Xanth tried dodging the stampede that didn't bother looking down at what it was trampling over when the attack launched. After getting beaten around by elbows and knees, she flattened against Kaor's backside. She slapped away Kaor's signed command for her to get to safety with one hand as she unlatched the bracelet of a woman running past her and pocketed it with the other. The Mayor was on his way out, but he still stood for the town's will. Violence was a language Xanth could speak and she wanted to be paid for it. She signed Kaor the plan, and dashed off, leaving the dog to guard the beast woman's back.

In shadow, Xanth skittered up a wall. It was a simple strategy, but one that served them well during their time as mercenaries. Kaor stayed on the ground and drew attention while Xanth assassinated them from above. She had to be careful here, she reminded herself as she slipped over the roof and hid herself beneath an overhanging fixture from a Tengu swooping overhead, she didn't have the high ground advantage that she normally did. Xanth drew her twin daggers and waited.

As was the life of an assassin. A far cry from the invulnerable mass murderers myth had conjured them to be of late. An assassin that ever found themselves in the position of having to take out twenty people at once was a miserable excuse for one. Assassins had one job, and one job only, and that was killing a target before they knew death was coming. Most of Xanth's extensive kill count found their deaths in their own beds or, if they were lucky, the latrine, where the corpses could defecate respectfully. The gig wasn't glamorous. If she could tell them the truth, she would.

Black wings swooped past her hiding place. All the tension in Xanth's body exploded and she sprung out, latching onto the Tengu's back with claw-like knives into the base of his neck. She rode the hurtling Tengu down. His body took the impact of the fall, and they skidded to a stop, punctuated by Xanth splitting him open from his shoulder to his jugular. She cut off his nose in one swoop, pocketed it for proof, and was out of sight in a blink. She climbed to the rooftops, tucked herself into a little crevice, and began the wait again.

The second advantage came quicker than the first, and Xanth shot out for it - but the Tengu turned in his flight, and her dagger made its mark in the joint of his wing. She dangled with nothing to push herself off with until she was shaken off. She gripped one of her daggers between her teeth mid-air and planted herself on the wall she'd been tossed into. Foolish. She began her hobble of shame back into the shadows, when a horrible sound struck her ears. Her head jerked to catch her companion's snout turned up to the sky, her maw wide in a howl of pain. The world seemed to shake as the great bear was brought to her knees.

The dog made the valiant effort of biting at her attacker's ankles, managing to tear one off her and shaking their leg so violently Xanth could hear the bones breaking. Her vision went red. The lines around her eyes grew deep and harsh, and she took off sprinting. Her body jutted out sideways from the walls she ran over until she was upright on the rooftops again, not bothering to try hiding herself from their airborne attackers. She took the dagger from her teeth as she arced around and bared them in a snarl as she leapt, sailing over the heads of those coming to Kaor's aid, her knives out, an agent of quiet fury and death striking from above -

Thwack. Xanth was intercepted. A bandit had played her trick and swooped her from above, plucking her away from vengeance. Her targets and friend grew smaller beneath her dangling feet as she was carried away from the battle. A dagger twisted in her side, which Xanth didn't realize until it was already going for her throat. She immediately turned on her kidnapper, struggling and stabbing at them as they attempted the same. Their battle continued on in the sky, a scramble that kept ducking mid-flight and threatening to plummet. Her attacker quickly became fed up with the little rat climbing and bleeding all over him and he tried dropping her to her death. Xanth's hand shot out as she fell and glued onto his shirt, yanking him down with her as she swiped out at his nose with her knife. He roared out in pain and gave his wings a mighty flap. The fabric tore and Xanth fell down towards the alleys with the Tengu's nose, a scrap of cloth stuck to her outstretched hand.

Dreador looked at her captive companion like she couldn't believe him. She slowly raised from the seat she had condemned herself to, eyes flicking between the movement of his hands. Trust. Help. Trust. Help. Over and over. She lifted a hand, pressed the back of it lightly against her eye, then prowled forward.

"Inbal dos tlus iff'brut quin?" she began, testing the stranger for the Gaurrean old tongues, then continued in her heavy accent, "Have you been marked?"

She knelt by him and gestured to the back of her neck.

Xanth responded to Kaor's chortling with a shrug and ran an affectionate hand through the bear woman's fur. Then she threw the rest of her skewer to the dog and began making enthusiastic hand motions in Kaor's peripherals, her mass of hair wobbling precariously atop her head. Quick, precise gestures that would lend themselves well to the hands of a pickpocket. Her hands swiftly tapped around her chest and lips, which expressively but clumsily mouthed words like they were lyrics to a song she didn't know. Her one sided conversation continued on into the tavern her bipedal mount lumbered to, parting the crowds with ease - when a waitress shouted over her.

Xanth stopped talking. She turned her head down to the woman with an exasperated sigh. Her hands exploded out in several violent gestures before her shoulders shook with amusement like she'd made a joke. It was hard to tell how much was genuine frustration. She whistled a few notes and claws scrambling against bamboo floors answered. The massive mutt that had been in Kaor's shadow skidded to her feet with a bark to attention. Xanth slid down her trunk-like arm and settled comfortably on her smaller furry companion. She held up three fingers, spun one in a circle, followed by quicker and far more incomprehensible gestures, then a tap on her throat and a face like she'd bit into a lemon.

The sound of snuffling caught her ear and she looked to catch the sight of her seat slobbering on the pants leg of their Beast-Man neighbor. Her cheeks bunched up in absolute delight and her fingers wiggled a greeting, while her eyes regarded his for about two seconds before they zipped down to his backside. She moved her hands in the same - interpretive dance? she'd just challenged the waitress with, punctuated with an expectant stare.