The only thing to hit the soft grass in front of Claude was his own bloodied hand. While he was sure that his opponent was firmly in his grasp during the down swing, the flailing lanky assassin's body was replaced with the familiar streaks of gray as Claude struck the earth with a thunderous impact. After a moment of glancing back and forth, a loud whistle in the distance drew the attention of both the red combatant and the audience. Standing over fifty feet away and thirty feet up on top of the south courtyard wall, with his back to the sun, was Claude's foe. Or rather, two of the assassin's silhouette stood on the wall as their images blurred the space between them.

The distance between the figures increased along the wall until they were on the due east and west edges of the courtyard, showing off that this man was to crossing the one-hundred foot courtyard and the walls on both sides fast enough to produce stable images of himself on both sides. With a smirk visible underneath the hood, the images rose one hand each, and perched over the walls, kneeling towards the center where the others were. And in a blink of an eye, both images of the assassin sprinted down the walls and leaped at Claude from either side.

Upon their arrival, the assassin began slashing and stabbing at Claude from both sides with a flurry that made Aika's electric-powered swordplay look like an incapacitated soldier by comparison. With so much effort devoted to speed, Claude's armor was able to take the brunt of the onslaught, but he could not get away without several cuts before trying to retaliate.

While Squad Quinque discussed their course of action, the bandits began creeping through the ruins towards them. While by no means a professional force, these men had fought and killed beside each other many times, and no words passed between them now that the alarm was raised. Their scout had spotted Hiro's bow, and made the assumption that at least one magic user was amongst them, so they took what cover they could as the approached, slowly spreading out in a ring to make use of their slight numerical advantage.

They seemed content to hold back for a bit, only moving forward cautiously, either waiting for an opening, or trying to force Squad Quinque to make the first real move. From what the recruits could see, there seemed to be a good mix of axe users and sword users, the latter being split quite evenly between men wielding light one handed blades and heavier two handed ones.

It was not clear at the moment which was the group's leader, if they were even with their men.

Up on the slope behind them...

*****

Heike shivered as the wind began to pick up, making him long for his stolen hat. The weather in Frosspeak had been much harsher than this, but he had been in Jotenvarr for awhile now, and grown acclimated to the warmer climate. That, and his attire was much thinner and less cumbersome now, compared to when he lived in his homeland. Priestly garb tended to be a mix of robes and animal furs, to protect those missionaries who preached their sermons on the road instead of in the country's many churches.

His current garb, on the other hand, was vastly different from known priesthood's. While it retained the basic appearance of a holy-man's robes, they fit his form snug rather than loose, with the bottoms raised a bit higher than most as to avoid tripping him up. When he was on the road, his longest sparring partner was a traveling myrmidon, and he learned much of his fighting style from the man. He favored agility over defense, the ability to strike a man's vitals over the stamina to last a lengthy fight.

And currently- agility was something he lacked, tied up as he was. Having gotten the attention of Squad Quinque and warned them as best he could about the coming danger, he set about looking for a sharp stone to work at his bonds with. It was a tougher task than he anticipated, most of the rubble for the ruins being down below, and his current terrain being more dirt than rock. Unbeknownst to him, back at the camp...

*****
One brigand had stayed behind, leaving his companions to deal with the King's Brats. They had dealt with the last batch easily enough, surely the boss would overlook his absense. Grabbing his axe, he took a look upwards, admiring the sun's reflection of his prize's blonde hair.

"Oi, fight two battles without reward? Fuck em', I still need paid for the first..."

Slowly, he began to make his way up the slope, a devilish smile spreading across his face.

"But we might not have time Tybalt! If the bandits are close then that means that woman is in trouble. I say me and Joan go up and scout out the area or sent in Hyukuya." Hiro stated, not very much wanting the idea to to potientially take things slowly. If a person was in trouble then they needed to make haste not keep their distance from the one that they wanted to say. Hiro was not seeing the plan that Tybalt was going for but he would follow orders nonetheless. He did not like their positions, however, keeping himself on full alert. The archer looked around a lot, keeping to the training that he had gotten from Hirostuka, where she could come out of anywhere at anytime.

