What do you think? Fiore asked his other consciousness as he held Exalia's handle with his right hand, prepared to draw it and fight. Of course, Fiore knew that he wouldn't be able to fight another battle due to exhaustion, even though Fiore could always power through it, the exhaustion would take him over nonetheless and perhaps make him weaker. Do we run?

Do you want to live? Fiore's other consciousness asked in a blunt tone. Fiore was slightly taken aback, but gave a slight nod. Good. Run, retreat, just get those beasts off of you for now.

How? Fiore asked inside of his head as he rushed towards Odysseus, quickly mounting him. If we run, who's to say that those beasts won't chase us?

Hope that your horses are faster than those beasts, I suppose, Fiore's consciousness took in a sharp breath of air, letting a few seconds of silence past by before talking again. This is exciting, been a long time since we've done this, huh?

... Huh? Fiore was a bit creeped out at this point. His consciousness changed, it used to be mean, insulting Fiore at any chance it got, and now? Now it was nice, a bit too nice, even. What happened? Why did his consciousness change? Of course, with the imminent danger about to happen, Fiore didn't have the luxury to question his consciousness.

"I agree with Leifr," Fiore said as he stared towards Lyrisa, alternating towards Allereun after a few seconds, "We should retreat."

Well, his one attempt didn't work out, and it wasn't like she was THAT necessary for their survival, so Allereun simply waved her off. Maybe they'll encounter each other in the future, but for now, he needed to get back to his dissection.

That was what he'd like to do, of course.

What actually happened was that the female swordsman had stumbled across another three of those monsters, had an epic fumble while trying to kill them, and quite easily got dispatched. A rather tidy kill, really. Allereun forced himself not to shy away from the shredding of her body, making sure that he witnessed every bit of the graphic massacre. Though there was little light, there was still enough to make out the obvious. The monsters ONLY used their claws. Their odd tentacle appendages were their tongues, and, like most humanoid beings, their tongues weren't used as weapons.

That was good to know.

With that, Allereun turned around and went to mount one of the horses. He had carried most of his belongings with him beforehand, so he wouldn't be losing any of his goods. There would be a treasure trove of information for those Calgeth guards to learn of, thankfully. The existence of a group of Uglings, for one. The fates of those kidnapped people, for another. Seemed like more troubles were popping up everytime he got rid of one of them. If it was going to be like this, it might not even be safe enough to go harvesting during the Three Moon Festival.

As he faced his companions though, he realized that, even as three monsters were rushing towards them, they were DISCUSSING what they were going to do.

“Why are you all even...” He made some flabbergasted, exasperated motion towards everything, before kicking his reins and saying, “Let's just go.”

As they all began to make plans on what to do and began to mount up and go the creatures ran right after them, the beasts growling and snarling at the thought of a fresh kill, their rotting smell very evident. One of them went straight for Lyrisa, who had her whip at the ready, which wasn't really a good weapon for parrying at all, but it seemed to work if she held it taught and used it sort of like a makeshift quarterstaff in terms of blocking. Unfortunately, Lyrisa's combative abilities were much weaker compared to these creatures. The beast easily got past her poor attempt at a parry, its claws raking in very deep across Lyrisa's torso, leaving a couple of nasty, bloody gashes. Needless to say, she was in pretty bad shape after that blow.

The next one went after Leifr on his horse, a poor target choice since Leifr was a much more skilled combatant than Lyrisa, and was also mounted upon his powerful looking warhorse. Fortunately, despite its rather quick claws, Leifr's shield was able to block the blow completely, the creature not able to sink its claws into Leifr. However, it didn't seem like it was trying to claw Leifr, but instead looked like it was trying to latch onto him, as if attempting to grab him, something that probably wasn't a good thing. Thankfully, this attempt was prevented as Leifr was easily able to push away its "hands" with his sword and shield.

The third one also charged at Leifr, but had a different target. It tried to aim for Leifr's horse instead, aiming to sink its claws into Leifr's mighty beast of burden. Despite how fast these creatures were, and Leifr's horse's track record of dodging, the blow missed completely. Now the heroes could begin a counterattack, if it wasn't for the Ugling chanting something in some strange language while its 'pets' were attacking.

