Ulrich followed Commander Chuck. "It's my home 'round here, why wouldn't I want to defend it?" He asked Chuck, which then presented them with a choice, well that choice wasn't all that difficult now was it. If they took the armoury, they would have access to more weapons and armour, sure it meant fighting fire drakes, but he was sure he could take them. If they had more weapons they could equip more people to fight and if more people fought the defence would be a lot easier. "Armoury." Ulrich said, expecting Chuck as a guard commander to understand his reasoning for the choice. The charge had helped and the Spider had been defeated, Tessa delivering the final blow. It apparantly wasn't dead, as Rayyad requested to heal it. He'd half expect it to come back with a vengeance next time around, but Conrad kept quiet about it, just watching the sets of eyes in the darkness, there were a lot of them and just to feel a bit more comfortable he kept his sword in his hand, but stood by. There was nothing he could do and if he brought up killing the spider he'd both sow discord and sign his own death warrant neither of which seemed to be like a very great idea, still didn't mean he liked it though as he stood with his back towards Rayyad and Tessa as they went about their business as he stood watch. His concerns would only be thrown to the wayside anyways, so he'd save himself the effort and kept the concerns to himself.
Olivia remained remarkebly quiet, she didn't have any opinion at all? Well then she seemed to have at much personality as the average tree then oh well, not his problem, no cure for being a tree. She then asked him for his story, not much of a story that. Young kid picked up by a witcher to train, and train he did. "What's there to tell? Got taken in by a witcher when I was but a cub, I trained, aye I did, 't was a hard training, you know the drill, though Bear school tends to focus more on the physical prowess and skill with sword and ax-" There was screeching, up high and Alastar grinned, time for some fighting, going through the mountains had it's risks, like this one. Alastar grabbed his axe, and as the creature dove at him he dove underneath it intending to roll beneath the claws and the creature, rolling back to his feet, axe in hand, this would be good. He charged it with his silver axe in hand, intending to strike it near the 'shoulder' joint. Sigmund was working in his laboratory when there was a knock on the door, he was trying to concentrate on something and the knocking startled him, he dropped a little bit too much Forktail spinal fluid in there and ruined what he had been working on, the old man sighed. "Yes, you may come in." The old mage said as he started to prepare for starting the experiment anew.
Tatiana seemed to be going over everything in her head and then decided to go ahead and take the offer. "Very well, Tatiana." Was all the Crow said, the Trials were more likely than not going to kill Tatiana, that she survived that one dose of swallow meant nothing. That she wasn't in a very strong physical condition also meant that the normal odds of 30% survival chance. She had to be blessed by the Gods themselves giving him a miracle before his very eyes if the girl survived. "I will have to make some arrangements then, if you die in the Trials, know that your death won't be easy..." The old crow said, he was certain of that, he had seen plenty of people die in the trial of the grasses their screams filling these ancient halls... He hoped it wouldn't come to that but the odds were astronomical. He would have to get in touch with Sigmund first though since he would need the Mage's help on this one. "Seeing we'll have to wait for a while for a friend of mine to get here, we can start on some of the training right now." The old Crow said, he figured a good start would be basic sword practice. Milosh was looking out of the window of his new home, the other day ended with the mage finally singing for him and that ending with that. With that out of the way he had given his instructions to Willow to apprehend the mage that had gotten away before. Jaroslav would have dealt with the other girl by now. Learnt all there was to learn and disposed of her, such a shame but alas. While Crow's Perch was a good spot and quite the defensible position, he wanted something even better, Fyke Isle, back-up residence of the Lord of Velen, Milosh had a decent group of fighters assembled, they would scout out Fyke Isle and depending on resistance they would take it for their own. His support would only grow, he had still was unsure as to what happened in Oxenfurt and he had dispatched a set of eyes and ears to investigate.
