Rawgh"faz shifted his weight and pulled his hands down to his sides, slowly placing them against the warm stones as he pressed himself up and slid into a sitting position. The spirit"s essence clamored inside him, rushing to burst free from his body in a torrent, but he held firm. It wouldn"t be long. He turned and looked at the girl, who was looking at him threateninglyShe pointed to his staff laying on the ground next to him.
"The staff. Hand it over, dog." She said, shifting her weight into an even more protective position.
Rawgh"faz did everything he could to hide the smile threatening to form around his hyena lips. Surely it couldn"t be this easy. How on earth could a girl this clever also be this completely foolish?
Rawgh"faz reached his hand out and grasped the gnarled wood shaft of the staff, wrapping his fingers around the shaft and feeling its resonance amplify the already surging power inside his bones. Lifting it up, he turned and, with a flick of his arm, tossed the staff towards the girl.
Just as he had hoped, her eyes followed the wood, and a hand strayed from her staff, reaching out to catch it as it flew towards her face. As soon as he saw her guard drop ever so slightly, he burst into action, leaping from his seated position and charging towards her, opening the channels in his body to allow the summoned elemental"s energy to surge into his hands and burst outwards in a torrent of red-orange flame that rocketed directly for her.
Eleanor"s eyes grew wide in shock and terror, and she jerked her staff out in front of her shouted a flurry of Infernal as the fireball slammed into her. The resulting explosion, barely deflected by a magical barrier, knocked her flying backwards. After sailing a few dozen feet, she hit the cobblestone, tumbling and skipping another dozen feet before coming to rest on her back. Her staff, or what remained of it, clattered across the ground, the first third of it a smoking, charred matchstick.
Rawgh"faz lowered his hands, the elemental"s flames still lapping at his palms, and grinned wickedly as he looked over at the girl"s crumpled, smoking form. That"d gone even better than he expected. He walked over to where his staff lay on the stones, and picked it up, feeling its power synchronize with that inside him as he walked towards the girl"s body.
He was about halfway to her when she stirred, coughing and groaning as she sat up. A line of blood tricked down the side of her face, and her robes were visibly burned. She looked in his direction, a mixture of panin and rage crossing her face as jumped to her feet. She looked around frantically for her staff, and her face went cold with terror as she saw the smoking wood in front of her. She looked back at Rawgh"faz, who was cackling evilly as he continued to close the gap.
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"You"re talented, girl. And clever. But also very, very stupid." He said, drawing up a short distance from her. "I"m going to enjoy breaking you in after this."
Eleanor"s hand shot to the component pouch on her robe belt, and felt a jolt of horror when she felt it missing. She looked down, and where the pouch should be sat a scorched, blackened bit of fabric. Her eyes shot back to the gnoll. Her hands were shaking, and tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes.
"Looks like you"re all out of tricks." Rawgh"faz said, raising his staff and opening the channels of his body to allow the elemental"s energy to flood into it. Roots at the tip of the staff glowed a bright red-orange, and with a final word of command, Rawgh"faz unleashed every bit of power the spirit had provided him at the cowering, terrified girl.