Warren jumped slightly, startled by Safira's reaction and he soon found himself lifted by Safira's grip by his shirt. His feet were dangling above the ground as he stared Safira in the eyes. When she let him go, he took the chance to land on his feet instead of on his bottom. He was shocked that the human woman told him to follow her and she took off running. After looking at the panther in shock for a moment, before he called after Safira "Wait for me!" and he dashed after her. He was so glad that he was just bound by his torso and arms, his legs were free to move.

The two bandits who were entangled struggled and writhed within the vines. The bandit who had a vine wrap around his mouth was now trapped in a cocoon of vines. His struggling made his predicament even worse. The other bandit managed to break free and he tried to move through the terrain and lifted his crossbow and fired at Shaedra. The crossbow bolt hit the tree she stood by.

The bandit who kept on running and managed to avoid the entanglement noticed a human figure reappear from the mists. He yelped in shock and he unsheathed the scimitar and slashed at Jacoby's arm.





Jamil gave a huff before he gives a sign of affirmation to Shaedra. Of course she was going to want to help the strangers she just met, especially since a cub was involved. He looked to Warren when he landed on his feet and started running. Jamil ran by Warren's side and stayed with the bandit.





Brett, Barney, and Bernie watch as the insulted, fish like paladin broke through from the trees and into the clearing where the camp was situated. When the paladin made his threat, Brett and Barney stare at him with fear. Bernie had turned around hearing Mirdas coming and had his scimitar at the ready but he was startled at the threat.

Brett screamed like a little girl, while Barney quickly ducked into the tent he was heading to anyways. As Bernie stared at Mirdas in fear, his mind went whirling and his eyes narrowed into a suspicious gaze. He did remember that the fish man flirted with him earlier.

The flaps of the tent flourished open once again to show Barney holding the arm of a small human girl. The girl was covered in dirt, her hair is matted, her knees have scabbed over scrapes. There was a blindfold around her eyes. As Barney was leading her stumbling feet towards Mirdas, when he was next to Bernie, Bernie commanded "Wait,"

He then took the the other arm of the girl and held the scimitar's blade up to her neck. Bernie glared at Mirdas and stated, "Fish man. I may not seem like I speak fancy, but I reckon that by your words, yer not gonna let us go after we hand 'er back ta ya. We'll give 'er back...only if you let us leave alive,"

The girl trembled like a leaf and she whimpered as the blade pressed close to her neck.



@The Harbinger of Ferocity@JBRam2002@Pennydumb123@rush99999@ihinka@Cu Chulainn@0 Azzy 0

---

Bobbin had once met a gnome artificer who had spent years studying how things work. Momentum, inertia, other words that had meanings far above the druid's understanding. An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force, and Bobbin... well, he was certainly in motion. The wild-shaped bear tore forward, crashing through the camp, heedless of the pleas to stop. These people were thieves, kidnappers, as bad as murderers as far as Bobbin was concerned. Where the law failed, nature could take its course. As a scion of nature, the kenku would ensure that his brand of justice was followed.

These bandits must die.

The bear barrelled forward with unfettered speed, teeth and claws lashing out towards the one that held the knife to the girl. The paladin had his morals to weigh, but Bobbin had no desire to wait for such a process. Speed could ensure success, and if he failed to act in time, these bandits simply will have fulfilled their own destiny. They would die, and the druid would wish it could be done slowly and more painfully than the gift of a defeat in battle. Hostages would not stay his claws, nor would threats of further violence work against one such as Bobbin.

These bandits must die.

Safira tried following the bear, barreling towards the bandits' camp, but was having less success tearing through the entanglement of vines brought upon by the spell cast by the wood elf. She spied some of the brigands struggling to get free from the entwining plants' grasp, but ultimately failing. Realizing she was making little to no headway she slowed down and looked around, searching for a way out of the entangled greenery. Spotting one she shot off once again at full speed toward the camp. Somewhere at the back of her mind she felt Warren's presence behind her and was at the same time surprised he hadn't escaped and glad he'd decided to follow after her even bound as he was to see to Callie's safety. When this was all resolved they would need to have serious words about his involvement in all of this.

