Elendra — Roleplayer Guild

Even as the slaughter of the slow thralls raged on inside the now collapsing building, a different fight entirely unfolded outside. With the first two officers dead, Gavriil had forced himself to stop firing after a moments pause, glaring down at the wisp that screamed and writhed across the heart of the gun. He spat the next words in perfect Russian. <”I felt that, once-man. I will find a way to bring even more pain upon you if you ever take away control again.”> The only response was the wail that grew even louder as if to spite the large man.

It wasn’t pleasant.

However, there was something that he needed to finish, even if he hadn’t started. He glared down through the sights once more, focusing on one of the policemen who was attempting to sneak into cover. Gavriil pulled the trigger once more, planning to add yet another man to the growing list of collateral damage, but unlike his prior shots, this wasn’t a one shot one kill situation. The man was hit, and put back where he started, but now bleeding greatly. More police were on their way, he could hear so much. They’d still be at least an hour, but they needed to all be gone by then.

As Jacob rushed back to the ambush group, he eyed his blade strangely. What had compelled such a look of dread within Eshna's very eyes? Nonetheless, as he regained contact with his group, he settled in next to Angus and Jagred. Gavriil was no doubt settled in the second story of one of the surrounding buildings.

"Alright, Eshna and the rest of them are in. It shouldn't be too long now..." He paused, faintly hearing several loud commotions in the distance.

"Doesn't that sound like...shit, sirens. Lets hope Gavriil caught onto them by now." Dammit, Dann. He cursed in his thoughts, certainly they'd been tracked into Bodie following the destruction of an entire gas station.

Angus sat still with widened eyes, head tilted to listen to the sirens. He’d always had a healthy fear and respect for law enforcement, and he’d just recently helped someone try to hide a body, so his conclusion was that they must be after him. As he turned to say something to his companions, Angus heard a gunshot from Gavriil’s direction, then shouting from the police. He cursed under his breath for a few seconds, then came the noises and a bloom of orange light from the mining facility.

“Shit, guys, looks like they got into some trouble. I’m going to help.” Angus’s voice was clearly full of panic, and he gave Jacob and Jagred no chance to respond before he sprinted off toward the new light, away from the cops. Whatever the hell was going on up there, it would surely be better than dealing with the police.

"Fuck!" Jacob cursed under his breath, sprinting after Angus.

The fiery glow emanating from the building was surely a bad sign, just as another building looked as if it had partially caved in. He could see two figures on fire a short distance away, and sounds of yelling and banging about were heard inside the buildings.

Lucky winced as he felt...something...leave him, and watched as the ceiling collapsed in front of him, leaving Lucky and Dann safe. For now. Lucky rubbed his arms slightly feeling a shiver. Whatever he had just done, it seemed like it caused things to fall apart. My natural state, I guess, he thought.

“Well then, I don’t know about you, but hearing the police outside, I’d rather face them than get destroyed by some undead things.” Lucky muttered still staring at the collapse. Turning, he faced Dann. “Come on. Let’s get away from this hellhole, and go help Gavriil. Hey, maybe we can take some of the guns I’m hearing going off.”

Dann took a deep breath as they were outside, both to catch his breath and to refresh his taste from the stale air inside the mine. While the mine’s sudden collapse was a boon, Dann didn’t like that it blocked off another entrance. If things progressed steadily at this pace, they’d block down all the entrances to the mine before they recover the relic. Which was not a problem if their mission was only to prevent the giants from finding it.

He glanced at Lucky, who had seemingly tripped and fallen on his way out of the mine, and gave the latter a look as if he was a look of contempt that lasted for a moment. “That didn’t solve any…” He started before he blinked in realization. “No, wait, yeah, this might be helpful.”

Dann looked at Lucky again, who had now pulled himself up, ”Let’s go find the others and see if we can get the police to help us with the madmen trouble.”

Lucky shrugged. “I don’t know about getting them to help, but maybe if we direct those...things away towards them, then we can sit back and watch, and take care of whoever’s left. Fancy making a bet on it?”

“Then that’s them helping us either way, what kind of bet do you want?” Dann said. “That they’d cooperate to get us instead?”

”More like betting on which ones come out alive. We know it’s a win-win for us, we can just through some more excitement into the mix.”

Jacob, now having caught up with Angus, his sword was drawn and he approached what looked like Eshna in conflict with one of the forest rangers, both aflame. Just as Eshna charged back inside, he motioned to Angus.

"Well let's go in, then! The rest of them could be inside, they'll need help." He took to the opening in the wall Eshna had made, the room ahead of him burning up in flames.

Suddenly, Lucky and Dann saw yet another thrall come crashing through the wall, headed straight for them, holding a pickaxe in its hands as a weapon. Part of its face had been torn away by the wall it had just jumped through, and through the bleeding holes the former ranger’s brain was visible, skull fragments also chipped away from other fights it had been in. It pulled back the pick to swing, and the metal head of it flew off backwards and upwards, through a window and into the room adjacent to where Soraya is, causing the burning floor collapse to increase in speed, forcing her deeper into the structure lest she risk death.

”Actually, cancel that.” Lucky took a few steps back, pulling Dann with him, “my suggestion for this is leading this guy to the police for round one. Here, try to look as delicious as possible. Maybe we can get him to follow you. Ready t--”

Lucky didn’t have time to finish speaking, as a sudden crack of the pickaxe handle against his ribs sent him sprawling to the side and into the snow. His body lay sprawled upon the ground, a poor sight to see, and he obviously wasn’t going to be moving on his own soon. The thrall, as it so easily batted Lucky, quickly found its footing gone. It slipped upon the ground which had seemingly become a bit of ice instead of snow beneath it, causing the berserker to crash into the ground, but leaving Dann still standing.

