Take Back the Crown

Oceana could hear a muffled something. It echoed into the dark of her mind.


Again it called, clearer this time.


A voice!


It called to her though she knew not with what words.


She reached out towards it, a pull in her heart towards that familiar sound.


Suddenly it all came rushing in. She smelled something wretched and her head hurt. Off in the distance was a horrid squealing. Fire crackled. 


And the voice, rough and panicked.


"Oceana! Wake up!"


Aquamarine eyes flew open to gaze to gaze upon two warbling figures above her.


The elf blinked sluggishly. One. One figure.


It was Hjalmar.


She absently registered his hand on her cheek.


Groaning in pain she sat up, taking in the view around her. The crawlers were still swarming but Fewer than before and the canyon a mess of sand and blood and flame.


She heard a whinny behind her and struggled to turn her bruised neck.


As soon as Bo had released Dahlia she had come straight for her current rider, and was trotting up to the two tanned figures on the ground.


Oceana tried to speak and found she couldn't. The effort wracked her throat with pain and she wheezed. Panic welled in her chest but she fought it back.


They had to flee, all else could wait.


She stood shakily and hoisted herself onto her horse offering a hand to Hjalmar to get on behind her.


Then she steered the horse next to the fire and slid sideways to retrieve her dusty pack. And then Dahlia was off at a gallop into the night, trailing just behind the others.


@Lo Alyssa
 
As he often did, Dorian, even when fighting, was trying to keep tabs on everyone. He would be a lousy criminal if he did not. So when Yaroslav was no longer slashing at crawlers, Dorian was quick to notice. After a brief second of thought about if he should stay and help Garrett reach the group safely or go and find Yaroslav,  Dorian ran of to do the later.


The crawler that was holding down Yaroslav collapsed as Dorian threw a knife, the weapon embedding itself deep into one of the beasts eyes.


Once the familiar actually reached the warrior, he helped push the crawler off and offered Yaroslav a hand to help stand up.


"I'd love to make a joke here about crawlers and crawling but I'm sure you would stab me. But please do hurry up, everyone's calling retreat and I'm rather keen on getting the hell out of here. No time for laying around."  He quipped. 


@Lo Alyssa
 
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Nick flicked his eyes at the enormous housecat and fervently hoped it would not eat any of the Crawlers.  The battle raged on around him - several were wounded, some severely.  He saw the group's herd of horses pass by and deftly caught his own, swinging up onto the saddle and letting the horse's herd instinct guide it as he searched through his pack.  He found a cylinder of incindiary arrows and loaded it into his crossbow.  He took the conduit that powered his discharge blade and plugged it into his crossbow.  A spark began to ark in front of the magnesium arrowhead.


He fired an arrow into the sky toward where they were retreating to.  The arrowhead burnt with a brilliant white flame as it flew off into the distance, lighting the entire area like daylight.  "MAKE FOR THE LIGHT EVERYONE!"  He bellowed as he continued to search his packs, eventually pulling out the rest of his blast spheres, as well as collecting the flasher vials and the remainder of his DMT hallucinogenic powder.  He gathered everything into his arms and jumped off his horse, tucking and rolling to a stop in the sand.  "RETREAT!  EVERYONE GET PAST ME, GO GO GO!"  Nick shouted at the others again as he began to set up their exit strategy.  I might not be able to afford to replenish all of this when we hit the next apothecary or alchemy shop... Not with the money I have on me now...  Nick grimaced as he tightened the strap on his goggles, sealing his eyes away from the air, and drew out a black leather mask with several layers of specially-treated cloth, which would filter the air for his mouth and nose.  He made a series of four scratches in each Glycerine 48 container.  Instead of heating up, they simply stopped being so cold.  He gently piled them up in a small pyramid and laid out his flasher vials over the core, and finally placed the small sacks of DMT powder over that.


This should buy them enough time to get away to a safe location... But I need them to get past first!  I'll work on neutralizing venom and infections once we're all safe...
 
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Giant dogs, giant bugs, now giant cats? Of course, that was the least of his concerns but still, he was glad the cat was further off. He had been quickly zapping heads off of the approaching bugs before they could get to him, but the burning sensation still persisted. He knew he'd have to stop relying on his magic soon, and that meant taking a more head-on approach. 


His attention was caught by Ashalr. He would've smiled at the nickname lightning man, as it was rather nostalgic to hear (although last time it was lightning boy), but he simply nodded. He followed and hastily helped untie the horses, simply praying that they would either stay around or get to their riders somehow. He wished he could stop some of them from skittering around, but he was already distracted by constant onslaught of incoming crawlers from the caves. He repeatedly turned around, shooting lightning from his fingertips, but there were just too many. He helped prepare the wagons and let Ashlar take one of them - hopefully, out of there. As for him, he didn't want to leave until he saw everyone had a way out. He didn't want anyone left behind. 


