Fear, Fanatics and Fighting - The Order: Part 3

Fear, Fanatics and Fighting
The Order: Part 3

“You promised not to harm us.”

   Aethone stood firmly in front of Shira while Meline clinged to the Puller’s forelimb, looking for at least a bit of security in this ominous place and situation. Roihiran had recovered from the initial shock, so he had taken his regular defensive pose next to Aethone, pointing his dangerous tail tip at Shira while showing her his teeth. To Aethone’s reminder, Shira chuckled in a villainous way.

“Cailu isn’t here right now to protect you, is he? Oris orders us to purge the heretics as we please.”

   Meline let out a small wiper as she tightened her grip around Aethone’s leg while the big Puller gave a very disappointed and disapproving look to Shira. She potentially could face her in one on one combat, but considering the utterly dangerous claws Shira had, Aethone knew she wouldn’t last for long without proper armor and a healer.

“My, I knew the followers of Oris were fools but straight out liars on top of that? Why am I not surprised…”

   An unfamiliar feminine voice from somewhere above them caught everyone’s attention. Up on the ledge was a white Runner with black markings, only her upper body visible and front paws elegantly crossed as she was looking down at the rest with her deep red eyes. Shira’s ears flicked back as she hadn’t noticed the intruder, glaring at her intensely while trying to figure out what to do to catch her. Our trio was equally stunned, but they had hope that they now had an ally to potentially help them.

“Who are you?”

   Shira pressed through her teeth while the rest of the clan members had their eyes on the beautiful lady high above them. The stranger seemed completely calm, both with her state of mind and elegant yet calculated movements. She stood up, which revealed her having a pair of gorgeous large leather wings. She stretched them out and gently jumped off the ledge, gliding down between the frightened group of fellow topsiders and maddened Shira. She landed softly like a feather, folded her wings and looked at Shira with cold superiority.

“Elywen, here to remind you of your place.”

   Meline, Aethone and Roihiran had their surprised eyes only on their savior. Elywen looked so slim and brittle, how could she possibly face down someone as brutal and massive as Shira? Especially now when the enraged Haedian was foaming as she furiously yelled at Elywen, seemingly ready to bite her head off with one go.

“How dare you, filthy outsider!?”

   Shira had lost control of herself as her clawed paw was already aiming to give Elywen a decent smack across her punchable face. Before that could happen, there was suddenly a glowing magical barrier between the two, Elywen still looking completely unfazed as she had stopped Shira’s attack with seemingly no effort.

“I see you’ve grown too bold. Fine by me, let’s settle this at your arena.”

   Hissing intensively in response, Shira turned around and headed towards her armor storage space to get ready. Elywen watched her go, then turned around to talk to Aethone and the two Empyrians clinging to her.

“Why are you here?”

   Her cold demeanor didn’t comfort Meline much, but she decided to trust her nevertheless and quickly told the story of how they found the entrance, then met Cailu and visited other clans till they reached here. Cailu had left to get reinforcements on his side while Shira decided not to honor the agreement. Elywen listened to the whole story, then sighed.

“The fanatic followers of Oris are not to be trifled with, especially this bunch down here. Follow me to the arena to stay near, at least there they’ll be too busy watching the show to pick a fight with you.”

   Elywen started heading somewhere, not rushing with her majestic steps as she led the way, Meline, Aethone and Roihiran in tow. Finding the arena wasn’t difficult as the majority of the Order had already gathered there, shouting and cheering Shira’s name while the horned Hae herself was standing at the other edge, rage-filled eyes locked on Elywen while a couple other clan members fitted her armor on her. Elywen calmly walked to her own spot to wait till Shira had finished the preparations, while our misfortune trio found seats right at the arena’s border to witness the events about to unfold.

   When Shira was ready, the helpers cleared out to the sidelines to watch. She picked up her spiky weapon and a sound of a large horn announced the start of the combat, allowing Shira to dash towards Elywen with the intention to knock her out cold. Stopping a pawstrike with an arcana shield is one thing, stopping the full mass of a large angry Haedian was another as Elywen skid backwards from the force of brute impact, slightly struggling to stand her ground.

“Elywen! We believe in you! You can do it!”

   Meline used the opportunity to cheer her on while she was still near them, and hearing Meline do that encouraged Aethone to do the same.

“You got this! Wipe that smug smirk off her face!”

   Her low strong voice could be clearly heard all across the arena, which made some of the clan members jeer in response. Roihiran, however, had other things in mind - he had noticed how one of the clan members had positioned itself strategically to a spot where it had the opportunity to fire a dart, which they were aiming at Elywen. Roi saw how everyone else was busy focusing on the clash, so he decided to solve this situation by himself. While Meline and Aethone were cheerleading Elywen, he snuck away from his spot and swiftly made his way towards the potential saboteur without being spotted. As he got closer, he could feel how his magic grew weaker as if it was suppressed by something, which made him realize what the poisoned dart was supposed to do.

   Elywen had switched from defense to offense as she was shooting numerous magical arrows made of energy at Shira, pushing her back further away from her. Meline watched in awe how powerful Elywen’s magic was as she knew very well how taxing it must be to conjure such a force. Aethone didn’t appreciate much that this wasn’t a fair physical fight, but given who Elywen was facing she was more than happy to see Shira being defeated. Shira herself, however, did her best to block off the arrows being thrown at her with the strongest parts of her armor, and when Elywen offered a moment for Shira to make her next move, she swung her weapon right at her with the intention to distract with it while she reaches behind the shield with her tail to make the witch lose her footing. This plan didn’t work, as Elywen was too fast to react and blocked both attacks with success, making the crowd shout in disappointment and Meline together with Aethone cheer from the top of their lungs.

   To avoid her tail getting slashed in half by a magical blade, Shira pulled away from Elywen and glanced towards the Haedian who was supposed to neutralize Elywen’s sorcerous advantage. To her dismay, she saw the Haedian down on the ground, paralyzed by Roihiran’s sting while Roi himself was examining the dart. Feeling Shira’s eyes on him, Roi looked at her and gave her a mocking grin while flailing with the dart, before he stuck it into the already defeated saboteur, introducing more poison to its body. Shira grunted from frustration before her attention was drawn back to Elywen, who had taken flight and up in the air, out of Shira’s reach as she was charging up for more powerful attacks. Seeing how successful Elywen had been so far against the Harbinger only fueled the hope in Aethone and Meline while they cheered on with even more passion, while Roihiran remained at the spot he was in and sent a few encouraging shouts towards Elywen as well.

   Shira began to realize what kind of trouble she was in, but that didn’t stop her from utilizing her rage-powered bloodlust and unshattered pride to stand her ground against Elywen. Their intense sparring continued, kicking up dust while the air was filled with Elywen’s magical essence being released, all the while the members of the Order started to grow frustrated with their leader’s progress while Meline, Aethone and Roihiran had already forgotten how scared they were of Shira just moments ago.