Dann cursed on his lapse of judgement as the thrall bursted out of the building and hit Lucky resulting with a loud crack and sending the demigod sprawling on the snow. Fortunately, the thrall slipped off its footing and crashed into the ground. Thinking quickly, Dann drew out his knife and used it to try to impale the thrall’s stretched hand into the snow by throwing it. The knife hit its target true, but not with enough force to impale it upon the ground. Dann then went over to Lucky’s prone body, and having failed to be able to lift him to carry him away, started to drag him by the closest limbs that could be reached. Afterward, he moved, as quickly as he was able, towards the last place he knew where the distraction group were.

The pain was nearly indescribable. Lucky’s body was not in any state to be suddenly yanked along the ground, and he could feel shards of bone in his torso jumble around, causing further damage to him. He should have passed out, but he was still lucid, and he could tell that he was bleeding internally. If someone didn’t do something, something helpful rather, he was likely to die, out here in the snow.

Dann stopped dragging Lucky upon hearing the man’s pained mumbling, realizing that his wound was worse than he thought, a lot worse. He looked between his downed ally and the thrall..

”God fucking damnit. I really need to shut my trap sometimes...”Lucky coughed slightly, feeling the pain rolling through him. “Leave me here for now. Agh. Eshna. Get Eshna. The healing stuff worked last time...”Lucky felt his head roll back, and kept an iron grip on his consciousness. In his mind, he made a small prayer. Not something he’d ever done before, but the circumstances called for it. Odin, look, I know I’m not exactly the best of sons, but I ain’t the worst either. Hopefully. so if I can just hold on for a few more minutes, that’d be great. I’ll make sure to get you a hekatomb later…

So far, their planned seemed like a good one. Some would proceed into the mines to draw their enemies out, while he and three others would wait outside for an ambush. Knowing full-well his own affinity for stealth, or rather lack thereof, Jagred simply acknowledged his role with a subtle nod, then moved into cover behind one of the many ruined houses in the area. There was nothing left but to wait, and so he did, eyes trailed on where their companions had entered the mine. However, the sirens soon shook him out of his trance, and he jerked his head up in response, axe clutched tightly in pale fingers. Then the gunshot sounded, which didn’t really make the whole situation feel less shitty. They have destroyed an entire gas station, left a blood trail at the ranger station with its whole staff missing and just now shot at the police. Soon enough, reinforcement would come in, if they hadn’t already, then they would be stuck between a mine full of frost giants and officers with guns. One hell of a fight, it seemed. The thought didn’t bother him as much as he would’ve liked though.

When Angus got up and ran toward the burning building, followed suit by Jacob, Jagred frowned, torn between staying to fight the police and running after them to help their friends. After a few moments, he decided, and rushed toward the building. But just as he was finding the entrance, some figure in the distance caught his eyes. It was Dann. As Jagred drew closer, he noticed the mess. Lucky was on the ground, injured while Dann was trying to drag him along. Without thinking, Jagred lifted his axe and went for the thrall, a seemingly easy target at the moment.

And an easy target it was. The thrall was still pulling itself up when Jagred began to charge at it, and as it pulled the blade from its hand to throw at Dann, it quickly found itself sans most of his head. Striking true and striking with precision, Jagred swung the axe and cleaved straight through the already weakened skull of thrall, lobbing the top half of its head away from the rest of it, as its body fell limp to the ground. Brain, bone, and blood splattered on the snow, as the top half managed to land about half the distance between Jagred and Lucky. It was a strange sensation, and Jagred could feel his necklace almost pulse with a strangely comforting heartbeat as he slew the thrall. Perhaps there was more to the item than ripping his head off for misbehaving. Regardless, that was one thrall down, for good.

Angus arrived just in time to see everything, the thrall charging and taking Lucky down, then Jagred taking it down in one blow. He knew he could do nothing for the injured man, so he instead turned his attention on the burning building and pulled his shield off his back, readying it on his left arm as quickly as he could. There were two thralls trying to climb the burning walls, apparently aiming to get to the second floor. Putting two and two together, Angus figured that there must be someone up there that the thralls were trying to get to. Still running on a full tank of panic, Angus took no time to think about the danger to himself and sprinted toward the thralls. He felt a surge of wind envelope him and speed him along, knowing instinctively that this is one of his powers as the son of a god. Using the full momentum of his supernaturally aided running, Angus winds back his left arm and slams it forward, rim first, into the head of one of the thralls trying to climb the wall.

There is no kill, like overkill. Angus’s blow to the back of the head of the thrall simply burst the head upon the wall. Unfortunately, the wall didn’t stand the blow much better than the thrall, bursting into the building, and causing the ceiling to come collapsing down around him, crushing down on the other thrall as well. The pure speed and momentum of Angus’ charge was not yet spent, and with the thrall’s limp, lifeless body dragged behind him, Angus charged through yet a second wall and into another thrall he had not even been aware was present.

All was not well because of this, and with multiple walls collapsing beneath the weight of the building, and other supports burning in the fire, Soraya found the floor beneath her very feet suddenly gone. With expert dexterity, she managed to jump across falling debris to avoid landing in a rather dangerous pile of rubble and fire, instead landing on her feet safely still on the second floor. As the groaning of the building seemed to stop, it was instead replaced with a horrible rumble. The entire quarter of the building that everyone had previously been fighting within had begun to simply fall in on itself. Metal tore and wood splintered as Eshna too found herself and her thrall foe being engulfed by the structure.

