Mashyuu an Dmitry in: Kill the Augmenting Demon!

Job Details:

With the sun rising over the Phoenix Mountains and Mashyuu in the air being carried by his stone gargoyle ally Rocky, he could see the peaks of the Mountains and had a good guess of where the hell he was supposed to go to find the massive demonic monsters. The demons apparently had taken on the form of insects and were producing a terrible poison that had completely destroyed the populace of an entire village near by.

As it turned out a member of Lamia Scale had been contracted to help find these demons as well to destroy them and bring back some of their venom to the Magic Council in order to make an antidote. Figuring the monsters to be nesting in the largest of mountains Mashyuu headed for the center of the mountain range and landed with Rocky gently. The Slayer tapped his booted feet against the ground one at a time and smoothed out his dark brown cargo pants. A dry wind blew past the Slayer, blowing his one sleeved brownish grey jacket in the wind while the Wizard raised a hand and caused the dirt and sand in the ground to shuffle into a massive S.O.S. around the Slayer to grab the attention of anyone who might end up passing by.

Blue eyes scanned up at the massive mouth of the cave below the mountain top and narrowed. "Alright Rocky lets get started..." Mashyuu muttered and flicked his right arm hard, causing his Oni Gauntlet and his slivered sword to appear on his form and in his grip. Mashyuu scoffed and whipped the blade around then stalked into the cave. It's dark entrance sent a chill down Mashyuu's spine and made the Wizard almost want to turn around. "Ux, you with me?" The Wizard asked the ring on his finger. The ring responded by pulsing to make sure that the Slayer knew that it had his back and would alert him if danger was near by.


WC: 334

The Phoenix Mountains.

A mysterious place with a history of supernatural occurrences, the range of peaks had once suffered through a vicious demon with the ability to mutate the insects around it into more of it's kind. Not only that, but it possessed a deadly, unnatural venom to which there were few, if any countermeasures. Once, a pair of wizards from the Lamia Scale guild came to deal with this menace, battling through the horde of monsters it produced and fighting the beast in it's very lair. They had believed it to be deceased, having dismembered it to an extent and even draw a portion of it's venom. But unfortunately for a certain gray-haired mage, the beast had resurfaced, even taking an entire village to the afterlife.

Dmitry Kazakov was not amused.

The spirit wielder couldn't be certain which he was more angry with at the moment: the demon for not staying dead or himself for not properly finishing the job back when he and Shohei dealt with the creature. In truth, he had sense something a while back, but was unable to deal with it at the time as he was aiding his dear friend, Mao Nakiri. Back then, he tried to brush off the thought that this creature could resurface, having dealt what he thought was a decisive blow. However, he recently felt a surge in the alien sensation he derived from the creature, leading him to accept that the hell spawn had well and truly returned. Whether this was the same demon as before or simply another of the same breed, when the council contracted to set out again, he accepted without the slightest hesitation.

In truth, he had the same motivation as before, in that he couldn't let something run loose long enough to threaten the people in his life. However, another thought was nagging at him, something that gave this a more permanent touch. The village that was extinguished reminded him of a similar tragedy, one that had altered his course in life forever...

Riding the back of the horse spirit, Alsvinder, Dmitry soon found himself at the familiar clearing that led to the cave of that loathsome creature. Although, when he dismounted the smoke-like steed, shortly before it disappeared, he noticed something on the ground that spelled 'S.O.S.' Most people would likely understand the meaning of this, but Dmitry was not most people, ignoring the sign he didn't recognize and walking straight to the cave. He tapped the shoulder of his partner in this endeavor, not bothering with an introduction, as he heard his own catchphrase being used.

"My thoughts exactly."

Mashyuu your partner is near Ux, the golden Earth Saint's ring warned the Wizard just before a stranger clasped Mashyuu's shoulder and spoke in a tone that would have sent a chill down Mashyuu's spine had he not been ready for it. "You must be the Wizard from Lamia Scale. Hi, I'm Mashyuu, this is Rocky." Mashyuu pointed down to the Earth Gargoyle at the Slayers side. Mashyuu' shook the silvered blade in his hand and nodded his head backwards into the cave for a quick second. "Know anything about this job or wre we both basically going in blind?" Mashyuu asked while extending his left hand and pulling up a shadowed imp from the ground.

It's dark red eyes darted about for a moment then snarled at the Lamia Scale Wizard. "...Dark One... Go into the cave and see if anything is laying in wait. If you don't see anything come back. If you do then contact me via mental message." The small imp grinned at Mashyuu and reached for the sword in the Slayers palm. Mashyuu jerked the blade up and away from the monster before it huffed in anger and vanished in a dark purple cloud of smoke. After that was said and done Mashyuu put his attention back on the Wizard in front of him. "I sort of have a feeling we are in for a rough fight if we don't know what we are going against. I wonder how many of these insects are in this place? I can smell them but most of the scents are the same." Mashyuu explained while poking his nose and activating the dark vision he could use thanks to the small dark monster being summoned by the Slayer. Without uttering a word he turned on his heels and headed into a larger opening in the cave.

WC: 313

(Rolling five monster dice to see what happens.)

The member 'Mashyuu' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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#1 'Monster Dice' :


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#2 'Monster Dice' :


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#3 'Monster Dice' :


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#4 'Monster Dice' :


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#5 'Monster Dice' :

Dmitry watched as the small imp went down into the cave, thinking that he would likely conjure Huginn and Muninn as the tunnels got more complex. After all, there was no telling if this demon was in the same place as before and he couldn't take any chances this time, what with this being the second incursion for him.

