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Since leaving that damn city, Viscen had been sulking. He had one job and one job only: keep control of Petheus in their hands. But ARGH! He blew it! A perfect opportunity to impress Drake was squandered. Those Learania bastards were too much for the young warrior to handle alone. If only he had gotten those reinforcements he sent Barsch for. At least he got to leave the blasted army a little present before retreating. So that trap wasn’t a waste of effort after all. Still, Viscen couldn’t help but be bad-tempered.

Once he reached Drake and relayed what had happened, the youthful bandit leader tensed his muscles. He listened anxiously to the older man. His first words were like daggers stabbing at the boy’s ego. Guilt began to seep out. When the trueblade appeared to reach for his sword, Viscen closed his eyes and flinched. It was an instinctive reaction to thinking he was about to be killed. Slowly he opened one eye after the other as Drake spoke again offering a chance at redemption. "Gotcha," the kid fretfully replied.

Over the time they had to prepare, Viscen regained his confidence. His one-track mind focused on the battle that was soon to come. His last chance to revive his reputation. He clenched his fist. There was no way in hell he would fail his mission. Again. The warrior made sure he was ready for anything.

"Those bastards will feel the full force of the Mirage Falcon’s talons this time," he muttered to himself as he followed Drake.

Super Awesome Swordsman;
Jaren Degriess!

I'm the HERO of JUSTICE

LOVE ME!

"And that's when I realized it wasn't infected at all! It was just a realllly big pimple! In a reallllly weird spot!" Jaren finished, "So the morale of the story is don't ever eat anything if you don't know what its is! Not even if it looks just like a b---- hurk!" He was interrupted as Ali grabbed him by the collar and dragged him in close. "Okay Ali! You go ahead and concentrate! Just don't forget... do not eat the cheese,"


Before this mysterious warning could be explained he was shoved aside and Ali strode by him, leaving the swordsman to scurry after him to see what the commotion was about. Oh, hey Drake wanted them! Jaren liked Drake, the blonde man had set him straight about those rotten Learanians, leaving him behind to die like that! And then they had the nerve to invade the nice and awesome Sentria, the jerks. They needed a good helping of justice! From behind Ali's right shoulder he waved enthusiastically... and stuck his tongue out at Viscen, the smaller boy (In relation to Drake) looked like a hedgehog with his spiky hair, couldn't he afford a hair cut? Also he couldn't even hold a village properly. You had to use BOTH hands. Silly Viscen.

Anyway just as Jaren was making off to follow Drake and Viscen so he could show bird-hair how it's done, and impress Drake in a two-for-one deal, a hand reached out and grabbed the back of his cape, "Hurk!" He repeated for a second time, as he fell backwards onto his a** with a whump. A frowning face turned to look up at Ali from his spot on the ground.

"Awww c'mon Ali, why do we have to wait. We could go right now and help out! It's boring just sitting here and doing nothing," Jaren pouted, "I liked it better when it was just the two of us..." Suddenly Jaren brightened up, "Hey, hey Ali! Do our forces have a name yet? Like the ones you run and then I run when... uhhh if you die? Cuz if not we gotta name them... THE LEAGUE OF THE HEROES OF JUSTICE! Oh wait, maybe the COMPANY COMPRISED OF HEROES WHO SUPPORT JUSTICE!" Jaren scrambled to his feet, "Which one do you like better huh? The first ones a little wordy but the second one rolls of your tongue nicely!"

Oh, man... it was gonna be a loooong war for a certain black man.

We all have our secrets, we all wear a mask. A persona if you will, to cover our real selves, our shadows, the face that we could not show to society and still appear sane. Not even we know our true nature.

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It was all seeming so easy.

The guild members had gathered quickly, everyone had gotten ready to go quickly, and they had traveled to the best spot quickly. The only thing that Deborah was displeased about was the little number of guild members there actually seemed to be. She couldn't hold anything against the ones that came with her or any other army, but she also knew that many had just stayed in Eyris to do nothing. To her, those people was just... spoiled, ungrateful brats. The overall goal of the guild is to give service to Learania. Learania didn't bring their problems on themselves, and damn anybody who thought that way. It made Deborah almost feel sick at how some members felt that they could just sit at home as if things were at peace, not bothering to try to save their country. She couldn't help but wonder if they even cared.

