An explosion and a strong gust of wind, followed by a smaller explosion. Evan winced at least twice. Yeah, they really were going to get loud, weren't they? It's not entirely that bad with the furred earflaps on his modified coonskin cap.

Oddly enough, it's being amidst a battle that only made him calmer, being more used to fighting than talking.
A deep inhale. Blood sight, eyes glowing gold. Six fleshy bundles of blood vessels incoming.
While he yet felt the courage, Evan walked up to beside Jazdia and uttered. "Just 'Evan' is fine."

A large hand made of 1m³ dry ice emerged above Evan in a third of a second, and immediately it careened itself towards one of the first two incoming men that Louise didn't shoot, shaping itself into a fist. As it reaches the man, Evan himself loses control of it for being out of his range, but he surely gave it enough spin to hinder or impact the three men behind the first two, even if the target dodges it.

A bassy thud would ensue as it hits the floor.

"Who the fuck--- Whose ass was it dares attacking our turf!"

A thunderous sound of a gunshot answered it, and despite the aggressive interrogatives and bold posturing, the thug was merely a target for Louise's musket. The bullet sped off through the darkness unhindered, and his gambeson did little to prevent the full-sized lead ball from plowing a hole in his midsection. The first casualty in this battle jerked backward and fell to the ground, expiring with blood gurgling from his mouth and nose.

The lack of light indeed slowed one's response. When the second thug heard a thud, it took him a full second to discern what in the world happened to his friend. Though he had his sword ready in his hand, whatever reactionary action he would perform was already too late. An ice fist the size of the biggest cannonball he had ever seen hurled toward him, and when he laid down on the ground with his jaw and other facial bones broken, the last thing he saw was its bluish color as the mass of ice impacted his head.

Due to its sheer mass, the ice landed shortly afterward and stopped just a few meters away from the incoming thugs after skidding for some brief distance. It startled them, but they managed to handle the situation smarter than their downed friends. Instead of blindly approaching a group of people who clearly capable of flattening their gate with a devastating explosion, they regrouped and had their crossbow readied before throwing the only torch they had toward the gate, adding more illumination to reveal the incoming attacker.

Seeing the incoming danger, Jazdia made a wide step toward the wall, just a moment before the sounds of bolts whizzed in the air. One of them hit Louise's shield with a distinctive twang, and it tumbled in the air before embedding itself on the grass next to her. The other flew past Evan's ear, while the last one darted harmlessly into the darkness.

Oh yeah, nice and flashy. A few of the defenders were taken down within the first few seconds, though the rest rallied rather quickly. And apparently combat-ready? One of them tossed their torch a surprising distance, just about enough to shed light on the group. And then they fired - they sleep with their crossbows strung up, apparently - real accurately, though thankfully not quite deadeye. Not wanting to miss the action Yvonne too sprung forth as she tapped into her inner strength, bounding a significant distance forward with every step.

Inhale, deep. Feel the spark of flame within. Grab at it, and... unleash.

"HAH! I'LL TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!"

The sound was almost physical, a terrorizing wave that grip at the heart and cloud the mind. Not the best effect at their distance, but should disrupt their reloading long enough for her to reach into melee. And once she do, well, it'll be time to keep her words and tear them limb from limb.

Hiding behind the shield after Evan's big high-five to the group of defended thugs and the volley the bolts headed to them, Louise know when to shoot. Slyphy told Louise which on is the best shooting among the crossbow men. The fairy was Louise's watch when the time the blonde squire hid on her shield, physical harm won't affected the fairy and only magical spells that are specified against on her and the anti magical barrier. The blonde squire woman then leaned at side of the erected shield. Made a breathing technique to stabilize her aim. She carefully aim as one of her party is charging towards to them. With a proper calculation, she released another thunderous gun shot before Yvonne physically can be seen from her Line of Sight. The bullet fly straight toward to their best shooter.

"Reloading." Louise notified her party as she started to reload her musket again behind the shield.