Mere moments upon Jacob's entrance into the cryptic wooden structure, and thing's were already falling apart. Trying to locate Eshna, the sound of wood buckling and splintering overwhelmed the sound of crackling fires. It was Angus, crashing through several walls with his shield as the building began to give way. Fortunately, Jacob was able to get out of the way of the collapse before it crushed him beneath it. Unfortunately, he knew that Eshna was further inside of the building, and was not likely to be so lucky.

The night air was deathly cold, the snow just as much, and his opiate withdrawals contributed to the hot sweat that layered his face and body. Looking around, all he could hear was gunshots in the distance coupled with ringing ears. He saw Dann struggling to help an injured Lucky down the way, the rest were probably inside. He wasn't about to go shouting for help, because at this point he basically was the help. Cursing under his breath he dove into the burning, crumbling building, heaving up what broken up pieces of wood and debris he could.

"Eshna! Soraya! Where are you guys!?" He shouted, all the while climbing over piles of rubble, brushing off and shoving what he could to and fro.

The peculiar propensity to beating up the neighborhood boys was evidently a godsend (quite literally) under the pressure of flaming rubble. With minimal effort, Eshna could at least stand herself up from underneath it all, lifting countless beams and flooring onto her head and shoulders. Her exit wasn’t clear, but she was a bit more comfortable than simply being prone on the ground, and could begin to shuffle out from the burning mess. Ultimately though it seemed her divine blood could only get her so far, and the heaviness began to takes its toll. Even from within the crackling fires and shifting materials, she could distinctly hear Jacob calling out.

“Over here!” Eshna cried, trying her best to move around the rubble and get his attention with its movement.

A sigh of relief came over him as he heard someone call out. His heart nearly sunk and he feared the worst when he witnessed the collapse. Just barely managing to make out Eshna's figure on the other side of a burning pile of rubble, he began haphazardly crawling over splintering wood and metal straps and other debris. After a few physically stressful moments of nearly crashing through said pile of debris, he met up with his teammate on the other side. Covered in splinters, cuts and scratches, his body embracing the warmth of burning debris was at least a better feeling than the windy cold from outside.

"Lucky and Dann are outside," He stated, "Lucky's injured, he may need your help. If there's an exit nearby, you'll find him and Dann just outside. I'll try and find the rest, where did you last see Soraya?" He hurriedly asked, his heart pumping fast.

Pushing off the last bit of troublesome wood and debris from her shoulders, Eshna twisted her back a few times and patted her arms and legs down, checking for wounds. Looking skyward, she threw a quick finger towards the second floor.

“She’s probably still up on the second floor where I threw her. Hopefully she didn’t fall down. Try checking there, if you can,” she stated. Immune to fire as she was, Eshna still had trouble seeing in the brightness of the growing inferno. She checked for the closest way out before starting off to it. “I’ll see if I can help Lucky then, good luck and be safe,” she said, practically with sarcasm.

Jacob responded with only a nod in her direction as he surveyed the wrecked interior of the room he was in. It's purpose would've been unrecognizable at this point, and he wouldn't even know where to go to find stairs or otherwise a way up to the second floor.

An enormous cloud of suffocating dust rose up around Soraya and filled her eyes and lungs. She coughed hard and squinted, her eyes tearing up as she struggled to see. She could hear quite clearly floors and walls toppling over and crumbling on the ground, and distantly there were gunshots and shouts. Through her feet she felt the floor slipping from beneath her and instinct guided her as she ran away from the danger.

She paused for a moment when the floor was sturdy, but through the thick dust cloud that was gradually settling she saw two figures charging toward her. Just as she spun around to run, she saw a third figure, moving quickly and with great determination. She still ran. With her back turned, she heard a terrible crunching -- presumably of bone and flesh -- and smashing of walls. Again she felt the floor move and drop, but it was worse this time. The walls were coming down too. She moved, again with instinct, to the safest spot she could find with her feet. She kept her center of gravity low, and her weight was distributed evenly across her flattened feet.

“Soraya!” There was more to the shout, but all she could make out was her own name. She could recognize the voice, even though she’d only heard it briefly before. “Jacob! Jacob is that you?” she hollered as loudly as she could, more dust floating into her mouth. She hacked it out as much as she could.

She crept slowly and carefully towards the voice, hoping to keep her footing as she tried to climb down back to the first floor.

With no small amount of grace, Soraya was able to make her way back down to the first floor, from where she was upon the second. She recognized the area immediately, as where the elevator was when the thralls--

Then there was the sound of the elevator hitting the top, a dreadful noise not for its own sound which had become far more menacing after the disruption of normal function due to the interior of the elevator being torn asunder by thralls, but also for the fact that it meant certainly that more danger was upon her, and the others. The outer doors opened, grinding maliciously to reveal a lone figure.

Her form was covered in rags, and every inch of her visible flesh seemed scarred. Her hair was torn at different lengths, and missing from handfuls of her skull, and her eyes were crazed. In her hand, she held dagger, that appeared to be on a long chain wrapped around her wrist. Soraya knew exactly what this was, although she couldn’t say who the girl in the elevator was for certain. But she knew what she must be, and it wasn’t a mere thrall, this girl had been a demigod as she was before her mind and body were broken and turned towards the service of evil.

