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Grey saw Rook lunge for the bandit and was about to cheer her on when the club struck the back of his head and everything went black.

----

"What the - " Sampson never finished his sentence. Before he knew it, the knife - his own knife - was in his stomach, and a blossoming red stain was quickly drenching the front of his shirt. Sampson looked up in disbelief and stared at the girl. There was a new kind of rage in her eyes and Sampson thought they looked familiar.

The girl from the village, he thought. Doesn't she have a brother? Sampson opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was a bloody cough. He wrapped a shivering hand around the girl's wrist, swallowing as he looked down at the gash in his stomach.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

Marcelle would leave me and Silveris and a group of bandits alone. "You guys watch him or I'll cut all your heads off and eat them." Marcelle would say. He'd go off doing his business.

It'd be a while and I felt great so I was gonna kill them all but I had had handcuffs on me and a metal thing above my mouth that could only let me speak. "Am Mystic and I already know your name.." I'd say to Silveris.

(( Hey yeah sorry guys. I'm gonna do my best to get in here at least twice a day.
And hey, so, the odds don't look too great for the heroes as it stands. Do they make their escape? Do the bandits take prisoners? I suppose that'll be answered in due time... ))

Jez took advantage of the ensuing chaos; as Silveris turned his attention away, she bolted with everything she had towards where Sampson stood over the fallen Rook. The opening would be the perfect opportunity to knife him in the back and, if she had to, drag Rook to safety.

Or so she thought. As it would happen, she drew close with her long dagger raised over her head, only to see Sampson doubled over in pain, blood dripping from his lips, Rook literally red-handed underneath him. Well, blow me away, she thought. She came out on top.

Rook, though her injuries were unclear to Jez, had still obviously gone through the wringer. She would need help to get out. And the other combatant...the telekinetic.

A bandit with a club stood over his fallen form, triumphant. Whatever Rook needed, it would have to wait. She tried to signal to Rook that she would be right back (a signal that consisted of a few odd, half-dizzy gestures), and turned on her heel, streaking across the sand towards the motionless Grey and his opponent.

"That's for Danny," Rook said she watched the blood spittle come from Sampson's lips, then pulled her hand away from him, taking some grim satisfaction in watching the bandit take his last breaths.

Another figure was rushing toward her and the ranger looked to the cloaked woman with the raised dagger. Was it meant for the bandit or for her? Rook steeled herself, knowing she was no match for an uninjured opponent, but then the woman changed course, back toward Grey and the ranger breathed a small sigh of relief. Maybe there was still hope she'd live through today.

--

Only when Grey slumped unconscious did Cordell finally loosen the lasso around his neck. "You got something to gag him with?" he asked the bandit who had clunked Grey over the head. "Maybe then he can't do his magic stuff," he added as he used his foot to roll Grey onto his stomach and started using the rope to bind the man's hands tightly behind his back.

"Shades! Here comes 'nother one!" he spat as Jez raced toward them. "Look out behind fellas."

Silveris couldn't believe he'd lost track of the cloaked figure and he spun around, spotting her running towards Cordell and the other bandits who had managed to take down Grey, which Silveris thought was quite impressive on Cordell's part but the cloaked girl could prove to be another nuisance.

Marcelle too had taken notice of the cloaked figure and the bandit leader sighed, cursing all the intruders for ruining his day, before he lifted his hands and set them ablaze, tilting his head at Silveris since two fire magicians were better than one in this fight.

Meanwhile, one bandit handed Cordell a long piece of cloth, but then Cordell gave a warning call and the bandits surged towards Jez like a swarm of killer bees with swords for stingers, several of them branching off to help Sampson take care of Rook.

The ravenous horde is descending. Keep on your toes! Jez had no doubt they were coming at her from all sides; rather than let herself be surrounded, she ran for the few that had left Cordell's side to challenge her. Kicking at the ground to send sand in one's face, she swung her long dagger fiercely towards another one's shoulder. She hoped her opponent would take the bait and block her, so her short dagger could find a home between his ribs. Someone once told Jez it was exactly the kind of cheap trick it took to stay alive in the desert.

Once satisfied the binding around Grey's hands was good and tight, Cordell gagged the telekinetic with the offered piece of cloth. It was a non-too-clean rag that smelled like it had been used to wash out armpits, but the bandit wasn't about to take the time to find a cleaner one. He considered for a moment what else might be done to keep Grey from casting his magic. But aside from just killing him, Cordell couldn't think of anything more to do.

He is still alive, right? Marcelle won't be too happy if he ain't. Cordell put one finger under Grey's nose and felt a small breath of air. Good. . Satisfied, he lifted Grey over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

--

Rook saw the bandits running across the sand toward her and she started making her way into the rock outcropping. The bleeding wounds on her shoulder and her calf were quickly sapping what was left of her strength, but there wasn't time to stop and properly tend to them here.

Sampson was on his knees, coughing in a pool of his own blood, when he heard the shouts of bandits in the distance. He was losing blood fast and hardly noticed when one bandit branched off from the others and yelled something at him. The bandit slung Sampson's arm over his shoulder and slowly started carrying him back towards camp. Sampson glanced back over his shoulder at the girl, who was still making her way towards the rock outcropping.

"I will kill her," he murmured.

Everyone was distracted. I could make my move. There'd be a rock nearby then start to cut off handcuffs and the thing covering my mouth. One of the bandits saw me and punched me hard with brass knuckles.I'd kick him in the stomach. I ran and ran. Then I look all a saw was blurry and the bandit already alerting Marcelle. In no time they'd me catch. Either execution or captured again.

