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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 4402417" data-attributes="member: 60965">Session 8, Part 2 As Grok'nar and Kezzek leapt to their feet and drew their weapons, Harold stared up at the rapidly descending forms, the flap and crack of their robes in the wind now audible. He took a few shots at them as they plummeted, not expecting much effect due to his target's extreme speed and distance, and spoke to Suniel without looking at him. "That new spell you pulled out when we were fighting Neergrog, the fire one, how far away can you-" Suniel - who had been simply watching the constructs descended - suddenly shouted a short phrase and flicked his wrist. One of the iron giants disappeared in a detonation of flame. A split second later it appeared out of the bottom of the aerial blast in a rain of rapidly disintegrating metal fragments and drifting bits of smoldering cloth. It was still intact, though its whole surface glowed a dull red. "What are we fighting?" Kezzek said. "And why?" Harold spared him a glance. Kezzek stood with a quiver and a strange metallic bow that bore a striking resemblance to his quor'rel or whatever he called it - but he wasn't firing. Grok'nar stood beside him, still chewing on hard tack as he watched the things descend. "Start firing, there's no time to explain!" Harold shouted back, sending an arrow flying through a patch of red-hot metal on the one Suniel had hit. The construct's eyes started to glow. "They're hostile!" "So far you seem to be the hostile ones, I haven't seen any-" Kezzek started. Then he disappeared in an explosion of energy as one of the thing's eye-lances connected. The plummeting figures' free fall came to a sudden and seemingly impossible stop about 20' off the ground. Eight smaller figures dropped from the robe of the one that hadn't been in Suniel's blast, blade arms outstretched as they landed kneeling, eyes flaring with light. *** Kezzek charged past Grok'nar with a roar, quor'rel in hand, still smoldering and blackened from the blast. Grok'nar bit off a final bite of the hardtack, wishing he had time to grab his wineskin and wash it down. He sighed and ran after Kezzek. A hail of energy lances shot around him, one striking his raised shield and staggering him with the shock of its impact. Then the small, black-swathed figures were all around them. One leapt high into the air and descended with its blade outstretched. He knocked it out of the air with his shield, jarred by how heavy the thing was despite its size, and spun to parry the blade of another one, jerking his head to the side just in time as its eyes flared and a beam of energy flew past his ear. He swung his sword and landed a solid blow on the thing's neck, almost dislocating his shoulder with the force of the impact. Felt like it's wearing plate mail... under the cloth? While leaping like that? What are these things? There was no time to ponder his questions further as the one he had knocked to the ground earlier slammed into his back sent him rolling in the dirt, another explosion rattling his armor. *** Suniel blew the one charging at him apart just before it reached him and leapt away as it exploded in a shower of metal. As he pulled himself to his feet, there was a crackling boom as Harold finished off the still-glowing bigger one. The other flew after Harold as the archer rode into the hills. Two of the smaller ones pursued as well, leaping from rock to rock and bounding with surprising speed. A blast struck Suniel full in the chest, sending him flying back. The magic runes of his warding spell glowed brightly as he stood, trailing wisps of smoke, and unleashed a blast of energy against his new, rapidly approaching assailant. *** Harold ducked and swung his horse to the side as one leapt off a boulder and hurled itself at him, its blade passing inches from his head. He put two arrows into it while it was still in the air. It hit a boulder hard and exploded.  His horse reared as the other was suddenly in front of him.  He jerked the reins to the side and nocked another arrow as his horse flew down another gully. The little one bounded after them, throwing another bolt of energy, but Harold - even while aiming at the little one and dodging its blasts - had half-an-eye to the sky, wondering where the big one had disappeared to... *** Kezzek smashed his gauntlet into the thing's 'face,' feeling metal crumple satisfyingly. He kicked the thing backwards and buried a blade into its chest with a roar. The gout of blood that his orc side hungered for never came. Instead, he felt a jolt run up his blade and the thing blew apart. He managed to turn his face away, but shards of metal tore into his body. Stunned, he dropped to one knee. He turned in a daze to see Grok'nar decapitate one that's head was already askew. Kezzek was about to shout a warning, but the second the thing's head was off its shoulders, Grok'nar stepped back and braced himself, turning his body so his shield took the worst of the blast. Grok'nar winked to him, strode over, pulled Kezzek to his feet, and they turned to finish off the last few. *** "You two ok?" Suniel said, walking through the char and scar of the battlefield. Kezzek grunted as he pulled another metal sliver from his arm, watching it disintegrate to dust as he held it. "Probably a good thing they don't do that while they're in you," Kezzek mumbled. Grok'nar was wandering about, eyes cast down as he searched the ground intently. Suniel was about to ask what he was looking for when Grok'nar said, "Ahah!" He picked his wineskin up from the dirt, brushed it off, and took a deep drought. "Hardtack," he said by way of explanation. "Where is Harold?" Suniel said, eyes scanning the hills the archer and his pursuers had disappeared into. He thought he might have heard distant, muffled explosions. "He had three after him." Grok'nar shrugged. "I'm sure he's-" Grok'nar paused as a boom echoed through the hills, followed by silence. "-well, there you go. As long as he wasn't dumb enough to be hugging the thing when he killed it..." Not long after, Harold came riding into view. The satisfaction Suniel often saw in Harold's bearing after battle wasn't there, instead his look was questioning... disquieted? as he met Suniel's eyes. "Are you all right?" Suniel said. "Unscathed. I found something though and I'm not sure what to make of it." Harold said, glancing back into the hills. "I think you better come have a look." "What? What is it?" Suniel said. "I'm not sure. As I said, you should come have a look." Grok'nar quirked an eyebrow and Kezzek grunted, but a moment later they were all riding after Harold, back into the hills. None of them noticed the tiny speck that had hovered high above through the course of the fight and only now disappeared into the vast sky.</blockquote>

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