Magma Chamber, central lane...
Malzahar's glowing eyes widened a fraction of an inch; while the mad Prophet of the Void had clearly expected an ambush of some sort, he had not expected such strange characters to leap out of the brush in support of Swain, nor that there would have been so many of them present at once. He attempted to move out of the way of their attacks, but even levitating as he was the Void-touched desert nomad could not move with any speed; the eldritch bolts of mystical lightning which still wracked his form, issuing forth from the eyes of Swain's raven, severely hampered his mobility and kept him from escaping.
Malzahar had not time to shift gears and go on the offense before Saren's rounds struck him in the throat and the deadly crescents of Grey's energy blades slashed him across the chest, carving deep into his torso and mangling his trachea; the other attacks struck a moment later, further mangling his body. The Void magic which held him aloft cut out then, and with a gurgling rasp that echoed and flanged in a decidedly unnatural fashion Malzahar collapsed onto the floor, dead. Those Voidlings which remained immediately shrank in stature upon their master's demise, and though they still attacked with savage ferocity the arachnoid monstrosities were now much easier to deal with; they had all been dealt with in the first five seconds after Malzahar's death, leaving only the purple-clad minions.
"Now, we press the advantage," Swain said, his bird returning to its perch on his shoulder as he began to limp further down the path, advancing along with the blue minions towards the nearest of the lane's purple turrets. As they approached, fighting their way through purple foes all the while, the violet crystal began to glow more brightly than before, and soon it was disgorging enormous bolts of destructive magic towards the nearest of the Champions' forces. These blasts were powerful enough to fell a minion in a single hit, leaving the automaton a smoking heap of burnt fabric, wood and molten metal, but its drawbacks were immediately clear; the turret required time to charge, meaning that it could only fire once every two seconds, and it could only fire one shot at a time. It focused its fire on those in closest proximity to itself, blasting the melee minions which hacked at its base with swords or smashed at it with spiked hammers first; it would take time for the turret to work its way through the minions, at which point it would then switch to targeting the Champions.
Swain, wasting no time, immediately began to hurl balls of eldritch flame at the purple crystal.
Same, left lane... Between all these attacks, Cho'Gath loosed a horrendous scream and collapsed onto the floor, vile ichors and vital fluids issuing forth from the cuts and tears in the abomination's carcass. Kog'Maw, for its part, fell back to the safety of the nearest purple turret and left its violet-hued minions to their fates to lick its wounds; whether it was awaiting reinforcements was not entirely clear.
In any case, the purple minions were now getting slaughtered without Cho'Gath's presence, and in short order the group was pushing towards the turret.
Right Lane...
"He strikes from the shadows," Kassadin explained to Hellboy, hovering forward to press the advantage now that Nocturne had withdrawn. "And he is deadly at close range. Beware his darkness, for it will rob all of their sight."
edited 8th Aug '11 6:09:51 PM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre Codex"A dungeon?! THAT fragile lookin' girl?!" the warrior said in disbelief. "I don't believe a word of it!"
Then he turned around to face Roadbuster. "As soon as I get me some new equipment, I'll be coming to tear you a brand new arsehole on that aluminum keester of yours, ya walking rust bucket!" the warrior angrily called out to the Autobot.
"Please sir, I don't want any fights to break out!"
The warrior grumpily turned to whomever spoke to him. "What's to YOU, ya - !!"
He stopped mid-sentence when he saw the cutest little pony he ever saw, with its pastel yellow coat, large fluffy mane the color of cotton candy, and large, adorable teal colored eyes.
...........................
A beat.
"Meh, I'll stick around and see if there's anything good," the warrior said, trudging off towards the weapons section, seemingly much calmer after looking at Fluuttershy.
The pony herself merely smiled cutely.
edited 8th Aug '11 5:54:57 PM by UdtheImp
DAMMIT MARK, STOP HITTING HELPY!!Roadbuster, despite himself, smiled a bit at Wreck-Gar's comment, lightly pushing away his hand from his own missile bay. "You're a laugh, kid, ya know that? But that reminds me- what kinda weapons do ya have? See, if you want to be a real Autobot, you gotta always know where your gun is."
edited 8th Aug '11 5:55:20 PM by Locoman
Magma Chamber, Right Lane...
"Beyond the fact that his ability to deal damage relies primarily on his blades, thus greatly reducing his effective range in battle, no."
By this point Kassadin had drifted up to a skirmish brewing between the enemies' purple minions and his own blue-clad allies, and began to lend his own skills to the battle by hacking and slashing at them with the sword-shaped tear in reality that was his nether blade. "Even then," he continued, "Nocturne has ways to overcome this disadvantage. For example, he can hurl a blade of shadow matter at opponents which leaves a trail of dusk in its wake; Nocturne moves extremely quickly while travelling over this trail, and any opponent struck by this power will leave it wherever they walk, thus allowing him to hunt down opponents swiftly and efficiently."
