Bloody snow falling (After math of Broken Lives. Open)

[Victor Crowley]

It was another boring night of Guard duty. His mind was thinking about what will Lisa choose to dosince she's living with him. Will she follow the sword, or event he lance? Or maybe she will be an Axe user or even an Arcane wielder. His thoughts would be broken when he heard the sounds of screaming coming from an alley to the west. Unsheathing his sword, Victor bolted through the back streets to where the screaming came from. His emerald green eyes saw a younger man with a sword pointing it at a very old Cleric. She had dropped her purse of money to the ground as the young thief demanded more then what she gave him. Quickly moving in, the thief would know what him as the feeling of the side of a sword hit him square in the side of his temple. The person hit the ground somewhat stunned. The old Cleric thanked Victor, picking up her money she would flee from the scene. The Mercenary walked over the person and began to examin him. Armor and shield red like blood. Pushing the sword away, victor grabbed the collar piece of the young thief and lifted him up so they were face to face and would say to him. "If I catch you again, I''ll chop your left hand off and make an Example of you. Now Leave" Throwing him back into the snow, Victor would pick up the Iron sword and keep it on him. The youngster ran off out of town. His rounds kept going through the night and the feeling someone watching him was coming more frequently. Stopping in his tracks, victor turned around drawing his sword out again to see who it was behind him.

The street was empty. Taking the tip of his sword, he'd make a semi circle infront of him and say outloud. "Whoever is hiding in the shadows, show yourself and make your business clear." He waited for an answer. Snow flakes began to fall from the heavens above. Laying gently on his bare arms and blade. The whiteness of the snow seemed forever in this village. His grip on his sword was strong. He wasn't going to make a mistake of being unprepared. A figure came walking out of the shadows coming into Victor's view. It was a male in his mid to late 30's. The unknown person had his arms hidden underneath a crimson red robe like clothing. "You smacked around one of my men. I'm not going to let you get away with that without something in return.", "And what would that be?" The person's face bared an evil grin as he said in a cold tone. "your Life...and maybe your whole Village as well." Victor was shocked at first but snapped out of it as he lifted his sword into his ready stance for a fight.

Through out the village, people walking in the streets from that town began to be attacked by these unknown enemy in red armor and clothing. Blood shortly began to spill across the streets as the snow ran red. This perosn infront of Victor came running at him with two blades in both hands. He was able to block one of the hits, but the second blade sliced his arm. Taking a few steps back, Victor would try to gather himself and began to think. 'This person is well expiernce in fighting....mabe former military or even Hire Blade. Whoever he is, he's to good.'

[Butorega]

“I hate Illia”, spoke Butorega aloud as he walked through the cold street. His crimson jacket was shut close and a scarf was wrapped around his neck. As the brigand walked through the snow he heard the sound of screaming and chaos. Run they shouted as men in crimson armor and robes rushed through the street slaughtering the innocent.

“What the hell”, spoke Butorega as he felt a sudden thump on his leg. The brigand looked down to see a young girl laying in the snow. From what he could tell she was fleeing from something and ran directly into him. The little girl looked up and saw the brigand and his crimson jacket. A great fear entered her eyes as she stared at the burly man. “Hay brat”, spoke Butorega, but his words were soon interrupted by a man rushing from a nearby building.

“Good shot, now finish the lass off”, spoke the man towards Butorega. Apparently the people in red though that Butorega was one of their own. This very fact dawned on the brigand as he took another look at the girl. The frighten expression was the result of such an idea and the very fact pissed Butorega off.

The brigand drew his axe, and simply stood there in front of the little girl. “Hay what is taking you so long”, spoke the other man as he walked up to the brigand. At that very moment Butorega planted his axe in the man’s neck.

“I don’t work for you”, spoke Butorega as the man’s blood drained from his body. He then turned toward the young girl. “You need to run”, spoke the brigand and the little girl sprinted into the darkness. “What the hell is going on here”, spoke Butorega out loud as he rushed into the darkness heading for the sounds of the screams.

