Dance with Decay in the Crypts

Z'acha nodded with the undead girl's surmisation of the situation. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." he said before they looked at the tiles ahead of them. "...Really?" he asked, looking around the tomb. "Seriously? You ancient's couldn't come up with something original for this one?" he asked of the empty air before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "This has got to be the most damned cliche ever in the history of tomb trap cliche's..." the Dark Mage grumbled before he took a look at the patterns on the floor.

"Correct order or common theme... which is it today I wonder?" mused Za'cha as he knelt down for a closer inspection. "With these kind of traps," he began to explain as he looked at the stone quality for any shading differences, "is one of two tropes. First, is the case where they all signify an animal or such. In a room full of predators, the safe route would be the images denoting prey." he said, as he then turned his attention to the writings on the pillars and walls.

"Or vice versa. The second, is more of a word puzzle. Spell out a word like the name of the deceased in order to pass through safely, or some other word," said the Dark Mage as he looked over the ceiling as well just to be certain, "that had some significance to them, or the culture in question." He picked up a loose stone that had come through the door with them and hurled it over the tiles, wincing as it exploded from a magical assault. "And that answers the question about what happens if we get it wrong, or try to fly through." he mused.

The Dark Exquip mage looked over the tiles once more before sighing. "Great, there's no common imagery so its a word puzzle... now the trick is to figure out which letter is first... which could be anywhere from the first row, second row, or even the third row of tiles if they were feeling vindictive enough." grumbled Za'cha as he looked around the walls for any sort of hints. "Hrmm... let's see here... ah, something worthwhile." he said, gesturing to a nearby column. "We finally have a name for our mysterious ancient mage-king. The High Pharoh Hotek-Ra." he said, before looking out across the field of tiles.

"Hotek-Ra? Curious..." murmured Pride from within Za'cha's mind. The Dark Mage quirked a brow. "You knew him?" he asked of his counter-part. "Vaguely enough. Should have guessed this was his from the style. He was a consummate arrogant fool... albeit one who was well versed in golem craft." the Dark Celestial Spirit of Sin informed his host. "Arrogant enough for his name to be the safe route?" he asked. Pride tapped his forehead for a moment. "Perhaps... but there was a title he adored being called... what was it again?" he mused.

Za'cha returned to scanning the walls and pillars for any hint as to what this title was. "Hmm... Khalimsar?" he asked, finding that to be one of the few words repeating across the chamber. "That's it yes. Roughly translated to todays tongue, it meant, "Divine Sand Pharoh". Bit of a mouthful if you ask me..." said Pride, to which Za'cha nodded. "Right then..." he said before looking across the tiles, searching for Khalimsar... "There we go." said the Dark Mage, jumping onto the ancient sigil for K, in the second row. He braced himself, ready to try and invoke some form of armour in case the defences went off...

Nothing happened.

"Phew. Alright then, Sinali, step where I step." he called over, before making his way across the tiles via the rest of the word Khalimsar. As they reached the other side, a faint click could be heard, and the door opened up the way deeper into the ancient citadel tomb... along with a welcoming committee on the other side!

Stats:

The member 'Za'cha' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

It seemed that Za'cha knew more of these sorts of puzzles then Sinali did. Not only that but through some thought and analysis he managed to work out the safe route. What was odd was that he didn't immediately go for the name of the king. No, instead he looked about and found another word. She suspected that the spirit that was inside his body had suggested it. The being seemed ancient enough to perhaps know of the king of this place. So perhaps 'Khalimsar' was in fact a nickname for this pharaoh king. That was certain interesting. Pride offered more help then she initially realised.

As she stepped across the tiles she decided to learn from these traps. There was obviously some cliches in these traps and exploting those cliches was enough to bypass them. However, what if she was to instead exploit the fact these cliches existed in order to trick someone into thinking along a certain path. It was certainly an interesting concept. One she would have to consider in the future. Perhaps Za'cha could prove a useful tester for her traps providing she made them non-lethal at first so he could survive long enough to test them all.

As they eventually got across it was revealed to them once more that this 'Khalimsar' or 'High Pharaoh Hotek-ra' had quite a fondness for his stone leopard golems. They were everywhere and if they caught you off guard they might cause you to accidently trigger the trap you just avoided. Her eyes narrowed and she charged at the creature. It leapt into the air attempting to maul her, but she threw herself to the ground and rolled under it slightly before kicking upwards sending it flying towards the ceiling. Without a pause she leapt up kicking off the wall and towards the stone leopard which she punched in the head and sent flying into the air space above the trapped floor.

