Lescar

"Left! now right! hit it in the eyes! dodge! DODGE!"

Lescar ducked under a razor blade then hopped a foot into the air, avoiding a second blade as it whistled past her.

"You know Taldur", Lescar grunted narrowly avoiding a third attack from a blade snake, "Your back seat steering isn't helping me much."

"Isn't it?" the large insect asked curiously with a hint of questioning.

His feathery feelers tickling her neck as he shifted inside her hood, Taldur looked on from behind Lescar's locks of hair.

"I can spot all the attacks coming before you can with my wider vision, isn't that helping?" the insect said inquisitively, his antennae poking out from the relative safety of Lescar's hood.

Lescar blocked then deflected another blade snake with her shimmering sword, sending it tumbling off to the side before she stabbed at the thin strands above the animated soft toy, severing them and causing the struck down snake to drop lifeless back to the ground.

She had already found the best way to dispose of the sewed together creatures, attacking anything other than the strings was mostly a waste of effort and only gave the fully animate toys a more demented and lopsided look.

Swinging her sword in a large arc, Lescar stepped forward slicing through a few more strings, rendering the connected puppets inert as she cleared herself some room.

Having a moment to breathe, most of the puppets in her immediate vicinity disposed of, Lescar, panting and gasping straightened up before wiping off the condensing moisture on her brow, answering Taldur in a tired voice.

"No, it isn't helping it's just distracting me, I can barely keep up with the puppets and listen at the same time." Lescar said honestly, her attention still focused on the milling puppets just beyond the reach of her sword, the puppets were moving to encircle her again.

"Is that so?" the cockroach said, pausing in consideration his feelers once constantly mobile, now still and calm.

"Then I will change things up," the invertebrate stated simply, "you handle the enemies in front, including getting to that freak of a clown, and I will handle the ones at your back, ok?"

Lescar, her eyes narrowed at the puppets surrounding them nodded, the monster clown even while approaching them at a leisurely pace, was still some distance away and surrounded by a growing number of puppets that kept billowing forth, these new arrivals dropping in from the unseen ceiling.

Lescar clenched the handle of her brother's old sword, she had to reach the clown if this was to end, it seemed the clown had an unlimited number of puppets at his disposal and if she didn't take him down soon they would be swamped and torn to shreds by the numerous puppets as Lescar tired.

"Ok," Lescar said leaning into a sprinters crouch, her sword held like a dagger in her left hand, this was a massive gauntlet she was going to have to run, and if she was to have a chance at winning she needed to be fast, the puppet swarm was only growing thicker.

"Alright, partner," the insect said in an almost proud voice, "get the clown, I will guard our flanks."

Without further words, the cockroach crawled back down into Lescar's shirt, this time crawling down her back, his thin legs pricking her skin.

Lescar didn't flinch, whatever Taldur was planning on doing she was sure it would be-

"Aiiii!" Lescar yelped as pain blossomed on her back.

The pain did quickly subside though and Lescar came back to herself immediately, having almost staggered and fallen from the brief flash of pain.

Touching her empty hand to her waist Lescar found Taldurs legs wrapped firmly around her midriff all six of them, the last pair just below her breasts, while his jaws were clamped onto the base of her neck like a choker.

Not sure what to make of this Lescar didn't hesitate to ask.

"What the hell?! that hurt Taldur!"

"Shhh," the cockroach hushed in a strangely muted voice, "just get the clown Lescar, you do your part I'll do mine."

Lescar caught herself before she could spit out a reply, cooling her own anger she focused her gaze on her target, the clown.

Taldur was right, all she had to do was take out the clown.

Not that it would be easy.

Gritting her teeth Lescar sank back into a runner's stance and without any further hesitation pushed off, sprinting forward.

Seeing her sprint forward, the puppets began their own mad rush, flopping, slithering and flapping towards her from all sides, roaring and screeching all the while as they reached out with spiked appendages, rasping mouths, and deadly fangs.

A gaggle of blade winged sockpuppets dived at Lescar as she ran, aiming to tear the flesh from her bones.

Lescar had no intention of being flayed, and instead, dropped to her knees sliding under the murderous flying socks, slashing at the right wings of the puppets as she passed under them, not stopping to see as the socks crashed to the ground.

Lescar smiled to herself at the successful move but kept running once more, more puppets in her way as she ran.

Seeing some larger puppet snakes obstructing her way, puppets that were about the size of dogs, Lescar braced herself and rammed the snakes with a shoulder, aiming to bowl them over and leap over them.

Crunch!

Lescar slammed into the two large snakes avoiding the sharp metal spines sticking out of them and knocking one prone in the process.

"Crap!"

She had meant to knock them both over.

Swearing to herself, Lescar slashed at the cords holding the first snake up before leaping at the second, her blade extended before the snake twisted and pushed her off course with its large embedded blades, its cloth hide still getting torn as Lescars blade was redirected.

