The Solution (2nd Edition)

Olaf

The prayers that my comrades and I had made to our gods had been acknowledged. Through teamwork and grace, some had even been answered, and the reckoning of the Devil's Daughter was almost over, with the scale of fate and fortune clearly tipped in our favor.

    My only remaining hope was that my preparation had made me strong enough to end this pretender of an immortal. With the calmest composure that I could maintain, Ashii flew at me. Meanwhile, from a flanking position, my blade sped for my midriff.

    She was clearly set on stabbing me in the stomach.

    So, I searched my mind for the appropriate drill. Once I had it, my defensive palms waited to apply a counter-attack.

    I was ready to show off.

    "DIE, FEDOR, DIE!" The Witch howled at me, her eyes black and murderous like an Alpha Wolf's.

    Sadly, for Ashii, my hand-to-hand combat skills were just as attuned as the day I had mastered them.

    My knife was an inch from my bowls when I had slapped away The Witch's fist. It was an exceptional parry. With her now off balance and to my right, I punished her with my 'first wave'. Simplistically, it was an overhand ball of blistering bone, which was brutal in thumping her throat.

    While she choked and gasped for recycled air, I had moved to my left and refocused.

    Then when she came at me again, I imposed my second wave. It saw me parry another straight thrust from The Witch who was clearly disoriented from the substance she had snorted. Taking every advantage that I could, I followed up by punching the wretch in her blood-stained mouth. My aim was to knock out the fangs which hung from Ashii's gums.

    However, The Witch still proved to be resilient. As an act of defiance, she had hissed at me, probably to show that they were still prominent and capable of more slaughter.

    Gleefully, this antagonism did cause more of my adrenalin to spike.

    But with vengeance for Dinara spurring me on, I held back my excitement.

    It was not over yet, and I needed to remain grounded.

    To ensure the success of my third wave, I had faked an attack by prancing forwards and then backwards again. The outcome was Ashii lunging at me for the last time. As the blade came in, I moved my left hand an inch higher than her right, and was able to latch onto her wrist. Next, I slithered around the fiend like a serpent so that I could twist her arm in on itself. With the skeletal knot complete, and Ashii in serious pain, it was all too easy to snatch my knife back. To follow, I threw my tool up between my teeth, so that I could maintain my grip, as well as position my right palm onto The Witch's face. Finally, I used unreasonable force to grip and shift her to the ground.

    Looking down at my nemesis, I then concluded my Dance With The Devil.

    A solid kick from my military boot had targeted her sternum. Subsequently, Ashii's torso reclined suddenly and splashed back onto the grass.

    Wasting no time, I walked onto The Witch, planting a foot on her left palm, and using my other to stamp hard at her stomach. This caused a vulnerable gasp to escape Ashii. It was my sincere hope that the act of inhumanity would prevent any chance of The Witch ever conjuring a, female-born heir. Then finally, I spat my DV-2 up past my nose, which her blackened eyes seemed to take in with, fear... Upon catching my knife, I raised it even higher into the air, then brought it down into a blistering spin with the sole intention of impaling her other palm to the blood-soaked ground.

    Once it had bypassed bone and slid through skin, tendon and ligament, I thought that Ashii would scream again like banshee.

    But she did not.

    Instead, she just kept a sinister glare on me while hyperventilating now. Soon enough, she overcame it, and said my name once more. "F-Fedor," she whimpered, her face still trying to harness hatred, "you are one, sly, prick. 'Systema', r-right...?"

    As I cracked a victorious smile, I could see Xen and Emo sharing bemused expressions, probably wondering what Ashii was talking about - and - if she was correct. But knowing the conflict was over, I put them all out of their miseries, and elaborated my truth. "Yes, Witch, 'Система'. I am a retired teacher of my nation's martial art..."

    "B-But you're Kazakh, not Russian," she stated.

    "...Witch, much to learn, you still, have," I taunted. "Long ago, I was Russian Special Forces. Then life changed when I wanted to pursue love and politics. As a result, I took my wife's maiden name when I migrated south and joined the ensemble of eagles. It is her, who is in fact, Kazakh..." Taking stock of my revelation, Ashii flung her head back in strategic defeat.

    "And now that the playing field is truly leveled, on behalf of my family, I will have our vengeance..." As I said it, The Witch remained motionless. However, in a mortal fashion, a tear streamed from the corner of one of Ashii's eyes.

    Still, this did not deter to me.

    Aiming to honor the promise that I had made to Eesha and Dinara, I knelt down beside O-Kenai, and began to choke her.

    "...Olaf, that's enough," Xen eventually said in protest.

    "Fine," I breathed in response, while Ashii convulsed, desperate for air.

    Thereafter, I pulled my Makarov from its warm leather. I then proceeded to pistol whip The Pink Lady, and hard enough to her forehead to ensure that she was unconscious. "It is done now," I affirmed to the others. "Emo, take her. Xen, make the com-link. The nano-tec surgeon awaits The Queen of The Damned over in Dynasty."