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Roy was looking up at the sky, hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. He wanted some cake. He was sad on his way over here because Darko had eaten the cake on his own, leaving the redhead with no bakery deliciousness. The water in his bag was barely touched. He'd manage. All of a sudden, he heard shouts from his group and he looked around. Bandits were coming. And they appeared to be chasing something.

The Sword of Seals was drawn, but then he heard Alihi tell him to protect his mother. He sighed. Ok, support worked too. He fell behind the others and stood near his Mother. He could tell just by looking at her that her powers were giving her a terrible headache. They needed a plan to stop the bandits, without cutting his allies' ability to attack. It didn't help that a majority of them were physical attackers. For once, he wished a few more magic users had tagged along.

"Alihi, whatever they're chasing after...we have to protect it!" he told the tactician.

Hm...if he could concentrate the flames in his sword, and have Akihi cast some fire spell...maybe they could make it rain pointy glass shards using the sand in the desert. They would need everyone's help kicking sand up...or if they got really lucky...the wind to raise the sand up so that they could make a glass wall. Too bad the wind wasn't on their side today, and the sand-made-into-glass shards would only go so far. He paused, then remembered he wasn't a tactician anymore. Even if he wanted to prevent as many casualties as possible, he wasn't in command here.

In the end, physical combat was probably best, considering the lack of magical units. He sighed before he looked up at Ninian.

"I'll protect you Mother."

As they got closer, Roy saw that the 'something' that the bandits were chasing was actually a 'someone'. He recognized the man. That was...one of their guys, wasn't he? What was he doing out here in Sentria? Well, that just gave Roy all the more reason to fight.

Too bad he was in the back, near the wagon and his mother. If some bandits got past the others, he'll be able to get some fighting in.

As the man in the cloak passed him Joshua nodded. "Hey you said your name is Jaren right?"

"Yup! I'm from Jehanna... oh but you might not know where that is." The peppy myrmidon said

"Lets just say I know where it is." Joshua replied. "Anyway you want to make a bet?"

"Sure!" Jaren said even though he was poor and had 200 gold to his name.... not even enough to buy a real sword.

"I bet you one thousand gold I'll kill more then you." Joshua said before running at the bandits.

"H-hey! Im only using a wooden sword!"

But Joshua was already beyond hearing. Being the first one to reach the bandits they crashed over him like a tidal wave and him a rock slicing through the middle. The first one to reach him fell with a large slash running down from his left shoulder to his waist appeared almost to fast for the eye to see. Ducking a hand-axe easily Joshua turned and bringing his sword back up gave that bandit a matching wound. He kept a watch on his back slicing at anyone foolish enough to think they could surround the King of Jehanna. His eyes glazed over slowly as he gave himself to the dance of blades hacking and cutting to the left and right. But the numbers were to great and he was soon surrounded.

"No matter." He thought sliding his hat on his head. "Its just more likely I'll win the wager now."

Jaren saw an axe coming at his face and with a scared shout side-stepped it and as the man extended his reach to far and stumbled Jaren cracked him on the back of the head. Falling to the ground from the force of the blow Jaren followed it up hitting the man on the back with all his strength. "Ngh!" He exclaimed pulling back as an arrow whipped by. His quick eyes spotted the archer and with a shout Jaren ran towards him clotheslineing a mage with his sword on the way.

The archer had nocked another arrow and fired at Jaren who slid underneath it and kicked the archers feet out from under him. Scrambling to his feet he grabbed the archer and dragged him up as a shield against a large man with an axe.

The man with the axe hesitating to chop his friend to get at Jaren soon found the archer in his arms as Jaren pushed them into each other and as they stumbled he smacked them both on the head twice each.

"WHOOOO YA IM ON A ROLL!" He called out triumphantly but his face soon fell as his shouting attracted more bandits to turn towards him. "Whu-oh." He said.

Shaking now,trembling,is a light all alone not a thing to heal the pain...it disappears

If it was one thing Ephraim knew for sure, it was that this was no playground and already someone was playing around and he didn't just mean Jaren. He let out a heavy sigh, spun his spear around his wrist once before going in. The sand made it hard for him to maneuver but hopefully he can help put up a fight. If not then he was completly out of touch.

Ephraim knocked one upside the head with the end of his spear. Next, he jumped, using the man he had knocked just now as a boost, slamming the bottom of his boot onto his rather ugly face. For one thing, these bandits weren't the least bit scared.

His landing..well..lets just say there was yet another person beneath him as that person was used as a sudden cushion. So he picked a fight with two, big deal? This should be fun anyhow. Although he chose the wrong opponent to fight with, an axe user.

"Whoops!" Ephraim squeeked, in a rather sarcastic tone as the person behind him swung his steel axe. Ephraim rolled to the side and stood up, dusting off the grains of sand. "I really shouldn't play around...but.." he couldn't help it. It was just too amusing.

He needed to beat up something of some sort, get a little fun this time before they actually got serious. The lancer tapped the sand with his boots, getting ready to dodge the two axe users as they came at him. First one, swung his axe recklessly, almost like he was trying to chop a damn tree..and not in a good way. Ephraim blocked it with ease, catching the axe with the shaft of his spear, lighting a few sparks. He moved aside, allowing him to stumble forward and jabbed him in the spine. Next, he tore off his cape and threw it at his next opponent as he saw him coming at him with the axe.

