To Be Throned or Dethroned

IN THE MEETING ROOM:

The group have heard the commotion outside, so both Terra and John have their weapons drawn, and are ready for whatever may come their way along with the other guards in the room.

Gilla then pulls out her own sword before handing her dagger to Sydna. "You remember what I taught you, right?"

"Point the pointy end at the bad guy and then stab." Sydna nervously replies.

"Glad you paid attention." Gilla replies.

As Sydna prepares her dagger, she remembers about a specific person missing from the room. "Wait! What about Kova?! We have to go and get her!"

Sydna almost bolts out of the room right then and there, but Gilla stops her. "I have a contingent of guards with her. They'll keep her safe." Gilla says, trying to comfort her obviously nervous wife.

The group inside then begin to hear one of the many fights get closer and closer, so Gilla pushes Sydna behind her. Just then, a loud thud is heard against the wall, and everyone with a weapon prepares themself.

John is then surprised by Kyuala's voice which rings out in his ear. "Beloved! We're right outside, and we need to come in! Please don't fucking stab us!"

"Got it!" John replies to Kyuala before turning to the others. "Open the doors! Kyuala's outside!"

The guards look at Gilla, who gives them a quick nod. The guards then open the doors up, and outside of said doors, they immediately see Kyuala cutting down one of Oliver's guard. Kyuala then picks up one of the guards she was fighting with and puts his arm around her neck. "He's hurt! Get him inside!"

The guards quickly help their brethren inside, sitting him on a chair as Kyuala follows inside.

"Kyuala! Where's Virra and Amilia?!" Terra asks with worry prevalent in her voice.

Just then, another one of Oliver's men tries to enter the room, but is met with an arrow in the back. The man then falls forward, landing on the floor. The arrow then removes itself from the man's back and flies back through the door. A moment later, Virra walks through the door. "Wow. You wouldn't believe it, but it's quite hectic out there."

Virra then leans down and grabs the sword from the enemy guard before heading over and giving it to Sydna. "You might want to use this one, sister. I doubt you're going to get far with that letter opener against a trained mountain of muscle."

"Virra, I thought Amilia was with you?" Kyuala asks.

Virra then turns around, "Oh, about that..."

The two doors to the room is then busted down as a large man comes barrelling through with a familiar catgirl currently on his back. Amilia currently has her hands on each side of a large curtain tie-back, and is using it to strangle said large man. Amilia's attempt at strangling wouldn't work for much longer though, as the guard grabs Amilia with his left hand and throws her onto the large table.

Virra then fires an arrow, aimed for the soldiers neck. However, the soldier is faster than he looks, and puts his arm up, causing the arrow to bounce off his armour. This brief moment gives Kyuala a chance to take a swing with her axe, but the guard stops the axe in motion by bringing his sword up, and stopping the blade.

Terra and John are shocked by the surprising strength by this guard, and actively brainstorm for ways to take him down. Unfortunately for them, more of Oliver's men begin to run towards the room. Terra sees the other guards coming towards the room, and an idea finally forms. She then turns to John and says, "John! Whirlwind blast!"

John is a little apprehensive about using the magic for real, but he doesn't exactly have a choice in the current situation. John then puts his hands forward, mimicking Terra, and in unison, they say, "Whyrlvind!"

The combined whirlwinds blast forth and find the target. The guard is launched off his feet and through the double doors before knocking down the incoming guards like a bowling ball with pins.

The group all then prepare themselves to finish off the guards. Kyuala reaffirms her grip on her axe's pommel, Amilia picks up her daggers, Virra calls back her arrow, Terra readies her staff, and John along with Lani, get to the door with the others beside them.

Just a moment before they begin, Kyuala throws down the gauntlet. "Whoever finishes the most gets free drinks at the next tavern, and whoever kills the least has to take first watch every night til we get to Hynesgar."

"Deal!" Amilia, Virra, and Terra agree in unison as the guards start getting back up.

The group then rush forward, quickly picking off a few of the guards still hurting from having a large, armoured man landing on them. The rest quickly raise their swords, and Kyuala just smiles as she already knows they're not long for this world.

