Frontier - Act One, Chapter Two

[Jaybee]

Ha... He actually made it back alive. That's pretty decent, I suppose. Not much to look at here though....

Julianne couldn't help but smile when Dempsey started talking about his equipment, and his comments about his poor rebellion sounded so pitiful. "Doesn't sound like much of a rebellion, does it? You just got beat by a kid with a burning cloth that he didn't even know how to throw. Do we really need your help to squash this thing? Sounds like it'll die pretty quickly on it's own."

[Parrhesia]

"No, you're right. What possible threat are four hundred well-equipped brigands and former soldiers going to pose to your skeleton crews on the outposts?" Despite his bitterness, Dempsey still seemed to take insults to his army personally. "And what I know is bigger than that. So what're you gonna do, throw that away by shooting me? Fuckin' idiot."

[scorri]

Ten rolled his eyes. "Right, because if you saw burning towers, you'd just sit there and do nothing. Or maybe you would. Me? If there's fire in the jungle, you look. Too much risk not to."

Bekka rubbed a hand across her eyes. "Right. Sergeants, was there any order that said we needed to kill this idiot ourselves? If there's no reason not to bring him with us, then what's the harm? Truss him up real good and throw him over the back of Ten's horse if he's ok with that, if not tie him so he can walk but not run. Sure they might attack to try and get him back, but they also might just attack if we kill him so. We'll just need to be careful about what we say around him." A nagging thought kept running through her mind, but every time she tried to catch it, it slipped away. Something here was connected, she just needed some time to think about it.

Ten considered Bekka's idea and then shrugged. "Ask nicely, and can use Starfoot. Else, no."

Edited February 27, 2014 by scorri

[Parrhesia]

The Sergeants had been bickering, but Cliving had been giving ground. Bekka's words swung it for him, and he sighed. "Right. Sure, anything to get us out of here faster. Seems like it's in his interests to leave as well."

He swaggered up to Dempsey. "Oi, mate!"
"Yea-"

Cliving king-hit the man with sickening force. The commander swayed a little before falling, but the big, strong archer carefully gathered the man in his arms and slung him over the shoulder. "Hoy, indo! Lead the way out of here. Can the horse carry you and this fucker at the same time? If not, hard luck, you get to walk with the rest of us. Let's move!"

[scorri]

Ten crossed his arms. "No, I don't walk. You can carry him. You don't order me. As I said. You ask nicely, ok. Else no. That was not nicely." He shrugged. As far as he was concerned, the man was lucky he'd even given any circumstance under which the horse could have been used.

Bekka groaned inwardly. This was not a fight she was interested in seeing right now.

[Parrhesia]

"Okay, brilliant, good to know our indo mates are so dedicated," said Cliving, who had started to walk back without even looking at Ten. "Hope y' don't get sore feet easy."

[scorri]

Ten shook his head and followed after Cliving, muttering under his breath. "All he had to do was ask." Slipping into his native tongue, he continued, <"It was a simple request. Ask nicely. I deserve that respect, I'm not one of his soldiers. I'm here as a scout.">

Sighing, Bekka looked at Arin. "Alright there, can you walk? Probably not well... Here, let me help you." She slipped his arm over her shoulder, and started to help pull him up, making sure to have a reassuring smile on her face. "Lets get you going."

[Nanami Touko]

Arin would've gladly put a bolt in Dempsey's forehead had he been ordered. Leg wound or not, he could still fire a crossbow solidly. But the sergeants had decided to take him back with them. As it was their choice, Arin wasn't about to object, despite not liking it personally. Attempting to walk along with the group was proving to be difficult, but lucky for him, Bekka was around. He smiled back at her as best as he could. "Thank you, Bekka. Again, I-I'm sorry, about this. I was doing so well, but, stray arrows will do as they will..."

----------

Idly puffing smoke, Sherry walked on after Cliving, making sure to keep pace. "Oi, he's not too heavy, is he? Doesn't look like he's much fun to carry. Y'want me to give the Indo a shot for usin' his horse?"

