Supermaxx

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Alright. Now that I no longer have Covid and I have vacation for this week, I can finally get back to the RP. I'll catch up on posts the next couple of days and then get my own up.

@Retired

LET'S FUCKING GOOOOO

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: City Streets, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Rael was outta the tree with a leap that would've ended with Graves on his ass. He raised a brow at what looked like a book she'd just shoved into a bag, but he didn't comment. Instead he turned away, making his way down the road with long, quick strides. Errands were perhaps his least favorite thing in the world; best to get this done as soon as possible so they could meet back up with the rest of the party. It was...strange, how attached he'd gotten to them all so quickly. Another thing to think about.

"Let's see." He adjusted the bag he had over his shoulder so he could count it all out on his fingers. "Gotta drop my armor off to get it patched up. Gotta get myself somethin' other than rags to wear. Wanna stop by the bank, too, n' see if I've got the coin to find a place to stay- don't wanna spend too long cooped up in the innhouse, y'know? And I figure we'll be here awhile." He shrugged.

His expression darkened somewhat. "Wanted to drop by Prophecy, too. See if Pris needs help with anything. Figure she has her hands full now."

"You think they'd want to see us?"

"I know they don't." He snorted. "Get the impression Pris can tolerate us, at least. N' I'm not gonna stay to chat. But I feel like I oughtta help. Even if its just somethin' small, like pickin' up groceries. Feel obligated, I guess. I know it'll sound stupid to you."

"I don’t think it sounds stupid. Weird, I guess. Never had anyone do something nice for me, so I wouldn’t know."

Graves gave her an eyeroll so massive that his whole body moved with it. "Aside from saving your ass maybe a dozen times, sure."

The pair of them rolled up on the tailor's shop in the town square. It was a fairly sizeable, one floor establishment, with every inch of it covered in some kind of fine material or displaying a piece of clothing. It was so densely packed with stuff that just navigating the place turned out to be a task in and of itself. And the woman that ran the place turned out to be just as exquisite as her wares.

"Considerin' I'm the size of a cow I don't think they'll have anything that'll fit off the rack." He told Rael over his shoulder. That meant getting measurements, talking about pricing and materials and all other sorts of shit Graves was loathing. Still, it could be worse- he could be stuck here by himself. "Maybe I'll get you a gumball and be the first person to ever do somethin' nice for you."

“You’re not funny.” She remarked, following in tow.

It was only partially a joke. Part of him wanted to follow through with it; buy her something- a 'gumball'- so he could hold it over her head and tease her about it for the rest of the day. But the reasonable part of him won out and the words died in his throat, and their brief shopping adventures continued. Most of the places he needed to go were in or around the town square: the armorer was a bit more of a walk, but it minutes long at most. The two of them would be back 'round to the Worg in short order. They still had some time alone. Time to talk.

After a remarkable bout of silence, Graves finally spoke up again. It was a question that'd been nagging him since the dungeon- during it, even. "Why aren't you freaking the fuck out about any of this?"

“Why aren’t you?”

"I'm a God damn mess. But I'm learning to roll with the punches. Adapt or die, right? You, though...I'on't think I've seen you so much as flinch."

“Yeah… it’s weird. I don’t get it.” Rael said, burying her hands into the pockets of her longcoat.

“Sometimes I think I should be scared. I mean, I get nightmares the same as everyone else, but I’m not having panic attacks in the middle of dungeons or shaking in a corner like a baby. My therapist would probably have an answer. Something about compartmentalizing things. I dunno. I guess it hasn’t really hit me yet.”

Talk of nightmares made Graves frown. He did his best to shake it quickly. "You can afford a therapist?" He snorted. It came off more rude than he intended. "Probably better than the alternative, though. Benkei- Luci- they're goin' through some rough shit."

“Everyone kind of broke in some way last night.” She admitted, offering a shrug. “I don’t know how you heal from that. I’ve never been close to anyone. Maybe that’s why I seem so… fine with things.”

"Come on, never? With anyone?"

She shook her head, “No one.”

He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her, incredulity all over his face. "You're serious." Graves blinked. "Not a- a parent, a sibling? Distant cousin? Lover? Close friend? None of it?"

"How do you get through life like that?"

“I don’t know. Only childhood friends I ever knew were in manga.” She half-laughed, obviously trying to keep a strong face through it all. It didn't hold up too well under scrutiny.“Never had a boyfriend. Only thing my parents told me was how much of a disappointment I am. Guess they were right. I am trapped in a video game world.”

