"Duck!"
Kara barely had the chance to follow the order as a shard of earth flew at her head. Thundra screeched in surprise and rose into the air. The last Trickster in the Cave of Trial was subsequently impaled upon the tip while the Bunny Karate fighter rolled away.
She glanced up to see the humanoid form of the Black Dragon Shade offering a hand.
"C'mon," she started, "The upper floors are clear...and it appears you three haven't found the crest yet either."
Kara nodded as Talm and Ryko finally caught up.
"We gotta hurry to the mansion!" Kara exclaimed as she was pulled to her feet.
"Eh?" Shade quested, wondering why adversaries were in the cave at all if the danger was really at the Guild mansion.
"I'll tell you on the way."
Miria knelt as her daughter's magical barrier buckled beneath the brightly-colored beam bombardment of the strange metal creature.
"Mother, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up... we need some offense or I'm going to run out of magic!" the Junior Premier exclaimed.
As if in response, Borgan interrupted his parrying of the undead Bronze Dogs' claw strikes with his steel staff and hurled another Earth Spike toward the machination.
The Agribot intelligently stopped its laser attacks and flew above the rising stalagmites.
"Whew," Lemina sighed, watching her shield finally dissipate and turning to assist the former Black Wizard of Althena.
Unfortunately, the Agirbot was not just going to let her forget about it...
Before Miria could cry out in warning, the machine surged forth and backhanded Lemina with one of its HUGE arms. She shrieked and was sent rolling toward one of the edges of the roof.
The decaying canines had immediately gone back to their initial task: trying to chow down on the largest morsel on the mansion roof... namely Borgan.
The large man's floating platform fortunately gave him an advantage: he could easily stay out of their range except when they leapt at him.
Meanwhile, nearly all of the Pyromaniacs had ignited themselves and rushed toward the blue-cloaked mage-dragon. Azuren had manifested some sort of water shield around himself to keep the intense heat from frying him.
Miria finally rose to her feet and cast a few Ice Arrows in that direction. She picked off a few of the flaming fiends but not enough to relieve the pressure off of Azuren.
In all this commotion, barely any of the heroes could do anything to stop the escape of the Necromancer.
"So long, fools!" he exclaimed as the two Fly-Boys' wings flapped rapidly and the three of them flew off to the east.
"No...!" Lemina gasped, clutching her stomach where the blow had landed.
The evil wizard laughed in the distance...
As the warm afternoon moved to its inevitable change into evening, a middle-aged man exited one of the magic school buildings of Vane. Feeling somewhat content with his teachings for the day, he stretched his arms to his sides as his white tunic billowed in the wind gusting through the ancient city.
His moustached-face gradually gained a slight smirk as one of his arms came in contact with the hilt of a sheathed fencing blade.
He glanced at it and murmured, "Another good day, old friend."
The man moved one hand through his tuft of frazzled light-brown hair and began his walk to the place he was staying for the duration of his teachings in Vane.
A loud, obviously inhuman growl from the direction of the mansion alerted him, followed by a crashing sound.
Before he could turn to see whatever made the noise, the man was nearly bowled over as a quartet of humans... and a large raven... rushed past his stationary form.
"Sorry!" shouted one of them.
The person caught his balance and strangely thought he recognized one of them... the black-haired girl in the sky-blue martial artist outfit looked nearly like his daughter's best friend.
"Ryko?" he muttered to no one.
If it was indeed her, why would she be in Vane?
Curious, he followed the group as they dashed toward the Guild mansion... through scattering packets of townspeople.
"What in the name of Althena is that thing?!" Talm yelled as the beast crashed in the ground in front of the mansion. The Pyromaniacs who were unlucky enough to be in the creature's 'flight path' were crushed beneath its massive weight.
Kara held her nose as her bunny ear headpiece lopped over her real ears.
"I don't know, but it's stinky..."
"Looks dead to me... just like that octopus-thing back in the caves," Ryko responded.
Shade winced as the Bronze Dog crawled back into an upright position.
"And like the dracolich back in the Meribian sewers... that crest stealer must be a formidable magician!"
The undead canine licked its chops as it glared at the group. Thundra screeched in warning, but not at the dog. Her gaze was at the roof where Lemina could be seen at the edge, cornered by something that was apparently metallic. It appeared there was more action on the mansion's pinnacle.
"Lemina!" Ryko yelled, pointing.
Shade began to levitate.
"I'll get her... you four handle this beast!" the humanoid dragon stated as she flew upwards.
Talm pulled out his blades as the Bronze Dog barked and crouched, ready to spring at a moment's notice.
"Great."
Borgan admired his handiwork with a guffawing laugh.
"BWAHAHAHA! Poor little poochie has taken a dive," the ghastly man gloated.
A well-timed swing of his powerful staff had deflected one of the demonic dogs right off of the roof. An added bonus of his tactic was that Azuren was now free to fight back against the diminished crowd of Pyromaniacs.