As soon as the huntress was close enough to see what was happening in the camp her blood ran cold. The bear was rushing two of the hoodlums, who held a terrified looking girl between the two of them. One, Safira recognized as the Cap'n of the brigands, who she'd made target practice of, held a scimitar to the child's neck. As the bear clawed at one of the bandits, the huntress drew her own scimitar pulling her life energy from her crossbow and transferring it onto her blade. The bear was trying to place itself between the little girl and the brigands as Safira approached the camp with a blood curdling shout.

"Touch the child and taste my wrath!" She stood tall, filling every inch of her height, eyes burning with resolve and blade crackling with electricity, pointed ominously at the bandits.

Ignoring the bandit who took a swing at him, Jacoby continued towards the camp, stopping after he'd ran 30 feet. Upon seeing the girl being held by the bandits, Jacoby held his orb out towards Bernie, causing the eye in the orb to lock eyes with the bandit. "The course of action you have taken has only put you in more danger" Jacoby said, his words reverberating faintly with mystical power "I suggest you drop your weapons and run while you can".

---

@Guardian Angel Haruki@0 Azzy 0

Mirdas gritted his teeth at the Captain’s rebuttal, preparing to find a way to rush in and save the girl from his grasp. Before he could act, however, everyone rushed in to attack the bandits head-on, some paying no heed to caution as a blade had laid bare against a child’s neck.

The brash fools, Mirdas thought, as he braced his shield, charging into the fight and making his way to the one named Bernie. He knew he had to at least get him away from the girl before he could attack her, especially with the chaos that this battle has brought. If an innocent were to die and Mirdas could have done something about it, what sort of knight would he even be?

”Run, child!” Mirdas shouted as his shield made impact with Bernie. Having almost tripped on a pebble, Mirdas was afraid he’d have lost the momentum of his charge. Luckily for him, however, the Bandit Captain’s bearings seem to be quite broken, with Mirdas successfully pushing him away. Now that he is in a perfect position to apprehend all these lawless heathens and bring them to justice...

”By th’will of Persana, all of thee shan’t not pass!” Mirdas declared, followed by a warcry in Aquatic; a declaration of some sort of challenge, to those who understand. And so, quite suddenly, a divine shockwave of energy erupted within the camp, stemming from Mirdas, with fading, faint golden light pulsing out from him in a circle. This dimly glowing light had surrounded all the bandits near him, compelling them not to flee from the finned fighter. For the Captain, however, the light seemed to dim, a sign that he has overcame Mirdas’s divine challenge.

When life throws you trials and tribulations, there is only one thing any good dwarf does: grumble about it. It had been taught to Signod by his father, who had learned it from his father before him. All in all, it was a tradition that must be as old as the dwarven race itself. And so, Signod grumbled. As before, the brunt of his ire was directed at that damn Barnaby brother leader who had caused the forest itself to go wild and make everything that much larger of a hassle.

Fortunately, for the moment it seemed the bi-polar elf had swapped from her murderous to one amenable to preventing death. It was a slight improvement, which meant it was time to make the other side of this skirmish see reason too. He briefly eyed one of the people who was cocooned in vines and debated helping them break free. Though, since it didn't look to Signod like he was in immediate danger of strangulation, it seemed prudent to focus on the bandit who had successfully broken free and charged after the mad elf. That one was very likely going to die, if the elf turned on him and had another wild mood swing back towards scaling murder mountain. That meant it was up to Signod to see what he could do to stop the man from making any worse of life choices.

Thus he went stomping through the area of wild growth the elf had conjured up, throwing out one or two particularly vulgar epithets in the process as various bits of foliage grasped at his legs. Before long, he found himself huffing and puffing slightly, even as he approached the man who had attacked the elf. Raising his bow, he pointed it at the man as he shouted. "Oye, you better drop that and beat it, ya damn fool. If you're lucky the crazy elf might be too preoccupied to murder you right now, though I can't say when that will change."


@The Harbinger of Ferocity

The woman curiously blinked a few times overhearing bits of what the bearded little man was saying. Granted she had not seen many dwarves, or these halfling things she was told of either, but it seemed his oddness was at least... helping? Maybe? The bandits probably did not want to die after all and they were being woefully overrun - there was all sorts of yelling and commanding elsewhere by the place with the girl. The elf didn't bother to pay that much attention, it seemed like the rest had that handled, hopefully getting the girl out of harm's way in the process.

