[IC] Tales of Adventure and Discovery RPG, an Epic Adventure RP

[Keia Vewyx]

This was the first time Honor did not drink the blood of its prey. Was it because these creatures did not carry true blood? No matter how Leifr looked at it, the monsters bled a fluid of rot and decay, Leifr momentarily cringing at the fetid fumes that were released with the sludge. It was in that moment that the third creature crawled over its fallen brethren and strike at their new ally. She parried it, thankfully., and with two down the numbers were now even on both sides if what Alleruen said before was correct.

Lyrisa encouraged Leifr and the fighters ahead, reminding Leifr not to let even a single beast get past them. Leifr was curious as to why Alleruen grew quiet now that the beasts had arrived but kept his focus at the task at hand. But should he switch out Honor in case the cursed blade did something terrible as it couldn't drink the sludge of these creatures? No, there was no time. Leifr decided that if there were such a recoil from his using Honor on incompatible enemies he would have to suffer through it.

Aiming for the creature that had clambered over its allies and attacked the woman, Leifr raised Honor to his left and then swung it hard horizontally at the beast, hoping to catch it's side unguarded since it was focused on his ally instead.

[Renose]

Leifr raised Honor now, deciding to strike at the creature after it had struck at Vialesa, there still being one more to deal with, and possibly another that was somewhere out there. Still, the number of creatures was even with the number of combatants in the group. The blade cut very deep, making the creature howl out, that familiar feeling of the blade drinking Leifr's very life essence being there, but luckily he was still in very good shape thanks to both rest and excellent medical treatment. Vialesa and Fiore also struck at the beast all the while Lyrisa cheered them on while Allereun was still fear struck by the creatures, not able to act as normally as he would have.

Fiore's blade missed the target completely, Fiore nearly dropping the weapon in the process as he almost tripped on one of the corpses, but he barely managed to keep his balance and stance despite that horrible miss on his part. Vialesa's own blade, on the other hand, cut deep into the creature's neck, effectively finishing the beast off with another well placed slash, making there now only two remaining.

Unfortunately, the fourth wasn't behind the third after the third fell. No. Suddenly two of the horses made loud sounds of distress and pain, one much more than the other, the other horses becoming alot more restless and actively moving as if trying to escape something, but fortunately they were still tied up, the monsters most likely having gone after the horses now, meaning that in order to save them the group would have to leave the safety of the small hut that they had effectively used as a choke point for the monsters.

Leifr would recognize the much louder horse cry as his own horse, the other not as loud cry coming from one of the other horses, but it would be hard to distinguish which one, but Fiore would know that it wasn't his own horse.

[Keia Vewyx]

That sound was...!

This was exactly what Leifr was afraid of. Without their horses their mobility was severely limited and they were vulnerable to whatever nature or other creatures of the night happened upon them. Not to mention that it was a day's trip to the nearest town on horseback. If they lose their steeds, who knows how many of these creatures might choose to attack them in their sleep once more the following night. Quickly searching for the lowest point along the bodies they already struck down to climb over, he clumsily shuffled over the them and broke into a sprint through the hut and towards the horses. Before he was even out of the hut, he started banging Honor against his shield in effort to distract and hopefully lure the creatures to him instead.

“Hey!” Leifr yelled as he ran out the hut, Honor striking the shield and releasing a dull ring, “Fight me you disgusting beasts! I'll release your soul from your putrid bodies!”

[Ryu]

Fiore followed closely behind Leifr, the horses were precious Fiore and to Leifr, Fiore could not bear to see Odysseus - or whatever Leifr's horse was named - die or fall, especially due to those creatures. As Fiore stopped right next to Leifr, Fiore noticed Leifr making Leifr making those horrible loud sounds.

Run West and go behind, make haste, flank them as they try to fight Leifr, thrust Exalia towards their head, Fiore's consciousness said without any hesitation. Fiore, not even daring to try to argue with him or try to make sense of why he wasn't insulting him, simply nodded and ran to his left, determined to flank the creatures and end them while they were hopefully going to charge towards Leifr and fight him.