The markings on one of the skulls, the leftmost one, began to glow an eerie, blackish-red color as Lyrisa would be able to sense a foul, twisted power coming form the staff now thanks to her more mystical sixth sense. The Ugling brushed a hand over the skull before aiming it at Leifr and his horse.

Leifr would feel a familiar sensation, much like the feeling of when Honor bit into him, only it was a much deeper bite that seemed to hit into his very being. At first it just felt like some painful bite, and Leifr felt as though he could fight off the feeling. Moments later though it began to barely manage to overtake him, his body becoming unable to move as he felt, saw, smelled, heard, and even tasted nothing but pain, as if all of his senses were feeling and observing nothing but pain. As hard as he tried, whatever dark power this Ugling was using on him seemed stronger than Leifr's body. Fortunately Leifr was able to stay atop his horse, but couldn't do much of anything without suffering through detrimental pain. He still felt able to act, but to do so through the pain would be difficult.

Suddenly though, out of nowhere, the Ugling let out a loud, guttural curse of pain in its horrid language as something hit it right in the back, the creature turning around quickly now, what looked like a small throwing knife imbeded into the creatures back, its dark greenish, reddish blood dripping from the wound. Standing there now was a strange cloaked and hooded figure, a veil in the hood of the cloak obscuring the figure's face for the most part. The figure seemed somewhat short and was completely silent as he stood there, a very well crafted looking, yet strangely designed, crossbow in one of his hands.

"You handle those monsters... ill handle this one..." His voice was quiet and still. Not disinterested like Vialesa's was, but sort of... soft and mysterious. A male voice, but at the same time just quieter. It seemed that whoever this person was, from the fact that he just put a knife in the Ugling's back probably indicated that he was friendly, despite how he just suddenly seemed to be there, probably having been very quiet in his approach.

Fiore, just as quickly as he had mounted Odysseus earlier, quickly dismounted Odysseus. Odysseus gave a sharp neigh as Fiore dismounted him, but Fiore didn't pay much attention to it.

Draw your sword! Fiore's consciousness yelled out as Fiore drew Exalia, all the mean while rushing towards Lyrisa.

Drawn! Fiore yelled out as he continued to run, picking up in pace, not paying attention to the bandages that were slowly falling off his body, slowly unwrapping. It would be a mere hindrance to Fiore in combat, but Fiore had no time to think as time all around him seemed to slow down as he and his consciousness began to work together. No time to question his consciousness' change in attitude, no time to draw his parrying dagger, all he had time for was to listen to his consciousness.

Do you understand the risk you take?! Fiore's consciousness yelled out into his head as Fiore continued to run. Do you understand what you are doing, what you are putting on the line?! Fiore gave a nod as he held Exalia in his right hand, his left hand out in front of him. Good! Make a quick thrust to the head as you near the damned creature who dare try to harm your ally! Fiore nodded as he neared Lyrisa and the beast.

Fiore and his strangely nice conscious thrust their blade at the beast the moment they got near, since they had just enough time to move and thrust the thin, yet strong, blade at the horrid creature that had just sunk its claws, in the more literal sense, into Lyrisa. The blade thrust in very deep, right through the creature's shoulder before being pulled out again, a feral howl mixed with a hiss escaping from it as it turned to face Fiore, its attention clearly on him now instead of the wounded Lyrisa, that same darkish-reddish blood coating his blade and coming from the hole in its shoulder made by Exalia. It was no thrust at the head, but it was pretty close to the neck, probably severing some of the main arteries in the creature, not that those seemed to matter though since these creatures could keep fighting and fighting without tiring until they are cut enough to where they stop moving. It was unclear how these apparent dark magic made abominations worked.

Lyrisa made some distance between her and the monster. Before worrying about her wounds. . . "Ugh." As much as she tried, the first thing was to worry about the monsters that barred their escape from this place.

Before she could focus on anything else, she had to focus on what was right in front. Leifr seemed to be having difficulties himself. "And they just had to have more of these bastards with them!" It was to keep her mind off the pain. She had quickly done away with the thoughts, We can win this and then we can patch this up. It only made it worse the few seconds she thought it. . . Still her hand went too her wound in an attempt to possibly relieve it a little. . . Albeit unconsciously. The she turned back on the creature though, and aimed her whip at it.

She hoped that she could do some damage to it at the least. So far she hadn't been very lucky with her attacks.

