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The clerics looked ready to run and Ned saw a mage preparing to attack him. Ned charged at the mage, hoping to stick his sword in the mage's gut to interrupt their attack and hopefully convince the remaining clerics to flee.

"Away from the battlefield if it's not any trouble." Selana said as held onto Tristian to try to avoid falling off the horse. "I mean, the camp if it's not any trouble." She corrected herself after realising that her first direction was very vague and was trying to avoid succumbing to her body's desire of sleeping.

Seeing that the Indartians were pulling out, but left the commander's horse, Daud took it that he should be the one to care for it--or vice versa, in this case. Groaning, he heaved himself onto the horse, who was a bit frightened, but not terribly unused to the weight it was now bearing. He leaned low in the saddle, clutching his chest wound, and set the horse into a trot towards Prince Isaac and the others. Daud gurgled and choked for a second, then spat out a mouthful of blood. Gods. I need healing or I might just die here.

Isaac, Daud

Isaac gasped as he saw Daud struggle to approach. "By the Gods, Daud!" he shouted, rushing over as soon as the scramble with the Ormicans was clear. "Duncan, quickly!"

Duncan, having just healed Selana, was a stone's throw away and began to run over to the prince.

Not waiting for the cleric to arrive, the prince dropped his rapier and fumbled around with his belt, producing a vulnerary. "This won't stop it, but it'll hold you over until Duncan gets here. Take it, quickly." he instructed, holding it up for Daud to use.
Ned

Ned's charge was a solid option, as his sword struck the mage just as he loosed a fireball. This skewed his aim, sending the fireball rocketing out into the air.

The fireball narrowly missed Naomi and struck the pegasus that she was hanging on to, sending it falling to the ground. The azure-haired thief let go at the last moment and fell into a roll, laying on the ground and gasping for air as she had been winded by the impact.

The rider of the pegasus had safely made it to the ground and joined the Ormicans in retreating to Bellhall. Soon enough, the forces of Arcymis were the only opposition left against the Esteans, and they were dwindling quickly.

Daud reached for the vulnerary, almost fumbled it, but grabbed it, popped the cork out, and brought it to his lips, drinking about a third of what was in it. He gasped as the healing magic knitted him from the inside, mending some of the damage that had been done, and slowing the bleed.

"Th-thank you, my Prince." Daud blurted out. He put the cork back in the vulnerary and tried to suppress a groan. It still hurt like hell and needed mending, but Daud would live.

Still leaning on horseback, he saw Naomi fall to the ground and begin gasping for air. He dismounted the horse, but quickly regretted the decision, groaning and holding his chest. "Someone...should help her." Daud advised, gesturing towards Naomi.

Ned retrieved his sword from the mage's corpse. He looked at the remaining Arcymis forces, then Naomi and back at the Arcymis forces. Ned sighed, he began to jog over to Naomi. "Gale, Robin, kill these pricks!" shouted Ned as he made his way to Naomi. At this point he trusted that they'd be competent enough to handle it without him. Ned could think of a couple of jobs where he could have used someone like Gale. Well, someone like Gale who was less eager to suck out people's souls anyway. Ned still found his desire to kill people in such imaginative ways disturbing but Gale was good at what he did. Ned had his bag of salves and vulneraries ready as he crouched down in front of his fellow thief, he inspected her trying to judge the best course of treatment. "Where are you hurt?" Ned asked.

Seeing the Pegasus fall, Gale refocused on the mage and eagerly awaiting the moment he would drain the life from the man's broken body, making sure Robin was out of the way he fired another cone of air moving at bone breaking speed. This spell however was designed to cripple the opposing Dark Mage's ability to fight back, preferably by breaking all the bones in his body

Isaac, Duncan

"You did a great thing, Daud. You deserve some rest. We'll finish things up from here." the prince continued as Duncan arrived. Duncan waved his staff in the air as he had done several times, washing Daud over with a healing light that further mended him. As he did this, the small blue crystal at the tip of the staff shattered, its' magical energy spent.

Naomi

The azure-haired thief coughed and pushed herself up from the ground. "I... I'm just... winded." she muttered, still catching her breath. Contrary to her words, she held her hand on her side, her ribs likely injured from the fall. In any case, she wasn't in any apparent danger.

Dark Knight

The Dark Knight opened his tome once more and prepared to launch another blast of magic at his opposition, but his course of action was interrupted by a clean slice to the neck from Faye, whom had commandeered her horse once more after the Ormicans had fled. The Dark Knight fell to the ground, and his head fell a short distance away.

