The others seemed to listen to Troy's suggestion, as they began to march away from the monstrosity approaching. Since his back was turned and he had no intention of looking behind him, Troy never saw the form of Bal, or his decision to confront the beast and buy time for the others. Instead, he focused on holding the girl up - she obviously wasn't heavy compared to some of the others, but the 20 milligram insects under his skin struggled to support her weight along with his own. They were slower than the others, but luckily, the group was considerate enough to slow down for the pair once they were out of sight of the beast. This was the time that Troy looked over his companions.

The masked spirit held a large, burning lantern, and was similar to Troy in that he kept many features of a spirit. The next was the girl he was carrying, obviously the least monstrous of them all... but also the most shocked. She must have had trouble getting used to her body... The thought caused Troy to briefly wonder how he managed to be so good at walking and moving, despite his entire physiology being changed and lacking muscles... Well, at the very least, the girl was polite enough to thank him for the help. When she expressed her thanks, Troy simply nodded and continued the march, doing his best to keep up with the others. The beast was long and skeletal, the legs clearly being made to cut and tear through flesh and sinew. Troy did his best to keep away from it. The man in armor, the fool that nearly engaged in combat with the flying monster - he was of average height, and seemed to move almost robotically... Speaking of which, the last individual was the robot man, whom Troy honestly didn't pay much attention to - he was near the lead of the party, and Troy was concentrating on supporting the girl. 

The group traveled for a short period of time, eventually finding the stone bridge. They had entered the cavern, and Troy could feel the insects in his body tense slightly at the sight of the man in the center. He was robed in black cloth, which covered his face - all that could be seen was the glowing red staff he held, and the skin on his hands. Troy brief reached his free hand, which he regained after the girl started to just use his shoulder for support. Her words stopped him just as his hand reached the hole in his face.

[b][color=lightgray]"Thank you...I think I should be fine now, with the generous help of you and your little friends..."[/color][/b]

The voice was briefly cut off when she also noticed the man, and she stepped away from Troy, finally regaining her balance and ability to walk. The insects under Troy's skin wiggled gratefully, thankful to be free of the extra weight. Troy kept the hand near his face tensed, ready to throw at a moments notice, when he called out.

“This way! I will show you the way out!”

Troy was still tense, not believing this man for a second - nothing in this hell was nice, the only thing he could rely on was the group. Unfortunately, the man decided to leave them, having turned into the form of a crimson bird, before taking flight and unleashing a piercing shriek. It continued to do so as it flew, seemingly alerting the cavern to it's presence... Dammit... Troy watched as the spindly legs of the creatures climbed down slowly from the ceiling, unaware of the ones already below the bridge. The would easily tear them apart, and looking down, Troy saw the alternative - a pool of burning liquid, releasing a horrid stench. It radiated heat of ridiculous proportions, and Troy knew that he would die if he even attempted to go down there. The creatures continued their advance, slowly approaching the bridge... It wasn't until an arc of green fire shot from behind him that hope revealed itself. The same flame that the masked spirit used flew from it's lantern, and landed accurately on the wall in front of them, causing the creatures to recoil in fear of the flames.

"Go, dear friends, follow the sound of the bird! I don't think it will stay long! I will follow after I finish this blockage...!"

The advice to follow the bird was foolish in Troy's eyes - the thing called a hoard of monster on the group! But the masked spirit made an excellent opportunity, and he turned to look at the group to prepare running. The girl was looking at him, and began to speak.

[b][color=lightgray]"...I'm going to go help her...if you know you can't do anything, then please run away."[/color][/b]

She then began to walk forwards and, after summoning a perfectly white sphere from seemingly nowhere, firing a beam of what looked like ice at the ground to stop the creatures on the other side. Troy began to run towards the other end of the bridge, the obvious choice. As he did so, he dug into his skull and pulled out roughly 1000 of the disgusting worm-like insects. They wriggled, forming a tight ball by biting into one another, and Troy launched the projectile at one of the creatures in front of them, hitting it squarely in the throat. Hundreds fell into the pool below, and a ball not even weighing a pound thrown by a weakling didn't hurt much. But the maggots that did latch on began to dig into the flesh, drilling through the mouth and attempting to go to the brain. This distracted the creature enough to flail wildly, losing it's grip and even slamming one of the monsters below it off the wall, both falling violently into the pool. Troy finished running the distance, and made it to the other side, relative safety. He then turned to see his companions, still valiantly holding off the monsters...

The smart decision would be to run, leave them behind, and avoid the crow man. He left them, alerted the creatures to their presence, and was still screeching his head off... 

Instead, Troy reached into his head, pulling out a similarly sized ball, and entering into a throwing position, almost unconsciously. His fingers gripped the ball, while his eyes locked directly with the torso of the creature approaching the ice. Winding back his arm, he tossed the ball with strong force, allowing it to cross the distance of the bridge and slam into the monsters back, eliciting a violent hiss as the maggots immediately began to devour it alive. This one managed to hang on for awhile, but the sensation was too painful to ignore, and it reached back to dig out the maggots, resulting in it falling into the pool. Troy should have ran after that. But he simply reached into his skull again, preparing to toss another ball.

[color=598527]"I'll cover you guys, so hurry!"[/color]

The second his companions made it across, he would run as fast as he could. Until then... Well, he should try and protect the others.