Life Stone

[tangletail]

Leo had quickly spotted the fleeing couple, and frowned after seeing another group go. He was actually quite fond of the fox girl too, having some form of competition, and someone he could easily relate to. But now that was probably some rich man's luxury as that one opportunity had now made fleeting feet across the room and out the door. The cat shook his head idly and looked around to see if he could find a way to aid the fleeing group. And by some sheer luck he had managed to spot a portion of the broken pillar he had climbed on lying on the floor. It had been propped up by other large chunks of rubble, and underneath it was a wooden truss that could probably be used as a lever.


He looked back to the group only to see that the dragon was now blowing a torrent of icy wind. "This may get me killed..." he murmured to himself. His mind immediately pulling up images of the dead bodies he had seen in the maze. And then himself among them. A crystalline statue that had been shattered from the head and down to his waist, leaving only the legs. He shook his head, and quickly slapped himself across the cheek. "No... no no... don't think about that now..." he growled to himself, his eyes now darting back to the trust. In no time, he quickly got underneath it. One end braced against his shoulder, while the other was pushed a little further underneath the pillar. The cat grunted harshly as his legs worked well past their limits to push the truss up. It took a bit, and his efforts had wavered some, but in the end he got the result he wanted.


The pillar had creaked and protested before finally hitting the ground with a thud and rolling off the side of the walkway. The air went silent around it for a moment as it fell and thumped harshly into a large pile of gold coins and guilded trinkets. A incredible cacophony was created from the result as coins had been hurtled through the air violently like water from a canon  ball. The feline was quick to relocate after it left his sight. Quickly weaving between the shadows, behind and under cover to stay out of the dragon's sight.

[Vosur Aekira]

The fox-kin took notice that the arrow lodged in the tongue of the dragon, freezing over inside of it due to the ice breath before she was pulled to cover. "It's soft on the inside..." Karina spoke as she was behind the cover, though her voice was quite possibly drowned out by the roar and icy blast of the dragon. After the blast was done, she got up to start moving again while grabbing the fletching for another arrow in her quiver but not quite pulling it out yet, looking to Helios. "If we can aim for the eyes or for the back of it's mouth, we can slow it down or stop the attacks from it." she spoke towards Kiana and Korius while they were moving. She turned back to see the dragon tumbling from being tripped by a pillar and quickly drew out one of her arrows to take a moment for aiming while the dragon was in too bad of a posture to let out another blast, aiming for the eyes before she let her arrow fly.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Karina's arrow couldn't hit its target dead on, and it bounced off of the dragon's slightly bloodied lower jaw. The dragon got up from its little stumble and roared again before taking another deep breath. They were at the edge of the maze, so Korius quickly ducked behind the last wall, grabbing Kiana before she ran out in the open. "Leo! Back up!" The dragon let out one more powerful blast of its ice breath at the group. While the blast washed over, he looked over at Kiana and Karina, "Try aiming for the mouth as she takes in breath. We won't have anymore cover the rest of the way, and that's the only way we're going to stop her from turning us into a part of that corpse collection. The hole that those two left in is already covered so we won't be able to escape as quickly!"

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana saw the pillar go rolling and the dragon stumble over it. She also noticed another arrow fly through the air but miss the mouth after Karina had said to aim for the eyes or the mouth of the dragon. As she went to move after that, she felt herself being pulled back and looked over her shoulder to see Korius. So she stayed where she was and another icy blast went by her hiding place. She looked at Korius again as he spoke to her and Karina during the blast about trying to aim for the mouth while the dragon was taking a breath. With that said, she reached up and pulled one of the new arrows out of her new quiver and notched on her bow. When the icy blast was over, she ran from her hiding place. Paying attention to the timing, she stopped, turned towards the dragon, raised her bow, and drew back the string right before the dragon started to inhale for another icy blast. As the dragon inhaled, she loosed the arrow at her target, the back of the dragon's throat. As soon as the arrow left her bow, she turned and started running again with nowhere to hide anymore, hoping beyond hope that her shot worked and she wouldn't become a Cheetah Popsicle.

[tangletail]

Leo peaked out from around the corner, watching for his opportunity to get close to the cells once more. Once he saw it, he quickly darted out from under the cover and got behind the cells. His hands planting firmly on the stone surface to help slow himself down and press up against the wall to make himself less noticeable while the dragon blew it's breath of ice. Though he was curious as to why Korius wouldn't just bash an exit through the stone, he did remember a few options of escape. “Double back two rooms and look up! You got a hole in the ceiling, but it's looking directly at the dragon. The other one is on the far left! But it's right underneath!” Once he gave out what he could remember he quickly weaved back behind a pile of gold to be out of the way of the next torrent of ice.

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina only had enough time to pull out an arrow in another attempt to fire off a shot, but she had to spin to put her back to cover to prevent being a frosted-fox. She let out a growl of anger as she heard Korius reiterate what she just told Kiana and him both, only with the limitation to the inside of the mouth. "Way ahead of you!" she called out since she was on the opposite side's cover, quickly glancing back out once the blast of ice was done so she could quickly notch and draw back the bow for when it would attempt one more time. As soon as she could see it start to inhale again, she let go one carefully aimed arrow this time and quickly re-notched a new arrow in to take another quick-shot in the attempt to make sure that at least one arrow made it in since her last shot missed altogether. What happened next surprised her: the dragon's mouth closed after the first arrow, preventing Karina from seeing if that arrow was swallowed or caught in the back of the throat. The second arrow simply caught in the nostril. She didn't even think twice about going back for cover again, waiting to listen for any audible tones of her success or failure.