[Victor Crowley]

As Butorega ran through the village, he could see that it was a massive killing spree going on. The Towns guard was trying to put up a fight but they were losing badly. Most of them were already dead. One of the raiders would stop walk out infront of the Brigand with Lance in hand. Armored up, the person looked at him and asked him. "Where do you think your goi...wait....I don't remember you at all. Who are you?" The tip of the lance was now aiming at Butorega. But before he could answer, the knight would thrust the lance at his chest.

Mean while, Victor was badly injured and left to die by the unknown person. Dragging his sword, he would stumble in the back streets. Every now and then would lean on the walls to gather himself as best as he could. He had to stop, placing his sword against hte building next to him. He grabbed a hand full of snow and packed it on his wound on his left arm. It quickly ran red, but stopped the bleeding. Grabbing his sword again, he made his way towards the most active spot in the village which seemed to be the center of town. On the move, he kept looking down every street to see if he can spot Lisa. If she was smart, she'd be hiding in the house in the floor. But as he looked down one street, he saw a familiar face and it rolled out of his mouth. "Axe." Victor saw that he was being faced down by a knight of the similiar built if not bigger then Butorega. From what happend in Bern, he knew that he could hold his own rather well. So he kept moving, running into a few children who were running another Knight. Victor would body rush into the red knight in through a house door. Taking his sword, he'd drive it through the center mass of the armor. The raider screamed out in a bloody scream before he died. Victor stood up and saw the children still standing there. He ran over to them and would say, "Come on kids, follow me. I'll keep you safe." They knew him as a town guard and followed right behind him. His route would lead right up to Burotega again. 'Hopefully he's helping and not attacking us....I can only hope.'

[Butorega]

Butorega dodged the blow by turning his body to the side. He had faced many knight’s before and knew how to counter the lance well. Unfortunately the man was quick to retract his lance and as quickly as the first strike came a second soon followed. The brigand however was way ahead of the man. As his axe cut through the air Butorega moved toward the man’s right side.

He was now on the knight’s weak side as his shield was on the other side. Butorega attacked with a light swing. Experience taught him to go full force on the first hit. The knight arm took minor damage, but a swift retaliation with a shield bash would give him the advantage. He swung his shield, but Butorega had already leaped back. Normally the brigand would have been off balance and would have taken a blow from the knight’s shield. However because he attacked with a light attack he was able to recover quick enough to dodge.

“Now”, shouted Butorega as he rushed in. He was now ready to commit all his force into a strike. The brigand lunged forward and smashed his Iron Axe into the steel helmet of the knight. A loud pop sound filled the air as the inferior quality axe smashed through the tough armor of the knight. “It is all about power”.

“Axe”, the word rang above the chaos as Btuorega turned around to see Victor with some children.

“Well if it is not sword”, spoke the brigand as he stepped over the knight’s corpse. “You mind explain to me why the hell is it so cold here. Oh an you can also tell me about the raiders attacking the village.”

[Victor Crowley]

Victor walked over to the Brigand who took down one of the knights as well. He would reply back to him, "For your first question...this Village is sitting half way up a Mountain Axe and as for the second question, lets just say...it's because the leader is feeling alittle butt hurt. So if you don't mind, we might want to keep moving. We fight together Axe and we can make it out of this place alive, what do you say?" The mercenary lifted up his free hand towards Butorega to see what he will do.

Mean while, On the other side of the village.

Lisa was at the house still. When all hell began to errupt outside, she went to a hidden door that was underneath the floor which revealed a secret tunnel that led to the guards house. She was almost there when she could hear a few of the guards fighting just above her. She didn't need to see what was going on. Her hearing was good for she could hear a Horse outside of the building and in a few moments of their engagement, the guards that were above her now lay on the floor dead. "klunk, klunk, klunk, klunk. ssssllllaaa, Thud" Her eyes closed as it was the sound of the warrior taking the weapon out of the guard's body and letting it hit the floor again. The horse ran off. It was alittle while before she could muster up the courage to step up the ladder to the floor hatch and lift it up to take a quick peak. Besides the two bodies, the building was empty. Lisa quickly crawled out of it and hurried to shut the door. THe heavy oak table that sat in the building would act as a good barricade so she would try to push it towards the door and when she did, she pretyt much flopped onto the floor a bit exhausted.

