Screams of abject terror even worse than Jayne had heard in her cell echoed up the stairwell they had only just left. The flashing lights of dozens of skills were dominated by a crimson glow that made her heart shudder within her chest.
Several guards quickly got into formation as the screams continued but Jayne could see their pale faces even across the room. The prisoners were all backing away as far as their bonds would let them and their guards barely noticed as they themselves were moving along with them.
Jenkins had fallen silent and as the screaming continued and the sound of blood and viscera splattering against the stone walls of the stairwell drew closer, he dropped Jayne and took a step back.
“Alistair! Hendrian! Control your captive!” Jenkins shouted his eyes darting between the nearby guards and priests but no one responded, “Damn it! Move down and deal with it! We have more important things to do!”
The gathered guards stepped forward just as the stairwell exploded with crimson fire. Through the guards, Jayne saw someone in black-green robes fall to the ground just outside of the stairwell.
[Hendrian Lanarta | Priest 77 | Human]
“Gods! The demon is free, we must flee!” The man shrieked as he clawed his way away from the stairs. It was only then that Jayne saw that his legs were gone and a trail of bright blood led down the stairs.
Jayne gasped and fell backward away from Jenkins and back to Rendal’s side, “Oh gods! What is it?!”
Rendal didn’t even look up, his head still tilted downward but he grunted, “Hmmph, you’ll see…” His head fell to the side, his bruised face looking over at her, “Can you run?”
Jayne wasn’t sure. Her legs shook beneath her and she could barely breathe, “I… I don’t know.”
Rendal coughed or chuckled, Jayne couldn’t tell, “Figures… Then you better pick a god,” Rendal made the same noise again, “Find a god and start praying.”
A priest from the gathered guards ran toward the fallen man and placed a glowing hand on his shoulder but he battered it aside, “What are you doing you fools?! Run-”
The priest never finished as something left the stairwell behind him and the priest who was attempting the fallen man fell in two. Gore sprayed the fallen priest and the entire formation of guards.
Hendrian’s words became terrified, mumbling as he desperately clawed the ground in an attempt to get away from whatever had just appeared, “Oh Uton! No! -”
*Splat! *
Jayne gagged as she saw the man’s head splatter across the stone floor. Rendal didn’t seem to care and sat there with the same tired expression. The prisoners, however, began to scream.
Jayne looked back toward the guards to try and see what had just appeared even as she was fighting against the urge to weep. She needn’t have bothered trying to look through the lines of the guards, the figure towered over them at least a head taller than the tallest of the guards. Its face was that of man’s but most of its features were obscured by a layer of thick, partially dried blood. Its dark hair hung by its shoulders but it too was thick with blood, giving it a red sheen, enhanced by the crimson flame rising up from the stairs behind it.
Its eyes burned bright crimson mixed with flakes of golden light that seemed almost wrong in that thing’s eyes. Those burning eyes darted through the room so fast that seeing it almost made her dizzy and when those orbs of flame fell upon her, she fell from her knees onto her back as panic suddenly overwhelmed her. She was going to die.
Barriers and shields rose up as the guards fell away from the demon revealing more of its body to Jayne. Its powerful form screamed raw power in every sense of the word and the barely dried blood almost looked like scales as it clotted on its skin. Only the scars that covered the demon’s flesh marred the sense of invulnerability radiating from it.
Crimson flame seemed to leak from the demon’s pores as it pulled a bent axe from the remains of the first priest. A hissing sound oozed from the demon’s mouth as more flame trailed away from its mouth. It looked primed on the edge of slaughter and everyone in the room, even Jenkins was frozen in terrified indecision.
The demon’s gaze fell upon Jayne’s face again and she let out a gasp as the air left her lungs. The demon’s eye didn’t move on like before and instead, the crimson fire dulled slightly and its head tilted to the side. For the barest instant, Jayne almost believed it wasn’t going to attack but then Jenkins staggered backward, “What are you doing!? Kill that thing!”
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The demon’s head straightened and a sinister sneer appeared on its face, cracking the dried blood. A swordsman swung his blade and three priests conjured bolts of golden light but before they had the chance to land the world seemed to pause. Crimson light flashed across the demon’s body, and fangs of crimson fire sprung forth from its mouth. But worst of all was the aura that slammed down on her mind.
Jayne tried to speak but no words came and suddenly even crawling was too much for her. It was all pointless. All she could do was watch her end come. In the vain hope she could understand what was coming to kill them all, Jayne used Identify.
[He who kills | ??/ERROR?-
Warning: You have been marked for death by He who kills…
“Dalen, what are you doing?! We need to get away from here!” Melisia shouted despite being only a few feet away from him. She was covered in blood from all the people she had tended and had been forced to move to the wall as their temporary allies were pushed back.
“Agggh, quiet! I need to concentrate, just keep them off me, and make sure enough of the druids are alive to keep us alive!” Dalen growled without looking away from the monstrosity that was brewing in his cauldron.
