Escape from the Clutches of Death

As soon as the second gate gave way she rushed through the entrance way to see Kaine on top of Sloane, "Ok Ok, there is a time and place for that." She said as she pushed him off of Sloane.

She laid the soldier flat on the ground brushing aside the debris. She stopped for a moment and with wide eyes realized that most of the debris was actually bits and pieces of bone.

She took out a flask and drank heavily from it before putting it back in her belt.

She ran her hands over Sloane's body, "She has several cracked ribs, a broken ankle and possibly internal bleeding. I can fix her, it is just lucky that I came upon you guys when I did, she would not have lasted much longer."

A soft white aura enveloped Selene as she closed her eyes and began to murmur words under her breath again. The white aura enveloped Sloane as the healing energies the mage had activated flowed from her to the injured woman.

It did not take time for all cuts and bruises to disappear from her skin, even the swelling on her ankle went away. The color of Sloane's skin soon went back to normal as the healing energies purged her body of all ailments.

Selene stood up as the white aura that surrounded her dissipated, "There, she should be fine now. I have healed all of her wounds. What of you?" she asked bringing her hand to his face.

Kaine brushed it aside with a hint of annoyance, "Your healing magics will have no effect on me, so please, save your energy for someone who needs it."

He knelt down beside Sloane, "Time to wake up." he said as he smacked both sides of her face.

As Sloane's mind reached toward the surface of wakefulness she realized someone was hitting her. Why was someone hitting her? And why wasn't she hitting them back? Before she even opened her eyes she threw a punch at the figure above her.

As she opened her eyes and took in the situation she realized who was hitting her. "There are far nicer ways to wake a lady you know." She grumbled as she sat up. Sloane looked down at her hands, then moved her ankle experimentally. The pain was totally gone. She reached out and pet Sobaka as he happily jumped in her lap and began licking her face.

"Thanks Selene." The templar said as she got to her feet. "I'd kiss you but I'm kind of covered in blood and dog slobber at the moment." She grinned mischeviously for a moment until the grin suddenly turned nasty. "Let's go make that demon bastard pay!"

"Yes, that demon will pay for this." Kaine said as he angrily smashed an armoured fist into the stone wall.

"But there was someone else, I could have sworn I saw Lamont just before I passed out."

"You're not wrong, he tried to kill me and Saboka. We both went over the edge of the chasm, I was able to slow our fall with a spell. Now, that spell wasn't meant for that, but it still worked none the less."

"Then I shall rip out his spine and feast on his heart." Kaine sneered as he grinned evilly. People can never tell when he is serious about eating peoples hearts, or even when he says that he will eat the flesh from their bones. However, the men under his command know that part of this to be true. He has been known to rip the heart out of a worthy opponent and eat it right there on the battle field.

"Did you get an idea of the lay out?" he said as he looked over at Selene.

"This place is dwarven make, that is a given. And it looks like this place is their main arena, the proving grounds they call it. This must be one of their Thaigs, all but a few have been lost to the ages. I wonder what kind of treasure we could find down here." she replied as she began looking around and examining the stone work.

Kaine looked around, "That means there must be away to the deep roads, a way to continue our journey under the mountains. But first, let us find that Demon and spill its blood. Well that is if they even have blood."

Kaine nodded to the two woman and disappeared down the now cleared passage way. "Come on Selene, your light is needed."

"That double crossing son of a whore!" Sloane growled. "I thought my lightening fried brain had imagined him there!" The templar continued to mutter curses under her breath as she followed the others.

"I suppose our horses and supplies are gone?" she asked of Selene. Sloane didn't know when she'd last eaten and she was starving. "And Kaine and I left most of our weapons in a tunnel somewhere. If that nug humper caused me to lose my sword he is going to be very sorry indeed."

After that she walked in silence, alert for threats as she fantasized anout what she would do to Lamont and the demon when she got her hands on them.

"Yes, the horses are gone. He was in the middle of killing them when Saboka tried to stop him. He is a touch son of a bitch that is for sure. He was barely phased by my spells and he threw Saboka around like a little pup."

"Don't worry, he will pay for his betrayal." Kain snarled without looking back.

As they came upon the passage that Selene and Saboka had come down they no longer needed Selene's light, as there was torches lighting the way.

"Hmmm...Torches are a bit out of place in what would be an abandoned dwarven Thaig." The passage way continued forward and to the right. However, there were no more torches ahead of them, "Looks like right it is. If we follow these torches, I am sure we are bound to run into someone."