One of the guards swings, but his arm stops mid swing as Kyuala embeds her axe in his chest. The guard beside him is shocked as he sees his friend literally die on his feet, but he soon joins his friend in death as Amilia slices his throat with both daggers. Virra's arrow swiftly pierces through the chest of the guard immediately to the right of Amilia's victim before flying back into Virra's hand. Terra's magic is next to claim a soldier as a candlestick bends into a sharp point and finds it's way into the soldier's back, and plunging into their heart.

Another one of the guards finally manages to attempt a full swing, but the sword bounces off Lani's quick ward before John cuts them down.

As John's kill hits the floor, the others are impressed with the clean slice the human managed to deliver. As they look around, they see that John's kill was actually the last one.

"Hah! I win!" Amilia calls out.

"Like hells you did! I clearly killed more than you! Perhaps Lani can use find a spell that can help you fix your math." Kyuala responds as she cleans the blood from her axe.

Virra is next to disagree. "Uhh, I think you'll find that I killed more. I took out like three of them before you even got your axe out of that guy's chest."

"The three of you are wrong. I finished off the last one that Amilia stabbed, therefore, I'm the winner." Terra adds, smirking with pride.

As the four are going back-and-forth, John is staring at his sword. The blood from the men he killed still fresh as it can be. In the heat of battle, John is becoming more able to focus on the fight itself, but now, in the aftermath, the smell of blood is making him want to gag. John can deal with the sight of blood, even tasting his own when sucking on a paper cut, but the stench of a whole group of peoples collectively pooled blood, it makes him want to throw up.

Lani sees the glazed over look in John's eyes, so she says, "Hey, you did good. If we stood by, they would've cut us down, and then Sydna and Gilla would have been next."

John clears his throat, moving his head away from the blood and takes a breath. "Yeah. I know." He says solemnly.

As the four women are still arguing about who won the contest, one of the soldiers begin to stir. Unfortunately for the group, the one that's still alive happens to be the large man.

"Mercenaries... what a fucking nuisance." The large man comments as he begins to get back to his feet, raising his sword above his shoulder.

The others all see the guard stand up, and a smile appears on the quartets faces. Kyuala then looks to the other three and says, "Tie breaker?"

"Hell yeah." Amilia, Virra and Terra say in unison, readying their weapons. John then takes a breath, forcing himself to deal with the smell of iron from the pool of red below him as he steels his grip on his sword. The four then rush forward, aiming to be the victor.

The large soldier knows that he won't survive this encounter, but he is damn sure going to take at least one of them down.

The soldiers sword is swing, but Kyuala stops it with her axe, giving Amilia an opportunity to strike. She leaps up, aiming to swiftly plunge her daggers into the man's neck, but Amilia is met with a metallic head-butt, and it rocks the cat-woman.

Terra then tries her hand, utilizing her magic to use one of the swords to strike the man, but it merely bounces off the thick gauntlet attached to his left forearm. Terra is then met with a swipe from the same arm, but she dodges and rapidly strikes with her staff at some of his joints. Terra's strikes begin to actually work, causing him to slightly fall to a knee. Terra begins to think it's almost a done deal, but a ham-sized palm meets Terra's face, sending her into Kyuala. The orc is knocked back by Terra's flying body, giving the man the opportunity to swing his sword once again. Kyuala quickly ducks under the incoming swipe, allowing the sword to be embedded into the wall. She is then met with a knee to the gut, winding her for the moment.

Virra's arrow then clangs against the soldiers helm, getting his attention as Virra calls it back before nocking it once again. She lets the arrow loose, but the soldier's armour is so thick that it just chips the blue coloured steel. Virra is then immediately worried, but she wouldn't be for long as a huge foot boots her down the hallway like a soccer ball.

The soldier then head back to the wall to retrieve his sword, but he just can't get it back out of the wall, so he decides to just use his hands. Kyuala then gets her second wind, so she and the soldier begin exchanging blows. Even with the metal helmet, Kyuala doesn't even hesitate as her knuckles connect with the steel, in fact, Kyuala seems to enjoy the pain. The soldier's gauntlets cover his fists, so his punches against Kyuala's armour aren't as damaging to him.

Kyuala begins to get the upper hand, being a good bit faster than the soldier. The man actually takes a few steps back after taking a heavy hook from the mean green machine, but he swipes back with a back fist, seeing Kyuala into the wall, stunning her.