Hiro heard Hyakuya speak to a newly arriving person, a wyvern rider, someone who could be useful in their efforts. His gaze went back to Tybalt before he did state "I do agree that we should all stick together. Ten bandits shouldn't be hard to deal with but they will certainly pick us off if we stray to far." Hiro began stepping forward, towards the voice while keeping his wits about him as Tybalt had wanted. The bandits had to be familiar with the area and if there were dead bodies here then they must be close, too close for comfort. The unknown made Hiro stop and take a closer look at his surroundings before waiting for Diana or someone to take point.

It was amazing the sheer quantity of people she had to fight. All with axes. So many axes. So many different people with axes. It seemed as though Hirotsuka had managed to recruit every woodcutter in the country to fight her. Worse yet they knew what they were doing. Countless time her practice lance was snapped by a heavy axe head and she was forced to fight with little more than a baton. Diana didn't even want to think about the bruises she had from in-numerable times those practice axes had slammed into her after efficiently knocking away her lance. Still she'd couldn't say the training hadn't done anything. She'd learned how to make the most of her amour and was a bit tougher now. Still a pain. She'd hardly even got to snuggle with that glorious tail, half the time she was too tired and its owner even seemed to be avoiding her! Whatever they had finally gotten a mission.

The trek was slightly draining but not excessively so. Apparently a group had already come before them and met a rather grisly end. "Ew." was Diana's only comment on the matter. It looked like they hadn't managed to take out a single opponent before they all died. Well, all but one if the female scream was any indication, though that seemed to be a point of some debate. However that turned out to be less important than the bandits encroaching on their position. Diana stepped to the front of the group and stuck the butt of her spear in the ground. "Dawww, look at all these tough bandits. I hear you guys like the ladies, just try not to be too rough, hmk?" she asked with an adorable head tilt that flicked her short pink hair. She was going to gut these bastards. Hopefully one of their ranged attackers would take the cue and start pelting these idiots.

As Alexandria was waiting for a response from the group, Vivienne was growling lowly but then one of the members spoke honestly saying they were Squad Quinque. Alexandria softly petted the still growling Wyvern which seemed to calm it down slightly. "That seems to be the case, poor dears, I make sure their families are notified of this tragedy." She said solemnly.

Suddenly Alexandria's Wyvern moved it's head towards one of the bandits, which caused Alexandria to look at the slowly creeping ax and sword wielders. Alexandria gripped her own short Ax and she had a smirk creep onto her lips. Then she petted Vivienne's neck with her free hand then suddenly the pair were off the ground and in the air. While the crazy winds and snowstorm made flight dangerous, it also gives Alexandria and Vivienne an advantage of her own, she would be harder to hit with ranged weapons if they had any and her own short axes were heavy enough for the winds not to change it course if she uses it. Alexandria and Vivienne circled around the bandits a few times as Vivienne let out a loud ear splitting screech before they suddenly hovered in place over a cliff. Alexandria threw a Short ax straight at a bandit who was covering his ears from the wyvern's loud screech, the ax dove deep into the Bandit's shoulder causing him to fall to the ground as he bled that turned the blood around him red, quickly the red spread around the bandit leaving a grim scene. Alexandria quickly pulled out another short ax and got ready to counter attack.

Hyakuya nodded at Alexandria. She seems to be part of this squad as well. He wondered if she was going to end up joining Squad Quinque by the end of the day. Hopefully. It has been a while since he has seen a wyvern and it would honestly be fun wrestling with the animal. It was good exercise for both the Manakete and the wyvern. There has been instances that he managed to find himself face to face with a wyvern and 'play' around with it. It was a great experience for him and, despite being old, still wanted to do these kinds of things.

Although he shouldn't really be thinking about that. He looked at Hiro who suggested he do reckon first. It was either him and Joan or Hyakuya. The Manakete would gladly step up to the challenge since he can fly well despite the horrible weather. Sure he'd be restricted to flying low and a little slower but less projectiles can actually hit. "I would be glad to do reckon Hiro but it seems someone has gone ahead of us." He said before gesturing to Alexandria and her flying wyvern. He watched as they circles around and then threw an axe at one of the bandits.

