[Near Syliras] In Myri's name why now!? (Radiant, Sayren)

by **Revy Hiroe** on April 10th, 2014, 9:14 pm

60th day Spring, 514 AV

The journey up until now had been rather.... quiet. Of course the mercenaries were jesting at each other, especially Revy and Sayren, but for the rest nothing major had happened. The merchant, happy about the safety so far, seemed to completely relax now that they could at least see the city, albeit it was at least another day's journey. If only they didn't have those damn carts with them, they could reach the city in no more then six bells, but alas... those carts slowed them down so much, it'd take just another day.

Revy, unlike the others, was still weary. Clad in her metal suit, she just shake off the feeling that trouble was near. More often then not did bandits raid caravans when they were close to their objective. This because that was the time when people started to relax, being less observing and letting fatigue get to them. But this woman had been on too many journeys already to relax. Not until they rode through the gates, would she lower her guard.

Sayren seemed to have been behaving herself during the journey. Well, it could be because Revy was just completely neglecting her. Right now she just didn't have the time for the girl. During the whole journey, she just knew that at any time she should be ready for combat. However, in about a day that would be over. They could rest, take a bath or two and whatever else they wanted. But right now, she just had to see this job to an end.

ooc :

by **Sayren WindDancer** on April 15th, 2014, 9:51 am

The trip thus far had been mainly quiet. Sayren and Revy barely exchanged glances, let alone a few words. The other mercenaries were rather chatty amongst themselves though. However, each time she tried speaking with them. They would immediately silence their tongues. They never explained themselves, but they made it obvious they would have no words with her.

She sighed as she leaned over to Garel, "What's up with these guys?" The strider just gave a simple shrug, his attention was upon the Sungold. Even if he was trying his best to find everything about her to despise.

Her eyes narrowed as she adjusted the sword on her back. It seemed to be the most comfortable spot to place it. However, it seemed rather inconvenient for her to reach for. Each time she would go to check for it, it would lean right over to the next shoulder. Irritating her each time as she heard the mercenaries chuckle.

"There's Syliras!" One of the Mercenaries shouted.

Sayren blinked as she glanced over at the city. It was certainly much larger than she had supposed it would be. Her mother's stories definitely lived up to the tale. Garel's eyes glanced over for just a moment, long enough to give a disappointed sigh before returning his gaze back to the Sungold.

"I wonder what the city is like..." Sayren muttered to herself.

by **Radiant** on April 18th, 2014, 6:34 pm

The Kabrin Road, the only civilized man-made region-wide road that exists in Mizahar, spanning all the way from Sylira to Cyphrus, connecting settlements such as Syliras, Zeltiva, Riverfall, and others. Of course, traders and travelers alike often used this road as the alternative of traveling through the dangerous Wildlands was ill-advised. Monsters and unknown horrors lurk in the forest depths, better stick to the beaten path. Of course, even in the Kabrin, danger still lurked behind the shadows of the tree line, bandits, slavers, highwaymen, and ruffians, foul people trying to make a living through raiding, enslaving, and robbing. These criminals stalked the thriving Kabrin, ever watching for a ripe target or two.

One bandit group, composed of about forty dishonorable men, led by a scarred bandit leader called 'Twinblade', infamous for his ability to wield two shortswords with great finesse, was on their usual choke point, two small hills on each side of the Kabrin as the road passed through the valley. Twinblade saw a caravan approaching from the distance and ever since a bell ago, prepared his trap, his men would feast on good food, wine, and women, then they would sell the captured as slaves, another good day to be a bandit. As the caravan approached the valley, Twinblade analyzed the travelers, guards here and there with weapons, that was to be expected. His eyes found a particular pretty lady amongst them though, the one with luscious brown hair, bright greenish eyes, and elaborate tattoo. He licked his lips, that woman shall be his personal pleasure slave, the dark-haired man then raised his muscled battle-scarred right hand, signalling for the ambush.

With his command, the bandits then pushed the rocks and boulders they placed at the hills, rolling them down onto the Kabrin to block the caravan's route, both front and back, immobilizing it. "Sic' em! Leave the pretty ones unharmed!" With another gesture, twenty bandit archers all slung their shortbows as they rained it down towards the guards, after this, they would follow up with about twenty bandit carrying all manners of looted weapons, swords, daggers, axes, to charge from the caravan's left and right, charging from the hills. Being the brazen and proud bandit he was, Twinblade himself led the charge of course, raising both of his steel and cold iron shortswords high as he snarled his terrifyingly loud battle-cry!

