Asala panted heavily as she stole the moment to wipe the sweat accumulating on her brow. On either side of her were the dead of both sides, Inquisition and Venatori alike, yet the fight still raged around them. Corypheus and Marcus both still stood, but as did they. She wanted to toss a glance to the temple behind them, to see if she could see any sign of the others, but that was not a moment she could spare. A Venatori rushed her with a flame spell, one she snuffed out with an ordinary blue barrier, and as soon as she let that spell go, another took its place, a smaller barrier tearing across and smashing the offender in the side of the head, grounding him. He squirmed, but did not rise again.
She inhaled deeply, and then exhaled quickly, stepping forward closer to the others and the battle with Corypheus.
Though Khari was hardly the type to let her injuries slow her down, she was accumulating an awful lot of them, mostly because she insisted on repeatedly engaging with Corypheus, returning to the fracas every time she was wounded or knocked away or he simply evaded her. One of her pauldrons had been blasted away by a concussive spell, and she was bleeding from the shoulder underneath, ribbons of it running down her chestplate. More of it coated her sword, at least some the brackish, too-dark color belonging to the darkspawn magister. She'd scored a light hit on one side of his ribcage, tearing his robes and flaying open the skin to the bone, not that it much mattered. Corypheus seemed to move and live outside of the normal laws about things like anatomy and pain, as if he were more sustained by magic than anything. Most likely that was true, though it was no magic Asala was familiar with.
The elf charged again, barely avoiding getting her legs taken out from underneath her by a well-aimed burst of frost. It did catch on one of her feet, though, and she let out a frustrated growl, stymied just long enough for Corypheus to move backwards, flinging another blast from both hands.
Leon stepped in to cover her, which for him meant taking up the charge in her stead. He was not so easily stopped, and though the brunt of the magic hit him, he stumbled backwards instead of being thrown away in quite the same manner as Khari had been previously. When he recovered, he took several more long strides, winding back to strike at Corypheus.
The darkspawn shifted back, narrowly escaping a grab as Leon adjusted. But more wardens moved in to defend him, and Leon set to work dismantling the line instead.
Not too far to the left, Marcus too was keeping several of the Inquisition's best at bay, primarily fighting from range and striking opportunistically: hobbling a soldier here, firing a spell into someone's exposed back there. He seemed almost lazy in his motions, like he wasn't especially interested by any of the goings-on, though from Asala's vantage she could tell that he was doing a very good job of preventing Amalia and Lia from reaching him. But the way he did it... it was almost like he thought of the whole battle as a game. One that, for now at least, wasn't even that important to him.
Lia's arrows were the only thing occasionally able to reach him, but the lack of effort required on Marcus's part to defend himself from those was minimal while he was undistracted, and it was serving only to frustrate Lia.
"Asala," Romulus was out of breath at her side, retreated momentarily from the fighting. "I have an idea. You see that statue?" He pointed to one at the entrance to the bridge, at least twenty feet of solid stone in the shape of a spear and shield wielding guard, worn down over time but still standing firmly. "If we can get him over there, you think you can bring that down on top of him?"
Asala followed Rom's indication and ran the scenario through her head quickly. Suddenly nodding she looked back at him. "I can, but be careful," she stated. She would have to weaken the legs first, but her barriers could shove it over once they were. With that, she slowly began to back away from the fight, but kept her eye on it just in case.
"No promises." He took off again, shooting down a Venatori soldier with his crossbow on his way over to Khari. He placed a hand on her shoulder, momentarily keeping her from the fight while he leaned in close to speak, likely telling her where they needed to attempt to force Corypheus's positioning. Once he was finished he separated from her, carving his way towards the mouth of the bridge. The fighting was becoming scrambled, allowing a few of the Venatori to slip through, but Corypheus was receiving far too much attention to escape from the fight.
The very same scramble, though, let Khari push her way past the Venatori line without stopping to fight every single person in her way, and then she was making a beeline for Corypheus again. She took a different approach this time, though, evading the spells thrown at her even when they cost her time. Rather than desperately trying to get a good hit in before she was thrown away, she seemed to focus on not losing ground, and sure enough, Corypheus kept space between them, allowing Khari to slowly herd him towards the bridge in fits and starts.
At one point, she was nearly smothered by another large fireball, but managed to drop to the ground just before it cooked her in her armor. The scorch marks along the back of her armor and helmet were obvious, and it couldn't be comfortable wearing it, but still she regained her feet, pressing forward with the same dogged ferocity as before, feinting for the darkspawn in a very convincing manner that kept him backing up.
