Forever on the run }{ ~OPEN~

[Kilaray]

Jarrah simply nodded to Echo as she wandered off and turned his attention back to staring at the fire. But a few minutes after she left, he suddenly got a bad feeling. He had no explanation for it - he hadn't heard anyone else approach - but he had learned to trust his instincts over the years. And right now it almost felt like he was being watched...

However, by the time Echo returned, nothing had happened. All he had was a bad hunch to go on. So, not wanting to risk frightening the girl over something that probably wasn't there anyway, he said nothing about it and tried not to let on about his unease. For all he knew, he was just on edge from the near miss this morning.

Within minutes he happened to look up and see another stranger approach. At first Jarrah thought nothing of it and wasn't concerned. In fact, he started to relax as the person drew nearer. Alaron's group of henchmen, he knew, was traveling in a group of six or eight, and this fellow was alone. He had no reason to assume this newcomer to be anything more than a passing traveler.

That quickly changed. Next thing Jarrah knew, he had a blade in his face and it became all to clear that this guy was working for his brother somehow. For a brief moment he cursed himself for his stupidity, and for dragging Echo into this.

But then he heard the stranger mutter something about the Scrolls of Ushtor. By the way he spoke, Jarrah could assume that the hunters had promised them as payment if Talwyn aided in the capture. Now that he understood what was going on, maybe he could use this to his advantage.

He knew for a fact there was no way such men would have the scrolls in their possession. They were kept under strict guard. If the hunters offered them as payment, then they were misleading Talwyn.

Glancing up at the stranger, Jarrah lifted both of his hands as if to signal that he wasn't going to offer any resistance. Keeping his attention on the blade, he carefully stood up and took just a couple of steps back. Then, in the time frame of half a second, he'd crossed his arms over his chest and sent an explosion of light throughout the area.

The interesting thing about Alaron's henchmen was the way they were put together. Essentially, they were creatures of darkness, created from the shadows Alaron manipulated. Apparently the elder brother was too lazy to go out and recruit anyone himself, so he just created minions as the need arose. Unfortunately for Jarrah, that meant his brother had an unlimited supply of underlings ready and willing to do his bidding.

But there was in fact an up side to the situation, and it was really the only reason Jarrah had managed to evade his brother for so long. Had they been normal beings, he would have been captured a long time ago. But being creatures of shadow, Alaron's lackeys had a serious aversion to light magic. It didn't take much to blind them or seriously injure them so long as Jarrah used his light to counter them.

So what he had just done he knew would blind at least a few of them and leave most of the rest of them reeling in one way or another. The spell was designed to push back anyone with hostilities towards the caster. So not only would it force back the hunters, but it should put some distance between Jarrah and Talwyn, as well. Echo wouldn't be effected, as she obviously meant no harm.

Jarrah was prepared, though, to throw up a barrier around himself and the girl in case Talwyn or one of the henchmen recovered quickly. With all their escape routes cut off, he knew there would be no way of getting out of here right away. And, not being much of a fighter, Jarrah didn't want to have to go toe-to-toe against Talwyn if he could avoid it.

[laraine]

Echo at first was in shock over hearing this new man want Jarrah in chains. Then she heard him say something about not wanting to involve a little girl and that annoyed her. She opened her mouth to give this guy a piece of her mind but then saw Jarrah raise his arms.

Is...he giving up?

Then he crossed his arms and a explosion of light surrounded them. At first Echo closed her eyes to refocus on the light and noticed that at least they were safe for now. She stood up and held out her hand which started to glow.

"Thanks Jarrah, guess its now this 'little girl's' turn. If its one thing I hate more than anything its being treated like a child!"

She smirked as her glowing white hand swung around her in a complete circle. Suddenly a huge gust of wind appeared from around the light and blew through the mountain sending most, if not all the figures flying quite a ways away down the mountain.

This gust of wind lasted quite a while, until Echo couldn't hold it anymore and released her power.

"Now's a good chance to escape Jarrah while they are stunned. I'm sure that wind knocked at least some of them off the path. We have to hurry!"

[Talwyn]

Tal closed his eyes and immediately started mumbling when the blast of light hit him. Sadly for Jarrah however, he wasn't pushed back very far, nor was the light all that blinding. He held no true hostility towards either Jarrah or Echo, his actions were driven by a deeply rooted sense of desperation, and he would have gladly gone about this another way if he knew of one.

