87 Muddle of Battle

Dawn was interrupted from glaring at the back of Raven's head when Tira came back. The graceful half-elf seemed to meld directly out of the shadows startling the queen.

Dawn wondered where the other two were. From Tira's unpanicked approach she did assume they were alright though.

"Our quarry is here." Tira looked just a little excited. "My brother and Vixen are keeping an eye on them. They seem wonderfully occupied. And totally unaware that we are here."

Dawn nodded. Now was as good a time as any then. She turned and looked at the rest of her companions.

"You all heard Tira. Now is a good chance for us to eradicate these worthless assassins. Be careful, but do what we came to do."

She turned away from them and headed directly towards the entrance into the underground. As she passed Raven, he whispered to her, "Nice. Short and to the point. But do remember to take your own advice."

She nodded, but did not verbally answer him. If she talked to him right now, she was sure she would be getting on to him about what he had done. But this was hardly the time to be dealing with that.

So, she brushed past him and headed into the dark cavern. Tira naturally took the lead, as she already knew the way.

As they walked, Dawn felt excited. After so long, she would finally be able to finish what she had sworn to do.

She was aware that there was a nervous energy in the group though. Not everyone of course, but quite a few of them seemed unsure of how this would come out. Not that Dawn could blame them for that uncertainty. There were far more of the enemy than what they had.

But, Dawn had not wanted to draw more attention to themselves. A smaller number was better for being discreet.

Dawn did not really feel the same nervousness. Without Arrion there was not really anything waiting for her back home.

She could hear the Grimshades before she saw them. And they were distracted, just like Tira had mentioned.

She could hear one of them threatening someone. It did not seem to be fazing the person. Resolutely, a female voice was refusing to be bartered with.

Just as Dawn moved to be able to see, and as she slowly drew her weapon the man doing the threatening suddenly drew a long wicked looking dagger and snarled, "Fine then. If you refuse to cooperate then you have no use to us."

The knife slid into the woman's stomach and she staggered back, taking it with her. Blood blossomed and began to spread across her robe.

Dawn gestured her people to attack before the female ever hit the ground.

Confusion reigned in the cavern as their prey had not been expecting a sudden attack like this.

They scrambled for anything they could use a weapon.

Before they managed to get themselves armed, Dawn's little troop had managed to down fourteen of them. And Miria had moved to the woman's side, stopping the flow of blood and getting the blade out of her.

One of the twins had moved to protect the cleric as she focused on healing.

After that, to Dawn everything just became a blur. There were enough of them that she had no idea how anyone else was faring. Well, she could see flashes of fire, so she had an idea of how at least one member was doing. And everyone now and then an arrow whizzed past her, thunking into someone about to manage to catch her from behind. Lowks had a pretty accurate aim.

She was not sure how many men she had downed when she found herself face to face with the leader of the troop. He was a gaudily dressed man who looked little more than a fool, but Dawn knew that that would be underestimating him.

The way he held his sword it was obvious he knew what he was doing. More so than his followers.

Despite the fact that this man was so much more dangerous, Dawn did not hesitate to engage him in combat. He might have been trained in the art of a sword but so was she. She had even practiced with her husband before. She really doubted this man was better than Arrion had been.

As they fought each other though she was becoming increasingly aware of how good he was. This was not going to be easy. He was good at dodging. Well enough that he had been dodging every single arrow that nearly hit him.

Dawn poured her all into the fight. Blocking his blows, returning them, and trying to get past his defense. She managed to nick him but then she messed up. A single wrong footstep, putting her in the direct swing of his sword.