OOCYou both can play your own mercenary members.

If you aren't sure about anything, just PM me.

by **Revy Hiroe** on April 29th, 2014, 10:17 am

Revy had long ago noticed how uncomfortable Sayren was with that sword, however she couldn't divert her attention even for a moment. She just had a gut feeling something was gonna happen. And because she was restless, Rosalind was nervous. Unlike usual she wasn't blatantly ignoring Garel, at least not obviously ignoring him. No, she was just nervous and unable to give him any attention whatsoever.

Her bad feeling only became worse the closer they got to Syliras. Not only did she get a bad feeling about the hills in front of them, but she also had the feeling that someone.... something, she couldn't figure out what, was watching her. She leaned forward, close to Rosa's ear and whispered: "Calm down, I'll make sure you won't be harmed. Just stay close the wagons if something happens."

And her gut feeling proved to be correct. Rocks tumbled down the hills, effectively blocking their way forward and backwards. However, Revy wasn't fased by this. No, she immediately tried to get hold of the situation and started to yell: "Huddle! Get the wagons close to eachother, quick! Grab your weapons, it's an ambush! Stop slacking and do your job."

She herself immediately let herself slide of Rosalind's back, grabbed her shield and longsword. She closed her vizor and sent Rosa to the carts. She pointed at a couple of the mercenaries, five in total, and said: "You guys with me, the rest of you stay between the carts. Fight them off if they attack you...." However, she couldn't finish her sentence as the arrows rained down on them. Fortunately for the mercenary, she wore full plate armor. Most of the mercenaries were fast enough to duck behind the wagons, however two of them, an axe-wielder and a warhammer wielder, weren't so lucky. The one with the axes, received two arrows, one straight to the face and one in his hip. The other took one to the knee. Well.. he was out of the fight.

Two groups of ten bandits charged down the hills. Taking a quick look at both groups, Revy decided to take on the one with that guy using two swords. He seemed to be the one with the most skill, judging by how he held the weapons. "Guys, we gonna murder this group first. The ones near the wagons, hold off the other group as best as you can. And you merchant: don't get killed, I don't want to lose my pay coz you were stupid." And right after that, she charged right at the bandits, her group right behind her.

oocMercenaries with Revy: Two with Greatswords. One with a Warhammer. Two with a longsword/shield

Mercenaries with Sayren: One with a glaive, One with a Spear, one dualwielding sabers

All mercenaries wear leather

by **Radiant** on May 13th, 2014, 7:27 am

OOCAs spoken in the PM, We will be skipping Sayren as she took too long.

Sayren, if you want to re-join, PM us first.

Chaos immediately erupted as the bandits and caravan guards clashed with each other, battle-cries, screams of pain, curses, clashes of steel, and the song arrows flying through the air adjoined in a song of battle, one that would make Myri proud. The bandits had the caravan pinned and each caravan guards knew it would be a fight to the death or a fate of enslavement awaited them.

Twinblade brought five of his most trusted comrades as well and with a coordinated nod from their leader, the elite bandits each picked their opponents from the mercenaries following Revy, "That one! Mine!" Twinblade roared as he charged straight at Revy, masterfully wielding his dual shortswords, "Raaaaagh!" With a battle-cry Twinblade jumped at the female mercenary, twisting his body nimbly and expertly in the air as she launched flurry of two fast strikes just before he landed in front of Revy.

Twinblade didn't stop there, he continued with a feint stab at Revy's neck with one of his swords then motioned his other sword to stab at Revy's chest, but it turned out to be a feint as well and the first strike was the true one, from these, Revy could see this particular bandit was indeed a master combatant and completely knew what he was doing, his feet never staying still as his style of combat preferred mobility more than defense, when Revy counter-attacked, Twinblade would nimbly swivel to Revy's side, aiming to flank the mercenary then made a powerful kick towards Revy's kneecap, aiming to dislocate it, followed by a another roundhouse kick to her head if the first one failed.

by **Revy Hiroe** on May 13th, 2014, 12:59 pm

Revy sent a small prayer to Myri, to bless their weapons in battle. They were gonna need every little bit of help they could get. Especially considering that these bandits seemed veterans. Not just a bunch of ragtag together. She even let her gnosis flow throughout her body, knowing that she'd be able to fight even better. She was not gonna die here, not today. Not when Sayren was with them.

