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

Spoiler:

It was the night after a long bout of drinking, and Roy could hardly feel worse. He groaned as he lifted his head from the table where he had passed out, and there on the other side was Zar Valorblood. Newest member of Sabertooth. He took a few steps on his wobbly feet until he finally found the ability to take firm confident steps. It took a few more tries then he would ever admit but he got there. He noticed not only the legion of shots and tankards, but also the rather tremendous bill which he had promised to pay. He chuckled to himself as he picked it up dropped it off at the bar, along with the jewel he owed. He grimaced as he noticed how light his pockets were beginning to feel after just one night of feasting, and then drinking, and more drinking. Roy went back to the table and searched around the mess for his pipe, ah there was still half a bowl left in it.

He walked over to the job board with pipe in hand and looked it over. He lit it and took a few puffs from it as he searched through the possible jobs. This person lost a cat, this person needed someone to investigate a village, etc etc, he reached his hand out for one that seemed pretty easy, but offered a decent pay. But then his eyes drifted towards another job. A very wealthy client offered quite to reward to investigate into the theft of one of his possessions. It promised rewards and bloodshed galor, but it seemed like it might just be a little more than he could handle alone.

He took the paper anyways wondering who he could get to join him on this mission, no one came to mind as he looked around. In fact there was hardly anyone here at all...except...

Roy smiled wryly as he came back to the table with paper in hand. He laid it down in front of Zar as he shook him awake and handed him a glass of water, while he drank from one himself he pushed the paper towards Zar. When he was finished reading the job description he smiled at him and asked.

"So are you in or out Zar?"

The air about the tavern was rank with the lingering smell of sweet and rancid liquor covering the empty hall. It was this pleasant yet revolting smell that Zar was awoken to with a good shaking and job slip pushed into his face. Ignoring the slip to gulp down the glass of water resting before him, he scanned the room to see who else might be hidden away or passed out from all the merriment and drinking. To his surprise the only person he found to have stuck around was the man who he had first met when joining Sabertooth; a man by the name of Roy. He seemed healthy and fine from the blurred image of his silhouette that laid in front of Zar. Already up before him and puffing away at his freshly lit pipe as Zar's nose and eyes would tell him. It made him instinctively smile and reach for his pipe tucked away in the lining of his clothing. His hand brushed against some of the assorted vials within his overcoat until they came to rest on that of his pipe.

In drawing his pipe from his cloak, he stumbled as he lost focus on where he was looking and almost dropped it onto the floor. His shadow quickly went into action and stabilized his footing so he could light it for a much needed puff from the flavorful plant. With pipe lit and vision returning to normal, he brought the job slip to his face and read its contents carefully. It promised fair pay and bloodshed galore for those who would undertake this dangerous task in demon infested lands. The thought of encountering demons in such a short time of joining the guild filled Zar with mixed motions of cautiousness and excitement. There's much he could learn from even the slightest piece of material from a living or dead demon; more specifically a wealth of arcane knowledge he could learn from its contents. He could tell from his face that Roy was eagerly awaiting an answer and slowly lowered the paper from his face to reveal a smug grin under the slightly tilted brim of his hat. "Well my friend, it looks like we're going to be smiting demons today, and buying new clothes when we're done. Sulfur stains fiercely on clothing," said Zar as his grin formed into a full blown smile of joyful excitement.

Spoiler:

Roy approached the door that was described to them by their client cautiously, whatever lay behind her probably wouldn't be good. Who ever hid something nice and beautiful behind scary doors deep within the earth? Roy smiled as he placed his hand on the door, no matter what lie beyond this point, it was bound to be fun.

Roy opened the door with a resounding creak and gasped slightly at the site, his eyes widening. This place was actually quite beautiful... it was even lighted, so Roy had no need to use his fire magic to light the place. The light were composed of crystals that glowed and reflected off the moisture of the cave, and the vegetation here even radiated a soft pale light. It was truly truly breathtaking, especially as it bounded off of the clear surface of the water, giving off an almost mystical reflection inside the cave.

Roy noticed as he was scanning the cave that there were some things however, that were less than beautiful in this place. Shadows, darted back and forth in the corners of his eyes. Every time that he looked to were he saw them they were gone. It was a bit foreboding to be honest, and a stark contrast the natural beauty of the cavern. Roy's fist tightened as he clenched it around his knife, he wouldn't let the natural beauty of this place distract him.

As he walked with Zar he noticed the rivers converging into one central point. He wondered why that was. He thought about it for a moment, then decided that it must because that was the only place where the cavern continued. At least that would make it easy to decide where they went if that was true.

"We should follow the streams Zar, I think that reason they intersect is because it's the only place to go in this cavern, any other direction would be pointless in this is the case."

As Roy continued to inspect the streams he tried to compose a poem about what the place looked like, and how he felt about it. After another moment of thought he murmured this to himself.  

