“Faux, clear me a path to the closest giant.” Ezekiel whispered, coming up beside his rogue friend, his vicious scythe presented before him. “Kara, watch our flanks.”
The paladin ran behind the two, her spear ready to bear.
Faux looked at the fair sized line of men coming towards him and the giant slowly stalking behind them. A wry grin formed on his face and he felt into a crouch. “Be ready, my friend, for this is going to be fast.”
The quick rogue darted off, and the big earth adapt fell into a running charge right behind him, his long strides carrying him far. Faux dove into the hoard of men with abandon, his kama and sword working in flashes of movement as he cut armor strapping and slit throats. In no time he was clearing a fair line between the group of men around him. Suddenly, he found himself at the other end of the charging men, the giant looming before him. Ever calm, he held his hands up and created a dome of thick ice around himself. Down came a huge club as the giant stopped its charge and struck out. The massive weapon stopped at the wall of ice, causing many cracks to form in it. Bewildered, the giant lifted its club to smash down again. Faux was the quicker. The rogue melted the cracked half of the ice dome and slipped out of his protection zone, darting off to the other giant. Down came the club again, this time to hit nothing but the ground below.
With a thundering roar, Ezekiel leaped into the air, landing on the remaining ice dome and jumped off of it, propelling him further forward. The giant just looked up in time to see a scythe smashing it right in the chest. How it howled with pain as the blade slit a fair sized cut across its chest, poison already running through its blood. Ezekiel hit the ground in a roll, going right between the teetering giant legs. He got to his feet with a mighty upswing of his scythe, landing it right in the giant’s groin. Needless to say, an even greater howl came forth at that moment. The giant’s knees buckled, and it tumbled to the ground in a heap of pain. Ezekiel ended its torment with a mighty thrust of the point of his scythe, this one piercing the back of the giant’s head and into its brain.
Kara spun her spear in hand skillfully, giving the soldiers surrounding her a dazzling display of finesse just before she slammed the blunt end of the spear into the ground, causing a shining aura of light to pour out of the ground, knocking all of the men backwards. She waited patiently for them all to get their footing before she readied her spear again. One brave man charged ahead, and he found himself impaled through the chest by a spear. Kara lifted her left foot quickly as one man swiped low for her ankles. He found a high kick right into his jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground. A swift jerk freed Kara’s spear, and she swiped it through the air to cut open the stomach of three men. She raised her hand and closed her eyes then, and a sudden burst of light blinded everyone nearby. In one quick movement, the paladin impaled one man’s torso with her spear. She gave a mighty heave and sent the well dead man flopping into two of his soldiers. Those two fell to the ground, too blind to see what was going on. A few quick jabs of Kara’s spear sent more men crumbling to the ground. As the remaining soldiers regained their vision, they charged on the paladin in unison, intent on overrunning her. Not backing down an inch, Kara waited for the exact moment and lifted her spear above her head, sending it spinning rapidly. Seven men lost their heads at the exact same time just then.
Faux was upon the second giant, zipping around it with amazing speed and slashing at its ankles when Ezekiel reached him. He barreled forward, leveling his scythe ready for a mighty down chop. The blade left a nasty gash across the giant’s left leg, and Ezekiel’s scythe slammed into the ground from his attack. Slowly, he jerked his scythe free and braced himself, for the giant was quite agitated now.
It took a step forward, and suddenly found itself slipping on ice as the ground all around it froze over. As it began to regain its balance somewhat, it continued forward, but a rock burst forth from the ground, tripping it further. It feel right into the waiting scythe below.
Ezekiel worked his blade free from under the massive man and spun to find the next target. Faux darted off, and it took the earth adept a moment to notice Kara running between some rocks, probably in pursuit of someone. He looked to Kara’s mount, which was still obediently standing still, a hapless man who tried to steal it under its mighty hooves, his chest caved in. Ezekiel couldn’t help but grin as he walked over to the horse. He heaved himself up on it and set off after his other friends.
Kara ran through the rocky terrain with graceful speed, despite her heavy armor. Ahead of her, the hooded man who had ordered the attack on them scrambled across the ground with no such agility. Slowly, she was gaining ground. A smile crept up the paladin’s face as she caught a figure out of the corner of her eye, moving too fast to be natural.
“Do not worry, Kara, I shall catch him with ease!” Faux said with a laugh as he increased his speed more-so, closing the gap between himself and the man.
When he got close enough, he leaped ahead, tackling the man to the ground. The two fell in a roll, the wiry man trying to futile to slip out of the rogue’s grasp. Soon, Faux had the man tied up. Just about the same time, Ezekiel reached them with Schiroi.
“Why did you attack us? We meant no trouble…” Kara said calmly, crouching down beside the man, a perplexed expression on her face.
“I have nothing to say to the likes of you…” the man spat, turning his head away defiantly. Just then, a burly hand closed around his neck, and Ezekiel heaved him into the air with ease.
“You will answer the lady’s question, or you’ll lose breathing privileges.” The earth adept said gruffly, shaking the man around to emphasize his point.
“Ga-ok ok…p-put me down!” the man said, barely able to talk. Ezekiel did just that, and the man hit the ground hard. He fell over and whimpered a bit, but quickly gained his composure and sat back up. When he hesitated to talk, vines suddenly sprouted from the ground and entangled around the man. He looked up to see Ezekiel glaring.
“…My name is Horan Toph. I am under the charge of Jowl Breden, who is third in command of Draven Bladenheart’s army.” Horan declared.
“That’s a lot of names to worry about…” Faux said, rubbing his chin.
“I didn’t ask who you are. I wanted to know why you attacked us.” Kara pointed out, her perplexed expression never changing.
“Y-you were in our territory. I couldn’t possible let you find…” Horan stopped suddenly, turning away.
“Find what?” Ezekiel demanded, the vines tightening around the Horan’s body.