[IRP] The First of Many

[Swift_Assassin]

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Shad replied to the leader of the ad hoc group. He began to follow to their exit when the beam buckled under the weight of the rock resting on it. He began backpedaling with her. Everything seemed to slow down a bit as he had the front row seat to the destruction of this building.

He tried the only idea that came to his head. He turned around and pushed Paige ahead towards the door. He then jumped up and focused the wind magic of his sword behind him to propel him out of the collapsing building. The next thing he knew was on the ground just outside the building. He looked back at the wreckage and back at Paige. "Are those books what I think they are?" He asked, almost ignoring the fact that the building they were in just a few seconds ago is now gone.

[WyvernSlayer]

Satsume recoiled and clasped a hand over his ear as Orica bellowed at their foe. Why did she have to be so loud all the time? He struggled to keep his attention focused on the ones in front of him. Orica was shouting so loudly that he couldn’t hear the commands being shouted to the other group. All he could make out was a slight flash of light… and the subsequent fireball that came hurdling toward the gate.

“Whoa!” Satsume didn’t ever recall moving as quickly in the past as he did right then. He lunged with all his might to his right side, plowing into Orica as she raised her spear to defend the village. Satsume felt the back plates of his armor get hot, then… really hot. It was as though someone had strapped a bolt of lightning to his back. He wailed in pain as he flew through the air, eventually slamming to the ground on top of Orica as the molten missile shrieked past them and down along the road.

Though his backside felt as though it was on fire, Satsume picked himself up off of Orica and brought his spear up crossways - just in time to intercept the vertical slash of an opportunistic bandit. The spear was poorly angled, and he was just barely able to parry the blade away from burying itself in his shoulder. Instead, it scraped against his shoulder plate. Satsume was too off-balance to punish the bandit’s follow-through – stepping back would put him back on top of Orica again, whom he could only imagine was none too happy about being blindside tackled by a guy she didn’t like.

“Help!” Satsume mustered, struggling to establish his balance as the bandit prepared to attack again.

[Breadophile]

Kalin looked over. I don't recall that guy's armor being black before.

Deciding that the three below her had sufficiently less burn marks and were being attacked by sufficiently less angry dudes with swords and axes than the man in the armor, she elected to help him first.

"Sweet Elimine, you're a grown man. I shouldn't have to babysit you." Kalin said as she flew towards their location, hoping to attract the bandit's attention.

"Hiyah!"

With her incredible reach combined with the speed of the pegasus, she jabbed the would-be attacker in the face with the butt of her lance, sending him back in a daze. He would be none too happy when he regained his composure in a couple seconds. She considered what to do next, coming to the conclusion that simply jabbing him again would do the trick.

At the same time however, she had to deal with the meteor tome. The entire town could die just because of that. With just 12 or so attackers, at least the town stood a fighting chance on their own without the tome. With it, however, chances looked bleak. Fortunately for the town, they had a team of Elibe's Finest on their side to offset the difference. Only slightly though, since none of her other would-be allies looked like they take a blast from the tome, life-saving antics aside. But if she could eliminate that distraction the others could easily clean up.

She had an idea. Figuring that it was the berserk blonde woman's vocal cords that attracted the hit, Kalin could simply attract the meteor tome's blasts to herself and lance them out of the sky. At least, for a little while. And as long as the archers were out of range, she could bait both the tome and distract the troops below.

However, the blonde woman's vocal cords were on another level. Kalin, despite also being female, couldn't hope to match them. She gave it her best shot anyway.

"HEY LOSERS! THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME!? I HOLD A LEGENDARY SWORD, BUT I DON'T NEED IT TO FUCK. YOU. GUYS. UP."

She wasn't sure he could even hear her, being all the way outside the gate, but at least the troops below could. With any luck, at least some of the bandits would be dumb enough to concentrate their efforts on the Ilian knight 10 feet in the air instead of her somewhat-weakened allies. They wouldn't stand a chance against her range.

