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Alexander shook his head."No. I just have a great fear of being killed and getting my goods stolen." He responded dryly."Just keep me alive and you'll get your coins." He said as he too went to prepare for the ride.

Soon the group was ready to move out once more. Two carts this time and five horses. Soon the group was ready to head out. The road was still dusty and the further the group went from the inn, the more abandoned the road was.

It didn't take long or every wind that blew along a bush sounded like a bandit ready to pounce upon the group."There's somethin' out there, lads." Bender said."Stay sharp."

Arien snorted. "Alert for what? A tumbleweed?" But he checked his sword and throwing dagger for quick reach in case he needed them, and then continued to scan the immediate area.

Of course he didn't think to look up into the trees for bandits. After all, wolves didn't climb trees, but humans certainly could.

His horse's bravery aside, the gnoll himself had been starting to feel uneasy too and as such had for the first time taken his musket from his back and held it in his hands. Flavio was loading his gun as they rode, he was already at it for two whole minutes although most of that time was spend on fine-tuning the next shot.

Bender came to an abrupt halt. He hopped off of his chart and the Orcs drew their weapons."Trouble?" Roughart asked. Bender didn't reply and instead started laughing."Come on out, lil' landlubbers." He called out."I'm old, but I ain't deaf." He said as he picked up a rock from the ground.

It was now more obvious. The rustling became louder and louder until even Alexander could hear. The merchant was already shivering. Roughart spat to the ground."There's nothing there!" He yelled."It's just a spooked animal!" Bender held the rock in his metal hand and threw it into a nearby bush. A painful sounding "argh" soon followed.

It was after that a group of eight bandits in total ran out of the bushes. These men and women did not seem very threatening. They resembled beggars more than actual organized raiders. Two of them carried crossbows whilest the rest donned blades and wore scavenged armors. Some of them were more protective than the others. A woman in a leather tunic and a broad looking blade walked forward. They did not seem worried about the armed group. After all, they were with more people."You lot will do for initiation!" She cried loudly."Drop your weapons and we promise to spare your lives!"

Bender Of Iron Will chuckled as he crossed his arms."Yer kiddin' me, aren't ya, lass?"

Arien had drawn his horse to a halt once Bender had climbed down from his cart. From there, he watched in mild surprise as eight bandits suddenly appeared. He rested his hand on his sword, but didn't draw it quite yet. The crossbows, for sure, were worth the pause, though that wasn't why he stayed his hand.

To be honest, seeing such a small group of them made Arien smile. He'd been against larger odds, before and come out unscathed. Still these were people and not animals.

"I don't know," said Arien, glancing at Flavio with a smirk. "You think we should surrender?"

Flavio dismounted his horse at once when the bandits started to stream out. The gnoll was silent, although a slight grin grew as he compared the odds. When the female bandit demanded they'd drop their weapons though, it didn't take long for the musketeer to make up his mind.

"No." He said bluntly, and in a swift motion he brought his musket up, aimed at the woman and released a shot aimed for her head.

Flavio's sudden shot echoed loudly through the forest. Birds got scared and scattered out of the nearby tree, screeching for their fellow species something happened. The woman's corpse didn't even drop to the floor yet or the horses started staggering, most very shortly. They were brave animals, though Flavio's kept away from the Gnoll now. Except for Segrid's horse. The otherwise quiet Orc screamed as the horse took off and forced the woman off of the saddle.

The bandits raised their weaponry and shouted loudly, though two of them were already scared though. Much to the dismay of the others they stayed back. Three of the bandits went for Segrid, who was having a hard time getting up. Her sister and Roughart ran to her aid though. The other bandits went for the crew and Alexander, who screamed loudly as he saw them coming. An arrow was fired at Bender, though he blocked that rather easilly with his steel arm. The bolt was very weak and it splintered on impact. The captain realised he wouldn't be able to keep his arm a secret for much longer if anyone saw that."Ya basterds, I ought to keelhaul y'all!" He yelled as he grabbed a bandit by his shoulder that was going for Alexander.

Arien winced as the shot deafened his ears. He much preferred crossbows to muskets, he decided. "You call that a shot?" Arien asked, when the woman Flavio had shot at didn't drop dead.

He drew his sword, thankful his horse had stayed in place, and then rode forward to defend Alexander and Bender. He wasn't particularly familiar with slashing from horseback, but he quickly found that height and speed was good for his attacks.

Particularly against the one who was using a crossbow. "Yo! Looking for me?" Arien shouted, drawing the bowman's attention to him. He immediately concentrated hard on the spot of ground behind the bowman, and...lo-and-behold, he vanished from the saddle to appear behind the bowman. Sword drawn, he brought it to the bowman's neck.

"Drop it, or I'll drop you instead."

Flavio knew better than Arien, there is no way the woman could have survived the shot. But it still left his gun without juice for the moment. The gnoll rushed towards a cart and took cover behind it, if he got there without trouble he would take his powder horn and start juicing up for a new shot. "Such a nice weapon." The musketeer remarked as he jammed a poker into the barrel. "But it has it's faults, alas."