Romulus was able to get the flank on him this time, Corypheus leaving his back wide open for the dagger that plunged into it. His marked hand lit up and reached higher, mere inches from the darkspawn's corrupted flesh when he was suddenly thrown back across the grounds. Corypheus lashed out with ice magic, spikes of it sprouting from the ground and stabbing out and up at Khari. It was wide enough to skewer some Inquisition regulars and even Venatori as well, so at the very least it would take Khari time to work around it.
"Pathetic," Corypheus said, his tone little more than a murmur but somehow carrying across the chaotic battlefield. The mark on Romulus's hand was crackling aggressively and causing him significant pain. The source became clear soon enough, as the Elder One carried that orb in his hand, using its power to dominate Romulus and keep him downed through his mark. He stalked towards him with quick, purposeful steps, but they carried him right beneath the shadow of the statue.
A pink barrier ignited under the statue, expanding outwardly until it crashed against its spread legs hard enough to send spiderweb cracks through its ankles and calves. Just as quick, Asala killed that barrier and summoned another, this higher and one across the stone's back. She winced and grunted as she pushed it with her all. The cracks along the things legs protested and widened until finall they just snapped. Even so, she did not let the barrier go, and guided it down onto the Magister, using her shield to give it even more force.
The statue fell spear first onto Corypheus, the stone weapon being the first to strike the darkspawn. The loud crack of stone breaking had garnered his attention, but it was already too late as the spear pierced his shoulder on its path to the ground. It carried the magister with it, and pinned him to the dirt beneath it and the shield it wielded. As a precaution, Asala gave one last push on the statue, causing the spear to dig deeper in both Corypheus's shoulder and the ground beneath.
Even with the extra push, Corypheus was incredibly strong, and it was a matter of seconds before he was extricating himself, the statue splitting with a series of heavy, resounding cracks before it all but blew apart, chunks falling away and allowing the darkspawn to regain his feet.
But the seconds presented an opportunity, and Leon was close enough to capitalize, leaping over a fragment of the stone and landing solidly right in front of Corypheus. Before the former magister could separate them with more magic, Leon's hand lashed out and up, closing around his throat, and a punch landed hard on his cheek, Leon's metal gauntlet flaking off one of the red lyrium protrusions on Corypheus's face. The darkspawn's hands immediately seized Leon's shoulders, fire hissing at his fingers, and he curled them into the Commander's armor, warping and twisting the metal. Leon managed to land a second hit, crunching in what would have been the darkspawn's nose if he really had one anymore, the side of one thumb finding an eye socket and pressing, the sucking squelch faintly audible even from Asala's distance.
But then Corypheus's fingers melted the rest of the way through Leon's armor and into his skin with a sizzle. His grip loosened, and with a massive shove and a telekinetic burst, the Commander was hurled away, landing right in the middle of a knot of Venatori and Wardens. Corypheus, blackish fluid oozing from his mangled eye socket, drew himself at last back up to his full height, face twisted in rage.
He wasn't the only one angry, though. With an audible shout, Khari lunged for him, narrowly missing to the left when he leaped out of the way. Clearly frustrated with being thwarted in such a way, though, she pursued. It was clear that she'd begun to learn his movement patterns, because each attempt to evade was less successful, until she finally got him, catching his already-injured shoulder in a downward stroke that dragged the tip of her sword over corrupted flesh. Only the red lyrium stopped it from going much further; the sword caught and skittered over a ridge beneath his tattered robe.
But Khari had done what she needed to. The blade had sliced into one of his tendons, and even if he couldn't feel pain, Corypheus could be surprised by the inability to move his arm, and it clearly stymied him now, giving her a short window in which she feared no magic.
It was plenty. She reset her feet and drove forward with a snarl, plunging her sword into Corypheus's belly and driving upwards with monumental effort. The sword erupted from his back, streaked in dark ichor that caught the light of the sun. When she wrenched the blade back out, what was left of Corypheus's rotted intestines came partway out, too, more fluid spattering to the stone beneath them.
He collapsed sideways into a puddle of his own blood, the vacant stare from his eyes evidence that he was certainly dead. It lasted only a moment before his body seemed to rapidly decompose into that black ichor, bubbling and hissing and causing Romulus to back away a step, the smell obviously unpleasant.