Glaring at her cottony opponent, Lescar attacked again only to meet another defensive move that pushed her away, this time the snake almost managing to stab her as it twisted but still receiving another tear in its cloth body for its efforts.

Lescar hopped back a step then stopped with a growl, this snake was clearly trying to prevent her from getting any further, wasting her time with its ramshackle defense.

It was in her way and she couldn't afford to slow down...

Glancing behind her Lescar cursed again, the hordes were almost upon her once more.

Lescar felt the ground shake as the large number of puppets that had been behind her when she first started running caught up to her, there was no way she could fight on two fronts at the same time.

Nor did she have too.

As the leading sock puppet reached out, its razor claws extended seeking the tender flesh of Lescar's back, it instead found hard unyielding chitin.

Bouncing off confused, the puppet only had a moment of pause before it was snatched out of the air by a long plated tail and crushed between two pincer-like spines, its cords being severed in the process.

Taldur, his head sticking out of the top of Lescar's collar, fiercely eyed any creature that approached, his extremely long extended tail sticking out of the bottom of Lescar's shirt, making it appear as if Lescar was part insect as the long tail struck and defended at a moments notice, batting away the puppets and tearing them asunder if they got to close.

As he had promised Taldur had Lescar's back, if in a very literal way.

Regaining her calm focus Lescar dashed forward, this time drawing from some of the reserves of energy she stored from Taldur's earlier outburst.

She had learned to do this much with the chaotic energy Taldur put out at least.

Her eyes gaining a slight glow as she drew upon the exotic energy, Lescar felt a rush of strength surge through her and with it the climbing tendrils of madness.

This time Lescar ignored the laughter and promises of grandeur the madness offered and instead focused the energies into her arms and torso.

On this occasion, as the snake looked to divert Lescar again, she instead slapped it with the flat side of her blade as if she was swinging a bat and aiming for a home run.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

The blade collided with the snake in a dull thump before after a moment of resistance the snake was blown away, sent flying by the incredible force of Lescars swing.

Not pausing for even a second, Lescar began running again, a long plated tail flicking out behind her, decapitating tearing and rendering puppets with every lash if they dared to approach.

Slashing and bashing anything in her way, Lescar hacked her way towards her goal, the potent power fueling her frenzy as she carved her way towards her foe, not even half used up.

She was getting close now, the clown wasn't too far away, a huge grin on his featureless face, the clown seemed not at all bothered that she was getting closer, in fact his smile seemed to only be getting bigger.

Calling out to her as if they were neighbors, the puppet master casually remarked as Lescar rent another snake in half and crushed a sock puppet under her heel.

"Letting loose deary? that is indeed very relaxed of you but I think you may have gone a little too far with it"

The clown pointed at Lescar's tail failing to notice it wasn't even her's before the clown chuckled and slapped its long bony knee.

"Normally you like to keep your little secret hidden from others, don't you child of terra? can't have the 'good people' know the truth huh," the jester rolled his head from side to side, yellow teeth gleaming as he manically chattered away.

"But here away from prying eyes there is no reason to hold back hee! hee!" the clown giggled before drawing one long finger across its jaw and leaning back as if repulsed in an exaggerated fashion, " Now I see your true and disgusting nature, how vile," the clown monstrosity drawled, clearly enjoying itself.

Lescar didn't bother responding to the clown's provocations, fully intent on cutting a path forward, she hacked a step closer with every second, score's of puppets falling about her feet as she and Taldur tore through the cloth horde, the clown's words and strange names meaning little to her.

Lescar had barely registered the clown's statement, but it seemed the clown was making some very generous assumptions, assumptions that were probably false unless Taldur had left something out when he had filled her in on some the more important parts of his plans.

A metal spike rushed towards Lescar's face from the side but was blocked by a hard segmented tail, jarring Lescar out of her brief pause.

Thoughts like that could wait till later, right now she had a fight to win.

KIcking another snake to the side Lescar kept dashing ahead, sword swinging back and forth as needed, dismembering quilted foes with every blow.

She had to reach the glib bastard and gut him before anything else could matter.

Not caring that Lescar hadn't answered, the clown kept talking, walking back in forth in a nonchalant stride as he dragged out the one-sided conversation, not at all bothered by his minions being destroyed at a rapid rate.

"Heh hee! hee!" the freakish jester said in a delighted tone. "considering I was right that you bear the taint of that foul tyrant... blah blah blah blah blah..."

Lescar blocked out the clown's words, she had to focus and had no time for the freaky jester's spiel.

So it was a surprise to Lescar when the clown stopped and reached up behind himself to pull out what looked like a cage full of lumps of meat from thin air.

Lescar didn't slow her pace but did feel her attention drawn to this cage, it reeked of death and had an ominous aura about it.

Lescar felt a sense of revulsion rise in her chest at the sight as she realized what the lumps of meat really were.

They were hearts, still beating hearts that pulsed gently in the cage, misery, and torment seeming to ooze off the sad lumps of flesh.