"Dmitry Kazakov and yeah, I'm from Lamia Scale." He said as he looked about the place, taking in the demonic aura that wafted from the caves. He knew from experience that they wouldn't be alone for long, considering he was attacked at the entrance the last time he was here. "I guess you could say I'm familiar with this thing..." He uttered, a little late to answer. "Not the first time it's turned up, but it'll be the last." Dmitry was a bit more on edge than usual, trying to take this job more seriously considering his previous shortcoming. Not that any of this showed on his face, the mage keeping the same cool and calm expression as he always wore on jobs that didn't involve genetically enhanced super chickens.

In the darkness, a creature stirred, silent as it crawled along the stone wall.

As Mashyuu moved onward, the gray-hair stayed a moment and held his hand out, a silver magic circle appearing over the palm as a silver aura emanated from him.

Eyes locked on its prey as the monster concocted the deathly brew it had used to terminate its prey so many times before, ready to drench this poor soul in the wretched fluid.

"I invoke the Swift Hawk:" Dmitry muttered as he closed his eyes, reopening them to reveal pupils that glowed silver so as to reduce the surrounding irises to a pitch black color. "Vedfolnir!" At the call of it's name, the silver aura converged on the circle to form a smoke-like bird of prey that immediately flew in an arc around Dmitry, slicing through the two front legs of the bombardier like demon that was attempting to ambush him. Crying out in pain, the creature fell head first into the ground as it lost it's grip on the wall, emitting a crunching sound on impact. After the beetle fell onto it's back, the bird came back around and pierced into the exposed underbelly of the beast, bursting out from it's face and tearing the mandibles off as it went.

Flapping it's wings to thoroughly remove any blood and gore remaining, the bird flew up and landed on Dmitry's shoulder as he turned back to the rest of the cave. "Alright," he said with a satisfied grin, eyes still glowing.

"Now let's get started."

"Well Dmitry, it's a pleasure to meet you. Truth be told I was a little worried about working with anyone but it's good to know that I have someone here who knows about what we are up against." Silently the Slayer twisted around and stalked towards a tunnel in the cave. Mashyuu hadn't been walking for two minutes when suddenly a soft mutter of a voice echoed out behind him. Quickly Mashyuu turned to see the monster like creature summoned slicing off the legs of a massive creature that had attempted to sneak up on the grey haired Wizard. A sound tactic but not one that a seasoned Wizard would truly fall for.

Mashyuu's face twisted with the summoned bird ripping through the creature and cleaning itself while landing on Dmitry's shoulder. The brown haired Wizard chuckled at the situation and grinned a wicked smile until the Dark One poofed back to stand at it's masters side. "Master, too many ways to navigate alone. Dark One Suggest you stick to the left path... It's how one solves mazes..." The Little imp whispered then glanced over at Dmitry. "This one not a woman like the last few.... Dark One not like it!" Mashyuu twisted his head and kicked the pervy creature in the shin just a little hard to keep the beast silent.

The Earthen Wizard stalked down a dark hall made of carved stone, like a large creature had burrowed into the mountain itself. However where there was smoke there was fire. The sounds of loud buzzing filled the hall as a weak and average looking set of demons came in pairs from both sides, two for each of the Wizards. Mashyuu took a strange stance while whirling his blade and pointing it at the weakest of the creatures coming at him. A moment later he pulled the trigger on his swords hilt and fired off one of the magical bullets from the chamber. The monster howled for a long moment only to have a steady stream of stones blast it in the face from the Gargoyle that was Rocky, breathing and taking it down.

Mashyuu nodded at Rocky while pulling his right arm back and letting his mothers magical jacket charge with golden electricity. "Thunder Flash!" He shouted and let his right hand lance out, throwing the golden electricity into the torso of the monster. Mashyuu followed up by racing forward and meeting the Stag Demon for a fight. The moment the monster entered Mashyuu's swords range of effect he could sense it's movement's before it ever made them. A sweep from it's left claws had Mashyuu leaping to the right and slashing his blade down upon it's claws, removing them from it's body. "Okay, bored with this one.. Earth Dragons Tomb!" Mashyuu called out while leaping backwards and letting the ground swallow the creature, crushing the Stag Demon and spitting it out a few moments later. Casually Mashyuu glanced over his shoulder and at Dmitry to make sure he was fairing just as well.

WC: 511

Dmitry glared down at the imp shortly before raising his middle finger at it, not sure why this creature disliked men so much, but fairly certain that it was for a less than respectable reason.

"Oh, I know alright," said the mage as he lowered his finger. "I already killed one, but I guess there was another rotten bug bastard that decided to crawl out of it's little hell." Dmitry wondered if he could prevent this from happening again, not satisfied with just ending the immediate threat. A thought came to mind of a technique he might be able to use here, one that he hadn't had the opportunity to test. But even if he could pull that off, the pseudo-summoner had to eliminate the creature that was still breeding more of these nasty offspring.

"And by the way," he said as they before they moved on, pointing a thumb at the deceased demon behind him. "That thing over there? He's one of the little guys..." Believing his point to be clearly made, Dmitry moved onward along side his partner in this endeavor, paying close attention to his spiritual sense as they went deeper into the cave. Unfortunately, do to the complexity of the tunnels, he couldn't assume that this particular demon would be in the same place as the one he dealt with before. Just as he was about to invoke his most nimble spirits, the demonic presence in the area picked up as a buzzing sound could be heard, a sound Dmitry was all to familiar with.

