The Castle (IC) [M] {04}

[lucas marcone]

Ian fired of some shots at the Cogesque to be sure the job was done, the streams of light tore through the imposter. "It feels kinda weird killing these things dosen't it, bud." Ian said reffering to how much it felt like Cog himself were standing infront of his bullets and how he felt as if he had been gouged by Cog himself.

[Angel]

Ketefe recovered quickly when her thrust missed, stumbling a little before regaining her balance and switching to defensive mode. She backed away from the Jeremiahly Individual, blocking its slices with her sword if they came too close. The illusion trick it used to dodge the bullets was a little dizzying, but she wasn't going to let that stop her. Another mockery showed up during the fight, this time, mimicking Cog. But Ian had it under control (overly optimistic), and in any case, the vigilante was distracted by her current opponent's hateful remarks. She did her best to keep her fury separate from her fighting, but some things just couldn't be ignored.

"SHUT IT!" she shouted at the Jeremiahly Individual, controlling her movements and  blocking the knife as she spoke. "This is why I say you're a cheap imitation! Jeremiah knew I'd never hurt anyone without reason!" She shifted her stance and her grip on the hilt, aiming a particularly forceful parry to knock away the frog's knife.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha saw the cracks in the base of her assailant's arm with a grin, just before her whole world dropped into a dizzying spiral when the statue made its counterattack.  Just as the panthress made her landing, it came--a fast kick that nothing made of stone could otherwise have ever executed--and barreled into her side.  She was quick enough to use the foot she landed on to leap back...but it still got her with force enough to send her a bit of a distance across the room.

She flipped so that she landed on her feet, but just barely, leaning to her left so that if she fell it wouldn't be on the side of her bandaged stump of an arm.  A few aches made themselves apparent in her side, but thankfully they were dulled by the healing magic of the bracer.  Yet Aisha's fatigue had begun once again to show itself...and she didn't allow herself to feel it.  She wouldn't be taunted by a pile of minerals.

It took a moment for Aisha to get back to her feet...and then she noticed that the kick had weakened her grip on the sword handle, having it fly out of her hands after the attack.  Her only weapon was lying right behind the raging thing.

Dammit...I have to keep running...have to get it back...

It was then that something happened that was completely unexpected.  In the corner of her eyesight, somewhere in the dark ceiling, there was an outline...a flash of black that carried with it a glaring tint.  The next instant something familiar swished through the air...past Aisha...and with a sickening CRACK, embedded itself in one of the statue's weak points.

The boomerang...which she thought had been lost.  As if to confirm it, there was a corvid screech ringing above.

Cuervito, I dunno WHAT you've been doing or how you found it, but dammit, you're good luck.

The weapon serving as a distraction, she had already sprung up to her feet using the amulet's speed, took the sword back, and was rocketing like black lightning back toward the statue to finish the business of removing that arm...

[Boog]

The statue attempted to ward Aisha off with the undamaged arm, spitting curses at the bird that had sunk a boomerang into its eye and further equipped its adversary. It backed away, giving ground before this assault and going purely on the defensive... And still backing away, bumped into Gareeku and tripped, toppling the both of them in different directions. Gareeku's assailant smirked at her good fortune and advanced, raising her balances...
With two loud cracking noises the Statues fighting Mel were split, one cracking from armpit to hip and the other's damages spiderwebbing across her torso and left leg. The first screamed as it crumbled, the second snarled as it charged.
The last statue's fist punched through an illusion Jeremiah left behind as he stepped forward, hooking the head of the axe around his attackers ankle and tripping her. He quickly raised it over his head and brought the edge down upon her unprotected back as she attempted to stand. This worked once. Going for a second one was probably a bit greedy of him and, judging by the way the statue flipped around and knocked the weapon aside and out of his grasp with her leg when he tried again, possibly dumber than one would anticipate.

--

The Jeremiahly Individual started laughing, it's voice all too close to that of it's archetype.
"That so?" A curious sort of full body twist, shrugging out of it's tweed coat to wrap it around Ketefe's weapon in an attempt to jerk it away, "You know what goes on in that skull? What goes on in ANY skull? Even yours?" One lithe amphibian leg lashed out in an attempt to catch the girl in the gut, "You know why Keaton hates angels? Why Stygian's so dour? Why my mentioning that makes you so damn mad?" The creature's lump of a head momentarily twisted, became more real and akin to what the rest was based off of, "Because weeeee dooooo..." The Mockery sang obscenely.
The Coggish wasted no further time but it's insult to the Ianesque, swiping away Cogidubnus' coin with a flash of steel and bringing his weapon forward in a thrust at its foe's throat. Two bullets tore through the edge of its robe as it attacked. Meanwhile, the Aishathing met with its target with an almost feral, wild swing with it's sword and a battlecry.

