Dreadlords Doesn't Look Good

[Cenric]

Veiara - Cortos

"Well this isn't looking good." The redhead said as he perched his chin upon one of the parapets upon the wall. To his left were a couple of guardsmen, to his left a few of his fellow Dreadlords and some Initiates. Most of them were stationed up here for watch, though a few had simply decided to take their hours off and sleep up here.

It was quicker in case the Free-Cities began another assault.

"How long have they been at this now?" Thought they had not yet crossed the border into Anirian Territory, the Alliance of Free-Cities was certainly making its presence known. More and more Cortosi cities were falling to their combined armies, and Veiara was only the latest to suffer their rebuke. Fortunately for Veiara, they had long since signed a treaty with Vel Anir for their defense. "Two, three weeks?"

Right now that meant a handful of Dreadlords, and just a hundred Guardsmen. In a few days time, it might mean more, but none of them knew that for sure. "Sen."

Leiara called out to him, using that odd nickname.

"Why do you sound so happy?" She asked. "We're in a fucking siege, you shouldn't be happy. We haven't eaten more than a few crackers for days now. Even you should be cracking a little."

"It's 'cause he ain't really here, Leiara." Cenric glanced over towards the man who had shouted.

"How dare you, Olf. I'm just as here as you are, just as hungry as you are. In fact, you know I'm in three places where I happen to be very hungry." He did not mention that he was also in several other places where he was not so hungry. Explaining his magics was ever difficult, and he was here with Ein's body, and very soon it would require most of his focus.

Using a vessels magic always did. "Looks like they're going to come at night."

Cenric said, nodding his head at the far side of the all. Seeing the men walking through camp with the extra torches for that night.

 

[Norah]

Norah had eaten more than a few crackers each day. She'd very quickly learned the way into the kitchens. Either by her magic or her natural affinity to get behind the doors of locked places. She had two biscuits in her pockets. She didn't know if any other initiates had been assigned here.

The days had been busy with watches and those much higher up than her trying to come up with a plan to get out of the web they'd now found themselves stuck in. Funny how the Anirians always thought they were the predators.

Her small, curled up form would almost be missed in the shadows of the walls where even the light of the additional torches didn't touch. But she was very much awake. Listening when others thought she wasn't. Right at the feet of the redhead.

 

[Yuric]

Yuric didn't think his eccentric superior to be odd for his calm demeanor in any fashion. On the contrary, the Initiate also felt quite at home on a battlefield, if for no other reason than his proximity to them growing up with his mother, a field medic.

That didn't make the sight of the gathering Free City forces any less concerning, though. Just because Yuric was comfortable with death did not mean he wished to bring about more of it, if he had a say in the matter.

Being a Dreadlord, he rarely had a say.

"They know our advantageous position would allow us an easier fight during the daylight." Yuric observed, his head poking out curiously over the wall. The lack of food hadn't gotten to him, but that was only because he'd been careful about expending himself too much. Yuric hadn't communed with the Spirit World in days, and that isolation from his magic caused him far more distress than hunger. "Not that the odds will be overwhelmingly in their favor after dark, either."

Some part of Yuric had to admire the Free-Cities tenacity. Honestly, he didn't entirely disagree with their cause. Alas, he was an Initiate, and his mission was to turn them back. Accomplishing that goal overruled his personal feelings.

"At least it means we won't be waiting much longer."

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

Boots thundered up the wooden stairs at a quick pace, not caring if they kicked anyone in the process. The grumbling of Dreadlords did not slow her, but she had a message to relay and none of the other Guards had volunteered to deliver it to where many of the Dreads had holed up.

"Oi!" Rhory huffed at seeing so many bodies taking to sleeping, their legs stretched out in her way as she aimed to cross the parapet. "Worst place to choose to sleep." she grumbled, slowly placing her boots between the obstacles. She did not like being slowed down, but the Guardswoman was free and moving towards the Dreadlords and Initiates that were awake and chatting.

"Yeah, well, there is movement happening on the north side." Rhory had heard the tail end of their conversation, and took a moment to catch her breath. Not that she needed much time to recover her breath, she continued. "We counted near two hundred, split. There is a force stationed above the main pass, and reinforcements are still two days out."

Reinforcements and supplies. Perhaps a meal could be had for everyone, but not if the enemy take out their force in the coming days.