She then deftly tossed down a vulnerary, conking the knight in the head.
"That's my last one, make it count. It's enough for 3 people, but it can be stretched out, so throw it to the group behind you when you're done."

[Cevian]

Orica was prepared for the magical counterattack. It would be the perfect moment to display her strength and intimidate the charging bandits. Throwing them off their guard by showing them just truly how weak they were was something they deserved by trying to play up their weak strength by attacking this village. Her plan was rather ruined by Satsume's attempt to save her. He took the brunt of the meteor and then poorly blocked attack from a bandit that followed it up.

Orica rolled a bit and jumped back to her feet, lunging the spear into the side of the preoccupied bandit. Letting go of her spear it stuck in him as he fell down. "It is a great weakness to move to protect to someone and then immediately request help because that act put you in danger. Protecting someone means protecting them, not trying to make yourself look good by attempting to protect them. I've had many a suitor die to impress me like that."

She stepped over closer to him. "Your punishment, then, will be to charge forward against the enemy with the same fervor as what you used when you knocked me down to protect me. I will assure that it is the same by having you do it myself."

She wrapped her arms around him and picked him up, turning him so he was parallel with the ground. She spun around in place a few times to build momentum before letting him go, tossing Satsume at a group of bandits.

[WyvernSlayer]

The hits just kept on coming, it seemed. In the maelstrom of activity at the village gate, Satsume was the nexus. First, he was nearly incinerated by a meteor, which he only narrowly avoided by charging into a disgruntled ally. Next, he's forced to pop right back up and stave off a bandit's blade in his back. And now, the stinging welt left from a vial that came hurtling out of the sky was threatening to knock him out of the fight before it even began.

It was a good thing someone else had dealt with that guy in front of him.

"Thanks!" Satsume yelled over his shoulder, waving his hand up over his head to acknowledge Kalin. That's when he noticed that Orica wasn't on the ground anymore.

"Good, you're okay. Now are you ready to-"

"It is a great weakness to move to protect to someone and then immediately request help because that act put you in danger."

Satsume did not turn to face Orica; he rolled his eyes and started back up from his crouched position. Yeah, because how DARE I put someone else ahead of me and yada yada- "What the hell?!"

Suddenly, Satsume felt himself being pried off the ground! "Your punishment, then, will be to charge forward against the enemy with the same fervor as what you used when you knocked me down to protect me."

"Are you insane?! Let GO of me, you wretched-"

He got his wish. Orica released Satsume with a forceful shove, causing him to fall into an off-balance run. Now, Satsume carried with his armor and body a considerable amount of momentum - he was not very good at slowing down when he was in a full charge. And unfortunately, these bandits that Orica had sent Satsume careening into were not the type of stooges who would stare dumbfounded as a grey suit of armor with a man stashed inside plowed through them like a medieval bowling ball.

"HrrrraaAAAAAAGH!" A curdling roar escaped Satsume's throat as he finally came to a stop. Two of the men that he had been thrown towards had led with their swords outstretched. One of the blades had snuck in between the staggered plates covering his midsection and deposited itself in his lower right ribs. The second had somehow found the miniscule opening between his breastplate and pauldron, sinking into his left shoulder. His spear dropped from his left hand, and he gritted his teeth in agony.

The two cutthroats seemed a bit dumbfounded at their freshly skewered catch. They blinked and stared at each other for a brief moment. Satsume balled his hands into fists and roared again, this time trying to dull the pain. Need to... get... away...

"RrrrrrRRRRRAAAAAAAAGH!" In a burst of strength fueled primarily out of intense rage at the woman who had ungraciously put him into this situation, Satsume reached up and clasped his hands around the heads of each of his attackers. With all of his might, he slammed his palms toward each other.

SPLUTCH. There was a sickening sound of two skulls being caved in as the two men lost grip of their weapons and flopped to the ground like lifeless husks. Satsume immediately fell to his knees. A globule of blood escaped his mouth. He shuffled himself around so he could look up at Orica. Gingerly, he set his hands around the hilt of the blade in his ribs. Thankfully, it felt like it hadn't punctured any internal organs.

