Horizon Walkers (Game Thread) Dead

[hiei82]

Kes wasn't exactly in the state of mind to listen to either Zuria or Lucia. Kes had been reaching for the spear Zuria was using to give her pause; intent on snapping the over-sized metallic twig, but was stopped by Lucia's words. Not because they made her think any differently; only because they were distracting. And infuriating.

There were many good reasons she could use to counter Lucia's point. There was the fact they were dealing with a case of slavery; meaning whatever the laws were, they failed to protect the people most in need of protection. There was also the case to be made that the slaves were likely taken in violation of whatever laws the enslaved were once a part of. Finally, there was the greater question of the law vs. the fundamental rights of thinking creatures.

However, all of these were entirely outside of Kes's train of thought. To her, both the slavery and her potential inaction were wrong and it pissed her off. Before she could say anything however, Dalrel arrived and spoke up. "Did one of you do that?!" Kes grunted in the affirmative; already quite proud of her actions.

From there, Zuria and Lucia argued more about what to do. Talking and words... Kes had heard more than enough. She wasn't going to dignify Lucia's words with a response until she heard the woman's reasoning. "Is 'bad for business'." This only served to enrage Kes more; allowing slavery to flourish to protect your precious money was the same reasoning that allowed slavery in the first place. "Stay out of my way." she said to Lucia, barely holding back the low growl of her rage.

Lucia - and Zuria for that matter - hadn't seen the arena and only she'd truly lived it. It was only their ignorance that earned Lucia reprieve from her fury. Grabbing the sleeves of her shirt, Kes tore them off and tossed them aside. Revealed were the still fresh scars of her enslavement; most notably those of the shackles she'd once been it. "Careful where you tread dragon-kin; you speak of the rights of slavers to one of those who's suffered their lash. The only right of those who live by the slave..." she said, turning to merchant "-is death by the slave."

From there, she returned to Zura - nodding to her suggestion - and setting her gaze upon the man, awaiting his response. If Zuria could secure the release of all the slaves at the cost of allowing the scum to live, than it was worth it. If not... well, at least it would be fun.

 

[Lunar Templar]

"You should probably get that looked at" Was the sum of Lucia's response to Kes scar's, her tone carrying indifference. "But if you insist on continuing this folly, I won't stop you, after all, it's Your ass that will be locked in irons and caged for murder, not mine, and I can't say I'll be broken up about those loss of a squad mate that can't control them selves around those they dislike." With that, Lucia put her back to the both of them and started back toward the tower, intent on resuming her wait for what ever task they had for them.

 

[DarkRawen]

Almost as soon as Des had vouched for the others, Kes threw the man she had been talking to out the window. Surprised, Des just stared for a moment, not sure what had just happened. The lady he had been talking to spoke, snapping him out of it.

"No-no, that's quite alright. If you wouldn't mind, please buy this for them. This is a tall building.."

"I'm sorry, but I have go check on them," he said, but took the chance to wink at her another time. "If they're fine, I'll buy some for them." Running over to the window, he tried to see what was going on.

Are they fighting?

It certainly appeared so.

They look like they're okay, but if they fight... and how did the man do? Is he still alive?

He needed to know more. Luckily, he was fairly sure he could manage to fall from such a distance without getting too hurt.

"Well, what happened now?"

Without giving it a second thought, he leapt out the window, landing rather close to them on his feet, them giving in for a slight moment. With the use of his arms, however, he managed to keep himself from falling on his knees. Apart from some pain from the landing, he felt fine, brushing off whatever dust he had gotten on his clothes, and walking over to the others.

"Hi, are you guys fine? There's no need to fight, right?" Des asked, not really caring too much about the man on the ground. He was breathing, still alive, and was enough.

"Why did you throw him out the window, Kes?" he then asked her, stepping between the man on the ground and the women, though his eyes were kept on Kes. She had ripped off her sleeves, revealing horrible scars, which made his smile lessen for a moment. There was genuine concern in his eyes, he was more worried about what had caused Kes to do it, rather than attempting to judge her. What could Des even judge? Mortals acted strangely all the time, this was just another of those.

I don't want this situation to get worse, though. And I don't think the man should die. Kes seems angry, and perhaps...

"Don't you rather want to go upstairs again and talk to someone more pleasant?" he then asked, wanting to distract her and make her less angry. "There's this lady that sells these strange treats on a stick, I'm sure you'd rather have one of those than bother with someone like that." He smiled brightly, waiting for a response. Turning to the others, he continued.

