With several things happening at once, it was quickly evident that their forces would have to split. From the looks of things, the Templars and the Lions had most of the slave statues in hand, at least enough to keep them busy, which basically left everyone else to divide themselves among handling the largest statue and trying to deal with Meredith herself.
For Rilien, it was an easy choice: he was nauseated if he was within so much as five feet of Meredith, or rather her blade, and such a thing might cause him to make mistakes he could ill afford. So he split off to confront the largest animated bronze statueāstrange as it was, he had seen much stranger magics, and even something of this magnitude could not give him pause for longer than it took to assess it.
The task before them was daunting. For all that she was strong, Meredith was still made of flesh. He knew what to do with thatāhe did not know what to do with metal and no vital organs. He supposed, like any device, it might be possible to dismantle it, but all his knowledge granted him no greater ideas than remove the head, which for all he knew wouldnāt work anyway.
Throwing himself to the side to avoid a second mighty blow from the polearm, Rilien noted the cracked fissure it left in the stone, thinning his lips slightly and moving around it, looking for any structural deficiencies he might exploit.
While she wished to face Meredith for all she'd put them through, Aurora knew that she would be better suited elsewhere, in this case facing down the large bronze statue looming over the battle. Meredith would be able to cut through her magic with her powers fueled by the lyrium sword-- the statue had no such abilities. Aurora started by swinging her staff in front of her, conjuring a cone of cold within its arc and with a trio of passes had managed to freeze the statue's feet to the ground. She followed up by sending a pair of nature blasts through the staff.
The bolts struck the chest of the statue before uselessly petering out, leaving only scuff marks where they struck. She had to throw herself onto the ground as it swung it polearm in a large slow arc, throwing up dust and pebbles from the force. As Aurora got back up to her feet, the cracking of the ice around the statue's feet filled the air as it was forcing itself free. Aurora grimaced and took a number of precautionary steps back.
Amalia grimaced, tipping her head back to get a better look at the statue. It was certainly quite tall, but of greater concern was its solidityāits size would have been inconsequential if not for its seeming invulnerability, as Auroraās attempt to attack had so aptly demonstrated. The only thing she had that would so much as put a dent in it was a few pouches of gaatlok, and even then, they would have to be well-placed to be effective, and would require being lit with flame in order to detonate properly.
Fortunately, there were people here who could do that, but only if they could devise a way of making use of it. Perhaps if they could find some fault in the statueās design, they could pack the explosive in there and then Aurora could light it from a distanceā¦ but even that much would require a lot of maneuvering, and a distraction. Her bet was that physically, she or Rilien were most suited to the dexterity required to climb, but she knew how to handle gaatlok, and it was risky to do so without the right knowledge.
āCan anyone see a weak point?ā She shouted loud enough to be heard by her allies at large, since all of them had different angles on the construct than she did.
Ithilian was busy trying to inspect the gargantuan statue-warrior when Amalia posed the question, but more observation was required. Thankfully, there were a significant number of Templars engaging the statues, both the large and smaller varieties, likely as an easier alternative than directly opposing their former Knight-Commander. They seemed to have the slave statues fairly well in hand, even if each one smashed and bloodied several silver-armored warriors before it fell. But the soldier and its great polearm was another matter.
It lowered itself towards the ground in an awkward crouch eventually, in order for its blade to be leveled at roughly the height of the average human's chest, before it suddenly and violently spun. Only the upper body of the statue rotated, the legs remaining locked to the ground and entirely stationary. The polearm sent sprays of blood into the air in a full circle around the statue as it completed a full rotation, cutting down nearly a dozen Templars in the process. Those that still lived from the attack made attempts to crawl away, and the statue rose back to full height.
"The base of the neck!" Ithilian called out. "The head appears not fully connected. Can we hit it with something?" He backstepped fluidly out of the way of a crashing blow from the polearm, watching as the weapon was swiftly withdrawn from the ground and another blow was prepared. "It should be easiest to climb when it lowers itself like that again!" Of course, whoever decided to attempt the climb would need to get in close on it before it launched that spinning attack. Even the force of the polearm's shaft passing would be enough to seriously damage someone. And it was a tight window.
It seemed that Amalia had some kind of idea, and there was indeed a structural deficiency in the statue, which seemed like the best prospect for bringing it down. He also suspected theyād have better luck trying to scale the creature if they did so in tandem, which meant leaving the Templars, Aurora, and Ithilian to hold its attention. Circling in behind itānot that he was sure that made any difference to its perceptionāhe awaited an opportunity to begin ascending. Worst case scenario, he could try and damage the fault using his enchanted weapons as leverage. In the better case, Amalia had something a little more effective.
