---

The kenku listened silently to the jabbering by the other humanoids. The newly arrived stubby one was quite obviously lying about having allies, likely trying to fluff his feathers to appear more intimidating than he really was. The tactic wasn't foreign to the kenku, but it was usually used by someone who had more weight to their bluff.

Significantly more interesting were the words of the elf. The disappearance of the larger beasts of the forest was concerning, to say the least. Was this connected to his quest? Even if not, a druid could hardly ignore such a threat to nature. Out came the flask again, but this time it was turned fully upright as the kenku squawked in protest. Empty again? This day couldn't possibly get any worse... until he noticed the Sapphire eying his flask. Very carefully and slowly, he placed the flask inside his pack and withdrew another one before buckling the bag up again and tightening the straps, his eye not leaving her until she no longer lusted after his drink.

As the kenku released the seal on his new bottle, his gaze was split between the Sapphire and the Fishknight as he consoled the kenku for the curse now long rendered upon his kin. He had begun to proclaim what was likely an exceedingly long introduction to the life and times of walking salmon when the party was spared the torture by a tortured scream. In a flash, the kenku bounded towards the source, much faster than one would expect from a seemingly inebriated old bird. His staff was in his hand, a new flame conjured and at the ready.

He arrived shortly after the shrill whistle had sounded. It was obviously a signal, and if the know-everything Jacoby was correct, it spelled trouble soon to arrive. "Stick with me!" came a confident male voice from the kenku. "Enemies approach, but we will cut the dogs asunder!"

Safira was so deep inside her own world that when sounds penetrated the walls of her inner world she was violently jarred into full consciousness of her surroundings. The huntress saw a panther appear out of nowhere and lunge itself forward with a deadly precision. A pained shriek followed soon after as the predator most certainly had found it’s pray. Safira was startled into motion following the animal and her newfound companions as they went to check what was transpiring. Just as she was approaching the grouping she heard a loud whistle and saw a man lying on the ground, held their by the heavy body of the panther.

The human male, Jacoby and Bobbin, the kenku were apparently trying to interrogate the man as to his intentions and whatnot, aided by the... fin guy... who appeared inraged. Still confused by being pulled out of her inner world sanctum so abruptly Safira couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. It was a weakness of her she was well aware of and something her training could never uproot. Or mayhaps it was due precisely to her gruesome training regimen during her childhood that had led her to seek solace inside herself, forsaking all thought of the outside world. So the huntress had found it helpful to at least be as best prepared as she could in moments like this present one. So she drew her sward and employing her blood hunter training, infusing the blade with her own life force, calling upon her Crimson Rite of the Storm. Lightning crackled ominously throughout the curved length of her scimitar, held at the ready at her side as Safira surveyed the surroundings wearily.

She might have been caught unawares as to the current situation. But she would not be caught unprepared should something new and possibly life threatening should transpire!

The others followed, not so much her that much was to be thankful for, as she dove into the low brush and soon found her way to the pinned man and her company, the latter of which had grasped him with splayed claws and forced him into the dirt and leaf litter upon the ground. At first she considered asking the ebon beast, its sleek fur making it an inky blot in the forest's dark background if it were not for the glinting, glowing insects staying at bay, but as she went to speak the others set in about the man with their own individual furies. Words were tossed and thrown, some hurled like spears in their incomprehensible eloquence while others were overt and blunt like a sling launched from a stone; much talk about danger, other talk about demanding answers, talk still about some... bandits?

She knelt down, looking from the crow-man - rather the kenku - to the forest next as she spoke in hushed tones to the cat who she set an arm about. Her hand cupped to his ear as his jowls snarled with lightly frothing saliva in menace, her intent not to surrender anything of worth to the man held captive in the sharp, hooked claws of a cat, intending the message solely for the panther and his sensitive ears.

"Jamil they think more are coming. Try not to kill too many of them if they do. They might be the only ones to know what is going on - everyone else doesn't seem to."