He glared, unblinking, at Orica. Then, with a sharp jerk of his arms and an equally sharp cry of pain, he wrenched the sword free and tossed it aside. Heaving for breath, but still upright on his knees, Satsume could only raise his arm and gesture for the vial that lay on the ground beside Orica.

Just give me... the damn vial! Satsume wanted to scream at her, but no words came out. She would need to get over her shortsighted brazenness and save his life.

[Cevian]

Orica watches her heavy projectile run forward. Satsume ended up taking a couple of hard wounds as he hit a couple of bandits, but in the end he slammed their heads together. He was in pain, but the bandits were down. He won that encounter.

Orica saw the Vulnerary laying there on the ground from where Kalin had tossed it. She pulled her spear out of the dead bandit and picked it up, walking over to Satsume. "You see, this is the pain of rushing in to things without the strength to back them up. If you want to protect me, then protect me. Do not ask for help."

She held the healing item up over him, as if taunting him with it. "The strength of working together does not come from endangering yourself for no reason. I could take that meteor. I provoked him to fire it at me because I know I could. You pushed me down. Left me briefly defenseless all for the opportunity to protect me. That is not strength. That is arrogance. That is weakness. I hope this punishment has engrained into your mind that you must be strong to fight along side me."

She dropped the vulnerary before him and turned to stab at a Bandit that was attempting to use her monologue against her.

[Breadophile]

Kalin watched the entire display, somewhat dumbfounded at what had just happened.

"The fuck?"

It's a miracle that in her distraction she didn't have a flaming rock shot at her. It looks like Grass hadn't heard Kalin's scream either, and the bandits that did were mostly dead in a matter of seconds.

In any case, the banged up knight, ironically enough, seemed like he would be just fine with the crazed berserker around him. Even if he wouldn't be, the woman was going to make any sort of action on Kalin's part impossible.

And I thought my brother was a huge sadist...

She turned around to face the other three, some of which were slumped on the ground, all of which looked incredibly uncomfortable. They seemed to have had enough time to catch their breaths, but it was apparently they were in various levels of pain. They'd live, but they weren't all in condition to fight, and her last vulnerary was currently else where.

What can I do?

It's not really the best time to experiment with new things, but Grass doesn't seem to be doing anything at the moment and I can't think of any better idea.

Where's the shop around here?

Kalin found the shop and quickly dismounted, flipping the entire building upside down searching.

"Found it!" In her hand she held a... generic healing staff.

Supposedly the falcoknights of old knew how to use staves. It was somewhat of a dying art, but not unheard of. She had stored the sword in a side pocket, freeing up a hand. She tried thinking really hard about the staff and healing others, almost getting a brain cramp in the process.

"Grrr!... No dice. Hmm..."

She took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.

It can't be that hard. Tons of people manage to do it. Okay Kalin, concentrate. Imagine the magic just flowing out of your heart, through your hands, and into the staff...

With the staff in her left hand, she tapped the orb on her right forearm. It glowed a bright blue.

Ray would've scoffed at the word "heart" being used to describe the magical source. Well screw him, he couldn't use staves and she could, a fact that was proven by the disappearance of the pegasus' minor scratches. Some other longer-lasting ones went away too. None of her own though. That was simply the curse of using a healing staff.

"Ha-ha! Easy-peasy! Kalin, you're such a genius. Thank you thank you. Praise me more."

"And wow, you look like a new pegasus! Bet the ladies'll be all over you when we get back home."

She scratched his wither (the area where the back meets the neck). He seemed content.

She flew over to the three outside the now firmly destroyed schoolhouse.

"Oi, why are you guys still slumped on the ground? It's been like two minutes. You must be really messed up."

“Wow, bullseye.” As Kalin got closer, she could clearly tell the green-haired man was having some problems with his legs. Thankfully, in the absence of medical supplies she now had something much, much better.

With a wave of her staff she concentrated on his wound… no dice.

How… I guess I touched my pegasus when I did it.

