I watch as the large scritcher that just spoke swings its long arms downwards towards several kneeling scritchers, its sharp blackened nails sliding through the poor creatures skin and bones like a sharpened blade through paper. The other kneeling creatures don't even react to the murders of their own by the larger one and continue bowing whilst the large scritcher pulls one of the bodies towards him and begins biting into the thin corpse with loud crunches until all that's left is a small puddle of blood and the victims head lying nearby.
'Tilly why would that scritcher kill its own people? It seems counter productive to a fight to murder your own during a fight.' I ask aloud as Tilly watches in fascination as the large scritcher glows a bloody red before smiling towards the group of dungeon creatures and their human allies.
"Some creatures have a title in front of their name that gives them a small type of power. i vaguely remember when I was alive their was a beast know as a Wrath Fueled something or other. Basically whenever it went berserk it would gain other buffs due to the title so maybe this creature is the same or it may have a cannibal skill of some sort, who knows. But lets watch how they handle it since this is a stronger opponent than they've dealt with before." Tilly replies as we both concentrate on the screen in front of us.
--------------------------------------------Party Perspective-----------------------------------------------
'Shit! That's got to be the boss we're here for but the damn nest was reported to be a few more miles north. We need to be careful now since there's still a mass of these things plus the boss and the few stronger variants it brought.' Tyr thinks silently as she glances around her while lashing out with her spear and piercing a nearby scritchers head while it prostrates itself. Smiling maliciously she begins thrusting in and out of the surrounding creatures, reaping their lives while they sit helplessly without fighting back before the boss in front of them lets out a spine chilling howl and the remaining scritchers stand up and glow a faded red color before they begin charging forward again.
"Damnit! Guys try to focus on the trash first! Boss can talk kind of so it means its smart, be wary and kite it and the big boys until we clear out the distractions, then the bigs, finally ending with the boss capture if able. We're in this to survive before all else, if we start falling Iron your job is to retreat back to the dungeon with Sarah understood?" Tyr barks as Iron nods her head in understanding and Sarah stands in the center of the party, her face pale with fear as she keeps casting various buffs onto her summoned protector.
Iron begins mumbling a chant under her breath before a large shadow appears underneath her, it resembles a humanoid figure in the barest of terms. The shadow is several times the size of Iron with thick arms and legs. Spikes can be seen from the shoulders and hips of the shadowed being as large curled horns are mounted on either side of its head. As the shadowed being appears its arm moves towards Iron and latches onto her leg, slowly siphoning itself onto her body as a dark chitinous armor begins appearing over her body, those same spikes and horns form on her gear, and her eyes glow an emerald green as a viscous smile appears on her face.
"Ah freedom once more! I see, I see so you brought me forth to deal with this trash then eh girly. And the strong and that leader are to be captured in exchange for the souls of the garbage ones? Very well young Iron, the deal has been made, Their lives will become my food." says a voice in a deep, grinding almost mocking way. It comes from Iron's helmet but her mouth hasn't moved, her axe is now within her hand but its encompassed by an eerie green flame and screams of torment come from the flames themselves.
"Guys avoid Iron at all costs. She's now possessed by her damn patron and that fucker is one of the most sadistic beings I've met but its actually fairly straight forward for a demonic otherwordly entity of mass evil and destructive capability. It's also on a timer, once its up Iron passes out and we're left tankless so lets get to work!" Tyr shouts as she rushes forward with her lance swinging in wide circles, each sweep killing or maiming a basic scritcher that's advancing towards her fearlessly.
Slax still lays on the ground next to Sarah but with one hand starts casting small nightmare spells into the crowd as well as his new necromancy spell, each of nightmare spells hit the advancing scritchers as they fall forward with moans or screams before being trampled by their brethren. The following spell lands on each of the bodies but only two of the various dead rise and begin attacking the group. Sarah constantly keeps the poison barricade up as she attempts to heal the zombies that are being ripped apart before Flippy charges back into the group and begins lashing out with his wide jaws and pudgy hands, the fingers ending in small but sharp nails as his wide fish mouth always takes a limb or chunk of flesh with it, leaving various scritchers shrieking in pain or slowly bleeding to death as the small summon has his beady eyes locked on a new target.
At the end of the horde of basic scritchers the ten larger more evolved scritchers advance from their rear, using the lower powered ones as fodder before they charge through. The last one in the back is much thinner than the others, its skeletal frame covered in lanky muscle and pale grey skin. In its spidery fingers it holds a long branch of dark wood, several feathers and bones hanging from the top of it by wrapping made of vines and gristle. As it shrieks into the sky several rocks and mounds of mud float into the air and rocket towards Flippy as the small summon dodges and hides behind the weaker creatures, its eyes locked on the alpha mage scritcher as it finally gets through the weaklings and licks its fishy lips with a smile at the warriors in front of it.