Dazed and slow, either the last bastion of her will trying to hold herself back, or as the result of too many head injuries, the demigod girl blankly glanced off, looking at but through Soraya her eyes in a glazed expression. There was a tangible pulse around her form, and her gaze became sharper, focused on Soraya, and her fists clenched around her weapon as her body became tense, and she took to battle.

Soraya dropped to the ground just in time to notice the sound that had occupied the back of her mind while she climbed. It was the elevator. Her breath caught hard in her throat, and her heart pumped a little quicker. She was frozen as she watched the elevator doors slide open loudly, almost painfully so. The sight revealed behind them sent Soraya’s heart a beat ahead.

Soraya noticed the woman’s hand tighten on the dagger, and there was no time to think. All she had on her person was the werewolf’s hide, and the torches she’d made earlier -- they couldn’t stand up to a dagger for long. She threw one at the woman and ran, knowing that she didn’t have the weaponry she needed to take her down herself. If she had to, she would use the remaining torches as batons, and pray to the gods for help.

She used the memory of Jacob’s voice to try to find him. She didn’t know who else would be in here.

The torch bounced against the side of the elevator without even passing through the threshold into the box, as the corrupted demigod lunged out almost blindly. Through fire and smoke, she darted forward, missing Soraya completely. Unlike the other thralls who would crash after a miss like this, Soraya heard no crash or tumble, and a quick glance backwards revealed that the demigod had planted her feet on the wall... and was now running along it behind her.

Chased by the monstrosity, Soraya dashed down a hall back into more heavily damaged and burning regions of the structure, dipping and diving under fallen crossbeams and wreckage as she was running. Every time she looked behind her, she swore that she was losing the demigod thrall, until she slipped into a side room discretely to catch her breath. There was only the sound of a crumbling building and fire around her, and she had to keep low to avoid breathing in too much smoke.

With lightning reaction, she was able to dodge as striking out through the smog came the dagger on the chain rope, lodged into the wall where her head once was. Her hiding spot wasn’t working, and she began to move again, as the blade was pulled out of the wall and went flying back into obscurity. She vaguely remembered where she was from the room she had left before hiding, knew the way out now, but it would require crossing the flame filled room with the hunting threat lurking within it.

With her options growing narrower every second, Soraya could almost give way to panic. Her instincts were begging her to run for the escape, but the rational side of her knew that was very risky. She didn’t have very long to make a decision. She said a quick, silent prayer, and used her current momentum to keep going as fast as her legs would take her. She hoped to take as complicated a route as she could manage, to maximize her cover and minimize the horrifying creature’s ability to follow on her heels. It was terrifying to know that she had lost sight of her enemy, but Soraya tried to calm the rising fear in her chest. She hadn’t found any of her companions, and she feared that she had just imagined the call. Perhaps they had ran to escape. After all, their plan couldn’t have gone any more wrong. Or maybe they had been … No, she would not think of that.

Taking her chances, Soraya dove back into the room, and into a strike to her chest. Toppling over, Soraya saw the figure almost shimmer as it became visible amongst the smoke again, the knife in its hand ready to strike down at her. But, there was a delay, a moment of hesitation, and that’s all that Soraya needed. Running on empty lungs, she scrambled to her feet and into the smoke, trying to maintain a fast pace as her chest burned for breath. She inhaled, sharply, unable to withstand her urge after having the wind knocked out of her, and took to coughing and choking as she got clear of the smoke, and stumbled out of the building and into the snow.

Coughing and kneeling on the ground, she could see that her companions were okay, for the most part. What she couldn’t see was the look on the face of any who turned towards her. Confused, she looked down, and gasped silently. The strike to her chest she took that brought her down wasn’t a blunt strike as it had felt in the moment. She was bleeding, from where something sharp, the knife, had managed to pierce the werewolf hide she was cloaked in. On the snow beneath her, was a growing slosh of red melting into the white, becoming just the slightest bit pink.

Dann had left Lucky to Eshna’s care before heading towards the sirens. He stopped halfway after hearing the periodic noise of shooting that came from Gavrill’s last known position. Dann would have to coordinate with the hardly-trying-to-cooperate man if he wanted to bait the cops in. Being shot at all the time would make things harder to get the cops against the thralls. Although he cancelled his plan upon realizing that there were only two standing cops.

Angus heard the rumbling collapse spreading throughout the facility as he crashed through the wall, but he didn’t bother himself with petty details such as the building falling down around his head. He had important things to think about, like breaking more heads. One was very close at hand, a thrall that he had just crashed into upon hurtling through the wall, and its head could certainly do with smashing. Angus cocked back his right hand, balled up into a fist, and drove it forward right into the side of the creature’s disfigured skull. He was well aware that just one punch may not do the job, so he wound his arm back again and again, pounding his fist into the thrall’s head repeatedly. It thrashed about but didn’t manage to do much before it died due to blunt force trauma to the head.

With the enemy at hand dead, Angus heard the elevator’s squealing sounds once more, which he figured meant there would be more thralls to deal with atop those still left alive. He decided to head back outside and try to find a less improvised way into the building, or maybe to stay out there and help protect the injured fellow if it became necessary. Angus turned round and tried to make his way over the rubble left by his attack on the first thrall, silently psyching himself up for more fighting to come.

Jacob had searched frantically for as long as he could, ducking under fallen and burning boards or climbing over charred debris. He felt oddly unaffected by the plumes of smoke and fire or charred wood scraping up against him. It was almost as if he could breath in the smoke like it was fresh air. As confusing as the whole ordeal was, he remained focused on trying to find Soraya and the others. Eventually he managed to trace his steps back around to the hole Eshna and the other thrall had made, and a sigh of relief came over him as he was regrouped with most of his companions outside.