"Well you know what they say, Alarick, ignorance is bliss. The less I know and have to deal with you the better it is. For both of us." Aethelrick said. "And I may have forgot to mention I already have a perfectly signed death warrant before this all even started." Felicia made a threat. "Unwise there wolfie and honestly, I got enough bullets in this magazine to put a good chunk, if not all of your pack out of commision, so please think before making threats." Sure she had helped him and Clarity out on the Cyrus issue however that didn't mean that when push came to shove he wouldn't side with his own blood. The Shadowhunter laughed at Clarity's remark. "No worries, Clarity, I understand I myself would have been in a strict relation with my bed if I hadn't been stuck with this cold ***** known as fridge, at first it was alright between us, but now I dunno, I should probably look into that when I got some time." Aethelrick joked, then Clarity went in and took over the wheel, telling Alarick to chill and saying she didn't want to be sniped by the Inquisitor. He chuckled about that as he knew the Inquisitor would probably too busy trying to get him than anything else. Aethel just followed, smiling like an idiot at Clarity's little act as Felicia clearly was annoyed with Alarick, sure his reaction seemed to be a bit intense and there may be more to it, but not his place for that. He couldn't exactly picture Alarick and Felicia as a couple, but then again he wasn't that great with picturing such things anyways as long as they were happy he didn't exactly feel the need to be able to see it. He didn't follow Clarity all the way though, starting to snoop around the Institute on his own seeing if he could find Cyrus' room, which, if he had followed Clarity's acrobatics earlier correctly, would be located upstairs.
He noted how Tatiana glanced at her hands. "Tatiana, I know it'll be a very big change for you, but you may look at me when we talk, I'd even prefer it if you did." The old crow said, okay time to answer all the questions one by one now. "Strength, can be trained, knowledge of weapons, can be taught. Intelligence? What we need to know is all in tomes. My dear girl, Veera came here as a scared little girl. I came here as a scared little boy. Witchers aren't selected on those traits, they are taken as children, trained to become witchers from a young age." Veceslav looked at her, it she probably couldn't imagine the scared little boy that he was when he first got to the Kaer. Then again that scared little boy died a long time ago. "Yes you did indeed drink some Witcher potion, I don't know if it will help with the confusion or the pains though it is quite possible it will help there. However, it is not entirely without risk. I will not deny that there is a good chance you may not survive the trials, if you do well there will be a rigorous training awaiting you." Veceslav explained. "As for the second thing...it's about your brother and this is also why we want to help you become a witcher... Your brother fell in combat in Oxenfurt, fought bravely to defend himself and us, I tried to help him but to no avail." The crow knew damn well that he was lying to her, but hey she didn't know any better. "Girl are you blind?" Alastar asked Olivia as she said she was alone. Clearly he didn't matter, clearly he wasn't considered a real person just a figment of someone's imagination. Had this girl had too much Fistech and that's how he got here? Just a hallucination, no dear reader that is not the case. "Most of us lose their family of blood when they become witchers, which their brothers and sisters in arms will replace as their new one. For if we do not look after one another who will? The peasants? The Army? The Nobility? No we look after our own. This is why Derrick, Veera and the Crow rather quickly accepted my aide, it came from a Witcher, one like yourself, while we are from different schools, we're all witchers that stick together." Alastar said This girl was an idiot if she thought she were the only witcher trying to fight the monsters the entire witcherkind was made for that purpose to fight the monsters, it was their entire raison d'être, he wondered if this maybe was a fault in the crow's teachings or this girl refused to listen to sense and reason.
"No if you had incurred my wrath we wouldn't be talking." Aethelrick said as he waited with the Lightwood kid, he hated waiting. He examined the damage to the Institute more closely as he tried to pass the time. There was more than enough time and when he had been staring so much he started seeing double and everything blurred, he finally broke his gaze to see Felicia approaching. "Nice to see you again." Aethel said with a grin on his face. "And no we're not angry, dear wolfy, this good man right here, would just like to have his home back, you know the place you took up residence after we got Cyrus out of there. Must say you took the best place to occupy, but I think we can work something out right? As allies, of course, you helped Clarity, help me, so I guess I owe you one." He wasn't exactly wrong however he didn't exactly need to be protected with a cover story, the Inquisitor probably didn't even know where to look for him anyways.
