"As cruel as wars might be, there remained some unwritten rules that were generally observed in conflicts of this day and age. Chief amongst them were to avoid attacking non-combatants, whether they be civilians just trying their best to live through the conflict, or your enemy's dependents.
Those who ignored these conventions, tend to be ostracized by other nations, seen as uncivilized brutes, and not rarely, even attacked and exterminated by their neighbors with extreme prejudice.
Someone who had done such atrocities once, could always do it again after all." - Excerpt from "History of Modern Warfare", Circa 12 FP.
"They breached the gates!" announced Ayrie from her perch by the uppermost window of the building. The nine year old girl was a quarter-elf, her half-elf father one of the long-time camp followers of the company, serving as a master armor crafter.
She was chosen to watch the ongoing battle in the fort outside and report it to the rest because she inherited some of an elf's sharp eyesight, and thus was the best suited for it. That, and should the fighting reach them, at least she would be in a relatively safe place up there.
Elfriede crouched below the girl, a bit to the side, next to an opening on the second floor, which was there to accommodate the closest staircase to the front door. From her position there, people entering from the front door would not notice her, and she could drop down from literally on top of them.
"Keep us updated," said Elfriede from her position. The battle was still too far away for her senses to notice much, but the sounds of the tumult outside still reached her sensitive ears nonetheless. "It'll be good if they hold onto the conventions… but if they don't…"
"Don't you worry so much, Friede," said Ursula from beside her. Just to be on the safe side, the dependents of the Free Lances had gathered the younger children on the second floor, with the elderly people guarding the staircases. Even an old cook like Ursula was part of the efforts, as she had a hefty wooden rolling pin in her hand. "Even if they come for us, we're no civvies wet behind the ears. We've been living in warzones for most of our lives."
"We will make them regret it if they come for us."
On the main floor itself, all the younger and physically fit ones, including some of the older children, were gathered. They kept to the sides of the buildings, and had makeshift armor and whatever could serve as a weapon right next to them.
If the conventions were adhered to, that would be fine. They would negotiate safe passage, or at least terms for ransom should the soldiers defending the fort lose the battle. On the other hand, should a blade be raised at them, they would respond in kind.
"By the deities!" yelled Ayrie from her perch by the upper window. That window was only there for ventilation purposes, and less for actually looking to the outside. The young girl had to climb a ladder to reach it, and stood on its rungs as she peeked out from the open window. "They're attacking the Legion's people! They're butchering them!"
"Fuck," cursed Elfriede wholeheartedly when she heard what Ayrie said. The Vanguard Legions had even more dependents and young children than the Free Lances, and she didn't want to think of the implications.
Either way, the Legion's dependents being attacked meant that they themselves would likely be on the receiving end of the same treatment soon. Some commands were quickly relayed, and everybody on the first floor wore their makeshift armor and grabbed whatever weapon they could find.
"Some of them are headed our way!" reported Ayrie from her perch up high. Nervousness was audible in the young girl's voice, which Elfriede did not blame the girl for. This would be the first time combat is a real, visceral thing for the young girl, instead of just some distant event. "Looks like some of them got some sort of fancy armo- Gah!"
Elfriede sensed the arrow as it sliced through the air, but due to the angle involved it was too sudden, and too fast that she had not had enough time to warn Ayrie above. Even so, she was already moving when the young girl fell from the ladder, and caught her relatively gently before she hit the floor.
An arrow protruded from Ayrie's left eye, and the girl was clutching the injured eye, crying from the pain. She had been fortunate, the arrow that struck her had a broad-headed fleshcutter arrowhead, the sort used for hunting animals, not for war.
That same broad head failed to punch through and was stuck in her eye socket. Had it been an armor-piercing bodkin instead, Ayrie would have died as the arrow would have gone into her brain.
One of the elderly men on the second floor quickly rushed to the injured girl, and carefully removed the arrow from her face, before he did what he could for the wound. They had no healer with them, just some herbal poultices and similar, but they did what they could.
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Meanwhile, Elfriede crouched like a predator stalking prey by the opening, her anger ignited. Whoever did that just now, would pay for it when she got her hands on them.
She did not have to wait long. Not five minutes later, someone kicked open the front door of the building, and she sensed the group of men and women even before they entered the building with weapons drawn, and cried out "kill the heretics" and other somesuch slogans.
Elfriede noticed right away that these were not the common militia sort Ayrie described attacking the fort. The men and women below wore some fine chain shirts over gambeson, and had finely made weapons. Definitely not militiamen, who usually just went with whatever was at hand.
She allowed the first twenty or so in - those immediately found themselves mobbed by the waiting people inside the building - and jumped down on the next batch, to hold the entrance and cut the flow of reinforcements.
Elfriede landed right on top of a surprised man, and her blades flashed even as she dropped to a crouch with her knee pressed against the back of the man's neck. The impact from her landing broke his neck, while she ignored the bruise it caused to her knee.
