Piercing the ghostly veil

As soon as Griff noticed that some of the mud crept up to him from the talons, he immediately returned back to the group. "Oh buck me, this will take a lot of cleaning... unless..." he landed behind the group and shapeshifted again, the tiny explosion from the form change throwing every tiny bit of sticky ooze off of him. "There we go..." he said before turning around. "...seriously dude? You're helping the thing that tried to kill you earlier?" he said to the warrior as he pulled out his twin swords. Shapeshifting into various animals isn't gonna help if he has to watch out to not get any bit of the ooze on himself.

As ash's shock arrow hit the inside of the ooze guard's maw, it vissibly shined with a yellow sheen on its black body as the ooze looked a bit spiky as the shock arrow paralyzed it on the spot, the warrior sees this oppputunity and charged towards the guard to attack with his blade with a war cry, the guard in its paralyzed state could not change its state and would recive painfull cuts from the warrior's attack, screaming in pain.

pyro saw that the electrical effect on the ooze guard from ash's shock arrow was slowly wearing off but seeing that the arrow still had some juice in it, he steped fowards and drew his sword and pointed it att the arrow stuck in the guard, and as if Cryo read his mind, the unicorn charged a spell with a rune and sent a bolt to pyro who Channeld it to his sword and yelled "discharge!" and made a straight bolt of thunder from his sword to the arrow, the bolt charged the shock arrow to the point of detonation, blasting the ooze guard into a formless pile with its helmet landing ontop with a spash, but it did recive heavy damage from the attack, the warrior was flung back from the blast.

"there we go!" yelled cryo with confidence

Ash was extremely glad he hadn't been eaten, and he was also glad that he managed to find a weakness for the ooze guard. However, he was disappointed that he didn't get the chance to give the guard another good shot while he was still kicking, as Pyro and Cryo's combined attack seemed to put the thing out of commission. He did feel sorry for that human guard, as it appeared he might actually be more of an ally than an enemy.

Still, he was not going near the ooze guard soon. He did not want to risk being eaten a second time. He readied another shock arrow just in case the ooze guard decided to do something again.

Griff attempted covering his head with his swords as the ooze guard exploded, trying to not get any more ooze on himself. Once it was all over, he lightly lowered his swords. "Well damn fantastic work." he noted, his gaze constantly switching between the warrior and pile of goop. He didn't trust either yet, but at least one seemed deader than the other, then again, during his days as a mercenary he has seen goo that came back together after being blown up before. "Well then... what's your story...?" Griff asked the human warrior, still in his battle stance.

the human warrior didint seem to take heed to griff's question but he did glance att him quickly as he still held his sword and shield ready and turned towards the ooze, his gut feeling saying the it isint over yet since the colors in the surounding area havent returned yet, as if on call, the pile of ooze starts to wobble and bubble as smaller piles of ooze starts to mound upp from the ground before they shot upp around the main pile in a circle of spikes before going outwards towards the group, it continues to do this as it seemed to get desperate to regather itself, it not being ready to give upp.

as the ooze guard started its desperation attack, cryo, pyro and the warrior began dodging the moving spikes heading towards them, the ooze's desperation ment that it could not take more hits as it tried to regain its pony form, enlarging its maw aswell.

Seeing that the ooze guard was starting to get back up, Ash let loose the shock arrow he had notched. Afterwards he moved around to avoid any possible attacks from it while getting another arrow ready. The thing had tried to eat him, and he did not plan on being very forgiving. If the guard lived once the ooze was gone, he'd kick him in the nuts for good measure.

Griff watched the ooze piletry to come back together, and as everyone else did the last remaining smacks, he shot a weak magic missile at it. He did not know many attack spells, which was his weakness. He also made sure that he stayed clear of the spikes before shooting another magic missile at it, as if trying to make sure it's gone for real. "We did tell him to run, didn't we? Why blame us..."

ash's shock arrow didint seem to effective hitting on the outside of the ooze guard compared to hitting it on the inside as it caught the shock arrow and moved it towards pyro and cryo, who kept avoiding spikes and cuting them down aswell to avoid geting hit.

