Out of the Black - Lee Doty [108]
Angel traced a subtle pattern with her hands and the fire rushed out to engulf her, tickling harmlessly across her skin. The torrent of flame swept her up and carried her toward the intruders. Swimming in the fire geyser, she streaked through the darkness, shadows radiating away from the brightness of her star. Flames leapt from her outstretched hands, striking two of the startled Avatars dead center. One managed to deflect the fireball with a large metal shield, but he was still rocked back, staggering from the impact. The third intruder's staff moved toward Angel, energies building along its length.
From above, Smack tumbled out of the darkness, blade flashing. The blade struck the staff between the Avatar's hands, cutting it in half with a blinding flash of released energy. Smack followed the down stroke into a crouch, and then jumped into a spinning roundhouse kick that hit the reeling wizard in the jaw; Lo Pan landed on his back, dazed.
The staggering shield-bearer recovered his footing, and with his patented 'Mighty Shout', swung his heavy axe at Smack. There was a ringing clash as Smack's blade intercepted the axe. The clash of weapons had a definite victor as the axe's head split in half, severed by Smack's humming blade. The sheared part of the axe head spun through the air, catching Smack on the forehead with its flat edge. With the same type of luck that doesn't kill people in freak car crashes, but only leaves them maimed, Smack hit the ground unconscious, but not dead.
"Did'ja see that?" Rygar shouted, brandishing his axe handle in victory. Everyone who saw was laughing. Angel halted her assault to see what all the laughing was about, and joined in when the others explained. Though unconscious, Smack was laughing too, poking fun at his own performance.
"Serves you right!" Lo Pan waved his broken staff at Smack's unconscious form. "This was my best reserve weapon!"
"Sorry about your spawnfodder, David" Smack couldn't stop laughing long enough to really achieve the sarcasm he intended.
"Spawnfodder!? Now this really pisses me off to no end! Two thousand platinum! That's what you owe me!"
"Yeah, an' you owe me four thousand for guarding your stinking corpse... but don't worry, I take credit."
The broken staff bounced off uncononscious form.
"Hey now, old man!" Smack yelled from the land of the unconscious. "Don't be kicking your old pal when he's down!"
"I'll show you kicking..." Smack's fallen body received a few playful kicks before his eyes fluttered open.
"You are so dead again." Smack grogged out through his newly functional mouth.
Lo Pan leapt away as the rest of the group turned to watch the show. He made a dash for his decomposing corpse, and quickly relieved it of his dragon pole. "Now we'll see who does the dying!" He shouted with more than a hint of melodrama. He held the staff aloft, then slammed it down between his feet. A sound like thunder's louder brother threw everyone off their feet and collapsed a few dilapidated buildings around them. When they looked again, Lo Pan stood at one end of a long crevice that had opened in the ground.
"Yeah. 'By the power of Grayskull!' We know the drill." Smack said, clamboring to his feet.
"That's right, baby! And don't you forget it, either." Lo Pan said, turning back to his corpse, "...now, no more fooling around. The reboot's coming up fast!"
Reminded of the impending deadline, the three formerly dead Avatars scrambled to recover their equipment from their silk-wrapped previous incarnations. They stowed the gear they arrived with in their packs. Later, they would store the reserve equipment in the lockers at the inn near the spawn point, so they could retrieve it quickly the next time they died.
They were mostly done when an even tone filled the air and a cool voice spoke in every ear. "Scheduled outage in thirty seconds. Save-point in twenty-eight seconds."
"Man, my workout ain't half over either." Rygar complained as he buckled the