Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3984678" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 332PLENTY OF PAIN TO GO AROUNDIt was impossible to tell what was going through the illithid’s mind as Talen roared and descended upon it with the fury of a raging inferno.  But the creature did not flinch, holding its ground as the knight charged to meet it.  Only at the last second did it shift, extending a slender arm to touch the attacking fighter.  But Talen’s blade gave him reach, and before the creature could do something unpleasant to him he cut through its skull, driving the blade down through its head and body, exiting under its right armpit.  There was surprisingly little blood as the pieces of it slid to the ground.  Two more flayers came at him from the left and right.  They knew their mental powers could not hurt them, but they clearly had something in mind.  He feinted left with his sword, keeping the illithid at bay for a split second while he pivoted and snapped the sword around to his right.  Clammy flesh parted and thin bones crunched, and the flayer staggered back, crippled by a terrible wound that gaped open in its side.  Air hissed from its punctured lung.  Talen was already shifting to face the other, but it came in too fast, and brushed his arm.  Talen felt a sudden twist of vertigo as reality swirled around him.  Hatred and anger filled him like a weapon, and he barely resisted the illithid’s attempt to plane shift him into the Abyss.  He raised his sword to strike, but never got a chance to counterattack.  A long white arm slashed down, and thick fingers locked onto his skull.  And then he was flying, arcing across the room.  At the apogee of the arc he nearly brushed the ceiling, thirty feet high. Landing hurt less than it would have, before, but it still hurt. Shay charged into the ring of pillars opposite Talen, only a few seconds after his initial arrival.  Another mind flayer faced her, its tentacles moving in a pattern as it awaited her rush.  She too expected a counter, and so when it lunged for her she shifted subtly, sweeping her blade up with a flick of her wrist, under its reach as she slid past it.  The sword bit deep, but even with her augmented strength she was not Talen, and the illithid drew back, injured but hale. She could not spare time for the one she had injured as the others were upon her in an instant.  Evading, she was grazed by one that attempted to plane shift her, and like Talen she experienced a surge of disorientation that faded as her innate will, augmented by the amulet she wore around her neck, enabled her to shrug off the flayer’s power.  But even that brief moment of vulnerability cost her.  Even as she felt the lumbering thud of the astral construct’s tread behind her, something hard smashed into the space between her shoulder blades, and she was flying forward.  The bull rush smashed her forward into the edge of the stone basin, and as she pitched forward a bright blue flash erupted around her, and everything vanished in a haze of pain. Allera rushed forward, flinching as forms much bigger than she clashed and flailed about the battlefield.  One of the astral constructs had dissolved into nothing, although Allera could not see what had destroyed it.  The three that were left, while all damaged to some degree, remained a dire threat.  Varo had summoned more allies, a trio of giant centipedes that had launched into the astral constructs at his command.  One of them crashed hard to the floor not three paces from where she was running, and as she pressed forward the construct that had smote it reached down and tore its head off.  It was obvious that Varo’s helpers weren’t going to last for very long, but for the moment they were engaging the constructs and keeping them busy.  Allera’s attention was focused on Dar, who was struggling feebly in the grasp of Navev’s chilling tentacles.  Stunned by the flayer mind blast, he had no chance of escaping the deadly constriction of those thick black cords.  Heedless of her own tired body, the healer thrust herself into the circle of grasping tendrils, reaching for Dar.  Three tentacles seized her, but not before she had gotten close enough to grab his left foot, and unleash a heal spell into him.  Clarity returned to Dar’s eyes in an instant, and with a roar he started tearing himself free of the grasping tentacles.  One of the constructs, attracted by Allera’s mad rush, came in after them, ignoring the tentacles that entwined its legs, reaching out to deliver solid blows to both the healer and the fighter.  Allera cried out and tried to escape, but the tentacles had already snared her.  Talen was rejoined by Drudge and Needles as he headed back toward the pillars.  He’d dropped his sword when he’d hit the ground, and as he paused to recover it, he scanned the chamber.  The four astral constructs that had pursued him to the center of the room had reformed into a line, and were coming toward them again.  