[IC] Knights of The Dawn Covenant: The Longest Winter

[Zelosse]

Bartuc kept silent after the fighting had ceased and let his thoughts run where they might. Every waking thought was of protecting Ruinil, of making sure they survived the war and found where they would fit in. His nightmare had shown him the curse of life with others who were unfamiliar to them, showed the distrust and hate he might have shown without the orders hand, and knew that the military life may yet serve them both. It would certainly appeal to the blood hungry fighter.
His thoughts came to a stop as they approached the Kest hive center and listened intently to the captains commands, once more placed upon the front lines to fight the masses with axe and hammer in the dance of destruction. Ruinil was sent to drop the vats and Bartuc knew she would be protected. His problem now was the kest in front not behind. Cythlla was first to take action as the doors opened to reveal the hideous cultist creature that loomed in front. His form was an assault on his being, on the fabric of truth and reality, and knew in his heart now that nothing would leave here alive if that was what it took. Cythlla summoned swarms of spirits that drifted amongst the group as they rushed into battle, his swords felt alive as the spirits of this long dead hell found revenge through him. They did not just infuse his weapons though, they infused him. Each soul that chose to enter his body added strength to his limbs and rage to his mind as it burned into him screaming vengeance.
With a battle cry he rushed forward, the rage seared his mind of any thought but the fight as it had a thousand times before, the essence of his love altered his form further as the demonic blood took hold. His eyes turned to the same bright crimson even as his limbs swelled up, a crimson fire spread over his chest and arms like an inferno. He hit the line of kest with a fury unknown.
The first stike of his hammer shattered the Chitenous hide of the insect like dry wood, shattering it to pieces and plunging them into its brain. His axe swung in a straight line across another warriors body that left a bright red line as the fire clung to its skin eliciting a screech. left and right, left and right, over and over his weapons struck its foes. His mind blocked out the pain as the sheer numbers of kest overwhelmed him but on and on he fought, blind to his bodies screams as he bled out from half a dozen shallow cuts.
In a frenzy he broke through the Kest line and into the center to be met with a grizzly sight. The Kest had formed a circle of snapping mandibles and claws as they fought to disobey the orders of their superior. The hive King stood in the circle and roared a challenge that Bartuc gladly met. Oblivious to the danger around him even as Argus dropped a vat of molten iron not so far away.

[Zetsuko]

When the groups finally reunited Marco and Landeel quickly recognized each other and exchanged a short greeting, but didn't say anymore to each other on the short trek to the main chamber. Shortly before the group had gotten there, however, Marco suddenly made for a different tunnel and turned to address the group "As much as i'd like to come and help you with the kest, i do have a task of my own to attend to. Good luck." With a short bow he vanished and headed up the tunnel.

---

Landeel didn't manage to get his sword back from Kaathe before they were upon the main chamber and Evelyn was giving orders to the group, sending some to tip vats of molten iron and some to hold the kest, he was among the latter group. He soon showed that he did not need his sword to be deadly, dropping into an exotic fighting stance and showing surprising agility given his armor he fought a kest hand-to-hand,blocking it's claws with his armored forearms and bringing a knee up into it's skull and using that moment to draw his shortsword and drive it into a weakspot under the things neck. resheathing his sword he saw that Bartuc had charged infront of the others and was surrounded. He cursed under his breath and rushed, dodging past a few kest to try and support his comrade. He didn't notice that Argus was prematurely dropping his vat of molten iron until it was to late. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was momentarily engulfed in the cascade of molten metal. His armor stood to dragonfire before, the heat was nothing, the openings for his eyes however were a problem. He burst out of the stream not to long later, his armor still covered in molten steel, screaming and flailing madly in an effort to keep the kest back and the metal from his eyes.

---

Marco for his part had ended up a different part of the ruin. He could hear the battle going on some distance away but he stayed away from it. Instead he continued to sneak around, the battle was keeping most of the kest from this area and what little he did come across he easily avoided. He was looking for archives, librarys, records, generally anything that would've held designs left behind by the dwarves. Anything useful he found he put into his pack, careful to tuck it in a way so that it wouldn't be seen. Better to just avoid the misunderstanding than explain it. He kept an eyes out as well for any more notes on the experiments that had been performed here, even taking the time to write his own observations and report.