As a stag demon moved to intercept him, the Lamian sent a mental signal across the metaphysical bond that tethered his mind to Vedfolnir's, the same one that allowed him to manifest the Swift Hawk in the physical plane. Receiving that signal, the bird of prey flew over top of the monstrous insect and sunk a pair of talons into its eyes, causing it to reel backwards as it was dragged by its head.

Meanwhile, Dmitry seemed to disappear from where he was standing as a jet of acid landed where he was once standing, reappearing a few feet away. He then raised his hand at the source of the acid, another bombardier demon on the wall, and gathered his silver aura into three orbs that rotated in front of his hand. Like a gatling gun, the orbs launched themselves forth one at a time as they reached the to most part of their rotation, each one slamming into the massive beetle's head and leaving a few cracks. Losing it's balance, the beast fell like the last, only from higher than before. Due to the weakness instilled from the previous attack, the creatures head was crushed by it's own weight.

Looking to the stag, Dmitry drew a knife from his boot and ran towards the fight. As he go closer, the blade began to emit a sinister glow as it adsorbed the enormous amount of malevolence in this place. When Dmitry was close, Vedfolnir released it's quarry as the mage leaped up and kicked off of the stag's bent knee before jamming the knife in its eye, the blade releasing the pent up darkness and splitting the demon's head in two. Hopping off of of the still standing carcass, young Kazakov placed the knife back into the small scabbard in his boot, noticing a shadow over top of him. He then leaped back as the dead demon came crashing down, tripping on a rock shortly after and landing on his back for the umpteenth time. His reaction was quite simple and concise.

".......ow."

At first Mashyuu thought that Dmitry used some sort of summoning magic but then he used some strange form of silver arcane light to launch three orbs to smash into one of the Demonic bugs. The act simply confused the Earth Using Wizard to no end. Without realizing it he found himself scratching the back of his head and walking over to help Dmitry off the ground with his free left hand. "Looks bad. Maybe you should turn back." Mashyuu said lightheartedly while grinning at the man. "So care to spill the beans on your magic? It's not exactly summoning magic but it can create things. I'm more than a little curious since I've never seen it before." Mashyuu explained. The Wizard waited for a response from the man standing just across from him then noticed that he didn't seem to have a pet. It was strange considering most the Wizards Mashyuu met had some sort of companion. Then again it was possible that the Grey haired man just didn't bring his pet with him. Many times Rocky had simply stayed behind on jobs because Mashyuu thought the animal wasn't needed.

Truly it really didn't matter. Mashyuu cracked his knuckles and pointed at the part of the ground that was steaming from the acid. "You keep saying you have fought these things before.. Could they always spit that acid stuff? Or is this something new to you? I heard that our natural magic in our bodies could counteract any poison these things could throw at us but I don't really believe it. I've fought some demons in the past and they weren't anything to laugh at. I almost lost my life in the process. So if you have any more information I'd like to know it. Ya know so we can help keep each other safe." Looking back the way they came Mashyuu could tell that the sun had already set and night was calling out to Mashyuu. He hated the night, only because it caused his own inner demons to grow stronger. "Come on. Lets get this over with. I don't want to see another village get destroyed because of these beasts."

WC: 367

The gray wizard looked up at the sound of Mashyuu's voice to see a hand held out to him, which he took to hoist himself up. "Heh, ain't the first time and it sure as hell won't be the last." He said as he rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, looking back at the dragon slayer when he asked about Dmitry's magic. "Trust me sandy, it took me ten years to know what I know about it now and I'm still piecing things together. But basically, I connect my mind to nature spirits like this one and use my magic power to give them a physical form." He then pointed to Vedfolnir as it landed on his shoulder, wrapping up the crash course in nature spirit magic.

"As for that shit, yeah, the little one's have always spit that out. I'm pretty sure it's just boiling venom, but I still wouldn't touch it if you wanna keep the skin on your digits." The stench from the aforementioned fluid was certainly odd, Dmitry himself not used to smelling venom in the first place, let alone the boiling kind. "Now the council may have told you that our bodies can counteract the stuff, but that don't mean we're immune. It ain't gonna kill us off the word go, but it'll hurt like hell and probably sap the strength out of you. Now the little ones like this sack-o-wingfish like to shoot the stuff." As he said this, he gave a kick to bombardier, which he was referring to using a euphemism for manure. "But the kinda bigger ones that we just took down keep it on their claws, so try not to get hit by'em. Worse then that, you got the really hulkish lookin' guy's. These ones got venom all over their bodies and their shell takes about a wrecking ball to break through, so goin' in close ain't much of an option. Not much I can tell you about the big nasty, 'cept that it's ugly as hell and you don't wanna stay close for long."

With the briefing out of the way, Dmtiry held out his hand again to form another magic circle. "I invoke the Twin Ravens: Huginn! Muninn!" At the sound of the invocation, two smoke-like birds emerged from the circle, each about half the size of the one on the wizard's shoulder. "Keep an eye out for me, will ya? I'm gonna check out the other tunnels." After saying this, Dmitry closed his eyes as he tapped into the senses of Muninn, sending him and his counterpart Huginn into two of the tunnels the mages weren't occupying.

