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"Well...that was unexpected..." he thought to himself as the young woman sot to make an endearing defense for her fallen savior. Granted, not only had the woman snapped into action, but the rock-of-a-man seemed to have recovered his composure much quicker than Azazeal had anticipated.

Luckily for him, he was always prepared for such levels of onslaught.

As Letalus neared the blade in his defense towards the glowing weapon, before even reaching it's destination, it made a muddled *thud* noise, as if landing in a vat of gelatin, inches in front of the now halted light sword; his leg made the same reaction centimeters in front of his target. Azazeal smirked and tilted his head some, staring at the vacant expression on Letalus's face.

"Behind you."

With those words, the man in front of them poofed in an aggressive uproar of smoke and shadows, a clone or decoy obviously. Instantaneously, a crackling of energy could be heard rocketing towards the back of Letalus's head.

A glint of animalistic rage shown in her ruby darkened sockets. As the woman...demon...what-have-you mocked her from a minimal distance, Nova had been planning her attack that she prayed to connect on first strike. Watching Tiff fumble to acquire something from beneath her skirt, Nova sprang into action.

She dashed forward with lightning speed to close the remaining reach gap. She knelt and placed all her strength into her upward thrust, trying to connect the end of the staff with Tiff's chin.

Unfortunately for Nova, she once again forgot all about her blind spot.

"Behind you."
Tomlin whipped his rapier around quickly, hearing the familiar voice of Azaezal from the attic. The blade raked across his face, drawing a thin line of blood on his unmasked cheek.

His attention quickly turned from him though, as his current problem charged forward, slashing wildly at his throat, stomache and face with lightning speed.

Tomlin felt a bit sluggish, as the hand holding his sword went numb. He could feel time slow, the motions Alasdair made much more pronounced than the speed they should have been coming at him at.

"HURRY UP AND MOVE!" screamed a stranger inside his head. Tomlin quickly dodged the attacks, one almost severing his ear from his head.

Tomlin's hidden blade unfurled, striking a line against Alasdair's forehead. Blood oozed down his face, getting into his eyes.

Letalus had no reaction on his face from his blade and his foot missing his mark. Instead, he merely brought his sword back and went at it again, more machine than man now. While in this state, he was even more driven and immovable, but his ability to think quickly on his feet and strategize was cut significantly.

So when Azazeal seemingly disappeared into smoke and shadow, Letalus stared blankly at the spot he'd been in. The voice behind him dimly registered and he turned just in time for the energy to hit him directly in the face.

The light in his eyes, such as it was, intensified. He took a halting step towards the mage, hand reaching out, one arm still around Merro...and froze. On an actual human, the spell might have worked differently, but on Letalus, an arcane instrument in his own right, his body simply froze like a statue, even as his stare burned brightly at Azazeal.

Merro's impulsive surge forward was cut short as Letalus grabbed her from behind, bringing her back into the protective circle of his arms. Unbalanced, she instinctively clung to him as she staggered slightly, turned per force from attacking to simply observing wide-eyed as Letalus took matters quite literally into his own hands.

The counterattack that he unleashed proved fruitless, however, as their attacker suddenly disappeared in a burst of smoke and tattered shadows. Merro was still staring uncomprehendingly at the place that the mage had seemingly been standing when that chilling voice sounded from behind them, accompanied now by the sound of another spell being discharged. She flinched and pressed back against Letalus' chest, sheltering against him with her eyes screwed shut and her entire body tensed against she knew not what, save that it must be harmful or perhaps even deadly in nature.

An everlastingly long second passed, and Merro found herself untouched by whatever spell the disfigured mage had cast. The arm around her, however, was clenched so tightly that the muscles under her grasping hands felt hard as rock. As she struggled to twist 'round, wanting to search for clues in Letalus' expression - were he to actually wear one - the young woman noted with quickly increasing alarm that his entire body seemed completely and unnaturally tense. Her mind first flew to the anxious idea that it was if he were suffering under some pain so great that it was taking all of his being to simply endure it, but even as the thought was formed it was discarded.

It was not that he simply was not moving; not carrying her away from the battlefield, not pushing her roughly away from immediate danger, not guiding her roughly with a nudge of shoulder and tightening of fingers, not even shouting at her or growling under his breath. Letalus wasn't not moving. Letalus was utterly motionless.

Twisting her torso around in his frighteningly fixed grasp and clawing her cold hands into his tunic, Merro stared up at Letalus, horror overtaking the fear and adrenaline that had been ruling her. Fire would have burned, ice frozen, wind cut, earth crushed. Sleep and paralysis spells would have sent him tumbling bonelessly to the ground. She knew of no spell that would turn someone into a statue like this, utterly stopped with no breath or beat stirring the chest under her fingers, like neither animated and living flesh nor pale and lifeless body so much as a painted rock carved into the likeness of a man.

"No!" It burst out of her in a horrified sob before she realized she'd even taken breath to speak, and her vision blurred with tears she couldn't feel or explain.

Azazeal stepped backwards, warm blood dripped from his fleshy cheek due to Tomlin's blade. Cocking an eyebrow, he swipes one of his fingers gentled across the wound. He then pulls his hand down and examines it a moment, rubbing his thumb and index together smearing his blood around.

He then turns his attention to "admire" his handiwork.

There he stood, the stone man paused in time as Azazeal assumed he might be; it was still interesting to see the effect in action though he thought. As Alasdair zipped by in a blur towards Tomlin, Azazeal could feel his legs weaken. That spell was certainly a doozy and was having it's own effect on him for casting it. Before he allowed himself to drop to his knees, he staggered back a step or two to lean against a nearby tree. He then lifted his blood smeared hand up a moment to witness it now shaking from the strain his body was feeling.

He glanced over in Tiff's direction just as she was locking her lips with his specimen's. He again cocked his eyebrow at her unorthodox methods, but it did seem to work in her favor. He smirked as he saw Nova's body fall limb and doll like against the demon's body. She was so useful to him, perhaps he would trail her along for a bit longer for more of her assistance, the information on her glasses wasn't going anywhere anytime soon after all.

"Alasdair...leave the rabble to it's own devices and grab up the woman, we have what we came for now" he called out, hoping to stop Alasdair in his tracks before he could make another barrage on the would-be mage. "Tiff, hurry up and revert the shifter to her smaller size so we can leave, I need to return to the chamber at once."

He looked down at his hand again, watching as the tips of his fingers began to appear crystalline where his blood had been smeared.

Leana could barely tell what had happened before it was too late. Nova was now helpless, and she was soon to be too.

She took out her other katar and glared across at the demon girl. She had to trust that she knew what she was doing. And hopefully not be clumsy about it.

She started to prepare using a spell and took a step back, and suddenly found that yes indeed, she had tripped on a tree root. Her arms flew out as she tried to keep her katars from hitting herself, and soon her back hit the ground. Oh why was the universe being so cruel?

Leana did not notice the faintest glow of blue markings appearing on her pale skin.