On The Run

OOC: JP by LucianNepreen, Strangetides & Jaxx

Tarmen looked to their meager set up, a fire pit meant for one night only and enough space to see how surrounded they were by the jungle.
“We can’t rest for long. Whoever is out there seems intent on findin’ us.”
He used the precious moments he had to go over what he had. Two knives, machete, med kit with limited supplies, and a few bits of dried meat.
Not the best, but if they made it to the shore he could have his bow.
Not looking forward to THAT part of the journey, he glanced to Hunter’s bandage.
“How is your leg holdin’?”

Hunter replied calmly, “We can discuss it over a pint when we get back to the barracks.” He hoped saying that would calm Tarmen down since he was on edge. Hunter still had his bow ready to shoot in case an enemy approached them. Then he asked, “ Do we wait for the ladies or make for the beach?” Hunter had a lot on his mind but he forced himself to focus on the mission first. Till was missing and Alexis and Voah were likely the ones fighting earlier. If they survived it would be hard for them to meet up. However Hunter kept his thoughts to himself to avoid upsetting Tarmen.

The sounds of pursuit continued their march forward, leaving little choice.
“We keep moving.”
Reaching to help move Hunter, a whistling thud revealed an arrow that had lodged in his shoulder pad, the thick leather thankfully stopping it from hitting skin.

“We move now.”
Tarmen hoisted the man up, handing him to Cagliostro.
“Keep moving even if you lose sight of me. We can not stop.”

As Hunter saw Tarmen hit by the arrow, he quickly imagined where the shot came from and fired his arrow before Tarmen picked him up. A loud sound of pain came from someone or something in the distance. Hunter was sure his arrow hit its mark and the poison would quickly take effect soon. As Hunter hobbled with the good doctor Nicolaus, He quickly looked behind to see if they were still being followed. He was also keeping track of where Tarmen was to keep from getting lost in case the doctor lost him.

Grateful for either the natives poor aim or Vastad’s warning, Tarmen didn’t wait to try his luck again.
The downed warrior ignited a frenzy throughout the jungle, countless screams and war cries drowning out the natural melody.
Several arrows shot out from the brush, this time dodged with relative ease as the three men rushed out of the clearing.

As he held onto Nicolaus and ran with a limp, Hunter saw the arrows coming at them. He was able to tell by their poor flight that the bows, arrows and archers were inferior to himself, which made them easier to dodge at a decent range. Despite his bad leg they were able to maintain a decent speed. Hunter was glad he used his herbs to numb the pain and kill any poison or infection causing stuff in his wound earlier. Now that the herbs had kicked in he was only feeling half of the pain at this point, which made running a lot less painful. However now that he managed to piss off the natives he had an evil grin as he began dropping his wooden caltrops along the ground where the plants them up a bit. He was hoping they would realize to late and ruin their feet while chasing after them. He continued this as they made their way to the beach since this was the time to use them. Right now he was focused on surviving this mission.

The first few minutes of their escape didn’t give Tarmen much hope. Even with Hunter probably ruining his leg, he could hear the natives getting closer.
This was made more evident when his reflexes kicked in to dodge a sudden club appearing in front of him. The maneuver made him stumble and roll, barely getting a moment before he was tackled from the front.
A rapid flurry of kicks prevented the man from getting on top of Tarmen and gave him time to stand. Barely seeing the others disappear ahead, Tarmen wasted no time in lunging to bring his machete down on his attackers head, severing the wooden club brought up to block as well.
Not taking the time to see if anyone else would join the ‘fun’, Tarmen tore into the brush to catch up.

As Nicolaus and Hunter passed up Tarmen who was dealing with a surprise attack they managed to get a few meters ahead when two large natives wearing masks tried jumped out with their wooden clubs and raised them to attack as they began saying something in their language. Hunter quickly pulled out two small throwing blades from a hidden spot with his free hand and flung them at the attackers. Much to the surprise of the natives, Hunters aim was second to none as each dagger hit their targets. Both natives froze in place as the throwing blades entered the mouth hole in the wooden masks of the natives and pierced their throats and pierced the back of their head. Then the natives dropped their clubs to grab their throats as they gasped for air and chocked on their own blood. Hunter and Nicolaus then pushed the choking natives over as they pressed on.

Tarmen didn’t miss a beat when he passed Hunter’s handiwork. Guy could whine like a fly, but he was definitely proving his expertise.
His mind was a bit of a mess, trying to not die and yet remember which way they had come. They needed a place to hide and fast, otherwise they would be run down soon.
Trees were out of the question, hoisting Hunter would kill any time they had and he didn’t remember any convenient ditches to hide in.
Finally catching up to the hobbling duo, he noted a bit of blood on Cagliostro before calling to Hunter.
“You… see anythin’…. to hide?”

Hunter had memorized the trail they made when they first came in and noted all the strategic places along the way. He retraced trail in his head to find the next available choke point on the trail. Then under his mask he had another evil grin as he remembered the next spot was a mere fifty yards ahead. He then replied to Tarmen, "In about fifty yards ahead I have something nasty in mind to ruin their day, but I need to stop and use my bow. The three men continued past the fifty foot spot for a good twenty yards and Hunter had them stop and hide in the foliage as he kneeled on his good leg and aimed his bow and waited patiently. Though it looked like he was just going to shoot the next native who came out of the jungle, he had a much crueler plan in mind. As an assassin it was his job to use a variety of weapons to kill his enemies including unusual one.

