Neither - at first

You meet Azul's eyes and somehow communicate to her that you are going to try something and that she should follow your lead. She nods ever so slightly, so as you get closer to the stairway, you slow your steps just enough and Azul copies you.

As you had hoped, the guard in front of you didn't notice but keeps going up the stairs. That leves you two with only the burly man behind you for a few seconds - hopefully that would be all you needed. At the foot of the stairs, you stop.

As he did before, he snarls and shoves you. You're ready for it this time, however, and roll away from his shove, making him stumble forward. Completing the turn, you come up behind him and head-butt him with your helmet. While he is wearing a helmet himself, the unexpected impact dazes him enough that he does not react when you pull his sword out of the scabbard and run him through from the back. It might have been bit "dishonorable" but at this point you just don't give a fuck.

At the same time this is happening beside her, Azul jumps and grabs the ankles of the guard who is a few steps above by then. She pulls and his feet fly out from under him. He drops down and while he is able to somewhat catch himself with his hands, his head still hits the stairs hard enough to daze him. She takes advantage of this to disarm him and use the sword pommel to finish knocking him out.

The two of you whisper quickly before deciding to retreat to a room you had just passed a few moments before. You don't want to leave the men behind though, knowing it will make it too obvious what happened. So you grab the dead guard's feet and pull him with you, grimacing at the trail of blood on the floor - nothing you can do about it at the moment. All you can do is hope nobody notices its blood, perhaps mistaking it for wine. Azul picks up the **** guard and carries him to the room.

You enter the room and see that it is a bedroom and as you look around you see signs that it is occupied. You grimace then shrug and you indicate to Azul to put the **** guard on the bed.