"The other half look to be poisoning the water."

 

[Cenric]

"Fuck, now the water too?"

"Smart. They know reinforcements are coming, you can last a week or two with no food, but water? Honestly, they're a lot more coordinated than I thought they would be."​

Cenric listened to the back and forth between Olf and Leiara, letting the two of them point out the obvious as he shoved himself up from the ramparts. The tip of his boots nudging the sleeping Initiate that had been laying on his feet.

He already knew that he was going to have to go out there. Ein's magic was of the phoenix, meaning he could fly out if things were looking bad. Olf and Leiara would be better off staying on the wall, their magics were not well suited for moving quick and if they all went and things went really bad Veiara was all but assured to fall.

So, better to take the less valuable ones.

"Hey, wake up." The Redhead said, motioning to Yuric. "Time to go kill some people."

"That a good idea, Sen?" Leiara asked with a frown. "We might be able to last the two days unt-"

"Leiara. I'm already hungry, I'm not going to be thirsty too." A wicked grin spread over his face, and the other Dreadlord couldn't help the small chuckle which escaped from her lips. She waved a hand, and the redhead began to walk down the steps. Taking none of the care to avoid the sleeping bodies that Rho had.

"Oh!" He said as he passed by the Guardswoman. "Gather up fifteen of the best you can find."

The Dreadlord commanded Rhory. "Couldn't possibly do this without the Guard."

 

[Norah]

Poisoned water?

Eyes slid open as the redhead's boots nudged her, her fingertips twitched by one of the many knives she had sheathed on her form. A few pictures going through her head on what she'd do with it. But with a breath, she stood with the fluid grace of an Ixchel puma. Her small form slipped free from the blankets.

She stuck close to Cenric's side without saying a word even as yelps of pain from those sleeping were stepped on by the senior dreadlord.

A glance at the guardswoman as if Norah were weighing the value of the blonde's life as her fingers brushed something in her pocket. Without interrupting her movement, she swiped one of the packs from a sleeping guard, slinging it over a sleight shoulder and continued down the steps with Cenric.

The initiate spared no glance or acknowledgement to her classmate, Yuric.

 

[Yuric]

"We counted near two hundred, split. There is a force stationed above the main pass, and reinforcements are still two days out."

Yuric's head spun away from the edge of the parapet, toward the new voice, a female guard who'd been assisting them throughout the entire ordeal. Two hundred? That was... considerably more than he was used to fighting at once. The Initiate wondered for a moment if maybe he'd grossly underestimated the organization of the Free Cities.

Yuric slid from the parapet to his feet and quickly made his way to Dreadlord Cenric with a small salute. The redheaded man was a little odd in his manner of speech, Yuric had found; sometimes talking as though he were in several different places, wearing different identities. Being a Dreadlord, he supposed anything was possible...

He does give off kind of a strange aura. Not threatening or evil, but.. bizarre.

A young woman's voice, one that only Yuric could hear, rang loudly in his left ear causing his eye to twitch at the suddenness. He hadn't realized that Lilly had been observing, or that she'd followed him all this way. A discussion to be had later, when it wouldn't appear as if he was talking to himself in front of his superior.

Cenric turned and began to lead them down the steps and through the slumbering forms that seemed to carpet the floor, with Norah silently slinking in beside him. Yuric paid her an ignored look, not expecting to be regarded by the woman.

He'd quickly sorted out who liked him, and who didn't. That was fine.

"Dreadlord Cenric," Yuric called ahead of him to the man on point. "Forgive my brashness, but even with the Guard backing us... do we have a plan beyond 'kill them all'?"

Yuric had no qualms with killing; It was part of his job, after all. His magic wasn't meant for a full-frontal assault, however. At least, not what he'd mastered of it.

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

"Fifteen?" She repeated. "I don't think---" but Rhory pursed her lips, looked to the younger Dreadlords being roused for battle and sighed. "Fine. I'll meet you and your group soon."

She was much quicker leaving them than she had been getting up here in the first place.

Rhory did not care if she stood on or kicked anyone on her rush back down, but once the Dreadlords saw the white haired guardswoman again, she was standing with fifteen other guards. They varied in ages, in experience. Rhory was only able to rope in those that could stand to work their bodies beyond what they were capable of, and the other guards needed their rest while waiting for rations to be handed out.

"Where do you want us?'

