Crests, fallen

Jin

Over time, all locations shown in shadow’s eye had become filled with people. Most had gathered around Leptarus Lioncrest and Sera Bisoncrest. Once Fyor Eaglecrest arrived at the third location, miraculously without any visible wounds from the enforcers’ arrows, more citizens flocked there as well, including Gawir and other recruits from the barracks.

Erinara and I kept to the alleyways as a crowd gathered at our designated location.
Since I wasn’t much of a symbol like the other heroes, we decided to wait, hoping that this could be resolved without conflict. We were worried that our presence would draw danger to the civilians. The council’s forces might just ignore a few citizens gathering to ask questions after all.

Of course, that ideal was far from the truth.
Glancing at the transmission being done via shadow’s eye, the other locations had already fallen into battle. As they did, three dark spheres appeared. The executives stepped out from them. Vorial grouped with Sera, Lazzal with Leptarus, and Ebiron with Fyor.
They each were met with one hero and various enforcers. Our enemies aimed to kill, not hesitating to shoot the citizens, while we all agreed to only go for incapacitating blows.
Vorial and Sera fought using heavy close quarter attacks, quickly knocking the hero out in their first, combined strike. They then quickly picked off enforcers one by one, drawing their fire.
Lazzal had created a shield around the civilians using various runes, completely nullifying any danger to them. Her and Leptarus faced the enemies from then on.
Fyor and Ebiron struck first, quickly and efficiently knocking out all enemies using distractions and shadow magic.

Erinara and I had no time to watch those spectacles, however.

A singular figure had leapt from the stronghold’s surrounding walls. He landed behind the gathered people with such force that the pavement shattered. A hail of rock rained onto the citizens.
“So. You are the traitors who would deny me!?”, he screamed.
This person was the hero who chose to join the royal lineage of Elkcrest. The stories of his time in the war made him out to be a powerful fighter with a distinct code of honor.
The latter part was utterly indiscernible when looking at the man standing in front of us.
“Hero Elkcrest, we simply wish to know what is happening”, a particularly brave citizen spoke up.
Elkcrest snapped his head into the direction of the voice, an all but frantic frenzy in his eyes.
“Come closer then. Let us talk”, he said, his lips curling up in an unnaturally wide grin.
The citizen, be he brave or a fool, followed that request. Elkcrest’s grin grew wider still.
“You know nothing. Yet you let yourself be swayed so easily by the enemy. You are a traitor to me, and to the kingdom. I shall make an example out of you.”
With nothing but bloodlust in his eyes, he reached for his two-handed axe hanging from his back and raised it high.
The axe accelerated at the civilian.
Until it suddenly stopped.

Strings of darkness had found themselves wrapped around the point connecting the axe’s blade to its handle. Erinara had managed to halt Elkcrest’s attack with shadowy tendrils.

We had to get him away from the people. To that end, I stepped forward.
“What type of hero would turn his weapon on those he has sworn to protect? You are nothing but a beast masquerading as a hero. From here on out, I will be your enemy”, I declared, pointing one of my swords at him.
His hateful gaze focused on me. Erinara tugged on the axe ever so slightly, guiding him to our location.
“What does a whelp like you want here? Are you tired of life? So be it, you will serve as an even better example!”, he said, walking toward me with an unusual pattern. It seemed as if he kept changing his point of balance with every step.
Once Elkcrest was out of range of the civilians, Erinara let her shadowy tendrils dissipate.
“Just as we discussed, yeah?”, she said, rushing past the hero. He was too busy staring me down.

During his initial landing, bits of the flying shards had struck the people in the gathering, with some more getting hurt in the resulting shoving.
Erinara arrived next to the citizens, letting a golden light shine from her body.
“Anyone who is injured, gather around me. I will heal you. Please let me help those with deeper wounds first”, she said.

