Tessa Smith (3/1/4) Reward: 55 rupees (50 quest reward + 5 from Layla's quest reward) Layla Shula El-Amin (5/1/2) Reward: Profession level 4 + 5 rupees (5 quest reward + 15 profession + 5 from new level) *** Tessa noticed the attack first. That wasn't especially surprising, of itself. She possessed the innate Hylian ability to sense, instinctively, killing intent. The range was short, but it was often helpful, all the same. This was not one of those situations. The caravan she was escorting from Ruto to the Western Caves had just passed Rauru, and was still amongst the scant trees in the area. Advancing through the trees had its pros. A forest, even a thin one, could provide ample cover for a large, vulnerable procession such as a convoy. It was also a source of shade, which was not a small consideration when passing through the Tantari Desert. That was, in fact, half the reason their path was skirting around Rauru and Kakariko. Going directly through the desert might have been faster, but it would also have been harsher. Sand tended not to play nice with things like, oh, draft animals and wheels. It might even have been necessary to bring additional animals just for a sufficient supply of water! In the end, the question had come down to one simple duality: they could either brave heat, dehydration, and sand...or they could risk encountering the scattered remnants of Ganon's army. The decision process was actually a bit simpler, though. They could pay for liters upon liters of water, as well as lots of horses, or they could buy a few mercenaries. Somehow, the latter was actually cheaper. The problem with that plan, of course, was that the forest didn't provide cover solely for the caravan. The trees may have been thinly placed, but the underbrush was fairly thick outside the trail they followed. And while the trail made moving wagons and animals through the vegetation possible, it also made their path very predictable. And so here Tessa was, exactly fifty-five rupees richer, and also about to be set upon by Goddesses-knew-what. She began to shout a warning, but it died in her throat as an arrow zipped in from somewhere to her left, catching the guard beside her in directly in his right eye. On the bright side, everyone knew what was going on now! No need to explain how the hell she knew they were in danger.
Layla, first knight of the Gerudo, strode inexorably closer to her quarry. A band of petty raiders had been a constant thorn in, well, everyone's side of late, and she had set out to eliminate the threat. No one had really asked her to do so, but South Hyrule was as much her home as anyone's, and Ganon's monsters were a known quantity for her. Fortunately for Layla- and unfortunately for her prey- bandits were not especially skilled at concealing their passage. If they bothered at all, that is. It had been several days since the last known attack, and tracks tended not to last long in the desert, but they had strayed a bit closer to Rauru than they ought to have. That meant patches of good, solid dirt, not to mention scattered plant life. Of course, she probably could have tracked them based on the refuse the left behind alone. She recognized fully the danger in straying so closely to Rauru alone, but Ganon hadn't so much conquered the city as he had simply razed it. Even his forgotten minions in the area had too little shelter to inhabit here, and their needs were far lower than those of Hylians or Gerudo. Anything that got in her way would likely be small or alone, and she was confident in her ability to take on nearly anything on a one-on-one basis. Besides which, Layla had come out her seeking to wipe out an entire group of bandits single-handedly. She wasn't going to balk at the threat of combat. Silence had reigned for much of her trek, so she noticed immediately when shouting intruded upon desert calm. Without hesitation, she broke into an enhanced sprint, moving far, far more quickly than anyone in her weight of armor had a right to. That was what magic was for, though.
