Caden arrived in the theater basement just in time to see Balakai spin to the floor with a scream and a spray of blood from her shoulder. Barehanded and moving, there was still no way Caden could miss: Her attacker was just emerging from the doorway and it was a straight shot with no obstacles whatsoever. Caden thrust his hand forward as the pirate(?) was raising his second pistol. Lightning outraced a bullet and the other man lost his arm from the elbow down -- not that it mattered much. He was dead by the time his body hit the floor.

A quick look around and there was one of the other Juniors, T'ema if Caden was remembering right, badly wounded and sheltering Iera with her own body. "Walk it off, Balakai!" the Wizard shouted, bullrushing right by both of them as he said it. A quick gesture with either hand and he was armed with a bowie on the right and his wand on the left. Into the doorway, there were two pirates trying to take cover with a harpy brazenly hunched over them. Caden dispatched the nearest pirate with a stab to the head, then took the second out by ripping the energy from his body -- freezing him solid, basically. He used the same power gained from that to cast a thermal lance at the harpy, sheering off both an arm and a wing. She didn't even seem to notice it until she went to fly and fell over. Caden ignored her.

Up on the floor and the theater had turned into a full-blown combat zone. There were four apprentice Rangers and Caden's seven Magi scattered all over the place. He saw Neesal having a breakdown under one of the benches, her robes slightly torn and bloodied and a severely burnt skeleton lying not far from her. Nethenor and Kienelas stood back to back atop a mountain of rubble, hopelessly exposed and still alive only because of how they were fighting: Nethenor tore energy out of the air, ground, even the spells coursing through both, leaving ice in his wake even where it had to pass through bodies whether fallen or standing. The power he drew went flooding into the air and Kienelas took charge of it, used it to power balls of arcane fire and battering rams of raw force. They were working faster than Caden had ever seen of them, and they weren't going to keep it up much longer.

On the other side of the theater, Dylver was doing something similar as a one-man show: One hand caused massive walls of ice to implode into existence, the other pointed and things, even just empty spots in the air, exploded as he tried to channel energies with a large wound in one leg and a cut running across his chest. One of the juniors was watching his back.

Caden didn't see Sigel or Warram. Didn't even see Charger for that matter. But he did see a lot of targets. Two-dozen or more Men, a few Wyrmfolk, two Orcs and at least one bona fide Elf, all wearing the same beige-red-dark gray outfits. They fought with experience. They fought with harpies tearing through the roof to give them air support.

"It'll do," said the Wizard. "Rally!"

Knife away, rod out. Caden aimed up and let fly with a sustained blast of Magic Missiles, bringing down two harpies in the space of five seconds, and knocking another into Dylver's killzone in the process. More ripped their way into the roof to make up for the losses. "Rangers, focus fire! Magi, cover!" Caden ordered as he lowered the rod and threw up a Gambit to one side. Buckshot sprayed by in every direction, a few pellets hitting his coat hard enough to bruise the skin below. Without looking, Caden sprayed Missiles through his own spell and popped it like a soap bubble, then laid waste to two of the attackers in the same breath. He made a bee-line for Neesal.

And that's when Quel'thas burst into view. Through a wall.

The Elf hit the ground rolling, his robes apparently discarded at some point since he was down to blood-soaked pants and a bare chest and arms that were all covered in minor lacerations. He was holding the same thin-bladed duelling saber he'd somehow acquired a few days before, its edges now plenty chipped and cracked. His attacker followed with a familiar laugh and a total lack of regard for his own safety. It was Gannai, wielding a cutlass with his original arm and a machete with the other. Equal skill for both, along with the same practical theatrics that had almost taken Caden's arm off just a week or two earlier. He was fast -- much too fast for Quel'thas to stand a chance of calling up his magic.

Caden had no such problem.

Rock spires shot up out of the floor at an angle and impaled Gannai right through his shins and knees. The pirate didn't even seem to feel it, and only paused when he realized that he couldn't keep pushing the assault. Quel'thas reacted quick and nimble, just like his magic, outflanking the pirate and taking him through one eye, one ear and the back of the head. Energy rippled out of the wound and Gannai's head split the rest of the way open like a busted melon. It was horrible to look at. Caden tried not to. There were too many other targets.

"Someone get to Neesal!" the Wizard Shouted, turning his magicks on the largest concentration of pirates he could find. Five of them didn't get the chance to scream. A few seconds later, he felt the air boiling and freezing with gusts of wind at his back. Caden turned just in time to see Dylver's ice-fire tornado go careening into a low-flying harpy. It dragged her down and that was the end of her. Along with an entire section of the theater wall.

How many more were left?

"BURN!"

Not nearly enough.

Deithor made it to Neesal. Caden saw the boy go tumbling over her bench. Missed whatever he must've said. It must've been something serious.

Neesal turned the roof of the theater, along with every single thing flying less than a hundred feet above it, into a vaporous memory with some specks of ash attached to it. There was absolutely no finesse to whatever spell she used, if it could even be called a spell at all. Nothing but raw power, incomprehensible fury and the most dangerous kind of hatred: The kind that's been well educated and has its eyes wide open. Caden was the only person left standing after her outburst, and the theater walls collapsed outwards as if for emphasis.

"Bloody hellfire," the Wizard muttered, checking to make sure his Hat wasn't on fire. He looked around. Looked up.

Neesal had shot a hole straight through the smoke clouds above the city. And there were dark shapes lurking the night sky; more harpies, keening in fury and fear and-

And being pelted by glowing rocks.