---

”Did you know that little, big sister Akai here is really good at distractions?” A strange winged ferret, named Sil, asked an overly dull kitten, going by the name Lynx.

”I’ve seen her do a distraction so well, that I almost forgot that I even existed!”

It was hard for Lynx’s brain to take Syl seriously. When you were in a cramped tunnel underground surrounded by nothing but rats and near total darkness however, his ears perked in tune with her squeaking. It was a preference of succumbing to one type of insanity over another. He even found himself sharing some of the relief about their new companion.

“She must be wonderful, then. You make it hard to forget that you exist.” All around them the incessant cacophony of rats raged on, forcing him to speak louder.

Memories of his past life came and went, of Lynx scampering in disgust whenever such a creature was found near the kitchens or in some backroom of the castle. To think he was now indifferent, or at least, tolerant towards the presence of a swarm of them felt bizarre to him. Occasionally some would even scuttle on his back. This would’ve been a moment in which he would’ve desperately protected his pride, but Syl was an exception. The girl who put spiders in people’s pants made perfect company if you had rats all over you, he realized.

”You hear that Akai?” Sil asked, looking to the human-shaped familiar. ”Lynx gave us a complement! Isn’t he nice?” She absently began flapping her wings, lifting her off the ground and away from the playful rats.

Silly rats, playfully nibbling at her tail. They must have been smitten by her lesser used, yet still adorable, furried form. After all, who wouldn’t be? Unfortunately for them Sil and the rest couldn’t play right now, for they were on a secret mission!

Sil and Lynx, had been given the special duty -heh duty- to create a distraction so great that it would set the world on puddles! They couldn’t do that just yet though. Not with the impossible door sealing off the tunnel exit. An exit which leading into that long stone structure which Sil could only assume was what human people called a mountain.

And that was why Akai was here. They wouldn’t be able to beat the impossible door without her super power! The super power of thumbs that is!

"Oh, are you getting soft, Lynx? It is so unlike you to compliment others!" Akai said, teasing Lynx and laughing, completely ignoring the sarcasm on his voice as they walked through the dark tunnels and she tried the best she could to not touch the filthy walls or the rats that were basically everywhere.

"On another note... I don't know how you guys seem to be so fine with these filthy rats everywhere... Ugh!" she said, looking below as she floated away from the rats scuttling in the ground.

"I know that it's an important task but ... really? Couldn't the tunnels be in another place? Maybe somewhere else... cleaner and without so many rats?" she continued, grumbling and complaining.

”Oh, Akai. Can’t you see the little guys just want to play?” Sil replied merrily. ”Isn’t that right, Lynx?”

Lynx had been in the middle of swatting the rats closest to him when Akai spoke. “The filthier an area is, the more secretive. Experience has taught me that.”

Swatting a particularly large rat, he continued. “Play? I believe we should be grateful that we are not made of flesh. A swarm of animals this desperate could eat a horse. That was not an expression.”

"Next time remind me of bringing a damn firethrower to burn all these annoying- Shoo! Get out of here!" she continued, interrupting herself the moment a rat jumped from a pipe to the ground, almost landing on her in the process.

The moment they got near the door, both Lynx and Sil stopped in front of it, so as did Akai. After a moment of silence and some awkward stares Akai finally realized that they wanted her to open the door.

"What? Wait... you guys want me to open the door? With my hands?" she asked, incredulous as she looked at the old and filthy door, covered in grime and gods know what it was the murky goo covering it.

”Of course, Silly. How else are we going to open the impossible door? With these tiny little things?” Sil asked as she waved around her ferret paws for show.

Lynx raised a front paw in an overly delicate manner that clashed with their surroundings. “You are the only one with opposable thumbs.”

”But what do her thumbs oppose? Will the world ever know?” Sil wondered aloud in an oddly philosophical manner.

"Someone please kill me... Either that or cut my thumbs off..." she muttered, with a really disgusted and unhappy face as she slowly touched the door, trying to open while touching it as little as possible.

“Were I the dramatic sort I would say this was your destiny. But I am not. You should go about this with a more effortful approach regardless.”

”Do you want to change roles? I bet all that gooey, nasty stuff would look lovely on your fur!” Akai said, provoking Lynx with an annoyed expression as she looked at him.

Unlike Lynx, Sil was the dramatic sort. ”But Akai! It’s your destiny!!” Ferret Sil said, plopping herself atop Akai’s shoulder. ”Go forth, Akai, and fulfill your destiny! Open the Impossible Door!”

Whatever Lynx had been intending to retort with had been disrupted by a shudder of uncomfortable familiarity at Syl’s enunciation. “The spirit of theater is everywhere, I suppose,” he commented vaguely, referencing a one-liner Octavio had no doubt spouted at some point in their journeys.

"I swear... I'll need a hot bath after this..." Akai said, with a disgusted expression as she opened the door, dirtying her hand in the process, much to her dismay.

"Oh god... It's so slimy and gross!" she complained as she released the bar, before they all shoved the door together to open it. Though it wasn’t really much of a door really. More of a stone panel held in place by a slime covered metal bar. A that slid between four stone loops protruding from the wall and stone panel.

As the door slid open, four large rats scampered into the tunnels from the crack between the door and the wall. They squeaked angrily while nipping at the party as they passed between their feet.

With no wings to help him, the lynx instead shuffled his paws with fervor. It was one of the benefits of having a naturally heightened dexterity.

The tunnel opened up into a lesser visited room within the structure of the town walls. A room used for food storage, by the looks of things. Perhaps explaining all the rats.

The other side of the stone panel, which they opened, had convincingly been carved to look like it was part of the large stone blocks making up the wall. There was no way to open the panel on this side, meaning this would be a one way trip. Carefully the panel was put back in place. Best not make the Cult aware of the large underground network after all.

Crystal Jade candles, tied to Lynx and Sil, lit up the storage room revealing a cluttered mess. To be honest, they were fortunate that nothing had been blocking the stone panel. Though perhaps such luck was not by chance. After all, it was the Kharu-Natjer who had made the pact makers aware of this exit.

"You did well, thanks for your help, Lynx!" Akai said, patting Lynx on the back, feigning ignorance while cleaning her hands from the sticky, gross grime in his fur.

He jolted in disgust. “Wipe your filthy hands on Syl instead, at least she could be convinced to enjoy it.”

Before she was done doing so though, the door to the storage room opened to show an infestation of rats running on the ground, so many that it was almost hard to see the ground itself. They crowded around the barrels of food as if at a grand feast.

”Hurray!” Sil exclaimed. ”More rats! Are they part of the plan too?”

