No Salvation (Closed)

[Richter Abend]

Keeping a tight grip on the balcony handrail, Richter aimed a swift kick into the snarling, shrieking, gnashing face of a spider. The spider snarled as the Ilian's leather boot collided with its jaws, recoiling at the hit, but refused to give any ground, or rather, wall, to its assailant, as it continued to lunge at Richter using its long, spindly legs to extend itself.

Richter cursed under his breath, seeing not only the spiders insistence, but also its strength, and fired another well placed kick into the beast's maw. The beast simply took the blow, and again lunged at Richter, its teeth scraping through his pant leg, causing the pink haired Ilian to twinge in pain. Damn bastards. That venom hurt! With a bestial growl, the commander launched his heel yet again at the monster, but this time aiming for the creature's eye.

There was a satisfying squish, followed by a piercing shriek, as hard leather connected with demonic flesh, forcing Richter's target off of the wall and down onto the other approaching spiders. If only for a moment, the advance was slowed, which gave Richter just enough time to establish better footing.

As he moved along the ruined balcony, the Ilian kept his eye on Nayru and Aerious, before turning it to Clair. Save for a backfire, she seemed to be handling herself quite well with that fancy, new, flashing, lightning lance. At least one of them could use their weapons. Richter wasn't willing to risk it after what had happened with those gargoyles. For now he was stuck with this axe.

But this axe would be good enough, he thought, as he lashed the slightly dented but still very sharp weapon at a spider that had thought itself smart for swinging itself up over the side of the balcony to attack Richter from the side. But it had been wrong. Its legs exposed, the Ilian's cleaver cleanly removed two of the arachnid's eight spindly legs, and planted itself solidly in the body joint of a third. However, the blow had not stopped the giant, leaping spider's momentum, and Richter was slammed downward into the wooden floor of the overhang as the monster's body, and thusly his lodged axe, yanked on his arm.

Not about to be pounced upon by a crippled spider, Richter scrambled to his feet and wrenched his venom-soaked weapon from the recovering beast's body, bringing it back down on the creature's head before it had the time to react. Green liquid spurted from its head, sizzling and burning as it splattered upon the commander's face. Even in death these things managed to be a pain!

Richter kicked the hulking corpse aside, just in time for another spider to come leaping in front of him, with two more in tow. Apparently escape wasn't an option. Maker, what he wouldn't give to have his shield right now.

[Elly]

Post Soundtrack!

Elly gritted her teeth as she dashed forward; her entire body felt tense and rigid, her hands locked into place around the spear's shaft. Dimly, she felt a twinge of hesitation bubble past the red haze that filled her mind, insecurity, doubt and common sense all screaming at her to turn around and run away, only to be buried deeply beneath her anger once more.

She scowled fiercely at the closest spider, easily more than half her height, bringing the lance up, point first. Her muscles tightened uncomfortably, unused to the weight, her hands gripping the weapon with no discernible technique; she ignored them, her gaze focused solely on the creature's body. Caught by surprise, it skittered in place for a moment, unsure; she was upon it, now.

With a loud scream, she pulled back the weapon as far as she could, enduring the slight pain that blazed forth from her left shoulder at the sudden movement. Whatever had caused it, it didn't matter now. With a jerk, she thrust the lance forward; her body shook in place as she struggled to keep her balance, the spear's point lurching towards the monster.

The tip struck one of the creature's legs, glancing past the hard appendage; Elly gasped in surprise and fear as she realized she had missed. The spider let out a hiss of discomfort, its jaws snapping together once menacingly as it jumped at her, its two frontal, bulbous eyes fixed on her figure as the rest danced madly; surprised, she launched herself to the side instinctively, feeling one of the razor-sharp appendages strike a glancing blow on her shoulder plate. She fell to the ground gracelessly, struggling to catch her breath as the fall knocked the air out of her lungs. She shivered, shaking her head before getting up, an odd, tingling sensation on her right hand. She spared a glance at it, her eyes flickering back to her opponent before snapping back to her forearm.

A spider was there.

She screamed, swatting at it with her left hand before noticing the rapidly-approaching miniature swarm on the ground. She backpedaled, stomping on the ones that strayed too close. Her eyes caught a brief flash of movement; she raised her arms instinctively as the larger beast jumped once more, crying out in pain as its fangs pierced her unprotected forearm before landing at her side.

