Amroth screws up his lightning big time, the spell backfires, and the wizard is propelled backwards. The wall of the arena stops him, and knocks him out unconcious. The crowd boos, this isn't what they've paid for. The enemy high wizard shows them how it's done: his own lightning strikes Amroth square in the chest, killing him instantly. (Editor's note: damn.)
Mog follows the carnage with a firebolt, that kocks back one of the mages, and sets his robe on fire. The mage is not seriously hurt, but putting out the flames gives the others time to act. Ragadhast and Medea try to freeze the dangerous high wizard together, Radaghast is knocked back, but Medea succeeds.
That still leaves three perfectly capable mages to contend with. All three of them are earth mages, which they each prove with a slab shot, aimed at every gladiator still standing. All three of them manage to dodge these - the enemy mages are not nearly as experienced as the gladiators. Mog fires his flamethrower, which is brutally effective: the mage that was already on fire dies instantly, and the three others are also ignited, they begin to roll on the floor to kill the flames.
Unfortunately, fire and water magic don't mix well, and Mog's flamethrower thawed out the high wizard, who fires a gust of wind at the group. Mog is knocked on his back from the force of the blow, but the others only stumble backwards. Radaghast retaliates with an ice ball, that flat-out knocks the enemy wizard off his feet, and he doesn't have any way to dodge a similar ice ball, coming from Medea. This proves to be too much for him to handle, and the high wizard finally passes out from all the damage.
Mog then calmly walks to the weaker mages, who are still rolling on the floor at this point, and finishes them off with another flamethrower.
Good job, everyone! Every participating mage gets the following bonus (except Amroth, whose pitiful performance can't be rearded):
INT +1
All level 1 spells of the mage's alignment are upgraded to level 2
You can choose ONE additional spell to level up for free
Medea get the Robe of Power, that grants +1 INT and a bit more damage for all of the attacking spells. Healing spells are not affected.
Ishar sicks the direwolf at the giant cave spider - a risky move, but they need to win some time against the others. The direwolf tries to snap at the spider's legs, but gets kicked back. It manages to narrowly avoid a webbing attempt, and now has the spider's full attention.
Sir chooses the cave crocodile as his opponent, and slashes at the beast with his greatsword. The blow is kind of effective, as the cave crocodile starts to bleed where it was cut, but it fights on. an add thing, considering the weapon quality and the strength of the dwarf. Most above-ground creatures would have died from an attack like that, but the croc counterattacks, which surprises the old commander, and his leg gets caught. Despite the pain, he maanges to trust his sword down the croc's throat, killing him. While he tries to pry the dead reptile's mouth open to free his leg, Ishar gets sorrounded by the antmen. he doesn't waste his time, and quickly bisects one of them. The others don't waste their time, and jump at him, all nine of them. He evades a couple of stirkes beautifully, even dealing out some damage in retaliation, and finishes the first antmen group-attack by felling another two of them.
During all this, the cave spider and the direwolf battle on. The wolf is at severe disadvantage, but it seems to have luck on its side: the spider is still not seriously hurt, but somehow the direwolf also evaded each of its attacks.
Sir manages to free his leg, and goes to help Ishar, killing one of the antmen from behind. The others now attack him insted, figuring he is slower, and also injured. Though that is certainly the case, and they even manage to hit the dwarf multiple times, their copper weapons don't hurt him much through the mithril armor. The two veterans quickly finish off the remaining antmen, and turn their attention to the giant cave spider.
Not a moment too soon: the direwolf1s lucky streak has come to its end, and it gets bitten. The wound is not deep, but the spider's paralyzing poison takes effect almost immediately, and the wolf collapses. It's not dead, but definitely unable to fight much more. Ishar's charge prevents the cave spider to finish his prey, but the veteran barely scratches the body of the spider. Instead, he gets one of his legs stuck to the floor by the spider's web. Sir arrives to help his comrade-in-arms, and chops a spider leg clean off. The confused beast tries to counter, but this haphazard attempt is easily avoided by sir, despite his injury.
The dwarf and the spider are too far for Ishar to reach, so he has to take his time to cut the webbing off his feet. It isn't easy, so Sir seems to be alone against the spider. He sneaks in another deep wound, but the spider is ready for him this time, and manages to bite at an exposed body part. Sir collapses to the floor, just like the direwolf did, and the spider completely covers him in its web.
Ishar breaks free from his own share of spider-web, and attacks the spider from behind, leaving another deep wound. The spider tries to retaliate, but its movement suddenly becomes sloppy, and after a few exchange of blows, it passes out from all the blood loss. Was it not for that, Ishar could have been easily overpowered.
890 gold, Sir is paralyzed, so he won't fight in the next battle. The direwolf is also paralyzed, but warbeasts get restored, so it doesn't matter.
Tyd, Ettad, Celeborn, Thranduil, wraith (alpha)
7 wolf, 3 direwolf
As the crowd still cheers the arriving gladiators, Tyd calmly shoots one of the direwolves in the head. Not exactly sportsmanlike behaviour, but he gets the job done. Thranduil doesn't want to fall behind, so he also shoots one of the wolves, although one of the normal ones this time.
Wraith is far ahead of the melee fighters, and tackles one of the two remaining direwolves. They roll around on the floor, but Wraith's armor, and his natural strength is a huge advantage. He doesn't manage to get a decent grip, so the fight is not over as quickly as it should be.
Celeborn guts the other direwolf, business as usual - both the crowd and his fellow gladiators seem impressed by his level of skill. Ettad remains at the side of the rangers, he bashes the first incoming wolf in the head, and finishes him off with an axe to the face. The other wolves stay back a bit, which is a mistake: Tyd and Thranduil each take down one of them.
The remaining four wolves attack now, and their combined charge knocks Ettad off his feet, he gets a few nasty bites, but the arrival of Celeborn quickly turns the tide again, and the two warriors mop up the remaining wolves with ease.
As another direwolf limps towards them, Tyd almost shoots at it, but Thranduil stops him: it's Wraith, his face all bloody. He finished off the last remaining enemy, the direwolf, although it was a closer fight than it naturally should have been.
You each get 320 gold (rounded up a bit), plus 50 for critical kills, and Ettad gets +END for all his trouble.
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Topic: Arena V: continuing where Arena IV left off (Read 9127 times)