Chapter 26
The Tomb of Borneth, things were going so well, they have opened the 6 stone covers from the main well that plunges down into the depths of the temple! The way forward is open and that is when they struck, these huge hulking stone golems plunging out of their alcoves in the wall to attack the party! Five of them there are and one of them cracks Marduke up the back of the head and with a groan the summoner flops to the floor almost landing atop Thaylorn. The others turn to the rest and as Jenna draws her gun and sword and turns to face the closest this one catches her in the chest with a sweeping motion! Out she sails into the air.. the open pit below and down she plummets.. vanihing out of sight into the depths! Far from the safety of the winding staricae she falls out of sight....
With a wince, Thaylorn steps back away from where Marduke landed, contemplating for just a moment what kind of headache the summor may when he awakens. He carefully edges to the side too, making sure that the fighting doesn't take place about the downed summoner "Uhhh." He begins, eyes darting about to the various stone golems throughout the chamber "We have a plan against these? A blade isn't going to do too much good." He remarks, one hand hovering over the hilt of his sword for a moment. He doesn't seem to notice Jenna's flight down the pit, unfortunatly!
Mordecai is a man of action, and he doesn't concern himself with thoughts and worries about what a weapon might be able to do to a certain foe. Not until after he's tried his hand at killing them, anyway. And as such, when those living statues turn up, finding himself confronted by a couple of them, the man's hand instantly dips down to yank out one of his sixguns, and the barrel soon sweeps up towards the nearest golem. His finger starting its repeated work on the hair trigger while he growls out to the others- those still in the fight- "Don't get cornered!"
Mordecai's shots ring out and take... several chips out of a golem! It is rather a few chips but the thing keeps walking towards the man as does the one coming in from the other side....
Raziel lets out a series of curses and looks from Marduke's fallen form to the edge of the pit. He sends a quick, apologetic look at you both and then runs for the edge of the platform while calling over his shoulder, "force them over the edge." Only to skid to a stop as he sees just how bad an idea it would have been to not look before leaping. With a growl he whirls around and shoots out a hand at the nearest Golem, fire erupting without any of the usual fanfare. "You. Will. GET out of our way!"
The pit is deep and quite wide but the spiral staircase around the edge would hamper Raziel's ability to fly safely.... cursed stone! As he turns and casts Fire roars! It engulfs one of the stone men and man Raziel must have been channeling the energy of Ifrit as the flame that roars up is WHITE hot. It lights the room up like a beacon and then the golem in the centre cracks and explodes! Shattering into stone chunks that fly everywhich way! Not only does everyone have to dodge the shattering pieces of pottery from exploding golem they also have to dodge the other fours attacks! Thaylorn is fast enough to roll to one side as the golem facing him swings a sword at him that creates sparks off the ground, he does however get peppered by several red hot shards of pottery from across the room as the golem explodes! Mordecai is like a wind, he spins and dances and flows, shards of golem and the whistling swords of the two golems attacking him are easily dodged! Raziel however gets a face full of exploding pottery and as he staggers back the fifth Golem wraps an ironly crushing arm around his chest and squeezes him in against its chest, grappled, his feet lifted off the floor Raziel may be in trouble.
Exploding golems make for a rather entertaining show, except when those exploding golems consequently break into burning hot shards of rock and as Thaylorn dodges the golem he's fighting, he gets struck in quite a few places, and well if there's one thing the Imp doesn't like, it's being on fire! As quickly as possible the Imp would summon a large sphere of water about him, hopefully extinguishing the white-hot shards from him, and providing for himself a shield at the same time.
The sphere of water that engulfs the imp does indeed put out the smouldering patches on his fur and armour and it eats the swing of the golem's sword! But it is pretty big and backing the water elemental toward a corner with its attack...
The urgency of the situation and the adrenaline coursing through his veins manage to push the gunslinger's aged body to feats normally reserved for much younger men, as he manages to swiftly avoid the shower of shrapnel and even those two swords coming from him. The man rolling back to his feet right after, and a hand instantly dipping towards his thigh to retrieve some more firepower, the large-bore barrel of his shotgun handcannon swivelling up to try and blast one of those golems in the face from close range.
The shot goes off with a BLAM! ANd shrapnel goes everywhere! The golem's face is gone, it is still up and takes a wild swing at Mordecai and misses! It seems to be blind... or at least impaired of seeing which is something.....
Blinded by the ash and pottery that smacked him right in the face any celebratory moment the mage might have had is gone. He coughts and scrubs at his burnt face for a moment only to find himself in a bearhug from hell. There's a strangled sound, a squeak as the air is forced out of his lungs and he starts trying to slip free by wriggling around what little he can while his face becomes a mask of pain. Wings and chest.. crushing.