[Cogidubnus]

 The throat is seldom a good target - of all the parts of the human body, only the head and the neck can actively retreat while the rest of the body remains fixed - making it actually a good few inches more distant than it appears. Practically telegraphing his move from across the cavern, charging forward and simply holding his sword out...
Cog shook his head.

His sword slipped into a middle guard, sticking straight out in front of him. Psuedocog's sword slipped by his, and Cogidubnus brought his sword up, slanting it to his side. The thrust deflected to the side, missing his neck by inches, and the wolf moved his hands quickly. His hands continued on, his sword sliding against his opponents sword as he brought it just a short distance back, and then struck in a silver blur, the sword slicing in a slanted arc for the Psuedocog's neck.

[lucas marcone]

Ian started shooting for the Jeramiahly's chest. "WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel growled her frustration that only one of her foes succumbed to her spells. Well, if the expansion of ice didn't do it maybe steam would. Small spheres of ball lighting appeared between the dragon's hands, one after the other being thrown at the statue, aiming chiefly for the fractured left leg. Hopefully when they hit the ice embedded in the cracks the extreme heat of the lightning would cause an instantaneous conversion to steam and finish the cracking apart.

[Aisha deCabre]

For only a split second, Aisha was able to feel the relief of seeing her opponent hit in a vital area.  Wherever the bird was watching from now, it was a strange thing to think that the boomerang was thrown with a type of aim in mind.  She attributed it to pure luck that it struck the eye of her stone assailant.  The panthress made a point to keep back away from her defensive attacks until just the right moment...

That moment wasn't long in coming, but unfortunately it was going to be a bit difficult...the statue was backing away towards where the wolf was in the middle of battle with his own opponent.

"Gareeku, look out!" Aisha called as she used her enhanced speed to dash across the arena, catching up to the statue as it tumbled...hopefully the wolf had heard her or had seen it coming long enough to get away.  The point of her Dragonblade was raised then, and in a flash of metal, brought it down as soon as the weakness had been shown...she aimed to try breaking through the thing's neck.

[Gareeku]

Gareeku was about to make his move when suddenly he heard Aisha's voice call out to him, followed by something very heavy and hard bumping into him from the back. Such was the force of the collision, the white wolf was forced forward, the ground very quickly approaching as he began to fall.

However, no sooner had he been knocked over had he made another move. Putting his free hand on the floor, Gareeku performed a handspring, flipping forward and the right way up.

As he did so, the lupine warrior grabbed his sword's handle with both hands as soon as his free hand had left the floor and, with an angry battle roar, brought the blade down in a massive and very powerful vertical slash, the manoveur sporting a bright flash of steel as Gareeku's blade flashed down towards the statue's balances and head, the attack easily being powerful the cut not only the balances, but also the statue clean in half.

[Stygian]

There are certain moments when you know beforeheand if you have done something just right. Important moments. Important decisions. Most often ones where you have only one of two choices, but sometimes more complex and hard ones. And you can just feel it in your bones when things are going right. That was precisely the sensation that came over Cog as he chose to make his last maneuver.
   The only really clean way to dislodge someone's head with a single cut is by getting in a close and powerful, sawing stroke. And such a stroke mostly requires either a very slow target or a very great amount of skill and precision. Or luck. Cog didn't know which it was for him right then, but for that split second before he could feel the slicing, rasping and visceral force travel down the hilt of his sword and tell him of the clean cut, he merely knew that he'd managed to kill the Mockery cleanly and quickly. Or, at least, that's what he thought.
   The force of the strike and their combined movements was easily enough to let Cog's blade pass without hitch through the Mockery's neck. The creature didn't have time to respond, before its throat was severed, and a slash of some black, tarry substance spattered out across the floor. What Cog hadn't expected though, after such a success, was that he would be given only a moment's pause, before the creature began howling and shrieking in some horribly mangled, grating voice through its severed windpipe. The sound made the wolf himself clamp his hands over his ears in sheer reflex, and left no one else around untouched. Even the other Mockeries seemed disturbed by its death throes. It was only to become worse though.
   As great gouts of dark blood shot up through the stumbling and flailing hideousness' throat, its form began twisting and sizzling like strips of burning rubber. Still thrashing about, it fell to the floor, its blade clattering to the ground and dissolving into rock and ash in a few heartbeats. Sputtering and emitting foul noises, it clawed around, scrabbling in Cog's rough direction. Moving away, the wolf had no problem averting the blackening lump's attempts at grabbing him. However, before he could step away, it managed to touch his leg.
   A hot twinge of something ran up Cog's twitching leg, caused his pelvis to shake and his stomach to churn, but didn't quite manifest until it reached his neck. Well there though, the feeling turned into a sharp, razored cut, that separated his neck from all the rest of him in terms of sensation. For a second, Cog was beheaded, feeling his tendons tearing from his neck, his muscles being sliced apart, his nerves nicked off and leaving nothing but pain. It lasted only for the blink of an eye, but it felt too real to be ignored...

