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Things were getting quite boring for the Paladin, again, but this time he could spot himself from losing awareness of what was going on, by saying something before he could distract himself with some strange-shaped rock or something.

"So, just what are we fighting against? I-"

Oh, what was that funny feeling he was having? Was it his paranoia, striking again, or... no, there was definitely something there. Something invisible... something evil!?! SPIES! ASSASSINS! EFFEMINATE WIZARDS! They had been followed! Run for your lives!... well, except the glaring man, if he was indeed death-proof.

Tyval's face became pale. Very pale. Shaking like a leaf, he took a few steps away from where Erin was. Dared he scream? Or would that make him the first to be stabbed, or charmed, or whatever they wanted to do to him?

(( Effeminate wizards!!! That made me laugh so hard!!!! XDDD LOL! ))


Erin became so confused she turned partially visible. Only for a second, though, so nobody but Tyval saw her scared, big-eyed face, but he probably noticed her bright red (NOT ORANGE, PURE RED) hair more. She quickly turned invisible again and cursed herself for being such an idiot. This Tyval was surely a scaredy-cat. He definitely wasn't the, er, courageous type. She giggled silently and decided not to toy with him, even though it would be more exciting than anything else that had happened thus far. So she withdrew to her spot next to Mink again.

"You-?" Mink looked boredly over at Tyval. "Hn. Dull.." She flopped onto the ground, leaning back on her arms with her legs crossed. Her tongue rolled lazily out of the side of her mouth as she slowly looked everyone over, watching their faces carefully. A hand reached up to play with the small black ankh at her neck. "How much longer do we sit around waiting for something to happen?"

"Well, we're currently being followed by at least one creature that is invisible as far as I can tell. So, probably not much longer."

Samantha didn't turn to look at anyone to say this; she was keeping her concentration on their immediate surroundings.

EDIT: (Also I hope GrandFinale hasn't given up on us. Now that we have a larger party congregating in one spot, it would be the perfect time for a dramatic sub-boss battle that leads in to the discovery of a way to make progress towards Alphanus.)

A large black glyph appeared on the ground below them, large enough to encompass them all, and then shot a massive beam skywards. Luckily, this attack is quite a bit slower than what Distrugere's opening attack was, allowing much easier dodging. Remember that guy Alphanus was talking to earlier? This was his doing. After the attack, a large, smoking hole straight to the underground is created.

Erin growled silently and looked to Malith for help, but suddenly a huge shot of light blasted up and she had barely any time to dodge and roll out of the way, Malith scampering after her. In this shock, she immediately took out her bow and nocked an arrow to it, pointing the arrow at the crater on the ground. In all of this, she had forgotten to turn invisible again and was standing there, only slightly translucent, pointing an arrow at a crater which nothing seemed to be coming out of...yet.

Tyval was terrified enough before that glyph had appeared. But once it did, he was the first to jump out of the attack's way. He fell to the ground, performed a somersault, and got up. Swiftly he took his shield from wherever it was, and equipped it. Yes, his reaction had been fast and he was ready to fight. But he was still himself...

"T-t-t-t-they're here!"

The poor angel was utterly terrified.

The man I referenced earlier then came slowly, ominously, floating out of the crater, and then stopped above it. An evil aura billowed forth from him, like smoke, with a heavy dark purple hue. What's more is...this man is the mayor from the town that this adventure started from. All this time he had been working as Alphanus's second-in-command.

"I never imagined that I would see you again. I'd assumed you would already be dead. But no matter, I will succeed where Distrugere could not."

He motioned for them all to follow him into the hole, and then he flew down into it himself.

"Well. That was exciting." Mink got up and made to follow the man through the hole, first looking around at her companions to see what they would do.

(Sorry for the dead..ness. x: )

Dadj was at his breaking point for boredom. When the Mayor posed the challenge, the Range simply stood, sheathed his knife and walked towards the hole. Without a word, without an expression even, he came to its edge and jumped.

Erin sighed silently in relief and trailed behind the group. Even when visible, they hadn't noticed her. That was a great accomplishment in itself. She didn't bother to make herself visible as she stood at the edge. Malith pushed her in and she squeaked as her knees buckled and she fell into the hole.

