861 Flames of Battle

Seeing the many charging beasts Mathias slammed his staff on the ground, causing many spikes of stone to form from the ground and point diagonally as if they were Cheval de frise. However, the monsters ignored them and charged through anyway, the stone spikes being deflected off of their scales as if it were an impenetrable armour.

Seeing this Quennie intervened, thrusting her hand forwards and spewing forth brutally hot dark red flames into the path of the monsters.

Mathias didn't think this small amount of flames would do much, but when the creatures reached it and tried to go through the flames, the effect was readily apparent.

Monsters ran through it and were enveloped by the flames, they seemed to grab at the creature and force themselves into its mouth, nose, and eyes instead of trying to go through the scales. With its internal organs and brain reduced to ash, its body went limp in the middle of the flames. The scales put up a good fight, but were eventually reduced to ash anyway, the Chaos Flames proving too much for even the mutated creatures to handle, even with their high flame resistance.

Quennie continued to try and deny the creatures the opportunity to get into melee range of them, but the creatures just kept coming, using their companions slowing disintegrating bodies as footholds over the flames.

A fast creature that looked like a mix between a Werewolf and a Demon dashes over the flames, hopping from one burning body to the other before thrashing its arms at Quennie as it reached the other side.

*Flash!*

Selina appeared above it and severed it's head while flipping in mid-air, blinking away again to engage another opponent before its body had even hit the floor. Quennie would have relayed her thanks to Selina had her sister not been busy... She turns her eyes to the charred bones and slowly burning corpses in her flames and closes her eyes. She channels the odd strength that her father had only recently been able to use, gathering it in her hand before gesturing at the bodies.

*Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack*

All at ones the bones of the fallen monsters pieced themselves back together, the Werewolf that'd just been slaughtered by Selina regaining its head and sprinting back through the Chaos Flames to attack its brethren. Its flesh burned away but its scaled and bones continued as if it were an undying warrior, slashing its claws at a mutated Nekker and bisecting it.

The Werewolf is quickly gored by some sort of insect, its arms being torn off as it struggles to pry itself off... But even then it continues fighting, the severed limbs floating back to its body after they're released by the monsters that'd grabbed them in the first place.

Mathias glances at Quennie with wide eyes, "Necromancy?" he mutters, afterwards shaking his head as there were more important things to address than his companion's strange skill in that dreaded art.

With their forces bolstered by Quennie's undead the fight quickly turned in their favour. Barnock was like a bull in a china shop, smashing everything and anything in "axe-length" distance from him, the ground trembled with every attack he made and enemies vanished in a red mist when attacked.

Tyrael wasn't useless either, despite his strength being severely reduced due to his divinity being taken, his centuries of combat experience was nothing to be scoffed at. He wasn't incredibly fast, nor strong, but his skill with the El'druin made it seem like he had superspeed and the addition of eyes on the back of his head.

The blades ability to cut through anything proved useful against the sturdy red scales as he dextrously swung his blade, cutting through swaths of enemies that were stupid enough to approach him.

*Crackle!*

Bolts of lightning arced between many creatures as Mathias unleashes "Unlimited Powaah", it didn't do all that much damage but caused their bodies to start violently seizing, making them easy picking for everyone else. This was especially the case if he managed to force them to have a seizure in the Chaos Flames, the flame finding its way into their bodies with ease.

Eventually, after half an hour their numbers began to dwindle, the unstoppable undead forces created by Quennie not ceasing in their goal to eradicate the enemy, they didn't have stamina so they'd continued at full effectiveness. This wasn't the case for the rest of the group though, Mathias had drained a lot of his magic in the drawn-out conflict, and Tyrael was barely standing after swinging his blade thousands of times.

Quennie had a few droplets of sweat on her forehead but otherwise seemed fine, Barnock and Selina also looked able to fight for a couple more hours if needed.

After the last creature was slain, Mathias and Tyrael dropped to the ground, exhausted. Both surrounded by blood, gore, and fire.

Selina skips over to them while flicking blood from her blade, "Come on you two, we've only just gotten started!" she chirps with a large smile which seems ominous due to the small spray of blood on her face.

Quennie "S-sister! Not everyone is like you, they-we, need a break before we enter another battle like this one."

Tyrael uses El'druin to help him get to his feet while looking at them, "Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to rest, Diabo knows our location and will likely send more creatures here. We need to find a safe place to rest, fighting Diablo in this state would be suicide."

Mathias nods, "Wasn't there something about many hidden ruins in this region? Perhaps we could find one and hold that position until we're ready to advance again."

Quennie "Elven ruins?" she asks warily.

Mathias "Yeah, Harry said something about them."

Quennie shakes her head, "Elven ruins contain many traps, hazards, monsters, and other dangers... Resting in one is highly warned against." she says as if reciting a book.