Amara
Infernal Cloak: Activated
The claw of the blackbird appears through the raging firestorm that she’d only just managed to bring up as her shield.
And in the next instance, she feels the sting of his claws.
HP: -5
She falls back, looking at the gash he’s tore into her shoulder, feeling her blood bubble beneath her fingers.
“LIGHTBRINGER!”
The winged monster flies across the room in an instant – his wings barely twitching as they carry him behind the rage-filled Antethra and his claws flare out in attack.
An arrow sings through the darkness of the void.
And it manages to beat away the long talons of the beast long enough for the priestess to pirouette and slash through four of his fingers.
“Ain’t gonna be so easy for you, ya big feathered freak!”
She knew the voice to belong to Marius even as she scanned the room and saw only wailing shadows throwing themselves across the floor.
Antethra lunged forward, her daggers shining bright, before they struck nothing but a haze of smoke.
“Wha-“
Amara watches as the smoke trail snaked around to the priestess’ back, and from within the smog she saw the beak of the Blackbird emerge.
“Look out!”
GLANCE Incantation: Fireball.
Her blazing light, normally vibrant, was dim and tarnished by the all-consuming black that dominated the hall. It slammed into the cackling form of the Blackbird as he sliced at Antethra, tearing her veil from her face, and rolled across the floor.
“She looks much better without that thing, don’t you both think?” he jeered through his flaming wings. “Even better if you can get her on her back.”
A dagger flashed in the dark and found his blind eyesocket, and his laughter quickly turned into a yelp of pain.
Antethra stood resolute amidst the crying shadows, one empty hand outstretched.
“I am wishing I could say the same for you.”
To Amara’s horror the Jilae cracked his neck and smiled at them – blood spilling from his open wound where the dagger now dangled from his vestigial eyesocket. Still aflame, he sank back into the ground and returned to his smokescreen form.
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“Come on!” he howled like a beast. “Come at me with all your rage! All your fury! All your desire for vengeance! That’s what he needs – that’s what I need!”
Amara turned just in time to see the smoke-snake appear behind her again.
“Go on, Lightborn, show me what you can do.”
One flash of silver came arcing towards her, and she just managed to launch a fireball at the sickle to send it flying across the room and smash into one of the wailing stain glass walls.
With her other hand she readied a [Flame Gout] right at the snarling, smirking face of the Blackbird.
“Amara! Watch-!”
A gargle of blood hit against her cheek, and she looked beside her to see Antethra coughing up crimson.
Embedded in her shoulder was the same sickle that had sought Amara’s neck, attached to an impossibly elongated arm belonging to her foe.
“No,” Revok growled. “That’s just not good enough.”
He tossed the priestess aside like a ragdoll and eyed Amara hungrily, his other arm reaching for her throat. His blind eyes traced her figure, and then suddenly became fixated on her forehead.
“Ah…oh…now that’s interesting.”
Three more arrows sail through the air and with a flick of his feathered wings he sent them flying back into the shadows.
She took her chance.
[Flame Gout: Activa-]
His beak finds her wrist and tears into the tendons there, ripping through her skin with such ease that her scream of agony only came when she saw him chewing on her flesh.
“AAARGH!”
Mom! Mom I – he – help – help I – he – he -!
But her mother’s voice was lost in the darkness, swallowed up by the black throat of the Jilae who laughed in the face of her pain.
“This is all you offer me?” he said, holding up her ruined arm by her almost fully eviscerated, dangling hand. “Miss Lightbringer. I’m disappointed.”
She felt the fire within her die as she looked at him. In his blind, silvered eyes was something she’d never seen before. She struggled desperately to free herself. She kicked at him, she screamed, she beat him with what feeble strength her body had. But now, try as she might, the flames wouldn’t travel up her veins.
It was like being naked – reduced to nothing in the face of this creature.
She was right back in that cellar again.
The Blackbird’s head then jerked up suddenly, his smile broken and replaced with a wry grimace as something bright and emerald green flashed in the room and found his back.
Marius’ poison…
He coughs blackened blood and bile into her face. But his grip doesn’t waver at all. She feels the fury rising within his feathered breasts, and his wings rise up with his elongated neck.
“My, my, my!” he yelps madly at the rooftops. “When will you realize that you’re out of your depth here, little man?”
One flap of his frayed, still flaming wings not only doused her fire but sent a wave of energy radiating out from the ground, and Amara heard the distinct sound of a man grunting as he hit the side of the Blackbird’s golden throne.
“Eugh, humans,” the raven croaked as his stretched-out arm twisted out its socket and grabbed Marius’ poisoned dagger from his back.
“Interesting,” he mused. “A Scorpirex-tipped blade. I’ll bet this was the handiwork of a talented little Glancer. But such weapons are the domains of humans – always trying to compensate for their physical inadequacies. Don’t you agree?”
He edged the weapon towards Amara’s face as she kicked out against him.
“You though – you’re not quite human anymore, are you?” he said with a lick of his vile beak. “I had wondered what the Lightbringer would be. But now that I see it’s just a little girl hosting a weakened spirit. Well, I’m unimpressed.”
She tried to draw her attention away from her ruined hand which he slowly crushed within his claw, until he’s forced her to the ground, his long, lithe tongue dripping with blackened saliva.
“But out of respect for another Magister from the depths of the void, maybe I’ll cut you open and learn your little secret.”
“I…I’m not afraid…of you.”
She choked out the words more than said them, and his smile only grew in the face of her fury.
“Words most mortals bark at the dark. I can’t blame you – once they were mine. But you know something?”
He brought the gleaming blade still glistening with his own blood towards her neck.
“They are always lies.”