The Homecoming 124.

Fight Or Flight...

The dark druid Palvarc hits the ground and rolls. And narrowly avoids the white ball of strange energy, that passes to his right.
The advisor to baron Harkonin, who makes sure to keep a hold of his staff.
Looks up as the short fellow wearing the odd conical shaped hat disappears from sight again.
The practitioner of magic from the fief to the east, looks away to his right, and sees the ship's sorcerer running across the hilltop.
The strange white ball of energy coming down from the late morning sky, hits the ground just behind the officer from the downed airship. And it dissipates without doing any damage.
The dark druid's staff swings towards the ship's sorcerer. Baron Harkonin's advisor, who assumes the officer from the warship that lies near the base of the hill, is about to cast.
Blinks in surprise as the sorcerer in the kingdom's aircorp. Comes to a halt, then topples over sideways, and hits the ground.
Helbe the elven thief shifts away after knocking out the sorcerer who joined the dark druid upon the hilltop.
The blurred and shielded elven magic user, shifts to where he's taken Shur Kee the monk. On the deck of the downed frigate lying at the base of the hill.
Looking at a few of the survivors who are climbing down off the airship that he brought down. The elven masterthief sees that the second of the ship's boats, is putting down near the first. Which is about forty yards behind the downed frigate that's part of the personal fleet of the lord high constable of Druvic.
The young elven noble from the island principality of Laerel, glances at the short, statured monk who is blurred to everyone else.
And he notices that the jade shard he wears on a silver chain around his neck, is no longer glowing green.
"You okay?" quietly asks Helbe the elven thief, as they stand near the poop deck of the downed airship.
"Your pendant isn't glowing anymore" quietly adds the grandson of the ruling prince of Laerel.
"I cannot sustain the meditative state indefinitely" quietly says Shur Kee the monk as the two of them watch a pair of air sailors help one of their fellow crew over the port rail near where the aft mast is down over the side of the ship, and down a cargo net the survivors of the crashed airship are using to get off the destroyed frigate.
"I need a bit of time before i can go back into the state of incarnation" quietly adds the short, statured monk who hails from the far east coast of the continent, from the kingdom of Wah Lee.
"Not long i hope?" quietly asks the elven master assassin, who though he hopes the acolyte in the order of Bru Li can eliminate the dark druid Palvarc. He has one other option up his sleeve. Though he doesn't particularly want to use it.
Though it's not up to him. It's up to her.
"No, not that long" quietly says the physical adept in response to the elven princeling's question. "Not long at all" adds Shur Kee a few moments later, who reaches up and clutches the jade pendant he wears around his neck.
He let's go of it, and the shard of dark green jade is once again glowing.
"Ready when you are friend Helbe" quietly says the short, statured monk who speaks in a slow, deliberate way when he's in a meditative state.
Though when he's in the midst of combat. He shouts as he fights. Shouts in a voice that you don't usually hear from the usually soft spoken acolyte in the order of Bru Li.
The highly talented elven spellcaster takes hold of the right arm of the physical adept. And he shifts them away, up into the sky.
In a blink of an eye whilst in mid air, he shifts again. Shur Kee to the hilltop below, and him to somewhere else. As he does, he once again drops the blur spell from the short, statured monk. As his unique power, when he unleashes it. Pretty much negates all magical spells upon him, as well as at him.
The dark druid's staff points down to the otherside of the hill, the side that the downed frigate is at the base of.
Baron Harkonin's advisor sourly smiles as he figures the hidden spellcaster, who is more than annoying to say the least. Is somewhere down on the the destroyed airship, or near it.
Palvarc looks down at the sorcerer lying flat on his face, and finds the man is only unconscious.
The dark druid quickly revives the unconscious sorcerer with a spell, and as the ship's officer groans as he wakes up, Palvarc the dark druid says to him "Get up" followed by "And ward yourself" he then silently adds in a dry tone, not that it'll help you if you get hit by one of those balls of whatever the hell it is.
The spellcaster from the Harkonin fief glances up, then away to the south, as he staff jerks upright in his hands, then away to the left, to the south. Indicating where the hidden spellcaster is.
