When the clouds disappeared, the rain stopped pouring, and the flames hissed away into nothingness leaving a bunch of corpses and the remaining bandit forces recovering from the chaos, the moment to act was now. Two warriors now in a battlefield, Aelira instructed, "Take the back, and I will take the front!" And Aelira shouted without a second to lose, "Go!"
"Easy for you to say," Dennis said. Though Aelira didn't hear his complaint as she jumped back into the fray heading towards the weather manipulating mage-the dark mage! "Come get some of this!" He taunted.
We then turn our attention to Aelira. She didn't mind the bandit forces. Still stunned by the severity of flames that hurt them or just struck fear in them that they had to face this elf. What.....is....she?! They thought. Aelira took this as an advantage-that they were afraid a little; that they won't attack. Aelira easily slipped passed them and ran.....jumping over them and using each bandit as a platform, at lighter pressure on heads accompanied by magic, to jump even higher.
Her objective was straightforward: eliminate the dark mage.
Why you might ask?-It's that she's experienced fighting them before.
Just like how she explained earlier that 'Dark Mages not only excel at light magic, but are more proficient in the dark arts' She isn't kidding. This is exactly is the type of situation that had happened to her 50 years ago when she was still a low ranking soldier. A scout, if you will, but a soldier sent to the front lines.
Expecting her enemies to be a piece of cake she found out the hard way. In dark robes their dark spells spilled death and degraded life into a pulp. Magic too powerful, corruptive, and poisoning. Fortunately, the dark mage was slain before it had more time to cause a mess of what was already. Dispatched by their very best warriors she handle the threat flawlessly. Then it was instructed after returning to base that this enemy types must be-and at all times-killed on sight.
As Aelira was about to reach one of the dark mage set on her sights, she applied a little bit of magic and used it to jump into the air but not before descending, that she used as leverage and was about to strike, bringing about immense strength like as if it was a big stone hammer-Bhhaaammm!
Unbeknownst to Aelira, a shield had come infront of her-between her and the dark mage-and when she realized what was going on, the shield moved to the side and a mace swung at her. Missed, she leapt back to avoid being struck.
At first she thought it to be a heavy-duty bandit, though she had the unfortunate discovery of finding that it was something horrifying. That she had thought that most of them died from her flames.....this here, degraded armor, open wounds, scars, burnt flesh, and a cracked skull; this was no living being but dead and of no soul. An undead! Grrrhhhj! Behind Aelira, the sound of zombified growls reached her ears. Standing up, limping on twos, the dead bandit forces came back to life-distorted and broken.
The Dark Mage smiled with a grin. "What's matter elf, isn't it wonderful!" The dark mage said in way trying to provoke her. But she was already provoked.
She spoke, "All this souls wasted and you bring them to life. You're magic is cruel!" This she hated.
Hahhahahahahahhhhh! The dark mage laughed. He stopped. "Now die!" He commanded and so the armored dead charged at Aelira.
However, Aelira wasn't afraid of the incoming armored dead. Going back to her training, she was told how to deal with this sort of troubles. It was discovered that the undead was only weaken to holy water or light based magic. This is where the elves came up with their own way of defeating them-a light based magic created from their own magic. They called it: Divine Shine. It works by shining a very powerful light at the undead at close proximity and doing so forces that dark magic that has enveloped the corpses. So simple does it-wrong!
When they said it had to be close-they really mean that their hand must be close to the body and then release the spell. But at the current state, the armoured dead were charging at Aelira, it's gonna be tricky.
The armoured dead came close and brought its hammer down. Boom! Aelira evaded. She wanted to step forward, but the armoured dead used its metal shield like waving a flag to increase its deference (and this proved effective for Aelira too keep away). Together, the armoured dead used both mace and shield in unison, swinging and swinging. One after the other, and another to the other.
Constantly sidestepping her bulky armoured friend was becoming a nuisance. Although big and greatly defensive, she had the upper hand in speed, but in power, she had yet to use it. The one thing stopping her is the armoured plates; those might just hinder her spell because the spell requires contact with the skin or slightly exposed, for that matter.
Still dodging, noticed the one spot that was exposed. Without hesitation Aelira sped her acceleration as she saw an opportunity to takeover.....and before the armored dead could react to counter it was already too late. Aelira's image stood within the needed range of the armored dead and released the spell and with it came a shining light that counted a 3 seconds of lighting-which ended. The undead no more cursed fell on its back.
