Abadon morphed his arms back into the heavy fists, building a make shift log cabin within two hours. "I'm nothing if not handy." He said, smirking at Abigor, who sat on a large rock, having took he armour off and laid it to one side. "Unfortunately I can't promise you air conditioning." Abigor glared at him slightly.

She looked over at the elf, "It's a mistake whenever you level your bow at a vampire, you realise that right? the speed we can move at... We'd wait 'till you fire, and have our hand wrapped around your throat while the arrow his the tree behind us." She smirked at the eld, she was not even trying to frighten him, merely warn him so he didn't get gutted by a vampire that was not quite so laid-back.

Abadon stretched, sitting with the dwarf, still slightly afraid of Abi. "Hey... You're not anti-demon are you? 'cause we're not all bad.... Given, I am rather bad when on earth, but we're not all bad I'm sure." He playted with his abilities a little, changing his hand into shapes of different animals, beasts, enemies he had killed over the millennia he had lived through.

Abigor stood, her red dress billowing in the breeze that had picked up, the armour that coverred her abdomen and chest glinting in the increasing brightness, She grabbed the heavier plate armour that usually coverred her right arm and pulled it on, leaving the lesser copper armour that usually coverred the other for whoever came along. "Please say you noticed that... a breeze doesn't just pick up from nowhere."

Her red eyes glistened in the sun, as around 50 to 6 of the machine men burst out from the sand. "Oh... I just had to open my mouth." Abadon stepped up beside her morphing his right arm into it's shield form and his left hand into a blade that appeared to be from a long sword, only it was as black as ebony. "You're pretty loyal for a new guy."

He shrugged, smiling at her, "You're protecting my ass, guess I should at least do the same." She pulled her blade out of the ground and held it upside downa s she always did. She looked over at the other two, grinning wickedly.

"I hope you two aren't afraid to get a little dirty."

(Gah XD  Missed it, hang on, I'll fix it.  Oh!  And I'm glad you like the pictures, I'll probably do more sketches for it whenever the mood takes.)

Jasharn glared at Abigor, and carefully flexed the muscles of his hand.  "Elves have a speed of their own," he replied, misperceiving her warning as a threat.  Then he stalked to the edge of the makeshift cabin, purposefully keeping his distance, the skin of his ears stretched slightly as he listened to them all no less.

Zira glanced at Abadon's hands as he sat beside her, unable to suppress her curiosity.  She had never seen anyone - demon or otherwise - change their shape so selectively before.  He asked his question.  She switched her glance to his face, and shrugged.

"I've no quarrel with demons, in particular," she replied.  "Unless you plan on fighting me or launching an assault against my home, we'll get along just fine."

As Abigor stood, then, and noticed the breeze, Zira moved to reclaim her armor from where she'd discarded it.  Swiftly, she began to rebuckle the plates, but only got so far as the chest piece before the ground split open, and a veritable siege of automatons erupted from the earth.  "Merciful..." she began, before she foregoing the rest of her armor and drawing her blade.

Jasharn had his bow at the ready.  He seemed determine to prove himself, but his arrows pinged uselessly off of the hard metal shells of the front line of opponents.  Even the joints and eyes seemed impervious to damage.

He was rushed, and fled the grasping arms of the first hoard, driven towards the back corner of the cabin.  Zira found herself under similar assault, as more than ten of the things charged.  Her blade split through the outer casing of the first, but got jammed into something as a shock ran up her arm.  She swung sideways, crashing her wounded opponent into two of his fellows, and then planted a fist into the knee of the third.  The metal groaned beneath her hand, and broke.

In the far distance, something let loose a low and terrible howl.

(I'll probably end up drawing her the least, since her clothes are so complex... XD) 

(Shame, 'cause that picture was awesome,)

Abadon was about to reply to the dwarf's quip and leading an assault when Abigor stood. As the machine men rushed them, Abadon looked back at the elf who was firing off shots - which only seemed to aggrovate the strange beasts. His hand blured into a strange black form before he punched it into the ground, a loud, deep growl escaping from his lungs. He looked up at the elf as spikes erupted from the ground, impaling the ten that surrounded him.

pulling his fist out, it returned to normal as he nodded to the elf. with a swift move, a piece fell off his jacket and formed a dark black long sword, which he threw to the elf, "A mite more useful than elven arrows!" He turned back to the oncoming waves that came towards he and Abigor.

