The D&D world in the near future

Ral blinks at her several times taking everything she said totally at face value. "So it's common for girls to dress as guys on the other continent? What a strange place." He says though he seemed interested and closed his eyes to contemplate what kind of land it must be. The lights eventually got off him and spread through out the area. Though when Shade had gotten aggressive he had perked up and calmed down as quickly as she had gotten mad.

"From what I've seen I'd say your sprinting around more than anything else." he adds, well the estimation was accurate if not very poetic or stylish.

Then he looks at Rivers and then up to her. "So then do you have a crush on him or something? Steve is usually offputting to most so not many travel with him." Ral says staring at her with a sort of patient yet naive expression.

As he does a squawking that sounded almost like laughter could be heard from Muse who had come to rest at a nearby tree.

Lara leads Narsh and Rain to a nearby field making sure that they were sufficiently far away from people before she set up a kind of obscuring barrier that made it difficult for those outside to see or hear what was going on inside.

"Well then Rain before we get started you are going to need to chose a medium through which your powers will be used." Lara says calmly. "It doesn't need to be something we have on hand so feel free to be creative. This will be a symbol of your binding, though it should be something that can be placed on other and made difficult to remove." Lara explains as Narsh watches impatiently.

"You know there was no need to apologize, just don't do it again and I'm sure you'll be fine." Alexis assured him with a charming smile. Then she put her hands behind her head and started walking towards a nearby mountain range.

"From the way you act I guess I haven't been fooling you with the whole I'm from this continent thing huh?" She asks taking a quick peek at him shyly. She was relaxed and quite attractive, though her manners seemed fairly sloven from what Neil had seen and her long blonde hair wrapped around her as if it was trying to make a cocoon.

Alexis continues to walk, but her head and arms dip a little in disappointment. "I had thought I was doing an okay job of being discrete." She complains, but quickly gets over it and looks up at her new companion. "Well no point hiding it now, I'm from Shengan, born and raised, but don't worry I don't have any prejudice against you arcane folks."

Then she stops and turns towards Neil looking him up and down. "Still..." Her brow furrows a bit. "You're old school, most of the mages I know carry items to help them out when they run into trouble, but you don't seem to have any of that kind of gear." She says and then reaches into a bag at her hip. "Well, if we're going to be fighting together it's better if your well equipped."

She rummages around in the bag her brow wrinkling a bit again as she searches, the distraction seemed to be doing her good and some color had returned to her face. Then her face brightens as she takes a red tinted long sword from the bag. The gleaming silver colored blade was inscribed with deep crimson runes along the center and the bone hilt looked solid and polished. The sword was magnificant.

"Based on the conversation from Sam's house I'm assuming your Jim and Nysa's son, you're a pretty famous fire mage among some circles." she says and then looks at the sword and puts it in his hands.

The moment Neil touches the blade the fire magic in his body reacts, it begins to flow a little more easily and it reaches out into the blade as if the blade too were an extention of his body. If Neil tries to control his magic he will realize that it is more malleable and easier to direct as he holds the sword.

"That blade's name is Fira, it's one of Vulnir's 6 great elemental blades." Alexis explains with a proud smile, apparently thrilled that she could display her knowledge on the subject. "The blades are natural magic channels that harness and help control power of their given element. My brother actually has 4 of them and he gave me too, but I don't really use fire magic so you can use it for now." Then she draws a rapier with a brilliant jade handle. The sharp pointed blade also had runes inscribed upon it but these were green as opposed to red. "Gale, the wind sword." She says proudly.

Narsh let out a barking laugh when he hears Rain ask for a collar, and it takes him several minutes before it settles enough for him to be able to speak. "A collar, hahaha, that's so fitting hahaha...*wheeze* *gasp* the wearers might as well be dogs so might as well give them the mentality."

Lara seemed to scowl though less in disapproval and more in response to Narsh's reaction. Suddenly Narsh stopped laughing and his body seemed to clench firmly all of a sudden as his eyes grew wide. "Well Rain, I suppose the first lesson I should teach you is never let the individual wearing the collar get too comfortable, or his end up conceited like the man over there." she says giving Narsh a steely glare.

