“No, I do not,” Dare agreed tensely, loosening her grip on the branch and letting it fall out of her fingers. “But after this, if I was like you, nothing would hurt all that much, correct? How do I do… that?” While she was talking, she stretched out her hand to grab her sword, which had fallen out of its neck just a few feet away. Just a few more seconds and she would have it…
"It…dulls pain…magic still causes moderate pain." He paused just a little. "I would have to bring your body to my lord…to revive you in the way I have been…" Patches' head tilted a bit "You wish to be with us?"
“Better than being a corpse,” Dare said, exhausted, her arms now limp at her sides. Her sword was too far away for her to reach, and unless her companions intervened, she was a goner. “I have no other choice. Is there anything I need to do first?”
Tempest had been watching the whole thing and when Patches raised his bat higher above his head Tempest shot a bolt of electricity at him, hitting him in the chest, knocking him back, onto his back. Tempest growled out loud and close the distance as Patches got back to his feet "I'll take care of this monster. Keep Yumi safe please." Temp begged, yelping a bit as the razor wire slashed at his sword arm. He kicked out at Patches and tried his best to keep his focus away from his friends.
Dare scrambled to her feet. They’re here… why are they here? She really had thought her plan would work, separating herself from the group to become a target and testing the abilities of the shadows to see if it was worth it to become one. Ah well, two steps forward, one step back, right? She grabbed her sword and limped over to Yumi, her weapon held at the ready.
"Don't you ever touch them again!" he shouted, his protective side fully out now as he takes wild swipes at the Patches, tanking any lacerations or cuts Patches gave him, his eyes turned a pale orange as he pounced onto Patches and latched his jaw around the throat of the monster, giving one yank, causing Patches to fall limp. Tempest rolled off of him and tried to spit as much of the ink blood from his mouth as possible. He ignored the many stinging injuries across his upper body, for there was not time to deal with that.
“Tempest, are you okay?” Dare called, stumbling towards him as fast as she was able. Rats. Well, there had to be more of them out here, right? She could bide her time with Patches out of commission. ”I’m so sorry,” she said quietly.
He was on his knees coughing and spitting out black matter "Oh my God that's so gross!" It seemed he was more concerned about the taste than his blood loss, he then looked to Dare's ankle "Shit you're limping…and bleeding!" he let out a whine as he saw her own blood run from her wound. "Sit down we need to stop it. Patches will be down for a while don't worry."
“It’s fine, I’m more concerned about you,” Dare said dismissively, though there was an edge of pain in her voice. She collapsed to the ground, still holding on tightly to her wound. “What happens if you eat the black stuff?” Dare asked, trying to conceal her curiosity.
"You'll get sick if you haven't done it before…sometimes it'll straight up infect and turn weaker people…don't worry I'll just feel a bit off for a while. He tore a bit off his jeans with Dare's tool as he muttered "scissors" and then took her hand away from the wound and tightly wrapped it with a homemade turacit around her ankle
“Thanks,” Dare said quietly. I’ve got to get my hands on some of that. “I’m really sorry I left the group, it’s my fault that you got hurt. You told me how dangerous it was out here, but I didn’t listen.”
"You're okay now that's all I care about okay?" Tempest pulled Dare into a quick hug, releasing her as he didn't want to get the sweatshirt she was wearing any more bloody
“But you’re clearly not ok,” Dare said, quickly hugging him back. She ripped the hem of her sweatshirt off and began to dab at his wounds. “You shouldn’t have just rushed in there like that. I had the situation under control.”
Tempest winced when she touched the raw lacerations "I-I'll be fine. I've dealt with worse." he tried to assure her, but as the initial adrenaline started to fade he was starting to feel he looked, in pretty rough shape. "But he…he was going to kill you Dare…you understand that right?"
“Well, you shouldn’t have gotten hurt anyway. And besides, I’ve gotten out of worse scrapes than this!” Dare replied with a false cheerfulness, continuing to clean Tempest’s wounds. That was a lie. The worst thing she’d ever dealt with was that teenager with a gun who’d shot her favorite mystery writer, and he barely knew how to use the thing. “That leaking bastard wasn’t going to kill me. I had it handled.”
He gave a little smile after a little yelp from her digging a little too deep in a wound "Well the leaking bastard isn't gonna stay down forever unless we destroy his whole body and…I don't think any of us can do that right now so we should keep moving. Here I'll make this easier." And he shifted back to his human form. THe wounds were easier to see, the worst one around his right shoulder that had a steady flow of crimson running down his whole body, bubbling when it mixed with the ink colored blood on the ground
“Of course, you’re right. We should keep moving.” As Tempest turned back into his human form, Dare saw how severe the wound on his arm was. Wincing in sympathy, she tied the clean side of the strip of fabric around the dripping cut. “There, good as new.” She struggled to her feet and grabbed her tool, whispering for it to transform under her breath. Dare tucked the sword into her belt loop and held out her hand to Tempest.
He took it with her left hand and stood to his feet and managed to put on a brave face and made sure Yumi stayed with them. "Alright let's see if we can find another Haven member cause…this one's worn out."
“How many more Haven members do you think there are in the arena?” Dare asked, starting to walk forward. She intentionally stepped in the puddle of black, shadowy blood and slipped, leaving herself coated in the stuff. “Ew!” she managed, wiping the stuff away from her eyes so she could see. Her eyes suddenly rolled back into her head and she went limp.
"Oh God oh Christ!" He dropped back to his knees and started to panic "Dare? Dare!? Can you hear me are you okay?" He wasn't prepared to disinfect anyone and didn't even have the materials for the makeshift treatment
Dare stood alone in a dark room that she somehow knew was inside her head. “Zerack!” she called, her voice echoing in the silence. “I wish to speak with you!” Back in the real world, ink pooled in the corners of her mouth and dripped from her nose, and she twitched a bit in response to Tempest’s call.
There was loud echoing steps like nice church shoes on a marble floor. "This is…interesting…you seem to have purposely infected yourself…why is that little one?" a voice said from her left
“It’s my best chance at some sort of survival. And if I want to do anything, it’s survive. Plus, I want answers, and thus far you seem to be the only one who can give them to me.” Dare was shaking at being surrounded by darkness, her worst fear, but she gritted her teeth and continued. “Can you?”
"Hmmm well little one," and his form solidified in front of Dare "What are you itching to know so much that your risking your very life to speak to me?" he was completely calm
“I want to know exactly what this place is and why you have created it. Tempest has told me his side of the story, but I want to hear yours as well. Why have you summoned us here, and is it worth it to become… whatever Patches is?” Dare tried to sound confident, but she was truly terrified for the first time in her life. There was nothing for her to analyze to distract herself, so she was left with only her thoughts.