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Murphy watched Drake mount in silence. Offering help would likely only upset him, so the Assassin wisely did not interfere. He did not seem severely wounded on first glance, with most of the damage localized to one shoulder and the cut he now grasped on his leg. His attention redirected to Murphy, though, for a few moments. "...Cover me."

Murphy merely nodded.

The ride out of the city was unglamorous, for the most part. Murphy's knives were sharp enough to ward off anyone who attempted to approach, and after a quick scavenge for fallen throwing knives on their way out of the courtyard, the Assassin was now nicely-armed with long-range weapons. Drake's presence was imposing enough as it is, and this added onto Murphy's apparent threat was enough to keep him untouched.

Murphy paused as Drake did, following his gaze to a shocked-looking young man in green. He was silent, and then... rode away. The retreat was more important. Murphy watched Abel a moment longer, making sure he could not surprise them, and then hurried after Drake, keeping up his protection until they were out of the city and getting back to Sentria with the rest of the bandits. The Shadow Guild, meanwhile, followed loosely behind them, picking up the rear and ensuring no one could follow Drake, in turn.

Vat is left, but my brand of freedom?

A coach, accompanied by a surrounding royal escort, stopped near the entrance of Fefga Manor. The rider hastily climbed down and opened the passenger door, bowing as he did so. He dared not look up. An attendant stepped out first, a muscular man with long hair and a fair face much like all the Baroness' other personal attendants, and offered up his hand as he bowed his head. An elegant black hand gracefully took a hold of the man's. Finally, the sight of pure white dreadlocks emerged from the coach, followed by the opening of poisonous green eyes. The mysterious Baroness of Mordache regally stepped down and took her first steps in Learania.

Her attendant, still holding her hand, accompanied her over to the three commanders. Her eyes first met with Vern's and she slyly winked at him. "Vern, darling, vonderful to see you. I have missed having your... healing around." She then looked to her precious red and green commanders, but said nothing and then looked out at the battlefield. She remained silent for a few minuted and then finally turned back to them. "You vere put in charge of ze battle, vere you not, Mendeleeve?" she asked sweetly, despite knowing the answer, since it was her own command. "Zen perhaps you can tell me..." Her tone suddenly changed and she looked upon her green knight with daggers. "Vhy are our troops being pushed back...?"

Vat is left, but my brand of freedom?

Charolais did not take her eyes off of Mendeleeve. She expected a decent explanation for the failure in battle. Unnerving him was a part of what his punishment would be. One could say, it was part of her foreplay. What he said, however, she did find to be acceptable. He may have lost the siege, but he adapted to the situation and put into effect a way to still achieve victory.

"Hm... very good. Good thinking. However... I'm not so sure my timing was all zat good. Vell, I suppose it vas, for you." She turned away, but still eyed her commander. "If I had arrived earlier, you vould have joined ze slaves in zeir vital role of ze incantation." She chuckled lightly, obscuring the line that told if she was joking or serious.

After she stopped, she stared out at the Estarcian troops. Keeping them out of the war had been her achievement. There was absolutely no way that Chanticlier had sided with Learania. It meant.. that he was no longer in control. The Baroness could only imagine who had taken his place, but she knew one thing about whoever the man was for sure. She very much desired to meet him.

And just as Leon guessed, things got ugly fast. The battle against Drake happened so quickly that it was hard to get an opening in. That, and the fatigue was setting in from his earlier run-in with the Shadow Guild. He didn't even see Drake's strike coming until his lance went flying forward, way out of reach.

"Get back here, damn you!" Leon shouted, drawing his sword as a quick last resort. Drake was too fast though. By the time he and Anri even begun to charge, he was already out of sight.

"Now what...?" Leon thought angrily as he sheathed the steel sword, and picked up the lance form the ground. Rath was wounded and Lord Zeon was worse, but he was no staff user. He couldn't help them. Nino was an archsage though, her power would be enough.

"Take care of 'em all, Nino! I know ya can with that magic of yers. I got someone I gotta get back to." Leon said, bowing once before taking leave again. He hoped his friends were somewhere safe, and somewhere easy for him to find.

