The Merchant's Daughter (S:ARG RP) - Traditional Fantasy IC

[Terminal]

At first, Temer had remained rather cool about the who string of events that proceeded once he had finished his segue. It was only after the large, trembling thud of the giant's club reverberated back from where Ateo was that it occured to him that something was probably very, very wrong. He steadied the gelding he rode and hurriedly dismounted it, stumbling somewhat as he landed - he had not ridden a horse many times before now. Actual riding was one thing, but he still had yet to master mounting and dismounting. He steadied himself and looked around for any signs of trouble - there was a whole lot of noise coming from where Ateo and Benny's Drow (as he had designated her mentally) had headed, so he figured the party was probably going to have to see what was happening in that direction. It was telling that neither of the two had returned to the group to tell them of what had happened - it either meant they were both fighting for their lives and too preoccupied to run, that one of them was dead, or that the scene wasn't what it sounded like and they didn't require assistance. Still, it was better safe than sorry.

Temer quickly made sure to look in each direction about the group just in case. It was true in a crypt just like it was true everywhere else: Always make sure your escape route is clear and not full of people sneaking up on you - and looking back towards Zakein's carriage, the first thing he saw was a massive giant and a gaggle of goblins. He almost did a double-take then - how in the world had they snuck up on the group like that?

'Now there's a neat trick. This is going to be terrible.' He thought - somewhere between his brain and his mouth, this thought shortened itself to, "Oh, Motdamnit!" That probably meant that the large thud he had heard was another giant up ahead of the group, but no point fussing over it. One dealt with a single problem at a time, and this giant was closer. He had never fought with a giant before, so this would be the single biggest indicator on whether or not he should run. He briefly took the goblins into account - he had run into their ilk often enough to know they occasionally had mages. If he were prudent, he would have cast Mot's Sterile Visage then and there - but he would be damned if he wasted a perfectly good coating of rotted, diseased and cursed undead viscera. He quickly assessed the group and determined that he could not tell if any of them were undead, and so halfhearted admitted to himself that they were all unfortunately alive and therefore immune to most of his spells. Normally he wouldn't have minded the opportunity for a scrap with a pack of goblins, but he did mind it if he wound up with shattered ribs courtesy of their larger friend.

He charged, and as he drew closer to the group he noticed Zakein was already ahead of him and fighting off the goblins, dual-wielding rapiers and twirling around like a Court Jester with them. Temer had to restrain himself from laughing aloud - what did the stupid idiot think she was doing? There was a giant, right there where she was standing, and her form was full of openings. Never mind the fact that the giant could have swatted her like June-bug, the goblins alone should have been getting through her guard, and yet they continued to fall down dead around her. How was she...?

'Aha! Now that's some fancy work right there.' Temer thought approvingly as he caught on to what was happening. It had just been for the barest of moments, but Temer had seen Vel momentarily fade into view from the darkness to neatly and cleanly cut the throat of one of the goblins mid-lunge as it had been leaping to plunge a crude dagger into Zakein's back while she strutted around like some kind of epileptic harpy. He blinked as the shrouded Drow vanished from sight as quickly as she had appeared.

'Never mind that bitch. She's the one to look out for.' He thought to himself, somewhat stunned by what he had just seen. If those two were allies, the idiot could ask her to kill Temer in his sleep and he wouldn't be able to do a thing to stop her. He immediately shook his head and cleared his thoughts. 'Stupid! Need to focus on the fight. Not the time for that.' Having taken in everything, Temer charged in to assist the two, wary of the giant but confident that he would not be the most tempting target for it. If the second Drow was smart, once he entered the fray she would circle around and cut the giant's hamstrings while he covered Zakein-

His ears popped, and Temer felt a vast, hollowing force blooming in his chest as the giant's roar tore in every direction, stumbling in shock and surprise at the sheer voice and volume of it and taking a moment to regain his balance, with his vision fuzzy and trembling.

'Stupid eyes...If they're made o' glass, why do they have to work like the real thing?' He thought irritably, looking back to the scene just in time to see Vel shove Zakein away from the giant's club, getting bowled over the ground for her trouble. Multiple goblins sprung up from the brush and began to follow her - and Temer made a snap decision. She would be in no condition to protect herself against a whole mob of those things, and Zakein had already demonstrated that, left to her own devices and bereft of assistance, she would be horribly maimed and inevitably killed. He turned and charged after Vel as she rolled across the earth and came to a rest amidst several trees and underbrush. Taking advantage of this, Temer ducked into one of the bushes and watched the approaching goblins, beginning to chant the words of a spell right as they came close, hoping that he was timing it right. His ears were still ringing from the giant's roar, so he could barely even hear himself utter the words - he poured so much focus into the spell, he didn't even check to see whether the fallen Drow was even alive.

"His gaze keeps, his breath halts, his voice purifies, and... He whispered faintly, his voice barely more than an imperceptible background murmur. Once he had nearly completed the chant, he opened his eyes slightly and saw that he had misjudged the goblins' speed - one of them was almost literally right on top of her -

If he hadn't already uttered the last syllable, Vel's abrupt movement would have startled him and potentially disrupted his spell. Unfortunately for the goblins, this was not the case. Right as she leapt back up and swiped at one of the Goblin's, Temer burst from the undergrowth, his gauntlets raised before him as his spell took effect. There was a faint and eerie rumbling sound, and a barely-visible sphere of foggy force erupted from Temer, expanding in every direction for five feet, whereupon it halted - this same force, as it expanded, cleansed the filthy blood and gore off of the Mortificator's gauntlets down to the last molecule and propelled all of it straight at the gang of goblins gathered before Vel, coating them in it and blinding most of them as the gritty mess smeared itself over their faces and eyes. Unseen by the combatants, rotted wood underneath the surface of the Earth shattered to bits and pieces before being repulsed by the same wave of force, dead plant matter in the surrounding brush exploded outward, bacteria and viral compounds immediately breaking down upon contact with the wave as it passed. Mot's Sterile Visage purged all traces of rot, filth and disease from the area immediately about the Mortificator.

