[center]Off The Coast Of Valenwood 15th of Midyear, 4E 205[/center] [i]The Fearful Blade[/i] tacked hard against the current that was the Gold Coast waves. Occasional lightning bolts reached out at her from the Northern bank of Valenwood, where a group of Dominion altmer battlemages fought desperately to hold back High Captain Therdim's forces from landing on the shoreline of the fair woodlands. "We would need to lose a score of men to each wizard downed, you claimed, if we were to have any chance," Temijen remarked to Khasta, who stood beside him on the rail. "But it would seem that High Captain Therdim has chosen his soldiers well." Khasta let the sarcasm slip past as he, too, tried to get a better summation of the situation unfolding before them. Word by carrier pigeon had intercepted Temijen's retinue to the summit at Balfiera. Within it had been news and an opportunity that had been far too good to pass up. Apparently a rather large Imperial force had marched against the high elves forces in Valenwood mere days ago to push the Dominion out of Valenwood. Temijen had not heard of all the details, but apparently their former allies as well as the wood elves new friends in the empire were giving the Thalmor quite a hard time of it. Temijen couldn't imagine any sensible reason why the wood elves had given up the protection of the Aldmeri, but it mattered little, High Captain Therdim and the majority of the Yokudan had been docked in and around Stros M'kai waiting for just such an opportunity. Temijen had known the Altmer would react swiftly to incursions in their Valenwood holdings; thankfully he had been well prepared. However, even with such a swift and unforeseen assault on what remained of them in the woodlands, the high elves were giving as well as they got. All along the shore line Yokudan war vessels were locked in a deadly back and forth with the few Altmer warships not captured by the imperials earlier. Flaming arrows on one side with return volleys of spell craft from the other. Parts of the bridge of their own ship were aflame, but the fries seemed to be gaining no real traction. Redguards though they may be, they were not without their own sorcery, as spellsword's of T'ozun’s fleet had brought forth waves of cooling frost to combat the fires. One of the enemy mages on the shore had responded with an elemental atronach summoned up from the plane of oblivion, a creature of the earth, a collection of rock, mud, and grassy turf that seemed no more than a hillside come to life, sprouting arms of connected stone and dirt with boulder hands. It splashed into the shore to do battle, its magical consistency strong enough to keep the waters from washing its binding dirt away. The giant wasted little time in closing with the nearest Yokudan ship. Lifting mighty arms above its head before bringing them down like battering rams against the ship’s hull. Smashing much of it to timber and forcing sailors to abandon ship into the icy waters. A trumpet sounded on the southern end of the shoreline as a few larger transport vessels closed with the shore. Stiff as the resistance was, it was obvious the few forces left to the Dominion in the region would never hold the the yokudan fleet's assault. Great resounding cracks echoed across the waters as great ballista's tore great chunks out of the atronach giant. Soon the giant fell and shortly following a spark of some kind lite the sky above the shores. It took Temijen a moment to realize that it was in fact a signal of some kind. Another sweep of the skirmish hinted at its purpose. Two of the Dominion ships had burning sails, now crippled in the waters. The remainder were forced to pull away least the onslaught of Redguard warships over took them too. It seemed the enemy, at least for the moment, were betting a fast retreat. Which left the northern coast of Valenwood wide open for a Redguard foothold, something much needed for what was to come. Temijen smiled, the first phase of his plan was going well thus far. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [center]Skirmish in Stros M'kai part two 5th of Midyear, 4E 205 Hircine's Summoning Day[/center] Kiainia saw the fireball coming, a little burning ball of flame, enticing as a candlelight, gentle and benign. She knew better, though, and knew, too, that she couldn't hope to get out of its explosive range. So she threw her shoulders back violently and kicked her feet out of in front of her, and didn't even try to break her fall as she slammed down on her back. She even resisted the urge to throw her arms out wide to somehow mitigate the fall, instead curling them over her face, hands grasping her cloak to warp it around her. Even covered as she was with the wet clothing and cloak, the darkness flew away when the fireball exploded, and hot flames bit at Kiainia, igniting a thousand tiny fires in her body. It lasted only an instant, mercifully, and winked out as immediately as it had materialized. Kiainia knew she couldn't hesitate--the mage could strike at her again within the span of a few heartbeats, or if another altmer mage was inside the house, a second fireball might already be on its way. She rolled sidelong away from her enemy to put out the little fires burning on her cloak and clothing, and even left the cloak smoldering on the ground when she leaped to her feet once more. Again Kiainia ran all out, leaning forward in complete commitment to her goal, a tight strand of palm trees. She dived in headlong, rolling to a sitting position and curling up, expecting another blast of Magicka. Nothing happened. Gradually, Kiainia uncoiled and looked back Dorio's way, to see the redguard still crouched in the muddied ground behind the damaged water trough. Dorio's mouthed the words. [i]'Is he gone?'[/i] Kiainia mouthed back, [i]'His magicka depleted perhaps?'