Chapter 34, in which the Adventurers takes a rest, and then have the fight of their lives

Narudin
Narudin nodded gratefully to Red Un.

"Many Thanks, Sir Redwick. I assure You that I didn't poison You intentionally, I believe it may have been another plot of the Brotherhood." his face fell. "If You see it prudent that I leave the group, I understand" said Narudin, hanging his head.

"For my defence I have only that I stand behind You with all my heart, and I did get an antidote smuggled to Your cell, though I can't prove it, granted."

Narudin sat moodily on the edge of the carpet, watching the land, and then water fly past as they headed towards Vega.

Darkness Fall-ll
Narudin's return to the group signalled his faithfulness to Red Un. Katherine smiled at him and nodded. "Welcome back Narudin."

As the carpet took off, Narudin's control over the Magic Wall weakened, and slowly it began to diminish. The guards easily broke through the Walls, and charged at the sole defending ranger. Looking down from the carpet, Katherine saw the ranger being overwhelmed by the Guards in an instance. The ranger tried to fight back, but the numbers were just too sheer. All she could hear from above were a scream, the last scream from a brave ranger that was a total stranger to them and clashes of weapons and armours.

A drop of water trailed down her cheek, it was tears, wetting her flawless face and dripped down. The rushing wind passing the group sent the trail of tears flying off in the direction of the wind.

Katherine raised her left hand to her face and used her fingers to gently brush off the tears and wipe off the dried tear trail on her face.

She sat down on the carpet, legs crossed and laid her Serpent Staff across her legs. She straigthened her back and joined her palms together as she began to mumble a chant in honour of the late ranger.

Tujex
Tujex sat on the carpet. The ranger who had helped them was slain by the guards as they left Carlin. "Man... that's sad..." Tujex said, his face not really displaying any emotion. "If only he hadn't been so brave...." he muttered as he looked out over the horizon. "We aren't really... dressed to be going to Vega are we?" he asked as he turned back to everyone else.

Red Un
Red Un was completely oblivious to the fate of the ranger. He just looked straight ahead, happy to finally be on his way to Vega.

Then he heard Tujex’ remark.

"Well... I guess I could go for some nice food, some rest and a new sword... But the Library's so close..."

Then he realised that they would need all the rest the could get if Vega was defended by even the smallest group of Brotherhood members. He sighed.

"Well all right then... Melrod! Turn us straight around, we're goin' to Ab'Dendriel!"

"Ah, the city of elves? A city that is full of magnificent splendour and wonderful houses! Pretty, that is."

"You still haven't turned the carpet...”

"Oh! Yes...right away..."

And thus they turned, flying towards Ab'Dendriel.

Tranquillity
"Ahh, it’s going to be good to be back in Ab'Dendriel." Tranquillity sighed. It felt like she hadn’t been back there for months.

She turned towards Artemis who was sitting next to her on the carpet. "As an added bonus I have all my training equipment in Ab'Dendriel as well as a nice training area I've set up. If we have time I'd like to give you a lesson."

Artemis of Luna
Artemis turned to Tranquillity.
"Thank you, I would appreciate that. I left home before my training was to begin. The only weapon I know how to use properly is this sling passed down from an ancient meeting of my great (to the tenth power) grandfather and Durin of Tibia. And it is only good for stationary distant targets."

Diamond silently crept up to Whiskey. She then wiggled her body and pounced on his tail-feathers. Rolling around on her back she didn't know she did anything wrong.

Narudin
Narudin nodded to Katherine.

"It's good to be together again" he remarked, and then sunk into self-contemplation.

This was the first time since the night on the beach when he had some time to think. The encounter on his way to Carlin was troubling him. Kish... an ally, or an enemy trying to get into their midst? No, the Brotherhood wouldn't need putting a spy into the group if there's a good chance of being able to send some demon after them.

And also...

"Ab'Dendriel..." Narudin sighed. Home to the elves. When was the last time he visited the Ever-green city of elvendom?

"The time I "removed" the Speaker of the Moon" thought Narudin miserably. Or maybe it was the Sage of the Stars? He couldn't remember. His past was like a dream, he scarcely remembered anything. Yet it still followed him. Oh, they wouldn't recognise him, it was a masterly planned and executed assassination. But how he would feel was an entirely different matter.

Once again, Narudin raised his head. No, he would not let his past take control of the present. He twisted his lips into a smile and lay back on the carpet, gazing into the stars.

Red Un
Red Un sat at the edge of the carpet, dangling his legs and looking down at the forest speeding by below.

"Ah, finally some rest from all the Almost-Dying-Or-Something-Even-More-Horrible stuff. It was startin' to get on me nerves, even before I drank that tea."

Melrod looked ahead.

"People, I say, people, Ab'Dendriel is straight ahead. If you like I could fly over it. Many persons like to look at it from above, since it's such a pretty city and all."

Tranquillity
"Yes!" Tranquillity exclaimed before anybody had a chance to object. "I wonder what my house looks like from up here..."

Artemis of Luna
"I agree with Tranquillity. Well not the house part, I only have a small bedroom. But I have never had the chance to see Ab'Dendriel from the air. No, I've only seen Carlin and Thais from above and not much then, this will be interesting."

Artemis carefully leaned over the edge of the carpet and to his amazement saw the city of trees in all its glory. "Wow the people are so small."

"I believe I have a small fortune stored in a safety-deposit box in a small depot. Maybe I could buy a clean set of cloths for me, and also a small cache of cat food for Diamond.

Kai Sakamada
Kai was lying back on the carpet, relaxing some as the wind swept past him, and the clouds rolled in the sky, as the ground sped below.

"Last time I was there, I was nearly killed!" he said laughing to himself.

"Artemis you’re related to the queen? I fought in her resistance army about a year ago." he said, his hair blowing wildly in the wind.

Red Un
Red Un didn't like having to fly around over the city, but decided to not voice his opinion. He just sat in the middle of the carpet and muttered, as all dwarves do when they're annoyed.

"Hrmph... think it's some damn tourist trip... I oughta... grumble..."

Meanwhile, there was some heated discussion among the leaders of the Brotherhood.

"Have you forgotten our motto?!"

"I know our motto, but still..."

"We must do this! It's the only way!"

"But surely, not all of them?!"

"All of them! That cursed half-dwarf won't get away!"

"But..."

"Silence! This has become more than our general cause! That half-dwarf has made a mockery out of us! He must be punished, no matter the cost!"

Rakinos
Suddenly, a shadow passed overhead. The party looked up from the carpet and saw a giant eagle with a broken wing gliding towards them, a hunched figure on its back. The eagle passed the carpet and shrugged the seriously wounded ranger onto the carpet before taking off to recover.

"Well... we meet again.." The ranger coughed up a lot of blood and fell into unconsciousness.

Red Un
"This, I say, this person is bleeding all over my clean carpet!" complained Melrod.

Red Un woke up from his grumbling and looked at the newly arrived ranger.

"Um. Could someone wake him up or heal him or something so I can express my gratitude for him saving our butts and other body parts back there?"

Artemis of Luna
Artemis turned to Kai.
"Yes, in fact she is my aunt I am Son-Heir and first in line for the Thais throne."

Artemis realized that the person that had rescued them all was losing a dangerous amount of blood.

As he drew his searing sword he said, "Ok, this is going to hurt! Can someone hold him down and have an Ultimate Healing rune at hand?"

Artemis then took his sword and with a hiss of steam and the smell of burning skin, pressed the flat of the blade to the many cuts and gashes in the heroic man's flesh.

"Now quick with the rune!"

Rakinos
The ranger spasmodically jumped in unconsciousness and muttered.

”No, no! Save yourself my wife!”

Then he fell back into a deep sleep.

Narudin
Narudin did not take any notice of the discussion whether to fly over Ab'Dendriel or not, lost in thought. But he reacted quickly when the man fell from the sky. Mainly because he didn't want anyone falling onto his head again.

Artemis closed the wounds on the mans body with his sword and asked for an Ultimate Healing rune, which Narudin had, of course. The half-elf used two to be on the safe side, the rangers state being critical as it was. Then he felt something strange, a surge of "negative" energy.

"Damnation, it's not the Brotherhood again, is it?" he whispered to himself, wiping the sweat that appeared on his forehead with the back of his hand.

Tranquillity
"No," said Tranquillity overhearing Narudin's whisperings. "I can't help but think that the Brotherhood has more cunning ways than to try to assassinate us by dropping an unconscious ranger into our midst. All this does is spoil our flight over the city."

Tranquillity tapped Melrod on the shoulder. "Could you take us down over there please?" she pointed to a house off to the edge of the city.

Rakinos
The rangers eyes flickered open and he looked up into the face of the troubled half-elf, sensing his thoughts.

"Elf… do not fear me, I have no harm to any of you, and I thank ye all greatly for your help, the only evil in me is the desire to avenge my wife, and revenge is evil, please forgive me..."
The ranger bowed his head in shame.

Darkness Fall-ll
"Don't worry about the blood spill Melrod. I'm sure that The City of Elves have skilled Carpet Masters to wash that stain up." Katherine comforted Melrod.

The ranger coughed up some blood when he tried to sit up, she quickly kneeled down beside him and placed her hands over his chest and gently stopped him from getting up. "No brave ranger. Please, lie down and rest. You have just barely recovered from that near-death battle. Please, if anything bad shall fall upon you, we are not sure how we should repay you."

Katherine placed one hand behind the ranger and slowly guided him down to the carpet and placed his left hand over his chest.

"Rest well brave warrior." Katherine smiled at him. "Upon Ab’Dendriel, we'll send you to a physician." she continued saying, her hands gently tapping his rested hand to reassure him.

Rakinos
The ranger smiled weakly at the woman that stopped him.

"I think you are right dear lady, I may need to rest before I am fit to fight again, but I just hope I helped you all enough back there."

Narudin
Narudin shook his head to clear it.

"Please take no offence, Stranger. I merely felt... unwell for a moment. I do not suspect You, You had bought us some time back in Carlin, after all."

Once again, Narudin flew away with his thoughts.

"What are they up to?" he whispered inaudibly.

Red Un
Red Un looked up at the sky.

"Hum... where the heck did that eagle come from anyway?"

Meanwhile, Melrod steered the carpet towards the house Tranquillity had pointed out.

"If you need rest for the night, I could take you to the house of a friend of mine later on."

Red Un laughed.

"You've got friends?"

"That, I say, that I've got indeed. His name's Elvith, and he's a talented instrument-maker. Not to mention the sounds he can produce with his mouth. Singing, that is."

"Well okay, but first we need to get this guy some help."

The half-dwarf turned to the ranger.

"What's your name, heroic ranger?"

Rakinos
"My name...is Rakinos.”

He smiled.

Artemis of Luna
Artemis went over to Rakinos. "Hello my good sir. My name is Artemis Silverstone Tibianus The fourth, heir to the Thaian throne."

Artemis knelt on one knee in a deep bow.

'Hisss!' "Oh and this is my grumpy kitten Diamond."

Tranquillity
"And I'm Tranquillity" she said with a slight incline of her head. "There is not much we can do for you right now but I promise we will find you a proper healer the moment we get on the ground."

Rakinos
The ranger inclined his head towards the two.

"I am sorry but my current condition prevents me from getting up and greeting you properly, I feel such a burden." He winked.

"I know that without the healing you have already given me, I would be dead, and I am in your debt for that."

Artios
As soon as Red Un was taken to Carlin, Artios fell on his knees. "Agh, what's happening? It feels like my head is exploding, and like my blood is boiling." The pain was gone after approximately twenty minutes, but for Artios, it were mere moments. "W-where is everyone?" he said as he looked around. "They are probably on their way to Carlin." Artios was just about to go to Carlin as he noticed that his old clothes were gone, and he was wearing a cloak. "What? Am I dreaming? Or WAS I dreaming?" He was quite shocked. Then he realized that he'd have to hurry to Carlin. As he ran to Carlin, he noticed that he was running faster than before, since it did only take a few seconds for him to reach Carlins walls. And not only that he was fast, wherever he laid his feet, the snow melted, and the grass was set on fire, and when he got too close to the trees, the trees were as well set on fire. Once he got to Carlin, he saw some kind of flying carpet, and there was a hooded ranger who tried to pull off the guards. "I can’t help him now, it's too late. Poor soul." Artios ran after the carpet. "Good that those monks taught my father to levitate twenty years ago, for now, I will need it." As the carpet was flying higher and higher, Artios was just a hundred meters behind. And he saw that the carpet now was heading for Ab'Dendriel, he decided to land in Ab'Dendriel and just wait for the others to land. Before he landed, Artios was quite sure that if he really concentrated, he would not harm any of the building with his fire aura.


Red Un
The carpet landed. Red Un got off it and looked around. The Great Tree was still standing and had started to sprout again. Everything seemed ordinary in the city of elves.

"So, Tranquillity, what is this house then?"

Rakinos
The ranger propped himself up with difficulty.
"Ah, the city of elves, now I know I am safe."

The ranger smiled at Red Un.

" Thank ye for allowing me to accompany ye Red Un.”

Red Un
Red Un shook his head.

"Safe? You think you're safe with us around? We've gotten into more trouble than I care to remember, and I'm sure it ain't gonna stop anytime soon..."

Rakinos
The ranger looked over at Red Un.

"Ye think someone would dare to attack us in the city of the elves?"

Tranquillity
Tranquillity snorted. "Remember that giant tree near the docks." She jerked her thumb towards Red Un. "Anyway, up with you." she said as she lifted Rakinos up and propped him against her shoulder.

Turning back to the others she said "I only have one spare bed at my house, but if you’re not opposed to sleeping on the floor you’re welcome to stay with me. It's right down there." She pointed with her free arm. "Number six. I'll be there in fifteen minutes if you want to wait for me there, if not you can drop by later."

Slowly she headed off with Rakinos to get a healer.

Red Un
Red Un turned to Melrod.

"Hum, I was thinkin' we could go to Elvith. He's got a pretty large house, right?"

"Indeed, I say, indeed he does. And I'm sure he's got beds and food to spare for all of you."

"Okay, I'll just leave a note here..."

Red Un scribbled down a note and left it at the door.

Gone to see Elvith.

"There. Let's go everyone!"

Artios
Once Artios landed in Ab'Dendriel, he saw that the carpet was about to land not very far away from him, but he felt like something was amiss. He pulled up his right sleeve and raised his fist to the air, then he noticed another mark on his arm, he was quite shocked when he noticed that the "Mark of the Necromancer" suddenly appeared on his arm. "I think I know what happened in the forest some while ago." he said, as he noticed that Red Un landed in Ab'Dendriel. He walked slowly to Red Un and the others and noticed a newcomer amongst the rest. "That's the ranger! I thought he died over there. But how did he get onto the carpet?" Artios shook his head. "Too many strange things are happening, I'm not used to this yet. I'll just get some rest" he said as he slowly walked away from the others. The running and levitating required a lot of power and Artios was quite exhausted by now.

Narudin
Narudin stayed a bit behind the others. He watched Tranquillity take the wounded ranger to a healer, then slowly followed Red Un towards Elvith's house. Surprised, he noticed that Artios was with them.

"Greetings again, Sir Artios." he said. "I don't seem to recall You flying with us on the carpet. Nevertheless, welcome back to the group."

With a short nod, the half-elf hurried after Red Un and the rest. No, hurried is a bad word. He slowly walked after them, seeming to gain on them faster than it appeared from his pace.

Artemis of Luna
Artemis turned to go in the opposite direction then hesitated. 'Diamond can you quickly go and see if anyone is occupying my room?'
'Ok but I am going to get my paws all wet in travelling the secret entrance.'
'Pleeease? I will give you a fish...I'll even de-bone it for you.'
'Oh, ok.'
'Great! Hurry back old friend.’

Artemis caught up to the rest who had set off for Elvith's place.
"So, anyone up to a good meal and warm cider? I hear the elves make some of the best cider anywhere."

Rakinos
"I hope I get healed soon...I feel so stupid being carried around by someone else..." the ranger grumbled.

Red Un
Melrod led them to a large cave. Of course, it wasn't a dark, smelly, wet cave filled with nasty spiders and stuff, but rather a friendly, torch-lit cave with furniture and stuff. Melrod looked around.

"Hellooo? Are, I say, are you home Elvith?"

Nobody answered.

"I guess you can come in and wait. It seems like Elvith has left the building..."

Artemis of Luna
Artemis walked across the room to a well-stuffed chair.
As he sat Diamond darted from the door to his lap. The cat started to purr as Artemis stroked his hand down her white coat.

'There was no one in the room when I checked, but it seemed as though someone just left recently. Oddly enough, it smelled like Princess Amelia.'

Artemis leaned close to the kitten's ear, scratching her neck and whispered softly, "Thanks. I'll have to check it out later."

Darkness Fall-ll
The huge cave Melrod led them to was far different from those normal slimy, dark, damp, smelly and eerie caves that always seemed to have spiders, rats, bats or something strange around the corner, well hidden by the darkness of the cave.

The cave was decorated nicely and had a great homely feel to it. Katherine liked this place almost immediately she sat foot onto this warm place.

But because the owner, by the name of Elvith, if Katherine did not get to wrong, was currently away from his well-decorated house. Thus, the whole group decided to settle down and wait for his return.

Katherine went over to a coffee table which was directly opposite from the chair Artemis was sitting and pulled a chair. She sat on it and folded her arms, quietly waiting for the owner's return.

Whisky, who has been very quiet all along, climbed to the brim of the backrest of the chair and flapped its wings to stretch its wing muscles, and also shook its whole body vigorously. The shaking caused its feathers to puff up, making it looked twice as gigantic.

"HA! Whisky," Katherine looked at Whisky as it did all that shaking and flapping. "I didn't know you looked so cute when your feathers are all puffed up!" Katherine giggled as it gently reached over and stroked its head crown.

Red Un
Red Un sat down on a chair which seemed especially fit for a dwarf (or half-dwarf).

"Hmm... do I smell food?"

Melrod didn't find any place to sit, so he kept standing.

"Yes, Elvith likes to cook and eat a lot, when he's not singing."

"How odd. An elf that I actually like, even before having met him."

Narudin
Narudin stopped in front of the cave's entrance and decided not to go inside for now. He needed some loneliness to think things over. He found a cosy niche in which he could hide. Melting into the shadows, he sunk into his thoughts.

Did the Brotherhood have some kind of power over him? Could they steer him on a subconscious level? Could they control him directly? Was he endangering the Quest and his companions? Should he leave them?

These and many more questions drifted around Narudin's mind, too many to sort out. He hadn't the answers to them, he didn't know how large the Brotherhood's control was. If there was a good moment to leave, it was now, without informing the others.

The half-elf was torn. He wanted to help Red Un and the others, help them tangibly. Yet he knew he would aid them if he disappeared, cutting any of the Brotherhoods ties to the group through him. But wasn't such escaping cowardice?

"Argh, I'm thinking too much again" muttered Narudin, sitting miserably in his small hiding place. "Why ain't I inside with the rest? Ah yes, I wanted to think. Which I am doing too much. So I do not want to think. Logically, the only right decision for now is to join the others..."

Stretching, Narudin stood up and totally misjudging the direction Elvith's cave was in, entered a different one (a dark, smelly, wet one, most likely occupied by a number of spiders) and fell down a hole there.

