Within These Walls ((Open 9/28/12))

[Orcus Fieres]

"Whatever it is, there's no time left to argue about it here." Dæmon wrapped his hand around his cane tightly and sprinted for Daniel and Shania, plucking them from their stance and setting them down next to the door. He then dashed to Eve, Galiel and the others, attempting to keep a barrier between the shocked comrades and whatever was forming at the base of the buildings.  

[Silas Parrish]

Tobias nodded his agreement with the giant as the group broke into a run. The greenhouse was the nearest building, but Tobias doubted that the water could be made to run again after the piping being broken. He also felt frighteningly unsure that water would even deter the Shadow a second time.
He and Jon ran side by side near the rear of the small crowd. A wall was fast approaching them, and Tobias scanned desperately for somewhere else to go, but there was nothing that he could see. Finally, a tendril, stripe, or arm slid across the ground at a harrowing speed, drawing a line right down the middle of the group. Jon and Tobias both jumped away, staring down at the extension of the Shadow on the ground between them. Tobias felt the earth shake beneath him, and his heart sank.  

[Ty Gwynnia]

((So, who's on what side of that new line?))

Daniel gave an outraged cry as he was picked up as easily as a little girl's doll by Dæmon, and then placed down next to Shania. The dryad was still standing silently as she stared at the dark mass that had returned, seeming not to hear anything that he said to try to bring her about. As a warrior, it was an insult to be taken away from the front lines when he'd willingly placed himself in harm's way. But now it was too late, and it looked like they were separated.  

[Silas Parrish]

((That's up to you guys. 3nodding ))  

[Ty Gwynnia]

((Hm...What does Chibi say about this? She is The Shadow, after all.))  

[Silas Parrish]

((Lemme get her online and ask her. xd ))  

[Ty Gwynnia]

((You could always ask her in person. XD))  

[Silas Parrish]

((Well, I meant to have those two things be separate thoughts. I would get her online to reply, while asking her for her ideas on the RP. C'mon, we're not the type to speak electronically when we are never physically separate. XP At any rate... she's still not sure. I'm working on her, though. xd ))  

[Ty Gwynnia]

((Aw, okay. I guess my people are next to the greenhouse, at least. 3 of the 4.))  

[Silas Parrish]

The ground broke beneath Tobias, and he slid down into a great, dark mouth of earth and rust. He collided several times with sharp edges on his way down, and could hear nothing but a dull, unnatural roar. He managed to right himself just long enough to see Jon calling down to him and disappearing in a cloud of black mist and viscera. He collided hard with the ground, and lost consciousness, his eyes gazing sightlessly up at the unholy moonlight and the shadows it cast.

((Rachel's not coming back. Seems RPing's not her thing, after all XP ))  

[Ty Gwynnia]

((Okay, me, you, and Orcus, we can do this. =D))

There was nothing they could do for the poor man who was quickly engulfed by the strange shadow that had effectively torn a literal rift in-between the members of the ragtag group of strangers. Daniel managed to cover Shania's wide eyes with a hand to spare her the bloody sight, although he was given the full view. In the confusion he saw the other man, Tobias, fall down and disappear, where to, he didn't know. Oddly the gruesome sight didn't disturb him as much as it should have. With gritted teeth, the knight assumed it was due to the dark influences of this accursed place. He wouldn't even think of the alternative, that it was him.
Far on the other side of the rift he saw the other group, the injured warrior and the weathered elf included. Ruskie was busy trying to reopen the greenhouse door that had gotten stuck in the frame. In his deperation, the halfling had closed the door instead of opening it. And Dæmon...he didn't see him.

"We...we have to help him!" Shania cried. She'd seen the man dressed in coats slip into the ground, and suddenly she felt very alone despite the two people near her. Very quickly they were being separated, as if it was planned.

"How?!" Ruskie yelled in reply, ramming his shoulder against the wooden door. After a few hits he fell through. Tarnbel'en had been through tough times, and this definitely counted as one of them. The injured man was still unconscious, the two women and the man with him were eying the tear in the ground warily and with frightened eyes. With a grunt, he slung the hurt man over his shoulder and stood up. "We should run." He said.  

[Silas Parrish]

The seething non-mass began to float or crawl across the ground in tiny rivers of black, swallowing things as it went. It flowed over the biomass that had once been Jon, reducing it to a two-dimensional space. It strayed dangerously close to Eve, only to be rebuked by her injured friend, Feylan. The fiery hunter attacked mindlessly, operating on instinct alone as he slashed madly at the ground. The blade of his short sword passed as easily through the strange body of the Shadow as air. A dark sheet of its body covered one boot, and in moments Feylan died screaming as he was digested from the outside in.

Eve stole a glance from one of the strangers nearest to her, and could only watch helplessly as Tesra, Mikah, and Galiel tore through the night in three different directions, all of them on the other side of the gulf.
"Any ideas?" she half-whimpered, half-giggled to the one called Daniel.  

[Ty Gwynnia]

Daniel watched silently as another of the group fell to the pitch black darkness. That poor man had already had his arm ripped off and, by his screams, had woken up long enough to die. "Well," he spoke, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword. "The only one that comes to mind right now includes getting as far away as possible from whatever that demon is." He glanced behind him to see Ruskie pick himself up and motion wordlessly to come inside the building. The confined space wasn't much better than the open but that seemed to be the only what to go.

"But...but what about Tobias?" Shania grasped onto Daniel's armored arm with both of hers as he turned to enter the building they'd been in not too long ago. "We can't just leave him down there!"

"I'm sure he can handle himself, right now it's too dangerous to go look for him." He replied, the expression on his face grim.When she hesitated, even taking a halting step towards the rift in the ground, he pulled her back. "Shania, I swear to you, I will find a way to save him as soon as I can, alright?" Daniel said, holding onto her shoulders and staring her in the eyes. As she nodded, tears welling up, he looked at Eve. "What about you, do you have any ideas?"

Tarnbel'en yelled out in surprise and stumbled away as Feylan swung, and then tumbled off of his shoulder as the shadow got to him. He glanced around for a clue for his next choice of action and saw the other three of the group dart away. With a sigh, he started after Tesra, deciding that she would probably be the one who needed his help the most.  

[Silas Parrish]

Eve shook her head, her mouth half-open, and backpedaled away from the encroaching black slime. Without apparent rhyme or reason, it decided on its own that Galiel was the most worthy prey. The entirety of the Shadow's non-mass gathered into a single sliver, path, or tendril, and darted off in the direction the grizzled warrior had fled, sending a shockwave of palpable relief behind it as its mind-bending presence left the scattered group.
The gigantic black gulf still divided them, however. Eve took a moment after her panic subsided to look toward the end of the crack. It terminated at the southernmost wall of the asylum proper. Fate seemed to be tempting them toward the black, imposing hulk that was the gate of the asylum.  

[Ty Gwynnia]

Daniel sighed audibly when the solid darkness shot off. They were safe...for now. "Ruskie, it's okay to come out of there now." The knight glanced in to see the mess of glass that littered the already filthy stones. If there had been anything useful in the building they would have found it before having the second reprieve shattered by the slime on the walls coming alive. "Nothing in there will help us, unless it is a rope." With an idea forming, he inched over to the rift cautiously, then with one foot firmly planted behind him and the other near the edge, he looked over the lip for any sign of Tobias.