The Fox's Tail [The Order of Maltet]

[Orcleous]

"Shint", cursed Orcleous as he sprinted through a snow covered forest. The champion was not wearing his iconic crimson half plate, nor was he wearing his exotic leather armor. Orcleous had left the base on a stealth mission, and not the kind where you sneaked around a enemy encampment, but the kind were you visited taverns and looked over tall hills. Orcleous mission was yo simply find the enemy army and gage there progress and area of operation. A simple mission and one that did not require much fighting. A local food merchant and guard where often scene around Illia. It was a mercenary state after all. Orcleous was dressed in his black trench coat and a pair of tan slacks stuffed into boots. The outfit of a traveling merchant or possibly a simple guard. Orcleous did not even bring his famed warhammer Xigshaw. It was all about blending in, and unfortunately he did.

The mission was going fine at first. Him and his allies had made it to a small town called the Dales. They had picked up rumors about the enemy movements and confirmed them in the field. Orcleous, being the risk taker had moved to a hill to see if he could get a look at the enemies army. Moving to the mond he got his look, but also got pegged by a enemy scout. A few riders went out to investigate and this leads us to where we started.

"Dang it, I should have brought my armor, or at the very least Xigshaw", murmered Orcleous to himself as he sprinted toward the meet up point. He did not want to return with trouble hot on his tail, but Orcleous was going to need his steed if he wanted to get out of here alive.

"Halt", shouted a great knight as his horse crashed through a snow covered bush.

[Sigma]

The Dales was quite bountiful in terms of information. Who knew that drunken mercenaries were that easy to get info out of. Well actually everybody knows a drunk man is a talkative man but few had Sigma's cunning social prowess. It was very easy to ask the right kind of questions to make them say by themselves the info Sigma was looking for. He was also lucky to find a soldier who had wandered off for the evening to drink a few beers and maybe find company. Buying the soldier a few rounds was all that was needed for him to start complaining about certain travel routes and ridiculous patrol schedules and whatnot. Now that they had everything, the resistance just needed to regroup back at the meet-up point where their horses were waiting. Sigma did finally get the hang of horseback riding, it was almost second nature by now, he did always value his quick learning skills after all.


Orcleous decided to go scout out to enemy camp we had been informed about. Being quite worried about his reckless decision, Sigma kept a watchful eye and an open ear to make sure he heard if any trouble occured. Orcleous was powerful, but not "destroy an army without any advantage" strong. And that was even more true since he wasn't wearing any armor, neither did he have Xigshaw with him.

His worries were justified when he started hearing horses far away while orders were being barked around. "Oh crap", thigns were not looking good. Looking at where Orcleous was probably located, Sigma started heading for the woods with his shortsword. Climbing a tree, he then started to travel towards the sound, making sure he always was high enough to stay out of somebody's eyesight if he was looking directly in front of him. Thank god he was good at acrobatics, that usually saved him when he couldn't hold his own in a one on one fight.

It didn't take long to see the marshall sprinting towards the rendezvous point. However, an armored horsman, a paladin actually, had just stopped him dead in his tracks. Sigma needed to act now.

Jumping to a smaller tree, he quickly got pretty close to the enemy, maybe about 3 meters diagonally down. In a matter of seconds, Sigma was over him and came crashing down with his foot kicking the man hard enough in the head to knock him off his horse, which was scared enough by Sigma's daring plan to start galloping away a few meters. Sigma took a heavy fall too unfortunately. Wincing in pain slightly as he got up, he could feel that his right shoulder was not okay. He couldn't tell right now if it was dislocated because of the adrenaline, but it surely didn't feel good. Thank god he was left handed at the very least.

Looking at Orcleous, he shouted while the paladin was quickly regaining his senses:

Either kill him quickly or run! The horses are saddled and ready!

[Orcleous]

Is foolishness contagious? Can it pass from one person to the next through the air or is it simply humans trying to learn from each other. If you asked Orcleous he would say it was a bit of both. Orcleous had messed up and got himself spotted. A armature mistake. The champion was sure he could either out run his enemy or fight his way out. During his flight however a great knight caught up with him. It was now time for action and Orcleous blade was ready to answer the call, however Sigma was the first to act. The little fool had rushed to aid Orcleous and with a feat of unimaginable acrobatics he jumped from a tree and knocked the night from his saddle.

