@Doc Doctor“So this is the big bad scary forest? Don’t seem that bad to me,” the large muscular man Ombard said to his much smaller half Dragon companion Evvie as the two made their way through the trees, him on the left and her on the right. Neither of them commented on the weird pressure bearing down on them, instead acting perfectly normal, both with their chests puffed out while making confident strides. Despite how different the two looked they were actually two peas in a pod.

“Yeah. I’ll eat all the baddies and take a nap here,” Evvie chimed in. She was expecting some sort of monster inhabiting these woods that was the cause of the rumors, although wasn’t sure of the exact nature of it at the moment. Whatever it was, she assumed that it would be edible. Or perhaps hoping. She was actually quite hungry again, although had eaten a mere two hours before.

“Go to bed right now if you want. I’ll clear this place out myself. In my sleep as well no less,” he replied.

The two went back and forth in this manner as they grew closer and closer to the source of their troubles. Their boisterous travel would surely catch Suliss’s attention at any moment.

@Doc Doctor

Evvie was the first to spot a strange red and yellow glow emanating from behind a tree and reflecting off some surrounding leaves, however faintly as most of it was obscured. Her curiosity was too great to pass this sighting up. She tapped Ombard on the side of his forearm and then pointed to the light with a curious grin. His vision wasn’t enhanced so it took him longer to spot.

“Huh? Maybe it’s just a bug or something stupid,” he said. Evvie’s tail wagged excitedly. He let out a sigh and followed behind her as she excitedly advanced through the underbrush in that direction. At the moment she clearly had no idea of the horror responsible for that light, judging by her body language and face. If nothing happened to stop her she’d turn the corner of the tree and come face to face with him while Ombard was trailing roughly four feet behind her.

@Doc DoctorEvvie saw the flash of the blade and used her swift reactions and superhuman abilities to attempt to dodge, but it was so sudden and quick that she was only able to lesson some of the damage by moving away from it. The tip of the blade caught her on her left cheek, splattering blood onto the surrounded leaves. She sprung backwards, eyes wide with surprise. Luckily the wound was very superficial.

Ombard realized what had occurred and stormed forward in front of her in a defensive stance, as if Evvie needed his protection from him.

“Foul demon, attacking an unaware girl! Let us have a fair fight like men!” He shouted.

Evvie scowled at him more than the sudden attacker, although his back was turned so he didn’t see it. Her face would heal but she wanted to personally give him a good smack in revenge. She flapped her wings, stepping onto Ombard’s head with her right foot as she cleared his large height, and then took another leap off of him in the direction of the attacker, slamming down her staff to what would be the top of his head if he didn’t dodge her. Her attack would likely come as some surprise so she hoped that would be enough to do him in. She wasn’t super afraid of his dagger at the moment, especially now that she was aware of his presence, so was a little cocky in her aggressive attack.

Ombard realized what was going on as Evvie was midway through the attack. He charged around to the right to help her, but he wouldn't get there for the first exchange of blows.

@Doc Doctor

Ombard wasn’t at full power due to not having a high level of adrenaline and anticipation for the fight at the moment. However, 10% of his base level of peak human was still enough to provide his enemy a decent boost. He could feel himself weakened, a fact that he had great distaste for. Hurt and maim him yes, but emasculate him? Never! He knew that his opponent was tougher than he looked so he managed to get his blood boiling and power up, easily enough to replace what had been lost and then some as he let out a battle cry.

Meanwhile, Evvie had no time to dodge this new surprise attack, causing it to hit her square in the chest. She let out a loud yelp of pain and shock from how badly this attack hurt as it seemed to course directly through her nervous system, breaking her concentration. However, she was still flying through the air at him like a living projectile and bringing her staff down upon him, so that attack would not cease even if the bolt of wicked energy had killed her. On the other hand, it caused her arms to quiver around so it was possible that her staff could trail off course to smash him on either shoulder just as likely as his head, or perhaps he could dodge her with enough luck.

Whatever the case, as her feet hit the ground she would crumple to her knees and let out a grimace, forcing herself to try to regain her concentration. She had experienced worse pain than this and she would certainly not allow herself to be defeated by pain of this meager level. Unfortunately this brief distraction would allow her opponent time to retreat a bit rather than wreck him as she otherwise could have.

Ombard was still letting out a battle cry as he did his best to rush around Evvie and catch his opponent before he got too far. If he wasn’t peak human speeds than Ombard was surely catch him in due haste, slashing his axe from right to left across his retreating back should he not turn to face him.

Ombard barely managed to skid to a stop at the edge of the opening chasm, the rocks kicked up in front of him tumbling into the abyss. He swung his arms wildly in an attempt to correct himself and was about to fall in when Evvie grabbed onto his lower abdomen and hoisted him backwards to safety. She was still in pain, but thanks to the shock of it fading she was now able to behave relatively normal again until the pain would wear off completely.

The two peered down into the deep chasm with curiosity for a moment, then towards each other, and then finally shifted their attention back to the man scrambling for safety on the other side. Evvie flapped her wings to easily carry herself over the gap, sticking her tongue out at the stranded Ombard. He let out a snarl as he began to navigate around the right of the chasm, never the greatest at jumping so couldn’t take his chances.

This delay could have given her opponent some time to retreat, although she believed that she would still easily catch him yet again if he didn’t try another trick. This time she knew to look out for his projectile attacks so she landed down and took after him the rest of the way on foot, prepared to dodge to either side of he tried that move on her again. Getting fooled twice would be an embarrassment far worse than the pain would be.