In the meantime, I had engaged hero Elkcrest in combat. He lurched backwards, arching his back far, before snapping forward in a rapid burst of an attack. I took a quick step to the side, turning my body to face the axe’s blade in the process. The axe slammed into the ground next to me with a heavy crash, embedding itself into the pavement. A small crater had formed around its point of impact.
“You’re slow. Has a life of training not suited you?”, I taunted.
Elkcrest’s gaze turned feverish.
‘Good. Now he will definitely be too focused on me to attack the civilians. I can deal with him properly’, I thought.
My opponent began laughing manically, shaking his shoulders and knees heavily with each breath.
I held my poise, not letting him distract me.
In the next moment, the axe ripped through the ground, rushing toward me. I jumped over the blade with a flip, slashing at the axe’s handle in one quick motion mid-air.
“Yield”, I said upon landing.
My foe looked at his broken weapon, then simply discarded the part of it without steel. Unbothered by this turn of events, he barreled at me again.
His movements followed no discernible pattern, he simply hacked and slashed at me as much as he possible could, throwing his entire body into every single attack.

The familiar sound of arrows whistling through the air reached my ears. Enforcers had arrived and they weren’t shooting at me. That only left one target. I had better be quick about this battle.

I held a defensive position, nimbly avoiding any attacks and only countering with shallow cuts to his arms and legs. Committing to a strike any more would surely leave me open to a dangerous counterattack.
Frustrated, Elkcrest lunged at me with all his might. I slid under him, finding the axe in his hand with my swords, finally disarming him.
His attack left him lying on the ground near the civilians. I stepped over him.
“Yield”, I said in a cold voice, my sword aimed at his neck.
“I’d never yield to a whelp”, he spat.
“Very well then.”
I raised my sword, pointing the tip to the sky and struck Elkcrest with its pommel, knocking him unconscious.
Turning to the civilians near me I said:
“Fear not, he’ll be unconscious for a while. I must aid my partner now, please let us continue to help you.”

Erinara had stopped using her golden light, instead conjuring shadowy tendrils and runes to protect the civilians from the downpour of arrows.
I counted around twenty enforcers.
“Hey, sorry that took a moment. What’s the plan?”, I asked after dashing to her side.
“Can you defend this side for a couple of seconds? Then I can use my shadows to attack”, she requested.
“Consider it done.”
The moment the shadowy tendrils stopped forming a defensive wall ahead of us, I began blocking arrows rushing towards the civilians.
It had only taken Erinara a few heartbeats to switch to the offensive.
Five enforcers were quickly curled up in shadows, bundling them close to each other. The speed of arrows raining at us slowed.
Before they even managed to disengage, Erinara had gathered all the enforcers in one heap of shadowy tendrils.
After that, Erinara drew a rune between them that briefly sent a shot of electricity through their bodies, leaving them unconscious.
Within only a couple of seconds, all enforcers had been dealt with by Erinara alone.
“These people really don’t hold a candle to your power, Jin”, she commented, “I expected more resistance. Seems like all they have skill in are dirty tricks.”

Throwing a glance at the instance of shadow’s eye above us, I realized that the other parties had also been victorious, the citizens having observed our battle.
Vorial calmly gave a thumbs-up. Ebiron simply watched us.
Lazzal appeared to be busy talking to some civilians in her barrier dome.
The executives were standing guard over the citizens while the heroes had apparently entered the stronghold.
“Are you not following them?”, Erinara asked, also looking at the spell, giving a brief nod to the other parties.
“No. My place is right here, by your side”, I replied.
She chuckled softly.
“‘My’ knight.”

I turned to the people behind me who were still cowering low to the ground.
“The dangers have been dealt with for now. Rest easy”, I said.
Erinara stepped forth as well.
“Those of you who are still wounded, please allow me to heal you.”
The few civilians left with minor wounds were quickly patched up by Erinara’s golden magic. “Who are you, magic lady?”, a child whose bruise was just healed innocently asked.
Erinara smiled at her.
“Just Erinara.”