Completed Some Things, (Eridanus)

[Kreig Messer]

“It’s a pleasure to meet your acquaintance and yes, my mother was a great woman indeed. Too good for this town I must admit but she was too tough for this town as well, so she handled raising me in a sorry excuse for an apartment quite well as she worked as a barmaid in the taverns. And its fine to simply call me by first if you’d like, despite my tongue I’m not really comfortable with formalities either.” He chuckled as they headed to nowhere in particular. “She was a great woman, still visit her quite frequently” Then he raised an eyebrow as he turned his head slightly to Eri “ Hmm…..well with a city like Sunberth its quite expected, do you know much of the cities history? If you do you can see why its this anarchistic, my mother used to tell me quite the number of stories of it being taken over only to be free itself years after, less than a decade the most of them” “As for anything recent, will considering I never left the city I’d say I do. This season it seems we have quite the bold serial killer, the murdered been killing quite the number of people which has everyone on edge. As for the Daggerhands, with what’s happened the previous summer” Kreig cringed at the thought of remembering the events of that time “….Well, everyone had been busy with reconstruction so really nothing has occurred with them…. But If I were to take into account that they seem to think they are in charge of this city, well, I think they’d be the ones to look into the recent murders” Kreig thought, it made sense really, Daggerhands are all high and mighty compared to the other two, one is more interested in anything that affects their profits and the other…well, no one really knows.

[Eridanus]

"The daggerhands huh. They-"

"It's them!" A voice ringed out, causing the vantha to look further ahead.

Apparently, the wench had fetched more 'brothers' in her panic, and Eridanus recognized the still red-raw, punched-in faces of the two men Kreig had taken down. The giant was still nowhere in sight. Apparently they had been woken up by her when she arrived with several more friends, with their weapons nowhere in sight. They then quickly headed to the Armory to purchase some cheap weapons. For in Sunberth, it did not matter if your weapon was functional or not, you just needed one for deterrence.

On their way to the Armory, they managed to bump into the departing duo by luck, and boy were they angry, especially the ones who got their faces punched in.

"The one with the gauntlets! Get him!" One of Kreig's victims cried, reaching around his belt for his weapon reflexively, before realizing that he did not have a weapon. The other three men roared and drew their scimitars, eying the brawler carefully as they tried to surround him.

The two weaponless ones, having been punched by Kreig before, were more wary and stayed further behind, fists balled up and seeking an opening.

"This just got more complicated," Eridanus remarked conversationally, his body still in a relaxed state as he surveyed the scene.

[Kreig Messer]

“What is this? Are scimitars a raging fashion accessory these days? I had no idea, truly...” Kreig said in a mocking tone, he scratched his necks as he looked at the crowd, there was the two he had left his signature on, a fist imprint on their faces “Heh heh, rare that I get to see my handy work” Kreig chuckled as he looked at the two, then he looked at the other three with the scimitars 'Seriously, are the Benshira invading?' None of them looked like one, thats for sure.... “Now,you three….If you’re like friends I’d very much like that you don’t waste our time…. As much I’d like to give you my signature I simply think I should break every part of your body, it would long lasting…… that or send you to dira” He acted like he was giving them a choice, the three Scimitar thugs were not amused but cautious, they didn’t know how to wield their weapons though…. New gangs would be anyone’s guess, unaware how things work around here Suddenly as they circled around Kreig, who still hadn’t raised his fists, one dashed forward with his sword arm raised and brought it down, but his arm was caught mid swing with Kreig’s rightand tehn his neck was grabbed by the left “Don’t worry, my left is weaker than my right…might not change anything “Another chuckle came, but it was humorless as he squeezed tightly, the scimitar dropping from his hands as he gasped for air. Another charged forward with a stabbing motion, screaming all the while and alerting Kreig as he turned his body in time to avoid it and grabbed the thug by the collar of his shirt, tugged back roughly and caused the thug to fall on his back…and consequently had his neck stomped by Krieg’s boot. The third was as heading towards Eri and Kreig couldn’t see why he should deter his attention away from him so… deterring his attention the first who was trying to reclaim his breath, he ran towards the third and….tripped, but AS he tripped, he accidently grabbed the thirds leg and caused him to trip as well “Well, that was petching embarrassing” Kreig said, of course that left the two unarmed who retrieved the other two scimitars from the ground and the corpse of their fallen comrade…. Yeah, this was a good moment for Kreig as he stood up and found himself surrounded again “Peachy” This time the other two charged together, their swings were untrained but with two coming at once…… Kreig caught the blade of the one at the right with the palm of his gauntlet but the other…. It had cut his shoulder “Grah….Petching…..little bastard” There was no scowl from Kreig, instead a hungry smile “My shoulder, annoying little pitch” the voice was not of anger, but a wanting as he pulled the thug he caught forward and head butted him, leaving him in a daze then kneed him in the privates, leaving him on the ground with a high pitched voice. He turned to the other thug, the one who had cut his left shoulder…one of the ones with the fist imprint, he looked a tad bit scared now. “Don’t think of running friend…I’m…enjoying this a bit” He said, the thug was about to step back but Kreig grabbed his wrist and pulled him roughly towards him and kneed him in the stomach, he dropped his blade and fell to the ground grasping his stomach and Kreig simply stomped the back of his neck “Enjoyable, truly…” Then he was stabbed in his right shoulder, he noted the tip sticking out and grabbed it with his left, a weak grip it usually be but in his adrenaline rush, that euphoric feeling he loved so much made it as tough as it could as the thug tried to pull back, but received a back kick in the leg, forcing him to let go and then he turned and backhanded the thug. “Such delightful fun” He said as he reached the back of his right with his left and pulledthe blade out by the edge and tehn turned to Eri “would you like the remainder?” He asked with a cheerful smile

