Belegarth

Ichigo kills another drow and then runs over to maciah. "Need any help?" Ichigo attacks another drow coming up behind maciah. "hurry up and finish the troll off!!!" ichigo looks for andrek but can't see him because of all the drow and elfs. "*!!!"

A large drow engages the girl in a one-on-one fight, the sharp clash of metal blending with the other sounds of battle. A lucky slash caught her in the side, and she repaid the drow with a hard downward stroke into his chest. He was dead before he hit the ground.
She stepped back, hand clutched to her side. Blood seeped through her fingers as a wave of dizzyness came over her. *Damnit...I can't even close it....already used healing on Ichigo...* She takes a deep breath and straightens up, willing herself to continue. She jumps back into the battle and continues fighting.

Ichigo looks back at the girl and noticing her achievements. "nice job girl, but we have a long way to go." Ichigo keeps defending maciah so that he can take down the troll. "this is getting fun." ichigo kept killing the drow as they were coming.

She nods, breathing heavily. "How many of these....are there...?" She asks Ichigo, slicing through the throat of yet another drow. "Where are we going?"

"I have no freaking idea how many there are. All i know is that we have to save andrek." Ichigo cuts off the head of a drow. "just keep fighting evenutally it will end...." Ichigo punches a drow in the gut and then hits him with his sword. quietly he says to himself "i hope it ends soon."

She stabs two more drows with her poisoned knives, her strikes slowing as she grows weaker from blood loss. The girl slashes at a third drow, then drops heavily to one knee, chest heaving and one hand clutched to her side in pain.

"Damnit..." she whispers, staring at the blood on her hand. A drow ran toward her, blade out streched, and she discovered that she did not have the strength to defend herself anymore...

Ichigo looks over at the girl agian seeing that she is on the ground. "come on fight!!!" ichigo kills another drow and looks back at her. "oh god." He runs at her as fast as he can killing any drow that come near him. "get up you can't rest." ichigo start to protect her as best as he can. "get up!!!" ichigo get his left arm cut agian and he tries to move it and realizes he can't. "* IT!!!" he keeps fighting and loosing blood. "thanks for healing me. this is how i can repay you." ichigo gets shot in right arm with an arrow and he drops his sword. now both of them stan there unable to protect themselves.............

Maciah leaves the troll, and runs over to the girl. Putting his hands over the Ichigo and the girls form he sighs heavily, forming two bodies on either side. One encased in light and one in shadow. The light quickly dimmed to a flickering glow and flowed into the dark ones body. "I am sorry , but I cannot heal you fully, I need enough of the light to keep me sane and enough of the dark to keep me powerful. But your wounds should be mended, you'll just still feel weak." Pushing away he stumbles through the dimminishing group of drow, slicing any in his path, past the troll struggling to live and moves through the doorway into the great hall. His height and demeanor now look somewhat smaller and less commanding.

The girl looks up at Maciah through dimming eyes and manages to whisper her gratitude before she collapses....

Ichigo yells "thanks" his breathing is labored. "i owe you!" he manages to pic up his sword. "this is really really heavy...." ichigo goes down on one knee. "we are going to need some serious help." ichigo breathing is still labored.

Not hearing their thanks, Maciah struggles forward, killing many drow. The few left in his wake are the wounded or dead(+the bleedin troll) Arrow wounds jut out of Maciahs body and ripped chunks of flesh dangle from his chest. Ignoring his body Maciah continues forward through the main hall, heading for a well gaurded gate; the most likely of places to keep Andrek.

The girl struggles to stay conscious as she watchs Maciah go through the gate. "Ichigo...help me up....we must go help him..." She struggles to stand, fighting against the weakness that threatened to overwhelm her. Fresh blood began dripping down her side as she moved. Gripping the wall in one hand, she manges to stand part way up, breathing heavily. "Come on....let's go..." She stumbles forward, hand clutched to her side.

Ichigo gets up. "here let me help you!" ichigo walks over to her and lends a hand. my strength is coming back. ichigo smiles and looks at her. "I love having so much stamina! here i think i might be able to carry you." ichigo motions for her to get on his back

* Marcadus still laying in a pool of blood from the dead drow slowly begings to lapping up the blood around him trying to regain some strength *

Seaming to have been forgoten, Bacchaus pulls his hand free of the wall and starts to chase after the others. As he chatches up, he says, "so, whats up ichico. and who is the pritty lady?"

"her? i have no idea who she is. she saved me and wont tell me her name. so i dont know. we need to get over to maciah though. i think he found out where andrek is being kept." ichigo walks slowly helping the girl.(switch blade)

She limps along with Ichigo's help, her hand still clutched to her left side as blood slowly trickled down her fingers. She glances back warily at the newcomer, giving him a quick once-over. Deciding he was all right, she looked ahead and accidently stumbled on the uneven cave floor. With a cry of pain, she dropped to her knees and doubled over on the ground, eyes closed tight against the pain...

"hey are you ok?" ichigo drops to the floor. "are you ok?" ichigo looks at bacchaus. "go on ahead i owe her. i am going to make sure she is alright." ichigo motions bacchaus to leave. "you better be ok girl!"