And then the two groups clashed. It was almost pure chaos. Her fellow mercenaries were fighting for their life, making them even more fierce then usual. Yet Revy didn't seem that way. She was solely focussing on winning, instead of surviving. She went straight for the bandit and had to block his dual attack, using both her shield and sword. Not really a great start, but he was good. He was really good if he could do that, that fast.

Yet she still underestimated the bandit. She half and half expected him to use her plate against her, but the speed at which he went was far more then she thought he'd be able to use. He was faster then her, despite her using her prowess mark, she couldn't keep up with him. "This is bad, really really bad. I have to outwit him somehow......", she thought to herself.

However, that 'opening' wasn't showing yet. Instead he went for her neck, so in turn she ducked forward slightly, yet saw that his attack was nothing but a feint... hiding his attack at her chest. Wait, did he really try that? That was stupid, she wore plate there. It wasn't going to do.... and then she felt a sword scrape off the back of her gorget. The force being more dangerous then the blade itself as it was enough to delay a fast counter from her.

Due to her attack being slower, the bandit easiliy dodged it and reacted with an attack of his own. She wanted to get out of the way, but her intention didn't get her any further then lifting her leg resulting in her getting her kicked of her feet. After slamming to the ground, she quickly turned onto her back, raising her shield to an expected attack and pointed the tip towards the bandit, ready to thrust it out at whatever bodypart of his was coming into her reach first.

by **Radiant** on May 13th, 2014, 2:42 pm

When Revy countered his strikes and didn't die with his initial attacks, Twinblade smiled, an exhilarated grin at finding someone who could be his equal, it had been so long, the old bandit then completely forgot about his purpose or his intentions, he purely focused on this particular moment, this particular duel, this moment rarely came and he would make the best use of it. Locking his gaze to his downed duel opponent, standing over her with predator-like dark eyes, the bandit leader was about to stab down Revy's neck, aiming to finish her off, but in his mind, he expected the woman to counter, this particular mercenary was no fool, unlike the others.

The dual-wielder saw Revy's thrust then he took a quick step-back, calling off his attack, inadvertently letting Revy got back to her feet, the bandit didn't bother with banters or verbal exchanges, words, except orders, were meaningless in battles, what was important is to lay standing on top of one's enemy's corpses, the bandit went silent as he concentrated, cracking his neck and shoulders as he prepared something then...

"Rah!" He charged, his movements even faster and nimbler than before, unleashing strikes after strikes, all aimed at the joins in Revy's armor or her neck or her face, combined with quick kicks and blunt strikes to her groin, knee-caps, armpits and other armor joints. If Revy was familiar with the art of flux, then she would know Twinblade was no novice in it, the bandit leader then raised his right arm... where a spring bracer was located as he quickly launched a sharp stiletto, aimed at Revy's neck, then another with the spring bracer on his left hand, the bandit had various weapons hidden in his body. The launched stilettos were merely used to distract Revy as he closed in again, aiming a cross-slash at Revy's throat.

The bandit then dimmed down his flux as he contemplated his next move, this woman was good... and he wouldn't want it any other way, the bandit then procured a smokestick as he scraped it to his sword, causing a spark and ignition, thick smoke was dispersed as he threw it to the ground, blanketing the area in blinding smoke, he was employing shady tactics and giving it all in his fight, in a way, that meant he respected this woman.

by **Revy Hiroe** on May 13th, 2014, 9:27 pm

Revy's counter was completely ineffective as that guy had anticipated it. Darnit, if she could at least wound him a little, he'd get slower. Or those were her thoughts at least. However, due to that guy backing off, she got her a window where she could quickly scramble to her feet. It wasn't good to fight while being pinned to the ground after all. Now she could at least make proper use of her shield and weapon.

And then the bandit's assault began anew. This time he was even faster and Revy barely kept up with him. She couldn't counter at all, her armor was just slowing her down too much. She did manage to sometimes block a blow with her shield, or sword. But mostly she was just trying to avoid getting her joints dislocated. She didn't even have the time to question how he was able to move that fast, as it was far too fast for a regular human to fight at.

As the fight between the two leaders, or at least Revy appointed herself as such, continued, so did the fight around them. However, it was not in the favor of the caravan. No it had been in favor of the bandits. Despite them having lost more men, the mercenaries were down by half their men, where the bandits had only lost a quarter of theirs. Of the men that had gathered with Revy, only one remained, the rest lay dead on the ground, between the corpses of as many bandits.

