With the ranks fully augmented and all his friends accounted for, Lucien felt no compunctions in pushing forward at full speed, though he minded the warning about the arrows, pilfering a dead manās shield and strapping it to his free arm. It didnāt require his hand, thankfully, and it served its purpose well enough when he stepped into the large central room theyād made it to before. Several arrows clattered off the metal surface, and he had to mind his feet, else his current armorless condition prove to be his undoing. Fortunately, he was a large and imposing target, which earned him a lot of the early effort by what had to be about ten concentrated archers, who appeared to have gained the high ground by way of a staircase off to the left.
Getting there would be a bit of a challenge, though. Without any ranged weapons yet on them save Liaās bow, Lucien knew they had to get close as soon as possible. āEstella, Nostariel, Lia, keep them busy. Havard, Donnelly, pick up shields and help me defend the three of them. The rest of you, get up there and finish them off.ā The three ranged fighters should be enough to keep them from making many accurate shots, and with the shield fighters there to protect them, theyād be able to keep up a steady harassment, enabling the others to get over to the stairs quickly and quietly, something Quinn and Ashton were both quite good at. Cor would do fine as well.
Estella knew what he was asking of her, and while she wasnāt exactly the most confident about it, she nodded anyway, sheathing her sword and taking up a position on Liaās left, lighting fires over both hands. They were the first things to hit, right near the feet of the front line of archers. The other two would have superior aim, but if all they needed to do was disrupt, then it shouldnāt matter much anyway. She flinched and tried not to move when she saw an arrow headed towards her, but it thudded into Havardās wooden roundshield anyway. The older Lion smiled wryly. āDonāt worry, lass. Weāve got you covered.ā
To help the runners further, Nostariel took a moment to cast an arcane shield over them, which should help a few of the arrows veer wide, if any came their way. After that, though, she was happy to do as Lucien had asked, and added ice to Estellaās volleys of fire, her own hits steadier and more accurate than the young womanās, she suspected largely due to the large gap in practical experience. An ice spike drove through one archerās chest, and he was the first to fall, careening forward off the ledge heād been perched on and hitting the ground headfirst. Arrows continued to fly in their direction, but Nostariel trusted the others to take care of them.
"Gladly," Ashton replied, spinning the pilfered sword in his hand. "Quick as you can, don't slow down," Ashton told Quinn and Cor. The faster they moved, the harder they'd be to sight in, especially with them being harrassed as they were. Still, it was dangerous but it was better than being locked in a cell waiting for his fate. Ashton watched the archers for a moment, and judging the moment when a majority of the archers loosed their arrows, he bolted low and erratic, dodging from side to side but ever moving forward.
Ashton took the stairs a moment later, pressing hard against a railing to dodge an arrow before clearing the rest of the steps. The archer who'd stood at the top of the stairs firing down on him was the first to go down, Ashton stabbing him clean through the gut. He grabbed his collar and held him up for a moment, letting a hail of arrows strike his back before letting him sink. Ashton moved to the next one, but he proved slower than the next archer, taking an arrow to the shoulder instead of the head by pure reflexes alone. The impact threw his shoulder back, but he'd been close enough to take one more step and drive his foot hard into the man's groin. He dropped, leaving Ashton to cleave part way through his neck.
Quinn sped by the murdered Coterie man, doused with a small spray of blood as he passed, which he paid no mind. He moved with excellent speed for a man his age, ducking under a slash from an archer who had drawn a blade upon seeing their perch being overtaken. He then proceeded to slice across the archer's belly, allowing most of his guts to spill out onto the floor. Horrified by the sight, he was then defenseless to having his head removed by Quinn's blade. Grim-faced, he moved on to the next.
He stepped over a pair of corpses to reach the next archer, a woman who had drawn a knife in preparation to fight him. She opened with a lunge, Dairren sidestepping and taking hold of her wrist with his free left hand. Holding her arm extended, he brought his sword down swiftly, slicing it clean off at the elbow. She screamed, dropping to her knees, and he finished it silently, grabbing her by the top of the head, wrenching it back, and slicing open the throat. Only one remained for the elf boy to deal with.
