Zakiyya smiles and walks away to finish her quest.

Slipping through the gate Pyre led her new companion out along the road for a time before turning off the track at an area denoted by a broken tree. Upwards they followed what was little more than a goat track until they reached a clearing containing little more than harmless bunny rabbits.

In the center of the clearing was a chest and once deep within the clearing one could tell it was already opened, the shackle lock clearly forced clean off.

"Sorry about this," Pyre apologized as she tried backing away towards the flank of the clearing, "I really am sorry."

Beyond the clearing on every side was a bandit. Some NPC, some players, all with the glimmering red names that denoted repeat player killers

"Well, well, well," trumpeted the one calling himself Toryn the Rotten, "What do we have here. Has my little flower brought us something to play with?"

Jono raises an eyebrow at the broken chest. She shrugs. "I don't care about the treasure. I just wanted a good fight. Oh, will you look at that. I don't think I've ever seen so many red players." She grins faintly. "I like red."

Jace frowns when he hears voices

"Oh. You'll be seeing red all right," Toryn chided Jono, "if you don't turn over all your items. That's all we want."

It was a lie of course. If Jono returned and told people about this little scam people willing to follow Pyre out into the wilderness alone would be hard to find. Worse, someone might get the idea to party up and chase them out.

Meanwhile, Pyre was decidedly useless at this point. If she helped in the attack she'd become marked and ineffective at scouting out bait. She stepped closer to the bandit lord and Toryn placed his off-arm around Pyre in a way that was quite familiar.

Jono frowns. “I don’t really feel like coming near you or your ruffians,” she wrinkles her nose in disgust, “so come and get it.”

"Got a mouth there don't you?" Toryn answered the challenge, "We'll knock you down a peg or two! Hah! Get'er boys!"

Toryn, of course, didn't immediately join the fracas. He liked to watch and then step in to finish his victims. It was one of the reasons he was higher level than the "boys" he deployed.

Meanwhile Pyre placed a hand against Toryn's abdomen and snuggled closer. Her one worry was that Toryn might like Jono better. Then Jono could become the lure and Toryn would snap Pyre's neck.

Jono yawns and watches the asshole's lackey's with a bored expression. "Can we make this quick? I'd like to be back before nightfall."

A number of brigands rushed, the first wave mainly generic NPC robbers. Two of them even appeared to be the same character model! That made sense. NPCs were generally fearless. One of the player characters shoved a spear at Jono from between two of these NPCs.

Jono crouches with a lethal smirk. Right at the last moment, she draws her daggers, and before the npcs could blink, the spear was snapped in half. She impales one with the spearhead and knocks the other unconscious with the broken shaft. In a whirl of steel and her red hair, the first wave was unconscious, dead, or incapacitated. She twirls her daggers in her fingers, with a small sigh. "Next."

No. They could go and see the pirate tomorrow.

This is what Maisy had decided. If miss had something important she wanted to do today Maisy wasn't going to press the issue. She could afford to hang around, after all. It wasn't like she hadn't been content to do that before.

Miss had left her in front of the tavern to hang out, but it wasn't that long before Maisy had gotten to thinking. She didn't really know all that much about her friend. The woman hadn't even seen fit to share her name. It made her curious.

Maisy looked down the street, starring at the woman's back as she just began to vanish from sight.

... It couldn't hurt to see what she did all day, could it?

Maisy hopped up and started after her, keeping as much distance as she could and hiding behind boxes, benches, bushes, and at one point a mans giant beard. Maisy watched as she met up with another woman and followed as the two made there way out of the safty of the town and into the field Maisy knew so well.

---

She picked up speed down the narrow path by the broken tree she'd seen them go down as she heard the sounds of fighting. She broke through into a clearing just in time to see her friend dispatching a group of thugs, not too disimilar from the ones that had accosted Maisy in front of that door that wouldn't open.

A circle of guys were already on the ground in front of her, bleeding and still, but there were so many of them this time. A pair had already circled around the side, coming at her from her flank.

Maisy gritted her teeth. There were a lot. But there wearn't more than those Lizards from Rhea. Besides, she'd been looking for an opportunity to repay the fafore from last time. She shook her head to psyche herself up, set her lance in front of her,stepped out from behind a tree, and with a furious burst of blue energy shot forward into the pair of them. She slammed one full on in the side, the other getting body checked as she powered forward and sending them both tumbling into the dirt from the force of it as she skidded to a stop not far from Jono.

Jono frowns when she sees the kid knight. "Kid? What the hell are you doing here?" She takes out the rest, sheathing some better weapons her adversaries had been carrying. She sighs. "Leave, before this gets ugly."

Jace frowned when he heard commotion

The ruffians were shocked by the resistance encountered. They were used to much easier prey. It was clear several of them, the real players, were reconsidering their strategies. One took a step back and began to shift to a crossbow.

"What are you all waiting for!" Toryn hollored loudly, shoving Pyre to the ground roughly and casually stepping over her like she was trash, "Kill the bloody wench!"

The warrior brigand hefted his large axe and waded forwards. He wasn't particularly eager to match weapons with Jono. They were likely too evenly matched but he needed to appear eager. After all, he needed some of the others to take a few hits and use up Jono's stamina bar.

Meanwhile, several of the rogues around Maisy began poking downwards at her prone form with their weapons. There was a good chance they might accidentally skewer their own companion but concern for the well being of their "friends" didn't seem to be their strong suit.

“Bastards,” Jono snarls and knocks out the players and kills the NPCs. “Knock it off or I will kill you all, I don’t give a damn if your a player,” she hisses at the ones attacking Maisy as she hauls her to her feet. Jono runs off of pure adrenaline, using her feet and hands as well as her daggers until the only ones standing are her, Maisy, and the leader. “I’m not a wench, never a wench. I’m a bitch.”

"You might not believe me." Maisy replied, not moving, leveling her lance at the boss with only a little bit of visible fear. Man, he was pretty really big. But then again, so had that big green guy that she'd beaten. "B-but I'm actually pretty good at this game. I've been beating birds and lizards and guys as big as him."

Jono grins faintly. “I’m not surprised, kid. But you need to go. I’ve got this.”

Maisy was slightly mollified by the older woman acknowledging her. She lowered her weapon halfway. It wasn't that Maisy didn't think she could handle things after all, it was just that unexpected stuff happens.

Her eyes drifted to the lady clinging to the giant man. She took a few steps back, till she was at the edge of the clearing to give them more room. "Okay, but if she starts fighting you too I'm gonna hit her."

Jono couldn’t help but chuckle. “Just be careful. If they hurt you I’m killing them, alright?”

Maisy claps her hands together and uses Fortify, then smiles and Jono and gives her a thumbs up.