Wayward Souls (private)

the specter vanished but the shield upheld, but lightning did stir, her nie on helpless face now fully visible behind the barrier.

When the fire abated, Brim charged forwards only to bring down a clawed hoof onto the barrier. Even though it'd just bounce off, he kept the swiping attacks going.

lightning slowly woke up and looked at him "brim?.." she said weakly.

The demon responded with something akin to a growling roar, and then continued striking the barrier. With the light of the fire to reveal him fully, there was a surprising amount of blood splattered across Brim's fur.

"brim.. stop being silly.. what happend here?" she said weakly.

Brim just roared again, and breathed out another torrent of flames before continuing his assault with his clawed hooves. His glowing yellow eyes showing the ferocity of the enraged demon.

"brim... your scaring me.. brim.." she said flinching abit.

Brim was still growling and snarling as he kept attacking. After moments of this, the assault began to slow as Brim visibly tired. The attacks became labored just like his breathing, and the fire breaths became more sparse and shorter. At one point, Brim even flared his bat like wings, taking to the air only to dive bomb the barrier and bounce off it on impact. He then resumed the heavily labored attacks.

"brim please stop" she said shaking a little.

Brim didn't respond, he just kept attacking until his hooves were shaking just trying to keep him up. Once again he spread his wings and dive bombed the portal, this time however, one of his clawed hooves chipped, the pointed protrusions flying off to the sides. The demon pony landed unceremoniously hard on his side, bounced once and then was just laying on his other side. Weakly, the demon lifted his unchipped clawed hoof and weakly pawed at the barrier as his eyes began to drift closed.

lightning, now with no way of healing simply lay there watching.

Brim continued to try and 'fight' until he literally passed out from exhaustion. His solid yellow eyes fading back to normal as they slid shut for the night. When that happened, Brim shrunk back down to a more normal size, and what was left of the claws retracted back until Brim was just lying there dozing with ragged breath.

lightning shut off the the shield and scooched over to him and slung a hoof over him in an almost hug.

Brim wasn't moving past the labored rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. All along his body, Brim was cut and bruised, his fore hooves were cracked, and his wings were draped haphazardly across his form. The night was getting rather late by this point, the moon reaching an apex in the night's sky.

soon after this lightning passed out.

And the night passed with no further incident. In the morning, Brim was still sleeping well after sunrise. The fire had burned down to just a few glowing embers, and the only remainder of the attack was Mortar's knife laying on the grass and the imprint where he'd been laying.

the crystal began to vibrate violently. and began to build the specter again, this time however it was a violet colour. the mare sat at lightnings side and began working on the wound.

Brim was still soundly sleeping as this went on, and the sun continued to rise well past the point of morning.

by 2 the wound had almost vanished and the mare smiled her soft smile.

Groggily, Brim began to stir. With only twitches that gradually became full on movement as the demon brought himself to his hooves and stood. It didn't last long however as he nearly double over in pain, one hoof shooting his aching head. Eventually the torment his body was causing quieted down to a level he could tolerate, but Brim didn't dare stand again lest he relive that pain again.

Instead, Brim slowly looked around, wondering what had happened. He recalled something about some other ponies showing up, but past that was just a blur. Then his eyes settled on the specter and Brim tilted his head in confusion. He couldn't seem to quite recall where he'd seen her but he thought she looked familiar. "Hello?" Brim asked from where he laid.

she jumped at the unexpected voice but she turned and smiled. "morning... how do you feel?" she said finishing up.

"Not good," Brim replied from where he laid. "What happened last night?"

"dont worry about that honey, just try feel better." she said relaxing.

Brim nodded and laid his head back down, more than content to try and go back to sleep for the moment.

For the next few hours the specter looked over them and began to cook.