Lescar redoubled her speed, muscles straining as she did so, whatever the clown wanted to do with that cage Lescar planned to reach him first before he could use it.

Sidestepping a lunging attack from a particularly ambitious sock puppet, Lescar continued to run, she was almost there, the clown was almost within blades reach, the big grinning monster only being a few meters away.

'Just a couple more steps!' she thought but came screeching to a stop as two significantly larger cloth beasts blocked her way.

The first was the great plush serpent beast that had featured in the clown's wayward performance and the second was the biggest winged sockpuppet ever (though more of a sock dragon now), the same one that had incinerated a bunch of the milkmen earlier with purple flames.

Both were massive compared to earlier, towering over Lescar by a large margin, they were covered in rotating metal spines and purple flames still leaked out from between the sock dragons cotton maw.

She wasn't sure she could get past these two.

Lescar hesitated as the two plush behemoths thumped towards her, could she really beat these things?

"Just go for it little girl," A cockroach suddenly called out in a lightly muffled but loud voice, "remember I'll cover for you, just. Get. That. Dammed. Clown!"

Lescar clenched her sword tightly scolding herself for hesitating then leaped forward, her jump empowered by the potent spiritual brew still circulating through her veins.

Soaring through the air only briefly, Lescar crashed into great serpent feet first, nimbly catching herself and sprinting down the serpents back, enraged at this maneuver, the great snake writhed almost throwing Lescar off and giving her shallow wounds as a couple of the spinning blades caught on her clothes, the rest being blocked and interrupted by Taldurs defending tail.

Hissing in pain Lescar jumped from her perch just as the second plush monster, the sock dragon, released a raging torrent of violet flames at her, instead, showering the plush serpent and setting it ablaze as Lescar dived forward from the snakes back.

Roaring and thrashing as it began to burn, the giant snake set a whole host of other puppets on fire, they too beginning to crumble to ash as the cloth creatures panicked and ran about wildly, only spreading the blaze.

This had worked out better than she'd thought it would for Lescar, but she didn't have any time to celebrate this good fortune, as the seemingly immune to its own flames sock dragon, slammed a stubby foot down at her.

Lescar didn't have time to avoid the attack and could only angle her sword up as the foot came down in a hopeful gesture of defiance.

The huge woolen foot came down hard and hit just shy of where Lescar was standing a certain invertebrates tail having again redirected another deadly blow, obvious signs of damage to Taldurs tail being plain for Lescar to see as it sat extended before her for the first time.

Large cracks and tears were visible up and down the length of the insect's tail, sizeable amounts of the yellow fluid Lescar knew was akin to Taldurs blood, oozing out from between the cracks.

'How much punishment had the bug been taking for her?' Lescar's brain asked stunned as she stared wide-eyed at the damage.

She was only stunned for an instant however when a well-known voice spurred her on.

"What are you doing?!" The bug riding her back said incredulously, "Keep going!"

Snapping out of it, Lescar blinked then pivoted to the side blade extended, sheering through the sock dragons soft felt ankles before sprinting forward again, the enormous sock dragon falling onto its side, as its leg could no longer sustain its great weight.

Only a few small sock puppets and a couple plush snakes remained in her way and they would be no problem.

Batting aside the creatures as if they were nuisances Lescar sped up, her feet moving at blur as she channeled more power through them, slamming through the remaining puppets like a battering ram through paper.

The clown seeing Lescar right at his person only smiled wider and opened his arms wide as if he wanted a hug, the baleful cage of trapped hearts still dangling from his claws.

"Come! why not settle things peacefully," the clown said with a huge yellow-toothed sneer as Lescar blazed towards him, "child of terra, servant of light, let's hug it out."

Even while smiling with his widest smile yet, the clown did not laugh, the cage still moving as if a breeze was shifting it.

Lescar wasn't fooled for a second by the clown's lackluster offer and sprang off the floor at her ridiculously tall opponent aiming for his neck, her blade pointed forward thirsting for blood.

"This is for Roulette! YOU BASTARD!"

The plain cobble floor cracked and shattered as Lescar used up all the energy concentrated in her legs and body at once, flying as fast as an arrow at the still grinning Jester.

The jester didn't flinch and smoothly, almost in slow motion to Lescar's eyes, moved the cage in front of Lescar's trajectory, the small cage door to the sickening bone craft open and... searching?! a thick scintillating vapor rising from the opening.

A sudden instinctual dread rose in Lescar's heart as she sped on, she didn't like what she was seeing or feeling, it felt like death awaited her if she was to get to close to that opening or the tendrils of what looked like black fire licking at the mouth of the cage.

Trying to flip or twist out of the way, Lescar zoomed towards the cage without a means of redirecting herself, the clown's yellow teeth and featureless face seeming to take up the entirety of her vision.

'No!' Lescar desperately struggled to shift her trajectory but was still on course to collide with the mouth of the cage, and a mouth it did now resemble, jagged yellow chompers very similar to the clowns own manifesting in the cages opening, it was going to swallow her whole.

