Lyamis (Naga), Catacomb
"Move!" Grey shouted, his body tossed upon the shapeshifter and covered the spiky creature. He was like a thick wall of flesh, metal and cloth when the spike ejected from the mage and into his vestings with his shield sparing his face. On impact he was sent wheeling back by the force, the shield busting into his head and likely creating a large bruise where it hit, sending the pieces of bone to litter the floor. A few stuck within his armor though they didn’t hit any vital organs or were possibly as deep as they seemed.
Lyamis was about speak when another voice interrupted.
"This mission has been a disaster. Take the students back to the surface. Now."Lyamis knew that voice, at least he believed he did from a long time ago. Though the calmness in the tone had stirred the Naga’s instincts, mainly because compared to the memories he had there was never a time where it was spoken with such calmness. It was eerie and unsettling enough that his mind seemed to associate it with danger, stirring his desire to recoil into a defensive position in front of the Matriarch. His eyes raised to view the demonomancer displaying a fearsome form of himself. A large, rumbling sound started from behind the Naga’s group causing his head to dart around and spot the behemoth wall of a demon approach with blades raised to eagerly slaughter them all. Reflexively Lyamis’ eyes narrowed and his fangs reared, letting out a warning hiss that made all the Naga tighten into a smaller group and retreat from the beast. The creature’s dragging feet started to crush the dead ridge hounds underneath while it rolled over them without so much as pause.
Lyamis had thought, when the ridge hounds had died, the fight might’ve ended. He was dead wrong it seemed. His head turned back to Karnage standing before them, his message finished out. At least, he suspected it was the fallen orc but as he studied the individual more deeply, it seemed he was mistaken. His knuckles tightened upon his spear while he shifted himself in front of the matriarch and the wounded, followed by the support of those Naga still alive and well. His tongue flickered out in irritation and fear, through he clamped down on his rising emotions when facing the threat.
Nearest Tyrael, the demonomancer known as Karnage to the Naga, the catacombs twisted and shifted creating a hellish scene none of them could ever imagine. Lyamis’ eyes glared quietly at the orc, his thoughts wondering what Marya ever saw in the monster before him. He wasn’t understanding this very threat and display was hurting his sister’s future, denying her the possibly return back to their clan and forever break what he had been striving for. Namely her return and re-instatement of her status through now, any chance was lost now.
"I will deal with the naga, and this new threat. Take the wounded and leave this place." Karnage spoke again, a warning and likely a promise of violence.
The human, or so Lyamis thought until his scent caught the scent of something similar but not the same, had fallen to his knees nearest the new arriving demon. He coughed out his reply, his reddened eyes turned up to face the towering giant in front of him.
"Demon..I do not know if you are of the masters brood or... maybe you are him. Find Tyrael, tell him.... I failed... there were so many of them.... we killed so many of them.... couldn't..... get to them. We tried Tyrael, we could not accomplish your orders. We are..... sorry for that." At the end of his sentence, Baulder started to fall only to be caught by the demon’s outstretched arm. The thick coiled muscles held the semi-human from planting face first into a ridge hound corpse, unable to continue past his terrible wounds. For a moment, the Naga felt a hint of pity for the creature. Loyalty to a brute who knew nothing but how to abuse or destroy, a fact he had failed to see in the past, and part of him wondered if this Tyrael had done anything to hurt Marya. The thought rippled anger within him through it never surfaced to his expression.
During that moment, his eye had caught the movements in his peripheral vision, his head tilted to spot Ssarak’s doppelganger vanish into the roof. It might’ve been awe inspiring under other conditions but at the moment, they were about to be killed. The student Esyire’s thoughts penetrated his, among the other Naga’s minds, with a simple warning.
We have to persuade him to let you live. He is a master demonmancer and could kill us all with ease; fighting is not an option. Lower your weapons; they will not be useful anyway. Slowly, Lyamis followed their allies’ lead. His eyes looked to the others with a harsh and demanding glare causing them to copy, the series of weapons clattered to the ground and were left untouched. This didn’t stop the nervousness movements from passing through their number as they started to cluster even tightly together, their eyes fixed on the creature that stood before them and decided their fate. Many questioned the possibility of death and at least they would die as Naga-their lives given to defend their matriarch at all costs. Ssarak was the first to pipe up against Karnage, placing himself between the threat and Naga group.
