The crashing waves below were the first indication that they had reached land. Kiyan circled down and topped his energy reserves from the ocean before he headed inland. He took it easy until they cleared the mountain ring that contained the jungle. Setting down on a ridge Kiyan shifted as soon as Sapphire clambered down. The sun was already above the horizon by just a hair’s breadth.
“You ready for this?” Kiyan looked Sapphire over.
“Are you?” Sapphire closed her eyes as her cloths hardened into plates. Dart like spikes formed on her wrists and a few vines formed into a bow. The last part of the preparations came as she grew a new mask that covered her features. Lifting the bow off her back a vine sprang out of one of her bracelets and hardened into an arrow. She placed it on the bow and pulled the string back. There was a soft twang as Sapphire released the arrow. A small sapling nearby split in half as her arrow found its mark.
“I see.” Kiyan slipped into his ice armor and split the air with his sword. Feeling inadequate compared to Sapphire's arsenal he grew a few throwing blades and arranged them conveniently around his body. A few spines along his forearm completed the outfit. Kiyan slid his sword into place on his back and turned to look out over the valley. This side of the mountain wasn't covered in the lush jungle that sprawled the other side. The few high clouds that spilled over the mountains quickly faded into nothingness. The land over here that fell in the shadow of the mountains was arid in the extremes. Kiyan found it interesting that a jungle and a desert could exist so close yet still be so different. The lack of rain painted the land drab shades as far as they could see from this vantage. Foliage was stunted this high and a few taller dry trees could be seen lower.
A rock clattered down further below the duo. Both Kiyan and Sapphire instantly crouched and hid. Kiyan rippled out of existence and Sapphire blended into the short trees they were in. Scanning the hillside neither of them could see anything until a small rodent caught their attention. As brown as the rocks around it the creature peaked its long nose out its hole and tested the air. Not detecting a threat, the rodent rushed out and began gathering some dried grass that lay on a flat rock nearby. There was a red flash and the once industrious rodent lay smoking in its smoldering hay. Kiyan cringed when the drakken decloaked and walked over to the rodent and ripped it in half. They could hear the bones crunching from up the hill. Kiyan loosed a throwing dagger but Sapphire beat him to the attack. Her arrow soundlessly found its target and the drakken slumped over the still smoldering grass with Sapphire's arrow planted in his spine. A last twitch released the uneaten half of the rodent. Kiyan decloaked and walked down the hill. Rolling the dead drakken over he retrieved the blaster and a handful of plasma cells. He tossed the blaster at Sapphire with the power cells.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Sapphire turned the weapon over with a criticizing eye.
“We might be in a fight when the time required to grow new arrows or bend might be better spent on other applications.” Kiyan showed her how to operate the gun. Her first trial shot scorched a small tree nearby.
“This is a cursed weapon!” Sapphire looked horrified at the poor tree's condition. Dropping the gun on the rocks Sapphire approached the tree and extended a hand towards it. In a moment the burn was gone and the tree was a foot taller than it had grown in the last decade.
“Fire is the cursed element. Your fire is bad enough but the destroying fire is cursed.” Sapphire glared at the discarded gun.
“Why is fire cursed?” Kiyan was curious having noticed that light and heat was provided by other means.
“It consumes without giving. Earth, water, life and air elements can be bent without loss but fire consumes everything it touches.” Sapphire turned down the hill. “Our forests would be wasted and our skies darkened if fire was to curse our lands.”
“Fired isn't all bad. It gives warmth and light and....” Kiyan dropped into silence as he tried to think of other nondestructive use for fire.
“It gives heat by consuming matter. Its hunger would destroy an entire forest if not controlled.” Sapphire felt strongly, almost religiously about the matter. Kiyan decided not to tell her he was a firebender himself. Instead he examined the cloak on the drakken and found it to be unusable. It appeared to be grown into the skin and connected to nodes throughout the body. His idea of using it to help Sapphire turned out to be useless. Kiyan focused until he saw his life bender overlay and scanned the area. Seeing only the energy of a few more rodents and some smaller animals living in the rocks and no sign of more drakken he began moving down the hill. Sapphire followed quietly behind as she kept her own keen eyes out.