The elf woman glanced about where her knee fell to rest, her keen elven eyes piercing the dark, but she gave up on that and came to a new, better idea. Vines would have worked for a time, but people often had rope. In fact, she had rope, which was a miracle it came to her so fast that she set down her pack and unbuckled the coiled hempen thing. Normally she had little use for it, but she could later thank her unintentional foresight of keeping it around.

"Someone help me with this rope, we need to tie him if what you say is true." Shaedra said, thinking with as fleet of foot in mind as she could as the others seemed prepared for battle. Jamil of Azalorn could join them if things took a turn for the worse, but the wild druid would much prefer the man be subdued first - the last thing she wanted was him to hurt them, only to then escape.


@Guardian Angel Haruki@JBRam2002@Pennydumb123@rush99999@ihinka@Cu Chulainn@0 Azzy 0

While everything was going down, Boram was hyperventilating, running frantically around the forest. He was too young to die!, he had a family who'd miss him, a family that he provided for, if he were to die they'd be screwed, his eyes darted across the forest, spotting a really big black cat, which pounced on a bandit, he froze up upon seeing the B on the bandit, Could it be the Black hands?, had they come for him?!. but he sighed in relief upon seeing that it was not the black hands, he'd rather fight a thousand dragons, than one black hand, at least a dragon would kill him quickly. Sweat poured down his head, he felt like he was naked and vulnerable, with a thousand panther's moving in to kill him, he scanned the area around him, looking for scumbags, scumbags here to kill a scumbag. he drew his crossbow, spinning like a ball in order to spot any predators, but then a thought came to his mind.

Why fight when you can hide?.

Boram quickly searched for a bush and threw himself into it, becoming one with the bush. after a small while it would appear as if Boram was never apart of the group, Boram pulled out his crossbow, poking it out of the bush, pointing it at anything that looked remotely threatening. "this is just like hunting deer" his voice cracked as he tried to calm himself down, it didn't work though, he was terrified of deer


@The Harbinger of Ferocity@ihinka@JBRam2002

The Bandit squirmed and wriggled as much as he could, but he found that no matter what he did, he could not escape the panther's hooked claws as they continued to keep pushing the thief into the dirt. Jamil easily heard the strangers come up behind him and focus their attention on the thief that was in front of them.

“Yond whistle! Bid me what yond means, 'r I shall skew'r thee on mine own trident and weareth thy knott'd c'rpse like a bann'r!”

The thief yelped when the scaled paladin angrily shouted at him, demanding answers. The thief would have have laughed at the fact that the paladin couldn't pick up on what the whistle meant, but he was too scared by the paladin's threat and the fact that a panther was holding him down didn't help him keep what little composure he had left.

The thief took a couple of breaths, and one fearful gulp, before he answered the Paladin's question,

"Y-You'll...You'll find out...very soon"

As Jacoby and Boram would look around, they would see that in the distance, there is a faint glow of a fire. That glow is lightly obscured by a triangular structure.
But unfortunately there wasn't much time to deliberate on what that source could be.

There is the sound of rustling around them, and the sound of swords being unsheathed and bolts being nocked could be heard all around them. They have found themselves at the start of a battle.

None of the bandits who are pointing their weapons at the people around the apprehended thief, didn't seem to notice Boram hiding in the bushes.

---

@Guardian Angel Haruki@Pennydumb123@The Harbinger of Ferocity@ihinka@JBRam2002@0 Azzy 0

”Oh, f'r the love of-!” Mirdas exclaimed as he heard the many bandits approaching, shouting a series of... splashing noises, fish glubbing, and dolphin squeaks, likely cursing in Aquan.

”Very well, then! Steel thyselves, good gents! Persana, with thine Conch and Trident, grant these lads their fortune heightened!”

Raising his shelled shield as a divine glow surrounded the symbol emblazoned upon it, Mirdas’s last statement seemed to be a prayer seeping with godly power. The glow on his shield intensified for just a moment, before flying in three beams towards Jacoby, Bobbin, and Boram, resulting in faint, blue light surrounding them; a blessing of Persana, himself.

