Return of the Emblem Chapter Four: The Human Condition

[Mercakete]

"If you're so confidant, then tell me where it is!" Bert demanded, still trying to keep his volume down. The man was almost dead and he knew it. He wasn't going to let him pass on easily, though. Flipping his axe so that the sharp edge was pointed upwards, he smashed it down on the bandit's shoulder, near his neck. Disjointed, half of the man's collarbone was broken and forced down while it's opposite end jutted up: a sharp, visabole rod of bone sticking out at an angle from the bandit. Not only would it be painful, but demoralizaing, too. I don't have much time; he'd better tell me soon.

~~~~~~~~~

Gytha was covered in blood and it was beginning to dry, which was rather uncomfortable. There was so much of it that it'd take nothing less than a river or meduim-tio-large body of water to clean off, too. Spying Amon, she walked over to him and asked, "Do ye think we'll get t' a place where we can wash up sometime soon?" Her hands and forearms were red with the drying liquid as well as her left shoulder and right side, though it didn't stop around the edges of where she'd been struck since gravity had pulled the blood down as if tended to do. So a good portion of her tunic was covered with it and on her side, even her pants had a red streak. She, herself, was healed, though.

Edited May 24, 2011 by Mercakete

[Phoenix]

Ground Zero

"Tell you where it is? Hah! Why do that when I can just use my final moments to spite you, peggie boy?! Hahahahah!" he replied arrogantly. With the cracking of bone however came horrible screams from the bandit's mouth, along with kicking and head shaking.

Wagon

Amon was about to answer Gytha but was a bit distracted by a loud but distant series of screams coming from somewhere. "Uh ... I'm not really sure. Maybe if we come to a river crossing we can get the blood off our clothes?" he suggested.

[Mercakete]

The pegasus knight then actually stuffed his fist into the bandit's mouth to muffle him for the short term, make him gag to shut up and was planning on swisting said fist to dislocate his jaw if he didn't comply to his demands. "Unless you want me to rip off your jaw or grind the rest of your arms into dust, tell me where your blasted base is! Now, nod if you're going to cooperate. If you aren't, I'll just pick a bone and shatter it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"...Aye..." Gytha somewhat-absently replied, looking in the direction the screaming had come from, "...Ye think we should check o'er there?"

Edited May 24, 2011 by Mercakete

[Phoenix]

Wagon

"Maybe we should. The battle's supposed to be over so who would be screaming like that?" Amon commented.

Blaine

Blaine struggled to get free with the arm he could still use batting as hard as he could at Bert. It was all he could do at this point, but giving in now would just damage his pride too much. He knew he was in for this kind of pain and chose to bear it. Muffled cursings and screams came from the man as he tried his hardest to fight back.

[Guest Wen Yang]

"You got a pretty good noggin' on your neck, girl. I like that." Liz answered. The pink-haired woman's answer was satisfactory enough, and she gestured to her people, giving the all-clear signal, following with another gesture that everyone in her team knows of. Finish the survivors.

They went to work quickly and efficiently. Three of the bandits were still breathing, and were quickly made to no longer do so by a quick, clean slit to the throat. They also efficiently relieved the bandits of their most noticeable valuables. There were not enough time to thoroughly search them with the patrol approaching.

[Mercakete]

The bandit was flailing like a fish out of water now. "Fine! You're not talking? I'll make you wish you had!" with that, the pegasus knight began splintering and fracting the man's bones as best he could without his maces, first breaking the arm that wasn't hitting him, then the elbow attached to it. Next, he held down the arm that had been wacking him and broke that at the elbow. Next was the man's other collarbone, then a few wacks to the ribs saw the majority of them broken. This guy would not be sitting up now, so Bert backed off of him, smashing in both the man's kneecaps and ankles before attacking the shins, foot bones, leg bones, arms, wrists and continuing in rapis sucsession until the only bones intact were the man's hip and pelvis bones, his spine and his skull. "Tell me where your base is and I'll end your pain," Bert commanded darkly. The attacks had been very rapid. Norbert had done this before, though rarely did he attack someone to this extent. He was on a time restraint, however, and he needed answers then and there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the screams rose again, this time louder and more despirate than before, Gytha could only gawk for a moment in the direction they came from. "What...in Leviathan's name...?"