After a few minutes Narsh fell to the ground giving Lara a discontented frown. "You know if you keep using the power like that I might be more likely to 'forget' some of the book I read recently."

In response Lara simply sighed. "After that display back there I can't help be be reminded that you are the most immature of all." Lara replies turning to Rain.

"Anyways, before we begin I want you to picture the object in your mind. Create it, know it and every detail then once you've established a concrete image, summon it as you would your Eidelon." Lara instructs and sits down on a nearby stone.

Ral looks at Rain completely oblivious to the sarcasm that was almost dripping from the bard. "No I don't have a crush on him, we are allies. It's just normally when there are people near Steve they either want to use his power, hurt him, or are for some reason attracted too him." Ral says in a voice completely devoid of any kind of accusation or malice, it was a simple statement.

"Well I suppose it doesn't really matter, you're relatively strong and you seem to care about him in some capacity so I suppose you're fine. Though I don't understand why you take so much pride in your ability to lie, wouldn't a truly good liar not mentiont he fact?" He points out not as he gets to his feet and stretches a bit. As he does one of the larger lights floats over to Shade and sits upon her head. Ral blinks a few times and then smiles. "Well it looks like he likes you, I suppose that says something."

He laughs it was a good natured and genuine laugh that came from someone who experienced both good and bad and savored the good. As the light floated down in front of Shade's eyes she would be able to see a small woman covered in rags with a dirty face, but at the same time she seemed to stand tall even with all of this. "That's Sethex the spirit of vagrancy and wandering." He says a smile on his face.

Though as the figure before her floated the light from it seemed to glow a bit brighter and it floated back onto Shade's head and takes shelter in her hair.

When Ral stops laughing he says. "Narsh trained Steve and me when we were kids, I didn't have any talent as a prophet, but Narsh said that I could assist him with guiding the world on the correct forks be becoming strong. So I've trained to make sure I can keep this world on the right path." He says then looks at some of the lights.

"Though most of the time I spend my time making sure that spirits aren't extorted and their powers used for the wrong reasons. Though as I went some of them seemed to gather around me until...well I got a personal band of small dieties." he says getting some berries from a nearby bush and setting them out for the lights to eat.

When Shade replied to Narsh about the liar comment he thought about her answer for a moment and said, "Maybe not?" His sentence ending up sounding more like a question. Then he thought about it some more and came to a conclusion. "I think that's just about how the person wants to go about the lie. A person who masquerades as an honest person can only make one true lie before everyone doubts them, but an admitted liar can decieve again and again and each time people will think that they are too smart to be decieved." he says. "So it comes down to whether the individual intends to tell many small lies or one big one." He reasons out, satisfied with his explanation he moves on.

As he does Sethex nods a greeting to Shade and darts around the Shade's person a bit. "These guys are all spirits of less desirable concepts, since not many people worship or honor them they tend to be weak and it is easier for the stronger spirits to extort them." he explains, though when Shade makes the comment about being noble he looks up with a frown and shakes his head his black hair waving softly with the gesture.

"I'm not particularly noble, I just don't like bullies." he replies and starts giving the lights berries. After he gave the gift to each light it glowed a little brighter and Ral smiled as they eached thanked him in their own way. One of them produced a potato which plopped into his hand.

He holds out the one who created the potato to her. "If you honor this fella he'll give you a potato." He says with a smile, not even fully realizing how silly it sounded. The potato spirit glowed dull brown and resembled a humanoid mole with comically large paws and eyes.

As Ral ate the potato he continued his story. "Well I met Steve when I was about 11, he's a year older than me so I don't really know where he's from. He was already with Narsh by then, but if he told you he was from somewhere it's probably true. Steve doesn't lie often, dance around the subject,certainly, but rarely lie. Besides when I met Steve the only person he talked to was Narsh and it was in some language I still don't know so it might have been this English you're talking ab-"

Ral's words were cut short as Shade got up to investigate the barrier and he dashed forward grabbing her before she entered the shadows created be some of the surrounding trees. "Don't!"