Once the crawlers were released, he grabbed his bow off of Santo's saddle and began to look for people on the ground. He saw Oceana and Hjalmar run off on a horse, and he began to do a headcount. It seemed that everyone had gotten the memo to get out of there. He'd already seem some people headed towards and getting on the horses he'd released. But there were still a few people missing. 


It was then that he spotted a limping Nameen - and a crawler headed coming at her from behind. He reached for an arrow and aimed at it's eyes, only narrowly missing and hitting its pinchers. With a groan of frustration, he willed himself to use more magic again, since apparently his aim with an arrow was horrid. With pointed fingers he blasted its head off, and watched it fall to the ground. And then a cry of pain - from him. A crawler had come up from behind, gripped its large claws around his waist, and lifted him off the ground. "NO NO NO." He protested, twisting his arms around to try and get a stab at the thing. As he felt the the crawler's pinchers crushing his sides, he mustered as much power as he could; streams of blue electricity swirling his arms before a final blast burst from clenched fists into the many eyes of the creature. The crawler's grip loosened, but he had yet to pry himself out of it's pinchers as it fell to the ground, dead. He found his arms writhing in a burning pain, and he gripped one arm with the other, trying to focus on escaping, but was unable to as pain blurred his vision. He felt his pulse pounding throughout his whole body.


"SANTO!" He called out to his horse, who, although frightened, came galloping speedily to his side, and then passing him to Nameen. The horse shook her head and nudged Nameen's side urgently, as if to say help, even though Nameen too, was hurt.


@Rydellius @Lo Alyssa (i hope this is ok) @anyone else who wants to help 
 
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The dark elf seemed to be one of the few that didn't get hurt from the crawlers so she took it upon herself to hold off the creatures until the rest had gotten out.


Pinchers were breaking through her walls of sandglass and Pippa was doing his best to keep them all behind them, snapping and biting off the heads that broke through. Sweat was beading down her face as the amount of magic she was using was starting to wear her down.


Hearing the cry of Bo, she turned her head to look at him, her face dropping,"Bo!" running to him, she slid to her knees, a plume of sand being kicked up as she grabbed onto the pinchers right away. Pulling as hard as she could, she grunted as the pinchers didnt give out. Looking around for something to use, she found a piece of broken sandglass and grabbed that and began to hack at the pincher. Blood spilled onto the crawler as the glass dug into her palm, leaving Aggie giving occasional yelps of pain as it dug into her flesh. Eventually with her might and hacking, she got a pincher released and she discarded the glass to pull up Bo,"C'mon you!" she grunted, putting one of his arms over her shoulders. 


Whistling for Pippa, the large dog turned, shaking off four crawlers and ran over to her, using his body to shield his master, Bo, Nameen and Santo from the onslaught of pinchers. 


Aggie couldn't find her horse but she figured it had ran off in fear. She hoped. 


Panic started to flood in as the situation got more dire. Was she the only able bodied person to fend off the crawlers? She didn't know she didn't take too much time to look around.


@soundofmind @Rydellius @all
 
It felt like everything was happening in slow motion. He foggily saw Aggie come over, and the blood dripping from her hand, and the sudden release from the crawler's grasp. He let Aggie lift him up, not coming to his senses until the giant dog ran over to shield them from the crawlers. He heard someone's cry to retreat - not being able to identify exactly who - and he took one look at Aggie and Nameen before quickly making a decision. "Get on the horse." He demanded of them both, lifting up Aggie and placing her on Santo's back. He recoiled his arms afterwards, wincing in pain. He watched Nameen follow up after and as soon as he saw they were both on he yelled. "Go!" And with only a second's hesitation, Santo ran off after the others at full speed. Bo put a hand on Pippa before the dog could bound off to follow its master. He grabbed its fur, gritting his teeth and letting out a low growl as he pulled himself atop the dog's back. With his arms trembling, and his stomach bleeding, he gripped the dog with as much might as he could muster.


"Run." He commanded. Although he hardly had to say so, as Pippa quickly ran off to follow the light blazing in the distance. 


@Rydellius @Tater
 
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Pippa growled slightly as the man grasped onto his fur, his green eyes flashing dangerously at him. His hackles rose slightly until Aggie shot him a look.


/He's hurt. Keep him steady and on your back while I help keep this one on the horse./


/He smells of MAN./ he arched his head up and bared some teeth as Bo settled onto his back. 


