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Then Pater and Adivan charged past him. So much for that idea...

Xerxes grabbed a dying trooper and riped open his throat, aiming the blood spray at the inquisitor's faces. The dying man would make an excellent shield.

He didn't charge after them, he simply walked. It wasn't that far, and... the daemon sprayed blood at Pater and Adivan... it was logical for him to be able to make his strike after the daemon responded. Suddenly lunging, he stabbed out with his energy sword.

Pater pushed the spray of blood out of his way. He then pushed himself off the ground and sideways, past Xerxes and behind him. He swung at the former Judge's back, Staff crackling with energy.

The blade went through the dying soldier, opened Xerxes arm, and plunged into his chest. The former judge responded by throwing the soon to be carcass at Prius while leaping on the inquisitors with his claws extended. Unfortunately for him, Pater had alreay moved.

Pater's staff was caught in Xerxes' claws and twisted out of his hand. With the other hand he slashed at Adivan, who was already swinging with his Power Sword.

The body in the face knocked him flat on his ass. The dead trooper had been a heavy frakker in life, not to mention an armored arbites. He went down with a thud, head banging against the deck hard.

Xerxes did not scream as the power blade severed three fingers. His other hand was smoking from the contact with the charged Force Staff. He smashed it into Adivan's helmet, denting it and downing the inquisitor. He spun around towards Pater, arm cocked back to throw it like a spear.

Pater shot him with the Psycannon.

Dazed, Prius struggled to push the dead weight of the trooper off of himself. He rose to his knees, locating his energy sword on the deck and taking it up again.

His vision was blurry and tunnelling even more than the fight or flight reaction induced, and it threatened to narrow down into a tunnel of blackness that he knew he wouldn't wake up from.

Focus!

The corrupted judge staggered and dropped the Force Staff. His armour had been too badly damaged to stop a close range psycannon round and it had completely blown open the right side of his chest.

"The Emperor banishes thee, beast!" Prius called out, though it was more of a slur given the daze he was in. He rose to his feet, stepping up behind Pater, ready to defend him if Xerxes attacked.

Pater readjusted and fired another round into the Judge's head.

The judge staggered under Prius's unexpected assault. His sudden jerk caused Pater's round to miss. The judge leaped foreward, intent on killing. His three missing fingers had grown back.

Psycannon's restricting my movement. Pater detached it while calling his Staff back into his hand.

"He's regenerating! Finish him quickly!"

There were three objects in Prius' universe at the moment. Pater, Xerxes, and the energy blade in his hand. He darted forward, making a broad stroke that, if it landed as intended, would cleave the corrupted judge in twain.

Unfortunately, that focus cost him dearly, as Adivan's boot intruded on his reality and tripped him, sending him straight to the floor.

The staff got there just in time to block Xerxes attempt to rake Pater's face off. The judge's other hand stabbed in low and hard, attempting to emasculate the inquisitor.

Pater's moves came a lot more naturally without the 'Cannon; He twirled the Staff in a confusing pattern and snapped it up in Xerxes' wounded side, discharging energy into him.

From his worm's eye view of things, Prius took his best guess at which set of boots were loyal and which set were heretical and stabbed at what he hoped were the heretical ones.

Unfortunately, Prius' experience at identifying heretical footwear was a little rusty, and Pater had to hastily jump to avoid losing about an inch in height.

Xerxes staggered back, shrieking in agony from the blow from Pater's force staff. Psychic shock had pulped organs all throughout its torso. It could barely remain standing.. The daemon warred with the man for control for a moment and in that moment Prius struck. The energy blade severed his foot at the ankle and the judge fell.

Glancing up, he processed and dismissed his error quickly, stabbing out at Xerxes this time.

Pater put his foot down on Xerxes' neck, shoved the end of the Staff into it's mouth and uttered the Rites of Banishment.

Prius rose to his knees, sword at the ready in case Xerxes proved banishment-resistant.

Xerxes bucked under the inquisitor's boot, but Pater was too strong and the judge's body too damaged to successfully dislodge him. As the rights were spoken Xerxes began to gnaw on the force staff. His teeth broke on the staff's haft. The judge gargled, twitch, and lay still and the daemonic presence was blown back into the warp.