"Bye bye kitty." she said with a grin as she watched it be vaporized by the traps set to defend the staff of its creator. It was such an ironic way for the leopard to die and it hadn't even used much strength. As she landed though she looked at her hand which had suddenly twinged with pain. It appeared that the stone leopards were becoming tougher as they progressed, even if they grew no smarter. Yes, her hand was hurting quite badly. Her entire magic hurt her so the pain didn't bother her, but her hand certainly looked odd. Her fingers were bending awkwardly for one thing and her hand was cut and bruised. It was a good job she hadn't used her head or she might have damaged her brain and that would be the end for her.

"What puzzles are next do you think? We've had a panel puzzle, a jumping puzzle and a walk on the right tile one." she said ticking them off in her head. Surely, there couldn't be that much more could there? They were already deep underground and the flow of magic from the leopard's death had travelled a far less distance than before. Still, she felt there would be at least one more puzzle in here somewhere.

Magic:

"Assuming this guy is as fond of the classics as he seems to be... then the next little puzzle in this place will be..." he said as they entered the next chamber and saw a rather large statue of the deceased pharaoh's head. He was wearing the typical double crown that one would find on the ancient kings, along with several dozen embellishments along the edges of the death crown that the architects and masons had decided to combine with the double crown.

Its eyes sharply lit up into a baleful blue light as they entered the room, and it bathed them in its gaze like a pair of spotlights. "WHO DARES TO ENTER THE SACRED HALLS OF THE DIVINE SAND PHARAOH HOTEK-RA?!" it demanded in a large booming voice... that was somehow speaking perfect English. Za'cha raised an eyebrow before he spotted a faint gem in the centre of the crown, just above where the temple of the forehead would be. "Translation Lacrima... interesting. We can understand it, and it can in turn understand us."

"SPEAK INTRUDERS! WHO ARE YOU THAT DARES TO DISTURB MY ETERNAL SLUMBER?!" it demanded once more. The statue appeared to peer at them for but a moment before speaking once more. "DEATH-WALKERS. I WOULD RECOGNISE YOUR FOUL KIND ANYWHERE! YOU DARE TO ENTER MY ETERNAL SANCTUM?!" he bellowed. The Dark Exquip mage raised a brow once more. "Death-Walkers?" he inquired, before noticing that his guild mark was glowing somewhat within the encompassing light of the statue's gaze.

"It would appear that Savage Skull's been around in one form or another for quite some time." remarked Pride. "That or he's reacting to me and the little girl." suggested Tessa as an alternative. The Dark Mage sighed and shrugged. "Well Khalimsar Hotek-Ra, I am Za'cha, the Rider of Death of Savage Skull. This is Sinali, one of the guild's great Pillar heads. We have come for the staff of power that lies within your tomb. We have passed through each and every one of your challenges thus far, all of your golems and minions so far have been utterly destroyed." he proclaimed, stepping forward, the light following him as he did so.

"So, if you believe a simple statue head is going to block our path, then you are sorely mistaken Ancient One." said Za'cha with a smirk. He had noticed that there were four alcoves in this room, but no markings around them to denote their purpose. No doubt some form of trap is involved here... he thought to himself. "THAT IS WHERE YOU ARE MISTAKEN, RIDER OF DEATH!" the statue proclaimed. "NO SHOW OF FORCE, EVEN FROM ONES SUCH AS YOU, SHALL PENETRATE FURTHER, UNLESS YOU CAN SOLVE MY FINAL TEST!" he declared. "YOU MUST NOW ATTEMPT TO SOLVE MY FINAL PUZZLE, AND SHOULD YOU FAIL TO DO SO SWIFTLY ENOUGH..." the statue appeared to smirk as the alcoves began to fill with sand from somewhere, and four forms began to take shape.

"Great... if we don't solve it fast enough, we're going to be having company." grumbled the Dark Mage before he sighed and nodded. "Alright then, what's the puzzle?" he asked, already knowing full well what form it would take. "YOU MUST NOW ANSWER THIS MOST ANCIENT RIDDLE!" it declared. "I WALK ON FOUR LEGS-" he began before Za'cha interrupted him. "Man. The answer is man." he said, sounding rather bored by it all. "Honestly, I was expecting something a little more entertaining for a riddle than quite possibly the oldest one in the book. Four legs in the morning is a baby. Two legs in the afternoon is an adult. Three legs in the evening is an old man with a cane."

The statue spluttered for a bit. "WHY YOU INSUFFERABLE... DESTROY THEM!" it angrily declared, the alcoves now spilling forth their contents. "Figures. Sore loser." sighed Za'cha as he prepared for combat.

Stats:

The member 'Za'cha' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

A large statue head, one of the ancient pharoah himself, began to speak at them. What's more it spoke their tongue perfectly and on top of that it also seemed to know of either Savage Skull or the undead. A translation lacrima was quite an advanced piece of kit and such things had only come onto the market recently. So it seemed that the ancient's knew quite a lot that had been forgotten. That was interesting and made Sinali want to get the staff even more. As she listened to its words she felt her body re-solidfy into its normal form. She had ran out of Juice it seemed and in more ways than one.