When next the statue crouched to spin, both Amalia and Rilien were ready for it. Their timing would have to be exact, however, and while Rilien managed to jump before the behemoth started to rotate, Amalia did not, and had to duck under the incoming haft of the polearm before she had her chance to leap. The statue was already in the process of standing again by the time she did, and she barely managed to catch a ridge on it before she was forced to pull herself up with nothing but the strength of her arms.
Still, she managed, and wedged herself against the statue as well as she could, looking for additional handholds to get her further. Unfortunately, it looked like she had landed such that she clung to its back, which was mostly smooth, not having been a very visible portion of the statue and thus apparently not in need of much by way of detail. It would be extremely tricky to get any further up, at least unaided.
Fortunately for Amalia, Rilien had landed better, and was now almost atop the statueās shoulders. Swinging himself up, he hooked his knees over the contours of its shoulder armor and draped the rest of himself backwards, hanging upside down just a foot or so above where Amalia was. "Jump.ā
So she jumped. Gathering as much momentum as she could, Amalia propelled herself upwards by dint of leg strength and willpower. Even so, she missed one of Rilienās arms, grasping his left wrist and hissing softly when their momentum swung her into the back of the statue with no way to soften the impact. She added her free hand to her first, gripping as tightly as she could, her boots seeking but finding no purchase on the smooth bronze as she attempted to help him leverage her up.
Rilienās second hand reinforced their hold on each other, and with a grunt of exertion, he started to pull her upwards, only to fall back when the motion of the statue proved to be too great a challenge to overcome in quite this fashion. They were still hanging there, solid in their initial positioning for as long as they could maintain grip, but he wasnāt going to be able to dead-lift her with all of this violent motion.
"Try climbing.ā If he stayed where he was, it would probably be possible for her to use his hands as footholds and boost herself to the top, though the statueās continued efforts to kill their companions wouldnāt make it easy.
Amalia shook her head. āItāll take too long. Swing me over to the other side.ā There was a certain pattern to the statueās lurching motions, and if they could take advantage of it, sheād be able to get where she needed to go, with less a risk of dislodging him and dropping them both to their deaths under the constructās feet. To help him along, she kicked her legs free of the wall and started to torque herself back and forth in an attempt to build momentum. His toss and her catch would have to be excellent, but it wasnāt like either of them lacked for precision. If it were possible, they could do it.
He could see the wisdom in the idea, and the risk, and didnāt argue. If Amalia was confident enough to make the attempt, Rilien was not one to waste time arguing the point. She began to swing below him with the motion of the statue, and he did as well, building momentum that they would dearly need. He could feel the muscles in his forearms beginning to shake from the strain of holding her so long, and the vertigo he experienced from being upside-down in the first place was amplified by the constant motion, but he was capable of ignoring it, and so he did. āThis time.ā The words came at the apex of a particularly good backswing, and he knew they had to take their chance now.
They swung forward, and Rilien let go.
Amalia hadnāt felt quite the same sensation of weightlessness since the time sheād decided to dive off a cliff into the ocean, but there was no such soft landing for her this time. Sheād adjusted her release in hopes of curving slightly in midair, back towards the statue rather than straight out, but sheād miscalculated the amount of force it would give her, and at this trajectory, she was just going to skim past its opposite arm. Gritting her teeth so she wouldnāt bite her tongue, she stretched as far as she could make herself, and felt her arm nearly tear out of its socket when her hand found purchase, the rest of her snapping backwards midflight at the sudden resistance.
She caught the same contour with her other hand, and swung up, muscles burning with the exertion. But she was on, and the hardest part was done. Reaching for her belt, she detached one of the pouches and approached the back of the neck, practically slithering along the span of the statueās shoulder, so viciously was it trying to shake her. Or maybe it was just attacking her friends with enthusiasm, she knew not and could not stop to check.
At last, she reached her destination, and the satchel full of saa-quamek, she stuffed into the small crevice Ithilian had pointed out, and then added a second for good measure. She almost certainly would not be capable of doing this again if the first detonation was insufficient, but too much would choke out any attempted detonation, not allowing any room for combustion in the crevice. She would have much preferred more time to calculate what she was looking at, but as it was, she simply had to make her best guess. āIthilian, Aurora!ā She shouted to draw their attention to the fact that sheād done what she intended to do. āFire!ā
She had no way of knowing whether Aurora was accurate enough to manage a fireball on such a small target at such a distance, but if that wouldnāt work, she supposed Ithilian could simply shoot a flaming arrow. She knew he was capable of such accuracy, anyway. Looking across to Rilien, she pointed behind him. āGet off!ā
She had to do exactly the same, lest she wind up immolated herself. It was quite a ways down, and she was exhausted, but she knew she could survive the fall. So she launched herself off the statue, trying to clear it by as much distance as possibleā
Until she felt something slam into her back with great force. For a moment, sheād been fine, and then she heard a splintering crack as what could only be the statueās polearm landed right in the middle of her spine, sending her hurtling towards the ground at greater speed than mere gravity. She hit the stone facedown, an arm snapping underneath her, quite audibly. She didnāt move after that.
