Chapter 54: Chapter 53 – Targeted

Targeted

 

As Stefan ran to get to the others, two of the men started rushing toward the stairs. Sloane aimed her right hand that she had been channeling mana into and cast a Flashbang at them.

The guards were protected by a solid breastplate, that peeked out from under a tabard, along with chainmail covering the other vital parts of their bodies. The shields they carried were larger than what any of the knights utilized from what she could remember.

To try and negate their protection, she Altered the purple orb of energy that flew at the speed of a softball pitch mid-flight and shaped its intent. It was something she could only do with her spells, not her grenades. The spell went off in a directional blast away from Ismeld and the two men cried out. Their chainmail rattled and made lots of noise as they all scrambled to shield themselves.

The leader yelled. “Watch out for the witch’s blinding magic! Shields up!”

The disoriented men tried to bring their shields up, but then, Ismeld charged them and shoulder-checked one of the men in his shield, causing him to slam against the wall and fall with a crash. She turned and swung hard toward the sword arm of another man, who hadn’t gotten his shield up in time. The raithe managed to catch the blade on his bracer before losing a hand, but the force of the blow still elicited a grunt of pain. Ismeld then shifted her stance and shoved the man in a way that made him stumble and turn away from her. She quickly followed up by drawing back and then striking forward with her sword, as he rotated.

None of the guards wore plate armor protecting vital areas as Ismeld did. The knight’s blade pierced right above the area of the man’s side where the breastplate connected with the backplate. Sloane was surprised Ismeld even noticed the slight gap where the man hadn’t tightened his strap fully where the front of the armor was attached to the back. He gasped in surprise. He tried to grab onto Ismeld’s wrist, but she stepped backward with a swift twist and pull of her sword. The man fell clutching at his side, and Ismeld was ready to continue.

Not wanting to be left out of the fight, Sloane launched her Mana Bolts at three of the remaining four guards, but they instantly shifted their stance and pulled their oversized shields up. Three Mana Bolts hit three shields and the two with iron strapping reinforcing the wood managed to withstand the blast. Even still, she heard grunts as the force from the hits twisted the shields awkwardly and knocked the men back.

The last mana bolt exploded against a moon elf’s shield and shattered it, causing the man to scream in shock. Wood shrapnel flew in every direction, some peppering the armored guards to his side. The two with intact shields quickly repositioned themselves and readied to weather another barrage.

One of the raithe shieldbearers instantly moved forward and swung a sleek, one-handed war hammer at Ismeld who dodged, knocking the handle away, then lashed out at the man with her sword. The two launched into a back-and-forth duel filled with feints and parries, but Sloane was unable to focus on their fight as the guard leader was moving to flank her. She raised her hand toward the others, channeled a Flashbang, and sent the crackling ball of energy at the man.

 “Shields!” he yelled as he saw her gesture and three of the four were able to get their shields up in time to not be blinded. Still, the sound was enough to keep them immobile. Unfortunately, her desire to shape the spells to ensure they didn’t affect Ismeld also protected her current opponent, the sound that reached them was loud, but not deafening like what those targeted would hear.

 The man who had lost his shield was blinded so Sloane quickly aimed with her hand and launched a Mana Bolt to take advantage of his disorientation. It burst against the upper part of the moon elf’s chest and while it didn’t penetrate the breastplate, the blastwave caught the underside of the man’s chin, whipping his head up, even as it threw him back to the ground with a gruesome deficit of a jaw. 

Blood from the fight had speckled the nearby tables, and in places it had started to pool all over the floor, continuing to drain from those she and Ismeld had killed. Sloane caught sight of Ismeld’s glancing down at the floor as she stepped around. I need to be wary of where I step so I don’t slip and fall.

Sloane caught herself tunnel-visioning and almost missed the last man who had stepped to the side. The man, who had put away his sword and shield, now had a loaded large crossbow and was training it on Ismeld. Sloane’s eyes widened. When did he have time to load and cock that?! She quickly cast a Mana Bolt his way but the lead guard in front of him managed to get a shield in the way, and withstood the blast with a grunt as his shield twisted under the impact and slammed into him. I have got to be telegraphing my actions. They are reacting way faster than I expected. 

“Ismeld! Crossbow!” she called out.

Ismeld looked up and tried to twist and duck behind the man she was fighting but wasn’t quick enough. The moon elf pulled the lever and the bolt launched itself past the raithe and into Ismeld’s armor, which deflected it downward at just the wrong angle. The bolt shattered and the bolt’s head caught a gap in Ismeld’s armor, slicing through her skin before it continued to the ground.