Once he gets her away he plops down, finally tired. "Narsh's wind is poisonous and if this was designed to fend off the Spirit of the Hunt then it's probably a lethal poison." he says panting.

The weight in Rain's hand was relatively light but it was there. The collar from her imagination. Narsh looks at it with an almost amused expression. "hmm, not bad, way more stylish than these shackles." He says with a smile as he goes over to her and the collar.

When he got over to her Narsh's full size really showed, he large for a person almost half a foot taller than her father and much larger. He reaches down and with a deft hand takes the collar from her.

"So Lara have you explained it all to her?" he asks curiously with a smile looking at her with an almost cruel grin. As he looks at her a realization would hit her, she couldn't hear Lalo, the connection was there but this collar seemed to block it. "Well she can't take the trial with this anyways." he sighs looking at it.

At the mention of the trial Lara's eyes move away as if she was embarrassed and Narsh lets out a sigh. "I see you've got expectations for her, but if you really think she'll be a good keeper then she'll accept and pass the trial after all if it weeded out the talented it wouldn't be a trial it'd be an execution." he says and then his hand closes around the collar, crushing it.

"Not bad for your first attempt kid, but you need a stronger image. It can't just be difficult to remove it needs to be strong, you need to develop something that cannot be broken by the wearer." He explains, then Lara looks at her.

"You also don't need to feel constricted by an object that makes sense. This is a summoned object it does not need to follow the normal rules of the world." she explains.

"Shade, I grabbed you right before you walked into it." Ral says looking at the shadows which were concealing the black air. "Besides you don't need to touch it to inhale it and that's part of how it gets you." Then he crouches down and extends his hands, warmth flows into Shade and her wounds heal as a pleasant warm light flows into her out of Ral and some of her fatigue disappears as well.

When she said she didn't want a potato the tiny mole spirit looked up at her with teary eyes impossibly large for it's size and then it turned around and fled over to Ral's pant leg apparently very sad, but Ral looked at it with a strong and trusting gaze. "Don't give up Pert! You've still got your secret weapon."

Then suddenly one of the lights spits out a familiar object with a wheeze. The object was round with a canvas top and several of the other lights flew over to help they made a wheel that spun rhythmic and the object started to produce a sound, it was drum roll. Pert's light glowed much brighter for a brief moment and then another potato was produced.

Afterwards Ral fished in his pocket and pulled out a stick, when he broke it in half a campfire appeared and he took the new potato and cooked it over the fire. The potato was appetizing and more mysteriously it smelled sweet. When it was done he got out a cloth and put the potato in it, handing it over to Shade and said. "Here eat it."

Narsh looks at the lock, takes it from her and puts it on. Then he breaks it and in an instant before the collar can reform his fist was less than an inch away from her face. "better but not perfect, he breaks the reformed collar and then a gust of razor sharp wind cuts the skin off the back of his neck and the skin and lock fall to the ground as he drinks in the air to heal his neck.

"Well you're certainly getting closer, but I'd like to tell you before you go any farther, the first victim of that collar is going to be you." He says flatly. "Keepers always have to experience the test of pain, the power they are about to wield strikes against them at full force for two hours. Everything your powers will be able to be for years to come will strike at you in two agonizing and helpless hours. And since the collar will be there you'll have to face it alone."

He rubs his now healed neck and says. "If you don't think you can do it, I'd suggest you stop here. Even I'm not mad enough to want to see someone so young broken."

Alexis seems almost proud of the reponse from Neil, as if the sword had been one she herself had made.

"Vulnir was the smith of Law, he was the blacksmith in Cairne's army who created Lance's spear. He is widely considered one of the greatest blacksmiths of all time despite the fact he almost never created magical equipment." she explained, then she looked at the sword in her hand and she raised it to her face as if it was weightless. "However, he did produce a few magical weapons and armor, implements that are greatly valued which carry exceeding power for those who can weild them. Blood Thirster, Yee's cursed sword in another one of them."

Then she stops in front of a large cave with a resolute expression on her face. "As for why I have it? Shengan doesn't truly discriminate against magic, that's just a few of them which have given the entire city a bad image. The rest of us feel that magic is a means to an ends a power available to any who would weild it." She explains as she takes her first step into the cave...

