What's up with these guys? They tell me to go running in and drawing all the aggro, then they start yelling and whining when I do? Jeez, it's not like they didn't have time to get ready while I was standing around, distracting that fool on the walls... They're like total AFK'ers, getting pissy about someone pulling a mob just 'cuz they stood around, twiddling their thumbs and watch8ing shity reality shows when they should be focused on the dungeon... No wait, these are real people, right? ... Doesn't that make it worse though? If they can't adapt, how have they all survived!?

Many throughts were flying through the dracokin's head, as she stood silent and unmoving while the oncoming bulk of the Imperial guards charged at her. That is, until from a distant part of the area, she could hear the paladin-dude's voice. He was shouting something about a monster who had killed hundreds of people and ate the hearts of men and kicked little white puppies, or some such. The implication that this person was Serafaye herself completely flew over the girl's head though, so she remained confused as to what he was trying to do or accomplish with this stunt.

Vani, in turn, would find that the Imperial troops had little interest in anything anyone who wasn't a member of their army had to say. To that end, the paladin would have been pelted with a storm of arrows, had it not been for the rising smoke created by a certain masked mage. The black, billowing smog was far more distressing to the soldiers than the ravings of some random elf... Well, at least as far as the archers were concerned. The remaining dozen or so grunts still on the ground, who had remained by the gate, now began moving towards the elven knight's positiion, inten t on apprehending him the same way their much larger force intended to apprehend Serafaye...

... Until a certain monstrous reptile-man suddenly leapt from the shadows and started flailing about, smashing metal armor as if it were paper and picking up grown men and using them as whack-a-mole mallets against their fellow soldiers. At the sight of the surreal scene, Serafaye could do little more than stand and stare in sheer dumbfounded disbelief. If there had ever been any doubts about this still being Oubliette Online, they had been thoroughly smashed to bits by this sudden act of gratuitous violence - because no class, no job and no matter what level you were, there was nobody who could pick up other players or monsters and use them as make-shift crocket-mallets...

Glancing backwards, Serafaye noticed that the hoity-toity horse-riding woman had put up some sort of shelled dome... A strange thing to do, considering the archers couldn't very well fire that far back into the alleyway, nor were any of the soldiers - who were now being tossed around and gut-punched by Kaze - advancing far enough to even get close to that position. In essence, it was a complete waste of both time and amgic and wasn't condusive to their plans at all. If she had magic to spend, she should be attacking, not playing defense... At least, that was Serafaye' humble opinion on the matter.

However, even if things hadn't gone exactly as planned, the bottokm line was that all of the guards and soldiers at the gate were currently summarily distracted. Be it by the smoke, the obstinate horned girl, the berserkign lizardman or the raving paladin elf, it was safe to say that the Imperial garrison at the east gate had been truly and utterly occupied with a variety of scenarios and distractions which had left them in a bit of a mess. This state of flustered confusion and chaos leant itself well to the plans of Cecilia, and her intent of attacking the archers while everyone else acted as noise. Along with Annabelle and the little blob-creature Carpenter, the two spellblades sprung to action and, each using their own method, advanced forward and managed to get onto the gate walls proper.

Though while things were working out for the two ladies, Kaze would be grimly reminded that even if you were big and burly, charging into a mass of armed men - even if you had protection - wasn't always a good idea. While initially his attack had caught the soldiers off-guard and his sheer, massive visage had instilled momentary fear and hesitation, the Imperial soldiers quickly responded to his vicious attacks with their own. True, many of the swords that attempted to strike the reptilian warrior glanced off his armor, or failed to break through his scales... However, Kaze would learn that spears were still not his friend, and the men who had been at the very back of the advancing force had drawn theirs, and were now using them to keep distance between themselves and this new adversary.

While Kaze's use of the human cudgel was... Effective... It also meant that, even with his greater than man-strength, his movements were slower and more predictable, which leant itself to the spearmen being able to mostly avoid any incoming blow from their brother-in-arms-turned-blackjack. Small pokes, sharp thrusts and quick jabs, the lizardman was being porcupined by the spear-wielders. Meanwhile, the swordsmen who had initially been caught next to him, began to back off and give as much berth as they could, though the alley didn't exactly give them a lot of room to work with. Still, it was enough for most of them to get out of harm's way.... Most of the one's still concscious or able to stand, at least... The pile of crumpled bodies on the ground spoke volumes for the lizard warrior's brute power.

