War of Dawn

Chapter 14: Cornered

The Risen unleashes a Haste glyph and dashes forward. He closes the distance in mere moments,  striking at Owen with an overhead swing of his axe. The blow is blocked by Owen's Shield but it's already strong enough to crack the tiled floor below. Moving to counterattack, Owen pushes him away and swings at his throat. The Risen simply evades underneath and now he's the advantage.

"Owen! Watch out!" Hilda yells but it's too late. A Burst glyph strikes Owen dead center, sending him flying into a nearby wall.

Hilda charges towards the Risen, sword raised high and filled with anger. She swings wildly, downward, sideways, upwards, but nothing connects. The Risen dodges everything without breaking a sweat. Then he gets on the offensive, parrying her sword aside and kneeing her straight in the stomach. Hilda loses her breath, dazed by the attack. Through her strained sight, however, she catches a glimpse of him preparing a spell.

Hilda conjures a Shield in preparation for whatever it is and gets it up at about the same time as a Wave crashes atop her. That's the brunt of the damage prevented but the hit still pushes her back. She's unbalanced and the Risen takes the opportunity to close in with a jumping slash of his axe. He's held back, however. Flaming cords wrap around his right hand and pull the Risen towards the ground – Owen's doing.

He moves after the downed Risen, flinging a barrage of FireBolts on approach. The undead leaps back upright, blocking them all with precise Shields. Hilda's also back on her feet and tries blindsiding him with a thrust. It doesn't work in the slightest. The Risen dodges, grabs her by the neck and flings her right on top of Owen. Together, they slide across the ground.

"Damn it... Pay attention, Hilda!" Owen grunts, glaring at her as he stands back up. "This is difficult enough without having to keep an eye out for you!"

"I haven't seen you doing any better than me...!" Hilda snarls at him in frustration.

"Don't take your eyes off the enemy, you idiots!" Vanessa yells at them from afar, pointing towards the Risen.

A tier two spell lies in his hand, two nested, runed circles with a triangle surrounded by small lozenges in all cardinal directions. As it's unleashed, dozens of small pellets of earth appear above the Risen.

"Oh, no...!" Owen gasps. "Dodge!"

The pellets begin raining down upon them like stormy hail. Hilda and Owen cast their Haste glyphs and begin running like mad, dodging the stream of attacks as it follows them. When in front, they slash the incoming pellets with their weapons. From the side, they block it with a Shield. Still, it is also coming from behind, from above, from below. The attacks are unrelenting and it doesn't take long before they start to connect. For every one they evade, another finds its mark.

Hilda staggers after the consecutive blows and almost fails to notice the approaching Risen. He bears upon her with his axe glowing orange with abounding earth elemental. With nary a second to spare, she parries his initial swing. They trade blows, earth and lightning flying with every clash. The problem, however, is that the Risen's previous spell hasn't stopped.

"Hilda! Behind—" Owen tries to warn her but, being hounded by the Risen's attack himself, he is too late. Three pellets hammer Hilda right at her back. Her defense breaks apart from the pain and the Risen blows her aloft with a Wave spell. He gives chase, each hunk of stone flying about the room a platform for him to stand on. Very quickly he catches up to Hilda, Bust spell in hand. The explosion to the chest knocks her straight into the ground, the heavy impact creating a wide crater. Her piercing yelp echoes across the battlefield, accompanied by loud, crunching sounds that come from her bones.

"Hilda!!" Paula yells and looks about to enter the fray herself when Vanessa grabs her by the shoulder. She merely shakes her head and holds the girl in place. If they act without thinking, the hostages are done for.