Runner
Burned Village of Beldeth
Plan B.
"Selm!" Runner shouted, drawing her daggers and running towards the demon.
"Swiftly, to arms!" Selm cried, magic flowing into both Runner and Inathia. Ina quickly recovered, the momentary distraction plus the magic helping her get her feet steady under her and her shield out front. Just in time too, as the demon's right head slammed into the wall of wood not a moment later.
Runner cursed at the spiking heat near the demon. It felt like being thrust into a wildfire. Would her daggers even do anything? It was the time to find out. With the speed boost on her side, she raced to its right hind leg. She slashed out at the back of it, hoping to hit something like a tendon.
Her first dagger went wide, missing the leg entirely as the demon pressed its advance on Ina. The second dagger found purchase, but only into some of the muscles of the leg. She felt something extremely hot brush against her hand as the blade went in. Regardless of the severity of the wound, it had the desired effect.
The dyokyon howled, both heads whipping around to Runner. Its entire body spun around towards her, moving with a speed unnatural for a beast of its size. Oh goody! It worked!
Runner promptly spun on her heel ninety degrees and took off towards some of the stone supports left behind from the ruined houses. She didn't even bother trying to pull the dagger she had stabbed into the thing out. She had plenty more, one wasn't worth sticking around for an extra split-second.
Her feet pounded on the ground, living up to her name. Runner ran towards the closest stone support, a corner pillar for a cottage. She was planning on breezing right past it and letting the dyokyon slam into it, but her hands reached out to the pillar. Operating on instinct, Runner grabbed onto the stone and flung herself around it, using it to change her direction while preserving much of her momentum. As she rolled through the ruins of the cottage that the pillar belonged to, she felt sharp splinters embed themselves into her skin. They hurt, but the shower of stone shards falling past her hurt more.
As she had hoped, the dyokyon slammed into the stone pillar, shattering it into hundreds of shards in an outward spray from its momentum. One of its heads reeled in pain while the other was stuck on the wrong side of the body to reach her. Her quick directional change not only helped her evade the beast's aware head, but it also helped her avoid getting peppered by shrapnel. Mostly. She felt cuts begin to bleed on her face and felt a nasty bruise on her collarbone.
"Runner? Move!" There was no magic in that command, though it saved her just the same. Dashing out of the ruins and back into the road, she saw that Ina was set up again. This time, the dragonborn looked ready to take the blow head-on. Scared, as always, but ready.
Runner dashed towards her, the dyokyon shaking off its daze dishearteningly quick. "Your turn!"
Another loud slam followed, seconds behind. Runner didn't look back, taking Ina's strained grunt as evidence that she had its attention for the moment. Instead, she ran off to the side, trying to get back into position to do it all over again.
This was a battle of attrition. While the rest were busy cleaning up the distractions and hazards, they were in charge of holding off the big mean fucker. Ina would hold its attention by being a frustrating wall of force, just hard enough that the beast can't get what it wants. Runner would support her, dragging its attention away when it got the upper hand(paw?). Selm would ensure they didn't die and, if need be, would serve as another distraction. A last resort.
Here's hoping they would last.
They were able to repeat this cycle without further incident or severe injury twice more. The only real wound that they had inflicted on the dyokyon was that first stab, leaking black blood down its leg. The dagger was still wedged in the wound, likely ruined by the internal temperature of the demon. On the third time around, Runner found herself next to Selm behind the fallen tree corpse. Ina was slowly being forced further back, the twin heads beating against the shield as the monster slammed itself against her.
"You need to get back. You are way too close!" Runner half-whispered. Her throat felt rough from the amount of debris in the air.
Selm shook her head, her eyes not leaving the dyokyon. "I am afraid I cannot do that. I need to be close enough to reach both of you. Here appeared to be my best option. Please, Ina, mend!" The last word was magical, sent towards Ina. Some of Ina's cracked scales healed back into shape. "Worry not about me. Ina needs help again."
Ughhh… I'm more worried about you getting gutted before the boys arrive, Runner thought. She held her tongue, though, and instead just let her annoyance simmer on her face.
She dashed away from the tree and back into the road. A dagger in each hand, she ran back towards the demon's blind spot. The heat felt like it was cooking her alive, but she endured. Her right-hand dagger failed to find purchase on the already stabbed leg, but the left-hand dagger managed to slice into something fleshy in the demon's other hind leg. With how the demon screamed, it had to have hurt.
The demon was not the only one screaming. Runner had fallen back in a blinded daze crying out in pain. As the dagger had sunk into the fiendish flesh, boiling black blood had sprayed out across her face. She rolled on the ground, wiping away the burning blood urgently. FUCK it hurts.
The dyokyon's snarling was upon her as she heard it turn to eliminate her. Shit shit shit. She was still wiping the painful liquid off. She couldn't fucking see yet. Dodge left? Right? Die?
She frantically rolled to the right, praying that it was the right choice. When death did not immediately come to her, she was relieved. She blearily pried one of her eyes open, her vision hazy. Her entire face felt raw and ached mightily. A magical shout from Selm began to remedy that, but it was slow and likely wouldn't reverse all the damage that was done. Not soon enough, anyway. But it was enough for her to shout "The blood… the blood is fucking boiling!"
It was all the warning she was able to give before she had to dodge a blurry swipe of claws from cutting her into melted ribbons. Ina had been holding it back by yanking on its tail, her shield momentarily discarded to gain enough leverage to save Runner.
As her sight slowly returned to her, Runner was beginning to understand how stupid this plan was. How the hells were they supposed to keep this thing occupied for anything longer than a few seconds? Let alone a few minutes? One wrong move on their end and it would be their end. If she survived, she was kicking Yule's ass.
