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Grace wondered for a moment if she had overdone it with Maximos... he was glowing... now she was used to 'Andi glowing, the weird sister did that all the damn time, she was like a blond glow bug at times... but Grace had never seen someone that she had healed almost overflow with the power, then again she had never made a pact with fate for the full use of Verdandi's powers without a limit before.... He looked better, and honestly that was all that mattered to the Elf at the moment!

0.0 The truck swerved and Grace couldn't help but to let out a little scream, a sound that was all girl and was the sort of thing that men usually used to berate each other "You screamed like a girl back there man..." being the most usual example...The red head let go of her staff as she slid along the top of the trailer, throwing herself flat on the metal and desperately trying to grab at anything to keep from sliding right off the truck.

She closed her eyes for a moment as she felt her feet slip off the edge and her outstretched arm touched cloth as Grace slid right into Maximos and Chris, the woman clinging to their legs with her eyes closed as she waited for the world to go back to a more stable position, or at least for the truck to drive in a straight line for a moment again.


xp 'Andi couldn't help but to laugh softly as she watched Grace slide around like a little marble in one of those hand held games where you actually tried to get the marble into the little point slots... A white hand materialised next to the abandoned staff for a moment before the long fingers wrapped around the wood and both disappeared as the ghostly figure hurried to catch up with her companion.

Ever the gentleman even in times of need, Maximos, no matter his condition could never leave a damsel in distress to fall from a moving vehicle and be slave to the wins and wishes of inertia, gravity, concrete and several other terrible, terrible things.

No no, that simply wouldnt do.

He reached down, both of his strong hands delicately draping around both of Grace's wrist and ever so kindly lifting her up onto her feet and making sure she was righted. Despite the scary strength these hands hold, and the immense power of destruction, pain, and death, despite years of combat, Maximos was never too harsh, too hard, to strong, or to rough to be kind to a lady in need. Despite the normal harsh nature of the vicious talons covering his right arm, against her rest while the metal was cold, it was also kind. Perhaps the most accurate critique on Maximos' state of being.

Still, all of the philosophical details behind, the Shadow set her gently down on the bed of the truck, and met her eyes with a smile for a moment, and silently looked back forward at the trucks oncoming destination.

Grace smiled gratefully as Maximos helped her back up and then set her right on the truck again. "Thank you!"

"All still here sir!" Grace called back at Rain's question, raising her voice enough to be heard over the truck engine as she watched the city as they passed.

Yes! Those were arrows, and as previously demonstrated with the ten earlier drow to surround him, arrows were a rather useless endeavor against Maximos. He dodged the ones close enough to be dodged and nimbly caught the others, at time reaching around and past Grace to defend her against an arrow or two, or three. Or however many their were.

To his knowledge trucks were made of steel magic, and arrows didnt work against steel magic. Did he know about tires being made of rubber and how easily they were popped and such? No, not in the slightest.

He could probably have easily pulled up a shadow shield of some sort to deflect the oncoming projectiles, but first he would have to know they were a threat. And sadly he didnt, this one would have to go to someone else.

Arrows? Now that the effect of his previous skill had worn off, both the positive and negative he was back to fighting shape. With the tires seemingly taken care of and Maximos in good form there wasn't much for him to do but keep himself from getting an arrow in his side. Reinhart did much like Maximos and either dodged, deflected, or guraded against the volley of crowwbow bolts. Or arrows, whatever.

Like usual he had his blades and bracers covering his forearms under his jacket, that's how he guarded and deflected. Doding was more a slight tilt of the head or a turn of the upper body. He wore shin guards under his pants so at least the bottom part of his legs were covered. No matter how fast these bolts came they wouldn't pierce his armor easily. Besides if worse came to worse, he could always knock them back, defend with a shield, or simply go after the source.

For now he'd wait and go with the flow, it seemed they were heading towards the gate anyway.

Technological, perhaps; but how about magical? If the pilots were living, breathing people, the runic sensors aboard the Vengeance would immediately pick them up, especially since they were well within threat range, even if they were moving at supersonic speeds.

"Captain! Bogeys at... everywhere!"

