Wedged in between two roof segments, Drew wished he had taken the time to nail in a board or something. The shingles were loose, and his footing was slightly precarious, but it allowed him to keep a low enough profile that he didn't think anyone would see him before he started launching fireballs. Daryl said the trolls normally came out about two hours after dawn, so he had plenty of time to get bored.
He started aiming his fireballs off towards the Potomac, trying to measure how far they traveled before disappearing. With trial and error, he determined that at around a thousand feet out it started losing power, and then disappeared completely somewhere between fifteen hundred and two thousand feet. It was hard to make accurate assessments of distance without a marked range, but those were his best estimates. He tested his other spells but found the only other one that had a long enough range to be effective was acid dart.
It meant that he was well within the effective range of fireball for this ambush. But depending on how close the trolls guarded the humans, he might have issues with catching a human in the blast. He pushed that thought away and looked around for a spot where he could lay down to take pressure off his leg.
The whole situation was somewhat uncomfortable. The morning sun was incredibly hot, especially reflecting off the black tar of the shingles. The leather vest and dark blue ODU's he wore under it didn't help either. However, they did protect him from the grit on the shingles. He laid down and his leg twinged slightly in pain as he bumped it a little too hard in the process. "Should probably get shoes instead of boots and a pair of shorts for the heat," He said, thinking out loud.
Running a hand through his hair, he realized that he would need to get a haircut too. Chief would start yelling at him for being out of regs within a couple days at this rate.
He laughed until he realized it was bouncing eerily around the abandoned housing complex. The reverberating echo sounded unnervingly like someone mocking him. How strange it was to have such normal thoughts like haircuts and shoe shopping while he was waiting to ambush a bunch of trolls with magic. It was comforting at the same time to have had such normal thoughts.
Shaking his head at the incongruity, he looked around. He was positioned on a roof back a little way from the road that the trolls took every morning. Between him and the road were two housing units that formed a narrow corridor with a small playground in between them. The trolls would either come straight through the corridor or circle around the two buildings to respond to his attacks. Like most of the plan, it wasn't perfect.
Scanning the road, he poked his head up a little higher and looked over at the DIA building. They hadn't yet exited the big building, but they were due any time now. He then glanced over at the soccer field where the ritual had been performed. He kept thinking that he should see bodies, but they had disappeared either during the night or in the storm. He couldn't tell which he thought was more disturbing: insects capable of eating dozens of bodies, bone and all, overnight, or rain that dissolved bodies in an instant. The fire was also empty, but he could see the reflective shapes of their long daggers in the grass. They were the only thing indicating that a battle had taken place there yesterday.
A flash of light in his eyes caught Drew's attention and he saw Daryl pointing the mirror at him, their signal to indicate the trolls had left the building. Drew focused his attention on him as Daryl flashed Morse code at him: a short, then four longs, then a pause. One. Three long and two shorts. Eight. Another pause, and then a single long. 18T, eighteen trolls. Another pause, and then a short and four long again: one. Four long and a short meant nine. Then a short, two long and a short. The letter P. 19 people with the trolls. Drew raised his hand to indicate he had received the message and Daryl disappeared.
Drew realized that he didn't exactly disappear; from his perspective, the body went invisible, but a faint shadow still followed where he must be as it walked to the other side of the road to prepare his portion of the ambush. How did his invisibility work anyway? Did it just bend the light around him? If that was the case, him still casting a shadow made sense? Maybe just a distortion on the ground from where the light had been bent? The shadow was too indistinct not to be affected at all; in fact, against something other than the white pavement of the sidewalk, Drew doubted he would be able to see it at all.
Drew did a quick relaxation technique, tensing and releasing his muscles, trying to limber up for the fight. It would still take fifteen or twenty minutes for them to walk all the way down the road to where he was, and he had a feeling it was going to be one of the longest fifteen minutes he'd ever experienced. He then recast all his shielding spells and hunkered down to wait.
Wiping sweat from his forehead, he waited. Finally, three trolls came into view around the house; they were standing close enough together that Drew wasn't afraid of hitting the humans. Standing up, he launched a fireball slightly ahead of where the three were currently. To Drew, the ball seemed to move in slow motion, and one troll caught the movement out of the corner of its eye. Turning to look, it began to shout but was cut short by the explosion that engulfed all three.
Only fifteen trolls left. Four more had come into view while he took out the first group; they were on either side of a group of humans. One shouted something in a language Drew didn't understand, and all four began to charge towards him. Drew launched a frostfire ball at the first one, but it dove out of the way, taking only glancing damage from a shard of ice that embedded itself in his shoulder.
