*thud*

The first blow was soft enough that Jasper probably could have convinced himself it was nothing more than a flight fancy on his part.

*THUD*

The second broke that illusion. Used to working together, Jasper and Tsia stepped forward, spells pooling on their hands, while Ihra fell back and drew her bow, leaving Gūla to awkwardly try to find a place in the formation.

*THRWACK*

The force of the last blow split the triangular lid of the coffin in two. With a final thud, the left side flipped end over end into the ground as a taloned fist stretched above the lip of the lid. Caked in slimy amber goo, the feathered hand shook violently, almost as if it had palsy, belying the strength it had just displayed, as it grabbed hold of the pod’s edge.

Tsia stepped forward, a wind-blade on the tip of her fingers, but Jasper held his hand up. “Wait,” he hissed. He wasn’t stupid; he knew the creature would likely attack them, but if his wild hypothesis was right, the being slowly waking up in front of them wasn’t undead. It was a living creature that had been put into stasis, and that meant there was at least a chance it could be reasoned with; whatever ancient enmity had existed between the Djinn and the dorēsah wasn’t something he shared.

But Gūla, who had moved to the far left side of their group, either didn’t hear or didn’t care. “Flame Whip.” With a flick of her hand, the Djinn sent a long whip, glowing white-hot like molten metal, toward the creature. With surprising flexibility, the whip coiled around the outreached hand and she pulled. The dorēsah was yanked mostly free of the amber goo before the whip pulled free as the molten metal finished eating through its hand.

With diplomacy no longer an option, the others struck simultaneously, sending a wind blade, Shooting Stars, and a pair of arrows arcing toward the dorēsah.

But the beast had shaken off its torpor. The dorēsah moved with unnatural grace, its motions flowing one into the other with a consistent smoothness that allowed it to pirouette away from the attacks unharmed. Its taloned feet latched onto the chamber wall with a death grip and it paused for a fraction of a second.

Flinging its feathered arms wide open and raising its head toward the ceiling, the creature emitted a wailing screech. Even in the chasm, it would have been a painful sonic blast, but amplified by the cramped quarters of the stone chamber, the sound was enough to cause physical damage, and as Jasper clasped his hand over his ears, he could feel the hot, sticky blood seeping out of them.

The scream was cut off as an arrow slammed into its throat, and the beast turned its baleful glare on Ihra. In an instant, the feathers on its arms sprang erect, and then the beast launched itself forward - not towards Ihra, but rather at the Djinn. As it rocketed across the small chamber, dozens of feathers tore free from its arms and, suddenly glowing with a pale light, accelerated straight for the trio.

With no time to prepare a true spell, Tsia exploded with a wild, uncontrolled gust of wind that not only flung many of the feathers aside, but also tossed Jasper and Ihra off their feet. Most of the glowing projectiles passed overhead, embedding themselves effortlessly in the smooth stone walls, but a few found their targets.

Jasper bit down on a scream as three of the feathers burrowed into his leg and arm. It could have been worse - without the tough bark of the Brambled Crown, they likely would have cored through his body from front to back, but it wasn’t enough to stop them entirely. Blood flowed freely as he rolled to his feet and, ignoring the painful barbs digging into him, tried to cast a spell.

As the beast reached Gūla, a glowing red shield blossomed from her hands; like a bird hitting a window, the dorēsah bounced off it, but it was not so easily defeated. Recovering itself in an instant, it raked its claws across the glowing shield. The barrier held for a moment, though the claws tore a half dozen deep gouges into the shield, but it shattered when the dorēsah rammed its body against the barrier once again. As Gūla was thrown backward, the dorēsah wrapped its claws around her torso and tried to lift her in the air.

With a cry of rage, Tsia launched another blade of wind against the beast, so wide that it stretched from one side of the room to the other, but the dorēsah’s unnatural grace saved it yet again. It flipped its body up and over the blade of wind, still dragging Gūla in its talons - and let the Djinn take the full brunt of the spell.

Gūla’s screams ended as the spell rent her body nearly in twain from head to toe, and the dorēsah let her fall to the floor with a victorious screech. As it swooped toward the remaining three, a burning arrow buried itself in the beast’s chest, and a moment later, the fiery blade exploded into life, ravaging its body. Yet, even Ihra’s Executioner’s Arrow was not enough to bring the dorēsah down.

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A spell fizzled on Jasper’s hand as the beast dove toward him, but he waited to release it. At the least moment, he twisted to the side, allowing the bird to shoot past him straight toward the wall, and a spectral whip flicked up from his wrist. Thanks to the bloodied wound Ihra had managed to deal the beast, there was no need to worry about whether or not the whip could draw blood - the second it came into contact with the dorēsah’s exposed ribs, the chamber exploded with the sound of angry ghosts.

