The Chained Watcher

Shot through the heart! And you're to blame~

Couldn't think of a title, so... mildly relevant song lyrics? *Holds out lyrics tentatively*

~~~

Grian ducks beneath one sword, springing forward over another to get out of the path of the heavy axe cleaving down toward his shoulder. An arrow glances off his wing, narrowly missing the person next to him.

Everyone immediately springs back when he makes a spiral motion with one finger, the thin mist of magic lingering on the floor around him waiting half a second before spinning rapidly in a clockwise motion. Doc, having been too slow in leaping back, has his feet swept out from under him, falling heavily to the ground.

The others currently in the fight immediately rush in to make him back off. He grins, nodding in approval. This is something they've been working on adding to the sparring matches, to better train for a similar situation. Whenever one of them gets downed, they rush to defend the downed player, trying to stop him from landing a hit somewhere important.

His sword, thin and swift, darts past a shield to scrape along Pearl's cheek. It leaves behind a bright red mark, despite no damage being done, matching a number of marks adorning the limbs of the other Hermits currently sparring with him. It's his solution to the question of how to emphasize where his hits land. He doesn't actually want to hurt them, after all.

Apart from that addition, he also tweaked his sword's damage reduction enchantment. Instead of just reducing damage, it also disperses what would have been done into a more broad force, resulting in something as dangerous as a blow to the side of the neck becoming similar to getting bodied by one of those giant inflatable beach balls. You know, the kind that could fly into a kid and continue on with little trouble. That kind of beach ball.

Definitely startling, but it means he doesn't need to avoid targeting spots like their necks so he won't break them. He'd needed to take a minute to explain that the first time it'd happened.

A sword thrusts at his chest. He's able to backhand the flat of the blade to slap it away, but the sharp edge still scores a thin line across his skin for half a second before it heals away. Pearl bites her lip, but doesn't say anything.

He's glad the others have stopped berating him about only enchanting his own sword with damage reduction. It was admittedly rather shocking for them when a particularly well aimed thrust managed to nail the tiny spot between his wings that wasn't protected by feathers and stab straight through.

*Flashback*

Grian grins confidently, spreading his wings wide as his friends circle him. He teases, "C'mon, you can do better than that. Use some teamwork! Surely I can't block all of you, right?"

Their expressions of mild annoyance just make his grin grow. They've admittedly gotten a lot better at fighting together, even if the most damage he's gotten are a couple scratches from a particularly narrow dodge. That's just the difficulty inherent in fighting someone with two entire very mobile limbs as dedicated shields.

They charge again. Funnily enough, it feels like one of them is aiming for his back! He doesn't bother to react to that one, just using his wings to block or slap away the other weapons aiming for his neck, chest, and legs. His feathers will block-

A sharp pain lands right in the small of his back, missing the feathers. He stumbles forward half a step. Okay, ow, but he'll be fine. Wouldn't be the first time he's been impaled.

Pearl backs away with a gasp, hands over her mouth. "Oh my god." He doesn't let his posture or expression acknowledge the pain, just glancing back over his shoulder to look at her. "Oh my god I'm so sorry. Ohhh my god."