The Chosen [IC/PG-16]

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"That was nice of you."

 

The puzzle was solved by Lindow in the end after a while of tinkering. It seemed that it did trigger the door to open, albeit on a really slow pace. Anis started to worry about the situation on the surface already as she watched it open. But before all that could pass, something happened. From the coffins, several figures rose up and went towards the group. The smell, and their look made it feel that they were all supposed to be reanimated corpses in some form. Which would mean Anis' poison repertoire wouldn't work on them. She grabbed her bow and arrow, and started to aim.

 

"I'll cover this side, then!"

 

[spoiler=OOC]

Anis attacked the mummy coming from the 20th coffin. She's near the podium right now, to the right side of the map somewhat.

 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

As Gilly raced off to combat the mummy it seemed to be alerted by her battle cry. It turned in its path just as she reached it and thrust her spear into the creature's stomach. It didn't seem to much be affected by the puncture itself though the chill from the ice did seem to cause it to halt for a moment. But not long enough that it couldn't retaliate. Which it did by slamming both its wrapped and musky smelling arms down at the little Halfling.

The arrow from Anis sank into its back at this moment but it seemed that the creature wasn't much affected by the wound either.

 

Meanwhile the other closest mummy lumbered its way towards Gilly, the nearest opponent, groaning as it shuffled along the floor of the tomb.

 

Reinaan's attack, in addition to causing the room to be better lit, seemed to do much more to the creature he faced. It's approach slowed as the flames covered it and it stumbled several times on its way towards the Draken. However, even aflame, it still pressed on. Though it gave off an unpleasant smell as it did. A combination of seared flesh, burning paper, and some hint of sanitation smell. A smell that stung the nose as it was inhaled. The creature lumbered towards Reinaan and swung its arm sideways at the young Draken.

 

The mummy on the left of those two was interrupted in its path to the Draken by Lindow's sudden attack. As the man cleaved into its leg he'd find that the sword didn't bite nearly as deeply as he'd have hoped. Nor did it seem the mummy took much notice of the damage caused. When Lindow went to slice into its head the creature knocked the sword to the side with an awkward swing of its arm. Then followed up by slamming its arm onto Lindow's shoulder with intense strength.

[spoiler=OOC]map

Note that the map looks larger than it is.

 

---

"Do uh, do um you travel- a lot."

 

"You could say that." The swordsman replied. "I've been around a few places in my time yeah. More than most. Though not as many as some of those mercenaries. Why, you want to know about the world? Maybe I could show you around sometime." He gave a laugh and gestured towards Hob to come over so that he could pet him. "So, you said you figured someone should stay here. Why is that anyway?" He looked up at the girl and she would be able to see his gaze was sharp, calculating, different from his jovial tone.

[Sethera]

Gilly thought for sure her attack must have done something. It was already hurt, all wrapped up in bandages as it was, her move would be the finishing blow. Except...it wasn't. Soon she found herself pounded from above, the arms feeling like sledgehammers to her body. "Guh," she groaned, eyes losing focus for a second. She lay there for a second, trying to regain her senses but finding it difficult to.

 

"Ugh, you're a good opponent," she said as she picked herself off the ground. That had hurt. But she was a halfling from the mountains, and they were made of sterner stuff than most people thought. Not to mention... "But I'm better," she crowed, pointing at herself dramatically. "Because I'm Gilly the heroic hero! So prepare to be defeated, bad guy!"

 

"This might be a good time to use magic," Snow said, appearing at her side. He had noticed the effect the ice had had on the creature.

 

"No way!" the halfling shook her head stubbornly. "We can do this man to man, no spooky voodoo mystic stuff involved, just brute strength and skill!" and with that, she materialized another spear, and jabbed it into the mummy's leg. It didn't seem to feel the stomach wound, but maybe it would this one?

 

Snow gave a put-out sigh, shaking his head in exasperation. His expression worsened when he noticed the other mummy heading toward his Chosen. A mummy she hadn't even noticed. With an "ugh," he jumped for the creature's face, summoning a small hailstorm around him as he did so.

 

--

 

Hob gazed at the man who gestured for him to come over with calm, sheep eyes. Eventually, he approached, sniffing him curiously. After doing so, he let himself be petted, giving out a pleased baa and butting his head against the hand gently.

