Intimancer

Within seconds, the elven lightning mage collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Rick let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.  “Whew!  Great save there Dani.”

The diminutive thief shrugged her shoulders.  “Meh, you’re the ones who kept el pollino busy.  I was just doing my job.”

“Well that bastard was really fucking tough, so I for one appreciate you taking him down before everything went to shit.”  Lilie said with her usual amount of class.

Rick saw that the healer was clutching her shield arm tightly to her side.  “Hey, are you feeling okay Lilie?”  He asked with concern.

She winced and grabbed her arm tighter.  “Yeah, I’ll be fine.  Broke my fucking arm deflecting that last attack.  Just give me a minute or two and I’ll be good to go.”  As a warm glow of healing magic enveloped the injured limb, a shaky voice came from directly behind the group.

“W-w-what was all that?!”

The four hunters all turned around to see Ariwyn kneeling on the floor, shock clearly written all over her beautiful features.

“Huh… this feels kinda nostalgic.”  Tyr mused.  Rick and Lilie both nodded their heads in agreement while Daniela looked almost as confused as the high elf.

“Um, a fight?”  Rick said in an attempt to answer the question.

Ariwyn shook her head and glared at the party in front of her.  “No, not that.  I mean what was that incredible display of power?”  She gestured towards the unconscious man bleeding out on the floor.  “I know this man.  He is an incredibly skilled mercenary who has reached at least level thirty.  And the four of you took him down like it was child’s play!”

“Hey, it’s not like we came out of the fight uninjured.”  LIlie groused while still pouring magic into her broken limb.

“The fact that none of you are dead with bloody holes in your chests tells me otherwise!”

RIck held up his hands in surrender.  “Let’s just say we spent a lot of time training together and also just happened to get lucky, sound good?”  The others shot him meaningful looks, but it seemed their new friend was too distracted by the whole situation to take notice.

“Anyways…”  He continued.  “I highly doubt our little scuffle has gone unnoticed.  We need to get back to looking for Sade before this place is swarming with more people like this guy.”  He said while jerking his thumb to the lighting mage.

“We should, but there’s something else we should deal with first.”  Tyr said while nodding her head towards the elephant in the room, or in this case… the elf.

“What are you talking about?”  Ariwyn asked nervously.

Tyr padded over to where the high elf was still kneeling and crouched down as best her bulging belly would allow so they were looking at each other eye to eye.  “As ya pointed out, ya know these people.  If ya stay with us, yer more than likely gonna confront yer ma or others ya care about.  Ya sure ya want ta go through with that?”

The young mage looked torn.  “I… Um…”

“Hey, I thought you said you were fine with us kicking her ass, what gives?”  LIlie butted in.

Ariwyn’s head snapped towards the healer.  “You asked me if I had any issues with you attacking my mother, to which I responded that yes, I in fact do mind!”

“Oh…”  Lilie blinked.  “Well, fuck, that mistake was on me.”

“The point I’m trying ta make,”  Tyr growled before turning back to Ariwyn and softening her tone.  “Is that none of us, least of all me, would blame ya fer being too uncomfortable with all this ta continue.”

The young noble looked shocked to hear such a thing come out of the hulking forest elf.  “No, I…”  She took a deep breath and continued.  “I have to, need to come with you.”  She pointed towards the unconscious man. “The things he said about what he planned to do to Sade… My mother runs a tight ship.  No one, and I repeat, no one would even dare to think such things unless she allows it.  This is wrong, all of it.  I can not allow myself to back down without confronting her first.”

Rather than argue, Tyr simply gave one of her signature fanged grins.  “Well said.”  The large woman held out her hand, which Ariwyn grasped at the wrist, and the two of them stood back up.

“Not to sound like a bitch and all, but are we going to address the issue of the mage not casting a spell all fight?”  Lilie asked while testing the range of motion for her newly mended arm.

The high elf blushed furiously at the healer’s less than gentle words.  “I apologize for that.  M-my magic is, well…”

Tyr gave a snort of amusement.  “Don’t tell me ya think yer magic aint good enough in a fight.”

Ariwyn’s eyes grew wide and she furiously shook her head.  “No, no.  It is actually the opposite.  My magic… Well, let me just say that I usually avoid fighting opponents who are not protected by magical shields like at the tournament.”

Rick nodded his head in understanding.  “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Just do what I did.”  Daniela said while gesturing to her previous handiwork.  “Aim for the arms, legs, or huevos.  Hard to die when hit there.”

The others all shared a look with each other.  While she wasn’t exactly wrong with her way of thinking, taking a fireball to the nuts would make quite a few people wish they had died instead.  Rick suppressed an involuntary shiver at the prospect.  Their cute little thief could be quite ruthless when she wanted to.

Tyr’s large ears twitched.  “I hear things approaching.  Several sets of footsteps combined with the scraping of claws or something similar.”

“From which direction?”  Rick asked, shifting gears back to battle mode instantly.

