World Tree MUSH

Our heroes have fought their way to this large chamber in the depths of the Undermountain, to a gallery lit by candles and with a few benches arranged towards the room's centre. There stands a large altar draped in green and gold cloth, poised in front of an outcrop in the natural rock. It's been carved into the shape of an immense skull with a coiling snake winding from the eyehole. A dreadful aura seethes around that statue, a dull greenish glow visible behind the eyeholes.

Before it are two figures. Issertha is recognizable to Kanna, Lether and Dante, blue as ever, shirtless, standing before the altar with his back to the door. The second, chained to the altar by one ankle and clad in a simple linen shirt, is Neviah. She looks much worse for the wear - bloodied and bruised, her skin sallow and sickly, as if some manner of poison had joined the violence of captivity. She's glowering up at Issertha sullenly.

"But perhaps there's comfort for you after all," Issertha continues before slowly turning from the altar, casting a look towards the door. His forked tongue flicks out at the air. "Look. You have visitors. What fun - five sacrifices for the price of one."

Shaking her head briskly, Neviah blinks and looks with astonishment towards the door and the group that's come bursting through. "How did you--"

A sharp surge of magic cuts her off as Issertha snaps a hand up into the air. Energy surges around him, white to begin with but fading to an acidic yellow-green as it whorls into a globular shape, widens out, shimmers and flickers into near-invisibility. Only a subtle warping of space around his body betrays the presence of a magical field.

Some of that magic doesn't disappear. It distends from the palm of his hand, manifesting into a viciously curved sword in the form of a kilij with a gilded hilt and a blade with a silver-green shine. He lowers the blade to level the point towards the group.

"Then come!" the snake-man invites with a sneer and a lift of his chin. "Throw your bodies on the pyre!"

    OBJECTIVE:
     [ ] Rescue Neviah.

    The objective is pretty simple. Rescue Neviah.
    To Lether, this simple objective means the world right now.
    Hands stuffed in the pockets of her studded leather jacket, the lizardfolk girl blinks once, sideways, at the decor.
    "I know you're some kind of death cultist but even this is pretty gaudy." She comments dryly in regards to the skull and serpentine carving as she tugs her hands free.
    In one hand she holds a nasty sharp shortsword. In the other an even nastier dagger. She looks from Issertha to Neviah. The condition Neviah is in.
    Lether's eyes narrow by a degree as she cocks her head to an angle.
    "Sacrifices?"
    The word leaves her mouth cold and mirthless as she tightens her grip on her weapons.
    He casts a spell. Lether doesn't know magic. She doesn't know what the spell does.
    As long as it doesn't instantly kill her... She doesn't care.
    "Neviah we're coming." She hisses in a whisper, more to herself than to the woman right there; more to keep herself steady. They can't let anything go wrong here.
    Glancing over her shoulder at her companions she gives the signal. A single, simple, nod.
    Issertha *needs* to die.
    Faster than a coiled snake she flicks the dagger in her hand ripping through the air with the speed and force of a gunshot, hurled for the snake priest before Lether scrambles for the nearest shadow in the room. She's not a frontline fighter, that's reserved for everyone else. No, no, she has something better in mind than getting in Issertha's face.

Once upon a time, Juniper was almost sacrificed by cultists.

She'd survived it. She still wasn't sure how, but it's what made her the person she is today: empowered with the essence of a long-dead dragon.

One of the things it had left her with - though this was all Juniper, not the dragon - was a burning hatred of cultists who sacrifice people to their patrons. She's gone out of her way to free people from them before, even when she wasn't likely to get any reward for it (and, as we all know, Juniper loves her rewards).

When it turns out to be a close friend, well... it's even worse.

Juniper barrels in and barely even slows down while Issertha speaks - and when Juniper's moving fast she's moving FAST. She leaps and finishes her approach in a flying kick, though she expects to hit a barrier and not him; she's tensed for it, ready to backflip off it and land with her fists up. 

"Just try it," Juniper says, dangerously. "I'll eat your snake spirit, too. Neviah!" That last she calls to the woman in there, hoping she can hear through the barrier. "We're here!"

>> GAME >> Kanna Ouji spends an Edge for: Divine Wind

    "If we're cremating corpses, I'd rather start with yours," Kanna Ouji replies simply.

    There's no casual sass to the swordswoman's voice. No laid-back amusement in her eyes. No anticipation of a good fight. There's a coldness to her tone, and as she takes a step forward, a breeze begins to stir in the chamber. The candles flicker as the air starts to move, seeming to circle around the grand space. And then there's a glimmer. A shimmer. A faint flicker of red on the air, as if the wind itself were beginning to take on brief ripples of color.

    Then the Crimson Wind flourishes her blade, and her namesake begins to whirl. As she brings Shinsatsufuu around towards her side, the shimmering, blowing breeze goes from spiralling around the chamber to spiralling inward. Towards her. She begins to slide the blade into its sheath... and the whirling wind kicks up, now flowing inward. That rippling, shimmering crimson light, the light of divine wind, begins flooding itself into the sheath. Pouring in around the blade even as the ronin sheathes it, a feat that is becoming increasibly difficult.

