Caius did not have much gold on him, he never did. As a houseless knight he spent most of his time wandering from town to town taking up small jobs assisting town watches, churches, and local barons with petty crime. The jobs never paid much, but it was enough for him to eat. Not to mention maintain what little clothes and gear he had. Nonetheless he trotted down the streets of Lómëdor looking for a job that would get him some cash.

It was midday and the sky was clear and crisp. The sun streamed down on the patrons as they scurried around the city’s market places one shop to another. The area buzzed with noise and conversation while people bartered and talked to one another. Merchants and errand boy ran and shouted, trying to attract the consumers to their vendor stands. Crowds gathered and left eager to spend their hard earned money on the goods the merchants had to offer. It could not be a better afternoon in Lomedor.

Caius himself tramped down the street causally looking about. He might have pay closer attention to what was going on for hopes of finding a job, but he had recently eaten and money was not on his mind. His attention seemed to wander and he imagined what sort of great deeds he could perform to make himself great and known to the world. Prestige had seemed to elude him, even thought he was anointed by the gods when he was born as noble. Yet rather then being disappointed he continued on his way looking for somebody or some one who could offer him something worth while.

Lilyana noticed the man striding confidently along the marketplace. He was a knight, by the look of him, though she could be wrong of course.

She eyed his long sword. She herself did not use swords- they were heavy, annoying and cumbersome. She preferred her bow and daggers.

She spun one dagger around her finger. She had not tangled with the forces of good in a long while. She was ordinarily neutral- though if the pay was right she would work for good.

She wondered if she could kill the man by shooting him or throwing her dagger at him- though her dagger was not meant for throwing. She decided against it. He might have hidden armour, and besides, such an easy victory would be no fun.

She then decided not to kill him. She would play with him for a bit- see if he was a good fighter or not. Or if anyone in the crowd was.

She sheathed her dagger and notched an arrow to her bow. She picked a fat man (who was definetly not a worthy opponent) near the supposed knight, aimed at him and shot. She gazed disinterestedly on as the merchant gasped and fell- rich red blood soaking his blue robes.

She smiled contentedly- waiting to see what mayhem she'd caused as the townspeople screamed and ran about with fear. It was always a supreme delight to her to cause trouble, and this was an excellent way of doing it.

This would indeed be fun.

Caius stopped. He got the feeling some one was watching him. He looked around and saw nobody that looked suspicious. He shook his head figuring he was just being paranoid.

He looked beside him, a wealthy looking merchant was standing next to him. The merchant smiled and nodded to Caius and he nodded in return. Caius turned and continued on his way. But before he could move along a arrow struck the merchant in the back.

It happened in slow motion to him. The merchant falling while he drew his sword. He turned and his gaze met Lilyana's, he picked her out of the crowd in instant and charged towards her as fast as he could go before the merchant hit the ground. He could hear people around him begin to scream. The square seemed to exploded with panic and everyone began to run every which way.

He did not know why this woman would kill a random person but he was going to find out.

In a few seconds he was close to her. He snapped his sword into attacking, swinging horizontally wide at her as he charged.

Hlormar was also nearby the fat merchant, only on the other side of him. As the arrow hit the merchant and went down, a small amount of blood splattered on his dusty and worn travelling attire. Wolfang drew his two handed long sword from its scabbard on his back and charged towards the woman, emmiting a loud war cry, as barbarians were often apt to.

Apparently he wasn't the only person she seemed to offend, another man was charging at her with a longsword also drawn. She probably wouldn't last long against their combined attack, and then, when she would be dead he'd loot her corpse and sell anything he found off to get some more mead at the closest pub.

When he was a couple paces away from her, he swung his long sword in wide arc, aiming at her left side, near the stomach, hoping to cripple her from the beginning of the fight.

Lilyana noted not only the knight swinging his sword at her, but a rather barbaric man charging at her as well. She smiled to herself. A fight it would be! It did not bother her that while her opponents were armed with swords- she had only two daggers and a bow. Nor did it concern her that both her opponents were a lot larger than she was.

She quickly observed their separate lines of attack. The knight was cutting at her horizontally, the other man towards her stomach. Both lower cuts, she ought to be able to avoid them easily. In response, she leaped straight up (mostly) into the air above their swords and latched onto a part of the sand-colored building that jutted out rather awkwardly. She kicked out at them, aiming a boot each at their respective faces.

Not waiting to see what damage she'd done, she agilely swung herself up onto the precarious building-ledge and grinned down at the two of them.

"Come, my pretties!" she called cheerfully in a rather failed witches' cackle. "I'm waiting!"