...and then she fell silent, and the true gravity of the situation became apparent. Neil came face to face with what appeared to band of no less than 50 large glowing eye'd bug bears.

"...Maybe we should have brough help." She says trying to break the immense 'we're screwed' tension.

This post has been removed while I try to think of something else.

When Shade insists he tell her when the wind comes down Ral simply nod, and in response to her thanks for the healing he smiles and says "It's no trouble, unforunately it's a little slow to use it in combat so don't rely on it or anything." He warns.

Then he sets about the business with the potato. When Shade shows her respect to the small creature the light surrounding it visibly grows in intensity and makes a happy expression as it flies over and gives the bard a warm, earthy hug. Pert seemed very excited to have a new 'follower'

Then he walks over to Steven and places his hand on Steven's injures and with the same power eases his wounds and aches. Rivers continues to sleep even after the healing was finished, but Ral seemed to feel that this was fine as he goes back over to the fire and cooks a normal potato, eating it hungily. His eyes showed a bit of surprise as Shades instrument suddenly appeared and the light which had previously produced a drum produced a second one.

Then the entire group floated over to the instruments and began to play in rythme with the guitar...they were good. Nodding his head in time with the rythme Ral opens his mouth and be begins to sing along with the tune. His voice did not seem to carry the force of a powerful singer, but at the same time there was a quality to it. Each note was correct, clear and given unique emphisis that seemed to bypass things like taste or appreciation and hit the emotions.

As the song ended Ral gave Shade a satisfied smile.

Then a few minutes later Rivers' eyes shot open, he sat up, took out his gun and shot through the dark mists and trees and a black liquid seeped out onto the ground. In that instant muted cries could be heard as the shadowed figures were literally ripped apart by another powerful figure. And through the mist came the dwarf.

For Rain's scene:

Describe a vision of Rain's happiest memory

After the song Ral grinned at her with a content boyish grin that made him seem younger than he was. "You're pretty good at that." He says, stating the obvious. Then there was the shot, Ral was the last of the group to react, not getting to his feet until the shadows had already emerged from the forest. Though he didn't waste any time in jumping into combat against the shadows.

When Shade charges for the dwarf he draws a long curved knife and meets her blade with experienced agile strength, though the movement causes his hood to fall back and his showed face is shown to be expressionless, his eyes lacking any color and completely empty. Shade would probably be able to notice the stength of posion that eminated from the dwarfs blade and several shadows emerged from the Dwarf's directly behind her stretching out to grab her.

In the mean time Rivers and Ral had begun fighting the onslaught of shadows. They worked with cold and efficient teamwork killing shadows as they came, only aiming for vitals and covering each other when one needed a moment to for whatever reason. However, they wouldn't be able to last forever and while they were handling the majority of the shadows they didn't have the freedom to come help Shade who had moved away from them towards the dwarf.

As shadows attempt to hold Shade down the drawf lashes at her with the curved poison blade aiming to end her life in one foul swoop.

(Neil you are on basically a plain leading to a cave, there's not a whole lot of terrain to work with other than the stone in front of you and the short grass at your feet. There's a stream about a quarter mile back)

"HAAA!" Alexis lets out a shout as she leaps back and a blast of raw light energy hits the top of the cave causeing it to begin caving in. The bug bears advance one of them getting crushed beneath the rocks but others beginning to bash their way through the rubble.

An odd smile appeared on Alexis's face one that carried both a nervous worry and the feeling of excitement. "Well we came here to fight right?" She says as she moves towards the mouth of the cave the wind moving with her and enchancing her speed. In a blur she impales the first bugbear the manages to force its way though the rubble and then backpetals before the next brings a morning star the side of Neil's torso down on her head.

"I'll stall them, do you think you can get a big enough spell set up to fry a large number of them in one go?" she asks as she steps into the doorway and a golden light eminates from her. The front most Bug Bears seem to have trouble forcing themselves to raise their morning stars and they just stare at her unsure of what to do, but soon a new one, apparently unaffected by the spell swings at her and she dodges disarming the creature and causing the others who were in the spells thrall to begin moving again.

