Intimancer

The woman looked at Rick incredulously.

Rather than deal with the fallout from the random bullshit that spews out of his mouth when he gets stressed, Rick opted instead to swing the half of his spear into her temple, hard.  He felt a small measure of grim satisfaction in seeing the light of consciousness in the arrogant elf’s eyes go out.

One down, two to go.

“Heloth!”  The pointy eared wannabe earthbender shouted in alarm.

Rick shook his head to clear the woozyness.  He really was running low on energy if even his thoughts were starting to spew pop culture nonsense alongside his mouth.  Despite utterly detesting the beverages, Rick had a sudden hankering for an energy drink, if only to help him remain focused for the remainder of the fight.

“Relax asshole.  She’s alive.”  He called out lazily.  “Although… I would be more worried about yourself for the moment unless you want to be taken out like the thunder guy.”

At his words, the earth mage’s eyes widened comically and he whipped his body around to face the oncoming threat.

Except there was no one behind him.

“Surprise motherfucker!”  Lilie shouted and ran his ass over with a shield charge, Ariwyn following as close behind as she was able.

Credit where it was due, the man managed to react to the shaytoni’s surprise attack extremely quickly, and turned a full on shield slam into merely a glancing blow.  Lilie also swung her sword at the mage’s legs in an attempt to hobble his deft movements, but the man leapt clear out of her weapon’s path and gained some distance from the deadly healer.

Noticing things getting quite chaotic, Rick opted to start dragging the woman he knocked unconscious off to the side for safety.  Yes, these mercs were huge pricks, but Rick had so far managed to go his whole life without killing anyone and he wasn’t about to start right then.  Right when he managed to haul his load to the closest wall and lean her up against it, a certain thief materialized from just out of sight.

“Muy impresionante.”  She said with a nod of her blond head.  She held up a small lilac flower petal sandwiched between two of her nimble fingers.  “And here we go, just slip this pretty thing under the tongue and she’ll no longer be a problem for at least a day.”

“I suppose I should be grateful you opted to ask Sade out first, given your apparent love for slipping people roofies.”

“Brusco!”  She admonished.  “I’ll have you know I only drug the ones who slip something in my drinks first.  Or, you know… try to stab me with an icicle, whichever comes primero.”

“Speaking of…”  Rick said, looking around the battlefield and seeing now four rock golems tearing up the place in order to subdue the rest of the party.  “Any reason you haven't taken out that golemancer yet?”

Daniela hooked her thumb at the chaos around them.  “In case you didn’t notice.  Those walking peñas are tearing up the place, making it hard for someone like me to even move around, let alone get behind their summoner all furtivo.”  She let out a frustrated sigh.  “Plus they are really good at watching their backs and keeping their distance from us.  You had the right idea in getting the puta to come to you.”

“Glad I’m doing something right in all this.”  Rick groused.  “Still, do what you can.  I’m all tapped out of magic, so the best I can do for the moment is be an extra distraction.”  He said while patting his teammate on the back.

“Says the man who outdueled an elf four times his level without a scratch.”  She laughed before disappearing once more.

Talking with her makes me feel like Commissioner Gorden sometimes.  Rick thought wryly.

Dusting himself off, he took stock of the situation once more.  To his dismay, there were four rock golems rolling around on their tiny arena floor.  Two of the things were sticking close to their summoner, acting like animated doberman statues while their master clutched at a small gash in her side.  It seemed that Daniela had already made an unsuccessful attempt at bringing the woman down based upon her would and how she was constantly swiveling her head around.

On the bright side, the summoner’s caution and split focus meant that the rest of his team only had to deal with two golems rather than four or more.  As he was making that observation, Ariwyn unleashed another high powered spell that blew one of the nearby constructs into gravel.  Rick looked over and saw Tyr nimbly dancing around the remaining golem despite the jagged and uneven terrain left behind in its wake.  She was more than fine on her own for the moment.

