>>5371493The dwarves cry out and stagger back, lacking your natural and honed fire immunity. Their protective attire is no match for a being of pure, elemental flame, more intense and focused than even dragonfire (certainly, what dragonfire you can presently muster).
>12In desperation and with admittedly-admirable courage, the lesser of the two surviving dwarves hurls himself at his new foe… But sadly, bravery is no substitute for wisdom. The fool finds no physical form with which to grapple, and is instead subsumed, consumed, ignited, and immolated to ash. He hardly has time to scream, and what death-cry he CAN manage to emit is swiftly swallowed up by the triumphant, roar of the voracious fire-spirit.
The wiser and mightier of the two dwarves steps back, shielding his eyes, and shouts to you: “You idiot! You’ll kill us all, releasing something like that in here!”
“That’sss the idea,” you hiss back, with a croaking, coughing laugh.
“What about yourself, then? Your girlie? Call it off, you bloody lizaAAARGH!”
>17The fire elemental sweeps inexorably towards your adversary. He swats at it with his magic axe, disrupting the flow of the fiery trunk below the elemental’s vaguely-humanoid form… But though he might be the most formidable opponent you have faced since the berserker, the dwarven manager-commander is no match for a force of nature made manifest. With his treated chain-mail opened up by your moon-blade, he is exposed. He bakes inside his metal and leathers like a potato in its skin.
In spite of his vanquishment, the dwarf’s warning is, perhaps, not misplaced. The elemental savors his death for a moment… But then its all-consuming, eyeless attention turns to you, and to the prone Herbalist.
You rise slowly, moving towards poor, helpless Davora. You step between her and the elemental; its movements never stop tracking you as you do so.
“I freed you,” you whisper, once more in True Speech. “It was not I who imprisoned you, but it was I who released you.”
The elemental gives no indication it understands what you are saying.
“I am not your enemy,” you croak. “Let us leave.”
Nothing.
You focus the last of your will—draconic or otherwise—and reach deep down for that inherent magic which is built into the very blood and bones of every living thing. From your very soul, you draw upon a well of mystic energy.
