With the fairy's power!

The dwarf's charge brings him to you within a few moments and you have only a scant few seconds to react to the impending attack, the dwarf already swinging his axe towards you in a swipe towards your head. You do so by focusing your power into your left hand, the fairy's mark upon your hand glowing and that glow of that earthen shade stretches and engulfs your entire hand as you bring it up into the blade's path. The dwarf's swing brings the axe into your hand...where it thunks solidly against the newly formed stone that now surrounds your hand. Rune-powered axe cuts into magically enhanced stone and falls short as it only cuts a shallow divot into the stone surrounding your skin. Perhaps if Rolf had been able to swing the axe two handed as he used to, he might have made more headway against your defense, but you made sure that was an impossibility, didn't you?

Rolf's eyes widen in surprise at your surprising show of magic and the fact that his attack had failed and you take that moment of shock to lash out with your gauntleted hand, the fingers outstretched like claws as you swing towards his face. His body is garbed in chainmail that is also rune enchanted, but his face is bare so that is where you strike and, though he jerks back, the pointed tips of the gauntlet's fingers cut into his flesh. You tear gouges into his cheek and, more importantly, into his left eye as you feel the obsidian steel point pierce into his eyeball, spilling blood and a viscous gel onto your gauntlet.

"AAAARRRRRGGGGH! BASTARD!!", he roars in pain and fury as he staggers back, the left side of his face now streaked with blood and his bloody stump going up to his ruined eye, the dwarf forgetting that he was missing his hand now that he was also missing his eye.

You feel a fierce rush of pride at having wounded the dwarf in such a way and you press your attack, lashing out with your gauntlet once more. The dwarf, though a wretch and a traitor, is an experienced and skilled warrior and is able to bring up his axe to meet your gauntlet despite his pain and distraction. Perhaps it was more luck than skill that had him able to do so, but, whatever the case, he defends himself and, again, your weapons react explosively to one another as you are sent staggering back with your wrenched back right arm and he is staggered back as well. Your shoulder aches from the second such wrenching torsion, but you push past it as you go back on the offensive.

Rolf, however, used that moment to recover himself, his left eyelid shut to try and staunch the flow of blood and viscera from his eye. His face is contorted into rage and agony as he stares at you and, with a roar, he throws himself at you. Berserker rage seems to push Rolf and, despite your having wounded him, you both end up fighting on even ground as he slashes out at you again and again and you can only defend yourself with your stone hand. You lash out with your gauntlet when you can, but the dwarf is wary of it now and keeps out of reach whenever he can. You score shallow cuts against him, but nothing substantial as the wound to his eye. And, in turn, the dwarf scores small wounds against you, cutting at your arm when you counterattack and his attacks starting to chip away at the stone to gash your hand and forearm beneath it.

You fight in a frantic melee of back and forth blows for a few tense seconds that seem to go on for long evenly matched hours, but you know you will be the first to falter as your magical stone armor is already close to shattering under the dwarf's blows. As such, you take a risk and, instead of blocking with your stone hand, you attack. On the dwarf's next swing, you rush forward and slam your fist into his axe instead of catching it. You feel your stoneskin shatter with concussive **** that pelts you and Rolf both with sharp shards of stone, cutting you both with the debris even as it causes Rolf's axe to go flying from his grip and fly backwards onto the ground behind him. You feel your left hand throbbing with pain, but you ignore it as you drive your shoulder into Rolf's face and then swing your gauntleted fist into his stomach as hard as you can.

Your fist impacts with rune-enchated chainmail and the explosive reaction occurs again, sending you staggering backwards. Due to your attack being added to that explosive ****, however, Rolf doesn't simply stagger back but goes flying off his feet and falls hard onto the ground a few feet back. You can tell his breath has been taken from him and he is stunned, even as you only barely right yourself after being pushed back by your own attack. Your shoulder howls in agony at being so violently jarred a third time, but you grit your teeth and push past that feeling. The dwarf is on the ground, groaning and stunned, and you start to move forward so you can finish him...but you are stopped as Asta, the squire having been silent and still during the fight, now moves to step in front of you.

She stands between you and the dwarf with her hands outstretched and a look that's part fear, part anguish and part determination on her face. "S-stop this! Please, Jacen! Stop! D-don't kill him. Please."

"Move, Asta.", you demand, your voice hard and vicious in a way that causes her to flinch back, but she still stands her ground.

"N-no. I can't. I can't let you kill him. I...I need him! H-he's the only one who can free me!", she cries out, her phrasing giving you pause as she pushes on, "I-I'm a ****, Jacen. Indentured to my master. B-but he said he would free me after this! If I go back without him, th-then my contract will be taken up by his next of kin and I will remain in servitude! I need him to live to free me!"

"...I'm sorry, Asta, but I don't care.", you say, your tone cold as you hold your gauntleted hand up and flex the obsidian fingers menacingly towards her, "Now...move or I will move you through ****. This is your final warning."

"I...I can't.", she says, her eyes shining with tears and her lips quivering as she seems on the verge of breaking down.