Mashyuu grasped all the info that was being given to him and looked down at Rocky. He didn't know if the Earth Elemental would be safe here and he really didn't want to see the animal get hurt. Would Rocky's inner magic be able to withstand the toxin that coursed through the demons? The animal had only ever been there to fight one Demon Mashyuu did and that was a Succubus who almost killed them both. Saddened by the fact he thought Rocky might not make it, even with it's stone wings and claws the Earthen Wizard dropped down next to the gargoyle and patted it's head. "Okay buddy, Dmitry and I have this under control. Go ahead and wait for us outside the cave alright?" Rocky whimpered for a moment then did as it was asked, spreading it's wings and taking flight through the air back to the outside of the cave.

Slowly Mashyuu pushed himself up off the ground and watched as Dmitry summoned up two smaller birds and asked for Mash to watch out for him just in case. The Slayer leaned up against the wall next to him and flicked his wrist casually. The red and black leather of his gloves creaked with the motion. "Go for it. I got your six." Mashyuu responded. He looked down the halls to make sure nothing was coming then leaned his head back. How did they actually manage to take out an entire village and how long ago did it happen? If they did take everyone out then the council would have been notified by a passer by. The Wizard considered this while the ring on his finger congratulated him for thinking about something instead of just going head first into danger.

Once the birds returned Mashyuu pushed up off the wall and stood at Dmitry's side. "Okay, so where are we headed then?"

WC: 318

Muninn had flown into the tunnel directly next to the one Dmitry and Mashyuu were standing in, Huginn flying into the one next to that. As the raven flew onward, the grey-haired mage could feel the presence of the monster they were there for getting a bit weaker, something that certainly didn't indicate being closer to it. Deciding to be certain, Dmitry had Muninn fly a bit further so as to rule out any possibility of missing the demon. In the end, the tunnel became narrower and narrower until finally ending, eliminating it as a viable route to their prey and prompting the wielder of this spirit to dismiss it's physical form and focus on the other tunnel.

As Muninn disappeared, Dmitry switched his perception over to that which Huginn heard and saw, urging the raven to fly onward into the cave. As it went, the medium could feel the demonic presence getting stronger as trip through the tunnel continued, a good sign of the correct path to be sure. Along the way, Huginn even passed more of the demon's creations, three bombardier's, two stags, and a massive herculean beetle to be precise. Needless to say, Dmitry and Mashyuu would have to deal with those along the way, considering there didn't seem to be a way to sneak around them and the spirit walker was fairly certain that the dragon slayer didn't have any stealth based magic. Soon enough, the tunnel opened up into a massive chamber, covered in a strange sort of stringy slime that must have acted as a form of nest building material.

"Ah, there's the big cheese..." Dmitry said as he caught site of the massive demon, a sight he was most unfortunately familiar with. "And by cheese I mean horrible, disgusting, turd with legs and a head." Just as he was going to inspect the opening more, he was suddenly hit with a painful, crushing sensation as Huginn was destroyed. Dmitry reeled back a bit and collected himself, shaking off the feeling. "I'm fine, let's get goin'." He said as he brushed off any attempts by his partner to aid him, seeing as how this wasn't something that could be helped. He then cracked a wide, wolfish grin, something that seemed to be happening more often lately.

"Let's go bag this asshole!"

When Dmitry seemed to react like he was in real pain Mashyuu moved to try and help but was cut off by the man swiftly. The Slayer shrugged his shoulders and started down the hall that his partner said was where the fun would truly begin. "You any good in a real fight or are you a ranged and summoning expert?" The Slayer inquired while the duo stalked down the halls of the mountain cave. It was strange to Mashyuu that there weren't more of these things considering. But when something was as powerful as the demons seemed to be that might have had an effect on how many there could be in the world at any given time. Hell Mashyuu barely beat back the King of Demons and his right hand demon. But the small army they led were easily defeated with the Oni Gauntlet alone.

Together the duo came to a fork in the tunnel with two massive Herculian demons blocking the paths. They scurried out of the darkness and hissed at the pair of Wizards. Mashyuu glanced over to his partner and swallowed hard. Would he be alright or would he need Mashyuu to help him in close range combat? It wasn't that he couldn't help but that he wasn't sure how strong these things were. Suddenly Mashyuu's ring pulsed as a warning to the Wizard. Mashyuu jumped back a few paces and slid backwards across the stony earth.

"Not cool... You guys wanna go? I can go." Mashyuu darkly stated while his mouth unhinged and sucked in air, swallowing a massive amount of the dirt and stone under him. His drained magical energy restored caused the Slayer to feel great about whatever came next. He rushed forwards and shot to the left at rapid speed, his magical ring, gloves, boots and Slayer power taking him faster than any man should be able to move. His powerful legs propelled him up high into the air as he spun around and flipped to land on the monsters back, slamming his Oni Gauntlet into the Demons back. A loud crack rang out but a sharp pain rocked through Mashyuu as acid burned through part of the gauntlet and forced the Wizard to jump off the monsters back.

WC: 380

Dmitry huffed at the comment made by his partner in this cave dwelling endeavor, running a hand through his hair and over the scores of bite marks on his scalp. "Yeah, don't worry sandman," he said as he cracked his neck, loosening up a bit for the fight that he knew was coming soon. "I can handle a close-up scrap."

Just as he said this, in the most convenient and dramatic timing possible, another wave of demonic insects swarmed the area they were in, a massive herculean beetle rushing for the dragon slayer and leaving a stag beetle for the gray-haired wizard. Naturally, Vedfolnir took flight from Dmitry's shoulder and swept for one of the demon's knees, slicing into some of the flesh surrounding the armored kneecap and causing the creature to drop down a bit from the pain. For a moment, the spirit walker simply watched and waited for an opportune moment to strike at another soft spot and hopefully end the fight, when a frightful thought occurred to him. Why was he being engaged by one enemy? His eyes widened as he literally saw the answer before him.