The two soldiers in front of her gurgled, as they clutched their slit throats while Elfriede calmly stood up, nonchalantly driving the spikes on her blades' pommels into the back of the neck of another two soldiers behind her before they could turn around.
Those two had quick, near instantaneous deaths, probably never even knew what hit them, whereas the two that had their throats slit were damned to a much slower, agonizing death. They would slowly suffocate, as their lungs were flooded with their own blood.
She then went on a rampage, her twin blades flashing left and right, as she massacred the next dozen soldiers to force their way inside. Throats were slit, while a lucky few found faster deaths as she punched the spikes on her pommels through their skull. Their chainshirts had covered their torso well, so Elfriede could only aim at other spots.
Even while she fought, she kept watch of the overall situation. Thankfully, since she relied on her magical senses to begin with, that meant she did not have to take her attention off whoever she was fighting. The first batch of soldiers she let through was busy as they were swarmed by an angry mob. Only half of them were left, as others were dragged down and lynched to death already.
That was when someone who was actually troublesome stepped in.
Elfriede noticed him right away. Just the fact that the man wore a solid metal breastplate singled him out from the crowd. He attacked her with two others, his two compatriots trying to distract her while he went for his strikes.
While the two compatriots of the man were not that much trouble, the man himself was. His strikes prevented Elfriede from just making short work of his two compatriots first, and a couple times, he even landed hits on her.
A gash in her gambeson already opened up near her abdomen, while a couple of bleeding wounds scored her left arm, from when she pushed it to strike at one of them, slicing one of her opponent's eyes in exchange of the wounds she took on her arm.
Seeing her wounded encouraged her opponent, and they pushed at her harder, while some other soldiers trickled around them and held back the rest of the people in the building. Elfriede had a harder time with a wounded arm, and a few times, blades scored her flesh, even though she finally managed to finish off one of her opponents.
Both remaining men swung their swords at her and she blocked it with her own blades. She winced as she felt the blade chip, but there was little option at that point. Both men pushed down on her, as they attempted to overpower her.
They were pushing hard at her when a ball of white spotted fur landed on the head of the man who gave Elfriede the most trouble.
With her senses, she naturally noticed what - or rather, who - it was. She had noticed her daughter watching her fight from the opening above since a while ago. She had not expected the little half-breed girl to jump down and try to aid her, however.
Erycea, her little girl, clawed the man's face with her sharp claws as she landed on him, which lacerated both of the man's eyes. The man had just opened his mouth to scream when the little girl opened her mouth wide and sunk her sharp fangs into his throat, which his breastplate had not covered.
The man had dropped his sword in surprise, and stumbled back as he tried to pry the girl off his throat with his hands. That left Elfriede freed from one of her opponents. She had not wasted that chance.
She pushed aside her opponent's sword with one blade, while her other blade slashed through the last man's throat, a slice so deep the man was nearly decapitated. Then she turned around, the other man had fallen on his back in his struggle to dislodge the girl from his throat.
Elfriede sensed it when another person with a more ornate breastplate stepped into the room and kicked her daughter away from the man. She heard her daughter yelp in surprise and pain, the cracking sound when the metal boot struck her daughter's side and sent her daughter flying.
She was not one to rage, no. Elfriede was one of those people whose anger manifested in a cold, silent fury. It was in utter silence that she charged the woman in ornate armor that kicked her daughter.
It was with extreme prejudice that Elfriede literally dismembered the woman, slicing off both arms at the elbow, and both legs by the knees. The mother in her wanted to just kill the woman right then and there, but the logical part of her realized that the woman was likely a leader of the enemy's side. Those were always worth catching alive.
The fight in the building had mostly quieted down by then, the soldiers inside mobbed to death by the "harmless" elderly, women, and children they ran into. A group of the fitter men and women barred the door for her, while Elfriede went to her daughter, who Ursula was now looking after.
"How is she?" She asked with some obvious dread in her voice.
"That kick broke a couple ribs," stated Ursula as the old woman gently checked Erycea's injury. The little girl was quiet, clearly in pain, yet she gritted her teeth rather than cry out. Her mouth was still bloodied, as when she was kicked away, she had not relinquished her bite, and a chunk of the man's throat was torn away as a result. That man was busy suffocating to death right now. "She also lost a couple of her fangs, but they're milk fangs so they should grow back with time. I don't think her life's in any danger, though."
Elfriede breathed a sigh of obvious relief at those words, and knelt by her little daughter. She gently rubbed Erycea's head and planted a kiss on her forehead, before she talked to the girl with a smile on her face. "You did well, girl. Now stay here, and rest. Mama will go take out the trash for a bit."
With a nod from her daughter, Elfriede stood up and turned away, though not before she asked some of the older dependents to look after her daughter for her.
She herself gathered those who wished to fight, and led them out of the building. They were going to take the fight to their enemy instead.
"Oh, and keep that cunt alive. Ol' Harscape would pay a pretty penny for her. Just roast up those wounds to stop the bleeding," said Elfriede as an afterthought on her way out.