Ah, crap...
Evan failed to control his strength, and now one of the thugs had blood leaking into the gaps of their fractured face bones.
Strangely, it didn't disturb him as much as he imagined he would. No more disassociated to death than with the innumerable amount of wild animals he's killed in his existence, plenty enough to earn the ire of a spirit.
That's not good. He was disappointed in his inherent indifference to killing. He looked at Jazdia leaping towards the wall to hide. He liked her words. It is only a shame that he didn't really need them.

Wait, hiding? Bolts whizzed past Evan, stirring him back up into the battle he is in right now. He squinted.
It's easy to make the easy choice. To kill with no qualms like his current allies can, and excuse it as duty. Whatever karmic retribution this brings him, he'll just have to live with it.

He walks forward, grabbing the torch with an ice hand accurate to the size of his own hand, and hurling both towards the farthest thug, the fourth one at the back. Once within range, the giant ice hand lifts itself from the ground and its own permeated pool of cold smoke, and grabs at the nearest thug that wasn't yet assaulted by either Yvonne or Louise.

Varya Chandrar

Varya ran swiftly, following Veronica as they made their to the western stone wall. She used a grapling hook to effortlessly scale the wall. She asked how we took to scaling walls. "I do well enough." Varya had experience jumping, tumbling, and performing acrobatic stunts, as well as climbing walls and rooftops to gather information for his employers, this wall would not be too much trouble. That being said, the bears started making their way up the wall, tearing chunks of plaster as they go. He decided to let the sisters finish scaling the walls so he could take advantage of the openings. Work smarter, not harder.

Varya then heard a massive boom originating from the south, followed by the chaos of battle. No doubt Jazdia's team. After the bears lumbered over the wall, he jumped from gap to gap like a frog, reaching the top in a matter of seconds. Varya clung to the top, looking down and around for signs of guards. Then a horrible scream rang from the direction of the battle, and it sent a shiver down Varya's spine. Such cruelty, such malevolent intent. He did NOT want to go anywhere that inhuman noise. He looked at Veronica and whispered: "What the hell is that!?" After that he would keep his eyes and ears out for any signs of life, keeping his head down as he clung to the outside of the wall, occasionally peeking over to check.

---

The explosion wasn’t subtle, like that was even possible for explosions. It was loud enough to alert the man lingering inside. It was loud enough to be heard by the far western corner where Solomon, Veronica, and the others were beginning to cross the wall. All in all, it sounded like the distraction was working as intended. Solomon looked over towards the southern edge of the wall on instinct before he attention returned to the others.

“This wall Is decently tall,” Solomon commented. His head tilted back as he looked up towards the top. The tower that extended further skyward just nearby made it appear more imposing. The masonry was worse for wear, haven’t been treated in a good long while, bit that didn’t matter much to Solomon. “But walls haven’t been too much of an issue for me. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Solomon faced the wall. As a breeze blew past, the grasses shifted and the near by tree leaves rustled, yet Solomon’s clothes remained still. His form turned shadowy as all pigmentation, as little as there was faded into darkness. Almost like smoke, Solomon’s form disappeared into the wall, no longer possible to be seen from any of his allies outside.

Near the front of the estate, the gate was easily blown open and already the two sides were engaging. The few men on the inside were already prepared. A boom and a yell from Yvonne and everything quickly went into full swing. Athena ran forward, her shield up, and her spear poised. Incoming bolts flew through the air, piercing the low laying smoke from Louise’s musket. Still, she pressed on, following near Yvonne as they pushed forward. If she could put more attention onto her, the Louise and the other ranged members of the group could continue unafraid of being pushed into. All the while, Athena kept watchful eye of her surroundings, her gaze piercing the darkness.

The man stared at the people down the hill from him after waking up abruptly, and placed his hand over his face as he sighed, "we could have done this entirely without having to alert the entire area..." he muttered quietly, and he just stared at them, "Why are we attacking when we all could have gotten inside without a fight, found the bear and then killed the others without splitting our forces with at least two powerful mages together."

