FEPlanet Community

"I could have." Nikang agreed quietly, seemingly ignoring his barely stinging face and his two comrades watching the scene. He reached out and put his hand on top of Fess', actually bothering to not yank her hair.

Holding tight, Nikang pulled his head back, then slammed it forward to almost headbutt Fess, stopping just before hitting her and hissing at her. "Too bad I shouldn't have to, you senseless moron! Now use that magic-soaking head of yours and think and shut up. If you waste anymore time, I'll save Maynette the hassle and I'll cut your head off myself, got it?"

Her frown only deepened. "Guess I shall just not do anything unless specifically told to, if that is how it will be."

"Great!" Nikang's face broke into a smile. "I knew you could be a smart girl."

"If that is settled then let me go so we can move on to whatever it is we are doing?"

"Just don't do nothing stupid, Fessi." Nikang sighed. He let go of her head, then patted her a bit. Like a tame wolfdog. "Bring your ratty winghorse and let's get goin'."

She went over to pick up her lantern, checking it over. Bastard, it was definitely going to require repairs, at least it might still work as a light source in the mean time. She turned back to Nikang, "Belphe's not coming with its too dangerous for him."

"'too dangerous for him'," Nikang mocked, leaning forward on his halberd. "How dangerous is it gonna be for poor Belphe when your twiggy ass gets cut in half because you're too dumb to not get killed, huh? Bring the damn horse, Fessi."

"No," she replied. "He is not trained for battle. You said there was a threat of being shot, unprecedented as that has been so far, and then want me to bring a large white target? No."

"Wow, you know, Fessi?" Nikang tilted his head, smiling amiably at Fess. "You talk like you think there's a damn choice in the matter. Now, before Maynette throws that axe at either of us for wasting more time, you fucking idiot, bring your damn horse or I'll kill one of you right now and take the other."

This was impossible. Fess could feel tears start to well up in her eyes, first she was being forced into danger and now she had to drag Belphe into it too? She was not made for this, and neither was he. Last time she ever decided to land at night, that much was certain.

"...fine, I'll go on Belphe. If you want a way to get out if things go wrong you better be nice to him." She walked back to Belphe, who had easily been close to enough to hear them talk, and mounted.

NIKANG POST

"Attagirl, Fessi." Nikang smirked, delighting in his victory so they could finally get moving. If they were lucky, they'd still be able to get some action in before the others finished. "When this is all over, I'll get you something nice to celebrate."

--

GM POST

Another several desperate, dangerous minutes of fleeing, Smitty spotted the lone ray of shining hope he'd been waiting for ever since he snuck into the village.

The low-dug hole in the stone wall surrounding the village.

In truth, Smitty had no idea just how far back those armored goons who had been chasing them really were, let alone if they were even still chasing him and the kid and his keeper. He had no idea, but he also didn't care; all that mattered was getting outside the walls and meeting up with the group who'd been assigned the south.

Maybe five still wasn't enough for taking on nearly a score of armored soldiers, but five and two made for much better odds than just two.

Smitty swung himself into a diving leap through the hole in the wall. He pulled himself through, then rolled out of the way for Salem and the kid to get through as well, and rose to his feet. He cast a wary look around his surroundings, only to catch sight of three people and...

"A pegasus?" They didn't have any pegasus riders; Aho the Vulture had been extremely clear on that point. No Ilians until they were sure they had things in-hand so Ilia didn't get pushed the wrong way by Lycia!

"Argh, don't care! Get ready, you lot!" Smitty hissed. "We've got trouble!"

"The hell? When did he make this hole?!" A voice called from behind the wall. Smitty gulped; that wasn't the meanest one, but he'd heard that voice when he and the kid-hero were being chased.

Maynette almost burst into laughter. Trouble? If only Smitty knew how the last fifteen minutes or so had gone on her side! No, no, no... intercepting whatever was chasing this flushed rabbit of a man under the town walls? That sounded like a much more welcome scenario by far; it likely meant her favorite kind of problem-solving—

Wait, wasn't Smitty one of the scouts?

...Well, it seemed like at least he hadn't just been screwing around inside the town. Sparing no thought for the implications just yet, May relinquished her earlier, severe plans for the scouts once she found them; instead, after a quick scan of the top of the wall and a moment of thought, she turned her attention to the rabbit hole.