The final puzzle was a riddle. A riddle she herself did not know, but one that Zazu had known instantly. It was apparently quite an old and common riddle, but due to her confinement it was not one she was aware of. It was fortunate that Za'cha was here. Especially as in truth it should of gotten the enemies to stop forming.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the quickness of their answer combined with the sore loser temperament of the pharaoh had ordered the enemies to form anyway. Four large statues of an ancient wolf headed god appeared in each corner of the room. In two of the corners a leopard golem had also formed and from where the statue had sunk down a swarm of the locusts had formed. This was likely to be their final challenge so it was time to kick things up a notch.

As the swarm came towards her she suddenly exhaled fire from her mouth turning them to cinders. As she did so she changed her ring back into its chainsaw gun form and prepared for the coming combat. The spears of the statues looked deadly and it was likely that these spearman were the staff's ultimate defense. Or so she suspected. They would have to be careful, but also quick as she suspected more might form if they took too long.

She fired a quick blast at each of the leopard shattering them into pieces so that their focus could be put entirely on the 16 statues who were advancing from each corner in formation. Well-trained golems or at least well-programmed. They were of much higher quality than the wolves. Sinali couldn't wait to take them apart. Still with the numbers the way they were it was time to even things up.

"Mister big eye with a tree top,
When the club swings the earth will rock,
When your back breaks your body will fall,
And down will come the club, to end it all. she chanted and a large eye formed on her forehead. There was a scream of agony from her as a large head burst from her own followed by an entire large 10ft tall cyclops wielding a 5ft tall wooden club. It immediately and without question bowled into a group of the anubis warriors who seemed slightly confused by its appearance and scattered them using raw strength.

Sinali waited to see how the other statues would react. Would they continue on their advance against her and Zazu or would they turn on the cyclops. It was not clear at all, but it would be interesting to see what happened next

Magic:

Za'cha blinked at the sheer amount of statues that now appeared to stand in their way. Four jackal-headed statues appeared in each corner of the room, accompanied by a twin pair of Leopards, as well as another of those damnable Locust swarms. The zombie girl quickly dispatched the Leopards with that cannon of hers, but it was the rest of them that was going to prove an issue. "Options." he said to the others, trying to go over his mental inventory for what he could use right now.

His halberd dispersed into motes of light, although time seemed to slow down for him as A) the adrenaline of anticipated combat kicked in, and B) the mental meeting took place between himself, the Dark Celestial Spirit Pride, and the Apocalypse Weapon Death. "Well, your Anti-God Slayer combo is out of the picture with Celtchar's disappearance." said Pride with a sigh. "Your lower ranked weapons and armour are available but against these foes I wouldn't recommend them." he said before looking to Tessa/Death.

"Your more Anti-Demon, Dragon and Celestial Weapons and armours are all available to you right now, although how much good they'll do as defences against these things is questionable..." she said with a sigh. "Seems the only real option is you two." said Za'cha. "However-" he began before Pride interrupted him. "However, the Aegis is not in an ideal position right now. Your physical form is not at the ideal levels for maximum output for what we desire." The three of them frowned before Za'cha came up with a plan. "Got it." he said.

Time sped back up to normal for him, the mental meeting taking place over the course of a few seconds. "Shadowsworn Armour, Hidden Saber." the Dark Mage envoked. Soon he was enveloped in a dark smoke before he strode forth in blood red armour, wielding a massive sword. "Crescent Wave!" he roared, hurling a wave of dark magic towards one of the advancing ranks of Anubis statues, before he then charged into them, destroying two of them with his blade before the remaining two slashed into him, and he then took them out with his sword.

He clutched his side, gasping slowly. "Well... that's a bloody problem..." he snarled before looking towards Sinali and her cyclopean beast who were dealing with another group of the Anubii. "Don't let their spears touch you! They drain mana from you!" he called out, making a note to grab some of them later to study how they worked. That kind of weapon would be pretty damn handy out in the rest of the world. "Pride?" he asked, checking their situation. "Not yet... it's close though. Especially with that damn trick of theirs." the Dark Spirit replied. Za'cha growled before he became enveloped in pure darkness. "It will have to do." he said, Hidden Saber and Shadowsworn Armour disappearing. "Pride's Aegis!" he envoked, the darkness shattering around him to reveal arguably his most powerful armour. A pale red glow suffused his being as the armours power took hold, allowing the Dark Spirit residing within him to enfuse his raw physical power into that of his host.

