Madeous stepped forward and unsheathed his Vorpal great sword. It hummed with life as he brought it down between the door and himself. The sword has a special ability to dispel magic that was harmful to him and anyone else he considered as an ally. The hum increased with intensity as it clashed with magically trapped doors sundering them into shards of sharp bits of wood and steel spraying everywhere.

Within the main office stood Major Zilc and two other guards. Their forms changed instantly into gargoyles. The major's form shimmered in the torch light. "Well this is most interesting. You could of been an asset to the cause, Sergeant Talos but alas your blind faith to the platinum dragon prevented such a conversion. First, I'll slay the mighty platinum knight and offer his head to my master. Enslave the rest, and sacrifice the girl."

"Not going to happen!" Irzen replied.

"You're not going to sacrifice me to anyone or anything!" Serna snapped.

Major Zilc's form shifted into a cambion, half devil half human. Red skin, claws, horns, wings, and a tail standing seven feet tall clad in black spiked half plate armor.

"You should have remained human," Neven boasted, "Had you done so, you might've had a chance."

"But since you've changed your form," Willow nocked two arrows in his bow, "You have no chance."

Talos had never been a true believer in Bahamut. He acknowledged that the dragon god existed but never really put much faith in him until now. He felt a surge of Lawful Good energy swell in his body. He felt the might and the pure light of the Bahamut surround him. "Asylum has no room for fiends such as you! You are a mockery of all the people who live here, and therefore we will persevere and defeat you!"

After Talos said his peace, Willow cut loose with two arrows that knee-capped the two guards in the room dropping them to their knees.

The guards now turned gargoyles swept the arrows aside and growled at the ranger. One of them jumped up over Serna as she charged Zilc and straight onto the ranger pinning him to the floor. The other went for Talos but he dodged out of the way by slamming his own shield into it knocking it off balance.

"Willow!" Serna charged fearlessly at the gargoyle that pinned the Ranger to the floor and slammed her shield into the creature's face full force sending it flying back into the wall behind it.

"Are you alright?" The Shield Maiden helped The Ranger to his feet, "Now I am! Thank you, Serna."

"You're welcome!" Serna smiled, "Just keep your head on a swivel like Lord Irzen likes to say."

Willow nodded in agreement as he replaced his bow and arrow with a dagger and sword.

Neven clenched both of his fists together and held them tightly. As a result, two hands from Zilc's own shadow reached up and seized the cambion's ankles holding him in place.

Zilc snapped his fingers and his shadow released its grip. He saw Neven through the shadows and blasted him with hellfire sending the thief reeling out of his own shadow onto the hard stone floor.

Neven scrambled onto the hard stone floor and rolled into the shadow of Major Zilc's desk disappearing from view.

"Madeous, press from the left!" Irzen cried out as he charged at the cambion, "I'll press from the right! Serna, go up the middle and shield bash his brains out! Willow, cover her!"

Madeous in turn jumped in direct line of the Hellfire blast deflecting it away from Neven before it could cause any permanent damage. "I admire your courage, son but you cannot simply use tricks to take this foe on."

"I can try!" Neven spoke from a nearby shadow.

Without warning, Zilc felt his feet and then his legs being pulled into his own shadow as though he had stepped into quicksand.

Before the gargoyle that Talos stunned could regain its footing, Irzen closed on the creature and with the full force of his blade lopped the monster's head off in one clean cut!

Upon loosing its head the gargoyle's body broke apart and crumbled on the floor.

"You're next, Zilc!" The Swordsman snarled, "Bet on it!"

Zilc craned his to one side. He wasn't impressed with any of the party. Flapping his wings he rose up above the group out of reach. Especially with that annoying thief playing with shadow magic behind him. "ENOUGH OF THIS! Idle threats? Is that all you have to offer swordsman? What I see is a bunch of pathetic individuals who simply cannot win--urk!"

Madeous threw his sword at his mid section with Talos tossing his sword in a spinning motion end over end through one wing causing Zilc to slam down on the desk.

***BA-THHUUDDD!!***

"OY! No one asked you for your opinion, fiend!" The sergeant shouted, "Now! Irzen and company, take him down!"

***************

The Netherese wizard groaned under the weight of the guards on top of him with the drowling sitting proudly on all of them.