[Eridanus]

It was a surreal sight. In the messy chaos of battle, Eridanus stood amidst all of it, his hands tucked casually into his pocket, his face free of worries. He merely shifted his position accordingly, always placing himself in the corner of the attacker's eyes. That combined with his lack of aggression caused them to shift their entire focus on the brawler, and he watched with interest as Kreig displayed his proficiency of combat.

That or the gangster's lack of proficiency with their own weapons.

Unbeknownst to the Kreig and Eri, these five people, the wench and the giant were part of a newly formed gang known as the "Scimi Tars". Inspired by the image of Yahal slaying corruption, they twisted the story into their favor, taking inspiration from Yahal's children by wielding the Scimitars. In their own words, they slew the "evil" which were defined by themselves, which was basically whoever had more money than them or whoever pissed them off the most at any time. Hailing from the same part of the piss-poor Tent City, the gang had begun recruiting from the slums in the Sunset Quarter. This group of friends were the fresh recruits to this gang, all of them were from the same neighborhood.

The wench was nowhere in sight as always, having disappeared whenever the going got tough.

Eridanus continued to whistle as he skirted around the battle, dodging the stray blow here and there and Kreig would never find the vantha in danger as he happened to always turn up at the frame behind Kreig and whoever the brawler was engaging.

The remaining two were glaring at the blonde man with a mixture of hatred and fear, but they did not come closer, instead slowly edging away. One of them was grasping his groin as he did so.

By now the civilians had more or less cleared out from the area, instinctively understanding that some sort of gang matter was taking place. A few of them stood further at a safe distance watching the unfolding events with interest. No doubt some of them were the ears and eyes of various syndicates throughout the city, major or small-time.

"Well well well. Looks like there is some corruption we have to slay in the name of purity and goodness," A deep voice boomed. From around the corner, a large, square-jawed man with skin yellower than normal appeared, hefting a massive hammer that lay draped over the line of his huge back, supported by a muscular arm. Interestingly, there was a scimitar that was buckled to his belt, though the man's size made it seem small.

As he rounded the corner, more men appeared behind of varying sizes and builds. Several things were similar, from the scimitars in their sheaths, to their arrogant faces, to the startling young ages of many of the gangsters.

Evidently that man's chant was some sort of battle cry for this gang, and it gnawed away at Eridanus. As a faithful of Yahal, it made him cringe to see his god's ideals being twisted so horribly for personal gain. Still, he made no attempt to move or to allow his emotions to be read, and continued to watch the ongoing developments.

"Who is the evil perpetrator?" The yellow-skinned giant roared. The man edging away lifted his hands momentarily from his groin to point at Kreig, before whimpering with pain as he held his groin again.