That last line, for all its corniness, had Graves in stitches all the way to the front step of the Laughing Worg tavern. They'd finished up all but the visit to Priscilica, and he was still undecided on whether to go through with that one or not. And Rael had given him plenty more to think on. He almost continued. He was close to spilling more about himself than he had to anyone whose last name wasn't Gray. But they were at the Worg, now, and what Andrew was good telling Rael certainly wasn't for anyone else in the party to hear.

So they stepped inside to join the others.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Innhouse, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Time and a hot bath helped ease the nightmare. The scars were old ones, yet they felt as raw as the ones he'd earned just yesterday. He washed them all the same. It was odd how quickly he'd adjusted to the feeling of pain in Pariah; he'd gone from losing his shit to shrugging it off in, what, a couple'a hours? He had to wonder if being Graves had helped with that. Pain was his build's forte, after all. It was a curiosity to mull over, at least, as he got ready for the day.

He climbed out of the bath only to find that the one pair of clothes he owned were shredded and stained beyond saving. The armor would need maintenance, too. He'd gotten the suit commission way back in Theremia a lifetime ago. It wasn't like most armor. It needed a specialized touch. There was a particular shop in town dealt in lamellar that he'd drop it off at on his way to the Worg.

The night he'd spent there was a blur, if he was honest. He'd gotten blackout drunk with Alja trying to forget the dungeon and its horrors. It hadn't worked, but the two of them'd had a blast anyway. Graves grinned to himself remembering the pieces he could. She'd told a lot about herself- far more than he'd given back. Should he call her Kelly when they met up again?

'Would that be weird?'

After scrounging through what few belongings he had on him, Graves came up with the needle and thread to make his pants wearable and a vest that would- for now- function as a shirt. Clothes shopping was on the TO-DO list too, he supposed. That got a groan out of him. He could barely be bothered to buy new socks in the real world. Why'd it have to follow him here, too?

Just before he stepped out into the street he tried to pull up his console one more time. Nothing. It'd been a full day and they hadn't heard a peep from the game masters. Try as he might, Graves just couldn't shake the feeling that they were in for the long haul. 'Right, adapt. Okay.'

The trip to the Worg was approximately twelve steps across the street, but he took a brief detour toward the Town Square to finish up his chores first. He had some things he wanted to purchase if they were going to be here awhile, on top of everything else he'd already mulled over.

And then he ran into something else he couldn't stop thinking about.

"You a monkey now or somethin'?" Graves called up to Rael. "If you're not too busy bein' a do-nothing, I got some errands to run. Wouldn't mind the company."

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: Westwood, Indiana, U.S.A

---

Andrew sat alone in the dark. It was quiet. Quiet, save for that high-pitched ringing in the back of his head and the blood pounding in his ears. There was nowhere else in the house he could hear himself think. Nowhere else he could go to work through the pain he felt in his chest. The argument kept playing in his head over and over. He kept wondering if he could've said that differently, or interrupted there, or if he'd known just a little bit more...Could it have ended differently?

Light entered the room as the cellar door creaked open. He pulled his knees up to his chest and held his breath, waiting. A figure descended down the stairs with the thudding of heavy boots. They shut the door behind them. Andrew waited for the yelling to start again-

-And then Anna pulled the chain on the cellar's only lightbulb, washing the space in a dull glow.

"Knew you'd be down here." She rasped, seating herself on the last two steps across from him. Anna was ten years his elder, with the same mess of black hair and eyes tinged with mischief. She was the second oldest after Jess, and had come back to Westwood for Christmas. Anna was the only one that had come back.

She set two shot glasses against one of the stairs and pulled a bottle off a nearby shelf, and began pouring two drinks.

"You heard dad?" He sniffled, wiping the snot and tears from his face with the back of his sleeve.

"Whole damn neighborhood could hear him," she snorted. "Old man whipped out the King James n' started shouting about hellfire n' brimstone. Its been...Jesus, its had'ta been ages since I last heard him quote the word at one'a us. Was the first night I brought a girl home, I think. So, how'd you fuck up?"

Andrew just shook his head. He let the conversation play through his mind like a track set on repeat. If he'd just been a little smarter, a little better with words, a little more insistent...He didn't answer her question.

The two sat in silence for a moment, staring at the same bit of dirt on the ground between them.