He would have said more, but abruptly a low rumbling sound split the air, swiftly drowning out whatever words he might have uttered. A dry, sinister chuckle seemed to echo from just over the shoulders of everyone in the right lane, and then without any further warning the entire path was suddenly plunged into an unnatural darkness so absolute that, even if they possessed senses far greater than those of an ordinary person or had access to some form of nightvision, the Champions would not even be able to see their own hands were they to hold them directly in front of their faces.
This gloom was not confined to the right lane, either; on the middle and left-hand paths, all Champions would suddenly find themselves completely and utterly blind as the darkness swallowed them all up. Saren would find all spectrums of his helmet's visual systems to be awash with static now, and if Teridax were to attempt to dispel it the Makuta would swiftly realize that this darkness could easily smother any light he might conjure; clearly, the shadows were not about to lift until their conjurer was satisfied and commanded them to disperse.
Back on right...
Though the blackness robbed them all of their sight, it did not rob the Champions of their hearing; Hellboy would hear Kassadin give a wary sigh, but when he next spoke the Void Walker's voice was tense and alert. "And now you see what I meant when I told you to beware his darkness a moment ago. Steel yourselves; he could lunge at any one of us from anywhere..."
The Danse Macabre CodexRey frowned deeply...he'd been able to recover his sword earlier and was now clutching at it tightly, but held back from unleashing any attacks...he wasn't completely aware of where his teammates were and didn't want to risk hitting any of them by mistake. "What's going on now?"
Easing back into life one step at a timeXigbar stood nearby Kassadin and Hellboy, listening to their conversation unnoticed.
Xigbar looked around warily, waiting for the being to attack, repiled," Well, I wouldn't be sure, this guy could be on the other side of this place. How would he reach us?"
edited 8th Aug '11 10:06:08 PM by VoidsEmpathy
[DATA LOST]“Hmm?”
A slice of meat, between two pieces of bread, looking quite unharmed by its owner’s fall. What it was doing in there, he had absolutely no idea of. Did all monsters in this world carry such strange items, and drop them at death? It definitely seemed so. He took out the sandwich and passed it to Recette.
“This one looks interesting. What is it?”
Mehir got up and followed the warrior, hands on his scimitars.
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home."Oh, it dropped a sandwich?"
Recette took the bag and looked the sandwich over. The bag had apparently been one of those enchanted carrying bags that were so common these days, that carried food and kept it fresh. "They do that sometimes, I think bags and stuff stick to them!"
She searched the bag and found several more items, a well-crafted dagger, a vial of some sort of potion, and a wine glass, of all things.
"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."Grey had not lingered too much upon Malzahar's death - after all, they were in the middle of enemy territory, and he had hacked and sliced at any Voidling that had come too close for comfort. However, his attempts at attacking the violet crystal were interrupted by the mysterious darkness that had fallen over the area. Almost instinctively Grey used A-Trans to transform into Siarnaq, hoping that his built in radar would be able to help him navigate this strange, lightless world.
Unfortunately, the returns he got - if they could be called that - were useless, a blinding snow of static smothering anything that the Reploid may have been able to perceive. Grunting in annoyance, he said, " Oh, great. How're we meant to do anything now?"
" I dunno, but something tells me the bad guys will be fine," cut in Model A, small traces of fear in its' voice betraying its' thoughts.
Grey produced a small array of beam kunai and held on to them. If the enemy were going to attack, they were going to do it now.
Locking you up on radar since '09Scorpion jumped down from his perch, almost landing face first near Rey. He quickly got up, still holding on to the spear as he tried to see.
"Cho'Gath is slain," said Scorpion. "For now, at least. Now, we must destroy the turrets." The ninja proceeded down the path, strafing along the side of the left wall.
J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!Magma Chamber, Right Lane...
"Nocturne is a creature of darkness and nightmare," Kassadin explained, "and I mean that in the most literal sense imagineable. In this gloom, he can move around freely to strike from anywhere with little warning; typically he does this by lunging out of the shadows to eviscerate his chosen victim with his twin blades before they can retaliate."
At that moment, the dry chuckle rang out once more, and a cruel and malicious voice could be heard by all those scattered throughout the Magma Chamber's three lanes; its words were strangely muffled and yet echoed, making it impossible to tell where the speaker was in relation to the Champions or how close they were.
"You're all alone..."
Scarcely had these malignant whispers begun to die down when the muted sound of a blade cutting through the air could be heard in the middle lane—and the darkness lifted as Nocturne fell upon Saren with all the ferosity of one's greatest night terrors. The Eternal Nightmare hacked and slashed at the former Spectre in a frenzy of violence and bloodlust, its umbral blades tearing through his armour like hot knives through a stick of butter; and the unmitigated savagery of this assault was augmented by a cunning intellect and cold skill, with each swing and blow aimed for one of the turian's vital organs or vulnerable spots.
edited 9th Aug '11 12:07:21 PM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre CodexThe droid looked down sadly at its gun, "You're right I'm all alone. No Editor, no Catastrophe, no Deception, no Zworgue, no Fellback, No Celine, and no other ally."