"Close ranks!" Tessa heard from somewhere in the middle of the convoy. Caravaneers turned and ran in an undisciplined mass, squeezing themselves together in the middle. The guards and mercenaries backed up in a more orderly fashion, all facing outward with shields and/or weapons raised. For a moment, the only sounds came from confused pack animals and their frustrated handlers, who had no way of explaining to them why they needed to move. The task was made easier by the fact that their wagons were already in the center; moving horses laden with packs was far easier than maneuvering oxen pulling large wagons. Then, all at once, the underbrush around them exploded. Most of the attackers were Bulblins, but there were a lot of them, and several Moblins scattered through the formation. And in the front...a single Darknut. "Screw this shit, I'm out of here!" someone screamed from the rear. The guard in question dropped his weapon and broke into a sprint- he managed perhaps ten meters before several arrows turned his back into a pincushion. Tessa rolled her eyes and scanned the enemies before her. A few dozen Bulblins, easily. At least one Moblin for every six Bulblins, as well. The Bulblins could be left to her fellows, no doubt. Most were less experienced- or skilled- than Tessa herself, but Bulblins were hardly the toughest of opponents. No, the real threats were the Moblins and, especially, that Darknut. Someone involved in this endeavor really should have thought of that possibility, but, as it was, no one was actually equipped to kill a Darknut. Which, unfortunately, meant that was one task Tessa could most emphatically not leave to the others. The Darknut was huge, strong, armed with a sword as tall as Tessa, and protected by the bulwark of its incredibly thick armor. She knew, in theory, how to fight a Darknut. It really amounted to not getting hit long enough to go for the weak points in his armor. Even the toughest of armor had to be strapped on somewhere. Still...all it would take was one good hit. She doubted her ability to even deflect a blow from that giant blade, and attempting to block it would probably end with a broken arm and two halves of a whole body. And here she was, armed with a longsword, a shield she couldn't use, and a whole lot of courage. Sadly, courage was a poor defense against walking natural disasters. It looked as if the Darknut was hanging back and letting his minions target the convoy. From her perspective, that was a double edged sword. It bought her and, by extension, the convoy some time, but it also meant that she would likely be engaging it after fighting through multiple Moblins. Alone. Anyone else was likely to get in her way at a crucial moment and leave her vulnerable. Quantity was a poor substitute for quality- at least, in situations where one missed step tended to be fatal for everyone involved. Those thoughts occurred to Tessa in the space of a few seconds. She thought quickly, and didn't articulate internally most of what she had surmised. Then the mob charged, and she braced herself.
Omly a quarter mile into her run, Layla happened upon the first of the Blins. Tessa had noted only a portion of the raiders' forces from her position at the fore, and Layla's position showed her a different picture entirely. She noted several clusters of Miniblins scattered around behind the Moblins and Bulblins, hanging back and firing arrows at targets of opportunity. In effect, that mostly meant they were standing around. They couldn't see past even the Bulblins at their height, but as people fell and the crowd thinned, they would eventually be a larger threat. On the other hand, for Layla, they hardly even qualified as speed bumps. She simply trampled the first group in her path, then tossed a fallen log right into the next one, driving them to the ground like a set of nine-pins. One Miniblin in the final group in her field of vision cast a spell in her direction, and she felt a stinging sensation beneath her armor as it bypassed her defenses entirely. Whatever the injury was, she was determined to worry about it later. It might slow her down, but it would take a lot more than that to fell her entirely, and from a much more powerful caster at that. Crudely made arrows bounced off her armor as she approached, their wooden tips no match for her armor. Or...any armor, actually. Before she even managed to reach the Miniblins, their morale broke entirely, and they fled towards the desert. Without leadership, they would be no threat to anyone, so she let them go. Odds were good they would succumb to the heat and dry air of the desert anyway. Either way, the other Blins no longer had ranged support.
For all intents and purposes, the raiding group was assaulting an unfortified schiltrom. It was a bit more sparsely packed than an infantry commander would have liked, and they'd had no time to drive stakes into the ground before them, but many of the guards carried spears or pikes- one woman appeared to be using a cavalry lance, for that matter- and the spearmen, at least, were equipped with shields. Others, like Tessa, had swords, and they were generally the most experienced and skilled fighters. Swords weren't typically wielded by those untrained in their usage. A wave of bodies crashed into that formation, and the press of said bodies drove many Bulblins directly into spearheads or, in a few cases, past the formation all together. Caravaneers met those lucky few, and although they were not professional fighters, they were fighting scattered and unsupported raiders. Defenders with impaled enemies upon their weapons pulled back, attempting to disengage long enough to solve that happy little problem, and the fighters with swords, axes, and various blunt weapons stepped up to cover them. Tessa advanced, deflecting blows with her shield and laying out her foes with quick swipes of her sword. A Bulblin went down, throat cut, and moments later ones of his fellows collapsed on his bleeding corpse...several inches shorter. Important inches, as it happened. It was like swatting flies, but even Bulblins would eventually wear down the best of fighters. In all likelihood, some of her fellows had already fallen to them. A more cohesive fighting force might now have retreated, bringing the pole arms into play once more, but then, a more cohesive fighting force would have had many more pikes in the first place. The battle had devolved now into a general melee, with both groups' ranks intermingled. Tunnel vision was somewhat inevitable as a result, but Tessa was no commander anyway. She needed only to focus on the task at hand. The others would have to take care of themselves. She strode into the maelstrom of battle, killing anything that got in her way.
