Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4401961" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the buildup. * * * * * Chapter 80CLASH IN THE SKYLetellia and her companions had not been lax in their watch, although it took a few seconds for them to realize that the threat was coming from above, and not below.  In that time, the Ravager had closed to within a few hundred feet, gliding on broad black wings.  The night sky came alive with blasts of lightning and fire that lanced out and engulfed the oncoming creature.  The concentrated barrage of spellpower would have given most foes pause, but if the Ravager felt pain or discomfort from the assault, it gave no sign.  One of the half-dragon war mages surged forward to meet it, swelling with power as it laid wards upon itself, culminating in a polymorph that shifted its form into that of a golden dragon.  The Ravager shifted course subtly, toward the incoming foe, and the two collided in a violent crash.  The Ravager was the clear winner of the battle of mass and momentum, losing just a few score feet of altitude before its powerful wings were able to stabilize its course.  The dragon tore at it with claws and bite, but then the Ravager seized its neck in its huge jaws and bit down, and the transformed mage’s assault became a wild but aimless thrashing.  The half-dragon’s companions came to his aid, flying closer as they continued their magical assault.  The other war mage flung a second fireball at the Ravager, exploding it near the rear of its body, to avoid harming its cousin.  A series of white lances of power fired from Lyllalya’s bow stabbed into it, but while the lillend’s accuracy was exceptional, none of the shots penetrated the Ravager’s insanely thick hide.  A second empowered chain lightning from Letellia definitely caught the creature’s attention, and as the blue flashes of electricity flared through its body it tossed its captive aside, after sucking one last draught of life energy from its crushed body.  The half-dragon tumbled awkwardly as it fell, fat gobs of blood scattering around it from the vicious wound in its neck.  Once the Ravager shot past its cousin dove toward him, using magical flight to accelerate his descent.The Ravager changed course, moving with surprising speed and grace for a thing of its bulk.  Its huge wings caught the air as it regained the altitude it had lost, driving it straight toward Letellia and Lyllalya.  The lillend darted to the side, but was buffeted by one of the Ravager’s wings before she could get fully out of the way.  The blow was just a glancing one, but it knocked the archer roughly aside.  Letellia made no effort to evade, merely lifting her staff as she waited for the creature to reach her.  It opened its jaws as it shot forward over the last few lengths separating them, jaws big enough to swallow the human woman in a single gulp. The sorceress waited almost until the last second, then opened a dimension door that placed her slightly above and behind the Ravager.  She fired another chain lightning after it as it shot past, but Ravager merely absorbed the hit as it had absorbed all of the damage wrought upon it thus far.  “It is... a force of sheer destruction,” Lyllalya said, as she flew back up to rejoin Letellia.  “We must stop it,” the sorceress said.  She looked down at the square below, at the brilliant orb of daylight surrounded by the flickering ghost-lights that rose from the people gathered there.  “We can evade it in an aerial battle, but I don’t believe that we can inflict enough damage upon it to destroy it.  I needs to be brought down to earth.”“Agreed, but I am not certain how that is to be managed!” the lillend cried.  The Ravager had continued on past the battle and had begun to curve back around in a broad arc.  Its course had taken it through a pair of pseudonatural air elementals summoned by Dra Mak Mor, but whether the creature found their alien life forces unappetizing, or simply did not consider the summoned beings a threat, it had merely shot by them, leaving even the speedy elementals racing to catch up.  The Ravager was giving up altitude, now, picking up even more speed as it completed its turn.  Its objective was instantly obvious. “It’s going for the town,” Letellia said.  “The ritual is working... come on!”  Hefting her staff, she descended after it, the lillend flying first behind her, then pulling ahead as her superior speed began to tell.  But it was clear that neither of them was going to catch the Ravager before it reached its target.</blockquote>

Verification