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There was a blood curdling laugh coming from where Bardus was slammed against a wall. The shambling man slowly and eerily stood up against the torrent of wind, but had to work to kep his footing solid. "Damn spirits! HAHAHAHAHA, I should be honored it would take such a thing to stall me, ahehehehehe, BUT! I'm a bit annoyed, I say! I... need... to SEE IT! SHOW ME YOUR BLOOD!" Bardus's body pulse a crimson glow, and with much less effort before he started forcing his way through the torrent, dashing towards Sahale rapidly. Sylph, noticing this fact, dashed to intercept, but something else happened that surprised all of them. Upon Sylph's wind, now rode a whirlwind of fire, Sylph immediately took advantage of it and directed it towards Bardus, after landing between him and Sahale. Bardus, however, was completely caught off guard by the fire, and it soon consumed him, his shrieks of pain only sounding like twisted jubilation.
Bardus had seen where the fire came from, and the spirit that had once held his focus now became secondary as this strange man still held the ability to cast magic, it was maddening, intriguing, almost insulting, and made Bardus very curious. If one could cast magic while they weren't supposed to, how did he? Maybe the answer was inside of him. He simply had to find out! Ignoring all other threats, Bardus made a mad dash towards Sev once more. The wind pushed him around and cut at him, but the heavy spears and blades of wind he dodged as if he could sense them coming, though he never took his eyes from Sev.
Sahale cursed as he saw Bardus change his focus and rushed to try to meet him beforehand, but his injuries slowed him down and my his movements sloppy due to the pain. he could feel the broken ribs shifting in his chest, but if he didn't make it, those two were as good as dead. Sahale hauled back and threw his sword, which spin into a disc of wind with Sylph's help as it blazed a path towards Bardus, literally as Sylph combined the fire with it. Bardus turned toward Sahale at this moment, "STOP TRYING TO INTERRUPT ME YOU PEST!" He ducked below the spinning blade, and knocked it with his weapon, the blade becoming slow in the air as it if were floating, much like the rocks and statue had for a time. Sahale had hoped that he would focus on the blade as he drew his katar, and poised to strike. Though Bardus was faster and more determined. With unnatural ability, Bardus sank the head of his weapon into the ground and kicked off, making him slide around Sahale in a semi circle up behind him. He then kicked of the ground, almost predicting the spinning cut Sahale made as he spun around, and from above Sahale he brought has weapon down, chopping into his back, the blade of the old farming tool bursting out the other side of his chest. Sahale immediately coughed up blood and was stunned. Upon Bardus's descent,he rolled forward in the air, his weapon held above him, awing going in a downward vertical strike to the ground to lift Sahale into the air above him, over his shoulder, and slam him into the ground in front of him, knocking him off his weapon.
"There, finally some worthy blood....," the sick man laughed. However, instead of taking his time to appreciate his kill, he had some other guests to attend to. He looked up to Sev and Maeve and pointed his bloody weapon to them. His body and clothes were singed, still on fire in some spots, and one of the eye slits in his mask was burned away just enough to see one of the mad eyes of their enemy. They were almost completely white save for a beady black pupil in the center. Before he could take a step towards them however, there was a high pitched screeching like an eagle only much much louder and full of rage. It was Sylph, and she was about to make good on her earlier promise. Blind with rage she swooped down like a blur, too fast for Bardus to react to, the impact even making him drop his weapon. She started ripping into the man with her claws, unrelenting in her fury until she heard something, a faint but incoherent sound of the struggle to breath. She looked up and saw Sahale, holding an arm up for her, and she rushed to him immediately. Bardus was dazed and nearly torn apart, but still alive, and struggling to get up like the near corpse of a man he was. Whatever hold on magic he had was dropped upon Sylph's assault
Sahale wanted her to be there with him, as he knew the blow was fatal, he was feeling cold, and wanted the person he felt closest to to be there with him. She cooed to him and tried her best to comfort him, but she knew he was slipping away as well, the only person she had ever made a pact with, soon to die in her arms. However something was strange. There was a feeling in the air that made everyone around them feel much much stronger, the power they were feeling would make everything surge with strength vs how Bardus made everything fade. Bardus was nearly back up empowered by this strange aura, but from behind him another figure seemed to emerge, grabbing him by the back of the neck and lifting him from the ground.
"Bardus!" a commanding voice boomed, strong, yet oddly calm. "You have disobeyed my orders... how should I view this betrayal...," the man commanded.
