Fantasy Cursed Island

[Deadwood Deer]

Eventually as people sorted out their watches, only Adran and Fia were still awake, and Adran was alternating between the book he'd gotten from Merrath and Shuffle's bow. Over the course of the rest of the 'night', while watches changed and the elf worked. By 'morning', he'd apparently given up for the moment on changing the bow's structure and was just reading the book.

 

[Fangs9090]

Fia sat quietly during her watch, switching between watching Adran and watching the fire. She eventually fell asleep, nodding off little by little until she just fell back. It was only a little bit before the end of her shift.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Through the shifts, up until everyone was waking up and packing up camp to move on, Adran was still flipping through the book, folding it away when everyone was ready to move on and dousing the fire. "Shuffle," he said, getting the smaller girl's attention, "I might not be able to shave the handle down for you. I'm gonna try to figure something out, because it's getting really hard to deal with things up close and magic's a pretty solid way to deal damage, but don't be upset if I can't figure this out."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked over from watching the others, nodding as Adran finished. "Alright. I still have fire breath if it doesn't work out."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Alright," Adran shouldered his pack as the party strapped up to move out. Joanne and Emfa strapped their armor on and shouldered their weapons, Jerry replaced her knives, Beri stretched and yawned, scratchign a mark into the stone floor. Veo seemed to be the only one without any manner of weapon or any way to protect herself, and stood very close to Emfa the whole time.

 

[Fangs9090]

While the others were preparing, Erina made some minor modifications to the rope. She tied one end of it into a loop, intending to use it like a lasso. The other end, she simply tied into a thick knot, more for beating things back with. The encounter with the quick lizards had made her realize that she she should have some way to defend herself rather than relying entirely on the others.

Emil made sure his lute was well tuned, though he'd done so the night before anyway. Shuffle was just practicing her posture, just in case.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

When the group was ready to continue, they moved on out, leaving the safe zone with Joanne and Emfa in the front as the two sturdiest people here, across to the doorway with no door and peering inside.

 

[Fangs9090]

Through the doorway was hall, sloped downwards. It stretched on a ways before opening to another arena room, identical to the two before. Down on the arena floor were five minotaurs idling about. In addition, there one more minotaur, twice the size of the other five. It's horns were twisted and warped from all the corruption it had taken in.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Joanne and Emfa were first to see the minotaurs. It took Joanne and Veo both to grab the minotaur and keep her from blasting down there and possibly getting killed. "We need a plan!", Joanne hissed, "We've got someone for that!"

"I need to know what you guys can do," Jerry replied, looking at Emfa and Veo. "Magic, fighting skill...?"

"I can fight," Emfa said impatiently. "Veo's a healer."

"Alright, that helps." Jerry looked at the number of minotaurs and at the size of the party. They had the smaller minotaurs two to one, it was the large one that worried her. "Well, Adran can shoot, Shuffle... did you ever figure out that bow?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle shook her head. "I can't use it right now. I have my claws, my teeth, my venom, and my fire breath."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry nodded, "Can I borrow it?" Jerry couldn't really go hand-to-hand with a corrupted minotaur, unlike Joanne or probably Emfa. Erina was an unknown quantity in that regard. Surely she could ensnare one and cut its throat, but beyond that Jerry didn't know.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle nodded and pulled the bow from her back before handing it to Jerry.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry took the bow and focused on the others. "Alright, there's six of them, ten of us. If Veo's a healer, and Emil's support, that leaves eight to deal with the baddies. Adran and I can shoot from up here, that leaves Shuffle, Beri, Joanne, Emfa, Fia, and Erina down there. Not great odds."

"The smaller minotaurs are easy to dispatch, so long as you yourself are not hit." Joanne looked at Erina, "Your webbing should be sufficient to restrain one, if I understand it correctly."

"Just hit 'em really hard in the neck, chest, or gut, and they go down quick," Emfa interrupted.

"We know that, thank you," Jerry replied, "So, Beri, Emfa, Joanne, and Shuffle are the most capable of dealing with a minotaur head on. Shuffle, Beri, you might have to work together, that'll take three out of the equation immediately. If Adran and I are good shots, that takes out the other two, with Fia flying around above dropping fire support." She looked around at the party to make sure this made sense. "That'll leave just the big one, which we'll all have to work together to work on."

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil spoke up. "It would be best to take down the smaller ones as quickly as possible. I doubt the large one will simply stand by while we do that."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry nodded in agreement. "That's the plan. We can probably keep the big one off of the others by shooting it in the eyes and harassing it from a distance while the others do their thing, it's how we've handled minotaurs so far."

