Become a part of something greater. Ascend to the realm of the beyond. Merge.
"Agni!" Nell's voice cut through the ringing permeating the forest, the result of the muted explosion and strange crack in the air. Agni shakily replied, affirming that she was fine, then turning her attention to where Jace was, or rather, where he was not.
"Jace, Jace!" He was gone, and the crack in space was beginning to shrink, closing and repairing itself where the man had been moments earlier. Barasov's yelps of pain punctuated the ensuing silence, accompanied by the growls and cries of the two juvenile beasts he fought. And then another moment later, the crack disappeared, the ethereal mist around it had subsided, dispersing quickly into the brisk air
"Agni, we need to move! I don't know how much longer Barasov will hold... We need to get a move on, get somewhere safer!" Nell was urgent, and Alkir grunted his agreement.
She hesitantly rose to her feet, still a bit off-kilter from the sudden blast, but unharmed, and she made her way to the awaiting duo. "Okay, let's go." She sounded resigned, willing to move from the area but none too pleased with leaving behind Jace's body.
Now, this may go sideways real quick, but you should be able to persevere and go forth. End them now.
Yup, here we go... If this fails, I'm blaming you.
A roar of Barasov's was cut short as one of the nimble beasts danced around him, managing to land a tail strike along his spine. The second beast closed in preparing to deal a finishing blow. As the trio hobbled further to safety they saw little of the ensuing events.
A shrill hum resounded through the trees, catching the momentary attention of all parties within before quickly subsiding, giving way to a sharp crack of glass. Agni turned to face back where the blast happened, but the thick woods obscured her view, leaving only the faintest of indications of a grey 'glow' nearby the area. That too disappeared, and there wasn't even a moment between the fog going away and the high-pitched yelps and cries from the juvenile beasts.
Back on Barasov's end, the lizard was drained, laying flat on the earth immobile, save for the slight indication of breath, witnessing a figure wreathed in a gold glow plunging a longsword into the more distant creature's side. Whoever they were, the person in the center of some sort of blue gyroscopic rings, the only accent to the glowing silhouette underneath them, the sword they held seemingly phased through the calls, and was too radiating warmth from the golden glow, the entry point on the beast was singed and steaming where the blade touched flesh. They wrenched the handle upward, and the blade sliced through the muscle of the beast with ease, carving up and out of the beast's spine, leaving it to collapse to the ground dead.
The one currently engaged with Barasov removed the barbed tip of its tail, lowering its body and emitting a shrill note as it turned to face a new threat. As it completed the ninety-degree turn it saw nothing, the glowing figure was already positioned underneath the beast, having stabbed the sword tip through its throat. Using their body weight as leverage they stood from the low crouch, lifting the juvenile beast and tilting forward, causing the second corpse to slip off the warm blade and settle on the ground.
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Okay! Cut it now! Now damnit!
Give me a second!
The rings flickered, then expanded rapidly, growing exponentially transparent as they shot outward before completely fading away. The glow surrounding the figure lessened as well, although the blade itself remained its dull orange-gold color, and within moments the now visible person under the light gasped in shock and dropped the glowing weapon, steam rising from their palm. The one beneath was indeed Jace, and as the glow completely faded it gave a view to his previous wounds.
The hole in his chest, about an inch in diameter now as opposed to the two inches it was before his 'death' leaving an extra inch of exposed skin, was very much present, and the numerous lacerations to his equipment and body were still there, although missing the severe burns, and most apparent was the missing arm, his right arm from the elbow done was gone, the stub left at the end was freshly cauterized, and finally, the scars expanding out from the severed arm were also there, an intricate maze of marred skin, growing fainter and fainter as they traveled further from the arm, disappearing by about the base of Jace's neck.
Jace looked down at his body in shock, seemingly forgetting about the burns on his remaining hand, examining himself and wincing. Spotting the sizeable hole in his chest Jace ripped some of the fabric from his right arm, pressing it around the wound and grunting, catching sight of Barasov finally. Jace hobbled closer, collapsing to the ground near the tame beast and crawling the rest of the distance. "Just you and me buddy?" Although Barasov didn't seem to acknowledge Jace, he knew that the lizard heard him, a slight change in its breathing and a low rumble in its throat. Well, now we see if I'm going to make it through this. A soft green tint changed the hue of the smoke rising from Jace's body, swirling around the pair of man and beast ever-so-slowly.
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I don't hear anything, did Barasov go down? Nell struggled with the weight of Alkir and his armor, but that being said the trio was making good ground. Alkir had begun picking up some of his weight, allowing them to move into the woods a bit quicker, their destination was undetermined, but anywhere without beasts was preferable. Coming to a break in the forest Agni slowed, prompting the duo to do the same, and they all settled onto the ground.
"We need to go back for him. We can't just leave him there." Agni still stood, looking back the way they came.
"We can't," Nell spoke up, glancing over Alkir to assess any serious surface damage, seeing none he too stood. "Alkir's hurt, My sword is somewhere by the beasts, your only weapon is a dagger, and Jace, he's..." Nell didn't finish his sentence but its meaning was carried without question.
She didn't respond and simply kept staring into the awaiting forest.
"Agni... Come sit down, we should rest while we can."
"Shush!" Agni snapped suddenly, still looking into the trees Nell couldn't see her expression, and he was slightly taken aback at her response, but then he saw something beyond her. His eyes widened. Nell slowly crept forward, getting to be about side to side with Agni and peering through the woods, a subtle noise reached him as he intently focused on the area. A thumping. It matched perfectly with what he saw, the faint but present shifting of the trees and brush, not that of the wind, but of the world itself moving.
Alkir groaned, leaning up and facing the pair with confusion. "Is that..." The man seemed to lose what he was going to say, still seemingly recovering from the heavy hit he had sustained when realization flashed across his face and he stumbled to his feet. "Barasov!"
Nell glanced back, concerned for the man he believed to be severely injured, if not just plain old exhausted, only to be met with him face to face. Holy shit he's quick! Both the noise and the visual shifting had grown substantially, and the rustling of leaves and cracking of branches steadily became prevalent. "What?" Looking back into the trees he saw a sliver of movement behind one of the trunks, it was a decent distance, but very much visible. A moving hide of scales, starkly contrasting the stationary nature of the wood surrounding it.
Alkir bolted, well, quickly hobbled, through the trunks, running to the moving shape and throwing himself at its front, arms wide and grasping around the creature's maw with all the strength he could muster. It was the lizard, that much was obvious now, the noise, the tremors, somehow the beast had beaten three others on its own, and then made it back! No way- All train of thought was completely interrupted as Nell sent his eyes ever so slightly upward.
Agni verbalized his already-answered question with ease. "Jace?"