Heated confrontation

There was no time to loose and no time to think. There were innocent people burning in those buildings, or alternatively slaughtered should they somehow make their way through the barricaded doors or the ropetied windows, Seoras’s men making sure of just that. It was murder, no way around it.

Well. They were about to find out they would have to put in a lot more work than they anticipated for their coin.

Alexis rushed her quarry, a bardiche axe wielding hunk she knew by the name of Ewan, using her surprise moment to get around his guard, moving in close immediately to deny him the range advantage of his weapon of choice.
She kept the pressure on, pushing him away from his guard post by ‘his’ barrack as she heard Marsili racing behind her to tackle the barricade at the door and Iain taunting the remaining mercs, goading them.

Ewan finally got his wits back and snarled at her.

“Fuckin’ bitch! Boss shoulda offed ye long ago!”

With that he rammed his full considerable body weight into her. Luckily she had been on guard so it wasn’t enough to throw her off her feet, but it was certainly enough to push her back, making his axe more effective again.
He promptly swung it at her in a horizontal slash, but Alexis, being significantly lighter armored than him, deftly leaned back, the axe’s blade swishing above her and missing her by inches.
She shifted the momentum into a pirouette, her blade scraping along his heavy armor as she forced him to step away.

“Lapse of judgment, for sure.”
she growled back.

She needed to get closer. She needed an opening. And she needed it quick, or there would be only charred bones left of most of the people trapped in the burning buildings. So she risked giving him an opening.
She parried his blow with her shield, pushing the blade away from her with it, effectively depriving herself of its guard for a moment. Then she feinted a misstep, letting it look like she missed her chance to recover with a counter attack. Ewan grinned as he swiftly answered with an overhead swing that would cleaved her in half by her shoulder, if she weren’t already in the process of spiralling around. The axe blade hit the ground beside her as she let herself be carried by her momentum into another full spin.
Her sword aimed high this time, cutting through his neck.

As Ewan’s body hit the ground, Alexis whirled around to the inferno.
Marsili had managed to topple the barricade in front of the nearest barrack, and the panicked workers were starting to flee the building, burned and coughing.
Marsili was already sprinting towards Iain who was somehow keeping by now three mercs at bay, bleeding from some minor wounds, but most certainly not slowing.

Alexis rushed towards the fight as well, but as Iain noticed the women approaching he bellowed:

“I got this! Get the other barracks!”
just as he drove the shaft of his battle axe into the jaw of the dual wielding Tavish.

The women hesitated for a moment, looking at each other.

“Taking the far one!”
Marsili called and changed directions to do just that, as Alexis in turn sprinted towards the closer barrack, both just hoping and trusting that Iain knew what he was doing.

Alexis threw herself against the heavy barrels that blocked the entrance full force, ignoring the pain in her arm and kept pushing until she managed to topple them over. She ripped the door open, and there was already a man almost falling into her arm, soon to be followed by the remaining survivors.

Just as she finally turned to rush to Iain’s aid, one of the workers raised his badly burned arm and screamed hoarsely:

“The house…! Master Loso!”

And true enough, the main building was in process of being engulfed in flames, a new choir of panicked screams cutting through the night.