Captain of the guard and General of the Bastokian army, Juliuz, was not known for his simple, peaceful lectures and his immense love for his men. While many did complain he wasn't exactly "Decent" to his men, (harsh, even.) it didn't take a great mind to see that he knew what he was doing. His personally trained guards and warriors always came out top notch, usually skyrocketing into a high position under the Bastokian president himself. Each and every one of his men was tough, muscular, intelligent, and brutal on the battlefield. This showed what kind of a man Juliuz was.
But even his immense strength and spirit faltered under such heavy duress.
Bastok, in the night, without warnings or signs of any such aggression, had come under attack by the Beastmen. The first guard to spot them had been asleep at the post, only woken up when the Orcish war machines blew the front gate apart with their weaponry. It had gone downhill from there.
Now, chaos had spread to the first part of the city. The first line of men, usually just used as a wall of meat, had fallen with little trouble to the Yagudo, Gigas, Orcs, Sahagin, and Quadavs. Juliuz and his best men fought off the invading armies while disorder flowed freely, blood of both beasts and men flying in every direction and spattering the streets with its colors, turning the gray, mechanical, Bastok into a festival of red liquid.
Juliuz, being the smart man he was, knew he was fighting a losing battle. But his job was to keep the Beastmen from the main part of the civilian's housing; the civilians were still evacuating. He had retreated a short distance to the bridge that connected the Market to the Port, as such a small street kept the Beastmen in check. Any civilians who had lived in Port were now undoubtedly slain, as there was no time to warn them before the creatures had slain them in their sleep.
Unfortunately, although Juliuz remained smart and steadfast, he was plain outnumbered, and the Beastmen were seeing ways through his wall of men. Many had taken Hume boats, and used them to cross to the other side of the river, avoiding Juliuz' barricade entirely. However, the Captain knew that there would be more men waiting for them at the other side.
His mind returned from the thoughts of battle plans into the battle itself as a random Orcish spear flung itself at Juliuz' head. He easily dodged it with a quick jerk of his body to the right, but one of his men was not so lucky, as he fell to the street gurgling in his own liquids. Two more Yagudo charged at the General, both intent on spearing him on their katanas, but the Captain simply sidestepped their charge and cut them into pieces with a quick horizontal lash of his sword. Two more Quadavs quickly took their places, apparently mages, as they bound the captain with a quick spell, leaving him helpless as they started to cast powerful magic. Juliuz gave a command to the air, and two sets of archers let loose their arrows, filling the two mages with stone and metal, whereupon they quickly fell to the ground. However, the captain was still unable to move his arms or legs. Only his eyes could watch as a Giga, full of arrows and too stupid to actually feel pain; rushed to smash the captain into a bruised pulp.
Juliuz did not fear death, but he did not welcome it. He was willing to die here, tonight, for his country, but he would still take life over death any day of the week. Before the Giga actually reached Juliuz, he was stopped as a Lance was smashed into its skull by a blur, whereupon the Giga's eyes rolled into its head, and it fell off the bridge and into the river, taking three Beastmen with it. The captain felt the invisible, magical binds release him, and he turned his head to see a young girl and a pale looking Elvaan with a lance staring at him.
"We need a way out of the city, NOW!" The Elvaan was frantic.
Juliuz simply ignored him with a casual glance. "Idiot. Evacuate with all the other civilians, at the markets. Why the hell did you run into the huge battle expecting a way out from HERE?" He fended off two more Gigas as he yelled at the said Elvaan.
There was a long pause before the General heard a response. "...Because the civilians are dead, and the Market is now filled with every Beastman and its mother."
Juliuz stopped with a final slash at a Giga and turned slowly to meet the Elvaan face to face. "...The market is lost?"
"Every person was killed shortly after the men holding the market gate fell. They were no match for what they met there. And you can trust me in believing that neither you nor I am either. We need a way out, and now."
Juliuz turned back towards his men and gave a shout, telling his men to hold the line as he got the remaining civilians out. The men gave a proud, if not empty hearted, cheer, and Juliuz turned and nodded toward the Elvaan and girl.
"Your names?"
"You can call me Daleth. This is Kidria. Understand that her life takes priority over mine."