[Andx]

Sure enough, mummies were flammable. Though for a moment the Draken's nose wished they hadn't been. The scent of the burning sack of old flesh and cloth was truly repugnant and the boy reeled back from it at first. Thankfully the creature's advance had slowed from the maneuver. Reinaan heard Lindow and the others clashing with the others but it seemed to be less effective than his flames had been. It was going to be a minute before he could hope to set another on fire but if the others could immobilize their targets for long enough he felt confident he could get to them all. But this thought was soon interrupted as the mummy currently burning continued it's approach. Reinaan threw the torch in his left hand behind him toward the center of the room to continue burning on the floor. With the hand free he could now ready the javelin in both hands to parry the creature's blow. 

 

However, the human-like size and shape had fooled the boy. The creature held much more physical strength than he had imagined. And while the arm failed to hit Reinaan himself, the rod of the javelin shattered upon the impact. His eyes widened in disbelief as he tossed the broken pieces of the weapon to the side with a groan of frustration.

 

"Ziiyol!" he called out to his spirit who had stayed ever near as if awaiting the call. The spirit's form dissolved as her power flowed into her partner's body, igniting sparks across the Draken's back as the energy moved and shifted into his core. The familiar sparks continued to dance across his body, making the Fire Chosen something of a torch himself at this point. The energy flowed again, concentrating at the tips of the claws of Reinaan's right hand until the flame claws extended a few feet off of them. With another growl the boy slashed at the shoulder of the arm that had shattered his weapon. A piece of flesh fell to the floor and the flames left behind seemed to be eating into the wound. And though the limb seemed somewhat limp, it didn't stop the creature from lifting both arms to attack the boy again.

 

Reinaan crouched down and ducked out of the attack that would have hit both his shoulders. And while the maneuver prevented the hit, the creature's momentum carried it forward and it on top of the Draken. The fact it was burning would have been uncomfortable but as long as he didn't sit there much longer the boy's scales would resist it fairly well. The Fire Chosen staggered about a bit as he tried to get a grip on the creature's waist with his hands while also attempting to stand back at full height. Using the motion of standing to start the momentum the boy exerted himself to toss the creature off. The whole ordeal made it clear that these things were remarkably heavier than their size and shape indicated. But the strength of a Draken is not a thing to be taken lightly, and eventually the creature was throw off the boy, taking an arc through the air toward the northern wall.

 

"Don't try to block these things! They're stronger and heavier than they look!" he called out to the others lest they should have a weapon shattered or worse. He took a moment to compose himself and gauge the creature's next move. Fire was his best bet, either his breath or the claws. Literally disarming them would make fighting them easier but instinct said to go for vitals over limbs. But then no instincts could know what to do with enemies like this.

[Alaina]

Ryia continued to stand there, clearly uncomfortable, as the boy continued to speak. However, she looked back to him, feeling his gaze go from jovial to more serious, as he asked her a question about her staying behind. "Oh well, um, its' because you're new and well, these um - they," she gestured to the animals, "are um, important to their riders and, yeah."

 

"So you think I'm dangerous?" He asked, grinning. Then glanced down at Hob. "Important to their riders you say? Hm, is that all..."

 

"Um, w-well, I uh...don't but, well-" she seemed to trail off a bit before responding to his next part. "Well, I can't say for certain since I haven't known them for very long but, well, they spend a lot of time together with them, so I assumed, an all."

 

"And what about you? Haven't you tried to get closer to them." He said, gesturing at the mounts. "They're surely more easy to talk with."

 

"Well, that's probably true." The girl looked to the man before saying, "I guess I just, didn't think to or something."

 

"Most people don't." He said before standing and stretching. "Not used to having guests, probably could've tried to widen this place up a bit while I was here."

 

The girl looked like somewhat confused by his words and felt as though she should've been shamed by them, though upon his next comment she spoke up. "Well," twiddling her fingers a bit she said, "if you need help with straightening anything out or moving things, I could um...I could help."

 

"Well if what you guys said is true I suppose I won't be hanging around here much longer eh?" He gave her a sideways glance. "That is unless I'm too dangerous to keep around."

 

"No, no," she tried to wave his comment saying, "I think you'd be great to have around - er, well, you were a great help in the last fight and know the desert and um - yeah."

 

He laughed at that. "You're more trusting than I'd expect. Guess that's just in your nature..." He glanced over at the entrance. "Still trips me up sleeping when it's sunny and waking up and its still up. How no one has tried to fix this before..."

 

"I-I can't really say much about that. The people who live here seemed to have their own troubles and the Council didn't seem to be...present here."