She grasped a dagger in one hand and waited happily.

Wolfang cringed as the woman avoided both his attack and the other knight's. Their swords collided with a metallic clank together at the spot where only moments earlier the woman was standing. He automatically looked up, and saw a boot flying towards his face. Instinctively, he jerked up his sword so that her boot collided with the wide part of the blade, and thankfully not his face.

She was up above them now, out of reach of even Wolfang's long sword. He looked to the knight, gave him less than friendly shove and said, "Throw your damn sword at her. What are you waiting for?"

Caius's eyes widened as she leaped up above his blade stroke. He dropped his sword and shielded his face with his hands, Lilyana's boots pushing off the palms of his hands instead of his face. He watched as the woman lept above the building and up onto a roof.
Caius frowned as she taunted them. "Only a half wit barbaic fool would toss his sword at his enemy." He said to Hlormar. "I'm not losing my only weapon in an attack that will likely fail." He looked at Hlormar. "And don't touch me." He bent down and picked up his sword.
Caius then raced towards the building and right before he reached the wall he jumped upwards. His hand reached the ledge right below where Lilyana was standing and he grabbed hold of the side. He pushed off the wall with both feet then threw himself into a back flip over and above elf. As he passed over he unclipped his cloak letting it fall and cover Lilyana. He landed behind her and thrusted his sword foward towards her chest.

Wolfang groaned at finding himself alone in the square. He sheathed his sword and then too followed the other two up. Luckily he wouldn't be getting stabbed while he was climbing because at least the knight was gonna keep the woman busy for a while. Wolfang didn't posses the kind of agility the other two did, but he did manage to jump and grab the the odd juting surface. He easily pulled himself up onto it, then jumping once more managed to grab the ledge, and pull himself up once more. He too was now standing on the edge of the building, and he immedeatly drew his sword. He saw the knight in midair, unclip his cloak which fell on top of the woman. This was his opportunity. He quickly rushed towards her before she could take the cloak off, and swung the sword with all his might at what appeared to be her upper legs.

Lilyana blinked with surprise as the cloak tumbled down towards her. She had not expected that. And unfortunately she could not see. She needed to escape the cloak. She was sure that a wounding sword-stroke would be next.

She drew a dagger and quickly sliced a circle on the ledge. She neatly dropped through it back to the ground- sustaining a small yet bloody slash on her thigh where someone's sword had cut her, and a bruise where she had landed.

She landed back where she had started and anxiously examined her sword-wound. To her relief, it was not that bad- though it hurt an awful lot. She had no time to attend further to it- for she was sure that the two men would be coming after her. It was only a matter of seconds.

She glanced around, then drew herself up into a dark corner where she would not be immediately recognizable. She stood there, waiting to see what came next.

Wolfang felt his sword connect with the woman's flesh, though not in the way he wanted it to. The point peirced her thigh, leaving what looked like a small, but deep slash. That was fine, most of the time, a small deep slash was better than a shallow and long one. He was just about to follow up with another sword stroke, but she managed to escape, he didn't even see how. The only thing he saw was her hair flapping in the wind as she jumped back off the ledge.

He wasn't going to let the woman escape, so he climbed down quickly, yet carefully. First onto the odd juting surface, then finally onto the ground. Wolfang looked around, sword in hand, and the woman was no where in sight. He instinctively looked onto the ground and saw a trail of blood. That should lead him right to her. He was going to follow it, but there was no need as the woman didn't even go that far. He saw that it led to a dark corner and perhaps an alleway.

He grunted with displeasure, and not waiting for the knight, began to make his way over to the corner. His steps were tentative, and his sword was held in a low guard stance, anticipating the worst. Maybe it was an ambush?

It's always better to be prepared

Caius watched as Lilyana dropped out of view, his sword stroke missing her by inches. "Blast." he said. He picked up his cloak and clipped it back on. He did note a small amount of blood. It appeared that Hlormar had managed to hit the girl. He then noticed that Hlormar was already on the trail of the girl. Caius shook his head and jumped down. "Always on the move."
He kept a high guard, keeping the hilt of his sword at his head and the blade towards the sky. "I'll go around." he said and dashed away keeping his sword up. He went around the building and up to its side climbing up. He rushed to the other side of the roof where Lilyana had last seen ran off too. He looked down in the alley. There were a few people lerking around, yet he noticed one below him was compensating more weight on one leg than the other. Thats her...

He positioned himself abovew Lilyana on the roof and angled his blade flat towards Hlormar so the sun glinted off his sword where he could see it.

Wolfang nodded in agreement as the knight offered to go around, within a moment he saw him on top of the building overlooking the alleyway. He noticed that the knight deflected light off of his sword, and then he looked right under him and one thought came to his mind.