The knight looked at the wound and put her hand over the area instinctively as she winced in pain. The shieldbearer pressed his advantage and swung his hammer overhand at her, and she tried to pull her hand back in time. Ismeld barely managed to bring her sword up to block the blow against the haft, but the force caused her to stumble back from her awkward stance. The man followed through and swung his hammer hard, bashing it against Ismeld’s stomach section of her chest plate, a guttural grunt coming from the woman as the force lifted her to her toes even as it dented in the armor. He then pulled back, spun the hammer around, and struck her hard with the spike. His experience showed as the spike hit the already deformed portion of the plate perfectly puncturing her armor and stabbing into her stomach.

“Ismeld!” Sloane cried out.

Sloane aimed both hands, channeling two Mana Bolts at the same time.

“Havien, dodge!” the lead guard yelled out, his ability to gauge her actions damn near prescient at this point.

The raithe fighting Ismeld turned his head just as both of her spells reached him and exploded right in his face. She turned her head quickly as the lack of anything above the man’s shoulders and the now red wall behind him nearly caused her to freeze.

 Sloane shifted her stance toward the moon elf with the crossbow as the man tried to reload his weapon. She lifted both hands and placed them together and channeled her newest spell. With less to have to focus on, she felt that she would be able to maintain the spell as it required more concentration. Her Arcane Barrage launched out a flurry of purple bolts toward the man. Several bolts moving as fast as a softball missed widely, detonating against tables and chairs in an eruption of wood. 

The raithe guard tried to position himself in the way, but that was his last mistake. One after another, the bolts exploded against his shield in their arcane fury, each blast tearing at the shield more than the last. He managed to stop three bolts, but then something everyone had ignored cried out.

“Wryaaaat!” 

Sloane’s concentration wavered as the cry from above surprised her.

Tiberius dove down from the rafters where he had flown to at some point. The falcon landed on the lead guard’s face, feet first, and the man screamed out as one of his eyes was gouged by Tiberius’s sharp dagger-like steel talons. The falcon instantly took off and flew back up, just as Sloane’s restored spell channeling launched two bolts into the man. The first bolt slammed against the fractured shield in a flash of crackling purple energy, causing it to splinter and break apart, metal and wood flying in all directions. The second actually managed to hit one of those pieces and burst in the air near the man’s shoulder. The blast flipped him over, flinging him to the ground and out of the way. Sloane focused and the barrage continued. 

She swept her hands toward the final guard. Five bolts flew toward the moon elf even as he tried to dodge. She focused her Alteration on the bolts and manipulated the path they followed, even still, the first two missed. The man tried evading the next set, but his footing slipped on the slick floor, right into the path of the last three bolts. He had no chance of surviving not one but three bolts exploding into him, the competing forces smashing and flinging him like a ragdoll into a nearby table.

Sloane turned as she heard yells. The side door that led to the stables and wagons crashed open and Gisele rushed in, sword drawn. Deryk was right behind her with a sword and shield, with Maud rushing in last, her mace and shield at the ready. The lead guard tried to get up from the ground, and at the same time, dragged his sword in an attempt to raise it. The blade never left the floor before Gisele brought her massive zweihander down on the man’s neck. Sloane turned toward the wounded knight as a second headless body fell to the ground. 

“Ismeld!” she yelled out as she rushed over and knelt next to her, putting her arm around the swaying woman to hold her up. The high elf was on her knees, sword laying next to her, as she pressed on the hole in her chest plate with both hands, ineffectually trying to stop the blood from pooling under the armor. “Maud, come here!”

Maud slid in next to them, gently putting herself next to the woman and looking over the puncture point. Wincing as she noticed the way the chest plate was pushed into the wound. The redheaded telv looked Ismeld into her eyes. “Ismeld, look at me. This is going to hurt. A lot. I need to take off your chest plate. Do you understand?”

Ismeld nodded, her eyes unfocused. 

Maud glanced at Sloane. “Move to the other side, hold her as I undo her armor,” she said. She glanced behind her. “Gisele! Get over here and pull this off of her while I hold it away from the wound.”

Sloane quickly shifted to the elf’s right side and tried to hold her in place. With one hand, she gripped Ismeld’s hand, and almost cried at the lack of strength the woman squeezed back with.

Maud undid the straps and clasps that kept the armor in place, counted to three then slowly but deliberately pulled the chest plate away from the wound as Gisele rotated it away from Ismeld’s torso. As soon as the armor was away, Sloane and the Knight-medic carefully lowered the high elf to the ground. Maud cut away the woman’s clothing to expose Ismeld’s stomach and the puncture wound. Sloane watched Maud place her hands over the wound and press firmly. Ismeld cried out in pain and her back arched. “Sloane, hold her!”

