Get the Supplies, Get a Cat outfit

"Adalinda... we're running dry on money... C'mon..." A little purple exceed growls at her Dragon Slayer who was busy fighting a training dummy in the training hall. Adalinda had been starting to train herself more and more. She wanted to get stronger. It was a must if she wanted to be able to help protect her babies. She groans as she kicks the training dummy one last time before she lets her fist fly at it. She then storms over to the mat Tamaria was chilling on and snatches up her shirt to put over her white tank top. "I'll not stop you from 'volunteering' whoever you want to take with you this time..." She mutters. She knew those words would get the girl to smirk and be a bit more compliant as she put on her uniform white shirt with blue trim.

As she starts to tug on her tan fingerless gloves, the gears start turning in Adalinda's head. Her ice blue eyes glance over to the purple cat, and an eyebrow perks up some. "Absolutely no rejection from you at all who I choose to come with me? Including on exactly how I... eh hem... volunteer them...?" She steps into some boots before she shoves them on her feet. "I think I already have someone in mind... Just need to go and grab a job... and we'll be well on our way..." She snickers. Adalinda takes a quick swig of her flask before she puts it on her hip. She then starts to excitedly run out of the training hall, right to where the job board was. She skids to a stop right in front of it as she bites her bottom lip. Her eyes trail down the pages intently looking for a job that tickles her fancy to do.

Tamaria taps Ada's leg as she points to a paper low on the board and looks to her. "This one says that the people are in need of supplies from over a month ago... We should help them..." Adalinda grabs the paper and starts reading it. "It kind of sounds like they're a village of Exceeds!" She says as she grabs Adalinda's leg.

"We'll see what exactly they are. We'll take it. C'mon! We need to get Kyran!" She laughs and dashes to where Kyran was. Once she came across him, Adalinda lets out a shout. "Kyran! Come one! Let's go!" She laughs as she jumps onto his back, if he was standing up, before giving him a quick noogie before she jumps off of his back and grabs his wrist. She starts yanking him away while laughing excitedly as she quite literally dragged him out of the guild and onto a boat. As soon as they were on the boat, Adalinda takes another swig of her alcohol, and leans against the edge. "G'damn boats..." She starts to slur as she was feeling the nausea wave over her a bit.

Tamaria takes the paper, with the job information on it, from Adalinda, and reeds it over quickly before she passed it to Kyran. "I picked the job out... It sounds like it could be a town of Exceeds... but Ada's not too sure..." The cats ears fell back as she pouts to Kyran. Adalinda snorts at her. She knew she was trying to guild him. Tammy glares over at Adalinda and hisses a bit to her, which only earned Ada raspberrying her tongue out at the cat.

"Cool with the job?" Adalinda question as she rubs her forehead some. Sometimes she wished she was a sky dragon slayer. Then she could be immune to these blasted vehicles. She takes another swing of her flask, and takes a deep breath. "We're gonna have fun on this job... I bet you..." She snickers to Kyran while shrugging her shoulders. She didn't even know if she was being sarcastic or not over it. But she generally had fun on her missions where she got to punch something.

Words: 666

Kyran was in the training hall, working on his martial arts. When Ada  jumped onto his back, he very nearly flipped her over his head. His discipline was the only thing that kept him from actually completing the motion. Since she had caught him off guard, Kyran was barely able to grab his coat as she dragged him out of the guild. "Woman, you need to stop dragging me onto boats." Kyran said with a scowl. He swung the coat onto his shoulders, adjusting his fingerless gloves. He peered at Adalinda curiously as she appeared to get sick from the boat. Did she have motion sickness or something? She hadn't ever acted this way on land. Not that he had seen anyways.

Kyran carefully took the paper from the exceed. He read it over quickly, then read it again just to be sure. It did sound like a village of exceed but he highly doubted that they were exceeds. "Sorry Tamaria. I don't think these people are exceeds. They sound like a similar race though." He patted the cat's head. Kyran decided not to give Adalinda's slurred 'we'll have fun' an answer. She liked saying that and usually he ended up baring the brunt of everything. It wasn't fun at all. In fact, she might have said that right before she knocked him out and dumped him on a boat to join the West Fiore Trading Company.

Kyran thought it was better to start the mission right away instead of going to accept it. That way, they would have the supplies before they ever accepted the job. It would probably give them a better payout and it was a faster way to get Adalinda out of his hair. His demons kept caressing his mind, wanting to talk to 'daddy'. Most of them anyway. Erebos stayed at the back calmly watching everything. Kyran took advantage of Ada's drunk and disoriented state to steer them along the most likely path the delivery person had taken. He did so carefully so Tamaria wouldn't think too much of it either. The two of them probably thought he was pretty stupid. They didn't have nay idea the devious mind that lay behind Kyran's eyes. He tried not to think about why they had that image of him. There wasn't a single time he had been overly smart in their adventures together.

He spotted the ambush site a mile off. They had poorly tried to cover up the blood on the road. Not to mention there were two of the bandits sitting nearly in the open, not even trying to hide. That was either deliberate or they were both stupid. Kyran had to admit they had chosen a great spot. There was no way around the spot. You had to walk into the ambush whether you wanted to or not. Kyran decided to let Ada go ahead on this one. He pushed her forward gently. "Just keep walking. I've got to tie my shoe. If anything happens give me a shout!" He gave her an innocent smile and bent down to tie his shoe. Closer to the road, he could pick out a few more bandits. There was quite a lot of them. Whether he could see all of them, Kyran highly doubted. There was probably a captain of sorts near the ambush site. He or she might have the location of the bandits' camp. Since he couldn't see supplies along the road, it lent to the idea that their loot was offsite. Kyran trusted Adalinda to be able to handle herself and to draw out the ambush. She would probably have fun too. He grinned as he unlimbered Calamity from his back, ready to help her if she needed it.

Total: 626

Tamaria had glared at Kyran when he patted her head, and pouts while crossing her arms over her chest. Adalinda chuckles quietly and runs a hand through her hair. "I hope this trip doesn't take too terribly long..." She sighs as she was meaning the boat trip to the Unknown Lands. Tammy had moved to sit upon the railing of the boat, watching the water as she waited, ignoring Ada and her wishes for the boat to be docked already. She didn't use her wings at all right now as she wanted to save her energy for later.