"Hey Scribe! Think you can keep them pinned while Irzen and company make their way to you?" Alyson shouted up to the Chronicler.

Under the power of both the Ray of Enfeeblement and the Freezing Sphere, the best War Scribe could do to respond to Alyson's request was to drool out of the corner of her own mouth and make a noise that sounded vaguely like a wounded dove.

After about five minutes of being a drowling Popsicle and stupified, War Scribe snapped back to herself. The wizard and two guards still struggled to get free of each other.

"NOW WHAT THE HELL KIND OF A GREETING WAS THAT?!" War Scribe snapped as she sat atop Sorvor and the two Guards, "Especially for a Chronicler of Validor! You need to show more respect when someone like me pays a visit, you nasty yet unbearably hot Necromancer you!"

Sorvor managed to shout out into the hallway in some strange language and from the eerie green glow came a Skeleton Warrior brandishing a great sword intent on cleaving the Chronicler off of its Summoner.

"A Skeleton Warrior?! REALLY?!" War Scribe shook her head in disbelief, "You've got to be kidding me! Even for a Necromancer you should be able to show more imagination than that! Take me for example! I'm full of imagination. I'm loaded with surprises. Try this one on for size!"

War Scribe used her chameleon ability to literally change herself into an Iron Golem. The Drowling smiled, "Now how's THAT for imagination! Whack away, O Skeleton Warrior, I'll just sit here until Alyson and company arrive."

And on that note, War Scribe sat where she was using her extra mass to pin both the Guards and Sorvor helplessly beneath her. All the while the Drowling merrily hummed a tune that seemed to resemble "If I Only Had A Heart" from the Wizard of Oz.

Alyson and The Bronze Man suddenly looked at each other. They could sense the danger within the tower that made itself known. The elementalist looked back up to the balcony and saw something not of Asylum loomed down at the chronicler. "War Scribe! Above you!"

"What in the Realm?!" War Scribe looked upward to see what Alyson was talking about.

The two guards that War Scribe had pinned under her golem form vanished leaving only the necromancer behind. Sorvor started laughing, "MWhaahahahaha! I don't care who you are, wench! All that matters is your death!"

The Drowling turned her attention back to Sorvor, "That's what I keep telling everyone, tall, evil and smoking hot; but no one appreciates the fact that I love to die!"

The guards shifted into Vrocks screeching with fury as they slammed into the chronicler's golem form together forcing her off of Sorvor. ***WHAAAMMM!!***

"Hey!" The Drowling screeched as she tangled with the Vrocks, "Two on one! No fair!"

The skeleton warrior leaped up and went for a cleave knocking her off balance teetering on the edge of the balcony. That part of the tower began to crack under the strain of the battle causing the floor to break up and give way.

****CCCCLLLLLAAAAANNNNGGGG!!!*****

War Scribe literally vibrated when the Skeleton Warrior connected with the Drowling's iron body. With the Vrocks on top of her and the Skeleton Warrior drawing back for another strike, the floor gave way and the Drowling and her opponents began to fall from the top of the tower.

"You still don't get it do you, handsome!" War Scribe called out to Sorvor before she teleported once again with the Vrocks and the Skeleton Warrior. This time she reappeared fifteen feet above Sorvor and before he could even rise to his feet, War Scribe came crashing down upon the Necromancer once again with her extra passengers in tow, "I can keep this up all day!"

Sorvor raised his gnarled hand up casting, "COUNTER SPELL!" and followed up with, "HEX!"

War Scribe's iron golem form disappeared. She was back to herself and hit the floor hard with both Vrocks on her instead.

"HEY! OUCH! NO FAIR!" The Drowling complained with both of the Vrocks on top of her, "You were supposed to break my fall again! What's wrong with you? Didn't you read the script?"

Sorvor laughed again, "Hahaha! Death will not save you, wench. Only the undeath will be your next destination!"

Alyson may not have the excellent sight that Lazheros has but her hearing was exceptional. The storm that she had conjured earlier was still in the sky above. Speaking the language of air, the storm hurled a series of lightning bolts that slammed once more into the wizard and his monsters.

"YYEAARRRRRGGGHHH!! ROOAAARRRRRRRRRR!!"

"SCRIBE! YOU'RE WELCOME!" The elementalist shouted to the chronicler again.