Master of Strings Ch 132: Last Line

Now reunited the 4 heroes readied themselves to proceed further into the lair of the Order of the Black Daimyo. The trap rooms from before were a pain, but since they were now in a prison section of the base, the rooms ahead were dedicated to the living areas of the samurai that desired the fall of the ruling Umie.

They opened the next few door to find  empty living spaces before finding a large cavernous area with a high ceiling looking similar to a throne room. The columns were carved to hold insignia of a black Pegasus and the banners mimicked the look.

In the room were a about 14 well equipped and intimidating looking samurai warriors. Each one of them wore a combination of traditional linked plate armor with longbows across their backs and katanas at their hips.

In addition there were three individuals in three raised platform chairs. The first in the middle of the three was a man clad in jet black intricate samurai armor. Next to him, is Ryoji the Tinker, now not sitting down in his right most chair, but pointing to the entering heroes. Last is a young woman seated on the left chair, also in black, but she dresses in only a kimono with twin Wakizashi short swords on her lower back.

The woman motions the other two to another room behind the throne and the man in the middle stands and begins to follow with Ryogi along behind, but then the armored man speaks in a deep echoing voice, "Warriors of General Susumu, kill the intruders."

With that he and his two allies make their way into the back room. All the warriors take out their bows and aim at the four heroes. They all spring into action with May and Maldrek darting to cover behind a pillar to the left and Zilo and Cruxis doing the same on the right.

Arrows fly around the pillars as Maldrek and Zilo lock eyes, and they both nod. Maldrek begins to look through his spellbook as Zilo flings himself from the safety of the pillar and fires a volley of his own arrows. The shots aren't super accurate as the bard's eyes are flickering around rather than focusing on his shots.

For his lack of aim he is punished with a wound to the bicep, making his arm fall lifeless. He retreats back behind the pillar and Cruxis begins to use Lay on Hands to repair the damage. As the paladin gets to work Zilo shouts, "Line up along the right of the pillars!"

Maldrek nods and extends his hand to line up parallel to the pillars and fires a Lightning Bolt spell. The archers stop their volley as their bodies course with pain, but just as the front two kneel in pain, May appears from the side of the pillars and with a swift spin of her scythe, and both of them fall to the ground lifeless.

The remaining 12 warriors begin to line up shots on the assassin, only for Cruxis to make a charge at one of the right most ones and slam him into his pillar with his shield. From the back of the room Zilo began to play his dulcet tones of battle, empowering his allies. Maldrek dashes over to the right side pillars in front of Zilo and shouts in the orc language for Cruxis to duck.

The paladin hits the deck and above him streaks another Bolt of Lightning. The warriors now begin to take aim again, firing at the exposed heroes, both Maldrek and May get peppered a bit from being out of cover, but one of the samurais forwent his arrows to try and stab through the prone Cruxis.

Cruxis rolls off to the side before hopping back to his feet and avoids the attack and he swings his own blade connecting with a block from the samurai, but with a quick twist of the wrist, Cruxis turns his blade down and nails the enemy in the section between the plates on his hip.

May retrieves a few daggers from her belt and throws them at two more of the Warriors in the left line. she only does superficial damage, but the sheaths she had them in were soaked with Blue Whinnis poison and the two guards fall to the ground unconscious.

Zilo follows by letting his music linger and firing with Harmony at the guard on the right. All the shots nail the guard and crack through his armor, making the man fall to the ground. Maldrek follows next by casting a fireball that engulfed the last 3 standing guards on the left side, turning them to ash in an instant.

Seeing their allies go down, the last 4 samurai reach to their belts and each chug down a potion. Their bodies course with unnatural power and then slash into the stone pillar they each hid behind. The last one did so in addition to a spinning kick to his pillar forcing it to begin falling.

The giant pillars became a deadly game of dominoes and blew up a cloud of dust from crumbling stone on the right side of the room with a falling ceiling. The warriors ran to the left side as Cruxis, Maldrek, and Zilo were left behind in the rubble.

With that, May was alone versus the 4 strength enhanced samurai, so she spun about with her scythe and dropped into a defensive stance. The 4 men charged and swung their blades, but May hopped, skipped, and flipped backward to avoid all their attempts.

After she landed from a backward cartwheel she snapped out her scythe and managed to just barely connect with the neck of the closest guard, making him crumble. Her offense was swiftly cut down though as a katana connected with her unguarded back from a flanked position.

The blade cut deep and she was just barely able to avoid another swing before a kick to her gut forced her to the ground from the third assailant. Not seeing a good way out she spun and tripped two of her opponents before bolting over to the right side of the room, but as she did the third struck her shoulder with a gout of blood exploding from her wound.

She arrived at the safer side of the room, but she would not last much longer. The two men on the ground rose up as the standing one flicked May's blood from his blade and charged at her, intending to end the fight with an overhead cleave. At the last moment before impact Cruxis covered in dust bashed into the airborne opponent and once he knocked him away he quickly cut him with a devastating horizontal slash.

The last two began to move as well, but were quickly cut down by a a silver arrow and a flurry of Magic Missiles, May turned to see Zilo and Maldrek had also recovered from the collapsing ceiling. May beamed with delight as Maldrek began to bark orders,

"Cruxis, I'm willing to bet those were Potions of Bull Strength, gather those up. May, are you alright."

May began to conjure up a Cure Wounds spell and spoke, " Gimme a minute and sure, I'll be fine."

Maldrek gives her a look over and says, "Zilo, help her she lost a lot of blood. We'll need to be in top form before we face those leaders."

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