"Plus, the ground is free of dust where the torches are," he said as he pointed to the ground.

"It is strange that we haven't met any guards, but I guess that creature was guard enough for them. Won't they be surprised when we rip out their throats."

Kaine continued to press forward, turning down only passages with torch lights, always double checking to make sure that the dust was clear.

It wasn't long, maybe a couple of hours at most, before the stone work gave way to natural caverns again. The sound of rushing water filled the air as the passage way exited into a large cavern. A water fall could be seen emptying into a small lake below.

A pathway lead down the side of the cavern walls into the area below; a large area at least a good hundred yards from there current position was bathed in the flickering light of a camp fire.

Kaine pointed to the far off fire, "A little out of place in a place like this, " he said as he crouched low and began the descent to the cavern below.

Sloane entertained herself on the walk with thoughts of fhe bloody vengance she would rain down on Lamont and the demon.

As she spotted the small lake visions of a bath floated through Sloane's head. The prescence of the campfire instantly squashed her visions and put her on edge. Her daggers appeared in her hands and Sobaka took a defensive stance. She waited quiet and alert for orders from Kaine.

"Lets go down and circle them so that we can both be on either sides of the camp. I will take the side closest to here. Sloane you take the far side. And Selene, you stay between the two of us so that you can help out either one if need be."

Without another word Kaine continued down the side, keeping low so that the outcroppings of rocks hid him.

He slowly climbed through and around the rocks so that he was facing the campsite, but still hidden from site.

There were four people in the camp; a human, a dwarf and what looked like two kossith.

That certainly is an odd group, Kaine thought to himself.

He noticed a passage way just to the left of the campsite, it looked to be the only way out of this cavern.

The group was in the midst of eating, a reptilian creature of some sort was being roasted over the flames. Strips of meat had already been sliced off and were being consumed by the group.

Just as Kaine was about to signal Sloane that he was going to make a move, someone came out of the passageway, Lamont.

Strapped to Lamont's side was Sloane's sword, while her shield on his back. He looked closer at the group and realized that most of their possessions were in the campsite. Both of their sets of armour and his sword, as well as some packs from the slaughtered horses and mules. He just hoped that Sloane could contain herself just long enough for him to signal her.

****

Selene crept in the darkness, it was not something she was used too, but so far she was doing pretty good. There was a large stalagmite in between where Kaine and Sloane were supposed to set themselves up, she chose this spot to hide in wait.

Sloane nodded in response to Kaine's orders. "Let's hunt." She said to Sobaka as she gave his head a pat and the two of them ghosted away. Sloane didn't have the hiding skill of a rogue but she had plenty of experience moving unnoticed.

The templar and the mabari took up a position on the far side of the camp, using a large outcrop of rock as a cover. Sloane took in the strange company and their even stranger meal and then looked for Kaine and waited for his signal. Her eyes were suddenly drawn to a passage behind the camp by movement. She felt Sobaka tense and pull back his lips in a soundless snarl just as she spotted Lamont walking into the fire light.

A snarling grin matching Sobaka's appeared on Sloane's face and she wanted desperatly to charge in and rip her sword and shield from the bastard's dead body. Only years of training kept her in place and waiting for Kaine's signal.

Kaine looked over and saw that both Sloane and Selene were in position. Without waiting another moment he vaulted over the rocks, activated his claws and charged into the camp.

Lamont had his back to Kaine and the other four didn't quite see him yet.

One of the Kossith looked right at him, but he wasn't registered right away. Suddenly the beast of a man was up and in mid draw when Kaine bellowed a war cry, jumped up and plunged his claws into Lamont.

Lamont was in mid turn as the claws plunged into his neck and shoulder. Blood sprayed as Kaine ripped out his throat and raked down from his shoulder into his chest. His body collapsed under Kaine's weight, sending the warrior to his knees.

Selene saw the attack coming and braced herself for combat.

Kaine had already taken out Lamont before any of the others could react. He was on his knees, over the body of the fallen traitor when Selene saw the Kossith attack coming, it's blade aimed for the templar's neck.

The Kossith was in mid swing, a swing that would surely cleave the templar in half. Without even realize it she mouthed the words to petrify the man in place. The spell fired off and just as the sword was about to reach Kaine, the Kossith's body became enveloped in stone.

Sloane and Sobaka were on the move a second behind Kaine. Both desperately wanted to take down Lamont but Kaine was much closer and training forced them to go for the more logical targets.

Kaine's war cry distracted the enemy and Sloane and Sobaka took advantage of the fact. Sobaka ran and took the dwarf down with a flying tackle from behind. The mabari was ripping at the dwarf's back and neck with teeth and claws before he even hit the ground.

