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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3676960" data-attributes="member: 143">Heh, those ravager spawn are tough bastards.  But Dar is just a force. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I'm heading out of town for the weekend, so I'll post the Friday cliffhanger tomorrow morning. * * * * * Chapter 223BLOOD ON THE GROUNDNelan stood his ground, but the creature was implacable.  It snapped its armored head down like a dagger thrust, not even bothering to open its jaws as it struck his breastplate just below the right shoulder.  The impact knocked the cleric onto his back, stunned.  The creature’s momentum carried it over him, its rear legs and their scoop-shaped claws clattering over him as it surged ahead.  That left nothing between it and Letellia.  The monster opened its jaws wide to seize the helpless sorceress, but before it could strike the fog behind her eyes suddenly vanished, and she looked up in full awareness at the death descending upon her.  She held her ground, and as the huge jaws started to snap shut, she spoke a word of magic and vanished.  The monster bit down hard on empty air, and snarled in frustration as it looked around for its missing prey.Dar let out a roar as he barreled forward at the monster from the side.  Allera had been at his side within seconds of him hitting the ground.  As Talen and Shay went down she aborted her intended spell in favor of a mass cure serious wounds that aided all of them.  Dar nodded in thanks as she helped him to his feet, and he barely hesitated as he seized Valor and ran at the monster’s flank.  The ravager had twisted its head around to the other side, intent on finishing Nelan, but it spun back quickly to face Dar’s rush.  The creature’s long neck and considerable reach allowed it to get a bite in before Dar could get within striking distance, but Dar just lowered his body and took the hit, tearing free before it could get a solid grip on his armored body.  Dar cried out again as he swept Valor down two-handed into its torso, shouting to the cleric still pinned under its body, “Get out of there, Nelan!” This time Dar’s blade dug deep into its flesh, and a jet of blood that hissed in the cold air spurted from the ugly gash three feet long that he cut into its body.  The creature turned on him in a mad fury, the front half of its body rising up to allow it to sweep at him with its four front claws.  Its movement allowed Nelan to stagger free, although he limped badly on his left leg, where the monster had trodden upon him in its charge, and his helmet had been torn off in the chaos.  The old priest’s brow bore a long gash that trailed blood down the left side of his face, but he was alive, and he had enough clarity to get out of its reach before he called upon his magic to heal his wounds.  He still clung to his weapon, but it wasn’t clear what if any use that would be against a foe of this magnitude.  Dar had expected to take a beating, but even he could not have expected the violence of the monster’s full attack.  By some miracle he avoided the snap of its jaws this time, but his luck evaporated a second later as it dug a shovel-sized claw into his gut.  Those claws had the power to dig through solid rock, and it crumpled the band of armor protecting his lower body, carving a swath of terrible pain through him as it knocked him back a step.  He barely kept his footing, extending his arms to the ground to help him hold his weight, but the monster wasn’t done, slamming down another pair of claws into his back.  Something cracked in his left shoulder, and suddenly the ground filled his visor, and a loud pounding noise echoed in his ears.  A little voice whispered that he had to get up, that the creature was certainly about to kill him, but it faded, along with his consciousness. Talen and Shay had risen to their feet, the knight tugged back from the brink of death by Allera’s healing magic.  As soon as she saw that he was all right, Shay started up the hill after the creature, but they were still a good ten paces off as Dar was struck down, and as the two rushed forward, they saw that they weren’t going to make it to the fighter’s aid in time.</blockquote>

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