Gesturing to everyone for complete silence—a brief but grim stare was directed at Fess in particular—May lifted a jagged, curving, dark-reddish axe from her right hip and motioned for everyone to ready themselves and quietly take a position around the hole that was at least not in plain view. May herself stepped right over the hole from where it met the wall, taking a long stance with a foot planted on either side.

Couldn't be helped that Smitty led whoever-the-hell-was-chasing-him back to the hole; if anything, they at least knew now that the other side of the wall was actively hostile. However, that meant that Maynette at least—she couldn't necessarily speak for her comrades—wasn't crawling back through it so soon herself. Just sounded like suicide. Making the best of Smitty's escape and trying to set up an ambush for any eager front runners seemed more practical. And fun. May presumed they could figure things out from there after Smitty's pursuers were thinned out a little and spooked.

Licking her lips and twisting at her core with axe held aloft in both hands, the woman wound herself up to cleave the first skull or neck that she saw coming through the hole and didn't like. Which, she reasoned, should be all of them.

Whilst Salem hadn't necessarily been getting tired, his arms were aching a little from the position he held Robert in. It wasn't a massive issue...but still, a dullness was coming. One he'd be glad to shake off once they presumably escaped. And fortunately for him, that escape seemed just up ahead. Rest, regroup and get back into the fray.

Unfortunately for him, he stumbled a little.

That placed him just a few more inches than he'd have liked, but Smitty was still in view as he passed through that hole in the wall and started yelling something or other. Salem couldn't hear exactly what; but it was clear at the very least that Smitty was conversing with what Salem could assume were his comrades. "Almost there." Mumbling this more to the child in his arms than to himself, Salem made a dive for the hole. In, roll, tumble and on propped onto one knee, child in arms.

With some imposing woman (of war?) holding a quite intimidating axe standing over him.

Ah.

"Quit pissin' yourself in the mud and hurry!" Smitty hissed to Salem. "Nikang!"

Nikang nodded and quietly moved to the newcomer's side, grabbing the younger man by the shoulder same as Smitty. Together, they hauled Salem up to his feet and dragged him back against the wall, opposite of Maynette, Smitty's free hand covering Salem's mouth and Nikang's covering the kid's.

A tense moment passed that Nikang filled with silently cursing the Djute and every last shred of reasoning he'd felt loyal to them. The sound of footsteps approached the wall, followed by low muttering from the same voice that'd called out earlier. Another moment of silence filled the area.

Fucking...there's more than one. Nikang fumed. He scowled back at the wall, thinking, then turned and gave Elisa and Fessi a demanding look. He removed his hand from holding up Salem and gestured at Elisa, then at Fess and her pegasus, then up the wall. A final gesture towards Maynette and her executioner axe, and Nikang nodded at Elisa before returning his ear to the wall.

A hole in the wall? Well that was convenient enough, if not the best way into the city. From the sounds of the guy coming through (and on the other side, for that matter), he was being chased by multiple people. Probably waiting in ambush on the other side. If they were smart, they wouldn't come through. As if confirming this, Elisa heard one of them say "I heard voices on the other side."

So, lying in wait may or may not accomplish much. Charging through was stupid. What then... Elisa looked up the wall. Shoddy stonework, especially when a hole could so easily be blown in it. Rough enough to provide plenty of handholds. Not insurmountably tall, at that. She glanced back towards the others, noticing Nikang demanding for her attention and motioning out something like the idea she'd just got...except not quite. No, she wasn't going to use the pegasus for anything.

Shaking her head, Elisa slung her axe back over her back, then hopped up onto the wall. She climbed as quickly and quietly as she could, until she could heft herself up and peek over the top. Down below, she could see ten or so soldiers. While some of them were off to the side and speaking in hushed tones, the rest were standing to either side of the hole, weapons drawn and lying in wait for any of the bandits to come through. Fortunately, they were focused enough on the hole that none of them bothered to look for anyone coming over the top.

Turning back towards the ground on her side, Elisa secured her grip with one hand, then held the other out behind her. She opened it twice, then motioned out two vertical lines. Finally, she expressed her intent with a quick throwing motion, then drew one of her tomahawks and hefted herself back over the top. She took quick aim at one of the soldiers lying in ambush and threw the tomahawk downward, nailing the man at the base of the neck.

Hopefully, that would disrupt them enough for the others to get through. If not, she'd just have to resort to fireballs.