"Not on my watch!"

A segmented tail shot out faster then she thought possible and latched onto the cage bars away from the mouth of the cage before pulling hard and slinging Lescar up away from the cage, right above of the reeling clowns face, a distinct downturn now on the clown's otherwise featureless profile.

The cage being torn from the Jesters hands and shattering into a hundred pieces on the floor, the clown began to scramble backward, sputtering out an obviously flustered and angry sentence.

You were supposed to go in the cage! you br-"

The clown never got to finish his full sentence as Taldur bellowed.

"Hit him now Lescar!"

With his words, Taldur sent Lescar a new stream of condensed energies, more than she could safely handle that burned through her like a raging storm, It was so concentrated that Lescar could hear the madness of her own crazed laughter again.

Haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaaa haaa haaa haaa haah haa...

Unable to help herself Lescar let out a giggle then narrowed her eyes and plummeted towards the clown, keeping her mind entirely focused on her goal, Taldurs tail reaching out beside her as she fell.

'Kill the clown.'

Lescar descended, her irises glowing a burning yellow, her sword pulled back for the first and final blow.

Drawing in every last bit of power Taldur sent her till she couldn't take anymore, her body already screaming in protest as the foreign forces ravaged her body, Lescar poured it all into reinforcing and boosting her movements.

Muscles overextended and tore, ligaments stretched and ripped, and bones strained and began to crack as Lescar put everything she had into this one movement, the excess power starting to overwhelm her senses.

It would be the telling blow, the single strike that would determine their fate.

Taldur's grasping tail extended before Lescar like a grapple hook, gripping onto the fleeing clown and dragging Lescar towards the clowns exposed black neck as they fell through the empty air.

Her target was firmly in sight.

His tail pulling hard, Taldur flung them at the clowns fleeing body, Lescar was ready.

Unleashing all of the wound-up strength in her still protesting body, Lescar swung, still falling as she did so.

Air displaced and whirlwinds sprang into existence from the pure force of Lescar's strike, her blade Glowing and wavering the whole while.

"RAAAAAHHHHHHHRRRRHRRHRHHHGGGGG!!!!"

Lescar roared, shouting her throat horse as her blade connected with the clown's neck then cleaved through, decapitating the clown in one clean prolonged strike.

"You Brat..." Lescar heard the clown's head say before it fell to the floor with a thunk, Lescar landing beside it in a heavy crouch.

All the puppets still standing at that point crumpled to the floor as lifeless as they had always been, their commander and life source vanquished.

The clowns decapitated head lay on the ground next to her, its spiked mouth open and the purple tongue inside lolling out, still twitching slightly.

She had killed the clown, but Lescar's eyes were not on her vanquished foes remains, but instead the floor as Lescar huffed and heaved on the spot, her eyes wide and unseeing.

Lescar didn't move at all for a few seconds as the enormous strain that she had just placed on her body hit her all at once, the pain was intense.

"Sssssssssssshit!" Lescar gasped clutching her sides, her internal organs felt like they had liquefied and her muscles felt like wet singed noodles clinging onto a skeleton made of soggy paper.

It was really, really sore and Lescar still had other issues plaguing her, a cacophony of rampant screeches ringing in her head.

WORDSSSS ATSSS LASSST!!! WE'SSSS ARE FREEE!!!

Tasssstess it... tassste the blood... jusssst a little bit, itssss couldn'ts hurt...

killss! killsss! killss! killss everything! and'ss eatss it!

Let'ss ussss in, let'ss ussss tassste's it!

More! More! Find'sss more!

Breathing hard and panting Lescar wrestled with the manic laughter that was still bothering her even after she used up all the power from before, and finally managed to push the feeling of insanity down much to the many voices displeasure.

Don'tsss ignore the feeling'sss!

Heritage being... denied?

Foolissssh! Sssstupid! Weak!

YOU CANT'SSS REJECT YOUR-.

Cut of midway Lescar shoved the hissing and spitting madness back down where it belonged, locked away in the pits of her soul.

Almost immediately after which, something appeared in front of Lescar's vision.

[Level up]

Lescar lifted an arm up tiredly and brushed the words out of her view, she knew what they meant now, Taldur had told her earlier back in the sewers that it would appear every time she got stronger from his system thing.

She still didn't quite get it, but she did feel just a little bit less tired after leveling up, or maybe she was just overthinking things.

Feeling calmer now but still breathing hard, Lescar looked up and tried to stand but grimaced and decided against it as her body protested, it ached all over, she might even have a few fractured bones somewhere.

Lescar sat crouched for a few moments still dealing with the aftershock of using so much power in one go before she came to herself.

'Had she just won? against that?'

Lescar looked at the prone corpse and head of the clown, the deep red almost black ichor bubbling from the severed neck forming a bubble that burst and sprayed Lescar's face with a sticky foul-smelling liquid.

Wrinkling her nose but falling on her backside with a relieved sigh, Lescar laughed, not from a crazed bloodlust but rather from pure nervous anxiety, the after tremors of battle and adrenaline still running through her, making her jittery.

