"HELP!" Oz bellowed as he ran towards the group, "They're after me!" He kept running as fast as he could to keep away from the creatures that was chasing him.

"What?! What's he talking about?", asked Lu, amazed at Oz's behavior. Fedha on the other hand seemed rather annoyed at the racket Oz was making, cause he barked a few times before strolling out of the assumed direction Oz was heading in.

As Oz's dash brought him closer to safety, the things chasing him came into view for Elyse and Taru'lu. Everyone was sure they recognised the small bat-like wings and overly long limbs of the small humanoids running after the Acolyte: Mana Imps! And five of them!

Osvaldo reached the three ladies near the statue just as one of the faster imps got close enough to swipe at his robes!

---

Battle has started!



Imp #1 (H7) (*_*)
Imp #2 (F6) (*_*)
Elyse (D7) (12 HP)
Imp #3 (H9-10) (*_*)
Imp #4 (F7) (*_*)
Imp #5 (F9) (5 HP)
Osvaldo (E8) (11/12 HP)
Aurora (E7) (11/12 HP)
Taru'Lu (E6) (12 HP)
El'iud (E5) (12 HP)
An'hanos (E9) (12 HP)


Imp #1 lunged at Osvaldo with his claws bared!

Oz kept running, trying to dash far enough to stay out of the imps grasp.

Osvaldo managed to give an extra burst of speed and sprinted well clear of the Imp's claws and onto E8!

Imp #2's turn! -
Imp #2 closed in on Taru'lu and slashed at her with it's long nails!

Having already drawn her butterfly sword, Lu was ready to block the slash quickly.

Taru'Lu brought her butterfly sword between herself and the imp and successfully blocked the attack!

Elyse's turn! -

Elyse had her staff ready and swung with all her might at the Imp attacking Lu!

Imp #2 beat it's tiny little wings like mad to swirve to the side, and managed to escape Elyse's staff without taking any damage!

Imp #3's turn! -

Continuing his flight to charge whatever was in front of it, Imp #3 flew to F8 and slashed at poor Oz!

Oz tried to jump out of the imp's reach.

Once again, Osvaldo's nimbleness proved to be a match for imp-claws as he jumped out of the way and out of harm's reach!

Imp #4's turn! -

Imp #4 decided he'd be the first to land a blow and flew to F7 and tried to claw at Aurora's face!

Already expecting the blow, Aurora swung with her staff with speed and force so she'd have some time to chant a spell as well as move a few steps away.

Though she had expected the attack, Aurora swung just a bit too fast and hard and didn't succeed in completely blocking the claws! The imp managed to scratch scratch the necomancer's arm, dealing 1 damage!

Imp #5's turn! -

With a couple flaps of his bat-like wings, Imp#5 flew to F9 and added himself to those attacking Oz! With a swing of his hand, he clawed at the acolyte!

"For Nesha's sake!" Oz yelled as the third of five imps attacked him. He pulled up his walking stick to fend off the attack, also preparing to attack the imp as soon as he had the chance.

Apollo whizzed through the air and smashed itself upon the atacking imp's claw, deflecting the blow!

Osvaldo's turn! -

Oz swung Apollo back around on the last imp that attacked him, attempting to crack him over its skull.

Though it's hand stung from Oz's defensive blow, Imp #5 easilly flew to the right and escaped Apollo! It let out a series of screeches that sounded very much like it was mocking the Ravillan!

Aurora's turn! -

Aurora moved to the nearest Imp and hit it with her staff, trying to weaken or at least break it's spine and wings so it wouldn't move so fast.

Aurora swung at Imp#4 with her staff and landed a blow across the creature's neck! A crunch was heard and the imp fell to the ground, twitched twice and died! Aurora had snapped it's little neck!

Taru'Lu's turn! -
Seeing as that she had the opportunity to cast a spell before the three imp in front of her attacked again, Lu decided to use one that would benefit them all if successful. So she concentrated her mind and just before casting her Flash spell, she said to the others, "Mind the light!" hoping this would blind the imps long enough for everyone to get a better hold of the situation, and possibly, get rid of the annoying little imps faster. (Cast Spell - Flash)

A spark of light emerged from Taru'Lu's hands, bright even in the noonday sun! The sudden glare caught Imp #1 and 5 while they had their eyes wide open and blinded them! The other Imps were also momentarilly blinded, but shook it off fast enough for it not to matter.
Imp #1 is blinded for 5 turns!
Imp #5 is blinded for 1 turn!