The girl lays on the floor, breathing heavily, her face so pale it was white. She has both hands pressed to her side but still blood flows out, striping her skin in crimson. She looks at Ichigo with wide, frightened eyes. "...please...."

Ichigo looks at her. "here i might be able to help you." ichigo presses his hands on the wound. "i hope this works!!!" ichigo's eyes go neon blue. "reikai, benkay, may god have mercy." ichigo removes his hands... "i hope this works. i have never been to good at magic. it is supposed to heal you. oh i hope it works....."

Her eyes roll back in her head and she screams, her terror-filled voice echoing all over the caves. Then she falls silent....deathly silent. Her hands fall limply to her sides, revealing a long slash through her tunic and side.

A short, wicked-looking knife, dripping with her blood is sticking out of her side...

Ichigo looks at her and then the wound. "ok i didn't do that." looks around. "i definatly didn't make this worse!" ichigo picks up the girl and says to her "dont die on me! i need a chance to pay you back! you better not die!" ichigo notices the knife "damnit." ichigo sits there for a second hoping she will regain conciousness.

She groans, her left hand closing convulisvly over the knife's handle. "...pull it...out....poisoned...." She groans again, weakling tugging at the handle of the knife. "...won't...heal...until its...out..." Her groan rises to a short scream and she twists spasmadicly, curling her legs up to her chest.

ichigo looks at her. "you might wanna bite on to something." ichigo hands her a leather wallet. "here use this." ichigo places it in the girls mouth. "ok on three........ THREE!" ichigo pulls out the knife and tosses it to the side. "ok now what?"

She lets the wallet fall to the ground beside her and closes her eyes tight as he pulls out the knife and manages to bite back her scream. "... bind it shut...I can't....can't heal it now..." She curls up tighter, but the bleeding has stopped- leaving stripes of blood down her back.

ichigo rips of one of his sleeves. "here you go. i hope this helps." ichigo wraps up the wound and ties it off. "we better rest for a while. we can catch up to the other guys in minute. they should be to far away." ichigo smiles despite everything that he just had to see. "you will be fine now wont you?"

She opens her eyes and looks at him, blinking slowly as her breathing returns to normal. "Thank you...." She sits up slowly, wincing in pain, and holds out her hand. " and- my name is Switch Blade."

"Nice to meet you Switch blade. I dont know if i told you my name or if you caught it by anychance but i am Ichigo. please dont make fun of me. My name means strawberry." ichigo smiles, "my friends used to call me that all the time though. so nevermind feel free if you consider us friends." ichigo stretches out his hand looking for a hand shake.

Switch Blade nods slowly, seriously and shakes his hand. "Now...lets go find your friends." She reaches out to the wall and tries to stand, but loses her grip- her hands were slick with her own blood and her body was too weak to move. She falls to her knees heavily, then forward onto her hands. "Ichigo....can you...carry me?" She blushes deeply, horribly embarresed that she needed help walking. She stares at the ground, waiting for his answer.

"yeah alright." ichigo grabs switch blade in his arms and starts running towards maciah and andrek. "just hold on as soon as we get there you need to sit the fight out unless we really need you." ichigo keeps running and finally gets to the gate. "maciah?" ichigo looks at him. "how are we getting in there?"

Looks back at Ichigo and Switch Blade. "I figured we could knock." The bodies of the drow that once gaurded the gate lay bloody and dismembered along the floor. "You guys ok?" He pauses to look inspect Switch Blade. "Looks like she'll make it, pretty bad though." Turns back to the door and slams heavily with his fists. (assuming Bacchaus is here) "You wanna give me a hand? Ichigo you take care of the woman."


(where is Marcadus?)

"Sure" Bacchaus walks over to the Gate. He examines it for a min, then shuves his spear right in the middle of the gate, twisting then pushing. *pop* the gate slowly slides open. smiling he walkes over to Switch Blade, pulling a sack from his belt. "Chew this 100 times, it is called the thiamine, it grow native to my land. It will stop infection, and help it heal faster"

the group notices that the gate seemed to open far too easily...
they cautiously walked into an eerily vacant courtyard, filled with grotesque stone statues of former evil overlords
then the howling begins...
drows appear from the bastions and out from the shadows, surrounding the group
there are far too many in number and attacking would be a fatal mistake...

Switch Blade slowly follows the group through the gate, leaning heavily on Ichigo's arm. She watchs as they groups is surrounded by Drows- then begin's scanning the cavern's ceiling. With a slight smile, she looks back down at the enemies surrounding them. Switch Blade catches Ishigo's eye and nods almost imperceptibly.

Ichigo looks at Switch blade. "whats your idea? you think it will work?" ichigo smiles. "i am ready to try anything at this point. there are far to many of them. and too few of us."

Switch Blade motions for him to be quiet, then looks around at the other group members, catching their eyes in turn. She takes a small step backward until she is hidden behind the others, blocked from the drow's view. Switch Blade reaches into her pouch and pulls out a small object which she tucks into the cuff of her sleeve. Straightening up, she whispers out of the side of her mouth to the rest of the group: "On three, everybody scatter.....