"That, that was hard," Lescar gasped still trying to catch her breath after the extreme struggle she had just pushed through.

"Mmm indeed you pulled that off magnificently," Taldur agreed a beat after her, as he detached himself from Lescar's back and clambered back up to her shoulders, eyeing the clown's corpse with interest.

"Even so," the bug managed as he cocked his head as if listening, "I don't think we should tarry here, I still feel... something."

"Like what!" Lescar said exasperatedly with tired accents as she scrambled back to her aching feet, beginning to survey the field of stringless puppets and ashes that remained from the battle.

"Something... big," the insect muttered as he concentrated, feathery antennae aquiver.

Silent but shuddering, Lescar felt the bug come to a halt on her arm before his antennae stood straight as if electrified.

"We need to go right now," the cockroach said with an urgent voice as he scuttled back into Lescars hood hurriedly.

"But what is it?!" Lescar queried nervously squeezing the hilt of her sword as she tried to get into a decent battle stance.

"Something we definitely shouldn't meet," Taldur said with a serious voice before he turned around and snapped at Lescar, "we need an exit, a door! quickly find one!"

Despite her worn-out state Lescar jumped to do as Taldur said, anything that scared Taldur was not something that Lescar wanted to meet in person.

But there was a problem with that last order...

There were no doors or obvious exits anywhere in sight, just more inky reaches in all directions, with the only lights being those that lit up the recently created battlefield.

"Um we have a problem I think," Lescar said as she studied her surroundings carefully, "there are no doors here Taldur."

"Urrrrgh!" Lescar heard the devil bug grunt, twitching and clicking steadily from the depths of her hood.

"Well," Taldur said in a strained voice, "just pick a direction and run, we don't have much time."

Lescar exhaled, that wasn't much of a plan but she had no better ones either.

Staggering forward and beginning to limp in the direction she thought she had come from when she had first entered this nightmare tent, Lescar had barely gotten five feet away when a cold as steel yet high pitched accent burbled in an unpleasantly familiar voice.

"Heh... Heh... brat... you aren't going anywhere..."

"Lescar! dodge!" Taldur cried out abruptly in a frantic yell.

As suddenly as a winter blizzard, a long-clawed limb swept the floor faster than Lescar in her wounded and exhausted state could react to, the long taloned fingers easily catching Lescar in an iron grip, lifting her off the ground as the talons without care began to dig into her skin drawing blood.

Lescar struggled and tried to shake herself free or even to just raise her sword, but couldn't break the iron hold the long-fingered hand had on her, as her arms were pinned to her sides, her sword hanging uselessly from her pinned limbs.

The hand encasing her gave a squeeze and Lescar felt some of her already bruised bones groan in objection.

"Ahhhh!" Lescar grunted gritting her teeth in anguish, her sword arm going limp, the bones in that arm beginning to crumble, leaving her with little choice but to let go as her sword clattered to the ground uselessly.

'Not again!' Lescar thought, having flashbacks to her fight with the troll, as she peered dismayed over the long fingered hand enclosing her at the sword on the ground.

The arm holding her went taught as the rest of its body began to rise off the floor, the headless body picking up its displaced dome in its freehand, the clown mask once more in place over the creature's true features.

It seemed cutting the clowns head from its shoulders was not enough to put down the tall supernatural jester.

Staring in horror at her still moving decapitated opponent, Lescar was a little slow to catch Taldurs words as he urgently muttered in her ears.

"Lescar, Lescar!"

"Y- Yes," she responded still eyeing the gradually ascending form of her seemingly unkillable foe.

"Do anything in your power to delay the big bastard from slaughtering you," Taldur said grimly with an edge of desperation, "talk to him, compliment him, anything! Just keep him distracted."

Lescar could sense that they were in a terrible position, probably the worst they had ever been in, so she could understand the bug wanting to stall for time, but even then, she still couldn't stop herself from asking anyway.

"But what will you do?"

In response, the bug whispered as he shuffled back through Lescar's shirt."I... will try to do something..."

Lescar blinked at the insect's uncertain statement as she faced the ground and internalized.

'Was every day going to be like this? Would she even get another day?'

Ever since she had made that deal with Taldur, her life had taken a spin for the extraordinary and not always in a pleasant way.

She had been to the depths of a mystical and undiscovered subterranean forest deep into the sewers, killed a fully matured and intelligent troll with only a bug to help her, discovered she could use magic, fought a daily battle against an encroaching madness, had a conversation with a sapient rat, bat, and cockroach, and finally, she had met a super-powered clown that could survive being decapitated and commanded armies of living socks and soft toys.

How many other girls her age could claim the same thing?

Very few, she was sure.

It was pretty crazy but Lescar didn't want her end to come here, there was so much more to see and her brother could still be out there, as unlikely as it was.

Lescar looked upward at the clown as he straightened, his lopsided stump of a neck still spurting a small fountain of black blood.