The dyokyon's attention was still on her as she scrabbled away from it. Ina was being dragged along with it as it chased after her. The dragonborn acted like a shitty restraint, slowing the demon just enough for Runner to keep ahead of it, impaired as she was. Unfortunately, the farther Runner ran, the farther she would be from Selm. The dwarf was nowhere near fast enough to keep up with them.
She heard a gurgling build behind her. At least she thought she did. Pretty hard to tell over her heart pounding in her ears and Ina's panicked shouting as she held on for dear life. Instincts screaming at her, she went on the side of caution and threw herself to the side once more.
A familiar blast of flame washed over the road she had been running along, emanating from the demon dog. Sadly, it did not have to stop moving to keep the torrent alive, the flame sweeping behind Runner as she dashed away from certain death. It did slow the dyokyon, but not enough for comfort.
Runner felt the heat of the flames die out before they reached her heels. At this point, there was enough of a gap between her and the dyokyon that it would have to chase her for a lot longer to catch up. The Ina-weight and the wound in its leg would slow it down long enough that she could probably circle back to Selm with the thing in tow. That was if the thing's attention stayed on her.
Why would something so convenient ever happen?
The demon dog howled in frustration at her as she ran around the back sides of the ruined cottages. Snarling, it turned to the next closest target: the one clinging to its tail. Ina's claws were dug into the leathery skin, feet flailing behind her as she was flung from side to side.
Runner stopped, wiping sweat and blood from her face, an action that hurt due to her recent discovery. Selm would have to catch up to them, it wasn't interested in chasing prey that would be difficult to catch.
She watched both of its heads snap at Ina, their segmented mouths opening wide enough to eat a boar whole. By some divine miracle, the two heads hadn't decided which way to turn to get at Ina. Yet. They were both lunging in opposite directions, one wanting to spin clockwise, the other counterclockwise. That moment of confusion wouldn't last long.
It was times like this that Runner wished she was good with a bow. If she could just fucking shoot the damn thing, she would be able to draw its attention from afar. It would have made this whole 'bait it around for a while' tactic so much easier. But no~ she just had to suck. She entertained the thought of throwing a dagger at it, but that hide was tough and she wasn't certain she had the technique nor the quality daggers to pierce it.
So it was back to ol' reliable. Stab and pray.
Hold on, Ina! Runner thought. She couldn't target the back legs now that Ina was back there. She would have to go for its side, preferably the one opposite of where the heads were turning. Gah, but that would require split-second timing. Too fast. Ina may not have enough time. She would have to risk-
As Runner was formulating what to do, Ina's grip failed. Rather, the skin of the beast did. Chunks of leathery flesh tore away from the dyokyon's tail as its boiling blood sprayed outward as the beast whipped itself in a circle. It snarled, enraged at the injury. Ina was flung into the stone wall of the nearest burnt out cottage, stones crumbling at her bulk. She disappeared into a cloud of dust and ash.
Eshah.
The dyokyon pounced upon the debris, digging at the pile of stones loosely covering Ina. Runner heard her cry out in pain, both from the initial impact and the onslaught after.
Sprinting from her hiding place, Runner rushed forward. Blades in hand, she ran for the left leg, where the greater wound was. It had worked once, it will work again. She hoped.
Runner got as close to the baleful heat as she could before jumping, slamming both daggers into the meat. With any luck, she would cut tendons and immobilize the beast. As her daggers found their mark, she ducked her head away, only getting a spattering of black blood sprayed across her cheek and neck. It hurt like a bitch but it wasn't blinding, like last time.
But before Runner could recover and make some distance, she felt all of the air rush out of her. In a thunderclap of pain, she heard some of her ribs crack as the very leg she had stabbed kicked backward. She watched as the world spun as she flew through the air before it all came to a quick halt. Her body slammed into another corner pillar for a cottage, cracking yet another something in her body. Oh fuck.
Her vision swam as she fought the urge to vomit. Something warm and metallic dribbled from her lips, welling up from her throat. Once again, she was reminded that this creature could easily have killed her, were it not for the intervention of others. Once again she was reminded that she needed to kick that damn mage's ass.
Everything hurt. Stars danced around her eyes and everything else looked blurry. She tried to sit up but felt her arms wouldn't respond to her. They felt too weak, to heavy to move. Her hands… they were clawing at the ground, trying and failing to drag her away from this mess. The curse wanted to live.
Good luck with that. She could barely remember how to breathe through this pain. The fiery blob that smelled of sulfur was bounding over to her. Shit. This wasn't how she was supposed to die, was it? Was it?
She begged her legs to kick off the ground, to roll her away from the pouncing demon. Move her, tumble her, get her the hells away from here. They knew how to move, damn them, so why didn't they? What good was her name if she couldn't live up to it?!
"Stop!" She heard Selm scream. She must have just caught up. Magic rippled across the road, the sound of the command painfully tearing through Runner's mind. A command, empowered by magic compelled her to stop whatever she was doing and pay attention to the dwarf. It was pretty easy to stop trying to get up as she let her body lay limp.
The scream had saved Runner, the dyokyon turning both of its heads to Selm. It had stopped in its goal of ending Runner, but the magic was already fading. Its attention was now solely focused on Selm.
One of Runner's hands had abandoned trying to flee. It began rummaging inside her pouch. The other had taken control of an arm and was now forcing Runner to sit up. How cruel. It was going to make her watch Selm get eaten.
Her bloodied lips curled in a rueful grin. Then, she was next.