Niks raised a hand just in time to block a smattering of red gore before it could cover his face. Between one moment and the next the rge bandit who had sought to y him low had found himself minced apart by a great flurry of bdes, his head and limbs flying every which way as if he had been blown asunder by a cannonball! Once he had been quite soundly dismembered the two Hunters, Ser Glorifeld, and Uldred all paused briefly, looking about at each other with a start as they realized that every one of them had been of the same mind. Meanwhile, Niks wiped what blood he could from his hands upon a handkerchief before shakily pulling stuffing the cloth back into his pocket.
Somehow, I think that witnessing such a violent scene was more traumatizing than the actual near-death experience itself… He mused to himself, observing the dissected carcass before him on the grass with a kind of floaty, analytical detachment.
Meanwhile, chaos had erupted across the bumpy pins before Coronton’s gates. More than a hundred Otkornian conscripts had set upon the Petrician party by surprise, wielding axes, clubs or simir improvised weapons. The retively inexperienced militiamen and women panicked and nearly broke formation before the oncoming horde, until they were suddenly buffeted by a thin force cd in shining steel! Where the peasants faltered, van der Leigh Knights advanced with imposing longswords or sturdy maces and shields decorated with green and gold. The briefest hesitation rippled throughout the advancing Otkornians at this new threat, for few as they were, men in pte armor were a daunting sight to the crudely-equipped brigands. Even such a small moment of uncertainty was all the opening the Knights required, and practically the entire first wave of surly thugs were felled in an instant!
With a grim focus, the Knights continued to wade into the fray. Sensing the clear discrepancy in both armaments and skill that y between these fine soldiers and their own lot, the dishonorable brutes quickly moved to surround and overwhelm them with sheer numbers, combating quality with quantity, only to find themselves beaten back by a protrusion of spearheads! The humble men and women of Petrice, having a moment to recover both their courage and composure, had moved to support the Knights on their fnks.
For those stood high atop the city gates the battle must have resembled a tall wave spshing mightily–but in vain–against the stalwart face of shoreline cliff. Just as quickly as that pack of thugs had charged towards their unsuspecting victims, they had been just as swiftly pushed back into a disorganized retreat! Meanwhile, up on the wall the fracas was ongoing, as the remaining loyalist Coronton soldiers struggled desperately against the Otkornian conscripts, even as their numbers rapidly dwindled.
“My Lord, we must retreat! It is not safe for you here!” Borney’s mustachioed manservant chittered in a shrill voice, his gaze shifting about rapidly in obvious panic.
It was then that something just over his servant’s shoulder caught Borney’s eye. Deeper into the custrophobic and bustling crowd pushed a familiar figure. Now wearing his own look of panic, Borney began to shove past his men in pursuit of Sergeant Wilhelm, who looked to be heading towards that most crucial winch used to operate the city gate!
Despite being beaten and bruised, along with temporarily blinded in one eye due to a trail of blood which leaked down from a gash on his brow, Wilhelm deftly cut down the continuous stream of men who attempted to bar his way. As he finally came upon the winch, he let his sword and dagger ctter to the stone fortifications as he grasped the spokes firmly with both hands. With an excruciating effort, Wilhelm began to strain against the impossible weight of the portcullis. Even though it normally took the strength of five men to pull it ajar, with the inhuman power granted to him by the adrenaline now coursing through his veins, the gate began to creak open ever so slightly!
When her keen, battle-heightened senses alerted her to this slow upwards shift of the portcullis, Uldred immediately leapt down from her steed, breaking into a run towards the gate! Niks and the others turned to see what was going on, spying Wilhelm in his toil just as Uldred had a moment ago! As the gate had been opened about a yard Wilhelm reached the end of his incredible strength, and now shook with determination just to keep the thing ajar!
“Stop!” Came a frantic cry from behind him, which was swiftly followed by an awful, cold and sharp pain!
Wilhelm slumped back then, his hands releasing their iron grip on the winch as his arms fell limply to his side! He slowly turned his head to gnce back over his shoulder with dismay to see the grimacing face of Edmonton Borney! For the duplicitous knave had taken up the dagger that Wilhelm had previously discarded and driven it right into its owner’s back! The terrible sound of cttering chains erupted over the cmor of battle as the portcullis began to fall back to the earth. For a moment Borney grinned with relief as he pushed the lifeless body of the Sergeant off the end of his stolen bde. However his confidence faded just as quickly as it had appeared, for the falling portcullis abruptly halted in its descent!
