Stone Tower Temple [The Horde]

Fiorella frowned at Horus's violence. It was good that he did not intend to be simply a passive observer, but such energy was better put to use when they had some idea what they were doing. As it stood, venting their frustrations against the walls would avail them nothing.

The Gerudo found indentations along the wall, presumably a place for a door to open... but the threshold was sealed tight. Fio tested the slab that blocked it, but it held firm. Apparently they weren't allowed to proceed. But she couldn't find anything here that would open it... save that disturbing statue. Her grimace grew. She did not like this.

She shook her head as Luna drew closer. She'd checked. Instead, she cautiously approached the one-eyed behemoth in the center of the room. She was within arm's length when suddenly the lone eye atop its disproportionate body opened.

Fiorella jumped back as the statue--or rather, what they thought to be a statue--reared up and hefted its mighty clawed hand. It came down with a crash, the impact sending a small rockslide towards her. Even as the shadow of a boulder descended, she instinctively wrapped an arm around Luna's waist and kicked off with all her strength to the side, narrowly avoiding the crude projectile. As soon as she felt it was safe, she let go and readied her weapon again. With a mighty cry, she swung her scimitar at the beast, sending a wave of energy racing towards it. As the beam hit, there was a small cloud of dust, but the monster just waved its massive arms to dispel the cloud.

"Normal attacks don't work," She said flatly, more as a mental note than as any sort of information relay.

When Horus saw Luna under attack, something inside him snapped, as per usual. Honestly, he expected it by now. With an unexpected burst of speed, he charged forward towards the statue. Fiorella was closer to Luna than him and was the one to save her from the statue's wrath, but this didn't calm the redhead in the slightest. What did the statue think it was? What gave it the right to attack the Ice Mage?

Fiorella exclaimed that normal attacks wouldn't work on it, just as Luna regained her senses and crawled to her feet. She saw Horus charging towards the enormous statue and attacking it despite Fiorella's warnings- he had never listened to the counsel of any source but his own senses. Knowing this, Luna didn't bother warning the swordsman and instead directed her attention to the statue. She'd seen crude drawings of it on the walls, and felt something radiating off of it. Magic..? It was similar to her own. "Horus!" she called, raising a hand. "Get your crossbow!"

This was probably their most common tactic, if Horus could be considered to have the patience for strategy. He felt the crossbow growing cold in his hand as Luna enchanted it with her ice, and he stopped running, bracing himself against the ground as he took aim. The statue opened its single, enormous eye and focused its pupil on Horus. Promptly, the sharp THWACK of his crossbow rang out and an Ice Bolt embedded itself in the thing's eye.

Fio frowned. She had already tried a regular attack, and it hadn't worked; not only was the boy witness to that, she had said it aloud for good measure. Too reckless... She was slightly surprised that he had actually inflicted damage on it. The eye, eh...

"Fool," she said without intonation, swinging once to add her beam to the arrow. At this, the Eyegore came un-stuck and began to move its mighty arms again, as Fiorella ran in one direction to hold its attention. Two massive blows came down behind her, but she did not bother to check for proximity. Rather, she ran back, drawing its gaze to her and in range of the other two, as she took a deep breath.

She began to breathe fire on the count of three, hoping for the others to pool their attacks to hers. She wanted this thing gone, now. Flames sprouted from her mouth as the Eyegore tried again to swing.

Adding the fire to the ice on the enormous statue resulted in the thing grunting loudly in what Horus interpreted to be pain, and it fell to its knees. Horus didn't wait for it to recover, instead punching another bolt through the thing's eye. This time it reeled, falling back onto the ground and not moving after that. Confident in his success, Horus slung the crossbow back over his shoulder and inspected Luna for injuries. Satisfied that she wasn't hurt in any apparent way, he turned back to Fiorella. "You alright?" he asked, although not making any motions to help her.

Luna, meanwhile, walked over to what remained of the Eyegore. The statue had largely fallen into pieces, and amongst the debris she found something that radiated magic. She reached into it, putting her fingers around the rock. It seemed to be a quarter of a larger, round stone, with something carved into it. She felt magic similar to her own coming off of it, and realized it must have been what she had sensed coming off of the statue itself. Deciding to hold on to it, she slipped it into the pouch on her waist without showing it to Horus. She had more magic in her little finger than he did in his entire body, after all, she doubted he'd be able to provide useful insights.

Fiorella shook her head. "No injuries to speak of. What about you?" She eyed him warily. "And what's more, why did you charge after I said it wouldn't work that way?" At this, she shook her head. So reckless... After he was the one who tried to warn her of this place's dangers.

She then inspected her scimitar. It seemed fine, which she supposed was what she expected... but she needed an excuse to look away. If nothing else, she disliked seeing people who fought with such disregard for their own safety and it caused her no small amount of discomfort. The Eyegore, too, disquieted her. This place looked to be some form of trap, or arena, or some manner of room specifically for it... what would its demise do? The best case scenario, she supposed, would be their release, but the tower looked old and treacherous enough that she wouldn't be surprised if it triggered some kind of trap.

"Charging is what I do," Horus said. "Besides, I had to keep it occupied while Luna analysed its behaviour and figured out the way to kill it." He put his hands into his pockets. "Look, did you get hurt because of my attack? I think not. If anything it bought you time to dodge or set up your own attack."

"Horus," Luna warned. That one word was enough to snap him back to reality, stopping his tirade against Fiorella and turning to her. "We don't need a lecture; we need a way out of here."

"Right. Find anything back there?" Luna shook her head, but Horus walked past the remains of the eyegore regardless and looked up. "Wait, WHAT?" He pointed up, despite knowing Luna would misinterpret the cue as always. "Is that a door on the CEILING?"