    Her teeth grit. Her brow furrows with effort. Kanna's arm trembles with the exertion of pushing that katana into its saya, all that inflowing air seeming to push back on the blade... and yet it moves. In. Further in. Further in, and the inflow of wind reaches a fevered pitch-

        CLACK

    -and then for a bare few seconds, the air stills.

    Then, Kanna Ouji draws her divine blade again, and a gust of wind rips through the chamber. When it stills, her eyes are glowing a faint red - and her ponytail and scarf are gently floating, as if weightless. For anyone sensitive to it, she's now exuding a subtle divine aura.

    In the next heartbeat, she is simply halfway across the chamber, and the barrier has already been struck with an impossibly sharp blade thrumming with divinity. It's by far the fastest anyone here has seen her move... if they can follow it at all.

    Dante fixes Issertha with a heavy lidded stare with cool blue eyes. "Last chance to turn her over, before we turn you into a nice set of shoes." He says. Despite his joking tone, he's not in a mood to play around with this guy with Neviah's life on the line. But he still needs to keep up some appearances. The mission is pretty obvious, it's time to save Neviah.

    "Sacrifice isn't the word i'd use for it, you gotta treasure someone to sacrifice them! This isn't any different than cold-blooded murder. Or I guess just plain old murder in your case." Dante growls. All he can remember is that psychopath Arkham, what he did in the name of the black arts. The man murdered his own wife for it, without a single fret over it nonetheless.

    This guy ain't much different.

    When Lether gives the word, Dante launches into action with a thrust towards Issertha, Rebellion acting as tip of the spear while he dashes forwards. With Juniper and Kanna, Dante is more than enough of a threat to distract this guy while Lether does her thing.

Neviah, seized by a surge of sudden hope, begins working frenetically at the cuff around her ankle. There's not a lot of give to it, but the chain holding it in place has seen better days. She grits her teeth and attempts to lever it against the edge of the altar in the hopes of snapping a link. "Everyone!" she calls out, voice hoarse. "Be careful, he's dangerous!"

Juniper comes sailing in like a man-made missile. She does not hit a barrier. Rather, the closer she gets, the harder it is to push through - not so much physically as through a sheer sense of /difficulty/ that blunts her momentum. Dante meets with the same problem; he thrusts in, and Rebellion simply begins to slow down, as if it's pushing through a wall of unseen clay. By the time the pair are within striking range, Issertha is able to sweep to the side of Juniper, then whip his sword around to clash with Dante's weapon. His forked tongue flicks in the air. "Murder. That's a strong word from a dumb man."

Kanna, however, is simply moving too fast for the Sanctuary field around Issertha to account for. The snake-priest drops a heel back and braces, but the Crimson Wind blows. The impact blows through the chamber like a shockwave, physically bowling Neviah off the altar. There's a crash as Issertha gets the flat of his sword in between himself and Kanna. For a second, they're locked there, until the explosive momentum of it all hits home and he's launched back to slam into the front edge of the altar and drop to a knee.

Lether recedes into the shadows and launches her dagger. It faces no slowdown at all, and it glances off Issertha's shoulder, leaving a bloody cut behind. With a scowl, he flicks his tongue once more. "What your friend here should have understood is that she bound herself to the God of Destruction. That vow can't be thrown away without consequences. She wasn't prepared to destroy." He levels his free hand towards Kanna.

"I /am!/" he snaps before unleashing hell. Fire billows around his palm, then blooms upwards, swelling before finally descending in a massive, roaring column of flame. The fiery blast is broad enough to not only focus on Kanna, but sweep up Juniper and Dante in its periphery. As the flamestrike swells, Issertha turns that hand in Lether's direction. There in the shadows, a ghostly hand materializes from nowhere, reaching out for her.

The hand is cold. Its touch, should it connect, will be cold. Its spell, should it be worked, will sting and sear the spirit like a draft from the grave.

    Up roars the column of flame, and down it comes. She stares it down as it descends, and then calmy slides a foot back, her blade already dropping back into its sheath again. And in the instant the blaze would impact, there's a gust of wind, the crack of the sound barrier breaking, and all that fire simply splits around her in the wake of her upward slash. Her hakama smolders around her legs, her arms bear the telltale color of newly-acquired scorch marks, but she doesn't seem the least bit perturbed. "Any twit with a club can destroy things," she replies.

    "The question is, are you prepared for War?"

    Once again, she moves. A blur, darting around the chamber, until she suddenly hurtles inward like a bullet to strike at Issertha. Back out, a loop around, and then another strike from a different angle. And then another, and another, and at one point she even hurls herself into the air and rebounds off the ceiling, striking from above. It's an ongoing torrent of strikes with godly speed, hammering at his defenses again and again in a bid to overwhelm, to find a weakness, or just plain cut clean through them if she can.

    "Never claimed to be a genius." Dante counters as he locks swords with Issertha. Danger's something Dante's never gotten around to worrying about, not for himself anyways. Other people, sure, but Dante? He's an unstoppable demon slaying machine. This jagoff is just another bad guy who needs to be taken down, and Dante's not backing down.

    He trades several strikes with Issertha, sparks flying with every hit. Issertha will find that Rebellion strikes with the force of a great warhammer, but Dante wields it with immense speed and finese. Needless to say, Issertha is gonna have a lot of enemies to juggle.

