The courtyard was carnage—steel on steel, sparks dancing like fireflies as the squads and the Black Fang clashed in a storm of chaos. But Korran's arrival shifted the entire rhythm. He was a mountain of muscle, his spiked mace cratering cobblestone with each swing, his lieutenants carving bloody arcs through any adventurer who came close.
"Frontline hold! Don't let them push us back!" Velra bellowed over the din, her shield locking against a savage axe strike. Her mind raced as she tracked the battlefield—her squads were holding, but barely. If they didn't break the gang's formation soon, the sheer press of numbers would crush them.
Drathan's voice flickered from shadow, calm and cutting. "Seme, peel left and split their second rank. Kenshin—pressure the lieutenants. I'll cut their backline."
"Bet," Kenshin barked, vanishing in a blur of crackling arcs.
Seme's blade flashed like moonlight, carving through a thug's halberd shaft and driving her boot into his chest, launching him into the two behind him. She caught a glimpse of Korran swinging his mace like a siege engine, smashing three adventurers through a shanty wall. He's too strong. If he breaks our line… this turns into a slaughter.
Above, casters rained fire and frost from the rooftops, the air thick with ozone, smoke, and screams. Drathan drifted through it all like a phantom, slipping behind the gang's archers. Shadows wrapped his arms as he whispered, "Fall." Black talons burst from the void, snatching two bowmen into nothingness before slamming them back to the ground unconscious.
"Boss movin'!" Kenshin's shout cracked through the chaos. Korran lunged forward, his lieutenants flanking him as he bulldozed toward Velra's squads. The frontline buckled under the sheer force, boots skidding across blood-slick stone.
Velra's heart slammed. "Collapse on him now! Everyone, push!"
The squads surged, trying to close the noose. Kenshin zipped past Korran, lashing his legs with bolts that left smoking scorches but didn't slow him. Seme intercepted a lieutenant, her blade ringing off his jagged axe as they locked in a whirlwind of steel. Drathan dove in low, his shadow claws screeching against Korran's mace as the impact hurled him back across the courtyard.
"Damn," Drathan muttered mid-roll, grinning. "Bro hits like a siege tower."
They shifted the fight into motion—constant, wild movement. Kenshin ricocheted off walls and rooftops, tagging lieutenants with crackling palms. Seme carved through the flanks, severing tendons and dropping anyone who got too close. Drathan struck from every shadow, shredding the gang's support lines.
But Korran adapted fast. He swung his mace in brutal arcs, shattering stone and wood alike, forcing the trio to scatter. His lieutenants regrouped tight around him, shields locking in a wedge formation as they bulldozed toward the squads' healers.
"Hell no," Kenshin hissed, blitzing into their path with a crack of thunder. The impact launched two lieutenants skyward as Seme darted through the gap, slicing the last one across the chest. Velra's squads surged into the breach, driving the Black Fang fighters back toward their compound.
"Drathan!" Velra shouted over the clash. "The captives—north wing!"
"On it." He vanished, shadows swallowing him whole.
Drathan slipped through shattered windows and blood-soaked halls, the sounds of battle dimming behind him. The stench hit first—rot, mildew, and old blood soaked into the warped wood. The corridor narrowed into a staircase that groaned underfoot, leading to a cellar door banded with rusted iron. Every breath down there was damp, like breathing through cloth.
Inside, the air was cold and stale. The dim glow of his conjured wisp light swept over crumbling stone and straw mats blackened with grime. Chains rattled faintly as he stepped deeper, boots squelching in puddles of old water. Huddled against the far wall were the captives—children and women, skin pale under layers of filth, eyes wide and glassy. The smell of fear was sharp, metallic, mixing with the sour tang of unwashed bodies and old wounds.
"Shh." He snapped the locks like twigs, shadows dissolving the chains. "Stay low. Follow my trail."
A breeze of cold void magic brushed their ankles as he led them out, cloaking their footfalls. Behind them, the cellar seemed to exhale, chains clinking softly in the dark.
Back outside, Velra's squads saw figures slipping from the compound's north side, guided by a flowing trail of black mist. A cheer rose as the captives were ushered to safety, medics breaking formation to rush them.
Korran roared when he saw, fury distorting his gold-toothed grin. "You ain't takin' my property!"
"Already did," Drathan's voice floated from the roof as he reappeared, void swirling at his feet.
The Black Fang lines shattered.
Their morale broke with their prize gone. Many threw down arms, some fled into the alleys. Velra's squads surged, pressing hard. Kenshin and Seme led the charge, cutting down the last pockets of resistance as Korran swung wildly in desperation, his lieutenants dropping one by one.
"Yield, Korran!" Velra shouted.
He spat blood, eyes blazing hate. "Never."
Then Seme's blade slammed his mace aside and Kenshin's fist cracked his jaw, sending him spinning. Drathan landed behind him, shadows snapping around his limbs. The boss hit the cobblestones face-first.
The Black Fang were broken.
Cheers erupted through the slums as city guard squads poured in to take the gang in chains. Velra sagged against her shield, breath shaking. Drathan exhaled, the void fading from his skin. Kenshin just flopped onto a crate with a sigh. "Told y'all we'd smoke 'em."
Seme sounding a bit disappointed, "Does this even count as a warm up?" "Compared to fighting that wave of monsters and a king, did we really need all these people?"
Drathan walking pass Seme and sat down next to Kenshin. "We defiantly didn't need any help with this, it was a personal mission for us anyway." after letting out a sigh "But there isnt much we can do anyway they wanted to come so why not. Plus that means we don't gotta clean up they got this."
With that the trio got up and met with with Mira. Kenshin placing his hands on her head he whispers, " Lets go home." so the group with their new addition left the scene for the guild to clean up.