- -

Their stone opponents might have been tremendously strong and tough, but one thing they were not, and that was agile. Seeing as Gareeku managed to maneuver himself to safety, and retaliate with a seriously powerful attack in return, Aisha had an open shot. And while the statue might have been a great deal taller than her, her legs though tired were perfectly fine. She leaped and struck, and as Gareeku's blade smashed into the stone figure's midsection with a spray of shards of stone, Aisha's own line of attack crossed with his as she flew past the thing's back. The statue's face and limbs froze in an expression of desperation as it was undone, and even before both of the hunters' blades were out, the thing toppled to the floor in three pieces. They cracked and smashed on the marble.
   Still, this left two apparently quite combat-worthy gray-white stone antagonists fighting. Or, well, one, as Mel's hope that the pressure building from the ice being turned to steam in the one she fought caused the thing to shatter at last. However, as the thing had been charging, and from quite close a distance, this meant that she was faced with a few hundred pounds of moving rocks nonetheless. She was knocked back in Jeremiah's direction as the largest still intact piece of stone hit her, and smoke and dust spread out in a cloud around them.

[Angel]

Ketefe refused to let go of her sword, not even letting her surprise get to her when the Jeremiahly Individual wrapped its coat around the jagged blade and kicked her in the stomach. She crumpled to the floor for a split second, taking a deep breath and keeping both hands wrapped in a death grip on the sword's handle in case the frog tried to jerk it away from her again.

As she caught her breath, she made the mistake of looking up. She gasped when the Mockery's blank face twisted briefly into something much more resembling Jeremiah's, jeering at her yet again.

She released her breath in a growl as Ian's bullets ripped through the air, not bothering to see whether they'd hit or not. "I - thought - I - said - to - SHUT UP!" she screamed, jumping to her feet and aiming a high kick to the Jeremiahly's chest.

[Stygian]

The kick didn't miss, but the Jeremiahly made a very good move of deflecting it, shaming the genuine edition a bit with its adeptness at combat. And as it moved with Ketefe, the bullets from Ian's direction whizzed past just beside it. It sneered at her still, obviously caring nothing for the death of its comrade or how the odds seemed to have shifted. Then again, Cog was still on the ground, overwhelmed with the shock of feeling as if his neck were cut right through.
   'Yeah, you're - omph! - just the one to talk, aren't ya?' the mockery hissed at Ketefe. 'Like you've been able to this time. And like you actually have anything good to say!' He grunted as he let fly a hard kick aimed for the feline's head. 'You're just another little stupid girl who's up to her neck in what she doesn't understand', the mockery continued, with a particularly vicious look down at her. 'It would be an improvement to have those things in your head work you instead...'

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog's reaction to the impostor's touch was visceral - a kneejerk reaction away from the ink-bleeding mass, his sword slicing down at the thing in a clean arc. Wether or not it hit, he couldn't say - the strange feeling that the creature had imparted, traveling up his legs and through his body had finally reached his neck, and the wolf simply fell like a doll with it's strings cut. Blinding pain flashed through his neck and then through the rest of his body as he felt, for just a moment, that his head had really been removed. He hit the hard stone floor with a dull thud, his sword clattering down beside him.
His eyes dilated. He took a rasping breath.

His body felt as if it was on fire, and yet at the same time he was numb - he thought. For a brief second, he panicked, thinking that the thing had just stolen his body and limbs out from under him, leaving him paralyzed and helpless in the depths of hell. The wolf's eyes widened for just a moment, sucking in another breath through his teeth. His entire body throbbed.
Wait. Pain?