GM POST

There were few times that Commander Conall of the Crusader Corps was not in a foul mood. Given Lycia's current state of things, still disgustingly awash with foreign filth and the corrupt mages with their twisted, unclean magic; still barely even recognized as the true empire born of heroes' blood and toil that they were by the rest of Elibe, despite Lycia's strength of trial and effort compared to how the rest of Elibe had languished in times of peace; still forced to endure grievances in the form of Bern's resistance and the annoyances that were Sacaen bandits, there was little that brought a smile to Commander Conall's strict face.

Having to handle such banditry was not pleasant for Conall, but disposing of them certainly was.

"If you are all done crowding that hole as though you were in a brothel, men." Conall hissed, impatient and eager to get started, just as any of them. "Then one of you get through and find that rat. Richards, go."

Conall crossed his arms and waited as Richards shuffled out of his pauldrons and crouched down by the hole. The Lycian soldier crawled through the hole, to the point that only his heels were visible on their side, only to suddenly tense and attempt to scramble back.

"Arghk!"

Conall's head whipped away from the hole and Richards to another of his men, Clemens, a knight from Caelin. Clemens stood as strong as ever, lance held in one hand, while the other shook and attempted to reach for the tomahawk sticking out of the back of his neck, somehow lodged in between the space of helmet and back-plate.

"Clemens!-" Conall shouted, half-way registering his two archers on a nearby rooftop shooting Clemens' attacker down from the top of the stone wall, only to be interrupted by Richards.

"There's m-ghk!"

Richards' feet spasmed in the hole, then stopped scrambling following the hollow, half-way distant sound of metal cleaving through meat. Behind the now dead man's feet, Conall's men started to clamor, until Conall summoned an orb of Light magic and crashed it on the ground.

"Pay attention! Smiths, take out that wagon!" Conall shouted, throwing all interest of handling things quietly out of the window. They would have to handle this quick and brutal, just the way he liked it. Who knew how many other rats were hiding behind that wall, let alone throughout the village?! "The rest of you, get back here! Caili, we need a shield, now!"

Leaving Richards and Clemens' bodies behind, the remaining ten armored soldiers shoved back to join Conall behind the safety of an alley. A lightly armored soldier made a few motions with her hands, forming a dimly glowing wall of Light magic that erected itself in front of the walkway, blocking their immediate front.

The two archers atop the nearby rooftop notched their arrows, keeping an even closer watch over the top of the wall.

"Pfft." Flicking a thick, chunky streak of blood and gore from her axe onto the nearby ground, Maynette stepped over the now corpse-plugged rabbit hole and to her right, satisfied that at least one of the people who'd crawled through had been fair game. Unlike earlier with Fess, however, she had no time to evaluate or monitor the newcomer and the brat—the southern raid party was in the middle of active combat now.

The tell-tale arrowfire from where Elisa had scaled Khaltet's shoddy perimeter wall was May's next concern. Seeing the woman come down from her perch largely on her own power made her condition less of an urgent matter. All the same, Maynette came striding swiftly across to where Elisa had landed, eyeing the worn wall all the while. Thinking. Loathe to speak openly given the distant, hostile voices she'd heard on the opposite side just before whacking that first idiot, May beckoned silently with one hand for Nikang to join her.

She paced restlessly around one or two spots on the wall as she waited, occasionally pressing her ear to it, lightly kicking the wall, looking it up and down, then pacing again. May honestly wasn't even entirely sure if this was going to work, only that giving her enemies time to organize was stupid and that she was going to need more than her own axe to try what she had in mind.

Maynette simply wanted to knock that ratty wall—or a portion of it—down altogether.

It was clear that a few archers were waiting on the other side, along with who-knew-what-else, but the party needed an entry point, fast, and that rabbit hole and anything near it was now a kill zone and thus out of the question as far as May reasoned.

Fuck. Sweet, bleeding, flaming fuck. In her survey of the other side of the wall, Elisa had made the exact same mistake as the soldiers and not bothered to look for anyone higher than ground level. She'd paid for it, too, though not with her life. An arrow had ripped through her shoulder, mercifully far enough from a direct hit that it went straight through the edge of it rather than getting stuck there. But it still left a nasty wound and she found, as she quickly ducked back behind the wall and hung from a protruding stone just below the edge, that it wouldn't handle much weight.

