Chapter Fifty-Three: The Lord of Unkindnesses
The trio (and wolf) seem remarkably calm about the avian apocalypse brewing overhead, which has me a bit concerned. Are they that stupid? Or are they that strong? I feel like delver isnt a career where stupid gets to live for long, but I also feel like the attacks they were trying to use to lure Poe down were kinda pathetic, too.
Whatever the reason for their confidence, go time is truly upon them all. With a caw and a powerful flap of his wings, Poe sends two groups of birds at the trio. The flying blackness moves gracefully like a swarm of fish, moving at his command.
The halfling raises her staff and stands tall on her wolfs back as she shouts Enthrall! Power bursts forth and sweeps over the ravens and crows as they near the group, but not a single bird falls out of line. The three notice quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid the incoming pain.
They all hunker down as best as they can as the mixed unkindness wreaks its namesake upon them. The mass of black feathers soon soars back to the sky, leaving the trio covered in scratches and slashes. The wood elf growls at his team mate.
Yeah, that worked great! Got any other fancy spells to do nothing with?
She shouts at him in response. I didnt see you do anything! How was I supposed to know that scion would make them immune? It worked on the wolf!
Shut up, both of you! If you havent noticed, were still in a fight! The troll glares at the two, who glare at each other, but soon have to focus their attention on Poe. Mlynda, tornado. Hark, fill it with pain, the leader orders, and the two quickly follow it.
Mlynda raises her staff again and quickly summons a small tornado, and her favorite person to yell at starts throwing his boomerangs into it. It reaches some kind of tipping point as the next attack from Poe comes in, and the two shout.
Razor Winds! The two do their best to keep the uncontained blender between them and the birds, but all three still take further scratches. The two that love to argue are looking like they decided to wrestle with barbed wire, but the troll seems to be regenerating through the small wounds, mostly.
The tide of feathers ebs once more, and before they can get a look at the aftermath, the wood elf is screaming. If he wasnt afraid of heights before, he probably will be once Poe decides to release him.
Im actually impressed. That was a pretty thorough beating Poe laid down without killing the guy. From the groans, he might have preferred that, but this group isnt getting off that easily.
Speaking of the group, it looks like they arent finished yet. While Poe rallies his birds, the troll and halfling hatch their own plan. She summons two of those thorny vine things and the troll uproots them, letting them sink into his forearms. Thats gotta sting, but troll regen makes things like that an option, I suppose. Mlynda has the vines take his swords, wrapping around the handles, and leaving Vnarl looking like a purple Kratos.
Poes attack is different this time, too. Instead of two wings of blackness sweeping in from two sides, its more like a single river of black going at them. I dont think hes going to give them the chance to recover between attacks this time. That formation looks long enough that it can loop back in on itself and keep the pain going until the other two are as incapacitated as the first.
The troll meets the onslaught head on, swinging vine and sword like this isnt his first rodeo. The halfling is crouched behind her wolf now, rather than standing proudly on top, shouting over the din of caws and ordering the vines to unleash their thorns. Between the thorns and the steel, the river of black soon becomes just a stream, then a trickle, before it peters out entirely.
The two stand, grinning and exhausted, though not unharmed. The halfling and her wolf are bleeding from so many scratches and slashes that Im pretty sure theyre both actually in danger of bleeding out. And they both look better than the troll.
Where they have scratches and cuts, he has deep gashes and slices. Theyre deep enough that even his regeneration looks like its not going to be up to the job of keeping him in the fight for too much longer.
He and the halfling laugh defiantly at Poe as he lands atop the porch to look at them. It takes them a few moments to realize two very important things. One: they havent gotten their boss experience yet. Two: They can still hear a lot of cawing.
The nearest wave of ravens and crows that were on expedition have been recalled. The grins vanish at the realization, and Poe takes off once more, the Marshal of Murders not finished with his prey just yet.
He flaps his wings, sending blades of wind to sever the vines, and the tired duo cant protect them in time. The cawing changes as Poe looks down on them, my raven scion opening his beak to clarify the chant from his lesser kin.
Again!
The duo can only stare at the oncoming wall of blackness, and deafening tide of agains. Vnarl quietly speaks as they get closer. But its a toybox The halfling punches him in the hip before the blackness of feathers consumes them, and quickly leaves them in the blackness of unconsciousness.
