Chapter CCCXCII: Running in Spiite of Growing Malus ~Redaz

Redaz had barely survived being fired upon by his new companion, before quickly realising they were once again surrounded, this time by walking suits of armor. He turned to where he sensed the fewest...things, only to stare down two masked men with staves who asked how he and ratch wished to die. This was not turning out to be a good day.

"I was just about to ask you two that," Ratch growled his response.

"Bluffing doesn't suit you Havoc," the blue clad member of the pair smirked behind his mask. "You'd never be a match for us."

Redaz was now thoroughly confused. He tried to reason out how the three knew each other. Ratch had worked for Havering, right? Did these two? Did Redaz remember these two? ...No. Redaz raised his hand "'Scuse me, who are you?"

The two masked sorcerers glared at him.

"Spiite, he doesn't know who we are."

"Shall we tell the bug Malus, or just leave him wondering?"

"Ratch, why are we talking to angry feelings?"

The two sorcerers glared at him.

"It's Spiite, two i's!"

"And Malus is spelt with a u and an s. Get it right!"

"They're two of Havering's knights, his most powerful underlings,” Ratch explained. “These two are sorcerers. The blue one specializes in ice magic, the red guy in fire. As much as I'd enjoy smearing them on the pavement, I don't know the full extent of their abilities. A fight might not be the wisest decision." Ratch spoke to his companion without ever averting his gaze from the now very off-put masked sorcerers.

"You nearly vaporized me in an attempt to keep me from being killed. Wisdom is not your forte Ratch. Hey, if we wanna fight you guys, could you call the tin cans off?" he gestured to the knights that had them surrounded.

"Mmmm...no," Malus grinned behind his mask, and it suddenly occurred to him how much gloating relied on facial expressions.

Redaz rolled his eyes, "Gee thanks. Alright, red dude, you and me. Ratch keep the blue one busy, try not to get killed."

Having said this Redaz charged Spiite, his sword held in an overhand position and leaped at him.

"You're awfully eager to die," Spiite said and brought his staff up quickly enough to block the young mage's charge, but did fall back with his momentum.

They both brought back their right hands and thrust them forward. Their palms smacked together and an explosion burst from between them, hurtling Redaz backward, while Spiite had the wind knocked out of him by the concussion.

Ratch was confused by the battered wizard's eagerness to fight, but as soon as Spiite was tackled, his partner lost any qualms he might have had about fighting Ratch alone. He swung his staff, launching five spears of ice through the air. Ratch barely avoided them in time, and found the ease with which they lanced straight through the pavement very non-encouraging. "You're too slow Havoc, you might not survive this fight...in fact, I'm sure you won't."

The robot's wrists withdrew and rolled onto his shoulders and the two newly formed cannons began charging two shots before his new hands had even come to bear. Two huge beams lanced out at Malus, but hit an invisible barrier half way to him. The two-foot thick ice wall turned to steam as soon as the blast hit it, but kept Malus safe.

"Come now Havoc, you can do better than that."

Ratch charged another shot in each cannon as soon as he'd fired the first, "You bet I can you friggin' masked freak."

Ratch bent his knees and attempted to leap into the air, but was very surprised to find himself barely a foot off the ground before he fell back to earth. He looked down and found each of his feet coated in a thick layer of frost, and stuck to a large chunk of stone that he'd ripped out of the ground.

"What's the matter Ratch? Cold feet?" Malus's wit left much to be desired, but when Ratch felt the magic frost creeping up his shins, wit was the last thing he was concerned with.

He lifted both feet and smashed the two chunks of stone on the ground, stood and charged Malus, intending to fire at him point blank. He was forced to stop short when a ball of flame as big as he was crashed to the ground between them. He turned to where it had come from and saw Redaz and Spiite hurling fire balls at each other like machines.

Each ball managed to be just barely off target, or so he thought. It wasn't until Spiite lifted both arms over his head and conjured another gargantuan ball of flame to be flung at Redaz that Ratch found out what was going on. Spite fired it at his younger opponent, but it stopped in midair directly between the two. It was motionless for a moment, except for the flickering of its surface, but it quickly began to warp and twist in midair. Redaz was stone-faced, but behind his mask Spiite was sweating with the effort behind trying to force the ball against Redaz's will. The younger wizard flung his arm to one side, the ball was suddenly no longer being forced directly against Spiite, and so his own power added to its momentum as it hurtled toward Malus.

"Spiite, would you try to keep control over your own spells?!" The blue clad wizard scolded his comrade as he leaped into the air to avoid the resultant explosion.

"Ratch, run!" Redaz charged past Spiite, shoving him aside. He'd turned to Malus to respond and was thus caught off guard. Ratch didn't need to be told twice: he ran through the dying flames and was guarded against Malus's gaze by the smoke. The pair dashed down the street the two sorcerers had originally blocked, toward the center of the swirling clouds.

"They're not going to like how we just ditched that fight with them," Ratch yelled to Redaz as he tried to catch up to the surprisingly fast human.

"Well, I don't like participating in a fight that's on someone else's terms, now shut up and run before they catch us. Most of their forces have spread out beyond the epicenter. If we get close enough, we can at least fight them without being surrounded by their friends beforehand."