"HAH!" the dragon-man yelled and thrust his arms and cane to the sides.
The diameter of his water shield 'bubble' promptly tripled in size, engulfing the remaining flame creatures with liquid pain. Steam arose from each as they shuddered, writhed and finally collapsed.
Miria was too weak to aid her companions anymore... the beating she had endured at the hands of the Necromancer's guards was enough without the constant drain of energy that magic casting caused. She took a defensive position behind Borgan's platform as he kept the remaining Bronze Dog at bay.
With the Agribot advancing on her at the precipice of the roof, Lemina was in trouble. Being doubled over in pain didn't help.
"Pressure... Cooker!" she gulped, pointing her wand at the machine.
Intense waves of heat bombarded the metal creature, causing sparks to fly off of its shining hide. It paused its charge momentarily as some of its circuitry shorted out.
Lemina's relief was brief as it commenced firing its beam weaponry again.
The blast connected with the stone at her feet, causing a quite large explosion.
If the Junior Premier had been in normal circumstances, she would've whined about having to repair the large gap in the roof of the mansion. Unfortunately, her present predicament only prompted her to scream as the blast threw her from the edge.
"Lemina!!!" Miria and Borgan exclaimed in unison, permitting the canine to leap and finally connect a claw swipe to the latter. He rolled off his platform and groaned.
Halfway to the ground, Lemina felt her agonizing fall stop abruptly as a pair of moderately strong arms grabbed her form.
"Gotcha!" the blond-haired mage heard as she could barely catch a glance of Shade's visage before she passed out.
"Oof!" Kara moaned as a powerful kick from the beast's back leg sent her sprawling into the side of the mansion.
Thundra emitted another blinding Lightning Flash to confuse the decaying dog as she flew over to check the red-haired girl.
Talm and Ryko took the opportunity to rush the monster, the former leaping and peppering the upper hide with darts, the latter rolling underneath and kicking out one of its front legs before evading its wild strike.
The dog suddenly began filling its non-functioning lungs with air. Talm vanished and reappeared on the other side of it before the canine imitated a hellhound.
Ryko, however, was not as lucky, and nearly had her toes toasted as she leapt above the fiery breath of the beast. She crashed down on top of its back with an elbow and held on for dear life as it flailed about.
The thunder raven circled over Kara as she rose, then dove talons first into one of the rear limbs of the abomination. She promptly began to shred the loose flesh that still held onto the bone at the joint.
The Bronze Dog was more than angry at this point. It shook Thundra off and then emitted more flames at the horde of townspeople who had gathered to watch the fight.
Ryko tried to get its attention by literally 'getting in its face'... quite close to those ravenous jaws. She grabbed hold of its throat and tried to choke it as best as she could.
Several townspeople were set aflame by the attack though. The crowds scattered and only a few of the bravest people that remained tried to beat the flames off their neighbors.
Barely feeling any pain from Ryko's attempt to throttle it, the Bronze Dog smirked and prepared to flame again...
...until it was suddenly on the ground with no back legs to hold it's tremendous weight up.
"Terra Cutter!" a strong voice had yelled as an individual in a white cloak rushed forward. The very earth beneath seemed to split and then 'follow' him and his sword.
As he reached his target, the man's blade pierced the flesh there in a powerful slice. A split second later, the trailing earth, now pointing out of the ground in the shape of a sharp rock-like blade, severed the entire back left limb off of the demon dog's body.
Talm followed suit and rapidly threw darts into the right rear leg at the weakened joint (where Thundra had once clawed). The bones cracked and slipped past each other, leaving the dog flat on its stomach.
Ryko kicked the back of the beast's head with both heels, rewarding her with another satisfying 'crunch' sound as she flipped away.
The guard mages who had followed the white-dressed individual finally had a chance to shower its body with Ice Pick and Flame spells.
In great pain, the monster expired in the midst of a true 'freezer burn'.
As Talm and Kara sighed and walked over, Ryko found Thundra back on her shoulder. The bird sung pleasantly in triumph.
"Everyone in okay shape?" Talm quested.
Kara nodded slowly, "Could use a break after all this..."
"Not just yet...we better get up there and help Shade first!" Ryko responded.
"Ryko?"
The three of them stopped their initial run as the white-dressed man trotted over.
Ryko recognized him in a second... it was Jan's father. She couldn't believe that she had forgotten that he was teaching weapon magic here in Vane.
"What are you doing here and what was that thing?!" he quested, quite sternly.
The young martial artist shook her head.
"I'm not sure, but I'll be glad to answer your questions as best as I could AFTER we clear the roof. Please give us a hand," she said, pointing to the continued battle above.
Jan's father, Randall, took one quick glance upwards and nodded, unsheathing his fencing sword again.
The four of them raced into the building as Thundra flew right to the pinnacle. Some of the town guards soon followed as their companions tended to the wounded.