[IC] Fire Embem: Arise

[Blaze Gamma]

"Don't give me any messenger boy crap, dammit!" Felix shouted as he pointed his sword at the guard. "I'm an officer of the Crown's Army, and your boss is a treasonous lout who's put the royal bloodline in danger!" He continued. "You'd best tell your boss that he's going to need every last one of you fodder surrounding him if he wants to keep his head through til night's end, you hear me!" Felix charged at one of the guards, feinting and ducking to the man's side so he would be clear of the second guard. It was all he could hope that the guard would take the moment to rally the interior guard back to Stefan's aid.

Felix wasn't stupid, of course. He knew a full on confrontation with the guard would be suicide. He just needed to obfuscate his objective a little. Let them think his goal was to go find and kill the lord, keep the soldiers in disarray and sparse around the room Katherine would be in, so the two could break in and rescue her while the soldiers were still acting as a shield for a life that was in no real danger.

[VKAllen]

"A reckless snot of a boy is the officer of the King's Army? What a load of arse-fuck bullshit. I hear claims like yours for every young fucker we've allowed through these days."
The guards while seemed relaxed, had their sights clearly set upon the sword presented in front of them.
"And put away that sword before you hurt yourself, damn it!"
Harry spat the ground beneath him. Felix's sudden movement certainly surprised the two guards-- as Harry wasn't expecting the boy to be attempting to strike at him. The gate guard precariously lifted the shaft of his spear and accepted the fact that if it would connect, he'd be off for that week. As luck would have it... The boy feinted and dashed through him and the confounded Roderic.
"By the gods..."
"Don't just stand there! Catch the fucker!"
"R-right!"
Roderic firmly held his spear to his side and began to chase after Felix. As he passes through corridors, he began shouting commands to nearby guards he could see in his wake.
"Catch that boy! He's gonna kill the boss!"

[NobodiesHero]

As soon as the boy bolted past the guards, making them sufficiently distracted, Emara was on the move. She jumped from the tree to the wall of the manor, crouching there for a moment before dropping to the ground. She wanted to stay high, nobody ever looked up after all, but she had to go low to get inside the door. The hooded thief ran to the door and kept going, footsteps almost completely silent. From there, the decorations covering the wall were an easy way up to a thief's best friend, the support beams. Fancy houses like this needed them due to the way they were built, unintentionally making them easy targets for anybody with any skill in the art of thieving.

The sure footed girl moved quickly across the top staying behind the boy, close enough that if things went south, she could use a surprise attack. Her left hand stayed on the hilt of the dagger she wore at her hip. She knew that she had to save the girl, but at the same time, something told her that they were both important and she shouldn't let the boy die either. It would be easy to do though, she had relations to this boy, leaving him here to die while she went to rescue Katherine wouldn't bother her in the slightest. But she just had this weird feeling that they both needed to stay alive.

[Blaze Gamma]

Felix noticed the leader and swallowed his spittle. The captain seemed like trouble, and it was not a confrontation he wanted to happen. He moved through several hallways he recognized, hoping to continue to obscure his actual objective. He tried his best not to duck into any unfamiliar territory, not wanting to let himself become cornered. As he ran, he used his scabbard to knock over anything he could, in order to slow his pursuers. Eventually he got to a point where he knew he'd need to double back. Hopefully he'd caused enough ruckus to get some of the guard over to Stefan.

Now was time to move. He looked around for the rogue, who'd been suspiciously out of sight during most of his antics. Left, right, and up, he looked everywhere but behind him as he started moving for Katherine's room, hoping that the path from here would be smooth sailing.

[VKAllen]

The pursuit is ongoing with approximately eight guards running after the warrior. By happenstance... Ganford is patrolling thw current warrior's route and easily heard the commotion in front of him, with firm suspicion and annoyance smearing his demeanour. After a moment's pass, he sees the boy running and toppling over objects and things causing hindrance to the guard's chase with an exceeding amount of noise.

Ganford allowed the boy to pass and halted one of the pursuing soldiers from the group by addressing his name, stern and vindictive. "Stop, Jairus! Report!" The soldier halted his advance and frantically reported to the Captain.

"Its that messenger boy, Captain. Roderic said the boy aims to kill Lord Stefan! Roderic and the others tried to catch him to no avail!" Ganford was disturbed by the fact that they were so... Stupid.

"Tell me something Jairus." The man leered.

"S-sir?"

"How do you plot a murder?"