[TheDarkTemplar]

The battle was a slaughter right from the beginning. Scores of kest charged at the knights only to be put down one after the other. Even with the knights' solid defense the kest were still proving to be a formidable foe. The horde pushed harder and harder at the main group, despite cythlla's enchantment the kest swarmed them like a powerful wave of flesh and razor sharp mandibles. It wasn't until the premature vat dump that the kest began to redirect their efforts. Now instead of sending stragglers after the vat team, a good portion of the horde began to head towards them. The combined screeches of the kest warriors echoed throughout the foundry chambers they hurried to put down the destroyers of their hive. As for the molten steel, it cascaded down to the level where most of the knights were currently engaged. Fortunately, the error in execution proved to be beneficial anyway as a good number of kest were killed as a result. Their bodies stacked atop another it began to form a mound which guided the molten steel towards the lower level where the Queen resided but it was not enough to touch her.

Evelyn saw the dumping of the vat and at first was agitated but bit her tongue upon realizing it was still effective. The horde had separated at this point and a smaller yet still large mass of kest had descended upon the vat group. "Cythlla! Do something to help the other group! The rest of you cover her while she casts her spell, once that's done we push forward!", Evelyn yelled her orders over the roar of battle before firing a chain of vicious lightening into the horde, carefully controlling it's arcs the lightening jumped rapidly from the kest closest to the front. So as to put some space between Cythlla and the enemy.

[OtomostheCrazy]

There were times where Kaathe would just have to wonder how things were the way they were. For instance, how he managed to stay alive while spacing out on the fact that he had just saved someone, even though he would've let them face the consequences of being underprepared before. It was dumb luck. Luck, as he had somehow managed to stay alive while they regrouped and fought the swarms of Kest. Dumb, in the fact that he had absolutely no idea as to what was going on now. From what he could tell, everyone was just fighting Kest, and that the groups were still separated in a sense. The Dark Elf had only come back to his senses once Cythlla's name was called out, and the order to protect her was given.

Kaathe looked around. Yes, nothing but more monsters to fight, and his allies fighting them. Kaathe sighed as he shook the rest of his idleness out of his body. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something rather strange. It was Landeel, madly running about. His armor was covered in molten iron, and he was flailing around. How he was able to still about was beyond Kaathe, but what really astounded him was the fact that someone over in the other group was apparently stupid enough to drop such a thing onto the Kest without checking if there was anyone below them first.

Pinching the mark on his forehead, Kaathe decided to help the poor fool out. It would take some effort, timing, and luck, but it would work if done correctly. If the armor was the thing protecting Landeel, then there would only be one spot that could possibly be affecting him, the eyes. The man's armor really only had one spot for molten metal to get, though if the man kept moving wildly, then it would seep through his armor's joints as well. In any case, Kaathe took a moment to wait, and then jumped into the air. He slung Landeel's greatsword toward him, allowing the force and spin to either cleave through or bash away any Kest that got in the way. The tip of the blade just barely mixed Landeel's head, and brushed away the melted metal that had previously threatened to burn him eyes first.

Landing on the ground, Kaathe took out his Crossbow again, and enchanted a bolt. He had a small competition to finish with his wood elf friend, after all. Defending Cythlla made things easier, as he could focus on that for his part.

[Cuccoruler]

Cythlla was in a bit of a daze from the last spell it wasn't untill she saw Kaathe that she remebered what Eleyvn had told her about starting up another support spell. "Um, Right, let me think." Cythlla said not quite sure as of what spell to use. "I think this may help. It should make you all far more accurate so you can get around the shells." Cythlla said as she rammed her shovel into the ground.

Henry did what he could to protect Cythlla from any damage but there were far too many of them for even him to protect. If he didn't get help from the others then Cythlla would fail in this spell.

If Cythlla finished this spell succesfully then rings of magic would appear over all of their weapons and handles. "Let these weapons be greedy for the blood of our enemies!" Cythlla yelled out as she finished her spell. The weapons that were enchanted would not have a blue tint to them as well as floating magic circles around them. Doing two enchantments at once was something that Cythlla rarely did with her magic.