Abi chuckled as Abadon saved the rather tender elf. She winked at one of the machine men, before arcing her blade up evenly and shredding the chest plates of four of them. She tore through the attacking forces without any conievable ex
pression on her face. Abadon surveyed the area, still slightly surprised they were not trying to over-power him.

He leapt up, clapping his hands together above his head as they morphed into one large hammer, which he slammed down into the centre of one group. He tore his hands back apart as they morphed into two lances, which he used to impale numerous enemies, "We're really going to have to find the source of these thigns and end this..."

Abigor snarled as her blade swept through another couple of them, "Thanks for pointing out the obvious." She growled a bloodthirsty noise as she ripped through the enemy forces one after the other, caring more for nothing but  her survival and possibly that of her new found allies - after all that would have been a bonus.

(Too tired to be creative... will put up pic for now, post tomorrow...)

(I'm glad you think so!  I'm mostly considering this fun practice...)

Jasharn caught the sword tossed to him reflexively, and then almost cringed back from the black material.  But there was nothing for it, and as another hoard of the strange creatures descended, he began to make use of the weapon.  Sparks flew and the flexible outer casings of his opponents tore open like rusted cans as he fought with just a little too much flourish for practicality's sake.

Zira beheaded the automaton nearest to her, and glance over as she heard Abadon's observation, and Abi's answering snarl.  Their opponents were teeming up from the ground.  But she doubted that even machines could travel through solid rock and earth on their own.

"Tunnels!" she called over the din and chaos of battle.  Then another cluster of enemies swarmed her.  She raised her sword, cutting into a trio of them as they flung themselves at her.  Her boots dug rivets into the ground as she held them back.

"What?" Jasharn distractedly shouted in return.

But Zira didn't have time to answer him.  One of the automatons not caught on her sword managed to get in a solid hit.  It grabbed her upper arm, twisting her through the air.  Her blade shrieked against the metal skin of the others as it came free along with her.  Then the automaton slammed her into the ground, with force enough that it might have broken someone with less resilient bones.

Instead, the ground broke beneath her.  Dry dirt and rock tumbled onto her head as she fell into a hollow opening below.  Her back slammed into something which had to be metal - or possibly rock, but probably metal - and stars danced behind her eyes as she stared up at the dwarf-shaped opening left in her wake.

"Huh," she observed.  "I was right."

Abadon reacted the best way he could, making one of his feet increase in side and smaiing it down on one of the automotons, leaping high in the air and impaling the one attacking Zira with his arm. He threw it to one side and morphed his right hand into a solid black sphere, beginning to slam it into the metal below Zira after pushing her to the side.

Abigor was scything through enemies like there was no tomorrow, snarling and hissing as scrapes from their fingers caught her unprotected arm, though she knew she would heal, therefore she pressed on regardless. She ran one enemie through, pushing and impaling a further two enemies, lifting them along with the blade above her head and flicking them off the broadsword into a group of their comrades.

Her breathing ragged, she turned around a full three hundred and sixty degrees, ensuring the other had got the message and were backing off. She walked over to the elf of the group, her hand beginning to grow red. "You're not going to be grateful for this, but..." She lay her hand on her chest, chanting in her race's dialect. "Our kind of magic, they're not going to be able to do damage to you... protect us while we get rid of these tunnels,"

Abi shuffled off quickly before the elf could react badly, hacking at the metal between the demon's blows. "You do realise we don't know what this metal is...." Abadon stopped, realising something, "I'll be right back," His entire body transformed into the black maetrial, before be seemed to blend with the metal visible, before going through to the other side and reforming.

He looked around, taking in the details "Big set of tunnels like this.... there's got to be at least one main support beam." Sprinting throguh the tunnels, he ripped any enemies to get in his way in two and carried on moving. Finding what looked like a support beam, he allowed his hands to join it, beofre ripping them art, the beam going with them. The entire structure shook, and started to cave in. "Oh, I forgot about this part."

