Smithsage stopped just as he got by the others and stopped to breathe. "Not good." he said after the others saw the man. "They're probably a higher level than us and have backup. So are they here for the adventurers that got here before us, or one of us? I'd rather not fight if we have a choice, and we won't stop them, even if we kill every one of them here." He did have one thing going for him, though. His "skullbasher" sword technique had just finished recharging, meaning he could now use all of his techniques. "If we do have to fight, though, we shouldn't hold back.

Frank heard Amelia's call and returned to where Zenheil and Amelia were waiting, surprisingly Smithsage was somehow there as well. Then he noticed the man with the laughing coffin mark, and nodded as he heard Smithsage decide his own plans. "I'm with you smith, don't fight unless we have to so only in the last defence of one's life. Besides, he turned towards-" @themadhatter420@Juka Gearsworth, making sure the whole group heard, "If we can stay close enough together to help one another and far enough to use our weapons, but our backs to each other, so no one can get behind us, then we should have a great chance of survival." It was his plan, and he thought it a good one.

"All right, nice idea Frank" Said Zenheil after he finished, his sword on hand waiting for the worse, and then the man came, leaping over the ground and hitting Zenheil with his Katana, the blow was defended by Zenheil's sword, and he quickly counter attacked, hitting the enemy in the arm, not much damage was done as the hit was superficial, but his target was not Zenheil, it was someone else.
"Damn, he jumped over me, careful guys!" He shouts while running after the man, but when two more players appeared from behind the shadows he had to defend again, one of them jumped over and proceeded to attack another target, but one stayed for fighting Zenheil.

Emmy, after being left behind was left to continue to wander the field aimlessly.

He closed the interface in front of him with a swift swipe of his hand and lifted his head towards the surrounding field. His job was done. The sword was quickly sheathed back to his side and proceeded to hold the teleport stone in his hand to head back to town and return the 'Sturdy Bone' back to a friend. He looked below the stone as he held it up, a person was walking by-- well out of the way of enemies. He lowered the stone and stared as she walked by before putting it back and began walking towards them curiously. He quickly sped towards her direction until he reached a talking distance. "Nice place to walk, eh?" He casually conversed.

@Gareth@Juka Gearsworth

Amelia saw the one that strayed from Zenheil. "Got it." She said parrying away from a sword swing as she lunged forward stabbing him in the chest quickly. "Stupid bad guys." She said as she pulled out the sword charging it for when he attacked again. "We can take them if we work together." She called out as she moved closer to everyone.

Zenheil noticed Amelia was defending herself without much problem, "Nice one Amelia!" he shouts while she pulled back her sword, the enemy would probably ask for a surrender once his HP reaches in a critical level, no one wants to die, that's out of question, Zenheil proceeded to attack the other man, he did a direct his in his right arm, which was quickly countered by a punch, it hit Zenheil in the face, granting an opening, he slashed brutally against Zenheil's torso, damaging him heavily, the sword also inflicted Bleeding, both players had half of their HP left.
"Argh... I need some help! I have no Healing Items!" Zenheil said while getting up, his wound was bad, his HP was dropping quickly, and to make things worse another assailant appeared, heading towards another player.

"Switch" Smith called as he ran at the man who was attacking Zenheil, his Glaive glowing green as he ran. When he got to the man he swung downwards, just as he did on the Orc. The assassin was fast enough, however, to partially dodge the slash, instead having the front of his shoulder sliced open, dropping him down to 30% HP. He knocked the glaive out of the way and charged at Smith, swinging. Smith managed to get up his weapon in time to block the man's downward slash. The assassin wasn't phased by that, however, and drew his Katana back just enough to free it, then swung it across Smith's middle.
Smith watched as that single strike knocked his health bar down into the yellow.
"Switch!" he called again, hoping that someone was around to save him.

All of a sudden Frank noticed the assassins converge on him and his friends.

"All right, nice idea Frank" Said Zenheil after he finished, his sword on hand waiting for the worse, and then the man came, leaping over the ground and hitting Zenheil with his Katana, the blow was defended by Zenheil's sword, and he quickly counter attacked, hitting the enemy in the arm, not much damage was done as the hit was superficial, but his target was not Zenheil, it was someone else.
"Damn, he jumped over me, careful guys!" He shouts while running after the man, but when two more players appeared from behind the shadows he had to defend again, one of them jumped over and proceeded to attack another target, but one stayed for fighting Zenheil.

He swiftly met the oncoming assassin with his greatsword drawn, a wicked grin painted on his face. He swung at the guy's face, the man ducked frank's first attack and was kicked in the stomach by Frank's follow up. A small amount of hp fell from the man, but he recovered quickly. Frank then used all of the muscles in his upper body as he advanced on the assassin, with horizontal swings from the right, then the left, unpredictable frank's attacks were-it kept the assassin, backing up only managing to defend for the moment.

Then abruptly Frank went to swing his sword, faked the guy out, letting go of his blade for but a moment as he swung his left hand fist and knocked down the assassin. Knocking down about an eighth of the guy's h.p. Frank then turned around to hear and see Smithsage say Switch! His pal was in trouble, He rushed towards his friend's opponent, weapon held over his head, he made the guy jump backwards to dodge the head splitting attack, "Smith turn around and take care of the assassin on the ground before he gets up!"

