(SW of Celen's Fall) Hunting to Kill (17th Board)

Dyavol figured out that attacking the lightning creatures directly was a bad idea fairly quickly. He had struck one across the head, and only received a shock between the five pins in his tail. Vy’s order to fl down the sinkhole seemed much more logical than trying that again. An enemy that didn’t have the decency to be hurt wasn’t worth fighting. He flew upwards, out of reach of attack, before folding his tiny wings and falling into a fast dive, straight after Jitt and Gerris. The dive felt like the most reckless thing he’d ever done, but he didn’t care. Short of killing something, there was very little that made him feel alive, but a dive down a bottomless sinkhole seemed to be doing the trick.

Oceianna stepped away from the enemy and allowed the other dragons to cover her for a moment, realising that, despite her best efforts, she wasn’t strong enough mentally or physically to harm them. That could only come with practice. The order to fly down the hole was one that she /could/ obey though, so she inched her way towards it, trying to judge its depth. The wounds on her back meant she wouldn’t be able to carry anyone else – especially as she was among the smallest dragons there – so she just needed to get herself down the hole. Taking a deep breath and bracing herself, she dived down and opened her wings part way, slipping into an unpredictable, fast glide. Se just hoped that the clubtail sisters knew what they were doing, sending them down there.

The sinkhole was actually quite wide and allowed for Gerris to wheel down, slowing his decent considerably, and none too soon for a pile of bones could be seen as he descended lower and lower, the stink of staleness wafting to his nose. He landed a little hard and winced as he took a tumble off the pile, dislodging bones as he went. He landed on the stony floor, a cascade of bones following him and he covered his back and neck with his wings, the bones bouncing off the leathery appendages. Once all the clatter was done echoing through the cave--Gerris looked around-- yes, a cave, he stepped forward away from the bones, smelling what he thought was moisture. As he neared the source he realized it was a body of water. Ever conscious of danger, he did not look into it, simply stared at it from a safe distance.

He turned when he heard another land on the bone pile. Wings tucked close to his body he snaked around it to see what had fallen, spotting tiny Dyavol (for it had to have been him, such a tiny and colorful dragon) wheeling comfortably down.

"Well it's about time some of you joined me. I figured I'd see what was down here during all the confusion, seeing as I'd be largely useless in a fight against ethereal storm monsters. Didn't want to gas you all and kill me partners."

He rearranged the skull hanging from his neck and passed his claws down his belly satisfied that there were no visible scratches. Merely sore spots where bones had poked harder than he'd have liked. "Careful on the way down, that pile isn't very sturdy, and I wouldn't drink from that pool of water, it looks shifty."

The fighting style of these creatures was unsettling. Blending in and out of reality like that was horrible for those fighting against the creatures but Fenrir had to admit that it was a neat trick nonetheless, one he would not mind mastering himself.
However, that realisation did nothing to relieve his anger and he got severely pissed at how little damage he could do to the creatures while he kept receiving shock after shock. His vision was starting to turn blood-red from anger and the Vythiweiah’s call did not come a second too early, because in his frustration, the wolf dragon might accidentally have turned against one of their own just to find an outlet for his anger.

The sharp sound of the clubtail’s voice above the fighting noise made Fenrir snap back into reality and after slashing one last time at the creature he had tried to fight, who merely shot him back a vicious grin, he turned and bolted for the hole.
Intent on ignoring everything else and jumping, the wolf dragon stopped at the rim nonetheless, wondering how on earth they could want them to jump down there, into the darkness, into nothingness, without knowing what would await them.

Two might already be down there, but who was to say they were still alive? He could not say he cared much for either of them, both were not quite right in their head, each in their own way. Before he could think about this any further however, the decision was taken off his hands as something rammed into him from behind and literally sent him flying into the hole. Roaring in anger and surprise, Fenrir snapped open his wings to balance himself out before he could smack his head somewhere on the cliffs encircling the way down.

It seemed unless but yet all too soon he felt the floor coming closer. As odd as that was. The thought was not even finished when he crashed onto a pile of bones and went sliding down it, showering himself in bones and dirt.
With a disgusted shudder and lots of growling and grunting, he tried to jump up and out of the pile, horror surging through him at the thought of what he might be getting onto his coat and scales but the attempt to get out of the mess failed horribly as he slipped on a skull underneath his paws and in turn crashed hard into the dragons who had arrived in the hole before him.

All hell was breaking loose right in front of Syn’s eyes as the shadowy monsters attacked himself and his associates, and as much as he was loathe to admit it, the desert chaser was out of his depth. He fought with snide words and sideways comments much less than tooth and claw, and definitely not against opponents more suited to the two clubtails carving holes in the ring of beasts. When their fume dragon jumped into the hole behind him (madness, did he have a death wish?!), then was followed by another dragon that just bowled out of nowhere and decided to take a kamikaze leap into space, he was certain that this was an insane quest. Maybe he should cut his losses and get the hell away from this bonkers place before someone got himself killed?

It wasn’t much of an option though as Vy shouted an order to get down the hole behind them, which filled Syn with a quivering fear. But he couldn’t fly! And he wasn’t relying on someone else either, no siree, he’d rather bugger off and get lost in the forest before he found himself down that pit. With less dragons at his sides (although Syn wasn’t really at the forefront of attacking, so they were more… at his front), his chance to run quickly decreased however, until he was backed right up against another dragon still unwilling to jump too (and with good reason). Just standing there and swiping at their assailants didn’t do them much good, and seemed to attract attention- way too much attention, because now they were being boxed in, and forced back, and oops! there went the dragon from behind Syn. He had been perched on a smaller piece of land than the desert chaser had thought he was on, and only a few seconds after Syn lost ground beneath his feet and plunged backwards into the sinkhole too, front paws scrabbling madly at the grass as his own weight dragged him down. Someone had been snacking between meals!