For the moment she only focused on her globe of fireflies that began to buzz and hum about her hand while her back rode against the tree providing her protection. Panting a bit from the excitement, she swallowed and caught her breath, glancing around the wooded one's trunk. The glow of the insects gave her away, after all she could attempt to slip into the shadows cast by the moon, but she was more worried now about the man challenging the taller one; the last thing she wanted to do was put him in any worse straights than where she was, as at least she had a tree!

"You should throw down your weapon and leave while you can," She paused for a moment, thinking hastily what she could do to sound serious, "Or I will sic this... swarm of insects upon you like a blight!"

At first it sounded like a threat, until she realized a bunch of tiny glowing bugs were not particularly dangerous, at least not these ones. Where were all the woodland allies when she needed them? It didn't matter now, she just hoped the man would hesitate or decide the fight wasn't worth it. She only needed one captive and now too the girl, though the little lady probably knew nothing about the magic star or the wilder, greater beings of the wood, but who knew? They couldn't leave her here anyway! Hopefully the magic would be enough to spook him or at least consider the bearded fellow more seriously.


@Guardian Angel Haruki@JBRam2002@rush99999@ihinka@Cu Chulainn@0 Azzy 0

Warren huffed and puffed as he kept on running, trying to keep up with the woman who told him to follow her. The panther ran by his side. Soon enough he reached the point where the woman was and gasped when he saw that Bernie was trying to use Callie as a way to get out alive. Before Safira could even get her threat out, Warren's eyes widened when a bear just barreled out from the forest, and attacked. Screams were heard and Warren couldn't help but shout in concern and fear for the girl, "CALLIE!!!"

The bandit snarled at Jacoby as the blindfolded man tried to leave, "Don't you ignore me!" and he took a slash at him. The bandit chased after Jacoby, and tried to attack him again, only for the scimitar to swing wide above the human male's head. The bandit looked at the scene with his Captain nearby.

The bandit looked back and forth between the elf and the dwarf that seemed to surround him. He saw that the dwarf had an arrow ready for him, and at first he seemed to reconsider his options. However, he took a glance at his friend who was now not even visible amongst the cocoon of vines and a fire seemed to appear in his eyes. He dropped his crossbow, the weapon clattered as it hit the ground, and he snarled at the dwarf, "Like I'd let you kill me and my brothers...!" He drew his scimitar as he whispered to himself, as though mourning a death, "For Jared..." He then let out a war cry as he started to charge at the dwarf. However, he stopped and shouted in pain when he felt a stabbing pain in his cheek. Buzzing can be heard all around him as wasps swarmed around him and stung at him. He screamed and ran south, back to where the adventurers met each other on the road.





Jamil kept his eye on the human bandit and stayed with him. Although he wanted to stay close to Shaedra, he wasn't going to disobey her request. When he got to the clearing with the two humans, his eyes caught the sight in front of him and his teeth became bared. His fur stood on end and he snarled and yowled, his demeanor becoming much more hostile.






Everything happened so quickly...

Usually holding a hostage would work, but it wasn't.

A bear suddenly came through the forest and attacked. Barney screamed in fear as he used his scimitar to deflect the bear's paws and teeth. At the same time, Callie also screamed in fear. After Safira's and Jacoby's voices entered the chaos, and Mirdas acted, Bobbin and Mirdas would notice a brief flash of blue light emanate from the top of Callie's right hand for but a brief moment. Shortly after, Bobbin, Jacoby, Mirdas, Safira, Jamil, and the bandits would see an aura of shifting and swirling colors appearing around Callie. The iridescent aura shifted rapidly between colors until it finally settled onto a dark brown, much like the color of coffee.

The aura leaves Callie and floats above the crowd, centering on Callie, and it seems to shift from just energy, to a gaseous form, until it finally condenses into a thick liquid. Bobbin, thanks to his keen sense of smell as a bear, would be able to pick up on that awful stench that he smelled when he visited that gnome artificer that one time.

Bernie couldn't help but utter, "What the...?!" before the liquid falls all at once on the group, covering those who entered the fray in the dark brown, slippery ichor. Callie let out a scream again when she felt this cold thick liquid on her. She ended up falling to the ground and after that, she seemed to try and curl up and cover her head.

