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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pedestrian" data-source="post: 3657535" data-attributes="member: 40208">Itching from the countless phantom arrow wounds that punctured his heavy plate mail, Xerxes watched as a bolt of flame blossomed over the Elsir. Pained screams and the stench of cooked flesh wafted over the waters, filtering through his spirit-forged helm. Marcus had set the fireball rolling.Xerxes spared a glass to the positions the guards had taken up on the roof tops, bows in hand. He grunted to Sol and Kayan who stood with him in the centre of the main road, before returning his gaze to the horde over the river. He saw that the entire army had drawn back from the Elsir seemed a shame, greater numbers, greater glory and all that. Then, from the mass, the grim looking beasts, chimeras, soared out over the river, blade bearing hobgoblins sat astride their backs. Two of the creatures, one the white of bleached bone, the other the tawny colours of a desert cat, sped towards Marcus’s position. A larger, fierce orange-red chimera, banked to it’s right, drawn by arrow fire from Captain Sorrana and her men, exhaling a cloud of roiling flame over them. The hobgoblin eagerly sprung from the creature’s back, disembowelling one of the guardsmen, his bow falling from numbed hands.The next few moments were, to say the least, chaotic. Sol immediately dashed off through crooked back-streets in an attempt to assist Marcus, while Kayan invoked the blessings of the gods, bathing himself, Xerxes and a fair portion of the guards in heavenly light. Bolstered by this, and hoping to draw the Chimera away from Captain and her archers and what a glorious scene it would make he shouted some random syllables and flung crackling lightning from his hands, but it sailed wide of the“Aim for spaces where the heads join the body!” cried Kayan “their hide is softer there.” Xerxes nodded as he flung more bolts of energy at the creature, to no avail, and the creatures ravenous heads tore and bit at the men on the roof. With all but one of her men dead, Captain Soranna quaffed a potion, grabbed the remaining warrior and flew deeper into Drellin’s Ferry, to where another squad of guards had set up a position. The Red Chimera, forgetting it’s hobgoblin ally, pursued.A cry echoed out from across the rooftops, and Xerxes turned in time to see Sol beaten down by the twin assault of the White and Blue Chimeras, the two of which were themselves bleeding from terrible wounds inflicted by the half-Orc. Weighing his options, the northerner ran as fast as he could, Kayan beside him.Kayan muttered something, and one of the hobgoblins on the roof froze as it was about to deliver a killing stroke to Sol. Xerxes concentrated a second, reaching out with his mind to Sol’s unconscious form. There was a moment, a wrenching as his mind touched the half-Orcs, and then he had time to see Marcus bolt down the stairway, pursued by the other hobgoblin, before the Chimeras closed in on him and here was the chance for glory!Xerxes forced himself to move carefully, not wanting to plunge through the roof due to his heavy armour, gripping his spear in both hands. He recalled Kayan’s advice, and thrust at the gap between the goat and lion’s heads of the Blue Chimera. He heard a clattering sound from the stairway, and prayed to the Good Son that Marcus was well. More distant, Sol’s familiar warcry brought a smile to his lips. He tried another jab, this time at the White Chimera, but was thrown off balance by a paw lashing out from the Blue, though his enchanted armour reflect the swipe. The White bounded forward, slashing apart the last guardsman casually as it headed for the stairs. Footsteps clattered up the stairsPanicking slay them all and the songs would be that much better Xerxes dived forward, weighing heavily into his spear as he aimed for the wound Sol had already inflicted. He struck true and pushed his spear forward, levelling the extra weight of his armour into the thrust. The Chimera roared, desperately trying to turn it’s crackling, lightning spewing Blue Dragon head to face him. To no avail. Xerxes bore down, blood drenching his hands, his arms, mixing with the blood that flowed from his own spectral wounds. He heard distant thunder, the blood pounding in his ears, the beast thrashing on the roof. Stillness.The stench of charred flesh reached his nose, wafting over the tang of blood. He turned around, saw Marcus, weary, bloody and hurt, his arm around Kayan, who supported the mage. Behind them was the still steaming corpse of the other Chimera.From across the roof-tops came Soranna’s Bugle. The retreat had been called.</blockquote>

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