Aethelrick chuckled at Alarick's remark regarding Brianne's luck. "Wouldn't be entirely impossible to be captured by those damn pirates. If she's lucky that is." Aethel offered, then again he was very much aware of the fact that it was a rhetorical question. After some more standing around and attempting to look pretty which wasn't something that worked out particularly well for Aethelrick since he wasn't getting any younger. Then he was surprised by Clarity joining them. "Cyrus will be happy to hear you got out, he was a wee bit pissed when I told him." Aethelrick said, he caught her narrowing her eyes at him. "Hey, I only did exactly as you told me." He said shrugging, watching as she went over to the Institute, he took out his phone and texted Cyrus the news. She's alright, Cyrus, Clarity got out, just ran into her. After the text was sent, he put it away again, looking to Alarick "So, glorious leader, are we just gonna stand here and look pretty? I mean I guess that's your thing and all, but look at this face, wasn't exactly made for it." Aethelrick could understand waiting for the perfect time to strike, but he was itching to get this over with, partially to see what Cyrus' room was like nowadays. It might just be a bit of a generation gap between him and the Lightwood child, but he liked fieldwork a lot more than standing around, sure there was the nice off-time every now and then, but he didn't want it to start taking up too much of his time. In the safehouse Hendrick's phone buzzed, as he received the text from Aethelrick however, dear old Hendrick had had a long day behind him, even before getting out of the Institute and while he would have been more sensible about reading his texts more quickly to not end up in crazy situations, where people enter through your window with explosives going off shortly after. He had drifted off to sleep rather quickly after laying in the nice cool bed.
"I once was like you, until the Gods decided to royally **** me over so **** them, they abandon me, I return the favour, it's that simple." The man stated, sure he was bitter but if this man had seen what he had seen and been through the same things he would also be bitter, very bitter. Ulrich had received two contradicting answer but decided to follow the one from the alledged leader of the group, meaning Sanderson's directive would be the one he'd follow, instead of the one from the tree hugging hippy. Though he would argue that if they needed a powerful fighter with them they ought to enlist Ulrich for that role but it wasn't exactly worth it. So Ulrich would go to defend the town that he had calmed home for about two years. "Just call me Ulrich would you, I ain't a bloody knight." Ulrich said, then a guard ran up to them asking them if they were there to defend the town. "Don't you remember, I tried to help you lot out in the first attack, come on, let's go take us some overgrown lizards." Ulrich said as he followed the guardsmen. Baldomar beat the thug savagely, as Aston moved up beside him. He blocked a pathetic strike from one of the thugs as he roared with laughter. Crashing skulls was fun, he trusted Aston to cover him as he would cover the former captive, Roric with his hammer as he moved backwards to fire a shot at the pyromancer. The great Baldomeister was unaware of Kevin and Anthea's demise, simply because imagining the spiderweb like cracks in one's skull as he hammered it was just distracting him from the bigger picture as he focused on those within an arms reach to hammer their faces in. Baldomar swung his mighty blunt weapon of mass destruction at one of the thugs. Baldomar used Hammer strike on the Thug top left of him
There was a knock on the door and he then heard Tatiana's voice, were it not for his witcher sense he would probably have missed it. "Come in, Tatiana." He called as he went back into his room from the balcony, keeping the door open so some fresh air could get in. When the girl came in he gestured for her to sit down. "Make yourself comfortable." The old Crow sighed, he doubted she knew already, when the girl had gotten herself comfortable he looked at her. "There are two things that need to be discussed.... firstly Veera and I have had a discussion... we think that you should become a witcher as well." The old Crow told the girl, he kept quiet about Aaron for now, this needed to be discussed first. "We aren't all the same we all got differences, but that doesn't mean they're not dead when they stop showing up, they're gone kid, no use keeping up the false hope." Alastar said in the similar fashion he would remind Treasa that all of the men that had taken her captive, he had made sure himself that none had escaped, so afraid that they might come back. "As long as there is still a single witcher around we may recover, restore the order and take the fight to the monsters as is our duty. And Kid come on, don't call them creepy creatures of the dark and night. You make them sound like the monsters from ****ing fairy tales. That no one else does it is a lie, there are knights who try and other witchers out there. But the Knights can't handle some of the monsters. If you think you're alone then you're a naïve girl." Alastar said as he walked onwards upon the road to the Kaer.