Once they've docked, Adalinda was pleased with being on the ground finally again. If she did a solo job... she would have just used Tammy and Shellton, but as it stood, those two weren't able to help her while she was with someone. She grumbles starts to feel less nauseous as she stood a moment on the dock. "Okay... let's get going..." She grumbles as she looked to Kyran. Tamaria and Adalinda started to follow him. As they start to go to a different path, Adalinda looked to Kyran, and raised an eyebrow. Did he know a shortcut that she didn't? Had he been here before and wasn't telling?

She had smelled the blood and noticed the ambush as well when they started to come across it. When she was pushed a bit. She turns her head back a bit and growls at Kyran. "The fuck do you think you're doing?" She hisses at him. "Do you think I'm stupid or something? I can clearly smell the blood, and see, and smell, those guys over there waiting to ambush whomever's on the path. Whatever you're trying to do, give it up, or I'll knock you upside the face." She threatens. She then looks back and sniffs the air some. "Easy peasy..." She grumbles as she stalks off towards the area where the ambush was in place.

Tamaria was sitting back with Kyran, knowing Ada was a bit mad now with how seemed to treat her. "What are you doing?" The exceed question quietly. "She was excited to bring you on this job for me. She trusts you enough to have her back and not screw her over." She looks over to the dragon slayer who was just about to be approached by the bandits, before her fist snapped out and she smashed the face of the novice bandit in with ease. She clearly wasn't holding back much of her own strength she had. These guys were dropping like flies on a bug zapper. As soon as her fist, or foot, connected to them, they were down for the count.

As Adalinda neared a bush, she smelled a few people behind her, and she snickers. She kicks one of the novice bandits away from her before she quickly makes a Kunai in her hand and spins herself around to knock the sword away from her as the bandit was trying to kill her. A grin forms on her face as they realize that she knew they were there, and the muscle on her was easy to tell she could kick their ass still. "Having fun, sweetie?" She questions them before she snaps her foot out and grabs hold of their sword with her opposite hand and flips the bandit over her shoulder and onto the ground. Adalinda grins to herself as the guy under her was terrified. "Oh? You're shaking for me... how sweet." She lets go of the sword for a moment to throw her Kunai at another who was trying to come after her, effectively pinning them. to a tree. Her original bandit that she flipped over, had managed to scramble away towards Kyran. She was going to let him join in on the fun too now. She also wanted to count how many she got down. Her eyes scan over the pile of dazed bodies. So far twelve novice bandits it seems, and the one bandit, plus the other one going after Kyran.

The exceed looks up to see the bandit coming at them. He didn't realize they were there at first, but he figured they were an easier target than the other mage behind him. Tamaria let out a shriek of fright before she quickly goes behind Kyran. She was trying to not go too far away, in case there were others coming around them that she couldn't see from her height. "Kyran!" The exceed squealed, hoping he'd take care of it quickly without her saying too much.

Words: 759
Total: 1,425

Stats:

Kyran was confused by Ada's words. Yes she could smell them. Yes she could deal with them. What was the problem? Tamaria's words shook him even further to the core. "Why would she trust me? I haven't done a single thing worthy of trust. I would've thought she hated me given how many times I've spit in her face." Kyran admitted getting into an archer's position. From here, he would have no issue taking down any bandits that may or may not go for Ada's back. They were hiding very stupidly that was for sure. The strongest ones were probably around, somewhere. They were better at hiding then these low level thugs. "Tamaria, get behind me. I don't want any of them hitting you." The exceed clearly wasn't built for combat and it would be all too easy from her to get hit in this situation.

His fears came true fairly quickly. When the bandits rushed Ada, they also rushed Kyran. The ambush area had been larger than he had anticipated. Kyran fired Calamity into the ground, calling upon the Shades that inhabited the bow. These bandits were much stronger than the ones fighting Ada. He slung Calamity over his shoulder as the three shades rose in front of him. Tamaria, Kyran grabbed tucking her into his body. That's what you get for not unleashing my power. You have to rely on petty tricks. Ahriman growled clearly frustrated. Kyran backed away slowly. The shades appeared to be three dimensional shadows but the bandits barely slowed at the sight of them. One by one they were cut down. Only one of the bandits was brought down. Kyran cursed. With Tamaria to protect, fighting these skilled opponents would be difficult at best.

Kyran was struck in the back. He cried out, the blade biting deep. Blood splattered the road and the bandits laughed. "Com' on boys. This archer will be quick work. We'll cook up the cat in his arms and have a little fun with his girl over there." The one who spoke appeared to be the leader. He had a deep red, fairly nice coat and a bandanna on his head. Kyran turned, grabbed his attacker by the throat and tossed him into the group advancing on him. The leader incinerated the poor man. Kyran looked on in shock. The group laughed at his expression. "Aw you didn't think we would try to catch him, did you? He was fodder, nothing. I only protect the strong." The leader shot another fireball at Kyran. With Tamaria in his arms, he wasn't able to dodge. He wouldn't have dodged anyway given Ada was behind him. The fireball burned his arm and shoulder, his body curled protectively around Tamaria. "Go, get to Ada. I can't fight if I'm protecting you like this." Kyran said gently, turning his back to the bandits and letting her go. "Fly fast. I'll protect you."

Blood dripped into Kyran's hand. He used his power to create a spiky dagger. "Let me correct you on something. I'm not an archer." Kyran turned to face the bandits, his rage blazing in his eyes. "I am a mage of the West Fiore Trading Company!" He darted forward, slipping from one foe to the next. His strikes were precise, killing or incapacitating his foes. Throat, thigh, kidney, spine. Kyran spun and rolled and flowed around his opponents. They hadn't ever faced anyone like him. Their surprise worked to his advantage. He soon stood before the bandit ace, not breathing hard, his dagger crumbling to black dust. Six bandits lay behind him. Four were dead, two barely conscious. Kyran had a steely look in his eyes as he sized up the ace. The man was taller than him and more heavily musclebound. Yet the man was looking around, his eyes wide. Clearly, he couldn't believe their whole force had been wiped out by two mages. "Don't underestimate us." Kyran growled. Forming spiked knuckles upon his hand, Kyran put all his power behind his next strike. The ace was out cold before he even hit the ground.