 

"Yeah, that part doesn't change wherever you go." He grinned at her again. "You're a lot more talkative than I'd guess at first you know."

 

"O-oh, I am?" The girl seems surprised about this as well, before glancing away from him saying, "I, uh, guess you're just, um easy to talk to..."

 

"Is that so?" He smirked. "Makes me wonder if there's not another reason you stayed behind." His tone turned immediately teasing.

 

The girl's face went red, still looking away from him, before saying, "n-no, I-I uh, um, just thought the others would rather go and it'd make the decision go by faster!" Her voice was cracking a bit as it rose in pitch.

 

"Well now, I suppose travelling with you might be more entertaining than I first thought."

 

"O-oh, th-that's um...good to hear...." The girl was clearly at a loss for words as the boy continued to tease her, the redness in her face not subsiding. 

[Hälō]

The mummy's swing had enough force to send Lindow tumbling to the side. Quickly bringing himself to his feet, Lindow reached down and grabbed the bandit cleaver with his left hand whilst glancing down at his right shoulder. It hung limply in a manner that he knew indicated that it had been dislocated.

 

It hurt quite badly, but he had no choice but to ignore it for now...

 

Hearing Reinaan's warning Lindow sighed. "Indeed..." With the mummy that struck him still slowly approaching, he took a moment to think. "Reinaan your fire seems to be the most effective thing we have..." The thunder chosen called over to his allies whilst retreating backwards towards Anis at a steady pace.

 

"Let's draw them together, then set them ablaze all at once! If not we'll be stuck dealing with these things until the door opens..."

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Don't try to block these things! They're stronger and heavier than they look!"

 

"Are physical attacks really that ineffective?"

 

Anis was tempted to rush into the fray and hack the limbs of these walking corpses to pieces, but Reinaan's words made it clear that it would be a bad idea. None of her magic was going to help much here. A corpse wouldn't die from poison, and she could not just fire arrows and use it in any way to disable them either.

 

"Let's draw them together, then set them ablaze all at once! If not we'll be stuck dealing with these things until the door opens..."

 

"In that case..." Anis backed into the central podium an raised her voice. "Reinaan, Gilly, Get back! Let these corpses get close to us rather than fighting them separately like this!"

 

Once she said that, she turned back to Lindow with a questioning expression.

 

"Now, do you have any ideas on how to keep them in place so we can burn them to crisp?"

 

---

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

The mummy didn't react much more to Gilly's stab in the leg than the stomach. However its reach wasn't the best and its next slamming attack would only be a glancing blow against Gilly's back. Though even that was still a strong blow from such a creature.

Snow's attack, coming from seemingly nowhere, slowed down the mummy approaching from Gilly's side. It continued forward though it seemed to be trying to swing its arms at a foe it couldn't touch. Thus it took some time to reach the Halfling.

 

Reinaan's toss caused the mummy to land several feet away. It was still burning as it tried to get off the ground. This took some time as the creature seemed unable to easily right itself once fallen. And, as it stood the arm that Reinaan had slashed and burned fell off. It still continued towards the Draken and raised its remaining arm for another slam attack.

 

The mummy that Lindow abandoned continued towards him at a steady pace.

 

And, while the door continued its slow ascent, another sarcophagus opened and one more mummy joined the fray.

[spoiler=OOC]map

Door is currently open...6 inches.

This fight is hilarious to write for, just saying.

 

---

"O-oh, th-that's um...good to hear...."

The swordsman laughed. He seemed about to say more but suddenly tensed up. Hob would sense something was wrong and back away as the swordsman leapt to his feet and grabbed the hilt of his sword. "We got company." He muttered.

 

Moments later there was a sound of stone cracking as a giant scorpion appeared by the doorway, slamming its claw into the already widened entry, trying to break more pieces from it to fit inside.

[Andx]

The throw didn't carry the creature quite as far as Reinaan had hoped but it was enough to prepare himself for his next move. Lindow confirmed that the Draken's fire was going to be their best bet at dispatching their enemies. The boy's opponent stood once more, but lost an arm in the process, confirming Lindow's observation. Burning them at once would be faster and easier. It was still going to try to fight, a missing limb aside. It was likely it would attempt to continue they burned the entirety of it away. Rather than stay and get something else broken, the boy turned about and ran towards the center podium where Lindow would be close by. That would draw the one he was fighting in toward the others.