David didn't seem to answer him, probably lost his tongue or more likely was sensible and knew when to shut up, no matter as long as he wouldn't second-guess his orders on the field all would be fine. A soldier came to them saying the shuttles were prepped for launch. "Very well, we shall go." Zahariel walked with the Andaran Prince towards the shuttle, before boarding he pointed the Prince to an ammunition stock. "Bring more than enough, our enemies will not be left wanting." The Andarran Prince stocked up on munitions for both his weapons and boarded the shuttle where he saw six other men all armed to the teeth already sitting on seats lining the walls of the shuttle, backs against the hull. These were Zahariel's Ironwing. When everyone got on board the shuttle, the back ramp rose and the shuttle launched towards it's destination. "We all know why we are here, the Hammers are pushing, we will not give them an inch, it falls to us to hold that ground and you will not want for targets. You are the Ironwing, your actions today will be watched, you will be judged on your performance, though you all know that this is nothing new when working with me. You have made it this far, do not disappoint me." Zahariel spoke as he stood in the shuttle holding on to a grip attached to the ceiling of the shuttle. He looked his men over, two LMG's, their operators carrying SMG's as side arms. Three riflemen, with extra ammo and grenades and a single tank hunter, just in case. They would hold that ground, between the Ironwing, the Ancient God and the two other operatives they would hold that ground.
"I trust your judgement then." Hendrick stated, regarding his trusty blade, Azrael, leaving out the remark that by the time he'd need it it'd be too late for him. After hearing the gunshots, he doubted the Inquisitor would think twice about outright shooting him. She was trying to comfort him, she was right though and he knew that, he recalled another instance where he had been sure Clarity wouldn't have gotten away, but 15 minutes later he'd get a text, saying she was on her way home. He hadn't met anyone as lucky as Clarity, when it came to sometimes litteraly dodging a bullet. What happened next confused Hendrick to no end, as Brianne reached up and kissed him on the cheek,the squeeze on his shoulder sent a jolt through the wounded shoulder, making him grit his teeth. She told him to get rest and that the next time they'd see each other they'd have the Institute back. He looked at her, the confusion clear on his face. Had he been blind-sided again? Missed all the signs? Today just wasn't his day now was it? "Bri..." Was all he said for a moment, looking her in the eyes seeing that determination was there as had been in her words. "Bri... does this mean..." He stammered, not at all sure what it meant, there were several options and he just wasn't sure which one it was, was he reading into it too much? "I-I don't.. understand..." He had missed something again, he was certain of it... maybe later this could be figured out as Brianne was already on her way, back inside. "B-be safe out there... and good luck..May the Angel watch over you..." He said, not even sure if she had heard him. Hendrick remained outside trying to figure out what just had happened, but coming to no final conclusion as he went back upstairs and crawled into the same bed Aethel had put him in, trying to get to sleep as questions swirled through his head. Aethelrick followed Alarick and Sien through the city, remaining wary of his surroundings, looking over his shoulders a few times, just to be sure they wouldn't get a surprise visit from the Inquisitor or more of the Seelie knights that had been killed within the safehouse, when they neared the Institute he saw the damage he had done to the building and some wolves outside. "Well, assuming they're part of the pack that helped Clarity and I out to get Cyrus out, they shouldn't attack us, alternatively. It's simple, Werewolves are strong in packs, we draw them out, divide and conquer. Take them out one, two or three at a time, bleed them dry through a thousand cuts. Alternatively..." He said as he took out his P90 and once more swapped the magazine around for one filled with silver bullets, holding up the gun, looking at Alarick to see if he caught on.
Conrad swung his sword destroying the spider that stood close to them before it could attack anyone. The healing pollen from the flower helped him recover a little bit from his wounds. Rayyad moved forward and used his psear to attack the beast at the center of this, covering Conrad's flank at the same time, he trusted the Webbar Prince to hold his own. "Got it." Conrad said as Rayyad gestured towards the spider. They had held out long enough to counter attack, time to make it count. Conrad surged forward towards the great spider and swung his greatsword at the beast. Fully trusting his companions to protect him as he protected them, feeling the magical power from the stoneskin strengthening his resolve. Conrad moved up (2 AP) Greatsword strike on Arak'un Spiritweaver (6 AP) Sebastion told him to go find his own God "You see that's the problem when you put your faith in the Gods, they always arrive late, they're all sleeping, waiting and sleeping until we save ourselves from the encroaching night and expect us to give praise to them for that. The Gods have failed this town and you can't redeem their failure. The damage is already done." Ulrich told Sebastion, he didn't need faith in Gods, he'd trust in his own ability to keep himself safe and try to keep others safe as well. Then Sanderson decided to give them the choice, go with him or defend the town. "As I already pointed out, I am all for some good payback and honestly owe you nothing at all, except maybe a thanks for sitting by your fire, but if I stick around to defend this town then who will remain to go with you?" The man said, leaving the choice to the man with the sideburns.
