Chapter 22: The Diversion
The lilypa lightly dozed while gazing out the window. Guarding the highest floor was extremely boring. All it had to do was watch for incoming intruders from the west side of the lake and fire its arrows in a steady barrage, keeping all outsiders away from what the elves were doing in the tower's basement with the human children.
The lilypa sighed, wishing for more excitement. Sure, a couple of humans dared to approach the tower twice but they always came from the east, letting the lilypas on the east side get all the fun in showing off their marksmanship. And now, the ozwargs had demanded small portions of the window guards to go down to the bottom floor; apparently some intruders were down there. Several lilypas had volunteered, eager to get some action away from the guard duty of the top floor.
The reptilian monster stretched its neck out in an effort to stay awake. As it did so, it noticed a shadow of movement through a crack in the door just across from it. Normally, the lilypa would have ignored it but, as bored as it was, decided to see what it could be.
Leaving its arrows on the floor beside the other sleeping lilypas, the monster walked up to the door. It was about to put its hand on the handle of the door when its world erupted in sudden pain, the door smashing it aside.
The lilypa crumpled against a wall but still remained conscious. It looked up and saw its companions wake up in surprise. Out stormed a large human, fully armored in red, and carrying a short sword. The lilypa's companions didn't even have a chance to scream as the human mercilessly cut them down.
The lilypa looked up in astonishment, still a bit dazed by the human's sudden attack. It knew one thing: it had to escape before the human saw it. The monster got up and started to run but felt something wrap around its leg, causing it to trip.
The lilypa struggled to get up, hoping the human hadn't seen it yet. Before the monster could do so, though, a fiery pain suddenly shot through its throat. It tried to scream but no sound came from its mouth; only a large bubble of green blood did.
It glanced down at its throat to see what was abstracting its scream of pain and saw a blade covered in its blood protruding from its neck. The monster's brain still hadn't figured out what went wrong before an eternal darkness covered its once keen sight.
"Good work, Healie," Ragnar said after he retrieved his sword from the lilypa's neck. The soldier went back over to the other fallen monsters, checking them over to make sure they were dead. He then started to pick up the corpses and put them into the room he had just burst from. He contemplated maybe throwing them out the window so there would be no chance of finding them on this floor but decided against it. There would probably be guards on the bottom floor and seeing three dead lilypas fall from the sky would arouse suspicion.
Ragnar picked up the two corpses by the window while Healie dragged the third into the room. After the soldier secured the door, he gazed back over the area. He had tried to be clean about the work but finesse wasn't his style, so there were streaks of lilypa blood across the floor. Ragnar could only hope that, in the limited light of twilight, no one would notice it until he was long gone.
"Where to, Healie?" Ragnar asked the healer. Healie pointed down the right hallway and they headed that way, keeping to the inside of the walls.
Ragnar occasionally glanced outside the many windows that marked the circular hallway but didn't see much, mostly the tops of several pine trees. Wherever they were, it was definitely high.
Eventually, Healie pointed to a room. There weren't any doors on the entrance so light from the room filtered into the hallway. If this was where the staircase leading to the lower level was, there would have to be guards.
"Healie," the soldier whispered as he pressed up against the wall beside the entrance, "float by the door and let me know how many guards there are. Raise your front tentacles for the number of lilypas and your back ones for the number of ozwargs." Healie shook its tentacles back and forth and floated by the entrance to the room. The healer then stopped by the other side of the entrance, turned to face Ragnar, and raised five front tentacles and one back one -five lilypas and one ozwarg. Tough odds but he still had the advantage of surprise and size, as well as a healer backing him up. Gritting his teeth, Ragnar formulated a battle plan in his head. He was going to have to kill them all; otherwise an alarm might be set off. To stop any retreat downstairs, he was going to have to stop their path down the stairs as well. It was going to be a brutal charge.
Ragnar nodded to Healie, his signal to his companion that he was going to attack. Healie knew that its role would be to try to keep to the shadows and heal Ragnar from a distance, help in the attack if necessary.
The soldier took a few deep breaths, gripped his sword tighter, and spun around, presenting himself to the enemy.
The lilypas were taken completely off-guard as they huddled in the middle of the room and enjoying some sort of game with rocks on the floor. The ozwarg, which was dozing in a chair off to the right of Ragnar, looked up as well, surprise in its one eye. The stairs were in the far left corner of the room.
Ragnar charged through, swinging his sword viciously at the lilypas. He hacked at the closest one, cutting a deep gash across the monster's neck. He stepped on the second one, crushing the monster's spine with his heavy boots. Ragnar managed to pass through the rest of the lilypas, disorientating them for a moment.
Once he was through the crowd, the soldier positioned himself between the monsters and the stairs. The lilypas started to scramble, trying to organize themselves. The ozwarg stood up and shouted out a single sound; the lilypas quickly re-grouped in front of the ozwarg. They were forming a type of defensive wall to protect the ozwarg, which slightly confused the soldier. He was going to have to charge the monsters soon, or else they might gain a larger advantage quickly if allowed to form their own tactics.
