Chapter Three: Clash at the Crossroads
The sun began to dip in the sky, darkening the edges of the cavern. Six people prepared themselves for battle.
A young man with violet hair and eyes sharpened his blade, looking as if he was ready to fight at a moment's notice. A Myrmidon he was. Sword fighting was what he excelled at. Hit accurately and swiftly. Hit and avoid being hit. The way of the Myrmidon. Though all was quiet in the cave, all of his muscles were tensed, and his heart was beating quickly. Adrenaline was flowing freely at this point. There was no mistaking it. Adrian was ready for battle.
Another young man was leaned against the cavern wall, his face tilted toward the ceiling, his eyes closed. He seemed to almost be meditating, taking in deep breaths, in and out, slowly. Brilliant orange hair spilled across his shoulders and framed his closed eyes. The only sign that he was stressed was his clenched jaw. No doubt, Rey the Sorcerer was prepared for the battle to come.
A middle aged woman, though by no means old, was strapping herself into her saddle. She was to be riding a most extraordinary mount; a dragon-like lizard. The woman's excitement showed across her face, and in her posture. The green scaled creature shifted its feet, rumbling low. It knew as much as its rider that they would be in combat once again. Javelin in hand, the woman saluted the villagers heartily, her platinum hair standing out wildly over her bandana. Unmistakably, Shear the Dracoknight, was prepared.
And older man, in his late thirties with fading blue hair stretched; his bones and joints creaking and popping. His expression was stoic and serious. He had been in battles before, and knew that this would be a long haul of a fight. He had experienced both victory and defeat, and this day, only the former would be allowed. Defeat meant death, and as far as Elias the Thief was concerned, he was not prepared to die just yet.
Two Hunters strung their bows, tying the strings taut. It had been a long time since they reached for a bow to enter battle with. Both had given up the blade in this battle to aid the other combatants with their bows. An Iron bow and a Killer bow, but both pale in comparison to the strengths of their wills. The anticipation of battle fueled the hearts of these two Hunters, one in his prime, and the other whose experience commands respect. Together, the Hunters Flint and Ralph waited for the signal.
"Is everyone ready?" Elias demanded curtly.
Adrian slashed his armorslayer through the air. He inclined his head as an affirmative.
Rey stepped away from the cavern wall and opened his fiery eyes. Tilting the brim of his hat slightly with a nod, he also silently affirmed the fact.
"Hyah!" Shear let loose with a yell, holding her Javelin over her head. Verne, her mount, rustled his wings, shifting impatiently.
"If we wait any longer, I'll go mad…" Flint complained, drawing an arrow and readying his Iron bow.
"If Flint complains any more, I'll go mad!" Ralph snarled, drawing an arrow as well, standing by with his Killer bow.
"It seems as if we're prepared. Rey, you know the plan, correct?"
Rey nodded and gave a wry smile, a book held subtly in his left hand. "Yes, sir, I do believe I do. I am to give you enough time to get out of the cavern."
Elias nodded, and everyone got into their positions. Adrian would protect the Hunters, whose bows are invaluable to the battle at hand. Shear would be on the offensive, taking on the other fliers. Elias would protect the villagers. Rey would keep a watchful eye pretty much on everybody, and the two Hunters would try to ground the fliers.
The silence was deafening. Rey took a deep breath, and stepped leisurely out of the cave, his right hand in the air, crackling with the power of the Thunder spell. The only thing he heard was his own heartbeat, which he had lowered in preparation for the battle. His calmness would be unnerving to most, but this was how Rey focused. His eyes on the sky, he saw the fliers swoop down.
Not yet…just a few more moments… Rey thought to himself, gathering more energy for the blinding flash. He pointed his right hand toward the center of the group of fliers, waited until they were almost upon him, and then let loose the magic. "Thunder!" Rey shouted; a brilliant flash of light emitting from his hand in the form of a thunderbolt, streaking towards the pirates. The signal had been given; now it was up to the others to strake fast.