    "Or a foot up your ass?" Dante adds to Kanna, before he suddenly uses Rebellion to springboard himself like a pole vaulter, before he lashes out with his foot to dropkick Issertha, knocking him towards Kanna's own strike.

"Don't care," Juniper calls back to Neviah. "I'm dangerous, too. And like I said... I've been sacrificed once, and I ate it. If he wants to try again, well, he can *try*, but I don't think he'll like the result!"

Unfortunately for Juniper, she threw herself in a flying kick toward Issertha.

This means that when she slows down, her momentum stolen, she ends up hanging in the air for a moment before she starts to drop downwards. She barely gets one heel on the floor and pivots before he sweeps his blade - it's at Dante, to bind his weapon, but she doesn't know that at first and is doing her damnedest to get out of the way.

It *does* mean she's actually in a good position to handle the pillar of flame. It's not quite aimed at her, but that doesn't mean the blast radius isn't dangerous - but Juniper practically blurs as she circles around, putting Issertha between her and the others so that he has to turn to face her and show them his back, or vice versa.

"Consequence this," Juniper says, before inhaling deep enough she can feel her ribs tense - and then exhaling a crackling *wave* of flame, making it harder for him to simply sidestep than a line would be! Her breath goes on and on as she turns her head left and right, her breath sweeping like a flamethrower.

    Lether doesn't fail her Wisdom save. Nothing about this man is worth sparing and no spell, not even Sanctuary will deter her from spilling his blood tonight. Anchordeep has a very strict code of laws... Drawing a weapon with intent to kill draws a steep steep steeeeeep penalty. Murder even steeper...
    But here? In the Undermountain?
    It's free game, and this is going to end tonight.
    Kanna is across the room in the next instant, golden eyes just barely able to track the woman whose moniker, Crimson Wind, is so very apt for. And it's as Kanna goes in for her strike against the barrier that Lether stalks through the shadows.
    The ghostly hand appears, however, stalking her... And it's just as those cold, cold, fingers curl to touch her that the runty lizardfolk's wiry little body wriggles away from the necrotic touch at the last second. Oh it gets her. It's sapping, it's horrible and cold but...
    "Is that it...?" She asks through clenched teeth as she wriggles free of that grasp to keep it from sapping her very life away.
    "I've had colder nights alone in the sewers." She hisses from the darkness before slinking further into the shdows.
    Kanna is fast.
    She's so, so fast.
    Her speed is on another level; supernatural in every way.
    Lether can't match that speed. But that doesn't mean she's *slow* either as she suddenly just fucking *appears* as though she had slid out of Crimson Wind's very shadow, shortsword gleaming menacingly in her hand as she goes for the cheapest of cheap shots, lunging to try and jab the high priest in the ribs once before withdrawing to the darkness once again.

    "Consequences? Destruction? War? Nah. This is an execution."

>> GAME >> Lether spends an Edge for: Sneak Attack

Blown off the altar by the shock of Kanna's wind, Neviah scrambles to one knee, then looks down with shock as she realizes what happened: The force of the attack snapped the chain. It's dangling off her ankle, connected to nothing.

Kanna Ouji blows through the fire, singed but poised as she ever is. She will find that the sanctuary field is gone, as if Issertha going on the offensive set the spell aside. She moves like a blur, but the snake cleric is surprisingly fast. He whips his sword to one side, then the other, parrying several strikes, though a few more slice past his guard enough to nick limbs, shoulders and hips. Dante piling on doesn't help matters; he steps back and to the side to gain clearance from Kanna, only for Dante to start in and kick him. The blow catches him in the shoulder; he twists away, recoiling, but regrouping with a hiss. "I'm prepared for more than you realize," he snaps. "Neviah's foolishness made our goals possible. The destruction of the World Tree, and with it, the rebirth of Faerun."

The snake-priest starts forward again, sword darting out with startling force and finesse. He's not as lightning-fast as Kanna, but his strikes are deliberate and his sword streams with bitter necrotic energy, amplifying each strike. He slashes firmly at Dante, then whirls to strike twice towards Kanna, then one more, aiming to push the two out to his left and gain some room on his right.

Juniper's circling is making it hard. Her dragon breath rips through the cavern, sweeping through Issertha's space. The left leg of his trousers ignites as he spins away just a bit too late. Wincing, he swats the flames down with the flat of his sword, but the ugly burns down his limb speak for themselves. "Eating poisonous things is bad for you," he says shortly before flicking a finger Juniper's way. A black beam lances from that clawed fingertip, ripping towards the dragon-pugilist - and should it connect, it brings with it a spell that would seek to enfeeble her muscles for a few critical moments.

That's when Lether jumps out of the shadows. There is a meaty *schlk* as her shortsword plunges through Issertha's back and out the front in a burst of blood. For just a moment, time hangs there as he looks down at the swordpoint sticking out of his chest, a trickle of blood beginning to roll down his chin.

Then he sucks in a breath, bunches his shoulders, and slams himself /backward/ to try and smash Lether into what's left of the altar. Either way, he'll try to get the sword out.