Aethel already saw Alarick come towards him, half-expecting a sermon on his presence here and the entire fiasco with the exfiltration and his clearly disruptive presence among the Nephilim. However that never came, much to Aethel's relief, after that argument with Cyrus he really didn't want to have another one, then again he couldn't care less about Alarick's opinion of him. "Son, I can count the times I haven't followed someone's orders on a single hand. I think you are only aware of two of those instances." Aethel retorted as he got up to join Alarick, after the argument with Cyrus he could use a good fight to clear his mind Hendrick was controlling his breathing to calm down, when Brianne decided to join him. He highly doubted she had missed the argument between him and Aethelrick. At first he didn't look at her "I'll be fine." Was all he said. After several moments of silence when her words had finally sunk in, he looked at her. "I won't be joining you, wish I could, but I can't keep going on like this an aweful lot longer, I'll have to get my rest." He wanted to give her his Seraphim blade only to realise he left it upstairs. "I got one favour to ask of you, I left my Seraphim blade upstairs I want you to take it with you, if you run into the Inquisitor, send him my regards... for Clarity...it'll be of more use with you than it'll be with me seeing I'll be here, holding the fort, trying to get that rest I spoke of before this all went straight to hell... good luck out there and Brianne, trust your instincts." Hendrick said, his voice deadly serious, lacking the friendly tone he would normally use. Today had been too long of a day and the headache, his wounds and the exhaustion were taking their toll, not to mention the dirt that Aethel's return had swept up within his mind.
Aethelrick just stared at his parabatai for a moment. "Because we were such a great team, Cy- Hendrick, I swear that's gonna bug me badly but no matter, the Clave was wrong in pulling you and me apa-" Hendrick pushed himself up to sit up in the bed he looked Aethelrick straight into the eyes. "That was a year and a half ago, why now? Why not before huh? Not to mention the Clave won't be happy with either you or me and I already feel like once again I am going to get the punishment with you walking freely, no I'm done with that. I've got all I need right here in the city. Well until you came barging in." Hendrick said, his voice lowered, but still full of venom. Aethel however still believed he was in the right with what he did. "Why now? Well there was an opportunity, before it was mission after mission, just like yourself when you and I were a team, you kept on going, the only difference is for you it was a choice, for me it was just dumped on me." Aethelrick said "If I could have, I would have come here, a lot sooner." Hendrick didn't fully believe him, but he didn't let it on. "Why the entire ****ing circus though? Why not just send me a bloody text, why the secrecy?" Aethel shook his head "You really don't get it do you, the Clave pulled us apart, you and I are both monitored so we wouldn't be together again, that is why I didn't want to leave evidence of you and I linking up again." Hendrick just looked at Aethel "Well good ****ing job, now Clarity got trapped and from the sounds of it, it wasn't one of us who got her. Brianne wouldn't shoot her, doubt we got any fire arms in the first place, well aside from the ones for the silver bullets. Alarick... doubt it, Nick or Roxanne? Dunno probably not either." Aethel looked rather uncomfortable having to bring the news "It was the Inquisitor.... Brianne told me he was there..." Hendrick's anger flared again "WHAT?!? We left her in the hands of the ****ing Inquisitor? By the Angel Aethel what the ****! Not only did you knock me the **** out, but you left Clarity with the ****ing Inquisitor?" Hendrick got out of bed. "I only did it to protect you, in your current state you can't take on the ****ing Inquisitor, not you, not me, not Brianne, she's downstairs by the way, probably not pleased with my performance either." Aethelrick said Hendrick walked to the door "That's all you care about isn't it... Don't bother, I don't want to hear about it anymore from you." Hendrick stormed down the stairs as fast as his wounds allowed him to and checked the living room, only to be met with a mess of corpses, Brianne, Alarick and a whole bunch of downworlders. Not what he needed right now, he went out back his head still throbbing, only made worse by the anger. He didn't even bother hiding said anger when he walked out the back door and sat outside in the tiny back yard, get some fresh air, calm down. Aethel went downstairs too, and slumped down in a chair.