"Hey! Lay off the lizard-bro, you jerks!" Serafaye suddenly shouted, angrily stomping her foot, as a beligerent child would do when upset.

Little attention was given to the girl though, as the men and women of the Imperial forces now focused their attention on bringing down the scaly behemoth before them! ... That is, until Serafaye picked up one of Kaze's crumpled victims, as if he was a ragdoll, and tossed him at the opposition, causing a crashing and clanking of metal as two soldiers collided with one antoher. heads turned and eye stared in disbelief at the little, waifish girl, who had just thrown a fully armored man as easily as she would have thrown a pine cone...

"What the hell are these guys!?" A soldier cried out, face pale and eyes widened.
"Stand your ground! Bring down the lizard first, then we deal with the girl!"
"Is she really a monster like that guy screamed!?"
"No, it's the lizard who's the monster! S-She'll eat us!"
"Don''t falter, fiii-uuuurghh!!"

The last man got cut off, as a side-swipe from Kaze caused him to collide witht he human cudgel, sending him careening across the street. As the morale of the men fighting Kaze and Serafaye faltered, the reamainign dozen soldiers heading for Vani quickly approached. And now with Cecilia and Annabelle atop the walls, the archers would soon find themselves in a tight spot. Still, if Artemisia or Locke were intending to offer any additional support for their allies, the time to do so was now...

A strange sound was filling the small skirmish filled alley. A deep bellowing laughter, the source? Kaze. He was honestly having a blast as he treated the smaller humans like ping pong balls, bouncing them this way and that with his human cudgel. While his attacks were easy to read, it was hard to dodge a makeshift weapon that big without being outside of their own effective attack range. The swordsmen were battered, knocked unconscious by the sheer force of his attacks or dying from a snapped spine or neck. It was a two hundred pound bludgeon, albeit a little squishy.

Well...well tenderized anyway, the man he was flailing about was well and truly dead, barely recognizable as being a human. But he'd give humans something, even the Imperials, they learned on the fly. They learned to get the hell away from the giant reptilian man and start heckling him with spears. Nicks from their poking appeared on him, he obviously made sure they didn't hit anything vital like his eyes, jugular, carotid artery, etc.

The girl, Serafaye, called them jerks and to lay off of him before launching one of their downed men into the cluster. That got another thunderous round of laughter while the soldiers began to panic. "None of you have the might to bring me down, nevermind even tire me out!" He exclaimed with a maniacal grin. Like Sera he launched his human turned meat blob into the ranks before drawing that monstrous sword. Holding the great blade with two hands he affixed his stance as if he were a slugger going up to bat.

The electricity roared over the blade as he swung, he was too far away to actually hit anyone. But the sound of wood snapping and popping rung out. He had destroyed the spears that had pecked at him like tiny birds. His rear foot swept in, keeping perfect balance as he moved, and planted before he swung again. The electricity along his blade arced out as the tip bit into the numerous soldiers in front of him. Heating their armor, electrocuting their bodies, and the blade itself cutting into them before the weapon came to a stop millimeters before it struck the building nearby.

---

Locke could do little more than watch the slabs of meat smash the rank and file. For a lack of not trying on his part, mostly. There was no real reason for him to join the front line. He wouldn't be of any help, even if he could cast magic. His capabilities were best when he kept to the rear, away from the general harm of slings and arrows. The attempted assistance from the paladin was noted. Not acted upon or responded to, but noted nonetheless.

For now, he focused on ensuring his smoke didn't quickly vanish. It tired him, certainly, but the hard part had already passed. He had enough in him to sustain and move the smoke if needed. It wasn't exactly needed now, though, so Locke spent the moment catching his breath and biding his time to sprint. With his eyes, he could peer past the smoke and watch the actions of those above. Really, he was the most likely out of the makeshift party to have a complete grasp of the situation. Not that he relayed the information, though. He was a summoner who had burnt what mana he possessed, not an orator.

