May knelt down and made use of a few healing spells to stabilize Zilo, but no amount of magic could get the bard up and moving again. As she used what few spells she had, Stlunk's massive shadow rose over top of her with his blade ready to carve right through her.
Luckily for May and Zilo, the blade was halted mid swing by Aria, holding her short sword with new resolve.
"Stay away from them!" Shouted the bardic apprentice shaking as she stood. Stlunk gave a smirk as he used his left hand to land a devastating punch to the woman's gut, kicking her up off her feet and sprawling to the ground holding her gut with her free hand. The huge bugbear remarked in goblin with a mocking tone before suddenly being sent to the ground by a shock-wave of fiery energy.
Sparky had bolted through the air and landed one of his burning punches to the gut, landing daintily in front of the wounded bard and knelt shadow hand. Before he could respond he was blasted by an Acid Arrow from the Hobgoblin wizard, Artak.
Meanwhile Maldrek faced the goblin shifter, Jik, had turned into a speedy little Dienonychus with razor sharp claws. Maldrek's new twin revolvers spun their chambers independently, seeming to wait for the creature to make a move. The creature jumped and the wizard dropped down putting his left gun forward and chamber stopped.
Jik would have bore down on the defenseless wizard before a loud boom emanated through the cave. the shifter was blasted point blank, not with a bullet but with concussive force. The tiny dino was hurtled into the air from the blast, before impacting the 50 ft high ceiling. Upon impact the Shifter reverted back to his goblin form and fell unconscious, remaining planted into the rock crevice he had made.
Maldrek stood back up beginning his revolver spinning again, only with the rune that had glowed a grey translucent color faded into just an engraving on the left chamber. The entire room was stunned silent as the wizard smiled with his successful creation.
Artak shouted in goblin toward the wizard, and Stlunk charged in response. Maldrek smiled confidently as he raise his left gun again, stopping on the same rune, only this time his gun only clicked from his shot. The wizard's face turned from a face of absolution to a face of sheer terror as the samurai slashed him across his shoulder. The wizard only barely managed to avoid the lost of his left arm thanks to a last second dodge and his Mage Armor.
"Why would you just stand there!?" Telepathically scolded May.
"I thought I could shoot more!" Responded back Maldrek who was currently running from his attacker. "Sparky incoming!" Continued Maldrek as he ran at the goblin with the bugbear close behind.
Sparky stood wearily, trying to shrug off the acid on his chest, firing off some of his Rays of Fire from his fingers. Stlunk seemed to be very well trained though, slicing the rays out of the air with his blade in quick flashes. Maldrek looked over his gun and finally saw his rune for force had faded. He cursed under his breath and got the chamber spinning again.
May finally had stabilized Zilo and turned to help Maldrek, who put up his hand and quickly thought, "May, keep on Artak, Me and Sparky will handle the big guy." May hesitated before running at the enemy wizard. As she approached, the wizard raised his hand dismissively and cast Force Punch.
May seemed to get hit, but her body faded into shadow before disappearing and she shot out of the shadow behind Artak landing a clean blow to the surprised wizard's flank. The wizard stepped away as May flicked her scythe clearing the blood from it, and said,
"Learn some new tricks, cause I have."
The wizard grimaced as he flicked to a new page and cast Tail Strike. Suddenly a 7 ft long draconic tail emerged from his robe and began swiping at the woman. She hopped up and away to avoid it, but unlike a normal weapon this was alive, and reacted after the miss to curl back and smack her out of the air off to the side.
Maldrek and Spark stood between Stlunk and the downed Aria and Zilo. Aria began to struggle to her feet, but Maldrek signaled for her to stop and thought,
"With all due respect, you are useless in a fight like this, protect Zilo, act only if approached."
Aria looked a little hurt, but the charge of the bugbear cut her off, and she scrambled over to Zilo's side. Maldrek and Sparky both rolled to avoid a wide swing, with Stlunk continuing at Sparky who was barely able to stand thanks to the acid burning and dripping down to his leg.
With pinpoint precision Stlunk hooked his blade down under the goblin's arm and cut up into it, both disabling his arm and lifting him up. Sparky sprung to action trying to throw another burning punch, but the swordsman was faster from his training, spinning from the lift and back handing the raised goblin down and to the side.
Sparky crashed into the ground, face first with a thud, unresponsive. The samurai turned to see Maldrek leveling both his guns at him. Maldrek let loose both guns with a bolt of fire from the left and a streak of lightning from the right.
Stlunk had tried to swat down the fire bolt with his blade as before, but the follow up from the bolt of lightning forced the swordsman to skip the theatrics and simply roll forward. The orange rune of the left gun and white rune from the right faded as Maldrek quickly spun and set his left gun again and fired a bolt of ice at the bugbear's knelt leg.
The man's leg was frozen to the ground and Maldrek lost the left light blue rune before aiming the right gun which was newly set and sent our an unearthly loud blast of deafening power. Stlunk had to react by shielding his ears, which was just what the tiefling needed.
He raised his right gun again dashing forward and closing the distance without fear of the blade and swapped his faded red rune for a glowing yellow one. Maldrek's face resolved he whispered, "This is for my friend." And he pulled the trigger followed by a small blast of yellow whisping light.
At first nothing seemed to happen, but as the wizard lowered his gun and began making his way toward May and her opponent, the samurai just stood there with a blank, unthinking and unfeeling expression.
May was fighting tooth an nail to try and attack around the long tail of Artak, but was having no luck. Normally her long scythe gave her the reach advantage, but his tail was just too maneuverable and reactive. Artak was smiling and calmly applying a bit of salve to his back wound as his tail continued assaulting the woman, bring her down to her knee.
Maldrek leveled his gun aiming at the wizard, sweating. He had swapped his left gun to a new rune, held his breath and fired, but nothing came out. Maldrek charged in and was quickly batted away by the tail. Artak laughed and snapped his fingers to dispel his tail, looking to both wounded opponents.
"It seems neither of you can thwart my spells, I guess its time to end this with... wait...WHAT!?" Shouted the wizard as he frantically flipped through his spell book, as he did so Maldrek smiled and snatched the book from his hand waving it mockingly.
"Whats the problem my friend? Can't read infernal huh? Such a shame. May!"
"Huh?"
"When wizards lose a spell book we lose all our magic. Now, remind me, didn't you have words to discuss with Artak here?"
Maldrek cocks his gun's hammer back and the spellbook's text returns to goblin as if an illusion had been dispelled. May took a second to process the events, but then smiled devilishly as Artak shivered in fear. She hopped up, Scythe twirling, and hooked it about the Wizard's neck, leading him to the war room section of the cavern and said,
"Artak, if you would please, step into my office. We have so much to discuss."
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