As soon as Sophia had fallen, Lucien had stepped in to engage Meredith, more to prevent her from finishing what sheād started than because he had any particular plan about what he was going to do, exactly. Like Rilien, he was finding it difficult to strategize around the fact that what she could do wasnāt anything heād ever seen before: he didnāt know what her limits were, he wasnāt sure if they could ever expect her to tire and burn herself out, and he couldnāt say if sheād be animating further statues, or if that had been the extent of what the strange sword she carried would allow her to do.
He assumed it best to be as generous in his estimation of her capabilities as possible. Better to be too cautious than not cautious enough. This in mind, he fought defensively, focusing more on weathering her assault than on turning it back around on her. Even that much was proving difficult, but though she was faster and stronger than a human being had any right to be, she hadnāt suddenly grown more adept at choosing her targets or thinking ahead, and like anyone else, she fell into patterns of movement, preferred strikes, predictable reactions to holes he left intentionally in his guard, to bait her to them, and in this way he managed to at least get the situation under control.
Her sword clanged heavily against his, the force of the hit, even deflected, sending pins and needles up his arms. He grit his teeth and endured itāhe had no other choice.
An arrow zipped by over Lucienās shoulder, and though it impacted Meredith square in the chest, where her armor was, it carried the force of a heavy spell behind it, and so when that went off, a crack appeared in the metal, spiderwebbing raggedly out from the point of impact. Nostariel couldnāt risk any of her more destructive spells, not with how closely Meredith was fighting in melee, and she seemed to be capable of shrugging off most of them anyway, so maybe if she could give her friends more effective places to hit with more mundane weaponry, theyād actually be able to wear her down.
The Warden kept herself on the move, not wanting to present a stationary target for any of the augmented number of foes still remaining on the field. One errant hit from one of those statues and she might never wake againāso she wove as well as she could between piles of debris and human bodies, utilizing cover where she could find it, her shots intermittent but carefully-planned.
Ashton stood a little distance away from Lucien and Meredith locked in their struggle, his sword in his hands and bouncing on the balls of his feet. He was looking for any opening at all to jump in and strike. It wasn't an honorable tactic, but neither was he an honorable fighter, and it was all moot anyway considering Meredith was drawing strength from her lyrium sword. Nostariel's arrow flew in from over Lucien's shoulder and gave him the opening he needed.
Darting in from the side opposite of Meredith's sword, he came in from the side in the middle of her and Lucien and swung his sword as hard as he could into the cracked breastplate, deepening the spiderwebbing. Still, it wasn't enough to completely shatter the armor, and he caught an armored backhand for his effort. A cut opened up above his brow and obscured his vision as he was forced backward, but he dealt with it by rubbing it on the scarf attached to the Captain's plate. He was not as agile as Rilien, but he'd seen how he and Lucien fought together many times over, and while it would be a pale imitation of the real thing he thought it the best way to aid him.
As Sophia did time and time again when she was downed in a fight, she struggled back to her feet. It took her some time to overcome the initial shock of the blow, and to recover the ability to breathe, but that was what her friends were for. To rely on when she fell, when she could not face something alone. She retrieved her sword once more, resolved to face this with them, to the end.
There was a weakpoint to be targeted, thanks to what looked to be the effects of a spell from Nostariel, and Sophia looked for an opportunity to exploit it. She didn't foolishly rush in again, but waited patiently and circled, keeping her distance whenever it appeared Meredith might turn her wrath upon her. Lucien was better suited to weathering the woman, and Sophia had already taken enough hits.
When the moment came, Sophia did not hesitate. Meredith was mid swing in a string of attacks against Lucien, but she had opened herself too far, and while the opponent in front of her would not be able to take advantage, another combatant could. Sophia stepped forward and used the reach of her blade to spear the point right into the weakened chest plate. Her aim was true, and the blade pierced through the cracked armor, puncturing a short distance into Meredith's chest. Her next breath wheezed, and her attack was halted.
A swipe of her arm knocked the sword from her and away, the end coming away dripping red. Prepared for this, Sophia stepped in aggressively and elbowed Meredith across the jaw, successfully catching her and driving her back a step. Meredith swirled about and slashed widely, looking to cut Sophia clean in half, but she had darted back a step already, and the slash caught air. Meredith growled in frustration, drawing more of the idol's energy into herself.
Fortunately, Sparrow's mace had been spared from being cleaved in half when Sophia jumped in to prevent her from being cut in two. Which meant she wasn't weaponless, and she could still do something to help. Her legs felt weak and disobeyed the graceful steps she imagined in her head as she circled around to Meredith's rear. She lugged her mace behind her as she walked, freeing one of her hands. She slid her fingers across the front of her thick leathers, and they came away slick and warm.