"Just my bloody luck" he muttered, getting to his feet.

Artemis of Luna
A faint buzzing was all the warning he had... "AHHHHHHH!!" Artemis felt as if his head was about to explode!
'Artemis! What's wrong?!' Diamond only added to the soul-shattering noise in his head.

Artemis fell to the floor clutching his head. Noooo! This isn't supposed to happen for months!

"Please help. My powers (psychic) are going to swamp my cons..."
Artemis's eyes turned an eye searing white and he fell into trance, in which he could hear everything but couldn't make sense of any of it.

Kaueri
He could almost see the sky from the little window on the roof, he, the might of all drunken people all over Tibia, was now a prisoner in the prison of Ab'Dendriel.
He could hear voices from the outside, but only one of them catched his attention. It couldn't be, or could it? He looked out from the window, well he had to stand on a lot of chairs, to look out from the window. There on the ground, the half-dwarf he had seen in Kazordoon some years earlier. It was Redwick, Redwick Undersoor, and with a lot of people around him. Almost like a group, what were they talking about? He took a strong grip in the open window, and he was out. Down by the roof, and down on the grass. What should he say to him?
”Hmm… ehh… Hello, I’m Kaueri.”
”Uh, hello there Kaueri, I’m Red Un.”
”Yea, I use to know that.”
”You do?”
”Didn't I tell you?” Kaueri looked a bit irritated.
”Erm… How do you know me, then?”
”HAHA!” Kaueri smilled. “I have heard a lot of stories of you. All the late nights in the tavern. “
”Hrmh, that was a while ago…”
”Yep, but I have been in prison… uhmm… I mean on a long journey.”
”Huh, me too, actually. And now we are in Ab'Dendriel.”
Kaueri smiled again. “So you will leave this forsaken city soon?”
”Well, pretty soon, I guess.”
”Can I come with you?”
”Hrm, why not?”
The whole day Kaueri was after Red Un to hear more about everything that had happened to the little group of people. And he would do so forever. Or as long as he lives.

Tranquillity
Tranquillity dropped Rakinos off at the healer's and, after being assured that he would receive priority treatment, headed back to her house.

Upon arriving she found the door already unlocked and voices coming from inside. Grinning she entered and saw several friends sitting around her table talking taking it in turns to cook.

Two of the people saw her enter and brought it to the others attention. After a long period of greetings things settled down and the friends got down to the serious business of small talk.


Artemis of Luna
As Artemis writhed on the floor, he saw something in his mind's eye. Just out of view, kinda behind his shoulder.

Hey you! Please help me! I can't move or see. Please.

Red Un
And then, Elvith entered. He was carrying his trusty lyre under a hand, and was quite surprised to see so many people assembled in his cave. The first thing he saw was that Melrod was standing on something.

"Hey Melrod! Don't step on my blue suede shoes!"

Melrod jumped up and swung around.

"Oh, I'm very sorry Mr. Elvith!"

"Hey, no problem. And who are these people then?"

"They, I say, they are a group of heroic adventurers, almost as heroic as me in fact. They need rest and food, and I thought that they'd be welcome in your house."

"No problem. I wouldn't want them to stay at some heartbreak hotel or something. I'll start cooking some food..."

Narudin
Narudin was in the process of standing up after the fall, when something whizzed by his ear and bounced off the wall behind him, clattering to the ground. Immediately Narudin fell flat, and another arrow sailed over him, this one rebounding off the wall and skidding to a halt just before his eyes. He looked at the arrowhead.

"Bloody hellfire" he said under his breath. "Kuridais design. One of the elven race, I'm sure, but they're not exactly social. How did they get into Ab'Dendriel?" The half-elf’s thoughts were interrupted when he heard more arrows being launched. Tumbling to the side, Narudin got to his feet.

"Damn, and they have good nightvision, too. But aren't assassins called masters of the night?" With a chuckle, Narudin put a special cape around his shoulders (a thin one, as it came out of one of the pouches) and used his abilities of hiding in shadows, perfectly blending into the dark interior of the cave.

The elves milled around, disturbed by the disappearance of their prey. Even in infravision the cave was cool. And then they started falling to the ground dead, one by one, as Narudin silently made his way through the group.

And all would have turned out good for the assassin, if not for the fact, that suddenly a brilliant light appeared in the tunnel, outlining him. Fortunately, the surrounding elves were as surprised as him, and even more unaccustomed to bright light.

Narudin first averted his eyes from the light, but then tried to force his eyes to see through it. In the middle of the cave stood a great fire, behind which stood three figures. The half-elf sheltered his eyes. They were... Arcanists? But that meant the fire was...

The fire elemental moved suddenly and the elves around him scampered, leaving Narudin alone in the middle of the cave. He didn't even see the fireball coming, but automatically intoned "Utamo Vita" as the fireball hit and propelled him a few feet backwards. When Narudin opened his eyes, the fire elemental was right in front of him.

"Oh, bloody..." A fiery fist hit Narudin, breaking through the Magic shield and sending him flying and stopping on a wall. Bright lights danced before his eyes.

"So" he thought, "This is it." He didn't even have the strength to take a Sudden Death Rune, and there were Three Elf Arcanists waiting behind the elemental. No chances. Unless...

A memory struck Narudin. Where was that? Ah, yes, the snowy forest near Carlin. A potential ally, who "offered" to help in need. It would be worth trying to do a summoning. He would have to word his summoning carefully, fully carrying the need and desperation of his position. What was her, his, its name?

"Kish, You should bloody well come and help me, or, or, or I'm going to die."

That was good enough, or at least the best he could do in such circumstances, thought Narudin, the fire elemental nearing him to execute the final blow.

Red Un
Red Un got out of his chair.

"I'll help ya with the cookin' if ya don't mind, Mr. Elf."

"Well thank you, thank you very much."

Red Un rummaged around in the kitchen, finding all sorts of spices, vegetables, honeys and bread.

"Dammit, where's the meat? And the beer?"

Rakinos
Rakinos wandered out of the healer's house, completely healed.

"Thank ye very much for your help kind elf, if you are ever in need of my services, never hesitate to ask!"

With that Rakinos wandered off to where he was told the others would be... A smile played on his lips as he looked up at the tall tree homes of the elves, bringing back a flood of memories of times with his wife here... Then he entered the cave and grinned to all those cooking with such enthusiasm.

"Hello again fellow adventurers! As you can see the elf healers have not lost their great powers of healing... as I remember all too well..."

He headed off to sit in a corner and mull over ages past memories.

Sarra Zoldan
The fire elemental held its peace, awaiting the command of its creators. Two of the three arcanists walked up towards Narudin at an almost mockingly slow pace, silently making their way towards him.

The one at Narudins left produced a sudden death rune, the magic of the rune beginning to loop around his hands, just as the other one had the dazzling energies of a paralyze rune swirling around his hands. Suddenly, a loud gargling sound echoed, and the two arcanists spun about, facing to them a scene of horror.

The last arcanist was hanging three feet up in the air, his chest punctured by what could only be described as a wicked claw of a darkly violet metal. His eyes wide open in fear and amazement, the arcanist let out a shuddering gasp as blood flowed from his mouth, and then went limp.

Discarding the broken body of the arcanist almost carelessly, the robed figure behind it turned towards the remaining two arcanists and their creation.
The arcanist carrying the sudden death rune recovered first, sending a black sphere of forceful energy flying through the air just as two daggers took his companion full in the chest and left shoulder.
The energies of the paralyze spell dissipated, but the black sphere of energy hit the robed figure in shoulder height, sending it spinning about, crashing down on the ground.

However, with the death of his second companion, the arcanist seemed to loose control of the elemental. Large flames erupted from the surface of the creature, the elemental writhing as if in pain. Suddenly, there was a quick intake of energy, and the elemental violently exploded, sending out a shockwave that knocked the last of the arcanists off his feet.

Dazed, the arcanist propped himself up on his hands, shaking his head as if trying to clear the remnants of the blast from his senses. Looking up, his gaze fell on the robed figure, now standing in front of him, breathing heavily.
A violent whisper, almost a gust of wind, sent words flowing across the distance between them.

...ever mortal...

There was a beastly cry, and then a sudden burst of flames, blinding everyone in the near area. When the flames died down and vision cleared, the robed figure was laying face down on the ground.
The last arcanist was nowhere to be seen.

Artemis of Luna
Artemis awoke to the smell of smell of cooking food.
And was quickly aware of a burning headache.

"Well that was... unpleasant. Maybe some food would make it better."

Artemis got up and made his way to the kitchen. Red Un was cooking at the stove, but he couldn't see what it was. Oh well, whatever it is it'll taste great.

"Hey Red, ya got any beer?"

Red Un
"I wish... I guess I'll have to settle for some o' that sweet elven wine."

Red Un stirred in the pot. He had finally found some rabbit meat stored away in a drawer, and now tried to make some sort of rabbit-carrot-soup. Meanwhile, Elvith moved around the kitchen with grace, chopping vegetables one second and making sandwiches the next.

Melrod was entertaining the rest of the gang with his outrageous lies about adventures he never had, but could still tell about quite vividly.

Artemis of Luna
Artemis gladly accepted the wine, hoping that it would dull his headache.

"This is some of the best wine I've had. How old is it?"

Artemis looked at the label which was so old that it ha faded to a yellow blur.

"Hmmm, I guess it aged a little more than others I have drank."

Artemis got up and sat in the room with the others.
Man, this guy is either more heroic then Red Un or a bigger liar than all the servants in the palace put together.

Narudin
Narudin was not aware what was happening in the cave, at least not in detail. Being hit by a fire elemental was not something You got over quickly. He did notice the elemental exploding, though, as the shockwave swept him off his feet after he had just stood up a moment ago.

"I really do hate it when that happens" he muttered. Once again, Narudin got to his feet and immediately noticed the still forms of two elf arcanists lying on the cave floor, probably dead. Obviously dead in fact, because You couldn't live with a puncture wound there, nor could You still breathe with those two daggers sticking out from Your chest. It was a professional thing, discerning whether someone was dead or still alive (or still dying - it was a question of perspective).

Narudin also saw a kneeling figure further into the cave - the last arcanist. Quickly, he took out a Sudden Death Rune and pointed it towards the elf, but hesitated as he saw a dark, robed figure standing in front of the kneeling elf.

"...ever mortal..."

The chilling words sent a shudder down Narudin's spine. A moment later a brilliant flash stole the half-elf's sight, once again the brutal light assaulting his eyes. When the after-images died out, he could not see the arcanist anymore. All that was left was the robed figure lying on the ground.

"Fancy that" said Narudin under his breath. "She did come after all." The half-elf took a few steps towards his stricken saviour, but soon realised his own wounds were not as light as he had thought them to be.

"Damn elemental" he grumbled under his breath, taking out a Rune of Ultimate Healing. "It probably broke a few ribs. My back is definitely going to prick on cold, damp nights, I've lost count how many times I was thrown against one wall or other. I think that I just may have managed not to break my neck and will You look at my outfit? That burn hole is going to net someone a few dozen gold coins and no mistake." The half-elf continued his litany.

Finally, Narudin managed to take out an Ultimate Healing Rune. The Rune’s power bathed him in a soft, blue glow, filling his body with warmth and mending his wounds. He would have to treat himself later, but this was sufficient for the time being. In the bluish illumination, Narudin noticed that the rest of the elves had ran away.

"I hope they won't return with backup" Narudin said to himself, and immediately became serious. With a sigh, he turned to the still figure on the ground, and hesitating only slightly, turned it around. The cowl of the figure's dark robes hid their owner's features. His professional eyes spotted a post-Sudden Death wound on her shoulder.

"So, You must be Kish" the half-elf said conversationally, whilst applying an Ultimate Healing Rune. "Glad I am that You arrived, although how You heard me and how You arrived remains a mystery. If I remember correctly" Narudins features darkened, "there is a price involved. We shall see whether I am able to pay it."

Narudin finished the healing and stepped back to see the rune's power take hold. The wound on Kish's shoulder gradually closed and than healed.

"Are You conscious yet?" Narudin asked, unceremoniously prodding Kish with his toe. "Only there is a possibility that a horde of revenge-thirsty elves will rush in here any minute, and I would prefer to be somewhere else when that happens. I believe that the hospitality of the Kuridai elves is so great, that they cut of their guests arms and legs so that they never leave them. I, for one, am quite attached to my more out-laying regions, thank You very much."

Darkness Fall-ll
Elven wine. The thought of it make Katheine's lips curled upwards a little on the edge. It'd been a long while since she has tasted elven wine, it's actually said elves make the best wines in the whole of Tibia, and it seems quite true. Still, she missed the elven wine that her mentor made...

Elvith's cooking was really a class of its own. Within a matter of minutes, the whole cave was filled with mouth-watering delicacies, which managed to snap Katherine back and preventing her mind from drifting away again.

As Katherine was enjoying the sweet aroma of Elvith's cooking and walking over to where Red Un was to get a glass of classical elven wine Rakinos walked in almost woundless.

"Oh! Rakinos, you're back!" Katherine turned towards the entrance of the cave as Rakinos walked in and greeted everyone. "Well," Katherine took a small mouthful of the elven wine before talking again. "Seems like the elven Healers lived up to their reputation of being the best Healers in the land..."

Then, Katherine went back to the chair she sat on previously and listened to Melrod spilling cock and bull stories that he had never experienced in reality. But still it was rather entertaining as he could describe them in quite exact details.

Artemis of Luna
All of a sudden everyone in the room started to talk at once. Artemis couldn't un-jumble it all. But wait! Rakinos's mouth isn't moving!!! And neither is Red Un! 'Please. Make it stop. Can anyone help me? I'm must be going crazy!'

Artemis closed his eyes and concentrated on nothing as hard as he could. He tried a trick his father had taught him to use with archery.
Artemis imagined a small flame. Then he pushed all his thoughts, fears, and all other emotions in to the flame to be eaten and gone. The all that was left in him was blackness. A bubble of blackness that he floated in the centre of. All thoughts and feelings were on the outside of the bubble rolling off the sides.

Along with his thoughts were the thoughts of the others in the room.

'Ahh.' Artemis sighed, 'that's much better.'

Rakinos
The ranger had been sitting in the corner for a while, nibbling at his food and lost deep in thought. "This place brings back strong memories..." he thought. "Perhaps too many... too painful..."

After a bit more thinking he got up and walked towards the others with a forced grin on his face. "Perhaps now... after we've all been fed and watered, you would like to hear my story? Though I would not like to bore you if you are uninterested." Again the forced grin.

Artemis Silverstone
Artemis decided to contact his sister while he was in the void. So Artemis yelled as loud as he could in to the void that connects all telepathically endured minds,
'AMELIA WHERE ARE YOU?! AMELIA IF YOU CAN HEAR ME PLEASE COME HERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE?!'

Artemis wasn't sure if Amelia had heard him but if she did, he knew she would come right away.

Tranquillity
Tranquillity and her friends had eaten and chatted but eventually they left for their own houses. She debated whether to get some rest or go meet up with the others. Her social side got the better of her and she locked her door and headed out for the bard's house.

Sarra Zoldan
The rather large robed figure stirred. With a voice devoid of emotions, but also devoid of energy, it produced a soft but cold set of words.

”...I am unable to walk on my own... for now... either leave me here... or carry me with you... naturally, I... would prefer... the latter...”

The figure seemed to pause, for reasons unknown, whereafter the silent windy whisper continued.

”...I would consider... lessening your...debt, should you... carry me...”

Upon completing the last word, the figure fell silent, still unmoving, deeply wrapped in robes.

Red Un
Indeed, Elvith was a master cook. He had made a delicious stew, and also had all kinds of bread, butter, honey and vegetables. People had already started eating when Red Un poured himself a bowl of his own soup and went out of the kitchen. He tasted it carefully.

"Hrmh... not so bad for bein' made with elven stuff..."

He took a glass and poured up some wine and sipped on it.

"Hrmh... not bad for bein' elvish wine..."

Then he sat down on his chair and enjoyed the soup and wine, while listening to Melrods lies and stories (sometimes they're the same).

Meanwhile, the guards of Ab'Dendriel spied a rather large group of people nearing the city.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

A man appeared out of the mass and went forward.

"We are merely a group of brothers, with some unfinished business. I hope that we will not be disturbed by the guards of Ab'Dendriel this night..."

The young guard laid an arrow on his bow, but the older guard stopped him from firing.

"Listen, young elf. Nobody attacks the Brotherhood, unless they want the fury of the kings of all Tibia on them."

"But what..."

The old guard waved to the man on the ground.

"Go on, we won't disturb you!"

Narudin
"Bah, of course I'll carry You if such is Your need. Besides any debts You wish me to pay You, I owe You a debt of Life. I shall see what I can do..."

Bracing himself, Narudin grabbed Kish around the shoulders and heaved her up, half-dragging, half-carrying her towards the hole through which he fell into the cave. As it was mentioned earlier, the half-elf possessed a kind of wiry strength which his thin form denied. He managed to get under the hole and looked up.

"Ahhh, a levitation spell would be helpful here" Narudin looked at Kish. "An empowered levitation spell would be even better."

The half-elf took a few deep breaths, concentrated for a brief moment and intoned "Exani Hur Up". Immediately he and his cumbersome companion lifted off their feet, slowly ascending to the upper portions of the cave, through the hole and into the small, damp and slimy cave, which turned out to really be inhabited by spiders. These Narudin crushed under his feet, and throwing Kishs arm over his shoulder, proceeded to Elviths cave. This was not a hard accomplishment when he was concentrating on the task, as a wonderful aroma of food quickly homed Narudin on the right path.

The half-elf nearly forgot about Kish and wanted to enter in his usual style - quietly and unseen, but abandoned the idea with regret, choosing the unimpressive and straightforward through-the-door strategy.

"Greetings brothers-in-arm, I have brought a wounded with me! She is... an acquaintance, and helped me get out of a potentially lethal situation just a few minutes ago. Yes, I know, we are slimy, dirty and smelly, but I know that won't sway Your judgement. By the way, could anyone tell me what a clan of Kuridai elves is doing in the caves just to the west?"

Without waiting for a response, He laid the heavily clad in robes figure onto the cave floor and took himself a glass of wine which had apparently been waiting for him on the table.

Red Un
Red Un made himself a sandwich with some of that sweet elven honey.

"Then again, I'm always slimy, dirty and smelly, 'cause I'm half-dwarf. And I like it!"

Elvith, however, became quite agitated.

"Kuridai! Those accursed beasts! They're nothing but a bunch of...of...hound dogs! That girl looks quite tired. Let's see now..."

The elven singer (bard, as humans calls them) went to the kitchen, and soon returned.

"I've got some of this old lembas-bread. It's said to do miracles with tired people, especially in legendary tales of rings and such..."

Sarra Zoldan
The robed figure slowly drew itself up from the floor, the body beneath the robes moving almost as a fluid; one could envision a puddle melting together and rising to form a once again perfected shape under the robes. Since the robes protected its wearer from scrying eyes, all one could in fact see was the robed figure moving from a prone position into a standing position without the use of its hands.