Seven streams there were clear and grey,
flowing onward and showing the way.
The caverns endless night,
illuminated by glowing light.
By plants and crystal we are led,
Down the path were all seems dead.
Shadows move just beyond our eyes,
Ahead of us I do not know what lies.
But there is sure to be blood shed untold,
In the cavern where the waters run cold.
In the cavern where light and shadows abound,
In the cavern where dark things lurk all around.
In here there is a powerful magic in the air!
There is much here to fear, but so much is fair!


Roy smiled pleased with his works, however he grew slightly more reserved as they neared the end of the streams. Here he imagined they would begin to encounter some difficulties.

Spoiler:

The member 'Roy the Chanter' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

When they first entered the strange area, Zar's reaction was one of amazement and wonder. The sheer beauty of the area made one wonder why nobody knew about this place being so closely to Hargeon Town. The wall lining's vast array of glowing crystals illuminating the cave and reflecting off the water created a dazzling light show for all who were fortunate to gaze upon it. As he was continuing to enjoy the beautiful image laid before him, his eyes wandered in Roy's direction to notice his hand clenching a knife and cautiously watching the darkness as if something were watching us. He couldn't feel anything through his Shadow magic that would pose a threat at this moment, but that could change fairly quickly if Roy's worried glances proved truthful.

As they continued along the stream it converged on a single path and watched Roy study this debacle and come to a conclusion. He suggested that we follow the streams seeing as any other option would be foolhardy and Zar found himself agreeing with the mage. "Of course. With the layout of this cave we'd probably end up running into dead ends if we ventured off and killed by some monster," He laughed lightly. Continuing the length of the stream he heard humming coming from Roy, but couldn't make out the words. The humming did provide a soothing effect however and Zar was appreciative of that in such a quiet place. Although a shift in the cave's pressure as he felt a swift wind pass by him made him pull out Grendvalir and back up toward Roy. "Look alive my friend," said Zar loudly, "We've got some fun times coming our way after all."

However, the creature that appeared before Zar made him think otherwise. It stood well above him at almost fifteen feet from his rough estimate. It had long dagger-like claws the length of Zar's lower arm and carried a jagged sword of its own on its side. The beast dashed at Zar with lightning speed, leaving his field of vision, and came up beside him slashing which he narrowly dodged in time. In response to the attack he stepped out from the creature's shadow and commanded his sword to hold the beast in place and sap its life-force as it struggled desperately to break free. "I can't hold this thing forever Roy," said Zar in a worried tone as he struggled with the beast pulling on him and the sword, "It'll break free and rip us to shreds unless you bring it to heel."

Ah, and so at least one of the shadows has revealed itself in this cave. Roy snapped to attention as the beast targeted Zar, leaping upon him and nearly landing a devastating hit. Zar barely managed to dodge, and pulling out his sword seemed like quite the chore. He seemed slower than the demon to be honest, or at least on the same level, that was highly unfortunate. Roy was thankful for his families training as he sped towards the monster, helped being faster than majority of people that Roy dealt with. Of course the more accomplished wizards outclassed him, but not by nearly as much as they would imagine.

Roy quickly summoned his spectral hands, then told them to scatter, they slunk on the ground around the beast as Roy dashed in to attack with his knife. He managed to scrape the thing across it's back, but just barely. It was so tall and such a brute that Roy imagined such a thing couldn't have done much to it. The beast roared and turned towards him swinging it's massive sword. It moved with such speed and agility that Roy hardly had time to duck as it struck at him. His eyes widening in shock at the creatures speed. What was this thing! How could such a massive monster be this quick? Roy wondered. Roy didn't have time to think for long however, as the beast managed to stop his sword mid swing, and strike downwards with it. Roy dashed to the left almost being cleaved in two.

Roy found himself off balance as he landed, and stared up at the monster as he was left exposed to one of his attacks, the monster took a step forward and prepared to lunge, but as it did so Roy's Spectral hands all launched themselves forward and began to pummel the beast from behind, distracting it enough for Roy to dash forward and deliver a heavy blow with his knife to the beasts gut. This however exposed him greatly, and now that his distraction was all but done, he would have to rely primarily on Zar's aid to get him out of this situation. Normally Roy wouldn't take chances like this with people he didn't know, but Zar was his guildmate, and so for the sake of Sabertooth he would give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Zar!" Roy shouted hoping that he had been paying attention while all of this was going on, and hoping that he would take his cue and jump in to the battle.

Spoiler:

The beast had broken free and targeted its anger toward Roy after he had dealt it a blow with his knife. It was increasingly fast as it swiped left and right in an attempt to rip him apart. It was a deadly game of cat and mouse relying on Roy's ability to dodge effectively. If he faltered even once Zar knew Roy would be dead. Thankfully, Zar had a spell just for dealing with fast creatures. He channeled the shadows around him to collect under the creature and form a massive circle of pulsating dark energy that caused the creature to slow dramatically and repeatedly pummeled from the living shadows ripping it apart at the seams. It struggles as its speed was cut to free itself for a strike at Roy, and used every ounce of strength to move its body forward. It nearly reached Roy, but began to buckle with each step as the shadows continued to feast on its body and crumple into a heap of dead flesh writing as the shadows took hold of what was left.