"i dont know griff, maybe its something manipulating him to be this?" cryo said as he kept dodging and cuting spikes, untill the guard fired the shock arrow towards cryo, stunning him on the spot as the ooze guard sent its maw to him, cryo's eyes wide with fear

"Blast it all," Ash said when he saw his arrow did nothing. He did not look forward to almost being eaten again to get the same effect.

However, when Cryo seemed like he was going to be eaten instead, and thanks to his ineffective arrow too, Ash decided he needed to save his hide. Thinking fast, he flew as fast as he could right at Cryo with the plan to knock him out of the way while getting himself out of the thing's jaws. He thought they'd both be bruised afterwards, but it was better than being eaten.

Griff saw the maw coming for the two and he made a small attempt, doubting if it'll work, to quickly dash to the side and try to slice at the maw from the side, hoping it would at least give them time to move before it reformed again. He also made sure to jump back immediately after, avoiding all spikes while shaking any ooze off of his swords. "God damnit this thing is determined..."

the ooze guards maw didint seem to like its maw being cut appart on the side by griff, showing discomfort as it tried to remerge its maw, giving ash a window of opputunity to fire inside the guard after he had knocked the paralyzed cryo out of the way as he rolled limply on the ground with a groan, pyro moving in close and charging the same discharge spell again in preparation

Now that Cryo was relatively safe from harm, Ash could turn back to the fight. He saw that opening to hurt the ooze guard and decided to take it before anything happened.He once again used a shock arrow and fired right into its maw. He went back into the air just in case it decided to take a swing at him.

Griff made a large circle, avoiding spikes before dashing in and slicing at the guard from the other side, pulling away almost immediately after slice and dashing back away, still wary of where he stepped while throwing the ooze off his swords. "Damnit will this thing ever give in?!" he asked mainly himself. Nothing that they did seemed to have great impact, and unless they were slowly killing it, it wasn't showing that.

ash's shock arrow went inside the ooze guard as its skin became solid and paralyzed, griff's slashes damaged and cut off solid pieces of the guard as pyro saw the opportunity to unleash his electric discharge spell on ash's shock arrow and did so for the second time while dodging.

he Sent a beam from his sword att the lodged arrow inside the ooze guard and detonated it, blowing the guard upp in a sparkling blast, its ooze started to float upp above the guard who was flailing and whrithing in pain, it seemed to lose Control of it self as it started to melt uppwards to a bubble with the rest of the ooze, a white pony with blue mane was revealed as enough ooze had melted of him as he collapsed, as for the ooze, it shreiked as it started shrinking into a solid point in the air, before beams of light erupted from within as it exploded spectacularly with regenerative energy for the group.

the colorless surounding yelded to its natural normal colors as the area returned to normal from the enemy's defeat, energy from the colorless spots converged above the fallen pony guard in a form of a pulsating red crystal orb, a fire burned with life within it as it lowerd itself close to the ground hovering.

Ash was glad the ooze guard was finally done for. He was even more glad that some magic had restored him to peak condition, even though he hadn't taken much punishment in the first place. However, he wasn't sure whether the red crystal was safe to touch. So, he instead went over to the collapsed guard. He first would make sure he was okay. If he was, he'd swat him on the head for good measure, maybe give him a stern talking to too.

Griff felt sudden relief as the fight was over, as if something returned some of his energy back. Great, they could get a move on almost immediately, he thought. No need for stopping to set up a camp to rest. He glared as the white pony on the ground, watching silently as Ash approached him. He instead sat back and looked around them. "Hmm, interesting.. All the colors are back... and what the heck is that crystal?" he asked no one in particular before remembering something: he quickly turned his gaze on the human that was their enemy, intent on keeping him on his sight. He didn't trust him at all, and for all he knew, the human-like being could still have full intention on hurting the party.

Ash would see the white guard lay on the ground, out cold as the fight sapped his strength as the restoration wave not affect him, he would need to be carried untill he wakes upp again, as for the red crystal orb, pyro went over to it to collect it as it could perhaps be of inportance later, feeling a wave of acomplishment as he took it in his hands.

the human warrior dose not seem to be hostile after the ooze's defeat, looking like it has some respect towards the group, but after pyro took the orb, scale scribe surfaced from the water, though the looked confused "what happend to you guys? you look like you saw something bad" she said, she somehow missed thier battle with the ooze guard.

just moments later, a loud sound would be haerd near the human warrior, the water behind him makes way for a land bridge as it rises from the water and leading to a new piece of land, but more human warriors makes thier way over the land bridge, with them a slightly taller, slimmer and oddly faced one was att the front of the group of warriors, leading them before the tall one slowed down and stood towards the warrior that where with the group, comunicating in thier native language.