"The gauntleted one? Corruption must not be allowed. He will be slain in the name of purity! For Scimi Tars!" The giant announced, the battle hunger evident in his voice. From behind him, the men began lining up, their numbers forming a line that blocked the entire strength of the street.

Eridanus counted at least thirty of them, and he turned to face Kreig, asking, "So what's going to happen now?"

[Kreig Messer]

'Evil?Corruption? Where does the imbecile think he is?' Admittedly Kreig knew nothing of the Scimi Tars. Various small gangs rise and fall so often and so quick, the lack of knowledge about their very existence would be understandable. Still, their numbers, while paling in comparison to the Syndicates, would have still earned them some repute ‘I suppose I’ve been occupying myself a bit too much to do any ‘listening’ these days’ Their leader so far spoke as if he was performing some saintly act for one of the gods, but the tone in his voice and his facial expressions certainly told another tail. “What do we do? That…..is a difficult question” Kreig thought, one option was to stand their ground and fight, but their numbers would mean they would quickly overrun them and there was the fact they were at the edge of Sun’s Birth territory, if they wasted there time here for any longer and with the Scimi Tars number being essentially a small invasion force, they would send their Dragoons own against them and there were no doubts about the Dragoon’s skills and Kreig and Eri would be ‘in their way’ as they settled the matter. They could run, but how long and how far before once more being overrun? Kreig was not nimble and with his wounds would only slow Eri down…. “They are angry at me” Kreig said to the Vantha “For the most part as far I can tell, so you my friend…should run” Kreig said as if it were nothing, but the worried tone in his voice could not be disregarded. He had no trouble with death though, his goddess being Dira, the mistress of death herself so really being worried over his own… really he would only regret it if he did not save his associate from such a fate himself “I can only prevent them for a few seconds… and with these arms of mine I must say I can only give you one” He thought stepping forward, raising his fists, his right lower than the left however as it was the most wounded ‘Today is a good day to die I suppose….’

[Eridanus]

The rank and file of the Scimi Tars advanced recklessly. What little discipline it seemed that they might have in their lining up was dismissed as they ambled forward in a rough tag-tag formation. It was a fearful sight to behold, and when all thirty plus of the advancing gang drew their blades together, the metallic shriek that rang into the air proved enough to be an intimidation factor that any other civilians in the area scurried away.

It was not to be lost on the corrupted knights of the other major syndicate in Sunberth. Unbenownst to all involved, spies of the Sun's Birth have already reported the knowledge back to the Gated Community. Plans had been made and at this point the dragoons of the Sun's Birth were gathering in the square of the Gated Community for their briefing. While the Scimi Tars viewed their act as one of revenge and of asserting their strength, no doubt the Sun's Birth viewed it as a possible invasion attempt by the Daggerhands due to this affiliation. There was no doubt that if Robern knew he would be annoyed. In fact, he was about to find out as spies from the Daggerhand raced towards the Rotting Mansion.

"Do not fear," Eridanus said softly, placing his hands assuringly on the brawler's shoulder. "Have faith that good will always prevail."

Taking out a crayon from his artist's toolkit in his side pocket, the scholar proceeded to draw a rough series of glyphs on back of the sunberthian's clothes. His brows furrowed as he worked intensely, quickly drawing several circles and filling them in in the words of the ancient tongue. A focus sigil within, a barrier sigil encircling it, and path sigils linking the two to a small trigil sigil at closer to the man's shoulder.

Yahal guide this man, and give him the strength to do what is right.

Placing his hand lightly in the middle of the focus sigil drawn on Kreig's back, Eridanus channeled the divine energies on the semi-glowing 'Y' tattoo on the hand. He felt the divine might of Yahal flow through him, blessing the glyph with righteous strength and incorruptable fury. Before he kept the crayon, he drew a series of short glyph phrases to finish the trigger sigil.

"If you feel your strength fail you, just say these words 'i will not fall because the light is my strength', and strength will return to you for a brief moment," He whispered encouragingly behind the man, before stepping several steps back lightly.

While it seemed that he was leaving Kreig to fight alone be distancing himself from the approaching gang, the truth was that he wanted to not block his vision too much and to keep an eye out. He knew that gang fights were most often held under surveillance by spies of the major gangs, but while he could not know of the affiliations of the Scimi Tars, he would rather be safe than sorry.

