Zilo and his friends steeled themselves to enter the last room in the Lair of the Black Daimyo. The room they enter looked to be a war room with a long black table carved from stone. The room is extremely long, likely to allow for the entire order to gather and plan.
The black clad samurai, the woman in the kimono, and Ryogi the Tinkerer stand at the other end of the table as the four heroes enter. The table is covered in parchment with sprawling drawings and notes on the city of Kakusareta Kyōi.
The three look up from the table and the woman swipes the air and a fine mist of liquid is dashed onto the table. Ryogi then picks up the trailblazer staff and taps it on the table. In a flash all the papers on the table ignite and fill the room with heat and light.
Maldrek shouts, "Take'em down!" and the battle is begun.
Maldrek dashes along the right side of the table to intercept a flanking maneuver and he spots the woman running the full length of the table. Maldrek snaps out his hand and unleashes a barrage of Scorching Rays, but as the woman runs her form shifts into a Blink Dash and all the rays but one fly astray. The one that did hit landed on the woman's forearm, but she refused to halt her charge.
Cruxis made his way forward on the left side, but was suddenly beset upon by the Black Samurai leaping off the flaming table and cleaving into the paladin. Cruxis managed to just barely block the attack, but his arm strained under the force.
Zilo takes aim at the Samurai and lets loose two shots, both impact into the man, but he doesn't slow or even react, he merely begins to deflect a swing from Cruxis. May had already slipped under the table to hide and then stab the samurai when he lowered his guard, but she found that she was not the only person under the table, as Ryogi had also ducked under and stared down the table at her.
As May took out a poisoned knife to throw at him, the Tinkerer retrieved a tiny watch and used his Weird Science to cast a combination of Mage Armor, and Lightning Bolt. May is blasted out of the back of the table.
The woman charging at Maldrek snapped out her hands and retrieved her blades ready to pounce on Maldrek. The wizard was not about to let her get that close and he snaps out a Lightning Bolt to blast her advance, but as he does the woman passes right through the bolt and then through Maldrek he turns as the Split Shadow of a woman.
As soon as his back turns to look at it go the woman snaps out from the flames and cleaves into each of Maldrek's shoulders with each blade in a devastating Sneak Attack. Cruxis ducked under another swipe from the Black Samurai before slamming his shield into his opponent's face. Yet still the Samurai stood unfazed as he whipped his blade up and knocked away Cruxis' followup swing before planting his boot in the paladin's chest and pushed him to the wall.
Zilo looked to the side to see May hurt on the ground, so in return he began to cast some musical spells with his violin. He began with a round of Haste for his allies followed by a Cure Serious Wounds to fix May's damage right to his side. May stood, beginning to feel a bit better as the Tinker emerged from under the table and held aloft a matchbook, as he snapped it open a blast of a Fireball flew from it and Zilo and May were engulfed in the explosion.
While Zilo couldn't avoid the explosion, May reacted fast and came flying out of the fire with a sweep of her Scythe putting a huge gash into Ryogi's temple. Meanwhile on the right side of the table, Maldrek's eyes rose from his hung head and he turned to face the woman. His right hand collected a ball of frost and he blasted forth a plume of the spell, Cone of Cold. followed by a second blast of the spell with his other hand from the haste.
In a quick one-two flash, the room went silent as the flames on the table, the woman, the Black Samurai, and Cruxis were frozen still with a coat of ice. As the room quieted the Black Samurai's ice shell cracked and broke the silence as he turned to the flames frozen on the table and flipping it up and over to crush Maldrek and the woman in one maneuver.
The man in the Armor turned to May and the burnt Zilo. Before beginning to advance. May hopped back and let out a Channel Energy to fix some of the damage from the fireball, as Zilo took out his blade and blasted forth.
With his speed far exceeding Cruxis' he let loose a flurry of rapid strikes with the blade. Two of the four strikes were blocked by the Samurai, but Zilo did get two light grazes in on the titan of a man. Meanwhile the Tinkerer looked to the trapped body of Maldrek and rose his hand to take out a handkerchief and point it at the Tiefling.
May snapped in front of the shot with a horizontal slash which the Tinkerer tried to leap over with a kick off the turned table leg, but it was all a feint and with a snap of the wrist May's horizontal slash turned vertical at an angle and removed the handkerchief and hand from the Tinker's arm.
The Tinker fell back and shouted in pain, wrapping his arm in his robe. He reaches down to his belt, dropping the trailblazer staff in the process and took out a compass before he is warped away by a Dimension Door spell. May sighs and turns her attention to the samurai just as a blade comes flying by her shoulder.
Ahead of her a disarmed Zilo raises his arms in surrender as the Black Samurai holds his blade aloft to the bard's neck. Suddenly a voice shouts from behind the two of them.
"MAY! ZILO! Stand down, this man is mine! Tend to Maldrek!" The Black Samurai, May, and Zilo all turn to see Cruxis, still shivering and holding his blade up, igniting it with an aura of righteous power and cold enchantments.
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