2 v 2 Morituri te Salutant v. Celestial Warriors

[Call me J]

This battle ends in 2 weeks. Good luck to the four of you.

[streak101]

"I'll go." He said when they had asked if anyone would participate. The ancestors and patriarchs had requested the members of the House of Sora to step up and participate in the new tournament that would be held. The team would consist of four, one to lead an army, one to battle alone, and two to compete side by side, the rewards were extraordinary. Not many stepped up, but it was still quite a number, too many, but he made sure he became part of this team. He had to redeem himself, his loss at the Gisela was embarrassing at the least, not to mention the embarrassment he caused to the House.

He wouldn't compete in the army battle, that was an obvious choice to forget about, so he decided to battle with someone else, a fellow member of the House to remind him why he was here, and to motivate him to battle impressively. He had a good feeling when Alberdyne was chosen to lead the army, his friend was a powerful and intelligent leader, he was certain that Dyne would lead victoriously. The woman chosen for the one man battle was a newcomer to the ranks, he didn't know much about her but either way she must have been confident in her skills. Along with him, Kara became his partner, he met her before, whilst working for the House, she was skilled and complemented his fighting style's which only made it the better.

Now Banda stood on what was to be their arena, the place where blood would be shed, if only to be returned to its owner later by the monks. If Banda lost here, then he would embark on a long vacation so as to train, to become stronger for his House. If he won then he would continue to help the House as best as he can. He scraped his foot against the gritty dirt of the plains. The sun was blaring down upon them, it was a drastic change to the cold of Salvar and its snowstorms. The sound of rushing water hinted at a nearby stream, and there was a strong breeze that cooled his face, flowing through his hair, he had taken off his bandana and tied it around his arm, just as Enetrad did it.

Banda drew his claymore and boomerang, newly repaired. Dyne had fixed the weapons for Banda awhile back, when they first met in Corone. He grinned, Dyne probably had gotten better at his craft. He looked around for Kara, he couldn't see her, she was either not here or hiding somewhere, waiting for their enemy. "Think I'll head for the stream." He said casually. His thoughts returned to Dyne, "Good luck, friend."

Banda, are you sure you are ready to return to fighting in these tournaments? Remember the Gisela. Banda nodded, but him and Saffron had different meanings of the saying. Banda's gaze was a serious one, one of an avenger. "Yes Saffron indeed, remember Gisela."

[Abomination]

There he was. The opponent of The Homunculus. There was a bit of distance between the two, but it looked like Homun saw him first. The plains were vast and empty with few exceptions, so it wasn't that hard to pick out something that didn't belong. Either way, he didn't see any sign of the partner he was allegedly supposed to have. He had only been in Sine Nomine a short time before he was chosen for this mess. When he heard that he had been assigned a teammate, he became angry at the notion of having to rely on anyone, but eventually decided he could simply ignore him. Not only that, but it was some child with toys. If it wasn't for the fact that there was a distinct possibility of meeting powerful assimilation targets here, he wouldn't even be involved in Sine Nomine. For Tobias' sake, he better not show up to ruin Homun's fun.

He slowly made his way to his target. Banda had a faint outline around him, but he could tell it was at least as good as he was, if not slightly stronger. Good enough, but The Homunculus preferred to tango with someone who would give him massive amounts of strength or power. Either way, Banda should have noticed him by now. The wind blew from behind him, and he marched with his mouth slightly open and his sharp teeth shining in the sunlight. His eyes were half-closed, his glare could be described as a cross between boredom and agitation. He wanted to kill his opponent, to tear his limbs off and pop his head like a watermelon. To kill and devour this person who dares to stand in his way, to tAkE apaRt hIS....

He shook his head. If there's anything he learned from fighting, he had to stay at least somewhat calm during a fight. At least for now. Too slow. Too slow. Too slow! He couldn't just casually walk up to his enemy. He had to attack! Chop him into tiny pieces, and chop those pieces into even smaller ones! He pulled out his short sword from its sheath with his right hand and started running. Yes! This way the way! No more waiting! No time for conversation! Rip a hole and let the blood pour out! He held the sword above his head with both hands, ready to strike down on his opponent as he ran.