Just as he started to see again, Echo released her mighty gale in an attempt to stun her assailants. Sadly for her, Tal remained standing firmly and before either of them could run off, he dropped to a knee and slammed his fist into the ground. With a loud rumble, a wall of earth rose from behind his targets. He eyed Echo with a co.cky grin. "You two aren't going anywhere Missy. I need those scrolls, and I will do whatever it takes to get them. So please, do not make this harder then it is..." Despite his co.cky grin, it almost sounded like he was pleading.

With most of the easy escape routes blocked off thanks to Talwyn's wall, the captain decided it was time to get rid of him. They had found and basically cornered the target and thus the adventurer had outlived his usefulness. A single nod was all the crony next to him needed. Quickly the man loaded his crossbow and aimed it at Tal's back and fired. Not even Tal's stone skin could possibly save him from a direct hit...

[Kilaray]

Jarrah held up a hand to signal for Echo to wait. After the gust, most of the henchmen had been blown a safe distance away. But he could still see a couple up ahead and Talwyn hadn't been pushed far enough that he could be sure they would get away safely. Besides, Jarrah still had something to take care of here.

He was startled to feel the ground shaking, and when he spun around he found that a wall of earth was blocking off any escape routes from behind. No matter. Jarrah wasn't trying to get away just yet, anyhow. If anything, it made it so he didn't have to watch his back.

He turned again when he heard Talwyn speak, and he opened his mouth to respond. But up ahead he saw the captain signal to another, who loaded his crossbow. At first he thought they were looking to take out him or Echo and started to raise his barrier. Until he noticed where the arrow was being aimed - right at Talwyn's back.

This new development didn't surprise him - these guys were just as rotten as the man who created them.

He lifted his hand and did throw up a barrier, but he put it behind Talwyn instead just in time to deflect the arrow. There was a brief flash as the weapon made contact before it dropped to the ground. "Talwyn, please listen to me. These men are deceiving you - they don't have the scrolls."

[laraine]

" What the heck is going on here?" Echo was slightly confused at who was against who with this turn of events. While the strange new adventurer seemed sorry that he had to hurt the two, it still hit a nerve with her. She was also annoyed that the wind didn't seem to affect a few of the evil guys.

Either way, she decided to wait to see who was on who's side and take it from there. She took a deep breath and waited behind Jarrah, crossing her arms over her chest.

This may get ugly soon, I hope I have enough power to handle this...

[Talwyn]

Spinning around, Talwyn realized what happened and guessed correctly that either the man or girl must have done something to just save his life. As Jarrah pleaded with him to listen, he turned his head partly. Of course the man would say that... but the mercenaries had just tried to kill him... "What are you doing? We had a deal!" He shouted sounding incredulous. The captain merely chuckled. "Had is indeed the proper form. We found our target and he has no where to run. You just outlived your usefulness mister Greyoak."

Fueled with rage, Talwyn started mumbling and magical energy started building up around him. When he was done, a bolt of lightning erupted from his hand and blasted the man holding the crossbow, which had once more aimed his weapon at Talwyn. While keeping his eyes on the other men, he carefully moved backwards to Echo and Jarrah.

"Well, it seems my employer has decided to betray me. Meaning I no longer have to uphold my part of the deal anymore either. There were eleven of them in total, but..." He nodded towards the smoldering corpse of the one that had tried to shoot him. "One has been taken care off. I do not know how capable you two are, so I'll let you decide. Fight or flee?"

[Kilaray]

Jarrah knew from the start that his claim alone probably wouldn't have been enough to convince the stranger, even if it was the truth. So in a sense, the mercenaries trying to kill Talwyn hadn't been an entirely bad thing - though he would have preferred a much less risky way of convincing the other, had it been possible.

Still, what was done was done, and now it seemed Talwyn was turning on his employer. Someone else with a more pessimistic attitude might have viewed the whole thing as a ruse to get him to drop his guard. But Jarrah was going to have to bet on that not being the situation and take what he could get.

He kept his eye on the captain as he reached for the daggers on his belt. "Might as well get rid of them. They won't stop following unless they're dead."

Glancing behind him at Echo, he offered an apologetic smile for dragging her needlessly into this. "Sorry...think you can handle a couple of these guys?" After what he'd seen a few minutes ago, he didn't doubt that she could. But at the same time he didn't want to assume too much of her and risk an innocent bystander getting injured through his own negligence.

[laraine]

"Tch, I thought you'd never ask.." Echo smirked, and held out her hands both starting to glow green. "These guys annoy me." Her eyes seemed to be alight with the fire of battle. She turned to Talwyn. "Now I'll show you how to use earth magic..."