But the captain quieted her thoughts as they entered the desert. Their numbers allowed them to move swiftly, much faster than a huge group of people could. Even the extra Guard soldier she had to bring didn't slow them down, too much. They kept going until they came upon a location with many rocks and ruins. The embellishment on the ruins suggested olden Sentrian architecture. The group wasn't far into the desert. Trees were scarce, but there were still a few tropical ones jutting up from the ground around them all. Very few. If Deborah had to take a guess, she would say that where they were was an old sentry point back from when the royal family of Sentria was still around. Bandits, along with the ravage of time, had done quite a bit of damage to it.

More to the point, the location was the perfect ambushing site. There was a wide, flat path with rubble on one side and rock on the other. The guild members could hide themselves perfectly. And even better, if the bandits were taking the fastest route to Pentheus, they would definitely pass through there. The wyvern rider had been sent into the air, to keep watch for the first group. As their figures came into sight in the distance, the rider came down and made Deborah aware. "Alright, get hidden! Don't make a sound, don't make a move!"

By the time the first bandit group arrived, it looked like nobody had even been there. Even the footprints had been removed from the sand by some powerful wing blasts, thanks to the wyvern. As for that creature, his size was too big to be fully hidden by the ruins. Deborah had it hide a little bit away, behind a sand dune. She watched as the bandits casually marched passed. The two men up front were likely leaders. One she vaguely recognized from Pentheus. The other she had... seen before. But not in this world. She gritted her teeth and gripped her spear, holding back the urge to jump out and slaughter him. The sight of him brought back memories she hadn't wanted to ever recall. But Deborah managed to keep her cool. She had to stick with the plan.

The first bandit group passed the old sentry point by, clueless of hidden danger. They eventually vanished from sight, allowing everyone to breath easily, at least for a few minutes. Now they had to wait for the second group to arrive. Deborah got out from her hiding place and walked to the middle of the wide path, spear in hand. She would lure the group to her and make sure they didn't divert around the ruins. She was only one person- not a threat to an entire group of brigands, for sure, or at least that would probably be what they thought.

The wind picked up some and blew her dreadlocks about. She remained tall and stern. She didn't like many people, but she had confidence in the abilities of the guild members who came with her. With the victory of the battle, Learania could begin to push the bandits further back into their own land and turn the war around. If they lost, then Pentheus would fall as well, and Learania would be vastly more crippled. The upcoming battle would be crucial.

Deborah narrowed her eyes as the figures of the second group came into sight, as they marched over a mountain of sand. When the group got close enough and let down their guard, Deborah would spring the trap. The fighting was about to begin.

The group had arrived at the ambush sight and once there, all of them were given orders to conceal themselves. Ephraim did so, he tucked the short spear under his cloak and pulled the hood over his head once more. He ducked behind a wall that had been broken down to the very base, it was high enough to go a little above his head when he knelt down on the sand.

He stayed quiet, as well as the others who had come along for this particular party. Ephraim looked over his shoulder, through the crack that gave him enough vision to see through the cracks on the wall. Seems as though the first group had already up and left this area. The wait was a little agonizing. The second wave hadn't even shown up yet. It started to worry the lancer a bit, but as soon as he heard foot steps among the stands, he looked over his shoulder again to see Deborah standing in the middle of the pathway.

...

What was she up to..? Ephraim thought, whatever she had planned couldn't have possibly be bad. It did however, worry him a bit if her plan was to be bait to lure the 2nd wave to her while the rest came out and attacked. He had no doubt Deborah could handle a few of them herself but the situation was still risky at most. He waited a bit more till he could see figures starting to emerge from the sand mountain then, ducked back behind the ruined wall once more.

((afhfefefehafjeioajfea Blah ))

Super Awesome Swordsman;
Jaren Degriess!

I'm the HERO of JUSTICE

LOVE ME!

Jaren was still arguing his attempt to name the bandit army when he noticed a black skinned woman who had seemingly come out of nowhere.

"Eh?" He looked up at Ali, then turned his gaze back to the stranger who was standing in the path of the army, he did a few more double takes before pounding a closed fist into his palm as a thought struck him.

"Her and Ali would be perfect for each other! They're so similar! But why's she out in the desert like this? Maybe she's running from those evil Learnians! If I save her, they'll get together and Ali will be happy and let me name the bandit group!" He thought jumping to several conclusions at once. Machinations of the simple minded.

A cloud of dust was suddenly left where the myrmidon had been moments before as he took off, boots kicking up gravel as he ran down the path. Soon a cry could be heard from behind him.

