[h3]Rionach[/h3]
[hr]

Like lightning through a stormy sky, a jolt of energy surged through Rionach as she jumped into action alongside her new comrades-in-arms.  Together the group burst onto the scene with the cohesive confidence of a planned assault, taking the bandit squad by surprise.  A smattering of Thunder covered their approach, adding literal shock value to the ambush as Keerin kept her foes from forming up to deal with the new threat.  The pair of swordsmen converged on the fearsome bandit leader, their killing strokes caught on the bruiser's axe, but after that Rionach could spare no focus.  She bolted the final few meters to send a reckless lunge attack at the trio of ruffians still antagonizing the lone woman.  While her speartip met only air, the vagabonds ducked backward to avoid a thrust that would have pierced clean through their light hide gear.

Rionach assumed a defensive stance by the woman's side, trusting that she would not, out of some violent pride or insane reflex, lash out at her, too.  With a second to spare, and the concept of formal introductions tellingly removed from anything that might occur to her just now, she thought nothing of answering the startled query that confronted her.  “Rionach.”  While these bandits still outnumbered their opposition, uncertainty clouded the malicious glimmer in their eyes.  They could tell from a glance at the new arrivals' clothing and equipment that these people were out of their league.  Their trepidation encouraged Rionach even more than her new acquaintance's assurance of a joint battle.  “No sweat!”  The spearwoman exclaimed in her cockiest tone.  “We'll sweep away this rubbish in no time flat.”

Hopping up, she executed another thrust, this one midair.  The goon on the receiving end, with a doubtful face that suggested an in-progress review of his fight-or-flight instinct, jumped back again to avoid a possible skewering.  His companion, more hot-blooded, assumed and opening and lunged for Rionach.  Before he could close the distance, a steely gleam flashed through the air, and blood spurted from a carved wound across his ribs.  The swordswoman nodded in approval as she slid to a halt on the dust road, her swift strike having moved her behind the thug she attacked.  Pain and distraction split the victim's focus, but Rionach would not have even needed them to slide her spearpoint into his exposed belly and, lest an enemy capitalize on her weapon's occupation, yank it out again.  Bleeding and in great pain, the man collapsed, leaving two allies left.  Now surrounded on two out of three sides, and taken aback by the swiftness with which his aggressive friend had been dispatched, the dodgy bandit broke and ran.  Before his ally could turn to follow, the two other women struck her as one, with the plains girl slicing her hamstring and the highlander delivering a whack across the chest.  The female bandit dropped with a gurgled oath, and with enemies left both Rionach and the swordswoman turned to join the rest.

Jarde, Merilia, and Keerin had already slain a few of the bandits, and two more fighters closing in from the other side cinched the slaughter.  Upon arrival Rionach jabbed one axe-wielding goon in the back, and another barely turned around in time to intercept the green-haired girl's blade with his own.  Maneuvering the locked blades to the side, the woman introduced her knee to the highwayman's groin, then cut him across the face as he fell.  Meanwhile, Rionach used her spearbutt to trip the impaled bandit and send him sprawling and bloody to the ground, never to rise again.

The quick, decisive fight left only a couple mooks left alongside their leader.  Even if Batta's brute strength and wild cunning bought him some time against the swordmasters that faced him, he would be surrounded in just a few seconds.  Rionach grinned, despite the grim necessity of death.  At least this rather brutal skirmish would be over soon.