Tower of Telos: Level 1 - Jungle Warfare

[CallmePrismatic]

"Well...this is new..." Job tightened his grip on the knives on his hips as he looked around the newest locale.

The first two floors had been relatively sane, typical stone and mortar preperations, peppered with a mixture of goblins, skeletons, and goblin zombies. Aside from the underling welcoming committee nothing had really garnered much attention. This floor however...

"I mean, everyone else is seeing a jungle right?" Indeed, the group didn't blend in well with the overly green and brown tropical setting. Some unidentified light source seemed to emenate from all around them, basking the flowers and vines and trees around them. Job stared straight up and squinted. "A jungle with a stone ceiling, so we're still in the Tower I guess..."

Withdrawing his knives Job looked around and noticed a beaten path that proceded in front of him. Before he could make more than two steps a whip flew out from a nearby bush, entangling one of his blades. Job's eyes followed the weapon's lines until he came upon a humanoid figure, about three feet tall, chittering excitedly to some other unseen figures.

"Sorry pygmy, stronger figures have tried." The rubies on the ceremonial knives flared an intense red while flames engulfed the knife, setting the whip alight as well. Like a dynamite wick the whip burned to it's source, lighting the ambusher's hand aflame, causing him to run into the group's clearing, his body turning a dark brown before charring into nothingness. All that remained before them was a shell of a person, composed prinicpally of...

"Flowers? Who would make a flower elemental?" There was a rustling around them, and the previous chittering grew in volume, followed by the bushes seperating and spilling forth a cornucopia of the diminutive warriors, some wielding whips, although a few bows and a lot of spears made up their personal arsenal.

"Ok, who would make a shitload of the buggers?" Job readied his knives into fighting position as the rubies flared up. "Doesn't matter, good warm-up practice."

[Fuzzydoom]

Bronze-in-Snow's yellow eyes snap about the clearing, quickly assessing the situation and devising a startegy. His eyes flare and the smoldering remains of the flower elemental seem to erupt in a geiser of flame. The geiser launches balls of flame that fall into the forest.

Snow's fox-fire scatters in a precise pattern, using his keen hearing and smell he pinpoints the location of each elemental (they are made of flowers after all) and is careful not to get too close to the little floral beasts. The illusory flames serve their purpose, causing the elementals to leave the cover of the forest and engage the group in a head to head battle. Snow seems to smile, knowing that he has, in one fell swoop, reduced the elementals' advantages to one of numbers. An advantage easily overcome by individuals such as those he fights with.

His fur turns to bronze as he leaps upon the nearest flower creature. Tearing its throat out he gets a mouth full of flowers. Great, all that work and they taste like flowers. he thinks to himself as he turns to attack another pygmy, even as the rest of the small group engages in combat.

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith had her wings folded in while the jungle was dense, but in the clearing she spread them out. The enemy was too tightly packed and had to be thinned in order to be manageable. And this was where the Wing Bursts came into play. The short gusts of wind excalated quickly into powerful blasts, causing the initial arrows from the enemy to find the ground earlier than usual, unable to fly through Shirith's defense and hit anyone. The closest enemies had trouble keeping their footing as evidenced by some of them being knocked down.

[Premmy]

OOC: I'm assuming that like all plant creatures they are susceptible to low as well as high temperatures
IC:She found herself surrounded by the pygmies. She stood there for a few moments as they jumped and screamed in their high pitched tongue. She waved and smiled cheerily. "Hi guys" she held her hands out at her side, snapping her fingers. Spheres of glowing flames formed in her hands. She raised both hands up intot he air and slammed them back down in a flash. The underbrush quickly ignited and formed a barrier between her and the flower creatures. The leaped back and screamed in shock. "Wait Wait I'm not done yet!" She Held her right hand out, resting it on top of her left arm. Her fingertips glowed with a blue light and A chilling wind shot out of her hand. She swept it across the small group around the outskirts of the flame, simultaneously dousing the fire and freezing her enemies solid. She then started running through them, kicking up her legs as she moved and shattering the frozen statues. "This is funnnnnnn!"

[Whightwolf]

"This is funnnnnnn!"
Sarragon smirked, Sarah was certainly eccentric, but then the same could be said for him. Leaping he planted one foot on a tree trunk and leapt again.

Landing smoothly in the crook when the trunk split into two boughs. Reaching over his shoulder he drew out his short bow, beautiful, the dark wood freshly oiled, the edges of the wood inlayed with silver scrollwork. Notching a long barbed shaft, he drew it back, the grey goose feather tickling his cheek. He paused his breathing for just a moment stilling his body as he fired.

One of the things sprouted a new feathered appendage, making an inhuman screaming noise it recoiled. Then staggered forward once more.

“Seriously though? Flower Pygmy Golem Jungle things? I mean really.”

Sighing he continued close support, shooting anyone (-thing?) who tried to surround the party and generally trying to keep the ignorant alive long enough to get him to the top of his tower…

[Tarrin]

"Damn" thought Bane these things were too close to use his naganata, Oh well his trusty swords would do.
Running towards the closest Flowerchild his hands started slicing downward, The Golem didnt even try to defend itself, Noe weapons were in Banes hands.
Not untill the last second anyway, tow tanto style swords flashed into existance severing the unsuspecting plant in twane.

Spinning around Bane shot a quick look to see how everyone else was doing, The group was holding their own but there were so many of these things.
Suddenly Bane heard a snap behind him, A large stone sword impacted into the ground where Bane had stood.
Appearing two meters above the Golem Bane cursed himself for getting distracted, As he landed back on the ground the Golem found itself in three even pieces, Bane just turned looking for another target.
"Thank dad for teleporting" flashed thru Banes mind.

[PhoenixFlame]

Kynraze wasn't particularly impressed by the jungle pygmies, but nor was she impressed by the landscape. It was so... so green. Nothing she'd really interacted with before, well, until now, that is. Most of the jungles native to her home plane were red, and weren't really jungles at all. They tended to be rather dangerous, also.

Thomas, her new master, was a particularly odd fellow for a demon-summoner, as it would seem.

The Dremora coughed weakly as a single pygmie charged at her, weilding it's flower-whip as it if could actually harm her. Perhaps it could, but the pygmie lacked a few things that Kynraze had.

Namely reach.

A pair of quick swings from her daedric claymore, and the pygmie being was reduced to two much smaller pygmy beings, and then four even smaller pygmie beings. None of them were alive.

"Rrgh. Pathetic." she snorted with a steely, unamused rasp.

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith's Wing Bursts ended, not because she was exhausted, but because the monsters finally reached her. A swipe of a talon snapped one of their spears, and Shirith grabbed the disarmed pygmy and slammed it to the ground, standing on it as she slapped two more away with a bash of her beautiful wings.
Once enemies got too close for comfort, Shirith augmented her strategies to suit her situation and foes. Talons for clawing and grappling, wings for slapping, flying, and single or double Wing Bursts. Shirith's combinations were never the same. A slap here, a swipe there, hopping back to avoid a spear thrust or arrow. A Wing Burst to knock down enemies that were starting to crowd her. She would take the opportunity to eat one or two, but she was strictly a carnivore and getting overwhelmed. Shirith was already bleeding from several successful, though minor injuries.

[Raiden]

"Don't worry about their strength. They're just the welcoming party. If the first two floors meant anything, stronger enemies will show up. Then you can play as you wish."

A man with a scar on his left eye, a wide-brimmed hat, and a long leather coat that went down to his ankles. A strange amulet hung about his neck, small runes imprinted on the ancient metal glowed in the slight darkness from his jacket. He walked beside Kynraze and looked about, his strangely blue eyes scanning the area.

"If we're lucky, then I might even join you in the fight."

[IHateMakingNames]

Mark stood in the back watching everyone fight. He had no skills, and the items he had found so far were only defensive. Setting himself on fire wouldn't help anyone, and he would probably get in the others way if he usd his gloves. So he decided he would just sit back until the group runs across a weapon he can take and use.

[Fuzzydoom]

Snow's abilities had proved perfect for these enemies. Stupid and afraid of fire, Snow leaps from one batch of fox fire to another, using geurilla tactics to strike again and again. He glances over and sees Shirith getting swarmed, and moves to help. A ring of fire materializes around Shirith, driving the pygmys back from her.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a pillar flame seems to leap skyward between the pygmys and Shirith. Out of the flames steps a visage of firey destruction Snow's fur, gleaming in the illusory fire light, each bristle sparking and bursting suddenly into flame, his eyes burn with a light that gives him a surreal appearance. The golems take an involuntary step back as the fire-fox (like the browser?) opens its jaws and flames issue forth, giving Shirith room to use her most destructive weapons, her wings. (all the firey stuff is illusory, just so ya know.)

[Toastburner B]

Alanna wasn't sure how she found herself in the middle of the fight. Compared to many in her group, she was naught but a infant when it came to fighting.

However, she was still skilled enough to hold her own.

One of th pygmys closed in on her with a feral grin. They've probably seen healers before, she thought to herself as the creature charged. But it seems they haven't come across a Noray healer.

