From the way the guard treated the Humans (tied them back up), Regis and Seira saw that the realm of darkness had, indeed, accepted the Union's story that the four of them were criminals. The two of them exchanged a glance and resolved to correct this at first opportunity.
They were taken to the guard-quarters and the first thing they saw was Hammer the Dwarf, who'd apparently been recaptured already, in one of the cells. The six rogue humans, however, were nowhere to be seen.
An important-looking Nazgul man came over to them. He scowled when he saw the humans, but made an effort to remain civil.
"You can heal, yes?" he asked Regis.
"That is correct," replied the Elf.
"Can your fellow ambassador heal, as well?"
"Ikhan can, yes."
The man was thrown for a moment. "I meant the other Elf," he clarified.
"No," said Seira. "I'm an archer."
"Can any of the other Humans heal, then?"
"No," said Ikhan. "Just me."
"We've got injuries from trying to apprehend the six fugitives. Some are mortal—"
"Lead the way." said Regis. A guard escorted him over to the temporary medical area.
Then, the commander turned to Ikhan. "Now, listen, Human. We need help, and you're going to give it to us, or I'll kill you myself. Got it?
"Understood," said Ikhan. He really did want to help, and there was no point in arguing over motives when there were lives to be saved.
Well, after ten minutes, they were down to the superficial wounds, and Regis and Ikhan were taken back before the commander (Ikhan was tied up again).
"These six escapees seem to be some combination of magic-users and weapons-users. They use music as part of their magic, as well."
"Sounds like they're bards," said Suyi.
"Perhaps. Whatever they are, their attacks work especially well against Creatures of Darkness, and you're the only Creatures of Light available."
"You want us to fight them?" asked Shinwoo.
"That or I throw you in the most unpleasant hole I can find, and feed you only when it strikes my fancy."
"We'll do it."
The six of them had wanted to work together and tackle the bards one at a time, but that idea had been shot down by the Nazgul commander, Irron. Instead, each of them was placed with a group of soldiers and they would be allowed to help the other Creatures of Light only after defeating their assigned bard.
Well, Ikhan, Yuna, and Suyi were the ones who'd have the most trouble with this; they had no shot at taking down a bard by themselves, so the group had decided on using the amulets for this one. Seira, Regis, and Shinwoo would do their best to dispatch their own opponents as quickly as possible, and then come to the aid of the other three. Ikhan, Yuna, and Suyi were going to do their best to stalemate their opponents until help arrived.
The battleground for this fight was the capital city of the Nazgul territory, Solen City. The fugitives had escaped less than an hour ago, and the city was on lock-down. The citizens were still there, but hidden in their homes and various other shelters. This meant that the six of them could not retreat, and they'd have to keep the bards engaged in battle, to avoid giving them time to think about killing civilians.
Yuna had considered all this while the group of soldiers she'd been assigned to had tracked down their assigned bard. Now, they'd found him, and Yuna was pushed forward to fend, more or less, for herself. The soldiers' attacks had done nothing to damage their opponent, and their shield spells were largely ineffective against the bard's counterattacks.
So, Yuna settled herself on a rooftop, and set up to snipe her opponent with an ice-arrow.
She hit him on the first try, and the reaction was immediate: a wide and sweeping counterattack, which, unfortunately, only affected those within a ten-foot radius of himself.
Yuna jumped over to a different building and shot at him again.
The bard was starting to realize that he was dealing with a ranged attacker.
Yuna got off only five more shots before he spotted her, then things got tense.
After clambering up to the roof, the bard thought he'd finally be able to take out this annoying archer. He smiled, as he started to sing one of his summoning songs.
That was when Yuna used the amulet to put up a spell of sanctuary.
Well, the bard had summoned a tiger and a bear to fight for him, but neither of them were able to break the sanctuary spell around the archer. Neither did his own weapons seem to have any effect on the glowing walls of energy. The only positive aspect of the whole situation seemed to be that the archer couldn't attack him while in the sanctuary spell.
Well, there was only so much attacking a wall the bard could do at one time. So, he decided that if the archer liked her sanctuary so much, she could have it. He turned to go.
