[center][color=#b3ccff][h2]Esben Mathiassen[/h2][/color][/center] [hr] The squad they'd been confronted with within the prison was rapidly dealt with; Izayoi's quick strike left the sergeant standing, wide-eyed and ashen-faced as blood spurted from the stumps where his wrists and hands once resided. The pistol clattered to the floor, the sergeant stumbling backwards behind the closing lines of his compatriots—tripping over his feet and landing hard on his back as the fight began in earnest. Unhurried, Esben slipped the last of the bindings from around his wrists, fixing his sleeves as best as he could before picking up his sword and belting it back around his waist where it belonged. He picked carefully between the remaining fights happening, the majority of the Valheimer soldiers already picked off between the three Kirins and Ciradyl's planted agents. He narrowly ducked under the swung bayonet of one soldier and twisted past the thrust of another, before hearing each engulfed by Eve's fire just behind him, breaking past the enemy line. The sergeant, surprisingly still conscious, was shakily trying to come up to his feet a short distance away, braced against one wall where he'd managed to crawl while the others fought. Esben closed the distance quickly, pulling out the dagger he'd been given to cut his bonds, and placed it against the neck of the sergeant, pressing in just enough to be painful. The man stiffened immediately, though any cry he might have given was stifled by Esben's other hand holding his mouth shut. [color=#b3ccff]"Should've shot first,"[/color] he said, almost apologetically. [color=#b3ccff]"Lord Hien's cell is the deepest, [i]ja?[/i] How many more of you are around it for us to worry about? Speak quickly, please. I may be able to keep you alive if you're helpful."[/color] "For what?" the sergeant replied haughtily, maintaining a portion of his attitude despite the blood he'd lost and the knife to his neck. "I'm already dead if you succeed or fail, boor. Qui—" Esben slid the knife smoothly through the man's neck, blocking off whatever the sergeant's last words would've been as the knife tore apart his larynx and blocked any further airflow. [color=#b3ccff]"For the record, I didn't say I [i]would,[/i] just that I [i]might,"[/i][/color] he replied conversationally, before roughly jerking the blade forwards, tearing out the front of the man's throat and sending a spray of blood against the wall. The sergeant slumped immediately; but before he could start digging through the man's pockets for any keys or anything else useful, one of the last few soldiers remaining in the squad broke from the line of battle, Esben's eye catching the flash of blonde hair as she ran for an alarm lever partway down the hall. He straightened, arm cocking back automatically. His focus slightly ahead of the target, he stepped forward, hurling the dagger right in the woman's path. It flipped fully once, point sinking in between her shoulder blades as she crossed its path. [color=#b3ccff]"Too close,"[/color] Esben scoffed to himself as, falling, she stretched out her arms, barely catching the alarm lever and pulling it down with her. Not that anything could be done about it at that point. He bent back down, hands probing each of the sergeant's pockets before coming out with a ring of keys that, he hoped, would correspond to cells within the secure holding area. He turned back as the others finished putting down the last of the soldiers, waving them over. [color=#b3ccff]"You all, stay a little ways behind us and hold any off that try to follow behind,"[/color] he commanded Ciradyl's people. [color=#b3ccff]"Izayoi, Rudolf, you take point. Eve and I will be right behind you. No telling how many they were keeping on top of Hien."[/color]