The creature almost seemed surprised as the elf pulled a rapier from her side and quick as a snake, struck, neatly placing the blade through the eye pygmy's eye. With another quick movement, she swept the blade right, take the top of the monster's head with it. On most monsters, the move wouldn't of done much, but the blade cut through the plant matter much easier than it would of bone.

Looking around, Alanna saw that Shirith was hurt, but she didn't dare move in to heal the harpy just yet. The bird-woman was deep in combat, and Alanna figured she had just as much chance of getting struck by the harpy as getting in close enough to heal. Then, Snow's fire encircled Shirith. Alanna sighed, knowing that he harpy had gotten more help than the elf could offer at the moment.

Forced to wait, the elf worked her way to the outskirts of the fight. She'd need her energy to heal the wounds after the battle.

[lazy man]

Toorima stood on the sidelines, watching the fireworks from a few of the other group members. The mostly dead man wasn't exactly content on beating up little midgets with sticks, so the sidelines were actually kind of nice.

Of course, with the number of little flower power warriors, the sidelines weren't exactly safe for very long. Sighing and putting his hand on his sword, Toorima drew with a rather lively speed for a man that looked as dead as him.

Extending from the tip of the blade as it slashed, a copy of the sword slashed, and another on the tip of that, and more and more in a chain that extended up to twenty feet. As the copies made contact, the golems just seemed to fall over dead; no cuts or anything. Toorima, however, could see their spirits ripped apart by the Ghost Slash.

Looking out at the damage, Toorima could see a large number of the little things dead, but, with the slash being in a straight line, there were still a lot more. With a bit of an annoyed look on his face, Toorima prepared himself for the wave of annoying little freaks.

[Dark Seraphim]

When Alanna worked her way to the sidelines, she failed to noitice a flower archer aiming at her. Fortunatly, a large cat pounced from the closest tree; he then flipped it over and tore out its throat. As the lifesap drained out of his prey, Alfador looked around the battlefield, partly to assess what happened, partly to see if anyone noticed his grand entrance.

The flowers that lay strewn about the ground indicate that there were a lot more of them then he thought when he went scouting. Looks like he has to wait to give a report...

The eleves, people, the fox, and the bird freak seemed to be handling the flowerbeasts well. However, a small group was cloising in on the phantom he thought as he dashed towards Toorima's attackers.

[Premmy]

Sarah was now knocking through the waves of pygmies, why waste fire and ice when her long legs were just as good? they flew to and fro as she kicked up dust and pumped her arms with a blissfully ignorant look on her face.. She moved through them until a whip lashed her thigh. "Owwww. Oh hell no, oh helllllllll mutha fuckin no."

She screamed like an angry child and snapped her fingers, forming new fireballs ad flinging them down with no real attention payed to direction. The repeated sound of snapping, explosions and flowerchild screams mixed together into a cacaphonious noise as Sarah fumed and fussed unintelligbly at the golems.

She finally stopped as the area around her was left smoking with the smell of burnt potpourri wafting through the air. she spied Alanna out of the corner of her eye, trying to ease away from a swarm of flower children. She dashed in, blasting cold air into the fray and landing with a thump between Alanna and the crazed beasts. She smiled and flashed a thumbs up sign before freezing the ground below the pygmies, sending them skittering all over and falling down onto each other.

[Tarrin]

Bane had yet to work up a sweat, However the weeds that had been attacking him had been vanquished, Looking around the others seemed to have their opponents on the ropes as well.

One group had however huddled at the back obviously not the fighters of their little band, Should have remembered those guys Bane said to himself as he made his way over to Mark slashing one of the golems before it could latch onto his face.

[GARUD]

The group was fighting against quite a few... plants. Garud sighed and unlatched his blade. The behemoth in size being was very overbearing. He was absolutely huge, and as he'd cleave his opponents in various places, there was pain felt by all (enemies) as he just started to chop them up. 3 bodies fell in quick succession.

A slightly bigger pigmy approached. He was rather large in comparison to other pigmies. Still, he was small and weak in comparison to the huge Dark Angel. Well, thats what he thought. Garud drove the blade down but the enemy deflected the blade deftly with his spear. Garud then took another stroke, but with avengeance. he used his tri-blade ability. The pigmy blocked the first, but didn't see the last two coming, and well... when sword meets flesh, flesh cries... with RED TEARS.

"This is a nice fight!"

Garud stated it with authority. He liked violence ALOT!

(4 down, God knows how many to go.)

[Heliomance]

Flaris grinned. These things lookd like they burnt easily. He pulled two knives from his belt and twirled them in his hands. He concentrated briefly, and a line of fire ran the length of the blade edge, before covering the knife entirely and turning it to pure elemental flame. He selected two targets and hurled the knives with deadly accuracy, watching as the fire quickly consumed the pygmies. Smiling, he pulled out two more knives and repeated the process, taking out pygmy after pygmy from the sidelines.

(If the character gets vetoed, I'll delete the post, just wanted to join in before it was too late to do so for this level)

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith's attacks gave Snow's illusory fire more realism as additional Wing Bursts seemed to push at the fire as well. A hop back again, the harpy swiped up a pygmy and tried using it as a makeshift weapon, though clumsily. Her feet weren't made for gripping things and she was forced to hold it at its "torso", which gave her only a foot or so in reach. It was a weird fighting style and a bizarre sight to behold, seeing Shirith standing on one leg, extending her wings for balance as she swung the captured monster and clubbed over the nearest enemies. At times she managed to slap down a few creatures with her wings while maintaining her stance.

[CallmePrismatic]

Job's knives danced around him, reducing the elemental pipsqueaks to burning tatters. As he stood in the middle of the smoldering compost he wasn't too amazed. Whoever had planned this opening salvo had a serious problem underestimating.

From somewhere beyond the clearing down the path a low, bassy hiss coursed through everyone's ears and the remaining non-ravaged pygmies underwent what Job entitled the Un-Flowering; Before the group's eyes the elementals returned to their base forms, their bodies floating into technicolored blooms.

Job's ears perked up as he strained to pick up some faint sounds down the path. A quick nod to the group and Job melded into the landscape, his outline still traceable to those who knew what they were looking for. Moving slowly he went down the path until he came upon another clearing, this one larger and seemingly built for a purpose. In the middle a large snake seemed to be arguing with a much more pronounced gorilla.

"They ssseem to have gotten passst my creationsss."
"Gee, what a suprise. Like those goddamn little freaks ever stopped anyone."
A third voice, higher than the first two, entered the conversation but was shrouded by the plumage of the forest to Job. "I'm suprised they don't die of embarassment upon creation. Who's turn is it now?"
The gorilla turned to the third voice, as the snake had seemingly slithered off. "Forget turns, we end them, all together."

The third voice might have replied, but Job became more concerned with the immediate fact that something was attempting to compress his lower body into a more travel friendly size. His shadow-melding drained away from him and he saw the disgusting face of the snake, although now he also saw that along with a human-ish face his new captor was equipped with a set of arms and armor made from bones and leaves.

"I can sssee your heat." The thing hissed into Job's ear, and with another compression it looked back at it's friends. "I caught the firssst one!"

With his last gasp of breath before it would all be forced out of him, Job managed to yell. "Guys, HELP!"

[PhoenixFlame]

Job wasn't far away from Kynraze, and she had little else better to do. Of course, Thomas didn't bother telling her to protect him, so she might have ignored it. Regardless, the fact that Job was the first to encounter a worthy adversary certainly piqued the dremora's interest. Certainly more interesting than flower-beings.

"Hold Sstill." she rasped to Job, sliding toward the Anaconda in question and raising her claymore in a powerful overhead slash. The giant snake could do little to dodge as it was constricting Job, but it's attempt to squirm away was not in vain, assisted with strategically moved plant-debris to facilitate a sort of crude parry. The blackened-red blade of Kynraze's sword bit deeply into the snake's side, but failed to sever it entirely.

[Whightwolf]

Even as the last of the flower things had fallen Sarragon had been gathering his arrows and loping off into the jungle behind Job. Keeping a safe distance but always keeping the man in his sights. It never paid to let scouts go unwatched.

"Guys, HELP!"
Even as the words left his lips he heart a faint swish noise. Even as he turned to see what it was he felt something sharp nick his ear and a feathered shaft apparently erupted from the snakes shoulder. The beast shrieked, writing, it wrenched the barbed shaft out. Just as the demoness thing took a slash at it, digging deep into the beasts side.

Even as the blow landed the Tiefling was launching a second arrow, burying deep into its outer coils. As he did so the beast screamed again, hurling Job aside. The snake-thing reared up, its arms swirling in swift intricate gestures, surrounding it in a deep, dark, malevolent, green corona. Even as Sar drew back his third shaft, still with a petal skewered on one of the barbs, vines whipped down all around him, hauling him up off his feet and into the trees. Dropping his bow he began wrestling with the vines, groping for his shortsword. Hmm perhaps not a first class rescue… Oh the hell with it.

“Sarah! Shirith!” He yelled at the top of his lungs. “Get me down!” The last came in an almost pleading tone. Hell’s teeth he hated asking for help.