"Oh shit..." He forced out, rushing over to Soraya and reaching his arms around her in an attempt to bring her to her feet.

"Are you alright? What did this to you?"

After his brief encounter with the thrall, Jagred lingered beyond the burning threshold, just as the screeching of metal on metal stopped. Whatever that was though, it couldn’t be good, so he ducked into cover behind a rumble pile just beside the entrance. Moments later, Soraya came rushing out, then fell to her knees shortly afterward, with crimson snow at her feet. Fortunately, Jacob was nearby and got to her in time. “Best get her to Eshna. That looks serious.”- He shouted, then turned his attention back to the entrance, eyes searching for any movement among the flames. Perhaps there were still thralls, ones that both Jacob and Angus missed while they were in there? He couldn’t tell, with the smoke thick in the air. It didn’t bother him as much as it should, but still enough to impair his vision. However, as he moved back into cover, his mind was set, ready to strike at whatever come through the door next.

It was almost a twitch, a strike that he hadn’t even intended to make, but when the blade had struck him in the arm Jagred reflexively grabbed it the chain hooked into it, and pulled. From the smoke and debris came a shimmering form that became clear with its rapid movement towards him now, and in that moment, Jagred’s axe swung around and chopped into the forearm of the thrall demigod that was pulled in. Upon the ground, dark blood spurted into the snow as it was clear that Jagred’s axe had cleaved straight through the girl’s arm, just below the elbow. The wail she let loose in response was deafening, the strike had certainly done its damage.

Laid upon the snow, she howled and pulled back, the torn muscles and shattered bone of her arm still spurting from her wound as she darted back into the flaming structure, her feet obviously uneasy with each stride she took. If nothing else, she was clearly disarmed now. Jagred, for his own part, was no longer stunned from the attack, and could take a moment to realize the damage that he had encountered. The blade was still lodged in his arm, and when he pulled it out, he saw that the blade was distinctly silver. Probably why it was so effective against Soraya. His wound was otherwise minor from what he could tell, and would recover well enough on its own if it were just bandaged.

Angus made his way out of the building in time to see the attack on Jagred, and the subsequent limb removing counterattack. He was already charging toward the strange person when she darted back into the building. Once more drawing upon his divine fleetness of foot, Angus sprinted into the flaming building behind the enemy, shield readied to strike as soon as he saw her. But he didn’t, as the girl had vanished into the smoke.

Angus looked around, frustrated at him not being able to find her. His lungs were having their own problems, as unlike some of his kin, Angus couldn’t safely breathe smoke. He began to cough, and sputter, as he searched for her, until he saw her too late to respond. Mid-cough, he felt a bloody stump shove itself into his mouth, and a shimmer in the smoke revealed the demigoddess thrall. Her eyes were still so hollow and broken, as she did something that Angus would not be able to quite describe how awful it felt.

Her arm, which had been lobbed off by Jagred’s axe, regrew in moments, jutting out from the stump, and straight down Angus’ throat. Her fist clenched down inside his chest, as she tore her arm out, ripping some of his esophagus out, so it would seem. Reflexively however, Angus’ body downgraded the assault on his insides into scratches instead of outright organ ripping with a sudden sturdiness to his entrails, as he stumbled backwards from the attack.

Angus’s coughing and choking became significantly more painful after having his throat clawed, but he managed to stay standing and somewhat focused. His priorities changed immediately from “break skulls” to “oh shit need clean air and probably medical attention,” and so he backed away, swinging his shield toward the woman as something of a combined threat and warding gesture. Once there was enough room between them for Angus to feel mildly safe about it, he turned round and once more embraced the swiftness of the wind to run, this time outside and away from the horrible danger and suffocating smoke.

Jagred stared down at the knife in his hand, and suddenly, a dreadful feeling took over his sense. Immediately, he dropped the weapon, as if it had burned him, then kicked it away just for good measure. The thrall was disarmed, for now, but that didn’t mean she was no longer a threat. Unlike those shambling corpses they had encountered earlier, this one was a fine cut above the rest. He needed to get her now, while she was still recovering from his last attack. However, before he could get to that, Angus charged pass him, into the burning building. Jagred sighed, his lips pressed into a thin line as he gave chase.

Upon entering the building, Jagred found that the flame and smoke didn’t bother him much, even at this distance. He couldn’t see well through the smoke, and it took a while, but eventually his eyes fell on Angus and the thrall. Oh. That can’t be good. As soon as Angus stumbled backward, he charged, swinging his axe at the thrall.

The thrall turned towards Jagred and held her newly regenerated arm at him as the very fires that were surrounding them suddenly burst as if fed by a gas leak. Jagred, for the first time he had been in the flames, felt the heat and some of the burn, but it was weak, and mild, and definitely not enough to deter him, much to the thrall’s evident surprise. However, as Jagred swung the axe for what would be a killing blow, there was a sudden tightness around his neck, and it jolted his aim slightly off, but unfortunately for the thrall it jolted his arm only a little bit up, and the blow struck her clean in the head. As the strike hits, a large shot of smoke and blood fills Jagred’s vision for a moment, but when he could see again, looking down he saw her crumpled body, fireaxe still embedded into her skull. She wasn’t moving, and her blood flowed forth to the ground pooling around her. Jagred noticed the tightness around his neck had also loosened.

