Elizabeth, while leaning against the wall, watched the phantom be chased into another alley by a few guards. And then a few other men ran down the same allyway, too.
"This looks interesting," Elizabeth muttered, and bent down to scoop up a handfull of rocks, and stuck them into her skirt pocket before dragging a barrel next to the wall so she could climb up onto the roof.

Holding her skirts in one are, her slingshot in the other, Elizabeth did her best to quietly walk on the rooves to were the Phantom was cornered. She watched as a few men jumped into action, and Elizabeth took out the biggest stone from her pocket and fit it into the sling before pulling it back and aimed, not shooting unless it seemed needed...

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(}--{)Imagination Inspires Ideas -Zandain(}--{)
Married Cloud Strife 9/17/08

The Phantom's scimitar met that of his opponent with a ring in midair, preventing it from coming any closer. "When was that?" he queried tauntingly of Kaabal. "I don't seem to recall - your swordmanship would never convince me of anything of the sort."

The tide seemed to be turning, something he was ardently thankful for. Easy as escaping the Regent's men was, the Phantom had much better things to do.

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Kjan stared at the new arrival in surprise for several seconds before realizing he had come from the back of the cart. He eyed the man strangely, trying to decide if he should be disturbed by the fact that a complete stranger knew his name. Certainly he'd earned his share of infamy as a follower of the Phantom, but for the most part he'd tried to remain just another face in the crowd of rebels. "Phantom's Keep, or that's the plan, at least," he finally replied, ignoring Threng's continued jabs. He cocked his head slightly before continuing. "...Do I know you?"

Threng kept Storm steady, but pulled out a dagger as he saw the new commer hop onto the driver's seat. He had come round the opposite side of the wagon, out of Threng's sight. Kjan beat him to the question of the new man's identity, but Threng backed it up with a stern glance.

[[Phwoo! I have a lot to catch up on!]]

Jateyani turned from the window as the crowd seemed to disperse. To his eyes, all the fun was over. "Sir, may I go down to the square?" he inquired of his teacher.

"Most certainly not!" Lord Elghen's brows drew together sternly as he looked at Jate. "If you even--" he stopped as a man rushed into the room. "Yes, what is it?"

"Sorry...m'lord..." the man gasped, out of breath from taking the stairs two at a time. "but news..has come, m'lord. The High Vizer...capturing the Phantom, m'lord."

"The High Vizer, capturing the Phantom? That will be the day," Elghen murmured under his breath. "The old fool." He raised his voice. "Summon Lords Payter and Girtron. Tell them I will meet them at the gate in five minutes. Do anything they ask of you." He picked up his bright red cloak and sword and walked out of the room on the manservant's heels.

Jate moved to follow. Elghy won't want you following him, a voice said in his mind. He never forbid me to go, Jate reasoned back. He supressed the voice and ran to his own room. He quickly assessed his weapon supply and chose a curved dagger, then reluctantly bucked his sword around his waist. Well, you never know how rough it might get. Might as well be safe. He took back stairs to the ground floor. A loud voice drew him towards the south gate, where he saw Lord Elghen and a company of seven men setting out. He quietly sneaked toward a door in the wall near the gardens and let himself out.

It was easy to follow the Lords. They were loud and confident. After twists and turns, and almost losing his bearings, Jate came upon the High Vizer himself, fighting a cloaked man - apparently the Phantom Grey himself. He barely had time to watch the two men, though, before a younger man came at him with a knife. Quickly drawing his own dagger, Jate began dodging the fighter. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Lord Elghen fighting another man.

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going on a journey through my old claims

Padron was walking down yet another alley with his three unconscious prisoners, when he heard the clash of blades. Maybe a chance for more prisoners? More prisoners meant more money which meant his family would be better off.

Dumping the three men on the ground, Padron hefted his quarterstaff and ran towards the sound of the fighting. Rounding the corner, he stared. It was all too funny. By the wall was the Phantom fighting some apparently high-ranking officer. Behind them was another man sneaking up--most likely one of the Phantom's men--and behind them, several guards and several more peasants.

Just as he started forward again, the peasants attacked the guards. Unfortunately for the armored men, they didn't seem to be as skilled as the cloth-clad ones. Padron hurried. As he reached the fray, he swung his quarterstaff and knocked one of the peasant's feet out from under him, then turned to face the others.

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From the roof-top, Elizabeth shot rocks down at the guards with her slingshot. Some missed, but it was to be expected. She shot one in the temple, but mostly got them on the arms or sides, and shoulders. Reaching into her pocket for another, she found her rock supply was out, and looked around. Theres was nothing else she could use, and she had left her knife, that she used for protection, with her two younger siblings.

Elizabeth climbed down on the otherside of the building, making sure she could get back up again, and grabbed a few handfulls of stones, before climbing back up on the roof...

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(}--{)Imagination Inspires Ideas -Zandain(}--{)
Married Cloud Strife 9/17/08

Reinforcements seemed to be pouring in faster than Jais could say "Dear heavens!" - which he didn't say very often, but employed once in a while for good measure. The last guard went down, his helm striking a musical note as Jais's scimitar slammed against it. He spun to run a cursory assessment of the battlefield.

