It seemed the variety of the Void Beasts were never ending! When she had first heard the deafening and ear rending scream of the Banshee within the pack of beasts, Sirona had blasted the whole area with a ran of sun light called down from the Sun itself. That area was a smoking circle of charred Void Beasts, but it was quickly filling in with more beasts, it was a never-ending cycle of death.

”Target those banshees before they can scream!” Sirona called out to her clergy with bows, and anyone else in the area that had some kind of ranged attack. Those things needed to die and fast before they could make the rest of the beasts around them strong! Sirona waved a hand towards her people behind her, once more imbuing their weapons with holy light to better combat the beasts before them.

”Lady Glory!” One of her clergy called and Sirona looked in the direction she was pointing to see yet another new things coming towards her.

Sirona scowled at the either legged freak, but as it got closer she could see that it was made up of rotting bodies, two of them joined together. They were wailing in pain and agony as if they were still alive! Sirona suppressed a shudder and charged the thing, an Amalgam she would later it was called. Sliding under its arm swipe Sirona cut the things one arm off before moving in and cutting the thing in two between the two bodies. The sound it made made Sirona’s skin crawl as she turned and quickly cut a path back to her lines again, turning back to fight the beasts again.

Only to see that the two halves of the new beast were not only still moving but growing again! It was only a matter of moments before the two halves had formed two whole beasts, and to Sirona’s horror, the arm she had cut off was also starting to regenerate into another full monstrosity! ”Hit them with fire, burn them to ash, maybe that will stop the regeneration!” Sirona called out.

“Now is as good a time as ever,” Damien stated, so matter-of-factly, raising his newest acquisition: a magical wand said to have been formed from the Parvporan World Tree itself. “It shall suit my needs just fine,” the handsome demon whispered as he started to swish the wand through the air, forming a mystical rhythm, his symphony of destruction. He smiled as he brought down blasts of fire, striking the invading Void beasts at critical junctures.

Once again, he used his magical prowess to cast a wide net across the field, utilizing a wide protection spell to protect the warriors on the front lines. But it was all too little, as the Void beasts were getting strong, and Damien felt his own mana draining fast. What was worse, was that there was a new beast that had arrived on the field, an abomination crashing through the marshlands, breaking through the ranks. A single fighter seemed to take it head on, utilizing her blade to try and make quick work of it.

“Not enough it would seem,” Damien said as he turned his attention to this new threat. He raised his wand, ignoring the headache forming as he forced himself to quick cast, pointing the new wand at the Amalgam. “Back away!” he called out, sending a powerful blast of flames at the nightmare. The flames hit head on, burning away at the rotting flesh of whatever it had picked up. The bodies inside of it screamed, a chorus of hellish tones that caused even the demon to show his disgust.

“Ignore it!” he called out, waving his wand once more, sending another volley of flames. Still not enough. Ashlynn, where are you? I need more of your energy… His magic was waning, and fast. “You there!? Rally the mages! I cannot do this alone!” Unknowingly, he was trying to issue commands to a Goddess, but at the time, it was what he had felt right.

At any other time, he may have risked being smited.

At the call to back away Sirona merely needed to step out of the way of the flames from the caster behind her who had called out. She wasn’t worried about getting hit by the fire herself, just wanted to make sure that all of it hit the new beasts, er, beasts rather. The fire did seem to have an effect on it though and that was a good sign that they knew how to deal with it then, burn it to ash.

Another wave of fire and Sirona glanced back at the caster, he was calling on her to rally the mages to help. Sirona nodded and whistled to her clergy. ”Focus fire on those things, burn it to ash!” She called.

Looking to one of the other two Sirona sheathed her sword and hooked her shield at her side, as another idea passed through her mind. Cutting it seemed to make it grow into another beast, so what about bashing it into a paste with a hammer? Sirona just so happened to have been training more and more with a war hammer, one of Light of course, and she raised her hand and it appeared in a small flash. Long handled for two handed use, it’s head almost had a look of angel wings to it as well.

Sirona charged the next beast and dodged under its arm swing and got up close to where the two bodies met. With a war cry she raised the hammer in both hands and brought it down as hard as she could, which give her Strength Aspect was damn hard, and crushed(made into paste) the area she hit. The beast screeched in pain and Sirona moved and swung again as she flapped herself into the air striking one of the two bodies in the head with the hammer. Crushing the skull in the Goddess moved to the next body and did the same before dropping down again near her people and the new comer caster.

She watched the newly dead body for a long moment, it wasn’t regenerating! ”Use blunt weapons if you have them! Smash the bodies to stop them from regenerating!” Sirona called out in a booming voice across the battle field. She looked to the stranger and nodded. ”Well met, now, shall we take care of the last one?” She waved her hand in his direction and, should he accept, his magic would be topped up and his spells strengthened for a time, not a lot, but enough to notice.

It was quite something to see the woman rally those around her, commanding them with a fierce presence and with expert precision. This was, of course, lost on Damien as he instead refocused his own efforts as the mages took to incinerating the beasts, fighting against it with all their might. It went down, howling in a chorus of agony, flesh burning bright as it turned to ash.