Before Sue could fire another arrow, the serpent fang made his escape! She glared in his direction briefly, but turned her attention to Rath shortly after. "Father, hang in there! Take this, it will help with the pain." she said, offering the other nomad a Vulnerary that she had been holding on to. She only caught a glimpse of the other horseman leaving, all the while just listening to the conversations in the room.

"The enemy has retreated, Lord Zeon..." Sue said to him. "Isn't the battle already won? Or is something else still lingering that we have yet to face...?"

Though it was approaching the afternoon, the clouds were beginning to gather and block the sun. Faint thundering sound began to echo as if a true sin against nature was about to be committed. Outside of Eyris, in the field where Mordache still retained its ground, an incantation circle had been formed. Dark mages held the perimeter, with the slaves bound in the city, unable to escape. The sorcerers were already reciting the most foul sounding incantation man had ever heard. All around them, the wind began to pick up. Birds from the forests took to the sky and fled from the area. The horses shrieked and bucked, knowing that something dangerous was happening. The horseback Mordachean commanders even had to make an effort to calm their steeds.

The thunder grew louder and the skies got darker. At this point, forces outside could tell that something was happening. From the sky, the riders could surely see that things centered around that circle. Eventually, the light was very dim and an eerie sensation overtook the field and city. The chanting from the circle became unnerving and breathtaking to all who could hear it. There was a power among them, a power that quashed the spirits of men.

The power grew and festered inside the circle. The slaves began to panic and tried to break free and escape. The children cried as their mothers comforted them and hid their faces as they cried as well. Suddenly, the dark power erupted into the sky like foul lightning. The fliers who were moving towards the circle were too late. The force of the power knocked the wyverns and pegasi back and prevented them from getting close. The slaves cried out in agony, but eventually their bodies vanished. The human sacrifices had done their part.

The power then left the circle and gathered in the clouds. One by one, the dark mages fainted, their power almost completely used up to the point of using their own essential life force. The ground then started to shake a little and the air was heavy. From the clouds, the collected power emerged. It's appearance was hard to distinguish, but it could be best described in recognizable terms as a huge meteor. It was an incarnation of Loki's wrath that began to slow soar down towards Eyris. It's destructive force could kill everyone.

After further interventions by the green moss guy, Lance finally managed to break free of his hold. Having lost sight of Murphy and Drake long ago, Lance gave up on that endeavour. Taking out his cuffs from his belt, he neatly locked the hands of his assailant together, leaving him leaned against a wall. If nothing else, I'll be able to get a prisoner to interrogate later.

As the battle seemed to die down, Lance breathed out of relief. His idea failed yet again, but anything, he was still breathing. Looking up towards the sky, he was expecting to see clouds.

Instead he saw a big a** rock.

Eyes widening, he felt his mind snap a bit as he yelled out frantically. "WaitwaitwaitWAIT! Hang on one second! Are you kidding me?! An army or two I can get, but a BLEEDING meteorite?! That's not something you can repel with just guts and friendship! That's ******** overkill! How do you fight THAT?!"

Wait, wait, calm down, think rationally. A meteorite doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Thinking logically, it would probably be the effect of some major spell needing preparation, at least to what Lance knew about magic in that capacity. Question was, if one were to summon great balls of fire, would they do that even if in the vicinity?

Lance assumed not. Even if they were desperate, he didn't think it was probable that whoever cast it was planning on perishing with it, especially since it was probably done as a last resort measure in case the invasion failed. And there's no point to an invasion if you're not alive by the end of it. Which brought him to his next question.

Where would they be if not in the city?

The obvious answer would be outside. If so, it probably wouldn't be all that difficult finding them. Maybe there was still time for some redeeming action for him.