Ash felt rather bad that they had forgotten all about Scale Scribe during the fight, be he was glad she was safe. However, before he could get himself to tell her what had happened, he noticed other human warrior and the taller one come towards them. Though he couldn't understand a thing they were saying, he had a good feeling about it.

"Well, they haven't tried to kill us yet. I'd say things are pretty good," Ash said.

Griff curiously looked at Pyro as he took the gem. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Don't wanna be superstitious or anything but I don't want it to go off while on you." Griff said to Pyro before swiftly looking at the sound that came from the water, only to see the familiar face. "Oh, Scale, pleased to see you. No, we only did some routinely exercises, to keep our bodies healthy." he sarcastically said and chuckled. "I think Pyro can give better details of what-.." his speech was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a new bridge forming, quickly turning his head towards the sound, going into his battle stance again as he noticed more human warriors coming over. "Are you completely sure? I still don't trust them, no offense, Pyro." Griff said.

the human warrior who was with the group reunited with his fellow tribesmen, some of them fitting scale scribes earlier descriptions of blade and shield warriors and men with fireballs around thier fists, wearing horned bull skulls as headwears, scale noticed them and wimperd as she swam close to griffs side in slight fear.

the tall and slender "bigface" came forth ahead of the warriors, she wore a long blue garnament that covers the body and holds a long staff in her right hand, the top of the staff had a hand like attachment ontop of it as it was decorated with gems att the center of the "hand", she then brought her left hand to her face and took it off, revealing a normal female face behind the mask, her gaze was that of benevolence somewhat similar to princess celestias, she then spoke in her language to the group, the only problem was that it was hard to understand.

Ash remained quiet through all of what the tall, slender one did. With the mask of and the closer look, he could tell it was female. Of course, when she spoke, he couldn't understand a word she said. "Well, I'm definitely going to say they're friendly now," he said. He hoped she would understand that they didn't understand her, or else this was going to be a very one-sided conversation.

Griff watched carefully as the more beings arrived, though ht at least sheathed his two swords. He took a step back, trying to keep all the 'newcomers' within his view. He gave them a curious look, especially as the female took off her mask and started talking. "Yeah I don't understand anything either." he responded to Ash, still ready to go into combat at any second.

the female seemed to notice the groups inability to understand her, she then started to focus her magic into her staff for a bit before sending a magic wave outwards to the group, when her deed was done she talked again with clarity in her voice, she had casted a speech spell on the group to be able to understand her and her followers.

"i sensed some bad magic coming from this area where i stationed this warrior to patrol" she says and points to the warrior who where with the group during the ooze attack "he has told me you are warriors not from around here, and fought against a beast of the dark fog and defeated it, please, follow us to our tribe so that you may recover, including your little river friend" she said, refering to scale scribe

both cryo and pyro nodded att the offer made by the female as cryo went to the white guard and picked him upp on his back before pyro asked the female "who are you by the way?" and got the responce "i am the shaman and the leader of my tribe here, the ikanas"

"I told you they were friendly," Ash smugly said to the others. He then turned his attention to Scale Scribe. He picked her up and place her on his back. "There you go. Just want to make sure nothing gets you while we go," he said to her. He then followed the shaman to wherever they were going. He had a feeling the accommodations weren't going to be any kind of high class, based on the humans' attire. So long as the beds were warm, he'd be fine.

Griff sighed and slowly nodded after listening to the shaman's speech, lightly curious about the spell that was cast on him and the rest of the group before changing back into his hawk form again, landing on Cryo's shoulder. He leaned in a bit closer to his ear and whispered "Idunno, I still don't trust them one bit... how come we didn't know of them before, we already had everything around Equestria mapped, didn't we?" before 'securing' himself on Cryo's shoulder, trying to not dig his talons too deep into them to not hurt Cryo.