Yet despite this raging combat around Revy, she didn't have the time to take note of that at all. She was far too busy dealing with the leader of the bandits. It was unfortunate for that guy that Revy was wearing her plate, yet fortunate at the same time because it made her slower. His hidden blades did no damage whatsoever as they harmlessly bounced off the gorget. Revy had to rely on her plate to get through this, and that meant ignoring smaller attacks in hope of blocking the bigger ones to allow her a window of opportunity.

And that window presented itself right after those daggers were thrown... from where ever they came from. That cross slash stopped prematurely as ther was a large shield in between Revy's neck and the blades. Sparing no time she immediately countered, but that guy was just too slick. He managed to back off just in time. "Bloody petching shykehead. Stand still for a little longer!", she cursed inside her mind. And then the smokebomb went off. Her vision was now completely obscured and in reaction to that, she started to back off as fast as she could, keeping her shield between her and the last position of that bandit. It didn't help that she almost couldn't breathe due to the smoke either. Nor that her eyes started to burn from it. Oh yes, she was in deep DEEP shyke right there.

by **Radiant** on May 14th, 2014, 2:12 pm

As time went on, it was clear the bandits were gaining the upper-hand, they had the advantage of first strike, position, numbers, and terrain, though the mercenaries were more skilled, the factors were all against them, one by one, they fell, until on a couple of them left, the ones that charged with Revy. The other woman, Sayren, was nowhere to be seen, perhaps she escaped in the confusion.

When Revy cleared out of the smoke, she would find the sight of about three men stabbing her last mercenary comrade alone, the man gurgling then died instantly as a bandit lopped off his head. Twinblade, he jumped on Revy from the back, putting one short sword pressing dangerously close to her neck, at this distance, his strength would stab right through Revy's softer neck-joint armor then kill her, his other hand went to grab her sword-arm, twisting it, aiming to disarm the mercenary, "I like you, woman, you have a warrior's spirit..." Twinblade spoke, his voice softer than when he was in battle, but still held firm, "The battle is lost, your friends are dead, I don't want to kill you, put down your arms... surrender."

For assurance, Twinblade shouted to his men, "Loot the caravan and the corpses, collect our dead! As for her, no one is going to touch her, she's mine!" His bandits all shouted in victory then began to work, leaving Twinblade and Revy alone, after the female human consented of course, "My men are loyal and strong, they will heed to my words, do the right thing, woman, surrender and you shall not meet the same fate as your comrades."

by **Revy Hiroe** on May 14th, 2014, 2:46 pm

Slowly the smoke was clearing, and with it the irritation to her throat and eyes. Right when she was able to actually keep her eyes open, cleared of tears, she saw the last guard drop down the ground, stabbed to death by those bandits. She had ordered them, ORDERED them to stay alive. Why the hell were they all dead? Weren't they able to stay alive? She knew they were skilled, as they all had been sparring during the times they had to take a break.

"You bloody idiots, I ordered you guys to.....!", she didn't even get to finish her sentence as she got smacked to the ground. Before she even got the chance to react, she noticed the sword close to her gorget. "Oh crap...... this ain't good, not good at all.", she thought to herself as she listened to the guy. Well... she didn't have any choice in the matter right now, but it didn't mean that she wanted to.

However, as he said that the guys could loot all they wanted, she struggled a little. "Don't you petching dare touch my stuff. I'll stay quiet for now, but don't you guys DARE touch my stuff.", despite that she wasn absolutely not in a position to make demands, which she knew, she was very protective of her stuff. "Petch petch PETCH! There are still far too many bandits left. Petch! Even if I managed to struggle myself free, I wouldn't survive this. I can't beat twenty five people on my own.", she thought to herself.

Not once did she feel so humiliated, not once so defeated. And now she was in a deep load of trouble. Hissing between her teeth, to repeat her previous words: "I promise I'll listen, as long as you let me keep my stuff. There ain't no way I'm able to get out of this mess anyway. Besides, thanks to you bloody petchers, I lost the pay for this trip." It would take a miracle for her to escape from what she had in store for her now. She couldn't do anything but grind her teeth at her own incompetence here.

Closed [Near Syliras] In Myri's name why now!? (Radiant, Sayren)