When the Princess had discovered the two Hellhounds following after her, they had been certain that they would be told to return to the Commander right away. It was a relief that the opposite happened instead; the last thing the two needed was to be in Artemis' bad books. And so without hesitation Taria followed the Princess up the steps, though not before sending Prongs away with a muttered incantation.
Having clattered unceremoniously to the ground outside, Jakob too was at least satisfied the princess was not sending them away. Still - this was hardly the time for her to be acting rashly, and he wondered to himself as he hurried up the stairs alongside Taria. He kept his mouth shut as they all entered the castle, but only just. This place reeked of civility, order, and other nasty things like personal toiletries. Settling himself to scrutinize the many well-dressed personages, Jakob narrowed his eyes as the woman parted her way through the crowd.
With the princess speaking to the guards and then the Lady Morra, there was nothing either of the Hellhounds could add. However it wasn't hard to notice that the Commander didn't seem to recognize the person. As Taria sent a wary glance his way, Jakob turned to glance at her for a moment. So, she felt uneasy, too; her hand was twitching as she kept it from reaching back for her sword. He didn't know whether to ready himself, just yet, but his decision was made for him in the next minute - as the body of this "Lady of the Harbor" deformed into something that should not be.
Hesitation left Taria completely when the figure of the woman became something twisted, hideous, mouth open… but she couldn't hear anything. In fact, it seemed only the Princess was being affected. Sword pulled from its sheath, Taria shoved it between the woman who she deemed was using Illusion to keep her from coming any closer.
Jakob cried out in surprise, drawing his dagger even as Taria leaped into action. Inside, it might be dangerous to wield too much Elementa, but anyone who rallied to this monster would be deemed an acceptable casualty.
"Stay back!" Taria snapped to the illusion wielding woman. "You will regret it if you don't stop!" She paused only a second before calling out to her fellow Hellhound. "Jakob, you know what we have to do!"
The green-clad man raised his arm and took a quick step forward, calling in response to Taria's summons. "Aye - keep this beastie off the princess!" In an instant, Jakob gathered air into a powerful punch, blasting the illusionist backward, hopefully enough to break its focus upon Artemis. Jakob stood now beside Taria, blocking the way between the princess and the imposter. He gave a low, seething growl. "If you can get her out of here, I'll hold the rest of them off."
"Right." Taria wasted no time in muttering an incantation to recall Prongs, despite them being indoor. Her worries that she wouldn't be able to call him so soon again were banished as he appeared, big and proud and threatening in his own way. There was no time for celebration though; Taria put her hand on the Princess' shoulder, shaking her. "Princess! We must leave!"
Artemis heard voices calling to her, but she could not understand anything beyond the screams. The woman...she was laughing at her pain, twisting the General's mind around her finger. She'd waited so long to finally unleash her wrath against the royal family, and the Crown Princess herself had waltzed right into her midst.
The General's companions, however, quickly became a nuisance. They set their magic against her in the courtyard, desperate to free Artemis. But the woman simply laughed, as she remained safely hidden away within the castle. Taria and Jakob only thought they were attacking her. In reality, her illusions were working even better than she could have hoped, fooling them into seeing her where she was not.
The soldiers then sprung into action, releasing their own brand of magic against the two. Strangely enough, they did not attack Artemis, although she remained incapacitated. Instead, they focused their firepower upon Jakob and Taria, creating infernos and terrifying golems. Indeed, these were no ordinary soldiers.
Blood dripped from their hands, and anyone with half a mind could understand what was happening. They were using blood magic, but there was something much different about them. If one inspected closely, they would notice that each sorcerer's eyes remained unfocused and dark. As if they weren't really aware of their own surroundings, even as they attacked two members of the Rose Company.
All the while, Artemis could only scream.
As much as Taria wanted to drag the Princess away from here, there was no way she would be able to while being attacked by the soldiers. "Jakob?!" She couldn't see what her companion was doing as she swung her sword, now lit on fire, and struck at the golem nearest to her. "Prongs! Protect the Princess! See if you can get that woman!"
Prongs first instinct was to pummel to attack the golems that were heading his summoner's way, but she knew he wouldn't disregard a direct order. As quick as a flash he stood before Artemis, but thereafter he remained as he was, impatiently stamping the ground with his cloven hoof. He looked back at Taria, who was currently engaged and couldn't see his lack of action.