Zar let out a sigh of relief as the creature, what was left of it anyway, ceased to convulse and confirmed its existence had ended. That was not a creature he would like to deal with again, but something told him there was more than likely more in store for the mage duo to encounter. Their lives would be in constant danger within this dwelling, but after an exhilarating experience with death he was more than excited to face whatever challenges lie ahead for them. As a quick added measure, and to collect samples, he chopped up the corpse of the creature and took parts of the horn, eyes, claws, tongue, teeth, and skin to add to his assortment of ingredients. These would undoubtedly lead to great strides in Zar's quest for arcane knowledge. When he had finished collecting the remains he looked to Roy to check on his partner for any visible signs of damage to his being. When he couldn't find any through quick observations he decided it best to approach and ask him. "I must admit I was certain you were dead when he swung at you in that last attack. You are quite the nimble adversary for any foe we encounter. Tell me, did you suffer any internal or external damage to your persons? I couldn't see anything from looking at you so I felt it necessary to get the answers from you." Since they barely knew each other, Zar wasn't sure whether or not Roy was the type of man who was too prideful to share his injuries with his comrades in the worry of being seen as a liability to him.

Monster Roll

The member 'Roy the Chanter' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Roy shook his head in answer to Zar's question. He hadn't received a blow, but he was certainly close to getting an appendage lopped off on more than one occasion. That was way to close for his own comfort. Without a word Roy signaled for Zar to follow him, he would lead the way deeper down in to the caverns. Roy moved as silently as he could, and even cast a haze spell on himself. He wouldn;t put it to use yet for Zar's sake but should something happen that would make it easier for him to disappear at a moments notice.

As they walked Roy stopped seeing shadows flitting in and out of his vision, but somehow that didn't offer him much comfort. It almost seemed like they had been made aware of their presence, and as such they no longer skulked in the shadows but hide in them, waiting for them to come a bit closer, to trip over to the wrong root, and then strike, when they were least able to defend themselves.

As if in complete contrast to Roy's thoughts, he came nearly face to face with one of the beasts as he rounded a corner, making no effort to hide itself or surprise them of any kind. Roy hardly had to time to sigh before the brute threw a wave of dark energy at him, which struck with so much force the was thrown into the cavern wall behind him, and shattered a few of the glowing crystals. He moaned as he opened his eyes and moved a hand to his forehead. The magical blast he endured had felt...strange. Almost like it was cold and hallow, and sucked the joy and life straight from his heart. But in all honesty that pain was being drowned out by the severe bruising that covered his back. Worst of all was the headache...Damn it hurt!

In the midst of Roy's suffering the demon wasted no time, and immediately launched itself at Roy raising it's sword and preparing to crush, or hack him to death with it. It was so large it could probably do both. As the sword came crashing down on Roy it stopped only inches from his face. Hitting Roy's Smoke Ring Shield, and nearly shattering it with one strike from it's sword. Roy smiled as the beast was halted, and smiled more as the shield spell slowly moved to envelope the beast, and begin crushing it. The beast reared backwards unaware of what was going on, and began to thrash about in an attempt to stop, Roy took advantage of this and flung a blast of fire from his arsenal of spells at it.

As the fire came towards the creature it somehow managed to find the ability to bring it's massive sword upwards and shield it's body with it, the flames merely dissipating around it. Roy was shocked at how strong this beast was an began to think that perhaps he and Zar had bitten off more than they could chew.

But he supposed that it didn't matter at this point. There was no turning back now, and of they did it would surely prove shameful to the guilds reputation. Yes, there was no choice but to put their best foot forward.

Spoiler:

The first encounter has left Zar suspicious of everything around him as they descended further into the depths of this cavern. Every shadow hid a dark looming presence behind it that was waiting for the opportunity to slit their throats wide open. None of this sat well with Zar even while being at home in such a dark setting where his powers flourished. As they continued to walk he stopped noticing any flickering in the shadows and stopped feeling any of the looming presences that once occupied them; it was almost as if their enemies had given up and chose to leave them alone. Zar knew better than to believe in such an unreasonable thought and chose to the safest option available to him by traversing through the shadows alongside Roy, remaining out of sight but not out of reach for when he needed Zar's assistance.

To his surprise, it was a smart move as Roy rounded the corner and walked straight into another one of the beasts they had fought back the way they had come from. It resembled the last one considerably and Zar couldn't help but think he was seeing the one they had killed all over again. Unless they had regenerative properties to restore mashed up limbs then this was more likely just another of the same creature that also happens to call this cave home. Roy was thrown back against the wall by some force of energy produced by the creature, creating a loud thud that bounced off the cave's walls. As he thought of his plan of attack, the creature approached Roy and slammed his sword down on him, but it surprisingly bounced off a now formed layer of smoke. The clouds enveloped the monster and then were set ablaze. Zar was about to rejoice at the creature's demise, but that soon faded as the flames disappeared off its skin. Now they knew fire magic wouldn't work on these foes, but Zar's magic would do just fine.