"So, you're telling me to just bend over and take it? Oh no, I haven't lost an arm to just let these kind of things happen to me, I will fight to defend myself and while not let the perpetrators get away unpunished." Ulrich stated, apparantly Sanderson was an insomniac, gathered from the potion and what the man had said about it. He himself didn't need it, he sat down near the fire, folding his legs as if meditating and fell sleep like that, sleeping like a rock. When the morning came to them and the first rays of sunlight landed on Ulrich, his eyes immediately jumped open. Sanderson asked them if they were all ready to go, when the fancy bloke started spouting **** about the Guardian. "I don't know who you're talking about, but if it's that one God then look around you, there are no gods, no one will save us unless we do it ourselves. It's that simple." Ulrich said as he got up then turned to Sanderson "Ready." It was time for the counter-attack, he would not relent for the defense of this village.
Varraki had left the office and went to look for the one known as Zahariel whom he was dispatched with, he had met the individual before and the robes made him easy to look for as they easily stood out amongst all the soldiers. After a quick talk they went after their third man on their team. The talk was short and impersonal, introductions but without the niceties, the robed individual said that the Prince's performance would be judged by him and a word from Zahariel would go a long way through the entire organisation. Varraki didn't remark on it, but keeping Reitan's remark in the back of his mind to remained wary around the robed individual. Eventually they found their third member in the form of David, Varraki looked at him, also robed. The Prince figured that once more he would have to remained wary. "We're deployed to one of our outposts, gonna have ourselves a little fight to defend it. That's all the Inheritor told me, we should head for the Shuttles at once, I have already told some of my men to meet me there. And David, you know this already, but just in case you have forgotten, I'm the one in charge here, is that understood?" Zahariel said, not meaning it as a question. Varraki merely watched, not interfering with this establishing dominance thing, he was a newcomer and therefore wouldn't allow himself to get caught in between these two. When David asked him whether he would join them the Prince nodded and simply stated "Yes I will be joining you." This would be an interesting operation that was for sure.
She turned away, from him, angry. She didn't slam the door though, but that didn't fool him to think she wasn't angry. He understood it, as family having to send someone away like he had just done... to their deaths... Not to mention that he had failed to keep up the cold distant tone he had used the night before. She had to understand he himself had no other choice either. This is what Silas had warned him about, when he prepared the Crow to follow in his footsteps and lead the witchers of the Kaer, sure they were all individuals with their own wishes, but as the oldest it fell to him to keep the others in line. Silas had told him these decisions wouldn't be easy, especially if you were all a close-knitted group of individuals, like a family. However Silas had also told him that eventhough these moments would be difficult, keeping everyone together as a family was worth it. He recalled how difficult it had been for himself to take the position of leader in the begining after Silas had gotten killed trying to fight a pair of fiends simultaneously... there hadn't been much left to lead after the defence of the Kaer and the Crow, like Silas had to try and rebuild the order. To an extent they had succeeded, but when he looked at what was left now, he knew he had failed, not just himself and Veera, but also Master Silas. The Crow went to the balcony of his room and watched Veera go... another one gone.... No, he refused to give up, the Order would be restored even if it were the last thing he ever did. "I hate to break it to you, but Witchers don't disappear, when they stop showing up, they're dead.... Seen it way too much meself, well until Treasa found her way to me that is, gradually drifted away from the others after that. Though occasionally I think back of them." Alastar said "It won't be fine, I once got into a bit of trouble when I kinda accidentally put a Zerrikanian warhorse out of commision by mounting it.... if a Zerrikanian warhorse can't handle me, I don't think yer horse can pull it off... But don't worry, I'm used to walking." Alastar listened to the story, he knew damn well Witcher stories weren't happy ones, his own one was a little bit of an exception, but it wasn't exactly a happy story either. That the town got swarmed by such an odd assortment of monsters that attacked the village, not sure how that worked at all, whatsoever but he wouldn't question it. "None of the stories do, not a single one of them does. But we make our sacrifices so others may live better lives." The Witcher said, not entirely convinced of it all, but he didn't let that on. "And Kid, I've seen a lot worse with my own two eyes than any story you can provide me." He had put Treasa through hell too, especially when they had just met, he was so used to being along that it took some effort to be more conciderable for her.... Well what was done 's done, no changing the past. As one of his comrades once said Stop looking at the past, you ain't living there "I hear ya Ragnar, I hear ya..." He muttered.