Aurora prepared a spell the moment both Rilien and Amalia climbed onto the statue's back, drinking in the fade and channelling the power into a fireball, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash it. She fed all of the mana she possessed into the spelll as Amalia clambered her way toward the thing's neck. When she called out to her, Aurora hesitated for a moment, but only a moment to allow Amalia and Rilien to get clear of the blast before she threw the fireball. She gripped her staff with both hands and swung it in wide arc over her head, and swung it with all of her might.
A massive fireball the size of a large boulder exploded from the tip of the staff, leaving Aurora drained and on her knees as it flew toward the statue's head. While she was not so accurate with her distance spells, it mattered not when size of the fireball was easily the size of the statue's head. The fire engulfed its target, causing it to stumble for half a second before the flames finally licked the saa-qamek. Another explosion followed soon after, this one far more violent.
The attention of everyone in the battle was drawn away when the explosion went off. With a screeching of metal and a violent burst of flames the upper body of the soldier statue ruptured from the inside. Large pieces were blasted away into the shields of Templars, leaving the statue headless, and motionless. It wobbled uncertainly for a few moments, before the red energy of the idol seemed to abandon it, at which point it caved in on itself and crumpled to the ground.
Ithilian had immediately rushed to Amalia's side upon seeing her take the blow leaving the statue. Carefully he turned her over, not allowing his mind to entertain possibilities until he knew facts. He checked her pulse, and upon finding her alive, slowly dragged her away from the fight, towards the edge of the courtyard. There he made sure she was well situated, and at no risk of further damage. He considered staying directly at her side, to try to wake her up, but decided inside to draw his blades, and persuade anyone or anything that came near to keep their distance. The Templars, for the most part, were busy dealing with the last of the slave statues. It was up to the others to finish Meredith now.
For Rilien, it was an easy choice: he was nauseated if he was within so much as five feet of Meredith, or rather her blade, and such a thing might cause him to make mistakes he could ill afford. So he split off to confront the largest animated bronze statueāstrange as it was, he had seen much stranger magics, and even something of this magnitude could not give him pause for longer than it took to assess it.
The task before them was daunting. For all that she was strong, Meredith was still made of flesh. He knew what to do with thatāhe did not know what to do with metal and no vital organs. He supposed, like any device, it might be possible to dismantle it, but all his knowledge granted him no greater ideas than remove the head, which for all he knew wouldnāt work anyway.
Throwing himself to the side to avoid a second mighty blow from the polearm, Rilien noted the cracked fissure it left in the stone, thinning his lips slightly and moving around it, looking for any structural deficiencies he might exploit.
While she wished to face Meredith for all she'd put them through, Aurora knew that she would be better suited elsewhere, in this case facing down the large bronze statue looming over the battle. Meredith would be able to cut through her magic with her powers fueled by the lyrium sword-- the statue had no such abilities. Aurora started by swinging her staff in front of her, conjuring a cone of cold within its arc and with a trio of passes had managed to freeze the statue's feet to the ground. She followed up by sending a pair of nature blasts through the staff.
The bolts struck the chest of the statue before uselessly petering out, leaving only scuff marks where they struck. She had to throw herself onto the ground as it swung it polearm in a large slow arc, throwing up dust and pebbles from the force. As Aurora got back up to her feet, the cracking of the ice around the statue's feet filled the air as it was forcing itself free. Aurora grimaced and took a number of precautionary steps back.
Amalia grimaced, tipping her head back to get a better look at the statue. It was certainly quite tall, but of greater concern was its solidityāits size would have been inconsequential if not for its seeming invulnerability, as Auroraās attempt to attack had so aptly demonstrated. The only thing she had that would so much as put a dent in it was a few pouches of gaatlok, and even then, they would have to be well-placed to be effective, and would require being lit with flame in order to detonate properly.