Cog tried to move his hands, and his fingers shut into a fist. The wolf's expression changed into one of anger, and moving his arm to grab the sword lying at his side he sprang to his feet. Taking just a moment to get his bearings, his gaze focused on the Jeremiah-esque individual fighting with Ketefe - using his coat like a shield and trying to kick the swordswoman into helplessness. The wolf spat to his side, and bringing his sword into a low guard ran for the doppleganger.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The statue came apart rather more violently than Mel expected. Showered with grit and pebbles she was hit dead on by the biggest chunk of the former statue. The impact knocked her down and the wind out of her. She hoped that it hadn't cracked a rib. This left her on the floor, with a too close view of the remaining statue kicking at Jeremiah.

[Boog]

Mel's tumble was actually a bit of a boon for Jeremiah; he jerked to look, moving his head somewhat out of the way of the statue's incoming foot. Of course this just meant that, rather than pulverizing the man's face, the statue's heel skimmed across the crown of his head, forceful enough to knock him to the floor clutching his skull and breathing through his teeth. He was scrambling away in a second, making several hasty hand signs to ready an illusion as he fled with more effort than grace.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Flat on her bruised back and unable to aim properly Mel sent a quick black ice spell across the floor at the remaining statue, hoping to at least slow it's chase. Then she worked on getting herself to her feet.

[Aisha deCabre]

It was an earth-shattering noise that came to the ears that signaled the fall of the statues.  Amidst a cloud of dust and debris that accumulated from their stone opponents finally shattering to pieces, Aisha landed back on her feet as she felt her off-arm strain from having to use the sword.  But it was a victorious kind of pain, barely sensed, for this battle was over for them for the time being.

As the panthress stood for a moment to gather her breath, previous thoughts were coming back to her mind.  Maybe this showed that she was indeed skilled enough to not have to give up adventuring just yet...just because of the loss of one arm.  But she knew that more powerful things existed.  And worse, it was still doubtful that she'd survive if they were to be chased down into hell...

She dismissed it and slowly made her way out of the dust cloud, putting herself in a coughing fit when her aching lungs met semi-fresh air.  Carefully, Aisha replaced the Dragonblade in its scabbard on her hip and reached out for her boomerang.  As it flew back into her hand, she looked around for Gareeku.  "You alright, amigo?" she inquired of the wolf in another cough, before quirking her ears toward where Mel and Jeremiah were still tussling with a remaining statue.

I think they can take it without help...it's just one left...the assumption led Aisha to have some quick time to check if any of her bandages or wrappings had come apart.  Dammit, I wouldn't mind having my shirt back.  Or some armor maybe.  Gladly make one out of a demon's skin...

[Angel]

Ketefe smirked once when her foot made solid contact, but that faded quickly when she saw that the Jeremiahly had blocked it and moved with her to avoid any serious damage. He continued talking, even when he aimed a hard kick for her head. Like the Mockery had, Ketefe moved with the kick and fell back without being knocked out. Her right hand still had a solid grip on her sword handle, but her left had let go when the Jeremiahly kicked her.

The Mockery looked at Ketefe with true venom, that was reflected in his voice; she fixed a glare on him and began to push herself up with her hands, not wanting wanting him to have the satisfaction of her lying on the ground looking helpless. At the mention of her demons, the girl's glare mixed with a look of shock. How the hell could he know that? What kind of demons was Hell aiming at them?

She stood back up, unsure whether to simply attack the frog-wannabe again or ask how he knew about her problem. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cog charging up to them. Rather than ask the Jeremiahly anything, she switched her sword-hand and swung to grab his arm, hoping that the newly-changed odds would finally kill him.

[Sunblink]

Tentatively back on her feet, her movements defying the aches and pain flaring throughout her rubbery and resistant bones, Keaton pried the bladed end of Catastrophe's pommel from the ground with a sluggish, yet forceful series of gesticulations; twisting the handle with a jerk, then uprooting the polished black blade from the masonry and mortar. Although she was hurt and bleeding, Keaton knew very well that there was still fight in her - and if there wasn't, she was just going to force it right back in its place. It was how she always operated. Keeping her eyes narrowed, as though she was trying to oppose the violent blurring writhing about her vision. Standing amidst the fire-licked smog was the ashen silhouette of the Aishathing. Could recognize Aisha's coloration and the mocking mutilations used to distinguish the clones from their original counterparts even among the dim glare of her eyes. Fire oscillated in the core of Keaton's artificial eye, almost analytically, as Keaton pondered this in-between her examinations.

