The escort - Chapter 1/6

Instinctively Jacques ducked and retaliated with an uppercut, cutting off the right arm of the attacking hooded figure. However, he was unable to dodge the next attack from his left and got hit in the back with a great axe wielded by one of the hooded figures; fortunately it was only a flesh wound and Jacques did not seem to suffer a lot, although he did make a grunting noise. On the other side of the inn Dylan was trying to fend off the sword wielding hooded figure but he was having trouble evading the magic missiles coming from one of the corners, and even though he got hit, he was still going strong. But Dylan was getting visibly exhausted and the hooded figures have noticed this, pushing him more and more into a corner where he will not be able to defend himself anymore. Meanwhile throughout the whole inn the remaining patrons were running for their lives, but the figure at the door was slaughtering all of them, and when all of them fell to the ground, the figure started chanting something that sounded mostly like hissing and grunting.

“You have picked the wrong inn to start a fight.” Jumped in the innkeeper from behind his counter and ran straight for the figure at the entrance door. “You will pay for every soul you have taken today. The light will forever burn you heathen!” The hooded figure turned its head towards the innkeeper: “Ah, the Paragon of Light was here after all. Excellent, master will be most pleased.” The innkeeper jumped and landed next to the figure trying to drive his sword into the figured man’s head, but his blade narrowly missed; the innkeeper could swear that the sword went through the hooded figure’s head. “Enough sorcery demon!” yelled the innkeeper and pulled out a charm from his back pocket, the charmed resembled a sun with seven arms spewing out of it. “You really think that will stop me?!” The hooded figure yelled while easily dodging all of the innkeeper’s sword swings. “We’ll just have to see. Now, burn in light forever vile scum.” The innkeeper did a half-turn and managed to attach the charm onto the chest of the hooded figure; interestingly, the figure did not seem to be bothered by this, not even the least. “Comburet in lumine!” yelled the innkeeper. After a second of nothingness, the now startled hooded figure started laughing. “Ha ha ha ha haaAAA…” his laughter soon turned into a hellish scream of a human voice mixed with the sound of searing flesh. Not a moment sooner, the figure’s flesh started glowing and went into flames, burning up in an instant. The light from it was blinding and everyone in the room had to cover from it.

This gave Dylan the opening he was looking for. With a deafening roar he lunged his sword throw the stomach of the sword wielding hooded figure, and with him still half-conscious on his sword leaped for the hooded figure shooting magic missiles. Dylan landed on the enemy, foot to face and after the landing pushed the top of his sword through the hooded figure’s eye socket, nailing him to the ground. In a blind rage, Dylan pulled of both figures from his sword, and jumped into the air and sliced the first figure in half while cutting off the now one-eyed enemy’s head. He knew he went overboard, ‘I had no choice. I must help Scarlett.’

Scarlett noticed that Ziel was defenseless and ran over to help her, but as she was dashing across the inn, one of the hooded figure’s lying on the ground grabbed onto her leg. “What in the Nine Hells…” Scarlett soon realized that all the hooded figures and patrons lying around in their pool of blood were slowly getting up. “Great. Just great.” she murmured as she was reaching for her charm hidden away in her shield. Meanwhile Ziel was screaming hysterically, partly because she has never seen the dead rise and also because she was useless. She fell to the ground. ‘I can’t do this… All of them died because of me.’ The world around her fell into silence, she could not hear anyone around her anymore. She was succumbing to a darkness rising from within her. Scarlett was yelling: “ZIEL! Pull yourself together! Do not be afraid! Oh for the love of…” She kicked off the half body latched onto her leg, raised the charm of light, shaped like a cross with an elongated circle at the top, high into the air and started chanting. “God of Light hear my plea, make darkness cover and flee, for you are the Light, grant me courage and…” Suddenly in a flash another figure appeared behind the innkeeper, however this figure wore a red robe and his face was covered by a mask with inscribed runes. The figure held a backward bending sacrificial dagger to the neck of the innkeeper. “Finish that chant, kill my children and I will kill and devour the soul of the paragon.”

Ziel was sobbing and could not recognize what was going around her. She was shook into reality by Odorf. “Wha… what is going on?” she said suddenly snapping out of her wallow. “If you have time to stop and cry then you are not doing everything you can.” Odorf said while running off to help the others. ‘Maybe he is right, I should not focus on how I can’t do anything, and I should help the others. They are risking their lives for me after all. That’s right. Their lives are at stake here.’ Ziel stood up with a fierce fire burning in her eyes, and the air around her fists was getting visible distorted by the evaporated water forming into a claw shape. ‘Scarlett said to just channel my inner self and magic will appear. I need to be able to sense it.’

Scarlett quickly looked around the inn, the raised dead were not moving and the red robed figure’s had intent to kill. She could not risk another innocent life. As she was about to lower the charm of light, she saw that the innkeeper wiggled around and cut his neck; but not before saying: “FINISH THE CHANT! LET THEM PAY! IT IS MY TIME!” Scarlett without blinking an eye continued the chant: “… grant me courage and might. Let light show you the path, and ward of evil’s wrath!” As Scarlett finished the chant, her charm began to shine brightly and all the raised dead bodies fell to the floor once again. The last words of the innkeeper were: “Thank you child.” before he hit the floor as well.

The figure in robe started chanting something as well, Scarlett pulled her shield and readied her mace, but noticed that out of the darkness of the corner Odorf jumped onto the back of the enemy. “What is this?” The figure started yelling frantically while trying to reach the halfling on his back. “It’s time to talk.” Odorf pulled a dagger from his side pocket and cut the tendons in the figure’s arms. The red robed figure was not standing there with his arms hanging loosely, but before he could start running a couple of magic missiles hit him in the face, knocking him unconscious. Everyone noticed that the spell came from Ziel, who was jumping for joy from happiness. “I did it” she repeated while jumping.