25 Arodus 4718 (Starday) cont.
It was quickly apparent that Dagio could communicate with the other rats, as they began swarming towards us at his command. He finished his spellcasting, and an arrow of acid shot from his paw, slamming into Verity. She hissed in pain, drawing her blade in preparation for the coming swarm.
Dagio was still yelling about circles and how we could never understand the way they rotated around one another and controlled the very universe as Oliver ran forward, cupping his hands and blasting a cone of fire at the rats. The air filled with the smell of burning fur and flesh.
I was able to tell that Dagio was a dire rat, though of course the experiments performed by Senator Glendour had obviously altered him somehow. As I moved forward into the senate chamber I began to sing, fueling my words with the righteous wrath of Ragathiel. I could tell Verity let herself be filled with divine rage as she continued to fight the swarm of rats as they surged over her and Oliver.
Dagio took to the rafters above us, still screaming about circles. Cornelius circled wide, and hit the dire rat with a magic missile spell. Dagio returned the favor, and Cornelius let out a shriek of pain. It occurred to me then that out of all of us, he had the least amount of combat training, and was most likely unaccustomed to being injured at all. Felyx shot a bolt from Dignity’s Bard, hitting one of the beams rather than Dagio, before rushing towards Verity. The acid from Dagio’s spell was still eating through her skin.
I attempted to use my own magic to hit the rats, but they evaded the crystal shards from the spell. Oliver began chopping away at the rats swarming over Verity, and managed to disperse them, the survivors scurrying away as Dagio called them traitors. The remaining mass of rats began to surge towards me, and I swung my bastard sword, sending a great many of them flying. The remaining rats decided the first group had the right idea, and began to scatter.
I mostly tuned out Dagio’s ranting, focusing on my song, but I did hear Felyx shout that he had just described a venn diagram and Oliver making a joke about school. A second later, Dagio cast a spell and vanished. I stopped my song, and quickly ran back and closed the door to the Senate of Circles. Guy raised an eyebrow at me, and I offered him a small wave before shutting the door.
When I re-entered the room Oliver had grabbed a hold of a tapestry and was trying to climb it to get up into the rafters. Felyx was at Cornelius’ side, healing him. Suddenly, an arrow of acid flew from the rafters above, slamming into Cornelius. Dagio resumed his ranting now that he was visible again. Oliver, Verity and I all began to climb the various tapestries hanging from the walls. They both managed to make it to the rafters, but I fell, landing rather hard on my rear. My armor made it quite difficult to climb.
As the acid continued to eat at Cornelius, he fell to the ground. I could hear Oliver and Verity above me, trying to balance on the beams. There were several loud thuds as they lost their footing, but luckily they were able to catch themselves and didn’t come crashing down to the floor. I can’t imagine this was easy for Oliver. We were all well aware of his fear of heights, but now we could all be assured of his bravery.
I yelled at Felyx that I would tend to Cornelius as she turned towards him. She had a chance of hitting Dagio with Dignity’s Barb, while I had no way of attacking from the ground.
The “staff” that Dagio had was in fact a wand of shocking grasp, and he hit Oliver with it. I cringed, remembering Oliver’s reaction to the electricity spell trap from earlier. Something about electricity obviously bothered him, so now he had another fear to confront while battling in the rafters.
I reached Cornelius, using the magic granted to me by Ragathiel to heal him. From above, I could hear movement and yelling. Cornelius cast an acid splash as I helped him to his feet. I could hear Verity shriek as Dagio used the wand on her, causing her to fall to the beam again.
With nothing else to do, I tried to climb up a tapestry, falling again. I gritted my teeth, my anger beginning to swell in my chest. As I tried to get to my feet, I heard the thunk of a blade meeting flesh, and as I looked up, I saw Oliver standing, Oak Heart in hand, over a now fallen Dagio.