What happens if we can't reach him in time? Fiore asked inside his head, trying to think of every singular outcome that could have came from this plan if it failed. One such possibility was that Fiore wouldn't be able to reach Leifr in time.

Run faster then, Fiore's consciousness said. Either that, or prey that the royal one can hold up against them.

[Pyromania99]

Lyrisa was glad with the last of the rot smelling monsters inside gone. "Alright." She said, "Two more to go then." Then were the sounds of horses outside as they were being assaulted by these unknown creatures. It was just as someone supposed earlier, that they would just go after the horses. The good news of the situation was that three of them decided to try for the "Damnit." The noble and the creep ran off over the corpses of the monsters to save their horses.

“Fight me you disgusting beasts! I'll release your soul from your putrid bodies!” The noble said as he rushed out smashing his sword against his shield. "There's reckless and there's brave. . . I wonder which of the two he is right ow.

The scholar was impressed that he said even that much. "I guess that's a start." She shook it off though and chased outside after the team's two fighters leaving Allereun to fend for himself in this room. She readied her whip and chased after the others.

[ERode]

Ah.

That may have been a little too close after all.

At this range, with such little light, Allereun was quickly overwhelmed by his own senses. The smell of decay, of rot, of blood, became sharper and sharper, and suddenly, he was reminded of the parts of his mind that were still tender, still suspect to emotion, to irrationality.

He was reminded of faces that he didn't want to see, reminded of all the stones that he had stepped on, all the weights that he had discarded, all their grimy, lightless eyes and choking smell of ashes mixed with blood. In retrospect, a calmer part of himself thought that it would have been better if he hadn't tried to scare them away with fire. Now, the stench of their charred flesh invaded his nostrils, sending the Galmin retreating into the back of the room. He scrambled away from those beasts, those memories, those regrets, those sins. There was no where to hide, but even then, he fit himself inside that stone conclave, gripping the torch that he had set there before hand.

As if the fire could burn away all scents. As if it would ward away the beasts.

In moments, his plan proved effective, and if he was in a normal state of mind, Allereun probably would have allowed himself to celebrate, just a little bit.

But in death, their murky blood staining the ground, turning into mere piles of meat, stacked up against each other, the monsters seemed to further brand unpleasant images into Allereun's mind. There were only three of them dead, but that was such a powerful number.

Three symbolized a mother, a father, and a child.

Three symbolized the number of moons that were shining at night.

Three symbolized a trio of friends.

He shut his eyes, closed his mind off from the outside world, and curled into a ball.

It was over now. It had to be over now. Day was coming, and the nightmare will end. The cycle of karma has already gone full circle. There was no need to dwell in the past. There were more things to do than breathing. His teeth were clenched tight, and his knuckles were bone-white, as if he was trying to grind the torch in his hand into nothingness.

His breaths became deeper, and his pulse began to slow. Complicated thoughts began to unravel, and slowly, Allereun opened his eyes once more.

They had brought the battle outside now.

Two monsters remained.

He was alone.

And the corpses, though he dared not move out of the irrational fear that they might suddenly awake, as if they were just sleeping, no longer struck fear into him.

The dead were dead, and ghosts were only phantoms of the past.

[Renose]

The banging of the sword on the shield made both creatures turn around, both of them staring at Leifr, Lyrisa, Fiore, and Vialesa now as they all were now out in the open rather than in that small hut. Both creatures let off feral hisses and growls as they charged towards the four Galmin that were standing there. One charged towards Leifr while the other one charged towards Vialesa. Vialesa managed to barely parry the claws of the first one, her sword skills indeed being incredibly sharp as she was very swift with her rather strange looking blade, a calm expression upon her face the entire time.