She stepped away from them all and pressed her hands against the ground, feeling for the nearest men as they ran towards her. Her hands glowed a bright green and suddenly spikes of earth erupted from the ground and impaled two of the men after them.

She wiped sweat from her face as her hands stopped glowing.

Darn.. only fire and water left....

[Talwyn]

"Might as well get rid of them." The told him. "They won't stop following unless they're dead." Well, that was just perfect. A fierce grin appeared on Tal's face. "I was hoping you'd say that. I don't like getting back-stabbed." He chuckled when the girl responded with confidence and nodded appreciatively when she used her magic.

"Nice trick. No incantation... you even got them without seeing them. But I can do a lot more then just raise a simple wall as well. In any case, the ugly one that decided it'd be a good idea to stab me in my back is mine!" With that, he dashed forward and crossed blades with the mercenary captain.

A slight frown appeared on the mans face now that he could see Tal's face. "No wonder you keep that face hidden. You're a freak." As always, the comment stung... a lot. It's not like it had been his choice to get a skin of stone as if he was some sort of human-golem hybrid.

A quick lunge from Tal was easily parried by the mercenary, yet Tal managed to parry the counter. And so the fight went back and forth, both warriors were seemingly of equal skill. He couldn't help but feel some slight relief at the thought he had two allies though. He had fought against multiple enemies at once of course, but those had been bandits. Badly organized, poorly outfitted, hell, quite often some seemed to have problems determining which end of the sword was sharp...

These mercenaries were a different story though. They knew how to work together and none of them seemed like a blundering idiot either. Fighting these guys all at once would have meant serious trouble.

Ignoring yet another taunt from his opponent, Tal circled around his opponent. By now, both fighters were bleeding from several superficial wounds and he wondered how the man and girl were doing. He still hadn't been attacked in the rear, so he assumed they were still giving the others more then enough to deal with.

[Kilaray]

Try as he might, Jarrah couldn't hold in a snicker at Echo's response to his question. She had spunk, he'd give her that.

Glancing around, he noticed that the mercenaries who had been blown away earlier were starting to find their way back. With the other two able to handle themselves, he turned his attention to the two nearest him.

The one in front tried to bring his blade down on Jarrah's shoulder, but the medic managed to hold it off with his daggers. He shoved the sword to the side in order to throw the mercenary off balance, then lashed out with his foot to kick him away. The second wasted no time in taking over for the first and came damn close to running him through. Somehow, though, Jarrah raised his hand in time to shoot a light dagger into his chest to distract him. While the mercenary was reeling from the contact with light, Jarrah leaped forward to impale the other directly in the heart.

The entire time, he subconsciously kept part of his attention on Echo and Talwyn. While he certainly appreciated the help in disposing of Alaron's minions, he still disliked the idea of others getting caught up in his problems, whether by choice or by fluke. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was making sure the other two were holding up okay.

Unaccustomed to having such a distraction, he didn't notice the first to come after him recover quickly from the blow until the last second. Jarrah barely had time to lift his daggers again after shoving away the dead mercenary to hold off the blade headed for his throat. Unable to keep his balance, he was forced backwards against a tree.

For a few seconds the two of them were locked in a stalemate, with the mercenary gradually forcing all three blades up against Jarrah's neck. When he felt one of his own daggers just barely cutting into his skin, he brought up his foot and gave the other a quick kick to the stomach. It gave him enough wiggle room that he could drop down to his knees and bring the daggers up to get rid of this one, as well.

[laraine]

Echo cursed silently to herself as two more appeared before her. She only had two elements left and once those were gone she'd be practically useless. Still she enticed the men to come closer and as they ran to impale her, she grasped both of their arms and instantly they were engulfed in flames.

Just as the red glow on her hands began to fade, another appeared and she grit her teeth, running towards the male and touching him, lighting him on fire as well before the glow faded.

That was stupid Echo.. She commented to herself as she fell to one knee, trying to catch her breath and remain standing.

Only water left now....darn it...where can I find water on this mountain?

She saw the ice around her and rolled her eyes. "Duh.."

As one more appeared she smirked and her hands glowed blue. A large hammer of ice appeared from behind her as she raised her hands.

The one man before her didn't stand a chance...

[Talwyn]

Locking blades once more, Talwyn silently cursed his opponent. "I should have known something was fishy when a ragtag group such as you claimed to have those scrolls." The captain gave him a sly look in response. "Hahaha. Yes you were really easy to fool mister Greyoak. I still can't believe you actually believed me when I told you I had them. You seemed smarter then that."
"So you never even had those scrolls in the first place?"
"Of course not."

