Sanctuary Disturbed (Open)

[Ryuzaki]

"Ghuh!" Ryuzaki grunted, parrying a strong slash. He countered with his own, bringing his sword upward in an arc, slamming into his foe's blade and knocking away his guard. Ryuzaki then stabbed forward, lunging awkwardly. However, Gyra deflected the stab with ease and used his blade to shove the younger thief back, stumbling.

"Damn," he thought. "I'll have to work on my stabbing."

"Hahaha!" A weak performance, as usual," Gyra sneered as he forced Ryuzaki back toward a house's wall. "Why doesn't it surprise me? Oh, yes... Because you-

Are-

WEAK!"


With each word, Gyra swung and lunged forward, causing Ryuzaki to jump backwards, until his back slammed into the wall.

"Now, you fool," Gyra spit, "YOU make your peace!"

Gyra stabbed forward. There was a sound of a sharp, metallic ring as the blade chipped the wall. Meanwhile, Ryuzaki dove to the side, and swung his sword at his opponent's legs, tripping him. Then, Ryuzaki smirked and swung his sword like a guillotine, slamming it into Gyra's leg as the experienced thief squirmed his neck out of the way.

"Ah," Gyra said in surprise. "Ah, you... Ahh. I... Truce, Ryuzaki? Truce, my old ally? Please? Merc-"

The thief's pleas were cut short by Ryuzaki's sword blade, which buried itself in his neck.

"Gyra..." Ryuzaki muttered. "You fool."

[Elias]

"Humph" He let out a small grunt of exertion as he hoisted the girl up upon his horse. She settled herself on to the steed, kinda, she seemed nervous but at the same time excited which struck a cord with the patron saint of all excitable mages, Elias himself. "I'm Elias, I was in town researching junk and then this junk happened and I thought 'Why not help purge these bandits from the world?' After all, it's only every mage's civic duty to help wherever you can." Geez were bandits just the BIGGEST pain in everyone's butt, you can't go ten minutes without them trying to murder kittens or something. He considered just pointing straight up in the air, shouting 'I'm the Crimson Mage!' but he did not, no Elias, you're too old to be doing stuff like that. No more Crimson Mage from you, it only brings headaches and there's not a whole lot good coming from it. Yes Elias, you're right as usual, how silly of me to try and fight with you. Still he couldn't just not help people, that was the path of being a jerk like that mercenary over there. If he could help, he would, he didn't like seeing people get hurt if he could do anything to help. Makes him feel icky, like it's his fault.

"Alright, hold on to my waist." He he told his passenger as he gripped the horse's reins. "Be easy on her Demon." He spoke to the horse who gave a dismissing neigh, and probably rolled it's big horse eyes or something. If horses could do that. Anyone who's spent more then an hour with Demon would be convinced they can. It's amazing how something so silent can be so snarky. He snapped the reins and gently prodded the horse in the side with his foot and the steed took off, moving at a nice clip but not as swiftly as Elias had moved before alone. There was no way he could move like that with someone else, unless the want to go flying off the back and smacking their head on the ground.

He followed the rest of the soldiers headed for the town center, a few banditos and brigands and junk coming from the woodwork of the city like they were just spawning in the alleys or something, but they weren't close enough to merit stopping to attack, and by the time they arrived in the town center the opposing force appeared to double, maybe even triple in size. They were boxed in from all sides, but that's what they wanted right? Or it appeared that's what they wanted. No one would come and strike them from behind at least, but now they were surrounding in the mother of all pincers. Still, nothing a little positive reinforcement and MAGIC couldn't help solve.

[Deleted]

"Ooh! Then we have something in common then! This village has treated me way too kindly for me to allow them to be run over by these creeps. I'll roast 'em alive with ya!" Maybe she could learn a thing or two from the mounted mage. No, not just because he wielded some thunder magic...even though she really wanted to zap people instead of incinerating them. Repeating that back to herself, it made her sound like some sadist who enjoyed killing people in the most gruesome and excruciating way possible...but she just innocently loved Thunder magic out of all the anima elements. Something about it appealed to her more, and she couldn't wait until she was powerful and skilled enough to wield such magic without harming someone else in the process...or zapping herself.