Wind and light gather around as she casts several divine augmentation spells and she manages to hold the exit, for the moment at least.

At the peek of her joy during the memory the scene begines to change. Something a large red monster appears from a black rift and begins walking towards Rain and her father. Her father reacts immediately drawing his sword and gathering magic in his other hand. He leaps at the demon slashing it and releasing a torrent of raw sonic force into the beast. However, the demon simply looks at him with an amused smirk on it's terrifying and inhuman face. Then it reaches out and grabs him by the head, lifting the struggling warrior from the ground and a loud crack could be heard as his head is twisted 180 degrees so that he is staring at her, a look of horror on his face.

Then she suddenly finds herself on airship and the demon drops her father to the ground staring at her with a sickening smile, his red skin covered in the blood of corpses which were strewn across the deck. "That Keeper, has no idea what she has actually just subjected you too." The Demon laughs, a smile showing several rows of razor sharp teeth showing on his face. "Surrender your will to me!" He says taking a step towards her.

Then Lalo was between them, teeth beared fierce expression with obvious intentiont to protect her. He lunges at the demon biting into him and the demon laughs as the teeth since into it's flesh. Lalo's expression becomes one of realization, but it was too late. The Demon poured into the beast, it's skin and fur turning blood red and the comforting presence of Lalo that had always protected her soul was replaced by the tainted joy of the demon, as he took her closest companion from her. Still in Lalo's body the demon took a step towards Rain, but then a brown haired youth appeared, grabbed her shoulder and she was on the ground.

Rivers had teleported her away from the ship and he stood with Shade, Zee and Neil surrounding her protectively.

"What's going on?" Neil asked his expression grim but determined.

"I think Lalo's gone insane!" Rivers shouts looking for the enemy. "Rain what should we do?" he asks his voice worried and scared.

(As a heads up as long as the visions continue Rain believes she is actually there in them)

The childhood memory falls away into the twisted version of itself. Her father's death happens so quickly that Rain cannot process it. Dead. At the hands of something over which he wielded so much control. Overwhelming grief turns into helplessness and fear as the demon turns to her.

The Keeper, the beast mentions... Lara. Had something gone terribly wrong. Her abyssal blood was slightly incompatible with most types of summoning. Had the very act of becoming a keeper damned her to hell? Had she failed before she even got started?

The thing tells her to surrender. And she doesn't know what to do at this point. Her throat is constricted to the point that she doesn't think she could make a small squeak, let alone answer him. And what would she answer. The thing slew her father. It could clearly take her if it wished to do so...

Lalo bursts in from nowhere, and she tries to scream for him but nothing comes out. Instead she watches as Lalo's soul is overtaken, and, by proxy, part of her own. And then it is ripped away from her. And she finally lets out a noise as an agonizing scream erupts from her while the eidolon is unfettered.

And suddenly, she is away from it all. The sight of her companions is far from comforting. The questions come, and she hasn't the faintest clue as to how to handle them. She keeps laying on the ground, staring at the sky, and finally breaks down. "Dad.... is gone. And the demon took Lalo. I... can't control it. Dad..."

They have entered something that not even her father could fix, and she fears the demon will hunt her. And that would kill the rest of them. She gets up and bolts, trying to separate herself from the rest of them as much as possible. She wants the demon to come to her, not the rest of them. If anyone is to die, it would be her alone.

However before Rain can gain her feet the same sickening gravely voice speaks to her through the connection she and Lalo had always shared. "You're right you can't control it and you can't protect them either." The voice says with a deep gutteral laugh filled with contempt and malice. And then he was there Rains friends between it and her. It had changed appearances again, not it looked like some demented hybrid of Lalo and the orginal demon.

"What the hell is that?!" Neil shouts in surprise.

"Man Rain, you've got some creepy fans." Shades says trying to make a witty reply in the face of the overwhelming beast.

Rivers doesn't speak but his eyes turn hard and cold as he draws his gun prepared to shoot the monster. Then grabbing Zee the two appeared above it and the fight began.