The droid petted its gun, "I'll name you Veronica. There I'm not alone anymore."
The EOU droid thought back to the times those words had been used. Someone was going to die, but maybe by playing on the author or reader's emotions it might just survive instead of being used for a dramatic entrance, "I have a wife and kids. Think about the readers and how sad they would be if I die. My name is.....Eoie!"
It comes. The corrupter comes. Don't let it touch the tower lest all reality crumble.Rey raised his sword at the creature's words, turning quickly, trying to take in all his surroundings at the same time, gritting his teeth in frustration when nothing became immediately apparent. "Okay...while my incidents of insanity are in fact well behind me, I still need reassurance once in a while, so please tell me some of the rest of you guys heard that shit. What the hell is going on down here now??"
Easing back into life one step at a timeAs the darkness lifted, Grey gasped in surprise as he caught sight of Nocturne. Thinking fast, he sent flurry after flurry of beam kunai at the being, hoping to overwhelm him and make him succumb to sheer weight of fire with the minimum of fuss.
" Take this!" he shouted, the action making him feel better even though his voice was distinctly emotionless.
Locking you up on radar since '09Right Lane...
As the darkness lifted, Kassadin paused as if in concentration, then nodded to himself and glanced over his shoulder at Hellboy and Xigbar. "My Summoner informs me that Nocturne has attacked your friends in the middle lane, so we are safe for the moment; we must press the advantage now, before one of our foes decides to intervene against us."
And with that, the Void Walker hovered on his way, slashing and hacking at the purple minions of the enemy once more as he slowly pushed towards the nearest of the enemy turrets. He had not been at this for long, however, when the real threat decided to make its presence known; the air around the Champions on this path abruptly began to throb, warp and pulsate like a thing alive, and the shrill cries of a vast murder of crows split the relative quiet as something gaunt and spectral materialized in their midst. The creature which had appeared from nowhere in this fashion seemed like some sort of ghostly scarecrow, yet its transluscent form seemed quite solid and quite real in spite of its incorporeal appearance; gouts of sickening blue corpsefire blazed around its hands and within its hollow eye sockets, and the blade of the enormous scythe it carried gleamed with an unnatural sharpness as this macabre mockery of a man dropped into a fighting crouch.
◊ Dozens of crows circled above this wraith in a thick cloud of black feathers, their eyes gleaming with an unholy green radiance, and at an unspoken command from their scarecrow master these carrions birds descended upon Hellboy, Xigbar, Archer and Kassadin, pecking and clawing with unnatural savagery as they swarmed the heroes.
"You look a little...peckish, boys," Fiddlesticks, the Harbinger of Doom sneered in a rattling, flanged voice. "Try not to lose your HEADS!"
And with that horrible pun, the spectral scarecrow swung his scythe in a vicious horizontal arc...and then Archer's head toppled from his shoulders to hit the floor, well in advance of the rest of his body.
Middle Lane...
Nocturne let out a faint, echoing snarl as Grey's kunai struck him repeatedly, the blades tearing sizeable chunks of a spongy, shadowy matter from the Eternal Nightmare's ethereal body. In response to this, a crackling sphere of blue miasma materialized around his form, though it did nothing to stop the reploid's hurled blades from striking him; a rather useless shield, by any estimation.
But Swain, who had faced Nocturne many times before on the Fields of Justice, knew exactly what that shield signified and what it was meant to defend against; and the Noxian General, who had been about to cast Nevermove on Nocturne to root the nightmare demon in place, held off for a moment.
At that moment, Saren's shockwave struck Nocturne, and the shield collapsed...but this biotic assault came to an immediate halt as it did so, and the Eternal Nightmare resumed his vicious assault upon the turian, striking with a sudden burst of agility; his umbral blades were now swinging so swiftly that they seemed like a pair of continuous blurs. This was the power of Nocturne's ability; he could nullify hostile abilities and empower himself with their squandered energy, greatly increasing his attack speed.
Fortunately, it only worked once, and the very instant that the shield fell Swain cast his spell. A magic circle some eight feet in diameter sprang up on the floor around Nocturne, and a moment later eldritchs talons erupted from the ground, ensnaring the living nightmare to hold him in place, granting Saren a brief respite from the onslaught and leaving Nocturne a sitting duck for the others to pick off at their leisure.
The Danse Macabre Codex— Saren lurched backwards, the medigel deposits kicking in to cover the gaping wounds.—
You... remind me of a Krogan I met...
—He snapped his gunarm up to point right into Nocturne's left eye socket, readying a sniper round. —
Going berserk didn't save him from this either.
—The muzzle flashed in muted discharge.—
"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."

"Oh, they have names? Hello, I am Wreck-Gar!" said the other Autobot, holding his hand out... to shake with the missile pods, apparently.
Pretend there's something clever written here.