Chapter 29: Chapter 28

Meeting her men and departing Altdorf, the first few days were quiet. This close to Altdorf, the Rieksguard and State Army patrolled frequently and in force, keeping everything clean. So, she did the good Commander thing and got to know the people. Names, skills, weird capabilities they were proud of. All the things that made a man feel like he was valued. It also helped her, avoiding the subtle, awkward feeling she didn’t give enough thought to name, but it existed none the less. She kept the mini-map up just in case, and glanced to it every now and then to make sure nothing was trying to sneak up on them. Nothing tried beyond a few curious animals, and they got to Carroburg with no issues.

 

The squad of Greatswordsmen were enthralling for everyone. Carroburg produced the best Greatswordsmen by far, and they didn’t let any beast or monster come near their fair city, so she was half way towards Marienburg by the time she warned the camp of the first attempted Goblin Ambush. With diligence and discipline, there were no losses, and morale was high as they neared their position. But, one day Estaria’s morale plummeted when she saw a large group on the minimap. It coincided with a farming village on the outskirts of Marienburg, and had at least twice their number. That, wasn’t the trouble though. The big red dot that, when selected, read ‘Zarh Ubertrim - Level 29 Blood-Spiller of Khorne’ was the trouble.

 

Not only had he killed her once already, he was also a Player, of near equal level to boot. She’d have to face him, stop him from cutting his way through her men with impunity. She could, quite easily. Slaughter everyone here and probably not even hit the bottom of her Luck before the last man was dead. So what Zarh could do, didn’t bare thinking about…

 

Still, she could hardly warn the others about what her magic box had told her, so she carried on until they got close enough to see the smoke, and then took command, ordering proper rank and file so that they would have the best chance of holding off the oncoming enemy. The march forward was orderly and precise, and they got into view just as the Khornate was finishing stacking the skulls in an effigy to his god. Hearing the pounding boots, he turned with a great smile.

 

“Haha! More foes! I am Zarh, Blood-Spiller of-” and then he paused, and tilted his head, looking at Es at the front. “...Didn’t I kill you already?” he asked.

 

Hearing him speak about it so casually, and being reminded of the moment she was so weak, she rushed forward with a raging battle-cry that counted enough to activate her troop buff, and her greatsword held tight in her hands. Zarh barked some order in an unknown language and then his men charged against her own line, but gave Zarh a wide berth. 

She hoped he would regret this berth, this giving her an arena to face him one on one. Like quicksilver, she reached him and then slid off to one side like the ground was made of ice, raking her greatsword across his side. The shriek of metal grinding metal ripped through the air, and his armour was marked, but not punctured.

“Are we sure I am the Khornite here?” Zarh asked, his tone full of sarcastic humor.

“You killed me! I think I am justified a little anger, here” Estaria replied, pulling out Giant-Drenger and firing off both bullets. Zarh moved in his shield like a whip and both rounds bounced off it. The second volley with Quick Reload also went the same way, but that was fine because she rushed him again as she put her pistol away, throwing her greatsword at the shield with all the strength she could possess.

Pressing hard after the initial blow, Estaria placed an armoured gauntlet on the blade and pushed, biting deep into the shield. Though it was a very thick shield, and Es couldn’t puncture it fully before being pushed off, Zarh using the shield to smash her backwards. Her armour soaked a lot of the force, but she was still taken off her feet. She rolled backwards and regained her footing before he could reach her, and swayed again, her armour feeling light and her Greatsword weightless as she avoided his charge and cut at his thick plate once again.

“Bah, you move like a Slaaneshi! This system is devaluing the glory of Chaos!” Zarh exclaimed. He was, when you fought him properly, a very chatty Khornite, it seemed. Es was less so and swung her Greatsword once again, it clattering off Zarh’s shield, that was angled to soak the force. He then rushed in while Es should have been caught up recovering the blade, but instead she spun on the spot, taking and adding to the momentum that smashed into his helmet just as he got close. A blow more like a hammer than a sword, it staggered him and sent him stumbling.

Taking advantage of this, Estaria pushed the point, initially going for a downward strike, but then quickly reangling to bring the force of her shift down on the same marked portion of the shield she had cut into last time. Zarh’s honed reflexes had the shield ready to protect him from the downward strike, but he was caught off guard by the sudden redirection of such a large blade. This time she took a larger chunk out of the shield, sending a lattice of cracks out from the strike and embedding the blade deep in the inch-thick metal.

Zarh took this opportunity to strike back while Estaria’s blade was in his shield, and the axe carved a chunk out of her luck bar, then a second as he booted her in the chest. Still, Estaria ultimately came off better, as Zarh looked to his shield and gave a vexed growl before tossing it aside. Drawing out a second axe, the actual fight started there.