/If he falls Ill give you the body of one of those trembly little rat dogs./


/OFF WE GO!/  the massive beast rushed off and looked up towards the light that shot into the sky.


Aggie wrapped her cloak around herself tightly, pulling the scarf bit over her mouth and nose to keep out the sand. Looking up to Bo every once in a while then to Nameen, she held the smaller woman close to her chest and exhaled slowly, closing her eyes briefly. 


The sound of the crawlers died off slowly as they ran off deeper into the sands, only the sound of Pippa's massive breaths, hoofbeats and some groans of the injured were in her pounding ears. 


Lowering her head, she looked down at her now bleeding hand, the blood caked and scabbing over quite ugly like. It was worth it though. Looking back up to Bo and Pippa, she saw that Pippa had a new fire in his eyes. 


/Its been awhile since you ran in that form, yes? /


/Yes. I missed it so. And this man, he surges with power. I very much enjoy it./


The dark skinned woman looked down at the head of the horse and exhaled slowly, closing her eyes with relief.


@soundofmind @all
 
Foxrun had frowned at the confirmation the guide had given him, which only grew as all the events unfolded. One after another. Between the scittering of the bugs, their death cries, and the other cries of battle, oh and of course all the explosions and magic... he found his head quickly pounding from all the intake of noise. He wasn't skilled in the type of projectile magic that quite a few of the others were, and he had no giant beasts to help him out either. This left the last, as well as the most tasking of the options. A direct approach. Avoiding all of the pinchers and legs was a challenge in itself if aiming for the soft stomach. But the eyes, although more exposed, still were a bit of a risk to get to. So instead, he used what magic he could to help him gain a bit of an advantage. The bugs had a far less intelligent mind than he was use to dealing with. So it made this trick that much more effective. He cast an illusion spell over himself, one that hid him physically from the beasts but as well as even his scent in case they would follow that. Without them being able to see him, naturally he was no longer targeted. This opened a multitude of doors for opportunities to pick them off one by one, and catching them before they could catch whomever they preyed upon. Even though he was relatively unscathed, it seemed his comrades were not as lucky. More and more of them fell, some more critically than others. He squinted at the flash of light before spotting the others slowly leaving the battle. Then he noticed Lucasta and Lucas, both defending themselves but still pinned back. He made a dash to them both, raking one of his long daggers up the abdomen of a slightly smaller and unsuspecting crawler. As the beast toppled, seemingly from nothing, he dropped his cloak briefly to reveal he was there with them. Even speaking shortly "we gotta go! I'm going to keep you two hidden from these things, just stay close okay?" He vanished from them again for mere seconds before spreading his shield to them as well. The three could then easily see each other. "As long as we stick together, and avoid getting trampled, we won't be seen now." He assured them with a grin and began to weave a path through the remaining bugs. Keeping himself hidden was something he could do for a long while with little affect on his stamina. But he hadn't used this magic on others in quite some time and the drain was heavily noticed. But he wanted them safe. They needed them to make it through this. None of this mattered if they couldn't keep the young heirs safe. 


@Queen of Fantasy@whoever (omg I tried. So hard to keep up and jump in.)
 
Nameen whirled, thrusting her blade in the eye of yet another crawler.  She'd stopped keeping track of how many she'd pierced, and more kept on materializing in the darkness.  She limped through the midst of the chaos, past menacing shapes in the darkness with the sounds of magic, shouts, and crawlers filling her ears.  Her wounded foot had long since gone numb, but a heavy feeling seemed to be spreading throughout all of her limbs. 


Venom, I need to find a way out of here fast. 


Her head spun, trying to catch sight of one of her companions, of anyone.  All that she found however, was another crawler preparing to pounced at her from the right.  Once again her blade pierced its huge, glassy eye and it screeched, falling down dead.  Something else sounded from behind her, and Nameen whirled, coming face to face with a set of pincers just as a sudden bolt of lightning reduced the beast to a smouldering heap. 


Bo?  She rotated in the direction the magic surge had come from, but there was no sign of the giant man.  Only after a moment did a distressed whinny sound through the chaos, followed by what she recognized as Bo's horse.  Bo, she realized with a sinking feeling, was no where to be seen. 


Santo galloped with lightning speed, coming to a skidding stop right next to her.  The panicked horse nudged her roughly with her muzzle, before staring back at the space from which she had come.  Leaning on the horse for support, Nameen followed with her foot dragging behind her.  Through the darkness she could make out several shapes, becaming clearer as they closed the gap.


