Warm liquid flowed down Cyphers cheek trailing from his one side of his nose. Beneath the vail of his mask, he was certainly struggling to maintain his composure. His mind worked like a computer to manifest the bridge that would save his life in time, or he would undoubtedly meet a grim end.
Like clockwork, his imagination bore fruit. A long thin pathway manifested before his eyes much to his relief. Behind him, the thunderous chorus of speeding footsteps made themselves known.
It's now or never!
Taking his palm off the ground and scrambling through the headache, Cyphers small feet made contact with the pathway. Even now, he still had to maintain the construct, less he fall into the pot of spikes beneath him.
With quick and hasty steps Cypher begun sprinting across the walkway, causing the grains on its surface to kick up intermittently as he ran. With the weathered stone wall of the castle within reach, he only ran faster, even loosening control over his own technique to focus.
The four cultists behind him didn't want to let him escape so easily, though even they had to admit it was foolish to continue to follow when the only platform they could take to reach Cypher was also under his full control.
Common sense right?
Only, not everyone was so keen on survival. One of the dreamweavers a relatively young and confident man who followed after Cypher. If he could kill this boy, then maybe, just maybe, their leader would acknowledge him!
With this fought in mind, he avoided the attempts his fellow weavers made to stop him and ran straight onto Cypher's hastily constructed bridge. His legs worked frantically and just as Cypher made contact with the stone wall of the castle, this Dreamweaver jumped with all his strength...
"Huff...not fast enough," With his hand thoroughly gripped onto a crack in a wall, Cypher looked back at the boy flying towards him, releasing his focus on the bridge below and causing it to dissapate.
Extending his leg towards his enemy, Cypher felt his foot cleanly connect with the face of the young man, sending him fly backwards onto the bridge...or at least where a bridge should have been.
Instead of making contact with solid matter, the boy only continued to descend. Seemingly, as if trying to avoid his fate, the boy reached out to grasp nothing in fear.
What followed was the sickening sound of tearing flesh. Once his fall had finished it tragic journey, five wooden stakes ran through him in gruesome indifference.
With the last possible pursuer taken care of Cypher began moving up the wall under the watchfull eyes of the Red robed weavers on the other side of the moat. They looked down the pit with indifference of the death of one of their own, instead deciding on what to do next.
"Leave him?"
"What else is their to do."
"Let Elie take care of it."
Each one simply turned around, casting one last glance at the small boy on the walls before scoffing and taking off back to the main battlefield, giving Cypher a brief moment of respite.
His hand, digging into the stone with an iron grip, started making its way up towards another gap on the rocky surface. Slowly, his mind recovered from the previous stress.
On the wall, crossbowmen hurriedly scrambled. They had just seen someone make it across to what should have been a safe sanctuary so , understandably, they were terrified. None of them were equipped to deal with this and they knew it.
One such man, short and skinny, moved towards the outer edges of the wall. Positioning his crossbow he tried to calmed his breathing and steady his aim before looking down over the intimidating edge.
Instead of finding an easy target to shoot at, he found a set of yellow lenses staring at him. A hand reached out, grasping the man's throat before he even had the chance to react and clamped down on his neck. A sudden pull sent him toppling over the safety of the wall, flying down into the pit below and letting the steaks Peirce his skin.
Cypher, with a surge of strength, pulled him self up and over the edge, firmly planting his feet onto solid ground. Without savouring his kill, he instead found many eyes looking towards him in trembling fear.
Every single crossbowman that had at first been shooting at targets across a safe distance of land now found themselves as targets. With wide eyes, some random while others tried to escape. It was only natural, However their fate was already sealed.
What began with one body now turned into a mountain as Cypher systematically care of everyone he saw. His small genocide lasted for minute after minute without an end.
It was only till one last man remained that Cypher managed to take a breath. By now, his robed had been thoroughly focused with crimson liquid, staining most areas of his body. Not only that, but the stone floor of the castle walls splattered unceremoniously with the same fluid.
With a thrust of his knife, the last man mounting the defences fell to the floor lifelessly. All that was left was the gate.
From his position, Cypher had a full view of the internal structure of the castle. While it was mostly empty, candlelight fluttered through the small openings of the many strewn about the dark wooden cabins cuntructed using planks. Each one seemed delapated and unworthy of of any high ranking soldier to live inside. With around a hundred of these cabins interspersed inside the courtyard area, it was obvious they were for the cannon fodder to live inside of temporarily.
At the centre of the courtyard, a larger , more cared for structure sat. It appeared to be a possible command centre, made from a concrete like grey material and holding an arched, oak roof. With it being three stories tall, the building was remarkably luxurious to be a simple living quarters.
Since this was a military base, their seemed to have been short term stalls set up around this courtyard adjacent to some of the huts. Their pots and pans still steamed with the smell of food cooked not to long againbefre everyone was forced to leave and fight.
At least, since the Kingdom had reached this location first, they had more time to set up and feed their men.
At the edges of castle, where it met with the mountain it was attached to, a dark opening lay with barely visible orange light shining inside the cave, creating dancing shadows on the entrance. The light flickered and fluttered sparsely though it's source was unseen. Without a doubt, the mission objective was probably inside the cave, or at least that was Cyphers guessing.
Some ways away, through the gaps in the curtain style walls, Cypher found his own mission objective. Across from him was a tall gatehouse above the drawbridge that happened to be the location of the control lever. It's door hung on its hinges, swaying in the wind.
While the battle on the field raged on without any end in sight, Cypher gathered his thoughts on what to do next. He was alone now, so there wouldn't be any partners to save him should he run into anything he couldn't handle. Get the dragon core himself? This wasn't a risk he was willing to take.
The echoing of boots hitting the cold hard ground passed through the now empty castle. Occasionally, the bright flashes from the battle taking place in the sky illuminated one half of Cyphers white robe while the other stayed obscured in shadows.
Stepping over the body's he had left, his boots avoided puddles of red blood, or at least he did his best to avoid them.
His approach towards the gatehouse was accompanied by the silent whistling of the wind. It was quiet.
Too quiet...
Arriving at the gatehouse which towered over his form, he managed to look inside through the creaking doorway swinging open and shut. Their was no light coming from within, signalling it's already abandoned state, however, just to be sure , Cypher called Rain down, letting him on his shoulder just incase.
"It's now or never." With one foot after the other, he moved inside.