Borney rushed to the crenutions to peer down and see what could have possibly occurred. When he subsequently heard his Master howl in fright, the mustachioed servant ran to join him, at which point his eyes also grew wide as saucers. For the rge and bck-cd Countess had knelt and caught the portcullis in her hands, and held it above the ground with some terrifying and monstrous strength!
“Go!” Cried Uldred in a rough voice which betrayed the great strain her enormously strong body was under in that moment!
Niks was the first of those stunned and gawking onlookers to regain his composure, leaping down from his horse and sprinting across to the gate to duck underneath it and through to the other side. He turned back and beckoned for the others to join him, and seeing his gesture they too shook free of their stupor and began to follow suit. However, before they could enter the gate themselves, some rge, dark form whooshed rapidly past Niks’ ear to strike Uldred in the center of her chest, sending her tumbling across the trampled earth and allowing the portcullis to fall shut!
“No!” Niks cried in frustration, gripping the steel bars of the portcullis as if it were the bars of a prison cell.
On the other side Uldred stumbled back to her feet, her once-bck cloak now a gray-brown mess covered in dust and dry grass, and she reached up to retrieve the massive sword from her back. Across from her, and mere feet from where Niks stood clutching the gate, was that bck-cd man who had accosted him and Nayantara on the road more than a week prior, now rising up from the ground to assume his own fighting stance! Just like before, his appearance was inscrutable, hidden as he was beneath his own bck clothes and hood, as well as a cowl which covered every inch of his face but his eyes. Thomas and Nayantara approached and took up positions at either side of the Countess, and Ser Glorifeld did the same, but as he stepped forward Uldred put out a hand to stop him.
“Knight-Captain, I must leave command of the battlefield in your care. Find a way to get inside and relieve the Count.”
Glorifeld looked as though he were about to argue, but when he followed Uldred’s gaze and saw that Niks was now trapped alone within the walls of the city, and he nodded solemnly and acquiesced.
“It shall be done!”
Cmbering back upon his noble mount, he rode off to catch up with their men, who were riding off in pursuit of that retreating enemy horde. This left the three Fmberges alone but for their mysterious foe, along with the younger folk from Thudd who had remained nearby.
Having watched this all transpire, the hooded man turned his attention back to the trio before him, who had all drawn their swords from their scabbards and leered over at him, their primal instincts alerting them to the imminent danger he posed. In response he slowly brought both of his hands to the back of his hips and he sliiiid two weapons of his own out from their leather sheaths. They were a pair of gleaming silver scimitars, their guards and their handles wrought with intricate filigree.
There was a moment more of this brief, tense pause that lingered between the four warriors, before the man in bck suddenly ducked down low and sprinted towards his quarry in a fsh!
“Well if it isn’t the Count himself?” A voice dripping with smug confidence rang out from behind Niks.
He turned away from the bars of the portcullis to the main Coronton thoroughfare behind him, where he saw Edmonton Borney standing a good twenty paces away. Beside him was his ever-faithful manservant, and surrounding this pair were a handful more of rge Otkornian men. Niks gulped and set his jaw as a bead of nervous sweat rolled down his brow, but he did not let fear show on his face, and stood with as confident and strong a posture as his body could manage to look.
“It was so nice of you to deliver yourself into our hands so easily! I am sure your friends out there will stand down once I have a bde to your neck. If they do, I may even let you live afterwards!” He chortled mischievously, Wilhelm’s bloody dagger still gripped in his hand.
Niks did not reply, but instead reached down to his belt and drew his cutss from its scabbard, lowering himself into as best a fighting pose as he could remember from his books, along with what few lessons his father had allowed him to attend.
Borney snorted in amusement at the little Lord’s show of defiance. “Lads, you can surely handle one weak little Nobleman, can’t you?” He asked, and his men began to lurch forward menacingly with their cruel instruments of violence held aloft!
Crash!