As she held on tight, Vivi was still nervous enough to think she'd fall off despite being assured that she wouldn't. Maybe that's just how it felt to be moving at this speed on the back of a horse for your first time? Though her excitement always overpowered her fears, almost half tempted to try and let loose a fire ball at one of the bandits from a distance despite the fact that she's too inexperienced to both release magic that far and NOT hit someone when she clearly knew she wasn't used to riding on the back of a horse while fighting. Aww, but she wanted to try it so badly. However, the militia men were all positioning themselves to defend themselves prior to Yaen's advice and she didn't want to mistakenly hit one of them with her clumsiness and childish desires to try something fun and invigorating. Really, she didn't blame people for thinking she was a hyperactive teenager instead of a fully grown woman. The last time she had fun with her magic was actually having targets to hit, so it would be refreshing to hit some baddies in all new ways possible. They deserved it after all.

"Stand your ground, men! Let them come to us, and we shall guard each other from all four corners!" The chief militiaman commanded as he bravely pointed his lance in front of him. All of his men positioned themselves in a way where they nearly had an impenetrable defense. They've never used such tactics before since the only fighting experience they've all possessed wasn't enough to level with professionals. They just fought wildly in the past to protect their home, and didn't care for anything else.

"Wow, look at them all! They actually look professional! I think Yaen's strategy's going to work nicely!" The hyper woman punched at nothing but thin air out of enthusiasm. The chief militiaman caught sight of the two arriving in the center, quickly hurrying over from his position.

"Miss Vivian! Are you and your friend sure you want to do this? There's a chance we'll still get slaughtered by the sheer amount of numbers our assailants have... and it'd be more prudent for you and all of your friends to escape safely. It'd pain us to see any of you harmed, or killed. Please, don't worry about us folk." The enemies were definitely closing in and ready to start gutting people, as the chief pushed his face guard down of his helmet. "We've never experienced a fight like this before, but you all shouldn't have to drag yourselves down with us--"

"Come on, chief. Stop being such a pessimist! Besides, you REALLY think I'd just leave you all behind? Vivi never runs from a fight to protect people either!" Why she talked first person a bit there, she didn't know. However, her point crossed either way. She even patted Elias's shoulder a few times as she laughed a tad. "Aaaand, we've got this guy too! We'll deep fry these punks in the name of justice! ...Or...oh, whatever. It's just the right thing to do!"

[Ryuzaki]

Ryu pulled his blade out of Grya's neck and looked around quickly. "Hmm. That should be good for the first wing..." Ryu thought, his mind whirling and racing as he strove to out-think Vesey. "He'll have... Arrows, by the flank sides. Arrows, and swordsmen. The axes will be in the center... Meaning... I need to get over there, NOW, or those lancemen will get slaughtered!"

With that, Ryu sprinted toward the center, chasing after the dust cloud of Sir Red's horse.

As he ran, he noted one of Vesey's elite archers crouched on a building roof, with his back to the thief.

"Aha," Ryuzaki muttered, "time to save someone’s life!"

Ryuzaki jumped, pushing off of one building and then the other, flinging himself upward and from building side to building side until he grabbed the edge of the roof where the archer was stationed. Unfortunately, the archer, who had heard him, swung his bow and dealt Ryuzaki a frightening clout over the head, causing the thief to flinch and almost fall. However, he swung his legs up and knocked the archer over, spilling arrows all over. In the heat of the moment, Ryuzaki failed even to draw his sword, and a fierce hand-to-hand battle ensued. Eventually, after being pummeled by the hard wood of the bow, Ryuzaki managed to break it. Smiling wickedly, he grabbed a side and pulled, moving to the side and watching as the archer was pulled by the bowstring and careened off the edge, bashing into the edges of the buildings as he thudded to the ground. Just to be safe, Ryuzaki jumped off the house's roof, landing neatly on the archer's torso, and then continuing to run until he skidded to a halt, completely winded, beside Vivi.

[Yaen]

Yaen slowly walked towards the square, blood still dripping from his Wo Dao, a thin layer of the red ichor staining his robe and face. He could feel it. The pumping blood in his chest. The warm, sickly feeling of another man's blood on his skin. He had missed that feeling. For too long had his blades gone untouched as he was forced to slowly recover from his heart condition. To finally return to battle, it was an ecstasy he had been long deprived of. This was what he lived for. This was what he was born to do.

