Ch. 16 Rescue in the Ruins

[VirusZero]

Stark had been off to the side of the group for most of the time. He'd watched others take shots at enemies and even chipped in with a few of his own shots here and there. But for the most part he hadn't really done a whole lot. He hadn't really needed to do a whole lot yet. And his particular moveset didn't really offer much in the way to help out here. Short of knocking down trees and making as much noise as possible.

As Andraia had shot off he debated heading off after her to give her some support, even if the thought of being alone with her kinda didn't sit well with him. She didn't seem the sort to play well with others. But it seemed like the right thing to do nonetheless. But as he went to take off after her, she took off quicker than he expected and was gone before he could follow.

Instead he decided to hang back with the rest of the group afterall. They had managed to deal with some of the traps lain out before them, though several shield enemies made their presence known. Rai had managed to knock one's shield from it's hands and a new recruit grabbed it.

But there were still a few of them left... Stark opened his hands and unleashed a quick shot of energy. It struck the shield as expected and then bounced off to strike a tree branch above and to the left of it. The branch fell and crashed on top of that pantheon. It's head was pushed into it's neck and it collapsed. It wasn't likely destroyed, but it was down for now. Stark closed in and reached down, he grabbed it's skull and with a yank he pulled the pantheon's head off it's body. It shut down immediately.

With the skull in his hand, he spoke.
"Alas, poor Pantheon was too headstrong and only ended up losing it. Perhaps his allies will fare better with it?" He said with a grin, making perhaps too much levity in an otherwise dim situation. Though he wasted no time in throwing the pantheon's head at another nearby pantheon. It bounced off the side of the pantheon and knocked it over onto it's side. Stark raised his palm and fired a single shot of energy from them and blasted a hole in that pantheon's exposed chest.

"Hey... Jody. That pantheon's weapon isn't damaged too much... Perhaps you'd like to grab it's flail too just in case?" Stark suggested.

With those two pantheons gone, and whatever ones the others had also taken down too, things returned to a semi-quiet state.

"Though we should move. The enemy likely knows where we are with all the noise we've been making and they may step their plans up." Stark mentioned.
"And given how angry Elpizo seems lately, I don't want to have to explain to him why we lost these baby elves he's looking for."

With that he turned and pushed forward heading into the jungle further. Though the trees and eventually into a clearing. A lot of vital fluid lay everywhere but there were no bodies to be found. Stark noticed how odd that was. Either it was a good sign in that someone had sent some allies home. Or a bad sign in that some enemy had captured them.