[secretskull]

Curel had been watching the fight against the elementals with interest for a while, but by now he was bored. It was then that he heard Job. "Yes!" He cried. "Something finally happens." He ran at the snake, two daggers suddenly blooming in his arms. He leaped on the snake, slashing at it repetitively. The cuts weren't deep, but managed to aggravate the snake and it snapped at Curel. Just as the snake opened its mouth, Curel's hand shot forward, throwing a knife into its open maw. But this attack came at a price, even though he managed to throw the knife into his mouth, the snake also managed to bite him. Even though it didn't swallow him whole, it took off a sizable chunk out of his arm. It didn't hurt him too much, but unlike other shadow beings, Curel couldn't regenerate his arm, though he could likely reattach it. Assuming he got it back that is.

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith was airborne the moment her name was shouted. The vines were difficult for her to deal with as she wasn't used the combat against the narrow and mobile flora. Actually, Shirith found her talons as useless as trying to smack them away with her wings. She tried neither and instead relied on something a little more effective.
While what Shirith sang was unintelligible even though it was beautiful to listen to, the results pointed out her methods easily enough. Lightning Sting. Jagged rays of glowing electricity shot down and pounded on the vines like heavy rain, the impact much more painful than it looked. The vines tried to restrain their captive but were forced to abandon their attack as more and more lightning struck them.

[Fuzzydoom]

Snow watches the others engage the snake creature, and decides there is not much he could do to help them. As such he slips off into the underbrush to find a good place to dig a quick, small burrow and take a nap. Then he detects a second scent. He can't quite place it but he advances quickly and stealthily through the bushes and finds himself staring at the flank of a huge gorilla. Snow slips back quietly towards the battle with the snake, even as the gorilla looks over in that direction, hearing the sounds of battle.

[Toastburner B]

Alanna was preparing herself to jump in the battle when she heard rustling in the leaves above her. She dodged out of the way As a cat warrior landed in the spot where she had been. The leopard warrior turned and looked at the elf, a smirk on it’s face.

“It’s not often that the prey who stays back has the presence of mind to look for danger from above.” The cat person growls.

“Yeah, well…I not your average hea-“ Alanna began, but rolled out of the way again, this time a warrior landing a club blow where she had just been.

“Seriously, guys, this is getting old.” Alanna rasped. Come on guys, now would be a good time to notice that your healer is about to get mauled…

Another rustle of leaves, but this time Alanna did not move. Quickly chanting under her breath, she spun and raised her sword in the direction of the sound. A beam of light leapt from the sword into the air and into a third leopard warrior that was mid-pounce. With a shriek, the cat fell to the ground, clearly dead.

“I told you it was getting old,” Alanna said.

The surviving two leopard warriors attacked. Alanna launched herself a defensive routine, but the two warriors were too fast, never leaving an opening for a counter attack. But Alanna was fast enough to keep her defensive intact…for the time being.

“Help!” she yells to no one in particular, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before the cats overwhelm her.

[Whightwolf]

“Thank you Shir-” Sar yelled as he fell, landing in three pointed crouch, one hand forward on the ground. “-ith” He finished quietly, how many times had she saved his ass now? Best not to think about it, least till the killing was done.

Snatching up his bow, mercifully unharmed by its fall, he notched an arrow and slinked into the jungle.

“Help!” The scream rose up through the jungle just to his right, damn, well one good turn deserves another he guessed. Shouldering aside a bush he found himself a few steps away from Alanna being attacked by two bloody jaguar men, what kind of tower was this? They jinked and dived around her looking for an opening… no clear shot.
“Bloody hell.” He moaned. Looping the bow over his shoulder he drew his shortsword and ran forwards.

As one half turned it got the one thing it wasn’t expecting. The apparent human planted his left hand flat against his back. Focusing for a mere moment was enough.

Little bolts and arcs of lightning leapt around the planted hand as the Tiefling channelled the power of his dark heritage. The Jaguar man yowled, its back arching unnaturally, taking his hand off after a mere moment revealed a hand print of raw cracked flesh on the jaguar beast. Into the centre of which Sar lunged his shortsword, breaking the tender flesh easily and slipping between the beasts ribs. The distraction was one of mere moments but it was enough for the healer to ‘stick’ the remaining cat-man through the throat.

Panting he grins.
“See its not always knights in shining armour to the rescue.”

[Heliomance]

Flaris flung himself into the fray, throwing several firey knives at the snake in quick succession. A vine snaked over his shoulder, and he slashed it, the flames burning it to the root. The snake lunged at him, and he launched two of his knives down its throat. In mid air, one of them turned wispy and ethereal, the other becoming transparent and liquid. The snake suddenly stopped its lunge, and slowly sank to the floor, seeming sleepy.
"You know what happens when you mix water and cold air?" Flaris remarked conversationally. "You get ice. And for a cold-blooded creature, a bellyful of ice is really gonna slow you down."

[Fuzzydoom]

The gorilla, having spotted our sneaky little friend, proceeds to chase him through the forest. Luckily, being smaller makes navigating the tangled underbrush quite a bit eastier. Not so luckily is the fact that the gorilla can just go through the underbrush.

Snow bursts from the underbrush into the clearing where the snake thing is fighting most of the group. With a series of loud barks he alerts the rest of the group to the gorilla's precense even as he enables his bronze fur and slams into the snake creature.

[PhoenixFlame]

Kynraze was restraining her bloodlust as best as possible in the chaotic battle, for fear of hitting one of her own partymates with her rather large sword. This would likely upset Thomas. She took several steps back from the now beleagured snake creature, just in time to catch sight of the Gorilla chasing Snow.

The dremora knight leaps into action, charging forward, claymore held fast behind her, drawing a powerful rising vertical sweep toward the oncoming Gorilla. Her blade buzzed a high pitch moments before striking, and soon, a tiny concussion wave sent both reeling backward. The gorilla recovered first, much to Kynraze's suprise. A worthy opponent, after all, particularly to stagger her with her own maneuver.

*CRACK!* The gorilla's fist solidly struck daedric platemail, sending Kynraze several more feet back after recieving a withering strike to the chest.

"Rrgh... Dagon take you, NOW!" She growled, thrusting her offhand forward, as a bolt of ebon lightning issued forth to electrocute the oncoming gorilla adversary.

[Tarrin]

Bane made to charge forward, In the last moment remembering Mark who huddles behind him.
"Blast" Bane muttered, How could he help his companions, "No" he decided in protecting mark he was helping his group.

Still his hands itched with the want for battle, But he would hold it at bay.
Untill it looked like he was truly needed, at that point then he hoped mark would be ok.

[IHateMakingNames]

During the fight with the flower pygmy, Mark had grabbed some items. A spear had flown by and almost hit him, but it didn't. So now Mark had a new spear. After the little creatures were destroyed, he had taken some intact whips from piles of destroyed flora and put them in his bag.

In the next fight, Mark once again stood in the back. There were only six enemies, while there were fifteen of them. Before he had even realized it, maybe because he was busy looking for more items, the leopards were dead and the snake was mutilated. All that was left was one gorilla, and the group didn't need Mark's help for that.

What Mark could do was relieve those leopard corpses of their equipment.

[Dark Seraphim]

The leopards smelled diffrently than the other cats that Alfador knew. The warriors seemed to be diffrent than any known species. Or at least from a continent that he never been too. More of the odd scent filled his nose. "Dammit," he muttered under his breath. "Heads up! I think some more are coming!"

He ran towards the smell, motioning the others too come.

[CallmePrismatic]

The gorilla took the lightning blast at full-force, rocketing back and splitting a tree in half when he collided with the foliage. Even as the majority of his chest hair smoldered he stood up, mostly unphased.

A large clawed hand rested upon the hairy back of the opponent. If possible, a larger version of the anthromorphized panther stepped out from the jungle dense and looked at the adventurers. "Can't even keep the newbies in line Kerchak?"

The gorilla's maw stretched to its limits before it swept away any remaining chest embers. "What can I say, they were too eager and these guys seem to be the real deal? Can't say I envy them now that the real gang is here, I presume?"

"Got that right." The panther sucked in the enriched air and emitted a deafening roar, rustling the flora. Nothing happened for a moment, and then Job watched as their advantage shrunk. Three blurring figures darted amongst the trees, finally surrounding Mark with spears pointed forward. "Still want to take our clan's weaponry?"

A larger snake, this one bedecked in a skull necklace as opposed to a bone chestplate, cradled the original snake-shaman. "Quiet my apprentice, let the jungle heal your woundsss..." Where the group's weaponry had torn sunder the scales, vines wrapped around until a second skin formed over the wounds, the younger snake coming to its senses. "...Now we pay back our retribution."

[Dark Seraphim]

A large rock hit the large snake in the head. As he turned around, he could just make out a black blur. Alfador was able to run surrond them and slash. After a half minute onslaught, he rushed towards Sarragon and the bird. He would be out of the fight for a bit. Hopefully the young shaman wasn't fully healed. Hopefully he dealed some damage.

[Tarrin]

The three warriors were so intent on Mark that they seamed to miss Bane entirely.
"Hey whiskers, wanna play" Bane shot out to the three Guards, His ruse worked well two of the three turned to face him.
The third however raised it's sword and started to slice down, "Clang" Two tanto style swords blocked the strike, Bane had teleported into the waepons path just in time.
"Get to the others and send some help" Bane shot at Mark, It was certain that against three of these attackers Bane wouldn't last very long at all.