Utar had joined Hedder, stomped by one of the constructs, reduced to a gaseous cloud that drifted aimlessly off to the side of the room.  Calla, off to the left, was rising from the corpse of the last grimlock fighter.  Her face was bloody, and the smile she flashed at him was crimson.  Irritated, he gestured for her to join them.  He could not see Shay, but as he looked to the right, he saw that his companions were having a great deal of trouble dealing with the constructs on their side of the room.  Somehow Dar and Allera had managed to get themselves entangled in the chilling tentacles again, and one of the constructs had followed them in, and was engaged in beating on them vigorously.  Varo thus far had hung back, throwing more summoned creatures into the meat grinder. “You want me to help them out?” Needles asked him. “No,” Talen said.  His voice was level as he watched the oncoming constructs.  “Needles, Drudge, spread out to the left and right and make like you are trying to get past them.  Calla, you’re on me.”As the vampires moved forward to engage the constructs, a column of liquid fire descended onto them from above.  The flame strike caught three of the four, inflicting what looked like generous destruction upon their artificial bodies.  As Needles and Drudge broke off, a construct turned toward each of them, moving swiftly to block their route toward the pillars in the center of the room.  The other two kept on coming forward.  Talen walked forward calmly, the diminutive Calla trailing in his wake. Talen picked the one that looked to be most damaged, and as he entered its reach, he lunged forward with surprising speed.  It smashed a huge fist down across his back, but he merely took the hit and drove his sword down into its body with a cry that shook the chamber with its intensity.  His blade, backed by potent magic, bit deep into its substance, opening a gash that continued to widen until the thing split in two and dissolved into nothing.  The second constructs came at Talen from the side, but even as he pivoted to meet it Calla leapt onto it, smashing at it with her tiny fists.  The construct seized her and threw her down to the ground, but before it could anything worse Talen laid into it with a full attack, and it too came apart, dissolving into nothing within seconds once its cohesion had been shattered. Dar tore free of the chilling tentacles yet again, his face twisted into a paroxysm of rage as he drove forward.  The astral construct was securely held in place by no less than four tentacles twined around its legs, but it could still reach Allera, and it lifted an arm to deliver another punishing blow.  The healer was in dire condition, the icy chill in the tentacles sapping life from her body, and she could do nothing to evade the assault. Dar lunged forward and met the descending fist with a violent swing of Valor.  His blade caught the astral construct’s arm just above the wrist, and it took off the entire hand, which flew off into the swarming tentacles.  The construct lurched forward, off-balance but unable to fall with the tentacles holding it.The construct started to twist its body to bring its intact arm into play, but before it could attack again a stream of liquid fire blasted into its torso, followed a second later by a second.  The damaged construct could not withstand the licking flames, and as its substance charred black it came apart under the tearing tentacles.  Dar was at Allera’s side in an instant, fighting to rip the tentacles off her body.  “Go on... leave me...” she managed weakly. “Not a freaking chance,” he said.  This time he didn’t bother trying to cut the magical bindings, but slid Valor back into its scabbard and went to work pulling them off her with sheer strength.  The last of Varo’s summoned centipedes succumbed to the devastating pounding of one of the astral constructs.  The two astral constructs bore damage, but their wounds were minor.  Letellia, recovered from the mind blast by virtue of Varo’s heal spell, directed the last of her scorching rays into one of the constructs, and it turned toward them, joined a moment later by its companion, treading through the black wisps of Varo’s dissolving summons.  “Can you stop them?” Letellia asked the cleric. “We shall see,” Varo replied, lifting his wand and calling down another flame strike.  The holy fire obscured the constructs as it enveloped them, but as the spell ended both reappeared right in front of them, their bodies blackened and scorched, but still deadly.  They proved that as they charged into Varo and Letellia, both of them taking solid hits that knocked them violently backwards.Shaylara shook her head to clear it, and looked up to see several mind flayers looming over her.  One seized her arm, and again she felt a wave of disorientation seep through her body as it attempted to yank her out of the Prime Material.  She tore free, but knew that she could not rely on resisting those touches for long.  