"Ready?" Sydra called out as he activated his shadow cloak, covered himself in bone armor and prepared to pierce the gargoyle's back that was motionless in front of him. The others nod as they raise their hands and prepare to strike, Cidre and Erich both wearing armor while Robert covers himself in flames.
"Crash," The sound of their fist slamming into the backs of the gargoyles, and the broken pieces falling to the floor echoed around the room. Sydra then bolted back as the two closest gargoyle woke up and swung their swords toward him in an arc. The gargoyle that was on the left of him was a bit faster than he was and the sword chipped at Sydra's chest armor.
'Not good, they can still see me' Sydra thought as he ducked underneath the others gargoyles blade and tried to lead them away from the coffin. The gargoyles had been quicker than he had expected, and he was barely able to dodge their attacks. Quickly glancing at the others, Sydra saw that they were having trouble as well, but it seemed that Erich was doing the best at the moment. Since he had already fought with two of them his experience was above the others.
"Dang bastard!" Robert yelled as he blocked an attack with his hammer's handle, but was sent flying backwards in the process. Sliding to a stop, Robert infused his feet with more fire aura and shoot back across the room towards the gargoyle. When he was a few feet away, Robert flipped over the gargoyle's sword that was slicing through the air, horizontally above the floor. Landing on his feet behind the gargoyle, Robert pulled back his war hammer and sent it crashing into the gargoyles legs, shattering them into pieces that flew around the room. Taking advantage of the fact that the gargoyle was the same height as he was at the moment, Robert attempted to destroy its back and grab the heart crystal.
'Whoosh' The gargoyle spread it wings to create a gust of air that propelled it out of Roberts reach, so it could focus on gathering backs it crystals. Unable to stop his movement, Robert fell forward when his hammer missed the gargoyle and slammed into the floor instead. The gargoyle saw Robert falling to the floor and took the initiative to fly back over to him, swinging its sword through the air towards Robert's neck.
'Clank' The sword was stopped a few inches away from Robert, as Erich had jumped in at the last moment and blocked the attack with his mace. Absorbing the kinetic force that traveled through his mace, Erich then turned around and sent it back into the face of the gargoyle that was chasing after him. "Get up!" Erich yelled at Robert as he chased after the gargoyle he had knocked back, swinging his mace towards the gargoyles hand to force it to drop its sword. As the mace slammed into the gargoyles hand, Erich sent the remaining kinetic force he had into the hand, which sent cracks up the hand and all the way to the shoulder.
'Boom' The arm exploded into several pieces, and the sword fell towards the ground before being grabbed by Erich at the last moment. By now the gargoyle's face, that had been broken earlier had reformed and it snarled at Erich while whipping its other arm out at him. Instead of trying to get its sword back from him, the gargoyle sent the broken arm's crystal shards over to his not broken arm and formed an oval shield that had a single spike coming out from the middle.
"That won't stop me!" Erich exclaimed as he aimed his next attack towards the shield, expecting it to shatter just like the arm had. However, when his mace was a few inches away from the shield, the gargoyle moved the spike over to deflect the mace to the side. Thrown off balance, Erich had to let go of his mace when the gargoyle lunged at him with its jaw wide open. Without the weight of the mace dragging Erich with it, he was able to fend off the gargoyles attack by sending the sword he had taken from it, through its mouth and out the other side of its head. With the gargoyle busy reforming its head, Erich looked around for his mace, which had landed by Cidre's feet, before he picked it up as he dodged an attack.
"Catch," Cidre said as he tossed Erich's mace back over to him, before jumping to the side again as a sword pierced the ground where he had just been. Since this was the first time he had fought the gargoyles, Cidre was having trouble doing anything except dodging to the side. The poison that coated his sword wasn't doing anything against the gargoyle, and he hadn't taken his bow back from Sydra, so he couldn't shoot an arrow through the gargoyle's heart. Every time Cidre tried to rush the gargoyle, he would end up having to dodge at the last moment as a sword arced through the air in his direction.