Leifr missed parrying the creature's claws to the side, but his shield managed to save him from what could have been a very devastating blow from these rather strong creatures, the Galmin now having their own chance to attack, Vialesa taking this chance as she struck with her own blade at the creature that had attacked at her first. Vialesa's blade struck incredibly deep into the creature, a blow so swift and strong that it looked like it would cleave weaker creatures in two, that same liquid running deep from its wound now as Vialesa's blade cut deep, the girl so swift and skilled with her blow that she was able to swiftly draw her blade back and stab forward for another instantaneous strike as Fiore had did beforehand.

This was the blow that felled the beast, the beast having effectively been dealt with in two swift blows as it fell to the ground, no longer moving, but it was hard to tell if these creatures were alive or dead in the first place thanks to the stench they gave off, the stench of death, or if killing them was even possible. Still, for now there was only one more of these monsters to deal with, and the one that had just swung its swift claws at Leifr.

[Ryu]

Fiore ran fast, although it was not fast enough to help Leifr and Vialesa take out one of the beasts, but there was still one more, and Fiore had his eye on the prize. Fiore, Exalia still in hand, continued to go through the various possible scenarios in his head, one such was that he wouldn't reach the beast in time, and that Leifr and Vialesa would already be done slaying the beast. This would have likely lead to an argument between Leifr and Fiore, and Fiore certainly did not want that.

Don't worry, Fiore's consciousness tried to comfort him. You'll be fine, he won't argue over something such as silly as that, I think. Fiore continued to look at the beast as he continued to run, although he was a bit more calmer. For some reason, his consciousness wasn't fighting or insulting him, his consciousness was... kind and helpful. It was a first, and while Fiore didn't know why, he didn't particularly care. He liked this version of his consciousness. He was better.

As Fiore neared Leifr and the beast, he heard a small "Hmph" sound in his head, but Fiore took no notice of this.

[Renose]

As Fiore arrived on the scene with the others, Leifr felt that familiar bite of Honor drinking his very life from him through his palm once again as he swung his blade down at the creature that had just attacked him. This was the only one left in the camp. Whether or not it was the only one left in the area was uncertain, but for now despite that potential factor of more danger, defeating this creature would free the immediate area of danger for now. The blade took a very nasty bite out of the creature, it howling and hissing out as the blade cut very deep. Unfortunately the blow was not strong enough to dispatch the beast, who now seemed to be back on the counterattack.

The creature slashed its claws once again at Leifr, aiming to obviously kill him as the others had. Fortunately Leifr was easily able to parry the claws aside, the creature's attacks being heavily brutish and feral, which while that may have made them harder to predict, it also made them somewhat easier to block since there was no skill behind them, but instead just brute force and speed, and this creature was indeed quite strong in the force and speed departments. Fortunately Leifr was probably about as evenly matched, maybe a bit less in both departments, but his skill allowed him to easily be the more fearsome foe, as did the skills of Fiore and Vialesa.

Vialesa took the moment right after the creature struck at Leifr to strike at the beast, aiming to finish it off. Thanks to both Leifr and Vialesa outnumbering the creature in melee she was able to strike the creature despite a strike that was somewhat off her normal, excellent track record of attacks that she had been displaying so far. It was thanks to this outnumbering that she was able to make a deep enough strike to cause the creature to howl out one more time before collapsing to the ground. It looked heavily wounded, but looked like it could still get up and strike as it hadn't 'stopped' moving in a sense.

One more strike from Leifr took care of this, a downward stab easily finishing off the beast before it could get up from the ground and strike, if it was even capable of doing so. While this may have been brutish and 'dishonorable' in a sense, this creature was not a Galmin. It had no intelligence and only desired the flesh and blood of its opponents, so there wouldn't be any problem with finishing it off like this.

With that final strike, all five creatures in the camp were finished. For now, everything seemed calm once again, ignoring the stench of the corpses of course, and the area seemed to be free of any more of the creatures.