"A valiant effort." Issertha's voice is wet at first, but as he draws his free hand over his chest, there's a shimmer of magic - and the wound begins to knit closed from the inside. It does not go away. It is too deep for that. But what should have been a fatal blow is reduced to a heavy one. What should have been enough to kill him, he simply fights through.

Neviah, who has recoiled towards a back wall, grips her chain and clicks her teeth. "He's a cleric," she manages, voice tight and pained. Her fist tightens around the length of metal still hanging off her ankle.

Once again, here she is. They're here for her, but there's nothing she can do to help them except sit and stare helplessly. Her spirit screams at her in frustration.

    Clang-clash-clang, blade meets blade again and again, and the Crimson Wind finds herself pushed back. In its own way, it's impressive; divine speed is her hallmark, and he's still managing to keep up, and even force her to parry and give space. "You're missing some important steps there," she replies, darting out to one side. As she goes, her blade flashes, several quick swipes too fast for the eye to follow, and each swing throws out an arc of glowing red-white divine wind, ranged projectiles sharp enough to split stone and steel. "Like getting out of this fight alive!" But even those projectiles are a diversion, a distraction to keep Issertha defending and create openings for the others to move in. Even seeing him heal himself doesn't seem to shake her resolve.

    Instead, she skids to a stop. Shinsatsufuu is shifted to her right hand, her stance deepening, turned sideways, the blade brought up horizontal, level with her head. As if she's preparing to stab with it, despite the distance between herself and the priest. "But if we're gonna start pulling out gifts from our God, here's one for you. Shingi...!"

    Up comes her left hand, index and middle fingers pressed together, and she runs it along the side of her blade, tip to hilt to tip in a rapid movement. The pass of her fingers seems to set the air around it spinning, compressing it into a tight, glowing-red projectile, compressing all that cutting surface down to a single point.

        "...DENKOUSEKKA!"

    Her weight shifts. Her body moves forward. Her torso pivits, her shoulder pushes, and Shinsatsufuu stabs forward - launching that compressed piercing wind with enough force that the dust ripples outward around her.

"It wouldn't be the first time," is Juniper's response to Issertha, providing a grin that shows too many teeth. At least they're human teeth, if with kind of prominent canines, and not dragon teeth.

Her hands are up. She expects to deflect a sword, or dodge away from a blast like the one before. But what she actually gets is a beam. Juniper hops backwards, but the beam clips her in the chest. There's no visible change with her body, but she hunches forward around the impact point as if she was having trouble standing up straight, and her movements are quite a bit slower. "Guh - "

Still, she keeps moving. Juniper steps forward, looking like she's more affected by the spell than she actually is; she makes it look like a staggering step, but at the last moment she switches styles, going from the punches and kicks she prefers to a sudden grip, twisting in a way that doesn't require a lot of strength from her, but locks his arm unless he's more flexible than she thinks he is (and given he's a snake, she thinks he's pretty flexible).

And she's doing the bone-breaker mostly so she can spit a bolt of lightning in his face without him dodging away from it. 

Juniper pushes, afterwards, releasing the grip as she tries to guide him further into someone else's attack - Kanna's as it turns out, right into that piercing wind.

>> GAME >> Juniper spends an Edge for: Breath of the Dragon

    For a moment. For a brief, shining, glorious moment, Lether grins.
    It's not a nice grin, all sharp jagged teeth as she revels in the blow she just struck.
    It's a critical hit.
    But then she's suddenly slammed into the remnants of the altar with so much force that a laser-chirp of pain and dismay escapes her on impact as she topples clean over the wreckage and away from the evil priest.
    For a moment; for a good moment, she lays there on her chest, stunned and bloodied.
    Down but not out, she twitches once with a cough, spitting up a few teeth and a bit of blood while Issertha heals himself to mitigate the lethality of her killer intent.
    It's fine. It's fine. Those teeth will regrow.
    Then the onslaught commences again, and somewhere, sometime, during the party attacking Issertha... Lether has picked herself up and vanished.
    It's a beat later that she slinks out of the shadows by Neviah, clutching her arm and--
    Popping her dislocated shoulder back into place with some choice curse words.
    "... Hi." She says after a beat. "We came to bring you home. But I get the feeling it won't be peaceful until he's very dead." She says, reaching into her jacket.
    "So what if he's a cleric?" She asks as she produces the candle and presses Neviah's new Holy Symbol into her hands.
    "You are, too."

    Dante blasts through the flames after Kanna, unconcerned with it at all. While Kanna is rushing Issertha, Dante joins the offensive. Together they'll fight as one, and Dante strikes at Issertha when Kanna is backing off, wanting to push the assault and not give this prick a second to breathe.

    He seems to ignore the new scar on his face Issertha's slash leaves, as he half-grips his sword and juts out at the snake-man, before diving away and switching out his sword for Ebony & Ivory.

    The guns roar loudly as Dante unleashes a hailstorm of bullets on the cleric, wanting to suppress him while Kanna attacks again.

Divine swordsmanship has its advantages, and Issertha uses them to his utmost. As projectiles fly, he whips his blade back and forth once more, swatting a few away and keeping the worst of them to grazing blows. The bigger blast, however, isn't so easily shrugged off. He braces and sweeps the sword across himself, but the blast hurls him back nevertheless, throwing him to one knee and slamming him against one of the columns near the giant holy symbol of Zehir.

