Bringing up the rear proved to work in Joey's favor, as the fleet footed Earthshaper slid to an abrupt stop. Slowing to a creep, he could overhear the the rogue mages talking down to Ling and the others. He began taking a few steps back, sizing up a wall of the building not yet effected by the tavern’s inferno. “Sandstone…” He muttered, getting a feel of the wall’s material. Wasn't the tallest structure, wouldn't be too much of a hassle to scale. [i]”Need to act fast…”[/i] He began up, hands grabbing onto ledges and window sills, feet digging into brick folds. Climbing stone came easy to an individual who could subtly reshape the makeup of the earth. His mage-born abilities made it unnaturally simple for Joey to gain a dependable grip on walls such as this one. Add to that a few odd years of rogue-like experiences, and you get a limey fella that could potentially wall crawl with the best of them.

Even then, there was a bit of an incentive to get to the rooftops. The area was heating up, with both the tension between the our two opposing parties, and the actual heat coming from the wild spreading flames. Joey figured he could get to a higher vantage point, and find a way to get the drop on one of the rogue mages to provide his comrades with some form of a bargaining chip. Were this any other situation, he would've been totally fine with just letting the rogues go. But once Ling went all Lawful Good on the situation, he felt the need to pitch in in some sort of way, if only because he was in the vicinity and didn't want to seem like a flake.

Now atop the building’s roof, Joey fell back into old habits as he pulled up his hood, and shrouded himself against the growing shadows of the fires. He could get a great view of the standoff, and thought to strategize accordingly. [i]”A’right, these buildings are all built pretty close together...I could get behind the rogues, climb back down, and snatch up that fire one, she looks kinda weak-”[/i] Speaking far too soon, said fire Mage seemed to had erupted into a AOE of flame. Just the blast of hot air created from attack was enough to make Joey stagger. The fires were doing much to just burning everything flammable...including the buildings Joey was planning on hopping over to in order to surprise the rogues. So his Plan A was effectively scrapped.

[i]”Fffffffuuuuck.”[/i] He groaned, mentally. He was slightly disappointed he couldn't be the big damn hero anymore. But, as soon as that plan flew out the window, another one simply replaced it. He brought forth his knife. Least he could do is flick it at the fire Mage. Provide some sort of distraction that could give someone a chance to gain the upper hand. With that in mind, he lined up his shot. “OI!” He yelled as his blade was already barreling towards its target. “YEH DAFT CUNT! YOU’LL BURN DOWN THE WHOLE FUCKIN’ CITY AT THIS RATE!” As Joey yelled, he never stopped to think if that might've been her objective in the first place.