“Well, you don’t owe me your life, but a debt would be acceptable.” Leoric leaned down and picked up his cloak and gave it a flourish before resting it back on his shoulders. He shivered momentarily before looking around to get his bearings. “I did have something I needed to do, but that can wait till tomorrow. It’s about to get real cold out here, let’s head to some place secluded, safe, and warm.”

Leoric took a few steps and turned back to make sure she was coming with him. He silently cursed himself, not only was there now a target on his back, but he may have made a larger target on hers. He thought they were just going to have their way with her and as much as he would have loved to enjoy her himself, consent is sexy. They didn't seem like the kind of men to worry about that. Its why he moved as quickly as he could to get the drop on them. Who knows what they may have done with her before the church was brought into the picture. Now he needed to make sure she was safe, and he got what he came for before promptly leaving for back home. At least he had a ship waiting in town until he was done, and then when he arrived they would quickly leave for home.

Every few moments Leoric would turn from his hunched walk to make sure he was still being followed, Granted they were mostly on one of the main routes out of town, but soon they would begin heading off the beaten path into untouched snow, through a forest of dense winter trees and home to a host of small forest creatures.

“I am sure you are quite smart, so here is a question for you, where do you think these tree’s get all their nutrients from when you would think they would normally freeze and die?” Leoric asked as he walked to a snow covered edge and tested his footing before every step he took. “Well, you don’t really need to answer, as i am about to show you. But keep that question fresh in your mind would yo..”

The snow covered brawler was cut off suddenly as he seemed to slip down and out of view, his cry of surprise heard for a few seconds, quickly gaining distance before laughter could be heard.

“... I found it!” there was a few more seconds before Leoric got up and dusted himself off before looking up at where he fell. “Where I slipped, turn straight right and walk down! I can see the edge of the rock face from here, that's the old trail I always used. Please do be extremely careful!”

Instead of watching if she got down alright or now he turned to the next hurdle they had to overcome, the entrance was iced over, which wasn’t surprising as it was very hot humid air that would have been coming out of the cave, melting any snow above and having it drip down. But how did it fully close off the entrance? Leoric sighed and felt around for a decent sized rock and hucked it at the ice. It impacted, but also bounced off and directly back at the surprised brawler. He ducked just in time as it passed his head and down an even deeper trench just behind him.

“Well time to put in some of that good ole fashioned maximum effort.” Leoric dropped his cloak and walked up to the ice wall and felt where the rock had impacted, giving it a few more test hits with his fist and then entering his common ‘first stance’. He threw punch after punch into the ice wall, using more strength with every thrust forward, each strike sending shockwaves of pain through his body. “Come on Leoric, just like master always told you, take the pain and push it into your strikes. Take what you are being hit with and send it back twice as hard!”

Saying his masters words out loud seemed to do the trick as leoric kept striking harder and faster, eventually he heard foot falls behind him as his fist finally flew through the ice in front of him. Pinning him in place for a second before a small crack propagated on the surface that began to spider web out and then collapse, revealing a hole small enough for them to crawl through.

A gust of warm air and what looked like steam began to billow out from the opening before quickly dissipating in the frigid air around them.

“Ladies first, we will be warm and safe inside of here, at least until i can get what i came for and get out of here.”