The Av’ tugs on the buckle that held the cart in place behind the porcupine-like beast, setting it free from its burden and just in time. The creature had become agitated by the increasingly disgusting, festering stink that had begun wafting from the woods, and once freed it bristles its long, javelin-like spines, ready for anything. The creature had been with Tahl for years, making it an obedient creature, but the stink had begun testing its patience.
“Trap…” Ahnya murmurs to herself, brandishing her weapon in both hands and taking up a ready stance. “Probably using a corpse to cover their sent.” Her eyes scan the treeline, waiting for whatever would come forth. Bandits? Cultists? Beastmen? She had heard stories of all three, but only believed one of these outcomes.
The others keep their weapons close, standing at the sides of the cart to protect the goods within. It wouldn’t be their first bandit surprise, but lucky for them they were well versed in fighting. In fact, most Av’rae are, it’s kept them alive on the harsh roads for so long!
“This is a first for me…” Tahl murmurs as he walks up beside Ahnya, sword drawn and shield ready to go. “No fake damsel or pit covered in leafs… have you seen… smelled something like this before?”
“No,” Ahnya’s answer is brief, curt, and lacking any emotion as her eyes squint out from her hood. Her eyes go wide as she suddenly hears the sound of whatever it is out ther charging at the group, and even more so when she sees the horror that emerges from beyond. “Dè ann an ifrinn uile?” she manages to say in a breathless voice, before snapping to action. “Defend the cart!”
She twirls her halberd before taking up a defensive stands, the blade and spike of her weapon held outwards. She listens to her team behind her do the same, protecting every angle of the cart from the other monstrosities beginning to emerge from the woods. Her attention, however, is firmly placed on the leader, or perhaps the first hapless foe to have come across them.
As the beast comes closer, she takes a step, lets out a warcry common among her people. “Airson an dia crùbach!” With practiced precision, she lunches the end of her spiked halbred further, piercing into the beast’s disgusting troso, and uses his momentum to lift him way over her head, then behind her. The beast roars, but is quickly silenced by the large foot of the porcupine beast’s clawed foot, crushing its head with ease.
Behind her, Tahl slams his shield into a speedier beast, one that may have once been an old woman, but her monstrous appearance betrayed any second thoughts the Av’ may have had. The shield clatters against her, sending her onto the ground before the Av’ swings his sword, cleaving the arm from yet another monster.
There’s a defiant laugh from the cart as the cook, Aleh’Moors swings his impressive hammer, shattering the head of another festering beast, then caving in the chest of another in one smooth motion. For a cook, his swing was truly devestating.
Finally, at the rear, the armoured Al’Kahn shrugs off a firm hit from a lesser monster, making him laugh in triumph before driving his pauldron shoulder into whatever-the-beast-was’ nose, shattering it, but not stopping it. One cleave of his double sided war axe brough its end, but even Kahn isn’t fast enough to stop the beast that had somehow gotten behind him, drawing its clawed fingers froward and fiercely lunging at him like a hungry lion pounces on its prey. Kahn whirls around just in time to meet its gaze, or lack-thereof, and raises his arm to protect his face, but before it can land its hit, it falls to the ground beside him, gurgling its death rattle. A steel bolt had pierced the back of its cranium and stuck out the front of its head, bits of rotting brain lingering at its tip.
Khan looks up to see Teh’Ranyaa loading another bolt and switching her targets. That woman could hit a fly from a hundred yards… he has no time to admire her further, however, as he quickly turns his attention back to the hoard.
At the front of there group, Ahnya cuts and dodges her way around the onslaught with grace, using every part of her weapon to keep them away. She had already been unlucky enough to receive a light scratch or two to her arms and legs, but she had no time to worry about them, instead pushing on with her defence, ever defiant against the beasts, not allowing them any closer than they had already gotten, but even she knew they were outnumbered.
“Where are the guards that patrol these roads?!” Tahl calls out as he cuts into another beast, then blocks another with his shield. “What are these things?!”
“Humans!” Aleh calls out, knocking another off of the back of their cart. “Can’t trust ‘em to defend anything!”
Ahnya cuts through another, barely avoiding another hit, and beginning to feel the battle fatigue. She could fight, absolutely, but she’s a trade leader, she couldn’t hold a candle to the endurance of a true Av’rae warrior or Elder Guard, and whatever these creatures are? They had endurance in droves, like some sort of crazed, fanatic berserker.
She knew they wouldn’t last long.
“Give them everything we have!” she calls out. “Let them break their backs against us!” Her attention shifts quickly back to the cart. “Ranyaa! The signal!”
The ranger on the cart nods, knowing exactly what she meant. With one more shot, she ducks into the cart and rummages through a crate until she finds a cylinder with a long fuze attached, wrapped onto a bolt. It only takes a moment, but she manages to get the fuze lit and loads it onto her crossbow, and without hesitation launches it into the air.
The cylinder flies gracefully up and away from the battle before detonating into a bright light and a thick red cloud, something traders would often use to signal for help. They weren’t cheap, but if it meant saving their lives? Every piece of gold matters.
The group only had one choice now. Fight, kill, and survive. If they’re lucky? They’d get help. If not? Well, they wouldn’t have to worry about how much they’d earn from their wares.