Dorisma grunted in frustration as the golem escaped. She'd wanted to smash it into tiny pieces. She sighed and turned back to the group to find Robert seemingly wandering around uselessly, as always. Was it that hard to go back the way they'd came. "This way." she said roughly and once again began walking in the correct direction.

Deravan breath in deeply as the Golem just escaped. Dang... he hoped to just break it.
"Well.... so much for finishing it off. At least it probably won't ever attack travellers again... or will think twice before doing that again." he then says, shaking his head a bit as he looks at the group. He breath deeply as Robert went towards town. He waited there before fallowing Dorisma, who knew the way well at least.
"Next time.... one of us should block the path of the opponent...." he then says

Despite Deravan and Dorisma's efforts to catch up, the golem was easily able to outrun them. Even though they both seemed disappointed that they didn't get a chance to finish it off, it probably would have taken a while, and they needed to finish this mission as fast as possible if they wanted to make it back to the stronghold before nightfall.

Trey was about to keep heading for the dust, but then he noticed that Robert had wandered off again. It didn't take long for him to get back, but having to wait for him to return every time was beginning to get annoying.
"Robert, perhaps it would be best if you stopped trying to lead the group." Trey suggested. "This habit of yours only serves to slow us down, and I'd rather be back at the stronghold as soon as possible."

I twirled my knife in the air as it cut through the stillness of the atmosphere, catching it by the handle and slipping it into my pocket. I stared at our team-mates as frustration was dug into their expressions, ready to choke the remaining life of the golem if it came even a kilometre near us. "Lads, experience and cash isn't everything." I gave my opinion on the ordeal and looked down at my shoes. "I mean vengeance is appropriate, but certainly not in these circumstances." By the time I looked up, Robert had already got himself lost again. He was a strange guy, out of breath with every word he spoke and more off-course than a blind horse. His attire spoke of high importance and even military history, but it juxtaposed with the quirkiness he expressed, as he kicked up sand and exclaimed his loss for words and directions towards Dorisma. (That's also a juxtaposition, if you think about it.)

"Robert, can we please get somewhere by the afternoon?" Shouting didn't seem to make him any better at navigation unfortunately, as I turned towards the desert and kept my eyes on the horizon. At this rate, the dust would get to us rather than the other way around. So far, it seemed to have roaming camels and parties of men looking for experience, but they were so far off that we wouldn't be able to reach them by the time darkness set it. "Does anyone else want a go at walking?" I asked, no longer turning my back against the others and hoping someone would actually do something.

Thankfully, Dorisma let the golem go, and showed me the right way to go, again. I then overheard Trey say that I shouldn't be the leader, and thought I knew it... I'm a failure... I can't lead, I can't cast a decent spell, I can't even swing a sword right... I continued on, my mood dampened from this, as the others pointed out just how horrible of a leader I was. I said nothing, and we made it back through the cave without much issue. Backstabs seemed to notice my silence, and asked "What's wrong, Robert?" I didn't respond, and continued following Dorisma, at least she knew the way, at least she never got lost... at least she was useful in battle. We started crossing the plains, again, and I heard the steps of an all-too familiar, human-favored beast of burden. I decided to just stay there, in the middle of the road, as the possible entire party of adventurers headed right for me. Maybe I can prove my worth here... I thought as the figure of a horse carrying a cart continued on its way towards me. I heard the sound of metal weapons being drawn as the horse and its cart came to a stop right in front of me, but, before anyone could get out of it, I decided to cast a fire spell on the cart, itself, burning everyone and everything in it as the fire spread. A group of four adventurers, one robed, two in metal armor, and one in leather got out of the cart, and started coughing from the smoke... seems like the rest of the party will have the advantage now, and I won't even get a chance to attack these guys.

The golem became a memory as I stepped in circles, looking for a bit of action to break the defeated mood. Deravan looked disapproved and even Robert looked somewhat down, staring into the sand and remaining silent against the words of others. I rubbed my eye and started wadding through the sand in my footwear, assuming that Dorisma knew where she was going. I clenched my eyes and yawned, rubbing excess tears away from my eyelids as he continued journeying slowly through the undisturbed desert. I'd probably need to go to bed slightly earlier than usual, especially as my joints were aching and my arm felt messed up.

I thought about that kid a few times as we continued walking, eventually reflecting on that bastard ninja who messed up his transformation spell, at least from my perspective. Hopefully I could find a shaman or someone similar to reverse my form, giving me an excuse to fork out more than enough cash and bet for a service. The princess seemed distant and cold, not even breaking a sweat as I turned to her while still walking. Her expression seemed to be locked to flashback eyes, staring through everyone as I felt my soul shudder.

