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Avery was not close enough to Ayra to hear the woman’s words, but it was rather irrelevant. Whether zhe’d heard them or not, Mordache’s course of actions would be the same: they would fight. They hadn’t come all the way from Mordache by sea just to turn tail the moment they weren’t wanted; that’s not the way war works. No, this port city was valuable territory for their endeavors in this war, and they intended to keep it under their control.

Biggs WAS close enough to hear the Learanian general’s words, however. In fact, Biggs could SEE this dismounted opposing leader Ayra-person and the ragtag companions in the vicinity behind her, what with there only being ten yards between them. And he responded in the most natural for him to: weapons first, words later. He immediately brandished his pole axe and charged forward with his steed, straight towards Ayra and hers, roaring an aggressors battle cry. He swung his weapon to the side as he closed the distance, but he didn’t aim to hit the enemy commander (although he probably should have – it would’ve given him the chance to n** this fight in the bud with hardly any casualties with the enemy leader gone). No, rather, his poleaxe aimed for the presumably exhausted horse she’d dismounted from. The way Biggs saw it, the arrival of these Learanians was an opportunity, a license to be as brutally violent as he wanted to be – which he couldn’t with the normal citizenry of Sires. The poor horse didn’t have a chance after exhausting itself to get here, as the blade of the weapon connected with its neck for the desired lethal effect. Biggs kept running forward towards the very entrance to the city before stopping to have his horse turn around. There looked to be other exhausted steeds their riders had dismounted from to take out, which would leave even more Learanians stranded. “No one’s going anywhere! And there will definitely be consequences!” he yelled, still gripping his now-bloodied weapon. The Great-Knight wasn’t the smartest fellow, and his methods would certainly increase the number of casualties on his side, but Biggs was a threatening adversary all the same.

More of the men who had accompanied Biggs in securing the city under their control were now coming into view from various nearby streets and angles. They mostly lacked mounts, and were taken by surprise at the arrival of Learanian troops. But like Biggs before them, they consisted of the most reckless of Avery’s troops, and looked forward to potential violence. Especially since they wouldn’t be taken by surprise due to: a) Leon’s and Lance’s charge into battle and the first bloodletting of this battle, b) Ayra’s declaration, and c) one of their leader’s attack, indicating the OK to move in themselves.

Elsewhere, further into Sires, the sound of many hooves and feet alike could be heard approaching, a crescendo of the sounds they made signaling their imminent approach. For those in the lead, Thelma included, vague shapes could be seen in the distance, unbeknownst to them to be Leon, Lance, Sephas atop Anri, and Khalid. If the small group didn’t get on the move and fast, they’d find themselves surrounded by Mordacheans in no time. And considering the numbers, they’d likely find themselves surrounded sooner or later anyway.

Still even further, at the harbor itself, Bonnie, Avery and Rosencrantz remained where they were. The first of them to be involved in the battle at all would likely be Rosencrantz once the best opportunity to attack from afar presented itself.

Nurturer.

Murderer.

Ayra

The swordmaster had pulled his horse as Ayra had stopped, she was in charge here so it was probably a good idea to follow her lead. Which was why he hadn't charged ahead in the first place, that and he was averse to dying. It tended to get in the way of more important things. Ayra was tending to negotiation now, fat chance that it would work especially after first blood had been drawn, at least she tried though.

Yup, didn't work, okay time to get off the horse, he'd always found fighting on the backs of the animals to be awkward anyway. As Joshua landed on the ground Ayra called the order to retreat into the alleys. Made sense, the guild force was tiny as they had needed speed and were under the assumption that the men in Sires wouldn't be... well dead. Gurilla tactics was going to be their friend here, so the swordmaster dashed after Ayra into the space in between the buildings once he was in the lip of the alley though he stopped and turned, someone had to make sure the entrance would remain clear for Blythe and Javert.

Why did he choose the forest? Oh yeah...his plan to sneak up on the enemy and catch them by surprise. Well, the only flaw that he never took into account was the fact that the forest took a long time to get through...no matter, he finally hit the end of that path, and the enemies were still around, but they looked like the common infantry units.

Man...can't a guy get a break around here? Common enemies? Well...anything to help out my allies. Besides, with the night...I blend in fairly well. The long range would have to wait until he was ready to reveal himself, or he caught up with the others. Until then...he would have to feel like a thief.

