Fanilly stood up, taking a deep breath. Mariah's injuries appeared severe, but... at the very least, she felt certain nothing was too far internally and a healer could take care of them with relative ease. That gave her some comfort. If another order's knight that had been entrusted to her had died under her command... it would have been horrible. She already felt no small amount of guilt for the man who had died during the assault on the bandit camp, as the memory now resurfaced in her mind, and for another to die, from a different order, one who had not given themselves to the Iron Rose...

The small blonde took a deep breath. It was her responsibility to try and ensure it didn't happen. To fail in carrying it out, well... She was no true captain if she failed like that. Just as so many people had said.

Fanilly was snapped out of her thoughts, however, when she heard Mariah's age. Glancing back at the half-giant, she gave an incredulous stare.

"Sh... she's [i]fifteen[/i]?" the girl exclaimed, before she could stop herself. A full year younger then her and yet... yet... Fanilly shook her head. No. This wasn't the time to focus on those kinds of details. She turned back to the brothers.

"You can bring her to our healers," Fanilly said. Turning, she noticed Sir Garret was injured as well... "... Sir Garret, remain here. We'll take you back as well, just try to hold still."

She didn't think it looked immediately life-threatening, but... she didn't know.

After a moment's pause, Fanilly spun on her heel and faced the path downwards, raising her sword once more. There was no further time to waste, she thought she could hear the sounds of battle echoing up from the deeper reaches of the tomb.

"Let's move, Iron Roses."

With that, she proceeded down deeper.

[hr]

The jar was, as Tyaethe expected, quite easily snatched from the necromancer's hand, preventing the useage of any of the liquid undead for the moment. However, no sooner then it had been pulled away, did the masked man draw what appeared to be a hazy, ghostly, translucent curved knife with is other hand, and in a lightning-fast movement go to bury it in the tiny girl's back.

If it pierced, there would be no wound, though the ghostly hilt would protrude from her spine. Instead, it would tape into her brain. It would allow the necromancer access to every thought, every action. It would allow him to control someone with a mind of their own as if they were one of the thoughtless, shambling corpses he could raise with a snap of his fingers. 

Or at least, this is what he [i]thought[/i] would happen...

The skeletons had severely depleted in numbers, but now their main attacker was weakened, her blade's burning aura faded to nothing. While they were nothing but mindless undead, this seemed to embolden their numbers. The five remaining skeletons quickly moved to surround Sult and strike her down, in a bid to make another body for their master to use.

Tili finally finished untying the knot around her sister's legs, and Kyphi was swift to embrace her more tightly afterwards. After a few moments, both nem girls swiftly remembered their situation.

"Do you have any weapons on you, Tili?" asked Kyphi. The mute assassin shook her head, and Kyphi frowned. If they were armed, they could help the knights that had rescued her more quickly.... her eyes darted to the collapsed remains of the defeated skeletons. Their weapons were old, but in a pinch any blade could do...

Using more spells stored in his gauntlets, Zalo swiftly generated a set of blue, rotating circular shields to deflect the arrows sent his way. As if he'd ever fall for that!

This left him totally unprepared, however, for the gut-strike from another knight. He let out a gasp and staggered, his shields fading. Desperately, he raised his gauntlets, crossing his arms in an X formation in a bid to block the assault from Nero's blade, grunting with effort. But this left him open from the other side...