“That coin purse looks pretty familiar. I feel like I’ve seen it before. How about you guys?” Niera spoke with an unintentional air of superiority that seemed to bother Hazel more than anything in this moment.
“I never forget the sight of a coin purse and that one is definitely ours.” Rhen circled around the side of Hazel as he spoke; her eyes tracking him the entire way.
“Oh I got a real good look as your cat jumped across my table.” Roze carefully clasped her daggers at the ready prepared for anything.
Hazel scanned the situation and quickly realized she was outmatched. She started to step back until she bumped the countertop just behind her.
“Look, I realize I stole your money but I was going to return it.”
“This doesn’t look like returning to me.” Roze spoke in an almost unfeeling tone
“No it isn't. I thought you were going to have me arrested or worse. So I figured I might as well keep the gold. Your friend didn’t look like he was super worried about money anyway but this could change my life.” Hazel trailed off as she finished her sentence. She was distracted by a scene breaking out just behind her captors.
Hazel’s eyes locked in on a peculiar sight. Just behind Roze was a half-orc and a wolfish man fighting with some thug. The other 3 locked in on Hazel’s eyes and turned to take in what was happening behind them as well.
Niera wasted no time to intervene. “Hey! What’s going on? What do you think you’re doing to him?”
As she stepped to intervene she saw several men step out of the corners in the alley surrounding her and the others. She turned to count each person one at a time.
“Three, four, five. Got it.” Niera took a calming breath, “I’ve memorized all your faces. Leave now and I will consider sparing you. Otherwise prepare to face the judgment of Niera Seacrest.”
Upon seeing none of the men back down, Niera brandished her shield and hammer. The family crest etched into Niera’s ring began to glow. A shimmering shield was formed around Rhenigan and he along with Niera and Roze were illuminated with radiant energy.
“The blessing of my family is with you. Dispatch these men.”
Niera expected a valiant charge forward of her allies but was instead met with the feeling of Hazel as she deftly leaped across her shoulder, rapier already drawn. Hazel landed with the point of her blade piercing through the chest of one of the thieves. His body collapsed to the floor and Hazel stood ripping the blade out. As she turned towards her next target the ghostly spirit of her victim slipped from its body and flowed into Hazel.
“What the fuck?” Rhen whispered softly, just under his breath.
“No blessing for me?” Hazel turned back to Niera with blood still covering her face.
Just as she finished her retort a pairing of crossbow bolts whistled through the air impaling her body. Niera gasped in horror as she watched the girl be torn through.
“You should pay more attention to yourself.” A voice whispered as it slithered from behind the stall. As the group turned around one of the thugs lunged out swinging a mace directly at Rhenigan. The first blow reflected off the shield summoned by Niera, but the second strike shattered the barrier and crashed down on Rhenigan taking him to the ground.
“Rhen!” Niera shouted as she was torn in two directions of battle.
She had fought and won many duels before but the focus of battle was always directed at her. Now she stood here and watched as everyone around her fell while she stood paralyzed with helplessness. Niera swallowed and took a breath before charging directly at the thug. She swung her hammer straight for his temple but the thug was able to easily back step away from the blow, however the thug was unable to see Hazel darting across the street towards him until her rapier was piercing its way through his hip. He let out a scream and looked towards her but as quickly as she appeared, the girl had already disappeared from his sight.
“Fucking witch! Where are you?” The thug called out into the dark of the alley while holding back Niera.
“Focus on me.” The voice came from Rhen as he laid on the ground with his rifle pointed directly at the thug. Rhenigan pulled the trigger and a brilliant mote of flame fired from the barrel scorching the shoulder of the thug. A small, whirring, spherical spider crawled out of Rhenigan’s bags and began reloading his rifle while Rhen laid his hand on the street gripping a loose stone and causing them to bullet themselves at the thug.
While the rest of the group struggled against the Sleeper’s lackeys, Kesh and Moss continued to fight in a 2 on 1.
“I told you what would happen if you betrayed us. I hope you’re looking forward to not having a face,” spat Moss, as he parried each blow with his spear. As Sleeper brought down his next blow, Moss slid the blade of his spear into Sleeper’s hilt, slicing his fingers clean off the weapon. The sound of it clanging into the ground seemed deafening at this moment. The thieves immediately stopped and the briefest silence ensued, broken only by the shrill shrieking of the bandit as he looked at his severed fingers laying on the cobblestone. Moss refused to relent and instead howled as his body grew. His teeth turned to fangs and sharpened canines and his hair to fur. Moss began recklessly swinging his weapon, each swing with the sole purpose of taking the head from the shoulders of his enemy.
Kesh wielded his ax and charged forward into the duel between the bandit captain and his brother. He swung his ax at the thief, cutting him off and slashing through the thin armor he wore.
Roze watched the battle unfold and felt her magic swelling in her body. She looked down at her hands which dripped with what at first seemed like water or oil.
“Are you going to let them steal your glory? Aren’t you going to prove yourself? You have these powers, now use them. Burn away all of your obstacles.”