A wicked grin flashed on Tal's face. "Good, that means I won't have to worry about destroying them. Efreet, source of all fire!" Raising his voice, those sensitive to the flow of magic could once more feel the magical energy gathering around him. "Gather thy power hidden deep beneath the earth!" He gave a quick kick to the man's stomach. As the toppled over from the force, Tal let one hand go from his sword and delivered a devastating punch straight into his face, sending the man almost flying.

"And engulf my foes with thy flames!" Finishing his incantation, he raised his free hand. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then a slight rumble was all the warning everyone got as a stream of fire erupted from underneath the mercenary captain. A quick glance showed him there were only five more adversary. Correction, not five, four he said to himself as he noticed how one of them got squashed by a gigantic hammer of ice.

He was standing next to the smoldering corpse of the first bandit he killed, when he noticed one of the remaining mercenaries was sneaking up on the girl. She seemed to be out of breath, and the distance was to great. Letting go of his sword, he dropped down and grabbed the crossbow. Thankfully, the previous owner had managed to load and discard it before being hit by the lightning bolt. Seemingly taking aim at Echo he pulled the trigger, causing the bolt to soar right past her head and into the mercenary.

[Kilaray]

Jarrah paused after shoving away another mercenary when he noticed the flow of magic. While most of Alaron's lackeys only had weapons training, he had run across a small handful with the ability to wield shadow magic. And he'd been distracted enough that he didn't realize Talwyn's was the raised voice he was hearing. So for a brief second he was concerned about the situation - but that changed when he heard the rumble and saw the flames in his peripheral vision.

By now he was bleeding from a few places and slightly out of breath with all the activity. Had he been alone, he would have used his magic to take care of these guys rather than take them head-on as they came. But he didn't know how much of his energy he was going to need to tend to the other two once this was over, so he was trying to conserve what he could.

After taking a quick second to check how many were left, he saw only three up and around. If any on the ground were still alive, they wouldn't be much longer and therefore weren't a threat.

With the enemy's numbers being so low, Jarrah put one of his daggers back on his belt and brought his free hand in front of him, holding up two fingers as he started muttering. "Arvandor kalina, neuma lo cotumo."

The second he finished, the remaining mercenaries were bound where they stood by rings of light. The spell would only hold for maybe fifteen or twenty seconds before it wore off, but that still gave them more than enough time to finish up here. So he grabbed his dagger again to take care of the one nearest him.

[laraine]

Echo realized that now since three were left, she was ultimately useless.

She turned just as one tried to hurt her, but a arrow killed him instantly. She turned to who shot that arrow and made a half smile. Then the smile was gone, and she frowned from her crouching position.

"Thanks.." that was all she said. She still hadn't really forgiven him for trying to hurt them in the first place, but it was a start.

Struggling to stand, she stared as the other two continued to fight, She wondered how they both could be so much stronger than her. Granted, her power was more or less used for taking out large amounts of people without allies. Hence why she couldn't use the full amount of her power.

But still.... I have to be stronger than this..I have no other way to defend myself....darn it..

Even as the remaining mercenaries were bounded, she still had problems even standing. She was on the verge of collapsing, she either needed food or sleep to keep functioning.

"Hey you two will have to finish them off!" Echo was still trying to stay conscious.

[Talwyn]

Noticing the bounds, Talwyn grabbed his sword and jumped up to dash to the one nearest to him and ran him through. Before he could reach the last one however, the bounds seemingly failed and dissipated. This one however, decided that the saying "he who runs away, lives to fight another day." sounded pretty attractive and made a break for it.

Talwyn was about to give chase, but then he noticed how exhausted the girl was. Well, that and he himself wasn't in that good shape anymore either. That captain had been a lot tougher to deal with then he had imagined. Sheating his sword, he walked over to Echo, and waited for Jarrah to join them. He sat down, obviously exhausted.

"As I said earlier, my name is Talwyn Greyoak. I believe I also told you that I had no real quarrel with you two." It seems he added that for Echo's sake, apparently he had noticed that she hadn't quite forgiven him yet. He didn't bother raising his cowl as he had revealed himself earlier already. Besides, he would probably need some help with bandaging anyway, and whoever would help would notice right away that he wasn't "normal".

"I hope both of you can understand that I thought there was no other choice at the time." He sighed heavily, and eyed his new companions. He wanted to trust them, but he was still ready to defend himself at any time. After all... he had tried to attack them earlier, so they would certainly be justified to distrust him...