Staying in the shadows as best as he could, Ziaram crept up quietly to a fighter that took the time to yawn on the job. Placing his hand over the fighter's mouth, to ensure he would not yell after his death, the myrmidon quickly silenced the fighter with a quick slash to the neck. One unit down, and he was left in silence...so far so good. Retreating back to the shadows, Ziaram would continue this pattern until he regrouped with Ayra and the others, or the reinforcements arrived.

I ain't gonna give in, no matter how
hard the fight before me looks to be!

Leon couldn’t believe what he was hearing from this… this… scoundrel that he went through a whole lot of trouble to try and save! The man was insulting him after Lieutenant Vatara stopped out of his own courtesies to help Lance get out of his ordeal! The brunette furrowed his brows in anger, tempted to grab the misfit by the collar and tell him a thing or two. Leon had a dozen vulgar words to say about the Dartel thief, and the first syllable of a string of insults was about to make its way out of the Watch Officer’s mouth. There was only one thing that stopped him, and that was surprisingly the rather small, but efficient words of warning from Khalid.

It didn’t take a genius to see that the Mordachian troops were on their way to the small group, to either capture them or kill them on the spot as they were separated from their commander! Leon had to move himself and the others fast, if the small group of men was to get out of this alive and well enough to finally say what he had on his mind to the thief. He didn’t hesitate to grab Lance, and load him up on Anri’s back, shortly after, grabbing his horse’s reigns and running, going as fast as he could in the general direction of Ayra’s retreating forces. He had to ignore Lance’s outbursts for now… he had to focus on his objective: get out of here, and do so alive.

”Just don’t stop! Keep following and we’ll get to safety!” Leon said back at Khalid, as he went in as fast of a pace as he could manage away from the gathering of enemies that was sure to pursue. If they were both lucky and persistent, they’d reach their own side before long! Everything would work out, he had to tell himself. Learanians never had a situation they couldn’t get out of, right? He'd been in earshot of Ayra's command to retreat, so Leon knew that his small congregation wasn't that far from the others who would surely back them up.

If ya just believe, then even if the world is
torn asunder, yer gonna seize victory!

Nurturer.

Murderer.

Ayra

For them to be encountering so many enemies, despite trying to avoid them was both frustrating and troublesome to the Troubadour. Being on a horse and lacking a proper weapon only made him more of a target, unfortunately. One soldier had successfully gotten a hit in on Blythe (who was subsequently dealt with by one of the other Learanians, I’m sure) with a lance, too. Around the… ribs! He’d been injured near his ribs. Nothing too, too serious, but an injury was an injury. Getting hit, even when you try to avoid direct combat, was usually inevitable, Blythe was quickly discovering. He hurt like a ********, but the Troubadour was glad it was him who had been injured rather than Cesario. Should his horse be injured or otherwise unable to maneuver Blythe out of danger faster than he could himself, Blythe would definitely be all the more ******** he wasn’t the only one who had taken a hit; he knew for sure his new employer was bleeding, taking note of the red on her clothes that had certainly not been there when he’d introduced himself. It’s positioning also indicated it wasn’t from an enemy. Injured or not, Blythe had a job to do! So when the opportunity presented himself, the Troubadour positioned himself behind Ayra so she could protect him from oncoming attacks and heal her. It was most fortunate that he had gotten behind the swordswoman, too, for a couple more enemy soldiers had approached and Ayra had successfully dealt with them while Blythe readied his Heal Staff. He was quick and focused in sealing her wound between the energies of the staff and his own magical capabilities. It was inconvenient that one had to stay in place while healing to remain focused on what you were doing, but getting healed and staying in place, if even for a bit, was better than taking hits and not getting them treated. If anyone else was injured and it wasn’t explicitly stated, it can be assumed Blythe eventually got around to healing them, also if he wasn’t too busy saving his own a** from getting destroyed. It’s what healers do, after all.



Wedge reunited with Thelma’s riders and had a Troubadour tend to the wounds on Biggs’ horse. He had no idea where Biggs was though, so rather than attempt to search for him to return the mount while riding his own (moving two horses at once really slowed him down), Wedge had a random foot soldier take care of his own mount while he got on Biggs’ horse and began to search for his best friend and boss. Said person was still hell-bent or splitting Javert in two, and still in hot pursuit. He can probably be outrun though, since he’s on foot, and has all the armor bogging him down, should the Learanians have ever stopped moving, or stop to take out an enemy, however, he’d close the distance. And that seemed to be happening a lot. Sure enough, he eventually caught sight of some of them and charged forward, Poleaxe in hand. <******** Halberdier! Face me like a man!”

