As Caius would reach the village, with Vordun hanging on tight to the chocobo, he could hear screaming and crying from the villagers. Why hadn't they evacuated yet? There were way too many voices for a fire that had been set some time ago... He could see people fleeing their homes, others trying to stay behind to attempt to get others out of wreckages that had begun to burn. Just how long had this fire been burning? But Caius didn't consider that for very long. What mattered now was getting the people out so others could attempt to put out the flames.

"Vordun, find screams. Find door. Smash door" Caius would command the dragon, who responded more quickly to short commands. This would be a rare time where Caius and Vordun would need to split up, but the dragon was steadily gaining its independence and Caius wanted to encourage being able to work on their own if Vordun needed to. Caius meanwhile, would follow the sounds until he came to a home where its windows had burned and crashed down where the door was, leaving a resident trapped inside the burning house. Caius would draw his blade then, motioning for them to stand back before he would cast Blizzard, the shot hitting the debris and sending it flying across the room -- barely missing its occupant. Caius would make his way in, but as he did, more debris would fall and close off his exit. Letting out a growl and a few muffled curses, Caius would try to make his way toward the occupant, but more and more debris continued to fall from the ceiling. Caius would take a deep breath, keeping his calm as the former Kingsglaive would wait until the right moment before using the techniques he had learned to control his movement in the air, to pull himself across the ground in quick succession, timed just right to jerk himself to and fro without losing momentum in time to dodge the falling, burning wood.

Scooping up the occupant -- a woman in her mid-30s by the looks of her, Caius scanned the room for a way out. Finding a glass window covered by debris, Caius would hold out a hand and launch a Fira spell, destroying the debris, though also causing more damage to the wood around it. The impact would send more debris crashing down on them, and Caius -- reacting quickly -- would put up the glaive barrier over their heads. While it would impede his movements, it was their only chance of survival as it crashed on their heads.

Finding an opening from the volley of burning wood, Caius would take off at a run. Using his body to shield the civilian, he would smash through the glass of the window with his shoulder and fall through. Letting out a seethe, breaking glass doesn't tickle after all, Caius would put down the woman and urge her to run. Letting out a slew of quiet curses when he felt the blood trickling from his cheek, Caius would rush off toward the next house --

-- And would be forced to duck when a bullet would ring out and nearly impale him through the head.

---

From the corner of his eye, Caius noticed some kind of water geyser sprouting and spraying. Good, at least people were beginning to help put out the fires. If Caius knew some sort of water magic, he would have done that - but unfortunately that was not in his element, no pun intended. He had Blizzard, but it wouldn't work fast enough to put out this much fire and it would do more harm than good if there were people in the house when he damaged it. He had to make due with what he had. But unfortunately, it seemed his progress was halted as a burly man with a bandana over his mouth would begin to reload his firearm.

"MOVE!" Caius growled as he would make a beeline down the street in hopes of finding any remaining stragglers, but a second gunshot would force Caius to jump back. "What the hell are you doing?!" Caius demanded answers from the shooter. "Those people are going to die!"

"That's the price of profit, boy!" The man barked as he would motion for several other men that wore similar bandanas to come out of the shadows. "Seems you've managed to piss off the wrong person, Mr. Dragonblade. There's a hefty price on your head, and I dare say that a few lives are worth cashing on it, no?"

Caius let out a low growl, promptly wanting to gut the man and his friends. A bounty? He didn't care about a bounty, but the fact was these people were in the way of his saving lives. Caius would attempt to charge and dart past them, but they would begin to get in formation to block him. That was when Vordun would come charging in, the dragon - even if he were the size of an oversized dog - had quite the bite as he clamped onto the leg of one of the bandits. They let out a resounding scream in pain as the appearance of the dragon scrambled their numbers, allowing Caius to leap into the air and use the Warp Strike to move past them. As Caius ran, Vordun would let go and follow as the bandits would give chase.

Caius knew he needed to lose his pursuers, and get back to work... He tried to hear anymore cries, and when he got one, he would change his track. Perhaps he could lose them in one of the burning houses and help someone at the same time...

---

The bandits would stop when the ninja would throw the smoke bomb and take charge of one of their number. They would point their weapons at the ninja, but he had one of them hostage. They seemed to consider a moment just leaving him, but appeared to be unsure if they would be able to do so and get away to get to their prey. But their prey was also getting away...

"We just want the bounty" One of them pointed out. "The blonde fella's got a massive price on his head and we lured him here in hopes of collecting."

Another bandit would glare at the other, as if irritated that they pretty much admitted to setting the fire. Two others would suddenly make a break for it though, while the others kept their weapons trained on the ninja in hopes of firing either if he tried to kill the one he had, or dropped his guard to go after the others.

Caius meanwhile, had noticed that the number of bandits after him had decreased by a wide margin. While he didn't know why, he hoped he could lose the rest in the burning houses. Continuing to follow the cries for help, Caius would call out to Vordun when they reached the home. "Vordun, fireball!" Caius called to Vordun who would launch a fireball at the mass of rubble that had been blocking the passage of a family. While it was a risk, it blew the debris to bits and Caius would immediately jump in, getting in front of the family and pulling up the Glaive Barrier again to shield them. Once the coast was clear, Caius would motion for them to run. But he could see the escaped bandits beginning to catch up to him... Drawing his blade, he would consider his options...

---

Caius, after thinking up a plan, had quickly swapped to the two gundaggers to deal with the bandits chasing after him. "Vordun, I need you to scout ahead" Caius commanded to the dragon who would dash ahead as Caius turned and aimed toward the bandits, before lowering his sights as he found the right spot to disable them...

But he never got the chance as the bandits would burst into flames, and in the midst of screaming in agony, they were quickly reduced to ash. Caius' eyes widened as he watched them burn, then peered toward the source of it. It seemed that some figure had taken umbrage with the bandits and had them held up. Caius didn't approve of killing them when the man was quite clearly in control of the situation, and his eyes narrowed at that. He'd been about to disable them with non-lethal shots, but unfortunately in a situation like this, Caius knew that he couldn't be picky and would head off after Vordun.

The bandits were horrified by the quick brutality of their aggressor and would quickly open fire. After a few shots, they would scatter, hoping to escape their pursuer by splitting up. Some darted their way past houses and attempted to make their way out of town quickly, and would do so if he didn't take them down as well, while a sparse few hoped to gain one last ditch at their prey. Caius had just finished his rounds as the villagers had begun finishing putting out the fires when he would suddenly raise one of the blades that made up Isp and fired when a figure would lunge at him. Hitting them in the leg, the bandit went down. Quickly reloading, Caius brought the firearms up again when the final two would make their move, stopping them in their tracks.

"Where are the rest of your friends?" Caius spoke up, clicking the triggers to indicate he wouldn't hesitate to shoot if needed.

"Either ran from the village or they're dead" One answered. "This guy started killing them off."

Caius would peer toward where he'd seen those bandits be burnt down... Was the figure still there?

---