Za'cha then took the pendant from around his throat and cast it to his side, its form elongating and shifting into that of a massive scythe. His body rippled with more energy now, as a pale light mingled with that of the red. He regarded the second group of Anubis warriors and smirked. "Death comes." he said before he surged towards them, faster than any normal magus should be capable of. Before they could strike him, they found themselves collapsing back into the sand from whence they came. Now all that remained was a single group of Anubis statues and the annoying Locusts.

Stats:

Horseman's Body:

Pride's Aegis:

Shadowsworn Armour:

Hidden Saber:

SO these creatures had magic draining spears? That was particularly interesting. She'd been looking for a way to siphon magic power from people for her experiments. These could prove useful. However, first she had to bring down the anubis statues. Her cyclops through brute strength was managing to batter the anubis statues back, but they were slowly raking its side with their spears and decreasing its overall power. It was not possible for her to bring out another summon. For some reason her body just couldn't handle it. However, she had to destroy these four that her cyclops was dealing with whilst dealing with the other four. It was time to even up the odds a bit further.

"What is One Plus One?" she asked out loud and this seemed to cause the statues to stop as if it was a riddle. The answer was obvious to them, but they seemed to think about it incase there was some hidden meaning. Interesting how she had disabled them with a question. "The answer is Fun." and with that her body rippled and she split into two Sinalis. One of them was wielding the whip blade and the other was wielding the chainsaw gun.

The one with the whip sword charged towards the other four statues and as it did it began to grow till it was 20ft tall and towered over the statues. It roared out and launched a powerful punch going straight through one of the spears causing it to scream. The punch collided with the offending anubi and sent it flying into another which went flying into a wall. The two remaining ones rammed their spears in, but this was the clone and as the spears raked it it dissolved away into nothingness, but it was that moment that the real Sinali came in.

She leaped towards one of them landing atop its spear and sprang board off of it and at point blank range simply spoke the word. "Smile" she said and fired off a huge blast of energy destroying its skull instantly and reducing it to dust. Her movement still kept her going and she performed a powerful heel drop to the top of the remaining statue smashing it to pieces.

Meanwhile, the cyclops was beginning to struggle. It was being raked by the spears and gradually brought down. However, in one last effort it swung its great club down on the ground. This caused a huge vibration shaking the very room they were and tearing up the very floor causing huge spikes of rock to jut out stabbing into the statues. It hadn't brought them down, but it had done some damage. The cyclops blinked at Sinali once receiving a smile in return before it faded. There were only three statues remaining now.

Sinali slumped down onto the floor. She'd used a lot of magic power in quick succession. It had taken a lot out of her. Especially using her cloning ability. She was magically and physically exhausted. "Zazu break the last of the toys for me." she ordered with a bored gesture of her hand.

Magic:

The Dark Spirit of Death that he had become heard Sinali's order concerning the remaining statues, and swiftly complied, the sand based magical constructs disintegrating into their original form. He hefted the Scythe of Death onto his shoulders and looked towards the statue face that blocked their path. "We'll be taking that staff now." he said before he began to advance on the gate way. "NO! I FORBID IT! I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUGH!" the statue cried out as the Scythe carved through its features and reduced it to rubble.

"I do hate it when they decide to go the long winded route." he sighed before stepping through the entrance and into the treasure chamber. He gave a low whistle as he looked around. "Well, well, well... look at all this stuff." said the Dark Exquip mage before he looked over towards the undead zombie girl. "Think Harrigan would like some of this stuff back at base?" he asked, indicating the massive piles of items and loot scattered around the place, along with the veritable millions of jewels piled throughout. And pride and centre was the Pharoah's sarcophagus, with the staff resting atop the lid, inserted between the stone hands of the statue replica on the lid.

"And there it is. Want to bet that things booby trapped as well?" asked Za'cha of the pillar head. The Dark Exquip mage walked up to the sarcophagus and began to inspect the device. "Simply amazing... was expecting something ornate given the rest of this place... but this..." he said, as he looked at the staff. It looked like little more than a lacrima orb resting on top of a simple golden rod.

"Hmm... no markings to indicate any traps, then again... decoy maybe?" he supposed, trying to figure out whether or not the lack of any ostentatiousness with the staff was in of itself a trap, given the flamboyancy involved elsewhere. "There is some mana residue here that's certain... whether or not however this is the actual staff running the traps and constructs however is another matter..." the Dark Mage grumbled as he continued to inspect the sarcophagus. He traced his fingers over the ancient hieroglyphs on the tomb, muttering to himself the translations as he tried to divine whether or not this was the genuine article.

"Sinali, you want to go through this stuff and see if there's any more staffs? Just in case this guy's pulling one last trick on us... if you find any of them, don't move them. Just take a note of where they are and how fancy or not fancy they look." the Dark Exquip mage called over to the undead Pillar Leader. "You really think the moron would think that anyone would get this far?" asked Pride. "Not him no, but whoever made this citadel tomb probably would have considered it... remember, the ancient kings only oversaw parts of the construction and were then interred within. Everything else was up to the architects." explained Za'cha.