Many of the Inquisition soldiers around them roared a victorious cheer at their greatest enemy's death, but curiously the Venatori fought on like nothing had occurred, taking a few by surprise. It became clear that something was amiss a few seconds later, when nothing remained of Corypheus save for that black liquid seeping into the ancient stones.
One of the corrupted Wardens dropped to his knees and unleashed an unearthly howl, his sword and shield falling to the ground. It sounded not unlike a mage forcibly being possessed by a demon, and the awful transformation that occurred immediately after, but this Warden had shown no signs of having any magic previously. He seemed to darken from within, veins pumping black blood through him, until his skin as well turned black, and then he began to shift shapes. Fingers elongated, limbs as well, until it became clear that he was taking on a very familiar form, one that they'd only just dispatched. Venatori fought viciously to establish a defensive circle around Corypheus until he could return, if that was indeed what he was doing.
Asala's shoulders slumped in despair as Corypheus began to reform himself once again. How could they defeat an enemy that could come back like that? She shook her head at the thought and steeled herself, forcing herself to square her shoulders. They'd find a way, they had to. They always did figure something out in the end. She inhaled deeply one more time, and summoned the spells to her hands, preparing herself for the second go.
A screech in the distance paused her for a moment, and she swung around to catch a glimpse of the corrupted dragon coming back around. A pang of fury shot through her head before she calmed herself and looked back toward the battlefield. Leon was still lost in the grouping of Venatori and Warden fighters, and she hissed a bit in frustration. The dragon was bearing down on them, and she did not have the time to go find him. Instead, she did what she could and moved forward quickly, grabbing Romulus's arm as she closed the distance between them and Khari.
"Get down!" she ordered both of them, throwing an arm over Khari's shoulder and falling to a knee to present an even smaller target. The massive wing beats were upon them by the time Asala threw up a tight pink dome around them. With the smaller size, she hoped she'd be able to feed it enough magic to weather the storm that was surely coming. Moments after the barrier formed, the temperature around them shot up dramatically, as the corrupted dragon breathed its tainted flames on them.
Asala's barrier held beneath the fire, but just barely. Cracks formed in it, allowing some of the flames and heat to seep in, and she could feel them licking at her exposed arms and back. She hissed in pain, but concentrated on the barrier until the dragon passed, where she finally released the spell. The exhaustion hit her all at once and she found herself now leaning heavily on Khari.
"Everyone okay?" she asked the two of them.
Khari groaned softly; she'd accumulated quite the litany of injury over the course of the fight, and however necessary the duck-and-cover had been, it probably hadn't helped. Still, she was remarkably steady under Asala's weight. “Everyone's probably a stretch." She was looking out at the rest of the field as she said it, and it didn't take Asala long to figure out why.
The ranks had been devastated, in no small part by the dragon but also just by the fierceness of the Venatori, surviving Red Templars, and the possessed Wardens. The line was broken and scattered on all sides, but among the corpses the Inquisition's russet and gold was much more common than the enemies' red and black. The smell of burnt flesh hit them like a wall, many of the corpses still aflame. No doubt the blow had been almost as heavy to morale as it was to their bodies: Corypheus instantaneous resurrection and the overwhelming strength of the forces at his disposal... very few of them had gone in expecting anything like this.
To make matters seemingly worse, the Venatori man with the pearl-white mask—Marcus, if what the others had told her was right—had broken away from the main battle entirely, and was now striding swiftly over the bridge. Amalia and Lia appeared to have taken notice, and were now giving chase, but they had to fight much harder to free themselves from the soldiers surrounding them, and he had a considerable head start.
Corypheus's forces entering the temple was exactly what this whole battle was meant to prevent, but in the condition their army was in, it seemed unlikely that they had much of a chance at this point.
"Fall back!" Even Leon's bellowing sounded rougher and more strained than usual. No doubt it was a difficult call to make, but it was also clearly the only option left, unless they wanted to break their entire force on Corypheus's army. It meant all but abandoning those inside the temple to their fates, hoping that they would be able to save themselves and find their own way back to the rest.
Romulus wasted no time in getting back to his feet, his eyes locked on the still-reviving Corypheus. Whatever desire he had to fight him again he clearly snuffed out, as he helped carve a path to the flanks rather than to the enemy.
"Come on, Asala!" he called back to her. "There's nothing more we can do!"