Zenheil had to heal by the innate recovery skills, so he was watching the fight as his HP went back, the group was doing well, but Zenheil noticed one thing, even though the enemies could attack other allies they were focusing only on a certain person, as if they were paid to kill only that target, was it possible that people were hiring mercenaries to kill us? Zenheil though

@Juka Gearsworth@TheUnknowable@Gareth

Amelia could not believe that they were fighting with these high level players. She could not believe red players were still thinking that killing each other was going to increase the odds of winning. She lunged forward to another assassin swiping her sword right across their neck. It instantly caused a bleeding affect as the man dropped to his knees. "I think there are only a few more left guys!" She said calling out as she moved back closer to them. "We can take them..." She said as she looked down at her health bar to see it was still in the green for now.

He heard the sound of battle echoing. The rippling of the earth as the sword sundered the ground brought Seto's attention towards a nearby mine shaft. The girl didn't seem interested in talking to him, he might as well take his queue and leave her alone. He took one good look at her and the direction she was going... "She'll be fine." He paced forward towards the mines.

He carefully scaled along the rocks and slid down into the shaft. The uneven ground made it difficult for him to navigate the terrain... There were no traces of footsteps whatsoever... But that sound of battle did came from here. He took a potion and drank it, his surroundings immediately lighting up as he plunged deeper into the shaft. Slowly came the rapid sound of footsteps charging and dissipating. They were moving quickly in the darkness. His gut was right after all.

Time went by and he was getting close to the source-- the sound of more fighting becoming more apparent until a whizzing red line moved out of Seto's sight. His grip fell on to his hilt as he cautiously looked around him and followed the trail. He reached the climax of the fight, seeing the group people back-to-back against one another as they looked frantically around trying to control the situation. He attempted to remain out of sight-- but the red guy he was tracking seemed to have caught Seto off-guard. He kicked Seto down into the other players with a rough thud-- depleting his HP minorly. He rose up and quickly turned around to the direction of where he was kicked. "Gah. Should've kept to my own business."

His hand lathered along the hilt as an oncoming assassin charged. His blade ready to strike-- but as soon as his dagger reached the sheathe of his blade he drew it. The bind was made. With the support of his other hand on the sheathe, he attempted to feel the direction of the enemy's hand. As soon as his balance was changed he drew his sword and assumed a guarded position and parried his strike. The dagger slid down from the flat of Seto's blade and he transferred his momentum by striking at his abdomen with his elbow pushing him into range of his sword. "My turn."

He held the blade at a low-guard and steadfastly stepped forward with a quick slash at the assassin's neck and shoulder. The swift attack seem to have landed a critical strike, as his health bar quickly depleted from green to orange.

@themadhatter420@Juka Gearsworth@Gareth@TheUnknowable

When Frank told him of the one behind him Smith spun around and slashed down, hitting him in the chest. The assassin's health dropped into the low red and Smith pulled the axe out. The man got up and ran, knowing that he would die if he was hit again. He quickly guarded while he waited for his health to refill.

When the new man appeared Smith greeted him. "Welcome to the ambush." he said. "I hope you're a good fighter. Now, if only we can figure out who they're here to kill. I doubt I've got any enemies that would both hiring them. How about you guys?"

"Me neither, the only enemies I have are the members of my former Guild, but they are not rich enough to pay for mercenaries, Hey! It looks like they're almost down!" Zenheil hit his assailant in the face, dealing some good damage and taking his HP near zero, he wouldn't run though, Zenheil grabbed him and threw the man on the ground.

"Who are you, and why are you attacking us?!", the man was scared, but replied in shock, "I- I just got the job and went here, I can say nothing else", that was not enough information though, "You'll die here if you don't say nothing else, I don't care about the orange colour, so speak up", His blade was pointed to the assailant, aiming at his eyes, "O- ok, We were sent here to eliminate anyone who entered the Mine, we were zoning this area for the Boss that spawns right after the monsters are cleared, please don't kill me!", That was enough, and the whole group could hear his words, "All good, I'll spare you, but you'd better cheer for your mates, I can't guarantee their lives"

Frank after taking some hits to his hp so that it was about half gone, frank managed to get a solid slice on his opponent with a vertical swing, depleting his hp to zero. He turned around to hear Smith talking to someone, he didn't recognize the newcomer. "Nice to meet you, I'm Frank." He said as he walked over to the new guy and introduced himself. Then he turned around to see Amelia having taken care of her opponent and Zenheil announce their success against the assassins.

He then walked over to Zenheil and peered over his shoulder as Zen interrogated one of their attackers. At hearing that Zen decided he was going to spare the dude, frank marched over to the nearest wall and punched it with his gauntleted fist. "Why are we giving them mercy? He asked with disgust dripping in his voice, "When they would of killed us without a second thought."

@Juka Gearsworth@TheUnknowable@VKAllen@themadhatter420

Emmy leaned against a tree near the Mine. She knew of the quest involving it and the loot in there may've been helpful to her smithing skills but she didn't care much. She could easily convince someone who got some pretty loot to give her the rarer stuff if she put her mind to it.

Upon the assassin's surrender he was apprehended with force of the other man. Oddly, that bandit quickly spilled the beans faster than a beginner who would request money. He swiped his interface open and sent a message to his allies and inform them of the situation, along with the information about the boss that would spawn upon the Mine's clearance before continuing. Seto did not sheathe his blade and approached the group with a cautious stride. "Frank's right." He passed through Zenheil to the Assassin, driving the sword from his spine out through his chest-- effectively dropping his health to 0. Seto's name quickly flashed red. "Keep your enemies alive and they'll... Stab you in the back." His gaze leered at the rest of the bandits. His night vision was still in effect. "No doubt his leader would be here and they'll try to regroup. They might give our position."

@Gareth@Juka Gearsworth