Nameen realized with a sick feeling that the larger figure was Bo, collapsed in a heap underneath the carcass of a dead crawler.  The other turned out to be Agitha, the elf who had been with their canyon guide, attempting to free the larger man.  She met the other woman's eyes for a brief moment, before turning to aid what seemed like a huge dog in fending off the onslaught of crawlers as she worked. 


The venom was working fast, draining her at an alarming rate.  Her wounded ankle had lost the ability to move, so she awkwardly leaned on her other in an attempt to stay upright.  She dispatched one crawler, but lost her balance as she retracted her blade, falling backward  without being able to catch herself.  Already on the ground, she grit her teeth, rolling underneath another crawler and piercing its soft underside.  She barely rolled out of the way before it crushed her, and then hauled herself back up into a sitting position, causing spots to dance at the edge of her vision. 


Nameen was vaguely aware of Bo shouting for them to leave, but her head was swimming far too much for her too react immediately.  She bit her tongue, the pang bringing her back to her senses temporarily.  She managed to sheith her sword and lift herself up over to Santo, where she let Aggie help her up onto the horse.  As soon as they were both securely on, Santo took off through the chaotic scene. 


Barely conscious, Nameen peered over her shoulder, noticing with a wave of relief that the dog was following, with Bo on his back. 


@soundofmind @Tater
 
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Nick watched from his location as the battle raged on.  He knew a horse rode by with the dark elf and a scarred woman-


Wait.  Her eye...  Was that... No... It can't be...  He glanced back and flicked at his goggles, magnifying the image of the scarred woman, examining the traces of magic she gave off.  Specifically, her eye.  I am going to have to be very, very careful around her.  Nick shoved the thought aside and refocused, just as Pippa the big black dog bounded past with the big lightning guy on his back.


So far, no-one else had made it past.


Nick grabbed an incindiary arrow and clamped it between his teeth for easy access before switching to his acid arrows again.  "I was this close to making an astounding discovery about ancient draconic ancestors."  He emptied his first cylinder of acidic arrows into the horde of Crawlers, speaking around the arrow clamped in his mouth.  "I was this close to having a nice, uneventful, relaxing trip outside my tower."  He replaced cylinders and emptied another seven arrows into the swarm as he advanced on them, his black cloak fluttering behind him like a stream of smoke, growling as he spoke.  "And I was this close to making friends for the first time in over a hundred years!"  He emptied his last cylinder of acidic arrows into the horde, baring his teeth in a feral grin, and placed the incendiary arrow into the firing slot, ready to go, and put the crossbow away before extending his discharge blade and breaking into a sprint.  "I swear upon all that exists in every reality, if you kill any of these people I will spend the next three hundred years of my free time hunting you to extinction!"  Nick roared and leaped into the air, spinning and flipping before landing on the back of a Crawler, stabbing between armor plates and electrocuting it.  Nick's cloak kept him from being electrocuted... He had already been zapped a few too many times by blowback from the discharge blade.  The vile creature lurched, sending Nick back into the air.  Nick tucked in and spun quickly to land on his feet and rolled under another Crawler, disembowling it as he went.  A massive crawler bit down on Nick's buckler.  The force of it's bite was enough to overpower the spring mechanism, so Nick shoved his blade into the gap between head and thorax and wrenched his arm back and forth until the head came off.  The head spasmed and let go while the rest of the beast charged off, bowling over other crawlers until it slammed into a wall and plugged a hole with its headless body.


"LILITH!  SVETLANA!  PRINCESS!  Head for the white light down the canyon!  I need EVERYONE OUT!"  Nick took the opportunity to don a leather mask with small pinprick holes that lead through a thick pad of alchemically treated fabrics that covered his mouth and nose, tighten the straps of his goggles to seal his eyes from the air, close his cloak, and finally tighten his hood around his face so none of his skin was exposed.  He saw an illusion spell pass by, consuming enough power to conceal two or three people.  "I'm about to give these crawlers a religious experience!"


@Queen of Fantasy @Lo Alyssa
 
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(I think at the moment they are fighting the crawlers ??? Correct me if I'm wrong ahaha I just need to post SOMETHING)


Valeiah had been sitting in the sand staring at the rock when the vicious beasts almost appeared out of nowhere. She immediately jumped up. Alo had always been bad at keeping control of the beautiful mare, unlike herself. Mapiya was running away out of fear of the Crawlers and Alo couldn't get to her.


So Valeiah decided to.


She shoved the stone into her bag and ran off to her horse. "Mapiya! It's okay! Come back!" She called to her. She was running away from the battle, something she hated to do. But her horse meant much more to her than keeping a reputation of fighting well.


