She started for the stairs to follow Rand. Movement out of the corner of her eye brought her to a stop. It was another one of those dwarf minotaurs. She wondered if they were a race in that world, or if he was the unholy spawn of a minotaur and dwarf coupling.
Dmitry. Dwarf minotaur shaman (Lvl 20). Neutral. PK: 2.
"Why would anyone choose to be such a creature?" she asked.
He was all of five feet tall, counting his horns. Dmitry actually looked more like an American buffalo than a traditional Greek bull-headed creature. And he was incredibly bushy-hairy. As far as she could tell, his fur hid all of his important parts, which had to explain why he wasn't wearing any clothes.
A yellow crystal glowed in his forehead.
"Stay away from me, shaman!"
Dmitry thrust his right hand toward her, palm out. A dozen spinning daggers appeared. They streaked straight at her at amazing speed. Asha barely got her shield up in time, which sent them flying in all directions. She countered with a fireball, followed immediately with Bind. The shaman shrugged them both off.
"What kind of protection does he have?"
She didn't notice the glow of a magical shield, but what else could it be? The shaman had talismans and power fetishes hanging all over his body, appearing to be bound by his long fur. He had no weapons she could see, or even a staff.
He continued down the stairs, glaring at her. The sorceress dropped into a fighting stance, the Power Sword presented before her in both hands. When he got a little closer, she planned to hit him with a thunderbolt. Let's see him shrug that off.
Halfway down the stairs the shaman pulled off a lock of brown fur and tossed it in the air. It flew toward Asha while transforming into a dark brown rope. She gaped at the rope flying toward her horizontally. For a second she thought it was turning into a wooden staff, and he would fight her remotely.
"I don't think so…" Asha cried, taking a swing at it with her sword. The rope slid down her blade without being cut, and instantly wrapped around her when it reached her arms. Both arms were forced back against her body as the rope wrapped around her several times. "What the…?"
"Foolish girl! You cannot defeat Dmitry!"
The pint-sized minotaur leapt into the air and flew straight at her like some Chinese Kung-Fu movie. He brutally kicked her, sending the sorceress flying across the room to slam into the wall and bounce off.
Asha's head spun crazily after it hit the stone wall, and she didn't know up from down, left from right. She moaned and groaned, writhing on the floor as the shaman stomped up, and then started kicking her in the belly. The pain was exquisite.
"You soulless monster," she gasped out. "I'm going to kill you."
"You're funny, elf girl," he sneered. "Truth is, you are going to die by my hand. And I like to take my time." He grabbed a fistful of hair, forcing her to look up at him. "I pray you are a masochist, because I'm about to give you a lot of pain."
She cried out when he waved his hand and she was snapped back onto her feet. Before she understood what happened, Dmitry cried out and swept his arm around. Asha was sent flying across the chamber to slam into the other wall.
"Having fun yet, elf?"
Dmitry made another gesture, and Asha was dragged back across the room towards him. Her eyes widened when he grinned, wondering what he had planned. Then the shaman jumped up into the air and spun around in a flying roundhouse to her face.
Asha was flipped over by the blow. Black and white flashed behind her eyes, and she struggled to keep conscious. It was certain death to pass out. Or worse.
She blinked to clear her vision, only to focus on the crystal in Dmitry's forehead. Lord Kathro had held up a yellow crystal with the threat of enslaving her. Can he subjugate me for Lord Kathro?
"Like my crystal?" Dmitry said. "Don't worry; I've decided not to kill you. You'll be given to my master once I'm finished playing with you. I promise, you won't enjoy serving Lord Kathro at all." He leaned down and wagged his brows. "You're just the kind of elf bimbo he likes to drag to his bed every night. You'll probably start in his harem."
"Better him than you," she said. "You smell like a wet dog."
Dmitry's eyes narrowed and he growled low in his throat. A quick wave put the sorceress back on her feet. She steeled herself to be slammed into another wall, but the shaman smiled with an evil glint in his eyes. He took hold of one end of the enchanted rope, caught and held her eyes a second, and yanked with all his strength.
"Yeeooowww!" she cried.
Asha spun like a top. His magic held her in place as she spun so fast her mind went blank. It felt like she spun forever, and she staggered around once she stopped spinning. Well, her body stopped spinning, but not her head.
"Oooooh."
Even through her dizziness and disorientation, Asha noticed the shaman pick up the Power Sword. Was he going to kill her anyway, despite all that about giving her to his master? Then she remembered she had a pair of swords, too. I'm in no condition to fight.
She spread her feet, giving herself a solid foundation even though her head continued to spin. At least she managed to stop staggering around like a drunken fool. It was a struggle to concentrate, but the sorceress thought of the spell she wanted. The spell she needed to save herself from death or magical enslavement.
Heal! she thought.
Intense heat, followed by equally intense cold flowed through her. All of her aches and pains vanished, and her head cleared up immediately. Before she could cry out in joy, the number 95 flashed at the bottom of her vision. A warning?
Asha pulled up her HUD, and saw her Mana was down to 95. How did she use it all up so fast? Then Dmitry shouted angrily and swung the sword at her. The sorceress ducked and threw five quick thunderbolts at him.
The mini-minotaur was blasted back a dozen feet. He took the Power Sword in both hands and stalked back toward her. Asha pulled her elven swords, and advanced to meet him. They exchanged a flurry of thrusts, cuts, and parries, before it became apparent she was the superior sword fighter. He tried to hit her with another spell, but her shield held. Mostly, though, she kept him too busy with her bladework to cast any spells.
Asha began pushing him backwards.
"I'm going to carve you up into steaks, cow," Asha said.
"The only 'meat' you'll eat is between my legs, elf."
So Asha tried to slice the aforementioned appendage off. She missed, but he gave ground a lot faster and easier after that. Being sliced into steaks and eaten didn't bother him, but losing his manhood scared him. So she concentrated her efforts on attacking his crotch area.
"What's the matter with you?" he asked.
"You."
She forced him back across the chamber, to the stairs he'd originally came down. Dmitry began retreating up the stairs, slowly, as she put more and more effort into taking him down. Asha slanted a glance back at the other stairs. Rand went up over there, and could be in serious trouble while she fought that damned shaman.