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[indent][indent][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=#dc143c][b]Location:[/b][/color] The Dungeon, -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria[/right][/sub][/color]
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[color=dc143c][i]'I'm too late.'[/i][/color]

Enos lay motionless atop a stalagmite, the rock jutting through his chest. Blood washed down the side of the stone structure- fresh, slick. The light had only just left his eyes before they'd arrived. Death was not an unfamiliar presence in Andrew's life. He'd been to more funerals than he cared to remember. But that was always so...sterile. A body in a casket didn't bleed. Didn't still have that look of terror and fear and regret trapped on its face. Graves had promised Andrew he'd save each and every one of these people, and he'd already failed.

A scream echoed from ahead of them, further in the room. It was Luci's.

[color=dc143c][i]'Not again.'[/i][/color] Graves sucked in a breath. His body was shaking- all adrenaline, all rage, all [i]regret[/i]. He started walking toward the door, slowing even as everyone else sprinted ahead. He reached an unsteady hand out toward where Enos lay. He was already gone now, both here in Pariah and in the real world beyond. What was his body but an empty shell of code?

An empty shell. That's all it was.

An empty shell [i]full of blood[/i].

It came tearing out of him in long, dancing streaks. Light glistened off it from fading torch light. The wound in Enos's chest expanded with a sickening series of snaps, opening up further avenues to drain his arteries dry. It all gathered around Graves's hand, crawled up his arm. It formed something akin to a dense gauntlet of not-quite-liquid that reached just below his shoulder.

[color=dc143c]"Sorry, pal. I'll...I'll keep the rest of 'em alive for ya. I promise."[/color] The words trembled upon his tongue. A hurricane built up in his chest. Emotion raged like torrents of rain, tore through his body like whipping winds. The enemy they faced was far greater than anything they had taken down so far. It was a demon of earth, of green, of ravenous hunger. And it had killed another man right in front of them.

Aaginim was tossed aside like a broken toy. Limp, unmoving, and covered in his own blood. He'd fallen trying to protect the rest of his party. If they'd been there even a few minutes faster...

No time to think like that. No time to think at all. So many of the others were either fallen or close to it. Kazuki was rushing in to get at Priscilla's side. Alja was all fire and fury as she charged the creature head on, even as it reached out for her-- to do to her what it had already done to Aags. She was strong- stronger than most of them- but that towering titan of stone wasn't something she could muscle her way through. Not alone.

Graves ran forward to her side, slamming his shoulder into the demon's earthen grasp. He didn't bother with his weapon; it wasn't much use against that armored hide. His hands wrapped about a pair of the creature's fingers, each of which was maybe the size of his head. And he pushed back against it. Straining, screaming, pushing with all his might. Every muscle in his arms and chest burned, straining until they threatened to break.

Enos helped him hold the line.

[color=dc143c]"Nuke it!"[/color] He bellowed at the woman beside him. [color=dc143c]"Nuke it with everything you've god damn got!"[/color]
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