He screamed as he fell down through the air, legs flailing in all directions as if it would do him any good. This hadn’t been the way he wanted to die!

Having waited patiently, and with a level of fear he'd sooner banish than hold inside of him, he was now seeing the fighting change course. The dragons were breaking off from the mirage like forms of attackers and now beginning to spiral, as if suicidally, into the blackness of Celen's fall. Truly, a graveyard in its own right and the point of no return.
Now was the time for him to make his move, the chaos was still there so he could sneak in without arousing interest from the attackers, but just now at a time so that the funnel of dragons would not be too great that they might accidentally find him, then it would be all over.

Scuttling from his bush shaped defence, Rintho furtively made his way toward the chasm. He looked to it in awe, the sight of all these dragons simply plunging themselves into this strange wonder of the land...
He rubbed his hands together again, to make sure the magic was still strong in him, he would have to climb down quickly to preserve as much as possible.

He crouched down at the edge, facing away from the great hole, and slowly placed a foot down. It worked, the grip was tiny, to a smallest slither of rock, but his foot made a grip as sure as the ground itself. Sinking his body down lower, he found his fingers effortlessly clung to even the smallest of cracks on the cliff face. So began his long downward climb.
Rintho could hear the roars and bellows and shrieks still, and regularly had to sideclimb, even jump, to avoid the thick of the action.

Oh great. If there was one place Temero didn't want to go, it was into the fall. But apparently he had no other choice. With the shadow creatures closing in and the orders of their leader ringing in his ears, the wolf dragon promptly turned and dove into the fall, spreading his wings so that he glided easily down to the bottom instead of falling in and possibly breaking something. Or several somethings knowing his luck. It was then that he heard a shriek above him and looked up, only to have something heavy slam into him with enough force to drive the breath from his lungs for a moment. "Syn, what the devil are you doing?" Temero shouted once he had placed the identity of the falling dragon. "You can't fly!"

Now there was the stupid statement of the year. Temero called himself six kinds of idiot mentally as he flipped over in midair, latching onto the desert chaser and flipping again so that he could spread his wings out and flap as hard as he could, struggling to slow them both down before they crashed into the bottom of the fall. Please don't let us die, he begged mentally, his chest and shoulders burning from the effort of slowing the pair of them down to a more reasonable speed. This is not going to work, Temero thought, fear beginning to fill him as it seemed like his efforts were getting them nowhere. Well I could just let him go and save myself, he mused for a second, almost feeling bad as soon as he thought it. No, he had joined this group to help himself and other dragons. It wouldn't do to let one of them die because he didn't want to get hurt. If Syn was going to crash then by goodness so was he.

But that didn't mean he had to like it.

Jitt crashed unelegantly into the pile, ploughing into the bones and half-burying himself there. It took a few seconds of scrabbling to free himself, before he bounded over to Gerris and huddled on the ground next to the other dragon.
Don’t fight, don’t kill me, he moaned, rubbing his face energetically with the back of his front paws before looking up at Dyavol. What was he, the scythe claw wondered? He hadn’t seen anything like it before. Too big for an insect or such, far too small for a dragon. After a few moments of blearily staring he reared up onto his hind legs and wafted one paw forwards, trying to prod at the odd little creature.
What? What is it? he asked Gerris, who was recognisably a dragon. It seemed to know this thing, so it must know more of its nature. His fear of the creatures which still swooped and crackled far above were forgotten in his curiosity. The lighting didn’t help- while sunlight spilt down the huge sinkhole he had arrived through and a faint glow reached them from the end of the cavern, it was still dim and he found it hard to make out the details of the animal. Luckily for Dyavol, however, Jitt dropped his poking claw as other dragons began to crash into the heap of remains, making him skitter nervously away from the newcomers and cower into Gerris.

~*~

As so often happened, Vythiweiah simply voiced to the others what Anækileya had been thinking. She backed up her sister’s words with a roar as she swung her tail through one last shadow beast. It dissipated into wisps of nothingness, leaving the club to slam another crater into the ground. She promptly wrenched it out and leapt into the air, beating her wings heavily to rise and survey ME’s force. While very few looked like they wanted to stay and fight, nobody seemed overly keen to get down into the Fall either. Evidently, she would have to set an example. But even as she began to bank down, a slim brownish figure scrambled and slipped over the brink of the pit. Syntribos, surely? The desert chaser had no wings; while she didn’t know exactly how far down the hole went, she very much doubted he would make the drop alive. For a brief moment she entertained the oh-so-tempting notion of simply letting him go. It would rid her of that annoyance, and nobody would blame her for killing him. Yet she was loath to just dispose of one of their few members that way. Every dragon was a precious commodity these days, with thieves of their homeland killing them as they deemed fit, overwhelming them with sheer numbers. Besides, a death so early in the operation would do nothing but dishearten the other dragons. There was little choice to it; pinning her wings to her sides and tilting the heavy weight of her club to angle her descent, Anækileya dropped even faster than the pathetically flailing Syntribos in a bid to catch him before he landed and undoubtedly died. If nothing else, she thought errantly, the move would impress their followers.
However, before her eyes something entirely unexpected happened- Temero grabbed hold of Syntribos and made an attempt to cease his fall. What idiocy! The two dragons were the same size. All Temero did was doom himself as well by rendering his wings useless. Well, she really would have to act now. As she neared the soft little dragons she forced her wings open, the muscles flaring with pain at the sudden force they had to take on to bring her to a halt. Luckily for the both of them, however, physical strength was one thing no self-respecting clubtail lacked in. She swung her taloned hind legs out to catch the desert chaser as he dropped past her feet, the toes closing around him perhaps a little more tightly than was needed to rip him from Temero’s grasp.
“Get flying, I can’t hold both of you,” she instructed the wolf dragon shortly. After a moment she took Syntribos in all four feet, adjusting her grip to an easier position as the vast canopy of her wings bore them down gradually. Just before she touched down on the ground she began to beat her wings mightily again, hovering for a moment before dropping him unceremoniously into the heap of bones. She had to fly a little way away to land safely. It would be a real waste if she crushed any of the smaller dragons, especially Dyavol. The bloodthirsty and loyal butterfly made an excellent example, and he was quite a pleasant character, as well.

