The Final Coliseum: Victory, Death, or Humilation

[DeletedUser28032]

No sooner had the gate closed behind him than Taranis turned upon the armourer waiting inside the room with a snarl "Out!" his arm pointing to the door to reinforce the point lest the man be too stupid to understand his words "You are not the boss of me gladiator perhaps someone ought to put you in your place" the man replied reaching for the weapon on his belt, however unlike many of the others Taranis didn't back down from the threat of violence despite the dozens of guards that would come pouring in at a moments notice "You want to fight me?...then go ahead, call your friends and I’ll rip you all to bloody pieces!" the insane look in the mans eye was enough to tell the armourer that this man wasn't bluffing and although he was confident that he and the other guards could put him down there was no telling how many of them would fall to this madman and whether or not he would be among them, no better to leave him to it and forget the insolence this time.
Watching the man scurry away Taranis managed to remain in control just long enough for the door to close behind him before sending his foot crashing into one of the racks with a scream of rage, scattering the weapons within across the floor.
"That was no fight.... that was a damn execution and they brought my sister into it!" he roared as he turned to face Laura however realising that she didn't deserve to be the target of his rage he forces back the anger boiling inside and the beast having been denied its blood now fighting to get out; he could almost feel it pulling at the chains holding it within him but he wouldn't let it out...no he was going to remain in control "I am sorry girl I shouldn't have shouted at you but...we are in a lot of trouble now...an awful lot of trouble"

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

Laura jumped as Taranis flew into a rage over the fight, yelling something about it being an execution. However, he seemed to realize his own anger this time, forcing himself to calm down. This surprised Laura, as he'd never made an effort to calm himself before, but let his emotions run wild. He then muttered something about them being in a lot of trouble, which perplexed her. "What do you mean? We won the fight...we get to live, and we didn't kill anyone either, so that's good...what's the trouble?"

 

[DeletedUser13682]

Ferruccio turned to the left, barely avoiding a halberd in the guts. Shortly thereafter, an arrow landed between the halberder’s legs. They both looked over to see Frank charging at them. “I think he’s after you, buddy,” Ferruccio said, then dealt his first hit of the day while the halberder was still distracted. Ferruccio’s rapier cut across the man’s chest, giving him a slight wound. Ferruccio went in for another attack just as Frank reached them. “Glad you could join me, Frank. I thought you would want some more fun, so I saved him for you. Ready to end this?”

 

[DeletedUser31931]

"Definitely." Frank replied and span around dealing a blow to the man's back. Rolling back just in time to avoid getting hit by the halberd he straightened up to see halberd swing at Ferruccio, as he charged forward his thought was "Bad mistake."
The man stopped as Frank's blade pierced through his back and, more importantly, the top half of his spinal cord. Paralysed from the neck down he fell to the ground. The crowd screamed for blood, and Frank did not deny them it preferring to put the man out of his misery than leave the doctors to do it, rolling the man over, raising his sword he stabbed down through the man's heart. The man gave out a short jerk from the force through his body and his soul left the world. The crowd screamed with blood thirst and as the doors opened Frank turned around, beckoning to Ferruccio, and walked out, and sheathed his sword as he did so.

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Flexing his fingers in and out of clenched fists Taranis prowled around the small armoury like a caged animal just looking for something to take his rage out on and appease the beast with in him "You heard what he said...they send people who have displeased the guards to him because they know its certain death...the only problem is we didn't die" continuing to pace back and forth he tries to fathom what it could have been they had done to upset them? sure he was violent and aggressive towards...well...everybody but he wasn't the only one in this place like that and even with her little magic display the previous day it was clear that Laura was dangerously inexperienced so why go to the trouble of using the Sorrow to guarantee their deaths? Unless...no it couldn't be?...could it?
The liquor it was the only thing he could think of but surely it wasn't enough to warrant their deaths, after all he couldn’t have been the first person to have pulled that stunt, then again perhaps the previous perpetrators had met a similar fate...a death sentence you couldn’t escape until now that is.
Realising that he had nearly gotten them killed with his decision to steal the wardens liquor he sends his booted foot crashing into another rack of weapons before storming off towards the door, seizing Laura by the arm as he went "We're going to the training hall and this time I am not asking" he growled as he entered the corridor with Laura in tow whether she wished to follow or not.
Seeing the look in his eyes the other people within the corridor gave the Sais a wide berth lest they become the target of his rage as he stormed down the corridor towards the training hall "I need to burn this off" he eventually growled at the poor girl still in his grasp after walking most of the way in silence "...and I need you to stop me from killing anybody whilst I do so...do you think you can manage that?" currently although she probably didn't realise it, Laura was the only person Taranis wouldn't tear to pieces with his bare hands if she said the wrong thing or looked at him funny, any minor thing was currently liable to set him off.
Releasing his grip on her arm he pushes open the heavy oak door to the training hall and strides inside "Calling over his shoulder as he does so "Also if you want to ask me any questions about her this is your one chance to ask them"

