Instead of the small ball of air he was intending, what shot out was a large blast that completely wrecked the side path. Fallen stones lay all over the floor and overflowed into the pathway. Guards instantaneously flooded the wreckage, preparing for a fight. A few guards jumped past the rubble into the side walkway and the other few cautiously stepped towards the two hiding culprits.

Eial’s eyes opened wide, unsure of what had just happened. He looked at his palm in disbelief and then looked over at the demon, who seemed more entertained than alarmed.

“Wow,” he whispered, moving his face towards the elf’s ear, “I thought you wanted a more subtle fight.”

“No, I-”

The demon looked past the elf and, in a split second, threw orbs of dark energy, pushing back the few guards who had reached them. Eial turned and followed suit, encapsulating the guards in more air traps with an, “aw jeez.”

Hearing the commotion, guards who had gone into the side path started their way back out. Right away, Eial shoved the unsuspecting demon, making him stumble backwards a few steps, before turning his arm towards the hallway, away from the sight of the demon.

“How dare-” he demon started to roar, but was interrupted as the elf beckoned him to follow.

“Come on!”

As they rushed down the hallway, the demon noticed the side path was barricaded by the stones that had fallen from the blasted stone wall. It had barely been a few seconds that the elf had moved his arm into the open path after shoving the demon, yet all the stones had been flawlessly aligned. To do that with air magic would have required the elf to lift each stone with wind and stack them with precision, something that would have generally taken an elf more than just a few seconds— right?

The demon didn’t have much time to ponder further when he came face to face with a boulder. Although abrupt, the demon was quick to blast it away with dark magic before it had a chance of hitting his face. After the slight debris cleared, he noticed a couple more guards up ahead, spinning and then falling by the elf’s wind magic, their limbs tied with a circle of air as they ran by.

At the next turn, they were met with a dead end. A dead end? The demon turned to face the elf, whose face had dawned a slight wave of panic.

“Hey, wait, you know where you’re going, right?” The demon hadn’t questioned it before, considering the elf ran with confidence and was indeed the one who found his way to meet him. Fuck, is he directionally challenged?

“Huh? Well, not really... I’ve never been here before,” stated the elf in defence, and then assured, “oh, but don’t worry, I can find a way out.”

Confusion ran across the demon’s mind. “Then how did you get to the cell room?”

The elf visibly paused, eyes wide and breath cut short. “I… uhm… climbed the wall, and came through a small window in the room,” quickly decided the elf, hoping it made sense.

But it didn’t. In the brief moment the demon was conscious in the cell room, he’d taken a note of all the room’s features. The room— in fact, all prisons generally— had no windows. And if they did, they’d clearly have taken that way out.

As if the elf realized the faults in his story, he rushed back the same way they came, cutting any chance to be interrogated further. The demon turned and followed, promptly reaching out an arm to grab the elf by his shoulder. But halfway there, his arm retracted when they were suddenly met with a large wall of flame— by the looks of it, many feet deep, controlled by many fire users. Using dark magic to engulf the flame would be useless as they could easily replace it with more fire in the confined hallway. Wind magic would only grow the flame to more power.

“Surrender now before we have to use force!” yelled a voice from the distance.

You’re going to ‘use force’ anyway, the demon thought, his eyes darting around, searching for anything but plain, cold, stone walls in this small area he and the elf shared. His eyes made his way to the elf, whose eyes looked side to side as if wavering options. Then, with decisive confidence, he turned to the demon, and:

“Close your eyes.”

“No,” responded the demon in obvious denial and bewilderment.

“Please!” begged the elf in hurry, “I have a plan, but I need you to close your eyes. And… turn around.”

After a moment of thought, the demon calmly replied, “fine,” his eyelids narrowing at the elf.

Eial made sure his companion’s eyes were closed and away before spinning back to face the wall of fire. In an instant, water started to form around him, and with a pushing motion, the liquid pushed through the flame, extinguishing it. At the end of the hallway stood ten bewildered guards.

In successive movements, Eial stepped forward and engulfed them in air tombs before they could make another move. With a slight dance of his fingers, he made the bodies face the wall before churning another swirl with his hand, creating flame that visited any evidence of water and evaporating it away. Hopefully, the elf prayed, they’ll think someone else is with us.

After a deep exhale, Eial twirled back around to face the demon, saying, “alright, you can open your eyes-”

Except, the demon’s eyes were already open. His torso, already facing the action. Had been, in fact, since the moment the elf had turned away from him.