Marianne watched as her mantis did its work. The ordinary ratmen stood no chance at all against its fury. It easily decapitated them with just a single swipe of its scythes as the rats were too slow to dodge them. And if they somehow managed to dodge them, the orc's berserk rage would be the one to end them. 

It was clear to her that the fight was now back to their favor once more.

Suddenly, she felt tired all of a sudden. So tired that she had to kneel over and prevent herself from falling with her knee and hand while panting. She then saw the mantis' huge form disappear from the battlefield.

She had ran out of mana, it seemed. She hadn't noticed it thanks to the adrenaline filling her entire blood system thanks to her fight with that rat-assasin. And now the tiredness hit her all at once like an elephant.

She ordered with her mind to the mantis and any bees of hers that still remained out there to return. She was thankful that the fight was pretty much over when she fell down as she doubted she could fight for much longer. As her insects returned, she could tell that they were tired too so she thanked them deeply from her heart for their valiant efforts in fighting her opponents. She made a mental note to give them double the amount of the food they used to receive.

It wasn't all joy however, as she sensed that some of her bees were missing. No doubt the rats had got to them. Not to mention the steel beetles that perished protecting her from the fatal blow of the Stormvermin. Once again, she thanked them for sacrificing their life for her.

After recovering her breath, she stood back up and checked upon her allies. She thanked the gods when she discovered that they were mostly fine and none had really fallen in battle. She didn't saw Sylvia though. Where she could've gone too? She knew if she were in a mortal injury, her stealth ability should turn off by their own and she would be able to see her.

Her thoughts were interrupted however by one of the dwarves approaching her, one of the dwarf king's aid, judging by his introduction, thanking her for her help in fending off the rat vermins. With him was an old rusty iron chest coated with dust. He opened it and gave her two items. The first was some sort of hammer, and he told her to give it to the werewolf. With his strength, Grendrick should be able to wield the heavy hammer easily, she thought, but she wasn't sure if he would like to fight with it over his claws like he had been doing all this time. The second one was for her, and it was a quiver. She thought it was an odd gift for her, since she wasn't an archer and she didn't even have a bow with her. And the rest was just gold to be shared with the group. 

"Do not worry," Marianne replied with a smile, "We would make sure to remember the courage of the dwarves as well." She looked at the body of their dead king and continued with a respectful tone, "Especially the courage of your king, and how he fought valiantly with all his might. Without him, we would've lost this battle for sure." She walked slowly to him and kneeled before him, lowering her head with respect. She felt bad that they hadn't managed to save him, but she knew casualties were unavoidable in battle. She herself almost died and it could've been her instead of him if the gods decreed otherwise.

"Rest in peace, o mighty one..." she whispered.
[hr]
After giving her respects to the fallen dwarf king, she began to think on what their next course of action should be. First of all, she decided she would use the ticket for the quiver, as she couldn't use it right now. She could feel magic flowing from it and she thought she would take it to the mages on the Emporeum to be examined. She would also use the ticket for the gold, as there were quite a lot of it and they would just encumber them if they had to carry them around.

As she looked around further to find either Grendrick or Slyvia, or Siph for that matter as she also couldn't find the man anywhere, she found a chainmail glove lying near the corpses of both dwarves and Skavens. She picked it up and deciphered that it gave its wearer bonus strength. That should work well with the axe she was holding, she thought, and she decided to wear it on her right hand, the same hand holding her dwarven axe. It certainly contrasted with the dress she was wearing, but this was neither the time nor the place to care about such things.

She also found a rusted dagger, a broken straight sword, and some more gold coins. Instead of throwing the former two away, she decided she would bring them to the mages as well just in case they were some magical weapons that could be fixed. The coins, she decided to ticket them as well since combined with the coins she had picked up earlier, they began to weight heavily on her dress. No need to carry them around in the realm. She wasn't going to go shopping here after all.

After all that was finished, she decided to go towards the hole where the skaven breach happened. She remembered Grendrick going there mid-battle after all.