The uniform was too accurate to be a fake. There were reasons soldiers wore such uniforms. In the main it was intended to be a way for one soldier to notify another of their good intent. Occasionally uniforms had been used for more nefarious purposes, but he was willing to overlook those instances. For many reasons. Certainly not the least of which was that her quick fire had saved him the trouble of dodging an arrow while he closed in for the kill. Her tone could have used work, but his uniform coat - helpful though it was, lined with plate and perfect against the small and light arrows the bandits used - did not display his rank. Hers did. They were both Captains.
This was hardly the place or time to insist on decorum.
Ulbarich showed her seven fingers before he drew his sword. The gasping hiss of steel on steel was the only sound he made as he slowly but surely struggled out of the hard knot of trees. The armor had saved him from a punctured lung or worse. The landing had been rough enough for that. His knees were still shaky, and his vision still filled with spots, but he was alive. That was enough for now. And more than he could have rightly hoped for. Of the seven he'd indicated, Ulbarich had no idea how many were still alive. He also had no idea what a lone soldier not attached to his own command was doing here.
This, too, could wait.
Someone sprang out of the bushes to her right - his left - as Ulbarich approached. She was turning with that bow and arrow, but the man was descending with a sword. A race, and one she might win, but the question would forever be without answer. Ulbarich hacked with the heavy Katzbalger and was rewarded with a spray of blood, as hand was separated from arm. One vicious thrust of the sword entered the man's body below the shoulder, and emerged through his neck. Though the body was still thrashing, he was good and dead. Ulbarich did not wait for her to come to the same conclusion as he. Nor did he need to urge her. They were moving through the brush together, quiet as you please.