Leith whistled as he listened to Satori's briefing. Not only had the demons turned against Tyrael, but Khan had been poisoned. He winced when a demon ran into the column of fire and burnt to ash. It didn't look like it would be a pleasant experience. When Satori asked him to stay and help defend the dining hall, he nodded, and when she told him that a demon was comming his way, he looked around, spotting the large demon quite quickly as it made its way towards him.
At the sight of the demon, Leith's mouth went dry and he felt the blood drain from his face. He started back-pedaling as it started swinging its mace. It had gone on for a few moments before Leith remembered that he had his gauntlet and a sword. He put his dagger back into its sheath, and when the demon made its next swing, instead of taking a step backwards, he dove underneath the weapon and landed by the demon's legs. As quick as he could, Leith brought his arm back and swung the sword at the demon's leg, trying to cut it in half before it attacked again.
That plan didn't work as much as Leith had hoped. He felt resistance in the gauntlet and as soon as he felt it, his arm stopped suddenly, jarring his arm quite terribly. The blade of the sword had sunk into the demon's leg halfway. It roared in pain, and before Leith could figure out what had happened, he was backhanded by the demon. He let go of the sword as he was lifted off his feet and sent across the floor. As he laid on the floor, his head spinning, he watched the demon as it pulled the sword out of its leg and make its way over to him, limping as it did.
This night had only gotten worse for Auriel after she had defeated Zaad with her teachers help. Her axe was embedded in the sand demons shoulder and now thoroughly out of her reach, leaving her with nothing but her long dagger to defend herself from the hordes. She had had to tangle with a few small and fairly weak demons thus far, and though she had defeated them, each one had left its mark. Unlike some in the room, she was not wearing armour, and her bare arms were marked with scratches and slick with blood, both demonic and her own. She had still managed to avoid any injuries worse than being clipped with Zaads magical ranged weapon, but the many minor cuts were beginning to take their toll.
She whipped around from the latest of the small imp-like things she had butchered just in time to see the incredibly pale form of Leith, a hydromancy student she had run into several times, being thrown across the room when a large demon backhanded him. He looked like he'd lost his weapon, and while he looked a bit fresher than she was at this point in the battle, that didn't mean she would leave him to fight the demon alone. It was facing away from her for the moment, and that meant she had the advantage.
Bounding forward quickly on her long legs with her dagger in a reverse grip in her right hand, she once again summoned forth her pyromancy to heat the blade. The fiend was a massive thing that looked like it would hardly notice an attack from such a small weapon, but when that weapon was searing hot it might not shrug it off so easily. As soon as she was in range, she stabbed the dagger into its left side in a quick motion. She did not try for any great depth in the attack so as not to loose the weapon by getting it stuck, merely intending to get its attention and let Leith recover. She leapt back to evade its wild swing at her and stuck her tongue out at it as it turned to face this new foe.
When Leith didn't immediately get up, she realised the battle was gonig to be a little less one sided than she had hoped. After its flailing swing at her with its arm it quickly brought the mace around for a horizontal swipe. It was all she could do to avoid the mace, leaping back jsut barely out of its crushing arc. She hated maces, getting hit by one was far more difficult to shrug off as they tended to break bones even when thy just clipped you. The beast stepped forward and lifted the weapon above its head then, clearly desiring to crush her in one fell blow.
Leith watched as the demon got closer and closer to him. The backhand had given him a ringing in his ears and an inability to see the room around him clearly. He closed his eyes to try and clear his vision. When he opened them, the demon was much closer than he had expected. He held his hands up and braced for a large and painful impact, but when nothing happened, he lowered his hands and looked at the demon. Its back was facing him and it was facing another student, Auriel. He had bumped into her a couple of times, and her direct way of flirting had always caused him to roll his eyes. It seemed that he needed to thank her for saving his life when everything was over.
He tried to pick himself off the ground, but when he did, his vision went black and he noticed that the sounds of the battle had sounded like they skipped. When his vision returned, the demon was in a different place and it had lifted the mace over its head with both hands. He got up and took a few staggerd steps towards the demon. When he was close enough. He jumped up and grabbed the mace above the demon's hands and planted his feet on its back before attempting to pull the mace away from the demon. The demon gave a grunt of surprise and started pulling the mace away. Leith's eyes widened in when he felt the pulling in his arm. The demon was definitely strong. He struggled to pull the mace from the demon. He looked at Auriel from over the demon's shoulder and gave her a slightly amused look.
"Think you could give me a hand?"
Auriel had been ready to jump to the side of the strike that would no doubt crush both her and make a large dent in the stone floor when the demon suddenly let out a grunt of surprise. The mace never fell though, and it wasn't long before she noticed the reason - Leith was clinging to the things shoulders and somehow matching its strength. She had to admit it was rather impressive, she hadn't thought he was either as brave or strong. When he looked down and asked her for help, she had to resist the urge to chuckle at the comedic scene. It was still a battle after all. With the thing stuck holding its arms in the air, she had free reign to strike wherever she liked. Heated dagger in hand, she darted close to its side and slashed at the vulnerable muscles in its arm, cutting deep, nicking the bone just barely. The blade insantly cauterized the wound, but that arm would be useless now without its muscle to move it. The beast gave a cry of pain and kicked towards, remaining precariously balanced on one foot, but she was able to leap back unharmed.
