Birds of a Red Feather...(Lucas)

[Alderache]

Timestamp: Spring 3, 511 AV Time: Midday Location: The Cursed Bridge Who: Lucas Arias Alseroth really needed to thank Uphis. He'd silently wished that Uphis would silence his brother, and now, he'd heard nothing from Alderache in two days. Maybe there was something to these monks after all. But right now, he was running along the tight Nyka alleyways. This city had gone to hell ever since the storm. And he was being chased by a small swarm of beetles. Normally he wouldn't be bothered by such a thing, but he saw what happened to a monk when these had caught up to him. Don't get bit. He saw an empty bridge up ahead, a rare sight these days. Why weren't they guarding this bridge? As he pumped harder, running toward it, his foot tripped up on something hard as stone. He flew forward, hit the ground painfully, and rolled. He looked back and saw some more of those earthen soldiers beginning to rise from the ground. Some of the beetles had crashed into the rising soldiers, killing both, but two had survived. Alseroth assumed his stance, with his left foot forward, his right foot back. He held Shivara out in front with his left fist. He balanced on the pads of his feet, preparing for the assault. The first flew in low, and Alseroth swung down with Shivara. Her bite couldn't pierce the thick armor of the beetle. But the force did make it fly low, and beneath his groin, flying out from behind Alseroth. Alseroth swung Shivara back handed toward the second incoming beetle, this time aiming for the wings. Shivara bit through the fragile set of wings on the left side of the beetles, causing it to careen off course. It crashed into a building, and fell there, writhing at the base. Alseroth continued his swing, his weight shifting to his left foot, and his body rotating with it. He saw the beetle flying toward him at neck height, mandibles ready to bite. Alderache twisted hard, shifting his weight down into his left leg. He snapped his right leg high, the top of his foot contacting the beetle's side, crushing some of its wings. As he was trained, he kicked through his enemy, and the beetle tumbled out end over end toward a man on the bridge. He couldn't make out what the man looked like, but the beetle was tumbling toward his head. Alseroth really hoped the man saw it coming. Alseroth looked over his shoulder and saw as the earthen men had fully pulled themselves from the ground. There were at least a dozen of them. Alseroth ran toward the bridge, keeping Shivara at the ready. He leapt over the last little corner of the gap, an attempt to add a few seconds to his fleeing. He landed a bit unstably on the massive bridge. He saw the man from earlier up ahead, but couldn't tell if he'd been affected by the beetle or not. But he did see about a dozen of the same earthen men at the opposite end. They were surrounded. He turned around to face the attackers on his end, Shivara's edge gleaming in the high sun. He slowly backed up toward the man. The earthen attackers had many different types of crude weaponry. Those on his side of the bridge filed onto the bridge, being led by one that was bigger than the rest. He was equivalent to Alseroth's size, and had more muscle. He also carried two large stone maces. Without turning back to look at the other man, "I hope you are able to fight, because I am not dying on a petching bridge!"

[Lucas Arias]

Lucas had already regretted his decision to come to Nyka a thousand times. Back when he had still been in Syliras going to Nyka to find out more about the divine encounter he had had a while ago (and getting rid of the knights in the process) had seemed like an awesome idea, but he wasn’t at all sure anymore. Free alcohol and free food were kind of nice, but his favourite pastimes had quickly lost their appeal when monsters had begun to wreak havoc on the city. The first day he hadn’t dared to go outside at all, but hidden behind the door, sword and shield in hand in case the monsters decided to pay him a visit and tried to eat him.

But eventually a trip outside became inevitable, and thus the failed squire put on his thickest, sturdiest clothes, grabbed his shield, his dagger and his sword and quietly snuck away when he thought the monsters weren’t watching. At first it seemed as if everything would go well. He avoided whatever monsters were roaming the streets, but then he found himself on the bridge. It seemed a little strange to him that such a big bridge was practically empty, but then he shrugged his shoulders and decided to cross it.

That was when he saw the man – if it was a man, his skin was awfully red – being chased by what looked like giant beetles and stone figures. Lucas wasn’t a particularly helpful, selfless boy – self preservation was more important to him – so he had just come to the decision that it would be best to go back home when one of those beetles tumbled in his direction, right towards his head. He instinctively raised his shield to protect himself, and then he stuck his sword into the beetle and killed it, shuddering a little as he did so. That thing looked disgusting! By Kelwyn, he hated bugs!

He turned around again – only to see that a few more of those stone people had appeared on his end of the bridge in the meantime. Maybe helping the red man wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. Maybe he’d just stay here. Maybe he’d go to the middle of the bridge and help the red man because it would be the right thing to do. He didn’t stand a chance on his own. He didn’t have any idea what those stone people were. In Syliras he had never seen a single monster. He had only fought training dummies!

„Don’t worry. I know how to use my sword!“ he informed the red man. „And I don’t intend to die today!“ For once he was glad that the knights had made him go through such a hard training, although he wished they had insisted on a bit of practical experience as well. A lesson on monsters and their weaknesses would have been most helpful. Could you even kill those stone people with a sword? He hoped so.