Bullets slam through the air around him as Dante opens fire. A couple punch through his side; he grimaces and wheels away, trailing blood. More shots scar the walls behind him, one pinging off of the skull-shaped idol's cheekbone. "Persistent," he mutters before pivoting to slash firmly at Kanna again. He bears down on her, then dips to level a shoulder, attempting to check her in the chest and stagger her before following up with a sweeping blow aimed at her shoulder and upper arm. Then he's whirling again, gesturing at Dante. A blast crackles from his hand; the energy is necrotic and formless, but the power behind it is clear. It's a blast aimed to rip away as much of his lifeforce as he can.

Juniper's seeming vulnerability proves deceptive enough that Issertha is taken in. The dragon-woman reaches out deftly and strikes. There's a horrific snap as his free arm snaps somewhere near the elbow - he lets out a choked gurgle and twitches - before Juniper lets fly with enough power to stop a speeding train. The flash lights up the room, the sound of it ringing from the walls and shaking the chamber.

Neviah shields her eyes from the blast, recoiling away. In the shine of it all, though, there's Lether. The once and former professor's eyes go wide. "How'd you even find me," she begins, but before she can respond, Lether's pushing a candle into her hands.

It's an odd candle, come to think of it. The curvilinear metalwork beneath the tray looks vaguely like an eye, from the right angle. "This is," she begins, before something seems to catch her focus. She stares at the candle flame, eyes growing wide.

Lether can feel it too, now. The venomous, scudding presence lurking behind the skull idol is no longer the only force that seems to be watching, disembodied. It is a force more /felt/ in the spirit than perceived by the senses.

                                               /you search for what was lost./
                                                             /not to destroy./
                                                                /but to know./
                                /take this boon... Last Scribe of this world./

The light around Issertha fades. He's been blown out of Juniper's grip, slouched back against the altar. Whatever magic managed to get between him and the lightning bolt probably spared him death, but the burns and scars riddling his upper half are horrific. Yet they're slowly knitting again as he lets the unclean magic of Zehir flow. Blood oozes from around his eyes and shoulders even as the worst of the damage fades, turning serious what should have been mortal, yet not taking away the pained, furious scowl. "Perhaps my mistake was not killing you all back in that house," he rasps, the suppressed pain in his voice evident. "I'll have to fix that."

Throwing his free hand up, Issertha shouts something in a sibilant tongue. That toxic divine magic surges and swells once more - and from around him, a miasma of green-white vapour begins to pour. The noxious poison begins to flood the stony chamber, billowing into great clouds. It threatens to flood the lungs with pain. To breathe it is to gather lungs filled with choking agony.

>> SUMMARY[Neviah Younger] >> Cloudkill - +roll 1d20 for Constitution save

    It's here that Kanna's battle experience really starts to show. When Issertha bears down on her, the swordswoman pushes into the lock for all of about a second - and then hops up and back, taking her weight off the ground and letting the combined arm strength of her opponent and herself push her away. And when she's pushed, she doesn't go hurtling so much as gliding, almost floating back out of range with her hair and scarf both billowing along. It puts her cleanly outside his reach before the retaliatory strike can come, and she uses the moment to adopt a guarded stance, beginning to circle with measured steps. "We all made mistakes back there. I'm here to fix mine."

    She's just starting to blur back into range when the poison begins roiling and billowing, and she's forced to skid herself to a stop and leap backward. It's not fast enough to save her from a lungful, however, which leaves her sputtering and coughing, the weakness flooding her body. "Ghk-!" It's all the redhead can do to return her blade to its sheath again, and then she's on one knee, coughing, fighting to find the strength to get her legs back under her.

    Dante's attempt at cutting this short with bullets isn't entirely successful, as he finds Issertha's still breathing. "Yeah well, mine was letting you run off with Neviah. And we're gonna fix that right now!" He snaps, as he moves to open fire on Issertha again, only for something to blast him directly in the chest. It's not a fireball or a bullet, but something else entirely, that leaves him hacking up a lung like he's around someone who really loves their cigars too much.

    Dante drops and coughs, trying to fight the overwhelming pollution of his lungs but failing. "I'm not...done...yet..."

    For a second, Lether is all smiles.
    And for once, it's a nice smile.
    "The candle led us to you." She says tipping her head to indicate the very same candle she had just passed over.
    Lether doesn't stake much in the divine. She knows the gods exist, but she never really... Had one to ever throw her lot in with.
    She lived her life on the streets, to her the only god there ever was, was the god of coin. Until now apparently when she *feels* ... something else- another presence that isn't the venomous thing in the skull idol.
    "Yeah. Yeah I thought so." She says looking smug for a beat.
    Up until Issertha casts fucking Cloudkill.
    There's no *dodging* this.
    It is while the others struggle- as Kanna drops to a knee and Dante starts hacking, that Lether draws in a single, deep, breath before the noxious cloud reaches her.
    And she *holds* that breath.
    She can hold her breath for a solid twenty minutes if she had to.
    In the next instant she's in front of Neviah. a cloth rag in her hand as she shoves it over the cleric's mouth to try and mitigate the horrible killer mist from reaching her.

Juniper spits, after her breath, and releases a falling cascade of sparks like a cut wire from her lips. She hates that part of it.