The Sacaen scarcely realised that he'd drawn near to the militamen's shield wall until he was right on it. He looked over them, giving a slight nod of approval. "This is good." he said, looking to Vivian and Ryuzaki and, from what he could garner, the village chief. "These men may just survive the day." He looked over the militiamen once more, then looked to the Chief. "Do not break your formation, no matter what comes. The enemy will try to frighten you, or goad you, or even trick you. This formation is your only hope to survive. Stick to the man beside you. He is your shield, and you are his sword. Without each other, you are incomplete." he advised softly, turning to face the advancing enemy.

"I can hear it." he said to himself, his audience no longer in his mind. "I can hear the music in the wind." His eyes moved to look at Vivian and Ryuzaki from out of the side of his head. "Shall I play it for you? My symphony of swords? It is one that few live to see twice." He drew his second blade, looking back to the approaching rabble. "This battlefield is my stage. These blades are my instruments. These men... They are the paper on which I will write my masterpiece." He began to approach the enemy, speaking now as if he were in a trance. "Listen carefully. You will not live to hear it again. Now, let us play the song of swords." He whispered, breaking into a run towards the first line of axe men, that beautiful music, the symphony that only he could hear, resounding in his ears.

He swung his blade as he came upon the first brigand who dared to raise his axe against him. The curved sword sliced through the man's unprotected stomach like a hot knife through butter. He followed the arc of his sword, allowing it to turn him in a circle, thrusting his right handed blade into another man's skull before he could process what had happened. The third realised at last what was happening, and swung his axe, only to hit air as the Swordmaster danced away from his reach. The Sacaen's face, though hard, looked peaceful as he danced around his enemies, just out reach of their axes, never staying on one piece of dirt long enough for them to surround him, seemingly taunting them with feint attacks that never seemed to quite reach their mark.

[Elias]

"If any of you get hurt, and are not dead and bleeding on the floor and such, just yell "Elias!" and I'll come patch you up lickity split. Otherwise I'm just gonna bombard people really far away with lightning so I don't accidentally burn any of you guys alive." Oh those silly archers, thinking that by staying away from the conflict they can avoid justice, it's quite funny really. Elias would deliver the most righteous of furies upon them, and they won't be able to stop it. Oh Elias, you gentlemanly hero you. He looked at the mage on the back of his horse with a bid old Elias style grin. "Now then, I would say stick with me and watch me work my literal magic, but I have a feeling you're not comfortable casting spells on horseback. Takes some practice, I know, so either you should probably hop off." Not many people can manage casting spells in motion, it takes a lot of concentration and training, Elias lucked out in that he basically got the most aggravating horse in the world to work with, so he had to learn the hard and painful way, now he could do it with ease basically.

The soldiers were all doing... something, and everyone else was also doing something, and Elias wasn't really that skilled in the whole 'tactical combat' type thing which surprised everyone surely, it shattered many a preconception of 'mages are tacticians' type thing, but it seems that Vivi filled that in spades so whatever. Instead Elias focused on what he could do, blow things up and keep people from being blown up. He pointed at another archer oodles away, with a smile. He was gonna say something cool like 'feel my wrath heathen' or whatever, but he was so far away he'd never hear. A loss for the whole world one may say. Instead Elias snapped his fingers as if he was calling the very forces of nature on demand, which he sorta was (anima magic was cool like that) and a bolt of lightning struck from the heavens, blasting the man with its electrified splendor. He was probably totally dead, and he began to look around for another archer. "If any of you see an archer, tell me, I'll take care of 'em."

[Deleted]

"...G-good point!" It was true that she would not be able to cast very well on horseback. If anything, she'd probably end up sending a fire off and the quick jolts from riding would send a fire ball directly back at her! She's heard horror stories about that, of people having their own spells deflected back at him by various means...and she did NOT want to be a victim of such tragic events. Alas, poor Vivi...struck down by her own magic when it was meant for the forces of evil...whoever that was. Who knows? Maybe SHE'S the evil mage seeking to set the entire world ablaze and have roaring lightning clap endlessly in the skies as she terrorized the land eternally until some brave fools would inevitably roast her on a stick.

All right, enough of made-up fairy tales for one day.

After hopping off with haste from Elias' mount, she noticed Ryuzaki returning and next to her, raising her hand as she channeled the quickest fire ball she could before halting. "Geez! What's the big idea, Ryuki? Don't sneak up on me like that!" the flame extinguished on it's own as she calmed down. Something she'd have to tell the thief later, and anyone else for that matter, not to surprise her often...otherwise fire balls would be thrown without prejudice. It was then that the other Sacaean returned...and covered in blood already. Dear lord, what did he do? Even the soldiers lost their focus for a moment before ignoring it and keeping themselves in the zone of battle.

