[h3][u][b][color=fff200]Aerarius[/color][/b][/u][/h3]
[i]I can't say I'm surprised.  Sylphie was never one for subtlety,[/i] Aerarius thought as he silently assessed the situation.  There didn't seem to be any traps ahead, and the bandits were already alerted, so he saw no point in trying to preserve the element of surprise.  Lastly and most importantly, he knew he wouldn't learn much by sitting back here while Sylphie and Izel did all the work.

"If you don't mind, Byron, I'm going to assist them," he spoke to the beastman.  Immediately after voicing his intentions, he dashed up the hill after the others.  A small, metallic dome shaped shield unfolded around his left arm.  His right arm gripped the sword resting in a rigid sheath on his waist, drawing it from its resting place.  

His seeming enthusiasm to join the fray wasn't to shed blood or amuse himself.  No, Aerarius' goal was to gather information and knowledge.  The fighting style employed by the bandits, the architecture of their camp, the armor and weaponry they used, all of these were things he wished to know and understand.  It wasn't an option to stay behind, because if Aerarius did so, Sylphie would kill all of the bandits and Izel might turn the camp into a smoldering crater before he had a chance to observe, study, and perhaps capture someone to interrogate.

The two of them had already dispatched the bandits in their way, so he would need to head further up.  The automaton rushed past Sylphie and Izel, bashing a bandit with his shield along the way, and slowed to a stop at the breach where Izel's fireball struck.  Shrouded by the smoke and dust of the explosion, but also unable to see what lay beyond, he slowly walked forward out of the smoke, no longer afraid of anything the bandits could possibly throw at him (or, for that matter, whatever his more reckless allies might throw from behind him) and ready to reintroduce the might of the Brass Legion to the world.