---

...Dangit Paladin.

It wasn't hard to hear what was going on, and to get the gist of events from that. Miss Serafaye had already once again tossed herself out there, this time as the apparently weapons-invulnerable 'bait' in this particular turn of events. But now THAT STUPID SUICIDAL LIZARD Kaze had thrown himself into the mix to fight again as well! It was enough they had someone already burning their mana out, but now this FOOL was once again trying to pincushion himself?

On top of that, Vani had apparently run out there and begun shouting about a woman (she was assuming Miss Serafaye) being a monster and...eating the jellies of their eyes?! What in the name of the gods was that idiot thinking! Or rather, he wasn't thinking it seemed. That made far too much more sense than it being just a stupid plan, after all, when it came to the man as far as she'd been able to understand him so far.

The more she hung around this lot, the more things just seemed to get crazy. Even so, she wasn't going to abandon wounded and those in danger in this situation. At least if she could help it!

"I swear if that idiot-"

Yinha muttered to herself before quickly casting a spell, trying to minimize her expenditure with what mana she had. They all couldn't afford to burn out, after all, but neither was she useful if she left the smoke either. She could cast this, at least, but the last little bit...it had to be kept for healing at all costs. Her Alchemy kit could only go so far to make some healing tonics and ilk for after this.

Within the smoke, a small magic circle appeared in the air once again briefly as once more an Authority emerged. This time it was holding an angelic looking halberd, but to the enemy soldiers all they would see is a very faint glow from within the smoke before the angel emerged from it at them at a full charge. Its feet clacked on the stones, and some kind of unintelligible or alien roar seemed to screech from its helmet as it tried to blitz the nearest soldier in a fury. Maybe it would be able to help some, since it wasn't some dumb incapable zombie, but whatever it could do beneficially in this case would hopefully be good for the overall situation.

Besides, what was scarier than a lot of craziness going on than a holy light glowing suit of armor charging out of smoke and letting out horrible sounds as it moved to strike down the nearest soldier with its halberd?

Like Locke, Artemisia wasn’t particularly in a position to do much more than what she was already doing. She might have put up her shields somewhat prematurely, but she was somebody who wasn’t particularly fond of leaving things to chance. So, she had the shields up before moving up to where she could actually be somewhat useful, not wanting to be riddled full of arrows before properly setting up.

Of course, she was beginning to think it was all a terrible idea to be protecting these people, since they were all so incredibly insane. To think that she had cast herself in with this lot… it did seem to be working, though.

Even if she wanted to help the rest of the party in properly ridding them of the imperial nuisance, however, she couldn’t really cast any more spells. She could, in theory, charge out with her horse swinging her puny sword around at the armored soldiers, but that was an obviously suicidal tactic. Artemisia wasn’t prone to suicidal tactics, unlike some certain people that were in front of her.

It was a regular old party now, wasn't it? A party of the hella violent, generally murderous, and sorta overwhelming part. With the strength of his sheer brawn, the lizardman continued to mow through groups of soldiers at once, flinging them around like a petulant child with a house of dolls. Serafaye looked to be encouraged by this as well, utilizing her even more impossible strength to flatout toss them at each other like bowling balls. Gratuitious violence all around, truly. The spellblade gave a backwards glance at Locke and Arte, an uncertain smile budding over her features. The developments that have passed...hm.

Better to stop thinking about this!

Deciding rather arbitrarily that this is the Final Battle For Their Freedom, Cecilia looked out through Locke's smoke towards the archers still positioned on the wall. If they had been more spread out, that woulda sucked, but considering the position her allies were holding, there wouldn't have been line-of-sight if they hadn't clumped up a bit. Vani made her plenty of projectiles, Yinha summoned something brilliantly horrifying, and Kaze did what he did best, holding the frontline so that Cecilia could retrieve the spearheads that he had shattered off the hafts. She calculated for distance, set the timing in her head, and, planting her spear into the ground, filled her new projectiles with her magic. Lightning crackled over their surfaces and they numbed her fingers as she grabbed them by the tips of the blade.

