Three Versus Three

Rosalind glared at the group, and without turning around she called for her comrades that were still inside.

“Thomlin, Barnabas, get out here. We got company.”

The two emerged from the door behind her and stood by her side. Thomlin brought Rosalind’s sheathed sword with him and handed it to her. Thomlin looked worried, but Barnabas looked absolutely terrified. Rosalind spoke up again with a voice full of venom.

“So… Earnest, Coltia, Aleesha… what brings ya ‘round these parts? Wouldn’t happen to be lost would ya?”

Earnest adjusted his hair while glaring back, and replied with the same intensity.

“Yeah, lost. We were just looking around. It looks like you’re helping these young men move some things. Would you like some more help?”

“No thanks Earnest, I’ve got this myself. Why don’t ya head back to the inn and we’ll catch up over dinner? Maybe a few drinks an’ y’know… catch up. I’ll head right over after I’m done ‘ere”

Rosalind’s clumsy attempt at seduction was enough. Earnest broke the charade.

“Cut the shit Ricard. We know what’s going on. We know everything. Give yourselves up, and you’ll get a reduced sentence.”

Rosalind wasn’t shaken by what Earnest said. She was expecting this right from the start.

“Well aren’t you kind? I ain’t a dumbass though. I know what the church does to people that have done less than us. There’s no way we’re givin’ ourselves up. Just leave an’ no one gets hurt.”

“Not a chance Ricard, I’m not leaving without Rosalind.”

“Well it looks like we can’t see eye to eye. I ain’t givin’ up here, even if it means goin’ through you lot!”

With that exclamation, Rosalind drew her sword and stood her ground. She shouted at Barnabas to handle the weak looking Alesia and for Thomlin to handle Coltia. Earnest drew his sword and told his companions to get ready. Coltia drew a wand and cast a spell, summoning a dark humanoid figure in front of her. Rosalind realized that leaving Coltia, a magic apprentice, alone would be disadvantageous, so she ordered a charge. The three ran forwards towards Earnest and his group as they prepared to receive them.

Earnest focused on Rosalind rushing towards him, raising her sword to prepare a downwards left slash. He had learned from his combat training that this was the most common opener from a right handed sword wielder, and he had many options to counter it. Well, he had many options to counter it by killing the attacker, but not so many for incapacitating them. He blocked the slash with his own blade, then pushed forwards with all the strength in his legs to throw all his weight into Rosalind’s blade. He successfully pushed her sword back, shoving her arms to her right and interrupting her balance while leaving her mid section open. He didn’t hesitate to lower himself and drive his elbow into her side.

Rosalind stumbled back in pain, hopefully without any broken ribs. Earnest hoped that he winded her, but was proven wrong when she shouted commands to her companions.

“Thomlin, grab the weak girl!”

Thomlin was in the middle of a wrestling match with Coltia’s dark summon, both of them kicking up a dust cloud on the ground. Earnest ran at Rosalind with an obviously exaggerated overhead swing. Ideally, Earnest wouldn’t have to cut anyone to win this, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t use his sword to create openings. Rosalind blocked the simple attack with a sideways blade, then pushed upwards to try to **** Earnest’s arms up and expose his belly. However, this was all a part of Earnest’s tactic, as he let go of his sword. Rosalind was taken by surprise at the sudden lack of resistance to her push, her momentum breaking her balance and keeping her arms extended upwards in front of her. Earnest moved extremely quickly, wrapping his hands around Rosalind’s wrists while sweeping her legs with his right leg. She fell to the ground, with her sword torn away from her hands as she went down.

Elsewhere, Thomlin managed to kick Coltia’s summon off to the side. He got off the ground and ran towards Alesia and Baranbas who were pulling at each other’s hair.

Earnest descended on Rosalind, trying to get her into a submission hold. She fought back desperately, breaking free from any of Earnest’s attempts to get a hold of her. Earnest was far from an expert at wrestling, he was trained to be a magic swordsman and his inexperience showed. Rosalind’s raw strength made her difficult to grapple with.

While Earnest and Rosalind were on the ground, Thomlin got behind Alesia and wrapped his thick arm around her neck, pinning her against his front. He shouted at Earnest.

“Hey! Get off of boss! I’ll fuckin’ **** her! I’ll do it! Get off ‘a boss!”

Earnest had nearly finished pinning down Rosalind. He was on top of her, and had all four of her limbs locked down by each of his. He looked over at Alesia who was clawing at Thomlin’s arm in distress. Earnest shouted back.

“Fine! Fine! You win! Loosen your grip already! I’ll let your boss go.”

