Elminster in Myth Drannor - Ed Greenwood [71]
She looked down at the heap of blasted, smoldering bones in front of her, and started to cry again. Her tears made little hissing sounds as they fell into the dying fires that flickered within what had been Ilimitar.
"Blood of Corellon, it's raining trees now!" Galan Goadulphyn snarled, springing back and raising his cloak hastily before his face. The fallen duskwood bounced deafeningly as it shattered in front of him, hurling dust and splinters in all directions.
"There's a spell duel going on up there, for sure," Athtar said, peering upwards. "Hadn't we better get out of here? We can come back for your coins later."
"Later?" Galan groaned, as they hastened away together. "If I know bloody yapping mages, they'll split that mountain apart before they're done, and either leave my cache revealed for every passing sprite to see-or they'll bury it keep-deep under broken rock!"
There was another crash, and Athtar Nlossae looked back in time to see a sheet of rock plunging down the cliff, bouncing and shattering as it struck outcroppings in its fall. "You're right, as usual, Gal-buried it is, or will be!"
As he bent his legs to following the elfin dusty black leathers just as fast as they both could travel, Galan began to sort through his collection of curses. Loudly.
* * * * *
"You can't hope to escape my magics forever, coward!" Delmuth told Elminster, as elven mantle and human shield struck sparks from each other, and yet another mighty old elven spell curled away into harmless smoke.
They stood almost breast to breast, as close as their warring spell-barriers would let them. Elminster went on smiling silently, as the angry elf hurled spell after spell.
Delmuth had discovered that so long as mantle and shield touched, the surging effect of his own spells rebounding on him was minimal; his own defenses didn't crumble away so quickly at each magical onslaught. So he'd advanced, and Elminster hadn't bothered to retreat.
The only place to fall back was over the edge of a cliff, anyway, and the Athalantan mage was weary of running. Let the stand be made here.
The heir of House Echorn hurled another blast- this one past Elminster, avoiding both mage and shield, in hopes that it would rend rock and spray him from behind with stone shards. Instead, it ripped a trench through the rock and spat the stone over the edge of the cliff, away into nothingness below.
El kept his eyes on the elf lord. This had gone on long enough; if Delmuth Echorn wanted to see a death so badly, it'd have to be his own. Safe inside his shield, Elminster carefully made an elaborate casting, and then another that called up his mage-sight, and waited. One advantage to battling elves with human spells was that they largely didn't recognize the castings, and so could be surprised by the final results.
This one was Mruster's Twist, a further modification of Jhalavan's Fond Return. It allowed a mage who could think fast to change spells that were being returned to their caster into different magics. Now if this Delmuth was just foolish enough to try to blast a certain annoying human to dust, and keep close to Elminster as he did it, so he didn't notice that the spreading furies of his spells were left over from their first strikes, and not their rebounds…
Delmuth enthusiastically proved he was just foolish enough, hurling a spell El had never seen before that brought into being a tray of acid above the victim's head and let its contents rain down.
The hissings and rollings of El's tormented shield were spectacular. Delmuth never noticed when the rain of acid was twisted into a surging dispel effect that clawed silently at his mantle.
Still angry, and thinking his foe was finally cornered, Delmuth lashed out with a second spell. Elminster put on a scared look this time to distract the elf from noticing that his energy blasts again melted