Revenge

As he approached the guild hall he noticed that the nocturnal cries of forest creatures had halted. Knowing something odd was afoot he drew his kryss and searched with his keen eyes for a yet, unseen enemy. From the bay a thick layer of fog began to move in, enclosing the glade around him in an impenetrable blanket.

His eyes switched to scan the infrared spectrum. One of the very few blessings there were to having the blood of a drow in your veins. No trace of heat could be seen, not even from the normal creatures of these woods. All of them seemed to be in hiding.

He turned...intending to head back to the Ostar Headquarters. The events unfolding around him were serving to unnerve him. The sound of a voice...one familiar to him halted him in his tracks.

"Good evening, Coward." the voice taunted. Tel'Halda searched in vain to find the source of the voice. No one was around at all, yet the voice continued.

"Your betrayal has caused me no end of troubles." The voice continued. "We had a deal and you chose to go back on your end of the bargain. Now you will regret letting the dryad slip away."

Tel' knew now that the voice belonged to Regeas Maletite. He had found him after all of these years. Remaining calm, Tel did not reply. He began to walk back in the direction of the Silver Arrow.

Suddenly there was a heat signature in his sight. He had no time to react as something heavy caught him squarely in the chest, sending him flying back in front of the hall. He recognized the shape as that of a reaper.

A chuckle rang in his head as he regained his senses and looked around. Six...maybe seven reapers now surrounded him. The one that had hit him stood between him and the Silver Arrow. Wasting no time he jumped to his feet and attacked the one blocking his way to safety.

The reaper seemed caught off balance by his charge. Tel's kryss caught the reaper in the side of its trunk, stripping away a bit of bark but seeming to do little else. The reaper responded with another branch flat across his chest, sending him back into the middle of the circle.

Almost on instinct Tel'Halda surrounded himself with a globe of darkness. Another blessing in disguise for his drowish blood. The reapers could not see him to target him with spells. It wouldn't last long however and Tel' knew it. He found himself blindly dodging sharp pointed branches that poked inside the globe, seeking to bite at him.

His kryss rang out, blocking several of these points and so Tel' hoped, delivering a deadly poison which would wear his enemies down. Some made it past his frantic blocks however, scratching him and tearing at his armor. One caught him in the thigh, slipping through the armor to his flesh underneath.

Tel' let out a yell and again he could hear the disembodied chuckle of his enemy. He couldn't last long against this assault. In a few moments the globe he had summoned would falter, and he would be hit from all sides by deadly spells.

A ray of hope came to him as the heat left the reaper that blocked his rout to the Arrow. A crunch and snap of branches followed. Gathering his strength, Tel' made a mad dash for the opening the fallen reaper had left. His injured thigh screamed in pain but Tel' blocked the pain from his mind. This was a race to survive.

Up ahead he could see the outline of the Silver Arrow through the mist. From behind he could hear the mad chanting of his enemy. Then another sound came to him. A high pitch hiss with a crackling of energy approached him fast from behind.

He had half a second to register the sound as that of an energy bolt just as it caught up to him. He was instantly blinded by excruciating pain... then the world fell dark and silent around him.