Feyhaven

On the Edge

          Atlas kicks his glaive up from the floor, and the man takes a large overhead swing at him. With a glancing blow to his shield, Atlas stumbles slightly. The man then tries to bring the other edge back up at him. Atlas sidesteps, barely regaining his foothold, striking the man in the side with the pole end of his weapon. With a spin, he attempts a strike with the large curved blade at the end. It glances off of the man's sword, still getting a solid slice into his stomach. With a grunt from the man, he leaps forward. With another above strike, he slides off of the shield, sending sparks into Atlas' face and the few people still alive in the cart. Atlas peers around while they both recovered, realizing that some of them were still alive, and with a sudden burst of anger he didn't know he had, he bashed the shield into the man, flinging him back into the front of the carriage, unmoving.

        Meanwhile, Loch was locked into a battle of swordsmanship, Each strike from the two men nearly hitting eachother but just barely glancing off of the other. It looked as if it was a shockingly even, but high level duel. Finally, Loch lands a shallow piercing blow to the man's shoulder and to the kidney, sling blood as he withdrew.  As the two strike eachother's blades for one more final go, they both lock eyes and smile before quickly manuevering their swords in a flourish. Unfortunately, this causes them both to be disarmed as the blades clatter to the floor of the cart. Before Loch can grab for his own, the man tackles him into the slightly raised walls of the cart and attempts to choke him to death. With hands around his throat, Loch calls for Atlas' help and hears him reciting a strange series of words in an odd language. A few feet above the man choking him, he sees a glowing line in the sky. Suddenly, it falls towards him. Atlas yanks Loch to the side and the man falls against the wall, allowing Atlas to place his foot against his chest, pushing him slightly over.

       With  a sound akin to a church bell, the line in the sky comes into shape. A massive guillotine blade dangles from the heavens, formed in a hellfire green light. With a smooth motion, it falls directly into the man's neck. As it impacts, a sound akin to a blade being drawn is heard, and the man falls back into the cart, headless. Loch looks towards Atlas, now offering a hand. One of the passengers shouts to them.

      "Behind you!"

       Just then, a blade digs into Atlas' shoulder from above, getting a good inch into his armor. He stumbles forward, trying not to scream in pain, but definitely feeling it. Loch rolls along the floor and with one fluent motion, retrieves his blade and pierces it through the man's lower jaw and into his brain, pinning his mouth shut as the man's eyes roll back.  The man had recovered while the other ordeal was taking place and got a good strike at Atlas. With a firm yank, he pulls his rapier out of the now dead human and lets it fall. As they look at each other and assess their wounds, a loud thud is heard, and the cart shakes from the weight of something. A man in armor had made his way to the front of the carriage in all of the carnage and jumped on. He approaches the duo and draws a greatsword while laughing quietly. He raises it and brings it down on Atlas, the blade leaving a strong indent into his shield but still almost knocking Atlas to his knees just from the brute force, Loch atttempts to retaliate with his rapier but it glaces off of his chestplate. The man must have been a half-giant, as he was far taller than any of the others, and had such raw strength.

      The armored man grabs Loch by the throat and tosses him towards the front of the cart without much effort. With his back turned to Atlas, Atlas drives his glaive into an opening in the beasts armor. A loud grunt is heard and it turns to Atlas with a new kind of anger. It brings up its sword again and speaks with a deep, gutteral voice.

        "It doesn't matter who's protecting her, we will put her down. Here and now."

        Suddenly a loud, almost battle-cry rings out from behind him and a woman leaps up above, driving one of two blades into the beast's back, dragging it down the now pierced armor of the man. With a quick sidestep of its grasping hands, she strikes upward, opening even more of the armor. Just then, a swinging arm catches her in the air and knocks her to the front as well. Atlas, quickly speaks a few unknown words and that glow from before appears above his injured shoulder, quickly sealing the torn flesh. The man is now fully focused on the woman.

     "You, you are who I am supposed to kill. I'll tear your friends here limb from limb. Then break you with my bare hands." 

     She speaks back, "They don't deserve this and neither do I! Why can't I just be allowed to live in peace?"

      It chuckles, responding with, "You know why. Your mother needs you gone, and your mother paid a good sum to handle this quietly. How do you think we afforded the rune we put in the road?"

     "Mother was never right, she was a superstitious coward who was raised inside of those walls for so long that she forgot what the real world was like! Just because I'm," she stutters for a second, "Different? Because there's something wrong with me? Because somehow I'm the cause for all of the misfortunes in her life since I've been born? It's foolish, and you know it!"

       "It may be foolish, but she still paid good. It's not my job to settle family disputes unless there's violence involved. I'm sorry little one, time to die." 

       He raises the blade once more, and metal on flesh is heard.

       Atlas has stabbed his polearm into the now opened armor of the creature, directly severing his spine and opening his lung.

       It drops the sword, having taken a killing blow and being paralyzed from the neck down. As it falls, the carriage jumps a little. The beast takes its last breath before the light in it's eyes fades away. 

       As the only  three people now standing on this still quickly moving carriage finally look at each other, only one question comes to mind. However, Loch is the first to speak up.

       "What in the nine hells just happened?"