"But..." she muttered as she tossed her gaze to the temple behind them. They'd be leaving the others behind, but a glance around revealed that Romulus was right. There was nothing else they could do. She winced and shook her head, but relented. In a futile effort to feel like she was doing something, anything she lit a spell in her hand and pressed it into Khari's chest, allowing the spirit healing to do what it could for her friend.
She'd have to trust Estella and the others to find a way out on their own.
She inhaled deeply, and then exhaled quickly, stepping forward closer to the others and the battle with Corypheus.
Though Khari was hardly the type to let her injuries slow her down, she was accumulating an awful lot of them, mostly because she insisted on repeatedly engaging with Corypheus, returning to the fracas every time she was wounded or knocked away or he simply evaded her. One of her pauldrons had been blasted away by a concussive spell, and she was bleeding from the shoulder underneath, ribbons of it running down her chestplate. More of it coated her sword, at least some the brackish, too-dark color belonging to the darkspawn magister. She'd scored a light hit on one side of his ribcage, tearing his robes and flaying open the skin to the bone, not that it much mattered. Corypheus seemed to move and live outside of the normal laws about things like anatomy and pain, as if he were more sustained by magic than anything. Most likely that was true, though it was no magic Asala was familiar with.
The elf charged again, barely avoiding getting her legs taken out from underneath her by a well-aimed burst of frost. It did catch on one of her feet, though, and she let out a frustrated growl, stymied just long enough for Corypheus to move backwards, flinging another blast from both hands.
Leon stepped in to cover her, which for him meant taking up the charge in her stead. He was not so easily stopped, and though the brunt of the magic hit him, he stumbled backwards instead of being thrown away in quite the same manner as Khari had been previously. When he recovered, he took several more long strides, winding back to strike at Corypheus.
The darkspawn shifted back, narrowly escaping a grab as Leon adjusted. But more wardens moved in to defend him, and Leon set to work dismantling the line instead.
Not too far to the left, Marcus too was keeping several of the Inquisition's best at bay, primarily fighting from range and striking opportunistically: hobbling a soldier here, firing a spell into someone's exposed back there. He seemed almost lazy in his motions, like he wasn't especially interested by any of the goings-on, though from Asala's vantage she could tell that he was doing a very good job of preventing Amalia and Lia from reaching him. But the way he did it... it was almost like he thought of the whole battle as a game. One that, for now at least, wasn't even that important to him.
Lia's arrows were the only thing occasionally able to reach him, but the lack of effort required on Marcus's part to defend himself from those was minimal while he was undistracted, and it was serving only to frustrate Lia.
"Asala," Romulus was out of breath at her side, retreated momentarily from the fighting. "I have an idea. You see that statue?" He pointed to one at the entrance to the bridge, at least twenty feet of solid stone in the shape of a spear and shield wielding guard, worn down over time but still standing firmly. "If we can get him over there, you think you can bring that down on top of him?"
Asala followed Rom's indication and ran the scenario through her head quickly. Suddenly nodding she looked back at him. "I can, but be careful," she stated. She would have to weaken the legs first, but her barriers could shove it over once they were. With that, she slowly began to back away from the fight, but kept her eye on it just in case.
"No promises." He took off again, shooting down a Venatori soldier with his crossbow on his way over to Khari. He placed a hand on her shoulder, momentarily keeping her from the fight while he leaned in close to speak, likely telling her where they needed to attempt to force Corypheus's positioning. Once he was finished he separated from her, carving his way towards the mouth of the bridge. The fighting was becoming scrambled, allowing a few of the Venatori to slip through, but Corypheus was receiving far too much attention to escape from the fight.
The very same scramble, though, let Khari push her way past the Venatori line without stopping to fight every single person in her way, and then she was making a beeline for Corypheus again. She took a different approach this time, though, evading the spells thrown at her even when they cost her time. Rather than desperately trying to get a good hit in before she was thrown away, she seemed to focus on not losing ground, and sure enough, Corypheus kept space between them, allowing Khari to slowly herd him towards the bridge in fits and starts.
At one point, she was nearly smothered by another large fireball, but managed to drop to the ground just before it cooked her in her armor. The scorch marks along the back of her armor and helmet were obvious, and it couldn't be comfortable wearing it, but still she regained her feet, pressing forward with the same dogged ferocity as before, feinting for the darkspawn in a very convincing manner that kept him backing up.