Staying a reasonable distance from the creature, Zar used his magic to form a pulsating orb of shadows upon the creatures back. It pulsated faster as it grew until it finally exploded, sending the creature flying over Roy and into the same wall it had thrown him into. Before the creature hit the wall, Zar teleported himself out of the shadows it was headed for and produced his greatsword for the creature to be sliced in half upon. The dismembered part fell to either side of Roy and violently thrashed about for a few moments before all life passed out of its vessel. Zar brought himself down to Roy's level and assisted him to his feet. "Something tells me that's the last time we're going to be lucky while we're in this cave," grunted Zar.

Monster Roll

The member 'Roy the Chanter' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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#1 'Monster Dice' :


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#2 'Monster Dice' :

Monster Roll

The member 'Roy the Chanter' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Roy saw the beast go down, his eyes trailing it as it fell. Without flinching he took his pipe out of his pocket and it having already been packed, he lit it and began to smoke from it. "Not bad Zar, not bad." Roy cast his eyes around the room wondering if anymore of these things would show up. For the moment it seemed that there weren't any near them. Roy got up with a grunt and went over to inspect the beast that they had just killed. He looked at from head to toe, and even inspected it's weapon. He puffed on his pipe a few more times and closed his eyes trying to remember where he had heard of something like this before. Roy thought back to his lessons with Balder, and what he had read in his books. All of the sudden he opened his eyes and grimaced angrily. These were demons...

Roy stood up and smoke collected around his clenched fist slowly drifting upwards towards the air. He felt fury building up in his stomach leaving a hollow burning sensation coursing throughout his body. These creatures were demons, foul demons from hell. Roy slowly held out his hand and the smoke that had been building up around him suddenly took form, and became a clone of Roy. He summoned a smoke chain in his hand as well and slowly advanced further down the cavern. He turned back to Zar with a dark look in his eyes as he spoke to him.

"I can't ask you to follow me Zar. I've just discovered that these things are demons. And as such, I can't possibly leave this place until I've killed them all, or until they've killed me. I'm going to draw out as many of them as I can, I know that's not wise but at the moment it doesn't matter."

Roy walked forward with his double again, far enough to hopefully attract a few of the demons. He started shouting loudly into the cavern. "Listen up you unholy scum, my name is Roy and I've slain countless of your kind in the past. To me you are nothing more than insects, an infestation, and annoyance. if you think I'm wrong than I dare you, come at me! Come taste my blood and flesh if you think your able!"

Roy smiled as he saw two hulking forms, much like the ones they had already killed approach him from further in the cave. They lifted their swords upon seeing him, and licked their lips. Perhaps thinking that he would go down easily. Roy wasted no time as he cast his smoke screen spell, filling the air with smoke, his haze illusion still in effect both him and his clone disappeared almost entirely into the smoke now filling up the cavern.

The two demonic beasts began to thrash about wildly with their swords, taking off large chunks of stone from the walls and scattering debris everywhere. Roy used his naturally enhanced reflexes and speed to get behind them with his clone, while he sat on his cloud near the ceiling, out of reach of their madness. He and his clone summoned a swarm of ten smoke hands each, all of them blending in perfectly with the smoke landscape before them. Then he summoned his smoke coffin spell, the one of the left taking the full force of the blow and becoming prone for a while. While the one demons was prone Roy sent all twenty hands after the maddened monster. Pummeling him nearly in to the dirt. Had this been a fair fight he was almost certain that his spells wouldn't have nearly the same effect on these beasts. But Roy never fought fairly, not unless he had too.

Roy's smoke hands would make fast work of the demon beneath his trap spell, but the one that wasn't released a powerful explosion of dark energy in the middle of his smoke hand barrage, destroying four of his clone's arms, but also hitting his friend, and damaging him as well. There was very little that the first demon could do at this point, suffering so much damage it finally died. Roy directed his chain at the next demon wrapping it up and tossing it against the wall until it fell against the body of it's fallen "comrade". Roy scoffed thinking about just how disgusting these abominations were, striking his own fallen comrade and putting an end to his life, just to deal a small blow against his opponent. He supposed it didn't surprise him, considering that he was dealing with demons.

As the demon was cast into the wall, Roy's smoking hands waited ready to demolish it as soon as it was within range, shooting upwards and spinning him in the air as they sailed into it and when the beast finally hit the floor and tried to move, it found itself unable to do so struggling against the chains unsuccessfully. His eyes widening in temporary fear as the hands all crashed down against it again. The demonic brute met it's ending there, and Roy smirked, the battle having gone much easier then he thought it would. Though this smirked turned into a very surprised expression indeed as a huge brutal hand gripped him from behind and threw him into the ground. Roy had had the air knocked clean out of his body as this happened and his pipe fell to the floor with a clink spilling a few ashes on to the cavern floor. He wasn't sure how the demon had seen him but perhaps...perhaps it had smelled his smoke. Damnit, Roy thought. He didn't think he would be able to miss any demons from that vantage point but it seemed like one had followed him. As Roy lay on the ground prone a 15 ft hulking beast landed before him, blasting him with another bolt of dark energy and sending him deeper in to the cave outside of his smoke screen. Roy's body hit the ground and he rolled several times before coming to a full stop.