"Oh no! No, no, no! I'm not getting close to these things." Akai said, protesting vehemently as she saw the sheer quantity of rats inside the room as she floated higher, doing everything she could to stay away from the rats, despite the quantity.

Clinging to the top of a rotting and empty crate, Lynx observed the swarm with disapproval. “Legends tell of the fearsome hydra whose heads multiply when severed. Rats seem to do the same, but humans do not seem to respect them much.” With little room to maneuver and threats from all sides, he hung on like a man in the heart of a raging storm.

“Funny, is it not?” he asked, in a wry tone that suggested he already knew they thought it wasn’t.

”Silly silly, Lynx.” Sil said happy. ”Maybe you should leave the funny to us.”

Sil dove into the pile of rats, causing them to scatter. She giggled in amusement at their surprise.

”So,” Sil asked. ”what now?”

" Ugh… I hope we don’t meet any more of those things… And Sil! Don’t touch the rats! They’re filthy!” Akai said, scolding Sil who, much to her surprise, had simply jumped into the pile of rats.

"We need to continue. The jade candles we’re carrying will hopefully distract the Sightless while Karina and the others do their part…” Akai said with a slightly annoyed expression. Truth be told, she would rather be anywhere else than in those filthy, dark tunnels but she didn’t have much of a choice…

”Continue?” Sil asked, head tilting to the side.
The door to the storage room creaked open before Sil could get any further clarification.

Akai raised an eyebrow, looking a bit confusedly to Sil the moment she repeated her words. Knowing her well, Akai knew that something was on Sil's head and probably wasn't a good thing.

"Yeah, we can't just-" she started, immediately going silent the second she was interrupted by a voice coming from outside the room, her eyes wide open in surprise as the man poked his head into the storage room.

“Hello?” Came a voice from outside the room. “Is somebody in here?” A man poked his head into the darken storage room.

Sil gasped excitedly. A new friend had come to play!

”CONTINUE!!!” Sil exclaimed as if chanting a battle cry. And without any further warning, she took off at top speed.

“The hell-” The unprepared man yelped. Surprise getting the better of him, the poor man stumbled backwards and fell.

Giggling with glee, Sil flapped her wings just enough to lift off the ground little more than a foot. Charging straight at the man, Sil reared back, paws outstretched, bounced off the man’s belly and propelled herself to the right. Landing safely back on the ground, Sil ran off, around the corner and away from the storage room.

Already, the man was getting back on his feet. “Intruders!” He yelled, not even noticing Lynx and Akai. “Familiar in the walls!”

Too surprised by Sil's battle cry, Akai simply stood still, dumbfounded as Sil charged towards the stranger, making him stumble backwards and fall in surprise before Sil even got near him. As she did so, she lifted off the ground a bit, bouncing on the man's belly with her paws to land on the ground already running off again on full speed.

Despite being caught by surprise, the stranger regained his bearings quickly as he yelled to alarm anyone who could hear about their presence. Even though it didn't seem like he had noticed Lynx and Akai, there wasn't many alternatives for both of them. Sure, they could try fighting back but even if they did take down that man, due to him having yelled, they would probably soon be overwhelmed, by people who probably knew those tunnels way better than they did. Neither the location nor the situation favored them.

"I don't think we should stay to fight and wait for his friends Lynx... Let's go!" Akai said, to Lynx, going after Sil soon after that in full speed.

It all could have gone so well... Illusions, companions putting up a distraction, jade candles to hide them from the Sightless' view for a while... A swift, rather bloodless in-and-out operation that would allow the troops from outside to enter this damn place.

It fell to the ground with a not so subtle thud and the gurgling sounds of a man trying to take his last breaths through a throat filled to the brim with blood. Chres' handling of the dagger was, without any doubt, excellent, but the fact that everybody had been able to notice it in the first place not so much. And why did Chres follow the urge to charge into a room with no less than six hostiles ? It only made even more abrupt intervention necessary in an attempt to save the crazy man's life.

Týfurkh forgot every aspect of stealth for the moment. The sound of him rushing in through the door behind Chres with a lot of clanking armor and a huge crossbow was easily noticeable and the man himself didn't like it at all right now, but Týfurkh thought that he needed to do what must be done. Right now and with no alternatives. He pulled the trigger without hestiation, shooting one of the men at point blank range. The bolt punched through the guard's armor and quite nailed the body one of the small room's walls. It was a waste of a ranged weapon's ammunition weighed against the waste of time.

Týfurkh enganged the next guard right away, trying to use his crossbow as a makeshift melee weapon which he could use to hit some vulnerable parts of the other man. Hopefully the others of the party would come here soon as well, because two versus five still was not a very good ratio.

---

Despite the initial trouble, Karina still had hopes that everything would go well, after all, the little fight the group got themselves into right now barely made any noise and it was unlikely that anyone noticed. Unfortunately for her, her hopes would be quickly crushed when, after Chres said for them to take out the jade candles and went to open the door, met with another guard. Chres was quick though, plunging his blade to the man's throat, before he could scream. As Chres charged into the man though, both of them fell into a room with six other men. Unlike the previous situation, everyone knew that there was no escaping and the element of surprise was now, ruined.

Thinking the same as her, Týfurkh immediately charged behind Chres. Paying no mind to the noise he made, he fired his heavy crossbow with an audible sound, the heavy bolt not only punching through the armor of one of the other six that were in the room, but nailing his body on the wall before he engaged another guard, using his crossbow as a makeshift weapon. Following closely after him, Karina unsheathed her rapier as she moved around Týfurkh with agile and elegant steps, using his big body to hide her smaller frame. Suddenly appearing from behind the giant, Karina lunged towards one of the guards that was next to the one Týfurkh was attacking with his crossbow, thrusting her rapier right under the shoulder plate, where there was no armor other than the gambeson. Karina could feel her blade sliding between the guard's ribs and piercing his lungs. As she pulled the rapier off the guard's chest, she rotated her wrist along with the rapier in a fluid half circle before quickly flicking her wrist, making the rapier move in a deadly arch, with it's tip cutting the guard's throat in a flash as she gave a back step, getting out of immediate range from the guard she just attacked an any other that might be too close as she readied herself for another attack.

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical

---

The guards seemed startled and confused. Two seemed to be in a hurry towards the south side of the wall, one about to go up the nearby stairs and the remaining three appeared as if they might have been with the guy Chres had killed.

With two more of their friends dead, both of them being with the man Chres had killed, The others were quick to pull out their weapons... Well except for the guy going up the stairs and one of the two heading to the south side of the wall. Those two only quickened their pace, the one heading south shouting "Intruders in the North Wall!" The outburst earning him a curse and a throwing knife in the back from Chres. Shocked, the man stumbled to the ground.

