The mountain's sweet seduction...

[dain]

A group of lizards burst out more so from a different door, and Dain jumped backwards to span his eyes over all of them. Dain rolled his eyes.

God damn these creatures... He thought to himself in annoyance as he drew back both his hands to form a symbol called the "Dragon's mouth".

The little black orb then stopped its revolution and rested in the mouth Dain's hands created. The orb then started spinning, Dain didn't have time, the lizards were closing in. HIs voice yelled in the room and it echoed like one thousand voices as the orb grew in the hand formation he had made. He then thrust his hands forward with a large yell.

"FALMA HITEN!!!" He yelled as a large wave of dark energy was released from his hands and went over a group of lizards. THe darkness lingered around them as screams arose from their mouths and limbs surged back inside the lizard's body.Their legs cracked and compacted as the legs were pushed inside themselves, the lizards' heads were turned inside-out, and their bodies now resembled small baseballs. Dain, drained, headed back and stood, hunched, next to Ithilwen. He nodded in her direction.

"I think it's your turn." He said in a thoughtful way.

[Whiteshadow]

"Her turn? When do I get to have any fun!" Crow said standing back. He had been watching the show, about to come in when help was needed, but considering the situation, it was not. He sliced every reptile that came near, then eyed a group of them a few yards away, in 2 by 2 pattern formation. Crow made a solid stance, and drew water from a frozen pump near the corner. he placed his hands out in front of him, palms facing toward his torso. the water spread out of the floor, freezing the lizards to the ground, up to their knees. He pulled out his bow, and knocked two arrows, and shot. He caught one lead attacker in the chest, and the other arrow stuck itself into the wall.

At that point, the lizards were hacking their feet attempting to free themselves. Their attempts were ended as arrows from Crow pierced through their hearts and lungs. the now-dead reptiles stood on two legs, dead. Crow smiled as he ran up to one, and kicked it over, breaking the ice which supported it. He took a deep breath as he walked over to Dain, enjoying every bit of the adrenaline.

[L.A.C.R.I.M.O.S.A]

Ithilwen nodded solemnly, her eyes scanning the enemy line for weaknesses...spaces...anything. Thalion's head dropped low to the ground as he stood beside her, his long, pointed teeth ready and bared fully in a vicious growl, tail straight up in the air behind him as keen, golden eyes flitted back and forth.

Ithilwen turned sharply in a full 360 degree circle as her hands and weapon following shortly after for extra momentum and strength. Five reptiles made the mistake of advancing on her in the process, and in an instant, they were all sent crashing to the ground in a heap, cleaved completely in two from the waist as the familiar green liquid poured profusely from their now severed bodies.

Ithilwen's animal companions, however, were doing well on their own. Valorion flew at the head of a reptile, his wings beating rapidly at its face and large, sharpened talons tearing violently at the amber eyes. As the creature swatted furiously at the falcon and stumbled backwards, Thalion leaned back on his haunches and lurched forward, launching himself at the fleshy, exposed throat of the reptile and ripping it easily out with the sheer power of his jaws.

A slash to the right took out an enemy, and a swift stab behind her back sent another reeling away in pain due to the bloody, unfortunate loss of an eye. Ithilwen snarled in frustration as she sent her blade through the skull a reptile without so much as a second thought.

Where do they come from? They just keep coming! By this rate, they'll wear us down and outnumber us. We need to finish this quickly.

The avariel initiated a back flip as she kicked off of the chest of a reptile and landed safely upon the top of a nearby table, preparing herself to do something she had not done in a while: The Calling of Anor'Hir ....the Sun Lord.

((Angelus, this probably sounds familiar to you....))

Ithilwen raised herself on the tips of her toes with her hands stretched skywards over her upturned face. She dropped her voice and, with careful precision, recited the incantation.

"Tolo hi, beleg Anor'Hir! Alae laern gothir a dago nalar nan erui nac telin! (Come now, mighty Sun Lord! Behold thy foes and banish it to whence it came)

Suddenly, the very earth gave an enormous tremble, the reptiles before her stopping dead in their tracks as they stared dumbly around at the ground like frightened animals. A wide mound in the middle of the floor began to form, pushing up dirt, dust, and stone as it grew. Then, the great mound split open with a gigantic CRACK! that emanated a sonic wave that Ithilwen felt reverberate inside her very ribcage, and a bright, blinding light emerged from the crack and enlarged as more and more of the ground parted, the rays consuming every inhabitant of the room in enormous jaws of shimmering gold.

Soon after, the light seemed to begin twisting and contorting itself to steal the form of a gigantic, hand of golden light, its long, splayed fingers digging into the stone floor like sand upon a beach.

