Worthy Core

Subcommander Haenlius grits her pointed teeth as she watches more of her soldiers fall. So far, things aren't a disaster...yet. Most of her soldiers are still standing, and despite the superior defenses of the dungeon's mortals, some of them are falling to her assault. She notices that quite a few of those manning the walls are wearing Rainlander army uniforms or badges, and the average soldier is rarely much more than Advanced-tier in training. Here and there arrows, fireballs, and other spells manage to pick soldiers off of the walls, causing screams of pain or spurts of blood to add to the chaos of the battle.

But those gods-damned nobles at the center of the defensive line are a very serious problem. It's hard to judge just how powerful they are exactly but as a Master, Haenlius is one of the strongest Domain soldiers in the dungeon and the draconic would wager that any one of them would be a serious match for her. A full squad of Masters or, Dragonlord forbid, Supremes could be enough to shatter the entire assault. Risky as it might be, Haenlius knows that they need to be crushed - or at the very least distracted so that they can't aid their allies.

Seeing that Skythrasher Janisan has engaged the enemy paladin in a melee battle, Haenlius spreads her own wings to join him. With the flying monsters already wounded or taken out of the fight only the draconics are a serious match for these opponents, and Haenlius isn't one to shy away from a battle. Unlike the Skythrasher though, her strengths don't come from muscle.

"Loyal descendants of the Dragonlord! Follow my beacon, and throw down these decadent Rainlanders!" Most of the other draconics on the floor were already moving to join the fight, but just in case there was any question as to where they ought to focus their energy a spell from the Subcommander settles that matter rather quickly. As magical energy charges through her body the officer's orange scales suddenly take on a golden luster, and when her charge reaches full a pair of massive beams of light shoot out from the inner surfaces of her wings. They scorch the center defensive wall, forcing a few lower-tier defenders to fall to the ground with a scream, and the half-elf mage watching on quickly has to shift to forming a defensive barrier to counter her.

It's something of a perfect match, as the mage appears to be a specialist in the field of shadow magics. A dome of shade begins to coat the top of the wall, dimming everything within it, but the sight only causes Haenlius to grin. "You think you can hide yourself from a dragon's light!? Flee! Scurry like roaches, Rainlanders!" With a roar she draws her sword from its sheath, but not with the intention of swinging it at anything. Instead the highly-enchanted item works as a focus for her magic, and after a moment the light pouring from her body instead begins to soak into the rune-encrusted metal.

There's a massive blast of sound and light as the weapon finishes its charging, firing off a focused beam directly at the shadow mage. Haenlius is relieved to see that the man's barrier shatters - but growls in frustration as another barrier forms behind it, this one of a more arcane nature. Raising his staff, the white-haired elf standing off to the side shouts back a challenge of his own.

"The borrowed power of your ancestors is indeed mighty, scaled one. But one can never underestimate the value of teamwork!"

Haenlius has to chuckle at the banter. "What makes you think that I am alone, elf?"

Indeed, her fellow draconics choose that opportune moment to make their own appearances, with two more landing atop the wall while another mage soars to join Haenlius up above. Janisan had been having trouble breaking through the divinely enhanced defenses of his paladin opponent, but with five draconics now facing three Rainlanders, it seems that the balance has shifted rather quickly. Laughing, the green-scaled Conjurer Ulissa turns to her commander to say as much.

"How shall we take them, Subcommander? Focus on that elven sorcerer, or split them between us?"

"Focus our fire on the - Ulissa!" Haenlius's head jerks to the side in surprise as something suddenly drops on top of the Conjurer, sending her crashing to the floor below, and the object is so massive that it takes her a moment to realize just what exactly it was. Most of the limbs are no longer bent in the directions they ought to be, and half of its skull seems to be missing, but Haenlius soon enough recognizes the wyvern-feline hybrid monster that had flown off a few minutes ago. With a dwarf on its back, as she recalls...but where is the woman now?

Scanning left and right, Haenlius eventually looks upwards, only to have trouble believing what she's seeing. Far in the distance, directly above, the dwarven noble seems to have gotten herself stuck to the ceiling. Or at least her spear is, as the draconic eventually realizes that the woman appears to be dangling from it. Seeing her moment, Haenlius turns the focus of her magics skyward. "Dwarves belong on the ground, Rainlander! Leave the sky to your betters!"

"Can't - entirely disagree with yeh there!" The dwarf grunts as she attempts to pull her weapon free from the fungus-coated stone, although it seems like success would only lead to her plummeting to her death soon afterwards. Haenlius doesn't feel inclined to wait for that however, and after a deep breath her sword is once again charging with solar power. It seems to be a race of time - will the draconic finish preparing her attack before the dwarf manages to free herself?

As it happens the match turns out to be something of a tie. With both feet planted on the roof the dwarf finally manages to tug her weapon loose, just as another beam of light begins to scorch the stone next to her. Once she begins to fall she ought to be an easy target for the Subcommander...except for some reason, she's not. As the dwarf redirects her spear pointy-end-down, it almost seems to be guiding her path, tilting her one direction and then the next. It's not by much, and it's certainly not flight, but given that Haenlius wasn't expecting the dwarf to control her fall at all it's enough to cause her spell to consistently miss.