She turns, slightly, to look at Neviah. She can feel the ... something? She doesn't know what it is. "Good to see you back," is what she says. "And thanks, Lether! - We'll talk later. For now, I've got an ass to kick!"

Issertha threatens her - all of them, really. Juniper's lips curl back. "If the last batch of idiots couldn't sacrifice me, you don't have a hope in hell," she says. She forces herself to stand straight, despite the weakness in her limbs, the twinge in her back as her weakened body rebels and she overrides it. "I'm better now than I was then! So come on! Keep on trying!" She makes a rude gesture with both hands.

The divine magic floods the room with poison. Juniper immediately holds her breath, but she didn't get a deep breath before she started - she generally doesn't when she's fighting, unless she's going to breathe energy, and that's a different sort of 'breath'. She feels the fumes burn at her nose and partway down her throat even though she's trying to not inhale them, and ends up bringing up one arm, covering her nose and mouth as best she can.

She tries a kick, since her hands are now occupied, but it's sluggish, between the still-lingering spell and the fact that she's a lot lower on air than she'd really like to be. Spots dance in her eyes as she tries to keep her breath held, but she's going to have to inhale sooner rather than later!

Everyone makes mistakes. Issertha tries to fix his. Holding a bloody hand level, he focuses on holding the spell. The miasma rolls out from him in waves and billows, thickening by the second. "That's it," he rasps, managing a thin smile for the first time in awhile. "Breathe in your deaths."

Everyone makes mistakes. Kanna Ouji tries to fix hers. The strength is not there. The noxious clouds threaten to fill her up with death - to fill all of them up with it. Moment by moment, they billow farther and farther out, finding corners and crannies and seeping into them.

Everyone makes mistakes. Dante tries to fix his. A fireball is what he can muster; the snake-priest slams through it with a slash of his sword. Embers scatter across him. He bears it.

Everyone makes mistakes. Juniper got better, but fighting through the poison fumes is no easy task. She swings, but the blow hits Issertha's arm before he steps clear - not striking back, but focusing on the spell. "So much better," he murmurs, eyes lidded.

Everyone makes mistakes. Lether does not. She inhales and covers her mouth. Then she covers Neviah's, too. The professor blinks quickly, then turns grateful eyes to the little lizardgirl, reaching up to briefly rest her hand over the back of Lether's. Hands still unsteady with pain, she secures the rag, then climbs to her feet.

Everyone makes mistakes.

A blast of wind kicks up. It slashes through the poison clouds like a trench carving through solid rock. The clouds coil away and retreat from the line of gusts. The impact of it throws Issertha back on his feet, forcing him to shield himself with both arms. The spell dissipates, the air clearing rapidly.

Neviah holds the candle in her left hand. Her right is held out to push the wind outward. There's a fire of intention behind her eyes that wasn't there before.

"My mistake was trusting the wrong people in a moment of anger," Neviah says, her voice strained, but firm. "I should have listened to the people who cared about me. Maybe I can't take it back. But I'm going to try and fix it - /the right way./"

She draws a breath - and the candle flame pulses. Shimmers of magic dance out from her position, rushing across Lether, across Dante, across Kanna and Juniper. Across Neviah herself. The most severe of their wounds begin to knit just enough to help; the acrid bite of the poison rapidly fades behind a wave of relief. Neviah's injuries begin to visibly subside, bruises fading, cuts diminishing. The light in her eyes strengthens.

"Thank you all," she says more clearly. "Let's finish this."

Everyone makes mistakes. It's fixing them that's the thing.

>> SUMMARY[Neviah Younger] >> Cloudkill: Gone. HP: Up just enough. Giant enemy snake: Attack weak point for massive damage.

    Surprisingly enough, the red-haired samurai looks as if she's starting to find her feet. Maybe it's the aspect of wind imbued so deeply in her at the moment, already pushing back against the poison, and keeping the cloud from enveloping her completely. But her recovery is taking too long. It's not getting her back into action fast enough, desperation seeping in that the priest is going to hurt someone, kill someone before she can get her feet under her and start moving.

    Then a wave of someone else's wind blows away the cloud, and a wave of someone else's light blows away the pain. The strength flows back into Kanna so quickly that she very nearly stumbles, coming up to her feet almost too fast. There's a few last coughs, and then finally, the Crimson Wind's usual sass returns to her voice for just a moment. "...took you long enough!"

    Then her gaze shifts over to Issertha and hardens, and the wind starts to blow once again. "Oi. Snake. Let's pit Destruction against War, see who wins in a fight. I wanna test out your regeneration."

    Shinsatsufuu is still in its sheath. But Kanna doesn't draw it. Instead, she drops into a crouch, left hand on the scabbard, right hand hovering just above the grip. And once again, she moves. Fast, too fast, for just a moment fast enough to escape every gaze in the room. It's as if she teleports right in front of Issertha - and by the time eyes can find her again, she's already drawn and swung her divine weapon. "Taaah!" But then comes another slash. And then another. And another, and another, and another and another. The blade becomes a dancing light around her, split-second reflections of any and every light in the room. And then it moves faster, the wind whipping around her, strike after strike, a hundred, a thousand, going beyond a blur, becoming a cloud of slashes around her, pressing forward, chewing up the ground around her, carving apart a natural pillar of stone as she moves by. And all of it accompanied by a rising, furious warcry from the divine champion of Kaminagi-no-Tachi. "HaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

    Until all of a sudden, there's a frozen moment. A split second in which everything falls still. Her sword is already in its sheath. Her fingers hover just over the grip. Her crimson eyes locked on the serpentine priest.