The attacks from then on would do alot of damage, as they would hit the weakpoints of the targets. THe only issue with this spell would be that as long as their only enemy was the Kest all would be fine. However if one deemed their own as an enemy they could critcally wound an ally without even meaning too as the weapons were guided.

[Zetsuko]

Despite Landeel's flailing the molten metal was starting to seep into his helmet. He could no longer see what was going on around him, but a moment later he felt as something grazed the side of his helmet, just barely missing and taking enough of the molten steel of him that he could, somewhat hesitantly open one, he then saw that it was his own sword that had grazed him. It was laying on the floor just beside him, he had no idea how it got there but he was at least glad for it, he could thank whoever had recovered it later. He tipped his head forward in the momentary reprieve his sword had caused when it flew into him to get the steel away from his other eye, once there was no more danger of the steel slipping through he picked up his sword, unaware of Cythlla's spells on it as they died the moment he touched the weapon. With his sword in hand he got back into the fight with the kest, the remaining bit of red hot molten still that still covered part of his armor made it hard for the kest to touch him.

[TheDarkTemplar]

The hive's numbers were slowly starting to dwindle as the Templars fought on ever so valiantly. With the molten steel form one of the vats slowly making its way to the Queen, some kest sacrificed themselves to halt the flow, throwing themselves into the molten metal. Now not only were they being slaughtered by the knights, but they sacrificed their own numbers as well in a battle that was beginning to turn in favor of the intruders. The King saw that the situation was dire and so directed the remaining hybrids to protect the second vat while the other kest surrounded the Queen. The hive had gone on the defensive and now it seemed as though victory would be an ever harder goal to obtain.

Evelyn examined the battlefield, looking for some weakness in the kest ranks but found nothing too useful. It was when she looked up did she notice their salvation. The same pillars they'd fallen victim to before was now their key to victory as those beams of fragile rock now held up the ceiling above the lower level where the Queen laid in wait. "Even if we bury the Queen, the rest of the hive will either continue or attack or flee", Evelyn thought as she scanned for other options. It soon became clear that the entire chamber had these support beams but the question was how to use them effectively. For a moment it seemed as though whatever plan she had to incorporate the pillars was lost until the captain noticed a structure in the dark of the chamber's heights. Sealed valves, roughly the same size as the vat mouths and located just above the vats as well. Evelyn's eyes lit up as she had an epiphany, "Of course! This was a foundry! The above valves hold back molten steel in the upper chamber!", if the support pillars could be destroyed then they'd rain down molten steel on the Queen and the entire hive...The only problem was that they'd have to escape the chamber with a flood of fire chasing them in an underground cave network they barely understood which would most likely collapse as a result of such damage to the network.

"It's a chance we'll have to take then...", Evelyn thought before turning to the knights beside her. "Kaathe! Fire your crossbow bolts into those overhead support pillars! Once you hit each one, tell me and I'll cast a chain bolt on them!", the idea was to have Kaathe's bolts be planted in the pillars and once that's done the sheer energy from Evelyn's lightening would cause the bolts to explode, causing the pillars to shatter and release the lake of fire metal. This was going to be a close one...

[PrettyWalrus]

