The imp deftly dodged the thrown dagger as it clattered into the canyon wall, flying above him with its fork in one hand. The demon's wings and small size would make it an irritating target, but once it landed on a nearby shield, he could properly take a shot at it.

Eldarin held the bow with arrows nocked, ready to be swiftly pulled back and fired given as once the imp was a few moments into charging another fireball. Soon enough that the shot would arrive first, but late enough to at least make the imp focus on his spell and perhaps make he think he could beat Eldarin to the draw.

The imp hopped from clawed foot to clawed foot as it raised its catalyst to prepare another fireball. And whilst it was distracted, Eldarin's shot struck true, striking the little blighter right in the chest and pinning it to the wall. It dropped its catalyst and its fingers grabbed at the arrow in its chest as it attempted to pull it out. The small creature finally perished with blood dripping down the canyon walls.

Eldarin gave a sigh of relief as it died. To be honest it hadn't been that difficult, but fighting a group of those could be dangerous. Eldarin glanced at the fallen catalyst. It could be helpful, but it made a poor melee weapon and a worse shield, neither of which he was willing to accept. Re-slinging his bow across his shoulders and picking up his sword Eldarin turned around and kept moving. He wondered when he would find something that didn't want to kill him. So far just about everything but the air itself had tried to kill him and frankly, he wouldn't surprised if that happened as well.

The route beyond the cliff face he'd just passed deviated slightly. He could see a slope moving up toward a small outcropping of rock, not naturally formed either. Large stones had been placed, similarly to a wall, at the top of the incline, with a gap in the middle to move through. On his direct left there was a cave entrance with a heavy greatshield set into the wall beside it. He could see something inside of the cave, a huddled mass that might be a figure.

Eldarin viewed the un-natural path warily. The only way to move forward seemed to be by going though that chokepoint, a logical place for an ambush. Deciding that dealing with that could he glanced into the cave. Another person? Probably not a bandit, perhaps another adventurer like himself. Curiosity getting the best of him, Eldarin ventured inside, calling out softly, "You alive in there friend?" Past experience ruled that either the figure would try to kill him or something else in the cave would. Still, he would welcome another companion and if worst came to worst, perhaps there was something helpful on his body or in the cave.

"Yes... please, help me." The figure said with a wispy and quiet voice, followed by a slight cough as the fold of cloth that he was began to rise slightly. He could see a face under a hood and limbs in long sleeves, at the very back of the cave that turned out to be bigger than he expected, rounding out around him.

Eldarin backed away warily to the entrance. "Sure friend, what'ya need?" He asked in a friendly fashion, weapons held loosely, though he making sure to keep his distance from the, admittedly somewhat creepy individual before him. It wasn't that he didn't.... Well that was actually exactly it. Trust was something Eldarin was distinctly lacking at the moment.

"All your belongings will do..." The figure smirked as from behind, Eldarin bumped into a large heavy greatshield, held in the hands of a particularly muscular bandit, blocking the only exit from the cavern. From around the cave, around 5 other bandits revealed themselves from the darkness, each one holding a crossbow and aiming at him. "Poison tipped bolts, my friend. You try anything and we'll leave ya writhing."

Shit. Shit. Shit. Chances of fighting his way out. Next to 0. Obviously the dummy with the shield wasn't going to move for anything and Eldarin couldn't brute force his way through. His trick against the previous group of bandits wouldn't work here, no one was in immediate range for starters, plus there were more of them. Firebombs? Not enough time to use them effectively and they wouldn't make shield guy move either, the burning would take too long to get rid of the shield. His bow was useless. Damit. Did he think they'd be content with all his belongings? He'd be totally at their mercy and he doubted they had much of that. If they for some reason spared him he could backtrack, grab the catalyst and the axe. Giveup, flee, fight, all his options were looking very grim. Which one to choose? Giving up left him totally at their mercy which was practically unbearable. But he was already more or less at their mercy. They could kill him fairly easily at this point, surely if they also wanted his life they would've already fired? He would just have to go along with it until let down their guard or... Well best not to think of the 'or'. Eldarin sighed. "Fine. I'm clearly outmatched." With that said Eldarin dropped his sword and shield to the ground and slowly began unloading himself of his possessions. His gold, his bow, his arrows, his firebombs, everything save for his armor, though he made sure to put the cluster of firebombs at his feet, so he could possibly kick them at his opponents if such an opportunity presented itself. Damit.

"Good boy, good boy. Be thankful, really, if an imp got you, he'd be picking you clean like a vulture." The cloaked man smiled as he rose to his feet and prepared to take his goods, when the large bandit with the shield suddenly made a loud sound of disgruntlement. "Oi, Gulley? You alright?" the cloaked man looked over at him. He was just in time to watch the large bandit keel over on his front and fall down dead.