She got off her pegasus, leaving the lance on top of the saddle. She was still slightly limping herself and she made sure to put effort into walking correctly this time. She walked over to Neil and with the staff in her hand glowing, she rubbed her free hand on the wounds on his legs. It was actually a pretty retarded idea. Fortunately for her, it definitely looked like it worked. She couldn’t tell if he was in less pain, though. It was certainly an intrusive act, but she was sure he’d get over it in a few seconds.

“Woah, powerful stuff!”

She wasn’t sure how priests use the staves without touching the targets, but there was no time to ponder such things. She did the same to the minor bruises on Paige and Shad.

[Lavi]

"Tomes of Elder magic," Neil voiced Shad's thoughts. He snatched a tome from the Etrurian noble and started at a run towards his horse Mina (who he was glad to see still okay after the Meteor attack). But that burst of speed slowed to a staggering walk from the pain the shot up his spine.

Then Kalin showed up with a healing staff. Neil knew a thing or two about using it, but he didn't say anything since the pegasus knight seemed to know what she was doing... for the first few seconds she tried.

He opened his mouth to tell her how to use the staff, but thought against it when the pain in his limbs subsided.

'If it looks stupid but it works, then you're stupid,' Cecily told him once.

"Thanks!" Neil called over his shoulder as he took the last stretch to mount his horse.

He brought her around and reached over to hoist Paige up behind him, the tome still in hand.

"If you think you're slipping off, just hold onto me," he instructed her.

"Go, Mina!" Neil shouted.

His horse raced through the gate where the Sacaean quickly encountered a pair of brigands.

Opening his palm, Neil looked down at the tome that he took from Shad. A brief scan of the text indicated that he took a Flux tome. Although the bow and arrow were still strapped to the side of Mina, Neil had forgotten about them; he focused on reading the incantation and the ancient words echoed in his mind as he gestured towards one bandit.

The dark goop of Flux slithered towards the frightened brigand who tried to flee, but was enveloped in the magical substance. The Flux imploded, leaving only a pool of blood behind as it dissipated.

[Toogee]

Glass simply laughed as Orica’s partner took his spell. All that talk about strength and she had a man do all her dirty work. She couldn’t even bring herself to attack his men: she shoved her man-servant into the fray instead. The antics distracted him from Kalin’s shouts.

“Is this the strength of House Tania?” Glass shouted at Orica. “You do all the posturing but have a man do all the real work! Typical noble! You are a waste of my time! Keep on yelling while I show your fellow imperial loyalists true power!”

With that, Glass launched yet another fireball into the sky, intent on landing deeper in the village.
------------------------------------------------------

As a result of the push, Paige was safe from the burning building. She found herself on her hands and knees, trying to catch her breath after escaping death. The woman nodded a silent thank you to Shad before addressing the tomes.

Before Paige could answer Shad, Neil had intervened and took one of his tomes. They did indeed contain elder magic. That meant many things, but more importantly, it meant Neil had a chance against the enemy. Kalin’s staff work gave Paige the strength to follow after Neil. She withdrew her rapier as she mounted behind the shaman. Her left arm wrapped around his stomach while her right kept her sword ready.

While Neil took care of one bandit, Paige focused on the one to his right. As the horse passed by, she used the momentum to slash the bandit’s chest. Though not dead, he was gravely wounded and not liable to get off his back any time soon.

“Watch out!” Paige cried. The rest of the bandit crew caught sight of the pair. Just as they were about to make their move, another force ambushed them from behind. The villager volunteers, led by the blacksmith, rode on horseback to do battle with those that sought to destroy and/or subjugate them.

With all the brigands occupied, that left Glass alone to face off Satsume, Orica, Neil, Paige, and Kalin.

[Swift_Assassin]

Shad was confused at what was going on. Neil admitted to being a magic user just like that. Hopefully he realized that he was Etrurian, which generally meant he wasn't against magic. Then Kalin came by wielding a staff and healed their wounds. When did she have a staff? How was she able to use it?