"Let's just go back to the tower and do something more pleasant, all of us. I'm sure someone will deal with this guy and get him a doctor or something."

 

[IFS]

"The show will begin in a few short minutes!"

"Of course, I'll see which of my companions is interested in attending then be right along," he said, turning to see who he could gather, though some of the others seemed to have engaged in a scuffle with some man. Well its ended up with multiple people going out a window so perhaps scuffle is too light of a word, they can handle themselves though so its none of my problem.

Of course there was the matter of the Empress failing to answer his questions, but that hardly bothered him, receiving no answers was sometimes more informative than someone telling you everything.

At any rate he quickly approached the others "I've got tickets to a show, courtesy of the Empress," he said "anyone else feel like attending? If so better hurry, show's starting soon."

He waited a moment for them to take this in before turning to head after the Empress, if they wished to attend they could follow him. And if not, well for all I know the show will be quite boring, so maybe that would even be the right call.

 

[hiei82]

Spoiler: OOC

This post was a collaboration between Lunar Templar and I

"Coward" Kes spat out, not even bothering to turn away from the slave-merchant.Obviously, she'd misjudged the warrior last night; she had no honor.

Lucia stopped and turned at the insult, normally it was beneath her to even acknowledge such a remark, but. "What would a feral beast know of courage?" she snapped back.

"More than you." Kes responded, almost mockingly. "I may not be the strongest, but I've never backed down. And certainly never with something this important."

Lucia snorted a mocking snort "Right ... So your gonna stick your neck out for a world, and a government, that probably could have handled this them selves, but haven't because it benefits them to let it continue." Lucia said as she walked back over to Kes "Foolishness, let these people clean their own gutters, and if they are unwilling to do so. So be it. Take the money and run, least that way your less like to end up getting betrayed by rich fools who only used you to make them selves looks better." Lucia added.

"Governments? I don't care for such things. I don't care how much power and authority they have. If they wield their power to hurt people, then they're worthless. Leim was worthless and so is this city. Take their blood money if you must, but know all it does is put blood on your hands too." Kes said dismissively.

Lucia shook her head. "Such narrow mindedness. People will be hurt, and killed regardless. Thrown away or enslaved for petty or even no reason at all. Worse are the slaves that don't even know they're slaves." Lucia shrugged "But I don't except some one like you to understand that."

"So that means you should do nothing? I should just say 'It's wrong but doing something about it is hard and hurts me'?" Kes said, her statements more criticism than question. "That's what makes you a coward."

"So says some one that's never seen a truly 'evil' kingdom. These Leim you spoke of? I assume they where big on slavery yes? The kind with collar and cage?. They are NOTHING, compared to the lies spun in the country I was born." Lucia started "You know nothing of the kind of slavery that has the slaves them selves fighting to the death to STAY enslaved"

"That may be so-" Kes said in stride "-but what did you DO about it? I never questioned if there were worse evils out there; only that if you CAN do something good, you SHOULD"

"I have the power to help; I'm going to use it." Kes offered

"There is nothing to BE done. Not unless your willing to slaughter hundreds, or thousands of people. The problem extends to far, and to deep." Lucia started, a mix a bitter hatred and shame in her tone, though weather it was shame for inaction or shame of the place she was speaking was unclear "it's engrained into the very way of life for every one there, I only slipped the leash, because I am no longer human." Lucia sighed "Whats worse, other country's of my world whats going on, but ether won't do something about it, like I said, it would require the deaths of many, mostly innocent people, or can't due to their own internal issues, and that's not even counting the Dragon community's stance on the situation."

Kes stayed quiet for a while. She couldn't fully understand battles between nations, but she could sort of see the difficulty. "You cannot change the world; fine. I know I can't change this world either, but more than any of you-" she said, gesturing at Des and Zuria as well "-I know how wrong slavery is. If I can make things even a little better, than I should." Kes said, her point made.

"If that's how you want to spend your time, fine, I will not put my hide on the line to fix a nations problems again, not with out me getting something out of it anyway." Lucia replied after a few moments.

 

[DarkRawen]

"You cannot change the world; fine. I know I can't change this world either, but more than any of you -I know how wrong slavery is. If I can make things even a little better, than I should."