    "TEYEAAAAAAAAH!!"

    The swing comes. The ground splits. The wall in back. The ceiling above. A single, heavenrending strike of divine wind, to cap it all off.

>> GAME >> Dante spends an Edge for: Devil Trigger for a stats buff against poison.

Juniper's glare, if it was a weapon, would probably have just impaled Issertha. It isn't, though - just a furious glare. She's not going to go out like this. She *absolutely* isn't. Having started to droop again, she forces herself upright; she's at least going to be on her feet and defiant.

The wind catches Juniper's hair and outer shirt (she likes layers; the outer one is worn open) and makes them billow, but it doesn't push her back, even if she does brace her foot just in case it accelerates. 

But it's not *his* wind, and it comes with healing energy. Juniper no longer feels as week as before, especially as she lets out the breath she was trying to hold and practically gasps for air, but there's still a dull ache that feels like she pulled her muscles. Nothing serious. She'll manage. 

And then her grin becomes fierce. "Good! About time! Let's skin this snake!"

...

"Not literally," she adds, with a glance toward Lether.

Juniper steps forward. Her foot seems to impact with force against the floor, a booming thump all out of proportion to her size. A second step, her movements more precise; less freestyle like most of her brawling, more a distinct technique.

A third step, another boom - and her fists blur. One is shrouded in flame, and the other frost, and she delivers a furious flurry from both!

    Dante snarls angrily at the apparent hopelessness, his body crackling with red energy while he pops his neck. "You're all talk." He says, voice deepened and echoing as his body seems to shift and alter, forming chitin over skin and clothing, and wings in place of his red coat. He stands to his feet, his demonic form too powerful to be taken down by mere poisonous gas, and he reaches to draw Rebellion. Dante walks slowly at first, his wings buzzing as he suddenly floats from the ground.

    With a roar, Dante suddenly dashes forwards at Issertha, his sword raised aloft, and when Kanna and Juniper rush him, Dante does the same with lightning speed. Dante feels Neviah's spell take hold and he strengthens with every passing moment. Dante rushes forth, swinging his sword at Issertha with all his might, all to take his head off his neck in one blow.

    "JACKPOT!"

    Everyone makes mistakes. That doesn't mean it's impossible to fix those mistakes.
    And now is the moment to do just that.
    As the divine winds clear the room of that noxious gas, Lether lets out the breath she had been holding as she looks back to Neviah.
    She's still smiling.
    For a moment, anyway before that smile recedes, a much more grim look crossing her features as she slinks back into a nearby shadow cast by the light of the divine candle.
    where there's light there's always shadow, after all.
    And the shadows, as ever, welcome the canny little rogue as she stalks the chamber.
    Kanna delivers a mighty, heaven-rending, cut.
    Juniper a devastating flurry of blows.
    Dante a single riotous blow from Rebellion.
    Lether though...
    Lether waits a beat, before her voice whispers in the chamber.
    "Hey. Issertha. Remember thagt promise I made?" She asks from the darkness, voice seemingly coming from several points in the room as she moves through the gloom. Then golden eyes glint as her lips spread into a cheshire smile, teeth gleaming, way too close to the snake priest for comfort.
    "When I said I'd eat you alive?"
    He's likely too weak to move at all now as Lether cocks her head, monster grin widening.
    "Well... I'm a hungry girl."
    As fast as a bolt of lightning and as slick as quicksilver, she lunges from the shadows, maw open wide to latch on with those rows of sharp, sharp, teeth, clamping down.
    Before she goes for the violent, tumbling, spin to cause as much bloody havoc as she possibly can.

Neviah cannot hold the wind forever. She's still finding her strength. But she doesn't have to do it alone.

Blood dripping through his teeth, Issertha takes a few purposeful steps forward. "Mistakes. /Caring./ How /dare/ you spout such /ridiculous nonsense,/" he starts, before Kanna cuts him off.

She doesn't even need to draw. The Crimson Wind blows faster than the eye can see. The first few slashes are intercepted as Issertha tries to round to the attack, but by this point he's spent much of his strength and Kanna's moving too fast. Chunks of the room rip away, the idol at the rear of the hall gradually losing fragments in the collateral damage. Blood sprays against the increasingly chewed-up floor before Kanna delivers her final blow. It's a mighty one, powerful enough to leave a deep, bloody gouge through one side of Issertha's chest. He drops to a knee and lets healing magic flow. It won't be enough.

Juniper steps forward. As fast as Kanna moved, Juniper moves with a different kind of blur. Issertha can't finish his spell before Juniper simply punches him in the face with one fist and then the other. The barrage of blows would be enough to mangle someone who wasn't a high-level cleric, and even then, it's doing a number on him. Thrown off his footing, the snakeman is slammed to the floor, clawing to one knee. His jaw has been rather thoroughly dislocated; he spits out a mouthful of blood.

