Why did Blue’s hand feel so light? She could still feel his hand gripped in her own, the feeling of metal under her fingers, but for some reason she could not feel the weight of Blue running behind her. She knows looking back is a bad idea, but Iryla couldn’t help it. She glances backwards over her shoulder and-

Oh. Well. That explained a lot. Blue was certainly running behind her, but his entire hand was detached and in her grasp.

“What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck–” The words tumble out of Iryla’s mouth like a mantra of desperation and horror.

That sense of eldritch dread only grows as her eyes catch sight of Astrid in the air, dodging and weaving in desperate arcs around the creature following her, it’s mismatched eyes locked onto her small form in the sky.

She…

Iryla couldn’t just run and leave her.

”Fuck!” With a furious yell Iryla turns on her heel and stops running. She makes sure to toss Blue’s arm back to him, assuming he could… probably figure out something to do with it. The plan forming in her mind is half baked at best but god damn it, like hell would Astrid be the only one risking her life. And while Iryla didn’t have wings or magic or anything really useful she could do to beat this thing, she did have one thing on her side.

A fuck ton of audacity.

Large craggy rock formations line either side of their path down the mountainside and Iryla uses them to her advantage, quickly diving down into the shadows, out of sight¹. She keeps her eyes on Astrid’s path and the path of the monster rapidly crawling after her while she climbs up to the tip of one of those outcroppings closer to where Astrid is locked in harrowing flight.

Then she waits. Watching as Astrid draws a bit closer, watching as the monster passes by Iryla’s hiding spot without notice until she-

Now!

Iryla leaps at the creature, tumbling through the air and onto it’s back² with a furious yell and the glint of her dagger shining in the air. Her blade finds purchase between two stoney plates of armor on the creatures back and she twists her wrist to dig it further in, using the dagger now as a handle to stay on this abomination's back.

“Leave her alone, you fugly son of a bit- Wo-Woah!”

---

<sup>1. One with Shadows
2. Cat's Grace</sup>

"Thanks! Oof! Ah! Ooh!" Blue Raspberry called out as they miraculously caught their arm that Iryla threw to them, but continued to tumble down the side of the volcano. They clutched the dismembered arm that was really more just the arm of their armor filled with sloshing blue liquid at this point to the front of their cuirass. Didn't want to lose it again!

The ooze knight rolled over rocks and fell down ledges. They were really worried the entire time, not for themself, which they probably should have been, but for Astrid and now also Iryla who were both fighting that huge, terrifying, awful, _{kind of tasty looking,} super dangerous monster! They tried to catch themself and stop their falling, but they just couldn't find anywhere to grab, and if they did, it might just be their arm that stops tumbling while the rest of them keeps going. Being so melty was proving to be a real problem! At least they were getting a bit more solid as they got farther away from the top of the volcano. The heat was steadily decreasing without all that lava nearby.

Suddenly, Blue Raspberry felt themself freefall as they tumbled right over the edge of a crevice in the side of the volcano and down into depths. "Oof!" they hit the bottom with a clanking thud, landing flat on their back. At least they'd stopped falling! They sat up and reattached their arm before looking around for a way back up. They had to go back to help Astrid and Iryla! But, something was off about this crevice. There was a big tarp with the corners driven into the wall and floor with metal pitons, forming something like a lean-to.

"Who's there!?" someone suddenly called from inside the lean-to and crawled out. An old man with a poofy white beard. The top of his head looked like an egg, super white and completely hairless. His eyes were covered by thick, round glasses above a bulbous nose. He wore a suit of overalls with thick gloves and heavy boots. For an old man, he looked surprisingly muscular, almost the same proportions as Blue Raspberry's humanoid form. He spotted Blue sitting on the ground and smiled. "A knight? You here ta' save me!?"

"Huh? Wait, are you the researcher!?" Blue shouted in surprise.

"Yessir, Barnaby B Beanbag. Researcher. Other stuff. Whatever. Now, you got a way outta this damn hole? I gotta get outta here before Larry finds me!"

"Larry...?" Blue mumbled, stunned by the whole situation. They'd actually found the researcher they were sent here to find. Wait, that didn't matter! They still needed to help their friends! "I gotta help my friends! They're fighting a big monster at the top of the volcano!" Blue suddenly stood up and walked over to the rocky wall, blue ooze forming around their hands and feet, and started climbing up. But suddenly, they had arms around their neck and legs gripping the sides of their torso.

"If you're climbin outta this hole, you're takin' me with ya'!"

---

Slimy Hands

The whole point of Astrid's effort is to give her friends an avenue of escape. So to hear the half-elf's battle cry from the back of the lava abomination distracts Astrid nearly enough to get snatched up by the beast. 

"I-Iryla?!" The claw snaps closed with a thunderous crack! "What the heck 're ya doin'?!" Astrid's voice is desperate, panicked. She shouldn't be here! Astrid's faced worse than this thing! Well, not exactly. She really hates this creature. It's awful. But she can handle it! She's got armor and weapons, and she's got means of escaping it easily! What does Iryla have?! She's just got LEGS! 

This is dumb. This is so stupid. They have to go. She's completely lost track of Blue Raspberry down the side of the mountain. What if they melted?! 

The clankclankclank of metal on rock repeatedly catches Astrid's attention, and she glances down to see Charles tumbling down the volcano's side, and then... he promptly disappears into a massive crevice. No, not Charles too!! 

She's growing exhausted, and her wings are going to give out if she doesn't get them out of there immediately. Frustrated by the whole situation, Astrid hooks her smaller hammer into the loop on her belt then grips her war hammer in both hands. Barely dodging another snap of the massive claws, Astrid flies up into the sky and spins around in the air before launching her war hammer full speed down at the caldera creature. 

The impact is thunderous, almost as loud as a snap of its claws. It groans and stumbles, dazed. 

Astrid takes advantage of the stun to rush down to Iryla. "I can't believe ya came back here! I was givin' ya a chance ta get away! We gotta go!" She doesn't wait for Iryla to respond before she grabs her under the arms and rockets away from the monstrosity as it recovers. Astrid lets her Challenging Mark fade so the creature won't chase them, and she flies to where she saw Charles fall into the crevice. They could at least take cover there!

Her wings nearly give out on her as they stumble into a landing and slide into the crack where Blue Raspberry was just crawling out with a random man on his back. Charles is stuck in a lopsided position upside down. Breathing heavily, Astrid recalls her hammer, ready for the monster to come after them, but she can't see out of the crevice. Gods she just wants to rest for a moment. Can she get one moment of reprieve?!

---

Bat Wings [post 3/3]
Challenging Mark [post 3/4] - ended early
War hammer - spellblade bond (electrified, weightless, returning), pale ice, heavy