The dark druid who wonders how the hell someone can move that fast by spellcraft, since even the quickest of teleportation spells takes a few moments to cast, and to reappear where you want to teleport to. The shorter the distance, the quicker the teleportation.
But the hidden spellcaster, is moving about so ridiculously fast. That Palvarc wonders if they're actually teleporting. Not to mention they're also moving the short, fellow in the odd, conical shaped hat about in the same way.
"Hell" mutters the ship's sorcerer next to the dark druid as baron Harkonin's advisor is about to plant his staff on the ground, with the top touching the ground. For then it can also sense any movement in the vicinity. Not just spellcraft and magic, as well as practitioners of magic.
Palvarc spins as the ship's officer, who has just stood upright, after getting up off the ground, is going to cast after he puts up a barrier spell around himself.
"Move you fool!" shouts the dark druid from the Harkonin fief as he sees the short individual, wearing the strange white clothing, and an even stranger hat. Standing just thirty feet from the two spellcasters.
Palvarc is already moving as he sees the short fellow, who has his hands down by his side, thrust them up and forward, as he shouts "Bru Li spirit!".
Once again baron Harkonin's advisor wonders what that means. He might not know. But what he does know, is that the nine foot wide ball of white looking energy heading this way. Is dangerous to say the least. And probably deadly if one is to be hit by it directly.
As it nears them, and he dives out the way. The practitioner of magic from the fief across the border to the east, grimaces as the senses a fairly decent sized fireball behind him,
Palvarc hits the ground, then looks back. And sees the fireball cast by the ship's sorcerer heading straight at the strange white ball of energy.
It doesn't go far the ten foot wide ball of liquid fire. Barely travels a dozen feet before it runs into the approaching ball of strange energy that the short fellow in the odd looking hat, sent hurtling this way.
The dark druid blinks in surprise when the fireball hits the strange ball of white energy. It just blinks out. As though it never existed. As though the ship's sorcerer never cast it.
Palvarc has never seen a spell drop like that before in his life. Not even when a spellcaster dies with a spell still active. Disappear so quickly as the sorcerer's fireball did just then.
He's even more surprised that the ball of strange looking white energy doesn't seem to be effected at all. As it just continues on it's path in this direction.
And though baron Harkonin's advisor has dived out of the way of it. Not so the sorcerer from the downed frigate.
Who stands there utterly dumbfounded that his fireball has disappeared without a trace.
And with a look of total incomprehension upon his face. The officer from the destroyed airship that lies at the base of the hill.
Is hit full on by the strange looking white ball of energy, that is not magical in any way.
Palvarc draws in a sharp breath as the ship's sorcerer who has his barrier and protection spells snuffed out by the strange ball of white energy. Is picked up off the ground, and with his arms and legs spread akimbo, he's flung backwards through the air.
He goes flying backwards at speed. And he arcs back, and goes flying off the top of the hill, before disappearing from sight down the side of the hill.
The dark druid who saw the bewildered look upon the face of the ship's sorcerer when he went flying back through the air.
Senses for the officer from the downed frigate as the ball of strange white energy goes off the side of the hill, and continue through the air for about hundred feet like the previous one's did, and like them it disappears.
Baron Harkonin's advisor can't sense the destroyed warship's sorcerer. Nor can his staff sense him. Palvarc knows the spellcaster in the personal fleet of the lord high constable of the kingdom. Lies dead somewhere down the side of the hill.
The dark druid who is lying on the ground, looks forward, and he lifts his arms up, and plants his staff into the ground, tip first as he looks at the short fellow in the odd hat, who looks this way.
Baron Harkonin's advisor, unleashes the full power of his magical staff. A staff that was crafted by a woodsman many years ago. Which came into the possession of a dark cleric, or necromancer over fifty years ago. Who turned a mundane staff, into a magical one.
Who rose some dead individual from their grave. And controlled that poor undead soul, to capture a ground pixie of all things. Who now wingless, and crippled. Lies trapped within the gnarled, fist sized gnarled top of the staff.
A staff that came into the possession of the dark druid who searched throughout the kingdom of Druvic, and surrounding lands. For anything to give him an advantage in spreading the old ways, the dark druidic ways.