John sees the soldier stop after his counter attack, and sees an opening. So, he runs forward with his sword up, and decides to go for the biggest opening in the armour, the armpit. John closes the gap in a matter of seconds, and the sword is soon to plunge into the opening.

Unfortunately for John, the solder whips his right arm around and grabs him by the throat.

John's immediately gasps, trying to get some air back after having it literally squeezed out in just a single second. John's sword drops to the ground as both of his hands try to pry the man's hand open, but it's to no avail.

Lani wants to use her magic to help, but with John in the way, she's unsure of what to do without hurting him.

John's lungs begin to feel on fire as his throat is slowly being crushed. The soldier just looks at the expression on John's face, and seems to enjoy the feeling of John's windpipe being crushed by his hands.

John knows that he can't take much more of this, and he actively brainstorms for a way to get out. He then remembers the dagger on his belt given to him by Kyuala, so he grabs the hilt and carefully pulls it out, trying to not let the man see it. John then looks for some opening to use the dagger, and he manages to get one with assistance from Kyuala.

Kyuala gets a thudding kidney shot in, and the man slightly moves his head toward Kyuala, moving his gaze from John. John then has one opening, the opening at the eye. He then brings the dagger up and thrusts it directly into his eye. The squelching of the eye is sickening, but John is in absolute survival mode in the moment.

The soldier lets go of his grip on John's throat and tries to grab the dagger, but John isn't letting up. He leaps onto the soldier, putting his entire body weight into the dagger. The soldier screams in agony, but it's all muted in John's ears, replaced by the sound of his booming heartbeat. John continues presses his weight into the dagger and it causes the soldier to fall onto his back, but John doesn't give a flying fuck as he continues to push the dagger even deeper, seemingly trying to get the entire dagger into the man's skull.

Eventually, the screaming stops as the man finally dies. John sees that the man isn't struggling any more, so he pulls the dagger out. The deep red blood drips from the dagger as John splutters and coughs, trying to get the air back into his aching lungs.

The others begin to get up, groaning from the attacks they suffered. Eventually, Lani and Terra begin to heal everyone, and they all feel back to normal, at least, physically.

John is looking down at the large soldier still, and the adrenaline is slowly fading. He looks at the eye socket which he just plunged the dagger into, and immediately feels sick. A bit of vomit actually comes up, but he manages to swallow it before it gets too far. John quickly focuses on breathing, trying to steady his heartbeat, just like Kyuala taught him.

Kyuala sees John is in a bad way, so she heads over to him and begins to rub his back. "Hey, hey, hey. It's okay, you're doing good, just keep breathing. You saved us, just keep breathing."

John continues to breath just as Kyuala says, in through the nose and out through the mouth. The sickly scent of the iron becomes intense once again, even more so as blood is over his hands.

Kyuala continues to comfort John, making sure he's okay as they head back to the meeting room.

As they walk in, Gilla and Sydna walk up to them. "Are you all alright? We heard the fighting, but Sydna advised me to let you all handle it."

"We're fine. Those guys on the other hand? Not so much." Amilia answers before sitting down and grabbing a drink.

Gilla then sees Kyuala pass her by as she's helping John over to a chair, so Gilla asks Terra, "Is he okay?"

"He still isn't used to having to kill people. I was there for his first kill, and because of the circumstances, he didn't really get time to properly process it. Now, as we're travelling and getting into more skirmishes... I think it's getting to him more."

"I don't blame him. I was the same when my father would take me to battles to show me the cost of life that was caused by poor decisions. The stench of death is one that doesn't leave the nose, instead, it simply lays dormant." Gilla responds as she looks at John with sympathy.

Her sympathetic gaze is then interrupted as a guard calls out. "Madame Gilla! One of Oliver's men is approaching!"

Gilla, along with Terra and the guards head to the door where they see a singular soldier walk toward hem with his hands up. "I come unarmed. I only approach with a message for Madame Markana."

"You can speak from there." Gilla says, causing the solider to halt in the middle of the hallway.

"As you wish." The messenger says before continuing. "I was sent to tell you that your brother and Haket have taken Miss Kova hostage, and they are waiting for you all in the main hall."

The air is seemingly sucked out of the room as the situation becomes even more dire than before. Terra is immediately worried about her sisters safety, but she's not the only one because as Gilla turns around, she sees Sydna standing there with a hand covering her mouth, and frightened eyes.