She spun, reversing her grip, raising her lance before bringing the tip down on the creature's side; it screeched ominously as the tip broke past its exoskeleton, sinking into its body before stopping halfway through, her teeth rattling as the impact shook her body once more. She tried to pull it back desperately; her right arm felt strange, an odd numbness radiating from the point where the spider had bit her. Was this what had happened to Nayru? She redoubled her efforts; unable to lift the spear's shaft with the spider attached to it, she dragged it across the ground, a trail of ichor marking her path as she pulled back from the front towards the entrance she and Clair had used earlier.

The spider struggled to break free, yet the spear had been lodged too deeply, too firmly for the demon to remove it from its back. She held the grip tightly as she pushed it against the ground, her weight on the weapon, carefully staying away from the beast's snapping jaws and frenzied legs, yelling as she twisted it in place; her eyes fell on a large rock at her feet. She let go of the weapon's shaft, struggling to keep her balance as a sudden lurch pulled the lance away from her; the monster struggled to move further, but its movements lacked the precision and control they had earlier, and it danced erratically in place.

She picked up the piece of debris, her arms crying out in protest, pain flaring up from her left shoulder once more before dropping it on top of the spider's relatively small head with a dull thud, its insides splattering out disgustingly. Its legs struggled eerily for a few seconds before curling up beneath its body; she felt bile rise up in her throat, and fought the urge to throw up. Bracing herself against the rock, she pulled on the lance until it broke free, its tip and part of its shaft covered with a sickening, viscous black ichor. She raised her eyes, noticing two more of the creatures approaching, larger than the one she had killed; her right hand's fingers felt strange, and she found it really hard to grip her weapon with it without concentrating. It didn't matter. They all had to die.

With another scream, she launched herself at the approaching foes, the lance's tip at the forefront.

[Aerious]

Aerious mused on her question. [red]"It is true, it seems rather odd for them to leave like that. I noticed something earlier. These creatures don't tend to fight with a sense of self-preservation. I've never seen them flee before, it's like they are pieces on a chess board. Some grand architect determining their moves, so they work to achieve the greater goal. If the creatures fled, there is likely some reasoning behind it. Perhaps to conserve forces or to retrieve reinforcements...who could say?"[/red] He finished pondering it.

He decided against addressing her previous topic. Interpersonal relations were not really his strong point, he tended to keep his distance from the people he traveled with. It was just easier that way.

[red]"We should see if we can find an unspoiled well of some sort around here. Just to wash the worst of this grime off."[/red] He remarked, looking around the now deserted fortress oddly. [red]"What do you think of those two, Clair and Richter, by the way? Clair seems decent enough...but Richter worries me. Something about him isn't right...not to mention those weapons they have. Things of that nature can harm even us in our true form. Take care around them."[/red] He paused, looking over at her before considering something. She might not know the full restraints of her power, since she clearly had minimal experience in using it.

[red]"Also, in this form we are very vulnerable to magic. I do not know if you have fought mages before, but those weapons they have can be fatal if you are caught unawares. Be careful."[/red]

He started walking through the fortress, running his hands over some of the ruined stone and splintered wood. For those things to wreck so much havoc. He not believed it, but it was still concerning.

[Clair Feldsky]

The Falcoknight continued to give ground, keeping ahead of the spiders still in pursuit of her. The carpet of smaller monsters was still writhing in its death throes on the ground, which was good. There really wouldn't have been anything she could have done against so many small targets, even if she had continued to manage to fight.

One of the spiders jumped, and Clair responded by bringing the point of the iron lance she was carrying in her left hand down into the path of the creature. It didn't hit head on, intead scraping down along the outside of the thing's body, but it did leave an injury. She brought the head of the thunder lance down like an axe to finish the job, and was satisfied with a squelch of smoking dead spider.

She heard the scuffling going on behind her. Elly was fighting. To say Clair was impressed would be an understatement. The girl had gone from quiet and scared to a vortex of violent energy being set loose on these abominations. What she lacked in precision and skill, she was making up in sheer determination. That was exactly the kind of steel that people needed in her line of work.

With a yell, the blond haired Ilian turned and threw herself alongside Elly, attacking the same spiders, thrusting into the joint where one of the legs joined to the body with her iron lance, while prepping for another strike with the thunderlance in the other hand.