[roymbrog]

“Wait, wait, what?” Synthia couldn’t believe what she’d walked in on. They weren’t going to rat these guys out? Thoroughly exasperated, she grumbled curses as she walked closer.“You know what, nevermind. I don’t care. Does anyone in our group still need healing?” she asked, directing the question to the entire group present. She tried to raise her hand to her forehead, forgetting her injury and causing more pain in her arm. Grimacing again, she turned to Raquel. “Got anything I can make a sling out of?”

[Acacia Sgt]

Since it looked the patrol problem would be taken care of, John thought about returning back to Gil. On his way back, his thoughts now came back to the battle they just fought in.

'Well, it was a better pace than the one before.' He thought. 'I wonder...' He came within sight of Gil, how was now on a lying position, though he wasn't sleeping. He then took note at the armor. 'I must say, that armor has done its job well of soaking up hits so far.' He continued. 'Though I can notice a drop in speed. It could prove troublesome later. Maybe if I were to sell it back and get a more convenient way of protection...?' He spent a little while thinking, until finally. 'Sure, why not? It could prove to be better on the long run.'

''Hey Gil!'' He called out. ''Get up and follow me.'' The wyvern grunted, but rose up anyway. John then made his way back to the wagon. Telling Gil to keep his distance, he approached Raquel once more.

''Excuse me, miss Raquel?'' He began. ''I was wondering if I could sell you back the armor I bought a while ago? I was thinking of getting something else instead, thinking the armor might've been not such a good idea of getting after all.''

[Phoenix]

Blaine

Blaine went silent, motionless, eyes still open.

Amon

"Yeah let's go find out what's going on!" Amon said, giving into both curiosity and worry. There was nothing to be done when they arrived though, there was nothing but a bloodied corpse before them, and Bert, the obvious culprit standing nearby. "Wwwwhat did you do to him?"

Raquel

"It's this or we go right back to fighting." Raquel told Synthia. She was about to point out Gabbie, when she herself spoke up.

"Oi! It'd be noice to have my killin' arm back, ya know?" Gabbie called out, still in need of some attention.

Just then John approached for business, and Raquel's entire demeanor changed. "Oh right. Okay, so you want to get something else? What exactly? A weapon? Shield? Different kind of armor?" she asked.

Edited May 24, 2011 by Phoenix

[GoD]

As Chelsea recovered from her heart attack, she along with her horse Nesha, headed outside to see the aftermath of the bloody battlefield. She also made a mental note to apologize to everyone....ot maybe they wouldn't know. Not like they cared, or did they? "Ah well, that's not very nice of me. To think of my companions in such a way. Still, I cannot shake that horrible feeling, just like......that stone I have in my bag. Or maybe it's just something else....yeah that MUST be it." -Chelsea pondered on the matter as she viewed the battlefield.

Bloody corpses strewn everywhere, Raquel's group and the group from earlier seemed to be in an alliance of some sorts. It seemed like a lot of her own people we're injured, however they we're getting back up and healing themselves. Scuffles amongst some people....and someone, a young man had just driven an arrow through Nanahm's arm. Chelsea sighed, knowing that Nanahm was alright. She rode up to Nanahm and asked "Good evening milord, would care for an inspection of your arm. Which means, what the hell did you do this time. Nice moves by the way."- Chelsa hopped down from Nesha and began to work on his injured arm using her heal staff.

[Acacia Sgt]

John thought for a moment. 'Maybe between a shield or human armor...? Though, armor... I'm using right now, though upgrading it may not seem like a good idea... or perhaps get a shield then, since after all, I still have armor after all. Yeah, I think I'll go for that...'

''I guess a shield then.'' John finally answered.

[Phoenix]

"Wooden, Iron?" She asked simply, indicating he had some options among options.

[ReformBlade]

"I dared the kid to shoot me to prove a point, and I'd say I... won... And thanks, I am quite proficient at making people pay for carelessness." And before she could start healing, he yanked the arrow out, wincing a bit but sighing in relief afterwards. Wait, did she call me 'milord'? O... K then, if it floats her boat. "Thanks again by the way, but are you alright? You just seem really out of sorts lately. I'm a bit concerned to say the least, but I'll back off if it's a sore subject..."

Meanwhile

"Dragons don't go this far? What are you talking abou-"

The boy was being assaulted by Synthia, his head now throbbing and the- "Hey!" he momentarily loosened his grip on the bow when she grabbed it, but his head was still hurting and all he could do was watch as she broke it under her foot and then threw the useless pieces right in his face. His prized bow... If his face wasn't red already, it was now. It took every ounce of control he had to stop the tears from surfacing, grinding his teeth to distract his mind. He marched over to Synthia at quite a furious pace, poking her to get her attention, "You OWE me something, bitch. Either a new goddamn bow, money to pay for a new one, or something else if you've got an imagination."