They reached the bottom of the hill without meeting more drakken. The valley they descended into was supposed to bring them to the dark lord's encampment. Here the trees were taller but were still thin. The characteristic of a tree who has a hard life. Kiyan caught a glimpse of some dark shadowy energy moving an instant before he rolled to the side. The blaster shot seared over his head just before he released his counter attack. The well balanced throwing blade spun through the air before embedding deep in the drakken. The cloak failed and Kiyan saw a dark splash of energy before the drakken died.
“They are even cloaking their energy, or drawing off it to feed the cloak.” Kiyan frowned at this idea. “It made them much harder to catch. It was like trying to see a shadow in a shadowy forest.” Kiyan switched to feeling the air around them. Expanding his mind he felt an absence of air among the trees a short way to the right. Kiyan flickered back into sight a moment with his finger to his lips and recloaked. His cloak dampened sound so he was able to walk without fear of being betrayed. Feeling the features of the drakken with his mind Kiyan stalked behind the crouching beast. It was looking intently toward the tree that was Sapphire while sniffing the air. Kiyan lunged forward and impaled the drakken on his sword. Pierced in the heart the drakken lost his cloak and let out a shriek. Kiyan pulled the air out of the lizard's lungs leaving it silently gasping for air as it died. Noticing too late that the nearly dead drakken was pounding on a round plate on his chest Kiyan wondered what the beast was doing. His answer came with an earth shattering explosion that impacted Kiyan's shields and threw him into a tree. Standing up from the shattered remnants of the tree that had stopped his flight Kiyan brushed a few splinters off and glanced around.
“Are you alright?” Sapphire recovered from her shock and was checking Kiyan over. Kiyan felt annoyance from Luke and laughed when Sapphire glanced at Luke's bracelet with an expression of impatience.
“I'm fine.” Kiyan leaned over and picked up an undamaged power cell at his feet. Energy arced into his implants charging most of the stores depleted by the blast. “Luke, you should come out so Sapphire can worry about you instead of me.” Sapphire burst out laugh at that and Luke's bracelet melted and dripped to the ground. In a few seconds Luke was standing in front of them.
“That wasn't funny.” Luke looked annoyed at Sapphire's laughter.
“It actually kind of is if you could see your face.” Sapphire tried to stop laughing but another glance at Luke set her off again.
“Come on you love birds, we need to get moving.” Both of them colored at Kiyan's words but they followed. A few giggles could still be heard but soon it was silent as they moved through the woods. Up ahead Kiyan sensed another drakken. Slipping into stealth both Kiyan and Luke stalked their quarry. The explosion must have alerted the scouts that a hostile intruder was among them. This drakken was taking extra care to mask his noise as he crept forward. Kiyan was slipping around one side of a tree while the drakken peered cautiously around the other side when Luke came in for a strike. The drakken detected the attack and avoided most of it only sustaining a minor gash on his shoulder. Luke lost his cloak in the meantime and the two grappled in mortal combat. It appeared Luke didn't have the strength in his nanite construct that the drakken had. Forcing himself apart from the fight the drakken drew his blaster and unleashed a few rounds into Luke's tor
so. Luke stumbled backward and looked down at the hole in his chest. Light could be seen through it behind him. The drakken nearly dropped his gun in surprise at seeing the mortal injury ignored by Luke.
“Now I'm mad.” Luke dissolved into a cloud of nanites and engulfed the drakken. The sound of thrashing and strangled screeches could be heard from the silver mist for a moment before silence followed a dull thud. The silver mist condensed into Luke's form standing above the twisted remains.
“It took you long enough.” Kiyan had decloaked meanwhile and was leaning against the tree.
“You didn't offer any help.” Luke glared at Kiyan. “Besides you know how hard it is to maintain a full construct with few enough nanites to take the form of a bracelet?”