"Ah...yes, of course! Thanks for your help, stranger!" The militia chief finally responded to Yaen after hesitating a tad. Yean's words even puzzled Vivi, the young woman questioning to herself on what the heck he was talking about. Music...? Either the wind was just playing tricks on him, or he was a little coo-coo. Maybe both. "Errrrm...sure thing, buddy...!" ...What? She couldn't think of anything else to say in response! But then he proceeded to gutting some guys right in front of them and realized what Yaen really meant...sorta.

"Ohhhhh! I get it...music...screaming guys...huh. Well, whatever floats his boat, I guess."

The enemies began to spawn like rodents now, attacking the militia who guarded everyone in the center as they tried their best to target the seemingly weaker of their prey. The pushed, but the shields of the militiamen were capable of fending off the assaults and they all began to retaliate with their counter tactics. Vivi felt relieved that the strategy was working...at least for now. Everyone was able to guard themselves well...which is why she needed to say in the middle...but GOD did she want to roast someone right now. She couldn't resist the urge. She may be fragile, but she can still put up a fight. One of the axe wielders managed to break through one of the soldiers, but he received a lance to the back. Out of mere reaction, the mage already had a fire ball ready, as the man seemed hellbent on breaking through to attack her. He was going off adrenaline alone. Poor fool...his fate was already sealed as she released the fire ball as it curved a bit, but struck him directly in the face.

Yeowuch.

When he rolled away in pain as the flames ate away at the brigand's face, Vivian rushed over to the guard that was struck by the axe, dragging him back to where she was previously after some of the other guards were bridging the gap that the fallen soldier unintentionally left. Even if she couldn't see most of the combat, she could help the injured while they could still be saved and bring them to Elias as quick as possible.

[Ryuzaki]

"Oh. Um, sorry? ...I'm a thief, Vivian. Sneaking is what I do. Speaking of which...!"

Ryu, his breath coming back, dashed forward, jumping over a felled brigand, as his face... lit on fire? Oh, right. Vivian threw fire. Standing in front of the line of soldiers, Ryu grinned recklessly and spun his sword, eager for a challenge. As two bandits approached, Ryu's smile widened and he shook his hair out of his eyes before screaming like a man impaled, lunging forward and bringing his sword straight up, between the poor man's legs, and cutting a vertical swath through the abdomen. As the man looked in horror at the small waterfall of blood, Ryu winked and swung a strong, two-handed slash at the other. This man, however, blocked it and raised his axe with a roar of rage. Ryu shook his head in disappointment as he executed the same maneuver.

"Probably better that you don't have kids..." he said wryly as he looked back at the soldiers, smiling happily.

"Keep the morale, up, men!" he encouraged. "We can do it!"

"Probably..." he said to himself.

[Elias]

There was a lot of things going on. People were doing stuff, that guy with the sword fetish was dancing around, some kid was cutting guys chances of fatherhood in half (dohoho), that girl was shooting fireballs and junk everywhere, that soldier over there was like dead or something, there was a giant jerk trying to shoot him with an arrow because he's all 'offended' about Elias murdering his comrades. It was just a mess. To top it all off Elias went and gave himself a papercut. Of all the bad luck.

So Elias tackled the problems one at a time, first was obvious. Fix dying guy, since if he waited too long he was no longer dying guy but dead guy. Elias steered his steed steadily straight, ahead towards the injured man. He raised his staff as the horse came by, magic filtering into it and unto the wounds, his mend staff doing as it's name would imply, mending. As soon as the guy was stable, he pointed vigorous at the archer in the distance. An arrow was flying in the air, but before it hit its mark the man was already dead. The sky flashed bright and a wave of sound crashed through the area as a blast of lightning bolted down upon what was soon to be a very crispy corpse. The archer died instantly, naturally, but like some accursed spawn of darkness or a flatulent bug, his misery long overstayed the life of its host. The aforementioned arrow... well arrowed, as arrows were known to do, right into the squishy unarmored flesh of a certain red garbed mage. Right in the chest, owie. Luckily it hadn't hit any vital organs and narrowly missed piercing his lungs, and hit on the wrong side to pierce the heart, but it hurt. It really hurt. THERE WAS AN ARROW IN HIS CHEST AND IT REALLY HURT!

