The Scourge of The Abyss [Spellstone]

The transition from their current standing position to another was disorienting, and yet Michael knew that he would have to get used to it, his head swimming. Yet they were out of the way of the powerful attack that would have killed them, hot steam that seemed to even reduce the gold lining the floor into glowing puddles. For a moment the metallic dragon was lost, unable to find the ethereal that had only moments ago caught its interest, grumbling lowly while Michael adjusted to his temporarily dizzied senses. Turning to Spellstone, Michael considered their situation for a moment, a low sigh issuing from his mouth. So it seemed that his ally had used some kind of teleportation magic and that had bought them enough time to regroup.

Perhaps enough time to at least take down the mage that was adding to the danger of the draconic being, which was deadly within its own right, id the stories held any truth. Spellstone turned to him as if looking for some sort of direction and all Michael could offer him was…nothing at the moment, his mind was still reeling over the possibilities. The woman seemed a little annoyed, a bright light gathering around the tip of her staff and then ascending into the sky, before building up and then something happened. Within an instant the oreb burst into many smaller ones that rained down upon the entire room yet seemed to hit an invisible barrier around the dragon and mage. So no worries of friendly fire upon their end? Concentrating a powerful burst of dark ethereal within his hand, Michael fired it at the draconic golem and a  loud boom emanated from where it struck. The thing roared loudly as its tails flung against another pile. Along with that came a strange shard firing form that tail, Michael turning to the side as it flew past him.

Spellstone was pinned to the wall by one of the dragons strange projectiles, cutting through his cape and then simply dangling him where he was. Michael turned to him for a moment before turning his attention back upon the draconic creature that was railing from the damage done to its golden plating. A large bit of it was blown away, scorching forming around the impact and a few droplets of molten gold would slowly slide from the wound and hiss upon contact with the ground. ”Yeah…shocking.” Michael muttered with a roll of his eyes, twirling the strange blade that was still within his hand, correcting his stance within the air. His eyes seemed to morph, taking on a strange and archaic look that radiated with pure power. Seven sigils within each pupil, six arrayed around it and one radiating from within the pupil itself.

”Well, look what we have here.” The female muttered irises glowing a bright gold, brighter than the molten gold that was dripping from the carapace of the dragon. From beneath the hide one could see the course of energy that was flowing beneath it like bright blue blood, slightly leaking out from where the damage was done. It growled lowly looking for whatever had damaged it, and the gem like eyes fell upon the make that had harmed it, the ethereal and titan king. It seemed that it was not too pleased with what he had done, but that was not quite important at the moment, he was only here to deal with the problem at hand. Directing Soul Slayer toward the dragon, it would open its maw and then unleash what looked like a stream of steam from its mouth once again.

A powerful grey barrier formed between the two and this assault, bisecting the attack that would cascade around it and slam into the wall with an immense amount of heat. With a dramatic wave of his hand, the shield would concave and then begin to bore through the steam attack that was aimed upon them, until it collided with the maw of the dragon, who immediately slammed its mouth shut. A loud boom emanated from that attack and caused the dragon to careen out of control as the sorceress was forced to abandon ship so to speak and then land upon a nearby mountain of gold. Open to attack, it would seem.

Spoiler:

Spellstone began an assault of his own, unleashing what appeared to be strange orbs that were all aimed towards the female and the dragon. While the dragon would not move away from the strange orbs, the female had a different plan entirely, beginning to glow a bright light as she disappeared within an instant. Appearing behind Michael, she swung with the glowing staff, a trail of light following where the weapon arced. With an instant to react, the ethereal brought his own blade up to defend, a loud pinging sound echoing out from the clash. At that moment the orbs that clung to the dragon would let out a resounding boom, light flashing brightly from it as the dragon seemed to barely notice what he went off against it. Jewel like eyes would narrow, as the large monstrosity would turn upon the two, revealing powerful fangs within the mechanical mouth.

