"Wait...I don't know about anyone else, but I'd feel safer in a forest rather than a random cave. Plus, it's less than a mile away." Job said grabbing onto the necromancer. "It'll be your way of repaying me. We still have to hurry day's broken, and it sounds like a storm...which is weird because I don't see any clouds...ahh damnit."

Up ahead, what was presumably the source of the noise, a line of large dots were storming towards the group. Job couldn't make them out, but he had a pretty good idea. "Ok, cave it is then." Some looked at him confused, but he pushed on. "Look, we don't wanna fight those things if they are what I think they are, cuz what I think they are are too much for us to handle, I think." He renewed his charge towards the cave, but was thrown back when a large creature slid in his way, knocking him down.

Standing up and brushing off the dirt, he saw what he had been dreading. The thing that caught his eyes was of course the man atop the rhino, but the beast was no slouch in the looks department either. Its massive horn extended like a sword from its nose, and it huffed menacingly, scraping the ground in preperation of the charge.

"Hello Job, not planning on leaving the fun before it starts are ya? Arellios here was getting bored, weren't you girl?" The man atop taunted, getting a grunt from the rhino in response. "Now, I don't think I've been properly introduced to your...friends."

"No, no you haven't. Guys, this is Bartleby, leader of the Citadel Strike force." Job said. As he explained the other riders came up behind them, some carrying lances, other polearms, and swords on their side. If they were recently awakened, it didn't show.

"Well, leader and chief of the Rampage Strike Squad, but what's a title really? And I'd assume you're all the ones that have been troubling the Church. Well, there's a protocol I have to follow before we can commence, lemme see here." Bartleby said, drawing a sheet of paper out. He looked it over and then began to skim it aloud. "Uhm, you are traitors to the Church, yada, subject to death, blah, turn yourselves in or face the consequences. That covers it. So, any of you feel like making this easy?"

Job looked around at what he felt was his new group, nobody looking sheepish. "Well, I think we have a better chance of life with fighting you, so we'll go with option B." Jpb spoke, drawing his sword.

"Excellent." The commander said, drawing his two short swords, and rushing in.

"Wow...it's like a living impaler!" Naerzul peered with fascination at the rhino Bartleby sat on, seemingly unaware of the conversation, "Beautiful animal...what do you feed her?"

Despite his seeming unawareness, the skeletal badger at his side shifted restlessly, settling back as though in preparation to spring, and the necromancer's fingers tightened on the haft of his staff.

Drug, who had just been following quietly behind this entire time, now moved to the back of the group. Being crushed by a gaint Rhino thing wasn't high on his to-do list. Incase the other targets of the gaint Rhino died, Drug began to pull out metal balls filled with smaller metal balls and gun powder.

Firecall grunted, not expecting those tough-skinned monstrosities to be his enemies. However, his barbarian instincts resurfacing, he started wearing a feral grin, and he held the business end of his staffmace behind him, one part because of the momentum the first swing would allow him, and one part because he was tracing figures with the hand holding the staff on his cloak. Though his weapon and magic skills weren't spectacular, he was still confident that he was of a more ferocious kind than the ordinary human soldier. "It's a good day for a fight..."

Suddenly, they were charging, "Awww....damn!" Naerzul cursed, spinning his staff in readiness for battle, summoning up black mana for his spells.

Woah! This is way too fast, Silvergem thought as the others rushed past her in order to subdue the opposer to their freedom. She knew that, in her weakened, gem-dependent state, she stood no chance against Bartleby, let alone the Rhino, who now looked ready to go on a rampage.
Still, she pulled a precious gem off her braid and readied the spell trapped within it. She’ll need all the protection she has if the others can’t get rid of the man.

Tim readied his blue mana for a spell he didn't like to have to cast. When he did cast it, he didn't like to hold it very long. His spell, dehydration as his master called it, dried up almost all of the water in the targets body, leaving them to shrivel and, if held for long enough, collapse into a powder, or crystals. When the Bartleby attacked, he would unleash this at the rhino he was riding, as he didn't like the look of a shriveled human. It was just...not something he was accustomed to, nor did he wish to get accustomed to it.

OOC: El, it just makes it so they don't untap! Dehydration doesn't kill them...

OOC: Well, I'm not allowed to instant kill, now am I? Besides, it'll make it so it can't attack

OOC: it will get one attack, then it will be tapped, and can't untap.

Fear time!

IC: Naerzul chanted, black mana gathering in a storm before him, lashing out in a red-black cloud of ennervative energy. The cloud enveloped one of the rhinos, and it stumbled as its muscles suddenly weakened...bones showing starkly under its flesh as it fell to the ground, unable to bear the weight of its rider any more.