Above his head from out of the cavern flew a giant green blur. Laughing with joy that bordered on maniacal came from the militia's flier: Shear. Corkscrewing in a spiral up in the air, Verne opened his wide wings, hovering midair, and bellowed a challenge.
"Come at me, you stupid bats! Can't fight worth a single gold piece, eh? Taste me's Javelin!" Shear shouted gleefully. Finally, some ones worth fightin' I wonder…Mayhap I can rejoin Macedon? Or stay in this here Militia! Yeah…that sounds good. Me's loyalty's staying hereabout for now… She thought to herself as she urged Verne forward, right at the nearest flier, whose mount was shaking its head from side to side to try to regain its vision. Shear raised her Javelin holding arm up, ready to impale the rider, but his mount rolled out of the way just before she could get the chance.
Shear cursed loudly and profoundly. "Well? Get a move on, you big oaf! Me's pride is at stake here! Wheel around and attack that wretched pirate!" She commanded.
Verne grumbled and did as told, but veered a little too sharply for Shear's taste. She looked over her shoulder and grinned. "Well I'll be axed, if it aint Kristoff! Change o' plan, Verne! Go after that lousy son of a Manakete!" Verne eagerly obeyed, flapping his great leathery wings in strong, cuplike strokes, rising quickly to meet the larger flying lizard. Kristoff was a young man with dark brown hair, and piercing silver eyes. His mount had dark gray scales and was twice Verne's size.
Kristoff noticed Shear and laughed. "So, you're going to challenge me with that pathetic excuse for a lizard?"
Verne caught an updraft and soared above Kristoff and his beast. Verne puffed his chest out, stretching his wings to their fullest extent. He obviously disliked Kristoff's beast.
Shear felt the same about the beast's rider. "You stupid arrogant arse! Me's Verne can take down five of your grey scaled inbreds any day!" Verne folded his wings and dove at Kristoff's beast. The beast veered to the left, and Verne barreled past. "Agh, you blasted lizard! You can't do anything right!" Verne snorted and opened his wings, slowing their descent. Shear spotted movement below and scowled. They had miscalculated the number of pirates. A number of normal unmounted pirates were making their way to the Hunters.
"Adrian! Guard the Hunters! We cannot afford to have them injured!" Shear's voice called out from above. Adrian gritted his teeth and nodded. So far, their half baked plan was working, Rey was using Thunder to blind and distract the airborne pirates.
They had miscalculated the number of foes, however. There were some normal ground pirates who had joined Kristoff's crew. The pirates were making their way to the Hunters, who were loosing their arrows at the Fliers above.
He sensed movement. A rather clever pirate had climbed down the wall of the cave and was about to attack Flint from the rear with a rusty looking Iron axe.
Adrian sprinted toward the pirate, armorslayer at the ready. "Rrrrragh!" with a shout, he slashed at the pirate, who sidestepped the slash with a laugh.
"You missed, idiot!" The pirate gloated, then his eyes widened when Adrian crouched low, the blade continuing its slash. The Myrmidon began to change direction of the blade, and began to bring it upwards.
"I'm not done!" Adrian growled, jumping up with a vertical slash. The pirate staggered backwards, his eyes wide with shock as his left arm separated from his body.
Adrian's eyes narrowed. "Just die already!" He cried with exasperation. He clubbed the pirate's head with the pommel of his blade, causing the pirate to fall to the ground wordlessly.
"Sire, unless you are an idiot, I'd consider saving your energy" Rey's voice called out through the clamor of battle.
Adrian turned to face the sorcerer, whose right hand crackled with sparks, and his left hand held a spellbook. "I can keep this pace up, Rey!"
Rey looked cross. "Um, sire? Remember you have stitches. If you're too vigorous, you could injure yourself even more!"
Adrian stretched his arms over his head, testing his flexibility that the stitches would give him. He felt a slight tightness, but should overall be fine, or so he thought. "I'm good!" he gave a thumb up with his free hand. He heard a roar and both he and Rey looked up in the sky to see one of the dracoknight pirates swooping down on them, claws outstretched. Rey jumped in front of Adrian, free hand outstretched.
