Fun with Guns and Bombs [Cambie]

[Alegretto]

The clatter caused everything in the room to fall still for a moment. Then, with the rasping sound of metal on leather, the mercenaries drew their assorted knives, swords, and other weapons. Darjak bit back a curse. He couldn't see what was going, on, but the sounds were enough to make an educated guess. Looked as if there was no easy way out of this.

Slowly, praying that the mercenaries' attention was focused on the sound from the other side of the cavern, Darjak pushed the wooden lid of his crate up and off. He kept hold of it and set it silently on the stone floor. None of the six men, it looked like six as far as he could see, noticed his action. Instead, they were intent on slowly surrounding the area where the clatter had come from.

As quietly as possible, the Dwarf extricated himself from the box. His efforts were assisted a lot by the scuffling sound of the mercenaries moving feet as they positioned themselves. Still being as silent as possible, Darjak pulled his metal poker from his belt and readied it. He approached the nearest mercenary, ready to smash his weapon into the man's spine as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

[Cambie]

The opportunity came in the form of Klaus himself, who stood up from behind the crate and offered the mercenaries a lopsided grin. "Evenin' my friends, didn't see you there. Don't let me take up your time, I'll just be on my way!" His hand slid to his side, ready to pull out his own blade.

Fletcher heard the sound and poked his head from behind his hiding spot, just in time to see a growling mercenary step past him and toward the blacksmith. His eyes then spotted Darjak slowly sliding up behind one of them.

Their eyes met.

Despite the pounding in his chest, he gave the dwarf a resolute nod before inserting his spanner into a slot on his gun, and turning it. The small 'click' told him that it was ready to be fired.

[Alegretto]

Klaus' appearance elicited shouts of shock and anger from the bandits. Almost at the exact same time Darjak brought his poker down on the top of the back man's spine. The bandit crumpled to the ground, howling in pain and obviously incapacitated.

The screams behind them made the other five men turn their heads, and Klaus chose that moment to strike, unsheathing his blade and thrusting it through the nearest bandit in one smooth movement. That bandits scream of pain made the four remaining men turn again, but this time the two nearest to Darjak looked immediately back to the Dwarf.

Four bandits left, not bad odds, thought Darjak. Especially because they still had Fletcher in hiding, waiting to strike...

[Cambie]

Fletcher didn't fire impulsively this time, clearly remembering what had happened the last time. Instead, he waited for the nearest man to come by his crate before leaping out with an awkward war cry and swiping at the man with the butt of his gun.

It barely grazed the man's head and left him stumbling away clutching his temple and shouting obscenities. It also left Fletcher standing in the open holding the butt of a firearm, having exposed himself to the others.

[Alegretto]

Fletcher's clumsy attack was aimed at one of the men facing off with Darjak, and the bandit, seeing the firearm and recognizing the danger it presented shouted "Careful fella's, he's gotta gun!"

One of the bandits standing near Klaus turned to see Fletcher relatively nearby and he switched targets, raising his sword and charging at the gunsmith. The blacksmith tried to stop the man, but the other bandit stood between them, providing interference for his ally.

On the other side of the cavern, Darjak was similarly zoned, doing his best to fight the unwounded bandit while the other one recovered his senses from the grazing hit to his head.

[Cambie]

Having realized the stupidity of using his gun for anything other than its purpose as a gun, Fletcher instinctively took a step back even as the bandit began approaching him with a gleaming weapon. The first swing nearly took his head off, but he had enough wit in him to turn and dash behind a bunch of crates, fumbling to right his gun so that he could fire it.

When he looked up again, he saw the bandit chasing after him. He also noticed the short bearded man with a dagger flanking Darjak, just out of his line of vision. "BEHIND YOU!" he shouted as he dashed away from his pursuer and toward the dwarf. Better two of them fight together than be separated.

[Alegretto]

Darjak heard the gunsmith's warning just in time. He turned around and brought up his poker to deflect the bandit's sword swing. Sensing that his former opponent was about to take advantage of Darjak's turned back, the dwarf forced himself on his opponent, using his huge strength to drive the bandit backwards.

The man fell backwards and the dwarf pushed past him to join up with Fletcher. "That were a risky move," he told his ally as he positioned himself to cover the gunsmith's back.

[Cambie]

"Yeah, I figured it was," Fletcher replied with a grimace, holding his gun close to his chest. "I'm not an expert in this sort of stuff, you know. I just make guns!"

The freshly fallen bandit climbed back to his feet with a growl, but hesitated when he faced the barrel of a wheel-lock rifle pointed right at his face.

"Now what?" Fletcher muttered out of the corner of his mouth as he kept his aim at the man. The gunsmith didn't even dare look around to see what dangers still existed around them. He could hear Klaus's barrel-chested voice somewhere, but it seemed far away.

[Alegretto]

"Well the way I see it we've got two options." the dwarf growled back. "We fight it out here an' hope that we wipe these fools out 'fore they can go callin' anyone else, or we surrender and hope they keep us alive and kickin' long 'nough for us to do somethin.'"

