The man brought up his dagger to bounce off his blow and when it became a thrust, he had no way to stop him. The sword punctured his stomach and went further through as blood spilt from the bandit's teeth, robbing him of his knife and arrow as he just held the wound, grunting and shivering in pain.

It occured to Eldarin that he was perhaps a bit too used to killing people. Not that he'd been given much of a choice in the matter but it was still something to think about. Even more worth thinking about since the realization of that fact didn't overly bother him, which should be bothering in it of itself. Currently however he facing a man who, without further action, would die a long painful death over several hours. This would be of course, be a perfect time to interogate the man. But was there anything Eldarin thought the man could, or would, tell him? Well it was worth a shot at least. Watching the man carefully as he stood a few steps away in the event of any last ditch attacks, Eldarin spoke calmly, "Now either you suffer like that for a while, or you can help me out by answering a question or two. In exchange I'll kill you quicker. What dangers are there further along this place?"

"Guhh..." the bandit coughed as more blood spilt from his lips, looking up at Eldarin. "M-more of us... more bandit gangs r-robbing... imps... imps with tridents... they h-" he stopped to cough some more. "They hide and attack when they can... god, kill me! End my pain!" he begged, desperation clouding his eyes.

Gods he wasn't cut out for tourturing people. Killing them was one thing, this was another. Without a word Eldarin swiftly thrust his blade into the man's heart and stepped back. More bandits and whatever these 'imps' were. Whatever they were, they were apparantly fearsome enough to frighten a group of three bandits, or perhaps even more. Meaning they likely came in swarms. Just dandy. Eldarin looked at the three bodies in front of him. Ethics wasn't in question here, he searched them for coins or anything else of value to him. The dagger could prove helpful in a pinch, Eldarin stuck that in his belt. The axe was useless to him. The bow and arrows though. Hm. They could prove cumbersome and it was doubtful he'd even have a chance to use them. Well they couldn't be that troublesome. Perhaps if he slung it on his shoulder and carried it that way with the arrows at his belt? Every now and then Eldarin glanced around to make sure nothing was sneaking up on him. It was safe to assume that he was never safe.

The bandits barely had a copper between them, making only a scraping of 25 gold between them. The bandit's bow was a shortbow, fairly cheap. His pack still contained 13 arrows, to boot. The dagger too was fairly cheap, rough wooden handle with a few specks of rust upon the blade, a few nicks in its handle. For now, the area around him was still. A path led beyond the clearing, continuing into the valley, an elevated section of the rocky wall, a dead end with skeletal remains on the lower section.

Well nothing but to keep moving onward. The bow would work, if he really needed to move he wouldn't worry overly about breaking it, but for now it might come in handy. Doing one more sweep of the area Eldarin began deeper into the valley. He wasn't eager to run into another ambush but staying here was pointless. All he could do was procede carefully.

As he saw before, two paths were open to him. The flat section with the skeleton st the end, a wall of rock preventing further passage. Or, there was the raised Edno of rock, sticking out of the valley wall. It was thin and precarious but it would get him past the dead end.

Eldarin looked at the thin path leerily. Perhaps there was a hidden path by the skeleton, it couldn't to look. He made his way to the skeleton, careful to make sure he didn't become one, looking for any other paths or anything else out of the ordinary.

At the end of the dead end, he came upon the skeleton. His bones showed small burn marks in places, indicating his skin was probably burned continuously by a strong source of fire, slumped up against the rock face. There was little else of note in this dead end, as it truly was, a dead end. But, the left fingers of the skeleton seemed to be curled around something.

Eldarin noted the flame marks, perhaps these creatures could use fire if so it was simply another thing to be wary of. He'd just turned to to leave with the skeletons fiercely closed hand caught his attention. Curious Eldarin stepped closer and pried the skeleton's hand open.

The skeletons finger bones snapped off when he pried open its clutch, exposing it's prize. It was holding on to a small bag which, when opened, revealed a small collection of firebombs, 4 in total. The fact they were still intact after burning was incredible.

Eldarin grinned excitedly at the discovery of his prize. These could be quite helpful, Eldarin was feeling much more confident with his considerable amount of new tools. Securing the bag to himself carefully he began heading along the other path, his excitement replaced by wariness.

The sloping path was thin, barely wide enough to fit a man across it. He'd need to press his back into the wall once he reached the higher section, drawing closer to the top of the wall. Suddenly, he saw a bright flash above him and a fireball the size of his head came soaring at him from above.

Figures. Eldarin set his feet carefully and watched the fireball, just before it would've struck him, his shield swung into motion, slamming into the fireball from the side and deflecting him below him, the small flames Eldarin had set racing along the shield's outside protecting it from his enemy's magic. The next moment Eldarin had a firebomb in his hand and hurled it up where he'd seen the projectile come from, hoping it would at least distract or injure the man long enough for him to finish climbing the cliff.

The caster of said fireball, was no man. In fact, it looked very inhuman. What he saw was in fact a short humanoid creature, grey skinned with a pair of small leathery wings upon its back. It was about half the height of a human with a wicked looking face and a sharp toothed little grin, small horns poking out of its head. In its hands it was holding a two pronged silver fork, acting as a catalyst for its fireball it cast at him. The firebomb sailed toward it but the impish creature flapped its wings and flew above it, distracted for the moment.

That must be one of those nasty imps he'd been warned about. Fire magic and a weird fork thing, they probably bit if they got the chance and he'd have to make sure he didn't get headbutted. However what was most important was making his way off this narrow path, it wasn't big enough for him to comfortably use his bow and he didn't want to waste anything missing the imp.

The imp landed back down on the ride and it raised its catalyst, its pronged tips beginning to burn with fire as it prepared another fireball to attack him with. If Eldarin wanted to avoid him and get off the path, he'd have to move quickly.

Eldarin noted the imp's preparation for another fireball and merely prepared himself to repeat the maneuver. He could deflect as many fireballs as he needed to before he got onto even ground and could actually begin fighting. Which meant of course he was moving as fast as he could along the path without tumbling below.

His fast movement brought him right to the precipice of the flat ground, just as the imp's catalyst finished charging and it flung another fireball in his direction.

Finally he could fight. Eldarin whirled, once again slamming his magic coated shield into the fireball and knocking ineffectively to the side. Hardly a moment more had passed when Eldarin simultaneously dropped his sword and hurled a dagger with his shield hand, regardless of whether the blade hit he unslung the bow and took aim with an air that spoke of proficiency. While Eldarin by no means specialized in using a bow, his natural combat abilities and small experience using them for hunting meant that he could use one well enough to get by.