[p] raid on halebend

[tres]

When Rachel had ripped herself from his grasp, Ivan had whirled around to follow her. “RACHEL!” But his body stopped itself from taking a step closer in the battlefield. He hadn't expected that after a few words of desperate pleas, she would be gone the next moment, taken from the lives of everyone who knew her. Was that sort of thing possible? Ivan was expecting the young lord to scoop her up, check her heart beat, wrap his hand around the wound (on the shoulder? It probably grazed her by the neck. Rachel was so faint-hearted when it came to blood that her son could help deliver a baby better) and summon his personal physician to treat her immediately. When a shock-still boy replaced the heroic image he had in mind, a cold, tingling feeling caused his faith to shrivel up instantly.

Ivan's anger was more quiet. It moved his feet, allowed his eyes to watch the axe-wielder who had brought Rachel to safety break inside a house and come out with his axe smeared with blood, but his face contorted in wrathful discontent. Though Ivan partly felt that the axe deserved to have a taste of his blood too, he threw away the fear that clothed him and went to speak to Nero.

“R-river leads up north - there's a forest – T-Tres might be there – probably.” Anger did not make him more confident. He could smell the blood off Nero and the blood that he yearned to seek out. “I know it's too much to ask – we all know that boy. He manages the church, helps everyone by healing them. Please...” Ivan's voice cracked and the rest of the words he would have liked to say went to his red, blinking eyes.

–---

The militia fought left and right, taking down “Plegian soldiers” with their numbers and rage against the enemy's iron weapons and savageness. Neither side was showing mercy. An injured bandit came at the receiving end of the villages' wrath and was barely able to escape with his life. He limped toward the north (he wished he got it right and was heading north) and left a very red trail on his wake. It was probably by the time he was blanking out that he lost consciousness.

The bandit would later wake up wondering if he were in heaven. When his conciouscness came to be, he was being told by a brat to not be scared. He took note that he was by the plains where he was walking. Probably not in heaven, what a joke. The bandit's eyebrows lethargically rose as he followed the staff the brat was carrying to the crystal clutched at the top.

“...dropped the bucket on the way. That's the third bucket I lost this week! Mom's going to kill me!” The brat was complaining too loudly. If his head wasn't pounding with a headache right now, he would have slapped the boy's mouth of his face. The bandit shifted his head, pressing his ear on the dirt, and watched black dots fly about his vision occupied by grass.

Tres looked at the injured man he had found, confused. “What's so funny?”

The bandit didn't reply. He was grinning from ear to ear as the black dots turned out to be the people he wanted to see right now. The bandit stretched his arm above for them to see him from his lying position. At the top of his lungs – and boy he felt really grateful to be alive – he shouted, “YO, BOSS! WHAT TOOK YA?”

At the distance, Arndt and his men were approaching.

[Dao]

The first strike connected, though not quite where Dao would have preferred it. Blood slicked his blade upon the contact and as he continued his flurry of attacks, the Lordling had began to steadily lose ground against him. His strikes were coming in faster while his opponent was slowing down from the accumulating wounds. Blood began to flung towards the ground and towards the air as the Bandit swung his sword more and more. Even when the lordling had admitted to knowing who he was, coming up with his own assumptions to their previous meeting, Dao simply continued his actions. As the increasingly one sided battle continued for moments longer, the young man would have attempted to go in for a killing strike when in his periphery the sight of his ally being defeated sent him moving with different intent driving his movements.

Bypassing his opponent, the sword in his hand slipping back into a defensive position as he found himself facing the general direction of the three adversaries that had managed to take down the strike force that he had been working with. Black eyes scanned quickly and began to process the information available to him via his gut. Instincts and intuition swirling inside him as actions were weighed and outcomes were predicted. Black eyes scanned the opponents again and though a part of him wanted to take their heads as prizes, Dao knew better than to stay here and risk being killed. He didn't survive this long on the battlefield by making stupid decisions that were controlled by pride. He knew full well too that death meant the inability to exact his revenge. Gritting his teeth, and giving them another momentary glance, Dao turned and ran.