El'iud's turn! -
"Eh guys! Leave some for me!" El'iud said as he ran to get as close to the battlefield as possible!

El'iud sprinted all the way to E5!
Still El'iud's turn! -

Seeing he was within striking distance, El'iud quickly took out his hammer and swung it toward Imp #2's head!

El'iud only managed to land a glancing blow, dealing 1 damage to Imp #2!

An'hanos' turn! -
An'hanos raced to make his way back to the others to help with the fight!

Anha made it to E9!

Imp #1's turn! -

Shrieking from his loss of sight, Imp #1 managed to fly to F7 and hover over the other imp's dead body. It then bindly clawed away at Taru'Lu, but it's claws only slashed through air, as it couldn't be sure where the Ignean was!

Imp #2's turn!

Imp #2 growled when Imp #4 fell to the ground and retaliated against El'iud's hammer blow, trying to scratch the Terran's eyes out!

El'iud was caught by surprise when the imp attacked him. He raised his arms to cover his eyes from the attacker.

El'iud easilly protected himself from the Imp! He got a few superficial scratches on his arms that would sting later, for being stupid enough not to protect himself with his hammer, though.

Elyse's turn! -

Deciding to releive Oz from the many Imps pestering him, Elyse jabbed at Imp #1, carefull not to hit Aurora, who was standing between them!

Elyse thrust with her staff and hit the Imp, but didn't deal any damage! Refusing to give up, the shaman followed up on that strike and hit once again, without dealing damage!
Following up on that blow, Elyse thrust again and got Imp #1 in the head! The energy of the strike dealt 10 damage, cracked the creature's head open, and sent it flying two squares farther, to H7!

Imp #3's turn! -

Swirving a bit to the side to escape the Imp Elyse sent flying, Imp #3 let out a cry and scratched at Osvaldo!

Seeing as the other imp went flying, Oz swung his staff around again, trying to block the imp's incoming claws, hoping they would eventually find another target.

Imp #3 somehow found a way past Osvaldo's staff and clawed at his face and neck, dealing 4 damage!

Imp #5's turn! -

Imp #5 swung his arms and legs in an attemp to hurt Oz some more, but missed due to being blinded!

Osvaldo's turn! -

Osvaldo swung his staff at the third Imps face, trying to knock it away from him, as he tried to cast heal 1 on himself to quickly heal the wounds which he recieved.

Osvaldo quickly revised his tactics so he'd have time to fit everythin in and cast Heal 1 on himself first, then smashed his staff into Imp #3's ugly mug as the wounds on his own face healed, dealing 3 damage!
Osvaldo heals himself by 3 HP!

Aurora's turn! -

Seeing the effect of the first blow, Aurora decided not to use her spells. She waved her staff so it'd gain speed and force while she was coming closer to the next Imp. This time she aimed at it's forehead.

Aurora's staff whistled through the air towards Imp #3 and caught it squarely on the side of it's head, dealing 15 damage! The small imp had no chance to dodge, as it had been focusing it's attention on Osvaldo, and was flung to H9 and 10 where it disappeared inside the ruins of an old house!
The sound Aurora's staff made on impact left no doubt on the fact that Imp #3 was good and dead.

Taru'lu's turn! -
Preferring to use her butterfly sword this time around instead of a spell, Lu attacked Imp #2 with a strong horizontal slash, aimed to give it a nice cut right where it's tiny neck was.

Crimson sprayed when Lu's aim proved true, severing the small Imp's head at the neck with 6 damage! The rest of it's body fell to the ground and slowly spread a pool of blood around it.

El'iud's turn! -

El'iud, determined to finish the last imp, charged towards the creature and swung his hammer as hard as he could towards the imps head.

El'iud sprinted to F8, jumping over a few dead imps in the process and swung at Imp #5! In a lucky blindness-induced swoop, the Imp flew to the side just as El's hammer was about to hit it and dodged it!

Anha's turn! -

Anha put his weight behind his hatchet hand and made a strike at Imp #5, hoping to succeed where El'iud had failed!