"What? Where'd they come from?" Krik asked, as shocked as the deadite that reported it to him.

"Unknown, sir. They seemed to have just popped up outta nowhere."

Finally, some action! Krik thought. "Arm all weapons! Time to show the mortals what Vengeance is capable of."

All this time, the airship hovering over Barton had remained dormant, except to shoot down the Purge's crafts. At any point, they could have easily bombarded the city with destructive blasts of negative energy, but they were strictly there to serve as an anti-air deterrant. The crew was getting bored of just watching all the action happen, but now with the sudden appearance of the low-flying aircraft, they could finally sate their own thirst for battle.

Unlike its predecessors, Draconis and The Storm Over Gaia, who were both utterly overcome and destroyed by the aircraft of Ymiristan when they had attempted to invade that city, Vengeance had been designed to pose a threat to both air and ground forces, and was more than capable of defending itself against air threats. The cannons that lined the sides of the hull became active, swivelling around as they targetted the nearest flying aircraft, negative energy glowing like a blacklight inside of the thick barrels.

"FI--"

"Sir, wait! What if they're on our side?"

"Aw, damnit!" Krik pounded his right fist on the arm of his chair, glaring annoyedly at the deadite. "You had to go and ruin the fun, didn't you, ensign? You have a point though. Keep weapons on standby. Destroy them if they pose even the slightest threat."

Now, just like the previous group, this one was made up of the same numbers, ten soldiers, ten casters. So it would not be hard to imagine that the casters would be casting spells or something once they found shelter in the doorways, alleys, or whatever of the side of the street from the passing truck while the soldiers fired at those on the roof and those in the vehicle.

Only moving objects were hard to cast spells on, since it was a time consuming practise, and by the time they were finished casting, the truck would have probably moved on.

So instead, it was simply more convenient to use devices. Like a wand. Three of the casters would pull out wands of lightning, and release their attacks. Because a moving target is simply too hard to hit with projectiles that were not as fast as lightning by the spellcasters, who were not trained to use projectile weapons and lead targets.

They'd point at the truck as it began to pass by, the crossbow bolts seemingly useless against the passengers, and then there would be a flash of bright white light and a crackle of electricity as the wands were activated, and then all would be back to normal in the time it takes for a single stroke of lightning to strike a target.

One of the casters would have pointed his wand at the group atop of the truck, as the lightning bolt would flash and strike at them. Meanwhile, the other two, on opposite sides of the road, would have directed their wands at the open windows of the truck's interior, at the driver and passenger.

The other casters were not equipped with such tools, and simply hid for the time being, deciding it was a waste to attack a target that was moving away from them at the moment. Perhaps if they went back on the move after it passed, they'd come across it again and actually have a chance to do something, but at the moment, they couldnt, so nothing it was.

While driving through the ambush, the truck moved at a decent enough clip where the crossbow bolts shouldn't have been too much of a bother. Rain prayed with all his being though that the Drow would not target the wheels. As far as he knew, his prayers were answered, since the truck kept going strong. One of those crossbow bolts cracked the windshield though, hitting it just right, and actually remained impaled in the glass.

Though the lightning bolts would be a different matter altogether. Two of the three bolts targetted the cab of the truck, where he and Joseph Brown were sitting. Now, for someone who specialized in electricity as his primary element, Rain could practically sense the lightning as they were immediately launched from their wands; the static in the air before you get struck is an unforgettable feeling to those who are familiar. So, he had enough sense to not touch anything metal on the frame of the door, and even reached over and yanked Joseph away so he would not get electricuted.

There's good news and bad news concerning that, assuming that magically generated lightning still worked like regular lightning. The good news is that the cab of the MAC truck would conduct all the electricity, leaving Rain and Joseph completely unphazed (at least, physically so). The bad news is immediately afterwards, the engine just... died. The paired lightning bolts fried the battery and the wheel just locked up.

Those on top might hear the truck stall and just stop running. If they were too preoccupied to notice by sound, though, they would definitely feel it rolling to a very gradual stop a second or two later.

The truck would manage another 100 feet or so, stopping just short of the stop sign at the end of the road, then fell as silent as the rest of the city.