Alastar walked with Olivia down the road, he somehow doubted that the girl had fought as many dopplers as she claimed, just a look at her revealing a lot fewer injuries and sure she may have been a witcher, but if old, experienced hands like the Crow himself got out badly, then there was no way this girl got out in such an good shape. "What did you want to find out then?" Alastar asked, why just not say why she wanted to go to Oxenfurt in the first place, why all the secrecy? They were both Witchers for crying out loud. and she was going on about Dopplers then onwards to Ghouls what happened in between? Something must have happened right? This girl knew nothing useful, that was for sure. Her mention of the horse only made him laugh. "Have you actually looked at me, lass? There's no way yer horse can hold me, not to mention me and someone else. No that'd be cruel to the horse." She tried to dodge his question about her story with a question in itself. "If I didn't wanna know I wouldn't have asked and don't answer a question with another question, it's rude ya know." Funny enough that exactly he was the person talking about being rude, but it didn't matter he didn't have any ill intent. The short reply told him all he had to know as did her tone. He took the small vials from his equipment and neatly lined them up. "Take them. And these." He said holding out a set of dimeritium bombs. "There's so much to say, yet not enough words to say it. I wish you the best of luck... You're my daughter, you know that, maybe not by blood, but family's more than just the blood coursing through your veins. I know you called out to the Witchers before I got to Oxenfurt, I tried to reach out to you, but you pushed me away... I wanted you to come home... so that all of this may have been prevented. You hate me for doing this, but I don't have much of a choice, you know that... The code says I can't help you myself, but truly if the hour is dark, call and I shall come. Family above code... especially when our family is growing ever smaller... Just know that whatever may happen out there... I put my faith in you..." He knew that she could point out his family over Code argument being applied here in general and him not punishing her, but he couldn't exactly do that. "I hate saying goodbye... it's so final, so I will tell you this. Until we may meet again, Veera, take care of yourself out there... One last thing...with your memories... there's something I want to give you, you carried it with you when you came here as a little girl, you fought hard to keep it... however eventually Master Silas took it from you when you were exhausted from training, I don't know what it meant to you, since you never told me and maybe it'll help you find your memories..." The old crow said as he took one of her hands and pressed the simple bracelet into it, looking into her eyes one last time. Sigmund had slept nicely and in the early morning when Matilada ended up on his doorsteps had one of his servants let her in, assuming she came to check the bandages she was guide by aforementioned servant to the respective room.