Sloane followed a step behind her mabari and took aim at the human. She aimed a dagger at his kidney, but he began to turn at the last second and she hit his side instead. It was still a good blow but not the instantly fatal one she had hoped for.

Her second dagger lashed out and struck the human's arm as he reached for his weapon. The dagger tore a long gash down his forarm before he could react. Sloane quickly darted back out of range.

Kaine quickly nodded his thanks to Selene just as the other Kossith was upon him. Instinctively he activated his shield just in time to deflect a blow from it's two handed axe.

The impact of the blow numbed his arm, but it was too late for him to feel it as his berserker rage took over. Powered by the blood of his first victim, he bashed his shield into the massive man, as he struck out with his remaining clawed gauntlet.

The attack sent the giant reeling backwards causing the clawed attack to miss. Before the berseker rage fully took over, he caught a glimpse of some of the armour the man wore, it was his

The giant tried to cleave him with it's great axe, but with Kaine being so close he couldn't get a good hit it. It only managed a few glancing blows with the axe handle, a far cry from being able to disable this raging warrior.

Kaine was acting on pure instincts at this moment, his every move being guided by years of training; he was only vaguely aware of what his berserker rage was doing.

Kaine slashed his shield across the Kossith throat as he deflected another useless attack from the great axe. Without losing momentum, Kaine countered with a vicious slash of his claws across the giants throat; following suit with the shield. Blood rained down upon Kaine as the shield opened up his throat; the clawed attack ripped a large chuck out, exposing what was left of it's windpipe.

With a startled gurgle, the giant dropped to it's knees, it's axe clattering to the ground next to him as it's hands reached to the gaping wound. Kaine gave the fallen warrior a quick kick to it's chest, sending him flying backwards; the Kossith was dead before it even hit the ground.

As Kaine took out the last of the giants, Selene murmured the words to the stone fist spell and sent it flying towards the petrified Kossith. The fist slammed into the stone warrior shattering it's torso and sending his head flying; it's arms and legs clattered to the ground just in time for them to return to their fleshy state.

The man Sloane was fighting tried to flee but his flight was cut off by a blood covered mabari. Sloane grinned evilly as she advanced on her prey. She easily jump the human and pushed him to the ground.

"Wanna question this one boss?" she called as she pinned the man to the ground with her foot. "Or should I let Sobaka play with him?"

Kaine ripped open the chest of the last Kossith he killed and ripped out its heart. With a savage fury he devoured it before roaring wildly.

He staggered forward a moment as the berserker rage left his body momentarily weak. He shook his head to clear it, only barely hearing what Sloane was saying.

With blood and gore dripping from his mouth and face, Kaine stepped over to the restrained human, "Tell us where the demon is, otherwise I will rip out your heart and have our mage keep you alive so you can feel everything!"

"Mahahahahaha. I am right here fool." the man said with a hollow voice.

With that a Shade like creature tore out of the man, throwing Sloane back and off balance. And before Kaine could even react, it flung him through the air crashing into a stalagmite.

Selene fired off several spirit bolts, just as the Demon disappeared into the passageway. The bolts of energy flew wide as they slammed into the cavern wall, sending sparks and chucks of rock spraying from the walls.

The warrior slowly got to his feet and dusted himself off, "This creature is going to be tougher than I thought. It is just jumping from one body to the next, but it can't hide here for long. It will eventually run out of bodies to hide in."

"It's a hunger demon, it literally feeds on people. Unfortunally as long as it has people to feed on it is going to be hard to stop." Selene commented.

"Way to cheer me up mage." Kaine sneered, his breathing still heavy and his eyes red with anger, a side effect from his recent berserker rage.

Sloane watched Kaine devour the heart with a mix of interest and disquiet. She wasn't exactly disgusted, but she did find it a little bit bizarre.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the demon burst forth from the human and sent her flying for what seemed like the hundredth time this journey. She landed with a crash and was temporarily stunned. The demon had already fled by the time she regained her feet.

"As much as I want to slaughter that monstrocity I think we should rest a bit first. We neec to gear back up, and we should eat. Please say there is something to eat besides roast mystery lizard!!" Sloane exclaimed as she slit the throat of her captive.

Sloane moved over to Lamont's corpse and gave it several hard kickswhile cursing loudly. Whenshe was satisfied she took her sword and shield from the traitor and began inspecting them.

