Demon's Call (Roy the Chanter & Zar Valorblood)

Zar scoffed at the notion of retreat and stood shoulder to should with Roy, looking dead on at the demon. "You really believe after killing all those demons back there that I'm going to leave while an enemy still poses a threat? You must've not thought very highly of me, to begin with. I'm genuinely hurt by that, Roy!" said Zar, laughing and entering his channeling state. "No, my friend, I'll be sticking through to the end on this one. It's not every day you get to kill a horde of demons and live to tell about the experience." With Zar's rousing statement of assertiveness, he launched himself into an attack against their foe, cutting into the demon's left calf and firing a beam of darkness into the wound, bringing the demon to its knees before it swatted Zar away into the wall.

He hit the wall with enough force for stars to cover up his otherwise clear vision of the battleground. He was slow to regain his footing but quick enough to evade the demon as he came around for a second attack, appearing behind Roy to put distance between him and the demon. This allowed Zar time to conjure up his sphere of darkness around himself and Roy, effectively shielding them from the demon's sight. The darkness of the room helped to increase its effectiveness at concealment and would serve as an adequate station to fire and retreat from. Zar nudged Roy in the shoulder and whispered to him. "I should probably mention this, but while we're in this area our attack power is increased so make every bit of it count."

Roy watched the demon demolish Zar with his blow sending him flying, but he had already started preparing a spell when he saw the demon, it was too late to stop it now. Luckily Zar seemed to be alright, as he got back up and managed to cast a darkness spell. Roy felt a slight tingle as the darkness came over, he noticed an overflow of magical power in his spell as he continued casting it and smiled as Zar explained that this darkness would increase the efficiency of their spells. He spoke to him as he widened his stance and spread his hand in concentration.

"I noticed that this guy seems pretty tough Zar, but if you could hold him off for just a little while longer, that would give me plenty of time to spring my trap. Just make sure that when I give the signal he'll be standing where he is now. Think your up to it?"

Roy wasn't certain that what he had in mind would be enough to put him down, but he was fairly positive that it would put a pretty big dent in him. Roy had begun to unleash his gas spell into the air, luckily methane was odorless and tasteless so the demon shouldn't notice this. He didn't necessarily need to see for this spell but nonetheless as he and Zar seemed to be of equal power he wasn't even blinded by this spell. The demon probably didn't notice this so that was another advantage in their favor.

From the way Roy spoke to Zar, he had the feeling that his plan, whatever it may be, would succeed in destroying this final obstacle on the path to completing their mission. To allow Roy time to formulate his attack plan, Zar launched an all out attack to draw the beasts attention to him. Firing blasts of spectral shadows out from the pitch black area he had created, Zar hit the demon square in the chest as it turned to investigate the noise. The attack was enough to cause the beast to stumble on its already weakened leg which Zar would more than gladly exploit. He brought himself closer to the dazed demon and planted his shadow bomb on its other leg, but not before the demon's quick reflexes got the better of Zar and he was sent into the ground by a massive fist. He felt his ribs crack as the pressure fell upon his chest, but found satisfaction as he heard the bombs timer nearing the end and finally exploding, taking out the demon's right leg. It howled in pain at the loss of its leg but continued to press onto Zar's chest making any physical escape attempt impossible. His pain served as an adequate distraction for Roy who was still working within the shadow.

The pain in Zar's chest continued to rise as the demon found relief in slowly crushing him to death. Zar knew he only had to hold out for a little longer, but he wondered just how long his ribs would last against this monster's incredible strength. Just as he felt the beast pouring on more pressure to cave in his chest, he could feel a large spike in magical energy from where Roy was and grew a smile on his face. "Whatever you're going to do, you better fucking do it right now!" yelled Zar. Zar became one with the shadows, slipping out of the demon's grasp and returning to Roy's side to view the fruits of his labors and broken ribs.

It was actually a good thing, that the demon had pinned Zar down and almost tore his heart out through his throat. But as the demon struck downward at Zar he disappeared in shadows, reappearing next to him. Just in time too, as Roy's finally reached it's full charge, he smiled as he struck outward with his chain hardly doing any damage with it at first, but as the chain attached itself to the demon the end of it erupted in flames, dealing extra damage with that, and setting off a massive explosion all around the demon. The extra power from Zar's sphere of darkness helped his attacks deal even more damage than normal. When the smoke cleared Roy noticed that the demon was lying on the ground unmoving. He smiled for a moment, ready to cheer at his victory. But as he was about to do this he noticed the demon move, just a little at first, and then slowly get back on to his feet. He was damaged sure, but Roy knew that there was still plenty of fight left in the demon.

He bit his bottom lip and turned to Zar. "We...may be in more trouble than I thought."