Des listened to the conversation between Kes and Lucia, not liking that they were fighting. However he had to agree with Kes, people being hurt was bad, and trying to change that was likely worthwhile. He tended to step away from it, what the mortals did wasn't something he could meddle in, but if Kes wanted to do something about it, he would follow. Besides, she had more experience with it than him, and it meant a lot to her.

And, she's still just a mortal.

Kes was strong, Des didn't doubt that, but still a mortal. "I'll help you out if you want to go," Des told her. "It doesn't sound like something you should do on your own. Although..." he looked a bit thoughtful.

"Where would we start?"

 

[Josh123914]

As the doors into the ampitheatre closed, Alex was granted an aisle seat 3 rows from the door he entered from, while a man cleared his throat on the stage and began to call out words in many different languages. All with one similar word:
"jz'dolem," "Holemsk," "Wholem," before it was repeated in a language Alex could understand. "This event will be performed in the official language of the Holem Confederacy" Which clearly earned angry and disappointed groans from certain foreigners in the crowd. However they were the minority. It appears as though most of those present either worked or lived in the Towers, judging by their clothing.

The man thanked everyone for coming, and also the Empress, who waved gently at them from her private box. First were token flame jugglers who could balance a matchstick while performing acrobatics, then came a singer who was caked in clothing so as to obscure her identity, before coming to the main event.
The child from earlier, dressed from head to toe in white, with hair died purple. ''Witness for yourself the wonderous power this one possesses!'' cried the presenter. An array of items were set up on separate podiums. First a cup, then a watermelon, before large clay pots were laid on the ground, the largest being the size of Alex.

The child took a deep breath, stretched out his hands, and the cup exploded. The room was silent as the child moved on to the watermelon. After a moment of anticipation, it too exploded, but in a much more visceral manner. Gasps and cheers erupted from the crowd. The child had to concentrate much more for the clay pot. It was lifted by some sort of wind magic, while the pot lay suspended in a sort of bubble, and dismantled overhead.

-----------------

Surrounded by soldiers in blue armour and ambassadors panicking to get somewhere, Sal met Lucia at the elevator. "Where are those three going?" He asked confusedly. While in the booth he had their plan explained. "What?! I-But that's insane!" He exclaimed as the lift came to a halt and they exited. He wasn't even angry, he was livid that Nettil left him to babysit these people, who obviously have a death-wish.
And now Alex was gone, so there was clearly no agency for even him to wait in this lobby.
"I need to go see the ambassador, stay here."
"CYAR!" He called loudly down one of the corridors.

-----------------

The group continued down the tunnel, as it opened up, almost like an atrium.
The sound of running water could be heard and light poured in to reveal wet stone and green vines, but only in certain spots and leaving much of the area pitch black. Nettil hissed, warning them not to trip over another vine by their feet. They exit the tunnel and into the open space, and Dalrel spots a figure face down in a puddle. ''A body everyone. Let's see who it is...'' Dalrel states, as Nettil prays it wasn't one of her previous Walkers.

Dalrel was half a second from the body before being tackled from the ground by a hooded figure, who quickly procured a cold knife.
Dalrel panicked and hurled a fireball upwards, throwing the attacker off and into a charred mess in the shadows.
One moved swiftly with a dagger towards Kyras, preparing to slit his throat, while two more emerged from the tunnel that they had both entered from, both holding swords, and Nettil narrowly missed an arrow from above by an unknown assailant, as she threw up a stone barrier between her and the general direction of the arrow.

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Kyras's excitement died as he realized they had passed the spot where they had gotten on. With what Nettil had said perhaps she was oblivious of what was going on and thought that he wanted to join them wherever they were going, which was apparently into sewers.

After they stopped he thought for a few seconds before deciding the attendants probably weren't going to listen to him and Nettil expected his help now. So he followed them through the foul stench, burning the horrid stuff clean off of his boots as they found cleaner ground. Vines blocked their path before being burned away by the fire thrower Dalrel. After more wandering they came into an Atrium and saw a body.

"A body everyone. Let's see who it is..."

And then Dalrel was tackled to the ground and a man charged at Kyras with a blade. After shaking off the small amount of confusion that had come with it he drew his blade and slipped the hook of it around the leg of the man that closed in on him before pulling it forward and shoving the man back with his other arm to trip the man before he could stab. As the man fell onto his back Kyras slashed at his sword arm with the blade and then tried to stomp on the mans neck as he hit the ground. The men who had just entered the fight weren't his concern until they went after someone.