The captain nodded again. "The names Juliuz. Follow me." Daleth and Kidria went after the General in silence as he left for the other end of the port. He knew that he had left all his men to die, and that they knew it too. But both he and his men also realized that the Captain was making the right choice.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Moments later, the captain arrived in a small, secluded, quiet part of the port. The streets here had been stained red, but whatever had been killed or HAD killed, was now gone, and the place was quiet and desolate. Half sneaking, half running, the Captain led the way through a labyrinth of doorways and alleys, avoiding the open areas as best he could. Daleth had never been to this part of Bastok before, he hadn't in fact even known it had existed, but now was not a time to question where it came from. The simple fact that he and Kid might make it out alive was good enough for him. At one doorway, the captain stopped dead still, and then jerked to the side of the doorway, pulling Daleth and Kidria with him. A second later, a small troupe of Orcs had passed by the doorway, but had kept walking when they had not seen any of them inside the doorway. Shortly after they passed, the General snuck up behind the orcs and cut their throats before they had a chance to react. He spat on their corpses just before he continued to lead the way out of the city.
Eventually, the three of them went into a passageway that lead beneath the streets and into a series of corridors with water flowing ankle deep. Daleth suspected these were the sewers, and this was the only place in the city where the water was not muddled with blood from men or Beastmen...not that the brown, disgusting color it had was much better. Regardless, they trampled on through the water through several tunnels unchecked until they finally reached a brick wall.
Juliuz turned around, speaking quickly and quietly. "Behind this wall is a small, unused tunnel that leads to the mines. Once you exit the caves, make your way to Selbina. You should be able to commandeer some type of boat there, whereupon you should travel to Windurst. Let them know what happened here. Windurst is the final of the four cities, which is left standing. We cannot affor-"
The Captain jerked around, steadied himself, and drew his weapon. Daleth, also aware of the change, jerked around at almost the same time with his lance. The two of them remained inert, but seemed to be waiting for something. Kidria, however, remained clueless.
She gave an odd look. "What is it?"
Daleth grumbled softly. "A splash. I heard a splash."
"So what? There's water all around, of course we're going to hear splashing."
"But sewage doesn't splash...or swim."
Almost on cue, the water in front of Daleth began to churn. It began as a soft, light spinning of the ugly, dirtied water in front of them, but the water began to foam in a sick color, which suddenly stopped, and then exploded. Two Sahagin burst from the seam in the water, spears drawn and with gleeful looks on their faces. Daleth and Juliuz were both ready for the attack, while Kidria simply looked disgusted at all the dark goo the Sahagin had splashed on her clothing.
The Elvaan dragoon and the Hume captain charged at the two fish creatures, which swiped at the approaching aggressors happily. Daleth didn't anticipate the slipperiness of the water, and was too late to stop himself from one of the blows. Regardless, he managed to turn himself enough to only take a light wound to the shoulder. Juliuz simply knocked aside the other Sahagin's spear with his shield; them impaled the creature on his blade. The other Sahagin seemed shocked at the sudden lost of his comrade, but quickly turned to anger and dove back in the water. Juliuz gave a shout to kill the creature quickly; Daleth barely heard it over the roar of the adrenaline in his blood. He poked various areas of the water, looking for any sign of the fish, but finding nothing but rubbish and sewage. A moment later, there was a inhuman high pitched, ear splitting scream that tore Daleth's senses apart, until he turned and saw the Sahagin behind him emitting the offending cry. He quickly put it out of its misery by heaving his lance, which sliced through the air like a dart, and left the Sahagin hanging on the well with the spear in its belly.
Daleth walked over to the bleeding beast and tore his weapon from the wall, letting the lifeless fish fall quietly to the ground in a heap. Poor Kidria had been sprayed with the Sahagin's blood, and looked absolutely disgusted. Juliuz walked over to Daleth, who turned around and glanced back at the captain.
"What was that...attack it did? Some kind of scream meant to scare us? A battle cry?"
Juliuz shook his head. "No, it was a kind of siren." Daleth thought he heard a few animalistic grunts in the ceiling above him, but ignored it. "He was crying for help."
Daleth stared. "He just told the other Sahagin in the area where we are?!"
"No...he just let every BEASTMAN in BASTOK know where we are."
The grunting above grew in sound, and a large parade of feet knocked small bits of stone from the ceiling, splashing into the water. Daleth grew pale and walked over to Kid, while Juliuz just stood by the wall, studying it. After a moment, he seemed to come to a realization, then punched a stone on the wall. It went in with a large hollow sound, the stone wall swung around, revealing a dark passageway into nothingness.
"Get to Windurst. I must stay and die with my men."
Daleth gave him a sad look. "You can come with us...there is honor in learning when to run."
Juliuz shook his head, and sighed. "I will not leave until I know that my men can come with me. There is no honor in leaving them to die."
The wall swung shut, separating Daleth and Kidria from Juliuz, and leaving them in a world of darkness. The two of them turned in silence and walked quietly down the hall together.
The last thing Juliuz saw as he turned from the wall was a flash of white, followed by a black, curving, rune covered, spinning scythe flying through the air, aimed directly for his face.