Corvin Pavell was no grizzled veteran of many battles, but he was well-trained and talented, and so while he was easily the greenest of the attack team, he managed to keep up just fine for the most part, splitting off from Ashtonās initial foray into the archers in the opposite direction from Quinn. This gave him one target, a woman at several dozen paces away. She shot at him once it was clear he was coming for her, but reflex and instinct drove him down into a roll, and it whizzed by over his head, allowing him to regain his feet smoothly as he knew how and continue his sprint forward. While he preferred to fight in the style of his mentor Lucien, there werenāt many Coterie members with large blades, and so heād armed himself with a one-handed battleax instead.
When he got close enough, the archer drew a knife, swiping for his midsection. Jerking backwards, he used his superior reach to extend, catching her in the brow with the haft of the axe. Off-balance, she staggered, and he stepped in, finishing her with a heavy chop downwards and diagonally, the axehead biting deep into the juncture of her neck and shoulder. There was a vital artery there, heād learned, and when the axe came away, it spurted blood for several seconds before stopping, some of it unavoidably hitting his linens and the corresponding side of his face. A quick swipe of his sleeve ensured that none of it was headed towards his eyes, but he didnāt bother trying to get it all off.
With the archers down, the main room was cleared. After pausing a moment to allow anyone to adjust their loadouts as necessary, Lucien considered the situation. He didnāt know the full layout of the base, but most of the cave formations around these parts had a fair number of side passages and other such things. It seemed prudent to make sure they werenāt ambushed from behind again. āHavard. Stay here, with Estella, Donnelly, Cor, and Lia. Keep our way out open, and be sure we arenāt followed. If you have any problems, send someone after us.ā The eldest of the Lions nodded, gesturing to the younger ones to gather about him for a moment. Heād know where to post them to make the most of their talents.
Lucien had to admit it was a bit of a relief. He relied on them, it was true, but he would also be happy if he didnāt have to risk them much further. He knew things would only likely get more difficult up ahead, and more delicate as well. He would feel comfortable knowing that his back was protected. He assumed the rest would want to come with him, but he didnāt presume to give them orders, not now. They knew as much as he did about what they would face further down, perhaps more in some cases.
Turning towards the passage down, he shook his sword sharply to get most of the blood off it, and started down the path. Heād never been a religious man, but he was praying now, to anyone who would listen.
Deep in the mine, Sophia cautiously exited her cell, forced to leave Jamie's body behind with the slain brute. Assuming they survived this, they could come back for it later. Her hands were finally free, wrists rubbed raw from the ropes that had bound them for so long, and in one hand she held the axeman's shortsword. It was a much smaller and lighter weapon than she preferred, but it was better than trying to take the axe, which she imagined even Lucien might have found cumbersome to wield.
The sounds of fighting were still distant, leading her to assume that the others had not yet reached this deep in the tunnels yet. Working her way slowly along a curved, rocky path, Sophia came to a stop when it abruptly opened into a much wider space, and the sounds of closer voices reached her ears, one of them being Miranda's.
"What do you mean, we've lost control?" she demanded of a Coterie thug, furious. "Did we not have dozens more men?"
"With all due respect, lady... fuck you. Don't see you doing no fightin'."
Miranda scoffed loudly in reply, but for once could come up with no scathing words to lash out at him with. Sophia had taken cover behind a small crate, but peered out to take in the upcoming surroundings. The large room was a supply storage type area, one that the Coterie had taken to filling with their own stores, these secured in stacks of heavy wooden boxes and crates, many of them lashed to one another with thick ropes the likes of which had been used to bind her as a prisoner. Torches and the occasional brazier lit the room dimly from the walls, casting long, dark shadows across the room, and other small towers of supplies.
"Is there no other way out?" Miranda finally asked.
"None that don't lead right through those bastards."
There were two of them, Sophia could see, one on each side of Miranda, who had armed herself with her bow again. Having no intention of waiting around for them to find her when they realized the axeman wasn't coming back, Sophia crept out into the large room, taking cover behind several stacks of boxes as she approached. She was no adept in stealth, but her lack of any armor made it easier to move quietly, and her targets were already distracted by the sounds of fighting from beyond. It wasn't difficult to get into striking range without being detected.
