“I'm still not clear....HNG!” Marvin grunted, mid-combat, beside Ivan as they tore into another of the Dungeon's patrols. “-on the whole demon thing.” He finished, wrenching his two handed sword's bone white blade from the bronze armored rib-cage of the pack's watchman.
One of the tenacious little mouse men dove at him then, its bronze dagger flashing as it barreled into his midsection. Marvin grunted in pain, and managed to beat the bipedal beast man back with repeated pummel strikes. Azalea closed in next covering Marvin as he fell back behind Andy and his shield. She strode forth beside Ivan her lantern flail proving to be a devastating force.
She closed with the remaining mouse men as Ivan and Davian handled the remaining lizard-men. Each strike of her flail flared with ghostly blue gray fire, and sent ghostly flames washing over friend and foe alike. The mysterious chilling flames tore away at the magical substance of the dungeon monsters, similar in aspect to conjured creatures of pure magic, and the flames that touched allies very slowly stitched together light wounds and gave back some little mana. The little flames didn't last long, not yet, and gave very little for however positive their effects seemed. Yet this being several fights in from the beginning the effect of any restoration during combat was palpable.
Azalea's almost feeble looking form gave her strength and speed in combat an almost feral aspect. Together with her slightly ghostly appearance she was a somewhat unsettling sight besides. Unfortunately even the most basic of bronze weapons held by the patrols dealt some small form of magic damage, but otherwise Azalea was highly resistant to physical damage of any kind. Things like the Watchman's talons, the lizard-men's fangs, and the clawed little fingers of the mouse men had nearly no effect on her at all. So she strove into combat, ready to prove herself to her master, and made a great show of it now beside him.
Her spiked and vicious lantern, a hollow rectangle of brutal geometry smashed into the mouse that had dove at Marvin splitting its face and covering it in blue gray fire. The young Pathfinder stepped forward, driving into the beast with iron shaft of her weapon, never stopping in her attack, a somewhat girlish snarl coming from her lips as she went. Her strike with the haft drove the creature into its allies, and she brought the great lantern head around after it as she continued on.
“Banish!” Azalea snarled as she brought the heavy lantern head down again.
The spiked hollow rectangle exploded into a massive blue gray fire ball as she brought it down into the clustered foe. Flames exploded from the strike, driving the creatures into a shambling retreat as their flesh and armor caught with deadly blue gray fire, its effects much more deadly to foes than helpful to allies.
Ivan stepped back from the combat, and watched as Azalea matched the relentlessness of the dungeon monsters with her pursuit. She was bringing up one hand from the heavy iron shaft of her weapon, and chanting as Ivan went to Marvin's side.
“Your sins are known, and your punishment here! Shackle the Cowardly! Come face your punishment and repent!” Azalea called, ethereal chains leaping from her staff to link to weightless cuffs and collars upon the retreating foes.
The shackles didn't stop them dead or choke them, in fact they went hardly noticed at all, but Ivan saw what happened as they continued to run. The fire Azalea had poured over them grew in with each of their steps from a poultry, sputtering flames, to roaring blue-gray infernos as they ran on, trying to escape her judgment.
The whole while Azalea appeared to be entirely focused on channeling her mana into her weapon, the end result deadly, and marking an end to the fight.
“Sorry. Sorry I should have remembered that patrol.” Myrn said, coming to Ivan's side right as Ivan himself was getting Marvin to lift his arm to show his wound.
They had engaged a single patrol on their way to their usual stopping point when another had come around the corner. The result would have been deadly or at least much closer to it without Penelope and Myrn there to turn their spell work upon them. Still Davian and Ivan had been left for several moments on their own to hold off the next force while the team tore apart the other patrol as fast as they could manage. All that while keeping their eyes open for the Owl-Kin Knight on his flying patrol. It was a situation they would be loath or mad to repeat.
“I'm fine..fine...” Marvin was saying, but just moving his arm to oppose Ivan was enough to make his face go white with pain.
“It managed to strike the ribs. It didn't go deep thanks to your armor, and for the fact that the blade was at the wrong angle to slip past your ribs and into your organs, but it's bad. I'll have to tend it here before we move.” Ivan told Marvin, his voice detached and calm.
Ivan stared at the wound, his mind whirling through the steps to treat and bind the wound when Penelope strode to his side. He didn't mind her presence, he was long used to her, and little interrupted his focus when he decided to treat a patient, but the group was not well used to the succubus at all.
