Deimos commanded the troops while Phobos engaged. Rycharde, Oswyn, Dynham and Evered were separated and made into troop leaders holding out in the front, donning their black armour they were a sight to behold.
Phobos commanded the Anticourt troops to set fire to bales of hay in order to weaken the Shadow Walkers. The Arcanists and the bandits began their coordinated attack, their hydromancers focused on extinguishing the fires while the Shadow users shot arrows from the tops of the houses where it would be hard to notice them, their arrows were not a shower but targeted and precise, which led to disabling key soldiers that were close to injuring the bandits.
The shadow walkers had a steady hand and with their support, the bandits slowly overwhelmed the Anticourt forces. Shadow walkers formed a black wall behind the bandits, it was an intimidating sight, you could not see beyond the walking wall of darkness, and from their batches of arrows came volleying at the soldiers.
Rycharde and other pyromancers kept on shooting their [Fireballs] toward the darkness. Deimos had an idea of igniting a hay cart and ploughing through except that they could not successfully execute it. The hydromancers from the bandit's forces would extinguish the cart just as it made contact. They had no way of fighting without incendiaries and their limited pyromancers had trouble in creating so much fire.
"They are too organized a troop," observed the captain of the Anticourt guard. "Something feels off, I have never heard bandits being this cohesive especially with Arcanists."
Deimos was silent, right now he could not answer this statement of the captain.
"I'm heading out too, I need to support the men they are having a tough time fighting these thugs," Deimos said as he headed out.
"Let's change plans, the Anticourt Guard can't deal with this things, we need a small elite team to charge and break formation," Rycharde exclaimed.
"Well, you're right but how do we execute it? Can anyone make a charge in like that? We need a high-level spell to break their formation, we should use [Rock Launch]," replied Deimos.
"No need, I think Evered and I are enough, the others will follow in the formation, once disrupted you use your whip to break the wall,"
"Okay, we'll leave it up to you then."
The party regrouped and prepared for the incoming wall of bandits, Evered made an [Earth wall] covering the party cutting his mana to a third of his capacity. The bandits were confused and their Earth mages flung a boulder at it. The boulder destroyed the flimsy [Earth Wall] as they paused at what happened.
Rycharde leapt 10 yards into the air landing and smashing the head of the bandit in front of him, Evered followed suit and smashed the flimsily armoured rouge, this created a space for Deimos and Phobos to attack the shadows.
The shadows fled the onslaught of thrashes by Deimos and Phobos. This made a nice cavity as chaos ensued Dynham and Oswyn, each having a burning hay cart rammed the shadows.
Their formation collapsed and the cheers of the guard livened their morale. With the formation destroyed, one on one battles began to pop up. The clash of metal and flying spells could be seen everywhere as [Stone Bullets] flew here and there. The once advantaged bandits were now in a chaotic mess.
Deimos and Phobos proceeded to chase the shadow walkers but were cautious enough so that they would not get encircled by the Shadow Walkers. Rycharde provided the support and two other knights who were proficient in fire spells.
Phobos's whip snapped and a howl was heard inside the darkness, a fireball approached the sound quickly as well as three arrows. The darkness surrounding the Arcanist dissipated and left a crumpled body with three arrows stuck to the chest one hitting his heart.
For each Shadow Walker, the party killed a shout was heard from the Anticourt Guard.
"These things can be killed after all," a voice was heard.
"Yeah the Demon Hunters truly do a good job, without their help I don't think we'd stand a chance."
"And those four they seem to be really skilled too. Do you think they are Demon Hunters as well?"
"No, I don't think so they don't have the same armour if anything they seem to be Blackfyre Guard."
Dynham and Oswyn were fighting a bandit each. A bandit charged from behind but Dynham noticed and pierce the torso of the man, spattering his entrails. Oswyn used his halberd to hack the approaching bandits with ease.
The Blackfyre guard's agility was exceptional compared to the knights of Anticourt. With high morale, the Anticourt Guard were successfully pushing back. They carefully stayed in the well-lit areas and let the Demon Hunters party deal with the Shadow Walkers.
The bandit's formation was totally destroyed some were retreating while others were charging. They attempted to regroup but Dynham and Oswyns precision strikes and speed made it so that it was difficult. With the added volley of fire arrows from the Anticourt guard, it seemed that the attack was slowly dispersing.
. . .
The shadow walker leader was looking at the battle.
"The spy is not among the combatants," his attendant said.
"Where is he then?"
"He is in the administrative building district."
"Why is he there what credentials does he have?" asked the puzzled shadow walker leader.
"Looks like the Daeva are protecting him," the attendant referred to the demon hunters.
"Our employer looks to kill that man, killing the Daeva is an added bonus. Let us let his lieutenant wreak havoc first before we proceed."
A huge figure emerged from the alleyway where the two shadow walkers were talking. He had a broad chin and a bulging frame, he stood six feet tall and carried an axe and wore a grim expression on his face. His eyes were piercing looking as if it were looking at a dead body. His wavy ash blonde hair was hardly seen in the shadow.
"Sir Orst have you dealt with the messenger post?" asked the shadow walker leader.
Orst did not reply but he gave a nod and grunted.
"The spy is there, we require your aid. You need to wreak havoc, try as much to destroy their lighting so that we can sneak into the building and dispose of the spy."
Orst just stared at the man nodding and muttering to himself. He cast a spell and dashed toward the melee.
. . .
Ezra was sulking. He was lost for words at the frustration he had. He had just fought with his mother. They bickered at each other. He was annoyed that he could not leave the castle, the past few months the same monotony was everywhere, library, room, library, courtyard, library, room.
He felt he was being detained. He was an introvert on earth but here he felt like a prisoner. He could not do the experiments he wanted too. He was only given wood, he tried to ask for common minerals that he deduced were readily available but under Aerwyna's watch, he could not get any of them.
She deemed it too dangerous for him. Aerwyna had less contact with Ezra because she made sure that security was tight and that no spies were present. She tried to make her own intelligence force of her own neglecting her son, in her zeal to protect him, she was slowly alienating him from her.
"I hate this," Ezra shouted as he chipped away at the block of wood. He vented his frustration.
"Calm down, Lord Ezra" Evan had already understood Ezra somewhat. From his perspective, he was a person who had adult knowledge with the emotions and body of a toddler. He had asked his comrades about their own children, they talked about how their own children were very much like Ezra except that was amazingly intelligent.
His friends talked about how their child would be happy one moment then angry at the next minute for no apparent reason. It was a characteristic of toddlers for some reason. He looked at Ezra and was filled with understanding for the little lord.
"Don't worry milord, she'll allow you to get them eventually," said Evan as he soothed Ezra.
"Why doesn't she understand that I am not like those other babies. I'm not dumb enough those things in my mouth." Ezra breathed furiously. "One of these days I'll walk out that door. I can be independent. Hmph"
"I think that Lady Blackfyre prohibits you those things because she does not want you to grow up yet. You should understand mothers are really baffling creatures but know that they care for you and only want you to grow. I know this I had a mother too," Evan smiled.
"Fine, but with me being trapped here all the time don't blame me if I do something extreme or stupid. Hmph. Next time I might actually go out of here even if you were to be punished." Ezra pouted but did really mean the latter, he actually had grown fond of Evan.
Evan merely smiled at this. "Whatever happens, Lord Ezra, I will always find you and bring you home."