"Rey, what are you do—"
Rey grinned. "Allow me to deal with this, sire. This is my job, after all" The ground in front of them began to heave, then sink.
Rey held his arm high in the air overhead. "Subterre!" He cried out, a pillar of stone forcing its way out of the ground.
The pirate's mount screeched and tried to alter its flight, but it was too late. Flying at full speed, the dracoknight slammed into the pillar of stone, breaking through it. Flight uncontrolled, it crashed into the stone wall above the cavern. The rider and mount fell to the ground, unmoving.
Adrian looked at Rey. Both of them were showered with debris of when the pillar exploded. "That was…" Adrian began to say, but was at a loss for words.
"Brilliant? Amazing? Incredible?" Rey suggested with a grin.
Adrian glared at Rey. "That was unbelievably STUPID! You could have gotten the both of us KILLED!"
Rey looked sheepish. "Oh…I guess that was a possibility, sire..."
Adrian scowled and ran off to protect Flint and Ralph.
"Next time, I'll time it perfect…" Rey muttered to himself, his eyes on the sky. He sighed. Thunder wouldn't reach the fliers, and Subterre had only a slim chance of hitting, so Rey was pretty much grounded.
"Wrrrrrrragh!" A man's roar interrupted Rey's thoughts. He jumped up, avoiding the low swing of an axe. Rey grimaced at what he saw. A berserker stood in front of him, about to take another swing with his axe. T-that axe! It's made of silver! Rey panicked, backing away from the man. With a guttural growl the man swung again, opening a gash in Rey's right leg. His calmness was gone; he couldn't focus on any magic. He gritted his teeth in pain and limped backwards, keeping an eye on the advancing berserker. His left foot met nothing but air and Rey looked out of the corner of his eye. His eyes widened with fear. The edge of the cliff he nearly plunged to his death from earlier had come back to haunt him. Blast! Rey cursed his luck. The berserker raised his bloodied axe; and down the axe came down…to meet nothing but dirt.
The sandy edge of the cliff had given away, and by dumb chance Rey had stepped back as the berserker raised his axe. There was bad news in this as well. Rey's free arm had become entangled in roots halfway down the cliff, and painfully pulled the arm out of its socket. So he was caught halfway down a cliff, fifty feet to the beach below, dangling by a dislocated arm trapped in who knows how stable roots.
His breath was coming short to him, as it always did when his heart was beating too fast. He tried to take deep breaths, but only shallow gasps of air came.
He looked up from where he had fallen and saw the berserker, looking around confusedly. Somehow, this felt oddly hilarious to Rey and he began to laugh; something which he rarely partakes in. And he kept on laughing until a puzzled voice reached him.
"What the Dolhr are you doing, laughing like a freakin' madman, spell slinger?" Shear's voice demanded.
Rey's laughter subsided as he glared at Shear. "I am not mad! I am currently stuck here on the side of the cliff with a berserker screaming for my head above and a plummet to my death below. Unless you have another option, I am content to stay here!"
Shear burst out laughing, Verne clinging to the cliff face with his arms and legs, wings folding in. "You're trapped, eh? How 'bout I get you out of there?" She nudged Verne, causing him to sidle over, almost pressing against Rey.
Rey nodded and put the book in his left hand in a pocket in his jacket. He had two such pockets, made to hold spellbooks. He then grabbed the edge of Verne's saddle. Shear looked at Rey's other arm. "Whatever you do, spell slinger, don't flinch. Me's Javelin is gonna free your hand" Rey had automatically tensed, but forced himself to relax. His shallow breaths deepened, and his heart began to beat at a less frantic pace. Finally, he was able to focus. He grimaced at the throbbing pain in his leg and the numbness in his right arm. He looked at Shear and nodded. Shear frowned in concentration and jabbed her Javelin at Rey's hand. He felt nothing but the weight of his arm flopping down to his side. He scrambled up onto the saddle, sitting behind Shear. "Thank you, Shear" He said softly, feeling exhausted. With his left arm he grabbed his right, and with a painful pop, he put his arm back in its place.