Romulus was able to get the flank on him this time, Corypheus leaving his back wide open for the dagger that plunged into it. His marked hand lit up and reached higher, mere inches from the darkspawn's corrupted flesh when he was suddenly thrown back across the grounds. Corypheus lashed out with ice magic, spikes of it sprouting from the ground and stabbing out and up at Khari. It was wide enough to skewer some Inquisition regulars and even Venatori as well, so at the very least it would take Khari time to work around it.
"Pathetic," Corypheus said, his tone little more than a murmur but somehow carrying across the chaotic battlefield. The mark on Romulus's hand was crackling aggressively and causing him significant pain. The source became clear soon enough, as the Elder One carried that orb in his hand, using its power to dominate Romulus and keep him downed through his mark. He stalked towards him with quick, purposeful steps, but they carried him right beneath the shadow of the statue.
A pink barrier ignited under the statue, expanding outwardly until it crashed against its spread legs hard enough to send spiderweb cracks through its ankles and calves. Just as quick, Asala killed that barrier and summoned another, this higher and one across the stone's back. She winced and grunted as she pushed it with her all. The cracks along the things legs protested and widened until finall they just snapped. Even so, she did not let the barrier go, and guided it down onto the Magister, using her shield to give it even more force.
The statue fell spear first onto Corypheus, the stone weapon being the first to strike the darkspawn. The loud crack of stone breaking had garnered his attention, but it was already too late as the spear pierced his shoulder on its path to the ground. It carried the magister with it, and pinned him to the dirt beneath it and the shield it wielded. As a precaution, Asala gave one last push on the statue, causing the spear to dig deeper in both Corypheus's shoulder and the ground beneath.
Even with the extra push, Corypheus was incredibly strong, and it was a matter of seconds before he was extricating himself, the statue splitting with a series of heavy, resounding cracks before it all but blew apart, chunks falling away and allowing the darkspawn to regain his feet.
But the seconds presented an opportunity, and Leon was close enough to capitalize, leaping over a fragment of the stone and landing solidly right in front of Corypheus. Before the former magister could separate them with more magic, Leon's hand lashed out and up, closing around his throat, and a punch landed hard on his cheek, Leon's metal gauntlet flaking off one of the red lyrium protrusions on Corypheus's face. The darkspawn's hands immediately seized Leon's shoulders, fire hissing at his fingers, and he curled them into the Commander's armor, warping and twisting the metal. Leon managed to land a second hit, crunching in what would have been the darkspawn's nose if he really had one anymore, the side of one thumb finding an eye socket and pressing, the sucking squelch faintly audible even from Asala's distance.
But then Corypheus's fingers melted the rest of the way through Leon's armor and into his skin with a sizzle. His grip loosened, and with a massive shove and a telekinetic burst, the Commander was hurled away, landing right in the middle of a knot of Venatori and Wardens. Corypheus, blackish fluid oozing from his mangled eye socket, drew himself at last back up to his full height, face twisted in rage.
He wasn't the only one angry, though. With an audible shout, Khari lunged for him, narrowly missing to the left when he leaped out of the way. Clearly frustrated with being thwarted in such a way, though, she pursued. It was clear that she'd begun to learn his movement patterns, because each attempt to evade was less successful, until she finally got him, catching his already-injured shoulder in a downward stroke that dragged the tip of her sword over corrupted flesh. Only the red lyrium stopped it from going much further; the sword caught and skittered over a ridge beneath his tattered robe.
But Khari had done what she needed to. The blade had sliced into one of his tendons, and even if he couldn't feel pain, Corypheus could be surprised by the inability to move his arm, and it clearly stymied him now, giving her a short window in which she feared no magic.
It was plenty. She reset her feet and drove forward with a snarl, plunging her sword into Corypheus's belly and driving upwards with monumental effort. The sword erupted from his back, streaked in dark ichor that caught the light of the sun. When she wrenched the blade back out, what was left of Corypheus's rotted intestines came partway out, too, more fluid spattering to the stone beneath them.
He collapsed sideways into a puddle of his own blood, the vacant stare from his eyes evidence that he was certainly dead. It lasted only a moment before his body seemed to rapidly decompose into that black ichor, bubbling and hissing and causing Romulus to back away a step, the smell obviously unpleasant.
Many of the Inquisition soldiers around them roared a victorious cheer at their greatest enemy's death, but curiously the Venatori fought on like nothing had occurred, taking a few by surprise. It became clear that something was amiss a few seconds later, when nothing remained of Corypheus save for that black liquid seeping into the ancient stones.
