Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » -Working Title- (1x1 with Robin (kuroi_neko)

A soft wind blew through the meadows of a faraway land, white petals floating in the breeze. A calm melody could be heard, emanating from a beautifully crafted guitar, played by Magnus as he slowly wandered. The string instrument had been acquired in the last village he'd stopped at, as thanks for saving them from a band of treasure-stealing goblins. The man smiled as he plucked the strings softly, deftly, producing beautiful music that seemed to fit the beautiful, peaceful surroundings.

As he reached the peak of a small hill, a quaint little town could be seen, sleepy as any other he'd found on his journey. Further still, he could see a wall surrounding a much larger settlement, large towers standing tall on a castle in the middle of it. Thinking that a place like that would have more work for a knight-errant than the sleepy town ever would, the man changed his tune and headed to the larger settlement, ready for adventure.

The air was accepting of the music. All seemed perfect in the late afternoon, the sunlight setting a fiery look to the few clouds in the sky.

A horn sounded near the large settlement, breaking the serenity of the atmosphere. If he squinted, surely Magnus would be able to see a figure scaling down the outside of the wall with a rope, dropping to the ground and slinging something over their shoulder before taking off for the woods that separated the large and small settlement.

Several minutes later, a group of men on horse back would ride from the gates and spread out in a gallop, obviously searching for something.

Noticing the commotion, Magnus stopped the music abruptly, following with his eyes the figure darting into the woods. Teleporting his guitar elsewhere, the man smiled and lifted his arms, summoning and placing his hat upon his head.

"Well, guess that's my cue"

Wasting no time, Magnus blasted off towards the forest, using his flame powers to shoot himself through the air as a rocket. When almost at his destination, the knight disengaged the flames and disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing on the ground. Almost at that exact moment, the soldiers ran past him on their horses, the wind and dust billowing wildly behind them. Holding his hat so it wouldn't fly away, Magnus wheezed and coughed, cleaning the dust off his clothes after the vortex subsided.

Well that wasn't very nice

Instead of trying to catch them, the knight decided to take an alternate route through the forest, keeping close but undetected until he could better assess the situation.

The figure easily weaved through the trees, nimble and quick, the horses taking longer to do so at their massive size. A little ways ahead, (not having noticed a new on looker nearby), the figure stopped and reached up, pulling themselves into a thickly leaved tree, climbing as far up as possible without making any sound, using their cloak to camouflage themselves among the branches.

Noticing what he thought was someone moving among the trees, Magnus turned sharply, only to end up face to face with the soldiers. The knight rolled to the side to avoid a reflex stab from one of the soldier's lance, lifting his hands up immediately after returning to his feet, showing them he was unarmed.

"I mean you no harm, I saw you pursuing someone and-"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH! We'll decide what's going on! And I say you're helping her!"

"I assure you, I only came-"

"Did I stutter? I said keep quiet!"

"Well that's not very nice, how am I to defend myself against your accusations?"

The knight lowered his arms in annoyance at the soldier's rudeness, an action which was taken as aggression by the pursuers. The soldiers aimed their spears at Magnus' neck, who simply stared in disbelief at the one who had addressed him before.

"This is idiotic! I've done nothing wrong!"

"You were helping her, I know it! You're coming with us!"

The annoyance in Magnus' eyes was evident, and he looked down at his right palm, faint wisps of flame beginning to dance around it. He dissipated them immediately however, knowing he would never be welcome into the settlement with the blood of three soldiers on his hands. Still, he couldn't help but whisper in frustration at his current predicament.

"Like hell I am..."

The arrogance and brutish words from the soldiers were every reason why everything had happened as it did. From the theivery of the wealthy's goods, to the next action taken against them.

"Gaa-" came the odd sound from a soldier as a sort of light thunk sound was made, and he fell forward onto his horse, a thin shaft of an arrow revealed on his back. The sound and movement by its rider, send the horse into panic, and it attempted to gallop off, loosing its rider enough to fall and drag him by one of the stirrups.

