What are air elementals? Why are they so dangerous?
Air elementals are animated embodiments of the element air. They engulf unwary adventurers and pummel them with flying debris. Nethack 3.3.0 introduced a new speed system; as a side effect of it, air elementals (which are naturally at the highest speed possible) get several attacks to an adventurer’s one. Since they do a lot of damage, death can be fast. [Note: in version 3.4.0, the Dev Team has compensated for this somewhat by reducing the damage they do.