Kyran fell to his knees in front of the ace. He was feeling the wound in his shoulder, though the wound in his back probably was pretty bad too. Feeling his wound, Kyran figured he had aggravated it severely by fighting the way he had. Switching hands might have been a better call. He was ambidextrous after all. It wouldn't have made too much difference. He looked around to make sure the girls were okay. His body meant nothing. It was aging anyway. Death would be a welcome relief when it came. Kyran had nothing to live for but his friends and he didn't even trust them. A bitter smile crossed his lips. How fucked up was that?  

Health: 118

Total: 1,428

Adalinda's ears perked a bit as she heard Tammy's scream. She didn't like the sound of that. Her eyes had trailed over to Kyran, and saw that he he had been ambushed as well. She lets up a snarl and shakes her head. No one was touching Tammy. She watches as Kyran let Tamaria from his arms and was flying away from the fight towards her. Ada had quickly shoved her foot at another novice bandit before she quickly grabs Tammy and was inspecting her over. She glares forward for a moment, about to go and help Kyran. She could feel her anger boiling.

"Ada!" The exceed yelps excitedly. She quickly yanks herself from Adalinda's arms and runs over to where the supplies were. The most the bandits had done, was move the body over to the side behind the bushes, where it wouldn't be seen too easily. Tamaria looks at the body, and has to cover her nose as she looked away.

Adalinda goes over to the supplies and checks it over. Stuck under a piece of rope holding the stuff together, was a wrinkled, yellowed map. She pulls it out and notices that it had a legend that showed a path to the docks, and a little village not too far. As well as an area off to the side through the forest. "This... has to be their camp." She sticks her nose up in the air and sniffs a bit. She holds the map up in the air and positions it to be aligned. Her nose was right. The location on the map was the same as were she faintly smelled others. She quickly turns on her heels and run to the path once more. She saw Kyran fighting off the last of the group and the Bandit ace on the ground. "Tamaria... Kyran got hurt, didn't he?" She questions as she looks to her cat, who gave her a small nod. She sighs and hangs her head. "I need to invest in healing potions or something..." She walks over to Kyran and crouches in front of him. "You wouldn't happen to have anything to heal yourself with... right?" She clenched her teeth. She wasn't familiar with any plants here that would be helpful to heal. Then again, Ada wasn't even close to familiar with the plants on either Fiore or Tolgalen either, so she at least had that consistency.

Tamaria clears her throat. "Want me to see if the village has anything to heal you with, Kyran?" She asks as she leans forward a bit to see his arm. She clearly looked worried. "Thank you... for protecting me too..." She hangs her head as she felt a bit ashamed that she was pretty much a burden there. Ada takes a deep breath and rubbed her Exceeds head.

"Tammy found the supplies over to the side, hiding behind some tall bushes..." She holds the map out to him and takes a deep breath. "If you want to be stubborn... you can use that bow there and take out others behind me and we go to their camp... Unless my 'babies' want to come out and play too." Since she had figured out that his demons in his head liked to call her 'daddy', she figured it was her right to call them babies, even if they weren't. Adalinda snickers. She was wondering how they'd react to the whole, fighting a camp thing. This might be fun. "Or, you can go to the village, and I'll get a head start to the camp. I want to get this over with now." She nods as she stands up and lets him have the map. It had most of the information that he needed. So she didn't bother with using it herself since she had her smell to help her out.

Tamaria glares at her slayer as she starts to walk away from them. "Adalinda!" She hisses at her, putting her hands on her hips as she furrowed her eyebrows. She was pissed at her, clearly. Ada looks back and blinks. "He helped me out. Least you can do is help him out as well!" She scolds and crosses her arms over her chest once more.

Adalinda starts to snarl a bit, before she shakes her head. She then leans her head back and groans before she turns once more and crouches in front of Kyran. "Want me to help you...?" Her voice was monotonous as she had been wanting to go after the camp and pummel it to the ground on her own. Tammy had to ruin her fun and make her try to be a team player again. She then growls to herself and lets her head hang. "Goddamn... I'm sorry for dragging you on this job with me, and then trying to ditch you just then." She pouts as she glares to Tamaria, who blinks. She hadn't been about to scold her for that. So clearly that apology was of Adalinda's own conscious eating at her.

Words: 840
Total: 2,265

Stats:

Kyran was struggling to get his coat off so he could bandage his wound when Ada came on over. He eyed her not sure what to make of her demeanor. When she asked if he had anything to heal himself, Kyran chuckled softly shaking his head. He didn't make a habit of carrying around health potions though he probably should start. Whenever he was on a job with Adalinda, he tended to get seriously hurt. As the coat slipped off, his shirt disappearing into his skin, it was easy to see the massive burn on his shoulder. There was a long shallow wound on his back from his right shoulder to his left hip. Kyran whistled looking at his shoulder. "That does not look pretty. No Tamaria, that's alright. I don't want you wearing yourself out for me." He smiled at the exceed. "And Tamaria," He tilted her head up with his finger. "I live to protect those I care about. If you feel bad, I have to feel bad because I must not have done a good job. Don't worry about these. I can barely feel them." Though it was not a good sign that he could feel them at all. That only happened when he was in a lot of pain.

Hearing Ada's assumption that the supplies were over in the bushes, Kyran raised his eyebrows. That didn't seem quite right. The supplies had been missing for a month. Why would they have been left out in the open for that long? That didn't profit the bandits at all. He moved over to the supposed supplies, pulling the job notice from his back pocket. He also snatched the map from Ada's hand before he forgot it. That went into a pocket for later. He examined the supplies closely. The symbol on the crate didn't match the one on the page. "These aren't the supplies we're looking for. They must have just ambushed the person carrying these before we came along. It was probably the only reason there was blood on the road." Kyran got up dusting off the dirt. He was about to tell her off for not following company rules when she mentioned the demons. Kyran got right up in her face.

"You think this is funny?" He snarled through clenched teeth. The demons leapt up ready to defend their daddy. Kyran had no intention of hitting her however. "I have things inside my head trying to control my every action. Forcing me to do vile things that no decent person would want to do!" He wrenched himself away before he did something he regretted. Kyran stalked away. When she mentioned going on without him, Kyran did an abrupt about face. Tamaria beat him to the punch.

