[hr][hr][center][h2][color=f7941d]Othen Perelyn[/color][/h2][/center][hr][hr]
If one wanted to cut a long story short, it would have sufficed to state that Othen was not pleased with the overall situation. The obvious appearance of magic was one thing, but: Wasn't it the ultimate goal of this whole endeavour to get hands on some sort of artifact which had properties that were beyond its pure physical ones ? And weren't they in The Whispering Badlands, the very place that basically had been created by magic powers, though abusive ones ? What was bothering Othen way more was the uncertainty of the intention behind all of this: Robbing Emmett's eyesight clearly was an attack, but now they had been given a source of light. One just had to know that this would help them venturing forth. Blinding one to help the others see more - it didn't make sense for him.

And there was another short thought, one he didn't dare to reveal to anyone for its bluntness: Did the fact that it had been 'only' Emmett, the weakest of them, that had been blinded and thereby subtracted from their strength, overcompensate the fact that from all of them, it had been [i]just[/i] Emmett, the most unpredictable and irrational, that had received the ability to lead them through this strange place with his glow ?

The faster and longer Rook's nephew rushed forwards, the less Othen believed that this was the case. Yes, he had a tendency to charge into things as well, but only things he believed he knew about. Things he could see and judge. Many regarded him as someone noticeably crazy, but Emmett more and more appeared to be crazyness itself. Did the berserk underestimate the effects of prolonged Desert Flower withdrawal ? He was struggling to keep up with Emmett's pace, breathing heavily when they had arrived in what appeared to be a central expanse of some sort. As sweet as the melody would have been in a nice tavern or something, right now he found it to be distracting and thereby annoying. This place was foul: From the strange sand below his feet that was more like ash, along alien rocks, sudden attacks on one's eyesight and the occurrence of magic up to that shriek that caused his teeth to ache... Everything was indicating that they should not allow themselves to indulge.

Othen didn't plan to do so - especially not to a bunch of attackers that were looking like people who wanted to kill other people but did not want to admit that they lacked the strength to do it in the open field while their style of armor and weapons betrayed just that. Anyhow: They appeared to be human. That took the whole scenery back to something more earthly. And they wanted to have a fight. Othen appreciated both.

The berserk started to pick up speed, heading in a straightforward line towards the rogue that had been closest to the middle of his view. Who knew him would know that in such a situation, there was hardly any left or right for him until the center was dead. Of course he was aware that there were other attackers converging on them as well, but they would have to make a complete turn and reverse their speed in order to help their colleague - if Othen was fast enough. That was exactly what he tried to do, though he completely lacked the elegance and was way louder. Each time he rammed one of his feet into the ground, the corresponding thigh virtually exploded.

His eyes were locked onto his target, his shield firmly in his hands and one of his axes ready to strike in the other. But as it was too late for him to abort his charge and the assassin in front of him realized just how monstrous that man he was headed for was, something happened Othen had not anticipated. The rogue colleagues didn't turn around. Instead, two of them launched a throwing knife each backwards shortly after Othen had roared past them. It was unprecise, but probably still better than turning around and exposing their own backs towards the other members of the expedition. One of them only grazed his arm, the other one impacted into his right shoulder. How well his right arm would be able to function after this was something to be found out later on, but for the poor rogue in front of him it was too late. The attacker tried to evade his fate by jumping sideways, but Othen did not lack power needed to pick up an average man on his shield even if he had to partially extend his arm for that. And he knew how to give way to the impact just enough to not let the attacker bounce off his shield and land on the soft floor, but to keep the temporarily dazed man on it until the rock wall came from behind. When it happened, his ribcage was compressed between it and the shield with Othen rotating his still good side into it. The result of this method of Othen to get rid of his momentum was audible, even from further away.

Now however Othen was far away from the rest of the group as well and would have to make his return with a significantly injured shoulder.