The beings resembled an upside down pyramid lacking heads, with arms made out of root coiled into sharp points. Towards the bottom they thinned out into a vine, slithering out of the ground as it carried the short being.
Kelly didn't hesitate and swung the mace with all the power she could muster, bringing it down on the closest minion and watched as the roots gave way to the weapon.
She awkwardly caught her weight, not expecting the rooted monster to give way that easily and frantically searched for her teammates. Alexander kept his distance, not daring to get close to them as his only weapon was a broken stone with a sharp end.
Bumbling backwards, she barely dodged a wooden lance coming for her head. Tears gathered in her eyes as she swung her mace once more, breaking apart another minion's arms as it fell to the ground. She looked around and watched as John crouched slightly, bashing and pushing, keeping the majority of the plants at bay.
'I should help him.. let him push them back while I clear them one by one.'
Her thoughts were interrupted by a solid blow to the side, pushing her backwards. The minion she thought she defeated lay flat on the ground again, slowly rising up on it's vine, it's balance slightly disturbed by the lacking arms. She hissed as she took a deep breath, knowing how she would have usually felt that hit for days to come. Pulling at the feeling she felt during the class succession, she saw a memory of the day she got her first puppy. Smiling slightly, she combined that memory with her emotions and pushed them into her arm. A slight glow formed on her hand which she rubbed against her side, slowly feeling the pain ease.
Taking a breath without pain filling her, she readied her mace as the minion wobbled, charging it and smashing it into its side. This time she was prepared and didn't lose her balance as badly. She caught herself more quickly and felll back towards John's side. Her eyes widened as she saw John ready to lash out with his branch towards her only to stop himself mid swing, realizing it was her behind him. He gave a pained grunt and changed the direction, bringing the thick stick down onto the closest rooted being.
Now with someone to protect her blindspots, Kelly realized that as long as she paid attention, the minions weren't a huge threat. Dodge their simplistic charge, watch them fall over and smack their body or the vine once to disable them.
She felt slightly embarrassed as her panic made her perceive them as a much bigger threat at first. She panted as she tore apart another minion and looked around.
There were none left around her and John and the last one fell limply to the ground as Alexander cut off it's connecting vine. She watched as the being slowly fell apart, it's insides empty and arms uncoiled, leaving behind a bundle of thin sticks and roots.
A strong breeze passed by her, rustling her hair as she heard the sound of flesh colliding against thick iron. She turned around in time to see John groan, flying through the air only to land a few steps away with a heavy thud. Confused, she looked back to see Edmund in John's previous position, noting how his smug smirk was gone, his features twisted into irritation instead. He bared his teeth and let loose a fiendish scream, hot air and saliva splattered her face as she froze in panic.
This isn't how it should be going. They should have easily knocked him down, met up with the others and enjoyed some friendly talks and bantering at the campfire. Anger slowly thawed through her panic. That's right, she shouldn't have to deal with all this in the first place. Stupid monster with it's stupid survival game.
She pushed all those feelings into her mace and cried out in indignance. She felt her arm thrum with power and raised the mace towards the monster, glaring defiantly into its eyes.
A bright light engulfed Edward as he stumbled back, giving a confused screech. Blinking his eyes he dizzily waved his clawed hands around. She jumped aside, arms outstretched to catch herself, barely escaping the claws as they left behind thin lacerations on her back, tearing into her shirt. She felt her heart pounding in her ears as she got up. With heavy breaths she stumbled away from the monster towards John.
Her memory was clouded by a warm afternoon, she sat in her garden under a tree, with her dog sleeping peacefully next to her. She remembered how content she felt, almost dozing off as the wind caressed her cheeks. She pushed the memories towards her core, warming up as she mixed them with her emotions. When she started to feel bloated she nudged the feeling towards herself and John.
A bright light engulfed her while she gasped for breath. A content warmth spread over the wounds on her back as they stopped bleeding, slowly scabbing over.
"You.. you are our vanguard, do something." She panted and watched him get up with a groan.
"I feel like I've felt this before. Feels like a damn truck slamming into you." He rasped, looking over his unblemished shield. Edmund stumbled towards them, slowly shaking out of his stupor.
"Can you do that again missy?"
"That's.. not how it works, I can't just force myself to feel some way.." she blanched, gripping her mace shakily with both hands.
A deep rumble resembling a chuckle washed over them. "You think it's going to be this easy?" Edmund shook his head once more and waved his hand as thin strands of grass slowly coiled together. With another wave of his hand she felt them crawl up her legs, trying to bind her.
Calming her breathing and pulling her legs out of the vines, she heard an exclamation of surprise from behind her and turned around to see Alexander's arms and legs completely bound. The vines took advantage of her distraction to entangle her legs completely.
Trying to tear the grass apart again by moving her legs, she lost her balance as they were too durable. Swinging around her arms in a panic, she barely caught her balance. Her heart raced as she realized she was a sitting duck, with John being the only thing between her and Edmund. She struggled to get out of her bindings.
Raising her weapon and using its weight to her advantage, she pummeled the vines. Again and again soft thuds sounded out as steel impacted plant and wooden matter. The mace tore apart the vines, slowly outpacing their ability to coil together and regenerate. She shifted her legs, slowly tearing out of her restraints.
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Turning back towards the ongoing fight, she watched John slowly being pushed back as Edmund's claws whistled through the air striking towards him.
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Sweat dropped from John's face as he panted, he stopped tanking the full on hits after Edmund's first strike. The force of the strike almost made him remember something important, but it flitted out of his reach the more he concentrated on it.