__

To one of the sides of the canyon, the forces of Esteos could see the remaining yellow-clad Indartian troops leaving the city of Ebonreach. On the other side, the remaining Ormican forces were retreating to the city of Bellhall.

Isaac looked about and nodded. "We need to occupy the city as soon as possible. Let's go, and aid those who're hurt." he announced to the others. For the moment, the situation was clear.

Daud exhaled, relieved, as the hole in his chest was mended shut. He passed back the vulnerary, and gently nudged his horse to trot towards Ebonreach. "My lord." was all he could further manage to say, still trying to catch his breath. He looked empathetically towards Naomi, and those others injured, though he couldn't do anything for them. All he could do now was rest and try to oversee the assistance and fortification of the city.

"I think you might have bruised your ribs, mind if I take a look?" asked Ned. He had his hand out, ready to lift her top and take a peak if she let him. He wanted to make sure she'd be okay and that nothing was sticking out of her.

Tristan was surprised at her willingness to cling to him. It was not unpleasant, merely... unexpected. He clung to the reins a little tighter as they rode.

At their brisk pace, the riders soon reached the camp, upon which Tristan advised her, "You should get some quick rest. Lord Isaac is like to call upon you in a short while."

"Thank you again for giving me a lift." Selana climbed off the horse. "I shall take full advantage of the time i have to recover and take care in the battle." She went to look for a place to rest afterwards.

One Day Later

The city of Ebonreach was easy enough to occupy, as the Esteos Company was welcomed by the citizens of the city. The hardy people of the City of Forges did their part to help repair the damages and give their Prince a place to recover from the skirmish, and provided both he and his company as well with some additional equipment.

The mayor of the city offered his residence for the Prince to use as a base of operations while they planned out the rest of their actions for the coming days. There, Prince Isaac gathered his vassals for a meeting with the mayor, so that they could discuss what had happened over the course of the siege.

Prince Isaac

Isaac stood from his chair at the central table of the meeting room. Looking at those present, he smiled. "Well... here we are. I cannot thank the lot of you enough. Taking the city was no easy feat, yet here we stand with an easily defensible headquarters and a place to lay our heads. It's thanks to you that we're here now; however, as you all know, this isn't the end. There remains the city of Bellhall, and there remains the fact that the forces of three nations are still abound."

Kasumi

"Making it here, nothing short of a miracle." Kasumi stated bluntly, putting her hand to her chin in thought. "Additional troops from Ebonreach will help immensely. Still need to find main fronts of remaining forces."

"Straight to the point as ever. Thank you, Kasumi." Isaac agreed. "She is correct. There are things we must to; find out where our three separate opposing forces are concentrated, and then drive them out one-by-one. Our force is too small to split into three." he continued, looking to the mayor. "Mayor Torm, is there anything you can tell us?"

Mayor Torm

The mayor, a middle aged man dressed in relatively fine clothes yet with a sickly look on his face, nodded and stood to address the attendees. "I spent a majority of the siege in my own dungeons, yet my spymaster faithfully kept tabs on our... guests. He learned that the Indartis forces are based at a large camp that they have set up at the border of The Breach."

Faye

Faye's head turned at the last few words. "The Breach?"

"Aye, The Breach. The crater full of water left in the wake of the city of Estralis, like a great wound on the face of the land itself. I have been told that it it is massive, the size of a small sea, with violent waters swirling in a massive whirlpool."

"Estralis was a massive city as it was." Isaac muttered, obviously disturbed by the description of the state of his former home. "So we will have to venture there to drive out the Indartians. However, I still think we should find out the locations of the other two main armies before we commit to marching on one. The fact that this war is on multiple fronts makes it easy to travel around while the other forces scuffle, but it also means we are prone to flanking if we don't know where our enemies are."

Naomi

Suddenly, and to the surprise to the room, Naomi spoke to Isaac from her seat despite her inexperience in war. "Milord... we'll need all the forces we can muster, yes? Why not investigate the bandits under the control of Ned's brother? Who knows how many he has under his command."

Faye shook her hand. "Employ criminals to fight with us? Never."

"Yet here Naomi and Ned are, Faye." Isaac retorted. "I am not above pardoning men for acting out of desperation. And of course, desperate measures, as they say. It's simply a matter of how much time we have to spare to investigate these bandits."

"No matter what, can't leave Bellhall under enemy control." Kasumi interjected, aiming to get the conversation back on track. "Must take it first. Can act after."