 

[Josh123914]

Zuria, Kes and Des proceeded down through the exotic enclave, with one of the islands large bridges extending out nearby and out into the bay. They spotted a few bored guards hanging around outside a warehouse door. As they made their way over they were stopped by an old brown-skinned man. "We don't want your kind here, Walker" he spat, prodding Zuria's leg with a stick.
"I'd suggest the three of you leave"

-------------

Spoiler

The two men near the entrance lunged towards Nettil, but Dalrel stopped both, one with a sword through the throat, and another with a stream of fire.

Suddenly the room lit up. Icicles crystalised on the roof and illuminated the hollow.
"Well, isn't this a surprise." said a voice from a podium on the far side of the room.
"What?" asked Nettil.
Dalrel turned, "What? Oh shit."

The snow elf stood there with shining silver hair and a singed lilac dress. Her skin was the colour of a puddle, she had a large scar over her torso, and had an expression of satisfaction on her face with a crew of guards by her side.
"Remember me? I remember you, Ilyaran. The arena back in one of those Liemian worlds?" She grimaced. "You left me to die." she said, massaging her scar. "And you!" she exclaimed, pointing at Kyras. "You're the reason I have this."
Dalrel could hardly believe what he was seeing, the woman shouldn't be alive, yet here she is, trying to kill them.
She then turned her attention to Nettil. "Oh, and the body must have been one of your employees, glad to see you're finally taking responsibility."

She then looked up to the light filtering into her sanctum.
Dalrel piped up. "Who are you and why are you here?" but the snow elf only giggled in response. "You think I matter? This has been prepared for much, much longer than I've been here. I just made the mistake of getting lost between Horizons. Oh but after the Liemians mistook me for dead, arriving here was just a hop and a skip away-"

"You haven't answered his question. What have you been doing with the water" interrupted Nettil.
"Storing it. Redirecting it. We'll need every drop if the invasion is to be a success."
"Oh, you didn't know about the fleet? It's already set sail from the north, thousands of troops ready to storm this island, but there's already thousands here." She explained.

------------

Sal slammed the door to the ambassador's door open, "Cyar, I-" he paused, witnessing his cousin making a loud groan as a hooded figure sliced his throat open, the ambassador collapsing to the floor. The hooded figure turned his attention to Sal, and all he could think to do was run. Alex, he thought. "Alex!" he shouted, running for the ampitheatre, eyes obscured by tears.

------------
Nettil was trying to wrap her head around what she was hearing, trying to process how this was happening.
"The towers are a symbol of decadence and power for your people. Destroying them will signal a new era" She smiled and pointed at one of the drains. "Why do you think we needed so much water? Erosion. The west tower has some lackluster foundations..."

They heard a rumble in the distance. "Ah," the snow elf said, smiling, staring back down at the group. "It's starting..."

------------

Alex was seated densely into the ampitheatre as a loud rumble shook the room. There was some commotion, but it was all trumped by a deafening burst of noise. Dust flooded the room from the western corridors, and the exits each had 3 guards clad in blue enamelled armour. Suddenly the Empress wasn't in her private box, and from the dust blue lights flashed amongst the screams. The noble nearest to Alex's exit was swiftly shot by a crossbow from one of the guards, the weapon emitting the flash efficiently.

------------

"If I were you, I'd run Ilyaran." The snow elf told him in a deranged manner.
"You six, finish them off." She said, as her and the rest of her squad disappeared down a cavern and into the light of the city.
Immediately Dalrel was met with the clash of a sword, and Nettil took control of one of the vines to disable the archer from above, which left another the two guards behind them, and the three in their way.

------------

Lucia was left idol in the lobby as Sal flew past her without mention.
The rumble had people staring out the large open windows. "The tower! It's falling!" Looking outside showed the bronze-coloured tower to be crumbling, and folding in on itself.
Suddenly soldiers were coming up the stairs with weapons drawn. Without warning two soldiers, a ginger woman and a black man, were stabbing them and ordering any onlookers to run. "Hurry!" One of them screeched.
The lift then opened, with 3 blue-armoured guards appearing. After stepping out of the lift, they stabbed the two Earth attendants as two went to battle the other soldiers, and one pointed a crossbow at Lucia's head.

------------

"Alex!" Sal shouted from down the dust-filled hallway. "Get out of there!" He inaccurately produced an ice shard and hurled it at one of the guards. It stunned one and brought them to their knee, as another guard stopped shooting into the crowd and turned around, confused.