He was in a fight. He shook his head slightly to gather himself.
That first strike had rattled him, making it hard to focus. He should stop thinking. Start trusting his instincts.
He took calculated rhythmic breaths as he crouched and twisted his body, dodging the strikes he could and angling his shield to deflect the ones he could not. 'Don't think. Don't think.' He chanted internally, feeling his senses sharpen. 'Don't get distracted. You are their only hope.'
The thought that he was their only hope bubbled to the forefront. He couldn't stop. The moment Edmund got through him, will be the time they died horribly. He was their vanguard. He had to protect them. He couldn't lose them. 'Not again.'
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Dave grimaced as he watched John bounce away as Edmund charged into him.
He made a silent motion towards Ray, waving and walking towards the campfire. He pointed at Ray's stone, before they both struck their charms onto the respective stones. Dave scrunched his eyebrows as clangs and heavy thuds rang out in the background. Sounds of people gasping for breath with chaotic intermissions of groans and muffled screams. Dave felt them lacking.
He sorted the sounds in his head as he took out his lute. Ray understood the sign and ran out of the clearing, changing his direction in a beeline towards the other group.
The bass of the thuds and the clangs of claws on shield gave a discordant rhythm as Dave strummed his lute. A ripple went though everyone as the first tone was played. The sounds of battle and exhaustion moved into the background, melding into the melody as Dave plucked the strings. Dave joined Edmund's bestial growls as he started singing a bizarre duet. The tempo of his song influenced the flow of battle slowly as John steadily gained ground, making it look like Edward wasn't fighting anymore, but awkwardly dancing.
He saw Ray was in position and channeled a manic energy into his song, strumming his lute hard as he heard a bird's cry join the melody. Golden flames bathed the whole clearing as they lit up the night sky.
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Ray flitted silently through the woods and got into position. A nervous energy coursed through him. 'Rocky, please lend me your strength.' He thought as he felt a wave of excitement and agreement, before Rocky melded into him. His anxiety and panic melted away, being replaced with curiosity, excitement and a feeling of power.
He picked up speed before jumping as hard as he could, rising into the sky like an echo of a phoenix. He poked at Rocky's warmth and pulled on it. Drunk on giddiness he mixed the warmth with his own warmth and pushed it towards his throat. They released a piercing bird's cry in pure glee and spewed golden flames over the whole clearing.
A rational part in the back of their mind panicked, shouting at them to not hurt their friends.
'Right! Just the bad baddies!' They thought and started concentrating. They wanted to only hurt their enemies, as good as bathing the whole world in golden flames would feel. Their flames washed over vines, immolating them. Freeing the beakless one who was caught before.
Pride filled them as they watched everything their flames touched turn to ash.
They watched the golden glow as it went and slowly dimmed down. Before the flames could disappear they were startled out of their fugue, remembering that the vines weren't their only enemy. Concentrating on the slowly dimming flames, they pushed the last bit of their warmth into them before wrapping the fire around Edmund.
Ray gasped as they split apart. Rocky chirped contently on his shoulder, showering his cheek with happy but weary pecks. The same happiness filled Ray as he picked up a seed out of his satchel, feeding Rocky before tiredly jogging up to Alexander and Kelly. He couldn't rest yet. He had a plan to follow.
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Dave heard Edmund bellowing angrily as flames bathed his body, limiting his vision and John took a few steps back from their fight, looking glad to use the brief respite he was given.
Dave stopped singing and paused strumming his lute, his strength was leaving him a lot quicker than he thought it would.
With the short lull in battle earned by golden flames he overlooked the battlegrounds.
He felt an aura of exhaustion ooze off of Ray, John and himself as he lifted his satchel to his mouth, pouring out magic sap and drinking as much as he could.
'Everything is going according to plan.. that either means I'm a genius or that something will go wrong.' He thought and sighed. He didn't need an answer to his question. He simply opened his status screen with another thought to split his two free points between Vitality and Magic.
Confirming his choice, he felt his stamina return slightly faster while the feeling he had during class succession returned with vigor.
Strings of liquid dark coiled into a clear song strumming in his core, slowly vibrating through his body.
'Yeah.. Worst case I won't die with unused points.'
A soft glow brought his attention back to Ray, who talked animatedly to Kelly and Alexander, pulling and guiding them towards the campfire. 'Again, it's going according to plan..'
Refreshed by the break he started playing again.
He took in the changes to John's posture and countenance as the flames slowly died down. John crouched low, angling his shield above him as an enraged Edmund flew out of the flames, grazing against John's shield and tumbling over him.
Dave watched as realization dawned upon Edmund and his features twisted into rage.
From the new position Edmund was able to see how the rest of the group put down charms. The monstrosity raised its clawed limbs again, returning life to the burned ground as grass and vines sprouted out of the ashes. It waved its hands around, making grass coil into sturdier ropes. The vines and ropes started lashing out, following Edmund's will as he moved his arms like an enraged conductor.
Dave threw himself to the ground as vines sprung up and lashed above him. He stopped playing his lute and put it back into his satchel, rolling to the side as a vine crashed into the ground tearing it asunder. He got up as quickly as he could, feeling pebbles and chunks of stones raining down on him as he took in his teammates and surroundings.
Jumping over a vine he was surprised as a rope coiled around his upper body, smashing him into the ground.
Dave felt himself unable to breathe from the impact. More ropes coiled around him, binding him. He wiggled around and watched in disbelief as another vine came crashing towards him. 'All according to plan huh..' He thought as he stared at the vine with defiance.