Ephraim charged at him but rather then attack, performed a small side somersault past him and swung his spear, hitting him straight in the rib cage. Before he hit the ground though, Ephraim caught his cloak with the end of his spear and attatched it back onto himself, twirling his spear against his wrist at the same time.

These two weren't down though, Oh no, He was just getting started.

((Blah, I really need to work on this X_x ))

with no return, the memories flow all being swept away toward the end of this world

A few jeers were made to Charles from the bandits, but he didn't hear them. They approached, and tried to be slick about it. Their movements were awkward at best.

"And who are you?" he asked, tightening his gloves. They turned some odd degrees and swung axes. Needless to say, their movements clumsy, and their attacks slow, Charles dodged them. He countered with intense light in their eyes, that they went blind and their eyebrows singed off.

"AHWW! d**k!" They screamed as their axes dropped. Their hands covered their face, and Charles took this time to burn their backs raw, damaging their spine. At this point, the bandits didn't know how to writhe in pain, since the sand would make it worse, it was split into two different areas, and it hurt to touch the open muscle. Fire rained on them until they died.

"Hmm, this bright sun helps the light conversion to heat... I can do more for less. I'll say."

"Quite a few." Joshua said over Blossoms shoulder. "Are you alright?" He nodded at her shoulder. Breaking through the circle that had surrounded him hadn't been easy and he had gained a fairly bad cut on his face. If he was lucky it would scar but for now it hurt like a b***h and was bleeding.

"This Aiden? I heard a shout so I got here as fast as I could but--" He interupted himself as he stuck his foot out and tripped a bandit coming at them stabbing his sword through the mans spine. "It looks like youve got this handled... Miss?"



Jaren was on fire... well actually it was his sword that was on fire. Seeing a fireball heading towards him the absent minded myrmidon had forgotten he was using a wooden sword and had tried to cut it out of the air.... that went as well as could be expected.

"AHHHHHH!" Screamed a now flaming bandit as Jaren smacked him over the head.

"BWAHAHAA I AM JAREN! FEAR ME!" Turning he saw Roy and his mother by the wagon. "ROY! ROOOOOOYYYYYY LOOK! FIRE!" Jaren shouted waving his sword accidentally hitting a bandit who had been trying to creep up on the loud-mouth. As the bandit dashed away yelling for water (good luck in a desert pal Jaren thought) he spotted the blue haired man who hit him earlier. And trotting over towards him setting fire to anyone stupid to get in his way. "Hey there!" He said to the fighting prince. "I didn't get a chance to give this too you earlier!" With his sword he gestured connecting with another bandits face while using his free hand he pulled the cow-suit out. "See I worked really hard on it!" As he spoke an arrow flew towards the back of his head.

Thankfully at that moment Jaren saw something shiny in the sand and bent to pick it up the arrow passing over his head and burying itself deep within one of the bandits Ephraim was fighting. Standing up with another shiny ring he said. "I never did get your name earlier!"

Several of the bandits had gotten past the group and were heading for the wagon. Roy was prepared. He was just going to hurt them, maybe teach them a lesson about attacking an armed caravan. He disliked killing people, really. Death was the end. Once you die, you die. Whatever you had waiting for you back home was never going to see you again if you die. So he wanted to give them a chance to head home after they were defeated.

Until he heard them speak about the woman in the wagon.

Somewhere, deep inside the lord's head, had snapped. The next thing one of the bandits knew, a fist had just plowed into his face, sending the man down.

"Oh hell ...********... no. You bastards did not just say those things about my mom in front of me..." said the young lord, taking a few steps after he had punched a bandit with tattoos on his face. "I was thinking about letting you guys live after kicking your asses, but after hearing those comments, you just got yourselves a death wish."

One of the axe-wielding bandits charged forward, enraged that this kid had just hit his buddy. As the steel axe came down, Roy dashed in towards the man, the blade of the SoS catching the spot right below the blade part of the axe. His left hand then shot upward towards the bandit's straightened elbow, resulting in a sickening crack as the bone pierced the skin. The man pulled back, howling in pain from the injury. The young lord then spun in with his left foot towards the retreating bandit, the flaming blade brushing against the sand before he swung upward, under the shoulder holding the axe. Blood splashed onto the ground as the severed limb dropped. The bandit's howling just went two octaves higher. It certainly didn't help the man's pain with sand particles in the wound. Even if he did survive, there was a very good chance he'd get some serious infection. The sand here was pretty fine after all.

He turned away from this useless bandit now (he'll finish him off later) and turned to the lone swordman bandit, who was trying to get to the wagon while Roy was distracted with the second bandit.

"Where the ******** do you think you're going?!" Roy shouted, free hand reaching for the rapier.

The second weapon was drawn, adjusted in his hand, then thrown (yes, thrown) at the bandit, aiming for one of the legs. The mercenary blinked in shock, having been discovered by the disgruntled lord, and could not move his iron sword fast enough to prevent the pointy blade from piercing into his upper thigh. A moment later, Roy had ran up to the man before he kicked the hilt, sending it hilt-deep into the man's leg and slightly through the other one.