The man rushing up the steps did completely unexpected on his way up, however. He blindingly tossed something at the group that appeared to give off a dull red glow from his hand. One of the guards cursed, upon seeing this, and made as if to head for cover. The others were not as observant....

---

---

Chres only caught a glimpse of the glowing orb, but a glimpse was all he needed. "Get down!" He started, eyes wide... but it was already too late.

The Compressed orb of Tempraision magic hit the ground between the three comrades and released a burst of energy.

BOOM! WHOOSH!

Chres felt himself getting thrown to ground and groaned. So that's what it felt like to be on the receiving end of his magic...

---

---

Sil giggled with glee, dodging left right an over all the silly humans trying to tag her. This was so much fun! Why didn't Chres let her do this more often?

That's when whooshing began. An arrow shooting just over her head. It's tip imbued with a dark substance that appeared to drink in the light around it. Shadow Metal. Just the fleeting passage of this arrow seemed to scream at her very essence, threatening to rip her fluffy little body apart!

Another arrow flitted past, bouncing just off the wall. Sil yelped, leaping onto the neck of an nearby unsuspecting man and crawling into a gap in his armor. The man cried out, falling on the floor.

"Get it off me! Get it off me!" He cried. His hand reaching into his armor only to earn him a sharp nip from Sil's Ferret teeth.

Sil vaguely recalled being touched by that Shadowy Metal. Evil stuff! Very evil stuff! She did not wish to get hit by it again!

More started men started shouting, crowding in on Sil's hiding spot. Sil felt cold or the closest thing to what she could only guess cold felt like. A moment of clarity hit her out of the blue.

Why did she run off alone? What was she think?! Wouldn't it have been smarter to stick with her friends? Why was she always so foolish?! Stupid, stupid Sil!

Sil felt herself shiver with fear, pushing herself further into her hiding spot. She nipped fearfully at the man's hand as he tried to grab her a second time. The man cursed in displeasure.

Where were her friends? Why did she leave them?

---

---

Everything was in chaos. They had underestimated the will of the people in this city, and that was going to cost them. Worse, Nieffar refused to acknowledge that. That man relied far too much on the Insight, and that was going to cost him.

Sightless Syella shook her head. Striding down the interior towards the south eastern part of the wall along with an entourage of soldiers and clansmen with magical abilities. An oddity had caught her attention there. A portion of the interior that the Insight could not touch. The pact makers were causing trouble again, she suspected, but how did they get into the wall?

She idly wondered if they had a hand in the uprising of the people. A few clansmen had reported seeing two of them with this man who appeared to be at the uprising's head. This had all seemed rather timely. The mob, the army, this oddity in the walls. The pact makers had outsmarted them somehow, and not just by using crystal jade candles... Something else was going on.

Syella refocused her attention on the oddity inside the walls. It had moved further to the north, which was to be expected. What she hadn't expected, however, was that men appeared to be surviving going into and out of the influence of this blank space of her vision.

Sightless Syella paused. What was going on here? Had the enemy hidden themselves among the enemy? No... there was too much commotion
Centered around the point of interest. Something odd was going on here.

A bell rang, in the distance, to the southwest. The sound of the bell interrupting her thoughts. "Siege Towers! South Wall!"

Syella heart stopped. Siege Towers?! How had they not noticed them? Quickly, she refocused her attention south of the wall and spotted a modest sized force of men from the Nation of Touch heading charging for the wall.

Many carrying ladders, others protecting the ladder holders with towering shields. She saw volleys of arrows be shot from archers at the back of the charge, and acts that could be the product of only magic wielders, what she didn't see were any siege towers. Not a one.

"What in the name of the Unseeing?" Syella said, her pace slowing.

"Mistress Sightless?" A clansman at her side asked.

Syella dove further into the Insight and noticed towering blank areas among the soldiers in the south. A suspicion began arise. The Mirage was doing his work. Syella turned her sightless gaze to the man who spoke.

"You... I need you to find an archer with shadow metal arrows and have them fire the arrows at those siege towers!"

"Mistress?" The clansman said.

"They're not real. Illusions. I'm almost certain of it."

The man's eyes widened, and turned to rush to the south wall. Syella caught him by the arm before he could leave though.

"I could be wrong." She said, looking the man in the eyes. "Inform the ranking officers of the guard of this information but with that caveat. We need to focus our men accordingly, just in case I'm wrong." The man nodded and dashed off with a purpose.

Illusions... Syella thought, refocusing back on the oddity inside the walls. Tilting her head in thought, she shift the Insight's focus elsewhere and found another blanks spot in the North eastern section of the wall. A blank spot away from the other two distractions.

Sightless Syella couldn't help but smile. The Pact makers had coordinated all of this, hadn't they? She couldn't help but feel A sense of respect for her opponents. Somehow, despite the clan's best efforts, they had avoided the clan and had found a way to communicate with the army outside.

"Come." Sightless Syella said to her entourage. "We must secure the gate."

---

Despite his recent developments in trusting others, teamwork was still something that got a raised eyebrow out of Octavio and not much else. This latest skirmish proved to be effective in nudging his mind once more though, as the guards were dispatched with a level of grace he didn't think multiple people could exhibit. The urge to congratulate everyone burst with the slamming of the door that stood between them and more opponents, if the noises were anything to go by.

Supposed to be grateful for the little things in life, he thought. He saw several of his party members rush towards the room to handle things with none of the stealth they were embodying before and opted to continue his foray elsewhere. Being in an enclosed space with multiple people talented in magic was never a good idea.

He quickly settled on one of his usual tactics for infiltration, one in which illusions would monitor an unknown area and alert him in the case of danger, like watchdogs that could double as either assassins or bait depending on who or what they stumbled on. Of course, he realized there was little point in graceful silence at this point, so he ran rather than skulked along, with his eyes set to the south. His standard illusion would maintain a consistent distance from him and ahead of him, and his poorly summoned one would stand guard outside the room until a better use for it came up.

It felt as if only a few brief moments had passed before it was all ruined. At hearing Chres shout, he whipped his neck just in time to see his party members on the receiving end of a magic attack, with his poorly made illusion sent sprawling. It hit him too, toppling his balance with surprising strength. With a groan he let the injured illusion unravel, as the combined injuries of the blast and their first fight had rendered it useless.

"You were never my favorite, anyway," he remarked. Little things, little things, all about the little things. The positive side to this, he was forcing himself to think, was that at least they now knew one of their opponents used tempraision magic. The negative side to this, he thought a second time, was that one of their opponents used tempraision magic.