Pushing the weapon back and steping further away from Mark Bane took on a ready stance, This time the three Cat warriors focused on him.
Perfectly timed the three attacked , Bane blocked two of the strikes but the third slash struck home.
A shallow cut down Banes right arm began to bleed, "Stuff defence" Bane thought as he lunged at one of the leopards, A second warrior blocked his strike however, as the other two struck, His weapons sailing off into the distance.
"Well looks like youre out of luck boy" Growled one of the Guards "What with no wea..." The line was cut short as the blades reappeared in Banes hands.
Grinning Bane charged in again.

[Heliomance]

Three morer leopards prowled out of the undergrowth to surround Flaris, their fur snow white. He looked around quickly, seeing that the others were too far away to help. He sent knife after knife at the leopards but it did little more than singe their fur as they knocked the firey blades out of the way. One of them lunged at Flaris, and sliced a thin cut across his chest. Flaris looked down at it, then back up, slowly, his eyes glowing.
"You cut me," he said. "You actually cut me."
Suddenly his glowing eyes seemed to burst into flame, giving him two small flickering fires where his eyes should be. He opened his mouth and snarled, fire pouring up from his throat to fill his mouth. His hair ignited, spreading flames over his head, before setting his clothes alight. The fire quickly raced over his body, consuming it completely. When the blaze settled down slightly, Flaris stood there, his body now entirely formed of flames.
"Wanna dance?" he asked the leopards, grinning evilly. He spun towards them, daggers appearing in his hands. He slashed one, leaving a firey trail that quickly grew and spread, burning all the leopard's fur off. Turning to the second one, he embedded a knife in its stomach, where it started to burn the warrior from the inside out. The third leopard stabbed him from behind with a sword, but dropped it with a howl as the mettal quickly became red hot. Flaris turned to face it, raising his blades. The leopard took one look at him, then turned and fled.
"Oh, big mistake," Flaris chuckled. "Allow me to demonstrate the reach of a man with an eight inch blade." He threw the two knives spinning end over end, flashing through the air so fast they left a vision trail. They burried themselves to the hilt in the fleeing warrior's back, and he dropped. Flaris threw himself into the undergrowth and became a line of fire racing through the dry brush to the next battle.

[GARUD]

The dark angel, Garud walked toward his adversary. The gorilla spotted him, and sauntered over. The two stood eye to eye, both bulky although the ape was alot stronger. The angel dropped his shortspear at his side and growled,

"Don't touch my stuff!"

The two combatants were eye to eye. The Gorilla bared his teeth and Garud clenched and unclenched his fists. The Gorilla and the dark angel were having a stare down. You could cut the tension between the two with a knife... and then it was on! Punch for punch, both combatants swung large haymaker punches at each other, belting each other's brains in. The two had swung at least ten punches each, and Garud was starting to feel the effects already. The primeape took advantage right away, and threw him into a tree. The dark angel got up shaken, and then surprised his opponent by using an assasin rush and catching him unexpected with a hard belly punch. The gorilla staggered back.

The two walked up to each other, face to face again. They looked each other in the eyes, both filled with hatred and bloodlust. And then they went brawling again, haymakers flying left and right. The bloodied combatants smashed each other, hard hitting, wild swinging. Finally, Garud soared up in the air, ready for an overhead kick. What he didn't count on was the Gorilla climing up a tree and then jumping to his height. The gorilla gripped the dark angel by the neck, and used gravity to drive him into the ground... with authority.

The Gorilla stood over his opponent, feeling cocky and thinking he had won. The dark one however, reached over and gripped his shortspear. He then thrust it out at the apes unprotected underbelly hoping to get a vital organ, or at least cut him.

(OOC: Also, I wanna be put on the list for a level GMing, if that's alright.)

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith recovered from the momentary exhaustion and saw Garud going toe-to-toe with Gorilla. She thought it was probably in their best interest if she tried to claw Gorilla's eyes out to make it easier to take down, but they were obviously dueling and Garud hadn't asked for help yet. Shirith would stay close, though, watching the melee from one of the nearest trees.

[Toastburner B]

Alanna managed to keep out of the fighting for this round. Various members of their party gleefully leapt into the path of the monsters, leaving the healer with, at least, a temporary reprieve.

She looked at the bodies on the ground, and sighed in relief when she realized that none of them were her comrades in arms. Looking around, Alanna spied Shirith in one of the trees. She remembered that the harpy had been wounded by the flower pygmies.

“Shirith!” she hissed, loud enough for the harpy to hear her, but hopefully not loud enough to draw attention. Alanna also beckoned with her hand, indicating that the harpy should get healed while it had the chance.

[IHateMakingNames]

OOC: Since that is not what Mark would do, I'm ignoring Prem's post.

IC:

Mark had a dilemma. On one hand, Bane was outclassed by three leopard warrior. On the other, there were free bone weapons only a few feet away from him. He couldn't decide between helping his ally, or taking the items.

Quickly,, he decided to take the items, but hide it. If he simply ignored helping, later on the group might accuse him of not helping, and leave him behind.

To help, Mark threw his pygmy spear at the leopards. It was a horrible shot, and it flew over their heads. None of them even bothered to try and block it. With his weapon gone, Mark couldn't help his allies anymore, so he went to the leopard corpses to get new weapons.

[secretskull]

Curel watched the snake shaman heal, in annoyance, most of the damage the party had done against it was gone. He hoped that the second skin hadn't healed the wound he had given it in its mouth. Then, he noticed that the snake still had his arm. "Hey, give that back!" He yelled. "I need it..." Despite it's reptilian ancestry, the snake managed a snigger. Something in Curel snapped. He charged at the snake, zigzagged back and forth on the ground, becoming as thin as a shadow to avoid other combatants. When he got close enough to attack, he leaped up, and, using his other arm, began slashing him fiercely across the head.

[Heliomance]

As Curel fought the snake, a line of fire crackled rapidly across the grass, leaving a burnt trail in its wake. As the flames reached the shaman, they quickly formed into Flaris, holding a burning knife in each hand. "Need some help?" he asked Curel. Not waiting for an answer, he launched himself into the fray, knives flashing.

[Fuzzydoom]

Suddnely, a wall of illusory flame rises up around the panther warrior. It looks about, shocled and afraid for just a moment, before realizing the flames aren't real.

"Hmph, these flames won't hold me, the illusion is too weak."

With that the Panther starts to step through the fire when a calm, calculating voice starts speaking in the back of his mind.

"I wouldn't do anything hasty. You have no idea what's behind that wall of flame, if those outside can see you, or how thick the wall is. For all you know you could walk through these flames for an hour and find yourself falling over a cliff. So sit tight Cat-man, your chances for survival are higher that way."

As this one sided conversation ends, a large, fast moving, metallic thing slams into the Panther warrior's back, knocking him forwards a step. He turns using his ears to try and pinpoint his assailants position, but little does he know that kitsune are inherently thieves by nature, and by that logic quite good at moving silently. The Cat-man barely has time to avoid the mainstay of the fox's next assault, taking a shallow cut on the side of his neck. He drops into a crouch, using all his senses to detect his assailant, yet all he smells is metal. As his confusion mounts the fox strikes again, this time leaving a gash across the beasts back. Suddenly it comes to the cat-man, the fox Is the metal thing. Snow attempts to strike again, but the panther is ready for him this time, and bats him into a huge rock. Luckily, Snow's fur is perfect for absorbing blunt trauma.

Suddenly the wall drops while Snow issues a mental shout, "Someone shoot him!".

[Tarrin]

"Garrrah!" Bane let out a painful cry, Hi three assailants were wearing him down way too quickly, Blood rand from cuts too various to count.
None of the cuts however where fatel by themselves, Add them together however and whatever strength Bane had was quickly drained away.

Any moment now these predetors would move in and finnish him of that there was no doubt, Only one thing left to do......Take one of them with him.
Bane vanished from the midst of the trio adn reappeared behind one, His blades swung with startling speed and the remaining two attackers hesitated for a moment before pushing their shock away and replacing it with a cold hatered for Bane, Now Bane was in it up too his neck.

[Dark Seraphim]

Alfador rose up. While he hadn't fully recovered, he was up to some fighting. As he looked around, everyone else was still having trouble with the fighters. Except for Sarah, who seemed to be busy staring at the flowery corpses. He was closest to Bane.

The two fighters, proving themselves smarter than the other peons the party has dealt with, surronded Bane. Even with his skills, being attacked on two fronts is usually a losing position. Alfador snuck up on the leopard in the front. In one fast swoop, he grabbed his prey by the neck, and stabbed his claws in the general renal region. He then threw the beast down and jabbed his claws through the neck. Bane spun around, able to give his full attention on the other leopard.

[Whightwolf]

“Gorillas and Snakes and Jaguars… Oh my.” Sar muttered with a snort, unslinging his bow he notched an arrow and scanned the melee for a clean shot. “Oh don’t thank your manly protector or anything…” He mutters as the healer begins trying to get the Harpies attention.