Fortunately her sword does work for the more traditional purpose of 'stabbing things', and as the dwarf closes in Haenlius prepares to take her head. At the same time the dwarf appears to be directing her spear to plant it directly into Haenlius's chest, and her weapon does seem to have a slight bit of a reach advantage even if its wielder does not. As each sees that the other is preparing to pull a trump card out of their sleeves, both shout out a rushed spell.

"Blinding Flash!"

"Heartseeker!"

Two enchanted weapons glow with magical energy, although Haenlius's sword certainly wins the luminosity competition. A flash of light as bright as the sun illuminates the darkened forest and its growing flames for a brief moment, succeeding in the attempt to force the dwarf's eyes closed. While this would normally do rather bad things for her aim, her choice of spell renders the attack moot and the spear itself guides its way toward's Haenlius's chest.

In the end, both combatants suffer from the other's success. Haenlius twists at the last moment, and without the dwarf's guidance on her weapon it does manage to miss the draconic's heart...by a few inches. At the same time the dwarf is completely unable to block Haenlius's own attack, and the draconic's sword bites so deeply into the dwarf's left shoulder that it nearly amputates her arm.

With paired screams the pair crash into the forest floor, and both are too dazed by their injuries and magical assaults to immediately resume the fight. Haenlius looks around for soldiers to assist her, and she's briefly encouraged by the sight of Conjurer Ulissa, mostly free of the monster's corpse pinning her down. That excitement quickly fades away however as she realizes that Ulissa is now a corpse, having been an easy target for enemy archers while she was attempting to get the dead beast off of her. The rank and file soldiers meanwhile seem to be out of reach, with most of them focused on climbing the cliff, and the few that even noticed her apparently not wanting to get involved in a draconic's battle.

Isolated and alone, the dwarf is hardly much better off. She'd managed to free her spear from Haenlius's chest in the landing, but with only one functional arm the woman is barely able to wield it. In fact, as Haenlius glances at her, the dwarf is forced to drop it entirely as she reaches into her bag for a healing potion.

While Haenlius is fairly certain that one of her lungs is punctured, a draconic doesn't go down easily and she quickly moves to ensure that her opponent doesn't get the chance to heal her wounds. Haenlius's sword is...somewhere, but a dragon is never unarmed so long as they have their claws, and so Haenlius simply throws herself atop the much-smaller woman. "A good blow, but - ack - not enough! You - you're a Rainlander noble, yes? I see you still bleed the same!"

The dwarf grunts as Haenlius's claws bury themselves through her armor and into her guts, but she still manages to utter her response. "Lady Nalina of House Evervein, in service to House Highbranch, lizard! And I look forward to killing one of your kind! Or, hrng, a second now, from the looks of it. Got that green one pretty good, hah!"

"And you'll pay for - agh!" Haenlius roars in pain as an enchanted dagger finds its way into Nalina's hand and from there into the draconic's side, and from that point the fight ceases to be a magical duel between two commanders, but simply a brawl in the mud for survival. Both are wearing enchanted armor, although Nalina's appears to be somewhat superior. However, that doesn't entirely make up for the fact that her opponent is at least four or five times her weight, much taller, and has - for the moment - two working arms.

The dagger repeatedly finds its way into Haenlius's internal organs as the pair roll around in the dirt, but in return the draconic's claws literally rip their pounds of flesh from Nalina's body. Guts spill their way onto the grass, and with a sharp tug Nalina's left arm is entirely severed. The noblewoman still finds the energy for one last thrust, driving her dagger deep into Haenlius's left lung, which is a slight problem for her given that draconics only have the standard pair set of the organ.

"Enough...ff...hiss..." The ability to speak rapidly flees the Subcommander, but her hand still has the strength to wrap itself around Nalina's neck. The quickly-weakening dwarf tries to pull at her fingers, but even as her own senses dim Haenlius can still make out the crunch of breaking bones and the feeling of the dwarf going limp in her grip.

A hard-won victory...and something of a Pyrrhic one, given that the officer now finds herself well within the burning forest. Draconics are of course highly flame resistant, but they do need to breathe oxygen even when they have two fully functioning lungs, and as she is Haenlius can barely suck in a breath without choking on her own blood. Catching sight of a clearing a short distance away, the draconic gets to dragging herself on her strongest arm, hoping that she might be spotted by one of the expedition's healers once she's there.

It's a grueling two minute crawl and Haenlius is barely conscious by the end of it, but eventually she finds herself free of the smoke and lying down next to...a river? Well, at least it's not very likely to burn her.

"...That spear lady was one of the good ones, wasn't she?"

At the sound of a child-like voice, Haenlius's head suddenly jerks up. Her eyesight is...not good right now, but as she looks around she can't seem to find anyone nearby, not even her own soldiers.

"Yeah, she was the one who made the big speech earlier, before the intruders came! About defending the dungeon and all that!"

A second voice joins in, but Haenlius still finds herself unable to see the source of it. "Whrnng...grrrckk..."

"Whoa, you sound like you're choking on something, huh?" To Haenlius's surprise, a face emerges from the nearby river - but as part of the river itself, with the water flowing upwards to form the head and shoulders of a girl. The river is smiling...but it's not a smile that brings the woman any comfort.

"Need a drink?"