An infiltrator. Sular had been one of the many new and inexperienced fools who had been sent to this outpost to die, and he had personally witnessed the disorganised and pathetic state of this reinforcement. A sutry group of peasants and farmers given old and untrustworthy weaponry, hastily sent on their way by the word of some official in the palace at the city of Aegis. It would have been relatively easy to slip an infiltrator into this group, in fact, were they facing any other opponent, Sular would have been surprised not to have faced an infiltrator. However, these barbarians did not have access to any of the weaponry the Empire used for it's troops, nor did they seem to have any grasp of the same language. This meant that, quite worryingly, either the barbarians were far more intelligent than they seemed, or they had some hidden ally who was directing their attacks. The Empire had many enemies, after all, and many would be happy to see the barbarians raging through Empyrean lands.

However,even with this worrying prospect looming over the horizon, at this point in time there were far more pressing matters at hand. The spy on the East wall could deal no serious damage, not when he was being attacked by the sergeant as well as the Batlle-Born. Furthermore, even by killing the sentries, it had given the barbarians no real advantage. An attacking force from the East, while dividing the defenders' attention, would still be pointless without any way to pass the fortifications. While in an open battle Sular would have been one of the first to pronouce the group doomed, here, with a castle to defend, he had no such intentions. If the barbarians were intelligent enough to place a spy, they would know that attacking from the East would be just as foolish. Thus, the only logical conclusion was that the spy that they had believed to be the true threat, was merely a diversion, and the true threat still came from the army at their doorstep.

Ignoring the infiltrator, Sular headed down the craggy stone steps that led to the ground floor. As he had thought, the mechanism for opening the North Gate had been the target all along. Only a single boy had been left to guard it, no older than 16, and here he lay, dead from a swift stab to the neck. A rather short figure clad in only cloak, and potentially leather armor, was unlocking the mechanisms that held up the gate with frightening speed. With attention divided between the oncoming army and the spy on the East Wall, this second infiltrator had been able to get to this point without raising any alarms.

There was no time to shoot this man. The greatbow was a magnificent weapon for it's unparrallelled range, accuracy and sheer stopping power, a lord among ranged weaponry. However, it had never been built for mobility, nor was it a fast weapon, and in this situation speed was of the essence. Instead, Sular uttered a battlecry, intended both to draw the attention of his allies and startle the infiltrator, who no doubt had expected to remain unseen. Sular rapidly drew a dagger from the folds of his cloak, having carefully propped the massive bow against a wall before. Sular had had a cursory training with a variety of weaponry in his youth, for as Firstborn of the House he needed to be an exemplary warrior for his soldiers to follow. As he held this dagger in his hand, and eyed the shortsword his opponent wielded, however, he severely started missing the saber, or the range of his bow.