Chapter 6: The Hunter and the Prey

It's easy to see what the worry across the bridge is about now.

The buildings across the river seem to buck and sway up and down, as though riding a storm-tossed sea. They crumble and topple with ease, so many of them already abandoned and destroyed by previous fires -- something Verrian has heard about from Giran and Eanala already -- and the ground on this side of the river is beginning to tremble with a powerful force. It won't be long, if this continues, before this side of the river is quaking in the same way. Already the river is sloshing violently back and forth in its banks, just cresting the riverwall that was a good five feet above the surface of the water not long ago.

When Elora speaks to her, Vesina reaches out to grab her arm and Verrian's as well. "Something is coming. I don't know what it is, but it cannot possibly be good, the way things are looking over there. We need another route to safety," she says, breathless in growing panic. "Fast!"

The crowd of mages is milling about nervously, not sure what to do next. The fire around the square rages, the crackling and roaring making it increasingly hard to hear, and the heat induces a swirling, painfully hot wind that whips your hair about and sears at your skin.

With a roaring sound from beneath the earth, a glowing mass begins to rip through the surface of the ground maybe a half a mile across the river, building rapidly as you watch in awe at the raw force display. Masses of earth that must be the size of houses are tossed aside like dry leaves, glowing with an unbelievable white-hot intensity. As you watch and your numb feet start to realize that they should be running, the glowing mass rising from the earth takes on the form of a humanoid head and shoulders that must be three stories high already, bellowing an ear-splitting unintelligible roar of... triumph? Frustration? Longing? All of those things at the very least. As it rises into the air, it becomes wreathed in flame. It continues to grow, but for the moment, only part of it is revealed.

Ember is frozen in place. Part of her wants to run screaming, but she knows her legs are too short. Part of her wants to burst out laughing in joy at the amazing magical feat taking place, but that would be inappropriate, probably.

So instead, she musters all her courage, takes on her most helpless appearance, and screams.

GREAT BEING OF FLAME AND POWER, PLEASE! WE MEAN NO HARM AND BEG SANCTUARY FROM THOSE WHO WOULD KILL US!

She starts looking for an escape. Just in case. With a flash of brilliance - literal, light brilliance - she glances back at Verrian and winks.

You've got me, right?

She slashes her arm through a nearby flame.

Igniting her oil-soaked clothes.

TAKE MERCY ON YOUR SPIRITUAL KIN! THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE WAY OF THE LIGHT! THE SPIRITS OF DARKNESS SEEK TO ROB THE EARTH OF YOUR LIFE FORCE!

The fire creature rises inexorably from the earth, reigniting the entire area around where it stands from sheer force of heat. Even at this distance, you can feel the furnace-like heat it emits. It rises to its full height, at least fifty feet tall, roughly humanoid in shape, wreathed in raging flames, its face only a rough approximation of human, nearly all gaping, starving mouth. It lurches forward and reaches a huge arm out across the river, upriver from where you are. The river begins to steam solely from the heat as the elemental's arm comes near.

It reaches out and swipes at the burning buildings on your side of the river with one massive claw-like hand, grabbing at the flaming debris and shoving it into its own burning maw. It starts to reach for another handful when Ember goes up in flames and begins screaming at it.

Slowly, very slowly, its head turns toward Ember. It remains motionless for a moment, and then lets out a howling roar like a massive explosion. The wind it generates is so hot that it threatens to blister your skin. It raises one massive foot and begins walking toward the tiny creature that deigns to speak to it.

Seeing the massive, flaming creature emerge, Coreene can't help but gape at it in slack-jawed awe. Her attention is dragged away by familiar shouting, and upon seeing Ember ignite herself in an attempt to seem... friendlier?... to the monstrosity, Coreene screams. Her scream is lost, however, in the roar of the beast, and she attempts to shield her face from the blistering air with her arms.

Yelnar instinctively turns to shield the newly healed Giran from the blast.Yelnar realises he himself can't take much more of this and starts to leave, carrying Giran unless the poor fellow is able to move under his own power.

Elora is simply stunned, dumbfounded even, at the sheer size of this being. She has about 100 questions filling her mind regarding it's intentions, physiology, strength, really anything which can give her insight. She opens her mouth to speak, feeling the air become far too hot. She quickly turns around and shields her eyes, starting to feel like she's being cooked.