"Are you a fool", shouted Orcleous as he drew his blade! The champion rushed over to the fallen knight and swung his blade. The man recovered quickly and blocked the sword blow with his axe. The block however thew him off balacwe, but his guard was still strong enough that Orcleous would not have the time to get a slash in before he could give a proper block. It was a good thing that Orcleous was not going to use his weapon. Following up his last attack was a swift puch to the man's breastplate. However this was no ordinary punch. This was one of Orcleous legendary smites. [Smite] Orcleous began to channel the natural energy through his body. The flow of energy traveled through his body and moved up through his arm. As his fist made contact with the armor the force was greatly multiplied. The man flew back like a arrow shot out a great blow and slammed into a tree. The force killed the man instantly as his head slammed against the wood.

"Listen Sigma, thanks, but you should have been worrying about yourself. The loss of one guy is bad but two is a disaster." Orcleous could hear the calls of the Eturian troops and the hoves of horses. "we need to move and fast, but first", spoke the champion as he moved toward sigma and poped his arm back into socket. The sight of it was grossing him out. After thst Orcleous jumped up on the great knights horse, come on we can move faster this way", spoke the champion.

[Sigma]

It didn't take long for him to draw his sword and attack the fallen knight. His block wwas futile though when Orcleous came in with a punch filled with energy. Watching the knight crash into the tree, Sigma couldn't help but wonder if the stories about warriors chanelling some kind of inner power he kept hearing back home may have been more true than he thought... He couldn't really deny with what was happening right in front of him... "Wonder if I could ever harness that kind of power" Sigma started wondering, since it distracted him from his shoulder. Hearing Orcleous talk to him about his recklessness, Sigma made a slight grin before talking:

- What can I say, I guess I'm just a big softie inside right?

Though his cheerful expression didn't last long when he felt the bone being popped back into its right position...

- Waitwait-GAHH! *heavy breathing* Jeez, you're pretty good at that.

Moving his arm around, he felt good to see it wasn't hurting as much anymore but it was still sore. As long as he could move it though he wasn't complaining. Following behind Orcleous after the pain in his shoulder had mostly dissipated, he quickly followed his order and got on the back of the warhorse. Lookin around, he could hear the other soldiers closing in on their location. The sound of the hooves in the snow was definitely a stressful sound considering the situation. Riding towards the rendez vous point, Sigma asked Orcleous who was controlling the horse:

- So hold on, how big was tha camp? ANything we could realistically take on?

[Orcleous]

Orcleous mounted the war horse and Sigma joined him. The duo began there move to reach there own horses. The war horse was a sturdy mount, but the beast was breed for power not speed. To top it off it was covered in armor and double mounted. There was no way they were going to escape on the back of this beast. Orcleous needed to get to his horse and take the escape route they had planned out. It was a simple plan, but Orcleous doubt it would hold out, even more so with the fact that he had killed the knight. Any chance of mercy they could have had was now down in the dumps.

"The enemy encampment", spoke Orcleous making sure he did not bite his tong. It was going to be quite the report to Aeos once ge got back. They were expecting a army, which was good because there was one at the gate. Orcleous did not get a chance to count them, but he remembered the forces from the city of heroes campaign. He had seen armies of thousands and could recognize the size. "From my guestament, probably two thousand or more. They have a vast amount of mean power. Even if we killed a hundred men each it would still not be enough." Orcleous paused to let it all sink in. "I warned you before that ..." Before the champion could finish a horse erupted from the bushes with a rider on horse back. Pulling on his bow he released a arrow that barely missed Orcleous head.

"Damn", shouted Orcleous as he turned his horse past a tree to try and make some room! they were half way to there mounts when the mounted archer appeared. A second one came on the sceen as well and fired his projectile.

[Sigma]

Two thousand!?!?! Sigma suddenly a sinking feeling of despair set in. That amount of soldiers seemed almost ludicrous. Sigma had not even seen more than a few hundrer soldiers at the same time, an army of two thousand was alomst impossible to properly imagine in terms of size. No, he had to stop thinking like that. Anyway they never were going to actually confrotn the army head on, that was a given. It doesn't matter how big they are, cutting food supply and other guerrilla tactics work on any number of opponents. It was still hard to be optimistic though, this wasn't a story being told in a bar, this was real life, but in a way that's what Sigma wanted and he was getting it in spades, so no complaints in that regard.

Suddenly, a mounted archer came out of nowhere and almost was able to shoot Orcleous directly! "Crap!" They were catching up too quickly! Damn, this horse was not winning any prizes with two human on top of it... What to do, what to do? It's in these kinds of situation where he wished he had learned archery...