A shower of dirt and cy erupted from atop one of the thugs’ skulls, and he fell concussed to the ground where he y motionless. The other brutes stared down at the carcass in shock, but were then roused from their stupor by a pelting of stones and bricks and more pnting pots, and anything else a man woman, or child could get his hands on!
From the doorways, windows, and balconies of the surrounding buildings, the outraged citizenry of Coronton began raining heavy instruments from their counters, tables, and windowsills across or down at Borney and his goons! They cursed as well as they tossed the stuff.
“Criminal!” “Usurper!” “Go back to Otkorn!”
Many had been listening to Niks’ revetion of Mr. Borney’s true origins and intentions, and those listeners had then spread word of this news to just as many more of their friends and neighbors, who had then done the same in turn until the story was known throughout the whole city! They knew not who “Alvin” was, but regardless, he was their true Lord-Mayor, and this Edmonton fellow who had caused them no end of suffering was a foreigner and a fraud! He had come here under false pretenses, and with the intention of stealing what little they had to line his own pockets–that is what they understood, and it was all they needed to understand to decide where their loyalties y.
Borney and his servant covered their heads with their arms and fled back up the road towards his castle estate as, one after the other, his henchmen fell into self-protective fetal positions as they were beaten. Niks took a moment’s pause to watch in amazement as the final henchman colpsed and a great cheer erupted from the citizens! The nimble Count then began to jog, weaving through the crowd down past the fallen thugs and onto the main road, hot on Borney’s trail. With each humble house and business he passed, the peasantry would erupt in excited and encouraging cries.
“Hail Petrice!”
Niks looked on in amazement as he went. He had never seen the Petrician popuce dispying such passionate emotion before! These normally cold and stoic people were now smiling and cpping as he passed them by, and were even motivating and celebrating him as if he were some local Hero or the like!
“I will not let you down!” He shouted as loud and clear as his lungs would allow.
Hundreds of voices rang out in another loud and jubint cry in response to his dutiful promise.
A whirlwind of sparks and dust was all that the few spectators of the battle could see as they watched it unfold before them in disbelief. There was no Petrician alive who was unaware of the legendary status of the Monster Hunters. Any veterans who survived their long years of Hunting in the deadly No-Man’s Land became so proficient at combat that every so often one would leave the County to travel the nds and Kingdoms beyond, selling their services for ludicrous fees. If these enterprising few ever returned to Petrice, they would sometimes tell tales of facing dozens of men alone, holding their positions atop walls or in chokepoints even after all their comrades had died or retreated. When they were first regaled with these stories, it all sounded quite impossible to whomever was listening. That is, until wandering minstrels and Kings’ decrees repeated and confirmed those same tales; after that, they did not seem so unbelievable anymore.
You can imagine then, the awe and fear someone would feel as they witnessed a lone man hold three of these legendary warriors at bay, and while they surrounded and attacked him simultaneously from three sides on to boot!
To offset his disadvantage in numbers, the man in bck remained constantly in motion, twirling his bdes as he nearly spun on his feet like a dreidel, and through it all his footwork was immacutely precise. He would duck, dodge, and weave at what seemed like inhuman speed and impossible angles as the three Hunters worked together seamlessly to attack him at every level and from every side, each of them using their individual strengths to their advantages while covering for the others’ faults. Thomas thrust his rapier at his enemy’s hips and thighs to impair his movement, while Nayantara’s bastard sword cut and stabbed at his chest or back searching for an opening to strike critical blow, and Uldred used her tremendous strength to sweep her mighty zweihander down or across to smash at his shoulders or head!
Not only did this warrior calcute whose strike he should catch with his own and whose he should dodge and avoid entirely, but he also moved as though he had many more eyes than just the two in his skull. He would wayy offensives that came at him even from directions that his vision should not have been able reach! He was also unnaturally powerful, made evident by how he could redirect blows from even an opponent as mighty as Nayantara, and seemingly without any trouble.
After a few minutes of fighting, but ones which felt like an eternity to the onlookers, the three Hunters stumbled back away from the masked man, who himself halted in a crouching pose, holding one sword back across his shoulders, while the other he kept aimed towards his opponents. The trio of Hunters huffed in deep, winded breaths and perspired greatly from their strenuous efforts. However, despite his constant, flowing movements during the battle, the man in bck stood with unwavering grace, and appeared completely unfazed!
