Raze ~ 14!

Alexis was the first person to get off another attack, her hand-held crossbow bolts zipping through the air to plunge into the leading lioness. The huge cat roared at her and leaped nearly thirty feet forward with outstretched claws. As fast as the cat moved, Joe was still able to send out and solidify a Shadow Spike. The leap was halted only feet away from Alexis, and the lioness scrabbled at her punctured chest in an attempt to destroy whatever it was that was causing pain.

Poppy glided forward and pulled his arm back, thrusting forward with a deadly *hiss* emanating from his rapier. The lioness he was targeting forced herself down, and the rapier missed her face and instead landed in her shoulder. The cat snarled and retaliated with an instant paw swipe that Poppy somehow moved with, removing his rapier with a twist that sent blood and grey fluid flying. 

The third cat raced between the two that were injured, going through the open space to target Joe. the humans were in a bad position, and only the fact that Bard was standing next to Joe and was eager to get into the fight kept Joe from having claws scraping his shell. The Skald waded into combat with a whirl of his axes, the metal wall forcing the lioness to flatten herself to avoid losing more than a few whiskers. Jaxon moved forward on Alexis’s left, catching the next cat that was trying to attack the out-of-formation crossbow-user. He body-checked the cat, knocking it to the side and getting a slash across the ribcage for his trouble.

A second lion reached Poppy and tried to take him to the ground, but only managed to knock the Duelist back a step. Poppy was using some kind of footwork pattern that allowed him to keep upright and mobile while he was in a fight, and it was showing it's worth here. A second lioness hit Jaxon, then a third on Poppy. Another circled to Poppy’s right and came after Bard as he fought off the first, and another piled into Alexis’s area. 

Now there were two lionesses on Bard, Alexis, and Jaxon; while there were three being fended off by Poppy. Joe targeted Jaxon with a healing spell, closing the gash in his side. Then he formed a shadow spike under the poisoned lioness fighting Poppy, while at the same time Alexis got off a shot at the lioness that had first attacked her. The bolt slamming into its head was enough to bring it down, though the bolt head only slightly penetrated the thick skull bone. It had simply taken enough damage, lost enough blood, and the area poisoning had been particularly nasty.

The cost for Alexis to get her attack off was a paw to her chest that tore open her flesh to the bone, as well as breaking a few of her ribs. She tumbled back, in total shock at the sudden pain. Joe’s spike had impaled and held the damaged lioness that had been fighting Poppy, allowing the man to focus on the other two as the light went out of the first’s eyes. He swiped back and forth with his wasp-stinger rapier, holding them back but dealing no damage.

“Alexis!” Joe called, realizing her predicament even as the lioness was jumping at her. Joe jumped first, covering her body with his own and using Lay on Hands to reverse the damage that had been done to her. The lioness landed on Joe, pressing him down with its body weight but clawing ineffectually at his shell. The reduction to slashing damage was showing its usefulness here, all the way until the cat got its mouth around Joe's arm and started trying to rip it off.

A bolt bounced off of Joe’s Shell, reducing its durability further, and Alexis growled. “Can’t get a shot, getting crushed!”

“Craw!”

“Nyah!”

The strange sounds reached Joe’s ears just before he was showered with blood and tufts of fur. He sputtered as the huge weight of the cat suddenly vanished, looking up to see Jaxon gripping the lioness and tearing chunks of flesh off of it. No… he wasn't, his hands were T-rex heads currently! Jaxon was tackled from the side by one of the Cats he was still fighting with, and he rolled with the blow and ended up on the lioness’s back, riding her like a bucking bronco even as he continued to punch in one spot with his toothy, hungry hands. 

Jaxon hopped off and seemed to concentrate, and the cat’s spin just twisted. The animal fell, and Joe realized that he was neglecting his support duties to the rest of the team in order to watch a single fight. Joe turned to help Bard, who was bleeding from several nasty wounds. The Skald had apparently not been able to land a hit on the creatures he was fighting, and like the cats they were, Bard was being toyed with in preparation of a kill.

As Joe sent a stream of healing water to Bard, he saw that Poppy’ health was dropping quickly as well, though he didn’t seem to have any massive wounds. After the spell hit Bard, Joe slammed his staff to the ground with both hands and channeled a powerful group heal to all of his party members. At the cost of about fifty-five health per second, he healed all of them for thirty-two-point five health per second. This was enough to close the wound Poppy had in an artery, and replenished his blood enough for him to continue moving at a fast pace.