Only to have an arrow hit him from behind.
When he turned back around, the sanctuary spell was back up.
He was starting to really hate that archer.
Ikhan preferred a different style of fighting. As a magic-user, he couldn't use armor or non-magical weapons. Most people assumed this meant he was weak and helpless without warriors to support him; however, there were two important facts which they often forgot to take into consideration: substituting his robe of protection for armor meant he could run a good deal faster than the average warrior, and magical weapons could damage his opponents from a distance.
Ikhan had faced against his bard in an open area, and the first thing he'd done was summon a magical hammer that followed the bard around, attacking him. All the hammer required was periodic re-summoning, and it would attack his opponent as long as Ikhan was not blocking an attack.
This meant that Ikhan was able to use his speed to great advantage. He was using his amulet to give him a more or less endless supply of stamina, and he hadn't stopped running since he'd cast the hammer spell.
The bard, as it turned out, was not a ranged attacker. He'd chased after Ikhan for the past fifteen minutes, defending himself from the floating hammer and the occasional magic-missile which Ikhan was able to shoot at him. Ikhan was maintaining his health by healing himself each time the bard got in a lucky hit.
The bard was starting to lose the annoyed expression he'd adopted and was moving on to full-on rage.
Ikhan, however, wasn't extremely worried. Certainly, he couldn't defeat this opponent, but he could stalemate him til the end of time.
Suyi was perhaps in the worst position of the three stallers, as she had no way of making ranged attacks. Her only method of buying time was a dangerous one. Suyi did have a healing spell, but it wasn't always reliable, as the amount of health she could regain was equal to the damage she dealt her opponent.
Like Ikhan, she was using her amulet as an endless well of stamina, and she'd engaged her opponent in combat.
Unfortunately, this was a bard who relied on summoning, and he'd gone all 'convert enemy' on three of the soldiers she was with: a Dark Elf, a Troll, and a Balrog. This caused some problems, but not as many as might have been expected.
As the three soldiers were being used against their will, they were a good deal less intelligent than normal fighters. Their patterns of attack were robotic and predictable.
It would be wrong to kill them, but Suyi wasn't sure she'd be able to do that, anyway. The plus side of having to fight against such powerful people meant that they healed very fast themselves, so Suyi didn't feel too bad about giving them minor damage to power her own healing spell and keep her health up.
It was an unstable equilibrium she was in, but even an precarious place of balance gives a fighter some peace of mind. Now, it was a matter of endurance.
Now, Shinwoo didn't know it, but he was up against the most powerful of the six bards. This particular man was the leader. He could affect your emotions with his singing: terrify you into surrendering, charm you into joining him, even use his harp as a fairly decent weapon. He was truly a force to be reckoned with.
Well, Shinwoo had ambushed him him out of a dark alley, and, by a stroke of luck, he'd managed to land a critical hit on the man during the opening blows, leaving the him paralyzed for the next three minutes.
And just like that, Shinwoo had defeated his opponent.
Seira's fight had lasted little longer. Like Yuna, she'd chosen to snipe at her target. The difference between them was that Seira was able to shoot "Artemis' Arrow of Sleep" at her opponent and knock him out before he really knew what was happening. It was one of her more powerful spells, but it consumed nearly all of her mana, and left her greatly weakened for the coming fights. Seira didn't much care; it was worth it to be able to take out her opponent right away, and she wanted to go help Suyi.
Regis was feeling nervous about his first fight as a full noble. Since having come into his full abilities, all he'd noticed was that his power reserves had increased. Which would have been great if he wanted to go on a destruction rampage, but as things were, his extra powers weren't of much help.
He'd need skill to fight against a Human mage. Especially since they were surrounded by buildings full of innocents.
He started out with a few low-power attacks with his light-beam spell... only to see them have no effect on the bard whatsoever.
He tried again, increasing the power, and still nothing.
The bard attacked next, and Regis didn't manage to dodge all the way out of the way, and he wound up bleeding in three different places.
Shocked at his own helplessness, Regis did the only thing he could think to do: he put up a sanctuary spell, and waited for help.