Silas froze and then backed into a corner. He apologised for
his cowardice, blaming a lack of an education on combat as to his reluctance to
fight. He also quickly apologised for their situation because they were mostly likely
after him. Eryn shot him a look that made even Silas back further into the
corner. Eryn reached into his halo and summoned forth the fiery hand and used
it to shield Silas. The Neaves across from them had seen better days, they had
most likely been injured during the fall of were already living in the
Undercroft. Eryn shouted over to Xera , who was moving over to a barrel to get
a better line of sight, that they were not human. He cautioned him on their
strength and speed and told him to stay away from their reach. Chloe was the
first to attack however, in her repositioning she had fired off a large amethyst
shard embedding it into the wood beneath. She briefly sighed as she put her
back up against the cover and prayed that the floor would not break.
The Neaves were deft in their movements; dodging falling debris
and the shattering planks beneath. Chloe
on the other hand had rested for moment
too long. A deafening crack was heard from above as a section of the tower to
their left crashed down through the square. It broke through an inch way from
Chloe. She had managed to dodge out of the way but had dodged into the clutches
of the enemy. Xera grabbed the sleeping poison from his satchel and doused his
arrow heads. He struck one in the shoulder, the skin turning a bright yellow
from the toxin. The arm was markedly slower than the rest of her body but it
made little difference. Eryn glanced over at Silas, then pulled out a fistful
of fire and threw it in the direction of the group of Neaves. The orb burned
into the flesh of the Neave blocked by the new hole and the amethyst wall.
Chloe pulled out her whip, after gaining her footing from the tumble and
latched onto the leg of the burning Neave, pulling her to her knees as Chloe
dodged the grasp from a clone next to her. Xera
was taken aback by the poison not working and fired off again into the other
shoulder. Another clean hit but it had allowed another copy to slip past him
and up to Silas.
Chloe turned her head to notice one had slipped past the
ranks but it was too late to unleash. With a horse hiss she flicked the whip in
a powerful stroke and the whip relinquished its grasp of one of the Neaves,
directly into the void. As she turned on
her heels there was creek from under the platform, a metallic chink, and the
floor slipped. The group had survived the tilt however one of the Neaves had
been knocked into the hole by a crate with scorch marks. Silas cheered for a
moment before the Neave that had gotten past Xera lunged at him. Chloe reacted
as if nothing had happened, she grabbed the tips of the arrows and turned them
into diamond and forced the bundle back to Xera. Unsure if the new properties
would affect the flight dynamics, he fired. There was a recoil he handed
expected and the bolt had missed its mark. Xera had aimed for the chest but
instead had pinned part of her brain to the stone wall behind her. Silas backed
away as the body dropped, burning his elbow on the hand that was protecting his
position.
Another Neave had made it into position to jump on Eryn.
Chloe tried to whip the legs out from under her but instead grabbed the arm of
another and pulled her to the floor instead. Xera took another shot at the Neave attacking
Eryn but he had over compensated and the other arrow streamed straight past
right next to Silas' head. He didn't know where Xera was intentionally aiming
at him or just was just plain lucky. Eryn however managed to bat away the
attack with the flaming hand and had in return managed to grab hold of her.
Chloe ran with her whip to behind the amethyst shard on the opposite side and
used it as a an anchor point to pull the Neave she had captive into the hole.
With Xera's assistance of a shot to the knee, the Neave then stumbled and fell
headfirst into the chasm. Eryn followed
with his offering to the void. However he made sure his hand dove straight to
the bottom of the pit. The fire ignited a methane gas pocket and the explosion was
forced upwards, blasting a far bigger hole into the floor. Silas' heart nearly
stopped, he was now panicking that his weight wasn't going to be supported for
much longer and so shouted for them to finish off the last one. Chloe had now worked on her dodging technique
against the clones and managed to take the legs from under her. Xera fired off
another arrow but again the aiming was off. Eryn meanwhile, noting he had
caused more damage to the city had started to spray what little was left that
hadn't been burned or damaged. This Neave had brought a weapon to the fight,
and even though her arms had been slowed by Xera's poison she was able to cut
the leather to free herself. Eryn immediately hurled another fistful of flame.
This knocked her into the path of Xera's bad aiming. The arrow pierced the top
of the spine, the force of the blow propelling her forward into the gaping hole.
Silas was shaking, although had already made his way over to
the other side to escape by the time the last Neave had fallen. He didn't want to risk any further delay and
if the group had questions then answering before they were asked would make
things quicker. He demanded that that the Hawk-Eye take them to the tower. They
were far closer now and it would seem that the outer part of the city hadn't
been affected as much as the centre. Eryn could see however, that the Obsidian
Spire at the centre of the city was sparking with gold, with similarly coloured
veins glowing in patterns on its surface. It was moving up and down in
perpetual movement. On occasion the downward movement would cause a quack of
varying strengths. There was something odd however which Eryn noticed, the
floors on the outer parts of the city, were connected to floors lower in the centre.
The city was sinking from its core.
Silas explained as quickly as he could before there was a
dagger in his back. He told them that the spire that connected the emotions of
the Guldspar, is also now believed to facilitate communications with the Neave constructs. Lily had tried to
gain access to the information in one of the decapitated Neaves by trying to resurrect
her brain functions but instead received a defence reaction. Both Eryn and
Xera remembered what they had witnessed in the storage cupboard. He continued explaining that his
underlings had tried to disable it but unfortunately managed to set something else
into motion. The reaction was that
pillar then began to exhibit what they could all now see as well as feel. Neave's that they believed had been deactivated, had started heading for the tower, and melting onto the side as they came into
contact with it. This however didn't reveal why Silas was so interested in
Chloe, or any more about the Heretic.
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