Aundair, Burke, Dana, and Somal pulled up hard on their horses just in front of the Kest hive. As a second thought, they had been sent in as some reinforcements to make sure that things didn't go awry. They all dismounted and strode to the edge of the cavern.
"Watch yourself in there, we don't know what has happened or what the state of our soldiers is." warned Somal.
Each of the soldiers drew their blades and leapt over the massive hole just inside the entrance. After about five minutes of descent, a cacophony of skittering raced towards the group. The kest swarmed toward them and they roared to meet the challenge. Blades rang against the creatures and the sound of battle echoed down the tunnel.
"Burke, I need you to..." Somal's request was drowned out as three kest ripped his axe from his hand and pulled him to the ground
"SOMAL!" screamed Burke, but the distraction was enough for him to be swarmed too. His screams were drowned out quickly as the skittering creatures turned to face the two remaining Initiates.
"FOR THE ORDER! FOR OUR BROTHERS!" they screamed in unison and charged the insect like creatures. Aundair leapt into the air and landed in the middle of them, his long steel neatly scything through the air and his short steel planting itself into the face of another. His sight grew dark with rage and he spun and slashed, a whirlwind of death. In moments there was a small circle of reprieve and and the kest sat just outside.
"Well!? What are you waiting for?! Fight me!" but the creatures just waited a moment before a piercing scream found its way through Aundair's grief and rage. He spun on his heel just in time to see Dana being dragged down the tunnel, bloody and barely conscious
"I have lost enough of my friends today, I will not lose another!" Aundair shouted and bounded after Dana only to find his way blocked by the kest
"Since when did these damn things use tactics?! Fine, have it your way!" Aundair lunged forward and whipped his blade through the air. In moments he had cleared the last few remaining kest stragglers from area and turned towards where Dana had been dragged, a trail of blood clearly lining out his path. He hesitated for merely a moment, considering the wounds he had sustained, and followed. He walked and walked until it became too dark to see. Up ahead, he saw a source of light and sped up to find it. The sounds of fighting became clear to his ear and he drew his blades. Stepping out into the cavern, Aundair saw the group of fighters that he was sent to reinforce. Torn by his sense of duty, he finally decided that he would help them, and hope that Dana had found her way free. If not, he would kill every single one of the creatures. Blades drawn, he roared and sprinted down to join the fray

[OtomostheCrazy]

Kaathe struggled to continue fighting in the battle. He had kept track of how many he killed, but for every kest he felled, several more came to fill its place. He had to use his crossbow sparingly, as there were scores more of the bugs than he had bolts to use. He had to rely mainly on his dagger and spear for this battle. If one were to look at him, they'd see that he was beginning to tire out. His breathing was hard, his body was shaking, and his attacks were gettong slower.

When he found a chance, Kaathe fell to one knee, and used his spear to support himself. Maybe fate truly did want him dead this time. He was forced to run alngside the horses all the way here, fell down a hole into a madman's abandoned laboratory, and was currently participating in a battle against a countless amount of Kest. Kaathe actually chuckled a bit at the situation. He somehow managed to make stupid mistakes, and now he had led himslef to an end with a bunch of people he only knew through rumors. It really was all useless to think that any amount of preparation would matter.

Then Evelynn shouted for him to do something. She was ordering him to shoot the pillars. He couldn't quite hear anythingelse, but he was given an order. He forced himself back onto his feet, and took hold of his crossbow. Using the rest of his bolts, Kaathe shot the bolts into the pillars, as told, and then fell to one knee again.

"Pillars are shot!" he exclaimed.

He found that his body and energy were so spent, that he had to ration what was left. He was forced to discard his spear and crossbow, as they would only add to the strain on his body. He now had to rely on his magic and his dagger. Problem was that he was running out of magic as well.

[Zelosse]

Bartuc roared as he charged the hulking Kest hive King, undaunted by the sheer size of its body. He came in low and leapt ahead of the swipe of claws and smashes his weapons into the nearest leg available, the enchantments from Cythlla helped the axe bite through its armor but not nearly as effectively as the other bugs. His hammer struck with an explosion of flames but merely scorches the same area.
Bartuc stifled a gasp of surprise as it kicked him away, the sheer force launched him within a few feet of the circling warrior Kest eager to taste his flesh.

With most of the kest focused on either the vat team or Bartuc's fight Landeel rather easily made it the rest of the way toward Bartuc, only needing to strike a few kest out of his way. He came up behind the kest forming the circle and shoved past them in time for Bartuc to come flying back into him, a few kest claw got burned when they tried to pull him back and they gave up. He caught the flying warrior and supported him back to his feet with a "well, hello" He then brought up his blade and stood beside him "He's big. I've fought bigger"

Bartuc shook his head as he ended up in the arms of the molten knight, which he assumed was Landeel by the way he seemed to not notice. Bartuc had similar protection on his own armor so neither were bothered by Bartuc's flaming silhouette or Landeel's molten shell.
"I've killed my share of bigger too," he stepped forward and reignited himself, "lets add one more eh?" With that he raced forward, long strides covered the distance in moments. The king screeched as it sensed the kill and smashed its limb down to crush the fiery intruder but the fighter proved elusive despite the gear, throwing his weight forward in a roll that put him to the right of the creature, rolling to his feet and hurling his axe.
The king swiveled its head and took the axe directly in the eye as it exploded with the fireball enchanted on it with enough force to stagger the creature. Bartuc roared as he smashed his hammer in both hands against its leg joints.
"Landeel! The vats! Lure it underneath!" He shouted, ducking under another colossal swing of the monsters arm.

