Deep in the Heart of the City

As the party continued to follow Erk's light, it was obvious that they needed to get out of the catacombs before they started to get a bit too tired of them. They were now a rather large group, and as soon as they were out of the tunnel, Shinu was going to take the time to learn everyone's name because he hadn't done that yet and it was really important to him in order to give the proper respect that he would like to give when he addressed everyone. There was still that man that half saved his life that he wanted to learn more about. Their combined efforts against the hordes of bees was actually quite impressive in that their timing would show that they'd practiced it.

Then Shinu looked down at Kairi who was looking up at him as he marched ahead. He tried his best to give her a smile but he was indeed starting to fatigue some. Of course he wasn't willing to show any signs of this. He was a very phenomenal athlete and he wasn't exactly in a position to let her want to get out of his arms. It was actually the first time he'd ever held someone in his arms besides his mother, and he was actually enjoying himself aside from the fatigue and pungent smell filling the air. It was a shame that he couldn't actually take the time to get to know anyone, he never did that before, ever.

He averted his attention from Kairi for a moment because he felt a bit of a draft. He knew that a draft meant quick movement, but what could have caused it. He knew that nothing would happen without Erk knowing though, so he waited to see if he was thinking the same thing. Shinu was quite on guard though, and ready to protect himself if it was to happen again.

Once again, Erk stopped to scan the blackness... but suddenly he jerked. Slowly, his head lifted, and he was looking at the ceiling...

They heard a muffled thump. Dust and small pieces of dislodged stone showered down on them. Silently, Erk began backing towards the pillars to their right and gestured for the others to get behind him.

Another, louder this time, and it sounded nearer... Erk extinguished his torch with a wave of his hand, and placed it silently on the ground...

A crash this time, so loud that they could almost feel the vibrations from it in the stonework.

And then... silence.

Then it struck. In a shower of rubble and stone, a huge, flaming form hurtled down at them from the blackness above. Erk shouted out unintelligible words, and threw his hands out in the air. A bright flash of light erupted, and the thing swooped back up into the foul air, screeching in pain.

Now that they could see it clearly, they could see that it was some manner of bird. It's wings and plumage were black, but it's entire form was wreathed in flame. Slime and ooze dripped from it's whicked-looking, serrated talons. It opened it's beak, and let out a great cry, and fire belched out, lighting the chamber for a lightning's instant.

she screamed and burried her face into shinu wrapping her arms around his neck

"shinu!!" she yelped and held onto him "what is that thing?" she asked holding onto him for dear life as the ceiling fell around them

Though Mikael could not see in the dark, he could still feel the presence of something following them. It wasn’t his choice to follow this group of strange people, but it was the only way to escape in one piece. He placed his hands on his daggers, but did not draw them yet.

As the old man stopped yet once again, that was when Mikael felt the ground shake. He slowly drew his daggers, while listening to he surroundings, in case if it was an ambush. The old man up ahead signalled for everyone to get behind him, as he moved towards the pillar. Mikael knew now that he wasn’t the only one who thought they were being followed.

As the tremors got more violent, it became more apparent that this thing wasn’t with them, but above them. Mikael lifted his hood off his head, so he could get as much vision as he could. As he did, the place went dead silent. Mikael looked around surveying the area as best as he could in such darkness, there was no sign of movement as everyone else stood still. Then, with a thunderous crash, a flaming monster came falling from above. Mikael steadied himself and got into his fighting stance. He watched as the old man made the first move. Mikael didn’t quite see what he did, but it made the thing fly back up towards the roof. Mikael gave out a small grudging sound as he found out it was a ferocious type of fire bird.

Mikael didn’t quite know what to do, since the thing was up high, and the surrounding area didn’t have any footholds or supporting beams high enough or close enough to the bird for a quick attack. His only chance of fighting it would be if it came closer to them. This was risky as it was, since only a limited area was lit by it’s intense flames and not all of the surrounding was revealed to Mikael.

kai looked p and saw it

"the bird demon of hell?" she said and smiled

"im sorry for acting happy but i have always wanted to see this" she said and smiled

"but we are going to have to kill it" she said and jumped down from shinu and pulled out her sword as though she had done it a million times

"im ready" she said and smiled

Lins felt the tremors, and heard the screams, and saw the monster that had now challenged him. He had fought many a tall beast, some where easy to take down, some not so easy, but this one was completely different. For one it was a flyer, and secondly if anyone got close to it they had a high chance of dieing from severe burns. Lins prepared himself for battle and held Nuraki tight in his right hand, while withdrawing one of his spears off his back. Shinu keep Kai safe, we need her alive. She might be the only one in our group with healing powers.