So for a second, she hung from her uninjured arm, before finding a couple footholds again and hastily making her way back down. About halfway, however, she found herself with no easily accessible footholds. There, she gave up, kicked off the wall and dropped the remaining four or five feet back to the ground.

"Two archers on the rooftop out that way," Elisa said, gesturing in the direction she'd been shot from. "Missed them the first time. Fuck." She winced, but otherwise didn't particularly care about her energy. She'd had worse, and it would heal with a vulnerary or a bit of healing magic.

Well, that was a nasty situation they'd found themselves in. Given the fresh body on their side of the wall, at least Elisa could say that she hadn't single-handedly ruined their chances. No, their biggest problem was currently the freaking wall, and the fact that the other guys were on the defensive side of it. They needed to either knock it down or distract the enemy enough to get through without walking into a no-man's land. Her axe wasn't going to do any of that, nor did she expect that anyone else's weapons would.

"Well, fuck it, here goes," Elisa said, pulling what would appear to be a Light magic tome from a folded section of her furs. Using her injured hand to hold the tome in place she created not light magic, but a fireball in her free, uninjured hand. Then, she approached the hole in the wall, looked around it just enough to aim, then threw the fireball at the rooftop where she'd been shot from before quickly ducking back behind it.

Why did he ever think coming back to Sacae's service would ever go well?

Nikang sighed. Not even minutes into actively trying to get into the damn village and things had already gone to shit. He tiredly glanced up at Elisa from Maynette's execution victim, watching with expectant boredom as the crazy axewoman was shot and fell back down to join them.

Idiot.

Nikang pulled the warhammer he'd placed on Belphe and joined Maynette further down the wall. He leaned on the hammer and watched the Sacaen woman scope out her target. At Maynette's nod, Nikang crouched down to center himself, then moved up and forward again, swinging the warhammer hard at the stone wall before them.

One strike opened a crack and shifting of stones, a second strike shifted even more stones, dropping several to the ground, and the third strike broke through the wall entirely, driving a maulhead-sized hole through the wall and back outwards. Nikang ignored the groan of pain from the other side of the wall and struck out again, smashing at the wall a few more times to clear a proper breaching path through it.

Nikang nearly whirled around and smashed somebody when the fireball whirled past his head and up towards the rooftop of the house immediately across the new hole. He still did whirl back outside the hole to avoid getting shot like Elisa had, however, and glared at the damn woman in disbelief and indignation.

"...fuckin mage?!" He hissed, ignoring the crazy behind him in favor of focusing on the one in front of him. "Hnggg!"

--

GM POST

Smith groaned and stumbled backwards into the wall of the building the archers were on. He'd been hit by a stone from the wall when it suddenly exploded, showering him with small pebbles and stones, one of which had hit him just above the eye. Dizzied, but not out, he leaned against the building to regain his focus.

Above him, both archers snarled and retreated from the rooftop as it started to burn. They both shot towards the newly formed hole in the wall as they backed away to a ladder behind them, their arrows strangely lighting up the night sky and leaving a faint trace of Light magic in the ground where they hit.

Going from smirking, to scowling, to smirking again all in the span of roughly ten seconds, Maynette wasn't entirely sure if she was growing weary of all the surprises tonight or not. She didn't have much reason to complain now, however, as she'd gotten everything that she'd immediately wanted: Khaltet's wall was breached, and those bastard archers had at least backed off for the moment.

Between the team's one coerced member and the tag-alongs Smitty had brought with him—May still didn't know what the hell that was about—the situation was damn complicated, but maybe now this assault could actually start in earnest. May couldn't forget: they had the rest of their raid force to keep pace with.

"Good," the warrior remarked in a hush, sidling up to Nikang's handiwork and glancing at the now blazing rooftop and the surrounding streets. She then slunk back and whipped around to address Fess, eyeing her pegasus before simply saying, "Come here." May had the young lady peer briefly out of the breached wall and at the flaming building, one hand firmly grasping Fess' shoulder in case of any more blind fire from those archers. She still didn't know what to make of those arrows that came down in front of the breach moments earlier. May did know that she didn't want to see anymore anytime soon, though.

"Get ready. You'll feed those flames," May whisperingly explained before drawing the girl safely back behind the wall. "On my signal" — the warrior lifted a clenched fist high above her head to demonstrate — "Step out, aim above the flames, and create wind. Count to fifteen before stopping. Then step back. Use light now if needed."

