Throughout the discourse between Akoni and Sevrin, Souta wore a vindictive sneer.  Anyone could see that, like a malfunctioning water heater in a house’s basement or a metal-and-plastic tea kettle negligently placed in a microwave, he smoldered as he waited to explode.  Yesterday’s bullets from Gideon, defended against as they were by his aura of flowing water, stung him with frustrating potency and frequency still.  The idea of unleashing what rage he could muster with his versatile Walking Armory style against a demon infatuated him completely.  Lest he bungle a dangerous situation, however, he restrained his aching weapon hand while the geezer conversed.  While the seconds seemed like minutes to Souta’s excited heart, the time for words ended quickly when Akoni made the first move.  Souta watched intently.  As smart as the mage’s move should have been, Sevrin countered it, like a snake lashing out lightning-quick against a would-be threat.  This did not dissuade the smith, however, and he swung his Arclight-wreathed warhammer into the ground, ignoring Mary’s attack rush.  Ghostly skeletons manifested around Sevrin, ready to grab and tear from two different angles, but the demon outdid the specters themselves with a vanishing act so abrupt that Souta blinked in surprise, followed shortly by his ethereal servants blinking out of existence.

Yet his disappearance did not allow for the full return of darkness; behind him escalated a violent, vortex-shaped light, and a threatening hum filled the corridor.  The next instant it fired, a frothing stream of water made energy—no, acid made energy, for it bubbled and churned like a noxious, caustic substance anathematic to the stuff of life.  As much as he wanted to fight, Souta found himself beset by screaming instincts, and he threw himself to the ground.  The arcane blast soared overhead, safely passing him by, but still a real and present danger for the others.  Meanwhile, the thrown blade of Mary’s flew into the creature’s maw and was lost in the evil light within.  Souta stood to his feet as the weapon’s owner called for the group to spread out.  [color=teal]”Where?  This is a hallway.  There’s just forward and backward, and I know where I’m goin’.”[/color]  There could be no conception of fighting a monstrous abomination with unknown powers in a tight space.  As the abyssal creature began sucking in for another blast, Souta turned tail and sprinted for his life back the way he came, and hoped that the others would do the same.

[i]Curiouser and curiouser.  So long…something new to learn?  No reason for reluctance.  What have we here?[/i]

The otherworldly being began to move forward.  Its gelatinous outer shell disgorged pitons of organic material to attach to the walls, ceiling, and floor in order to keep it steadily advancing.  Its maw opened wide, aglow with a dangerous and unnerving radiance gyrating like a whirlpool.  Anything nearby flew in as if sucked by a vacuum to disintegrate into nothingness inside creature’s eldritch core.  It advanced, a behemoth scouring plug, a dangerously quick guarantee to annihilate anything that did not hastily escape.