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

The implications of what Taranis said worried Laura immensely. What had they done to deserve guaranteed execution? She didn't have time to dwell on it, though, as Taranis suddenly declared they were going to the training hall, grabbing her arm and half dragging her. "This is becoming a thing, isn't it?" she grumbled, trying to keep up with the Sais. There was no reply, though, and she lapsed into silence, stumbling in her attempt to keep her footing, Taranis' strides much longer than her own.

Upon reaching the hall, Taranis spat out something about needing to burn off his anger, asking Laura to prevent him from killing anyone. Laura was immediately dubious of the request, as the Sais' strength far outweighed her own, but the look in his eyes made it clear that he was barely under control...and for whatever reason he thought she could keep him in line. "I...I'll do what I can."

As she followed the Sais into the training hall, he mentioned that now was the time to ask about his sister, not using her name, probably on purpose. Laura thought for a moment, then shook her head. "The fight today, if we can call it that, showed me that you really do care about people that you deem worthy of it...why you chose me...I'm still not entirely sure...but I trust you'll tell me what I need to know...if you want to talk about her, then go ahead...but I'm not going to pry."

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Entering a mercifully empty training room Taranis takes several steps towards the weapons rack before stopping to give Laura a curious look as she asked why he had chosen her "After seeing her shade I would have thought that obvious other than your hair and eyes the two of you are almost identical" it had taken the Sais warrior a little while to work out why he had been drawn to the terrified girl sat alone in the dining hall on their first day within the arena but after seeing his beloved sister Alysanne or rather her ghost today upon the arena sands he had come to realise what he had suspected that the main draw was simply because she looked like her.
"I am sorry girl...I truly am...I know I am not the easiest of people to be around and down right dangerous at times but... but I cannot fail...not again" selecting a warhammer that looked as if it weighed as much as Laura probably did if not more Taranis swung the weapon with a roar smashing it into the wooden training dummy knocking it to the ground with the impact before swinging the hammer round to drive it into its chest sending splinters of wood flying.
With a diatribe of feral sounding snarls and insults hurled in native Sais he slams the hammer into the dummy over and over again as his physical form seemed to slowly shift without him even realising it as his shoulders became broader and the muscles on his arms and chest seemed to swell causing his skin to grow taught as whatever lay beneath strained to escape its prison of flesh and bone.
On about the tenth strike the hammers long oaken handle shatters as it strikes the flagstones beneath, lifting the offending item above his head he then hurls the useless length of wood across the room leaving him stood above the remains of the training dummy taking in great gasps of air as he fights to catch his breath once again "yes...yes that is much better" he growls beneath his breath closing the lids across his blood red eyes only to open them a few seconds later to reveal their normal emerald green colour once again.
"Go and grab a weapon you may as well break a sweat as well" he said in a much calmer voice pointing over at the rack where he'd found the hammer "You attack and I'll try and block your strikes...don't worry I won't hurt you" he promised with a slight smile before stepping into the chalk ring his previous hulking visage now having returned to normal.
"Its true what he said...I did kill my sister but I didn't mean to...I...I had turned into something else" he only had small snatches of memory from that night, the inside of the hut in which they had slept, his sisters face as she had screamed and the subsequent chase through the trees that had come to haunt his dreams, the moment of her death though was mercifully blocked from his mind else he most probably have gone insane long ago "I am not lying when I say that I am cursed, there is a beast deep inside me and I can't always stop it from escaping...and I need you to be able to fight when it does"

 

[DeletedUser13682]

Frank had slain both men. Good for him. The crowd loved it, and they walked out of the arena, Frank beckoning for Ferruccio to follow. Ferruccio cleaned and sheathed his sword, and handed it to the weapon keeper. “Thanks Frank, you were great out there.” Ferruccio didn’t know whether to say that there was another motive for letting Frank kill both men. You see, a skilled person would get put against skilled people, or so the reasoning went. The more skilled you were the more skilled people you were put up against. How do you prove that you’re skilled? By defeating skilled people, that’s how. Frank had defeated both men, proving he was the more skilled of the two, and also meaning that he would probably get a much tougher fight next time than Ferruccio would.

Ferruccio decided, after a brief thought, to not tell Frank. They were acquaintances after all, maybe even friends. So why spoil that now? “I really owe you one for what you did out there. I’m going to throw another party tonight. What to help set up and spread the word about it?”