A small seed of discomfort sat like a stone in her stomach. She couldn't help but think how angry Amalia would be when she saw the damage it had done to the leather she'd crafted. She took another withered breath and wobbled behind Meredith. Like the others, she felt drained. Never had she faced someone as relentless and sporadic as Meredith was. Not to mention the animated statues, stomping around them.
Her hand dropped back to the shaft of her mace, and she drew back one of her legs. Prepared to sprint forwardāor at least try to, in her condition. From what little she could see from the back, Lucien and Sophia were focusing their attacks on her chestplate. If she squinted hard enough she could just make out spiderweb cracks, splintering at the sides of her armpits. She spotted Ashton ducking between their blows, earning him one of his own. Her face twisted up, and she wheezed out a breath, hurtling in her direction. She was staggering backwards, howling like a beast. Drawing even more power to her if that was at all possible. There was a meager attempt to imbue her mace with electricity, but it ended in a pitiful pop. No luck. She resorted to skidding to an abrupt halt just behind Meredith's right side, and swung the mace like a lumberman felling a tree.
Sparrowās mace connected at the same moment as Lucien finally landed a hit of his own, and between them, as well as what had already been done, Meredithās armor at last lost its structural integrity, cracking off in several places, and then in more when the sections those had been supporting fell away, too. In the end, most of her torso plating was gone, leaving her with only a chain shirt, one pauldron, and her gauntlets to protect her vital organs.
Lucien took a hard retaliatory strike for his trouble, the red lyrium sword seeking and finding a gap in his own protection, and Meredithās blade came away with a coating of his blood sizzling along the surface. He staggered, but managed to right himself in enough time to avoid the follow-up, which would have otherwise taken off his head.
The last arrow in Nostarielās quiver hit Meredith square between the shoulder-blades, and the ice spell attached released in the same place, spreading frost over the span of her back and shoulders, followed by a thicker sheet of ice which significantly hampered her motion, though the Warden could only hope it would be enough to aid the others, and give one of them an opportunity. Perhaps Ashton, fighting out of Lucienās shadow, or maybe Sophia, who had better flanking angles. In any case, she was forced to turn her attention to healing, which at this point seemed like it might be for the best, considering the shape they were being worn down into.
She stanched the blood coming from Lucienās torso wound first, then applied a general healing spell to Sophia, who she knew had taken several hits earlier, though Nostariel did not know to exactly where they had been aimed.
Ashton took the chance to slip out from behind Lucien after Meredith's whiffed follow-up. By doing so, he hoped to buy himself enough time to score a hit and slip back out before it could be reciprocated. He ducked in low and struck forward with his sword, striking Meredith in the belly and cutting through the thin chainmail enough to draw a stream of blood and color his blade. She snarled in response, but the damage done wasn't enough to slow her zealous rage.
She responded quicker than Ashton had envisioned and she came back around with her blade cutting downward. Ashton was fast enough to throw his head back out of the way so that his skull would not be split in half. Still, that left the rest of his body in the path of the lyrium sword, and the sizzling of steel and flesh followed. He cried out in pain as he stumbled backward, a deep gash starting at the collarbone of his plate and ended at the middle of his ribcage, smoke rising from the tear. Instinctively he tried to cover the wound with his free arm to keep the blood where it belonged, but some still seeped out.
Still, Ashton didn't back down, attempting to just walk it off in a circle before returning to Lucien's shadow, arm still applying pressure to the wound.
Sophia, rejuvenated by Nostariel's burst of healing magic, charged forward from Meredith's flank to engage, now that she was the healthiest of those that opposed the Knight-Commander. Meredith was still fighting stronger and more quickly than Sophia was capable of, but her attacks were driven by anger, her state of emotional rage at everything around her making her predictable. Her attacks were regular and easy to see coming. That still didn't make them easy to deal with.
They traded blows, Sophia always being mindful to stay out of the path of Meredith's blade, as she could rarely block it directly. Meredith was slowly being whittled away with small wounds, and Sophia could see it in her eyes, that desperate rage, the need to prevail but the knowledge that events had turned against her. Sophia pressed the attack, making a lunge capable of ending her.
Too soon. She overstepped, allowing Meredith to parry her blade up, step in, and make a hard slash. Her blade, enhanced by the idol, cut through Sophia's armor and carved a deep gash below the breast, spilling crimson down the front of her silver chestplate. Sophia staggered away, onto the defensive, while Meredith pressed her attack, driving Sophia away from her allies to keep them from intervening.
