Thousands of kilometres away, Roderic had failed in his mission. He had politely asked various Shadow Elves if there had ever been a dark sorcerer, instead of finding them, all he saw was various confused Shadow Elven clans, a whole lot of shrugs and dismissals. Finally one said something interesting, a young shadow Elf who wore binoculars of sorts on his neck.

“Necromancers and Demons were fighting each other not that long ago, a large battle took place. It is hard to say who came out on top, although I suppose the Undead probably.”

“Right,” Roderic said slowly as he tried to process what he just heard.

Stocky and short, he looked up at the Shadow Elf with a degree of skepticism, he did not particularly trust the nonhuman. The nonhuman sensed the suspicion and shrugged, as if to tell Roderic he could choose to believe him or not, after a long moment, Roderic shrugged himself and continued the questioning.

“What happened?” Roderic finally asked, fishing for more information.

“Both went on their separate ways, but they left a considerable stain on the environment, umm, yeah.”

Roderic glared at the non human, again the Elf was not confident due to the glares, but nonetheless told Roderic what he knew.

“They did?” Roderic asked a little confused.

“Ashen soot, Demon corpses.”

“Talida,” Roderic said, looking at the wiry woman.

“On it,” she mused.

She sent her air elementals, sending them to scout ahead in the sands. They whooshed past, kicking up dust, before sighting Maras and Ildrid, both of which were fighting Demons again.

“Again?” Roderic said, repeating the words Talida mumbled.

“Wait seriously?” The Shadow Elf said, “if it wasn’t terrifying to have them here, I’d be laughing.”

“Should we fight them?” Nina said, “I can summon some gryphons if you like.”

“No, give me the communication crystal. I need to contact HQ,” Roderic instructed, he tutted impatiently, he knew it was irrational and yet there was frustration in his voice, “send me on a goose chase, don’t give me any details. What a country…” he muttered to himself.

He looked at the sand, seeing Demons with his naked eye, then he saw Talida. Her air elementals went to the Demons, but they had seemingly fled through a portal to somewhere else. The air elementals whooshed back to base, Nina came back with a communication crystal.

“Who is this?” The agent on the other end said.

“Can I get in touch with naval command?” Roderic said.

Strangely no one replied, and it didn’t sound like his call had been redirected, he pursed his lips nervously. He smelled of nervous sweat, coupled with the desert sweat that was normal with being in such a climate in the day. His two lieutenants looked at him, and he looked at them. He deliberately put the crystal on loudspeaker, there had been no mistaking that no voice was coming from the other end. 10 ships parked in the harbour, the sailors and marines getting rowdy, as a few of them had seen the Demons.

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“They were no ordinary Demons,” a soldier yelled as he waded ashore.

“Explain yourself,” Roderic said.

“They are not Uriri or Teutona Demons, they are not Earth or Ice Demons, they are Fire Demons. Cahov.”

“We have treaty with Urir…” Roderic said, before immediately staring agape.

He summoned water elementals as fast as he could then craned his neck and head around, desperately rushing back. Another message immediately was heard loud and clear on the communication crystal.

“Hello this is the garrison of Suno! Cahov Fire Demons are attacking us. Some of the local forts have already surrendered. Please send assistance!”

“This is Roderic of the third fleet. I am coming to your assistance. Hold on soldier.”

“Of course,” the commander said, “please hurry.”

“Talida!” He screamed, “lets use air and water to get there as fast as possible.”

It didn’t take too long. Cahov had apparently not been idle, having won a few footholds on the desert continent, they had built a fleet on the great sea. Roderic's fleet that had scrambled desperately sailed straight into the Demon fleet. The sight would have paralysed a lesser man and commander, but Roderic immediately thought of a plan.

Arrogance leads to mistakes, still I doubt they have that much experience sailing.

“Sir there’s far too many!”

I know that, you moron.

His crew stared at Roderic, as he had said it aloud, he waved his arm to shut them up for a little bit. A fleet of 400, against 10 were not good odds. Roderic scanned the battlefield to be, and for a long 30 seconds he thought. Following quiet contemplation Roderic screamed commands to his summoners.

“We are to sink as many of these scallywags as Humanly possible! Avoid the flames, douse them, save your comrades. Kill these fuckers!” He bellowed to much roaring from his crew.

Roderic’s water elementals emerged violently up from the water and punctured and ruptured ships, bringing others into the depths. Talida used air elementals to tear sails, ships quickly stopped moving, which allowed another summoner who used earth elementals to tear through deck, as the earth elemental smashed through each level of wood until the ship ends folded, water engulfed the Demons affected. Within 5 minutes 50 ships had been sunk, the Demons rallied, and their admiral shot fireball after fireball in attempt to chase off the attackers. Roderic quenched the flames and sunk more ships; Roderic’s fleet did advanced manoeuvres, snuffed fireballs before chucking the mages responsible overboard, eventually however Roderic screamed again:

“Talida! Nina! Finish this, Suno needs us!”

Gryphons descended from the sky smashing their beaks onto the decks of the Demon ships, their talons sinking into the wooden boards, their bird like cries shrieking in a resounding chorus, the vessels soon croaked into the deep seas, the Demons appropriately shouted in panic, their ships soon glugged down below the water before they vanished. The only thing left were Demons who had clung onto driftwood, staring agape at the sheer might of the third fleet. Demon flyers soon came to harass but were bit and scratched, nonetheless it made the gryphons operationally useless, as they could not assist in sinking the Sumari fleet. Talida would finish the day, her air elementals made the Demon vessels crash into each other, she partnered up with other air elemental users who did much the same, and the result was a completely marooned fleet, crunched up into each other, operationally useless. The Demons could not even retreat, those who were not sunk were on rowboats or driftwood, the coup de grâce was a wave which devastated any remaining ships, and left the Demon crew deflated. Roderic upon inflicting this terrible punishment turned toward Suno. His crew were somewhat astonished. Everyone stared at him and themselves with awe.