Storming up on various mounts; including a black horse, a surprisingly swift giant tortoise, and a jackrabbit of all things, were 6 locals from the South American city rushing up to the group of 3.

Among the group were 4 men and 2 women, 2 of the men seemed to have been on the older side with noticeably grey facial hair and wrinkly face. The group quickly caught up and introductions were briefly given considering the gravity of the situation.

After the introductions, a plan on how to approach and destroy the bandits without harming the children were being discussed. The problem was that there were more than a couple of children who had been captured that night, so extracting or defending them would be difficult to achieve.

No one really had much of a solution aside from charging the bandits quickly, but that would leave the children at risk. It wasn't until Thomas spoke up and mentioned Brutus's shadow traveling abilities that some sort of plan was able to form.

What had been decided on finally was that Brutus would go ahead and shadow travel to where the children were being kept and extract as many as he could without alerting the kidnappers. While that was occurring, the group would ambush from several directions to spread out the bandits and keep their attention away from the kids.

Once the criminals had been alerted, Brutus would sink into the shadow of the children in order to protect them from any harm. It was a plan that heavily relied on Brutus to ensure the children's safety, but he seemed insistent that he was up to the task.

Alexis and Thomas would charge from the front, while Marco and two others would go in from the left, and the other 4 would come from the right. The plains wouldn't provide any real cover unless there was some tall grass, so speed and surprise would be the name of the game.

This was also relying on the assumption that the children were being kept together and being carried by something since it wasn't likely the kids would stay put or keep up with their kidnappers. The numbers weren't in their favor either, but they didn't have much choice since by the time other summoners caught up the kidnappers could be long gone.

With that established, the group broke up and Thomas and Alexis pushed forward on their mounts to catch up with the more numerous criminals. Their numbers and cargo put them at a disadvantage, but in an era of monsters, anything was possible, so there was no reason to waste any more time.

.....

About an hour had passed and finally, the bandits were in sight on their various mounts, and in the center of the caravan was a large wagon with strong wooden poles keeping the children penned in. It was a small mercy that they were all unconscious, likely from some medicine or poison that would keep them from being difficult during the ride.

They were too far away to make out any distinct features within the wagon, all that could be confirmed was that small bodies were piled within. If they didn't already know the children were more valuable alive than dead, the rescuers might have been freaking out at that point.

After having survived during this era of turmoil, none of the survivors were weak-hearted, and so they were able to keep a cool head about the situation despite the broiling instinct bubbling inside. It was the voice of panic telling them to charge and kill the criminals and damn the consequences, but listening to it could spell the end of the children and even them if they weren't careful.

.....

To start off the operation, Brutus was summoned and quickly dispersed in a black fog of smoke from Thomas's side. He reappeared within the cage in between a few of the unconscious children.

They were laid out on the ground like logs, but after that, it seems they were hastily thrown in so that they could escape. This was great for him as it allowed him to remain out of sight, but judging by the dozen or so children, it would be too much to try and remove them one by one before the group of summoners charge.

He quickly returned back to Thomas alone and shook his head to let him know he wouldn't be able to retrieve all of the children.

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"Alright Brutus, just stay with the kids for now and protect them, we'll take care of the rest," Thomas told him. With that done, the grim disappeared like a specter and went back through the shadows to watch over the children.

Thomas just shook his head in disappointment that it wasn't realistic to remove all the children, and decided to go ahead with the charge while Brutus protects the unconscious kids.

Giving the signal, Thomas rushed ahead on Jotun with Hemlock right behind him carrying Alexis. The group of around 30 bandits that had been making a steady pace through the slightly hilly plains were alerted to the presence of intruders by the clopping of hooves and claws through the ground.

They turned around to face the charging crowd, only to realize the sound was coming from multiple directions. Giving no thought to the children at the moment, the criminals brought out their summons to face their enemy.

Crashing through the front lines was Jotun and Hemlock with their dragon-kin bodies knocking through any opposition. Summons and men alike were thrown through the air as others were torn asunder by the enraged claws of the summons as if sensing their summoner's anger towards the men.

Mount summons weren't the only thing brought out. Charging alongside the others were Musashi and Holly, with Jareth in all his grey-skinned and four-armed glory lumbering behind and carrying his mace menacingly.

By the time the rest of the rescue group reached the bandit line, they had regrouped and launched a counter-attack with their now brought out summons. All sorts were brought out, but the majority were tier 2 with an occasional tier 3 sticking out from the line.

Marco and his group came from the left, alongside them was a large green saguaro cactus with lots of sharp spines sticking out. It made a preemptive move before the group reached the kidnappers, and shot out most of its spiny thorns into the mass of attackers.

Whines and screams of pain could be heard throughout the left side as many summons and their summoners became pincushions for the sharp thorns that acted as pinpoint knives that dug into their flesh. Even worse for them was the small indents along all of the spines that prevented them from being removed without taking out significant chunks of flesh.

Their only bit of luck was that it was a one time attack until they regenerated in a few day's time, but that didn't leave the cactus defenseless as Barrote the cactus soon proved. It used it's larger spikes that were permanently fixed to its limbs to great effect and took on two kobold looking summons that were at about chest height of it.

The kobolds were quickly dispatched, but more summons filled in the gap to take down the animate cactus. Seeing that their ally was in trouble, Marco's summoner friends had their summons rush in and distract the summons on that line. Even ants could take down a lion, so it was lucky that Barrote was backed up by allies.

Interesting moves were being shown as fragrant powder was exuded from a flowering plant creature, while an oversized jackrabbit was using it's overpowered legs to crush any limbs or bodies that got in its way.

Despite the criminals having more summons, the quality was worse, and with so many opponents surprising them at once from multiple sides it was no wonder that they were being so easily handled. That wasn't to last for too much longer as the leader seemed to have regained his senses and started barking out orders to his accomplices while heading towards the cart carrying the children.

Alex was paying keen attention to him as soon as he started organizing the kidnappers, and when she saw that he was heading near the cart, she made a preemptive move to keep him away from the children. Queenie the small yet deadly scorpion was brought out and quickly scuttled through the fray unnoticed and made it right to the leader as he came up to the cart with obviously malicious intentions.

He brought out a tier 3 orc summon with a studded club and grabbed the rescue party's attention by yelling, "Stop fighting and unsummon your monsters or else my orc will crush these children into a bloody pulp!"

He looked to be pretty proud of himself thinking that he would be able to turn the tide on these attackers now that he had hostages, at least until Alexis finally spoke up. "Fine, we're putting them away now. We won't do anything, just don't hurt the children." Then she changed her tune after seeing queenie was in place to take out the leader, "At least, that is what I would say if you actually had any hostages."

The leader had a scrunched up face that couldn't seem to decide on anger or confusion until a sting to his neck decided for him, and before he could even instruct the orc summon to attack the children, his heart had stopped and he dropped dead where he stood. And with the death of the summoner, the orc summon followed and turned back into a core.

The removal of the threat started the fight once more, and this time there was no one to step up and direct the defenders while they weathered furious blows in rapid succession that just tore through them.

One by one they dropped in piles of blood and gore from the savage battle that was taking place. It wasn't till the criminals were down to five they became desperate and attempted once more for the children who continued to remain unconscious. They didn't even make it within five feet of the cart before Brutus finally showed his face and crushed the throat of the criminal within his jaws.

Any other efforts to attack the children were disbanded upon seeing that scene and they attempted to flee for their lives.