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Ace swung her blade away, following the arc of the thief's kick to avoid contact and using its own momentum to recover. As the thief coiled to spring, she lunged, throwing her muscle into an impaling strike.

Her one good eye met his.

Fool.

She didn't even really hear what Sephas said.

Up to that point, Tiki had stopped asking questions. She wasn't even really thinking about anything. Just staring at the floor, calmly. The only thing that had run through her mind was shortly after Ziaram's last response.

Wait... thieves?

The thought lingered for a bit, but eventually drifted off. Perhaps it was because there was too much to think about. She just thought about nothing.

Until now.

It seemed like everything else disappeared. Her hearing was fixed on the roar from the distance. Accompanied by the rhythmic beat after beat of leathery wings flapping, carrying a heavy body. Getting closer, closer...

She felt her breath escape. She could see the beast in her mind. Something that should have been familiar, but wasn't. The empty, thoughtless looks they bore. Tiny little slits that spoke of nothing, saw something different then what she saw. Acting on some long lost purpose, the goal of which had been lost, and replaced with basic feral desire. Movements, growls and roars that meant nothing. Nothing but the simple-minded pursuit of food. Prey. Even thinking things that bore no ill will, things that didn't deserved to be killed, and then eaten and ripped apart and...

Nothing was just a wyvern. There were no wyverns where she was from. What was once a thinking being, turned into... That.
The stuff of many a nightmare.

Fighting was not a first instinct for Tiki. There was no one who needed her. Her first thought was to get away and at all costs, avoid the mindless glare that was sure to accompany it...

She didn't answer Sephas. Within the span of a second, she scrambled out of her seat and dove into the back of the carriage. She went back as far as she could, and pressed her back against the carriage, glancing around, listening nervously. She was still and quiet. Her small hand instinctively wandered to her chest. She squeezed something small and round under her shirt. Make sure it's there, just for security.

Ace was no coward, but she tried to avoid conflict when possible-- especially against much stronger opponents. Mentally reciting a short prayer in her head, she pried the corpse off of her sword and bolted to the right, toward the caravan. She noted a snowdrift tucked into the shadows of the cliffs beside her; a quick plunge would clean most of the blood from the blade. Unfortunately, her sword hit a rock, or maybe a chunk of ice. Whatever it was, the shock unbalanced her and she fell, rolling toward the swordsmen.

Recovering into a crouch, Ace sheathed her sword with slightly wounded pride before scrambling toward the others. Her hair, which had been roughly tied, now fell haphazardly about her head, just concealing the 'unpleasant' side of her face. Ultimately, she presented an image of a bedraggled drifter, one that had spent the last week living outside without changing her attire.

She greeted Joshua and Ziaram with an incredulous look, wondering why in the hell they weren't retreating to safety, or at the very least some kind of strategic position.

(( I will also use Red for the Wyverns. :P ))

"Wh-what?!?" Sephas shouted, trying to keep his nerves with his comrade's insane idea. Catapult him into the air so he can fight enemies that fly? Well, it seemed about as good as any other idea! So, at the moment of Joshua's demand, Sephas chanted a simple Earth spell.

A pillar of stone rose from the ground, and... well, it didn't have quite the effect that Joshua wanted. It sent the Myrmidon into the air, yes, but nowhere near as far as he would have liked, surely. It was probably somewhere around... maybe seven feet into the air.

However, the timing was good enough that Joshua's sword had made some headway and punctured the lead wyvern's left thigh. It screeched and, amidst its midair writhing, managed to grab Joshua's other arm with one of its own. This wyvern simply hovered there for a moment, while the other two went ahead to deal with the pests on the ground.

One of the wyverns flew directly towards Ziaram, not giving him much time, if any, to recover if he was watching Joshua get shot into the air. It angled itself so that its talons were aimed right for this Myrmidon's chest. Assuming the man managed to block those, the Wyvern still had its maw and its claws, also.

The other flew directly for Ace. This one slowed down upon getting close to the woman and, though it approached in the same manner as the one that attacked Ziaram, this one swung its tail upwards towards Ace, flying in a small loop before coming back and rushing towards the woman, claws extended.