One of the corrupted Wardens dropped to his knees and unleashed an unearthly howl, his sword and shield falling to the ground. It sounded not unlike a mage forcibly being possessed by a demon, and the awful transformation that occurred immediately after, but this Warden had shown no signs of having any magic previously. He seemed to darken from within, veins pumping black blood through him, until his skin as well turned black, and then he began to shift shapes. Fingers elongated, limbs as well, until it became clear that he was taking on a very familiar form, one that they'd only just dispatched. Venatori fought viciously to establish a defensive circle around Corypheus until he could return, if that was indeed what he was doing.
Asala's shoulders slumped in despair as Corypheus began to reform himself once again. How could they defeat an enemy that could come back like that? She shook her head at the thought and steeled herself, forcing herself to square her shoulders. They'd find a way, they had to. They always did figure something out in the end. She inhaled deeply one more time, and summoned the spells to her hands, preparing herself for the second go.
A screech in the distance paused her for a moment, and she swung around to catch a glimpse of the corrupted dragon coming back around. A pang of fury shot through her head before she calmed herself and looked back toward the battlefield. Leon was still lost in the grouping of Venatori and Warden fighters, and she hissed a bit in frustration. The dragon was bearing down on them, and she did not have the time to go find him. Instead, she did what she could and moved forward quickly, grabbing Romulus's arm as she closed the distance between them and Khari.
"Get down!" she ordered both of them, throwing an arm over Khari's shoulder and falling to a knee to present an even smaller target. The massive wing beats were upon them by the time Asala threw up a tight pink dome around them. With the smaller size, she hoped she'd be able to feed it enough magic to weather the storm that was surely coming. Moments after the barrier formed, the temperature around them shot up dramatically, as the corrupted dragon breathed its tainted flames on them.
Asala's barrier held beneath the fire, but just barely. Cracks formed in it, allowing some of the flames and heat to seep in, and she could feel them licking at her exposed arms and back. She hissed in pain, but concentrated on the barrier until the dragon passed, where she finally released the spell. The exhaustion hit her all at once and she found herself now leaning heavily on Khari.
"Everyone okay?" she asked the two of them.
Khari groaned softly; she'd accumulated quite the litany of injury over the course of the fight, and however necessary the duck-and-cover had been, it probably hadn't helped. Still, she was remarkably steady under Asala's weight. “Everyone's probably a stretch." She was looking out at the rest of the field as she said it, and it didn't take Asala long to figure out why.
The ranks had been devastated, in no small part by the dragon but also just by the fierceness of the Venatori, surviving Red Templars, and the possessed Wardens. The line was broken and scattered on all sides, but among the corpses the Inquisition's russet and gold was much more common than the enemies' red and black. The smell of burnt flesh hit them like a wall, many of the corpses still aflame. No doubt the blow had been almost as heavy to morale as it was to their bodies: Corypheus instantaneous resurrection and the overwhelming strength of the forces at his disposal... very few of them had gone in expecting anything like this.
To make matters seemingly worse, the Venatori man with the pearl-white mask—Marcus, if what the others had told her was right—had broken away from the main battle entirely, and was now striding swiftly over the bridge. Amalia and Lia appeared to have taken notice, and were now giving chase, but they had to fight much harder to free themselves from the soldiers surrounding them, and he had a considerable head start.
Corypheus's forces entering the temple was exactly what this whole battle was meant to prevent, but in the condition their army was in, it seemed unlikely that they had much of a chance at this point.
"Fall back!" Even Leon's bellowing sounded rougher and more strained than usual. No doubt it was a difficult call to make, but it was also clearly the only option left, unless they wanted to break their entire force on Corypheus's army. It meant all but abandoning those inside the temple to their fates, hoping that they would be able to save themselves and find their own way back to the rest.
Romulus wasted no time in getting back to his feet, his eyes locked on the still-reviving Corypheus. Whatever desire he had to fight him again he clearly snuffed out, as he helped carve a path to the flanks rather than to the enemy.
"Come on, Asala!" he called back to her. "There's nothing more we can do!"
"But..." she muttered as she tossed her gaze to the temple behind them. They'd be leaving the others behind, but a glance around revealed that Romulus was right. There was nothing else they could do. She winced and shook her head, but relented. In a futile effort to feel like she was doing something, anything she lit a spell in her hand and pressed it into Khari's chest, allowing the spirit healing to do what it could for her friend.
She'd have to trust Estella and the others to find a way out on their own.