That done, Maynette left Fess to Nikang again and waved Smitty over, closer to the breach. "Leave them," said the warrior mutedly as the man approached, referring to the two people who had followed the scout under the wall earlier, "Our hands are already full. They likely want no part of this. They may leave. But they may not interfere. Stay and watch the swordsman for now. If he will interfere, stop him. End him if needed."

Taking up her curved axe, May turned her attention back to the breach; the entry point needed to be secured before they could start advancing through the town. Sidling up to the edge again, May beckoned now for Elisa to follow her in first, reasoning that if the woman could still cast with an arrow in her, she wasn't so bad off that she couldn't still fight. The warrior did, however, make a cautious gesture towards those suspicious arrows still lodged in the dirt just inside the wall, backing up a bit before leaping clear over them and into Khaltet proper.

Maynette wasted no time with her next move. Having spied the disoriented man against the burning building when she last peered in, the warrior hit the ground charging, and she tackled the man hard, shoulder-first, into the building before slinging him down with a few swift kicks in the gut. Oh, she had plans for this one. As May wordlessly continued to beat the downed and confused soldier into submission, she raised a tight fist skyward.

Fess found herself feeling very muted, or reserved, one of those things, she wasn't sure what with this being a brand new, unpleasant experience. What she did know is that there was murder going on, and when the head rolled off of a man that had come through the gap in the wall due to Maynette's beheading, it was what will power she had to not just get sick right then and there.

Twas to her chagrin that May then wanted her to do something as well, to literally fan the flames that Elisa had begun. Hopefully, she wasn't going to be responsible for murder like the rest of these people just from doing that, at least.

When May mentioned using a light now, Fess simply looked at the flames already present and readily determined that was light enough already. She pulled out the tome of winds she had brought along and held it open in her right hand, extended it towards the newly formed gap in the wall so that the flames could light the words, as she stayed safely on the other side of the wall to read it at angle.

Her eyes skimmed the passage as she mumbled incoherently to herself quietly for a time, refreshing herself on how the spell even worked. Once she had worked up the mana around her to perform, she quickly popped out from the wall's cover to get a good look at the flames.

Focusing on an imaginary point on the far side of the fire, she cast her spell--one that removed air from a general area, which was about as precise as she could expect from herself. The sudden lack of air behind the flames caused a sudden burst of wind to fill int he gap, dragging the flames with it as they eagerly lapped up more of the roof.

Nervousness took over as she knew she was exposing herself to whatever the enemy might have to throw at her, but she hadn't forgotten she was told to maintain the act 'till fifteen. Though she didn't know what good that would do, it wasn't the kind of spell she could just keep going. Next best option was to pretend she was doing something, and hope someone not versed in magic could hardly tell the difference. That and hope these people were the sort to favor result over ritual.

GM POST

Smiths, the Lycian warrior under attack from Maynette, fell to the ground quickly under the Sacaen woman's assault. The combination of the dizziness from his struck head and the surprise attack from the bandits kept him from pulling out his axe to defend himself with, let alone fighting back. The Lycian let out a low groan as Maynette's foot plunged into his gut, snapping at least one rib in the process.

Above them, Fess' magical encouragement of the flames with a lack of wind slowly paid off. The fire, rather than move from the thatch rooftop down the wooden walls, continued to spread backwards away from Maynette and Smiths, consuming more of the rooftop. As the flames reached the wall of Light magic, the burning seemed to simply pass through underneath the barrier, consuming the thatch beneath it before moving further back.

As the two archers from the now-burning rooftop scrambled to join Conall and their fellows, two of the knights behind the first Light wall noticed Smiths' plight. One shifting his horseslayer and the other readying his zanbato, the two rushed out from behind the barrier despite Conall's shouts and ran forward to try and rescue Smiths from Maynette.

--

NIKANG POST

"Huh, not bad, Fess." Nikang peered through the hole at the controlled rooftop fire. Shockingly, it wasn't starting a village-wide wind-fire. "Just might get an appreciation for teamwork in you yet, huh?"

"Yo, Nikang! Elisa! We got trouble!" Nikang scowled and turned to Smitty, who had already lunged past them through the newly-made hole in the wall, his new buddy right behind him. Through the wall, the sight of two heavily armored soldiers advancing on Maynette stilled Nikang's whining tongue and spurred him into running, too.