Tyr pointed down a lone hallway to the side from where they first entered.  “Down there.  This other passage is quiet.”  She said while pointing to the passageway opposite where the noises were coming from.

“We’ve already wasted the element of surprise, but I would rather we focus on locating Sade than fighting our way through an unknown number of guards.  Especially if they are in the same league as the guy we just fought.” Rick said while combing a hand through his dark mop of hair.

“Speaking of which, what happens when this fucker wakes up?”  Lilie asked, pointing to the unconscious man.

“Don’t worry about him.  Slipped a trin lily petal under his tongue when he hit the ground.”  Daniela said with a cocky grin.  “He’s not waking up ‘till mañana at the earliest.”

“Good call.”  Rick complemented.  “Everyone ready to leave?”

The others nodded and the group set out down the empty hall.  Despite them doing their best to remain quiet, they set a fairly quick pace.  Aside from wanting to get as far away from the previous room and the people heading towards it, they had yet to run into any sort of trap or ward since they entered, so they all felt it was safe to proceed a bit faster than what was usually required.

Although Rick had a sneaking suspicion his abnormal luck may have had a hand in that as well, but he could never be sure with something so abstract and random.

“Slow it down, I hear voices ahead.”  Tyr called out softly.

The group slowly crept towards the end of the hallway.  The small tunnel opened up into a cavernous expanse even larger than what they found underneath the mines they previously explored.  Next to the entryway was a stone staircase that snaked its way down towards another platform that extended out into the abyss before them.  Four figures stood on the lower platform, one of whom was extremely familiar and was arguing with one of the others.

“Has your team not found them yet?”  Lady Rivenmoor seethed.

“Heloth is combing the tunnels as we speak, my lady”  The other woman replied in what appeared to be practiced calm.  “We may be lucky and find that Gwaen has already taken care of the intruders.”

“Gwaen is an idiot who could barely subdue a lone girl barely two decades old, and nearly had his manhood ripped off in the process.”  Ariwyn’s mother countered with a sneer.  “And that little slut’s friends have been proving to be just as tenacious and annoying as she is.”

“Do you really think a few children are too much for me and my team to handle?”  The other woman asked incredulously.

“You are coming with me to prepare the purification ritual and to summon more demons.”  Lady Rivenmoor ordered.  “Despite Gwaen’s recent failings, you and your team have served me and the order well.  But I can ill afford to take any chances, not when we are so close.  Have your team find and subdue them with as much force as you require.  Once done, bring their broken bodies to me so they can watch as I remove their foul taint from this city once and for all.”

“It will be done madame.”  The other woman bowed before turning towards the other two people in the group.  “You have your orders.  I would hate for the rest of our team to be labeled as incompetent from this situation.”

The man and woman both nodded their heads and the mercenary leader turned on her heels to follow Lady Rivenmoor down a path that led around a corner and deeper into the cavern.

“So what do we do now?”  Rick whispered softly.

“The fuck if I know.”  Lilie hissed.  She turned her head and glared down the path that Lady Rivenmoor and that other woman went down.  “But I could have sworn I heard them talking about summoning demons.”

The amount of rage and bloodlust emanating off the healer as she spat out that final word caused the hairs on the back of Rick’s neck to prickle in danger.  Before he could make a comment about it, Tyr’s large ears twitched back and forth wildly.

“What is it?”  He asked.

The large elf’s face was a mask of confusion.  “I… I have no idea.  Whatever it is, it sounds like it’s coming here rea-”

As one, the party turned around and saw something none of them would ever expect.

What appeared to be a boulder made out of ice was half rolling, half sliding down the hallway, heading straight towards their position at breakneck speeds.  Jutting out of the sides of the oversized iceball were what appeared to be arms tipped with jagged claws.  Whenever the creature seemed to be slowing down, the arms would shoot out, dig its claws deep into the wall, and hurl itself down the hall at ludicrous speeds.

“Balls!”  Rick swore as he and the rest of the team tumbled down the stairs in order to get out of the way of the speeding snowball of doom.

They had just barely cleared out of the firing range when the ice monster blasted out of the hallway like a cannonball, crashing down hard in the middle of the platform below.  The elven man and woman below stood stock still, as if a massive animated boulder of ice coming down like a rogue meteor was a perfectly normal thing to expect in a forgotten crypt deep underground.

Suddenly another figure shot out of the hallway, this one more slender and humanoid.  The woman in crystal blue robes floated through the air and gently floated down next to the other two as if she was as light as a snowflake.

“You’re late.”  The elven man in rocky brown robes told the newcomer.

“I had to make sure the idiot was still alive.”  The woman shot back.  She jerked her thumb in the direction of the party still sprawled all over the steep and narrow staircase.  “They did a real number on him, but at least he’s still breathing.”

“How fortunate for them.”  The other woman in the sandy white robes drawled while staring straight at Rick.  “It means we get to hold back a little when preparing them for Lady Rivenmoor to play with.”

“Balls…”  Rick groaned.  They really didn’t have time for this.