"That looks like a deepstalker. See the mouth, it looks like the mouth of a worm." Selene pointed out the grotesque looking mouth on the head of the creature.

"Oh look some nug." she exclaimed as she bent down and grabbed one of hairless creatures by the neck, tossing it to Sloane.

"Its just like boar really. Pretty tasty."

"You're right, we need to patch up, rest and recuperate a bit before going after that thing again. We found our equipment, at least the stuff that matters anyways." Kaine said, pointing out their weapons and armour.

"And whatever is left in our packs."he said pointed

Selene began sifting through what was left of their packs, only about have the stuff they had on their horses and mules were here, if that.

"Looks like some dried rations, maybe a weeks worth between us. So, about 3 or 4 days worth, might be able to stretch it out for a full week if we are really careful with rationing." She continued to take out stuff, separating it into piles.

"Oh, there are two healing and lyrium potions in here too! They were hidden at the bottom of the pack, thankfully they didn't break."

Kaine looked around surveying their supplies, "We should eat our fill and cook up those nug and pack it away. If we eat through that first and save the rations for last we should hopefully be ok."

Sloane caught the nug Selene tossed her way. "I know what a nug is. And luckily for you I know how to cook it too."

Once she was sure her sword and shield were okay Sloane went over to the fire to begin cooking. First she removed the nasty creature and threw it to the side. Sobaka sniffed it briefly and then turned up his nose and walked away. Checking the supplies Sloane found a few seasonings and set to work. She soon had all three nugs cleaned, dressed, and cooking.

"So how do we defeat the demon. Straight out attacks don't seem to work too well. "I'd rather not get barbequed again."

"Yes, it is tougher than it should be. But it doesn't help that that thing has more bodies to feed on. Next time we need to rely more on our Templar training. A demon is a magical creature, we should be able to use the powers at our disposal to take this thing down."

He looked over at Selene and pointed, "And you, you need to think of any spells that can disable this thing so it can't jump bodies again."

"I have a few spells up my sleeve that should at least slow it down enough so you guys can take it out." Selene responded without looking up from her organizational task.

Kaine sorted out his armour and double checked to make sure everything was in order.

"I'm going to clean up my armour, " he looked down at himself. "And myself too, as much as I like bathing in blood, I wouldn't mind being clean for once."

Without saying another word he picked up his armour and brought it over to the lake and proceeded to wash the blood off of himself and his armour.

Once Sloane had the nug roasting on the fire she went down to join Kaine at the small lake. She laid her weapons in easy reach and began removing her leather armour. The water was icy but she was desperate for a bath.

Once she was naked she dove into the chilly water and began scrubbing the dried blood from her skin and hair with a handful of sand from the lake's bottom. Once she was clean she swam over to Kaine, shivering slightly. "Feels so nice to be clean! Could be a little warmer though!"

"Warmer eh?" he said giving Sloane a sly grin.

He stripped off his clothes, laying his sword within reach at the edge of the lake, before jumping in next to her.

She was right, it was pretty cold, but was to be expected from a mountain lake.

He dunked his head underwater clearing the blood from his face and body. There was still dried blood in his hair, staining his dreadlocks read, but he didn't care, he was used to it and knew that it would come out when it came out.

Giving Sloane an evil grin he dropped beneath the surface of the water and swam up to her. He broke the surface right in front of her as he wrapped his muscular arms around her, drawing her in close.

"Warmer?" he said as he gave her a quick squeeze.

Sloane settled happily into Kaine's embrace and then reached up to kiss him hungrily. After a minute she reluctantly broke away and wiggled from his grasp. "I better go keep an eye on the food. Nug isn't very tasty when it's burnt." She said with a sigh and strocked to the edge of the lake.

The templar climbed out of the water and wrung the dampness from her hair. "We'll finish this later." She said with a grin as she walked toward the fire not caring if Selene saw her naked. She rummaged through the packs and found a spare tunic and set of pants.

Once she was dressed Sloane checked on the food before heading back to the lake to clean her clothes, armour, and weapons.

Kaine grinned as he watched Sloane swagger over to the campsite, "Yes we will."

After another moment of watching Sloane's naked body Kaine shook his head and climbed out of the frigid water.

He finished cleaning his armour and laid it by the fire to dry.

Kaine rummaged through the packs and found some relatively clean clothes and changed out of the bloody ones he was in.

Selene seemed to watch his every move, admiring his muscular body as it glistened in the light of the fire.

"Seems like we have a few meager supplies left. So as long as we don't get into too much trouble down here we should be fine. But, I suspect that is not going to happen eh? Boss?"