He cringed, stifling a scream, he was too good for that after all. Blood oozed from the wound, but you'd hardly notice what with his clothes already red. He took a breath, not too deep though since he didn't want to jostle the wound, and bit his lip as he continued what he was doing. It wasn't a vital injury, but it was something he'd have to take care of. But, since he wasn't dying unlike some people, it had to wait. Also he couldn't heal his self, which sucked, staffs were weird like that. He'd have to take care of it the old fashioned way, luckily for him he was good at the old fashioned way. For now it was healing time however, his staff lighting up the sky with its light colored light, the wounds on the injured man vanishing before his very eyes.

"Okay, you... Vivi." Elias winced as he looked at her, sliding off of his horse. "I need you to do me a favor, alright? I got a wound and if I don't bandage it quickly, I could risk infection and other gross things." He said as he pulled out what looked like a little bag from his horse's sidebags. Inside was clean linen, for just such an occasion. Too bad there wasn't vulneraries anymore, they'd be really useful about now, but they vanished from existence for some reason or another. "I'm a huge wuss though, so I don't think I can do it myself. So what I need you to do is grab this arrow right here and YANK as hard as you can. I need it out, and it's going to hurt." He was bleeding a lot more than he thought he would. He was so short, he didn't have much blood in his body to begin with. He moved at a slightly labored pace, it was painful but that wasn't it, he didn't want to upset the wound. The arrow was piercing a very delicate area that a little bit over and he'd be more or less dying. He liked living, so he wanted to keep it that way if it was at all possible. "Then if it's not too much, please make sure no one kills me while I do this. I would appreciate that very much."

[Deleted]

After his grievous wound was mended, the guard found himself completely fine and finally released from the agony of pain. Vivian still helped him to his feet before the man had a sudden burst of energy and set himself free, going to rejoin his allies in the battle. The mage sighed, not sure what to make of it. "Welp...here's hoping he doesn't get killed this time." Yaen's strategy still seemed to be working quite effectively as the guards still maintained their defensive stands. It was already known that there was going to be a lot of enemies here, but...she didn't expect THIS many. Lucky, some light was finally shining as she witnessed their allies taking down quite a few of them while Ryuzaki netted himself a victory as well.

...She could say the same for the Crimson Mage, but she actually saw the whole thing of the arrow piercing his chest. At first, she was a little frightened for his life, though he seemed okay for the most part since it didn't seem to hit him anywhere life-threatening. Though when he approached her about yanking the arrow out, she was like...actually lost for words for a moment there. While she needed to help the soldiers, Elias did need the most immediate attention. Not only because he was their sole staff wielder, but...that looked PRETTY painful. You didn't need to have the arrow in your own chest to see how agonizing it must feels. Ryu and the guards seemed like they could handle themselves for now. Didn't appear like any of the big dogs have shown themselves as of yet, so she hesitantly agreed with a nod as she clenched the arrow tightly, but not enough to snap it...otherwise, it'd be stuck in his chest.

"A-all righty then. This is...prrrrobably going to hurt me more than it hurts you, but here goes!" Yeah, seeing other people in pain made her cringe, especially when she had to do something like this. Okay! She could do this...cuffing her other hand over the one over the arrow, she jerked back as hard as she could, doing precisely as the injured mage requested, literally yanked the thing out of his chest as she fell backwards on her bum. Well, that certain DID hurt her! Her eyes creaked open after they shut on their own, realizing the bloody arrow in her hand and of her success before staring up at Elias. "Uhhh...there. You okay?"

Probably not. He just had a FREAKIN' ARROW yanked out of him, Vivi! But if he was prepared to feel that kind of pain, he must have been fine...to some extent.

[Ryuzaki]

"C'mon, bandits! C'mon! Come and get me!"

Ryu laughed, twirling his sword and looking at the faces of the militiamen.

"All right, Ryuzaki, I will come and get you. After I have some fun, of course."

The voice emanated from a strong and handsome mercenary, sword held carelessly on his shoulder.

"I assume that you decided the townsfolk would pay better, hmm? Well, deserter, I have some news for you. Coin won't be coming from these dead peasants. And you'll have no use for coin when you're laying, rotting, like a stray dog in a ditch."