The caves were immediately somewhat unsettling, strong magic seeming to hang in the air. Her own power was enough for no more than breathing fire, but she was still a dragon- more typical of those of old than many other breeds, perhaps- and she could easily feel something like this. Then again, it was hardly surprising that it felt even stronger here. As she watched, a lightning storm spiralled down the Fall, its movements jumping and erratic like the sparks which jumped arbitrarily through the air. The other members of Maledictus Eice were steadily joining them now, those who were large enough carrying those smaller than them who were unable to fly. Swiftly finding him amongst the throng, the clubtail spoke briefly to Temero, trying to prevent her tone from seeming commanding or patronising.
“While it is much appreciated how you risked yourself for our brother, please know that I would never ask you to do such a thing. Your strength is admirable, yet Syntribos is a dragon of substantial size- and surely you must know that Maledictus Eice will always take care of its own?” With a slightly smile, she flicked her wings to indicate Syntribos before nodding to the wolf dragon and moving smoothly away. She could not make out her sister coming to join them yet, but nonetheless she was wary of the strange place, and so she now let out a call to the mixed members of Maledictus Eice.

“Gather here, my brothers and sisters! We must not drop our guards. There is no telling what we could encounter here.” She drummed her tail on the ground several times to draw attention and emphasise her words, arching back her neck and tilting up her head to look at those descending. She didn’t feel comfortable about anything here, but she left her back to the water, reasoning that anything dwelling there most likely could not venture far from it. Anyway, most of the other dragons were either on the pile of miscellaneous bones which sat ominously before her, or on the other side of it.

Vythiweiah stood her ground, covering the backs of her fellows as they either dove into the Fall or else fled into the forest, willingly putting herself in harm's way in order to protect her comrades. Once the battleground was clear she turned and charged for the sinkhole, flaring her wings and dove out of range of the nasty shocking creatures, flaring her wings to begin the insanely tight spiral down into the darkness in order not to clip her wings on the unforgiving rocky sides. Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw her sister grab onto that shifty Syn, instantly worried for her safety as they fell before the flare of her great wings bore them to a safer speed. Assured now that there was to be no great disaster, Vy slowed her glide and came out of the sink-hole's vertical tunnel, observing the cave floor below and taking a silent head count as she came in for a landing, blowing up dirt and small bits of bone. Folding her wings, she examined their new surroundings, taking in the sight of stalagmites hanging from the ceiling like stone teeth in stride and quietly hoped that none of them would fall on their heads. Still looking around, Vy walked toward Anae, standing close to her and peering into the darkness beyond the ring of light that filled the cave from the surface far above. 'I do not like the feel of this place.' She admitted quietly, speaking for her sister alone to hear. The echos of their shuffling around reflected off of the stone walls, creating a quiet murmur of noise that seemed to go on endlessly. The huge bone pile, rising higher than even Vythiweiah could stand, was a bit unnerving to look at. She could make out not only the bones of small thoughtless creatures like deer and cows, but a number of dragon skulls were among the morbid pile as well. The farther from the bone pile they got, the better that she would feel.

Flicking her tail, Vythiweiah walked toward the dark tunnel that led away from the light into depths unknown. "Let us move on. The stone must be deeper into the cave." Holding her head high, she projected a calm and unruffled exterior, as if the magic that vibrated in the very soul of the rocks around them didn't bother her in the slightest. She had just stepped foot into the sloping darkness of the tunnel opposite of the pool of water when a sound caught her ear. Pausing with one clawed foot int he tunnel, Vy cocked her head in the direction of the slithering noise that had piqued her attention and slowly realized that it was coming from behind her. Turning her head, she looked back in time to see a small avalanche of bones slide down the side of the huge mountain of fleshless corpses. By itself, that would not have been all too alarming. Several dragons had just landed on that pile, so it would be natural that the stack might collapse, but the shifting bones didn't simply roll to a stop on the floor of the cave. They kept moving, pulled together by some otherworldly force until the composite of animal, dragon and human bones formed together to create a creature nearly as tall as she, clacking as it moved like the branches of a dead tree in the wind. The creature righted itself, the eye-less skull of a night dragon fringed with the thighs and talons of other creatures looked directly at her.

For a brief moment, she was terrified. Absolutely dumbstruck at the sight of bones mimicking the form of a dragon. Then the pile began to completely disassemble itself and form into more of the skeleton creatures and her voice found her again. "We're under attack!" She practically screamed, turning fully, her scales raising along her hackles and raised her wings, prepared to enter battle for a second time that day. At least this time the enemy was something solid.

“Well I couldn’t let you get down here first – that would be embarrassing.” Dyavol grinned, hovering over Gerris’ head in case any other dragons plummeted down the great sinkhole. He didn't want to be stood on in the dark down there. “Thanks for the tip” he added as Gerris warned him about the water, before continuing to circle slowly, letting his tiny wings rest a little. It seemed that had been wise, because Jitt landed just a moment later.

As Jitt looked at him, Dyavol hissed through his tiny, pointed teeth and swished his tail threateningly. He didn't appreciate being treated like a lesser dragon for his size, and poking annoyed him especially. “Get off me! I’m just another dragon.”

As more dragons began to clatter down into the pile of bones, Dyavol’s train of thought was cut off, and he made a point of avoiding being crushed rather than conversing. The pit felt eerie and death-like, but Dyavol was rather enjoying it. Since joining the ME dragons, he had begun to love the stench of death rather than fear it. It was his own personal kind of madness, but in this case it had to be helpful.