Sephas was absolutely terrified. Joshua's plan was turning into a disaster, and the wyverns were attacking everyone but him! He had to do something, or else one of them could end up hurt, or worse, dead!

He took a few steps back, looking around at each of the three battles. Ziaram had a Light Brand, so he could likely handle himself. Joshua was in the air, but he did have his sword stuck in that Wyvern's leg. This traveler, however, he didn't know anything about her, or her capabilities, aside from the fact that she used a sword. So, he did the incantation for the earth spell again, and conjured another pillar of stone, this time coming up right into Ace's wyvern's face as it was beginning to rush towards her after its loop. The wyvern impacted against the stone, easily breaking the pillar into multiple smaller pieces, but it was stopped in its tracks, and sounded like it was catching its breath.

"There's your chance!" he shouted at Ace, not really caring if she wanted to handle that herself or not. The mage assumed the wyvern was as good as dead, and simply focused his sights on the other two. All he needed was an opportunity...

(( Ace, Sephas did not kill the wyvern that was rushing towards you. He only stopped its movement, and is either underestimating its endurance or is expecting her to kill it.

Nommy, I didn't do too much to give you a good bit of wiggle room. I think you'll be fine. :3

Joshie, as brilliant as your idea was, I had to do this to you. Think of it this way: that fall could break your legs, possibly, and at least with this, he can descend slower or something. :3 ))

So Joshua chose to use a different plan of his own...it was only a bit effective, but Ziaram still had his own plan that would work. He didn't pay much attention, as he didn't plan to go through with that plan. He needed to keep his focus on the wyverns coming around.

Sure enough, one started to come for him. The good part about magic is that you get ranged attacks, and this was exactly the idea Ziaram was going at. Sephas and himself could attack the wyverns from a range.

So going on with the plan that he came up with, he rose his Light Brand and rained magic on the wyvern as it was coming down, then went off to his left side, and continued raining magic down on the wyvern, least till it fell to its death. This shows how his plans can work out. Time to focus on other things...

To see that the new person was going for another wyvern, and stabbing the eye. By the looks of things, the beast was good as dead, but just to be safe, Ziaram rose his Light Brand, once getting closer to Ace, and sent down light magic upon the beast, to help ensure that it died. "Well, that makes short work on these two...now all we need to do is help out our other ally."

((There Rei-face, I posted. Besides, I should have told you, but I didn't before due to other things...I was at band camp. Just letting you know...a little too late now razz But thanks for making things a bit easy for me...hope I didn't fail badly.))

Well this was rot, Sephas had misunderstood his plan. Joshua didn't want to be catapulted into the air, but lifted up quickly so the momentum would drive his sword through the beast.

Still the end result was mostly the same as he had hoped... apart from the fact that the accursed thong had his other arm. Ripping his sword from the leg it was impaled in elicited another shriek of pain from the wyverns mouth.

"Didn't like that eh? Try this!" Joshua swung his sword at the wyvern's other leg now forcing it to drop him back on the platform.

Then he waited for something to happen because PS3 is annoying

Ace had only enough time to close her eyes and turn her face away before the shower of gore hit her.

...Eeeugh.

Her entire front was drenched with the dragon's ocher, and lumps of meat dripped off her chest and into her lap. Ace blinked her eyes open, wincing at the taste of iron that had crept into her mouth, and stared at the long stake of bone lodged in the ground not a meter away. It must have been part of the jawbone, as it was about the length of her sword. And if I had been sitting just a bit closer...

Moving slowly, Ace stood and collected her sword. It was a deliberate slowness, a trained reaction to slow her thoughts and control her rage. They were probably mercenaries, untrained and unaccustomed to planned battles and teamwork--probably inexperienced--cocky and stupid--probably killed as many allies as they saved with that behavior--thank god they weren't in her army because if they pulled that kind of s**t--have them stripped and whipped, hang them from their feet, smash their heads in with the butt of her sword and RRRAAAAAAAGH.

So Ace trudged toward Ziaram, not knowing that he was the spellcaster in question but not in much better spirits for it.

...Why is my face feeling itchy?