Several shrill cries of utter terror were heard from the mouths of a multitude of reptiles as they were quickly snatched up by the hand, but in an instant, they were all quieted as the hand tightened its inescapable grip, blood spraying over the company below as the build-up in pressure caused the victim's bodies to implode violently.

Still holding its prize of dead, lifeless corpses of the reptiles, the hand of the Sun Lord began to recede back into the ground, dragging in a few more helpless, screaming victims in the process. As the light subsided, Ithilwen placed her hands on her knees for support as she tried to gain back her breath. The summoning had drained her, but it was well worth it. Only a small collection of reptiles remained, but they were all wide-eyed with fear yet still determined to take down the intruders.

[dain]

Dain looked at Crow, alarmed.

"Control your breathing, you won't be any use to us if you pass out from an adrenaline rush." He stated as a lizard sighted Dain and charged forward. Dain quickly stepped to the side and tripped the lizard, and his elbow then came crashing down on the lizard's head as its neck cracked from landing.

"Use short bursts of energy, and don't let your adrenaline pump through your body." He added.

Dain couldn't use a large amount of energy, the gash on his side was still bleeding. If he pushed his heart rate up, the blood would pump out faster, which in turn would diminish him. Dain went behind Ithilwen, though, he didn't like using her as a defensive tool. His tanktop came off as he wrapped it around his body and over the gash to put some pressure on it. His magnificently-sculpted body glistened from the sweat he had worked up, and his arm muscles bulged as he came back from behind Ithilwen.

"COME ON YOU UGLY ABOMINATIONS!" He yelled as he trotted forward, another Elghinn Falma ball in his open hand.

Have to keep it minimum... He kept saying in his mind.

Some lizards heard Dain's snide remark and looked at him in resentment. What a dirty litt...big human. A lizard decided to part from the group and rushed at Dain with his broadsword.

Dain readied himself as the broadsword came toward him from th air, a downward strike. Quickly, Dain's arm snaked itself over the blade and his hand caught the back of the blade, making it rest in mid-strike. THe lizard, stunned, just looekd at him.

Gotcha. Dain echoed in his mind as he thrust the dark orb-wielding hand into the lizard's face, skull parts and brain flying backwards.

He turned his head back as lizards rushed toward him to avenge their brethren.

"I COULD SOME SOME HELP!!!" He yelled.

[Angelus]

Angelus heard Dain's desperate plea, but did not have the time to help him. The reptiles began to grow in number and Angelus had to hold them off. The balcony he was on was a dead end. Behind Angelus was a solid wall and the only way to get down was to either jump or down the stairs. The stairs, however, were a few yards away and were block ed by about twenty creatures who were running at him.

He gripped both of his swords and charge forward. He blocked an attack from a creature's scimitar and then stabbed the creature in its heart. Angelus pulled his sword from the creature's body to see the green blood covering it. he had no time to bask in this one death. He continued to run forward. The monsters that were to his left and running along the banister of the balcony were easy kills. With a simple motion of his hand, Angelus could throw them over the banister and down to the hall below. The other on the right were harder.

They were not as agile as Angelus predicted them to be and with his agility, he was easily able to defeat them. He cut at their legs and their sides and their hearts. Many fell until Angelus was finally at the stairs.

There were no reptiles of the stairs and Angelus quickly ran down them and turned to his left. The hall was flooded with creatures, all splitting up between Ithilwen, Dain, and Crow. Many has their backs towards Angelus so he took this opportunity. He started to fight his way through the crowd by stabbing the creatures in the back and killing them. He hoped that he would soon a find a way to one of his friends so that he could help them with this swarm of insects.

[Whiteshadow]

Crow sliced a few lizards, and made his way to Dain's side. "Don't tell me you don't get adrenaline from battle, I am just enjoying this before it gets too serious." Crow said. He sheathed his blood stained sword. He saw a group of reptiles approaching, unarmed or unarmored. He walked foward, carrying himself like an angry ox. He set outa few text-book punches, knocking a few lizards flat. He stomped on their necks, killing them slowly.

"No offense Dain, but I ain't fancy..."

[Angelus]

Angelus stabbed the last two creatures that stood between him and Ithilwen. He sliced them down and quickly ran over to Ithilwen. He raised his hand and launched an air current at a large reptile that was creeping up behind her. It was launched several feet in the air and landed a few feet away. Angelus ran over and placed his back along Ithilwen's back. He began to cut down more and more monsters that came at him.

"Hey, ready to take these things out once and for all?"

[dain]

"No, I don't get adrenaline from battle. I am quite calm." He answered as a lziard came at him, its sword raised.