Roze looked up at the thugs fighting her newfound friends and raised her hands. As she spoke, she found herself speaking in an unfamiliar tongue and the liquid that she felt dripping from her fingers appeared as a brilliant fire that burst forward flooding everything in its path. Roze smiled until she realized the sounds she heard were not the screams of the thugs burning before her, but the screams of Rhenigan who was still laying on the ground and now caught in the fire.
“Shit! Rhen! Why didn’t you move?” Panic began to form on Roze’s face as Rhenigan’s screams turned to silence.
“Rhen? Roze what the fuck are you doing?” Niera called, as she fought the thug in front of her.
“Get this bitch off me you useless cowards.” The thug screamed through the fire at his comrades. The remaining thieves fired through the flames but the arrows found themselves deflected off of Niera’s armor. The eyes of the thug grew wide and Niera smiled just before her hammer curled up, throwing the thug off balance. Niera quickly pulled the hammer back down, firmly striking the man’s face.
“Any day now.” She whispered it so softly the thug thought she was talking to him. Rushing him to his own death. He coughed blood onto her arm and shoulder. If I’m going to die here I’ll at least take my sweet time in doing it. These were the last words he thought before he felt a thin scratch along his neck and his own eyes looked at his body, upside down and headless and the ‘fucking witch’ girl standing just behind him
As the head fell, Hazel bit into the body and the same translucent blue soul flowed from the corpse to her. This time Niera was able to see clearly as all of Hazel’s wounds began closing themselves and healing.
“Your men are dying one by one all around you. Stop fighting and flee now. I’ll make it easy for you and I won’t even report this to the guards. If you value your lives then end this.” Niera spoke with authority and compassion. The remaining two crossbowmen looked at each other before dropping the weapons to the ground and turning to flee.
“You cowards. You think I won’t kill you when I see you again?” Sleeper called out in desperation but could barely focus on the words while fending off both Kesh and Moss. “Fuck this” Sleeper swung his fingerless hand in both his assailants faces spraying blood in their eyes before he turned and ran. Even as he fled Kesh’gar chased after him barely able to see and wildly swinging his ax
“Save some for the rest of us big guy.” Roze called out almost giggling as she fired off a crackling beam of energy straight at one of the fleeing bandits knocking him from his feet. The thief rolled and pleaded while looking into Kesh’s rage-filled eyes.
“Please. I’m sorry. I’ll turn myself in. I’ll give you money. I’ll do whatever you want.” His words were cut short as the ax fell on his throat silencing the pleading.
The entire party fell silent. Kesh’gar looked at his hands and the blood that stained them. When he turned around his eyes were filled with tears.
“What happened?” The question stung his brother, Moss, who was at a loss for words.
“What happened is you all just earned yourselves spots at the Knights of Yellowfield.” The voice was all too familiar to Niera. She turned as saw Lance, Avery, and several other members she had not met before emerge from nothing, apparently shrouded by magic and spectating the entire fight. “That was pretty impressive. All of you. I’ll admit there is definitely some room for improvement but you’ve all piqued our interest.”
“I’ll admit I think it's definitely wiser for me to go ahead and oversee your training then to leave you to your own devices.” Roze recognized the voice as the dwarf cleric she sparred with earlier. The woman stepped over Rhenigan and a light beamed from her palm.
Shortly after Rhen began coughing violently and sat up in a sweat. “What the fuck happened? I’m alive? I’m alive! You killed me? You scorched me! What the fuck?!”
“Calm down kid, worse things have happened to better adventurers.” Avery called across the alley as he walked towards Hazel. “You on the other hand have potential” He reached just past Hazel and instead grabbed his coin purse from the counter of the market stall. “Hmm? Inks? Nice parchment paper? This is what you needed so badly huh? If I didn’t know any better I’d say you intended to forge some documents. Why might you need to do that?”
Hazel looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before responding. “I was going to write myself a letter of recommendation so I could attend Death Crow Academy.”
“Ha! You think you could forge a letter to get into Death Crow? Unfortunately for you I’ve seen your face, your first mistake by the way. You’ll never get in now unless I say otherwise,” Avery began to count the coins in the purse, stopping once all of the gold was accounted for, “which I’m not opposed to doing. But first, I can’t recommend somebody who is this incompetent. I give you 2 years before you’ve learned enough to earn my letter. Be at the guild hall tomorrow morning, I’ll have a dorm arranged for you by then. I’ve already looked into your living situation and it goes without saying but, you’re homeless as of now.”
“Um..” Hazel stuttered, at a loss for words.
“You can thank me later, now isn’t the time. The rest of you have already been assigned a supervisor and you’ll be given your duties first thing tomorrow morning. Don’t be late either or we’ll assume you dropped out and we don’t give second chances.” Avery smiled wide, as friendly as he could manage. “Welcome to the Knights of Yellowfield, from this day forward you shall be addressed as members of the group ‘Palamedes’ and you’ll report directly to the Questing Beasts.”
The group of adventurers turned and began to walk out of the alley led by Lance.
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