The earth is ripped apart, and torn apart, and flung into the air, as a crack appears across the hilltop. From where Palvarc has his staff in the ground, to where the short individual in the funny looking white clothing, and wearing the strange looking hat is standing.
Just as the ground erupts upwards where that man stands, he vanishes from sight as the earth continues to be torn apart and thrown upwards along the top of the hilltop.
"Hell that was close" says Helbe the elven thief as he and Shur Kee the monk float in the sky, about a hundred yards further east of the hilltop.
The young elven noble who knows the short, statured monk can protect himself from direct attacks from magic. Knows it's a little harder for the acolyte in the order of Bru Li to protect himself from indirect attacks from magic. Or to be exact, the indirect effects of spellcraft.
Such as the earth being torn apart, and thrown up right beneath him.
The elven princeling has seen Shur Kee protect himself in the past by something similar. A large building falling on top of him by Mira Reinholt the mage who was more than a little careless with what one of his mageglobes blew up when they, and the group at the time were across the Great Western Ocean, in the cities of Nors And Tran.
And how the physical adept was buried in rubble. But safe inside of one of his balls, or orbs of what the young elven noble understands to be made up of spirit energy.
"You okay?" asks the grandson of Prince Raendril of Laerel as they float in the air, unseen by anyone. While they watch the top of the hilltop crack open. From where the dark druid lies upon the ground holding his staff.
To where the physical adept was just standing, further across the hilltop, then down one side of the hill, going a good sixty to seventy feet down that side of the hill.
The crack is a foot or so wide in some places, to over a dozen feet in others. Being as shallow as a few inches in places, to as deep as dozen feet in some other places. Soil and rocks from the crack is strewn across the hilltop, and down the side of the hill that's been torn up.
"I am fine friend Helbe" says Shur Kee in a slow voice as he replies to the highly talented elven magic user.
"Well, we've pissed him off for sure" quietly says prince Helbenthril Raendril, who spots some of the crew from the downed frigate. Some from the crashed warship itself. And others from the two ship's boats that have set down behind the destroyed airship.
Making their way up the hill the dark druid Palvarc is on. Until they feel, and see what's just happened. As the crack in the ground comes down the side of the hill, that they're heading up.
"Keep at it" says the elven master assassin, who shifts Shur Kee down to the hilltop, where the dark druid is standing up again. While he shifts away to the north. When he reappears there, he has to quickly shift away again as a beam of dark, green, malevolent energy comes shooting his way.
Palvarc the dark druid growls in anger under his breath as he shoots of a beam of energy from the tip of his staff, up into the sky to the north where his staff indicates the hidden spellcaster is.
Baron Harkonin's advisor scowls as his staff jerks to the west, to show him where the hidden practitioner of magic is now.
The dark druid doesn't look that way, because out of the corner of his eye. He sees that the short fellow wearing the odd looking hat, has appeared on the hilltop again.
Fucking hell, damn it! Palvarc thinks to himself in disgust as he goes to cast a spell as he sees what the short, statured individual is doing again.
The dark druid is already moving as he needs a few moments to continue casting his spell. He jumps over the crack in the ground, and grimaces as the short fellow in the strange clothing, and wearing an even stranger looking hat. Turns so he continues to face him.
Palvarc sees him thrust his arms, and hands out infront of himself, and once again shout "Bru Li spirit!".
Come on! baron Harkonin's advisor thinks to himself as he grips his staff as another of the balls of strange white energy forms, and comes barreling towards him.
The dark druid almost breathes a sigh of relief as his spell is complete. And with the nine foot ball of strange white energy less than twenty feet from him, Palvarc disappears as he teleports as faraway as he possibly can.
A moment later, and prince Helbenthril Raendril collects Shur Kee the monk. And he shifts eastwards in pursuit of the dark druid Palvarc who is heading that way.
The young elven noble from the island principality of Laerel shifts half a dozen times, before he and the short statured monk, freefall through the air, with the elven magic user holding onto the physical adept by way of a spell.
"Need a moment" explains Helbe the elven thief as they fall from the sky, who continues with "Have to teleport" as he looks to the east, and north where he senses baron Harkonin's advisor is going.
Then the two of them disappear, as they chase after the dark druid Palvarc. Who decided that flight would be a better option, than to fight against an opponent he had no answers to . . . . . .