He listened attentively as Anae and Vy landed, but noticed the slow movement of bones quickly. Another attack, from another set of seemingly imaginary enemies? Bloody hell. These ones didn't even have veins, so Dyavol’s tail-barbs would be as good as useless against these new bone creatures. He gave a snarl and dived down, catching a small bone that hadn’t reached its correct place yet and carried it upwards, hoping that he could help in some small way.

--

Oceianna crashed into the pile of bones inelegantly, as her wings failed to support her all the way down. The scars over her back and shoulders dealt to her before she had found the rest of ME hadn’t fully healed, so all that broke her fall was the shifting pile of bones. She gave a grunt, then a growl, and found a clear patch of floor to stand on immediately. She didn't like the idea of standing on dead dragons – it was disrespectful surely. As the bones began to clump into dragon shapes, however, she realised that the fighting wasn’t over yet.

Mimicking Vy, Ocei dropped down into an attack-ready position. She’d been no help against the substance-less lightning beasts, but maybe she could do something about an enemy she could sink her teeth into. Or if she was lucky, maybe interfere with the magic animating the bone-creatures. That had to be something like healing magic, and that was definitely her area of expertise. It would just take her a while to work out how to reverse a healing spell, and then she could offer a more useful tool. She did so want to impress the other dragons…

Whatever Temero was shouting at Syn, he didn’t care, he didn’t even register what it was- he wasn’t the one bloody falling through the air with no form of upwards propulsion! He flailed his legs wildly, shrieking the whole way down, even when the wolf dragon grabbed a firm hold of him- he was going to die.

He shrieked even louder when Anækileya grabbed him round the middle, thinking he was being got by some monster, and he was about to be ripped in two. Oh gods, this was the worst way to die, falling through a hole in the ground that lead to only broken bones, being ripped to shreds by monsters- and not only that, not even by his own blasted choice! If it were up to his own choice, he would have been far, far away from here, rolling in some sand dune.

But Maledictus Eice did not go for rolling in sand dunes.

Suprisingly enough, he did not die, nor get ripped to shreds, but did not realise the reason for it until he landed amongst the pile of bones at the bottom of the fall. He scrambled to his feet, crouching low with his belly scraping the ground, panting hard.
Had one of the clubtail sisters just saved him? Well, blow him over. That was a first.

Eventually regaining his feet, with a little difficulty, he completely ignored the clubtail’s call to gather, grumbling under his breath and just starting a one-dragon mutiny. “I don’t care, that was the worst experience of my life, why are we even here, I’m getting out of here, there’s only one tunnel thing, damn you both…” He hissed, heading for the black corner of the cave. This was awful.

Things just got worse when a new monster appeared. And despite some of the dragons turning to attack, that tear dragon included, he just bolted.
“You’re attacking that thing? Let’s get out of here!”

((Bored of this RP being so slow and not moving. So I am rebelling. Smile

POSTING ORDER ABOLISHED.))

Gerris patted Jitt awkwardly and wondered if perhaps his friendly exterior was perhaps a bit too friendly. He liked Dyavol best of all the dragons, just because he was a little ball of death. He was about to respond to him, but more came clattering down and he did his best to drag Jitt and himself out of the way of falling and bouncing bones as some landed inelegantly and others crashed down atop to slide to the bottom. He'd turned them to gather at the mouth, shaking his head at Temero's cowardice, even if he agreed with it. "Well perhaps if you would have--"

But at the half-scream of one of the sisters in his head, he winced and turned. "Bone monsters." Wonderful. He watched Dyavol snatch up a bone and knew he couldn't run off with the same excuse as last time. He couldn't gas the enemy, but it was tangible, and he could fight it. If Dyavol was fighting, he had to fight and although he admired the little thing's gumption, sometimes he wished it knew its place. He darted forward and slammed his shoulders into one of the creature's legs, hoping his momentum would take the assembled thing right out from under it.

He dodged flailing bone limbs and wheeled around the room, making sure to stay away from the water. Whatever bones he neared that weren't already assembled he whipped with his tail, making sure they'd take a long time getting to whatever monster they needed to.

Temero restrained himself from snorting in derision at the comment the clubtail made. Whether or not she was his boss he had a terrible tendency to not agree with things she said. Amazing how horribly he got along with other people. At least he'd tried to help the poor guy, it was more than anyone else could say. Well whatever, it wasn't his job to argue with the woman and he certainly wasn't about to make it his. She could crush him like an ant after all. Temero might have a temper a mile long, but he had some common sense to go with it, and he really did want to see the light of day again. So he would be polite to the clubtails however much he might want to snap and bark and start an argument.

Fortunately the perfect way for him to vent his anger suddenly appeared in the form of skeletal monsters shaping themselves from the bones scattered around the cave. No doubt the bones were from dragons and other creatures that had fallen into the Fall previously, only to be torn apart by its magic, their bones bolstering its defenses. Well good luck using my bones like that, Temero thought. I'll shatter them all first. How, exactly, he would be able to do that Temero had no idea, but he would definitely find a way. Seeing that Syn had fled Temero snarled in anger, looking around for the missing dragon for a moment. "Where are you going Syn?" he shouted after the fleeing dragon. "You coward!" He was temped to add threats to that, but figured it would not look good. Besides, Syn would get what was coming to him from the clubtails when they caught up. They didn't take well to deserters.

For Temero's part he threw himself into the fray, attacking the nearest skeleton and ripping it apart, throwing the bones in all directions so that it would take them longer to reform. Then he pounced around, scattering bones so that they could not form. This magic seemed more annoying than anything else, especially as long as they could not form properly. The only concern would be if too many of the skeletons formed.

