Chapter 3
After the initial blast cloud cleared and Itharr collected himself, he went to inspect the passage. It had been completely caved in.
He lets out a loud yell and punches the rock before him. Sheathing his blades he turns back to the mages.
"Blast through this rock now!" shouted Itharr as he neared them.
"It would take too long, by the time we finished they would be long gone. Let's just go back", reasoned Wybron.
Though Itharr could not deny the logic, he was still infuriated. He let his prey get away, and that was unacceptable.
"Itharr, you've been hurt. Is it serious?" Wybron asks, concerned for the best Deiflin fighter alive.
"Tis' nothing, it will heal." Itharr growls back. He takes a step and then a wave of pain roll over him as he goes limp, nearly falling over completely. Wybron helps him back up and teleports everyone back to the newly acquired palace.
----
Entering a long but thin meadow of low-lying grass surrounded by thick foliage, the humans observe and take note of everything before continuing.
"So, how much farther to the caverns?" asks Prince Torlon Xaldin.
"Just a little farther, my friend." replies Hunter Kairn Holden.
"You said that hours ago…" mumbles the prince
"I'm serious this time."
"You also said that too." The prince looks at him in a plain, bored face.
"Just be silent" Kairn says while holding back a little snicker.
Feirinir, the magic falcon, is a little more than a meter tall, two meter wing span, and legs about eight centimeters tall. The magical falcon also has other traits, including the intelligence to speak the human, dwarf, and elvish tongue. He is a superb fighter as well. Many times, the victims don't even see the brown of his wing or chest feathers, rather the huge, deep grey color of his talons.
Not to mention his deep-blue eyes that can detect a foe miles away. But, that's only for foes that are visible.
He never saw the dart coming.
----
"Wow," begins Cain "that was quite the surprise spell there, Martin."
"Thanks, I just had to think of something to get us out of there." Replies the mage.
"Corporal, do you know who the expert swordsman was? The one that nearly killed their general and that was able to take down 2 other Deiflin?" The Emperor asks the only remaining bodyguard.
"Sir," Lorne begins "that was me."
"What?! Impossible! You're a mere corporal, brand new to the Guard, and if you were that skilled I would've known already."
"Tis' true sir, look at my blades. All Deiflin blood." Lorne pulls out both his blades and shows them to the Emperor.
"The private speaks the truth my friend," Cain interrupts them "I saw him easily cut down one of them. An amazing swordsman and I'm glad he is on our side." Cain pats Lorne on the back, congratulating him on his swordsmanship.
"Thank you sir." Lorne says to Cain.
"And next time, don't call any of us 'Sir'. You should learn our names, and I'm pretty sure the others would openly accept you as a friend, considering how well you fought for us."
"Thanks again, sir-" Cain glances at Lorne for nearly saying it, then bursts into a laugh.
"Cain, doesn't your son live around here?" the Emperor interrupts the newfound friends.
"Yes, somewhere around these hills. To the north, which would be that way." Cain points.
"Sir, sir!" Lorne yells out.
"Yes?"
"What about your son? Prince Torlon, what about him?"
"He is with Kairn. The two of them could take on anything. Besides, the Deiflins couldn't have found them. They're just randomly hunting in the woods. Not to mention, both of them know what to do in case of something like this. He is safe, and on his way now. Kairn also knows of Cain's son, so they'll catch up to us-" a faint, yet powerful explosion is heard along with the clang of metal.
Smoke arises to the south. The party rushes in that direction.
----
A dart sinks into Feirinir's left wing, and he quickly takes it out before swooping off the ground and around the field looking for the enemy.
One Deiflin jumps out through the foliage and tries to slash at Torlon, but he is quickly parried away by Torlon's quickly moving longsword. The Deiflin then tries a wide feint chop with his left shortsword and then brings his other blade in a low thrust following the feint. The prince easily ducks from the chop and sends the thrust low and into the ground. He follows up with a riposte stab which is also block, then brings his left foot forward and around, into the side of his opponent.
Regaining his senses, the Deiflin feints a lunge with his right-blade, which is parried. He quickly follows with his left-blade slashing downward and then stabbing low at the human.
Torlon, after long and daunting years of practicing under his father, Cain the ranger and Kairn the hunter, he quickly backs up from the feint and then dodged the slash-stab, then slapped the Deiflin's left hand blade several times, causing the blade to wiggle out his opponents hand. The prince then parries the other blade with his blade in his left hand, and swings his right arm around to punch the Deiflin across the face, knocking him to the ground.
Before the stunned opponent hits the ground, the prince thrusts his longsword forward and through the throat of the Deiflin.
Torlon looks over for Kairn and Feirinir, but the bird is nowhere to be found. Instead, Torlon spots another Deiflin in a treetop, apparently a mage, casting a spell. The lightning bolt charges right at Torlon.
The prince calls upon the magical powers of his enchanted gauntlets, and is barely able to redirect the lightning bolt away from him and into a tree off to the side of him.
Feirinir appears now above the mage, and starts pecking at the mage's head, which he quickly swats away with his wand.
