[color=goldenrod][i][h2][center]Gerard Segremors[/center][/h2][/i][/color]
[@ERode][@VitaVitaAR][@Raineh Daze][@Rune_Alchemist][@PigeonOfAstora]

So be it, then. 

The palm on her shoulder was lifted away, and instead freed her of the shield that had served as her answer. He shifted his grip on the mass of wood, metal, and hide for a moment, listening to the all-too-familiar words she gamely chided their number beneath...

[color=goldenrod]"Good hunting."[/color]

And left in tow of the group at large, bringing up the rear as he looped his fingers around its handle. A resounding "yes" to the unspoken question beneath his words. Assurance delivered through action and intent, wasting little else on the answer Gerard [i]knew[/i] to expect. [i]Of course[/i], she was willing. He almost felt a fool to hold those doubts, small as they'd been.

The lesson she'd left them with, ringing in his ears even in the wake of the familiar sound of a blade sliding free from a scabbard, was all too familiar to him— to the point where in spite of her tone addressing the group at large, Gerard quietly wondered if the reason he now held the first duty of the Iron Rose upon his left arm was purely [i]just[/i] that he was there to take it.

... No matter, though. Whether or not it was her intent, the result was the same.

To Lein's very point, they were already spread thin with this much— Down to four alone in the span of two lieutenants, and if he'd stayed behind with her, it'd be the captain and the archers. A death sentence if walking into any more hordes of undead alone, forgetting any of the other bigshots. The gambit by this conspiracy was fairly clear, in his eyes.

[color=goldenrod]"They've been peeling away protection of our command with each of the bigger threats they've sent, taking choke points so we don't have much option in the matter."[/color] he breathed as he concurred with the Hundi archer, toneless save for tension. It boiled his blood to think about, but he fought, desperately, to keep a lid above the fury that had served him so well and [i]keep thinking[/i]. [color=goldenrod]"You're right. We might be looking at Jeremiah again, if this is how they intend to play it—"[/color]

Leather creaked as his grip on the morningstar tightened, knuckles close to white beneath the gloves. It occurred to him, through the rush of black fire pouring away from his heart, that it may have ended up that [i]he[/i] held seniority among the four of them in raw battlefield experience.

[color=goldenrod]"We have to keep tight above all else. I don't know if they've any means to cut these passageways off..."[/color]

A burning tree flashed through his mind, followed by the flash of a heavy arc of steel, followed by a spray of blood, cresting the blaze.

[color=goldenrod]"But extended as we are, we can't afford another split regardless. Too easy to get drawn out and picked off at that point."[/color]