Luckily Lyrisa was able to back away fairly easily from the beast despite its hasty swipe at her, able to do so thanks to the poor accuracy of said swipe in her hasty retreat to get back. After that, came the whip, which she attempted to use to try and damage the heavily wounded creature in hopes of somehow helping the rest of her comrades try and find a way out of this mess and to try and get her pretty nasty wound patched up as quickly as she could. Somehow or another though, her somewhat sparse training in the weapon she wielded seemed to pay off.

A crack could be heard as she whipped the creature right across its disgusting face, leaving a pretty nasty mark on it. Normally it wouldn't have done much, but the creature took a very nasty blow from Fiore, so the whip cutting slightly into the creature with the metal bits upon it, as it wouldn't have been that useful otherwise, managed to make the beast fall over, no longer moving, leaving just the Ugling Sorcerer with the knife in its back and the two other monsters that it brought with it.

Allereun clicked his tongue, tapping an erratic rhythm as the three monsters rushed towards them. The first managed to inflict a nasty-looking series of cuts on Lyrisa, who took it without even a scream of pain, while the other two latched onto Leifr, who was fending them off quite handily until the Ugling struck. Watching in fascination as the humanoid freak invoked some sort of dark magic, the redhead was quick to note down the effects of its spiritual attack.

One skull was glowing, and in response, the righteous swordsman was in pain. There were two skulls left on the staff as well. If the Ugling was smart, it may use the rest of those infernal spells to incapacitate Fiore, severely crippling the fighting capability of the team.

Which meant that Allereun was going to have to make his getaway now, before he drew anymore attention to himself.

Two monsters on Leifr.

One to be split between Fiore and Lyrisa.

And the Ugling who...oh, that was very useful.

Another stranger, brandishing a crossbow of sorts, had attacked that Ugling magic-user. That abomination was now screeching with a knife in its shoulder.

“Seems like lots of strangers are appearing just when they can help out,” the apothecary murmured to himself, before changing plans.

He won't run away, for now.

Instead, he reared back his arm and threw the torch towards the general direction of those monsters, hoping that it'd serve to draw their attention away from assaulting Leifr, if only for a moment.

Leifr repelled the creature's strike, or rather its attempt to grab him, with ease. Though they were fearsome sights, these beasts were no more intelligent than trained hounds, and though their physical prowess was nothing to laugh at it was the only danger Leifr had to be cautious of. But this was because Leifr was well armed and armored and sat upon a powerful and trusty steed. Leifr saw Lyrisa, who lacked all of Leifr's advantages, feel the terrible savagery of these beasts. Yet before Leifr could even make a noise Honor bit into him.

Why? This was the first time Honor harmed Leifr without reason. This was... getting worse! Leifr grit his teeth as he willed himself to ignore this unknown pain, but the agony slowly and steadily burned deeper and hotter throughout his body. Cold sweat broke out as he panted, the weight of his own armor now feeling like metal spines stabbing into his body; his shield and Honor's handle felt so cold they were burning. He fought every instinct to throw his armaments away from himself, to abandon his protection to escape this illusionary terror that was shredding him apart.

A bright light leapt at Leifr. Barely discerning it as a torch flying his way, Leifr concentrated his mind towards predicting where it would land, using it to draw his attention from the torment that crawled in his veins. With this moment of respite, Leifr swung Honor clumsily at the creature who had previously attacked him. Even Leifr could feel his own body hindered by this unknown sickness that had infested him, but there was no time for him to try and predict how it came to infect him. Unlike the phantasm that haunted Leifr, Lyrisa was truly wounded. He had to get to her somehow, even if all he could do was stand between her and the monsters that preyed upon them.

The torch landed on the ground, not near any of the creatures unfortunately since Allereun didn't exactly have the best accuracy, especially with his unique eyesight problem. So naturally his movement was pretty much useless. Still, Leifr now seemed to attack, taking the cursed Honor and swinging it at one of the monsters, although with his body the way it was now, in alot of pain, his movements seemed alot clumsier and more awkward than they usually were. Fortunately the blade cut pretty deep into the creature as Leifr felt that familiar feeling in his arm as Honor seemed to drain more of his vital essence, making him feel a small bit weaker.

