The beast charged forward with reckless abandon. Arcaea took up a combat ready stance and waited for the beast to get closer. Raven waited for Arcaea to make the first move before she’d jump into the fray. Kurai activated her turret which began firing bolts and spikes with kinetic energy at the urthog. The projectiles were unable to deal any real damage due to its thick hide but were successful in slowing it down and sending it into a blind rage, which would serve Arcaea well. Janette hastily flipped through a list of spells but began to grow nervous when she couldn’t find the spell she was looking for.
Dust and dirt was thrown into the air with each step the creature took with its massive limbs. Creating something of a cloudy trail behind it.
The urthog opened its toothy maw wide, ready to snap it around Arcaea’s slender form. But mere seconds before being caught by its lengthy fangs she stepped back and as its jaws snapped shut she swung her cleaver in an upward trajectory.
The blade sung as it slashed through the air, followed by a sickening crunch and a wet splashing sound as blood began pouring out of the urthog’s face. A masterful strike. However, the creature’s sheer momentum was too great at that point and as it tumbled to the ground it slammed into Arcaea, throwing her back a few feet.
Raven, seizing the moment, darted forward. She slid under the projectiles being fired from Kurai’s turret and then jumped up into the air, bringing her shortsword down at the beast. A woman of her size would normally not have gathered enough speed and force to pierce the creature’s hide. But at the height of her jump dark energy began coursing through Raven’s entire body, filling her with unnatural strength, which she used to plunge the shortsword into the urthog’s back. A small black crystal that hung from one of Raven’s utility belts began briefly glowing with a red energy and then died out.
Her unnatural abilities had managed to pierce the creature’s hide but soon the sword snapped and the creature threw her off its back. Raven attempted to right herself off in mid-air, trying her hardest to land on her feet like Arcaea had done earlier but then she felt a crushing force on her entire left leg.
The urthog had snatched her out of the air and then proceeded to smash her repeatedly into the ground.
“Raven!” called out Arcaea as she was about to run into the fray.
“Wait!” she heard Janette say.
Looking back at the moonlet dval Arcaea saw her, following the instructions on her tablet, trace a glyph in the air and utter a word in paeric, which she understood to mean ‘stasis’ and then magical energy shot out from Janette’s fingers. The bolt of white energy arched through the air and when it landed on Raven and the urthog it erupted into a half spherical stasis field that froze the two of them in place.
“What do we do?” asked Kurai as she stopped her turret from shooting.
“We need to get Raven out of there!” exclaimed Janette who then continued to flip through her small catalogue of spells, all the while calculating the amount of arcane energy she had left in her canisters and what she could use it for.
Arcaea observed the urthog which stood in its mid-swing pose, ready to slam Raven into the ground for the third or fourth time. The sunborn dval frozen mid pull towards the ground, trickles of blood trailing behind her. Her eyes were half closed but seemed very conscious of what was going on.
“How much time do we have left?” Asked Arcaea.
“About a minute. The spell will buy us some time to figure out what to do but the downside is that anything that enters is subject to the same stasis magic that they are.” Explained Janette.
“So…” said Kurai awkwardly. “...what do we do?”
Arcaea took a moment to think before deciding.
“When the stasis goes down does everything continue with the same velocity as before?” She asked finally.
“Yeah.”
“Good.” Arcaea smirked.
“Is it?” Asked Kurai.
Arcaea turned to look at her feline friend. “How much energy do you have in that turret?”
“About 200 milliliters. It only offers a few more seconds of firepower.”
“Keep shooting as many projectiles at that thing as you can.” Ordered Arcaea.
“But they’ll stop like everything else.” Kurai seemed confused by this plan.
“And when the field drops they’ll all continue at the same velocity and the urthog will be hit by all of them at the same time.”
Kurai looked at the stasis field and then grinned back at Arcaea. “Aye, aye.”
She started up the turret again and began firing again.
“Janette, can you hit the field with some offensive spells without breaking concentration on the stasis spell?”
Janette thought about it for a moment. “I have a couple. Fire Arrow and Frost Javelin. I could fire two of each and still have some arcanum left.”
“Do it.”
Janette began tracing glyphs in the air, muttering paeric words of arcane significance and then shot out a couple of red hot flaming arrows which stopped once they entered the stasis field. She then repeated a similar process and two icicle javelins emerged from her palms, arching their way into the field as well.
“Good job.” Said Arcaea.
The turret suddenly stopped firing. “Bailey’s out but I’ve got another trick up my sleeve.” She then pulled a metal casing and some tubes and a canister of arcanum much like the ones that Janette carried only smaller. “This will blow the torker up once Raven gets to safety.”
“Ten seconds!” Janette called out.
Arcaea got ready while Kurai continued to create her makeshift grenade, pouring a few mililiters of arcanum into the casing before sealing it.
The stasis field held up for a few more seconds and then the white magical energy in it began to swirl inconsistently and a moment later it was gone. The urthog managed to slam Raven once more into the ground with a sickening crunch before all the projectiles and ranged spells bombarded it. The beast half lifted Raven again before letting go of her as it roared in pain. Arcaea darted forward, attempting to catch her friend before she hit the ground yet again but things didn’t quite go that way.
As she was about to slide under the lumbering beast it turned to face her, throwing blood and spittle at her with its roar. Its hide was torn to shreds and a couple of the scorched impact marks still smoked. How is it still standing after all of that?! Urthogs were legendary for their endurance but even this seemed excessive.
Quick on her feet Arcaea pirouetted to the side, away from its bloodied jaw and in one swift motion brought her enormous cleaver down upon its head. She felt the crack reverberate up her hands as the heavy blade pierced its skull but when she tried to pull it back the cleaver remained where it was.
For such a huge beast it sure wasn’t slow. In the blink of an eye Arcaea felt one of its enormous arms smash into her chest and she went flying back.
“Hey torker! Take this!” Kurai’s voice called out from a distance and as the beast looked over the makeshift grenade landed right underneath it.
A second later it erupted in a fiery explosion that shook the very earth they stood on. It seemed the force of the grenade tore off pieces of the creature's hearty hide and yet the beast still wasn’t thrown back. It merely got lifted up a bit but not high enough where its legs lost contact with the ground. Arcaea’s heavy cleaver, however, did get knocked loose.
As it flew spinning up into the air Arcaea considered to try and make a run for it and to hopefully catch it before the beast was able to recover. But that was when she saw it. A dark figure rising up from behind the creature. A familiar, dark haired, red horned figure. Her face and clothes absolutely covered in darkened blood which made her bright yellow eyes stick out beautifully.
Raven raised her hand and seemed to effortlessly catch the cleaver which was nearly as big as she was. Arcaea could see faint hints of the dark energy that flowed through her, giving her strength beyond normal bounds. Two of the dark crystals on her belt gave off a warm glow.
She then jumped up, spun in the air and brought the cleaver down with all of her might, catching the urthog right in the neck. Blood sprayed up into the air and the monster gave a muffled whimper.
Raven landed on her feet and the beast crumbled to the ground. Her friends rose up and cheered!
“Yeah!” Arcaea shouted.
“Now that’s how you do it!” Kurai called out.
Raven spat out a gulp of blood and wobbled a little. “I’m...in so much...pain.”
“Well, we’ll get you cleaned and…” said Arcaea before something caught her attention.
It was a low rumble that seemed to come from somewhere beneath them. The sound got louder and louder and all of a sudden the ground began shifting.
“Are you torking kidding…” was all Raven was able to say before the ground caved in and all of them fell into a darkened abyss.
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