Damien let his arm fall, the wand feeling quite heavy now in his hand. One down. Two to go. He turned his attention to the second, which the woman was taking head on by herself. His first instinct, despite his nature, was to aid her, but at a second glance, she was quite properly pulverizing the amalgam with relative ease. A part of Damien knew she was dangerous, yet the other part wanted to see if he could coax her into his own little Church. However, those thoughts were quashed rather quickly, given the whole situation.

Instead, he walked towards her as she finished the beast off, leaving it a mashed pile of Twisted. As she held out her hand to him, he thought for a brief moment about accepting such a gift from a stranger. Again, though, the times demanded he forgo his usual suspicions, and he graciously accepted her power. At once, he felt his strength return, mana flowing through him. It was as if he had just fed, something that he had not done in quite some time.

“You are something…quite unique,” he stated, his cold blue eyes staring at her. “I am grateful we are on the same side for this battle…” Damien turned his attention to the last one, and raised his wand. “Now…let’s see if they can keep up…” He slowly started weaving a spell through the air, “A Bolero of Destruction….” His eyes widened as he flicked the wand once, creating an explosion at the beast’s side. “And another…” He took a step forward, increasing the pace. “Dance…” A second explosion to the next side, forcing a stagger. “And to end…” He threw his arms up, creating an explosion above, causing the amalgam to his the ground, writhing, the beast thrown completely off balance.

“And then the star of the show…” Damien said, passing the flow to the woman.

Sirona’s face didn’t change when the man shook her hand, but she sensed something about him that she didn’t like. But now was not the time, he wasn’t corrupted and that’s all that mattered at the moment, perhaps later she’d find out what he really was. For now she watched as he created explosions around the Amalgam making it stagger until he made it clear that it was up to her to finish it. Sirona glanced to her hammer before hurling it at the beast, causing the first body it hit to implode before it exploded out the other side through the second body.

The angel fluttered her wings in annoyance as she raised her hand and her hammer came back to her again. ”At least now we know how to put those things down for good.” Sirona sighed and glanced at one of her clergy. ”Pass the message on about those things; fire attacks and blunt damage to the bodies.”

”Yes, Lady Glory. The woman nodded and took off to take care of that order.

Sirona looked back to the stranger again. ”Thank you for your help, stranger. I’d be happy to have you stay in this area and assist if you so wish.” She commented before a yell caught her attention and she looked back out to the battlefield to see six Rhinos charging their way. ”They never stop.” Time to go back into the fight again. She flicked her hand to one side and in a flash of light Sirona’s light elemental appeared. The golden hued beast reached with its nose and nudged Sirona’s hand and she grinned and petted it. It looked like a kind of griffin mixed with a bit of dragon, with the same feathery wings like Sirona hand. It opened said wings and took to the air, wheeling around and waiting for its own opening to strike from above. It would feed Sirona information about what was going on out of her line of sight.

“Damien,” he stated as the lady once more called him a stranger. It was the least he could do in the situation, even if he did not expect her to respond in kind. They were quite the opposites, but that didn’t seem to matter in the heat of battle. Still, with the third amalgam down, Damien figured now would be the time to press their advantage. On the horizon, the demon could feel more of the Void beasts approaching. They were pushing back hard against the forces of Revaliir.

As the woman summoned her elemental and sent it skyward, he turned his own attention to the approaching Rhinos. Six of the unruly conglomerations were hurtling towards the two warriors, tearing through anything and everything in their path, whether it be friend or foe. Damien once more raised his arms, preparing for his counterattack.

Disrupt the flow, sow the chaos… He started an erratic, almost jarring rhythm that changed with every bar and note that he formed with his magic. A mixture of different spells rained down upon the Rhinos; fire, ice, and lightning rained down upon them, the mix of elements rapidly shifting the flow of their charge. Flames to ignite fear, ice to instill pain and stiffness, and lightning to short out their limbs.

“Ah…the chaotic waltz…” he stated with a smug smile. While it may not destroy them outright, it was plenty of opening for the woman and her troops to do their part.

It had been far too long since he had stretched his magical prowess. Despite the dire situation, he was enjoying all of it.

”Sirona.” She replied with a nod as she sent her elemental into the air to scout. The six rhinos were closing in fast but Damien once more created an opening for Sirona and her clergy. As they spells ended they charged forward to get around the rhino’s flanks. Well, Sirona’s clergy did, Sirona herself raised her hammer high and brought it down one of their heads and crushed it.

Before she could heft it back up the next closest rhino was turning to charge her, despite being on fire. Instead of getting out of the way a cold look came over the angel’s face and she stepped towards it. Reaching out as it charged her Sirona grabbed it by the head and lifted it off of its feet with a grunt before slamming it back down with a resounding crash. She lifted and slammed it down again and then twice more before she twisted and pulled until she managed to break its neck like a twig.

Letting go of it when she knew it was dead Sirona grabbed her hammer again and threw it at the third rhino. The hammer drove into the rhino’s head and crushed it, and Sirona’s clergy finished off the other two before turning back to face the rest of the corrupted abominations. Sirona turned back to Damien again, now covered in blood as she was. ”Well, shall we continue?”