An elderly women hung by her fragile looking wrists from metal cuffs that dug into her flesh, causing circular red marks to appear on her pale flesh. She appeared lifeless, feeble, and wrinkly, clothed only in a severely tattered white dress that had evidently seen better days. White hair messily hung down to conceal her face as her head fell limply down to the ground. The cell was damp and dark but not completely so. A small magically fueled lantern hung above her and each of the other occupants in adjacent cells, and there was a dim light coming from the end of the hallway off to her left where a door led outside of this prison room.

What appeared to be the lifeless body began to stir as her head was lifted. Fierce green eyes opened, glaring up at the cuffs that bound her.

"How pathetic, that I can't even age such brittle bindings," she thought to herself in distaste. The magical poison that had been injected into her body severely limited her power and was showing no signs of getting out of her system. There was only one man she knew of who had magic powerful enough to effect her to such a degree. The Unnamed Wizard. That blasted old man had somehow gotten the better of her while she was off guard. Now it hurt to think and she couldn't wind back time any further then when she woke up in this cell as she has done just now. All of her other powers were faded to the point of uselessness besides one, and that was adjusting time on her body, but only once. Well, at least once every time she wound time back to this point. That was all she was able to find out about her predicament so far. That and she couldn't get past even the first guard when she tried to escape by herself, a tall, pale, humanoid beast who was always standing there, watching ceaselessly for signs of escape. She kept having to go back in time to the safety of her cell to avoid getting killed.

One measly guard. She could have killed him with hardly even a thought before, but as she was now it was impossible for her. To be fair, the average human would be killed by him for sure, so it was not just her own shortcomings. In fact she didn't know of many who could be able to do it. And there was sure to be many more monsters and traps awaiting after that. These newcomers...did they have what it takes? Should she bother freeing them? She supposed that there was no other options for her, as much as she'd hate to admit it and have to swallow her pride. If she were to get out of here, wherever here was, so would they. She let out a cold sigh.

Then there was an odd sort of movement taking place on her body, as if her body was made out of water and was rippling at a disturbance moving across the water's surface. Her body shrunk considerably, wrinkles turned into smooth skin, dried hair becoming more youthful. After a couple of seconds the old women had now turned into a girl of around 10 years old, still in her tattered dress that reached down just below her knees in her current state. She grimaced as she wiggled her hands around within her bindings, drawing blood as they began to squeeze out. One last pull and she was in freefall for half a second, plopping onto the ground below her with a splash as she hit stagnant water that had collected within her cell from leaks in the walls and ceiling.

She did a couple casual stretches before squeezing once more between the bars of her cell. The cells magically formed with the dimensions to keep their specific occupant inside. It appeared like the Unnamed Wizard underestimated her ability to still make use of some of her powers. For all of his vast genius he sure made some ridiculously simple miscalculations in his arrogance. She laughed under her breath at his incompetence, but then remembered that he had still managed to catch her, the most powerful time witch in existence. That soured her mood back once again to her normal stoic expression.

She glanced to her left. Behind the large, heavy door was that monster, but he never seemed to react until she was leaving through it. That should allow her to get everyone out and ready to storm his position all at once.

She scooped the cell keys off of the ring near the door and made her way up to each cell that held a prisoner. What an odd assortment of men this wizard had collected. She would ask them all this question and release them if they said yes, "I shall lead an escape from this dungeon and you shall accompany me. If you follow my every command and ensure my safe passage then I will make sure that you shall live once I escape and regain my powers. Is this satisfactory to you?"

The young man was in his cell, strapped to the wall, slumped, half-naked, with only some torn trousers to keep him clothed, and worse of all, trapped. His binds were reinforced not just iron, oh no, he could break right through those with a few blasts of his Energy magic, no these were steel cuffs, and even if he did break his binds through some miracle, he would have to deal with the steel bars that were placed unusually close to each other. After fruitless moments of planning ways to escape, he stopped and just thought to observe the other cells. The only cell he could observe was just parallel to his, elderly woman's cell. She didn't seem significant at first sight, but she demonstrated that she was. Unaging herself to become a smaller, younger girl, slipping of her own binds, and through the bars, taking the keys and opening his cell door, she asked him.