"I will transform once you signal me to. We might as well have the element of surprise right?" The manakete pointed out. His hood was raised so they wouldn't be able to see his pointed ears. No one would realize that he was a Manakete and he wanted to play that to their advantage. Maybe charge up there without a weapon to confuse them? He gripped the stone in his hand while hiding it from sight. He would wait for Hiro or Tybalt's orders before he would transform unless the situation turns around and he would be forced to transform to defend himself.

Claude kept both eyes on the image at the right. Somehow, he taught that was the real one. Or if they were both real and Claude was just seeing the afterimages, well, that was cool too.

He had to come near to attack him anyway, and that would be when his downfall would come.

The assassin leapt towards him and started slashing and dicing at Claude. While some proper armor might've stopped the attacks and not really hurt him, the fact that Claude did not wear any armor, at least in his upper body, allowed the assassin to make a lot more damage than he probably thought he would at first.

Despite the punishment, however, the mercenary was steadfast. It was not enough to topple him, and as the Assassin slashed his stomach, he turned down to see him.

At first serious, it was then that Claude brought both of his arms together and tried to hug the assassin, taking his feet off the ground for several centimeters, and then he smiled.

His wounds were bleeding, but if he managed to take the assassin into his deadly embrace, then it was all over.

He would start putting more and more strength in the hug, soon making the assassin's back crack and make horrible noises. After punishing some with that bear hug, Claude would go on, arc his back backwards and slam the assassin's head against the ground.

Again, if the assassin managed to escape again, Claude would stop trying to render him unconscious and actually try to kill him with his next attack.

The crunching of bone was more than audible to everyone watching the fight, as the assassin's back contorted in ways it shouldn't within Claude's grapple. With a mighty warcry, Claude torqued himself over backwards, pile-driving his opposition into the dirt.

Almost. Once again, the deft rogue escaped the brute's grasp as Claude flailed onto the grass, except that this time, the assassin reappeared only five feet away, hunched over on the grass. It was clear that the bear hug more than incapacitated the assassin, who had only used the very final bits of energy he had to escape what would otherwise have been a neck-snapper.

"Enough..." he called in between coughs of blood as he slumped onto the ground even more. "How could something so foolish-" hacking of his battered lungs interrupted him, and the magician guard stepped forward, placing his hand on the assassin.

"With equal foolhardiness. Stand," he commanded as a gold and white glow passed from his hand onto the back of the assassin. In only a short moment, Claude's sparring partner was on his feet again, brushing himself off. "You are alive by my choice. You would not have even had a chance to fight back if this were not an exam. Remember that," he spoke venomously towards Claude, his pride bruised almost as badly as his body was, as he and the magician turned and stood in line with the other royal guards.

Davos looked towards Claude, eyeing him up and down. His methods were... unorthodox. But he was indeed the victor of the first duel. When it came to the most proficient combatants in Jotenvarr, results was the only thing that mattered. As far as Davos was concerned, Claude provided results. He gave the mercenary an approving nod before turning his head towards the axe-fighter of the guards.

The heavily plated guard swung his great axe up onto his shoulder. This massive weapon seemed almost too heavy to use with two hands, and yet this man effortlessly maneuvered it with only one. Stepping forward, he eyed the remaining members of Trignita before meeting the gaze of their emerald lancer.

"You, there." he pointed to Mikhail. "I issue my challenge to you."

Having been quite literally chained to Scott for a month had done a number on Mikhail’s patience. Straizo’s little gremlin had insisted that it would improve the squad’s teamwork, but all it had done for Mikhail was give him a nasty bout of nausea. The cavalier could still feel where the iron clasp had been around his ankle, forever dooming him to be within a few feet of the other cavalier.

The feeling of freedom was sweet, but oh did the trial before him sting. For a month he had improved his coordination and team tactics with the other cavalier, something that had proven to be quite the task due to being on horseback.

And now here he are, after hours of focusing on teamwork, dueling. The irony was not lost on him, but having to go up against a member of the Royal Guard alone kept him from truly appreciating it.

”Tch, of course,” he muttered, seeing his opponents weapon of choice. Today was just turning into the best day ever for the dour knight.

With a light tap of his foot, Rollo approached the axe-wielder. ”Very well, I accept your challenge,” he replied, his expression dead serious. Even though he had been in the military for several years, Mikhail had only heard stories of the current royal guard, of which ranged from the unbelievable to the impossible. Until he knew for sure what he was dealing with, the cavalier had no intent to overplay his hand.