[Pyromania99]

"Alright, so that's all of them, right?" Lyrisa said looking around covering up her nose. The stench was still present and wasn't pleasant at all. "So, what do we take back to the Captain to show we took care of whatever these things are. We could always bring back a head or something." She looked at the bodies and hated every second of doing so. "I'd rather not deal with it though. I don't have a good enough blade anyhow. Someone else want to?" She knew no one else WANTED to, but it probably needed to be done. "Anyone see a bag around here?" She looked for a bag to put the head in, possibly might make it smell less.

[Ryu]

Good job, Fiore's other consciousness said as Fiore stared down at Exalia, the blade still wiped in some vile fluid that seemed to resemble the beast's blood. He would need to clean that later. Ah... you should probably clean that now, who knows what would happen if you don't? Fiore nodded slightly as he held Exalia horizontally in the air, just a few inches away from his hip.

"Does anyone have some kind of cloth that we can use to wipe away the... blood left behind by them?" Fiore asked in a louder tone than usual all around him, using the word "we" because of Leifr and the new-comer. Fiore then looked over to Leifr, suddenly remembering something. "Hey, good job." Fiore looked over to the new-comer, and before uttering a word, stared at her. He had yet to assess her yet.

A curved weapon, Fiore thought as his eyes flew up and floated down. Did you see her fight?

No, only a few glimpses of it, but it looks like she knows how to use the blade, Fiore's consciousness replied. She did help us take down those beasts, though... trustworthy?

Unsure, but the way she's standing...

She won't be of no harm to you if she helped save you and your friend's life, correct? Fiore's nose twitched as he took his eyes off Vialesa and back onto his sword. He wouldn't be able to do a proper analysis with this consciousness of his.

[ERode]

His pulse finally came back to normal, and Allereun could see those beasts as what they were: stacks of meat. Slowly, he got out of the hole in the wall, and brought out the torch with him as he walked up towards them. They were piled up in the doorway, almost blocking the way out, but the apothecary steeled his senses and stepped on them, jumping out into the brightening night. The battle outside, it seemed, had similarly been settled. No injuries on anyone, so that was good. It appeared that there was no betrayal from that female stranger as well, and that, of all the things they were concerned about, it was cleaning their weapons.

Well, it wouldn't do to be in a state of constant alertness, would it?

Focusing on the corpses, Allereun stepped up towards one of them and placed one hand onto its wounds. Was it cold? Was it warm? It didn't seem like its blood was 'fresh', and there were still so many oddities present there. Well, whatever.

“There was a sixth monster,” Allereun told Lyrisa, “So I don't believe your mission is quite complete, but this is a good catch, nonetheless. Good fighting, everyone. And Fiore, just wipe the blood off onto your shirt, if you're worried about the state of your blade.”

It was a joke, probably, but Allereun had his dead-pan expression on once more, as he continued, “And can someone help me roll this corpse so it's facing upwards? I would like to slice it up while I can, seeing how we'd be unable to simply bring one of these dead bodies back with us.”

[Renose]

Allereun would give a overall examination of the corpse, a diagnosis on what it was with knowledge of the healing arts, or first aid as it was called by the more intellectual types. Well the obvious things that would stick out is that these creatures were cold, or more accurately not warm. Their blood was thick, much thicker than normal blood, and also had no warmth. It was as if these creatures were rotting corpses brought back to life by who knows what. Maybe some sort of foul sorcery or by some other dark power, none of which Allereun knew anything about. It was hard to say, but the answer was a bit clear to see. these creatures were some sort of twisted, rotting piles of dead, rotting flesh with vile, mud like blood flowing in their veins.

What made them not seem like some other form of twisted creature though was the musculature. As Allereun was examining the body, he would discover that the musculature of these creatures was strangely familiar, like Galmin, but some sort of twisted or mutilated form of such. Still, whether or not this theory was true was hard to discern. That could be the case, or they could indeed be some different kind of twisted, dark creature entirely. A more thorough examination, most likely involving cutting this thing apart, would definitely need to be performed.