The woman who had been hit by Flavio's bullet indeed did not survive the shot for very long. She had been staggering the whole time, clenching her chest. It would seem the bullet punctured through the lung and it was filling up with blood. She suffered a painful and rather slow death as she choked on her own blood.

Bender Of Iron Will proved that on his old age he was still a force to be reckoned with. He too had the same idea as Arien. The ones who posed a true threat were the ones firing the crossbows. Arien reached one of the archers much sooner than Bender did on foot. The short bandit with the scruffy beard and green eyes dropped his crossbow emmidiatly in pure shock as Arien appeared out of seemingly nowhere."I surrender! Don't kill me! I have a wife and children!" He yelled in desperation.

A dwarven bandit came charging for Bender with a short and rather dull edged cleaver."Yer goin' down, big b-" Before the dwarf could finish his taunt Bender clenched his steel fist and smashed the man in his face. A sickening crunch could be heard as Bender casually pulled his bloody fist out of the gaping hole where the dwarf's face once was. The pirate gave a few smacks against his arm."Don' start malfunctionin' on me now, ya bugger." He mumbled as he kept going for the archer. The female bandit who looked like an elf who had cut off her ears had seen what Bender did to the dwarf and had lost heart to fight. She ran off with tears in her eyes. Bender tried to reach for his gun, but his arm wasn't moving very well and he did not want to drop his blade."Arien! Don' let 'er warn anyone else!" He yelled.

The three Orcs were still fighting the main force of the remaining bandits. Four versus three, and Segrid was wounded. She was unable to carry her shield and was paying the price for that. These fighters weren't keen on leaving without taking someone down.

"Good, then don't resist." Arien quickly grabbed the dropped crossbow and at Bender's yell, turned to see the fleeing woman. "Why can't I get the easy jobs?"

Single-handedly, he aimed and fired, the bolt in the crossbow impacting the ground several feet behind the woman. Well, that didn't work so well.

To the thief who had given up, he said: "Don't go any-" He vanished to reappear in front of the fleeing not-quite-human woman. "-where." He still had the crossbow although it was unloaded. "That means you, too." Of course, he still held his sword with the other hand.

As soon as the gnoll had a shot loaded, but not prepared as well as his first. He was glad no bandit reached him or shot at him while he was loading. Flavio span around the corner of the cart and then leveled the musket at a bandit with a crossbow and pulled the trigger... and nothing happened. "Already?" He wheezed in a disappointed voice.

Unable to do much else Flavio retreated and took his poker again, he only hoped the load wouldn't explode in his face.

The scruffy bandit was too frightened to run. He sat on his knees with his hands on his head, whimpering for mercy even though there was no one behind him. The female bandit came to a stop in front of Arien. Seeing his sword as well as the fact he appeared out of nowhere she didn't try to run either. She dropped her crossbow emmidiatly."I won't fight, just don't let anyone come near me!" She tried to say in a calm manner to him. She then continued to raise her arms onto her head and turn around.

Luckilly for both Flavio as well as Alexander the bandits had no intention of fighting them. The Orcs did a good job at keeping them at bay, though it was costly. A shriek was heard as Segrid was hit by a sword in her leg and fell down. Roughart roared as he raised his left hand towards the bandit. A rune was revealed on the flat of his hand and a fireball emerged from it as said rune shone bright red. The bandit however managed to hop out of the way and the ball of fire ended up dissolving in the air before it could hit anything else. Of these four bandits now only two remained as Segrid's sister had cut two more down. These two for some reason didn't want to surrender as they exchanged rather scared looks with eachother.

He sighed when she gave up. "Really? Not even a half-arsed attempt to duel? Fine." Not that she really had a chance anyway. "See your cohort over there, the one with his hands on his head and not moving? Walk towards him." He followed behind her, deciding that having two captives in one place where he could keep an eye on them was far better than the current situation. He couldn't be in two places at once, after all, he had no gift for making clones--which was probably a blessing in disguise.

He saw one of the orcs getting cut down and then looked suddenly for Alexander. "Alex-ander?" he called. "Are you still alive?" Maybe Flavio was near him, he didn't see the musket-wielding man anywhere; possibly he was behind the cart though.

Flavio tried to fix his shot the best he could, he had to be careful now to not shoot his own face off while he loosened the powder in the barrel a bit again. "Okay. Lets try that again." The gnoll said triumphantly, then he looked about him. It surprised him nobody was coming for him, he had already shown his musket and shot down their leader with it. He had expected he'd be the prime target.

The gnoll didn't mind though, it was good for him they didn't approach. This time the musketeer ran to the other corner of the cart, where he again span around the corner and locked onto a bandit, this time it was one fighting the orcs. "Ooh. Trickshot, hope I don't hit one of us..." He muttered before he released the shot. This time the bullet did fly, and it even flew rather straight. As long as one of the orcs didn't make an ill-timed movement the bullet should fly true.