With everything that had been going on upstairs, Fenrir was still feeling rather wound up and the fact that he had just crashed into a pile of bones, a few dragons while other members of Maledictus Eice had just showered him in even more bones sent his anger straight to the surface again. He was ready to rip apart the next being to get on his nerves, even if it was only the tiniest wrong movement.

Why on earth had he ever accepted to come on such an adventure? Why? It was complete and utter madness! Especially for a dragon like the wolf who preferred to just be left in peace so he could be grumpy for as long and as much as he wanted without anyone complaining about it.

However, it seemed as though he was going to get the perfect outlet for his anger! It was a little spark on his overly clouded sky but Fenrir jumped at the occasion. The rattling beast was scaring him out of his wits almost but at least it was real unlike the things that had attacked them above ground.

Following the clubtail's cry, he ran alongside Gerris and tackled the monster’s other leg, so that the creature was now struggling with its balance. Though the effort had been useless. They had barely smashed away the creature’s legs when they already began reforming again.
How the hell were they going to defeat this thing?!

After a first moment of almost panic, Fenrir ripped into the creature with even more vigour, annoyed to no end that his attempts of clawing out bones by the million was completely in vain. No matter what amount of fury and strength he put into his movements however, the result remained the same.
The damn thing kept reforming, over and over again!

Rintho was down and staying at the very outermost parts of the new battle arena. It was a hideous cave full of animated bones that collected into violent creatures, the bones would splinter through them easily if they were caught off guard; nevermind that their scales should have been tough...These bones behaved strangely indeed and seemed more resilient. Enough for their teeth and claws on them to make only small scratches at a time. He wondered if they were up to the task at all, and understood now why nobody ever returned.

It crossed his mind he'd be able to be a large help, fighting physically against that beast would be a long and painful process, perhaps he could use his counter animation magic to help them on their way...at the cost of much energy, but how? It would certainly blow his cover with even the smallest over surge in power, what was worst was he could feel the overwhelming pulses of magic radiating from the bones that had come to life. He was a lich, an animated corpse, and the power threatened to disassemble him and whirl him into the mess. That would be a permanent end to life as he knew it. Yet, he couldn't just stand and let the dragons possibly be obliterated, including himself.

Clustering energy very steadily in his right palm, he pressed it calmly to a clear patch on the ground free of debris and felt the coolness turn to a sharp cold as death magic wormed into it. He couldn't hope to single handedly take this monster down under these circumstances, but perhaps he could disable some of the bones and turn the others sluggish, the magic itself was like a poison to him though. For all its power it was counter to his life force, and after this expedition he'd probably spend the rest of the month lying in wait for his ritual. The floor before him seemed to for the tiniest of moments flash the black veins of his moving magic over it, he simply had to pray no dragon had noticed its source.
Gods, death magic was slow through stone.
He aimed it towards the main clump of reforming bones, perhaps taking some notches off the capability of them would allow for the dragons to get the upper paw...

Magic! You have to fight them with your arcane abilities... He was thinking; as strong as the urge was to simply bat the things away that threatened to impale you.
There was always more than one way to skin a cat, though.

Her hackles still raised, Anækileya slid her gaze to her sister and nodded slowly. That was something she could easily agree on. Ignoring Temero’s obvious resentment, she continued to comb over their surroundings, moving with slow caution towards the bank of crystals at the opposite end of the cave.

She was right next to the heap of bones, beginning to skirt around its edge, when she noticed a few of them which almost seemed to be pulling together. For a moment she dismissed it as impossible for the bones to be moving themselves- but she swiftly forced herself to reconsider. Magic was thick in the air here, after all. Drawing to a halt, she eyed the bones uneasily and came to the same conclusion as Vythiweiah at the same moment. The largest creature she had seen formed so far was the one advancing on her sister, but there were numerous others to be dealt with and any clubtail could take care of herself. Bracing herself with a sturdy foot-plant, Anækileya swung a hefty blow into a newly forming creature, sending the delicate bones- from animals smaller than humans or dragons, surely- shattering into smithereens. As she pawed through the pile of bones, scattering them somewhat to make it harder for them to reach each other, she observed the efforts of dragons around her- they seemed to be making little progress, the bones reforming into different bizarre chimeras as soon as they were dismantled. Well, her approach had fixed that at least. The others all seemed to be fighting valiantly, down to their newest recruit, that sweet little waif of a tear. Or perhaps not. Syntribos’ name caught her attention, that thorn in her side, and she jerked her head up to see the little scumbag fleeing down the next passage.
The cowardice, the shame of it! There was only one way to receive a deserter of Maledictus Eice, and it was assumed policy for most every member. Now, however, wasn’t the time for punishments; abruptly the clubtail realised that the shards of bone were rising around her feet, forming into a whirlwind of sharp fragments interlaced with forks of lightning. How could you fight that?

Backing up slightly with her headspikes flat back against her head, she crushed several smaller demons under her feet as they tried to make a bid for a lash dragon which darted past. At a loss for anything else to do when using physical force was plainly so ineffective, she opened her jaw as widely as she could to spit out a huge cloud of searingly hot fire. The bones were just that, even if some strange magic was reinforcing them, and just like any corpse thrown into a fire they burnt with the temperature high enough. A cloud of ashes fell to the floor where her antagonistic shard-cloud had been, and she had created a small and blackened dent in the main heap, which was ever-shrinking as more and more creatures formed out of it. But the fact was that they simply couldn’t do much. How did you combat something like that?

