No boundaries

Again Alexis found herself caught between helping her friend and helping the people caught in the burning chalet. Looking back towards Iain, her gaze drifted over Marsili facing the same conundrum. Iain however, now bleeding profusely, but at the least with one downed enemy under his belt, would have nothing of it.

As if sensing their indecision, he roared:

“I said I got this! GO!!”

With a curse on her lips Alexis whirled around to run towards the main building, giving a silent prayer that Iain hadn’t bitten off more than he could chew. Moments later she could hear Marsili racing alongside her.
As they approached the house, it seemed the fire was still in the process of spreading. The main door was open, yet there was no one running out, despite the calls of help they could hear. Maybe they had been locked in?

The building itself included an upper floor where they could see small balconies here and there, most likely connecting to the living quarters of the family in charge.
Alexis and Marsili were about to pass under one such balcony, when they even more shrill cries from above, full of panic.
They also very much sounded like children.

Marsili growled next to her and sped up to overtake her, whirling around just beneath the balcony.

“Boost you up!”

Alexis nodded sharply, sheathing her sword without slowing down and with Marsili’s leg up and her own momentum found herself scaling the balcony railing a few heartbeats later.
It hadn’t looked like the fire had reached that far already, but the screams and cries seemed only to rise in intensity. As Alexis found her footing on the balcony, she could make out a young voice pleading desperately.

“Noo! Please, don’t hurt them!”

Alexis added to the abuse of her shoulder by ramming the door open without delay.

Inside the room the scenery froze for a moment.
A generously sized children’s bedroom, yet untouched by fire, though the flickering of flames could already be seen through a door leading to the hallway.
Two young boys, twins it seemed, maybe around seven, clutching each other, cowering in a corner, crying pitifully.
In front of them a young girl, maybe thirteen standing bravely, but desperately, arms outstretched.
And towering over them, two short swords in hand and a slowly fading grin on his face, another of Seoras’s men, Banner.

Alexis was, all in all, a rather composed person. Of course she would get annoyed, or angry as much as anybody else. But very rarely would she get red-hot furious.
She was now.

That fury got her moving first. She didn’t even bother to draw her sword, she strode right up to the men before he could recover from his shock and socked him into the face hard enough to send him falling on his butt. THEN she drew her sword, as he hastily scrambled back and onto his feet.

As she approached him with grim determination and not a word leaving her lips, he launched a swift combination of attacks on her with a hearty

“Fuck!”

Alexis didn’t bother to fully defend against him. She blocked his right-hand swing with her shield, but only slightly turned so his left-hand attack slashed across her hip rather than her abdomen. Instead she led her sword into forceful thrust towards his chest.
He hastily tried to catch her blade between his own.
Only to find he had fatally underestimated her strength. Alexis’s blade burrowed itself into his intestines.