"Maybe I should get a bow some time..." Cecilia murmured.

But maybe she had been solo adventuring so long that she forgot spellblades were more or less expected to fill any role necessary in a composition?

Sighting the archers in the distance, the bladethrower drew her arm back and began to hurl magically-charged projectiles at those misfortunate soldiers, more forcing them to take cover or reposition rather than actually kill or maim them. Each spearhead that missed would curve back, flying into her outstretched palm as Cecilia set a steady rhythm, practically juggling five spearheads into the Imperials on the top of the wall.

"Locke, when we break out, shift your smoke up onto the wall!"

With the giant lizard batting people around, the sudden arrival of a shrieking, otherworldly being in glowing white armor, and the tandem tag-team fighting of the Paladin who had been screaming nonsense before, the initial force that had moved to apprehend Yinha suddenly found their frontline crumbling like a house of cards. When the sudden cries and hollering from their archer-allies back up on the walls suddenly began to call out over the fighting, the Imperial soldiers' morale dropped even further, and those who were not already caught up in fighting for their lives began to first slowly back away, then more hastily so, then full on turned on their heels and began retreating, screaming and yelling in a mix of fear, confusion and frustration.

The back-up dozen or so men that had moved to try and intecept Vani were met by these, their fleeing and panicking brothers and sisters, who in turn also became privvy to the plight of their archers on the walls, now being assaulted by flying spearheards that crackled with lightning! In addition, a familiar small, red blob-like creature was now bounding along the roofs, jumping onto one archer after the other, either trying to suffocate them or cause them to lose balance and slip onto their ass, or fall off the side of the precarious elevation. With limited space to move around up there, coupled with the relentless hounding of a certain Spellblade and the difficulty in trying to shoot an amorphous flubber, the archers were completely forced to abandon any hopes of supporting their street-locked comrades with supporting fire. ... Which worked out great for the team of rag-tag misfits!

With the initial force battered and broken, fleeing from the fight in the alley, the archers rendered helpless - or at least pre-occupied - Serafaye took a moment to survey the immediate situation. Much to her surprise, she found that whule she knew she should have been disgusted, outraged and appalled by the death and destruction wrought upon these Imperial soldiers - these fellow humans - Serafaye found herself strangely... Indifferent. She... Didn't feel anything. Like, at all. It was if the deaths of these men were no more of a concern than stepping on an ant, or swatting ana nnoying fly... Which terrified the girl internally to no end.

Just what the actual fuck is going on?! Back in the real world, whenever there were news-casts or reports of people being hurt or killed, I always got so damned upset and... ANd... Now nothing? Even though people are killing each other left and right, and I'm even a part of it, in the damn midst of it, I don't even care? Just... What's happened to me? Am I really... Me, anymor...?

Existential crisis aside, the dracokin managed to eventually pull herself together and focus on the actual task at hand. It seemed their plan of beating the tar outta the enemy had worked, for now. Which meant that, while they still had the momentum, they should probably try and capitalize and make the most out of it, right? Serafaye glanced over at Vani and Kaze, and their angelic friend who had came outta nowhere... Wait, who was this!? Where'd they come from and what the actual hell ... Oh, no, wait, this wasn't a person. This was just some low-level summon, she recognized its design. One of their mages must've called on it. Huh, handy. Anyway, now was not the time for that!

"I think we should all maybe try and make a break for that gate-thingy now." She said, looking at the elf and lizard. "Doubt we'll have a better chance than now. Maybe we can even just scare off the rest of the mooks if we run at 'em, screamin' and howling like lunatics, yeah?" She suggested, smilingly sheepishly.

She turned to look back at where Yinha, Artemisia and Locke were, supposedly, amdist all of that black, nasty tire-fire smoke. With a beckoning and waving hand, she tried to make some kind of signal for them to move up or come along, or something of that sort.

The gate itself, at this point, was largely free of any Imperials. The archers couldn't get to it, due to the jugglign boomerang-spears thrown by Cecilia and the interference run by Carpenter. The soldiers who had fled from the fight with the dynamic quartet had turned to flee up north, not south towards the gate. This meant that the only real obstacle left, wwas the dozen or so men who had chased after Vani, who had been stopped in their tracks at both the sight of their fleeing fellow soldiers AND the pickle-of-a-jam that their archers were in atop the walls.