[Parrhesia]

Cliving shrugged. "I'll just tie him to the horse the next time I'm on watch and he's asleep. What's he gonna do, leave him behind?"

[Nanami Touko]

Sherry chuckled. "He might. What'd he say when Dempsey showed up? Just shoot him or somethin', ah? Maybe he would leave him behind."

[Xinnidy]

Barth grinned as the discussion was dealt with. Serves him well, now let's hope things don't go horrible until we get back.

"Boss, I could carry the guy for now if you're fine with it. But just to make sure, they didn't ask anything else to do now that we got him, right?"

---------------

"Alright." Inge nodded, holding the faintest of smiles. Rill could certainly take care of herself, there was probably no need to care to begin with.

Seeing the harmed alchemist groaning, the apothecary almost went for him, but was one-upped by Mary yet again. That one is awfully diligent, almost makes me feel useless in this group. Almost. Shrugging, Inge observes others that suffered notable beatings during the combat. There was Feran, but hell if he was going near that guy. Alexander seemed only slightly beaten, but he had no idea how to approach the guy, and he seemed... distant. Sighing, Inge approached Loren --he was just beaten down by some guy with a greatsword, he'd probably thank the help. "Hey, it's a good sign that you survived that mess, but you can't hide how that sword did a number on you." He went for his pouch and took a large piece of bandage and some poultice. "Maybe we won't need to fight for a while, but it's better to not let it get worse. Show me where you're bleeding."

[Percivalé]

Loren spat somewhere behind him at the thought of that worm groveling before them and squirming his way in with words covered in his dirt and filth. So what if killing him meant nothing, if his life was worth nothing to begin with? The axeman knew his fair share of con artists and petty bargainers and each and every one of them was a complete waste of space. You kill 'em before they continue to spread the contamination that was their existence.

The whole time, however, he said nothing. He still preferred spending less of his energy than the others did as much as possible, and in his current condition didn't have much to begin with--he grasped the left side of his abdomen. He watched Inge approach him and he groaned in a combination of pain and exhaustion. "That guy," he started, "he hit hard but had no thought to his movements. I don't even know how the lout did it." He proceeded to show the apothecary his wound, a bit far down from his left armpit.

[Xinnidy]

That is certainly... an awful wound from somebody that put no thought into movement. Then again, I'm not a combat expert, won't raise useless questions. "Very well, keep your arm up for a moment." Inge said, proceeding to clean the wound some before applying the poultice and bandaging the wound. As long as the man didn't complain too much about the stinging and had the common sense not to put pressure on the wound, that'd be more than enough. "Eh, sometimes there's too much going on and it fools the senses. That's usually what kills, I think. But you took the blow well. That means you're using your strength better than most." Inge took a look at the others, somewhat happy nobody else seemed to be calling for treatment yet.

[Rothene]

Disappointed at how fast the enemies were routed, Su San nevertheless wasted no time to search through the corpses. Due to the potential danger of time constraints, he snatched any pouch that came off loose in the off chance it held some coin. But he made sure to reach for the large axe. The dead myrmidon who wielded it seemed to swing it with extreme ease, which indicated the weapon was easier to manipulate in hand.

Sure enough, the great axe felt better balanced in hand, almost like using some of his practice sword back home. Though it lacked the brute force of Allan, Su San remembered in the fight before this how it had caused him to miss a few strikes. With a heavy heart, Su San stuck Allan to the ground and showered it a few choice words he normally reserved for the few people he ever considered a 'friend'. Few enough to be counted on his fingers, and they all are not living people.

Picking up the great axe, the foreigner grinned like a toddler who just got a new friend, full of aspirations on what the future holds for this hopefully long relationship built on trust and dependency.

The effects of whatever made his blood boil now taking its toll, the myrmidon felt the need to lean on something. And that was what he did.

Su San loses Allan! Su San gains Greataxe!