The Duel Continues

Rawgh'faz curse and snarled, throwing his gaze back and forth in all directions, looking for some sign of the tiefling girl as his dogs tumbled back to their feet and set about sniffing around for some sign of their intended prey.

She was good, he had to give her that. She'd managed to not only create a realistic, moving illusion without using verbal components, but had managed to do so at the same moment she rendering her own full form invisible, masking all of its sounds as well as she repositioned. And since the dogs couldn't find her scent, she apparently masked that, as well.

Very, very impressive.

Breaking her spirit would be quite the treat indeed, if she managed to survive this. He relished the thought.

Rawgh'faz centered himself, closing his eyes, and drawing a deep breath inwards. She could hide all of her physical attributes, but could she hide the spiritual ones as well? That, he doubted.

Starting as a low rumble in his belly, he began intoning a familiar's name, slowly and deeply, and allowed his spirit to shift into the ethereal plane far enough to step outside of his physical form.

As soon as he did so, the dark forms of his summoned dogs burst into relief as glowing white shapes against the unstable, ghostly dark gray forms of the cobblestones around them. They were sniffing the ground where the girl's illusion had stood only seconds before. Ground that was lit not only by the faint glowing paw prints, but by a pair of faint human footprints that were working their way around him in a wide arc, slowly and carefully, one step at a time.

She'd had the forethought to mask her ethereal form as well. Clever girl.

Too bad for her that she either forgot or wasn't aware of the impressions left behind by material movement in the ethereal plane.

Rawgh'faz shifted back into his material form, and opened his eyes with a slow breath. She would be nearly behind him, by this point, probably planning on an ambush when she expected he'd lost her.

He smiled faintly to himself. Who was he to ruin the surprise?

With a wave of his hand, he gave permission for the dogs to depart, and they vanished into clouds of black ash picked up and carried away by the hot air swirling all around them. Then, making a point of intentionally lowering his guard, he resumed his walk back towards the rest of his pack, keeping the attention of his ears and nose firmly behind him. She would have to drop her masking efforts in order to be able to cast any offensive spells, and that would mean a moment for him to react. The only moment he would need.

Then, unexpectedly, something hard collided suddenly with the back of his head with enough force to send him sprawing a few few feet forward onto the ground and knocking him dizzy for a moment. No sooner had he started trying to regain his feet than a second blow pummeled him square in the spine, knocking him flat to the ground and pounding the wind out of his chest.

She wasn't going to reveal herself. She knew better. But that meant...

Rawgh'faz for the first time felt a twinge of fear. Had she baited him? But how could she have known?

As if on cue to his thoughts, the girl's voice sounded out in space somewhere above him.

"Same offer, dog. Take your pack and leave, and I'll let you keep all of your teeth. What do you say?"