SOMEBODY SHOOT HIM.

The force of the telepathy almost made him stagger… stupid magically attuned body. Swinging in the direction of the fox’s shout he saw the black shadow through the swirling inferno of illusionary fire. Hmm let me guess that big son of a bitch saw through it. Even now the beast was advancing on the statuesque fox. Drawing, he felt the familiar tickle of goose feather against his cheek. Loose.

The arrow whispered through the clearing, striking the dark shadow in the back of it’s knee joint. Even as it twisted, letting out a monstrous roar of pain and fury, a second arrow lanced into his side, just below his ribcage. Its claws whispering out it searched for the bowman, his keen vision blocked by a new upsurge in the illusionary flame as Snow hid the bowman. A third arrow blossomed from its thigh. Even as it roared once more the Kitsune rushed in, a bite slashing at the tendons on the panthers back leg before running back again. Turning to face the Fox, at least this was an opponent he could see the Panther roared again…

But the roar was choked off into a yowl as a fourth arrow pierced his back. Now even the great panther-mans formidable constitution was wearing down, still though it drew on its last reserves, making one last charge for the Fox.

He never made it.

A fifth, sixth and seventh arrows were in him before he had taken three paces. Slowly, like great velvet pincushion the panther fell to its knees, then an eight arrow finally put him on his face. Sar was already up and moving, running into the flames.

“Can you make it so we can see out but they cant see in?” Sarragon had just had a rather fine idea…

[Fuzzydoom]

My abilities involve creating a false image, I can indeed make it visible one-way, but it take great concentration, especially over larger areas of ground, why?

[CallmePrismatic]

The spear pierced through the leathery chest of the gorilla, spewing blood from the edges as it wriggled in. Seemingly undettered, the gorilla reared back, rending the spear from Garud's hands as it wobbled from its base in the gorilla's guy.

As he readied another punch to finish off the angel, the gorilla sensed some extra weight on its back, about the same magnitude as a Dark Elf. "Hey hairy guy, ever heard what an enlarged gorilla with lightning coursing through its body sounds like?" Before Kerchak could answer the horribly uncreative rhetoric, Job slammed his knives into the animal's hide while the gems swirled. The enchanted metal sparked and Kerchak felt magical lightning in his veins.

For a second the gorilla's body tensed up, but the burly arms at his side managed to fight through the current and grab Job, consuming his torso before tossing him aside into the underbrush. The two knife wounds sizzled as steam poured from the cuts. "Oh come on..." Job muttered as he righted himself among the leaves.

[Premmy]

Sarah left the leaves an petals to their business and went to help Job, she stood by him while he stood up and pestered him. "Hey watcha doin?, Huh? you need some help?" She looked over at the sizzling gorilla, "Hey what's that? it looks kinda dangerous I don't think you should be messing with that thing when you're hurt like this..." she continued on as chaos took place in the forest.

[Heliomance]

Flaris fickered over the snake, dodging its strikes easily. His blades left curving trails of fire on the beast's scales - which then faded, leaving the shaman's hide intact. Annoyed, Flaris tried again, with the same result. He turned his head and looked at Curel. "Go get that chick that can throw ice around," he yelled. "I'm gonna need a firebreak."

[Tarrin]

Finaly some help had arrived, and his attackers were down to one.
However the damage had already been done, Bane was weak, His eyes blurred as he fought to stay awake, He wabbled on his feet as the cuts on his body bled the lifeblood from his form.

He was slower now, His strikes held less power, His opponent easily dodged his clumsy strikes, Taunting him and striking him again and again.
Now it seamed that the leopard was going for the kill, It new that it's target would not be able to stop the strike.

Banes strength gave out as he sunk too his knees, holding himself up via one sword he used the other to point at the warrior facing him, Looking dead into the eyes of his killer Bane asked one question.
"Your name, What is it?".

[Astral Harmony]

The leopard that was near to killing Bane suddenly found two large bird feet wrapping around its arms and pulling it from the ground, its hind legs kicking furiously to either shake off the harpy that grasped it or to reach Bane for a killing strike. Neither attempt succeeded and Shirith was in control. The mid-air struggle eventually freed one of the leopards' arms but she already had it where she wanted it. With a slight change in direction, Shirith slung it against a tree, knocking the air out of it and stunning it for a second strike. Shirith prepared but the leopard recovered fast, reaching up and slashing at her, putting a damaging though not critical wound near her tail feathers. A sharp, hostile note from Shirith later and she flung the leopard at the tree. The throw was powerful and the leopard fell to its back to the ground, inviting Shirith to finish it off. She chose to do so. It was a quick end as the harpy lashed out with a razor sharp talon and sliced a gash into Leopard's neck, then hopped away as it clutched uselessly at its bleeding throat.

[Raiden]

Thomas was keeping himself somewhat secluded from the fight. He had only two good weapons to his name, and Kynraze was one of them. The demon was doing as her master commanded, bringing down enemies as he willed it.

His finger rubbed slowly along the scar over his eye, a bad habit he had picked up many years before. It reminded him of his second weapon.

He could almost scoff at the behavior of enemy and "ally" alike. He had mostly been a watcher so far. Rarely did he deem it worth his time and effort to change and personally help out. Kynraze would go into battle, kill, then bring back fresh meat for him to feast on. She was a good servant. It was pure luck he had found the amulet on that one enchanter. The two had a...displeasing confrontation. It was a simple matter. Thomas was hungry. The enchanter didn't want to give up his left arm. It was solved easily enough, and he gained more than he had thought from the ordeal.

But now another problem lay before him. Where were the enemies that he could dig into? It took energy to switch between forms, and he never did so needlessly. Which left him with little to do but watch.

[PhoenixFlame]

Suffice to say, Kynraze wasn't particularly pleased about falling into the hands of a lycantrophe. After all, Thomas had killed the enchanter a single day after he had bound her, and thus her service of "A year and a day" fell to that of the crazed killer.

Still, Kynraze could enjoy a crazed killer of a master. After all, Mehrunes Dagon was a daedra that many would consider to be a crazed killer himself. It came with being the archdevil of the bloody scourge. As a result, Kynraze was rather ambivalent about the ordeal.

The Dremora kept somewhat away from the melee, primarially not to injure friendlies, and mainly because Thomas chose not to participate. This changed quickly enough when one of the gorilla warriors attempted to finish what he had started with her.

The beast lumbered toward Kynraze on all fours at great speed, though it was noted that lesser primates such as these were not noted for having a grasp of tactics. Intellegence perhaps, but not on the level of a daedra. After all, they were mere primates.

She merely pretended not to notice her assailant. Turning to Thomas, Kynraze flicked her Claymore into a single handed reverse-grip and looked at him with that insane grin she always wore. The gorilla bore down on her, and then, like lightning, her left hand shot out, fingers clicking back, as the Gorilla's chest impacted cleanly into Kynraze's clawed gauntlets.

Of course, the Gorilla's fist impacted the dremora's side, but shuch is mere details. In certain situations, the best way to defeat your enemy was to take a strike, and counter with your own. At such close range, Kynraze's claymore was nearly useless, but her reverse-gripped right-handed sword flung around to drill the spiked pommel of the massive blade into the weak side of the gorilla's temporal lobe. With a crack, the beast slumped sideways, sliding lifelessly off of Kynraze's left hand, now covered in her own black blood. Perhaps, just perhaps, she had made a miscalculation...

[Toastburner B]

Alanna sighed as the harpy leapt back into the fray. Alright, let's just ignore the healer. she muttered mentally to herself.

Still, Alanna kept her place with the tree between her and the battle. The others get going full speed now, and Alanna couldn't hope to keep up the the melee. While she was no slouch with her rapier, the skill of the others surpassed her in this form of combat. As such, she had no choice but to hang back, her sword in hand, ready to either hit an enemy with her once offensive spell or to rush in and heal an injuried ally.

[Dark Seraphim]

Alfador gagged. He could smell Kynraze's blood, which made him sick. It didn't help that he didn't trust her or her master. Thomas was supposed to be a fearsome werewolf, but spent nearly all of his time looking around the battle and looking down on the fighters. Such a behavior seemed more suited to a corrupt noble. And Kynraze was a pure demon... Still, it wasn't in his character to let an ally fall.

Internal monolouge finished, he tried to find the healer. He couldn't see her, and it smelt like she was several hards away. Only a small amount of demon blood could be detected, so Alfador figured that one of the elixers he had packed should work. He tossed one at her. To ignore the stench and his loathing of them, he rushed at a new panther prey.

[Tarrin]

His last opponent taken out and his energy saped, The darkness of sleep swept over Bane, For him the fight was over, For now anyway.

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith surveyed the battlefield. There was little more that she could do, and with Bane now resting, the harpy flew down and came to a halt on the ground near him to recover. The claw swipe had nearly clotted over, but it still hurt and her wings ached. She also had slight pain in her head from the use of the Lightning Sting. Shirith motioned for Alanna, deciding that it was relatively safe for the healer to come and bring them back from total exhaustion.

[Toastburner B]

Seeing the harpy's signal, Alanna dashed out from her cover. Sheathing her rapier, she pulled out her case of herbs. Seeing as Shirith was still standing, Alanna knelt over the downed form of Bane first.