[GoD]

"Oh wow, I'm surprised you didn't die from something like that....then again this is YOU we're talking about. I'm pretty sure you can survive an avalanche. I think."- Chelsea said as she was mending the wound. "Also how can you win something like that? What you did was incredibly stupid...and also incredibly cool. But since it's you, we're only adding stupid."- she added. "And I was having a few.....problems....I'd like not to talk about it. Sorry about that. Regardless who is that kid? And why did he start a fight with you?"- Chelsea asked.

Edited May 24, 2011 by GoD

[ReformBlade]

"Well... winning is a pretty bad term to use, I guess. Either way I showed him that he was simply not cut out to do what he was aiming to do in the first place." Nanahm pondered the next part of her question, "Huh... I dunno who he is, but I do know he's got an attitude problem... and for some terrible, terrible reason, I think he'd fit in with the rest of us if he ever ended up with us."

[Mercakete]

"Tch. I guess it was only a matter of time...blast it..." Bert grumbled as he stood up and rested his axe on his shoulder.

That was when the woman with the gun and the guy who was by her from before approached and started asking questions. He didn't see any reason not to answer. With a shrug, Norbert replied, "I broke near every bone in his body before he died -- joints included. Would've been easier if I had my maces, but I have to make due with this axe until your-- ... our... boss decides to give them back and that's not going to happen until I can pay for them or until I've paid with my help. The wretch wouldn't tell me what I needed to know. Blasted dead, keeping their secrets... Oh, and if anyone's planning on looting the bodies, tell them it's a waste of time, especially with a patrol on it's way. Bandits don't keep their loot on their persons -- they take it back to their base."

Gytha was beside herself at Bert's reply. You just didn't torture dying people. Incredulous, she couldn't find anything to say and just turned around and started heading back to the wagon. Maybe Raquel should know about this...

[Rothene]

Noting the swift arrival of patrols, Ranyin heeded Raquel's words and decided not to perform burial services. Afterall, how many could he bury before the group needed to move on with his meager mageling strength.

With that out of the way, Ranyin decided to pay attention to the newcomer. Or rather, newcomers, thought Ranyin as he noted quite a bit of unfamiliar faces. He had the choice between the mood swinging pegasus rider, the exotic troubadour, the scary mercenaries and someone actually smaller than him.

Deciding that the pegasus rider had attempted to strike a conversation with him earlier, Ranyin went to approach the man. The sight of what he did to the 'captive' was horrific, which sent fear through Ranyin, not unlike the ones he felt around Gytha. But as it was an enemy, he decided it was not as bad as taking glee in the crushing of other innocent people's arms.

As a human being, Ranyin still could not help but blurt out at Norbert, " What have you done to that man?!"

[-Cynthia-]

"Synthia did you a favor really. If you were to actually encounter a dragon, you would be torn to bits quickly unless you were attacking a newborn," Veronika said to the boy whose bow Synthia just broke. "I recommend finding a safer hobby."

Having healed the blue-armored man, who seemed rather groggy, but clearly alive. Looking around for other people who needed attention, she saw a scene gathering around something horribly mangled looking.

"Uh, that bloody corpse was one of the bad guys right?" Nadya asked the surrounding people. Shit if that was someone I was supposed to save, this job is going to be short-lived and I'll be back to pickpocketing and palm reading. Mercy have mercy, or something like that.

[Mercakete]

"As I told the two going back to ther merchant, I was trying to get information from this guy. He took what I was trying to find out to the grave, though," he replied, looking down at the corpse in annoyance, "Now I'll have to look for it myself..." His annoyance flared and the pegasus knight kicked the side of Blane's head, smashing through the temple and breaking the man's neck. Feeling a little better, he looked to the other two, seeing as Amon and Gytha had already headed back. "You two with Raquel?"

[Rothene]

"Yes I am with Raquel. I'm Ranyin, a...pleasure to meet you." said Ranyin bowing rigidly. Then he continued and asked, "What information were you trying to get from this guy?"