A number of the goblins immediately began to scream in pain and panic, and so the lot of them were entirely unprepared for when Temer stormed into their ranks like a bull and started thrashing them. He was slow in orienting himself, but his blow were blurs - a sweep of his arm sent one goblin flying through the air, a punch from the other split another's skull open as a gauntlet-mounted blade pierced into it, and an outflung elbow dented the small helmet another wore and sent its wearer to the ground. Unfortunately, Temer's charge was short-lived. The goblins towards the outskirts of the gang, who hadn't been entirely hit by the spray of viscera, had recovered from the surprise attack and were beginning to close in, while unseen, a number of reinforcements closed in from further in the woods, their concealment spells having been broken by Temer's spellwork.

"Come on lass, I'm not an army! We need to get back to the others!" Temer shouted to Vel as he caught a Goblin as it leapt for him mid-air and clubbed another with it, the blade on that gauntlet piercing into the seized monster upon impact. Every blow of his broke bone and tore through flesh as though it were crisp paper, but once the goblins organized they would surround the two and that would be that.

[Hymusia]

Vel.

Pain erupted like a volcano and filled her chest causing her breaths to fall in short sharp gasps. She barely fought back the wave of nausea that rocketed through her slender frame and managed to keep her eyes from rolling back into her head. Had she the ability she would have told the pirouetting princess exactly what she thought right then but every breath was a new flare of pain that shot across her rip cage and up towards her neck. She was not built for taking hits, she was built for being fast and sneaky and by the goddess she was pretty damn good at that. Her only short fall was she'd clearly misjudged the distance and her capabilities, she'd hoped they'd both be pushed free of the giant's club, then again Zak should not have been such a foolish and proud bitch.

Still the time for reflection on events was not now and with a degree of effort she'd not thought necessary since she was knee high to a sparrow she began to get herself to her feet. Her ears were still ringing so she did not hear the spell being cast, nor did she realise how close the goblins were getting until they began to writhe in pain. Blinking unfocused eyes until they made sense of what they saw she spotted Temer, the filthy gross one, rushing towards her. He looked a lot less gross though, his armour now clean, pristine even, it could have given Cassandra's a run for it's money. Not trying to make sense of this Vel focused her ringing ears on the words coming from the Mot worshippers mouth. For a moment her brows furrowed until she got the general idea of the message.

With good arm she grabbed at Temer's elbow and pulled herself to her feet, crying out in pain as her rib cage protested her defiant actions. Once to her feet, an effort she had not needed to exert on such an action since she was knee high to a sparrow, she staggered a moment, looking fit to pass out before, briefly, regaining her balance. “L-leave her. S-she'll be an affective speed bump.” The disorientated and pained woman wheezed. If she died then so be it, Vel had done what she could to defend the idiotic woman who seemed to think they were still walking their lands, their mountains. Matron Mothers, it was why her family worked outside the other houses and why very few knew anything about the way they worked. Matron Mothers were the Drow's biggest weakness, their egotistical stupidity was what would get most of them killed.

Taking a step Vel swung out with her dagger and slashed from eye to opposite lip across a goblins face before wheeling around to hit it in the temple with the pommel of her blade. The motion itself caused untold agony to flare through her body and Vel went positively white in the face from such. “Lets g-get moving. I think I'm going to pass out.” Disdain and disappointment marked her final words, what a childish and unnecessary thing to do but the pain truly was immense and she was unlikely to get a choice in the matter at all.

Cassandra.

Her horse slowed to a careful canter as they caught up to the procession, immediately though her keen eyes noticed a definitive lack of something. Ateo was missing, as was the Drow woman who had rode along side him and the rather grubby priest of Mot was also gone. A bellow of a giant was swiftly followed by the sound of a fight which carried easily back to her position. “Serenity I need you to stay here, guard the rear of the caravan while I organize the others.” Without waiting for a reply Cass rode up towards the front of the splintering group and glanced further down the path.

“Fitch I want you up front with me, you're our heavy. Carriage driver, wake the Drow and bring them out would you? Then get back to the city, this is no place for you or for such a cumbersome thing. Ben I want you to our right, you'll get a better view of the road and pick off any stragglers. The rest of you form up in the centre we'll have Serenity at the back as rear guard. We need to stick together, Ateo has told you how Goblins work, if we splinter we are vulnerable, as it is we already have two people that are likely down or dead let's not make it more. We need to keep our sense about us if we're going to get through this.”

Cass lowered her Helmet and steadied her horse, the group were unlikely to listen to her, they didn't seem to really listen to any one but if any had a shred of common sense then they'd understand the fundamentals of what was said. “Any objections keep them to yourself until after we get through this.” Goblins were one thing but a giant was another, she'd heard stories of them and while clustered together made a giant's job easier it would, for the time, keep the goblins from ripping them to shreds by sheer numbers and mass.

A flash of, well something, up ahead caught her eye and by shielding her visor she could see one of the Drow dancing around like a spring lamb, one Drow downed and Temer rushing to her aid. With a frown Cass reached for the hilt of her long sword, releasing a calming breath she drew the weapon and held it angled away from the horses body. “Well then, lets move out!” She couldn't see Ateo which worried her somewhat but the man was more than capable, she'd admired him on the battle lines before and alone or not he was a force to be reckoned with. Until he got back she was putting herself in charge of and responsible to minimizing the amount of dead bodies he'd get to find upon his return.

[Zhaliora]

Zakein had noticed Vel in the corner of her eye, killing a few goblins as they were about to leap at her. "Good, let her think that she is useful and needed. Let her think that I would not be able to deal with them all by myself." Zakein grinned to herself as Vel killed another one. "I guess I don't need to get serious after all." Zakein was happy to let Vel take care of a few goblins, made sure that she would not have to exert herself very much.