"Here." She leaned forward suddenly, pressing a glass into his hand. "To loosen the tongue."

He just looked at it. Dark liquid swirled in the glass. "I'm not old enough to-"

"-Do it." She insisted, taking a shot of her own. "Its fine, I promise. You'll feel better."

It was the worst thing he'd tasted in living memory. It was all Andrew could do not to let it come sputtering back out. Anna's giggling at him was the only thing that let him force it back down.

"Do you give this stuff to your students, too?!"

She shook her head. "Its only for people I give a shit about." She paused, looking at him. Looking into him. "And I give a shit about you. So tell me what's goin' on, Andy."

Then the flood gates opened, and everything he'd kept dammed up inside came spilling out. "Ray kept bugging me to let him come over. Said we'd been hanging out too long for him to have never met my family. I told him it was a bad idea. Told him what they were like, but he's a stubborn idiot and he wouldn't give it up. We weren't even doing anything when dad came in."

Anna nodded, slowly. Her voice was a soft rasp. "Yeah. I heard what he called you."

"Why?" The tears flowed freely down his cheeks. "Why's he hate me?"

His older sister sighed, a hand moving to rub her forehead. She couldn't look at him; she looked so uncomfortable he thought, for a moment, she might just get up and leave. People were never something she was good at. Instead, she whispered: "I don't think he hates you."

Andrew just looked up at her, confused. Confused and hurt.

"I think..." She sighed. "I think in his own, fucked up way, he cares. He just doesn't-"

"How could you say that?!"

"-He just doesn't understand and I don't think he ever will." Anna looked back at her brother, her own eyes going misty despite herself. "He's an old man, Andy. He grew up in a different kinda place in a different kinda time, and the world's changed. It changed around him and he refused to change with it."

She pushed herself off the stairs and moved over to where Andrew was sitting against the wall. She fell down beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He was a total mess, now. Anything he tried to say just came out as more tears. "I know." She muttered to him. "I know it sucks. But you can't fix everything, Andy. You gotta learn to accept that sometimes- sometimes things just are a certain way n' you've gotta change around 'em. Adapt. That's how you survive."

The rest of the conversation began to blur, like he was looking at the memory through a broken mirror. Anna was explaining to him that she and her husband were moving up to Michigan; he'd gotten a big promotion and this was their chance to get a real, honest-to-God place. She was going to leave town, and she was offering to let Andrew go with them. He wasn't going to take it. He was going to explain how he couldn't leave the others behind. He couldn't leave Lucy or Karen or even Will in a place like this; he had to protect them.

It was all a blur.

.

.

.

A blur of excuses, of half-truths.

.

.

.

Of words he didn't really mean.

.

.

.

Andrew looked up, and he saw someone else standing at the top of the stairs. Someone that hadn't been there when it happened. It was a man. He came stumbling down the stairs, a trail of blood left behind him. It was a man Graves recognized: a man with a hole plunged through his chest.

Location: The Innhouse, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

And Graves woke up, screaming.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon, -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

“You’re thinking it, too, aren’t you? How this could be it.”

It had crossed his mind more than a few times. If the glitch was easily fixed they never would've heard about it. Nobody in their right mind would admit the players couldn't be logged out and that they were at risk of death unless there wasn't an alternative. The situation in the real world must've been untenable. It was the only thing that made sense. So what then? What were the chances they were stuck in Pariah for days, or weeks? What if they were stuck in here for the rest of their miserable lives? Graves should've been frightened by the thought, but instead all he felt was...

"They don't deserve it." He breathed, watching Benkei hit the floor. A panic attack. He'd seen 'em before. He remembered one night William came home with eight different drugs in his system and spent hours freaking the fuck out. It hurt to watch- just like this did- but there was nothing he could do. Nothing he could do but ride it out.

"They have somethin' to go back to." Graves sniffled, wiping his nose. "People. Lives. I-I mean, Aags and Luci were gonna be together for Christ's sake. They had so much. So much ahead of 'em."

He felt like a monster for laughing after everything that'd happened. After all that was still happening. There wasn't an ounce of joy in the sound; just pained, angry resentment."What- what the fuck did I have, y'know? Without this stupid game I might as well be..."

