011 The Clearing III, Anea, B'rth, Gdn, Ryn, T'Tk, Ysh

Continued from The Clearing II...

Yeehsa looks thoughtful. "We are going south, right?"

She looks to the others in the clearing, "I'm going to try something, if it works, it might only work for a few moments, so we will need to be quick. I'm going to try to draw them north, so be ready to run..."

She turns to face the north and closes her eyes.

Several hell-creatures give a huge war-cry, and there is a roaring response from their fellows all around the clearing… The sounds of running footsteps can be heard approaching throughout the mist.

B’rayth, gives a war-cry of his own, moving quickly to intercept what seems the largest concentration of the green and lizard-like hell-creatures coming in from the south. With a whirlwind of hacks and slashes, and clangs of sword against sword, he plows into them, hell-creatures falling all about him.

Anna produces a knife, tentatively considers for a moment, before running for Tu’tak. “If you have a way out of here, I’m all for it…”

Gideon stands from his crouch over the cube, looking up in shock at the approaching monster. This humanoid appears larger than the others at seven foot, and also sports better armour and cleaner sword. Its red eyes set inside its sickly green skin flash in anger.

Gideon’s staff is on the ground by his right foot, the cube in his left hand.
As the beast charges him, he throws the box at its head. A massive forearm comes up to dash the box away, but at contact, the leather bound arm bursts into flame. The creature drops his sword in surprise, but steadfastly ignores the fire and smoke, continuing its charge, hands extended.

Gideon falls onto his back as the hell-creature pounces, causing it to misjudge the leap. Its ankles are caught by the falling man, and then thrust into the air. Gideon hits the ground hard with his back as the creature is somersaulted in a fiery cartwheel, over his prone form, and lands awkwardly.

Gideon stands again as his enemy, fire now extinguished, also picks itself up, shaking its head from disorientation.

Gideon walks over to his staff.

The beast charges again, the heat of its rage steaming from its mouth. “Die, tainted vermin!” it snarls. To back the words, it surges forward, head down, as if to head butt his target.

Gideon flips his foot, the staff is in his hand. The beast is upon him. He charges into its arms. The staff is levered behind its shoulder blade and its neck in the confusion of straining bodies and limbs.

There is a snap.

It falls.

In the meantime, a snarling hell-creature tears out of the mist at Arenea. Her hand flashes from beneath her cloak revealing the pistol crossbow. There is a soft 'twang' as she squeezes the trigger. The bolt buries itself in the hell creature's eye. It collapses to the ground.

A second hell-creature comes from the mist, and Arenea retreats, bringing her sword upwards, slicing through the chest of the creature. The beast crumples to the ground in a pool of ichor. Arenea retreats quickly, weaving in and out of the other hell-creatures to reach Reyn’s side.

He retreats to R’shall’s side, Anna following close behind. He starts the shifting process again, now turning into a large white hawk.

As Tu'Tak shifts, a hell-creature looms out of the mist at him, but Anna throws her dagger through its neck, killing it instantly. Tu'Tak's form continues to grow, now twice the size of a man, and doesn't stop. The size of a draft horse and finally a large elephant.

In Tu'Tak's place stands a small roc, a beautiful white hawk the size of a large elephant. Something about the bird hints at it being a child rather than a fully grown adult. The hawk cranes its neck a couple of times, surveying the area and then reaches out with one claw, picking up R’shall. Just as Tu'Tak does so, Anna rushes towards him, jumping onto Tu'tak's back and reaches out for Yeesha to take her hand.

Yeesha looks to the offered hand, then to R'shall. She looks a little nervous as she turns and addresses Tu'Tak.

"I think it would be best if I stayed with R'shall. I can tend to his injuries and offer some defense should something happen. Will you be able to lift R'shall, myself and the litter if I climb on?"

The giant hawk cranes it's neck, and gives a slight nod.

Arenea crouches next to Reyn. She watches as a hell-creature closes in on Tu’Tak, Anna, R’shall and Yeesha. She plucks out a star-shaped throwing blade and flings it at the creature’s back. The blade buries itself into a gap between the beast’s scales. The hell-creature snaps upright as though stung by a bee and claws at its back. It shudders and collapses as the venom on the blade works its way through the creature’s system.

Yeesha hesitates for a moment, looking at the large eagle's talons.

Anna leans further back, bringing her hand closer to Yeesha. "That's a stupid idea. Now get up here so we can go." She waves her hand beckoning.

Yeesha looks to the hand, then pushes forward to grab hold. Grunting with effort she pulls herself up onto Tu'Tak's back and holds on tight.

"Okay, ready."

The swords sway slightly in the hands of the large monsters as they cautiously approach the man with his staff. The swords have weight, and purpose, lending immediacy to the openness of the clearing.

Gideon pauses as the two foremost beasts pick up their pace. Alongside the body of their captain, he stoops as they charge.

Gideon anchors the staff against his foot and the ground. As the first hell-creature lunges with his sword, Gideon brings the staff upwards into his attacker’s torso. The air of its lungs exits the beast's maw with a roaring of pain.