His lance rested comfortably in his grip, waiting for his opponent to make the first move. Rollo was making a slow circle around him, but was capable of moving deceptively quickly should he attempt to rush in.

"Remember, the skill of the hand that holds his weapon will trump the flaws in its design. Do not let your lance fear my axe." The warrior lectured Mikhail, even though they were about to fight. They both knew that the possible difference in skill between the two of them would only amplify the advantage the warrior had. Rollo's presence however, could lead to an interesting fight, as he and Mikhail circled the warrior just outside of his axe's reach. Following in the assassin's footsteps, it seemed that it was on the Royal Guardsman to make the first move.

However, this move would not be taken with sudden speed. Instead, the warrior simply lowered his axe, letting the blade impact the ground with a thud. Watching Mikhail to defend against any attempts to interrupt him, he began to position his body, winding up for a massive strike. If left unchecked, the warrior would unleash a huge swing, spinning clockwise towards the horse's back.

Already the signs of their opponents were coming clear, the weather masking their enemies’ approach as they descended from the ruins, the flash of a sword or axe glinting as they descended the rocky terrain. Tybalt smirked, flipping open the pages of his Arcfire tome as the others prepared, he had figured they were going to run into this trouble sooner or later, why not on the cold, snowy hill. He could only make out a few popping up from the ruins, the occasional glower of a menacing brute ready to snap them in half, rip the whole team to shreds and take the woman for a victory lap.

A worthy challenge for his skills.

A hard glare took hold on the mage’s face as he took in his surroundings, a battle plan beginning to form as the original potshots were being taken to size each other up.

The fine Lady Alexandria had taken the assault first. Mounted on her trusty wyvern she had spearheaded the assault against the bandits in a grand show of force, even obscured by the ongoing blizzard, it was clear she was making quite an impact. Though he had little interaction within the month of training, he was well aware of Lady Alexandria. He had known of the Demon Baroness before her addition to the squad, hearing her name passed among the lips of nobles during his family’s dinner parties back when his family still had the standing to have parties, a beautiful woman who had lost her beloved husband, and instead found solace in companionship with a beast. They had said it was unfitting of a lady of her standing, flying about on a winged pseudodragon like a common fighter.

Looking at the two now in the midst of battle, even through the blizzard, the only truth from those rumors Tybalt could see was she was indeed beautiful. His enamoured gaze snapped free once Hyakuya spoke, bringing him back into the here and now long enough to respond to his request.

“I couldn’t agree more, my friend. The element of surprise is a valuable asset.” He replied to the dragon-kin, before turning his attention up north, scouting out the ruins. “If what the woman says is true and there is only ten, our best option is to trap them, force them to fight on our term.” He motioned to the top of the hill, near the entrance point where the bandits had spawned from. “Which is why I’m trusting Pauline to get you behind their ranks. If you and our ninja friend can sneak past them and cut off their escape, you can change into a dragon and strike from their rear. We will lock them into a pincer maneuver, forcing to fight on two fronts. It’s a risky manuver, but if it works, we’ll strain their resources enough to annihilate them.” His eyes glanced to their ninja compatriot, who had been relatively silent since their arrival. “I put the stakes of this plan into your hands, and I have the utmost confidence you’ll be able to get a safe path to place our Manakete in the right spot for the pincer maneuver to be successful."

He placed his hand on Hyakuya’s arm, offering the man a cheery grin to calm his conscience. “If you are spotted, make sure you change and defend yourself, try and regroup as soon as you are in trouble, and get Lady Alexandria to cover you. I’m not looking to risk your life if I can help it.” He turned his attention to the others, Hiro and Diana specifically. “Sir Hiro, Lady Joan, Lady Diana, if my plan is to work, we need to cover their infiltration, and that regards getting their attention.” A wild glint in his eye seemed to shine through the snowy tundra as his attention turned to the advancing bandits. “We need them to focus on us for the moment, force them to advance out into the open, and to do that we need to convince them to target us. In other words; let’s give them something to fear.”