And speaking of Vialesa, she seemed to start to leave, but before she did she turned around to give a look back at the others. "I don't know what you all are involved in, but I want no part of it." Her monotone voice and cold, dull stare were all she gave to them before she began to walk away, and would keep walking away from the group unless stopped.

[Ryu]

I should stop her... Fiore thought as he took a step forward towards Vialesa, hoping to stop her, hoping that he could convince her to stay, but something stopped him. Something stopped him from taking another step.

Don't, Fiore's consciousness uttered out after Fiore stood still for a second. If she wants to leave, let her leave, there is nothing you can do to convince her to stay.

Perhaps there's... something, Fiore thought, but Fiore knew it himself. It would be a futile effort. Fiore sighed before wiping off the blood off of Exalia with his sleeve, putting it back into its scabbard afterwards, all the while with a slight frown on his face.

Perhaps you should get that washed later...

Yeah, got it, Fiore thought before looking around, trying to find something to do. He could always help Lyrisa, but he didn't want to cut off a head with Exalia, nor could he really do it since Exalia's cutting capabilities as a rapier was... poor, like any other rapier. It was only until Fiore looked over to Allereun, who was giving an examination of the corpse. Without anything else to do, except maybe help Lyrisa, Fiore walked towards Allereun. As soon as Fiore reached Allereun, Fiore crouched down, staring at the thing for a few seconds before rolling the body, causing it to face upwards.

[ERode]

What he found was something that most would have thought of as disturbing, but what this particular Galmin thought of as...interesting. The most immediate thing that he noticed was that the creatures were cold, which made, to him, lots of sense. Being the type of person who had read lots of books about the fantastic in the past, Allereun wasn't at all surprised that these monsters were, in fact, the undead. It linked fairly well with the scent of dirt and decay that he first smelled when they approached the camp. Luckily, if that was the case, he wouldn't have to worry about anything along the lines of the blood being poisonous or acidic. It was simply rotten, which didn't do any favors to his nose, but did lots of favors to his general health.

As he began to slice it apart, there were even more interesting things to discover. Indeed, there was dark magics at play now, as the bone and muscle structure both appeared to resemble that of the scant diagrams he's seen from Galmin anatomy books. Or maybe he should just assume that it's a humanoid shape? But there were so many better options if one wished to create an undead army. Why pick, specifically, a humanoid being to raise from the dead, when it was physically inferior to a common horse?

Well, the thoughts of a mad magic man were things that he probably wouldn't understand, so Allereun didn't bother. Nodding thanks to Fiore as the man rolled it over for him, he was about to continue onto his dissection of the corpse when Vialesa, the swordswoman who had pretty much saved their necks, announced her sudden departure from the group.

He probably didn't actually care, but it would be useful to have her services for a bit longer, in case his 'reinforcements theory' proved correct, so Allereun called out, turning his head to face her, “Lady Knight, I ask that you stay just a bit longer. Day has not yet broken, and despite witnessing first-hand your skill with the sword, I would think that it'd be better for all of us to stay together. We're heading to Calgeth, so if your destination's the same, it would make sense to come along, wouldn't it? Anyways, I'd hate to be unable to thank you properly for your aid, in a more civilized environment.”

[Renose]

Allereun began to try and convince the sword-woman to stay with them, and as he spoke she turned around to look at him, her expression dull and either was serious or just cold looking, maybe both. "I have no destination, or at least none you need to know about". She spoke now once again, her voice still carrying that same somewhat emotionless and very serious chill. "If you want to thank me you can do it now. Otherwise, I have no intention to stick around and fight those creatures again, I wish you all the best of luck." While her words may have spoke both intentions of survival, and her wish for luck to them good intentions, her tone was still very cold, her expression serious and dull.

With that, the woman turned around and began to walk away once again, Allereun's words having failed to convince her to stay with them, although someone else could try if they so desired to, but otherwise she would be on her way.

