Ciern had been toward the back of the group, slowing down early as soon as he saw the cart, expecting the rest of the convoy to do the same. Trap. Convenient location, thicket to hide, and a wounded man to bait in victims. This was a classic bandit's trap - easy to set up, easy to execute. Problem was, it was so commonly used, it was mostly just a trick for the common traveller. He should make sure the Knights had the jump on the ambusher instead, and started to turn to inspect his surroundings, when the Captain jumped off and rushed to help the wounded man. Ah.

The thicket erupted with bandits, armed with various common bandit weaponry. They looked a little startled, but still closed in on the group as per the ambusher's plan. Ciern was caught a little away from the group, a much less than ideal situation.

His horse had whined and reared, nearly toppling Ciern over but he managed to barely stay seated, though his hips shifted awkwardly out of the saddle. His armour rattled as the horse stamped and jumped backwards, and inadvertantly kicking away a bandit unfortunate enough to be in the way of its hindquarters. Ciern grit his teeth. He knew the horse was a nervous one, but this was a bad time for a spook. He tightened his grip on the rein and coerced the horse into a spin, straining to keep on the horse while checking his surroundings. In the blur, Ciern could see that the bandits had back off, seeing the fate of their comrade, but were now closing in and drawing ranged weaponry to exploit his position. The horse was still slowing down, and Ciern's vision was spinning from dizziness, but he had no time. Kicking off firmly from his saddle, he bailed his horse and slammed into the closest bandit, using their body mass to dampen his rough dismount and throwing them away. Ciern felt the body of the bandit crack and give in slightly under the leather armour, but didn't have time to check if they were truly down. He staggered, but managed to regain his ground just in time to parry an incoming jab from a spear. The spear wielder, over-eager to exploit Ciern's dismount, had extended far too much and allowed Ciern to rush forward and pull his opponent into an embrace, plunging his dagger into their neck.

Ciern breathed heavily through his visor, still holding the weakly struggling body of his adversary and dragging him along. He managed to back off and watch as the rushing contacts hesitated, unsure where to attack now. It was a dirty tactic, using his enemy's body as a shield, but Ciern could not afford to fight so many targets in an open ground - at least not until he regained his stamina. As his victim stopped struggling, Ciern let them fall away, pulling his dagger out with a tug. With a furious shout, the remainder of his opponents attacked with the now open Ciern, but Ciern had managed to make his way back to the main bulk of the Knights. With the Knights surrounding him and numbers advantage gone, Ciern could now battle on even terms - and there was no chance for the bandits, still relatively untrained and swinging widely as Ciern backpedalled and parried them blow-by-blow, before finally executing them with a well-timed riposte.

As the battle shifted clearly to the Knights' favour, the Captain commanded the magi of the group to strike the long ranged crossbow wielders. Ciern started to draw up his mana, lightning crackling gently from his tunic, then hesitated. Ciern hissed at his brief indecision. Orders. His personal preferences meant nought in face of Captain's orders. "Bolt incoming!" He shouted, making sure there were no allies in his way, before letting loose a bolt lightning that shot towards the nearest archer. In a flash and scream, the archer fell to the ground, convulsing in apparent agony and red streaks covering their unprotected face. Ciern did not check to see if the contacts were fully down, and let loose a flurry of lightning, the bolts snarling as they screamed towards the crossbow archers and striking their targets with rhythmic and precise execution.