When the giant bent back a little and opened its mouth, Zakein said one word; Venorsh. Almost all sound died in her ears but she could still hear some of the massive roar from the giant. The pure shock-wave of the bellow still rocked her body and her ears started ringing, but Zakein stood on her two legs as the giant swung its club at her. "You're still too slow my large friend." She wanted to wait until the last safe moment to dodge the blow. It was better if the giant thought her as dumb or slow and would underestimate her as a consequence.

Just when she started to move, she could feel a push against her side that shoved her to the ground. "Goblin!? No, it would not shove me out of the way." Zakein looked around, trying to make sense of the scene as her ears would not work properly again for quite a while. She got up on her legs again and scanned the area and saw Vel lying on the ground some distance away. "Why is she--?" Zakein could see some blood running from Vel's shoulder and she realized that it had been Vel that had shoved her. "Stupid girl!" Zakein mad at the girl. Not for shoving her out of the way. That had actually been good for her. No, she was mad because Vel had gotten herself hurt. It seemed like she and her daughter had taken a liking to each other and she would NOT forgive Vel if she had gotten herself too seriously injured.

Zakein looked up at the giant and then at Vel. She noticed that Vel were surrounded by goblins. Zakein cursed to herself and ran off into some nearby vegetation. "I guess I need to get serious after all." She made sure that there were no goblins nearby before she laid one of the rapiers down onto the ground. She pointed the other's tip at her hand and gritted her teeth as she pierced it with the rapier before she laid that one down and picked up the other and pierced her other hand with that one.

She smeared the blood over the blades of the rapiers and opened her mouth. "Dos yvalm errdegahr d'l'rendan, voen'llyl ussta lar. Gi, errdegahr d'l'olath, guuan phor! Guuan phor lu'katrill jal nindel f'rear p'los dos!"

The blood started to shine brightly before it got sucked into the blades. Zakein picked up the rapiers as the wounds on her hands sealed up and left two small scars on her hands. She closed her eyes and breathed heavily a few times before two voices began to speak, but they were not her own. "SOOOO...you've finally awakened us!" "We has been bound to your swords without getting the pleasure of release for sooooooooo long." "Be quiet demons of the abyss. I have no time to converse with you today, nor do I wish to." "Buuuut~~it has been sooooo long since we did talk, dear Zakein." "We began to miss hearing your voice." "I said be quiet!" "HAHAHA, we can feeeeeeel your anger dear matron." "We also know who is the cause of this anger." "Vel was it?" "Do you want us to kill her?" "No, she is not to be harmed. It is the giant and goblins that shall die." "Buuuut~~you WANT to hurt her." "You WANT to punish her." "We can feeeeeeel it." "But~~you also want to keep her alive....for your daughter." "Yeeessssss~~your precious daughter." "You hate her sooo~~" "But you also love her." "It is an most exquisite feeeeling~~" "BE QUIET!" Zakein screamed inside of her head. "OBEY MY COMMANDS OR GET SEALED FOREVER!" "Hahahaha...." "Asss you wish~~matron."

Zakein stood up again as her skin flushed reddish instead of her normal obsidian tone. As she started walking towards Vel and the group of goblins she saw her being slowly dragged away by Temer. She could hear the demons whispering into her mind about her own wish to kill the man for what he tried to do before. She ignored the voices of the two bound demons and continued walking. The ground scorched and died where she placed her feet as she took off into a sprint towards the nearest group of goblins. She swung and thrust her rapiers into the large pack of goblins, her movements barely visible to the naked eye as the goblins fell one by one.

If one paid close attention to her blades, one could see that the blood was getting sucked into them. The more blood the blades sucked in, the faster Zakein became, but the redder her skin became. Before the last goblin fell, Zakein was already on the move towards the group nearest Vel and Temer. The closer she came to the pair, the more she had to fight the demons lest she kill them.

She crashed right into the goblins blocking their escape and slew them all with swift and fluent movements before dashing towards those nearest. Blood sprayed everywhere and Zakein's skin were just as crimson as the blood itself as the last nearby goblin fell. She turned towards Vel and Temer and grinned at them. Her teeth had all become razor sharp and pointy, her eyes had become a hellish red colour as they seemed to burn in her eye sockets. Her now long, snake like tongue slithered out of her mouth and flapped around before returning inside her mouth again as she turned around towards the giant.

A hellish shriek escaped from her mouth as she charged headlong at the giant. The giant seemed stunned for a moment before it raised its club and brought it down, striking at the matron. Zakein sidestepped the club before she said a word and jumped up towards the giant and buried her rapiers deep in its chest. As the rapiers sucked in the blood from the giant, Zakein started to grow claws on her feet and hands as they changed more and more into something reptilian.

She withdrew her feet from the giant's chest before swinging them against it, but higher up. The claws dug into its chest and she withdrew one of her rapiers and stuck it in higher, she did the same with her other rapier and repeated the movements with her feet and slowly started to climb upwards. The giant yelled in pain that would deafen most people, but Zakein could not hear it any longer, she could only hear the demons voices inside of her head, calling for the giant's death. The giant swung with its fist towards her and Zakein let go off her rapiers and jumped upwards, dodging the blow and landed on top of the giants shoulder.

Once there, Zakein laughed, but it was not Zakein any longer, it was the trinity of the demons and Zakein. She bored her clawed fists into the throat of the giant and tore it apart. Blood sprayed from the large hole on the giant's throat as it started to topple over onto its back. Zakein rushed down its length and withdrew her rapiers on the way before jumping off the giant as it slammed into the ground.

By now, Zakein looked nothing like her old self. Her skin had begun to change into scales and small horns were starting to grow from her head. She grasped both of her rapiers in one hand and walked over to where Vel and Temer were. She looked at Vel before she shot out with her hand and grasped Vel's throat. Zakein's tongue slithered out of her mouth as the inhuman words followed.