"For purity!" The leader screamed, and while he continued to stroll leisurely, the rest of the men began cheering and roaring, pumping their curved swords into the air as they sped up and began to ran straight for Kreig.

[Kreig Messer]

Kreig didn’t quite understand what was going. His Vantha friend patted him on the back,reassuringly told him to not worry and then, in what felt like a bizarre moment as Kreig looked at the incoming mob with its slow, unorganized march and their ill kept swords looking surprisingly menacing, the Vantha had pulled out a crayon and quickly began doodling circles on the back of Kreig’s shirt and placed his hand on the Brawler’s back …. "If you feel your strength fail you, just say these words 'I will not fall because the light is my strength', and strength will return to you for a brief moment" The Vantha, or Eridanus, had whispered into Kreig’s ear before stepping back a few steps, leaving him to deal with the incoming horde of thugs wielding curved blades. Their leader, acting like he was taking a walk in the park, approached slowly while his lovely little army of Scimitar wielding thugs approached like rabid hounds, their poorly made blades looking malicious in contrast. Kreig had to admit he was a bit intimidated by what he saw, but it did not occupy his mind at that moment, really he felt confused about the words told to him and ended up repeating them aloud in a quizzical tone "If you feel your strength fail you, just say these words 'I will not fall because the light is my strength?'' He began to feel something odd…. It certainly wasn’t the Adrenaline rush as he was already feeling that, rather, it felt completely different. With the rush, the thrill he usually gets in battle, he would feel invincible. He would become a madman who seemed to relish on the pain being dealt to him, his foes in awe of the sight, would usually feel a brief sense of fear and hesitation. The new feeling that flowed within his body was not like that, it felt warm.... loving even, it seemed to fill his entire being with a strength he never quite felt before but it was also…familiar, like a parents love flowing through his veins. Kreig didn't really feel intimidated, really he recalled the words the vantha had told him in a quizzical manner "I will not fall because the light is my strength? Wha Their unorganized march quickly devolved into a run as they raised their blades, ready to overpower the lone brawler. In just a span of a few short seconds, they were close enough, the gaze of the one at the head of the pack met Kreig’s own. The first of them must of have thought this ‘[I] Your blood shall be spilled for purity’s sake you evil creature[i]’ But before the foolish thug could draw the promised blood, his skull broke…. A hole through its head spilling blood, brain matter and skull fragments onto the dirty earth and with same array of substances drenching his armored left fist as he pulled it out, allowing the corpse to fall. The mob of Scimi Tar thugs came to an abrupt halt, but only for a short moment. The sight of what happened to their comrade had nearly planted a seed of doubt into them but as they had quickly realized, they still largely outnumbered Kreig. After the passing of that very brief moment, the Scimi Tar gang members attacked once more, the closest of them brought his blade in an upward swing but the blade was caught in mid-swing, its dull edge firmly held by Kreig’s left before being pulled roughly, along with its master, into the incoming downward strike of another blade, Severing the hand of the former. He screamed, for a brief moment, the thug with the severed hand stumbled forward as his comrade was left dumbfounded, the gleaming point of his sword still raised, before Kreig raised his right leg and gave the former a powerful shove in his side and into the latter’s blade, causing the blade to pierce the flesh. The thug coughed up blood which dripped down his mouth while the blood from his severed hand spilled to the floor, horrifying his comrade whose blade had dealt the final blow and now had a corpse on him drenching him in blood. Kreig still held the blade of the dead Scimi Tar thug, while another one of them attempted a reckless charge and run Kreig through with his blade…. He should have tried a different angle, as Kreig stepped to the side of the oncoming thug and as he held the blade portion of the deceased’s scimitar with both hands, shoved it down into the back of the thug’s spine. The Blade with its dull tip, did not go through completely, Most of the blade still sticking out as the thug fell forward twitching and unable to move. Kreig turned his attention back to the mob, a smile on his face…. Blood still dripped from his armored left fist and he wiped some of it on his shirt, leaving a grizzly stain that would be confused for a wound or something akin to the apron of a butcher. Another thug came at him and this time Kreig caught him by the skull, the tip of his fingers pressing into it….. the thug writhed, screamed and begged for it to stop as he was forced to his knees, Kreig was enjoying this but allowed the thug a mercy by ramming the thug’s face into his knee twice, the first strike had cracked the skull…the second made the thug’s face cave in and left his dead corpse lying in the puddle of blood and brain matter. Then it happened, his body began to ache; screaming that it could do no more, his wounds hurt and risked infection in his arms…. they simply hurt as he knelt on his knees, unable to carry his arms. The thugs were confused, some afraid…. But soon they would feel differently seeing Kreig’s moment of weakness, they still outnumbered him and if they regain their confidence as fast as they lost it he would be doomed. He slowly stood back up and recited the words, sweat dripping from his brow as he realized how tired he truly was . He had to will himself to regain, he had to ignore the pain in his body, if for just a little while. His body's cries were forcibly silenced as he willed himself into a rage, he needed to kill them, all who stood before him needed to be trampled under his feet "Dira, my goddess, I will be arriving with friends soon" He raised his fists, the adrenaline pumping his body and the strength granted to him would lead him to spill the streets wilh blood, his own and that of those standing before him.