That's her!

Wolfang looked back up at the knight and using hand signals, told him that he was to jump down and block her path if she tried to run away from Hlormar' attack. He readjusted his grip on the sword and still staying in a low guard ran towards the woman, abandoning all subtlety as usual. The sword's hilt was at Wolfang's waist level, but the actual sword was pointed out to the side in a diagonal fashion, and also downwards toward the ground. He pushed a few people out of his way as the alley was becoming slightly crowded and even bashed a peasant on the head with the hilt of his sword to move him. From the low guard he swung the sword diagonally, but upwards towards the woman's neck.

"Here we go." he said. As soon as Hlormar made the hand signal, Caius lept form the top of the roof down to the ground. He fell land on his left foot and right knee. Yet he was able to cut off any escape route that Lilyana planned to take. He would let Hlormar take car of the engaging the girl. He would be defensive making sure she did not turn and run, keeping the girl boxed between the two of them. As Hlormar attacked Caius put the hilt of his sword to his head agian keeping his high gaurd, and stood a few feet back away from the two.

Lilyana slipped out of hiding and cautiously tried her weight. She discovered she was limping, to her irritation. There was no time to heal herself, she spotted her two attackers signaling each other.

She grasped a dagger in one hand and waited, forming her strategy. She noted the knight cutting off her escape routes while the other man came towards her, waving his sword. She curled her lip. No subtlety!

She waited as the second man swung his sword upwards towards her. She dropped backwards into a back somersault, just barely evading his blade, which passed so close to her it was a mere hair's breadth away. She came up near the knight and stabbed her dagger upwards towards his chest as hard as she could. She felt it stick- whether in the man's chest or in something else she didn't know. Maybe he'd blocked it.

She leapt to her feet and swung towards her first attacker with her fist, using her momentum to kick at his shin at the same moment, ignoring the pain in her leg.

This was indeed fun, she decided. She crouched into a defensive stance, waiting to see what other tricks these two had up their sleeves. After all, that thing with the cloak had been interesting.

As she waited, she slipped her other dagger into her hand...

Wolfang felt embarrased, and enraged. He got hit. Twice. By a woman. To make matters worse, he missed her with his sword though. The punch connected with his shoulder, which was perfectly all right with him as it didn't really bring him much pain, but her kick connected with his shin and led to an explosion of pain there. He crumbled to the ground, falling onto one knee, and let out a grunt of pain in the process. He could see her, she wasn't far away from him. Only a pace or two, well she had to be if she was just going to punch and kick. Unfortunetly,she wasn't unarmed as Wolfang had thought. He noticed she had tried to stab his comrade with a concealed dagger, whether the blow connected or not he did not see, because that was when he fell down in pain.

He got up, ignoring the pain, determined to make a swift counter attack. His right hand was already on the hilt, but he took his left and layed it on the dull, broad side of the blade. Wolfang intended to use it as a crude battering ram. Almost instantly he charged directly at her, thrusting the broad, dull side of the blade at her chest as well, wanting to not injure her, but to knock her down, and deliver the killing blow. He did all of this with terrifying ferocity and strength. He wasn't just fighting now. He was enraged and practically berserking, wanting to see her dead.

Lilyana's eyes widened as the second man charged at her in a clearly berserker rage. Leaving dignity to the winds, she neatly ducked his blade and lunged off to one side, tripping over a woven basket.

She landed squarely in the large basket, and immediately felt a sudden pain shoot up her back. She leapt up with a cry, and discovered a large green snake in the basket, hissing at her with its mouth full of red blood- her blood.

She cursed in furious anger. To be foiled by a snake! She berated herself for being so clumsy. She sincerely hoped the snake wasn't poisonous. That would certainly be the last straw!

Aware that the pain in her lower back was worsening badly, she stumbled backwards, losing her balance, and tripped once again into the snake-basket. The snake reared above her, hissing viciously and baring its blood-stained white fangs. She noticed with fascination that they were almost as long as her finger.

She reached forward desperately, and clutched the snake with her bare hands. She promptly choked the poor animal to death...or almost.

The squirming snake suddenly went limp in its dying throes. Before it could properly succumb to the affections of death, however, she hurled it as hard as she could at the charging barbarian.

Not waiting to see what damage her living missile would do, she scrambled to her feet and cast Minor Heal on herself. She felt a soothing blue coolness surround her and eliminate her sore bruises. Her sword-cut and snake-bite healed to some extent as well, though not completely. And the pain sure hadn't vanished.

