Eisenhorn

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Urden walked over to where he had discarded his torch, picking it up while Boss issued orders. They were waiting for Hector to go and find where the slavers have wandered off to with the prisoners, on the information from the Witch at least. Meant most of them were waiting, which meant it was time to collect his bonus the old fashioned way. By rifling through the pockets of the dead and stealing anything that wasn't nailed down. Well, not from the hallowed dead, that was begging for trouble, but the recently dead, cultists and such, they might just line his pockets. Especially if they had just sold off a bunch of prisoners, better in his pockets than gathering dust in here. He remarked casually as he walked over to the first of the dead cultists, kneeling down to start rifling through the pockets of the dead. Good news with how cleanly they had died, was that it wouldn't be a case of looking around the corpse nearly as much.

"Tell you what, while we wait on our illustrious scouting efforts, it's high time I pick through the recently dead. See if I can't find anything interesting about their apparent business dealings prior to getting what they deserved. At least until its time to depart."

More importantly it kept his mind off recent events. Overseas slavers, Witches, brushes with death that were all a part of his line of work. The merchant, from the sounds of it, was sobbing and trying to recover from a near death experience from the sounds of it. Why had she come down here, again? Not like she'd be cutting deals with anyone, and cut throat business only worked in a literal sense in these sort of situations. As for the others they kept their heads on straight, typical of professional warriors and assassin. He could consider the ramifications of events later, over a strong drink, for now he focused on making sure he didn't miss anything important, or more critically, valuable to the right pair of hands.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

"Of course its going to...."

Urden was ready to start swinging again when the strange needle blades blossomed out of the slaughter doll's head, the exasperation was apparent in his tone before Boss decided to finally split the thing cleanly down the middle, finally sending it to the ground in a mess of bits and pieces. Urden prodded the pieces with the tip of his boot, half expecting another weapon to pop out of the rubble and try to skewer his foot. Nothing though, seemed the damned thing was finally and properly broken. The applause brought his attention back to the Witch who had decided that she was going to reward them. Reward them, for breaking her stuff? Hell he wished all jobs were 'Break my stuff for a reward', he'd be filthy rich if that was the case. Granted the reward proved to be fairly peculiar in the best sense of the word. A...doll. The reward for smashing a bunch of dolls was a nicer doll. Smaller than the Nem, like the merchant who had, albeit understandably given the circumstances, ran for help and then stayed the hell out of the way. Who was also currently sobbing up a storm, not the worst response he'd seen to the first time thrown into the deep end of a fight.

The second reward was at least much more overtly useful. Turned out their missing people had, in fact, been sold off after all. Strangers from across the sea had purchased them. That...was not terribly helpful in identifying them, but that didn't matter much either. They go out, Boss does the talking, and if need be, strongarm the strangers into giving the prisoners back. And if that meant cracking even more skulls, well what else was he paid for really? Besides, it would be easier to deal with even seasoned warriors again instead of more slaughter dolls. While thinking, the Doll Witch went and faded in a blue glow, and was gone just like that. To say the mercenary was befuddled was an understatement, but it wasn't like he was going to understand most wielders of magic, let alone a Witch who didn't even play by any rulebook most folks knew. They now had a...friendlier doll? Hopefully one of the other Lions could puzzle that one out, though he wasn't keen on having a Doll that, knowing their luck, the Witch could use to track their general movements. Could maybe even listen in on them, not like he knew whether or not it was possible, but it was a thought. He still should watch his words around the small Doll for the foreseeable future.

"Never a dull moment for you, is it Boss? I reckon this is the part where we hurry off into the night, ready to play the big damn heroes? Especially now that we're done playing with dolls, at least for the moment."

The mercenary cast his gaze around the cave one more time, looking for any last minute surprises before he shouldered his axe. Seemed to be all quiet, which meant it was up to the Boss to decide what to do next.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Urden knew damn well that if the others hadn't followed in turning the attack back on the doll he'd probably be in fairly dire straits and adding a number of new scars to his collection, but fortunately it seemed his allies understood the need to make sure that the slaughter doll wasn't given the chance to start building up momentum. The others kept the smaller dolls off them, which was necessary to let the handful engaged with the slaughter doll to remain doing so, meeting the limbs it was trying to use to overwhelm any one of them alone. Sure enough, Boss lunged in again, that fancy sword of her flaring up once more before unleashing a blast that tore out a chunk of the slaughter doll. Having battered aside the attack, he shifted his grip again, eying up the situation as the Boss barked orders once again. Simple too, bring the thing down, and he stepped in at the side of the doll's waist still loosely intact, shards and cracks aside.