(idk if anyone will want to but if they wanna help her get the horse??? idk lmao)
 
            Hjalmar gave the elf a wide smile of relief as she returned to her feet and mounted her horse. When she offered a bloody and dirty hand to him, a quick ride away from the battlefield, at first he was unsure. He looked behind him, wondering if there was something he could still do to assist his comrades... But it seemed they all had the same idea and were making their way out. He nodded to her and grasped her hand with his good arm. She heaved him onto Dahlia and expertly guided the horse out of the clearing into another canyon pass.



 
​


            "Thanks." Yaroslav managed to chuckle as he picked himself up off the ground with a strained grunt, "Not sure I could stab you even if I wanted to." He added, feeling completely drained of any strength after his close call with the crawler, "I have to say... I missed having companions watching my back." He admitted, scanning the fiery war zone, registering their need for retreat.


            He retrieved his fallen axe before putting his grimy fingers to his mouth and giving a sharp whistle. Daisy, his biggest Clydesdale warhorse (and improperly named as such), came pounding through the sand and fire to his aid, answering his call. She nickered, turning her side to the warrior... she had always been his favorite of the horses he trained. He mounted the speckled mountain and then gave a look to Dorian, "I assume you do not need a ride?" He asked, though knew the farmiliar would most likely refuse considering his talents.



 
​


            Svetlana gave a quick nod to Nick, feeling odd that she would not need to intervene herself this time. "You better not take my job, dear Nick!" She laughed jokingly, blasting at crawlers blocking the path, clearing the way for the others yet to make it out.


            Ashlar waited until all the horses were corralled and heading in the right direction before trying to make it out himself. Thankfully, he managed to loosely attach the groups supplies to some of them. When that was finished, he shouted for his own horse, the brave stallion stayed behind waiting for his call. He charged towards Ashlar, and did not stop. Instead, Ashlar quickly swung himself over as he passed by, quickening their much needed escape (but more likely to show off.)


            The guide who failed at his job of guiding scanned the area as his stallion blazed through. His eyes spotted a particular figure with puffy hair tucked back in a pony tail. At first, from the back, it appeared as a girl. But upon closer inspection, he concluded the silouhette belonged to a boy; Alo.


            "Oi!" He called, more as a warning as he scooped the boy up onto the back of his horse without slowing.


            "Sorry for the rough pick up!" He apologized with a mischievous smile, "But better rough then roasted." He noted, as it seemed something big was about to happen. They had to clear the area.

 
"You'll move faster without me. And I'd prefer to check that my mage makes his way out of this alive." Dorian answered to Yaroslav and promptly leapt into the air in the form of a hawk. It didn't take him long to rise up high enough to see the quite far out.


@Lo Alyssa


As he circled above the mess of crawlers and destruction bellow, he wondered since when he had decided that Garrett wasn't better off dead. What with that idiot dragging him to this quest in the first place. He stopped that line of thought as he swooped down towards the mage, who was already riding away from the fray.
 
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Due to Pippa being so large compared to the horses, he had taken the front of the retreating group.


The large dog's maw was open as he panted from the rejuvenating run. 


/Aggie I like this man. His power aura is strong./


The woman tipped her head slightly and looked up to Bo and Pippa, her eyes squinting slightly. /Nows not the time to be like this. We need to go towards the light./


 Pippa tossed his head up a little and snorted, pushing his legs harder against the sand, whisps of black melting off his back and dissipating into the night. /Maybe I should open mind speak with him./


Shooting her head up, she pointed to her dog and leaned over,"Don't you dare!" she barked. Looking up and around, she realized that she said that out loud and most of all; out of context. Pulling her hood down, she snapped the reins, egging the horse forward more. 


With a throaty laugh, the large dog spread his lips in a wolfish grin. /I can feel your mind buzzing with confusion and embarrassment. Its lovely./ 


/Get out of my head./ closing her now stinging eyes, she cut off his voice, her mind going quiet for once. Exhaling she peeked over to Pippa, who's massive eyes were staring at her angrily, his ears plastered back. Aggie shot a look back. She didn't like his attitude of his when he was large, he was much more manageable when he was small and able to be swaddled like a child.


@anyone
 
Alo was surprised as he was suddenly pulled onto someone else's horse. He didn't respond to Ashlar, but instead frantically looked around for his sister, until he spotted her running off after the black mare. He sighed.


"She's ridiculous. Hey, do you have any idea at all how to get that horse to stop running? I don't want my sister to run too far off." Alo pointed out at his sister.