"Ambush! He's a distraction! Take him out and find where she is hiding!!" called the captain of them, and some of the men scrambled to find the source of the arrow, while the other immediately turned on Magnus.

Everything happened suddenly, seemingly in the span of a single minute, after the arrow landed. The soldier slumped over, the captain's scream to find the archer, the others thrusting their spears towards Magnus. It almost left him no time to react, then again, he didn't need much. With a flash of light, the man disappeared, just as the spears pierced the air where he was before.

Reappearing behind the two soldiers that attacked him, the knight shot flames up into the air, enough to scare the horses without damaging the surroundings. The soldiers immediately fell off their steeds, getting back up rather quickly and pulling out swords, since their spears would be useless at close range.

"Gentlemen, I'm sure we can talk about this. There's no need for violence."

Magnus' expressions were simply met with a charge from both men, a move which only elicited a sigh from the knight. With speed and grace, the man dodged and moved around the soldiers' slashes, using positioning to gain leverage and disarm them both without causing them harm. Yet, knowing that their assault would not stop because they lost their weapons, he made sure to leave them unconscious by maneuvering their heads to crash together. As their bodies slumped, the man simply shook his head, lifting his hand to the bridge of his nose and massaging it slowly.

"There really was no need for this... Wherever you are, you better come out soon! Look at this mess..."

The men looking for the archer looked up from their horses into the trees, trying to find her location. One man stopped and started to shout, but an arrow zipped right at him, and piercing between the plates of his armor. One of the other men, an archer himself, drew his own arrow and knocked it, taking aim at the person in the tree.

They were still scaling the tree, and he let loose his arrow, and it barely missed them, ripping through their cape. But that did not dissuade him, as he had another arrow, ready to loose as well. This one aim for were the figure would be, and just barely missed her again, burying into the branch.

The figure leapt to the next tree, grabbing a branch. But the one where their foot landed snapped, and they were left dangling there, holding on tightly as not to fall.

This left a perfect target for the archer, who was ready to shoot again.

Sounds of battle elsewhere in the forest attracted Magnus' attention, making him dash towards the source. Noticing that one of the soldiers was about to let an arrow fly into the top of the trees, the knight teleported towards him, reappearing in front and smacking the bow away.

"Oh no you don't!"

One kick to the side of the knee and a solid right cross to the face later, the archer was out for the count. The other soldier wasn't interested in battle after seeing a man suddenly appear from thin air, running away screaming about demons.

"Well, that takes care of that... Now for you, troublemaker, I'll make it very simple"

The man walked to where he would have the most space around him and stood relaxed, one hand in front of him, palm upward with a blazing fireball in it. The flame started out small, but it was very slowly growing, and it didn't seem to be stopping.

"Get over here and explain the situation or I'll burn the whole forest down. Your call"

Once the archer was out of the fight, the person swung to and fro, until they could swing themselves upon another tree branch. Once there, the bow was out, and an arrow knocked, aimed right at the person that had helped them.

He had magic though. After a long time of waiting, the bow was finally lowered and the arrow placed back in its quiver.

"No point in fighting that," came a female voice, slightly muffled. Her hood was thrown back, revealing a face hidden behind a mask. "I can explain just fine from here, if you don't mind."

There was a moment of hesitation, but she began to speak. "I'm taking what rightfully belongs to the people." She held up her bag, the contents jingling just slightly.

"That sounds like a very good excuse for stealing. Can you prove that?"

The man still had no idea from where the voice came from, as it was soft enough that trying to track it without keeping her talking continuously was next to impossible. From the way she'd handled herself against the soldiers, Magnus knew she was probably much too crafty to fall for a play like that, so there was no point in even trying it.

"I mean you no harm, but the soldiers were chasing you for a reason. I honestly cannot let a thief go without my consciousness nagging me, so either hand over what you stole or give it back, but I'm not letting you go otherwise."