”Cover mine own flank!” Mirdas continued to the three that he had just blessed, before interposing himself between a line of bandits and the two other travelers who are tying their captive up. Giving them a quick sideways glance and a nod, Mirdas turned towards the brigands with a determined look in his face.

As the situation continued to resolve, Signod began to piece together a better picture of what was going on here. Though he didn't have a perfectly clear view of the spectacle, the garbled words filtering back to him seemed to indicate that the elf and her friends had assaulted another fellow traveler and were seemingly in the process of tying him up. Somewhere in there he could have sworn the name 'Barnaby Brothers' had come up. So these were the notorious band of brigands. It struck him as a bit odd that the one who seemed to lead the others was an elven maiden (not very brother-like at all), but he supposed she might just be some sort of enforcer or lesser officer in the gang.

Silently offering a prayer to every dwarven god he could call to mind, he profusely thanked them for giving him that brilliant stroke of inspiration in convincing this band of outlaws that he was part of a larger group and thus not worth their trouble. If it were not for that bit of quick-thinking, it was almost certain that he would be the one on the ground right now being tied up by a deceitful elf. Now that it came it it, perhaps the elf wasn't mistaken at all- maybe the elf had been the one to start all those false rumors about animals disappearing in the first place so she could lure hapless adventurers into her clutches! It did seem to be the nefarious sort of thing he might expect from her.

Fortunately, the unfortunate adventurer that the elven maiden had assaulted was not alone, as became quickly apparent with the sound of weapons being drawn all around the small band of bandits. Surrounded, the elf and her band of brigands now found themselves in danger of being brought to justice by this mysterious new group of nameless heroes. That is, unless this nameless group of heroes was a second rival band of bandits here to put an end to the Barnaby Brothers.

That thought in mind and crossbow still in hand, Signod began to slowly move away from the burgeoning brawl, ready to fire off a few arrows if any of these thieves came his way.



@The Harbinger of Ferocity tis your turn.

A thing of action and reaction rather than any amount of thought, the elf's hands worked hastily and precisely to formulate a loop, then tell, then more, then and with continued swiftness, wrangle an arm then another. It was not her own doing of course, the great black cat weighed down upon the man and soon another pair of working hands set in against him. Both to her surprise and lack thereof, it turned out to be the hunter-woman, whose sword just moments before roared to life with magic.

At such a point however, as she leaned in against the man's armor and quite literally forced his hand until he gave and allowed the chance to slip his bonds over, a group more of men arrived, all of who were clearly unfriendly with weapons drawn and aimed. Regularly this would have been to be expected, but what convinced her this was as much a threat as it appeared was the reaction of the rest of the ragtag wanderers; not only did they recognize the man as a threat, some member of a bandit throng, they immediately went to arms to do something about it. That was good enough reason as anything else to subdue or kill the armed would-be ambushers.

Tightening the knot, she continued her work, with the aid of man - woman specifically - and beast. When she looked to the cat however, an unspoken word gave him the knowledge he needed; do whatever he needed to do to keep the enemy at bay. Swords, arrows, knives, daggers and the like were a threat, but the claws and teeth of a frenzied jaguar in the moonlit wood? Much more frightening, especially given any ounce of weakness was going to be exploited by the animal. All they had to do was finish their work with the bandit...


@Guardian Angel Haruki@JBRam2002@Pennydumb123@rush99999@ihinka@Cu Chulainn@0 Azzy 0

The Bandit who is currently being tied up struggled as much as he could, but it was to no avail. The panther was too strong, and the elf was even faster, and she had help from another woman. He caught sight of the other bandits and he called out desperately, "Brothers! Help, please!"

The bandits that surrounded the group immediately acted, deciding to ignore the strange lights that hit the bird, blind man, and bush. Five of the bandits, charged into the group. Two from behind approached Shaedra and Safira, while three others approached Bobbin, Jacoby, and Mirdas. The other five bandits lifted their crossbows and aimed.