A sweep of her sword and the demented doppelganger was charging at Keaton, a battle cry rending the air. Keaton's face fixated into a snarl as the Aishathing lunged, swinging her sword around in a practiced arc for her adversary's neck. Keaton jerked her arms upward, and Catastrophe was suddenly interposed between herself and the incoming blade, serving as an effective barrier. The sword clashed off of the handle with a vibrating strike, forcing the Aishathing back.

Taking advantage of that moment of vulnerability, Keaton swept Catastrophe around, aiming deliberately for the duplicate's stomach. The spiked head collided bodily with the Aishathing's stomach, as anticipated, complete with a graphic crunch as the many spikes encrusting Catastrophe's crown perforated whatever sufficed as the Aishathing's innards. Not stopping to marvel the aftermath of these gruesome effects, Keaton quickly extricated Catastrophe and spun around for another blow.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

Though the frog-thing's skin was slippery, Ketefe finally managed to clasp down on his shirt and trap him there. She was rewarded with a most ungentle hand trying to practically wrench her arm apart to free him from her, and a knee viciously flying to try and get to her ribs.
   'Don't... want to know?! Fine then, idiot! If... you want to stay... that way... aah!' the thing half hissed, half croaked. But its voice was desperate. It had seen Cog coming its way.

- -

Mel's spell hit home, and it managed to slow the statue, as its back frosted over and little crystals formed in places of its body. But slow it was also all that she managed, and not much. The thing pushed on with a grim expression and carved teeth gritted, glaring at Jeremiah. The frog really had nowhere to run, and whatever it was he was doing with his hands, it might as well have been simply rude gestures. The huge thing's stride was fast also, thanks to the length of its legs, and when the weak little amphibian stumbled or ran short of breath it would easily catch him. It sent its hands out, clutching for him in anticipation.

[Boog]

Jeremiah finished the gestures for his spell, and three frogs were seen scrambling to their feet and fleeing. The real one was hidden in another illusion of a patch of open space, and fled for cover behind a remaining column.
Legs, work faster! Lungs, work overtime! Heart, just keep doing what you're doing and don't explode! Oh gods...
She's gaining-
BAL I SWEAR IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP I'M TURNING US AROUND AND MARCHING RIGHT BACK THERE! Fortunately, Jeremiah was just frantic enough to be believable. Small victories.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel rolled onto her hands and knees, hissing as she did. It felt as if she had indeed cracked a few ribs. With no time for the precision of pinpointed spells she hurled one big lightening bolt at the statue as it tried to reach in two different directions after two different fleeing frogs. She hoped Jeremiah was far enough away to avoid the inevitable spread that a bolt that size would affect. Lightning wasn't nearly as obedient a medium as ice.

[Cogidubnus]

 Ketefe had the Jeremiahesque firmly in hand, although the way the doppleganger was struggling she wouldn't have a hold on him for long. Cog's steps echoed almost with an almost surreal sound, the corridor strangely quiet, with only the sounds of the struggling, ball-headed frog, and Cog's own footsteps breaking through the demonic silence.

About two paces away from the creature, Cog brought his sword over his head, stopping just short - the hilt stuck out horizontally just a bit in front of his face. Cog narrowed his eyes, and looking past the ragged hair that almost threatened to fall in front of his eyes he struck, a simple flick of his wrist.
It was a fast strike in setup and execution, designed to strike quickly at the head - it took a pretty powerful blow to crack through the skull, and a follow-up strike was usually in order. With these creatures, however, there was no skull to stop his blow. The sword flashed through the air, and buried itself quickly in the ball of flesh that served as it's head, cleaving it in two.

[Stygian]

The reaction of the hideous thing was quite alike to that of its 'companions'. The second it was as good as killed, Cog's blade slicing through its vulnerable 'head', it stopped acting or even trying to resemble Jeremiah, instead reverting to a painful reaction of frantic thrashing and clawing. Black, seething blood spattered from the opening of its wound, and it threw its arms out and around, its shape hissing with acrid smoke. Cog was safe from its assault, but Ketefe, practically entangled with the thing, was struck the moment it touched her, skin to skin, like Cog had been. Pain flowed warmly up through her twitching and shuddering arm, and when it reached her head, it split. Agony gripped the feline, as if a thousand headaches had fused and then exploded in her head. In her distraction, the beast broke her grip, but already dead and blinded with pain it could only toss and delay its demise for a while.
   Keaton encountered less of a problem with her victim. The crushing blow debilitated the mimic, and barely able to stand it received the next strike which destroyed the side of its ribcage and shoulder. It cried out in a grating moan which quickly turned into an inhuman cacophony of shrieks and noises all at once, but once it dropped to the ground it merely managed to crawl a bit on the ground and kick with its legs before its mockery of life gave up, and it began decomposing into ash with a foul stench as result. Finally, the tunnel was left silent again, save the hissing sound of the two things turning into nothing.