Acid dart targeted the now prone troll, but its damage didn't seem likely to add much of value to the exchange. He could now see nine trolls, all of which were charging towards him while shouting, and he began to cast frostfire storm. He felt reasonably safe since he was three stories up, that was until one of the trolls in the middle of the pack jumped to the top of the playground in a single bound and pulled something out of a pouch at its side.
Frostfire storm was ready right as the troll drew his arm back to throw whatever he had retrieved. Deciding the one on the playground was the most dangerous of the group, he centered it around him, catching five within the blasts of ice, fire, and lightning. Three, including the one who had fallen prone, were caught behind the storm, but the leading troll was still moving towards him. When he was about 60 feet away, he leapt into the air. His trajectory looked like he would land right next to Drew, but a lightning bolt knocked him back and off course. He landed with a cracking sound on the ground 40 feet below.
Switching to cast another storm to get the three stragglers, Drew targeted it near the mouth of the alley, hoping the humans had moved away from it by now. Daryl should have telepathically warned them to back up already, and hopefully, he'd lit a few trolls on fire.
The jumping ability of the trolls had caught him by surprise. He scanned the two surrounding buildings to ensure that they weren't trying to flank him while his fingers went through the motions of casting the storm but didn't see any. When the spell was done, he fired another lightning bolt at the downed troll for good measure.
Twelve of eighteen down, that left six to guard the prisoners. Daryl could probably only take out two or three of them, so Drew backed up to the top of the roof and with a gulp of air, he began running down the slope, trying to ignore the pain in his leg as he jumped when he was a few feet from the end. The distance between the houses was around 50 feet, which was just past the edge of his blink step range. When he reached the apex of the jump, he triggered blink step, stumbling a landing onto the eaves of the house's roof. He scrambled but lost his footing as his boot caught on a shingle, tripping him.
Rolling off the side of the roof, he reached out to grab the gutter, managing to get one hand on it and arresting his fall, but wrenching his shoulder painfully. Kicking off the side of the building, he tried to pull himself up, but the lack of a good handhold prevented him from making any progress. He could feel the winds of the frostfire storm and he looked down; realizing he was twenty feet up and over a concrete pad, he redoubled his efforts to scramble back onto the roof.
Drew caught movement from the corner of his eye and saw two trolls approaching where he had been from the north side of the house he was currently clinging to. He launched a fireball which caught them both unaware, incinerating them.
Deciding that the fight with the roof was a loss, he used gravitas to lighten himself considerably, then flipped over onto the roof. He then carefully began crawling up until he reached the peak, which he straddled, wincing as his leg banged against the roof. He took a moment to steady himself before standing up; he could feel blood trickling down his leg. Gravitas was still active, so he lightened himself enough that it didn't hurt as he clambered along the roof.
It took him a little under a minute, and he changed elevation five times before he could see the humans he was trying to rescue. There were four trolls surrounding them along with several patches of fire and broken glass. Daryl's aim was apparently not the greatest. He didn't see his co-conspirator, and the trolls were spread out enough that he couldn't catch more than one with a frostfire ball.
"Hey ugly!" Drew shouted as an acid dart hit the nearest one's face. It collapsed into a kneeling position and covered its face, but the other three immediately jumped towards him. He caught two in midair with frostfire ball, but the third landed next to him with a thump. Cone of frostfire and lightning bolt both shot out of his hands as he turned, throwing the troll off the roof and into the nearly expired storm spell with their impact. He felt rather than heard the fourth troll landing behind him, the force of the blow on his back blocked by his shields as he turned.
The troll was obviously surprised, and blade barrier had done its job well. Drew cast cone of frost and then ducked another fist as it slowed down in the last second, overextending the slowed troll. He returned with a punch of his own, which resulted only in an exclamation of pain from him as he felt a bone in his hand snap from the impact. It had felt like punching a cinderblock wall.
The troll smiled, saying, "Goodbye, Weaver," before throwing another punch. Blade barrier stopped this one as well and Drew responded by launching a lightning bolt into its face, sending it spinning away from him and off the roof. Turning back to the humans, he looked around but saw no sign of Daryl.
"Behind you!" One of the prisoners shouted as he heard another thump. Turning again, he caught two fists to the side of his head and shoulder, sending him tumbling off the roof and towards the ground below. He triggered gravitas while he fell, keeping him in midair for a heartbeat. He twisted around until he could see a troll with half his face eaten away by acid; the first one he had attacked hadn't gone down apparently. He launched another lightning bolt and a fireball at it. It disappeared as the air from the explosion buffeted him.
Descending carefully, he landed on his side, unable to move enough to get his feet under him while in freefall. He popped up, looking around, "Did I get them all?" He asked, hoping he had since he didn't think he could take many more.