Gritting his teeth, Ragnar charged forward, keeping his shield in front. The lilypas stood their ground, however, and the soldier crashed solidly into the wall of monsters. Ragnar's sheer strength sent the lilypas reeling back, unable to stand up against the stronger opponent. One fell under Ragnar's charge and the soldier made good use of the opportunity, crushing the lilypa's neck with a hard step. Ragnar felt a pop underneath his boot but he had little time to feel satisfied with each enemy killed.
The remaining two lilypas flanked Ragnar and charged, carrying small daggers. Ragnar crouched down, keeping his shield on his left. As both lilypas reached him, he swung his sword at the lilypa on the right, cutting a large gash across the monster's chest. At the same time, he fended the second lilypa off with his shield, sending the monster falling back.
However, Ragnar's weight was highly distributed on his right side and the soldier fell over, landing on the writhing lilypa he had just sliced open. He managed to get up quickly, however, and saw that the ozwarg was making a run for the stairs.
"No!" Ragnar cried out and threw his sword at the monster. The ozwarg didn't even realize what had hit it when it was suddenly propelled forward, Ragnar's copper sword protruding from its chest. It fell over, inches from the staircase.
Ragnar didn't have any time to congratulate himself on his marksmanship when he felt a sudden, sharp pain on his leg. He yelped in shock and remembered there was still one more lilypa to kill. He looked down and saw the monster, a tiny dagger in its hand, fresh with Ragnar's blood on it.
The lilypa saw that Ragnar was very angry now and realized that it should have escaped when it had the chance instead of follow the orders of the now dead ozwarg. It began to tremble with fear as Ragnar approached him, dropping the dagger.
The lilypa was about to scream in fright when Ragnar quickly grabbed it and covered its mouth. Looking right into the lilypa's frightened eyes, he said, "Can you understand me?" The lilypa nodded shakily. "Good." Ragnar was surprised that a creature he'd never seen before would know his language but he didn't think much more of it.
Ragnar glanced down at his leg and saw the tiny wound begin to close as Healie's curing magic took effect; a bit of a waste, perhaps. It wasn't a serious wound and a slight limp wouldn't impair him that much.
"Listen carefully," Ragnar growled, shaking the lilypa. "I'll let you live if you go down to the lower levels of this place and convince your kinsmen to come up here. I'm going to challenge them all!" He put more pressure on the lilypa's neck and nearly shouted. "You hear me? All!" The lilypa shakily nodded and Ragnar threw the monster, sending it reeling towards the stairs.
Before the lilypa got up, Ragnar added with a threatening face, "And if you tell the ozwargs, you're dead!" Shaking with fear, the lilypa hastily got up and scrambled to the stairs, already screaming to other lilypas.
As Ragnar retrieved his sword from the dead ozwarg, Healie hurriedly floated over to the soldier and asked, "What... do... that... for?"
"Don't worry," Ragnar said, smiling. "I know what I'm doing."
He yanked his sword from the dead ozwarg and studied the blade. The sword was beginning to dull, several marks and nicks lining the once sharp edge. He was surprised that he had been able to impale the ozwarg at all. With the heavy tunics and robes these monsters were wearing, he was going to have to be very accurate with his sword for quick kills.
Ragnar looked up, judging the height of the ceiling. He guessed it was about fifteen feet high. "Healie, do you think you can float up there?" he asked, pointing a finger up.
"Yes," Healie replied.
"Do it," he said, "and don't come back down until you see me again. Understand?"
"Yes... but-"
"Just do it!" Ragnar firmly said. He started to leave the room, heading for the hallway. Healie was still floating only a few feet above the floor, however. Ragnar turned to his companion and smiled, "Trust me on this." Healie's composure didn't change but it started to float higher anyway.
Ragnar watched Healie reach the top of the ceiling before heading back into the hallway. There was a lookout window just opposite the entrance to the room. The soldier placed his hands on the window's ledge, testing the strength of the ancient structure. Some dust and loose pebbles stirred under his large hands but the bricks were otherwise solid.
The sound of several feet echoing within the room opposite of the window alerted Ragnar that the lilypas were coming. With no time to lose, the soldier hung his shield on his back, hopped onto the ledge, and eased himself over, letting his feet hang in the darkness below. He took a breath and slowly let his body fall, keeping a strong grip on the ledge. Soon, he was hanging by his fingers. Ragnar moved his legs around, trying to find a secure footing on the jagged edge of the tower's wall.
He heard several feet come running towards the window and Ragnar prayed to whatever deity would be listening that the monsters wouldn't notice his fingers on the ledge. Loud, clicking sounds could be heard and the monsters started to split up, each running in opposite directions in an attempt to search for Ragnar. The soldier waited for several moments, his grip starting to weaken.
Eventually, the sound of running feet began to fade into an echo. Ragnar didn't hear anything just above him, so the soldier lifted himself back onto the ledge. Once he got his head up, Ragnar surveyed the hallway. Both were completely bare, the sound of running lilypas skipping across the dark walls.
Satisfied the searching lilypas would be kept busy for a while, Ragnar headed into the room with the staircase leading to the lower levels. Once he entered the room, Healie floated back down from its hiding place. "You... fine?" the healer asked, running its tentacles across Ragnar's scratched armor.
"Just fine," Ragnar replied, patting his companion on the head.