NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1734216" data-attributes="member: 143">Heh, they are nasty. Ironically enough, Kaurophon's bear's endurance (cast in the last update) saves Morgan's life, though Morgan would believe otherwise (read on)...* * * * * Chapter 211Morgan cried out, unable to resist the terrible transformation that threatened to destroy him.  And in that cry, he spoke a name that he had not used since before coming here, a name that he’d left behind in shame and guilt. “Helm!” he shouted.  Drawing upon a reservoir of fortitude deep within him, and the anchor of that name, the knight roared and twisted away from the creature and that fell ray.  The eye-beam flickered out, and after a tense moment of uncertainty, Morgan felt his skin returning to normal.  “Destroy it, now!” Arun yelled. The companions, knowing full well the potency of the demon, assaulted it with everything they had.  Hodge drew up his spear and charged it from the flank, slamming the head of his weapon deep into its armored side.  Mole came up from behind, but even though her mace struck a thick leg solidly, it didn’t seem to have much effect upon the creature.  But it felt it when Dannel drove Alakast into its head, and it staggered.But it was not finished just yet. The retriever lashed out with vicious strokes of its blade-limbs, tearing fierce wounds in those it struck, hurting Dannel, Arun, and Morgan.  Dannel went down, hurt bad, blood gushing from his bleeding leg.  Morgan, already wounded in the battle with the rogues earlier, fell back, clutching at his gashed and bleeding side.  The demon lunged at him before he could escape its reach, lashing its pincer-fangs around him and drawing him roughly up into the air, securely held in its bite.  Morgan screamed once and crumpled as the creature crushed him, drawing him into unconsciousness and toward death.  Arun lifted his sword and immediately rushed again at the demon, which was turning back toward the cyst-field, as if intent now upon retreat with its captive.  But the last gem-eye, a brilliant red ruby, swiveled and flashed, blasting a stream of fire into the dwarf’s chest.  The dwarf staggered back from the force of the blast, and it was clear that the flames had hurt him, hurt him bad. But it would take a lot more than that to stop Arun Goldenshield. The dwarf roared an invocation to Moradin as he leapt inside the reach of the demon’s stabbing limbs, under Morgan’s dangling legs, and drove his sword straight up into its body.  The demon convulsed, twitching, stumbling as Hodge drew his spear out and stabbed it in again, this time into the joint directly behind its head.  It screeched and finally fell, still holding Morgan tightly in its grasp. Arun was there in a flash, prying the crippled knight free, stabilizing him with a trickle of healing energy, until his reservoir of divine power was empty.  Zenna had already tended to Dannel, but the elf was still very pale. The dwarf paladin stood, gingerly, his own body blackened and battered.  “I think,” he said, sucking in a deep breath, “I think, that maybe, we should rest a bit, before heading back in.”No one disagreed.</blockquote>

Verification