Landeel wasn't far behind once Bartuc called for him to lure the Kest king under one of the vats, something that would be slightly easier if the king wasn't focused on Bartuc. First he had to get it's attention. While the creature was after Bartuc he saw a soft spot between it's chitin at the rear, He charged aiming his sword at the spot, the blade sinking in to the weakpoint. It served to make the thing angry, one of it's arms sweeping back to knock him away. Landeel ducked the first one but the second knocked him back, sending him tumbling for a second before he got his feet under him. At least now the king was advancing on him, he backed toward one of the vats while the king followed

[PrettyWalrus]

Aundair plunged into the hordes of keth, his blades dancing back and forth slashing the legs off of the creatures as he flew by. His advance was stopped by a keth warrior who plowed into him sending them both to the ground. Aundair rolled and came up in a kneeling position
"Let's dance, shall we?" Aundair offered. They both leapt forward and Aundair's long steel sliced off one of it's mandibles whilst his short steel embedded itself in the monstrosity's face.
He whipped back around to take a moment to survey the carnage and finally got a good look at the king. Aundair rocked back on his heels for a moment before more of the creatures showed up and he had more pressing matters to attend to. He flicked his blades up, smiled underneath his helm, and roared his defiance before the creatures met him.

[Cuccoruler]

Henry was in a rage, taking down Kest left and right. However this rage of him left him open to be attacked by others. Cythlla was doing her best to use some of the dead kest to fight back and help the others. It was starting to wane on her. After Eleyvn gave her order to Kaathe Cythlla realized how tired he was. A spark of worry was felt in her chest. She didn't want him to die here.

Cythlla approached Kaathe after he had finished firing his bolts. "You need to fall back. This is your best chance now. I-I can't watch you die here." Cythlla said to him a bit nervously. She didn't want Kaathe to die. She rationalized this though as him having some sort of use to her. "Please." Cythlla added knowing that Kaathe may try to be stubborn about this. Cythlla herself was a bit exhausted, almost out of her magic reserves at this point.

[TheDarkTemplar]

Karl's rage fueled his savage strikes against the monstrous insectoids. One after another he tore into them with everything he had and after some time he managed to put some space between his group and he kest. However this would not last as the kest pushed back even harder, trying desperately to preserve their hive and destroy the invaders. Karl had no choice but to fall back to the line and defend the entrance group. There he saw a battle worn Kaathe knelt on the groud with a worried Cythlla looking on. Karl hurried over the Cythlla, dragging Kaathe with him after grabbing him on the way back. "They will not have us yet!", he roared as he dropped Kaathe by Cythlla. "They shall not be the end of you! Not while I yet stand!", again he roared against the enemy before standing beside Henry, assisting in pushing back the Kest.

The situation was truly dire as the group had become scattered across the ancient foundry. Ruinil, Argus, and Glodin were pinned behind a number of kest by the vat. Bartuc and Landeel had gone far behind enemy lines in combat with the king. All that remained at the entrance was Evelyn, Kaathe, Karl, Cythlla, and Henry. The Knight-Captain, instead of growing weary from constant battle, seemed to have gained a second wind as her fighting had become intensified. Her blade cut deeper into kest flesh, pierced further through their chitinous hides, and her magic scorched the ranks in larger number. Even with all this strength she was in fact weakened. Her magicka reserves were nearing its end and she knew that if this plan didn't succeed now then it would mean the end of herself and the brave souls who followed her into this hell.

