"Quake! How good are you with that cannon you're holding?" The Drowling asked, "Beyond firing it off and making a loud noise with it, can you ACTUALLY aim it at something and hit it?"

Rather than add fuel to the fire and respond with a sarcastic reply, the elemental answered, "Yes and where and what needs blasting?"

"We need to get to the top of this tower," War Scribe ran alongside Quake, "At the very least to the top parapet. Once we are there, I'm going to need you to locate the nearest tower to our own and blast the base of that tower to bits. But here's the trick, you have to do it in such a way that it will come crashing down into this tower without killing us or knocking this tower over or missing us entirely."

"You're lucky I'm in this form, War Scribe otherwise I'd charge a fee," Quake added sarcastically.

"Be my guest," The Drowling quipped sardonically, "Gold doesn't profit a dead Elemental. Which is what you're going to be if Venger catches up to us."

"And what good will that do?" Neven asked quizzically.

"If Quake hits her mark," Irzen responded before Quake did, "The falling tower could get lodged into this one and act as a bridge that we could run down all the way to the street. Am I right, Scribe?"

"You got it!" The Drowling beamed from ear to ear, "Evil minds think alike."

"But the debris from the falling tower could smash into us and kill us all," Willow added.

"Which is why we need Serna and her shield to protect us," War Scribe concluded, "That is if our Shield Maiden is up for it?"

"If it means getting out of here," Serna declared boldly, "You better believe I'm up for it! All you have to do is get me up there and I'll do the rest."

Kana smiled at Serna's fighting spirit. She was glad that the experience she had just been through hadn't broken any of it.

"So that leaves the precision blasting up to you, Quake," War Scribe sneered, "Do you think you can pull it off or do I have to come up with ANOTHER idea to save our hides?"

The elementalist and the half orc followed closely behind Quake and stopped just short of the parapet at the top.

Lysana hobbled along with Irzen to keep up with the others.

Roberts surveyed the situation. As much as he hated to admit it, going down would be a losing prospect, let alone fighting back to the library. Scribe was probably right in this situation, but he REALLY wished that some of the newly developing technology of Dunmeade was available to him right now. "You heard the lady, up it is. Fighting withdrawal, gentlemen!"

Quake first tested the wind direction. There wasn't any. Then she calculated the distance, depth, and proper distance as she took aim to the nearest tower and fired.

"Shields up!" Alyson pointed to Serna.

Kana helped Serna position herself so that everyone could keep behind the shield.

"Thanks, Mistress Kana, I'll take it from here," The Shield Maiden nodded firmly before she braced herself and activated her Weapon of Power. The shield she created was a dome which covered the parapet.

****KA-BOOOM!!!!****

The shot hit the adjacent building just as the chronicler predicted. Falling down towards the party coming to a smashing halt and settling between two smaller lookout towers just below them. The heavy chunks fell to the street level crushing any undead soldiers.

"Lets go people! Move! Move! Move!" Quake barked orders to the rest after the dust settled but not before the very tower they stood on began to rumble. "Aw! Crap! Horn-Head is a coming!"

Right on cue, The Dark Lord began to make his way towards The Adventurers. Flanked by the undead, Venger had nothing but bad intentions as he advanced forward.

Serna began to wave the others across, "Get going everybody, I'll cover our backs while we leave. GO! GO! GO!"

Neven began to scurry down the half-fallen tower followed by War Scribe and Willow Bark.

"Forgive me Irzen," Lysana said right before she swung him over her shoulders in a fireman's hold and quickly followed others over the tower.

"There's nothing to forgive, Lysana," The Swordsman took in the long view down from his vantage point, "As long as you don't drop me, I'm good to go!"

"Everyone, go," Roberts said. "Give me a rifle." He took careful aim with the rifle offered him by his men. He took a deep breath, let it half out slowly, then gently squeezed the trigger. Another well placed round racked directly to Venger's helmet, rattling him severely, and causing him to lose his balance yet again, falling backwards into his troops in a bowling like effect. Roberts immediately set about reloading, awaiting Venger's almost certain return to the realm of the upright.

"EEEEENNNOOUUGGHHHH!!!" The Dark Lord roared in a voice loud enough for the entire Black City to hear. One of the lower walls of the prison tower blasted out into the street below to reveal The Dark Lord astride his Night Mare. As Venger took to the skies and began to circle over the Adventurers, all of them could hear him say, "THIS WILL BE THE END FOR ALL OF YOU!!! RRRRAUUHHHGGGHHHH!!!"

Suddenly a bright reddish magical light enveloped The Dark Lord and his steed until all were blinded by its brilliance. When the light died down, The Adventurers witnessed a horror of horrors. A reddish-black two-headed abomination of a Dragon with two sets of wings, a forked tail and gird and with that could easily match Tiamat. The Dark Lord cut loose with an ear piercing screech that shattered windows throughout the Black City.

Neven, Scribe, Irzen, Serna and Willow covered their ears until Venger was done.

"What do we do now, Scribe?" The Swordsman asked almost nonchalantly, "We're kind of exposed here."

"I know what we should do," The Chronicler responded eagerly, "RUN!"

"We're doing that NOW," retorted The Swordsman, "Do you have any other bright ideas?"

"Yes!" The Drowling snapped, "RUN FASTER!"