Thomlin loosened his grip and Alesia gasped for breath, thankfully Thomlin didn’t overdo it. His arm was still around her though, as Earnest turned back to look at Rosalind pinned beneath him. She glared at him, but started to crack a smirk.

“You lose mister knight. Now get the fuck off ‘a me!”

Earnest loudly announced his defeat to her.

“You win Ricard. You played dirty but in the end you won. I’ll let you go, but not without getting a good shot in first!”

Earnest looked Rosalind straight in the eyes, before he rammed his head down on her’s, knocking their foreheads together in a violent collision. Thomlin watched and shouted at them.

“Hey! What did you do that for! Boss, are you okay?”

Earnest had passed out from the impact of the headbutt and laid on top of Rosalind. After a few seconds, she seemed to recover and shouted out in pain.

“Aw fuck that hurts! That asshole! Ow ow ow argh! Fucking shithead!”

Rosalind pushed Earnest’s heavy, **** body off of her and sat up.

“Thomlin, keep ‘er right there! And you there witch, don’t even think of doin’ anythin’ or else she gets it. You got that Thomlin? Don’t let her do nothin’”

Rosalind got up, dusting herself off, and walked to the secret base, returning with a rope. She used it to bind Earnest’s arms and legs, even tying a length across his mouth to stop him from speaking when he woke up.

After finishing the last knot, she went over to Thomlin who was still holding on to Alesia. She brought more rope with her as she started talking to Alesia.

“Well, you lot put up a heap of trouble didn’t ya? Y’know what? You all need to pay for this. We’ve got some time before the church arrives. Barnabas, come over here.”

Barnabas did as he was told and came over to Rosalind and Thomlin. Rosalind got in between Thomlin and Baranbas, and started speaking in a low menacing tone to Alesia.

“Ya see, I’m sure Thomlin an’ Barnabas would miss the pleasures of a female body. So why don’t you all make a kind donation to these two? Barnabas would love to have a witch’s body, and I don’t think Thomlin would mind you little Alesia.”

Thomlin barely felt the fist on the back of his head before he black out, falling to the ground. Barnabas barely had any time to react before he was knocked out too. Rosalind stood over them. She faced Alesia, and spoke.

“Don’t worry, I held back enough.”

She used the rope to tie up Thomlin and Barnabas, as Alesia relaxed next to her. She let out a sigh of relief.

“Haaahhh, it worked. Oh my goodness Earnest, you scared me!”

Coltia dispelled the dark summon that had finished its role, and watched on with a satisfied smile on her face. All this was a part of the plan she concocted at the inn after all, the solution to removing Ricard’s mind from Rosalind’s body and dealing with Thomlin as well.

Earnest didn’t remember the details of the possession spell’s magic pattern, it was incredibly compact and complex and he had only seen it a few times. The clearest he saw it was in Morgan’s notebook, but that was in the misfit boys’ secret base. However, Coltia reminded the group that they had the perfect tool for extracting memories, the black mind slime. Coltia communicated with the black mind slime, asking it to pause its task and extract the memory of the magic pattern. Earnest recalled the time he read Morgan’s journal and saw the pattern up close for the first time. The slime then emerged from Earnest’s head and Coltia put a palm onto its dark, jiggly surface.

She said that she could read the memory from the slime, and that she would be able to draw the pattern herself. She casually pulled out a black branch from her robe and inscribed the pattern onto Earnest’s forehead, covering it with his hair. She warned him not to sweat too much, touch the pattern, or let anyone else touch it for that matter.

Earnest and his companions would put up the appearance of a fight, one that they would eventually be defeated in. They didn’t want to injure Rosalind after all. Once the misfit boys were sure of their victory, they would drop their guard and Earnest would execute the swap. He would then impersonate Ricard in Rosalind and knock out Thomlin and Barnabas. Coltia went on about the merits of her plan.

“After an opponent is sure of their victory, well, that’s when they’re most **** isn’t it~? I’ve seen it many, many times and used it to my advantage in the past. They may be careful, they may be clever, but they are still only men. Even the highest of demons that have lived thousands of years can be tricked like this~”

Coltia was proven correct, as reality followed her plan exactly. Earnest played his part perfectly, and Ricard’s too for the matter. The arrogance, mannerisms, and speech patterns were good enough to fool Thomlin and Barnabas. His only tiny mistake was missing how Ricard mispronounced Alesia’s name as “Aleesha”.

Earnest’s mind basked in the feeling of success. Well, physically Earnest was feeling the strangeness of being in Rosalind’s body right now, which was quite sore and exhausted from the combat it was just in. Even so, there was a huge weight lifted from Earnest’s mind. The worst of it was over now, all that was left was clean up and recovery now.