He was surprised by Ada's attitude after that. "If you help me bandage my wounds, I can help you out from afar. Then you can go crazy without a care in the world, Ada." Kyran said softly. He didn't much care if they took out all the bandits or not. Getting the supplies to the village seemed to be more important. "We're supposed to be partners, Ada. You made it so when you dragged me on the job. That means we work together. Don't go off half cocked or you'll get us both killed. Me by the bandits, you by the VPs." He grinned cheekily. "On second thought, go off half cocked. I'll meet you in the afterlife and laugh at your gruesome demise." Kyran chuckled to himself. That would be truly amusing.

Health: 118

Total: 2,021

At the sight of Kyrans wound, Adalinda makes a face. It looked a tad gruesome to her. Quietly, she watched him communicate with her Exceed, and smiles a little as the cat had a huge grin on her face. "Okay... I hope we can get you healed quickly then!" Tammy cries and grips her paw into a little first. She was determined to help him still though.

Ada chuckles at that and nods a little. She leads him over to the supplies when he heard them, seeing he seemed a bit confused at her words. She holds a hand out to the supplies when they got to them. "Tada." She says and shrugs her shoulders some. "Oh yeah... They were supposed to have cooking supplies... these don't smell like cooking supplies..." She murmurs, tapping her chin gently. She sniffs a bit as she was about to investigate the other supplies when Kyran snarled at her. She scrunches her face and raises an eyebrow to him curiously. "What...? You mean me calling the demons in your head my 'babies'? I figured I could since when they do come out, they call me 'daddy' and all for some reason." She crosses her arms over her chest.

Tamaria slowly nods her head. "Yeah... they like calling Adalinda 'Daddy' quite often... Why do they?" The exceed hadn't heard before if Kyran explained the reasoning behind that. She let her purple eyes go between the two mages as Kyran spoke more to Adalinda. She takes a deep breath and nods as she agrees with him that Adalinda DID need to start thinking of her partner on this job... till he told her to go half cocked, in which she hung her head. "How about we do this job right and get it over with so we can help the people?! Maybe take out the rest of these bandits too so they won't bother the villagers again?" She cries out, making Adalinda look down to her. She hadn't expected Tamaria to cry out like that so suddenly. Guess she still believed the villagers were possible Exceeds.

"I get it! Jeez cat!" She chuckles as she uncrosses her arms and looks to Kyran curiously. "Since you say that these supplies aren't the villages... part of me wonders if there's something in there for medicinal help or whatever... Like a health salve or something like that... With how they're sitting here... I think they actually might of been kinda for the bandits to use..." She bit her bottom lip, then quickly shook her head. Her eyes glance over to her Exceed, who simply shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head. "I'll get something to wrap your arm. If you want to try the stuff, have at it, if you don't think they belong to the villagers as well." She says before she jogs back to one of the dead bandits and tears off his shirt. She had ripped it up into shreds and comes back to Kyran with it. "C'mere." She murmurs and goes to tie his shoulder. She had experience tying up wounds. She knew on occasion he probably had seen her right knee when she wasn't in her work uniform. It was always bandaged up rather tightly. Tamaria may have seen it before, but Adalinda wouldn't even tell her about it.

When Adalinda was finished bandaging up his arm, she takes a step back to observe her handy work, and smirks some. "That should hold for a while." She nods to him as she looks to Tamaria, who held up a thumb. Adalinda nods her head as the cat approved her work, then looks back to Kyran. "Alright! Ready to get going?" She grins and was already starting to walk passed Kyran and Tamaria. She was following her nose to where she smelled the other bandits at. "They're not too far from us..." She mumbles and starts to get off into a jog.

"Adaaaa!" Tamaria cries out and groans as she goes after her mage. She looks back and pouts to Kyran. "I think she smells them... She's like a literal tracking dog in that sense..." She grumbles as she starts to fly after her, but waits for Kyran first before she really is going after her Dragon Slayer. "Ada! Wait up!"

Adalinda barely heard her cat, and groans as she skids to a stop. "Hurry up. I smell some of them moving!" She hisses back at them and whips her head around to smell the direction of the bandits. She was trying to find them by scent still.

Words: 763
Total: 3,028

Stats:

Kyran took a deep breath to calm himself down. The demons were a touchy subject for him and he needed to learn not to blow up every time they were mentioned. Most people didn't understand what it was like to be possessed. How could they? It was usually a rare occurrence at best. "First off, letting them 'out to play' as you put it, means many people will get hurt or injured. Not just bandits. That isn't something I'm willing to risk because there is no guarantee you can control them. Second..." Kyran scratched the back of his head. He had no idea how to put this next part. "I have no idea why they call you Daddy. They won't tell me and they don't call me Mommy. I'm host or some derogatory name. Rarely they call me Key. They don't like me much." He shrugged ignoring the laughter of the demons. They knew he was hurt by their dislike. It was one more thing to add to the pile of people who had thrown him away. Almost right on top of Adalinda herself.

Kyran stayed with the supplies as Adalinda went to get something to bandage him with. It didn't feel right to use the supplies for themselves. They could be taken to the village instead to help them out. That felt right to him. When she returned, Kyran tapped the box. "We'll take this to the village. Even if it isn't what they ordered, it'll still help them out. Maybe we'll get a little of an extra reward while we're at it." He forced a smile in her direction. His mind was still swarming with the dark deeds of the demons. They were enjoying letting him peek into their minds, to see their dark fantasies. It was a scary thing to witness at the best of times. Now when his head was already filled with dark thoughts, it was a temptation to simply let them out.

As they walked past them, Kyran picked up his coat and his bow. They would be needed in their assault on the bandits. At least if he wanted to have Ada's back. Kyran tested Calamity to calm his nerves. These bandits were good. A fair few of them had to be actually decent fighters. The only reason he had done well was his training and the element of surprise. No one expected the archer to be able to fight. It would be a helpful tactic in the future.

