NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carnifex" data-source="post: 1219331" data-attributes="member: 227">The fire serpent had caused concern among the bandits as Burl had hoped, giving him time to slip from his horse. Although this meant that he wouldn’t have to contend with a bucking platform from which to cast his spells, it also meant he didn’t have as good a vantage point to see what was going on in the battle. What he could see was the three remaining bandits who were concentrating their efforts on the fire serpent. Burl was preparing a spell when, hearing a heavy thud, he turned in time to see Wolf hitting the ground. Now it was Burl’s turn to be scared. Wolf had always been the iron man of the troupe, often saving their lives. Now with him lying on the ground, dead or dying, it would be up to the rest of them as to whether they would live or die. Burl wasn’t sure if he was up to it or not, but he wasn’t going to die without a fight, he and his companions had too much for which to live.Down on the ground, Wolf's blood continued to flow freely, staining the dry earth around him to a hint of crimson as the veteran continued to twitch and spasm, only the whites of his eyes visible. Wyshira might not have been the most experienced of healers yet but the savage injuries her companions had been suffering since she had started travelling were rapidly educating her, and she could not help but think that the arrows piercing the man's arm and abdomen shouldn't have been enough to bring the veteran down. One arm shattered, certainly, and a flesh wound to his stomach, but the state he was in was surely not just down to the physical punishment he had recieved. It looked like he had been poisoned. Burl's fiery summoning writhed back and forth with the sound of slithering scales, sinuously dancing its head to block any avenue to Burl that the bandit before it attempted to take, trying to break past it to attack the wizard in melee. With a hiss it lashed out and sunk its fangs into the man's arm despite his best attempts to fend it off with his shield, sending him reeling off and shouting in pain from the seared flesh around the punture wounds. Shielded by the snake, Burl was able to let off his ice knife spell uninterrupted, and the resultant shard of frozen water bit through the red armour of Sebastion's attacker, freezing flesh and blood as it hit. Even so, the visored warrior fought on. Melisande unleashed another spray of magic missiles at the red-armoured archer, who saw the sapphire bolts coming and dived behind a nearby rock to evade them only for the eldritch attack to divert and follow him, sending him stumbling from the impacts. The bandits fought on, bolstered by the aid of the second armoured trooper, but the ruffians didn't manage much now that the travellers had regained the initiative and recovered from the surprise of the ambush. Beyond the wind wall the archers realised the uselessness of further shots and scurried forth out of the cover of the rocks and shrubs, another four bandits to aid their fellows with glinting swords. In the melee Ebri and Cord cracked a few bones with their devastating strikes, holding the bulk of the enemy at bay. With a thunderous rapport Sebastion drew and unleashed his brace of pistols at the armoured warrior assailing him. The pistol in his off-hand spat out a bullet that barely skimmed the man and sparked as it ricocheted off at an angle, but the double-barrel Ferechan-make hit full on to punch through the scale mail in two places, gore splashing down from the entry wounds as the sheer force sent his foe reeling with grievous wounds. With a muffled shout of both defiance and pain the man swung his bladestaff back up into guard position, showing he wasn't out of the fight yet, and with dangerous grace he entered into a complex series of strikes with his weapon; Kale, attempting to flank the man, found himself driven back a step or two just to avoid being slashed up and he couldn't get a solid hit of his own in, even as Sebastion met the other end of the bladestaff across his midriff, opening up a deep wound that hazed his vision with pain and even threatened to topple him off his horse. Wyshira called out a prayer for sanctuary and then was quickly at Wolf's side, easily making her way through the confusion with the divine magic protecting her. Wolf's wounds, while bad, shouldn't prove fatal - but she couldn't tell what damage the poison she guessed was in his veins might inflict. The armoured archer, still reeling from Melisande's magic, kept his head down and in good cover, still looking back now and then at the figure approaching the fight on horseback. He uncertainly notched his bow, unwilling to loose another arrow into the fray just yet lest the newcomer be hostile and set upon him by surprise. Those looking out in that direction could see now that the rider approaching looked bulky, armoured. He closed the distance with great speed, the reason for which rapidly became clear; it was a man in full plate armour, riding a large warhorse which was covered in almost as much armour as the man atop it. Black armour, and a fully closed helm, all covered in elaborate detail which would need closer scrutiny to make out properly. In one hand was a hefty battleaxe and in the other, a pistol.The man and horse thundered past the archer who hesistated, unsure of what to do, even as the knight flung himself from horseback with amazing ease and grace for a man in that much metal. He raised the pistol, a flash of light and noise and a cloud of powdersmoke as he fired it at the red-armoured archer, scoring a brutal hit on the man's shoulder, then easily shoving the pistol back in a belt hung round his waist and turning to put an axe in the nearest bandit. The warhorse ploughed on without him, hooves pummelling one of the would-be archers into the dirt. Despite the ominous black plate, the newcomer did not, so far, seem hostile to the band from Naseria.</blockquote>

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