 

[Cenric]

"Of course we do." Cenric said, though for a moment it did not seem like he was going to elaborate. Instead he lead his two tag-alongs down the streets and through the city. Staying quiet until eventually they found the same rendezvous point Rhory had.

A smile touched the older Dreadlord's face as he noted the Guards, perhaps only because they managed to stand. Rationing had taken it's toll, and gathering even this sorry lot was something to be impressed about in the situation.

He'd be even more impressed if they could still swing their swords. "We're headed out of the city."

Cenric told them plainly.

"Our goal is not to kill the enemy, at least not yet." He stated simply, motioning for the others to gather around. "We want to draw them out, and away. They'll likely send thrice our number, knowing we'll have Dreadlords."

For a moment he glanced up at Norah and Yuric as though assessing them. "Kill as few of them as you can."

He motioned towards the Guards.

"That goes for you too." Cenric said simply. "Do your best to incapacitate, better if you don't even wound them."

 

[Norah]

Norah was pressed in tight on one side by a guard and next to Cenric on the other. As the bodies pressed in closer to circle the red-headed dreadlord, Norah used that moment for sleight of hand. More specifically, going for one of Cenric's pockets.

A guard next to her scratched his head tiredly and blurted a question, "Why the fuk not?"

Norah wondered if Vittoria were here if she could follow a directive like that.

 

[Yuric]

Yuric shared in the guard's curiosity, even if he was far more baffled at the bluntness of the query. He was fairly certain it was the first time he'd ever heard a guard speak so crossly towards a Dreadlord. The Initiate followed closely the Dreadlord and Guards, most of whom looked absolutely famished and exhausted, no doubt thanks to the lack of nutrition that rationing entailed.

It did seem odd, though, that the order was to incapacitate. Not that Yuric had any qualms with sparing lives, but their enemies would be most certainly aiming to kill. Whatever Cenric had planned, it ran the risk of putting all of them into a very precarious position.

As was their job, he supposed.

"All due respect, Ser, Going non-lethal against such significant numbers seems... ineffective. Have we a way to confuse or disorient them? Slowing down the flow of enemies would make sparing them a sight easier."

He felt Lilly giggle in his ear, saw the glimmer of light from the corner of his eye as she sat on his shoulder.

Looking to volunteer, Yuric? I know that look in your eye. Trying to show off for the girl?

It was all Yuric could do not to snort. Norah seemed about as open to bonding as a starving Knoll. The boy wasn't so sure he'd ever even heard her speak, let alone be impressed by anything.

You're right. Of everybody here, I think she scares me the most.

Cenric
Norah
Rhory Grimmere

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

Rhory lifted a brow.

The other guards all grumbled and shook their heads, but they miraculously stopped when Rhory lifted a hand to silence them. "Alright, slow them down. Distract. What else you got planned?"

She looked to the younger Dreadlords, Initiates, and wondered what their abilities allowed them to do. The girl looked scrappy, but Rhory chanced that the girl used that presumption to her advantage. The other, a boy, seemed too well mannered, too green.

You were green once yourself, she thought to herself.

"Anything we should be aware about?"

There were times she wished Arn was around, or even Owain for he loved to take over leading. Arn at least was a good thinker, a good leader. Rhory only hoped to live through this in order to yell at him for not being ordered to man this front with her.

 

[Cenric]

There was a time when Cenric could have incinerated the Guardsmen for simply speaking, much less asking a question. The days when Dreadlords had been titans among ordinary men, and not reduced to simple officers.

As he looked at the unwashed lout that had cursed at him, Cenric found himself yearning for those times. If only because people would have just followed his orders. Explaining everything was so tedious, and it would only serve to make the day three times as long as it needed to be. ”Because every one of them you kill, is one who can't help us later.”

The Dreadlord replied ominously, offering the man a smile before he regarded one of his two Initiates.

” I'll be separating the platoon with fire. We need to cause chaos and discordance.” Cenric said, knowing that once the enemy broke formation it would be easier to pick them off. He then motioned to the two Dreadlord students. ”If you have a way of slowing them further, all the better.”

He wasn't above using whatever tools he had on hand, it was why he'd taken them along in the first place. ”The smaller force will bolster our own.”

Cenric said to Rhory.

”Bring any who fall to me.” He ordered. ”The faster they fall, the more reinforcements we have.”