A Battle Won

Liam drew his war axe. "Well," He said "How the welcoming committee has changed."

One of Mark's men stepped forward.

"You're under arrest for the murder of Sir Mark, the leader of this village."

Liam eyed them, "Arrest? Arrest?" He asked, "Last time I looked soldiers arrested criminals, not half grown men, with steel plated toothpicks, and old iron swords. But either way, you get in our path, you die."

Dante stepped forward as well, "Thomas, get behind us." He said to the wagon driver.

Luke stepped forward, unslung his bow, and knocked an arrow to it in a second. He then aimed it at the leader of the group.

"Get out of the way, now," He said, "Or I can put an arrow between your eyes."

The leader of the group reached behind him, and pulled out a wooden shield with iron straps on it, that had been there.

"Men," He said "Kill them all."

The other men drew their own shields, and charged.

*******************************************************************************************************

Liam witnessed Luke fire the arrow, and all of a sudden the bow arrow ignited with a eerie blue fire, but it didn't seem to affect Luke at all. Luke released the arrow.

It hit the leader's shield, and set it ablaze. The man quickly dropped it, and began to charge once again. Luke fired again.

This time it caught the leader of the group in the eye, setting him on fire.

The man fell to the ground screaming in pain, but by then, Luke had shot another, flame-arrow.

The second arrow caught another man's shield, and he fired again, this time, to kill.

The flame caught the unfortunate man in the shirt, lighting him on fire.

The flame devoured quickly, until in about twenty seconds the entire body, had turned to ash.

Dante was next up, he pulled out his daggers, and charged through the soldiers. He got behind their shields, slashing at the arms holding the shields, and their throats.

Two men fell, dead, and four others dropped their shields, their wrists slashed.

*******************************************************************************************************

Liam charged, swinging his war axe, and it crushed the shield of one of Mark's men. The man crumpling under the power of the swing, and falling to the ground, dead.

The shield, was now stuck on Liam's axe, so he used it as a bludgeon instead.

He sprinted forward and swung the axe, now bludgeon to crush two more, he glanced around himself, and charged at the men who had their wrists slashed.

He quickly crushed three of them, to the fourth he swung the axe, and it knocked of his head, and it flew through the air.

It landed some twenty meters away, a horrified expression on his face

Through Liam's peripheral vision, he thought he saw Dante looking at him with anger in his eyes, but he discarded this as nothing more than a fanciful notion.

*******************************************************************************************************

Luke had slung his bow over his shoulder, and drew his sword.

As soon as he had pulled it from it's sheath, Liam saw it glow with the same eerie blue flame that his arrows had blown with.

Then Luke darted into the fray, slashing at the shields of Mark's men.

The shields were set ablaze, quickly turning to ash within seconds. In barely any time at all, the remaining men were defenseless, their shields now gone.

The wood burned, and the metal straps now molten. Luke emerged from the crowd of the remaining nine men, and retreated a little ways away. Then he sheathed his sword, and the blue flame extinguished.

Luke raised a hand,

"I'll leave the rest to you three." And with that he sat down on the ground, crossing his legs in a comfortable position.

Liam and Dante smiled, and then, realized with a start, that they had totally forgotten about David.

*******************************************************************************************************

They both glanced around, searching for the knight. Both pairs of eyes found him quickly, he was laying on the ground where they had been originally, unconscious, with the a man holding a knife to his throat.

Luke's had spotted him too, and stood up, alarm in his eyes.

The man saw them looking at him, and said,

"Drop your weapons, or he won't wake up."

They dropped their weapons, and the remaining nine men encircled them.

Two surrounded Dante, two around Luke, and five around Liam.

Dante smacked his head, "Not again," he said in disbelief.

Liam looked up just in time to see Thomas rose behind the man that held David captive.

Thomas unsheathed a short sword that Liam knew must have been concealed in his cloak.

In one swift stroke, Luke witnessed Tomas cut the man's head clean off.

As soon as they saw that David was safe, Luke, Dante, and Liam leaped into action.

*******************************************************************************************************

Liam grabbed the nearest man's s blade, and winced as the razor sharp edge dug into his flesh.

He twisted it out of the man's hand, and used it to strike the man, knocking him unconscious.

Then he darted through the gap that the unconscious man had left.

He tossed the sword in the air, catching it on its way back down, and turned to face the remaining four men.

Then swinging the sword with all his strength, he cut through one man's defense like butter, and slit the man's head open killing him instantly.

When he picked up the fallen man's sword, the other men didn't stand a chance.

He slashed through the other three easily, and proceeded to kill the unconscious man.

*******************************************************************************************************

Luke darted between the two men, and retreated a hundred meters away. The he stood still, and concentrated. As the two men charged, he opened his eyes.

From his hands a fire ignited an eerie blue flame.

The men were upon him now, and he darted between them with lightning speed.

Both men felt a burning sensation on their foreheads, before crying out, and falling to the ground.

Soon nothing remained but a pile of ashes.

*******************************************************************************************************

Dante, had an easy time with the men guarding him.

He drew two throwing knives from his cloak, and used them to stab the surprised guards, though the chest, straight into their hearts.

The collapsed dead.

Dante sighed with contentment, the fight was finally over.

The adrenaline that had kept Liam going stopped flowing now, and he collapsed.

His hand bleeding, and his energy gone.