 

[DarkRawen]

When it became clear that this was actually happening, Des followed Kes and Zuria to where they were going. It took some walking, and, while he had things he could say, he felt like staying quiet. It seemed to be important to both of them, and he was simply there to ensure that everything went well. They found a warehouse on the docks, and as Zuria lead them over, a man there spoke, addressing the trio.

"We don't want your kind here, Walker. I'd suggest the three of you leave"

"Hey, now," Des said, smiling politely. He didn't really like the unkind tone, but Des wasn't going to match it, simply spoke as friendly as usual.

"No need to be angry, we're just here to find the answer to some questions, that's fine, right?" he asked, innocently. While his manly charm probably didn't work on them, his friendly and oddly dependable aura did, and he continued.

"Just a little time, okay?" With that, he let the women take over, while he knew what they wanted, he didn't really know what they were planning to do.

Perhaps we should have taken a moment to discuss that.

Oh well, he was sure they would manage.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Lucia eye'd the crossbowman for a second before just putting her shield up and lunging at him in a single smooth motion. The Bolt bounced off her shield and the bowman got laid out before Lucia stabbed him in the neck with the half of her spear that had the blade on it.

Lucia was forced to quickly put her shield up as on of the crossbowman's companions came back to 'deal' with her, followed shortly by the other one as Lucia draw her sword. She didn't know what was going on and she didn't care, far as she was concerned, the guy that pointed the crossbow at her was going to shoot and these two had no plans on letting her live after they finished doing what ever they where doing, and Lucia wasn't about to die for this country.

The two soldiers in blue grinned and nodded at each other. One attacked her head on, trading blows with her. Lucia was hardly impressed with what she was seeing from him skill wise. Sure he was well trained and knew what he was doing, but the way he held him self suggested to her he hadn't seen 'real' battle like she had, and the way he grinned before engaging her suggested he was underestimating her. She had confirmation they where under estimating her with how his partner was trying to flank her. There wasn't much subtly to it, no using the battle to mask the movement of the other, no real trick to it other then get 'behind her', clearly they thought she was just some random 'Walker.

Lucia decided to make them pay for that. She played along for a few moments more to lure in the other one before shield bashing her current opponent to stagger him, and turning to face the other one, and as she turned bring her tail around, slamming it into him and putting him on the floor, as she engaged what turned out to be an elf of some kind. A look of 'oh crap' crossed the Elves face as Lucia started on him. The Elf was good, and a bit faster then his companion but clearly lacked the physical strength of other, as such the Elf was much easier to deal with. The Elves companion righted him self as Lucia bashed the Elf in the side of the head with the edge of her shield sending the Elf to the floor before Lucia put a cap on it by stabbing him in the back and through the heart.

his companion fell, quite literally. shortly after, Lucia pushed him toward the same window Kes had throw the slaver out of, before tossing her opponent out, though he didn't fair nearly as well as the slaver did when he hit the ground. enemy's dealt with she collected her spear from the neck of the crossbowman, and put it back in it's sheath. She had a pretty good guess what the job she was to do would be now.

 

[hiei82]

Kes looked to Zuria. Kes knew what her plan was; punch her way in, rip open the cages, and let everyone out while demolishing anything and anyone in her way. Of course, Zuria seemed to have more of a "peaceful" approach. While she didn't like the idea of allowing anyone who profited from the slave trade to get away without her judgement, the safe rescue of the slaves was of greater importance than her personal opinions.

As such, being the person least able to talk her way into anywhere, Kes waited to see what Zuria wanted to do. If Zuria gave a signal to attack, then that's what she'd do. Until then, she'd wait; however impatiently.

 

[DarkRawen]

Des couldn't quite follow what was going on. Nor because it was complicated, or even that quick, but because Zuria had gotten hurt. Badly hurt. It didn't help that people were running everywhere, wanting to get out, not caring who had helped them or why.

Such a sad sigh.

Really, it made him depressed. Humans could be so... thankless. And cruel, just to save themselves they were walking on the person who had been hurt when trying to save them. Des couldn't understand the feeling they had to be experiencing, he had only been a slave for a little time, only the tiniest fragment of his lifetime. It still made him sad, though, they were devoid of any care, from the look of it. Was it because of how they had lived?[/i]

But some don't act like that. Kes didn't.