It seemed the demon was smart enough to shoot this blast where he had thrown Roy, knowing that he would be far to prone to move. It was actually pretty clever, fighting an opponent as hard to see as Roy it made sense to utilize ones other senses, and make accurate assumptions as to where Roy would be. The thing was so fast that as soon as Roy stood up it launched itself at him with blade in hand, and ready to skewer Roy. Roy looked up with hardly any ability to move, expecting to be run through any second now he prepared another spell, perhaps this would be where he died, but this thing was coming with him!

Just then the beast's sword impaled Roy's body, running him through with a well placed stab to the chest, as it raised it's gruesome blade with Roy's limp body attached to it, it smiled evilly and opened it's fearsome maw to take a bit out of Roy's carcass. Only to look up in confusion as the body attached to it's massive sword popped into a puff of smoke. It looked around in ange wondering what was going on, and then saw a trail of blood leading back in to the cloud of smoke. It roared loudly and began to blast ball after ball of darkness into the smoke trying desperately to hit Roy.

All of the sudden another smoke cloud formed around the beast, this time it came from a smoke bomb, a mundane item that caused a similar effect as his smoke screen spell. The demon caught up in this trap started swinging it's sword to and fro as it lost itself in a wild frenzy. Soon enough Roy's smoke hands launched themselves forwards and struck the beast. Only six of them remained after Roy's smoke clone was destroyed, and those balls of darkness were sent in to smoke. But six would have to be enough for the moment, at least enough to cause a distraction. The demon fought with those hands and after they struck him several times he was finally able to destroy each one of them, until only one remained. This hand landed one last blow on the beast, but was then run through by it's massive magical sword and destroyed. Finally all of the smoke clouds cleared, and the demon looking each way found Roy standing behind him, nursing a quite a few bleeding wounds, but smiling grimly nonetheless.

The beast was somewhat shocked as Roy charged him and raised his fist to strike him. He could hardly do more than run forward at the moment, at least so it seemed by looking at him, so the demon charged ahead at Roy lifting it's blade in the air and striking downward at him, Roy's body suddenly lifting and positioning himself away from the cavern wall, as beneath his feet formed his smoke cloud. Riding on this it only served to increase his momentum even more, as well as aiding him in dodging the creatures blade. Roy shouted loudly as he came face to face with the massive demon, completely caught unawares by this attack, and being struck soundly in the face by Roy's fist, which almost immediately erupted in flames, and ignited the methane gas that he had slowly filled the area with. Delivering a devastating blow, followed by a massive explosion and finally taking the damned monster down. Roy's cloud set him down near his pipe, which he immediately picked up and igniting with a quick burst of sparks, he started to smoke from it again.

His heart beat finally slowed down, and Roy decided that he would use a few of the health restoring items that he was given for every quest by the Sabertooth guild to take care of his numerous bleeding wounds, and the even more prominent damage that his body had taken from thrashed about by the demon's strength and magic.

He breathed deeply of his smoke, and some fresh, finally feeling his heart beat slowing down. He looked around wondering where Zar was. Now that his anger had subsided somewhat, and he was able to think rationally.

Spoiler:

Monster Roll x2

The member 'Zar Valarblood' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Zar had no idea what to make of what Roy had just told him; these were genuine demons from hell walking around in the underbelly of Earthland. These hulking bestial manifestations of primeval intent were supposed to be nothing more than mere legends, but instead, here they were at every possible moment trying to kill the two of them with the ferocity of rampaging bulls. For any normal person this would send them into a frantic fit of fear and shock, immobilizing them to any rational thought process, but in Zar's case, he was thoroughly thrilled with the prospect of an immaterial force that is considerably unknown to the majority of the world. It presented an opportunity for academic discovery and cataloging of the species that wouldn't come around any other time in his life no doubt.

He already possessed multiple samples of the creatures they had vanquished within these halls and could do with a few more added extremities from the others that were shadowing their every movement. There was, however, a great danger to this line of thinking as it would present a hint of carelessness that Zar couldn't afford, (and to a lesser extent, Roy) as they were dealing with enemies that possessed powers not known to this world. Those dark matter energy blast they created were something of interest to Zar because they left no visible trace of impact when they hit their intended target. Instead, they acted as a kinetic force with extreme blowback against whatever they struck and increased the damage of impact against surfaces. It was almost as if they magnified the pain intensity of those who were hit by them instead of being the main inflictor of damage. It was something he would have to consider when he met their next demonic adversary, one he would take alive and unwillingly captive.

At this moment, Roy was walking further away from Zar and shouting out an Alpha's challenge to those demons that still were reluctant to show their faces. He meant to restrain him from drawing unwanted attention but elected not to do so as it would bring Zar exactly the type of attention he needed for his future experiment. In preparation for what was to come, he concealed himself within the shadows closest to him and pulled their essence into his own pool of magical energy for the coming battle. It enveloped him like a living cloak of darkness, embracing Zar as its wielder and granting him a boon of power to crush his foes. He felt some regret leaving Roy to fend off the creatures himself, but from the past two fights he had yet to see Roy hold his own against them. He needed to see what he would be capable of doing if they ever were to get separated down in this dark pit of despair that continued to swallow them further into its gullet. If Roy couldn't survive on his own against greater odds than he wasn't the type of partner he was searching for; the person to have his back needed to be an able-bodied mage, a quick thinking reactionary who acted first and thought as the situation evolved so he could exploit it. These were the types of characteristics that kept any self-respecting mage alive to tell his tales of adventure to his guildmates.

