Well, after Seira showed up to help Suyi, and Shinwoo had met up with Ikhan, the four of them had all showed up to help Yuna with her own fight. By the time they were finished, five of the six bards were recaptured. Ikhan had just done some minor healing on Suyi and Shinwoo, and it was about this time that they started to wonder what had happened to Regis.

The Elfin noble would like to think that things looked a great deal worse than they actually were.

Certainly, his clothes were quite liberally blood-stained, but that was merely a consequence of the fact that he'd been unable to perform Healing in the sanctuary spell, and had had to wait a half-hour for his wounds to heal at their normal pace.

Also, the predatory smile which the bard wore was completely unjustified. Regis was safe behind the spell powered by the amulet he thought he'd never need to use. It wasn't as though he needed to leave in the near future, so there was really no justification for the smirk worn by his opponent.

And the insults all seemed to blend together after the first fifty. There were only so many relatives one could hear insulted or profane combinations of words that one could listen to before it all got dull. A few months ago, Regis might have cared because to allow an insult to stand against his loved ones was inelegant. But, honestly? After everything that had happened, he'd come to terms with the fact that he had no elegance to start with. Now, the important thing was to remain alive until his team got there, so that he could tell them about the dangers they faced in this strange opponent.

Regis nearly worried himself sick that the other bards had been just as strong as this one, and that his teammates were now dead. The bard, however, had taken up watch outside bounds of his sanctuary spell, and was patiently waiting for Regis to grow tired of being in one place, preventing him from checking on his teammates. Then, Regis realized he could use his mental link with Seira to see what was going on.

He didn't want to risk distracting her, so he chose the mental equivalent of walking by an open door to see whether the room's occupant is busy before he did anything else. Seira seemed to be done with her fight.

"Seira?" he asked.

"What is it, Regis?"

"Is everyone all right?"

"Yes, we're all fine. We just recaptured the last of the bards. Where are you?"

"I'm still having trouble with mine, actually. Were your attacks effective against them?"

"Of course."

"That's a relief, because I'm not faring any better than the Creatures of Darkness. None of my spells seem to affect him, so I'm in a sanctuary spell right now."

"One moment, Ikhan thinks he knows something... he says to ask him what he thinks of the Elven race."

Regis wasn't sure what that would accomplish, but he decided to try it. "What do you think of my people?" he asked the bard.

"Elves? I hate 'em, kiddo. Why do you think I chose you people as my racial enemy? Most other bards go for Dragons or Trolls, but you know something? you never need an edge so bad as you do when you're fighting an ally." He smiled nastily at the Elf. "Ready to come out and play yet?"

Regis considered it. "Perhaps in a few minutes."

He then relayed the information to Seira, and, after a few moments, he received a reply.

"Suyi says that all bards are naturally strong against the Creatures of Darkness, but that they're allowed a choice of an enemy race against whom they're especially deadly. Your opponent seems to have chosen Elves for this power."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Stay in the sanctuary; we're on our way. Suyi thinks that he won't have any advantage against Humans."

"Right."

While Regis waited for them to arrive, he took the time to discuss strategy with Seira and the others. Even if the bard had no racial grudge against his own species (Humanity), he would still be an opponent to take seriously, and the optimum situation would be one in which all four of the Humans could be put on the offensive.

That meant he and Seira would need to act as defense.

That wasn't going to be easy. A good defensive mage could single-handedly make all the difference in a fight, but Regis was not a good defensive mage. He was a combat mage with more power than he knew what to do with, and an extreme weakness to their current opponent.

This really wasn't going to be easy.

Regis had broken sanctuary while the bard was distracted by the arrival of the other five members of his party, and what followed was an aspect of fighting which he'd always really hated. Since Ikhan would be their combat-mage, Regis was doing his best to hold down the defense. Seira was hovering by Yuna, ready to throw up a sanctuary spell or two if need be.

Because, while the two Elves weren't able to attack the bard directly, their powers still worked on Humans. This meant that Regis had to split his attention between dodging the bard's attacks, healing his Human comrades, and renewing the Luck and Speed spells. It required attention to detail, and it would have been annoying, if the consequences of a lapse in concentration weren't so terrifying.

For his part, the bard had summoned a few score of pet-spells to attack them from all sides. They seemed to work much like Ikhan's hammer spell, though they looked different. They appeared as small four-legged creatures, though Ikhan assured them that pet-spells weren't actually alive. Each time Regis stopped to perform a spell, he wound up taking damage from those things, but it was critical that the offensive players be given a chance to thin out the enemy, so he dealt with it as best he could.

Shinwoo and Suyi attacked the bard directly, so he was too busy to summon anything else. Yuna and Ikhan took out the pet-spells while their creator was distracted. Ikhan favored a spell that knocked any enemies within a five-foot radius away from him while dealing damage, followed by magic-missiling them into oblivion. Yuna, backed into a corner of the rooftop on which they were fighting, shot at any that approached her.

There were a few times in there when Suyi and Ikhan came dangerously close to dying, but Regis managed to cast Healing before things turned too dire. He forgot once to renew the Speed charm before it ran out. Which nearly killed both of the paladins, as that spell was the only thing allowing Shinwoo and Suyi to parry with the Bard. Regis had to scramble to renew the spell and heal the two of them before something awful happened, and barely succeeded. Seira had a somewhat easier time of it, though she kept having to leave Yuna for brief periods when the bard fired off ranged attacks at her; once, she had to throw up a sanctuary spell around the two of them when a summon lunged at them suddenly. After those few minutes of risky fighting, however, all the pet-spells were taken care of, and the four Humans were able to gang up on the bard.

Shinwoo and Suyi suddenly broke away from fighting him and Ikhan and Yuna hit him with a few ranged attacks. Shinwoo attacked immediately after that, and bought Suyi enough time to sneak up behind him and put her sword to his throat, eliciting a surrender from him. The soldiers, who up until that point could only watch, had taken it from there, and the whole operation had finally been concluded.