"...Pedro. So you found out. Very well... You may call me a deserter, but I'm just doing what I believe is right. I'm following my own compass. And it tells me to cut you down!"

Ryu scowled at his former employer, raising his sword in anger. He was prepared to fight if need be. "Vivian! Sir Red! The head of the viper is upon us! Let us cut him down and so kill the snake!"

[Elias]

"GRAGHmmm" As the arrow was yanked out of his flesh, ripping a nice meaty chunk of flesh with it because of it's nifty shape, his entire body locked up in a sudden jolt of pain and it took all of his mental discipline (of which he had quite a bit) to not scream in pain. His eyes shut tight, but he took a deep breath and managed through it. The girl fell right on her keister, but he was a little preoccupied with the whole hole in his chest business. She stood back up and asked him if he was fine. To which Elias cooly responded "That really hurt." Maybe he was just a wuss, he usually didn't get hurt often. Actually... now that he thought about it... He got hurt all the time. Huh. Maybe he should try to dodge more. At least it made him patching himself up an old habit. This wouldn't take too long, "I'll be just a moment. I need to tie off a bandage. Then I'll go back to healing." He told Vivianne as he unhooked his cape and began to remove his robe. It seemed like a dumb idea to take off the smallest amount of protection her had in the middle of battle, but he was relatively safe behind the line of fire and he was almost certain all the archers were dead by this point. He didn't want to bandage above his robe. Clothes shift and move, meaning that even if he tied it tightly, it wouldn't stay on the right spot. There was also the fact it would push the cloth into the wound, which is hardly what you want if you want to avoid infection.

So he sat on the ground, shirtless and bleeding all over himself. It dribbled from the wound and trickled down his body, staining his already red pants. It was really really really hard to wash blood out of clothes dang it. He would be more indignant if he wasn't busy tying the bandage around his chest. When he got out of battle he'd have to change the bandages to some clean ones, and actually disinfect it this time, but for now he just needed to make sure he didn't let it fester. After getting it properly bandaged he cleaned away whatever little blood that was on his body as his bandage started to take a distinct reddish hue. He'd deal with that later, right now he needed to work, so he put that robe of his back on. It was a thick cloth and was fire retardant, so it provided some minor protection. Even if it was more from the elements then in battle. It was a basic fact of magic, armor and steel restricted the magical forces you must manipulate. It was like they inhibited them, so most mages couldn't wear anything thicker than a robe.

"Thank you Vivi." He nodded at the woman, heading towards demon and clamboring atop his horse. He took his mend staff in hand, looking around and casting a watchful gaze. There was some people who've gotten injured in the time it took him to tend his wound. Wait did someone just summon him? Sir Red? Well that's just about the most flattering title he's ever been given. Elias could probably smite the man with his lightning right now and just end things. But... agh... He cringed, putting a hand to his wound. It hurt, that was his casting arm. It wouldn't stop him, but it would make it a bit difficult to use his bolting tome. It wasn't the most accurate thing in the world to begin with due to the extreme range and the nature of lightning striking nigh-instantly from above, the injury would make it harder to concentrate. He'd miss for sure, and it would scare the man away most likely. If he wanted to use this spell, he'd have to find a stationary target, which he doubted this guy would be.

[Deleted]

"Uh...s-sure. No problem!" Yeesh. That must have taken some incredible willpower from the red mage to NOT scream like a little baby. She knew if she had an arrow lodged anywhere in her body, she'd yell so loudly that it may roar across the entirety of Elibe when it's yanked out. Granted, she's never had the...pleasure of experiencing that kind of agony, so she wouldn't know...and she wasn't planning on knowing! While he bandaged himself up, Vivi still maintained her guard as the battles around them were still raging on, seeing more poor saps from both sides being dropped one after another, though at least it was very minimal on the good guy's side! She felt for the allies that were defeated, but hopefully they'd stay down to prevent getting themselves brutally murdered.

When Ryuzaki called out to the both of them, she set her sights on the mercenary that showed himself. Well, not like she was all that impressed by his looks, but he sure did look pretty tough. Maybe "pretty" was too strong of a word. Ah, forget it. The mercenary seemed pretty engrossed with the thief alone for the most part, and as much as that'd be an advantage to take out the rest of the enemies now that the other Sacaean sort of just...vanished completely out of her sight, it'd probably be for the best to keep an eye out for the big bad boss guy in case he tried something funny. But Vivi probably would just get in the way if she blindly charged in trying to help...which was a habit she's known for. But it was time for her to play smart like a reasonable adult. She was a grown freakin' woman, so it was time to act like one!