Body leaning forward, his feet moving as fast as he could make them go, the young man blitzed through the open and available paths in front of him as he began to head towards the north. He may have proven himself adept at instinctual fighting, but it certainly didn't meant that he couldn't follow stratagems and tactics being employed. Taking back the information that had been given to his team, the Feroxi Myrmidon began to make his way towards the northern area of Halebend.

Enough time had elapsed after all.

The others must have at least arrived by then already.

---

The group of five men were moving in as fast as they reasonably could. They weren't going to needlessly announce their presence with a lot of screaming, but they weren't going to exert the effort to try and employ stealth. The sheer amount of black smoke coming in from the very town itself, and the licks of flame that were visible from where they had been, was enough of an indicator that there was enough mayhem being caused at those particular areas that the North area should be left relatively undefended. They were moving in, the entrance to the town not quite far off from where they were, when in distance between them and their destination a voice called out to them.

It was strained, and the Myrmidon that had been able to spot the person on the ground quickly warned the others of the situation. Arndt, spitting to his side, increased the general pace of the team and faster did they arrive to see a kid presumably healing their injured ally. Arndt's experienced eyes took note of the child first before the bandit that worked under him. Immediately, his eyes fell on the staff that the child was holding unto. Right, that in itself proved just how useful the kid could be if he could have the brigade keep him hostage.

If nothing else, the kid would at least fetch some coin in the market.

"Zadren." The leader spoke up as they congregated around their fallen teammate. "Get the kid to heal the dipshit. After that, tie him up to a tree and make sure he doesn't escape." Hefting his axe over his shoulder again and getting ready to dash off towards the town once more, Arndt left the Myrmidon with one more piece of information. "Healers are good additions to the team." And with that, the 2 Generals, Myrmidon, and Arndt The Fighter continued onwards to create as much havoc as they could within Halebend whilst having donned the colours of Plegia.

Zadren, having accepted his orders, unsheathed the crude and savage looking iron sword he had with him and pointed it at Tres. "Yuu he'ard da ma'an! Heal da guy…" Zadren waved his sword in a threatening and intimidating manner. "Or em I gon'go cu'ut a limb 'irst?!"

Back with Arndt and his contingent of bandits, the four men had readied their weapons and with the northern gates not even having a paltry amount for defense, was easily crossed. They came to the sight of people trying to save what they could, of people screaming for help, and just a plethora of others that resembled no form of order. It brought a guttural roar of excitement through the throats of the men. They waved about their black and purple clothing and made a show of being part of Plegia.

When a villager had come for them, a wooden sword in his hand, in an effort to take down even one of them with him, one of the Knights had easily broken the pathetic twig with the iron gauntlets he wore before stabbing the man with a spear. Skewering him through the stomach and making sure he became an example to everyone, the Knight then raised the corpse as if he was a flag. Momentarily of course, as he threw the dead body off. At the command of Arndt, the rest of the bandits then began to wreck further harm into everything around them.

---

Tags: Eric, Sonya, Nero, tres
Notes:

• Dao, after fighting and more or less not replying to Eric's words, turned tail and ran towards the North where the bandits were supposed to meet up.
• Arndt and his men met up with tres who was, presumably, trying to help the fallen bandit. Arndt left a Myrmidon who goes by the name of Zadren to try and take the kid hostage.
• After leaving the Myrmidon behind, Arndt and his men continued onwards, and is now currently wrecking havoc all around them whilst boasting about the greatness that is Plegia.

[Eric]

I can't lie no more
I can't hide no more
got to be true to myself
so I'll be on my way

Dao's blade connected with Erics, the metallic ring hanging in the air for a moment. Such was the only sound that answered Eric's question, something he should have expected in all honesty. His ears perked a bit at the woman's question posed to the lordling, but his eyes remained on Dao. If she was asking that so relaxed he could only assume she had made short work of the last of their enemies. Dao seemed to have reached the same conclusion. As quickly as he had appeared he retreated. "We haven't the time to worry about such trivialities." The young man stated, bending over one of the fallen bodies of the enemy soldiers. He cut off a portion of the soldier's sleeve and used the cloth as a rag, but not until after his eyes had been drawn to a tattoo that had been exposed on the man's arm. One could literally see the gears working in Eric's head as he processed this new information. "These are no ordinary soldiers." He thought to himself aloud. Their method of approach resembled total warfare, destroying everything in their wake. Soldiers looking to occupy a nation would seek for a swift victory aiming a plunge at the village's heart-- instead these attackers weren't interested in anything more than causing destruction. There had been no reports of more, however five men was no more than a scouting party.