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Sloane grasped Ismeld’s shoulders and held her down and looked down, seeing the telltale green glow of Maud’s magic pushing into Ismeld. 

She sat there, holding onto the elf as Maud channeled her green magic into her. Gisele and Deryk stood guard, coming over occasionally to check on them. Even after the wound closed, Maud kept going, healing what Sloane figured were internal injuries. The process itself took far longer than Sloane would have suspected and as she watched, it was clearly draining the healer. Several times she saw Maud jerk slightly as she strained to continue, but the look of determination to save her friend never left her.

Forty minutes later, when the healing was finally finished, Sloane saw the redhead wobble slightly. She opened her mouth to say something, but Gisele reached down and caught the healer before she fell over from exhaustion. 

Sloane looked over Ismeld who had fallen asleep during the healing and gingerly lowered the woman’s head down onto a pack.

Stefan and the four from upstairs had emerged and moved to the side with all of their things, and Sloane’s. All of the workers remained hiding, no other patrons remained inside. The bodies of the guards had already been rummaged through by Gisele and Deryk, and there was a pile of spoils from Ismeld’s and her fight next to the back door. The crossbow, especially, was positioned almost gently, to ensure it wasn’t damaged.

She looked up at Gisele from where she sat next to Ismeld. “Where are Ernald and Cristole?”

Gisele shook her head. “I do not know. A group of guards attacked us as well in the back. The count clearly had us watched, and decided to make his move. We need to move up our timeline but–”

“I-I am ready to go,” Maud said tiredly, yawning, as she slowly rolled onto her side and pushed herself up to a sitting position.

Deryk walked to the woman, crouching and putting his hands on the telv’s shoulders. “Easy. Be careful, you’ve exerted yourself a lot. First me, then Ismeld.”

Sloane caught what the orkun had said and quickly scanned him, finding a hole in the man’s chainmail over his shoulder. “You got hit too!”

Deryk looked at her and nodded. “Crossbow. Close range. That is what took us so long. My injury was not nearly as bad as Ismeld’s, however.” He looked back down at the redhead. “Are you certain you can complete the mission?”

Maud sat up straighter and patted the hand on her shoulder. “I am good. Just took a lot out of me. Ismeld’s injury below the puncture was not good, it took time to fix everything. Those are more difficult.”

“Sloane, you will take charge of your group, now. Keep an eye on Ismeld, no matter what she says, the exhaustion alone may get to her. Get everyone to the East Gate. We will get Cristole and Ernald, then we will move to the estates to retrieve the terran,” Gisele said.

“Wryaat.”

Tiberius flew down from the rafters and landed gently on Sloane’s shoulder. She regarded the falcon with one eye. “Thank you for attempting to help, little guy,” she said, patting his head.

She looked back at the Knight-Captain. “We got this. Do you think the other two were attacked?”

Gisele glanced at Ismeld, then Sloane. “If they hit us and here, I think it is safe to assume that is the case. Don’t worry. They will be alright.”

“I hope so.”

Sloane heard steps coming from the stairwell. The orkun woman sighed. “We left equipment from the guards outside. It would be best if we took it along with us. Could you get the others to help load it into the wagons? Please.” 

Sloane nodded. Gisele thanked her before moving back to Deryk and Maud. 

Sloane turned around as Stefan came down first with his sword out, followed by Koren with two hammers, Rel with a large crossbow, and then finally Kemmy and Elodie who were both carrying everyone’s packs.

Stefan scanned the destruction around the room and whistled. “You two do not do half measures, do you?”

Sloane shook her head and walked over to the five members of her House. “We couldn’t.”

Elodie gasped at the sight of the still bloodied Ismeld propped up, sleeping. “Is she alright?” she asked, her head jerking back to face Sloane.

Sloane nodded. “She is just resting. Ismeld got hurt, but Maud was able to heal her.”

“That is good. We are going to need her if we’re to make it to the East Gate as planned,” Stefan said.

“We will. That said, we need to prepare. Can you all please help me store all of the equipment piled by the door? There is also more outside. Keep your packs close to you, just in case something else happens. We’re waiting on Gisele to make a decision about Cristole and Ernald,” Sloane explained.

Stefan narrowed his eyes. “They’re still not back yet?”

“No, and we’re not sure where they are. Gisele and the others were attacked also, though.”

“Then they were probably a target as well,” Stefan said.

“That was our thought,” she replied.

I just hope they’re okay.

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