[h2]Jeanne Robina -- In Which The Thief Learns that Charging Up a Hill Occupied by Two Axe-Toting Men is Probably a Terrible Idea[/h2]

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Jeanne silently took Kuur's remark as a sarcastic one; plainly this was a war zone. That's why the Reclaimers were there in the first place.

Jeanne surveyed the terrain; apparently the fact that they were on lower ground hindered them somewhat in terms of firing range, movement range, et cetera. The hills caused even the nimble thief some consternation.

"I'm more accustomed to flying [i]across[/i] the treetops. I don't do slants," Jeanne muttered.

[i]I have to get to higher ground as quickly as possible,[/i] she thought. Glancing up at the fighters, an idea flashed through her head. "That'll do."

The thief deftly drew her sword and ran off to the side, bounding through the grass, the soles of her shoes digging into the damp dirt.

However, these fighters seemed well aware of the advantage that swords have over axes, and had prepared a suitable counter. The fighter closest to Jeanne saw her coming and hurled his axe at her.

Jeanne's eyes widened and she immediately crumpled to the ground, rolling along the grass as the axe barely whistled past her scalp. [i]That was a horrible idea![/i] Jeanne chided herself. Kicking her legs out, she got back up only to have to dodge another swing from the other fighter as the first rushed to recover his axe.

Jeanne stuck her leg out to trip the first fighter, but when she got back up, the fighter whacked her in the side of the head, causing her to reel back and roll down the hill. [i]Thank the gods that wasn't a concussion,[/i] Jeanne thought to herself. She felt something warm trickling down the side of her head. It was her blood. "Damn, those dastards are devilishly deft," Jeanne muttered. "I've got to step it up."

The thief knew that the Reclaimers had a disadvantage; perhaps it would do better to force them to engage closer to them.

Jeanne turned tail and attempted to return to the rest of the Reclaimers, but upon looking back she saw not one but both Fighters chasing after her. She cursed under her breath before twisting around and running back towards them. The one who threw the axe didn't expect Jeanne to spin right around and attack, and took a pretty nasty wound in the chest. Jeanne then whirled to the other Fighter, but their blades merely clanged against each other. Jeanne stepped back as the first Fighter staggered to his feet, hefting his axe and breathing heavily.

Jeanne woozily stumbled back down the hill, one of the fighters still chasing after her. "Habeen! Get this beefy buffoon off my back!" Jeanne hollered, pressing a hand against her bleeding forehead. The mage turned and without a word cast Mire to get the man's focus off of the thief. Mire, unfortunately, missed, but it did distract the fighter's gaze long enough for Jeanne to hack at his axe arm in a swift motion and scamper back down the hill.

"Remind me never to risk frontal assault again," Jeanne muttered, sitting next to the folk magician and quaffing one of her three servings of Vulnerary. The bleeding on her head ceased.

"A valiant effort," Habeen said.

"Oh, be quiet," Jeanne grumbled, rubbing her head where the fighter had struck her. "It looks like they have the higher ground, and I don't know if they intend to charge down anytime soon. So maybe we can spur them prematurely into action by taking out their ranged fighters. That'd save everybody else a headache," she suggested. "Such as mine," she added.

"Ought you to tell Hugh? He is our leader, after all," Habeen asked.

"Well, you're the one with the long-range slime magic," Jeanne replied.

"He might have use for a suggestion like that," Habeen remarked.

"True. Perhaps I ought to point out our predicament and potential fix to the good knight," the thief said, before running and attempting to grab Hugh's attention.

"Hugh, I am certainly no tactician, but I quickly learned that a frontal assault would earn me a nasty nick to the noggin," Jeanne explained. "Undoubtedly, those two feisty fighters saw me coming with my blade drawn, and it looks like they can afford to take their sweet time before the playing field is level. Do you think we might coerce them to abandon their higher ground should we eliminate those on their side with ranged weaponry?" she suggested.