"Quite a proposition, that one." The young man raised his battered head. "Yes, I'll help you." He sounded sincere in his words, enough that the young girl opened his binds. He massaged his wrists, happy that they weren't injured too much. The young girl was just about to leave. "IF you prove that you are competent enough to lead me." He continued. The girl looked slightly irritated, and left anyway without saying another word. "Good, she is efficient enough to avoid small talk." He let himself out of the cell, not daring once to even try to make a run for it, he knew how dungeons worked, and there most certainly has to be some sort of sentry on the outside of their chamber's door, and his captor is a wizard, no less. He thought of asking the girl to hand him some of the keys, but he saw how different the keys were from each cell, a different key for a different cell, he might only slow her down if he did.

Garrok woke up and opened his eyes to find himself on the cold stony floor of an unfamiliar dungeon cell. His head was pounding and he was stripped of his weapons and armor, left with nothing but a pair of roughspun trousers to conceal himself, but he was otherwise strangely uninjured. He blinked the blurriness out of his eyes and looked around, but the dungeon was plain and typical, there was little to be seen. His memory of how he was captured was vague at best, but something told him he’d been caught by someone unknown, some new adversary that fate had placed in his path.

When he moved to rub the pain from his forehead, he was stopped by the sizable steel manacles that pinned his arms to the wall. He grunted in annoyance and flexed his thick arms, trying to pull himself loose from his confines. The steel binds creaked and moaned under the pressure, but didn’t give in. With time he might have been able to pull them from their sockets, but it would do him little good as he would still be trapped behind the thick metal bars of his cell, far too closely spaced for his large frame to squeeze through.

That’s when the little girl appeared outside his cell and made her offer. She was only a child and small enough that he might trip over her if he wasn’t careful, seemingly out-of-place in a location like this. Regardless, potentially getting himself killed in an escape attempt was a better fate than being stuck here as a prisoner. “Yes, I’ll take it.” he answered in his coarse voice. The girl opened his cell door and then started clumsily climbing up his body, as she was too short to reach his wrists otherwise. She was almost standing on his shoulder by the time she managed to fit the key into the lock and opened the manacles, after which she silently jumped off and continued to the next cell. Garrok stretched his arms and fingers in preparation for whatever might follow as he walked outside into the corridor. He was unarmed and unarmored, but as least fists counted for something. He looked around at the one man that had been freed before him and the several other individuals still stuck in their cells. Some looked more combat capable than others, but something told him they’ll need all the help they can get to make their way out of here.

Darkness. Smooth, soft darkness. At least it would be, if it wasn't a foreign darkness. The shadows were made from unnatural stone, and the air felt wet. The cuffs didn't help much either. They held a strange creature by the wrists, and the creature itself had abandoned the thought of escape. The cuffs were too tight to slip out of, and the creature had no knowledge of lock picking. The only thing the creature could do was think of the Past and remember his identity.

Kenzo Frey...Iron Tail... thought the creature.

If one was to look closely, they'd see Kenzo's appearance through the darkness. Claws on his hands and feet, fur all over his body, a muzzle. Basically an anthropomorphic mouse or rat, the size of an adult human. He had semi-long hair on his head, and wore nothing but trousers.

Kenzo heard movement outside his cell. He could not see its source, for his hair blocked his vision, and his hands were bound. Then, there was a voice. It was a small, light voice. It was that of a child's what was one doing in a place such as this? The child offered to free him and others imprisoned in this place, in exchange of sticking together. Some had already agreed with her. Kenzo also took the offer, but after he was freed, he said,

"Child...I follow through with your terms, but I ask you to convince any among us to not attack me."

