Annice scrambled in the tent, she
could already hear the melee going on just outside. The men were all screaming
and yelling, and she could hear Wilhelm shouting back at them. She tugged the
chain shirt on right over her robes, hair getting caught in the links as she pushed
her head through. Trying to keep the panic from overtaking her she managed to
get one of the bracers on, but threw the other in frustration as she couldn’t get
the straps secured with her non-dominant hand. She cursed silently and reached
for her boots when she heard a the shredding of canvas, her eyes darting up as
a man came crashing through the tent. Annice let out a yelp of surprise, stumbling
backwards. She felt a sting as her fingers crashed into something metal, taking
a moment to glance she saw her shield. She grasped the metal and scrambled back
to her bare feet and luched forward out of the tent, where anarchy had broken
out.
Three of the men were flanking
Wilhelm, two were on their backs including the one who had fallen through
Annice’s tent, and the leader stood away from the battle, shouting orders at
the men. Wilhelm was glancing rapidly between each man that surrounded him,
waiting for one of them to make a move. Two of their number lay on the ground,
but Wilhelm did not accomplish that feat without cost. There was a deep cut
along his cheek down to his neck and it bled openly onto his shoulder. His lip
was split, and he seemed to be having trouble keeping his left eye open. One of
the men dashed forward, taking a swing at the gladiator with a hand axe, Wilhelm
lifted his shield and the resounding thunk of metal chopping into wood rang out.
In response Wilhelm swung with his hammer, but only managed a glancing blow.
The strike was not enough for what it would cost as the man on Wilhelm’s bad
eye struck out as his ally feinted back, Wilhelm noticed too late and a dagger
dug into his shoulder. Wilhelm cried out, his armor taking most of the blow,
but it was apparent the weapon periced enough to taste flesh, injuring the fighter’s
weapon arm.
Annice stared, frozen and trembling.
This was not like the arena, this was not play, this was not a celebration of
skill and fortitude. This was… horror. She gasped as the man who had fallen into
her tent began to stir, she scrambled away and noticed the other man was also rousing.
She didn’t know what to do, what she could do. This was a mistake, she never
should have come!
“Annice!” Wilhelm cried out as she stepped
into his view. He thrust his shield into the face of another attack, the third
man attempting to take advantage of the wounding, there was a crunch and
Wilhelm knew the man’s nose was shattered. “Annice! I hope you said your
prayers today cause I need some help!” Wilhelm started falling back as the
three men advanced.
“Wha- I don’t know what to do!” She
cried, she was so terrified, she shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be here. She
shouldn’t be here.
Protect him.
The words stuck her like a bolt to
the heart. Her eyes, previously welling with tears, cleared. She was still
terrified more terrified then she even thought possible, her heart pounded in
her chest and it was a struggled to draw breath, but her mind was clear. She
hadn’t had a chance to pray that morning, to ask Syrene for her holy magic, but
she knew now she didn’t need to. For some reason as her mind cleared she could
feel the holy light of godly magic already, and with a moment’s thought she
found her spells. It was strange, she knew of these Clerical spells in her
studies at the temple, but had never asked Syrene for them in the past, they
were not spells a Cleric of the Goddess of Peace would normally ask for. Her
lips trembled and her throat was dry but she knew she needed to push past those
limitations, she needed to speak and speak clearly. Annice stood and held her
hands together close to her chest and closed her eyes, letting one perfect
moment of serenity wash over her. The Cleric began to glow as she gathered the
holy energy inside of herself, the glowing was concentrated on the half-elf’s
throat, which shone brighter and brighter. The fighting stopped as the
combatants were distracted by the light, and Wilhelm and the three men stared
at Annice as she opened her mouth and spoke a word. It was not a word they
understood as it was not meant for mortal ears. The word was of the realm of
the gods, the word was Celestial, it was a Radiant Word.
“LETHNAUS!” Annice’s voice
boomed and the energy was released, a starburst of white light ripped through
the grove.
All of the men who heard the word,
save for Wilhelm, were clutching their ears and stumbling on their feet. They wailed
in pain as they faltered, even the leader off in the distance had fallen
against a tree, struggling to keep themselves upright as his eyes rolled back.
Wilhelm blinked with his one good eye, but had no time to be in awe, he turned
to the three attackers, now dazed and thrashing in mind pain. He dropped his shield
and rushed forward, both hands now gripping the hammer helped, but Wilhelm
could feel a burning sensation in his shoulder where he was stabbed, and a
numbness slowly creeping in. Poisoned blades, just meant he needed to do this
fast before the poison reached his heart, problem was that the faster he went,
the faster the poisoned traveled. He pushed the throught out of mind as he
brought his hammer into the center of one of the bandit’s chest, wretching
sound and a crash of bones, and the man’s ribcage was now a collection of
splinters in his torso. He fell.