"If I will not have victory," the Knight-Commander growled, maniacally, "I will at least kill you!" It was all Sophia could do to defend herself, constantly giving ground and having her defense bashed aside, until there was no more ground to give, and a back to her wall. She raised her defense on more time.
This time, it held. Meredith's blade lost its glow, the woman herself losing the light in her eyes. Their blades were locked together for a moment, and the Knight-Commander appeared stunned by the halting of her attack. Sophia was not stunned, however. She brought her crossguard up swiftly into Meredith's jaw, cracking it and sending her stumbling into an about face. With her back turned, Sophia didn't hesitate.
Vesenia came down with powerful force, shattering the plate Nostariel had weakened. Sophia followed up with a swift lunge, and her sword pierced straight through Meredith's lower back, emerged from her abdomen covered in blood. She kicked the Knight-Commander away, allowing her to stumble forward and to her knees, clutching the wound in one hand, her sword in the other.
"I will... not... be defeated!" she panted, glaring back at Sophia. Impressively, she managed to rise, holding her sword close to herself. She was losing an alarming amount of blood, but ignored it altogether. "Maker... heed your humble servant!" She called upon the idol once more, her blade suddenly glowing a bright, blinding shade of light red, almost white, before it exploded forcefully, scattering shards everywhere.
Sophia protected her eyes from the blast, and by the time she looked back, Meredith was screaming in agony. She collapsed to her knees, the idol's red energy swirling through the air around her. She howled, the red light bursting from her eyes and mouth, as crystals of red lyrium sprouted from her arms and legs, steadily crystalizing her. She did not remain red for long, as soon her screaming stopped, and her entire body was cooked to a brown crisp, still glowing in place with shards of the red lyrium.
All those remaining in the Gallows Courtyard looked on in horror, but there was silence at last. The fight was over.
The Templars approached their fallen former Knight-Commander with weapons still drawn, but Sophia sensed no hostility in any of them. She didn't see how their minds couldn't have been changed, after what Meredith had demonstrated in front of all of them. Truly, Sophia was beginning to believe that the way things had turned out was perhaps the only way they could lead to peace, without the utter destruction of either the mages or Templars. They had seen now what madness their leader had been driven to in her paranoia. They had seen the cost of such unchecked hatred.
"There's a long road ahead of us, Lady Dumar," Cullen said, gazing sorrowfully down at the twisted form of Meredith before them. "Or perhaps I should address you as Viscountess." He slowly knelt down, bowing his head before her, and the other Templars soon followed suit, until all present had done the same.
Sophia, for once, did not know what to say.
He assumed it best to be as generous in his estimation of her capabilities as possible. Better to be too cautious than not cautious enough. This in mind, he fought defensively, focusing more on weathering her assault than on turning it back around on her. Even that much was proving difficult, but though she was faster and stronger than a human being had any right to be, she hadnāt suddenly grown more adept at choosing her targets or thinking ahead, and like anyone else, she fell into patterns of movement, preferred strikes, predictable reactions to holes he left intentionally in his guard, to bait her to them, and in this way he managed to at least get the situation under control.
Her sword clanged heavily against his, the force of the hit, even deflected, sending pins and needles up his arms. He grit his teeth and endured itāhe had no other choice.
An arrow zipped by over Lucienās shoulder, and though it impacted Meredith square in the chest, where her armor was, it carried the force of a heavy spell behind it, and so when that went off, a crack appeared in the metal, spiderwebbing raggedly out from the point of impact. Nostariel couldnāt risk any of her more destructive spells, not with how closely Meredith was fighting in melee, and she seemed to be capable of shrugging off most of them anyway, so maybe if she could give her friends more effective places to hit with more mundane weaponry, theyād actually be able to wear her down.
The Warden kept herself on the move, not wanting to present a stationary target for any of the augmented number of foes still remaining on the field. One errant hit from one of those statues and she might never wake againāso she wove as well as she could between piles of debris and human bodies, utilizing cover where she could find it, her shots intermittent but carefully-planned.
Ashton stood a little distance away from Lucien and Meredith locked in their struggle, his sword in his hands and bouncing on the balls of his feet. He was looking for any opening at all to jump in and strike. It wasn't an honorable tactic, but neither was he an honorable fighter, and it was all moot anyway considering Meredith was drawing strength from her lyrium sword. Nostariel's arrow flew in from over Lucien's shoulder and gave him the opening he needed.