There was still threats on all sides, but presenting a unified front would slow hopefully push the ones there back long enough fpr Clair to turn around and deal with the ones behind them still. She spared a quick glance up to Richter, where he'd gotten some high ground, and saw him dealing with his own problems before forcing her eyes to return to the more local issues she and Elly were dealing with.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

As usual, she kept herself under control by providing distractions. It was easier than usual; covered in as many various types of fluids and body parts as she was, there was plenty of work to be done in cleansing herself. Nayru simply listened as Aerious described the behavior of the creatures, gradually growing more perturbed as she considered it, but almost as perturbed by the discovery that she was now two belts down and she really needed to wash goop out of her hair. Considering that it was rather thick and well over a meter long - that was going to be an undertaking. She fiddled with a few strands, still considering the creature's behavior.

"A leader?" Yes, that would just make everything better. What sort of world-ending plague was complete without some variety of daemon sultan? "...Perhaps a racial memory, or a byproduct of magical animation? They all seem dreadfully strong, too much so for flesh and blood bodies. I would love to dissect a few specimens at some point, but I am no sage. Perhaps it would be prudent to do so in the presence of a competent magic user who might note essence patterns I cannot." She'd just have to call up the archsage and the dozen other legendary magicians she just happened to know. Not likely - she didn't know any magic users.

...Living ones, anyways. Nayru shrugged, not really expecting an answer about the nature of the beasts from her companion. Whatever else they might be, they were at the core threats to the existing world as well as the one she dreamed of; there could be no harm in eradicating the lot of them.

The sounds of fighting still raged inside, a cacophony of screams and shouts, screeching and impacts. They were certainly going at it. She would have liked to be at Elly's side, but - in her condition, with her nature, with Richter and Clair there, caution was the wiser part of valor. A world where humans and dragons could live side by side, with no need to hide their natures; what a wonderful thing such would be. "She... dances. Flirts with death. A mercenary through and through, at home on the field of battle. She does not seem as... tainted as others I have seen, though; there is some moral fiber, a combination of pragmatism and decency yet within her." The dragon's words came out quitly, slowly, as she searched for the right way to describe the vague impressions she had received. "Good taste in elemental weaponry, too." Not every comment had to be deep and philosophical; one artist could compliment another, and a lightning dragon could respect a human who channeled similar powers.

Richter, though - her face contorted slightly, a grimace pulling at the corners of her face. "He seems... tired. Weary. Of running, of life, of what I know not, but violence seems a way of life for him. He tensed during your confrontation earlier," her words mild but marked by a slight undertone of disapproval, "I believe he was ready to kill you should the need, or possibly merely the opportunity, arise. It is difficult for me to speak positively of one for whom violence is so natural that murder becomes an initial reaction." He hadn't seemed outright - evil, exactly, but his presence had shaken her somewhat, as well as the distrust he didn't even bother hiding. "It may be that he is simply an old soldier conditioned by war, his inner nature more in tune with the qualities we strive for, but my curiosity strives agaist self-preservation when I consider the potential issues in exploring that."

It came out harsher than she had expected, or indeed at all intended going into the report. It was the difficulty of gauging people from limited information, from minimal exposure under less than perfect circumstances - but she had practiced it enough that Nayru was reasonably certain of the general themes of what she had said, if not the specifics. "Part of me is curious to see if there is indeed a hidden side worth finding and bringing out, but reason and pragmatism suggest to me that I leave those thoughts aside as the idle thoughts of an idealistic fool." It came out much less as self-recrimination than as merely a blunt assessment, as unbiased an answer as she could offer given the circumstances. "But I will drown us both in my impressions if I continue prattling much longer. I am curious how you see my conclusions, though, as well as the nature of this magical weakness: I am indeed limited in my experience with mages. Does the magic react with our dragonstones or something of the sort?"

{OOC note: since the issue came up in cbawks the other day I'm going to restate my explanation for anyone who happens to be reading this and wasn't there at the time. Nayru knows nothing about Richter's past as a complete monster or she would have skeedaddled on the spot; she noted him tensing (page2ish), ready to fight Aerious and - not recognizing part of the foreboding she was getting as coming from the runesword -erroneously attributed the feeling in its entirety to Richter proper. Your mileage may vary on how accurate any of her observations are for either character - they were written strictly IC from her perspective}

[Aerious]

Aerious let Nayru talk, and boy could she talk! Well, he'd never have a lack of stimulating conversation with her present.