Bardus shrieked in fear, "J-Jeevak! I-I was was just trying to spread word of your arrival, as usual they tried to fend me off and-"
This man he referred to as Jeevak then slammed the man into the ground, yet calmly he replied, "My order was for you clear any remnant bandit trash. I wanted the people of this town unharmed." Jeevak then charge some mana that started to glow green and he passed it to Bardus, healing him from major wounds but leaving some of the harsh and minor wounds unhealed. "Remember this pain, and do not disobey me again. Leave my sight...," he said as Bardus quickly grabbed his weapon and scampered off. He strode towards Sylph and Sahale, to which Sylph stood over Sahale in a protective stance. Jeevak held up his hands. "Great spirit of the wind, I have no intention of harming your pact bearer, instead allow me to heal him," he told her, and in the same way he healed Bardus, he healed Sahale, though completely. Sahale, who seemed nearly lifeless just a moment ago, coughed up the remaining blood in the way of breathing before he sat up, checking his body.
"What the hell? Sylph, I didn't know you could heal!" He said in surprise.
"I can not," she simply said, not looking away from Jeevak. Shahale then turned to what she was looking at and then seemed to be stunned at the sight of the man. It couldn't have been...
"I am here peacefully. I wish to meet a few people, two grusk that are in this town. I am interested to speak with them. One I can feel is in that temple and I shall go see now, but the other...," he scanned the ones that were before them until he locked eyes with Sev, "I'm sure they will speak to me if they wish." He then turned and started walking towards the temple, finished with his interaction with this group and having resolved the problem with Bardus for them. He knew Bardus would not come back here to test his patience.
The moon was low and the sun had yet to start casting like over the far horizon. The scouting party's movements were completely veiled in darkness as they approached their target. There was a rock outcrop a ways out in front of the group, siting about a hundred yards from the wall,which had two towers sitting high above the wall, each with an archer perched inside. It would be the perfect spot to take shots at them. Dorran waved Chihiro close to him. "Two archers, in the towers, we take them out without a scene and they will be blind to us setting up outside their walls. Take that rock outcrop and make your shots, signal when ready. We can then have Hilde blow the gate and move in," he said to her with her nodding in response, he then turned to the others, a mix of his own warriors and the foreign volunteers. "We secure our people first and foremost, forma safe path for them to escape, and have a guard team stay with them. The rest of us will gut these bastards once and for all, ready? Move on Chihiro's signal, and Chihiro, wait for the infiltration team's signal to to give us ours. They will do what they can to preemptively free and secure the girls, as well as disable any extra mages or archers they may have inside. This way, they should be down to just melee fighters, which will make our extraction much easier."
Meanwhile, Bidzil followed Kistal and Allanon up the side of the cliff, carrying the rope and equipment to secure it so that they could descend into the camp from above. From here, they could see a roof that they may possible be able to land on. One of the taller structures that lined the back edge of the cavern's entrance. From the looks of it, it was a platform for archers to shoot from, small slits in the wooden building allowing archers to shoot from at a wide angle inside, but only exposing a small slot in the wall on the outside. A tactic taken from stone castles and crudely recreated in wood. In the middle of the complex were a few cages, holding the more valuable prisoners. Others were seen tied to posts or some of the columns that still stood in the ruins. It was hard to see their condition from so high, but it didn't take much imagination as a bandit started making his way to one of the lower value girls to spend some time with her, shouts of protest could be faintly heard from their position above. Bidzil's grip on his hilt tightened. He didn't often have the urge to kill someone, but these people, if any, were the first he had seen in person to deserve it. "We need to hurry," he said frantically as he started to secure the rope to the top of the cliff so they could use it. Kistal and Allanon could both feel a surge of energy as Bidzil's adrenaline started to kick in, just from simply seeing what was happening. In the darkness, one could actually see a faint glow in the white of his eyes as he finished securing the rope. He wanted badly to be able to rush in and kill the man he just saw, but he could jeopardize her life and the lives of all the other prisoners and scouting party if he exposed them. It took great restraint to keep him from doing something stupid.
Kistal may pick up a familiar scent, if his sharp eyes scanned the bandit fortress below, he could see a portly man snacking on a particularly familiar sack of sweet meats, standing watch next to one of the cave tunnels that went inside the mountain at the other end of the crescent shaped opening of the ruins. Faintly, if he concentrated, he could just start to her a low growling sound and a bark or two. There was the sound of laughter as whatever was going on inside continued. There was a short lived howl as whatever was in there called for help, cut off by a yelp of pain. There sounded to be more sounds of a struggle before something unpredictable happened. A louder barking like noise sounded out through the camp as a chill filled the air and the small cave burst into ice, a few bodies flying out and two still impaled on a few of the ice spikes that now protruded from the cave. The man outside the cave staggered back, dropping the sack and reaching for his two handed ax, trying to break through the ice. The bandits were alarmed and their focus was now on whatever happened in that cave, creating quite the nice little distraction to slip in.
