"So where was I?" murmured the old Elf. "Ah yes. So from the hill a cry came. Incoming! Trolls incoming…" "
ou already told us that." one of the bolg children said. "Ah yes. Of course. Quite right. The battle! After our bards mesmerized half their force."
The Midgardians, seeing how half their force was entranced, decided to make a mad rush to the gate keeper, to enter the keep. As they were running, our guardians descended on them. From the corner of my eye I saw Grunwave running towards one of the dorf Healers trying frantically to heal his fellows. Straight into the dorf Grunwave ran, raising his shield. 15 feet the dorf flew, landing on his back-side. Stunned, the dorf just sat there, Grunwave was on him, sword slashing and stabbing. Suddenly, I saw a movement from where the ground starts angling down. Small hands waving, chants in broken language being spoken. "Hea…" I started shouting, but it was all for naught. A Healer, left unchecked, maybe free from our bards mesmerezation waved his stubby little hands. I was mesmerized. I will not go into what I was seeing when I was under the spell. I don’t take to Mesmerization well.
After a time that felt like an eternity but was probably less than a minute, my mind cleared. I saw the rest of the Midgardians rushing the gate keeper. All freed from their induced sleep. Four of them were headed right to me, trying to cut me down before they go inside the keep. I braced myself to the inevitable death. "Thump thump thump" I heard. Saorise was at my side. The trolls were yelling in frustration, trying to beat me down. Trying to bury their axes in me. And still I heard "thump thump thump." Saorise, her forehead glistening with perspiration, moving her little shield, like in a dance, from one troll to the other, like she could foresee where the next blow is coming from, she just let none of them hit me. Hazarding a look, her eyes looked at me questionably. As if saying "This is no time for deep thoughts Elf. This is time for action." I did not need more goading. Deep inside me, change was happening. Power coalescing into a hard ball just below my heart. The instant the power was too hard to hold inside, I let it go. From inside me, it grew, like a ball of invisible fire. It exit my body. This was the easy part. Any caster could make that happen. The problem was with Saorise and the rest of my compatriots. The trick to learn was how to make the blast shy away from them. How to make that mindless wave of energy curve around them and not touch them. With my mind, I ventured out. Feeling the minds of each of them. Saorise, Grunwave, Zlara. They were all around me. Linking with them, I convinced the energy that they were simply extensions of myself. As it was growing out of me, it warped around my friends, not touching a hair off their heads. The trolls.. Well.. The Trolls were not as fortunate. The invisible fire tore through them. They howled in pain. Again and again I summoned the small ball of energy that then expanded to wreak havoc on my attackers.
Then, a shooting pain descended from my right shoulder to the tip of my toe. My eyes flung open. I was not even aware I had them closed. A pained sneer spread on one of the Norseman's face who was trying to beat me. His axe embedded deep in my shoulder. My knees started to buckle. Black specks appeared at the edges of my vision. I could see two of his friends lying on the floor, dead from my invisible flames. I looked at him again, trying to summon that ball of energy again. Trying to burn him where he stood. But he was only sneering at me. Too late I saw that his left hand was also holding an axe. I could see the arc the axe was drawing in the air. As if everything around me came down to a crawl, the axe came down, towards the side of my torso. Saorise jumped, raising her shield, trying to deflect the axe, but she was a fraction of a second too late. The axe tore through my side, probably puncturing a lung, because the next thing I remember is me coughing up blood, streaming down my chin, soiling my robe. By now my knees were turned to water. I could not hold myself yet I was still standing. The norseman's axes where embedded so deep in me, he was holding me up by holding them.
My vision blurred. I was done for. The last thing I saw was Saorise bracing herself and slamming her shield at the sneering Norse.