- -

Not the best conductor in the world, the stone of the statue blasted outward and cracked, destroying its backside. It reeled forward, and had it been a living creature it would, of course, have died. Unfortunately, there was enough of the stone in its torso solid and undamaged to keep it up. It turned toward Mel with a groaning creak, features twisted in rage, and seemed to make a decision. Defying its injuries, and the threat of falling apart, joints and cracks leaking fine powder of ground stone, it charged the dragoness with a crackling roar. Its plan was simple; to crush her under it or possibly cut her up on the now jagged, jutting edges of its damaged hand.

[Angel]

Ketefe kept as firm a grip as she could on the Jeremiahly's slippery skin, in spite of the frog trying to rip her arm out of its socket and the knee thudding into her stomach. She still wanted to ask the frog a few questions, but she doubted he would answer honestly, and in any case, hesitation meant death at a time like this. She watched, grimly resilient, as Cog slashed through the creature's head and it began its death throes.

She would have continued her hold on him, had the Jeremiahly's blood not splashed onto her arm.

Pain shot like lightning through her arm and straight to her head. She let out a strangled shriek and was knocked off the frog's arm, landing on her back and curling up in pain. it was like having twenty burning crowbars trying to pry her head open at once; the feeling only lasted for a second, but it was almost worse than when she'd been possessed the first time.

After a tick of the clock, the pain subsided, and so did her screams. Ketefe relaxed, opened her eyes and scooted a good few feet away from the still-bleeding frog before standing, making sure not to let the thing's blood touch her again. She glanced around, noticing that Keaton had killed the Aishathing and all the Mockeries were dead now. The cat looked over at Cog, hugging her arms gently. "Thanks for helping me," she said, her voice quiet.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel was off her knees and backing up quickly as the statue changed it's path and advanced on her. Evidently disassembly was the only way to stop these things. A discus of sharpened ice hurled at the slender neck of statue, quickly followed by a second to the damaged torso. When the second disc left her hand the dragon called her staff to her hand. She was getting frustrated enough with these things to beat it to gravel if it didn't go down from the ice.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog's face grew grave as he watched Ketefe become splattered with the black blood of the doppleganger - he lowered his sword to his side slowly, watching as the feline struggled with the sudden outburst of pain she must be experiencing. The wolf's eyes darted away from a moment, Cog's face twisted into a suddenly displeased grimace.
He looked back up at her sharply when she spoke to thank him, but his gaze rapidly softened.

"I'm sorry." he said, taking a ragged piece of his shirt and wiping the rest of the black fluid off of his sword. He was quiet for a moment - everything in that cavern was deathly quiet, save for the hellish wind some ways off in the distance.

He brought himself to look back at the masked feline. "We...we need to keep moving, Ketefe. I...we all need rest. But we need to go. Soon. Before more...demons, crawl out of the stones."

[Angel]

Ketefe nodded, silently, at Cog's response. "All right," she said, looking down at her sword, which was lying beside the Jeremiahly's corpse. The frog had let go of her sword in its spasms, but its coat was still wrapped around the blade, and the garment was now covered in its black blood. Ketefe carefully removed her mask and wrapped it around the handle (relatively clean, but she wasn't about to take chances), shaking the coat off as gently and quickly as she could.

She stood, not bothering to sheath her sword, and turned to Ian and Keaton. "All right, let's get moving," she said, a little louder than her voice had been before. She turned to face the split hallway. "So which way is the quicker way...?"

[Cogidubnus]

Cog paused, looking around for a moment at the other's gathered in the darkness, and then turned back towards the small feline. When he spoke, his voice seemed somehow to become absorbed into the darkness.

"You're leading the way, kitten. Unless the voices in your head have...silenced." he paused. "In which case, I think it doesn't really matter which way we go."

[Angel]

Ketefe blinked once at Cog's response before remembering that she (or rather, her demon/s) was the navigator. "They were quiet during the fight, or if they did talk, I didn't notice them. But I'm pretty sure they're still there. If not..." She trailed off. If they had left, that was great; she was free. But that also left them virtually stranded.

She thought a message to them, getting a bit of a far-off look in her eyes as she did so. You guys still there? Which way are we headed?