“He’s pretty cut up,” she muttered. Alanna looked at Shirith out of the corner of her eye, “and you don’t look in all that good of shape, either.”

Digging through her bag, the elf handed a small, tubular root to Shirith. “Chew on that. It will deaden the pain after a bit. It should keep you going until I can be Bane patched up.”

The elf took one last look around to make sure they weren’t in any immediate danger. Once she started her spell, she would be very vulnerable to attack. Not seeing anything, Alanna put her hands over one of Bane’s bigger wounds and began to chant. Her hands began to glow softly, and the wound visibly began to close. Once it had completely vanished, Alanna moved her hands to the next wound. “It will take a while to patch him up fully,” Alanna told no one in particular, “but he should wake back up soon. If the lower levels were any indication, the worst is yet to come.”

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith was a little disappointed that she couldn't offer a thanks to Alanna for the help. Well, she could, but unless Alanna could interpret what a harpy conveyes when she sings, the healer wouldn't understand. Maybe she could try licking Alanna's face like some domesticated animals do, but Alanna didn't look like she would appreciate that and she needed to give Bane her focus. Shirith simply obeyed and started chewing the herbs, finding the taste awful yet tolerable. Then again, she like all harpies were carnivores. Shirith turned back to study the fighting.

[Fuzzydoom]

Snow wanders over to where the harpy studys the battle. He understands what she had wanted to convey, seeing as how he isn't human himself. Humans had become so focused on their own writing and speech that they had almost totally forgotten the language of bodies.

Snow was tired, his fur had lost its bronze sheen and his illusions had long since faded away, he was content to watch what was left of the battle. As he arrived next to the harpy he gave her a light nudge in the leg, to let her know he was there. Just because he could "speak" didn't mean he wanted to.

[GARUD]

Garud got up to shaky and wavy legs. He felt tired, an looked doubly so. The dark angel walked over to the Gorilla corpse and pulled the spear out from his belly. He then made various stab wounds all over the thing's face.

"I told you not to touch my stuff."

The dark angel stumbled over to Allana and asked,

"Once your done over there, can you-"

Garud collapsed from exhaustion. The battle from the big monkey had taken alot out of him.

[Premmy]

The battle done for now, she sauntered over towards the wounded group in back and kneeled down over Garud, after a few minutes of poking him with her piky finger she walked around in a circle and then lit a fireball. She tossed it up into the air and caight it in her other hand. She threw it up again and caught it on her foot,kicked it up andcaught it on the back of her hand, then on her left foot, right hand,right foot left hand, under the left leg, into the right hand, over, under, up, down. At least she was having fun...

[Tarrin]

The warm darkness enveloping Bane parted, Light bright and searing surounded him.
Banes eyes flttered open, His eye drawn to the spell casting Alanna, her hands glowing with healing light, the last of his wounds was closing and his energy was returning.
"Thanks Alanna" Bane croaked

He scanned the area, most of the group were there all with wounds of their own, Standing guard was Shirith, The harpy and Bane had watched each others back a few times now.

Bane guessed that their readyness to help each other came from the fact that Shirith could sense the deamon within him, Not being able to talk to Shirith did make that logic a little flawed but hey it worked for him.

[Toastburner B]

"Take it easy for a bit," Alanna told Bane. "The wounds are closed, but not fully healed. I would suggest you stay off you're feet for a few days...but we don't really that luxury. Just rest while you can."

Alanna stood, and wiped her forehead. She looked over at Garud, and winced, looking back at Shirith. "I know you got here first, but Garud is worse off than you are. I'll patch you up after I get him awake. Sorry." she said apologetically to the harpy.

She quickly walked over to the dark angel and knelt again. "Either these guys were a lot harder than the ones downstairs, or you guys are getting sloppy."

Before anyone could respond, Alanna began to chant again, and the glow returned to her hands.

[Whightwolf]

Sar glanced around as the last of the fighting died out, strolling over to where the group was gathering around the wounded. Alanna doing her best to get them up and killing again as usual. Looping a bow over his shoulder he scanned the jungle.
“Alright then, who knows where the hell the next stair well is? We’d better get moving because I really don’t want to find out what else is in this bloody weird jungle.”

Thats if the next level isn't worse than this one he added silently.

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith looked around for the exit, leaving the others and scanning through the strange jungle. The exit to the floor was probably themed like the others. It didn't take long for her to find it. Vines hung from a black hole in the "ceiling" that she could not see inside. She tried checking for other similar anomalies but couldn't see any from where she stood. It was probably better to test it first but she should wait for the others to recover. Besides, she wasn't completely restored herself.

[PhoenixFlame]

*Bclish!* The glass bottle of the elixer Alfador had tossed at Kynraze shattered as it contacted her armor, as the dremora had not bothered to catch the potion. It was not necessary. The liquid steamed slightly as it's needlessly flamboyant magic mended the wounds caused to the demoness, who merely nodded an approval to Alfador.

The battle complete, Kynraze held her blade at attention, taking stance near Thomas, watching the field for additional adversaries who may still lurk in the jungle.

[IHateMakingNames]

Mark was collecting the spoils from this battle, as he always does. Or, at least as he always would have done, if not for the inexplicable reason why the enemies befor ethis floor carried no items for Mark to take.

For the most part, all Mark was collecting were bone weapons and armor from the leopard warriors. The gorillas and panters didn't use weapons, and while the snake people had plant armor, none of them died. Last snake he had seen was fightin Flaris, but everyone seems to have forgotten about that, or simply didn't care.

Unfortunately, Mark wouldn't be able to take all of the items they had won with him. Since he realized this, he decided to be a team player and gather all of the bone equipment in a pile, so it would seem like he was collecting this stuff for the group.

[CallmePrismatic]

*Earlier, after Sarah and Job joined forces*

The Dark Elf looked over the over-talkative girl and shouldered his way to a standing position, only to be forced to duck when a wild vine whipped around. Job grabbed Sarah and guided them both behind a tree. Peaking back at the shaman, he noticed her eyes and a plan formulated.

"They use different sets of eyes..." Before Sarah could inquire about the random non-sequiter Job put a palm over her mouth and kept going, her eyes following his lips. "They can see me when I shadow-meld, but they have to use another set of eyes, like they can pull them back or something. When the smaller one had me coiled its eyes were pure red, now they're normal-ish."

Sarah struggled to make a sound but Job cut off her questioning, looking back. The older snake appeared to be sleuthing around as elegantly as a large snake-person could, and Job guessed they'd need the element of suprise, along with a few more.

"Look, they see heat, so if I try to hide they can locate me, but they can't locate me by heat if I'm surrounded by heat, right?" Sarah's eyebrows raised in confusion before settling into a wary recognition. Job pressed on, the slither getting closer. "So I'll meld, you set up a fire between us, then I'll stab it, case closed. We do it on 3...3!"

Job jumped from their hiding place, making the loudest suprise impression he could manage. "Hey, scaleass, try and find me!" While the snake rotated it's body Job's own presence faded away, replaced by the jungle around him. The snake giggled as efficiently as it could manage with an un-lisp and charged forward, but was startled back by the wall of fire that flared up in between the two of them.

It's red eyes tried to discern but the entire landscape was overtaken by reds and yellows, and it before it could change its eyes back a dreaded weight fell on its back.

"Hiya beautiful, on a nice hot day like this you need to cool down." The sapphires of Job's knives hummed blue while he drove them into the snake's back, the icey chill spreading itself through the reptile's blood. "You can't keep up your charades for long like this I suspect." As Job was congratulating himself the trees and vines and jungle itself seemed to draw inward. The knives were working, he suspected, but not fast enough.

"You really think you can ssstop me in thisss place?"

As Job became covered in vines and flowers he perceived Sarah in front of them, and how she had other elemental flinging abilities. "Sarah...ice...NOW!" Was all he could manage before getting swallowed in the green, the only things remaining visible his arms and knives.

Sarah performed the neccesary actions and sent a stream of ice at the snake, watching at the knives diverted the natural flow and channeling the magic inside the shaman. With a final drawn out hiss the snake felt her being lock up, and with her death the jungle returned to normal, Job falling over after being released.

While Sarah rushed over Job stood up and retrieved his weapons. "Well, we ssstopped yah."

(OOC: Sorry for the character takeover Prem, but other than some missing dialouge I think that's what would have happened. Job can be assumed to be heading over to the healing huddle.)

[Heliomance]

Flaris looked around from where he was still fighting the final snake shaman.
"Well, someone better be ready to put this out again."
He launched himself off the snake's back, his firey body turning into a featureless sheet of flame, and started to blaze around the undergrowth, setting it alight all round the snake. Within moments, the patch of jungle where the snake was had become a roaring inferno, which consumed the shaman completely.

[secretskull]

OOC: Sorry for being a bit late with my post, I haven't been on much.