"Umm, sir, secretly, of course. Wouldn't want the water pot to spill."

"Correct. Therefore... What do you deduce from a boy who claims that he will kill Lord Stefan?" There was a mokment of pause.

"That we need to stop him from getting to Lord Stefan?"

The guard captain shook his head, a palm over his face.

"Station four guardsmen by Lord Stefan. Make sure to check over walls and anything above your heads. That boy is a mere distraction. Go. Now!"

"Yessir!"

The guard immediately ran to comolete his objective. Ganford immediately observed the ceiling above the corridor, suspicious of a possible second man involved in this ruckus. He adjusted his tunic and began his search.

As Felix ran past the room assigned to Kathy, guarded by three guardsmen protecting the two doors by the main entrance, two of them attempted to rush in front of Felix and grab him from the front. If they fail, one would give chase to Felix.

<Yaun is not making an appearance yet.>

<I suggest: Kathy to trick the guards into coming into the room and for the thief to help Kathy with her escape.>

[Ezmeralda]

Katherine had been sitting there in the chair for quite some time considering her options before she heard the loud rumbling of her stomach... When had she ate last? Last night? She remembered only having a snack this morning. And even though Stefan had invited her to a feast, she'd never gotten to eat anything since he promptly literally threw her back in her room and locked her up again.

She stood up and walked over to the door, before knocking on it softly, she waited a moment to see if they'd open the door. "Hello? Um, excuse me ...would it be possible to have some food brought to me, please? I...wasn't really able to eat much earlier. Perhaps warm it up for me a little, if it's not too much trouble? I'd really appreciate it!" she said with a smile, even with the door still closed, and trying to sound sweet and demure.

She probably should eat anyway even if she didn't really feel like it, she'd need her strength. And if they declined at least she'd know a little more about her situation.

[Blaze Gamma]

Felix continued to run, still trying his best to obfuscate his true objective. The only problem, though, was that he'd finally made it. He didn't have a choice but to stop now. It was time to start phase two. The young man looked at the guard who'd moved to block him. A smart move, if Felix had been planning to juke and get out of the way.

That was not his intent. Felix pushed further forward, turning his body to slam the guard with a shoulder tackle, attempting to strike him clean in the chest, high enough to knock the man wheezing, with any luck, taking him out so the young swordsman could face his two compatriots. Felix drew his sword as soon as he had a moment, turning about to face off with the other two. "Listen up! If you two bastards want to live, better to turn and run now! Go back to your families and forget about this fight!" He said, pointing the tip of his sword at the neck of the closer man.

[NobodiesHero]

Emara continued to move, keeping slightly behind the boy as he caused all sorts of loud havoc. Her wait to do her part wasn't much longer, as he came up to a door that was heavily guarded and promptly got the attention of all three men. With a grin, the thief easily leaped down from the beam, landing in a crouch in front of the door. From a pouch at her lower back, she retrieved her tools. Taking out two lock picks, she stuck one in her teeth, and with the other, got to work.

Emara liked to make lock picking a little game. She would count the seconds in her head to see how quickly she could take care of them. A lock like this was easy, meant to keep someone in rather than out. It only took to the count of seven. The picks went back into her tool kit, and the kit was returned to her pouch. She opened the door and slipped inside, closing it most of the way as she went.

For the first time, she was met face to face with the pretty lady she had only seen from above. For a moment, the thief forgot what words were and simply stared, mouth open but no sound coming out. Remembering the task at hand, Emara quickly shook her head and found her voice. "No time to explain! I'm here with that commoner boy to get you out of here. Come with me, pretty lady!" Hints of red tinged Emara's cheeks and she very glad that her hood kept most of her face hidden in shadow.

[Ezmeralda]

Katherine gasped as she heard some odd noises from the door and it opened in front of her and someone slipped inside. The girl seemed awestruck as she looked at Kathy. Even though her face was hidden by a cowl, she could make out silver hair, and a bit of the light from her room showed the theif's face. She smiled at her, and spoke quietly, as the girl seemed to want stealth, "Well, hello....am I so breathtaking? It must be the dress...." the girl reminded her a bit of the bandit leader. She nodded to the girl that she'd follow, "You don't have to ask me twice, trust me. And you mean Felix? Is he here already? How did he know to come back?" she asked.

There was no way he had made it all the way to headquarters and then back here so someone must've caught him before he'd gone too far. It was safe to assume it was this girl's doing. But how did she know about Kathy's predicament?