The shadows continued to feed his insatiable strength as the demons pressed onward in their relentless strike on Roy's safe haven he'd carved out for himself to protect from their attacks. His smoke attacks prevailed in confusing and deflecting the demon's attacks at every opportunity, already ensnaring one of the two demons to deliver a pummeling of smoke hands into its body. The other one took the opportunity and caused a massive explosion in the middle of his barrage of smokey hands that hit Roy and killed the demon's comrade. It seemed the myths were also true on a demon's 'loyalties' toward others; they didn't exist in the slightest with this demon's willingness to slaughter its friend to kill Roy. It was befitting of such a savage beast with a drive only for blood and gore. It allowed Zar first-hand insight into more of these creatures behavioral traits on how they act toward their own kind. He was thankful it had performed in such a distasteful manner toward one if its own so that he didn't have to trouble himself with the task of replicating the observation himself.

Things turned into a gruesome scene as there was a third demon that came from behind roy and slammed him into the ground. The fighting between them grew intensive and Zar felt this would be the end of his short friendship with Roy that ended in the darkest depths of the underworld. There was a sickening crunch as Roy slammed against the floor with the creatures attack, the sound of bones cracking, and it didn't stop there for the creature launched a dark energy blast directly where it had thrown Roy. It used this as an opportunity to close the distance to Roy and run him through with his sword. Zar could only look on in shock as the battle quickly turned against Roy and left him with a grievous wound. He was ready to leap into action until he saw the body dissipate into smoke and leave the monster confused and aggravated. Zar had to suppress the laugh that tried escaping from the sheer stupidity of himself and the monster for not seeing this happening infront of him. It was a mess of smoke and mirrors that eventually brought the creature down as smoke enveloped it in a cloudy coccoon and sealed the creatures fate. It started with roy's hands coming forth and pummeling the creature into submission much to Zar's delight, the creature fighting in vain against the smoke-made hands, and did considerable amounts of damage upon its body before it finally struck one of the hands with its magical blade.

The final confrontation of the two seemed to leap from the pages of fiction, as the two squared off with the Demon seemingly in shock at Roy's presence standing behind him and not attacking. The demon foolishly charged at Roy in his bloodied state to bring a quick end to his life, but Roy was nimble on his feet as Zar observed him floating away from the striking blade that came down upon him. The culprit behind this illusion was what appeared to be a fluffy cloud made entirely of smoke that increased Roy's speed and maneuverability considerably in his current situation. As Roy approached the creature to strike him, the stench of gas tickled the inner workings of Zar's nose just before flames erupted from where Roy and the Demon once stood moments before. The large explosion shook the cave considerably and left Roy battered and bruised as he saw him reach for one of the many health potions the two had been given for their mission. He was more than pleased with the results of the fight and within his empowered state, Zar took himself from his shadow enveloped confines to rejoin Roy. On the way to reunite with Roy, he heard the sound of rock and rubble being stepped on behind him. As he turned to investigate he found himself staring up at two more of the demonic forces that must have been lurking nearby and alerted by the explosion. One was just like the others they had been fighting through the cave, but the other was much shorter and seemed to be leading the larger demon. The strangest thing about the two was that only the smaller demon continued to approach him, the other hanging back with arms crossed over its chest. As the smaller one approached Zar could hear faint giggling and whispers flood his ears from all directions around him. His head darted around as he tried to find the source of the whispers to no avail; they weren't real was the only solution he could come up with. They were manifestations of the creature meant to distract him from his foe. Even through identifying the forces that troubled his mind, they still posed at a distraction to his concentration. With all these strange new powers ebbing from this new form of demon, it was obvious to Zar that this was the demon he was meant to capture.