[Eridanus]

As the gang approached, Eridanus took the time to observe their movements and their mannerisms in order to discover more information about their group structure. It was clear that the large man with the massive hammer was the overall leader in the group. However, it was unlikely that he was the only one, for it was difficult to control a rag-tag group of ruffians with no discipline. Furthermore, it seemed that most of the gangsters were fresh recruits who simply joined the gang for protection and promises of riches, considering the inexperienced way that they held their weapons. Evidently they believed that possession of a weapon made them strong. As he further observed, he realized that despite the chaos there was actually a rough structure in their advance. By the time Kreig engaged the first ruffian by crushing his skull, Eridanus had finished analysing the group structure.

There were actually five squads within this large mass of people. There was a total of thirty people, excluding the giant one. Each squad contained five gangsters, fresh recruits, or inexperienced ruffians, with one more experienced member of the gang leading each squad. That made the command structure of this enforcement party as such: one general supervisor at the top tier, five enforcers at the middle tier, and twenty five gangsters at the lowest tier, with each tier controlling the tier below. On a closer look, the enforcers could be distinguished by the leather armour that they were actually wearing underneath their clothes. This could be observed by the slightly bulging clothes and the occasional wardrobe slip that revealed the hidden armour within. The overall leader of course, had no qualms of showing and it was this boldness that enabled Eridanus to notice the special qualities of his own leather armour - it was studded and meant to discourage punching for doing so meant risking injury.

While Kreig began to engage one squad, with the enforcer directing efforts from behind, apparently one other squad decided that it might be a good idea to take him hostage to try to gain an advantage on the brawler. Led by an enforcer, that squad around Kreig to the nonplussed vantha chilling behind Kreig, outside of his cone of vision.

The enforcer waved his hand forward, and a gangster leered as he reached forward with his curved blade, intent on threatening Eridanus with the blade to make him submit. However, the vantha merely dodged it easily, sidestepping as he slammed his elbow down on the man's neck as he twisted his arm in a graceful arm lock. Using the man's body like a pole, he swung his legs outwards, kicking up and slamming the chin upwards of a nearby gangster, causing him to collapse. Leveraging on the original man, the scholar charged up flux to his legs, directing the energies upwards through his body as his muscle groups consequently activated in throwing the man over him and straight onto the enforcer. Taking advantage of the chaos, he ran past the two befuddled gangsters, dealing lightning fast slams into their necks and instantly knocking them out as he passed by. As he reached the enforcer who was still trying to push the unconscious body of the first gangster away from him, Eridanus jumped into the air and aimed a kick to drop the man. With the momentum, he proceeded to knee him in the guts, then dropping down and slamming a palm into his temple.

All of this was not seen by Kreig as the brawler had just finished taking out four of the gangsters quite messily. The vantha continued to put his hands in his pocket as he strolled harmlessly around, distancing himself from the crumpled up pile of the foolhardy squad that approached him.