 

As he ran he noticed the wall opposite the one they entered was opening slowly. With a bit more time they might be able to start fitting through. But along with this another of the boxes lining the walls had opened up to reveal a fifth wrapped figure. No doubt all the boxes contained one that would come out in waves as the door continued opening. With over a dozen potential enemies still in the room the boy knew his flame claws would definitely blow up in his face before defeating that many. This was gonna suck every last wisp of flame out of him before it was over and the next round wasn't even ready quite yet.

[Alaina]

While the girl seemed to be shrinking further and further back away from the boy, she was given both a momentary reprieve as he seemed to stop his line of dialogue with her. While she was able to try and steady her breath in this moment, the girl started to become more nervous as she realized how unnatural the silence was. Looking up, she saw the boy with a more serious look on his face, grabbing for his sword. As he made a note about there being company the girl looked over to see a scorpion smashing its claw into the wall of the building. The girl hadn't gotten her armor on yet, as she had been focused on different things at the moment, and so with not much time to spare, merely went to grab her mace and shield. Shouting, "Ackrin," the earth spirit merged with the girl, providing her skin some line of defense with her armor not present to do so. 

 

With the swordsman being unable to swing at the creature in the enclosed space, the girl decided to try and take the fight to the scorpions, thinking that if they broke in it would only spell disaster for everyone else. With something pressing before her to switch her mind over to, the girl was readily glad to switch her focus to the fight against the scorpion than anything that was going on inside the building. And so, being very hasty to do so, the girl rushed towards the scorpion, leaving the building and managing to smash the scorpion's face with her mace. The creature immediately backed off, revealing yet another scorpion behind it. As the girl tried to shout a warning out, she realized she had no idea what to refer to the swordsman as, and stammered a bit before shouting, "there's a second one out here!" 

 

As she finished her message, the creature had backed off away from her, swinging its claw at her as it did. Rolling backwards, the girl saw that she was now blocking the doorway. As the second claw came towards her, the girl dove forward this time, her maneuverability for these kinds of stunts being easier due to her lack of armor. As she avoided it, however, the stinger of the scorpion came down on her. Bringing her shield up, the girl braced herself as the shield managed to block the sting. However, the creature was not letting up with its stinger, trying to keep the pressure on her. As the stinger came down, she blocked once, twice and on the third strike she managed to step out of the way of the stinger. Though she had little room to move around in, the girl still managed to make her way towards its face, striking with a shorter mace swing to its face. 

[Sethera]

Gilly felt a hard blow against her neck, forcing her to collapse to the ground under the pressure. Wheezing out a breath and rubbing her neck, the halfling looked back up at the monster in front of her. "A hero always...knows to keep going," she muttered, and lifted her spear once more to attack. She wasn't sure where to stab, though, as both areas within her reach seemed to do little to her opponent. Maybe...she should use magic after all?

 

No! She shook her head violently at the thought. Magic was cheating. True heroes didn't need magic; they moved forward with courage and the strength of their weapon. Magic just muddled things up. Only nerds needed magic. And she wasn't a nerd.

 

Gilly twirled her spear wildly, hoping to put some distance between her and the monster. She lost her grip on the spear in the process, but just materialized a new one, throwing it up at the creature and hoping it stuck somewhere vulnerable for once.

 

She still hadn't noticed the other mummy.

 

Snow shook his head and kept his position. He could only hope that Gilly would see sense and use her magic for once...though that didn't look like it would happen.

 

--

 

Hob baa'd in alarm at seeing a giant scorpion outside. A little nervous without his rider nearby, he decided to move forward, though hesitated near the doorway, not sure if he wanted to get in the middle of all of that. At seeing the girl attacking one of the scorpions, however, he ran out himself, charging at the same one. As soon as he did so, he noticed the second one, but already mid-charge, he couldn't change his target, so kept on going.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"....Damn it...!"

 

They were in no position to clear the corpses in one volley of fire right now, and more and more corpses came to attack the group. Even worse was how the door didn't even realize the direness of the situation and took its sweet time in opening itself.  Anis wanted to shoot these corpses with her arrow, but those didn't do much to them. At the same time, Gilly ended up doing something reckless again, and she was now busy struggling against one of those corpses, while another was approaching her.

 

"By the gods, why didn't she use her magic anyway?"

