"Can't be that dragon that was overhead a ways back, otherwise it'd smell like a human barbecue..." Aria mouthed, staying close to Cronic in case the unknown killer or killers struck while they were apart. Sticking together was the best policy; ...when it could be helped, anyway. She approached the gates with slow, cautious steps and her eyes peeled for the slightest twitch in their surroundings.

"He.. Help..!" A weak voice blurred from the gate. One of the dead guards got to his feet, apparently he must've just been unconscious - his wounds looked fatal however. His neck was covered with a piece of cloth, saturated in blood. Stumbling closer to the two, he had to stop as he came to the tip of Aria's blade. "We never saw them coming... Tricked us into leaving our posts, and then they started massacring everyone... Are you here to help?" the border guard panted, clutching a bad wound on his lower chest.

Aria shifted her eyes to Cronic, then lowered her sword. But sheathing it was a bad, bad idea... The man looked like he was in no shape to fight, and he was definitely the victim here. "What happened?"

"My friends might still be alive... We got caught off guard, and just... I've never fought like that in my life!" The guard said, following loosely behind Aria as she approached one of many corpses outside the gate.

Aria inspected the body. The Imperial soldier was quite obviously dead - he had a dagger stuck in the side of his head for Talos' sake. But he still felt warm... She pulled down his collar, having noticed a redder patch than the rest of his tunic blotched into it. Two clean piercings... The man's eyes opened suddenly, gleaming red as blood. The second he moved, Aria rammed her katana into his head. "Cronic, it's Vampires!" she said as she got back to her feet. The 'lone survivor' suddenly tackled into the red-haired girl, trying to attack her neck with his unnaturally sharp teeth as they struggled on the ground. The black-bladed katana had been lost in the surprise attack, Aria clawed the dirt beside her trying to find it's hilt while she used her other arm to fight off the bloodthirsty opponent.

"Get off me, you fuckin' creep! Bloodsucking son of a bitch! Cronic!" Aria cried. Honestly, this was embarrassing. For a kid with such a horrifying reputation (to those who knew), she was disappointed in herself, mentally scolding herself for getting jumped like this.

As this was all happening, about ten corpses stumbled to their feet and began either shambling or charging at Cronic. Five vampires, five dead thralls. So, five were a problem and five were more or less just a slow, weak nuisance. One of the Vampires went down immediately, courtesy of the carriage driver and the client plunging two well-aimed arrows in it's head and heart. Clearly these two Nords weren't pushovers! Still, this left Cronic to deal with NINE enemies as their backup drew another arrow each.