The armored beast charged full force towards the unsuspecting wizard, an easy target without the the earth dragon slayer or any manifested spirits to watch his backside. The air exited Dmitry's lungs as the stag beetle slammed into his back, lifting his feet off the ground and driving him into it's brethren. As the insect back up, the broken and bloodied body of a Lamia Scale mage fell to the ground, his consciousness seeping out of him along with the blood pooling out on the ground.

As soon as the vision past, Dmitry turned and ran towards the beetle that was about to pancake him, jumping through the air as soon as he was completely facing the creature. It was too late to leap out of the way, so the only course of action was to go over the charging foe. With about as much grace and elegance as an elephant riding the worlds smallest unicycle, Dmitry planted his right foot on top of the demon's right claw and followed with his left foot on its shoulder. The result was the young man haphazardly flipping off the back of stag demon and landing face first on the ground, the demon plowing straight into it's comrade and sandwiching it into the wall.



(OOC: Finishing this fight in the next thread, so please don't intervene. Also, I believe we only rolled one herculean demon, but I personally don't mind if you want to bring in another. Otherwise, there's still three bombardier demon's if you need to keep occupied.)

Mashyuu jumped back and landed on the ground while shaking his hand to keep himself from feeling a massive amount of pain in his arm. He hated feeling the monster actually be able to do some real harm to the Slayer when all he did was strike the monster. "Little shit. Here try this one. Earth Dragons Stone Fist!" A large fist ruptured from the ground, balling up and shifting around until it took aim at the massive monster that was twisting to face the Slayer. It roared with anger and started to charge just as Mashyuu pushed his palm forward to command the stone fist to attack.

It raced towards the Beetle and slammed into the monsters chest. Mashyuu followed the spell that was powered up by his ring with a simple point to the ground. A sharp rock floated to his finger and remained hovering in front of it. "Rock Bullet!" He shouted and blasted his signature spell into the monsters face, causing a small stream of blood to spew from it's face. Mashyuu's brow raised sharply while he became impressed with the fact that the monster was still standing. "Ux, suggestions?" He asked the ring on his finger. I would suggest that you put up a defense and see what you can do. The ring responded mentally to Mashyuu. "Yeah, good idea. Earth Dragons Stone Pillars!" Mashyuu shouted while raising his arms up. Four thick pillars erupted from the ground and moved to intercept the Demon, blocking it's path and an incoming attack as Mashyuu took a moment to aim his gun sword at his foe.

Mashyuu took a step to the side as one of the pillars moved to make sure that it didn't block the Wizard or his line of fire. He pulled the trigger twice, blowing two holes into the monster as the Wizard pulled his left hand back and let his finger curl up. Earth Dragons Talons!" He called out and slashed with his hand. Four shock waves lanced out three of them slammed into the demon and caused it to fall over from the sudden gravity impact. Using a lot of magic quick caused Mashyuu to have to shake off the sudden drain in his magical reserves. He rushed forward with his blade drawn, pillars moving out of his way and cut a large slash across the Demon's back. He stopped at it's head and whipped his blade out hard, sending a splatter of blood to the ground.

WC: 422

As both demons struggled to regain their bearings, Dmitry groaned and pushed himself to his feet, rage seething throughout him. "Alright asshole," his voice grumbled as the air around him seemed rise temperature. "I've had just about enough of this falling down shit..." The mage stood to his feet and slightly hung his head, pulling the knife from his boot again as magic power began swirling around him. The glow in his eyes shifted from silver to crimson, giving off a demonic appearance against the backdrop of his blackened irises along with the heat that continued wafting about the cave.

"I invoke the Spirit of Fire: Salamander!" His voice rang out and with it, heat and magic power converged on the gray haired wizard, erupting in a furious blaze that enveloped the his entire body. As the living flame swirled about him in ever changing patterns, Dmitry rushed the two demons. Before either of them could react, he disappeared thanks to his Arc of Destiny and reappeared on the back of the one that tried to charge him, climbing up it's back and jamming the super heated blade of the knife in it's eye. A searing sound accompanied by the smell of burnt eyeball emanated from the creatures face, carried by the intense heat in the area. As the creature squirmed, Dmitry triggered the curse that he himself implanted on the weapon, causing it to absorb the malevolence that was permeating from this place. As the darkness burst forth from the blade, it tore through the creature who's back the mage was riding and sliced into the beetle next to it. Dmitry then leaped off the first creatures back, signalling Vedfolnir to finish the other by piercing through the wound left by the knife.

The mage, still wreathed in fire, walked bast the Dragon slayer as he was finishing his own opponent and moved forward onto the target at hand.

Mashyuu hadn't noticed Dmitry until his voice called out a spell about fire. Why did everyone who used fire seem to be crazy? Mashyuu let his eyes shift from side to side as he watched a fireball like Dmirty rush a Demon and swiftly end the creature. Mashyuu whistled low at the sight and decided he wasn't about to be outdone. The Slayer smirked lightly and rushed the demon while sliding under it on his knees. Both hand curled up to his chest to narrow his profile while he called out. "Hail of Stone!" While it wasn't a Dragon Slaying Spell it was a large spell, reaching up to smash into the Demon on all fronts.