She went for the Coterie thugs first, believing them to be more dangerous than Miranda. The first she stabbed around his jerkin, plunging her blade into the weak under-arm area, cutting his cry short before it could even begin. Miranda cried out in surprise next to her, at least until a kick from Sophia to her gut silenced her and sent her stumbling back. Allowing the first man to fall, she wrenched the sword free and made a swift advancing step on the second.
This one had enough time to prepare, blocking her first slash with his hand-axe and sending a punch her way in return. She leaned back swiftly to allow it pass in front of her face, before slashing at the arm, leaving a deep and bloody cut along his tricep. He growled and brought the axe down on her, leading Sophia to block high and stop it a foot from her forehead. She brought her foot up to give a hard kick to the inside of his leg, which successfully knocked him off balance, twisting down to his knees. She then plunged the sword down into the base of his neck before he could put up a proper defence, leaving him to fall over forward, lifeless.
Sophia had realized that Miranda had disappeared midway through the fight, but had only just turned to look for her when an arrow struck her in the side of her right leg, at mid-thigh height. She yelped in pain, turning to try and locate the woman, eventually finding her nocking another arrow down a sort of makeshift hallway of the stacked boxes. Limping forward towards her, Sophia jumped to the side just in time to dodge another, at least partially. The arrowhead still bit a deep gash into her left shoulder before she could get behind cover.
"I know the noose awaits me now, Sophia," she shouted. "I'd rather see you dead first, though." She drew another arrow, shifting her position while Sophia prepared for another move. "You, who couldn't appreciate the gift that fell right into your lap!" Sophia darted out from her cover, trying to reach another stack of boxes, only to take another arrow, this one to her left hip. She cried out, stumbling and falling, thankfully behind some cover.
"The Five-Minute Queen! Whose first act was to bleed all over the floor of her own throne room!" She drew another arrow, stalking closer now. She'd driven herself into some kind of fury. "It should have been mine!"
A small box was loose, and Sophia snatched it up from the floor, hurling it over the top of her little pile of boxes to where she knew Miranda was. Her aim was true, and the smaller woman was struck in the side of the head with it, sending her staggering to the side, flustered. Pushing herself up, Sophia forced her legs to work despite the arrows, moving with as much speed as she could muster into close range with Miranda. She threw a hard punch across her jaw, something Miranda clearly wasn't used to taking, as she immediately dropped her bow and fell, now beside the two bodies of the other Coterie men. Sophia descended when she rolled onto her back, straddling her across the waist and holding the sword level at Miranda's throat.
"Yield," she demanded, and the dark haired woman looked up in terror, holding her hands still to the side and panting with adrenaline. "It's over."
"It was his plan from the start, you know that?" she suddenly said. "The man who thinks he's your father. I wasn't included in it, he didn't even know of me, but the Coterie sought me out. He wanted this." That she would even bring him up caught Sophia off guard, and she narrowed her eyes down at Miranda.
"What do you mean? How do you know?"
"The Coterie told me everything. He wanted to set up a meeting, then capture you, pretend like the criminals had abandoned him. Only then he swoops in with a way he acts like only he knows, steals you from their clutches, not a single death. He's a hero, back in your good graces, and the Coterie has their link to the future Viscountess." Sophia was clearly struggling to process it, which Miranda seemed to enjoy, as she continued on. "Coterie saw through him, though, knew he was weak, but wanted to have the little Dumar in their grasp anyway. So they came to me. Someone who could make use of it all. You see? You have no hero of a father, with a falsely stained name. You have only a traitorous criminal, and a coward who lost his head!"
Sophia pulled her sword back in anger to strike Miranda, but she had failed to notice from the distraction that the Coterie man's handaxe was in reach. Miranda grasped this just in time, swinging it across and cutting into Sophia's side. A splotch of blood spilled out, and Sophia immediately tipped over off Miranda, falling onto her own back, and the dark haired woman rose, coming above her and trying to bring the axe down. It clanged onto her blade as she halted it, and even wounded as she was, Sophia was able to hold Miranda's attack back.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see someone approach, a bow in their hands, and with as much strength as she could force out of herself, she pushed Miranda entirely off of her, to put space between them and allow for a clearer shot.