[red]"I agree, Clair seems the more personable of the two. Still a warrior, but not quite lost to the sting of battle yet."[/red] He paused, considering his next words. [red]"Richter...hmmm, he helped me understand something of human nature. When we encounter humans, we have no need to fear them. They, usually, cannot hurt us. But he...I knew he could on meeting him, and our meeting was stressed. I realized after that, I was defensive with him because I knew he had the potential to injure, and the weapon put me on edge. Perhaps the thought of danger and death is what makes all human distrustful of each other." [/red] He finished, lifting a large slab of rock to check the inside of another ruined building. Empty, of course.

[red]"In order to understand a human, I suppose one must think like them. We see the world from a different perspective then they do, after all. And what of Elly, did you see her in there? Here I thought she was going to faint, but she ran right into battle. I think that has something to do with Clair, and a bit to do with you as well."[/red]

He left the rest of the thought unfinished, as he continued mulling about the ruined fortress. Those creatures sure had done a marvelous job of demolishing it.

[Richter Abend]

Charging in towards his three inhuman assailants, the Ilian warrior struck brilliantly; a bolt of salmon haired lightning breaking the ranks of the unrelenting arachnids. They gnashed at his arms and legs as the four of them swirled about in a awkward, heavy handed dance of death. The spiders writhed with angry prejudice as they repeatedly lunged and bit at the commander. Futile.

Richter dodged and ducked the monsters' repeated attempts, and their frustrations could heard in loud, air-piercing shrieks at their own impotence as Richter's own blows continually smashed through their hard, plated carapace like a pick through ice. The commander was inevitably scratched, cut, and scraped as the creatures clawed and gnashed at him, and their venom felt like fire against his skin, but these corrupt, evil beings would know his fury. His dark, hateful fury.

And with a final, fatal cry, Richter lodged his axe in the side of an arachnid head, silencing the din of the balcony in favor of the low roar of the remaining combat happening below. Panting, the commander wrenched his axe from the head of the last squirming spider, spattering deadly blood about the floor before he looked over the banister to observe the battle below.

But as he focused in on Clair, her twirling lance fending off the remaining mass of creatures, Richter could feel an angry darkness at the edge of his consciousness. It encroached upon his thoughts with every breath. It twisted and swirled with every flick of his eye. And as Richter tried to suppress it, his head again split with a sharp pain, but grimacing, he pushed it back to the recesses of his mind. Whatever this was, whatever that gargoyle had done to him, he'd deal with it later, he thought, as he jumped over the railing, sliding down onto the church floor.

[Elly]

The young knight tried to back away, stumbling awkwardly as a loose piece of wood ensnared her foot; the monsters' eyes almost seemed to dance madly with glee as she regained her balance, ever scuttling closer. Her right hand's fingers were locked in place around her weapon's shaft; she was fairly sure that if she opened them, she wouldn't be able to close them again. She raised her hands before her as the closest spider leapt, its fangs and legs glancing off the spear's shaft as it landed in front of her, the trailing limbs leaving a nasty gash on her left hand. She grit her teeth together as she spared a glance at the wound, blood starting to slowly pour out of it; pain shot up her arm as she stubbornly refused to let go of the lance, and she felt nausea bubble up once more. No, it was probably just a small wound; she didn't have time to dwell on it. She tried to stab the creature as it recovered, like she had done for the first spider; it scuttled away far too quickly, however, her clumsy attempt causing the tip of the weapon to bounce off the stone floor harmlessly.

She sighed gratefully as Clair appeared at her side all of a sudden; the girl hadn't noticed her approach, but the older knight's presence was both calming and reassuring, her spear dancing back and forth to strike at the creatures' legs with unerring precision and ease. Catching her wind, she thrust her own weapon forward towards the wounded arachnid, her left shoulder protesting dimly once more, the pain ignored in the heat of battle. The tip broke past the spider's exoskeleton partially, leaving but a shallow wound before the monster pulled back. She dashed forward, undeterred, deciding to take care of it before it had a chance to recover; it tried to retreat further, yet the wound Clair had dealt earlier slowed it down. With a victorious cry, she raised her lance once more, sending the sharp point lurching forward.

