Nearly the same moment, at least five meters above.
"No, I'm telling you, you really can't go in today !"
"Is that so..." Pando was talking to a vigil just outside the doors, walking in despite the man's words. The other three were behind her, serious for the most part except for one almost giddy person. They all wore hoods today, not magical black oil.
Readjusting her bracelets, Pando leaned towards her interlocutor. "Say, what if instead..." The volume of her voice lowered as she spoke, forcing the guard to bring his ear closer in.
As soon as he crossed a good distance, she grabbed the man by the collar and threw him far into another priest in with spectacular technique. Immediately, Urtica, Capcsium and Venus took all their weapons out and charged the open building, riding the element of surprise.
Venus charged towards a woman for whom the glasses had marked a weak leg. Striking square on the partial injury, she broke the bone through her chainmail. Urtica supported her, his rapier flawlessly passed inches from his friend, only to sink in the woman's other leg.
From afar, Capcsium had loaded a rock into her slingshot and released it, unleashing its unnatural speed on a still unsuspecting guard.
But they were ready, plus the previous ruckus had already woken them up partially. Now, the momentum was gone, and even without the two concussed guard's from Pando's throw, it was rapidly devolving into a 9 v 4.
They readied themselves for the incoming battle.
***
"We're being attacked !"
The voice from the pipe warned. Janine jumped up from her chair, at the same time as the two very good actors besides her.
"What ? Attacked ? Who would... ?" She muttered, shocked by the mere notion of a church being attacked.
"Doesn't matter ! We need to move ! Now !" Baoba yelled, grabbing his weapons while throwing a discrete look at Dow.
He hadn't needed it. Immediately after Baoba spoke, he stopped the two. "No ! We need to guard the vault ! This has to be their goal. We can't leave it open."
Janine hesitated, her head whipping between the stairs and the door. "But we can't leave them !"
He nodded gravely. "Right, but we have to keep a list of priorities. You go help, two should be enough to hold any sneak attacks they might throw. Go ! Go !"
She understood right away, and broke into a sprint before the second go. "Okay ! Good luck !"
The two left behind got on guard, and slowly relaxed as she left.
Eventually, they both lowered their weapons, facing each other.
"Hey." Said Dow. "So it's you. Good to finally have a face to the name. You know, that profecy has been bothering us for quite some time now."
Baoba smiled and bowed lightly. "Pleasure to meet you. I know you learned about me already, but just to be sure, when did you figure it out ?"
The Ring sheathed his weapon again, taking a half step back to lean against a wall. "We certainly had a clue after five different students lost you five different times, but we had to stop after that. We kind of lost a few of our belongings."
He threw a heated look at the elf. Baoba pretended he didn't notice, and leaned against the opposite wall.
Dow continued : "Although, during the search, we got the opportunity to investigate more suspicious targets, and rule them out. Our last few suspects decided to leave with the ambush crew. You're the only one left. Although personally, I always had a feeling. You strike me as a man with a plan.
"Well, not exactly a man, are you?"
The elf raised an eyebrow. "Oh ? You even figured that out ? How about the shadows ? They seem a lot more demonic than me, surely they look more like elves to you."
"That's exactly it." He shook his head. "If anything, they looked too evil. This church might be mislead, but we know elves aren't any different from humans."
Baoba scowled. "I'll have to stop you there. Don't compare yourselves to us. The only reason you haven't killed your gods is that they're not here."
"Oh," Dow snickered. "Is it now ?"
***
At the same moment, on the battlefield above.
The fight was going bad.
Urtica dodged an icicle shot by his opponent's helmet. He found yet another opening to stab through, but the man had some sort of item that prevented poisoning or something of the sort, the rapier had little to no effect.
Using that attack, another priest leaped from the side and punched with fancy knuckles guards. The punch, instead of following the laws of nature, threw him in the direction of his enemy instead. This lead to another punch.
No matter how many projectiles Capcsium shot, they rarely connected. For some reason, they started dodging as soon as she knocked a pebble in her weapon, as if they already knew the special timing required.
Venus was doing her best, but against so many opponents, targeting weaknesses over and over was not very viable. Plus, all her opponents had really good equipment, there weren't any glaring flaws.
Pando was managing to hold three in respect, but hadn't actually hit anyone just yet. They were wary of her. As if they knew what she was capable of right now.
