The battle for Ravensfield part 2

Time seemed to have been slowed down to a crawl as the wyvern rider stared us down. When the expected attack didn’t come however, Hayley and Liliana, quick on their feet as always, seized the moment in order to cast a few healing spells for us.
 
After they were finished, the rider addressed us and asked if we were indeed the knights of Keralon who had raided Hollow Hill. When we confirmed this, he stated that because of this, he had come to Ravensfield in order to get revenge for this. But as he was not without mercy, he then proceeded to offer us a deal of sorts.
 
He offered the villagers of Ravensfield 24 hours to evacuate before his army would arrive to tear the village down, on the condition that we would stay behind and fight to the last. Any trickery on our part or attempt to rally the villagers to fight for us, would result in no mercy however.
 
While we truly suspected some sort of trickery, we truly could not sense any falsehoods in his statements. So with no other options available to us, we decided to accept his proposal. And with that, he took off and left the village alone for now.
 
Hayley immediately spoke to both the village head and Dan, explaining the urgent need to gather the people and start evacuating to Keralon. After all there was no way we would be able to hold off an entire army , even with their help. No, better to save as many lives as we could.
 
As for Zem and Saphira, as you can imagine, they weren’t exactly keen on leaving Hayley behind. But it was for the best. As even if the Rider didn’t go back on his word, the road to Keralon would still be a long and treacherous one. And the villagers would need people like them in order to keep them safe.
 
Also we had to consider the matter of our prisoners. Based on what the rider had said, the cult was currently not aware that the professor had survived. Meaning that his capture might be edge that the circles would need in the future in order to ensure that the cult was rooted out. So it was vital that he reached Keralon in one piece. And there was no one else better than them to make sure of this.
 
That left us with the matter of Reynis. Afterall, due to his curse we couldn’t just send him over with the rest of the villagers. In the end, we decided to simple ask him what he wanted to do. Surprisingly, he wanted to stay behind and assist us in the upcoming battle. Which we greatly appreciated.
 
With all that out of the way, we began our preparations. In order to give us a fighting chance, Allistan, Dadroz and I started setting up traps around the village. Nothing major mind, just a few hunting traps that, while not powerful enough to take someone out, should be able to hinder them a bit. Beyond that, we also asked Dan for whatever lamp oil he could spare and spread it across the village. Afterall, if the village would be burned down regardless, might as well do it on our own terms.
 
We worked tirelessly the entire day and the next one as well, when we were alerted by plumes of dust in the distance. It seemed that the army had arrived. Fiachna scouted from up above and Hayley estimated that there were roughly three hundred soldiers in the army.
 
A roar alerted us to about a dozen dragonels circling above the village. And as if on cue, the wyvern and its rider landed in front of us. The rider seemed surprised that we had actually stayed behind to face our doom. He then proclaimed his name to be Rayl and stated that before facing his army, we would first have to deal with him. Not that it would change anything, he added, as even if we somehow managed to defeat him, his army would still attack us.
 
The ensuing fight that followed was indeed a challenging one, as both Rayl and his wyvern were formidable opponents. However, true to his word, none of the dragonels overhead interfered. This allowed us to ultimately overwhelm him with sheer numbers and knock him unconscious.
 
As soon as Rayl went down, the army started to advance. Dadroz quickly tied the unconscious Rayl up and we moved him into the barn. Meanwhile, Hayley showcased her arcane might by enchanting the environment. This caused spiked vines to grow and hinder the army’s approach. Which was especially effective as in their eagerness for destruction, they had already started burning down the houses near the edge of the village. Houses that we had doused in oil beforehand.
 
Seeing how quickly the flames were spreading,, the main force of the army had been given pause in their advance. Which allowed us to notice a second smaller group approaching us. A pack of drakes of various kinds, led by some strange humanoid dragon creature, were attempting to flank us.
 
We quickly shifted our focus and engaged the new threat, using whatever means we had to settle the battle as swiftly as possible. Afterall, not only were there more enemies on the horizon, those flames were advancing towards us a lot faster than we would have liked. Things took a turn for the worse when one of the drakes bit down hard on Thorrin's neck, causing him and Allistan to fall to the ground. However Allistan quickly got back up and provided Liliane enough time so she could give Thorin some much needed healing.
 
In the end, we had no choice but to fall back, narrowly evading the flames as we made our way to the south side of the village and into Lorewood. To our great shame, I must admit that we failed to recover Rayl from the flames. While he was an indeed enemy, no one deserves to die like that. Especially one who had shown us that amount of honour. As for the rest of the army, they were content with simple watching the village burn to ash. No doubt assuming that we had perished in the fire.