Slowly making its way to a sofa chair, the robed figure slumped as if carrying a heavy pack or great burden. Sinking down into the chair, the figure let out a content grunt, turning the small opening of its hood towards Elvith, the red lizard-eyes regarding him in the dim light of a lone candle placed in a pewter candlestick on top of a cupboard to the right of the sofa chair.

Red Un
Elvith stepped forward slowly, and held out the lembas-bread towards the hood.

"Um... go ahead and eat, miss... It'll make you feel better..."

Sarra Zoldan
The red eyes continued to gaze upon Elvith, as if trying to look into the back of his skull. Finally, the whispering voice spoke:

"Do you have... somewhere I can freshen up... without the scrying eyes of others... upon me?"

The figure arose, drawing up to an impressive height before Elvith.

Narudin
Narudin watched with amusement as the poor Elvith was intimidated in his own house.

"There's a dark character if I've ever seen one" he chuckled quietly. Life had beaten him into quite a cynical personality, but he knew not to look at things and people too seriously. When You are "ever mortal", You have to laugh sometimes. It's preferable to going insane.

The wine was good, their current position seemed safe, so Narudin relaxed slightly, loosening his tense muscles, still ready to take actions if necessary. He examined his chest wound more closely, feeling for any broken ribs, but it seemed as if he got off lucky this time. Bruised and battered, but not broken.

"Hah, this body is stronger than I thought" he said more or less to himself, but intoned "Exura Gran" just to be on the safe side. Then he looked around, surveying the cave’s inhabitants.

Red Un was devouring Elvith's food storages, contentedly swallowing it down with fine elven wine. Elvith was standing in front of Kish, offering her some of the famous lembas-bread, which she was refusing to take. Melrod was still telling outrageous stories to anyone who cared to listen (these were limited to squirrels and a few confused ants). Artemis was strangely apathetic and Tranquillity was nowhere to be seen, though he recalled her mentioning having a house in Ab'Dendriel.

"Sir Elvith, would You be so kind and treat me to some lembas-bread? It seems like ages since I last tasted it, and I don't think Kish here wants to consume her portion."

Artios
Artios was sitting on a somewhat large rock, approximately ten times his own size. Artios tried to think about the mark of Necromancy, how did it end up there, on his arm? And where did this cloak come from? But it didn’t turn out too well, since he had a headache, and his head kind of spun around. "Well, that happens when you've not slept for two days." He said, sounding somewhat tired.
"I do not think those nature loving elves really likes death and decay, best would be to keep this secret. For now." he thought as he jumped of the rock. "It feels like the power of necromancy floods through my body, but it doesn’t feel... Corrupted. Necromancers usually serve darkness, but they didn’t use too a long time ago. The first Necromancers was trying to find a way to battle the many evil forces, but they use many kind of evil forces to defeat evil, something not many like. Since darkness’ weakness is light, many decide to use light when battling darkness. And since the Necromancer uses darkness when battling darkness, many believe it is not very effective. But it does not really matter if you use darkness when battling darkness as long as your purposes are good." Artios decided enter the house Redwick entered earlier. As he tried to avoid the flowers on his way there, he saw Narudin walk to the house as well. Narudin was helping some robed stranger into the house, the robed stranger seems like it was suffering, probably of some kind of wounds. Seeing this made Artios forget about the flowers, and he walked right through them. It seemed like the flowers he walked through belong to some elf, since just a few seconds after he walked through it, an angry elf cursed at him. All Artios could do was to apologize and pay a small fee for destroying the flowers. Then he continued to the house, and once he entered it he greeted the others. Either the house was to small, or Artios was just too tall, since his head almost touched the ceiling. Artios sat down in the sofa and looked at the around at the furniture. "Quite a nice house." he said. Then his eyes fell on the robed stranger. "What is that anyways?" he thought. "I wonder why it is here. Is its purposes here good or bad?" Artios decided to try not to think for a while since his headache grew worse the more he thought.

Red Un
Elvith, still a bit nervous, pointed towards the bathroom.

"I guess you could... freshen up... in there."

Redwick had now eaten all the sandwiches and had drunk several glasses of wine. He leaned back and sounded off a satisfied belch.

Meanwhile, the rather large group of people was joined by even more while they moved through Ab'Dendriel, seemingly heading for Elviths house.

Tranquillity
Tranquillity entered Elvith's house. "Sorry I'm late" she said beaming around her. Her gaze drifted around the room and settled on a comfortable looking chair. Her body soon followed her gaze and she was soon relaxing in the chair. "What've you all been talking about?"

Sarra Zoldan
Without a second glance at Elvith, the robed figure rose and made its way towards the bathroom, only slowing down briefly as Tranquillity entered the room, but not looking at her.

Grunting slightly, the figure made its way into the bathroom, the large, black and torn robes rustling as it moved. Closing the door after itself, the robed figure muttered a few words of prayer or protection, and then locked the door.

Red Un
Red Un grinned.

"I can be like that too in the mornin'..."

Elvith walked toward the kitchen.

"Sorry half-elf, this bread I only use on special occasions, since it's a very rare thing these days. But do enjoy all the other things, I've made them tender, made them true."

The extremely large group of people started to slowly surround Elviths house now, moving very silently and quickly.

Narudin
"Oh well, I should have known such a treat is too bold a demand coming from a lowly half-elf" said Narudin, smiling. He didn't take offence, of course - he knew of the breads rarity.

Something else was bothering him. For the last couple of minutes he had started to feel increasingly uneasy. He didn't want to bother anyone with his troubles, he kept quiet and sat in the corner. Suddenly he stood up and walked to the door, deciding to catch some fresh air. At the door Narudin hesitated before going out, changed his mind and stood aside, hiding into the corner and observing the door intently, his back to the rest of the group.


Sarra Zoldan
A few minutes slowly passed, making their way slowly across the unfathomable great concept known as time. So far, not a sound had emitted from the door into which the robed figure had disappeared. Admittedly, there was quite enough noise in the adjoining room to quench whatever silent vibrations of air might escape from the bathroom, but it had been silent none the less.
Once the mentioned minutes had passed, there was a slight murmur from the bathroom, most certainly escaping being heard by anyone apart from those trained in the arts of awareness. Following the short abrupt murmur, the lock-mechanism in the door gave off a satisfying click, and the door opened.

Out stepped a young, slender woman, the great bulky features of the robed figure as well as the actual ragged robes nowhere to be seen. Standing somewhere over six feet tall, she had moderately long, chestnut-coloured hair swaying around her shoulders. With pointed ears and a slightly brown complexion to her skin, the young woman was a beauty to behold. Perhaps not one of the greatly beautiful women of the courts, but stunning in a natural way.
Her shirt, a reddish brown cotton shirt, gave hint of a not totally inexistent endowment, whispering tales of that the beauty of the woman did not end at her neck.
Wearing dark purple trousers as well as low, black boots, she also had a cloak donned around her shoulders, the hue so dark blue it was almost black.
Her face spoke of cunning and not a completely ignorable amount of wisdom, her features soft but still unrelenting in their promise that this person knew how to kill, and would not hesitate to do so if threatened.
The eyes, however calm, were still the red dragonlike lizards' eyes, her gaze taking in the surroundings.

At her belt hung the darkly violet sword Narudin had had at his throat just outside of Carlin, as well as a dagger, the blade remaining unseen, sheathed in its scabbard.
She moved cautiously, if somewhat relaxed, at a calm but purposeful pace towards Narudin, her hips moving gracefully albeit a bit warningly, telling the aware beholder that the grace in movement was not meant to sway the onlookers, but to allow for rapid movement in any direction.
Standing next to Narudin, she held his eyes with her own, giving him a slight smile, apparently awaiting a reaction.


Narudin
Narudin was alarmed by the sound of the lock opening to his side, but relaxed when he saw it was the bathroom doors opening. He turned his concentration back to the door. After a moment he sensed a presence beside him and glanced up and saw a wonderful apparition looking at him. His eyes widening, Narudin let out a incomprehensible stream of words.

"Who... Where did You... How..." he stammered, but then shook his head, his features hardening into their disciplined positions, and concentrated on thinking rationally. The characteristic sword, overall demeanour of calm confidence and those eyes... The half-elf raised an eyebrow.

"Do I have the pleasure of meeting Lady Kish's true form?" As "Lady" now felt the appropriate form. He thought this over. "Or any other form, it is not important I suppose." He gave a courteous bow. "Enchanted."

Narudin gave Kish an half-appraising, half appreciative look, but his gaze was drawn back to her eyes.

"You intrigue me ever more, Lady Kish. Perhaps You are a draconian? Forgive me my nosiness, I'm afraid curiosity is one of my worst traits. I presume You are still deadly with that blade of Yours?" he said, pointing to the violet-hued sword resting on her hip, "because I fear we may be in for some further action before the day ends." Once again he scrutinized her, noting the grace of her movements and aura of readiness emanating from her form. "No, if it's anyone that I should feel sorry about, then it's the enemies that cross Your path."

Red Un
A black-robed man entered the cave.

"Good evening, Elvith instrument-maker."

He walked through the room, completely ignoring everyone. Red Un gave him a look that could have made a dragon stammer and try to get out of the room carefully. But the man ignored even the half-dwarf, and sat down on a chair at the other end of the room. Elvith, blissfully unaware of the implications of the black robe, simply greeted the man back.

"Good evening, stranger. What brings you to my little cave this evening?"

"Oh, just some business with your other visitors."

"And what business might that be?"

"Well, I've brought along every single member of the Brotherhood of the Dark Star to kill them."

Elvith dropped the glass he had held in his hand, gasping slightly. Red Un put his hand on his sword. But the robed man simply smiled.

"Now now, calm down. I shall give you an hour to prepare for your demise, and then... well, I guess you know what will happen."

A grim smile appeared on Red Un's lips.

"You've brought along every single member of your damn little group of fanatics? Seems like the Brotherhood is getting desperate."

"Ah yes, the Grand Leaders have become quite annoyed by you and your antics, it seems."

"The Grand Leaders? Are they here?"

"Oh, of course not! They might be a little desperate, but they're not mad. Anyway, enjoy your last hour in life."

The man got up from the chair and walked outside.

Sarra Zoldan
Ignoring the man describing their demise, the woman reached out with her right hand and caressed Narudins cheek for an instant, her eyes a mystery.
Placing her right hand on Narudins chest, an inch or so above his heart, she spoke, her voice a young woman's voice, 'human' to all ends.
"Draconian?"
Her voice was ringing rung like a silver bell.
"You will have to tell me what that is sometime."
Smiling lightly, she never took her eyes off Narudin's eyes.
"At birth, I was half Human, half Dark Elf... what am I now?"
She smiled again, a modest but secretive smile.
"Maybe I will tell you a story sometime."
Putting her face only some five inches away from Narudin's, her eyes glittering, she tilted her head somewhat to the right.
"You have beautiful eyes... do you know that?"


Narudin
Narudin held his stoic visage as Kish leaned forward.

Narudin leaned backward.

And then slowly leaned forward again.

"Two can play that game" he thought, and said out loud "You are the first to compliment them." It was the truth, few people from his past gazed into that sapphire-blue stare and lived long enough to tell the tale. As for his recent past... let us say, that Narudin generally isolated himself from others. His past had marked him, and he would always feel the dark presence of the Brotherhood trailing behind him.

The more was his surprise when suddenly a robed figure entered Elvith's house, bold as You may, and seated himself. The half-elfs hands were on the pommels of his twin swords in a blink of an eye, yet he didn't draw them. The stranger declared his piece and left.

"Enjoy Your last hour in Life" he mocked the Brotherhood members words, and continued with grim determination, "We are not dead yet."

Artemis Silverstone
Artemis could hear each person in the room's heartbeat, could smell the anger that radiated off the brotherhood member, could see every single detail in the room. Then he heard a faint buzzing in his ear.
'Artemis? Can you hear me?' Artemis strengthened his connection with his sister, and replied,
'Yes Amelia I can hear you. I need you to come to me as fast as you possibly can. Oh, and bring my staff too.’

Amelia was flat startled by the desperation in Artemis's voice. The last time he needed his staff was when he got in a fight with an older sage (less than a mage but more then a sorcerer). He used the four foot sapphire-ended staff to focus his small power (at the time) and increase it in strength. But she knew that he had increased in power by an immense leap. She had felt it.

'Ok Artemis I'm on my way. I'll be there as soon as I can.'

With that she left his mind. Artemis let the void seep away. It was a struggle, as in the void he felt whole. As if life out of the void was a dull and poor imitation of life.

He started pacing up and down the small floor, worrying about his told death. This can't be it. I mean after a demon how much could a couple hundred mages be?

Tujex
Tujex was leaning upon a wall, staring at the robed man as he entered and exited. Some people in the room seemed a little uneasy by his entrance and even more startled when he mentioned their death. Tujex just smiled, letting his arrogance get the best of him once again. "These fools don't know who they're messing with. Everyone in this room could bring down one-hundred of those Dark Star losers with their hands tied" he muttered to himself. Tujex was itching for a true battle, a fight he could just let loose and really do some damage. The fight he urged for so bad might be closer then he could ever imagine. He smiled inwardly, looking to everyone else in the room.

Red Un
Red Un shook his head.

"Well, maybe we can take care of their accountants and librarians and diplomats and such. They've all been trained to some extent in fighting, but it's nothing to worry 'bout, I guess."

Then he turned and looked at Narudin.

"The big problem is that they've got dozens of assassins, each as skilled as Narudin, if not more. And then there's those who taught those assassins."

He drew his sword and studied the Carlin-forged blade.

"Not to mention all their wizards and mages and druids and all that..."

He looked at his fellow members.

"I am truly sorry that I brought you all into this. Before there had always been some sort of hope, but now... Please forgive me. Maybe I should just take my life here and now. Maybe then they will stop the madness, and maybe you'll live."

Then he thought a bit, and shrugged.

"On second thought, I'm gonna die like a true dwarf. We're gonna take as many as we can with us!"

Three quarters was left of the promised hour.

Rakinos
The ranger turned slowly to Red Un, his eyes filled with sorrow as they took in the entire group. "Red Un, it seems I am barely healed and we are yet again thrown into battle, I barely know you people yet I would die proudly by your side, if that is what it takes. My bow is yours." At which point he sat down and held his bow across his lap.

Narudin
Narudin nodded to Red Un's evaluation of their current situation.

"I'm afraid it is true that the Brotherhood keeps a group of well-equipped and highly-trained assassins at all times. I myself was in a team of four, with two other groups working parallel to us, each having a "Chief Assassin" that trained us. That would be 15 highly dangerous assassins, or maybe even more if they changed the organisation while I was gone."

"If we have any chances at all, it would be to try to break their formations and try to get away. Of course, this is likely to fail, but we're surrounded one way or the other. Another thing is that we will still have them hot on our heels, and if they got in as easily as they did, the guards of Ab'Dendriel will not aid us."

Narudin sighed deeply and concluded "All in all, I do not like our chances." Shaking his head dejectedly, he continued, "We have about forty minutes left before the attack, if we can trust their word, so we can use this time productively. If someone comes up with a plan, then he can share it with us. Lady Kish" he gave a short bow to her, "It was I who put You into this mess, so now I feel guilty. If You have a way to transport Yourself away, do not hesitate to use it. The thing we need is firepower, so if You would excuse me..."

With that Narudin stepped into a shadowy corner and taking out a couple of blank Runes muttered "Adori Gran Flam"

Red Un
Red Un took out a whetstone and started to sharpen his blade, while whistling on a dwarven death-tune.

Elvith was digging around in his coffins, looking for his old longbow.

And Melrod decided to leave.

"This, I say, this has gotten out of hand! I may be a brave hero who has fought against impossible odds, but these odds are too impossible! Farewell, and good luck!"

He walked out the door. There was some sounds of surprise, a couple of crossbows fired off, and a second later he came running back in.

"I must be crazier than a wild berserker to help you. Mad, that is..."

Sarra Zoldan
Walking up to Narudin, the woman grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him backwards and downwards with a strength disproportional of her physical prowess.
Narudin on his back on the ground, she put her right black boot on his chest, applying slight pressure.

"You will be gone from here in a few moments time. I might be leaving, but in that case, you are coming with me. You owe me, and you cannot pay me when you are dead."

Her face was stern, the soft features of her skin gone with the wind, a cold expression painting her face.
Holding out her right hand towards the rune still clenched in his hand, she added with an ironic smile:

"That rune alone will not save you and your friends. Now come with me."

Narudin
At first surprised by this unexpected assault, Narudin fell onto his back and soon felt Kish's slender leg pushing him to the ground with her boot. As he looked into her eyes, a small, amused smile found it's way onto his face.

"It may not save us, but it will surely be a nice little present for the Brotherhood. There is nothing like good ol' Great Fireball and a crowd of enemies to make my day, especially if the ones I can strike against is the Brotherhood."

Taking no heed of the heel grinding him into the cave's floor, the half-elf pocketed the rune and continued, the small, irritating smile still playing on his lips:

"I do not know the nature of the payment You wish me to give You, but if it requires leaving my companions in the time of need than I am afraid You have a very misconceived view on my character. Rest assured that I will do my best to stay alive - I think You can trust me on that, Lady Kish. Of course You will get Your reward for helping me, unless" His icy-blue stare returned her red-hot glare, "unless You wish me to do anything in conflict with my own Code of Honour. Does it seem funny to You that I have such a silly fancy? Because I can assure You that I am deadly serious."

Narudin moved up a little, propping himself on his elbows, never breaking eye contact with Kish and still sporting a little smile.

"Now I would be grateful if You removed Your foot from my chest. As much as I know that many a man would find this situation very enjoyable, You have found a strict and disciplined idealist who has a job to do, and he will bloody well do it, mark my words well."

Sarra Zoldan
Leaning down and grabbing the front of his shirt, the woman literally lifted him up on his feet, the muscles on her arm straining under the tight, short-sleeved shirt.

"Then I suppose I will have to make sure you live through this... leastwise long enough to repay your debt."

Flashing him a smile that actually seemed earnestly amused and not just a jest, she reached out for the pack at the back of her belt, hidden within the blue cloak. Reaching down into it, she withdrew a few runes easily discernable as firebomb runes.

"As I can see it, we do not have any chances of defeating them all. Our hopes would therefore be to escape. But how can you escape, with a hundred enemies only some thirty or so feet away from you, in all directions, hm?"

Laughing ironically, she held out one of the runes towards Narudin.

"Throughout my... existence... I have come to realize that when one wishes to escape, the best terms to do so under when outnumbered is chaos. Hence..."
She waved her hand dramatically with one of the runes tightly between her fingers.
"...we set things on fire. Heat, fire and smoke are excellent conditions in which to make your escape, and once we manage to get out into open air..."
She made a throwing gesture with the same hand.
"...we start burning things. If I'm not mistaken, we are in the city of elves...? That would mean trees and a lot of... combustible material."

She grinned cruelly, the beauty of her features still making itself reminded.

"I don't know why, but for some reason the idea of using enemies for firewood greatly appeals to me."

With a wry smile playing on her lips, she turned to the others, holding out three more firebomb runes.

"Barbeque, anyone?"

Red Un
"No thanks, I've already eaten. We almost burned down the Great Tree last time we were here, and I don't want any more trouble with the elves..."

