"Where is the treasure?", feeling Gurim's fist connect with his stomache before Makush finished the question Jeremy groaned in pain and doubled over.

"Stand up" Makush jerked him in his grasp to straighten him up, "no more lies Jeremy", mocking laced in the next sentence, "this hurts you a lot more than it hurts me"

"I can loot appraise him and see if he took anything of value" flinching at the words coming from Kluvis, "looks like he got something to hide", struggeling against Makush's iron grip got him slapped in the face, "hold him still".

"The 'loot appraisal' is a pirate skill what would a guildsman use it for?", Jeremy couldn't stop his curiousity.

"Oh it comes in handy from time to time now shut up" was the reply before Kluvis whistled, "seems like you were right Julian" he said turning to the leader, "he does have quite a lot for a newly freed guilder", scanning Jeremy from head to toe, "shirking taxes princeling?" looking him in the eye, "maybe you robbed the vaults before you left?", at Makush urging he added , "over a hundred and fourty grands in his account"

Julian stepped up and punched him in the face, "give me my loot you fucking thief", looking at the group and taking everyone in the eye, "this isnt from the guild" he emphasized, "this was dropped from the woman I killed", and they all nodded.

"That's not true" Jeremy tried to defend himself.

"Where did you get it then?" Was the immediate retort.

"From the dragon", looking straight in Julian's eyes.

"Ha", julian barked, "lying in my face", looking at the others, "now he wants us to believe he robbed a dragon", laughing again, "fuck you and your lies Jeremy", he looked at Gurim, "get it out of him", turned and walked away.

"Spit it out or we settle for the looters prize", the others nodded, "half of a hundred and fourty thousands is grand enough for me even divided between all of us", Jeremy knew he was sunk deeper than the bottom and going down fast when Gurim pulled out a dagger and pressed it to his chest, "give us a round hundred and we let you leave here alive", looking Jeremy in the eye, "die and you pay the despawn fine and get the same with all the other nasty bits like dying"

Closing his eyes he knew there was no way out of this trap, even Ashashit didn't come back for almost ten minutes, probably despawned, and no one else in the world cared enough to save him even if they knew, coming to a resolution.

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"Take your filthy hands off my weapon", came a screeching metallic voice Jeremy thought he would never hear again, feeling the dagger thrown away from his chest made his eyes snap open, the grip on his arms came loose in a scream of rage and pain and Jeremy saw the fingers dropping to the ground.

Rolling aside and running away from where the group was standing he saw they already equipped their weapons and were fighting Lahav in a furious four way melee, the living sword used the initial confusion to cripple the three warriors and they showed the pain plainly.

"Fire bolt" one of the sorcerers cast and his attack hit the blade, immediately shooting out and blasting Makush in the face, he was the most hurt of the trio and took a step back to let the others cover for him but the spell was a ranged attack that made this tactic useless.

With swords drawn the other two charged at the blade to distract it while Makush pulled out a potion, "chill touch", jeremy cast before he could drink it and the man splattered and cursed.

"Flame arrow", this wasn't aimed at the sword and Jeremy had to 'evade' before it hit him, twisting and taking another step back he hearde a scream and looked just in time to see Gurim's sword arm flying through the air and landing in a thump.

Makush stepped in to cover for his brother when Julian cast "rejuvenate" on Gurim.

Kluvis was a step above either of the brothers with his feints and perrys a blur of motion that didn't leave the floating blade enough time to deal with him at the same time as the other two were distracting him, both brutes were already covered in scractches but Gurim's stump was the worst injury they suffered between them.

Even just using his off hand a warrior was a force to be reckond with and Gurim did not disappoint, rolling, feinting stabbing and switching with the others, the whole display looking like a dance of blood and steel.

"Make haste your people need you" came the lilting voice of the guardian of light and suddenly the clang of metal became a constant din of pounding blades as Lahav doubled its speed, already more cuts appearing on the fighter's necks and faces and Kluvis suffered a gash to his thigh, as if on cue all three started falling back and in an instant disengaged from the melee.

"Mass heal" cuts and bruises visibly vanished from their bodies, "wall of fire" erupted between the retreating men and their assailant, the whole party regrouped and took a defensive tactical formation that will be much harder for two spell casters and a talking sword to break.

"We should retreat" Jeremy said as he joined the other two behind the wall of flames.

"It does appear to be a lost cause", the guardian of light may have agreed with him, "but the master bid me defend the camp site", or not.

"There is literaly nothing there", Jeremy tried his luck again.

"True enough", the blue woman agreed, "but the others may return at any moment and be ambushed by these robbers"

 The wall of flames winked out and revealed that all twelve members of Julian's party returned and were standing in an offensive wedge formation, in moments this will devolve to a battle Jeremy didn't know if they could win.

 "Who are you people?" Jeremy could kisss his blessed diamond snout when he heard the deep rumbling voice, maybe prayers were answered after all?