The couple was slowly approaching the enormous armoured guard. He has about two metres tall, and seemed to be of a mist healthy build. "There's no way around it, we have to get past him..."
Ruben clutched the hilt of his still sheathed zweihänder. But Nadia laid her hand upon his, exhorting him.
"Let's first talk to him, perhaps he will just let us past!"
"Hmph."
They had come well within the reach of ears and eyes, but the knight seemed to ignore them. His face was hidden by a most frightening helmet only leaving open a few small slits for his sight, which seemed to be fixed on the mountains of the other side of the valley, even as the two now stood directly before him.
"Uhm..."
The young warrior hesitated and scratched his head at a loss of words. His robed companion tried to take over.
"Could you please let us climb these stairs? You seem to be guarding them, but we don't have any ill intents, and..."
She briefly lost her fire, and looked to the ground before continuing.
"We've climbed all the way up here and would like a stay for the night, and that castle up there seems to be the only thing around here proving shelter."
There was no response, and the guard stood as firmly, unmovable, and silent as the mountain behind and beneath him.
"Please, let us through..."
Nothing. Eventually, Ruben stepped forward.
"I'm tired of this. We'll just go up there now, if you don't want to talk I'll just take that as a yes."
The second the hasty adolescents motioned his foot towards past the stairs and around the person before it, he was stopped short. In a most noisy manner of creaking metal almost akin to the sound of thunder, the halberd of the guard had blocked his way, hating right before his nose. And yet, despite his arms having reacted to swiftly, the bearer of the weapon stood as silent as before. Ruben stepped back again.
"We will go up there whether you want it or not! Now get out of the way!"
Not being reached in time by his friend attempting to hold back the furious fighter, he had drawn his sword. Almost simultaneously, the knight had immediately changed his position, adopting a dynamic stance fit for battle, his halberd pointing forward with its broad tip.
"Ruben, stop it!"
"Sorry, but we have to get past him. It's not my fault if he doesn't want to move."
The opponent remained still.
"Looks like I have to make the first move!"
The yell fell behind its speaker as the latter leaped forward, swinging down his blade at the defender.
The sound of it being blocked by the metal handle of the defender's tool of destruction was drowned in the one of the latter's motion, which thereupon became a forward thrust throwing Ruben backwards. He quickly got to his feet again, finding his enemy to have assumed the same position as initially.
"Grr... Just you wait."
He again dashed towards his target, this time readying his blade for a horizontal blow along the knight's waistline, where the seam of his solid armour revealed a thin slit. His advance was halted as he had to quickly leap sidewards to evade the mighty swing of the guard's elongated axe ramming into the ground.
"An opening...!"
Ruben attempted to ram his longsword into the enemy's weak spot; suddenly, his face turned pale. While the silent armoured one's right arm still held the halberd having dug itself into the rocky soil his other reached out and stopped short the blade endangering the body attached to it, grasping it tightly.
"N... no!"
Two simultaneous sounds stabbed the ears of the two adolescents, both that of metal parts grinding others. Both came from the direction of the soldier's arm, and one of them was his hand's struggle with the sword it tried to crush.
"You... you monster! Let go!"
In panic upon hearing that his weapon was losing Ruben attempted to tear it away from its oppressor, and yet it was naught.
"I said let go!"
All of a sudden, in his terrorised and widened eyes reflected the shine of a bright flame firing past him and smashing onto the thick armour. A bit startled and to maintain his balance, the knight let go of the sword giving its bearer a chance to retreat a few steps.
"Thank you."
"Ruben, stop it! You don't have a chance against him!"
"And make you climb down this mountain in the darkening night or make you sleep up here in the height? Never!"
Nadia gasped slightly. The smoke which had formed around the tip of her staff was seen dissolving in the wind.