Seeing a second horseback archer, Sigma had just enough time to see the enemy pull back on the string and also lower his body to a point where he was more hanging on the side of the horse, only one leg still on the top. Seeing the arrow fly by where his body was, he quickly pulled himself up although it made his shoulder hurt like crazy... Trying to keep his calm, Sigma tried to make sense of the situation and find solutions:

- We're slow and we're a big, loud target, we might have to take a detour or simply ditch the horse. Hide in the woods and sneak our way back t-

*THUNK*

The arrow came in at an incredible speed. He wasn't sure where it hit the horse, but it definitely did it since they were now on the ground, in the snow, it hurts. Slowly getting up, Sigma was glad to see that both of them were okay. It didn't take long for him to start sprinting towards the woods.

- Come on, we need to lose them before going back to base!

[Orcleous]

"Who would have guessed that Eturia had horse archers", spoke Orcleous as he jumped to the side of the horse sending his body into a roll. The champion had seen the arrow when it had hit the horse, right into its neck. It was a perfect shot. The arrow head hit the spot right were the plates meet. This allowed it to bypass the armor on the horse. Of course the beast panicked and the inevitable was going to happen. Orcleous opted to take the most prudent rout and abandoned ship before the horse body feel on his leg and crushed it. The fall to the snow was harsh, but Orcleous rolled as he hit defusing much of the damage. That however did not change the fact that they were still being hunted. The moment Orcleous could get onto his feet he drew his blade, a smart move considering there situation.

"Die worm", spoke the archer as he let lose a arrow from his bow. The projectile cut through the air like lightning. Only a swift block using the flat end of Orcleous blade saved the champion from a early grave.

"MOVE TOWARD THE HORSES", shoued Orcleous! Rather than charge toward the escape point Orcleous harged toward the archer. With his greatsword at the ready he was prepared to fight the man. The archer fired another arrow at Orcleous as he charged. The projectile was this time cut down by Orcleous powerful swing. Rather tan keep firing at the champion as he got closer the archer opted to pull off with his horse some and try to fire again when he had some distance.

While things seemed bad for the duo they had a few things to there advantage. The pine trees that littered the place made it difficult for the riders to move around and often blocked there shots. The brush and snow made it hard for the horses to move and the weather was starting to turn bad, a common phenomena in Illia.

As Orcleous attempted to close the gap another rider made his way through the bushes. His horse galloped at full speed looking to get the champion from behind with his lance,

[Sigma]

TOWARDS THE HORSES!?!?!? Was he crazy!??! Watching the man sprint towards the mounted archer, Sigma couldn't but think that this guy might be slightly crazy... How in hte hell was he going to defeat him on foot? Mounted archers are known to be very powerful opponents and without any armor or shield, there was no way he could try t-

*CLINK*

Di-did he just cut down a moving arrow with his sword? Did he just block an arrow moving at top speed while he was sprinting at it with a freaking sword!?! He couldn't believe what he was seeing, it's almost like nothing could defeat him! Never in his life did Sigma ever see this much precision with a blade... Man, now he really wanted to do some training sessions with the champion. But now's not the time for that. Running to try and catch up with Orcleous, Sigma still tried to stick to where trees were more densely packed since he wasn't able to deflect projectiles like he had just seen. But suddenly, another rider came into the fight by crashing through the folliage in between the two of them. Seeing he had his target set unto Orcleous, Sigma knew he had to try and cover him while he was attacking the archer.

- Hey over here!

Sprinting towards the cavalier, Sigma was able to jump on the horse from behind. Being now closer to the enemy, it was a lot harer for the tip of his lance to reach especially since he was holding it in front of him, ready to stab Orcleous. As he tried to elbow him in the head, Sigma was quick enough to see it coming and block his elbow and deviate the direction of the blow to the side. The plate armor sliding on his forearm as he ducked slightly was still able to cut through th sikin due to the sheer force the cavalier seemed to be using. How badly did they actually want to kill them? Sigma was fearing what would happen if they got caught. Taking his sword in reverse grip, he was able to quickly stab through the man's throat and then jump off the horse with relative ease as it continued to gallop with a dead man on its back. Though he did have quite a rough landing, and by that he actually fell in a big pile of wet snow... Rapidly getting back up, he dusted himself up as he started running back towards Orcleous to assist him.

[Orcleous]

"Sigma", shouted Orcleous as he turned around to face the incoming horseman. It seemed that his underling had saved him again. He guessed next time he thought to himself he would give him a far better title than underling. Still Orcleous was a bit surprised by the performance. When he first started fighting there was no way he could pull off something like that. Orcleous did not have the time to sit and think. They needed to reach there horses to get out of here. As Orcleous turned around to face the horse rider a thumping sound and a sharp sense of pain overwhelmed his his left arm. An arrow, no doubt from the mounted archer had found a spot in his bicep. If he had been wearing his crimson armor that blow might not have pierced, but the black leather of his coat gave little defense.