 

Mumbling to herself, Anis drew her short sword and went towards the the corpse approaching Gilly and attempted to cut it up with a swing. If she was lucky she might be able to decapitate it, if not...well, it's hardly the worst thing happened to her in this journey.

 

---

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

The one-armed mummy continued to lumber after Reinaan. Though the Draken was much more nimble and faster than the undead creature.

Lindow's position was much more dire. As Anis left to help out Gilly the two mummies nearby only had Lindow to target. They reached him about the same time. The one towards the south raised both its arms and moved to slam them down onto Lindow's shoulders. Meanwhile the other one lunged from behind and rammed into him, attempting to wrap its arms around his waist.

 

Anis's attack didn't go quite as well as she planned. She managed to slice into the creature, near its neck, but the blade didn't bite deep enough to sever the head. In addition the creature barely reacted to the hit. Though it did turn, pulling the weapon from its body, though not Anis's grip, to swing one arm at her.

 

Gilly's toss managed to pierce the other mummy's hand as it went to slam into her once more. The magical ice pieced its hand and it looked to be somewhat bothered by this, as opposed to most other wounds, as it seemed to instinctively try and pull the spear out. Though it didn't seem to get very far before it decided to simply swing its hand, now with a piece of ice sticking out of it, at Gilly.

[spoiler=OOC]Map

Okay so Hollow please post otherwise...bad things.

Door is now open 10 inches.

 

---

Hob's brave and glorious charge ended by slamming into the scorpion's claw. The creature's attention moved from Ryia, after recoiling from her attack, to the ram. It swung a claw at the mount and hit it directly on the side.

 

The swordsman pushed his way around the small gap between the doorway and Ryia and swung his blade, slicing a piece of the claw off. He stood protectively by Hob as his eyes glanced between the two scorpions. The second of which was starting to inch its way around to try and find a way towards Hob and the swordsman.

[Sethera]

Gilly hopped away from Mr. Smelly's attack, and seeing the success her one ice spear had, materialized another one and stabbed it toward the same hand as before.

 

Snow, who had seen that, shook his head in despair. "Enough magical power to materialize multiple objects in a row, and yet stubbornly refuses to actually use it for anything besides making spears to stab people with," he muttered. Seeing the mummy he was on swinging an arm toward Anis, he hopped onto the arm and materialized a mini snowstorm again, hoping that the cold would knock the monster off course.

 

The noise attracted the halfling's attention, who glanced back at them, eyes widening as she realized she had missed a baddie. "Zounds, that one snuck up on me!" She didn't let that get her down, however, as she continued trying to fight the same stinkster as before.

 

Meanwhile, back at the ruins entrance, Hob flew to the side, landing heavily on the sandy ground. Picking himself up shakily, he powered ahead for another charge at the same scorpion as before.

[Alaina]

The girl was surprised to see Hob charge at the scorpion not once, but twice. Both times, it seemed to be met with the same kind of reception of the scorpion trying to bat it away with its claw. However, before the scorpion struck the ram the second time, Ryia had decided to try and do something about it. She couldn't really do anything to intercept the blow from where she was, however she could try to give it pause and distract it. To this end, the girl recollected her stance and form, before going for another heavy swing onto the scorpion's face. With the attack successful, the scorpion seemed confused, now trying to grab at both her and Hob with separate claws. Trying to avoid the claw, the girl stepped back to see herself near the arm of the claw going after Hob. 

 

Trying to stop it from latching onto the ram, the girl struck the arm with her mace. Though, with little room to maneuver and taking the time to dodge, the girl was caught by claw. Picked off her feet, with the force of the claw pressing into her, the girl grimaced in pain. Though she had Ackrin providing her with a defensive magic to coat her skin, it was not a complete substitute to the armor she was lacking and thus it hurt far more then it had yesterday. All the same, the girl could only grit teeth and struggle, trying to pry herself from the scorpion's claw as she had the last time this happened. 

 

While she didn't manage to get far, Hob was in a far better situation. While the claw had gone for him, the arm it was attached to was severed. The mysterious swordsman, having readied himself for this, had moved and slashed through the claw's arm, saving the ram from its immediate peril. 

[Andx]

Gathering the creatures together was going to prove difficult. The Draken was thankful they moved as slowly as they did but he still had to act fast. Lindow was under attack from two sides and if the boy took too long to help him the one-armed monster would close in on them. It was about this time Reinaan cursed the door opening as slowly as it did but that sentiment wasn't going to make the object open faster or stop the creatures in their tracks. He'd kept the claws retracted while not directly attacking hoping to extend the time he had to make use of the effective weapon. But now as he turned for Lindow's direction they formed from off his right hand.

