[color=f6989d]"Sir!"[/color]
A timid, but firm voice tore Elias from his descending panic at the hopeless situation. Startled, he turned to the voice to see the fragile looking mage staring at him, her posture tense as if itching to flee. Before he could snap at the girl for yelling at him, the hounds lept towards the carriage- more specifically, Elias's precious face- in a repulsive clump, snarling and frothing at the mouth with a hungry expression on their deformed faces. He froze as the creatures lept for him, and only his fingers twitched, as if to summon a spell. 

As soon as they lunged for the carriage, the beasts were impaled, huge ice crystals shooting up to keep them at bay. Elias lept back to avoid being splattered with blood, recalling what Lady Valtoris had shouted just moments before. 

[color=f6989d]"Please... you have to pay attention. Without your barrier, they'd all come in at once. I'll block you."[/color] The girl pleaded, her eyes shining. The nobleman felt a sudden urge to laugh- he had expected to be scolded by her, which would have been both humiliating and an innapropriate way to adress an aristocrat. Yet, somehow being pleaded with made him more angry. Did anything make this little thing angry? Why, if someone ran up to her and stole everything she owned, she would probably apologize and tell the crook he forgot to take her purse. 

Grumbling nonsense insults, Elias pushed his glasses a little further up his nose, and once again activated the shield, this time extending his hand a touch more, hoping that this time the shield would cover the whole wagon. Meanwhile, Lady Valtoris, the coachman, and the lumbering pile of metal had busied themselves as well fighting off the hounds. Lady Valtoris backed up towards the wagon, so they were secured more or less from all sides. If Elias wasn't so terrified he would have watched much more attentively. Even from a distance, it was easy to recognize her expertise on elemental magic.

Unfornutatly, his swooning was cut short as the carriage halted abrubtly. The horses whinnied in fear in front of the carriage, and although Elias couldn't see what was causing their fear, he could definetly feel it in the way the ground shook. Elias, still extending his hands to maintain the shield, poked his head out the window to see what was causing all the fuss, and instantly wished he hadn't. Strangely enough, someone seemed to be fighting it.

" And I thought this couldn't get any worse," he grumbled, past the point of terror. At this point, he was just annoyed with this whole ordeal. The shield began to glow brighter and denser in an attempt to protect the carriage and it's inhabitants. Elias didn't need to push himself for long- an anguished wail rose from the creature as it fell to the ground with a thud. To finish off the beast, the thief blew it to bits, causing blood and guts to fly through the air like rain. Once again, Elias fought the bile rising in his throat. Honestly, was shooting the thing really neccesary? It looked dead enough to him, no need to overdo it. He glared at the thief as he climbed in, complaining on the victor of the fight, which appeared to be the strange metal being. 

Elias frowned. " It might be strong, but I'm hardly convinced that hollow metal creature's even the slightest bit clever." He snorted.