An Underestimated Adversary
The sun was clearly up when Arthen finally awoke. Everyone else was already up and waiting on him.
The templar sat up wearily from his bedding and stretched. He frowned when he noticed that he was alone in his tent and noticed the strong sunlight shining from outside. How long was I asleep?
Arthen finally got up and put away his bedding and pulled on plates of armor one by one before finally stepping outside.
"Finally." Innes groaned. The mage and the cleric had been waiting patiently outside.
Tina smiled. "Did you sleep well?"
Arthen shook his head. "Hardly. I couldn't sleep last night for some reason."
Her smile faded. "Well, here." She handed him something wrapped in an otombliss leaf. "Have some breakfast first and we'll head out."
"Thanks," he told her. He paused. "You haven't been out here waiting for me all of this time, have you?"
Tina shook her head. "Actually, Sophie showed us around the forest here and the lake and everything. It's really beautiful here. It's just a shame that the balaur are so close by."
"Hmm." Arthen frowned. "Hopefully our meddling with the generator won't incite something worse."
"Huh?" Innes looked up. "What do you mean?"
The templar sighed. "What if they decide to retaliate because of our doing? This camp is only minutes outside of balic territory. It wouldn't be right to assume they'll just roll over."
The red head shrugged. "This is our assignment. You remember, right? Without the aetheric generators working, Asmodians are powerless as it is."
"I guess you're right." Arthen surrendered.
"I think that there are enough elite soldiers on guard here," Tina told them. "If something were to happen, that's a pretty strong line of defence they'd have to break through first."
"I hope so," Arthen continued. "Let's get going, shall we?"
At last, the three headed out with Marchutan's blessing from the guards as they continued on north towards balic territory. They came upon an area where the forest had been completely cut down and where the ruins of many broken down buildings stood.
"These are the Nunglark Ruins." Tina spoke aloud.
"Looks like it," Arthen told her.
Among the patrolling balaur were also their allies, the Krall and the Mau.
The Krall were strong and powerful giants, tall and all brawn with large arms and bodies. Their faces were twisted with wrath and hatred. The Mau, however, were slender feline soldiers with the likeness and swift exactness of a tiger. They were both very formidable foes.
"Do either of you see the drana growing device?" Arthen asked.
"Nope." Innes sprinted ahead of them to get a better look.
"Be careful." Tina warned him. "Let's try not to be seen so soon."
"Yeah, whatever." The mage rolled his eyes. "Hey, come here, I think I see it."
The other two hastened behind him until the device was indeed in sight. However, there had to have been a dozen more balaur patrolling the area than there had been in the Marayas region.
Tina became uneasy. "Are you sure we don't need anymore help?"
Arthen shook his head. "I think we'll be fine."
Innes grinned. "Are you kidding? I can just put them all to sleep while you guys install that stupid thing."
"See? Sounds easy enough." Arthen tolled them. "Do you have the aetheric device, Tina?"
"I do," she told him. "I have it in my bag."
"Alright then. Let's go."
The three sneaked around the eastern outer skirts of the ruins unseen towards the drana device. When finally there, the mage ran ahead of them up to the balaur.
Before any of the drakan had a chance to act, Innes pounded his fist hard into the ground beneath him and a cloud of blue mist spread about and put the enemies into a deep bewitched slumber. "It's clear," he said, walking back.
"Hurry," Arthen told Tina.
She nodded and hurried to install the aetheric device.
"Whaaat's thiss! Intrrruderrs!" A Mau warrior patrolling nearby started to alert the rest of the settlement.
Arthen cursed. "Tina, get out of there!"
Her face ran pale as she started back. "It's okay, it's in!"
Quickly, Innes whispered an incantation and the warrior became the form of agrint tree.
But it was too late.
Others were already rushing to the scene and even worse, the balaur whom were slept were starting to wake up.
"We'll have to fight," Arthen told them. He drew out his sword and shield.
The tree spell faded and the Mau rushed forward swinging his blades wildly.
The knight retaliated and thrust forward his shield to knock back the warrior and cut him down with his sword. "Innes!"
Foliage grew up from the ground and entangled the feet of the other incoming warriors.
The mage swiftly casted bolts of flame and ice from his hands to begin picking them off.
Arthen made his way to Tina to begin fighting off the waking Balaur.
Tall, strong, and powerful, the balaur were covered in silvery scales, some didn't have a visible face or head for that matter. They were fierce.
