A Dish Best Served Cold|Amastar, Khelek

Once Nagi had hit the first mast, the men in front raised their shields in anticipation of a ranged attack. Schuldig and Farfarello would have to abandon the shields if it came to a melee; they could hold the shields up, but weren't skilled at using them beyond that.

The two non-Minds were focused on protecting the prince behind them, while Farfarello was eagerly anticipating a close and bloody fight. One of the Ices was forced to one knee as a Storm's attack struck, and kept his shield raised our of sheer stubbornness. Farfarello, on the other hand, didn't so much as flinch when an arrow struck his thigh. Schuldig and Nagi had the best mental shielding of the group, and at the Mind's touch, Schuldig braced his shield arm with his opposite hand, touching his sign in the process to lash out at the would-be intruder.

Nagi was already chanting in preparation to strike again, keeping himself as small as possible behind the others. This time, his focus was not the mast, but the second ship's hull, at the waterline. That ship was farther away and the mast made for a smaller target, but if you could hit the broad side of a barn, you could hit the side of a boat.

Schuldig growled as he locked mental horns with the Mind on the first ship. Once they were clear, that one was HIS if he didn't manage to kill him before then. He cried out, a sudden, searing pain around his midsection almost breaking his concentration. Gritting his teeth, he focused on the burning pain and PUSHED it at his opponent.

The man on the ground grabbed at his sign and tried to create a slick sheet of ice in the raiders' paths, though there was only so much he could do with one sign.

Nagi let his attack on the second ship fly, wishing it had been closer. He didn't have a chance to see whether or how successful his strike was; once his focus returned to their immediate surroundings he knew what they needed to do was escape.

The other guard clearly felt the same. "Pull back!" he barked. "Out of the ship's range! Highness, we need to get out, NOW."

Nagi nodded and chanted quickly, but he still hadn't fully gotten his bearings and ended up dragging them to the spot he'd been looking at past the guard. It was about ten feet away to the north, out of the raider's path, but a far cry from safety.

"Highness...."

"Home this time, Nagi," Farfarello said, tossing his shield aside to draw both of his knives. "Or we can die. I wouldn't mind it, but the others might."

Nagi, pale-faced, pressed his signs firmly together and focused as hard as he could on Filly's sickroom, hoping he could get them there before any of the men with him were killed.

Farfarello sprang forward to meet the knifeman head-on with his own blades as Nagi teleported the group back home, inadvertently giving them another passenger. He didn't even seem to notice that they'd been brought home; he was too busy trying to repay the Wind for the dagger that'd struck him high in the right side of his chest.

Schuldig, likewise, didn't seem to register their movement as he touched both signs--dropping his shield with a loud THUD--and tried to claw his way back into the Mind's head, his eyes glazed with focus and the pain from the burns on his torso.

The guard who'd given the call to go back had several lacerations across the left side of his face and left arm from the ice shards, but otherwise seemed relatively uninjured. He looked around and whipped off his cloak to smother the flames still licking at the telepath's clothing. He wasn't quite suicidal enough to try getting between Berserker and his prey.

The other Ice guard remained kneeling; he'd taken several hits like his fellow, but deeper. At the moment, he was leery of moving his hand, which was holding a deep wound in his side. The second lightning strike he'd suffered wasn't helping his mobility, either.

Nagi stood still for a moment, looking around wild-eyed, before clenching his fists and trying to hinder the two fighters' movements. This time, hopefully WITHOUT having to toss one of them into the wall.

The guard Filly was tending clenched his teeth and sucked in a breath. "Storm hit me. Twice," he said, moving enough to let his shield drop. It seemed that their decision to take heavy wooden shields instead of metal had paid off.


The other guard curled his lip at the healer beside Schuldig. "If you can't be useful here, run tell Lord Crawford we need to alert the general that one of the enemy ships has a broken mast and the other's got a hole in the side. It won't sink it, but it's enough to make it less than sea-worthy."


Schuldig didn't recoil from the other Mind's anger. Quite the contrary. He let out a slow hiss, which could be taken as an expression of pain by those near him, but in his mind, he was welcoming the burn like he would a shot of strong liquor.

~You think a little temper is going to hurt me?~ he growled. ~You're practiced. Let's see how you like what a trained double-Mind can do.~

He pulled at the man's mind, trying to drag him into his darkened, shifting mindscape as he let old memories of pain, rage, helplessness, and fear--some his own, some sampled from other psyches he'd touched--come to the forefront to be used as weapons.


Nagi bit his lip and did as told, waiting until the two men had moved so that he could pin the Wind against the floor without Farfarello being pinned under him.

~STOP!~ he shouted at the other Mind, dreading a repeat of how he'd had to stop attack on Nalani.

Thankfully, Farfarello had considerably more self-control since his treatment by Mikasi, Filly, and Schuldig, and halted his attack. He smiled and dragged his knife through one of the man's already-bleeding wounds, then got to his feet, licking the blade clean.

The arrow had stuck deep in his thigh, bleeding more than it probably would have had he kept his leg still. The knife wound in his chest was staining his shirt red, but it was unlikely that anything vital had been pierced. "Could have been better," he commented, idly flipping his knife in one hand while staring at the pinned man.

"I hope you're not counting on your Mind to keep you from talking." He nodded at Schuldig. "He won't be fit for anything soon."

There was a subtle shift in Schldig's mental assault as he held back and let his energy build. ~Spare you?~

His eyes came into focus for a brief moment, enough to get a picture of where he was, and he pushed it at the beaten Mind. ~Surrender at my feet or die!~