She would try to keep the creepy unkillable clown distracted and place all her hopes on Taldur.

He had come through for her before and all she could do was hope he did so again.

Not caring for Lescar's hardened resolve, the clown, with a twisted and amused grimace, contorted it's masked face, blue bulbose nose wobbling on the warped clown's features.

"You sure had me scared for a second there brat! but, only for a second."

The clown's body held its grinning masked head in one hand, lifting it to be level with Lescar's own, meeting Lescar's eyes with its empty sockets.

Biting a finger that had been covering her mouth, Lescar called out aghast, doing her best to sound frightened.

"How!? I- I cut your freaking head off! you should be dead!"

The clown after hearing that paused than burst out laughing, before placing its head back on its shoulders with a wet squelch, the tar-like flesh flowing together seamlessly, the black ichor ceasing to flow immediately.

Standing tall now, Lescar still gripped tightly in his spindly talons, the clown brought Lescar back up to its eye level and exhaled, breathing strangely cold and chilly breath into Lescar face that smelled like blood and stale clothes, the clown opened its maw to reply to Lescar's statement obvious amusement in its intonation.

"Tiny little brat, so naive and careless, clearly fresh from the twilight passage,"

The clown shook its head in disdain and disapproval before he said in an equally disappointed voice.

"Your masters have been getting sloppy with the training of late I see, becoming desperate maybe?"

The Jester stroked his masked chin with a free hand thoughtfully before he shrugged and playfully squeezed his own nose which made an out of place cheery honk.

"Oh well," The clown shrugged again before his expression twisted further with an evil look, "I do hope your putrid lord misses you! the pale-faced scum!"

Lescar felt the clown's hand begin to tighten making breathing harder as her thoughts raced, whoever this pale lord was, Lescar didn't know him, was the clown killing her on a false identity assumption?

Thinking this, Lescar pushed out a few words, this might be her only chance to save herself.

....And maybe with this, she could buy a precious few more seconds for Taldur to do something.

The cockroach was already half out of Lescar's shirt, hidden from the clown's view by its own hands, whatever the large bug was planning on doing Lescar hoped he did it soon.

The clown was being far from gentle.

"Wait! Ughhh!" Lescar grunted feeling some of her bruised bones beginning to cave but forcing out her intended words anyway, "I don't know this pale lord you spoke off, I'm not his servant!"

The clown paused for a second than scratched its bald head impatiently before it snorted.

"Nonsense only the pale scum knows how to call on your unwanted kind, and unless he suddenly started handing out his secrets there is no other possibility."

'Unwanted kind? what the heck is this freak talking about?' Lescar growled to herself.

While she was certainly not from anywhere prestigious or proud in origin she certainly wasn't 'called' here by this... pale lord or any other for that matter.

Unless of course, Taldur was some sort of lord, which Lescar thought was unlikely him being a giant devil insect that lived in the sewers.

Lescar gave the clown a blank stare as she grit her teeth and tried once more to bite at his spindly fingers but wasn't able to reach with her body being held so forcefully.

Seeming unperturbed by Lescar's attempts to free herself, the clown's empty eye sockets were arranged in an expression that clearly showed doubt in Lescar's words.

"Ahhhhhhh... deary... you... stupid brat" The clown said in an almost friendly if dismissive voice, "I will not be sparing you as you so clearly were hoping for, there is only death for those who serve the wretched light."

"Besides," the clown added pointing at the pile of bones and meat on the floor that had once been the cage of hearts, "you broke my favorite toy."

Lescar wriggled helplessly speaking up again, using her only decent line of conversation.

"I swear I don't serve this... pale lord, I don't even know who you're talking about!" Lescar insisted," Look I'll even call him names, the pale lord is a huge piece of Barret hound crap and he should go and drink slime water!"

Hearing this the clown coughed and spluttered in a disbelieving guffaw before his head turned a full 180 degrees to murmur to himself.

"Huh? odd? usually they always..." the clown muttered before going silent and swinging his head another 180 degrees to look at Lescar in curious bafflement, the brief period of self-reflection over for the clown.

It was only brief but Lescar clearly could see a bewildered look on the clowns masked features, he was phased by Lescar's offered insults towards the mystery pale lord.

Even while phased, the clown was quick to change tracks.

"Hee! Hee! Hee!" The leering Jester chuckled suddenly as if he had figured it out, "clinging to any chance of life hmm? don't mind insulting your own boss so long as you get to live huh? how shameless! but also not enough!"

The clown's empty hand extended a single long talon towards Lescar's neck coming to rest at her throat before she could call out her rebuttal.

"I'm not done yet!" Lescar exclaimed with a claw at her throat, trying to exploit the opening, "the pale lord is a piece of garbage, a shit rag unworthy of even being used, a dirty vagabond who would sooner kill his own mother than spend a single dubine! an ugly son of a bitch who eats his own puke!"

Lescar let her homebrew cussing fly and noticed the clown twitching every time she finished an insult, his clawed talon retracting from her neck.