Curel had leaped back when his ally had begun burning the snake. "A lot of people are using knives right now", he thought to himself, as the snake continued burning. "I should find something new, I need to keep ahead of the others. Perhaps those ninja things could work out."
Suddenly Curel realized something. Crap, my arm is still in there! Curel glided on the ground, trying to find a way to get his arm back without getting burned. After a few seconds of searching, he found that amazingly the snake shaman hadn’t been completely destroyed yet, and had kept some of its form. For the moment anyway. He glided forward quickly, snatching his arm from its mouth, and managed to get out of the flames, only lightly singed. He put his arm into its place, and watched as it slowly reattached itself.

[Dark Seraphim]

"Crap!" The jungle seemed especially flamable, as the snake's pyre grew larger and larger. Alfador dug up dirt to put out the fire, to little effect. "Hey wizard!" he yelled at Sarah, "can you put this out?"

She walked over and produced a small chunk of ice. As it melted, the water made the ground too damp to ignite.

The group seemed to have vanquished this round of enemies. Alf took this reprive to take one of the shaman's ribs, so he could suck out the juicy marrow. "Um, Curel, weren't you missing an arm earlier?"

[Toastburner B]

((OOC: I'm going to "fast forward" a bit...I figure no one wants to sit and wait for me to get around to healing everyone...))

Alanna worked as quickly as she could, patching the wounded the best she could. The injuries where more numerous than they were just the floor below...at testament as to why not many people..if any...made out of the tower alive.

She started with those who had to worst wounds. Once they had awaken up, she moved to those who were cut up and the like. After a while, , the last wound was healed, and Alanna sunk to the ground, exhausted.

"You're not fully patched up," she told the collective woundees, "but you're in better shape than you were. I would say get some rest, but that's not going to happen in here."

WIth a sigh, she crawled over to a tree to lean against. "Anyone who gets wounded between now and my next night of sleep will be one their own...I could patch a papercut with what I've got left."

[GARUD]

(OOC: Accidently clicked submit before I could finish the post)

Garud stood upright and looked to the battle. There seemed to be no enemies left, though he prepared for the worst. He knelt down to Alana and said,

"Th...than...thank you."

He had never been indebt before, but he didn't like it now. Still, he was grateful.

"Time to go have some fun."

Thhe dark angel rushed all over the battlefield looking for something to kill.

[Tarrin]

"We need to move from here now" Banes voice held an echo of command,
"We need rest but the blood and noises will bring in new threats".

Bane's gear appeared in it's rightful spots, As he glimpsed at the group,
"I am sorry Alanna but we need to move to rest! Can you make it?"
Bane hadn't taken a commanding lead of the group before, Untill now he hadn't needed to. This was a good team, A experienced team, It was now that Bane would have to stop holding back with his abilities and skills.

To be able to keep alive from this point on they all would have to step up. Not waiting to see everyone start packing he signled to Job to scout ahead.

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith kept watch from the air as always. She didn't carry anything, and her flight allowed her a broad visual range. The jungle provided some cover where enemies could lurk in hiding, but they were in the clearing. Unless it was something fast like a launched arrow, Shirith would be able to see it, warn the others, and quite possibly do something about it so the others didn't have to. Her wings were feeling much better thanks to Alanna's care, plus her wounds were all clotted over and healing nicely.

[Premmy]

Sarah chuckled at Bane,"Let em come! see what they can do against Sarah Isthill of the greenfeild family! or was it the green flame family? i'm sure it was green "f" something, Ohh no! I've forgotten my family! I've got amnesia! is Sarai my name? wait! who's Sarai?! I thought my Name was Sarah! AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHH!" the other members of her team simply rolled their eyes at this spectacle which was starting to get common place with them.

[CallmePrismatic]

"Hmm, so this is the group causing so much trouble?" The voice seemed to appear out of thin air, and it was followed by a body that seemed to emerge from the jungle, although in no way did it look like it belonged. "It's sad that I return here under such unfortunate circumstances, but so is life."

The voice belonged to what looked like an elf-variant, although Job nor any of the others had seen this particular evolutionary strain: The height of the newcomer easily approached 8 feet, and it seemed to have gained that altitude by stretching out the rest of the body, resulting in an unnaturally thin figure. As opposed to Job's ashened skin, various unsettling organs and veins were clearly visible through the newcomer's semi-translucent flesh. A full length robe covered his figure, but his exposed head was a gruesome vision in what goes on inside the brain, multicolored nuerons firing off across the grey matter.

Job didn't wait for an invitation before he grabbed for his knives, but the figure moved quicker in anticipation, unfolding one of his arms to point a finger at the would be assailant. The veins in the hand throbbed a deep green and Job found himself sucked into the ground up to his waist.

"Pathetic. I constructed this level, my first week in fact, and you think that your knives are any match?" The group was enthralled by this development, but Job thought the increase in dense pollen might have been a factor somehow. "It's actually amusing to be down here again. A chance for me to see how far I've come in my works. I must admit, the further down I worked the more impressive the vista, in my humble opinion, certainly much more grand than drawing a jungle from stone. But it seems like you defeated my first living creations too, and that is not suprising. They were merely my dabbling in pack mentality, creating creatures that would seek and complement each other. I must admit that since then I've spread my creative ventures across the realm of bio-engineering, and now I'm quite taken with hive minds, but that's getting ahead of myself."

The biomancer's hands rummaged in his robe, producing a small whistle. "Perhaps you'd like to see my newest creation? I was coming by to check up on it when I met you and now seems like the perfect time for a feeding. Pardon me a second."

Job deduced then and there that watching a person blow a whistle when said person was half see-through was one of the most disgusting sights to see in action. That was quickly overlaid by a dawning fear as the ground rumbled, then tore, then split as it seemed to give birth to a monstrosity, a long cord of scales topped off with heads with almost as many tentacles as teeth.

The biomancer stood calmly in front of the raging monster, seemingly unconcerned that something five times his size with more teeth than brain cells was thrashing behind him. "I have entitled him Ulasht, I believe he's reached his physical growth peak. Quite an endearing bit of cross engineering. He should enjoy you." As he finished this he began to stride to the far side of the jungle before waving his arm, removing a straggle of vines to reveal a door. As he exited the strange pollen decreased and Job felt his sensations returning. Before exiting through the door the biomancer looked back at the group. "You know, on some level I hope to see you all again further down. This is nothing and I want someone to enjoy it."

And with that he opened the door and walked through. Job watched the hydra-tentacle-teeth thing take in the new situation, then cringed as all of its heads emitted a tree-shaking roar. And then it attacked.

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith's Lightning Stings drew first blood...or whatever it was that Ulasht had inside it. The monstrosity was unphased, and targeted Shirith. The harpy was fast, but Ulasht was faster. A tentacle lashed out and swatted Shirith hard, almost knocking her out of the air. With some frantic beats of her massive wings, Shirith regained her altitude and had to prepare to dodge again. Ulasht was probably going to try and grab Shirith this time, and then either consume her or repeatedly bash her into trees and the unforgiving jungle floor.

[IHateMakingNames]

mark was trying to figure out how he could take all of his new items with him whenJob was attacked.

That elf is bad luck. He's always the first to get attacked. Better not stand near him anymore.

Then the giant tentacle headed hydra erupted from the ground. When it shook the rea by roaring, Mark burst into flames. He activated his Magma Armor, in the hopes that the creature wouldn't want to grab, lash at, or eat something that was on fire.

What Mark didn't think about was the spear he was holding had a wooden shaft. So when he burst into flames, so did it, ruining it. Mark still wasn't used to setting himself on fire, and when he realized he was holding a burning stick, he quickly threw it away from him to not burn himself, forgetting that he couldn't at the moment.

This accidently turned into an attack, since the flaming spear headed towards the hydra's body.

[Heliomance]

As soon as the creature appeared, Flaris's flame-body turned into a crackling pillar of fire, whicharced at high speed around the hydra. He sent knife after knife at the thing, aiming the firey projectiles unerringly at the beast's eyes, trying to blind it.

[Fuzzydoom]

Snow growls, knowing he's almost spent, as he advances. Tactical decisions race through his mind. His illusions are all but useless against a multi-headed foe. Then he smiles perhaps he just needs the proper allies.

As this thought passes through his mind he spots Shirith getting smacked by the hellion. Snow feels anger flush through him, his calulating nature momentarily forgotten. Shirith is, after all, his favorite.

Snow's fur once again glimmers with its bronze sheen. He spots Flaris flying around in his flame form and acts with out thinking. He leaps into a tree, jumping from branch to branch until he is on level with Flaris. As the flame engulfed young man passes the tree, Snow leaps onto his back, from there leaping onto the hellish monstrosity. He slams into the beast at the base of its "necks", causing it a large amount of pain but hardly any lasting damage, His bronze fur having been superheated by Flaris' flames. It felt to the demon like being hit by a small fox shaped brand, and the beast wasn't happy about it. Snow races about the beasts body, using his claws to grip the monsters scales. The majority of the beast's heads turn to deal with the furred menace, leaving a much smaller minority to defend from the rest of the attackers.

How's THAT for a distraction?

[Heliomance]

Flaris faltered briefly as he felt Snow's sudden unexpected weight on his back, giving the hydra just enough time to grab him with one head - and just as quickly drop him, its mouth badly burnt. Flaris rolled as he hit the ground and sent two knives up, scoring a lucky hit and blinding that head. He winced as he put his hand to the side, before pulling out two more knives and going back on the offensive.