Zar held his right arm over his chest as the pain swelled within him. Several of his ribs were broken and this made it hard for him to move properly without hurting him further, but he had to continue the fight; he had to finish the fight he started. When he saw the devastation wrought by the explosion he was ecstatic at seeing the charred remains of the demon once the smoke cleared. To Zar's dismay, the demon slowly began to rise from the ground, clearly bloodied and battered but still a formidable foe for both of them to fight. Not wasting any time on forethought or strategy, Zar launched spell after spell at his enemy. A large pool of dark energy formed under the demon, damaging him considerably, and slowly began to eat away at him as well as slowing his movement toward them. He followed up with a volley of spectral spirits that pummeled the creature backward but was forced to kneel as the pain grew as he used more of his power to continue the fight. This needed to end soon or he would suffer irreparable damage to his body. "I hope you have more to impress me with because these ribs really want to see the light of day and I've half a mind to oblige them," said Zar, coughing up speckles of blood.

Roy nodded his head responding to Zar confidently. "Don't worry Zar, I've got this. Just back me up with some spells or charge up an attack." Roy jumped out of the darkness and launched himself at the demon throwing punch after punch and attack after attack, his feet and fist flying as fast as he could make them delivering blow after blow against the demon. Each one of the resounding with a loud crack as they were expertly blocked his demonic foe, not even allowing a single one to land. "Oh shi-" Roy was cut off before he could finish cursing by a powerful hand grabbing him by the throat and throwing him back at Zar's feet. He got up again however, a little dazed and perhaps worse for wear but ready to fight nonetheless. This time he gave a large cry as he launched himself at his foe and pulled out his knife and began to strike endlessly once again. Not slowing for a moment. This served to delay the demons attack for about 20 seconds. At which point it got bored of Roy's attacks and delivered a crushing blow to his abdomen, and then when he was prone kicked him back once more to Zar. Roy groaned in pain coughing up a little blood this time. His head was swimming and he wasn't sure that he could go for a third round.

"Hey Zar...pretty sure I've only got one more round left in me. If you've got anything left I'd say use it. I've got one last trick to try myself."

"Fret naught Roy, I still have plenty of spells in my arsenal. It may kill me, but I'll not die from anything except on my own terms!" Zar brought Grendvalir to bear, gathering the shadows from the shroud of darkness they both resided in and directed its powers toward the demon. From its shadow, a mirror image of the demon in a wispy darkness from blasted its counterpart into the wall with one of its own dark attacks, sending it slamming into the wall. Sustaining this onslaught would take up the last of Zar's magic reserves. Fortunately, the power he gained from the shroud of darkness increased the shadow's attacks considerably against its counterpart. The onslaught of the two colossal figures bashing each other into the cavern walls shook the very foundations of the cavern, causing terrible tremors.

To add insult to injury, Zar let out a volley of shadows into the demon just as the shadow and original demon collided with each other. With the added damage directly from Zar, the beast was showing considerable signs of deterioration as blood seeped from every orifice on its red body. However, the pain only seemed to increase the demon's strength as it finally managed to gain a foothold in the fight against its shade. They would lose this fight as quick as it began unless Roy's last ditch effort panned out in their favor. "I hope you've had enough time to prepare for the end because this fight is about to turn against us fairly quickly!"

Roy was too busy concentrating on his spelss to respond to Zar. If he slipped up even just once then he would surely die. What he was about to do was extremely deadly, but also extremely dangerous for himself. He would have to purchase the power he was going to unleash with his very life. He opened his blood shot eyes, and the veins in his head began to throb as he summoned up all of the magical might he had left.

As he cast his devastating combination of spells he shouted out in a loud roar as he felt almost all of the magic he possessed leave his body at once. At first the demon was enveloped in a coffin of smoke which crushed it and left it prone, while it was distracted by this Roy summoned up four of his smoke clones, each of these clones and himself included summoning ten spectral hands a piece, all fifty of which began to endlessly pummel the demon without ceasing as it began to recover from it's paralysis. Roy wasn't sure when the demon would actually die so he just kept commanding his hands to continue to bash the ever living hell out of his enemy.

When finally his spells wore off Roy sank to his knees breathing heavily. His vision was blurred and he couldn't really make out what was before him. But all that was left of the demon was a pile of gore and mush. It seems his spell had actually succeeded. Roy smiled and flipped the demons corpse the bird as he passed out on the ground. Whatever happened after this he hoped Zar would be able to take care of it.

Roy's plan was as effective as he had promised it to be. His smoke magic was not something to be trifled with when combined with his brilliant strategies (if they could truly be called strategies and not just a random assortment of events that conveniently panned out.) The demon found itself encased in a smoke coffin, suffocating and constraining the beast within its cloudy confines. It followed with dozens of smoke hands that pummeled into the demon with the last bits of energy that the demon's shadow could offer with its limited magic. The shadow of betrayal cast by Zar's greatsword finally dissipated into nothingness, but Roy's hands continued to destroy its body until nothing but bones, blood, and gore layered the cavern from top to bottom.

With his handiwork complete, Roy collapsed to the ground after giving an obscene gesture to the remains of the once powerful demonic scum. With only enough magic left to get them back to the surface with the water, Zar hoisted Roy over his shoulder, grunting the pain away as his bones creaked from the weight. He carried himself over to the water and filled two vials of the water they had sought after and melded themselves with the shadows to reach the surface and all the way back to the nearest inn for them to crash into. With a final push past his limits, he squeezed them through the shadows into a double suite and plopped onto the floor, passing out from exhaustion and their mission complete.

P.S. we grabbed the armor too

(fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. Thanks for saying something. lol)