Bloodsword: War of the Leaf

Opportunity

Then he was beside the tall elf, the Silver Hawk's costume and disguise now in complete disarray.  Bright blue eyes darted his way before widening in shocked surprise.  Then he was wresting the weapon from the elf's stunned hand.

"Need to borrow this, pointy," the human hissed before twisting sharply to point the weapon at the gaming pit's far wall.  Triggered by a simple stud set into the textured metal grip, he then hammered several of the weapon's powerful blasts into the seasoned wood, the force of impact and the magic's action enough to shatter the wall and open a great gape.

Nodding in satisfaction, Tev tossed the weapon back to the stunned Solavar, who was now as enthralled as the Drax in the pit was.  But the elf wasn't overcome by the use of magic, but by the waves of elemental power emanating from the determined human instead.

"Thanks," Tev curtly rasped.  "But I think you'll be needing this more than I!" he dryly noted before throwing himself back into the crowd.  A heart beat later the Mardish soldiers, taking advantage of the pause in weapon fire, slipped through the final crush to brandish their weapons as they attacked with a fierce war cry.

Rolling free of the surging mass of stampeding bodies, Tev flipped off the protective spikes to drop lightly onto the sand-covered ground of the pit.  Then, darting past a bemused Drax, he went to where Kora was working on a barely conscious Joran.

"Tev!" Kora gasped, her hands covered in her friend's blood.  "What have you done?"

"Got us a way out of here," was the human's curt answer as he knelt to slip an arm around the struggling Kensarthi's body.

"Time to go, my friend," he murmured softly to the injured elf.  Bracing Joran's weight against his own body, he then half carried, half helped the Kensarthi staggered towards the great hole that Tev had managed to cut into the pit's wall, heading for freedom.

Kora stared after them for a long moment, disbelief on her face.  Then she was scrambling to Lax and Feral'Sath, shaking the two unconscious elves into some semblance of awareness before pulling them to their feet and pushing them in front of her towards the ragged hole in the wall.

Spilling out of the massive rent in the thick wall, Tev grinned in satisfaction to find that they had managed to reach one of the many hallways running through the complex.  A hallway that was empty of soldiers or slave keepers.

Unfortunately it didn't stay that way.  With a shriek of dismay, Valus came sprinting around the corner.  From the direction he had appeared, it was difficult to tell whether he was running to the pits in an attempt to do something as royal pit master.  Or running away from them to escape the debacle the match had become.  Yet there was no mistaking the unhappiness in Valus' expression.  The foppish elf's face was a mask of misery as he muttered under his breath:

"They're going to blame me for this, I know it.  Hung by my own entrails from the front gates of the citadel!  Urk!"  He came to a sudden halt as Feral'Sath stepped forward to block his way, the much smaller Mardish slamming into the blocky Dolomin's body.

Instantly Feral'Sath's strong hands took hold of Valus' fine clothing and the Mardish' head jerked up, eyes wide with fear.

"What, . . what are you doing?" he stammered in a high pitched voice filled with sudden fear and trepidation, not even trying to pull free of the Dolomin's hold.

"Leaving, Valus," Tev answered, not even sparing the foppish Mardish a glance as he looked back down the path Valus had approached with.  Good; the way was clear.  That meant the pit master didn't have his guards in tow and they wouldn't have to deal with them at some point.  He then finally favored the twitching Valus with a hard look.