The entrance she decided on was underappreciated: a sudden flash of light and then she, Raeza, J.A., Seth and Avalyn we're standing in Mevolent's throne room. He didn't even blink. So much for dramatics, then.
"Aevil. How are you on this fine morning?"
"As well as can be expected. Do you want to die now or do this the old-fashioned way?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Patience, my dear. What makes you think I'll agree to your idea of a fair fight?" Mevolent stood and gestured around him. Several doors stood open, and there were several hundred guards. How lovely. "We will still have our duel, one on one, and I will crush you. But your entourage will not be so lucky."
J.A., Raeza, Seth and Avalyn each drew their knives, but there was honestly no way they could defend themselves from that many. Time for plan B. "Hold hands," Aevil commanded sharply, anRaeza obeyed without hesitation. It would benefit her to do that more often. A wave of her hand and they were gone. "So what was that you said about a one in one duel?"
Mevolent smiled, as if he knew something she didn't.
What Mevolent knew was that there was a shield. He'd set it up, made sure it would trigger at the same time as the guards. There was no teleporting out for Aevil now, and if she tried, she'd just end up in another part of the castle, with the rest of her party.
The corridor they ended up in was empty for now, but J.A. doubted it would stay that way. Seth and Avalyn both looked at her with worried glances, Raeza looked at the ceiling.
"What is it?" Avalyn asked hesitantly after a moment of silence.
"There's some sort of shield. No one can come or go, even magically." Raeza lowered her gaze to look at the others, and J.A. could see her gaze harden slightly. "I have an idea, come on."
"Where are we going?" Seth demanded. "They'll be here any minute!"
"Exactly, they'll be here but we won't. Part of the ceiling in a corridor in this wing is rigged so that it will collapse, sealing off the small section of hallway. The computer it was once connected to..." Raeza paused for a moment, then swallowed. "The computer is gone now, but I should be able to restart the mechanism. I just need to--" She pulled up short as she saw the row of Redhoods blocking their way. "Well, this complicates things."
Aevil's pottery wheel spun faster as she created monster after monster from her base of infinite clay. They charged at Mevolent, but he only clicked his fingers and the water in the air made them turn to mush.
"You're going to have to do better than that," he said, pushing at the air and sending her flying into the wall. A bit of fire reduced her pottery wheel to ashes and cracked bits of clay.
As he strode towards her, a ball of fire in his hand, she snapped her fingers and his foot stuck in the wet sludge, tentacles of clay wrapping around it, holding it fast. He threw the fireball, and she hurled herself to the left, the ends of her hair catching fire and burning. Ah, that was dramatic. Aevil enjoyed being dramatic, but not at the price of her style. Besides, the flame would catch her skin eventually, even if her jacket was fire-resistant. She did a somersault, extinguishing the flame.
Mevolent hurled more air at her, pinning her against the wall, and she switched to her other discipline. So much for the clay. Mevolent's foot became unstuck, and he advanced a bit, eyes locked on hers. The arc of energy she sent would have been enough to fry something. Something that was generally not meant to fry easily, something Aevil didn't really have the time or patience to come up with exactly. However, that something was definitely not Mevolent. He only took a step to his left, and the energy tore a hole in the wall instead. His focus on the air didn't lessen.
Avalyn nodded. "Of course I know where I'm going!" If they hadn't been running, she might have stopped and given Seth an annoyed glare of some sort. As such, she barely had time to hope the others had a bit more faith in her than Seth did. Sure she'd never been here, but she'd studied the map over and over, and she hadn't forgotten.
Their goal now was to come from the other side and hope they didn't get cornered or caught between multiple manifestations of Mevolent's force. Avalyn wasn't sure this would work considering the number of guards that ought to be stationed around a place like this, but so far they'd been pretty successful. Maybe all the guards had been summoned to make an appearance in front of Aevil. Even if that was the case, though, they'd still be here soon. And of course, there were the twenty or so Redhoods behind them. Rather hard to miss.
"How far is it?" Raeza asked, "If my calculations are right..."
"Just around that corner," Avalyn whispered, the a hallway to the right. But the rest of us will keep running and loop around to the end we were aiming for before, hopefully buying you some time to set up the mechanism."
"Right. Make sure you get past the door marked 'solarium.' Then you'll be within the sealed off area."
"Sounds good," J.A. said, and they split up, Raeza slipping into the shadows, then the side corridor, the other three vanishing down the hall, Redhoods behind them.
((Sorry if the teleportation shield inconveniences anyone. I'll be taking it down as soon as possible. Aevil and Mevolent fighting is funnnnnn, but I still haven't gotten to the awesome part where someone dies.))
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