Her world burst into pain as she felt a sharp stab at her side, just beneath where her armor ended; she cried out shrilly as she fell forwards, barely managing to catch herself with her hands, the lance clattering uselessly against the ground as it fell from her suddenly limp hands. A gasp escaped her as the second spider detached itself from her side, its fangs clicking together ominously as it moved towards its now-prone victim. She tried to stand up, yet found it difficult to concentrate; the numbness that had covered her entire right arm seemed to be spreading from her side now as well. She half-stumbled, half-crawled backwards, panic filling her once more, her vision swimming, the approaching spiders blurring together as darkness spread from the edges of her vision.

[Clair Feldsky]

Elly's charge forward caught Clair by surprise. The girl held nothing back, and fought with a singleminded determination she hadn't expected to find in such a young package. It was daring, but also risky. And it reminded her all to well of Richter's approach to fighting. It had proved effective over the years, but the Commander had had experience and skill to back it up. Elly was but a rookie from what Clair had observed, and the pink-haired girl's age supported that observation.

The Falcoknight felt it more than hearing it: One of the spiders at her back was skittering in for a piece of the action. Or a piece of her rather. Clair stepped forward, pivoting to face her attacker as she did. As she did, she was but a fraction of a second away from having those horrificly gruesome mandibles latching into her leg, and that would have been the end of her maneuverability. She turned the pivot into a step towards the creature, bringing the iron lance around with her and skewered the still chittering spider's head on the weapon, before tearing her lance out the front and rending the head apart. The thing thrashed about, slinging it's acidic venom around, but you could be certain that this one was done.

Then came the scream. Elly's. It made the Falcoknight want to wince, but she couldn't because her gaze was already whipping towards the source of the sound. She'd been bitten. A full on bite to her side, not just surface wounds. Memories of the squires she'd led into battle On the way out of Ilia, and her failure to them raced unbidden through her mind. This was another one, someone she'd just met, placed in her care. It couldn't turn out the same! There was just one thing to do. Kill every damned abomination the place held so she could help Elly.

"Elly! Hold on!" Clair threw herself bodily in front of the spiders pursuing the squire, piercing one with the iron lance. The thing shrieked in protest as Clair dropped the smaller weapon to get a better grip on the thunder lance. Other spiders were creeping in from the shadows around them though, given form from the darkness by the golden glow from her lance. Too many for one person to fend off. She would stab at one and find another trying to press in, only to repeat the process a moment later. She felt a sharp burning on her leg, and saw a spider a little smaller than her hand had managed to. In the heat of the fight, the jitters from having a spider that big actually on her, biting her were less than noticible, but the pain would be with her awhile. She swatted it away, crushing a part of it as she did so, and felt the burn only intensify as some of the monster's blood got on her.

She was slowing down, and she knew it. Even before the bite to her thigh, she wouldn't have lasted much longer. Now she was giving all of her focus, trying to lure the creatures into a position where she could get them all. Survival was left behind for a dance more focused and streamlined than the most precise of steps. It was the tiger against the wolves, but it was dangerous. If she took one wrong move, she would die, as surely the squires she'd lost in that battle. One spider lunged in, it wasn't an optimum strike, but something seemed to be urging her to take this strike. Before she could think anymore about it, she was doing so, leaping in with the thunderlance held high above her, and bringing it down quickly, pinning the spider to the ground with a furious yell. She started to pull the lance free, but to her distress, couldn't. A sizzling charged feeling ran up her arms from her grip on the lance, sparks arcing off the golden haft. Spiders were chargin in at her as she tried to release her weapon, but her fingers wouldn't work.

She was almost ready to give up when she felt a surge of power wash over her and through her. She screamed a battlecry of raw pain, full of destructive intent as the power coming off the thunder lance caused her hair to lift and wave wildly. Prominences of lightning arced out, burning the spiders to blackened husks. Several bolts of power escaped at random to go shooting across the room and collide with the walls. The sound inside the church from the shocks being released was deafening. Excruciating pain enveloped her. It felt like the end of her world was coming, but then it stopped and she was left in the mess, hands still gripping the weapon above her head, a shivering wreck kneeling on the floor.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"...Fear. Mmh."