"Don't thank me yet. I still cut your hand. Looks like you're going to be a pretty scarred spell slinger, yeah?" She replied gruffly. "Anyway, I need to take off. Grab onto me's belt, we're gonna fly. You ever fly?"
"No…"
"Well, If you get airsick, I'm gonna stick you with me's Javelin, got it?"
Rey nodded. "Well, I'll try my best not to get stabbed then"
Shear laughed. "You've got some stones, spell slinger! Hyaagh!" She said, and then yelled out, Verne leaping off the edge of the cliff, opening his wings with a prideful bellow. Rey's right hand clutched Shear's belt convulsively, while his other was barely able to catch his hat as it began to fly off his head. As Verne's wings beat and they gained altitude, Rey felt exhilarated. He was speechless as he gazed around in awe…only to see a flier dive at them. "Up and to the left!" Rey cried out sharply. Shear cursed and Verne dove sharply, avoiding a large grey scaled beast that barreled pass with a roar.
Elias was having a hard time. The berserker that had gone after Rey had turned to better available victims. Dodging the axe was easy enough; it was not letting the berserker pass by into the cavern that was tough. He gritted his teeth and slashed at the berserker's knees with his blade, but the armor deflected the blade as if it were nothing.
All of a sudden, an arrow sailed through the air and punched though the thinner armor at the berserker's back, right behind the shoulder blade of the berserker's left arm. Bellowing in rage, the berserker charged Ralph, who was grinning at his lucky strike with his Killer bow. His grin faded when he saw the berserker charging.
"No you don't!" Elias growled, sprinting after the foe. He was not the only one to do so. Adrian, whose task was to protect the Hunters, had leaped to Ralph's defense. Elias locked eyes with Adrian, who nodded with a grin. Elias grinned back. Together, they would finish the foe.
"Fall to your knees!" Elias roared, slashing the unguarded backs of the berserker's knees.
With a howl of pain, the berserker did just that. This left the foe wide open for Adrian to finish him off.
"You're mine!" Adrian sprinted, low to the ground, both hands clutching the hilt of his armorslayer. He leaped forward, thrusting his blade at the enemy's chest. The armorslayer passed through the chest plate like butter, and continued to run straight through the berserker mercilessly. The berserker made no more noise and crumpled to the ground as Adrian withdrew his blade. He gave a curt nod to Elias before turning his back to the thief, keeping a watchful eye on the Hunters, who have been doing their job splendidly. There was only one enemy flier left; Kristoff and his grey beast.
Shear was on the defensive, being pursued by Kristoff and that horrible bag of grey scales he rode. She had to commend the spell slinger she picked up for not being scared of flying. But she had to ditch the sorcerer. She needed more speed. She passed low over the ground, and made Verne spiral, flipping the spell slinger off. "I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm a li'l bit busy!" Shear yelled back at him.
Rey hit the ground hard, but not hard enough to do much damage. He staggered to his feet, disoriented. He put his hat back on his head, disgruntled. "A little warning would have been nice!" He yelled irritably. He waited a moment, and then shrugged. "No answer…figures" He tried to put pressure on his right leg, and tumbled over, nearly falling. He looked down and saw what damage the berserker had done to him. A diagonal slash across his thigh. Deep enough to keep him from walking for quite a while, unless someone used magic to heal him. Which probably wouldn't be anytime soon.
"Hmph!" Rey huffed in a rather undignified manner and began to limp toward the cavern.
"Much better, Verne! Good!" Shear crooned as they rose swiftly into the air. Verne rumbled happily at the praise, but there was more work to do. She and Kristoff were in a deadly duel in the air. Kristoff had every advantage with his larger mount, but Shear was a much more experienced combatant. Verne's rate of ascent and speed in a dive were much greater than his rival. They both had been flying for quite a while; the sun had set and the skies began to darken.
They began to tire as well; Kristoff's beast's breathing was labored. Verne, being older and having better endurance, fared a little better. Verne and the beast circled each other in the sky, looking for weak points to dart in and attack. Finally seeing a weak point, Verne flapped his wings hard, bull rushing forward; Shear aiming her Javelin carefully. Kristoff made his beast bank away from Verne, which was what Shear expected. She threw her Javelin, and it sailed through the air.
