>>5950058You think for a moment of leaving the battle here and suspecting yourself to being chased so that you might have a more agreeable advantage, but as another arrow whiffs your body you disregard those thoughts. The mage looks to be about useless due to her lack of a staff but the fighter stands between you and the archer. You lament your lack of ranged attack for only a second as you see an expensive-looking whisky bottle. You doubt it’s actually expensive, only to these peasants it might be.
You’re no stranger to improvised weapons, the pipe speaks for itself, and the bottle does its job well. Sailing right over the short adventurers and impacting the forehead of the archer, bringing him out of the fight. Blood and alcohol aren’t exactly substances you’d want to wash out of your eyes. Especially not with rainwater as the archer seems to be trying as he rushes out the door.
Seeing everything go wrong on their front the mage and fighter seem lost on what to do before the latter settles on simply charging you with a loud yell. It takes only two swings to disarm him, three to knock him prone, and a kick to make him go unconscious.
The Stranger only had time to get the lowest of the low, huh? It almost makes you think this was set up by the Inquisition more than you know. Or perhaps inquisitor Asher really did just stumble across him and scared him hard enough he was desperate to take over anyone he could.
The mage girl doesn’t stand much of a change and settles on throwing the little remains of her staff at you. Needless to say they… bounce off your… assets as you approach. But even with all her shaking you can now see the mark in all its “glory.” A glowing purple symbol with six eyes looks to be branded on the back of her right hand. “Please, master, please be all right,” the girl mumbles in reverence(?) when she realizes there’s no hope of winning her encounter with you.
Then all of a sudden there’s a loud, yet muffled, scream from somewhere deeper in the building and the brand on the girl's hand begins to dissipate. Not a trace of it having ever been there is left after a moment's time. Then the mage collapses. You rush over to stop her from falling, and when her shaky legs finally recover enough to stand and her eyes regain lucidity she begins to frantically look around the ruined tavern in horror.
“Huh, wha- Derrick..?” She says as she looks over the unconscious form of the fighter, “Morgan..? Sophie..?” Somehow her face loses even more color as she spies her entire party. At least Clarice has finally stopped screaming, hopefully having fainted.
“Are you alright?” You curse yourself for asking such a stupid question the second it leaves your mouth, but you can’t think of anything else to say.
“Y-your H-highness?” She keeps getting paler.
“Yes?”
“W-we just attacked the princess…” As that realization sits in there’s nothing you can do to stop the poor adventurer girl from fainting.