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Having dealt with his shield, Estaria could now strike at the man, and maybe even kill him! The two rushed each other and Estaria’s Double Strike was deflected by the armour, while his two axes struck low and buckled the plate around her hips. Both low on Luck, neither pulled back, and Estaria even threw forward, smashing her helmeted head against Zarh’s, and then using the flat of her blade as a bludgeoning weapon to ring his helmet a second time. It was all very unorthodox fighting, and any trainer would be frothing at the mouth to see it. Zarh was not against such tactics and after recovering his balance he threw his entire armoured bulk at Estaria, ramming her off her feet and barely missing an axe strike as she rolled backwards with system-given alacrity.

Hopping up, she would lash out one foot to crack against his breastplate as Zarh charged, and throw her backwards, disrupting his charging momentum and putting her well outside his grasp. There she then pushed inwards again, using all her incredible speed to blitz past him and open a hole in the armour - and the leg - that supported him. Blood spilled in an arc, and continued to leak out of the wound, her swords’ “Bleeding” effect getting to work.

“Gonna need that back, woman” Zarh exclaimed, turning to Estaria. Not quite sure what he meant by that, she swayed as her vision went grey from a sudden burst of pain. The source of that was an axe in her side, just above the hip, where Zarh had hijacked her speed to punch through the armour and stick his axe into her side.

“It’s mine now” she replied, pulling the damn thing out. While removing a weapon wasn’t the best of plans for a wound like this, keeping it in would make it far too awkward to fight properly. Tossing the axe far enough away that it would be impossible to reclaim, Estaria exhaled and tried to deal with the burning sensation in her hip. 

These decisive blows marked a turn-point in the battle, differing from the nicks and chips of before. Zarh tossed his axe at Estaria who barely managed to deflect it, before locking blades with the greatsword of his own that he had drawn. Thicker and more viciously serrated around the edge, it was of lesser quality to Estaria’s own. But that wouldn’t stop it from killing her if she was careless.

Zarh’s brute strength was overwhelming, and pushed Estaria back towards the ground, until she managed to shift her weight and lash a kick, sub-targetted into his groin. The reaction was immediate, and Estaria took advantage of it to get out from under his sword and regain her footing. To recap, she was bleeding, reaching exhaustion as her peripheral had popped up and told her she hit 50% fatigue, and facing a foe who didn’t seem to care he was two levels below her when it came to kicking her ass. Though this was normal bleeding, as no popup came to tell her she had the Bleeding debuff. What the difference was, she couldn’t really tell you though…

Zarh recovered from his groin-stun, and his eyes flashed red, the blood flowing from his leg seeming to thicken and stop before a hellish roar erupted from him and he rushed Estaria, a berserk charge with no care but for the slaughter of one’s enemy. Estaria set herself, grasped her greatsword, and then thrust it forward, puncturing his chest plate and driving it deep into his sternum. Not, that that really stopped him as an axe punctured her helmet, sliced open her forehead, and sent her sprawling with the force of the blow. Guy really had a lot of weapons, a lot more than Estaria’s…ok, she had like three pistols so couldn’t complain. 

Laying on the ground, staring at the spinning sky and trying to remember what she was doing here, a lovely little pop-up flashed before her.

Critically wounded

Ahh...so this is what a Critical Wound felt like…She felt somewhat bad about the people she had given one to now. Though, that reminded her. Zarh. Swords. Fight to the death.  Stubbornly, she forced herself up to her feet, and looked to Zarh, who was currently also dealing with his own Critical Wound.

“Gonna….need that….back….man” Estaria gasped, swaying in an attempt to keep standing.

"It's......mine....now". Zarh replied, a hacking cough getting in the way of his laugh. Estaria couldn’t see out of her right eye anymore, the blood just pissing out of the wound and pouring down her face beyond her eyebrow’s ability to soak. But the left one was fine, so she locked it onto him as he rose. Gritting her teeth and getting her footing back, Estaria sluggishly lurched towards Zarh, pulling Ulric’s Fang from her inventory.

Zarh responded to her presence with a sudden axe swing, but it seemed to be the back up of the back up axe, as Ulric’s Fang cut clean through the head as she parried it away. Gritting her teeth and calling every last ounce of force she had left in her body, she swung a wild and unfocused swing at his head. She wanted a clean decapitation, but sort of just got the blade lodged half way through the middle of his skull.

You have won the duel

Fatigue at 100%. Activity suspended until Fatigue reaches below 50%

She could think of better places to pass out than the middle of a Khornite warband. But, her thoughts didn’t matter, she had lost her Furious Zeal ability when her stats got the Critical Wound hit. And so her heavily armoured body hit the ground with a loud crashing thud and laid there for anyone to take. Hopefully, her men did better than she did and she didn’t have to worry about basically getting killed by the same guy twice in her life…

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