Eventually the cacti we walked past were replaced by dry bushes and sticks, grass finally growing but parched and sickeningly brown. The path we were walking on became more developed, from depressions in the sand to gravel and abandoned road markers. It seemed as if Mother Nature was trying to create rain to relieve the plants at our feet, a thin layer of silver in the sky that couldn't veil the noon above us. The view was relatively uninteresting, save for a few sticks dug into the ground and a cabin or two. No one seemed to speak during the walk as if we just lost someone, though arguably I was so lost in my thoughts that I (myself) couldn't hear anything.

Either way, I was shaken awake from my dreamless walk, no longer dozing in a zombie state. A heat wave that washed through my clothes forced my eyes open at splinters and embers swirling through the air like fairies. "What in the-" I muttered something before being interrupted by coughing and even shrieks, witnessing a cart ablaze and its occupants ready to cull us for blood. "Oh in the name of the Lord, what's going on? Why can't we just get to the dust and get this over with?"

Deravan just fallowed the group as Dorisma seemed to know the way. At least she had a good sense of direction, but Robert seemed really down right now. He was kinda the leader, but his sense of direction... that was not something that he had unfortunately. Backstab asked Robert what was wrong, and even then he didn't respond. Deravan just moved near him.
"Please don't get down. You did a good job back in the dragon city. It's just your sense of direction needs work, that is all." he says to him calmly.... before Robert saw the cart arrive and shot some fire to it. Well.... that he didn't expect to happen. The cart was turned ablazed as some humans got out, weapon drawn. Well a fight was going to happen here now. He took his katana out, ready for combat. Now it was time to see what these guys were capable of. He hoped that the whole group was ready for this. He quickly moved while the chaos was there, seeing the leather armored human get out of the cart. Unlucky for him, Deravan arrived quickly as he was true in his aim, actually slashing the guy into a key part of his armor, piercing through and cutting the side of him in a very hard hit. The man looked weakened after this attack, but seemed to still be holding on. Who the heck did the group suddenly decide to attack? Cause with someone holding on after a hit like that... was not a normal person

Something to hit. Good. She wanted to hit the one in the robes, his bones would break the easiest. With eerily quick movement Dorisma ghosted to the one in the robes and sunk two devastating punches into the gentle cloth, doubtless leaving the man in excruciating pain. If felt good to have something crumple under her fists again. Miles had opted to stand there talking like an idiot and Deravan had taken advantage of the situation like herself and viciously stabbed one of the other men. Not that Dorisma cared terribly much either way, she had humans in front of her, the rest was simple.

Robert seemed to get awfully quiet after Trey spoke. In hindsight, it may have sounded a little too harsh. He never intended to hurt him, or make him all depressed like this. Still, even though he could have chosen his words a little more carefully, he stood by what he said. Robert could easily get himself, or possibly even someone else, killed if he kept this up. Hopefully Trey's words would be enough to get him to break his habit of wandering away from the group.

Thankfully, they made it to the other end of the cave without running into any major problems. Shortly after, though, Trey spotted something on the horizon. It was a horse, pulling a cart behind it. That could only mean one thing.
"Humans." Trey muttered under his breath. They were able to defeat that group of humans that they ran into before, and this group probably wouldn't be much stronger than them. As the cart got closer, Robert set it on fire, and the humans inside jumped out to escape the blaze. Dorisma and Deravan moved in to attack, and since they were caught off guard, the humans weren't able to avoid anything. Trey flew in and used a fire spell, which, and even though it didn't kill him, one more hit from someone else in the group probably would.

The enemies finally came to their senses, and the rogue, in particular, seemed ready to attack. He ran at me, in full view, with a very predictable, possibly desperate attack that was easily dodged, as I simply stepped a few feet to the left, and even managed to trip him with my tail as he ran past me. I then simply attacked, and with him being on the ground, as well as probably a little confused, that was easily done, and I just stabbed my rapier through his leather armor, and through him, evidently. His last words were "Of all the things to kill me, it HAD to be a kobold, A MONSTER MEANT TO BE FODDER!" oddly lengthy for last words, but that didn't matter. Backstabs tried to attack the man in the white robes, due to the fact that he'd probably end up healing his allies, but, to no avail, as the man predicted her attack just as I predicted their own rogue's attack, and he seemed to have a smug smile on his face as he moved out of the way of the oncoming attack. The fire on their cart seemed to only spread, and the horse had long since run away, unlike the last time we saw one, where it seemed to stick around until R'lyeh tried to capture it. I suppose one of those things would be useful, but, then we might be mistaken for the enemy if we entered one of our own cities or camps... for all we know, that thing could have gotten US set on fire for being mistaken for the likes of them, and probably by some brave monsters who happened to have a lantern, or even just a simple torch on hand, at the time.