Jagred stood still for a long moment, before leaning down to remove his axe from the thrall’s skull. It took a bit of effort, but he eventually managed to get it done with barely any blood on his hands. However, the weapon felt strange in his hand, light and familiar, no longer the clunky axe he randomly picked up at the tool store. Almost he had been fighting with it for a lifetime, and not just for a few minutes. The sensation confused him, but Jagred shrugged it off. Nerves acting up probably, a normal side effect when the adrenaline haze faded. Wiping black blood on the front of his shirt, he took one last look around, searching for any remaining threats in the midst of flames. Nothing emerged, so he decided it was time to regroup outside, before the flaming structure above his head gave way.

On her way out of the flaming building, Eshna tried her best at a crack-job healing attempt upon her own mishaps, covering the hole in her body with a light dose of poultice before tearing some cloth from her own sleeves and wrapping them around her lightly. It was clear her regenerative powers were superior to those of most of her comrades, and the clothing would be better served on them than her.

Coming upon the blood-soaked scene, Eshna took a moment looking upon the nearly-cleaved thrall and deduced easily that her medical attention was needed elsewhere. More surprised than terrified, she realized she was still slightly on fire, and promptly administered a hefty fist full of snow to put it out.

Before she could even question their ailments, a certain feeling in her head practically assured she already knew what the issues were. Eshna might have chalked it up to experience, but the specificity of her ideas cemented that this was another divine ability gifted to her.

“Hoho,” she chuckled, “that’s useful.” Taking a moment to consider her dedication to triage, she felt it was best to help Soraya stop the bleeding before offering greater time to Lucky’s unfortunate circumstances. With plentiful poultice, she covered up Soraya’s wound tenderly and ordered Jacob to apply pressure with a clothful of numbing snow.

“If it melts or begins to anyways, refill it. Keep it cooled off,” she directed Jacob. When he got the picture, she jogged to Lucky’s side and asked him to lift his shirt rather commandingly before letting him lay down on the snow properly.

“You’ve got some bad internal bleeding and some broken bones. I need you to keep still no matter what,” she stated. Poultice wasn’t going to work here, but the snow around could help defend against swelling inside. It would be cold, but he’d have to bear with it.

“This is going to be really cold, but I need you to relax and not tense up your muscles, okay?” Grabbing handfuls of snow, she layered it atop the wound site, directly applied to his skin. Like building a castle, she shoveled some to his ribcage as well, practically wrapping him in white. Standing up, she looked over her work and turned to Jagred, handing him some poultice to apply to his arm.

“Angus,” she began, “if it helps, swallow some snow to see if you can’t numb your throat. Take deep breaths and try not to aggravate it and cough.”

“Thank you, Eshna. I appreciate it.” Lucky felt himself rise up enough to respond, before going dormant again, clinging on to life with all he could.

And so that they had done quick work of the thralls, a light snow began to fall upon the area, as the winds picked up. The wind, and collapsing of more of the building, had made it easy to put the rest of the fires out, while still leaving access to the elevator. It hadn’t been called back down after the last thrall, still seated at the top and their most viable way down.

Angus, Jagred, Jacob, and Dann gathered in it, and hit the sole ‘down’ button that it had, as the outer doors closed with a horrid grinding, and the box began its slow descent into the darkness of the mines.

Yet, when they reached the bottom, and the doors opened, the area was remarkably well lit. Makeshift generator stations were buzzing audibly powering an assortment of electrical lights. The most obvious thing to be detected, was the smell. It was musty, old, stale, bloody, and cold. Death and dark rituals had occurred here.

They weren’t alone, but unlike what they had been led to believe, there weren’t an assemblage of Frost Giants, there was but one, a man of great bulging physique, standing at roughly ten feet tall, his hair and skin both pale. At his feet, was an ignition plunger, and wires. Jacob and Dann were quick to then notice through a slight shimmer along all the walls that the wires led to explosives lining all of the mine they could see.

“Hello, children.” The giant spoke, his tone gruff and cool, feeling as a slow moving shard of ice through the ears of those who listened, “It doesn’t have to end like this. I know why you’re here, and you know why I’m here. I don’t want to die, and you don’t want to die. I’ll give you all that I can, if you can assure me that you will let me leave here alive. Otherwise, no one gets what they want.”

“If you want your Heart of Winter, then you must let me leave. But more than that, I want a token of your promise that you will not kill me. A simple thing, if you’ve made it down here in this state. The girl’s dagger. You bring me that, and I’ll not blow us all up.”

Jacob was able to quickly size up the Frost Giant, even if they could get the trigger to all these explosives away from him, he’d still likely be enough of a threat to kill at least one or two of them. This was a very powerful being, and yet, he was so scared, on edge. What was it that had him so?

Gavriil was able to pull off the last shot, the last of the cops falling over dead. They wouldn’t be offering any further problems for the group, and they had vehicles, stronger and sturdier, and arms, and badges, and more. Useful gains. He took himself from his spot and began to move back towards the group gathered at the ruins of the mine building.

Eshna continued to take care of Soraya and Lucky, their injuries having been the most egregious and in need of her attentions. On her peripheral, she saw something move. Was there another thrall? Turning quickly to look, she saw nothing. Perhaps she was just paranoid. Shivering from her inadequate and burnt clothes, she turned back to her charges.

Soraya, though, she had seen something. There was a naked women moving about the building. She tried to say something, but couldn’t quite make the noise, and Eshna didn’t seem to understand what she was doing other than moving as if in pain. Soraya was helpless but to watch as the naked woman moved to the discarded arm and blade, and she knew who it was. She surged to gesture, and Eshna relented and turned, just too late to see the woman as she had run back into the building. However, this was something that warranted investigation.

