Digging Up the Past(Eri and Almech)(Open)

[Albert J A Xavier]

With the yukmen attacking, and the scholar watching one about to crush him, he forgot about Eri, until, out of nowhere, metal flashed above his head, striking the yukman down. "That was fun," he grunted, as he scrambled to his feet. As he did, he picked his shovel up again, and hefted it. It had worked. But not well. And, if he had to defend himself again, he would go down fighting. Turning his head slightly, he watched the Dhani draw a bow. "I don't think that bow will help much," he called, as the Dhani shot once, then a second time. The first arrow bounced off, while the second sank into one of the yukmens leg. "Well, maybe a bit," he corrected himself, before the Dhani grabbed a dagger he had dropped, and backed up, till he was next to Eri, and in front of the scholar. "Mage? Nothing for combat," he replied, as he glanced around the camp. "And I'm not leaving without my gear. Which is beyond our reach, with the current force facing us," he continued, as he watched four yukmen emerge from the surrounding treeline. These four, coupled with the three still standing, numbered seven. Even for the Vantha and Dhani fighting them, the scholar didn't like the odds. "Why do these creatures always come after the scholars trying to dig up old knowledge?" he muttered, more to himself than the other two.

[Eridanus]

"Magic? I can't throw up a thunderstorm and solve our problems conveniently, if that's what you're asking," Eridanus grunted. He had a bit of flux to use of course, but he hardly deemed it necessary to fight these monsters. That magic was to give him the secret upper-hand against opponents superior to him, and he unfortunately did not have any magic that could perform large scale destruction.

"We'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way, then. Let's slowly carve a path to Albert's gear and then clear a safe perimeter around."

With that, he danced to the side, quickly catching one of the nearer yukmen by the flank. Keeping his off-hand long sword close to his body to guard himself from an attack, he switched his right hand grip to a thumb-grip for better accuracy, thrusting the sword into a segment of the yukman that was not covered with hard rock. There was an inhumane shriek as he did so, and he switched to a fist grip for better stability and strength when his sword entered that vulnerable area.

With a grunt, he pushed the sword more deeply into the wound, and the yukman shuddered before collapsing violently. The vantha unsheathed his sword from the creature's body, looking about to assess their new circumstances before ducking back to Albert to guard the scholar from unprecedented attacks.

They would have do it like this, a constant hit-and-run against their opponents with at least one of them keeping the scholar safe in the event of a sudden attack directed towards Albert.

[Nyahna Sasin]

Well, there went that hope. Curse these scholars and their gear. The old fashioned way it was. One Dhani, one Merc, and a scholar against seven Yukmen.

Yeah, they could do this. They had faced worse odd. To be fair, that time, he had been taking them out stealthily while Eri and Kale faced them head on. This time, he didn't have the element of surprise on his side.

He slashed at a yukman that came too close, backing up against the scholar, Albert, Eri had said. The Vantha was attacking one of the Yukmen alone, and the other creatures were turning to him. As Eri darted back, Sasin slithered forwards, taking advantage of their momentary distraction. His knife slipped between rock to stab into a limb, and he pulled it out just as the monster turned around. On instinct, he slashed at the throat, and snarled in frustration as the creature simply shrieked. Dodging a flailing fist, he slithered around the creature, slashing again at it's neck. Still nothing for his trouble except a clip on the head when he was too slow to duck.

He really hated yukmen. Slithering back to the others, he winced, hissing in pain, and glanced at Eridanus.

Now what?