 

[Fangs9090]

Fia, Shuffle, Erina, and Emil all nodded in confirmation that they understood the plan. Emil went ahead and got his lute ready.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Okay, everyone get ready, we're only going to have one shot at this," Jerry, Adran, Joanne, Emfa, and Veo all stood up, Beri got ready to prowl down into the arena. Veo stayed up on the rim of the arena with Jerry, while Adran went to the other side of the rim, so the arrows would come from two sides. Joanne and Emfa went straight down the middle with Beri and the others determined to go down into the mess.

Joanne and Emfa both went for the two closest minotaurs, charging in. Emfa's axe was harder to block than Joanne's sword as Joanne slashed at the belly and Emfa cleaved at the neck. Beri charged towards the one just behind, slashing his claws through the minotaur's achillies tendon as he passed between his legs before whirling around, kicking up a small cloud of dust and jumping up, carving bloody gashes into the minotaur's back as he worked his way up. He'd learned from before, however, and rather than going for the throat under all that hair, he instead sank his claws into the armpit and ripped open the arteries there as soon as the minotaur raised his arms to try and dislodge the leopard.

Adran loaded up magic arrows and took aim at the large minotaur's eyes, arrows glowing green as the flew straight at them. Jerry tried to form an arrow and god zapped, before trying again and managing the arrow. The magic circles appeared, showing Jerry what she was looking at. Three yellow circles focused in on the one large minotaur's arms and chest, before the fired magic bolt split in three on the way there, targeting those areas.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil stayed at the rim, playing his songs to give everyone a boost. Shuffle went down alongside Joanne and Emfa, while Fia took flight from the rim. Erina headed down behind the others.

The Minotaurs barely had time to get ready before they were on them. Emfa’s staggered from the blow. It was bleeding heavily, but it still managed to swing its own axe.

Joanne’s minotaur grunted from the attack before raising a fist to smack her away. Reina’s web rope caught its arm before it swung. She managed to slow the attack, but Erina didn’t have the strength to pull against it, and it ended up pulling her as it swung at Joanne.

As Beri’s minotaur struggled to throw him off, getting cut up in the process, Shuffle ran up and scaled its front side. It looked forward as she got to its head, just in time to get a few claws to the face as she climbed up and gripped the horns.

Fia dropped fireballs at the other two smaller Minotaurs, trying to keep them busy while the others fought the rest.

The larger minotaur, which wielded a warhammer, looked towards Adran before looking Jerry as they both attacked. It took its hammer and spun around before throwing the hammer towards Jerry. The hammer hit the wall just under where Jerry was standing, smashing into the rim of the arena and making it crumble.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Emfa pulled her axe free, deepening the wound as she ducked the incoming blade. Axes were impossible to block without a shield or proper armor, and Emfa had neither, so she had to rely on not being hit while at the same time continuing to hit. Dodging the axe, she whirled and slammed the blade of her axe into the leading bicep of the minotaur, cutting through muscle and hitting with enough force to cut through bone.

Joanne raised her shield to block the punch, coming back around while the minotaur was wide open and plunged her sword into the beast's chest, pulling the blade out as soon as it went as deep as it could.

With the minotaur's armpit ripped open, Beri's claws continued to cut deeper, ripping into a major artery and opening a fountain of blood before being knocked off himself. Sturdy though the creatures of these ruins were, every large living thing needed blood to survive, and he just made sure this minotaur would not get to keep his. he turned and blitzed across the arena at the next unoccupied minotaur and repeating the process while Fia's fire made its fur smoulder.

The warhammer crashed into the side of the arena Jerry and Veo were on, sending the two flying. "HEY!", Adran shouted, firing another pair of magic explosion arrows at the Big One's neck while it's back was turned, trying to get it to focus on him.

"You alright?", Jerry called as she got to her feet. Veo nodded and shook her head to get some rubble out of her face, confirming she was fine. "Good!" Crystal glowing, Jerry put her back and legs into moving the massive warhammer out of the rim, barely able to shift it even with the strength of the crystal aiding her. "Come on!", she grunted, finally getting the thing off the ground and sending it bouncing back into the arena, right at another Minotaur's head.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emfa's minotaur took the hit to the arm. It tried to swing a fist with the other arm, but it was already almost down after the blow to the neck.

The minotaur groaned and staggered as Joanne plunged her blade in. As she withdrew, Erina pulled back with all her legs, jerking the minotaur's arm while it was stunned to open it up for another attack.

Shuffle blasted some fire into the minotaur's face before jumping off, letting it collapse from blood loss. She started running for another but stopped as it took a hammer to the head, breaking off a horn and most likely its skull as it took it down. She looked around at the others. One was almost down, Joanne and Erina had the other one, two were dead already, and Beri was going after the fifth. With bases covered, Shuffle turned to the big one.