"Shit! C'mon, Elisa! Fessi, you get that kid and keep him, got it? Good!"

Tch. Light magic arrows. It was just one more bothersome thing after another. If it wasn't bad enough already that they were facing well-prepared soldiers in a town that, according to a certain pussy of a leader, should have had very little military presence, there were magic users among them and they seemed to know how to use it. That meant the glowing light from up above and around the corner was probably the effect of some kind of enhancing spell. That or a barrier. Whatever it was, it didn't seem like it was stopping Fess from spreading her fire across the rooftop.

She stowed her tome again when Maynette gestured for her to follow, then pulled her battleaxe from her back to test if she could still wield it with both hands. Just moving her left arm was painful, but after a couple test swings she determined that if she handled most of the weight with her uninjured right arm, it would be fine. With that settled, she jumped through the hole as well. "Coming through, one side," she said, moving past Smitty and the other new guy to join Maynette.

Once there, she hefted her axe up and swung at the nearest of the two knights, aiming for the neck joint. She noted that there was a faint glowing light around their weapons and armor too, but hopefully whatever protective qualities it had wouldn't do much if she hit where there was very little armor. Otherwise, she'd have to get inventive.

"... Lycian. If only you were useless," breathed Maynette in a chilling tone as she stood above the incapacitated Smiths, ceasing beating the man just long enough to place one foot squarely on his downed form, disarm him, and hurl his axe into the flames of the rooftop far above with a clatter. With another pointed gut kick that made Smiths sputter for breath, she readjusted her fingers on her curved axe. "Maybe I should—"

The sound of fast-approaching, clanking footsteps cut May off mid-thought. The sight of two charging knights closing relatively fast to her right met her turning gaze. By all rights, the woman should have been surprised—in fact, she actually was. And her reflexive reaction to surprise, or any sufficient provocation, was to explode.

A maddened, bellowing war cry reached the oncoming Lycian soldiers before Maynette's flying tomahawk did.

Even then, the warrior came lunging directly after her thrown weapon, a low chuckle in her throat, both axes drawn, ready to meet and smash into the first knight who came within reach.

There had been a mass amount of 'stuff' that had happened in a relatively short amount of time. The fact that Salem was more focused on the child in his arms not being axed than his own safety ended up in a sweeping up of events. Less focused on the words of, well, everyone and everything else now that their immediate threat had been (rather gruesomely) terminated; Salem's thoughts of what to do next were quickly thrown out of whack by Maynette's words. Kill him if needed, huh? Clearly they were taking care of some big operation here. Salem had nothing to do with it at first, but he had a request to take care of that had been compromised a little bit. A lot, actually. But he wasn't the type to half-ass these things, not at all.

Smitty grimaced, but nodded to Maynette's retreating back. He turned around again to Salem and the brat, chewing his lip in thought on how to break the news. "So, uh...guy." He glanced down and grimaced, kicking the head of the headless Lycian away from the kid's sight. "Just do me a favor and, uh, don't get involved, yeah? This is important, super important, so...yeah."

"Salem." Once again stating his name, Salem glanced down towards Robert. The poor kid was naturally trembling in fear (shock too, probably) after all that had occurred. He wasn't too good with kids. Or people. Eyes back up at Smitty, Salem shook his head. "...No can do." Figuring it was better to elaborate, rather than just leave it there and have to fight his way out, Salem continued. "I'll help. This is directly linked to my request, in the first place. If I can't find Robert's father, I can at least take him back to his aunt." Another pause, and Salem spoke in a less-hushed, more confident tone. "I can help."

Helping wasn't exactly interferring, but would Maynette see it that way? More importantly, what if Salem grew a conscience halfway through and actually did interfere? Smitty gulped, already seeing Maynette's axe coming for his head. "I dunno, Salem. We ain't lookin' to hurt nobody here, sure, but, uh..." He looked briefly at the brat. "...What you gonna do with 'im until you find his folks?"

That was a good question. At first, Salem didn't have an answer. But rarely did he, when it came to these things. He tended to be a lot more reactive. "...For now, it'll be best to leave him out here. If we succeed in whatever your objective is, I can take him back afterwards. I know where they are, and she's a mage. She should be able to care for him. If not, we'll all be dead anyway." Seemed simple enough. Naturally, he lacked the tact to cull his words around Robert, but that was Salem in a nutshell.

