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"Do you always rush like this, head down and without thinking?"
“If we don’t light the beacon on time », said Alistair, « Loghain won’t know when to send his troops into the battle. We don’t really have time to procrastinate!”
“Trying to reach the beacon quickly will be useless if we don’t reach it in one piece. This tower is full of darkspawns and this, right in front of us...” She pointed to the quickly-mad barricades in front of them « It smells like traps miles away. So you’re all going to stay here and wait while I go reconnoiter .”
With these words and without waiting for an answer, Ymlaïs took the corridors stealthy without arousing the attention of the darkspawns.
She came back a few minutes later and told Alistair : « If you had rushed blindly, you would have lost one leg and would be burned to the second degree by now. They are six darkspawns, mainly shooters, of course. The barricades limit our movements, leaving us at the mercy of their shots . I propose that Alistair moves forward as safely as possible to open the way while the mage, the guard and I remain under cover to clear the shooters. Is that okay with you?”
The small elf showed such confidence that the three men, who each were at least one foot taller than her, could only nod obediently. It was now clear that the mastermind of the group would be the dalish. And none of her companions found fault. In addition to her discretion that made her an excellent scout, she had the ability to very quickly assess their situation and the elements they could take advantage of to develop strategies that allowed them to make their way through the horde of darkspawns to the top of the tower. Whether it was to bypass the enemy troops to take advantage of the presence of ballistas, release a pack of mabaris on the darkspawns or simply to make good use of everyone's skills according to the situation: her trick led their small group without loss to the top of the tower… Where a tough challenge awaited them.
A hideous and gigantic creature that seemed to fill the room was finishing devouring the guards who had arrived before them. At their sight, it uttered a terrifying shriek and without further ado, rushed at them.
The group moved away except for the guard, who remained petrified with terror. The ogre hit him with its horny head and he was thrown a few meters back, totally stunned. He owed his survival only to the elf who, firing an arrow in its neck, attracted the attention of the monster who changed direction. Fast and agile, she avoided its assault and addressed Alistair: "I will draw its attention, take advantage of it to hit its weak points, we must weaken its ability to move." Attacking from behind, the young warrior directed his strike on the back of the beast’s knees. But its skin was so resitant that the blow could not cut the tendons as Alistair had hoped. «Damnit, and here I thought it would be easy». With surprising rapidity for its size, the monster turned around to hit Alistair who counter the punch with his shield but was nevertheless breathless under the impact.
A stream of magic projectiles drew the monster’s attention in another direction and as the beast rushed to the mage, Ymlaïs sent back a volley of arrows and so on. The weakness of the monster was its stupidity, one fighter after another took charge of attracting its attention while the others weakened it. But the fighters already had many fights behind them and the ogre was incredibly resistant. Fatigue grew and the slightest error could be fatal.
This was the case when the mage, who had cast a flame blast spell, dodged two second too late. The ogre rushed at him and with a punch, knocked down the poor man, whom no armor protected. He was seized by the waist and the monster closed its huge hand on the body of the mage which broke up under the impact. The ogre cast the corpse away like a wisp of straw and turned to the Grey Wardens.
The darkspawn howled with pain when an arrow crashed into his eye. It withdrew the arrow, and tried to pluck out the bloody eye which made it suffer. Alistair took advantage to rush, sword forward. Ymlaïs continued to shoot arrows. In blind rage, the ogre sent random wild blows, but one of them ended up hitting Alistair head-on, sending him flying to the other side of the room. Spotting with its valid eye the little creature that had mutilated him, it rushed on Ymlaïs who rolled aside to avoid the assault. The ogre struck a shelf which exploded under the impact, its contents spreading on the ground in bursts; but this did not seem to stop the rabid beast.
Out of strength and risking everything, Ymlaïs rolled on her back, stuck her bow on her feet and stretched the rope with two hands. "Won’t you die already!" The arrow was violently impaled under the creature’s chin, sinking inside the skull to the feathers. For a while, Ymlaïs believed she had won but the darkspawn seemed determined to take her in death. Seeing the monster stagger towards her, she believed her end was near when she saw Alistair standing in front of her and stopping the monster’s advance with a double strike. Taking a phenomenal impulse he literally flew towards the creature which he struck in the chest, rocking it to the ground. With a cry of rage and an increased strength, the warrior thrust his sword into the head of the ogre who definitively stopped moving.
Standing painfully, Ymlaïs looked at Alistair with a surprise mingled with respect.
« That was… incredible ».
Ignoring the compliment, he replied, “The beacon is over here! We surely missed the signal… Let’s light it quickly before it’s too late.”
Coming to her senses, Ymlaïs headed for the beacon, which she lit. Looking up at the growing flames, the two Grey Wardens hoped they had been able to complete their mission in time. The rest was no longer in their hands.
“We did it.” Ymlaïs told his companion, “Duncan will get reinforcements from the Teyrn.”
At this moment they heard the cry of the guard who had just regained consciousness before a darkspawn slaughtered him and a horde of monsters showered them with arrows.