Nathaniel darted up the hill, bow in his left and as his right reached back for his quiver, drawing an arrow mid-stride.
Then he reached the top...and came to a quick stop.
There was a large glade below him, the once tall grass having been flattened by the men and...creatures...still covering it, fighting.
The men, bandits judging by their worn leather armour and somewhat improvised way of fighting, were divided into smaller groups, huddled together as they desperately tried to fight their way out of the tightening noose of the many lumbering creatures closing in on them.
No wonder I didn't recognise the tracks...Nathaniel's eyes narrowed as he watched the many trees lumber towards the bandits. Trees...walking trees...Nathaniel was unsure if he was to believe it, but there they were, as plain as day.
They were tall, as one would expect, roughly human in build but spindly, reminding Nathaniel of the insects he'd found in the Free Marches that took on the appearance of sticks. There were still leaves growing from their eyeless heads and obscenely long arms, but mostly they were just lithe coils of brown wood that creaked against one another as the unreal creatures moved with lumbering steps.
Nathaniel had of course heard of the tales of Sylvans, demons trapped within trees filled with desire to kill men...but he had always figured them to be stories to scare off the inexperienced from the woods, not something real. And I was apparently wrong.
With that settled Nathaniel looked for his allies, finding the Commander at the head of the group, already rushing towards the back of one of the walking trees as it advanced upon three screaming bandits, its swinging arms forcing them ever backwards.
Further back Mhairi and Anders stood together, the knight's sword already stained with blood as she stood upon two slain bandits, the mage's staff crackling with power as a third bandit was turned to ice...only to shatter into chunks of frozen blood and organs as the edge of Mhairi's shield smashed into the man. The two exchanged an all too stupid grin. Oh just jump one another and get it over with...
Focusing back on the Commander Nathaniel suppressed the urge to land an arrow into that exposed back of hers and instead watched as the sylvan turned at the sound of her approach. Guess it'll kill her for me then... Nathaniel moved to loose his arrow, to shoot the sylvan and distract it from squashing his Commander...yet found himself unable to do so, something...stopping him.
Lynn rolled to her left as the Sylvan's right arm shot out, loudly crashing into the ground where she had just stood. The woman's axe darted out towards the limb a moment later, digging deeply into where Nathaniel guessed its wrist was. An oddly keening sound escaped the creature as it pulled its arm back...and the Commander with it, her axe still stuck in it...and her unwilling to part with it. Suicidal, crazy...
With a crack the axe was loosened from the still moving arm, but Lynn already had the momentum up and kept flying, her sword slamming straight into the Sylvan's face, down to the very hilt, the blade sticking out the other side. As the creature recoiled Lynn's feet kicked out as she flew over the Sylvan's right shoulder, changing the direction of her flight and swinging her over the back of its head...and finally over its left shoulder.
There was a crack as the Sylvan's head was twisted to the right...far too far for any neck to twist...a loud groan of tearing wood...and its head was wrenched off.
The creature collapsed even as Lynn deftly landed in front of it, its head still speared on her sword...and the woman not even looking strained by the manoeuvre. Holy...
The three bandits behind the now slain Sylvan breathed sighs of relief and moved to thank her...only for one of them to be bowled over as she kicked off the Sylvan's head off her blade, sending it straight into his gut. The other two begun to raise their weapons...only to both come to a stop as the elf's sword swung around, a blur of silver passing through them both...decapitating the pair. They hadn't even fallen before the elf moved forth, an armoured boot coming down on the still bowled over bandit. The snap of his leg breaking echoed over the glade...as did his roar of pain. Unholy...
Shaking his head Nathaniel shifted his focus, his gaze instantly drawn to Mhairi and Anders who were both shouting in surprise and fear as one of the Sylvans detached from those closing in on the rapidly dying bandits, its eyeless face focused on the pair as its lumbering gait quickly closed the distance.
Nathaniel instinctively loosed his arrow, hitting the creature's left knee, getting stuck between the coils of wood there, obstructing it's movement and making the creature come to a stumbling halt, the thing nearly tipping over as its right arm uselessly lashed out towards the pair that were too far away to reach.
A second later fire spewed out from Anders' staff, pouring over the sylvan, setting the entire creature ablaze as the dry wood and leaves were ignited. It reared back in what might be pain, yet with the arrow now burnt to nothing it still moved to attack, uncaring of the pieces of charred wood falling off as it closed the distance on the mage that even if he now was slain had dealt it a killing blow. "Ah!" Anders jumped back, hand coming up to shield his face from the heat of the burning sylvan.