She didn't immediately reply to Aerious's assessment of his reaction earlier, settling for a noncomittal acknowledgement of his words. It wasn't that she disagreed, much as she wanted to, but rather the none-too-pleasant ramifications that concept had. She always strove to be reasonable and level-headed, a voice of reason in a chaotic world. As a woman and as a dragon, she expected no less from herself. To think of how easily that position could be swayed by base fear of the dimly known was - unsettling, something she had been vaguely aware of but generally shifted aside under the thought that it was unlikely to be relevant.

More directly, it made her wonder how much of her assessment of Richter had been accurate and how much had been tainted by the bloody sword. She didn't like to be wrong, didn't like to think that she misjudged people, and didn't like anyone else to know that she was wrong - and all three were uncomfortably possible. Something to consider. Nayru opted to shrug, her shoulders rolling languidly as much to work out the kinks in her body as any sort of gesture, half-aware of her surroundings while inspecting her gore-soaked arm. "Something to consider. So long as he does his part to keep Elly safe, I care little." It was a lie, but this was something she wanted to consider on her own before bothering Aerious with the matter.

And the blood wrist ornaments were going to be a horrible pain to clear. The disgruntled dragon considered swearing profusely, not looking forwards to the bath of truly epic proportions she was going to have to endure in order to cleanse her body and attire. Maybe she could find a waterfall large enough somwhere in Elibe. The thunderous clash inside the ruined church was still ongoing, picking up in intensity further - she felt horrible for being unable to help, but Aerious had been right. Given the time to actually appraise her condition, it was alarming how close her reinforcement had come to shattering entirely, as well as how horrific the condition her body was in general. Next few weeks would have to be less exciting. Maybe they could go vacationing in the mountains or something.

She couldn't remember - were they looking for something? It certainly seemed the time, with the humans occupied and out of sight, but it didn't seem entirely right to leave for elsewhere in the fortress without Elly. "...What are you looking for? Is there - anything I can do to aid you?"

[Richter Abend]

Richter couldn't help but flinch as a bolt of lighting ripped past his ear, singing the both the tip as well as the hair surrounding it. As his body unseized, he clutched his outer ear with his hand as if squeezing it would make it feel any better. It usually did, but Richter had to wonder if that was an actual physical cure for pain, or just a placebo effect people liked to apply to themselves in order to make themselves feel like they were in control of their pain.

Well, either way, it seemed that Clair had managed to clear out the immediate vicinity of the foul arachnids. Richter had no doubt there were more lurking somewhere else in the church, most likely beneath them, but for now it was nice to have a reprieve.
"Well Clair, I have to say," said the commander, fastening his axe to his waist as he made his way over to the two pegasusless pegasus riders, "that is one fancy spear. Where'd you find a weapon like that?"

[Elly]

Her vision was blurry.

No, that wasn't quite right, Elly thought to herself as she tried to push herself wearily backwards once more. She couldn't remember why she had been doing that, but it had to have been something important, no? It was just way too hard. The arm she had been using as support gave way, and she fell flat against the stone floor. It was really curious, though; somehow, that hadn't hurt. She couldn't help but giggle at the thought. A soft stone floor! Who would ever think a fort would have something like that?

It had to be a magic fort, she thought, like the ones in the stories. Goodness, but her head hurt when she tried to focus. She couldn't remember which one had a fort. Or was it a frog? There was one with a frog, she was pretty sure of that. It felt as though there was some sort of barrier, a dense fog that filled her mind. She felt sluggish; she wished she could go to sleep, but there was this odd sense of urgency in the back of her mind, almost as though she had forgotten something.

Oh, but, she ought to focus on what was important. Yes, blurry wasn't quite right; it wasn't so much blurs as blobs of color that blended together. Oh, and those funny dark spots that seemed to cover pieces of the scene at times. Lines, too; it was like looking through window panes and murky glass. No, thinking that through, they were anything but funny; they were downright scary. Like the monsters. She shuddered, trying to curl up, yet finding her body unresponsive. Her hand was stuck inside the pouch at her side, fingers brushing against the herbal remedy, the vulnerary she carried, yet unable to pull it out.

Clair.