As the sword came slahing at him, Dain stepped to the side and elbowed it right in the cheek, sending the repitillian sprawling to the side, trying to regain its balance. The sword it had held in its hand had fallen to now be over Dain's shoe.
Dain looked down and brought his foot up quickly as the sword flew into the air, where his ahnd caught it. He swung it once as a small ringing sound was made.

Time to go back to the Old Light...

"See you around the bend, Crow." Dain exclaimed as he swung the blade, a perfect harmonic arising from it. From there, Dain just walked forward toward the lizards. He flipped up another blade on the ground and caught it with his other.

Dain sighed as lizards rushed at him. In a sweeping moment, both the lizard's heads were off and slashes appeared ont he chests of those behind the two. A perfect ringing came from the sword as he slashed. A lizard threw a blade at Dain as he bent to the side and hit the sword, causing it to flutter to another side of the room. His left-hand blade kissed the reptile's throat and down it went. The reptiles backed up as Dain, calm, broguht the swords to the ground and raked them, sparks flying everywhere. He cringed slightly as he stood back up, his wound was bothering him greatly but he chose not to show it.

Come on Ithilwen and Angelus... A thought rang out.

[L.A.C.R.I.M.O.S.A]

Ithilwen's back was now against Angelus's, and she had her katana held firmly before her, the elongated blade dripping thoroughly with thick, warm, green liquid that pooled in small, dark puddles at her boot-clad feet. Valorion and Thalion were now back at her side, glaring protectively at all who came near the avariel as the reptiles, ever-increasing in number and determination, continued their advance upon the small company.

Plan... We need a plan, and /fast/.

"Any ideas? We need to think quick. I doubt we'll be able to hold for much longer." The reptiles were still continuing to close in upon them, and the avariel growled low in her throat.

And then it occurred to her......Could she do it? Did she have the energy to perform such a transformation? She could barely master it during training, but she was at full power then. How could she expect to do it now? Yet still, it lingered in her mind like a dark, looming cloud, and they were running short of both options and time. Unless someone else had plans, she would have no choice but to do it...........

[Angelus]

Angelus held his two swords up high, blocking multiple attacks from multiple attackers. The situation was becoming desperate and there needed to be a plan and quick. What they needed to do is not fight there way out to a point of pure exhaustion, but rather let the reptiles fight until they were exhausted.

Angelus glanced back towards the shrine door and then a plan came to him. "Guys, we need to get back into the shrine and lock the doors shut. It will give us a chance to recuperate."'

What he was really hoping was that once they secured themselves inside, they could experiment with the carcases in there so that they could possible destroy all of these creatures using the magic of the ziggurat.

[Whiteshadow]

"You guys go for it, I'm gonna need someone back here to cover me. I'll be able to kill the remainders, but it will be tiering!" Crow shouted as Fwayglin landed on his shoulder. He pulled some water to him, and made a circular wave, as if a large pebble had been dropped into a pond. Once the area was clear, he reached into a leather satchel he had strapped to his belt. He pulled out the kiwi orb, and took a deep breath. "When ever you guys are ready"

[Angelus]

Angelus stabbed his sword into the last reptile in front of him. Crow cleared out the rest, so Angelus was clear to run back to the shrine. Angelus combined his swords back together and placed his staff on his back.

He sprinted into the shrine and quickly turned and grabbed the door, waiting for the others to run in so he would be able to close it.

[dain]

Dain saw what Angelus was doing and quickly turned as barreled into a stray lzard, which knowcked the reptile over. Dain rose his foot up over the lizard's head as it came crashing down, crushing every bone in its skull. He rose his head once again and ran toward the door, going inside and waiting for the others...

However, the shrine caught his eye. A statue of Saggitarius made of pure gold lay in the middle, and waterfalls fell to either side of the statue. Dain approached the sculpture of fine artsmanship and graed the golden treasure that lay before him. THe statue was beautiful, the rituals in the name of it were not....to anyone but Dain himself.

A clang sounded as Dain dropped the two swords he had and clenched his hands into a fist and oepned them wide, stretching his fingers. He tightened the bandage around his side as well, he didn't want infection to set in the wound, that would be the worst possible thing to happen in this kind of situation.

[L.A.C.R.I.M.O.S.A]

Ithilwen made for the door with haste, dispatching an oncoming wave of enemies in the process as her companions followed shortly after. She was glad that they'd finally be able to recover in safety for a while...

BAM! As soon as the avariel set foot in the room, she had no time to glance around, as a large cage fell suddenly from the ceiling with a loud clash as it landed. It consisted entirely of dark, writhing bars composed of some peculiar sort of black magic that closely resembled an electrical current, and when Ithilwen reached out to grab a bar, she sharply recoiled her hand in an instant.