This was it, one final push and freedom would be theirs!

---

Had Locke been a worshiper of a cruel god or a violent criminal, he may have assisted in the final push to gain freedom. He was, however, the exact opposite. He was a scholar first and foremost. Violence was a means of getting to an end. Unnecessary bloodshed—something that could be done by another, rather—was not something Locke cared for. Why would he attempt to rout his enemies when the others could do it for him? His support was all that was needed. So long as he maintained the smoke to protect the band of loosely associated adventurers, he could leave safely.

So he waited for the others to make their moves so he could escape. He put himself in a position to make a break for the gate. Not enough for him to be put in considerable danger in case something lurked outside, but enough to be one of the first out when they made a break. He caught his breath as he waited. A man from the mountain who spent most of his time on his two feet wasn't immune to exhaustion.

---

Without skipping a beat, the angelic summon seemed to almost turn its head towards Serafaye as she suggestion a similar tactic to get the group out of the nick of danger. Its master in turn heard that suggestion through it, and saw the gesture to come forward, before a command came to it for another thing. Not that it minded, it was getting to do something at least. But hoisting up the polearm again the angelic suit of armor continued its charge, howling in alien tongue and screeching with an unearthly sound as it charged at the remaining men. It wasn't that dumb as to suicide, but rather to pursue and attack the remaining foes as they stood there stopped in their tracks to process things. After all, that made them a rather good target, and it would be aiming to cleave into the nearest of those remaining 'obstacles' with an angelic zeal. Strike while the iron was hot!

In the meantime, Yinha moved a bit closer but not out of the cover of the smoke. As much as she wanted to make a break, at the same time she was trying her best to conserve mana for healing as soon as they got out and far enough away. Kaze was already a hot mess imbibed with various blades and wounds, stupid lizard, the threat wasn't entirely gone, and on top of that she wasn't seeing others running out into the open...at least yet. Her summon was going about what she'd guided it to do (albeit it had seemed to enjoy the order) if nothing else, and that was as much as she could help at the moment. However, she was physically poised to make a blitz for the gate and generally forward if or as the need arose.

The High Elf's chest and breathing heaved somewhat, though, after all of this running and nearly dying and almost constant battle along the way. She had to make this count, she had to! Otherwise-...well, that road could be approached if they ever came to it. The mage really hoped, however, that they would not come to that point at all if she could help it.

If they could read each other’s minds, Artemisia would find a comrade in the way Locke thought. Although her studies were sometimes considered less than scrupulous, she shied away from unnecessary bloodshed. In fact, it was the very reason that she had decided to put up a nice shield wall instead of expending her remaining energy on flinging spells, which, in hindsight, would have been rather effective in the confined space they were in earlier.

With a nice big shield, and a sturdy horse to carry her right to the southern gate, Artemisia was probably one of the better candidates to lead the charge to freedom from these godforsaken ruins. But her pragmatic sense of self-preservation meant that sticking with the group and taking a conservative position was the far better option at this point, even if she had been impatient enough to charge out in earlier instances. It would be stupid if she got smote at the final stretch.

So… she just bumbled slowly towards the gate with the rest of them.

The brutal assault from three front-liners and a screaming construct, that almost got belted with a massive blade from surprise, seemed to put the fear into the soldiers finally. Those alive backed away and started to flee northward, that was fine. South the archers were getting pelted by the weird goo thing from earlier, and Cecilia was using the broken spear blades as returning projectiles. Interesting, but not enough to get the reptilian man to try for magic. Boomerangs existed!

But still, the soldiers were retreating except a dozen or so that were still fresh but seemingly distracted by fleeing allies and the archer predicament. But the thing was, with the archers distracted, the group should move now. "Start moving, hit the archers as you go if they start targeting you." He called out to the others behind him. His buffs weren't going to last much longer either, the glow about him was fading quicker than before. Was it because he had been injured so much? Was he actually tired? Most likely.