Darting in from the side opposite of Meredith's sword, he came in from the side in the middle of her and Lucien and swung his sword as hard as he could into the cracked breastplate, deepening the spiderwebbing. Still, it wasn't enough to completely shatter the armor, and he caught an armored backhand for his effort. A cut opened up above his brow and obscured his vision as he was forced backward, but he dealt with it by rubbing it on the scarf attached to the Captain's plate. He was not as agile as Rilien, but he'd seen how he and Lucien fought together many times over, and while it would be a pale imitation of the real thing he thought it the best way to aid him.
As Sophia did time and time again when she was downed in a fight, she struggled back to her feet. It took her some time to overcome the initial shock of the blow, and to recover the ability to breathe, but that was what her friends were for. To rely on when she fell, when she could not face something alone. She retrieved her sword once more, resolved to face this with them, to the end.
There was a weakpoint to be targeted, thanks to what looked to be the effects of a spell from Nostariel, and Sophia looked for an opportunity to exploit it. She didn't foolishly rush in again, but waited patiently and circled, keeping her distance whenever it appeared Meredith might turn her wrath upon her. Lucien was better suited to weathering the woman, and Sophia had already taken enough hits.
When the moment came, Sophia did not hesitate. Meredith was mid swing in a string of attacks against Lucien, but she had opened herself too far, and while the opponent in front of her would not be able to take advantage, another combatant could. Sophia stepped forward and used the reach of her blade to spear the point right into the weakened chest plate. Her aim was true, and the blade pierced through the cracked armor, puncturing a short distance into Meredith's chest. Her next breath wheezed, and her attack was halted.
A swipe of her arm knocked the sword from her and away, the end coming away dripping red. Prepared for this, Sophia stepped in aggressively and elbowed Meredith across the jaw, successfully catching her and driving her back a step. Meredith swirled about and slashed widely, looking to cut Sophia clean in half, but she had darted back a step already, and the slash caught air. Meredith growled in frustration, drawing more of the idol's energy into herself.
Fortunately, Sparrow's mace had been spared from being cleaved in half when Sophia jumped in to prevent her from being cut in two. Which meant she wasn't weaponless, and she could still do something to help. Her legs felt weak and disobeyed the graceful steps she imagined in her head as she circled around to Meredith's rear. She lugged her mace behind her as she walked, freeing one of her hands. She slid her fingers across the front of her thick leathers, and they came away slick and warm.
A small seed of discomfort sat like a stone in her stomach. She couldn't help but think how angry Amalia would be when she saw the damage it had done to the leather she'd crafted. She took another withered breath and wobbled behind Meredith. Like the others, she felt drained. Never had she faced someone as relentless and sporadic as Meredith was. Not to mention the animated statues, stomping around them.
Her hand dropped back to the shaft of her mace, and she drew back one of her legs. Prepared to sprint forwardāor at least try to, in her condition. From what little she could see from the back, Lucien and Sophia were focusing their attacks on her chestplate. If she squinted hard enough she could just make out spiderweb cracks, splintering at the sides of her armpits. She spotted Ashton ducking between their blows, earning him one of his own. Her face twisted up, and she wheezed out a breath, hurtling in her direction. She was staggering backwards, howling like a beast. Drawing even more power to her if that was at all possible. There was a meager attempt to imbue her mace with electricity, but it ended in a pitiful pop. No luck. She resorted to skidding to an abrupt halt just behind Meredith's right side, and swung the mace like a lumberman felling a tree.
Sparrowās mace connected at the same moment as Lucien finally landed a hit of his own, and between them, as well as what had already been done, Meredithās armor at last lost its structural integrity, cracking off in several places, and then in more when the sections those had been supporting fell away, too. In the end, most of her torso plating was gone, leaving her with only a chain shirt, one pauldron, and her gauntlets to protect her vital organs.
Lucien took a hard retaliatory strike for his trouble, the red lyrium sword seeking and finding a gap in his own protection, and Meredithās blade came away with a coating of his blood sizzling along the surface. He staggered, but managed to right himself in enough time to avoid the follow-up, which would have otherwise taken off his head.
The last arrow in Nostarielās quiver hit Meredith square between the shoulder-blades, and the ice spell attached released in the same place, spreading frost over the span of her back and shoulders, followed by a thicker sheet of ice which significantly hampered her motion, though the Warden could only hope it would be enough to aid the others, and give one of them an opportunity. Perhaps Ashton, fighting out of Lucienās shadow, or maybe Sophia, who had better flanking angles. In any case, she was forced to turn her attention to healing, which at this point seemed like it might be for the best, considering the shape they were being worn down into.
She stanched the blood coming from Lucienās torso wound first, then applied a general healing spell to Sophia, who she knew had taken several hits earlier, though Nostariel did not know to exactly where they had been aimed.