Dante follows up, definitively. Getting the head is not easy even with Issertha as injured as he is. He gets an arm, though. There's a loud fleshy sound, and the priest roars in pain as his left arm is neatly slashed through just below the shoulder, hitting the floor with a thud. He slouches, dropping his sword and clutching what's left of the limb with his other hand. "Damn... you," he snarls, looking up with flame in his eyes.

There is a whisper. Issertha slowly looks over. He opens his mouth slightly.

Lether latches on and rolls over. And over. And over and over. Physics do their thing. The scene is gruesome enough that Neviah has to look away. Finally, there is a loud crash as what's left of Issertha goes sailing through the air to smash through the idol at the rear of the chamber. What remains of the stone skull slouches from the wall, slabs of it falling over the remains of the Priest of Zehir.

With an outrush of breath, Neviah slumps to her knees. Her shoulders sag as she looks down first at the candle in her hands, then up towards the four. Dante, Kanna, Juniper, Lether.

"I... I don't know how you were able to find me," she admits, her voice smaller and a little shaky with a sudden swell of emotion that builds up in the back of her throat. "Or what I did that you cared enough to come after me. I... ah....

"...I'm very, very glad," she understates. There are tears beginning to come up.

>> SUMMARY[Neviah Younger] >> MISSION PASSED! Respect ++

    Dante will take an arm, sure. He was just about to go for another pass, before suddenly Lether does what Lether does best; DEATH ROLL.

    Dante is smart enough to not get between Lether and the chance to death roll something, especially with the beatdown Juniper and Kanna helped deliver beforehand. Dante's devilish form dissipates after the snakeman is dealt with, and Dante rushes to help protect Neviah, keeping her from the stone skull.

    "The candle helped." He just says, with a crooked smile, hugging Neviah close. He's sure Lether will want to give one too, at that.

    "We just did what came naturally."

    In the aftermath of her attack, Kanna simply crouches in followthrough, holding her posture, Shinsatsufuu high over her head at the terminus of its final arc. She's breathing heavily, eyes almost wild, but the near-furor of her onslaught fades as the others move into finish the job. And finally, slowly, she flourishes her weapon, before bringing it around, bringing the sheath up, and guiding one into the other, both eyes closed. The motion almost has the character of a prayer, nearly ritualistic in its calm, reverent precision. And only once the weapon is sheathed does she return it to her side, standing up, and let out a long, slow exhale.

    The breath seems to cause the very air around her to billow outward, a rippling breeze as the divine wind is released.

    About a half-second later, there's a hissing groan of pain, and the Crimson Wind staggers. "Khhhh...! Shitshitshit..." She actually has to take Shinsatsufuu and press it to the ground to steady herself, using the weapon almost like a cane. But she does manage to turn and face Neviah. "...you, uh. You wanna thank me, help me walk," she mutters, slowly hobbling her way over. "...other than that, don't worry about it. I help people who deserve it. Don't need any more reason than that."

    Hobble. Hobble. Hobble."...shit, I forgot how much this part sucks..."

    It's violent. It is VIOLENT.
    Blood goes absolutely everywhere as Lether shows that she can bring down much larger prey with some pretty terrifying ease. She almost reluctantyl releases Issertha from her mangling jaws and the deed is done. The stone skull collapses and Lether is standing there just caked in unmentionable red stuff.
    We'll call it strawberry jam for the sake of censorship.
    That's when she shakes herself out hard and fast, like a dog.
    Strawberry jam goes everywhere all over again.
    "Tasted like shit. But I'm not hungry anymore." She announces as she uses a spare rag from her pocket to wipe her hands and face.
    Because yeah...
    That's when she latches onto Neviah next.
    There's no deathroll this time.
    Only hugs.
    She'll help Kanna back to her feet in a moment. Let her have this.

Juniper is not squeamish, generally, but even *she* does not watch Lether go to town.

She *was* going to smash the skull, but, well, it doesn't look like she has to! So instead she dusts herself off, which doesn't do anything for her injuries and doesn't actually clean her up all that much, but makes her feel a little better.

"I came along, but they found you," Juniper says. "But I wasn't going to just leave you! Think a little better of me than that. Remember when you hired me? I said I'd help out as long as you needed." She grins - it's a joke, this was more than a job. 

Juniper then runs her hand through her hair (this also does not help). She is a little awkward when the tears start to come, and she checks her pockets to see if she has a handkerchief. (She doesn't.)

    Lether passes over her strawberry jam caked rag.
    This likely does not help.

The venomous light in the eyes of the idol has subsided... grudgingly. Whatever presence was watching over the battle seems like it's let things lie.

Neviah bites her lower lip at the sight of Kanna in such a state. "I can... get you in a minute. I think," she says as her eyes lower to the candle again. Then she brings her eyes up towards Dante, then Juniper. A soft blush rises to her cheeks. "...I don't know how to thank you all."

Lether comes in and holds her arms out, and latches on. Neviah widens her eyes a little.

She blushes, and closes her eyes as she draws her arms around Lether, hugging her firmly close. Her cheek comes to rest atop the tiny lizardgirl's head. A few tears finally escape and roll down her face - but they escape past a smile.