"Get off!" he called out, not that these things could understand. But the words and growling felt natural and could also help LIndow to know he had help in this tight spot. The previous creature had shown that fire would eat away at them eventually. And while he couldn't say for sure if these things could even be considered alive, Reinaan was willing to bet they still needed a head to do anything effectively. And so as he closed the distance to Lindow's attacker he would slash at the back of the thing's neck. He needed it to drop fast so he could focus on the one following him but it was anyone's guess how they'd next surprise the young hunter.

Back above ground, Kloqah was more than annoyed at the scorpion attack, having had more than her fill of them the day before. And so in a show of this annoyance and knowing the people the little lizard that rode her associated with were good at getting rid of these things the mount attempted to come to Ryia's rescue by trying to bite into the arm of the claw that was closing around her.

[Hälō]

"Well this is... unideal" Lindow cursed as the two foes closed in on him whilst he held his hand above his head to pop his shoulder back in place. Knowing he would be unable to do much without finishing the process, the man grit his teeth and glared at the two approaching corpses before reaching for the his good shoulder. 

 

CRK CRK CRK

 

Lindow exhaled slightly at the sound of his shoulder realigning. Watching the two mummy's break into their attacks, Lindow's brain kicked into overdrive from the sudden burst of adrenaline. Just as creature that dived at him made contact, the Thunder Chosen used it's ridged strength to his advantage by gripping onto it's right arm with both hands and lifting his body to vault backwards whilst kicking off the chest of mummy that had been swinging downwards whilst it was at the hight of it's swing.  

 

Intending for his sudden acrobatic stunt to cause the mummy's downwards strike to collide with it's ally, Lindow landed heavily his back just as the chosen of Fire entered the scrap.

 

"Thank you, Reinaan..." Lindow addressed his ally between breaths as quickly brought himself up to his feet and delivered swift a Spartan kick towards the side of the mummy that had attempted to grab hold of him moments prior. His plan was to attempt to gain some distance whilst also knocking it into the foe that Reinaan had attacked from behind... 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Gilly's stab struck the mummies hand and it seemed to do enough damage to tear through the hand. The magic crept across the hand and, remarkably, the hand fell apart. The creature still had the other hand though and it didn't seem to notice the lack of hand. So it attempted to grab onto Gilly. A task made difficult by having only one hand.

 

Anis seemed to be thrown off by Snow's attack just as much as the mummy was. For she and the mummy both were distracted and their movements halted. Oddly the mummy recovered first and began to swing both arms at her instead. Simply raising its arms and bringing them down towards the woman's shoulders.

 

Reinaan's claws bit into the back of the mummy's neck and, flames tearing through it, ripped a chunk of the neck off. The creatures head fell forward and hung by sinew before toppling off entirely. The creature itself stopped its motion as this happened. Though it didn't fall its forward progress towards Lindow halted, only barely touching the man before he could act.

 

As the Thunder Chosen vaulted off the mummy its swing hit nothing but air. It stopped moving as it stared where Lindow once was, as though trying to detect where the target had gone.

 

Lindow's kick to the headless mummy was entirely ineffective. The creature took the blow without much of a problem. It then lurched towards where Lindow now was, attacking clumsily and without much accuracy. However its large body was still a problem were it to make contact.

The other mummy reacted to the attack as well. It noticed Lindow's new location and began making its way towards him. Though it seemed to stumble a bit when it made contact with the pedestal and had to take time to turn its body away from it to continue on.

 

The flaming mummy valiantly made its way towards the two. It shuffled and burned and a bit of smoke began to emerge from its body.

[spoiler=OOC]map

Door is open 18 inches

 

-----

"Aren't we supposed to be protecting you?" The mysterious swordsman said with a laugh as two of the mounts moved to save Ryia. "She must be important if you're going out of your way to help her." He muttered. Then, rolling his shoulders, he turned his attention to the second scorpion.

 

The first, which had Ryia in its grip, wouldn't hold her much longer. Hob slammed into its side and, without a claw on that side, it had to attempt to stab the mount with its tail instead. Then as Kloqah bit onto it the monster instinctively let go in order to try and dislodge the lizard from its appendage.

 

Ryia would fall several feet into the sand as this happened.