@Lo Alyssa
 
Oceana overheard Aggie's demand to the thing that used to be the dog. She figured it was probably messing with her head, the poor girl. But she couldn't say or do much to help at the moment.


Dahlia leapt a crag and almost jostled both her riders right off. The currently speech-challenged elf clicked her tongue in slight reprimand.


Trying to tell Hjalmar to hold her tighter so he wouldn't go flying, she daringly released one hand off the reins and tugged on his good arm that was across her waist, and squeezed his wrist lightly to indicate the idea.


Once that was finished she looked up into the still shining flare Nick had blasted into the sky. Scoffing to herself she tried her best not to itch her neck wound where some crawler goop had gotten in the slash.


@Lo Alyssa
 
            "Alright, hold on!" He shouted back, acknowledging Alo's request. With a fwip of his reigns, he urged his horse forward and faster. The stallion picked up its pace, and Ashlar steered him towards the fleeing Mapiya. It only took a moment or too for them to catch up, and he held his horse steady along the pony.


            "Steady, steady!" He called gently to the frightened mare, grabbing hold of her reigns and coaxing her to a stop. Though she was hesitant, she slowed, and Valeiah could now catch up, "Here you go, milady!" Ashlar smiled proudly at the young girl, handing her the reigns.


@Danika 
​


 
​


            Hjalmar let out a laugh at the exilerating jump. Oceana knew how to ride. He glanced up at her neck, and the smile turned to a frown, "You're injured!" He called behind her over the wind, "You should ask Nick to cleanse your wound when we finally settle down!" He implored, "Whatever he did with mine certainly worked!"

 
Lucasta and Lucas stood back to back fighting off the insects, until they heard a familiar voice call out to them. Lucasta looked over and saw Foxrun through the dust the the bugs were kicking up. Lucasta snatched her little brother's hand and took off towards him and escaped with them.


Lilith called out to her cat through the noise of clicking and the sound of magic. Everyone else was escaping, and she thought it best if she did the same. Jinx came bounding over towards her master, and the witch climbed up on top of the cat. Jinx did not enjoy being ridden, but in situations like this she knew it was necessary. The feline with the witch on her back went running towards the others.


(I'm sorry this is so short, I've had no motivation. Hopefully It'll return!)
 
Nick ducked as Lilith and her oversized cat leaped overhead.  Good, I think that's everyone...  He jumped up over a massive Crawler soldier, taking advantage of the joint gap between the head and thoracic chitin armor plates to hold on.  The Crawler shrieked and bucked, but Nick's iron grip was not to be trifled with.  Taking deep breaths, he entered a nearly meditative calm as he analyzed the morphology of the massive insect.  The gap between the sub-oesophagial ganglion and the prothoracic ganglion should be around... Here!  Nick thrust his discharge blade between the plates... Each blade ended up positioned in the gap within the arthropod's double nerve cord.  Nick felt the Crawler stiffen as it's primitive nervous system struggled to cope with the interference.  Other nearby crawlers similarly froze, suddenly looking at the enormous creature, seemingly confused.


Nick gripped his legs around the Crawler's thorax and used his free hand to take manual control over the current of the discharge blade, popping open a panel and spinning dials before activating the current.


The resulting electrocution was minor by comparison.  The discharge blade overrode the signals coming and going between the insect's brain and body.  Instead, the body reacted as if it were suddenly headless, while the head reacted as if the entire body were in extreme pain... The body suddenly sprinted, guided by slight adjustments in Nick's discharge blade, and the head bit at anything that was in front of it, including empty air.


The controlled Crawler bulldozed its way through the horde, headed after the massive housecat.  Nick looked ahead, thankful Lilith seemed ok.  Smaller crawlers flew left and right, or were severed cleanly by the soldier-crawler's enormous mandibles.


Nick waited until he had broken free of the main swarm before altering his crawler's course with a slight change in current toward the canyon wall.  The crawler had no trouble climbing up the wall, though Nick had plenty of trouble holding onto the crawler.  "Ack, oh sh-aaa!"  Nick felt his discharge blade wrench sideways, completely severing the nerve cord, before coming lose.  Adrenaline shot through his blood, and time slowed as he suddenly found himself over a hundred feet in the air, sideways, with nothing but a temporarily stiffened dead crawler as his lifeline.


Well, this could have gone better.


Nick retracted his blade and grabbed onto the chink in the Crawler's armor and hauled himself up onto the topside of the bug.  Just as he managed to get onto his feet, the crawler twitched and relaxed, falling out from under Nick's feet.