Graves never finished the thought. He climbed back to his feet, and shook it all off. Took all that shit he'd been moments from letting fall out into the world for the first time in his life and put it back where it belonged. There was still work to be done. Still bodies to be buried. They could deal with what came next later.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon, -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

The void embraced him. It came rushing in like a flood, drowning everything else out: drowning the pain, the weariness, the dull taste of regret. There was a gentleness to it. A quiet sort of reassurance in the emptiness of it all. It reminded him of being tucked in at night and drifting off into sleep without dream. This time, though, there'd be no waking from it.

Then somebody kicked him.

Graves's eyes jolted open as the world came rushing in. Every sound, every smell, every dull ache battered against his senses in his sudden, violent return to the land of the living. Rael was standing over him, covered in the black-as-night blood of the titan. Graves sat up, glancing about the room. There the demon lay in the center of it all, its head lopped clean from its shoulders. It took a moment for him to process that the thing was gone and, yet, he wasn't.

The work was done yet he remained. He remained when other, more worthy men had not. It left a bitter taste in his mouth. Bitter as old steel.

"Thanks." He muttered to her after a moment's silence, still laying in the dirt. She'd put herself in a hell of a lot of danger to pull him outta that one. Thrown herself right in the enemy's face and just narrowly dragged them both to safety. If she'd been even a little bit slower they both might've been laid to rest by Enos and Aaginim. Graves had gotten angry with her earlier for doing the same thing he had- for all but throwing her life away to kill some stupid bat.

She was staring at him, her expression empty. He stared back.

It was a stupid thing he'd done. He told himself he was just trying to finish the fight. Told himself it had to happen to get them all outta there before somebody else lost their life. He'd made a promise to himself to keep these shmucks alive, after all. That was why he'd done it: To keep a promise. To protect people.

'Anna always said you were a terrible liar.'

He sat up, let his his arms lay against his knees and his head rest on top of them. "Didn't think I'd leave this room." It left his mouth before he could think better of it. His voice was hoarse, broken.

"I'unno what I'm going to do when I wake up." Graves blinked a couple of times to get somethin' outta his eye.

He watched Priscilica open up the exit, but he didn't move to follow her out.

He was afraid of what was on the other side.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon, -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Hell rained from on high. Magic flung from all corners of the room, detonating against the monstrosity's chest like a series of atom bombs. Boom, boom, boom. A fireball the size of semi-truck. A giant, crescent-shaped slash that consumed all light. Arrows that hit like cruise missiles. An earthen cleaver, aimed to split the demon in half. A curse so foul it crumbled even rock. And a thousand frozen teeth delivered from the sky like judgement from God.

Snow fell all around Graves. It gathered in fine piles 'round him, stained red. Every breath was a labor. Every attempt to push himself back to his feet ended in him collapsing back to his knees. It was all he could do to keep the darkness from closing around his vision. Pain wracked every inch of his body, digging its cruel fingers into every nerve it could find. Needling him. Prodding. Searching for that place to destroy him completely-- that spot it could carve into to keep him down.

That was a fools' errand.

"Hell of a haymaker you got there." He sucked in a breath, leaning his weight against Alja's. She was nearly as beaten up his him, though little of it showed; all the damage she'd done was on the inside. But it was worth it. God damn had it been worth it. Arnaakus s was stumbling, now. Its armor cracked, its will to fight diminished. Everyone still standing was wailing on it with all they had left.

He wrapped a hand 'round her bicep best he could, pulling up on it. "How 'bout we kill this thing n' go get that drink you talked about, huh?" He sniffled. The bloody gauntlet wrapped around his hand shifted, shrank, tightened. Part of it folded away into his pores and flowed into his bloodstream, granting new life to a battered body. Bits of ice were pushed out of his back by regrown skin and muscle. She had a hell of a haymaker, for sure. "Up we go. Together."

More of the gauntlet broke off, flowing up around his shoulders and down his other hand-- restoring Alja as best it could. Fatigue wasn't something he could fix; not as well as Sif could. But he hoped what he knew of restoration magic could get one'a their best and brightest back on her big, ugly feet so they could finish this monster the fuck off.

Graves stuck his sword into the stone and lifted himself back to his feet. Everyone else was hitting the demon with everything they had. They were working themselves to the bone to tear off layer after layer of its arcane armor, hoping to expose whatever core lay at its center. Whatever bit kept that creature going. There had to have been something fleshy in there; the thing had eyes like anything else.

It was the only vulnerable bit that he could see, so that was where he'd be going. He hefted that great, wicked blade onto his shoulder and began his march forward. He picked up speed as he went, getting faster and faster as he grew closer. The other front liners would ensure the center held-- they had to, or every single one of them was going to die. Most of them had lives to go back to. Most of them couldn't risk losing it all in a hellish place like this.

