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Fal'jenul: I'm so used to having to use my own abilities, I simply forgot...

Jacob frowned. He had been too energy drained after the golem spell, and the bone attack attempt (which was much more costly tha it looked), to have thought of that, but he gave it a try now...

.... and with results that didn't go in his favor, unfortunately. His magic didn't mix very well with both Xun's and the chaotic energies flowing freely.

The skeletal monstrosties split into hundreds of themselves, covered in even more nasty spines. And now, they were shooting them at both masters and foes. Xun tried once more to presuade the skeletal things under his control, and Jacob did what he could to carefully destroy them... but to no avail. They would have to be eliminated manually, or retreat.

Xun: "May Jiluzix damn them for interrupting my magic!"

The barriers at least now were holding back most of the red energies, but sometimes it seemed like it would siphon some of it's strength or leak through just enough to slowly and sluggishly try to reach someone. The skeletons however we're now posing a more dangerous problem, attacking the barriers themselves with their weapons and teeth and claws.

Xun simply nodded and pounced on one of the little undead turncoats. It struggled, stabbing at his flesh and hidden armor, but to no avail... he had it thoroughly pinned with his body, and he quickly began to eat it, crunching the bones loudly. Standing back up, his hands quickly regrew, strength returned to him that had been missing from the miscast powerful spell and his injury.

A number of them were incinerated, but a few and the giant skeletals were still roaming about. He barely dodged in time, avoiding being clubbed by the massive beast, hopping onto it's arm, and extending sharp, jagged blades from his forearms, stabbing them into the beast as he climbed up.

A number of half finished skeletons emerged from the giant's surface bones, attempting to claw and pull away Xun, but he swatted them away as he finally made his way into the eye socket of the beast.

"All of you, I need time! Occupy this creature, the magic holding it together is stronger than I thought!"

Potent magic energy could be sensed by those sensitive to it from inside the monstrosity's skull as it tried to claw Xun out, while also flailing about and sending out more skeleton minions at the others. Parts of the ceiling above the groups were beginning to collapse from the giant's action as well... it was starting to become dangerous.

Xun growled a little under his breath, but kept his temper under check. Yet another obstacle in the way of their goal of serving their lord. Xun nodded at Alpha's statement. Then, glancing at the portal hole that was still open, Xun studied it for a moment. He muttered a few unintelligible things, placing a finger of each hand at different ends of the dimensional tear, and forced it shut. Servants or laborers would have to take care of the mess in time.

Xun: "What makes you so certain you know where they are headed, Alpha?"

"Ah, of course...

For the most part, yes. There are rare situations though that can get past me. Most undead have a distinct scent...

...Something troubled me about that. I smelled at least one, but I could not pinpoint which of their number it was."

Remember there is a healing one there too if you think it might help you. Sephiroth reminded her after they had stopped moving down the tunnel.

No offense taken, Veni. I am only glad we were able to escape safely...
Fal'Jenul took this time to heal everyone that was wounded from the battle. Her actual face however was turned away from them as she looked and frowned at the spot she thought him to be. Why aren't you showing yourself? She wished she could also give Sephiroth a giant hug, but settled for fussing over him over their mental connection.

Jacob shook his head, rubbing his temples.
"One of them was using some sort of siren like call magic, that's for certain. It didn't seem to work on any of us that aren't counted amongst the living technically, so... a... biomancer? I'm not sure I've even heard of such a thing. That doesn't bode with if my guess is right."

One of the not so injured or winded imps took a couple of those nice, revitalizing orbs and gave it them extra charge with some of it's electricity. It then handed it over the more physically exhausted members of the party.

- - - - -

Xun nodded a bit.

"Interesting. Now that I think about it, there was a strange... dichotomy about her. Living, and yet.... not quite? Something is odd about that one. I shall try my hypnosis on her next time, that much is for certain. We need to up our ante against them.

Though I swear there is another that is undead among them... It itches my mind being unable to figure out who."

To answer your question, he also said this to Thas who undoubtedly knew he was there. The niearcim still think I am wandering around their city and wouldn't think it possible for me to even enter that mage's house. The fewer people that know I am back, the less likely the mages will realize how utterly escaped I am. We could continue that we were doing earlier only with you being the main one if you wanted, unless you think I might contaminate you with something undesirable now.

After Veni made the comment about the girl being younger than Daisy, Sephiroth said to his mom and Thas. The biomancer did go easy on you. Mindy has the potential to be a very pleasant little girl if she wasn't a mage. Her servants seemed healthier than others we've seen, she liked having The Tale of Peter Rabbit read to her, she had drawings of grassy fields in her room, and she didn't force me to feel extra pain when she stopped my bleeding. Ask Milaku if she knew her.