Octavio stood and flourished a throwing knife alongside his remaining illusion, who rushed to his aid. Between the magic user and another guard, the two stood on edge as the rest of their party members got their bearings. "They've got magic and knowledge of our presence is due to start circulating like ballroom gossip. I think it would be a great idea if we all just started running, doesn't everyone agree?" To accentuate his point, his remaining illusion gave a thumbs up.

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical@Pezz570

---

Jen would watch the group would kill those guards before heading inside. He'd frown as he was hoping for something a little more discrete. After all, there would be plenty enough blood being spilled once they got the gates opened and let in the army in. He was lingering in the back, and was going to be the last to act as well. He saw everyone pour into that room and found himself hesitating, lingering at the edges.

"I'm heading directly to the southern wall outside. I figure it might be good to cause a distraction for all y'all that are charging forward. Feel free to follow, or not." He'd say to them. He knew it was a risky proposition to split up from the group. For them it would be loss of potential manpower; for him it would be a risk of being overwhelmed. However, there was a nagging though in the back of his head. It was a too many cooks in the kitchen situation for him. All these people and their talents going off in such a small space made him feel superfluous and that he was better off doing something else.

Well not like it mattered now. Barely even finishing his train of thought, Jen was already moving away from the group or rather rushing ahead of them. He'd make an effortless bound to take him to the top of the wall. From there it was race to the southern wall. He was hoping that by attacking from behind them it would cause some chaos and help with opening the gate faster. He wanted to destroy that seed as soon as possible. Not only would it would be disruptive and annihilate the cult's forces, it would save lives. Since the ones who weren't completely corrupted by the insight would revert and would hopefully save them from being slaughtered by the army.

---

Karina was in full alert, paying attention at the remaining guards. Since the alarm was already given, it meant that their presence was already known and they had to move fast, lest they wanted to be overwhelmed. Thanks to Karina being alert and paying attention on the soldiers, she was able to see when the one that was going up the stairs threw something at the group. A strange red glowing ball. Due to the reaction the other guards had and Chres' warning, she didn't need to think much to understand what that was. Unfortunately Chres' warning came a bit too late and Karina was only able to kneel down before the compressed orb of tempraision magic exploded.

Even though she managed to avoid any significant damage, the shockwave and the impact she felt due to the explosion were still painful and powerful enough to knock her down and send her body a few meters away where she was before. Still feeling the impact of the tempraision orb in her body, she took a few seconds to stand up again due to the dizziness and pain.

As Octavio approached them, suggesting them to just forget about stealth and run, Karina simply nodded, agreeing with him as she regained her composure.

"Octavio is right. We need to run. Now." she said with a firm voice as she looked at the group, her expression still showing a bit of the pain she was feeling due to the impact from the tempraision bomb.

"Understood. Just remember, you just need to distract them. Try to avoid fighting. If anything goes too wrong just run." Karina said as Jen mentioned he would be separating from the group. Even though it was a dangerous decision for him, Karina herself knew that if done correctly, it would greatly help them and may even buy some precious time for the group to do what they needed.

"For the rest of us, we need to go. Worry not about being silent, just run as fast as we can." she said, getting up and ready to run as she just waited for the rest of the group to reply.

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical

---

Chres nodded while cursing under his breath. Senses, this was his fault wasn't it. Had he been too hasty dashing in like that? He had always been someone who protected. Infiltration had never been were his strengths lay.

"Arrows men! Fire on the intruders!" He heard a man shout from down the corridor, in the direction they were heading.

Chres jumped ahead of the group. His arm raised. Heat stores at the ready. The archers leashed there arrows upon the group, or more particularly towards Chres, since he was at the head. The moment before they landed, however, Chres Shaped a heat construct in the form of a towering shield.

The arrows bounce harmlessly off Chres's shield, and not a moment later, the heat construct vanished. Its remaining energy reabsorbed into Chres's heat stores.

"We need Numbing Ivy!" One of the men shouted as the archers cursed and fumbled to knock in another arrow.

Chres glanced at the others and shrugged. "I suppose you all will have my back then?" He asked, ready to charge forward.

Quite a lot of things were happening at the same time, not all of them being noticed by Týfurkh despite the fact that he probably had the best optical overview over things. Fighting in close quarters was something that just tended to consume all of his attention, so when the magical ball exploded the resulting shockwave hit him without any advance warning. It threw him against the stone wall, barely providing enough time for him to tighten his muscles and to prevent his head from banging against the building too violently. Still he'd probably develop a headache due to this at some point.

Should he charge up the stairs ? Maybe he could intercept this guard, just knock the man out of business before he could come back with reinforcements. It would come at the significant risk of running right into a numerical superiority though and this also was not the direction they had to go. So instead, Týfurhk let the front part of his crossbow drop to the ground and make some nice dents into the wooden paneling as he busied himself reloading. Long and narrow corridors had the big advantage of making targeting very easy for there was hardly any way to evade something, so taking care of the other two guys running away should be easy.

Easy enough for a decent throwing knife as well it seemed. Had that been Chres ? The disturbing thought of having done too little about learning everyone's abilities briefly crossed Týfurkh's mind before it was disrupted by Chres' request. Týfurkh turned his head towards his companion and nodded. Before joining him though he picked up one of the guard's shields.

"Just try to get out of the way quickly when this charge ends, okay ?"

A brief smile appeared on Týfurkh's face as he raised the shield. It wouldn't help Chres standing in front of him, but it would protect his own upper body and hopefully block those arrows which otherwise would fly past him and hit those behind him. The advantage of long, narrow corridors did not only hold true for the pactmakers after all...

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical

---

"Get out of the way?" Chres asked, brow raised. He gave the giant a coy grin before focusing back on the objective ahead.

"Shouldn't be too hard considering your height does all the work for me." Did he just make a joke?

Another barrage of arrows shot towards the group. Chres briefly re-shaped the heat construct, holding it just long enough to block the incoming projectiles.

"Where are our magic deterrents?!" The commanding guard shouted again.

Chres nodded down the hall. "Well..." He said "After me then."

Really, where was this lighthearted attitude coming from? Perhaps all the excitement of potentially leaving this prison was getting to him.

Chres charged forward. Towards the wall gates.

@Jerkchicken

---

Shimmertown had become a city chaos. The moment the fight broken out, the wall guard and Sightless had quickly taken cover inside the safety of the wall. The cultists and guards left behind had quickly been torn apart by the mob.

Locked out from the wall the people had become vulnerable to arrows from above. However, Some of the townsfolk had bows of their own, which they used to stave off the wall's archers. Other civilians had been quick to find makeshift shields which they used to protect themselves and those trying to break down the entrance leading into the wall's interior.

