We stand united 1x1 Maple Bat

[Maple Bat 3,568]

The dragons figured they'd been a good enough distaction. One of the dragon had a canteen of water and threw it at the assassin spawing fire on it creating a blanket of mist shrouding the dragons as they started to move back. That however didn't stop the spear wielding one from taking a few more swings at the assassin.

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"Hey don't worry about them." Festus reassured "We dragons know how to see value in everything if Ember says your important then that means we need to protect you." He leaned against a rock that was behind him. "Though I don't know how everyone else got so used to this

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

The assassin narrowed her eyes at the sudden distraction.

'Of course, they are trying to retreat, using this battle as a deception to steal the boy back, I have to give them credit for their cunning.' The assassin thought as she saw the spear wielder attack her again.

 She dodged the spear attack quickly, she could perhaps not see through the mist, but her ears were able to pick the movement from the swooshing weapon, and the dragon itself was also making a rather amount of noise, which only worked to her advantage.

The assassin quickly grabbed the handle the spear and used it to navigate straight at the dragon within a second, only for the arm blade to go straight through the Dragon's face, killing it violently.

She threw the corpse away.

'It seems this game is taking longer than I thought, perhaps I have to kick it up a nudge.' she thought.

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Jack nodded.

"It's not easy to get used to, I was forced to grew up with this kind of tragedy at a constant pace at the age of 6, it essentially becomes part of you the more you get exposed to it." Jack said.

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Festus sighed. "I took up arms as an honor guard thinking I wouldn't see combat until I was ready. Now only do I realize how far behind the others I really am." He showed his wings to Jack. "I can't even fly with these yet making maneuvering harder... We'll lets keep moving best get as much distance between that maniac and us as we can." He said picking him up again as he started moving towards the gorge hoping to find Princess Ember.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"I know that feeling all too well, but you were chosen to be in the honour guard for a reason, how you acted back there was very heroic on its own, having fear is only natural, you can't force someone to become stronger and or drop their fear altogether." Jack said.

"You know, if it weren't for the others constantly saving me from trouble, I would be long dead or worse. Because if I wouldn't have someone constantly watching me I would eventually end up trying to take on all kind of danger myself without any regard for my safety, it is perhaps my instincts that are at fault there, it is like a train that has no brakes, it can only go forward but cannot stop on its own." Jack said with shame.

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

The young dragon laughed. "Ember always tells me about behavior like that when we train. She calls it heroism. Not a bad thing to have but you gotta know when to rune otherwise you risk getting killed. She taught that to many of her fighters plus a few ponies as well." He eventually stopped near the edge of the gorge.

Fluttershy saw them and came up. She wasn't doing a lot of damage to the scorpion anyways since she cut it's tail off. "What's going on? Why are you carrying Jack?" She asked concerned.

Festus, who was sweating from running so much, Smiled at Fluttershy. "Well Jack we attacked but I think we're ok now." He said

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"To be honest I don't think we are safe for long, that assassin tends to toy with her opponents alot out of enjoyment, for all we know she has been following all this time, she is too unpredictable to know."

"Though it seems Ember has managed to kill the scorpion thing, I just cannot shake off the feeling of terror. It all seemed to go to easy, I mean, that assassin has a fearsome reputation for deception and mass massacres, it seems too convenient for how smooth this wen't compared to what I have experienced before." Jack said.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Treasured past by the 3 carrying Luna "Say it was easy all you want but Luna here nearly died and Celestia is still waging battle against a army with hers." He started walking off "Oh yea. This belongs to you." He tossed Luna towards the group as he flew off. "I'm going to help you purge my lands but once it's over we return to the way it used to be."

Fluttershy was about to take off after him but sighed since she couldn't fly as well as he could "Well... He's probably right. It's not over yet." She went over to Luna examining her "She's alive but barely. We can't keep risking things like this... We just... I don't even know what we need anymore."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack sighed deeply.

"To be honest Fluttershy, I don't know either, I have experienced such tragedies before and I can assure you all this is only going to get worse as time progresses, it might be hard to hear but it is the truth."

"And I cannot bear to see it happen again... Because should it keep going like this, Equestria is not going to survive. Perhaps some are sceptical about my words right now, but i do know one thing. I have known people would not give up in such situations, so what reason do we have to give up? Because lowering our morale is going to work only to the enemies favour."