[streak101]

Banda's ears pricked up, the sound of footsteps behind him, but whose? He turned around, it would've been a good sign if Kara had already showed up before their enemy, a strategy could have been developed... "Oh well." Banda sighed as the stranger rushed towards him in a mad state. "Why is he running at me so...recklessly?" He asked himself, this was a new kind of opponent. Banda twirled his boomerang in his hand and threw it in the general direction of his opponent. He spun his sword with both hands, he was prepared for the fight.

As his opponent grew closer, Banda's adrenaline became more apparent in his eyes, the sharpness and the intensity. A grin slowly spread across his face, "Let the battle begin." He locked blades with his opponent, the man had sharp teeth, unnaturally sharp, "This will not end like Gisela!" Banda jumped away and swung his blade downward in a diagonal motion at his opponent, his adrenaline was near its peak. "Let's go crazy!" He shouted.

[Abomination]

Something flew at him from the direction of his enemy. Homun couldn't make it out until it just a few feet away from him and just narrowly dodged it as he ran. His convergence of memories told him that it was a boomerang, but that's all it said. He ignored any further thoughts and continued running, now within striking distance of his enemy. He locked blades with his opponent, who was about the same size as him. The exchange didn't last long, as the young man retreated out of harm's way and then advanced with an attack of his own. He was talking non-stop the whole time, something Homun was not used to. It was annoying. It made him want to kill him even more.

At this point, Homun's sword was in his right hand and his hands were spread out, looking for an opportunity to grab some part of Banda for assimilation. Homun was about to defend against this attack, but then something hit him in the back of the head so hard that he lost his focus. What hit him was the boomerang, which would've naturally came back to the owner had The Homunculus not been in the way. It fell to the grass below behind Homun, and in the sudden shock he found himself defenseless to the oncoming attack. The claymore cut through his shirt and sliced open his chest, the blade cutting halfway through his skin but stopping just short of his ribcage. The sound that came from the attack was much trying to cut through a steel-linked chainmail. Blood sprayed out immediately and then slowly streamed down Homun's shirt. With his pain threshold very high, Homun merely had to regain his focus to continue fighting. He decided he would use one of his new 'tricks'.

His chest rumbled and shook, and out of its center a dagger bloodily burst right out and flew towards Banda. A large wound was made where the dagger erupted, but skin and tissue slowly spread across it in an effort to regenerate. Right afterwards, Homun jumped at Banda in an attempt to close some distance. If he crashed into the man, he would assimilate him, and if he didn't, he would thrust his sword deep into his enemy's gut. While he was thrusting the sword with his right hand, his entire left arm was stretching forward in order to block any sort of escape to the left. The arm would bend to the right in a wide arc in order to eventually cut off the man's escape and wrap itself around him, sealing his escape. By having multiple agendas at once, it was obvious that Homun was trying to get Banda close to him. His moves put his body into a great deal of risk, but if he managed to assimilate the man, most of his own damage would be undone.

[streak101]

Banda's boomerang had done its part. It connected with the back of his opponent's head and then fell limply to the ground. It disoriented his opponent and Banda was able to do some damage. When it didn't seem to phase the man that he had just been sliced across his chest was when Banda began to worry. Mustn't have been deep enough.

His opponent's chest began to twist and morph. "What are you?" Banda gasped. A dagger burst out from the chest as if Banda's attack was the trigger. Banda tried to evade it, but it was too fast. It cut into Banda's left forearm, he tripped and fell to the ground. The wound was deep, but it had not gone through the bone, blood trickled slowly down his arm. He looked up at his opponent, he had pounced at him, with his arm stretched out. He realized his opponent had done a similar attack before. Is he trying to touch me?