As Rivers dropped onto the creature firing his gun uselessly it reach out and grabbed him and then suddenly his head was gone, it had been teleported clean OFF his shoulders and the body fell limply and lifelessly to the ground. Zee was next the bear suited man lashed at the Beast and the axe hit flesh, but then the demon grabbed the axe by its hilt and with an overpowering might slowly guided the axe back down on its weilder slicing him in half.

Neil conjured a fire spell of a strength Rain hadn't even seen the heroes of old use and it struck the demon erupting into a pillar of fire, but as the group watched the fire was drawn into the demons hand and hurled back at Neil causing him to erupt in a torrent of his own fire.

Shade let out a scream and charged with his sword but on contact with the monster it bent and then the creature bent down and ripped him about with his rows of teeth.

"Well now, that was a good apetizer," the monster laughed as it took another step towards Rain. "Your family and friends are dead and your closest companion has been consumed and turned against you. So tell me girl what will you do now?" he asks staring at her with that same distrubing toothy smile that seemed to challenge to try and think of something before he ate her.

Rain watches as the beast appears. She tries to find something to help, but she has no weapons. By that time that she can think of a proper spell, Rivers is already beheaded. As Zee is sliced in half, she realizes that she is powerless. She falls to the ground and watches as Neil and Shade are killed.

As the monster talks, she just stares at it for a few beats. The sudden loss has left her with a numb feeling as if she was dreaming. "What do you want?"

Spells were useless. Weapons were useless. She had only one thing at her disposal, and it probably wouldn't work. However, she had nothing to lose. If she awoke in the pits of the abyss, then it would be a punishment befitting for her. If her soul was ripped apart, it was nothing less that she deserved. And if the world ended, why should she care? Hers was already gone. And if she won out and got vengeance on the damned creature, then she got what she wanted. The collar forms in her mind, and she decides to play a dangerous game.

"Do you want to negotiate with someone willing to bet their soul? You have that now. And what do I want? I want the end to the gods, godslayers, fate itself. You would this war, right? Death with untold casualties. I don't give a shit about who dies. That is what I want, and you can take my soul for it. In fact, you don't lose in this situation, do you? Then let's make this interesting. So my catch, you put this on," she raises the collar, "and if I win, I do as I please with you as it suits my needs. I own you, completely. You lose all that you are, and I own you. However, if you win, you take all of me, and we destroy this world utterly and completely as you see fit. You have all my power and all my strength to squeeze to the last drop of my existence. I know what my father had become with the help of your kind. I promise something greater."

She matches his smile with something equally as grim and dark. "Or do you feel as if you could not beat me in a simple test?"

That knife. Shade has a significant reach advantage, with her longer arms and her foil, but she doesn't want the blade the dwarf is wielding anywhere near her. There's a sharp smell to it, burning at the sensitive lining of her nose, and her wards limn it with a vivid, toxic green visible only to her. She bats it aside with her foil, dances away from its wielder.

She becomes aware of the shadows surrounding her a fraction of a second before she steps on the foot of one, but she has just enough space now to pivot on one foot, sweeping her sword around in a silvery arc, slicing one so it leaks dark fluid, driving the others momentarily back. She doesn't stop to engage them, though, ever conscious of her primary opponent. When she finishes the spin, she is facing that dead-eyed stare again - and the poison blade is ascending towards her. She brings her foil down swiftly to parry, her momentary flash of terror making the motion clumsier than it should have been. The edge of the blade grazes her jacket, but she doesn't feel it part her flesh. She hopes that means it didn't, not just that her adrenaline is masking her pain.

Now she counterattacks, step-cross-lunge. She cannot deal with this dwarf and the shadows behind her at the same time; she'll take their attacks while she concentrates on her more dangerous opponent, and hope she survives their flinty blades until she can take down the creature summoning them.

(In the heat of battle, she does not question this conclusion she's jumped to. She is not a bard of the traditional storytelling variety, but she knows her stories, and she has made the connection between this villain and the hero Shen all but instinctively. If she is wrong - if the shadows are not extensions of him - then she will suffer for her singlemindedness, perhaps die for it, but things are happening too quickly for it to occur to her that she might be wrong.)