"So this is the one." "The troublemaker." "She wants to see you hurt." "But she also wants to save you." "She hates you." "But she likes you for her daughter's sake." "Her inner conflict tastes so sweet." "What would it taste like if we killed you?" "Just by saying that." "Her feelings taste ever so sweeter." "Bye Vel." "Your death shall feed us."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

De'Myr woke up in the carriage and lazily looked around. "Where did---?" De'Myr tried to find her mother but soon a cold shiver ran down her spine. "No...she can't use them here, not in this world!" De'Myr began to panic as she recognized the presence of the two demons sealed within Zakein's swords being released. De'Myr knew she had to do something, had quickly to stop the daemons from taking over her mother's body. She did not care much about her mother, but if the daemons got loose........ She shook the thought out of her head and began to chant a spell.

Gi Lolth, bekseh uns'aa xuil dosst yorn! Balbau uns'aa natha shell d'dosst z'ress lu'ssin lu'xxizz uns'aa ulu smite ussta ogglinnar. De'Myr could feel her skin changing and her entire body hardening. She grinned at the feeling, quite liking it. She stayed inside the carriage for a full minute as the transformation finished and she opened the door. The sun made her new armoury skin glow a bit in the sun and she turned her gaze towards the rest of the party.

De'Myr noticed that Cassandra was leading the others towards the forest ahead. She realized that whatever had caused her mother to release the demons must be something really big, probably the goblins and giants that Ateo and Fitch had spoke about before. De'Myr wanted to warn them for whatever they might face, but there was no time. She could not see Vel, Temer nor Ateo amongst the others. She did not care much about the others, but she needed Vel for her goal. De'Myr began to dash towards where the presence was the strongest and she saw Zakein's hand wrapped around Vel's throat with the intent to kill. She knew, that the demons had won their eternal battle and were now in control of her mother's body. De'Myr started a charge towards her mother, intent of freeing Vel from her grip.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serenity had meekly followed what Cassandra had told her to do, she had stayed back in the rear and did her assigned task. Serenity was worried about what they might find ahead. She looked up towards the front and noticed that Cassandra was riding towards where the sounds of battle came from. The horses suddenly began to get fearful and they tried to flee. Serenity tried to calm down the horses that were not currently ridden when suddenly her appearance turned spectral. "Oh no," her mind began to think before something took over inside of her. She let go of the horses and they ran away from the site. Serenity looked towards the presence of the daemons and she started to walk like a zombie towards the battle. "Daemons. Daemons! DAEMONS!"

Serenity drew her massive swords and began to rush towards the battle, passing everyone else as she rushed past them.

[Hymusia]

Vel.

A deafening roar nearly knocked Vel from her feet for a second time but with eyes unfocusing and body sluggish and unresponsive she didn’t have the energy or ability to check out why the giant was screaming now. Not that it mattered because even though she couldn’t hear the giant’s fat carcass hitting the ground the tremors ran far and wide and violent enough to knock her off her unsteady feet. Someone had killed the giant which was probably not the greatest thing to happen, luckily it hadn’t landed on them, so that was a bonus but whatever fuck had killed it was likely not someone she’d care to deal with any time soon.

Still her wish for a quiet afternoon was ruined when a strong hand wrapped about her throat and began muttering things she couldn’t make out due to the ringing in her ears. She was aware whoever had her had their hands tight about her throat and so she did the wisest thing she knew of and didn’t’ struggle. Struggling cut off the supply quicker and often had the aggressor tighten their grip, this way she could, with effort, still breathe and the aggressor was unlikely to see her as a threat.

Temer was likely still nearby and with a glance to her peripherals she was able to make out five of him. Narrowing her eyes she got that down to two and without a word she signalled with one hand for the man to back away. Her eyes turned back to the one before her and to her surprise she saw De’Myr’s mother, she could only make snippets of words out though most of them pointed to one conclusion. The stupid bitch was trying to kill her for whatever damn reason, it wasn’t for Vel to worry about the why just the now. The contract was null and void upon any attempt to Vel’s life and sadly that meant De’Myr’s was also null and void due to the same reason. After all Zakein’s contract was an extension to De’s and De had the same clause written in hers.

As the woman continued to harp on the Drowess continued to try and focus, she was aware of Zakein’s grip tightening but she still couldn’t make out the words and it really didn’t matter to her. Both hands moved silently from the moment she was grabbed to this and now she held with little obvious signs that she’d done so, two blades. Zakein was fast and in a magic fight the victor was clear but the dumb ass bitch had gotten in too close now. Her swords were useless at this distance and to hold Vel like this, even at full stretch wouldn’t provide her any roam to swing a sword or truly defend from the Drow’s coming retaliation.

Focused enough to know the true Zakein from the double she faintly saw the choking Drow waited only a moment, until Zakein moved in close as if to whisper a secret. It was then Vel burst to life like a scorpion from their hole or the funnel web spider from its trap door. With one hand busy and the other holding a sword that would provide only cumbersome effort there was no way the woman would be able to defend herself completely. Even if she managed to block one of the blades, the other would still strike its target.

She lashed out arms with well focused power, her first dagger, sharp as a sickle, went for the nice fleshy part of the flapping mouth she was having to tolerate. Regardless of the hardening of skin it was unlikely that the tongue, gums, and soft inner throat would tolerate such a barbaric weapon. Not a half second after she’d launched the first attack the second followed up behind aiming for Zakein’s eye socket and attempting to plunge the dagger right into the soft squishy eye that glared at her.

One or both would be enough to kill a normal person, be they drow or human and that was why it was such a well known skill amongst her clan. It wasn’t’ the first time after all that she had been attacked by a client and it was unlikely to be the last time either. None of the previous betrayer’s had lived very long after the betrayal mind and Zakein had signed her own issue. Oh likely not today and likely not by Vel but there were people in her family that even she wouldn’t want to see if she could help it. People that made Zakein seem like a child playing in the dirt and thinking she was a queen.

