Adin left off slitting throats as soon as Thomas jumped out the hole; it was rather difficult anyway, what with all the armor the Guard was wearing. As Englasians swarmed around him, he twisted out of their grasp, squeezing through a small crack between two of them. As he ran for the hole, an especially large Englasian moved to block his path. Adin took a flying leap and landed with both feet on the man's chest. He didn't scream as he fell, instead trying to stab Adin. They hit the ground and his slash went wide, scoring Adin's left arm as he rolled off the broken corpse.

Cecilia, Kal, and the others who were traveling with them made it into the room just as the knights were jumping out of a hole in the wall, escaping from the Englasians.

"Oh great." She muttered, making a dash for the hole in the wall, hoping that one of the knights had her bow and arrow. She stopped for a moment at the top of the long jump below and caught her breath, "Here goes nothing..." She said to herself as she jumped out of the hole.

She rolled forward as she hit the ground, making the landing less of an impact on her feet.

"It's good to see none of us are hurt," She said to the other knights as she regained her composure after landing, "Let's hope we can make it the rest of the way out now."

While Kal had gone to free the others, Kratos had been looking for the armory. Along the way, groups of guards tried to stop him. They weren't very good at doing that, as the trail of bodies behind him bearing mute witness to this.

He found the armory. It was a huge contrivance of black metal, bolts, chains and gates. Deadly traps awaited anyone who would try to pick its locks, and the main door itself was a huge slab of metal nearly a foot thick.

Not a problem.

Kratos fanned the flame inside him again, shrouding his right hand and arm in a corona of blazing majesty. Starting at the bottom, he plunged the limb into the surface of the door. The metal glowed red-hot, then white, then ran like water as the bars if the cells had. Kratos pushed through until his hands had penetrated the distance, then dragged it up, the molten steel flowing off his arm without harming it thanks to his mastery of fire. This went on until he had inscribed a large circle in the iron barrier. Gravity took over, and it fell inside the armory, leaving Kratos a nice big hole to squeeze through.

Once inside, he noticed his gear and those of the other Knights, including Cecilia's bow and Kal's blades. Shrugging, he gathered them all up in a convenient sack and made his way back to where Kal had been.

Eventually, he discovered that Kal was not where he was. However, he did find a large group of Englasian soldiers crowded around a hole in the wall. While every instinct in him called on him to fight, he was also acutely aware that these men were carrying black jade spears, which were immune to his burning anima, and that in large enough groups, he might be swarmed and killed without his armor, which still remained within the sack..

So instead, he doubled back and made his way to the level below the hole in the wall. However, this time there was no aperture for him to leap through.

Not a problem.

After melting a hole in the masonry, Kratos leaped down, the sack on his back, landing with a resounding thump before Cecilia and Kal.

"Okay, so I couldn't find the others. I found this, though."

He opened the sack and showed Cecilia her bow and Kal his blades.

Then Adellah dropped down, gripping the edge so that she fell parallel to the wall. All her rage at the poor situation gathered for this moment, when she stabbed her Giant's Axe right at the wall. This brought her to a safe halt roughly a dozen feet from the ground, but the momentum and power used broke the pole, leaving the axe blade stuck into the wall too high for Adellah to reach. She tossed what little of the pole she had aside and drew her Slaughterang to her right hand and her knife to her left. "Weapons can be replaced. Our lives can't. Let's move."

Damion waited for the others to go through the newly made hole in the wall, keeping the Englasians at bay as they did so. He then leapt through the gaping hole and landed nimbly on the balls of his feet. He nods towards the new mage, "It is good to find new friends when so many of the old turn traitorous. I am Damion Hellstrom, Knight of the Seven Stars and Champion of the Dark One. Thomas, would you object if I kept the new guy here with me to hold off the gaurds while the rest of you head for the gate?" Damion then summons his shadow avatar and moves to engage the horde of soldiers coming around the corner. His voice rings out of the shadow, "New guy, your with me. Try and keep their casters away please. The Dark One knows I hate casters."

Rulick jumped out after Damion, making him the last one out to his knowledge. While the others had landed at least kind nimbly, Rulick hit the ground hard. While he was at least able to roll as he hit the ground, he could feel his side throb from the way he'd landed. Getting up while holding his side, Rulick ran after the others and nodded to Damion as he ran by.

"All right, collapse later, Rulcik. I know you want to, but now's not the time!" Rulcik told himself as he caught up to the group, keeping his armor summoned to make his face seem emotionless to keep anyone from worrying about him.

Devon dodged his way through the many Englasias before leaping over the head of one opponent and out the hole in the wall. He landed with a roll on the ground and began running with the other knights.