He slowly just stepped out of his cart and stared down the road towards the engagement back with his grandson who was left slightly behind everyone to just keep them out of the way. Erwin just held his musket, his sword on his side as he stared down, and the two started making their way down the way. He stared and looked his grandson, "anti-magical field, have the bag of flour?"

"Yes grandfather, old tricks to deal with anti-magic, I have studied the tactics used in the north." Erwin said looking over at his grandfather.

"Go ahead, meet with the others, I will be there shortly once you have prepared."

With that Erwin took off down the road as he stared at the fight happening ahead of him, he pressed his lips together and had a bag of flour in a pouch under his arm and tied around his torso, his musket was in the other arm as he ran.

Location: Western outer wall --> inner wall, Stritzel's Estate, Western Kindeance.

---

Twirling the grappling hook in one hand, Veronica smiled, as she watched Lily and Rose scale the wall. Out of everyone she had with her, those two had been her greatest concerns at this juncture, but it seemed like she needn't have worried. She'd heard bears were fairly good climbers, surprisingly and often frighteningly so, and it seemed that was very much the case here.

A light whistle of air was followed by a quiet, sharp clink of metal, as her grapple hook was sent soaring in a practiced throw, the metal catching securely in the nook of the wall's parapet. She shot Varya a commiserate smirk of approval at his answer, beginning her own swift ascent. The distant sound of explosions and a ringing battle cry briefly brought her ascent to a stop halfway up the wall, before she shook her head and finished pulling herself up, winding up her rope and tucking it and the grapple hook in her pack.

Her eyes narrowed at the distant fight breaking out in the dark. From this angle, atop the wall, she could barely see it without the manor's bulk obstructing it. A Varya's hushed, concerned question, she chuckled. "Sounds like Yvonne's getting her appetite up." Shaking her head, Veronica moved to the side of the wall facing the manor. "I know they said they'd be making a ruckus, but I wonder if they aren't enjoying themselves a little too much." A chuff of amusement escaped her.

Glancing back the way they came and then forward and seeing no sign of her fellow undead, Veronica restrained a grin. "It seems Solomon is doing his thing." Gesturing towards the mansion with a jerk of her head, Veronica smirked. "Alright ladies and gents, let's move. Don't worry about Solomon losing us, even if you can't find him." A sly, knowing smile spread across her lips. "He'll be around when he needs to be. Just do your best to keep up; we've got a bear to save."

With little else to be said, the pale girl leaped right off the side of the wall, her Sight blooming out into action on reflex, visions of the next few seconds flying through her gaze, before she tucked into a roll, bleeding momentum from her leap harmlessly. The rest of her forward pace was conserved, as the vampire sprinted across the open field like a flickering shadow in the night, her footsteps nearly light as feathers under the influence of a kunoichi's practiced footwork.

She only stopped moving once she was pressed up against the northwestern corner of the outer side of the inner wall, ears perked and attention focused on the other side, listening for any form of movement. She waited there, still as a statue, debatably even breathing in her silence, until the rest of the infiltration team had caught up. Once they had, she made sure to reiterate in a whisper what they could expect once they reached their target. After all, past this point, there was the chance she might not have the opportunity to ensure everyone was on the same page again.

"Once we get into the basement complex, we -in theory- face limited opposition. There are five guards down there, individual capabilities unknown, but they probably aren't a huge threat as long as we don't get careless. The real problems are a woman with red hair, who gives off the impression of being some kind of mage, and a second bear, not Cedar. The other guy is huge, bigger than your brother." She glanced at the twins. "A real hulk, and it's unclear if he's also a prisoner or not. We should be prepared to fight him, but if at all possible, don't antagonize him first. All I'm saying is: don't throw the first blow, but remain cautious and don't hesitate to defend yourselves. There's too many unknowns, so we'll focus on what we do know. We target the five guards and the redhead woman first. If the mystery bear sees fit to not intervene, we leave him be, maybe rescue him too, but it may not be that simple."