Bernie stood up and looked at the situation around him. He growled "This isn't worth it...! Fall back brothers! Fall back!" He lightly kicked Mirdas's weapon in order to prevent him from attacking, and started getting out of there. He managed to make it to normal ground but he couldn't move very far until he was sure the grease under his shoes were cleaned.

Bernie shouted as he slipped and fell to the ground. Barney felt his feet start to try and give out from under him, but he waved his arms and managed to keep his balance. When he felt as though he found his footing, he looked at Bernie, as though he wanted to follow orders and run, but the golden glow shined around his body again. He looked back to the bear and armored man, and he shouted as he stabbed into the bear. However, after finding purchase with the bear, he ended up falling on his face into the greased ground.

Brett also looked like he wanted to run, but after a golden glow shimmered around his body, he called to Barney "I'll help ya Barn!" and he ran into the greased area, only to shout and fall onto his face. After picking himself back up again, he attacked the bear and slashed at it. Afterwards, he felt his foot give out from under him again and he shouted as he fell on top of Barney.



@The Harbinger of Ferocity@JBRam2002@Pennydumb123@rush99999@ihinka@Cu Chulainn@0 Azzy 0

---

Bears are not a fan of slippery surfaces, a fact that Bobbin was beginning to learn as the oily substance coated the ground beneath him. Fortunately for the kenku, neither were bandits. The slipping and sliding would be comic if not for the threats against the young girl... or the stench. The bear roared in pain as the two bandits slashed at him, but what hurt more was that disgusting smell permeating his nose. Also, he had specifically chosen to be a brown bear, not a black bear, so the fact that this greasy substance was the color of coffee did help alleviate his annoyances. Somewhat.

The bear found purchase under his feet long enough to stand and swipe at the two bandits nearby. He bit at the one called Barney, and the taste of this oily substance was certainly no better than its smell. His claws crashed down on the one called Brett who had been stupid enough to run into the mess and attack him. It might very well be the final mistake that bandit ever made, as his full weight crashed down on the bandit. Unfortunately, his attacks also threw Bobbin off balance, and the druid lost his footing once again, crashing down in the middle of the puddle of grease with another painful yelp as a stray stick found purchase where it never should have.

It was not funny. Stop laughing.

After Safira issued her ominous threat one of the bandits stumbled back and released Callie, but the Cap'n she'd been using as a pin cushion still held the child, blade to her neck. The blood huntress gripped her scimitar, but before she could act, the mighty scaly paladin rushed him with his shield managing to knock the head brigand back a step or two and causing him to relinquish his hold of the girl. Warren, who was panting heavily with exertion next to her shouted the girl's name with fearful anxiety.

Weirdness issued. Safira watched as multicolored aura swirled around Callie. It ebbed and flowed and shimmered until it finally coalesced into a dull brown and yucky, stinky goo rained down on girl, bandits, paladin and bear. Limbs flailed, weapons slashed, bodies tumbled to the ground. It was terrifyingly, grotesquely hilarious in a way. The mighty bear managed to land two good hits, before succumbing to the greasy substance and tumbling down with a look of pure beary dismay on his furry face.

And there, amidst all the commotion, Safira spotted Bernie, the bandits' leader, trying to valiantly flee. Like a flash her soul filled with dark, black hatred. It simmered and boiled within her essence until she could no longer contain it or fight it. Surrendering to it, a wave of blackness detached from Safira and launched itself towards the captain, latching onto him. Without even looking at Warren next to her, the blood huntress spoke.

"Go calm the girl down!" She growled at him. Her voice an octave deeper and somehow malignant.

Without preamble she launched herself in a dead run, gathering momentum. As soon as she hit the edge of the brownish pool of ichor, she unleashed a blood curdling shout, launching herself off the ground and straight for the cowardly bandit captain. She raised her scimitar, crackling with deadly energy, and brought it down upon Bernie’s nose with savage viciousness. Seconds before her blade hit true a light blinked inside her heart and staved off her battle rage just in time enough for the warrior woman to bring the tip of her weapon towards her shoulder and land the hilt of it into the Cap's face.

Crack!

"Yield, villain! Or next time I won't hold my demons at bay and gut you like a pig from groin to lip!" Safira growled as Bernied staggered from the heavy blow.

