“Let’s go.”
She led her new FRoE friends past all the fighting, dodging flying spells and throwing up shields to keep whatever agents she could from getting a face or a belly or a back full of criminal magic. Yeah, I think I’m getting the hang of this.
They reached the bottom of the staircase as the stunned agent against the banister gained his footing. The other four trained their fell weapons on the bellowing ogre. Yurik detached one of the round black grenades from his belt and shouted, “Fellfire in the hole!”
The agents nearly skidded down the last few steps before the muscular goblin launched the fell grenade. It struck the ogre in the chest and stuck there, flashing green light before it erupted.
The mansion trembled, and dust and bits of chipped plaster rained down on everyone. The ogre bellowed and crashed against the wall following the staircase.
“Dammit,” Yurik spat. “They just don’t go down.”
The ogre pushed himself back up to his feet, shaking his head. Plaster and drywall spilled off his hulking shoulders. A magical screamed in the foyer before something else exploded, and Cheyenne headed up the stairs. “He will.”
The agents flanked her as she made her way toward the ogre, who glared at her with heavily lidded eyes. She threw crackling black energy balls and struck the asshole in the hip, belly, and chest. One huge foot crashed down another step toward her, and a dagger of orange magic materialized in his scarred gray palm.
The halfling sighed. “Ogres and magical weapons, huh?”
“Looks like it.” Bhandi trained her pistol on the ogre’s hand and fired. The fell shots glanced off the ogre’s wrist before he threw the orange dagger toward the troll woman.
Cheyenne raised another shield, deflecting the tossed weapon-spell, and advanced up the stairs again. High-pitched laughter came from more than one magical behind her on the first floor, but she ignored it. I’ve got backup. I better.
The ogre moved faster than she expected, flinging orange daggers left and right with both hands. The halfling managed to raise a shield in front of each intended target—mostly herself—but couldn’t get enough downtime to attack. Then the skaxen and the other ogre guarding the door upstairs started flinging spells at the FRoE agents and the drow halfling. A shrill, maddened cackle escaped the skaxen’s gaping orange mouth.
Bhandi aimed her weapon at the balcony and squeezed off a quick round. The banister exploded in shards of green light and wood, then the magicals upstairs were fully engaged too.
“We’ll keep ‘em busy,” another agent shouted.
Cheyenne dodged another orange dagger from the ogre’s huge fist and used that moment to lash out with her black tendrils. They curled around the hulking gray magical’s wrists, tightening instantly. For a moment, the half-drow and the ogre struggled against each other, their strength nearly matched. Then the ogre quit trying to spread his arms and jerked them up instead.
That yanked Cheyenne up the stairs. Grunting, she caught herself on the next step just before the ogre reared sideways and threw his wrists in a sweeping arc over his head and up the stairs toward the second floor. The halfling flew too, barely avoiding the bursts of purple and red magic shooting through the mansion. She crashed against the wall at the top of the stairs, grimacing while the ogre chuckled and headed toward her.
Her black tendrils drew back, and she kicked off against the wall to enter drow speed.
With a crack, time in the entire mansion slowed, and Cheyenne darted down the stairs again. The ogre’s foot was lifted halfway in his attempt to climb the stairs. She let off half a dozen black spheres, peppering his body from knee to head, then sent black tendrils to coil around his standing leg. When she jerked sideways, the ogre’s foot barely moved. So, she slipped behind him on the stairs and clamped both hands down around the backs of his knees. “More than one way to take you down, asshole.”
Her black energy spheres crackled in her hands, their light bursting around the ogre’s legs before something splintered beneath her fingers. Then she shoved with all her strength and sent the huge magical crashing toward the railing.
A wave of dizziness passed through her, and time sped up again. The mansion erupted with shouts and growls and hissing magic crashing into bodies and walls. The ogre added his bellowing scream to the din as he crashed through the balcony and dropped like a boulder on the unsuspecting goblins below.
Blinking off the dizziness, Cheyenne pushed off the wall and started climbing the steps.
“Oh, shit!” Bhandi peered through the splintered banister. “Did you just blast off his legs?”
A spiraling yellow bolt cracked against the next shield the half-drow lifted in front of the troll agent, and Cheyenne turned her attention to the second ogre and the skaxen trying to defend that door.
The other agents rushed up the stairs, firing fell rounds at the magicals. The halfling had to steady herself with a hand against the wall again, and Yurik stopped beside her with his weapon raised. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Just get them away from the door, huh? I think the kids are in there, but I gotta check first, and I need a moment to do that.”
“No repeat of that bomb in a crate.” Yurik nodded. “We’ll cover you.” Then he darted off down the second-floor hallway toward the ogre and the skaxen, added his own fell shots to the melee.
Cheyenne shook out her hands and headed after him toward the door.
The second ogre didn’t go down beneath the fellfire either. Roaring, he swept his huge arms left and right, fending off the agents who didn’t have enough firepower to do much more than distract him.
The skaxen leaped onto the balcony and ran across it on all fours like a giant orange rat. Someone shot at him as he scrambled forward, but the fell darts went wild, then the skaxen leaped toward