Eric stood abruptly, perhaps too suddenly because he wobbled a bit. "We head north. We'll need to keep a lookout for the boy. Assuring his safety is our foremost priority. I will not let her final wishes go unheeded." Eric's tone was definite even if his legs weren't, "I expect we'll be seeing more hostiles approach from the woods. That force we just faced couldn't have been but a scouting party... and with a messenger returning they should be moving out."

With that his feet started carrying him north. If what he said was true it was possible they were already on the move seeing as all the villagers and guards were stationed in the center to better protect everyone. Those who were caught outside-- there wasn't anything Eric could do for them now, it was up to them to survive. For now, he had to focus on eliminating the threat directly. Their only entrance was from the northern gate, he should head there. "If you would, I would like you to bypass the reinforcements heading in from the north and search for the young boy. From what I remember, he would go outside the village to draw water from the river upstream in the forest-- it's possible he's already made contact with our enemy. Please, be careful. I'll attempt to buy us time."

He wouldn't take no for an answer. With Nero having ran off Sonya was the only one he had direct contact with to formulate any plan. Eric was sure, anyway, that Nero had the presence of mind to go in the direction Dao had run. Whether he had the ability to read the situation Eric would soon find out. The young lord would reach the village gate as Ardent and his men entered its massive frame. On the road, he was fifteen meters away from the band that now faced him. He could see that there were four including the burly man who seemed to be leading them. "So, you're the Plegian soldiers." Eric spoke up, his right hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "I'll say this but once. Surrender yourselves now and I'll let you live. Or, should you continue with the assault let it be known that I, Eric of the Ylissian House Eldrich, will see to it that justice be served this day." He drew his blade, the wounded lord didn't show any emotion as he already knew the answer he would receive. He could only hope Sonya and Nero would succeed.

"insert spoken text here."

tres Nero Sonya Dao

[Nero]

Well obviously he was somehow teleporting from the outside of town to the inside of town since everyone insisted he was where we wasn't. Which was irritating. Really irritating. The dark skinned man was ahead of his little squadron, but it seemed like everything was breaking down into not going to work this way land. Nero's gaze caught a young boy running, and he quickly used the trees and smoke to hide himself, his gaze catching some of the interaction. He assumed that both Eric and Sonya would come, however he didn't have the time to wait, noticing the literal almost army making it's way to the village. And of course, a Myrmidon was left behind, so Nero couldn't fight that. His anger had relatively cooled, remembering the breaking militia man.

The mercenary hoped that the folly of his mistake would teach him better next time. With a grunt, the male used his ax to draw an arrow in the dirt, hopefully guiding his teammates to the boy. The boy would be safe he presumed, as he hadn't been instantly killed on impact. That's when Nero began to try and maneuver himself into range, ready to make sure these bozos would regret angering him. His ax wanted to sing and cry for the loss of a mother, and his entire blood seemed to pound with the cry of vengeance. Soothing his beloved, he took a deep breath, slipping closer... enough to see their cruelty first hand, and Eric's ultimatum towards their persons.

Nero had no doubts that these were not soldiers. He knew plegian soldiers, having been forced in the Ylissean army for some time. These were not Plegians from day one, and Nero felt himself almost boil still. Bandits. They were worse then friggin' soldiers. However, the male didn't want to enlighten anyone on that fact, it made it easier to murder them in the name of justice. With a tap, Nero noticed one of the knights wandering off from his three man unit. If he remembered right, he had pretty much decapitated the archer, Eric and sonya had taken care of one myrmidon and two fighters, if not close, a myrmidon boy had ran towards the reinforcements and one was left behind. So it shouldn't be that man left, he could see two knights, a fighter and perhaps the boy.