Gavriil had returned in time for Eshna to direct him to the building, and Gavriil immediately sensed something, the feeling of rushing fire, and choking smoke, of spilled blood, and combat. The feeling of a demigod, but not any of them. Following her into the building, Gavriil happened upon the body left behind by Jagred, although it wasn’t where Jagred had left it. Someone had moved and stripped the body of its rags. Further, Gavriil, so intimately familiar with death from his powers, could tell that the body wasn’t dead, nor was it alive or any state of undead. It was just skin and some organs, but it had never been alive.

Down below, the group were shocked, as they stood outside of the elevator, only to hear the doors begin to close behind them, and the elevator ascend. Someone above had called it up again. A look of fear spread into the eyes of the Frost Giant, as it looked like he was close to just blowing everything up then and there. “Who’s using the elevator?”

"Our primary mission was to retrieve the Heart of Winter. There is no more need for more bloodshed, and while I don't know who is using the elevator, I'll try my best to calm them down. --”

“Calm them down!?” The Frost Giant snapped, “I don’t want them just calm. Tell me who they are before I kill us all.”

"It could be someone from our group, if not than I honestly have no idea. Maybe it's another one of your servants, like the forest rangers that attacked us. Either way, like I said, no one else needs to die. I don't think anyone else is in the area..." Jacob stated in a calm manner.

The Frost Giant was still twitching, not the most comforting of sights as he held in his grasp a means to kill everyone there, and maybe even those on the surface. This was a lot of explosives, and Dann could tell they were high grade. How he had gotten his hands on them was a mystery.

"Listen, like you said, no one here wants to die. If they are from our group, we can keep them calm, if not, i'm positive we can take care of them. Either way, we can get the girl's dagger for you, no problem..." Jacob continued.

Dann looked at the explosives with a mixture of nervousness and curiosity, and a bit of awe, before looking directly at the giant. It was clear that the giant was twitchy and won’t hesitate to use the detonator to kill them all if the one using the elevator surprised him. They would need to calm him down somewhat and Jacob didn’t seem to manage to convince the Giant directly. Perhaps trying to divert the giant’s attention would do, but to what?

“...Wasn’t there supposedly a dwarven population in this place? Where are they?”

“Most of them are dead, died protecting me, and setting up the explosives. The girl killed them before she was subdued,” answered the Frost Giant, truthfully. Apparently he was wanting to get a head start on their good graces for their agreement, or maybe he didn’t care that he told the truth any more.

“Most, huh? I assume the surviving ones are outside? Maybe with more of your friends?” Dann guessed.

He shook his head, “I won’t do any more talking, until I know who is in that elevator, and you then give me that dagger.”

Angus spoke up for the first time, his voice hoarse thanks to the damage inflicted to his throat. “We don’t know any more than you do. Could be an ally, could be someone else.” He paused to clear his throat, wincing at the pain that came with it. “Let’s just relax and see who it is, no explosions, then deal with it.”

Jagred stood at the back of their little group, white knuckles wrapped around his weapon. The discussion had reached an impasse, with the giant demanding to know who was in the elevator, and them having no means to find out. As far as he knew, it could be anyone, either members of their little group, or some stray dwarven thralls that were trying to find a way back to his master. To be honest, he was more concerned with the reason behind this giant’s nervousness. Obviously, they weren’t the first group to be dispatched here. There had been previous attacks, and by the looks of things around this mine, the damage had certainly been done. Which might explain all these desperate measures, with all the explosives and deal. Leaving most of the talking to others, Jagred turned his attention back to the elevator, waiting for the metal doors to open.

Something finally clicked into place for Dann, that plunger couldn’t possibly be the ignition source for the explosives. As he looked at it, it seemed to shimmer slightly. The device was an illusion, the source of the ignition to the otherwise very real explosives must be somewhere else. He nary had time to say this, when the elevator arrived at the bottom behind them, and the box groaned. With still more grinding and scraping, the doors opened revealing, none other than the demigoddess thrall.

Her appearance made the Frost Giant twitch, looking as if he was about to press the plunger down then and there, but he stopped short of doing it. The thrall girl stood, motionless in the elevator cabin for a few moments and the Frost Giant spoke, his voice trembling, “Attack them.”

She didn’t move at first, but remained perfectly still, “Attack them, or we all blow u--” he didn’t get to finish the word, as she charged into the group, and began to do battle with the gathered demigods. The Frost Giant visibly relaxed, his face turning into a smile, “Our deal still stands, children. Give me her dagger, and we have much to talk about.”

With undeniable grace despite her frenzied expression and form, the enthralled goddess ducked under Jagred’s first swing of the fireaxe at her form as she slipped by him. Pushed forward by winds, Angus attempted to smash and cave her head in, but her ankles bent and her body dropped, her knees warping slightly as she slipped lower still as the shield smashed into the ground where her head was moments ago. Jacob’s sword was drawn and stabbed into the ground where she was to be, but she had skidded to a stop just short of it. Straightening her form as she flipped up and over, away from Jacob’s slashing upwards, she bounded over Angus as he ducked low whilst Jagred swung again to hit her as she flipped. Instead, her hands landed on the flat of Jagred’s axe blade, and she used that to push her jump higher over him.

Angus rose with a fury to uppercut her with his shield as her flip finished, but at the end of his reach, her feet landed gently on the rim of the heavy shield. Jacob stabbed upwards, but her knife was quick into her hand, and she knocked the sword aside as the shield found itself surging higher as Angus jumped in an attempt to crush her into the top of the stone chamber, successfully at that. As stone and dust fell, and the girl’s form with it, Jagred postured his axe behind him to do an overhead chop of her into the ground. His necklace tightened, restricting his throat and nearly breaking the skin with such sudden sharpness, that he dropped the axe, until the necklace loosened.