Assuming that even if neither strike hit, by some miracle or other, Zakein was forced to let go, Vel massaged her throat and spat blood to the floor, her eyes unmoving from the wretch in front of her. Vaguely she was aware of others approaching but honestly she’d not give a fuck unless it was Ateo himself. Rolling her head she regained her footing and ignored the agony in her body, this, in Vel’s opinion, was a fight to the death. Grabbing a pair of throwing blades she would throw both at Zakein, regardless of whether she’d backed down by now or not.

As they tumbled end over end a cloud passed over the sun casting long, thick shadows into the path from all sides and Vel disappeared from sight. Game fucking on.

Cassandra.

Cassandra watched as the others slowly formed up and she lead the way towards the area where the fighting was. The horses grew terrified and while hers was no exception it knew better than to try and through its rider off. It took several long moments to calm the horse enough to get it willing to go forwards and by then she was able to hear Serenity muttering something. The sister screeched and ran off towards the fighting looking more like a crazed madman than a sister of the cloth. A moment of uncertainty flashed across her face and she took a moment to compose herself.

Demons, if such were true then she would have to fight in earnest, her steed didn’t balk from just green skins and giants and at the back of her mind she felt the presence of the tainted darkness. She would have the head of the creature who served as their host, it was after all her duty to destroy the filth that sprang up from the depths of the underworld. Ready to head into battle with the others a screech from above took her attention and her head was forced to turn towards the sound. An eagle landed upon her shoulder and around it's ankle was a note, after carefully removing it and reading the note she grimaced and glanced to the others above. They were not following her, they were an aimless rabble with out Ateo, they had no respect or desire to be a team and who knew if Ateo himself was even alive.

While it didn't sit right with her, not at all, she took one last look at the companions and turned her horse, with a choice selection of elven words she and her horse were off at a gallop. They had Serenity and she would have to do, she'd utter a prayer for the little missing girl and stop by the city long enough to return the money she gave to the orphanage from her own coffers, then it was off to a real war. A place she was needed much more urgently than here.

[Hymusia]

"Don't count yourself out yet." Temer grunted as he hefted Vel along with him, lurching back towards the group with considerable speed and keeping well away from the brush and trees lining the road - no goblins were emerging to attack them, so far so good. "Right now your thymus - eh, not sure if you even know what that is, but my little spell is murdering all the little mites that normally take care of you. Blood in your veins is going to curdle like spoiled sour cream if your body is anything like mine, so you won't be bleeding out anytime soon."

'And it will also make you sick to your gut for a week, but one step atta time.' He thought to himself. A fair distance behind the two, a tremendous crash tore through the air as the giant's club slammed into the ground where Zakein had just stood. Temer, having turned away from the Matron and not having seen anything she had done on account of not giving a damn while he dragged Vel to safety, missed the part where she impaled the massive being with her twin rapiers and instead assumed it had reduced her to a thin red paste.

"You just focus on staying awake. With her dead, you can probably use the carriage until you've healed enough to ride - we can say you fought valiantly to protect her, 'cause you did, and since she died therefore by whatever weirdo law system you freaks use you get all her stuff. If it doesn't work that way, on the bright side, the only way anyone will attend her funeral is if they provide an open full-course feast, yeah? Should be a treat."

And then, a tremendous, thundering roar bellowed through the air as the giant shouted again, this time in pain and agony, before it fell to the ground. The combined shockwaves from the sheer force of its voice and its impact as it fell to the ground threw Vel right off her feet, though thankfully Temer managed to withstand the blast - they were distant enough that the force was nothing compared to the first roar the giant had unleashed. Temer quickly pivoted about, prepared for the sight of a charging giant and only to be surprised by the sight of Zakein, glowing with power, skin coated in plate-like scales and demonic horns beginning to jut from her brow.

"Oh Motdamnit, the stupid bitch has gone Malignant!" Temer shouted at the universe in general in a frustrated voice. "I mean of course, it wasn't like this wasn't bad enough already! I take back what I said earlier. I'm not getting paid enough for this!" He tensed and brought up his fists, confident that his sterile field would protect him from any curses the sorceress threw his way and eager to show the Drow the difference between a professional warrior and some puffed up harpy - he'd dealt with worse than her before, and if she thought showboating with her fancy underworld magic was going to stop him from eviscerating her she was dead wrong.

For the second time in less than twenty seconds, Temer was caught utterly by surprise when Zakein completely ignored him - an alert and hostile combatant within striking distance - moving both her weapons to one hand while grappling with Vel - without bothering to restrain her - and was exposing her flank to him. If he attacked, she wouldn't be able to weave magic, and she wouldn't be able to use her toadstickers either. Holding them both in one hand as she was, she was like to drop them to the ground if he decided to charge her or went for a disarming blow.

'Something weird is going on here. Nobody could possibly be that blitheringly stupid...She knows I'm right here, she's probably baiting me into attacking.' Temer's thoughts raced - he began to advance anyway in order to assist Vel, but then she signaled for him to back off.

'Why in Iugulum's Depths is she...?'

And then the demons began to speak.

"So this is the one." "The troublemaker."

Temer didn't need anything else to catch on to what was going on - Zakein was clearly being possessed, or perhaps was channeling, one or more malevolent entities. Most likely demons, from her red complexion, the scales and the horns. Either that or some kind of primal dragon spirit, but either way he had just the thing to ruin her (their) day. Most if not all of Temer's spell were highly specialized to combatting the undead and necromancy. While there tended to be some overlap between them and demonic forces, he didn't think he was going to be that lucky. But in particular, he had one spell with a notable exception to the rule. With a few words, he could drag incorporeal beings into the physical world, disorienting them in the process - which was useful when dealing with ghosts, spirits, or anything else which happened to be intangible...including demonic entities.