It hit solidly, but missed its intended target. Instead of hitting Kristoff, she had hit just under the grey beast's left wing, tearing vital muscles needed for flying. The grey beast screeched and keened piteously, its right wing flapping uselessly as the left was doing nothing at all. Shear urged Verne to dart in and quickly, avoiding the claws of the beast and Kristoff's lance, she retrieved her Javelin. She cheekily saluted before she left to return to the cavern. The beast's screams were soon cut short as it slammed head first into the cliff face.
When the Militia returned to the cavern victorious, they did not expect to see tears. Complete strangers risking their lives to ease the minds of mere villagers apparently were worth tears of joy. No villagers had died. None of the Militia had either, but there were several injuries. Elias was knocked unconscious by a well aimed hit by a pirate wielding a hammer. Rey's right leg had a deep gash, and a sliced up left hand. His pride too had also been wounded, apparently. Flint's bow broke, much to his dismay. He had minor cuts and bruises. Ralph was unharmed, though his ego has grown so that it would need to be deflated or he will be forever branded a braggart. Adrian guiltily admitted that the stitching on his back tore, the wound being reopened. And Shear…well, she was not hurt, but when she landed, she was fast asleep. Verne collapsed to the ground and began to doze off as well.
Their first battle was difficult, but it was the first of many the Militia would face. The villagers were able to move back into their village, and gratefully gave the Militia free room and board whilst they remained.
Support Conversation Extra: Unwanted…help?
(This is in Rey's room at the Crossroads inn. This is a 'C' level support conversation XD)
Shear: C'mon, let me stitch that up! You don't want infection, do you?
Rey: …..
Shear: Say something!
Rey: …the hand, fine, but the leg gets left alone.
Shear: The hand needs to be wrapped, not stitched. The leg DOES need to be stitched.
Rey: It is…not too bad. Let it be.
Shear: Stop making excuses! Take them off.
Rey: W-wha…?
Shear: You heard me! Take them off! The pants!
Rey: A-absolutely not!
Shear: How am I supposed to stitch your wounds with you wearing those pants!
Rey: I'm fine, I swear!
Shear: Take those pants off now or I'll take them off for you!
Rey: H-hold on! Leave my pants alone!
Shear: Off with them!
Rey: W-wait! No! Don't!
Support Conversation Extra: Keeping a Straight Face
('C' level support conversation between Rey and Adrian)
Adrian: an archer, a cavalier, and a thief walk into a bar. The cavalier says that they need to raise the bar; his horse needs some ale! Pfft! hilarious, right?
Rey: I don't understand.
Adrian: Gah! You have NO sense of humor! C'mon! 'Raise the bar'? That's supposed to be funny, y'know….
Rey: My apologies, sire. I shall try harder to be amused.
Adrian: Was that sarcasm I heard?
Rey: Indeed it was, sire. You have a good ear.
Adrian: I have two ears, you know
Rey: …
Adrian:…
Rey: pfft…
Adrian: Ha! What was that?
Rey: Merely a cough, sire.
Adrian: I have yet to hear you laugh. Ugh, you are such a downer
Rey: But, sire, surely you have noticed? I am standing up. Why would I ever be down?
Adrian: …
Rey: …did I say something offensive, sire?
Adrian: hahahahahaha! You're a riot! You were serious while saying that?
Rey: Quite. I am serious.
Adrian: Sawing that with a straight face…you seem to have stumbled upon the world of accidental humor.
Rey: Sire, I'm leaving. Being around you increases the chances of my becoming less intelligent…
Adrian: Wha? REY! Come back here and say that! Grrr…..
A/N: Wonder what happens next in the conversation(s)? Leave it up to your imagination. Poor Rey…Shear just wants to help XD Adrian's sense of humor is mediocre, no? Next Chapter will be titled:
Chapter 3x*: Sortie with the Soothsires
*FYI Chapters will alternate between Adrian's group and Lios' Group
Chapters with Lios will have an 'x' next to the chapter number.