[Butorega]

“I have been up mountains, but it has never been as cold as this”, spoke Butorega, “Man the cold here in Illia feels like it gets into your very soul. None the less”, spoke Butorega as he took a look around. “We need to move.” Butorega stopped for a moment and looked at the crimson armor worn by the dead knight. He could not help but be reminded of the knights of bern and the resistance in his homeland. “I have a bad feeling I just got myself involved in something I am going to regret latter. Well it is too late now for regrets” spoke Butorega.

“By the way where is pipsqueak”, asked Butorega as they moved through the town. “You know that girl you saved during that thing in Dragons Peak.”

[Victor Crowley]

"She's either in one of two places by now. 1.) at the guard house at the main gate or 2.) she's in the abadoned mine outside of town. Either way, they won't find her. She's gotten better at being silent. Besides Axe, I wear no slevees all year long here. I'm use to the cold." The two of them stopped at the same time as the same scent hit their noses, smoke. Victor looked around and towards the East the red glow of a massive fire was seen over the roof tops and smoke filled the night time sky. "We either get out of here or we will die....follow me." Victor began to make their way towards the guard house at the South of the Village. The children was in between him and Butorega so they stayed safe. Half way there, the coast was mostly clear. It began to make him wonder where did everyone go. Even the sounds of screaming died down to only the wind whisteling by and the sounds of the fire roaring still. Victor stopped in his tracks and looked back to motion for Butorega to come up to him.

"SOmething not right, the whole time we were making our way south of the village, we've been hearing screaming from the villagers. But now...it's quiet. They couldn't have killed everyone off that fast." Victor looked ahead where the guard house was sitting. Darkness was filled in it and as soon as Victor popped his head out to take a look on the main street towards the main gate, he could see an archer and a soldier standing at the gate. Their eyes didn't see him yet. He quickly stood back up and sighed. "Two enemy at the gate. an Archer and a low ranked soldier. What do you think Axe?" He would look at him and listen to his answer.

[Butorega]

“And now the town is on fire”, spoke Butorega as his nose picked up on the smoke. “I sear it is almost as if I planned this raid myself. “ As the duo began to move out again Butorega took the rear. It was a position he did not like to have, but essentially it was the only spot left. The only fighters here were him and Victor and Victor knew where they were going.

Suddenly it became quite. It was weird and completely out of place. In a raid like this there should be screaming. The lack of such either meant that the raiders had killed everyone, or that they had captured everybody else. Either way it was not a good sign. Victor signaled for Butorega to come up to him. He immediately began to talk about the same thing Butorega had noticed. He pointed forward to a guard tower where an archer and a soldier were station.

“What do you think”, spoke Victor.

Butorega stopped for a moment and began to rub his chin. He had not realized it before, but his facial hair was starting to grow back. It was about time he had another shave, or simply let his hair grow out. The brigand was brought back to their current situation by the sound of one of the children mentioning a dead body of someone they knew.

“I think this”, spoke Butorega as he turned around and picked the dead corpse with one hand. He began to drag the body around the corner and walked out in plain view of the archer. “Hay looks like I found a live one”, spoke Butorega as he cut the distance in half. Using his crimson jackets similarity to their uniform he was able to approach without worry of being shot. Of course he accepted a generous donation from the dead knight in the terms of a helm that worked well in covering his orange hair.

[Victor Crowley]

"Oi, seems to me that you knocked the poor fella out cold since he isn't moving. Take the poor chap to the mine where the rest are being hearded." The archer would say out loud as Butorega came closer to the two. Victor could only watch at the moment since he had to keep his eyes on the children right beside him. The soldier would also churp in, "And when your done with that, come back to the village and search the town for anymore survivers. The 'Bosses' whats to make sure that the town pays for their harsh deeds." The brigand could see on the left side of this young soldiers face the impreshin of the side of a sword as if he was smacked rather hard by one. But one of the children would whine alittle bit and bother the archer and the soldier heard it. "Go check it out Sten." The archer nodded his head and took out a Steel bow. Arrow knocked, when he went to where he heard the noise, there was nothing but the drag marks from Butorega and the signs of what looked to be children tracks along with one set of adult male tracks.