Considering the mess that was unfolding, I couldn't really whine about getting to the end. It looked more and more unlikely that anyone would really send carrier pigeons and band together against a plague of the land. If anything, we probably wouldn't even be credited for stopping the problem, because almost anyone that came across us ensured a bloody death.

"Damn it, there's a disease literally spreading across the land!" I tried to convince ourselves to cease fighting and carry one, but by that point a rogue was already curdling bloody words. Their wagon was also wrecked and spitting flames into the sky, so it seemed as if diplomacy was over. Clenching my teeth, I squinted my eye and held back my coat, whipping out emerald knives that left the same green trail as witnessed in an earlier fight. They seemed to travel as if they arrows, whistling the tones of a banshee before making a sickening plunge into one of the magicians. His white robes dripped and stained red, assuming one could see through the fire that charred his skin and clothes. He seemed to be in extreme pain by the time the others figured out what had happened, whilst I briefly whispered to the Lord that not all encounters would end so messily.

I mean, I've seen someone get killed by a ceiling object. It wasn't uncalled for to be regretful, considering how haunting memories can get. I speak for the fact that I was sold off and kidnapped, something that still terrifies me to this day.

Deravan saw the white mage, who could possibly cause trouble to the group if he were to stand alive. Miles at least weakened him a lot right now. Deravan moved quickly to try to finish off the white mage.... who saw it coming unfortunately. He dodged out of the way right there. He hoped the others would target him to actually end him, cause last thing they needed was to have the healer heal their party up. He just hoped that things would get better here.
"Someone finish off this dang mage before he causes us trouble!" he then says, hoping the others would help.

The rogue was quickly finished off by Robert, and the mage seemed like he was just barely hanging on. The entire team seemed to be going for the mage at this point, since he would easily be able to heal any damage they did to the fighters. Despite being injured, he seemed oddly capable of avoiding attacks. He had managed to avoid an attack from Deravan, and when Backstabs attempted to attack him, he somehow managed to dodge that, as well. As soon as he had an opportunity, Trey swooped down and attempted to attack him as well, but to no avail. Once again, the mage simply moved out of the way.

The group kept trying to attack the white mage, after all, they could heal their friends, and Miles seemed to almost finish him off with one well-aimed attack to the guy's head. The mage was already preparing a healing spell, either to heal himself, or to revive his downed friend, but I acted quickly, and, knowing that these kinds of magi were particularly weak to physical attacks, I simply ran up to the mage, and stabbed right through his chest with my rapier, causing him to slump over, and eventually fall once I removed my weapon from his body... the two remaining fighters seemed a little bit scared that their friends were so easily and handily finished off, and the first one tried to run away, and, as much as I would have liked to run after him, he seemed to have some sort of sudden burst of speed as he ran off. "Great, now they'll come back, and probably in greater numbers," I mumbled to myself as I looked at the last guy left. Unlike his friend, he didn't quite seem ready to run away, either brave, or suicidal given what we've just done to the rest of his team. Heck, he even decided to shout at us. "I will not let you defeat me as you did my friends, you UNHOLY ABOMINATIONS!" well, that was a new nickname for us, I guess. I assumed he was trying to be intimidating, but, I didn't really feel like cowering given that we now outnumbered, and probably even out-muscled them... er... him. Looking at the time, I almost wish I didn't burn down their cart and cause their horse to flee, probably would have gotten us to our destination quicker, at least... and THEN I could have burned the thing once we got there... ah, well, it's too late to fix that.

Dorisma ignored the screaming coward that ran away, evigorated by watching the mage and the rougeish character both fall to her companions. Which meant there was only one person left. Dorisma lumbered towards the last fighter and quickly lauched a punch with her right hand, well-aimed, but the fighter managed to duck out of the way. Non-fazed Dorisma continued, slamming her other fist into the fighter. Or that was the plan, but the fighter seemed to have already adapated to her attacks and her fist was deflected into a large nearby rock. The rock was cracked and Dorisma's fist was bleeding, however if the fighter didn't make a run for it his head was going to be both of those.

