Bloodsword: War of the Leaf

Opportunity

Instantly pandemonium swept through the standing room only crowd as the firing of the now recognizable Silver Hawk weapon threw the assembled Mardish nobility into a frenzy.  A frenzy that became a full on panic as the Mardish emperor and those nobles sitting in his personal box began screaming in shrill, panic-filled voices for the guards.  Apparently the Silver Hawks were well-known to the Mardish nobility, and definitely feared, if this reaction was any indication.  Then Tev was pushing his dark musings aside to quickly scan the scene, looking to leverage the chaos into something of benefit.

And in doing so, he spotted the only standing Drax staring uncomprehendingly into the crowd, its reptilian senses momentarily overcome by the searing power and magic of the Silver Hawk weapon.  Tev's eyes narrowed, his mind spinning up to full speed as he sensed an opportunity was presenting itself.  

It began with where the Drax was standing.  It had lurched in surprise when the Silver Hawk had cut down the last So'os with that energy blast before stumbling to its currently position.  Which, from where Tev was anxiously standing, put it fairly close to one of the walls.  In fact, it was close enough that, if he used the Drax as a ramp, a running jump stood a good chance of going over the protective spikes and landing him amongst the benches in the stands.

Gathering himself even as the Silver Hawk began firing his weapon in earnest, both to halt the advance of the guards that had arrived in response to the Mardish emperor's squawking.  And to hold back the surging crowd that seethed all around him in their mad dash to reach the exits.  Then he was exploding forward with every iota of his strength and speed.

A quick dash across the hot sand covered the intervening distance.  Then Tev was leaping onto the Drax's bent leg and up onto its back.  So enthralled still was the beast that it didn't even react to the human's feet landing on its back.  Grinning tightly in anticipation of success, Tev continued upward, sprinting up the broad back and onto the head where, without even the slightest hesitation, he flung himself off the tip of the heavy snout and into the thick, spicy air.

For a moment he seemed to hang in space, the unfolding vista of the chaos in the stands unfolding directly in front of him in slow motion.  Then he was clear of the jutting spikes on top of the wall and crashing into the lowest row of benches.  Hitting hard enough to see stars, Tev grimly ignored the various bruises and cuts he had just garnered with his rough landing and pushing himself to his feet to throw another quick look around.  Time to see if he could escape this mess.  And swiftly found a wave of disappointment sweeping through him at what he saw.

To get to the exits, he basically had to do the same thing as the Silver Hawk now did: cut through both the panicked crowd and the advancing soldiers, which were making their way as carefully as they could towards the tall Solavar without injuring any Mardish noble passing them by.  And while his sword was a serviceable weapon, it wouldn't be enough to clear a space fast enough to avoid getting skewered by those soldiers.

A glance into the pit revealed Kora still frantically trying to stem the blood oozing from Joran's wounds.  Seeing that, the human's mind was made.  If he was going to escape, they all were going to escape!  As he thought that, he found his eyes tracking back to the Silver Hawk and his exotic weapon.  And for the second time in the space of a few moments, he sensed a second opportunity presenting itself.

Again Tev set himself.  Then, using his size and power, he was bulling his way with brute force through the fleeing elves, using the sound and flash of the Silver Hawk's weapon as a beacon.  Angling himself to avoid a head-on confrontation with that slashing beam that was cutting both noble and soldier down with equal ease, Tev instead slid in from the side, pushing aside Mardish bodies with almost contemptible ease.