A few noblemen and one irritating chap with a rather large stick. This lot may actually achieve something - which just might be the elixir for the High Vizier's complexion, an affair that seemed a bit swollen and lacking in moisture of late. In fact, his mother used to tell him -

"Dear heavens!" he exclaimed, leaping backwards as one of the nobleman missed and accidentally hit him. He looked at the gash on his forearm in disbelief. He snapped back up to glare at Lord Elghen. "Be careful where you swing that - "

The blade came again, within a hairbreadth of decapitating him. Now that just wasn't nice.

He ducked under another devastating blow and came back up scimitar leading. Desperately parrying against the lightning strikes, he shot a glance at the Phantom. "Hey, genius! I don't know about you, but I'm too young to" - his knees buckled, and he went down eating the dirt which, he would later recall, tasted like chicken actually.

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Kaabal did a quick spin to avoid the knives then made a quick succession of blows against the Phantom, no longer using his sword's flat.

A similarly quick succession of clashes in midair, metal-on-metal, prevented the majority of these blows from ever coming close to the Phantom. Not by sheer luck had he avoided capture for so long. "Is that the best you can do?" he taunted, footwork impeccable as his own scimitar flashed in to hammer Kaabal with a series of blows calculated to drive his opponent back upon the swords of those behind him.

This really could have gone off with more success, he reflected with a detached air. Now enough people had seen his face to draw a regrettably accurate 'wanted' poster, and though he was already well-known by name it would make things difficult.

"Hey, you!" this was to catch the attention of an unknown soldier who seemed on the point of running Jais through. "Fight someone who can fight back!"

The resulting acquisition of another opponent rather than the singular, Kaabal, made him rethink this for a moment, but he concluded as his sword met theirs that he'd faced worse.

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Jate turned, sweaty, as the man he was fighting went down. He had scratches all over his arms and torso, and the blood in his mouth tasted metallic. He gingerly reached up to touch his temple; he was sure a nice black eye would be forming shortly. Man, he was a good fist fighter, he thought as he looked at the unconscious man. Just one hair too slow. His knuckles hurt from the punches he landed, and his side hurt from the punches he received.

He had little time to think about his last battle, however, as more and more people seemed to be appearing from no where to fight back. "I thought he was supposed to be alone!" Jate groaned as he moved, albeit more slowly, to face the next man. A heavy wooden quarterstaff in the gut knocked the wind out of him. He had a nice view of his shoes as he doubled over in pain. He reached out with his dagger and got a swipe at the man's leg before the final blow came. Sounds faded as Jate crashed onto the street, unconscious.

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going on a journey through my old claims

Elizabeth, while on the roof, watched many men fall. She made sure her shots were more accurate now, and shot a guard in the temple with a sharp rock, killing him instantly. Not long after, she ran out of rocks, again. Elizabeth stood up to grab more rocks on the other side of the building when her boot slipped, and she felt herself falling down the titled roof. Just at the edge she was able to stop herself, but was pulled down into the allyway by a guard whe had hit in the side and arm.

He raised his sword, but Elizabeth pulled away, and tackled him, knocking his head against the ground. The fight looked alot different on the ground than it did from the roof. She grabbed the guard's sword, and looked for an aponent, though knew she coulnd't really fight...

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(}--{)Imagination Inspires Ideas -Zandain(}--{)
Married Cloud Strife 9/17/08

Threng still held the dagger in his hand, but held it low and in an unthreatening position. Still, he made sure Ranulf saw it. His expression had changed: Before it was unnusually open and happy. Now it had returned to it's usuall cold, stoney self. "I think an explanation is in order" Threng growled, keeping thier eyes locked. "Considering you have just trespassed onto our wagon. No man does that just to offer assistance"

Kaabal sighed, then spoke "I did not want to have to hurt you....." then drew a short sword from within his cloak and quickly doubled his pace.

"Actually, I did sort of invite him," Kjan admitted with a lopsided grin. "He and some others got me and Phantom out of a tight spot earlier. Figured the least I could do was get them away from the soldiers." He was about to say more when the wagon was suddenly jarred by a large rock in the road. "Okay, new plan: You guys shut up, and I steer the wagon. You're distracting me. We'll talk more later."

Padron spun his quarterstaff around as fast as he had ever done, blocking thrusts toward him, slapping the blades aside with the staff. He saw one of the Phantom's men go down, but then one of the nobles did, too. Unfortunately, it looked like the former was still conscious.

Hearing more guards coming towards them, he sighed in relief. He wasn't being paid that much for all of this. Certainly not enough to nearly die. This wasn't a situation he would be wanting to get into again. From now on, he was sticking to information gathering, and maybe breaking up bar fights and such, because that was fun. It gave him an excuse to toss others around without being arrested for it. Of course, that was what he was doing now, but in a bar fight people were rarely trying to run you through with a sword.

A thought occurred to him, though. If that was the Phantom at the end of the alley, and he was as good as the rumors said he was, was this all a trap? It might be possible. It certainly did not seem beyond the cunning of the Phantom.

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