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The fight was going surprisingly well. Dorian had managed to stay at the sidelines, only tossing out the occasional distraction for the monsters or an inspiration for his friends.
Laudna was scaring off a few shadowcreepers in her form of dread, that Dorian admittedly still found a little bit unsettling. Meanwhile Imogen was somewhere at his right and had just made another shadowcreeper explode in a cloud of smoke.
FCG was helping out Orym and Fearne, who had gotten a bit stuck on the other end of the battlefield. Chetney was nowhere to be seen. Dorian was starting to suspect that he was hiding again.
And then there was Ashton. He was right in the middle of the fray, letting his hammer crush all and everything around him and laughing maniacally. They were covered in ash from burned shadowcreepers and were bleeding from a cut in their eyebrow. And Dorian found himself looking at him a bit more frequently than would be necessary. Which had nothing to do with their good looks, Dorian was just… worried. After all, they were most likely to need help. That was it, most definitely.
Dorian was distracted from his thoughts when the ground began to shake and a demon broke free from beneath their feet. Dorian wasn’t sure if it really was a demon, but the thing was big, consisted of smoke, had glowing eyes and growled so loud that he could feel it in his bones. So, Dorian didn’t really care what exactly it was, he just wanted it gone.
That was obviously easier said than done. Laudna apparently hadn’t noticed anything and was still scaring shadowcreeper to death, before she abruptly turned and ran towards a crack in the ground, where Imogen had been only moments ago. FCG and the others were not visible behind the monster, but Dorian could see Ashton all the better.
When they heard the roar behind them, the earth genasi turned and roared back, before he swung his hammer around and ran towards the creature three times his size.
Dorian had two options. Either go and help Ashton, who wouldn’t be able to stand against the demon for long, or go and heal Imogen who could possibly be dying. Well fuck, he’d better start running.
Laudna looked at him with fear in her eyes when he fell to his knees next to her, but that fear quickly turned to hope.
“Help her!”, she shouted over the roaring behind them. She was right at the edge of the crack in the ground and trembled with the effort of just holding Imogen. Dorian let his scimitar fall to the ground and grasped past Laudna onto Imogens Arm. Together (it was mostly Dorian) they were able to raise her, until she was lying on the ground next to them and panting heavily. She didn’t seem hurt, just shocked and relieved.
Dorian sunk his head and allowed himself to breathe for a second. As far as he’d seen Imogens arm had already been slipping from Laudnas grasp, if he had come any later…
Something was wrong, he noticed. Fuck. He could only hear one roar, and it was not Ashtons.
His head whirled around, and there he saw them, lying on the ground and the demon reeling up above him on its back legs, as if preparing for its final blow.
Get up, thought Dorian. Ashton get up, he begged as he himself got back up on his feet. Please let them get up, he prayed to whoever was listening as he began running towards them.
He wouldn’t get there in time. He was too far away, the demon too quick. And even if he got there in time, what if Ashton wasn’t just unconscious, what if….
No, he needed to keep running, otherwise there wouldn’t be any chance of survival. For all of them. For him. For Ashton.
Fire erupted behind the demon and he heard the angry war cry of Orym as the halfling jumped up onto the demons back. It whirled around, it’s legs just barely missing Ashton as it tried to defend itself from the sudden onslaught.
Ashton was staring up at him with lifeless eyes as Dorian skittered to a halt next to them. Blood was smeared over the crystal in the side of their head and the demon had slashed through his vest, blood pouring from the gash through his right shoulder down to his ribs on the left side.
Dorian fell to his knees beside them, his shacking hands reaching out to touch the still warm, stonelike skin of their cheek. For a moment he was frozen, his mind standing still, the sight before him so unexpected and alien that he could do nothing but stare and feel the warmth beneath his hands slipping, just as the blood was draining form Ashtons body.
Dorian didn’t know how long he had been like this; it could have been seconds or hours. And then he blinked and the moment was over, he was slowly humming a low tune and praying to every god he could think of that the genasi beneath him might wake up. Magic was flowing around him and he picked at its strands, weaving them together with his words and thoughts and melody to close Ashtons wounds and let him wake up again. Hoping that he hadn’t lost too much time.
Just as he heard Ashton gasp for breath again, felt the relief and happiness wash through him like a wave, the monster behind him roared again and the ground shook as it came closer.
Dorian just managed to get up to his feet in time, nearly stumbling down again due to exhaustion and earthquakes.
And then he was raising his scimitar and preparing to defend his comrade, his friend, his… partner from the roaring beast running towards them.