Elvith finally found his bow and arrows.

"That was you? We had a hell of a time trying to fix that thing."

Red Un finished sharpening his sword.

"Blame it on the Brotherhood. Anyways, I really don't think we could create chaos enough to confuse those guys, they're way too trained. And..."

He paused and looked at Narudin.

"...it feels like there's someone... watching us..."

Just about a quarter left now. The robed man that had visited them before assembled the Brotherhood.

"We shall attack in waves. The scribes and other less valuable ones first. Scribe-master?"

The Scribe-master stepped forward, holding a huge book in his hand.

"Yes, my master?"

"Remember, the Ends Always Justifies The Means."

The scribe nodded and returned to his men.

"Not this time. Not this time." he muttered silently, and smiled.

Artemis Silverstone
Artemis decided it was time to do something progressive. "Ok, I'm going out to see what their stance is. Does anyone one want to come with me?"

With that Artemis started for the ladder to the door. But instead of going up he walked through the wall turning around to say, "If anyone is coming take my hand."

Artemis had decided to sneak up on the Brotherhood from underground. He would go to a building close to them and hide in the walls. It would also give him a good spot to strike from when the time came.

Knight of Darkness Fall
The new addition of Lady Kish, if that's her name Katherine remembered correctly, didn't really bother her much, as long as she was an ally to the group.

It was unusual that Katherine has remained quiet for such a long time, going by her active characteristics, maybe it might have been the recent continuous attacks from Brotherhood that might have caused some minor changes to her attitude, making her more mild and quiet.

But this time, it was a little different, there seemed to be something mysterious bothering her. Katherine couldn’t explain it, not even Whisky could explain it.

Just as Red Un mentioned "...watching us...", the feeling suddenly hit her. This feeling was all too familiar, like a lion lying low and unseen, but its eyes are always locked on its prey. Waiting, waiting for the right time to strike and bring death upon its prey.

Red Un
"Nah, I'll stay here. No sneaky stuff for me, just plain fightin'."

He walked over to the door and drew his sword.

"Must be about five minutes or so left now..."

Elvith drew his bow and aimed for the door. And Melrod decided to hide in the bathroom.

Narudin
Narudin made his final preparations - he checked all his equipment, runes, felt how his swords slipped out of his scabbards, and finally quietly sat in the corner, closed his eyes, and contemplated their current predicament. Slowly he felt himself drop into a meditative trance. No occult "going into oneself", nor any religious trance, but simply an exercise to clear the mind and sharpen the instincts.

Artios
As the robed man spoke about their doom, Artios laughed. "The Brotherhood seems a bit desperate I'd say, they seem quite sure that they will succeed. But since the grand leaders did not want to come with, I presume they are not so very sure that they will succeed. Strange..." he thought. Artios rose up, and walked to a nearby wall and leaned to it. He drew some small poison daggers from within his cloak. He held the poison daggers in his right hand, while he searched through his cloak for a small potion. He dipped the edges of the poison daggers in the yellow potion. "A scratch, naught but a scratch is all that is needed." he said, and laughed. He continued to search for some other potion. A meta potion, mixed with some Alceautus herbs, and a drop of blood, his own blood. The potion looked somewhat green or yellow.
He had the potion in his belt, so that he quickly could pick it up whenever he needed to use it. He held one poison dagger in each hand, the edges were pointing back, so that he easily could take care of anyone attacking from any direction.
"Only five minutes left, soon... we will see... we will see what they do when they will have to face many more than they ever thought they would have too." he said, then he laughed once more, this time... he laughed quite a lot. Anyone could see the evil in his eyes. But would he kill the members of the Brotherhood? Or would he actually oppose Red Un, and his party? How was anyone supposed to know? Some could believe that he was going to help them fight against the Brotherhood, but others could actually believe they have found an enemy amongst them. "We will see." He thought. "We will see..."

Red Un
The leader of the enormous group looked into his seeing-crystal.

"Hmm, seems like the traitor has closed his eyes. No matter. First group, go!"

The Scribe-master held up his sword.

"FOR THE BROTHERHOOD!"

All the scribes and librarians and accountants and other such menial workers of the Brotherhood charged towards the small cave, swords raised.

As they entered the cave, the Scribe-master easily dodged Red Un's waiting sword and Elviths arrow. Red Un raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't expect that from a lowly scribe..."

The scribe master turned towards Narudin as more and more people entered.

"Get the half-elf!"

All of them rushed up towards the meditating half-elf and held him down. Somebody put a piece of cloth over his eyes, and someone stuffed white stuff in his ears. Red Un was quite surprised.

"What in Durins name are ya doin'?!"

The Scribe-master pulled down his hood, revealing a weather-bitten face.

"Good day Redwick Undersoor, I'm from the Thaisan Bureau of Investigation. It seems like you'd need a hand?"

All the scribes were inside now, and all of them sheathed their swords and pulled down their hoods.

Narudin
Narudin was aware that some people ran into the cave, but somehow it didn't feel like the Brotherhood. They had more of a... malicious feeling around them. Alert, but not totally tensed for battle, Narudin was surprised when someone shouted "Get the half-elf!" and then wrapped something around his eyes, obscuring view, whilst someone else stuffed his ears with what felt like wool, but did well to completely blocking his hearing.

Thus cut from the world of senses and immobilised by a number of people, Narudin stayed calm. Obviously no one had slit his throat yet, which was a good sign. Mind overruling heart, he decided that he would just wait and see what happened. Someone was bound to tell him what was happening, in the end.

Red Un
Red Un was indeed quite surprised.

"But... how...?"

The Scribe-master(?) smiled.

"Even though our King is corrupted by the Brotherhood, his father was foreseeing enough to create a top-secret subsection of the TBI before he died. This subsection was given the mission to infiltrate the Brotherhood and disrupt its works in any way possible. We've grown quite large since those days..."

"Wait a minute, what did ya do to Narudin?"

"The half-elf? We simply made sure that he couldn't hear nor see what happens in here. You see, he is a former assassin of the Brotherhood, and therefore..."

Red Un gasped.

"You mean... that feeling of being looked at... he's..."

The TBI man shook his head.

"No, I highly doubt that he has betrayed you openly. The Brotherhood has simply used him as a puppet."

"So um...how can he stop being a puppet?"

"Well, we could cut out his eyes and poke around in his ears with a knife..."

"Besides that."

"Hmm... Good question. I have no idea in fact."

"So... he should just sit there?"

"Well, I'm sure we'll have some use of him soon, when the second wave arrives..."

Artios
Three minutes before the hour passed, Artios once more fell on his knees, and it felt like his head was going to explode. This time, however, it lasted for only a few minutes, when he rose up again and opened his eyes, he noticed that some more people suddenly were there. They claimed to be from the Thaisan Bureau of Investigation. And they said that the Brotherhood obviously used Narudin as their puppet. "I wonder" he said. "What do the Brotherhood use when they see what Narudin sees, and hear what Narudin hears? I presume we will just have to destroy that thing. If that won’t work, will we have to kill every single member of the Brotherhood? Or if any of that wont work, I believe that I could find a potion that will get him out of their control, however, those potions are not easy to get, so I presume it would be easier to destroy whatever thing they might use to see what he sees and hear what he hears." Artios fell on his knees and dropped one of his poison daggers, and laid his hand on his forehead. "Damned headache."

Sarra Zoldan
Pushing away the two TBI agents closest to Naurdin, who stepped back in surprise at her inhuman strength, the woman fell to her knee besides him, studying his face. Turning her face upwards, a murderous look flashed across her face for an instant.

"Get away from him."

Noticing their hands trailing towards their blades, she added:

"I won’t remove the blindfold nor the cotton-wads."

Turning her face down to look at Narudin's, she smiled a malicious smile, but also with a trace of... warmth?

"You can have him, soon enough..."

Stroking his cheek once, she added.

"But for now, he is mine."

Rising, she turned towards the leader of the TBI agents. Muttering a barely discernable word, closer to a whispered grunt rather than an actual word, she surveyed him briefly.
The leader of the TBI frowned at her, as if he had heard something in a language he did not understand... or something he did not expect. Deep creases in his forehead darkened his features when he steadily met her gaze.

Suddenly smiling lightly, the woman spoke in a hushed voice.

"If the Brotherhood can see through his eyes, and hear through his ears, could we not turn that to our advantage? Maybe, just maybe, the Brotherhood will notice how you scribes overwhelmed us with sheer numbers and..."

Picking up a wonderful blue vase painted with flying geese and summerlilies from a nearby cupboard, she flung it to the ground, the vase shattering across the floor of the cave, the shards rattling across the stone worn with age and footsteps.

"...brought us down."

Hearing a slight whimper echo from behind the wooden door leading into the small bathroom, she gave off a small chuckle, amused by the fear instilled by a broken vase.

Red Un
Elvith sighed.

"That vase had been in my family for centuries. But I guess I can live without it."

Red Un grinned.

"Right. Let's make a mess!"

"I seriously doubt that the Brotherhood will fall for this kind of trick" protested the TBI leader as Red Un overturned a whole table and cut a chair in two with his sword.

"Maybe, but it's a fun plan! Get wreckin', everyone!"

Tujex
"Sounds alright with me!" Tujex said as he picked up another chair and smashed it against a wall. He then looked to Elvith, who didn't really seem to care that everyone was now destroying his stuff.

Red Un
Elvith started to take care of the more valuable of his possessions (small paintings, crystal glasses and other such things) before anyone destroyed them and moved them to the kitchen.

Outside, the leader of the Brotherhood members just smiled evilly.

"Seems like the scribes are giving them a hard time..."

Kaueri
When Kaueri first woke, he didn't see anyone. All was gone, he was really sad, he just remembered one thing, all were mad on him. With a deep sigh he went out in the big forest, and he would never return, or? Mabye he will, mabye not.

Rakinos
The Ranger sat in his seat, bow still tensed against the intruders who were not quite what he had expected. Though he could give a slight smile at the elf all trussed up.

"It seems we have ourselves some unexpected allies Red Un... I have an idea, if we are going to be creating a "disturbance" then why not bring out some of the fire that has been aforementioned?"

Knight of Darkness Fall
"Getting down and messy I guess?" Katherine said to herself. "Well, why not!" she said out loud with a smile on her face.

Katherine swirled her fingers slightly in the air, conjuring some of the broken items to "fly" through the air, to create an illusion that the Scribes were creating havoc in Elvith's comfy house.

"Though I hate to do this and destroy such a warm home, but I guess for our survival, we must sacrifice some things..." Katherine said, as she leaned against the cushion of the chair and continued to make things fly around the room.

Red Un
"Okay, that's enough. Let's not overdo it."

Red Un finished by cutting up a cushion and spreading its content over the place.

"Now, everyone lie down and act dead, okay?"

Artemis Silverstone
Artemis stepped out of the wall and lay down on the floor and slid a sword through his chest. He then took a small potion of blood out of his pocket and poured it around the sword blade. After closing his eyes, he stopped breathing. He had learned this from his sister, you can stop breathing so long as you can have air touch you.

Knight of Darkness Fall
Katherine let out a little scream as she fell "dead" to the ground. She giggled at thought of playing dead. "Okie, this time we're gonna screw the Brotherhood big time!"

"Pss... You need me to animated some blood or disgusting things to show that there was a big fight?" Katherine whispered to everyone, as she pulled some broken things and put in over her legs, making a scene that there was a battle.

Sarra Zoldan
Pulling out one of the cotton wads in Narudins ears, she whispered in a hushed voice:

"Just lay still and don't say a word. We're going to get out of here, soon."

Surveying the room now in shards and the people in it, she added in a tone even more hushed:

"And don't trust anyone."

She placed herself across him, her bodyweight pressing down on his legs. Tilting her head, she locked her eyes in a frightful and surprised stance, looking down into the ground, hoping no one would take the time to actually look into those eyes.

Red Un
Red Un lay down on top of the broken table. Some of the scribes(?) also laid down all over the place. Red Un whispered to them.

"Erm...could some of ya lay down right next to me? It'd be nice if it looked like I took a lot of ya down before I went down myself."

They sighed, and a few crawled a bit closer.

Outside, the leader of the group looked into his seeing-crystal.

"Hmm... I thought I heard a whisper of some sort. But it seems like they're all dead now. Move in the second group, the mages!"

Rakinos
Rakinos sighed and ripped his cloak in a few places, took a large swig of red wine and poured the rest on himself. "What a waste..." he muttered as he collapsed into the chair and closed his eyes, pricking his ears for any sound.

Tranquillity
Tranquillity stretched to loosen herself up and then she laid herself down by the door ready to leap up and attack.


Red Un
The mages, druids, conjurers, summoners and other workers of the arcane arts that belonged to the Brotherhood, entered the cave, led by the Mage-master. The Scribe-master faced him.

"Greetings, Mage-master. We have done our task, and lost many of our brothers in the process."

"Yes, it seems so. But just to make sure, I'm going to cast the spell of Ultimate Death, so that none of them escapes from here alive."

The former scribe-master reacted quickly, and cut of the head of the Mage-master.

"Can't do that without your head, eh?"

The head rolled around a bit, and landed face up. And screamed.

"TRAAAAITOOORS!"

Red Un jumped up, as did the "dead" scribes.

"Well, that was fun while it lasted" said the half-dwarf and drew his sword.

Artemis Silverstone
Artemis was on his feet not half a second after Red Un. He grabbed his sword and plunged it through the nearest mage's stomach, while throwing a dagger retrieved from his boot at another's throat.

"I knew this wasn't the best..." Artemis grunted, as he dodged a rune by less than the width of his hand.

A hooded man rushed towards Artemis already part way through the paralyzing words "". Artemis stepped to the side just as the man got close enough to touch. He quickly turned and grabbed the man's shoulders and shoved him down as hard as he could into the ground.
He let go of the man when his head was below the floor.

"I really regret having to do that." Artemis told the man. To the others he merely shrugged his shoulders and looked ashamed.

Artemis Silverstone
A rectangle appeared in the air above the ground in the corner of the room and a slim, fair haired, figure slipped through.

"Oh. Oh, my. This isn't good." The newly arrived figure took a coiled silver whip out of a unseen pocket and started snapping it around the room leaving wicked cuts that were quickly foamed over by a blackish, foul smelling liquid.

Sarra Zoldan
Putting her hands on the by age worn cavern floor, the woman known as Kish pushed off with her feet, sending her first onto her hands and then over again onto her feet in a standing position in one smooth movement.
Grabbing at her belt with both hands, two daggers went flying through the air, taking a mage in the chest and a conjurer in the eye.
Drawing her purple-metal blade etched with small golden runes, she drew it up behind her back, crouching low, the muscles on her legs straining in anticipation of the following movement.

Launching herself forward, she flung past a chanting druid, sending his head spinning across the floor with a swift movement of her arm, the blade cutting an arc in the air.
Turning, she faced another mage not far from her just in time to hear him chant "exori vis", a short burst of lightning hitting her in the chest.
She staggered, unwillingly taking a couple of steps backwards, shaking her head to clear the confusion brought upon her nerves by the static discharge.
Once again the mage uttered those words, and once again a charged jolt erupted between the mage and Kish.
Letting out an unintentional, high-pitched grunt, Kish launched her sword in an upward arc, a heavy movement, clouded by muscular lockups.
The mage, albeit being obviously not too daft, failed to see the blow coming, the tip of the blade cutting him across his throat, blood spraying over the floor, Kish and a nearby broken table, as well as a few shards of a once beautiful blue vase, painted with geese and summerlilies.
Raising her head with an obvious effort, her chestnut coloured hair swaying loosely around her shoulders, her eyes focused somewhat on a man, a conjurer of sorts, some twenty feet away. The words of his now finished chant sounded like a roar in the woman's ears.
"Exevo flam hur"
As the beam of flame rushed towards her, her eyes cleared, the features around her eyes growing stern and cold. A whisper, barely audible due to the fighting in the room, came drifting across the seemingly vast difference between the conjurer and his prey.
"...No!..."
A shadowy blur, and Kish stood on one knee, her head swaying as if exhausted, some twenty feet from where she had stood a moment before. Her eyes were closed, pressed together as if they were to burn if she didn't. Her clothes remained unsinged, albeit the blood of the man lying in front of her, now torn in two, stained her otherwise beautiful features.

Tujex
Tujex was shocked to see the mage-masters head still talking even after being sliced off. He jumped up, swiping his Noish's Promise from the floor. As soon as he got to his feet, a black ball flew passed his head. "A sudden death spell..." he gasped. For a moment it felt as if the life had been drained from his body. He stumbled and used the wall for support. "It did this and it missed me..." he growled as he looked up to see a mage holding a rune at him. He pushed himself forward, diving out of the way as a column of fire erupted from where he once stood. He landed in a slide and rushed at the mage, slashing off his hands and snatching the rune from them. He held it to the mage's face and yelled, "Explosion!" A burst of fire exploded before him, sending him sliding backward. He smiled as he dropped the smoking rune and watched the burning body of the mage fall to the floor. He breathed heavily, still drained from the Sudden Death spell. "I should be more careful..." he muttered as he readied his sword and went back into the fray.

Narudin
Narudin kept his quiet as the others were talking to the Scribe-master. Not that he could see or hear anything, of course. After a moment someone pulled a cotton wad out of his ear and he heard Kish' voice whispering into his ear

"Just lay still and don't say a word. We're going to get out of here, soon. And don't trust anyone."

He nearly smiled with amusement as she lay across him. Something was coming up and he would be ready. After a moment he sensed some more people come in. To his senses, they had an evil aura to them, but still he remained where he was. There was a moment of tension, a swish and something rolled onto the floor. A ghastly scream rebounded around the cave "TRAITOR!" An instant later the pressure on his legs disappeared, indicating that Kish had made her move. With a small smile Narudin jumped to his feet, tearing off the blindfold and and throwing away the other cotton wad.

The sight which he saw surprised him. The room was full of Brotherhood members, but it seemed half of them were fighting each other.

"What could that possibly mean?" he muttered to himself, thought for a moment and then continued, "Whose side am I on now?" He barely avoided a Heavy Magic Missile aimed at him, located where it originated from and than grinned. "I guess You're against me, hmm?"

The mage took aim again, but Narudins hands blurred. A second later the Brotherhood sorcerer dropped the rune and looked down in disbelief. Protruding from his chest were five knives, set into a nice, pentagon pattern. As the mage fell over, Narudin melted into a shadowy corner to find a new target. Contrary to popular belief, assassins did like getting close to their targets. Nice and personal, that was the proper way. The trick was to prevent anyone else getting close to You.

Narudin discerned that the magic-users were against the other Brotherhood-dressed members, who were allied with Red Un and the others. The half-elf shrugged, and took out his twin swords. They had the advantage of being shortswords, meaning he could use them quite effectively in closed quarters.

He got behind one of the unsuspecting mages, inserting ten inches of cold steel into his kidney. As the sorcerer fell with a gasp of surprise, Narudin already disappeared.

"Nice and personal" he whispered, turning to another enemy.

Knight of Darkness Fall
The head from the Mage-Master bounced lightly off the ground of the cave and rolled to where Katherine was lying.

"Oh...Great!" Katherine mumbled to herself as she saw the head rolling towards her, and still the head was mumbling. "Kill... Kill them all... Traitor..."