Edited August 23, 2017 by Mickey Adaptus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"It's easy" Festus added "We just stop them until they give up. Canterlot's pretty big we could probably fit the entirety of equestria into it at once and shield it. We'll protect it as long as we have to. Food and supplies will also need heavy guarding but again that should be easy to cover."

Fluttershy blinked at him. It wasn't a bad idea, but hiding meant they would just defile more and more of the landscape "I don't think that... that should be our plan but right now it seems we are out of options. Because the enemy leader got away..." Fluttershy fell to her knees "Maple would know exactly what to do if she where here; I can't be like her."

"Or did he!" The enemy leader said changing back into Moonshadow "They don't seem incredibly smart should be easy to trick them by disguising."

"How'd you get here?" Festus asked

"I was with chrysalis." Moon Shadow answered "She's just over there. But as for that plan?" He asked

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"Guys, we are getting off topic here...." Jack reminded them

"We need to keep heads focused because are forgetting something really important." Jack said as he silently pointed at the higher points of the ghastly gorge.

"Not only is Celestia and her armies fighting the enemies, but there is still a very dangerous person stalking these mountains, we CANNOT lose our cool here now because then we are bound to fail, this fight is far from over, their leader might have escaped, but that doesn't mean it's all lost, just leave the plan to me." Jack said.

"Chrysalis, you should take your army and try to support Celestia's army in order to keep up the strength there."

"Fluttershy, could you tend to Luna?"

"Moonshadow might be best if you could scout the perimeter and notify us when anything suspicious is within your eye sight."

'Tough about the last part... this is going to be hard, i know how to calm the situation regarding the battle, but dealing with that assassin? This is difficult. Where is Ember? We could really use her confident spirit right now, she seems to keep a constant cool head in these situations compared to most of us.' Jack thought.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Fluttershy looked into Jack's eyes and smiled softly seeing a bit of her daughter in him. "Of course Jack. Well spoken." She said as she went back over to Luna. She flinched seeing her in such a bad condition but started working on healing her.

Moonshadow nodded flying just below the clouds to watch for others.

Chrysalis and her army flew off to join Celestia's. It still felt weird to her that this all was happening, her helping equestria, but at least she had her chance to redeem herself.

Lastly Festus came over to Jack "Hey... What can I do to help. I want to help so I'll do my best." Jack hadn't noticed it yet but he saw that Festus' shield was almost as big as he was but he still wielded it fine with one hand. He was really good with his shield not so much his sword.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"Could you please try to find Ember for me? I might have a plan to battle that Assasin, but it's going to be tricky to pull it off, to be honest, i am quite nervous about doing this because

it is not going to be easy. If you could get Ember now, that would good, i still need to think this plan through a bit more, but i will you guys once you are back." Jack said.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"She should come up if I... Wah!" He walked over to the ledge and fell a few feet before being caught by ember. "Not my intention... but it works."

Once the two dragons where on the ground ember laughed "Don't worry kid. You'll get to fly before you know it." She said encouragingly She went over the Fluttershy "Sorry about abandoning you. Had to make sure that the giant scorpion was dead and I can safely say that it is in fact dead! How's the rest of the battle going."

"Not good. Look at Luna!" Fluttershy said even though she had a bandage end in her mouth "Help Jack. He need you for something."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"To be honest the battle was going pretty grim. But it wen't even further bad when that assassin suddenly immobilized me from behind and dragged me very far off.

Had it not been for your soldiers, I would have been doomed, but I fear we are being tricked, I mean, that scorpion thing attacked out of nowhere, and the moment you and Fluttershy  were engaging that thing, the assassin was suddenly behind in almost a fraction of a second, it could very well be that she send that Scorpion here to distract us." he said worriedly to Ember.

"But what worried me even more, the moment Festus had grabbed me and escaped, the assassin did not even bother to follow us because there is just no way she could have missed seeing our escape. Which  leads me to believe she could be watching us at this very moment, there is just no way to know."

"This is just a bitter situation because I do not know what do about this, trying to lure that assassin out of the open is just possible since she is not a fool compared to that leader... 