Paige left with Neil, like he suggested, which left him to ride with Kalin. But before he could hitch a ride with her, another force attacked the brigands. Literally, all that was left was Glass himself. Everyone else was occupied it seemed. Then he saw it. Glass fired another spell. He looked around and saw one of Neil's tomes still on the ground. It must have fallen when they rode off. He picked it up and recognized it immediately - the Anima spell Fire - and an idea came to his head.

"I'm with you...but the bandits are occupied. How do you feel about risking life and limb to do something objectively stupid?" He asked Kalin, still not realizing he doesn't know her name. "That idiot is sending another rock this way. I'll need your help to try to alter it's course. I'm hoping a barrage of fire balls and wind can derail it from hitting the town. But we need to fly right next to the damnable thing."

He glanced at his hand and saw it shaking from fear. "It's a terrible idea. But in a terrible situation, there are no terrible ideas. What do you say?"

[Breadophile]

"I can see your confusion about my staff use. I'm just that awesome."

"I'm with you...but the bandits are occupied. How do you feel about risking life and limb to do something objectively stupid? That idiot is sending another rock this way. I'll need your help to try to alter it's course. I'm hoping a barrage of fire balls and wind can derail it from hitting the town. But we need to fly right next to the damnable thing. It's a terrible idea. But in a terrible situation, there are no terrible ideas. What do you say?"

"Objectively stupid? Terrible idea? The insane plans are the best kind of plans! 'sides, how bad could meteor hurt on a pegasus?"

Pretty bad actually, considering how powerful a spell it was. But she wasn't gonna tell him that.

"We'll have to work fast though."

Her leg feeling a little better, she grabbed the man's hand and started running full speed towards the pegasus, dragging him along with her.

She said to her pegasus as she got up: "Hey, we need to stop a meteor from destroying the town."

It neighed. Misandrist by nature, it was very discontent right now.

"Oh get over yourself. We'll go get some of these rumored "apples" after we're done. I heard pegasi find them delicious."

The pegasus, not wanting to incur the full wrath of Kalin, decided he'd go with it just this once, dignity be damned. But it was a little unnerving when the only other male to ever fly on him was Ray, who was practically a woman anyway.

She put away her lance and new-found staff and motioned for the man to get on. The man was unfortunately too big to just pick up and put on the horse while riding on top of it, and because of his gender she couldn't throw him on from the ground, so she decided to help him up the normal way. She assumed he knew how to mount a horse. A pegasus was no different, though she knew not to call her pegasus a horse.

"Grab onto me until we get into position to take care of the meteor. I also have some goggles if you want them." She handed him a pair, but didn't know if he needed them.

Kalin was good enough to stay on hands free, but with the added weight she needed a bit more control, so she grabbed the reins.

"Up, up, and awaaaaaay!"

They ascended and headed towards the meteor with a speed rivaling gods.

Practically yelling at him at this point: "Oh, by the way, my name's Kalin. What's yours? And what's the plan?"

Of course she wouldn't have a mind to ask until now.

[Swift_Assassin]

He put his hand over his face. He knew this was a terrible idea. The crazy one seemed to wholeheartedly support the plan. Before he could utter a small prayer to St. Elimine, the pegasus rider grabbed his free hand and pulled him towards her pegasus. She began talking to her pegasus. Damn, Ilians are crazy. The lack of air that high up must have already messed with her brain. Shad thought to himself. Then again, I'm kinda putting my life into her hands...so doesn't that make me the crazy one?

He waited until she was ready before mounting the pegasus. It was a bit harder than a normal horse, because of the wings, but it was okay. The pegasus didn't seemed too thrilled by his presence. Wolfram told him that most pegasi were wary of men and some of their riders share those feelings. He was handed some weird looking thing. She called them goggles. They were like glasses, but conformed around the eyes and secured behind the head. Ilia is weird. He put them on, taking a second to adjust to them before she flew towards the meteor. Then it made sense. The winds at that speed hit his face rather hard and probably makes it hard to see. Ilians might be weird, but at least this thing is functional.