She didn't know what Elias was going to do, but he probably couldn't be as active with that wound. Though he seeeeeemed just as, or probably even more active than she was, so there was little room for worry. She instead opted to just standing right behind a line of guardsmen and ready to attack when possible. She noticed a sword-wielding ruffian charging at the man in front of her, who really seemed like he was reaching his limit. There was no way he'd be able to defend himself properly...and that'd just make another hole for the enemies to run into to harass her and the red mage. Having a fire ball cast as she flipped open her book quickly, she gently shoved the soldier to the side a bit, giving her the space she needed to intercept the man. She tossed the fire ball and it smacked him head-on in the chest, dropping down and roasting just like her previous victims.

[Ryuzaki]

"Umm...?"

Ryuzaki looked around quickly. Nobody had moved to his aid... Well, that was... great. And Pedro knew it too... The man let out a hearty laugh, toting his sword and moving forward to engage Ryuzaki.

"Well, let's see how well you fare against my glorious swordfighting skills. I am, of course, peerless in both beauty and technique... Oh! You there, the cute mage! I'll offer you a deal... You come here and be my bride, and I'll make you queen of our bandit company! What do you say, honeybunch? Do we have a deal?"

Ryu lifted his sword into a ready stance, preparing to engage the chief. It would be a harsh battle. The last two of Pedro's elite archers could be seen on a nearby roof, the snipers stringing arrows onto their bows and felling the militiamen mercilessly.

"Sir Red, I don't want to bother you, but that rooftop has an infestation of archers. You've got range... Could you or Vivian take them out?"

[Elias]

"Infestation and two don't mean the same thing." Well at least it was nice to know his services as archer killer extraordinaire was appreciated, even if it wasn't exactly well timed at the moment. Elias was busy though, busy healing people who had been hurt. He's the only dude here bad enough to have a staff, so that meant it was his responsibility. Sure he could create an all consuming inferno of heat and hellfire that would devour countless soldiers and annihilate their commander before he could even say 'is it hot or is it just me', but if he did that then it was probably likely some dudes would die in the lull. Also showstealer Elias was trying to cut down on his kleptomania. This seemed 'personal' and 'important' for that blue dude, so if Elias were to just end it like that it would be laaaame.

He was doing some that sweet sweet healing, his mend staff doing it's namesake of mending. He probably needed to take out those archers though. Ugh. He was so not in the mood for that. He didn't like archers, now more than ever with their snippity sniping him and junk. He would take them af-Oof! Elias quickly brought his book up as a pair of arrows tracked their way to him, they thudded into the hardcover and embedded themselves into the pages. They... ruined his book. They RUINED HIS BOOK. THIS WAS HIS FAVORITE BOOK! The fact that they seemed to be focusing on him and trying to kill him completely went over his head, along with the fact that technically it was him who ruined his book by using it as a makeshift shield. The book wasn't really ruined either, but you try telling that to an infuriated mage knight with incredible magical power. Spoilers, it won't go over well.

He stared, he glared, he glowered, and he did other words for looking at people with the intensity of 1000 suns. The archers didn't even seem to care, they just pulled out another arrow and... Elias tossed a fireball at them. Nice and fat, and arcing through the air as if it had a weight to it. It didn't explode when it landed on the rooftop near their feet. Instead it just sort of hung there, burning. It was less like a fireball and more like something he lit on fire and tossed. It looked like... a book? How str

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The burning book EXPLODED in a fiery column of death and flames, the archers incinerated in a second. It exploded up, high into the air, resembling a giant pillar of flame that reminded Elias of the pillars of lava that sprung from the earth when Ostia fell into the sea of fire. He'd be more proud of what was easily his biggest explosion yet if he wasn't so busy being broken hearted. Elias had set the elfire tome on fire, and tossed it. All the leftover elfire spells inside of it activated at once and created a shattering explosion of fire and death. He also blew a big hole clean in the roof of the building that was still smoking, and it was really the only remains that anything had been over there at all. His elfire tome was ruined. RUINED. At least it made for a good closing number.

He really liked that book too. It was his favorite spell. Ugh.