[MA-53]

Saelel heard the man escape before he saw it. Apparently this man had power over the earth as well.

Still running, Saelel again called upon the skies for a mighty storm...

[Darkness]

Dark clouds began to gather. While running, the dark cloaked man began summoning a fireball in his hands.

[MA-53]

As the rain began to fall, Saelel focused his will, and transformed into a mighty hawk. He immediately took to the skies, gaining as much altitude as possible while still flying away from the cloaked figure and towards the adventurers.

[Darkness]

"..."

The dark cloaked man once more spun his staff in a circle, and a glyph appeared above him. A dragon came forth from it, red scaled and red eyed. Mounting it just behind its head, he took flight after the hawk, keeping the small trail of footsteps in view...

[MA-53]

Saelel, having gained considerable altitude, dove to gain speed.

As he did so, an immense and thick fog gathered, shrouding the area.

[Darkness]

Having lost sight of the hawk, the dragon and its rider glided back down to the path of footsteps, following that while hovering near the desert dunes to keep it in sight from the fog, but still going at a much faster pace that one would on foot.

[MA-53]

Saelel's profound sense of the storm allowed him to keep track of the dragon's obvious disturbance, giving him a good target.

Suddenly with a deafening boom and a flash of light made blinding by the fog's refractive properties, a bolt of lightning surges down and hits the dragon, which is close enough to the ground to conduct it.

[Darkness]

The dark cloaked man enveloped himself in magic, and when the lightning hit the dragon, the dragon let out a great sound of pain, but the dark cloaked man was merely blasted off of the beast instead of being electrocuted, because magic was protecting him. Landing hard, he stood up and spun his staff above his head. Another glyph appeared, on the ground before him, and from it rose an elemental made from the cosmos. They began running along the path of footsteps.

[MA-53]

Saelel let out a mighty screech as it felled the dragon. But his battle was no where near over.

As the dark cloaked man and his companion ran along, a huge, earthen hand rose from the ground and swallowed the cosmic elemental. At the same time, Saelel, recently transformed back into his human state, landed ten paces in front of the cloaked man, just within visibility through the fog. Stabbing his staff into the ground, Saelel began focusing...

As that occurred, the sand golem rose from the earth, having recently devoured the cosmic elemental. It now stood between Saelel and the cloaked man.

[Darkness]

With a flip of his staff, the dark cloaked man held it before him. Fire sprayed from the end like a great inferno, as great as that which comes from a dragon's mouth, engulfing the sand golem at amazingly hot temperatures. When the spray ended, the golem was nothing but a statue of glass, frozen in time!

And then, with a simple wave of the staff, the sand between the two mages turned to flame, beginning at the dark cloaked man and extending to the druid, surrounding him completely.

[MA-53]

Saelel also had command of fire, and kept a circle of protection around him and his staff, which, by his focus and will, had began to take root in the sand and sprout limbs, growing very quickly into a tree. As it began to grow over his height, it took on a semi visible ethereal glow, pulsating with natural power and life force.

As this happened, Saelel conjured a ball of flame between his hands, and lobbed it at the cloaked man.

[Darkness]

Taking a step forward and dragging the staff through the sand next to him as the spell was cast in his direction, the dark cloaked man brought the staff up with straight arms into the air. Ice spread where it moved, and a wave of ice seemed to come from the ground at the dark cloaked man's feet, curving upward into the path of the fireball. The fireball dissipated and the ice shattered upon the impact. Shards of ice flew in his direction. Holding his arm left, a few bloody cuts were made through the fabric of his sleeve.

Holding his hand before it, he made a crushing motion. In Saelel's vicinity, gravity became increasingly heavy... Seeming to push him down what appeared to be tens of times harder than normal...

[MA-53]

Though Saelel's strength was failing as he was forced to the ground, the tree, which was now a grand arbor, still stood tall. Speaking a few desperate words to the tree, he gambled on his last ditch effort before he was completely immobilized.

Suddenly, large roots sprang from the ground near the cloaked man, thrashing him and pinning him to the ground, breaking his concentration, and releasing his grip on the forces of the cosmos. Saelel, though now freed, was incredibly disoriented, and could do nothing but lay on the ground and breathe for the moment...

[Darkness]

The dark cloaked man called upon his arcane forces, the powers that bound the universe together. The past was a simple thing once it was understood, easy to manipulate, easy to change... But only as long as one had energy. The changing itself was simple, but it seemed to add quite a bit of fatigue compared to the effects. He had that energy now. And so it was easy to go back a few seconds and... change... what happened. Easy to make it so that the roots twisted themselves right over and past him, instead of towards him... And thus, he was safe. Moving out from beneath them, he prepared himself to block another spell...

[MA-53]

Saelel stood up and reached into the sky with his willpower, and called off the rain. Immediately the dense fog began to dissipate, the clouds drifted apart, and the ground started steaming. The grand tree that stood next to Saelel withered and became his staff again. As he plucked the staff out of the sand, he began speaking to the wind.

Behind him, a huge sandstorm roared, and consumed the area. But the storm's raging winds bent around Saelel, his will focused and sharp, warping the winds around him and toward the cloaked figure. Not even the wind that carried the sand touched him, for his robe and hair remained undisturbed.