Zal glanced irritably at Sid(who was still barking) as he parried a clumsy sword thrust from a panicking bandit. He couldn't really blame the man. Everything was supposed to have been going well. They had conquered the village, and were reaping the rewards. The armed strangers had been taken, unarmed, bound, and outnumbered, to the basement where his boss was supposed to be dealing with them. The next thing the man knew, the armed strangers were attacking, more were breaking down the door, and his fellows were dying all around him. "You should have ran." Zal advised, sidestepping to avoid the next blow. The man didn't respond, but the wild and despairing look in his eyes told the S'ilthra all he needed to know. The man had given up any hope of escaping this battle alive. Sid was still barking, and it was beginning to get on the spellsword's nerves. With a growl of irritation, he blocked the next wild blow and caught the man's wrist, twisting it so that he could break the man's arm if he wanted to, and the bandit was incapacitated. "Let me go you bastard!" The bandit snarled, trying to break free. When the pommel of Zal's sword hit him in the head, he stopped that. "No, I don't think I will." Zal replied and began to turn his head. He stopped when he saw the grin of the bandit in his grasp, and a shadow fell over his hostage. 

However, before things became rather nasty, a sword sprouted out of the bandit with an mace who had been trying to save his comrade. "Thank you Tathein!" Zal called. The warrior raised his sword in acknowledgement, before dashing off into the rapidly ending fray. Sid was [i]still[/i] barking. "Sid!" Zal snapped. The dog stopped mid-bark. "Thank you! If you weren't going to do anything useful, at least try to stop being an irritant!" It may have been a trick of the light, but Zal thought he saw the dog looking suitably chastened. "He'd better be.." The spellsword muttered, before breaking his hostage's arm. A sickening [i]snap[/i] sounded over the sounds of combat and the bandit fell to the ground screaming. "Shut up." With an additional word, Zal created a spectral dagger and eviscerated the bandit. The man's guts and blood and general gore spilled over the floor and Zal moved on. The bandit wasn't dead..not yet anyways.