Ali was encouraging him! What a nice change of pace, usually he said a lot of angry words! Spurred on by Ali's words of praise, Jaren continued the charge which although he didn’t know it probably would get him impaled on Deborah's lance, but then Ali passed him. Wow! He must really want to meet this girl, young love was beautiful. Now that he got closer though she looked familiar, her hairstyle and her skin colour stood out quite a bit... She was definitely memorable.

And then Ali brought his dream crashing down by attacking her, which didn’t make any sense, why would Ali attack a random stranger, wasn't he a Hero of Justice? Confused the myrmidon ran past the now fighting pair before stopping and turning back to look back at the bandits that were following him in order to take back Penthaeus... the town... that had... fallen and was controlled by Learnia.


Wheels began turning in Jaren's brain, now that he thought about it that Halberdier had been with them that last October meaning she was Learanian, and she was armed, ready for a fight, almost as if she had been expecting one, not only that but the nearest city was Penthaeus. "That means... that means..." You could almost hear the steam coming out of Jaren's head as he processed this information.


Then the light bulb turned on, "Stop! Everyone wait! SHE'S A LEARNIAN! IT'S A TRAP!" Jaren screamed at the top of his lungs as he drew his sword, a few bandits that had charged by Ali and could hear Jaren, slowed down to a stop at this new bit of information, but the rest continued their pell-mell charge, dammit it looked like those charging forth would at least by the others time to prepare. He couldn't see any Learnian soldiers yet but that didn't mean they weren't there. "Uhhh, QUICK DO WHAT EVER IT IS ALI TOLD YOU TO DO WHEN WE GET IN A FIGHT!" Confusion swarmed the bandits as they tried to get back in ranks and ready themselves, another idea struck him. Two in one day , Jaren was on a roll, he grabbed the nearest bandit, “Get a few more of you together, pass the message around, split up and get out of here, find Drake and tell him we’ve been ambushed.” Jaren watched as the bandit took off to get the other messangers. It was probably too late by now anyway the bandits had already gotten out of formation they wouldn‘t have time to get fully prepared before the trap was fully sprung, and already despite not even really starting yet the battle looked like it was going to shape up to the bloody equivalent of a barfight. Reinforcements from Drake would help, but Jaren doubted he'd come back to assist, he was sure of one thing though.



Drake wasn’t gonna be happy.

We all have our secrets, we all wear a mask. A persona if you will, to cover our real selves, our shadows, the face that we could not show to society and still appear sane. Not even we know our true nature.

All right, so things went well at first...listen to the leader, who still had yet to give him an accurate answer of where he was now, and do his job here. Cover tracks, scout...these things were fairly simple.

When it comes to battle, that was a different idea. There were bandits here, and the primary weapon needed against them would be a sword, or an axereaver. So, while the others would be fighting back by the rubble, and make their move there, Zeiss would be off battling any runaway bandits heading off for Sentria.

So, with one quick swoop, he landed in front of the runaways, and brought down his lance upon the one that seemed to be the likely candidate to get out of there to bring back reinforcements, while Rubley was quick at swiping bandits back, and blocking their path to run away. "You brigands are all the same...you won't get out of here alive."

Ganon rose up. The massive reptilian figure, silhouetted against the sun, stepped onto the dune overlooking the battle. Fluidity and strength poured off the predator's body as he loomed over the beginning battle...

And he lifted his guitar, tuned it carefully, and began to play. Immediately, the desert sand began to whip up around him, and then the wind began to blow throughout the field. Fine grains flew into the eyes of friend and foe alike as Ganon picked with is claws, using his thumb to play the chords and he simply... closed his eye.

The music was enough. When he closed his eye... he couldn't hear it, exactly. One cannot hear the music of sand, the harmony of man, the melody of an axe. But Ganon knew it was there. He was certain it was there, as certain as a priest is of the gods, and so he could feel it.

And so he could play it. And Ganon played the sand, and he played the wind. Whirling devils swirled throughout the bandit ranks, throwing sand into their faces and, mysteriously, leaving shallow gashes in their flesh, as Ganon played.

Jaren was close, and Ganon knew his song. He had felt it before. A confused melody, atonal yet pure, a grand triumphant march played by a kazoo. It had always made Ganon smile.

He subtly shifted the melody he played, and the sand in front of Jaren suddenly swung itself upward with surprising force, aiming for the swordsman's chin. The boy was a liability, and Ganon rather hoped he could be taken out of the battle safely and returned to the guild.

And he knew Jaren well enough to know that would be easier if the boy was unconscious.

[Song of Sandstorms: Slightly lowered accuracy for all sides.]