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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3634219" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 205THE BATTLE FOR THE THIRD TEMPLEThe floor of the temple of Orcus was crafted of massive stone blocks that had been first set millennia past, but even those shook as the priest Wheraz charged.  His righteous might spell had augmented his weight to over two thousand pounds, and the marilith’s unholy aura played about his body as he moved, giving him the look of an avenging spirit.  Talen glanced over at Dar, but the fighter was downing a potion, and was distracted for a  critical moment.  The knight stepped forward to meet the priest’s rush, summoning his will to protect him from whatever deadly trick the foe might attempt.  “Stand fast, for Camar!” he yelled, his conviction and dedication to his cause infusing the rally cry with power that bolstered him and his companions against the dark energies of this place. But the cleric eschewed subtlety for a straight out attack.  With his physical prowess augmented by a bull’s strength on top of the effects of the righteous might, he struck with the force of a battering ram.  Talen brought his shield up to deflect the blow from the cleric’s mace, but even so the force of the impact drove him back, and he cried out as his shoulder was dislocated from its socket.  He spun around and might have fallen, had not Shay grabbed him and supported him for a critical instant.  “Spread out, flank him!” Talen cried, trying to ignore the white-hot stabbings of agony that radiated out from his savaged shoulder.  Shay nodded and leapt forward, tumbling almost effortlessly around the cleric’s side to threaten his left side, behind the reach of his shield. With Talen occupied by the hulking cleric, Dar found himself facing the marilith, which slid forward almost casually, the tips of its swords scraping nastily against the stone of the floor.  A little voice that he hadn’t often heard whispered in the back of his mind, I’ve got to be smart, here. The fighter roared and lowered his head as he charged forward.  The marilith’s affected pose of indifference evaporated, and the six blades it carried came up into ready positions.  The demon reared up to its full height, and Dar had to crane his neck to look up at its face; it had to be at least nine feet tall.The fighter abruptly stopped, still a good twenty feet from the demon.  He kept Valor down in his right hand while he lifted his right, and beckoned to the creature.  “Come on, bitch.”The demon’s expression seemed amused, almost, as it slid forward to meet its foe.  It fixed its stare on Dar, and the fighter shook his head, snarling. “Get out of my mind...”The attack came with incredible swiftness.  One long arm shot out, the black blade darted inside Dar’s guard.  He’d been expecting an attack, but as he swung Valor up to meet it the marilith twisted its wrist slightly, and it deflected his stroke with almost effortless aplomb.  As Dar’s blade was knocked aside the demon followed with a thrust that clipped Dar’s helmet.  The fighter staggered a step to the side; his helmet had withstood the blow, but he’d obviously felt the force of the impact regardless. The demon let out a pleased noise, a hiss of pleasure at the pain experienced by its foe. Dar felt a touch at his back.  “Be strong,” Allera said, as she cast one of her few remaining healing spells into him, easing his wounds and bringing him back to full strength.  “Right,” the fighter said.  He lunged forward, stepping into the marilith’s reach to unleash a full attack with both fists clenched tight around the hilt of Valor.  The blade flashed blue up its length as it clove into the marilith’s sinuous body.  The creature’s earlier delight was banished, replaced by an angry hiss of cold fury as the fighter’s axiomatic blade tore deep gashes in its body.  The marilith drew back a step, and Dar moved to follow, bringing his sword, trailing black ichor, up to strike again. “Dar, no!” Allera cried, recognizing the trap too late as the demon’s six blades came up around its body like a halo. Talen’s shield dropped as his dislocated shoulder sent waves of agony through his body.  But Beatus Incendia flared like a small sun in his other hand as he stepped forward and smote the cleric with the holy blade.  His first swing crunched through the thick armor plate protecting his left thigh, cutting deep into the leg beneath.  The cleric merely grunted and shifted his weight, lifting his mace to strike again, but before he could execute the attack Talen brought his sword up into the man’s gut.  Again steel gave way before steel, and a cascade of bright red blood erupted from the gaping wound.  The cleric was hurting now, but while a normal man would have likely collapsed already from the pain, the evil priest’s fanatic expression only twisted a shade deeper toward madness, and he pressed his assault. Shay had taken up position behind the cleric, but she found herself unable to assist her lover.  As she came around the enlarged priest, she found herself facing the slight figure of the female cleric.  The woman’s mace was at her side, and Shay knew enough to realize that this meant trouble. “Embrace the touch of the True God!” the woman hissed, darting forward with surprising alacrity despite the heavy metal armor she wore.  Shaylara twisted to the side, but before she could extract herself she felt a soft touch on her arm as the cleric’s fingers brushed her.  That light contact was enough for the cleric’s slay living spell to course into the scout.  Shay’s jaw clenched tight enough to start it bleeding as she fought the waves of agony that spread up the arm into her body.  For a moment her heart skipped a beat, two, three... but then the deadly effects of the spell passed, and she fell back, damaged but alive. “Your will is strong, but it will not save you,” the woman said, following after her.  Shay felt a cold chill hammer at her as Talen screamed, and she looked over her shoulder to see Wheraz smash his mace down into Talen again.  The knight had brought his shield up, somehow, but the impact was hard enough to drive him down to his knees.  The cleric’s robes were stained crimson from his waist down as his blood continued to course out of the deep wound in his gut, but he seemed impervious to mere pain, and he lifted his mace again to deliver a final blow. Shay’s foe was quick to exploit the distraction, lunging forward to deliver another touch attack.  Gernaldra’s fingers began to glow red as she reached for the scout’s throat, but before she could strike, Shay leapt to the side.  This time the cleric could not adjust in time, and as she darted past Shay shot a booted foot down into the joint of the cleric’s right knee.  The woman cried out as the knee buckled, and she plummeted forward to fall hard on her face, grunting as the wind was knocked out of her. Shay landed in a crouch and shot up, driving her sword into the cleric’s side.  The keen elvish blade bit through the man’s armor, but his spell had augmented his stamina beyond that of a normal man, and while Shay saw blood running down the runnel of her blade, she knew that her hit had not been enough to stop him.  No! she mouthed, as his mace came crashing down. Dar swept Valor up in a rapid sweep, deflecting a sword that would have bisected his neck had it struck.  He tried to pivot to meet the marilith’s second strike, but the creature’s swords were a blur of steel around him, and no mere mortal reflexes could withstand that assault.  His armor held as a sword smashed hard into his side, and again as a sword crushed his hip, but both hits were telling even without lethal penetration.  He tried to bring up Valor for one last thrust, but a sword caught him on the bracer, crushing the bone beneath, and the sword fell clattering out of his hands.  He looked up, and saw the feral look in the demon’s eyes, a moment before it brought down another sword, and took his right arm off at the shoulder.</blockquote>

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