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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 4244542" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #438] And the Streets Ran Red[/PLAIN]Ayremac flexed his wings, shooting up in pursuit at once. Over his shoulder he barked, "We have to move!" and saw that the others were already on their way forward. Satisfied, he turned back toward his quarry and hurtled over the rooftop of the building separating pursuer and pursued.Huzair watched him go and sneered, "Show off!"Morier moved cautiously around the Black Tentacles, mindful of the spell's reach and trotted up to the newly formed tower of rock in the middle of King's Highway. He sliced once at the wall of the tower and the rock parted like flesh beneath Stoneblade. The narrow rent spread open until it was fully ten feet wide and looked in on the three remaining Doctor Akermans."Come on!" Morier shouted in at the wizard. "He's on the run!""We mustn't let him get away!" the mage replied and stepped outside the Wall of Stone just as Ahlear and Huzair dashed passed and after Alechtus. A crocodile loped along after the pair."Don't worry," Morier told the mage. "We've come this far. We're not going to lose him now!"Shamalin stepped up to Morier and, with a touch, closed the last of the eldritch warrior's wounds.Ayremac coasted over the top of the nearest building - a family home, by the look of it - his wings brushing wet snow from the thatch as he careened up and over. There was another similar building behind it separated from an apothecary on the left by another secondary road that was chocked with mud and wet snow. An old woman, apparently scared away from the disturbance at Umba's Court cowered in the shadow of the further residence.There was no sign of Alechtus.Ayremac landed nearby, folding his wings. "Where is the criminal?" he asked the woman, gesturing with Waveblade. "Which way did he go?!""I'm right here!" came a voice from behind him and Ayremac turned in time to see the big man clinging to the underside of the first building's eaves like an oversized spider. Then he sprang forward, launching himself, swordfirst at the holy warrior. Somehow, Ayremac managed to raise his shield in time to deflect the bastard sword away from himself, and Alechtus spilled into the snow at his side.Ayremac raised Windblade and spun to face his foe, but the man was gone. He outweighed Ayremac by at least 40 pounds and was nearly half-a-foot taller, but somehow he'd disappeared in an eyeblink. Only a spatter of red blood amidst the disturbed snow indicated where Alechtus had fallen. Ayremac stood there in stunned silence for a moment, surrounded by the dripping of icemelt."He went 'round the corner," the old woman offered, pointing toward the apothecary's shop. Ayremac nodded his thanks and set off after him, but again there was no sign of his target.The front of the building faced the side road but its front door was stoutly closed. A rain barrel stood beside the door, its surface alive with ripples as water dripped off the eaves. Ayremac looked up at once, but Alechtus wasn't there."You're learning, god boy!" Alechtus growled as he stood up from behind the barrel, catching Ayremac flat-footed. "But you're still not very bright!" The man stabbed again with his bastard sword and the weapon slipped with precision between the Officer's tasset and the plate of the cuisse on his left leg. He cried out as the jagged edge of the blade chewed through his flesh and sawed mercilessly along his thighbone. Alechtus was grinning as he pulled the sword free and watched Ayremac fall backward into the snow with blood fountaining from his groin."Ixin told me that you'd all come after me," the big man said as he stared down at the barely conscious Ayremac; blood was spreading out amidst the snow beneath where he lay. "I wish you hadn't. I've no quarrel with you." Trembling on the edge of shock, the holy warrior grimaced up at the swordsman."Ixin's dead," he spat. "You killed her!" Alechtus sighed at that."And for what it's worth, I'm sorry I did. She was always nice to me," he said. "But sometimes I get carried away and do things that I don't mean to. Surely you can understand that, Arland?" Ayremac started to speak, but Alechtus roared in pain as an arrow slammed into his left leg - a match for the blood-soaked wound in his right. Growling ferally, he turned to look in the direction the shot had come and spotted Anania moving swiftly toward them, her hand already going to the quiver at her hip.Ayremac did the only thing he could think to do: he activated his Sacred Healing ability and promptly passed out.Alechtus leveled his bloody blade at Anania and challenged, "You're next!" He started to move, but then a trio of Magic Missiles struck him in the back. He growled and half-turned just as Ahlear charged into his flank. The druid's magical warhammer crunched into the swordsman's shoulder, the same one that Ayremac had already smote with Windblade. This time Alechtus' chain shirt didn't save the joint. There was an audible CRACK! as the man's limb lost its battle with magically-augmented steel and the arm jerked and fluttered unnaturally for a moment. The impact half-turned Alechtus around, and he teetered on his feet for a heartbeat as if he might manage to retain his footing and stay in the fight.Then the samsara sword dropped from his nerveless fingers and he fell, sideways into the slurry of mud and snow which choked the street.</blockquote>

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