The Battle Majestic (Round 4 - Magpie Skies)

"Idiots."

The Moonlight Queen was more than a little disappointed as Six For Gold began plummeting moments after she landed. She'd come here to destroy the castle, not watch the incompetent knights do it for her.

She didn't even see any knights. Usually there were at least two dozen foolhardy enough to rush her on landing, but there were none today. Had they actually caught on to the futility of their charges, or had she simply finished off all the slow learners?

The latter explanation struck her as more likely.

That left her with a more basic question to answer. Should she stay and tear apart this castle as an example, or simply leave it to crash on the worthless ground below?

She snorted derisively. She'd come all this way, of course she wasn't going to just leave. At the same time, it wasn't worth waiting for the final moments. She'd just spend ten minutes or so on wanton destruction until she felt better, then fly off and claim credit for the smoking crater below.

After all, who would live to question her story?

---

Blitz had never worn armor before, let alone armor this heavy. If he had been unarmored, he might have gotten to his feet before the serpent's jaws closed around his upper body.

Of course, there was another side to that hypothetical - if he were unarmored, he wouldn't have survived the serpent's jaws closing around his upper body. As it was, he could just feel the serpent's large upper fangs denting the armor on his right side enough to make him uncomfortable.

Blitz wasn't sure how long the armor would hold up, and had no intention of finding out. The knights had thought to give him a sword, and he swung it desperately in hopes of slicing off the serpent's head.

But the monster's scales were too tough, and Blitz found himself with only a broken sword in hand.

He doubted the bandage would do any better, at least on its own. If he augmented it with his electrical abilities, that might have some effect, if he struck the right place... but he was covered in metal. It was dangerous.

An uncomfortable poke in his right side argued that it was even more dangerous to wait for a better idea to come along while this serpent had him in its monstrous jaws. He started waving the bandage around, let out a small charge, and struck the serpent in the eyes.

It howled in pain, opening its mouth wide. Blitz fell to the ground, groaning. His entire left arm was numb; he didn't dare think about what might have happened with a stronger discharge.

He wouldn't have had time to think about it, regardless. The serpent was thrashing blindly around the cell, and he still wasn't used to moving in armor. He was knocked away by its flailing tail almost immediately.

Thankfully, the serpent's erratic movements kept it away from him while he picked himself up. He looked at the shattered sword in his right hand helplessly, and wished he had any idea how to escape.

---

Jacob was halfway through breaking down the door when he started to question why, exactly, he was breaking down the door. He hadn't been pulled away yet, so the woman probably wasn't dead, and he couldn't hear her shrieking, so she probably wasn't in imminent danger of dying. Maybe she'd just tripped on something and hit her head, in which case it would probably be safer to just leave her in there.

On the other hand, he was already about halfway through breaking down the door, so it wasn't going to keep anything dangerous out.

Plus, if there was an actual threat inside, it would be better to at least know what it was. Probably.

Not long afterwards, the door gave way. Jacob stepped in the room, and found himself surprised the mysterious woman hadn't screamed sooner.

The room was large, filled with a number of tables and shelves. More than a few of the shelves were filled with skulls from animals Jacob didn't recognize, others had flasks filled with unknown potions of various colors, still others were lined with books that seemed designed to look as imposing as possible.

The tables were just as crowded. There was a skeleton or two on them, a few strange machines, some cauldrons, and the same sorts of things that filled the bookshelves.

He'd seen this sort of thing before. Wizards, whether real ones or self-styled, liked to work in such laboratories. He couldn't really say what any of the various concoctions did, he just knew it was a bad idea to touch any of them.

There was no sign of the woman. But there was an open trapdoor.

He glanced down it. He could see the bottom, which just looked like a stone floor... probably led to the dungeons. There was no sign of the woman down there, most likely she had been taken away by whoever was in charge of said dungeons.

That was good enough for Jacob - hopefully whoever she was, she wouldn't be able to cause too much trouble inside a cell. His business here was done.

He turned around just in time to see Talis smirking in the doorway before a pair of familiar-looking gloves pushed him down the hole.

---

Jacob's guess was wrong - Eryntse hadn't been taken to a cell.

Instead, the lone minion assigned to this dungeon had been happy to see someone and was eagerly guiding her through the halls.

It actually put Eryntse at ease. Most of the time, she couldn't really tell what the excitable-but-untalkative minion was pointing at - he just seemed to be staring at the think stone walls. But he was friendly, and didn't seem to want to do anything except show her around.

After some time, the tour stopped in a small chamber. There was a large machine sitting against one wall, and the minion rushed in front of the device, beaming with pride. Eryntse at least understood what the minion was trying to show her this time, so she walked over to the machine and took a closer look.

There were several brightly colored lights, which looked like buttons. Brimming with curiosity, Eryntse tapped the shiny purple one, so enamored with it that she didn't even notice the minion frantically waving its stubby little arms.

She did, however, notice the purple light going out, hear the loud grinding of gears, and a fearsome roar. The minion leapt into her arms, as frightened as she was, and then Eryntse ran as fast as she could.

Not far away, Blitz noticed a wall disappear behind him. He didn't bother stopping to question it - he just ran. Thankfully, the serpent was still flailing wildly, at least for the moment - it didn't even see him rush out.

It did, however, hear the metallic clang of his footsteps against the stone floor.

Eryntse heard the noise, too. Then she saw the knight running towards her, and screamed.

They'd come this way. They were still after her. She turned around, more terrified than ever, desperately hoping she wouldn't run into another knight.

When Blitz saw her panic, he wondered if the serpent was behind him. He decided he'd rather not take the time to check - it would take too long to get a good look with this stupid visor getting in the way, and if he just kept running, he'd be fine whether he was being chased or not.

Some distance away, Jacob groaned and picked himself up. He'd had barely enough time to wonder whether Talis was working with Steven, or had just taken his gloves somehow, when he heard that familiar scream.

It wasn't long after that he saw the familiar woman who he associated with the scream. She was carrying a not-so-familiar little red imp of some sort, and she was terrified.

"There's a knight!" she shrieked. "They want to capture me again! Help! Help!"

Jacob suppressed a sigh as he caught sight the knight rushing after her. This poor sap was probably just a prisoner who didn't know anything about his fellow knights capturing the woman in the first place. But she didn't realize it, and probably the only way to calm her down was to take the unfortunate knight out of the picture somehow.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of him," Jacob said, drawing his sword. "You two just sit tight, okay?"