Mashyuu rolled in a forward motion out from under the Demon as it started to fall and tossed his blade into the air, letting it vanish in it's own pocket dimension as his grey haired friend walked past him and down the hall they were supposed to venture through. Mashyuu stood up and dusted himself off then continued down the path to the cause of this poison. The Earthen man smiled and patted his friend on the shoulder. "That was a hot move back there. So... You aren't going to like.. Do you know how to do a unison raid because I have been thinking about making a volcano and I really think it would be handy." Mashyuu mentioned while Rocky whimpered.

The Earth bound Wizard glanced down at Rocky and patted his chest to call Rocky up into his arm. "What's wrong buddy? You don't think I'm gonna force you to be a part of that spell do you? I would never try to melt ya partner." Mashyuu spoke to the Earth Elemental while the group came to a large clearing that smelled like death. Mashyuu held his nose and took a stumbling step backwards. "Oh hell no! This is terrible. Come on the faster we take care of this monster the better." Mashyuu added and started to scan the dark area filled with small places for creatures to hide. He felt like there was an ambush being set up but couldn't prove it yet. Letting the guy who dealt with this before take the lead Mashyuu's blue eyed gaze shifted over to Dmitry.

WC: 385

(OOC: we only need 5 more posts each)

Vedfolnir having already vanished before Salamander was even invoked, Dmitry merely ignored his partner as they continued onward, the Spirit of Fire rousing his less friendly side. At this moment, the spirit wizard was fully intent on ending this as soon as possible, to the point that he didn't even notice the hand that patted his shoulder. When they arrived at a clearing, the two wizards were soon hit with a potent stench of death, one that was all to familiar to the the grey-hair and confirmed that they were headed in the right direction. Not to mention the fact that there were more bombardier types already crawling out of the adjoining tunnels, two in front of Dmitry and one off to the left of Mashyuu.

The tall mage placed the grip of his knife in his mouth and lowered his hands to his sides, gathering his aura into to two more wisps like the ones he fired before, one in each hand. He then raised his hands and rapped both silver orbs in the flames that surrounded him, firing them at a single beetle. The force and heat of the blazing wisps was enough to obliterate the creatures head entirely, causing the other to spit a jet of boiling venom at Dmitry. The wizard avoided the toxic stream by sidestepping to his right, raising the hand of that same side to fire another fire rapped wisp at the beetle. This time, the creature's eyes were sealed shut from the heat, the blunt force of the attack disorienting it and causing it to stumble about in agony as it's assailant simply walked towards it with his knife now in hand.

When he was close, Dmitry jammed the hot blade into the demon's chest, releasing another searing sound from the wound. The beetle stopped moving as the knife fighter tore the weapon up and through the sternum, ripping it out and taking a good bit of tissue with it.

Mashyuu frowned at the grey haired man who was seemingly ignoring him, but he understood. When Mashyuu summoned up the dark forces in his soul he too took on strange aspects and his moods shifted from time to time. Brushing the thoughts off Mashyuu came with Dmitry to the opening and let his eyes dart around. Two monsters coming straight for Dmitry and one to Mashyuu's left flank. The Earthen Wizard smiled and twisted to face his oncoming foe. Dropping into a low stance the Slayer rushed the beast while Rocky shot in right behind him.

Sparks flew off his body as the Wizard jumped into the air and shouted "Lightning Leap!" A bolt of thunder rocketed past the Demon as Rocky bellowed out a stream of heavy stones into the face of the beast. The force of the attack smashed into the Demonic bug and forced it to scatter backwards while Mashyuu appeared behind the beast and pointed at the ground with both his index fingers. A pair of small stones floated, one to each finger. He took a moment to aim and fired each stone like a bullet out of a gun. The bullets whipped about and collided in the back of the monsters head, killing it on impact.

"Bah that wasn't so hard. Hang on bro I'll soften that last one up for ya." Mashyuu spun around and pulled his right hand back then tossed it out to throw a bolt of thunder into the chest of the last standing Demon. The creature convulsed in front of Mashyuu and Dmitry, it's guard lowered thanks to the shock that ripped through it. Rocky howled and Mashyuu pulled a small stone vial from his jacket pocket. "Don't forget we need to get a smaple of the demon kings blood so we don't want to kill it and smash it. We need to keep part of it's body intact."

WC: 322

As Dmitry destroyed his opponents chest cavity, his partner chimed in about smashing the demon they were after, a thought that made the fire embraced mage laugh quite loudly. Truly, the somewhat mad cackle didn't suit the mages normal in the slightest, to say nothing of the uncharacteristic grin that was left to spread across his lips afterward. After the laughing ceased, the spirit wizard looked to the dragon slayer, speaking in a somewhat devilish tone of voice.

"When you see this thing, the word 'smash' won't even enter your mind..."

Just as this was said, a rumbling could be felt throughout the chamber as the sound of something massive on the approach filled the ears of both guild mages. Dmitry knew all too well what it was and readied himself for the fight ahead, ready to destroy this monster once and for all. From a rather large tunnel at the far end of the natural arena they were standing in came a sight to behold, something that was not meant for this world, if any world at all. It's grotesque nature having already been shown by the actions of it's offspring, it was no surprise at all that such a thing would be deemed a threat to all man kind.

Dmitry was approaching the point where he would have to stretch the last of his magic power as well as he could, meaning he would have to rely on his own fighting skill as much as he could. Of course, he didn't consider that to be much of a problem in of itself, considering the lifestyle he's lead up until now. Growing up on his own meant that he had to learn to defend himself even when he couldn't rely on magic to provide for that need. Locking in on his target, Dmitry burst forth and begun the fight.

