Another day, another Tavern [Bruma, Open]

While the two lizards and the sudden intervention of the arrows leapt into the spotlight, Arla quietly stepped around the edges of the fight, avoiding most if not all of the attention.

She had been bluffing before and seeing these men being killed wasn't making her feel any better.

Walking over to the gate, she recognized a similar mechanism in use back in Chorrol. She pulls a pin out, followed by a yank on the lever and with an audible click, the gate doors were unlocked.

She leaned on one, the door opening enough for all three to slip through. Instead on sprinting out, she kept low and waited for the fight to be over.

Two of his guards fell to the arrows, and two fell to the argonian. The flames did very little but distract, and one of his men rushed forward to attack the mage. The armoured guard himself was attacked, and more men rushed forward to fight the two argonians, while two rushed off to chase the archer. A few were even preparing their own bows. Three of his men managed to knock the argonian off of him, and he quickly crawled away.

With his men heading forward, the armoured guard heard the sounds of the gate being unlocked and pushed. He turned on his heel, and searched carefully, for he did not give the orders for the gates to open. After a quick search, he saw the girl the argonians were tending to. He looked to one of his closest men, and pointed his sword at the girl. "Get her." He groaned past the pain.

Damn, the lizard hit hard.

Kennek was not your average Argonian. Normally, they were built for dexterity and swiftness. Thieves and pickpockets was what they were stereotyped as, and there were even rumors of some ancient sect of Argonian assassins born under the sign of the Shadow.

He, however, was a wall of muscle and bulk, and those three men needed to use all of their strength to bring him down. He struggled against the guards atop him, feeling the blows of fists on his body. His left cheeks was torn by the plated fist of a guard, and the Argonian felt a frenzy rising in his body.

He surged up, his hands wrapping around the neck of the guard that struck him and began to squeeze. The Nord's hands shot to Kennek's neck, trying to pry him off as his eyes bulged out behind his helmet. More blows and kicks were heaped upon Kennek, but he didn't care. Claws began to dig into the man's throat, blood gushing like a red river from his neck. The man gagged and choked as the life was forced from him.

He roared out as he threw the man back, bringing his legs up to forcefully kick the guard in front of him back. Another guard pulled his sword out and tried to stab Kennek through his ribcage, but the armor deflected the blow, cutting instead into his right cheek.

The argonian fighter grabbed the man's arm and sunk his sharp teeth into the man's flesh, ignoring the cry of pain and agony as he began to turn his head to and fro, ripping away fat and muscle and skin with his jaw. Grasping the man's dropped sword, he quickly struck it against the man's chain shirt once, twice, stabbing through a weak point in the rings.

His righthand vision suddenly went dark as the guard he kicked off stabbed a dagger through Kennek's eye and out of the top of his skull, barely missing the brain. Blood poured from his body now, the Argonian howling in pain and fury as his bloodlust continued ever on. "I'LL KILL YOU, YOU SON OF A WHORE!"

That got Seeks' attention. The fury now spreading to her, she grabbed her assailant's face and released a powerful inferno. With her other hand, she snatched the sword from the panicking guard's hand and kicked him to the ground. Next, she tackled the man that stabbed Kennek's eye out and rammed the sword into his spine.

By the time the archers made it to the alleyway he had been at before, Nightshade had already navigated three others, and was one building away from where he was before. He could see the two argonians fighting furiously, and a guard stalking towards a girl near the gates.

Well, it was quite obvious which one needed help.

The dunmer quickly pulled his cowl onto his face and his shrouded hood down lower, before running forward, his bow on his back. In his hands were his two daggers, and before the guard could kill the girl, a silver blade was stuck in the imperial's armpit, once, twice, and a third time. Then, his other blade ran along the soldier's throat, under his helmet, and there was a stream of blood. The assassin raised his leg and kicked the guard down, pulling his knives out in the process, then followed up to deflect the blow coming from another guard with one dagger. The other was buried into the guard's eyes.

He had a sudden feeling of deja-vu, helping random people by killing guards. At least this time, he didn't just break out of prison.

Arla was tempted to sprint out the door and leave her lizard pals behind. She looked at them, then at the approaching guards, then at the open gate. She didn't move. It was truly safe to say she was paralyzed really. Her morals, mind, and body locking up on her.

Then someone came flying out of an alleyway and murdered the guards. Not to mention the weapon he was holding started to shine when he got closer.