Keeping an ear out for their replies, Veronica turned towards the inner wall and elected to begin scaling it as well. Slowly, she hauled herself up, until her eyes could peak over the top, checking to see that the way was clear.

"Is dat whos we smells?" asked Lily with a wrinkled nose.
"Smell like he half-rotten!" chimed Rose, just before the two began their descent down the wall.

"Who ya think 'is folks is?"
"We shud ask when we gits ere!"
"Mebbe he cuUUUUTEE--"

Lily's grip on the wall momentarily failed, sending her downward faster than she wanted, leaving 4 sets of deep furrows in the plaster where she slid.

Rose rolled her eyes, then just 'bounced' a little in her own descent to repeat the motion, quickly catching up to her sister.
"Ya leavin' ya mark ta le' 'im knows we was here, sis?" she chided, before hopping down.
"Veruh funneh Rose. Veruh funneh."

"HAH! I'LL TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!"

The death growl in the form of a high-pitched scream assaulted the thugs' hearing, inflicting them with pure terror enough to stun them briefly. Not even darkness could conceal them from the incoming wrath of Rosenving Scion when she rushed forward to close the distance between them.

Now she got their attention, and their reloading was almost finished.
---
A smaller clamor boomed from the road behind the destroyed gate. Still in the same position and stance, Louise took aim and discharged her musket toward the frontmost thug. But the darkness failed her aim this time. The bullet flew straight, but it missed its supposed target by a few centimeters.

Not bothered to reassess her flawed aim, the squire hunkered down and reloaded her weapon.
---
Evan, either undaunted by the prospect of getting shot by standing in the open like this, or smart enough to see the opportunity to launch another offensive, walked forward. While the thugs were occupied with Yvonne, Evan created another fist of ice, smaller this time to allow precise control when he picked up the thug's torch and hurled both items toward them.

The smaller ice fist struck one of the thugs right in the face and toppled him with a nasty bruise and broken nose. His crossbow fell and discharged haphazardly once it touched the ground, with its bolt embedded in the grass not far. The torch that hurled with the ice landed just a meter ahead of them.
He attempted to move the chunk of ice he had previously launched, but it seemed the thing was outside his control, and won't budge a bit.

---
With a shield readied Athena followed suit. One thug down but there were still two more standing and ready to shoot Yvonne. The charge was arguably done in a reckless manner, and she had no means to catch up. What would she do now?

---

Jazdia emerged from her cover, shaking her head when she witnessed the sheer swaggering Yvonne displayed right now. She was all for a blaring attack, but attacking recklessly was...reckless. She pulled her bow and had one of the cold arrows fly toward one crossbowman and embed itself on his neck, killing him instantly. Almost immediately she readied for the next shot, but considering the time it takes to aim and her arrow travel speed, it seemed Yvonne would have to deal with the last one herself.

Location: Western outer wall --> inner wall, Stritzel's Estate, Western Kindeance.

---

Keeping an ear out for their replies, Veronica turned towards the inner wall and elected to begin scaling it as well. Slowly, she hauled herself up, until her eyes could peak over the top, checking to see that the way was clear.

The small space between the wall and the basement entrance was not completely clear. If one looked to the right, in another corner next to a tree to the south, one could see a guard standing by. However, his vision and attention seemed to be focused on what was in front of him.

And there he stood perfectly still, save for some periodical twitching and coughing. Probably because of the coldness of the early morning? Maybe because he was sick? One thing was for sure it didn't look natural.

Location: Western inner wall --> outer mansion, Stritzel's Estate, Western Kindeance.

---

Veronica's eyes narrowed. In her line of work, one of the most dangerous things you could face was the unknown. For a shinobi thrived on preparation, on being able to scout out the terrain and opposition long before fully committing. To see something she had earlier pegged as an enemy x-factor now active and not as inconsequential as she'd hoped was concerning. The vampire had honestly expected that the five strange guards she had spotted before would either stay inside the mansion only or be sent to main battlefield to meet the assault team's charge.

Evidently, that was not the case.

