Audric was, maybe, a little late on the rescue... But he had run into trouble of his own on the other side of the building. It was difficult, he was discovering, to mount a rescue mission without killing anyone -- because these were guards. They were supposed to be the good guys!
One of the guards was unconscious, now, and the other had suffered a much more fatal wound...but only because Audric couldn't get by him, otherwise. He came running around the corner at a run, surprising the guards who happened to be looking in his direction -- but giving them no time to react as his sword fell down on their sergeant's shoulder.
"Tsk, tsk," the swordsman scolded. "If you don't want to lose that hand, I think you had better let him go."
"Who the hell are you?" the sergeant swore, freezing immediately at the threat.
"You want the long version or the short version?"
The sergeant ground his teeth together so hard it was nearly audible. "Jones. Smith. Kill him."
A pair of men swung suddenly out from the mob pressing Cai against the wall, but Audric was quicker. He pulled the sergeant's blade from its sheath and brought both his own sword and the borrowed one upwards to block the pair of swords. Over the clang of metal on metal, he sighed audibly. "And I was hoping we could do this as friends..."
The sergeant gestured to another soldier. "Percy, keep that dagger on his back. He has to be brought in alive. They didn't say anything about damaged..."
Audric's eyes narrowed at that. Well, that was enough, wasn't it? What had, primarily, been a defensive strategy at once became an offensive one. He shifted his stance and stepped forward between the pair of soldiers attack him, and, with a gesture, stabbed both men in the gut. He left the sergeant's blade in Jones, but pulled his own blade free of Smith. Both men toppled over with pained grunts.
That was four down. Only another half-dozen to go!
Two more men peeled away from Cai to engage Audric. He met the blade of the first and lifted his knee high to catch the man in the groin -- a low-blow, he'd admit, but it was better than having to kill another soldier. He turned, then, in time to disarm the second attacker with a blow to the man's hand that would, no doubt, leave him unable to hold a sword for some time.
Six down.
From one of the soldiers he had just taken down, Audric scooped up a pole arm, and, then, Cai's mask from the ground where it had fallen as he continued to move forward at a leisurely pace. "Is this the best Uthlyn has to offer? I'm surprised you were able to catch the Masked Mordecai at all."
"Come any closer, and we'll kill him," the sergeant threatened, glowering hard at Audric -- but Audric could see the way his eyes flickered away to the side...
...And this was why he had grabbed the polearm. He jammed his weapon into its sheath in order to spin the weapon expertly around in his hands, tipping it upwards as the shadow of the finely woven net fell over his head. The long pole caught the force of the entangling net, and Audric used it to flip the net in the other direction...then swung the pole so that the blunt end of it crashed into the sergeant's nose.
Blood gushed down the man's face as he slipped to his knees with a pained yowl. But Audric wasn't done yet. He twirled back around and buried the spearhead into the net-thrower's throat. Audric's eyes slid over the boy who was still holding his groin protectively, now looking terrified out of his mind. And, Audric thought, rightfully so.
"The way I see it, the rest of you have two options. You can run, or you can die."
The trio still holding onto Cai exchanged a look. They looked down to their sergeant, who was cursing and threatening them in order to get them to stay, and they unanimously decided, it seemed, that discretion was the better part of valor. Cai was suddenly released, except for the sergeant, who had taken to clutching his leg as he bellowed for his men to come back.
Audric paid the sergeant little mind. "You okay, Cai?" He fished the mask out of his belt and held it out towards him, averting his eyes away from the man's face. Sure, he wanted to know who the Masked Mordecai was -- who didn't? -- but finding out this way felt...wrong. And so, beneath the hood of his cloak, he did the honorable thing...and looked the other way.
(OOC: I...may have made Audric unrealistically kick-ass...)