The second hell-creature raises up his sword, ready to slash it downwards. As the downstroke comes, Gideon bends over and picks up the dead captain's lost sword. The hell-creature’s forearm comes down but bounces off Gideon’s shoulder. Gideon rises and twists upward, with his legs adding to his upward strength, his sword shears the hell-creature’s extended arm in half.

The adrenaline of the moment not yet overcome by the wound, the hell-creature stumbles over the captain’s body, into Gideon who lets go of his staff, and spins his own body over the fallen wounded.

As it begins to pick itself up off the ground, awkwardly with one arm, the winded hell-creature recovers.

The hell-creature grabs the staff and swings it at Gideon’s head. It cleaves empty air however, as Gideon ducks and launches himself into the beast’s abdomen.

A quick thrust, a turn, and he beheads the other before more are upon him.

His body is lost in the mass of onrushing bestial forms save for a single green arm seen spinning slowly out of the centre, and into the air, before falling and bouncing to the ground.

On Yeesha's pronouncement Tu'Tak kicks off with his remaining leg and heaves his mighty wings, launching him and his riders into the air with surprising grace. Once in the air Tu'Tak circles, climbing quickly.

Charging forward B’rayth screams out his battle cry, words mangled and almost unrecognisable even to R’shall. About him B’rayth sees the hell-creatures moving forward, their features a blur in the pearlescent mist. A group of four move towards him, swords drawn and fangs bared in matching grimaces of hate and loathing.

As the first hell-creature reaches him B’rayth sees his foe's arm move, and almost without conscious thought he sways right and ducks under the blow aimed at his left shoulder, turning counter-clockwise his sword lances up and enters under the creatures sternum. Blood gushes forth, black in the uncertain light, as the beast falls to the ground B’rayth has already spun away and as he moves his left elbow strikes the nearest hell-creature’s jaw, with a cracking sound the hell-creature falls to the earth, unconscious. Leaping forward B’rayth kicks the next hell-creature's knee, as it falls it screams in agony its leg obviously shattered, moving again B'rayth launches an over hand cut at the weapon arm of the last of the four foemen, a shrill scream escapes the throat of the reptile man as its arm falls free, severed cleanly the stump pumps forth its life blood.

As the fourth creature falls, more shapes move into view from the mist, B’rayth begins to laugh exultantly, he barely hears the sounds of battle his heart pounds so loudly in his ears. His feet dance a deadly step as he fights, ever moving, evading the frantic attacks of the hell- creatures. His blade lancing and cleaving into their bewildered ranks, his arms and legs weapons little less deadly than his blade.

As he downs his seventh foeman he sees Tu’tak’s avian form ascend to the sky, but this is a mere distraction for him as he enters the world of combat, his foe’s movements seem to slow, the barest contraction of a muscle sends him warning of his enemy's intent. The hell-creatures fall about him but they keep coming, more and more of them, surrounding him.

Locked within his own cocoon, layer upon layer upon layer of armour not only between himself and the outside world, but also between himself and the object held in the middle of the black ovoid that he has become, Reyn has no knowledge through sight or hearing of what is transpiring in the glade.

Like an irritant that is eventually converted into a pearl, containing the tablet takes most of Reyn’s concentration, but a small part of his mind ‘listens’ for the psychic signatures of the others, mainly those of Yeesha and Anna, waiting for the moment when they wink out – the moment that will indicate that they have left the glade or are dead.

When that moment finally comes Reyn allows the pain he has contained within himself to explode outwards, using that energy to shift quickly to his favoured demon form and as a result flinging the tablet to the ground without having to resort to touching it once more. Like a figure that had been shaped into a ball Reyn unrolls and continues to grow, black elongated head and vicious sweeping barbed tail being the last to form into view.

With a battle roar that actually sounds like a hundred snakes hissing in unison, the Giger-ish alien creature stretches out the elongated claws on it’s hands and turns, seemingly ready to pounce on the nearest enemy – or friend who fails to identify themselves quickly enough.

"It's me, Arenea" the pale woman says quickly. She has experience in dealing with Chaosians in demon and knows they sometimes have trouble telling friend from foe.

She points to the pile of hell-creatures under which Gideon had vanished. "Gideon's under there" she says. "He probably needs our help."

Coming from the north of the clearing, a screaming horde of hell-creatures emerges from the mists, heading towards Reyn and Arenea at full charge.

A slow pulse of bluish white light emerges from the tablet. As it hits Reyn, his colour darkens for a moment. As it reaches the pillar, the shadows around it vanish, the runes engraved on it glowing a spectacular blue.

The nearby fallen bodies burst into flame, wiped away by the blue-white pulse. The severed arm disappears in a puff of flame and smoke.

The ripple continues outwards. The pile of hell-creatures on top of Gideon burst out into a gigantic fireball, then convert quickly to dust, leaving a burning Gideon in their wake. Dust clouds fall about him, which likewise vanish. He rolls quickly in the wet grass to snuff out the flames.

One after another, the hell-creatures besieging B’rayth erupt into flame like roman candles, falling to dust and nothingness.

The horde of screaming enemies coming from the north witness the fate of some of their fellows, and attempt to retreat, but too late. Within a moment they erupt into a glorious flaming wall, and then are gone.

And the clearing abruptly falls serene once more.