Banda pulled the dagger out of his arm quickly and as painlessly as he could. The blood that had built up near the wound sprayed out profusely and stained his bandana and the left side of his face. He threw the dagger towards the man's left hand and staggered up and away from his opponent. He unhooked the House of Sora chain from the sling around his waist, gripped one of the ends and lashed it sideways at his opponent to unravel it.

[Toy Soldier]

The wagon was dragged lazily on the pebble laden dirt road, with the sound of squeaking slow turning spokes and tiny bouncing stones being heard as the wheels pressed against the small rocks, lodging themselves in the wagon tires’ tracks. Tobias’s halfhearted grip on his ominous possession stemmed from the events that’d transpired in his life over the past several months when the residents of the Toy World began acting strangely. The smartest and most knowledgeable inhabitant of the wagon’s dark macrocosm, Talisman Grail had caught wind of a secret organization by the name of Sine Nomine whose goals perfectly matched the dreams and aspirations of the Toy World natives. Complete and total abolishment of all Althanian governing bodies. To learn of such a group was a dream come true to them. And because of that strong dream, Tobias’ friends began putting their plan into action.

Tobias wasn’t aware of this scheme or the details that were entailed. Although Raiaera was under the attack of the wicked necromancer Xem’zund, he was happy to be in the presence of people that actually cared about him. Stout and honorable Bladesingers and Istien teachers that sought to raise the boy in the way of a song mage and see to it that he become an upstanding, righteous, and noble gentleman. Battalion was a long way away from becoming any of that, but he was thrilled to be on the journey.

But, that all came to a screeching halt.

Some time after the events in Pezra, Dheathain, where he and his colleague, the Bladesinger Feanaro Elensar pursued the wanted Raiaeran enemy Luc Kraus, Tobias returned to Raiaera alongside Elensar in order to help the people in their time of distress. Many individuals had been displaced, but Tobias aided other loyal Raiaerans in providing such people with transportation to the safer towns and cities of the continent. But at a time where tensions were high and chaos reigned supreme in these safe havens due to the grief that the saved carried because of their lost loved ones, Tobias involuntarily opened the door to his wagon’s evil world. Because the young orphan loved the people of his new land, his emotions would sometimes do that. Nothing unfortunate ever happened from such an occurrence, but that had not been the case in this situation.

Talisman Grail was well aware of Tobias’ weakness for the elves. His plans to have the Toy World residents escape, apprehend, and coerce the boy to join Sine Nomine were based on this character flaw. Therefore, when their small window of opportunity presented itself, they struck while the iron was hot.

Tobias didn’t know what hit him. Several of his companions leaped from the erected wagon door and grabbed him before he could gather himself mentally to close the unwanted gateway. Because this took place in a crowded Raiaeran town full of Eluriand escapees, many people including Elensar witnessed Tobias’ kidnapping. Naturally, the Bladesinger rushed to the child’s aid, but it was too late. The wagon suddenly disappeared with Battalion having been pulled through the door.

Sometime later, the orphan was freed from the dark imprisonment of the vile world and spit back out into the real realm, specifically Corone. He’d obviously received a lifetime’s worth of verbal abuse, but he was used to it. In the presence of all of Toy World, he reluctantly agreed to become a member of Sine Nomine even though Talisman had already telepathically contacted Virtue, the organization’s spokesperson stating that Sine Nomine would receive a new recruit. The boy’s answer of acceptance did not match his sentiments, but to quarrel with his allies would do nothing but bring pain and suffering to his loved ones. The Toy World denizens would bring complete destruction to any bond that Tobias’ established if their needs were not made a top priority.

Everything was already prepared like usual. He was told that his proving ground would reside in the Conquest Trials tournament so he went to the appointed battle site. Tobias hated tournaments, having acquired nothing but bad memories from them. But if being forced to compete would spare the lives of Feanaro, Ost’Dagorlin Headmaster Amroth Ancalimon, and any one else the child cared for, then it would all be worth it.