The guard's archer's still outnumber the people though, yet fortunately their attention had seemed to be drawn away from the mob as several archers began making their way south.

Malkev idly wonder just what had drawn their attention. Had their distraction, by the familiars actually pulled away so many men? Unfortunately, he didn't have time to ponder things too deeply for cries coming from the eastern front of the mob alerted him to a new problem. Reinforcements from the cult.

Malkev cursed. The people were saying they had brought magic users and a Sightless as well. Just what could his mob do about a Sightless?

Malkev pulled out the single crystal jade candle given to him by the Kharu-Natjer. "I sure hope this works." Malkev muttered. With a look of determination he rushed towards the cult while snatching a hammer from an unsuspecting civilian amongst the mob.

Malkev rushed as close to the cult as he dared and caught glimpse of the Sightless amoung the chaos. The monster's fingers were soaked in blood as they elongated over and over, cutting down Malkev's people.

"SIGHTLESS!!!" Malkev screamed at the top of his lungs while dropping the crystal jade candle to the ground.

Surprisingly, the Sightless appeared to take notice of him. Had it actually hear him over the scream and cries of the wounded and dying?

Getting down on one knee, hammer held tightly in his hand, Melkev stared into those scratched out, unseeing eyes.

"Get the hell out of my home." Malkev growled.

Down came the hammer, smashing the crystal jade candle into pieces. Malkev shut his eyes as the Kharu-Natjer advised. Sure enough, a blinding brightness shot forth from the shatter candle. It made the sky sparkle and cut through the distortion.

They day seemed brighter. The sun its natural yellow. Shadows fled from the light instead of towards it. The world... it appeared as it should.

Cultists cried out, a few even falling to the ground. "Give it back!" some cried. "What have you done?" others shouted.

Malkev's people were taken aback, surprised by this turn of events, but Malkev knew better than to stand around. He knew that this reprieve wouldn't last. The Distortion would soon take back the ground the light had gained.

"Attack!!" Malkev cried. "Focus on the Sightless! He can't take us all at once!"

The Sightless had keeled over to the ground. Oblivious to the world around it. Malkev charged the creature, others following his lead. The monster clawed at the dirt. It's fingers elongating and digging into the dirt.

CRACK! The Sightless took Malkev's hammer in the face. It's sickly yellowish-green puss oozing from the crack in its head. Tiny vines shot out from the wound weaving together in an attempt to heal the creature.

CRACK! This time it took a blow in the back. The creature cried out as Malkev kicked it in the chest.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

People had gathered around the beast and had joined in the attack. Puss poured out from numerous wounds in the Sightless. It had taken so many wounds that the tiny vines it used to heal itself no longer sprouted from fresh wounds.

"No..." The Sightless croaked weakly. "Not like this..."

The Sightless began to still. Its breathing slowing.

"Murder!!" Someone yelled.

Malkev's vision flashed as a spike pain shot through his head.

"DAMN HEATHEN!" More pain. This time in the chest. "You killed him! You killed Sightless Laxwin!"

Right... the Cultists... Malkev had completely forgotten about them...

---

Karina watched as the arrows from the guards were blocked by Chres' heat shield, bouncing harmless without penetrating it. When one of the guards shouted that they needed numbing ivy, Karina couldn't help but to curse under her breath. She was getting tired of all the deterrents and how the cultists seemed to be always prepared to use them.

"The deterrents again!" she said, cursing just after Chres asked if they would have his back, followed by Týfurkh, who raised his shield in front of Chres after the heat construct disappeared.

Using her ice magic, Karina touched the ground, hiding herself behind Týfurkh's shield. From the point where her hand touched the ground, a layer of ice began appearing in a cone in front of her hand, spreading through the ground and going towards the guards. The moment the ice completely covered the ground where the guards were, Karina stood up, looking at the group. Not much needed to be said regarding what she would do. The moment Chres and Týfurkh charged forwards, Karina made a swift motion with her hands, making the layer of ice suddenly grow spikes, trapping, piercing and immobilizing the guards' feet. Making sure to melt the ice in front of the group to prevent them from slipping and falling as they charged, Karina followed them with her rapier unsheathed and ready to strike anyone that stood in front of them with blade and ice alike.

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical

---

The guards cursed. Those in mid run, tripping and falling to the ground. Feet frozen in place by ice thanks to Karina.

That's nifty. Chres thought. He approached the closest pair of archers hatchet at the ready. Far too distracted by the ice, Chres took the first in the chest, while swinging his left arm wide to the side and Re-Shaping the shield from before to bat off any would be attack from the second archer. Rather than deflect an attack, however, his heat construct ended up smacking the man straight in the face.

Chres ignored the man, leaving him to his allies to handles. Tugging his hatchet free from the first guard, he passed the second guard and dismissed his heat construct.

More curses. Another barrage of arrows blocked by Chres's reformed heat construct.

This is too easy. Chres thought. Chres regretted the though almost immediately, as the floor beneath him seemed to erupt.

Chres cried out as bits of stone shot from the ground and catching him in a most... unfortunate place... The good news? Chres had been wise enough to wear protection just for today. The bad news? SENSES BE DAMNED! It still fucking hurt!

Chres groaned doing his best to stay up on his feet. You fall in battle, you die in battle. And Chres was no longer certain he was ready to die. So instead of collapsing to his knees, as he so dearly wanted to, Chres clenched his jaw straight and set his gaze on the suspected culprit. A woman wielding two oddly shaped.... Where those even weapons?

In one hand, the woman held a short brass stick, curving off on the end into a large knob. But it wasn't just some sort of brass club, for on the opposing side of the knob, the weapon curved out in the opposing direction much like the head of a horn. The head of an instrumental horn, that is! The weapon even appeared to be hollow like a horn! Stranger still, taunt strings appeared to be attached to the horn-club, leading from the hilt of the weapon and into the sleeve of the women's uniform.

In the woman's other hand the woman appear to hold something akin to a wooden clarinet, except she held it as if it were a bow of a violin. And indeed the weapon... instrument... whatever it was... even had a long strand of bow hair coming down the side of the clarinet.

The woman held the club-Horn outwards towards the feet of her comrades. She took the clarinet-bow and used the hairs to strum the taunt string connected to the club-horn. A single musical note rang out, the air around the club-horn appearing to vibrate. A line of vibrating air shot from from the club-horn and at one of the guards feet. The ice surrounding his feet shattering.

The woman quickly did the same to two other comrades before turning her attention back to Chres and the rest. Placing the mouth piece of the clarinet bow to her lips, she blew into the device.