Rick made a dash for where Lilie was still attempting to close the gap on the earth mage.  While not the most ideal, if he could help at least take him down then all five of them could team up to take out the golemancer.

Drawing close, Rick saw that the indomitable warrior hadn’t escaped unscathed from her repeated engagements.  Her shield was cracked and dented, making it look like the front end of a smashed vehicle rather than a defensive tool.

The earth mage swung his arms forward, causing a wall of earthen spikes to rise out of the ground and slam into the healer.  Rick heard Lilie’s grunt of pain as she swept the attack aside and envelop the spots she got punctured with in the soft glow of her magic.  Her armor was ripped and torn all over, with more than a few spots stained crimson from where the enemy mage drew blood.  She let out a scream of frustration but thankfully lept back when another wall tried to impale her a second time.

“Just hold on Lilie!  I’m almost there!”  Rick shouted.

She didn’t look his way, but Rick could see her shoulders relax slightly at hearing his voice.  “Watch out!  He’s a slippery bastard, and I don’t know if I have enough to heal all three of us.”  She warned.

Rick grunted in affirmation.  “Got it.  I’ll be careful.”

The two rushed in while Ariwyn hung back and continued to lob spells towards the golemancer in an effort to take her or her creations out of the fight.  Just as Lilie had warned, the earth mage was quite slippery.  Unlike the two melee fighters, the rough terrain created by the rock golems didn’t seem to hinder his movements in the slightest, while Rick had to constantly check his footing so he wouldn’t trip at a crucial moment.

“I must admit, you worms are far hardier than I first assumed.”  The man said after forcing both attackers to momentarily withdraw with his magic.

“You could always just give us back our friend.  We’ll happily stop trying to stab you if you do that.”  Rick shot back while trying to catch his breath.

The elf frowned.  “Tempting, but no.  You are far too dangerous to let live.  I will not see our employer's plans come apart because of some upstart heroes.”

“Shame.”  Rick said with a shrug.  “Oh well, at least we served as a decent distraction.”

The earth mage flinched but then shot Rick with a baleful glare.  “I am not so foolish to fall for the same trick tw- AHHHHH!”

His words were interrupted by Daniela popping out from behind him and plunging two daggers into the back of his legs.  Rick couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact that two high leveled mercenaries had both managed to forget the first fundamental rule of fantasy combat.

Granted, the diminutive woman was so skilled at sneaking that even Tyr had difficulty spotting her.  But it was still no excuse for neglecting proper posterior protection.

Surprisingly, the merc managed to avoid any followup attacks from the thief by creating an undulating wave of earth to knock everyone back and carry him over towards where his final remaining teammate stood.  Rick groaned in frustration, while his group had managed to gain the upper hand in this wildly unfair fight, it was still annoying as hell watching their target repeatedly slip away from any and all decisive blows.

The mage’s eyes blazed with fury.  “You vermin!  How dare you maim one of your betters!  Now do this world a favor and die by my hand!”

“Gonn!  What about the young miss?”  The golemancer screamed.

“She has made her choice.”  The man spat.  “By the time the good lady finds out her daughter was colluding with this rabble, we will be long gone.”

“Take cover!”  LIlie screamed.  She turned around and tackled Ariwyn to the ground, covering the young elf with her own battered and bruised body.

Her intervention was just in time, as a colossal spike of stone as wide as Rick was tall tore through the air and skidded along her armored back with an ear piercing shriek of torn metal.  Rick managed to jump out of the way from the tip of the missile, but the sheer size of the thing still slammed into him with the force of a semi-truck.  He tumbled across the uneven ground like a ragdoll, finally rolling to a stop just in time to see the attack fly right past his position.

Straight towards Tyr’s belly.

“TYR!!”  Rick screamed in horror from where he lay on the floor.

The pregnant woman’s emerald eyes widened as she saw that deadly missile close in as fast as a bullet.  She had no time to dodge, no time to save herself and the nascent life growing within her.  It was happening again, a woman he loved was going to be taken from him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Tyr bellowed in rage and swung her axe at the hurtling chunk of stone with all her considerable might.  Rick watched in amazement as the deadly tip of the spike veered off its deadly course and skidded alongside her armored girdle.  Tyr’s boots skidded across the ground as the incredible momentum of the stone pounded against the axe she held braced in front of her with both hands.