"Oooh, my head," Rick groaned as he lifted his heavy eyes. The last thing he remembered was getting into a fight with some demon monster while helping a friend at this abandoned village, and then it was all black. He gave out a second groan as he felt his hands above his head, bleeding and of no use to him. Now how am I going to get out of here?, he thought groggily. As he was thinking that, he heard voices and the sound of cell doors being opened. "Hello?" he called out, once his vision cleared he saw a young girl was the one opening doors. "Hey, you," he said, trying to get her attention, "could you get me outta here?" Then, before the girl could respond, he asked, "Where is here anyway?"
Once the he and the girl had made the agreement that all the other prisoners seemed to be making, he was soon out of his cell and walking to relieve himself of all his aches and pains.Rick then began looking around, he saw he was in a stereotypical dungeon, with an odd assortment of prisoners. He saw a door and guessed that since this was a stereotypical dungeon, that there would be a stereotypical monster on the other side. Rick groaned again, this was turning out to be a really bad day. With that grim thought, he, hoping it would work, willed his dagger to be in his hand.

A lone human figure hung from his wrist supported by a length of iron chain. The only occupant of damp and dark cell was unarmed and unconscious-- at least at first. The figure began to stir as a single drop of cool water tapped him upon the brow to then run down his face. Like a splash of water the man was slowly raised from his comatose state. Diēscogitō Khan blinked the weariness from his eyes even as he shook the cobwebs from his mind. Confusion was itched on his face as he slowly took in his dark surroundings. The only light coming off from a few wall torches outside of what appeared to be a cell. He tried to move, and then found he could not. He gazed up at his shackled hands and grimaced as a wave of nausea swept through him. Perhaps the after effects of whatever hand rendered him unconscious in the first place.

He quickly took stock of himself; first he had a pounding headache, but thankfully it was slowly receding. His arms along with one of his legs still felt half asleep, they tingled with that odd sensation due to lack of movement. He flexed his arms and the strange tingling intensified for a short time. While they recovered he studied his surroundings. His cell was fairly small, possessing a single stool and a bucket in one corner. Currently Diēscogitō hung from a chain of iron built into the wall above him-- his feet barely touching the ground. He found he could relieve the pressure on his arms by standing on his toes. With a sharp intake of breath he began to pull with all his considerable might on the chains. But they didn’t budge.

Giving up on that he drew his attention to his surroundings once more. His back felt cold and wet against the flagstone wall from the water dripping down from the ceiling. He could see other cells out in the gloom but could not make out their occupants. It was then he heard the distinct sound of keys. Moments later what appeared to be a small girl came to his cell door, offering him a deal he could hardly turn down. Or Believe for that matter. His only answer was a nod.

Diēscogitō rubbed his wrist as he tried to get circulation back into his hands. He stepped from out of the dark cell into the moderately lite hallway and saw others also recently freed. Now in more light he could see he still had his leather vestments, but of course his prized bow was gone. His Draythikon mask was gone, but that was probably for the best. His clan did not have the best reputation to many. With a heavy sigh he cleared his throat, only now realizing how badly he needed a drink of water.

"So...anyone know where we are?" He asked quietly to no one in particular. He did not recognize any of these people, but they seemed to all be in the same boat hopefully some one knew something.

Within one of the cells hung in chains, was a white haired man with a single eye merely glancing at the chains. A chuckle escaped his lips at his current predicament, defeated and bound like a common prisoner. Oh how far has he fallen to be taken out by a mortal mage, powerful but still mortal, but then again he held only a fraction of power he once held. Raen, as he was known by mortals, was once a great angel and sworn protector of the high heavens. Now he was a mere fallen caught between the forces of heaven and hell seeking forgiven of his former home. A stray thought entered the mind of the immortal, what benefits would the other side bring him? Could he forsake forgiveness for damnation?