Ashton took the chance to slip out from behind Lucien after Meredith's whiffed follow-up. By doing so, he hoped to buy himself enough time to score a hit and slip back out before it could be reciprocated. He ducked in low and struck forward with his sword, striking Meredith in the belly and cutting through the thin chainmail enough to draw a stream of blood and color his blade. She snarled in response, but the damage done wasn't enough to slow her zealous rage.
She responded quicker than Ashton had envisioned and she came back around with her blade cutting downward. Ashton was fast enough to throw his head back out of the way so that his skull would not be split in half. Still, that left the rest of his body in the path of the lyrium sword, and the sizzling of steel and flesh followed. He cried out in pain as he stumbled backward, a deep gash starting at the collarbone of his plate and ended at the middle of his ribcage, smoke rising from the tear. Instinctively he tried to cover the wound with his free arm to keep the blood where it belonged, but some still seeped out.
Still, Ashton didn't back down, attempting to just walk it off in a circle before returning to Lucien's shadow, arm still applying pressure to the wound.
Sophia, rejuvenated by Nostariel's burst of healing magic, charged forward from Meredith's flank to engage, now that she was the healthiest of those that opposed the Knight-Commander. Meredith was still fighting stronger and more quickly than Sophia was capable of, but her attacks were driven by anger, her state of emotional rage at everything around her making her predictable. Her attacks were regular and easy to see coming. That still didn't make them easy to deal with.
They traded blows, Sophia always being mindful to stay out of the path of Meredith's blade, as she could rarely block it directly. Meredith was slowly being whittled away with small wounds, and Sophia could see it in her eyes, that desperate rage, the need to prevail but the knowledge that events had turned against her. Sophia pressed the attack, making a lunge capable of ending her.
Too soon. She overstepped, allowing Meredith to parry her blade up, step in, and make a hard slash. Her blade, enhanced by the idol, cut through Sophia's armor and carved a deep gash below the breast, spilling crimson down the front of her silver chestplate. Sophia staggered away, onto the defensive, while Meredith pressed her attack, driving Sophia away from her allies to keep them from intervening.
"If I will not have victory," the Knight-Commander growled, maniacally, "I will at least kill you!" It was all Sophia could do to defend herself, constantly giving ground and having her defense bashed aside, until there was no more ground to give, and a back to her wall. She raised her defense on more time.
This time, it held. Meredith's blade lost its glow, the woman herself losing the light in her eyes. Their blades were locked together for a moment, and the Knight-Commander appeared stunned by the halting of her attack. Sophia was not stunned, however. She brought her crossguard up swiftly into Meredith's jaw, cracking it and sending her stumbling into an about face. With her back turned, Sophia didn't hesitate.
Vesenia came down with powerful force, shattering the plate Nostariel had weakened. Sophia followed up with a swift lunge, and her sword pierced straight through Meredith's lower back, emerged from her abdomen covered in blood. She kicked the Knight-Commander away, allowing her to stumble forward and to her knees, clutching the wound in one hand, her sword in the other.
"I will... not... be defeated!" she panted, glaring back at Sophia. Impressively, she managed to rise, holding her sword close to herself. She was losing an alarming amount of blood, but ignored it altogether. "Maker... heed your humble servant!" She called upon the idol once more, her blade suddenly glowing a bright, blinding shade of light red, almost white, before it exploded forcefully, scattering shards everywhere.
Sophia protected her eyes from the blast, and by the time she looked back, Meredith was screaming in agony. She collapsed to her knees, the idol's red energy swirling through the air around her. She howled, the red light bursting from her eyes and mouth, as crystals of red lyrium sprouted from her arms and legs, steadily crystalizing her. She did not remain red for long, as soon her screaming stopped, and her entire body was cooked to a brown crisp, still glowing in place with shards of the red lyrium.
All those remaining in the Gallows Courtyard looked on in horror, but there was silence at last. The fight was over.
The Templars approached their fallen former Knight-Commander with weapons still drawn, but Sophia sensed no hostility in any of them. She didn't see how their minds couldn't have been changed, after what Meredith had demonstrated in front of all of them. Truly, Sophia was beginning to believe that the way things had turned out was perhaps the only way they could lead to peace, without the utter destruction of either the mages or Templars. They had seen now what madness their leader had been driven to in her paranoia. They had seen the cost of such unchecked hatred.
"There's a long road ahead of us, Lady Dumar," Cullen said, gazing sorrowfully down at the twisted form of Meredith before them. "Or perhaps I should address you as Viscountess." He slowly knelt down, bowing his head before her, and the other Templars soon followed suit, until all present had done the same.
Sophia, for once, did not know what to say.
The Chanter's Board has been updated. The Last Straw has been completed.