Kyran glanced sharply at Ada when she said some of them were moving. He caught a glimpse of something red out of the corner of his eye. "No. No she can't be here!" Kyran whispered to himself moving past Adalinda. He might have accidentally brushed against her when he moved. He crouched down and gently touched the pure red rose that grew in a small patch. Even the stem was red, the flower looking similar to Kyran's own magic. He looked up sharply when a great amount of magic was used nearby. "Adalinda. Be careful. There may be a powerful mage among them. She won't be aiding them but she doesn't care who she catches in the crossfire. If it isn't her, its one of her disciples...and well you've seen what I turn into." Kyran stood up, Calamity at the ready. They would have to try and stay out of her way.

Total: 2,589

Health: 118
Shade Calamity: Cooldown 3/5

She listened to him and nods a little. "Guess next time they come out, I'm gonna ask them why they call me so and why they apparently don't like you. Or else 'daddy' will be upset." She shrugs her shoulders and goes in search of something to use as a bandage. As he talks about bringing the supplies by the road to the village as well, she shrugged her shoulders. "Sounds like it could be a good deal. I hope we get the extra moolah then." She takes a deep breath.

She heard Kyran's words, and glances back to him. As she was brushed against when Kyran passed her, Ada blinks in a bit of surprise. She looks around and sniffs the air. She was trying to find if there was someone else nearby. Tammy had landed near Kyran. "Wow... that kinda looks like a pretty rose..." Tammy says softly to Kyran as he touched it. Adalinda looks down to Kyran and crouches near him. She eyes the flower before her gaze goes to him. "Is it the whore? Or your old mentor?" She questions as she sniffs the air once more. The scent of the person finally hit her. She didn't think it was too close though honestly. She then stands. "C'mon. Lets get going to bite some heads off. You want to have that one person you're hoping it's not? Or should I give a wack at it?" She grins. "We should at least figure that bit out since we're a team." She then blinks and sniffs the air. Her head turned and she motions for Kyran to follow her. Adalinda starts to take off in a run towards where whatever she smelt was. She was pumping her muscles hard as she start to go into a sprint now. Was she rushing into a scene? Yeah, more than likely. Did she fully care? No. She second set of scents were starting to get farther way.

"Adalinda!" Tammy cries out at them. "Jeez this woman... You'd think she would have learned her lesson by now... I hope she gets hit..." She grumbles as she had hitched a ride on Kyran's good shoulder. She hoped she wasn't too heavy on him, and that he was okay with her doing so.

As she neared where the scents, she smelled a small squad of bandits, and a grin starts to form on the dragon slayer's face. She hadn't looked back to see if Kyran was close to her or not, or even if Tamaria had been. Shaking her right arm, a large khopesh formed and taking away her right hand from being able to be used. She cackles a little as she continues to run before she jumps and and twists her body as she comes down on them. Adalinda swings her arm around and immediately the group of four around her were down and headless. They were all Novice bandits, like before. She was quite annoyed. She didn't want to fight fresh meat. She wanted to fight something stronger. Her blade now connected with the blade of a bandit, as well as a Veteran at the same time. She snickers and quickly kicks her foot up and stabs the bandit wit a needle point blade in the toe of her boot in his stomach, making him to back off a bit. A grin was on her face as she quickly twisted about and goes after another veteran with her sword, ducking under a blade.

"Take her out, damnit!" She heard someone hiss in a gravely voice. "She's going to mess up the plans!" A grin forms on her face. Of course she wished to mess up the plans. That sounded like it was delightful for her. "Don't just stand there! Fight! You imbeciles!"

Adalinda starts to cackle as she throws her arm around to swing her sword at the next veteran bandit before her, kicking him out of the way afterwards. She quickly whips her head in the direction of the ace that she had heard. "You trying to kill me? You're a special kind of stupid, aren't you?" She cackles to him before she darts right at the man, who was brandishing a sword and raised his hand, ready to say a spell. The black and blue haired mage cackles a bit. "You sure are a special kind of stupid." She snorts before she quickly moves and smacks the guy in the face with her khopesh before she got hit herself with the leaders own sword. Her left side had gotten hit, and it had jumped down to her leg a bit as well, with how he was falling. So there was a hole in her shirt where blood was, as well as her pants. She hisses in anger that she was injured so soon. Just her luck. Maybe she should calm down a bit. She lets up a growl and let her heel of her foot go in the guys chest. She guessed that that had been the second ace of a small group. She was sure Kyran got the first one. She looks over her shoulder, and lets up a grin as she raised an eyebrow to the remaining three bandits, who were staring at Adalinda in awe. "Boo." She simply says and they kind of start running off, in the direction she had come from. "Bye." She shrugs her shoulders and starts casually walking behind them.

She didn't smell any other bandits around them, and that other scent wasn't too close to them still. It kind of concerned her a bit. She put a hand on her side, where the leader guy had got her with his sword, and pouts to herself. "Bastards..."  She picks up a sword that was nearby, and starts eating it like it's nothing. It was a normal sword. Nothing fantastic. "Tastes like crap..." She grumbles and hangs her head. She bet she was going to hear it from Kyran already, maybe even Tamaria. She needed more alcohol. She then gasps and pats her body, wondering where her flask had gone. She finally realized it wasn't on her hip. "Crap!" She bet she dropped it after they got off the boat.

Words: 1,039
Total: 4,067

Stats:

Kyran's mind finally off his demons, he realized there was something he had missed. The symbol on the supplies headed to the village. Or perhaps it had been from the village. It didn't matter. The symbol had been that of a wolf's head flanked on either side by wings. Kyran had seen that symbol growing up though it had been on an orange and white divided background. It was the Dyer family crest. What was it doing all the way out here on a box of supplies? His family was decimated via his own hand. They weren't all dead. In fact most had survived. Only his father had for sure paid the ultimate price. The rest would simply bear the scars of Kyran's vengeance for the rest of their lives. He had thought they were done for when he fled. Perhaps his family was more resilient than he had given them credit for. He shook his head to bring himself back to the present. Ada was talking to him.