Abigor felt the ground shake, "Get away from it! it's caving in... Abadon you beauty," She looked around despertely, searching for any sign of the demon. A few moments later, what looked like a huge drll-but burst from the ground and transformed into a hooded figure, which soon fell to the ground, unconcious.

Zira let Abadon shove her aside, and covered his back as he began hacking at the tunnels.  Several of the automatons crashed into the remains of their makeshift shelter, sending wood and debris flying, but in their aggression it seemed to do them more damage than anything else.

Jasharn barely had time to notice Abi approach her, his breathing ragged and labored from the violent, unexpected fight.  He noticed the glow of her hand, and only had time to gasp, hearing the black language fall from her lips and only just raising his arm - a reflexive, defensive gesture - before she was gone again.  Cold sank into his chest, bit into his bones.  He felt like someone had draped an icy, dark cloth over every inch of him. No, he thought, desperate.  Nononono...

One of the automatons took advantage of his distraction and charged. Its clawed fingers caught against the flesh of chest, but then rebounded again, the magic rendering them futile and harmless.  Jasharn gasp as he felt the light, the center of his people, fade within his chest.  Something whispered in the back of his mind.  Shadowdarknightfeatblackshadowdeath, it chanted, the voices of his ancestors bleeding into the dark call of the blood-drinker's magic.

"Meth el'dolan," he prayed.

The light went out, smothered by the vampire's spell.  Jasharn tightened his grip on the black sword, and, his mind as blank as a fog, began to kill.  The blows of the automatons could not touch him.  Their bodies were shredded before him, sparks shooting through the air, shrapnel and torn casings littering the ground at his feet.  The flourish of his movements died.  In their wake was only the quick, deadly efficiency that Jasharn's ancestors, the elves who had known true war, would have employed.

They are not of the people, the whispers said. Bring the monsters death.

He paid no mind to others, not even as Abi called out, and the tunnels beneath him began to collapse.  Abadon burst from the ground a moment later; the flow of enemies momentarily cut off.  He killed the stragglers as the demon collapsed to the earth.

Zira finished off the enemy who was on her blade, and raced over to where Abadon was lying.  She hoped it was only exhaustion that had crumpled him, and not something worse.  He had made efforts to help her; she wouldn't want him die before she could repay that.  "Abadon!"

Abi beat her to his crumpled form, but not by a wide margin.

Abi was knelt beside Abadon, her glowing and moving over his head and body,"Damned demons... I can't get a read on what's wrong with him, most likely just left a little empty after so many transformations..." Abi stared into his expressionless face, hers matching his. "C'mon demon... don't die after you actually manage to impress me... You know you were trying sicne you met me." Abadon's eyes opened slowly, a slight smile sppearing on his face.

"Please don't tell me I followed the wrong Juju, have I died and went to Valhalla?" He directed his question to the dwarf, his joke probably in bad taste but he did not particularly care. Standing, he almost fell again, only just managing to get enough balance to stay upright. He held his side, his ribs feeling they were splitting due to the full body transformation.

"We need to find somewhere to hole up for the night... There's no way i'm going to be able to make it through all that again tonight," Abigor looked around, rubbing a hand over her unprotected arm, soothing the scratches that had been made by the automotons.

"Aye, did you not say something about structures somewhere in the distance?" She looked some more, finally spotting the shapes. "Hm... well I guess we'd better get moving before night falls." She took off in the direction of the shapes, wanting nothing more than to be able to rest and recuperate her energy. Abadon stared at her back as she moved away, slighty amazed she had not offered any help.

He began to limp off in the general direction she had taken, his hand constantly holding his side, grimacing every time he had to put weight on his bad leg. "If this planet kills me...  I'm so coming back to haunt you guys... in all of time, Literally as well, I have never been as ragged as I am right now... you three must just be bad luck for me."

The last automaton fell, decimated, from Jasharn's sword, and he let out a long breath.  His blood was thundering in his ears.  From the corner of his eye, he could only just see the vampire kneeling alongside the fallen demon, the dwarf beside her.