Lins moved forward ready to make his attack when the mighty beast came back down onto the ground. Lins hoped that the warriors standing by his side knew how to deal some damage to this thing. Lins for one didn't know much about this foe. All he could think of was taking of its wings and disabling its ability to fly.

"huh? oh i didnt thinmk of that" she said lowering her sword and then screamed as a giant rock landed in from of her almost crushing her

she put hte sword away and back away only for a rock to fall behind her

((dang I wrote a good post and lost it. I'm quite frustrated, but here's a quickie.))

As another rock came down again, this time Shinu let it hit his armored back as he turned into Kairi and put his arms around her. As more continued to fall, he grabbed the katana from her back and snatched it out while slicing through more rocks. He was remaining quite hesitant and didn't want to be the first to strike the bird.

Stay close to my body, don't take a step away and you'll be fine. The others will have to handle this one.

kai nodded "ok i will" she said and stood as close to him as she could

"that bird has pressure points if im not mistaken" she whispered to him

"one under each wing, and one on the head" she said looking at the screaching monster

"just thought you should know, just in case" she said satying by him

"First Dogs, then Bees and now a flaming BIRD!" Talia shouted pulling out her sword swearing under her breath. "Some one must really have it out for our group." She laughed trying t look for any way to get up t the bird. 'He has to make a move...that's the only way...'

That head is going to be pretty hard to get to. Lins has my sword so...

Shinu looked around for a way to attack the bird, but without his sword or any other weapon, he would have to improvise. He looked over to Lins who still had his sword in hand staring out at the fiend that was seemingly paused, waiting to take its own action. Shinu was on the opposite end of the spectrum, he was ready to get this battle rolling. He swiftly grabbed the bow and arrow out of Lins' back pouch and quickly fired a shot that missed wide right.

Ok, this looks easier when someone else does it.

The bird now angry cocked its head back and screamed out. Hurriedly Shinu pulled out another arrow and this time aimed it better, planting an arrow slightly into its right wing. This wasn't exactly the wisest of moves, as now the bird was done watching his prey, and began to swoop in straight after them.

Well then, this should get fun soon.

He made sure he remained in front of Kairi, the bird would have to get through him and a few more men that were standing in his way. As the bird began its lunge forward, Shinu had another arrow ready.

Lins saw the arrow fly over his head and miss widely. Slow breaths Shinu, stay calm, and aim just above your target. Another arrow flew over him and hir the bird in the wing, a good move if the arrow could of gone all the way through the wing, but the arrow became lodged in its wing. Shinu more power behind the arrow. The bird however didn't seem to want that to happen again, which was good sense. No-one wanted arrows being fired at them. So the bird began to swoop down at them. Lins raised Nuraki strait at the bird as he threw back one of his spears to Shinu. Use that if it gets close Shinu.

Lins moved infront of Kai and Shinu, if they where the target, he was the sheild.

A great, crack of lightning smashed against the hellish creature's flank, and it careened wide, destroying pillars and sending more stone raining down on them.

Erk emerged from the shadow of the columns, thunder jumping from his eyes and fingers. The great vulture screamed in outrage, and descended upon the Druid, totally focused on the robed mystic below.

Lins saw his oppotunity, while the beast was saoring lower and lower, at the druid, he could make his attack while completly unseen by the bird. Lins left Shinu and Kairi behind as he sprinted over to where he saw the perfect area to make his attack, and a place where the thing was reachable by Nuraki. Lins was quite the distance away, and dispite all his armour, was an extermly fast runner. He managed to get to the area before the bird and jumped up, as the beast went under him and landed on its back, with Nuraki stabbing it throw its back, next to te spine. All Lins felt now was the heat of the beast and ran along its back with Nuraki dragging along its back. The beast wasn't going to let him get away with it.

The bird stopped flapping it hellish wings and span over onto its back, and went hurteling into the ground, leaving large mark on the ground where it had landed. The bird then span back over and stood up to resume its flying while in the crater was now a badly damaged Lins, his armour crushed and his blood staining the floor. He was wounded by the mighty crash, but fortunatly he could recover from this over time, Lins had been through worse punishment then this. Arghh.....ar...... Lins grew weaker as he fell unconsious, Nuraki still tightly gripped in his hand. The beast how ever seemed totally undamaged, and resumed hovering into the air picking out its next target.

The bird ignored the small pricking in it's side. The only thing it could feel was the sting of the burns beneath it's feathers from the thunder that crashed into it.

The bird reared it's flaming head again, and let out a scream. It focused upon the Druid again, and the dancing lights flying around him. It was clear that Erk was the only thing it considered a threat.