The longer Tobias walked down the country road, hugged by uncultivated farmland, the more he realized that the terrain was actually familiar to him. An unsettling feeling poured over him as his skinny legs covered ground, but the sensation reached its apex when the lonely road broke wide over a series of hills. “No, it can’t be…….” The child began shaking underneath the clear azure skies that matched his widened blue eyes. Johx, a Toy World resident had taken it upon himself to travel with Tobias and took notice of the boy’s consternation.

“Ooooooh!!!! Why does Tobie look so scared???????? You should be happy!!!!!!” The stringed oddity bounced joyfully alongside the orphan, juggling a knife and the crown that he usually wore on his head. Under normal circumstances, Johx’s antics would’ve incited laughter from Tobias, but the chlld remained silent, knowing that his stringy ally was well aware of the reason behind his anxiety.

They were in Woodsy Green, Corone. The rural town that housed Oak Grove, the orphanage that Tobias hailed from. In fact, the very area that the child found himself in was the area where many of the social workers took the children to play during the summer. Small and large hills, clean streams, and vastly open plains were a paradise for energetic and rambunctious youngsters.

“Heeeeeeeeeeeey Tobie-Toby! Look,” Putting the crown back on his head and pointing forward with his knife, Johx brought Tobias’ attention to two men fighting on the plains. The child quickly pulled his companion down low, ducking just above the eye line of the top of the hill that they were on.

“That must be them,” Battalion recalled Talisman saying that the first round would entail a two on two match up. Grail described the boy’s partner to him, stating that he was a violent, mongrel type being with an insatiable desire to kill. Tobias’ gulped nervously upon witnessing the ferocity of the fellow that matched that description. “I don’t know if I can do this……”

“Ooooooooooooof course you can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This will be fun! FUN, FUN, FUN, FUN, FuN!!!!!!!!!!” Immediately, Johx grabbed Tobias and sat him in the wagon, right in front of the large box that he always had with him.

“What are you doing!?” Tobias asked, as he attempted to get out of the red vehicle. However, his comrade hastily sat the child back down, before pushing him and the wagon a couple of feet to the very top of the hill.

“Here weeeeeeeeeee goooooOO!!!!!!!” Johx suddenly pushed the wagon down the fairly steep hill, but not before hopping aboard on his box. Tobias screamed at the top of his lungs, holding the sides of the wagon in sheer terror. He wanted to leap out, but knew that to do so at the speed they were traveling would be foolish.

There was a small ramp that was posted against the edge of the stream that separated the hill from the plain that the two Conquest Trials competitors were battling on. Ironically, Tobias along with his friends had constructed the crude ramp a long time ago, serving as an elevation to propel them over the stream when speeding down the hill on wheeled planks. It was at this time that he wished he’d never made it.

“Ahhhhh!!!!! We’re going to die!!!”

“Hahahahahaha!!!! You might be right Tobie!!!!!!”

When the expeditious wagon rode up the wooden ramp, Tobias and Johx soared high into the air, clearing the stream as they headed straight toward the two battlers. The youngster wasn’t worried so much about the well being of his unintended targets as he was about himself. In fact, the child hoped that Johx and him crashed into at least one of the bloodthirsty warriors since doing so would definitely break their fall. However, if that didn’t happen then……well………….

[Abomination]

All sorts of things went wrong. As Homun's left arm extended forward in an attempt to envelop Banda, his own dagger came flying at it and pierced into the palm of his hand, sending the entire arm off-course to the left, safely away from its intended target. Not only that, but when Banda removed the dagger from his forearm, blood sprayed everywhere- including Homun's body. He was immediately blinded by the blood and stopped. As he tried to back up to regain his composure, a chain wrapped itself around his sword and he lost his grip. He continued backing up, using his newly-freed right hand to wipe the blood out of his eyes and pulling back his super-stretched left arm. He looked at his left palm and there was a dagger sticking through it. At first he was angry, but almost immediately he became pleased to the point of grinning sadistically. Banda's blood was all over him and that dagger, assimilation was only a few moments aw---

CRASH!