[PhoenixFlame]

Kynraze circled around the beast outside of the range of it's heads, but yet, a good number of eyes remained fixed on the dremora. To advance would be utter suicide. However, since the hyrda-beast did not seem to be moving itself, and merely holding it's ground due to the assaults of other more reckless party members, Kynraze calculated she was fairly safe.

"Do not attempt to engage multiple heads at once." She called back to Thomas, aswell as the other melee-types among the group, "Circle and engage from multiple angles. Retreat if overwhelmed." Kynraze knew Thomas wasn't a tactical type, but failing to heed advice here might result in a swift and painful death.

[Raiden]

Thomas gave out a deep breath.

"Kynraze...prepare to collect some raw meat for me to feed on. I'll need the energy later."

He closed his eyes and focused, activating one of his more powerful skills. His limbs extended, dark hair grew all over his body, his face extended into a snout that filled itself with fangs, and sharp claws grew out from his finger tips. When he opened his eyes, they were a blood red.

Almost on instinct he threw his head back to the sky, letting out a fierce howl that had nearly all the people there shivering in their spine.

[Tarrin]

Naganata in hand, Bane sliped into the jungle.
Moments later he reappeared behind the giant construct.
"If the others can keep it distracted this might just work" Bane thought, His plan formulating as he launched himself up the back of the hydra like beast.

Banes only hope was that the others could keep it from noticing him before he could strike.

[Heliomance]

"Everyone, aim for the eyes!" Flaris yelled. "If we blind it, then it won't be able to attack us nearly as well."
He rolled to the side, dodging a strike from another head, and once again hurled his knives at its eyes. One hit, but the other fell short and pricked the beast's nose. It howled in pain from the loss of its eye and hurled itself at him, forcing him to retreat swiftly.

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith didn't know what the hell Flaris was talking about. She didn't see any eyes on it at all. Maybe she just wasn't looking at the creature right.
The monstrosity seemed to have a head for each of them, and Shirith was outmatched against the one targeting her. It was the creature's tentacles. She just didn't have the ability to defend against those. When one snagged her legs, Shirith split her attempt at escape between Wing Bursts and trying to fly away, but when that the Wing Bursts were doing little to no good at all, she simply flew back and freed herself, though her legs was in pain. Lightning Stings could knock the tentacles back, but Shirith could aim it at things that fast and they didn't seem to have an effect anyways. Her ability alone weren't going to cut it. Either she would have to use the environment, or her own allies.

[Toastburner B]

Alanna, lacking both the energy and the skills to help in this battle, scrambled behind a tree, hoping it would be enough cover to keep her out of the way of the others. Her magic spent, she reached into her bag and began to pull out herbs and ointments, knowing that there would probably be wounds from this battle. Assuming we survive in the first place, she thought to herself.

The thought itself seemed somewhat out of place. Considering the power of those she had entered the tower with, it had seemed ludicrous to assume anything but victory was waiting for them. But now, as she watched them battle against the monster that the biomancer had causally unleashed on them, Alanna began to wonder how much further they would get.

[Premmy]

Sarah Leaped into battle with the huge Hentai/greek monster She ran under the view of it's many heads close to it's belly and aimed a freeze blast at one. It froze solid within seconds and she jumped up, pushing off the creature as she rose into the air. when she was on the level with the frozen head, she waited until she was just above it and shot a freez blast upwards, rocketing her feet down towards ice sculpture. It shattered on contact and shards of hydrad skull flew everywhere. Sarah smiled and screamed down to her companions "Hey I got o- huuurgh!" before she could finish her celebratroy statement, two heads had shot out of the icy stump and threw her back, sending her flying off in a random direction

[GARUD]

Garud looked up at a head. It stared down at him. They both stared. The head got closer to the ground. Close enough for...

The dark angel scooped some dirt off the ground and threw it into the Hydra's eyes. The head reared in shock and pain, and Garud took flight, shortspear in hand. Garud was making some good progress with the head as he slashed and hacked at the neck. The head recovered quickly and made a stab action. Missed. The dark angel landed on scaly body and proceeded to hack at the neck. The Hydra in response lunged at the enemy.

"You are so slow."

Garud rolled off the body in time to see the head create a wound in it's own body. He knew the tales of hydra, so he was going to test the multiple head theory. Using his assasin rush, he caught the hydra off guard and hacked at the neck quickly. Eventually he broke tedon, bone and muscle and had cut the neck right off the hydra's body.

"TIMBER!"

The whole head fell, only to be followed by two more.

"Aww nuts."

[Heliomance]

Flaris ran over to Sarah, shouting.
"If you draw the flames from me and shoot that, it might be more powerful. Trying to take it on our own isn't going to work! We need to work together!"

[Raiden]

Thomas rushed around the hydra in twisted patterns, keeping it off its guard. First he ran on his hind legs, but once he gained enough speed he went down to all four and bounded about on the ground, increasing his speed even more. When a head struck out, he leapt over it, landed on its head and crushed it down to the ground.

He raised up a hand, and his claws became like steel. With a slash, he cleaved through the neck, releasing the head from the body. Several more heads sped towards him. He leapt off with his incredible agility, bobbing and weaving between spouts of fire. He slid beside Kynraze.

"Anymore ideas, servant?"

[PhoenixFlame]

"Yes." Kynraze snarled, pushing Thomas aside and leaping back as one of the Hydra's heads slammed into the ground where they were once standing. It would serve her master better to pay attention to his surroundings.

"I do." She continued, now thrusting her Claymore into the beast's neck, and leaping atop it's head, balancing upon it's horns with a suprising level of agility as she wrenched the claymore across the Hydra's neck in a semicircle, much like a can-opener across a lid.

[Tarrin]

Bane had finally reached the spot he needed, hefting his Naganata he started his swing.
At the last second Bane thought "That's funny i thought there were less heads before". The mighty polearm cleaved thru the base of the body, each neck cleaved from the body cleanly.
"Now that's how it d....." Banes cheers were cut short as new heads took the place of their severed counterparts, To make matters worse two heads took the place of each he had just decapitated.

[Fuzzydoom]

Snow grunts as the tentacle closes about him. The beast hurls Snow from its back, consequently crushing his bronze fur until it is nearly impossible for the fox spirit to breathe. As he begins to lose conciousness his fur returns to its normal state and Snow's breathing quickly regulates itself. The fox regains conciousness just in time to find himself impaled on a paticularly sharp tree branch.

He feels a warm liquid travel from both his chest and his mouth, slowly winding its way through his sweat-matted fur towards the ground. He coughs, and more blood departs his body as he hangs by the limb that now protrudes from his chest. As he stares at it, he is reminded vaguely of a spear he once posessed. It had been a beautiful weapon, both sturdy and maleable at once. It had been strong enough to pierce the finest-crafted armors and nimble enough to slip past even the most determined gaurd. This was, of course, when he had still been able to assume human form. He missed that spear.

Then he fell asleep.

[Astral Harmony]

Shirith acted on her plan, using Lightning Stings to saw through trees with the additional bonus of igniting them and then using Wing Bursts to make them fall where she needed them to go. It was a very exhausting task, and by the time Shirith had got the first flaming tree falling on Ulasht, she was debating taking a rest. But destroying it by crushing it or setting it ablaze really seemed like the best options...or perhaps encasing it completely in ice.

[Heliomance]

"Everyone, stop trying to behead it! it's not going to work!"
Flaris looked up at where Shirith was dropping trees on the monster. Grinning, he crackled through the air towards the beast, leaping across its back and lighting the trunks to a blazing inferno, with the hydra in the very centre of it.
"Anyone that can, get all the flammable stuff you can find over here. I'll set fire to it!"

[secretskull]

"Finally! A breakthrough!" Yelled Curel, scathingly.
"How long can it possibly take to realize that cutting of heads won't work, and here was me thinking that seeing a head re-grow once was enough?” Here is an idea: why don't we try attacking something that isn't a head? Brilliant, no?"
With that eloquent ending, Curel glided under the Hydra ,looking for it's stomach, and making opportunistic stabs at anything that resembled one.

[Tarrin]

Bane hit the ground, Hard. pulling himself to his feet Bane could see everyone with fire weapons starting their attack.
All Bane could do in the meantime was watch, His own weapons were useless.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Gah! It is reasonable-" Kynraze grunted, while attempting to decapitate the neck she had currently lodged her sword in, "That the beast can regenerate all of it's body parts!" With a great heave, the beast's spinal cord snapped, but the dremora did not bother to fully remove it's head.

"However-"

*KRAK-KOOM!* resounded the crack of entropic ebon lightning issuing forth from her left hand.

"It can also be reasoned the creature's wounds are weak to magic." she continued.

[Heliomance]

Flaris yelled back at Curel. "It took everyone else long enough to realise! Now we've got more than twice as many heads to deal with!"
He stopped suddenly. "However..."
He grabbed one of Bane's swords off him and leaped up to a neck. Slicing the head from the neck, he dropped the sword and blasted the stump with fire as hot as he could make it, cauterizing the wound and preventing the head from growing again. "That seems to work."