"Dang", spoke Orcleous as he shifted his blade with his right hand to deflect a incoming second arrow. Orcleous needed to tend to the arrow wound, but he did not have the time at the moment. Quickly Orcleous rushed behind a nearby tree. Another arrow came by and sliced at his face, but he managed to avoid another hit. Under the cover of the tree Orcleous was able to rip the shaft off the arrow. It did not stop the bleeding or remove the head, but it was enough to get the champion back into the fight.

Orcleous rolled off the tree just as the archer fired. Using the snow and brush of the nearby thicket Orcleous took refuge from the archers line of sight, "dang it", spoke the mounted archer as he began to measure his luck. The clouds were bad and the wind was picking up. There would be a storm soon. He did not want to get stuck out there with these guys. Using his wisdom the archer moved his mount to put some more space between him and the champion rather than dismount. Orcleous seeing opportunity waited till his horse was pointed in the opposite direction to hop over the thicket and cut the ground between them. Holding his greatsword in his right hand Orcleous charged his enemy.

[Sigma]

Seeing Orcleous getting hit by the arrow made Sigma scared for a bit. If Orcleous falls there's no way in hell he would have a chance to get out of there, not with Etrurian knights chasing him like an animal... Seeing him stay calm while removing the arrow shaft though made Sigma realise that he shouldn't worry too much. This guy had been around the block a few times, an arrow wasn't going to stop him even slightly. Sighing due to relief, Sigma saw him start to dash towards the mounted archer who was trying to get a better position to pepper them with arrows.

Following right behind him, Sigma was ready to assist the campion in taking down their ennemies. For now, he'd wait for him to do the first move though, Sigma wasn't gonna push his luck after that last cavalier, he could've very well died there and then. Clutching his shortsword still in a reverse grip, he started to sprint so he could get closer to him. At least speed was one of his greatest attributes so it wasn't hard for him to get only 1 or 2 meters next to Orc. He felt cold due to his fall in the wet snow, but surprisingly... He felt happy in a way.

Long gone was that boredom he felt back at the capital. There was a high chance he could die right here but he still felt in a way that this is what he was meant to be. A man of action! Somebody who will BE history, not one who shall recite it! That sort of new passion fueled his spirit as he felt more than ready to fight next to his commander. Looking towards him, a smile filled with a mix of determination and excitement appeared as he said:

- Let's do this!

[Orcleous]

"Sigma, good timing. I want you to fall back and get the horse from the fallen knight, remember escape is our top priority. I will handle the archer. Unlike last time I have something to close the gap. My natural energy has recharged." With that Orcleous rolled off the tree and charged the mounted Archer. The man notched another arrow and fired. Orcleous quick on his feet and watching his prey quickly shuffled his feet and dodged the arrow before it truly left the bow. Not having his armor on made the champion vulnerable, but it also gave him more agility, agility that Orcleos was going to take full advantage of.

"Ghhaa", Orcleous began to roar as he drew closer. The archer seeing danger fired another arrow, which Orcleous cut down, and began to move his horse. However the champion had something to stop that. "Skill", spoke Orcleous as he began to channel his natural energy. There was only one skill in his innovatory that could aid him in this situation. As Orcleous opened his eyes he began to focus his energy into his mind. A pulse began to erupt from his body the same one that he used when he formed the Order, Daunt.

[Daunt Activated]

As the rider moved to create space he felt a sudden pressure that fell over him like a weight. However he was not the only one to feel this. His horse also felt the pressure and began to panic. The beast knave as the pressure refused to relent and eventually tossed its rider off its back. Falling into the snow the archer could not fathom what was going on. He felt this great fear. As the sensation stopped the archer looked up to see a figure leaping through the air to come crashing down toward him.

"Your mine", shouted Orcleous as he came down with his greatsword. The blade of the weapon smashed into the man and turned the snow a bloody crimson."

"Mount up and move out", Ordered Orcleous as he calmed the frighten horse. Once he got it stable he hopped onto its back and began to direct it toward there true mounts.

[Sigma]

Sigma was slightly disappointed about being told to let Orc do all of the fighting just when he was getting his fighting spirit. But he decided to still follow his orders, disobediance right now would be not only stupid but auto-destructive. Letting the marshall take care of the enemy, Sigma sprinted to find where the horse had ran off to. It gladly only took a few moments to find the steed with its dead rider on top. Sigma did a problem for a few moments to try and remove the heavily armored corpse, but after a few quick strong pulls, it plopped down into the snow like a sac of potatoes. Getting comfortable on the seat, Sigma took control of the horse quite well and was able to regroup with Orcleous as they galloped towards the original rendezvous point.