Stats:

Sinali walked forwards towards the sarcophagus and began to look around. She ignored the staff on top of the sarcophagus for the time being as that seemed too obvious. There were lots of jewels at other things around the room, but there was nothing particularly interesting for the most part. There was some lacrima though which did catch her eye. She walked past the sarcophagus and towards the back of the room where a large ornate statue stood. It was that of what appeared to be a sphinx, but on top of that it was holding a large stone tablet in a rather peculiar fashion. There were markings all over it. She looked at it closely and as she did so she noticed that there was a faint crack around the edges and wind of some kind was coming out of it. How very odd

"Zazu...I think this room might be the decoy." she said thoughtfully and pressed against the tablet which swung open like a door revealing a large staircase that, much to her surprise, was going up instead of down. The wind was also more pronounced. A hidden way out perhaps? It was worth checking out at least. Without waiting she began to head up the staircase and when she reached the top she stopped suddenly. She knew what was causing the wind now. It was a large creature, a sphinx, and behind it was a mighty statue of a man on a chariot led by horses. In his hand was an ornate staff with a bird at the top, in the mouth of which was a lacrima. She noticed a flicker of magic power within. So it seemed that this staff was the real thing, but in order to get it they would have to get past the sphinx.

They could sneak past it and take the staff, but the job posted had mentioned that they would lose their magic power as soon as it was taken from its resting place. If they then awoke the phoenix it would tear through them like soft tissue paper. There was only one thing for it. They would have to bring down the sphinx.

"Smile." she said and launched off the other huge blast of energy towards it. It hit the beast squarely in the face waking it from it slumber with a tremendous roar. The blast had broken off part of its face, turning it to sand which fell to the floor. However, the staff flashed with a bright light and the sphinx reformed before sending out its tongue to strike her in a rapid strike. She went to block it, but as she did so the tongue exploded into sand and swirled round her blade and blasted her to the side sending her flying into a wall. "Well...this is gonna be fun" Sinali said rising to her feet and shaking herself off

Magic:

Boss:

The silver haired mage blinked at the undead girls suggestion, looking towards her as she opened up the secret entrance to another chamber beyond this one. "Interesting..." he mused as he made his way to follow her into the true burial chamber, blinking at the sight of the Sphinx that lay beyond it, and seemed to be quite pissed at having been woken up. "Well that's going to be a problem." muttered the Dark Exquip mage as the sand construct repaired itself of the damage that Sinali had inflicted upon it. He peered at the Weapon of Apocalypse within his grasp. "Any ideas?" he asked of the Spirit that resided within it.

"No idea... I'm not sensing any bones within it, so I've got nothing to aim for." said the Spirit of Death's Scythe with a sigh. "It appears to be made completely of sand, and is being maintained by the magic in the staff... although before you get the idea of using the staff itself, there are some lacrima gems embedded deep within it acting as a pseudo maintenance field." she said, causing Za'cha to grimace.

"Great... so we take the staff, it takes our magic, we're powerless and that thing's still going to go for our throats." he grumbled, before looking to the Dark Celestial Spirit that inhabited his body. "How're we doing on that by the way?" asked Za'cha. The Spirit of Pride looked at his silver-haired host for a moment. "Unless you feel like trying to push this further, I would advise dispersing the Aegis sooner than later. My physical power is draining your magical reserves and you barely have enough now to call up any of your armours, let alone your weapons outside of Death's Scythe." he informed him.

"That's... a problem." he frowned before looking to Sinali. "Any ideas? I'm almost out of magical power, and that thing doesn't have any real bones for the Scythe to hone in on. I could slice and dice it, but at the speed it recovers, not sure how much that would do aside from pissing it off further." explained Za'cha to the undead girl who was one of Savage Skulls Pillar Leaders. He looked back at the Sphinx before tilting his head curiously as he regarded the staff. "Hmm... time to test a theory." he said before looking to Pride and Tessa. "You two get a read on the repair speed?" asked the silver haired mage of his guests. Each of them nodded, sensing what he had in mind.

"Here goes something." he said before surging towards the Sphinx, pushing his empowered body to its top possible speed before slashing into it's leg with his Weapon of the Apocalypse. The beast roared in supposed pain before it used its paw to bat the mage away into a nearby wall, Za'cha crying out in pain before he made his way back to Sinali's side, his eyes watching the staff as it flared and repaired the Sphinx once more. "Speed?" he asked, panting somewhat from the blow. "It was slower this time." informed Pride, Za'cha grinning as he spat out some blood. "Perfect... Sinali, the repairing process... it gets slower each time that thing takes damage..." he informed his miniature partner in this job. He quickly scanned the room, looking for any other traps in the chamber, smirking as he located none. "And bonus... looks like the architects were betting on this thing being the only needed defence... No other traps in this chamber. Which means, we've got free reign." he surmised, a plan formulating in his mind as he spoke. If they pulled this off right, they could get that Sphinx down without much more effort... assuming it didn't have any more tricks up its sleeve.

