The Primordial Weapon

[Alain the Carnedge]

Ignoring his annoyance at the situation, Alain tried to rip the shadow serpents off his body. But he was pinned. There was nothing he could do other than struggle helplessly against the horde, if he didn't use magic. So use magic he did. His left arm glowed a deep black, as did the ground around him. Dark flames rose from the abyss, and started to burn away the serpents. The others struggled harder now that they were being very slowly burned to death, but the mercenary kept still and let the flames do their work.

Scrambling to his feet once he was actually able to move, the mercenary tore the remaining serpents off of him, then took the moment to look around and try to spot the best target. The bloodsucker and Atelos were pinned by the serpents, and though the flames were weaker, the serpents binding them would burn away far faster than their life force would. Nothing like the smell of burning spartans and vampires in the morning. That left the woman and robokid, who were incapacitated and apparently getting over their staring into space problem, respectively.

He determined that the allied duo were the bigger threat than the spartan. Robokid was the only member other than himself that wasn't out of action, and he was also the only one without a debilitating wound he knew about. So, not that confident he was making the right decision, the mercenary sprinted at the bot, and regretted it immediately. Not because there was an angry robot firing laser blasts at him, as that wasn't occurring due to them being more concerned about their friend for the moment. On the contrary, it was because he felt like he had to throw up. He didn't know if it was because he was flung around by the maelstrom, if the party food from yesterday was starting to bite him in the ass, or otherwise but he did his best to ignore it regardless.

The robot looked up from checking on Whirda to meet Alain running at them and swinging his sword overhead. They rolled away and started to charge a shot, but the mercenary recovered from his swing and jumped to the side to dodge the blast of energy. No time for witty banter, apparently. Deciding it was best to engage in melee combat, a blade made of energy formed from the machine's cannon. The mercenary took a brief moment to admire the versatility of that weapon before rushing the robot, red steel clashing against energy.

Pressing the attack, Alain did not in fact do the stupid thing which would be standing there clashing blades, instead kicking robokid in the shin. They staggered for a second, disengaging the so-called blade lock, but got over it more than quickly enough to dodge the follow-up stab.The mercenary scowled, but kept up the pressure. He ran closer and slashed wildly, which admittedly wasn't the best of ideas, but robokid wasn't quite quick enough to dodge a blade longer than he was tall (not many people are), so despite his attempts to dodge, Alain's blade connected and cut through their stomach, spilling blood.

This made it a lot more obvious that defense wasn't the right way to go for the machine. Their wounds were barely a bother, since they were well, a robot, and they instead tried to get the mercenary to stop his onslaught, rushing forward and barely ducking under another incoming swing from the crimson blade as he tried to attack with his own sword. Unfortunately, Alain was both faster and more skilled than the machine, so dodging the incoming attacks wasn't as difficult as you'd expect. Though skill doesn't give eyes on the back of your head, so he didn't see the shield flying into the back of his skull coming. Again.

The mercenary crumpled, hitting the ground with a splitting headache, the shield clattering to the ground beside him. He could feel the blood running down the back of his head, and got the distinct impression that he might have got a concussion. Headbutting people probably didn't help with that. He did his best not to pass out, but the best choice for now was to stay down. Hopefully the personality crisis spartan would distract robokid long enough for him to construct a new plan.

And they did. Presumably spouting taunts that the mercenary couldn't hear over the ringing in his ears, the shield-throwing jackass picked up his frisbee and advanced towards the machine, as it appeared that they were the only two left standing.The black sigils spread along the mercenary's cloak, and he went back to the shadows to take a quick breather, and to determine who should be dealt with first.

This wasn't over. Not yet.