When Auriel rushed at the demon, Leith readied himself for whatever happened. The demon's grip loosened on the mace when its arm was cut, making the tug-of-war more evenly matched. Leith breathed a sigh of relief. He was starting to lose the battle before the thing's arm was cut. He still wasn't having any luck pulling the mace from its hands, though. As he looked around his immeadite area for something to use to his advantage, he got an idea. He leaned as far back as he could without sacrificing his grip to take a look at the wounded leg of the demon, which it had used to kick at Auriel. It looked nowhere near as deep as it had been when Leith cut it, but it was still bleeding.
With a small gesture of his left hand, he pulled what blood he could see from the wound to near his hand. When he had pulled a small handfull, he forced it inside the demon's grip and moved it around, which made his head throb painfully. He then bent his kness and jumped off the demon's back, pulling the mace through the demons slick hands and with him. His vision blurred as he landed awkwardly on the ground. When it somewhat cleared, he noticed that the demon had taken a few steps away from both him and Auriel, and was glancing at both of them. With a few wobbly steps, he made his way over to the wood elf, the demon's mace in his hand. He took a couple of deep breaths when he stopped. He was starting to tire out. With a small glance at Auriel, he spoke.
"You go high, and I go low?"
Auriel watched with an impressed expression on her face as Leith wrestled the mace from the demons hands, probably with the help of magic, even as she kept well out of the way of the beast in case a flailing limb sent her flying.
She grinned at his questioning statement and quickly replied "I do love to be on top." With that she winked at him and leapt up onto the table next to her, running nimbly around the scattered remains of tablewear and dinner. When she was alongside the lumbering behemoth of a demon she leapt from the table and onto its broad shoulders, stabbing the knife down into its chest through the thick hair that cascaded from beneath its helmet. The demons skin was tough and the blade rarely penetrated far, but Auriel kept stabbing at it with the ferociousness of a wild animal, caught in up in the exhiliration of battle and the promise of victory.
Leith rolled his eyes at Auriel's comment. "Glad to know that there's always a time for dirty mind." He watched as Auriel jumped up onto the table and made her way towards the demon quickly. When she jumped onto the demon and started stabbing it, Leith started making his way over to the demon. He was glad that the demon was too preoccupied with trying to get Auriel off to notice him. When he got within swinging distance of the demon, it noticed him and kicked out at him. He grunted as he jumped out of the way, which made his head spin. Pushing through the feeling of the world around him spinning, Leith swung the mace at the demon's supporting leg as hard as he could.
With a loud crunch, the its leg broke at the knee and sagged inwards. Leith felt nauseated at the sight, and took a step back as the demon started to fall backwards.
A loud crack reached Auriels ears right before she began to feel the thing she was clinging to begin to fall. With a shriek she let go, falling to the ground behind it, her dagger still stuck in its chest. The bulk was bearing down on her, and for a moment she thought she was done for. Crushed to death by a falling body - hardly a dignified way to go. Before she could be ended by such misfortune, she began to roll. Rolling as fast as she could to the side, she only stopped when she hit the nearby table leg, feels more than hearing the body of the big demon hitting the ground next to her. Slightly dizzy and nearing exhaustion, she scrambled to her feet, using the table as support. The pain of the many small wounds she had suffered this night was becoming harder to ignore and she looked over at Leith as if to tell him to finish the job. She would retrieve her weapon whent he thing was dead.
When Leith heard the shriek before the demon hit the ground, he had thought that Auriel had been crushed by the demon. He felt a momentary sense of loss before he noticed her getting up beside a table. She looked like she was nearing the end of her rope. He was starting to as well. The adrenaline rush from the fight was starting to wear off. He started walking towards the demon. As he neared the demon, which was pulling itself away from him, he remebered that Satori said something about taking the heads from the demons to keep them from returning. He swung the mace at the demon's abdomen. There was another crunch as the spiked weapon hit the demon and stuck. It gave a wet sounding grunt of pain.
Leith searched for the sword that he had let go of and found it not far from where the demon fell. He picked it up and made his way back to the demon, and with one last swing, detached its head from it's body. He switched the sword over to his left hand. It was hefty, but it was manageable. He picked up the head by the hair, not wanting to misjudge his grasp and destroy the head. He then walked over the the pile of heads in that had accumulated in the center of the dining hall and deposited the one he held onto the top. He then took a few steps away from the pile, dropped to his knees, and violently voided the contents of his stomach.
Auriel looked away as Leith cut the things head off. She had seen beheadings before, but that didn't mean she wanted to see more. She looked away again when Leith started throwing up. That was not a pleasant thing to watch. She hoped his stomach would get stronger, otherwise future battles might end just as unpleasantly. Once the sound had stopped, she picked up a jug of water that had somehow managed to stay upright and full on the table despite the battle and walked around the corpse of the demon, handing it to Leith. She then leaned awkwardly over the thing to reach her dagger, slowly working it out of the flesh, a task made more difficult now that the blade was cooling.