Taken from his thoughts, Raen saw a little girl with keys to his freedom unlock his door and asked him a simple question. "I shall lead an escape from this dungeon and you shall accompany me. If you follow my every command and ensure my safe passage then I will make sure that you shall live once I escape and regain my powers. Is this satisfactory to you?" Their eyes met and the girl would see a shadow of something ancient, timeless and vast. He saw her in her entirety, knowing she was not just a little girl who happened to be here. Considering her offer, freedom from this place seemed rather a good idea. "A bird tweets in it's golden cage, it's wings clipped and broken. It's song sorrowful and sweet, hoping to one day be free and in the sky. Shall the lady of time who holds the keys give the bird what it seeks? It can only wait and hope, knowing once free it would have to face all the predators that hunt it." That was Raen's way of saying yes, it would.

Jeremy was cold. The room around his was dark. He had no idea where he was or what had happened. All he could think about was Grimrock. A thought came over him, a thought that he wanted to reject, but could not. What if Grimrock was dead? Jeremy tucked his legs to his chest and let his head rest between them and begin to sob. It had been a long time since he had last seen Grimrock and he felt so lonely without him. After about ten minutes of vainly attempting to be brave, he began to realise that he didn't know where he himself was. He looked around, his eyes finally beginning to adjust to the dark and found that his ankle was chained to a heavy ball that he could not move.

"Funny," he thought, "We have these in our local gaol." But he failed to make any connections.

Jeremy got up and began to walk around the room, or as far as he could with the chain round his ankle. He managed to work our that there was a large, foul-smelling bucket one corner of the room, an uncomfortable hay mattress in another and a number of corpses in another. He still had no idea where he was. Leaning up against the back wall of the room, Jeremy began to think deeply about what had happened. He remembered leaving the house with a small knapsack, in search of Grimrock. He shot up "The knapsack!" he exclaimed out loud. He had lost the knapsack - his lifeline - and his only way of casting magic. He tried to remember when the last time he had it was. Suddenly, it began to come together in his head. He had come across a powerful wizard who had put him to sleep, and then he awoke here.

His thoughts were interrupted by a girl about his age entering his cell. She walked over to him and looked at him with deep, almost mournful eyes. Almost excitedly, she whispered to him:
"I shall lead an escape from this dungeon and you shall accompany me. If you follow my every command and ensure my safe passage then I will make sure that you shall live once I escape and regain my powers. Is this satisfactory to you?"

Jeremy had no idea what she was saying, but he heard the word escape, that was enough. After a few seconds of thought, he stuttered: "y-yes". It was obviously what she wanted to hear, for she then stooped down and unlocked him from his chains. He was free.

She was mostly silent until everyone was gathered outside of their cells in one place. No need to keep repeating herself or else that would get tedious fast. Her small, child voice would have had trouble reaching everyone until now and she didn't want to strain herself.

"We are in the dungeon of a powerful wizard; a man known for his trickery. Expect death behind every shadow and many an odd beast under his command. I'm not sure of our exact location because he could have brought us anywhere after loosing consciousness, but I'll deal with that once we get free. As you all are now aware, your task is to get me free of this place alive and well, and then I'll be able to find an antidote to regain my powers and alter time to where you guys were also free, should you have died in your service here or were otherwise unable to escape. In the unlikely event of my death before I can turn back time to restart our escape attempt..."

She turned around and brushed aside her long white hair, revealing a glowing blue rune on the back of her neck that looked sort of like some ancient clock with unreadable writing in place of numbers.

"I have formed a rune on my body using immense magic that allows me to automatically rewind time 24 hours back upon death, but in this case I bet it's still limited to when I woke up in my cell. You will see the rune moving around and once all of the numbers line up at the top then that's when the rewind happens, 3 minutes from death. Please do not magically manipulate this rune or else it may slow or even stop the rewind altogether, ruining this entire plan. You may do whatever you wish for these 3 minutes such as gather more intelligence about our surroundings for future reference, twiddle your thumbs, admire the pretty lights of the rune, whatever. Don't worry about loosing your memories upon any rewinds because my magic allows everyone I wish to retain their memories of everything that has happened. That being said, you have no excuse for repeating the same mistakes over and over. Let's keep this whole escapade as painless as possible. Now, without further adieu..."

