Turn 5
Bread released the land, causing a nauseous feeling in the pit of everyone's stomach. A few trips later, and the group is... staring down a surprised looking near-human Demon Lord. Obviously their target. The next few moments passed in a blur. At least a hundred spears of demonic energy formed instantly, launching themselves at the group. In the next instant, Akhain had recovered and raised his hands, his Talent flaring, forming a black sphere all around the group, with the hordes of weaker demons rushing into the sphere... only to fall to the ground, bisected, as soon as they enter the orb. The spears of Demonic Energy were also destroyed upon entering the sphere. Akhain stared back at the Demon Lord. And then time hit the one second mark.
"This sphere is my domain... I rule over it, once you enter it your life is in my hands. I have absolute dominion over this area. And you have absolute dominion over the area outside, I assume, from your hasty reactions. I had hoped to catch you by surprise, but you're on guard now; I can't advance my dominion and you can't advance yours... We have a stalemate." Akhain spoke sharply, just loud enough for the (now alone) Demon Lord to hear. The Demon Lord cocked it's head to one side.
"You make a point, Hunter, but you are unaware... that I am the Key." The Demon Lord's face widened into a maniacal grin, and Akhain swore. The sphere shattered, and Akhain started twitching on the ground. A moment later, a collective shudder passed through the group, and their abilities went haywire. The Demon Lord grinned, a black, stylised key appearing in it's hand.
"My unique ability... is to cause the abilities of all around me to rapidly develop... so rapidly, that they go utterly insane!" It threw it's head back in laughter, as the Demonics started transforming, their limiter tattoos starting to burn, while the Talented lose all feeling throughout their bodies, with their muscles twitching every now and then... All with the haunting laughter of the Demon Lord in the background. Thankfully, it's so insane that it hasn't killed you all yet.
Renard stands up, laughing almost as insanely as the other Demon Lord. "My name is Hellbringer... And you have been brought upon your doom! FEAR ME!" The Demon Lord blinked, his laughter stopping. He raised his hand, as Hellbringer exploded. Black, shadowy hands arced out of the explosion of energy, grabbing the Demon Lord. Automatically, spears of demonic energy formed... only to dissipate on contact with the shadowy arms. More arms spawned from the shadowy mass, snaking out to latch on to every member of the group aside from Akhain. Slowly, the energy levels of each member lowered to manageable levels; The Demonics snapped back into their human forms, the Talented gained feeling and control over their bodies. Each arm slowly detatched and retreated back to the Shadowy mass, before it formed into the form of a young man... made out of shadow. Akhain was still lying on the ground; His abilities were obviously skyrocketing and he couldn't control them. A voice emanated from the shadow, slowly taking form.
"Well well well, Renard... what have you gotten yourself into?" A small smirk was barely visible on the Shadow, it's pure white eyes and mouth being it's only facial features. "Oi, all of you... your target is weakened. Strike now. Go on, I'm not going to take your assignment..." It... he... gestured to the Demon Lord who was still standing, completely restricted by the shadowy hands. Slowly, the hands retreated. "You're up... are you worthy of being called Hunters of Zaphain?" It chuckled slightly, it's voice slightly distorted, like a reverb effect was being added to it.
(Overshoot from Bread bounced you all right into the final encounter. Was planning on having atleast a few more turns in between, but... I guess it's going to be a short prologue. Renard is dead, Adwarf's next character will be introduced when you get back to HQ (After this fight, and resulting aftermath turn))