Young Writers Society

His instincts clashed the moment everything went out of control. One part of him was telling him to run as far away from the beast - and Auryon by extension, since Apophis appeared to be materializing right beside her - while the other was desperately begging the first part to stay.

He knew which side to follow. That wasn't hard. What was hard was figuring out a way to deal with this threat. He guessed the first step was to be able to see what he was facing. He conjured up a flame - the joys of being a being of fire and air - and approached Auryon/Apophis.

Apophis was probably going to attack him. But he could deal with a nick or two; Auryon needed him. He was sure of that.

Apophis took a long breath, looking down at her hands. It'd been a long time since she'd taken her own form. She glanced down at Auryon who was still on the ground beside her, luminescent eyes emotionless as a serpent's as she gazed down upon her vessel for a moment prior to turning her attention to Maahes and smiling.

"Ah, so we meet again. You know, I was thinking, it's a rather curious name you've got there," she says, shifting her weight into one hip with a casual air. "Sarah, do be a doll and give me me daggers," Apophis addresses her vessel with the command.

"Ap- agh!" she collapses again.

"I don't have time for this," she says, exasperated. "I thought we'd gotten somewhere with your training but then we run into someone like this and you start getting all disobedient again." Though she speaks to Auryon, her attention never truly leaves Maahes.

When the room lit up around Maahes's conjured fire, James immediately strained his eyes to adjust, looking for the other monster in the room.

At the moment, though he knew Auryon was just as much of a threat, whatever was lurking in the darkness was more of an unknown to him, and he wanted to be ready.

At that moment James felt a sudden brush of air and something slick brush past him, touching his legs for but a moment. He almost jumped, flipping around to try and see where the creature went, but his eyesight was poor, especially in the dim light, and he could only hear the shuffling sounds of said creature for a moment before it was quiet again. Larrel yelped, feeling the same thing only seconds later, backing up into James. It was then that they both could see the shadow of what looked like a tail slithering away.

It was then that the creature came into full view - not because it came into the light, but because along its back, a pattern of stripes slowly began to glow an eerie green in the darkness. When its full length was revealed, James almost didn't know what to do with himself.

It almost looked like a serpent, but looked more like a lizard with its large, meaty arms and legs. It probably was seven or eight times his height in length, and as it looked at them and slithered with its tongue from behind slightly glowing eyes, James seriously began to wonder if they were going to make it out of the place alive, especially considering that the person inside Auryon had also manifested.

Larrel grabbed James's free hand tightly, and he squeezed back. Her hands were cold.

"Let's... let it come to us," he whispered as quiet as he could. He didn't want to do anything to aggravate it more, and as long as he couldn't see a large portion of it, he didn't want to run in blind.

"I need a sword," muttered Edwin, pulling Adamina closer to him. "I have no idea why mine disappeared." He eyed the glowing shapes in the now dark room.

"When in doubt, blame it on Alanis, even if it isn't her fault," whispered Adamina, who pried herself out of his grip. "I may not be a proficient fighter, but no need to exert yourself on my behalf." She pulled the sharp pin from her hair again as a weapon. It was better than nothing.

Edwin fought the urge to groan. "For goodness' sake, Mina," he hissed. "We're married! And in the eyes of the Western Empire you're the important one here, so obviously I'd be obligated to risk my life for yours." His voice softened, and he put out and arm to pull her back as he backed away from the scene slightly. "But no one's forcing me. I did it once, and I always will. So just . . . stop being so stubborn."

"Fine," answered Adamina after a brief pause. She sighed and, feeling for him, put a hand in his. "Don't you always keep a spare dagger hidden in your cloak?"

"Oh . . . right. All this madness must have made me forget." Edwin was glad Adamina couldn't see the blush spreading across his cheeks as he pulled the blade out.

"Right, Edwin. Right."

At the same time, both wondered how they were having such a conversation while some unknown beast and Apophis were loose somewhere in the ballroom. They had lost track of the others after the lights went out, but they thought they could hear hushed voices nearby. Perhaps some of their companions--who were not Auryon--were nearby.

The snake-demon's eyes began to glow in the darkness, luminescing her body dimly and making the lump that was Auryon somewhat visible. She sighs when the human doesn't pass her the daggers as requested.

"Ugh, do I have to do everything myself around here? You used to be helpful, dammit," Apophis says, exasperated as she leans down to pull the weapons from Auryon's belt. "We need to do some retraining, Sarah, this is beginning to get a bit ridiculous. Remind me, yeah?" she pokes the shaking heap with a foot. "Hello? Alive down there?"

"F*** you," she growls in retort, then lets out a yelp of pain before Apophis turns her attention fully to Maahes.

"Well, let's dance, shall we?"

Every inch of his essence was furiously bubbling away at the thought of fighting Apophis, but he knew that it would the most foolish thing he could do right now. He could fight her later. For now, they needed to deal with that gigantic monster that had appeared.

"No," he said, "let's not. You can fight me later, Apophis. There's a monster loose in this place, and we both know it's better to fight one enemy instead of two. Defeat the monster with me and then we can have that fight you're craving."

"Divide and conquer, sweetheart," she replies with an overly-sweet smile and charges him.

He barely was able to jump out of the way in time, expecting that logic would win over her blood lust. "You're going to lose!" he protested, trying to figure out how he was going to handle the two foes at the same time. "Even if you beat me, you'll have to face that thing. You're not going to be able to handle that, especially after a long fight."

"You have no idea what I'm capable of," Apophis retorts, pivoting to face him. Auryon is beginning to pull herself back up to her feet.

Larrel could hear the voices of Mina and Edwin close by, even if she couldn't see them.

"Like I'm going to just wait for it to come to us," she scoffed in a whisper to her brother, pulling him towards the sound of the voices.

"Mina?" she whispered, though somehow also called on the attentions of the beast. It turned its head to look at them, and Larrel tried to seize the terror in her limbs to grip her axe tightly. "Oh g-g-gods."

Actually, he did have a decent idea from their previous battle. He knew he was seriously in trouble, especially when there was a second opponent involved. He desperately wished that someone would coming running to help him fend off Apophis, but it looked like they were all more concerned with the giant murderous monster.

He prepared himself for whatever attack Apophis would throw at him next.

Seeing Apophis trying to kill Maahes made him pause for a second. The beast was pretty bad, but...Apophis was something like a demon, if he remembered correctly. Plus, the beast looked as if it was going for the other four in the room. Meanwhile, Maahes was alone, fighting a demon.

But was the demon perhaps less of a threat than Apophis?

He moved forward, timing his steps with those of the beast while staying in the darkness.
He asked himself again: Apophis, or the beast?

...

He ran forward, thrusting his knife towards Apophis' exposed back.

Apophis pivoted to the side so the knife went past her. It's unclear how she detected Raiden approaching her - she obviously wasn't facing him, so it hadn't been by sight. Sound, perhaps?

The demon raised her daggers and moved to go onto the offensive with Raiden.

"Stop!" Auryon yelled, her voice wavering. "Apophis, we need th- agh!"