The harsh pounding of swords tore through the stronghold, then all was silent.
"He's dead!" A voice cried from the opposite side of a thick wooden door. This small crudely-fashioned slab of timber was at the end of a downward staircase in between two buildings of Angband. Soldiers fumbled through the confined spaces trying to reverse their lack of organization. "Surround the door, they killed the negotiator!" returned the voice, now booming with an air of command. The soldiers, six in number, found their places after a few moments, arranged in a half-circle at the beginning of the stairs. Each held their weapons at the ready, most with their arms quivering from the tension of the situation and the horrible desert heat. Finally a small crack in the door formed as it slowly opened.
Backing out through the entrance was Thavron. His steps were cautious, both his spear and shield were raised and his brown-colored wings were tightly folded against his back. He backed up several feet away from the entrance until his heel reached the first step. The brown angel's focus never shifted from inside the dark room ahead of him; his face, riddled with bleeding cuts, was devoid of emotion. There was no movement from inside the room. Thavron kicked the door closed and hesitantly walked up the staircase to join his fellow guardsmen. He took a position amongst them and glared towards the entrance. The grip on Integrity, his bloodied spear, tightened.
It had been a long trip to the hidden desert stronghold of Angband, but not quite as lengthy as other traveling journeys Thavron had to make in his life. A group of desert thieves simply called the Hyanda had taken captive three hostages, one of which was a Lomedor Guardsman, and demanded a large sum of money to be paid in order for them to be released. Not to mention the group had lately made numerous threats to attack the city of Lomedor. It had been time for the Guard to interfere, and Thavron was leading the small group for the sole reason of getting the hostages out without having to pay so much. With the negotiator now dead, however, solving this problem peacefully would be almost impossible.
The brown angel had to kill one thief and knock out another in order just to make it out of the Hyandas' lair alive. Thavron held his shield up higher, light catching the goat painted on the face of it. The Shield of the Animus whispered quietly, fighting out in these conditions would be a disadvantage. Lead your men inside. It was certainly a change to listen to his own equipment talk to him, but thankfully these occurrences were infrequent. The brown angel turned to the other guardsmen and made a quick gesture forwards with Integrity. They all knew what he meant from this. The Hyanda would emerge any moment, and it was time to act. Thavron leapt back down the stairs. Just as he landed, however, the door burst open and a cloaked thief emerged and slashed downward with a set of three long claws. The metal scraped against Thavron's shield. Now, the real fight had begun.
The Guard amongst the three hostages tried his best to keep the other hostage sane. This other hostage was gibbering incessantly, not making much sense whatsoever, and generally driving the guard up the wall. But today, the guard knew, something was to happen. His eyes lit upon the platinum blonde elf leaning against the far wall. She was going to do something, she had spent the week simply moving into that position. Why she was here was a mystery to him. She seemed odd, almost like a golem created by magic.
Then came the sound of heavy boots down the hall, and the blonde adjusted herself. Her eyes, the deep piercing blue orbs that they were glanced up from the ground. The cell-guard walked in the opposite direction, watching the inhabitants of the cell. He hardly noticed the woman who had slowly slid her way up to the side of the bars over the days of his guarding. It was far, far too late for him.
She stood up from the wall, and walked along the bars towards him. He paid her no mind, thinking her nothing but an oddly mishappen elf. That was until she reached through the bars, and siezed his arm. He attempted to grab it back, but her movements were too quick, too precise, too well thought out. As his elbow crossed the line between cell and hall, she shoved forwards on the arm.
The delicate bones in the elbow gave way and snapped. He screamed as she pulled him up to the shoulder through the bars on his broken arm. Her hands slipped the keys from his belt, as he struggled with his katana. She walked towards the door, and carefully unlocked the door. It creeked as it swung open.
He struggled some more as she walked towards him, hoping to draw his sword in time to fend her off. She placed both of her hands on the hilt of his blade, and drew it from the sheath as he struggled to twist it away from her. The katana, now fully extended from the scabbard, plunged within its master's body without any sort of delay. It twisted, wreaking havoc in the gut, rending open the variety of organs and tissues within. Then it was drawn from the man, a look of sadistic pleasure on the woman's face.
