Men began to sprint back into the keep, bloodied and worn. Their eyes were wide with horror and desperation as they fled from the onslaught that was being wreaked upon them. They had made a good accounting of themselves, but could no longer hold off the superior numbers and savagery of the Beastman, nor the runic weaponry and terrible prowess of the Chaos champions. 

Cerdic looked inwardly, unable to comprehend the fact that these lunatics were guarding the Eggs of a Dragon! The men running into the great hall was the only thing that broke him from his reverie. "Hold..." he said idly, before snapping himself to attention. This was no time to lose his head. "[b]Hold[/b]!" 

Some of the men stopped to look, watching the Knights now at odds with the Sergeant and the two women, one of them having been their witch captive. "Form in here! We'll live longer if we stick together." 

"It's futile." one Men-At-Arms said, walking toward him, his left arm now nothing more than a blooding stump. Cerdic nodded. "Aye, probably. But we'll meet them with sword, not cowering under a bed." he spat, as if disgusted at the very idea. It was at that moment the great doors of the Hall were flung open, and Balgar the Daemonhearted appeared before the opening, striding in ever so slowly with all of the foreboding of a falling headsman's axe. 

"You" he said, pointing his ornate sword of mist at Hilde, his terrible gaze boring into her. "Have something I desire. And you, man, have a life I shall take. All who get in my way forfeit their lives." The ragged soldiers formed up around the Knights, while barbarians and Beastman spilled into the great hall, the forces now forming a rough no man's land between them as they eyed one another. 

"What are you doing?" Isolde hissed as Cerdic stepped forward into the open ground before the Chosen of chaos. The sorceress both appalled by his lack of self preservation, and worry over the one person in this place who seemed to give a damn about her. 

"And you have something I can't get back." the Sergeant said, a simmering behind his voice and eyes, showing sane fear had now given way to anger and vengeance. "The lives of my men you [i]heathen[/i] bitch."
[@Austronaut]