Just as Tessa could only handle one area at a time, Layla could not be everywhere at once. And to save all these people, she would have to be. The caravan's escort had inflicted major casualties on their opponents in the opening rush, but the bandits could afford to lose fighters. Moblins reproduced quickly. A band of raiders like this practically depended upon taking casualties in battle, as it kept their population in check. Few other races could boast the same. None of the races represented in this convoy could do so, certainly. Most were Hylian or Gerudo, and every trained adult they lost was a major blow. Layla slew every Moblin in reach, but she was just one person, and her impact on the overall battle was actually minimal. She would have been confident in her ability to fight this horde on her own, but to do so while protecting others was a much more difficult task. The best she could do was target every Common Moblin she could manage and hope the caravan was capable of holding out against Bulblins. She winced as a flanged mace bit deeply into her armor. Thick though it might be, it was far from indestructible. Maces and warhammers could even turn her thick armor into a disadvantage with enough strikes, warping it and reducing her mobility even as it injured her body. Multiple dents- and a few outright punctures- decorated her armor already, most of them along her arms and torso. The faulds and chain skirt protecting her lower body resisted such attacks very well, loosely worn as they were, but her hauberk was tightly fit and could only take so much damage. Still, slowly but surely, the tide was changing. In a fight such as this the defenders tended to hold the advantage so long as they maintained formation, and although that formation had begun to unravel, it had weathered the hardest portion of the battle already.
Tessa ducked as the first Moblin took a swing at her, his mighty club whistling as it chopped the air. Tessa hopped forward, bringing herself inside his stance, and stabbed upwards. A spray of blood rewarded her efforts, and the Moblin went down, blood flooding out the additional hole in his skull, gurgling the whole way. An urge to banter itched at the back of her skull, but she pushed it down as hard as she could. Much as she enjoyed it, none of these opponents could be allowed to last long enough to respond, and this battle was much too chaotic anyway. The mercenary in front of her, no longer obscured by a Moblin's mass, stumbled as he took a nasty blow to the shoulder. His armor held, but the flail which had struck him wasn't intended to pierce it. The force of the blow went straight to his arm, and he stumbled back. Tessa slipped into his place, and before his assailant could register the fact he now had a new opponent, she bashed him directly in the face with her shield. Now he stumbled, tripping on a fallen body- Bulblin or Hylian, she couldn't tell- and she pounced, driving her blade through his heart. Behind her, the man she saved returned the favor by engaging the opponent she would likely have otherwise faced, but that fact went unknown to her. She found herself suddenly clear of the scrum, and she took a moment to catch her breath before charging back in. Her armor- such as it was and what there was of it- had been pierced multiple times, and a number of shallow cuts crisscrossed her body. Agile as she was, Tessa hadn't had a great deal of space in which to maneuver, so she was taking many more hits than she might have otherwise. In the midst of that many people, her hover boots were useless as well. She wiped blood from her forehead, trying to keep her eyes clear, and started forward. The sound of clunking footsteps gave her pause, however, and she realized the Darknut was no longer hanging back. "A warrior, I see," that mountain of steel grumbled. "I will give you a good death." "Yeeeeah, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather die naturally, in my sleep, at the ripe old age of eighty," she replied dryly, watching his motions carefully. "You, on the other hand, have a date with the reaper in, oh, five minutes or so." "Ha! Confident as well. I'll be breaking you of that shortly. Along with most of your bones, I expect." Tessa began to walk in a circle, matching the Darknut's maneuvering. It was a pointless act, but one fighters seemed to engage in with surprising frequency. "If you manage to hit me, I probably deserve that!" she replied cheerfully. "Too bad I'm not quite that geriatric yet. Or," she grinned, "so much of a coward I encase myself in the ultimate turtle shell. I'm rather partial to, y'know, not moving with the speed of the average glacier. " The Darknut merely grunted, and raised his weapon. The motion was enormous- it was so telegraphed, Yetis probably saw it coming all the way from Snowhead. Tessa rolled out the way, coming up just past his left leg, and swung her sword around instantly. She was in a poor posture for a good, solid strike, but she was trying to penetrate leather, not steel. The strap she was aiming for came apart, loosing the upper portion of his greave, and the piece of armor sagged in response. Even as the Darknut was turning to react, she leapt out of the way, adjusting her position until she was just out of his reach. She tried to control her breathing so he couldn't see exactly how exhausted she was, but it was hard. As Tessa had feared, the initial fight had worn her down to a dangerous extent. Combat was a full body exercise, and she had killed quite a few Bulblins before she ever even fought the Moblins...let alone the Darknut. The best she could do was the best she could do, however. And she couldn't afford to slip up now.