Well, you got its attention. That's the start of a good dialogue. I suggest running while we can.

Verrian's gaping gaze alternates between the horrifying creature and the smaller horrifying creature who she generally refers to as Ember. The thought running through her head is, How can I possibly keep everyone safe from this monstrosity?

That thought refers to the fire monster. Mostly.

She looks around for a likely escape route just before the thing roars in response to Ember's... whatever she's trying to do.

Swan is baffled entirely by the turn of events, but attempts to categorize the shape and aspect of the creature for later tale telling. As such, he fails to notice Ember's actions, a failure he summon no doubt regret for his presumably very short life.

Shielding his crisping face from the flames, Swan attempts to clean the oil from Ember's clothing using arcane magic.

Ember cringes at the flaming breath, generally ticked off that heat and fire aren't the same.

She looks back at Wil and Elora, and smiles. I got this! Run! And Elora - pass me that potion!

GREAT POWER! she cries again. MY NAME IS EMBER! LOOK! I KNOW YOUR POWER AND I DO NOT FEAR IT! YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!! CAN I DARE SEEK AUDIENCE WITH YOU? PLEASE HOLD FOR THE SAKE OF MY FRIENDS!

She breathes heavy, trying to keep focused. She notices that she's not on fire anymore and looks back to see Swan.

What are you doing? I've got this!!

Elora almost drops the potion as she pulls it out, runs on over to Ember to give, and runs back before anything bad happens. She's not entirely convinced she isn't experiencing a vivid hallucination brought upon by stress.

The heat is getting nearly unbearable. Vesina and Eanala are quickly shepherding people down the only exit from the square not blocked from the fire. Maybe they don't have a place to go yet, but it's got to be infinitely better than getting roasted to cinders. As far as Verrian can tell, this is the only safe place and way out -- conveniently, perhaps, it's in the opposite direction of what the elemental was in the process of further destroying, but perhaps inconveniently, it's also in the direction of the more occupied part of the city.

Giran, still groggy from his bout of unconsciousness and sudden healing, puts a hand on Yelnar's shoulder in thanks, nodding as Yelnar asks if he can move. He follows along with the warrior as they too start moving toward safety.

The immense fiery creature takes a slow, lumbering step forward, its massive leg ending in a misshapen lump that splashes into the river. A sudden superheated fog of steam rises up with a deafening hiss, and for a moment, the creature acts vaguely uncertain. But it pays this brief inconvenience little mind, raising a gigantic arm above its head, fire-claws outstretched and ready to swipe.

As Ember is suddenly extinguished, the hand of almost certain doom pauses, and the creature's attention is drawn back to the raging inferno rapidly engulfing the warehouse district.

Finally discerning what needs to happen now, Verrian turns around and begins waving her arms to indicate a direction: out of the square. At the same time, she is sharing, @Everyone: THAT WAY! Get out of this open square. RUN THAT WAY AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!

Verbally, she says to Elora and Vesina, "Go! Go now!" and begins running herself. As she reaches Ember, she grabs the girl and begins to drag her along.

Wil is running as fast as his legs will go. Once he gets to the street where the survivors are being led, he stops to help anyone who needs it and to keep people moving.

WHAT DO YOU WANT, VERRIAN?? WE CAN"T OUTRUN IT SO WHAT ELSE DID YOU WANT ME TO DO????

She coughs from screaming and gasps for breath, her dark eye lit up like a star. As much as she tries to resist, she's more tired than she wants to admit.

We can't just (cough cough) run away from every - (cough) Thing! (cough cough cough cough) We're supposed to be heroes not cowar -

She dissolves into a fit of coughing.

Swan sees Verrian coming and grab Ember, and he adds his strength to dragging the fiery, hotheaded teen away. "It's not who you think it is!"

"Thanks!" Verrian shouts to Swan as the two of them pull Ember out of the square. She continues to share, with everyone she can see in the area.

@Everyone: Run! Get out of the square! Hurry!

Who do you think I think it is?? I just wanted to make an ally and not DIE!

She coughs again as she's dragged away.

"Making an ally? How was that going, in your opinion?" Verrian feels fatigue looming in the background, a byproduct of battling a monster next to a giant fire and then running from a monster that is a giant fire. She fights it off. No time to be tired right now.