Still he proceeded, fully leaving the alley as he went for the soldiers ahead. The edge of his blade took on a yellowed hue as he charged. A big sword, a glowing edge, it spelled one thing for the bumbling soldiers that were trying to get to the group. "Cleave!" He growled out. Sure his blade was big enough to do it on its own, combined with his might as well, but this added a big more damage to the display. He was trying to dishearten the new soldiers to get them to flee as well.

The soldiers he struck were literally cleaved across their lower abdominals. Pretty much where the breastplates ended and a belt rested, a weak point, which was quite fatal when encountered by a behemoth. All his blade had to worry about was spines, clothes, and meat.

Things weren't looking good for the rear-guard of the Imperial army. With more than half of their footmen fleeing, a quarter lying dead or wounded and the other quarter now engaging and being mauled by a giant lizard and a scowling, trying-to-look-intimidating-pretty boy elf, along with their archers atop the walls being harassed by a tiny, crimson gloop-monster and a woman throwing electric spearheads.... Well, it was safe to say that anyone, even a complete novice at tactics and strategy, could see that things had turned - as they say- tits-up for the Empire here. With the shrieking angel-summon moving in for another dose of otherworldly terror-tactics, the men who had attempted to join with their allies finally had enough of this situation.

"R-Retreat! RETREAT! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

A chorus of panicked voices, each screaming different versions and variants of the same message, rung out from the among the dozen remaining men in the streets. Somehow, this tiny group of adventurers had managed - against considerable odds - to beat down and chase off over two dozen foot soldiers, as well as a small squadron of archers, all on their own. Veritable pats on the back were in order, but now was not the time for such frivalous gestures. Seeing the state and end-result of their opposition falling back and abandoning their charge, the way to their ultimate goal, the eastern gate, was now left unchallegend and unbarred.

"Alright, score! We can get the hell outta here!" Serafaye chriped, happily, while bouncing from one foot onto the other, in a very vutesy, bouncy, excitable fashion... Causing certain torso-allocated bits of her body to also bounce up and down - not that she seemed to notice.

Calming down a bit eventually, the dracokin soon began to stride towards their desired exit - at that weirdly unnatural speed of her's. Although both Vani and Kaze had been infront of her, and Cecilia and Annabelle were up on the walls, she'd be the first of the group to manage to actually pass through the old, decripiti stone archway and lay eyes on what actually lay outside the ruins to the east!

... And it was grass.

... Lots and lots of grass. Stretching on. Forever. Not even joking, there was pretty much nothing else, apart form the lonely spruce tree or small, low shrub. The rest? Just field upon field upon knell of grassland.

How... Anti-clmactic... Serafaye thought, as her smiling, excited face turned into that of a deadpan disappointment. Kind of like how an excited kid on Christmas Day looked when they were opening their present, only to find it contained one of those itchy, hand-made wool sweaters from their granny. Yeah, that kind of face.

The good news, however, was that due to the rickety state of the gatehouse itself, the archers inside wouldn't actually be able to easily get into a position to fire at them as they were leaving the ruins. Incredibly convenient, but beneficial also! This meant that, barring any chance of the Empire sending cavalry or flying beast-riders, the group would be able to escape unharried from this cursed place.

Turning back towards her allies still within the walls, Serafaye made waving and beckoning motions with her hand, urging them to come her way and hurry up.

"C'mon! We're almost there! Let's go people, move it!" She half-yelled, half-said-in-a-loud-voice.

Really though, if you squinted reeally hard, you could make out the outlines, or tops at least, of a woodland or forest straight east - just going right forward from the gate itself. If they wanted to avoid being pursued or followed, heading there and hiding out in the undergrowth would likely be their best plan. Of course, you could always head north, or south to Palagria... If you wanted to risk that whole mess.

Meanwhile, Annabelle and Cecilia would deliver a final combination of Carpenter body-net and electric throwables to the archers, before the Spellblade of thunder used her wind-powers to elegantly leap off the side of the wall and let the winds carry her down. Meanwhile, the hemomancer used her little familiar as a whip, swinging down from her perch in a very Indiana Jones-like style. It was all very impressive, really.