Immortal (PvP)

[Magus]

Magus held the unconscious girl against his chest and glared at his assailants. “You did this,” he hissed. “All of this. All this damage; all these lives lost. I had a job to do – I was tasked with getting rid of some terrible people and instead you’ve turned this neighborhood into a war zone. You have a chance, here and now, to end it. To prevent anyone else from-”

“Shut up!!” the cyborg demanded. “We don’t want to hear it anymore. You’ve been beaten! Put the girl down and just surrender!”

Magus just flashed a sinister smirk right back at the rocket-launching lunatic. He wasn’t beaten; he’d had the upper hand ever since he moved the fight into the bazaar. “Why don’t you just ask me nicely? Maybe we can just shake hands and put all of this ugly business behind us,” he chuckled. “I’ll not surrender to you would-be bounty hunt-agh!!”

The wizard dodged a blast from the dark-haired wizardess. He’d been momentarily surprised that she would take such a risk. By the time it clicked that she’d missed him deliberately – having aimed high – it was too late.

With a jet-propelled flying kick, the cyborg warrior appeared from behind him with her stolen Shadowstep and drove her foot hard against his spine. Magus consciously let go of the girl, for fear that by holding onto her he’d clench his fists and mistakenly break her neck.

It was a mistake. As soon as the girl hit the cobbles, a glowing rope coalesced from Caira’s hand and propelled itself forward, wrapping around Magus as if of its own volition, pinning his arms to his sides. The Fiendlord struggled against these new bonds as a blast of blue light crashed into his back, sweeping him forward and off his feet. Unable to put his hands out to catch himself, he crashed painfully and miserably onto the ground.

With a great deal of effort, Magus shifted onto his knees and was able to free his karambit from his belt. He slashed upward, slicing the rope before immediately dive-rolling to the side as Caira’s Eclipse blast crashed into the spot where he had been.

The wizard rolled up to his feet and hurled a blast of energy at the Toybox Girl, forcing her to dodge out of the way as he stepped back into the plane of shadow. Magus charged forward across the narrow distance between he and Caira, leaping back into the material plane with a flying knee. He connected with the girl’s chin, sending her reeling, before following up with a blast of dark energy. The Duskstrike exploded, catapulting her into the wall of a nearby courier’s office.

The entire building trembled with the impact and the girl slumped from the wall – which now bore a deep impression where she’d struck it – to her knees, before falling onto her side.

Magus moved closer but was forced to duck as one of the cyborg’s rockets whistled just over his head, exploding against the wall and further marring the courier’s office. A huge stone gargoyle up on top of the building suddenly shifted off-kilter, kicking pebbles over the edge of the building.

The wizard whirled around at the Toybox Girl, his eyes on the unconscious child between the two of them. The cyborg took this to mean Magus was up to something, and opened fire again. He sidestepped the rocket and it slammed into the wall with another explosion, further tilting the gargoyle over the edge. It seemed to glare down at the child below, perfectly poised to fall down upon her.

“Stop!! Don’t you see what’s-?!” Magus began, before another rocket was loosed into the air. Too tired to step into the plane immaterial again, the archmage knew there was no dodging this attack, as another blow to the building meant certain death for the child.

He crossed his arms in a defensive ‘x’ pattern and tucked his head down as the missile screamed toward him, hitting its mark with a fantastic blast. The impact propelled Magus against the same wall that had been peppered with bodies and explosions, rocking the building just hard enough to shift the gargoyle once more.

Magus looked up at the finely crafted statue, his breath caught in his lungs. It tilted again, now clearly looming over the street below. Another spray of pebbles peppered him, but the gargoyle held fast.

He grit his teeth hard. He didn’t know why he was so concerned about the well-being of the child; he’d annihilated swathes of innocents to serve his own ends and for all he knew this didn’t even exist in any ‘real’ sense.

The stone monster shifted forward again, casting more dust and debris down upon him. Finally, it broke free and tumbled forward, free-falling directly for the unconscious child.

With a growl, Magus stepped back into the plane of shadow. He looked up at the gargoyle, now slowly rotating through the air as it appeared to gently float down toward the child.

It wasn’t a large distance. No longer than he’d taken to strike out at Caira, but this time, it felt as though the weight of the earth was pressing down on his chest. Dozens of apparitions stood all over the road and the edges of his vision swam worse than before.

Magus charged ahead through the monochrome wasteland, toward the girl. He reached her and scooped her up, turning to see several of the shadow people suddenly lurching toward him. Too tired to maintain the Shadowstep, he tossed the girl toward the cyborg and returned to the material plane. He tried to leap out of the way but one of the gargoyle’s wings clipped him across the back as the rest of the statue crashed into the cobblestone street, imbedding itself into it and pinning Magus beneath its wing.

The cyborg had caught the girl and set her aside on the ground before approaching Magus. Before she could gloat, she realized that the gargoyle had been holding a spear, and that it had pierced completely through the wizard’s torso. Magus looked up at her with crimson eyes, struggling to speak, but succeeding only in making a gurgling, gasping noise, before he coughed a smattering of blood. It trailed down on his chin and he collapsed, too battered to move.

Caira made her way to her feet and quickly checked for a pulse.

“Alive,” she said to the cyborg, before casting a glance to the little girl. She was beginning to stir. Caira looked back down at Magus. “…barely.”