Battlefield Update :

25x Scimi Tar Gangsters
5x Scimi Tar Enforcers
1x Scimi Tar Supervisor

Data Table

Type	Skills	Equipment
Gangster	Weapon: Scimitar 15-25	Scimitar
Enforcer	Weapon: Scimitar 26-35	Scimitar, Leather Armor
Supervisor	Weapon: Rock Crusher 45, Bodybuilding 40, Weapon: Scimitar 30	Rock Crusher, Scimitar, Studded Leather

Kreig: 4 Gangsters KIA
Eridanus: 5 Gangsters KO, 1 Enforcer KO

[Kreig Messer]

As the Vantha dealt with a squadron of Scimi Tars outside the brawlers vision. Kreig was dealing with another squadron plus two from the previous one. all in all he was dealing with two Enforcers and six Gangsters. They were being cautious around the brawler, the gangsters being young, inexperienced or both were afraid to get close unless told to by their superiors. The Enforcers were different from their subordinates, the way they held themselves, the quality of their blades and the leather armor they wore showed they weren't quite as easy to take care off. Kreig still had the strength given to him and was capable of forcing himself into a new frenzied rage, This time he would attack rather than just wait for one of them to come as he had no time for that. moving quickly to the closest gangster he grabbed him by his shoulders and headbutted him, suffice to say a headbutt with double the strength was sufficient enough to knock the thug out but Kreig didn't let up as Kreig spun the unconscious thug and shoved him into another thug and knocked him to the ground. Immediately one of the enforcers stepped forward and braught his in a downward slash, forcing kreig to jump back to evade. The enforcer continued and swung it uppward, not wanting to give he brawler a chance and forcing him to step back again nd once more the enforcer brought it downward but kreig raied his fists and caught the blade with both hands. But it was too easy a catch, the enforcer was grinning for some reason. Then a tip of a blade was sticking through Kreig's left arm 'A distraction?!' Annoying, it was. Kreig pulled the Enforcer's blade away with his right and swung it upside down like a club at his head, knocking him out, then Kreig turned his attention to the gangster who stabbed his arm, placing his right on the tip of the blade in order to prevent the gangster from pulling it out. They were all pissing him off so much, he looked into the young gangster's eye, they were pissing him off so much. He kicked the gangster in the shin, pulled the blade out of his arm and used it to stab its owner in the chest, shoving it into him like a spear. He wasn''t going to stop, he couldn't, what time he had was best used to annihilate them all. He grabbed the next gangster by the neck and shoved his head into the nearby wall twice, the first would have been enough to crack his skull, the second broke it into itty bitty little pieces. Another gangster came forward, attempting to attack Kreig while his back was turned, fortunately luck was smiling upon the brawler as he turned around. The gangster should have continued but instead stopped too close, he would have had a better chance. Kreig punched the gangster in the stomach and as the gangster leaned from the blow, Kreig grabbed the back of his shirt and had him share the same fate of his predecessor as he slammed his head into the wall a couple of times, leaving him in gory headless state. But Kreig suddenly fealt the strength he had felt previously leave him, the warmth was gone and now he had to face the remainder of the squad. He didn't have time to recite the word to recite the words spoken to him as the second enforcer stepped forward and brought his blade in a downward slash, Kreig raisd the back of his gauntlets to block it but the Scimi Tar enforcer kept going, attmpting to force the brawler to his knee. He succeed as he quickly attempted to skewer Kreig's head but Kreig reacted appropriately enough as he grabbed the blade with his left and attempted to change its direction, unfortunately it still met a target as it nicked the left shoulder. Still with the blade tightly in his hand he stood up, and pushed the blade away and threw a right punch directly to the thugs face, knocking him to the ground 'not done yet' Kreig thought as he moved closer and stomped the thug n the neck to finish him off. He turned his attention the remainder of the squadron, if they felt fear, Kreig did not know it, he was just so angry as he spoke the words " I...will not... fall...... because..... the light is my strength" The strenght, the warmth he had felt before returned, he wanted to crush them like ants, he wasn't planning on dying before then. Another gangster charged, bringin his blade into a thrust but kreig stepped to the side and tripped the gangster and somped on his knee, hearing his lovely scream as his kneecap was crushed and was quickly silenced as Kreig gave him a kick in the head. He turned his drection to one of the thugs, this one had caused to fall previously. He eas terrified, shaking and shivering.... he was young, too young in Kreig's eyes, a bit of hypocrisy as he moments before killed a couple who were of similar age. Showing a bit of mercy he viloently shoved the gangster to the ground and left him there. How many were left? he didnt know, there were still many and he promised to rough them up messily.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus watched Kreig continue to deal with the onslaught of mobsters on his location, and he thought to himself that the brawler was doing remarkably well. The vantha skirted around the periphery of the battle, watching and dodging but never really intervening proper except for the few strategic strikes here and there. There was a reason why the brawler could find himself dealing with so many people at once, and that was not purely because of his strength and bravery.