The remaining fighter, while apparently looking for a challenge, somehow figured out that I was capable of casting curing magic, and he ran right for me, great sword in hand, and I didn't really see that coming, given that I assumed he was going to attack Dorisma, the strongest member in our group. I tried to dodge, but he still managed to get me, damaging my armor, and cutting me across the chest. Thankfully, the cut wasn't deep enough to hit anything vital, but it still hurt like heck. I wanted to attack him, right then and there, but he was already back at Dorisma by the time I really knew what was going on. Ugh... why'd he have to attack ME first? Is it because I'm the only healer? Guess I'd better get used to having a target painted on my back if I'm going to keep using healing magic... I thought as I tried my best to bandage myself up, if only to stop the bleeding... thankfully, it actually worked, but I had to take a few pieces of cloth from my cloak in order to do so. Given the color of the cloth-bandage, I guess the blood won't actually show up, but I didn't really want to have to try to sew it back together, even if it still looked relatively normal after this. The fighter just looked at me, smile plastered on his face as if he knew that what he did could have ended a LOT worse for me... as if he was holding back just to get me to worry about the fight. No, I knew we still had him cornered, and outnumbered... there wasn't anything he could do. He was going to fall in battle, if not by me, then perhaps by Miles' aim, Deravan's speed, Trey's magic, or Dorisma's brute strength.

After mangling the Mage, Robert ran up to him and drove a rapier through his heart, shortly before being accosted by the remaining fighter. The fighting was already pretty brutal, with Dorisma having a nasty day with punching and Robert taking a slash quite bravely. As I was alarmed at the incursion, I drew out another one of my knives taking aim as I... I chucked my Dragonsteel knife at the fighter. Right before throwing the knife, I had an odd vision that I had already thrown the thing, leading to me releasing the knife too early. I actually physically cringed and rubbed my chin, the fighter's armour proving too thick for my powerless knife, reappearing in my hand still warm. It did leave a few sparks that scorched the fighter's face as he tried to figure out what happened, but I seriously hoped someone else had a plan.

As Deravan saw the man going to run away, he wanted to chase after him, but he was out of there, quickly escaping. Dang... he wanted to actually beat him down. He looked at the fighter instead. He quickly moved with his katana, with the fighter standing there, going to dodge... He would have if Deravan didn't just do a fake attack and then strike at him at the other side, hitting his blade right at the side of his chest, dealing some good damage to him and making the wind blow hard, pushing him. Deravan then backed away quickly, his blade ready, in position now, ready for the next strike. He hoped the group could take care of this guy before he hurt the group more. He was actually surprised though that no one tried to attack him really...

After their mage friend died, one of the fighters got scared and ran, but the other one, for some odd reason, decided to stay and fight. Trey found it somewhat amusing that he thought he had even a slight chance of survival. His armour was protecting him now, but with all of the attacks he was taking, there was no way he could endure much more. Trey swooped down and tried to attack once again, but just like last time, the fighter managed to get out of the way. He didn't mind, of course, since the others would finish him off soon, anyway.

Everyone seemed to be having a hard time attacking this guy, and Backstabs finally got a hit in... but his armor protected him from most, if not all of it, unfortunately. Sure, she TRIED to hit a weak point in the armor, but, it wasn't as weak as it seemed, at first, and her dagger, while still doing some minor damage, bounced off of him for the most part, however... a scorch mark appeared on him, as if the fire damage wasn't blocked by his armor. I then thought of something. Metal armor... hm... I wonder if using a lightning spell will make it easier to hit him... I thought as I prepared the spell, and somehow actually managed to hit him, and pretty decently, too. Of course, I was almost out of magical energy at that point, and I might have to use the last bit to heal if things keep going this way. "C...can anyone else use magic? Can anyone else heal? Another magic attack might just do the trick, but... if we can't heal, things can go bad, QUICK," the fighter then laughs at this, and shouts "Who needs to heal anyways, huh!? Healing's for the weak! For those dorks that wear frilly, fancy ROBES to a fight! Ha, healing... I'm honestly GLAD that my healer's gone, only the strong and brave deserve to be adventurers!" I was almost certain that his healer already saved his life several times before, and for him to just talk about healing like that... calling his speech disrespectful would be a compliment at this point. 'Healing's for the weak'... sure, I might not be able to take hits like Dorisma can, sure, I'm not as powerful a mage as Trey was... but, I got here, right? In one piece, no less.