Rock climbing wasn't something Andrew did a lot of back on the other side. Once or twice he'd gone with his older brothers, only to get humiliated each time; he wasn't strong enough to pull his weight up like they could. Wasn't dexterous enough to leap like a fucking frog up a vertical cliff.

Graves bounded up Benkei's pillar with one hand behind his back.

Fatigue and pain tore at his fingers but he kept holding on, forcing himself to climb. He planted his foot in the pillar just as he reached its apex and leapt up toward Arnaakus. His fingers brushed stone yet they found no purchase. Panic filled his chest. He dropped his sword, flinging his other hand 'round to grasp the beast's leg. There he dangled precariously, blood pounding in his ears. This was maybe the stupidest thing he'd ever done. He swung up, grabbing onto the torso, and continued to climb.

Something was screaming at him from down below. What they were saying was lost on him; lost in that pounding headache and the screeching in his inner ear. Something deep in his center kept him pressing ahead, despite it all.

Climbing wasn't the hard part. There were plenty of handholds on its body- plenty of sharp, craggy bits to stick himself to. The hard part was holding on for dear life as the titan flung itself around in the midst of battle. It was like they'd taken the rock climbing wall, put it on wheels, and shoved it down a hill. That wasn't even to mention the thing clawing at him all the while. Tearing, snapping, trying to get a grasp on him. Graves shrunk as best he could, pressing ahead.

Graves scrambled up its back. He climbed, dodging past another claw. Just the wind of it swinging by his head was damn near enough to send him tumbling off. He gripped his handholds all the tighter, pushing on until he reached its head. A hand went to his belt. Shaking, terrified. He could see his sword laying on the ground far too many feet below. Heights. Fuck.

The only weapon he could find was a glass bottle full of odd colored liquid. One of the potion he'd snagged from Rael. It'd have to do. He broke the thing in his hand and reached up over Arnaakus's head, shoving a bunch of glass into its eye with all the strength he could muster. The demon let out a roar to shake the world and finally got a hold of him. It pulled Graves off its back and began to squeeze his tiny, fleshy body.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon, -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

'I'm too late.'

Enos lay motionless atop a stalagmite, the rock jutting through his chest. Blood washed down the side of the stone structure- fresh, slick. The light had only just left his eyes before they'd arrived. Death was not an unfamiliar presence in Andrew's life. He'd been to more funerals than he cared to remember. But that was always so...sterile. A body in a casket didn't bleed. Didn't still have that look of terror and fear and regret trapped on its face. Graves had promised Andrew he'd save each and every one of these people, and he'd already failed.

A scream echoed from ahead of them, further in the room. It was Luci's.

'Not again.' Graves sucked in a breath. His body was shaking- all adrenaline, all rage, all regret. He started walking toward the door, slowing even as everyone else sprinted ahead. He reached an unsteady hand out toward where Enos lay. He was already gone now, both here in Pariah and in the real world beyond. What was his body but an empty shell of code?

An empty shell. That's all it was.

An empty shell full of blood.

It came tearing out of him in long, dancing streaks. Light glistened off it from fading torch light. The wound in Enos's chest expanded with a sickening series of snaps, opening up further avenues to drain his arteries dry. It all gathered around Graves's hand, crawled up his arm. It formed something akin to a dense gauntlet of not-quite-liquid that reached just below his shoulder.

"Sorry, pal. I'll...I'll keep the rest of 'em alive for ya. I promise." The words trembled upon his tongue. A hurricane built up in his chest. Emotion raged like torrents of rain, tore through his body like whipping winds. The enemy they faced was far greater than anything they had taken down so far. It was a demon of earth, of green, of ravenous hunger. And it had killed another man right in front of them.

Aaginim was tossed aside like a broken toy. Limp, unmoving, and covered in his own blood. He'd fallen trying to protect the rest of his party. If they'd been there even a few minutes faster...

No time to think like that. No time to think at all. So many of the others were either fallen or close to it. Kazuki was rushing in to get at Priscilla's side. Alja was all fire and fury as she charged the creature head on, even as it reached out for her-- to do to her what it had already done to Aags. She was strong- stronger than most of them- but that towering titan of stone wasn't something she could muscle her way through. Not alone.