Isaac nodded. "Kasumi is correct. Mayor Torm, is there anything you can tell us of the situation there?"

Torm shook his head. "Precious little, sire, except that the Arcymians got there first and were driven out by the Ormicans immediately after. Other than that, we've only heard an odd rumor, one which is likely just an asinine tale born to spread more chaos."

"What is this rumor?" Isaac asked.

The mayor paused to recollect what he had been told. "As I said, it sounds like a child's story but... Some of the soldiers from Bellhall that retreated to this city reported that they had seen a man who was... not entirely a man. They say that he had the look of an finned beast, not unlike an alligator, yet standing on two feet. It sounds like myth to me, but I was not there."

Isaac merely raised an eyebrow. "It is no myth that an entire city sank within a matter of hours, either I am willing to believe just about anything." he replied, letting that statement hang in the air.

Daud was standing at attention--well enough, and his armour was patched up.

"Finned men or no, our goals remain the same. We retake Bellhall. We muster what forces we can. And we throw the rest of these vultures from our lands."

"Monsters. Wonderful, as if we didn't have enough problems already." muttered Ned. He hoped the rumours were just rumours but they probably weren't going to be that lucky. At this point he was half expecting Naga herself to oppose them. Ned was happy to see that the Prince supported the plan to oust Ted and take charge of the bandits to fight for them. Faye was still opposed to the idea but Ned knew not everyone would be in favour of it. He was pretty sure not everyone was happy with him being here in the first place.

"Do you think we could hunt one of the finned creatures down and study it? And by study I mean dissect for the greater good of human advancement." Gale was focused more on the finned man than Bellhall, a discovery like this could change the world in his eyes.

Selena had pretty much slept since the battle had ended and was a bit of a mess. Her blood had stained her white outfit and despite her best efforts, it had refuse to go away. "We should liberate Bellhall before the enemy realises that we have taken Ebonreach."

Faye glanced over at Selana. "With the Indartians gone and our marching into the city after we drove off the others, I'm sure our occupation is no secret. No doubt that the Ormicans are biding their time and licking their wounds just as we are."

"Were we able to requisition any new weapons in the meantime?" Daud asked nobody in particular. "We'll need good steel if we're going to do this."

"Surely we should take advantage of this before they decide to reclaim the city. We could divide our forces in half and send half to flank them whilst the other half either distracts them or gives them the full brunt of our strength." Selena knew that there would be many deaths and expected that with whatever plan they went with, someone was sure to lose their life. If only she knew how to take entire cities without costing anyone their lives, but alas, she did not so the traditional art of war would have to be used instead.

Torm

Mayor Torm grinned at Daud's question. "Ha! You're in the City of Forges, boy! The finest steel will be in your hands when you retake our sister city."

Kasumi

"Flanking not a bad idea, but difficult against Ormicans." Kasumi pointed out, her hand always present on her chin. "What Pegasus Knights remain patrol the skies. Constant lookout. Difficult to move subtly."

"Though I don't think we need subtlety for such an idea," Daud mused. "If they know they're being flanked, they'll split their forces...which will reduce their overall strength." He paused. "Or if they were smart, they'd keep their force together, crush one flank, then crush the other."

He shook his head, then looked at their tactician. "What do you think, Kasumi?"

Kasumi

Kasumi's head hung for a moment as she pondered Daud's question. She stepped away from the table in the room and made her way to a window, staring out of it. Having never been entrusted with a situation this heavy, she took her duty very seriously, but it still served to worry her. Her companions' lives were in her hands.

She wondered what her father would have done.

"Unsure." she finally said, sighing. "Would count on them being smart, as you say, but either way we go about it, will have to deal with their full force. Would like a different approach other than simply rushing them with our full force, but... Not sure how else we could beat them back if split in two."

Isaac

The prince looked at Kasumi with a bit of worry, hoping that the situation wasn't too much for her to handle. He knew less about warfare than most of the soldiers in the room, but anything he could say to help jog her creativity would be something he would be glad to say.

Unfortunately, no idea immediately jumped at him. The thought of drawing the enemy out and fighting them on his own terms came to mind, but such a thing would most likely take too much time to pull off.

"Is there any other way into the city? Tunnels, anything like that." asked Ned.

Torm

"There's sewers." the mayor responded. "Don't think you could fit an entire army in there but a smaller force could slip through. Not entirely sure why you would want to do that, though."