With Falx now quarantined via his contract to the bottom of the ship. Zilo, Leo, and Jin looked to the shores. Along the bank of the land is a gigantic miles and miles of an enchanted forest border. Jin smiled weakly thinking of how much he could flip and trick in that vast forest.
Zilo had never seen such a forest in his time in this plane yet, and so he began to write a title border for a new song. Leo looked down at the bard who was using the rail as a back to write on and shook his head.
Jin looks to his shoulder, which still has the bite mark of Falx. "I was hopin to stop by the elf city soon, see if dey have a way to fix this, not gonna lie to ye, I'm startin to lose feelin in my shoulder."
Zilo pops his head up, "I thought I fixed it already? Does it still hurt?" Zilo puts his hands the shoulder and his a face loses it's color and he faces Leo.
"Leo, his shoulder is ice cold. It's like the shoulder of a dead man."
Leo pulls back the robe as the ship comes ashore. The shoulder looks black, and seems like it is stiffening. Jin leaps up at the sight, and begins to shake his arm, but it seems that his shoulder reacts unnaturally, much more rigid and cumbersome than a typical arm.
"AH! WHAT IS DIS!?" Zilo slaps Jin across the face and shouts at him, "Get a hold of yourself! I'm sure we can fix this. Leo, Ideas?"
Leo looks over the wound and snaps his fingers, "I'll bet that Falx's lycanthropy and vampirism isn't mixing well with a living body. Looks like it is killing you slowly."
Jin points into the forest with his dying arm and says, "Let's get moving then."
The group disembarks in the direction of the city, deep in the forest, as the rest of the crew shores up the ship to the land. Once night falls, Jin's arm seems to hang lifeless and it seems that his whole arm has gone black. Leo takes out a map taken from the ship and grimaces.
"Not good Jin, looks like the city is to far, no chance we'll make it there-" Leo is suddenly Jabbed in the side by Zilo.
"*Cough* *Cough* unless we *Cough* pick up the pace a bit."
Jin rubs his slowly dying arm and says, " Can our luck get any-"
Leo kicks Jin to the ground before he can finish the thought, hoping to stop the cliche before it is too late.
"Worse?" Questions Zilo, earning a daggers stare from Leo turning quickly. Almost right on queue, Jin's tail stiffens and his ears twitch as he kneels up.
"Something is coming... It's... Hunting."
"See ya!" Says Leo quickly casting Invisibility.
"DAMNIT LEO!" Shouts Jin squaring up with Zilo, who smiles and responds with, "Good thinking friend! We'll distract it." Jin shakes his head as he slings his limp arm into the inside of his robe to avoid it getting in the way. Zilo readies Harmony. As they stare into the forest line.
For moments the world feels still before, in an instant, sharp projectiles are sent at them from the treeline. Zilo gets hit in the gut, while Jin uses his good arm to snatch the projectile an inch from his face.
"AH!!! By the gods!" Shouts Zilo as Jin looks over the weapon. It looks like a quill from some sort of huge creature. Zilo cures his open wound and out of the tree line they see a 20 foot long feline figure stalking them. Zilo's eyes go wide looking to the creature and says,
"Jin, that's a Bandersnatch!"
"Don't we need sweat from one of those!?" As Jin looks to Zilo questioningly the giant beast steps forward and as it does, Leo pops back into sight and he feels his body to make sure he is really visible. Zilo's eyes widen and he points to Leo,
"It's a Magicbane Bandersnatch! We did need one of those, great work Leo."
Leo looks to Zilo who is smiling right at him with his thumb up, confirming Leo's fear. As he finally turns to face the creature he is battered away by It's long slick tail. He is sent spiraling into a tree, and slides down to his knees.
Zilo fires off an arrow at the beast and plants it into it's left shoulder, but as it began to stalk over to him, his Violin fell into his off hand. His music would be of no use this fight. Jin used his tail to take a drink, his muscle's tensing as he rushes in, and flips up to crack the beast across the face, dodging it's claws in the process.
Jin lands wincing as his foot had been stabbed by some of the quills on the beast's forehead. Leo stood, readying his blade and rushing to join Jin, but the Bandersnatch saw him coming, and lashed out with his mouth as the magus approached. In an instant the trickster bit across the side and his assault was halted.
Zilo shouted, "Leo, fall back!"
"I'll holder her off!" Shouted Jin standing firm.
The bandersnatch bared down on Leo and Jin, but the monk stood between the monster and Leo. In a lightning quick barrage of attacks, Jin was ripped apart, but somehow managed to keep it together. Leo fell back, barely managing to avoid another lash from it's tail. Zilo back up out of the range of the creature's dispelling range.
Zilo found Leo's wound much worse than expected and used his strongest healing spell, Cure Serious Wounds. Leo roses, much better, but Jin was now the one struggling. Leo frowns and says, "This thing is far beyond us, Zilo. We stand no chance."
"Well, we can't win them all." Says the bard with a wink and another arrow shot into the fray. As the beast continued to shred the three friends, they suddenly felt something... something powerful. There was a pressure, almost as if the air had become thicker, and movements had become arduous.
Leo looked for the source, and looking down the trail he say a lone figure in a black robe. Jin, weak from the fight, and from his spreading injury, fell from exhaustion, and was out cold. The Bandersnatch dropped into a pouncing position, waiting for the new being to attack.
The being simply continued to walk. On instinct the monster leaped at the figure, but in the next moment, the creature was smashed into the ground faster than the three heroes could see, and the beast's head was caved in and spattered.
The two uneasy friends stared at the robed figure who approached them with an aura of sheer authority. The being looked over the three and only uttered one word.
"Interesting"
No comments:
Post a Comment