Nick jumped, putting forth his absolute maximum effort, thrusting his legs against the side of the crawler's body, and managed to catch himself on the rim of a Hive entrance.  A moment was spent dangling before he scrabbled up into the hole - the lack of pheromone ooze telling him this entrance was fairly inactive - and turned around, surveying the battle below through his goggles.  By the light of his magnesium flare arrow, he could make out the rest of the group... They were all beyond the blast radius of Nick's religious experience.  Nick loosed the crossbow from his back, swapped the plug to power the sparker, and took careful aim at his pile of explosives, adjusted for gravity and wind...  And pulled the trigger.


*Ka-THOOOM*


Anyone looking back toward the swarm would have seen another white flare arrow arc down from the middle point of the canyon wall before impacting against Nick's pile of explosives.  Immediately, the collection of flash vials detonated, which set off the more stable but more powerful Glycerin 48 charges.  The two-stage detonation set off minor landslides on both sides of the canyon directly next to the epicenter, shattering the sandstone with ease.  The explosion propelled a fine yellow powder nearly a hundred meters in every direction - stopping short of the group, while the head of the pursuing crawler swarm ran directly into the hallucinogenic cloud.


Nick had huddled into a ball immediately after firing his arrow and felt the rock around him shudder.  Flakes of sandstone were shook loose from the ceiling of the small tunnel, but thankfully, he wasn't caught in a cave-in.  When the shaking from the dual landslides had ceased, he opened his eyes and unfurled, peering out into the canyon - the air was stained yellow.  His goggles immediately indicated there was a severe poison threat in the air.  He took a breath... And waited.


A minute went by, but it felt like an hour to Nick, as he waited to see if his precautions were properly protecting him.  After a minute of experiencing no symptoms, he finally decided to climb down the canyon and rejoin the group.


The canyon floor was littered with incapacitated crawlers - most had simply collapsed and lay, twitching and drooling.  Occasionally, one would peep or chirp, but they were all otherwise very quiet.  Up the canyon, more continued to surge blindly into the cloud, obviously totally unaware of the danger, and immediately lost their sobriety.  Many freaked out, others simply soldiered on until they fell unconscious, some appeared to have an existential crisis.


Nick picked his way back to the group, emerging from the dangerous yellow cloud looking for all the world like a spectre of plague in his goggles, mask, and cloak, wreathed in the sickly yellow atmosphere.  He raised his voice, though it was somewhat muffled by his mask.  "The hallucinogen in the air will begin to break down in a short while.  The crawlers won't be able to follow our scent if we put enough distance between us and them."  Nick went to his horse, moving very carefully so as not to disturb the fine dusting of yellow powder clinging to his surface, and took off a waterskin, dousing himself to wash off the powder before stripping off his goggles and thoroughly cleaning them.  He continued to talk as he worked.  "Anyone who has crawler venom or fluids in or on them, please step forth so I can take care of you."  Finished washing himself, Nick plucked out the last of his neutralizer vials and cleansing ointment and waited expectantly.


@anyone
 
Agitha was focused on running the horse towards the phosphorus like like that Nick had supplied for the rest to follow. Now wheezing and pumping, the horse she was on started to struggle slightly at the sudden burst of speed he had to do in the past few minutes. Poor thing; she would water him soon enough. 


Then the explosion. Her horse stopped suddenly and tossed his head, sending up sand underhoof. Pippa slid to a stop too and looked back at the distant canyon that was about 2 miles away now.  The whispy black dog raised his head, not breathing hard at all as he watched the dust billow up as the sides of the canyon slid down upon, a slight smile coming across his face. / If theres anything out here in these bare sands, it was sure to hear that./ he thought to himself since Aggie had cut off their communication. Glancing back to the human on his back, he narrowed his eyes and gave another sly smile, his shoulders giving a roll.


@soundofmind


Tugging her cloak over her nose even more, she attentively held her breath for a moment, waiting for the strange man to emerge from the yellow dust. Turning her head, she clicked her tongue for her mount to move towards the sight of her friend Ashlar. Trotting over to him, she placed a hand on his shoulder, her silver eyes flicking across his face,"Where to now?" she gave the older man's shoulder a squeeze along with her own reins. Looking towards the rest of the group, she adjusted her posture with Nameen, placing a steadying hand on the other woman's leg instinctively. 


@Lo Alyssa 


@GlytchMeister @all
 
Valeiah bent over and took deep breaths. "Thank.... you..." She panted and sat up. Then she saw her brother on Ashlar's horse and frowned. "Good job at keeping one of the last ways to remember our mother safe." She spat at him and climbed onto Mapiya. Alo just scowled and looked away.