Alexander had been hiding behind his own cart, whimpering even though the group was taking them down."I..I'm alive." He managed to cry out. From Flavio's possition he could easilly be seen. Speaking of Flavio, his shot was a full hit. He was lucky that Roughart moved out of the way in time though. His bullet hit in a bandit's leg, which caused him to fall down. it was easy for Roughart to finish him off now. His gigantic axe cleaved his head in two. The other bandit was also cut down by Segrid's sister.

Bender managed to get his arm working again as he overviewed the field filled with corpses as he breathed heavilly."So that was it, eh? That can't be it. This lot ain't even worth bein' called looters." Alexander came out of his hiding spot and held a sliken napkin in front of his mouth."Ugh, this stench is horrid!"

The two orcs helped their companion up. She wasn't going to be able to walk again for a while. Segrid did a good job of stelping her cut though.

The two prisonors sat next to eachother and exchanged looks with eachother. They had no idea what to expect, though they seemed to have a more comfortable look when they saw Arien. He was the one who allowed them to surrender after all whilest he could easilly cut them down right on the spot.

Seeing that all was quiet once again, at least there weren't any more bandits attacking as far as he could tell--and that the main objective of their protective party was still alive--he relaxed a little. Enough to sheath his sword and sling the crossbow over one arm before grabbing both prisoner's by their collars and lifting them to their feet.

Their comfort would be dropping shortly--as he had in mind a better way to figure out whether or not they would be attacked again. He shoved them forward none-too-gently, heading for the remainder of his group.

"Bender! Alex! Flavio!" he called. "I got us some resources." He stepped over the bodies on the ground as he moved forward. "Figure we can question them and see if there's anything more lying in wait for us." He turned a keen eye to the man and woman. "So, are there more bandits lying in wait for us?"

Flavio was glad the fight was over, his powder was running low now that he peered in his horn. The gnoll didn't expect there would be many stores where he could resupply, until they reached the big city at least. He found it ironic that he finally had a personal reason to continue.

The musket was back on his back in a moment and he moved over to the rest, straightening his stashe-like whiskers and then his little goattee. He looked over the dead bodies, he'd strip those in a moment. Too bad Bender and Alexander where human though... he could only strip them of clothes now.

"Better speak up!" The gnoll chimed in as he walked over to the survivors. "A fight always gets me hungry, and you people taste best when you're still alive to struggle. No better seasoning than fear!" Flavio chuckled, stressing the high pitches even more than usual, and flashing the prisoners his rows of sharp teeth.

At least one of the two bandits was trembling. The shaggy male wouldn't be hard to break. The female showed more courage, which made Bender Of Iron Will grin. She was feisty, but she'd break soon enough. The fact she requested to stay away from the group in the first place said enough.

The man whined patheticly when Flavio made his remark. Tears ran down his eyes."I don't know, man! We're just initiates!" He sobbed. The woman remained quiet. Only now was it obvious how black her eyes were. The sea captain decided to step it up a notch."Back on sea we didn't 'ave much to go with as means o' torture. Once someone commited mutiny, we toyed around with 'em instead. I don't suppose the term 'Keelhaul' is known to ye?" He leaned over and forced both of the bandits to look into their eyes, holding their faces within his hands."We hang our enemies to a rope and throw 'em overboard. Then we sail the boat over 'em so their bones would fracture. If the boat didn't kill 'em, the sharks surely would." He explained."It's a terrfying deadly trip, landlubbers. I'm sure Keelhauling would work just 's well on land." He grinned wickedly.

This caused the shaggy man to wet his trousers. His urine ran over his leg and formed a pool right below his foot. Though strangely it wasn't the man who spoke up, it was the woman."They're expecting us to return with the loot we made. They'll probably be waiting further down the road." Bender smiled."I was hoping for a bit more of a fight, lads. Ah well. One last question." He let go of their faces and stepped back."Are the rumours true? Do these basterds 'ave a giant with 'em?" The woman nodded."Half giant, really. A Goliath. Brenniken always keeps that thing on a leesh." "Will you let us go?" The man asked. Bender looked at his companions."I don't know 'bout you, but I really want to try out this Keelhauling on dry land."

Arien blanched at the description of keelhauling and was grateful he wasn't the one on the receiving end.

"I don't know if we should do that," said Arien, eyeing the man who'd wet himself in fear, and then the woman who seemed more sure of herself. "They don't seem afraid of us. I wonder if perhaps threatening to cart-haul them in front of their fellow bandits might not have a better impact. It would certainly be a lot more humiliating to have your fellow thieves watching."

Arien looked at Bender. "Afterall, misery loves company, wouldn't you agree?" He really didn't want to hurt anyone; he loved a good fight, but not necessarily to the death. But if these bandits were determined to kill, then he would prefer to live to fight another day.