The urge to turn around and kill them all was surprisingly strong.  The vampire's magic was not reacting well to his elven blood; intellectually, he knew that, and it made some remaining part of him quail.

Tainted by black magic, he thought, though his thoughts seemed like a distant stirring.

Abadon shuffled to his feet.  He got a few staggering steps on his own as Zira gathered up what remained of their things - the armor they hadn't had time to don, the cloaks, his discarded bow - and then moved to stride beside him, ready to catch him if he collapsed again.

"That was impressive," she remarked.  "The last time I saw such a dramatic collapse was when half the mountainguard got drunk out of their minds and decided to tackle a dragon."  Zira raised her hand to clap Abadon on the back, but seemed to decide it was better not to, and lowered it again after a second.

Jasharn stared at his boots.  Eventually the sounds of footsteps grew more distant, and finally, he began to follow them.  His steps crunched over the ragged earth.  There were rifts in the ground, now, where the dirt had caved in over the collapsed tunnels.  Tall rocks lined the distance south of the structures which the others were heading towards.  He followed their footsteps.

His voice seemed to have failed him.  The heartbeat in his chest seemed to pound like drums.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed a shape moving between the rocks.  He stilled, and the distance between himself and the other grew longer as he watched the shadows.  The scent of blood was on the air.

Odd, because only the vampire had been made to bleed, and those wounds had already closed.  His eyes narrowed, before he turned, and began to follow again.

"Don't get too far behind, elf!" the dwarf called back to him.

Abadon continued limping, smiling at the dwarf when she mentioned it being impressive, "Aye... I haven't had to do something quite as big scale as that in a good few centuries." He snapped a large, long stick from a tree and used it as a makeshift cane. "Sorry, whenI get talking about cneturies sometimes it irks people... I'm as old as time itself, which can sometimes take a tole on the sanity, which is why I actually did that."

Abigor was alert all the way whilst walking, surveyying the area around her, expecting an attack at every turn, though tunnels had reached far, and she began to doubt if the automotons could make it out this far anymore. You shouldn't have cursed that elf... it may not be permenant but it will be torture to his elven blood and mind. She shook her head, shaking the thoughts from her mind.

Abadon stuck with the dwarf, deciding she was the best company from the group, "I was there when napoleon met the guillotine, when 300 spartan warriors gave their all against a mighty perisan army - Yeah, that wasn't just myth." He stretched, trying to limber up after that last transformation had took it out of him. "I could never get involved in the chaos though, - Which oh, the people of your world are so brilliant at creating."

He looked forward at Abigor, chuckling softly at how alert she looked. He turned back to the dwarf, smiling once again, "I was placed here as an observer all those years ago, watch what happens, never interfer..." he looked down at his feet as he limped along. "All until a century ago, when i started going against everything Lucifer had told me, now i live for myself and nobody else."

"Old as time itself?" Zira asked, with a note of amused disbelief which implied that she thought he was exaggerating.  "Well, I've not much idea how demons work, I'll grant you that."

She listened as he enumerated on the historical conflicts of humans which he'd witness.  None of the names struck a chord in her memory, but she didn't want seem a fool, so she kept quiet about it.  Humans had wars the same as dwarves, she knew; sometimes even with dwarves, though not in her lifetime.

"I could never get involved in the chaos though, - which oh, the people of your world are so brilliant at creating."

Zira grinned.  "A little bit of chaos never ran me wrong," she replied.  "Though I'm a more orderly sort myself.  You have to be, when you're on guard duty.  Or, well, you should be, if you want to make a good guard."  She watched as Abadon listened with half an ear, his eyes turned towards Abigor.  He spoke of his choice to go against Lucifer.

She frowned.

"I've never gone against my own kin.  Why would you do such a thing?  Is the Lord of demons a harsh master?"  Zira couldn't imagine living alone - there were always people in the mountains, always something that needed to be done, and someone who had to do it.  It was the way her entire life had been, tied into service.

Jasharn trailed far behind the group, ignoring the soft murmur of conversation until the buildings on the horizon became solid, larger shapes in the darkness.  The whispering in the back of his mind was beginning to fade, but slowly, tearing itself away as if edged barbs had been embedded into his mind.  He dragged the tip of the black sword across the ground, leaving a sharp trail behind him.