Gritting his teeth, Jakob charged the nearest group of soldiers with a wild flurry of of abandon. They wished to kill the princess - no regard could be taken for their own lives, whoever they may once have been. He slashed at their outstretched arms, their blood flowing faster now. Jakob chained swipes of his dagger with more blasts of air, pulling and pushing the enemy into his blade, then into the ground, or flying against the far wall. But a few moments into this rhythm, he sensed that something had changed, and raised a barrier of wind to hold the soldiers off momentarily.
"Taria!" Jakob barked, swivelling his head to where the illusionist stood. "Tell your creature to do something!" From his position, he could see the unicorn standing before Artemis and the woman of her afflictions, but it only pawed at the ground. "It's not helping - get it out of the way!" With a rising yell, Jakob gathered another full onslaught of rushing wind, and sent it barrelling against the soldier squadron he had been holding off. If Taria could see him, she might notice he was looking a little fried, and quite a bit winded by now. Jankily, he took up his dagger again to rush the illusionist, blasting toward her with another gust of air.
"That- he wouldn't just-" Taria pulled her sword out of the golem, kicking the rest of the creature away before looking to Prongs. He never disobeyed her orders, so why wasn't he doing as she had asked him? "Prongs!"
Once again, he didn't attack the woman, rather turning away and charging towards the few soldiers who hadn't been caught in the blash of rushing wind.
"Wait!" she yelled. Prongs clearly wasn't seeing what they were seeing. Could he had been put under a spell himself? No, that's not right, he's too powerful… And then a doubt came to her. "Jakob, stop your attacks towards her! I might be wrong, but I don't think she's actually there!" And if that was the case, he was only further tiring himself! "Leave her to me!"
He skidded to a halt, catching his breath. Glancing wildly between the leering woman and his companion, Jakob's face scrunched up in confusion. "As you say, then! Get her off the princess while I make your path clear!" He turned to face one of the still-standing golems, leaping into its face and bashing hard with the hilt of his dagger. Slowly, it began to topple backward, though its hands rushed at Jakob's body with great force.
"Not today, you oafs." He was slammed mercilessly by the golem, but as it fell backward, it crushed a number of the soldiers who had not been expecting their summon to fail. Jakob knelt atop it for a second, then raised his eyes to the ones who still stood. "It's now or never, Taria!" He yelled as he rushed headlong into the group, dagger a whirl of blood.
Artemis could hear the woman's voice. It was all that she could hear. Everything else was drowned out by her saccharine sweet words, cutting into her very soul like a knife. You're pathetic. They know the truth about you. They're going to turn on you. They'll try to kill you just like the queen did, all those years ago. Except they will succeed where she failed. You're going to die, little princess. You're going to die at the hands of the people you call comrades.
She was pathetic, weeping like a child. It felt like her mind was being ripped in half, over and over and over again. But all she could focus on was the taunting words of the woman. In some deep part of it, Artemis knew this was all a trick. But alas, that part of her was buried deep, drowned out by her own hoarse screams.
She was too deep in the illusionist's magic to notice that the black poison in her hands had spread, inching up the veins in her arms. It made her skin turn to a sickly grey--an unnatural pallor that spoke of dark magic long forgotten. And the black only continued, slowly reaching for her elbows and then her biceps. The longer she remained under the illusionist's influence, the faster the darkness overtook her.
The General's voice was now gone, wretchedly destroyed by her own endless screams. The woman saw it all through the eyes of her illusion, and she simply laughed. Oh what a joyous day this would now be. It had begun wretchedly with the dragon nearly destroying her plans, but now? Now she would watch in glee as she broke the mind of the crown princess.
"Leave her alone!" Seeing the General's state, an inkling of hesitation left Taria. She charged forward, both hands wrapped tightly around the hilt of her flaming sword, slamming it straight into the woman who was causing all the disaster around them. "Die, you wretched woman!" She pulled her sword out of the illusionist before mercilessly swinging it back down on her, not once, not twice, but three times. Each time it felt wrong. She was hitting flesh, but... it didn't feel real, as if this was just some sort of dummy in the training room.