He barely heard her, but it sounded like she said her name was Kalin. At least he has something else to call her. "I'm Lord Shadrach Hyperion of Etruria. You can call me Shad," he yelled back. "And my plan is to bombard the side of that rock with as many fireballs as I can muster without passing out," He started. He was hesitant about this next part. "Since you can obviously use some kind of magic, you can use my sword's wind magic to help try to redirect the spell away from town."

"We don't have that long of a window. If this takes too long, the only way we could possibly moving it is to ram something into it. Unfortunately, that something is a pegasus with two passengers."

[WyvernSlayer]

Satsume snatched the vial out of the air as Orica finished reprimanding him. That woman had some nerve. Wretched cur, Satsume thought as he wrenched the cork out with his teeth and sloshed some of the solution on his wounds. He gritted his teeth as the healing salve did its work - man, did that sting! He took a quick swig of the remainder of the contents and replaced the cork before setting the flask on the ground. Every ounce of his will seethed with contempt for Orica, and yet he could not find it in himself to take revenge on her. No... not yet. Just get out of this mess first, he thought. And let's maybe not go anywhere near the blonde one.

He picked up his throwing spear and did a quick scan of the battlefield. It looked like most of the attackers had moved past the gates, where they were being engaged by the town populace. Satsume decided that he wouldn't bother with them for now - there were plenty of able bodies from what he saw earlier in the schoolhouse, as well as Paige, who seemed to have a level head and a knack for giving orders. That left whichever poor sap was hurling meteors everywhere. Satsume looked over his shoulder and found him.

Glass. The same one from earlier. He didn't have a fake sword this time around, though - instead he held a magic tome. And with his attention seemingly focused on reducing the village behind Satsume to rubble, Satsume decided that this was his best chance. He picked himself upright and poised his body to throw.

"Catch!" he hollered, and with a couple short steps, Satsume lunged forward and let the javelin fly.

[Toogee]

Glass was becoming painfully aware that his band of bandits had left him unprotected. He faced the same group of goody goods that had ruined his previous plans. They all survived his bandits and his meteor strikes. It looked like he had to do his own dirty work.

Glass’s attention was drawn to Satsume’s battlecry, which gave him plenty of warning to witness the javelin throw. He had no choice but to roll to the side as the spear jettisoned towards him. While the attack missed, it did force Glass to shift his focus away from the village. He switched tomes as he readied an attack on Satsume.

“Brave, but foolish!” Glass cried out. “That is exactly how you will be described in my biography…after I kill you!”

Instead of long distance meteor strikes, Glass rushed towards his target with thunder magic. Standing just outside of Satsume’s arm reach, he launched the lightning bolt.

Paige watched as Satsume engaged Glass. This gave them an opportunity for a surprise attack. As dishonorable as it was to strike a man from behind, Glass had set the rules of engagement when he attacked the village.

“Neil,” Paige said to the shaman, “If you can get behind Glass, that should give you an opening. I’ll watch your back.”

[Breadophile]

"Shad" One syllable, easy enough to remember. She hadn't the foggiest of his full name though, the wind howling too much.

"The person who's trained to use it should probably keep using it. I have no talent for anima magic. At all. Otherwise you would've seen me using it earlier. You have 2 free hands, right? One for fire and the other for wind."

"Just tell me where you need to go. I'm better at piloting than you might expect."

Somewhere along this conversation Glass launched his lightning bolt at Satsume, but Kalin was a bit too distracted to notice more than a little flash in the corner of her eye.

[Lavi]

"Right," Neil didn't have a better plan in mind, so he rolled with whatever Paige wanted.

He urged Mina on to get into a flanking position. As he readied his tome, he saw Glass aim his magic at Satsume.

"Move!" he shouted.

He waved his hand to cast another Flux, but he didn't aim it at Glass. The "dark matter" snaked past the mage, enveloping and destroying the bolt of lightning before it can hit the knight.

