“No prisoners Frank,” Stan yelled to remind the big guy of what was needed as they charged into the group of Gryalth they had found at the first pool. There were only six of them, and Stan was reasonably confident they could take them down without them having a chance to alert any of their other scouts.
“Understood!” roared the hulking monster that was Frank as he battered down the shield three of them had thrown in front of them. His fists smashed into it with enough force to knock them off their feet even as they hid behind it for safety. He roared once more as his fist slammed ever harder into the shield, causing a series of cracks to spread across it. His follow-up punch shattered it into a deadly spray of shrapnel that caught two of the Grylath still cowering behind it.
The third one reacted fast enough to roll out of the way of the shield fragments and quickly fired a series of energy blasts into Frank as his fists rained down on what was left of his allies. The blasts, while powerful enough to knock back Frank’s right arm, did nothing to his left as he removed two of the Grylath from the field in a horrible squishing sound. He then turned to the third one, who, despite the look of revulsion on his face, was still attacking him. Frank reached out, grabbed him, and threw him into the wall with back-breaking force.
As Frank obliterated his three, Stan was fighting with the leader of the group. He swung Excalibur out in front of him, cutting through the wall of fire that had sprung into existence between them. The sword not only cut through the magical fire but also absorbed it. Stan could feel the energy as it built within the sword’s hilt. Stan leaped forward, taking advantage of the surprise that covered his opponent's face. He quickly ran him through with his sword.
“Ethel, are you doing alright over there?” Stan called to the last of his companions in the fight.
“I have everything under control,” She replied. The remaining two Gryalth were wrapped in a pile of vines. Neither of them moved.
“Good job, everyone alright? Excalibur, what now?” Stan said as he scanned the room, noting the nods from Ethel and Frank. They were all that was left alive, as far as he could tell.
“Place me in the pool. I will handle energy absorption,” the sword answered.
“Can do,” Stan replied as he walked over to the dark red pool and gently lowered the sword down below the surface.
“What we feared was underway. They have begun to corrupt the pools. Luckily, this shouldn't interfere with what I’m about to do, but it will take any pool I do this to a very long time to recover, especially if the time looping works the way I believe it does,” Excalibur explained as the pool began to glow.
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“Likely better than leaving the pools to Gryalth anyway,” Stan wasn’t sure if Cal would agree, but he wasn’t here, and this was the best option he had available to him.
The pool continued to glow brighter and brighter for the next few minutes. Then steam began to rise out of the pool, and all at once, the light stopped, and the color of the water disappeared, leaving behind a pool of crystal-clear water with Excalibur lying motionless at the center. “Stan, please retrieve me. I have taken all the energy from this pool and, in turn, removed any of the tampering the Gryalth have done to it.”
“You got it, buddy, good job,” Stan congratulated the sword as he retried it from the water. “No time to waste; let’s hit the next pools before they realize what’s happening.”
They managed to get the jump on the Gryalth for the next seven pools, which was much better than Stan had expected. He had planned for three, maybe four, pools to be taken before they managed to get the alert out, but with eight down, he was rapidly gaining confidence in this plan. The big question, though, was just what they would expect at pool nine now that the alarm had been raised.
“Are we still just charging in and smashing our way through?” Frank asked as they neared the ninth pool.
“Yes and no. Instead of us all rushing in at once, I want you to barrel in like the one-man wrecking crew you are. Yell out everything you see as you see it and get them as focused on you as you can. Ethel will come in next, trying to trap everything you were able to spot, and then finally, I’ll come in to help clean up. Hopefully, this will give us a bit of an advantage and still keep them a little confused as to our numbers,” Stan explained the new plan. It wasn’t much, but it should work, at least for now.
“I like it. Can I roar?” Frank asked, grinning from ear to ear.
“Absolutely!” Stan considered the intimidation of Frank the most important part of their tactics so far. “I’m pretty sure they are through there. Go get 'em, Frank.”
Stan and Ethel watched the giant man run through the passage roaring as he went. Sounds of explosions, crashing rocks, and pain came from the room he charged into, followed by Frank’s voice. “Twenty of them this time, at least two of them are really good with the spells. Ouch, THAT’S IT FRANK WILL CRUSH YOU ALL!”
“Ethel go now,” Stan instructed. He was worried about the two stronger mages. They hadn’t fought any of the war mages alone like this before, and they hadn’t ever been very successful as a group yet either, but they had grown a lot stronger since their last all-out attempt, so he was still hopeful.
The sounds of chaos from the room increased as Ethel entered. “Good job Frank, only ten left, I see,” Stan heard her call over the noise.
“Yeah, but the stupid mages won’t stop fighting!” Frank screamed in return.
Stan decided that was his cue, drew Excalibur, and ran in, ready to join the fight.