"Well...alright. Just don't get in Maynette's way; she's one crazy b-" Two loud cries interrupted Smitty, coming from behind the wall. Smitty tossed his hammer head-down on the ground and jumped, landing on its handle and using it to haul himself up the wall. He peeked over, but yelped and dropped back down almost instantly. "Shit, she's under attack!"

"If you're gonna help, let's go!" Smitty yelled, then took off running. "Nikang!"

That was fast. But should have been expected too. Robert had heard it all, right? With a small rub of the head and a gentle push to get the kid to let go, Salem drew his broadsword with very little ceremony. He said he'd help them, so he'd help them. Their goals entwined with one another for the time being, after all. Silent charge and nod, Salem followed directly behind Smitty. It was time to back up this crazy bitch.

A few targets to take, but it seemed like the best thing to do would be to assist someone without actually getting in the way. These people swung their axes like crazy, and he could respect that -- it just meant he really didn't want to be in their general swinging trajectory whilst they did their business. Side-by-side with his new buddy as they moved, Salem turned to Smitty with very quick words. "Smitty. She's Maynette, right? We'll flank."

One of the two knights had already been assaulted with by Elisa, but Maynette had yet to actually engage with the second that approached her. But it was a two-on-two situation, in that sense. With the hope that maybe, possibly, the other knight had been distracted by the sudden assault; Salem began to arc around to the east -- looking to catch them off-guard whilst they dealt with the two bandits.

The easiest thing to do was to assist Elisa's more precise aim for a knight's neck. Keeping his body low and accelerating towards the knight, Salem held his blade firmly with both hands as he attempted to circle around the distracted knight, and match Elisa's attack with a horizontal slash of his own towards the back of the knight's neck. He could only hope that the archers wouldn't be able to hit him during the swift movements he made -- Salem's plan was to just keep moving through this chaos.

NIKANG POST

"Damn, damn..." Nikang leapt forward through the hole he'd made after Elisa and veered to the left while she went right. Elisa and Smitty and Smitty's pal had the rightmost knight with the spear, but Maynette was on her own and damn if he was gonna get yelled at for that.

"Back-up, coming in, May!" Nikang howled, starting to smile now that things were picking up the way he liked 'em. He balanced his halberd's end in the ground and leaned forward, using the weapon to boost himself into jumping Maynette's armored target. Airborne, he whirled his halberd around and aimed a killer smash right at the knight's weapon arm holding that bullshit huge blade.

GM POST

"Axe!"

The front knight roared and threw his shield arm out towards the flying axe. A flash of light lit up the street, then smashed into the tomahawk to send it flying upwards into the burning rooftop. With another roar and a steady step, the knight met Maynette's axes with shield and pauldrons, taking her initial assault with his armored side and striking out at her hips with his zanbato blade.

His attack was halted by the near loss of his arm from Nikang's aerial assault. The knight snarled and stepped back, only to dart forward and lash out with shield to Maynette's axes and a Light-bright, armored backhand at Nikang's face.

Several feet away, the second knight hissed in panic at the triple assault launched by Elisa, Smitty and Salem. He took several steps back and stabbed at Elisa with his Horseslayer to keep her at bay, only to be struck from behind with a blow that nearly matched his head to his fallen comrade's. With a roar much like the first knight's, he lashed out at Salem with a burst of Light magic, then hunkered down and lunged for Smitty with his shield, steadfastly ignoring the blood oozing from the back of his neck.

"Don't let them win, Knights!"

From behind both knights, however, came a sudden flash of light followed by the sounds of arrows flying through the air. A bright burst of magic exploded near Elisa's feet and two arrows nearly took Nikang's braid clean off his head. Behind the knights, the return of the two archers and a robe-wearing mage signaled the origin of the new attacks, the three ranged threats defended by an unmoving wall of armored knights, all holding shields alit with Light magic.

"You scum! How dare you do this?!" Conall hissed from the front of the defensive line, a gleaming sword held in one hand. "Don't think you will leave here alive, you trash!"

Still behind the wall and safe from the crazy fighting going on, Robert the boy lunged away from the headless body and over to the pretty lady on the pegasus. He held tight to her skirts and shied away from the hole in the wall, where the worsening combat was clearly visible.