This time, Jasper was able to see how many there were; seven swarmed out of the void, latching onto the wounded beast in a feeding frenzy. Not trusting the specters to be enough to finish the tough opponent, the three rained down blows of their own, not stopping until the beast was little more than a bloodied smear on the chamber floor.

For a moment, Jasper stood over the beast, his chest heaving as he fought for air - and then he remembered the Djinn. “Gūla.” Spinning around, he staggered over to where the firebird captain had fallen.

She was in bad shape; the wind blade had carved a ravine from her head all the way down her left leg, splitting the skin to the bone, many which of had also been broken. Her face was mangled, her left eye utterly destroyed and a large chunk of her cheek simply gone but, somehow, she was still breathing. Dropping down beside her, Jasper began to cast Circle of Forgiveness, but with her right hand, she grabbed hold of his wrist. “No.”

Tsia and Ihra dropped down beside him, the princess looking sick at the sight of the damage she had wrought, while Ihra more practically began to rummage through her bag. “Help me set up a runic circle and we can save her,” she snapped.

Gūla shook her head again and pulled Jasper closer. She struggled to speak, her tongue flapping loosely in her ruined mouth. “Need…more…damage,” she rasped out.

More damage? You look like a goddamned ghoul. He stared at her in confusion, not understanding her request, and she repeated herself. “Hit…me.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” he snapped. “I know it looks bad, but we can save you.”

“Hit…me,” she snarled. “Will…help…heal.”

Jasper hesitated a second, not sure if he entirely believed her. He knew the pain she was feeling must have been immense, and he wondered if she simply wanted him to put her out of her misery, but he also remembered her little girl. I don’t think that’s what she’s doing. Deciding to trust her word, he gave her a half-hearted blow.

She groaned in pain but rasped out again. “Harder…real…hit.”

He struck more powerfully this time, and his stomach churned as he felt what remained of her jaw collapse beneath his fist, and then he yanked back his fist with a cry of pain. “Ow! What the hell?” He slammed his fist repeatedly into the ground before quenching the white-hot flame that had attached itself to him. Only when he had succeeded in putting the fire out, did he notice what was happening to Gūla.

A white flame that resembled rather closely the strange fires of his own Flame Charge consumed her body. They were forced to step back as it billowed around her like an out-of-control bonfire, the flames reaching so high that at their zenith they lapped the top of the ceiling. It burned for perhaps a minute before it began dying down, slowly revealing her body.

“Next time, maybe do that quicker?”

Jasper wasn’t entirely surprised by the sight that greeted him. Though he certainly hadn’t suspected that the firebird captain possessed such a powerful ability, once the fires had consumed her body, it had been an easy enough guess. Still, it was hard not to be a little shocked by the complete transformation that had transpired. The fire had done more than simply heal the damage; there were no signs of scars, all traces of the blood had been consumed, and her hair, strangely enough, seemed to have grown nearly a half foot. The blood wasn’t the only thing that was gone - the fire seemed to have consumed her clothes leaving only her metal weapons and her bag of holding behind.

He tried to avert his gaze, but he was not fast enough to avoid seeing her knowing smirk.

“Is that the famous Rebirth spell? I thought you had to reach level 200 hundred to get that spell,” Tsia gushed.

Reaching into her bag, Gūla pulled out a fresh set of clothes as she replied. “Generally that’s true, but I seem to break a lot of the rules of my class. I got offered the spell at level 100 and, of course, I took it without a second thought. It’s saved me once or twice before, although, I must say,” she shot a wry glance at Tsia, “this is the first time it’s saved from an ally.”

The princess blushed. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to-”

Gūla raised a hand for her to stop. “Look, we’ve never fought as a party before and that can throw timing off, so no hard feelings. But,” she added, “that’s a special spell like Yas̆peh’s Hand of Judgement - a once-a-month sort of a deal, so let’s try not to make a habit of it, okay?”

Tsia blushed and tried once more to stammer out an apology, but her words were drowned out by a wailing scream right outside their door. The four of them froze, their eyes trained on the trapezoidal entrance, only barred by a thin, stone slab.

A second scream promptly followed, this one a little quieter, and then a third, yet further away. “Looks like we’ve got another fight on our hands,” Jasper groaned. Grabbing hold of the three feathers still embedded in his body, he quickly yanked them out and followed up with a cast of Circle of Forgiveness to seal the wounds.

The dorēsah outside the door screeched again, so loud that the door shook in its frame, and he glanced around the room. “Anyone have any idea how Sels̆arrat dealt with hers so easily?”

“They were smaller than the one we just fought. Probably a bit weaker,” Ihra pointed out.

Jasper could only sigh; she was right - the dorēsah in the chamber above had been smaller. “Guess we better pray these are the runt of the litter.”

The stone door exploded in a shower of shards as the dorēsah wailed again. He only caught a fleeting glimpse of the beast as it hovered outside the entrance, but what he saw was enough - it was even bigger than the last one. Crap.