"What, can't make the first move because you can't even move?" The swordsman laughed and dashed forward. "For Bob!!!!" He feinted an attack and put up his second blade to block any possible counters.

Carver dashed forward at the same time, winding his sword back for a long thrust. Just when the two men were about to collide, however, Carver dropped his head and threw his weight behind the shield, attempting to simply bulldoze the man's guard behind a wall of metal.

The swordsman did not expect Carver to keep running and was suddenly trampled. As Carver charged over him, ribs could be heard cracking. The man managed to stand up, obviously in a lot of physical pain, "I. Will. End. You." The swordsman made an almost unnoticeable gesture. Assuming Carver is a man of honor (which I'm sure he is) and turns around to face his enemy, the flail guy swung the large spiked ball into Carver's head from behind the spikes piercing the helmet and jabbing into the side of his face.

Carver turned to face the betrayal and immediately got a mouth full of flail. Crying out, Carver immediately swung his shield into the chain, sending it spinning in an arc away from the man, while thrusting at the attacker's abdomen with his sword.

"Separ! Gnome! Friend with the gun! Take out the archers!"

Honorless, murderous, vile mongrels. Carver ignored the wracking pain from the side of his face and stepped back, trying to get the new combatant and the prior one in his field of view at once.

Bless the naivety of the holy order. Arastoph smirked smugly to himself as the knight was baited onto his lure. For now, he was under the knight's protection. He just had to hold on for the knight to eliminate the swordsman so that he may be on his way. Peering through the cracks of his cover, he watched the duel. At first, it was nothing more than two grown men making fun of each other. However, eventually the looter did make his move and charged forward. The knight met the charge with his own, but instead of clashing with him, he ran him over full-force, and trampled the swordsman as he went.

Arastoph had hoped that was that, but to his ever-increasing annoyance, the swordsman stood back up with difficulty. He immediately recognized his expression as one of rage. Contempt. Blood-thirsty anger. From this, and from the reputation of looters in general, there was no way the swordsman was going to hold up his end of the bargain. As he made the hand sign, and as Arastoph noticed the movement of the looter with the flail, he sprung to action.

"Fuck!"

He likely wasn't going to save the knight in time, but it wasn't his life that Arastoph was concerned about. He tossed his pouch of ammunition over the ruins and where its trajectory would land it between the man with the flail and the crossbowmen. The merchant spun on his heel around the corner and traced the airborne pouch with his dragoon, and when it fell into position, pulled the trigger. A dozen bullets shot through the air toward the pouch. Even if not one of the pellets struck it, the spread should at least be enough to hit at least one of the looters.

The flail guy (let's call him Bill) was protected from the thrust by his armor. Bill then used the momentum from the shield bash to swing is flail faster into Carver's other side. The two archers fired already loaded bolts at Astaroph since he showed the highest threat, with no shield to block with and no good dodging skills he was struck in the lower left torso with one and another hit his shoulder. While the swordsman attempted to sneak off to fetch backup.

Edit: (Got ninja'd by Spoopy) Astaroph did not get hit with any arrows because the pouch of ammunition exploded and knocked the two archers off their feet

"Now's our chance, let's go." Letting go of the gnomes hand, Separ rushed off towards the archers as they were swept off their feet. Ending this quickly would be more advantageous than trying to fight in a battle of attrition. The healing he had received earlier had given him new strength, and while he wasn't completely full of energy Separ figured it would be more than enough to take down a couple of humans. As the other archers struggled to their feet Separ pounced at one of them, trying to knock him down so Separ could unleash a barrage of punches aimed at the archer's face.

The fight had been quick, and once it was over chaos fell upon everyone.
Furnace didn't know what to do, so he just followed as he was told to.
He saw Separ knock the archers down, before he could ask why Separ showed him as he started to hammer the man with his hands.
He remembered how Separ didn't have the ability to channel energy like he did. So he had no tools and made do with his bare hands.
What a powerful man.

Furnace decided he should follow his lead and jumped on top of one of the archers lying on the ground. He dried to swat at the archer, who tried to push him of with his bow. This wasn't working. He did have a tool for hurting.
When Furnace held his hands out palms open directed at the man he stopped moving for a second, looking confused at Furnace.
The area around his hands lost colour and darkened as sharp shadows danced in strange electric shapes. Crackling sparks of energy as dark as the void between the stars sprang from his hands and leaped to the other. As Furnace moved his hands closer to the archers head the dark coil of negative energy leaped trough the bandit and back. Furnace knew, as warm and pleasant positive was, so cold and painful was the negative.
Somehow the thought gave him a similar cold feeling. Was this what he wanted?