Unfortunately Leifr's blade didn't cut as deep as it should have, most likely due to his awkward movements. There were still two creatures though, the one that he cut and the one that had attacked his horse previously. With the Ugling included there were currently three opponents to deal with.

The creatures began their attack now, the one that Leifr slashed trying to claw into him once again, letting out guttural growls and hisses as it did so, strange fluid leaking from the tendrils where its mouth should have been. Fortunately, despite Leifr's haltered movements, he was easily able to parry the somewhat poorly aimed claw attack to the side with his sword and shield. The next one seemed to be going after the weakened Fiore as well, probably since these things had predatory instincts to go after weakened prey, a description which Leifr fit pretty well. Fortunately, even though his movements were being affected, he was barely able to push this much more aggressive of the two monsters aside with his shield after a few moments of struggling, able to avoid what could have been a fatal blow, his shield potentially saving his life.

The Ugling Sorcerer, in the meantime, turned around to face the mysterious crossbowman and, with some dark chanting, seemed to call forth whatever strange magics that it had called before, the marks on the Skull it had brushed its hand over before glowing before it aimed its palm at the cloaked stranger, Lyrisa able to sense that same foul power coming from the Ugling's stave.

In the next moment, the cloaked figure seemed to say a few words in some language unknown to everyone here and held out a strange object. It seemed to be some sort of flat and smooth stone that, for just a moment for Lyrisa, radiated some sort of force that seemed to help repel whatever magic the creature was using, somehow turning the creature's magic back upon itself. Only Lyrisa would really notice this since the others were busy fighting and had no sense for the Arcane or mystical like Lyrisa did thanks to her strange affinity to it, not that the others knew of this.

The creature suddenly grit its teeth and began to growl out in pain, as if its own cursed magic that it had used upon Leifr before was affecting itself. However, it seemed to steel its own nerves and let out a mad snarl towards the stranger as it brushed off whatever dark power was affecting it.

"You have no power over me you foul creature!" The stranger called this out as he aimed his crossbow, but instead of firing it at the Ugling, fired it at the monster that Leifr had cut into. A crossbow bolt flew and stabbed into the abomination, hitting a spot right in the center of its back, a hiss escaping from it before the creature fell over, leaving it powerless and not moving. In the next moment the hooded figure seemed to pull some strange lever on the side of the crossbow right after firing it. Only Lyrisa would know what it was, somehow. She seemed to have quite the stock of knowledge.

It was something called a Repeating Crossbow, a Crossbow that could fire five bolts before needing reloading, but they were supposedly incredibly rare. Lyrisa would know that this strange weapon actually came from the Far Lands, or was believed to come from there anyway, as it is from those 'mythical' Far Lands were many exotic things like this stranger's crossbow originated, something she might have seen in a tome once on the subject of the Far Lands, there being less than five successful expeditions there and back on record.

With his assailant slain by the bolt that pierced its back, Leifr turned his attention towards the creature now charging at Fiore. Yet before he could order his steed to follow after it, the sharp pain erupted from his muscles forcing him to cringe in pain. He steeled his nerves once more, resisting as best he could. A dark feeling welled up in his gut, like a smoldering ember. It was hot and painful, but Leifr couldn't discard it. Instead, it burned hotter and deeper when Leifr's eyes turned towards the magic-using monster that cursed him so. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he hardly noticed that he was exhaling a quiet snarl under his breath. Leifr tried to ignore the pain and turn his attention back to Fiore, but there was something about this strange feeling flooding him... He didn't want to let it go.

Come now Leifr of the Forbannet, surely Gallas Tildein must be ashamed to know that this level of pain is enough to cause you to hesitate!

With that thought, Leifr finally managed to tear his eyes away from the creature and order his horse to charge forth after the monster that would dare turn its back to him and attack his ally. Steeling his nerves and resisting the pain with all his being, he swung the hungry Honor at the creature's back, his warhorse also raising its heavy hooves to strike at the enemy.