“Boys! Control yourselves.” Sapphire looked down her nose at them before smiling and shaking her head. They walked in silence as Kiyan monitored for more drakken. “This tree isn't right.” Sapphire paused as they passed a stand of trees. This one was larger by a couple times than any of the others. It looked like it had survived several storms and was scarred to prove it. Sapphire examined it for a moment before laying a hand on it. Cracks in the bark formed and it began to twist out of a spiral shape. As the strands returned to a straight shape they could be seen to be several vines that had grown in a ring and twisted together. Inside could be seen the remains of a drakken that looked like it had been wrung like a wet towel.
“It’s fresh.” Kiyan noted half out loud.
“A forest elf is near.” Sapphire scanned the woods in a fruitless attempt to find the elf. “We need to move.” Almost from force of habit the vines returned to their former shape when Sapphire released them. Silently walking through the woods on the valley floor they came to a clearing. Sapphire pointed to a thin tendril that stretched tight across the narrow path. Picking up a small dirt clod she tossed it into the center of the clearing. Instead of bouncing off the needle strewn ground like expected it passed through the ground leaving a small hole behind.
“This area if full of traps.” Luke stated the same thing everyone was thinking.
“This just got interesting. I can look for traps but then I would be missing the drakken.” Kiyan pondered for a moment. “Let's go up the side of the valley a bit and see if we can bypass this mess.” They acted on the idea and climbed up the steep hillside until they could look out over the valley from a good distance up. Here they weren't molested by anymore traps or drakken as they traversed the hillside. Without hindrance the party made good time and soon reached the mouth of the valley. Here the scrubby stunted forest was left behind and a vast sandy waste stretched ahead. They paused in the edge of the forest and scanned for threats before they stepped out into the open. The warmer dry air was immediately noticeable as it settled off the mountains in an adiabatic wind.
Kiyan knelt and placed a hand on the sand in an attempt to see the surrounding earth better. Unfortunately the sand only offered fuzzy glimpses a few dozen paces at the most. Switching to air bending didn't help much due to the fluid nature of the element. Sapphire sank to the ground and all but disappeared into the dust. Kiyan and Luke flickered out of sight as they turned to look where Sapphire was looking. At the edge of the forest was a single uncloaked drakken. Sapphire drew an arrow and leveled it at the drakken. Kiyan touched Sapphire's shoulder making her hold the shot.
“It’s injured.” Kiyan whispered when he saw the staggering gate of the creature. The drakken passed within a few dozen paces and they saw the sharp limb impaling the drakken's abdomen.
“It has to be going towards a camp of some kind for aid.” Luke whispered when the drakken had dropped over the other side of a sand dune. Sapphire's cloths were almost a perfect match for the gritty red sand that surrounded them and Luke and Kiyan were nearing invisible as they took up the trail. The drakken must have been in pain but it staggered on for miles into the searing waste. Their persistence finally paid off when they crowned a sand dune and saw a small group of drakken dragging the injured drakken towards a shelter. Under the shelter made from grey cloths stood a thin but taller drakken.
“That must be the dark lord.” Kiyan scrutinized the dark lord as best he could from the distance. A scream ascended into the air as another drakken ripped the limb from the injured drakken. They held a small device over the wound that glowed brightly until the flow of blood stopped. It looked like the dark lord was asking some questions when he stood up and sniffed the air.
“YOU BROUGHT THE VILE CREATURES TO MY CAMP!” The roar could be heard over the distance. Seeming to pull a shadow out of thin air the dark lord split the offending drakken in two with one swing of the shadowy blade. “KILL THEM.” At this command every drakken in the small valley turned and began running up the sand dune towards the startled watchers. Kiyan drew his sword as an arrow flashed past his ear impaling the first drakken in the charge. At this several of the drakken disappeared into thin air. Kiyan cloaked before loosed a few of his throwing blades and charged the next standing drakken cleaving him with one blow. Spinning he impaled another drakken. Withdrawing the blade he blocked a punch and beheaded another drakken.