"You got it, Boss!"

With that, the mercenary aimed the axe squarely for its side, aiming to finally shatter the damned doll in one more good swing. It's what he did best, really, crashing and smashing through defenses, his own be damned. And with it off balanced and barely holding together, he was inclined to suspect that it should only take one more arm shuddering swing to finally break the thing into a bunch of broken shards and finally stop coming after them. Then the Witch could go on about some cryptic nonsense and wander off, and as far as he was concerned that would suit him fine. Still, that remained to be seen, for now, focus on the task at hand. Finally putting this damned slaughter doll down once and for all.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Urden watched the slaughter doll recoil under the barrage of attacks, its main means of offense apparently disabled. About damn time, as he watched the enchanted arrow strike true and put some serious hurt on the damned doll. It had been blown up and back briefly, revealing the black void inside of the thing. If he were a learned man he might be able to give some thought to what all that meant, but he wasn't, so he was just going to accept it worked, because it clearly did, but the clapping interrupted his train of thought. He was still closest to the thing, having wrenched his axe clear in time for the aforementioned arrow to have done its notable work. Apparently the test wasn't done yet, and of course the slaughter doll and its creator had more tricks up their sleeves. Stealing weapons off the small dolls that were left, Urden made ready to keep up the attack when the thing lashed out in all directions, forcing his hand sooner rather than later.

Too close to evade, he wasn't that quick, and Urden very obviously lacked heavy armor to simply ignore the attacks. Rather than make some effort to dodge, Urden made an attack of his own, aiming to intercept the incoming attack with his own. He would pit his own axe and strength against this desperation attack by the slaughter doll, he wasn't going to be put on the back foot without a damn good reason. And if this worked he could keep up the initiative of attacking the doll rather than letting it create any sort of breathing room for itself. Orders were to aim for the damaged torso, and that wouldn't happen by letting it turn the momentum against them.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Urden wrenched the axe back from the joint with a grin, hefting and resetting his position as his allies beset the slaughter doll from all several sides. 'Hector' landed another spear strike, which created the opening for him to get himself situated for another heavy handed, aggressive strike, the doll's seemingly single minded efforts to change targets based on whoever hit it last meant he could have the rare luxury to ready himself for another braced, charged swing. Sure enough, the Crownsblade made good on her own talents, lashing out at the weak points that had not been targeted yet and doubled up. Given she favored two weapons instead of one, it made sense, though the slaughter doll seemed to very much not appreciate the fact that it was being assailed so heavily.

Boss jumped in before the slaughter doll could really focus its assault on the Crownsblade, and put that fancy sword of hers to real good use. The thrust practically disintegrated the afflicted limb and ended up causing the slaughter doll to stagger and create a significant opening. The damage to the torso, and the sight of some of the smaller dolls having been destroyed in a similar manner, meant he had an opening to confirm that the others could finish the thing off. With it staggered, he hefted the axe and eyed where he had first struck with the blade half of the weapon. If a crack had formed from there, and the repeated blows to the limbs could have softened it up, so with a grunt he aimed a downwards slam with all the force he could muster, aiming to smash the thing down and pin it in place long enough to let the others get killing blows in once and for all. With the amount of limb damage already, Urden favored his odds to hold it in place long enough to let the others finish the thing off.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

The recoil of the strike along Urden's arm told him a lot more than how it looked. That was tougher than most metal armors he could claim to have come across in his career, and while his first thought was to try and use the spike on his axe to breach the hide on the damned thing, its response made it very clear that was not going to be a luxury he was going to have. Given the inhuman movements of its arms, he was about to try and react to the strikes when the flanking spear strike gave him an opening to duck backwards, shifting the grip on his axe. The spike wasn't nearly as good for lightly armored targets, given he had to be much more precise as to where the blow landed, but given the hardy construction of the slaughter doll, even the joints, as Boss shouted out about, wouldn't be easily cleaved off. Next best thing was destroying the joints completely, hopefully.

"Right then, let's do this."