"Doctor," Veronica spoke up in a whisper again, "it seems your expertise is required." Though she could not see him or even really hope to determine his presence at all (becoming one with the literal shadows didn't tend to leave much in the way of physical traces, even to darkvision), she was confident her fellow undead was nearby and similarly confident in his capabilities. "From my position, directly due south," Veronica described, "there is a single guard with potential line of sight to our target. He is exhibiting unusual behavior, almost looks sick and isn't responding to the other team's distraction. His presence is neither ideal nor expected, and worse, when I scried the estate earlier, there were four more equally strange guards."

Lowering herself back down from the wall, Veronica frowned. "Solomon, if I could trouble you, could you inspect that guard and bring back your professional opinion on what's going on with him?" Her brow pinched. "This may just be a gut instinct, but I actually suspect he isn't even alive, despite his... movement. There's something too unnatural about it." Her expression darkened. "Whether that means he is an undead or worse, I cannot say. In the worst moral case, he is a living victim of enchantment magic or other horrid procedures, a slave trapped in his own body." She shook her head, dispelling those thoughts. "But don't let my wild speculations bias your assessment." She cupped her chin. "If you could also use the opportunity to see if any more of those strange guards are nearby -particularly where they can see that first one, that would also be appreciated."

"In the meanwhile..." Shifting slightly eastward across the wall, Veronica clambered up again, eye-balling the guard's position and the tree he stood beside. "I think we can still sneak in without being detected." She dropped down again, turning to the twins and Varya and jerking her head towards the mansion. "So, let's do that. There's a small risk of being spotted, but something tells me if we lay low and quiet, that guard won't spot us. He doesn't seem the most... aware." She hoped anyway. "If any of you have any extrasensory magics or abilities that could tell us more about him, I'd love to hear more, but try and save chatter until we get inside the basement and well out of enemy sightlines."

With that said, Veronica moved eastward until the mansion fully obstructed her entrance point from the strange guard and then quickly clambered over the wall. Being much shorter, her task was hardly difficult, as she slunk across the yard of the inner wall, pressing herself against the northwest corner wall of the mansion proper.

A small inhale of remembrance has her swiftly rummaging into a hip pouch to pull out the metal compass Jazdia had handed her before. Flipping it open and activating the communication device, she waited for it to hopefully connect, before briefly saying, "No time to talk. Just a warning that the five strange guards have moved, at least one posted inside the inner wall facing the gate. Might not be human or even alive. Stay cautious. Going dark again."

And with that, she disconnected, stuffing the compass back into her pouch and peeking around the corner. Still the same guard, unmoving. Lips pursed tightly, Veronica dared to creep around the corner towards the basement door. With every fluidly tense step, her Sight flashed, her visions of the future fixated on the guard, as she tensely searched for even the slightest sign that she was about to alert him. She became moderately less tense, once she had the southern tree blocking the guard's line of sight to her, as she stepped up next to basement entrance and flashed her Sight again, pressing close to the wall of the staircase down. She took a few steps down, before pausing, waiting for the rest of her team to catch up and using her Sight to glimpse further down at the larger area below.

---

Solomon hid among the shadows of the second wall when Veronica quickly approached alone. It was difficult to see in the dark, but Solomon trusted Veronica not to have left the others stranded by the other wall and they would be making their way soon enough. The difference in condition between the first and second walls was obvious, with stones yet to be weathered from the elements for an extended period of time.

Veronica wasted no time in scaling the wall. After she scanned a bit, she returned down along the outside. A simple request was had, and Solomon obliged. A strange guard with obvious signs of life barely observed. It was enough to make Veronica question it, and given her line of work was cause for some concern. Solomon’s formless body snaked across the edge of the wall. His path began to rise as he climbing the stonework until he followed the remaining distance to the guard from the parapet. True to what she said, a man was stood mostly motionless facing towards the inner wall’s main gate and manor entrance.

