” He muttered bitterly as Wolfe’s Firaga barely did any harm. Lifting the sword to eye level, horizontal he calculated the blow, the speed and the target, before stepping in swiping his sword down. Lovely, just perfect. At least they had Riv, Ari thought, looking at the traitorous rock with annoyance. That had hurt. Still, they were more seasoned than to fall to such a thing, and there seemed a matter more urgent than healing to her mind. She played, the martial strains of Battle Song running against the chamber's walls, lending extra strength first to Riv, then to Wolfe (little good as he might do with that axe, at least it was something). She was seriously considering going for her daggers when something swooped down from the ceiling and bit her. She yelped, then called out, "Bats!" “More like abys—” As much as Wolfe had a penchant for bookish exactitude, this was not the time for pedantics. The geomancer’s hard, nervous grip on the axe quickly relaxed as this new enemy appeared. He turned his back towards Riv and Ari; the overly-large steeling spun and winged above them, darting down with vampiric fangs, nipping and gnawing at any exposed flesh and sapping health from the humes. He hissed with pain. This called for precision: a split second later, rapid waves of thunder and electricity battered the ‘bats’ like electrified arrows, catching the metallic abysteel and sending them toppling and flailing to the ground with a mad, manic chittering. But the crystalbug still stood behind Wolfe, roiling with magic; focusing on the swarming abysteel, he could only hope that the samurai and bard were handling the crystal, unsuited as he was for it. His focus was entirely on this crystal monster, shifting his stance to cover Wolfe’s back. Bats. Crystalbug. There was priority to defeat that Crystalbug, Rivalen felt the strain of it trying to draw him closer. Something oppressive and unpleasant. Another quick swipe and Rivalen stepped closer, a flurry of slashes that were well aimed. It shuddered and drained— causing him to cast a glance to see if Ari was equally affected. Wolfe — well he couldn’t risk turning around. |