The front of a red wagon slammed into Homun's head, sending both him and the wagon flying backwards until Homun hit the ground and the wagon rolled over him and down the plains. Startled by the sudden pain, he pulled himself up as fast and clumsily as he could, holding his broken skull together with both hands. His head was almost split in half, with half his face sliding slightly downwards and rivers of blood pouring from the many cracks. Huge globs of blood crept through his head and fell to the grass, his head hanging to the side like it was dislocated and his neck turning purple. He looked like some kind of broken doll, desperately trying to keep his head on his shoulders. He still managed to create a smile out of the broken excuse of a mouth he still had, because once the assimilation process started this damaged would be reversed!

True to his predictions, the pieces of his head that were barely attached started fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. The dagger slid out of his palm and the hole closed up and stopped bleeding. Skin grew over the deep cut on his chest and also stopped bleeding. He expected, at any moment, for memories about his opponent to be rushing into his head. Memories that would prove valuable to defeating this... this... Nothing? He felt strange. Well, stranger than usual. His body, as well, as healing, was changing. He had no choice but to let this occur, as whatever force had infiltrated his body through the wagon was much more powerful than he was. Lines formed all over his body that sunk in at his joints and curves. These lines sunk in and the connections between his body parts seemed less like bones and more like strings. His skin semi-solidified and had a wood-like quality to it. Two lines started at the two ends of his mouth and moved downwards, all the way to his chest. His pale skin became stark white, his eyes became pools of black with a red, shining dot in the center. There were no memories to be had. No dreams, no regrets, no coherent thoughts to be examined. He lost all feeling, all emotion, he was like some sort of... some sort of...

Puppet.

The places where his skull cracked became lines, so his whole face looked like it was stitched up. With his body still facing forward, his head turned and turned until it was facing full backwards, staring at what had hit him. For some reason, he felt like he should do no harm to the boy.

Only the bottom portion of his mouth opened and closed, his sharp teeth disappearing in the blackness of his insides. As his mouth clattered, it sounded distinctly wooden, and in his doll-like eyes a deep glare directed at the boy. The intensity of the glow in his eyes dimmed and shone like a flickering torch.

"Hoo-hoo!" came from his mouth in a voice similar to Johx, the boy's little string companion.

Homun couldn't fight the feeling that he could deal with the boy later. For now... a more pressing matter. His head turned back and stared at his true opponent. The wood-like quality of his body was hard to tell with all the blood he was drenched in.

"Hoo-hoo! Let's have some fun!"

He lifted up his right arm and pointed his palm at the sky. Suddenly, his right hand detached itself and fell limp to the side of his arm, still hanging on by a string. The fingers clattered as they hit each other, and inside the arm it was hollow and dark. FWOOSH! Fireworks erupted out of his arm and flew up into the sky.

"Look at the pretty fireworks, hoo-hoo!"

They became brighter and brighter, and before they became blinding light, The Homunculus opened his mouth much wider than he usually could. The bottom of his mouth disappeared into his neck, so the opening was long and deep. It was like his entire body was hollow. He aimed at Banda, and twenty daggers flew out of his mouth toward the young man. Homun could not control where they flew despite his best efforts, but at least some of them should fly toward his intended target, while others could potentially cut off his escape route. During the first critical stage of the assimilation, it seemed another had taken affect before Banda's could. It's not certain whether it's Tobias or Toy World that was assimilated, but The Homunculus had a piece of Toy World within him. The individual dolls were dangerous enough, but what would happen if they were all together in one body? It was unknown how much of Toy World was in Homun, but one thing was for sure: The world that was locked away from Althanas had just extended a hand into this one.