I was kinda hoping you perhaps had a strategy in mind because i just don;t know." Jack admitted.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Ember pondered the situation. "Sounds like she doesn't want you with a good fight to go with it. Stay close to me and eventually she'll get sick of waiting and try to take you anyways. And when she does we can duel to the death. You and me need to get somewhere isolated there she'll have a better chance of revealing herself. Though I should limit myself to one weapon." she said setting her bag down pulling out her magic breaker lance. "This'll do nicely. Let's go."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack nodded.

"Good plan, if I may say, the tunnels should perhaps be a good plan, they only have limited entrances which means we can keep both in sight, but at the same time she will be forced to enter them in order to find us." Jack suggested.

"And at the same time, she cannot attack us from behind if we stay close together while having a wall behind us, that should give us some advantages."

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Good Idea kid." Ember said as she started walking "Let's go down there then." She had a specific kind of location in mind on with a wall behind them and as few paths as possible leading to them she knew what to look for but not necessarily where to find it in the tunnels. She told that location to jack as the descended into the caves. Once in there the two could feel the cold of the caverns walls. "Say didn't fluttershy say something about... Giant eels or something?"
 

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"Yeah she did, she mentioned even something about help regarding them, but it does seem a bit odd that we haven't encountered a single one so far. It could perhaps be the case that they are driven off by all the fighting going on, especially with that giant scorpion thing that was stalking these tunnels earlier, but who knows, it could be anything." Jack speculated.

He started feeling the walls.

"This part of the tunnels feel pretty sturdy to me, this might prove handy because one thing that might happen is that the Assassin might attempt to drive us out by using explosives or magic to collapse the tunnels, perhaps even at attempt to trap us for something." Jack noted.

"Should we stay in this corner? it is not big but this does seem like the sturdiest part, which means it will be rather unlikely the roof would collapse on us." he asked.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Yea sounds good." She said sitting down. "I'll just rest for a bit want to have my full strength for this." She relaxed against the wall of the cave. Bet those eel things are dead. Killed by the scorpions and what not." She set her lance down while she laid there waiting, she was ready to spring up at any moment to attack the assassin.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"Alright, I will keep watch, these tunnels are perfect for detecting sounds because of the silence." Jack said as down next to her.

He was focusing on any sounds, but at the same time was keeping his eyes peeled, his eyes being useful in this darkness.

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It had been around 35 minutes that Jack had been listening for any sounds, yet he still heard nothing.

Until he suddenly heard something, a knocking noise, almost as if someone was knocking on the tunnel walls from afar.

Jack tensed up as he heard the sudden sound.

He tapped on Embers should and only said the word "sound." in a very quiet tone to her.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Ember stood up and stretched before picking up her Lance. "Alright." She said quietly. She didn't go to find the sound only stood there waiting for the sound to come there. The situation generated a lot of tension it got to the point where to tension in their corner was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Ember stood unmoving, waiting for her foe to appear.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"So it is a game of cat and mouse? An excellent choice, but a desperate gamble. Would be a shame if something bad were to happen hm?" A voice called out to them, it echoed through the tunnels, but the owner of the voice was all too clear.

The assassin started to strange things, as the sound of running could be heard from multiple directions, even from under them, which created an eerie feeling.

Jack was still leaning against the wall, clearly on edge from the tension.

Though the Assassin was using her magic to play the sound as a different location, creating the illusion of multiple targets moving across tunnels in order to scare her victims.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Ember wasn't scared of the multiple sounds "That all you got? Weak to be honest with you. I expected a bit more that cheap tricks from the likes of you." She started lightly moving around not wanting to stay too still. She watched all the tunnels with her peripheral vision. She knew that if she ran out there the plan would fail but she couldn't just stand there

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"And yet the cheapest tricks can prove ideal on the weak minded."

A chuckle escaped from the Assassin mouth.

"It may not work on a dragon such as you, but it is given an interesting effect on someone else, which is all I need for this."

The Assassin appeared at the far end of the tunnel, but as fast as she was seen, a very big magical blast was shot through to their location, the blast speeding straight through the tunnels towards them.

Edited August 23, 2017 by Mickey Adaptus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Ember faced the blast head on absorbing it into her spear. Can't do that much more she thought Otherwise it may break... "Hey! Come here and fight like a real warrior! No more of the cheap games. I've dealt with enough of those already." She yelled pointing her lance down the hallway. "Duel me. Win and you can have the kid, However I'm not gonna lose."