Was her half baked plan working?

Hearing Lescar's continued insults at whoever the pale lord was, the clown paused once more, this time his grip loosening a little before it tightened again.

Shaking his now firmly attached head, the clown sighed with emphasized exasperation his blue nose wobbling all the while before he faced towards Lescar.

"That is some pretty shade you are throwing deary, and you might have convinced me of your innocence, if not for one thing," the clown said, slowly waving the same long taloned finger in front of Lescar's face, then proceeding to prod her in the nose before squeezing his own with another out of place honk.

"You stink of the pale lord's sorcery and taint," the clown clucked with a purple tongue, "and that is not something easily recreated, so I don't believe you, and if I'm right that makes you a liar, ...and I don't like liars..."

The clowns already iron grip began to compress further and Lescar felt Taldur scuttle out of her shirt fully and onto the underside of the clown's cloth encased arm, just out of his line of sight.

The clown still eyeballing Lescar intently, failed to notice the cockroach as it slowly crept up his arm, the pincers and sharp spine on Taldur's tail flexing and quivering in anticipation.

Lescar only had to keep the monster before her occupied for a little longer...

Struggling for breath at this point and beginning to feel woozy, Lescar tried to prove her lack of involvement with the pale lord, managing to free a single arm and push herself upright as she fought to breathe.

"How- ahhh! Can I persuade you- Nnngg! otherwise?!" Lescar said between pained gasps at the clown.

"You still don't get it!?" the clown said in mock astonishment cupping his free hand over his mouth as if stunned.

"Aghhhhhh! N-No!" Lescar grunted pushing her words through the pain in the hopes the clown would take the bait and explain, giving her a few more needed seconds.

"Come on Taldur! he is about to break all my ribs and then some!" Lescar pulsed at her cockroach companion.

"....."

The insect did not immediately respond but Lescar saw the stinger on the end of his tail whip about and disappear as Taldur moved behind the clown, slithering up the clowns back unnoticed.

He was almost there...

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! sheesh!" the clown laughed incredulously, "I always knew you Terrans were a dumb lot, but you, my little brat! might be the dumbest yet! fine! I will spell it out for you."

Wiping his empty eye sockets as if he was clearing away tears of mirth, the clown tilted his head slightly smiling gently before his mask split apart revealing his true featureless face and grinding voice.

Rows of yellow teeth gleaming the monster said with savage glee.

"There is nothing you can do brat! nothing that will prove your innocence! any servant of that unholy pretender wretch will not be tolerated in my tent! and you are clearly a servant, if a treacherous one."

Prodding her head with each word the monster stated slowly, relishing the moment.

"That means, You. will. die."

The clown's fist began to close even further and Lescar now could not even exhale let alone inhale.

"D- Don't-" Lescar managed before her vision dimmed and warped, the hand encasing her squeezing the very life from her.

With a cheery voice, the monster holding her said while waving one hand at her as he crushed her with the other.

"Goodbye Terran girl who's name I never asked, If your master picks you up in the passage again I'm sure he will be oh so pleased to see you."

"Huuu..." Lescar wheezed, eyes beginning to close as a sense of sleepiness overcame her, heart thumping in her ears as it strained, trying to pump more oxygen around her fuel-starved body.

Lescar with her failing vision saw Taldur stick his head up over the grinning clown's shoulder, his tail poised to strike.

"Taldur..."

"I'm still here."

"Help..."

"Of course."

A round glowing ball gradually appeared next to the invertebrate, the cockroach entirely unphased by the growing and wobbling orb, the sickly pustulent yellow sphere continuing to enlargen next to him.

'Taldurs Magic?' Lescar thought hazily 'It almost looks like it's about to burst,'

Perhaps because it was.

The growing ball trembled, jerked and shuddered as if the pressure was building, growing larger and larger behind the clowns back until it was bigger than the clowns whole head.

It was a small wonder the clown didn't notice the swelling orb of ruinous light behind him as it continued to expand.

Then the orb stopped growing, shaking, or at all looking violent, before it shrank down to a tiny coin-sized ball

Lescar's fading mind was almost disappointed at the anticlimax until...

KA-BOOM!

The shrunken ball detonated in a blinding and deafening flash bleaching the clown and the darkness an unnatural yellow.

Lescar squeezed her already squinted eyes together, the searing flash of light burning her eyelids.

"Huh?!" the monster clown said perplexed before he roared in pain.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!"

Lescar felt the clown's hand jerk under her then fall away completely, leaving her to plummet to the hard cold ground.

"Ooof!" Lescar wheezed hitting the floor and feeling a few more of her bones give way and fracture.

In pain but able to breathe freely if raggedly, Lescar dragged her arms over to her ribs, curling into a ball.

Cloying yet stabbing torment spiked around her chest, making her a little light-headed, her ribs were definitively broken.

She hoped breaking her bones wouldn't be a common happening in the future, because currently, it seemed rather frequent.

