[IC] Godless Ichor (Dark Fantasy/Action)

[CadenGallic]

The flames licked at the armour... but once again, his blow did little to offset the huge beast as it prepared for another swing. But finally, Vane came to his rescue, striking at the side of the beast with his mighty blade. It still didn't hurt it, but it offset the monster's stance long enough that Eldarin could see the slight gaps in parts of the armour, namely around the chest area connecting to the torso below it. The beast turned on Vane and began ruthlessly attacking him, giving Eldarin a little recovery time.

[Eklispe]

Both his magic and his might had failed him, Eldarin staggered back and immediately took out his last bottle, glugging it in a single gulp. The bottle was returned and Eldarin ran forward to help Vane as fast as possible. In a move that was defiantly on the top ten of stupidest things he had ever done Eldarin slid on the ground and thrust upwards with his blade that was crackling with lightning into one of the tiny gaps in the beast's armour. There was the distinct possibility that he would be crushed or otherwise killed in a brutal fashion, but you only lived once right?

[CadenGallic]

This hit proved to be an incredible success, stopping the beast dead in its tracks as lightning riddled its armoured body, giving Vane a chance to knock it back with a strong strike. The beast had finally taken injury and a little gold dripped from its armour. Now it let out another metal shredding shriek as the segments on its body seemed to get closer together, shuffling tightly. In doing this, the gaps in the armour sealed up, covered by the strength of the legion's segments.

[Eklispe]

Finally some sort of impact against the monster. Taking advantage of the beast recoiling from both his and Vane's blows he quickly retreated and considered how to continue the fight. Obviously it was incredibly well armoured, lightning had proved effective when combined with striking at a weak point, though unfortunately that was more difficult to do now that the beast had managed to tighten its guard. Standing next to Vane; Eldarin decided it would be best to let it attack and leave itself vulnerable again, Vane and him together should be able to hold off its attacks until its guard loosened again. "Hold fast until it's vulnerable, then I'll quickly strike again allowing to follow up." Eldarin said softly and quickly. He didn't mention Vane's freezing up, all that mattered was that he was willing to fight now.

[CadenGallic]

"Righto!" Vane agreed with a sharp nod, taking up a defensive stance beside Eldarin as the legion came at them, swinging its blades at the pair of them. Vane was a bit slower on the defense but his larger weapon allowed a greater area of defence, combined with Eldarin's speed, the pair of them were able to hold off the attacks of the armored creature. Suddenly, the creature backed off and ran at the wall, using its additional arms to climb upward toward the ceiling, becoming obscured by the darkness above them.

[Eklispe]

Aw shit, if that thing dropped on them no amount of amour in the world would do them any good. But, with that thing gone Eldarin's eyes lit upon the key. He only needed a few seconds. But the beast might be waiting for that and leaving it alive would doubtless end up causing them more trouble. "Retreat to the doorway on my signal, it won't be able to creep above us there." That said Eldarin took a deep breath and hurled a flash of flame upwards, it would slowly sink down functioning in the same way as a flare. Then he would attempt to make good on his plan and retreat to the doorway so the armored creature couldn't lurk above them. They would have to hold at the doorway or else it would get into the next room and they would suffer the same problem. Plus it would limit the monster's ability to swing at them, allowing them greater ease in defending.

[CadenGallic]

"Right!" Vane received his signal as the flare he threw upward revealed the beast lurking on the roof. It seemed to take this as an aggressive act and came down sooner than they expected. It missed them, but it's impact on the ground caused the pair of them to stagger for a short amount of time.

[Eklispe]

Shit this monster was heavy, Eldarin dreaded to think what would've happened if it had actually landed on them. He was glad the ichor was as powerful as it was, between his wounds and use of magic he still felt in remarkably fine condition. Still this monster was proving to be really troublesome. The only weakness it seemed to have was its underbelly and possibly an aversion to lightning. Aw what the hell, he had to try something. As soon as Eldarin regained his footing he moved to stab the creature with more lightning cackling along his blade, time to see how effective it was against its normal armor plated self, "Cover me."

[CadenGallic]

"I got you." Vane assured him, taking the monster's attention with a few heavy swings of his blade. Amidst all this, Eldarin was allowed to get a little closer and strike at it. Intriguingly, as he was preparing to strike, he noticed how the creature was acting. The gaps in its armour were exposed on approach, but when he prepared to make his strike, the gaps closed back up again... and he could see that the tail end of the creature was contracted itself together as the segments pushed the metal to cover the gap. As for his attack, whilst his electrical amplifier did some damage, the armour soaked up most of the pain, stunning the creature for a moment.

[Eklispe]

Eldarin noticed the odd behavior of the creature's armor immediately as well as the continued effectiveness of lightning attacks. There was no time to spare, he had to take advantage of the creature's current vulnerability and attempt to end this fight here and now. "Vane, strike!" Eldarin shouted as he made his move. With stunning audacity he vaulted over the beast, using its shoulderish area to propel himself to land next to the tail end and plunged his blade into it, pumping his blade full of electricity as he did so. This had better work, or else his position practically touching the beast would leave him in a most unfortunate lurch.

