In some ways, fighting alone against a dozen armed men had been easier: no thoughts wasted sorting foe from tentative friend, no distracting flickers of light as the- two?- mages apparently on her side threw around magic, no crazy people claiming to be pregnant, fewer bodies to trip over, no one killing her target before she could turn to aim a blow. Also more time spent dodging arrows and rocks, more killing strikes she had to give up in order to block another enemy. And probably being dead by now.
Maybe the unexpected help was worth the inconvenience.
Not that Cadi really noticed. There was blood on her sword and more men to kill and the familiar clatter of swords, all filtered through a layer of rage; no room for anything else. So when the spell flickered past and tugged ever so slightly on her mind, Cadi shoved it away in annoyance and went back to trading blows with her current opponent. Except that he didn't shrug the spell off so easily, swording drooping low enough to expose the gap between chestplate and neck. Cadi shoved her sword in, twisting it a little when she yanked it back out to be sure the man died before he had a chance to shrug off the magic's effects. She used the lull-- apparently the bandits friends had been equally unable to ignore the spell-- to scan the battle. Not many enemies left, if she'd correctly identified those on her side. One charging towards her with sword and shield raised, though-- no, that was one of her rescuers, the bandits hadn't had any dwarves among them that she'd seen. Cadi didn't quite turn away from him, just in case.
But he was offering to watch her back. How nostalgic. Well, with two mages, an archer, and Cadi wasn't quite sure how many other fighters, she wouldn't survive if they had plans other than rescue, anyway. Might as well take their help at face value. “Thanks,” she shouted back.
She didn't want to lose track of her new defender, so Cadi clamped down on beserker-fueled impatience and let her next target come to her. Someone with a spear, not too common a weapon for some reason. She'd seen them before, though, so she brought her shield up and stepped in close where his weapon would be all but pointless. A quick stab to the gut-- apparently Mr. Spear hadn't heard of proper armor-- took him down, and Cadi stepped back, glancing around for other enemies. All of whom seemed to be dead or at least collapsed. She shoved back the disappointment at the abrupt end to the fighting, taking deep, even breaths until the last of the rage was gone.
Cadi wiped her sword off on the nearest reasonably unbloodied corpse and sheathed it. She didn't like the feeling of being unarmed around so many strangers, but it was probably a time for talking and looking as nonthreatening as she could manage. The helmet came off next-- another risk, in case they'd mistaken her for a very slight human and hadn't intended to save an elf-- and Cadi ruffled her hair to try to shake some of the sweat out. And that was about as much as she could do to look harmless or at least less harmful. She let her shield rest on the ground and her thigh while she watched one of the mages come over.
Cadi shook her head in response to the woman's first question. In truth, her left shoulder and arm throbbed, and she had a few other bruises and small wounds, but there was nothing that needed immediate attention. To the woman's second question, Cadi shrugged. “Ambush. Not sure what they wanted.” She opted not to share her theory about lying clients and kidnapping thugs getting revenge, since it wasn't important and Cadi didn't want to get into a long, pointless discussion. “Thanks for the help.”