[Pyromania99]

"Hmph." The Scholar mouthed at Allereun's sixth monster idea. "That's just something the guards would have to deal with. I don't think we need and go out to find and deal with this sixth one. . . Not unless it comes to us at least." Her bag hunt had been mostly unsuccessful so far. "The guards wanted information, proof, or the missing people. If we assume that the people ARE missing because of these ugly monsters. . . Well, I doubt that there's anything left to find." She almost kicked one, but decided not to as it would make her shoe dirty. . . Probably.

Lyrisa almost didn't say anything about the girl leaving. In the end however, she decided to speak up a little bit. "If she wants to go out there, it's her decision." She mumbled. "She could probably just get away or something from this 'sixth' monster. Maybe. She could just outright 'kill it' and save us the trouble. . . She probably doesn't want in on the money anyhow." She wondered if she said that to keep an extra fighter at arms reach or not. . . The girl could be as disinterested in currency as she was with the world but Lyrisa said it loud enough for her to hear. "More for us then."

[Renose]

Unfortunately, as the prospect of money would be appealing, it seemed that Lyrisa's words fell upon deaf ears. Well, not deaf ones anyway, as the girl was very fine of hearing evident from the fact that she responded when spoken to by the others. Still, she didn't seem any bit interested in the prospect of some reward, which was understandable considering what they were dealing with. Either that, or she just didn't care. Either way, she wasn't interested in going with them and didn't really seem to care about their reward either.

Suddenly though the girl stopped walking and drew her sword, and for good reason to. She was about ten yards away from the party and the corpse that Allereun was dissecting. Out from the 'darkness' in the distance came three more of those strange creatures, snarling and growling. But instead of charging they just sat there, tendrils from their mouths excreting some strange liquid as if they were 'drooling' in the sight of food, or so was the best way to describe whatever these monstrosities were doing.

A figure stepped forward now, chittering in some strange tongue, the likes of which none of you recognized, except for Lyrisa. and Allereun. Allereun couldn't understand what it was saying at all, but Lyrisa, with her study in the various languages of the land, understood just a couple of words. Something like 'master', 'pets', and 'sacrifices' were the only words she could really discern since they were enunciated a bit more clearly in its chittering. There weren't many who studied their gutteral, feral language and thus what knowledge both of them had about the language was incredibly miniscule at best.

It was a rather short, goblinesque figure. Its ears were very long and pointed, its skin upon its ugly face a mixture of green and brown, quite grotesque looking actually. Its nose was long and pointed, various warts dotting across its face. In its mouth were sharp, pointy, but also crooked teeth, its tongue forked and its eyes as black as coal with no discernible pupils. It wore some type of tattered brown cloak, with some blood stains upon it. In its more bestial than humanoid looking, three fingered hands it carried a stave with several skulls dangling from the head of it, tied there with rope, strange markings on the skulls. Two appeared Galmin, but the third one, the one in the middle, was unrecognizable even to Allereun, who seemed to have quite the knowledge of anatomy. The markings, however, would be somewhat recognizable to Lyrisa, as markings of more darker, vile magics, ones much different than what she practiced.

Allereun and Lyrisa, who recognized the tongue, could tell that this strange creature was something called an Ugling. A mock name gave to them due to how twisted these creatures were in both appearance and personality. They were known to be vile, humanoid creatures that seemed intelligent, but were also no better than savage beasts. Abhorred and hated by all, it is said that if one should be captured by them to either try and escape or kill yourself as soon as possible because being captured by them is said to be a fate worse than death itself. Luckily though the sun was starting to come up somewhat, meaning they could all see better now and possibly have a better chance of avoiding any of those said fates.

Vialesa moved first, aiming to cut down one of the creatures closest to her since she was only five yards away from all four 'creatures', the main group fifteen yards away. As she charged though and aimed to slash the creature she had charged towards, this being one of the monstrosities, not that Uglings weren't monstrosities, she suddenly tripped, dropping her blade to the ground, the ground being a bit slippery where she fell. Not that it mattered, as the moment she fell during her attack all of the creatures, who were all within clawing distance, pounced and began to try and kill her.