Every minute the battle dragged on, more Moblins and Bulblins realized they were under attack from behind. With the grass and rocks carpeted in bodies already, their morale was steadily sinking; many of them broke and ran the moment they saw Layla at all. She was glad for that fact, for several reasons. Every enemy that fled was one less she need waste time on, and one less that could further damage her armor. If she had had her way, the bandits would have been attacking her, and not the other way around. Plunging right into their ranks limited her options, and increased the risk of something getting through from outside her line of sight. And for every enemy that fled, the morale of the caravan rose even more. Men and women, reaching the end of their stamina, pushed themselves even harder as victory came into reach, and the sight of Layla massacring everything in her path raised their spirits even more. Exhausted fighters bellowed war cries, trying to shake the enemy just that little bit more, and the more energetic amongst them chased down Blins even as they tried to flee. Spears and javelins flew now, striking down even more. Finally, their numbers severely depleted and their leadership collapsed- fleeing, dead, or simply distracted- the Blins broke entirely. Layla had just begun to scan the caravan for casualties when she realized one woman was still fighting.
Her opponent strode forward, sword low, and slashed upwards and diagonally. Tessa hopped back, just out of range. The clearance there was smaller than she would have preferred; her opponent was getting faster as she stripped him of his defenses. Tessa shot forward after the sword had passed, even as she flipped her own sword over. She gripped it by the blade and its lengthy ricasso, half-swording to counter his armor advantage. It wasn't a technique she typically employed, but she needed to reduce his reach. A good, ringing blow from the guard of her sword upon his wrist might just disarm him. In theory. The Darknut saw what she meant to do, and he started to reverse his momentum. Before he could arrest the arc of his sword, however, she struck, hitting his arm directly on the underside with what was effectively a mace. With his outer vambraces stripped already, the remaining armor warped with the blow, driving his own protection directly into the tendons supporting his wrist. No amount of training could overcome certain reflexes. A good sharp blow to the knee triggered a kick. A solid impact on the wrist opened the hand. Off balance and suddenly supporting his enormous weapon with only one hand, the torque applied to his other wrist was now too great to oppose. His hand twisted, forcing him to release the blade, which crashed to the ground with a persistent ring. And then he proceeded to backhand Tessa so hard she spun around, landing hard on her belly, head ringing as loudly- to her- as the dropped sword. She shook herself, trying to regain some clarity, and rolled, trying to regain her feet...only to find the Darknut looming above her. "You thought me a helpless babe without my sword? You were mistaken. Now you and your pathetic caravan die." He reached back, prepping a punch which would probably shatter concrete, let alone something so insignificant as bone. She tried to move, but her body was still recovering from the last blow. Like a meteor, his fist descended.
Layla Shula El-Amin stood six and a half feet tall, weighed over two hundred pounds in sheer muscle, and happened to own a Muscle Band. When her hand shot out to catch that falling gauntlet, she stopped it as surely as a brick wall resists an arrow. Metal impacted on metal, and the resulting sound was remarkably similar to a particularly misshapen gong. The Darknut, startled by the unexpected intrusion, looked up and beheld a figure as well-protected and massive as he. "Brother? Why do you interfere? You would side with these vermin?" His deep baritone was laced with confusion- both at the intervention and the sight of a fellow Darknut in such strange armor. And yet...the voice emitted by that other figure was clearly female. Deeper than most, but female. "Now, now, friend. I think you'll find exchanging blows with me a much more enjoyable proposition." She released his hand and nodded to his weapon even as she hefted her own. That axe, the Darknut noted, was probably capable of splitting a knight in twain. Horse and all. He took the cue, recognizing an honorable opponent when he saw one. Layla walked to the side, giving the woman she'd saved time to recover...and, hopefully, get out of her way. There was bravery, and then there was foolhardiness. She was tempted to ascribe to that woman the latter trait, but had to acknowledge that desperation likely played a part. Certainly, none of the other guards had dared engage a Darknut. Now, she squared off in front of her opponent, burnished, bronzed armor shining in stark opposition to black steel. "You are not Darknut, I see. And yet you intend to duel me honorably, rather than simply lopping my head off while I fought another. Why?" "Seldom do those such as us find our equal. There is no glory in striking down a powerful foe caught unawares, but there is much to be found exchanging blows until the last. I am Layla Shula El-Amin of the Gerudo. I would know you name before we clash." "I am Bexlotl of the forces of Ganon." "Come, then, Bexlotl." The Darknut obliged, and he took his first step in tandem with