It was when Kaathe finished planting the bolts into the pillars that Evelyn had a split second to decide. Destroying all the pillars would effectively kill the Queen but it was likely that the knights further in the foundry would die as well. The other option was to destroy only the pillars above the Queen, again she'd die but thy still left an entire Kest horde to deal with. Evelyn knew what must be done, and she only hoped that she wouldn't come to regret her decision. At the top of her lungs the captain screamed out to her forward knights, "FALL BACK TO THE ENTRANCE! NOW!". That was the only warning she could give, what had to be done must be executed now or else all was lost. Evelyn focused all the arcane energy in her body into a single powerful electromantic cast, much like at Starguard. With a cry she released the innumerable bolts of lightning at the pillars above the Queen then turned the lightening towards the remaining vat, superheating it until it became molten like it's contents. The foundry ceiling caved in, raining liquid fire into the lower levels of the foundry where the Kest Queen laid. A monstrous scream was released once all if it emptied into that pit. The Queen was dead and all that remained was the king and his followers which were being melted down by the second vat spilling out onto the ground level.

The aftermath of such power was a foundry with a lake of fire and the rest of the room was split in two by a river of molten steel. On one side was Bartuc and Landeel who were left to battle the king standing before the lake of fire. On the other side stood the rest of the company. As for Evelyn, he captain had once again exhausted her magicka reserves and was now on the brink of collapse, as she lay on the bloodstained ground all she could see was he battle raging on as the last of the kest burned away. Some small number, about thirty, remained while the king was left alone to defend the ruins of his kingdom.

[Zelosse]

Marcus fired over and over into the wall of Kest with his pistol to deadly effect as it burned a smoldering hole of black and red flesh wherever the beam hit home. He deftly altered the runes on the firing mechanism and switched to a powerful burst shot as he waded into the fight, his first shot tore the upper torso off a Kest warrior and turned the creature to dust at such a close range. The barrel smoked and hissed an angry red as it cooled down from its devastating capabilities.
Marcus worked on the front of the lines keeping any one side from being overrun by the filthy creatures and pulling in anyone who got too far away from the main body. He failed to get Bartuc from charging forward and Landeel was beyond Saving as the warriors rushed them back.

Finally Val gave the order to drop the foundry and Marcus found himself with a dilemma, as the order would effectively leave the two fighters alone with the king with no way out. Fire protection or not they would be burned alive from the sheer heat radiating off the molten slag.
A rookie roared to his gods and prayed for his fallen and ran in, likely the last of a surviving group of reinforcements, and ran forward to follow in his wake. The initiate was clearly skilled, undaunted by the monsters he faced and graceful in his killing strikes despite the clumsiness of his footwork.
On time the initiate would be a powerful force to reckon with if he made it alive.
Marcus heard the order for the steel to flow and grabbed the man by the collar and pulled with all his might, free hand loosing bolt after bolt of concentrated death into the rushing creatures. In the last few feet it was clear they could not outrun the raining metal and tossed the initiate forward as another member of the group took hold and pulled the man further from the steel.
Marcus managed to make it out with just the hem of his robes aflame and praised his lucky stars silently for the favor.

But time was wasting and Marcus needed to be swift. Deliberately he snatched the crossbow Kaathe had dropped and yanked a bolt from the nearby corpses. He had one shot and it needed to count!
Marcus reached into his coat and pulled out a scroll he had used to transport Glodin and himself here. The sister scroll was still at the forge. Marcus took out a different scroll and slammed it onto a nearby wall. Bartuc and Landeel might have been on his list but they fought for the order with every ounce of strength.
Marcus tied the scroll to the shaft and took aim. The battle raged on as the king fought to destroy the invaders.
FWOOMP the bolt flew straight and true to slam into the wall. The scroll came undone as it struck the wall and unraveled, sliding down and sticking to the wall as it snagged on a bit of degree. The runes swirled to life on both scrolls as it shimmered into reality. A portal for them to escape.