James and co. were still progressing forward, but it’s pretty safe to say they most likely wouldn’t be seeing any action since they’re all on foot and predominately armored units.

But Thelma was finally going to be able to join in on the action. The Bow Paladin was a confident, capable leader, and ordered the cavalry she was in charge of to divide themselves down the various streets to patrol for the enemy. By now, it was pretty obvious the fighting was no longer at the entrance to the city, and so there was little point in going there. But divided into the streets, some of the feared Mordache Cavalry would be bound to come across the Learanians that had ventured into Sires so aggressively.

At the port, itself, things were finally happening in the area, but not good things. The Learanian wyvern reinforcements had most successfully executed their quicklime-plan, and both the masts of the Mordache ships and some parts of the decks were set ablaze. As soon as the Wyvern Riders had been spotted, however, and brought to Avery’s attention, zhe quickly proclaimed more orders to be carried out. And one could tell by hir demeanor, zhe was ******** angry (the entire purpose of defending the port was keep them and the harbor safe and in their control, so the rage was understandable)! “Blasted Wyvern Riders,” zhe bellowed. “I want Rosencrantz and his men to take out anything moving in the sky! And have all free hands putting out those fires! Don’t just stand there; move your asses!”

Avery, hirself, would finally get to do something as well, for if any of the Mordacheans in Sires were suited to eliminating Wyvern units, it was hir. After zhe had spat out the orders and people swarmed about to deliver them, zhe took hir signature weapon, a Bolt Lance, and aimed it towards the sky, following one of the Wyvern Riders who had poured the substance now plaguing their ships. Zhe steadied it in place at just the right moment as the lance suddenly began glowing a bright orange-yellow. Just then, a powerful bolt of lightning erupted from the tip of the weapon, illuminating the sky if for but a moment like an announcement, like a judgment, striking the Wyvern Rider in question and almost assuredly killing. Wyverns were known for their susceptibility to thunder magic, as well as having low resistance to magic in general. And Avery had damn good magical capabilities considering hir class. Sure enough, moments later, a powerful splash, one only something large as a wyvern could hope to produce, could be heard. There was no hesitation in readying another blast of lightning to take yet another Wyvern Rider out of commission single handedly.

While Avery was the first to eliminate a Wyvern Rider, Rosencrantz and pals were quick to emulate. While they didn’t possess or have the capabilities to wield thunder magic, there were magic users among them. Better yet, there were archers among them! So they were pretty much qualified to be able to try and take out the flying nuisances. And they’d have done so fabulously were it not for the uh… Terrible Fire that was Plaguing the ship they were all on! It really divided their attention, so while some units went to retrieve water to attempt to put the fire out (something that would backfire, of course, but I’ll get to that in a minute), others tried to pick off the Wyvern Riders who were responsible for their vessel’s misfortune. They had some success, but it would’ve been much better without a big fire ******** with them. Rosencrantz at least was consistently successful in getting his attacks to hit (his subordinate, Guildenstern, wasn’t half bad either). Not possessing potent thunder magic, it took more than one or two hits from them to off a Wyvern Rider, but by focusing their attention on a single enemy at a time, it didn’t take too long for them to take one out at a time.

By then, those who had gone to get water to douse the fire had come back and were now attempting to put it out. As they threw the water on the fire, things got worse, not better, however. The fire ate it and grew stronger. And one poor Knight had gotten to close and suddenly found himself on fire as well. The sucker flailed about, screaming in agony before jumping overboard in an attempt to stop the fire (he clearly didn’t ‘get it’ when throwing water at the fire proved to make it worse) and the intense flames that engulfed his body only magnified further, smoldering, incinerating his body, sealing his death. This caused a serious distraction to Guildenstern and his men, and before the Knight had jumped into the water, some of them had redirected their attacks onto the Knight so as to put him out of his misery. As a Flux spell connected, while it certainly heavily damaged the Knight (who was going to die anyway), the flames grew weaker for a moment. Rosencrantz observed this, and ordered all the dark magic users beneath him to cast their spells not at the Wyvern Riders but at the blazing fire itself. The archers could keep aiming for the flying targets. But putting the fires out was more important, and the means for doing so had finally presented themselves.

Bonnie and her soldiers pretty much stayed in place. Some of them were dispatched to deal with the fires, but otherwise, they still needed to defend the port. She, like James, would not get to see much action tonight. Poor them.