The demon sped up toward him with speeds faster than the others as he slammed into Zar's chest hard enough to send him sliding backwards with a throbbing chest. Zar grinned happily as he became an ethereal shadow, confusing the demon as it tried to decipher what Zar was up to. Zar increased movement through the shadowy terrain allowed for him to strike from the sides of the creature at great speeds, hitting it square in the chest and upper arms with deep cuts from his greatsword. The beast wailed in pain earning growls from the onlooking demon that continued to stay out of the fight, but was visibly angry at Zar for hurting the other one. With its unnatural speed it was able to step infront of Zar and bring its sword square down upon Zar, but passed right through him in his shadow state and allowing him to blast the creature with a barrage of shadows square into its face and sending it flying onto its back at the feet of the other demon. It was by no means defeated, as it slowly got back onto its feet and let out a horrifying wail, but this was enough to change the other demons stance from neutral to extremely aggressive. It sent out a blast of deathly energy square at Zar that hit him dead on, but didn't stop his advance on the lesser creature and inflicted minor injuries upon him. He closed the distance and plunged his sword into the beasts chest followed by a shadow bomb directly into where he had opened a wound within it. The creature was blasted asunder with a gaping wound in its chest, but somehow managed to get back on its feat with visible signs of regeneration. He looked to the other demon and saw it chanting some unintellible mantra that produced a dark purple glow around the demon it was affecting. Instead of waiting around for the demon to finish healing, Zar switched his targeting to the shorter demon and teleported behind him, bringing forth tendrils to ensnare the beast within and stop it from casting its spell. Instead of holding the creature, the tendrils burst into flames along with the demons body and blasted a ring of fire in all directions around him, slamming into Zar and charring his shadowy form leaving him burnt and in a considerable amount of pain. His rage kicked in and he swiftly teleported behind the demon that was being healed, slamming him toward the other demon, and forming a large pool of pulsating dark energy at their feet that rooted them to the ground and continuously struck them. The large demon quickly succumed to its injuries as the healing wasn't enough to sustain it any longer and it crumpled to the ground to be consumed by shadows. The other demon however, continued to struggle and intensify the voices in Zar's head, causing him a massive headache that served only to aggravate him further. He slammed the pommel of his blade into the entraped demons head and soon had the demon join his friend in the shadows that consumed them both for later use.

He appeared next to Roy, chaning back into his normal form, and pulling out his healing items to tend to his burns and bruises. The physical attacks had been no affect to Zar other than some residual energy from the dark blasts, but the fire magic had left his entire right arm and parts of his sided burning severly that even the slightest movement was filled with the pain of being eaten alive. He applies a burn salve from his personal stores that quickly began eating away at the dead flesh and healing his wounds while he drank two full healing potions to get him back into top shape. He looked at himself and then to Roy before finally releasing his surpressed laugh from earlier, and shoving his elbow into Roy's side. "I think we finally learned something today; luck is a force that only works for us when it feels like it, because I sure as hell didn't have as easy a time with those two. I was sure that smaller demon would have me in the nut house if we survive this mission."

Roy viewed Zar's fight with the demons, his magic was interesting, and very intriguing. It seemed he had a great deal of power at his disposal, but he also seemed to employ a great deal of strategy in his attacks. That was good, it would stop one from becoming to reliant on their power. No matter how powerful one got, there was always someone or something out there that probably had more power. But if you took care to gain power, as well as intelligence. It helped to level almost any playing field. These demonic brutes as Zar was beginning to find out, were quite hardy. Especially the smaller ones, but Zar seemed to hold his own for a while.

He countered their brute force with his shadowy magic, slipping in and out of the shadows, and entangling them with his dark magic. They were so fast though that managed to escape his magic and his blade, delivering crashing blows to him, and even hitting him with their own magic. He recovered well enough though and in a brilliant display of magic and steel he managed to open one up and the further the damage with an explosive bomb of dark magic. Surprisingly the beast wasn't put down yet, but it did seem out for the count, and merely tried to concentrate on healing itself, while its partner began to fight with Zar.

Zar pulled out a few more strategies and spells, but managed to get himself burnt by the demon he was fighting. However this only served to fan the flames of his wrath, and he unleashed a deadly onslaught of attacks , finally finishing off the smaller demon, and moving on to the larger one, which hadn't finished healing yet. It fell quite easily with just a little more "convincing" from Zar. Strangely enough as Zar fought the demon he began to hear voices, many voices, all kinds of voices, it was maddening honestly.

He laughed with Zar as he got back to him, offering him his pipe for a moment as he spoke. "Aye, I think you have a point. By the way I'm not sure about you but when that smaller demon came around I could have sworn I could hear voices coming from every direction. Maybe it's just one of their magics, trying to distract or madden us. Shame to say but it's really effective, whatever it is."

Roy stood up now, hearing something else coming from down the hall. He sighed and took his pipe back for one last puff. "You just fought Zar. So take a rest, I'll let you handle the brunt of the next battle to make up for it." Roy left his pipe with Zar so he didn't break it, and so he could smoke it if he wanted. Cracking his neck and his knuckles he walked forward preparing for what was ahead of him.

Monster Roll

The member 'Roy the Chanter' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Three extremely tall demons appeared from the tunnel, but judging by the pattern they had just witnessed the bigger they were the less strong they seemed to be. As it was this was a very good thing, since Roy wasn't sure he could have handled anymore of those larger demons, since many of his spells had yet to recharge. He still had his chain for a while, his smoke ring spell, and his fire spell had recharged. But that was about it. He needed more magic honestly, and stronger weapons for when his magic ran out. Perhaps he should take up the sword once again, he wasn't sure if he was ready for that yet but soon enough he might be forced to, if he wanted to be able to survive the missions he was facing, which seemed to be increasing in difficulty every day. Roy struck one with his chain, then disappeared with his haze spell, turning up behind them and striking them again, they chased him further into the cave and away from Zar, as was his plan. He supposed he would have to hit them with a technique he called baiting. All of his other spells needed time to recharge.