One of the Balaur came at Arthen at full force, another rushed at Tina.
Arthen swiftly whipped out a chain of bright aether that grabbed hold of the balaur charging at the healer and pulled it to him. He kept one at bay with his shield while he fought the other off with his sword.
Tina casted her own magic to keep her comrades from getting fatigued as they continued to fight.
"You'll pay for your meddling here, daevas." A voice in a deep guttural tone behind the priestess.
She gasped and turned but it was too late. One swift swing and she was tossed spinning to the ground. The world around her started to become hazy.
"TINA, NO!" Arthen cut down the last balaur he'd been battling and hurried to the cleric's side.
Innes did the same.
The cleric stared up at the drakan towering over her. Her eyes were instilled with fear and mind numbing pain.
"You will regret thwarting the Naduka legion. It's futile to stop us. Tiamat and Beritra will see to it that Atreia will be restored to its former glory when pathetic humans like you knew your place!"
Tina could only remain helpless as the balaur took one final swing, throwing her into a world of darkness. She laid limp on the ground before the beast.
"No!" Arthen shouted again as he lunged at the balaur with his sword and cut him down to the ground.
Innes hurried to Tina instead.
"How is she?" Arthen inquired.
"Not good," Innes told him.
The knight rushed back to the priestess and gathered her into his arms. "Let's go."
Innes nodded and followed as Arthen rushed back to the refugee village with Tina in his arms.
The guards rushed out when they saw him running back and watched for any enemies that may have followed them back.
Sophie also rushed out to meet Arthen. Her dark eyes filled with concern when she noticed Tina in his arms. "Is she okay?"
Arthen ignored her question. "Do you have a healer here? Anything?"
Sophie nodded and lead him and the mage to one of the tents.
Inside were cots laid out with wounded guards laying in some of them with priests tending to their wounds.
One of them stopped and hurried over to an empty cot. She had long red hair and soft green eyes. "Bring her here."
Arthen hurried over and laid Tina down, careful not to make her injuries worse.
"This is bad," The priestess told them. She turned back to Sophie. "Can you go fetch the Soul Healer?"
She nodded and left the tent.
The healer looked back to Tina. "She would have died had she not been a daeva, but she should be able to recover after the Soul Healer sees to her."
Arthen and Innes both sighed with relief.
A few moments later, the Soul Healer came in behind them, garbed in elaborate dark ceremonial robes. His skin was pale and his hair and eyes were even paler. He saw Tina and frowned as he walked over to her bedside while whispering some kind of prayer or incantation.
The other two waited patiently.
When the Soul Healer was done, he turned to them. "She is only sleeping now. Let her rest and she will be fine when she wakes."
Arthen smiled. "Thank you."
He only nodded and proceeded back outside.
The knight sighed. "We were too careless and Tina had to pay for it."
Innes' gaze fell to the floor. "Yeah."
"The balaur here are no joke," Arthen continued. "It's best if we be more careful from now on. These balaur aren't like the ones we've fought before. They're much more serious."
Innes didn't say anything, but his confidence had been broken. Had he acted faster, this whole situation would have been easily avoided.
"We'll wait until Tina recovers and then we'll report back to Richelle at Gelkmaros Fortress about our progress." Arthen told him. "You can go rest too if you want."
Innes wanted to ask about him too but said nothing. He waited a few more moments debating it before he finally left.
The templar sighed. "I'm sorry, Tina."
Vince stared blankly at the interior of his capsule for what seemed like hours after many failed attempts of breaking out of it.
He had been stripped of all tools, weapons, and armor.
The assassin let out a sigh and turned to the capsule next to his in which the Elysean general had been imprisoned. It was then that Vince remembered that she and her comrades had also been stripped of all armor and their weapons.
The assassin's eyes wandered when he saw her figure through the translucent plasmic holding cell . His eyes studied her from the chest down until he felt himself get hot. He finally made himself look away, though she didn't seem to have noticed.
The scout exhaled again and tried to focus on escaping. He needed to break the latch on the cell somehow and get rid of the few balaur that were standing guard in the room.
Vince studied the lock again before trying to break it open once more.
The balaur didn't seem to notice his meddling either.
This time he heard a sudden click and the door slowly creaked open. Vince grinned.
He waited until the balaur had turned away for a moment before finally thrusting the door open and sprinting out.
