Use speed and ferocity to put your opponent on the defensive

You stretch out your awareness with your magical skills, amplifying your senses threefold as you begin to zigzag through the mist. Your magic floods through tired muscles, refreshing and increasing their speed, sending you hurtling in a tight arc inward towards the thickest reaches. You sense trouble before it arrives, altering course to avoid a human knight with his poisoned blade, then some kind of buzzing trap laid around and between a rocky outcrop. Finally a monstrous shadow stalks unseen in the darkness.. but you detect its insidious presence, gliding by on silent feet.

You sense your target ahead, a magical presence which raises a tingle along every rune line on your body. She is extremely powerful. You dart left and move in a tight circle, coming at her from the side. The move avoids a body size flash which scythes through the path you had been taking. Instead you break into a clear space, the blue-purple cloaked form of the sorceress wielding a staff in both hands at the centre. She is hauntingly beautiful and terrifying, human with wild blonde hair, eyes orbs of sparking silver. She is facing away from you but her head whips around as you dart through. You have no intention of engaging directly and move past at breakneck speed, sweeping your long knife across the back of her knee through clothing and flesh. Her muttered curse-spell turns to a satisfying shriek as your run carries you back into the mist and you loop back randomly to attack from a different direction.

Over to your left a few paces away the earth erupts in a deafening crash, and then just ahead, as the your opponent tries to go on the offensive. You ride your luck and leap the smoking crater ahead, and are grimly satisfied to hear another crash further away. She isn’t targeting you but lashing out wildly. You break into her clear space again and find her back to you. With a grin you repeat your trick gliding past and slashing through the cloak and cloth beneath inflicting a deep wound along her side. You turn for safety again but this time she gets off a parting shot. Despite holding wounded ribs, her staff blasts a stream of bitter vapour in your direction. You swerve but it engulfs your right side, eating its way into your armour and raising welts across your bare skin. You gasp in pain, stumbling into the concealing fog once more and reeling into a random pattern in the hope of avoiding more attacks. The pain intensifies as your magic glows across your body and swells to battle the dark attack. You curse and drop your eaten-away vambrace from your arm to the grass. You shed what damaged items you can, leaving bare flesh and patchy chainmail in places. Your skin of your exposed hip is red and sore, and the tips of your fingers are worryingly numbed and blackened but your magic has saved the rest of you from worse. The same cannot be said for your equipment. Your shield which was strapped to your back and one of your daggers are also useless. Your sword is pitted but serviceable. You had better end this soon.

Your options are limited now she is aware of your presence. Her wounds are substantial but not fatal, it is only a matter of time before she seeks you out or summons aid. Your own talents are strong but you doubt you could stand up to this storm sorceress spell for spell. Your rune magicks have their limits!

With a mental shrug you grasp your sword two handed, move around the circle and set your jaw. It’s now or never.. You charge, breaking free of the fog with a cry, only to find the circle suddenly larger than ever. The Sorceress is a furious dark presence at its centre. Her dress is ragged and stained with blood but she seems to have grown in height in her anger. You sprint toward her but the widened clearing has given her more warning and she whirls toward you with a guttural shriek. You sideslip, angling a magical shield as another blast of vapour surges at you, deflecting it away as you dodge. Ten paces, five.. She smashes the butt of the staff into the ground, bare earth rippling and radiating like water. You are thrown to the side but keep your feet, dragging yourself upright with a burst of magical energy, looping a fireball over in her direction. It splashes against a hastily gathered misty wall but distracts her just long enough for you to leap onto level ground and ready your long sword. Blood rushes in your ears and your heart pounds, then wind is lashing at you.. trying to push you away or twist you up into it’s clutches. You Bind yourself to the Earth, wiggling free, spinning out of her line of attack. You edge closer.. almost within strike range but not quite. The sorceress whirls her staff above her head, still summoning elemental **** to drive you away whilst dark clouds begin to build and surge above you both.

In a surprise move you drop flat to the earth, out of most of the wind. You let your sword fall and plunge your arms into the earth. It’s a gamble but as you reach deeply into the packed soil you sense you have been lucky. The ground beneath the human begins to boil with life. Old faded roots and new shoots spring to life and grow immense, ripping up through the earth to ensnare her in coils of new growth. You get to your knees and tighten your magical grip as much as you are able. One of her arms twists and breaks immediately as the rest of her contorts. She doesn’t cry out though, holding her composure and concentration even though her face twists in pain. Immediately her body is crawling with sparks, chewing at the vegetation holding her. You quickly grab your sword and stride over to her purposefully. It’s time to end this. She looks up at you, almost free again.. but those eyes.. it’s hard to tell exactly where she’s looking.. Without warning the clouds above discharge in an almighty blue white bolt into your raised sword. You scream as you are hammered to the floor in an instant and white light blinds your eyes.

When you think again you can barely move.. smoke and the stink of burned hair and flesh fill the air. You manage to slowly open one eye and the world slowly swims back into focus. Most of your clothing is burnt away, in places the chainmail shirt you had on has melted to your flesh. Strange patterns like frost trees are burned into your skin and your left arm which held the sword is withered and horrifically melted. Worst of all your rune marks are smoking ruins. Every symbol on your body has burned into lines of ash criscrossing your blistered skin.

You lie still a while.. feeling curiously numb. Your breathing is shallow and quick, you can’t do more than twitch your limbs. Your ears are ringing but you eventually hear movement and the Sorceress limps into view. Her face is torn between hate and disgust as she nears you. You try to speak but can’t seem to gather enough breath or open your mouth.

“Not so invulnerable after all little elf” her voice is raw, nasty bruises showing at her throat.

“ I was told to capture you alive if you came this way.. but after this..”

She looks at your destroyed tattoos with a shake of her head

“I doubt you’d be of use after this. Don’t worry.. that might be a mercy!“

She coughs, bringing blood to her lips and winces as it rocks her twisted arm. She glances at it then back at you in grim anger, and you find yourself looking down the line of her staff.

“Time to go elf girl. Don’t worry there are plenty more to play with”

The last thing you see is the staff tip unnaturally large in your gaze, glowing like the embers of a camp fire.. flaring like the noon sun, then mercifully the goddess takes you into her embrace.