Mashyuu lifted a brow curiously at Dmitry's comments about what was coming. The thought of it made the Slayer feel uneasy and honestly his skin crawled at the thought. Mashyuu took a deep breath of air and was just about to retort when the ground rumbled from the force of something massive coming. "What the hell is happening right now?" Mashyuu asked himself silently. His blue eyed gaze shifted down the hall and his eyes went wide not with terror but concern. Could the pair actually take that thing down? Mashyuu wasn't so sure and like Dmitry his magical energy was starting to deplete. "Thunder Humper..." Mashyuu cursed and whipped his blade around.

The Grey haired Wizard broke into combat first, swiftly closing the gap between the monster and the Wizards. Mashyuu was about to join in when the ring on his finger spoke up in his mind. Wait young Slayer. Let the head strong Spirit Wizard take the lead, use this time to replenish your power and come in to help him when he needs it. If you feel the need to help him that much then call for Rocky. Mashyuu rolled his eyes at the fact that he had sent Rocky to wait and the ring didn't say anything about this prior.

"Hold that thing for me, I'll be there to help in just a minute!" Mashyuu called out and dropped to his knees, swiftly smashing the ground with his jaw and eating all the stone and dirt around him. His blue eyes lit up with the taste of magical power replenishing his body. It wouldn't be long until the Wizard was ready to jump into the fight and unleash hell upon the massive demon that had been the cause for the death of an entire village.

WC: 303
( OOC: 3 posts each should wrap this up. :D)

Not even paying attention to the fact that he was now charging this beast alone, Dmitry leaped to the left as a massive, spike-like appendage was brought down in an attempt to impale him. This put him in direct range of the demon's right-front limb, he vanished yet again as it too was made to stab him, the flames of Salamander disappearing with him. Naturally, the limb pierced not but stone floor, the spirit wizard appearing on the creature's back and drove the blade of his knife in its neck, eliciting a shriek of agony.

"Did your buddies ever tell you about me?" Dmitry asked with a grin as he pushed the knife in further, driving the demon writhe about in an attempt to throw him off. However, even when he was hanging on by the knife's grip alone, the wizard couldn't be removed. Eventually, the beast reached the limits of its already minuscule patience, ceasing it's movement and causing the air around it to rapidly cool. Though the Spirit of Fire managed to mitigate the cold, the mage became chilled and lost his grip on the weapon, being flung off by the next bout of writhing. Landing hard and tumbling across the ground, Dmitry barely managed to keep from slamming into a nearby wall, sliding to a stop on his feet before that happened.

Shaking off the chill from the icy spell, the wizard eyed his knife that was still lodged in a portion of flesh along the creature's neck, a fact that would be fatal for most natural living things. Of course, that meant little to such a being, making the task of killing this thing all the harder. Noticing that his muscles were a bit stiff now thanks to that wave of frost, Dmitry turned to his ally, who had his face in the dirt and seemed to be enjoying a snack.

"You done yet?"

Every time Mashyuu started to eat stone in an attempt to go into Dragon Force he took on a sense of tunnel vision. The man was always somewhat aware of what was going on around him but not enough to truly be of any help to anyone, the greed of a Dragon shining through much to strongly for must to be able to grasp with their limited understanding of a Slayer was a problem most of the time but Mashyuu really didn't care. His teeth grazed stone, shoveling and crunching but never breaking his teeth. He could hear Dmitry ask if Mashyuu was done yet and the Earth using Wizard responded with a simple holding up of his hand while the bland stone and soil settled in his stomach and he stood up proudly. The moment the last bite he took hit his belly the Wizard ran his left arm over his mouth to wipe his face clean of the sticky soil that made up the ground they stood on.

Mashyuu's body shifted in an almost unnatural way, arms leaning back while his legs spread a little more than shoulder width apart. His blue, vertically slited eyes narrowed at the sight of the ugly beast Dmitry had already done a number on. "Sorry to keep you waiting, just had to stop for a little pick me up. Now if you would be so kind as to step aside for a few moments I'll take over until you catch your breath." Mashyuu replied to Dmitry well after he asked Mashyuu about his readiness.

The ground crunched under Mashyuu's black boots with the slight movement and shift of his weight. A plume of heavy dust kicked up behind Mashyuu the moment he kicked off the ground. The stone walls around him seemed to take on a blurred appearance due to Mashyuu's sudden burst of speed. He tossed his blade at Dmitry just before Mashyuu rocketed past the grey haired Wizard. Mashyuu placed his weight on the back of his left heel and spun around the demon that had a blade jutting from his neck snarled with the thrill of battle while it's massive arms reached up to take a slash at the Wizard. Jump, spin. Ux the mystic ring ordered Mashyuu. Following those orders the Wizard sprang up ans spun in a swift spiral while aiming his palm down at the ground.

"Earth Dragons..." Mashyuu landed and watched as the Demon began to glow a sickly green color. "...Stone Fist." He spoke darkly. A large stone fist shot up up and slammed into the wedged blade, digging it deeper into the Demon's neck. Mashyuu knew what was coming next, at least for the most part. "Earth Dragons Stone Pillars." Mashyuu muttered and threw his arms up at a ninety degree angle from his elbows. Two pillars of stone about seven feet in height and four feet thick came up in front of both Dmitry and Mashyuu, protecting them from a pulse wave of sickly green energy that came from the Demon. The pillars crumbled and nearly gave way to the magical energy that the Demon released.