When, the drakan swung around to see that he had escaped, the assassin threw an arm into the air and blinded them with a burst of blinding light magic which emanated from his hand.
The balaur shouted something to one another in balic tongue as they swung blindly at the scout, missing every swing.
Vince smiled as he took one of them down with a sweeping kick, knocking it to the floor. The scout snatched the blunt edged scimitar from its red scaly hands and slayed them one by one as they were incapacitated.
When they all laid dead on the floor, the assassin paused and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. When he looked up, he met the Elyos general's gaze once again. "I have a mission to finish," he told her.
This was his perfect chance to eliminate her and be on his way and he wasn't going to back out now.
The general watched him as he undid the latch and stepped back as the door came open, but she didn't try to escape.
"Do you even know where we are?" Her asmodian tongue was impeccably fluent but her thick accent hit Vince like a truck.
He started to hesitate. "What do you mean? Of course I do. We're in a dredgion in the abyss.." His eyes narrowed and his voice trailed off when he noticed her shaking her head.
"This dredgion was bound for Inggison." She paused. "The balaur further towards the exit could kill you as easily as they could a fly. You can't expect that little trick of yours to keep working for you."
The assassin gritted his teeth. "What are you saying.."
Her gaze pierced him and her tone was even sharper. "Free the rest of my men and I will help you escape. In exchange, I'll spare your life."
He wondered for a moment if had been a trick, but if he were wrong about the balaur, the consequences would be the same.
"You have my word," she told him.
He eyed her wearily for a while longer before he finally complied. He would have to wait for another chance to fulfill his mission, but now it was about survival.
Vince worked swiftly to pick and open the locks of each of the other cells until every last one of her comrades had been freed.
In return, the asmodian got a dozen looks of disdain and repulsion from his white winged nemeses.
The assassin then turned to see the general salvaging what she could from the balaur and their supplies to put together armor and weapons for her troupe that would last them at least until they got to safety. She also picked up a great sword for herself to wield. Finally, she said something to her men again in Elysean and they darted off towards the docking sector.
Without hesitation, Vince followed after them.
Before they knew it, they were confronted by the balaur again.
Atira had been right. These balaur were fiercer than the other ones and there were more of them.
The general commanded her men to attack.
The balaur rushed forward only to find themselves snared or slain.
Vince did what he could to help and darted behind the drakan and tore through them with his sword.
One of the balaur unleashed a grappling chain of aether and pulled Vince to him.
Temporarily unable to move, the enemy grazed the scout deeply across his chest, having no real armor to protect him. He cried out in pain.
The general paused seeing that Vince was in trouble. She debated whether or not she should let him die.
When the scout was able to move again, he dodged the next swing, however, he threw himself right into the way of the next. The blow knocked him hard into the ground.
He braced himself for the pain and closed his eyes tightly shut. All he heard was the unintelligable voices of Elyos and balaur battle cries. It had been a few moments and things started to quiet down. It was then that Vince realized that he was still alive.
The assassin opened his eyes to see Atira standing in front of him with her hand reached out to him.
"Get up," she ordered him.
Vince said nothing. Instead, he took her hand as she pulled him back up to his feet.
"Come on," she told everyone.
Vince nodded and followed along with the rest of her comrades until they reached the exit.
Once outside, Vince realized that they really weren't in the abyss anymore. Before him was a lush landscape and even farther was what looked like a thick mountainous forest.
Seeing that there were no balaur outside of the ship, Atira turned to Vince and held her blade out with the point caressing the bare skin of his neck. Her jade eyes burned into him.
Vince swallowed hard. Was she betraying him now? Chills washed down his spine as he studied her.
But she didn't kill him. "Leave us now," she told him. "I am thankful that you helped me and my men escape. However, the next time I see you, I will have to kill you."
The scout watched her with weary eyes as she withdrew her blade.
She turned back to her men and then they were off again.
The assassin pulled himself together again and hurried off towards the trees in the opposite direction the Elyos were traveling.
It was starting to get dark and Vince had no idea where he was. Inggison, he thought. Am I in Balaurea?
He wandered on a bit further into the trees until he could carry himself no further. He saw no wild animals about or balaur or Elyos so he figured he was safe at last.
He sighed.
He cleared himself a place to rest a bit and laid himself down. As he laid there, staring up at the trees above, he somehow started to feel lighter and his mind became peaceful and quiet. "What is this place..."