Kelvin slowed down when he managed to get far enough away that the torches were just flashes of light in the trees, taking his time to pick through the woods. It wasn’t easy in the darkening sky. Luckily, the other guy had followed quickly with the child. That meant that Separ and Carver had only to worry about keeping the gnome safe, wherever he was, and running away. The seer seemed to be one of those types that somehow survived, no matter what happened. He chose not to worry about her.

Kelvin grimaced. Am I a coward? He had chosen to grab the girl and run, rather than stand and fight… but there was a fine line between bravery and stupidity. The raiders were still somewhere close by, and any noise or light could bring an army down on their heads.

”Hey.” Kelvin kept his voice quiet, though it was above a whisper. ”How far do you think we should go tonight? I need to take a short rest.” He couldn’t carry this girl forever, his arms were starting to ache from having to carry her as far as he did. With a moment to spare, he could put together a stretcher, and then they could move a lot faster. Kelvin slowed, and then the girl mumbled something in her sleep, opening her eyes.

"My, my. First you were daring enough to near a woman that you never met before, and now I find myself being held in your arms."

Kelvin looked at her, mouth opening to reply and then halting, blood rushing to his face. So forward. So frustrating. He would never understand women. The flustered engineer almost dropped her right there.
“What’s happening?”

That was enough for him. Kelvin chose a tree, put his back to it, and dropped down, letting her fall into his lap, blanket and all. He sighed and leaned his head back against the tree with his eyes closed. ”Since the last time I saw you awake, the town was attacked by an army of goblins. We tried to fight them off, but failed… everyone in it was killed.” He motioned towards the other guy. ”He managed to save one of the villagers, and most of our group managed to gather back together outside of town safely… but a scouting party found us. The Seer and gnome disappeared, but Separ and Carver squared off against five men while I picked you up and ran for the forest. Scarf-boy here grabbed the girl and came with me.” He groaned. ”For all I know, they are dead now. That’s what’s happening.”

The swordsman managed to escape as the one archer was beaten to death while the other had his life drained away. He ran to the raider party and informed them of the surviving group.

Time until reinforcements arrive: 30 minutes

Carver grimaced as the flail crashed into his side again. This wasn't working - the flail had reach and power that he couldn't hope to match, and the man's armor was far too much for his sword. He wracked his brain for a moment before arriving at an answer. The flail needed a strong swing to build up power - getting far wouldn't help, so he'd just have to get close.

With a roar, Carver launched himself at his enemy, shield raised, attempting to tackle him to the ground with the full weight of his armor.

"I do noth think thath thith ith a good thime tho retht, we should keep going." Vis said, adjusting how he carried the now squirming child as she tried to get down.
"If you are going to carry me, at least let me ride on your back instead of holding me like a baby!" she whined, starting to kick in her search for freedom, Vis did as he was told and levered the girl onto his back in one swift motion, she wobbled there, dizzy for a moment until she spoke again, "this will do."
Voltus then proceeded to stoop over and pick up the girl rolled in the blanket, grunting a bit at all the weight he was carrying and Kelvin was right, she was heavy, "Retht if you wish buth I will keep going." With that Vis turned and walked deeper into the forest and away from the camp, lighting the way with his glowing green eye.

Bill swung the flail, barely missing Carver. Sadly, what goes around comes around and the chain wrapped around the paladin. Bill tugged on the chain attempting to pull Carver down but the paladin stood strung and did not fall although wrapped in chains.

Rather than try to disentangle himself from the chain, Carver just kept charging, crashing into Bill in an attempt to pin him under the paladin's enormous weight, all while trying to bring his arms up to grapple with him opponent.

Bill side-stepped out of the way, allowing Carver to fall to the ground and struggle in his chains. "I don't have time to wrestle with you, it's already going to be hard enough to take on your friends unarmed." Bill raised his fist, ready to take on any opposers. "God I hope reinforcements get here soon."

Time until reinforcements arrive: 22 minutes

While Bill stepped away from Carver, Furnace approached softly. The cold feeling had made him calm.
As Bill spoke and looked around to find other opponents Furnace stood right in front of him to present himself.
Thick, dark surges of negative energy danced in his hands as he held them before him.
Chilled and collected he stared Bill in his eyes, ready to react to any movement with shock and pain.
With wide eyes and barely any emotion on his face he spoke softly "I am going to hurt you."

A divine light shines down from the heavens upon Carver. The light rusts and breaks the chains, lifts Carver to his feet, heals his wound, and repairs his armor.

Bill looks first at the little one, "Ah shit, I should have wasted my flail on this one." Then he sees the light out of his peripheral vision, "Fuck, you're a paladin. Well, you know what, all those times I hit you with my flail, I was just doing my job. I actually have to go sooo..." Bill starts to back away from the two.