Instead of attempting to sweep into the mystic again, this time, it landed several meters from Erk, and screaming, ran towards the wizard. Erk was caught completely startled, which was just what it needed.

Before the mystic had time to react, the bird's wicked claws had snapped out and snatched him up. With another angered cry, it raised it's foot high, and slammed the Druid down into the crater that it had made moments earlier.

"Ugh... guh...." Then came the words. Shining light blasted from beneath it's hellish form, and the creature staggered back, apparently blinded. Erk limped quickly beneath the cover of the pillars again.

"Flee, you fools! This foe is beyond any of you! We must escape immediately!" Erk vanished into the blackness of the shadows along the unseen wall, and a flare of light, fleeting as a flash of lightning, lit up the wall, and a small pocket of shadow along it.

Mikael waited and watched as few tried to take on the foe. The man with the spear was the first to cause what seemed a fatal attack, but failed to cause any harm to the bird. The druid was next to strike, hitting the bird with a powerful electric attack, this seemed to affect the monstrous bird, but not much.

The bird landed and this time, Mikael knew it was his turn to attack. The bird came charging at the old man and grabbed him with it’s claw-like talons. The bird smashed the old man into the crater, and as it did this, Mikael rushed in for a strike.

Mikael readied his daggers to swiped at the foot, but as he thought he took a chunk out of it’s left foot, he narrowly avoided a thrusting kick from the other foot. As he turned to look at the gash he had made, he noticed it was hardly a scratch. This time, Mikael stabbed both of his daggers into the bird’s thigh, narrowly avoiding burning his face in the process, but as he drew his daggers from the bird, it did not flinch. It just stood there focusing on the old man.

As Mikael saw the old man struggle free, he yelled something to the group, to which Mikael didn’t think twice about doing.

"Flee, you fools! This foe is beyond any of you! We must escape immediately!"

Mikael picked up one of his daggers that he had dropped after ripping it out of the bird and started to run. As he did, he heard a voice from the group yell out.

“What about the guy on the ground, we can’t just leave him!”

Mikael looked back at the guy who was collapsed on the ground. He saw that this man was holding the sword of the man who helped him earlier. This was a chance for Mikael to increase the reward he got if he were to save this man and the sword he was holding.

As Mikael quickly ran back to the crater to rescue the man, he was almost struck by the giant bird, who was now intent on killing the rest of the group. Mikael side-stepped the attack and slashed back at the bird’s legs hoping to deal enough damage to give him time to pull the man out of the crater. As he started to pull the man out of the crater the bird attacked again.

“Well, isn’t someone going to help me? Or do I have to put this ungodly creature in it’s place?”

Mikael managed to side-step another leg that was coming down with force, but he wouldn’t be able to keep it up dragging the unconscious man with him.

“All you need to do is keep is distracted until I can get out of this crater.”

"oh ill help" she said and ran out from behind shinu and ran in front of the bird

"hey bird brain come on this way" she yelled and waved her arms int he air

the bird roared and looked over at her and then swooped down at her

she hit to the ground when it came just barely missing its talons

"is that the best you can do, you dummy!" she said not thinking of any other type of insult to make

Great.

There was no choice now for Shinu but to put his own life on the line. Erk led the way and Asuma and Ialdo already continued through the small alcove where he instructed them to go. Only Shinu, the man he'd already fought with, Kairi and an unconscious Lins remained. He threw the spear straight into the chest of the bird, more as a distraction than anything else.

Run!

He yelled out at the man who was definitely being brave, but about to lose his life. No more words were needed after that as Shinu swiftly lifted Lins and put him on his left shoulder, taking Nuraki out of his hand at the same time and putting it back in its sheath. The bird was making its way again, and Shinu grabbed Kai in his right arm. Holding both of their weight, he sprinted behind the man and tossed Lins onto his back. The man was running for his life, so Shinu was sure he wasn't going to have time to give his concerns. This freed Shinu up enough to use his speed to catapult straight into the man and Lins, knocking them both forth into the hole, all four bodies crashing onto the ground, and the beak of the bird left just inches from tearing Shinu's leg off.

Wow, a little too close maybe? Can we ummm continue before this thing tries to break through?

"o..." kai opened her eyes

she had kept them closed because she was afraid of what might have happened

she gulped and stared at the birds beak

she leaned foreward and touched it lightly

"wow....its cold...." she said almost amazed. the flames were freezing

she blinked and looked around it. then it wriggled and she screamed leaping back over to shinu

"i just had a minor heart attack" she said panting

Erk turned back and saw the fool of the girl reach back and touch the bird's beak.

"RUN YOU FOOLS!!!"