The Demon simply sneers at Rain's attempts to provoke it. "Please, why would I do such a thing when I have already won?" And in that instant sheer and unrelenting agony flowed through Rain. The beast was already ripping into her, its teeth biting and then tearing out her belly. Intestines, organs, flesh, and bones soared through the air as Rain saw the monster maul and literally tear her apart.

As it does another overwhelming sense would hit her. In addition to the other emotions she was feeling, a sense of profound loneliness gripped her like a vice. Everything she knew and loved had been taken from and as she was physically torn apart by a manifestation of her very soul an absolute certainty would strike her through all the pain...she would not see them again, there was going to be no light at the end of the tunnel, no reunion in an afterlife. One this monster killed her whatever was left of her spirit would be isolated, forever.

And then after seconds that felt like years the agony stopped and she found herself alone in an infinitely empty void of darkness. No friends no Lalo, she was totally and utterly alone.

As Alexis struck down another of the bug bears with terrible grace she heard Neil shout. Reacting immediately she dove to the side and tried to cover her head from the flame. It was strong, terribly so the raw power that he drew would be enough to surprise even Neil, and he would feel something inside of him augment the reservoir of power he unleashed. Then the power gathered up in the sword, it spun and grew, and in the instant it was cast Neil knew that this was not the spell he had planned, or rather it was a few weightclasses above what he had planned.

The dragon engulfed the hoard, not just a few of them but the entire army of bugbears was reduced to nothing but a glowing cinder, but the magic didn't stop there. The dragon turned back towards Neil locking onto him, but before it could lash out at the caster the magic and fire sustaining it grew unstable.

Alexis was already on her feet, she got in front of Neil and raised Gale in front of her. A wall of wind formed before her, not a simple one made to deflect arrows and the like, this was was like an actual physical wall it was doubtful even one of those bug bears could have walked through it, and as the dragon erupted the wall collected and redirected the flames, sparing the pair from being hit by the fire.

But they didn't need to be hit by the fire, the heat was enough to sear flesh and even as the wind swept away the flames Neil would be able to feel his skin shrivel and cook. After a few moments the heat was carried away and he would be able to take in what was around him. Alexis lied before him curled up in the fetal position.

(I will leave it to you to determine the extent of Neil's burns)

As the demon rips into in her, Rain wonders why it took so long for her to reach her own demise. She would cry if her body would allow it as the demon wearing the mask of her friend tore her to pieces. As darkness consumes the edges of her vision, she hopes to maybe see a familiar face on the other side until it hits that she won't. She falls into the unknown, frightened and sorrowful.

Rain curls into herself in the void. She is a failure. This is no less than what she deserves. And end full of pain far beyond than anything that she could feel in the pits of the abyss. She sits there, sobbing, for a long time. She doesn't stop until her face begins to become painful and starts dry heaving when she fails to produce anymore tears.

Why was she so powerless? Why was everything so far outside her control? Why couldn't she save everyone?

Her eyes search the darkness for anything. Certainly not a friend. She wouldn't damn even her worst enemy to this fate. But maybe something to end her own existence. An absence would be preferable to a continuation in this emptiness.

Alexis's body glows dimly golden as her charred skin turns pink and red, the burns begin to heal and she coughs several times, taking in deep breaths and trying to stifle the pain. "Save the dramatic screams for when I'm dead." She gasps shuddering a bit in raw agony.

After a few minutes she gets to her feet, tear stains ran down her face, and there was a nasty scar from above her left eyebrow to her hairline, but overall she seemed to be recovering, in fact the strength of the recovery was impressive, though much of her body still remained burned.

"Well now, I did say a big spell but I think that was a bit overkill." She says to him with a good natured laugh, not bearing him any malice, though her singed left eye remained shut. "Though, it looks like Fira didn't do much to help you with your control." she says as she reaches out and places her hands on his skin. A warm light floods over him and the pain from the burns eases as they all seem to reduce in severity be a degree.

Looking at how upset he had gotten she embraces him softly and says. "We'll be fine."