Were it not for the bandit yelling as he began his attack, Jacoby would have been too distracted by the scene unfolding in front of him to realize the attack was coming and wouldn't have been able to turn a fatal attack into a small scratch. Nor would Jacoby have been able to catch the bandit's blade with his cross guard, immobilizing the weapon for a time. "You desire my attention?" Jacoby asked as his orb began to glow brighter again "Very well. Now you have it". With that said, Jacoby held his orb up to the bandit as a blinding white light burst from the orb and hit him full in the face.

---

@Guardian Angel Haruki@0 Azzy 0

As the chaos of battle continued, with his current allies closing in on the camp, Mirdas was sure he had the leader of these dastardly brigands by now... Until a bubble of goop suddenly covered the Piscine Paladin's armor.

"Oh, for the love of-"

Mirdas began to shout obscenities in Aquatic, sounding awfully like a squealing marine animal as he lost is footing in the grease that both surrounded him and the ground underneath him. Bernie, once again, started to make his escape. It seems like that girl is more than meets the eye, after all. Whatever she may be, however, doesn't matter now. What matters is finally apprehending that brigand and bringing him to justice.

Mirdas began to stand back up, shaking off as much of the slick liquid off his formerly flawless armor as possible. Once he regained his footing, he made another rather clumsy charge for Bernie, slipping and sliding like he was walking on dish-soap, opening him for any possible attacks from the other bandits. When he finally made it out of the field of goo, Mirdas started closing in on Bernie, icky, gooey, and thirsting for blood...

Signod's grip tightened on his bow as the bandit started to charge. Yet, only moments later he seemed to think better of that plan and was fleeing back towards the road. Signod hadn't really though he had done a proper job of being imposing, yet it was apparently enough to break the resolve of this fellow. Well, if he was running, hopefully that meant one less murder for the mad elf to commit.

He did feel somewhat silly by this point, waving his bow around with little intention to use it. It was hardly the sort of weapon to wield if he wanted to knock someone senseless. Until he was completely certain who was doing what, he wasn't about to start putting arrows in people's eyes. Having successfully single-handedly saved the elven bandit from her assailant, he continued to stump off through the forest towards where all that damn shouting was coming from. As he moved, he stowed his bow. He'd probably have to knock at least one or two people over the skull with the blunt end of his handaxe before this night was through.


@The Harbinger of Ferocity

The woman was reasonably frustrated by this point, the hairy man utterly ignored that the man verbally attempted to kill him with as much rage as he could summon, casting high his blade and charging, before a sudden onset and swarm of fireflies disoriented him, sending him staggering around; it was almost as if the dwarf, or halfling, littlefolk, or whatever he was, had a blind death wish, one that she had well enough of. She whistled for Jamil of Azalorn, seeing that the roped, bound man was dashing off toward the rest of their group, to include where the huntress was - the same that aided her in binding him in the first place - making him much less a concern. Strangely there was a lot of flailing and yelling over there, but the druid was not about to let the other enemies have their free shots at their turned backs - suicidal little men or not!

Pointing out a finger to guide her pantherine ally to which target, she leveled it at the free bandit, yelling back at the same bug swarmed man, "Your choice, your loss!"

This time she delayed none in closing the gap, darting between the trees and shadows, the low lying plant life swaying slightly from her movement before she came to a sudden halt behind the trunk of yet another tree. Between the globe of upset insects harassing the man and probably the soon to be cry of an attacking jaguar, she could only hope her body's attunement to nature concealed her. She hadn't any real desire, without aid that is, to confront the sword bearing man. Then again, the great cats never fought all that fairly - why should she?
These men tried to kill all of the travelers and steal a girl!

She swallowed and prepared her next attack in silent, her knuckles tightening slightly.


@Guardian Angel Haruki@JBRam2002@rush99999@ihinka@Cu Chulainn@0 Azzy 0

Warren looked to Safira when her voice dropped to a lower octave and she practically snarled an order at him. He nodded as he watched her run, and jump across the lake of grease, and attack Bernie. He took his chance, and ran up to the edge of the lake. He stopped and he looked to Callie, who seemed to be curling in on herself, and he called "Callie!"
The girl seemed to recognize the voice as her head perked up and she asked "Warren? Is that you?" The bandit answered "Yes, it's me! Just follow my voice, and keep yourself close to the ground. Help has arrived!" Callie nodded and answered, fear still evident in her voice, but it has lessened thanks to Warren's presence, "O-Okay!"

