Peace was never an option

There was a moment of surprised silence as eyes darted back and forth from Des, to the bow, then back again, and the leader pulled his blade and shouted, "Heinrich, now!" Heinrich immediately started changing in a language that reminded Mallory of dry leaves rustling in a breeze as the leader and the Amazonian advanced and spread out.

"Right to it, my kind of fight." Des responded, raising his right hand towards them and as he pointed small electrical charges seemed to crawl down his arm. The leader seemed to realize what was happening and leaped forward with a shout, but he was too far away, for the moment the charges reached out a bolt of lightning shot from his palm landed across the clearing, cutting off Heinrich chant as he spun 180 degrees and was thrown to the ground by the ****.

"Change up, plan S!" The leader shouted, not missing a beat, and the Amazon reacted just as fast, leaping forward to close the distance and attack Des. They came at him from opposite sides, fighting in tandem to keep him off balance, and even then with two of them coming after him Des seemed to keep them from getting inside his guard, between his tentacles flashing back and forth and his claws swinging hard back and forth, they seemed to be in a bit of a stalemate. Mallory stood there frozen in shock or maybe fear, not knowing what to do, and idly recognized she had pulled her sword, though it's tip pointed towards the ground. She finally pulled her eyes from the fray to notice that the priestess had shaken off her shock and was running for Heinrich with a soft glow over her hands.

The moment she touched them to his back he started moving again, rolled over and opened his mouth as if to yell something, but all that came out was a roar. Mallory's eyes snapped back to the fight, where Des had managed to throw the Amazonian off balance long enough that he could focus on the commander, and after managing to pull his shield off he raised a claw high, and slashed down to finish the man off, claws trailing an unnatural black shadow, that seemed to suck in the light around it. An instant before the claw struck his chest plate Des' momentum changed, and instead of standing upright he was flying towards Mallory and Veronica, who was also too overwhelmed to do anything but watch the fight play out. as he rolled in the air and landed, they saw that what had hit him from behind was a large grizzly bear. They rolled once, twice, and almost a third time as des' tentacles slammed repeatedly into the bear sides. The bears roars of pain were punctuated by an extra set of roars, these in anger as Heinrich morphed from his human form into a huge bear twice the size of the one that came from the forest and charged into the fight, getting a lucky grab in his jaws of most of des' tentacles. Before he could try to get to his feet Heinrich's fore paw slammed down on his chest holding him to the ground and keeping him from using his strength to lift himself. The tide seemed to have turned quite quickly as the leader and the Amazonian fighter both arrived, pinning down an arm each.

A chill ran down Mallory's back. 'Oh my god' she thought 'it could all be over, they'll finish him.' Even though she knew that it would be safer for the village that way her mind seemed to be fighting herself over whether or not she was happy about it. She had almost convinced herself that it was what needed to happen when an image flashed into her mind. Her baby sister Tia laughing, giggling, and running around in circles as she walked through the forest path with her shiny new best friend. Mallory knew, even if his **** was the best thing for the village, that it would break Tia's heart. She watched the adventurers, almost in slow motion, as they managed to hold him still long enough for the Amazonian to say something in a mocking tone, and lift her two-handed sword above her head, tip pointed down at his chest. And then Mallory saw it. Des's arm closer to her was only held down above the elbow. His hand couldn't reach the wounded bear standing on his bicep, but if he had something with more reach...

The tip of her blade just that the bottom edge of her vision almost seems to call to her. She realized he was no normal dark creature. If he was allowed to grow stronger or create an army he could easily become a **** terrible enough to overwhelm all the light races. But her sister... she hadn't felt any bad in him. In fact, had been with him for quite some time before she had woken up, and had come out unscathed. Her eyes flashed from the sword to the encounter in front of her. Without seeing what she was doing she felt the tip of the sword touch the ground, her grip on the sword reverse, and she knew she couldn't let it happen. God's forgive her, she couldn't do it.