OOC: So it makes sense, the first paragraph happens before fuzzy's post.

Gai finnaly jumped out of the hole himself. As he fell, the mage aimed his right arm down and spun it around, causing a small cyclone beneath him. This made his landing a peaceful one.

Then the shadow knight talked about Gai and him holding off a large group of Englasians. "I think it would be better to run."

"Just let me carry it for now. I'll put the armor on when I have a chance."

What Kal did grab and put on however were the Hands of God. Then he slung the sac over his shoulder and chased after the others.

Damion turns to the mage. With a frown he says "Magi, never appreciate a good brawl." He shrugs and follows the others, knowing full well that alone he was easy pickings for any magic user in the area.

Nathaniel in the meanwhile had been trying to figure out what plan of action would go along with his suggestion.

Finally, he shrugged.

"If we warn the populace...I don't really know what we'll get out of it. Panic, most likely. But, on the other hand, if we don't warn them, when word of fake King get's out, and sooner or later it will, the people will be unprepared for when the Englasians fall upon them."

Nathaniel shook his head. "They have a good plan this time. Almost all the warriors of the kingdom died a year ago at the Battle. The barbarians have the advantage of numbers and experience."

"The only thing I can think of is that if we can expose the fake King, and save Roland if he is still alive, the Royal Guard and the Royal Army will align with us. Combined with our surviving forces in our provinces, that would give us a fighting chance against the Englasians."

Nathaniel looked back towards the castle. "Of course, if we can kill the fake king, the Englasians may break and run, just like they did a year ago."

(OOC: Almost hit our limit. We'll break through the castle gates, and the next chapter will be us hiding, trying to think up a plan of what to do next, and then escape from Incrad.)

Thomas was running, though his body was telling him to stop. His injuries kept flaring up. He couldn't keep this up much longer. And taking a quick look at the others, he could tell that they weren't going to be able to handle it either. They needed out. Now.

In front of him was one of the many gates leading in and out of the Castle Grounds. Archers aimed down from their stations, and began to fire volleys down.

Thomas pulled Dove and Raven out, and began to deflect any arrows in his vicinity.

"Alright, Knights! Take out the gate, and scramble! We'll meet up in the local inn at town!"

Cecilia leveled her bow in her hands and slowed a bit while the others ran ahead, firing arrows up at the attackers. She managed to take out a few of the archerers, but new ones would quickly take their place. After some of the others had run ahead, she picked up the pace again, keeping an arrow noched, ready to fire at a moments notice.

"Somone get Kratos over here! He can break down the gate after I'm done with it!" Rulick yelled to the others as he ran over to the gate, trying his best not to get hit by arrows. Upon reaching the door, the knight concentrated and began to unleash his new ability. Slowly, the gate began to get colder and harder, freezing just from the touch of Rulick's hand. After about a minute, a portion of the gate about twice Rulick's size was obviously frozen. While Rulick himself probably couldn't break it, with Kratos' weight and strength the thing would probably break as if it were nothing.

"Kratos, get us the hell out of here!" Rulick yelled as he backed away and waited for him to crash through while trying to save himself from arrows at the same time.

Kratos focused his energies inward again, and activated his aura of flame again, with one exception - whenever an arrow passed within 10 meters of him, a tongue of flame would reflexively leap out and consume it, the harmless arrowhead bouncing harmlessly off the flesh of its intended victim. Kratos slowly backed up in front of Cecilia, careful not to harm her, and her own arrows were not harmed when she fired them.

"Someone go for the gatehouse! It's faster than forcing the gate open!"

Damion was in full Shadow Avatar form by now and easily absorbed all arrows directed in his vicinity. He moves towards the gate house and smashes through one of the walls, openning the gate as if it wer nothing. H then positions himself so that his avatar would take the hits for thos passing through the gate. "Hurry," he calls "That large group that was chasing us contained magi. Once they get here I'm screwed, so hurry the hells up." Suddenly a man wearing glowing white robes appears on the top of the wall, an evil smile spread across his face. He opens a book he carrys and begins to chant. Magical energies begin to gather and Damion feels his avatar weakening. "Jordan, you bastard." He manages to gasp, barely holding together his avatar, trying to buy his allies some time.

Thomas grabbed Damion by the shoulder as he ran by, and pulled him out of the Courtyard. With Jordan's spell no longer affecting him, Damion began to get his strength back. Thomas then pushed him in a different direction.

"Scramble! Head in different directions! No one go in teams! Cover your tracks, and meet at the inn at nightfall!"

Thomas looked at the sky. It was night when they were captured, and it seemed to be morning now. They had to hide for the entire day. It'd be hard, but not undoable.