Jarvan's, Kital's and Morsel's Crazy Happenings (Monster Contract)

[CandleLitRevelries]

The little fox-snake kept her eyes fixed on the strangers, her ears twitching as she listened to her companions. She eyed the dark-haired female with the strange sticks on her back through the underbrush. She didn’t know what an archer was, but luckily there was only one female that seemed hostile. She was the only female, right? The nguruvilu eyed the two other hostile humans. No, they were... they were definitely male. Right? Yeah. Yeah... they had to be. Probably. She shook her head and returned her focus to the surly short-haired one.

Her fur prickled at the idea of crawling through the dirt. Especially if she was going to be fighting humans. She wound her tail tightly around Jarvan’s shoulder, giving him a sidelong glance before turning her attention back to the archer. I’ll take her out she seemed to say but I’m not getting down.

She glanced over at Kital’s complaints as well. She knew her friend was proud of her name, but she wasn’t sure why. The nguruvilu never had a name and didn’t understand why Kital was so protective of hers. Would she have a name some day? Did she really need one? Her attention was taken when the stick-woman tensed.

She gave a soft hiss as the dark-haired woman pointed one of her pointy sticks at the other human woman.

The fox-snake prepared to blast the archer’s hands if she made any further aggressive moves towards the other human.

 

[Xywel]

Like always, Jarvan didn't understand Kital's bubbling in the slightest. Really had to do something about that in the future. Maybe guessing tones or letters would work to communicate slowly? Questions for later.

With his companions seemingly as confident as he was, Jarvan felt the Nguruvilu's tail squeeze around his arm a bit more. Ah right, the floating effect of the book didn't work on her for some reason. Well, fair enough. He could work with that. He just hoped the little lady had a good shot from his shoulder.
With the both of the preparing, Jarvan pointed their targets out for the last time, invoking his own magic to give him more force behind his strikes.

Just as he got ready, he saw the arrow extend to the young woman's neck, pulling out the necklace. His eyes narrowed as his demeanour got serious. It was time to do what he was trained for.
"I hope your aim is true, miss fox. Alright, you two, lets go!"
With a roar, he charged forward, strengthening his legs to cover the distance in two big strides, his weapon already swinging in an arc at the bulky man.
"HEY BASTARDS! WHY NOT PICK ON SOMEBODY YOUR OWN SIZE?" He roared, intent on getting the bandit's attention. With a bit of luck, they'd focus on him and leave the commoner's alone for a couple of seconds. In that time, he hoped that he and his new crew could at least make a dent in their ranks.

 

[CandleLitRevelries]

Immediately, the fox-snake fired at the archer’s bow, intending to break the weapon with a vicious water jet. She hid behind Jarvan’s neck slightly, not wanting to be too big a target to the humans. She had never fought humans before, she never had to. She had always managed to slip away before the humans could catch her to have an altercation.
She kept her periphery on her allies, wanting to ensure that no one would be able to catch them by surprise.

 

[Silverbird]

The largest of the bandits only had a moment to react to Jarvan's charge, and, to his credit, he used that time fairly well. He whirled around at the sudden sound, eyes wide in surprise, and reflexively brought his knife up defensively. The move spared him a nasty blow, but cost him his weapon; Jarvan's flail tore the knife, spinning, from his hand. He staggered backwards, more stumbling than really dodging, and there his luck came to an end. His foot slipped on an exposed rock and he fell, backwards, striking the ground hard.

The archer's attention, meanwhile, had definitely been torn way from the group's victims. Unlike her larger friend, her expression wasn't one of shock. Instead, she looked angry. Pulling away from the young woman, she quickly turned on Jarvan's exposed back, rose her bow to line up a shot... and gave the nguruvilu the opening she needed. Her blast of water smashed straight through the bow, snapping it clean in two, and continued on to strike the archer's torso. She was pushed back a few places, collided with young woman behind her, and knocked her to the ground. However, she managed to keep her own footing. She looked at the two useless sticks that her bow had become, tossed them aside, then reached for a knife tucked into her belt.

"Jed!" She called to her book-carrying companion, without even glancing his direction - her eyes were fixed on Jarvan. "He's a contractor! What have you got for us?"

