Zaino scowled at Ambra's denial, barely able to move his left arm in any direction without hurting himself. [b]"An arrow's an arrow, you ogress."[/b]

The arrow had made its home only a centimeter short of the small paldron atop of his shoulderblade, directly underneath the bit of armor. Warm blood trickled down his bicep and seeped into his gauntlet, settling on decommissioning the left arm and relying solely on his right. Curved swords like his Killing Edge were more suited for usage with both hands for power, but an average sword like the one he picked up to use instead was easier to handle with a single hand. Watching for a moment as Ambra dispatched another swordsman, he looked briefly to the projectile lodged within his arm, and muttered a [i]tsk.[/i] [b]"Thirty weaklings,"[/b] he corrected, watching for more incoming arrows and catching one in the middle of its travel with a flick of his wrist, severing it into two. [b]"I'll be damn impressed if they manage to do me some serious damage."[/b]

Zaino's ear flickered as a series of approaching footsteps came from the side, turning towards its direction to see a sword-toting woman prepare to attack Ambra. Had it not for natural instinct, he would've allowed the woman to skewer the red-haired one. He managed to bring up his sword fast enough to deflect a majority of the power in the woman's attack before he wheeled around to find himself in another deadlock with an axeman, his attention from the other two drifting away. The burly man was easily able to overwhelm Zaino with brute strength, but the swordsman used this to his advantage; he allowed himself to 'lose' the collision and pretend to hit the ground, quickly stepping to the side and allowing the man's axe to slam into the sand.

Before the man could heft the axe out of the earth, Zaino knocked him away with an upward slash and landed another three clean cuts to the man's body, leaving it to fall to the side. He turned to where Ambra was facing off with the female sword-wielder, and saw that the archer had come out victorious. [i]Wow. Such surprise.[/i] [b]"Calm down,"[/b] Zaino sputtered as she returned to him, company that he didn't ask for. He sighed, seeing that the count of dead bodies all around where he'd been fighting had added up extremely fast. [b]"This is how it is until my scumbag brother and the Exalt are dead."[/b]

It was then that the pegasus rider flew on by, offering Ambra to join her flight. [i]Please, just leave me by myself already.[/i] [b]"Hmph. I'll worry about my lonesome."[/b]