Armed Conflict

A soldier dived towards Eidiri, his sword raised overhead, aiming to brutally chop him in 2.

In response to this, Eidiri dodged to the right.

Because of the massive amount of force that the solider put into their overhand swing, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves after already committing to the attack.

As such, Steel Song darted forward like a viper, striking at the exposed chest of the enemy.

A spurt of blood and then Eidiri pressed the attack, taking absolute advantage over that one critical mistake.

He continuously slashed, scoring a couple of extra hits here and there.

Reinforcement soldiers would arrive quickly, they would have to end this fast.

Edgar and Ken were already staving off their advance, leaving Eidiri to deal with the current batch of soldiers.

When a soldier got too close to comfort for Eidiri, he kicked out and knocked them down. Then he took the arm that wasn't holding his dagger and sucker-punched the soldier in the face.

The soldier dropped his blade in a vain attempt to raise his hands to block the attack, but it was all in vain.

The blow connected but the soldier managed to block it, their arms struggling against one another.

The soldier's arms were linked in a cross-guard, slowly pushing back against Eidiri.

Then, Eidiri smirked cunningly, as if he had some sort of master plan.

He stepped towards the side, removing all forms of resistance against the block.

With the sudden removal of the pressure, the soldier tumbled forward, flailing their arms trying to regain balance.

Then Eidiri took Steel Song out once again and finally ended the battle, tearing into the solider.

"In the name of the Almighty Abraxas we command you to stop!" cried one of the reinforcements.

"Hmm... you propose and interesting proposition. Should we surrender guys?" Eidiri askes retheroically.

"Like this guy put forth a really convincing argument. Matter of fact, I think I might just be suited for the cultist life after hearing his words," he continues on stabbing the soldiers as he says this.

"Then come! Join us! We can make us of someone as talented as you within our ranks. Lay down your weapons and embrace your new brothers!"

"I am Demetrias, Soldier of the Cult of Shadows! Welcome are you to our ranks," the now named Demetrias cries.

Hearing this, Eidiri looks at his companions, after a brief moment of them just looking back and forth between each other and Demetrias, Edgar breaks the silence by saying, "Well, he's not the brightest that's for sure."

The group then charge at the soldiers, forming a miniature spearhead formation, Eidiri taking the lead.

Although such a formation would be much more effective if they had slightly larger numbers, they'd make do.

Eidiri blocked a spear thrust, knocking it aside. He then stepped into his opponent's guard and proceeded to concuss him by bashing him in the face with the pommel.

This removed one from the battle, at least for now. The concussed soldier fell over in a heap and Eidiri pressed forward, stepping over the fallen body.

On his right, Ken had just stabbed his enemy's kneecaps, knocking him down, screaming in pain. To give him mercy, Ken quickly finished the job.

On the left, Edgar was kiting several soldiers around, not really able to find any opportunities to land any hits, but making a decent distraction for Eidiri and Ken to finish up their own battles.

"Keep distracting them Edgar!" Eidiri ordered. "Try to buy us time."

"You and me," he points at Ken, "we're going to thin 'em out."

Seeing as how Eidiri was preoccupied issuing orders, one of the soldiers took advantage of this brief lapse in concentration and charged forward, leaping out and dragging Eidiri to the ground.

They rolled and tumbled in the dirt, the soldier reapetedly trying to punch Eidiri's face in, Eidiri's hands lifted in a hastily made block.

Seeing the trouble Eidiri was in, Ken ran over, winding up and kick and then letting it loose, absolutely sending the soldier flying.

Eidiri then activated Fury Fist, his mana dropping sharply immediately after, his hands were swift, his left would hit his face while the right would go for the liver or something like that.

Eventually, the soldier fell to the brutal hammering he was receiving.

Eidiri did not come out of that conflict unscathed though, his face bloodied him and dirty.

"You got any of that recovery food? he asked Ken.

"Yea sure," Ken replied, "It won't heal too much but it should get you to the point where you can take a couple extra hits."

The exchange was made and Eidiri lifted the Dried-Poskelter Meat to his mouth, taking large bites from the food.

"Ah damn bro, this tastes awful. What exactly did you do to this thing?" Eidiri complained.

"What can you expect? I'm new to this cooking stuff. It's not like I can just immediately whip up a 5-star meal or something," Ken snarked.

"If you guys are done with your little hissy fit over there some help would be really appreciated!" Edgar yelled.

Turning to Edgar, he was currently being chased by 5 soldiers, sometimes they would splinter off from the group in hopes of intercepting him but Edgar would always change his direction at the last second.

Honestly the scene was quite comical, 5 people chasing 1 person but that 1 person always somehow managing to give them the slip.

After a brief moment, they picked up their weapons again, aiming to strike down the ones constantly trying to intercept Edgar.

When the help had arrived, Edgar turned around and started fighting back for once, getting a few hits with the dagger before retreating.

Ken would cover Edgar's retreat each time, taking the soldier's attention so that Edgar could dart back in to finish the job.

Eidiri on the other hand had his blade locked with another, his hitpoints dropping to 9/20 after he had taken a slash to the chest.

Eidiri in response to this feinted a strike to the right, but actually went for a leg sweep, catching the soldier by surprise.

From there, it was a clean kill. The guard unable to put up any resistance as Eidiri did a quick slit to the throat.

Not soon after, the soldiers were finally cleaned up, each of them suffering differing levels of injuries.

Edgar came out well enough, given that Ken was tanking the damage for him while Eidiri came out the most bruised thanks to the dangerous enocunters he had come across.

As they began to celebrate their victory however, their joy was quickly snuffed out by the demonic screeching from the ritual circle, "Blood! Feed me!"