The head finally came to a complete stop and the back of the head was facing Katherine. "Phew! Luckily not the eyes!"

"Miss... I'll kill you!" The head said, its head fidgeted as if trying to turn about.

"What the..." Katherine was obviously shocked that the head was still able to talk even though it has been detached from its parent body. "Would you mind not my privacy for a moment?" Katherine got up and gave the head a big kick. "AH! There you go!" The head went flying through the air, forming an upward arc before it's face meet the solid wall. The impact caused blood flying off in all directions. The head slid down the wall, leaving a disgusting trail of blood as it slid down. As it dropped to the floor, it mumbled its final words before staying motionless.

Just then, as Katherine kicked the head towards the wall, from behind her, a ball of energy hit her directly at her back, causing her to vomit some blood and fumbled a few steps forward. Katherine was totally caught off-guard by the attack. She turned around to see who was the attacker. "A mage." she thought and used the back of the right hand to wipe off a small trail of blood off her lip. "Well, two can play at this game!" Katherine gave the mage an evil smile and leaped into the air, with her Serpent staff held high behind her, ready to strike down at the attacker. Katherine held her Shield in front of her as a form of protection and her body arced backwards to increase the momentum within her body.

The mage raised his hand again at her and an orange glow began to gather at her hand.

Red Un
Red Un swung his sword in great arcs here and there, cutting down mages and skilfully avoiding his allies.

"Ah, it's good t'have ya back, Mr. Narudin! We've got some talkin' to do when this is over!"

He noticed that someone else has arrived from nowhere. This seemed to be a fairly common occurrence lately.

"Be careful with that whip 'o yours, newcomer!"

Elvith was shooting arrows rapidly at the spellcasters. One of them fired of a bolt of electricity at him, but Red Un came to the rescue and bounced it of his shield. Out of control, the bolt hit the bathroom door which flew right open.

"It's, I say, it's taken! Wait your turn!" said Melrod and closed the door again.

Narudin
Narudin spun around, weaving an artistic pattern with his swords. The flickering blades had a hypnotic quality to them, which had already lost a few of the mages. They had hesitated for the slightest of moments, so short, but at the same time too long.

Narudin's movements brought him near Red Un, the half-dwarf cutting down a mage who was about to sneakily launch a Sudden Death at the assassins back. The half-elf heard Red Un saying: "Ah, it's good t'have ya back, Mr. Narudin! We've got some talkin' to do when this is over!"

"I also would be grateful for some explanations. We seem to have gained unexpected allies" Narudin remarked, seeing a particularly well-skilled "scribe" take down three mages, "The Brotherhood must be desperate indeed to launch such a direct attack. I'd have..."

Narudin didn't have a chance to finish the sentence as a Black-energy Sudden Death missile was sent towards him. The half-elf dropped to the floor, the dark projectile brushing his hair and passing over him to hit, yes, the bathroom doors behind him. Narudin took care of the Sudden Death hurler with a well-aimed throwing knife, and than peeked into the bathroom. Melrod was standing unusually rigid on the far side of the room, and at first Narudin was afraid that the carpet-flyer extraordinare might have been hit. Then he noted the hole in the wall just next to Melrods head. The half-elf went back into the fray, yelling "Lucky You!" over his shoulder.

Abbee Golden
The owner of the whip smiled at Red Un. "My good sir, I never hit what I do not mean to, and I never miss what I want to."

Just as she turned around a black glowing rune was shot towards her. With a flick of her wrist the rune was hurtled in the opposite direction.

She worked her way across the room to fight side-by-side with Artemis.

Artemis Silverstone
Artemis didn't notice as his sister joined the fight; he and Amelia had fought many battles before. As she wrapped the tip of her whip around a summoner's neck, Artemis neatly hamstrung another.

Meanwhile... Diamond was not a stupid cat, in fact she considered herself as smart as Artemis, well maybe just a little smarter than him. As soon as the first wave of people entered the room Diamond hid in a small hole in which she could watch it all, and also found a nice little rat to munch on.

But when Diamond saw Amelia enter the room she made a mad dash for the 'door of air' from which she could get to anywhere she wanted. Which happened to be a nice carpeted room in the palace of Thais.

'Mommy! Mommy!' came the many mews of her babies as she entered. For although she was small and looked a kitten she was truly of age for a cat. In fact she was exactly as old as Artemis (As damine usually are). She would live as long as Artemis and never look more than a kitten.

Diamond lay down in front of a fireplace and snuggled with her family. She could let Artemis know later. Besides she preferred the meals here to the scraps from a plate.

Knight of Darkness Fall
"AH!!!!" Katherine cried out loud as she swung her Serpent Staff up high and rammed it at the mage who was gathering energy for a spell.

"Eicartos Kormas!" The mage released a ball of moving air towards her with a smirk, while she was coming down on him.

Implosion! she thought. Katherine could feel herself being sucked into the spell. She quickly used her shield to fend off the spell. The impact from the spell was great enough to knock Katherine off her course and send her landing slightly to the left of the mage.

The Mage backtracked a few steps to gain some space between him and Katherine. His right hand reached into his left sleeve and seemed to be taking something out from it. Suddenly, he threw his left hand out and a flash of light was reflected off the object, almost blinding Katherine. She almost didn't have time to react to that attack, but was lucky enough to just roll over to her left, where the flying dagger missed her head by inches, chipping off some of her brownish red hair.

"Impressive that a half-elf like you managed to escape that dagger" The Mage commented on Katherine's reaction, after that landing.

"Don't underestimate a half-elf." Katherine quickly got herself up to her feet once again.

"Well, let's see how you dodge THIS!" The mage hurled a sling shot at her, but she was nowhere to be seen. The mage searched left, right, up and down for signs of Katherine. "Where did…" The mage suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around. "Hi, Sweet Heart! Looking for me?" Katherine smiled evilly at the mage.

"How did..." The mage didn't managed to finish his statement, when Katherine jabbed her shield into the abdomen of the mage and rammed her Staff into the mage's chin, causing him to spit some blood. "Time to finish this off I supposed..." The mage was nearly knocked out. Katherine gently placed her hands around the neck of the mage, "Say BYE BYE!" in a split second, a snapping sound, a twist of Katherine's hands, the mage dropped dead on the ground, letting out his last breath.

Red Un
Elvith was doing pretty good, when suddenly a particularly sinister mage walked towards him, seemingly ignoring the fray around them.

"Let me have a look inside you..."

He held out his hands and Elvith suddenly felt a tingling feeling in his head. Then, all the bad things he had ever seen in his life, all the people he'd lost, all the monsters he'd met, all of it exploded in his mind at once.

He screamed a terrible scream not of this world and fell together, grasping his head. Red Un ran towards him.

"Mind-magic, eh?"

"Yes. And now it's your turn..."

Artemis of Luna
Artemis felt a sudden surge of thought and then a mental breakdown. And saw the cause. Artemis ran towards the man near Red Un and grabbed his hand tight.

Artemis looked at himself as though through another’s eyes. He could still feel his thoughts but could also dimly sense another's. He decided to poke around with the ball of emotion, thought and feeling.

The man screamed as Artemis added to the presence. Added pain. The man felt as though a thousand willow branches struck continuingly. But not a single welt or bruise appeared on his skin.

Artemis couldn't believe what he was doing. It just wasn't humane. He quickly let go of the man as he collapsed to the ground.

"I-I uh-um I didn't mean to-to crush him" Artemis stammered after wiping his hand on his pants.

Red Un
"Well, he knew it was a dangerous job when he took it..."

Red Un decided to end the mind-magicians pain, so he stepped up and cut of his head.

The magicians were starting to thin out now, as the former scribes cut them down one after another. But then a group of very pale sorcerers who had been hiding in the background this far stepped out.

"Rise, brothers! Fight once more!"

As they weaved their spells, the dead started rise again, clutching their swords and staffs, shambling around with lifeless eyes. Red Un realised what was happening.

"Necromancers! We gotta get the necromancers, or this fight will never end!"

Tranquillity
Tranquillity killed the mage before her and then rushed at the necromancers. Just as she was nearing them one spotted her and waved his arm. In front of her several dead mages lifted themselves from the ground and began hurling magic at her.

Just in time she managed to throw herself to the side and got a couch between her and them. She found herself huddled behind the couch throwing the occasional dagger and shooting explosions at them as the couch protecting her began to disintegrate from the magic bombarding it.

"Drenil!" she cursed, if somebody didn't distract those now undead mages soon she would be in trouble.

She peeked around the edge of the couch and pulled her head back just barely in time to avoid having it taken off. "Drenil!"

Knight of Darkness Fall
Katherine covered her ears from the scream Elvith. Although the scream was over, but the pitch of the scream somehow still managed to revolve in her ears.

Suddenly, Katherine felt a slight tug on her leg. She looked down. The mage she killed smiled at her and slowly picked herself up.

"What the!" Katherine looked on with sheer horror, as she watched the "dead" mage rise to his feet again. "You're supposed to be dead!" Katherine exclaimed, taking a few stumbles back. But the mage looked different this time, his eyes were lifeless, like he has been a puppet to someone, or something. His movements getting up were slow and seemed as if he had no energy. Then she heard Red Un shout: "Necromancers!" "Oh Great! After scripts, we had a big group of mages, and now we have necros when we ain't done with the mages yet!" she grumbled to herself.

Red Un's right, this battle would never end, well at least not on their side. But they would end up being dinner for these undeads and laughing stocks for the Brotherhood.

"I'm not gonna let that happen!" Katherine encouraged to herself. And Neither am I Master! Whisky, in Shield Form, spoke.

Katherine turned towards the mage. "Well buddy, I'll have to contain you." She raised her left hand and quickly cast a containment shield around the puppeted mage.

"Now. Off to kick some Necromancers' butts!" Katherine smiled evilly and charged towards the necros, together with the rest.

Narudin
The agile half-elf gracefully dodged an incoming Heavy Magic Missile and would have avoided the second one just as easily if not for one of the mages he had just killed, who grabbed at his ankle.

"What the he...!?" The rest of the sentence died away as the HMM hit him square in the chest, expelling the breath from his lungs. The mage who delivered the hit grinned and lifted a Sudden Death rune to finish Narudin off. He got it half way up when a throwing star buried itself in his arm. With a hiss, the sorcerer let go of the rune and, nursing his hand, retreated.

Narudin had other problems at the moment, though. He managed to throw the star and then took out his shortswords and started hacking on the arm clutching to his ankle. Even severed from the body, the arm still held on tight.

"Necromancers!" he heard Red Un yell. "Ah, I should have known" Narudin muttered, breaking off the fingers of the hand one by one. Finally it let go and the half-elf was free to move. Quickly he hid himself in a nearby shadow, deciding to evaluate the situation first.

At first Narudin thought it would be best simply to sneak behind the necromancers and backstab them. Simple strategy, but works marvellously on unexpecting foes. He was about to move from his position, when he spotted Tranquillity in trouble. A number of the raised mages concentrated their firepower on her and it was a matter of seconds before the coach she was hiding behind would disintegrate. Sighing, Narudin decided to use some not so subtle methods.

First of all, using his hidden position, he took some time to raise a few strategically positioned Magic Walls, starting from Tranquillity, and then erecting them in front of Artemis, Katherine, Red Un, Kish and the rest of the party members. This caused a bit of confusion, as the room was roughly separated into two parts - Red Un's party further into the house and the Brotherhoods with the door leading to freedom.

"Everyone, I'd suggest hiding behind a wall!" yelled Narudin "It's going to get mighty hot in here!" With that Narudin took out two Great Fireball Runes, aimed them at the group of necromancers and fired them, immediately jumping to the side, behind the wall he now shared with Kish.

"Mind if I join?" he was only able to say before an inferno on the other side sucked all of the air from the room.

Outside, the leader was getting impatient.

"Why the hell is he putting those walls up?" he asked nobody in particular, gazing into the crystal ball. Then he pointed to one of his lackeys. "Go check what’s going out in there. No discussing, or I'll personally flay You alive when this is over."

The miserable Brotherhood assassin crept up to the window, and ever so slowly peeked through. Encouraged by having his head still on, he leaned in further and did so in a very unfortunate moment.

The leader stared as the windows and door of the cave spit out 3 meter long gouts of flame, incinerating the luckless assassin he sent scouting.

Red Un
At first, there was a terrible light from the fires, and then there was a lot of smoke. Red Un peered through it. A few badly burnt mages laid here and there, some twitching slightly, but most of them had been burned to unrecognisable and pretty disturbing shapes.

"Well, 1-0 to us, I guess."

Elvith moaned a bit, and sat up. His eyes seemed to have sunk in, and there was a horrified look on his face.

"No... not them... not them... nooo..."

Red Un sighed.

"Seems like he's gone stark raving mad. Anyone's got anything to help him?"

Meanwhile, the leader gathered the final group, the Assassins.

"They have killed our brothers in horrible ways, and they have stopped at nothing to hinder our cause! Go forth now, and destroy them!"

The assassins didn't cheer or roar, they just nodded silently and prepared their gear.

Mategerold
A prisoner too skinny and pale for his height and eyes limped into the room drawing ragged breaths. He approached Red Un.
"Please, help me! The Brotherhood have kept me prisoner for months! Oh the horrible things they did to me, made me say things I did not know, and...” He trailed off into a coughing spasm. “I have not had water for days and put all my faith in you."

This stranger's hands looked to be those of a mage, supple and defined, even in his horrible shape. His hands were covered with cuts from shaving metal forks along his prison door and using the strings in an attempt to pick the lock.

"If you let me join you, I would be grateful beyond measure... I would pledge my life to helping you..."

Red Un eyed the man somewhat suspiciously. "Have ya got a name?"
The stranger replied, "Yes, my name is Elwyn Meltace."

Red Un
"Water? Ya get out of prison, and the first thing ya think 'bout is water?"

Red Un shovelled around in his backpack, and eventually produced a bottle of beer.

"Have some beer, Mr. Meltace, and then tell us how a poor, starved and unarmed prisoner could be of any help in our current situation."

Mategerold
He took the beer. "Ahh... it’s been far too long since I’ve had one of these. Praise be to whatever God that watches over us you came at the moment I escaped. As you may have guessed, I was a wandering mage who the Brotherhood captured looking for funds. As if I had anything worth their while... Pfft. I thought after they mugged me and stole my robes they would leave, but apparently they had other plans. One torture lead to another, until I wound up in that forsaken cell."
He took another long swig of beer and sighed.

"If it weren’t for their ingenious handcuffs, I would have been out of there long ago. After they captured me, they shackled me to a horse with cuffs made of a strange, light blue material. Of course I tried to break them with a simple explosion spell, but as soon as I had finished the casting, my head exploded with a fiery pain which I had never known could have existed. The Brotherhood simply laughed on their horses at my plight; who knows what would have happened if I tried a more powerful spell. Fortunately, after I escaped the cell I was able to wedge the cuffs between the hinges and the wall and they shattered.

As for helping you, any party could use a mage for some sarcastic humour or smartass comment just before imminent doom." At this, Elwyn gave a chuckle and said "well I suppose it didn’t do my last bunch a friends much good, but at least I tried, right? Oh and, forgive me if I sound rude but... could you spare some equipment better than these rags for adventuring? I can use a necromancer's robe and spell components for now, but a buckler and dagger are always useful."

Elwyn rummaged around the dead necromancers for what he was looking for, and came back (not exactly smelling the greatest, due to all the undead flesh) with a surprise. "Anyone need a nice shiny death-club?" he asked, pointing to glowing weapon in his hand.

Mategerold
"Do any of you have a clue as to the nature of these 'assassins' we will be facing? If they like to pull the whole ‘I’m invisible and you cant see me hahaha’ deal, I might be able to help. Not even invisible people can sense the patented family Meltace "Shriviling Revealer." Elwyn grinned evilly and hoped he remembers the patterns his father taught him. Back then, he never really thought he’d actually need that weird spell. "Oh and... a bit of food for my old belly would go great with that beer."

Artios
Artios was just standing behind while the second wave came, he just studied all of his allies moves. "Hmm, they seem quite strong" he thought for himself.
Once most of the mages were dead, some necromancers re-animated the corpses. "Ah, Necromancers eh?" He laughed a bit. One of the re-animated mages rose up and actually starts pummelling Artios. Artios just pushed him away since he was somewhat weak, and stupid.
The re-animated mage did not give up though. He walked back to Artios and continued. "Sigh, will you never give up?" Artios placed his hand on the mages head, and the mage fell down on the floor once more. "I guess you are not that lively with a drained soul." Artios looked around and saw Narudin putting up a Magic Wall. After a few moments Narudin discharged some Great Fire Ball runes. Once all mages were dead Artios walked around the corpses and looked at them closely. Then he hears Red Un say; "Seems like he's gone stark raving mad. Anyone's got anything to help him?"
Artios turned to Red Un.
"Sir Redwick, I believe I can help this poor man." Artios walked to the man sitting on the floor. "I can create a hole in his memory, and then the effects of this spell will be gone. He will forget everything that happened this last hour... Shall I?" He asked and laid his hand on his head.

Sarra Zoldan
Kish was still on her knees, face down, eyes closed, her chestnut hair swaying slowly around her shoulders without any particular finesse.
Breathing heavily, she reached out for Narudin. Grabbing his trousers for support, the muscles on her arm strained, but not even to a fraction of what they had previously done.
With a rough grunt followed by a low, guttural moan, she collapsed onto the worn down cavern floor, her clean, brown hair framing her worn, bloodstained face, a painting of extreme weariness and loss.

Knight of Darkness Fall
Just as Katherine was about to approach and strike down one of the necromancers, her charge was obstructed by an invisible wall, and she slammed into it at full force.

"OUFF!" Katherine let out a cry, slamming into the Magic Wall. She stumbled back a couple of steps and sat onto the ground. Her head was still in a state of concussion after she slammed into the Wall. She used her hands to massage the temples of the head gently to soothe the pain.

"Everyone, get behind the wall!" she heard Narudin shouting. "It's gonna get mighty hot in here!" Saying so, Narudin blasted two runes of Great Fireballs at the necromancers and their mage minions. The blast created a blinding light, swallowing everything in the cave into its immense light.

"AHHHHhhhhhhh!!!!" The necromancers gave out a menacing scream as the heat generated from the Fireball engulfed them.

Katherine quickly turned her head away from the blast, closed her eyes and raised her left hand to provide more shading from the blast.

In a split second, the immense light slowly faded away revealing a scene of dismay. Bodies were so badly burnt that their physical features were lost and some even burnt to their bones.

"Thanks Narudin!" Katherine turned around to thank Narudin for turning the tables around.

"So what's next?" Katherine asked the rest. "Shamans?" she jokingly commented.

Narudin
Narudin was impressed despite himself with the newcomers logic. He himself had forgot about that possibility.

"They may indeed become invisible and slide in" he ventured. "I seem to recall that it is one of the prerequisites to becoming an assassin - You must have a magical aptitude enough to be able to perform the invisibility spell. It's quite likely that they'll use it."

Narudin smiled towards Katherine, when he heard her thanks.

"Don't mention it. Forgive me that I didn't warn You" he said, pointing at the bruise on her forehead.

