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Last of the Shadow Foxes: 11 Requiem

Gavrilla and Ophelia stood hidden in a wood not far away from the front of the Dark Apostle convoy. Behind them were Verity, Purity, Charity from Ophelia’s guild, Gates, Raynard, Fortune from Gavrilla’s guild and several crusaders, Jiro, Zephan and Judas. Mali had opted to stay with the wounded from the previous battle. It was almost night, the perfect time to launch an ambush. Fortune edged up to Garvilla, sliding on his Maple wagner.
“Say the word, we’re ready.” He whispered, disappearing back into the shadows.

The veteran hermit turned to the expert ranger. She stared into her eyes for a moment. The ranger returned the stare with equal determination.
“Right team, let’s go!” Gavrilla ordered, stealing into the night. The assorted band of rescuers followed swiftly behind. The long grass swayed in the night breeze as the band encircled the head of the convoy. They were so close that they could see the individual torches hanging from the carts. The rangers stopped, positioned strategically to provide cover fire for the close combat members of the party. They were about to launch an assault at the column when abruptly, the front Kargo wheeled around and headed towards the back of the convoy.

Ophelia froze, arrow drawn back in her White Nisrock, and faced Gavrilla, silver strands of hair fluttering in the wind. Gavrilla gave the ranger a quizzical look and glanced at each of the rangers, bandits and crusaders.
“Okay then, looks like something else has got their attention. So change of plan, we envelope the front and spear downwards, rangers at the back, crusaders around the left and the bandits to the right.” The hermit instructed, immediately, the group executed her orders and sped off. Verity and Charity sniped the two riders on the first cart in unison before Purity and Ophelia took out the guards a moment later.

Jiro lead his team around the left, detouring through trees and ending up at the second cart. Judging by the lack of noise at the front, he assumed that the rangers had done their job. With a flick of the wrist, he motioned for the crusaders down the line, doombringers raised. There was a large disturbance up ahead and suddenly there was an explosion as one of the carts exploded. Zephan raised an eyebrow and headed towards the flaming wreckage.

Gavrilla and her bandits infiltrated down the right, passing by the four dead Dark Apostles at the lead cart. The Kargo snorted submissively as it pawed its dead rider. Gates nudged Gavrilla and pointed at the Kargo track marks on the ground. Raynard nodded and crouched low, began to scout ahead. Gavrilla was estimating the distance from her to the cavalry when something exploded up ahead, lighting up the sky and raining burning debris everywhere.

Jiro caught up with Judas and Zephan just before the white canvassed cart and saw the destruction before them. Over a dozen burned and charred bodies lay scattered around the road. The middle white canvassed cart was also partly in flames. Zephan leapt onto the side of the smouldering cart and slashed the canvass down to reveal twenty odd agitated rouges, warriors, mages and bowmen. Judas cleaved an injured guard in half before hacking the chains off the prisoners.

Flash watched as a crusader shredded the cart cover and shattered the chains binding them to the floor. As soon as he was free, he pulled the remnants of his chains and started to pick the locks of the weapon crates. A soft voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Let me.” A fire/poison mage murmured, holding his freed arms out. Flash nodded and stepped out of the way. With a whisper and a wave, flame shot into the locks and ruptured them.
“Thanks, I’m Flash, I haven’t see you before, are you in the resistance?” Flash asked as he sorted through the bows and swords to recover his stinger and stolen wooden fence.
“I’m Vincenzo, I was transferred from the West One.” The kind mage answered, retaking his petal staff from the crate. Their pleasant conversation was interrupted when crossbow bolts began snapping past them. Both rogue and mage dove off the cart and rolled into the woods.

Nezumi rubbed his chaffed wrists and after finding his deadly fin and panlid, he searched for his young, eager apprentice. Hopefully he had not done anything stupid or rash in the moments after he was freed. The bandit’s sixth sense tingled and he instinctively raised up his panlid. Recoil jarred his arm as a crossbow bolt ricocheted off. With his own safety to think of, he launched himself off the cart with a cry and landed on the back of a occupied Kargo. The Dark Apostle tried to swivel around but Nezumi dealt a savage blow to him, slaying him instantly. He halted the Kargo and brought it around as he shoved the dead body off.

Ophelia scrambled on top of the first cart, oblivious to the dead guards and notched an arrow to her bow. Shortly after, Verity, Purity and Charity flanked right to cover the bandits’ advance. As she breathed out, Ophelia loosed the arrow, which sailed directly into a guard sneaking up on the crusaders. Her fellow guild members peppered the rear of the cavalry with arrows, creating more disorder. Again there was a explosion except this time in the trees. Presumably an archer had missed their target with an arrow bomb. That was what set off the stampede.

The Kargos have been tamed and trained to handle the noise of traffic, general fighting and hardship, but none of them were prepared for explosions. With a distressed cry, a Kargo snapped its reigns and ploughed into the cart in front of it. Like dominos falling, soon all the Kargo were distressed and rampant. Carts were overturned and fleeing guards and peasants alike were crushed. The Kargos rammed into each other and some managed to depart into the woods, others however ran head first into the fight.

Nezumi was thrown from the Kargo and lay sprawled in the dust. He had just struggled to his feet when a hand yanked him into the woods. At first he thought it was a Dark Apostle but it was his apprentice and the mage he had seen earlier. Suddenly the mage cried out.
“Captain Sap, Captain Sap!” He cried out jubilantly, raising his staff. A moment later, a chief bandit dropped next to them, a fresh cut bleeding on her forehead.
“Quick, we have to rescue as many as we can before they get trampled!” Captain Sapphira told them breathlessly. The three nodded and together they scurried onto the road to drag injured peasants and warriors off to safety.

Flash had just pulled a bowman with a broken arm into the cover of the woods when he spied an unconscious assassin laying among smouldering debris. The fires had illuminated the area well enough for the rogue to see that the Kargos were heading straight for him. Shocked into action, Flash dashed across the road, through the burning wreckage of the cart, heedless of the burns he obtained and closer to the doomed assassin. But it was in vain. The Kargo were at least two times faster than him and although Flash was faster than many, Kargo was not one of them. He watched, partly in despair and partly in horror as the Kargo slammed right through the stricken assassin.

Gavrilla lodged a maple star into the head of a Kargo, bringing it down, only to be knocked down by another. Wincing in pain, she stood up and staggered slightly. The hermit saw Jiro for a brief moment through the flames of the cart before he disappeared. Raynard was still duelling with two guards and Gates was pulling a wounded warrior out from a cart. Then her eyes focused on a body on the ground. Not just any body, Emerson’s body. For a moment she thought he was dead but on closer inspection, she realised that he was just unconscious. But not for long as it dawned on her that the Kargo were heading his direction. With haste, she tried to intervene but a guard blocked her way. Dispatching the obstacle only took a few seconds but it was too late.

As he approached the crushed assassin, Flash almost vomited. The sight was sickening. He could not even believe that he was still alive if not for the faint subconscious flickering of his eyelids. There were a few stray guards and Kargo about but the rogue did not care, he was too focused in trying to carefully lift the body but Nezumi motioned for him to stop.
“Don’t, I think you might do more harm than good.” The mentor ventured, placing a hand on his apprentice’s shoulders.
“You think he’ll recover?” Flash asked, looking over the wounds.
“We can only hope.” Nezumi answered as the dawn broke over El Nath, bathing the woods in a rich, golden sunlight.

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Last of the Shadow Foxes: 13 Elevation