“Stop right there!” She shouted after him, even though saying such a thing was generally pointless. Her voice still sounded strained from the pain.

@Doc Doctor

Umbard didn’t care about the subtleness of wind or minor chills, especially when he had a foe to cleave open. However, he was certainly not one to ignore the less than subtle smack against his lefts that sent him hurling to the floor. He let out a manly growl in surprise.

“Why you little-“ he tried to say as he turned to face whatever did that to him, only to find himself being yanked downward.

He raised his axe in his hand and attempted to cleave straight on through the tentacle right as he was soaring through the air, bellowing out a battle cry.

Evvie turned her head at this, momentarily distracted from her pursuit, to find Umbard to have vanished. She was confused why he would have jumped down into the pit and alow her all the glory of defeating this bad man. Maybe he was clumsy and fell in?

“You stay right there!” Evvie shouted to the bad man, letting out a burst of fire his way before turning and sprinting over to the edge of the hole, looking down. She could catch the man again, but her ally might be in danger right now.

@Doc Doctor

Umbard stabbed his muscular arms through the dirt in a last attempt to secure something before he was pulled down into the void. What his finger trips brushed against was…roots of a nearby tree. He snatched onto them by the handful, wrapping them around his forearms by spinning his arms around in circles. With this technique he was effectively anchored to the tree, causing the mysterious evil below him to struggle far greater if it was to take him down. The tree was practically groaning from the stress as it bent slowly from the pull on it’s roots. Some minor roots snapped but the larger ones held true, at least for the few moments that this struggle would be taking place in.

Evvie leapt down into the pit and let loose a torrent of flames past Umbard’s feet. Unfortunately it seemed like the tree was past it’s tipping point by now and was creaking louder overhead than before.

@Doc Doctor
Thanks to Evvie’s quick action she spared Umbard a vast majority of the damage he would have faced. He felt the tug on his calf and a series of sharp pricks as the claws made their effort to dig into him, leaving five sharp pinprick wounds, but they were forced off almost as quickly as they had pierced him, splashing blood out as they hastily retreated, leaving only a flesh wound that looked far more violent than it actually was as blood trickled downward into the abyss after the retreating monster.

Evvie fell downward for a couple more second in pursuit, blasting her fire every which way down the canyon to make sure there was no safe place for it within close proximity before she shut her jaws and flapped her wings to regroup and catch her breath. It was then that she noticed Umbard’s wounds as a drop of blood fell past her vision. Rather than pursue the enemy further, she flapped back up and grabbed onto him from behind by wrapping tiny arms around him compared to his muscular chest. However, she managed a firm enough grip to allow her to carry him upwards. Getting him to solid ground would be the first order of business to allow him a chance to heal. Within a second or two they would clear the opening and she would toss him onto the ground ten feet or so away from the edge before landing herself, should she not be stopped. After doing so she would look around for the intruder. Meanwhile, Umbard would be letting out a series of curses of which Evvie was too innocent to know.

At the moment Umbard was not overly concerned about his leg now that the immediate danger had passed. Although certainly feeling numb from a pinched nerve, he knew that he would have a couple hours before permanent damage might be done for lack of blood flow. How much this would effect his fight he wasn’t sure, but what he was sure of was that he would find a way to make due and defeat his cowardly opponent regardless.

“I can beat ya with only one leg and both hands tied behind my back!” He bellowed gruffly as he made a newfound effort to pull himself out of the pit. Thanks to Evvie’s heroic distraction the monster of the pit no longer had control over him and he managed to pull himself up onto the surface with bulging biceps. He looked around himself to try and spot his enemy while panting on his hands and knees. Admittedly that took a lot out of him and he needed a moment to recover.

Meanwhile, Evvie didn’t notice the wicked hand that reached out and grasped onto the hollow bones that made up her left wing. She let out a shrill cry as it snapped like a twig under his grasp. Her own blood dripped down into the pit with Umbards. She looked in shock at her mangled wing and the monster that had snatched her while she wasn’t looking. Before she could fight back she was tossed downward into the darkness. With her single wing she tried her best to remain airborne but she was only able to awkwardly slow herself down.

Her feet slammed hard onto the pile of bones below, drawing blood and letting out the same crunching noise her wing had produced. Luckily the bone pile managed to break some of her fall. Unluckily, whatever had managed to cause so many bones to pile up was now after her. She winched and tucked her injured blood red wing in close to her body. She wouldn’t be flying back out of here any time soon. She breathed out fire and coated her forearms in it to allow herself a sufficient light source down here, casting dramatic shadows on the walls from her flickering flames. Her eyes darted around above her in search of the abomination, her jaws open and ready to unleash another torrent the moment she caught sight of him. Her rigid body language showed a rare emotion from her. Fear.

@Doc Doctor

Umbard was completely blindsided by the “attack”, his face pounding into the dirt in a move that would cause minor abrasions and bruising to develop. His strongest emotion from this cowardly move was anger rather than fear. He shoved himself upwards in a huff, ready to cuss this newcomer out, when he spotted the horror that was wiggling around before him where his previous opponent had been standing. It was a horrible enough sight that it caused even him pause in both his body and tongue.

When he could find movement again after five seconds or so of staring, if the time allowed him he would scoop up his weapon and then charge the creature’s right flank to smash it downward into it’s torso.

Meanwhile, Evvie exhaled her held breath. No imminent threat came down upon her. This made her worried for her ally. Had he made it out of this horrible place in time or would he be caught by the villain while in his vulnerable position? Her eyes tried to focus through the darkness to spot a way back up so she could help.