"Des!" her shout pulled all eyes in the clearing to her. But just as soon as they landed on her they caught the movement of the sword sailing through the air. It's spun over once, and landed perfectly in Des his hand. His hand immediately snapped up the edge of the blade slamming into the look into the back of the grizzly's jaw with a loud squelch, finishing it off. he followed that up by slamming the pommel down on Heinrich's paw on his chest, and the growl's of despair joined with a yelp of pain, which loosened his jaw enough for the tentacles to escape. all of which raced for the greatsword now rushing for the ground as the Amazonian realized what had happened. Mallory heard the strikes as the tentacles and even then the sword hit the greatsword but then watched an horror as it still sink into the ground through des' chest, and he went limp on the ground.

The adventuring party immediately turned on Mallory and started stalking towards the end of the clearing. " You dirty dark lover, it's your turn!" The leader shouted. Mallory felt a scream building in her throat but before it escaped she caught sight of the priestess on the far side of the clearing where she had revived Heinrich, but she still had a look of horror on her face. Following the look back towards the group Mallory saw behind them, already standing, was Des, the blade of the greatsword spanning from near his throat almost down to where his belly button would be if he had one, only a foot of the blade remained in front of his chest the rest extended far behind him.

And as she watched his form bubbled outwards, proportionately growing larger until he was taller even than the Amazonian he looked to be over nine feet tall and his horns extended well past that now grown out into an ornate rack, above his head, and the ones that curled around extended far enough that he could use them to gore an enemy as he bit them.

"Hey! "His gravelly voice sounded from where he stood. The adventuring parties snapped back to look at him eyes wide. " I didn't... Hear... No bell. " Des growls as he slowly drags the blade out of his chest, and easily snapped it over his knee.

"Its got a final form! plan C! "The leader shot it and the three of them immediately split up to come at him from opposite sides. As they all came in at once, does simply smiled, raised his head, and laughed.

"Come mortals, and face the steel lord." as he finished speaking a ring of lightning formed in between the rack of his horns. 'It almost looks like a... Crown?' Mallory thought. The three didn't hesitate, unafraid of his theatrics. They all reach to at the same time but it didn't save them, his tentacles, of which there were six now, all struck down up the bears direction, striking him multiple times along the head and neck, cutting clear through to the other side, converting all the momentum from his charge into a slide in the dirt. The Amazonian, brave as she was to close with him with her bare fists got closer, but fared no better. He pushed her first strike wide and then in the opening pushed his other claw through her chest and grabbed her spine. Even over the rest of the fight, everyone in the clearing heard the snap, then she went just as limp as he had earlier.

The leader coming up on the third side unblocked by claw or tentacle managed to bring his sword down, scoring a hit on Des' back. But there was no puncture, no blood, just the sound of metal striking metal. And the leader knew that he had no chance. Des simply spun to face him, grabbed him around the head with one hand, picked him up, and placed his other claw on his shoulders, two claws on each side of his neck. Mallory watched them sink slowly down, one inch, two inches, and then there was a sickening ripping sound as his body started moving down with the claw but his head stayed in the other hand. The leader's body hit the ground, and after regarding it for a moment Des dropped the head next to it.

"What were you thinking!? " Veronica hissed. " They almost killed it, why would you do that! "Mallory didn't respond all of her focused on Des who made eye contact for a moment, then moved toward the priestess.

He seemed to shrink down to his normal size, The lightning crown fizzled out, the two extra tentacles receded into his back, and his remaining tentacles and wings folded up tight against his back. Mallory watched him in the priestess have a heated whispered exchange, complete with several gestures toward the bodies, before the priestess finally, with downcast eyes gave a small nod and kept her eyes fixed on the ground. At that point Des turned and stocked across the clearing towards Mallory and Veronica, one of his tentacles draging across the ground and clamping down on her sword as he walked past it.

He stopped, less than a foot away and stared silently at the two of them. He seemed to be judging them or evaluating them for something, but after a moment the tentacle holding the sword brought it up to his hand, where he took it by the blade just above the cross guard and offered it back to her.

"We're even, and this is yours."

"What do you want with us, monster?" Veronica hissed. Mallory tensed up, but des merely regarded her for a moment, slowly lifted a clawed talon to point at Veronica, then looked back to Mallory and said,

"take your plus one and go home, before I change my mind. And tell TT I said hi." Without waiting for a response he walked back across the clearing and into the forest. The priestess looked at them for a moment after Des passed her, but then turned and followed him into the woods.

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