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

Helios hide behind cover beside Karina as best he could waiting for a chance to run for the exit. He kept glancing at Korius waiting for a signal to run. He wanted to do more, but there was nothing he could do except wait. He tried to look around maybe there was something he could use to distract the dragon, but he saw nothing.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

The dragon was hit in the throat with the first one, forcing the dragon to close her mouth. It was going to dissipate its breath, but an arrow through the nostril caused her to cough and snort out two small jet streams of frost right at the door they were heading back towards. When they reached it, Korius cursed under his breath and slammed the door hard. Most of the ice came off, but knob wouldn't turn. "Leo. Quickly. Pick the ice out." The mother dragon struggled as she tried to get the arrows out of her.

[tangletail]

Without any thought Leo quickly retreated back to the door after the command and he was sure that he had enough time to not be frozen to death. When he approached the lock, and gave it a quick look over, he held a displeased expression when he realized that his dagger alone would not actually be able to get between the cracks. He glanced over his shoulder quickly to the dragon to make sure he was still out of harms way before lifting the hook from the grappling line around his shoulders and slipped the claw through the crack. He gave it a wiggle, and kept pushing till eventually he got a solid resistance. He took a deep breath and pulled back as hard as he could. His shoulder braced against the metal bar as a dagger was worked through the crack. It poked sharply at the ice a few times, chipping away at it till the gear work had enough wiggle room.

Once he was satisfied, Leo drop the hook and left it to hang from the rope on his shoulder. The dagger would be slipped back into the sash next to it's sister. And the door knob was given a few hard pushes. The final one, the cat pushed his weight down, and finally the door open with a loud snap. The cat was quick to step out of the way after throwing it open, just in case the others may run him over.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana's arrow went into the dragon's mouth just before Karina's first one and she watched the dragon's mouth closed. She saw the second of Karina's arrows get the dragon in the nostril causing the dragon to shoot two jets of ice at the door that was their escape route. When Korius slammed the ice off the door with his body and told Leo to pick the ice out of the door knob, Kiana ran over to the door as she took an arrow from her new quiver and notched it. Standing to one side of the door, she stood facing the dragon and raised her bow to aim it at the dragon again in case another arrow in the mouth was needed. Once Leo got the door open, she still stood guard, waiting for the others to go through before she would follow.

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina ducked from the stream of ice hitting the door, but she gets up and looks to the dragon that was now struggling to get the arrows out of her throat since Kiana's also made it in as well. She notched another arrow and focused her sights again on the dragon, waiting for an opportunity to fire another arrow into her mouth since that's the only area that seemed to work so far. Seeing the dragon thrash about so violently was making her back up rather carefully to the door in case they managed to get it open. "Of all the rotten luck I seem to have with this..." she growled out-loud.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius quickly holstered his sword and grabbed Kiana and Karina with a swipe of his arm, running through the open doorway, and through the halls. Once the whole party was through, the dragon took another deep breath and let go another breath, sealing the entrance-way. Korius let out a sigh of relief as the tip of his tail barely got frosted over. However, he snapped out of it when he felt the castle shaking, "Looks like we're not out of the woods yet." He took the lead, squeezing past Leo in the tight space and went the way they came back. Korius broke open the last door and they ran out, the sun making its way under the horizon. The mother dragon roared as she flew out of the broken castle, but instead of chasing them, she flew off into the distance. The black wolf's heart stopped and started beating again when she disappeared into the distance.

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

Helios sighed with relief when they were out of the castle and doubly so when the mother dragon flew in another direction from their own. "I guess now it might be safe to see what you fou..." Helios was cut off by what he was sure was flapping. His heart dropped into his stomach. He looked around frantically looking for the mother dragon again, but then the flapping began to multiply. Surely there weren't more dragons around, that couldn't be. Then he remembered... "K-Korius didn't you say those babies were about to hatch..." Helios stood up drawing his blade. He was worried only a moment realizing that if he couldn't bring Luna back with the Life Stone, then he'd just join her in Nyx's night sky.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana let out a puff of air when she was grabbed and pulled through the open door before she had the opportunity to do it herself. When she and Karina were released, she immediately got her feet moving, holding her bow and down to her left. "I was about to follow, I didn't need to be grabbed." She muttered as she ran through the halls. She didn't stop running until they were outside and then she stopped and her head whipped back to see the mother dragon rising from the castle but then proceeding to fly off into the distance instead of after them. She would have agreed with what Helios was going to say about seeing what Korius grabbed inside, but her ears picked up on the flapping too. Glancing at Helios when he mentioned the baby dragons hatching, she grimaced at the thought. "Now I have to fight newborns. That's just not right." She thought as she looked at the castle again. "Running sounds like a much better option." But she was ready to raise her bow and take aim if she had to.

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina did not appreciate being scooped up, more so as she was almost about to let the arrow go. Instead she wasn't able to fire at all as she was carried by the short berserker. "YIPE! Hey, leggo!" she started off speaking before she saw why she was being scooped up, then she was trying to aim while being jostled about during the carry. "W-w-w-we're good! Let us down!" she spoke, again proven wrong by the dragon's exit right after he dropped them. She quickly scrambled to her feet and took aim at the dragon, only to see it fly away. Then the mention of the eggs hatching made her aim in the direction of the castle. "Sonova... got any ideas, Leader? Fight or run?" she asked as she was starting to see a few eyes in the shadows of the remnants of the castle, some movement coming from it.