 

[DeletedUser31931]

Frank turned as he heard that Ferruccio was hosting another party, he knew that he had probably made a mistake in killing both men, now he would be picked out as a particularly skilled person and made to fight more skilled people, however, for now that didn't matter.
"I'll cook again. I've got a roast pork and berries sauce (OOC: now that recipe I do have but it's cranberries not berries and pork steaks not pork) that I could make. I'd need your help in preparing it for so many people but it'd be good. Also I could do some more salads and a vegetable stew. This time though, I'm not getting the cutlery, someone else can do that. I'll definitely spread the word though." Frank smiled at Ferruccio, even though he knew he would probably end up having to kill him, that was the way the Overlord would make it in the end. Forcing friend against friend, brother against brother. There would be no bonds of friendship left by the end of the tournament, just death.

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

Laura watched Taranis deal with his anger, wondering if his powerful visage was his power. He told her to grab a weapon so that she could train a bit as well, her trying to break his defenses. She reached for a rapier, then stopped. She'd made no progress with the thin weapon...perhaps she would be better off with something else. She selected a longer single-handed sword with the hopes that her luck would be better with it. Taranis said something about him having a beast inside of him, not being able to control it at times. "That's not all that different from my power...it consumes me when it activates..." she mumbled, thinking. "Ok...let's see what I can do with this..." she clumsily lunged forward, trying to touch the Sais with the weapon.

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Seeing the clumsy lunge coming from a mile away, Taranis takes a single step back so that the blades tip only found air before grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her towards him throwing her off balance as she stumbled forwards "You're lunging from too far back...get in closer next time and if you miss get your arm out of the way unless you want to lose your hand to a sword stroke" he instructed releasing his grip on her wrist and stepping back so that she could try again.
"you're right in saying that there are similarities in our...abilities but yours isn't liable to slaughter an entire village if you lose control" he spoke quietly dodging out of the way of her second attack as he spoke darting past her defences to flick her ear before retreating back out of striking range "Better, but remember to move your feet a stationary foe is a dead foe" he said echoing his fathers words from when he had been a boy.
Carefully watching her Taranis quietly awaited her next strike before going onto the offensive, let’s see how well she deals with surprises he thought to himself as he positioned himself near a short length of wood at the edge of the ring, a remnant of the training dummy and his chosen weapon when the time to strike came.

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

Taking advantage of Taranis' honestly helpful mood, Laura paid attention to what he told her, trying to incorporate the instructions into her strikes. Before she struck a second time, Taranis mentioned that his power was liable to kill a lot of people should it get out of hand. She filed the information away for later, not wanting to interrupt the training. She prepped to strike a third time, aiming for his left side. He deftly moved out of the way and flicked her ear, giving more advice. She thought for a minute about what kind of strike would allow all the advice to be utilized, then attacked again. Taranis easily dodged again, then lunged. Laura yelped at the sudden surprise and slashed at the Sais, missing, but displaying a quick reaction time.

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Jerking his head back Taranis narrowly avoids the girls counter strike, surprised with the speed with which she'd reacted discovering with delight that she wasn't a completely lost cause after all and that with a little training and a whole lot of practice she may even turn out to be a half decent fighter.
Moving quickly he cuts and lunges at the girl alternating his attacks from her left to her right to keep her off guard watching as she attempted to either parry or more often as not dodge out of the way of his blows backing further and further away from him as she did so and drawing perilously close to the chalk line on the floor "always keep your strikes coming...don't let your opponent have time to think of a counter and then when the moment is right..." with a wide sweeping cut Taranis feints high as if to strike her head before dropping to his knees and in a single fluid motion drives the piece of wood into the back of her ankles sending her crashing down onto the ground before kicking away her sword signalling that he had won the bout "...you strike...and that is how you kill somebody" he wasn't sure how much of that she had been able to take in before he'd sent her crashing to the ground but he hoped she'd learnt something from the experience if only that he wasn't to be trusted when sparring a worthwhile lesson in itself.
"Right lets go and see if your carpenter friend is still alive, I believe he promised us a party" Taranis stated with a grin as he leant down to hoist her back onto her feet giving her a few moments to recover leading her towards the door albeit in a much gentler fashion than before and without feeling the need to grab hold of her, his temper now well and truly spent.
"Now we're going to meet up with Shae, get you a drink, teach you to finger dance and turn you into a proper Sais girl" he said with laugh clapping the girl on the back as he started walking though in truth he had no intention of forcing his culture upon her and had only said it in jest.
"So tell me girl how long have you had these powers of yours and what should we do about our dead friend’s request?" he hadn’t given much thought as to how they were to go about burning the Sorrows body or even if they should after all he had used his sister, his dear sweet beloved sister in an attempt to kill him.