Through another lucky blind-swirve, the Imp dodged yet another blow!

Imp #5 is no longer blinded!

Elyse's turn! -

Seeing as her two Planetarii friends managed to miss a blinded Imp, Elyse decided to take advantage of her staff's range and attack it from a far! She yelled out "Oz! Duck!" as a warning to the acolyte, who was standing between her and her target, and quickly struck out with her staff!

Oz barely had the time to duck out of the way when Elyse's staff flared and struck the last imp square in the chest, breaking it's sternum and dealing 8 damage! The dead imp was thrown back to G10 where it struck a wall and slumped to the ground.

Battle has ended!
Everyone received 750 Exp!
Taru'lu has levelled up!
Aurora has levelled up!
An'hanos has levelled up!
Elyse has levelled up!
El'iud has levelled up!
Osvaldo has levelled up!

---

"Uh... What was this about?" said Aurora while she was trying to breathe in and out slowly so her breathing and heartbeats would return to normal. She put her staff on the ground and turned it to light to see if there was any damage. With a satisfied smile, she turned to the corpses to see if they had any items she could use. Search

Aside from a few rags that served as clothes, Aurora didn't find much else than fleas on the filthy Imps. Imps weren't known to carry much around, usually preffering to keep what few possessions they had stashed up in their dens.
She was about to give up her search when she spotted a single gold coin on he ground next to the body of the Imp whose neck she had snapped.

"I don't know.." Elyse said, though her tone showed she didn't really care. Now that the battle was over, she, and all of the others, had identified the Imps as Lemirian Common Imps, and knew that these creatures were known to simply attack anything and anyone.
"What I do know, though, is that we women ruled that battle! Whoo!" She cheered and thrust her staff up into the air. She was glad she had had her staff improved just before they left Ash'hell, the extra attack power had really helped smash those Imps!

El'iud kept quiet. His pride was a little hurt after the battle because he couldn't kill such a small imp. He gave a small sigh looked at the little scratch on his arm.

"Heh..." Oz let out a small chuckle at Elsye's victory celebration. He knew he may not have been quite the best help during the battle, but he knew that it wasn't all woman power that won the battle. Then again, it was kinda his fault that they got into battle in the first place.

Aurora took the coin and watched it closely. It almost seemed that Imps were payed to attacked them. Why would they carry gold coins? They had nothing other within their possession.

Lu bent down and cleaned her butterfly sword with the dead imp's rag of a cloth and standing up, she put it back in her belt, "Where did you exactly encounter these nasty creatures Oz? We might wanna take a look at where they were hiding before they decided to attack."

"Well, I was down by the river, cleaning out my eye of a bothersome bug, and all of a sudden, these little buggers decide to ransack me," Oz said in response to Lu. Seeing as Aurora picked up the coin, he looked at the bodies of the 4 imps that were still in sight. Shortly afterwards, he went into the house that the one imp was flung into, to have a look around. (search)

"Anybody else think it's worth it if we took a spin around the ruins and see if we find anything? Or shall we move on?", asked Lu after hearing what Oz had to say.

"Well," El'iud started. "I think we should go before any thing else decides to attack us."

Seeing as Aurora had just searched the bodies herself, Oz didn't have any luck at finding anything on the bodies. Aside from the dead imp, the ruined house only had weeds growing inside.

"I think we should get on with our mission of finding the black mage.." Elyse put in, thinking that checking out the river would be a waste of time. The sun had nearly passed it's noon point, and she felt they still had some distance to travel before night fell, and more traveling tomorrow.
She walked up to a bench and put herself to the task of strapping on her wristblade, doubtful after this battle, that the voyage would be a peaceful one.

Lu shrugged and stretched out before leaning on the back of one of the benches, "Then I'm ready to move whenever you lot are."

Walking back out of the house, Osvaldo looked around at his commrades, "Everyone is doing pretty well then, I see? No one is too badly hurt?" He asked, knowing that the imps weren't really too much of a problem, just a major nuisence.

"No. Just a litle scratch. It'll heal in no time. Well, lets get going." said Aurora and put the coin in her pocket. She'll take a closer look at it later.

Anha didn't have much to say. He still couldn't believe he had managed to miss a blind imp!

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