Her question was answered in the next moment by a strange feeling like an energising- twisting to where it seemed to come from, she saw a male euphorn stood with an expression of intense concentration over his face. Fallen bones lay in a wide ring around him and when one of the creatures entered the area, they did not rise again. With some fascination, she realised that the dragon was simply siphoning energy away from their enemies and channeling it out to the dragons of Maledictus Eice. How he could cope with that much power, she didn’t know- but then, he would surely have no idea how to use a club at the end of his tail if given one. Each breed had its own talents, and it was only now that she realised how valuable a part of their group that euphorn could be. The possibilities with that kind of power were surely endless- whole groups of bipeds could be felled with no apparent injuries. That would terrify the scrawny little humans out of their wits. Jubilant with this realisation, Anækileya let out another blast of fire, the cloud billowing larger and hotter than the last with the extra magic she now had at her disposal.

It was only once she had used up most of the excess magic from the euphorn that she noticed the pile of bones had almost entirely stopped forming into new monsters for them to fight. A few bones still lifted into the air and made weak attempts at clumping together, but none of those lasted long. What was going on now? Who was responsible for this? Narrowing her eyes, she smashed away another attacker with her tail and began to scan for any potential cause.

When Gerris and that other little one- who claimed to be a dragon- both ran off without a backward glance and left Jitt alone and bereft of his new friends, the scythe claw stood idiotically still for a few moments until something with horribly chattering teeth swooped in on him. With a wail of panic, he batted it away, leaving long scars across the bones where his claws connected with it. They seemed to make no difference at all though, and the scythe claw looked around desperately for another solution- and then he saw, once again, the tawny dragon streaking away from the fighting. With a feeble whimper, Jitt bounded after Syntribos, skittering down into the relative safety of the tunnel.

The noises of fighting were strangely subdued by the corner they had rounded, and away from the action Jitt felt safe enough to look around himself a little. There was little of interest in the caves other than the faintly glowing quartz which gave them light to see by. At least, not at first. After a few moments of him staring vacantly at the walls, half-forgetting that Syntribos was also there, ripples seemed to run through the quartz to one spot, where the light intensified and eventually burst from the wall as a tiny bolt of lightning. With a wail, Jitt yet again flinched away, only to see the lightning forming into a tiny creature which seemed to float in the air. It was similarly bright to the crystal in the wall and reminded him a little of a wispy dog. What it was, he couldn’t say- but it cocked its head and spoke to them in a quiet, subdued tone.
“We don’t get many visitors down here anymore.”

As the little bone Dyavol had been clinging to finaqlly wriggled out of his grip, Dyavol cursed under his breath. He had no way of adding to the offence, so instead called upon the tiny amound of wind energy he posessed to form a sort of sheild of air, all moving against the tiny breeze kicked up by the magic and moving bones. That shoiuld slow down any projectiles and at least keep him alive until he found an opening to be of use. After all, what else could he do - each bone was longer than him.

The air-sheild slowed Dyavol's movement and weakened him a little, but he moved down to attack another smaller set of bones. The species of animal within the pile weren't exclusive, and there were a few little skeletons that could have belonged to lizards, mice or small birds, which he decided he probably had a better chance against. He never doubted himself against creatures he understood - creatures that bled, but magical beings? he was at a loss.

Grabbing what might have once been a sparrow by a now-useless skeletal wing, Dyavol pulled the creature into the air and bit down. The tiny bones crunched pleasantly between his tiny, razor sharp teeth, and the shards of bone fell to the ground, leaving the reanimated bird barely able to move. Then, it just stopped, and an odd feeling seemed to spread through the ground beneath him. He hadn't been expecting that...
--

Ocei tried to think, attacking only when a bone got too close, but fell completely still as a wave of some dark energy ran beneath her feet. It fel like healing magic,but backwards, and even as she watched the animated bones nearest her began to slow and clatter to the ground. She gave a whine, the magic playing with her own source of healing energy, and shifted uncomfortably. What was making that stuff? It was not natural, but then agan nothing down there was.

Looking around, Ocei noticed the thin black veins in the ground for a second, before they vanished. Well, she knew where the magic was, but where was it coming from? She decided not to disturb the others, but tried to trace the magic. If it was like backwards healing, then what seemed like the taqrgety must be the source, so it was just a matter of tracing that. Sadly, the power of the magic was almost overwhelming her, so she could do nothing but endure the wave, wincing and whimpering in discomfort, and fighting her automatic responce to cry and stop it happening. Of course, if it got to any of the other dragons, she would have no choice but to intervene, but it seemed that th emysterious energy was doing them all a favour for now.

The more they fought these bony creatures, the angrier Fenrir became. How he hated being annoyed! And these things were seriously bothering him! Everything they proved to be futile! Nothing worked! It was immensely dissatisfying and the wolf dragon would be turning a deep red by now if he had the complexion of a human.

Watching the clubtail sisters out of the corners of his eye as they practically plowed through the heap to reduce the bones to dust, he had a brief flare of hope – but in vain once again.
Nothing, nothing nothing!
Roaring in frustration before he angrily bit down on the bone currently floating before his face in an attempt to strike the wolf dragon over the head, Fenrir suddenly noticed the limpness in the creature he had been fighting until then. No more reaction followed and the skeleton disintegrated into its base parts, rattling to the ground.
What had just happened?

Since he had kept an eye on the leaders of their group, he realised that Anækileya was staring at one of their euphorns in surprise and following her gaze, he realised why. However, he had been far enough away from the dragon not to have been affected by this turn of events. So what...?

Before he could finish the thought however, he was once again distracted by an immensely bright light suddenly flaring to life in the passage behind him through which Syntribos and Jitt had fled. Even without looking directly at it, the brilliance was bugging Fenrir as it was making his eyes tear. Trying to scratch at his eyes to rid himself of the biting sensation which had entered them, the wolf dragon made the mistake of turning his head slightly towards the light.
Without meaning to, he suddenly felt compelled to look straight at it. He despised it, with every fibre of his body, but he could not fight the urge. As minimal as the light might have been for everyone else, even those inside the passage, it appeared magnified to the wolf dragon, who saw nothing anymore but the light emanating from the quartz stones.
As soon as Fenrir's eyes met the light, he felt his legs move towards it as if in a trance. It was so pretty! Any sign of fury or irritation had left his body and the wolf dragon felt as though he was stepping on fluffy pink clouds of pure happiness.