Clair was nearby, she knew it, she had seen her before. She tried to cry out, but her throat felt parched, her mouth stuffy, like the time she had eaten the wild berries that grew in the patch next to Papa's tavern. A soft whimper left her mouth with effort, and she winced as her vocal chords contracted painfully. The world swam before her eyes, blobs shifting and merging before coming apart once more.

[Clair Feldsky]

The Falcoknight was shaking on her knees, still feeling the effects of the power that had coursed through her from the lance she held. At times, it still felt as if her hair was lifting on its own. Her breathing was labored and rough as she tried to recover, but... the room was safe! It appeared that while all those volts were coursing through her, they'd dealt with the threats in the room.

Clair looked up at hearing Richter's voice. A slow, jerky set of movements. Her eyes only seemed to half focus on the figure in front of her for a moment, before becoming alert but still a bit sluggish.

"Help...lly... I'll be... fine...moment...." That was what she'd done all this for, after all. Not her most brilliant move ever, she realized in retrospect..... Aside from being lit up like a thunder spell. Her throat felt raw from the the screaming of a moment before and she was still shaking, but she was still able to function. She could feel herself beginning to recover. Sort of.

Her hair was a mess, she realized. The worst it had ever been, and a significant portiin was haning in her face. She struggled for a moment to release the lance again, so she could push it aside, but her hands were reluctant to leave their grip.

She cried out as one hand finally peeled away, beyond caring who heard her. Her palm smelled singed, and pieces of skin looked burnt on the ends of her fingers. She closed her eyes and looked down at the ground, unseeing. She was just glad she'd had gloves covering most of her hands as she started pushing herself to her feet with the lance's support.

[Richter Abend]

Hearing Clair, Richter glanced over to Elly, who was lying down spread eagle on the ruined floor of the chapel. She had a half-delirious look on her face, and if it wasn't for the fact that she was still squirming, Richter might have thought her dead. Not good.

The commander jogged over to the pink haired girl, a bit more urgency in his step, and ducking down next to her, gave Elly a quick once over. Her armor was scuffed a bit, and her clothes were torn, but that wasn't nearly enough to explain the girl's poor condition. No, Richter identified the real problem instantly. In the pegasus rider's side were two, gaping, fang sized holes, hemorrhaging into her shirt as it soaked up the blood. The Ilian could only assume her deathly state was a cause of the spider venom, as he could slowly feel his own arms going numb from the scrapes and cuts he had sustained from the spider's fangs.

Glancing down, Richter noticed Elly's arm stuck in her side pouch. Pulling her arm out, he reached inside, and pulled out the girl's vulnerary. Hopefully the healing salve would stabilize her long enough for the venom to wear off, because he doubted it would cure the venom. But he couldn't know. He opened the medicine pouch, and after slathering his hand with the unction inside, went to work on healing Elly's wounds. Quickly and efficiently he ran his fingers over, around, and inside the holes. If she wasn't completely paralyzed, it probably hurt, but a little pain was a whole lot better than gangrene, especially when dealing with a wound in one's side.

Then after about a minute, a satisfied Richter wiped his hand off on his pant leg, avoiding any of his own cuts so as not to rub any residual venom into them. He sighed, as he looked over and up to Clair. Where had all these spiders come from, or rather, why where they here? Richter couldn't help but wonder what the hell was going on.
"You alright?"

[Aerious]

Aerious had been about to respond to Nayryu's question when he felt his hair stand on end. Light seemed to shine from the collapsed building for a moment, and the smell of scorched...something filled the air. Something big had happened, in there, and it filled him with a sense of anticipation and...what was this...worry?

Without another word he ran back towards the ruin and slammed into a wall. He hadn't fully tapped into his power, but enough to make the wall crack and groan. [red]"Hey! You three ok in there?!"[/red] He called grasping the weakened stone and seeing if he could slide it slightly without it being very obvious that he was using super human strength. The result was the now cracked wall breaking down in a painstakingly slow manner, but still working. The wall itself seemed to be turning to dust beneath his fingers, as if blasted by a sudden force. That lance must have weakened the structure of the stone, just how much power had she released?

[red]"Hold on, the walls seem weak here. I'm going to try to open it up!"[/red] He called, working on peeling more of it away. Light slowly began to stream into the ruins as more and more of the wall collapsed. He glanced behind him to see if Nayru was still with him. Now would be a bad time to get snagged by something.