Rather than wind, it was the warmth of sunshine that filled Lugh’s body, his feet becoming lighter, movements swifter until he caught up to the creature. Physical energy spiking, the warrior-priest found himself side to side with the centipede woman’s face. Up close, the size of her head was just as large as him, and his staff rang out brightly as he delivered consecutive blows to her jaw. One blow clanged against teeth, chips of white scattering against face, while the other one struck the cheek, deforming flesh.

Raime unleashed his flurry of strikes as well, the pain that wracked his body dissipating as his dagger bit into the tough flesh of the centipede woman’s tongue. It was much tougher that he had expected, like cutting into a freshly-butchered piece of meat using a dull knife, and black vapors escaped from the lacerations in lieu of blood. But the rhythm was there still, and a gurgling shriek sounded, the pain giving enough pause for Ari to gather herself.

Slow as she may have been in this fight of monsters and Immortalss, the cat girl was still incredibly dextrous by human measures. Her free hand hooked onto the ringed pommels of five of her throwing knives, whipping them out with haphazard speed into the monster’s maw. The blades spun through the air, two deflected by the oversized teeth but the remaining flying into that blender of teeth within the centipede woman.

It looked like the monster had to commit to the fight after all.

Raime read the twitching of the tongue and dove downwards right as the thick muscle swung overhead. His Wargtooth dagger sliced into the meat, a deeper cut made by utilizing the creature’s own attack against it, but on the other end of the tongue, Ari found herself being tossed into the air, flying right towards Amulak. She crashed into the mage right as his spell launched out, but the mage’s might was such that even a flying catgirl couldn’t knock him down. They both received only [b]13 damage[/b], but the significance of that differed from one to the other.

Lugh, closest to the centipede woman, saw Amulak’s Spell Spear gather above, as well as the fumes bubbling within the monster’s maw too. Noxious fumes burst out from her mouth, blanketing the area in front and around her with a flesh-corroding poison. Bearing the brunt of the blast, the warrior could feel exposed portions of his skin being to peel away, [b]27 points of damage[/b] dealt even through his tremendous END and his armor. It was the cry of agony behind him though, that reminded Lugh that others were less well-armed than he. Raime was choking on his own saliva as his flesh felt like it was [i]melting[/i] within the white mist. Even though Lugh had physically dispersed the stream of poison, the scout still found himself [b]53 points of health lower[/b], and he was Poisoned as well, his lungs burning and heaving, but unable to push out the poison that he had breathed in.

Before the centipede could take advantage of either of their moments of weakness, however, the Spell Spear crashed down, scattered against her skull with force enough to drive her jaw into the ground. Her tongue snaked back into her mouth and her one hundred legs twitched in an attempt to bring her back up, but those bodily spasms were all that she could do as magical restrictions drove themselves like stakes into her nervous system.

She was Paralyzed. If they wanted to escape, now was the time to do so. 
[sub][@Psyker Landshark][@Cu Chulainn][@Searat][@GreenGoat][/sub][hr]
As Magpie continued her own dances, this time with Ames providing both music and backup moves, the blue oni’s grin intensified. Behind him, the red brothers stood up, sauntering forwards to hand over an iron club to their ringleader. Hefting it upwards, the blue oni began to slam the weapon against the ground, harmonizing with the bright chiming of Ames’s bells with the deep thud of the club. Having become the rhythm master, it was up to the red brothers to pick up the dancing slack, and they did so with violent bombast, popping, locking, contorting, bending, [url=https://youtu.be/3GNG12g2bKw?t=178]in a war dance.[/url]

Even without a common language between them, different races could still enjoy themselves with a simple beat and a willingness to get stupid.

Time passed, but within the mist of the Thunderstruck Grove, it was uncertain how much had passed. Sweat had built up on all of them by now, flesh slick and underclothes damp from their labor and recreation. Finally, the blue oni barked out, the red brothers stopping on a final pose that saw them in a wide squat, fingers splayed and arms parallel as they tilted their heads back to look down at Magpie and Ames from their noses.

Such an intimidating posture only lasted for a moment or two, before the three broke down into booming laughter. The blue oni reached out into the bowels of the dead bear and, with a crack and a tear, pulled out two ribs, glistening with raw meat and yellowed fat.

[b]“Ku!”[/b] he called, pointing the ribs at the Immortals.
[sub][@Yankee][@OwO][/sub][hr]
The Mountain Man’s grim task continued, his cleaver striking deeper and deeper into the tree even while the petals continued to fall. All around, the groaning and creaking of the roots continued to haunt him, taunt him, but the viscous sap and the growing gash in the tree warmed his heart somewhat. There was progress being made here, and as a Mountain Man, he was uniquely positioned to be very good at destroying nature. He continue to attack, and after great effort, began to heave himself against the tree, all the muscles in his body working to uproot this demon. A herculean task, perhaps, but Klein was a herculean man.

The wood groaned. The wood creaked. His SP continued to drop for no discernible reason, but he persevered still!

And with a final roar, he sent the tree crashing down, the trunk falling against the wall of woven roots, the wispy petals finally dispersing! Though it hadn’t brought him a level up, Klein had done it! He had brought down a monster within the Thunderstruck Groves all by himself, and only as a sub-level 20 Immortal at that!

He noticed, then, that his SP was still dropping.

His gaze slid towards the stump that remained.

There was a spine there. A human spine. Rendered into beautiful detail by his realistic perception and his consent towards gore. It was severed in half, as if by a cleaver, and looking down, he saw the rest of a human’s lower skeleton: pelvis, femurs, scraps of clothing, rusted remains of a weapon.

The rustling of phantom leaves sounded, and the roots that enclosed him continued to weave their cage.
[sub][@Shovel][/sub]