Chres raised his arm quickly shaping his heat construct block any projectiles, but none came. Instead, a gust of wind blew from the device knocking Chres off his feat and into his comrades. As the blast of wind bombarded Chres and the rest, the woman slammed the knob of the club-horn into the stone wall next to her. The wall seemed to erupt, like the ground had beneath Chres prior.

A long crack shot from where she struck the wall moving quickly towards the group. Along its wake, bits of stone blast outwards striking at all those nearby.

Chres cursed. Weaving his stores of body heat into a protective wall to protect the group from the eruption of stone. Unlike with Shaping, a Woven heat construct was static. It would take a force of nature more powerful than a blast of wind to know this wall down. Unfortunately, this trick did come with a higher cost to his heat stores.

As soon as stone bounced safely off his wall. Chres dismissed the construct while making sure to reabsorb as much left over energy as he could.

"Any ideas?" He asked, noticing some of the archers were reading a new round of arrows.

Týfurkh was both surprised and, of course, glad that Chres had managed to get out of the way before he'd have bumped into the other man at the speed they had been running through the corridor. However he was less than happy about the woman they encountered. Týfurkh couldn't help but only describe her as a truly new kind of enemy. Her magic technique, with the horn and strings in one hand and the clarinet-violin-hybrid in the other, appeared to be a member of the bewildering array of things the Nation Of Hearing had come up with so far, but Týfurkh himself was a practitioner of hearing and such had a quite good idea about said array of things. These contraptions were not a part of it, this had to be something different!

That would only make the task of dealing with her harder. Enemies one had no idea about were probably the most dangerous of all, so they had to be careful. The giant man therefore opted against what would probably have been the most immediate method of attack and did not start to draw the vastly smaller woman in a melee, but instead aimed his crossbow at her in a rapid move. Just before pulling the trigger thouch he touched the bolt gently, charging it with vibrations so small in amplitude one could only see them on close range, but so frequent that they were very powerful still.

Then Týfurkh released the bolt, sending it on its way towards the woman's chest. He truly did not know what would come out of this, but any ordinary person without much armor and without adequate protective magic would probably burst into a cloud of red matter. A cloud large enough to hamper his and his companion's visions, but even more so the vision of those archers standing closer to its point of origin.

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical

---

The flick of movement of the giant's crossbow caught the woman's eye. Eyes widening, She quickly stomped her left foot to the ground. With a loud crack, the stone floor surrounding her foot appear to rush together and shot upwards. A stone spire formed just in time to connect with the arrow.

The top of the spire exploded, it's shockwave causing the woman to cry out as she was send sprawling to floor.

Chres raised his brow, impressed. It seem the large man could do more than just throw his voice. Chres took the opportunity to advance further down the corridor hacking away at some guards while batting away others for his comrades to handle.

As more arrows shot their way, only to bounce harmlessly off Chres's shield, Chres couldn't help but notice that the woman had recollected herself. Placing the mouth piece to the Club-horn at her lips, she pointed it at nearby lit torch and blew. The air around the torch seemed to vibrate, as suddenly the fire began to flare up...

Ah... Chres thought, as he started to catch onto her abilities. This can't be good.

---

Karina watched, controlling her ice in order for Chres to not fall as he advanced, dealing with the guards rather effortlessly thanks to her ice magic. It was all going rather well until a woman with a strange instrument-like weapon appeared, somehow doing the very ground under Chres explode. Thankfully, despite her attack, it seemed like Chres was able to tolerate the pain and continue going instead of falling on his knees. Upon a closer look, even though how the woman's weapon worked was still a mystery, Karina was at least able to understand how she was causing the damage. Somehow, whenever she played such instrument, it would amplify the vibrations of the sound and discharge them with possibly lethal force to where she was pointing the instrument. If it was strong enough to explode the ground like that, Karina didn't want to be the one to test if a blast of that thing was indeed lethal or not...

To make things even worse, after attacking Chres and stopping him in his tracks, instead of continuing attacking them, she began destroying the ice that was trapping the other guards' feet, freeing them. Immediately after freeing them, she turned her instrument towards the wall, blasting it with a note, sending a crack in the wall towards their direction, making bits of stone blast off it. Thanks to Chres though, her attack was blocked by his heat construct. Following the woman's attack and in order to either deal with her or prevent her from attacking again, Týfurkh shot a bolt from his crossbow right at the woman with the instrument. Unfortunately, she saw through his attack and was able to block it with a hastily made spire of stone. What she didn't saw through though was that Týfurkh also had some trick of his own, using his ability to make the bolt explode upon contact, which sent shards of stone right at the woman, making her fall on her back.

"That is surprisingly dangerous!" Karina said, raising an eyebrow as she looked towards Týfurkh with a smirk.

"I like it." she said with a chuckle.

As the woman recovered herself though, she once again got ready to attack with her instrument, this time though, for some reason she aimed at the torch on the wall. Initially oblivious to her plan, Karina just thought she had missed, until she saw the flames on the torch flaring up dangerously fast.

Without time to think, Karina used her ice magic again. With a quick motion, she held her rapier in front of her, pointing up. As she did that, a bone shivering cold air began to come out, cold enough to freeze the humidity in the walls, creating an ice layer over them and even forming tiny icicles on the ceiling. That blast of cold would probably be enough to extinguish the fire, though it would very likely extinguish all the other lights on the room as well.

"Can you guys distract them for just a moment?" Karina asked in a low tone, discreetly nodding towards the now ice covered walls where small bumps began forming in the ice, almost as if she was trying to discreetly gather the ice in one place.

If they were lucky, neither the guards nor the woman with the instrument would notice the small bumps on the wall or dismiss them as nothing. If they did so, as long as they didn't get out of the room or charged at them, Karina would make them suddenly turn into spikes, suddenly extending out towards them. The result wouldn't be pretty to whoever was caught in the middle of that attack, hence why she asked her allies to not move.

Jen's swift crossing atop the wall would slow as his got closer to the inside of the town. In distance he could see and hear a big fight breaking out. Karina's advice to avoid conflict was just but spoken moments ago, and yet he was already straying from them as his attention focused on the townsfolk and their fight. They were far from an organized and well trained force. Furthermore whatever numbers they had still wouldn't mean much given their foes had strong supernatural powers and actually were trained to fight. Perhaps with enough bodies thrown at them they might slow and overcome the cult, but such a tactic if it could scarcely be called one was distasteful and disrespectful to the lives of these people. He could feel the hairs on his body stand up stiff as a bristle when he saw them fighting a sightless.

