Liam, who had been looking at the doors with a slightly glazed over stare, cast a now slightly more worried glance up at Rithrynn at her comment. “….is that likely?”
“…...”
Receiving nothing but blank stares from the other sentinels at this, the man turned slightly more pale as he took a step forward towards the door Smokey was now busily wedging dynamite sticks into. “Well. I’ll make an effort not to do that then”
*
“Who puts catacombs in a fortress?” Bella enquired in an nervous, over-loud whisper. The mini priestess was now comfortably riding in the girl’s breast pocket, her comment the only sound in the tomb other than Liaena’s gasps as she ran, and the distant shouting.
“Maybe…they didn’t want to pay Cathedral rent?” Liaena suggested breathlessly, as she eased Hester into a more comfortable position where she was riding in her bag. The owl was looking more upset at the loss of her most glamorous tail-feathers than she was pained from her injury as she returned the girl’s favour with a nip. The little ex-priestess was rather glad she was preoccupied with the task of fleeing such obvious Bad News, as it allowed her to distract herself from how much the tombs truly gave her the creeps. “….who would Sherpa keep in a place like this?”
“Get that extra bar in! For the love of the Light man, put your back into it!”
Skidding to a half at the nearby shouts, Liaena crept closer to the side of a shelf - empty, aside for one coffin on the very far end and started to stalk quietly along it towards the voices.
Of the three men trying their hardest to strap every additional reinforcement that they could lay hands on to the huge iron doors, one appeared to be the leader and was also the one doing most of the yelling at the other two. Of the others, one man appeared to be particularly ill at ease as he perpetually glanced behind him at the dark halls. “….I think I saw movement back there, Sarge”
“Nothing in here alive except us, man – and we won’t be that either less you put your back into it” the Sergeant snapped back as Liaena peeked around the edge of the shelves at them. Watching them, a distinctly mean idea couldn’t help but spawn in her mind as she quietly produced a small spherical bomb out of her satchel, crouching it down to roll it quietly along the floor towards them.
Hester meanwhile, ruffled her – remaining – feathers angrily at being so rudely disturbed in Liaena’s quest for her bomb. Fluffing up like an ill-intentioned pom-pom, the bird let out the most horrendous screech into the dark. “BWAAAAAAAARRRK!”
“GAAAH!”
The nervous chevalier jumped about half a metre into the air at the noise as he dropped his end of the heavy beam he was carrying in his shock. The other let out a horrible scream of pain that merged beautifully with the little owl sounds as the solid wood slipped out of his fingers and landed on his foot. “AHHHH!”
-psssshhhhhhhhh-
Having trundled all the way over to the three men now thoroughly distracted, there was a quiet ‘click’ inside the bomb before it started to emit a cloud of white smoke that rose up ominously around the three men. One of them already cursing and clutching his foot, the nervy guard let out a croak that sounded like ‘I knew it’, as the sergeant stared furiously around them now holding his sabre. “Who’s there! Show yourself, or I swear I’ll –“
BLAM
Flying through the air like a Frisbee, the solid stone coffin nailed the sergeant square in the abdomen and sending him rocketing back, plus coffin, towards the heavy iron door.
On the other side, Smokey rubbed his hands together with satisfaction and started to back away from the door, ushering Liam back who had just stepped forward. Faint cries could be heard through the iron doors at this point, but the dwarf was oblivious to all but his own creation of loving destruction. “Stand back now, stand back Laydees ‘n gents. I don’t want any o’ my beauties to hurt ya. Least not till I’ve bin paid for this”
Liam allowed himself to be shunted back graciously, more preoccupied with staring at the door from which a very heavy ‘thud’ had just emitted. “Those sound too solid to be spirits”
BOOOOM
The dynamite stuck into the lock of the door detonated, sparking up and down the hinges and centreline of the doors in a chain reaction with the other explosives as they all went up at once, shattering the hinges from the wall and central bolts from each other! The doors quivered, before falling towards the Night Elven party with thunderous finality as the closest immediately jumped back.
Yanked back by the Night Elf he was standing next to (Rithrynn), Liam hit the ground just as what appeared to be a stone cannonball with a purple chevalier plastered to it rocketed out of the gloom and clean over his head. Serphia, who had remained resolutely upright and proud even in the force of the explosion, barely had time to widen her eyes in surprise before the coffin ploughed right into her stomach and sent her, plus chevalier, plus coffin, plastered against the opposite wall further down the corridor.
“Hrm.”
Liaena muttered as she stared into the clouds of smoke and dust, quietly debating the explosive power of her assault which she was reasonable sure had started off lower than what had just transpired. The girl stepped over two groaning chevaliers as she cautiously moved towards the doorway. Waving away the smog a long eared shadow reared up in the gloom which became Rithrynn, Liam coughing away the dust under one arm.
“…Hi Rithrynn” Liaena said finally, a smirk appearing on her face as she looked at the Night Elf. Surveying the scene, her eyes passed over the general destruction, the regrouping elves clambering to their feet and Serphia working at dislodging herself from under a coffin with her face black as thunder before she pointed at a chevalier at her feet. “Uh, that was him”
“That was you” Bella remarked snidely from her shoulder. Liaena cast her a black look, before stabbing a finger down at the chevalier. “Ok, but because of him. Do try to keep up”