"Another." Was all she said. The guard brought the VIP out, and then glanced from her face, to the katana, then to the dead man. He rethought the whole concept of letting her keep the blade, and spoke up.
"Ma'am, maybe a trained officer of the guard should handle that wea-" He said, until the blade flicked up to his throat. A slight bit of pain streaked across his neck, and a small trickle of blood. The elven woman shook her head, and instead pointed out the dagger on the dying man's belt. He wasn't thinking of shouting out an alarm, and instead wimpered pitifully.
"Officer, I respect your sentiments, but I must finish my work here. None of those who refuse Her shall live past today." She explained. He nodded, barely more than a slight twitch of the head. She withdrew the blade, and plucked the dagger from the corpse. He took the small weapon, and gave it a look of disdain.
"Always favored heavier weapons...besides that, what's your name?" He inquired of the fellow hostage. She cracked a grin, and gave a quick nod.
"Silver. Silver Kaeryn." Silver stated. The guard gave a nod, recognizing the name, if only barely. Hadn't she been in that book he was read as a child, the one about the heroes of past ages? It wouldn't be possible, at least for a man. His eyes traced across the length of her ears, knowing that it was possible for an elven woman.
"I'm Korle, Korle Bakarist. Pleasure to serve beside you, Crusader." Korle stated. The two shook hands, and the third hostage simply stared.
"Oh, and I'm Vanager, Vanager Rochiran." He said, imitating the other two. They glared at him, just as shouts and battle filled the corridor.
"They must have failed the negotiations." Korle said. Silver nodded, and she swung about her katana, testing the weight.
"Scum like this? Negotiations are impossible." Silver said. Korle made a quick motion to move forwards with his off-hand, and the two strode forwards. Vanager followed behind, constantly glancing around. His eyes set upon Silver's back, watching as she ducked to get through a door. She, she was more fearsome than the people who had captured him. She was the first one in, anyways, it was apparant because she was wearing the clothing that they provided her, and that had quite a few signs of abuse about it. Although there was no denying her beauty, the aura she carried about froze his blood.
The guardsmen scattered into groups of two and made their way through the underground base in three directions. Lighting at the very entrance was sparse and only came from the open door that they had barged through. This made fighting more difficult, but not anything that the soldiers couldn't handle. Many rushed past Thavron in order to find the area where the hostages were held. Progression through the lair was halted, however, when a horde of thieves came rushing down one of the hallways. There could have easily been at least ten. The brown angel, blocking all of his foe's slashes with the shield, pivoted and backed inside the main room. It had been obvious that his enemy paid no attention to strategy and only fought with blind rage; he hadn't even hit Thavron yet. Out of the corner of his eye, a soldier was singled-out, overwhelmed by Hyanda, and finally fell. The number of the small force of Lomedor guardsmen had now been reduced to six in total, counting Thavron.
It was time to end the duel, having gone on too long already. Thavron growled and made a fist with the hand that was holding his shield. When the thief came in to attack once again he was hit with a mighty bash from the tower of steel. He stumbled backwards, giving Thavron the perfect moment to make a small cut with Integrity across his arm. Just the contact of the weapon caused the Hyanda member to come close to falling in a dizzied stupor. And for the final blow, the brown angel lifted his left boot and kicked him over, followed by a devastating stab into the thief's heart. Not a moment after, Thavron ripped Integrity from the wound and started over towards his comrades.
By now the guardsmen were deep enough into the Hyanda base that there were torches mounted on the walls. They provided just enough lighting for all the fighters to see who they were killing. Fighting the thieves was tiring, even for the guards who were honored as being elite warriors (with the exception of one, who was an extremely skilled archer specialized in rapid close-quarters shooting). Thavron avoided killing as much as he could, but simply knocking someone out or breaking a bone vital to walking didn't stop the Hyanda's persistent attacks. The brown angel quickly discovered that not all of the enemies he would face today would be as easily defeated as the first one. All of the fighters were beginning to suffer progressively-worsening wounds. Thavron whispered another spell, one which transfered the damage of a shortsword slash from a nearby guardsman to the brown angel. A wound that could have been fatal if he hadn't have taken it instead. Casting a small healing spell on a close soldier, Thavron and his group delved deeper into the underground lair, leaving a loose carpet of thief bodies in their wake.