Syntribos was not a coward, no matter hwat the other members of Maledictus Eice said. He just had his priorities rooted firmly in the right- he did not want to die, especially not at the hands of some undead monster. Especially not due to those two incessant, obnoxious clubtail sisters. Which is why he ran.
Not because he was scared.

He paused to look back as the battle started up again, ears twitching at the noises, then he turned back to the dark again, pacing forwards, adjusting to the sudden dip in light levels. he didn’t have to for long however, as that useless scythe claw came bowling after him, sparking off lightning from the walls. Syn flinched down close to the ground, fearing another type of attack- when the bright light formed into a wispy little creature, he was more than confused. This just did not make any sense at all. From monsters to waifs?

The creature was weird, ethereal and barely seeming to belong to this world. Syn had never seen anything like it before- but when had anyone seen the likes of any of the creatures that they had faced in the past twenty odd minutes? The whole place was like something off Dragons’ Cove, or like myths out of the old world. Fairy book beasts to scare little children at night. Even if he did not believe in fairy tales (although that was dangerous to admit, so just in case…), he knew that waifs and spirits were not the sort of creatures to be talking freely with. So he kept silent at its odd comment, despite wanting to press it for what it was, where they were, if there was an exit.

Then, to just add another element of crazy to the whole game, Fenrir decided he liked the look of the light, behaving like one bewitched. Well, that was just fantastic. A terrified scythe claw, a barmy spirit and a hypnotised wolf dragon. Not to mention the rest of Maledictus Eice, when they caught up with the three of them, and wanted to claw Syn’s guts out for buggering off mid-fight.

Things were just peachy. First things first; he growled a warning shot at Jitt, wishing he would stop freaking out like a child, then whacked Fenrir hard on the side with the flat of his tail.
“Stop it,” he growled. “What do you think you’re playing at?”
Fool. And now Syn had to play benevolent father for the both of them.

Gerris could not use his abilities for fear of killing the others. At times like this, he was reminded that he was trained in the art of killing, not so much battle. So it was that he found himself dancing away from blows and lashing his tail like a whip. He kept his wings tight to his body, and made useless the necks and limbs of any creature small enough to fall victim to his bite. He spotted the euphorn and wondered how he could have missed such an ornate dragon amidst the fray. He watched as bone beasts ran toward him, and dissolved into uselessness. Thinking his method was much better than what they'd been doing thus far, he rerouted his looping dodges to get toward the Euphorn. However much magic could they handle, he wondered. It seemed like a lot to him. The sudden instinct to use his own powers was fiercely quelled. He could do nothing that would affect reanimated dead, he could only add more dead to the tally from the living. When he arrived, the three beasts following him fell useless and he turned to the Euphorn. He didn't want to distract it, so instead, he maintained a cat and mouse game, leading creatures to the Euphorn only to make them useless.

Not a single coherent thought was forming in the wolf dragon’s mind. The light was so beautiful! So, so pretty! He had to get to it, he had to touch it. It was his! It was calling him too!
With every step Fenrir took, he got closer to the light, this wonderful light that he wanted to grab and never let go of. If he could get this light, he knew he’d be happy for eternity! Such a wonderfully happy thought!

When he was almost at the light, he suddenly felt something hitting him, and not in a friendly way. Actually, it rather hurt!
All of a sudden, the spell cast over Fenrir seemed to rip apart and within the blink of an eye, the wolf dragon stood in the middle of – well, where was he?! – and growled at Syntribos, whose tail had just so harshly connected with his side.

“Have you completely lost your mind? Attacking your own now?!” The growl echoed back to him threefold and Fenrir pushed his ears back to his skull in annoyance. Why did everything have to suck so badly? Did everything and everyone agree on a pact to bug the hell out of him? What was wrong with this forsaken place?!

It was only then that he noticed the strange creature hovering before Jitt. Suddenly, he made the connection and even though his expression was that of utter confusion – mixed in with feeling rather sheepish – Fenrir backed away until his behind was against a wall, keeping a careful eye on the spirit.
“What is going on?” he whispered, afraid to be any louder in case the echoes came back or more of these spirits turned up.

Before getting a chance to talk to this thing- which seemed quite friendly, unlike most other things in the hole- Jitt found Syntribos growling at him. After a second of staring with blank terror at the desert chaser, he turned his head to see Fenrir blinking as if just recovering from the light- it hadn’t seemed so bright, even though it was quite dark down here- and moving slowly towards them. He seemed enraptured, obviously not at all aware of his surroundings other than this new creature- until, that is, he was brought back to his sense by a harsh blow from Syntribos. Slowly, Jitt began to realise that following this dragon around might not have been his best decision. Then again, he didn’t really understand anything about what was going on… Maybe it was for the best if somebody else could direct him.

He didn’t really understand the conversation which passed between the other two, though they didn’t seem to be on good terms with each other. What he did pick up on was Fenrir’s murmured question, one which Jitt really didn’t know the answer to either. All the same, it seemed a decent excuse to talk to the spirit before them, and so Jitt shuffled nervously closer and asked her,
“Wh-where are we?”

If none of them knew what was going on, then it had to be a helpful question to ask. Right?

Dyavol noticed the light and the spirit after a while, and left the broken bone-sparrow to flail uselessly, the tiny creature’s bones crushed by Dyavol’s jaw. The bones were surprisingly tough, and Dyavol was certain that was to do with whatever magic was keeping them ‘alive’, but a tiny creature with hollow bones was still no problem. The light was interesting however, and as he was of no real use right then he took wing and went to investigate.