Joe only managed to cast the spell for two seconds before being taken off his feet by the Lion finally joining combat. The huge creature clamped down on Joe with its teeth and shook back and forth even as it used its front paws to tear at his body. Joe could hear people shouting, but all he could do was try to form a spell to fight back against the Lion. His Staff fell from his hand after a particularly vicious shake, and Joe cast the only spell that he could think of. His muscle memory and the ease of the spell allowed him to dual cast Acid Spray. His extreme close range made it so that the lion was soaked by the spell, and he was able to continue channeling for a full second before he lost concentration.

Joe’s shell broke, and instantly there were teeth tearing into his arm while claws ripped at his side and acid dripped onto him. Joe screamed in pain, his low constitution and high perception allowing him to feel every second of this agony. The Lion was hit from the side, and the weight was taken off of Joe. The pain didn't end though, and the addition of rolling allowed the multi-hundred-pound creature to rip his arm off.

Joe was bleeding horrifically, and only his total shock allowed him to cast Lay on Hands on himself. This spell was so powerful now that he could heal ten more damage than he had total health, bringing him up to maximum health in an instant. The main issue was that a thick layer of scar tissue formed over the hole in his side where his arm should be, and the limb was in the Lion’s mouth still.

The sudden lack of pain had set his mind whirling, and Joe could only stare as his team worked to finish off the Lion. It had way more health than Joe thought that it should as only a basic creature. He slowly blinked, opening his eyes to Poppy sliding his rapier into the Lion and having it roar at him. Blink. Jaxon was laughing maniacally as his hands bit off the lion's tail. Blink. Bard was under the Lion, his axes crossed and holding the jaws back from clamping down.

Joe blinked again, and the Lion was on its side. They had defeated it. Yay.

Bard came over with an odd-shaped stick. No, that was his arm. Joe watched as Bard lifted and axe and swung it at him, a light red glow appearing around him as his axe sliced off the scar tissue that had appeared over Joe’s arm-hole. The pain shocked him again, out of whatever state of mind he had been in. Bard was speaking, “There ya goo, big guy. C’mon now, heal this up and then cleanse yerself. I bet ye’ll get a nasty bug otherwise.”

Joe numbly cast mend on himself, and suddenly had feeling in his arm again. He screamed as new flesh formed on the demolished arm out of the healing water. Why would the nerves be the first thing to heal? The injustice of it made Joe come back to himself, and as his arm pain settled into a dull ache, he began healing his torn-to-shreds team. Strangely, it was Jaxon that had the most damage, not Bard. The bite marks… “Jaxon, what happened?”

“Oh, these?” Jaxon smiled nervously. “T-Rex are good bab, they just don't know how to show affection yet. We’re working on training to nuzzle, but I only get a few seconds at a time to teach them not to bite me! At least it’s only love nibbles!”

“Jaxon!” Joe was shocked at how long he needed to cast his healing for, “You took at least four hundred damage!”

“Nibbles.” Jaxon petulantly asserted.

“How’s the arm, Joe?” Alexis pointedly changed the conversation.

“Infected.” He sighed and started casting cleanse on himself. A few seconds later the ‘plague’ marker vanished. “I’m really glad I didn't wait to cure that. I had the plague for a moment there. I can't even imagine what would have happened if these got loose in the camp back there.”

“I can!” Jaxon raised a hand. “They would have likely died, a large chunk of them! Any survivors would have run to a population center and tried to find shelter, inadvertently spreading the plague to whoever was there!”

There was a long silence, and Joe shrugged. “Yeah, okay, I’m glad we killed them off. Anyone else infected? If not, let’s burn these bodies.”

They got to work, and Joe was suddenly flooded with messages.

Exp: 360 (40 * Lioness x9).

Exp: 50 (50 * Lion x1)

Zone quest complete: Plague of Pride! You managed to stop an outbreak of plague before it managed to spread to the local population! Reward: 100 experience.

Skill increase: Channeling (Beginner III)

Skill increase: Acid Spray (Beginner II). You realize that this spell was designed for cleaning out landfills, right? How little do you think of you enemies?

Skill increase: Exquisite Shell (Novice VI). You’re on your way to becoming a front-line fighter! Go you! Wait… 

“Huh. Odd that there was no reward other than experience for the quest.” Then Joe remembered that he hadn't even opened the common-item reward he had gotten a while back, and he rubbed his hands together. “I guess I can open that and pretend it's a reward for this!”