The only thing that would stopping him from acting would also be the thing that would make this fight hard to ignore. A flash, a very bright flash would cover the area he was looking at and overwhelm his sight. A void of radiance flushed out the world around Jen. Luckily for him he wasn't so close as to be hit by the full strength by the crystal jade being broken. When the effect wore off the artificial gloom caused by distortion would be temporarily reversed. The blue sky with minimum clouds and a bright shining sun overhead could be seen. The precious connection the insight severed would lead to a severely weakened sightless becoming overwhelmed by the crowd. In that crowd Jen saw a familiar face, it was Malkev one of their allies against the cult.

The victory of the crowd over the sightless who died a most pitiful death was fleeting. There was still plenty of cultist, and one looking to avenge the death of their leader had struck a solid blow against the man. Malkev would be downed and Jen would race to the heart of the battle. Jen would make a prodigious leap from one of the rooftops and make a grand sweeping attack against the cultists knocking them all away. The humble green stick would strike swiftly and hard as it swung and thrust its way to Malkev. "Hey old man, where's your allies at? We need to get you out of here, because there's no way you're going to be able to fight in that condition."

@Jerkchicken

---

Malkev groaned as the beating stopped.

"Old man..." Malkev muttered rubbing his head. He look up towards his savior. "You..." Malkev said brow furrowed. Why had this man left his companions. Had their plan failed?

Getting back to his feet, Malkev shook his head. Now was not the time for such questions. "Leave? While my people are here fighting for their home? No. I will run and hide like a coward." Malkev said proudly.

Looking ahead, he noticed his actions appeared to have turned the tide somewhat. The civilians had taken the opportunity to attack the cultist caught up in the blinding light from crystal jade candle. They beat the cultists back, stealing what weapons they could.

"I lost my guard in the chaos." Malkev said to Jen. "Most to the crowd. The rest to attackers. As for The Kharu-Natjer's men... No idea. Supposedly they are gathering resistance at various central locations of town."

"Kill the heathen!!!!" A cultist cried, catching Malkev's attention. The cultist pointed in Malkev's direction. His cry getting picked up by a small mob of cultists. Who proceeded to rush Malkev and Jen. Perhaps killing one of their Sightless was not the smartest move of the day...

"Son-" Malkev started, before instantly cursing himself over his own choice of words. Gods! He was becoming an old man, wasn't he? "-I may have lost my guard, but I will happily accept your protection in their stead."

Malkev, dropped his hammer picking up a spear from one of the men Jen dropped. He leveled the spear, doing his best to look threatening, when in truth he knew not what he was doing. Fortunately though, he was fairly certain the man Jen did.

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical

---

"Sounds like Octavio's thing." Chres said as he batted off some more arrows. He hoped Karina plan was a good one, for if his suspicions about this woman's abilities were on the mark...

Despite the flame having gone out, The woman paid Karina a sidelong glance and smirked. Clarinet-bow in hand, She strum the bow along the taunt string leading from the pummel of the Club-Horn and to the side of her uniform.

The note of a stringed instrument reverberated in the air. A line of air vibrating from the end of the Club-horn and to the ice covered wall. A large chunk of ice shattered, its broken shards hovering in a small vortex of vibrations.

The shards quickly melted, consolidating into a glob of water. The woman continued strumming the bow on the taunt string, shatter more chunks of ice from the wall.

"It's Elementa Musaision!" Chres shouted as the glob of water suddenly shot towards them, blocked by a heat construct weaved by Chres at the last moment. The jet of water slammed into the wall of the construct and exploded into a puff steam. Despite the Chres's construct protecting them from the blow, he could still feel the heat coming off from the steam.

He quickly used the opportunity to redirect a good portion of his own body heat into his heat stores, allowing the steam's excess heat to warm him and prevent him from going into a shock from a sudden change in his bodily temperature.

Elementa Musaision, the use of instruments to call upon the element. From what Chres had heard, each type of instrument utilized a different element. Woodwind called upon wind. Stings, water. Percussion, earth. And Brass, fire. Most people were able to use one or two elements. People capable of three were rare. Four... unheard of.... And yet.

Chres lowered the heat construct, and examined this unique individual. Shame they would probably have to kill her...

"To be able to use all four elements... Lets hope she's just a jack of all trades." Chres said. "Knowledgeable of all four elements, but an expert of none. Regardless, perhaps if we distract her with everything we got, then Karina could get in her attack."

Chres looked to his comrades. Týfurkh with his exploding arrows. Octavio with his illusions. Ferris with his speed augmenting abilities. Chres would back them up defensively as Karina could enact her plan and land the final blow. Together, they could do this!

---

Lagging behind the rest of the group, Octavio grit his teeth at his choice of magic. The others had their own methods to protect themselves from ranged projectiles, methods that were effective and most importantly, aesthetically pleasing. As for him? He swung a severed arm around with debatable success. Or at least, that’s what it seemed to be at first. In reality it had been a hastily summoned fragment of his own arm, poorly made due to the time constraints that were imposed by the constant stream of chaos erupting all around him, with gray blotches in the areas that should have been bleeding. He actually didn’t have a name for this particular use of his power. Lynx had once referred to it as “a bewilderingly disgusting display of human anatomy” but that didn’t have a pleasing ring to it, much like the woman and her instruments.

Why did I think illusions were a better idea than studying to be a bard?! he whined, swatting at an arrow that landed within inches of his boots. With his remaining illusion acting as a second unconventional shield, he had been faring surprisingly well against the archers. Not the woman though.

“Use of distractions, a fascinating proposal,” he told Chres, a veneer of confidence concealing any trace of panic in his voice. It was customary for one such as himself to resort to such methods when combating stronger threats. Octavio, unfortunately, had found himself unable to think of any act of bravery or cunning that would-

Unless.

“Need a hand?! Take this!”

Octavio’s severed arm illusion flopped wildly in the air without a trace of poise, landing on the woman’s body with a thud that could have been described as meaty. Misshapen fingers clawed at and plugged up whatever holes they could sense on her clarinet-bow, while the remaining mass of arm undid its form just enough to make even looking at the instrument a flabbergasting experience. Even more than it already was, anyways.

The woman yelped. Concentration broken, the new shards of ice, which she had begun gathering, fell to the ground As she frantically shook the clarinet-bow in an effort to knock the illusion off.

Chres shook his head, scoffing quietly ”Need a hand? Really?”

“The hell is this?!” The woman shrieked. Absently, struck the club horn against the wall causing the stone surface to jut out into spikes. Each new stones spike spawning closer the hero’s position.

Chres cursed as he threw up a construct. The spikes collided in such a force that the construct itself cracked. The Weave of his construct slowly began to unravel.

Eyes wide, Chres released the weave as soon as it was safe and did his best to recover whatever heat he could from the dieing construct.

”Senses! I’ve never seen an attack do that to a construct before!”

