Litvir leaped around a corner as a massive fireball exploded behind him. The flames trickled down across the formerly cold brick wall, before fizzling out completely. On the one hand, Litvir was being chased down by one of the few beings who somewhat liked him. On the other hand though, Litvir was thanking his lucky stars that Retvik had some rather shit aim. Sure, that last fireball had landed a bit closer than Litvir would have liked, but most of the blasts of flames had been very obvious misses so far.
As Litvir made his way down another corridor, hoping to get closer to the exit, more fire erupted somewhere vaguely behind him. Retvik was close, but not close enough that he cold actually target Litvir. However, this spurred a thought in Litvir’s panic-struck mind. Retvik hadn’t killed him yet. That was a positive thought. But it was leading to an idea.
Another corridor, another fireball, another quick check to make sure Retvik was far away enough, and Litvir realised something was off. Litvir knew Retvik well. Before they were turned into Decaylings, they had both been soldiers. And Retvik was genuinely well known for being a very good soldier. So why was he missing all these shots? It wasn’t like Litvir was a small target either.
The answer came rather swiftly. The remnants of a fireball rolls past Litvir before flickering out. Retvik could have easily used his deadly fire powers to incinerate Litvir on the spot, but he was holding back. He must have been fighting Calohxaa’s mind control. Granted, Retvik wasn’t doing a great job at doing so, but it was a start. Unfortunately, Litvir had exhausted a good chunk of his own psionic powers at protecting himself, and there was no way he could snap Retvik out of it as well.
What Litvir needed was backup.
“Wait, what in the name of the Light am I doing?” Litvir suddenly cursed, much louder than he had intended. He darted down yet another featureless stone corridor, putting some space between himself and Retvik, before huddling down and opening up the communicator on his wristband. There was not enough of a signal for video comms, but text comms seemed to be working.
“ARKAY, NEED YOUR HELP!” Litvir hastily typed.
“Oh, what’s up?”
“The Life Goddess is beating up Galyn and mind-controlled Retvik into killing me. Need your help.”
“Oh.”
There was a long pause. Litvir hoped that Arkay would get back to him quickly.
“Can you at least help me stop Retvik?”
“Uh, not from here. I’m locking everything up and heading over now.”
Something exploded. And it was a little too close. Litvir could feel the air warming up.
“I do not have much time!”
“Oh. Then get yourself hidden or disguised or something. Retvik’s bad at finding things. Good at chasing though. Should be able to break the mind-control stuff but I gotta do it in person. Can you survive, like… ten minutes?”
Litvir took a deep breath. The air was getting even hotter, so he picked himself up and headed down a different corridor, one that Retvik hopefully wasn’t in.
“Can you not just teleport to me?”
“Not if I want to teleport inside a wall. Just hold on, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Litvir cursed under his breath. At least Arkay had given him some good advice though. Hiding was far easier than constantly running, and Litvir was getting a little tired. However, a thought entered Litvir’s mind. He needed to hide, but there was nowhere really to hide in these horrible, dead corridors. So Litvir needed to hide in plain sight.
And what better way to do that than with a telepathic disguise?