He could still hear the sound in the distance of patrols and horsemen barking orders. Man, they were really hellbent on capturing them. Was war always this savage? Well, actually dumb question, of course it is, but he still didn't expect their ennemies to fight with so much hate and passion towards them. Finally able to take a look at himself, Sigma realised that the horse's sadle and now his clothes were drenched in blood... The smell was overwelming, to say the least. It wasn't his first time killing somebody, far from it, but still, it was never something he was particularly happy about doing. Looking at Orcleous, Sigma told him something:

- Orcleous, is going to base directly a good idea? What if we lead them directly to our camp? Maybe we should lay low for a day or two. At least if we're still being followed, we won't bring them to headquarters...

[Orcleous]

"Yeah I thought about that", spoke the champion as he pressed his horse forward. Sigma might have not noticed it yet but there was a storm blowing in. There was no way they were going to make it to base before it hit the area anyway. "When we get to our mounts we will ride to a house not to far from here. There is a storm coming so it should cover our tracks, from there we will move to a town and hang out for a few days just to be safe."

Seeing that he had a fresh horse waiting for him ahead of the path Orcleous began to beat the horse like a rented mual. The champion sent the beast into over drive. As they rode the wind picked up and snow fell from the heavens. Orcleous arrived at the meet up point to see Wilson, the man he recruited when he visited the refugees waitng with there horses.

"By the great heros, I thought you both were dead."

"We could be if we don't ride", spoke Orcleous as he dismounted the horse and moved over to his own stallion. Taking the moment Orcleous pulled the arrow head out his arm. He did not even bother taking it slow. The wound started to bleed, but Orcleous slapped some vulneary onto it and wrapped it with a crimson scarf he had in his saddle bag.

"Hey we need to hurry a storm is comming if we..'

"I know", spoke Orcleous as he jumped back up on his mount. "We need to reach that old barn before it catches us. I am sure our pursuers are probably turning back or crazy, so we need to move quick." With that Orcleous pointed in the direction he remembered the barn and began to ride that way.

[Sigma]

Arriving at the meetup point, Sigma was relieved to see that Wilson had kept his end of the bargain and watched the horses for them. Sigma was getting attached to his steed, so finally being back on its familiar back made him feel a bit safer and calmer. Looking at Wilson before following after Orcleous who was already heading for the barn, Sigma decided to give a piece of advice to the man.

- They still don't know about you, so this is your last chance to get out of here alright? Just think about it to make sure you're making the right decision.

With that, he sprinted to catch up to the marshall. He was still in shock that they were still alive after that. He knew that it was all thanks to Orcleous they were alive... Actually Sigma started to wonder if he wasn't simply slowing him down? I mean, he didn't even know how to fight like a real swordsman... While looking around for possible enemy patrols, Sigma decided to apologise a bit about his actions:

-I'm sorry Orcleous. That whole thing was reckless of me. You're right in a way, both of us dying wouldn't do us any good, on top of the fact that i wasn't really that much help considering i was able to dislocate my own shoulder... I guess what I want to say is I'll try to follow your orders better from now on. I can't go and simply do as I please because my gut tells me to do it.

He guessed this was a part of getting wiser, being able to stop acting in your own interest and start truly thinking about the entire group's wellbeing. Sigma wanted to become a better fighter but also a more reliable part of the resistance. This whole made him understand a bit more about the dangers of war and what he would have to do.

[Orcleous]

"don't worry about it sigma, you did right. You don't abandon your brothers in arms. Tactically it may be a flaw, but you won your gamble. Both me and you got out of the woods alive. Who would have known what would happen if I was there by myself. Those riders could have cut me down. Then where would we be without a marshal. Besides you saved me hide back there so thanks. That being said Sigma think before you act. Make sure you have a clear plan and know how to implement it. This is war. You will never know who is going to die and when. One day you might have my job giving out orders and making big decisions."

As the group road toward the barn the wind picked up. Illia had always been known for its fearsome weather. The wind and snow has stopped many a merchant and bandit alike. The same was true for armies and spies. By the time the group reached the barn the entire area had become White. For three days they were forced to stay in the barn the weather and snow locked them in. If Orcleous had any fears of his enemy catching up to them it was soon gone. Not even the mightiest army in the world could pierce that wall of ice. After three days had passed Orcleous and the group was on the move. Following the plan they took a deture for a week insuring they were not being followed. After the coast was clear they returned to base to give there intelligence.

[Thread End]