Jed grinned, and flipped open his tome. He raised a hand, and stretched it towards Jarvan's back. "Cornea! Shadow ba-"

A flash of red and gold suddenly shot past Jed's face from the undergrowth and slammed directly into the floating Evil Eye. It had a moment to look distinctly unimpressed with this turn off events before it hit the ground and bounced, carrying both itself and its fishy attacker off into the bushes on the other side of the track.

"... ah." Jed muttered, awkwardly lowering his hand as he watched them go.

 

[Xywel]

With a surge of pride streaking through him for his two companions, Jarvan noticed that they had things under control for now. The bow taken out of the equation, as well as having the eyeball neutralized for now, the merc didn't waste any time pressing on. Eager to end the fight as quickly as possible, he invoked his magic once more, sending another massive blow towards the now prone enemy while he shouted his next few commands.
"Miss Snake, Waterjet on the archer. Keep her busy. Miss Fish, show that ball whose boss!"

With one graceful motion, Jarvan transitioned from a swipe on the grounded person to a sprint. He didn't have time to check if the big guy really was out for the count, but he had to exploit the opening his companions had made.
While he sprinted, he kicked the knife that the man had been using hard, sending it spinning into the undergrowth so that his enemy couldn't use it any more.

The contractor was occupied and didn't reach for his own weapons yet, but the woman was quicker in the mind. She had to go next, lest he could expect a knife in the back when he least expected it.
Keeping low, Jarvan charged, keeping as steady as possible so that the Nguruvilu had the best shot he could give her.

 

[CandleLitRevelries]

The little fox snake kept her eyes on the angry one as her own human shambled about. The vibrations from his running made her tummy turn, despite his efforts to remain steady. Turned out humans were a shaky mode of transportation. Maybe because humans were so big. They couldn’t be expected to be as streamlined and graceful as water creatures, she guessed.
Her ears twitched toward where her friend dove into the underbrush, concerned about Kital’s tendency to charge in half cocked. The nguruvilu didn’t know much about floating eyeballs, but she hoped Kital hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew.
Meanwhile, she waited for a good moment as Jarvan charged to shoot her jet square in the angry one’s face.

 

[Silverbird]

The largest of the bandits let out a pained groan, the wind knocked from his lungs, and struggled to force himself back upright. He wasn't nearly fast enough, this time; he'd barely managed to sit up when the follow-up blow from Jarvan's flail clocked him cleanly across the side of his face, and he went straight back down.

Which still left three. As if in answer to the nguruvilu's thoughts, there was a loud blast from the treeline where Kital and her prey had disappeared only moments earlier. The matsuba came soaring back out of the undergrowth, and slapped directly into the trunk of an inconveniently-placed tree. She dropped towards the ground for a moment, but caught herself before she hit the dirt. She was more angry than injured.

"Oh, that's it!" She shouted back in the direction she'd come, then swelled up her cheeks and fired back a high-powered blast of water. She followed up by coiling her body once more, and launched herself back out of sight.

Meanwhile the archer had dropped into a crouch, her knife held defensively at the ready, her other arm held back to counterbalance. Slowly, stealthily, she began to slide a second knife loose from behind her back. The bandits' young victim looked on, sprawled in the dirt amongst her belongings where she'd been thrown, and her eyes narrowed. Her hand had ended up only centimetres from a heavy, iron pot. She took hold of the handle, gripping it tightly, and began to carefully get to her feet. Her father, seeing the movement, slowly shook his head and tried to catch her eye, mouthing "No".

She didn't see, or she chose not to.

Springing to her feet, the woman rushed suddenly forward. The archer, her eyes focused on Jarvan's charge, only barely noticed the new threat in time. She whirled on the spot, bringing her knives around as the young woman swung the iron pot with all her might. There was a flash of steel, a spray of blood, and the pot fell to the ground. The young woman staggered back, clutching at her arm.

The archer's eyes were entirely off Jarvan and the nguruvilu. It was the moment the little fox snake had waited for. Her jet couldn't hit the bandit in the face, exactly, but it did strike her in the back of the head. She was knocked reeling, completely off-balance, and wide open to Jarvan as he covered the last few steps between them.