The bandit facing Jacoby shouted as the light seared his eyes. He could feel that he was severely wounded, even if there were no wounds on him. However, the bandit refused to give up. In a bout of rage, and with a shout, he slashed at Jacoby's stomach, which was unguarded due to him holding the orb aloft. He growled "Why won't you die?!" at Jacoby in frustration.

Signod and Shaedra's opponent stopped when there was a break between the insects. When the second cloud of insects flew after him, he managed to wave them away or cut them with his sword. The bites and stings were only on his clothes, and he looked around to see that the elf had gone missing and the dwarf was on his way towards the camp. After a few more seconds of surveilling, he spotted the elf who was trying to hide, and he shouted as he ran at her. He slashed at her and he laughed "You thought you could hide from me?!"





The panther could feel that something was wrong. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to follow Warren if he decided to enter the clearing. Could it be...?
Thankfully, he heard Shaedra's whistle. He turned his attention away from the commotion, and sprinted from that scene to where Shaedra was. Once again, Shaedra was his saving grace. And now...it was his turn again to be hers.
He saw the bandit slash at her, and he roared as he attempted to pounce and knock the human to the ground. However, while his claws found purchase on the bandit, he managed to stay on his feet and just knock the big cat away. He snarled at the bandit as he landed on his feet. He looked to Shaedra as though to ask,

"Are you alright?"






Despite being covered in grease, and her eyes covered with a grease-soaked blindfold, Callie uncurled herself and started crawling towards Warren's voice. The girl did find that crawling in the slippery substance was not easy, but at least she wasn't standing, otherwise she would be falling over a lot.

Barney and Brett both stood up, both complaining about the wounds the bear just bestowed on them. They were too focused on the bear to even try and attack the paladin and child as they moved away. Barney swung towards the bear only to shout as his foot gave out from under him. Brett called as he grabbed Barney "Woah there! I got ya, Barn," One could hear Barney mumble a thank you under his breath. Brett tried to attack as well, only for him to almost fall as well, only for Barney to grab his arm and keep him standing as well. Now at this point, Brett and Barney are holding each other's arms, as though they were in the middle of some kind of awkward, supposedly romantic, dance.
Heck, this entire situation looked like it came out of a bard's satirical story.

Bernie looked to see the female figure of the Blood Hunter practically fly towards him and he shouted in pain as she jammed the butt of her sword into his eye, giving him a brand new shiner. He growled at her, and he looked at the paladin as he came up next to him. He looked around, trying to see what else he could use to help him escape. However, Warren's voice caught his attention. He growled under his breath as realization hit him like a ton of bricks, "Of course..." He then took out a knife, and threw it at Warren. The targeted bandit managed to see this coming and he yelped as he ducked. The knife's blade embedded itself in the bark of a nearby tree instead. Bernie then shouted "Warren! You traitor! I knew should've killed you when I had the chance!"

At the shout, Barney and Brett also gazed towards Warren, and the both of them glared at him hatefully.

Warren gulped as he looked back at the Captain. He only tore his gaze away when Callie called again, "Warren?" Warren answered her, "It's okay! I'm okay! Just keep crawling!"



@The Harbinger of Ferocity@JBRam2002@Pennydumb123@rush99999@ihinka@Cu Chulainn@0 Azzy 0

---

If a bear could laugh, it would sound about how Bobbin sounded right now. A frenetic flurry of fur flew as the bear rose to its feet before dropping his paws down to the ground with a mighty crash. Teeth tore and claws clashed against the bandits, breaking their romantic entanglement and cutting short their inopportune engagement.

The grease beneath the bear's paws was slippery, and Bobbin preferred to make his way out of the mess before creating any further embarrassment. Stepping carefully around the bandits so as to hopefully not provoke further retaliation, Bobbin began to make his way out of the grease trap. There was still someone else left who needed to be dealt with, and a young child who needed protection.


@ihinka - You're next!

Sensing the approach of the aquatic paladin Safira felt a little bit bolstered. But the uplifting feeling didn't last as Bernie managed to recover from her heavy blow to the face and lashed out, like the coward that he was, at the only defenseless target. Safira's blood ran cold as the bandits' captain hurled curses and insults Warren's way. And then proceeded to throw a dagger at him. Gods be damned! I should have cut him free. He's a sitting duck with his hands tied like that!

