Rawgh'faz lay on the stones of the square, his mind calculating about his next move. The blue-skinned girl was not going to leave her invisibility if she could help it, and as of this current moment had the upper hand on him as he lay here. But there was something working in his favor. By the way she used components, she was clearly a wizard, which meant that sooner or later she would run out of supplies to cast any more of her little tricks. And by that point, she'd be defenseless. All he had to do was wait her out, bait her spells, and strike when she was no longer able to cast.
Now, from this position, he couldn't very well move without drawing her attention and likely being struck by that damned stick of hers. But he didn't need to move, and if he was careful, he could do what he was thinking without letting on.
As he lay there, mentally intoning the ritual chant in his head, he laughed aloud, cackling hyena-like for several moments before he spoke in a gruff, barking Common.
"You fight well, girl. I like a good challenge." He said. "Leaving the footsteps was a nice touch."
His words hung in the air for several seconds without any reply, just long enough to make him wonder if she had actually left, before her voice sounded out somewhere behind and above him.
"Talking isn't surrendering, mutt. I'm waiting for you to tell me you're leaving." Eleanor said.
Rawgh'faz made himself chuckle out loud again as he mentally worked the second stage of the chant in his mind. He could already feel the first threads of connection to the spirit he was calling for, but he would need more time. Perhaps a minute or two. He had to keep her talking, or, at the very least, busy.
"And why would I do that? I like it here." The gnoll said, his teeth baring into a doggish grin as he turned his head to the side, granting him a limited view of the space behind him. "It's so much more entertaining than sitting in our caves waiting for some hero to come kill us."
The girl scoffed, and said, "Because if you don't tell me you're leaving, I'm going to turn your hide into a throw rug. Now, are you leaving, or do I need to fold you inside out first?"
The way she said this last sentence struck Rawgh'faz's ears as ever so slightly off. She was posturing for poise and confidence, but the subtleties of her tone were giving her away. She was impatient. And, more than that, she wasn't as confident as she was trying to present. There was an edge of nervousness in her voice that she was trying very hard to mask. Which told him everything he needed to know. She was probably running low on tricks. And recognized a genuine threat when she saw one. He had to give her credit for being at least that smart.
The threads of connection with the spirit he was beckoning were growing thicker by the second as he mentally intoned the name. A few more moments, and he'd act. He cast his vision as far back behind him as he could from his limited vantage point, and sighed audibly, effecting a look of defeat and frustration.
"We'll leave. You have my word." He said.
"I want to hear that you'll never come back. Say it." The girl said. This was accompanied by another sharp crack of her staff against the back of his head, causing the gnoll to curse aloud, both out of pain, and out of nearly losing the connection thread he was about to complete.
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"My tribe will never return to this place. You have my word as chieftain." Rawgh'faz said, doing his best to make his tone as genuine and fearful as possible as he felt the connection tether complete, and the spirit's vitality rush into his body in a roaring wave. It took everything in him to not howl out in pain and ecstasy at the experience.
"Good dog. Now leave, before I decide to turn you into a cloak." The girl said, her invisibility dissolving to reveal her standing about fifteen paces behind him, her staff held defensively in both hands.
Rawgh'faz shifted his weight and pulled his hands down to his sides, slowly placing them against the warm stones as he pressed himself up and slid into a sitting position. The spirit's essence clamored inside him, rushing to burst free from his body in a torrent, but he held firm. It wouldn't be long. He turned and looked at the girl, who was looking at him threateningly
She pointed to his staff laying on the ground next to him.
"The staff. Hand it over, dog." She said, shifting her weight into an even more protective position.
Rawgh'faz did everything he could to hide the smile threatening to form around his hyena lips. Surely it couldn't be this easy. How on earth could a girl this clever also be this completely foolish?
Rawgh'faz reached his hand out and grasped the gnarled wood shaft of the staff, wrapping his fingers around the shaft and feeling its resonance amplify the already surging power inside his bones. Lifting it up, he turned and, with a flick of his arm, tossed the staff towards the girl.
Just as he had hoped, her eyes followed the wood, and a hand strayed from her staff, reaching out to catch it as it flew towards her face. As soon as he saw her guard drop ever so slightly, he burst into action, leaping from his seated position and charging towards her, opening the channels in his body to allow the summoned elemental's energy to surge into his hands and burst outwards in a torrent of red-orange flame that rocketed directly for her.
Eleanor's eyes grew wide in shock and terror, and she jerked her staff out in front of her shouted a flurry of Infernal as the fireball slammed into her. The resulting explosion, barely deflected by a magical barrier, knocked her flying backwards. After sailing a few dozen feet, she hit the cobblestone, tumbling and skipping another dozen feet before coming to rest on her back. Her staff, or what remained of it, clattered across the ground, the first third of it a smoking, charred matchstick.
Rawgh'faz lowered his hands, the elemental's flames still lapping at his palms, and grinned wickedly as he looked over at the girl's crumpled, smoking form. That'd gone even better than he expected. He walked over to where his staff lay on the stones, and picked it up, feeling its power synchronize with that inside him as he walked towards the girl's body.
He was about halfway to her when she stirred, coughing and groaning as she sat up. A line of blood tricked down the side of her face, and her robes were visibly burned. She looked in his direction, a mixture of panin and rage crossing her face as jumped to her feet. She looked around frantically for her staff, and her face went cold with terror as she saw the smoking wood in front of her. She looked back at Rawgh'faz, who was cackling evilly as he continued to close the gap.
"You're talented, girl. And clever. But also very, very stupid." He said, drawing up a short distance from her. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you in after this."
Eleanor's hand shot to the component pouch on her robe belt, and felt a jolt of horror when she felt it missing. She looked down, and where the pouch should be sat a scorched, blackened bit of fabric. Her eyes shot back to the gnoll. Her hands were shaking, and tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes.
"Looks like you're all out of tricks." Rawgh'faz said, raising his staff and opening the channels of his body to allow the elemental's energy to flood into it. Roots at the tip of the staff glowed a bright red-orange, and with a final word of command, Rawgh'faz unleashed every bit of power the spirit had provided him at the cowering, terrified girl.