The two bandits that approached Shaedra and Safira grinned lecherously and as one of them commented, "Well, looky here Horus! I think we've interrupted a bit of foreplay!"
The second bandit slid his finger across his scimitar blade and answered with a stupid pun, "Aye, Boris! Sorry, lassies, mind if we cut in?"
The two then attacked. Boris's blade swung too wide and missed Safira, while Horus was able to slash across Shaedra's arm. The bandit who was apprehended yelped in fear, due to the fact that the blades had swung too close for comfort for him.

The bandit who approached Jacoby smirked and laughed "A blind man? Heh, this'll be too easy. Don't worry old man. It'll be all over soon," He then slashed, intending to aim for the neck. While his blade did find its mark, it did not cut the throat. Instead it only left a scratch on Jacoby's cheek.

Mirdas' bandit opponent approached the fish man and after looking over the paladin, he asked in confusion and curiosity with a tilt of his head, "Whaddaya 'sposed t'be? M'rmaid?" Since the question was rhetorical, the bandit just shrugged and attacked, his blade only found purchase with the shield.

The fifth bandit screamed as he ran up to the kenku and attempted to slash at him. His blade only found air, and he grinned at the kenku. He licked at his blade and giggled maniacally, "Good! I get to fight a bird! I've been craving roast chicken these days...!" Yeah...this bandit may be a few eggs short of a chicken coop...

The bandits that stayed back and aimed their crossbows, looked to the leading crossbow expert of the thieves. After the silent words given,
"Ready...
Aim....
Fire!"
The five bolts were sent flying, and all found purchase on their targets. These bandits were clearly not slouches when it came to their training with the crossbow. They all grinned as they nocked their crossbow bolts once again.





Jamil heeded Shaedra's words, and he kept his weight on the bandit, until she started tying the bandit up. He looked around at the bandits that surrounded them. He knew they shouldn't have stayed and waste time with strangers! This is what they get for sticking around. Before Jamil could even attack, one of the bandits ran up to Shaedra and slashed at her, while a flying piece of metal managed to stick itself in her arm. He jowls lifted upwards even more into a menacing snarl, if it was possible, and with a angry yowl, he bit the bandit with the sword and found purchase in his calf.

The bandit screamed and shouted "Augh! Boris! Help! That thing just bit me!

Jamil then took his position in front of Shaedra, facing the two bandits that were closest to her and the other woman. Jamil snarled at the bandits, his animalistic cries interpreted to Shaedra as,

"Go ahead. Touch the elf-cub again. I dare you,"





The Bandit Captain studied the group that was apprehending one of his brothers. Nobody messes with a brother and gets away with it! The blind man looked like he would be the easiest to kill off. Chorus has him covered.

Boris and Horus have the two women and cat covered. Once they free the apprehended lookout, then they'll be even.

Lorus has the walking bird covered. The man was unpredictable and crazy, so it was usually best to not get in his way.

That left the walking and talking fish man. He dashed up to face the fish man, and he commented "Looks like you could use the help Morris! Let's get this freak together!" After Morris nodded, and answered "Th'nks, C'ptin," the Bandit Captain attacked. His scimitar found the shield, but the captain wasn't worried. There was still the dagger.

He aimed the dagger at fish man's neck, only to find that the scales were much stronger than he had anticipated. Apparently fighting this man wasn't going to be like gutting a fish.

---

The foes surrounded them with a speed unexpected, blades whirring and missing all around them, followed by crossbow bolts. One such bolt found its mark in a location the kenku did not care to discuss, and he squawked in pain as he turned his ire towards the foe next to him. The squawk slowly morphed into an ursine roar as the kenku's form grew, feathers transforming to fur and fists to claws. The kenku-turned-bear stood on its hind paws, mimicking the near-drunken stance of the monk as it towered over the bandit. A step placed the bandit between him and one of his allies, and the brown bear dropped forward, his teeth tearing into the bandit followed by a raking of his claws against the crazed villain's face.