The ground shook as another column of blinding light shattered the eastern wall. A thick cloud of dust and debris flooded over the battle. The archers who had been safely firing arrows down onto the choke point and those outside fell clear if they were lucky and died messily if they weren’t. Dalen didn’t pay attention to any of that, he was consumed by his work.
Dozens of vials of his most concentrated essences were dumped haphazardly into his cauldron, the only thing preventing it from blowing up in his face was the properties of the cauldron itself and virtually nothing to do with his methods. That was perfect for Dalen’s purposes since he didn’t care if it exploded, that was kind of the point. He just needed it to wait a minute.
The space where the wall was once protected was filled with a dizzying array of gold and green-black bolts of death and only a desperate barrier of plants and earth from the remaining druids stopped the bolts from tearing them all apart, Dalen included. Leo moved to the eastern side and resumed his fiery assault. The barrage slowed after that.
“At least tell me what you're doing?” Melisia complained but turned away from him and sent a mana bolt of her own back through the dust.
“You don’t want to know- Oh shit!” The concoction writhed and hissed, expelling a puff of multi-colored fumes that Dalen really did not want to breathe in so he ducked his head to the side and waved his hand through them instead. Harvest Essence was surprisingly useful when it came to making alchemical items on the cheap. The fumes condensed back into a liquid and dripped from his open hand back into the horror he was making.
Using the evaporated crap from potions was terrible for purity but often the most noxious stuff came out first and that was exactly what he wanted here. After the essence separated and mixed with the others within the cauldron the entire solution darkened and the cauldron visibly started to shake. Dalen grinned nervously, “Oh, yeah this’ll do it… Leo! Do your thing! Get us a path!”
Leo had already caught on to Dalen’s plan and he liked it even less than Melisia would but he nodded and roared over the battlefield, “Warriors of Earae, if you want to live follow me!”
The surviving fighters knew the voice of a leader when they heard one had found no issue in taking Leo’s orders, especially after seeing what he could do with his fires. Leo accelerated his onslaught through the shattered eastern wall and several of the Sceleti fighters broke away to move with him.
“What are you doing you? Hold!” From the dust and debris Iladrian in his owl form flew just high enough to avoid the fire of Leo’s attack and shifted to land beside Dalen. He was battered and burned but very much still in fighting condition. Worst of all he looked fucking pissed and he was about to take it out on Dalen.
Iladrian’s sudden arrival startled Dalen enough that he almost knocked over his cauldron but he managed to save it, barely, “Gods, you crazy fuck! do you want to die?” In that moment Dalen felt Kal’s aura drastically increase in potency and he felt his face pale.
He wasn’t alone. The Sceleti warriors and druids who had only unconsciously felt it before shuddered and even after Iladrian’s return they moved toward Leo and the path away from the tower. They had no idea what was in there but the need to get away dominated their minds like it tried to dominate Dalen’s
Iladrian tensed his face only hardened, “No. I will not leave her here to be fodder for Uton or that thing,” The War Druid turned and raised his hand as if to conjure the thorns again but instead of targeting the enclosing soldiers he gestured toward Leo and the clearing.
“Damn it!” The fool was about to ruin his plan, “Don’t be a fucking idiot-” The man wasn’t listening and Dalen didn’t have time to argue with him or explain his plan so he did the only sensible thing, and tossed a bomb into his face.
It was only a Flash Bomb, well not only a Flash Bomb. It was a new mix and one of Dalen’s favorites. The Retina Scorcher bounced off the War Druid’s nose before vaporizing into a sphere of blinding light so intense that the sun looked like the moon in comparison. Dalen had already turned back to his boiling monstrosity and closed his eyes so all he felt was a slight warmth on the back of his neck. Iladrian and half of the approaching Empire soldiers weren’t so lucky.
Iladrian cried out in shock and pain, his skill sputtering and dying before it could take effect. He staggered backward, his voice deep but edged with pain and desperation, “No! My daughter is in there!”
Dalen understood immediately. No wonder the man had been so willing to attempt a suicidal raid, “Melisia! Heal him. We are going to need him!”
She didn’t argue and immediately lowered a glowing hand onto Iladrian’s face but shouted, “How much longer?!”
Melisia was right. Leo and the Sceleti were getting further away and Empire warriors were already breaking off toward him. His Retina Scorcher had delayed them by accident but wouldn’t stop others from replacing them.
Dalen returned to his cauldron and focused his mind on his next and probably last stupid idea, “A couple of seconds. Iladrian, you better be ready to run.”
The War Druid said something but Dalen didn’t catch it as he focused in on the solution almost boiling over in his cauldron. When he reached level fifty, Dalen hadn’t been sure what skill he should pick. His options had been kind of lame, at least on a surface level. He decided to leave his decision for a while until he found a valid reason to pick one of them.
Now he had made his decision.
Delay [Uncommon]
Delay the alchemical reaction of any essence-based concoction. Duration of delay scales with Will.