Bury the Hatchet

Intern Rep! : 12 Location : The Living Room Couch

Bury the Hatchet

Alicia disliked people who couldn't take a hint. It wasn't in her nature to have to repeat herself- especially toward people who don't understand the big "N-O" the first time. So, when Alicia was forced to take up arms against the mercenaries that she had booted out of the small village of Hyal around a week ago- she wasn't too keen on having to scare them off again. She simply hoped she wouldn't be forced to kill any of the poor bastards- seeing as she had already given their leader a rather good-sized ass-kicking last time and that clearly wasn't message enough for the sellswords to stay the hell away. However, if worst came to worst, she wouldn't hesitate to end the life of any of the mercenaries- especially if any of the townfolk were in danger. They were good people- and Alicia had made a personal vow (as well as another one with Tarim) that she would protect this town should they be assaulted. She simply hadn't, for whatever reason, expected the sellswords to return to the place.

Luckily for Alicia- these men were full-blown idiots. Not only did they wait for the middle of the day to return to the village- but they did so haughtily, toting artifact weaponry as well as hefty-looking swords in a display of their awesome strength. Alicia didn't really expect that any of the men could use the lead-shooters they had at their hips- and that even fewer of them could best her at swordplay... granted, she no longer had a sword. With only her bow in hand, the Knight approached them, as they had her- stand-off style, staring at each-other through the main thoroughfare of the village. It was all very ludicrous to Alicia- who didn't understand the lack of tactics involved in such a maneuver. Were they expecting her to lay down arms and apologize for kicking them out of the city sooner? Because it seemed that that may have been the case- considering how surprised some of them looked to see Alicia standing her ground.

The leader of the bunch, whom Alicia had begun to refer to as Ol' Shrimp Eyes due to his tiny eyes, stood with his arms crossed with a big, stupid grin across his face. Perhaps he felt safe enough with twelve troops- including himself, versus one. Alicia was never one to count numbers in battles- unless they were unimaginably higher than she was used to fighting- and with the advent of her magical powers, she felt more than capable of taking out 12 well-armed mercenaries... maybe. Not killing them would be much harder than necessary on the Knight- but she also realized that these men weren't the crazed lunatics the bandits she was used to dealing with were. Some of them were sellswords because that's what they did best- or because they had to. She had dealt a pretty serious blow to their pride in so effortlessly taking out their leader, so they felt that a display of power would be a good move.

Unfortunately for them, it was not.

"Boys," started Ol' Shrimp Eyes, a wide grin across his features, "Wot 'as two legs and belongs in a keetchen?"

"Z'it a girl, boss?" replied one of the more dopey looking mercs.

With a brief outburst of laughter from the majority of the men (a few still looked rather intimidated by the Knight), the leader grinned widely, keeping a steady eye on the Knight. "Ya always knew my questions best, Phil."

After wincing at the terrible, terrible humor (if you could even call it that), Alicia dropped her bow into her hand, calling out to the sellswords. "Last chance to leave town. If you don't start walking, I'll start shooting. You've wasted enough of your time here."

Ol' Shrimp Eyes cocked an eyebrow at this before turning to his gang and laughing again. The Knight stood on and watched, impassive as she counted down the seconds before the first arrow would leave her bow. "Little lady, I don't think ya know how ta count." He chuckled again shortly before continuing, "Yer in no position to make threa--"

A blunted fowling arrow stopped the man mid-sentence, catching him in the center of his forehead and immediately knocking him unconscious.

After a moment of shocked silence, another bolt whizzed through the air- catching another man in the temple and felling him immediately as well. One of the men- one with a pretty quick draw and cock on his ancient six-shooter, incapacitated himself as the gun he held burst into flames within his hand, exploding as he pulled the trigger rather than firing a molten slug of lead at the girl. Two of his buddies fell as well- dead, unfortunately, with fragments of gun-metal embedded in their skulls. All of this had caused a significant amount of shock within their ranks, and Alicia was able to fell another man with her blunt arrows before they were even able to return fire.

Alicia was quite surprised at how well she had taken to the bow; and while she would never be as good a marksman as she was a swordsman, she had certainly learned how to hold her own in ranged combat over a very short period of time. She was a bit terrified to think of the creature she would be had she taken the path of a ranger rather than a knight- but these were naught but trivial thoughts that she had occasionally during her hours by herself. Nevertheless, she showed her newfound skills with terrifying grace and calm as she incapacitated each mercenary with a single bolt apiece.

That being said- by now the men had begun to return fire. Even if they were all complete idiots, they were clearly still part of a mercenary outfit. Four men rushed forward, breaking into two-man groups and attacking in a pincer formation with blades drawn. Alicia currently didn't have the skill to take out four charging idiots before one could reach her and decapitate her; and it didn't help that the two men who had remained where they were standing had now opened fire on the Knight while she stood in the center of the street.