"The name's Ulrich." He stated simply "And if you're trying to save this town, I must say, marvelous job you're doing 'ere." The sarcasm just dripped from the remark he placed. There was another bloke who creepily stared at the man named Sanderson, Ulrich decided to ignore it. "The thing I don't get is why look beyond the borders of Tyrrus when there are so many problems within them, why not secure our lands first before looking beyond the borders." Some bloke looking way too fancy to be in this town suggested he'd join them. "If it gets rid of these damn overgrown lizards faster then, I see no reason why not, might get myself some payback for having my life disrupted again." Ulrich stated coldly. Then yet another bloke was joining them, clearly a known man for Mr 'burns, talking about talking with the drakes, this guy was clearly nuts. "You talk to them when they are burning down the homes of these people?" Ulrich asked, yeah if this group was their last hope of making it through this, then they were worse off than what happened in Haven and that was bad. Atleast he hadn't lost any limbs in this one yet. "If there's a chance they are going to return I suggest you warn the townspeople to arm themselves. Atleast that way they may have a chance to defend themselves instead of being corraled lambs ready for the slaughter." Ulrich observed the absurd actions of one of the groups people and sighed not believing his eyes, this man was part of a group to defend this town, that was just his luck, he was nearly sure he could hear the Gods laughing at him as they played their cruel joke. Baldomar was getting rather hyped up with the promise of faces to be bashed in and therefor urged the others to make the best speed there possible. When they happened upon the keep, Baldomar was not disappointed by what he saw. Seven dudes, all of them ready for an introduction with his hammer. Aston however said to not hit the one bloke front and center, so Baldomar took note of it as he charged forward, intent on crushing skulls eventhough he knew full well that he didn't have enough AP to actually use his damn hammer unless the idiots kept close to him So for now he'd introduce them to his good mate, righty. Move up(1 AP) Move up right(1 AP) Move up(1 AP) Baldomar reached around his opponents waiste and tried to Tombstone them Unarmed Strike ( 4AP) Total used: 7 AP With the swing of his sword the smaller spider was defeated. Rayyad pointed out that the big guy got his power from the little ones, well it made sense, the smaller ones would overwhelm them if not dealt with in time. Their friend then showed some of his own magical abilities and Conrad was impressed, then again he was easily impressed when it came to magic. The result of this magic was useful when the great beast came upon him as it's first attack missed completely, this however was only a small solace as it came in for round two which did hit and it hurt, but thanks to Tessa's flower it didn't hurt as much as it would have without it. Lastly came one of the smaller spiders that tried to attack him but the attack was parried. Tessa decided to follow his example of melee combat except to a less succesful extent. They were holding though, but how many spiders would this thing draw to itself to support and would they be able to hold out until the window of opportunity appeared? They had to try, Conrad swung his sword and moved back to a defensive position "Rayyad, keep the pressure on." Conrad used Greatsword strike at spider number II then defensive position.
Aethelrick merely watched the situation play out. He didn't move at all, only watched Cin cut apart his fellow knights with brutal strength and efficiency. He had to give the man credit for his technique and particularly his physical strength. He put the P90 away. "I read ya." Aethel said in response to Brianne, the other bloke seemed to have the right idea, however part of this may have been on purpose to either display his usefulness or the danger of crossing him. The Warlock checked his phone and urgently appeared to be needing to go, only inviting the fae with him. Well of course there was someone hurt, they had left someone behind as a prey for the Inquisitor, then again he doubted this was about Clarity. There were plenty of people in this city after all and if the Inquisitor had gotten his hands on her then she wouldn't be getting away lightly or this quickly. "If you need me, I'll be upstairs, gonna check on Cyrus." Was all Aethelrick said as he left the room stepping over the corpses but through the blood as he left a trail of bloody bootprints through the house, he didn't care too much about it, not his home, not his problem. As he got upstairs he found Cyrus still out cold well not for long that was as the Shadowhunter began to recover from his little nap, not that he was happy about it. Though Cyrus did seem a little confused as to where he was, Aethel filled him in on where he was and a look of anger. "You son of a *****." Hendrick shouted. "You kno-" "I saved your ass from doing something stupid." Aethelrick cut in, without raising his voice. "You damned my friend with your selfish actions!" Cyrus shouted angrily. "Selfish? How were my actions selfish when I protected not only you, but another collegue of yours as well." Aethelrick retorted. "You would have found yourself in the hands of the damn Inquisitor. Were it not for me." Cyrus didn't calm down "So? I did nothing wrong, didn't break the bloody Accords, got nothing to hide from him! Meanwhile I get dragged into some crazy **** that leaves my friend in his hands! And he'll probably want to know why the hell such a ****ing circus was staged and honestly I am wondering that too. Why the **** did you come back, Aethel? Why?" Cyrus demanded, his voice more than loud enough to be audible downstairs. "Everything was fine until you came back. And for the Angel's sake call me Hendrick like everyone else." Aethel didn't know what to say, he had expected Cyrus to be more glad to be re-united with his parabatai and deep inside buried beneath all the anger, there was a part of Cyrus that felt that way, but he couldn't get over all the anger that clouded his mind like a thick toxic fog. A fog created by the entire fiasco of his exfiltration and Aethelrick's actions. Aethel couldn't exactly blame him, he knew he had fmade some mistakes along the way, but in the grander scheme of things his choices were the right ones and he knew that, Cyrus just wouldn't see that.