Out of the corner of his eye, Urden registered the warning of additional, smaller dolls moving to assist the slaughter doll. Surrounded, then, that was just fantastic. Still, push came to shove, he'd at least force the doll Witch to have to rebuild this slaughter doll. Even with its inhuman arms, it couldn't defend from all directions, hopefully. Shifting his position to strike from an opposing direction from 'Hector' and aiming a strike right for one of its sword arm joints, putting his typical amount of normally excessive force into the swing. If it was turning to keep him in focus it may very well not end but hell, there wasn't any other option. Not like he could just disengage and go trash small dolls, he'd have to leave those to the others. If it didn't turn to track him, well, then they could see just how aware it was of its surroundings. Either way, they had better odds striking from opposing sides than they did all rushing side by side in this case.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Urden was content to leave diplomacy and discussion to the blue bloods, keeping an eye on the unmoving doll, the one that had likely done the lion's share, pun only mildly intended, of the work inside the cave. The doll Witch, Tabitha as she introduced herself, seemed mostly interested in them not prying further into the tomb itself. What did some all powerful Witch care about some forgotten tomb that had, until recently, entertained little more than corpses and their defilers? No point asking, he figured, not like the Witch would answer that question so readily. Especially given the nudges towards getting them to go back towards the camp. The daemon summoning wasn't lost on him either, he still didn't fancy himself terribly keen on the daemon being around, but he wasn't about to complain either. The moment the Witch began going on about whether or not the assembled Lions really had the means and will to defend the land and its people. Hell, long as Boss kept paying him, he'd follow orders readily enough, but it seemed that his previous thoughts on the slaughter doll were wise, as it launched forward.

Leave it to some fell blooded daemon to be that fast, armor and all, to intercept the slaughter doll. Urden dropped the torch, letting it fall to the ground as he readied his own axe, lunging forward while aiming an overhead strike straight for where the doll was going to be after the clash with the daemon. True to his original musings he planned on putting everything into this strike, either to smash the doll or create an opening for one of his allies to get a blow in. Either way he suspected letting themselves get pushed onto the backfoot would be an exercise in getting slaughtered. Still, despite the danger, the mercenary found the opportunity to bark a remark back at the Steel Princess as the Lions came to blows with the slaughter Doll the Witch had brought with her.

"This better count as hazard pay Boss!"

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Urden kept the torch raised high enough to cast plenty of light. From the looks of things, the element of surprise had been put to awful good effect by someone else. He was giving the corpses a visual once over as they moved deeper, the consistent pattern of damage and slaughter on each of the cultists present. It was always the same, decapitation or a clean thrust through the chest. The consistent pattern told him it was likely a single person, and not their resident assassin. She was no doubt good, but he didn't think she was 'clear a tomb on her own' good. Plus the signal for support had indicated that this had to have occurred before she arrived as well. No, this was done by a single, highly effective killer, probably well above the majority of those present. Even among those with similar weapons and training, there would be more variance in how the killing had been done, and given the relative pacing of the dead, they had not been given much time to retreat and regroup again.

"Tell you what, our mystery guest is certainly a cut above the rest, given how little difference there's been in the cause of death."

Urden was speaking to no one in particular, mostly half muttering, half speaking out loud as he voiced his mental train of thought. Of course, the merry band of misfits would find their culprit, well, culprits. Some woman, similar age to Boss, looked like she had...doll features? Doll features, and then the Boss' comment on Witch was, indeed, not just a witch. Tonight just got far more complicated, and rather than ruminate on a being he probably wouldn't get close to without a miracle, his attention turned to the minion instead. He considered it like that since anything living had long since fled. Kept a strange posture, spiderlike, with freshly bloodied blades. There was the culprit, odds were the thing moved erratically but struck surgically, making a conventional fight a fool's errand. If he had to bet his life, and if the Witch decided to not take kindly to their presence in the end he most certainly would, best bet would be throwing everything into a single leading strike. Go on the backfoot, and the limbs and blades would probably leave anyone trying to defend in poor shape indeed. No, in this case, if it came to blows breaking it before it got in a good hit would be his best bet. Great one? No, but it was the best.

"Well, that explains the consistent precision I suppose. I get paid all the same, so I won't look this gift horse in the mouth."

Wasn't his job to do so either, and even Urden had heard of Witches and how they were big trouble whenever they decided to show up. No he would leave the Witch to the Nem's flattery or whatever the noble sand learned folks decided was a smart move. He would just keep ready in case things got weird. Well, as ready as someone could be for the unknown.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

"Call it a team building exercise, never know when you'll need to jump in."