The blood huntress growled in Bernie's face, bringing the butt of her scimitar to collide with the brigand’s chin. However at that very moment she heard Callie calling for Warren, sounding so very scared. It was enough to throw Safira's aim off just enough misjudging her approach by an inch. The hilt of her blade grazed Bernies' busted nose and the edge of her weapon caressed his chin. The huntress readjusted her stance to compensate and pointed the tip of her scimitar towards the head bandit's nose.

"Keep your tongue, scum, or next time I won't hesitate to bash your teeth in!" She touched the tip of her scimitar to Bernie's nose, the lightning energy still crackling all over the blade. "Now be a man and accept defeat." She paused, scoffed and added. "Oh, that's right, you're not a man. You're a pathetic little coward that uses scared children as a shield." Safira's words were dripping with scorn and vile. The darkness in her heart reigniting upon hearing Callie’s distraught voice. "For the last time." The blood huntress growled menacingly. "Stand down." Safira paused. "Or die!" She pressed the tip of her weapon to Bernie's nose. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to allow the lightning to zing his skin.

After that exceptionally good hit on the bandit's part, Jacoby could sense that his mage armor had just weakened considerably. While Jacoby still had it's protection the armor could no longer hold back mortal blows, meaning 1 more good hit could possibly mean his end. But from the looks of things, the bandit was in just as bad a condition as Jacoby was. Jacoby attempted to hit his foe with 1 final eldritch blast to end their duel so Jacoby could find cover and heal. But this time the bandit managed to dodge the attack. "If any are able to provide assistance at the moment, I require some over here!" Jacoby called out to his comrades as he prepared to defend against the bandit's retaliation.

---

@Guardian Angel Haruki@0 Azzy 0@ihinka

”Enough out of thee!” Mirdas commanded out of Bernie, who was ballsy enough to make an attack despite being cornered by himself and the woman with the... is that a magical sword? Either way, it mattered not to Mirdas. All that mattered to him was that this fiend was brought to justice...

Jerking his knee up to Bernie’s stomach, Mirdas attempted to bring the bandit down a few rungs into the ground, where his kind belongs. In the end, however, Bernie’s endurance continued to show, muscling through the pain of his blow and keeping his footing. Grunting to himself, Mirdas gripped his harpoon, preparing in case Bernie tried making yet another ballsy escape.

”I care not for the other brigands, but keep this rubbish alive! He shall be the one who will be punished for all their crimes...” Mirdas mentioned to Safira, through gritted teeth, his eyes staying on Bernie.

Signod knew, deep down in his gut, that he was likely going to be regretting chasing these two bands of brigands off into the forest for the rest of his life. A life, he noted, which might be a great deal shorter due to the afore mentioned actions. Still, he had already gotten himself mired in this mess, so there was no use looking longingly back towards the road he walked in on. Now he just needed to mentally muddle his way through what the best course of action was at the present moment.

He had been sort of methodically moving off in the same direction everyone else seemed to be headed in, with only one brief detour taken to save the elven bandit leader's life. He expected no thanks to be given for that action and was not disappointed in this. It seemed she hadn't taken very good advantage of the opportunity he had bought for her and had just gotten right back in to the same mess she started off in. Very well, if that was her decision, there were always others that Signod could help. Now that he seemed to have mostly arrived at the main camp where people seemed to be retreating towards, he could take better stock of the situation.

The most notable thing to catch his ear was the sound of someone shouting for help. Threats and bold proclamations were being thrown about willy nilly tonight, but this was one of the very few earnest calls for aid he had heard. The shout seemed to be coming from that bizarre blindfolded man Signod had seen way back at the clearing before things devolved into the current muddled mess. Fortunately, the man and his assailant were both very close at hand. Thinking he might be able to save a second person other than just the elf tonight, he stumped on over to where the pair currently fought, brandishing his axe as he did so. Letting out a cry, he took a mighty swing with the flat of his axe to try and knock the attacker unconscious...

And missed.

"You drop that weapon of yours or the next one'll split yer skull!" He boldly proclaimed. Clearly, he meant to miss- that was just a warning shot. Or wait, maybe he was just providing a distraction to help the blindfolded man do something flashy? Sure, one of those probably was true.