The Forsaken Arts

Chapter 9: The Next Move

Her son noticed her reaction and thought. Wow, she didn't know...he never told her. Once again having to regain order, Mikhail politely yet sternly said, "Please, can I resume the brief from here?"

"Yes, sorry we got carried away." Lord Kashif and Cecilee said as they stumbled over one another with their words.

"By all means Mikhail, proceed." said the king while sitting back down.

"No worries. As I was saying, combat specialties are as such, Soren - Shadow Knight Mastery, Cheyk - Veteran Spell-fighter, Scorn - Disciple of Thievery and Deception Arts, Pippy - Ninjitsu Arts, Ni'lerh - Elementalist and Raintree - Priestess.

Unfortunately we could not confirm Tech's style of combat and for this we are sorry. Nevertheless that is something we want your team to assess should you encounter him."

"Wonderful." Cecilee whispered with a sigh.

Especially sensitive to Cecilee's reactions, "Ceci, are you okay?" the king asked.

"Honestly no, I don't see how we're to win against thousands of his minions, six incredible fighters from our past and his brother that trained him for crying out loud. Someone that could toss him and JinX around like rag dolls, then somehow manage to take down Krinx himself.." she shouted while standing up.

After venting, Cecilee looked around the table to see everyone shocked by her outburst.

A bit embarrassed, she slowly sunk back down as Guru added, "Agreed, its suicide. I mean the Steel Guard only consists of five members."

Always the positive one, Evenharth interjected. "Well hold on a minute, let's take a look at this objectively. We may be able to pull this off. Krinx's minions are many but we've never had any trouble defeating them."

"Hmm this is true... but us five against those seven doesn't set well with me." replied Cavell.

Lord Kashif looked to Thengol. "No input?"

"...Still taking it all in." he responded.

To regain control of the room, Mikhail took a deep breath. "Excuse me, but I still wasn't finished. There's no way we'd ask you all to risk your lives in such a manner, which brings me back to the beginning of this brief.

The history of the Steel Guard, sources have confirmed that the original members who formed Dragons Hatred, (DH) if you will, are still alive."

"Unbelievable, the Heroes of Legend, the ones who disappeared that day along with Krinx?" Guru asked.

"Yes, we believe if the Steel Guard were to join forces with DH, then the outcome of this war would turn in our favor.

Included along with your enemy profiles are the profiles of the original DH members. They are to include Slarant (Co-founder of the original DH unit) - Rouge, Chri - Monk, Llaw - Bard, Silvannas - Cleric, and Curran - Samurai." replied Mikhail.

A bit over excited, Thengol who had remained silent until now shouted, "Is that accurate, a Samurai, they still exist? Its been said that during the Great Conflict, the Ninjas annihilated the Samurai to extinction."

Alarmed by Thengol's shouting Mikhail slowly answered, "Keep in mind Thengol, these are the original members of DH, their mastery of arts stem from those that have been long since forgotten."

"Hmm...true... it's just that... well never mind." Thengol replied sounding a bit let down with Mikhail's response.

"However, you bring up a good point. The ninjas did extinguish the samurai. With that said, Thengol being a ninja prohibits him from approaching Curran. Also, there are two more topics of interest... you'll have to seek out these fighters and convince them to assist with the war."