Ellyria
A pleased smile flashes across the Archmage's face. "Excellent," he exclaims and claps his hands. " I'll just prepare my tower for transport, and I'll be ready to go! Please do go on ahead outside. It'll take just about 5 minutes."
A flash of irritation passes through Ellyria. He didn't even bother to escort us out? Does he have no sense of manners?
Luckily for her, a shade pops up and leads them out. As she walks through the tower she notices the many Runes adorning the walls and the power thrumming through the air. How strong is this magic? Near instant teleportation and sensible power? I hope he won't seize the kingdom for himself....
When she goes outside, she turns to Anders and asks," Anders? Where did you learn about a "true Archmage"? What does it even really mean?"
"Oh its just something I read in a book. Don't bother with it Your Highness." Anders replies vaguely.
Ellyria frowns, but before she could press him further, Tritan condenses from a shadow. He is wearing similar clothes, but doesn't seem to have a pack or any of the things mages commonly carry.
"Alright Princess!" he says cheerfully. "What are the coordinates for your city's teleport pad?"
"Teleport pad?" Ellyria asks confused as dismay flourishes on Tritan's face.
Tritan
They don't even have a bloody teleport pad! How exactly do they expect people to get around? Walking? Ugh if these demons weren't invading....
It's been three days since they set off towards Deria, and Tritan was still miserable. He'd expected to casually pop his tower over, blast the warlock to bits, and go straight to preparing for the invasion. Instead he had been forced to transport the group to the closest location to Deria he knew was safe for arrival and walk the rest of the way. He'd almost turned back when he found out that it was a five day walk.
"Lord archmage, five days walk is nothing," Anders nearly snorted when he saw Tritan's mood. " It's a 3 day ride to Deria on tireless divine horses let alone the 6 months it took us to walk that."
Now they had reached the Border of Deria and the soldiers began to set up camp. Tritan sat off to the side trying to reach the ley lines of Deria. He knew that it would take him some time to become one with them, so he thought it was best to start early.
Whew what luck. This Warlock knows how to corrupt matter but not the lines. I should be able to claim this countr....
His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of two demons! These two are very similar, clearly of the same subspecies, known as the fiend. They are vaguely humanoid, but with a crooked stance and more joints. However, since they are nearly ten feet tall, they still tower over the humans present. They have large leathery wings and a reptilian head with horns.
"Heh What do we have here? A missing princess and her guards? The master has been looking for you..." the left demon says in a surprisingly nasal voice.
Anders paled upon seeing them drawing his sword he yells to the princess," Run Ellyria! These are greater fiends They can each take down an army of humans! We'll hold them off!"
Anders charges the demons and one leisurely readies a claw. Not even bothering to infuse mana into it, the demon casually swings it at the man, anticipating him to explode in a shower of gore.
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Ellyria freezes, unable to look away from the scene in front of her. Her entire quest, her hope, her friend, all killed like this?
As the claw reaches Anders he dissipates into shadow, only to reappear next to Tritan.
"Oh come on Anders!" Tritan chides bemusedly. Everyone except him had been certain that the man was going to die there.
"It's my job to kill the army-slaying demons not yours!" He continues while grinning haphazardly. Relieved, Anders can only nod.
He stands, and with a wave of his hand, a shield of shadows surround the princess and her group. "Now," he turns to the demons and takes a stance," lets fight shall we?"
The enraged fiend on the left snorts and exclaims," You're a cocky human aren't you? I 'll take you down with one blow!" he roars and charges at Tritan while the other demon languidly watches.
Facing the Demon, Tritan quickly focuses his intent, and forms two razor sharp disks of shadow only to blast the towards the demon. The razors spiral towards the fiend as Tritan begins to draw in more shadows for his next attack.
The demon reaches an arm forward to simply bat the first disk out of the way. However, instead of veering off the disk continues digging deep into his arm and devouring his energy.
Noticing this, its eyes quickly widen and it throws himself out of the way of the second disk. As he turns toward Tritan with a newfound sense of caution, he suddenly feels pulled downward. looking down, he sees hundreds of hands formed of shadow clawing at him and consuming his energy.
Terrified, he expends half of his power to burst out of the confining spell. What is this human? he thinks fearfully.
On the other side of the rapid exchange, Tritan grins. His shadows were true voids of energy. When one grasped an enemy, it devoured his energy, transferring most of it back to Tritan. He quickly used this power to continue his assault, forming 10 spears of shadow to attack the demon from all angles while also forming defenses around himself for whenever the second demon inevitably attacked.
Seeing the spears, the first fiend quickly accelerates trying to smoothly dodge them. 3 of the spears however, change trajectory at the last second piercing each leg and his shoulder. instead of passing completely through, the spears connect to his bones and remain attached to him, slowing him down greatly and draining his power. Now weakened, he cannot escape the second Shadow Confinement Tritan places on him. Locked down and almost out of power, he is helpless as Tritan forms a sword and calmly walks toward him.
"Ha You've forgotten me!" the second fiend, seemingly ignored, enters the battle wildly running at Tritan's back. With a smile and a shake of his head, Tritan activates his defense array. The Runes he had formed to guard him flared darkly to life. From them, dozens of Shadow Spikes burst out completely obliterating the second demon.
Now terrified, the first demon begins to beg. " Wait please! We can work this out! I'd gladly..."
He's cut off as Tritan chillingly says," Do you take me for a fool? No sane Archmage bargains with demons."
And that was the last thing the fiend heard before it was decapitated.