What Lurks in the Shadows...

[Skittlebug]

The demon coils in on itself this time, writhing and all but hiding it's head. Then it surges toward Acqua, much less coordinated this time, snapping randomly in her direction instead of one solid lunge.

[Northen Light36]

It's getting weaker! Acqua thinks hopefully as she dodges again. A sharp motion of the snakes head catches her and sends her flying into a tree just as it had her companion. Luckily for Acqua, she's not knocked out, but the snapping sound and the sharp pain in her side tells her that she's broken a rib. Talon and Amaro are not going to be happy, she thinks ruefully. And it's not even my fault. I wasn't looking for trouble, for once!

Hissing another chant through gritted teeth and activating her water sign, she attempts to strengthen her electricity by soaking the snake with water, then blasting it with more lightning.

[Skittlebug]

The effect is much bigger this time. The snake demon doesn't just writhe, it goes into spasms. Which turns out to be unpredictably dangerous, with heavy coils jerking everywhere.

[Northen Light36]

Acqua dodges one of the coils of the snake, but the tail catches her across her injuried ribs and knocks her down. With the breath knocked out of her lungs and stars dancing in front of her eyes, Acqua lies limp and momentry stunned.

[Skittlebug]

The demon's twitching slows, it isn't in very good shape itself, but it edges closer to Acqua while it can, jaws opening.

[Northen Light36]

Gasping in enough air to mutter a chant, Acqua activated her storm sign yet again and blasted the snake with lightning, aimming for it's open mouth.

[Skittlebug]

There's a horrible noise quickly followed by a scorched smell as the demon falls limp, seemingly finished. After a few moments though, it seems to start to twitch, but only in a few places. Without warning this areas burst and something, no, lots of somethings begin to crawl out. The dozens of smaller snakes resemble maggots, and are about arm sized. They move surprisingly fast however and have what look to be very sharp teeth.

[Northen Light36]

Remembering the demons she and Talon had encountered, Acqua had been half expecting something to happen and had gotten to her feet as soon as the demon died. Now she hastily tried to make her way to Pixie's tree, shocking any maggot that got to close to her.

[Skittlebug]

The maggot snakes at least seem to be fairly easy to keep away with shocks, though it's unclear if they're dead or just stunned. By the time Acqua gets to the tree Pixie is in, there are already a dozen or so of them working their was up the trunk.

[Northen Light36]

From the branch she's clinging too, Pixie puffs up her fur and hisses and growls helplessly at the snake maggots. With her injury, she doesn't dare try unhooking a paw to claw at the maggots.

Acqua, despite her own pain and the growing sense of exhustion, pushes herself still harder to safe her companion, blasting the maggots off the tree with lightning and bracing herself for the cat to leap into her arms. As soon as she has hold of Pixie, she tucks the cat under her arm (uncomfortable for both of them but better then dead) and attempts to flee the clearing, hoping to out run the maggots or at least find somewhere safe to hide and rest a little.

[Skittlebug]

Luckily enough, the maggots aren't that fast. It isn't long before Acqua's ring begins to cool down.

[Northen Light36]

Desperately exhusted and, with her cooling ring giving her confidence they are safe for the moment, Acqua finds a quiet spot to slump to the ground and start tending to herself and Pixie. Wrapping Pixie in her jacket to keep the cat warm and comfortable, Acqua doses her companion with a little healing water and treats the gash in her side with the rest of her day's healing water.

As soon as her ring had cooled though, it turned hot again. Far hotter then when facing the demon. Acqua fought not to scream as pain burned through her as the stars on her ring vanished into a burning sun.

When the pain finally endded, Acqua felt too weak to do more then curl up gingerly around her companion and sleep. If something came after them, so be it. She didn't have any strength left to spare.