With Neil's maneuver exposed to Glass, the bandit leader realized that he was entering a major predicament. With Neil and Paige approaching from one side and Satsume on the other, survival can be tricky.

[Swift_Assassin]

Shad just sighed. Now his concentration has to be split three ways, between trying to stay on a flying horse, casting a fire spell, and using the wind magic from his sword concurrently. This keeps getting worse be the second. I'd be better off launching myself at this thing. St. Elimine, please let our foolish plan succeed. Spare this town this disaster. He thought to himself.

"Kalin! Fly to meteor's left! Just slightly ahead of the center!" he ordered. And just like the good 'pilot?' she said she is, Kalin brought him right to where he needed them to be. Unfortunately, a problem presented itself. The pegasus wings occasionally got in the way. "Kalin, is there anyway you can keep the wings from flapping so much? Like, uh...what's the term. I got it, gliding. Have your pegasus glide!"

Crazy ideas started getting into his head, probably from the lighter air up here, and he started to understand Kalin much more. "Yeah, and...and I'll use the wind magic behind us like I did before...and perhaps some exploding fireballs to propel us faster," He kept speaking. He turned around so he can see what he was doing. He held his sword up between his eyes in his right hand and held the book open in his left. He began casting the concurrent spells behind them.

"Okay, got it. Hold on tight!"

With Shad's added wind and fire magic acting as a sort of rocket, they were able to quickly shoot high into the air, far above the oncoming meteor, and make a fearless dive towards the flaming boulder. The angle along with the glide kept the wings out of the way, and Shad falling forward meant he could balance himself on Kalin and still have both hands free.

Shad took a deep breath after that maneuvre and returned to a similar postion as he was before. As he kept chanting, fire balls kept shooting away from them at the side of the meteor. Some of them were aided by the wind magic propelling them faster, and some times the wind just hit the meteor by itself. He just kept up with it, which for an apprentice at best, was all he could do. He can almost hear his uncle begin to scold him for doing something he specifically told him not to do. But now wasn't the time for that. All he had time to do was cast, ever faster. He couldn't even tell if he was moving it or not. He couldn't even tell if he was hitting it. All he had in his sight was a sword, really close to his face, Neil's fire tome, and Kalin's back.

His vision starting going blurry and he had dots popping up in his eyes. Still, he kept casting. Not...yet. Just..a...few.......more.. He then let go of his sword and collapsed against Kalins back, sandwiching the blade and book between them. He had to hope against his efforts bore fruit and that this disaster was averted. He also had to hope he didn't inadvertedly kill himself from using too much magic.

((Bit of a joint post, but only like a paragraph))

[WyvernSlayer]

“Move!”

Satsume didn’t need a second prompt. He had already noticed Glass turning toward him as he followed through with his spear toss. With his body moving forward, he jumped forward and tucked into a cumbersome roll, hoping the impending magic attack would be hastily aimed and miss, or deflect off his armor with minimal harm, or…

WaaaAAAAHHHHhhuummmm!

Or that! Satsume had picked himself up out of the roll just in time to catch a faint trace of black magic as it faded from view. Perplexed, Satsume did a double take. Then he noticed one of the men from the schoolhouse. He was on horseback, and was carrying a book in his hand. He must have saved him somehow! Satsume could feel his insides turning, and his freshly healed wounds began to ache a little. Elimine forbid had he saved Orica in the same manner. Satsume gave the man a nod of appreciation, and reached back for his second throwing spear.

Always carry two spears, Satsume remembered his old militia warden telling him. Granted, Satsume didn’t miss with a javelin terribly often, but when he did, it wasn’t by very much, and he would always catch his prey staring agape at their seemingly miraculous survival by planting the second one in their chest. Besides, after that roll, he was closer to his target. Easy pickings, he thought.

Out of the corner of his eye, Satsume could see Orica advancing on Glass. If he timed this right, he’d be able to use her as a distraction. Of course, he was still feeling the effects of the earlier blade in his shoulder. Hell, that was probably why his first attempt didn’t connect, now that he thought about it. If his aim was off even a little bit, he’d risk putting a spearhead through the side of Orica’s neck. Or worse… he’d put it somewhere non-lethal.

