Page 17 (1/2)

Too late, though, they both knew as they approached, for a pair of sea devils on the next roof in line were already at the ledge, tridents lowered to block their progress

Artee, his hand going to his belt

Dahlia ca staff and vaulting out, flying for the creature The sea devil realigned its trident appropriately and seemed sure to skewer the elf woher, tightened her torso th, lifting her higher into the air She flew past the rising trident, clearing the scaly hu back the way she had come She pulled her staff in close and swept it in line just in ti trident as it whipped around

She glanced at the other sea devil, but it had no interest in her It clutched at its belly, and at Entreri’s eed to keep its trident waving out before it, fending off the assassin’s attempts to cross over fro trident of her opponent, trying to figure out how to break free of her colanced at Entreri, to see hih he could barely reach it and had no chance of knocking it free, or even aside enough for him to leap across

Dahlia was about to yell out exactly that to hiue as she caht but a ruse, his waving sword de, the sea devil followed the sword’s movements with its trident, and reer into its face

The sea devil staggered back a couple of steps The dagger hadn’t flipped around properly to dig in and had in’s forehead, but still had the creature surprised and off-balance By the time it recovered and re-focused, Entreri stood on the roof before it and a fine sword dived for its chest

It tried to turn, it tried to parry

But all it could do was grunt as the weapon struck home

Entreri pressed it in all the way to the hilt, in to bring its long trident to bear

Dahlia’s opponent squealed an awful sound and angled its trident to jab at Entreri, but the elf was having nothing of that She countered with a heavy barrage of thrusts and chops, always just ahead of the trident as the sea devil tried to recover and fight back to even footing with her

Finally the frustrated creature sied, then threw itself at Dahlia, biting at her and raking with its claws

Or trying to, for the elf warrior hit it several ti hard and repeatedly, and on the last strike, Dahlia released the staff’s lightning energy, the blast hurling the sea devil backward, flinging it fro into the wall of the other building

Dahlia looked at Entreri, ung around and flung the iin from his blade so that it, too, would fall dead into the alleyway, his free hand quietly retrieving his belt knife from its belly as it departed

"Four," he announced, going for his dagger, which lay on the roof

Dahlia growled at hiet far, as a stone clipped her across the temple and drove her down to her knees, dazed

Entreri stared, bewildered, then looked north toward the wall and figured out the sudden turn of events, for the air filled with flying stones, a barrage of uish a sea devil froin bit down at her, and Aris snapped her head up tothe sea devil’s upper jaw She got gashed badly as the dazed creature retracted, but she accepted the pain for the gain she hadthe stunned sea devil in the side of its jaw Aris saw at once that the h, as he leaped away to e

As the sea devil atop the dwarf lifted up a bit to regroup and collect its spinning thoughts, As up under her She kicked out, straight upward, and tugged the ht up and over her Her powerful legs drove hard and the strong dwarf lifted her butt right fro the sea devil right over so that it landed hard on its back

Aris arched her back and snapped the ht to her feet She swung around i that her mace was too far away, pulled her small round shield off her back and leaped at the fallen creature She took up her se doith all of her considerable strength against the prone sea devil’s neck

The creature’s legs lifted froan to twitch as the sahuagin thrashed about, gulping for air that would not colanced over her shoulder to watch her companion in action He had a sea devil on its knees before hie of punches that snapped its head left and right

"Behind ye!" the dwarf yelled, seeing yet another ene out of the door She needn’t have bothered, for the battle-skilled monk was quite aware of the creature, obviously, and was even goading it to charge by appearing so distracted

Afafrenfere rolled backward as the trident prodded for hirabbed the long pole with his left hand, and down chopped his right, a powerful blow that snapped the trident’s handle cleanly Afafrenfere wasted no ti up the trident’s pointy end as he did to throw it into the sea devil’s face

Thethe sea devil in the face He landed and spun on the ball of his foot, leaping again into a circle kick that sla backward to slae wall