Layla. He was short for a Darknut, standing at 'only' seven feet tall, but Layla was huge for a Gerudo. Neither had the advantage in size. By the same token, Layla was incredibly strong for her race, and although her opponent was relatively short, he was very broad, and packed enough muscle to counter her Muscle Band, had he known she possessed it. They swung simultaneously. Bexlotl, no fool, had turned his sword so the flat of it would meet the shaft of her axe, rather than attempting to go blade-on-blade and potentially destroying his own sword. The impact was heard across the battlefield. Their weapons actually bounced off one another, sending violent vibrations down their wielders' arms. Neither was a stranger to combat, and both had experienced similar fights. Despite the shockwaves running through them, neither lost hold of their armament. Layla brought her axe down, only for him to sidestep it and counter with a punch. She took the blow on her enormous pauldron, dropping her other arm towards the sword at her belt, then turned back towards him and unsheathed her 'longsword.' She was very insistent on that point. It was not a claymore, thank you very much. He saw what she intended to do and lifted a hand...and took a deep breath. The pommel of her sword slammed into that hand with force enough to crack steel plate, but his hand didn't budge. Then he stepped back, Layla sheathed her sword, and both brought their primary weapons to bear again. The Iron Knuckle shifted her grip towards the axe's head, sacrificing reach in exchange for making a flat-on-shaft attack impossible. She stepped off, and then accelerated impossibly fast, catching her foe off guard with her Pegasus Boots. Layla swung, and Bexlotl barely avoided losing his head from that attack. He began to counter, only to realize that hadn't been her attack at all when the counterweight of her axe smashed into his shin. The same shin with a loose greave. Every remaining strap holding his armor in place gave out, dropping his greave to the ground with a heavy thud. Expecting to be moving a leg several pounds heavier by weight of metal, he overcompensated, and the motion which would otherwise have been a simple step back turned into a full on stumble. He had no time to correct his mistake. That same counterweight came back, impacting him squarely on the chest this time, and a solid quarter ton of steel and flesh toppled over, crushing several bushes in the process. Her next blow cleaved through both helmet and skull.
With the Darknut occupied by her mysterious benefactor, Tessa took her time to recover. She almost certainly had a concussion on top of some mild blood loss from her numerous cuts, but she was alive. Others weren't so lucky. At least half of the caravan's guards, both professional and mercenary, were dead. Those still alive were all injured in some way. Broken bones, a few missing or reduced limbs, cuts of varying depth...there was even someone pinned under a dead horse, still alive but quite stuck. Most of the non-combatants had emerged unharmed, though, so those fighters had accomplished exactly what they meant to. She stood- carefully- and surveyed the area. No one was likely to ever have an exact count of how many bandits were here. Too many had fled, and it would take quite a long time to sort through the bodies still laying around. Time no one was going to put in. After so many losses, prudence said they should turn back- but at the same time, they had far fewer mouths to water. They could afford to take a more direct route along the edge of Tantari Desert now, so long as they kept to solid enough ground for the wagons. It was unlikely anyone would have the guts to risk attacking them now anyway, though. That would help. "Tessa Smith," she said to the figure that had saved her life. The Darknut was quite dead now; and the battlefield was quiet but for the sounds of the injured and still dying. She cracked the ghost of a grin, its intensity dimmed less by the circumstances and more by lack of energy. Moving was...hard. "I got your name, already. You sure came out of nowhere- not that I'm complaining! I happen to like my face exactly how it is. And in one piece." "I'm sure you do," Layla said with a chuckle. If she was aware of the numerous trickles of blood coming from holes in her armor, she didn't show it. "Your foes were many. You did well to survive, let alone triumph. I find my self wondering if you might have emerged victorious even against their leader, were it not for the minions you slew first." It took everything Tessa had left to shrug in response. Actually, she thought Layla was probably right on that count. Her size was probably the biggest factor there, though, as opposed to her skill. Few fighters of his height were adept at dealing with much smaller, more nimble opponents, and who knew when he'd last bothered to practice? "I...sorry... too tired...to be...snide. I'm sure there's a joke to crack somewhere, but I think I'll need a nap before I can find it," she replied slowly, her eyes distant. "Or maybe a nice meal. Pork. Out of spite." "You will, I suspect, have plenty of time for that," Layla pointed out grimly. It would be a while before the caravan was ready to move again. Oh, they'd probably relocate a half mile or so to be away from the blood, voided bowels, and bodies, but they needed to tend to their wounds before truly continuing. Now, though, it was all over but the walking.