At his use of the word ceiling, Luna looked up and saw the door. It was perfectly nomal, with no magic anywhere, and would have been a perfectly acceptable door to walk through if it hadn't been upside down and out of their reach. She saw Horus scratch his head and look around, presumably for something to attach his grappling hook to so they could climb up. Not finding anything, he shook his head and leaned against the wall. "I'm officially freaked out by this pla-"

Horus had chosen a fine stone in the wall to lean against, for it fell away under his touch and he fell sideways into the newly opened passage, giving way to a steady stream of curses as he crawled to his feet. "Well, here's our way out I guess."

"No, but you could've been, for no good reason," Fio snapped, slightly aggravated that she had actually felt any amount of concern on the behalf of someone like this. Really, why did she even bother? This was the same person who'd decided it was good idea to threaten her with death on sight. This entire venture was probably nothing more than an enormous debacle.

Thus, though her face held no mirth as Horus fell flat and loosed a great amount of colorful language, she would admit--to herself at least--that such an action had amused her. "Indeed," the Gerudo said dryly, "There is a possibility I never would have considered." It was unclear from her tone exactly how much was biting sarcasm and how much was genuine, but privately she would have assumed that the Eyegore would have had something to do with it.

She slipped into the hallway all the same to see where it led.

"Shut your piehole," Horus said, crawling to his feet. "Before I do it for you." He didn't bother dusting off, instead drawing his sword. Something didn't feel right about this passage. It had been hidden, and while the ground was level with that in the room they came from -there was no slope or hill- it was pitch black. Even the light from the earlier room didn't filter in past the first few feet, and Horus reached for Luna with his free hand. He found hers, presumably trying to grab onto him too, and took it, ushering her behind him.

Really, though, he wondered. What was up with this redhead? Why was she angsting over HIM taking a hit? His injuries were HIS problem, not hers. Besides, he was tough. As long as Luna didn't get hurt, what did he care? He shook his head. He STILL did not like this hallway, in all of its darkness and its unsettling eerie aura and its...

Luna screamed when something fuzzy touched her arm and pricked over a small radius of her skin, instinctively throwing herself towards Horus in case anything would follow it. Horus didn't wait with his response, turning around to face whatever had jumped off of her arm and lashing out in a large, waist-height arc with his sword. The blade caught on SOMETHING, but just as it did something jumped into his neck. Unlike Luna, he felt no pain- whatever had hurt her was likely stopped by his coat, meaning it wasn't overly powerful. He shrugged forcefully, forcing the creature off and swiping his blade once more, again catching on something.

He swore. "We can't see them!" he shouted, "How are we supposed to fight an enemy that we know nothing about?!"

"Calm down," commanded Fio, stepping to the right of him. Frayed nerves killed. She knew that much. "I'll give you light, but not for long," she continued simply, taking a stance and inhaling. Something leapt at her, not hard enough to stagger or injure her, but certainly enough to disrupt her breathing. That was troublesome... she tried again, successfully this time as whatever had lunged at her the first time was unable to account for her new movement arching her back as a makeshift dodge.

She exhaled as thinly as she could while still maintaining the flame, to prolong the time she had on her breath. A light string of fire escaped from her mouth and the flickering embers brought to light the enemies before them. And many they were indeed.

A swarm of red-orange eyes and spherical black bodies stood out against the darkened hallway, outlines illuminated from the glow of the fire breath. A mass of Black Boe... the Gerudo warrior turned her head slightly to lead the stream of fire to them. She managed to catch a few in the blaze, but the majority dispersed.

Luna stared in awe as Fiorella exhaled a plume of fire, exposing the inhabitants of the shadows for what they were. She herself was a powerful mage, but had never thought to expel her power through that particular orifice... Still, as the Black Boes came into view, she, along with Horus, snapped to reality. She heard Horus heave a deep sigh. "Really?" the swordsman said, "Boes? That's what all the fuss was about?" Luna turned red with embarrassment as he took a few steps into the darkness, away from Fiorella and Luna, and tested his distance from them by holding his sword arm straight out, his sword pointing outward. "Don't get too close for a bit," he then said, assuming a smaller stance and putting one hand on the blade of his weapon. Luna felt a change in the air as he poured whatever magic he had into the weapon.

The magic suddenly surged as Horus started to spin around violently, and repeated the entire process a few times, critters screaming out in pain as he continued. Finally, after about three separate spin attacks, Horus sheathed his blade and reached around, finally grabbing Luna's hand in the darkness. "That should take care of enough of them that we can get through this largely unhindered. I don't suppose anyone has anything resembling a -permanent- light source on them?"

Luna knew she didn't have to answer that. Ice generally served as a poor source of light.

Fio sighed. No torches? Wonderful. Well. She'd just have to improvise, then, wouldn't she? She closed her eyes--not that this accursed darkness allowed her much vision in the first place--and thought on what equipment she had. She had her weapon, a whirlwind, a few lengths of cheval rope, a hookshot... but no lamp. Rarely did you need such things in the desert, outside of the Fortress of Thieves. With a bolt of inspiration, she ripped off part of her pants and tied them around a segment of the rope, which she then wrapped about her sword. She knew this thing was possessed of famed durability, and she'd not known them to catch flame easily, so... She took another deep breath and let out another stream of fire, this time more gently. The makeshift torch did its job and caught the fires. She took care to be careful with it. The gerudo knew that while she still gave life to them, the embers would not harm her; however, she knew not whether the mundane after-effects would share this quality and she did not wish to find out.

"Shall we move out, then? There isn't much material to burn, so unless you'd like to surrender your clothes as well, it would be prudent to get out of this darkness."