Having leapt back momentarily before Nikang struck, Maynette snickered wrathfully before immediately streaking forward again to follow up, too lost in a battle rage to be daunted by the sword knight's evident brawn and dubious magic. Certain of her speed and mobility advantage as the knight swiped with his shield, the Sacaen woman guided it past her on its leftward path with a battering strike from her right axe, then rolled with her rightward momentum into a sharp spin on the spot, stepping just inside the knight's guard as she whirled and planted her left foot.

Her left arm and axe coiled around her chest as she turned, May threw mass, momentum, and muscle alike into her left arm as she lashed upward and outward in an vicious, arcing, skyward slash aimed for the knight's armpit exposed as he struck at Nikang—May wanted to rend the Lycian's arm from its socket outright if she could. Moving perhaps too fast for even her own good, she even attempted to bring the axe in her still-extended right arm down through the inside of knight's sword-arm's elbow in an overhead chop; however, the sudden burst of magic and arrowfire forced her to disengage and hurl herself backwards before the result of either of her strikes registered in her vision.

"...Annoying bastard. Wait for your turn," an aweless Maynette growled, sobering as she slowly stood upright and sized up both the newly appeared squad of soldiers and the shiny-looking, pompous dope apparently in charge. Somewhat back to her senses after the distraction of the ranged attack moments ago, the warrior returned to thinking as a leader, quickly took stock of the party's changed situation... and found it wanting. Simply put, May and her comrades were outnumbered, and much sooner than she herself had expected. She hadn't counted on the lot of these Lycians being such milksops about each other in the midst of combat. Her eyes darted once to her right, then to her left, narrowed and searching as she calculated.

This is why I hate leading. Can never just fight.

"...Tsk. Nikang! Smitty!" the woman's voice suddenly rang out, uncharacteristically loud for her normal speech, "To me, now. All else, hold ground. Maintain position." Considering that the enemy was very much in the party's collective face at the moment, it would not have done to say "Keep the walking walls of steel between you and the archers and magic!" aloud. That would have to do until their situation changed, which, if Smitty and Nikang did their jobs well, would be rather soon in May's estimation. So long as no one hesitated.

"Clear the way," Maynette stated matter-of-factly to the two named axemen as she stared down the sword knight before her, giving only a faint nod towards the wooden wall of the building just to her left—the very same one whose roof was but a bonfire at this point. Or a funeral pyre, given what the woman was planning and how fast or slow her comrades worked.

Panic. Elisa recognized that in the knight's reaction immediately. She couldn't see his face under the helmit, but if she could she bet that it would probably be wide-eyed and horrified right now. Hell, without the light magic empowering their weapons and armor, he and some of the other knights would probably be making a run for it by now. She couldn't really blame him, being attacked by two ruthless bandits and one...whatever the hell the new guy was, in a situation that was probably going wrong in several different ways. Except, oh wait, she could. He was a fucking soldier. Elisa didn't know much about how Lycians trained their soldiers, but she kind of figured the big evil empire would train them not to panic in the face of a bandit attack.

Maybe that was why he was here and not in Etruria.

The light magic and the knight's panicked movements were probably the only reasons why it wasn't dead yet though. Elisa quickly found herself avoiding a return attack from the knight's spear. Though he missed, he did succeed in what was probably the more intended action of putting some distance between the two. But that, too, became less of an issue when Smitty and the new kid attacked and drew his attention. It was the perfect chance for a counterattack...immediately taken away as a burst of light magic erupted from the ground right at her feet.

"Fuck," she said. Then, hearing the commander's words, let out a harsh laugh. "Oh, get some better lines. I've heard more convincing performances from Etrurian theater." While she talked, she reached back into her furs to grasp her tome again. But she didn't pull it out. Just touching it and mentally focusing would do this time. And at that moment, she saw the opening she needed. She stepped forward, removing her hand to return it to the haft of her axe, then swung it down into the back of the knight's armor. It clanged against solid metal, but at the moment of impact a small explosion and a flash of flames erupted from the edge of the axe.

"One of you get his shield, we'll need it," Elisa said, now swinging her axe straight at the ground. Another small explosion erupted from the point of impact, spitting up dust, flames, and smoke between herself and the wall of armor. "As for the rest of you," she added with a mad grin, "This entire town is going to burn, with you stuck inside it. And it will be GLORIOUS!"