Eridanus had been positioning himself tactically throughout, throwing the odd kick here and there to place certain gangsters in nonstrategic positions, leaving them vulnerable to Kreig's attacks. Certain men who managed to get into a position to flank the brawler would find themselves slammed to the ground, either being pushed towards their target and spoiling their surprise advantage, or simply having the wind knocked out of them with a flux-enhanced body slam to the ground with a single arm.

Another gangster appeared from behind, trying to strike at Kreig who was busy shoving a sword from his arm into another man and Eridanus came from behind, grasping the mobster on his shoulders. Surprised, the man tried to wave his cutlass around, but Eridanus ducked the arc of the swing, slamming a lightning fast series of blows that was augmented with flux energies in order to facilitate the speed of punching, causing the man to spit out blood as he stumbled in a disoriented manner. Grasping the gangster on the neck - which was very much the unarmed vantha's favorite move - he channeled flux throughout the length of his body to support the next maneuver, and threw the man onto the ground, quite surely giving him one heck of a concussion. In any case, that young fellow was not going to be waking up any time soon.

Unnatural movement from the corner of his eyes caught the observant scholar's attention, and he moved out of the battle scene, leaving Kreig to deal with the remaining men who were converging on him. Acrobatically, he scaled a shanty building to gain some height, channeling flux to his fingers to provide that extra grip as he flung himself higher up, grasping and leaping until he reached the ceiling.

Oh no this is bad.

From the direction of the Gated Community, he counted twenty armed Dragoons from the Sun's Birth approaching. They were clad in formidable armor that were most likely taken from the Knights' armory when they defected. It was no surprise that the Gated Community had a strong arsenal in any case. From the way they marched and from how they held their weapons, Eridanus could tell that they were no ordinary enforcer. They were the shock troops of the Gated Community and the first responders of the corrupted knights to deal with any possible threats. From what he understood of the dynamics of the situation, it was quite likely that the Scimi Tars were affiliated with either the Dagger Hand or the Night's Eyes. Most likely the Dagger Hand, since he knew the secretive group would not resort to open violence like this. It was likely that the Gated Community might believe that the Dagger Hand was trying to go for a small-scale skirmish with proxy gangs and therefore dispatched their first-hand responders to deal with such a situation.

They marched in a steady formation towards the street where the battle was ongoing. The sunlight reflected off their protective shields, fitting chainmails and well-oiled longswords, giving the entire a group a rather intimidating appearance. That made the various civilians of Sunberth give these corrupt knights a huge berth. Or at least, they did so after a bumbling fool did not yield space in time and was promptly cut down by the leader.

"Trouble, trouble is brewing," Eridanus murmured as his mind raced to reach a strategic solution, quickly climbing down the building to aid Kreig should he meet any trouble.

Battlefield Update :

25x Scimi Tar Gangsters
5x Scimi Tar Enforcers
1x Scimi Tar Supervisor

Data Table

Type	Skills	Equipment
Gangster	Weapon: Scimitar 15-25	Scimitar
Enforcer	Weapon: Scimitar 26-35	Scimitar, Leather Armor
Supervisor	Weapon: Rock Crusher 45, Bodybuilding 40, Weapon: Scimitar 30	Rock Crusher, Scimitar, Studded Leather

Kreig: 4 Gangsters KIA
Eridanus: 5 Gangsters KO, 1 Enforcer KO
Krieg: 1 Gangster KO, 5 Gangsters KIA, 1 Enforcer KO, 1 Enforcer KIA
Eridanus: 2 Gangsters KO

Remaining Count
8x Gangsters, 2 Enforcers, 1 Supervisor

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(About 15 chimes marching distance away)

18x Sun's Birth Dragoon Shock Trooper
2x Sun's Birth Dragoon Shock Sergeant

Data Table

Type	Skills	Equipment
Trooper	Weapon: Longsword 30-40, Weapon: Shield 20-30	Longsword, Large Steel Shield, Chainmail
Sergeant	Weapon: Longsword 40-50, Weapon: Shield 30-40	Longsword, Large Steel Shield, Chainmail