Suddenly he felt a tug and turned around to see Kish falling down. Immediately he jumped to her, supporting her head before it hit the ground.

"My word, did You get hit by a lightning bolt?" he said jokingly, but then saw the burn wound on her chest. "You did, didn't You?" he said, taking out a Rune of Ultimate Healing from one of his pouches.

"You have the strength, and quite a lot of resilience, but You should try to avoid attacks instead of taking them head on" he chided her. The Ultimate Healing Rune did its job, mending tissue and closing the wound.

"There You go" Narudin said, helping Kish to her feet. "The next time You see an oncoming bolt of lightning, dodge it."

Tranquillity
Tranquillity measured up the newcomer and seemed satisfied. "I think there is most likely food in the kitchen but it would be best if you could wait until a bit later."

Turning to the others she said, "While of course I'm not a magician and I can't nullify the assassins invisibility spells I do have something with me that may help."

She untied a bag from her waist and opened it up. Within it were several small balls of different sizes. She pulled one of the bigger ones out and held it a few inches in front of her face examining it.

"I suppose this is similar to the ink that Narudin used on the sea monster. Perhaps more simplistic though and I doubt as hard to attain. It is simply a small explosive containing a white powder. It is enough to coat the entire room with a thin layer.

They will be able to hide their own skin but this powder will coat them, revealing them to us!" she exclaimed.

"Unless anybody has a better idea?" she said questioningly.

Red Un
"No, and I suggest ya start using it right now, 'cause they might've just moved in here without us noticing. Oh, and do whatever it is you're gonna do to Elvith. Then put him in the kitchen and let him sleep, he's suffered enough."

The TBI-turned-Scribe-Master had gathered what few of his fellow scribes that remained. They were making barricades of the rubble and used healing magic for those who needed it.

And outside, the Leader peered into his seeing-crystal.

"Hmm... That Kish lady and the traitor seems to have something of an infatuation with each other. I suggest you try to keep them apart. But remember, the half-dwarf is our main goal!"

Thus, the assassins, thieves and other such warriors of shadows and secrets moved towards the cave, some crawling through the grass, some climbing through the trees and some just tiptoeing.

Mategerold
Elwyn set out quickly across the cave. Once he reached the entrance, he spun around in strange gestures and words, stopping, turning, remarking, and checking his patterns. After a short while, the floor began to glow slightly in a strange geometric pattern that stretched the length of the cave. When the casting was finished, the floor went dim once more with no trace of the spell.

"Be careful not to step anywhere near that," Elwyn warned. "It’s triggered by motion or pressure anywhere where it was cast. After the first few assassins step on it, the spell will go off. A large radius of 'cancel invisibility' followed by a powerful fireball. The problem is, it will most likely not affect even half of the assassins, and will not stop them from re-casting invisibility. Assuming that the assassins do come invisible, Tranquillity, you should use your explosive about 5-10 seconds after my wards go off. Hopefully it will be big enough that we can see the rest of the assassins."

With that, Elwyn went back deeper in the cave towards the kitchen, clearly exhausted from his exertion and lack of food.
"Wake me when they come, I’ll have a bite to eat and then doze off..."

Red Un
The Leader was looking into the crystal and saw Elwyn cast his spell. He looked up. The fastest of the assassins had already reached the cave and cast their invisibility-spells.

"WAIT! Don't..."

But it was too late. They went in, and set off the trap. A deadly fireball exploded and added the assassins to the already quite large pile of fried people.

Knight of Darkness Fall
"Sorry to spoil the fun and plan, but don't you think by saying this loud they might have heard us already?" Katherine questioned.

She couldn't deny that it was a relatively good plan, so following the flow, Katherine picked up a bucket and filled it with blood from the carcass.

"Sorry for the intrusion guys…" Katherine telepathed everyone. "Needed this to be a secret just in case the assassins heard us." she continued. "Well here's my plan, with Tranquillity's powder, we can mix it with the blood, so that the assassins will STAY visible" Katherine told everyone the plan she had.

Mategerold

Elwyn woke with a start and his ears rang. Why did I ask someone to wake me when they’d come? he thought. Oh well, more important things to worry about.

The carnage the fireball created was horrific and disgusting, however it couldn’t even compare to the vast legion of now visible assassins marching in through the cave. Elwyn only had enough energy left for a few more spells, so he aimed his next one carefully. After a few circular motions and the toot of a whistle, an excruciatingly cold blast of artic air and snow flew into the entrance of the cave, slowing many of the lead assassins and killing those who's body temperature had risen so fast due to the fireball their body could not withstand the strain.
"Narudin, magic walls now!" Elwyn managed to say before he collapsed from exhaustion.

It did not take long for the assassins to realize they were visible, and a few of them recast invisibility. However, Tranquillity was waiting...

Narudin
Narudin looked closely at the results of Elwyns spell and didn't see where Magic Walls could possibly help there situation. The exhausted sorcerer had collapsed. Perhaps the fatigue had caused those words. He didn't possibly have enough Runes to effectively block the oncoming assassins. He couldn't risk another fireball, the cave was prone to collapsing from the strain.

Instead, Narudin took out a few Runes he had not used for a long time - Heavy Magic Missiles. It was the only stock of Runes not depleted during their travels, so taking out two at a time, he started discharging them rapidly, sending bursts of multicoloured energy speeding towards the assassins.

It was quite a sight to see them dodge! The assassins were extremely agile, as Narudin well knew, and many of the energy missiles missed their mark, hitting the opposite walls and flying through the door and windows. A few found their targets, though, hitting with bone-shattering power. There was only so much space to dodge in the cave, and a large number of both missiles and targets. One of the energy balls flew out the window, sailed through the open air, just over the head of the ducking Leader and hit the crystal ball, shattering it into thousands of tiny pieces.

Unknowing, Narudin continued his onslaught. He was running out of runes, when he noticed a flicker to his far left. An assassin was trying to flank him! Sending the last charge and throwing away the spent rune, he whipped out a poison coated throwing knife from his pocket and launched it at the shape. To his surprise, the assassin swiped it out of the way with one of his shortswords, sending it spinning into the flesh of one of his colleagues, who whimpered and fell as the poison immediately took effect.

"You'll have to do better than that, Apprentice Narudin!" laughed the figure.

Narudin recalled that dry laugh...

"Master Ardus" he said in a voice devoid of emotion. "How fitting that we meet. I finally have a chance to fight You on…" He glanced to the other assassins entering the cave. "…semi-even terms."

The older assassin smiled, and both opponents jumped to each other. The blades blurred, both of the combatants duel-wielding shortswords. All that was heard at first was the rapid clang-clang-clang as both master swordsmen exchanged blows and parried, and then, impossibly, they accelerated their pace, until only one, long, metal screech could be heard. Suddenly, they jumped away, panting.

"First blood" said Ardus with a smile, as a thin, red line grew on Narudins chest. Narudin looked down, grinning. Then he jumped to the old assassin and resumed combat, saying:

"Last blood is more important."

Sarra Zoldan
Drawing herself up, Kish was still swaying slightly when the assassins entered. Once the ward of the floor was set off, she quickly moved over to the back end of the room, nursing her burnt chest, still tender from the lightning bolt, even though it was healed.
As the battle commenced, she merely surveyed the room, letting her fatigued gaze sweep softly across the ringing of steel against steel, steel on bone, steel on flesh and sparkling magical energies buzzing to and fro through the air.
Suddenly, a wayward heavy magic missile hit her in the back, burning the otherwise still well-tended cloak, and once again sending electrical jolts through her system.
Taking an unwilling step forward, she gazed around the room to find her attacker only in time to lock eyes with an assassin just as a dagger left his hand.

The dagger took her in the right shoulder, sinking several inches into her flesh. Immediately, blood started flowing down the front of her shirt, soaking the short sleeve within a matter of seconds.
Coughing twice, she locked eyes with the assassin again. Her eyes somewhat unfocused, she could see the assassin smiling a winning smile, hearing a small chuckle rise through his throat; a throat she wanted to rip out.
And so, she did.

A sudden blur, and the dagger fell to the ground, Kish now standing in front of the assassin, now wearing a fearful expression on his face. Staring at her and gasping in horror, he found his throat pierced by the inch-long claws that now adorned Kish's hand. A slashing sound, and his windpipe was cut off in five places, blood flowing out of the wounds like a river, painting the floor red.

Blurring again, she now stood behind another assassin, unaware of her presence. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she spun him about, running two claws deep into his eyes. She blurred and moved again before he hit the ground.

This time, however, she was placed down in the middle of a trio of assassins. The first assassin, to her right, met the same fate as his comrade had moments earlier, another river of blood painting the floor.
The second assassin jumped at her, for some reason, and clasped his arms around her, but to no avail.
Raising her arms in spite of being in a deadlock with her perpetrator, she reached back behind her head and simply twisted the assassins head so his neck broke.

Turning to finish the last of the three, mad rage burning in her red eyes, she was rewarded with the sharp end of a shortsword to her stomach.
The last assassin had acted quickly enough, and the point of his sword was now sticking out through Kish's back.
Growing pale, Kish grabbed the mans shoulders and pulled herself closer to him, pushing the sword even further through her body. Grabbing him as if to hug him, they both burst into flames, letting out an agonizing scream in unison as they both burned.

Collapsing onto the floor face down on top of the now scorched assassin, Kish lay motionless, most of her clothes burned off, two inches of steel still sticking out of her back, her skin unharmed by the flames.

Mategerold
Daggers flew from all directions, and it was extremely difficult for the adventurers to evade them. One lodged itself in Elwyns leg, and the poison spread rapidly throughout his body. Still unconscious, Elwyn made no attempt to dispel the poison. Kish fell, taking four assassins down with her. Narudin was locked in a desperate battle with his old master Ardus. The tide of battle was turning in favour of the Brotherhood, and if something didn’t change fast it looked as if it was going to stay that way.

Red Un
Indeed, the place was swarming with assassins already. Many were climbing upside down on the roof and jumping straight into the fray, and some had dug under the cave and now emerged from the ground.

"This ain't good, this ain't good, this ain't good..."

Red Un swung his sword left and right, hitting some of the less well-trained assassins here and there, and wondering how his dumb luck would help him this time. Worst of all, most of the assassins seemed to go directly for him.

"The half-dwarf! Get the half-dwarf!"

Red Un realised that this wasn't a fight they could win.

"We must retreat! Do anything to get to the door!"

"But they'll just come after us outside!" protested the TBI-leader.

"Well, I still got an ace up my sleeve..."

Red Un looked towards the bathroom door.

"...I hope."

Tranquillity
Tranquillity waited until she thought all of the assassins were in the room then she lifted the pellet and with a quick flick sent it flying into the centre of the room where it exploded in a cloud of white, covering the entire room.

Slowly the cloud faded away leaving everyone in the room coated in the white powder. She saw it gradually turning red as it made contact with the perspiration on peoples bodies. "Try hiding now" she said with a grin as she threw herself into the battle with a vengeance.

Her sword in her right hand and a long knife in her left, she set about systematically dispatching all who came before her.

She eventually managed to fight her way to one of the walls, which one she wasn't sure, and put her back up against it. Before her were a mass of Brotherhood members, and somewhere beyond them were her friends, even further beyond them was the door.

Grinning maniacally she let off a cry that would have turned any normal person's blood cold if it could have been heard over the sounds of the conflict. Specks of blue and red migrated across her eye as she threw herself recklessly back into the battle.

Knight of Darkness Fall
Tranquillity's powder caused Katherine to sneeze slightly. "Choo..." Katherine shielded her nose with the back of her hand.

"Well, I guess it's time to pour the blood..." Katherine exclaimed as she swung the bucket of blood and splashed it onto the Assassins.

"GOSH! We're being exposed!" shouted some of the assassins.

"Well, you're supposed to be exposed! If not, it won't be a fair fight, won't it?" Katherine jumped upon one of the Assassins, and landed him flat on the ground. She placed her left hand upon his chest and cast a paralyze spell on him. "Sorry honey, you look better in "freeze." Then, she jumped a few steps back and cast an Energy Strike on him.

"HA! Kill me as you might. For there'll always be thousands of me to kill you! HAHAAH!" were the assassins last words before his last breath was taken away by the spell.

"AH!" Katherine screamed as her back was being lashed. A trail of fresh blood formed on the wound. She tried to reach it and heal it, but it was right in the middle of her back. "Damnit!" she cursed. She turned around to see three assassins locked on her. "Well, three on one? How ungentleman of you guys..." Katherine smugged.

"Don't worry lady, we'll give you a quick and painless death" one of the Assassins said. "Well, let's see who's the last one standing." Katherine charged at the three assassins, and struck her Serpent Staff at the assassin standing in the middle. But their movements were too swift, and easily they dodged out of her attacks, and quickly landed two more slashes on her arms.

"You're too slow lady... Better quicken your steps," The assassins smiled evilly. "Don't count your eggs too early." Unknown to the Assassins, Katherine has already cast a mirror image of herself, and they were actually talking to her mirror image, and she was standing quietly just a few feet behind them.

She carefully conjured three Magic Missiles and left them tingling in mid-air. "Just a little more..." Katherine said to herself. "There! Got it!" Katherine quickly dispelled her mirror image, "Oh guys! Look what I got for you as presents?"

The assassins turned around only to be met by three Magic Missiles speeding towards them and sending them flying through the room and their landings met the earthly walls of the cave.

"Ha! Piece a cake..." Katherine smiled happily to herself, and dusted off her hands. Suddenly an object came flying to her left. She managed to dodge it in time. It was another assassin.

"Er, guys? You might wanna be a little careful when you threw these young punks around the cave eh?" Katherine joked.

Narudin
Narudin was still locked in combat with his old master. Tranquillitys pellet attack gave both opponents a chance for a quick sneak attack as the room was filled with white powder, but both swords met a parrying sword and the assassins jumped away from each other again.

"You've improved" said Ardus, letting out his dry cackle. "But You’re still not good enough!"

Narudin said nothing, conserving his strength. He nearly laughed when he heard one of the assassins yell "GOSH! We're being exposed!" Talk about naive... Applause please for the man covered in white powder to the left, for his brightness and amazing speed of deduction.

The master and student once again jumped to each other and resumed their battle. Blades clashed and were retracted, sparks flew, figures mingled. The two Duel-Wielders seemed as one, each mimicking the others movements at times, each sword meeting it's counterpart in agreement.

Narudin made a feint to the right, and quite surprisingly, attacked from the right. Ardus, expecting a cunning feint, took a fraction of a second too long to understand what was going on and jumped back, a thin trail of blood flying from his forearm. For that is how weapon masters fought - trading blows and inflicting minor injuries and flesh wounds. The older assassin stared in amazement at the thin red line on his arm and went at Narudin with a fury, stealing the advantage.

The half-elf was on his heels, desperately weaving a defensive pattern in front of him to deflect his old master's whirling blades. He stumbled over a body and received a nick on his cheek, barely avoiding decapitation. Another mistake and another red line grew on his leg. At one point he was passing Katherine and saw an assassin trying to get behind her. He gave him a kick on the backside, sending him forward. He couldn't do anything more as Ardus attacked with redoubled fury, and Narudin was backpedalling and parrying for his dear life.

"Damn, I've got to stop him" he thought desperately. An idea struck him. He made a powerful leap backwards and ended up with his back to the wall. Narudin threw his swords towards the ground, where they both stuck, handles pointing upwards, on either sides of him. Ardus was confused for a moment, but seeing the obvious opening jumped forward, sensing the kill. At that exact moment Narudin brought his hands up and intoned "Exevo Flam Hur."

A fan-shaped inferno of magical flames erupted from Narudins hands, shooting towards the old assassin. Ardus didn't wait for them, but ducked to the ground, meeting Narudins foot travelling the opposite direction. The flames dispersed, leaving a few charred assassin corpses further away, and Ardus fell on his back, dazed. Narudin scooped up his blades and ran to his "master", trying to score a mortal blow.

Amazingly, Ardus managed to get on one knee before the half-elf even got to him. Whirling his swords in a desperate attempt to ward off Narudins blades, he tried working his other foot under him. Finally he managed that, and also scored another minor hit on Narudin as the luckless half-elf slipped and nearly fell.

"You are too weak!" the old assassin laughed, once more pressing Narudin with his attacks. "Look around You! Your friends are losing! Some of them are probably dead already. You do not have a chance!"

Narudin indeed risked a glance, as he had been concentrating solely on his fight until now, but found he could not look away from the scene of devastation around him. Everyone were still alive, but fighting hard, and still more assassins came. Tranquillity was fighting like a demon, Katherine was facing off against an assassin. Red Un was taking chips off the attackers here and there. Elwyn was lying where they left him, unnoticed. Kish was down, a red puddle slowly growing around her - from the blood of her enemies as well as her own....

Ardus saw his enemies’ potentially lethal moment of deconcentration, and made a deceptively quick jab from his right. Strangely enough, it was widely deflected, seemingly without a conscious thought from Narudin. Annoyed, the master assassin made another sneak attack, this time coming from above, but it was parried with similar indifference. Downright irritated, Ardus executed a risky, albeit extremely deadly move, his shortsword curving a deadly arc as it sped towards the half-elfs neck. Impossibly, this was intercepted by Narudins own blade, locking both of the opponents swords just above the hilt. Only now did Narudin turn his face.

Ardus would have fell back from that icy-blue stare if not for the swords locking them together. Arctic cold radiated from Narudins sapphire orbs, blasting Ardus with its intensity like no furnace could accomplish with heat. Narudin had took all his despair, frustration and confusion, forged it into an all-consuming, devastating fire and lost himself in righteous wrath.

"You are dead" he said matter-o'-factly, still holding Ardus locked with his blades. It was a simple statement, made by many a bold fighter before they met their doom, yet somehow, it was hard to disbelieve the inevitability of that steely gaze...

Mategerold
The battle trudged on, and Narudin had an amazing victory against his former master. However the battle was still in favour of the assassins, and Narudins victory did little to improve the odds. Kish and Elwyn still lied on the floor, poison spreading throughout the mages body. Fortunately the assassins were still focused on the party members still fighting. All the hope now rested in Red Un's secret plan...

Knight of Darkness Fall
Katherine dodged again as yet another assassin body flew towards her direction. She rolled to her left side, where there were some breathing space and raised her left hand on the suspended body that was flying towards her, and flung it in the opposite direction.

"Poor guy, had to be tossed like that around the room" Katherine sarcastically remarked.

Still, her victory overfour assassins didn't really turn the table around. Narudin was having trouble and his hands full on trying to defeat an old assassin, while Tranquillity, Elwyn, Red Un and Elyish were all starting to face problems, though now their enemies were visible, but the assassins' speed and agility were unexpectedly swift.

Just then, she saw a reflection of light at the corner of her right eye, and immediately she raised her shield to block whatever that was coming her way. Sparks flew off her shield, as a blade struck her shield. Her eyes were locked onto the assassins, three in total again, now covered in dried blood, but with portions of it dropping off, though they hadn't noticed it as yet.

"Not three AGAIN!" Katherine grumbled. "Can't I have other numbers?!"

The assassin seemed to have ignored Katherine's remarks. They bent their knees slightly, shifting one leg slightly behind, and in one swift moment, all three sprang onto her.