Looking at his unconscious captive, he sighed. He'd like for his trophy to still be in his possession when he came back if he did, and leaving him just handcuffed like that was probably a bit too easy to get away from. Looking around, Lance found a conveniently sized sack which had probably been used as a training dummy of some sort. Emptying the sand inside it, Lance swiftly placed the green haired moss monster inside it, satisfied with that his head was the only thing popping out, before tying it around the opening so it would be hard to move about or get out of it without help. Sitting him up against a wall, Lance hurriedly wrote a note before sticking it onto the sack. Satisfied with his work, Lance quickly made himself scarce, exiting the same way he came in through the battlements, looking for any group of people that could've cast the spell that threatened to terminate life in the city. All that was left of his work was a man in a sack, with a note stuck on it, saying:

Prisoner of War
Property of Lance Dartel
Please Do Not Touch or Move

*******************

Though you know, I wish, I could...

You know there ain't no rest for the wicked...

Until we close our eyes for good...

The fighting seemed to have waned after a little while. At least, the fighting was relocated; all of the sounds of screaming and clashing steel was located somewhere decently far from her, where she was still kneeling on the hard cobblestones, holding onto Derrin's prone form. She couldn't quite tell if he was still unconscious, or perhaps just sleeping; his breathing seemed to have evened out a bit over time, and he looked less dead to the world than he had before. Probably a good thing, head injuries could... really mess a person up, and bad.

The little Hero brushed Derrin's red hair off of his forehead, checking delicately on the injury Jaren had inflicted before. None of the bandages she had wrapped around his cuts had stained through, which was definitely a good sign... the bruising wasn't that bad, either, after the hours she'd spent kneeling here. Perhaps it hadn't been bad to begin with, just mentally inflated by her own worry. It was a dark bruise, but very small, focused. Blossom was no doctor, but it would definitely be fine. Just some rest, and--

Wait, screaming. More screaming. A lot of screaming. Did the sun just dim? Blossom looked up to the sky.

Oh, just a meteor hurtling right for the--what.

Her blue-grey eyes widened, hands tightening instinctively against Derrin's shoulders. Oh Gods. Oh Gods. "No no no no," she whispered, already starting to shake. She clutched onto Derrin's form tightly, huddling against the wall, as if it would protect her. Oh Gods oh Gods why was Derrin not awake what was going on they were all going to die here. What could anyone do about a meteor? And Derrin wouldn't even see it coming... Blossom only tightened her grip and quivered in panic against the wall, trying to take a deep breath. Someone... someone would do something. Eyris had managed to get through everything before. Maybe... maybe they could do something now?

It was a nice thought, at least...

Super Awesome Swordsman;
Jaren Degriess!

I'm the HERO of JUSTICE

LOVE ME!

The Hero of Justice woke up with a shout, uncertain at first as to where he was. The last thing he remembered was that sleeping fellow being all wriggly, escaping him and then a foot somehow coming down on his head before he could do anything about it. Now Jaren was alone and leaned up against a wall in a burlap sack. He could do nothing but watch as the other Sentrians ran away from the castle as he tried to figure out what to do. Before he was knocked out, he'd heard that guy who had found a bird's nest and stuck it on top of his head and still had the gall to call it hair yelling for people to retreat. But a true hero never ran away! Even tied up in this sack, Jaren would fight on for justice against the evil King Wrath and his followers. It was during this train of thought that he noticed everyone looking skywards. With a tentative glance Jaren followed their gaze, the glance became a double take, "HWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" He shrieked as he saw the meteor that would hopefully not become the meteorite until him and Ali were very far away from the city. Speaking of Ali, Jaren had to find him! All the other Sentrians were fleeing and nobody was taking the time to stop and free Jaren, but he knew Ali would wait for him. Heroes of Justice stuck together after all.

However Jaren couldn't just stand around and wait for Ali to find him, he had to try and find some way to help. It was clear to the myrmidon that he was going to be unable to walk and so instead he hopped, with both legs together and his arms clasped in front of them. He started to head back to where he'd seen Ali last. He wasn't going to become evil Learanean's foul dinner! Oh my God, what if they did try to eat him! That was worse than... than... a lot of things! "Aliiiiii! I think we should go now! Where are you?" He yelled as he hopped around in his sack.

We all have our secrets, we all wear a mask. A persona if you will, to cover our real selves, our shadows, the face that we could not show to society and still appear sane. Not even we know our true nature.