Luckily she still had a tight grip on her blade, but one of them, the one she charged, moved with almost inhuman speed, like a savage beast, and sunk into her with its claws, eliciting a scream of pain from her as the claws raked very deep. Unfortunately for the female swordsman, this one was so quick that its other set of claws from its other hand raked right across her neck. All that could be heard was a gurgle as blood rose from her mouth, the life leaving her eyes as within seconds, her body went completely limp. This elicited a mad cackle from the ugling as it aimed its staff at the group and chittered what Lyrisa could understand as 'kill them'.

Luckily, despite the strange terror that the very presence of these creatures brought and the fact that one of their more skilled "comrades" had fallen in mere moments, most likely dead, all of the group managed to steel their wills and prepare for what was most likely to be an even tougher battle as they still had a chance to react, as Vialesa did before she met what was most likely her demise, to these creatures and their apparent 'handler' by the looks of it.

[Pyromania99]

Lyrisa's face twisted into disgust at the creatures mauling the girl. "Can't say it's not her fault." She continued as she studied the marks on the Ugling. "Be careful of that Ugling. He can probably use magic. And by probably, I mean blast yer' ass off probably. Also, I think I know what happened to the missing people. . . Human sacrifices. Or I at least assume that much. I can only understand so much of this idiots speech." She readied her whip, "They're not very happy to see us either. . . " She made sure to stand behind Leifr and Fiore. She didn't think she'd have as much endurance as the other two, even when she hasn't taken a hit yet. "Four of these guys are going to be annoying. . ."

[Keia Vewyx]

Leifr remained quiet throughout Lady Allereun's examination of the dead beasts and their attempts at preventing the female sword from leaving. Though Leifr would have undoubtedly joined in if all was well, he was more preoccupied examining the horses to make sure they were fit to run if needed. There was also Lady Allereun's theory of yet more creatures coming their way. Leifr also apparently didn't have much of a way with words looking back at his failed bluff with the bandits. Taking deep breaths to calm his nerves from the previous fight, he set his hand on his warhorse's face (which elicited an annoyed snort from the steed) and started planning on what he would do when they return to the town.

His thoughts were cut short when the sounds of a blade drawing from its sheathe echoed behind him. Spinning around just in time to see the woman stumble on poor footing and set upon by the beasts, Leifr quickly mounted his horse and prepared himself for more combat. His stance faltered slightly from the woman's cries as her body slumped, but was it because they had fought these creatures before that Lefir managed to regain his will? Whatever the case, Leifr felt his nerves easily ready for battle and his will steel against the sight of these monsters once more. On horseback, Leifr had an advantage against one or two and Fiore could easily handle one as he had shown before. Lyrisa apparently had training in using her weapon based on her stance and readiness to use it against some bandits, but her inexperience in combat seemed to hinder her. Not that it mattered, as her knowledge seemed to be above the rest: almost immediately after the creature appeared and spoke, she seemed capable of understanding its speech. When she said that it may be able to perform some dark arts, Leifr was more than just inclined to believe her.

Leifr grit his teeth as his grip on Honor squeezed tighter. Could he and Fiore battle four at once? Could a Galmin even fight against such unholy and unnatural arts as magic? His steed was anxious to move, tapping the ground impatiently with its hoof. To charge or to retreat; Leifr wanted the latter but was prepared for the former.

“If I may be so bold, Lady Lyrisa seems to understand what has happened to our missing friends and what these beasts are. If Lady Allereun's prediction about the one that led these foes here is true, then surely this is just an advance force; fighting them would only allow time for even more to find us.”

Leifr's eyes did not leave the creatures in front of them as they spoke, despite wincing whenever they fell upon the fallen woman. Leifr tried thinking of a way where he could quickly grab her and retreat, but his mind was drawing blanks.

“We should retreat back to Calgeth and deliver Lady Lyrisa's information to the Guard.”