”Why do this, Tyrael? Why kill the Naga? Baulder…he needs healing. We need to get him back to the college, instead of fighting over what to do with the Naga. If you believe they are a threat, then we can detain them. Lock them away, let Khan, or the Archmage judge them. They could not stand against us if they wanted to, especially with one as powerful as you among us. There would be no danger in capturing them.”"He's right, Tyrael." Grey added in agreement, his figure raised upright and eyepatch ripped off to reveal an odd eye. He seemed to study the fallen orc for a moment, his head shifted down and then up again.
"Would you murder helpless civilians? What may very well be the last of the Naga? We will take them back, and ask Satori to talk to them, understand? And if you disagree, well..." At these words, Lyamis tensed when he saw Grey raise his shield, axe remaining lowered in defense.
"You'll have to go through me first."A wood elf, barely standing, was next to address their current aggressor with her hands barely holding her weapon. Myrn’s voice started with reason, calling him by a name other than Karnage, while also appealing to his pride in his strength.
"Master Tyrael please listen to your students. The naga aren't going to be a threat to anyone at the college, not right now and surely no to you!" The next words caused Lyamis’ head to snap to the woman when she used Mar’s name, the one strictly for outsiders to common use when addressing them.
"Please, think about Mar! She wouldn't want this, would she? Everyone says the nagas were killed off, but for her it was more than that. She thought she lost her entire family. But now they're back, you can't kill her family!"Desperate at the moment, he found her looking at them, his eyes the only ones meeting her. She looked on the verge of collapse causing the male to cut the distance between them as the wound grew, his arms reached out instinctive to steady her. Seeming too weak to acknowledge Lyamis’ touch, she then asked about his relation to the only Naga within the College.
"It's true right? You're Mar's family? That's why you're here, to be with her, ask her for help, right?"The vampire, Colette, had now walked toward him with sorrow in her expression through her voice wasn’t wavering when she tried her own hand to sooth over his inner demons.
“Mr. Tyrael...please stop this. The nagas aren't a threat to us. If anyone is a threat to the college it is you right now and I am not afraid to fight you if I have to!” “You always taught us to fight demons if they were a threat...” Visibly the words she uttered seemed to have sliced her, her lips pushing more out despite her pain. Lyamis noted the dagger when she drew it, the way her hand trembled through it seemed like she tried to keep a firm grip on it and looked him at with pleading eyes.
“You are the demon everyone is fearing right now Mr. Tyrael...please just stop and be more rational.” "Waaaargh!" Came Tyrael’s answer as Lyamis’ grip on Myrn tightened on impulse, his tail moved to coil about the two since he was too far from the matriarch to aid her. In a few brief moments the air rippled in unnatural display and the earth rumble, shaking to keep those on two legs struggling to keep upright. Thankfully for the Naga, their tails enabled them to stay up through just barely and a good thing because Lyamis was the only thing preventing Myrn from crumbling to the floor. When the rumbling stopped and everything settled, Tyrael stared at Colette with bared teeth before passed her Baulder then started to shift back down the corridor. However he made a bone chilling comment that gave Lyamis a slight foreboding for their future, his mind realizing they were being left to tend to their wounds alone.
"We will return to the surface... But the nagas will wait in the catacombs. We shall see what their fate will be. Understood!?" Pulling his gaze from the teacher’s retreating back, Lyamis answered Myrn’s earlier question as he set her upright and released his grip. “Yes, Mar is my sister, we were raised together among Mesa Gaan. She has as much right to know what has happened to the Naga,
her people,” he emphasized the phrase when he looked at Tyrael, his words continuing in a calm tone, “We came here because your...Tyrael was the one that said Mar would be safe here. We are the last survivors of that city and possibly, the last of our kind. I can only imagine what type of affect being the last of her kind will have on Mar.”