With that, he stepped forward, a fireball erupting in his free hand. In an enthusiastic cry, he let loose the mighty inferno, bursting onto a rock one of the bandits was hiding behind. The enemy shrieked, jumping back under the rock to pin him behind his measly cover.

“Come on, you ruffians!” Tybalt shouted, hurling another explosive flare into the enemy midst. “You predators of helpless woman! Goblins of the mountains! Bring your axes and swords to my flame! See how much your talents fair when faced with our spears, arrows, and spells! Show me what a bandit of the north is really capable off!”

He tossed another blast of arcfire into the terrain, this time colliding with a myrmidon who had thought he could get the drop on the overconfident mage. His mistake was realized a half-step too late as he was immediately immolated when he hopped out of cover, the flames washing over him in a sea of painful death. HIs screams filled the mountainside as he desperately attempted to put himself out, rolling on the floor as his flesh blackened and crackled, quickly reducing him to a charred skeleton.

Tybalt laughed wildly, revelling in taking the piss out of the ruffians. Of course, he knew he was setting himself up as a target, but he trusted his comrades. If everything worked according to plan, this was assured to work.

A female wyvern rider had arrived to help the charge, and almost everybody else in the squad had decided to go help the woman in need. Perfect.

Tybalt was also helping strategize to lead the charge. Joan certainly wasn't a war tactician, but Tybalt's strategy sounded solid and without any real fault. Hyakuya's orders were to infiltrate their ranks and disrupt them from the inside, and Pauline was going to help him.

The black haired woman turned to both of them and tried to encourage them a bit for their incoming mission. "I wish you the best of luck, lord Hyakuya, Pauline!" She said with a smile.

"B-But what can I do, sire Tybalt? I've no means to attack, and-!" Of course, her protests came a second too late.

The mercenaries were already surrounding them. Well, this would certainly get ugly.

An axe fighter approached Joan, licking his lips and thinking of just how many things he could do with a girl like Joan in his grasp.

"Kya!" Joan let out, as she swung her staff to hit the man's head. It was simply stopped with a single hand. "N-No, let it go! S-Someone, help me!" she asked for help.

Well, that was odd. Despite not being able to attack, people always seemed to aim to kill the healers. Perhaps because they kept the others alive.

Her pleas for help were answered by her ever fateful companion, though.

A hellish, nightmarish neigh echoed through the mountains as the stallion from hell stood up on its hind legs, making Joan hold for dear life on the reins, and then brought its whole weight down on the axe fighter.

It then brought its leg up and down again on the bandit's head. It was not with its whole weight, as it wished not to show Joan something overly gruesome, but it was enough to at least break the man's skull.

"T-Thanks, Merin. I can always count on you, huh?" She brushed the horse's hair.

"FUCKING IDIOTS!" A voice thundered across the battlefield.

A man, clad in mercenary armor, stepped out into the battlefield, wielding a silver sword and with a nasty glare in his face.

"What are we here for, men?!" Every mercenary stopped in his tracks when their leader appeared and rallied them to battle. "We are here to make easy money! These idiots from the king's castle think that their fancy manners and expensive shit makes them better than us! Let me remind you of something! THEY ARE NOT! Let's show these idiots what real MEN are made of!"

He lifted his swordhand to the sky, letting out a warcry that all of his men followed.

"Know this now, knighting idiots! Muroo was your demise!" He pointed his sword at Tybalt. He was the head of them. Cut the head of the snake and the body is an easy matter.

The mercenaries started fighting back with renewed spirit, except for one or two who were kind of scared by the appearance of their boss. He was no stranger to kidnapping women either, but he certainly liked to have the first go at it when they did.

Mikhail hated axe fighters. Granted, that wasn't saying much, seeing as the man hated most things, but their was an exceptionally hateful place in his heart just for them. Especially ones that lectured him on how to fight.

The cavalier knew full well that the duel would ride heavily on whether or not he was able to keep his distance, which was why he had hoped his opponent would be as reckless as the assassin.

That sadly does not appear to be the case, Mikhail noted, watching the royal guardsmen change his stance. It didn't take a genius to understand that leaving the axe fighter to his own devices would have devastating consequences.

With two kick taps and a pull on the reins, Rollo picked toward the knight and started to gain speed. Mikhail didn't have any time for fancy maneuvers, so he simply levelled his lance at the giant of a man.