Annice took a breath and opened her
eyes, she was excited to see that Wilhelm appeared to be taking the upper hand,
but the expression on her face soon became crestfallen as she watched the man
Wilhelm brutalized fall into a slump. She tesned, and blanched at the sight, averting
her eyes before the man fell filly prone. She didn’t have to think too hard on
what she had seen as a tug at her robe drew her attention down. She shrieked as
she saw the man who had fallen through her tent, dirty fingers clutched in a
fist around the hem of her clothes. She pulled away from the man, but his grip
was like a vice and he pulled against her. In the struggle she fell to the
ground, hard. She twisted onto her back and saw blood pouring from his ears,
she cursed. Wilhelm boxed this man’s ears before he fell into the tent, deafened
and unable to hear the Radiant Word. He drew out a dagger and Annice kicked,
mostly trying to force the fabric to either slip from the man’s grasp or tear she
didn’t care which, but instead her foot connected hard with his jaw and he
cried out releasing her. She crawled quickly away and hopped onto her feet.
“Sorry!” She cried out, and felt immediately
foolish. The man began to push himself onto his feet, but Annice pointed and
cried out “Stay there!” The words were accompanied by a flash of holy light
from her finger and the man grunted, confused, as he was suddenly unable to
move his body.
“Annice! Little help!” Wilhelm
called, the Cleric looked up to see Wilhelm and the two men attacking him. They
had regaine their composure and were pressing Wilhe;m back, an axe and a hammer
clashing with the hilt of Wilhelm’s hammer, which he held out defensively. Wilhelm
was losing the battle of strength against the two men, and they were shoving
him back into a third man, the other that had been down when Annice scrambled
from the tent, he too had recovered enough to bring himself to a knee and was grinning
maliciously as he pulled a nasty looking stiletto blade, it looked nearly nine
inches long, and he was just waiting for his friends to push Wilhelm back
enough to stick him with it.
Annice let out a gasp and reached
her hand out, calling out another word, not quite Celestial but holy none the
less. Her hand burst into brilliant holy light and in turn so did Wilhelm,
suddenly the man felt reinvigorated and his wounds started to slowly close. His
bad eye opened fully again and the split in his lip vanished. The large man
chuckled as it became easier to resist the two pressing against him. They both
had one instance of realization as they noticed the gladiator had stopped
moving at their press, and they glanced at each other and then at Wilhelm.
Wilhelm brought a foot up, crushing it into one of the men’s groins. The man
howled and doubled over, falling away from his compatriot. Now with only one
man pressing him Wilhelm let out an absolutely deafening battle cry and bull
rushed forward. The remaining bandit attempted to twist away, but Wilhelm shifted
the hammer in his hand, catching the man under the shoulder, and simply lifting
the bandit off the ground. The man screamed and thrashed, but could find no
purchase against the enraged Wilhelm, the last thing he felt was the tree
against the back of his head as Wilhelm crushed him between it and the hilt of
his hammer.
Wilhelm let out a breath and
turned, looking at the other two bandits, the one who was going to stab him had
dropped the blade and was hobbling away as fast as he could on an obviously
broken ankle. The other was taking a similar tactic of retreat, but much slower
as he crawled away, groaning in pain. Wilhelm nodded and walked back towards
the camp. He seemed suddenly weaker.
“Y…You killed them.” Annice said.
“Yeah?” Wilhelm raised a brow as he
approached the woman.
“You killed them!” She shouted,
angry now. Wilhelm reacted with shock and confusion.
“They was gonna do the same to us!”
He let out, tone harsh.
“That doesn’t make it right!”
Annice cried. “They didn’t have to die!”
“It ain’t like I was exactly aimin
to kill them! It just happened, I needed to defend us!”
“I don’t want to talk about this
right now.” Annice looked to the man splattered against the tree, and realized
that was a lost cause, she muttered a small prayer and moved to the man who’s
rib cage was destroyed. Kneeling over him she stared at his face, and felt his neck.
Ah! “This one still breaths, thank Syrene.” She placed a hand on the man’s forehead
and began a chant.
“Now what are you do-“ Wilhelm
started, but was shushed by Annice.
As Annice chanted her hand filled
with the familure light, and slowly passed into the dying man. The whole of his
body glowed gently for a moment, and then faded. Calm even breaths eventually
came from the bandit, though the tense cringe of pain in his face didn’t leave.
“Did… Did you heal him?” Wilhelm
asked, peering over.
“No, I spared him.” She corrected,
placing a hand on the man’s chest now. “If I can get to someone fast enough
after they take a lethal, I can stop death. But the window is short, if the person
actually dies then, well… I don’t know that spell yet. What I’m doing
now is healing him.” She stated bluntly as the holy energy radiated into the
bandit’s chest, knitting the bones back into a ribcage.
“Really? You’re healin him, after
what he tried to do?” Wilhelm scowled. “He gets up he’s just gonna try and kill
us again.
“Maybe, but I won’t take his path.”
She snapped, looking back at Wilhelm. “Don’t worry, he won’t wake up yet.”
“You know Annie, you got a lot to
learn about this here wo-URK!” Wilhe;m’s grunt drew Annice’s attention, and she
gasped at the sight.
Wilhelm was clawing at his neck,
where the bolt of a crossbow protruded. Blood gushed down over his chest
freely, and his eyes rolled back. He collapsed. Annice screamed and rushed to
his side, but before she could call out any healing magic, she heard her name.
“Annie, is it?” The bandit leader shouted,
Annice turned her eyes to the man, eyes pressed into a deep set glare. He stood
near thirty feet back holding a crossbow. He pulled the string back into the
latch and set another bolt into the groove, aiming the weapon at her. “Now I’m going
to have to ask you to not do what I know you want to do. Otherwise I’m gonna
have to put a bolt into your eye.”
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