As Leifr steeled his nereves to try and resist the pain still resounding in his being from the Ugling's dark magic that it had used on him, he would feel that it was fading a little bit, but it was still indeed there as he charged towards the Ugling that had turned its back to attack their mysterious new ally, or so one would presume that he was an ally, the Ugling seeming to be in alot of pain in the same manner that Leifr was in at the moment. Unfortunately, despite the creature's own haltered movements, it managed to somewhat stumble out of the way of Leifr's blade, the sword missing it completely, letting the creature still remain alive for now as the Ugling Sorcerer looked quite out of shape. The creature though was more deft than one could think in its pained state though, or perhaps Leifr's horse just a bit clumsy, as its hooves also missed the mark as well.

Fortunately though the pain now seemed to fade, the affect of the dark magic on Leifr gone now, meaning that his normal movements would soon return to him. Of course, the pain from all other wounds and damage he had took was still there, but that stunning pain resounding through him was gone for now.

The two of them missed, Fiore's consciousness quickly spoke out inside of Fiore's head. Fiore stared at the creature, who had his back turned away from him. It would be only a matter of time before the creature would react, whether it be to Fiore or Leifr, Fiore had no time to waste. Aim for the head, if you can't, go for the chest.

What if that beast dares to attack me?

Do your best to dodge it and follow it up with a riposte, Fiore's consciousness said. Fiore nodded slightly before rushing forward towards the creature, hoping to make a quick yet deadly thrust to the creature's head, hoping that the creature would be able to fall if Fiore would actually be able to land the thrust.

Lyrisa turned from the beast she had slain with the help of Fiore. It was a mild surprise, but nothing she had time to be happy about. Her wound was slightly bad but Leifr seemed to have a harder time as of now. "Damnit." She said as her free hand held part of her gash. Then she saw one of the aberration's go down due to the crossbow from the new arrival. A repeater crossbow. She'd heard of them before, but never had she seen one. There was a desire inside the girl to inspect the workmanship. . . Maybe, even, possibly try to reproduce it. . . But that didn't matter right now, she could ask about that if they survived.

She turned her attention to the OTHER aberrations that were attacking Liefr.

Fiore seemed to go after the Ugling as Leifr had, its attention now on both Leifr and Fiore now and its back no longer turned, but unfortunately it now had both Leifr and Fiore outnumbering it to worry about. With that, Fiore aimed his blade to thrust at the head. A smaller, harder to hit target, but certainly it would deal a lot more damage and most likely be fatal if the targeted strike did indeed hit.

It seemed though that the creature's debilitated movements were actually helping it, despite them not actually being helpful to it at all. Fiore's thrust was simply clumsy and off mark. With his own natural sword skills though Exalia was barely able to get the mark, but that wasn't enough as the creature managed to barely stumble out of the way of the blade thanks to Fiore's own clumsiness as he stumbled during his thrust. Luckily though Fiore didn't trip, as he was able to catch himself during the thrust before he could, but that still didn't help the blade hit.

In the meantime, Lyrisa turned to one of the aberrations that had been attacking Leifr and still were focused on him and cracked her whip at one of them. Lyrisa wasn't exactly an expert melee combatant though and her whip was off the mark. Fortunately though she didn't grab the aberrations' attention to herself since she didn't hit, since in her state that probably wasn't the best of ideas right now since she was somewhat wounded. Still, despite multiple misses, the battle was going somewhat well thanks to their new mysterious ally.

The two aberrations decided to keep their attention on Leifr, one aiming to attack his horse as another attempted to attack him, the creatures hissing and growling as they quickly aimed to slash and sink their nasty claws into both Leifr and steed. The first one missed, Leifr's shield being an incredible aid as thanks to it, he was barely able to avoid getting struck by those horrid, sharp claws on the beasts, the same sharp claws that had ripped Vialesa apart not too long ago, the female warrior probably dead by now if she had been bleeding out before, not that Leifr could tell the difference at the moment.

The second aberration though seemed to trip and fall to the ground as it missed its swipe by a mile. While Leifr, who was atop a horse, couldn't reach for a quick and instant strike to take advantage of the opening, since he was atop a horse, his horse certainly could, aiming to stomp the creature that had attacked it out of existence either out of its war training, or just out of fear. Either way, the horse was trying to stomp it dead, which would be good enough if it succeeded. And it did. The powerful hoof of Leifr's horse came down right on the monster's torso, a sickening crack and crunch as blood lopped from the creature's mouth could be heard as the horse stomped the creature, the creature definitely not moving anymore.