 

Meanwhile the swordsman was trying to swing his sword at the other scorpion, only for it to be batted away several times by the creature's claws.

[Alaina]

While Ryia had been struggling to free herself from the binds of the scorpion's claw, it had appeared as though she hadn't needed to. Falling to the ground as the claw opened around her, the girl looked to the side to the see the lizard mount of Reinaan's having come to assist her. The girl was confused, but thankful, as to why they were all charging into battle but didn't think any more on it as she saw Hob targeted by the scorpion's tail. Getting to her feet, the girl made her way over to the ram, raising up her shield to deflect the stinger away from the sheep. While she was successful, her feet slid a bit across the ground as the block was quite awkward. To make matters worse, the scorpion had recovered from the lizard's attack, smacking them away before going to move to grab at Ryia again. 

 

Trying to correct her footing, the girl moved the side opposite of the claw, getting nearer the second scorpion in the process. As she did, she managed to see the swordsman manage to break past the claw guard, stabbing into the scorpion before having to dive away from the stinger. Ryia, meanwhile, had a stinger coming for her as well. Raising up her shield, the girl parried the stinger to the side, beginning to move towards the scorpion. As she got close enough to its face, she raised her mace before delivering a hefty swing into the creature's face. As she did so, the tail raised and tried to pierce the girl yet again. However, just as before, she managed to parry it away with her shield before going to slam with her mace one last time into the scorpion's face. 

 

As it recoiled from the pain, the creature stopped moving, falling to the ground. Taking a quick look at it, the girl was able to determine that it was now dead, and while that brought about some relief, there was still more to do. Turning her attention towards the other scorpion, the girl began to make her way to fight the next scorpion and aid the mysterious swordsman. 

[Sethera]

"Cool, I beat it--whoa!" Gilly's cheer at seeing the hand fall off was cut off when the bad guy lunged for her, like it was trying to do a one-armed hug or something. What a silly billy. Since what she had done so far seemed to be working, the halfling attempted to stab the baddie in the other hand with her ice spear.

 

Snow panted in exertion as he lost his form momentarily. Nonstop attacking was not something he was particularly adept at, not like...his eyes slanted to the side as he breathed out a sigh. Not like his Chosen. The moment of inattention caused the mummy to recover first between it and Anis, and it raised its arms as it brought them down on the woman's shoulders.

 

Back at the entrance, the mysterious swordsman laughed at seeing two of the mounts move to save Ryia. "Aren't we supposed to be protecting you? She must be important if you're going out of your way to help her." He muttered.

 

Hob didn't understand what the man was saying. All he knew was that he thought something was funny, but he wasn't sure what was funny about giant clawed things attacking them. It got even less funny when a giant stinger-tipped tail came down on him. Thankfully, pink shield girl came to the rescue, and one of the spiky things went down. Relieved, the sheep turned his attention to the remaining foe, and charged forward, horns at the ready.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"W-ah!"

 

Snow's distraction took Anis' attention, and she failed to realize the walking dead before her making an attack, She attempted to dodge, but the force of the arm still ended up dislodging her left shoulder, and lightly injuring her right. She was not in a position to move her left now, and with great difficulty, she tried to bat away the enemy's arms using her sword. Infusing her sword with her magic, she then went for a thrust. If this was successful, then her magic would force the rapid growth of plant matters inside of the corpse. Given enough time it might be enough to cause structural collapse to it.

 

In the meantime, on the entrance, Ileca realized the situation, and went towards where the stranger and Ryia was. Seeing the scorpions from earlier now attacking the two, she decided to make her entrance the only way she could.

 

By jumping and crashing into one of the scorpions.

 

"Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! (Take this, Ileca Bomber!)"

 

---

[Hälō]

Lindow quickly leaped backwards to dodge the mummy's attack before glancing over to the chosen of Fire. The door still had quite some ways to go before the entire group would be able to pass through, meaning that they'ed have to fend off these creatures.

 

"Reinaan, let's try combining our strength...." As he spoke Lindow waved his hands to draw the attention of the two undead whilst backing towards the young man as he dealt with his own attacker. Watching as the their enemies slowly shambled towards them, Lindow began to harness the power of thunder before spreading both of his arms wide out in front of him.

 

When the three mummies entered his attack range, Lindow would release his Discharge spell upon them. 