Then the creature fell forward, sending a cloud of black ash flying as its right leg all of a sudden came off at the knee, the still swinging Mhairi kicking the severed part of the limb aside as she closed the distance, digging her blade deep into the lower back of the prone Sylvan.
A crack...and the smouldering piece of animated wood was severed in two, both parts breaking apart as all integrity of the burnt wood was lost.
"Anders! Fireball!" Lynn barked the order even as she rushed towards the central cluster of bandits and Sylvans, most of whom were now turning towards the elf and her companions, recognising a new threat.
The mage raised his hands above his head, staff spinning as he muttered some sort of incantation, a ball glowing amber forming above his head, making the woman next to him flinch and stare at the growing ball of power with wonder. An incoherent shout...and Anders thrust his staff forward, sending the glowing ball of energy hurtling forth...hitting one of the Sylvans straight in the chest even as Lynn hurtled straight towards them, uncaring of the impending explosion.
A flash of fire and destruction, consuming the golden armoured elf and blinding Nathaniel...and there was a loud groan as the gathered Sylvans reeled back, their bodies afire. Somehow Lynn was still standing though, or rather, hanging, the woman having shielded herself from the blast by burying her weapons in the back of one of the Sylvans and pressing up tightly behind its back. Even as Nathaniel watched, the Commander climbed higher atop it, her swinging axe finally shattering its smouldering skull.
But the bandits had eluded the explosion, covered by the many Sylvans as they had been...and seeing their 'saviours' having killed some of them the men pulled backwards as they readied crude bows, ready to pepper the Wardens and the Sylvans both.
They're too tightly packed though, should keep it that way. Nathaniel reached back and fortunately found one of his special arrows. Should put those in separate quivers really. Calmly he notched the arrow, the only difference between it and the others its weight, dropped onto one knee...and took aim. The bandits were slow, struggling with still drawn swords and axes as they tried to bring bows and arrows to bear, still huddled up for defending themselves in close combat...an easy target.
Nathaniel released the arrow.
An instant later the heavy missile struck the foremost bandit in the chest...and shattered. The dust made of iron flakes that Nathaniel had personally filed out from a lump of iron exploded from the hollow shaft of the arrow, a cloud of grey that enveloped the bandits, making them cough and drop their weapons as hands came up to free their eyes from the sharp little shards suddenly digging into their eyes...and only succeeding in driving them further in, making the men cry out in pain.
Closer to him Nathaniel saw Lynn jump off the falling Sylvan, leaping onto the chest of another and digging her sword into its neck, her axe smashing into the side of its head a second later...a pull and its head was torn off. Before the charred and now headless Sylvan even had time to fall she pushed out with her legs, sending her hurtling into a third one...dear Maker...she's unstoppable!
Ignoring the humbling realisation Nathaniel notched a fresh arrow and neatly placed it into the chest of one of the blinded bandits, felling him. A second and another bandit bit the dust, a third and a bandit fell while clutching his torn throat. A fourth arrow, a fifth. Nathaniel loosed them in rapid succession, barely paying it much heed as he calmly executed bandit upon bandit, instead focusing on the others as they fought the still smouldering Sylvans.
Only now did Mhairi reach the Sylvans, her swinging shield smashing asunder an already charred leg of one of the giant trees and making it drop to the ground. Her swinging sword ending its trashing by cleaving off its head. A second reached for her, only to have its swinging fist deflected by a raised shield.
Then the woman's sword begun to burn, ethereal fire covering the blade, making her look down at it in shock...before shooting a smirking Anders a smile.
Then the burning blade swung at the already damaged Sylvan, opening its right leg and making it bow low...where her return stroke opened up its chest and set it ablaze.
Further ahead Lynn slew what had to be her seventh Sylvan, the little elf bowling the creature over as she crashed into its chest, its trashing arms unable to reach her in time as she reversed her grip on her sword, raised it... before burying it in the Sylvan's head,ending its struggle in an instant. She makes it look...easy.
Nathaniel had to grudgingly admit he was impressed as he found the fighting petering out, the last bandit falling with Nathaniel's arrow buried deep in his eye, the last of the Sylvans breaking apart by a simple bash of Mhairi's shield as the charred wood gave in...and Lynn already moving on.
Hurrying after her Nathaniel couldn't help but stare at the destruction. He had fought in battles, killed many, seen villages ablaze...yet it was something disturbing about the destruction wrought upon the glade here...because it had been done by just four people. He had seen it...done it...yet it was hard to believe now that he saw it. Maybe the tales of the Warden's heroics aren't all propaganda..?
