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Orix Merakek, a direct command under the High General, stared down the PCs, his demand for surrender unmet. Rigby flew into action. "Why am I nearest the door!?!" he cried, heroically. "Holy crap, I'm never going into any place with a ceiling again, ever!"
Roaxon Fird (he of the unnaturally green eyes and the blue hair only on the left side of his head) sensed that these foreigners would fight, and had already channeled most of his psychic might into his body before the door was kicked open. This was no rabble, no trivial insurgency, and he had seen powerful demihumans, Arcatans, and Pallians during the war. He willed his intellect and life force into his muscles. The world grew dimmer for him, and he could feel the purr of his turals as he shifted his hands. He would go for the pixie, he thought as his mind grew thin. He could see pixie.
Near the doorway stood Meliwafl and Nrell Rayo, sisters and priestesses of Miryanna. Both had spent the last several seconds warding their allies from errant energies and hostile magics, but their jobs were far from over. Meliwafl looked over the room, disgusted by the foreigners that Maexxan had treated with. The dwarf was a cause for concern- clannish and resolute, dwarves were usually not to be trifled with. But this was one dwarf, perhaps an outcast.
Nrell saw with almost identical eyes to her sister, but came to vastly different conclusions. These were not mercenaries, and they weren't interested in Maexxan's dwindling fortune. They wouldn't be here unless they truly believed in something. Belief or not, their strength would soon be tested, and likely they would die as weaklings. Maexxan was to be captured alive for questioning, but the rest...
Mutain zipped in the doorway and flew to his left and up. Still in range of any melee, any grab, but he had warded himself appropriately. He couldn't just blast them- not only would some be too nimble, but Maexxan could be destroyed. His primary concern was the pixie, and secondary the... dwarf? So many magical item glows, so little time to figure out what he should focus on.
Moaxre moved forward. The group he was sent to intercept wasn't nearly as dirty as he hoped, their weapons in perfect shape and finely crafted. The dwarf looked him square in the eye, murmured something, and flicked his left index finger forward. He didn't even have time to move as the fiery red mote flew out, and flashed. HE BURNED OH IT
The pain stopped, but so did Roaxle's heart.
Many of the normal enforcers were badly burned in the first few seconds. Those that were not were rapidly ordered to flee by Nrell, who could see that their deaths would mean nothing, a terrible waste.
The battle was joined. Almost every magical force thrown at Ribgy could not affect him through his spell resistance. The preternaturally strong psychic warrior could hurt him, so Rigby spent some time escaping. Maexxan peed himself and ran backwards into the storage closet.... could anything in here help? Alenka lunged forward to defend her friends, spending time in melee with Orix, even as he pushed back with his mercurial greatsword and his reckless fighting stance. Keichi discovered after a few seconds of fighting that he was outclassed in a straight up fight- for every katana swing, Orix responded boldly, letting the armor deflect it and crashing forward with his mercurial greatsword. Begrudgingly he switched his target to Roaxon, who, while temporarily stupid, was lumbering around.
Caleb attacked Orix initially, but rather early on magical fear gripped his heart, and he joined Maexxan in the closet.
The fight raged for nearly half a minute more before Mutain finally cast Force Cage around Keichi. Expensive, but those swords could not be permitted to continue in such a fashion. Rigby had to quaff his mighty potion of twin, and Nrell was very impressed with his powers, both offensive and defensive. You know the saying... once you go fay, you something something bidet. Orix absolutely splattered Ash with a powerful and magically thunderous mercurial greatsword hit- he was revived only with the power of a restore potion, the group's last. Ash also called upon Latukefu to revivify a fallen comrade (I think this was Keichi, felled by a mercurical greatsword crit), but found all of the enemy except for Mutain frustrating to shoot arrows at. Maexxan eventually found a cleansing potion, which he used to restore Caleb to functionality.
The first to fall was Mutain, to a disintegrate. Without his magical backing, the enemy become unravelled. A powerful dispel was aimed at Roaxon, stripping away many of his psychic powers and magical buffs, and as a result his turals found their mark much less often. Meliwafl was slain by Keichi, and Orix, their commander, eventually fell before he could explode anyone else with his powerful blows. At this point Nrell and the restored Roaxen surrendered, debating Maexxan and answering questions before being left tied up without their weapons.
Maexxan guided the group to a safehouse- the basement floor of a manufacturing hangar, warded as the last place was, but this time the authorities had no one that they could scry on on the way in. This hidden headquarters of the resistance was not somewhere that they would have been taken first in any event, but their powerful and unhindered defense of Maexxan obviously earned his trust. At this point, they are all in hiding- only other members of the resistance are free to come and go, and are doing so sparingly because of fear of being spotted, magically or mundanely. Rixs Noucat is arriving in a few days, his message had implied that he had a way to make the planned airship attack worth doing, or at least safer.
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