The Mortificator took a few steps back and began to mutter the first three spells in his repertoire under his breath, one after the other. They were thankfully the simplest of the handful he knew, requiring little to no concentration and not taking much to cast. He just had to hope that Zakein would flap her lips for long enough or that Vel would prove distracting enough for him to finish.

"The due to the dead is paid in full to he of insatiable hunger." He whispered. He sincerely doubted whatever binding or summoning method Zakein was using was a form of necromancy, but at least this way he could be certain that if the spell failed, it wouldn't be because he hadn't taken the necessary steps. The particular spell he had just uttered would severely weaken and dispel any ward over necromantic enchantments or magic, leaving it vulnerable to his second spell.

""He feasts but is not sated, he imbibes but is not slaked." The second muttered verse would sever and destroy any necromancy being used to animate, bind, control or influence anything around the caster. If Zakein's binding methods had been necromantic in nature, the demons would have been freed that very instant.

Right as Zakein stopped shooting her mouth and as Vel launched her attack, Temer finished the third and final verse.

"Void shall be ash, darkness shall be dust, air shall be mud, mind shall be sand, and spirit shall be dirt." He finished, raising his gauntlets once again in preparation for what came next. The spell he had just completed was the Lamb's Exposure, and would force any incorporeal, ethereal or intangible beings to manifest, temporarily subduing them in the process. Of course, Temer had no way of knowing they had even been bound to the blades in the first place though, and as far as he knew they had merely been conjured for Zakein to channel - and so the spell failed.

Zakein noticed movement from Vel and she figured that she would try to attack her. She grinned when Vel finally attacked her. She bit down hard on the dagger that was aimed towards her mouth and then brought her 'free' hand up to block the other blow. The blade aimed for mer mouth cut into flesh as the knife was brutally stopped and the one aimed for her eye was diverted, however, she had to drop Vel since the force was a little highter than what she had expected. Two throwing daggers came her way. Zakein casually deflected both of them, but just when she was about to attack Vel, she vanished into the shadows. Zakein growled and noticed that the man she had 'argued' with before had tried to cast some kind of spell. She did not know what the spell did, but it appeared that it had done nothing.

She turned towards him and was about to charge at him when the sound of blades cutting through air came from behind her and she quickly dropped to the ground before rolling backwards. She stared at her new foe. It was, something she had never seen before, but she could feel from the aura that it was De'Myr. De'Myr swung with her bladed whip against her once again while the blades shooting out from her back attacked as well. Zakein dodged and blocked the blows, but it was getting a bit hard. Eight blades attacked her from De'Myr's back while her whip and shield also attacked her at the same time. De'Myr showed no restraint at all, she knew that she needed to kill her mother here and now, or they were all dead. She pushed her mother further and further back towards Temer, hoping that he would strike out at her mother, or perhaps Vel, wherever she disappeared to. And the Mortificator obliged, setting his right foot forward and lunging with a powering, arcing overhead swing with his right armored hand, the momentum behind the swing alone enough to have crushed another man's skull even before one factored in the gauntlet. The blow connected against Zakein's back and it sent her reeling forwards against a blow from De'Myr's shield that targeted her head.

While some might hope the Drow was planning a secondary attack in truth Vel was catching her breath, she didn't know what parts of gods these bitches were made from but when she got hurt, oddly enough, it hurt. She already felt weaker in this space than in her homeland, not that she'd ever given the spider bitch queen credit for empowering her before of course. Her eyes could barely focus on what was going on in front of her and it took her several moments just to make sure she wasn't going to heave up the contents of her stomach as the pain swarmed her for the second time. Briefly she was aware that De'Myr had come onto the scene with some kind of back rig or other and she merely rolled her eyes in a mix of disgust and boredom. Like mother like daughter, too busy showing off their amazing powers to actually get a proper grasp on reality. For a moment Vel was quite happy with the idea of just walking off but oddly enough, for she would not have thught this possible an hour ago, Temer was still in the middle and he had earned her respect and her loyalty.

Heaving herself from the tree, still cloaked by the shadows around her she watched as the fight grew closer and closer to the shadows she was part of, while they were not given godly powers, nor saw the need for them, Degrassi were mighty cunning and had their own interesting abilities to play with. Common sense was one of them and the other was brute strength, people seemed to under estimate the importance of it quite a bit. Too busy being foolish flashy drow or pompous wind bags to remember that snapping a spine would put and end to most fuckers quite nicely.

Vel waited for them to get closer and then, using the tree to kick off she jumped and launched herself up onto Zakein's shoulders. The fucking bitch could do her worst as Vel drew a dagger to protect any incoming blows and locked her legs tight around Zakein's throat. This was not her only intention though as she flung herself backwards, her full weight hopefully pulling Zakein down and at the same time twisting her hips if she were able to try and break the woman's damned neck.

'S'crazy drow.' Temer thought to himself idly as he tried to stay close, but also attempting to stay out of the way of De'Myr's freakish, steel extensions and the stumbling Zakein. 'Talk about grabbing danger by the horns. Let's hope once she's bucked that it doesn't kill her.' De'Myr was surprised when Vel hopped onto her mother but tried to use it to her advantage and launched another offensive against her. While Vel was twitching against Zakein's neck, De'Myr struck out with a blade against her left leg and then the right one. As Zakein fell to the ground, De'Myr grinned. Finally, her mother would be gone from her life. She watched Vel roll away from her mother and say something and kicked at her eye with a smirk on her face. She was just about to retract her transformation when a laugh could be heard from the ground, from Zakein.

"Hahaha." "Unexp-" And then Temer descended upon Zakein, bringing his fist up and down in a curving arc, falling straight down to slam and pierce into the demonic drow's sternum and chest cavity. Apparently the Mortificator didn't care much for letting her shoot her mouth off. As Temer came down on the somehow still alive Zakein, Vel rolled up onto her heels and immediately regretted it, she didn't though regret watching the Mortificator shoving his fist into Zakein's chest and the fact she saw three of it made it all the better for her really.