Stunned locked, the dark mage was overwhelmingly shocked. "W-what d-did you do?!" He mumbled gibberish. Aelira didn't wait and rushed at him and stabbed him on the chest at lightning speed. "Ghhhraahhhh!" The dark mage spat out blood. Aelira took her blade out and the dark mage collapsed.
Her work wasn't done. There was still more dark mages left, just the lower rank ones. Since she's dealt with the big boss. It'll be easy to take out his followers.
~~~~~~
Down to 7% of materials. Dennis isn't doing so well, the last of his materials he constructs a belt of bombs and throws it at a group of enemies. Kaboom! "That's the last of what I've got," he said, "...anymore and I'd be wasted. Better reserve a few for later," he looked at his surroundings and saw enemies walking up to him. "At least I've got my fists," Dennis raised his arms up and went for it. Enemies came, and he handled it like an MMA fighter, even using some of the best martial arts moves.
They came in droves-Twelve at once. No formation, no tactics - just rage, shouting, and a dozen swords slicing through the air like angry snakes.
He didn't flinch.
Dennis rolled his shoulders, calm in the storm, foot on solid ground. The first man, screaming like a war cry, would help his swing - lunged forward.
Dennis sidestepped.
The blade sliced empty space. Dennis's elbow met the man's jaw - crack - then his knee rose like a piston into the guy's ribs. Before the body hit the ground, Kai had pivoted.
Two more came.
One from behind. One from the side. A spinning backfist dropped the man on the right. The one from behind raised his sword but didn't react fast enough. Dennis ducked, swept his leg, and the man fell hard. He stomped his wrist. The sword clanged against the ground.
He picked it up - not to use it, just to throw it like a spear into the next attacker's gut. And once he did, the attacker dropped, gasping.
There were nine left.
They hesitated. Dennis didn't.
He sprinted toward them - feinting left, darting right. A wild swing narrowly missed his head. He ducked low, drove his shoulder into a gut, then locked the man in a clinch - elbow, elbow, knee, toss. Another body down.
A sword hissed past his ear. He grabbed the wrist, snapped it sideways - disarmed. Dennis jabbed, then twisted the man's arm and slammed him into his friend like a battering ram.
Six left and they spread out, finally realising one-on-one wasn't working.
Dennis grinned.
He launched himself into the middle - caught one arm mid-swing, drove an uppercut into the man's nose. Pop. Blood everywhere. He spun, used a Muay Thai elbow on the next, then finished with a low roundhouse kick that took out a knee.
Four now.
As if wanting to back away, their timing could be so wrong as they were too late.
Dennis charged, slid low like a baseball player under a swing. As he rose, he grabbed the man's leg, lifted, and dumped him headfirst into the ground.
The last three circled, sweating. One tried to talk but that didn't stop Dennis-He leapt up, flying knee to the chest, then twisted mid-air and hammered the next guy with a back kick. The final man screamed, charging with a desperate swing.
Dennis caught the blade between his forearm and bicep, wrenched it free with a scream of effort - then dropped the man with a spinning elbow. That was just to take them down....but was it enough?
The surrounding area began to erupt in flames again. This he saw and knew right away. Aelira came into action. With her fire spell, it was just enough to take them out, and what was left, like an hour of fighting, was coming to an end as the last of the threats Aelira fought off against. There weren't many bandits left on sight and no more to count, just a few frightened folks holding their swords high and shaky legs.
Dennis walked to Aelira. "Thank you for the help," he said to her, "You're abilities are very fascinating."
Aelira smirked at Dennis. She brushed off the compliment and turned back.
'Really not much a word?!' Dennis said and took a scan around the place. But as he did, his headset caught something in the distance.
Injured like a dying animal, the lower rank mage was at his last breath, "Damn you!" He spoke. "Damn you, you worthless PIGGGGSS!" And before Dennis realised, the dark mage fired a dark glowing spell right towards Aelira, coming in hot and fast. Without thinking, Dennis pushed Aelira to the right, which Aelira was surprisingly unaware of and she fell to the ground.
But in Dennis's place, he got hit by the spell instead, around the side of his lower body to the right. He flew backwards at an outstandingly brutal speed, tumbling over himself and stopping.
Realising her grievance on herself, Aelira saw Dennis flying backwards and pinpointed the origin of the spell. She rose and rushed to find the almost breathless mage. "You'll pay for this...." But as Aelira wanted to finish him, the mage unfortunately tired down and died.
Aelira looked back at the soldier who saved her. She now had more thoughts in her head. Why did you save me?!