"Oi Bret, seems to us we got some runners in the Village playing hide and seek. I'll find them.", "If any give you any trouble, kill them. At that note, kill them anyways for the trouble of having to find them. We'll just say that they tried to attack us and you defended yourself." No response from the archer as he began to follow the tracks heading back North. It was now just Butorega and the soldier at the gate. "It has it's advantages of being a sibbeling of one of the bosses big guy. Well, get going. We don't want him to freeze death yet."

[Butorega]

“About that”, spoke Butorega as he dropped the corpse. “I found something interesting on this chump.”

“Oh what”, spoke the soldier as his eyes lit up. There was nothing like treasure to a raider. Butorega grandfather once said that a beast is most venerable when it’s feasting. The same applies to raiders when it comes to treasure. 

“A murder knife”, spoke Butorega as he quickly drew a from his belt and slit the man’s throat. The man immediately pulled his hands to his throat attempting to keep the blood inside, but it was too late. Butorega had already slit his jugular. “Don’t fight it. Just let it happen.” Those where the last words he heard before his life ended.

“Better go find sword”, spoke Butorega as he kneeled over the man’s corpse. He cut loose the man’s coin purse and stuck it inside of his jacket. “He won’t be needing that.” Butorega then rushed off to find the archer leaving the man’s corpse on the ground.

[Victor Crowley]

Victor and the children ran down an ally in between the pub and a couple houses. It was blocked off from a fire that collapsed the one house into the ally. The children began to panic as it seemed they were trapped. The Mercenary saw the back door to the pub and motoined the children to go inside. As the last child ran into the new place of haven, Victor felt a sharp pain in his right fore arm and at looking at it, he could see an arrow sticking half way out. His eyes looked towards the beginning of the alley way and saw the archer from before with a devilish grin on his face. A low growl came out of the throat of victor as he turned his body to face the intruder. The enemy archer would see the Mercenary starting to run towards him. Pulling an arrow out of his quiver, knocking it and pulling the string back, he'd let go of the string. Seeing the arrow about to fly, Victor went to his knees and slid on the wet snow bending backwards letting the arrow fly above him into the raging inferno behind him. Thanks tot he slide on the ground, Victor was in striking distance and before the archer could get another arrow onto his bow's string, he'd feel a pain go right through him. Victor had swung his blade making a slice across the young archer's chest. Standing back up, Victor came back with his blade for a second strike onto the enemy as he took a step behind him now.

Butorega came running around the corner to see Victor sliding his sword out of the archer's back with blood rushing to the ground. As the tip came out, the now dead archer hit the snow covered street. Blood was all around the body as the nerves of the arms and legs twitched. Victor still had this growling going on until he saw his allie standing there. He'd take his sword and wipe the blood off it using the clothing of the dead archer. The children heard only the silence and peeked out to see the after math of the battle. Walking out, they came up to both of Victor and Butorega. The eldest one who was twelve asked, "Can we leave now? Our homes are now gone." Victor would nod at them and would look at Butorega. The arrow was still sticking through his arm as he breathed heavily from his minor fight.

[Butorega]

“I think that would be best”, spoke the Brigand as he opened his back pocket. He pulled out a half empty bottle of rum and a roll of bandages. “Here”, spoke Butorega as he handed it to Victor. “Use that to disinfect your arm and wrap up the wound. You should probably sweep by the tower and get these kids out of here. Pipsqueak will probably be there. If not she may be in the heart of everything. From what I could gather from the brigands they seem to be herding everyone to the mines.”

Butorega stopped for a moment and looked into the fire burning down the buildings. “I myself am going to the heart of this monster. I might be able to kill the leader of this attack, or at the very least lower the amount of men he has left. Seeing the fact that they mistake me for one of their own approaching the mine would not be that hard.”