'What can I do?' Cidre thought as he dodged another attack, before trying to cut off the gargoyles arm with his sword. Looking around, Cidre saw the small stream and came up with an idea. Slowly leading the gargoyle in that direction, Cidre let the next attack hit his sword and send him flying over the water, landing roughly on the other side. The gargoyle quickly charged after him, and jumped into the air as it spread its wings to fly over the stream and finish Cidre off.
"Gotcha!" Cidre yelled as he threw the sword in his hand as hard as he could towards the gargoyle's outstretched wings. The gargoyle was unable to change its direction at the last moment and the sword cleaved through its wings, sending it plummeting into the water below. With the floor beneath the stream and the gargoyles hands both being made from crystal, the water attacked as a lubricant and made it difficult for the gargoyle to get back up immediately. This allowed Cidre to run over and pick up the sword that the gargoyle had dropped while it was falling and send it directly into it's heart.
'Splash' Shards of crystal broke off the gargoyle and fell into the water, as Cidre stood above it with its sword raised into the air. Breathing heavily, he looked around and saw that only the gargoyles that Sydra was fending off remained, and the others had just been defeated. Grouping up with the others, the three guys raced over to help Sydra defeat the last two gargoyles and finish this battle.
'Zip,' Sydra grabbed onto the outstretched arm of one of the gargoyles and used it to launch himself up into the air above the two gargoyles. As he fell back down towards them head first, Sydra pulled out a dagger and aimed it at the gargoyle on his right. When both of the gargoyles pierced their swords through the air in his direction, Sydra let out a small burst of flame from his hand and twisted his body in the air to barley skim past both the swords. Once past the swords, Sydra was at the right height to stab his dagger into the gargoyles heart, and at the same time spin himself around so he landed on his feet.
"That's one down," Sydra said as he caught the shattered gargoyles sword and used it to fend off an attack from the other gargoyle. As he parried the sword to the side, Sydra activated his lightning aura and shot forward, impaling the last gargoyle's heart with his dagger. "And that's the other one,"
"So we're not needed?" Robert said as he slowed down to a stop a few feet from Sydra, and let his fire aura leave his war hammer. Dropping his hammer to the ground, Robert looked at the two fallen gargoyles that laid in pieces on the ground silently. 'He defeated two of them on his own...' Robert thought as he looked back at Sydra who stood there unscathed, with only a few scratches on his bone armor. Somehow the cloak that Sydra always wore was completely fine, and actually looked even better than before. Sydra had managed to upgrade his connection rank with it during the battle and now he could use its ability of shadow travel.
"Nah, you guys were taking to long, so I finished off these guys on my own," Sydra said as he felt two more auras enter his Arbor sanctum and increase the one that had been absorbed earlier. Sydra then disappeared into the shadows and reappeared next to the coffin. "And I got a new power of my cloak unlocked at the same time," Sydra said as he looked at the others blank faces.
"Should we open the coffin?" Erich asked, ignoring Sydra, who began sulking because no one seemed impressed with his cloak. The other three followed Sydra over to the coffin and looked at the man inside.
"I think we should, as we need that gem," Sydra said as he reached his hand over to the coffin and lifted the crystal top off. As the top raised off the crystal coffin, the man's body that laid inside let out a breath of air before slowly turning to crystal and breaking apart. 'Oh crap, I think I killed him,' Sydra thought as he sensed an aura leave the mans body and enter his Arbor Sanctum. Instead of being by a new root, the aura was collected by the root that had absorbed the auras from the gargoyles. A light change was felt in the presence the root gave off, and Sydra felt that he could now do more with that power.
'Rumble' The room began to shake, causing the group to look around in panic. After grabbing the dark blue crystal that the man had been holding, Sydra and the others ran out of the room and headed outside as fast as they could.