"I never thought I'd say this, but I am getting tired of fighting!"
Corundar's voice rang out over the din of battle, its sentiment echoing what everyone else was feeling. Even Faile was up and engaged in battle now, her weak body driven by the needs of survival. They were back to back, a circle of six against a vastly outnumbering force.
"It would seem the Maimed Lord is somewhat upset with us." In his own way, that was Azure's sense of humor creeping out. Everyone but Byrne took a moment to laugh, a desperate second of mirth in the middle of crushing combat. Byrne was in no mood to be amused; she was standing beside Faile, the sister she'd seared, and she knew better than any of them what a joke from the austere blue-skinned monk meant - they were in trouble.
It wasn't hard to see. From horizon to horizon, the land was covered in walking dead. Some armored, some not. Some bearing weapons, some with just bony fingers and broken fangs. The stench was oppressive, the sound of their unholy wailing even worse. It was as if Vecna had opened the gates of Death and poured forth every corpse in the multiverse against them.
Perhaps he had.
Akasha's hands were raised to the sky, calling down bolts of sunlight to shatter the undead legion. Her powers were amazing, shattering skin and breaking bone beneath an onslaught of pure radiance. Even so, for all the righteous destruction of her holy strikes, lumbering shapes continued to lurch violently into the craters she left behind.
Across from her in their defensive ring, Nyx was faring no better. A mistress of the undead, she was actually ill-suited for this battle in many ways. These animated corpses were bound to a power greater than hers. She could not command them and she could not force them to return to their graves. Her beloved blade was keen enough to slice them apart but held no real interest in the bloodless battle. Of all the Elementals, she was faring the worst.
Faile wasn't doing much better. Barely standing, she was firing arrows into the horde of lifeless assailants as quickly as her bow would draw. Even now, wounded as she was, she was capable of putting a shaft through a man's eye socket at a hundred yards. Unfortunately, the undead were not much discomfited by the efforts of piercing weapons and the closer they got, the less freedom she had to fire.
Corundar could see how slim their options were becoming. "No more ranged! Everyone press forward as hard as you can. Get us some space!"
Between arcs of burning light, raging blasts of fire and sweeps of Corundar's great blade Terrasunder, they swiftly cleared a circle more than ten feet wide all around them. "Good! Now fall back. Azure, ice column as soon as we've got the gap for it! We need a barrier!"
It was a good plan, one that worked perfectly. The Elementals ran back together and Azure surrounded them in a column of dense ice before the mass of shambling dead could reach them again. Almost instantly, the sounds of weapons and desiccated fists echoed through the translucent pillar. It would hold, but not for long.
"We have to get out of here. Faile, are you up to a teleport?"
Nyx did not bother waiting for the winged one to respond. If she wasn't capable of channeling her air element, they were all dead. Nyx pulled back the gemstone armor covering her right hand and held it out in the middle of her brothers and sisters. "Darkness," she said insistently. As she spoke, a shadow flowed over her palm, spiraling around her fingers.
There was only a moment's hesitation before Byrne followed suit. There was so much she needed to say, especially to Faile, and dying here wasn't in her plans. "Fire," she said quickly and put her hand on her dark sister's. Flames raced down her arm and mingled with the tenebrous energy already building there.
Corundar nodded approvingly. "Earth," he said confidently and clasped both of their hands with his. Thick fingers surrounded their grasp, channeling the verdant, emerald glow of his terrestrial element into their shadowy conflagration.
It was Faile's turn. She was still reeling, barely standing, but the need was great and without her, they would all perish. Nodding her agreement, she reached out and laid her delicate hand on top of the others. A whirl of wind caught the rising powers of their combined touch, billowing it even greater as she whispered, "Air." The drain on her soul was almost enough to knock her out but wounded as she was, Faile was not about to let her siblings down.
Azure gave his flighty sister a rare smile, appreciating how great an effort she'd just made for them. He reached out with one finger, seeking the precise point in the amalgam of elemental power to contribute his own. "Water," he murmured as a wave of blue and cresting white flowed into the mix, crystallizing instantly and locking it all in a waiting matrix of perfect ice.
Akasha moved quickly. Outside, the barrier was cracking beneath the onslaught of hundreds of tireless attacks. The undead had nearly climbed to the height of the pillar itself, smashing into it with all their defiled strength. The Elementals had scant seconds to finish before their house of glass came tumbling down. "Light!" she said emphatically, resting her hand on top of the others. Prismatic arcs flared out from her fingertips, arcing into the ice and energizing the magic to the point of blinding brilliance.
The conjunction complete, they all stood perfectly still as the magic pulsed and flowed over them. The energy of teleportation blazed to life, about to whisk them away from this hopeless battlefield.
"Wait!" Nyx yelled as loud as her graveborne voice could. "Did
anyone have a destination in mind?!?"
Everyone's fading face was a blank. In the haste of needing to get away, none of them had thought about exactly where they needed to go. The last time they'd teleported without a destination in mind, the results had been... unfortunate. They'd ended up on an alien world, drained of powers and nearly dead.
Corundar closed his eyes in frustration, summing up everyone's sentiment as they all disappeared.
"Crap."