Not many simple bandits could withstand an onslaught from such a foe, and this bandit was no different. Perhaps his last thought was regret about mistaking the kenku for chicken, or perhaps it was proclaiming the majesty of the ferocious beast that bore down on him. In any case, the bandit's body twisted and flew to the ground with a sickening thud as the bear turned its attention to the other enemies before him. The fish seemed to be able to take care of himself, and the elf had a panther to assist her despite seemingly heavily wounded. The Jacoby creature was too far away for Bobbin to be of assistance. That left the Sapphire who would now find a large bear opposite her enemy as another angry roar sounded.

Safira had just sheathed her sword to help the woodland elf with tying up their stalker, her Crimson Rite fading as soon as the weapon left her grip, the electric crackle of the lightning dying down, when all of a sudden the purpose of the whistle she'd heard became apparent. A dozen or so men emerged from the brush and surrounded them in no time at all. Gods be damned! Safira gritted her teeth in irritation. She should have stayed in the bloody tree. Instead of the peaceful walk to the nearest town or village, she'd met with this rag-tag crew of travelers, a giant panther had caught a brigand stalking them. And now it appeared his friends had come to play. Very well! She thought with grimness. I hope you know the price for such games.

The blood huntress quickly crouched down to help the elf woman with tying up the thug still held down by the giant black cat. He twisted and trashed about. Or at least he tried to. But between Safira, the elf and the panther, they managed to tie the the brigand good and well.

Meanwhile combat had erupted around them between the newcomers and their own little rag-tag group. Safira sensed the fin guy taking position behind them as if to dissuade the other brigands from approaching. That still left their front unprotected and the hoodlums took fool advantage of that. Two came at them with some crass remark they probably thought was original. Before either she, or her elf companion could react to protect themselves, the hoodlums attacked, wounding the other woman and somehow missing Safira. The huntress sprang to her full height, intending to use her imposing figure to stave off the thugs' enthusiasm, when a piercing pain lodged itself in her right thigh. It caused her to grunt in pain and drop to a knee in reaction to a crossbow bolt embedding itself in her leg.

"Curses!" Safira muttered. She bowled her hands in fists, gritted her teeth and stood up slowly. Her right leg protested when she put equal weight on it, but she ignored it. Her training kicking in without fail when in peril. Her blood ran hot and cold. She slowly drew her scimitar, the wound in her leg momentarily preventing her from reactivating her Crimson Rite. She stared down the brigand that had tried to cut her with his blade. As she faced off with him she found herself not alone in this match-up. A bear had joined the fight!

As it did not appear to be a wild bear based on its behavior, she could only guess it was either a companion of one of her fellow travelers, like the black panther that appeared to travel with the elf, or it was one of those people capable of Wild Shape. As a blood huntress she was required to know about many forms of magic and rituals. Wild Shape was among them. She wondered if this was the case, who was it that employed that technique, but had no time to look about their little battle field to check. Well, whoever it is, looks like they mean to help, flanking the thug like that. She thought, fresh determination infusing her lifeblood.

She looked at the hoodlum again and grinned.

The chaos of combat raged all around him, this was nothing like hunting deer, he briefly considered getting out of the bush, and running as fast as his little halfling legs could take him, but he couldn't leave everyone to die, he huddled in his bush, watching the chaos unfold before his eyes, blood flying everywhere, the roar of a bear came out of nowhere, Boram was beginning to wonder if he was on drugs, this simply couldn't be possible, yet it was, the drum of combat banged in his ears, causing him to nearly go deaf, he prayed that he'd make it through this day, Please God let me get through this day he whispered to himself, clutching the crossbow, he took out a small black vial with a skull on it, a deadly poison known as Fearfreak, which did exactly what it said on the tin, it infected it's victims with a deadly fear, and made them freak out, it was so potent that a large enough dosage could cause someone to die, it was quite ironic, the cowering coward causes others to freak out. His hand trembling he took out two crossbow bolts, dipping them in the vial, he loaded one on the crossbow, aiming it at a particularly large bandit, who appeared to be the bandit captain, if he killed their leader, maybe, just maybe he could end this fight early. he pressed the trigger of the crossbow, sending the bolt soaring through the air...

