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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxᴛʜᴇ sᴏғᴛ ᴇᴄʜᴏ
sᴛᴀʀᴛ ғɪɴɪsʜ
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ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇ ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇ ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇ
✓ ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴀ ʟᴏɴɢsᴡᴏʀᴅ.
xx ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴀ ᴘᴀɪʀ ᴏғ ᴅᴀɢɢᴇʀs.
xx ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴀ sᴘᴇᴀʀ.
xx ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴀɴ ᴀxᴇ.
xx ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴀ ʙᴏᴡ.
Having decided on the Longsword on the table, you turn to Deika, who mirrors your expression and nods towards you. You both take a
step back from the iron bars, before Deika takes a ready stance.
Using his affinity for Geo Elemental Magic, Deika focuses some energy into a spell, before extending one of his arms forward, with his
palm open and fingers outstretched, pointed at the bricks just underneath the iron bars, at roughly knee height.
As if grasping something in the middle of the air, his fingers clasp semi-shut, before he abruptly rips his arm backwards. "Wrest!"
An almighty screech of iron sounds as the bottom of a few iron bars snap when the bricks they're mounted in are pulled out
from the wall. A few short lengths of iron bar fall to the stone floor, echoing the steel sound and ensuring that your positions are
well and truly known.
"Go!" Deika yells, himself hurrying with you into the storeroom. The three or four bars that were snapped in half and the bricks
that were ripped onto the floor make a big enough opening for you both to crouch through.
...
After having claimed the Longsword you had your eye on, you quickly leave the storeroom and re-enter the chapel. Its a pity there is
no sheath or belt for it, though beggars can't be choosers. Luckily for you, despite the blade being cheap in design, its still sharp
enough to kill a sizeable creature.
"Augh!" Deika yells from inside the storeroom. As you look over to him, he's struggling to remove an axe from the weapons rack
mounted on the wall. Its stuck in such a way that it is simply refusing to move. "Come on!" he yells again.
You move close to the iron bars, and attempt to tell Deika to choose a different weapon -- any other weapon -- and hurry out of here.
"Oh, for --" he huffs, a little disappointed, as if having forgotten the life-or-death situation you're both in, before he gives in and turns
to a set of daggers laying on the table.
As he grasps them, there's an almighty impact on the other side of the stone wall, which forces a few dozen of the bricks to bend
inwards towards the table, and dust to spill from between them. A monstrous, groaning howl sounds from the other side of the
wall, and Deika quickly stumbles to pick up the daggers and move back.
As he bolts through the opening, daggers-in-hand, his attention is focused behind him. His head remains turned, watching a few rays
of light from between the bricks flutter, showing a creature is moving along the wall to find a way into the chapel.
Longsword-in-hand, you quickly turn around, and are immediately frozen in fright.
"HHgggGGRRRR!" A creature groans before you, standing on all fours in the middle of the chapel. You had no idea it had even
entered the room; your attention was fixated on Deika and the flexing wall in the storeroom.
Its an enormous beast, somewhat like a pig, and without tusks, almost as tall as you and definitely much heavier, but before you can
take notice of any other features, you are drawn immediately to its eyes; feral, fierce, and fixated on you, wide open and hungry.
Enough time exists for you to blink, before the creature rockets towards you, howling vigorously, its hooves pushing its large
frame forward over the stone floor.
One perfect attack would be enough to pierce its hide and kill it on the spot, but its moving so suddenly that you don't get enough of a
moment to properly strike, and it quickly connects its enormous body with yours, before heaving you up with its snout and
throwing you across the room.
You've never considered yourself to be very light, but the feeling of being so easily launched makes you feel like a small mannequin
made of paper. The launch propels you into one of the chapel's walls, where you abruptly slam against your back and fall to the floor,
groaning as you are hit.
...
What happens next isn't completely clear; you've been struck and hurled with such force that your mind is muddy and events unfold
before you in a vague, slurred mess. You didn't hit your head or anything, but your body feels winded and paralyzed for a moment.
"HoaAH!" Deika screams, before your eyes move across the room to focus on him. He's managed to lunge onto the beast that
threw you and has dug both daggers cleanly into the back of its neck, though the beast still thrashes around and threatens to
throw him about, if not for him holding onto the daggers now anchored into the creature.
"Dei..." you quietly speak, sensing a powerful urge to fight, which knocks you back to your senses. Rising to your feet, and luckily
still with your longsword in hand, you quickly charge at the creature's side.
Deika struggles to hold onto the daggers and is finally ripped away from them by the beast, which then hurls him up by only a few
inches, then slams him down against the floor with the bottom of its chin. Deika lets out a pained yelp as his body is forced to the
floor with some of the creature's weight on top of him.
Noticing your charge, the creature ignores Deika for a moment and turns towards you, but you've already got enough momentum and
have closed enough distance to guarantee a good strike.
...
You push the entire length of your longsword up through the beast's shoulder and further back into the core of its body,
until your momentum abruptly stops when the guard of the longsword meets with the creature's body, and the beast
squeals for just an instant.
The creature remains perfectly still, having stopped halfway through turning towards you before being skewered. It doesn't breathe,
or even blink, for a second or two, before it finally exhales and collapses onto its stomach, its legs weakly giving way for the
creature's large frame to drop.
Still holding onto the handle of the longsword, you are brought down a little with the beast, but you make no move until you're sure it
finally stops moving.
As you notice it doesn't take another breath, you surmise that you've likely pierced its heart.
The beast lays on the stone floor completely immobile, just beside Deika, who remains face-down and in pain, before you begin to pull
the longsword out of the beast's body. As you do, some blood pools out from the beast's wound, adding to the blood already falling
from the two daggers in the back of its neck.
...
Deika is quick to make his way back onto his feet, though he's clearly in some pain, and clutches his chest with an open palm as he
tries to breathe. It takes a few moments, and half a dozen breaths, before he's able to speak.
"No time." He pants, obviously winded, but unlikely to be badly injured. "Move."
Just as he gives his advice, another groaning howl erupts from the hallway you first entered the chapel from, and a wooden
door on another wall is roughly pounded by more creatures. Judging by the sound, its likely that up to six more of them are
about to arrive.
"Move!" Deika yells, awkwardly, as he is short on breath. He quickly retrieves his daggers from the creature, and you both waste no
time before turning to the only exit that shows no signs of the creatures -- the door leading to the staircase upward.
► ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴀɪʀᴡᴀʏ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜʀᴏᴜɢʜ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛʀᴜᴄᴛᴜʀᴇ.