The big minotaur flinched from Adran's explosives before turning to him. It bellowed before charging with its horns forward, ramming full force into the arena wall under Adran.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

With his injuries and blood loss from the gaping neck wound, Emfa's victim was starting to slow down, more than ample time for her to pull her axe out, duck the punch, and bring her axe through the other side of the neck, cutting all the way through and joining the other injury. Satisfied it was dead, she looked around for another maze monster to slay just as Joanne's sword cleaved through the throat of her minotaur, spraying corrupted blood all over the paladin's armor.

As Beri scrabbled up the final small minotaur, springing with his full weight as adrenalin kicked in and the leopard's eyes glowed with a roar as the cat slammed into the minotaur's chest with far more force than the leopard's comparatively small size would have suggested possible as he started clawing into the minotaur's innards from the soft belly, tearing through the skin, muscle, and body wall of his abdomen with almost unnatural speed.

Seeing the little ones were dead, dying, or busy with an angry leopard ripping and tearing through their guts, Jerry reached for the chimera in her sling to add some muscle to the fight now that she knew it wasn't going to get ganged up on by six minotaurs. She took one look at it and then put it back. Somehow, it was still asleep, and it looked... warped, somehow. What was normally a kitten-sized creature was at the moment a flesh-colored blob vaguely resembling the original in shape and color, but little else. "I'll deal with that later," she decided as she tucked the chimera into her sling and redrawing the magick bow. Taking aim at Beri's minotaur so all of the group's muscle would be focused on the Big One, she fired another threefold bolt, all aimed at the minotaur's head and face as the leopard ripped into its guts below.

Adran felt the wall under him shake as the minotaur slammed into it. He stumbled and fell before getting up, irritated. "Should have asked Merrath to deal with this guy," he grunted, "Where's a pit fiend when you need one?" He put his hands together and forged lightning out of mana. "Catena fulgur!", he barked, flinging the magic spell of chain lightning down on the minotaur. Normally, chain lightning bounced between targets, but the big one was large enough that the spell could bounce around within it, electrocuting as it bounced around, senind sparks out of bodily orificies and off of the horns once the creature freed itself.

 

[Fangs9090]

Beri’s minotaur staggered from Beri slamming into it, then fell back entirely from Jerry’s arrow. Joanne’s minotaur fell as well, Erina hurrying over to get her rope off its arm.

The big minotaur tensed up from the chain lightning going through it before it twisted its head to loosen its horns and pulled them from the wall, damaging it further and leaving it to crumble once the horns were pulled away. While it was doing that, Shuffle ran up behind and jumped, sinking her claws in as she sprinted up its back. She let loose her flame breath as she scaled it, leaving a trail of flames up its back. The minotaur glanced back as it noticed Shuffle, but Fia flew past, briefly bursting into flame for a second to catch its attention.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Beri and Jerry continued to rip into the downed minotaur until they were absolutely certain it was dead, before the leopard turned his attention to the huge and twisted one. Shooting across the field, outstripping Joanne and Emfa as they charged at it, the leopard climbing and clawing his way up the minotaur's thighs as Adran was forced to expend his last spell slot to use the disc spell to keep him from falling out of the sky. Down to just normal arrows, Adran continued to pelt arrows down on the minotaur while Joanne and Emfa each attacked his legs, severing tendons to put it on its knees and then hacking at its other parts while they were vulnerable. The minotaur was out of range of the circles at this range, forcing Jerry, and subsequently a terrified Veo following anyone that could protect her, to jog to the other side of the arena and begin unloading on the minotaur.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina charged as well, moving quickly as she dropped one end of the rope before maing her way around the minotaur's legs as it was busy trying to swat Shuffle and Beri off. Completely her loop around the legs, she grabbed the other of the rope and put the knot through the hole before backing up, pulling the rope tight around its legs. Combined with Joanne and Emfa cutting at its legs and Shuffle and Beri making it move so much, the minotaur soon tripped, falling to its hands and knees. Shuffle had to hold on tight as it fell before she kept making her way up to the head. Once up, she grabbed onto a horn and started breathing fire into the beast's face, blocking its vision.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

With the beast downed, Joanne and Emfa were able to access more vulnerable parts of the body, like the neck and armpit, which they attacked with fervor. The party was large enough that even though half of it was hanging back, they had the minotaur swarmed as they ripped at it. Beri continued his assault, Jerry and Adran continued to pelt it with arrows, Joanne and Emfa continued to hack at its weak points.