That golem is sure crushing down hard on poor Raziel but somehow... the man is able to get his wings to flex! He pushes and shoves and crick! The golem's arms snap apart and it staggers back as Raziel's wings buffet it and with a tipping motion the golem vanishes over the edge of the pit, falling away into the green lit gloom below! The golems attack, the three remaining at least and Mordecai dodges with ease, maybe skill! Ok yeah it is skill! Even thje fact it is flailing mostly blind is still a danger! Thaylorn is whacked right in the side! The cutting danger of the blow is anulled by his wall of water but the imp is ripped right out of his bubble to go sliding wet and trailing droplets against the wall! Raziel is hit in the shoulder by the golem that hasn't just had its face blown off by Mordecai, the sword going in deep!
The Imp must be thankful of the water sphere having lasted as long as it had, else he'd have felt the full, probable bone-cracking force of the golems swing! It still hurts though as Thaylorn goes flying along the wall before thumping down to the ground upon his side without the sphere of water to aid him! Taking just a moment to recover, the Imp rises to one knee and slashes out with on arm at the golem that had struck him, launching a sicle of focused water straight at the creatures middle! He most likely hopes that it will cause the creature to tip forwards onto it's face!
And that sickle of water slams into the golem! It is quite a good blast and the sharpened edge bites out a large chunk which sends the golem staggering back! It's not gone over the edge sadly but its rather badly damaged stone grating on stone as it tries to move! Mordecai, even as he's dodging and trying not to lose his head, notices the others are in some trouble, and as such decides to try and end his own current predicament quick, so he maybe can go and help them. The man swiveling that shotgun downward this time as he manages to create a few feet of distance, aiming its sawed-off barrel right at the blinded golem's knee and pulling the trigger. Intending to at least put it out of the fight long enough for him to go and aid Thaylorn or Raziel.
BLAM! That shot-gun of Modredcai's is powerful, the golem's knee goes crunch and as it takes a step it leaves its leg behind and topples side ways! Giving the man the space he needs to disengage.
Raziel can feel the tendon's being sliced through, his nerves set ablaze by the blade digging into his flesh, as the last half a minute has become nothing but a blur in his mind. His first thought is only to get the sword out of him... and to deaden the pain all at once. Suddenly the temperature drops and icicles form around him before striking out at the golem's chest and arm.
Icicles crash out and do... nothing! The ice shatters against the stone exterior of these golems, it doesn't even sway back just draws its sword out of raziel's shoulder as if to attack him again! There are some chips of stone missing out of it at least but it hasn't really phased it much...
The imp that was attacking Thaylorn is staggering, trying to move forward, its waist is grinding, that intense scythe of water has had a really good affect slowing it down so it is unable to get over and into attack range of the imp! Mordecai's golem is down and not a threat at this moment but the wone on RAziel raises its sword, a little bit understeady from the ice attack but it is going to take the AEgyl's head until Mordecai is there to block! CHING! Sword to sword, Esper vs Golem... facing off across the blades....
Thinking that the golem he was battling is pretty much down and out of the fight for now, Thaylorn turns his attention towards the one that is trying to murder Raziel, no one murders his friends! He plans to make it clear as he leaps up to his feet again (With a wince of pain, from the blow) And moves in the other two's direction, hand raising to cast a more debilitating spell at the golem Mordecai is dueling with to slow it's movements! (Slow)
Grey energy slowly folds around the imp ahead of Thaylorn... the one Mordecai is fighting and well it takes hold and the golem eyes seem to dim a bit and it no longer pushes against Mordecai's knife quite so hard... Raziel isn't above retreating backwards when he knows he's hurt. The man mumbles something of a thanks to Mordecai and Thaylorn as the two rush in and he places his hand to his shoulder, heling energies applied to help knit flesh and substrata back together once again.
Mordecai draws his large-sized, stag-handled fighting knife just in time to intervene as he springs between the stone creature and injured Aegyl, feeling the weight of the golem's blow against his arm as he catches its sword upon his knife, and struggles against its power, his arm visibly flexing. But then, as the Imp manages to cast a succesfull spell on the foe, he feels some of the pressure lifted, giving the aged gunslinger a chance to fire off a shotgun blast towards this one's legs as well, in an attempt to cause a similar fate to it as the previous golem he fought.
This blast doesn't do quite as much damage! But it does make it topple backwards and fall over the edge! Writhing its arms in slow motion as it plummets!
Raziel isn't above retreating backwards when he knows he's hurt. Already he had been starting to stagger back when Mordecai Thaylorn rush to his rescue. The man mumbles something of a thanks to Mordecai and Thaylorn as the two rush in and he places his hand to his shoulder, healing energies applied to help knit flesh and substrata back together once again.