She felt a sinking sensation in her stomach as she realized that she might lose this fight. A rush of adrenaline soared through her as she silently vowd that she would not!

Caius watched the barbarian chargede with a beserk fury. "Don't kill her!" He shouted. He believed in justice and thruth and all that knightly stuff but he also always believed that everyone deserved a second chance. The girl dived out of Hlormar's way and Caius charged in using this as a chance to gain ground. As she threw the snake towards his friend Caius cringed in fear that Hlormar might fall to a snake bite. But he knew the barbarian could handle himself. He slid himself around the girl as she tossed the snake and pointed his sword at her neck. His blade lightly touched the back of Lilyana's neck as he held it out infornt of him, execution style. He had her, or at least he thpought he did. "Yield." He said to the woman.

She evaded his attack, although barely, tumbling into a crate with a snake in it, receiving a bite. He smiled and the fact that she was in pain; it made him feel slightly better. Then he saw the odd tactic, as she hurled the snake at him. The snake lodged its fangs into his already bruised shoulder. Wolfang yelled out in pain, and ripped it off of him, probably taking a chunk of skin and some meat with it, but he didn't care right now. With snake in hand he chucked it so hard at the ground that it actually bounced up a little, then before it could get out of the way he stomped upon it its head. A crunching noise momentarily filled the alleyway, and blood spurted out onto the ground staining both of his boots. It was a clear message to the woman, she would be shown no mercy.

Wolfang did not bother to come close, he knew that she was armed with two daggers, his sword had enough reach to hit her. "If you yield, you die. This is a fight to the death now," he told the woman with an animal like growl. He swung his sword, once, twice, and thrice, with all blows aimed at her lower legs, and all with terrible strength. They were aimed just where she had kicked him earlier. He made sure that the sword wouldn't come into contact with the knight, but the surrounding crates weren't so lucky. Wolfang's sword didn't stop when it hit them, instead upon contact with the blade, the crates were thrown around in the direction the blow launched them. Wolfang's sword was vibrating so hard from the blows that it was sending a powerful recoil into his wrists, and was even making noise, much like a tuning fork. It also came into contact with the stone wall, sending sparks flying everywhere.

"Yield," the knight ordered, pointing his sword at her throat. She did not move, carefully considering her ways out of this.

"If you yield, you die. This is a fight to the death now," the other man told her coldly.

A moment later, he swung his sword through several crates and at the stone wall. It rang loudly, sending sparks out. Lilyana wondered if the sword had been aimed at her legs or not. In any case, she was simply glad that her legs hadn't been sheared off. She felt an odd sense of sadistic pleasure as she noticed him limping where her kick had connected with his shin.

"Well, mellow fellows," she told them both cheerfully. "I don't seem to have much choice in the matter. If I yield, the noble sir knight will cut my throat. If I don't yield, yon man with a sword will hack me to death. A pretty dilemma, is it not?"

She eased herself to her feet, careful not to make any moves that would give either of them cause to kill her. She began to strategize. If she repeated her earlier move and rolled backwards, the knight's sword would give her a wound to think about. She couldn't duck- his sword would cut her throat. She couldn't leap upwards- he would slash through her lower body. If she moved backwards he would lunge at her.

And even if she did manage to evade him, the barbarian would kill her before she could escape.

Her best choice, she decided, would be to yield. Then when the barbarian charged at her, the knight would be too surprised to evade her sudden attack. At least, she hoped he would be. But even if he wasn't, if she attacked the barbarian he couldn't complain- it was only in self-defense, wasn't it?

She disliked the plan. It was too risky. Too prone to fatal error. But she had no other choice.

"I yield," she said.

"Wrong choice, try again sweet cheeks," he told her with grin, commiting an unusual action. He took his sword, and using the broad side of it, almost like a paddle, had given her a loud "thwack" on her thigh. He looked at her face, awaiting some kind of reaction. It was obvious he had insulted her in a taunting manner, he wanted her to attack him herself so he could strike her down without having to bribe the authorities.

"Step back knight," he half ordered, half asked his comrade. "This lady here has insulted me, and I've insulted her, and it looks like we have a problem. I think a duel to the death should solve that, or if I'm feeling merciful, maybe only to heavy blood loss and unconsciousness" he said, still thoroughly angrily and in a kind of blood lust.

"Huh? C'mon. What'd ya say?" he shouted, striking his sword upon a nearby a crate, and producing a terrible noise.

Lilyana winced as the barbarian's sword connected with her thigh. She cautiously fingered the bruise and winced again as her leg ached with pain. Very unfortunately, he'd hit her where he'd cut her earlier.