She placed the keys back on their hook to the left of the exit and then placed both palms on the heavy door, straining slightly until it let out a creek and began to open outwards. Now that it had moved it began to swing up much more easily, revealing a octagon shaped room with a radius of 20 feet. A torch flickered on each wall and there were three doors, one straight ahead, one to the left, and one to the right. Each one looked as heavy as the one Audeleiss had just opened, meaning that it would take a brief struggle. There was only one being standing in the room, which looked up at them with a wrathful expression on it's face. It looked like a deathly pale muscular man standing 10 feet tall, but it's face was deformed by beady black eyes, no nose or ears, and large jagged teeth. It held onto an 8 foot long steel battleaxe single handedly in it's right hand. The left hand had massive claws that looked just as dangerous but were only half a foot long. He wore no clothing but had no privates or nipples, only well toned muscle from head to toe. Due to it's immense size it had easily outrun Audeleiss's small legs in all previous attempts, coming down on her in moments with enough strength to dent the steel bars that had held them all captive. It let out a wicked roar either in anger of their escape or to alert his friends; she had never lasted long enough without rewinding to find out if reinforcements would come.

As if to say "he's your problem now!" She darted off behind the grounp just as the beast began to charge their position. Luckily he didn't react immediately so they would have time to enter the room, should they desire, before he'd be right at the doorway and swinging his massive battleaxe indiscriminately downward at where the group had been at the doorway.

Maybird was the first to action, the first order of work was to dodge that oncoming axe that the beast was most likely going to swing, but even before that, he had to decide whether to stay in the cell room or to try to charge into the circular room and get its attention. He judged how fast it can most likely swing its axe and if he can dodge the attack, or block the attack with his energy magic.

He rushed into the circular room, he saw that the beast noticed him, and was brandishing its axe wildly, while charging at him, from its brandishes, Maybird could assess whether the swings were slow enough for him to dodge. But the beast and its swings were faster than he expected, and before he could react it was only a few meters from him.

Have to dodge!

If the beast swung straight downward, Maybird would dodge by blasting to his right, therefore propelling him left, and dodging the axe, but if the beast were to swung horizontally, he would dodge its swing with a roll to his left direction, farthest from where the beast's axe would be post-swing, he would then recover back onto his feet by assisting himself with another energy blast, downward. The roll would likely make him short and small enough to either be narrowly missed by the swing, or to atleast just be grazed by the axe, the assisted recovery at the end, would help him dodge any incoming attacks that he did not foresee.

As soon as Rick saw the monster in the door way, he clumsily threw his dagger at it, not really hoping that he would hurt it, he just need to free up his hands. After that, he hurriedly summoned his crossbow, picked up the girl and ran to the back of the room. Once he got there he put the little girl down behind him, not really caring what she thought or would do, and then he shot three arrows at the things chest, and then another three at the beast's axe hand. As soon as the thing noticed him, as it certainly would, he called out to his new companions, "Some one help the small guy about to get chopped up and then someone please keep this girl safe, I don't feel like time travel today!" he didn't care how big of task he was demanding, or how he sounded, he felt like someone needed to take control, or no one was going to get out alive. After that he turned to the girl, now a little annoyed with her, "And you, could you please not release a monster on us without a warning, were gonna get killed before we leave our cells!" his whisper turning into a yell with rage.

As Garrok followed the tiny witch and the rest of the group towards the first door, he took a quick peek into each of the opened cells, looking for some kind of improvised weapon. Only a fool would fight with his fists when given the option not to. Some of the cells had buckets or little wooden stools in them that didn’t look very promising, but at the last moment he spotted a ball and chain lying on the floor, its shackle opened. He quickly ducked down and snatched it up by the chain. It would make a clumsy weapon, but at least it was heavy and swingable.

When the door swung open and the monster was revealed, Garrok didn’t waste any time. Any other orc might have charged the thing, but he at least had the sense not to directly attack something that big. At the last moment he suddenly remembered the child, not the witch but the other one, who seemed so defenseless. While he had no particular reason to care for these strangers, he felt that as a knight of sorts he ought to protect the weak. With his free arm, he grabbed the child by the collar of his ragged clothing and lifted him up like one would lift a bag of potatoes, before running off to the right to avoid the monster’s swing.