Stats:

Boss HP:

Sinali nodded. So the object of this game was to keep hitting this thing until it couldn't heal anymore. The difficulty though was doing enough damage to bring it down. Then an idea struck her. Two ideas in fact. They would use a lot of her magic power, but it would likely bring this thing down a little faster. She ran at the creature and once more a blast of sand was launched at her, but this time she was more prepared. She threw herself into the air with all her might and exhaled deeply sending a huge blast of water at the creature. The blast hit it in its side, but rather than breaking away the sand of its body it instead caused the sand to clump together and solidify slowing the creature's movements heavily.

She slammed into the clumped up sand smashing through it and sending off huge chunks of its body. It wasn't enough to bring it down yet, but it was a good start. "If you have any spells that can effect sand somehow then use them...its more effective." Sinali said as she rose up to her feet. "Fire or water would work. Fire would probably be best." She charged towards the creature who was slowly trying to repair itself. Its progress had been signifcantly slowed due to the damage, but it still wasn't falling. Suddenly, a huge blast of sand erupted from its side sending her flying into the wall again. This one seemed to have used the wet sand to its advantage though as she found herself stuck to the wall.

"Smart." Sinali said appreciatively. IT had quickly adapted from the water attack and had used that to trap her and prevent her attacking. The creature let out a huge roar hitting her with a blast of sound that caused a crater to form and her to cough up blood. This creature was rather strong and it seemed it was focused on bringing Sinali down. Perhaps so that it could then focus on Za'cha.

Fortunately, though the blast of sound had looseneed the sound enough for her to break free and she managed to throw herself to the side before she was hit by another concussive roar. She wiped some blood from her lips and grinned her eye fully open. She lunged forward again, but this time it stamped its foot causing a geyser of sand to shoot up sending her flying into the ceiling before another shot from the ceiling slamming her into the ground. "It's learning Za'cha...the longer we fight it...the more it knows how to beat us." She said as she rose to her feet. It was clear from the way her body looked that she had multiple broken bones, but the thing about Sinali was that unless you knocked her out or took her down for good she would keep fighting. However, it wouldn't be long before she got to the state where she would actually die from this fight. What's more It would be a short while before she could use any of her techniques that she thought would be particularly effective against this creature. They had to either hold out till then or bring it down asap.

Magic:

[spoiler=Boss HP]
Boss HP 10/15

Za'cha grimaced as the undead girl's took a veritable beating. Even though he knew that she was a zombie and would probably not really feel the pain from the attacks as such, it was still painful to watch... even more so now because his body had hit its limit, the Dark Celestial Spirits physical powers receding from him as the armour dispersed. "Bloody timing..." he grumbled as he tried to figure out a plan of attack. This Sphinx was proving more of a challenge than he had anticipated. Sinali had suggested fire or water based magical attacks, and whilst the silver haired magus did indeed have a set of armour that could deal out the required fire elemental attacks... it wasn't able to do so on its own power.

And it didn't appear that this sand construct was going to oblige them with any fire or light elemental based attacks of its own either. Getting in close was going to be an issue, and he didn't have any ranged capabilities, and even at his top speed with the scythe there wasn't a clear way of getting close to that thing... except... He glanced at Pride and Tessa in their ethereal forms beside him that he could see them.

"What's our magical status?" he inquired of the two of them, in particular Tessa, the Spirit that inhabited, empowered, and was the Weapon of Apocalypse Death's Scythe. "We're barely afloat... I doubt you'd be able to summon that here just yet... your body needs to rest a little longer, magically speaking before you can pull that off." informed the Death Scythe's Spirit, guessing at what the Dark Exquip Mage desired to do. Za'cha frowned, looking at the situation once more, eyeing the physical make-up of the beast before them before another idea came to him. "Would that work?" he asked of the Death Scythe's Spirit.

She looked at him, then at the Sphinx guarding the chamber before looking back to him. The Spirit of Death's Scythe smirked before nodding slowly. "It could yes. And it would put you into an interesting position." she said, Za'cha nodding. "Alright then... let's get to it then." he said before charging into the room. "Oi! Here kitty kitty! Fetch!" he called out, hurling the Weapon of Apocalypse right at the Sphinx's head, feeling his body return to its normal exhausted state as the weapon left his hand. The construct shifted its head, the Scythe nicking it as it sailed past and embedded itself into the ceiling. The Sphinx roared before slamming a paw into his body, Za'cha coughing up blood before he smirked through his bloodied teeth. "Recall." he invoked, the Scythe spinning back out of the ceiling and straight through the center of the Sphinx's head, bursting through it like a gun through a melon.