Well one of the knights was closing within his range, as Nero pounced. His ax flew in the air, the swipe deflecting the spear from the militia man that was trying to protect a few scrambling villagers. Despite Eric's words, Nero wouldn't sit still himself, as the bandits hadn't done anything themselves to stop. The male's lips curved into a rare smile, the action tight and almost repressed, as he watched the knight careful for a movement. The moment that this duo would truly engage would be the knight's loss, and perhaps this trash knew so. But Nero hoped the lordling could handle the other knight and the fighter for a moment, even if the boy was around.

At least for a few moments, until he could get rid of his first target and then proceed to engage the second knight as well.

Nero left a giant sign for Sonya to follow to get Tres, and proceeds to the woods to get one of the knights that was getting separated. He got to hear Eric's speech and he isn't aware of where Dao is right now. Just a really small summary since he keeps getting ported in location lol
Sonya Dao Eric tres

I kept everything inside and even though I tried it all fell apart I tried so hard and got so far but in the end it doesn't even matter

(C) ELLIE @ GANGNAM STYLE

[Sonya]

'No ordinary soldiers'? Yeah, Sonya had figured that part out already. Their tactics weren't military. They were more like those of the less savory people she ran with. While many of her bandit crew were decent people in bad situations, there were some genuine bandits among them, and they would often advocate (or use) tactics like this. Attack and burn everything in their path, steal anything of value. They were trying to destroy the village itself, not any particularly important target within it. "Agreed. They act more like bandits than soldiers. I have to wonder if...never mind. Stop the threat first." She was already starting to think of them that way as well. Bandits, not soldiers.

Fortunately, the lordling seemed to be thinking along the same lines. She listened to his directions and assumptions, nodding with each one. Realistically, they didn't have time to be worried about a kid. He may have even been better off not being saved, since the alternative was coming back to find out that his mother had just died in the attack. But at the same time, Sonya didn't want more innocents killed in this attack. If the lordling wanted him saved, then she'd see to it that he was. As for the angle of attack...in a town like this, that's what she'd have her boys do as well. The difference was that she was usually her own scouting force. But she had her own reasons for doing something like that.

As they moved to the north, Sonya glanced down each side-street they passed for signs of more hostiles. With the realization that the soldiers were acting more like bandits than any military force, she was starting to fall back on her own tactics for anticipating what the enemy might do. The north gate would be the obvious entry point, but she wouldn't be surprised if there were smaller attacks from other directions as well. There wouldn't be much of a presence anywhere there was nothing of value, though. They'd just torch things and move on. She could use that to her advantage.

Then, the lordling passed the task of finding the kid over to her. "Right," she said, nodding, then splitting off from her current path to take off down a side street. She didn't know the town's layout well enough to pre-plan a path, but it wasn't exactly dense enough this far out to present much worry of running into dead ends. All she had to do was keep out of site and choose the paths least likely to run through optimal bandit targets. Soon, she found the edge of the village, and cut back towards the north gate from the outside. She got close enough to see the reinforcements, including a knight (it had to be heavy armor). To her surprise, there was also an arrow dug into the dirt nearby, pointing out away from the village bit. So instead of trying to flank the reinforcements (something that probably wouldn't work as well as it sounded in her head anyway, even with the lordling loudly demanding their surrender) she followed the arrow.

And what luck, by doing so she eventually happened on a kid bent over a fallen bandit, with another one over him and waving his sword threateningly. Well, no question of what to do, then. Sonya rushed in, as quietly as she could for a decent speed, and thrust her sword at the threatening man's back. Then cut, then thrust again. "No charity for the wicked, love. Not today."

tres Dao Eric Nero

[tres]

What a day this was turning out to be.

When Tres had gone running out of the forest to try to get a glimpse of the dragon, he had ended up crashing head first and rolling like a barrel when his feet was clipped under a piece of heavy weight. As you might have already guessed, he'd tripped over this stranger who had initially been in a terrible state. Bruises all over his body and a deep cut on his waist. He appeared dehydrated too but by the time Tres was finished with his assessment, the bucket of water he'd gotten was gone.

And now a group of unfriendly-looking men in uniform had come marching by. Tres stared at each one of them, noting their weapons, shabby appearances, and generally ugly faces flashing very yellow teeth. By the time a decision had been made in their group, all but one of them was gone. Confusion marked on Tres through his wide-eyed frown.