Her will had been boosted by her transformation into a vampire, and the amulet she bore protected her against evil spells, but the power wielded by the illithids was ancient and potent, and behind her the part of her mind that was still capable of feeling emotion could sense the roiling potency of the Overmind, trying in vain to gain hold of her consciousness.  Two more mind flayers lunged at her.  She sprang up, leaping high into the air.  Her strength had likewise grown considerably, and augmented by her magical boots she surged high above the illithids.  Her target shifted as she reached the arc of her leap and began to descend, but she was still able to plant her feet on the shoulder of the astral construct, and push off as it lifted its spear-hand to strike her.  It was impossible to apply any finesse or control to the second jump, but it carried her past the ring of pillars, and as she landed she was able to turn her shoulder and come up into a crouch, her sword at the ready. The astral construct came pounding after her, and she was forced to dive to the side to avoid being impaled by its lance.  The edge of the weapon grazed her side, but the wound was not serious, and she was able to draw back, giving her more space to recover her stance. The mind flayers, she noticed, had come to the edge of the ring of pillars, but they did not pursue her.  Interesting, she thought, as understanding whispered in the back of her mind. But there was no more time for pondering, as the construct whirled around and came at her again. On the far side of the room, Talen’s forces were suffering setbacks.  Needles had nearly gotten past the construct pursuing him; the bandit tried to lure it toward the chilling tentacles, but the entity’s long reach foiled his escape.  Its right fist twisted and reshaped into a pair of jagged blades, each almost a foot long.  It drove the blades through the vampire’s skull, impaling him.  Needles kicked out a few times, his legs jerking in a brief spasm, then he went limp.  The vampire dissolved into mist, joining Utar and Hedder.Drudge did not last much longer.  The vampire tried to dart between the construct’s legs, but as he shot through it smashed a fist down onto his back, knocking him prone.  The former bandit tried to get up, but the construct seized his ankles, and lifted him into the air.  It smashed its prisoner down hard into the floor.  Drudge actually survived two of those impacts, but on the third, his head cracked, and he too was reduced to a trailing hiss of insubstantial mist. Talen, meanwhile, strode forward.  His eyes were on the mind flayers that had formed up at the edge of the ring of pillars, watching him.  He did not shift his gaze or his measured pace as the constructs that had slain his troops charged in at him, but as the first lunged to strike, sweeping at him with those deadly blades, he pivoted and slashed his sword up, deflecting the powerful blow.  He came in under its reach, trusting to Calla to keep the other one off his back.  The construct tried to push him away with its other arm, but the fallen knight easily avoided the thrust, and his counters dug deep furrows in its torso.  Behind him Calla cried out as she was hit hard and hurled aside by the second construct, but he kept his attention focused on the first, finishing it off with a cut that took off its left leg at the hip.  As it dissolved he turned and met the other, as it stood over the fallen girl. “Dance with me, bitch,” Talen said, stepping forward to challenge the construct.  The thing, mindless though it seemed to be, recognized the greater threat—or perhaps the master holding its strings did.  He laughed as it smashed him across the chest, a blow that would have knocked the wind out of him, at the very least.  But he no longer had any “wind” to lose.  He stepped forward, and with Mailliw Catspar’s blade set to work. Allera sagged against Dar as the fighter dragged her out of the field of chilling tentacles.  With their escape, the invocation seemed to have finally run its course, and the sinuous black tendrils dissolved into nothingness.  Dar held her up.  “Are you all right?  Allera, c’mon, we need you with us here.”The healer groaned, but she summoned a reserve of energy from somewhere within, and blinked.  “I... I’m all right.  Just... a moment...”  She closed her eyes, and drew upon her powers for another mass cure spell.  She could feel the fluttering flickers that were the life forces of Dar, Letellia, and Varo, and she channeled the power into them.  She could also sense the dark loci that were the vampires.  She knew better than to extend her magic to them.  Not now, anyway.As she completed her spell, she sensed another mental intrusion slide off of her defenses.  Blinking, she realized that Dar was no longer beside her.  She felt a cold chill as she saw him walking toward Talen, Valor blazing in his hand.</blockquote>

Verification