"It's the mentor..." He answered clearly distracted. Kyran blinked at her trying to comprehend her words before she took off after the bandits. He tried to snag her but she was gone before he could stop her. Her flask was held tightly in his hand. "She's very bad at fighting in a team but she'll be back for this." Kyran said to Tamaria, stowing the flask in his belt. "But it won't be good if she meets Sylvia. She..." Kyran cut off as in the distance the forest exploded into a giant blood red flower. At least Sylvia or her disciple was in the opposite direction from them. That should help at least slightly. The large numbers of weak bandits would be taken out, whittling the gang down to their strongest members. Kyran started after Ada, Calamity held tightly in his fist.

He stopped and watched her battle the bandits. It didn't look like she needed too much help. Kyran did take a shot or two to spin a bandit in just the right way for her to take down. He doubted she even saw the energy arrows. She was too engrossed in her fight. Ahriman cheered wildly as 'daddy' went to twon on the bandits. Kyran had to subdue him before the demon tried to take over. He didn't want Ahriman trying to join 'daddy'. When Adalinda sent the bandits running--he wasn't sure how-- Kyran knocked out the oncoming bandits. Only one even got close and ended up being blasted backward at close range. "Well Tamaria, it looks like you level me out. I'd be having more difficulty if you weren't sitting on my shoulder." Kyran grinned at the cat and patted her on the head. "I think we'll leave your master here. I can track the bandits better than..." His joke faded as something in the forest changed. Having been taught to hunt by a master, Kyran noted the change. Something was still in the forest.

"Ada move!" Kyran shouted as several bandits dropped from the trees. They were wielding several wicked looking weapons. One was spinning a chain, grinning as he advanced with the rest. These bandits hadn't been noticed by Ada at all. Shadow magic? Something that erased their natural scent? It didn't matter. Kyran fired a few times to drive a couple back. These guys were more powerful. At least two looked like they might be on the same level as the man he had taken down back on the road. Bandit captains or something like that. Two of the bandits dropped down from the trees on either side of Kyran. They were wearing armor. Couldn't follow WFTC rules for them. There was only a few vulnerable spots on their armor. "Tamaria, take to the air. Ada and I can handle these guys. I don't want you getting hurt." The two bandits looked at each other and laughed. In the ten seconds they took to laugh, Kyran planted three arrows into one of them. He peered down at the shimmering white energy in surprise. When he looked up, a final arrow was put into his eye. The body jerked backwards, hitting the tree behind it. The corpse leaned against the tree looking like he was simply napping.

The second bandit was silently charging when Kyran turned to him. His face was contorted into a vicious scream but no sound came from his mouth. Kyran sidestepped as the axe came down. Unexpectedly, the bandit swung the axe to the side. It caught Kyran full in the chest with the flat of the blade. He was thrown backwards, losing his grip on Calamity. The black bow landed a good distance away. Kyran would never reach it as the bandit charged him. A grin crossed Kyran's face as he raised a bleeding finger. A single blood thorn peirced the bandits throat. Kyran gave a sigh of relief. He hadn't expected that to work. If the bandit had turned his head at all, it would have failed spectacularly. The body fell over backward while Kyran scrambled for Calamity. He knelt turning and firing without really looking for a target. The arrow hit another bandit still hiding in the trees. The man fell out of the tree howling. The perfect ambush always had two stages. Of course Kyran had been making a guess. It was pure luck he had been correct. He looked over his shoulder to see if Adalinda had taken care of the veterans and aces.

The sound of hooves was the only warning they had. Kyran leapt for a nearby branch when he heard it. The sound filled him with dread and memories of his training days. Completely blood red horses burst through the trees. Horns framed their faces. Their hooves gleamed and Kyran shuddered. He forgot about his partner as the horror from his past burst forth. These had been used to torment him. The herd charged forward, trampling anyone who didn't get out of the way in time. It didn't kill them unless the horses' hooves landed on someone's head. When they had vanished into the forest on the other side, Kyran realized Adalinda might have been in their path. "Ada! Ada! Are you alright?!" He scanned the trampled area and killed any bandits still living that he managed to see. They wouldn't want to live with the wounds this would leave them with anyways. Kyran leapt out of the tree. "Ada? Answer me already, you crazy woman!" Desperation was evident in his voice. He couldn't see much now that he was on the ground. The dust kicked up by the herd was obscuring the entire area. "I have your flask, you alcoholic! It'll hurt your baby but come and get it!" Kyran watched the dust anxiously for Adalinda to appear.

Total: 3,725

Health: 109
Shade Calamity: Cooldown 4/5

Tammy takes a deep breath, and looks over to Kyran. "She does suck at it... unless someone gives her incentive enough to... like pose a challenge or let her have fun... I've noticed with Cirven. He challenged her to not get hit before. She wasn't able to complete that, but when he was in trouble, she was there to help him out. So she has that going for her. She's a team player at the last minute." The exceed laughs a little. "I at least count that for something." The exceed enjoyed staying on his shoulder as she also watched Ada fight a bit. When Kyran went to take on the other bandits, she hunkered herself down a bit. A smile spread across her lips as he appreciated her being on his shoulder. "Anytime you need some extra weight, I'm your Exceed!" She muses, lightly kicking her feet. She had been a bit absorbed in Kyran's joke before he cries for Ada to move, that she hadn't noticed the bandits from above till just the last minute. When he tells her to fly out of there, she instead jumps to the nearest tree, being able to clear the jump rather easily. Tammy scrambled up the tree, using her claws to cling a bit.

Adalinda lets up a groan when the group suddenly was there. She had jumped back enough to be out of their range and chomps hard on the sword, ripping off the end before she tosses it to the side and readies her sword for another attack. "Alrighty boys! Lets get this party started!" She snickers as she quickly goes to attack them head on. She charged headfirst at the one with the chain, throwing her arm with her sword out and catching the chain, as he threw it out at her, before she stabs her sword into the ground and jumps onto the chain, throwing the guy forward from the sudden yank of the chain being pinned. She then swiftly kicks the guys head and removes her sword before she attacked him with her sword. She seems to be enjoying herself as she cackles over the fun she was having. She showed almost no fear of the weapons as she brought her khopesh down on them. Only time she showed some sort of emotion was when the weapons got dangerously close to her face. She wasn't a fan of that obviously. She dodged a spell that seemed to be an ice spell, and snorts at how weak it was. The guy was one of the ones that looked like a leader of sorts to them. "You call that a spell?" She chortles before she hauls ass towards the guy who threw the ice at her. She had a wicked grin on her face as she throws her sword out, getting another ice bolt on it from her opponent. She knew it would weaken her sword, but she could still use it. She diverts to the guys right side, just before she whips her arm out and manages to cut the guy in half.

