Tobias stood with his weapon poised – he wasted no time rushing the closest of the dark elves. They all looked similar - female, white hair, dark clothes, - with the exceptions of their weapons. He dashed towards the spear-wielder who had aimed for his head just seconds before. Wasting no time, a wide sweeping strike with his axe caused the dark elves to jump back swiftly as the white and silver axe head whistled through the air.

As soon as he finished his attack, he whispered a small miracle under his breath causing a green hazy light to be emitted around him. His limbs immediately felt a bit looser and his muscles ached significantly less.

At this point, everyone at the bottom of the pit suddenly looked up as the sound of crumbling stone rumbled throughout. A dim white-glowing figure suddenly plummeted down next to the unprepared dark elves.

Noone had dug his two axes into the stone, strategically slowing his fall just enough to not injure himself. When approached the bottom of the pit his divine sense immediately covered the entire space. He saw Tobias attack the elves before suddenly being illuminated green. He saw the six dark elves who were beginning to circle around the lone paladin. And he saw the corpses of the soldiers crumbled in heaps on the stony earth.

Noone could easily see that Tobias was in a bad way, his usual stalwart and impenetrable figure was now at breathing heavy and his armor was dented and cracked. Despite this, the paladin’s movements weren’t slowed in the slightest.

“Thank god.” Noone thought in relief… He did not want Tobias to die at the bottom of some hole.

Noone, using his surprise entrance, wasted no time in landing in the middle of the dark elves.

His hands flashed out with immense strength and speed as his chipped and cracked hand axes bit through the space where two dark elves had been standing just one moment earlier. Noone’s eyes widened… “Fast.” He mumbled to himself.

Tobias was just as shocked by Noone’s sudden arrival as the dark elves. His mouth screwed up strangely as he considered what he should think about this… but it didn’t even take a second for him to push these thoughts aside. Right now, there were more pressing issues.

Noone and Tobias made eye contact for a moment. Eventually, Tobias nodded and then turned to face the dark elves who were now standing in a group at one side of the pit. Behind them, Noone and Tobias were able to see a tunnel which looked to go upwards – possibly back into the city.

One of the dark elves – a tall woman holding matching swords, turned to look at the woman holding the spear and spoke in a language that neither the paladin or Noone understood. But it only took a second for the spear-wielder to nod and dash up the tunnel while the rest of the dark elves closed ranks in front of it.

“It seems they want to keep us here.” Noone thought silently. He shifted his stance and approached Tobias – shoulder to shoulder.

Tobias said nothing, but in the moment they exchanged eye-contact, they had come to an understanding. Escape for now, deal with each other later.

Noone nor Tobias wasted any time for discussion. Noone threw his axes with as much strength as he could muster, while extending his divine sense like an arrow into the mind of one of the dark elves.

One axe was narrowly avoided and ended up clattering into the tunnel behind – but the other embedded itself firmly in the chest of a suddenly-dazed dark elf. The force of the strike easily bit through her armor and sent her tumbling back – nearly lifting her off her feet. Blood immediately ruptured into her lungs and came foaming out the mouth. She was dead before she hit the ground.

Noone frowned. If it hadn’t been for his divine sense, they both would have avoided his throw. But… Noone realized that their minds were lightly protected. Forcing his divine sense into her consciousness felt like trying to break past the subtle shielding of an enchanted weapon. It was like there was a force keeping her mind in a shell.

Luckily Noone had been able to break through it, but it took more effort and focus than he expected.

The sudden strike caused the attention of the rest of the dark elves to waver for a moment. Their eyes glared dangerously at Noone before barely dodging out of the way of Tobias’s strike. True to his profession, Tobias gave no leeway for the dark elves and put continuous pressure onto them. He was relying on his armor and Noone to keep them from surrounding him alone.

Noone swiftly unclasped his large iron axe from his back and hoisted it out in two hands. With one dead and one gone, it was two against four.

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Noone did not have armor like Tobias, so he carefully spaced himself, not want to give a chance for the dark elves to close the distance. They were fast and used poison weapons, or so Tobias had told him before entering into the mountain.