Before the prince could take any break or plan out what to do, another Deiflin leaped out at him, knowing to expect skill from this one.
--
Kairn, drawing his axe and small buckler from under his cloak, sees the Deiflin leaping out at the prince and starts rushing to go help, but he is stopped by two Deiflins in front of him. He manages to hold them off but the swiftness of their ambush has given them a slight advantage.
Kairn quickly back steps, parrying a slash at his side, but soon finds another sword aiming at his neck. Just getting under the slash it only takes off a few hairs. The two begin to charge him and he swiftly rolls backwards and is on his feet in no time. Having already gotten rid of their initial advantage Kairn is able to begin his counterattack. He sidesteps to the right of one of the Deiflin, putting the Deiflin in front of his comrade. Having to face only one he quickly parries a slash to the throat and is able to chop off the right arm of the Deiflin before the other is able to come to its aid. With one injured he easily slaps away the other's stab and rams his shield straight into its stomach, followed by a cleave through the neck.
Having seen his comrade killed, the Deiflin charges at the hunter, disregarding its injured arm, and quickly launches a flurry of attacks with his left arm. One after another each attack is parried or blocked and the attacks soon begin to slow down as the injury begins to pain him. Seeing this Kairn quickly launches a counter offensive and after parrying a stab, he sides steps, jabbing the Deiflin in the face with his buckler, followed by a downward chop into the skull..
And the seasoned veteran quickly goes to Torlon's aid.
--
The Deiflin mage stabs at the mystical falcon with his small dirk, but misses again and this time a talon of the bird grabs the hilt of the blade and takes it out of the mage's hand.
The mage curses under his breath then casts an acid arrow to strike at the bird, which misses like most of the other spells. Only magic missiles have been able to hit the falcon, and those were only minor scrapes.
The falcon has been able to dodge and block most of the mage's attacks, and now with the Deiflin's dagger, the flacon flies off into the woods.
The mage jumps down to the forest floor and begins casting a spell of seeing to hopefully spot the bird. Suddenly, he hears a shriek far above him.
He looks up to a blade coming down at him.
--
The Deiflin tries a double low stab feint then a slash up on the prince, but is hard-stopped by the prince. Both of them put a lot of strength into their strikes, and neither was easing up. They stood there, staring deep and coldly at each other. Then finally the Deiflin eases up one of his blades, and the prince quickly puts his weight into pushing it, which the Deiflin side steps from that expected move.
The next thing the prince saw was the pommel of a short sword.
His grip on his blade loosens and he tumbles back a bit.
At the same time, Kairn was preparing his bow to fire on the Deiflin. He shoots and that arrow gets parried, then his next arrow is stopped by a magic border.
"Blast! You better kill that one Torlon, for the sake of the empire!" Kairn yells, hoping the prince can hear him.
The Deiflin won't allow Kairn to interfere, so all he can do is watch and pray that the prince defeats his foe.
--
"Martin, throw haste on us, we're getting closer, yet the sound of combat is getting quieter. Hurry everyone!" Yells out the emperor, and Martin follows orders.
Everyone pushes on, faster than ever, aided by the spell, while keeping a close formation. They expect some fighting.
--
Torlon finally gets his senses back in shape in time to see the Deiflin starting to crouch, probably preparing a pouncing strike. The prince's hand slowly crawls to the hilt of his blade, and he lays there waiting for the Deiflin to show his next move.
And he does.
The Deiflin leaps high and hard at the human, both blades up ready to slash down at his prone foe. The prince quickly tightens his grip on his weapon and rolls backwards and onto his feet. He then quickly lunges at the leaping Deiflin, and then stabbing upwards with his longsword.
The prince arcs his weapon enough to get between the weapons of the Deiflin and cleanly thrusts his longsword through the Deiflin's heart. The magical border collapses immediately.
Kairn quickly goes to the prince's side, all while looking about, to see if these foes had friends.
"So, I guess my help wasn't all that needed," he said, looking at the prince's handiwork.
The prince just takes the compliment in stride; he doesn't get many from the rough hunter.
And suddenly from the brush enters the Emperor's party, all screaming battle cries and brandishing their weapons. Realizing the battle was over they awkwardly sheath their weapons.
"It looks like our heroes have arrived," laughs the prince.
"Isn't that a little unbecoming of an emperor, your highness?" jokingly comments the hunter.
Everyone joins in with a snicker or two.
Clearing his throat, the emperor asks "So, what happened here?"
"Nothing, only an ambush by some Deiflin, a fight for our lives and a victory", explains the hunter.
"What the hell is going on here? We got ambushed by Deiflin here, and you all have blood on your cloaks and armor!" the prince vehemently beckons.
"I believe the Deiflin were using the orc as fodder when they took the capital." Cain tries to remember.
"They took the capital?!" Both the prince and the hunter both yell out.
"Yes, and it's a long story, so let us walk towards Cain's old house, now his sons' farm, and I'll fill you in on what happened." The emperor reasons, and begins walking northward. Everyone else follows suit.