Andros' Finale [Boyo111 and Panakananana]

[ShadowsLitany]

With his leg healed from Osmodeus' tea Andros stands and stretches, keeping hold of the trident in his off hand while they wander into the temple. The floor rising slowly the wall on one side disappears showing a long, broad hallway. Made of the same black stone, the scones in the wall give off a flickering firelight that glints in the stone around it, as if there were flaming stars in a night sky. The temple felt old, and cold as if it had lay down here for a long time waiting for some nefarious use.

The voices in the hallway were familiar, one in particular he did not expect to hear again. When the floor stopped moving the group stepped out, as he saw Porthos he dropped the trident to the floor where the clatter was lost in the din of welcomes. Porthos gave him a wide smile, and a huge clap on the back. Glad to see his old mentor took up the trident again as they wandered down the long hallway, to where it turned and led a short way down to a wider hall where large, thick columns held up the ceiling that was lost in shadow. The same black stone ran throughout the temple, in the larger room the columns were slightly carved, there looked to be figures whose faces were lost in shadow holding up the ceiling.

"What is this?" Andros asked Noella without thinking as the large group entered the room. The sides lost in shadow, the way led onwards where flickering fires led the way into the darkness. Slight, muffled noises came from behind the columns as they stepped into the room.

"On your guard," Lord Derfel drew his sword Hywelbane, tightening his grip on the leather straps behind the kite shield. "There are eyes upon us," he warned.

The soft rasp of blades sounded as they walked into the larger room, whispers beginning to sound as a strong breeze came at them. The fires flickering for a moment as the dust that had collected for ages flowed behind them towards the moving floor. The first shambling figure came from behind the column, raised from the dust of the dead the dried corpse moved on stiff limbs as others came from the sides, a flash on the ground and a skeleton appeared and joined the undead throng. A chanting sound from behind a column as an animal headed priest appeared, its hands moved to summon the undead that moved in concert towards them.

 

[Panakananana]

Raul instinctively decapitates a few of the dried zombies, only to notice that more were coming, breaking through the doors of a room that Shavok doesn't bother with.. Osmodeus sweeps by them without touching them, only dragging her blade close to them, and absorbing what little life force they have, into her sword, she then looks back to see some of those same slow moving creatures returning to life. Osmodeus turns to the rest of the group who are not fully alarmed by the site "sure, we could always use more practice before the tourney" Raoul says as he flashes his usual smirk at Faerie's revealing outfit that he had made for her, "there must be a great evil present in order for these corpses to be given life like this" Osmodeus says and her thoughts return to what Noella had said about Dracula.

Andros, Noella, Derfel, Richard and Porthos are still reminiscing and talking as the rest of the group takes care of the threat. Derfel points out a scroll on the wall that mentions the names of the entrees: Andros, Noella, Osmodeus, Shannon, Raul, Raoul, Faerie, Lilith, Saint Germain, Porthos, Derfel Cadarn, Richard Sharpe, Lord Alucard. Noella sighs a long sigh that exudes anguish "Alucard is an alias that Dracula uses during his occasional ventures to the world outside of his castle walls".

Suddenly the animation of the corpses stop, a multitude of bats collect and form together to reveal Dracula, sitting on the throne where Shavok should be. He has one hand extended to show that he has ended the zombies, the entire group draws their weapons and points them toward Dracula, Richard has his rifle aiming right at Dracula's heart. Dracula rises to his feet, looking up at the ceiling of dark, polished granite, keeping his arms under his cape. He looks toward the group with a remorseful look on his face and finally speaks, annoyingly slowly "come now...lower your weapons, I am here for no nefarious purpose but simply to celebrate Andros' birthday by competing in this tournament that you've arranged". He is cut off by Osmodeus, who argues "you're lying again. Shavok would never have let you in...or maybe he would, which leads me to question, where is Shavok" and Raul adds loudly "and why did he sick the mermen and zombies on us, or was that you as well". Dracula responds "do not blame Shavok, I have detained him, safely might I add, as if anything could kill him anyway. As for the mermen I am afraid I have no idea what you are refering to, and the corpse reanimation is simply a result of my presence".

Richard takes initiative and fires his rifle at Dracula's heart. Dracula reacts instantly by deflecting the bullet with his sword from under his cape, the sword with two red blades weaving in and out of each other along the length. In the same movement, Dracula rushes Richard with the blade of his red sword to Richard's throat at a speed hardly able to be comprehended by human eyes. The others become weary about making a move, out of fear for Richard's life. "If you would all rather fight me here, I am game" Dracula releases Richard "or we could start your celebration, you can all save your boiling blood for the fight"

 

[ShadowsLitany]

Andros steps forward, a hand on Richard's to slowly lower the strange weapon. Knowing it hits like a bow and arrow, the distance nothing to Richard, but also knowing that with Dracula it would not matter. The desire to fight him rose inside Andros, though the difficulty they had last time was still fresh in his mind. Even with everyone here he had doubts they could do much to the Dark Lord, they'd fought twice, or more, with little to show for it. Much as he relished the fight, Andros was unsure of the outcome, and for this day it didn't seem to be worth the time.

"It's not worth the time, let it go Richard." Andros told him softly then stepped forward from the group. "Why are you here then?"

Andros doubts he'd get much of an answer from him, but he wasn't going to get into another fight like the one with the mermen and whatever that other creature was. An imagined pain ran up his leg from the injury as the group rustled around him, some of them definitely wanting to fight, either for vengeance at their loss previously, or just because of who sat before them. Placing a hand on Noella's shoulder feeling the tension there. He was more concerned she might try to attack Dracula on her own, giving her a confident smile, telling her with a look it was not the time.