Roy disappeared again with his haze spell but also used it to set up a stationary image of himself, he backed away from these creatures as they charged and struck at his illusion. buying him enough time to set up a few of his elemental lacrima that the sabertooth guild had given him, light, lightning, and fire.

By the time that the demonic brutes who seemed increasingly dim by the second figured out they were attacking an illusion, they looked around to find where the real Roy was. He appeared behind them, throwing a knife into ones back and waving at them casually, their anger increased and they sprinted towards him, only to find themselves staring down the face of Roy's explosive lacrima, it wouldn't matter how durable these creatures were or how large they were in the face of what he had prepared.

He tossed the explosive lacrima at the first ones feet knocking them back 3 meters, directly on to the pile of elementally charged lacrima crystals and detonating them. As they exploded a brilliant flash of light exploded in the cave, if it weren't Roy eyes being more resistant to blinding effects he doubted they could have handled the massive amount of light head on, but as it was they could, and so Roy took great pleasure in watching his trap come to fruition, as the light crystal exploded with intense flashes, and the lightning crystal arched through the air searing the demons with it's powerful energy, followed by the amazing power of the fire lacrima charring all of the demons with it's intense heat, dealing extraordinary damage to all of them, and leaving little more than various charred pieces of demonic flesh and bone in their wake.

He turned back to make his way towards Zar, and picked up his pipe and stored it in his pocket when he returned. He looked at Zar for a moment and asked. "Ready? I think we're coming the end of the road here. Perhaps we should rest until our spells recharge?"

WC: 1029 including last post
TWC: 4584

As the three demons poured out of the tunnel, Roy wasted no time in engaging them quickly and efficiently. Zar watched the spectacle unfold from a distance, noticing that he was not at his strongest thanks to the last fight that almost ended their adventure. His movements were sluggish and winded, but he still had enough youth in him to carry himself to victory in this battle of life and death. Durning the fight he smirked as he noticed Roy using his spells to disappear and reappear behind them, conducting bait and switch tactics to lure them away from Zar; it was nothing short of a nuisance to the towering demon's that fell for it.

Not fooled by the bait as the demons were, Zar trained his eyes on where the real Roy stood to see he had set up some of the various lacrima traps the Sabertooth guild had given them for the mission. He used his dagger to bait them into the traps which ultimately were triggered and exploded, sending them flying into more traps that finished them off in a brilliant flash of lights and explosions. He came back to Roy and sat down, lighting his pipe, which Zar joined him in, and asked for time to recharge. Zar nodded in approval, "It would be a good idea, for I have the sneaking suspicion that we haven't met even the greatest adversary to lurk these caves. No, it will most likely be awaiting us at the end of the tunnel where those three came from. Also, don't mind the shadows creeping up near you, I'm just drawing directly from the source." Said Zar, chuckling lightly and puffing out a smoke ring.

Roy nodded and agreed with Zar, he would wait with him to let their spells recharge a little bit before going too much further. Roy decided to forgo smoking his pipe, he didn't want to get pipe bite, and he wanted to save some tobacco for when this was over, he was sure he would want some. Finally feeling that he had enough energy to use his spells again he cracked his knuckles, and his neck, and looked at Zar. I'd say it's about time no? Roy walked forward down the cave again with Zar by his side and pulled out his knife. He missed the feeling of a good long blade, but he wasn't sure if he could ever bring himself to wield one again.

Roy shook his head as he got distracted, he would need to keep his guard up if he hoped to survive this place. The last ten demons did quite a number on them, and if he wanted to survive he would have to give this his all. As they approached the next room Roy began to hear the faint sound of drums. He wondered what that could be, it certainly didn't sound like good news for them.

As they entered into the room Roy saw a strange stream inside of it, the waters flowed with a grace and dignity that he would almost call magical. For some reason he seemed drawn to it. But there were so many other things in the room that Roy could hardly glance at it before his eyes widened in astonishment from the number of demons in the room. Many of them seemed like small impish creatures, they were the ones that beat on the drum. There were however a few more of the demons that they had already encountered. They didn't seem like they were in a hurry to kill them however. Most disturbing of all was the humanoid demon that stood before them dressed in ceremonial garb. He was only a couple of inches taller than Roy, and given the pattern with these demons he imagined that that signified that he was the strongest of them. Much to Roy's surprise the demon spoke to them, very intelligibly at that.

"You trespassers seem like formidable wizards. But I assure you, you are no match for me. That being said, I've no reason to fight you. If you've come here for the water then take your fill and leave. If you persist on staying then I will be forced to execute you."

Roy took another step forward, fire in his eyes as he responded. "I've never heard of this water, but I'll certainly be taking some back with me. After, I kill you. See, I couldn't care less what you offer. No amount of gold or treasure or power is worth leaving a single drop of demonic blood unshed." He turned to Zar and told him. "There would be no shame in turning back for you now Zar. I'm sure the water offered to us contains powerful magic, I can feel it from here, and it doesn't seem like a trick. But I cannot. I can't step away from this fight, for the sake of my family my pride, and all that is holy."

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