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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1225691" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #246] The Girl, the Bug Men, and Everything![/PLAIN]"I do not want to hang out here," Vade said in a small voice and the girl turned to regard him with her glittering green eyes. Her expression said that he was being judged... and found wanting."We must not leave them to regain their strength," the girl said. "Now is the time to strike!""No," Ixin said flatly. "Now is the time to go find Ledare and Windstryder ASAP. Then let's head back to town, rest and heal as much as we can and head back to Barnacus."The girl frowned and bent to pick up Braath the Lesser's fallen greatsword. "I'm not leaving," she said as she hauled the huge blade up until its tip pointed at the ceiling."Too many people are depending on your safe return," Feln grunted. "We can't risk you getting hurt or..." His voice trailed off an the girl sneered."I am ready to sacrifice my own life, if need be, to eradicate the threat these creatures pose," she said and lowered the sword so that the flat of the blade rested on her left shoulder. It was a pose that Draelond had often assumed and the sight brought momentary pangs of loss to both Ixin and Vade. "In fact," the girl went on, "I am half-convinced that I have been sent here to test my willingness to make such a sacrifice on behalf of others.""Sent from where?" Vade asked. "Where did you come from?"The girl smiled down at him, and the look on her face was one of both serene happiness and profound loss. She pointed one finger upward. "Up there," she said and Vade scrunched up his face and squinted at the ceiling."There's an upper level to these caves?" he asked.Miraculously, Windstrider's foot stepped on solid earth and the ranger ventured a look over her right shoulder at what lay behind her. Down the slope of the hill, she could see the Janissary holding two scimitars and hustling in her direction. The elf let her right knee collapse beneath her weight and pushed off with her left foot and her momentum carried her over the crest of the hill and into a barrel roll. She drew her bow and rapier in tight against her body and let inertia do the rest.Two of the bug things reacted at once to follow her. The one that the ranger had twice wounded and the one that had bloodied her own left arm so severely lurched after her, there many legs scissoring down the hillside.Windstryder rolled passed Ledare and the Janissary braced her feet to receive the charge of the first of the transmogrified insects. The scimitar in her right hand slashed outward as it advanced and severed the creature's arm above the elbow. The thing shrieked in a voice that was utterly inhuman and fell to the side clutching weakly at its fountaining stump. Its companion was on Ledare in an instant and the point of its pincer dug firmly into her gut.She felt more blood pouring beneath her armor, but her entrails stayed where they were supposed to be.Another of the creature's skittered up to the half-elf's flank, catching her between itself and its ally. Despite its tactical advantage, however, it failed to pierce Ledare's armor. Windstryder pumped an arrow into its right arm and it turned to regard her with utter malice gleaming in its many-faceted eyes. The distraction cost it dearly as Ledare's crescent blade buried itself in the creature's chitinous side. Ichor went spraying outward and then it slumped to the ground.Before the half-elf could raise her other blade to defend herself, the other bug man that was on her pinched its claw down on Ledare's right knee and she started to pitch forward. As she went, it stabbed its other pincer up under her left arm, the lighter chainmail there and into the warm meat beneath. The Janissary tried desperately to catch her breath as the ground spun up to claim her.Even as it turned to face Windstryder, the ranger put two arrows into its torso. The first slammed into its gut, staggering the thing. The second pierced neatly through its heart before continuing on through its back with a spurt.</blockquote>

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