[PrettyWalrus]

Aundair was grabbed from behind and yanked away from the molten steel. Stumbling and reeling, he was dragged further and further away by the back of his cloak until he managed to get to his feet and followed the other soldiers back to the entrance of the tunnel. He released the clasp on his helm and pulled his face plate up.
"Out of the frying pan and whatnot. Now I do have a couple questions. Let's start with what the hell just happened. Next i will probably follow that up with what about those two that we left in there. And to top it all off, assuming of course that you were the group that we were sent in to reinforce so you would know," his smiling face suddenly became hard and angry. "how many more of these things do I get to kill? They slaughtered two of my friends and dragged another into the tunnels." He straightened and sheathed his swords, easier to run with. "The name's Aundair by the way. Who do I have the honor to be in the company of?" His face slackened from his anger, but worry lines still creased his face.
As he scanned the faces he started to recognize some of warriors in front of him and his jaw dropped. "I.... what... you...." He reached up to scratch his head and tripped the coil holding his face mask up. The plate of metal swung back down and clanked into place, surprising the younger man and making him squeak.
"I.. Uh.. I meant to do that"

[Ace of flames01]

Ruinil had remained in a deadlock with the kest in for what felt like an eternity. Half of her face was covered with minor burns from her opponents acidic saliva, and she was starting to tire.

It was then that Ruinil had heard Evelyn's orders to flee. Unfortunately, by the time Ruinil had reacted; it was too late.

In an effort to escape, Ruinil tried to cast her opponent ablaze. However, her concentration was broken by the explosion, resulting in a failure of the spell. If Ruinil was human, the after effect would have been fatal.

With the failure of the spell, brought a large explosion, engulfing both Ruinil and the kest, along with the entire hallway, in a blaze of hellfire. With the warrior dead, Ruinil had noticed the king and Bartuc, Landeel, and the newcomer. She made her way to the vat above the King and used all her strength to tip the vat above it, holding back her screams as her hands burned from the heat of the vat. White, hot steel poured out of the vat and onto the King, encasing it in a liquid fire shell. Ruinil was breathing heavily as she backed away into the shadows and smoke. She let out a scream of terror as the hallway collapsed. Seemingly killing her under the rubble.

Thankfully, Ruinil managed to escape after the warrior had burned to death, but still managing to escape to a nearby room before the ceiling caved in. Unfortunately, she didn't make it unscathed, as she had received a blow to the head, leaving a gash in her head and a concussion, causing blood to splatter on the ground and drip down her face and neck; as well as temporarily severing the bond between her and Bartuc.

The room Ruinil had entered had seemed untouched by the kests. It appeared to be an armory of sorts, as she had noticed several suits of armor and weapons, both stacked in wooden crates and hung neatly on the wall.

Ruinil sat herself against a wall and decided to rest a bit. Her head started to throb as fragments of memories appeared once more. "That blow to the head may have just been what I needed to retrieve my lost memories...." She groaned chuckling slightly. In the end, Ruinil had decided to stay put for now, or at least until her body had healed enough for her to move properly.

Some of the minor injuries were doing just that, as they were sizzling shut, causing smoke to emanate from her body. "One of the perks of being a half demon I guess..." She winced.

[Zetsuko]

Marco had gotten just about everything he could from this ruin, that and the wails of the kest queen told him it was about time to get out of there. He turned to head back through the caves, having pilfered a decent amount of scrolls and designs and securing them in his pack to be sent with a courier the moment he returned to Thanermere. On his way, however, he heard screams of pain and the sounds of a struggle nearby. Heading in that direction he came around a corner to the scene just as a disembodied human arm came flying past his head, the rest of said arm's body was currently in the middle of three kest warriors kicking and clawing against her attackers. One of the merciless creatures turned to Marco as he walked in and drew his axe, alerting the other two to his presence and the three kest left their victim to advance upon him. Marco stood ready with his axe...and then vanished, leaving the kest to glance around in confusion for a mere moment before he reappeared, his axe driving up into one of the kest's skulls, splitting it in two. The other two warriors were dealt with in the same fashion, Marco vanished and reappeared close enough to strike at their heads. Once they were dead he turned his attention to the poor initiate lying on the floor. The poor girl was missing both of her eyes, her right arm was gone, and one of her legs was held on by only a single strip of flesh and that was barring all the gashes and cuts left by the creatures' claws. The amount of injuries she had was beyond healing, she wouldn't even make it out of the cave. As Marco approached she weakly held up her remaining arm to defend herself, He took her hand in his as she sputtered pleas for mercy or help through all the blood she was coughing up. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as the blade in his gauntlet extended "It will all be over soon..." was all he could say before driving the blade into her heart, ending her pain.

with the deed done he retracted the blade and placed her hand over her chest before standing up and turning away from the body, continuing on through the caves.