After taking a few moments to catch their breath, the three began to take slow, creeping steps to the side, moving in perfect coordination to circle the mysterious warrior as he remained alert but motionless, like the spokes of a wheel rotating around its central axle. They were clearly searching for the right moment to renew their vicious onsught, while he stood poised and ready to fend them off once more.
It was Thomas who was the first to break this tense standoff as he lunged forward, kicking up a huge plume of dust from the power of his back foot, covering five whole meters in a blink! There was a loud cng and a small burst of sparks as their bdes met, but in that same movement, Thomas was already passing across to the other side of the man, his momentum carrying him a good five meters away. No sooner had he completed his attack than Nayantara took her own turn, bringing her bde down in a diagonal-downward cut across the hooded man’s back! Another shower of sparks arose as he parried her strike, and Nayantara stumbled past him, having been put off-bance! Then it was Uldred’s turn, and she charged right at the man from the front like a raging bull! In comparison to the other two Hunters’ strikes, hers appeared so slow and simple that the man in bck actually prepared a counterattack for it, only at the st moment coming to the realization that even attempting to guide her sword-swing away with his own bdes would cause both his weapons and his bones to shatter instantly! He had no choice then but to throw himself to the earth, ducking the deadly force of her bde by a hair’s breadth, but leaving himself without even a moment to prepare to spring back to his feet!
Sensing the opening, Thomas and Nayantara were set upon him before he was even halfway through his dive and forward-roll Having dropped his swords as he dodged, the man was then able to push himself up to stand on his hands while he kicked out at his attackers with both of his legs, twisting in pce as he did so! The two Hunters, having been so focused on making their attacks, could not respond to such an unexpected maneuver in time, and each met with one steel-toed boot apiece, striking them on their nose and jaw respectively pushing both of them back and away, which allowed the man to twist and bend in the air until he nded back on his feet. Before anyone could even blink in surprise he had scooped up his weapons and fallen back into his customary fighting stance as if he had never been forced off his feet in the first pce!
The two Hunters struggled to right themselves and reconvene with their Countess, Nayantara clicking her jaw back into pce while Thomas nursed his broken and bloodied nose, which bled generously, covering his mouth and chin like a crimson mask.
Beneath his hood, the man in bck narrowed his eyes. “My turn.” He growled, and then he sprinted forward towards the three Hunters without any further warning!
Once again the man was a whirlwind of shining steel, but this time he was the one on the offensive. This time, it was almost more difficult to face him as a group than if they had engaged him one-to-one, for he would feint as if he were aiming for one of them before correcting his course at the st second to instead attack another. He also randomized his strikes, never attacking the same person the same number of times–at least until he did. Every so often he would temporarily allow his blows to fall in a set pattern or rhythm, which only persisted until just after they had come to expect it, at which point he would throw them off by breaking from it again. Out of the three of them Thomas’ defensive skills fared the best, but even then a couple of unexpected strikes still snuck through his guard! Soon enough both he and Nayantara sported dozens of superficial–yet disproportionately painful–cuts and dark, swelling bruises.
Uldred, in the meantime, did not even bother bringing her own sword to her defense, for it was much too rge and cumbersome to serve as a bulwark against his smaller and quicker bdes. Instead, she allowed his flurry of shallow cuts and sshes to sink into her thick leathers and gnce off the chain, and ptes of her armor while she held her arm outstretched and steady with the intention of smothering his movement, not unlike a caretaker might restrain a tantruming child while keeping their filing limbs at a safe distance. Her attempts to grapple him seemed to be in vain, for every time she grasped him and moved to tighten her grip he would slip free.
However, his luck eventually ran out as she managed to take ahold of his cloak, forcing him to retreat and slip out of it before it could become his noose! This time he actually stumbled back a few paces before he managed to regain his footing. The three Hunters could not help but show their naked astonishment on their faces as his appearance was revealed to them. He had salt and pepper hair that offset his dark skin, an even deeper hue than Nayantara’s own. Manqoba now visibly narrowed his eyes at them and huffed in frustration, lowering himself into his carefully poised crouch in anticipation of their continued combat. Uldred then cast his discarded cloak to the dirt by her feet, and began to march forward to oblige him.