From what Solomon could perceive, the figured offered no whispers of the dead. He was neither dead nor risen. As for his odd mannerisms, Solomon couldn’t put his finger on it. He wasn’t afflicted from what he could tell. His movements when he offered any didn’t suggest him to be under the influence of any disease that he knew about, but they were still odd to watch. If the guard was being manipulated by anything, it was out of Solomon’s expertise. But he could only observe so much form atop of the wall. In a form that was otherwise undetectable by any of the natural senses, Solomon approached the guard to get a better assessment. Not likely for anything to be different without fully inspecting the man and invading his personal space, Solomon went to discover as much as he could before quickly departing through the wall and to Veronica.

Across the yard to the main gate of the outer wall, Athena followed Yvonne in. With the majority of combatants downed, her focus returned to the thug prepared to fire upon Yvonne as the mad blade dashed forward. The manor’s guard held his crossbow true and went to take aim at Yvonne. As Athena pushed forward, she focused on the guard closest to Yvonne. The crossbow in the thug’s hand would burst into purple flame. Athena would hope that would be enough to scare the man into dropping it, or at the very least ruin his aim. Should that succeed, the flame would jump from the crossbow to the tip of Athena’s spear, originating from the two pearls just below the tip of the spear. Hopefully then the light would distract the second guard into firing upon her rather than Yvonne. At least then, Athena had her shield prepared to block the incoming bolt.

Varya Chandrar

Varya was unsettled to know that Yvonne was capable of such unnatural brutality. Varya was impressed with the speed and effortless movement of Veronica running and scaling the walls. When Veronica gave the command he descended in steps down the stone wall and ran low to the ground with arms stretched behind him, skimmimg the grass towards the wood wall. When he reached it he put his ears against the wall to listen to the otherside, struggling somewhat to focus due to the cacophony of battle. When Veronica crossed over the wall, Varya elected to stay put to provide a lookout for the bear sisters as they climbed the second wall and guard the rear advance. Varya lost sight of Solomon, though considering Veronica said nothing about it he presumed that tbe cloaked man was using some form of subtle magics or techniques to get through. This Solomon was truly talented. It was nice to be in such professional and capable company for a change. Varya put back on his shoes so that when it came time for him to run up the wall he could so without worrying about splinters.

The distance wasn't ideal for maximum effect, but Yvonne had gotten to where she needed to be. Sparky's sniping even spared her the need to personally cut down the bastard, leaving only one aiming at her. Not great to get shot, but she had her own countermeasures to that.

As the man with an arrow in his neck gurgled, Yvonne slammed at him and carried him forward by his clothing with barely any lost momentum. Quite literally using a human shield, she rapidly approached before cleaving the last crossbowman with the frozen bardiche. It was light enough to be easily swung one-handed, but she tapped into a little extra strength just to be sure.

As the shot didn't register on her target she put away her musket. Darkness made it really difficult to shoot an opponent and she was reminded herself not to waste an ammo and make the shots count. Unattached the bayonet and sheathed to its scabbard along with her sword, wore around and tighten the strap of the musket to keep the gun on her back. Unrooted the stake as slid back hidden behind the shield, Louise went to Evan. Munching a sweet from her pouch behind her shield.

”Want some?" She sweetly offered Evan some in her pouch handed by herself.

Blood sprinkled on the grass when Yvonne yanked the dying thug and used his body as a meat shield. An effective show of brutality, but fortunately (or unfortunately) Athena's fire magic was a better deterrence, a purplish fire conjured itself on the thug's crossbow and started eating its wooden frame as it slipped away from his grip.

Yvonne took advantage of the enemy's surprise to close the distance and swung her ice polearm.

The thug futilely tried to grasp his secondary weapon, but it was too late now. The bardiche cleaved his arm off like a twig and bit deep into his ribcage. With his only one good hand, the dying thug grabbed the polearm by the hilt before going limp and falling to the ground.

The last thug, who for the entire ordeal was watching from afar, had already made a run toward the gate, understandably freaked out by the quick decimation of his group.

"Dude! What the hell! Open the gate! Let meeee innn!!"