"Wait!" Tres exclaimed to the sword flailing in front of his face. "Which dipbeep was he talking about? This guy, right? Ow!" Tres's patient had enough strength to smack him on the head apparently.

"I wouldn't start acting like smartass, kid!" the man sneered. "Zadren's gonna cut you to pieces if you stop being useful."

Zadren? Oh, this other guy. Tres leaned down to his patient. "Well, to be honest, I didn't understand a thing your friend just said," he whispered.

"You little...ZADREN!"

Oh crap. "Wait, I was just joking - !"

Tres turned to Zadren and he ducked by instinct, not daring to look. He heard Zadren grunt and beside him, the injured man was stirring and cursing. Tres opened his eyes and saw Zadren's back, his sword raised. Tres gasped as he caught sight of the splotch of red on the man's uniform.

"Dude!" It was all that Tres could exclaim when his body started to move on its own. He scrambled to his feet and raised his staff on Zadren's wound. Taking a deep breath and wrapping his fingers tightly around the shaft, faint blue light started to glow off the staff's crystal as Tres's consciousness submerged to focusing on the casting of Heal.

Dao Eric Nero Sonya

[Eric]

I can't lie no more I can't hide no more
got to be true to myself so I'll be on my way

Zardin let out an irritated sigh as his wound was finally healed. "About bloody time." He growled at the young boy, Tres. "Wot th' boss sees in ye I haven't the foggiest inkling, but if that'n be th' orders who'm I ta judge?" The man was no slouch when it came to the blade as he eyed the young boy, his eyes almost asking for him to give the veteren myrmidon a reason to separate the child's head from his body. But what was taking the initial force so long to get back? Prolly dead. Served those buggers right. That damn archer'd given him the willies, friggin' insane he was. So focused had he been on the young boy, he hadn't noticed second footsteps until it was too late. "Who're--?!" He started to whirl around, his sword cutting through the air at his unseen assailant, but he wasn't fast enough. His eyes widened as he couldn't comprehend what'd just happened. He saw the face of a woman and he breathed a curse at her before his world going black. The lifeless body would land next to Tres.

* * * * *

Arndt and his men approached the village gates, not exactly being subtle in their approach. "Oi, men! Show these Ylissean dogs what true strength is! Burn everything to the ground! Blood for Plegia!" The leader crowed, raising his ax in the air. The two knights and the single myrmidon following him cheering in agreement. The man paused in the gate noticing the rat that had dared crawl from whatever sewer it'd come from, probably in the name of justice or something as ridiculous too. "Surrender? Us? Boy, you must have a screw loose in yer head!" The leader roared a laugh. "Lads, show the little lord just who he's dealing with!" He nodded for a knight to finish him off. The knight grasped his spear with both hands, moving toward Eric who stood his ground. There was suddenly a clash of metal which caused the knight to hesitate and turn to look away. Eric moved in quickly, the knight noticed the footsteps and turned back, taking a defensive stance, but it was too late. The young lord quickly sliced upward strongly cleaving the spear in twain, the weapon splitting in two halves in the knight's hands as the wooden shaft splintered. Nero's clash with the other knight had served enough of a distraction for Eric to find a small opening in his opponent's unbreakable defense.

The bandit leader snarled. "Not just one insect but a hive. Time to squash some bugs." He brandished his ax and moved toward Eric. "Outta my way! I'll deal with the royal!" He laughed as he brought his weapon crashing down powerfully. Eric didn't have time to debate whether he'd be blocking or dodging, his feet moved on their own creating space between them, barely evading the blow that would have split him in half. Arndt growled, "skitter, skitter little insect! It's only a matter of time before I snuff your life out beneath my boot!"

While Eric was busy fighting off his knight and Ardnt, Nero was engaged with the other knight who had yet to make a move. The two would stare each other down for as long as the knight could. A bronze blade would descend on Nero from his right, the myrmidon flanking Nero and providing the outmatched unit support. The knight would use this chance and stab at Nero himself, turning the fight into a two against one.

[nazt]

[attr="class","infobig"]GAME OVER

[attr="class","infosmall"]don't worry we're on casual mode

[attr="class","info"]The paralogue has inactive characters. Get new people and give it another go!

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