Penelope was startlingly beautiful, even drawing Myrn's eye as she stepped beside Ivan in her naked demonic glory. Her wings outlined a lovely frame that shone in the foggy moonlight. The fur upon her legs was soft and thick where it grew, and there was little to cover her groin. Her scent brought intimate memories to Ivan's mind, but he pushed them away from his thoughts.
Ivan tucked a small pitch of his best remedy into the wound once he had Marvin’s armor open on that side. It was normally something he would use together with a potion, but he didn't draw out one of the vials. There was something he wanted to try instead. So he summoned up his scroll and instantly a design began on its surface.
Dark lines of deep black spread over the glowing purple surface of the scroll, knitting themselves first into a circle and round into a balanced symbol of order, a circle containing a pentagon, each point representing the five main elements held within careful balance. At least on Drudesha the symbol was always one taken for order, and was used by many religious sects. Next, Ivan topped the meeting places of the pentagon with divine runes, augmenting the elements to their holy aspects, and finally he inscribed the body of the spell along the interior lines of the pentagon. Those words replaced the chant, and were only required to be spoken aloud the caster would need to hold the shape of the spell and its runes firm in mind, but such was the convenience of scroll magic to avoid that step.
As he completed it he felt Penelope's hand rest on his shoulder, her same side wing, and the small fingered hand of its joint bracing his other shoulder. He eyed her, the healing spell complete on his scroll, but she did not object.
“What are you doing?” Marvin asked, his voice made a snarl by pain.
“Healing you.” Ivan said, and activated the spell.
“Healing? Ivan wait-” Myrn said, but it was too late.
Ivan activated the once familiar spell, and was startled by the all too intense drain of mana. His will touched the spell, and expecting to have to invest some great deal of mana he had opened himself to it, but the scroll took much more than he anticipated. Instead of quickly draining most of his remaining pool of bolstered mana, the whole mental and spiritual strength nearly collapsed.
His vision went black for several moments, and though Ivan felt the spell working, that was all the sensation he felt. When he came to it was several moments later. Penelope was kneeling before him, supporting his weight and keeping him mostly upright as he seemed to have slumped limp as a fish heading to the ground. Her wings brought with them unnatural and comfortable darkness about the two of them, blending them into the fog and shade. Her arms were about his middle, supporting his chest and keeping his head pressed into her shoulder.
Myrn was hovering nearby, her face stricken with concern for both him and the possessive actions of the Succubus. Ivan blinked up at her and leaned on Penelope to right himself into something of a kneeling position. Penelope smiled at him, and let him up, but kept her wings close about him, and her fingers on his arm as he righted himself.
“You have some fortitude now master, and I believe practice in pushing one's limits is essential, but a divine healing spell is much too far from your given affinities I fear. We will have to seek another option, though I know you are most familiar with Divine Spells you once had a spark for.” Penelope said to him, her voice and tone gently chiding.
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“She's right Ivan.” Myrn said, but after a long moment of staring at Penelope as if unsure to support anything she said. “I suppose learning Divine Spells allowed you to avoid much of traditional magic studies, but you have to be careful on which spells you attempt. Each Spark you gain gives you certain affinities, a likeness to a certain kind of magic more than others, making the spells furthest from your given affinity cost more mana to empower.”
Ivan blinked, the lessons of his youth and Penelope's own late night talks with him spinning in his head. His mind was too exhausted to put together any kind of clever response.
All he managed was a mumbled, “Right. Okay.” as he made a first feeble attempt to stand.
Everyone was on edge, each spread to watch or cover one another on an approach where sooner or later another patrol would come strolling down. For all of Ivan's haste they were still in the dungeon, and his decision to try to heal Marvin as quickly as possible had only left them more vulnerable. Penelope might have stopped him had she still been hidden, but it was like her to let him stumble on his own. It was just how scholars learned.
Penelope took his hands as he stumbled, her all too lovely body on display before his eyes as they came back into focus. Damn the Light, but her hands seemed soft and lovely even through the thick leather of his gauntlets. Her fanged smile was gentle, approving, and a little bit teasing.
“Easy Master. Rise when you are ready and do not rush yourself.” Azalea said softly. “Perhaps next time you or the members of your party require instantaneous healing you will allow me to empower the scroll of your conjuring. It would cost me little to enact any divine spell of the first or second grade.” She went on, her voice gently chiding, as she hovered behind Ivan.
