Barnabas after the final bang remained silent and still at his position for another minute before he rose up, patting himself clean of the dirt. Looking around and taking in the pure devastation Barnabas is left slack jawed.
The tales of the Gladius' brutality and power was one that everyone was familiar with, but as a bard himself Barnabas had to admit that he thought the tales to be a tad bit overexaggerated.
Heck he had plans to run away the moment things turned sour for his stoic armored friend. However the booming thunderous sounds alongside the searing heat and the tremors in the earth had caused him to halt all actions. Praying to every god he knew that he was not discovered.
Even with his active imagination Barnabas had to confess the scene before him was beyond what his mind had conjured up. Unable to keep his hold over his biological reactions after laying eyes on the the gruesome scene of bodies ripped apart with guts littered all over as well a bones peaking out at all the wrong angles.
His retching sounds carried on in the unnaturally silent night as he let out all the contents of his belly. After a few minutes he began to let out panted breaths as he calmed himself, muttering to himself a mantra of self assurance.
The little confidence he had gathered quickly fled once he laid eyes on the iron clad figure who was now standing some distance away from himself. "gods!" Barnabas yelled as he jumped back falling upon his backside, "don't do that, I almost had a freaking heart attack. And I'm pretty certain, giving people heart attacks doesn't qualify as protection."
"hm" C-6-367 responded with a grunt before turning around and whistling sharply presumably to call back his horse a futile attempt, if you asked Barnabas. After all with all the destruction evident and the loud explosive sounds that drowned out everything even Barnabas wanted to run away, how much more the horses.
Barnabas was slack jawed however when C-6-367's horse came trotting back. C-6-367 gently rubbed the black stead before putting his head to the horses, muttering words Barnabas could not quite catch.
Seeing the return of his companion's horse, Barnabas made an attempt to call back his steed. 'Maybe I underestimated the loyalty of horses' Barnabas thought to himself as he waited patiently. However as time passed, with C-6-367 readying himself and mounting his horse, Barnabas let out a sigh filled with disappointment before cursing out the animal who had been his companion for a few months.
"Friend, seeing as how you are the only one amongst the two of us with a horse, how about you give me a ride the rest of the way huh?" Barnabas approached C-6-367's horse with an outstretched hand but was stopped once C -6-367 turned to him.
"Touch him and you will loose a hand"
Barnabas was quick to withdraw his hands once he heard C-6-367's words. "Alright, alright, walking isn't so bad anyway" with both hands up in surrender Barnabas took a few steps back from the Gladius and his horse.
His actions were all silently observed by the Gladius who simply turned away from him and began his journey leaving Barnabas to follow behind on foot as he grumbled.
"It's just a stupid horse anyway"
.....
As the rays of the sun graced the land with its light once more the duo of C-6-367 and Barnabas laid eyes on the gates of Rusvil.
"Haha! the town gates! I tell you now friend if I had to continued this journey any longer my legs might have just fallen off. But, gods be good the gates of Rusvil are right before us, and behind those gates there are sure to be inns and you know what inns have? beds, oh sweet sweet beds I hear them calling me now. I'm coming my lovelies".
C-6-367 did not pay his companion any heed as he focused on the guards before the gates and the increasing focus and checks on the people leaving rather than the people entering. Many towns and cities had guards guarding their gates, and t was not uncommon for them to check on the persons entering and leaving.
However in most cases they were more focused on the entrants, so as to prevent unsavory people from entering. However that did not seem to be the case here, upon further examination C-6-367 noticed that the ones doing the inspections did not only consist of the towns guard in their navy blue outfits with black armor that had their edges laced with gold above it.
Alongside the towns guard were people who wore robes, the color of their robes varied however what remained constant was the symbol on every one of them, a tower.
"Tower alchemists"
Barnabas who was at C-6-367's side noticed the tower alchemists as well as the oddity in their inspections and grew alert. Thinking back on how the Gladius next to him was headed here and now there were tower alchemists aiding in inspections at the gate, Barnabas couldn't help but think that everything was connected.
As the two paid attention to the guards and alchemists, so two did the guards and alchemist focus on the Gladius heading for them. "Halt!" an alchemist called out once the duo reached the gates, with a few others at his side the alchemist moved closer looking the Gladius straight in the eye before continuing.
"State your business"