You do the best you can to take care of the man's wound. You think that exerting himself to keep on fighting and hold on in the heat and the wind wasn't very good for him. It has exhausted him and probably made his already deep wound worst.
((Oh no! It made the wound worst D: I'm glad I healed him to make it only at 'worse'! ...Although that is nice imagery, in all seriousness.))
Carry Vind and provide perimeter support to Irine. Move along with her like a bodyguard.
"I think you should use your flames to illuminate rather than scorch the area. These beings take up matter--they take up space just like the rest of us, and do not mimic inorganic things."
You help Vind follow you and Irine while at the same time keeping an eye out for trouble. The area looks clear for now.
((Note: to her it would be comforting, not ominous))
<No D, its too early to call it. We havent found the source of the problem.>
I lower my flames again to allow rapid use, though still above the buildings, and begin cautiously moving towards the market and church. When we reach the market area I pause and look at Vind.
"May I?"
If he says yes, then I flood the market square with flame, clearing the area and purging the ambushers hidden inside. After that, I part the flames to make a path for us, allowing the residual flames throughout the rest to burn and give me even more fire to collect, and advance on the church. I'll send a tongue of flame through any cracks in the doorframe and flick it around some, checking for traps my own way, before opening the door and seeing what is inside.
<Come on, it's obvious that the temple is evil. Whoever might have been there is gone by now. We can just tell those people to leave and wait until whatever's there is gone. Or we can just nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. By which I mean burnt it to the ground from out of town. Why go there and risk getting yourself more hurt?>You reach the market square. It looks devoid of life. Vind nods so you bring your fire down. There's something like a flow of air, pushing your fire away from the temple, threatening to redirect it to you. And yet there's no wind. It doesn't threaten you though, it's not that hard to readjust your ability to counteract the flow, it's not like you've never had to deal with wind before.
You let your fire keep burning the square for a while. Whatever was down there now probably isn't anymore. After a while you lift your fire. You find only ash, molten metal and scorched stone.
You try to push some fire through the door but there's some resistance. I assume you want to force your way through it?
((Pausing for a while due to me running out of time and to give you a chance to react.))
Whoops forgot it was a shadow licorice bull is Alan's last coherent thought before he slips into oblivion.
subconsciously hope that if I die I die with a large amount of gas stored in my colon so I can startle people when I explode at the funeral.
Perhaps go on an internal journey to touch the chaos in my soul or something?
You can't think. You can't remember. There's only darkness. You can only feel. You feel cold. You feel lost. You feel alone. You feel sad. You feel angry. You feel tired. But most of all you are hungry.
Campaign, Ike!
Sneak attack!
Then evasion!
You quickly but silently make your way behind the bull and get ready for your sneak attack.
You strike with all your strength. Your Chaos Blade shreds its way through the darkness and the creature beneath it, decapitating it in one blow. You kick the head away, just in case it tries to reconnect with it like the others. Then you kick its body away from Alan to prevent further damage to him.
The headless body struggles for a few moments, emitting gurgling noises, moving incoherently, trying to get up and failing. His struggles continue to fail and after a while its movements get slower and then stop completely. The darkness evaporates from it and Alan, streaming away from them and into the shadows closer to the centre of the village, leaving behind only grey residue on the bodies of Alan and the bull.
The bodies don't look abnormal in any way. The bull looks much like the hairless cow-like creatures you saw in the General's farm, those things that could spit small amounts of fire (you think he called them Nucas?), although this one has a large chunk of its torso missing, as if it was ripped away. However despite its missing flesh, it's not bleeding as much as you'd expect, there's only a bit of blood slowly oozing out of it, as if it's been dead for a while.
Alan on the other hand looks a bit fresher. He's got two wounds on his chest that look kinda deep and serious, but he's not bleeding too much from them. He's cold. Shaking him a bit doesn't return him to consciousness.