If the axe fighter swung, he was ready to parry the swing, even if it came at the cost of his lance. And if that did happen, the cavalier was fully prepared to run him down with his stead. Honourable or not, I'm winning this damn fight.

Alexandria watched the brutish buffoons rally behind a leader with some level of competence if he can use a silver sword. Alexandria couldn't help but smirk as the man called them weaklings who depend on fancy weapons and titles instead of skill like he implied. A true man? To bad for them she's no man.

Alexandria's grip on the short ax tighten as Vivienne roar loudly at the fast approaching steps of a Bandit, Alexandria looked at the direction of the heavy steps to see it is a man with a WyrmSlayer. Alexandria glared at the running man studying the way he ran and held the sword. He looked strong but not much else as he charge at the two with reckless abandonment, when he swung the heavy sword in a wide arc the two barely dodged the blade's edge and in retaliation Alexandria threw the short ax at the man's exposed back which lodged itself deep in the shoulder but it didn't kill him. The man screamed and threw his body around in a crazed manner which the sword followed in suit, while Vivienne dodged all the attacks, Alexandria wasn't as lucky, as her leg got slashed deep by the berserk sword wielder, blood ran down her foot and onto Vivienne's scales, and when Alexandria let out a pained grunt as she tried to hide the pain, Vivienne roared loudly, louder then any other point so far in training. Alexandria hasn't gotten hurt like this while training and Vivienne knew that, so to the wyvern the man was the most dangerous thing to it's master.

Suddenly Vivienne slammed it large body onto the crazed bandit knocking him down to the ground where Vivienne grabbed the man's head with its clawed foot where it suddenly started to slam the man's head onto to the snowy ground repeated, leaving a bigger and bigger bloody mess with each slam. The man was already dead by the time Alexandria started to tell the Wyvern to stop. Alexandria sighed and lowered herself to the man's mutilated body and pulled out the ax out of the man's back.

"Some man you turned out to be, Darling."

Compared to the training that followed, the first trial seemed surprisingly easy. Every day, it was like training in the ninja village where she stayed, except five time tougher. Her reward was food, perhaps the best reward among the ones her companions got. That apple pie definitely gave her enough motivation to continue... Ah, it was amazing. Pauline managed to get it once though, that one time when she hit all the targets. Most of the other times... Let's just say that she got used to eating wild fowl.

The second mission was up in the mountains. This environment was a lot less appealing to Pauline than the forest they were in for the last trial and she hoped that her stealth skills were enough to attack someone without getting noticed.

It seems that they were not the only squad who tried to complete the challenge. Pauline whimpered slightly when she saw the dead bodies of another squad. She knew she would need to deal with gore, death and murder, but still, it was incredibly distressing. A female scream drew her attention and Pauline ducked slightly, ready to dash off and help, yet when she glanced behind her back, she saw bandits approaching. The ones Hirotsuka mentioned…

Pauline barely noticed the wyvern rider in the sky when Tybalt called her and explained his plan. Thankfully, the bandits were slower than the mounted enemies they fought with, so they might have some time. The ninja waved her hand to get Hyakuya’s attention and glanced at the leader. ”We’re lucky their leader didn’t come from the mountains. Let’s go while there’s still time, I certainly hope you’re good at climbing, because you’ll probably be attacking from up there,” – she pointed at one of the less steeper hills and rushed towards it.

With the emerald rider closing in on him, the warrior pulled back his heavy blade even more, showing the flat behind his right shoulder to the direction Mikhail's lance was about to strike. He tilted his body even further to his left and kept his eyes on the encroaching foe until the very last moment.

With the clang of steel ringing through the battlefield, the tip of Mikhail's lance impacted and slid along the back of the warrior's right pauldron, sliding off at an angle as Rollo galloped behind the axe wielder. Instead of swinging his blade to the right and striking Mikhail from behind, he completed his turn and shoved the weapon forward, such that his enemy would charge straight into the wide flat of the axe's head. Assuming that somehow disrupted their movement, he would try to again attack the horse.

