“I’m not going up there,” Calliope said, as the group looked up at the Cliff. There was a narrow path, winding its way up a narrow cliff, with a number of seabirds, and the occasional harpy, flying from alcove to alcove. Below was a series of jagged rocks, and rough seas.
“What, you’re afraid of heights?” Bea asked, playfully.
“No, I’m afraid of falling. Sirens were built for sea level, not hundreds of feet above it,” Calliope replied, shaking slightly.
“We’ll make this quick. Just hold onto Toto, and he’ll keep you safe,” Kass said, without looking back at the pair. The path up was treacherous, not only were the harpies a constant threat, but there were also Fomorians. The cyclopian tunnel dwellers loved to rain rocks down upon unsuspecting parties, or to just beat their opponents into submission with stalagmite clubs. They were not to be underestimated.
“Since we only have a couple pets left, I’ll have my elementals lead, followed by the pekeketua. Bea, keep your squad close to the cliffs, I want you in top shape when the harpies come.” Kass said, finally turning back to the group. The anthophilan nodded, flew over to the other bee women to prepare. Calliope just collapsed on her crab companion, muttering to herself, and staring up at the cliff in despair.
Kass gave her troops a minute to prepare themselves, before signalling for them to advance. She summoned a pair of moderate sized elementals to lead the way, and started up the cliffside path. The path wasn’t THAT narrow, but it was narrow enough that everyone had to watch their steps. It was a good thing that Toto, being an oversized crab, walked sideways, or he wouldn’t have fit up the slope. Not that helped Calliope, who yelped, and screamed, every time her crab familiar tilted towards the edge.
The little party managed to get up to the first landing, before the defenders engaged. One of the elementals was smashed by a rock the size of a siren’s head. Not that it actually stopped the thing. Since the elemental was made out of water, the projectile just sailed through, only causing superficial damage. The elemental turned to inspect the rock, out of curiosity, before turning and staring at its assailant.
Hanging from the roof, hidden in the darkness, were a group of lizard-like humanoids, each with a single, giant, bloodshot eye. As soon as they were spotted the group hissed, and dropped from their hiding places. As the fomorians advanced on the group, one of the anthophilans’ cried out in pain, half a dozen razer sharp feathers embedded in her back. “Harpies above,” Bea reported, as she unsheathed her sword.
“Deal with them!” Kass yelled, “We can deal with the fomorians without you.” Bea didn’t need any more prompting, and the rest of her squad flew up to engage the enemy flyers.
The battle on the ground did not start out so well. Even though the fomorians were buffed by spells and blowdarts, their thick skin and scales let them shrug most of it off. As soon as they were close enough, the malformed lizards raised their stony clubs, and charged. The elementals did their best to intercept, but the same semi solid form that allowed them to shrug off a boulder before, made it possible for most of the fomorians to bypass them. Two were waylaid, battered and partially engulfed, but the rest pushed past, eager to engage the party.
They were met not only by the pekeketua brawlers, but Toto. The massive crab smashed into the lizards, claws first, grappling and smashing the lizards with his claws. Even though this evened up the fight, it did not impress Calliope, who was still sitting on his back. She shrieked and smashed at the nearest creature with her staff.
Kassandra didn’t have the time to help her, she was too busy trying to cut into one of the fomorians. The creature cackled at her, taunting her as her light blades bounced off its skin, but everything changed when she drew blood. The instant she did she flicked a finger across the dagger and intoned a single word under her breath. “Burn”
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The fomorian froze in surprise for just a moment, then started screaming, clawing at its face and body. The blood on Kass’ blade, and leaking from the wound smoldered. The next closest fomorian staggered away in horror, and caught one of the pekeketua’s blades to the face. Even though the creature’s natural armor was thick, it wasn’t enough to save it from the brute force from the eight foot tall bullfrog. There was a sickening crunching sound as scale and bone gave way to teeth and hardwood. As the two fomorians collapsed and derezed, the pekeketua looked at his blade, which broke on his foe.
The other pekeketua did not do as well, forced to go two on one, he was hammered by the fomorian’s massive rock clubs. To his credit, he did manage to hold on long enough for Kass to finish her fight, she turned just in time to see him dissolve.
“Calliope, we need healing,” Kass snapped, as she stepped up to the next nearest fomorian.
“You try riding a raging crab and see how well you can heal someone,” Calliope snapped back. “I can’t even get Toto to calm down long enough to get down!”
The massive crab, to its benefit, was dealing with the fomorian. The lizard creature hammered ineffectively on Toto’s shell, while Toto pulverized the lizard in return. When the fomorian realized it was losing, it tried to retreat, only to be grabbed by one of Toto’s claws, and for the beating to continue. It was a slow, painful death.
With most of the Fomorians handled, the last two tried to retreat further up the mountain. As they rushed back towards the narrow path, there was a flash, and a serrated metal whip wound around its neck. It had just enough time to reach upwards, before Bea yanked the creature straight off the cliff. She retracted her whip sword before being dragged down too.
Despite his best effort, the last fomorian was skewered on the spears of a pair of charging anthophilans. The three remaining bee girls looked haggard, one was heavily favoring her right side, but they were alive. Now that Toto wasn’t raging, Calliope rushed to treat them.
“We managed to deal with the harpies but, as you can see, there were casualties. We were lucky that Cecillia didn’t show up, the fight was hard enough with a healer backing them up. Luckily, they were heavily geared towards harassment, and not close combat,” Bea said, with a smirk.
“Yes lucky you,” a sarcastic voice said from behind Bea. The team turned, to find Cecillia, sitting casually on the cliffside. “I didn’t think I’d have to deal with you so soon. I heard your team was also pushing into the village, very aggressive.”
“Sometimes, you need to take chances,” Kass replied with a shrug. “We’re getting close to the end of the match, so we need to take a few chances.”
“Well, you’ve pushed us to the brink, well done,” Cecilia said, slow clapping with her wings. “I may be your last hurdle, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on you. In fact, I’m going to do everything in my power to end you.” She puffed up, spread her wings, and rocketed into the air. As the electricity gathered around her there was a soft *puff* sound.
Cecilia staggered, her concentration broken. The harpy looked down at the small dart in her abdomen in confusion, before looking back at the group assembled on landing. One of the pekeketua blow gunners waved at her, a cheeky smile on her face. Cecillia’s vision blurred, her movement slowed. “What… is this?” she managed to get out, before her wings began to give out. She dropped a couple feet as she struggled to get over to the cliff’s edge. She was only a couple feet away when there were two more *puff* sounds, as the other two blow gunners shot Cecillia again.
The harpy storm sage’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she plummeted out of view. Kass slithered to the edge of the cliff, leaning out just in time to see Cecillia smash against the rocks below, derezing.
Kass turned back to the group. “What was that?” she asked.
“Probably sleeping darts,” Bea replied, patting one of the frog people on the shoulder. “Our friends here have a number of poisons available to them. They usually prefer paralysis toxins, but against flying targets they prefer a faster acting sleep mixture. Very devastating against unprepared targets.”
“That’s horrible,” Calliope said, with a shudder.
“It’s effective,” Kass retorted, taking one last look over the edge. Once she was confident that Cecillia was really gone, she turned back to the rest of the group, a massive smile on her face. “Let’s finish up, there’s still time left for a grand finale, and I’m sure Talia has something planned, so we finish this match with style.”