Marcelle was about to advance on the cloaked girl who surprisingly had a lot of knives hidden underneath her disguise, when one of his bandits alerted him that the dragon man had escaped and Marcelle promptly whacked the bandit over the side of his head.

"Don't just stand there! Get that man and bring him here or kill him if you have to! And take this collar. Catch him when he's in human form and put the collar around his neck. He won't be able to turn into a dragon after that."

Silveris on the other hand went straight for Jez, just as she stabbed one bandit in the ribs and Silveris' eyes blazed at the dirty trick as he came up behind Jez, hands blazing with fire, making a grab for her cloak with the intent on setting it and the rest of her on fire.

The bandits finally caught up to Rook and surrounded her, blocking her from the rocks, and one used a rope shaped like a lasso, a replica of the one Cordell had been using, to throw over Rook's head, while the other bandits pointed their blades at her from all sides.

I'd be sitting under a dead tree until. I saw them. Marcelle's bandits would come charging at me. "Charge!" some of them yelled. They'd be holding some clubs and knives.I'd run at them and about to breath fire but one them threw something at my neck prevented me from using my powers. "Hey, that collar actually worked." One of them cheered. A few would grab me and you know what happened. Marcelle would be at his camp. waiting..."I see you actually captured him." Marcelle said. Marcelle would leave and the bandits would put me in a tent and well you know what happened.

The ranger's heart sank as the bandit's drew close, surrounding her. She knew another fight right now would likely result in her death and she reluctantly raised her weaponless, blood-covered hands in surrender and sank back to her knees. Rook cringed as the rope came about her neck, fighting down a panicky feeling that they were planning on simply hanging her right then and there. But the circle of swords surrounding her convinced her not to fight it. Instead she clenched her jaw and set her steely gaze upon the bandit directly in front of her, determined not to show fear.

The first thing Grey noticed when he finally came too was the smell of the gag over his mouth. His hands were tied behind his back and he was being carried somewhere. Grey lifted his head a little and was instantly met with a throbbing headache. That club over the head really did hurt.

----

Sampson sat down under one of the tents, wincing as someone wrapped bandages around his crimson-stained stomach. He desert heat wasn't helping to improve his mood. He just hoped the girl had been caught; otherwise all the trouble would've been for nothing.

Her feint successful, Jez didn't stand around to wait for more enemies to come to her. She shoved the bandit off her dagger and tore across the sands once more.

She was almost too late to notice the spike in heat coming from behind, the smell of burning fabric that warned her of her smoldering cape. Digging her heels into the sand to break her inertia, she pivoted to face Silveris with both daggers pointed at him. He had swiped for her a moment too early and failed to seize hold, but the flames had leaped from his hands to the edge of her cloak as it trailed behind her. She reached up with her bloodied hand, tugging the fastening by her neck free as she kept her long knife pointed ahead of her. "You bandits don't take a hint, do you?" she asked. "Not how I die. Not here. Not now."

The bound man, he might know strong magic. Jez recalled the floating bandits from before, a sight that dazzled and confused her. It all stopped when the bandits took him down. However this goes down, he might be the only way out of here alive.

"Awake there sunshine?" Cordell felt Grey stir and re-hefted him up onto his shoulder as the bound prisoner started to slide slightly. "Don't go squirming, else I might drop ya," he said as he carried Grey back toward the oasis.

"Looks like they got your b****," he commented . "And soon maybe your other one too. She looks feisty," he said, hinting at things beyond the scope of the immediate battle.

Once back in their make-shift camp he lowered Grey to the ground, then proceeded to rifle through any pockets or pouches looking for weapons, valuables, or other things of interest...

After dealing with the dragon man, Marcelle raised his fist and set his knuckles on fire, signaling to the bandits surrounding Rook in the distance to bring the girl to him, and from the corner of his eye he saw one bandit wrapping bandages around Sampson's bloody form.

"That girl should've been no match for you. Yet she still managed to wound you this badly. Tell me, Sampson, which one of you is more useful, you or her? Who should I keep, who should I kill?"

Meanwhile Silveris sent a blazing blast of fire at Jez from both of his palms, hoping to burn her enough to make it easy to capture her, yelling at the other bandits to surround her like they had done to Rook, with several of them waving ropes tied into lassos above their heads.

(Am just gonna type this because this because I can't delete my messages)

Jez sidestepped the blast, but she was hardly quick enough; the flame's edge brushed past her right hand, scalding her just enough to make her drop her long dagger. A noise escaped her mouth (though it landed somewhere between a cry of pain and an enraged growl, it was meant to be an expletive regarding Silveris's mother), and in a graceful motion she flung her smoking cloak at his face and turned away once more.

She was coming up on a tight-knit line of bandits, each prepared to ensnare her. Catch this, cowboy, she thought to herself, sending her second dagger spinning towards one of the bandits making up the perimeter.

Grey glared at the bandit. A hundred different insults played through his mind but the gag effectively blocked him from shooting any at the eyepatch man. He shifted his hands and the rope bit into his wrists. He winced. No hands meant no telekinesis. Maybe he could try channeling it through his feet? He'd never tried it before.

Grey angled his foot in the bandit's direction.

----

Sampson grit his teeth at Marcelle's words. He knew perfectly well the bandit leader could set him on fire at this very moment.

"I will kill her," he vowed, glaring at the sand. "She will pay for this. All of this."

Sampson lifted his chin to look up at Marcelle, trying to keep the pain out of his eyes. "I'll make her death slow, if it's the last thing I do."