Less bound, Jacob brought his sword down for a strike and impalement, going through her shoulder and into the ground. Angus, pulled his arm back as he stood over her, and brought the full weight of the shield and strength of his arm into her skull. Oddly enough, while it dented into it, he found that a coating of hard silver had engulfed her head, blocking quite a bit of the blow, and even rebounding his shield off of it. Jagred, his neck no longer crunched, held his hand out on instinct, and the fireaxe flew back into his familiar grip.

All the while, Dann was focusing his senses, trying to see just what all was real and what was an illusion in here. He had seen through one, perhaps there were others? The explosives were real, and even some of the wires were, but none of the wires were anything that would actually work with the explosives at hand. The explosives must have a remote trigger, something maybe no larger than a cellphone, or perhaps even a cellphone itself. In the distance, he saw a door, the writing on it was illegible, but it was obviously an office of someone important back when the mine was more active. On the door was a rather imposing lock, that did not come with the mine by any stretch. It was more recently made, and placed. Something was in that room, but what? Prisoners? The Heart of Winter? Other treasures?

With a grunt, Dann focused on the giant as the battle continued. Part of him wanted to join and help, but another part, the same part that notices the plunger was not the trigger, said that the giant was not to be trusted. It also brought some questions with it, who’s holding the trigger? Why would the giant needed them to take the dagger if the demigoddess were under his command? What’s in the office? The first theory he came up with was that the giant was stalling.

“What’s so important about the dagger?” Dann said while inching away from the fight and closer to the giant. He tried his best so that it appeared as if he was backing away from it instead of trying to get closer to the giant.

“I’ll be more inclined to tell you why I want the dagger, after I have it. Don’t worry, it’s not like having it will make me suddenly super strong and able to kill you, you should know better than that. Neither you nor I can actually use the damn thing,” the giant answered truthfully again.

“That doesn’t the situation much….or at all….” Dann said. He looked at the giant, trying to determine if he had the explosive trigger on his person while fingering his knife. He couldn’t.

Angus halted with his shield raised, about to slam the rim down on the girl’s head again. He looked up at the giant, having just had something of an epiphany. “Wait.. why don’t you just tell her to give you the fucking dagger? She’s your thrall, isn’t she?”

The Frost Giant looked a bit dumb for a moment, as he struggled to come up with a suitable lie. In the time he did that, the thrall girl wasn’t quite yet done fighting, as her leg sweeped up and hit Angus between his legs. The Frost Giant grinned, and then, of all things, spoke what came off rather well as the truth, “I want you to fight, and possibly kill her, so it’ll weaken you, so I’ll be even more sure that you won’t be able to kill me.” He shrugged.

“Didn’t work too well, did it? She seemed to go down as fast as earlier,” Dann said.

“I may be smart, by Frost Giant standards, but I’m only so bright. But, with her dispatched, could you kindly kill her so we can get on with our deal? I want to get out of here, you want to get out of here. I want to live, you want to live.” He seemed to be getting rather impatient, his shaking hands evident of nervousness, as one of them lifts up off the plunge and begins to straighten his clothes. A heavy coat, rather. Dann can’t help but wonder what’s inside.

“One question then,” Dann interrupted. “I found a set of giant footprints outside, friend of yours?”

“No more questions. Kill her, or we all die.”

Angus, though still somewhat writhing from the pain of solid shot to the testicles, takes the giant’s words to heart. “Fine, she dies now.” He raises the shield again and aims to send it crashing down on the thrall woman’s head again.

Dann decided to go for a risky maneuver, and spoke up about the plunger not being the real trigger, throwing a dagger at the Frost Giant. Not that it mattered, the Giant still had the real trigger on him, and with his hand having pulled it from his jacket, when the dagger was thrown, he pressed it. All the explosives went off in unison, killing everyone inside the mines.

Outside, there was a large tremor, and Gavriil could tell that something bad had happened below. Everyone down there was dead.

“Oh, shit.” All of a sudden all the rather familiar feelings of rushing water and battle that signified his demigod brethren vanished. That meant they either were suddenly too far away for him to feel them or they had suddenly met a rather untimely end. Gone to meet his mother, in fact. Turning slightly paler at the thought, he tromped over to the two women and Lucky, carefully stepping around the thrall corpses and the still burning hunks of wood. He hefted the icy rifle over his shoulder before talking hurriedly to Eshna in his oddly arranged English. “Healer, I think the ones who went inside are dead. Very dead. Possibly due to that tremor, and them being underground. Something took rags from a corpse, too. We are not alone here. We should take car, go, come back for artifact later. Best choice now, can see if I can talk to my mother about them, get them moving again.”

Lucky had come swimming back up from the dark at the feel of the explosion, and shivered as his nerves started to send their cold signals to his brain again. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around, seeing Gavriil talking about leaving, and Eshna standing there as well. Lucky felt within him, and felt his inner power. He would have to turn it off sooner or later, but it was probably the very thing keeping him alive for now. He left it alone, for now.

And so it came to pass, that the survivors of the Bodie Mission weakly gathered themselves and some ill gotten goods, and left the failure of their efforts behind. Strangely, they still felt a surge in their forms, as Lucky, Soraya, and Eshna’s bodies had a burst of healing. They all felt as if they had finished a chapter in their new lives, even if it was done in such failure.

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