The arrow came in not high, but low, entering the side of Miranda's knee. Due to probably not taking many of those in her life, the arrow took her off of her feet immediately. Despite it all, she still tried keep her balance and get to Sophia, at least until Ashton followed his arrow and planting the heel of his boot into her chest, putting her on her back. Kicking the axe she'd had moments ago far, far out of reach, he drew another arrow and kept a heavy boot on her chest as he pointed it at her head.
"May I have this dance, Lady Threnhold?"
Getting there would be a bit of a challenge, though. Without any ranged weapons yet on them save Liaās bow, Lucien knew they had to get close as soon as possible. āEstella, Nostariel, Lia, keep them busy. Havard, Donnelly, pick up shields and help me defend the three of them. The rest of you, get up there and finish them off.ā The three ranged fighters should be enough to keep them from making many accurate shots, and with the shield fighters there to protect them, theyād be able to keep up a steady harassment, enabling the others to get over to the stairs quickly and quietly, something Quinn and Ashton were both quite good at. Cor would do fine as well.
Estella knew what he was asking of her, and while she wasnāt exactly the most confident about it, she nodded anyway, sheathing her sword and taking up a position on Liaās left, lighting fires over both hands. They were the first things to hit, right near the feet of the front line of archers. The other two would have superior aim, but if all they needed to do was disrupt, then it shouldnāt matter much anyway. She flinched and tried not to move when she saw an arrow headed towards her, but it thudded into Havardās wooden roundshield anyway. The older Lion smiled wryly. āDonāt worry, lass. Weāve got you covered.ā
To help the runners further, Nostariel took a moment to cast an arcane shield over them, which should help a few of the arrows veer wide, if any came their way. After that, though, she was happy to do as Lucien had asked, and added ice to Estellaās volleys of fire, her own hits steadier and more accurate than the young womanās, she suspected largely due to the large gap in practical experience. An ice spike drove through one archerās chest, and he was the first to fall, careening forward off the ledge heād been perched on and hitting the ground headfirst. Arrows continued to fly in their direction, but Nostariel trusted the others to take care of them.
"Gladly," Ashton replied, spinning the pilfered sword in his hand. "Quick as you can, don't slow down," Ashton told Quinn and Cor. The faster they moved, the harder they'd be to sight in, especially with them being harrassed as they were. Still, it was dangerous but it was better than being locked in a cell waiting for his fate. Ashton watched the archers for a moment, and judging the moment when a majority of the archers loosed their arrows, he bolted low and erratic, dodging from side to side but ever moving forward.
Ashton took the stairs a moment later, pressing hard against a railing to dodge an arrow before clearing the rest of the steps. The archer who'd stood at the top of the stairs firing down on him was the first to go down, Ashton stabbing him clean through the gut. He grabbed his collar and held him up for a moment, letting a hail of arrows strike his back before letting him sink. Ashton moved to the next one, but he proved slower than the next archer, taking an arrow to the shoulder instead of the head by pure reflexes alone. The impact threw his shoulder back, but he'd been close enough to take one more step and drive his foot hard into the man's groin. He dropped, leaving Ashton to cleave part way through his neck.
Quinn sped by the murdered Coterie man, doused with a small spray of blood as he passed, which he paid no mind. He moved with excellent speed for a man his age, ducking under a slash from an archer who had drawn a blade upon seeing their perch being overtaken. He then proceeded to slice across the archer's belly, allowing most of his guts to spill out onto the floor. Horrified by the sight, he was then defenseless to having his head removed by Quinn's blade. Grim-faced, he moved on to the next.
He stepped over a pair of corpses to reach the next archer, a woman who had drawn a knife in preparation to fight him. She opened with a lunge, Dairren sidestepping and taking hold of her wrist with his free left hand. Holding her arm extended, he brought his sword down swiftly, slicing it clean off at the elbow. She screamed, dropping to her knees, and he finished it silently, grabbing her by the top of the head, wrenching it back, and slicing open the throat. Only one remained for the elf boy to deal with.
Corvin Pavell was no grizzled veteran of many battles, but he was well-trained and talented, and so while he was easily the greenest of the attack team, he managed to keep up just fine for the most part, splitting off from Ashtonās initial foray into the archers in the opposite direction from Quinn. This gave him one target, a woman at several dozen paces away. She shot at him once it was clear he was coming for her, but reflex and instinct drove him down into a roll, and it whizzed by over his head, allowing him to regain his feet smoothly as he knew how and continue his sprint forward. While he preferred to fight in the style of his mentor Lucien, there werenāt many Coterie members with large blades, and so heād armed himself with a one-handed battleax instead.