Then I was right! Her suspicions about Prongs were true; he hadn't attacked because there was no one there!
"Prongs!" Taria spun around and raced to Artemis. "To us! Now!"
The unicorn wasted no time, arriving next to her in a split second. "We need to leave here immediately," she growled, eyes fierce as she looked at the Princess. Whatever state she was in would not be broken, at least not here so close to the hidden illusionist. "Down, Prongs!" Even as the unicorn came down to his knees next to the two women, Taria grabbed Artemis, trying to pull her onto Prong's back.
His attention focused on stemming the tide of lackeys, Jakob nonetheless kept glancing back between dagger thrusts at the three women in the chaos' center. The princess… her skin was turning a sickening shade of grey, and even from where he stood, Jakob could see the black lines beneath her skin writhing their way upward. In a rage, he turned, sucking in a mouthful of air, and expelling it in a superheated blast to singe the soldiers who remained in their way.
"Ha-ah…" Jakob wavered where he stood for a moment, then faltered to one knee. "I won't let you bastards get in their way."
"Do you hear me!?"
The dark sorceress, watching them through the eyes of her illusion, frowned as the princess's companions finally discovered that their attacks against her were entirely futile. They seemed able to resist her magic where the princess was particularly susceptible...how interesting. Nevertheless, she would not let them escape so easily.
"Stop them! Do not let them escape!" she screaming, her illusion echoing the message to her soldiers. They rallied under the command, pushing forward with a new wave of terrible magic. Some of the mages buckled under the weight of their own darkness, convulsing and falling to the ground. They foamed at the mouth, saliva mixed with blood. It was a gruesome sight, but the mages still standing around them seemed to not even notice--as if they weren't truly aware of their surroundings at all.
The fury of the dark mages' magic was even deadlier than before, a final attack against the two Hellhounds that would soon kill them if they kept fighting much longer. They would have to retreat--for their own sake and for the sake of their General. This would be a fight for another day.
By this time, Taria had the General draped over Prongs' back and had climbed up on him as well, keeping Artemis steady with one hand, sword ready in the other. Looking back, she could see Jakob strength falter even as he continued to try and keep their enemies at bay. "To him!" Prongs needed no more than these words to rush to Jakob's side. He leaned down, pressing his horns against the man, lending him some energy.
"We have no time to waste," Taria called down, urgency as clear as day in her voice. "Jakob, up on his back, we must flee!" There was no point in bravado, this was less rescuing the general and more escaping with their lives.
Suddenly feeling a burst of rejuvenating energy, Jakob looked to his side to see the trio ready to depart. "Right!" In one swift motion, he grabbed hold and swung onto the back of the magnificent creature, scarcely believing what he was doing. He held tight with his knees, and with his hand he shot off another blast of air at an approaching cluster of the enemy mages. Their magic… it was dark, so very dark, and within it Jakob sensed there was great power, terrible to hold and to wield. A second later, he snapped back to reality. "Let's go!"
Prongs did exactly that, racing down the stairs more quickly than the eye could see. "Faster," Taria urged, even though she knew it was probably in vain--he was quicker than she had ever experienced. The feeling of dread was spreading faster than his gallop, however. Was the enemy following? Would the princess still be under the illusion even after they were at a substantial distance? She wasn't even sure where they should go in the first place. Clenching her eyes shut in frustration, she pondered as the wind rushed past them.
"Head back to the Commander!" she finally decided. If anyone did follow, at least they would have the rest of the Hellhounds to aid them.
Hopefully…
The sorceress screamed in anger as she watched her enemy slip through her fingers, escaping on the back of a damn unicorn. "Blasted creatures…" she hissed, her illusion warping and disappearing. She stood slowly, taking in her actual surroundings once more. She was in the throne room of the castle, guarded by her most trusted elite. Blood caked to her fingers, and she wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Clean up this mess! Send a message to the council immediately. Tell them that we must accelerate our plans."
With that, she walked purposefully out of the throne room, avoiding the crumbled body and severed head of Lady Morra. Such a gifted woman...shame that she'd refused to listen to reason.
The princess and her dogs may have escaped today, but they would not be so lucky the next time. The sorceress would personally see to that.