As it returned to his hand, he felt the power of the Horseman fill him once more. With the beast's temporary blindness, he looked to Sinali. "You got anything big, do it now!" he called over before charging forwards to take a swing at its legs with the Death Scythe, carving through the sand like it was butter.

Stats:

Boss HP: 8/15

Sinali knew there was only one thing left she could possibly do in such a situation. It was time to bring out her ultimate weapon. She hadn't wanted to show this yet. It was something she had wanted to reveal in a more fitting moment, but there was no choice now. The black beast would have to come forth.

"Raa Raa Black beast." Sinali began to intone and a line began to form down the centre of her face. "Have you any blood." THe line began to widen forming into a crack inside which a gold eye could be just about seen. "No sir no sir." The crack widened further and two large clawed fingers appeared to reach to the side. Sinali's voice grew pained as she intoned the last words of the summon. "But I will soon enough." With that she let out a shriek of sheer agony as a huge creature tore itself from inside her. A huge thirty foot tall green spectral creature with a single large golden eye and a large mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Within its mouth a large green tongue could be seen. It floated there which wasn't overly odd. It was spectral after all. What was strange though was that its hands were not attached to its body.

Suddenly, its hand shot forward yet the body did not move. The hand slammed into the sphinx and sent it straight into the wall. The sphinx began to crumble, but quickly reformed and the black beast just laughed as it watched. For it was this moment of distraction that allowed the black beast to show off its ability. As its hand returned to it after the blow two holes formed in them and from them rode out two ghostly horseman wielding spears. The two worked in perfect tandem and rammed their spears straight into the sphinx's side.

Sinali meanwhile had slumped to the floor as soon as the black beast was summoned. Her face slowly healed itself, but there was still a faint scar that would take a short while longer to heal. Her magic reserves were almost empty. She hadn't been pushed this far since she fought that angel. She wondered, as her body had came to life through magic, what would happen if she ran out of it magic power? Would she die? Would she become human again? It was something she did not want to find out. Nor would she this day.

The black beast was her strongest weapon. Well, except perhaps Growler or the experiment she was working on back at the guild. It was really showing that off now. As the sphinx was struck with the spears it let out a blast of sand that destroyed the rider's horses. Rather than going down themselves though they dropped their spears and placed helmets upon their heads changing their armor. From their sides they drew swords and the pair charged in again. However, rather than a straight attack this time the black beasts hands came in and grabbed the pair pulling them out of the way of another sand attack before hurling them at the creature so they landed on its back and stabbed in once more.

"You owe me blood Sinali." The black beast cackled. "But this thing has none...we will have to settle this debt another day...unleash me in a village perhaps."

Magic:

The Dark Exquip mage blinked at the sight of what the undead Pillar leader girl summoned... spawned... called forth to fight against the Sphinx sand construct. "Er, Pride..." he asked of the Dark Celestial Spirit that resided within him. "Ever seen that... thing before?" The Dark Spirit looked at the monstrous figure before shaking his head. "Not in person no... my minions, those that survived, reported seeing such abominations before though in the Hellscape planes as we refer to them... To think this girl, undead or not, was able to summon one forth into this realm..." the Dark Celestial Spirit representing the Seven Deadly Sin of Pride mused.

"How about we admire or whatever it is you two boys are doing, after we deal with this Sphinx and then get out of here hmm?" asked the Spirit of the Rider of Death's Scythe. Both males blinked then nodded at the woman's suggestion. "Time to ride!" he invoked, the Scythe of Death humming with power as it called forth the mount of the Rider of Death. The skeletal horse formed up underneath him, and immediately they pelted into the Sphinx, the Scythe swirling around his head as he carved into the Sphinx, feeling his wounds knit themselves back together.

"The construct may not have any life energy of its own, but the magical energy that is powering it is good enough for our purposes." mused Tessa as they slashed into the beast once more. Between the Scythe of Death and Sinali's Black Beasts minions, the Sphinx soon found itself crumbling down into dust and ruin... leaving nothing but a pile of sand at their collective feets. Za'cha wheeled the horse around and looked up towards the embedded staff. "Alright, lets get what we came here for before anything else decides it wants to show up." he said, dispersing the horse, who seemed to be quite put out at having only been summoned for such a short moment of time, and putting the Scythe away back into its pendant form, its powers receding from his body. "I pity the damn fools who keep their Weapons out constantly..." the silver haired dark mage muttered to himself as he let himself get used to being back in his true state of physical being. It was always a bit of a transition each time he put away the Scythe... didn't help when the Weapon in question was squatting in his brain, trying to entice him to use her further.