"I don't think I ever learned your name.... I don't pay very good attention to people when they talk sometimes." She said to Ashlar.


@Lo Alyssa
 
Oceana would have heard Nick's offer to heal her goo infested neck wound but was too busy leaping from her horse and rushing through the sand towards Ashlar.


You! She wanted to scream


Some guide you are! You put us all in danger! Her voice would have shouted.


But as she tried to speak all that came about were painful coughs.


Instead the elf threw Ashlar down and gripped his collar, shaking with anger and shaking him with it.


She opened her mouth again to scream at him but all that came out were coughs and she grit her teeth. Tears of frustration rimmed her eyes and she slammed herself at the sand, a hand to her throat trembling in agony and fear.


@Lo Alyssa
 
Dorian  barely had to shift back to human and start thinking where to hide away to treat his wounds (as there was no way he was letting anyone do that) when he spotted Oceana stomping away towards Ashlar. With a sigh, he walked off to try and take control of the situation before someone got hurt or got their current injuries worsened.


"There there, calm down." He said to Oceana as he walked up to her. 'If you cannot speak out loud, speak your mind. Literally.' He added telepathically.


"I think she wanted to congratulate you on your great job as a guide." He then said to Ashlar with the friendliest smile he could manage while as tired as he was.


@OlKaJa77 @Lo Alyssa
 
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            When Aggie approached him, as he finally managed to catch up to the rest of the group, he glanced around to try and estimate where they were in the maze of canyons, "I am not sure quite yet." He answered, "We've been driven away from our original path... I'll need to recalculate before we can get a move on again." He sighed, yay, more work for me.


            "Oh, my name is Ashlar." He said with a smile at the healer, "And your name is Valeiah? Can I call you Val? I may or may not have asked the witch for everyone's names—" he was cut off as he felt somebody yank him off his horse. He was hardly surprised that it was the fiery elf, and that somebody yanked him off in the first place. He was, naturally, the best person to blame for the predicament. He just looked at her, waiting for her to say something. He was prepared to defend himself, having a very valid excus prepared for their predicament. But no words came out. When she released him and dropped to the ground, he noticed the injury on her neck.


            "Oh dear, that doesn't look healthy at all." He takes at her, "Hey Nicky, Svetlana!" He called to the newcomer and the witch before helping Oceana sit up, doing well to hide the urgency in his voice, "She needs some medical attention pronto." He knew she probably wouldn't appreciate his hands on her back, keeping her in a sitting position. Not even to mention the harm it would inflict on her pride, but it would be easier to heal in the position he had her.


            He then noted the farmiliar's comment, "Aye, my fantastic job at guiding you all right into a crawler nest. Can scarcely imagine the reward she had prepared for me, having done such a wonderful and all." He laughed at his choice of words.

 
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Bo had been staring blankly ahead as the giant dog ran away from the scurry of crawlers. He hoped that everyone was getting out alright, and that everyone was helping each other get out, since he couldn't really help anymore. The giant explosion almost caused him to fall off the giant dog, as he loosed his grip in surprise, and the dog had stopped suddenly to look back. He turned his head to get a better view of the giant cloud of yellowy dust that was rising from the far away canyon and crawler nest. If he didn't know that the new guy had set it off, he would've found it much more ominous. For now though, it seemed to be a sign that the fight was over for now. He hoped they wouldn't run into any more crawlers for the time being, and that everyone was ok.


Speaking of which, he really hoped that he was going to be ok too. He hadn't really taken a close look at his wounds, but he could feel the crushing pain of what were probably broken ribs, and the sting of the giant puncture wounds in his sides that were bleeding out. When they finally slowed to a stop, he couldn't decide who he was worried about most. Santo seemed pretty tired and shaken, and a few of the others were wounded as well. Nameen still had her ankle that was bleeding. He found himself observing the group from the top of the dog in a slight haze, his breathing becoming more raspy as his heart-rate began to finally slow down a bit. He felt the roll of the dog's shoulder blades shift underneath its strangely smoky fur, and his eyes met that of the giant dog. 


"Thank you, Pip." He said with a small grin, before convulsing inward as a bloody cough made its way out. He pushed himself upright and tried to figure out what was going on. He watched Oceana tackle Ashlar, and heard several others talk. "...Medical attention. Pronto." Was the only thing that stood out as important.


Swinging his legs off the side of the dog, he slid down off Pippa's back and landed on the ground, standing for but a moment before he fell to his knees as his legs gave out. "Uh," he sputtered, wiping blood from his mouth. He tried his best to clear his throat. "I need medical attention too."


@Lo Alyssa @GlytchMeister @whoever else
 
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