From the cave entrance, surrounded by a glowing halo from the sunlight outside, a knight stepped forth into the cave. He was clad head to toe in pale blue armour, a billowing white cloak flowing behind him and a white plume upon his helmet. In one hand he held a large broadsword with a golden hilt. In the other, he held a rounded shield with a metal brim around it, a symbol in the center of a goblet dripping over with a black liquid. His mere presence radiated valor and majesty.

"Cowardly thieves, have you no shame in stealing from your fellow man?" he spoke to them as the bandits suddenly turned on him.

"Damn you!" the cloaked figure snarled as his fellow men turned on the knight and fired. The knight brought up his shield and blocked the arrows, dashing forward and swinging his blade, connecting with one of the men and knocking him into his fellows. For now, all the bandits attention was on him.

For a moment Eldarin looked behind him and was just as confused as the bandits. The next he'd turned back and seized the opportunity for what it was, hurling a firebomb with his foot into the clustered bandits and rearming himself with shield and sword. It was practically a miracle to not only have had someone else come by, but also someone who seemed to have good intentions.

The firebomb's explosion swallowed up the three bandits for a moment, badly burning three of them as the knight was busy finishing off the other two crossbowmen with strong strikes of his sword.

"You goddamned scum!" The man in the cloak snapped as he threw himself at Eldarin, wrapping his arms around him and quickly trying to stick him with a dagger.

The man was faster than he thought, attacking him even as Eldarin armed himself and getting the jump on him. His chainmail should prevent any stabs from doing much more than bruising him, but Eldarin had to deal with him quickly before the man found a weak spot. Blindly trusting his armor to protect him for the most part, Eldarin stepped forward, one leg sneaking behind the man. Recongnizing the uselessness of his longsword in this situation, it clattered to the ground once again as his right hand slammed into the man's throat, the objective to slam the man into the ground. If the man had the mental fortitude to continue his stab despite the hand on his throat and likely crushed windpipe if he crashed to the ground with Eldarin's hand still there, as was his intent, then the stab might have a bit of force behind it, though Eldarin was more focused on his current objective rather than possible harm to himself.

The man's knife stabbed repeatedly and desperately at him, hitting his armour in the side three times and thankfully finding no clear weakspots. The grab had him reeling on the ground and scrabbling backward, attempting to escape him. But this attempt was quickly halted as the sword of the pale blue knight plunged into his stomach and ran him right through. The man scrabbled and screamed in pain and quickly went silent before the knight placed a heavy greave upon him and drew his bloodied blade back out, cleaning it upon the rags of the bandits leader. All the others laid dead around the cavern. His helmeted head turned unto Eldarin, even with the visor over him, he could feel a strong gaze analysing him and checking every detail of his appearence.

"Are you alright? Did they harm you?" He asked.

Eldarin stood up and ran his hands over the attempted stabbings to ensure he hadn't been injured, then drew his attention back t the knight. "No, I'm fine thanks to you. I've very grateful, if you hadn't come along I'm afraid that might have been the end of me and even then it was a close thing." He said with forced cheeriness. Eldarin made a mental note to offer a prayer to Madison later and began re-equipping himself, though he paused before doing so to say, "Well, as you can see all of my possessions, feel free to ask for one of them. I'd be more than happy to give you anything I own in exchange for saving my life." Though he was interested in asking the knight about the curious emblem on his shield, he figured he should refrain for now. For some reason this knight seemed to be very powerful. His very presence was obvious and Eldarin somehow began wondering if he was even human. Seeing the knight who happened to save him had reminded him of Vane. Eldarin wondered how well his own path was going, hopefully he hadn't fallen into a similar trap. Though Vane was at least as capable, if not more so than Eldarin, so he wasn't overly worried.

"Please." the knight held a hand and shook his head. "I need nothing for the simple act of helping a fellow traveller, you would have done the same were I in that situation." the knight explained before casting his eyes back toward the cave entrance. "Come, the bandits had a camp just up ahead, we can get some rest there." He hefted his sword back onto his shoulder and headed out, cloak billowing behind him.

True enough. The knight must've come from the other direction and come upon the camp and headed past it. It also made sense considering the sigil on his shield for him to have come from deeper in the kingdom. Eldarin nodded and hastily finished donning his gear, following after the impressive knight.

The knight led him outside and headed up the slope Eldarin had seen earlier. Upon reaching the top and entering the ring of stone there, they did indeed find a small camp the bandits had set up, a roaring fire set up and crackling on the fresh firewood, some small smooth boulders set up as seats. A leather pouch had been left behind with some food in it too, some simple dried meat and a loaf of bread, plus a flask of water.
"My name is Bronwick." the knight introduced himself as he took a seat and laid his sword down. "What is yours?"

Eldarin took a seat. "Eldarin Vrus, for now, I'm an adventurer following stories of the black ichor." He didn't bother asking why the knight was here, as he felt Bronwick would either tell him or not. Besides, he was more focused on chowing down on the food that had been so opportunely discovered. He had forgotten about eating for a while to be honest. He'd have to better about that in the future, proper care of his boy was critical for top performance.