[VKAllen]

"You'd have to do better than that to not get skewered two sides up." The guard gripped onto his spear firmly as he carefully directed its point to Felix.

"The way I see it, you'll land a graze on poor ol' sod and you end up with your guts on this stick. Surrender. You're utterly outnumbered."

The commotion continued to gather attention. An elderly gentleman whom had quietly sidestepped the guards quickly made his way towards the room in which Kathy had been held imprisoned. He noticed that the door had been left opened and gently allowed it to open with a push of his palm. As soon as he caught sight of the two persons inside, he signalled them to hush and keep themselves down. "Do as I say; follow me. This is not the time yet for questions." He had hoped that Kathy would recognise his attire.

[NobodiesHero]

It looked like Katherine was agreeing to follow. That was good, at least she didn't have to waste time explaining things now. Emara could tell her how she found out when they were all safe. For the moment she needed to focus on how she was getting Katherine out of here. She was pretty sure Katherine couldn't take the thieves' route. There wasn't much cover in these halls otherwise. If they were spotted, it was going to be a fight. Emara really hoped it didn't come to that.

Emara's well trained ears picked up the sound of the door behind her opening. Immediately she turned around, putting herself between the pretty lady and the door. She slid her dagger soundlessly out of it's well oiled sheath. Though her eyes couldn't really be seen because of the hood, she narrowed them anyway. His words were hollow, there was no way that he was with them. The commoner boy, Felix, hadn't mentioned any other allies. This man wasn't with them, he was going to kill them. Well, at least Emara.

The thief started assessing the threat, scanning him for any visible weaknesses or gaps in his armor. It was something she had become very good at, she had to be. She fought fully armored men with daggers, any edge she could get was helpful. The weakness was easy to find, the man only had one arm. But not in the way that most people would think. She had known people missing arms growing up with a group of bandits. When they sparred the other men under her father, they grew used to people attacking their weak side. They got very good at defending it. This man would find himself very surprised when the small, dagger wielding, intruder went for his good side.

[Blaze Gamma]

Felix took a bare moment to notice the soldier wearing the house crest talking to them. He had to make a gut decision. He couldn't spend too much time on the cannon fodder, as it were. That said, the moment of hesitation did not do well for the young man. He flipped up his sword to parry the blow, but too slow. He managed to avoid a direct hit, but the tip of the lance shaved through the slightly more ceremonial armor that he'd changed into earlier in the day, leaving a rather deep gash across his side. Were it any higher, it would likely have hit his diaphragm, leaving him unable to breathe, any deeper, would have likely given an unwelcome freedom to his entrails.

"Tch... Whatever..." Felix winced, taking what he could out of it. He moved into the blow, not allowing the soldier to recover. Were it a bandit, he wouldn't see much issue with taking the man's head off. Instead, he swung up the flat of his sword, hammering the side of the guard's head. 'Sorry, guy, but play time's over, he thought, spinning about and hoping the older guard wouldn't attempt to take him out from behind. "Outnumbered? Don't make me laugh. Now then, I'll say again, run or see yourself dead like your friend here's about to be." He said, trying to sound as calm and collected as possible, pointing his scabbard at the downed man's neck, his blade at the still standing soldier. "I can take these exchanged a lot better than you lot, who've been living in here with thumbs up yer arses. I've been fighting for years. You've been sitting in this palace. You're older, but who do you think has the edge of experience?"

[VKAllen]

The vigorous blow from Felix's flat-edge sword blow was enough to sent the guard down onto the floor with a concussion. The guard twirled, the moonlight glistening around his eyes as he sees his fragile consciousness slowly slipping into a deep abyss and his body, a limp and awkwardly sprawled puppet laid bare onto the floor with a tin-like clanging.

The other guard-- shocked to have seen the boy's martial prowess locked his hands tightly onto his spear and allowed a charging cry as he drove the tip forward. "RRAAAARRRGGHHH!"

The elderly man inside of the building could hear the scream of the soldier beside the room. He gestured the two persons inside to hurry.

[Ezmeralda]

Katherine raised an eyebrow as yet another person slinked into her room, she noticed his arm, but thought it more polite to ignore it as best she could, "Party in here, huh? ....Wait, don't I know you? You were one of the guards at the feast with Stefan, right?"

