Thoracis’ smile was a wicked one at Zephyriah’s revelation of who he was up against. It was the sound of a man who knew he was already dead. While the drow had composed himself quickly, his weakness had already been shown. Now the deck was stacked even more in favor of the Sons of Terrinore. Storm Veritas was already injured and Zephyriah Ablione already knew he was going to die. If he had had to plan the battle Thoracis couldn’t have done it this perfectly.

There was not much weight behind Zephyriah’s taunts. Granted, it was true that Thoracis did not appear for their quarterfinal Serenti match, but that had been the doing of the sinister Nyvengaal. Even facing such a wanted foe as Zephyriah was of the slightest significance when faced with the threat of the Forgotten Ones. Thoracis remained silent though. If the thought that he was afraid of Zephyriah granted the drow some kind of solace before his death it was ill worth trying to refute his claims.

What happened next was truly surprising though. Not the electricity that now surrounded Zephyriah’s blade, this was the fourth consecutive opponent to harness the element and Thoracis and Dirks were well adapted to it by now, but rather what the dark elf intended for it. Instead of attacking the ice mage, like the warrior he was supposed to be, Zephyriah whipped the electricity at a beam holding up one of the various shoddy buildings of the area. Pulling the beam straight from the structure he sent it flying towards Max Dirks. Fool. A quick glance at the target revealed Dirks and Veritas engaged in close-combat, something Zephyriah apparently had not thought of. It would be next to impossible for Zephyriah’s attack to hit Dirks without also hitting Storm. Couldn’t have scripted better indeed…

Thoracis looked back to Zephyriah who was now maneuvering away from the soon to collapse building. “Cute trick,” the ice mage finally spoke to his foe, “but you should also know that as ’Aleranian scum’ I’m not gonna be quick to protect my allies.” A sarcastic smile was shot at the drow before Thoracis quickly shot his multi-shard spell in the direction of Storm Veritas. Of course, Thoracis was assuming he would not need to warn Dirks; the sound of the building crumbling should alert him in that direction. But now Storm was subject to having to avoid both the beam and the five ice shards heading directly towards him with bad ribs and a katana in his leg.