When he got close enough, the archer drew a knife, swiping for his midsection. Jerking backwards, he used his superior reach to extend, catching her in the brow with the haft of the axe. Off-balance, she staggered, and he stepped in, finishing her with a heavy chop downwards and diagonally, the axehead biting deep into the juncture of her neck and shoulder. There was a vital artery there, heād learned, and when the axe came away, it spurted blood for several seconds before stopping, some of it unavoidably hitting his linens and the corresponding side of his face. A quick swipe of his sleeve ensured that none of it was headed towards his eyes, but he didnāt bother trying to get it all off.
With the archers down, the main room was cleared. After pausing a moment to allow anyone to adjust their loadouts as necessary, Lucien considered the situation. He didnāt know the full layout of the base, but most of the cave formations around these parts had a fair number of side passages and other such things. It seemed prudent to make sure they werenāt ambushed from behind again. āHavard. Stay here, with Estella, Donnelly, Cor, and Lia. Keep our way out open, and be sure we arenāt followed. If you have any problems, send someone after us.ā The eldest of the Lions nodded, gesturing to the younger ones to gather about him for a moment. Heād know where to post them to make the most of their talents.
Lucien had to admit it was a bit of a relief. He relied on them, it was true, but he would also be happy if he didnāt have to risk them much further. He knew things would only likely get more difficult up ahead, and more delicate as well. He would feel comfortable knowing that his back was protected. He assumed the rest would want to come with him, but he didnāt presume to give them orders, not now. They knew as much as he did about what they would face further down, perhaps more in some cases.
Turning towards the passage down, he shook his sword sharply to get most of the blood off it, and started down the path. Heād never been a religious man, but he was praying now, to anyone who would listen.
Deep in the mine, Sophia cautiously exited her cell, forced to leave Jamie's body behind with the slain brute. Assuming they survived this, they could come back for it later. Her hands were finally free, wrists rubbed raw from the ropes that had bound them for so long, and in one hand she held the axeman's shortsword. It was a much smaller and lighter weapon than she preferred, but it was better than trying to take the axe, which she imagined even Lucien might have found cumbersome to wield.
The sounds of fighting were still distant, leading her to assume that the others had not yet reached this deep in the tunnels yet. Working her way slowly along a curved, rocky path, Sophia came to a stop when it abruptly opened into a much wider space, and the sounds of closer voices reached her ears, one of them being Miranda's.
"What do you mean, we've lost control?" she demanded of a Coterie thug, furious. "Did we not have dozens more men?"
"With all due respect, lady... fuck you. Don't see you doing no fightin'."
Miranda scoffed loudly in reply, but for once could come up with no scathing words to lash out at him with. Sophia had taken cover behind a small crate, but peered out to take in the upcoming surroundings. The large room was a supply storage type area, one that the Coterie had taken to filling with their own stores, these secured in stacks of heavy wooden boxes and crates, many of them lashed to one another with thick ropes the likes of which had been used to bind her as a prisoner. Torches and the occasional brazier lit the room dimly from the walls, casting long, dark shadows across the room, and other small towers of supplies.
"Is there no other way out?" Miranda finally asked.
"None that don't lead right through those bastards."
There were two of them, Sophia could see, one on each side of Miranda, who had armed herself with her bow again. Having no intention of waiting around for them to find her when they realized the axeman wasn't coming back, Sophia crept out into the large room, taking cover behind several stacks of boxes as she approached. She was no adept in stealth, but her lack of any armor made it easier to move quietly, and her targets were already distracted by the sounds of fighting from beyond. It wasn't difficult to get into striking range without being detected.
She went for the Coterie thugs first, believing them to be more dangerous than Miranda. The first she stabbed around his jerkin, plunging her blade into the weak under-arm area, cutting his cry short before it could even begin. Miranda cried out in surprise next to her, at least until a kick from Sophia to her gut silenced her and sent her stumbling back. Allowing the first man to fall, she wrenched the sword free and made a swift advancing step on the second.