She chuckles as she turns her eyes onto her next victim. It seemed to be another guy that was a higher ranked bandit with his other buddy she had just taken care of. "How much you want to bet there is one more of these buckies back at their base camp?" Adalinda laughs as she jumps up and kicked herself off of a tree before she hooked her sword on the guys arm and flipped him backwards as she landed again. She had managed to get him to hit his head on a rock, and looks over to Kyran. She had only one other veteran bandit to get to when the horses started coming. She had quickly stopped going after him as she looks up and then darts to the side. Adalinda had scrambled up a tree and watched as the red horses tore through the last of the bandits in the area, helping her out greatly. "Cute..." She mutters as she shrugged her shoulders. She continued to climb the trees when she noticed where Kyran was, and was walking over the branches to him. As he started calling out to her, Ada raises an eyebrow, then glares. She quickly jumps up and raises an arm up, letting her khopesh sword catch the branch she was standing on just a moment before. She was still glaring at Kyran as she was hanging in front of him now.

"One. Hand over my damn flask. And two. Should have told you before, but Cirven found a spell to be able to have my babies in a pod to grow comfortably outside of me to do jobs and drink my alcohol to my leisure still and what not." She holds out her free hand to Kyran to receive the flask from him. Tamaria had walked along the branches to come over to them quickly. "You two aren't flirting now and are going to kiss... right? I'm not sure Yuudai'd like it." She tells him. Adalinda glares at Tamaria while shaking her head. She then looks back at Kyran. "So.... the look on your face says you know those horses. Want to make it to the camp before we..." She heard the branch starting to creak before she hisses and quickly swings her legs to get onto another branch nearby. "Anyways, want to make sure the camp has no other bandits before we come across your old mentor?" She raises an eyebrow to him. "Also, any idea why she's here?" She starts to make her way down the tree hesitantly, not wanting to run into those horses or anything again.

Words: 952
Total: 5,019

Stats:

Kyran made a face at Tamaria's suggestion of them flirting. He flung the flask at Adalinda knowing her fast reflexes would allow her to catch it. "Ew no Tamaria. Ada has made it painfully clear that she doesn't see me as anything more than a friend. I wouldn't be caught dead flirting with her." He turned away from them and scrubbed his face. Sylvia was definitely here. Those horses left no mistake about it. She was sitting or fighting at the main camp. What was she doing here? The last time he had heard from her, she was studying blood slayers and blood demons. Perhaps there was something here that would help her on her quest. Or the bandits had stolen from her and she wanted things back. There was no knowing with his teacher. Kyran finally shook his head in answer to Ada's question. "No clue... but four ace captain bandits down right? There shouldn't be too many more. And now we have a clear path."

He didn't wait for them to be ready. Kyran simply charged down the path the horse herd had opened up. They had trampled the trees, bushes even the rocks into dust leaving a wide swath of the forest simply gone. Kyran kicked up the dust as he ran, his grip tight on Calamity. His shoulder throbbed from the motion of his running. Blood ran freely from the wound having already soaked through the bandage. He ignored it all. All that mattered was... A flash of red caught his attention. A horse, similar to the others that had crashed through, was galloping between the trees. Astride its back, her long raven hair flowing out behind her, was Sylvia. She wasn't looking at him. That few seconds was the only glimpse Kyran got before she was gone again. He stopped and raised Calamity. She didn't flee unless chased. Sometimes not even then. Sure enough within a minute, a large group of bandits crashed their way through the woods. Kyran let fly arrows in a storm. The weaker bandits were caught unawares and went down shrieking. The more powerful ones took cover, returning fire as best they could.

"Ada, you've got this!" Kyran called back, sprinting down the trail again. Sylvia hadn't been hiding her magical power, but she had felt much weaker than when last Kyran had been around her. Could she be losing her magic? Or was something binding her abilities? That seemed more likely. But what could make her attack bandits while weakened? Only a few things came to mind and none of them had to do with research.

The bandits had left the camp virtually empty. There were lookouts on the wooden barricade surrounding the camp but they were quickly taken care of. Screams could be heard within the camp both feminine and masculine. Kyran tried not to think of those as he looked for a way in. A giant blood red rose had also knocked down a section of the wall. Bandit bodies were scattered inside and out. Kyran didn't look too closely. He knew what his master could do. Picking his way through the debris was easy. There were two bandits in the camp that could be seen, standing outside a tent. Kyran passed them over trying to get the lay of the land. Tents lay crumpled in a wide semi circle around the ruined section of the wall. They probably held bodies judging from the glinting red inside. There were maybe five standing tents left. Crates upon crates were stacked at the back of the compound. A massive leanto held sacks. Kyran frowned. There should have been weapons, armor, chests and miscellaneous other items. One of the other tents must hold them. What also concerned Kyran were the empty cages on the opposite side of the compound. Were these bandits into slavery? or merely kidnapping?

The bandits had only just seen Kyran. Idiots. Both went down, energy arrows blowing out their brains. Why had they been left in the camp at all? A giant form emerged from the tent adjusting his belt. When the giant man caught sight of Kyran, he merely grinned. "Do you want a turn, little man? Take any of them in there that you wish to." For a big guy he was quite spry. The arrow Kyran sent at his head missed by two feet. The giant knocked Calamity from his hand with a spray of shadows. Then he bellowed and charged Kyran. The mage hopped on the balls of his feet. This was one of the elite bandits. Hopefully he was... The giant's fist caught Kyran in the stomach when Kyran tried to side step. The air was knocked out of him but Kyran wrapped his arms around the man's arm. The bandit stopped abruptly. "You have spirit but you cannot beat me. I will put your head on a pike for a reminder." Kyran laughed, spitting blood onto the bandit's arm. The man made a sound of disgust. It was the last sound he ever made. Kyran shot his head full of blood thorns using the blood in his mouth. All bandits down, assuming Ada had taken care of the thirty or so left in the woods.