Sapphire was raining the approaching drakken with precisely aimed arrows. Being the only visible target the main part of the drakken visible or not decided to neutralize her first. A couple noticed the dead and falling in their midst and warily searched for the invisible attacker. Sapphire dropped as many as she could and relinquished her bow for a rod when they drew closer. The first charged her with a roar and made like to throttle her with his bare claws. There was a sickening pop and crunch as Sapphire landed a solid blow on the side of the drakken's head. Eyes still locked open the dead drakken toppled over. A couple more drakken determined to avenge their fallen comrade and also charged forward in their fury. One staggered back from the force of Sapphire's blow and the other one was sinking to the ground dead as a thin silver blade withdrew from its throat when Sapphire turned to deal with it. Seeing this a few were blinded by rage and drew various medieval weapons while a few more intelligent ones drew blasters. The melee drakken closed in before the blaster carrying drakken had a chance to take aim. A long thin thorn grew out of Sapphire's bracelet and impaled a sword wielding drakken as she brought her rod down with a crashing blow to another's head. Still another couple fell to Luke's nanite blades. Unable to defend against the randomly appearing silver blades several more fell to Luke while Sapphire's clothes burst into life. Seeds stored all over the suit sent out tendrils that strangled or pierced any drakken that came within range.
Kiyan was having more difficulty making kills now that they had isolated him and surrounded him. Somehow the drakken could sense his movements and retreated beyond his sword point. A few fell to his throwing knives but more took their place. Finally getting tired of the dance, Kiyan put away his sword and decloaked. Shooting a flood of icy flamed from each hand he spun. The spiraling waves of icy fire left a ring of frosted statues gleaming in the sun. A couple more blasts finished the last drakken that remained shelter from the initial blast. Kiyan shoved aside a couple of the drakken statues in time to see a silvery force field ripple around Sapphire. The dozen or so drakken were oblivious to Kiyan as they tried to vaporize Sapphire. Kiyan could feel the force field feeding off his energy supply so he assumed it was Luke's work. The last of drakken parted under Kiyan's blade or froze in a blast of cold and the force field dissolved. Sapphire was holding up her wrist where Luke's bracelet was still glowing with the energy it had channeled.
They turned at the sound of slow clapping. “Impressive. Thirty to one odds.” The group looked around at what could easily have been a hundred dead or dying drakken. “I suppose if you want something done right you should do it yourself.” The dark lord stepped out of his shade and stopped clapping. “You elves really are getting on my nerves. It would do me good to kill a few.”
Sapphire pulled an arrow and took careful aim. “You aren't welcome on our world.” She let it fly straight at the dark lord's head.
A shadow formed in the path of the arrow. When the arrow hit the shadow it turned to dust and settled harmlessly at the dark lord's feet.
“Such clueless creatures. Wait.” Recognition dawned on the drakken's face. “I fought you once before didn't I. You were that life bender. Aren't you supposed to be laying waste to your precious forest?”
“I freed her from your control.” Kiyan stepped forward.
“And who might you be? Not that it matters, you will all be dead shortly anyways.” The dark lord flexed his claws in anticipation.
“I'm not an elf.” Kiyan swung his sword expectantly.
“I'm not an elf either, that tells me little to nothing.” Kiyan could see the drakken getting annoyed at the exchange.
“I'm a human.” Kiyan let his words hang in the air as he charged forward blazing with icy flames. The drakken raised a barrier of shadows with a flick of his hand. Kiyan reached the black shifting wall an instant later. A portal opened through the wall when Kiyan slashed at it. Diving through the hole Kiyan rolled back to his feet to find the dark lord holding a black sword of his own.
“I hate humans. The only ones that might be out here would be ascended.” The look that came over the dark lord's face made Kiyan shudder. “I am going to destroy you piece by piece. Kiyan leaped forward and swung his sword low. The dark lord blocked the blow and responded with a counter attack. Kiyan parried the counter attack and retreated a pace or two.