[/i] Dorio shook his head--he didn't understand. Too much smoke between them now perhaps. "He may be out of spells." The women called out quietly, and Dorio nodded enthusiastically--until a rumble from inside the distant house turned them both that way. Trailing a line of fire that charred the floorboards, it came through the open door, a great beast comprised entirely of flame: orange, red, yellow, and bright hot white when it swirled more tightly. It seemed vaguely bipedal, and-perhaps, slightly feminine. Kiainia knew it for what it was instantly; an atronach of fire from the hottest realms of oblivion. Kiania sucked in her breath and lifted Skyfire, not even thinking to go to her more trusted scimitars. She couldn't fight the creature in close; of all the four primary elemental Daedra, fire was often the type any melee warrior was least capable of battling. Its flames burned with skin-curling intensity, and the strike of a scimitar, though it could hurt the beast, would heat the weapon as well. Kiainia drew back and let fly, and the arrow disappeared into the swirl of flames. The fire elemental swung around toward her and roared, the sound of a thousand trees crackling, then spat forth a line of flame that immediately set the palm trees around her aflame. "How do we fight it?" Dorio cried, and yelped as the flame atronach scorched the trough he hid behind, filling the air with thick steam. Kiainia didn't answer. She shot off another arrow, and again she had no way of knowing if it scored any damage upon the creature or not. Then, on instinct, she angled her bow to the side and let fly a third, right past the elemental to slam into, and punch through, the wall of the structure housing the wizard. A cry from inside told her that she startled the mage, and the sudden and angry turn of the flame atronach, back toward the house, confirmed what the women had hoped. She fired off a continual stream, then, a volley placed all around the wooden structure, blasting hole after hole and without discernible pattern. She judged her success by the motions of the Daedra, gliding one stride toward her, then one back at the wizard. For controlling such a beast from the depths of oblivion was no easy feat, and one required absolute concentration. And if the control was lost, Kiainia knew, the summoned creature would almost always take out its rage upon the summoner. More arrows flashed into the house but to less effect; Kiainia needed to actually score a hit on the mage to turn the elemental fully. But she didn't, and she soon recognized that the creature was inevitably edging her way. The wizard had adjusted. Kiainia kept up the barrage anyway, and began moving away as she fired, confident that she could turn and outdistance the creature, or at least get to the water’s edge, where the coastline would protect her from the atronach's fury. She turned and glanced to the water trough, thinking to tell Dorio to run. However the man was already gone. The wizard was protected from the arrows, Kiainia realized as the atronach bore down on her with renewed enthusiasm. The redguard fired off a pair of shots into it for good measure then turned and sprinted back the way she'd come, around the edge of the building hit by the same fireball that had nearly melted her, which was now burning furiously. "Clever wizard." She heard herself saying with venom under her breath as she almost ran headlong into a giant web that stretched from building to building in the alleyway. She spun to see the elemental blocking the exit, its flames licking the structures to either side. "Fine then." Kiainia challenged to the beast, drawing forth her twin scimitars. "Have at thee." She couldn't really speak to a creature of oblivion, or course, but it seemed to Kiainia as if the monster heard her, for as she finished, the atronach rushed forward, its fiery arms sweeping ferociously. Kiainia ducked the first swing then leaped out to her right just ahead of the second sweep, running up the wall--and feeling that its integrity was diminished by the fires roaring within--and spinning into a back somersault. She came down in a spin, scimitars slashing across, backhand leading forehand, and both sent puffs of flame into the air as they slashed against the life-force that held those flames together into a physical, if semi-solid creature. That second weapon, Coldfang, sent a surge of hope through Kiainia, for its properties were an enchantment of the freezing north cold, thus affording her some substantial protection from flames, as it had down against the wizards fireball, but the frostbrand scimitar took a particular pleasure in inflicting cold pain upon creatures with an affinity to fire. Much like the fire djinn's of the Alik'r desert, or pesky flame atronach's such as this one. The creature shook off Stormclaw's backhand hit, as it had all but ignored the shots from Skyfire, but when Coldfang connected, the creature seemed to burn less bright. The elemental whirled away and seemed to shrink in on itself, spinning around midair tightly. Its flames burned brighter, white hot, and the creature came out enraged and once more huge again. Kiainia met its charge with a furious flurry of whirling blades. She shortened Stormclaw's every stroke, using that blade to fend off the atronach's barrage of punches. She followed every strike with Coldfang, knowing that she was hurting the Daedra. But not killing it. Not anytime soon at least, and despite the protection of Coldfang, Kiainia felt the heat of the magnificent, deadly beast. More than that, the power of the atronach's swing could fell a troll even without the fiery accompaniment. The atronach stomped its foot and a circular gout of flames rushed out from the point of impact, sweeping past Kiainia and making her hop in surprise. The creature came forward and let fly a sweeping right hook, and Kiainia fell low, barely escaping the hit, which smashed hard into the building, crushing through the wooden wall. From that hole came a blast of fire, and as it retracted, Kiainia leaped for the broken wood. She planted her foot on the bottom rim of the opening and came up flat against the wall, but only for the brief second it took her to swing her momentum and leap away across the alleyway, she somehow managed to sheathe her blades and catch on to the rim of the opposite building's roof. She ignored the stun of the impact as she crashed against the structure and scrambled, lifting her legs just above another heavy fiery slug. As fast as she went, though, the atronach was faster. It didn't climb the wall in any conventional sense, but just fell against it and swirled up over itself, rising as flames would climb a dry tree. Even as Kiainia stood tall on the roof, so did the elemental atronach, and that building too, was almost fully enveloped in flames. The atronach shot a line of flames at Kiainia, who dived aside, but still got hit--and though Coldfang helped her avoid the brunt of the burn, she surely felt the sting! Worse, the roof was burning behind her, and the atronach sent out another line, and another, all designed, Kiainia recognized, to seal off her avenues of escape. The elemental hadn't done that in the alley, the redguard woman realized as she drew out her scimitars yet again. The creature was smart enough to recognize an alteration made web,and knew that such an assault would have freed its intended prey. This creature was not dumb. "Wonderful." Kiainia muttered.