Hitting the Captain directly through the eye, jabbing it right through his knee, Boram's jaw fell to the ground, amazed at the shot he made, the poison worked it's way through the captain, in the captains mind, a bat flew out of a tree right at him, screeching, Boram loaded the next shot and fired it...

only to have it soar past the ear of the bandit captain, striking the tree behind him, Boram cursed under his breath, the stress pummeling his mind. without leadership the bandits would not do too well.. and Maybe he can make it to tomorrow, just maybe.

When 1 of the bandits attempted to cut a hole into Jacoby's throat, Jacoby attempted to deflect the strike up and away from him with his longsword. Though he was successful in doing so, Jacoby still sustained damage when the bandit's blade scratched his cheek and a crossbow bolt struck him in the shoulder. "I'm not blind, you know" Jacoby said to the bandit facing him once he'd regained his composure "I just see things differently than you do". With that said, Jacoby raised his orb to the bandit's face. Inside the orb, the eye's pupil had started glowing with a blinding white light. A moment later, the white light burst from the orb and hit the bandit point blank in the face.

---

@Guardian Angel Haruki@0 Azzy 0

Mirdas lunged at one of the bandits as they charged towards his new allies, landing a glancing blow on him as he charged to the apparently blind man. As the one named ‘Morris’ called him that dreaded ‘M’ word, both Mirdas’s nostrils and gills flared in anger. Before he could deliver a retaliating strike, a bolt found his way into his shoulder, stinging with pain. Grunting and shaking his head to shrug the pain away, Mirdas growled in response. And again, another brigand shows himself, this time revealing to be their leader. Mirdas only had a second to react as the leader swung his blade with such quickness, defending against his first blow with his shield, but not moving fast enough to block the second. Thankfully, the Paladin’s armor managed to take the brunt of the blow.

With his teeth bared, Mirdas lunged his trident into Morris, piercing straight into his gut. Twisting his trident while it laid embedded within the criminal, Mirdas invoked the name of his god, Persana, as divine lightning surged into his trident, scorching Morris from within with holy light., as apparent from the faint light shining out from his mouth and eyes.

Grinning at his successful blow, Mirdas marched forward a mere few feet, skewering Morris’s corpse further down his trident, grasping the bolt within his shoulder with his teeth and pulling it out with a jerk. Mirdas then turned to face their Leader, the bolt still between his teeth, forming some sort of mad smile. The knight raised his eyebrows, suggesting that he will be next. The brigand, however, implied this to be something more suggestive, especially with the wooden shaft within the Triton’s mouth.

”Are you flirting with me?”

Signod was slightly impressed by the speed, competence and apparent coordination the bizarre mismatched group that made up the Barnaby Brothers was demonstrating these first few seconds after being ambushed. It made him quite glad he hadn't let them fool him into believing they were just an innocent group of travelers having a fateful encounter all by happenstance. Fortunately, it also seemed Signod's reaction time had been quick enough to avoid getting accidentally caught up in the middle of the brawl. Now, he was a decent enough distance away that he hopefully would have plenty of warning if a member of either bandit group mistook him for belonging to the other group and decided a headlong charge was in order.

Part of him (the smarter part that he never paid enough attention to) wanted to turn tail and keep right on fleeing off into the night and put this whole bad bit of business behind him. He even started to take another few tentative steps away, yet something stalled him. Now that he thought about it, the leader of the Barnaby Brothers had mentioned the fallen star right before going on the attack. She might end up being the one he needed to ask to get this quest on the right track. It might be a good plan to wait for this scuffle to finish and hope the elf didn't get too dead to answer a few questions. Elves were so frail, after all, and had quite a bit of trouble out in the world with not getting dead.

With a small sigh to himself, Signod held his position, still armed and ready to meet any unfortunate bandit who decided he was easy pickings with some of his best advanced 'negotiation' tactics.