This one had enough time to prepare, blocking her first slash with his hand-axe and sending a punch her way in return. She leaned back swiftly to allow it pass in front of her face, before slashing at the arm, leaving a deep and bloody cut along his tricep. He growled and brought the axe down on her, leading Sophia to block high and stop it a foot from her forehead. She brought her foot up to give a hard kick to the inside of his leg, which successfully knocked him off balance, twisting down to his knees. She then plunged the sword down into the base of his neck before he could put up a proper defence, leaving him to fall over forward, lifeless.
Sophia had realized that Miranda had disappeared midway through the fight, but had only just turned to look for her when an arrow struck her in the side of her right leg, at mid-thigh height. She yelped in pain, turning to try and locate the woman, eventually finding her nocking another arrow down a sort of makeshift hallway of the stacked boxes. Limping forward towards her, Sophia jumped to the side just in time to dodge another, at least partially. The arrowhead still bit a deep gash into her left shoulder before she could get behind cover.
"I know the noose awaits me now, Sophia," she shouted. "I'd rather see you dead first, though." She drew another arrow, shifting her position while Sophia prepared for another move. "You, who couldn't appreciate the gift that fell right into your lap!" Sophia darted out from her cover, trying to reach another stack of boxes, only to take another arrow, this one to her left hip. She cried out, stumbling and falling, thankfully behind some cover.
"The Five-Minute Queen! Whose first act was to bleed all over the floor of her own throne room!" She drew another arrow, stalking closer now. She'd driven herself into some kind of fury. "It should have been mine!"
A small box was loose, and Sophia snatched it up from the floor, hurling it over the top of her little pile of boxes to where she knew Miranda was. Her aim was true, and the smaller woman was struck in the side of the head with it, sending her staggering to the side, flustered. Pushing herself up, Sophia forced her legs to work despite the arrows, moving with as much speed as she could muster into close range with Miranda. She threw a hard punch across her jaw, something Miranda clearly wasn't used to taking, as she immediately dropped her bow and fell, now beside the two bodies of the other Coterie men. Sophia descended when she rolled onto her back, straddling her across the waist and holding the sword level at Miranda's throat.
"Yield," she demanded, and the dark haired woman looked up in terror, holding her hands still to the side and panting with adrenaline. "It's over."
"It was his plan from the start, you know that?" she suddenly said. "The man who thinks he's your father. I wasn't included in it, he didn't even know of me, but the Coterie sought me out. He wanted this." That she would even bring him up caught Sophia off guard, and she narrowed her eyes down at Miranda.
"What do you mean? How do you know?"
"The Coterie told me everything. He wanted to set up a meeting, then capture you, pretend like the criminals had abandoned him. Only then he swoops in with a way he acts like only he knows, steals you from their clutches, not a single death. He's a hero, back in your good graces, and the Coterie has their link to the future Viscountess." Sophia was clearly struggling to process it, which Miranda seemed to enjoy, as she continued on. "Coterie saw through him, though, knew he was weak, but wanted to have the little Dumar in their grasp anyway. So they came to me. Someone who could make use of it all. You see? You have no hero of a father, with a falsely stained name. You have only a traitorous criminal, and a coward who lost his head!"
Sophia pulled her sword back in anger to strike Miranda, but she had failed to notice from the distraction that the Coterie man's handaxe was in reach. Miranda grasped this just in time, swinging it across and cutting into Sophia's side. A splotch of blood spilled out, and Sophia immediately tipped over off Miranda, falling onto her own back, and the dark haired woman rose, coming above her and trying to bring the axe down. It clanged onto her blade as she halted it, and even wounded as she was, Sophia was able to hold Miranda's attack back.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see someone approach, a bow in their hands, and with as much strength as she could force out of herself, she pushed Miranda entirely off of her, to put space between them and allow for a clearer shot.
The arrow came in not high, but low, entering the side of Miranda's knee. Due to probably not taking many of those in her life, the arrow took her off of her feet immediately. Despite it all, she still tried keep her balance and get to Sophia, at least until Ashton followed his arrow and planting the heel of his boot into her chest, putting her on her back. Kicking the axe she'd had moments ago far, far out of reach, he drew another arrow and kept a heavy boot on her chest as he pointed it at her head.
"May I have this dance, Lady Threnhold?"