White hot lead pierced Alicia's armor- a painful reminder of what cover was used for in ranged combat. Upon feeling the heat of the bullet pierce her skin, Alicia ducked behind the corner of a nearby building, firing a single arrow as she went- striking one of the charging men directly in the eye and sending him reeling in agony. As the others rounded the corner (dropping formation as they did so) Alicia drew three arrows- tossing two into the open air behind her before stepping back and launching the bolt she still held directly into the first man's jaw, felling him immediately. As soon as the first missile left her fingers, Alicia reached into the air behind her and pulled in one of the two she had thrown, firing that as well into the unfortunate man's face before her. She reached back for the final arrow as the last remaining mercenary was on top of her- swinging in a wide, but deadly arc with his weapon. Not having anything else to parry with, Alicia used her bow-deflecting the dull blade with dense, well-crafted wood- immediately countering his swing with a swift elbow to the sellsword's gut before following up with a well-placed headbutt; sending the man to the ground immediately.

Pulling another arrow out, Alicia rounded the corner, immediately firing her arrow where one of the men had been standing. Unsurprisingly, he had moved in an attempt to get a better vantage point on the Knight's position, though he seemed more than a bit surprised when she had popped out from behind the corner. Regardless of this, the arrow missed and the man fired- sending a lead slug flying off wildly into the sky. Reaching out, Alicia grabbed the man's arm and pulled him close to her before cruelly twisting the limb and bringing him close to her body- using him as a human shield. The final mercenary, upon seeing this, simply raised his hands and dropped his gun- realizing defeat when he saw it. Wrenching the artifact weapon from the man's hand, Alicia tossed the gun behind her and kicked out the man's legs, sending him to his knees before pushing him into the dirt.

Upon having claimed victory, the Knight rushed over to the man who had blown off his own hand as he writhed about on the ground, in terrible agony. Whispering a few words to herself, Alicia extended a glowing palm toward the man, sealing his wound and soothing his terrible pain. He would never hold a blade again in the hand he had mutilated, but he would live.

Turning to the man who had surrendered, a teenager barely more than seventeen years of age, Alicia nodded to him, "So, what's your name, boy?"

"Kess..." he muttered, keeping a steady eye on the woman, as she addressed him, unsure of what to think.

"How'd you like to let me train you lot how to actually fight, Kess?"

xp: 1730 # 1730 xp
+1 TEXP (250 EXP Post)
Other: +3 NS Troops (Mercenary Turncoats: Kess, Lias and Reynalt)
ITEM GET ROLL!

Intern Rep! : 12 Location : The Living Room Couch

Item get roll

Veteran Rep! : 5

The member 'Soothesayer' has done the following action : Dices roll

'10 Roll' : 9

Intern Rep! : 12 Location : The Living Room Couch

Bury the Hatchet

Having since been patched up after the battle with the mercenary outfit, Alicia approached the bound leader- who was being held along with the men who refused to swear allegiance to Alicia in an empty house in the middle of town. The Knight made it clear that she didn't want to fight them and that they needed to clear out, lest she actually be forced to kill them. Ol' Shrimp Eyes, who was happy enough to be alive through a second bout with the woman, accepted this and agreed to leave the village of Hyal alone. At that, the remaining seven sellswords left the village, leaving the three who had agreed to personal training from Alicia with the woman.

Kess, the youngest of the bunch, had taken quickly to the sword; easily favoring the blade over the the artifact weapon he had used against Alicia earlier. The other men, Lias and Reynalt, already had some minor level of skill with the such weapons, but their skills were severely lacking in most aspects and they didn't seem to understand the concept of having a stance. Over the next few weeks, Alicia trained with the men- improving their skills tenfold within such a short period of time. It was almost phenomenal to see how much these men had changed- both in personage and skill with the blade.

Alongside teaching them how to fight- Alicia taught them of the Knight's Code- of putting the lives of the meek and innocent before your own and about how there is no greater pride than protecting those who can't protect themselves. Luckily, the men had all agreed that it was a pretty decent concept to live by and accepted such beliefs whole-heartedly, adopting the Knight's Code and leaving behind the idea of selling your skills for money. She also briefly taught the men how to scavenge- how to hunt and how to skin and cook wild game, as well as use their hides for bartering and whatnot- essentially showing them how to be self-sustaining individuals.

It was an exhausting couple of weeks, but Alicia was fairly certain she could back down with her tutelage and instead focus on other tasks at hand- such as finding a new blade for herself and finding out when exactly the Tribe of Dorn was leaving for Mare Maris- seeing as she would offer to protect her former tribe on their dangerous journey. Inbetween those two times she would probably take the men on a few hunting excursions- as well as some trips into Medius to search for bartering items and to explore in general.

Gaarm, it seemed- had also begun to take a liking to Alicia. She had been fairly certain the large beast was somewhere around town when she fought the mercenaries, and when she had returned that night she found a wild boar carcass outside of her house with teeth marks that looked surprisingly like Gaarms. In addition to this, the wolf/dog hybrid had gone out of his way to give the Knight company on her hunting excursions, and he had begun to sleep closer to the house she had put together. Alicia had begun to consider putting up a kennel for the gigantic canine- but she was fairly certain that he wouldn't take very kindly to being put in a cage. In her old village, they had kept such beasts in more of a stable- and they were free to come and go as they pleased.

All and all, it had been a very productive few weeks, and Alicia was quite pleased at the progress she had made.

xp: 666 # 2396 xp
+1 TEXP (2nd RP Post)
Other: The Antichrist's EXP

Intern Rep! : 12 Location : The Living Room Couch

Item get roll: Very Common (Sorry for not doing this in connection with the last post >_>

Veteran Rep! : 5

The member 'Soothesayer' has done the following action : Dices roll

'10 Roll' : 9