With his dragonstone firmly placed in his pocket once more, Hyakuya listened to Tybalt's strategy. It wasn't bad. The manakete admittedly wasn't one for surprise attacks but he wasn't complaining now. After that, Pauline waved her hand and his attention was transferred to her as she explained what they would do. "I've spend a fair share of time walking instead of flying. I can manage that." Hyakuya replied as he looked at the steep side of the mountain. Good thing manaketes age slowly or else he would've crumpled in pain because of weak bones. "If we ever get spotted, I'll carry you back." He said, pertaining to how he'll transform and then grab her by the arms and fly away. He would follow Pauline as she moved, trying to be as stealthy as he can.

With that out of the way, the manakete took a deep breath. The risk was there and they were in a true battle, unlike the first trial. Here, they could kill people as revenge for killing the other squad. Something inside of him was just itching to transform and kill these bastards. He tried to calm himself down. No, he can't fight. Not yet at least. He needed to get up there so he can trap those barbarians and then rain fire on them when they least expect it. If they get caught, then he'll have to take Pauline back to the group before even thinking of making any risky maneuvers.

It was becoming more and more clear that Mikhail’s opponent did not become a royal guard by riding on the laurels of anybody else. From his form to his calm and calculated response to being charged by a cavalryman, the odds of being able to end the fight quickly and cleanly were looking grim for the lancer. And then his hit glanced off of the bastard’s pauldron.

Well shit… Time had a funny way of slowing down when things went to hell. In this case, it was just long enough for Mikhail to notice the axe-fighter’s plan. There was no chance of moving out of the way, which left him with a hard choice and only a split second to decide. On one hand, there was the option to roll with the hit and hope that if there was a follow up attack that he would be able to either parry it or avoid it. Or he could be an absolute idiot and hope it paid off.

The royal guards were given some of the best toys the kingdom could afford. Piercing their heavy plate mail was a dubious ordeal at best, but the price they paid for that kind of protection came with the severe weight of them. And that was a fact the totally inept decision-making portion of Mikhail’s brain realized he could take advantage of.

In the moment before Rollo became all too familiar with the back of an axe, the cavalier relinquished his grasp on his spear in one deft motion and made a grab for the knight’s wrist. Best case scenario, he would end up throwing the knight completely off balance and making him fall, which would then hopefully give him enough time to recover and circle back with his sword. Worst case though, he would end up looking like a complete idiot that dropped his spear and then fell off his horse because he overextended himself during the collision.

All in all, Mikhail absolutely detested what he had managed to come up with in his clairvoyant split-second. But seeing how he was already committed to it, he saw no reason to repress the insane grin gracing his face. Whelp, one way or another, this will be a moment I'll never forget.

Apparently reinvigorated by the appearance of their leader the men charged at them with renewed vigor. Diana simply smirked, they would be even easier to deal with when they were scared and angry. One axeman charged her directly seeing her spear, a mistake on his part. Diana held her lance out towards the man charging her and he grinned, chopping at it to knock it out of the way. Diana simply spun, moving her own weapon out of the way and causing the man to stumble off balance- directly into her shield that was powered by her spin. The man fell to the ground dazed and wasn't given a chance to rise by the lance he'd attempted to bat out of the way driving into his head. Diana's face showed no remorse as she returned to her original position. Another axeman approached her slightly more warily attempting to close the distance between the offending spear and Diana's more vulnerable self. His careful approach meant Diana couldn't do much more than nick him without leaving those behind her open to attack but the man didn't make any progress either and would be forced to relent before those tiny cuts started adding up. The wyvern rider seemed to be doing well for herself, already laying low two of the bandits. Personally Diana thought that going through the work of flanking was somewhat excessive and that they should just kick ass, but it was fundamentally sound.

For someone who uses an axe, the warrior did a fine job of breaking stereotypes. He came off as collected and disciplined, instead of loud and brash. He seemed like someone who was ready to most any situation, but right now proved itself to be the exception. Mikhail's grapple attempt to topple his foe would have worked because of this, but the warrior's raw strength was simply enough to remain standing as Mikhail effectively pulled himself off of his own steed as Rollo raced by the unmoved soldier. His body tumbled to the ground, landing face up just in time to see the warrior hold his axe over Mikhail.

"If it wasn't entirely clear, we are not sparring." He rose the weapon high above himself, ready to bring it down upon the green knight.