From the other side of the courtyard, Jazdia repositioned herself and imbued her arrow with magic. Aimed at a higher degree to compensate for the distance, her black bow tensed for a while before sending the illuminated arrow to soar until it arched downward and the hit the brick construction right next to the inner gate.

The last thug was lost in the explosion. Meanwhile, the brick post and the metal bars that stood between the courtyard and the manor shattered and fell apart. The other half of that gate managed to hold for a while before it too had its hinges given up and fell.



Before Solomon could observe much, a blasting sound of crushed stone and clanging iron alarmed the entire manor, including the twitching guard. With a quick motion, he gripped his polearm and walked forward, though slow, his pace was steady, and no verbal expression could be observed from him.

Meanwhile, the entrance to the basement lacked any sort of door or physical barrier. If one wandered inside, one might find that the entire basement was a sturdy bunker made of concrete and brick as wide as the house itself. On the north side of that bunker, there was a door, guarded by two of Delving's unsavory characters, who were now fully roused by the explosion's thundering blast but seemed undecided if they should check it out.

"What the hell was that? Did you hear that?"

"Fuck me! I was this close from kissing the dirt! Some nutjob from Rascade is attacking us, or Mechean bastards must be one of 'em!"

"Shit, I'm starting to think this ain't worth it. Four months ago it was that bakery incident, and now this. It ain't right man, I ain't signed up for this crap!"

"The boss said he knew they were coming. That's why he is here. And you stay where you are! Unless you want to join Marty and the others in the dungeon."

"Might not be the worst idea. That redhead is hot!"

"Don't push your luck. Our job is to guard the place so keep your eyes peeled!"

The twins rapidly lumbered behind, making a rather odd looking silouette in the dark as they crouched low while moving, before scrunching up against the next wall, then scrabbling over it.

Veronica seemed quite perturbed by the guard apparently stationed on the other side. They could smell him of course, but he smelled like any other human. It was a little weird that she was talking at the night air without Doc present.

All the same, maybe it would help her not be quite so paranoid.

"Miss V'ronica?" Asked Rose timidly, slinking up beside her near the wall. "If'n ya worried, ya cu'd use dis.. "

She reached into her bag and pulled out the white bead bracelet, and handed it to her. "Uh's sees 'nuff, buh' mebbe yous kin use it. Jus' pu' it on, --sos Lil says.."

Evan watched as these women enacted their violences. Ruthless. That guy was running away, and he ended up being collateral on that explosion to take down the inner gate.
It didn't seem necessary. His back was turned, he had no will to fight, he could've been taken down nonlethally. Were they that pressed for time?
"We could have spared him..." Evan uttered. He could've helped lure the kingdom's alleged traitors out by warning them.

"Want some?"
He squinted, doubting that it was meant for him, until he turned and took a glance. Louise's outstretched hand offering a mini tart full of cream and topped with blueberries and a slice of strawberry. A very familiar set of fruits for him.
His right hand hesitantly reached out before he grabbed with a thumb and two fingers, and said "Thanks..."
Pulled his scarf down, put the whole thing in his mouth in one go.

Scratching could be heard from the outer wall east just before one of Evan's mystic wargs climbed all five vertical meters of it, ran towards them and began digging one of six holes.
Autonomously, it would soon bite at a corpse and drag them into that hole except for their weapons, pour back all the dirt in and stomp on it to make it firm, and stab one of the scattered weapons through the dirt pile.

A whole swallow later.
No discernible motion to point out with his Blood Sight, except for Veronica's side of the party.
Near their path seems to be five non-moving guards... Really? After all the commotion this side has caused? They do have blood circulating normally so they're not dead... No, it's not normal either. Looking deeper, their hearts beat erratically, and their blood flows faster than normal.
Could it be chalked up to fear? No... They don't act like it. They're just standing in place. What are they waiting on?
"Five more guards." Evan pointed at the inner wall towards the west, or one supposes five guards behind the inner wall that he can see. "Attack them too?"