Myrn was startled by her, but Azalea had no eyes for anything but Ivan's safety.
“We should get moving shouldn't we?” Davian asked, his eyes flicking nervously between the demons and the surrounding foggy maze as if still unsure which proved more dangerous.
“Worry not Young Bard. I will see to my Master's safety whatever happens.” Penelope assured him.
She even smiled at him, sparing any magical or demonic allure, but Davian gulped and turned his face away, cheeks burning red at any rate. There was as much fear in his eyes as anything else.
Andy for that matter didn't speak up, having witnessed first hand the deadly shadow magics that Penelope could employ. For now she was limited in their scope, but that made them no less deadly to a single target. When she had stepped forward to take on the pack with just Andy to buy time, allowing the others to fight the flanking patrol at nearly full strength she hadn't spared a moment in proving her value.
Her clawed fingers had become long and thin blades of purest darkness. She struck out with each hand, the dark magic slicing through the first slave minions of the patrol pack like razor wire through a soft cheese. She left little behind, shadowy tendrils snaring what remained as she flared her wings out wide and created for herself an ever large shadow in the foggy depths of the maze. Using that she could strike not only with her own blades of darkness, but with using the image of her shadow like some kind of deadly puppet, and the same in reverse. Strike as shadow or with, it didn't matter to Penelope. When a single aspect of her dark and beautiful visage struck her enemy, they fell.
And knowing that Ivan felt safe within the fold of her wings, enfolded by her all too dark shadow, and basked in the heady scent of her body. He didn't want to linger there, but he also didn't want to leave.
Eventually after another moment he cast up a hand for Myrn to take. She pulled him up after a moment's hesitation as Penelope pulled back her large wings, and then Ivan offered a hand to the demon. She took his grip and stood gracefully without pulling much on his arm, her smile wide and focused on him and Myrn.
Myrn tried not to look at her, but Penelope's smile was an alluring force of its own.
“Thank you Master, and you lovely Myrn. But you should imbibe a mana tonic before we move on. No need for you to be dizzy and get wounded yourself in the next fight master.” Penelope bid.
“Right.” Ivan mumbled and reached into his cloak retrieving a bottle.
He prepared himself for the taste a moment before taking out the cork, careful to save the little bottle's stopper so he might use it again, and downed the contents. Its tingling and yet somehow entirely foul taste ran down his throat and stuck on his tongue, but his head began to clear the moment the contents landed in his belly.
It was a new and potent mix, but the taste was just...a lot. It was sharp, sweet, and just a little minty, but just an all too disgustingly sweet and tangy taste that zinged across the tongue. It made him twitch his head as the potent mana regeneration rate took hold. With herbs and roots that made up the potion Ivan had sudden violent clarity to realize what he had done.
Affinities granted by sparks were important to consider in whatever experimental spell casting Ivan attempted. With his Dark Spark summoning and communing with Quixla or other demons like Penelope, Samiel, or Azalea was likely eased by a large margin. Ivan had just tried to cast the healing spell he had once used as a paladin, taught to him by the Goddess of Healing herself. While he had been able to cast it several times with ease when he had the divine spark doing it just once now was too much despite having more than twice the mana pool he had once had. He had thought about the extra cost, but never considered it to be so much.
More so he had been thinking of forcing his magic in the direction he wanted rather than working with what he had. A foolish move by all accounts. Marvin likely would have been fine in moments had Ivan just administered a minor tonic of regeneration. Ivan didn't know what he had been thinking, though having Azalea use and activate the scrolls he made could be an option outside of combat.
The tension was high in the group as Ivan stood up. There was a clear enough line drawn. Davian was on a side with Marvin and Andy, with Myrn mostly caught in the middle somewhere between Ivan and Penelope. Azalea mostly stood out of the way, but always more near to Ivan than to anyone else. Penelope simply stood wherever it seemed she desired to stand.
She just so happened to be near Ivan now as he stood, her eyes turned up out of the fog to the boss circling overhead.
“There's nothing to it.” Penelope answered, her voice something like a purr.
Marvin and the others stared at her for a moment.
“Your question, or I suppose it really was just a statement of confusion, but it implied a question, young master Mercenary. You and the others are seekers of power in a contentious time. Some would say any measure not taken is a step taken in the wrong and Ivan has simply taken the best steps he knew how to gain the power he needs and needed to survive.” Penelope explained, her voice entering her neutral lecturing tone.