As he got close enough to see the spirit properly, he snorted. “Not many visitors? I’m not surprised – it’s not like the welcome party was fantastic. Maybe you should call off the damned guards.” He stopped short of swinging his tail at the spirit, but something about it annoyed him. He was temperamental at the best of times, and with a comment like that it must have been asking for trouble. He hissed at the little thing too, just to ensure it knew he didn’t like it, and held his air-space, watching for a response.

--

Oceianna couldn’t handle it any more. As more of the bone-creatures fell to their knees and crumpled, the power of the strange, anti-healing magic that seemed to be everywhere became too much. A tear fell from her nose and splashed onto one of the offending sections of floor that the magic seemed to be pulsing through. She pulled herself together quickly, realising that wasting her magic there wouldn’t be any use to the other dragons later (and being useful was the most important thing right then), and hoped that the one tear would at least keep her little patch of ground safe.

One of the straggling bone-things got closer, although it was obviously struggling to hold its form with all the magic around. She snarled – the scariest noise she could make – and snapped her teeth, hoping to scare it off. Too bad the bone monsters didn't have ears. She caught it by the throat with her jaws, and shook her head. A couple of bones flew off it, and the magic took its course, but as it crumpled Oceianna couldn’t help feeling like she’d killed it… and she wasn’t sure whether to feel guilty or proud. The world of the Maledictus Eice dragons was still alien to her, and it was clear that she would need much more time to get used to it.

“You’re out of your mind,” growled Syntribos back at Fenrir, with the same venom. The wolf dragon was crazy. Well, he was part of ME; they were all crazy. This was why Syn needed to get the hell out of this, ‘cos he couldn’t normally be classed as the sane one. Although he was still managing to cause a ruckus even amongst this lot, which was something to be proud of. He rolled his eyes as Fenrir suddenly shrunk away from the little spirit in front of them. It was just some waif, what was there to be frightened of? Lunatics, he was surrounded by lunatics. And it wasn’t even as though he could escape, because he didn’t have bloody wings to get out of this pit. Hell, he was going to die down in this dark place.

The thought did not cheer his mood any.

“So my idea to not fight those monsters wasn’t such a bad one after all, if y’all following me,” he muttered under his breath. Look who was being the idiot now, clubtails? Taking on something that they didn’t even need to face, if a little wisdom was applied to the situation. He’d like to see them get down into this smaller tunnel. The skeletons- although, fair point for the clubtails too. He hoped it’d get a bit smaller, tunnel-wise; seeing the two massive dragons trying to squeeze their way through a gap way too small for them would be quite the entertainment.
“We’re in some goddamn pit,” said Syn to Jitt’s question, his ears flicking back bad-temperedly. “With some squit of a spirit. There any other way outta here? Dunno about this lot (I think they’re enjoyin’ it though), but I’d quite like to get right out of here.”

The wisp didn’t seem too inclined to answering his question, and immediately took to doing backflips in the air. As you do. Syn felt like bashing his head against the wall in frustration at the whole situation. He scowled at Fenrir, gesturing to the crazy spirit with his muzzle.
“It seemed to like you, tell it to get us out of here.”

Syn’s attitude did nothing to improve Fenrir’s mood and he was just on the brink of snarling something vicious back at the desert chaser when the tiny butterfly dragon appeared. Dyavol’s sudden grumpy appearance did nothing to better the wolf dragon’s mood either, on the contrary. The clubtails’ lackey was with them now. Could things get any worse?

Seeing the failed attempts so far to make the spirit reply to anything even though it had spoken to them first, the wolf dragon kept his ears flat against his skull. As Syntribos addressed him once again, he merely growled in reply, showing his teeth as the desert chaser mocked him. That dragon was getting on his nerves.

However, he did have a point. He wanted to get out of here, and so did Fenrir. And if that meant trying to talk to a spirit, then so be it. Pushing aside his annoyance at everyone and everything around him, Fenrir looked at the spirit, trying to forget the enticing light that seemed to emanate from it.
“Could you please tell us how to get out of here? This place isn’t particularly dragon friendly.”

The spirit suddenly stopped in its backward flips and hovered in front of the dragons, its head cocked to the side as if contemplating something. Then, without warning, it suddenly dove at Fenrir with an earpiercing screech and its mouth wide open, displaying a frightening range of extraordinarily sharp teeth. Its arms were extended towards the wolf dragon as if it wanted to strangle him and Fenrir panicked.

Wanting to get away from this thing as quickly as possible, he backed away but he was already against the wall. The only other option – because he didn’t want to go back to the cave with the skeletons – was to run further down this tunnel.
Picking up his feet, Fenrir ran, bumping into Syn as he passed by the dragon but not stopping in his movement, the spirit close on his heels, if the screaming was anything to go by.

Syn leapt back in surprise and fright as the spirit suddenly dove at Fenrir screaming, his fur sticking up all over the place to a new level, even moreso than before. He pressed his ears back against his head and yelped in horror at the transformed creature- gods, look at those teeth, they were like something off a demon, not a fairy spirit- then leapt back out of the way again as the wolf dragon bumped into him in his hurry to get away from the little monster. Damn, did all tiny creatures behave like tribal battle bloods in miniature; first Dyavol, the bloodthirsty little butterfly, and now this thing?

Although he was disinclined to follow someone else’s lead, especially someone else that didn’t seem to get on with him so well (growling, honestly? Where were the words?) Syn wasn’t going to stick around if this spirit was going to now decide to attack them like the bone creatures back in the main cavern were going to attack the rest of Maledictus Eice. Pulling his tail out from between his back legs so it didn’t get in the way, he fled down the tunnel after Fenrir, yelling in fright as the spirit harangued them the whole way, cringing as close as he could to the ground until it eventually decided they weren’t worth the effort and turned back to accost Dyavol instead.

((Doods, reply!))

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