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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 569282" data-attributes="member: 143">Book VII, Part 23Desperately Benzan kicked out with his foot at the same time that he tried to twist his head out of the inevitable course of the axe.  His boot glanced off something; though his kick wasn’t strong enough to actually topple the dragonkin, it threw the warrior off just enough so that the axe blade tore into the earth at his shoulder instead of crashing through his forehead.  Still he felt pain, a sharp lance through his shoulder as the axe blade crunched the links of his mithral coat against his flesh. He did not have time to get up; he barely had time to roll to the side before the axe came down again, and then again.  Something hard crashed into his side as he rolled, and he felt something snap inside his torso.  This wasn’t good.  Somehow, he’d held his grip on his sword as he fell, and even as he rolled.  Though he could not remember calling upon the power, it flowed into him now through the hilt, through the link that was so much a part of him that he no longer felt it unless he focused his mind upon it.  He stopped rolling even as the axe came around and the dragonkin lunged forward again, kicked out with another boot to catch the dragonkin hard in the shin.  The blow itself had no obvious effect on the creature—apparently their bones were like iron—but as he connected Benzan shot up and away from the dragonkin, launching up into the air above the pond as if shot by a ballista.  He didn’t fly far, perhaps a dozen paces, before the force of the kick was expended, but even as he started to slow he eased off the levitation power of his sword, and he landed in the center of the pool, in water up to his waist.  The dragonkin hissed at him, but barely hesitated before it came charging after him, its movements raising huge splashes of water around him as it came. Benzan waited for it, his sword held ready above his head in both hands, like a spear.  The dragonkin caught within the flame strike formed up behind their leader and rushed down the hill toward the druid and his two companions.  Zev paused, calling upon the natural energies of the Wood once more to aid him, but the badgers did not hesitate, barreling into the leader with their powerful claws digging at his torso.  The dragonkin clipped the first with a vicious blow from his double axe that sliced a long gash in its back.  The badgers got theirs back as they tore into the warrior.  A human fighter would likely have been ripped to pieces by those claws, but the dragonkin held its ground, suffering gashes that got through the double protection of its armor and its thick hide.  The fighter’s allies swarmed around it, giving the whirling double blades a wide berth, and things quickly looked grim for the stalwart badgers.  The one already wounded suffered a crushing blow to the head with a heavy mace that knocked it sprawling, stunned, while the second let out a sharp cry of pain as another warrior thrust its spear deep into the animal’s side.  The druid all but shouted the final words of his incantation, fury clear in the gnoll’s raspy voice.  Even as the spell was completed Zev was rushing forward to the aid of his friends, his spear held level before him like a lance.  Immediately behind the rough line of dragonkin three puffs of wispy smoke erupted out of the ground, resolving in moments into an additional trio of dire badgers.  While not nearly the size of Zev’s pair, they were equally ferocious, and they immediately tore into the dragonkin warriors from behind.  The injured warrior that had driven Dana back turned on Cal, his sword darting out in cuts that should have sliced the gnome to ribbons.  Would have, had he not been protected by the mantle of his magical stoneskin.  The dragonkin hissed in frustration as the gnome drew back, raising a wand and blasting the warrior with an acid arrow.  Dana picked up her kama and started to move to Cal’s aid, but before she could attack she was distracted by the sound of another enemy approaching from behind, from deeper in the mire.  Battered by the elemental, the dragonkin was covered in mud and looked eager for some payback.  Even beaten up as it was, Dana wasn’t particularly keen on fighting it head-on.  Instead, she opened her mind to the power of the goddess once more, and at her call a shimmering weapon appeared, a heavy mace fashioned from lines of translucent blue energy.  The spiritual weapon darted to attack at her command, striking the warrior hard on the shoulder.  The creature tried to fight it, but its counters passed harmlessly through its substance.  Dana knew that the thing would quickly realize that it could not fight the spell, and continue its rush toward her.  She hastily grabbed her spear, setting the weapon just in time to meet the dragonkin’s charge. The battle was turning in the favor of the companions.  The dragonkin warriors had absorbed damage that would have slain five times their number of ordinary human armsmen, but even their incredible toughness could not keep them standing forever.  Lok and Gorath had hacked most of their foes down with powerful strokes of their axes; both bore grievous wounds but neither let up as they surrounded the last warrior that had been part of that initial rush, tearing into it from both sides.  The dragonkin, belatedly, tried to escape by flapping its wings to lift it into the air, but it barely managed a few halting strokes before it succumbed to the deadly assault. Zev leapt with equal fervor at the remaining dragonkin higher up the slope.  One of his badgers was down, the other bleeding from several serious wounds, and two of the warriors had turned to deal with the summoned badgers, dealing them powerful blows from their weapons.  The dragonkin were hurting too, though, blasted by Zev’s flame strike and then suffering gashes from the iron-hard claws of the dire badgers.  The leader hefted his axe to finish off the second of Zev’s companions, but before he could strike the druid jammed his spear into the warrior’s gut, crunching through layered armor to savage the organs underneath.  The leader staggered, but did not fall, and he actually managed to lift his weapon once more before the badger embraced him in a vicious grasp that shredded his torso to ribbons.  Then, at last, he went down.  Without hesitation Zev was at the side of his fallen friend, pouring healing energy into the badger to stabilize it.  One of the other dragonkin had gone down, a badger continuing to tear at its legs with its claws, and the last was already fleeing back up the slope, a second badger trailing after it.  It looked like it would get away, outdistancing the animal, its wings beating to carry it faster, but then a silver streak lanced into the base of its skull, and it faltered in a thrashing heap that the badger quickly fell upon in a fury of tearing claws and teeth. Benzan, meanwhile, faced his charging foe across the width of the pond, the dragonkin throwing up a wall of water as it bullied toward him.  It would not have room to utilize its heavy weapon in the pond, but it did not seem to care as it casually tossed the double axe aside and drew a curving sword from its belt.  “Mashkak varthak, hooman,” it hissed, its eyes promising death as it closed the distance between them.  “I’m sure that means something dire for me,” Benzan replied.  “Which I’d expect, since I’ve seen how you fight.  Luckily for me, though, I know when it’s time to stop fighting fair.”And with that, he called down a sphere of darkness down around both of them. The sounds of splashing told him that the dragonkin hadn’t paused, and continued to come toward where it had last seen him.  By the time it reached him, however, he was no longer there, the power of his sword lifting him out of the muck and into the air, clearing the edge of the darkness.  His lips twisted into a grim smile as he heard the dragonkin cursing, its mood clear even if the words were unintelligible.  The noise of its movements grew louder, unable to take flight with its body half-covered in the mud and water, and by the time it reached the edge of the darkness, heading back toward the edge of the pond, Benzan was ready. The dragonkin fighter barely noticed the first bite, and angrily flicked the fist-sized beetle from its arm.  But it could not ignore the small horde of insects, some flying, others swimming, that swarmed over it, each looking for a gap in its armor, some exposed flesh that it could sink its teeth into.  The dragonkin was a veteran combatant, skilled in arms and disciplined of mind, but it was frustrated by this foe whom it had beaten, driven down into the mud, only to escape and now strike at him from a distance.  Snarling, it staggered out of the swarm, reaching the edge of the pond quickly.  Spinning, it raised its blade at Benzan and began to beat its powerful wings. And that’s when Benzan struck it blind.</blockquote>

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