THEY COME

[Dominic]

Dominic had been quiet for most of the first part of the confrontation, having only really come along as a chronicler and mobile entertainment. He'd stuck near Chaz, best to keep the mainly noncombatants together he thought. He'd assisted as best he could, ignoring the cries of battle as much as possible while trying to remember what everyone had said and why. He'd remarked with glibness that this was going to make one epic ballad. The day Time broke. He was concentrating on what he could hear and feel, facing away from the barrier with his back to the scaffold.

He felt it, through his feet, the sense of motion beneath the ground. He then heard it over the din, the crack of hard earth being split by something. He bellowed. "They're coming up under us! From behind!" He took his staff in hand and gritted his teeth, focusing for all his worth.

When a head emerged it was something like a cross between a weasel and an alligator, long and thin and furred with rows of teeth and digging claws. Some kind of subterranean attack creature. He couldn't see it, just knew that something was popping up and judged it as best he could as he spun his whole body in an arc to bring every bit of speed and power he could into the downward strike.

There was a crunching sound and a squeal. He didn't know if the creature was dead, but a blow to the head probably wasn't good. No time to assess though, another one was coming. Another downward strike and another cracking sound and squealing retreat. He felt the ground shifting, guessed that they'd all decided he was their best target and fear warred with indignant fury inside him. He was going to hold them off the crystal, his friends and those defending his own back. One even tried coming up right below him, but a step back and all he met with was the heel of a stomping boot and the poke of a wooden shaft for desert.

[Margrett]

Margrett was silent, a grimace and a hardened gaze the only thing that changed as she fought, still near the front lines, keeping them off the barricade. Her hammer made wide, sweeping strikes, cracking bone and shell and metal, shattering shields and swords. Sometimes one would duck under her hammer, and she would lower her shoulder and push it away bodily, or push it down and bring her heavy steel boot down on anything that seemed important. Slow, unmovable, staunching the flow.

When the ground rumbled, she kept her balance, holding onto her hat for a moment as the dirt cracked some distance away. The bard had been right; something was coming up, but it was huge. Everyone around could hear a deep, echoing laughter as sinewy tendrils of darkness rose from the ground and towered over them.

[Kiga]

On it boss.

The words weren't so much as spoken but Kiga knew Grayell better than most and without thought followed Kiko. Her getting hurt was not something Kiga wanted to see happen - the big guy would lose his blasted mind were that to happen.

He caught her in a hurry, a blast of wind scooping him up and racing him across the ground in a quick hurry, depositing him at her side. He joined her sprint, kinves at the ready. He looked at sideways, then back to their quarry and where he might be lurking.

Flank him?

[Grayell]

(If Tallia and Alec don't post come tomorrow I will move this along.)

[Kiko]

Kiko heard Chaz, she heard Kiga, she even managed to hear the thunder beneath the earth, which probably signified some other cataclysmic attack; though that was more vibrations through her feet than her sense of hearing. She would have corrected Kiga, too, about his assumption that the mage was male, if gender mattered. For all she knew Kiga hadn’t even seen the mage’s face, it was moot, and time was wasting away. Would flanking her matter? No, they needed speed more than a twofold assault.

Kiga was an air mage. She’d seen him billow sails out and skim a boat over water so fast it was unbelievable. And here, again, he managed to catch up to her when she could have sworn he was on the fortifications. She did not know him at all, but she trusted the Wolf, and he trusted Kiga.

No. Do the wind thing again. Can you pick us up and put us behind those rocks?

She pointed to the jagged stones the gold cowled mage had taken shelter behind. If they were lucky and her attention was on whatever spell she had managed to get off they could catch her unaware and in the back. Kiko only hoped they didn't drop into the middle of a conclave of mages. That would be uncomfortable. Though, probably not for very long. Mages tended to blow things up first and ask questions later.

[Dominic]

Dom kept playing whack-a-monster as long as his arms would do so. The creatures were obviously cowardly by nature, striking from below, since they didn't make more than a few attempts at the rear before they abaited. He breathed a sigh of relief when it seemed they'd stopped, his shoulders and arms aching from even the small effort. He'd been having trouble there at the end, telling where they were coming from and moving himself to catch them.

He felt tired, sluggish and heavy as the adrenaline wound down a little. It was because of this he noticed too late that one of them popped up as he turned around and took a swipe at his leg as a spiteful parting shot. He howled in pain, anger flaring through him and pivoted on his leg swinging his staff like a club as hard as he could. Luck and judgement combined and this strike didn't just stun and frighten the creature. It smashed into the temple, cracking bone and shattering teeth and snapping the head to the side. A sickening crunch as the neck broke and the creature plugged its own entry hole with its now limp corpse.

His wrists flared with pain too, his hands throbbing, his leg screamed and he hobbled back to the scaffold. He slumped against it, the sounds of battle around him, knowing that everyone was engaged in their own little fracas. He just waited, listening out for an attack that he'd not be able to stop, his leg bleeding quietly into the mud.