Need alcohol and the energy storage axe.
12 illusion, 10 energy storage, 6 fire (7 if no elemental lord), the rest falls into water. Alternate Mind Burn and Stone Daggers. The investment ensures very low durations for bleeding and burning and thus double trigger of Fragility in a short span. Steam adds blind if required. Rest is for energy management and Mindbender is for reducing casting time. Shockwave, Thunderclap, Ride the Lightning (PvE), Blinding Flash, Fevered Dreams (PvE), Stolen Speed (mesmer) are other interesting elites. If using Shockwave, add Lightning Touch as it also is melee.
Heal for 25hp/second in earshot range through the spam of burning speed. Frozen Burst is just incase foes get too close. Frigid Armor could be nice but definitely not necessary. You lose around 3 energy per use of burning speed, including energy regen but excluding the impact of channeling.
Please bring Fragility for even more damage. Crystal Wave can be interesting.
Slows and burns foes. 8 skills syndrom though. Glowing Gaze, Slippery Ground, Gale...
It was all quiet now. No bird singing, no wind blowing. Fires were burning a bright red in the distance, amidst thick clouds of smoke covering the world down the mountain.
Everything had happened so fast. First the sky turned black and red, as if the sunset had happened in the middle of the day. Then shining, eerie crystals fell down from the sky, so big no elementalist could summon, and came crashing down with a thundering noise. Hills and cliffs were wiped out, woods set on fire, mountains and fields instantly scorched with the heat wave. All the snow had vanished. And finally the smoke and dust.
The Ward against Harm protected Elementalist Aziure from the damage, but it also removed the pain, so she could not clearly tell whether what she was seeing was real or just a strong illusion from a very skilled mesmer.
After several minutes where she stood in a daze, she got up to her senses. This was too real. She feared for the safety of her family, friends and pupils at Ashford Abbey and rushed down the mountain path.
No Ice Elemental along the path. Wiped out by the fire, she thought.
Near Foible's Fair she was suddenly blocked. Path was shut by a huge pile of rocks.
Before she could do anything she heard an incantation, and a flash of lightning scattered the rocks out of the way.
Aziure looked at where the lightning had come from, and saw Ralena, pale as a skeleton and barely standing on her legs with Vassar's help.
-"Aziure? She said with a difficult smile. Did you see that ? »
She collapsed on Vassar's shoulder, coughing a lot because of the dust that was in the air.
-"Thank you, Aziure said. I'll come back."
She didn't even know if Ralena had heard what she said. Aziure and Vassar's eyes met, and in his eyes she saw anxiety and fear. He pointed out the way to Ashford.
Aziure left the two behind her. Ashford Abbey was less than a mile away from Foible's Fair; she quickly reached it.
She couldn't recognize the town at first sight; it was already in ruins. The houses and their thatched roof were burning. The nightmare wasn't over. She didn't want to watch but she had to search for survivors. But then she heard a deep, husky, inhuman voice shouting:
-"Burn all! Kill all! »
There was no mistake. Charr. In other circumstances she should have been upset to see the enemy on this side of the wall, but so much had happened so suddenly that nothing could surprise her anymore. The beasts were invading the place, piles of muscles, claws, fangs and hatred, barely stopped by a handful of disoriented and wounded soldiers.
She couldn't run away and leave the inhabitants of Ashford Abbey defenseless; she entered the battle and started casting magic spell after magic spell to support the soldiers. The sudden arrival of a skilled wizard seemed to take the charrs by surprise; for a moment, the humans had the upper hand against their furry foes... but only for a moment. The beasts turned the tide and soon she was the last one standing against a group of six charrs, the leader of which was the one with the husky voice, a monster twice her size with black fur.
-"You fight well, mouse, he growled. But today is the day you die. Your kind is over! Your gods are over! Our gods are rising. We shattered your proud wall with the power they gave us, and now it's your turn. "
The wall, destroyed? Could it be true? Yet it was the only explanation to the powerful explosions, the fires, the crystals falling from the sky, the destruction. The Charrs had finally found a power strong enough to break through the wall.
The charrs were slowly closing in on her, enjoying the hunt like a cat plays with a prey, and Aziure knew she had to be ready for the worst. But before they had covered half the distance a fireball came out of nowhere and struck the first one in the chest. The beast fell to the floor, letting out a cry of pain and terror. It was overtaken with violent spasms for a few seconds, then stand motionless. Where his fur had burnt, the exposed skin was of black and crimson as embers.
In the blink of an eye, almost as quickly as the Searing itself, the charrs were taken down, one by one, in a concert of fire and lightning. When everything was finally over all Aziure could see between the thick bloody smoke was the silhouette of a man over the cowering mass of a frigthened charr leader. From his hand flew out a concert of sparks and fire.
-"What...what are you?" the charr leader asked with a weak voice.
The wizard did not even bother to answer. There was a flash, and a sinister crack, and the inanimate body of the charr fell loudly on the ground.
Aziure witnessed the sight with terror. There had not been a moment of doubt nor a shadow of mercy in the man's attacks.
But terror turned into horror as the wizard was apparently not done yet. He leaned forward the body. She could not see what he did to the Charr, but she heard a ghastly, disgusting, suction noise and when the smoke had cleared up, blood was all over the wizard's face and mouth. Then the wizard watched his hands which were covered with blood and fire. He burst into a slow, deep, maniacal laughter that sounded so unhuman it made Aziure's blood freeze in her veins.
Suddenly she heard movement, and several voices. She looked in the direction and saw a patrol of six ascalonian guards coming her way. She stood up, but as she looked back she saw that the blood wizard had disappeared.
-"Master Elementalist Aziure, isn't it? Asked the lieutenant of the guards, a hairy man. Thank gods we found you alive! Please, come with us. Charr are lurking everywhere, the whole country is on fire and we really need the help of a water elementalist! "
He paused for a moment as he saw the Charr bodies everywhere.
-"By the gods, did you kill all those Charr by yourself? What happened here? »
-"I'll explain to you, Aziure said, looking at the man. We took care of those here. Let's move."
-"We? Someone else was with you and made it out alive?" the lieutenant asked.
The wizard she had seen through the smoke, she was not quite sure of it, looked like the apprentice Imag Hell. The student who spent all of his time lazing around rather than training his magic skills or fighting. But how could the crazy vampire she had seen with the charr and the unskilled fellow she used to know really be the same person? Surely, she had seen someone -or something- else in the smoke, an insane but powerful mind, lost in the ruins of Ascalon, only focused on burning everything and drinking blood with a maddening laughter that was still ringing in her head.
Aziure looked at the lieutenant.
-"Nobody, she answered. I think there are no other human than I still alive around here."
Imag Hell