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

Though she hadn't expected otherwise, Laura still felt embarrassed as Taranis swept her feet out from under her and she fell. She tried to absorb the information the Sais man gave her, as well as trying to figure out his movements. She wasn't a fighter by any means, but she knew that people lived their lives in patterns, and she figured that fights must be the same. Taranis helped her up, saying something about finding Shae and making Laura a proper Sais woman. Laura was about to protest, but then stopped, realizing that for the first time the man hadn't yelled at her or spoken with any sort of anger...perhaps he was attempting to be friendly?

This idea was further strengthened by the Sais man asking in the same breath about her power and what they should do for The Sorrow's request. "I've only known about my ability about a week...it manifested for the first time the day the recruiters grabbed me. I honestly don't know much about it, aside from that it's somehow linked to my emotions." She paused for a moment. "As far as The Sorrow...I'm assuming they keep his body under lock and key when he's not being used to fight...it'll probably be down in the worker levels somewhere...and aside from the door leading there in my bathroom, I don't know of any others, though I'm assuming every bathroom has one of them..."

 

[DeletedUser28032]

"Yes there is a doorway into my room, however I can guarantee it won't be the only one between us and The Sorrow and also it will be packed with guards down there...I am good but I am not that good" even using the curse Taranis doubted that he would be able to combat the entire garrison with only a half trained girl to help him, they would need help and more importantly real weapons if they were to have a hope of winning any sort of fight within this place.
Walking down the corridor in silence as he tried to work around the obstacles between them and the Sorrows body quietly hoping that Laura would have better luck at thinking her way around them because when all was said and done thinking wasn’t exactly his strong point.
"You realise that if we do this then we'll have to escape right?...there will be no mock arena battle this time they'll just cut our throats and leave us for the ravens" Taranis suddenly stated looking down at her to make certain that she fully understood the price of failure if they decided to go ahead with what currently appeared to be a near suicidal quest.
"So how do you fancy being a Sais princess?" he asked with a smirk hoping to lighten the mood as they reached the end of the stone corridor, stopping at the junction that branched out towards the various arena's in fact it was the very same junction where they'd seen The Sorrow for the very first time "Now let us see if your friends have survived"

 

[DeletedUser31931]

As Frank stood waiting Taranis and Laura walked into the arena. Taranis seemed.... changed. He was visibly less violent but more violent in a sort of disturbing way. "How did your fight go?" Frank called over to Laura "We won ours sort of easily. I'll tell you more about it later."

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Upon seeing the man that he had pinned to the wall by his throat only a few hours previous approaching them, Taranis' eyes narrowed as he almost imperceptibly shifted himself so as to position himself between him and Laura "We're both alive aren't we" he said in stony response to Frank's question.
"So where’s the carpenter? taking a dirt nap is he?" he asked with a cruel smile upon his lips, although Laura seemed to like him for some strange reason Taranis didn't and saw no reason to hide the fact from her "A pity I was so looking forward to another party" he continued, chuckling darkly to himself over the prospect of the carpenters demise.

 

[DeletedUser31931]

Frank smiled as Taranis spoke, what he was about to say should make Taranis quiet for a second. "Actually, he's gone off to organise another party. Want to help out this time too?" he replied with a smile "I'll be cooking again but I need someone else to find some food."

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Fixing Frank with a stony look Taranis stood in silence for several seconds only slightly disappointed that the carpenter had survived his bout in the arena before replying to the other mans question "I am sorry... you seemed to have mistaken me for a serving girl" his tone of voice making it perfectly clear what his answer would be.
It was just as he was about to stalk off and leave the fool standing within the corridor when a thought occurred to him a slight smile playing on his lips as he addressed the man in front of him "However there may be something you could do for me...you see it would appear that my protégé here has lost a bracelet..." the look in his eye making it clear to Laura what would happen if she should contradict his lie "...and she believes that it was snatched from her wrist by our opponent, had I realised this at the time I would have rifled his pockets after dispatching him but as it is guards have already taken him to the lower levels" although he wasn't a born actor and much of his tale was being made up as he went along Taranis managed to make the entire thing sound plausible enough "Now being of a stealthy nature I was wondering if you could take a look for us?...we would be more than willing to reward your efforts"

 

[DeletedUser31931]

Frank listened interested, but was suspicious, he was certain that Laura had not been wearing a bracelet before the fight but he decided to play along for now. "And what would you have me do once I found this body? By now they have most probably destroyed it and it's contents. I'm sorry Laura but it appears your bracelet is gone." Frank thought this was a good question that would test the real value of what they needed.