Again the woman would disappear within a flash, appearing on the dragon with the staff still pointed at the two. ”This is going nowhere.” Michael thought to himself considering his options for a moment, and then realizing there were not many really. Sure they could just try to assault the thing they were fighting, but he was not really sure how powerful the mage really was. Around the tip of the staff a powerful orb of energy began to form, glowing brighter than any other light that was within the cavernous room, and within an instant it was fired off at the two, large enough that it was nearly inescapable. Without really even needing to think, Michael extended an arm forward as his clothing seemed to shift. Fabric would warp, turning from the color that it was to something else, red like freshly spilt blood as that seemed to spread over the Ethereals body.

Two dark eyes peered out from the chest plate and what seemed like a small bit of cape would taper off from the waist, adding a certain regality to it. The Void Armor would form, save for the helmet section. One second the powerful blast was heading towards them, and then within that moment what appeared to be a void would open up ahead of his outstretched hand. The beam was assimilated into that void, until nothing remained but a small bit that was then promptly negated as well. “That the best you go?” Michael pondered outloud left hand still laying loosely at his side, fingers curled around the hilt of his weapon. He turned to Spellstone with a rather confident grin, then returned that looked to the dragon and the woman. Something within her expression ahd changed however, as if the armor alone was more than enough to scare her.

”Now I see.” She muttered darkly, raising the staff within her hand higher into the air, then slamming the bottom into the back of the dragon. Within an instant the hole that had been melted into the armor would instantly meld itself back back together, as if no damage had ever been done. ”Raziel’s pawn has come to play.” She whispered cool leaping from the back of the dragon as something strange seemed to happen. ”Why am I not surprised? Her voice grew, greater than one could expect from such a weak body. As if two voices spoke as one, a deep rumbling male voice and then the one they had come to know from the sorceress. ”So he seeks to gain even more power, the fool. Using babes to carry out his will too.”

Michael had been forced to use the void armor, but it wasn’t as if the benefits of the armor itself were gone permanently, only until it refueled itself once again. Still, that the female knew about Raziel confused Michael somewhat, as if he suspected that he was really just being sent out to deal with the ethereal beings  enemies while he sat back in Valhalla, like the lazy ass that he was. Red fingers coated in the powerful red armor curled up into a fist as he glared at the woman, and then turned to the male that was helping him. His ally considered what he did some kind of trick, though he had yet to see what the power of his ethereal energy could offer him, no, he was nowhere close to done at this point and soon enough the dragon would be slain.

The sorceress seemed to get on edge upon seeing that Michael bore the strange armor gifted to him by Raziel, as if something about it were reason to be cautious. ”I think its time we get rid of this hag.” Michael mused out loud with a grin, turning to Joshua was if seeing if he agreed on that. His own energy began to flare up around the male a she prepared to end this battle with one decisive blow, and hopefully using the power that the male standing beside him wielded, they would end this in one go. The female would point her staff towards him, and began to draw a large amount of power, his eyes began to burn as he could see the flow of power from the dragon to the female.

So she was drawing upon energy from the dragon to fuel this spell? If that were the case then all they had to do was attack the dragon while she was doing this spell of hers. A great amount of black energy tinged with red would form around the staff, beginning to crack the very material that formed it, the energy so palpable that even someone with no magical sense whatsoever could feel it. ’hey, I’ll deal with this spell. When I give the word I want you to throw your most powerful spell at the dragon, hold nothing back.” Michael muttered drawing a large amount of ethereal energy around his outstretched hands, forming what one could assume would be a full powered blast.

The large red blast came outwards him, and so he retaliated with a burst of his own. ”Now!” Michael roared over the sound of the two attacks meeting, hoping that Spellstone would be able to do as he asked and attack.

The ultima energy began to form around his hand, cracking the very armor that was meant to protect him. It seemed that the energy that he was wielding had begun to become too great to truly control, though it made sense considering that he was not quite mastered within its use. Wind began to swirl around the male as the energy began to condense into an orb that swirled around his hands, swirling faster and faster as it became more volatile. He needed to have enough energy to counter the attack shot at him, and Michael was unsure if he could actually pull something like that off, considering the immense energy behind the attack that the female was forming. Spellstone had said something about needing to create some kind of protection, but he did not have the time or ability to do so, not if he wanted to do this thing right.