With long strides, he ran forward and to the right, avoiding the downward smash and putting himself in a flanking position. There he unceremoniously set the kid back down and without further ado turned towards the pale giant. Now is as good a time as any, he thought, and charged forward to swing the heavy iron ball at the creature’s side, now that it was hopefully still distracted.

Diēscogitō slowly digested what the child told them, but before he could think on it further, and before they could even plan a sensible course of action, the fool child swung the door open. That started a chain of events to spiral far beyond anyone's control. One of them rushed into the circular chamber, as did another in fast response. He thought that move rather reckless, but the other room arguably had more room to maneuver.

Still the creature was momentarily distracted as people started running past it. Diēscogitō soon realized, as any sensible person would, that he and his new 'companions' did not have a chance in the nine hells in killing the creature before them. Still they need not kill it to effectively immobilize it. When the creature turned its attention to the other running figures, Diēscogitō had already started chanting the incantation to a spell he hoped would do the trick. He skidded to a crouch several feet behind the giant, outside its considerable reach. He would need time to weave the spell so that instead of covering a wide radius across, it would instead penetrate deeper into the ground than normal. If he could just get it to 10 feet...

He circled his hands in the air as if writing something then slapped his hand to the ground. A glyph gleamed an emerald green for several seconds before fading again. He had set it to the creature’s weight as to avoid one of his allies activating it.

"Lure the thing over here! And quickly!" He hoped they heard him over the din of battle. If nothing else the giant might give up on harassing the orc and small child and charge this way. If so Diēscogitō was ready to spring away, but he would need to time it just so.

Kenzo didn't freeze in fear, but rather stood in confusion. Several others had begun to take action. A creature was heading their way, and it was huge. It was obvious that all of them would have to make a group effort to take the beast down. Problem was, they barely had any equipment. Some had decided to hit and run, hoping to injure it, and one actually started chanting nearby. Kenzo was quick, but it was distracted by the others. He decided to play it safe and wait for a chance to help out.

During his wait, the chanting one had suddenly yelled to lure the creature near him. Kenzo was close, so he heard it, but others were combating it, and may not have heard him. Kenzo sighed, because he had found the moment he was looking for. Only, it was not quite as safe as he thought it would be. He would have to catch the creature's attention and run towards the chanter. This could mean that the creature could rip Kenzo to pieces the moment the action began.

no other choice... thought Kenzo.

He dashed to the beast with great speed and clawed at it's body a few times. He made a dash towards the chanting man, hoping that the creature wouldn't catch him first.

Jeremy looked up at the huge beast and froze. He had never seen such a large creature in all his life. His fear began to consume him, lowering him to the extent that all thought fled him save one: he was going to die. He was absolutely spellbound, but he did not have long to thing for it was then that we was swooped up by a orc.Upon seeing the identity of his kidnapper, he was immediately racked with a new fear. Was the orc about to eat him? Was the orc in allegiance with the beast? Jeremy's mind became so tightly wound by his fear of death that he began to cry. The tears had just begun to stream down his face, when he was thrown out of harms way by the orc, far from the dangers of the battle. Jeremy looked up at his rescuer. He had been saved by an orc. That would surely be something to tell Grimrock... If Grimrock was alive.

Jeremy began to lament again, but something in his Amygdala triggered; the heat of such an intense battle seemed to drive away all his fears. Jeremy looked around. The situation appeared desperate. Perhaps he could get help? Jeremy searched the area around him for an effective weapon. He was in luck when he gazed into the other room and saw that on the walls were hung long torches. Perhaps the creature was scared of fire. Jeremy could not tell from this angle whether or not he could reach them, given that they were possibly too high up on the wall, but he hoped to be able to at least try...