“-But you're a demon. Of course you would say that. No offense.” Davian put in at once.
Penelope shrugged.
“That's fair, but I suggest you look at Ivan's motives and options he took.” Penelope answered.
“What...what do you mean?” Marvin asked, eyeing Ivan.
“You forced this meeting of ours so there's been little time to explain exactly how or why Ivan summoned me and for what purpose. You've all clearly heard of Istania's warnings with deadly bargains made with demons and warnings against them. Almost all demons that are easily summon-able or will answer a simple inexperienced call into the void are definitely beings to be wary of. They are likely young, inexperienced, and starving creatures. I am not. Azalea here is young to be truthful, but her story is not for me to tell.” Penelope said, her wings settling about her like a cloak as she crouched low in the fog.
The group seemed to listen carefully to what she said.
“My Master...Ivan... Suffers pains he has spoken to you all of you about. I have been waiting, training, and watching from within his shadow as he's grown closer and more comfortable with you. It pains him not to tell the truth, whether that be to lie directly or by avoiding what he might say. It is still of his nature to be as he once was, a paladin, and you should all remember now his former purpose, as well as everyone he once loved, was stolen from him. What you do to him now pains him.” Azalea said, speaking for the first time since her introduction.
Ivan stared at her, and rubbed his face under his light helm. The simple piece of steel and leather would not stop a wound that would otherwise claim his head, but it would stop the little things like throwing knives, arrows, rocks, and other annoyances that could be lethal distractions in a fight.
“This is not the place to discuss anything.” Myrn said, her eyes torn between curiosity and self discipline.
Penelope lifted her eyebrows at Myrn.
“Ah!” Penelope said, and turned her eyes once again to the sky. “The lurking boss fight. You worry about him. Let us take care of him then, as a show of trust perhaps?” Penelope said, her smile taking in the men before returning to Myrn.
“We've fought well together so far, but-” Myrn said, her voice calm and neutral, but Penelope raised a finger.
“I am only at a standard rank summoning right now, but that is with a mastery that exceeds those limits. Especially here in the mana rich dungeon I am able to fight with my all within that rank. It will make an excellent point to how I have been keeping to my hired role, and to the merit of Ivan's ambition to have his power be his own. Azalea dear, with me please, use your level 5 pathfinder skill without restraint.” Penelope instructed, making clear who she meant by 'us'.
Ivan stared at Penelope, but she shook her head.
“Now, now sweet master...” Penelope purred as she came to his side.
Ivan's mouth hung open as he searched for what words to say, but nothing came to mind. All he could think was about what he had heard and spoken about with Penelope. He was worried, but that worry was contested by curiosity. Curiosity that wanted to know, wanted to see Penelope in action, and not just in action, but going full tilt.
“Just the two of you?” Ivan asked, meeting her eyes.
Penelope smiled. Her eyes sparkled with the same purple gemstone-like appearance as his own. Azalea joined the demoness at her side with her lantern mess held in both hands, her grip tight upon the weapon. The blue gray flame danced like it was hungry. Azalea was even smiling inside the cowl, something of nervous tension radiating from her aura whereas Penelope's was a solid orb of sexy confidence.
Ivan met eyes with Azalea as much as seeing partly through her ghostly hood meant for that. He didn't see her eyes so much as the glowing impression of the flames that replaced them, but the gaunt mouth inside the hood seemed to grin. It was the same grin Tanya used to get when she would either start rough housing or otherwise come after Ivan in one way or another. On Azalea in that cloak, with her practically growling mace in hand it just made her look hungry and like she was ready to kick ass.
Ivan nodded remembering Azalea's level 5 skill.
Inspecting Creature: Demon; Inspection Successful, Your Scholar Level out-ranks this creature and sees them in full detail.
Pathfinder Neophyte Level 5 Skill Inspection Target Information Acquired Successfully.
Pathfinder Purgation: The quintessential skill of the Pathfinder Demons. Along with their Banish skill this ability scales and is modified by the users active sparks and their bonded jobs. Most Pathfinders have at least the Holy and Unholy Sparks, but your inspection subject has the additional spark of fire. Expect her Purgation to extremely effective on almost any enchanted items without the 'Magically Shielded' or 'Magically Resilient' enchantments due to the Holy and Unholy sparks. The Fire spark part of the Purgation will take the magically destructive effects of Pyromancy Spells to new levels, destroying all forms of corruption and rending them down to their base elements. Ash mostly.