Grey energy would crackle from his eyes like electricity as the orb would let out a sound before firing off to meet with the one that the sorceress was forming. The two energies would meet with a deafening boom, as a shockwave seemed to emanate from the point of impact, going outwards until it seemed to collapse upon the energy that Michael was releasing, energy that was perhaps incalculable to a novice but even he had his limits. The ethereal was no god and he did not have the impressive power source that was the draconic being, no, he only had his small body to conduct the energy from the etherium. So it started off as the blast seemingly equal, but one could see that he was losing, Michael’s energy was nowhere as powerful as the woman’s in the long run, just a dying candle.

A low curse escaped from Michael’s lips as he dumped more energy into his attack, causing the armor around his hands to crack and then shattered as the flesh began to tear and bleed. Blood intermingled with the ultima and began to hiss, sputtering before turning into an acrid black smoke that rose ever higher. Lightning would flash around him, yet it did not bother Michael much, so long as it didn’t hit him. Even with the excess energy, it seemed that his foe had done the same thing, until the dragon was impacted by the lighting attacks. This gave him more leeway with the struggle of two ancient energies, until something happened that Michael did not quite expect, then something happened that made everything so much more difficult. Something was caught up within the maelstrom of the storm created by Spellstone, and a small bit of rubble slammed into the armor around his gut with amazing force.

Michael let out a small grunt as the armor around that area began to crack, the crack spreading outwards as blood welled up around that point, oozing out in a sickening frequency. Some of the blood spurted from his mouth as his own attack was weakened and Michael found himself being impacted by the woman’s attack, energy slamming into an impromptu shield that only served to avoid any deadly damage as the armor around his torso region was torn away and he was thrown against a wall with a hard thud and fell to the ground, or rather fell before managing to stop himself. However it seemed that she was significantly weakened by the assault upon the dragon, who was taking major damage from everything that was hitting it, metallic skin beginning to melt as it let out roars of immense pain. It was dying and the woman was in the midst of the storm, trying to deflect the lighting strikes and things of that nature, but eventually it caught up with her as one of the bolts struck the woman and reduced her to a smoldering corpse.

The taste of iron filled his mouth as the blood bubbled from between his clenched teeth, vision blurring ever so slightly as Michael watched the ends of the dragon with a silent relish. Even within his weakened form, Michael could keep consciousness, holding a hand over the wound caused by the rock that had sailed through both armor and flesh. A few chips of the solid red armor would fall away, revealing the painful red flesh underneath, a few stream of blood running down his body. As soon as the attack was done, the male would float down next to him as the dragon began to fall apart, Michael drawing upon the small amount of ethereal energy left within him and channeling it to heal the male that had used up so much energy to slay the dragon, leaving himself barely enough for himself.

”Damn, what was I thinking?” He muttered to himself spitting a thick globule of blood onto the floor. Drawing upon what energy that remained, Michael fixed over any wounds that remained upon him, though it was mostly keeping him from dying. He would not die, but that did not mean that he would be able to stay conscious for long, so the male would have to bring the guy out of here before they both collapse onto the ground. Drawing up the last of his strength, Michael created the Abyssal portal, one that would lead him to a place that he could barely remember, the small hovel that Joshua called home, dragging the male along with him as he went. The nether lashed out at him, as if sensing that he was nearing death, yet he would not allow it to claim him. Stepping shakily through the portal, Michael tossed the male on the bed and then fell against the wall, grunting as a lance of pain ran through his side.

”Dammit, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this weak in my life.” Michael muttered as the void armor became the clothing that he wore when he arrived, the shirt for the most part torn apart, revealing the torso underneath. Luckily his shorts were intact, save for the frayed hems, arms crossing over his stomach as he took a deep breath of the air, looking to the unconscious male laid out on the bed with a wry smirk. ”Lucky you, if that was anyone else I would have left them to die.” He muttered eyes fluttering closed, as Michael slipped into unconsciousness.