A squirt of blood shot out from Zakein's body as the blade penetrated her chest and a grunting sound came from her lips. Her eyes searched for Temer's as she stared at him. The eerie glass orbs held no emotion in them, gazing unerringly at her, revealing only darkness in the space behind them. Temer's expression was drawn in a thin, almost irritated scowl, and his raised eyelids and fake eyes gave him the visage of some feral beast - a wolf raising its hackles. "Interesting," the voices said. Temer apparently didn't care for that one bit as he tugged the spade-shaped blade of his gauntlet free from Zakein's chest with another faint spurt of blood, moving to slash at her right armpit - unarmored, and with three arteries lying underneath, a deep cut there would prove fatal in mere seconds. The Mortificator knew his anatomy from his days as an undertaker, and Zakein was just another corpse to him now.

As the blade approached her armpit at great speed, Zakein grinned before she rolled to the side and tumbled to a standing position when eight blades pierced her from behind and De'Myr's voice shouted. "Temer, go for the head!"

"With pleasure." He said grimly, stepping inside of Zakein's already nonexistent guard, too close for her rapiers to be of use, and sweeping both of the blades upon his gauntlets in a scissoring motion to meet at Zakein's neck, cutting her head off. Zakein's body fell to the ground, and this time, it stayed still. Temer proceeded to lightly kick the severed head over to Vel. A few words came from the head as it rolled towards Vel before it reverted back to its original state, same with the severed body of Zakein. De'Myr picked up the rapiers and swung with her blades at them, but they did not break.

"Temer. Do you know how to exorcise demons from material objects?"

"Not unless they're undead demons, which these aren't. Already tried that spell." He grunted. "Now, my sterile visage should prevent the body from moving again, but keep an eye on it and stab it if anything funny happens. What I'm about to do takes a bit of concentration, so if you could also cover me that would be great. Going to make sure she stays dead." He turned to Vel. "I need you to hold the head while I'm doin' this - I don't have much experience with demons, but if they're anything like Ley then the head will be the seat of power. Wouldn't be surprised if the damn thing is still technically alive even after being cut off." He seemed completely oblivious to the head's reversion from its demonic state to that of a normal, severed drow head - or perhaps he was merely being cautious.

Vel seemed to remain rather static during the whole procedure, watching that disgusting head fall off of the bitches shoulders and further practically ignoring it as it rolled to her feet. Snapping her neck bones had done nothing at all, yet cutting them with a blade managed to kill her? Well that was convenient wasn't it? Still, whatever opinion Vel had she was keeping to herself even as the head muttered some words at her and returned to the ugly ass bitch's usual face. When Temer asked her to keep hold of the head she rose a brow and glanced from Temer to the head and back again. Heaving a sigh she drew one of her final daggers and lifted the head by the hair, holding the head to the trunk of a tree she span the blade around and jammed it through the eye socket and into the tree behind, pinning it to the tree. "There, it's not going anywhere." With that sorted she turned her gaze to De'Myr, she was too tired, too injured and too pissed off to give a rats ass about whatever power trip was happening behind her. All she saw was another spider attention whore embosed over a spider attention whore. Any unnerving affect it might have completely washed away by the surging stabbing pain in her shoulder, arm and now her ribs as well. "As for you." She started, slowly shifting herself to rise with a hand over her compacted shoulder and supporting her ribs. "As is written in the terms of your contract, any act of violence from yourself, family members, professional or associated bodies will null and void the contract. Your mothers is now void as is yours. As in the fine print you will now be incapable of hiring another Degrassi and your house will, for ten generations at least, be incapable of calling upon our services. Further more in this group you will remain twenty feet away from me at all times, you will not speak to me, you will not look at me and if you break any of these boundaries I'll rip your spine out and feed it to you. Are we understood?"

With her free arm she reached for the two Drow contracts shoved into her breast plate and threw them at the spider bitches feet, then, to prove how done she was with the whole matter, she turned from De'Myr, her back showing to the other Drow and watched what Temer was up to instead. "So how long is this going to take, because we could find a lake, get a sack, fill it with stones and shove that ugly ass thing in there and sink it. Leave the body for the wolves, job done."

"S'just a quick spell, you'll thank me for casting it later." Temer grunted. "Convenient way you've pinned the thing - I was going to damage the brain first before trying this anyway." He knelt in front of the tree and splayed his arms out wide, looking upon the earth by the roots.

"Once but Dust from Heavens Far, as You were Forged You shall Return..." He began. His face was utterly expressionless and even more blank than usual.

The air stiffened as the words left his lips, and the dirt and earth around the base of the tree began to tremble.

De'Myr spoke up, she would not stay silenced after what Vel had said. "So I am responsible for the actions of demons? Demons who possessed my mother while she was unknowing about the effects of these lands?" She was angry and her voice hinted at it strongly before she approached Vel. Right now, she knew that she could kill Vel without any difficulties due to the wounds her mother had caused and due to her 'spider form', so she was not afraid. Nor did she care about the ground trembeling around the base of the tree as Temer's spell did it's job. "Right now, I can kill you in the bat of an eye, but I won't." She ignored Vel's angry look and went to place a hand against her armour, this failed as whatever sorcery Temer had cast was preventing anything from happening. "You're power seems ot have failed priestess." Vel sneered, pushing herself with some effort from the tree trunk and around the other side of the tree, where one would have to get through Zakein's corpse, Temer and the tree to follow her.

"...as Body Fails and Spirit Wanes, Yours Now shall Join the Mass of Graves, the Earth and Worm shall have Their Claim..."

The soil beneath the tree become blotted and darkened, seeming to bubble and hiss almost like tar.

