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Old 12-03-2006, 10:20 AM   #299
Nogrod
Flame of the Ainulindalë
 
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Wearing rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves in a field behaving as the wind behaves
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The battle beside the tunnel

The first thing Beloan noticed after he had crossed the trench was a fast approaching figure of a man on his right. Beloan turned quickly to face the man and raised his sword ready. The man seemed to have noticed it and altered his course slightly to meet Beloan from his backhandside. He was now swinging his sword around in the air as he approached. And he was coming in fast. Beloan tried to regain the earlier angle to meet him face to face and took some fast steps backwards, turning slightly right as he suddenly recognised the man coming towards him just a few yards away.

“Erlech! No! It’s me, Beloan!” he shouted against the wind and waved his left hand. “Stop, Erlech!”

Erlech heard him at the last moment and managed to pull off his swing towards Beloan. He stopped just some feet from Beloan and stood still a while, breathing heavily.

“Something’s wrong here”, Beloan noted as his pulse had settled enough for him to speak. The men were staring each other, panting. “Where are all the slavers?”

Erlech straightened his back and tried to look around but the sudden gust of wind throwing whirls of sand everywhere had reduced the visibility to just a yard or two. The howling of the wind filled their ears. “Qat and Fewerth were fighting one down there behind!” Erlech shouted over the wind pointing backwards. “I’ve met no one!”

The wind slowed down for a moment. They both heard the sounds of a fight a little further away from them. “It must be Joshwan! C’mon!” Beloan cried and ran towards the noise. Erlech followed and soon passed Beloan. He was the younger and stronger of the two.

Joshwan was fighting two slavers at the same time. His spear laid splintered on the ground and another one of the slavers was bleeding heavily from his shoulder. The slavers were bombarding him with heavy blows from both sides and Joshwan was only parrying right and left as he tried to back away.

“Hang on Joshwan! We’re coming!” Erlech yelled as he and Beloan leapt forwards as fast as they could. A lot of things happened in the following seconds.

The unscratched slaver who was about to land his hit on Joshwan in turn noticed the two coming in and halted his attack for a second to judge the new situation. Joshwan noticed it and decided immediately to go for a surprise. So all of a sudden he reversed his retreat to an attack. In stead of parrying to his right he turned back to his left and towards the wounded slaver who had just hit him. He was just raising his sword for the next blow when Joshwan’s blade went through his chest. He had no time to realise what was happening. His eyes turned around in their sockets.

But the other one had only halted for a second and was quickly back in the tracks of what was happening. Before Joshwan had time to pull his sword back from the chest of the one, the other swang a mighty blow to his now open back. The pierced slaver fell backwards and Joshwan tumbled over him crying from pain.

Erlech charged the still standing slaver with his spear roaring with rage, just to realise that the slaver was not only stunningly fast to recover a defending posture but that he also had a shield! How could he have missed it? But it was too late. The slaver parried the baffled Erlech’s spear easily and managed to duck away from the onrushing man himself. By quickly shifting his place he was able to unbalance Erlech even more, so that with a slight bunch of the shield and a well placed leg Erlech went stumbling towards the ground head on in full speed. And still, after all this, Beloan who had been only a few steps behind Erlech was now facing a slaver perfectly ready for a duel.

The swords hit one another once, two times. On third encounter the blades clinged together, both men meeting the other from eye to eye on close range trying to yield another’s blade down and gain the upper hand. The slaver’s eyes were burning with spirit. “You scum! Take your place, slave!” the slaver hissed from between his teeth. Beloan didn’t answer but just tried to press harder while remaining calm on his face.

Then, from the corner of his eye Beloan saw Erlech rising up behind them. His eyes betrayd him and the slaver managed to back off from the situation. But before the slaver or Beloan had time to take advantage of the new situation they were both distracted by the sound of fast approaching thunder of hooves. Beloan saw the figure emerging from the sandstorm first. It was coming from behind of Erlech and it was coming in fast. And there it was, a spear lowered ready to hit. “Erlech! Behind you!” Beloan managed to cry out before the slaver was up on him again, now even more confident than earlier. He was attacking and hacking with fervour and Beloan had to back away just defending himself.

Erlech who had just risen up from the ground had only time enough to turn his head before the spear went through him.

Happily for Beloan, the wildly charging rider went on straight between him and the slaver he was backing away from thus giving him the valuable chance of pulling himself together and to draw some breath.

In the instance there was yet new movement to Beloan’s right. “I’ll take the rider! Go help Beloan!” thundered the deep voice of the giant man Qat, the bearded escapee, as he ran to pick up Erlech’s spear from the ground. Fewerth, although slightly wounded, was rushing to help Beloan shouting a battle cry as he came on.

The slaver who had been fighting Beloan took a few steps back to re-evaluate the situation and glanced around to locate his riding fellow. Beloan now had his two seconds of thought and yelled at Fewerth: “Fewerth! Get behind him and stay behind him!” Then he charged the slaver straight ahead.

The rider had been able to stop his mount and turned to face the fight again. He had heard bellowing from behind him and saw that something had changed. There was another man rushing towards his comrade. He charged immediately forward, aiming at the newcomer as he was nearer to his tracks. But before he managed to get into the striking distance a flying spear came out from the swirling dust and hit him on his left side. He fell down from the saddle and stumbled to the ground. The spear on his side twisted under the weight of his body but at the same time it swerwed even deeper inside, bringing unbearable pain to him.

The horse had no time to react and trampled Fewerth under it’s hooves as it tried to get out of this madness.

The next thing the unmounted slaver realised was a stern face bending over him. “Here’s for Erlech!” it shouted. The sword went through his throat and then it was over. Black. Nothing. A relief from pain.

After that Qat joined Beloan to fight the last slaver. The slaver had no chance. Beloan was attacking him from the front and Qat from behind. And even as he quite skilfully tried to back out to have his attackers on his sides, the two went on countering his moves. After a few rounds of blows Beloan managed to get behind the slaver as he was engaged with Qat and ran his sword through his back. The slaver fell to the ground face down.

“That was a real fighter...” Beloan whispered between panting. Qat nodded silently, trying to come even with his breath too.

“Erlech is dead, Joshwan is too, I’m afraid. How about Fewerth? We’ll have to check them. And check them fast! If they are alive, every moment counts! Come my fellow, check Fewerth, I’ll go for Joshwan!” Beloan said to Qat and forced himself on the move even though his whole body cried for rest. Qat forced himself to follow Beloan.

Joshwan was dead as Beloan reached him.

“He’s alive! Badly bruised but alive!” Qat called from beside Fewerth’s unconscious body. “What do we do now?”

Last edited by Nogrod; 12-03-2006 at 04:58 PM.
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