They passed into the shadows of the buildings.  They were small, one-level structures, which looked like they might have been designed to block out the harsh heat and daylight once upon a time.  A low wind kicked dust past the walls, sending whorls of dirt and shattered earth to pluck at his bootlaces.

His heart beat sluggishly in his ears.

Kill them, the distant voices whispered.  Kill the ones not of our own, not of the People. His heartbeat began to slow, strangely, and he felt himself grow even warmer in the planet's residual nighttime temperatures.

"This place looks abandoned," Zira noted, looking around.  "I guess we don't have much choice - we need to rest.  You especially, my good Sir Demonshield." She prodded the side of Abadon's leg lightly.

"It burns..." Jasharn whispered, too low for her ears to hear, and sank against the nearest wall.

He smiled at the dwarf's disbelief, "However yours and other races may think, hell and heaven are beyond usual time frames.... it all existed without time, time was created as a way to measure how long the humans take to slaughter eachother." He morphed the index finger of his right hand, turning the tip onto a small fan blade which he spun as a way to cool himself down, "I was placed when Earth was created, a guardian if you will... to protect Lucifer, and at the same time avoiding influencing the creations of this so called god,"

He shook his head as she asked hwo he could go against his own kind, thinking back, trying to recal just what had happened, "Well... Lucifer always cared more for the humans than he did demons, being a fallen angel himself," His left hand morphed from shape to shape, all images from his past. "One day he ordered us to wage war, break the sixty six seals necessary to free him..."

He looked ahead, smiling as he realised the buildings were getting closer, "Apparently i was the first demon, I would need to break the final seal by sacrificing my life." He licked across his lower lip, thinking of how to word it correctly,  "I cannot die by any normal means, there has to be the ritual, the chanting, a lot of hysterical monks in robes basically."

he cracked the knuckles of his right hand, still stiff all over, "I was not going to give my life for a lord that did not care either way whether we lived or died, so I broke free from hell and carved out my own piece of earth, lived as peacefully as possible."

He chuckled at the demonshield name, budging her slightly as she poked his leg. He was grateful to finally be able to laugh with another, a century on your own takes a toll on the strongest of beings. "Aye, I suppose I do need to rest... I can't risk over taxing this form, last thing I want is to go back to hell for a spell, dreadful place." He smiled sarcastically, winking at the dwarf who had been sokind to him so far.

Abigor got to the door of one of the buildings, Before peering up and surveying the front, deciding it looked safe enough, "There might be more of the things inside... we ought to be ready," She kicked the front door in, surprised at the effort it took due to the doors being barricading by an old fashioned desk. "Someone was expecting company..." She heard the elf mutter something, turning to see him falling against the wall, she sprinted and placed a hand on his chest to steady him, "I knew it was going to be much.... ready yourself." Without any more warning, her hand began to glow red again, drawing out all of the energy she had put into him later.

Zira turned to stare as Abigor pulled the curse from Jasharn, distracted from her increasingly intriguing conversation with Abadon.  Her brow furrowed - she hadn't seen Abi cast the spell in the first place, too consumed by the fighting to pay much attention to the somber vampire's fast movements.

"What are you doing?" she asked, even as she glanced towards the shadowed room beyond the kicked-in door.  The broken monitor of a computer screen flickered slightly from where it had fallen behind the barricades which Abigor had destroyed.

Jasharn threw his head back as he felt the black tendrils and shadows yanked from his mind with a sudden, violent force.  When the most past, he stumbled violently away from Abigor, staggering at the sudden rush of light and free which assaulted his senses.  He fell to his knees and retched onto the ground until his throat felt raw and unbidden tears spilled from his eyes.  They rolled down his cheeks and soaked into his collar.

"Jasharn!" Zira exclaimed, exchanging a glance with Abadon before tentatively approaching the elf.  She gave Abigor a wary look.  "What did you do?"

All at once, then, Jasharn hurried away, trying to put as much distance between himself and the vampire as he could.  He had been... that was... he swallowed.

"You tainted me!" he rasped, his thoughts finally clear again. "You... stay back..."