After a moment fighting the urge of running away, Tyval sighed. He muttered a quick prayer to his god, for protection, and then walked over to the edge of the hole. He closed his eyes and jumped in.

Those who took the plunge are in for more surprises - magically infused bombs had been planted at certain points down the hole, which itself was a surprisingly long way down. They worked like proximity mines, but far more efficient. As they fell near, the bombs exploded.

Erin screamed as one of the bombs went off near her, causing the skin on her upper left arm to be blown off. You could see through to the bone. Malith squealed in alarm and caught her on his back as they flew down, down, down, narrowly avoiding death by bomb. Erin's hair was scorched up to her neck and she was clinging to Malith's scaly back. A hole had been blown through his wing and they had begun to plummet.

Oh great. Fire, my favourite. As soon as the first bomb had gone off, one of Mink's wings had caught fire. She winced, thinking it was time for a slightly less flammable form. She shifted as quickly as she could with bombs going off all around. Her muzzle shrank into her face as her fur retreated into her darkening skin, her tailbone shortened until it was no longer visible, and her long ears shortened and seemed to shrivel as her orange hair faded to black, now covering them slightly. As the next bomb went off, she yelled in pain as she received multiple burns along her back and side. Oh. Guess the dragon form would've been better. The woman was..a little lacking in common sense sometimes.

Dadj, being the first to go down, had set off most of the bombs. He reacted to them like he reacted to most things: with a grunt and a glower. Sure, he was receiving burns left and right. Sure, he was possibly going to break all the bones in his legs when he landed. But none of that had registered when he’d decided to leap.

It wasn’t exactly registering now, either. His nervous system failed to relay the fact that his skin was singed, but when he was knocked right into the rocks on the sides of the hole he was pretty sure he was going to be banged up. Looking down, he was able to see some semblance of a ground, but he couldn’t tell just how far away it was. The lighting was dim and he could no longer see as a bomb had just gone off in close proximity to his face. He was certain his eyes had just melted… But no matter, they’d fix themselves.

Then he felt an abrupt stop in his momentum: The floor. If anyone had seen him lying there, they might amuse themselves in the fact that he resembled a marionette cut form its strings. It took minutes for him to be able to get his limbs into working order. There was no telling how much of him was broken, or protruding through the skin, so he didn’t bother trying to find out. Also, his vision had only barely returned.

Then another impact; a body, supposedly one of his companions, made a landing right atop him.

Sam just stared in bewilderment as her companions went leaping off the edge one by one, kind of like lemmings. She walked over to the edge of the pit and looked over. The sounds of multiple explosions and screams of pain echoed up at her.

She shook her head and sighed. "Mort, I need you to stay here for a while, okay? I'll be back soon."

"Gronk." Mort plopped down in the dirt and gave her one of his looks. Having to stay put always meant that Green Lady was going to do something extra dangerous. And Green Lady has all the snacks.

Sam opened one of Mort's saddlebags and extracted a long, gold-colored rope. She placed one end in the air above the hole, not attached to anything. That end appeared to fade out of existence. She let go, and the rest of the rope fell against the side of the pit, suspended from nothing. The other end continued to elongate until it reached the bottom. From her own satchel, she pulled out a small oil lamp that was already burning unnaturally bright. She then proceeded to climb down the rope with two feet and one hand, while holding the lamp with the other to illuminate her surroundings. When she came within sight of her first undetonated explosive, she casted trigger on it. If that didn't work, she'd throw a force bolt at it to dislodge or blow it up. Whichever strategy worked, she would use that on any other bombs she came near.

(Up to Finale if this is successful or not. The rope itself should be able to handle any heat and concussive force from bombs set off by its own initial motion when it was first released in to the pit.)

The evil mayor had prepared for this as well - there was a device, barely visible, just above her. Sure, the bomb below went off, but then this device swung a long, ungodly sharp blade at the rope.

Erin and Malith basically crash-landed next to Dadj. Malith crawled out and went to hide in a corner. Erin was sure at least her left wrist was broken. She didn't bleed to death only because the fire was coating her wounds and keeping them from getting any worse. She critted her teeth and stayed still, not trusting her legs yet. She now had short hair; it had been singed to her neck, like a fireball around her head instead of lava. Damn it, stupid girl! Erin scolded herself, not noticing she was lying near Dadj or anyone else for that matter.