@The Harbinger of Ferocity

The fierce black cat, snarling and salivating with wailing growls, did just as he always did - he went on the offensive, creating the breath of air the bloodied elf needed. It wasn't the first time he created a violent distraction, his jaws tearing at the hand of the man, and it probably would not be his last. Rising to stand now a palm of hers spread wide over the forest floor and swept upward as she called forth an ethereal friend of old, one from days long, long ago. Long before perhaps anyone else here, she imagined, but she hadn't forgot - not in the slightest.

At first the called phantom arose from the leaf-littered earth like mist, its ghostly paws coalescing into shape again, head and tail following before the body itself became as close to solid as it could be. Still a spirit and not a thing, not like Jamil of Azalorn who it was but only a step behind, it glowed with an unearthly, soundless pale light in the moonlit forest; eyes glinting with pricks of smoking blue.

Still bleeding, the woman took a step forward and caressed the ether, which seemed to staunch her wounds almost instantly, sending the bolt clinking to the ground, but not without a foot ready to dodge. The moment the wispy tendrils of the ghost cat touched her, she all but vanished, walking back carefully - using the frightening and sudden apparition as well as her living companion as distractions from her own defenses. Slipping behind a tree, she exhaled sharply at the still burning, albeit stopped wounds, driving the pain elsewhere and to other parts of her body. Snarling slightly, she raised her voice as a change began to overtake her.

"For the rest of you," Shaedra began, concentrating upon her breathing, "Feel free to heal yourselves as well!"

The spirit could only grin in response.


@Guardian Angel Haruki@JBRam2002@Pennydumb123@rush99999@ihinka@Cu Chulainn@0 Azzy 0

Alas, poor Morris. The bandit of very little words didn't even have a hope or prayer of dodging or blocking the triton's trident. His eyes were wide, as were the Captain's, as light emanated from the inside of his body. As that light shined, his body twitched and spasmed as though he was being electrocuted by a fierce storm from the inside. He fell limp and dangled from the triton's weapon, as nothing more than a lifeless corpse.

Lorus had noticed how the walking bird in front of him jumped and squawked in pain, but before he could even bark out a laugh, the bird transformed into a bear! Lorus's eyes widened and his smile fell right before he was sent flying into a tree by a couple of strikes from the bear. After his body struck the tree, it fell to the ground, disappearing behind the bushes.

Chorus had taken a good strike from the triton when he made his way to attack Jacoby, but he didn't expect the human man to be able to defend himself, let alone even be able to dodge his attacks. When the blind man lifted his orb to meet Chorus's face, the bandit couldn't help but let out a confused "Huh...?" He stared into the orb, right at the eye within. He screamed as his eyes suddenly burned with pain from the light, and he fell to the ground clutching his eyes and groaning in pain. There was no way he was going to be able to get up from that...

Unfortunately for Jacoby, that light from his orb made him an easy target.

Everything seemed to happen quickly for Horus and Boris. After the panther bit into Horus's leg, the elven woman seemed to have been replaced with a large brown bear...oh, wait a minute, she's over there. At least the other woman was still close enough. The both of them were bound and determined to help Warren. While they were stupid enough to attack a bear head on, they still charged at Safira, despite that the bear seemed to be protective of her. With a shout from both of them, they both managed to slash at Safira. If it wasn't for the large amount of bear fur that was in front of Horus's face, his attack on Safira could have been devastating.

The crossbow bandits stayed back and they all aimed for their respective targets again.
"Ready...
Aim....
Fire!"
The five bolts were sent flying, but it wasn't as well aimed as last time. Three of the bandits were blinded by the light, but one of them used that to his advantage when aiming for Jacoby.



@The Harbinger of Ferocity@Cu Chulainn@rush99999@Pennydumb123@ihinka@JBRam2002@0 Azzy 0



Jamil watched as the elf-cub acted, summoning a spirit of healing that looked similar to himself, before ducking behind a tree. He had noticed how the other woman had helped her. With that, and the fact that the two bandits had meant harm to Shaedra, he continued to fight, this time attacking the other bandit, since the one he attacked earlier was close to a bear. His teeth found purchase and sunk into the leg of the other bandit before backing up. The bandit let out a shout of pain.