The silver haired mage walked up to the staff and pulled it from its sconce, noting the wave of magical backlash that resounded through the chamber in the process. He didn't hang around before making his way quickly over to Sinali. "Alright, time to go." he said to the undead girl, making sure she could actually move herself first. The job did say that their magic would be sealed whilst they were transporting the staff... he didn't know if that extended to whatever force was animating the undead child. "You alright to move?" asked Za'cha, looking around the place trying to figure out how they were going to get back out of this place.

Stats:

Spell Used:

The power of the black beast was truly great especially when he had his knight's summoned. They were highly skilled and the black beast very strong. That when combined with the evil force of the spirit of death and Za'cha was too much for the sphinx and it had soon fallen to their combined might. It had crumbled into tiny little amounts of dust. Sinali meanwhile though was very, very, very much weakened from the encounter. So much that every part of her body seemed to be aching in pain. Yet things were only about to get worse for her as when Za'cha pulled out the staff there was a huge pulse of magic that caused her to let out a gasp. Her magic was gone or at least was sealed away.

It was strange. She could feel the magic power somewhere deep inside her, but couldn't access it. It reminded her of the time before when she had been on a job with THorn. She'd used lacrima to teleport them to the job's location but it had somehow not worked properly on her and part of her magic had been sealed away. She'd been what was known as a B rank mage and yet it had sealed away so much of her power that she could only just about be classed as a C rank mage. Yes, it was very similar to that occasion except this time so much of her power had been sealed away she wouldn't even qualify as a D rank mage.

She tried to slowly rise up to her feet, but found herself unable to move. Her body seemed to be unable to move under its own power. Perhaps due to her magic being sealed away? Or was it due to her exhaustion and wounds. She certainly seemed wearied and weakened by the events of today. She shook her head at Za'cha's question. "My body won't do what I want Zazu" Sinali said with a note of shame in her voice. She didn't want to have to rely on the requip mage. However, she had no choice today. She would either have to rely on his help or she would have to stay here. Those were the only two options.

From her position she observed the staff. It was quite ornate and covered in rather intricate carvings. Carvings which seemed to almost be a gateway to another dimension and if you stared too long you would never stop staring. She managed to close her eyes so that she wouldn't stare too long at it, but she was still unable to move. Za'cha would have to either help her or leave her behind. That was his choice. What would he do?

Magic:

The Dark Exquip Mage looked around the area some more whilst the undead little girl spoke, grimacing at the situation. "Grhmm... no clear way through, and we can't use any of our... magic..." he said, before looking at the staff in his hand and getting the seeds of an idea. "Would that be possible?" the silver haired mage asked aloud, blinking as the Dark Celestial Spirit within him gave him a quick mental shock. "Don't stare too long at the relic fool. This is the last true defense in place." the Spiritual embodiment of the sin of Pride sneered at his host.

Za'cha shook his head clear before inspecting the staff, bearing in mind the hypnotic capabilities that were lurking within the relic. "Assuming I'm translating this correctly..." he said before pointing at the remains of the Sphinx with the staff and concentrating. The staff began to glow with its own light, the sand remains began to swirl around in a vortex that reached up the ceiling. A few moments later the sand began to solidify into a crude spiral staircase that was drilling through the ceiling, using the remains from the pierced building to extend the staircase higher and higher.

Sweat started to form on his brow, slowly dripping down his forehead as he exerted his will over the relic and sand. "Future... reference... do not... work with... sand..." the silver haired dark mage growled before he picked up Sinali and held her under his arm. "Here goes something." he grumbled before making a break for the staircase, holding the staff steady as he ascended the crudely formed escape route, undead girl under his arm. As they climbed though, the stairs behind them dissipated back into their base sand state.

It took a few minutes to finally reach the surface, since they were going straight up as opposed to the path they had taken earlier to get into the place. The desert burst open with the force of an explosion as they made it out of the tomb, with the Dark Mage climbing out and flopping down into the sand, dropping the undead girl down beside him as the staircase they'd used to get out dissolved into its constituent parts, the desert itself slowly sealing the hole with its own weight... eventually the hole was completely gone, as if it had never been there to begin with.

"I think... it's agreed..." he said as he let his body rest. "We're giving... the client... a copy... and keeping... the real one... in the vault..." Za'cha said to Sinali as they lay in the sand. "Aww, this looks too precious... it's like a brother sister outing at the beach. Except without the cooling waves of the sea or cawing of seagulls." smirked the Spirit of the Scythe of Death. The Dark mage couldn't be bothered retorting, instead just rolling his eyes at her commentary.