Raen looked on at the scene before him, the gathering of other prisoners that the wizard had captured. Seemed like an interesting collection, mortals of all sorts unwillingly gathered in a dungeon. He took a quick look around to notice all he needed for this try, since they had a mage of time. Said mage had gone and opened the door to what he could tell was one of the dungeon's monstrous wardens. This creature was indeed tall and dangerous, with that bloodied axe in hand and the other was clawed. Seeing the smirk on the time magus face, she was enjoying this. Reacting to the downward swing, he swiftly moved to the side and hit the wall. Only if he had his sword, then he could easily fight this creature or his ring... his ring that helped him focus his flames... that was it, he could tap into the power of his fire magic. The only problem was that without his ring he couldn't control the flames and would cause an explosion. However, he needed to take the risk if they were to damage the beast. As lavender flames began to dance around his hands, Raen just glanced at his enemy and waited to strike.

As the monster was swinging down on Maybird a dagger twirled towards it's right calf, nicking it weakly to cause it to bounce off and clatter to the ground, drawing only a small spray of black liquid from the wound. It hardly seemed to notice, focusing on the opponents in front of him unless a more serious threat drew his attention, which came in the form of a man rushing him with a ball and chain. His right torso was crunched by the force of the blow and he was knocked to the side, a bruise forming on his otherwise pale skin. However, it did not seem to harm him too badly, as he managed to maintain his footing and only seemed to get angry rather then be pain. Before he could do anything else to attack a flurry of arrows was unleashed onto him. The first embedded itself into the thick muscles of the left side of his torso with a solid thumping sound, further aggravating him. Although the reload speed was fast for a crossbow, it was not instantaneous and he began to stomp around at high speeds to make further damage on him far more difficult, causing them to miss, although one of the arrows meant for his hand got close and collided with his axe with a loud ringing sound. He clearly learned his lesson that these small humans could manage to damage him so was in a far more serious mode.

He let out a blood curdling roar as he made a sweeping horizontal motion of his axe in an effort to cleave through both of the two men who had gone up close and personal with him. They were doing a good job distracting him from being able to reach the archer, but they would have trouble fending him off for much longer. While doing this maneuver his back was exposed to the nimble Kenzo, who darted off as quickly as he had come. If the monster was able to take the opponents down or they otherwise became less of a threat, he was aggravated enough by this surprise attack that he'd spin around and chase after him, trying to slash at him with his axe with the rage of an axe murderer.

Meanwhile, Audeleiss was speechless when Rick scooped her off her feet. He sure had a lot of nerve, this little man. And then he had the gall to lecture her! Her, the most powerful witch in existence! She didn't know if to laugh or get angry with him.

"If you are to survive then you must be prepared for far more surprises then that, little one," she replied mater-of-factly. "And don't touch me without permission. Who knows what germs you have on that filthy body of yours."

She let out a harrumph and turned her head away from him. She wasn't in the mood to help him out just yet so just stood there at a safe distance, seemingly disinterested in the fight taking place in front of her.

Much happened just after Maybird run out earlier, but at least what he intended, to direct the beast's attention toward him instead of the others, so that they'd take it down with their own plans. And they did. First, a dagger hit the calf of the beast, and landed on the floor, Maybird questioned the use of such a small projectile, the beast barely reacted to it, still preparing to strike him, and him preparing to dodge said strike. It was interrupted though, the interruption came at the form of another beast, the orc. He may not be as massive as the beast, but he was still formidably large. The orc swung its improvised flail at the beast, knocking it back a few feet, before it regained its footing. Maybird prepared to run at the beast and punch its calf out, especially with that dagger on the ground, he it, propelled with energy, into the beast's right calf, hoping to at least dislocate its kneecap. It embedded into the beast's flesh, but seemed that it would come off at any moment. He prepared to punch it in to cause more damage.