The Bandit Captain hissed in pain when he felt something stab his leg. He looked towards the source of the attack, which was a bush, or rather what was inside it, and he felt immense fear towards it. His attention is then drawn to Morris when he let out a guttural "Ugh...!" in pain. He stared in shock as Morris was mercilessly impaled upon the trident, his blood dripping down from the corpse and weapon. Then the triton stared at him with a grin and...wiggling eyebrows?

Wait a minute...

"Are you flirting with me?" The Captain couldn't help but ask out loud.

He then shook his head and after looking around, and seeing his melee brothers drop like flies, he lets out a whistle and calls out "Fall back!" He then looked to the captive bandit and called "Warren! Sorry, mate. Yer on your own. But don't worry, we'll take care o' her for ya,"

As the Bandit Captain knocked Mirdas's weapon away, and started running, the captive bandit widened his eyes and he shouted after the Captain desperately, "No!!! Wait! CAPTAIN!"

---

These bandits had no honor, as evidenced by their cowardly captain fleeing for his life before their fight had even really begun. The Brown Bear danced on its hind legs, its maw snatching up one foe while its claws scraped across the other, sending both crashing to the ground on top of the crazed victim from before.

This fight wasn't over yet, not by a long shot. The bear rushed forward after the captain, passing through the beneficial healing from the other druid. A snarl escaped the bear's maw, slowly turning into another roar of anger as if to tell them to leave and never return.


@ihinka - You're next!

Safira was ready for the bandits' next attack, should they decide to try and slash at her again. She had her scimitar in hand and a bear companion flanking some of the goons. Still the two hoodlums closest to her charged tearing at her flesh with their blades. The huntress hissed in pain and readied her attack when the Brown bear stood tall, its teeth gnashing at one thug, while its claws raked the other, sending them both crashing down on the ground.

"Well, that takes care of that, I suppose." Safira muttered and nodded her gratitude at the bear. She then twisted in the direction of the apparently now fleeing bandits, who'd started retreating at their Captain's order.

"Warren! Sorry, mate. Yer on your own. But don't worry, we'll take care o' her for ya," The head goon groused and something in his tone pushed Safira's buttons.

"Hey, Cap'n!" She shouted at the retreating thug. "I was just about to offer you this guy's life in exchange for stopping this senseless bloodshed. But if that's how you take care of your people, I'd just as rather keep him and stop you from taking care of others in the same way!" The huntress finished while loading a bolt in her crossbow, the metal projectile igniting with the same sparkle that had danced on her scimitar moments ago. She fired!

As her bolt flew true she reloaded, lifted Warren off the ground, flung an arm around his shoulder and aimed once more at the Captain.



@Pennydumb123 Tag.

Boram pulled another bolt out of his quiver, loading it onto the crossbow, his hand shivering and trembling like a lost child, he aimed it at a Bandit known as Boris, Though this was nothing at all like hunting deer, he still had some tricks up his sleeve, he aimed the crossbow at the Bandit's kneecap, one hit and it would send the bandit spiraling to the ground, he aimed the crossbow and fired, sending the bolt flying through the air with a horrendous whistle, which was drowned out by the screaming and yelling of combat, the Bolt smacked into the bandit's kneecap, twisting his leg to the left, and causing the bandit to wobble, if he didn't regain his balance, he would be sent tumbling down like a tree without a stump.

But then in the corner of his eye, he noticed that the captain ran off, a surge of happiness struck him, they won!, the bandit's are just running off!, he laughed manically, he jumped out of the bush, full of joy!, he rolled around the ground, kissing it. he never felt so happy in his life, the gods answered his prayers, he was going to see the sun set, he was going to see his family again!. "WE WON!, WE WON!" he yelled, he drunk in the air like booze, tears of joy coming from his eyes, there was a chance, a chance that'd he'd make it home alive.



@rush99999 Your turn b0i