Cities & Confrontations

In the skies above the demonic city, three robotic dragons and their riders flew in a tight formation. Of the three dragon-riders, two were skilled and famous dark elves, and the other was a powerful sobek. The three skilled warriors, all of whom were efficient commanders, studied the city below them.

The battlefield that they were flying in tight circles over was a city in a layer of the Heart of Darkness that their god had yet to personally explore. It was a vast mountainside, and much of the layer itself was actually within the mountain. That said, this particular city was entirely outside of the mountain, and before today has served as an entry point into the mountain for intrepid, demonic travelers.

The trio of mortal war-leaders were silent as their mounts flew in a circle over the city. Vast, dark plumes of smoke were already rising high into the sky, due to their previous attack-runs on the city. All three of them had led their mounts on what amounted to bombing runs, even as the other Althonian forces marched on the city and combated the dense horde that guarded it in the name of Agustino.

Beneath them all three could see the two forces battling for control over the city locked in pitched combat. The demonic horde, though much larger than the attacking Althonian forces, were steadily losing ground and had been for the last few minutes.

After a few moments of silent flying, Jezebel was the first of the dragon-riders to urge her metallic pet back towards the battlefield. The sleek, black, robotic beast, hers much smaller than Drow's own robotic dragon, she rode obeyed her commands and began to take her back towards the battlefield. The beast pitched downwards and began to dive towards the battlefield, located just outside of the city.

________________________________________________

Within the city itself, a solitary demon howled in rage. The sound was primal, and had there been any knowledgeable onlookers would have surely revealed that the demon's personal vice was wrath. The demon, the strange golden-furred simian general that Althos had unceremoniously blinded and then expelled from the battle he was having with Agustino, was a prideful, simple creature.

It valued its own power and virtually nothing else. And Althos had kept it from having a chance to show Agustino, or even him, its power. The powerful berserker entered a demonically supercharged rage as it howled, the sound so powerful and mighty that it shattered the demonic reinforced windows of the building the demon stood on top of.

The sound was loud enough that it could be heard throughout the battlefield, even as far away as the actual part of the mountain where Althonians were clashing with the demonic followers of Agustino. The blind berserker rose one of her lithe hands and conjured a powerful, long wooden staff, her very own soul-weapon.

The staff in Mazak's hands was a simple looking thing seemingly made from what could have been maple wood due to its fairly light coloring. Nothing about the staff suggested it was anything more than an ordinary staff until the demoness finished howling in rage and began to stumble to the edge of the building she had been unceremoniously dropped on.

She used her staff as a walking stick, still capable of at least some intelligent thought whilst in the throes of her rage due to her particular status as a high level berserker. When she reached the edge of the building she had been dropped on, she fell utterly silent for a second. The demoness was listening for something. And it only took her a second to hear what she had been listening for.

She wordlessly aimed her staff at the sky and infused it with magical energy. A split second later the powerful soul-weapon she had that was uniquely hers began to grow at a frighteningly quick rate, shooting towards Jezebel who was in mid-air atop her draconic pet.

________________________________________________

Jezebel wasn't very lucky and been focused on the battle raging between her fellow Althonians and the demonic horde loyal to Agustino. The Sobek warrior's one saving grace, the thing that saved her life when the soul-staff slammed into her mount was that the blind demoness hadn't been able to aim accurately.

The strange attack that had been launched on the Sobek warrior had indeed hit her mount and loudly punched through its metallic body, but it hadn't hit her. Jezebel was still alive, and still conscious when she felt her robotic mount begin to die, and when the thing began to fall out of the sky, its controlled dive almost instantly becoming an out of control freefall.

"Shit! What the fuck was that!?" Jezebel asked her question aimed at no one in particular as she began to spew expletives. The Sobek continued to cuss dramatically as she watched the ground begin to close in on her at a frighteningly fast pace. Her mount began to spin in mid-air, thanks to the attack which clipped through its wing.

During one of the mount's 360-degree rotations, Jezebel was able to see the lightly colored wooden staff, now an incredibly thick and almost pillar-like thing, that clipped her mount, and she swore more loudly than before. The warrior focused and squeezed her thick, reptilian legs around her mount while she used the hand that had once held reins allowing her to steer her mount to touch a strange mark on her other hand. The instant she did so she was mentally connected to her fellow commanders.

"These assholes have some sort of secret weapon or something! It got me and my mount and I are now in freefall. My mount's wing was struck by... In Althos' name, it looks like some sort of instantaneously generated pillar." Jezebel said, amazed and horrified by the attack. A second later a reply came from Anthonius, the other commander.

"We can see it. If I told you the origins of it I don't know if you'd believe me. But I am on my way to your location." The dark elf told the Sobek. Anthonius was a dark elf after Drow's own heart, a powerful, martially inclined dark elf. He was already on his way to her, his mount speeding towards her.

Drow himself was flying towards the source of the attack: the demoness Mazek. He urged his positively enormous mount towards her its gigantic wings beating as it flew toward the simian demoness. As Drow flew towards the strange attacker who had downed his apprentice's pet in one blow, he quietly muttered a prayer that he directed towards his god and master, Althos.

Mazek herself heard the powerful beating of the massive robotic dragon's wings and began to smile cruelly. She tapped her staff and the thing began to shrink, taking only a few seconds before it was once again a regular-sized staff, only a meter and a half long. It would take Drow only a few moments to reach her, and when he did he and his mount floated over the demoness and the building she stood on.

For a moment both of the generals were silent. Drow gazed down at his rival, anger in his eyes at how she treated her apprentice. Mazek glared up at her enemy, mounted on one of the largest creatures she had ever seen. The beast was made entirely of metal the color of the night's sky on a moonless, starless, night. It was dozens, perhaps even one hundred meters long, and was obviously supposed to be some sort of dragon but it was unlike anything Mazek had ever seen. She hadn't even seen a robot before, but after a few silent seconds she spoke up.

"Elf... You will die at my hands." She said, attempting to sound as if she were speaking impartially like she was some sort of neutral messenger stating a simple fact. That said, she failed, and instead of giving her the appearance of some objective dispenser of facts, anger audibly leaked out of her voice, which made Drow smile.

"Demoness... In the name of my master, I shall defeat you." He said, his voice far more apathetic sounding. He felt a wave of sharp anger aimed squarely at Mazek, but he wasn't about to let it cloud his judgment. The dark elf pointed his spear at the demoness, and uttered a single word. "Die."

The instant after he uttered that single word a number of shadowy projectiles clearly meant to be hovering spears appeared around the point of his spear. They were still for a moment, before they began to shoot towards the demoness. The spears were not silent and as they shot towards the demoness they began to make noise, which gave the demoness just enough time to leap backwards, nimbly dodging the first wave of attacks from the dark elf. That display of athleticism made him laugh and he urged his mount to move in tight circles around her.

"Yes, that's the spirit! You are the demoness my master warned me about. Let us fight to the death, in the same way as our masters are!" He said, exhilarated at the thought of having a real battle with a powerful demoness.