09-30-2010, 03:34 PM
To say that Elliot Craig was disturbed was an understatement. His gray eyes were squinted as his brows furrowed, silently watching his partner for the last three years decimate half of the sandy field that the demons chose to appear in. He winced as he saw a demon go up in flames and the wind bring the smell of charred flesh to his nose. Elliot wrinkled his nose, almost gagging at the nasty smell before letting out a startled noise when a fireball went past him. He turned his body, glad that it had missed him by a couple of inches before promptly being blinded by a miniaturized volcano.
Chloe always took things to the extreme.
The blond water mage squinted against the light of the flames and almost dispassionately watched as a demon twice his size was licked in flames. It roared, shaking its horned head before collapsing on to the sand, body still being burned to a crisp. Slowly, he turned back to his partner...who was walking towards him in an equally slow pace. She was stepping over small and large flames that were quickly dissolving in to dark smoke. None of them dared to harm her tanned skin.
"Ah...Chloe...perhaps you shouldn't use too-" whatever he was about to say was cut off by a demon's roar. The sand to his side rose until a scorpion demon, roughly a few feet taller than he was, burst from it. Wincing as the sand showered upon him like rain, Elliot narrowed his eyes as he focused on his enemy. The demon opened its mouth, showing off large and sharp fangs, before lounging towards him. He was only just starting to form a sharp ice pike from the ground to meet the demon's mouth when it was blasted away by a large flaming ball of fire.
Elliot startled and he looked to where the demon had been thrown back. It was still alive though half of it had been burnt. It was crying out, probably calling for reinforcements. Sighing, the water mage waved his hand formed the ice pike he wanted to form earlier and finished off the enemy by extending the ice and piercing its head. It was such a boring end for such a fierce fight.
"We're done here," Chloe spoke from behind him, causing Elliot to turn back to her and watch as she dusted herself off of the sand that had gotten on her shoulders, "Let us rendezvous with the others."
And then she was off, dark form flitting across the sand filled with burning carcasses. Elliot spared only a moment to watch her retreating back before chasing after her. In all of the fantasy novels he had ever read, fire mages were always the hotheaded ones. They were often the characters that shouted, complained, and generally were loud and obnoxious. Chloe was the absolute opposite of them. She was calm, collected, and even cold to a point. Her facial expressions seldom changed and her smile was a rarity that few people were blessed enough to witness. He was one of those lucky few.
"Ah...shouldn't we be a little more hurried? The others are fighting as well after all," Elliot asked as he caught up and walked beside his friend.
"A couple of minutes won't matter."
You're wrong, Elliot wanted to shout, a couple of minutes DOES matter if you want to save someone's life! As usual however, he didn't utter a single thing...
"They went through the same training we did. They won't die so easily."
...and as usual, Chloe managed to see right through him without so much as a glance from those chocolate brown eyes. Smiling slightly, Elliot let the rest of the walk be in silence. It was only when they reached the next field where explosions where happening that the water mage decided to shatter the companionable quiet.
"Ah...Chloe? Shouldn't we...help them? And you know...not just stand around watching?"
"...You should. My fire will spread too much with the wind if I try to help. I won't be able to control it."
Good point.
"Err...right!" And with that, the water mage ran off to join his friends...or fellow guardians as the villagers liked to call them. Chloe stayed where she was, eyes tracking the form of her partner and ready to step in should something take him by surprise.
"Oi!" Elliot called out before abruptly stopping as a demon detoured towards him, "Not you!" he yelled at it and used the water in the air to blast the said demon away with geyser from his hands. "You guys need some help?" he said, waving his hand around to grab the attention of the two other fighters. "Chloe's tired so it'll just be me!"
"...I'm not tired," the fire mage mumbled, slightly put off that her partner was teasing her again. Slowly, she pulled her gaze away from the water mage and stared at the form of the air mage and the earth mage. She wondered if, perhaps, it was time for a bit of partner switch.
|