Erk sprinted through the others following behind him, and reached out his hand as if to ward out a blow as he advanced upon the three still within the near the beak shoved through the portal, as the bird's black maw opened...

With a shout, Erk shoved Kai and Shinu into the wall, and threw his arms out wide, as gouts of black flame blasted from the obsidian beak, and washing over the Druid, and seemed to suck the light from their torches and plunged the tunnel into blackness...

Talia backed up watching the chaos all around her. "Holly crap!" She studdered staring wide eyed at the dark flames. "The guy's dead. It freaking insinerated him!" She coughed fearing the worst but couldn't take her eyes off it.

As Mikael started to flee, he felt wait put back on him again. He knew that he was carrying the unconscious man again, but he didn’t turn to have a proper look. As he neared the hole, the man running behind him catapulted into Mikael, causing him to fall into the hole. Mikael used the unconscious man’s armour to stop his head from hitting the ground. He was light enough to not cause any harm, but he was lucky. Any more forward and he would’ve not only impaled the man’s arm, but his head also on a jagged rock.

Mikael looked around, he saw the girl who was with the man touch the fire bird’s beak. He didn’t know what quite made her scream, or her apparent heart attack. He pushed off the jagged rock and pulled the unconscious man onto his back. He muttered to himself, while pulling his hood back over his head.

“Guess I’ll have to take care of this guy then, all the more for me when he finds out what I’m doing for him”

The old man came running past and put his arms out, pushing the man and the girl behind him out of the way of the bird’s break. Mikael saw the black flames burst from the bird’s beak, engulfing the old man and sucking in all light in the area. He took a couple of steps back, just to make sure he was out of reach of the dark flames, but he didn’t know where anyone else was. He could not see anymore, since the whole place was now shrouded with complete darkness. Mikael closed his eyes and focused on his hearing. He knew that if anyone was left, they would make at least a small amount of noise.

All that reached Mikael's ears was the roar of the flames, then silence... And a scream.

As light flooded back into the tunnel, the party could see the beak jerking back and forth, attempting to dislodge itself from the portal. But the screaming came from between it's cavernous maw...

Suzumi dangled from the hellish creature's wicked beak, screaming as her broken body bled to death. Erk lay seemingly unconscious, as well as smoking, smote upon the cavern floor.

With a triumphant cry, and the bird took off, and more rubble rained down from the ceiling as it soared off into the blackness. Suzumi was seen no more.

As the light flooded back in, Mikael looked around to see if everyone was still there. The roar of the flames past his ears left him a little deaf, but not dramatically. As he watched the beak broke loose from the rock, he noticed someone dangling from the creature’s beak. Mikael knew it was already too late for this person.

Upon his first look around the area, everyone seemed to look alright but as he spotted the girl next to the man who helped him earlier on, whimpering and clutching her hand, he noticed a strange burn on her hand. He hadn’t seen anything like it before.

“Your hand,” Mikael said as he pointed towards the girl. “let me see it for a second.”

Mikael dumped the unconscious man on the ground and walked over to the girl. He examined her hand for a couple of seconds before talking again.

“This burn, nothing like I’ve seen before. It is black, but has a strange glow to it and is oozing.”

There was a rustling sound from where the old man had laid, motionless and smouldering. Mikael had suddenly lost interest in the girl and walked over to the old man’s body. He kneeled on one leg and stared at the man’s face, waiting to see if there was any reaction.

The man’s body was extremely damaged and Mikael wasn’t expecting any response, but he was surprised to see the old man’s eyes open. He did not speak, just laid there staring at the top of what was once the entrance to where they landed.

Mikael looked closer at the old man, then stood back with his arms folded.

“It’s going to take more than an average healer to heal these two. They will need the healing of elves, trust me on this one. I’ve had near-fatal battle scars and these elves healed me.”

As Mikael finished off what he was saying, he showed a long scar running from the top of his left shoulder, all the way down to his hip.

Mikael walked back to the unconscious man and picked him up again, flinging the man on to his back. Mikael started to walk through the tunnel, then turned back to the group.

“I’m carrying this guy, someone will have to carry the old man and make sure that girl doesn’t touch anymore freakish creatures.”

she clutched her hand "ow..." she cried

"shinu" she said "i cant heal it" she said and then walked over to erk and nealed down and touched him with her other hand

it started glowing blue and it travled down her arm until it hit hte burn. it burned her and she screamed but healed erk

she let go squirming "oooow my hand" she cried tears streaming down her face

she looked at it and winced trying to stop crying but the pain was so great

"its....its reversing my own healing on myself!" she said clentching her fist the pain bubblng inside of her hand