[h3]Domhnall and Iridiel[/h3]

	Still in a state of semi-daze from the word of power and frozen in a semi-adequate knifefighter's stance, his mind yet to catch up with the fact that there was nothing [i]physical[/i] actually holding him place, Domhnall stared impotently as the newcomer and the younger black-eyes' swords clashed. There had been a stagger in his new acquaintance's step; it would appear that whatever invocation had stalled him and Iridiel had worked its magic on the squire, too ... but not the newcomer, who persisted her savage onslaught. With a flurry of white hair and oversized skirt, the white-eyes stormed past them, making a valiant effort of tearing the much larger frame of the newcomer back from her companion before latching herself onto her back and prompting the woman to drop her sword and throw herself backwards, onto the white-eyes, in what quite possibly was an actual attempt to crush the smaller person.
	For a moment, his eyes flickered off the struggle and onto Iridiel. 
	[i]"We should help?"[/i] he voiced, his intonation transforming the simple statement into a question. There was a measure of uncertainty in his tone, but nevertheless there was little doubt he considered it the right course of action. These people seemed like decent folks ... and truly, had it not been them wandering onto the scene not long ago, it could have quite easily been them fighting her alone. 

	[i]"Should we help? You're the master of stupid questions, aren't you... that... [b]thing[/b] was about to go after you were it not for that man in the scale armour! Come on, let's get a move on before we lose the advantage!"[/i] Iridiel crouched to pick up her crossbows and then willed herself as strong as she could to move - like the woman, Iridiel had not been as affected by the word of power of the white-skinned girl. She began to move towards the two struggling women, before she saw the man in the scale take a kick to... well... somewhere that a kick was not supposed to hit. She winced involuntarily.

	Iridiel appeared to have recovered somewhat quicker than he had; quite evidently, they could still move, though he somehow had persisting difficulties actually [i]believing[/i] it for himself. He had to consciously remind himself that there was nothing tangible that prevented him from proceeding onward. The bizarre disoriented sensation - which he could only compare to having downed slightly more than a reasonable amount of strong spirits - coupled with the similarly odd feeling of fear, or perhaps [i]uncanniness[/i], was not helping, either. 
	He had had the higher ground and unclouded mind when he had opted to go for the grey-skinned brute (the intelligence of the decision was still up to debate, though it had worked out well enough for them); now he had neither. And, for the matter, he had not really done much fighting against humanoids in the past (excluding a couple of brawls he had somewhat involuntarily been involved in). His targets - and occasional opponents - had been animals. The brute was just about bestial enough to be seen as one, but this "[i]thing[/i]", as Iridiel had put it, albeit savage, still bore a semblance a bit too strong to his own kind. 
	And on top of everything else, with his proper weapons too far to fetch, he still only had a knife. 
	Nevertheless,as Iridiel moved, so did he; worst came to worst, now that he knew the newcomer was a humanoid being rather than a beast of foreign and mysterious nature, he could probably stab her and hope that the effect would be not dissimilar to stabbing any other human. Or maybe borrow a page from the white-eyes' book - throw himself at her and hope for the best. There was enough of them there for each of her limbs, and then some. Enough to overwhelm her by sheer numbers. 
	The younger black-eyes staggered back from a rather nasty kick indeed ([i]Mind the boots. Got it.[/i]); he could only send the fellow a sympathetic look as he moved to circle around the struggling women, even though inwardly he wanted to cringe. Even Iridiel was wincing, and she did not have the anatomy to be able to properly relate...
	[i]Now what?[/i] He sent another questioning glance in Iridiel's direction; by now he had made his way to the opposite side of the white-eyes and newcomer (with Iridiel presumably on the other side), which left him quite open to try and disable her closest hand and arm or, if it came down to it, go for a stab from that side while the savage was otherwise occupied.  

	[i]"Domhnall, stop faffing about, and back me up, damn you!"[/i] 
	Iridiel sprinted over towards the battling duo on the ground and aimed her crossbows at the bestial human woman, who was still struggling to throw off the white-skinned woman - Thaler, Iridiel remembered her name being - and somehow failing. Iridiel decided to inform the brute woman that this fight was well and truly 'over'. 
	Stepping back for a modicum of additional leverage, Iridiel kicked the black-haired woman hard in the side of the face with the heel of her boot, sending a spray of bright crimson blood exploding from the point of impact, as well as several nasty scrapes and cuts on the woman's cheek and a possible broken nose - at least from the blood streaming down her face. If that weren't enough, Iridiel took advantage of the woman's inability to defend herself by planting her foot directly on one of the woman's breasts and pushing with most of her weight, whilst pointing her left-hand crossbow at the woman's face.
	[i]"Your move, bitch."[/i]

	In the background, the leader of the group and the beast from the faraway lands were making their way over.