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Addison could "sense" the thoughts of his attackers as they approached. He twirled his staff around and around over his head as he turned to face them. He then brought the it down in a sweeping arc to halt their charge and keep them at bay. The two men did slow thier charge briefly to avoid the staff, but began moving again almost immediately. They split up to prevent Addison from catching both of them with one spell.
And Addison was casting a third spell. He kept a firm grip on the staff with his right hand, bracing one end underneath his arm for extra support. His left hand was quickly tracing magical runes in the air. The men thouhgt to move in and disrupt the spell, but a quick feint of his staff managed to slow them long enough for the spell to be completed. Addison's voice rose as he cast the spell, until he practically yelled the last archaic verse. The thugs prepared to dive to one side or the other to avoid the attack...but it never came. Instead, Addison turned from the attackers and ran UP the side of the wall and onto the ceiling. He couldn't help but smile at the bewildered looks on the faces of the two men.
Addison had spent many hours learning to fight from this seemingly awkward position after he first learned the Spider Climbing spell. As expected, the two men were unable to launch any type of effective attack. Instead, they poked weakly at his head and shoulders. Addison merely "squatted" with his knees to rise up out of the reach of these pathetic jabs. Then he brought his staff to bear.
He resisted the temptation to slap both swords away from him. Although it would be easy to do, experience had taught him that, even in their bewildered state, the men weren't likely to drop their swords. So Addison concentrated on the closest of the two thugs. He DID use his staff to strike at the man's sword, but he quickly reversed his swing before his opponent could recover and snapped the staff into the side of his head.
It was a solid blow that stung badly, but wasn't powerful enough to drop the man. Which didn't bother Addison. He turned his attention to the second attacker and used the same basic attack. Again, his opponent took a solid, stinging hit to the face, but didn't seem too be terribly hurt. However, he was mad...both of them were, and they attacked the mage - as best as they could - with renewed vigor.
Addison used his martial arts training to avoid their attacks and parry their blows, slapping in a stinging blow when he could. The two men were completely infuriated now and were determined to bring the mage back down to the floor.
In their anger, they completely forgot about the two paladins that were standing nearby.....
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