She knew where this came from. They had hoped it wasn't so, but unfortunately, the bluff hadn't worked. The shadows were seen through, and the Rings had adapted. They made counters specifically for their equipment, and strategies against specific members.
It was unfortunate. But Baoba never relied on luck. Of course they had a plan for this situation.
'We have to retreat.' She remembered.
They all did, it was honestly hard not to, with that many reminders. So, they retreated. The fight was not going to be won if it continued like this.
Her blessing was spread all around the battlefield, which was a much smaller area than normal. That way, she could feel everything with extreme clarity.
She also observed the events near the vault. This would be the crucial part.
***
Dow looked at the grand gate to his right. "Honestly, this church... It's way over the top, isn't it ?" He shook his head dejectedly. "Helio doesn't deserve all this."
"You made yourself plenty clear." Baoba crossed his arms. "You are not on their side. Isn't this time you introduce yourself ?"
"Hmmf. It's funny. You seem to think you have the advantage here. I would love to be overconfident, but our School is smarter than this. What do you have ? Did you hide the sleep hammer somewhere ? Have you laid traps anywhere ? Or, maybe..."
He smiled. "Is your blessing useful for fights ?"
Baoba tensed up. For once, he was actually surprised.
".... Knowledge is light, huh ? Is your 'School' specialized in information gathering ?"
'For now I'll assume that's the official name...'
Dow dropped his smile, getting serious once more."I'm surprised you know that language. You should know we expelled the student who lost his ring. Such inaptitude is unbecoming of our group. The great Sage would not stand for this."
Baoba was drawing every bit of intel he could from every sentence.
'The term 'student' reinforces the school theme... He is quite proud of his people, maybe there is a base test they all have to go through.. The ring is a standard issue, they definitely have a way of mass producing them... Also,'
"Who the hell is the Sage ?" He asked out loud. He didn't expect an answer, but it didn't cost anything to try.
However, that seemed to be a mistake. Dow appeared troubled.
"Who are they ? How could you not know ? If not for them, what would you do all this for ?" He said, furrowing his brows. "They're humanity's guide. The mentor of our mentors. Their incarnation happens to be the most -the only- valuable thing in this city, -"
Baoba rubbed his eyes and completed the thought : "..And their real name is Noti. Got it. We were talking about the same thing."
He was kind of surprised. 'Looks like we're stealing an actual god. Of course an organisation called the School would worship the knowledge deity.'
He should have seen it coming, really.
Dow flinched at the mention of his idol's true name, he got more serious. "You.. Where did you hear that name ?"
Baoba shrugged. "I have a good source. When you understand her, she actually says interesting stuff. I still have questions though. How do you manage to have that many artefacts ?"
Dow hesitated. He sighed, and his back left the wall, slowly assuming a fighting position. This time, he did not humor the elf. As he talked, he drew two black daggers from under his robes. "I would love to gloat for longer, but again, our School is smarter than that. You are obviously buying time. There's no reason to let you."
Dow attacked right after he finished speaking. While dashing, he sharpened one dagger against the other, creating a cloud of sparks, and the two edges both began to glow red-hot. The temperature only rose as he swung, creating a flame trail where it passed.
Baoba had no weapon in hand, and he hadn't even begun to activate his blessing. Even if he wasn't leaning against his wall anymore he was still too close to it for comfort. His robes were empty, save for the church-issued flask of healing water that was useless in a fight. He had nothing to block the blow with at the moment.
Thankfully, that changed pretty quickly.
As he made a motion to block the attack, an exquisite red steel dagger suddenly appeared in his hand. There wasn't any blue light, or any other special effects, it just appeared out of nowhere in an instant.
The fine dagger effortlessly block the flaming arc. Seeing it, Dow's expression turned ugly. It was possible he recognised it. After all, it did come from the School's treasury.
Baoba smiled, still clashing. "Oops, have I been found out ?" He suddenly pushed to create some distance, and pretended to pull out his bone sword from underneath his robes. He made sure to make it as durable as possible.
"I don't think you can stop me anyway." He continued. "You'd have to kill me."
The new dagger in his left hand and his sword in his right, he leaned forward, smiling and ready to pounce. "And I'm a rat even the Lord couldn't deal with. You're way outclassed."
With that, they engaged.