Raziel is successful in healing his shoulder, stopping the blood and healing up the damage done the problem is Mordecai and Thaylorn have both turned their backs on enemies! The Golem who is nearly in half at the waist behind Thaylorn catches up to the imp and lashes out with his sword but the water creature is able to jink sideways and up into the air above the pit to avoid its lunge! Mordecai is not so lucky as the golem he blew the leg off lashes out at the back of his knees with its sword! Biting into him and sending him buckling to the ground! ) [Spoofed By: Silvante]
Whoops, Thaylorn didn't know those thing could move so quickly! From where he is in the air though he decides that it's a perfect time to try to blast that golem into the pit with the golems that had fallen within earlier! Manuevering about so that the crippled golem is between him and the pit, the Imp releases another blast of water, hoping that it pushes it in so that he may assist Mordecai!
Water slams into the golem, already unsteady with the gap in its stomach and it stagger, blasted backwards by a wall of pressurised water to topple backwards into the pit! WHich just leaves the golem that just took a shot at Mordecai's knees!
Mordecai lets out a rather impressive curse as he goes down, his leg instantly giving away, and the man falling forward hard, the snap of his teeth hitting together heard together with the thud of his body slamming to the floor. But he's not out for the count just yet, as he right away tries to use his good leg to push himself back a bit, even as he rolls around and aims his shotgun down at the golem to blast it at point-blank range, his features angry and grim as they're briefly lit up by the muzzle flash.
BLAM! Again Mordecai's gun goes off and at this range it takes the things head off and the whole golem crumples to the floor with a THUNK... Silence... they are all dead! Mordecai is down though, Marduke is quite unconcious and Jenna is currently no place to be seen somewhere down the pit....
Raziel bows his head for a few moments and then he walks forward slowly and spreads his hands, focusing for a few moments to weaken, yet expand the influence of the next spell which he releases.. this one another healing spell meant to affect both Mordecai and Thaylorn. A bubble of magic energy shimmers into existance between them before exploding and bathing each with the healing energies before he sighs, "we'll need to see to Marduke and then find the girl." You page, "W can carry on with the seperate thing sur ebut I do not know when" to Thirteen.
With the imp and esper healed back up they are able to explore the room and check they are really all down. The golems are all quite shattered and off and Marduke looks nasty. It was quite the crack to the head that felled the summoner he'll take a bit of healing to get back up and moving. Peering down into the pit there is no sign of Jenna at all.... just the staircase winding down toward the green far below.
Thaylorn takes a moment or so to check on Marduke as well, pondering "Do we just wait here till he comes to? Or stick him in a safe place and hope he catches up when he gets better?" He remarks softly, glancing between the other two as Raziel casts his healing magic thoughtfully.
Mordecai grunts at his damaged, useless leg, looking pissed off. But as the healing energy washes over him, he closes his eyes, and slowly starts to bend that leg back and forth, until he finds it in working order again, and he slowly pushes himself up. Rubbing at the previously injured spot a moment as he nods at Raziel and rumbles, "Thanks." Before he starts putting his weapons away again and glances at the injured Marduke, "Think he's too messed up to heal?"
Raziel walks over to Marduke and kneels down beside him for a moment, checking for a few moments before he starts to weave the healing energies once again. "Never know until I try.. then we try to wake him." After a few moments the aegyl adds, "we can't leave him here and if he wakes like this he'll be disoriented."
The spell goes off, the bleeding stops and the damage to Marduke's skull is healed, he wakes up briefly but he is definatly going to have to camp for a bit. It wouldn't be a bad idea for the party to stop a a whole and rest before going down into the depths of this tomb. Jenna is gone... whether she is alive or not they will not find out until they descend into the depths where Ultemeicia is likely to be lurking....
Raziel is quiet for a few moments, watching Marduke before he nods. Rising then he starts over to the stairs and he looks down. Slowly he lowers his hand to the single blade at his side, Jenna having had the other one, before he looks back and nods to Marduke, "need to rest up anyways. I used alot of energy with that, don't know about you two, but I'm not at full power right now."
Mordecai scowls a bit as he watches as Marduke remains passed out, and then glances up at both Raziel and Thaylorn, remarking in that low, gruff voice of his, "We can't leave him behind, but we can't leave the Burmecian to her fate for too long either, if she's still alive. And I don't suggest splitting up. So we're at a dilemma." And he shrugs then, before walking to the edge of that pit and staring down with Raziel.
The party have opted to rest at least for a short time which will help Marduke recover and then at last they are free to descend into the depths of Borneth's tomb!
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