This was not good. Sustaining his magic relied on him not overusing his heat stores. That last attack had caused him to lose more energy than he would have liked.

Týfurkh damned himself for having used that bolt. Shouldn't he have waited for when their enemy had been more distracted so she wouldn't have been able to defend herself properly ? Then the bolt could have killed her, but now it was pretty much nothing but wasted while also revealing one part of what he could do. Crossbows were quite effective, but not during reloading. He couldn't do that now in all the chaos around him.

The word 'distraction' had become stuck in his mind however, but the reason why his brain had such a great interest in the term revealed itself to his consciousness only slowly: Didn't... didn't that woman apparently have to use her 'instruments' in order to do anything ? So it had been each and every time so far, hadn't it ? One just had to look at how frantically she was trying to defend her 'clarinet' against whatever kind of both fascinating and outright revolting... material... Octavio had thrown at her. Now: What would happen if she'd have to deal with something a lot bigger and stronger than a disgusting, wobbling caricature of a human arm ? Something like... himself ?

The problem was: She had just managed to defend herself against a bolt, something a huge lot faster than he could ever hope to be. It was to be expected she'd be able to come up with yet another move to hurt him well before he'd be able to reach her. So some kind of distraction was in demand! Týfurkh looked at the stone walls and reminded himself of what he had done to the guard outside minutes earlier...

"Hey you! Has anybody ever told you about your fat ass ?"

Týfurkh was not talking to her, but shouting at the wall instead using a focused wavefront. He hoped the trick would work again, the reflected echo reaching the woman from behind and making her believe someone was indeed standing behind her. And what could be more suited to get one's attention than some, any kind of insult ? It could hardly matter what kind of verbal garbage he threw at her, could it ?

Karina kept concentrating herself as she continued preparing her attack. Such fine control over ice was not something easy to do, especially since she was trying to be as discreet as possible about her attack. Still, the woman with the instrument continued to be a threat not only to Karina, but the rest of the party as well. Thankfully, Octavio's illusions were making a very good job of creating chaos and distracting the woman. Throwing a severed arm towards her and making it plug all holes it could find of the woman's strange instrument made the shards of ice she was manipulating to fall to the ground. No matter the corny joke Octavio did, his illusion was doing a very good job.

Unfortunately, as it was already made clear by Chres' explanation, the woman could still attack and prove herself to be a problem to the group even as her instrument was being tampered with. As she slammed the instrument on the wall, trying to free it from Octavio's illusion, it made the stone surface to jut out into spikes, getting dangerously close to the group. Chres managed to block the spikes, but not without visible effort. The construct he made could only barely blocked the spikes, cracking under the stress as it did so. Due to the nature of his magic being close to Karina's, she knew he wouldn't be able to continue like that forever. The urgency of their situation forced her to make a dangerous gamble. Stopping paying attention on her surroundings and any possible attack, Karina focused only on controlling the ice on the walls, doing her best to hasten the cast of such technique.

Meanwhile, using his hearing magic, Týfurkh was trying to draw the woman's attention, making his voice sound like it was coming from behind the woman. Finding such distraction to be perfect to mask the already discreet noise the ice spikes would make to extend out of the wall and having already finished with the formulation of her technique, she waved her rapier in front of her in a diagonal slash, resting it on her side, pointing down as she released her technique. The moment she did so, less than a second after Týfurkh used his technique, the ice bumps immediately changed their forms to spikes and were launched with great speed from different angles and places in the wall, with random trajectories. As soon as she released the ice spikes, it became clear why she said for her allies to remain where they were. The attack chose no targets, instead it was simply a deadly shower of ice spikes. Anyone and anything that was in the general proximity of where the guards or the woman was would be in deadly danger.

The woman jumped. Jerking her head to where she heard the voice. Her eyes widened. Just in time to see her icy end. Blood spattered across the hallway. The few soldiers who survived, turned to flee towards backup.

”Splendid, my…” He still hadn’t named that technique, Octavio realized, “...distraction worked.” He forcefully cleared his throat. The way he uttered the words, it was as if it hadn’t been an improvised act of desperation. Whatever. It was as they said, history was written by the victors.

”Thank goodness for that.” Chres said, breathing a sigh of relief. ”Damn, Karina. That was some attack. How much more of that do you have in you?”

Thankfully, Karina's attack succeeded in killing the woman. Even though some soldiers survived, they ran away after the woman's rather grim demise. It was fortunate too, since Karina gambled a lot in that attack. Not only she let herself open while concentrating herself but it didn't take much for the others in her group to realize how much effort it took for her to use that attack. The already rather pale Karina was even paler, her breath was so cold that it was condensating the air around her and even though she was trying to hide it, her shivers were still noticeable if one paid close attention.

"I-I can still continue. It's j-just... C-cold..." Karina said, with a shaky voice as she replied to Chres as she sheathed her rapier. Not much was needed for one to realise that she wouldn't be able to use such a complex attack like that one without her body temperature lowering to dangerous levels and in the state she was in right now, it would be best if she refrained from using her ability too much for a while, at least until her temperature went back to normal.

Chres pursed his lips, taking in her condition. Looking her in the eyes, he gave her a subtle nod. "We better continue then.” He started, "Karina, let us take the push forward from here. We will need you in the fights yet to come.”

He looked ahead towards their destination. Their path had been mostly cleared thanks to Karina. Most of the wall guard had fled towards the gatehouse in an attempt to regroup. While the remaining guards quickly had a change of heart after seeing their friends retreat.

Chres continued their charge. "This is our chance!” Chres shouted to the others behind him. ”If we make it to the gatehouse, then we have a chance to open the wall to the citizens!”

Octavio took off running once more, his illusion and him crossing one another’s paths to bewilder any would-be attackers. The archers must have caught on at some point, as many had mostly given up trying to hit a nimble target with a shield identical to it in appearance. ”Heavens do we need that,” he told Chres, sparing a glance at Karina and his one remaining illusion, ”we’re starting to wear ourselves down.” More encounters like their previous one would be disastrous for the party. The idea of a flood of reinforcements seemed more and more irresistible with each passing moment.

"It would be nice to be on the receiving end of reinforcements for once.” Chres agreed. Unfortunately, it seemed that they would probably have to fight their way to the door, as the soldiers appeared to have reformed in a tight group inside the gate house.

One of the soldiers stepped forward drawing a bow notched with a single arrow. Oddly, the arrow seemed to be coated in a purplish blue color. The archer released the arrow. Chres shaped his shield and knocked the-

The arrow broke through the construct, causing the construct to dissipate. Chres’s eyes widened in surprise as the arrow shot past his head and towards Týfurkh.