Ugh, it went right in her eyes. It was like a damn reflection of the sun.

She went to cover her eyes, noting some blood spray that had landed on her sleeve.

Between that, the silver, her burns and the possibility of dying. Her overloaded head did what was safest.

She passed out. This was just too much and she needed a break from reality.

His men were getting slaughtered by the Daedric Worshippers, and now another had joined the fray. At this rate, they would escape, and everything would be for nothing.

So the captain did the only thing he could do. While the fighters were distracted, he got up, grabbed the satchels he had taken from the argonians, and ran. He ran as fast as he could, and he disappeared behind a building.

Kennek grasped the dagger in his skull and pulled it out with a sickening tearing sound, the remnants of his eyeball and the strand connecting it to his head dangling from it in a ruined mess.

He grasped one of the guards and put the dagger into the man's neck, boiling with rage and fury with every passing second. He panted, looking around for the captain. Gone.

On the... somewhat bright side... the gate guards were dead or dying in their own blood, the harsh cold of night replaced by the harsh cold of the morning.

"Seeks. We need to cut our losses and leave - go to the stables and steal a horse." He put Arla over his shoulder, than noticed the corpse of a guard who had confiscated their weapons. Kennek picked up Seeks' spear, tossing it to her (not like he was chucking it at her, mind - that'd be stupid) and nodding. "We'll worry about the satchels later."

"I doubt we can fight off an entire city guard."

His morality told him it was wrong to slaughter these guards. But he'd be damned if they were going to hurt people he'd placed under his protection.

The woman snarled as she caught her spear. "Rrrrgh... Fine! But I will find and eviscerate that inbred, cousin-fucking, silver-toting, mouth-breathing, milk-drinking, mindless, dickless, lordless, honorless, swit if I have to spend the rest of my life doing it!"

She threw a fireball in a random direction and sprinted toward the gate. "Grab the girl. I have a lead on where we might be able to help her."

Kennek quickly scooped up Arla and headed outside of the gate. The stables weren't quite open at the moment, but frankly he didn't have many options right now. He set Arla down on the ground and quickly hopped the pen gate as he looked for a suitable horse. And... well, they'd probably need something to throw the guards off their trail.

Ergo, he smashed the stable lock and let the gate open. He smashed the locks off the horse pens next, frightening the horses and sending them off - all for one, a stallion he put himself onto.

The horse, unfortunately, did not feel very cooperative and began to buck. Kennek grabbed it's mane and tried to keep his balance on the thing. "Easy, easy! Seeks, get Arla- whoa! Get Arla onto the back of this thing when it's calmed down- come on now, settle down dammit!" Cyrodil horses had nothing on Skyrim bred ones, thankfully - they lacked the muscle, mainly, and they looked a bit smaller in general.

Well, with the fighters breaking off and the guard having only one target left, Nightshade did the smartest thing he could do in this situation: turned around and ran out the open gate. He could hear commotion coming from the stables, and instantly, he thought of Dwemer.

Quickly, he ran towards the stables, glancing back for a moment; the guards were following, and he had to get out of there soon. He ignored the two argonians as he ran in, heading to the furthest stall as he gave a short, quick whistle. A black horse ran out of its stall, and Nightshade quickly climbed onto its back. "Lets get out of here. Now." He muttered to it.

Holding onto the unconscious girl, Seeks hissed at the horse, hoping to scare it into submission. Failing, she grunted something about 'those damned illusionists', and looked back to Kennek. "I think we might be able to help Arla more than just mending her wounds. That is, if you don't mind dabbling in a bit of... darker magic. I'll explain on our way north, I don't want prying ears."

That wasn't entirely true. She almost wanted that honorless creep to overhear her so she could kill him if he tried to ambush them.

Kennek held onto it's mane as the horse rose up onto it's back legs, then slammed back down as it finally calmed, seeing as it wouldn't get the Argonian off it's back anytime soon. "Hop on."

"And Seeks? If I didn't want you usin' dark magic, I'd just plain ask ya to not use magic. But," He held out a hand to help her. "Seein' as I enjoy your company, I'll trust you on this."

"Now let's hurry before I pass out."

Using her surprisingly strong legs, Seeks leaped onto the horse, unconscious werewolf in her arms. Looking at the girl, an emotion rushed through her that she believed she had lost the capacity to feel long ago: compassion. Before she could let it eat her up, though, she kicked the horse's haunch. "We need to get to High Rock. We may be able to cure her lycanthropy."