Kaine looked up at Selene and snarled, "Only Sloane gets to call me that. To you, I am either Sir, Captain or Kaine. Call me that again and my sword will slide through your body like butter."

Selene swallowed hard, her eyes wide and a startled look on her face, "I..I..I.. am sorry." she stuttered.

Kaine looked at her and smiled, "Don't worry mage, I was only joking. You only need to fear me if you cross me, so far so good. But seriously, don't call me boss."

"We are going to rest here for awhile, regain our strength and think of some strategies to take this thing out. We need to work together to stop it, otherwise it is going to take us down one by one."

Kaine got up and checked on the cooking nug. He seemed to be satisfied as he sliced off a chunk of its flesh and bit into it, "Seems to be ready." he said between bites.

Sloane heard some sort of tiff going on between Kaine and Selene behind her but didn't catch the content of it. She knew Kaine had a temper where mages were concerned and so wasn't really suprised by the exchange.

She had just finished cleaning everything and was gathering up her clothes and armor to lay by the fire when Kaine pronounced the nug to be done. After carefully laying out her things to dry Sloane went over to check the roasting nug. "I believe you're right boss, let's eat this one up. The other two need more time, I've set them up to become jerky. They'll last longer that way."

Sloane removed the nug from the fire and laid it on a nearby rock and began carving it up with her dagger. When she was done she sat down and began to eat. Despite her ravenous hunger she ate slowly and carefully. She didn't know how long it had been since she ate last and she didn't want to make herself sick.

"After we defeat this demon I hope to never see another cave again!" Sloane commented as she ate. "It's no wonder the dwarves all drink so much!"

"Speaking of a drink, I could go for a stiff one right about now." he smirked.

Kaine went about suiting up in his armour; the special clips made it especially easy to get into it without any help.

He tested out his claws a few times, extending them and retracting them, making sure that they were in fine working order. Afterwards he did the same thing with his special shield. He knew that nothing could be wrong with the shield, only because it was magical in nature.

He sheathed his falchion and took up with 2 handed blade. It almost seemed that the sword detected him; the lyrium centre sprang to life, casting a fearsome red glow about the campsite.

His powerful legs propelled him into the air and with a wild war cry he sent his two handed blade crashing down, embedding the blade into the floor of the stone cave.

Without breaking stride he removed the blade and whirled around, his blade in one hand. The massive blade cut through the air, and as he came full circle around the hilt smacked into his other open hand. His wrists twisted as he thrust the blade backwards, and brought it up and over to chopping down; he stopped short of the blade coming in contact with the ground.

He grinned evilly over at Sloane as he sheathed the blade onto his back once again.

"Just remember, once we disembowel that demon, we still have to find away out of this place and back to the surface. Hopefully it will have a map or something that shows the way out of here. I don't think even a demon would know its way around without something to guide it around."

Sloane watched Kaine check his weapons and armour with an appreciative eye while she ate. Crazy skeleton arm or no he really did have an amazing body.

"A map huh? That sure would be handy. But that's assuming the demon ever leaves this place. He could just wait down here for his minions to lure idiots like us to dinner."

She stood tiredly and began to dig through their remaining supplies once more. "Aha!" she exclaimed as she pulled a small jug from one of her saddle bags. "Still half full!" She said happily as she took a swig from the jug and then went to hand it to Kraven.

"Guess we're luckily those bandits didn't like lyrium in their whiskey!" The templar sighed happily as the lyrium withdrawl slowly left her body. With everything else done to her recently she hadn't realized how bad it was until it was gone.

When Kaine was finished with the jug she took another small sip and then walked over and offered it to Selene. "That was quite some magic you performed ealier. You could probably use some of this."

"Thanks, however the only time I ever need to use lyrium is during a battle. Once a mage stops using magic they begin to regenerate at a pretty quick rate. Plus I have some from the packs just in case. You guys keep that for your own needs."

"And don't worry, I've got your back. And it's a nice back at that." she said winking at the female warrior.

She looked around for a moment before closing her eyes and entering a deep meditative trance.

"Well, like Selene said, this is a dwarven thaig, so someone must have needed a map of some sort to get down here. If that demon has been down here long before other people, then we might have a slight problem. That would mean that it would have amassed more power than if it was new to this realm. Then on the other hand, it might have found some nice trinkets that would make this all worthwhile."

"Get some rest, we are going to leave in a couple of hours. I would say day break, but I don't even know what time of day it is." Kaine smirked.

He dropped down to the ground and propped himself up against a stalagmite.