"Nev! A little help?" I asked as my new friend slowly approached while unfastening a mace from his hip.

"I'm kinda dealing with my own thing here!"

They danced around dodging a blade, then the snarling maw of a dog, followed by a monkey grasping at their lichen shirt, finished with another swing of the stranger's sword. The group was miraculously in sync. I would almost be impressed if they weren't trying to kill my teammate.

I palmed the bits of metal and leather into my glove and pressed my hands together.

"Please," I begged the stranger. "You don't have to do this."

"Sorry, friend. Thanks for the help with the cart, though."

He swung his mace down towards my head as I lifted my right hand to intercept. The mace was caught in my palm and rang out with a distinct metal tone on metal. I reshaped the materials, wrapping them around the mace, the stranger tried to pull back, but it was too late at that point.

I slipped my right hand out of my glove and reinforced the knuckles of my left, creating padding of leather with a thickly studded metal on top. Then, confidently, I flung my hand knuckles first against my dumbfounded opponent. I'd never been one for violence before, mostly because I wasn't very good at it. But even I could manage to hit a target standing in place.

My arced fist connected with his temple as the stranger's features flashed, confused to furious, and finally unconscious. As he fell, his grip on the mace finally released, though its handle remained in the air. I reclaimed the leather and metal from my glove and revealed a metal frame supporting the mace in the air connected to a multiple-prong stand placed on the ground on which I was kneeling. I reclaimed and formed it into a cable spool as I admired my work. Nev, surprisingly, was having a much harder time.

Only half of their bark armor was formed and equipped. The rest was either unapplied or ripped away by dog bites and sword swings. They had them on the ropes, but it was one versus three. I should help them even the odds.

As the monkey launched itself, teeth first and inches from Nev's face, it was suddenly overcome by a large swath of fabric. I wrestled with the sacked, overly-sized capuchin for a moment before sealing the cloth and tossing it off to the side without a care.

"No! Bongo!" The animal lover shouted out. "I'll kill you!"

Out of tricks and astoundingly weak, I did what I do best, ran. I turned my back to the stranger and took off to the cart, attempting to use it for cover. However, before I could gain any distance, I felt a slight pressure tighten around my shoulders. I knew this sensation, having seen Lucky get dropped flat on his ass more times than I could count. He was trying to pull me back with my cape. However, Mersault Star is not at all like Lucky.

I learn from mistakes, both my own and that of others. As the cape became taught against my back, the loose threading securing it to my tunic came loose, the fabric ripping free into his hands. I slipped free and launched myself over their newly fixed cart.

"Ha!" I taunted the stranger as he stepped over his partner's limp frame. "You're gonna have to do better than that!"

"You can only run for so long."

"Oh, I don't have to run anymore," I said, perching myself on his cart.

I picked an apple out of one of the sacks and took a crisp obnoxious bite. Then I gestured behind him as his confidence turned to fear.

His dog hung suspended in the air, vines wrapped around each limb as its attempts to snap and struggle free were rendered pointless. Staring our direction was a suit of armor, wooden and verdant, with a twisted gnarled smark carved into the helm. Nev threw their arm to the side, and with it emerged a thorn from their forearm, longer than a dagger.

"You know... if you gave up, no one else would have to get hurt," I said before taking another irritating crunch out of his stolen fruit.

The man dropped his sword to his side in response.

We restrained the strangers and their animal companions before helping ourselves to the bounties their cart possessed. I found a couple of animal hides I could work with while Nev grabbed some seeds they seemed particularly interested in. We left the rest. We weren't thieves or merchants, so that wouldn't do us any good. We bound the hands and feet of the two men, the monkey, and their dog with some of their own cheaper leather. It wouldn't hold them forever, but it would keep them from immediately coming after us.

"Alrighty then, did you two learn your lesson?" I asked, with some of their goods slung over my shoulder.

The two nodded in response, eyes locked on the floor.

"Good. Well, we'll be off then. Thanks for the donations, and sorry for the possible concussion."

We walked off confidently as Nev dissembled her wooden armor, slinging the pieces into the woods, caught and absorbed by branches and tree trunks.

"Oh yeah, one more thing!" I said, turning back to the men.

I patted the horse fastened to the front of the cart, and approached the repaired wheel. As I reclaimed the materials, the cart came crashing to the ground leaving the wheel in far worse shape than before.

"Oops, sorry about that. But we can't have you catching up to us. Right?" I laughed before walking off. "Good luck!"

"That guy's a dick." The animal lover stated as I was well within earshot.

Bongo screeched in agreement.