"Don't! ********! With! Me!" Roy growled before the kick came (Somewhere in the universe, a certain Spartan would pause and facepalm).

Judging by the man's pained expression as he crumpled onto the ground, crying in pain, the young lord could easily tell that the bandit wasn't going to go anywhere for a while. He then spun around so he could deal with the first bandit, the one he had punched. The axe was coming. Roy sidestepped (take that Swordslayer! You can't touch this swordman lord!) The axe hit the sand. Roy stomped his foot onto the section between the blade and the shaft parts of the axe so it wouldn't budge, then swung his sword at the man's wrist. The bandit was too stubborn to let go, and thus lost his hand.

The Sword of Seals was then sheathed, and Roy just tackled the bandit before he just began pounding into the bandit's face with his fists. It wasn't long before his gloves were dyed red, and the beige colored sand darkened with fresh blood.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The bandits were reckless fighters. They were obviously never taught true methods to fighting except trying to use brute untrained force. In other words, they were stupid. Stupid people annoyed Deborah.

A bandit came right at her, and it only took one swing of her lance to send him flying back. His axe flew up, and then down across his neck. Another bandit tried to chop her from behind, but was yelling loudly, so Deborah knew he was coming with more than enough time to spare. After she had pushed back the first bandit, she crouched down, then pushed off the ground with great force, and kicked the bandit behind her in the face, forcing the axe from his hand. She landed gracefully to the side, and plunged her lance downward into his gut, to finish him.

She didn't have a chance to rest long though, as a mage had taken advantage of his comrade's death to appear unnoticed and cast a fire spell that was now hurling toward Deborah from behind. It didn't take long to realize that a magic attack was headed for her, though, thanks to her dancing shadow. She turned around quickly, and spun her spear in front of her, like a shield. If it had been dark magic, she could have sliced it in half, but this was fire. She would get a little singed, but she could hold it back. The halberdier held her ground, as the fire crashed around her and doused upon the sand. Once it ceased, she took the opportunity, and ran like a cheetah to where the mage was, where she leaped into the air, and swung down her lance, impaling the bandit.

She stood up, and caught her breath. She looked over, noticing that the smallest of their group had come over, asking if she needed help. "Eh.. I don't tink I need deh help a littal girls... Maybe ya should-"

Suddenly, she saw a blade coming at her, so she whipped her lance around to block it, then jumped back. This man had caught her off guard, which is not a common occurrence. Perhaps he was more skilled than the rest of the group. However, once she looked upon him, she simply started to laugh. "Well, well, so ya lived. I tought I told ya tah give up deh bandit life, when I spare ya life." She held out her lance, in attack position. "If ya come tah get a scar tah match deh one ya got on ya a**, I's afraid ya outta luck. Dis time, I aint be sparin' ya wortless life."

Charice's eyes had at first widened in slight fear at the sight of the archer. Due to a lack of trees (and, well, lumber in general) in Sentria, archers were few and far between. A bandit clan could call itself lucky just to have one. Still, the fact that there WAS one was keeping the Falcoknight in check. How infuriating! As long as he was there, getting tripped up by... by... COW SUIT MAN!?

Charice blinked.

...And to think she'd wondered why they'd ever brought him.

"YA!!"

She lost no time in taking advantage of the downed archer. With him gone, there remained no legitimate threats to her--pegasi did not fear magic nearly as much as a wyvern did, and those axes? Her sword had a thing or two to say about those. With that archer getting knocked silly by Jaren, nobody could stop her! She surged up and over the bandit forces, having already pinpointed her targets--the Sages. Not many in her group looked strong in resisting magic. If she took out the Sages (who appeared to lack wind magic, the one thing that could damage a pegasus), this battle would be cake.

Faces towards the back looked up, and saw the white-robed woman flying down towards them. They flung their thunder spells, the lightning raining down around her!

...The most important thing to remember about magic is that magic ultimately isn't real. It may LOOK real, yes, but if one truly believed that the magic (however flashy it may seem) was not real, then one could not be harmed. Magic was a battle of wills, not armor.

Many of the best warriors on the continent seemed to forget this fact; Charice, however, did not. Maybe it was the path she'd chosen in life that led to the belief that the magic wouldn't hurt her, but it largely worked.

She was concerned for the safety of others, and so couldn't quite shut out the possibility that the magic might exist--she felt several unpleasant shocking sensations course through her body as she plunged at them. Unpleasant--but not nearly enough to stop her! Her sword swung down in a wide arc, coming just at neck level of the first Sage, his head plunging to the sands seconds after. His comrade nearby yelled and turned to flee, but Aphrodite simply turned, moving much more quickly on wings than the Sage on feet, and aptly guided Charice's sword hand to find a second mark.

The Sages had been left to the rear, being trusted to support the sword and axe users in the front. That was now proving their undoing, as the spells that were providing cover fire for the front lines now ceased abruptly as the survivors began to run this way and that, disorganized, desperate to find safety.