A cry drew his attention back to Lynn, the Commander towering over a single living bandit. Nathaniel heard Anders wince at the sight even as he himself remembered that the woman had moved so as not to kill this man. Clever...
The man was a mess. His gaunt face a testament to a lean winter, large blue eyes speaking of terror and tearful with a pain he was in too much shock to properly feel just yet. His badly maintained leather armour still had twigs and pieces of greenery stuck to it, a sign of his panicked flight through rough terrain. The armour lay open at his right leg, his white shin-bone sticking out of the wide wound from where Lynn had stomped down with brutal efficiency.
"Maker..." The man grit his teeth as he stared up at the dead eyes of the elf looking down at him...then opened his mouth wide as he looked down at the broken bone sticking out of his leg. "Maker!" His hands dipped down towards the injury, only to fly back at the slight touch and drawing a howl from him.
"Silence." Lynn coldly ordered, her foot swinging out, hitting the man in the jaw with enough force to make a couple of teeth fly out of the man's mouth as his head snapped sideways. Making both Anders and Mhairi wince in sympathy as Nathaniel crossed his arms in front of himself, used to rough interrogations over in the Free Marches as he was. At least it'll be quick, I don't want to stay here in case anything heard our fight, which anything with ears should have...
"Oww!" The muffled cry escaped the man as one hand came up to clutch his bloodied mouth. "You bitch! That-"
Another kick ended the protest, turning it into a howl and making the man roll onto his side as the Commander's foot connected with the exposed bone sticking out of the man's wound. "I said silence." Lynn repeated, her arms crossed in front of her as she stepped forth and put a foot against the man's shoulder, forcing him onto his back as he continued to howl. "Now."
The man's mouth slammed shut, the blood covering it still fresh and dark over his lips as his face crunched up, struggling not to scream as wide eyes darted between the uncaring woman looking down at him and his shin-bone sticking out of his leg. He somehow managed a nod though, indicating that he understood.
"This is wrong..." Mhairi muttered, inching closer to Anders who had gone extremely pale.
Both Lynn and Nathaniel ignored the weak-stomached pair though as the elf leant closer to the bandit, head cocked to the side. "What has happened here? Why did you fight the Sylvans?"
The man opened his mouth, blood covering his teeth, yet he spoke clearly...thought he voice was tinged with a pain that was only barely contained by fear. "I...they've been chasing us...days...weeks...we don't know why..." He shook his head desperately, grimacing in pain. "..herded us...we didn't do nothing...we barely chop wood if we can help it..."
"Why?" Nathaniel ignored the glance Lynn's shot him, instead focusing on the bandit as he kept his arms crossed in front of him.
"Don't want to...upset the Dalish." The man grunted, a shudder running through him as his hands clutched his leg, just above the injury, trying to stem the flow of blood...or more likely...vainly trying to stop the pain coursing through him. "B-but these things...they're...they just came...no Dalish...n-nothing...herded us...all gangs here...all dead...no-one left." He frowned, confused. "We didn't do anything...the others didn't either...I...don't..." He shook his head, shuddering, blood-loss clearly taking its toll, Nathaniel saw it in his feverish face.
"And the merchants?" Lynn asked, inching closer. Despite the pain distracting him the bandit shuddered under her gaze. "Did the Sylvans kill them too?"
"I..." The man closed his eyes, a shaky breath coming from his nose as he struggled with consciousness. "...don't k-know...not seen...any...h-haven't a-attacked any i-in...weeks..."
Which means the bandits aren't responsible but these Sylvans, but why?
"S-saw elf...elf!" The man blinked, his eyes suddenly clear as he leant forward, staring at Nathaniel in a feverish haze, making him draw back in surprise at the intense look in the bandit's eyes. "...elf...yet not...not there...yet there..." He shook his head, violently, head twitching to the left as he trembled with blood-loss, eyes bulging. "Ghost...just ghost...can't be...not there...yet taunting...question...always question...don't know...can't know...she asked...didn't know..."
He's a goner. Nathaniel noted, glumly realising they wouldn't get any further info from the man. Lynn seemed to disagree with the assessment though as she gripped the bandit by the collar and heaved him closer. "What elf? What ghost? What question?"
The man shook his head madly, not meeting her eyes, his whole body shaking. "Always question...not ghost...but not there...not there but there...ghost...question..."
"He's no use." Nathaniel muttered and shrugged. "Too far gone."
A shrug and Lynn grabbed the bandit's head with her hands and replied: "Agreed."All but Nathaniel looked away as they realised what was about to happen.
Lynn's arms moved...and the bandit's neck snapped.
888
Thanks to Abydos Jackson for the invaluable aid.