Kellen and the Romans approached the slanted entry of the Myria hold. At one point the grand entry may have been a set of beautiful pillars supporting a large doorway, but now it was half crumbling. A portion of the pillar on the right remained erected into the air with its top half fallen and slanted against the other side of the main entrance.
Nimbly, they ducked under the arch formed by the crumbling pillars or climbed over its lower end and proceeded into the hold.
"Strange… I thought we would have ran into one of them again by now." Commented Strom from beside Axus and Kellen.
From their first encounter at the ambush in the city to the hold, they had faced no further confrontations or traps. Even now as they walked into the first hall of the Myria hold, they did not find any more resistance.
The unsettling feeling in Kellen's stomach returned once they stopped in front of the doorway leading to the throne room. He knew that his unease was not derived from returning to the insidious place where he had discovered the first blood core, but was induced by an ominous sixth sense.
He grabbed Strom's trailing arm to stop him from entering the throne room. After noticing the legionnaire had modeled Kellen's pause, the rest of the group stopped their progression as well and awaited Axus's command.
"Unsurprisingly…. It seems we are expected." Commented Axus while sensing the unease in Kellen.
Kellen felt as if there was an annoying itch on the back of his neck. It was the kind of feeling one got when they felt as if they were being watched. Watched by a predator calmly stalking its prey.
"Something doesn't feel right…" Whispered Kellen under his breath.
Strom picked up the kid's muffled words and sharpened his focus. He signaled to the rest of his men to be on guard against any sudden attacks.
"It doesn't make a difference whether we know that they are waiting for us there or not. We proceed onwards, but keep your blades sharp and ready." Said Axus, who kicked the large doors leading to the throne room completely open and led the vanguard.
Strom and Kellen followed immediately behind him, though in a more cautious fashion. They unsheathed their weapons and kept a firm grip on them to steel their nerves. The group slowly funneled into the throne room and prepared for any sudden assailants that could jump out at them without a moment's notice.
However, no such threats presented themselves as the group was greeted by nothing but the numerous stone people gathered in the large open room. Torches were left strewn about here and there amongst the stone figures, which casted hundreds of shadows across the throne room.
Kellen didn't know which he would have preferred more, the darkness hiding most of the stone people or the torch light that confused their senses. The many shadows cast by the warm light put them even more so on edge since any one of them could be an enemy in hiding.
The dancing and swaying movement of the shadows confused his eyes and created a strange illusion of movement. The battleground prepared by the Order was much worse than the darkness Kellen decided. Since it clearly unnerved many in the group even more than him.
The sound of strings twanging echoed in the main hall from all around them. Axus reached for a small box with a handle grip located at the back of his waist and called out, "Shields!"
The Romans similarly reached for the tiny boxes and knelt to the ground while holding them in front of their bodies. Kellen looked at them all in confusion before he was pushed back by Strom onto the floor.
"Hey-"
Before he could make a complaint, he looked up to see Strom pull a tether that was hanging loosely beside the handle on the back of the small box. After the tether was drawn, wooden plates inside the box shot out to make a rectangle.
The ingenious shield mechanism formed and provided cover against the rain of arrows that assaulted the group. Kellen looked over to Axus to find Tommy in the same situation he was currently in.
"Second group volley!" Shouted a voice from deeper in the throne room behind the many frozen stone figures.
"Press forward into the stone figures!" Commanded Axus as their group began to progress forward against the volley of arrows raining down on them.
"The bastards got reinforcements!" Shouted Marcus, who rushed up beside Strom and Kellen to provide another shield for cover. Ceric carefully positioned behind the warrior and notched an arrow onto his bowstring.
"Axus! They must've gotten the gate working!" Shouted Strom over to Axus's group, who had spread out through the other side of the throne room.
"Isn't that obvious?" Axus quipped back as he led his men towards the area of the room which was more densely populated with the stone people.
The large gorge that scarred the center of the room's floor split their group in half. Axus traveled with his group on the left while Kellen and Strom led the others on the right. They dove behind a pillar that was still half standing on the side of the room.
Strom handed his shield over to Kellen.
"Can you hold this up to protect our heads?" He asked while pointing to the missing section of the pillar that left the space above them vulnerable to the arrows.
Kellen didn't respond and instead grabbed the shield and did as he was instructed.
"Ceric! Get your ass over here now!" Shouted Strom to the archer that was being covered by Marcus and his shield. A few paces back where they had been previously.
Marcus and Ceric carefully made their way over to the column behind the line of shielded Romans that formed across from Strom. Marcus kept his shield above their heads for any arrows that may have gotten past the Roman shieldwall.
"What do you want me to do?" Asked Ceric as he let an arrow fly off of his bow to the other side of the throne room.
"I need you to give us cover while we press forward. If you can direct the others in our group who have bows then we should be able to make it through."
Ceric nodded his head and called out to three other men that hid behind their comrades' shields. Kellen looked over to the groups and analyzed their situation.
Axus, on the other side of the gorge, had shed his shield to Tommy and was pressing forward while using his spear to deflect any incoming arrows. His men advanced behind him in a similar fashion but a few were killed off with their skills being unable to match their legionnaire's.