And it was not fun at all.

Lescar cringed and slowly opened her eyes but was dazzled by the shining impure light. She could not see anything, the light was just too strong! but she could still hear and smell.

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAARRRRRRAAAAARRRRRGGHHH!"

She could hear the anguished and wrathful screeches of the clown and smell the unpleasant chemical stink of something burning.

For a dozen more seconds, both the light and screeching persisted, but gradually things changed.

While intense, the light was quick to fade, and soon Lescar was able to see from her curled up spot on the floor.

Taldur glowing a rancid yellow all over, was in front of her, his pincer-stinger tail raised, obvious signs of recent battle on his carapace where gouges in his shell leaked fluids.

The cockroach was almost curled around Lescar possessively as his expressionless staring eyes regarded the enemy, a defensive posture in the bugs half coiled stance.

Lescar felt both relieved and frustrated, relieved that she was still alive and that Taldur had come through for her, but also frustrated that she was unable to do anything presently, her body being wrecked badly.

The fight still wasn't over.

Hunched over on its knees, the clown was still alive if heavily damaged.

Chest heaving as the clown drew in rasping breaths, the tall creature was covered in reddish throbbing burns and his one piece raiment was seared and singed at parts, the cloth still smoldering.

Seeing how badly hurt the clown was Lescar said, hope filling her like a dream, "I think you got him good, you can finish him off now right?."

It was a dream Taldur squashed with his next plain statement.

"No, We've lost." the bug declared looking neither afraid or desperate at this point, only angry, his antennae quivering furiously.

"Lost?" Lescar thought despairingly, "but the clown is weak right now..."

Breaking her dream further, the burnt clown in a sluggish pained chuckle, his head still facing down, said.

"You cheeky little bastards... I didn't know there were three of you..."

Lescar held her breath hoping the clown would just fall over and die already but it never happened.

Unsteadily the clown rose to its feet, the tattered and burnt one piece falling off revealing more of the clown's inhuman nature.

Much like its true face, the entire creature's body was pitch black, smooth and pitless, no genitalia or other defining facets visible on its almost shapeless form save for its numerous claw-tipped limbs.

These spare clawed limbs once hidden inside the baggy one-piece were now visible to the world there over six of these spare limbs hanging off the clown monsters back like accessories.

"I don't think I've been this angry or hurt in a long time," the black monster said flexing his many claws.

The monster lowered its stance, every limb redirected to face towards its opposition, without any further words, the monster said in a no-nonsense voice brandishing its claws.

"You die now servants of the pale scum."

The multilimbed monster rushed forward at an unbelievable pace, limbs bending and stretching, body blurring into an ebony streak Lescar could barely track.

The pitch monster was taking this seriously now and both Lescar and Taldur were spent.

All they could do was hope death was swift.

Lescar struggled to sit up and to grab her sword, but that was beyond her in her present weakened state, she could barely breathe let alone move or fight.

Gritting her teeth Lescar watched as Taldur straightened up in the moments that the shadowy monster approached, ready to leap forward one last time and sink his mandibles into a foe's flesh.

With the lights glowing around him and his defiant stance against a greater foe, Lescar was sure that if Taldur had been a human being, a bard would have loved to document this moment.

It was epic almost.

The black creature's many talons reached out, lancing towards Taldurs small frame as his own single tail whipped out.

In the mere instants before the two creatures exchanged blows Lescar reflected, 'Welp this is it, I'm sure we're dead this time, not even Taldur could hope to beat that thing.'

Lescar watched the many talons come rushing down, waiting for the moment that they sheared through Taldur.

Because after him it was her turn.

Crash! crunch! boom!

Lescar blinked in dazed confusion, something fast and huge had slammed the monster clowns many attacks aside as if was child's play sending the clown rolling and tumbling like a thrown away toy.

Stunned, Lescar cringed and winced when a thundering mental voice rebounded in her head, it was not one she recognized.

"PHIL! YOU DUNCE! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT ATTACKING GUESTS!"

'The clown's name was Phil?' Lescar thought sluggishly before she came to herself.

Looking up at her and Taldur's rescuer, Lescar blinked trying to clear out her eyes from what surely had to be a trick of the light.

Her life was only getting weirder because the person standing above her was hairy, like really hairy.

Hairy enough to be a beast, probably because it was.

Standing behind her as she lay on the floor, a 14-foot light brown bear standing easily head and shoulders over the clown, lifted up the tiny hat on its head and tipped it politely at her, the voice now proper and courteous as the bear looked down at her sympathetically.

"Oh! How do you do young miss! I am terribly sorry for my associate's poor behavior, please forgive him, he has a terrible history with some of your kind I'm afraid."

Offering a paw to Lescar, the bear said in a conciliatory gesture.

"My name is Bawn Erdghast Greezly, but most just know me as Greezly."

Lescar just stared up at the apologetic hat-wearing bear, utterly flabbergasted.

First talking cockroaches, now talking bears?

What was the world coming to?