[Mercakete]

"The location of their group's base. Like I told the crazy pirate--" a gunshot sounded and a bullet zoomed past Bert's head. He just rolled his eyes and continued, "--and her dark-skinned boyfriend, it's almost pointless to loot bandtis' bodies unless they just finished robbing somone. They bring all their loot to their base. I raid bandits for a living. My name is Norbert, but I'm better known as 'Bert the Crusher.' Good to meet you, Ranyin. I'm glad you're not from the other group if we still have to fight them; I appreciate your helping me earlier." He was calm for now, though it could easily come across as indifferent.

[Rothene]

"Looting from the dead is as bad as defiling or mutilating it," said Ranyin coldly narrowing his eyes. "Advice to you if you ever visit Kigen. If you were spotted taking possesions from the dead without giving it a formal burial, then you might be set upon by mobs. We Kigens believe that the souls of those dishonoured dead would become vengeful spirits who would haunt all who pass by its place of dead."

[Mercakete]

"This isn't Kigen," Bert replied, somewhat dully, "People don't turn into vengeful spirits here. Maybe they do in Kigen -- I wouldn't know; I've never been there -- but they don't in Ursium."

[-Cynthia-]

"They don't turn into vengeful spirits in Kigen either, at least not from what I've seen. You just have to loot the bodies before snyone shows up. Take this staff for example, I took it off some poor Kigenese mage who got ripped apart by a Fallen faster than you can say Thanatos. Does me and some others more good than it would do the guy without any arms," Nadya said, shrugging.

[Phoenix]

Standard Procedure

Once the patrol finally arrived, the captain rode straight into the center of what was the massacre. His horse was big and surefooted, not faltering even when he crushed a limb arm or two. The Captain stopped near the wagon followed by the one who scouted for him earlier. "Halt! All of you! Stop whatever it is you're doing unless it's triage. I won't say it again. Now then, who's who in this mess?"

"Err, we'll have to hold this transaction for a second, John. I'm up." she said to the wyvern rider before walking over to the captain. "Hello. I'm Raquel."

Is she relevant? "Nice to meet you, now can you tell me what happened here?" he replied sounding almost disinterested.

"Well I should probably start by letting you know that I'm a merchant traveling to Ursentius. I have a lot of hired help. Healers, mercenaries, etctera. That didn't stop those bandits from attacking us though." she explained.

"Bandits tend to make bold moves but even with that gigantic proto-dragon over there, they tried their luck?" he replied, skeptical.

"We just met them, they aren't with us. They showed up to take out the bandits. They said they were Farsiders." she muttered a bit at the end gauging his response.

"Hell yes." the captain said somewhat quickly while pumping his fist. "They fight hard when stalking their victims but run like mad whenever we show up. Since they all use fast horses and don't bother with armor it's tough to catch them. I hope to Wrath this is the younger brother's group. We've been after that bastard for months. Check the bodies. I want some confirmation here. You know what to look for."

Without a word, the cavaliers dismounted keeping their best weapons with them and their horses reined in close as they checked one body after the next. One of them brushed past Bert and stopped not sure what to do with Blaine's body. Turning to Bert, he asked "Merz, did you just drop the damn bull wyvern on this guy or something?" and scratched his head, not sure where to start with the bloody mess.

Regardless of the stall there, the riders were quickly identified by the little worthless wooden pendents on their clothes. The mark Farsiders carried with them. Not a smart thing to do but Ursian patrols weren't complaining. Bandit pride tended to make investigations and battles much easier for them. "Captain, it's them."

"The little brother's group? Is the brother here?" the captain asked anxiously.

"Uh yeah, I think that's him over there." he pointed to Blaine's mutilated remains.

The captain sighed with relief at the progress. "Great. Now we just need to deal with the damages and the bounty."

The scouting cavalier looked around at the various bodies and gave an unamused stare at no one in particular. He wasn't going to say it out loud but with obvious items like weapons missing he was beginning to think the merchant had her mercenaries looting to help with her business. Wrathdamn looters. "I'm going to have to ask you people to return any stolen possessions immediately. I mean really, are you people hurting that badly for coin?"

The captain looked at Raquel who raised her hands and shoulders in response. ... short sighted merchants ... go figure. "Belay that. It's too late for proper accounting. Alright I don't want to be here all damn day, and I'm sure neither do you. We can't trust you to be completely honest with us and return everything you took, so we'll be keeping the bounty as compensation. Merchant lady here gets to sell their crap I guess. Fair enough, no?" he asked giving her a very intimidating look. She nodded helplessly. "I thought you'd see things my way." he added grinning.

Did they just ... just take the bounty away from us? she thought to herself, shocked.

"... damn." Gabbie muttered dropping her head.