[CadenGallic]

The creature let out another shriek that sounded like grinding metal as Eldarin's sword sliced off one of the tail segments of the legion's body, the added electricity caused the beast to be stunned for a little while. Unfortunately, cutting off the segment turned said segment into another of those torso beasts as it quickly scrabbled at him.

[Eklispe]

No time to let up the attack. Eldarin recklessly pushed forward, shoving the nasty creature out of the way with a brutal smash of his shield and continued forward. This time rather than cutting off another segment Eldarin impaled the next one, his blade still filled with electricity, albeit less at this point as the constant infusion of his blade was getting immensely draining. Still, he couldn't afford to let the beast regain its footing.

[CadenGallic]

The creature juddered as lightning laced its armoured form, taking a considerable amount of punishment from a single blow. The attack was so devastating, an entire three segments of the creature's centipede body broke off and simple died on the floor around them. Vane, meanwhile, picked up the slack and took out the one Eldarin had ignored. Enraged, the legion turned back to them and began swinging its dual blades at him swiftly, leaving the gaps in its armour exposed.

[Eklispe]

Thankfully the little bugger wasn't able to sneak in a blow at Eldarin, but it was of little relief, he had b bigger fish to fry. The Legion's attacks were fast and powerful, leaving Eldarin too focused on defense to take advanatge of the vunerable amour. That was what friends were for right? "Vane finish this bastard off!" With hardly more time to think, let alone speak, Eldarin clashed with the swords in a flurry of steel, giving ground slowly, whilst timing his own defense for maximum effectiness with the focus of someone in a life or death situation. Deflecting attacks to the side with his shield, stepping just a hair's breath to the side to dodge an otherwise fatal cleave, simply attempting to survive the onslaught of blows. He was drained of magic, doing anything else would risk permanant damage to his body and he was rapidly losing stamina as well, unable to keep his admirable defense for much longer. All he'd wanted was the damned key!

[CadenGallic]

The legion bore down upon him with the strength of 12 men, not as deft in its blows, but nonetheless, a threat unlike any other as it kept up the pressure. And it was Vane who ended their battle as the creature was so focused upon him, a gap between its helmet and its collar was exposed. In a wild whistle of victory, Vane's heavy blade swung through the air and beheaded the creature, helmeted head flying off and a spurt of golden ichor splattering upon its armour as its body wriggled and writhed, swaying backwards until finally it collapsed onto its front, as dead as can be and spilling its ichor upon the floor of the temple.

[Eklispe]

Eldarin staggered backwards and let his blade drop to the ground from his numb hands in utter exhaustion. That had been the most hellish fight he'd ever been in. "Good work Vane." He managed to pant out as he sank to the ground. The clink of disturbed bottles reminded him of the blood letting kit he had and how he'd drained pretty much everything he'd gotten from the wolf. No time to rest, he needed to fill up and get moving. It was probably best to get this kind of stuff fresh. For a moment he was sickened by what he was doing, collecting blood from a fallen monster to mantain his own condition and keeping as some sort of prize, literally feeding on the life of his dead enemy to sustain himself. But with a fierce shake of his head Eldarin continued with his grim purpose. He intended to get a drink for both himself and Vane and leaving with full bottles, as well that dratted key.

[CadenGallic]

"I found the key!" Vane called to him as he was completing his grim task, holding up the iron key with a certain sense of vigour. But this time, as Eldarin drained the blood, something snapped into his head... a vision began to play out before his eyes as the blood passed into the glass container.
He saw snapshots through the eyes of a soldier, a guard of this old temple, performing simple duties and protecting the place. He saw the guard captain, recognizable by his scimitars, barking orders at them and becoming increasingly stressed out with their job. Then, came the goblet of water... laced with the black ichor from the river he had seen. He felt the guard drink it and felt time pass as the effects took hold. The visions ended as he saw the entire troop being pulled into a singular being with the captain screaming about responsibility, the vision ending as flesh and steel became one.

[Eklispe]

Eldarin shook his head and stared at the blood. So. That was what happened. Eldarin'd had his suspicious but that was a rather abrupt and jarring confirmiration of them. Apparantly drinking from the river was truely a mistake, leading to fates like this, worse than death. Facing Vane he gave a half-hearted grin and a thumbs up. Now that the blood was drained Eldarin intended to take another drink and leave with his full bottles and the key so they could finally get out of here. They'd spent entirely too long here already. "Let's get going."

[CadenGallic]

"Agreed... I couldn't wash my hands of this place faster." It was smooth sailing back to the room from before as the rusted padlock fell away. Vane took the crank of the portcullis and twisted it with all his strength and a few grunts from under his helmet. The heavy iron door rose up slowly but surely, allowing them a proper view of the dirt path leading onward into what looked like a valley.

[Eklispe]

Eldarin exaimed the path. Well. He wasn't sure where they were going was any better, but the only real option they had was to keep moving forward. Shaking his head slightly Eldarin began walking down the path, keeping an eye out for an ideal spot to rest. That blood may have down wonders for healing his wounds and even restoring his fatigue to some extent, but he was still tired mentally at the very least, and more than ready to take a nap.