Renegades and Reptiles
More and more again
Sir,
I am pleased to report that our agents have confirmed the existence of the second Cloak summoner. Yes, sir. I share your feeling. Knowing how focused Vlox is on his vendetta on the Bender Empire, I am not sure it is good that they have another stone. My pleasure is that our agents our proving their competence. Yes, sir.
The new summoner's name is Jexik. We know practically nothing about his background so far, but we have learned more about his use of the stone. He can give his troops a short burst of berserker-like strength. This is so potent, though, that this often kills the attacker so blessed. While this helps further explain the increased number of assassinations we have heard about in their quarter, it does raise our concerns about the overall morality of a summoner who is prepared to risk the lives of his followers in order to carry out these murders.
The Cloaks have another type of soldier. They are called Renegades, which is not very helpful, but their training is in alertness, flexibility, and opportunism. They may move when you expect them to attack, or vice versa, or run in bursts, or stand and press a hard attack, as they judge the changing combat situation best warrants.
Turning to the jungle Elves: their new summoner Nikuya Na is focused on jungle beasts at least as much as Abua Shi. Not only has he gotten hyenas and rhinos to fight with him, he uses the creatures as inspiration for ways to use his stone. The bursts of speed and attack strength we have learned of are named for the cheetah and serpent, respectively. We have learned of additional spells named for the turtle and lizard.
Sir? Yes indeed, sir, the turtle spell does make his troops resistant to wounds, though thankfully it does not make them invulnerable.
The lizard spell might his best spell, though named for the smallest creature. Yes, I was about to, sir: this spell heals wounds faster than most other healing abilities we know of, and what's more he can use it on himself or other summoners. It costs him a lot of magic to do so, but he is perhaps the only summoner who can do it that I can think of, besides Mad Sirian.
It is named for the lizard because some lizards can grow back their tails after they have been broken off. It was not obvious to me either, sir, except in hindsight.