[Victor Crowley]

Victor took the items from the Brigand. Taking his free hand, he grabbed the arrow's tip and pulled out the arrow letting it fall to the ground. Stabbing his sword into the dirt road, he'd begin to clean his wounds. While doing so, he'd begin to remember a song his father use to sing while he cleaned his wounds. So he began to sing it as well, "The Dragon's shall take flight to save our homeland. The mighty knights shall defend from the savages around our borders. Brothers of Bern, hail to the Wyvern King. With might, we shall destroy the walls." Finally bandaged up, he pulled his sword back out of the ground. Slowly making their way through what was left of the town which 50% of it was now up in flames. A hatered burned in his eyes as he picked up the pace from walking to now running. The now orphans followed right behind him, making their way to the guard tower.

Meeting no resistance, Victor would hold his hand up siganling everyone to stop as they were now infront of the tower. The lights were out and he slowly made his way into the building. "Lisa, you here?" After he asked the question, he could see a Slim lance try to run him through. Grabbing the shaft, he would stop the attacker dead in their tracks and would see it was Lisa. The very person he took care of since Dragon's Peak. She saw who it was and all but cried as she hugged him. He held her close and said, "We need to get out of here. But first of all. You will need to get these children to somewhere safe. From what our friend has said, everyone who is still alive from town is being hearded like cattle into the old mine. So you take them to the town at the base of the mountain and wait for me their." She only looked at him and then sighed nodding. He gave her back the lance for her to protect the children and herself. Walking back outside, Lisa walked to the children and began to take them far away from the hell that was to be unleashed here this night.

"Well Axe, you're not going alone into that turrent of Inferno alone. Before anything, call me by my first name. Victor, I'm getting tired of hearing Sword all the time." Looking at his sword he would begin to think out a plan and then hand it to Butorega while explaining. "If they think your with them, you captured me and we can sneak into the mine together. Just make sure your close to me so you can give me the sword back, I want to drop as many as I can."

[Butorega]

“Likewise”, spoke Butorega as he extended his hand for Victor to shake. “The name is Butorega, Butorega of the town Littlerock.” As Butorega shook Victor hand he looked him in the eye. “May we never meet on the battle field son of Illia. By the way it was a good song.”

As Victor gave his plan of action Butorega shook his hand in agreement. “Very well”, spoke the brigand as he pulled some rope out of his bag. He took out his murder knife and cut small slashes into the rope. From a glance you would not be able to tell, but Butoerga had weaken the rope to an extent were if Victor could break out if the plan went sour. He then tied him up and placed Victor sword on his back.

It was a queer feeling to have a blade resting on his back. Butorega had always carried and axe. The feel of a sword was completely different. His mind could not help but wonder back to all the swordsmen he had faced up to this day. All the wounds he had suffered and the feelings of victory when he planted his axe into some of their skulls. The brigand was pulled out of his found memory by a guard as he and victor approached the entrance to the mine.

“Got another one”, spoke Butorega.

[Victor Crowley]

Victor walked into the damp and dusty mine. Counting to himself on how many units there were guarding the civilians. '3 knights, a healer, an archer who was placed on a beam that was ready to cave in with a proper strike. The two made it to where they were holding the town's people. Victor turned around to face one of the knights standing up with lances fixed on the crowed. He'd yell to them, "Which one of you is the leader of this slaughter house?" A laughter came out of them, finding it funny but not answering the question. 'So that menas that those five aren't the lea...' Then the cold feeling from earlier came over him as Butorega would see this person finally. Standing behind Victor was an Assassin dressed in all black. His face covered fully and his one blade trailing down Victor's spine saying to him. "I thought I left you for dead back earlier on? Eh, no matter...all of you will die in here. But not before the big cheese askes you freaks of snow a few questions."

Victor's eyes would look at Butorega as the Assassin would disappear and would lip to him. YOUR TURN. MAKE IT COUNT. Victor backed up to a wall and leaned on it so no one would see him breaking the ropes that bound him. THe sound of something heavy walking down the tunnels was heard echoing through the mine. Whatever it was, it wasn't humanoid that was doing the walking. Almost as if it was on four legs. Then silence, no heavy movements, not even the sound of breathing was heard. It was as if all of sound was sucked out for the time being.