No choice. He had to chance it. Satsume took a deep breath and eyed his target. One step, two steps… “Hrraaahh!” Satsume heaved his weapon through the air. Time seemed to slow down as both his projectile and Orica converged on their target. Closer, closer…

Chunk!

Satsume couldn’t help pumping a fist in celebration as his spear found a soft spot in Glass’ right thigh.

[Cevian]

The Bandit Leader, Glass, threw an insult at Orica before launching a lightning bolt at Satsume. No matter. He would survive it if he was strong enough.

Looking towards Glass her eyes glared at him. His bandits weren't close enough to protect him. She need not spare him a word of correction to his false statements. His weakness in trying to show his strength was enough to warrant his death. Such words were wasted on someone who didn't even know they were already dead.

Gripping her spear tightly, Orica charged at Glass, not noticing Satsume's thrown spear. Reaching the bandit she jumped in the air and stabbed down at him, aiming for his chest. Satsume's spear hit right before her and caused him to buckle a bit. Orica's spear slid in through his screaming mouth and out the other side, pinning him to the ground.

Landing she looked down at him, eyes still glaring, no remorse. She pulled her spear from his mouth wound. "Perhaps a fitting end. A liar stabbed through his big mouth."

[Breadophile]

Shad's worries were so intense Kalin could feel them. She wasn't sure why he was worried though. His expert magical abilities deflected the giant rock and it didn't take a genius to figure out its trajectory. It flew past them, making things a little hotter than Kalin wanted them, but otherwise landing harmlessly in a giant patch of dirt outside the village.

Glad that's not my land.

Woohoo! Nice going!... uh... hello?

Oh hey, he's unconscious. Hooo boy.

Kalin went with her judgment over her instincts and decided to gently glide towards the ground. Looking down at the bandit schmuck that she stole a sword from earlier, she noticed a distinct red hue about him. She made the assumption Grass didn't have some sort of itch for crimson attire that he just had to scratch in the middle of the battle, inferring logically that there weren't going to be any more flaming rocks anytime soon. Kalin hooked an arm behind her to prevent Shad from following off, but it was mostly luck that the sword and the book didn't fall off to the ground.

Mostly luck. The sword and the book ended up falling off the pegasus as soon as the two landed. Kalin also decided that she had had enough of her annoying her metal boots on and slid them off, having them fall to the ground too. She took most of the skin-protecting padding off and slid on her snow boots. It looked weird to be sure, but she didn't have any normal shoes and the metal boots were hard to walk in. Cry more. She could hear Ray in her head. In any case, the snow boots, while awkward walking shoes to most people, were second nature to Kalin by now.

Before Kalin had left Ilia she didn't think it was possible to be too hot. She assumed there wasn't enough fire in the world for something like that. Well boy, was she wrong.

Hope he's alright...

In Ilia we used bodily contact when somebody was freezing to death, but... I don't think that's gonna work. Well, whatever. Either way, I can't exactly leave him here or my pegasus will murder him.

Kalin tossed off her staff and lance.

"Hrrrrraaah!" she screamed as she held Shad in her arms while jumping off the pegasus. He couldn't be on without her, so she couldn't climb down to help the unconscious man off. It was also going to be extremely difficult for the two to get back onto the pegasus with him like this, so she decided she'd have to carry him to a hospital. First though, she sat him on the ground, then removed her goggles to get a better look.

She looked for the items he dropped. A book and a magical rapier.

Expensive magical rapier.

...

...no, I'd better not.

Kalin then stuck the sword in the somewhat discreet sheath she missed the first couple of times looking for it. She also picked up the book and set it on top of Shad, following up her picking him up again.

Is there a doctor in the house? I don't have a restore staff...

She walked towards Grass, who was currently all over the houses and some parts of the blonde woman's clothing. It would be more accurate to say she walked towards the general vicinity of where he used to be, and towards her... friends?