[center][h1][color=red][u]G R A V E S[/u][/color][/h1][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][hr][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]  • Tʜᴇ Dᴜɴɢᴇᴏɴ • [/center][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][hr][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]

The sound of music drifted to Graves's ear from behind him, barely a hopeful whisper over the howl of the furious wind. The frantic yet utterly precise playing of the strings from their bard caused magic to wash over the party, giving them a temporary boost in power that was much appreciated. Graves felt his limbs lighten, as if the weapon in his hands weighed half what it previously did. He could nary feel more than a dozen pounds of the steel armor clinging to his form. It gave him the added agility to avoid a leaping slime that aimed to wrap it's gelatinous form around his leg- disaster avoided by little more than the skin of his teeth.

Graves responded by lowering his halberd down the slime's center, the sharpened head executing the target like a falling guillotine. Or, it would have, if the target wasn't able to pull itself back together a few moments later.

[color=red]'Damn it!'[/color] He sneered, taking a step back. He could feel the hot breath of Elian upon the back of his neck. Graves couldn't retreat any further without breaking their whole formation. That usually wouldn't be a problem for the tank; standing his ground was kind of in the title. Yet...[color=red]'We're playing for keeps now.' [/color] He needed to trust his healer would keep him alive. Just like the supports needed to trust him to [i]hold the line.[/i]

With a grimace, he took his place right next to Rael and Ochre once more. Their blind spots were being covered by the coiling, almost sentient chains from Tess. Graves could hear their disgusting little bodies crackling against the electrified perimeter she'd set. It sounded a hell of a lot like the sizzling the slimes to their front were doing when they ran into Ochre's minefield.

Her magic was incredible, but the mumblings that Graves couldn't make out over the sounds of battle made him worry. She had to hold it together. [color=red]"Keep it together Tess!"[/color] The Blood Knight roared, his halberd singing like a banshee as it cut another enemy in twain. [color=red]"You break and your little boyfriend's getting swarmed!"[/color] They'd [i]all[/i] get swamped, but as far as Graves knew, flower boy was the only one Tess gave two shits about besides herself. A little motivation never hurt anybody, right?

His fight got a great deal easier when Landon lent his own unique form of support to the frontliners. Graves felt a slight 'ting' against his shoulder armor right before heat began to rush across his form. It washed over his body like an invisible, second layer of skin, and the cold suddenly became a great deal more bearable. The goosebumps on Graves's exposed pectorals began to fade, though that was far from the most impressive part of the spell.

That came when the Blood Knight cleaved another slime apart, fire flinging haphazardly with the swinging halberd as it cooked the creature alive from the inside. It died in a single cut. [color=red]"Now [b]that[/b] is what I'm talking about!"[/color] Adrenaline shot through the muscle-bound tank, filling him with a newfound strength and a confidence he hadn't been able to muster before. Graves began to [i]advance,[/i] cutting, stabbing and cleaving away at every frosty creep that lay in front of him.

[color=red] "Pipsqueak, flower boy!"[/color] Graves yelled out the names of the other melee fighters, hoping to draw their attention to him. [color=red]"You think we can carve a path toward the front exit?!"[/color] He jabbed his weapon down into the center of a slime, letting the spear tip remain inside until it stopped struggling. [color=red]"Put our backs to open air and just worry about letting them funnel in from one direction?!"[/color] That would make Sky all the deadlier, he assumed; let her flames move down a tight, single corridor and roast the entire lot of these things in one go. [color=red]"Hell, we might even be able to force the door closed behind us!"[/color] It wasn't a great plan, but he didn't hear anyone else coming up with anything. And moving at all was better than sitting there and waiting to be overwhelmed.