This left just one more creature and the Ugling Sorcerer who aimed his staff at Vialesa's corpse, the middle skull glowing now. Chittering some dark, foul words in its guttural tongue, the markings on the middle skull hanging from his staff began to glow as Lyrisa would sense a horrid, abysmal power seeping from the skull and into Vialesa's unmoving corpse. The others couldn't see what the Ugling did, but they could tell he might have done something. The next thing that happened though definitely confirmed these suspicions as the creature began to run away pretty quickly, Uglings always having been quite quick on their feet.

Vialesa's body suddenly began to slowly stand up, as if a marionette on strings, her joints cracking a bit as her sword was still clutched in her hand. Her eyes now gazed at the mysterious figure, her eyes filled with no life. A groan escaped from the corpse's mouth, its wounds that were red with her own blood now looking blackish and twisted, much like the wounds of the creatures. Unlike those creatures though, she seemed to still have combative skills as she suddenly moved forward, strange looking saber in hand as she attempted to cleave the group's newest ally in two.

The blade struck true, the cloaked figure cringing out in pain, but most of it seemed to be stopped by something, probably armor that the figure had on beneath that cloak of his. He seemed to visibly react to something though, not really the cut of the blade, but more like the blade itself as he quickly moved backwards. "That blade..." He muttered this before turning his attention to the others. "This is no longer your ally, and that blade of hers is more deadly than it looks, be careful not to let it touch you!" He wanted to shoot the Ugling that was escaping, but knew that there wasn't really time for that. The nice trail of blood and his footprints as he struggled to get away in a hurry with his weakened state was more than enough to convince the figure that they needed to take care of these two abominations first.

So he aimed his crossbow towards Vialesa, who managed to strike again in the moment it took him to aim the weapon. Luckily the risen corpse's aim was much more off this time, the figure easily dodging the blade as, with the momentum of his dodge, he got into perfect position to fire a shot point blank at her. The bolt shot right into the corpse's chest, but it only reacted in pain with a groan as it buried itself deep where Vialesa's heart was, a blackish ichor leaking from the wound. "What sort of abomination did they make you into?" He muttered, fist clenched a little more tightly around the handle of his crossbow, which he quickly reloaded with the pull of a lever upon it.

The remaining enemies were swiftly defeated, well almost defeated. Vialesa, or what was left of her anyway, proved to be a tough opponent and, under the control of the Ugling Sorcerer, provided a way for it to escape as did the two remaining creatures. Luckily though it was wounded, so perhaps there would be a blood trail to follow and hopefully where they resided wouldn't be too far from the location of the Bandit Camp. Vialesa's body, unfortunately, had to be defeated quickly lest it overwhelm them with her sword skills. The mysterious cloaked figure looked to where the Ugling escaped.

"Are you alright?" The mysterious ally looked at the group. "We should give chase, but first we must burn these corpses..." He looked around and began to gather some wood and other burnable materials. "These... things... are not dead. They do not die, they must be destroyed completely". He then looked towards Vialesa's body. "Unfortunately... her corpse must be burned as well... lest whatever magic that thing used make her arise once again". It sounded like a morbid thought, but he was being realistic. "And we must make haste before the trail grows cold". His voice sounded quiet and calm, but it was somewhat easy to tell that he was in a bit of a hurry.

The creatures were. . . Tough to say the least. Lyrisa's allies were good at what they do. Her not so much. Unlike a certain someone who was absolutely terrified of the creatures at one point, she could fight. Her skills were not on par at all, sadly. Luckily, the battle ended swifter than she had hoped. Relieved, for the most part at least, she fell to the ground flat on her tush. "It's been a hectic for a few days now, hasn't it?" Still, they lost an ally in the fight. . . Twice, oddly. Yet, she didn't really feel much.

"I think I'll live with a little bit of treatment." It wasn't TOO bad after all. "Hmm, I should have brought cloth wraps with me. Didn't think it would get this serious though." She didn't think too much about it before moving to the next part of the conversation with the stranger. "Burn the bodies? I guess if there is nothing but ashes, then there is nothing to torture anymore." If that was the case then the only merciful thing to do was burn them. "Alright. Sounds like a plan." He voice was still strained trying to tough out something she had never really received before. . . A battle wound. "We should probably tend to our wounds before we chase as well. Maybe we could split duties a bit?"