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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2126314" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 355Even before he saw the minotaur take down Dannel with a single swing of her massive falchion, Arun knew that his situation had suddenly grown real, real grim.  He’d hurt one of the remaining demodands with a thrust that had torn open half its side, but he’d nearly lost his sword again, finally yanking it free in a spray of blood and rent flesh.  Dannel was still intact, his armor holding against the minotaur’s swing, but by the way he’d hit the wall… Arun hoped he was just unconscious, and not dead. But there was nothing the paladin could do for his friend at the moment, for the minotaur immediately turned her ire upon the next adversary. Even aside from her hulking size and incredible speed, Arun could tell from the way she moved that the beast was a skilled combatant.  He also knew that if he went toe-to-toe with her, even leaving aside the two demodands flailing at him with their claws, he’d be opening himself up to a ton of punishment.  He hadn’t taken anything more than a few minor scratches thus far from the demodands, but the minotaur was another story entirely.  But even if he’d wanted to retreat—the persistent fog offered concealment only a few feet away—the demodands would be all over him before he made two steps, and the minotaur had speed, and reach to boot.  If they caught him in the fog, it would be over quickly.  So instead he grimaced and stepped forward, within the minotaur’s reach, and laid into her with everything he had.  There was no holding back now; his first attack was a smite that cut deep into the minotaur’s flank, driving through her armor.  That one she felt, as well as the follow-up backswing that Arun had intended to splay open the wound further, but which hit a foot higher, only adding a fairly minor tear along her ribs.  He tried to keep it going, spinning into a third powerful attacks upon her, but his effort had been spent out and his sword only glanced harmlessly off her armor. The huge falchion came up. Arun had been expecting pain, but even so the terrific impact startled him.  His armor held, although he could feel the sharpness stab into his torso as the hit buckled the mithral plate, a sound echoed by the crunch of bone underneath.  It felt as though someone had reached into his lungs and stolen all of his breath out of him.  He could do nothing as the curving blade came around again, and only a last-instant dodge kept him from losing his head.  As it was, the falchion glanced off of his helm, again denting the metal, and the world spun around him as he staggered back.  He was only distantly aware of the demodands clawing at him eagerly as he fought to recover from that devastating assault.  Only pure idiot chance kept him from taking a third stroke, as a demodand in its attack moved into the descending path of the falchion, and the minotaur adjusted—slightly—to avoid decapitating her ally. But though he yet stood, Arun knew that he would never survive another attack like that one.  One more hit would do him in. Neither he nor the minotaur saw the subtle variation in the air, the slightest disruption as a shadow detached itself from the wall and slipped around behind Gau in a soft tumble.  Through her rage, the barbarian was dimly aware of the slightest pressure, little more than that of a stiff breeze, that touched first her hip, then her back.  Even as she shifted in response, growing aware of the danger, Mole made her presence known by stabbing her rapier—all twelve inches of it—into the small gap in Gau’s armor at the point where her right arm entered her torso.  Gau roared, again more in rage than pain, although the thrust had grazed her lung, and blood began to slowly seep into the injured organ.  But the minotaur seemed barely hindered as she lifted her sword, and with expert precision sliced it over her shoulders and down her back to dislodge the gnome hanging there. Mole swung narrowly out of the path of the blade, its edge sliding mere inches from her face as she hung on by two fingers, her body dangling out in open air.  Kicking out, she passed under the minotaur’s arm before snapping her body out and clambering up its shoulder, using her horn as a pivot to settle her back behind the minotaur’s neck.  Gau shifted her sword to her right hand and tried to grab her with her left, but again she only clasped empty air. The minotaur snapped her head forward in an attempt to dislodge the gnome, but Mole held on, stabbing Gau again with a cut that was only a nuisance, this time.  Arun could not help her, tangled in the grasp of the two demodands, and although Mole had thus far kept her huge foe in check thus far, her luck could not hold out against Gau’s sheer strength and speed for long.  This was confirmed a second later as the falchion shot out suddenly in a sharp upward thrust.  Again Mole dodged, but this time the blade drew across her torso before she could get out of its way, leaving a nasty bleeding gash across her body.  Still, the gnome held on.   “Athaladras!” came a clear cry from the fog, a moment before Nidrama appeared, her wings driving her forward in great pulsing beats, her sword held out before her like a pike.  Gau snarled but took the hit, a driving thrust that sank a full foot into the meat of her left shoulder before the deva’s onrushing momentum was spent.  For a moment, the two combatants just remained there, facing each other; the minotaur spitted on the edge of the celestial’s sword, the deva hovering in the air, dwarfed by an enemy almost twice her size.  A rank burning smell filled the air as the sword’s flames seared Gau’s flesh.  And then the falchion came around, and clove into the celestial’s breast.  Nidrama’s armor crumpled and she fell back, too-bright blood issuing from the deep gash in her body.  She fell hard and did not stir. Gau roared in triumph as she turned back to Arun.  The paladin, teeth gritted against the surges of pain that threatened yet to overcome him, had fought free of one farastu, and ignored the other still clinging to his side as he drove his sword through the first fiend’s face.  The demodand fell back, and Arun yanked his weapon free, trying to turn to confront the minotaur.  Every breath he took drove a knife of pain through him, and the world around him was starting to grow dim, only his sword clearly defined against the shadows. An awkward clanking sound behind him gave him hope, however.  Hodge appeared from the fog, looking a sight with his armor and clothes covered in farastu slime and blood, his beard a fouled ruin that had been splayed across the lower half of his face in a gooey mess.  “Right then,” he said, regarding the minotaur, lifting his axe.  “Yer be wantin’ some o’ this, now?”Gau laughed and charged.  Or rather, started to charge, for as she launched into her first stride, Mole leaned around and cut open her jugular with a long stroke of her dagger.</blockquote>

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