She only half-listened to him as he demanded of the knight to step down and allow them to duel to the death. She'd expected something of the sort.

It was clear he'd insulted her- but she rarely took offense to insults. She was too self-absorbed to be insulted by other's actions. The question was- did she want to duel the barbarian? She decided it was roughly an equal fight. She was more wounded than he was- what with her snake-bite, sword-cut and various bruises. But if she managed to make him give in to an unthinking bloodlust she might have a chance.

She concluded it would be best to wait and see what the knight's reaction was. He was the wild card in her calculations, after all.

"Well, sir knight?" she asked him. "What do you think? This does, after all, remind me of an encounter I once had with a mop. A blue one, too. It nearly killed me. I suppose it was enchanted, after all, mops usually don't attack people do they? Or clean them. But never mind. I don't think you care about mops. And personally, right now I don't care about them either."

She smiled disarmingly, aware that her rambling mode of speech usually either charmed or irritated people. It would be interesting to see their reaction. Though she was more concerned about whether or not they would decide to kill her or not at the moment.

She carefully and slowly backed away from the barbarian- still careful not to alarm either of them, and ready to fight at a moments notice.

Hlormar had slightly crossed the line by attacking the girl after he asked her not. He knew all about barbarian honor and the sorts. He never ever agreed or liked it, and most encounters with these insulted honor left him in a toss up situation at best. Just like this one.
"I asked you to stand down." He said to the man. "And I meant it."
He was unpleased that he struck her in the leg. He would surely kill her for she was trapped and it was only a matter of time before Hlormar would cut her in two.
He was about to say something when she made the unwise choice of opening her mouth.

He did not like her tone or smile on her face. He stepped forward between her and Hlormar and smacked Lilyana hard across the face. "My title will be used with respect! Your kind may never call me sir unless your on all fours like the dog you are!"

Wolfang laughed out loud at the knight's outburst and his slapping of the woman, truly amused at the sight. Wolfang knew from his appearance that the man was a knight, but maybe because he took such offense from the woman adressing him as "sir" he was actually some kind of nobilty, perhaps a count or a baron?

Oh, this just gets better and better.

"Why, it seems like she's insulted you too!" Wolfang said, positively in an uproar of laughter. "Say, you happen to know the laws in this city about killing peasants, especially ones with such insultful mouths? So what should we do with this here lass?" Wolfang asked the knight, forgetting some of his rage already.

Lilyana merely sighed with irritation as the knight furiously slapped her. This was not getting better.

She waited until the barbarian had finished his laughing and speaking before answering the knight.

"My dear fellow, I was using your title with respect," she told him ruefully. "You and that barbarian fellow certainly deserve it. Respect, I mean. In any case..."

She leaned backwards away from them, readying her dagger. It was very apparent that she needed to get clear of the proximity of the wall. Trapped as she was, it would be difficult to defend herself.

She hurled her dagger at the barbarian as hard as she could. She wasn't sure how good a throw it would be- the dagger was not a throwing dagger after all.

She dashed out of the corner, taking advantage of whatever slim chance of surprise there was in her attack. As she lunged out into the street, she kicked at the barbarian's face. She then scooped up her other dagger, sticking it back into her leg-sheathe- and looked straight at the knight and barbarian.

"Perhaps we could resume the talk of that duel, if that's really what you want to do," she said happily. "Now that I'm not hampered like...like...like a bird in a cage."

She unswung her bow down from her back and notched an arrow on it, aiming it at the knight.

Ah, women. You can't trust their words, and certainly not their actions...

Wolfang watched in a somewhat odd form of cool, calculating, anger, as she freed herself from their entrapment. She was very close to Wolfang at the time when she threw the dagger, and as apparently it wasn't made for throwing, it naturally rotated in the air, but not enough times to strike him with the point. He got hit with the hilted part of the dagger. He felt no pain, but a dull surprise, as if you were hit with a snowball with ice in the middle of it.

She watched as she scrambled away, but made no move to stop her. He knew an attack would come, and he was right, luckily he did not step forward and engage. Otherwise he might have earned himself a broken nose.

"I'd love to discuss that duel," he replied in voice of feinted coolness. "However, it doesn't seem we are armed properly. You lack a sword, and one does not duel with daggers and bows," he pointed out.

"I would gladly accept any duel that is either boxing, wrestling, or unarmed combat," Wolfang told her confidently. "Otherwise, you might either want to start running, or prepare to to be cut down where you stand," Wolfang stated his ultimatum to her. Either way he was proficient in unarmed combat as all warriors of his clan had to be, and if she decided to run, his great endurance would allow her to catch her. Either way, victory looked to be his that day.