Fortunately, there were people here who could do that, but only if they could devise a way of making use of it. Perhaps if they could find some fault in the statueās design, they could pack the explosive in there and then Aurora could light it from a distanceā¦ but even that much would require a lot of maneuvering, and a distraction. Her bet was that physically, she or Rilien were most suited to the dexterity required to climb, but she knew how to handle gaatlok, and it was risky to do so without the right knowledge.
āCan anyone see a weak point?ā She shouted loud enough to be heard by her allies at large, since all of them had different angles on the construct than she did.
Ithilian was busy trying to inspect the gargantuan statue-warrior when Amalia posed the question, but more observation was required. Thankfully, there were a significant number of Templars engaging the statues, both the large and smaller varieties, likely as an easier alternative than directly opposing their former Knight-Commander. They seemed to have the slave statues fairly well in hand, even if each one smashed and bloodied several silver-armored warriors before it fell. But the soldier and its great polearm was another matter.
It lowered itself towards the ground in an awkward crouch eventually, in order for its blade to be leveled at roughly the height of the average human's chest, before it suddenly and violently spun. Only the upper body of the statue rotated, the legs remaining locked to the ground and entirely stationary. The polearm sent sprays of blood into the air in a full circle around the statue as it completed a full rotation, cutting down nearly a dozen Templars in the process. Those that still lived from the attack made attempts to crawl away, and the statue rose back to full height.
"The base of the neck!" Ithilian called out. "The head appears not fully connected. Can we hit it with something?" He backstepped fluidly out of the way of a crashing blow from the polearm, watching as the weapon was swiftly withdrawn from the ground and another blow was prepared. "It should be easiest to climb when it lowers itself like that again!" Of course, whoever decided to attempt the climb would need to get in close on it before it launched that spinning attack. Even the force of the polearm's shaft passing would be enough to seriously damage someone. And it was a tight window.
It seemed that Amalia had some kind of idea, and there was indeed a structural deficiency in the statue, which seemed like the best prospect for bringing it down. He also suspected theyād have better luck trying to scale the creature if they did so in tandem, which meant leaving the Templars, Aurora, and Ithilian to hold its attention. Circling in behind itānot that he was sure that made any difference to its perceptionāhe awaited an opportunity to begin ascending. Worst case scenario, he could try and damage the fault using his enchanted weapons as leverage. In the better case, Amalia had something a little more effective.
When next the statue crouched to spin, both Amalia and Rilien were ready for it. Their timing would have to be exact, however, and while Rilien managed to jump before the behemoth started to rotate, Amalia did not, and had to duck under the incoming haft of the polearm before she had her chance to leap. The statue was already in the process of standing again by the time she did, and she barely managed to catch a ridge on it before she was forced to pull herself up with nothing but the strength of her arms.
Still, she managed, and wedged herself against the statue as well as she could, looking for additional handholds to get her further. Unfortunately, it looked like she had landed such that she clung to its back, which was mostly smooth, not having been a very visible portion of the statue and thus apparently not in need of much by way of detail. It would be extremely tricky to get any further up, at least unaided.
Fortunately for Amalia, Rilien had landed better, and was now almost atop the statueās shoulders. Swinging himself up, he hooked his knees over the contours of its shoulder armor and draped the rest of himself backwards, hanging upside down just a foot or so above where Amalia was. "Jump.ā
So she jumped. Gathering as much momentum as she could, Amalia propelled herself upwards by dint of leg strength and willpower. Even so, she missed one of Rilienās arms, grasping his left wrist and hissing softly when their momentum swung her into the back of the statue with no way to soften the impact. She added her free hand to her first, gripping as tightly as she could, her boots seeking but finding no purchase on the smooth bronze as she attempted to help him leverage her up.
Rilienās second hand reinforced their hold on each other, and with a grunt of exertion, he started to pull her upwards, only to fall back when the motion of the statue proved to be too great a challenge to overcome in quite this fashion. They were still hanging there, solid in their initial positioning for as long as they could maintain grip, but he wasnāt going to be able to dead-lift her with all of this violent motion.
"Try climbing.ā If he stayed where he was, it would probably be possible for her to use his hands as footholds and boost herself to the top, though the statueās continued efforts to kill their companions wouldnāt make it easy.
Amalia shook her head. āItāll take too long. Swing me over to the other side.ā There was a certain pattern to the statueās lurching motions, and if they could take advantage of it, sheād be able to get where she needed to go, with less a risk of dislodging him and dropping them both to their deaths under the constructās feet. To help him along, she kicked her legs free of the wall and started to torque herself back and forth in an attempt to build momentum. His toss and her catch would have to be excellent, but it wasnāt like either of them lacked for precision. If it were possible, they could do it.