Katherine quickly rolled back and into a curl, with her shield raised as a protection. The assassins' weapons just barely missed Katherine's hair, as she rolled off just inches away from where she stood just a split second again. The impact from the landing has caused the assassins to stumble a little and this created an opening for Katherine. Seeing the opportunity, Katherine raised her right hand and cast a flash-spell right in front of the assassins' eyes. Katherine turned away quickly to prevent herself from getting blinded as well. They let out a cry, with their hands over their eyes to protect them from the blinding flash. Seizing this opening, Katherine quickly rammed her shield into the abdomens of the assassins, which sent their tumbling off a few feet away from her.

"Guys! We REALLY need to think of a way to kill off these bugs, before the Brotherhood sends in more reinforcements. If so, we're doomed!" Katherine stood up, finally able to catch half a breath.

Tranquillity
Tranquillity managed to reach another wall, or possibly the same one, and took stock of her surroundings once more. Narudin was locked blade to blade with a fierce looking assassin, Katherine had blinded several assassins, while Red Un furiously fought off what could be considered a horde. Kish was nowhere in sight.

She took a deep breath before she re-entered the battle once more. She had nearly lost complete control of herself only moments ago. She tried to edge around the corner of the room to get closer to Red Un but was spotted and was forced to fight.

Deciding that the best defence was to kill you enemy, she buried the tip of her long knife into the wall and quickly tossed two throwing knives at the assassins. One found its mark in the neck of a particularly aggressive looking one and the other was deflected. She grabbed her knife out of the wall and with a few quick steps, a parry and a thrust she found herself pressed up against the chest of an assassin, the tip of her knife sticking out of his back. She leaned up closer plunging her knife in further. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and then whispered in his ear, "Sweet dreams." Then she gave a sudden twist with the knife and pulled it out, letting the assassin fall to the floor.

Just as she was about to turn around and search for her next target she felt a sharp pressure on her back and heard both the sound of ripping cloth and the grating sound of metal on metal. She stumbled forward from the hit. Someone had hit her in the back with a short sword but her armour had stopped the hit. She gave the powder and blood covered man a completely uncharacteristic smile. "You'll have to try harder than that!" she cried as she took a step towards him.

She had no love for anybody who would attack an outnumbered opponent from behind. The poor man in front of her was about to find that out.


Red Un
Red Un made his way towards the bathroom and smashed the door open.

"Melrod! Get yer bum movin', we need that carpet 'o yours!"

"But, I say, but there's not other way out of here other than the door!"

Red Un had to dodge a few throwing-stars (one hit him in the arm, but he barely noticed) before he could continue talking.

"Look behind ya!"

Melrod turned around, and sure enough, there was what in modern days might've been called a "bathroom window", but in this case was just a hole in the wall.

"I'll hold of these guys, you get crawlin'!"

Melrod stood up on what in modern days might've been called a "toilet", but in this case was just a log over a hole dug in the ground, and started to crawl out through the window.

Red Un returned to the fighting, just in time to get a crossbow bolt stuck in his leg.

"C'mon! 'S that the worst ya got?!"

Tranquillity
Tranquillity stashed her knife in a sheath and set upon the assassin before her. Soon they were embroiled in a fierce fight, jabbing, swinging, even attempting to kick or punch the other. Tranquillity had the advantage of experience but this assassin hadn't already been fighting against mages and necromancers.

Tranquillity had finally managed to knock the assassins blade to the side and was about to swing in for the kill when she tripped over a body on the ground and fell to her face, rolling over to face the now grinning assassin. He approached her blade poised, and expression of glee on his face. An expression that was soon changed when Tranquillity loosed a dagger from her robe and with a quick toss embedded it in his stomach. His smile turned upside down where it was destined to stay for the rest of his life. She thrust upwards with her sword into his neck. When she withdrew it he slumped into a heap on the floor.

She was about to get up when she noticed that next to her was the body of Kish with a blade thrust through her stomach. At first glance Tranquillity thought she was dead, but then she noticed her chest moving up and down. She looked around her and it didn't seem like she was going to be immediately threatened. "This is going to hurt" she said to Kish. She opened one of the bags she carried around her waist. "A lot." She placed the opened bag on the ground and then placed her hands on the hilt of the blade.

"You'll thank me for this later." With a tug she dislodged the blade from Kishs’ stomach. Quickly she plunged each hand into the bag. When she pulled them out they were covered in some ground up herb. She put one hand on each side of Kish covering the wounds as if stopping the blood. Miraculously it seemed to work and the blood flow stopped. "That’s gonna burn like nothing you’re likely to have felt before and it'll leave a mark but you'll live."

Red Un
"Hrm. I prefer one o' those blue healin' stones meself. But to each his own..."

Red Un was slowly making his way to the doorway, and hoped that the others would follow. He was getting very tired now, and clumsily parried some blows here and there. He avoided another barrage of throwing stars simply because he tripped and fell on the floor, and when he got up he heard the familiar sound of a crossbow bolt. This one hit him in the shoulder, making him drop his sword.

"Just...a little...further..."

Narudin
Narudin, oblivious to the fights going on around him, was still locked with Ardus. Finally he pushed his opponent backwards with strength seemingly not fit for his thin stature. Calmly, he walked to the shaken older assassin, skewering two others who thought they could hinder his progress.

This gave Ardus the time to gather his wits and Narudins swords met waiting blades instead of exposed flesh. The moment of fear had past. Ardus was calm once again, though the fire burning in Narudin hadn't died down.

Once again the two faced off, swords ringing as they accelerated their pace. Each perfect attack routine was foiled by an equally perfect defence, and the fight seemed as if it could go on for eternity.

Ardus executed his famous "Multi-angle" assault. His swords came from different angles, which he kept changing, forcing Narudin to block from awkward positions. Not once and not twice he caught a sword by the hilt, deflecting the deadly blade in the last possible moment. Narudin in turn was using his amazing speed to redouble his rate of attacks, hard-pressing his old master to parry the multiple blows. Anyone watching would have sworn that Narudin couldn't have managed it without growing a third sword-arm. Ardus kept parrying marvellously, though, and not once did a blade get through.

Soon Narudin lessened his assault, seeing that he was only losing energy. He still had plenty of adrenaline to burn, yet it was stupid to use it up now. Ardus had locked him for quite some time now, and he would have to help the others later, too. On the other hand, the thought of the dangerous master assassin meeting anyone else from the group...

"This can go on forever" he thought, miraculously avoiding another of his old masters quick jabs. "I can't let this go on much longer, or the battle may me over with our fight still going on..."

Narudin immediately chided himself mentally for thinking negatively. If the battle was to end, it was going to be Red Uns parties victory, and no doubt about it! The fires burned higher in his soul.

Ardus once again found his opponent defocusing, and saw an impossibly clumsy opening. He yelled with glee as his blade plunged towards Narudins heart, a plunge which Narudin had no chances of deflecting.

Not that Narudin wanted to deflect it. Letting go of his right sword he brought up his hand, the blade neatly going through it and stopping when the handle hit Narudins palm. The hand closed, immobilising the sword completely.

Ardus swung his other sword, staring with disbelief at Narudins skewered hand gripping his swords handle. From the awkward position, his other hand still holding on to the immobilised sword, Ardus's swing was clumsy and slow, Narudin had no problems with swiping it away with his remaining blade. As the old assassins sword flew wide, Narudin retracted his own, making a deep cut on his old masters arm. Ardus dropped his sword with a hiss.

"Impossible!" He shrieked, pulling at the sword piercing Narudins hand, "You can't do that!" He tugged furiously. Narudin barely flinched as Ardus frantically tried to regain his other sword. He brought his own blade up and gripping Ardus' sword even harder, said:

"It is as I said earlier - You are dead."

With that he thrust his sword forward, the blade cutting through Ardus' feeble attempts to ward it off with his arms, finally biting into his black heart. The scream died on the old assassins lips as he fell to the cave floor, staring at Narudin in disbelief. Death had etched a grimace of pain and shock on his face.

Narudin slid the sword out of his hand, closed and opened his fingers with a hiss. Tentatively, he picked up his discarded sword and looked around wearily. With a deep sigh, he flung himself into the battle ranging around him, a demon of darkness, slaughtering all encountered Brotherhood assassins before they saw him. What was it that Red Un had yelled earlier? Head for the door?

Knight of Darkness Fall
The impact of Katherine's shield on the assassins' abdomens had caused them to fall into a semi-unconscious state.

"Well, at least I don't have to bother about them for a while..." Katherine shrugged.

Just as she was about to turn, she saw a body in green, with veins, purple and green in colour, bulging out from his body. "Hmmm... That guy looks familiar..." Katherine wondered to herself. Quickly, she turned the body around, to reveal Elwyns face.

"Hey Elwyn, what the heck happened to you?" Katherine tried to shake Elywn awake, and it seemed to have taken some effects.

"Po...Poison..." was all that Elywn said before he slipped into unconsciousness again.

"Right! Poison...But poison what?" Katherine guessed, "OH! You got poisoned!"

Katherine flipped open the cover of her backpack, reached into it, and took out a vial that contained a green fluid. "Here, drink this. It will purge the poison within your body." Katherine assisted Elywn, by raising his head up and slowly pouring the fluid into his mouth. "Just rest here, you'll be fine in a few moments."

"Well, seems like that the three assassins has awaken!" Katherine grumbled after she saw one of the three assassins shaking his head and slowly picking himself up.

Narudin
A shadow flashed past and the air blurred. A moment later, Narudin was standing in front of Katherine, swaying slightly. The three assassins were definitely not getting up - Narudins swords had seen to that. He himself though was a miserable sight to behold. Numerous cuts covered his body, blood from a gash on his forehead was blinding him and there was a nasty wound in the middle of his hand. The tired half-elf attempted a smile.

"It looks worse than it is" he said. "Everything alright here?"

Suddenly he grimaced and turned around quickly, a throwing star imbedded in his back. Narudin returned the favour with a throwing star of his own, his having the addition of a nasty poison collected from the dreaded Darashian scorpion. The hit assassin fell to his knees, letting out a low moan - he wouldn't hinder them any more. Narudin reached back and plucked the star out of his flesh. Looking at it briefly he let it drop to the ground - Fortunately it was not poisoned.

"I believe we must be getting to the door, at least that’s what I thought I heard Sir Redwick yell earlier." He swooned, but shook his head and steadied himself. "I may have overdone it this time. I'm not the most endurable type, You know. Hit from the shadows, retreat quickly..."

Narudin knew he was babbling, so he shook his head again to clear it.

"Damn... Do You need help in carrying him?" he asked Katherine, pointing to the still unconscious Elwyn.

Mategerold
Elwyns head span, and he felt woozy. Where was he? Who was he? As a knife went whizzing past his ear, it all came back.
"Exura Vita" he said, and the knife wound in his leg closed up. Elwyn was still tired and fatigued, but he had the perfect spell to help that. "Utani hur."
Ewlyn thanked Katherine as he ran behind her, and then took stock of the battle. Too many assassins, too few heroes. Then Elwyn saw Red Un trying desperately to reach the door. Almost on the ground now, Red Un fought for every step, but more assassins were closing in.
With his enhanced speed, he rushed over to Red Un dodging knives and thrusts from assassins he ran past. Now behind Red Un, and the assassins chasing him, he whispered "utevo res ina assassin" and instantly grew a few inches. His hair grew quickly as a dark hood encompassed it, now falling down passed his knees and cloaking him in black.
"Grrrr... Get 'em!" Elwyn secretly prayed that the assassins would not turn around. His encouragement seemed to edge the assassins along towards Red Un.
Just as they were about on him, one dropped to the floor with a sickening crack. Elwyns tall body rose over him wielding the death club he had found on the necromancer. Unaware that there was a foe behind them, the other four assassins were slow to turn. "Adevo res flam!" Elwyn yelled, and grabbed the back of one of the assassins neck. Instantly the assassin burst into flames, and despite its best attempt to put them out, they would not leave.


Narudin
Narudin was amazed by the mages quick recovery - that was some powerful healing to get him up and about like that! Immediately Elwyn cast haste and ran towards Red Un, who was facing a few assassins. Cursing, Narudin gave a small, apologetic smile to Katherine and ran after him.

He came in time to see Elwyn envelop one of the assassins in flames. At least he assumed it was Elwyn, for the figure was dressed as any other assassin. But an assassin wouldn't burn his own (unless he had something to gain), and most definitely wouldn't use what Narudin saw as an expertly cast Soul Fire.

Narudin pushed past Elwyn-diguised-as-an-assassin and kicked the burning, screaming and panicking assassin out of his way. He chopped another assassin across his face before he ever knew what had happened, and drew a smile on yet another ones throat, effectively eliminating him from the battle, and from life, too. Only one was left, standing in the middle of a triangle -Narudin, Red Un and Elwyn surrounding him.

"Nasty position" Narudin commented, as the assassin nervously looked around.

Red Un
"I don't have...time for this..."

Red Un gave the poor lonely assassin a kick in the rear end, sending him to the floor.

"You guys take... care 'o him... but hurry..."

He continued stumbling for the door. Another crossbow bolt hit him in the other leg.

"...and would someone... please take care 'o whoever it is that... keeps shootin' at me..."

Narudin
Narudin finished off the luckless assassins, and a thought struck him. He strapped Red Uns sword to his waist, and then proceeded to throw Red Un an Ultimate Healing Rune. He hesitated, and ran to him instead, cutting through one of the assassins who suddenly found himself on his way. Reaching Red Un, he pushed the Rune into his hand.

"I'm running short on these, but You look like You might be needing it. With all those crossbow bolts in You and all, I mean...”

Narudin stopped and carefully examined their surrounding.

"Which of the three crossbow wielders in our nearest proximity would You like me to, er, ‘take care of’ first? No, wait, I think the one on the left is asking for it" Narudin said from ground level, as a bolt went over him and rebounded from the wall. The rogue bolt then clattered to the ground near Narudins face, spinning for a moment before coming to a stop in front of Narudins eyes.

"Oh." said the cynical half-elf. "Drama."

Narudin was tired. He just had to face the person who taught him almost everything he knew, at least in terms of assassination. Ardus was evil, granted, but you just don't go around killing your teachers. Not to mention he put up one hell of a fight.

With one last sigh, Narudin sprang to his feet, and had to fall to the ground once again, as another crossbow missed him by a hair's breadth, fired from the same marksmen. Narudin let out another last sigh, jumped to his feet once more and was subject to the most unpleasant feeling of a bolt skidding across his hair. Narudin had had enough.

He took out the most powerful rune in his depleted stock - The infamous Sudden Death. With his other hand he flipped a throwing knife at the offensive crossbow user, which the targeted avoided by ducking. As was predicted.

Receiving a Sudden Death missile straight in the face is a one-in-a-lifetime experience. Also, it is a last-in-a-lifetime experience, which was accurately proved on the unfortunate marksmen. To say the least, the sight was quite gruesome so Narudin turned his head in another direction, continuing to make his way to the door. He ran as to go past the second crossbow wielder. "Ran" was a bit of an over-statement, as what Narudin was doing now was a kind of stumble which, on the whole, brought him closer to the door.

Sarra Zoldan
Healing energies running through her bloodstream, enveloping her limbs, Kish propped herself up a bit, steadying herself on her knees with her hands.
Realizing she was wearing almost no clothes, she quickly pulled the shirt and trousers off an assassin who had fallen close to her. The shirt fit her well, the black wool still drenched in blood. The trousers however, somewhat surprisingly, were too small. Noticing how they wrapped themselves around her slender legs, leaving little to the imagination, even in her badly injured state did she have the decency to blush.

Standing up properly, she noticed something was wrong with the room. Still disoriented, she couldn't place it at first. Only after squinting at the scene in front of her for a few moments did she realize what was wrong.

No one was moving. After yet a few moments, she realized that they did move, however extremely slowly. Feeling a fainting spell coming over her, everything went black.

She dreamed... or at least experienced feelings... emotions... memories...?
Bright, purple fire burning in a rocky landscape... a human covered in scales, hovering in the air, radiating power... a feeling of chilly winds, snow touching naked skin...
A thought, a word permeating her mind...
Dracon.... Dracon.... Dracon!

She shook her head to clear away the disorientation. She had...dreamed? Strange places... a strange word?
Looking up, she caught the gleam of flying steel just in time to dodge the throwing star headed for her throat. The first star burrowing deep into a still standing green sofa chair, the assassin took another one from his belt pouch.
Reaching down to her own pouch, still unharmed on the floor, she pulled out a firebomb rune just as the assassin drew out his throwing star.
The assassin, noticing the firebomb rune in her hand, took a step back, readying himself to be able to dodge the inferno to come.
Kish held up the rune in her right hand. The assassin crouched low, waiting for the flash of burning fire to come, ready to throw himself out of harms way. He did not realize what was going on until it was too late.
With a flick of her wrist and a motion with her arm, she threw the rune at him, the enchanted stone hitting him in the forehead.
Unprepared for this, the assassin stumbled backwards, knocked unconscious.

Throwing a glance around the room, she saw Narudin, Elwyn and Redwick making for the door. Nodding to herself, she set after them, wearily dodging a throwing knife gone awry.
Coming up behind them, she saw an assassin perched in between the three, outnumbered to say the least. Just as she came up behind Elwyn, Redwick kicked the assassin in the end, sending him down onto the floor.

"You guys take...care 'o him...but hurry..." carried across from Redwick to herself as she reached them.
Turning around to look for the others, a bolt came sizzling across the room. Fatigued or not, Kish dodged the bolt, barely, and to her dismay took Redwick in the leg.

Turning, she walked backwards towards the door, intent on making sure no stray throwing stars, knives or aimed bolts would take her in the back.

Mategerold
Elwyn knew that his disguise and haste would not last much longer, and began to worry about the effects the haste spell would have after it dissipated. Raising your metabolism and energy with magic while already so exhausted can't be good. Moving slowly and quietly, Elwyn faked aiming throwing stars just in case an assassin risked a glance towards him. Seeing the others head for the door, he summoned something he thought would be most immune to crossbow bolts and throwing stars: a scarab.
It materialized into thin air, and headed straight for the nearest assassin. Cursing the assassins and their damned Brotherhood for good measure, the mage made his way towards the door, becoming shorter and slower the closer he got.

Knight of Darkness Fall
Katherine stayed near the rear to make sure no sudden or sneak attacks came from the back of the group. The rest were slowly edging towards the door, which, was good sign indeed.

"Hope we can get out of this dreaded place..." Katherine said to herself, keeping her fingers crossed.

A bolt missed her head luckily and brushed across her face, leaving a strike on her cheek, and fresh blood oozing out, the end of the wound hung a thin layer of her skin. "ARH!" Katherine let out a cry, feeling the pain from the wound. She kneeled down and used her right palm to cover her wound.

Katherine reached into her backpack, wishing that she still had a rune left somewhere in her backpack, be it offensive or defensive. Then, she felt a tingling chill as she found a rune, "Must be the wind..." she thought, and pulled out the rune. "A Magic Wall! COOL!" Katherine exclaimed.