[Toy Soldier]

When the front of the wagon violently collided into the skull of his monster-like partner, the young orphan truly believed that he’d killed the fellow. The sound of flesh tearing and bone cracking was almost as loud as the child’s boisterous outcries. There wasn’t much time to react to the clearly injured man however, since the aerial descent upon the grass fields bounced Tobias and Johx roughly, sending them tumbling nearly twenty feet afterward.

Upon the chaotic tumbled ceasing, Battalion only found a few minor abrasions on his legs. His stringed companion had somehow intertwined himself through all four wheels of the toppled wagon, laughing as each tire spun until the stationary position of the red vehicle eventually brought the revolving wheels to a complete stop. Dents and nicks littered the child’s wheeled possession. The crimson paint exposed its steel frame underneath and the spokes distorted in such a way that when rotated, the annoying squeaking sound that it routinely made when dragged was ten times worse.

“It looks like I’ll have to get Nathaniel to fix this,” Tobias sighed, examining the red wagon briefly. The only items that seemed to be in good shape were the stringed individual’s box and Tobias’ shield. The wooden paddle that he’d grown accustomed to using as a weapon had snapped clean in half. The orphan picked the two pieces up and joined them together in a futile attempt to make it whole again. In frustration, he squeezed the worthless chunks of wood and hurled them into the nearby stream. “You just had to be an idiot, didn’t you Johx!! Why do you always do stupid stuff like that!?”

By this time, the crown wearing, box-lugging jokester managed to free his tangled self from the wheels. When he rose to his feet, he stared into the orphan's eyes, not saying a word. The stringed creature’s strangely solemn behavior startled the boy, nearly erasing any indignation that he harbored, and for good reason. This was the first time that he had actually seen Johx serious.

“Johx….I didn’t mean to…”

“BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I got you!! I got you gooooooooood!!! You should’ve seen your face!!!!” Truncating his laughter, Johx imitated the Toy World gate opener’s expression before bursting out into laughter once again.

Tobias crossed his arms, adopting an irritated countenance for the second time. He should’ve known that at the root of everything Johx did was comedy. Wishing to not deal with the prankster for the time being, he waved his hand down at him before walking in the direction of his Sine Nomine ally in order to check on his condition. However, several steps had been all that Tobias walked before freezing in terror, observing the eerie man’s head rotate 180 degrees. Battalion had seen films on the pictabox where zombies did grotesque acts like that, but never in person.

“Wh….what are you?” The young mage backed up slowly, utilizing his peripheral vision to locate his steel shield so that when the time was right, he could dash toward it and pick it up in order to defend himself. But the freakish thing simply spun his head around, gazed at the enemy, and screamed something incoherent.

“Hoo-hoo?” A puzzled expression washed over his face. Tobias didn’t know what to make of this, yet when the fellow’s apparently wooden arm unlatched and fired something into the sky, fear had once again established authority in his heart.

“Crap!!” The child sprinted toward his shield, diving for it and holding it over his head as if defending against launching arrows. From underneath the circular object’s protection, the world around the boy turned colorful and bright. Thoughts revolving around Johx’s safety entered his mind, but when he heard the jester’s laughter, he rolled his eyes and dismissed any additional thoughts of concern.

Quickly realizing that nothing was blowing up or consuming the fields with fire, lightening, or any other flashy tool of destruction, the eleven year old peaked underneath the shield. “Fireworks?” Tobias didn’t understand what was going on, but there was hardly any time to since Johx had wrapped his thin arm around Battalion’s hand and pulled him to his feet.

“Hahahahaha!!!!! Hoo-hoo!!! Hoo-hoo!!!!!” Johx emulated the nonsensical ramblings of the boy’s abnormal partner as he picked Tobias up and once again sat him in the wagon. “Hold this for a moment Tobie-Tobie!!!!” The large wooden box was slammed into Tobias’ arms. Verbal chastisement was locked, loaded, and ready to fire at the stringed prankster, but the sudden event of knives beginning to fly out of the orphan’s ally’s mouth caught his eye just before the illumination of the fireworks reached their peak.

