Ilya flinched out a grim, twisted smile, and took a step towards the pot.
He shuddered and turned, as the animated weapon began to move inexorably towards him again. This was a problem, and there was no way he was going to rely on the hope that the Makuta would suddenly change his mind - and target.
He had no time to analyze or compare speeds and distances. He just decided.
Ilya broke into an all out sprint towards the pot, hoping to be able to reach it and then change tack fast enough that the hammer would miss him. If possible, his eyes surveyed the forge trying to look at how difficult it would be to activate.
Limited eyesight was not total blindness. Had Katau attempted this while Makuta was still totally blind, it may have worked, but now Makuta had some perception from his eye sockets.
As the mask maker approached, his eyes fluttered over to some blurred object at the edge of his vision. There was another blur up ahead, although this one was more perceivable - it looked like that Cheshie character, with the round blur possibly being her shield. The most dangerous one of the party at first glance, since she came armed with a range control weapon.
Advancing forward, Makuta hit Katau and fell forward, diving into a roll and ending it with a leap, both hands balled into fists aimed at Cheshie. The actual fighting was about to begin.
The furnace in the center of the room was a large ring of brick, molten rock swirling in the middle of it, with four different anvils placed at each side of it. The backside of it - the one where Ilya was headed towards now - seemed to be where the least amount of work had been done, as it was considerably cleaner than the other three anvils.
The hammer gave an ominous hum as the handle scratched against the wall, bearing down towards him. It had angled now to collide exactly where the cup was, predicting his movement towards it, but if Ilya pressed himself, he could likely snatch the cup before it collided.
Cheshie flinched as she watched Katau fall, but tightened her grip on her shield and javelin. She raised the former over her face to block Makuta’s first strike, while thrusting the blunt end of the javelin beneath her shield in hopes of catching the mask maker in the stomach mid jump.
The shield was too low to reach Makuta’s stomach. The full weight of his impact hit the shield even as Cheshie attacked from underneath it, seeing it did not make contact with Makuta’s midsection as she had hoped. The mask maker felt the rough impact of the metal shield against his knuckles, and-
Ohh no.
Makuta placed one hand on the spear with nearly enough strength to break it. He shoved himself backwards away from the attack and away from Cheshie, trying desperately to stand without it being obvious how much pain he was in. If only the mask of control could work here.
And then some random tools hit him in the face.
Makuta swung his eyes around and locked onto Henan. Pain would have to be powered through; limitations would have to be ignored, and an example would have to be made unless a compelling argument against such a notion could be raised. The observant would notice the orange film completely disappear from his eyes as his fists tightened into muscular knotted lumps of bone.
“I’ll show you.”
A small cloud of dust erupted off the floor where Makuta was standing as he sent a flying knee towards Henan’s face. Evidently he was done playing around with the party.
"I dont get it."Henan said,while unfolding his pickaxe."You’re telling me,i came allll this way,just to die?NO WAY BUB."He swung his pick downwards unto Makuta.
Cheshie let go of her javelin as she felt Makuta grab tight, instead opting to immediately reach for her falcata at her hip. She watched as a collection of tools collided with the mask maker’s face, drawing his attention. Cheshie had been sportsman like earlier, she wasn’t going to lend such a courtesy now. There was no hesitation as she ran at Makuta, looking to bash the distracted man, shield first.
Luckily for Jaawu, he was only about halfway to Makuta at the moment. The shrapnel hit him, but it amounted to more of a barrage of stings than an actual injury.
After his vision cleared (it was, after all, a very bright explosion), he realized he was standing in the middle of the room. Knowing there was a flying hammer around, he resolved to stop doing that.
After he had gotten to the nearest wall, he turned his head to Makuta to assess the situation. The situation seemed to be that some newcomer’s (another one?) face was about to be turned to dust and another adventurer was running towards the duster and dustee. Seeing as everyone was too busy trying to not die, he thought no one would notice if he stayed back and let things play out again. Let the fighters fight.
Makuta’s dive towards Henan was interrupted, leaving the latter to swing at the open air where Makuta would have been had Cheshie not interfered. Rather than allow himself to stagger from the impact, Makuta hit the floor instantly, hoping to use his body to trip her up.
His eye caught sight of Jaawu. If Jaawu was looking, he would notice the sharp eyes of the mask maker lock with his for a fraction of a second.
Cheshie tumbled into a roll as Makuta deftly ducked her attack, tripping her up in the process. Spinning, she managed to recover well enough, landing in a three point stance, falcata held tightly one hand. Still a little rattled, she launched herself at Makuta, bringing her blade down in the process, too caught up in the fight to worry about “bluntness” now.
As it happens, he was. Though only for a mere second, it said everything that he wanted him to know.
Coward.
Jaawu saw the newcomer was talking to him. “Well, it seems Makuta is trying to kill us. We’ll tell you everything else you need to know later. Right now? Fight or avoid him.”
Makuta braced his forearm upwards, Cheshie’s arm slamming into it with a mighty thud, as the blade clinked against the top of his mask. He sat, on one knee, to see what move she would make next, or what emotion lay behind her eyes.
Ilya swore, and redoubled his efforts. He was bearing down on the cup now, and he arched downwards awkwardly, trying not to lose any speed, his hand just catching the rim of the cup and pulling it up. Even as he sprinted away, trying to get as much matter of the forge in between him and the hammer, he tried to get a closer look at the cup.
He shifted the cup to his other hand, and pulled out his final potion, whipping around to see where the hammer was.
Cheshie stared down into Makuta’s eyes, straining against his arm for a split second. Those eyes, those eyes looked as if they could read one’s soul at a glance. He would see pride and a hint of anger in her eyes, but beneath that there was something else. Fear, maybe? She swallowed, before attempting to bash the side of his head with the rim of her shield.
The hammer slammed against both the floor and the edge of the furnace, bounding back up into the air. It arced upwards, threatening to come back down in a tremendous fury, before…
…Turning and flying back towards Makuta, who appeared to be dealing with a somewhat scattered effort to take him down. Perhaps he had found out what he wanted to know? Or was he being overwhelmed?
The arm which had stopped her attack bent further to the side, intercepting the shield in his grip - not to stop, but to redirect. He pulled it away from his head and tried to ram it into the arm with the knife… If it was still there.
“Not trying.” Makuta mumbled.
The hammer suddenly appeared from the other side of the room, arcing down and skidding across the wall with its target perfectly lined up - Jaawu.
It appears as though Makuta was ruining his vacation from the action.
Palios listened to the escalating battle, it sounded pretty rough, alas only if he could provide some assistance, but in this near blind state he was only able to make out faint shapes of his allies and the rampaging Makuta.
Then something interesting happened
A knock followed by something large flying through the air, but asides from that the fighting had temporarily stopped and the figure he had determined as makuta walked over to the door, opened said door, threw something inside then just like that the sounds of battle had resumed.
That’s the upper-hand we need. Palios thought as he placed his hand up against the wall to guide him and began making his way towards the door, once there he would provide a loud series of knocks then retreat provided nothing prevented his approach.”Here’s to hoping everyone else gets the same exactly terrible idea and attacks Makuta while he’s on the retreat.”
Cheshie pulled her blade wielding arm away from Makuta as he redirected her shield from his face, instead shifting her weight solely onto her shield bearing arm in an attempt to drop her elbow hard down onto Makuta’s neck.