It hurt. A lot....

She felt as though every muscle, every bone, every particle of her body was set aflame, and it sapped her very energy to exhaustion as the remnants of the dark magic ravaged her body, tearing away at her innards violently as it continued its course. The avariel cried out with sheer agony as she fell to her trembling knees, sinking to the floor slowly as she lay unconscious upon the cold, hard stone in a heap of silver and white.

Thalion whined helplessly as he barked at his princess incessantly, trying anything and everything to get her back on her feet, but it was all in vain. She was out cold...

Then, his pleas halted immediately as he turned around, teeth bared threateningly and a loud growl ripping from his throat. Valorion, who had made the wolf's back a temporary perch, cried out in warning as his eyes fixed on the intruder.

A large, bulky reptile garbed in blood red robes sat atop the railing of a balcony from high above. He was easily over eight feet tall, and two large, yellow eyes stared mercilessly at the company below. As if it were the easiest feat in the world, he leaped off the balcony and landed gracefully on the stone floor, his long, scaly tail swishing to and fro as he made his leisure way up to the cage.

eager and ready, Thalion launched himself at the intruder protectively, but he yelped as the reptilian man simply held up a single hand, flicked it once, and sent the wolf and his feathered friend back through the air to land in a large, black bubble that parted its surface to receive the flustered, snarling animal. Knowing better than to touch the strange, black substance, the wolf merely paced back and forth as his amber eyes glared icily at the reptile.

Hands folded neatly behind his back, the reptile made his way over to the large Cage in which the avariel woman was held captive, and he leaned down to examine her unconscious form with great intrigue. "Yessssssss," he said, voice tainted with traces of a foreign accent, "this one will do nicccccely."

Long-fingered hands adorned dangerously with sharpened claws ran over the bars without any hint of pain or discomfort almost as if he were stroking the surface of glass instead of that of black magic. He seemed almost in a trance, but after a few moments of silence, his large, slanted eyes turned abruptly upon the remaining of the company as he straightened himself to full height.

A large, toothy grin that revealed long, pointed teeth snaked its way onto the creature's lips as it spoke, "I'll be taking thisssss one with me. The Lord Saggitariussss lustssss for blood, and I do believe the blood of an avariel will make for a fine sacrificcccceee to our divine Lord, don't you think?" A low, raspy chuckle emanated from the reptilian priest as the sound echoed eerily throughout the room, suddenly quieting everything in the process.

He bowed low as he said, "The lady and I will be leaving now. We have an appointment with the god, and it would be an ill fate in store for us should we make him wait. Farewell." Then, he snapped his fingers, and both he and the cage bearing the fallen avariel dissipated into thin air along with the black bubble that held hostage the wolf and falcon.


((If you get stuck, just remember this: there's an animal in the room with a sharp nose who knows Ithilwen's scent very well...))

[Angelus]

Angelus caught all of this from right behind Ithilwen. He charged forward and grabbed the cage, trying to pull apart the bars. A sudden shocking sensation shot through all of his body, forcing him to let go. He assumed that if he could just hold long enough, the pain would go away and he would be able to free Ithilwen. He grabbed the bars once again. The pain shot through his body, but overtime, they became stronger and eventually launched Angelus backward. He collided with the wall and his head hit hard against the solid surface. The injury was not enough, though, from stopping him from saving Ithilwen. He got up and began to walk forward again to save her.

Then a sudden aurora filled the air and made Angelus very dizzy. He sat down and blinked multiple time in order to try to get his vision back. When his vision finally returned, he saw a tall, red figure approach the cage and then the cage suddenly disappear. When the cage disappeared, he suddenly felt better. He stood up and ran forward, waving his hands in the air.

"Ithilwen, NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" he yelled.

Indescribable rage began to guilt up inside of him and his clenched his fists tight. He looked out the door and saw that the battle outside was still raging. He could not hold in his anger anymore. He began to walk out of the door towards the fighting creatures and let out a deafening scream. Air currents began to circle him in every direction. These currents began to rise high and higher until a full-force tornado encircled Angelus and reached the ceiling. The tornado moved with Angelus and picked up the creatures and flung many of them against opposite walls. After many minutes of this, his energy began to fade and Angelus had to relinquish his attack.

he stood and looked around at the many dead creatures. He looked to his right to see that one was still barely living. He marched over to this creature who was laying against the wall. he grabbed him y the collar and pulled him up to his height. "Where has he taken her!" he yelled at the creature. The creature responded, "somewhere that cannot be found," and passed away.

Angelus' anger had now reached a boiling point and he had no idea where to look for Ithilwen.