[Andx]

Reinaan was somewhat repulsed and somewhat hopeful as the creature he attacked lost its head. It was another display of his fire's effectiveness and yet somehow even this did not halt it. It even still reacted to Lindow's maneuvers and attempted to attack but seemed almost lost in its movements. It seemed at the least they needed their heads to see. The Draken merely hoped there was something shy of depriving every creature of its head and all its limbs that could neutralize them as a threat. Reinaan began back up a bit, not wanting to be caught between any two of the creatures and the Thunder Chosen seemed to have the same idea as he suggested a combined magical attack.

"Heh, alright doesn't sound half bad." he said with a smirk as he retracted his fire claws. He really needed to use them sparingly, especially if more were going to show up. The boy could feel his flame breath getting ready to go again, the influence of ZIiyol's power seeming to help the process along. He hovered close to Lindow as they waited for the three creatures to approach. When his ally unleashed his electrical attack the Draken sprung into action, getting a bit closer to ensure his breath would reach them all. He inhaled deeply as he arched his back behind him then shot his face forward as another stream of fire came shooting out of his mouth. He had enough for at least a full second on each creature and so he made sure to spread the jet as evenly as he could between them. Still, it wasn't often the boy found his breath attack being used in such quick succession and he could feel a fatigue in the muscles of the complicated internal mechanism that could become problematic if he needed to do it again too soon.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

The mummies that Lindow and Reinaan baited had grouped close together, though not close enough to touch, and they very nearly reached the pair before the dual attack went off. The two successfully caught the three on fire.

 

After a few moments of burning they continued towards the pair. Though it seemed that they were stumbling more than before. Almost as though the flames weighed on them physically. Their movements were even slower but still they pressed on. All three lurching towards the two in an attempt to grapple them. If caught the Chosen would not only be subject to the mummy's strength but also the flames.

 

The two would find a stench reaching them. A sharp and oddly sterile smell. Gas could be seen leaving the corpses's bodies. Or, more specifically, from the burning wrappings.

 

Gilly's stab on the mummy's hand connected. However it was still moving forward and so it bowled into the Halfling, dragging her down onto the ground and under his weight. It couldn't seem to reach her like this but its weight would put great pressure on the girl.

 

The other mummy didn't seem to react to the stab that Anis gave it. Except to swing once more, this time moving its right arm to strike her in the head.

 

Moments after the magic, literally, took root and the mummy's movements would shudder to a halt momentarily as the magic spread out through its body.

 

As the door continued to raise, the center-most sarcophagus opened up and dispelled yet another of the monstrosities.

[spoiler=OOC]map

Door is now open 24 inches. And the Mummy 6 has come out to play.

 

---

Both Hob and Ileca struck at the scorpion on the side, causing it to be pushed back with the force, and the mysterious swordsman took the chance to dart in once more.

 

However the tail was coming down at a rapid pace. The man attempted to slice the end of the tail off as he moved but, without assistance, the tail would reach him first and he would get struck with the poisoned tip of the tail.

[Andx]

It was really beginning to amaze the young Draken how much these disgusting creatures could take. Despite the combined attack of fire and electricity, they were still moving and preparing to attack. Reinaan felt a need to hold a hand to his nose due to the strength of the scent from the gas coming off of the creatures. And to make matters worse, another of the boxes had opened and launched another of these things into the room. The door was still creeping open casually as if it had no worries in the world. It would be too difficult to pass through it as it was with these things still running around and more waiting to join them. His breath wouldn't be ready for a while so that left the Ziiyol-powered claws as he best bet. But more immediately important was their attempt to grab at the boy and his eye-patched comrade. These things were strong and on fire making this a bout of wrestling best left alone.

What he needed was to keep moving but he wanted to keep the attacking up too. An unorthodox idea came to him as he shuffled his feet trying to keep pace with the targets. The flames at his core began dancing downward across his chest to his waist, around his back and eventually down the length of his tail. From the tip of his tail a single blade of fire began extending, slightly farther than his claws normally would. This was probably not the time to be experimenting but it was way too late for that. At least if the ability picked now to blow up in his face he wouldn't be down a limb.

"Lindow, heads up!" he called out to warn his partner of his next maneuver. He then planted his right foot as the pivoting point of a spin. He flexed his tail, keeping it at full length and used it to swing the fiery blade over a wide horizontal path, hoping to cut any of the approaching attackers that got too close. As it stood this path would take it to where Lindow was, hence the initial warning. He'd try to retract his tail some before it got to his partner but he couldn't ensure that'd be enough.