He could see the wisdom in the idea, and the risk, and didnāt argue. If Amalia was confident enough to make the attempt, Rilien was not one to waste time arguing the point. She began to swing below him with the motion of the statue, and he did as well, building momentum that they would dearly need. He could feel the muscles in his forearms beginning to shake from the strain of holding her so long, and the vertigo he experienced from being upside-down in the first place was amplified by the constant motion, but he was capable of ignoring it, and so he did. āThis time.ā The words came at the apex of a particularly good backswing, and he knew they had to take their chance now.
They swung forward, and Rilien let go.
Amalia hadnāt felt quite the same sensation of weightlessness since the time sheād decided to dive off a cliff into the ocean, but there was no such soft landing for her this time. Sheād adjusted her release in hopes of curving slightly in midair, back towards the statue rather than straight out, but sheād miscalculated the amount of force it would give her, and at this trajectory, she was just going to skim past its opposite arm. Gritting her teeth so she wouldnāt bite her tongue, she stretched as far as she could make herself, and felt her arm nearly tear out of its socket when her hand found purchase, the rest of her snapping backwards midflight at the sudden resistance.
She caught the same contour with her other hand, and swung up, muscles burning with the exertion. But she was on, and the hardest part was done. Reaching for her belt, she detached one of the pouches and approached the back of the neck, practically slithering along the span of the statueās shoulder, so viciously was it trying to shake her. Or maybe it was just attacking her friends with enthusiasm, she knew not and could not stop to check.
At last, she reached her destination, and the satchel full of saa-quamek, she stuffed into the small crevice Ithilian had pointed out, and then added a second for good measure. She almost certainly would not be capable of doing this again if the first detonation was insufficient, but too much would choke out any attempted detonation, not allowing any room for combustion in the crevice. She would have much preferred more time to calculate what she was looking at, but as it was, she simply had to make her best guess. āIthilian, Aurora!ā She shouted to draw their attention to the fact that sheād done what she intended to do. āFire!ā
She had no way of knowing whether Aurora was accurate enough to manage a fireball on such a small target at such a distance, but if that wouldnāt work, she supposed Ithilian could simply shoot a flaming arrow. She knew he was capable of such accuracy, anyway. Looking across to Rilien, she pointed behind him. āGet off!ā
She had to do exactly the same, lest she wind up immolated herself. It was quite a ways down, and she was exhausted, but she knew she could survive the fall. So she launched herself off the statue, trying to clear it by as much distance as possibleā
Until she felt something slam into her back with great force. For a moment, sheād been fine, and then she heard a splintering crack as what could only be the statueās polearm landed right in the middle of her spine, sending her hurtling towards the ground at greater speed than mere gravity. She hit the stone facedown, an arm snapping underneath her, quite audibly. She didnāt move after that.
Aurora prepared a spell the moment both Rilien and Amalia climbed onto the statue's back, drinking in the fade and channelling the power into a fireball, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash it. She fed all of the mana she possessed into the spelll as Amalia clambered her way toward the thing's neck. When she called out to her, Aurora hesitated for a moment, but only a moment to allow Amalia and Rilien to get clear of the blast before she threw the fireball. She gripped her staff with both hands and swung it in wide arc over her head, and swung it with all of her might.
A massive fireball the size of a large boulder exploded from the tip of the staff, leaving Aurora drained and on her knees as it flew toward the statue's head. While she was not so accurate with her distance spells, it mattered not when size of the fireball was easily the size of the statue's head. The fire engulfed its target, causing it to stumble for half a second before the flames finally licked the saa-qamek. Another explosion followed soon after, this one far more violent.
The attention of everyone in the battle was drawn away when the explosion went off. With a screeching of metal and a violent burst of flames the upper body of the soldier statue ruptured from the inside. Large pieces were blasted away into the shields of Templars, leaving the statue headless, and motionless. It wobbled uncertainly for a few moments, before the red energy of the idol seemed to abandon it, at which point it caved in on itself and crumpled to the ground.
Ithilian had immediately rushed to Amalia's side upon seeing her take the blow leaving the statue. Carefully he turned her over, not allowing his mind to entertain possibilities until he knew facts. He checked her pulse, and upon finding her alive, slowly dragged her away from the fight, towards the edge of the courtyard. There he made sure she was well situated, and at no risk of further damage. He considered staying directly at her side, to try to wake her up, but decided inside to draw his blades, and persuade anyone or anything that came near to keep their distance. The Templars, for the most part, were busy dealing with the last of the slave statues. It was up to the others to finish Meredith now.