A Cloudy No-Good-Very-Bad Day (Eternis, UnnamedDude, closed)

Holle rolled his eyes, then leapt from his perch into the bushes. Crashing on top of a bokoblin's head, the sickening "CRUNCH" made the bokoblin next to it topple over. Scrambling to its feet, it brought its hands to the horn on its hip, but before it could bring it to its mouth, Holle grabbed its shoulder and brought its head down on his knee, snapping his neck backwards.
"Are you really mercenaries? I've got to ask, because you're really not thinking things through.
Holle began looting through the corpses, finding a small money purse on each and tucking them into pockets in the folds of his tunic and bag.
"If you're dealing with a situation where there's something that's been alerted to us in the bushes, the options are: Either it's mindless, or it's smart, and it's either going to attack us or it's not. First, it didn't run, so it's probably going to attack us, and if it's not, it'll run away when we attack. Second, if it's any kind of threat, which here is the most likely option, then surprise attacks are a good idea."
Holle, having thoroughly searched the corpses, looked up to see another pair of 'blins standing stock-still, staring at him.
He whipped out his sling, flinging a stone at the first one to raise its horn, but was too late to stop the alarm coming from the second.
"Hey, y'know that outpost we were heading for? Let's just... ignore stealth, because it's kinda pointless now. Oh, and that horde you were tracking earlier? Let's just say it might be coming back, with a few more like it."
Holle looked back over his shoulder at the three behind him, an unusual grin on his face.
"In short, let's run for our lives to the outpost!"

Update on Loot: (open) Update on Loot: (close)

Oh, and can I add the {Communal} and {Water-Running} modifiers to my treasure for 20 rupees? That'd be great!

With a simple motion, Jax leveled an arrow on Holle. "You pick a different direction, boy." He said simply. Already the horn calls were rising around the wood. "We're not heading for the outpost anymore, I suggest you just keep running. If we live through this, and see you again? We'll kill you."

Behind him, Sib drew her sword. "Double back to the stream, move along that? We're gonna run out of food."

Jax shrugged languidly. "I'm sure we can find a Boko willing to kill us before we starve." He snapped with annoyance. Without another word, he spun, heading back the way they came.

For her own part, Sib shook her head. She didn't particularly believe in any divine power, but at the moment, she wouldn't mind if a lightning bolt landed on Holle's head. But the girl though . . . "Abigail. You should come with us. Or go with the boy. But he's a tad suicidal, for my tastes." She spun, jogging after her husband, still shivering, though now adrenaline coursed through her veins, combating the chill. She might catch a cold and die. But as her lover had mentioned, they'd easily be able to find a Boko to kill them before they died of starvation.

Abigail shuddered as events very rapidly spiraled out of control. In the blurry moment she heard crunching sounds. There was leaping, a terrible cracking of bones and a horn and awful, awful chaos before she could react properly. And now someone had drawn a weapon on another person. She was beginning to believe that revealing herself was a terrible, terrible mistake...

In a shaking voice, she managed to say, "W-wait... wait a minute..." but despite her best efforts, she could think of no more compelling arguments or protests. Rather than a tongue, it felt like a dry wad of cotton had taken up residence in her mouth. Her throat fared little better, feeling as though she'd swallowed sand. What was more, in the heat of the moment, they had forgotten the final Bokoblin, who had, after the initial attack been shocked into silence, was beginning to get agitated at the deaths of its comrades. Its eyes narrowed as it hefted a club. Abigail's throat tightened. She didn't know what these people would do, but she had to move. Move. Move...

At the last moment she managed to force her leaden limbs into motion to spin and knock the monster over after catching it in the neck with her hiking stick. The adrenaline pumping through her veins, she managed to force some words out, though her movements still felt wooden. "I-I don't know or care what we're going to do from here, b-but we need to get out of here, now," she stuttered.

Holle stared at the pair in wonder.
"Honestly, I don't know what to say.
Oh, wait, no. That was just the remaining vestiges of my politeness talking. I know exactly what to say.
I literally cannot believe you two. Your actions have run entirely contrary to your words. You claim to hunt hordes of Bokoblins for sport, and yet you seem to be entirely unaware of the fact that there were two patrolling directly ahead of you, and that they were about to sound the alarm. You claim to be mercenaries, which I must stress are hired killers, and yet you hesitated when there was no other option but to strike first. For Din's sake, you're meant to be competent at this, but you two stand around and stare at bushes when they could be about to raise the alarm!"
Holle shook his head, starting to laugh at the sight of the arrow aimed directly at his heart.
"You don't even seem to realise that we still have a potential advantage, if you'd bother to think for once, instead of assuming the worst about the situation, and, I'm starting to realise, me. Our local bokoblins, as you should know, having hunted them for sport for so long, are pretty good trackers when it comes to following people on foot. This implies that, should you attempt to flee them, you'd eventually be hunted down and would have to make a desperate last stand. On the other hand, you're up against a set of beasties that can track their prey competently while on foot, but are hopeless as soon as their feet leave the ground.
And we are surrounded by trees."
Holle leaped back into the trees, a bestial grin on his face as he looked mockingly at the pair below him.
"Now, you realistically have two options here, hide or run, because there are quite possibly hundreds of bokoblins swarming towards our location as of now. Personally, I'd suggest running, as while it will make us easier to spot, these buggers never even look up.
My dear Abigail, are you up for a treetop adventure? Or will you follow the plan propose by this pair of clowns?"
Holle shot one more mocking glare at the mercenaries, then disappeared into the canopy, with only the rustling of leaves marking his presence.

Sib heard the "thumping" sounds of combat, realizing they had indeed missed the final Boko. She gave a warning hiss, and her husband spun, taking in the situation and letting his arrow fly into the head of the fallen Boko, ensuring the beast would not get up again. All the while, Holle was talking, and she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

The horncalls still echoed out eerily over the copse of trees. There really were a lot of Bokoblins out there, she realized. Having no words to reply to Holle that would have any sort of impact, she looked directly to Abby as her husband notched another arrow and spun, clearly wanting to be on the move. "Abby." She said in a far gently voice than she thought possible. "There are monsters all around, and we need to move. If not with us, then go with the boy. Strength in numbers."

There was a whistling hiss as her husband loosed another arrow, a cry of pain somewhere in the foliage and several grunts. The Bokos were getting closer. "We're heading back towards the stream, doubling back up it. Little ravine that leads a fair bit out of the woods. Might get us to safety." She gave Abby a quick smile, a glowering glare to Holle in his treetop perch, and then started to back up. Waiting to see what Abby would do.