[closed] There is a terrible cost to dark magic, but you know what they say

[spellslots]

who: Taako + various others (if u want something hmu!)
what: What it says on the tin! Catch-all for the next few weeks to save spamming y'all
when: mid July - when I decide I need a new one of these
where: Arounnnnnd
warnings: None yet, will update if necessary

Comments

[godslay]

[ Another creature lunges, and Gamora meets it with a slash of her sword, knocking it off to the side. ]

Here!

[ She pauses long enough to pull the rifle from her back, readying to toss it to Taako.

... She was totally going to wait until he was ready to catch it, but when another creature teleports, she ends up chucking it in his general direction as she ducks out of reach. ]

[spellslots]

[It's not quite within his reach, but that's fine, that's what magic is for.

A shimmering blue hand grabs the rifle, and Taako quickly hooks the umbra staff on his belt to free up his hands by the time his mage hand is close enough that he can grab the rifle properly.

He gives himself a second, to adjust to the weight of it and even his breathing, and then he casts mirror image. Three identical Taakos appear around the clearing, all of them holding a rifle. It buys both him and Gamora a little time, since the creatures split up in order to attack all the duplicates.

Taako takes the opportunity it line up a shot, aiming at one of the duplicates because he's expecting a creature to go for it's head. And he's right. The creature teleports almost on top of the duplicate, and Taako takes the shot.

He's very, very grateful for all those lessons on aim, because a bullet find its mark, and one creature goes down.]

Hell yeah!

[And then he promptly gets a sharp set of teeth latched around his calf.

Cool.]

[godslay]

[ Gamora barely has the chance to be impressed by Taako's magic, because she finds herself on the defensive as the creature she'd just dodged comes at her head all over again. She snarls as she evades another bite, but rather than let the thing continue to push her back, she stands her ground, readying herself for—

—the next bite.

A creature blinks into existence directly behind her, and with a near-immediate spin on her heel, Gamora meets its open jaws with Godslayer's blade. She stabs up through the beast's palate, then throws it to the ground to kick it off again. Unfortunately, she turns just in time to see yet another beast sink its teeth into Taako's leg.

Shit.

She darts forward, swinging her blade down, and, of course, the creature blinks back out of existence just in time to avoid the strike.

Distracted enough for now, she turns her attention to Taako. ]

Are you all right?

[ The words are sharp, lacking in sympathy if only because they still have to worry about what's left of the fight – and they can't afford to let their guard down more than they already have. ]

[spellslots]

[He's not sure how shooting in this close range would've ended up, so he appreciates the rescue.

Even if he won't say that out loud.]

Peachy.

[There's blood running down his leg and he's pretty sure he's missing some of like... himself, which is super, but his pain tolerance goes a lot higher than this, after dying so many times.]

Listen, I've got a uh, fucking amazing idea, and it's getting the hell outta here.

[He doesn't have the spell slots to teleport them, but maybe they can just make a regular sort of retreat.]

[godslay]

Can you run?

[ Gamora is all for retreating, but when the wound happens to be in his leg, she has her doubts.

Of course, she also knows that carrying him wouldn't be an issue, but it would definitely impede her own ability to stave off an attack. ]

[spellslots]

Cha boy doesn't need to run. [There's one trick he's got left, something that doesn't need a spell slot to cast.

Taako tosses the rifle to Gamora with a:] Catch!

[Another one of the creatures suddenly appears, launching towards Taako's head, but it doesn't hit anything. Because Taako isn't quite there anymore.

Instead, there's eagle on the ground where he was, and it quickly launches itself after the creature, grabbing it with sharp talons and tearing in with its beak. The creature disappears, leaving the eagle with a beak full of arm that it quickly drops. Tellingly, the eagle's leg is a little mangled, matching the injury Taako took, but that does seem to really bother it so much as it let's out a little cry, directed at Gamora.

Taako's ready to go.]

[godslay]

[ ... Where the hell—

No, that's a bird. That's definitely a bird and not the elf and Gamora is still solidly not sure what she thinks about magic, but that's clearly something to dissect later. She appraises the fierce bird and its well-earned severed arm (something Gamora can appreciate), and given that it displays much the same injury as Taako...

She's willing to just accept "This is Taako" and move on. ]

Lead the way.

[ She jerks her chin back in the direction of the fence, intending to watch his back and head up the rear. ]

[spellslots]

[The bird takes off, though it goes slower than it could, not wanting to lose Gamora.

The creatures aren't lost so easily, Taako can hear rustling following them, moving through the trees, but the other great thing about the polymorph is that it comes with all sorts of changes, including better senses. So when one of the things leaps at him, he's ready for it, manoeuvring in the air to catch it in his talons, quickly tearing through it.

There's a whole lot of blood, but Gamora might be more concerned with the handful of creatures still tailing her.]

[godslay]

[ Blood? No big deal. She's more than used to blood, and whatever comes down from above thanks to the injured creature is hardly any concern to her (though she'll definitely want to wash it out of her hair later).

Instead, she's much more preoccupied with another beast blinking into existence behind her, jaws opened and aimed for her head.

She immediately hits the ground, spinning with her sword in hand and thrust into the air, and as the creature sails right over where she was just standing, Godslayer carves through its belly.

... Now she's covered in blood and viscera.

What a lovely day. ]

[spellslots]

[On the plus side, there's significantly less of them now?

With a hard flap of his wings, Taako flies up to clear the tops of the trees, taking a few seconds to check their surroundings, and then he drops back down to Gamora's level. He can't actually tell her to keep following him, but he flies to the right and hopes she'll keep up.

They're not too far from the barrier now and he's hoping the electricity in the fence will keep them out.]

[godslay]

[ Gamora is at least decent enough at taking cues, and she darts to the side with Taako, following after the eagle towards the barrier.

A few undisturbed moments later, and they're in view of the fence. Close enough that Gamora feels a brief flash of relief – just in time to see one of the creatures blink into existence right behind Taako, leaping for a wing with jaws wide open.

Gamora launches herself forward, stabbing downward with Godslayer to slam the creature into the ground with the sword buried in its back.

Her head snaps back up, immediately aware of her surroundings, but looking for Taako. ]

[spellslots]

Ow.

[Taako announces himself very eloquently, where he's landed on his back in a somewhat unforgiving shrub, both his arm and leg bleeding, though the arm wound doesn't look as bad as it potentially could've been.

He could get up, but he's just going to chill for like five seconds.]

Are they all dead?

[godslay]

[ It would probably be helpful if she went to offer Taako a hand up, but for now, she's still on alert, glancing from the elf to the rest of their surroundings. There's no telltale snarls or the snck-snck-snck of the creatures teleporting, so... ]

Possibly.

[ She doesn't want to say "definitely" because she could be wrong. Without putting away Godslayer, she finally goes over to where Taako looks half-crumpled in the shrub, this time extending a hand to help pull him to his feet. ]