WC: 529

As Mashyuu's stone pillars contained the creature along with the poison it was emitting, Dmitry got to his feet and regained his bearings before holding a hand out to the right. It was quite thankful that this particular chamber was so very large, a facet of the cave that the wizard was quite grateful for. It was the wide open space of this part of the cavernous expanse that allowed Dmitry to call upon the most powerful of all the animal spirits that were bound to him, which would likely be the last spirit he called upon during this fight.

Another magic circle appeared in front of the outstretched hand and the magic power gathering could felt quite clearly, centering with the aura that was visibly gathering as well.

"I invoke the World Serpent: Jormangand!" At the call of its rather foreboding name, the massive snake emerged from the smoke-like aura bearing a similar appearance to the other animal spirits to show themselves on this job. The train-sized serpent than sunk it's sword like fangs into the soft lower body of the demon, causing it to shriek yet again as it was forcefully slammed through the crumbling pillars. It was then plowed into the wall and drug around it for the entire length of the chamber, a distance that was quite substantial to say the least. Jormangand had actually destroyed quite a few stalactites during this rampage, but showed no signs of stopping until the painful feat was complete.

Upon completion of this task, the World Serpent tossed the demon over to the area where Mashyuu was standing, causing it to land only a few feet away from where the earth dragon slayer was standing. The spirit then allowed it's physical form to dissipate as it's presence now only served to minimize space within this chamber, an unnecessary inconvenience due to the demons now heavily wounded state.

Pillars of stone rumbled and broke, barely standing on the firm ground of the maze of cave tunnels the Wizards and the massive beast was hiding in. The Earthen Slayer came out from around his make shift shield and started to take aim for a second flurry of attacks. In the time that Dmitry took to summon a massive snake The Demon unleashed a wave of smaller demons from it's body. The sickly green creatures started to squirm their way towards the Wizards up until the point that the Demon tried to grip one of the monsters but Mashyuu pushed his arm out, smashing one of his pillars into the Demon lords long arm, knocking the arm back and preventing it from eating one of the smaller demons.

A massive snake spirit shot up and grabbed the Demon king, taking him on a trip around the cave and digging into the flesh of the beast. Mashyuu committed to keeping Dmitry safe from the bugs and rushed to stand before the man. "Stay here and don't move. This won't block off your spell casting. Just until the bugs are gone buddy." Mashyuu dropped down and grabbed the ground like it was a light blanket then backed up while pulling the ground with him. He swiftly brought it down around the man, putting him in a dome of earth just in time to stop a bug from getting to the Grey haired man.

Mashyuu reached his foot up and jumped into the middle of the bugs. His left leg came up and he called out. "Earth Dragons Blasting Stomp!" combining the power of his tremor stomp and stone blast into one fine spell Mashyuu slammed his foot down, rippling stone under him and forcing it up. The smaller demons fell backwards from the tremor in the ground then found small stones slamming hard into their heads. Stunned by the attack the Demons rocked for a moment giving Mashyuu the chance to finish them off. He stepped a half pace back and called up a spike of stone. A moment later he jumped away, blowing the stone up and with it the demons and his dome around Dmitry.

At that point the Demon lord came back to land hard at Mashyuu's feet. The Wizard smiled and looked at the massive creature. "Looks like you're about to get squashed. Earth Dragons Tomb!" With a wave of his hands the stone of the cave wrapped around the Bug and sucked it under ground. Mashyuu dropped to his knees and groaned as his Dragon Force faded away. A few moments later the stone ground bubbled up and ejected the broken and dead demon. "Alright, who's gonna dig into that thing and grab the blood?"

WC: 462

As the fight was clearly ended by the rather brutal spell cast by the dragon slayer, Dmitry allowed the flames of Salamander to subside, seeing as he no longer needed them. However, after the disappearance of the spirit of fire, the mage immediately dropped to his knees, chilled to the bone. It was an unfortunate side effect of manifesting the primal blaze of the natural order, some might have even called it a price to be paid. As this spirit filled Dmitry with both physical and ephemeral fire, it left him quite susceptible to the coldness of the environment around him when it subsided. While the cave he was in should feel rather warm and muggy, it couldn't match the intense temperature his body was forcibly adjusted to every time he manifested Salamander.

However, he didn't have time to sit around right now, regardless of how cold he might feel. Resolving to this truth, Dmitry stood to his feet and walked over to massive corpse of the dead demon, removing his knife from the creature's neck and walking over to its lower portion. He then stuck blade into its side and made a fairly long incision. "Either they forgot to tell you or you ain't too keen on the nasty part of a typical Council sponsored job," he said as he rooted around in the demonic abdomen. "It ain't the thing's blood that they want, it's the venom. Only way to get that is this puppy..." As he trailed off, his arms returned from inside the corpse with a large venom gland in hand. After draining an adequate amount of venom from the gland into the bottle he was given, Dmitry dropped body part next to its respective body and left the cave with Mashyuu. However, before they left the area, there was one thing left for him to do.

Making sure his partner and the pet accompanying him were clear of the entrance, Dmitry held his arms out in front of the entrance. As he focused all of his will power on pushing out whatever demonic was lingering in the area, his silver aura returned and swirled about him. Soon the cave itself began to rumble and sure enough, crumble to the ground as the spiritual influence of nature itself effected the physical mass of the hellish tunnels. The spirit wizard panted a bit before pulling himself together and manifesting the horse spirit Alsvinder once again.

"You know, you're not too bad, Dragon Slayer." With that simple and indifferent remark, Dmitry Kazakov left the now demon cleansed area for Hargeon Town to report a job complete, fairly certain that another demon would not return.

Well, at least not in that particular cave.