Time until reinforcements arrive: 18 minutes

Ooooh, ow. The knight didn't seem to be fairing well in his battle with his flailed opponent. Perhaps the last fight took all the energy and speed out of him, because on top of the dynamics of the chain - the user of which actually seemed to be practiced with its use - the looter was dancing around the knight with each charge he made. Was the knight really so simple-minded that he would resort to the same old tactic? Surely they've learned better by now. Before he got himself tangled up, perhaps it would have been better throw him the sword or shield that the looter had been ensnared in the first place. His flail is then tangled in what you've thrown at him and then you're free.

"But no, by all means, continue what you're doing now... It's obviously working." Arastoph muttered. His ears perked as soon as the looter began talking and taunting the knight. At least the looter was unarmed, but what he had said set off an alarm. Reinforcements...

Arastoph ran out of his hiding place and into the open, his full appearance now being visible to the group and to his enemy. His dragoon in hand, although unloaded (but his enemy didn't have to know that), he yelled at what he saw as the buffoons he had aligned himself with. "Kill him quickly, already! Before more arrive!"

Enemy reinforcements also meant that he wouldn't be able to get these fools to carry the wine kegs for him. Whether or not this knight was actually a paladin didn't matter. He couldn't defeat an army alone.

After finally defeating the archers with the gnome, Separ stood up to find that Carver was having trouble with the last opponent. Before the gnome could intervene in the fight however, Separ put his hand on the gnome's shoulder holding him back. "Carver, do you need any help? Or would you prefer we stay out of this? If this is your battle I don't want to intervene and hurt your pride. That being said, if you'd like some assistance I wouldn't mind taking this guy down a peg or two." Separ waited quietly for Carver to answer, time was of the essence for sure, but if losing this fight meant a lot to Carver, then there was no reason to jump in. "The decision is up to you, just know that if reinforcements do come me and Calvin, err the gnome should be able to hold them back for a little bit while you finish up your fight." Separ stepped in front of the gnome making direct eye contact and firmly held the gnome's shoulders with both of his hands. "This may be an important battle for Carver, so if he says he doesn't need help you shouldn't help him out. This may be a battle between men and interrupting that may harm Carver mentally. Oh, and by the way, thanks for healing me again, and also just what was your name again? I forgot what it was.

Carver was somewhere warm, and golden, floating on a sea of soft yellow light. Everything else - the battle, his friends, the chains - it was all outside of this, this beam of sunlight, and everything out there was happening very, very slowly.

"Carver..." The voice came from all around him, soft and musical. It was a woman's voice, one he had only heard a few times before; his vigil, his initiation, and once during his training. It was his lady's voice. The sun's.

And then she was in front of him, radiant and beautiful, golden-haired, kind-faced, clad in robes of billowing white. "My lady!" the paladin gasped, and tried to fall to one knee, but quickly found he couldn't move. He was rising, being lifted from the ground in the pillar of light. A horrid thought struck him. "My lady, am I dead?" The knight did not fear death, but he feared to die with his duty unfulfilled; if he was dead, he could not protect the others.

She laughed, the sound of windchimes on a summer day. "No, brave knight, you have much life left in you." She stroked his helmed cheek with one hand, where the flail had mangled his face. "Oh, Carver, you always did have such faith in people. You deserve to have it rewarded, one of these days."

"I ask for no reward, my lady."

"You never did. Arise, brave knight, and carry on in my name. Carry on the fortitude you have displayed, and I will be gladdened to have such a champion in the dark days to come." She began to fade, all the light around him dimming. Carver turned his head wildly as the world outside began to speed up again.

"My lady! My lady! What is it that I must do?" he called out, desperately.

"Protect them, Carver. The task before them is great, and they will need your strength."

"I will fight to the end, my lady."

"I know, Carver, but that's not what I mean. Arise, your strength restored, and protect them from what's coming. And, let's have rid of those as well - there are enough chains upon you already, my dear knight."

The light was gone. Carver landed on the ground with a soft thud. Separ was saying something to him, asking whether he wanted to fight the man alone. The paladin turned to him and spoke.

"More are coming to kill us, friend - more than we can fight. We must leave and gather the others, go somewhere far from here."

Carver bent and picked up his sword and shield before turning to Bill. "You fight very well - it is a shame that you ended up on the wrong side. However, you cannot be allowed to tell your friends which way we went, and though I'd like to make you swear silence, your word has lost value to me." He gestured his head to Separ. "I am not so proud as to make this take longer than necessary, not when time is of the essence. He'll have to die."