After collecting Calamity, Kyran entered the tent. He was immediately sick. There were nine women chained up inside. Some were badly beaten, others sporting only a bruise or two. One looked like she was dead. They were all skinny, most likely starved to prevent them from fighting back too much. Kyran wiped his mouth. Each woman had a scrap of cloth about her waist. That was all they had in the way of modesty. Setting Calamity on his back, Kyran went around freeing the women. One of them made him stop. She was the last to be freed, the others huddling together. They watched him warily. This last one looked like Sylvia. That nose, those cheeks, even the raven hair though it was shoddily cut. She glared up at him defiantly through a black eye and bruises that had originally made Kyran think she was dead. He crouched down, carefully undoing her bonds. Even in this battered state, she looked like she might attack. That would kill her. "I'll need to carry you alright? You're in no state to be moving on your own." Kyran removed his gloves to show her his guild tattoo. Oddly the other one was what made her relax. The woman nodded carefully. Kyran released her and stood up. "I'm going to grab a cart, horses if they're around, food and clothing. Which of you is the strongest?" They looked at each other before one stepped forward. Kyran held out Black Flower's Thorn, hilt first to her. The sight of the blade caused Sylvia's daughter to gasp. Kyran ignored that for the time being. "Stab anyone who enters that isn't me or a mage with blue swirls on her cheeks. The rest of you help as much as you can." He strolled away once they nodded.

Kyran din't waste time gathering everything he could. He also managed to find the supplies for the village. He placed those in the cart along with plenty extra. If Adalinda hadn't appeared yet, Kyran sighed as he pulled the cart up to the tent. If she had shown up, Kyran said "About time you got here. There are nine traumatized women in there. If you could bring them these clothing that would be nice. The one laying on the floor can be moved but don't let her move on her own. You'll have to help her dress as much as you can." He held out the clothes he had picked for the women. They were basically large tunics since Kyran couldn't find anything else that wasn't blood splattered. Hopefully the village would help set these women up right.

Total: 5,038

Health: 80
Shade Calamity: Cooldown 5/5[/color]

Ada eagerly caught her flask with her free hand, and uncorked it to take a quick sip. "Thanks!" She chuckles and winks to him. "Maybe next job I'll have my sword, from that one strange job we did, on me." She snickers before she takes another swig and caps the flask before it was on her hip once more. She snickers as she nods to his comment on there not being many more of the so called 'leaders' and jumps down from the tree and onto the path the horses made as soon as Kyran started running. She smelt another horse and skids to a stop as she watches it ride on by before the group of bandits came running back behind her. "Huh..." She murmurs. As Kyran told her she had this, she snickers and gives him her signature two finger salute before she rushed towards where the group was. She was still brandishing her khopesh as she ran, and let out an excited cackle as she jumped up to crash right back down to the ground in the middle of them all.

"You boys wanna play with a girl?" She snickers before she quickly darts to the side and throws her sword out at a few of their legs. She snickers as she was going around the group, not holding back one bit. She was getting hit a couple times, in which she just simply snickered over and lets her body get covered with her iron scales and snickers as she throws her hand at them, smacking the rest of them upside the faces along with her sword. Surprisingly, these 'veterans' weren't as great as the others. "Pathetic..." She mutters to herself and makes her way to the camp by following Kyran's scent. She doesn't dispel her magic, in case any loose bandits were about that had gotten past Kyran. She was surprised to see the camp, and how deserted it was when she approached it. "Ada! Wait up!" Tamaria huffs as she runs after her dragon slayer. Ada looks back, and chuckles, letting the cat get on her back before she sniffs the air. She smelt ten scents there, one of them being Kyrans. She kept her sword as she cautiously peeked around a knocked down wall. She let her scales drop on her face and steps in cautiously. "Did I miss the party?" She asks curiously when she saw Kyran by a cart doing whatever. Part of her didn't want to know what was going on.

At his words of nine women traumatized in the tent, she let all her spells go and grabs the clothes from him. "Alright." She simply says as she goes in the tent. Once in, she sees one with Kyrans sword, who almost started to swing it at her till she saw her blue swirls on her cheeks. The girl put the sword down, and takes a deep breath. "Clothes?" Ada quietly asks as she holds a couple out. Tamaria drops to Ada's feet and grabs a couple other tunics and runs to the far end of the tent to give it to the girls. "You help the one laying down." She says as she grabs all but one of the tunics from Adalinda so she could go to her. Ada walks over, and smiles calmly to her. "We're here to help, try to not resist me, okay?" She murmurs as she gingerly helps dress the girl. When everyone was dressed, she gingerly picks the girl up in her arms and starts to walk towards the flap. "C'mon... lets get you out of here... We're going to a nearby village, and if they're gracious enough, they might let you stay and heal to your desires..."

She helped the girls get into the cart, not wanting them to strain themselves from walking. The strongest three walked next to the cart as Adalinda helped pull it. Tamaria stayed in the back and accompanied the women to keep them calm. She was talking and asking them about fashion that they all liked. Tammy even let herself be used as a pillow for the raven haired girl as she was the weakest. When they arrived at the village, Tammy was clearly disappointed to see that the people looked like they were human, but with the ears and tail that was upon their head and on their tailbones. Ada looks back at Tammy, and shrugs her shoulders. She and Kyran did tell her. The mage helped get the supplies to where they needed to, and smiles as a few of the women of the village came to help the women whom they brought. "Long story short... they need to be healed and were captured by bandits..." She explains to an older woman who was going to come to her and ask what happened to them.

"Thank you... for getting our supples back... And for helping these women. We'll help them here and care for them till they are well and fat once more." The woman assures Ada, who simply nods. Tamaria was pouting by Ada's feet, and the woman crouches down by her. "You are one of those talking cats... yes?" She questions as Tammy looks over to her slowly. "Y-yeah...?" The woman smiles and glances back at Ada before she presents the bag to her and winks while she motions for the cat to be silent about it's contents. The rest of the rewards were given to Adalinda and Kyran, and then the two were on their way back to the guild. "That... was exhausting... Can't wait for the next one." She snickers as she looks over to Kyran. "Ready?" She simply questions him while she grins widely.

Words: 953
Total: 5,972

5/5 Bandit Bosses

Stats: