Showdown at the Mac Anu gallows

    High noon above Mac Anu, some may even call it no shadow time. Out in front of the gates a set of gallows have been stood up and rumors are that they have already been used.

     Today in charge of the gallows is the sheriff of Mac Anu, Shirin. He is fixing the rope around a trio of adventurers and they all have a massive amount of status debuffs on them that shows why they aren't doing much in the way of resisting.

     Hopping down he walks forward and shouts to no one but the air. " These adventurers were found in defying the rulers of Mac Anu and are here by found guilty of treason and for attempting to overthrow the crowned! The penalty is to die until they forget how to resist!" It is all loud and shouting and really seems to be for Shirin's own sense of morality or showmanship or whatever. Either ways he walks to the first gallow and reaches for the lever...

     The World Destroying Shadow, she who shall consume the world and destroy everything, the Demon Rose of the Forgotten Legion, Honami has arrived. For heroics. Because the world is HERS to destroy. And not just because she's a good person, really. Yep. That's totally it. She's here to destroy her rivals for world destruction! ...Wait are the Palace Landers trying to destroy the world, or just adventurers? Whatever, it's fine!

     A flurry of black petals swirl as the greatsword-wielding woman dashes onto the scene, sword already drawn and an aura of dark energy swirling around her. "Thou art declaring *THYSELVES* the rulers of Mac Anu? Hah! This farce is laughable! The Rulers of Mac Anu are not thyselves, the rulers are those who own this land; the people of the land nobles whose claim holds most true. No adventurer, crowned or otherwise can claim ownership of these canals and walls!" HEROIC SHOUTING! From the Demon Rose of the Forgotten Legion. Honestly she might have gotten confused on her role somewhere along the way. Look, the apocalypse was tough on everyone.

     As she shouts, Honami runs to get into place between Shirin and the captives, a sphere of darkness gathered in the hilt of her blade as one finger traces runes against the blade. "Fall, vile villainous vermin! Deepest Darkness, I call upon thine powers, DARK BALL!" And Honami unleashes a black sphere of arcane magic towards Shirin!

Goldenblade has crept closer under cover of stealth, and has been waiting under a tarpaulin covered in leaves for the last several hours. She's been occasionally whispering into her chim on the goings on, but now it looks like things are happening! With Shirin getting ready to do the deed, but her allies in place, Goldenblade will leap from her concealment, throwing back the tarp and dashing forward.

She rushes headlong for the gallows, and takes the stairs three at a time, bouncing up spryly and thrusting her slender blades at the so-called Sheriff with deadly intent. Hopefully she can keep him too busy to pull that lanyard. The rescue operations had to be left to others, this enemy is a bit too strong to just steamroll. "There'll be no hanging today, you damned Communist," she shouts, because that's kind of how she was taught, growing up, and what she's seen so far hasn't convinced her it's different. Commies are still doing bad things. Her job: Stop them.

A figure swirls around in the air, and lands in a combat stance. The wind blows and ruffles her hair, along with the dangling ends of the black belt around the waist of her gi/nurse's uniform hybrid. Staff clenched in both hands, diagonal, she looks straight at Shirin. "Hello. My name is Uta Furore. You killed my slimes. Prepare to die." To be honest, she will probably try to avoid literally -killing- Shirin if she can avoid it, but, given the nature of this war, it's on the book.

After delivering her line, she darts for Shirin, uttering a powerful "YAH!" and spinning her staff to hit his hand multiple times. Gotta keep it away from the lever!

Was it a trap? It was very likely a trap. One purposely baited in a manner that would be very hard to resist.

But as they say in dungeoneering, sometimes even knowing the trap is a trap you have to spring the trap to deal with the situation. And this was a situation that couldn't be ignored, trap or no trap.

A falcon circles overhead. Nothing to see there, or suggest it's anything other than a normal bird circling. Even if it's not because it's an animal companion in position to be called upon if needed.

Direct physical confrontation isn't Shiruba's thing, so she's holding back while the others rush the gallows. She and Erufu staying cautiously back where their skills excel as support fire.

Upon seeing that it's actual gallows and that wasn't some figurative saying she considers what to be done, drawing an arrow back in her bow and taking aim. Letting the others getting upon Shirin and his attention, then fires.

The arrow flies with such speed it makes a mild whistling sound, almost too fast to see as it snaps right through one of the noose ropes!

It was almost certainly a trap, yet as a certain Hunter had taught her? Sometimes you need to spring the trap anyway. The bait were the people who were going to be killed over and over till their minds blanked. The evil of the Palace Lands and its rulers knew no bounds. So here she was with Shiruba as part of the team's sniper duo. Their job was to try and snipe the ropes to allow the hostages to get free. Well, that was one part of the task the other part was support fire on the one handling hanging the captives. To keep them too busy to pull the lever.

She moves to line up the shot on Shirin. She takes a deep breath lines up the shot and lets the arrow fly.

"I'll keep them distracted, you worry about our captive comrades for now!"

    As his hand raises to touch the lever suddenly wild adventurers appeared and just started aggroing poor Shirin with no warning. His hand is bapped multiple times by the slime handler. Stumbling back just far enough so that Goldenblades sword thrust slashes across his chest.

     For a moment Shirin thinks he is steady on his feet as he steps forward to continue for the lever before dealing with the interlopers. That was when he is hit by an orb of darkness and an arrow of ow at the same time. There is enough force to throw Shirin backwards to the ground with a thud and groan.

     Meanwhile Shiruba's arrow flies true as it pierces the rope and the adventurer caught in it seems to collapse the moment the rope is cut, as if they were a puppet and their strings were cut. Any inspection would show though they are real adventurers.

     Standing up slowly Shirin picks up his hat off the ground and fixes it. "Well well well, looks like we have some varmins here who don't want to wait their turn." From his inventory two crossbows pop out and Shirin swipes them from air, one for each hand. Then the sheriff goes to town on the attackers while making a B-line to the next gallow lever.

     "...Wait, they killed your slimes, Uta? Oh my gosh they /are/ evil. Jeeze I was just acting it up out of habit but now I'm absolutely one hundred percent sure they're vile villainous vermin!" Honami comments after hearing Uta's call towards Shirin. So rude! Killing someone's pet! That's the worst! The injustice of it! Yes. That's definitely the evil. Not the literal torture of killing someone repeatedly until they lose themselves. Yep.
     "Hah! Us, varmints?!" A flash of movement, and Honami is dashing around the incoming crossbow bolts, while starting to sing. "Angel of darkness... angel of darkness... the world is in your hand...!" Earth magic begins to surround her sword, a subtle glow starting to surround Honami as the blade is lifted high, and she starts to dart in closer to Shirin, earth magic solidifying around the sword. "BUT I WILL FIGHT UNTIL THE END!" o/` And the sword is brought down towards Shirin. Aimed, somewhat viciously and intentionally... right towards his head. Not for his head though. For the crown upon it. Because it deals a lot of damage. The attack is named rather aptly as well. Earthbreaker. An earth-shattering strike that might even crack the ground under Shirin's feet from the strike. Or. Just the ground next to him. Ugh, it's hard to aim heavy, telegraphed moves sometimes.

Goldenblade will jump down after Shirin as he draws the crossbows, and she jinks left, then right, then left, and his aim is off when he pulls the trigger, the bolts flying past her to the left and thunking into a building well behind her. She snorts derisively at being called a varmint.

"We'll see who's a pest here, Mister Palace Lands," she says, and begins a series of lightning-fast jabs with one blade, and then the other, maintaining the pressure on him with a savage fury. She mad. The blade glean dully, the goldish tone from the Fire infusing the steel, adding a bit of fire damage into the mix, though really, it's kind of hard to tell where the fire ends and the sword begins, with some of her techniques. This one is mostly sword, though, chopping off little chunks of HP with each quick jab. Some of them are blocked and dodged, but many of them strike true.

    Mizuki has snuck unobserved close to the gallows, trying to avoid giving herself away as she gets into position for a sneak attack...

    But as she finally gets close enough to strike, she can't take it anymore.

    "You're a PLAYER?! I was told there were hacked NPCs, but YOU have no reason to buy into this setting's political bullshit! NO ONE has any REAL claim to RULE people, and you KNOW better because YOU come from a world with DEMOCRACY! This world's political bullshit justifies nothing and you KNOW it, you just see a chance to bully people and get away with it! This is some real Tenzan Nakajima bullshit! You're unforgivable! The worst! Urusenai! Hidoi! SHINE!"

    Standing from the shadows in her midnight-purple ninja outfit with long, flowing red scarf, she holds her twin daggers in position to activate Edge Of Shadow, darting in and striking, moving, striking again and again rapidly with feline ninja speed!

The rope is severed.. And the body drops to the ground like a real person under a lot of suppression debuffs rather than a stuffed dummy or any other sort of fake. Shiruba narrows her eyes as she's nocking another embued arrow in her bow. So he was cunning and/or mean enough to use actual Adventurers as bait to ensure there was a response. Of course, that also compels them even more to succeed.

Unfortunately her shot apparrently didn't go unnoticed, as the crooked Sheriff snaps off shots in her direction during his counteractions. She fires the arrow she had ready, which bursts into a stream of flame mid-air. But even for her shooting another projectile is still a challenge, and instead of stopping the enemy fire she only knocks it into a lower angle, which catchs her in the thigh instead. Ow! But at least it wasn't the knee.

This, folks, is why we have backup plans.

The falcon stops circling overhead, snapping back her wings and going into her stoop. Peregrins have the fastest dive of any raptorial bird and Windburn was no different. The divebomb passes under the top shaft of the gallows as she catchs one of the remaining ropes in her beak and tears it apart like it was the sinewy strands of some prey.

"He -did-!", Uta exclaims at Honami. She's no a happy customer. Shirin's getting a scathing Welp review. One out of five sheriff stars, would not recommend. "Warm mints sound disgusting," Uta says while making a face. When she sees Shirin extract his crossbows, she begins to leap and dodge left and right, erratically, to be the most moving of targets, and as a result of the whole exercise, she somehow manages to dodge the bullet sent her way.

A glance is shot towards the rescued Adventurer. Looks real, and at a cursory glance in the heat of battle, based on Uta's medical experience, it looks like they can wait a little longer before needing actual medical attention. So the fight rages on.

Probably because Shirin was trying to target too many targets at once.

When she sees an opening, she jumps in, and once again, pushes forward to keep Shirin from reaching the lever. It's a series of rhythmic blows with each end of her staff, in turn, which turn out sounding like a... drum solo of sorts?

There is no time to hesitate there is no time to doubt no matter what happens the rate of fire can not drop no matter what happens to the Elf Archer. She's caught in one of the Shirin's attacks it cuts a jagged red line in her body and gear for a moment. It's not enough to drop her and she'll fire a shot aimed for the Palace Lander's crown, or failing that somewhere else nice and juicy and she calls out.

"Shiruba!"

She does not need to say more, she's worked with the Cait Sith enough that it's almost like working with her regular party.

    The earth shakes under his feet from Honami's attack causing him to misstep as he slips under the loose dirt. This slip causes Goldenblade's sword to strike true and Shirin scrambles to get away from the blade.

     As he gets out from the sword then there is a crazy cat girl spouting about democracy stabbing him. One of them slips in right between the ribs too, fortunately it finds a pixelated body cavity and not the heart. On top of that the slime lover gets involved and for a moment he is about to manage to catch her attacks when his head goes reeling back from an arrow of Erufu's. The crown item itself shows no damage but it was enough to interrupt any defense for Uta's attack. He ends up with several staff strikes hitting his face.

     Another arrow from Shiruba causes another adventurer to drop. This one though is able to talk mumbling, "Not again. Not again. Just let me go, I promissssss?" Before they pass out as well. Whatever is going on beyond those walls isn't pretty.

     Shirin can't allow this to all go belly up quite as quickly as it appears to be going. Looking at the next adventurer on the gallow, Shirin takes a deep breath. "In the name of justice, I, Shirin of Rosenheim, hereby sentence you all to the gallows until you can no longer resist. Lay down your weapons and put your hands on your head and I will believe you to be surrendering." Then for another moment Shirin looks Mizuki dead in the eye, " That world is wrong, and those from it have only brought nightmares to this world."

     As Shirin speaks, the crossbows glow with white magical energy, and when they reach that peak glowing, obviously by not being able to see the weapon, Shirin points the crossbows toward the skies and fires. A large orb of light magic sails into the sky before it shatters raining down beams of light upon the group. In the distraction of the raining light of death Shirin rushes as fast as he can to the last gallow.

Arriving shortly behind Mizuki is a slender young woman in a loose-fitting kimono, who pauses as she approaches the scene. She has the look of an Imp, with an impressive pair of horns sprouting from her forehead, and she rather easily carries a massive tetsubo resting against one shoulder.

"Well, well, well," she muses, "This is a pretty standard scene, isn't it? The Evil Overlord holding out hostages to be executed to draw out the Heroes? Yep, ticks all the boxes, right down to the Villain Monologue."

She grins and starts to *grow*, her skin turning a vivid crimson as she swells to an amazonian height and build - filling out her loose clothes much more thoroughly. (There's a brief moment of attempted sleight-of-hand, as she sweeps a hand across her forehead to slide the horned headband into her inventory as her real horns grow into place.)

While she's in the middle of it, however, she takes a hit from Shirin's crossbow bolt. The wound just seems to make her more angry, and instead of standing off with a ranged attack she just hurls herself at the interloper, a single leap carrying her across the field to slam the massive steel-studded club into his stomach!

     Okay, that's two down, two freed. Honami is briefly distracted and strongly confused by the talk of democracy. And then it happens. The LIGHT OF JUSTICE BEAM. Agh, her one (of many) weakness(es)! Honami tries to dart away in a flash of lightning to get out of the way of the beam, but she's just too close to the origin ,and she's absorbed in the beam of light, leaving her health bar heavily dropped, and she's staggering back a step or two. She takes a deep breath.
     "AND YOU KNOW WHAT? WE JUST WANT TO GO BACK TO THAT WORLD! BACK TO OUR HOMES! BACK TO OUR LIVES THAT WERE STOLEN FROM US! Nightmares?! Nightmares?! You call what we bring nightmares? Every waking day I wonder what my family is doing. If they're mourning. If they've already decided that I'm dead, or if they haven't given up. My best friend. My sister who was playing with me and I haven't seen since the apocalypse. I already lost everything once! I REFUSE TO DO IT AGAIN!"
     Honami shifts, lifting her arm towards Shirin, a quickly-equipped wrist crossbow fading into view with a black energy already growing on the loaded bolt. "Angel of darkness... don't follow your command... but I will fight and I will stand!" The loaded bolt is released, once more aimed towards that crown. Once more aiming for that extreme damage.
     An initially non-threatening attack, a hand crossbow isn't known for its damage, but upon impact (wether it be with Shirin or something else), the bolt explodes into a moderately-sized blast of dark arcane energy that lingers for a few seconds, swirling to deal damage. Ideally around Shirin's head and that crown.

    "Our world had problems, but this is our chance to do BETTER, not WORSE!" Mizuki sheathes her daggers and makes a sweeping motion with her hand before pouncing and trying to grab onto Shirin and slow him down -- a glob of water seeping up from the ground and flinging itself at his head magic trying to keep it there and interfere with breathing while Mizuki makes as much of a nuisance of herself as she can, clinging and clawing with all fours and biting and scratching!

Goldenblade looks up as Shirin fires into the air, and acks as beams of light rain down. She's too fast for them to actually hit her, but they shift her balance, and her counterattack is slow, behind the beat, and she's unable to injure the Sheriff as he tries to do his villainous thing. That's the problem with Sheriffs outside America. In America, the sheriff is the law and justice, but in Nottingham and here, it seems, the Sheriff is a villainous figuree. She will try to recover her attack position, but the fight has slipped past her, and now she's got to catch up.

Uta had started something along the lines of, "Ooh I want to learn that attack you used by the way later. The one where you were singing." She is a happy customer. Five out of five black swirling petals. But then there was confusing talks about democracy and... well, ok, Demonrose Honami is probably not in th e best of mental conditions to discuss techniques now.

Uta seems to react to something said on chimlinks. Her eyes glaze over. "HE KILLED MY SLIMES," she says, with a cracked voice, as if she was on the verge of tears. "HE. KILLED. MY. SLIMES.", she repeats, and launches into a series of melee attacks. Punches, kicks, flying roundhouse kicks. "IT'S. THIS. GUY." Each blows, one word. "HE. KILLED. MY. SLIMES."

She leaps back, takes time to inhale and focus, and finally bellows a sustained musical note which... sends shockwaves flying towards the sheriff. The kind of thing likely to break glass!

Shiruba drives her foot into the ground to brace herself, this time expecting a counter attack. Winds whip up around her, kicking dust and debris into the cyclonic force. Which isn't enough to burn off whatever the hell Shirin is shooting from those crossbows, and it hits the wolfgirl with enough force to knock her off her feet despite bracing herself. Red flashes an a massive chunk of HP missing follows. Ow. Very much ow.

... But after a moment Shiruba hauls herself back onto her feet, teeth gritted and brow furrowed in determination. Those are actual people down there -- granted she considers Landers actual people too -- that will only suffer if the rescue doesn't pull through. Not only would they be killed, but done so over and over, each time they respawn in the city, and that kind of suffering is inhuman on so many levels.

Ears lay back as a low growl escapes the cait sith. Something deep inside of her beats as much as the pain does. Something with the determination this was worth fighting for.

Shiruba pulls one of the lightning rod arrows from her quiver, the elemental gems in Thundersnow Howl's lighting up as electricity builds and crackles along the longbow and down the strings, building charge in the arrow. To the point that the arcs hissing along the shaft glow in a reddish-orange hue from the intense energies. She takes aim, eyes narrowing.

Worth, possibly, even dying for if need be.

"Vermillion Harpoon" she hisses between her teeth, and fires the glowing arrow, this time at the Sheriff himself at the heart of this horrible situation. It is only one arrow, flying fast and hard... but as soon as it impacts the elemental energy stored in it is released in a series of powerful pulses, each one with the force of a lightning stroke!

Things are getting even more serious at this point Shirin is a one-person wrecking crew. Shirun is tearing into the Pooka again, she should run. She was about to pull out when something hits her. The hostages are linked to the church here in Mac Anu. They will be killed over and over till they are mindless husks. If she dies succeeding in getting them out she'll end up at a still safe church. It's a terrifying choice but running now condemns someone to a far worse fate.

"I do not hate the puppet, I hate the one pulling your strings."

She now aims her bow and pulls another arrow.

"BLACK ARROW! TO YOUR MARK!"

    Wherever the hell the angry oni came from throws off the sheriff completely. Shirin sees the club coming for only a moment before he is swept off his feet and knocked to the ground. He hits the ground a and does his best to scramble to his feet to keep running towards the gallow.

     As he finally gets steady a earth shattering scream catches him causing his vision to double and stumble before he turns to see a crossbow bolt of darkness about to hit him. All he can do to react is comment. "Well this is ironic." Then the bolt hits him and explodes back.

     Standing up slowly to his feet he is looking a little miffed, then he gets hit with the vermillion harpoon as he is sent flying backwards almost into the wall of Mac Anu, before Erufu arrow hits him and causes him to start spinning in mid air. The spin drags him to the ground with a thud just outside the safety zone that is the wall. He lays there for a few moments, completely stunned.

     Finally after more than a moment gets to his feet and grabs from his inventory a bottle of something and tosses it back. "Ok then so that's it." Shirin doesn't bother to pick up his crossbow bolts as he pulls in the air around before issuing an axe kick right infront of him, sending out a wave of compressed air towards everyone. The gallows themselves begin to tumble and the adventures have a matter of moments to save that last adventurer.

     Still just one more to go. Honami grits her teeth. Full of grim determination, she brings her sword back to bear against Shirin. Blade held fast and ready to do what a front line attacker does best in this situation. Protect the back line. Be a distraction. Take the hits so that others don't have to. And if that means paying the price? Then so be it. She'd already played her best cards. All that was left was to fight on.
     A coat of energy tries to deflect the latest attack, as Honami steps to the side. But the axe kick strikes true. The song continues. "Angel of darkness... the world is in your hands... AND I WILL FIGHT UNTIL THE END!" Honami lifts her sword once more, bringing it towards Shirin in a cutting motion, striking towards the center of his chest in a heavy overhead strike as a parting blow to keep him occupied so that the hostages could be saved more easily. It's worthless if the hostages take a bolt to the back while they're being saved, right?

Shiruba does something unexpected, in grabbing the Glaive of the Fallen off her belt. Then twists to throw it into the wave of air pressure ripping across the field. It's impractical, it's unorthadox...

And it works, as the Relic's power to repel ranged attacks still works, it's spinning motion actually pulling the air away from wave and creating a gap that passes over Shiruba in that same way tornados can randomly miss things in their path.

Unfortunately the additional air spinning around the weapon throws off it's balance a bit, and it misses the final rope, instead imbedding a blade into the wood. Her falcon has to grab the glaive with her talons and pull it free, hurriedly flying back to her master before the entire thing collapses on top of her.

Shiruba has faith in her friends and party though. Hopefully that faith will be well placed...

    Mizuki is flung away by the compressed air, slammed against the side of the gallows' stage with a yowl as her health drops into the red. As she hears the structure creaking and rattling, she stands and turns to look... "No!" she flings kunai at the rope, but misses... thankfully, there are others on the job, and she'll help carry adventurers to safety once freed if needed.

    "You know nothing of justice!" Mizuki shouts at Shirin's back. "You're just a bully! You think you've found teachers to take your side, but that didn't stop Ender Wiggin, and it won't stop us!"

Goldenblade looks around, and it looks like this clever plan has met with current events. No plan, wiser people have said, ever survives contact with the enemy, and this one is no exception. But it looks like someone getting the last prisoner down from the gallows, and Shirin's trashing it just a heartbeat too late. Vanishing to avoid the counterattack, she looks over with alarm as Erufu doesn't seem able to dodge quicky enough. She triggers her new Relic, but the problem with archery is you have to stand still or you can't really aim. The counterattack comes at Erufu as well, but Goldenblade intercedes, taking the hit and wincing. "OK, that's enough of that," she grumbles, but now people are rushing out with the recovered prisoners.

Well, she can back down, too, but she's going to leave Shirin with a parting gift. Vanishing for a momen, she appears behind him, and lays into him from his blindside, taking a good chunk of HP before scrambling off. She's not happy leaving him alive, but the mission comes first.

Erufu knew the reaper would catch up with her in a world like this sooner or later, the idea of losing a few earth memories doesn't trouble her when she thinks about it briefly. She's not that person anymore and honestly, could never be again. Even if she went back she'd still be the Elf Archer in the end. Goldenblade is quick to act and saves her from getting a death express. That's not the end of it an angel of darkness if you will rushes to add an addtional division which the elf will take advantage of. She looks for half a second to Goldenblade and Demonrose Honami.

"I am in your debt Goldenblade, Angel of Darkness."

She'll pull back a bit trying to get out of melee. She knows they can't stay longer but she's got one last card to play as the Demonrose keeps the Sherrif busy for a moment longer.

"BURST SHOT!"

She has taken aim at the last gallows rope to set the Adventurer who was about to be hanged free. It is time to run after this...

Chikako Douji smirks as she steps aside, escaping the burst from Shirin's kick by a hairs-breadth. "I do have to remind you," she says, taking a casual swing with her tetsubo, then slapping it against her open palm. "Remember. Never forget the first precept: Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." Yes, she's dropping the quote. "I don't give a flying fuck about democracy. But I damn well -hate- slaving douchebags. So I'd like to give you an open invitation to go sit on a pine-cone."

And then she SLAMS the massive club into the earth in front of her, the impact digging into the earth with a massive burst of sound and dust. The head of it is left buried a full foot into the ground right before the 'Sherriff's feet.

"Or you can stick your head back in that hole, and let me stick the pinecone in myself."

She grins and yanks the tetsubo free with a single tug, then leans it back on her shoulder as she goes to join the rest.

The pressure from the bottle disrupts Uta's sonic attack, and after being knocked over, she has to scramble for safety. After a quick survey of the the current situation, which involves some silent muttering, she dodges out of the way in advance enough to avoid being damaged further.

While the others distract Shirin, she makes sure the hostages are fine (through medical inspection and by administering health potions and first aid if necessary), and after that is done, she slumps one on one shoulder, one on the other, and carries the third in his hands. Then this slightly-shorter-than-average Spriggan trots her way towards a point agreed in advance, only moderately slowed down by the extra weight.

Perks of constant training while carrying weights, it would seem.

As she passes close to Demonrose Honami, she comments, "Oh, hey, Angel of Darkness. I like that. 'Princess Demonrose Honami of the Lost Legion of the Scrapped Princesses, Angel of Darkness.' Has a nice ring to it." She flashes Honami a huge smile. "Welcome to the club of the Accidental Accumulators of Titles! I'm sure you'll have a great, if confusing, time around here!"

    Merek had been waiting for the party, and will keep on waiting for them. He said he wouldn't be able to arrive in time to assist directly and also he is not known for not setting off the entire army. That said he has a grunty cart while he takes the reigns. The man drives the cart and he doesn't really park, instead he begins to coast along the side of the city while he waits. "Even if you don't have anywhere to go, you go down on the pedal and you're ready to roll. And even if you don't have anywhere to go. You go down on the pedal and you're ready to roll. And your speed, s all you'll ever need, all you'll ever need to know! o/¯"

Oh good, there's the escape wagon. "Excellent timing." Other physically stronger people are taking care of getting the hostages off what remains of the gallows, so Shiruba hops up on the wagon itself to help get them aboard as they're brought over. "Be ready to kick off as soon as they're all on," she comments over a shoulder to Merek.

    Shirin watches the hostage get freed and the other grabbed. Reaching into his pocket he pulls a vial of red liquid and is about to take it before Goldenblade hits him from behind and then gets hit in the chest by Honami and falls forward. The red vial hits the ground and shatters, oozing and bubbling and eating away at the ground it landed on. Moments later that dirt would be dead as if all the life was drained from it.

     The hostages loaded one is even mumbling something about hoping not to wake up to the church anymore as if they are having an nightmare. The cart is able to ride off into the sunset while all around Shirin is simply a destroyed battlefield and broken Gallows. All Shirin can manage to do as he gets on his feet his watch the adventurers get away.

Merek is there with expert timing she'll keep springing till she leaps into the wagon and will get once she's close enough it's time to go. It's very much time to get the heck out of Mac Anu.