Urden found the end of the enemy satisfactory after the thrown cultist was caught mid air, and then lanced clean through. Observing each of his allies in combat spoke volumes alone about the exacting standards Boss had for each of her underlings. Still, it was convenient to have fellows with at least acceptable reflexes. Hefting the axe on his shoulder, he glanced around at the slaughter. That was what it really was, between the bait team's own efforts and the arrival of the ambush team, well, they never really stood a chance. Even if the odds had been uncertain, the unleashed magic had certainly dashed any doubt as to who would be the victor of this first stage of the fighting. True enough, Boss was quick to rally them. First with brief praise, then marching orders. Advance into the camp proper, and put them to sword, axe, and torch. Suited him fine, and he moved himself into the leading edge of the Lions as they entered the camp, ready to engage the first cultist who rushed him, or animated corpse if he was unlucky.

Despite being ready for an attack, nothing came. What struck him as the most odd was the silence. Other than the Lions, there was no noise. They had not dallied long enough to warrant a counter ambush being that ready for them, and they did not strike him as disciplined enough to hold pure silence that readily even if a counter attack was already prepared. It was just nothing except any mutterings among the Lions, their movements, and nothing. Experience was practically screaming all sorts of things weren't right about this, and the Nem began chattering along about the unlikely nature of miracles, after the Boss had commented on this not being right. Seemed like they were in agreement, though, and Urden would source a torch to take point, lifting it to illuminate further ahead of them. It only cast more light on the fresh blood, and he spoke plainly enough in response to the chatter so far. He was actually inclined to agree with the mage, though not for the same reasons.

"Sounds like the smart bet is on the necromancer got desperate, pooled all the meat and magic they had on hand into a last roll of the dice. Probably did just well enough to make something nasty, which just makes our lives that much more interesting. I'll lead, be ready to move when the nasty rotting mess comes barreling out at us."

The faces unsettled him, frankly, but Urden wasn't paid to quiver in his boots or wax philosophical about whatever ugly business was waiting inside. No, he was paid to go hack it to bloody pieces, swing by bloody swing if need be. So, he would take the lead once everyone was ready, or was countermanded by Boss.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Urden was keeping up his pace, engaging each enemy foolish, or unfortunate, enough to end up in his way as he worked through anyone opposed to the Lion's that he could reach. Each swing, step, and movement was preserving momentum as much as he could, wanting to avoid giving openings in enemy's guards. This worked especially well for those that lacked defensive tools like shields, even wielding two weapons was hardly capable of meeting the brute force exerted by a two handed axe designed for just this work. One managed to deflect past a swing, aiming a thrust for the mercenary's ribcage, though a step away averted most of the damage, though he still bleed as readily as anyone else. Snarling, he feinted a swing, and swung low, sweeping the legs out from underneath the offending man and bringing the spiked end of his axe down, puncturing through chain and puncturing vital organs. The din of the fighting was going strong, which meant it was still time to work, and he looked up to see a sturdier looking goon approach, kite shield and arming sword in hand. This should be interesting.

The cultist charged, shield raised, and the mercenary met the shield charge with a heavy handed, almost reckless swing aiming to slam the shield to the side, specifically towards the opponents sword arm to interfere with the impending follow up attack. Splinters flew as the blow damaged the shield, though did not break it, and rather than try and recover against the strike, rolled with it, turning into a fast swipe at Urden's side. A backwards duck caught the strike on his pauldron, deflecting enough to only nick his cheek. Bringing the axe around again, this time he deliberately hooked it against the edge and wrenched sideways, opening up the guard and grabbing the sword arm by the wrist as the cultist went to punish the forced opening. Struggling back and forth for a moment, Urden headbutted the man, the crack resounding clearly to anyone nearby, and sent the cultist staggering back.

A blind swing was aimed at chest height, but Urden had something else in mind, already low enough to avoid the sword swing. Slamming into the man, the mercenary lifted the winded opponent in a running grapple, finding himself charging right towards the Lamia, and grinned as he used the momentum to hurl the shield bearing cultist forward, creating an opening as he shouted an alert towards.... Valmyra, if his memory worked right. Still, the opening would hopefully be ample for a finishing blow, given the unorthodox move.

"Lamia, heads up!"

@AzureKnight