Soon he saw the leaves moving as a wooden mask emerged from the jungle and then he raised his bow up aimed and shot at a tree above the natives. This of course was confusing to see as he completely missed the natives. However the arrow hit its mark with proper precision as it severed a rather large hive of nasty looking hornets. The arrow hitting the tree caused the natives to stop and look up only to see the large hornet hive falling on top of them. It didn't take long before the scream filled the jungle as the natives were being stung from the angry hornets. Hunter then began shooting his arrows at the natives who tried to escape.
Lucian — Yesterday at 8:22 PM
Tarmen knew he had heard a swarm before, further impressed by Hunter’s ruthless plan.

The natives surely couldn’t have many more men available, but thoughts like that always seemed to twist fate. As if on cue, a man emerged in front of his dead comrades, his footsteps calm even as he yelled whatever gibberish the natives spoke.
An arrow from Hunter was swiped away with the staff he carried, festooned with various trinkets.
From behind the trio, two creatures that resembled ugly…uglier hogs appeared, Tarmen guessing that they were somehow under this man’s control. Vastad’s blade.
“If you can hold off the ‘wise man’, I can bring home the bacon. Sound good?”

Hunter reached for another arrow as he replied, "Good. His luck won't last." Hunter fired another arrow at the staff holding native who was trying to speak his gibberish. The staff holding native again stopped talking as he blocked the arrow again with his staff as he began his chanting again. Hunter then pulled out two poisoned arrows and notched them on his bow as he aimed and took a deep breath before he fired them at the staff holding native. Once again the used his staff to block the arrow, however one of the arrows lodged into his hand holding the staff. This caused the staff holding native to scream and break his chant as he dropped his staff and clutched his hand in pain as he turned his back on Hunter. Hunter then drew another poisoned arrow and aimed properly before shooting the staff holding native in the backdoor and thus delivering his deadly move called "One thousand years of pain" without an ounce of mercy. This caused the native to drop to his knees as he howled in pain. It was a matter of minutes before the poison claimed his life.

With the man screaming, it seemed to mess with whatever hold he had on the hogs. It did not break it though and as they began to charge, Tarmen was forced to move. The first went down rather quick, his machete finding the similarities to the jungle pigs of home. The second must have been an elder, larger and quicker. It made its move on Hunter, trying to avenge its perceived master before feeling the machete slice into its neck.

Not far behind the thrown blade, Tarmen effortlessly carved it the rest of the way.
A calm in this chaos allowed Tarmen to hear rushing water and he saw a chance.
“We must be near a part of the river. Should give us a better chance.”
Looking to the surrounding jungle, he could hear a distant commotion and could only assume it was more pursuers.

Hunter could feel the impact of Tarmen's blow on the beast behind him. It was weird for him have someone watch his back. Granted the group he was with seem to be extremely talented compared to the average soldier, so it helped Hunter to put a bit of trust in Tarmen, Voah, Nicolaus and Alexis. Till on the other hand was only useful on a ship, but he questioned if he would ever see the sailor again. It was highly possible Till was caught in a trap or ambushed by the natives since he was out of his element. Hunter then turned his head to see Tarmen by the bloody beast and replied, "Sounds like back up. Do you have a plan for escape?"

“Not escape, but maybe somewhere to lose them for a bit.”
With the seeming advantage they had for time, Tarmen gave Cagliostro a break to carry Hunter himself. The man had been deadly quiet through the entire ordeal, though he wasn’t going to question why.

Hunter nodded at Tarmen as he understood that tactic. He used it a lot in the past to trick his pursuers with a false lead or trail as he escaped after killing a high ranking target. He was amazed at how loyal some bodyguards were even though they were no longer employed since their boss was was killed. Logically they were better off looking for a new line of work instead of getting revenge while off the clock. Regardless of the reason, Hunter was glad that that tactic worked on most thick headed types. He looked back at the dead natives surrounded by the any hornets and knew retrieving his arrows was a lost cause this time. However in his mind he was keeping track of his kill count since it was an old habit. He was up to nine natives now and they still had a ways till they escaped the island. Then he looked at the dead beasts and Tarmen as he asked, "Wanna use the pig blood to make a fake trail?"

He shook his head as he pushed Hunter along.
“No use of it. Too little time and somethin’ tells me they know pig from man.”
The creek they reached was closer than Tarmen had expected. It wasn’t as deep as he had hoped, but at last it seemed the gods had shown some mercy. Across their side and stretching a good few meters in length was a stand of trees, their roots hanging over the embankment.

With slight effort to not slip on the creek bed, the group shoved themselves under the tangled mess, Tarmen placing himself close to the biggest gap to keep watch.
“And now, we see if we haven’t made ourselves livestock in a pen.”
Ooc: If Hunter has a response, then I would say we post after that? Wrote quite a bit.

Hunter patiently waited to see if Tarmen's plan worked. It was nice being able to rest for a bit since he knew he was going to be in bad shape when they made it back to the barracks. He wondered why the good doctor was being so quiet despite all the chaos and killing. Most people would panic as such a sight. As he waited his mind began to wonder if Voah and Alexis were still alive.

Tag