---

As the molten steel buried the queen the king looked in her direction and let out a wail of his own, turning back to Landeel in a fury claws swinging madly in his direction as Landeel stumbled back as the ceiling caved in on the place. The molten content of Ruinil's vat cascaded down onto the king at that moment and the massive creature, burning with both rage and fire, went into a frenzy, desperately flailing it's arms in an effort to take one of it's attackers down with it.

Landeel rolled away from the flailing beast only to find that he and Bartuc were cut off from escape by a river of the molten material. Until Marcus' bolt passed by him and stuck to a wall, opening it's portal. Seeing as the king's flailing was sending molten steel flying around it and it was crashing into some of the other support on that side of the molten river they needed to most quickly. Landeel rushed over and grabbed Bartuc, tossing him through the portal and following through soon after. The portal fizzled out and collapsed on itself when he did.

[ShaggyDoo0]

When Glodin finished with the levers and tried to return to the group, he was met with a wall of kest blocking his way. He held his own fighting in the doorway of that small control room for a while, until everything seemed to go wrong from his perspective. Explosions, the vats separating the group, ceilings caving in. He liked none of it but it pulled the few remaining kest he was fighting away from him to help protect the kest royalty. Glodin ran to the vats as it was the only place he could go with the molten steel advancing tword him. He met up with Argus just as the half-elven lass seemed to explode herself to deal with the kest around her.

Glodin's mind went numb with the thoughts of death, not just his but his comrades also. Making a quick decision, he he grabbed Argus and turned him to face the hole left by Ruinil's explosion. He motioned for his fellow dwarf to follow him as he charged into a hole too small for a kest to fit through but just large enough for him. He managed to squeeze into the other room only to stumble into an armor stand with a loud clang, just a few feet away from Ruinil.

[boomlover]

The explosion shook Argus from his rage. He saw the chaos all around him. He then saw to his horror Landeel. Who was completly coverd in molten steel. He wanted tosay something do something. But he just looked at him. Then Goldin grabbed him and showed him a way to escape. Argus nodded and folowed Goldin. As he entered the hole he could see they had ran into an armoury. He wanted to slow down but failed and crashed into Goldin. Whi he himself had crashed into an armour stand. The first thing Argus did was walk to the small hole and collapsed the ceiling above it. He did this to make sure no Kest would try and attack them. He then noticed Ruinil." I hope you aren't to banged uo my lady." He then inspected the armoury. After a few minuets of looking around he realized they where in one of the three armories of the outpost. Now only if he knew which armory it was. He then looked at Goldin." Brother do you have any idea in Which armoury we are right now?"@ShaggyDoo0

[Ace of flames01]

Ruinil heard the 2 dwarves loudly enter the armory and was slightly startled at first, grabbing her sword firmly, but quickly released upon realizing that the intruders were actually her allies. She sighed with relief, "Thank the gods it's just you 2... For a moment there I thought... I almost decapitated the both of you..." She chuckled softly then winced from a sudden pang of pain.

Ruinil got to her feet and limped over to the 2 dwarves, leaving a steady trail of smoke behind her as her body continued to heal itself. The burns and blood had essentially blinded her, so she had to rely on her hearing and touch. Upon making her way across the room she tripped on a crack in the flooring, causing her to collapse onto the ground.

"Damn...!" She hissed angrily. "Why in the 7 hells is there a huge crack in the floor?!" She was about to take her anger out on the floor but stopped when she felt the tile sink into the ground underneath the pressure of her hand.

Upon further examination, Ruinil realized that there was a secret compartment underneath the tile. She lifted the tile and felt a wooden crate covered in dirt and dust. Ruinil pulled out the crate. It was heavy and Ruinil could hear a faint clanging of metal inside. She winced as some of the blisters and burns opened up, blood dripped from her hands.

Ruinil placed the box on the ground and gesture Argus and Glodin to come forward. "Come here... I think I may have found something interesting... Could you tell me what's inside this crate?" She replied her voice was soft. "I think it's a suit of armor... Alas... I am not certain..."