Graves ran forward to her side, slamming his shoulder into the demon's earthen grasp. He didn't bother with his weapon; it wasn't much use against that armored hide. His hands wrapped about a pair of the creature's fingers, each of which was maybe the size of his head. And he pushed back against it. Straining, screaming, pushing with all his might. Every muscle in his arms and chest burned, straining until they threatened to break.

Enos helped him hold the line.

"Nuke it!" He bellowed at the woman beside him. "Nuke it with everything you've god damn got!"

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Once the adrenaline- the rage- had faded, Graves could barely stand. Pain washed over the whole of his body, submerging him from head to toe. It dug deep- rooting itself in the depths of his bones and refusing to leave. It took all he had not to collapse in a heap once the battle was done; he tried to hide his limping as he joined the rest of the party around Kazuki. It was a brief yet all too welcome respite. Kazuki's healing was different than Graves's. His was a warm summer's light. It was a dance through a field of flowers. The snapping of bone and the scarring of wounds hurt just the same, sure, yet it was...duller. More easily swallowed.

When Graves healed himself it hurt nearly as much as the injury itself. Like he was reliving each stab, each bite, each cut again and again.

"You play well," he muttered once Kazuki set his lyre aside. A welcome reprieve, to be sure.

Then the talk of strategy began, and it was time to work again. They could hurt each other now in a way that had never been possible. Benkei's earthen constructs, Alja's ice, Kalie's...weird shit- it was all too dangerous to use without careful planning. Graves didn't say anything. He was pissed off that he'd been hit but he knew it wasn't worth getting into. They couldn't afford to be at one another's throats when they stood on the precipice of death. One wrong move meant the end of any one of them.

He looked to Rael, who's decision to play the big damn hero had nearly caused her to plummet to her own demise. If Seele was just a second too late, if she'd ran just a little slower...Graves shuddered. He wondered what it felt like. The pain he knew, sure, but what followed? Was it the cold embrace of the void? Or would Rael have woken up on the other side just long enough to feel the peripheral tear her mind asunder?

'Do you die twice?'

Graves tried best he could to shake the thought from his mind as he stood back to his feet, slipping his armor back on. He would know soon enough himself.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Steel clanged against rusted iron as the last of the gnolls met Graves in combat, unafraid of the death that awaited it. They were each exhausted, unable to howl at the other-- all they could do was stare hateful daggers and push. It was a tug-of-war match and whoever won got to plant their weapon into the other's throat. Graves was moments from overcoming the dogman just as an arrow soared right by his ear, burying itself into the creature's eye. It died with a whimper in its throat.

"I had that one-" He started to snarl, turning to face Alex just as the incident on the bridge reached its crescendo. Seele was screaming, Rael was following into the abyss's dark embrace and a heap of broken Dire Bat was moments from turning Graves and Alex into a pair of DPS-shaped skid marks. It was a lot to take in. A swirl of emotion, of fear and panic and rage, replaced the ecstasy of combat.

A quick look around and Graves took a dive toward the nearest bit of cover: those spikes Benkei had stuck him with earlier. What had been his bane would soon save his life. The bat tumbled, wing over heel, bouncing off the ground like a stone across water. It reached its apex when it impaled itself upon that spiky field. The beast's massive body lurched with pain. Blood spurted from its innumerable wounds. And yet, despite that, it raged on. All screams and howls of violent defiance.

Its unwillingness to die would've been something to admire under other circumstances. For now, Graves was busy pulling himself out from under its heaping mass, crawling along his belly until he was safely able to rise. It snapped its teeth toward him. If he'd been even an inch closer it may've gotten hold of him.

The killing stroke was quick, precise, but far from clean. Gore sprayed like a fountain all over Graves and anyone else in the splash zone, catching him in its innards. The thing went into its death throes, tossing and turning until it snapped the spikes inside of it and began to wiggle loose. He stumbled backward onto his ass to avoid catching one of those claws in his chest.

The Bat went still a few moments later.

And Graves was back on his feet, sword left in the dirt as he ran toward where Seele was laying near the chasm's edge. He saw Rael laying over her chest. He didn't see her moving. "Nonono you tiny moron, don't tell me you played hero and..." His voice trailed off, something else playing in the back of his mind.

'Don't fuck it up.'

The panic died in his throat once he was close enough to see Rael was still breathing. Just as he came to stand above her and Seele, Rael stirred awake from the daze.

“Did we—Did we get it?”

His shoulders sank a foot as he sighed out his response: "No thanks to you."