"Do you want to hold me responsible for the actions of the demons contained within the swords. I heard the demons words. My mother did not want you dead, and once she starts to change past a shade of red, she has lost the battle against the demons, and they were in control ever since the giant died." She reached around with a sworded limb and placed it against her own throat where she opened up a chink in her exoskeleton. "So Vel, do you want to hold me responsible or not? I am already breaking the terms you just said. I am speaking to you, and I am way closer than twenty feet away."

"...His Hunger Seeks and Hunger Finds the Snuffed-Out Ember of Your Time..." The air itself began to darken, and an eerie, whistling, howling shrill of wind began to rush along the ground between the feet of the two Drow and the kneeling Mortificator.

De'Myr was prepared to die for what she believed in, however, the spider above her head grew almost solid at De'Myr's words. Lolth did not want to lose her chosen one to such a thing, but De'Myr did not care. "I need you Vel. What would it take for you not to void the contract? As of now, I don't need this quest any longer, with my mother dead, I am the leader of my house and I can gain whatever funding and resources that I need to my personal quest. The reason that I am asking for your help, is because of two things. I've started to like you, and, you are supposedly the best out there."

"...the Woesome Winds of Bearing Beast's Fearsome Visage Carries On and Carries Off the Kidling Preykind of Your Mind..." The smell of carrion filled the air.

Vel's eyes flitted briefly to De'Myr, what a sad pathetic excuse for a Drow, one woman turns against her and she's ready to end her life? No wonder her mother was bat shit crazy. "Nothing De'Myr, you can't win me with fancy martyrism or with coin. If you want to end your life so be it, I won't stop you. Your mother knew the risks by making contracts with demons, she knew that envoking them ran the risk of her losing control and she knew the cost. She and she alone was responsible for what happened here. She was over-confident, the fall of many self-obsessed dictators. While I owe Temer my life I owe you nothing."

"Nothing she says," De'Myr said and laughed quietly and removed the blade from her throat. "If it had not been for me, the demons would had killed you both, but I guess you are way too proud or too full of yourself to realize that." De'Myr chuckled as she shook her head at Vel's actions and words. She had not expected Vel to take her up on the offer of her life, however, she had not expected that statement from Vel. Was she really that blind? Too drunk on her own skill, just like Zakein had been?

"...Embrace Death Eternal, and Eternal You shall Lie!"

A vast presence manifested - it was not a thing that could be seen, but merely felt, and to feel it was much like standing upon the edge of an endless chasm and looking down into its infinite depths as the world quaked and heavens howled.

A shapeless and ineffable shadow fell across Zakein's head where it hung, impaled upon the tree.

"As vast as your failings are, as vast as your power was, as vast as suffering shall be, your essence does nothing to sate my hunger. And so I shall bleakly devour another morsel and starve nonetheless. Your solitary recompense shall be the surety that only through being humbled forevermore are you truly made free."

The wind lessened, the ground ceased to tremble, the heavens brightened, the pit of tar was nowhere to be found. All that remain of what had occured, were two inanimate objects - one in the shape of a head, one in the shape of a body. And just by looking upon them, one understood intrinsically that they were not of life, and never could be, and that they would never move again.

"I'm going to have to do that for every single Motdamned goblin corpse, you know." Temer said petulantly as he got up and brushed flecks of mud from his robes. "Now I wasn't actually listening to anything you two were saying, what was it that we were talking about? Did it have anything to do with ALL THE GOBLINS STILL ATTACKING THE REST OF THE GROUP?" The man's voice escalated from cheery to irritated to enraged as he spoke, and then called, and then shouted at the two Drow.

From greatful to creeped out once more, since she had moved things went a whole shade of creepy ass mother fuck on her, Temer was doing something, the likes of which the Drow found very disconcerting. Spider bitch dangling like a bird shit waiting to fall barely moved her at all and it was obvious how unimpressed the Drow was by the spider armour donned by the now orphan De'Myr, in fact one could say she looked bored. Now though the Drow's eyes were open and they were focused, not on the babbling De'Myr but on what the Mortificator was doing, with just a series of words he shook the ground, a pit of tar seemed to bubble, the very wind turned foul and rushed like ravaged wolves about their feet. She could feel her blood run cold, the skin on her arms turn to goose flesh beneath the armour and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as the presence made itself known. It was all she could do not to pass out, vomit or do all three in some order or the other, it was though her injuries that prevented her from running at all.

When all was said and done the Drow could merely stare at Temer a moment before hesitantly glancing ot the corpse, she wasn't the mystical magical type but even she could tell how utterly dead the Drow was now. Not even the spider bitch herself would be able to put her back together properly. Impressed was an understatement and Vel wasn't impressed easily, she was also though quite wary. So when the man began yelling at them to go get to work on the other goblins she immediately swallowed the come back she was going to lash out with. Last thing she wanted to do was piss off the man and be stuck with two enemies and no back up. It was times like this she wished she'd bought the fae with her, he'd keep these fuckers in line, or...shit where the fuck was he anyway?

Pushing off of the tree she'd taken to lean on she turned, intending to sort of comply to the wishes of Temer -she was off to find Ateo-, though the swift movement made the world spin and tilt in her vision and an unbridled pain shoot up across her shattered ribs. If one could see beneath the armour they'd notice the thick black bruises beneath her skin and no doubt they'd also see the tell tale signs of internal bleeding. Of course she was bleeding externally too, which was strange as she was certain she should have stopped by now, though that was no doubt due to the Mortificator as well. A faint bruise was beginning to form about her throat which had been well crushed by Zakein. Attempting a step on shaking legs she trembled and then fell to one knee, leaning back against the tree to try and draw a breath. "Well hero's, you better go and sort that goblin issue out. I think I'll sit here and catch my breath."

De'Myr scoffed and started walking in the other direction. "I have no interest in this any longer. Now that my mother is dead, I have almost unlimited funding for my mission, and with the only thing that could bind me to this mission, Vel, refusing to help me any longer, I don't plan on wasting my time here any longer," she said and walked off into the woods.