The smarter ones used their shields alongside with their spears, draping them over the top of their shields to stab any enemies that they would eventually come across.
Strom's group had formed a uniform wall together. Their shields placed in front while using the stone figures as additional cover prevented any of the arrows from finding their mark. They slowly pressed forward through the stone figures at a careful pace.
Marcus's shouting brought Kellen back to their current situation.
"What a bunch of pussies! They're only shooting some wimpy sticks at us!"
Kellen could see Ceric's face begin to redden with anger at the warrior's remark.
"How about I just impale you with one of these wimpy sticks then, huh?" Retorted the peeved archer.
"Nah, that's alright. Keep shooting at them so I can sink one of my blades into those weakass bastards!" Replied the warrior, who ran over to Strom and Kellen as they pressed forward.
Ceric and a few of the men with shields remained behind to continue supporting them with their cover fire.
"They're up in the banisters behind the throne." Said Strom as he pointed to where an arrow that planted into Kellen's shield had come from.
Above the throne at the other end of the hall, a balcony with a row of columns connected to an old marble bannister. It provided their sneaky enemies with a perfect vantage point to shoot from. Kellen could barely make out the familiar yet now crimson robes of the order quickly darting back and forth behind the short columns.
Looking below at behind the throne, he found two spiraling staircases on both of its sides that most likely led to the sheltering balcony.
"There's a set of stairs on each side of the throne. If we can make it there we should be able to engage them." Suggested Kellen as he pointed out his discovery to Strom.
"The question is… Will we be able to make it there in one piece…" Replied Strom as he studied the distance they still needed to cross under the heavy rain of arrows.
"Follow me! I'll clear the way captain!" Marcus said while pressing in front of kellen and Strom to run towards the throne. He raised his large rectangular shield up at an angle to prevent any arrows from piercing his body while plowing straight through the stone figures in his way.
He left a clean trail for the rest to follow in his wake. Kellen shook his head at the warriors' dumbfounded bravery, but followed after him with Strom nonetheless. Although Ceric's group tried their best to return fire, it did not make much of a difference. Arrows were beginning to find their way into the small spaces left between the rudimentary shields. The enemy's continuous barrage of arrows streamed down from the balcony and was slowly eating away at their numbers. If they were unable to quickly engage in close-combat to draw away the Order's arrows, Kellen knew their groups would not last much longer.
Axus's group seemed to have a similar idea like Marcus's as they formed into a line with the legionnaire spearheading the front of it. Both groups stomped through the stone figures towards the throne as the rain of arrows refused to let up.
The small team led by Marcus's charge finally made it to their staircase, while the remaining soldiers behind them closely followed their heels. The few Romans in their group that had survived were now running towards them with their shields hoisted above their heads as a protective shell against the raining onslaught.
"Quickly! Head up the stairs and engage the enemy!" Shouted Strom as he pushed his men up the winding staircase while remaining behind with Kellen and Marcus to help any stragglers. Axus's group reached the other staircase as well. He did the same for his men with Tommy swiftly weaving through the stone figures to help any of their trailing men.
"Light it!" Shouted a commanding voice from up on the balcony. Other voices from the Order repeated the command shouting, "Light! Light!".
Suddenly, at the top of the spiraling staircases, flames erupted from the oiled stone steps. The hungry flames traveled down the steps of the staircase like an infernal wave. The ascending Roman soldiers who were unable to jump from the railing were incinerated as the flames overtook them.
"Fire!" Shouted the soldiers near the flames that traveled down the steps to warn those behind them.
Kellen looked back towards the staircase upon hearing the screams to see a spiral of flames eating away at their soldiers.
"Regroup at the base of the stairs!" Shouted Strom and Axus as they attempted to recover some of their men.
Axus looked over to the other staircase that was facing the same problems as they were.
"Strom! Help me fry these bastards!" He shouted as he rushed towards the throne located between the staircases.
Strom glanced over to Kellen and Marcus and nodded his head before running off to join the legionnaire.
"Tommy! Direct the men!" Shouted Axus back to his son that was frantically trying to direct the soldiers back down the engulfed staircase. But he didn't have time to answer back as he regrouped their injured men.
Strom and Axus met at the throne. Strom picked up a shield that one of his fallen men had gripped in his dead hands and used it to shelter them from the arrows.
"What's the plan?" He asked as the sound of arrows embedding themselves into the shield caused him to raise his voice in order to be heard.
Axus twirled his spear deflecting the arrows flying towards him as he answered, "Charge up, we're bringing down the entire fucking balcony!"
Axus's white aura immediately engulfed his spear and body like a thin halo while blue sparks began to crackle around Strom. The loud roar of thunder and crackling scream of electricity echoed through the throne room as the two men prepared their strike.
However, before their attacks could be released, a blazing red arrow triple the size of the others implanted into the cracked stone floor between the two men's feet before exploding.
Axus and Strom flew back from their position only being stopped after crashing through multiple stone figures. A sleeveless red crimson robed man jumped down from the balcony with a scarlet bow drawn in his hands. Two blazing arrows flickered with dancing flames along their shafts on his bowstring.
A wide grin was plastered on the man's face as he aimed the arrows towards his two fallen opponents.