Before he could though, a hail of bolts came from the doorway, piercing the beast in a part of its body, while the others missed as the beast started stomping in rage, nonetheless, they had a shooter! "SHOOT ITS EYES!" In instinct, Maybird yelled his first thoughts aloud, the plan was near perfect, with the beast blinded, it would then swing around wildly hoping to hit anything in its rage, though its movements would become far less predictable, it would be easier to dodge, and lure around, he would also be able to damage its leg far enough that he could cause it to fall, and if fortune had it, he would even have it fall where he wished. Now, all they needed was a-

"Lure the thing over here! And quickly!" Came the shout from the other side of the chamber. Perfect. With his planning, he almost failed to see the beast cock its axe in anticipation, swinging in a circular motion, the beast sought to cleave both him and the orc. He had to dodge, fast. He quickly used his energy magic to create a blast directly in front of him, propelling him back, though the circular motion of the axe would leave a wound on his chest, and to his dismay, the wound was not minor, but at the least, it was not deep enough to cause severe bleeding. He landed on his bottom, knowing this position was full of death, if he didn't stand within the next second, or block the inevitable drop-swing, he would die, though at least the plan was going well.

The next moment, however, instead of seeing the shadow of the gigantic axe, he looked up and saw the beast's back instead, through sheer fortune, the monster did not pursue, him and instead was running after someone else, though he could not see, and the beast was heading toward the intended trap. Good, though this plan wasn't going to work fully yet. He stood himself back up, and started sprinting toward the beast's right leg, where the dagger was still remarkably stuck, though it was shaking and threatened to loose and fall off, occasionally blasting behind him to propel him and increase the momentum behind his run. It was likely that only he could outrun, or at least out-speed the beast currently.

If he could reach the beast's leg before anything else happened, he would punch the dagger. Assisted with the force of his momentum, and the blast of his energy, it would surely pierce through its knee, or even better, get stuck in between its joints, it would then likely stumble into the trap.

"SHOOT ITS EYES!" was the next thing Rick heard as the chaotic seen continued to unfold. He realized the beast could take a lot of punishment, yet it couldn't hit any of them. Dismissing the fact about the creatures durability he thought about how if it could barley hit anyone while it could see, it certainly couldn't hit anything while he was blind. There was one problem with this, there was no chance of him hitting the monsters eyes as it flailed about in the fight. He would have to get the things attention...

As he was trying to think, something not to natural to him, the little witch was whining! He had just helped her and now she was whining! Too fed up with her, he picked her up, cradling her tightly, and placed her in a cell, knowing this would do no good in shutting her up or containing her, but at least she was out of the way and out of hearing distance. As he was in the cell, Rick noticed a stool in the corner and remembered how he needed to get a good shot at the monster's eyes. Rick smiled at the thought what he was about to do. He walked out of the cell, shut it, and got into a stance to throw the stool when he would get a good view of the things head, having his crossbow ready to shoot as soon as he had got the monsters attention.

Garrok was pleased to hear the crunch of metal on bone and to see the creature staggering under his attack, but it was apparently too tough to be seriously harmed by it. When the axe came swinging towards him, his first instinct was to block, but that wouldn't do without a shield. The weapon was too long for him to get out of reach, but there was another way. Greataxes are far more powerful than the swords that humans prefer, but they have one big weakness that Garrok had become familiar with over the years. He reluctantly dropped his improvised flail with a loud thunk and dashed forward, out of the trajectory of the shining silver axe head. There, he spun towards the creature's oncoming swing, put his arms out and braced for impact. When the weapon reached him, the shaft hit his hands with surprising force, but it was only blunt force. The swing didn't stop for him and instead he was swept off the ground for a mere moment and flung off several yards to the side, out of the creature's range. For a moment he feared the beast's follow-up attack, but was relieved to see it turn around.

He clumsily crawled to his feet, ignoring the road rash on his back, and took a moment to rub the painful palms of his hands. The rodent-like creature was the monster's new target, but Garrok wouldn't risk going for the ball and chain again just yet, in case the creature would suddenly turn around. From the chatter it appeared one of his incidental allies may have set up a trap of some sort, so for now he just awaited what would happen next, hoping for a better opportunity to attack.