A heartbeat later, the giant spike slammed into the cave wall, leaving a furiously panting forest elf standing next to the impact site with a broken weapon in her hand.

“Ya… Ya tried ta kill me baby.”  She growled.

“Wait, she’s pregnant?!”  The golemancer shouted in surprise.  Her head snapped to her colleague, pure terror painted over her features.  “Gonn.  We need to leave, NOW!”

“Ya tried ta KILL MY BABY!”  Tyr roared.

She let out another feral scream that sent the hairs on the back of Rick’s neck to stand straight up in primal terror and charged towards the two elves.  Her heavy footsteps thundered across the cavern floor, nearly causing the loose dirt and pebbles to shake with each slam of her boots.

The female mercenary gave a shout of alarm and directed one of her golems to block the rampaging elf’s path.  True to form, Tyr just slammed into the construct like a wrecking ball.  The force of her body slam was enough to cause the golem to skid back slightly, but eventually it managed to stop her charge completely.

Tyr bellowed with fury and pushed all the harder.  When that didn’t seem to work, she swung her arm back and started punching the moving boulder with wild haymakers that thudded loudly against the golem’s stony surface.  Rather than shattering her knuckles, cracks started to form in the stone and the golem started to once more loose ground to Tyr’s berserk onslaught.

“What the actual fuck?”  LIlie shouted from her position on the floor.

Rick had no answer to give.  He was just as confused about the situation as she was.  In the back of his mind, he remembered Tyr telling stories about her aunt.  It seemed the two women really were related, it just took something drastic to cause her to go all ‘hulk smash’ on everything around her.  No wonder those mercs were so scared when they found out she was with child.

Tyr wasn’t done dishing out surprises though.  After managing to punch the golem onto its back, she bent down and dug her fingers into the cracks that spiderwebbed all over its body.  The muscles all over her body bulged with effort, and slowly the boulder began to lift off the ground.  Everyone’s, including the mercenaries, eyes bulged at the sheer feat of strength they had just witnessed.

Bellowing once more in effort, Tyr charged forward and hurled her payload straight towards the stunned elves.  The helpless golem slammed into the other two like the world's largest bowling pins, causing all three to shatter into millions of jagged pieces.  Both enemy elves were pelted repeatedly by the shards, causing them both to fall over.

In a flash, Tyr closed the distance and grabbed the summoner with one giant hand and held her up so they were eye to eye.  The woman brutally kicked and squirmed in an attempt to free herself, completely overcome with terror.  With a dismissive sniff, Tyr hurled the woman across the room until she rolled to a stop only a few paces away from where the rest of the group sat stunned.

“No, NOOOO!  Stay back!”  The earth mage screamed.

His pleas went unanswered as the furious mother-to-be clutched his neck in a vice grip.  Tears streamed from his face as he was slowly lifted off the ground to meet his doom.  Tyr snarled, her lips curling back to expose her sharp fangs.  She shook him violently to cease his blubbering, then threw him back to the ground hard enough for his body to bounce.

She crouched down and gripped his neck once more.  With deliberate slowness she cocked her other arm back, ready to deliver a no doubt killing blow to the helpless man.

“Tyr!  Don’t!”  Rick shouted.

“This fucker just tried ta kill us all in cold blood.”  She hissed.  “He tried to kill our child.  And would have laughed about it afterwards.”

“No… I’m sorry…”  The man begged.

Like the drop of an executioner's axe, Tyr’s fist dropped.  The floor by the mages head exploded into chunks of dirt and debris.  When the dust settled, a small crater had formed around Tyr’s fist, the mage’s still intact head just next to where her punch landed.

“Ya got lucky my mate has a soft heart.”  She whispered and let go of the unconscious mage.