"Well, here goes nothing..." Katherine placed the last rune firmly in her hand and aimed it at the windows to protect them from the archers. Immediately a dull, semi-transparent magical wall formed in front of the windows, all bolts and arrows that were speeding towards the house were all deflected by the wall, and fell hopelessly to the ground.

"DARNIT! They are making it to the door!" Katherine could hear one of the Brotherhood cursing and swearing.

Red Un
In fact, Red Un had actually made it outside. The moment he stepped outside, the air was filled with arrows, crossbow bolts and throwing stars. That's why he immediately stepped inside again. There was a short calmness.

"Good, they're reloading..."

Red Un rushed outside through the door, straight at the Leader who was completely unprepared. The half-dwarf grabbed the robed man and held his arm tightly across his neck.

"Fire one bolt..."

He increased the tightness of the grip.

"...and this guy gets it."

Meanwhile, Melrod had finally managed to crawl outside, and sneaked away to find his carpet.

Knight of Darkness Fall
Before even Katherine realised, Red Un was already outside of the cave house, and holding their leader hostage. Even though Red Un has sustained much injuries over his body, miraculously he managed to find the strength to hold himself to his feet and at the same time apply pressure over the Leaders neck.

All the lackeys led by the Brotherhood Leader dare not fire or even advance towards him, fearing that Red Un would end their leader's life in just a snap of his hand.

"FALL BACK!!" The Leader commanded. He waved his arms frantically in the air to command his troops to fall back and not to fire at him.

Seeing this golden opportunity, Katherine shouted from behind the troop, "Order your soldiers to drop their weapons, disarm their spells and put their hands over their heads, with their heads facing the ground."

"Why should I listen to..." The Leader's words were broken by Red Uns pressure over his neck. "Do it... Or..."

"Alright (cough cough)...Alright!" The leader finally surrendered. "Drop all your weapons and do as the Half-Elf said!" His troops were a little reluctant to obey. "NOW!!" Finally the troops took a small step back, dropped their weapons to the ground, with their hands over their heads and facing the ground.

Katherine finally walked up to the troops and walked through them, picking their weapons and threw them towards the cave house. "Shoot. Shoot. Shoot." Katherine angrily beat her hand on their heads. "Now, let's see how you shoot." Katherine continued to tease them and showed a little arrogant.


Red Un
Of course, the assassins had only dropped the weapons that could be seen. Now they drew their various hidden weapon (important rule of assassination: always carry at least one hidden weapon) and charged at Katherine. Red Un fulfilled his promise.

SNAP!

The Leader fell down, dead.

"Oh well, 'twas fun while it lasted..."

Red Un pulled out the crossbow bolt from his shoulder, applied Narudins rune to the wound and picked up one of the dropped swords.

"Hmmh... Nice handiwork, for bein' made by a human..."

He charged at the assassins...

Sarra Zoldan
Emerging from the cave, Kish stood back while Red Un and Katherine engaged the assassins. Grabbing at her belt as if to draw her sword, she found that the sword was missing.
Taking a moment to think, she recalled she wasn't even wearing her own clothes any more, even less her sword. She had the scabbard and belt pouch with her, attached to her belt which she had picked up inside. But her blade, she realized, was still inside.

Energy returning to her body, she felt she was still too weak to take combat with the assassins in front of her. However, she had at least regained sufficient stamina for a small spell. After all, walking around without a weapon in a battle zone is not the smartest thing to do.

"Aya'eth tiobara shio te grandiu coespa lorio siot..."

With the fading of the last syllable of the spell, Kish once again held her purple-shaded blade. But instead of charging into the fray, she simply stuck it into its scabbard, and leaned back to watch the battle in front of her.

A sudden sharp pain made the presence of her wound reassert itself. With a cough, she looked down on the centre of her stomach, bared by a hole torn in the tunic. At least the healing energies affecting her earlier had done away with the most critical damage. However, she knew she would need to tend to the wound well later, if she wanted to escape permanent injury.

A cold wind wisped by her, making her shiver. Oblivious to the battle around her, she hugged herself, abruptly painfully aware of the sticky feeling of cold blood upon her skin, brought on by the soaked tunic.
Another gust of wind made her shiver again. Looking up, leaves blew past her vision of the dark skies above. Heavy, grey clouds held onto the kingdom of the sun, whipping up chilling winds and a smell of water.

The buzzing of the wind grew in her ears. At first she ignored it, but then it became more potent, more sizzling. Despite being frozen and fatigued, she tried to focus on the source of the strange sizzle.

...dracon...dracon!

The dry whisper carried across the winds.
Dracon? She had heard that before... but where?
In front of her, the battle raged on.

Mategerold
Elwyn watched the scene unfold before him.
Red Uns hostage leader, the surrender or the rest of the assassins, and then the secret attack on Katherine. An assassin came perilously close to breaching Katherine's defences, and Elwyn was forced to dispose of him rather spontaneously.
”Exevo gran vis lux.”

A beam of scintillating energy sprang forth from the mage's fingertips, clipping an assassin in the way before incinerating its target, behind Katherine.
Elwyns summoned scarab came up behind him, its pincers covered in assassins blood and body slightly beaten. However, he had no means of healing it and simply sent it back into the fray.
Annoyed he had no runes, Elwyn had to stick to very simple spells as means of attack and defence. Every little blast of energy or minor necromancy life-drain spell he cast took nearly all his energy, and he had to wait and rest behind a shield of fighters before he could cast again.
Fortunately, this battle seemed to be going better than the last. Despite the assassins initial sneak attack, most of their force had been defeated inside the cave.
"Anyone have a few spare mana potions?" Elwyn yelled.

Tujex
Tujex watched on as Red Un finished off the leader of the Black whatever guys. "Wow... I didn't think the little guy would actually do it..." he muttered to himself as the assassins began their attack. "Awww come on... they still want to fight?" he asked as he once again drew his sword and charged into battle with his fellow warriors. He was still tired and in pain from the past battles, and now he was thrown into combat with what he hated the most... assassins. The agile little annoyances were like flies, flying around buzzing in your ears and almost impossible to squash.

Knight of Darkness Fall
"What the…!" Katherine was totally caught off guard by the surprise attack from the assassin who charged at her with his hidden weapon. She only had time to step sideways, preventing the weapon from stabbing straight to her heart and caught her left arm instead and also part of her dark blue robe. The pain from the wound shot through her whole body, but she could not be bothered about that first.

Then she felt a beam of energy passing from her back by-passing her left and straight towards the assassin, before a blast of white light engulfed the assassin and what was left was nothing, except for the assassins hidden weapon laying useless on the ground.

Katherine looked around to see who cast that spell. "Thank you Elywn." Katherine thanked him for his timely rescue, for she would for sure be dead by now. Though she knew that Elywn was already drained from the battle in the cave house as well as trying to purge the poison within his body, but somehow or another he seemed to be able to find strength from within to sustain this battle.

She looked around. Each of her teammates were already showing signs of fatigue from this battle. Each of them had countless wounds that had drained away most of their energy, but in order to stay alive and help Red Un find the legendary Library, they all fought till their last breath.

"AHHH!!!" a cry from yet another charging assassin immediately snapped Katherine back to reality and made her realise that she too was in the midst of this battle for survival. She managed to lift her shield to counter the attack and said "C’mon, your leader's already dead, what's the point of killing us?" The impact from the collision caused Katherine to shift back a few steps.

"For revenge of course. Your Leader, Red Un, killed our Leader…" the assassin replied, as he stepped back and charged at her again.

Red Un
Red Un managed to fight off a few assassins, but then he fell. An assassin raised his dagger above him. Red Un looked up and grinned.

"Y'know, ya really shouldn't raise a dagger at me. I know someone who didn't like the effects of that..."

Then the assassin was knocked down. By the edge of a carpet.

"Melrod!"

"Am, I say, am I too late?"

"No, just in time. Let's get movin'!"

Red Un got on his feet and managed to grab on to the carpet as it flew past.

Artemis Silverstone
Artemis was fighting as though in a trance back-to-back with Amelia when he thought he saw a carpet dip past the door with Red Un.

”Amelia, run for the carpet it's our only chance!”

Artemis and his sister slipped in and out of the many assassins and were struck by a chill wind as they passed through the door.

The air was blackened by hundreds of ammunition ranging from arrows and bolts, to hands and swords.
"There's the carpet!" Artemis thought he was too late to get on and that the carpet was bringing his companions farther away from him by the second.

"Amelia, stop it fast." Amelia sighted their ride and brought her whip forward with an evil snap of her wrist sent it to wrap around a tussle on the corner of the carpet.

Artemis ran as fast as his cramped legs could take him and made a feeble jump for the carpet, that barely gave him a handful of strings. "Umm. Can someone please help me up? I'm… kinda… tired." Artemis said in a breathy whisper.

Amelia pulled hard on her whip and launched herself through the air to land on the tip of her toes on the very edge of the carpet with barely a tremor to show for it.

Narudin
Narudin had been locked in combat with two particularly fierce assassins, both of them using two swords with good effect. Their skill was still far from Narudins, who had fought with his for over three decades, but their movements were amazingly synchronised, making it hard for the half-elf to get a shot at either of them. When one attacked, the other defended and vice versa. Not to mention Narudin was fatigued with all the fighting going on.

Narudin growled as another blade swished past his head, and he finally decided to do something about these two irritating duel-wielders.

"Four blades against two? I must say, that is very unfair" he muttered. "Lets even the odds a bit, shall we?"

With the "even" he accelerated his pace, his blades a blur as they kept hitting against his opponent's swords. Both assassins immediately came into a defensive stance, trying to keep the deadly blades away from their vulnerable flesh. Narudin grinned manically and suddenly made a graceful spin to the right, forcing the opponent further to the left to stumble forward in order stand beside his companion against the half-elf. Narudin span right back, a risky maneuver, yet worth the risk. He spun right between the surprised assassins, slashing one across his arm as he span, deflecting the other ones thrust with his other sword.

With one of the opponents arm incapable of movement, the fight quickly turned towards Narudins victory. Many small cuts started to accumulate on both of the assassin's bodies, slowing them down. Finally the one with the wounded hand made a fatal mistake, causing him to lose his life. Narudins blade plunged in, scoring a mortal hit, and he turned to the last assassin. At that moment a cry from outside came to him:

"FALL BACK!!"

It was the Brotherhood Leader yelling, although the voice had a coughing quality to it, as if something was pressing on the vocal cords... The remaining assassin hesitated, which Narudin deftly used to kick him in the knee. Not a very noble strategy, but good enough when it came to fighting scum like assassins.

"Hmmm" Narudin muttered. "Technically, I am also an assassin." Further, near the door, three assassins were blocking his escape. Narudin took a look around. He and the assassins were the only ones left inside. The rest had already left.

"Damn, they're quick" Narudin said to nobody in particular. Outside, the voices of the assassins Leader grew more frantic. "NOW!!!!" he screamed at his soldiers. Narudin noted the four exclamation marks at the end of the cry - only one from five, which was a sure sign of an insane mind. To the half-elfs surprise, the assassins complied and dropped their weapons.

"Wait, that’s not right" he said to himself again, absent-mindedly crushing a hand belonging to the fallen assassin, who was trying to reach for his sword. "That's not the way the assassins code of conduct works." Now the half-elf kicked the whimpering assassin senseless, as he tried to take out a throwing star to throw. "Crack his knee, crush his hand and they still keep trying." Narudin sighed heavily.

Suddenly the three assassins in front of him pulled out some daggers out of their hidden compartments and ran at him. A loud "SNAP" could be heard outside.

"As I thought" Narudin sighed, wearily raising his swords.

Red Un
Red Un pulled up Artemis on the carpet. Then he looked down on the scene below.

"OI! GET ON THE CARPET, PEOPLE, Y'HAVEN'T GOT A CHANCE 'GAINST THOSE GUYS!"

Melrod steered the carpet low for another sweep.

Tranquillity
Tranquillity had managed to dart out of the doorway after Red Un, just in time to see him threaten the assassins leader forcing them to surrender. Unfortunately she was also in time to see them soon thereafter draw a wide variety of concealed weapons and renew their attack.

Tranquillity was soon engaged against a trio of assassins, barely managing to fight off the questing blades. Not a moment to soon Melrod flew down and picked up Red Un, Artemis, and some other girl before sweeping around towards her. With a short jump she grabbed the side of the carpet and flipped herself onto it just in time to avoid a barrage of throwing stars.

"We’re still missing a few adventurers" Tranquillity observed. She scanned the assassins below and saw Katherine embroiled in a fight. "Over there!" she shouted, pointing to her. Then she resumed her search, this time looking for Narudin. Something caught her eye at the door of the house. Three of the assassins were looking inward and drawing their weapons instead of looking outwards.

"Well that’s a bit odd..." she thought. "Or maybe not." As the carpet swooped down towards Katherine Tranquillity took a single step and jumped off the carpet. She landed hard but rolled to absorb the impact. Coming up to her feet she drew a short knife, usually used for throwing, and a combat knife. Quickly she stabbed the first assassin in the back of the neck. By the time he hit the ground she had already slipped the combat knife between the ribs of the second and was about to kill the third. Unfortunately he reacted quickly enough that he managed to turn around in time and blow the deadly blow coming at him.

Before he had a chance to really recover however Tranquillity kicked him in the chest, knocking him backwards, and threw the knife at him. He fell to the ground with a knife imbedded in his eye. Quickly she spun out of the doorway and to cover behind the wall. Just in time. Several throwing stars whizzed through the doorway, one nicking her robe as she moved.

"Come on!" she shouted to Narudin. "This is where we make our exit. I saw Melrod escape through a window in the back, if we hurry we might just make it out of this alive.”

Red Un
Red Un rummaged through his backpack again. Indeed, deep down there, beneath a lot of empty beer-bottles, pieces of paper and rotten food, there was an Ultimate Explosion rune.

"Right...now I just gotta get my madmen outta there, so I can finish of the other madmen."

Mategerold
Elwyn was ecstatic when he saw Melrod. How he managed to sneak by all those assassins and save them, he bet he would never figure out. But that didn’t matter now, as the exhausted mage left the battle and hopped onto the flying carpet. There were still many assassins below him, and the last of the adventurers were still making their way towards escape.
Elwyn hoped he could rest and write this all down soon; it would make a very good story.

Narudin
Narudin was just as surprised as the other assassins when Tranquillity made her entry. Not that he was complaining, of course - He wasn't sure if he could have managed three more, even if they were only armed with daggers. His arms were heavy with fatigue, his numerous small cuts were slowing him down and the wound on his hand was stinging like hell, to say the least. Nevertheless, the half-elf managed a grateful smile.

"Thank You for Your help. Melrod's still around? I thought he might have found some far away place to tell his most amusing stories by now. Perhaps he has his carpet with him?"

Noting the urgent edge in Tranquillity's voice, Narudin sighed and half-ran, half-limped to the door. Upon exiting, he immediately became target for some of the unoccupied assassins attention. By sheer luck he raised his sword and deflected an incoming throwing star. Once again, Narudin found himself extremely angry, transmuting his fatigue and despair into fury. Finding the strength, he depleted the rest of his weapon stock - throwing stars, shurikens, throwing knives, darts and various types of ranged, death-dealing implements flew in the direction of the offending assassins.

"Damn, throw at me, will You? When I'm tired, spent and fatigued? Think it's fun, don't You? Bloody Hellfire, I'll show You fun!" Narudin babbled on, his wrists and hands doing the job. When Tranquillity came out of the cave behind him, he threw his last throwing knife, a wonderfully balanced Number Four - not everyones knife, but deadly in the right hands. It hit an assassin straight in the throat, who clawed at it, his lifeblood seeping between his fingers as he tried in vain to keep it inside...

Narudins arms fell uselessly to his sides - he was spent. His last attack didn't do much damage, even now the assassins were getting up from the ground, where they fell to for protection against the mad half-elfs wild barrage of steel. Nevertheless, it bought them time and helped to cause confusion between the assassins. Narudin looked up and saw the carpet flying above. He tried waving but found it to be quite impossible at the moment. Sighing, he hoped that someone up there would notice them near the cave entrance.

Red Un
Melrod flew low once again. Red Un mustered the power to grab Narudin and Tranquillity by their necks and pulling them up on the carpet. The assassins started to load their crossbows for a deadly barrage targeted at the carpet. The half-dwarf looked down at them.

"Right, um...was that all o' ya? I never really keep count on who's on my side these days..."

Knight of Darkness Fall
Just as the assassin dashed at Katherine, Melrods carpet suddenly flashed between her and the assassin, knocking the Assassin right in his head. The impact sent him flying across the field.

"Well, that was a nice attack you had there..." Katherine smiled at Melrod for his bravery.

But Melrod flew to Red Uns side first, before Red Un called for everyone to get onto the carpet. Katherine quickly dashed for it, as everyone did so.

Still, two other assassins were still on her tail. "ARH! I have to lose them first or either stop them in their trail..." Katherine suddenly paused in her track and the two assassins paused too. Katherine turned around and raised her hands out with palms opened and fired two flame strikes, one at each assassin. Her attack was so sudden, that the assassins were given no time to react to it, that they were soon engulfed into a ball of burning flames as the flame strike exploded upon contact with their bodies.

"Sorry about that, but as I said before I fight for survival..." Katherine quickly turned around and dashed for the carpet.

Red Un reached out his hand and pulled Katherine onto the carpet.

"Thanks Red Un..."


Tranquillity
"Umm... lemme see. Red Un, Katherine, Narudin, Artemis, Elwyn... and the whip girl." she looked at each person on the carpet in turn and ticked off fingers.

"We're missing two! Tujex and Kish are still down there!" She didn't bother counting Rakino, she was sure she had seen him fall to an assassins throwing star.

Sarra Zoldan
Still standing near the cave entrance, Kish watched the carpet soar high again after picking up Katherine.

Noting the assassins thrown off guard by Narudins attack were rising, she flashed them a cold look.

"This is far from over."

With the sound of a rapid buildup of energy and a massive thunderclap followed by some smoke, Kish was gone.


Red Un
"O-kay, seems like th'girl can take care 'o herself for the time bein'. That leaves us with Tujex..."

Melrod went for another low swoop.

"OI, TUJEX!" yelled Red Un. "QUIT PLAYIN' AROUND WITH THOSE GUYS AN' GET ON THE CARPET!"

Tujex
Tujex had gotten drawn into the fight, and didn't even notice the others leaving. He overheard Red Uns voice, and turned just as Melrod began his low swoop. Tujex turned to the assassin before him, ducking under a slash. Tujex jumped off of the assassins face, and back-flipped onto the carpet. He waved good-bye with a childish smile as they soared out of reach of the assassins. "Well...that was fun." he said turning to everyone else, still wearing his smile.

Red Un
An assassin had clung onto the carpet as well, but Red Un put his boot in the poor guys face, sending him flying to the ground. Then Red Un threw his Ultimate Explosion rune.

"Assassinate this!"

There was an enormous explosion.

Obviously.

When the dust settled, the only thing remaining of the assassins were a few marks on the ground and a particularly nasty smell from all their various poisons that had reacted with each other.

"Okay Melrod, I suggest we get outta here before the elves notice us an' starts askin' questions."

"Where, I say, where shall I fly?"

"Hmmh... Let's try Senja. I think we haven't pissed anyone off there yet."