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The sounds of battle were far off for some reason. He was a frontline fighter, why was he so far away? His chest was heavy, he felt dazed--was he injured? Did he let himself get hurt? His head was killing him, too, he must have gotten knocked out or something. As his eyes slowly opened, he was met with the sight of sandy blonde hair with a little red mixed in. Funny, his hair was as red, too. Red like blood. That's what all the village children used to tell him as they terrorized him, anyway. 

His thoughts slowly oriented himself, a slight panic setting in as he realized what happened. The battle was taking place not too far ahead of him, but he and Isolde were surrounded by rubble--they had gone [i]through[/i] one of the walls! [color=turquoise]"Isolde. Isolde, are you alright?"[/color] He didn't know how he kept the panic from rising in his voice, but he at least tried to make sure he held Isolde properly.

She let out a tiny groan, eyes peeking open. [color=lemonchiffon]"...yeah,"[/color] Her voice was so soft he almost didn't catch it.

Somehow, he had ended up fine, but Isolde must have suffered some sort of head injury--his guess was the debris came down and hurt her after the matter. Talk about adding insult to injury! He shifted himself up, clumsily lifting her over his shoulder with one arm while the other grabbed his spear. In the back of his mind, he knew he probably should have prioritized handling the girl more delicately, but he figured it was better to get them to the backline. Clarissa was a healer, right? And Professor Simeon was a nurse, too. They could help Isolde. Shaking off some of his daze, Derec took in a deep breath to steady himself and cautiously moved forward. He bit back a hiss as his back protested--did the trip really mess him up that bad?!--and kept going.

Meanwhile, the spear that had been hurled at the bandit leader was caught in time for his arm to catch both of Jorah's arrows. One seemed to lodge itself in flesh while the other bounced off his helmet. Still, with the combination of Auberon and Jorah, the leader was successfully distracted and could not stop both Imogen and Kellen. The two were too quick to block, but all he needed to do was go for whichever was the easiest to get to. The choice was made for him as the young girl was smaller and likely harder to catch. And thus his axe was swung, aiming directly for the boy's shoulder. 

What he did not anticipate, however, was the Knight once again showing off their difference in skill. Michail was at Kellen's back, lance taking the brunt of the hit. The metal of the axe clashed with the weapon but said lance held strong, with Michail entirely focused on keeping the bandit's weapon as far away from Kellen as possible. 

Tomai decided to avoid accidentally hitting anyone in melee range, instead deciding to focus on the mages in the back. Kaira had a similar idea as the pair cast their spells in unison. Both flew through the air, but before they could land, both light and dark magic were promptly sucked into the mage's skull staff.

[color=red]"Huh,"[/color] Tomai lowered his staff, raising his eyebrows. 

Kaira blinked for a few seconds but collected herself. [color=palegreen]"The spells were absorbed, but...how?"[/color]

[color=red]"I reckon it's the staff. I think I'm now invested in winning this fight as I'd like to liberate them of it,"[/color] He replied.

Euphemia fell back some, temporarily sheathing her sword and pulling out her bow. She aimed directly for the mages, firing off an arrow. Said arrow bounced once again against the barrier that popped up. [color=yellow]"That barrier's going to be blocking any physical attacks and any spells won't do any good. Now what?"[/color] She asked.

Kaira peered at the mages, an idea coming to mind. [color=palegreen]"We'll wait for Imogen to attack, and then follow up immediately after. The barrier is being manually conjured every time--I don't think it can block multiple attacks in succession,"[/color] She pointed out.

Letting out a sigh, Euphemia offered Kaira her bow. [color=yellow]"Alright. That'll fall on you, Jorah, and Imogen, then,"[/color] She gave Jorah a confident smile before rejoining her brother at the frontlines. Movement out of the corner of her eye stopped her as she noticed a spare bandit decided to join his boss with the intent of crossing paths with Derec. Unbeknownst to them, however, was the last bandit sneaking up on the crew from behind, with every intent on beheading the unaware Kaira. 

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