I should have kept going, Jareth thought darkly as a pale gray substance coated Sky’s body. Petrified. Now he had to keep Pyr, Theo’s former squire and the girl safe and keep Sky from getting shattered. This day was just getting better and fucking better.
And that meant that there was no point in pulling punches. Before he’d even moved, he could feel the Dark gathering around his weapon. He bellowed, Furor laced in his voice. The piece of rock staggered back and Jareth lunged forward, Unholy Sacrifice at the ready. The attack struck true and the ugly ass monster returned its attention to Jareth.
His side hurt and he had to take a deep breath before he could call out: “Pyr, in and out if you can, but do not let it focus on you. Coulombe, same. Anyone that can heal, when I tell you to, heal me.” He motioned at Sky - a nice reminder of why you didn’t want the fucking thing’s attention. “I’ll keep him from getting shattered.”
As tendrils of Darkness swept through the air, Ridley felt her lungs contract, something knotting in her chest, as though her white magic was reacting. The appearance of Juliette and Sky had helped ease her worry, but now she wondered what might've happened had she simply bolted into the clinic. She didn't know Stona, and assumed no one else did; they'd have to wait until Sky's petrification faded away on its own. At Jareth's words, she nodded, already moving closer to cast Protect on him.
Following Jareth's instruction, Pyr moved in to slash at the monster, just enough to take its attention off Sky (and perhaps Jareth, long enough for someone to heal him). He had never seen his mentor use that skill before, but from the way the air seemed to coalesce around his weapon like tendrils of shadow, he had to imagine it took significant energy. And it seemed to have damaged their enemy somewhat, much more than anything he could do would, so his objective was clear.
He did not want to find out what Jareth had meant by keep him from getting shattered, so he focused on attacking and trying to draw the monster a bit further from his brother, so that Sky wouldn't accidentally be hit. The beast swung at Pyr like batting at an annoying bug, and Pyr managed to avoid the blow just in the nick of time. He was faster than the thing, but he would need to be careful — it had been close enough to fully appreciate how bad it would be if he did get hit.
The instruction she had been given suited Juliette perfectly -- she was not (and perhaps never would be) made for a frontal assault. Much better to allow someone tougher to take that role -- she could be useful elsewhere. Healing, perhaps, when it was needed -- and with the way the older man was attacking, she thought it might be sooner rather than later -- and of course, she wasn’t entirely useless even if she kept her distance now…
As the creature staggered under the force of the blow inflicted upon it by the ax, she concentrated, brows furrowed, trying to slow her breathing. She couldn’t fall into anything like a meditative state here, but she had done this earlier, and she had done it with her hands tied behind her back, for Faram’s sake --
The Knight of the Peace retreated, and she moved out from where she had taken cover, forming the attack in her mind, feeling it flow through her, pushing. The chi blast came again, reliable at last (she thought fleetingly of thanking that man who had bound her hands) though perhaps not aimed as accurately as she might have liked; it slammed into one of the horns protruding from the thing’s side, sending a crack through it but serving mostly to irritate it, or so it seemed. She didn’t wait for it to turn to her, already running again. It could spin in circles until it died, and maybe dizzying it wasn’t the worst idea ever, as long as it did not turn towards Sky’s petrified form…