The shot slammed into the Dark Lord's face and sent him reeling backward while the slashing blow to Venger's mid-section caused The Dark Lord to fall. Though his armor caught most of that sword blow, Venger was still staggered by the blast of Robert's pistol to his face. The Dark Lord howled in pain as he cupped his face.

With his grip on the Black Witch fading, the elementalist began to emerge from the darkness. The combined relentless effort of the party really took affect. Venger even though knocked back and kept at bay could magically feel his hold on Alyson weaken.

Neven struggled to get to his feet as he tried to make sense of what just happened to him.

"LADY!" The elemental exclaimed in pure joy, "WE'RE HERE TO RESCUE YOU AND SERNA! WE'RE HERE TO FREE YOU! WE'RE NOT GIVING UP! WE WILL PERSEVERE!"

War Scribe suddenly opened her eyes and cut loose with a blood curdling scream before she looked around, "WOW! Now that was a blast from the past! HEY! Can I get a little help here?"

The Black Witch's dull and dreadful look started to change into the more colorful vibrant appearance of the elementalist. The cryptic voice changed to one filled with feeling and emotion, "GAH! War Scribe, give it a rest! Ugh!" The elementalist struggled to stand. She felt cold and hot, bad and good all at the same time. "Would someone tell me what is going on here and how did me and Serna end up with Venger?"

"LADY!" Quaked was over joyed to see the elementalist again, "You had me worried! I mean us worried!"

"ALYSON?! IS THAT YOU?!" Irzen cried out in disbelief, "WHAT THE HELL?!"

Lysana jerked as Irzen slowed down in surprise.

"There will be time enough for that later, M'Lady," Roberts said. WHile saying that, he reeled a series of rapid punches to Venger's already mangled face. "Go. The. Fudge. To. Sleep. You. Ugly. Jerk! Bruno, find us a way out of here. GO!"

The Dark Lord howled in pain at the sudden and repeated blows to his face, "RRRAUUGHHH!!!"

Once Kana was able to shake the last of the effects off, she took Serna from Willow so that he could take point to help get them clear of the mess.

The half orc ran into the room and took some medallion like object off the corpse of Akatozh. "Just in case our escape route is cut off. Now to help that loud mouth drowling over there.."

The Ranger turned The Shield Maiden over to Kana and took point in the hallway. He waved the others forward as he headed back down the staircase. Neven followed after Willow as War Scribe cried out to no one in particular, "I know everyone's in a hurry to get out of here but aren't you forgetting something? I'M the ONLY one here who knows the SAFEST path out of this suburb of Hell. So you might want to consider taking me along before you RUN OFF AND LEAVE ME HERE!!!"

The elementalist looked around to see the carnage of the battle that took place. She was visibly shaken by it. This city was horrible, twisted and beyond redemption. "Someone get War Scribe and lets get out of here! By the way how did you all get here?"

Out of the corner of her eye, the fallen began to move. Slowly and sluggishly the corpses were being reanimated by the dark energy of the Black City. "Uh, guys, why are the dead moving?"

"SMITH! Get Scribe and go. Tompkins, Williams - knock them back, when we are all out of the room, seal it. Lady Alyson, come with me. Quake, Bruno, everyone, move it. Scribe, tell us how to get out of here." Roberts had slipped into command mode, barking orders like he would ont he deck of one of his ships. The prowess of the other gave him hope that they would, more than likely, get out of this one in one piece, more or less.