He’d have to rethink Coulombe’s usefulness. If she could do long range, then maybe… “Coulombe, whatever you did, keep doing it. Pyr, heal,” he barked out, lunging forward for, switching from Unholy Sacrifice to Abyssal Blade. If he could weaken it enough, then he could try for a Sanguine Sword - he still hadn’t mastered it, but he’d worked on it enough with Aspel that it might work - but that wasn’t even an option until he could be sure the kids would be safe.
The rock moved at the right time, and the blow hit the corner, the impact of it traveling up his arm. It connected, that’s all that matters, he thought with a wince. Still, he was going to have to be more careful - what the fuck was the point of messing himself up if the attack didn’t hit full on?
Pyr glanced at Ridley, as though looking for confirmation, before he began to chant the spell she had taught him, to heal Jareth. He would have liked her to be somewhere safe, but knowing she was there made it easier to cast. It was nowhere near as good as hers — magic still felt too foreign to be fully comfortable, but even a small healing bonus had to be better than nothing. And Ridley was there, she would help too.
He moved away from the beast, closer to Juliette. Her attack had given him an idea. He had never cast Fire in combat successfully before, but he had been able to produce a flimsy Cure, judging from the faint glow of white magic that had settled over Jareth, and he had studied Fire for much longer. Sky was still petrified, unable to move; if there was the smallest chance the spell would work, he had to try it. Taking a deep breath, Pyr began to chant again, and felt the warmth of the magic gathering in his hands, and directed it at the monster in a small ball of flame.
Slowly, Sky started to feel his limbs and his body again. It took a bit longer before he could move a finger, and even as soon as he did, any attempt to move faster than it took for the petrification to wear off only made him hurt more. Finally, though, he was free, and he scrambled away in time to see Pyr’s fireball land on the monster.
Oh, thank Faram, thankyouthankyouthankyou. He’d been sure he was done for. Now it was all he could do to stay out of the way; he was no fighter and he never had any intention to be outside of throwing shuriken, and he currently had no shuriken on his person to help with. Just his two daggers, and one he was less keen to take out to fight with than the other.
Plus, he had no interest in getting close to that thing again.
But he’d been practicing throwing, and the less shiny dagger was something easy to come by, so… well, why not? And so, Sky tried his luck and aimed for one red eye. The blade was close to hitting its mark, but instead it missed, whizzing past and seemed to bounce right off its outer shell.
Rather than remaining in the rear, Ridley shot out from behind Jareth, making for Sky to offer him curative magic. But rather than the monster's attention shifting to Sky, it shifted to her, and fast. Before she could realize what was happening, it lunged, the impact stunning her and then again as her body hit the cobblestone.
For the love of fucking Faram, did kids not do what they were told these days? He lunged between the monster and the girl on the ground, just as the damn thing moved forward to ram into her; it got him in the gut. He groaned, but was still on his feet. Quickly, he kicked out, pushing the fucker back and raised his ax.
Behind him, Juliette darted in, all thought of attack forgotten as healing magic gathered around her hands and she knelt by Ridley, attempting to ascertain that her friend could stand, giving a worried sideways glance to the knight -- could he keep fighting like this?