As he was talking the dwarf deflected two more sword swings. The bandit who had been attacking Fletcher had redirected his efforts at Darjak, and he wasn't giving the dwarf an easy time of it.

From what he could see of the rest of the cavern, the other two bandits we're attacking Klaus. They blacksmith was holding his own for now, but Darjak was unsure how the fight would end. He didn't really have time to worry either, as another sword-swing from his opponent came swinging down.

[Cambie]

"If we surrender, they'll just kill us!" Fletcher replied fearfully, staying with his back against the dwarf's. His gun was still pointed at one man, who kept his distance, watching with wary eyes. The other three were busy, but that still meant four men to their three -- and he hardly knew how to fight.

"By Ansgar, I really went over my head here," he mumbled before shouting "KLAUS, GET OVER HERE!"

"I'm a bit busy!" the blacksmith growled back at him as he menacingly swung his sword to keep the two men on him at bay. Slowly, he began to maneuver around them, at least so that he might have a chance to dash to the pair, if he could get past the one man facing Fletcher.

[Alegretto]

The situation seemed to be growing ever more desperate, and the dwarf eyes one of his remaining bangsticks critically. They said that desperate times called for desperate measures, but this was gonna be really really loud...

And dangerous too.

Ah well, loud and dangerous were the ways Darjak lived his life. The dwarf elbowed Fletcher in the thigh, and told him: "Plug yer ears, this is gonn be loud."

The dwarf parried a particularly big sword swing from his opponent and drew one of his bangsticks. He pointed the business end of the weapon at his opponent and depressed the trigger mechanism.

The result was a hugely loud and hugely damaging projectile going through the bandit. Even expecting the noise, and having bad hearing, the dwarf was affected by the volume of the explosion. Hopefully Fletcher had plugged his ears in time...

[Cambie]

He'd had plenty of experience around explosives and loud noises. He knew the effects they'd have on his ears. He knew how disoriented he'd be afterwards.

But Fletcher was not prepared for this.

He'd immediately dropped to the ground, shut his eyes tight, and clamped his palms over his ears. However, the concussive explosion bounced around in the tiny cavern and vibrated even through his hands and into his ears. He completely lost track of his orientation and opened his eyes to a blurry darkness, ears ringing from the shellshock. He rolled onto his back and stared upwards, stunned and trying to catch his bearings.

Evidently, the blast affected all the other men, for they'd all fallen to the ground as well.

[Alegretto]

Darjak was ready for the noise and shockwave, and his already damage eardrums sustained the blow better than most of the people in the cavern. Unfortunately, all that really meant was that the dwarf was forced down to one knee clasping his head as opposed to laid out on the ground fro the concussion.

The dwarf shook his head vigorously, trying to clear the ringing from his ears, but his efforts were to no avail. Slowly, he tried to stand, and eventually he managed to rise to his feel without falling over, if barely.

The dwarf was the first combatant up in the room and he wasted no time. He, very carefully, walked over to Fletcher, clubbing one of the recovering bandits on the way. He shook the gunsmith's shoulder and shouted in an attempt to be heard, "Fletcher, we gotta go 'fore these fellas get up an' going. We need to grab Klaus! Fletcher, can ya hear me?"

[Cambie]

All Fletcher saw were a pair of lips moving behind a big bushy beard. All he heard was a high pitched ringing in his ears. He tried to sit up but fell back again, dizzied.

"What do you mean get close?!" he shouted, barely hearing his own voice. "We're in a CAVE!"

Then he actually figured out what the dwarf had said. "OH, get Klaus! Right, let's get outta here." He tried to stand again, but stumbled once more. The whole room spun around him.

[Alegretto]

Fletcher seemed like he was about to fall, so Darjak made as if to support the gunsmith, but then another wave of nausea hit the dwarf as well. He dropped to a knee again, shakng his head vigorously while the fit passed.

When he looked up again, he saw that some of the bandits were beginning to show signs of recovery. He stood up again and grabbed Fletcher's arm. He tried to pull the gunsmith up, and he planned to have the man lean on his shoulder if he could get him up again. "C'mon" he shouted urgently. "This is no time to be sittin' around." he told the gunsmith, conveniently ignoring that fact that he'd just fallen over again as well.

[Cambie]

Fletcher's felt an incredible pounding inside his cranium as he attempted once more to stand. Still wobbly, this time he at least had a dwarf to lean upon, and together they made their way to where Klaus was sitting and rubbing his own head.

"The hell was that?" Klaus said loudly as they approached, clearly also feeling the effects of the blast. He seemed in better condition than Fletcher though, slowly but surely climbing to his feet, maintaining balance throughout.

"Which way?" Fletcher asked groggily, at the same time Klaus pointed to a tunnel behind them and said, "This way!"

From the opposite end of the cavern, a few of the bandits were struggling to stand again. And further down the cavern, the faint sounds of shouting echoed.

Others had heard the blast and were coming.