It started calming down. Of course, the guards where still a difficulty, when not getting toppled by the mass of poorly clothed mortals, that is. Making sure that Kes was safe, Des decided to help Zuria, see what he could do. Stepping forward, he withdrew the dagger from its sheath, and slashed at the nearby guards, trying to harm rather than kill, and urging them to get away from the hurt woman. His protective instincts, however, made it more of a frenzy than a calm action, not only did he want to help Zuria, but he also wanted to ensure that Kes didn't get hurt. There was a lot of blood.

I don't like this.

Des didn't want to see the result, and turned away when he had driven them away -he didn't know how if he had killed either of them, but he had seen an arm come off and it was terrible- he sat next to Zuria.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, and looked at her wound. "Kes, how do we... how do we help her?" he asked, though he knew about something. Pulling a nearby rag closer, he put it against Zuria's wound, hoping to stop the wound from bleeding.

 

[hiei82]

When they first saw the cages, one of Kes's first actions was to look for any of her own kind among them. She knew it was a selfish and vain hope, but she so hoped to see some of her own kind among them. The hope was short lived however as Zuria opened the cage, was stabbed, and trampled.

Seeing Zuria wounded was enough that Kes jumped into action. Just as Des went for one of the guards so did she go for the other; aiming to intimately introduce the man's face to her fist. She'd honestly hoped for better from her fellow - now-former - slaves than a simple stampede but she could hardly blame them. Fear was a powerful emotion and when suddenly replaced with hope at escape, they would have little regard for taking it at any cost. That was the problem when you treated people like animals; they tended to behave like it.

Once she'd made it close enough to Des and Zuria to hear Des's words, she took charge as best she could. "Keep pressure on the wound and try to get her to a medic or healer or herbalist." she said, remembering her days in the arena. "I'll buy you and the liberated a little time to disappear then meet you... where we stayed last night." she added, remembering to be vague enough to not let the guards track them down.

Realistically, it was the best plan. Between all of them, Kes had the best chance of losing pursuers due to her extreme physical abilities. She could place obstacles in their way with relative ease and run longer then them. More, she could shrug off any wounds she did take better. Her only concern was Des being able to carry Zuria... he'd never seemed the physical type.

In any regard, she could buy them time. She owed them that AT LEAST for helping her with the wrongfully imprisoned.

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Kyras just stared confused at the woman he mildly remembered cutting down back at the arena. What in the hell had he walked into? That didn't matter right now. Enemies in the way, something was happening, and the island was apparently being invaded. Run or fight? The rumbling in the distance told him that it was time to run.

Pulling energies from around himself he began throwing fire at the men in his way, the plants around his enemies, and anything behind them that looked flammable. He yelled "Run" and then he charged through the men in their way as they started panicking to put themselves out.

One tried to stop him but got a burst of fire to the face for his troubles. The other two managed to gain some calm as he positioned himself in place behind them. As they started being disciplined again he started lashing out at them. He'd keep them off balance and distracted until Nettil and Dalrel were past them.

 

[Terratina.]

Sewers, they almost smelled as bad as swamp gas back on his home Horizon. Trahaearn expected overgrown rats and the like, not overgrown vines, an angry Snow Elf and some hired muscle. Either way, wasn't a problem for him. One of them, another Elf, was throwing fire in a mindless flurry. Trahaearn sighed, he hadn't slain anything fire-proof for a while; he would actually have to put effort into dodging the fire in order to get to their foes. First, Trahaearn simply charged to the two behind them, giving them each a thwack with the Beast Lord's arm. No need to kill, let the water do that if the Snow Elf was right about that. Afterwards, Trahaearn adopted the stance of a beast and growled, ready to pounce at any minute.

 

[IFS]

"Get out of there!"

Alex had been watching the show with mild interest when suddenly dust had begun pouring in, the empress was nowhere to be seen and some idiots were firing crossbows. Wonderful, an assassination plot on the Empress perhaps? I would have been more subtle about it. At any rate I seem to be in some trouble here.

Fortunately his uniform had a bit of cloth that could be pulled up to cover his mouth and nose, which he made use of to keep from choking on the dust. Visibility on the other hand would be more of an issue, but squinting somewhat worked well enough. Besides the place didn't have a complicated layout, the only thing preventing him from moving with eyes closed was all the people moving about, particularly those who were armed.

Sighing he drew his sword in one smooth motion, darting towards the confused guard, grabbing his crossbow and shoving it upwards while stabbing the man in the gut in a single motion. He kicked him off the blade and kept moving, it seemed that it was time to go.