She saw Emara unshealth her daggers. Katherine caught her arm as she tried to attack the older man's side."Let's not be hasty now. If he wanted to harm us he would have while your back was turned... Although, that does raise the quesiton of why would you help me? But you can answer that when we're out of here. I would honestly follow anybody if they took me out of here. Haha..." she said quietly. Kathy tried to look past the man out the door, "Felix is out there, isn't he? Is he alright? I thought I heard his voice. We're going to take him too, right?" It was clear she was worried about him.

[NobodiesHero]

Emara growled when Katherine stopped her from attacking. The pretty lady was way too trusting of people. Emara herself had come to her with the name of an ally, explaining the situation, enough trust to get free was okay there. But this old guy had just shown up with no explaination whatsoever, and expected them to follow. "If he wanted to attack, he'd wait until our guards were down. The second we step out that door, I'm dead and you're in a lot worse shape than you are right now. You just said that he wears the uniform of the guards here."

Emara couldn't see a good way out. If she had been alone, it would have been easy. But with another person who didn't have the same skills as her, it was going to be hard. Especially with this untrustable guy blocking one way out. "You can follow him if you really don't care that much for your life, but I won't." Emara stubbornly and childishly crossed her arms, still clutching her daggers as she did. She didn't survive this long by trusting complete strangers.

[Blaze Gamma]

"Tch..." Felix made another awkward parry, but it was clear he was still at a disadvantage. But, he saw that they'd finally liberated Katherine, and with that, a healer. Probably for the best, since he'd done quite a bit more damage to the previous man than he had expected. The spear once again grazed Felix, smacking on the same wound from before. "Dammit... That really stings..." He mumbled as he turned on his feet so he was at the guard's back. "Sorry about this," he said, driving his sword into the older man's side, full force, moving up from just above the hip. It would be a gnarly wound for sure, but not one that would be lethal if treated quickly.

That being said...

Felix quickly turned, seeing the one armed man. He didn't seem to be threatening at the moment. Better to sort these things out when they were free. For now, he pulled out a wrapped parcel containing a spare tome and staff and tossed them to Katherine. "Those guys aren't doing too hot... I say we get them stable and then get the heck out of dodge."

[Ezmeralda]

Katherine rose from the dead quickly went about healing the injured guards, "Sorry, I can't heal you fully, but we need to go. In exchange for saving your lives, I request that you don't follow us." she said quickly before following closely behind Felix and healing him as well.

"I guess it's just you and me, Felix. Although, I'd imagine Stefan isn't too far off now with more men." she said with a shiver as she ran beside him, "Do you know how to get out of here?" Kathy asked, looking at him out of her peripherals.

[Blaze Gamma]

"I've got an idea, but..." Felix started, but he stopped just as quickly. "Get down, now!" He shouted, raising his sword and moving for Katherine. As he moved, the one armed guard dropped to the ground, an arrow sticking out of his back.

"Paid as a traitor deserved. Commoners like this could never stand before a proper weapon such as this," came a familiar voice as Emara suddenly buckled backward as well, a fletched shaft jutting out from her chest, her clothing and armor slowly staining red from the spot.

"Dammit!" Felix shouted, swinging his sword and deflecting an arrow launched at him.

"Peasant... How dare you try and steal my prize!" Stefan shouted from down the hall.

[Ezmeralda]

((Did you just Skyrim them?))

She dropped low as Felix told her to, although it didn't seem like an arrows were purposely being aimed at her. He probably wanted her alive and unharmed if possible. Maybe? "Speak of the devil...." Katherine wanted nothing more than to bash Stefan's face in, but she would've much rather just get out of here.

Now she could blast him with a spell, but she doubted she had the power to take him down with one. And then she or Felix would probably take an arrow. No, that wouldn't do. They both needed to get closer. Then again, as far as he was, they could probably just run and wait for a better opportunity. She looked around for some cover or somewhere to go, spotting a hallway running perpendicular to this one behind them. Katherine grabbed Felix's hand and ran for it. "He's too far!" she said as she ran, "Let's just get out of here, we can deal with him later if we have to!"

[Blaze Gamma]

"Right with you there..." Felix said. He turned, an arrow grazing his face as they got around the corner. "Tch... Yeah, if we had the time, we could fight him... BUt I have a feeling we won't exactly look like the good guys if we do..." He groaned, wiping the blood from his cheek. "Okay... This way..." He said, taking the lead. "It looks like we aren't being followed... Maybe the guards are slowing him down as thanks for us not... Killing them?"