“You basically have two options when your time is at hand. Either you accept it willingly, or you go kicking and screaming and more likely than not embarrass yourself in the process. Me? I choose to pass on to the next world quietly. Not like making a fuss would change anything anyway.” - Fabled last words of Xaliburnus the Conqueror, veracity unknown.

“They’re close, just another floor up,” said Elfriede after they finished a fight against a small group of ten knights who had valiantly tried to hold the top of the stairs on the third floor of the citadel. Grünhildr had made short work of their blockade, while Elfriede and Ylisera struck those on the sides the moment she broke through, and between them left Reinhardt with nothing to do.

“How many?” he asked in turn. He was all too familiar with the way Elfriede could sense through walls and floors as long as there was airflow between the spaces. It was a rather priceless ability for indoor scouting, to say the least.

He himself knew of some other wind mages capable of similar feats, but they usually only do it in short bursts, as they rarely trained that particular aspect of their ability much. Elfriede on the other hand, used it to substitute for her sightless eyes, and had honed it to an extent that other mages never even thought of.

“Twenty-five, plus what I’d guess are both our bounties,” she replied quickly. Elfriede generally kept her sphere of wind-sense active at all times up to a range of roughly ten meter away from her in all directions. The only reason it took her a moment was because she was counting the knights, who seemed intent on holding the stairwell. “They’ll likely try to hold the stairwell. The bounties are in the room behind them.”

The top floor of the fort’s inner citadel was rather small, with just a small landing by the stairwell, and a single room that occupied the rest of the floor. Elfriede detected two men, who from the features she could detect was almost certain to be their quarry, inside the room, all nervous and jittery.

“Guess we’ll have to improvise a bit then,” said Reinhardt as he looked to the circular stairwell. The design of the stairs made it difficult for those up top to strike at people climbing, but at the same time, made it harder for those climbing to do so with momentum.

“Gudrun, Atman, I’d like you two to take the lead, push through their defense, and leave the rest to us,” he said to two shieldbearers in their group. The couple - a dwarf and a great ape therian - were part of Mischka’s group, some of the few small enough to be able to fight in the citadel without difficulty.

“Grün, you, me, Friede and Ylisera are going right behind them. We’ll widen the breach they made,” he added. All three women nodded at his call and quickly grouped up beside him. “Nicole, you lead the rest and follow through into the gap.”

“Yes, boss!” replied the young woman. While her aunt had recovered from her injury and was her senior amongst the scouts, Dacia had also mentioned that she might call this campaign her last, and as such had started to groom Nicole to take over as representative and leader of the Free Lances’ scouts. The girl had so far taken well to the role.

“Let’s do this people. Don’t get yourself killed, else you’d be missing the party!”

********************************

With two massive tower shields completely covering them from sight up front, Reinhardt and the rest climbed the stairs carefully. Some clangs of metal striking metal were audible as soon as they turned towards the final stretch of the stairs.

The knights at the top of the stairs fired crossbows at them, but the bows they used were smaller ones compared to what Reinhardt had seen the dwarves use, weaker ones. Their projectiles simply bounced or shattered off the tower shields held by the two shieldbearers up front, whose shields were far too thick and sturdy to be defeated with just that.

Others tried to stab and push them off with spears as they got closer, but both shieldbearers grunted and set their feet hard against the stone steps, even as Reinhardt and Grünhildr helped support them from behind. Step by step, they pushed ahead until they locked shields with the knights who tried to push them down the stairs.

For a moment, an uneasy stalemate ensued as both sides strained their muscles in an attempt to push away the other, with no avail. The knights broke first, however, as one of them stumbled and fell as his muscles gave out under the strain.

The results were immediate. Gudrun and Atman immediately pushed into the knights’ formation, as they pushed back the ones in front of them. They took a few wounds as other knights struck at them from the sides, but their armor spared them from any serious injury for the most part.

Mere moments after they pushed in and created a gap, Reinhardt struck down a knight on the side with his polemace, while Grünhildr chopped another on the other side into halves as she stepped in. Elfriede and Ylisera flowed in between them and went to work as well, as their blades clashed with those of the knights, and Nicole followed with the rest of the Free Lances right behind them.

As hard as the knights fought, they found themselves pushed back once the Free Lances made a headway. The cramped room was definitely not designed for more than fifty people fighting each other in a chaotic melee, and the knights - especially those with longer weapons like polearms - suffered because of it.

On the other hand, the mercenaries they faced were far more used to such conditions. Even the ones with longer weapons like Reinhardt and Nicole knew their way around cramped quarters like these, and used their weapons cleverly in short, sharp strokes, often striking enemies who were busy with others using the other end of their long weapons.

The fighting was vicious nevertheless, and more than a few of the Lances sported injuries of varying severity by the time it was over, but of the twenty-five knights that barred their path, not a single one remained standing. They had chosen to fight to the bitter end, and was slain to a man in return.