Jorm called forth Skurti and the accompanying men around him called for the bonds in their souls and empowered themselves with what magicks they could. Several creatures emerged from their bond’s soul space and latent energy seemed to fill the air as these hardened killers prepared to deal death and carnage.
Under the cover of complete darkness, the men approached Maston from the south where James was on duty at the gate in a drunken stupor for the second night in a row. Whern approached the gate slowly as the rest of the troop stopped at the edge of the torchlight accompanied only by his serpent Awanyu, the feathered snake slithering silently through the grass and up over the wall.
Grabbing onto the left of the serpents two heads Whern rode the beasts straight up the stone wall and watched for any passing guard patrols or civilians as Awanyu slid towards the sleeping James and quickly struck the man in the throat with its large fangs and followed up on its strike by coiling around the man's chest squeezing the life out of the unfortunate guard even as venom flowed directly into his jugular.
Once assured there was no other person near the gate Whern applied oil both to the hinges of the gate and the thick, iron crossbar and quickly opened the gates to the brigands with nary a sound. Quickly pouring in through the breach, his fellow bandits split off the troop of 500 men began moving through the city which began to immediately come alive as the brigand’s bonded were unleashed upon the hapless citizens of Maston. Cries of anguish and despair soon filled the air as the scent of blood and smoke began to rise.
Crasch lumbered through the city atop his impressive dire bear deftly swinging his axe with one hand at the people trying to flee through the streets laughing as he did so. He soon met a small troop of guardsmen that had organized some form of resistance and charged head on with a roar, woefully unprepared for the impetus of such a charge and were quickly stomped underfoot or had limbs hacked off in quick succession. Filled with bloodlust he dismounted his beast and strode through the carnage with a grin plastered on his blood-spattered face as he spotted a young, dark haired woman frantically running away from him he gave chase after finally finding something worthy of him to satisfy himself urges.
Treja leapt from the bed in a panic as she heard the cries of the unfortunate souls outside “Bjorik! Quickly get out of bed and arm yourself! We are under attack.” She cried as she wrapped Locke in cloth to be placed in his sling. Up in an instant Bjorik quickly donned his thick leather armor and went down to the cellar where he kept his mace and Warhammer. Bringing them back upstairs he handed Treja a pair of daggers and her rapier that hummed with electricity once placed in her hands. Treja’s eyes glowed an electric blue as she called forth Temest to reveal his true form. What was once a small tabby colored house cat quickly grew to the size of a pony and sported a thick mane of fur along with a stripe running down its back as its coat turned an icy blue. “Gods woman, I am still jealous of you every time I see that.”, said Bjorik the love in his voice out of place for the situation they found themselves in.
Cries of pain from just outside ended whatever Treja was going to say next as she ran forth to confront whatever was causing the people of Maston harm. Once outside, she and Bjorik saw a giant of a man catching up to and then pushing a young girl to the ground as he began ripping her clothes off and quickly unbuckled his trousers. Sickened by the display Bjorik charged the large man with a roar holding his hammer ready to strike the rapist dead.
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Despite not having any warning the man quickly pushed the girl away and whirled to meet the charge with his large battle axe. As the two weapons met in challenge a wave of force erupted around the men raising a cloud of dust to blanket the area.
Trusting her husband to win the fight she ran to the girl who sat against a wall staring blankly ahead as she sobbed. Bringing the girl up to her feet Treja told her to run as fast as she could away from the town and to not stop until she couldn’t see the smoke any more.
Once the girl had gone, Treja turned back to her husband in time to see a great beast of a bear charging toward her husbands’ side with bloodshot eyes. Willing Temest’s energy through her body she directed a bolt of lightening through her rapier and with a crack struck the bear squarely in the chest causing it to crumple to the ground in a heap.
As soon as the beast was struck the brigand clutched his chest in pain as the bond, he felt burned his soul. A momentary distraction was all Bjorik needed to bring his hammer down upon the man’s head and cover himself in grey matter. Joining his wife as they ran through the city scenes of carnage played out around them, and though they helped where they could there was just too much for them to be able to stop entirely as they made their way through the city towards the closest gate.
Jorm viewed the destruction below from high in the sky atop the back of Skurti as he looked for his target, his Master had told him the last two carriers of the sacred mountain bloodlines had fled from his clutches and had finally been tracked to Maston where they had gone into hiding. Even if he had to sacrifice himself, he would at the very least kill the carriers if they couldn’t be brought to heel.
Jorm watched for the couple and finally found them as they easily killed Crasch far below him. He directed Skurti to follow them has he dropped to the ground and approached Whren who has thoroughly enjoying to young children next to the corpses of what he assumed were their parents were being fed upon by Awanyu. Narrowing his eyes at the scene, Jorm sent a waved of force from his hands into the brains of the children killing them instantly and slapped Whren into the building next to them. “Focus you fucking idiot, your brother has been killed and our true prey is escaping.” Seeming to not process the situation at first clarity suddenly shone through Whren’s eyes as he howled with a mixture of rage, fury, and sorrow. “How? And where is the cunt that did it? I’ll burn the fucker alive!”, Whren exclaimed through clenched teeth. “The east gate is where are they are headed. Coincidentally the person who killed Crasch is also one of the people I am here for so come with me.”, replied Jorm as he mentally called for Skurti to come and pick up the pair of men.
Hurriedly flying with Whren and his bonded beast in tow Skurti made directly for the eastern gate of Maston where Jorm could see the blonde-haired couple easily killing some of the bandits below.
Dropping Whren behind the couple and then landing before the gate Jorm dismounted trapping them between the two men. It wasn’t until coming to eye level with the couple that he noticed a Treja’s chest. “You killed my brother you piece of shit!”, shouted Whren as he began to channel his magicks. Bjorik scoffed at the man shouting at him and with a shout of challenge he charged towards the enraged man as Treja began to channel her own magicks as another man appeared accompanied by an overly large roc.