Without armor, Noone could only trust his divine sense and battle experience up to this point. Using his long weapon, he managed to easily bide the attention of two dark elves, keeping them at a distance until he could pierce through their thoughts with his divine sense.

Tobias and Noone circled each other – back to back – not allowing any opportunity for the dark elves to get between them.

Sweat began to pour from both of them, their muscles were taut with tension. If it weren’t for the blessing Tobias had given himself, he knew he wouldn’t have the energy to stand right now, let alone fight.

“That damn fall.” He muttered to himself.

He was considering using another miracle to even the odds, but as he considered which to use, Noone suddenly broke the perfect defense they had.

This caught both Tobias and the dark elves off guard.

The dark elves were prepared to hold this stalemate until reinforcements arrived. Both Noone and Tobias knew this, but there was only so much they could do about it. Noone was too weak with no options except his physical ability and his divine sense, and Tobias was grievously injured at that moment.

Noone finally had managed to pierce through the mental defense on one of the dark elves. He moved swiftly and used the moment she was dazed to send his axe crashing down into her body. His axe easily bit through her armor and cleaved through the lithe figure. The crunch of bones rang sickeningly in the stale air.

The other dark elf recovered from her surprise quickly and she dashed towards Noone’s side while his axe was embedded into dead elf’s fresh corpse.

Despite not even looking at her, using his divine sense to cover the entire pit allowed Noone to back out of her reach just in time. He pulled his bloody axe free from the corpse.

Two on three. Tobias had a vague awareness of what had happened, but since Noone had moved away in that moment, Tobias put his back against a wall to keep the dark elves he was fighting from trapping him between them.

His panting was becoming ragged and his breathing was heavy. Sweat dripped from body, creating puddles under him.

The aching in his bones was beginning to return. The spell he used could last 10 minutes, and yet only a few minutes had passed. He wondered if – even with Noone – he would make it out of this. His injuries may have been worse than he realized.

Noone’s head was also beginning to lightly throb. When breaking through the defense of enchanted weapons, he could sit and meditate beforehand to put his mind in the right state. Trying to do it in the heat of battle though… it was putting a strain on him. Noone grit his teeth as he rushed the lone dark elf.

“Just hold them off a little longer Tobias.” He thought. Once he killed this one… the other two would be go down easily.

The lone dark elf hissed and spoke in a language Noone didn’t understand before feigning an attack with her twin swords.

The swords themselves were narrow and deathly sharp like oversized needles. She was also extremely quick. Without his divine sense, Noone would have a terrible time trying to wear this opponent down. Despite common logic, Noone was not slow or brutish for his size. In fact, he was quite the opposite. This more than anything caused the dark-elves to be overconfident at first.

But in spite of his counter-intuitive speed, Noone just couldn’t match the lithe and nimble dark elf assassin.

Suddenly… Noone paused in the middle of his exchange of blows. The dark elf’s eyes went wide and she immediately put some distance between them worried for what he was planning. But instead of quickly following her… Noone turned on his heel and put his back directly towards her, a small smile played on his lips as he dashed towards the cornered Tobias, and specifically the two dark elves with their backs towards him.

“XXX XXXXX” The lone dark elf he was fighting suddenly shrieked as she realized what had just happened. She quickly dashed forward to catch up to Noone before he could sneak an attack at her sisters in arms…

Her shriek caught the two sisters’ attention, but it was too late. Noone was already behind them. His bare feet dug into the stony earth and his muscles tensed violently as his grey iron axe easily cleaved the two dark elves in half through their torsos. Neither had time to register the attack before their death.

Noone had put everything he had into this strike, leaving his back wide open to the lone dark elf with the needle-like swords.

He watched her arrive at his exposed back with his divine sense… but his eyes were focused on Tobias. He smiled knowingly, and his body unceremoniously dropped to the floor much to the surprise of the only remaining dark elf.

But in the next moment, Tobias’s large axe cleaved the space directly above Noone - where he had been a moment before - and embedded itself firmly into her.

She had no time to react, and her body went flying from the impact. She was dead before she hit the ground.

Noone’s body landed softly on the floor before he pushed himself back up to standing.

He let out a sigh as he looked towards the woman, and then to Tobias.

They said nothing, but their silence spoke volumes.