“Johx, did you see that!? Something strange is,” Battalion looked over his left shoulder and didn’t see his companion. “Johx? Johx!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW!?” Tobias’ eyes found him some fifteen feet away bouncing up and down, dancing to the crackling and popping of the fireworks.

“Tobie-Tob-Tob!!!!! It’s aaaaaaaaaa PAaaaaAAaAAaaRTY!!!!!” He continued to dance like a drunken fool before he abruptly stopped. Tobias didn’t say anything this time, but instead watched his cohort behind the protection of his shield. He knew Johx was about to do something unpredictable. “Tobie-Tobie!!! This is a party so we need dancing shoes! Right? RigHT!? RIGHT!?!?!?!?!?!?!”

There was no time to reply, of course.

Johx ran over to the wagon and grabbed the back of it, pushing the vehicle forward with great speed. Tobias was still in it, precariously holding onto not only the box, but also his shield. Several of the daggers were still soaring randomly out of his partner’s mouth, which prompted the youngster to hold out his shield and deflect some of the incoming blades. It became quite obvious that the target was the bandana-wearing soldier. Battalion braced himself, thinking that yet another collision was about to take place. However, Johx’s unpredictability struck again.

With a hard kick, the crowned Toy World resident lifted the wagon forward, sending Tobias and his box flying at the vest-wearing warrior. Immediately after, Johx lunged for the individual’s feet like a possessed madman, seeking to latch onto the soldier’s boots and steal his footwear.

“GIMME those gray boots OkAy PleAse!?!?! I wanna dance and they will be good for dancing!!! Yup, yup, yup!!! GOoooooooD foooooor Daaaaaancing!!!!”

[streak101]

Banda sighed in relief, his counter attack bought him time to evade the attack, and his chain had successfully wrapped itself around the man's sword. A grin replacing the sigh, Banda pulled the sword out of the man's hand and wrapped the chain securely around the sword hilt. He held the other end of the chain with his right hand and spun it over his head. Combining the chain and sword Banda had created yet another weapon at his disposal. Banda swung the chain downward at his opponent.

Although he wasn't expecting the wagon. The vehicle had crashed into his opponent and negated his attack. The sword flew past the mercenary and pulled him backwards. Banda skidded across the sand. He quickly got up and assessed the situation. That wasn't Kara, but the wagon did strike the enemy, on the other hand, it could've hit either of them. But is the battle over? He thought, his enemy was most likely dead, he took a head injury. "Still..." Banda dragged the chain and sword on the ground and clutched his claymore tightly in his left hand.

He gasped, his opponent was gone, and in its stead was a new enemy. This opponent was much different, he was wooden for one, he resembled a puppet. Banda, this one...Your previous opponent and this puppet are one and the same, they are the same entity. Banda spit on the floor. "Shape shifter then? Just perfect." He looked towards the wagon its apparent driver was still alive.

Suddenly, his opponent shouted, and flares erupted from his arm. Banda covered his face with his sword, but the flares were sent up into the sky. At the same time, numerous dagger were released from the enemy's mouth. There was no specific direction, but some of the knives were headed in the direction of Banda. He immediately dropped his claymore and pulled his shield off of his back and switched the chain to his left hand, holding the shield with his right. The flares would have blinded anyone at this point. Banda felt the thud of the blades.

"More knives!?" Banda dropped his shield and pulled one of the knives off. The next sound he heard was the sound of wheels. The wagon was rolling quickly towards Banda, the mercenary had no time to get away. It seemed the driver had a different plan though, the wagon halted in mid-stride and threw its passenger forward at Banda. The driver seemed to be but a small boy. Him! He is also your opponent! Banda believed Saffron to be speaking the truth, the spirit could see into the minds of others.

Another figure lept at the mercenary, another puppet-like character. Banda jumped away, he gripped the dagger and threw it towards the puppet. He thrust his fist outward at the child, not wishing to attack him with his blade.