One....

Two......."

"THREE" Bacchaus yells, running twards a statue near him. Ducking behind it he nocks an arrow trying to keep the draws in fron of him out of his way. They seam to be staying back all on there own.

Leaping over a row of drow Maciah lands ontop of a statue looking down at the others. Looking around the courtyard he tries to see any sign of Andrek or the leader of the drow forces.

ichigo runs behind a statue looking kinda confuzed. he wispers to himself. "what is she up to?" ichigo thinks for a moment keeping his guard up. "ohhhhh..............."

Switch Blade yells three with Bacchaus and throws the object in her hand- blinding light and deafening expolsion go off, effectivly distracting the drows surrounding them. "GO!!" She yells, shoving Versago. She stumbles through the huge haze of smoke filling the cavern, heading towards the second gateway. "This way!!" She yells to the others.

Running, Bacchaus pushes his way through the drow forces makeing a path for his friends

Leaping from the statue Maciah follows the others, the drow scurrying in panic all around them.

In the smoke Bacchaus does not see what hit him, but his left ear is bleeding. Ichigo does not see what cut his right cheek, but it hurts.

"Ranger Bacchaus, I see that you are as foolish as most surface * are. You must practice more silent hunting if you will ever take the best of the underdark. As well Ichigo, I have seen you for some time. You were called by another fruit a while back weren't you?" His common has a heavy hint of dark tounge to it. "Here I was going to allow you all to live, but instead you all have decided to listen to a surface queen who likely deserves the * instead. So tell me how you all expcet to save Andrek if you cannot see the gate I assume you are all headed for? As well there are hundreds of well trained assasin's arrows pointed in your general direction. If they do not kill you right off they will do their job well enough. So I suggest you all throw your weapons to the ground and speak with me before I decided to only take Andrek alive."

Zer'in laughs, "Surface dwellers never did know when to go home. Where is Marcadus. He is really the only one I wish to speak with. I will allow one of you to fetch him. It should take this mist another fifteen minutes to clear up. If I hear more than one set of feet try to move I will hit her with the same accuracy as you ear and cheek. Think and discuss what you will do amongst yourselves, but know that I will not give a secomd chance and this time I will use a more painful threat."

Switch Blade crouched low on the floor, hidden well back in a shadowed, smoky corner. She silently pulls a clean knife from its sheath and then takes a poisened soaked cloth from a thin, flat metal box in her pouch. She slowly, carefully wipes the blade with the cloth- leaving behind a thin layer of the deadly poisen. In a single motion, she stood and threw the knife with all her strength at the place where the speaker's voice last came from. Switch Blade heard a dull *thud*.....


...the blade had found its target...

"Shinduago Elg'caress! Do not think you can so easily hit your target, or the next may hurt more than a naut keer drolnar could handle." The voice had changed location. There was a light thud agains the ground. She had hit a smaller target, but not the intended target. I suggest you all decide whom will go after Senger Marcadus. He is truly the only one I wish to converse with at this time. Though if you would be so kind miss to put those weapons away I may consider speaking directly with you. I didn't imagine that shinduago xellased would be such terrilbe guests."

Maciah retracts his claws and stands up straight. "Perhaps now is the time we should stop trying to win and find some more information." Looks around at the drow standing at attention weapons drawn but at their sides. "Are you in charge?" asking Zer'in. "If so what do you want?"

Ichigo bursts out laughing. "Your a mighty scary man aren't you mr.??? HAHAHAHA What do you need to talk to marcudus about that you can't talk to any of us about? huh?" Ichigo takes a step in the general direction of the guy. "See you dont scare me. You attack from the shadow because your to weak to take us head on!" Ichigo smiles and winks at the rest of the crew. "Come on out show yourself!!!"

The voice is still coming from the same general place, "Little Strawberry, you are in no position to speak of attacking from shadows. Your company did create the veil of smoke that hides us all now. As well from what I am told you are not worthy to even train with our elite ranks, so there is no temptation to allow my blade to draw your blood. So stand down, I would hate to see you harmed, after all you are my brother's friends and his lords of the surface are you not? Master Lion, what is your name? I do not believe my walls have heard it. Oh, and Shinduago Elg'caress, would you go look for your companions Grease, Marcadus, Craw, and that one you all left on the floor with an arrow in his eye; or you could ask this litte fruit to go find them."

Ichigo draws his sword. "SHUT UP!!! Even the smallest soldier can take down a giant. I am not afriad of you or any other guy you can have me fight!" Ichigo laughs "I will not turn away or stand down!" ichigo starts walking forward a couple of steps. "Come on I dont care whos brother you are. I dont even know these people. I just offered my help. I will not stand down!"

Maciah puts his arm in front of Ichigo to slow his progression. "Even a small soldier needs the right weapon and the knowledge to know when to use it." Looks up into the darkness. "I am Maciah and Makito of Yauni. Home to the ancients. Lord of Light and Darkness, of Peace and Chaos." Pauses for a moment and looks around at the room. "I travel here of my own accord, and can not be swayed. If I wish to pass, then I will."