He watches as her wounds start to close and her confidence rises with it.

There is a fiery, feral look in Zrak's eyes as he is bit and nearly wrestled into the ground. The sounds of battle around him are like white noise. Malkala's, Amiri's and Linzi's efforts all blend into the background as Zrak focuses on his ferocious foe. For one so small, the ysoki has an imposing strength. And he should know, for he has seen this exact form of fury.

It is his own.

And he knows how to use it better.

In a moment's blink, Zrak drops his chained lure to the ground and his bone-thin hands dig into the man's shoulders. A furious, wolf-like cry breaks from his mouth as he yanks his body leftward. Even held by his foe, the ratfolk skitters across the floor. And in one sudden lurch, leans down on all fours just as a wolf would. His motions and snarls grow wild as he lunches forward, opening his jaws wide to sink teeth into his foe's leg!

Zrak shifts his body back to where he was after, flanking the foe once more between him and Amiri.

With each movement, Zrak can feel his muscles relax and smooth out, building up his momentum for his future attacks. But, it also allowed for the wolf-like man to dodge his teeth, nearly going prone to do so. He uses the motion of bouncing up into his battle stance to hop backward, moving himself out of the flanking position. He then steps once more, placing his back to the wall, and lunges for Amiri with his hand-fangs. Fingers that should not be able to dig in deep into Amiri's leg. As she cries out in pain, the man yanks hard and pulls Amiri to the ground with a loud THUMP.

Zrak is too furious and focused on the battle to notice, but as she lays on the ground, her breath coming out in short puffs, Amiri notices a flash of reflected light as something falls from one of the wall mounted animal heads.

Linzi, seeing that her telekinetic dagger failed to hit its mark, decides to go a different route. Her lute continues its heroic composition, filling the minds and souls of her allies with the courage of legends. In the middle of one measure, she plays a simple arpeggio. With each note rising in pitch, a glob of black ink forms on each of her right hand's fingertips. She then takes a rest in her music to fling her hand out. The ink globs join together in the motion then shoot forward in one mass. It slams into the white-haired man's face, getting into his eyes, and staining whatever it hits. But he does not have a chance to worry about it, as he falls backward from the force of the attack and stops moving, the ink killing him.

Amiri lets out a growl and hops to her feet. Without hesitating, she spins to face the wolf-man, her sword following close behind. The pure force of her massive blade moving at such speed slices easily through the wolf-man, splitting him in half at the shoulders. By the time his body parts fall to the floor, he is already dead.

Malkala does not hesitate to rush forward toward the last form in the room. On the floor, right in front of the fireplace, is Jaethal. Her pale face is bruised, and Malkala can see some blood from her nose and the corner of her mouth. The dragonborne immediately gets to work, first cutting the binds around the woman's wrists and legs. With those gone, she starts to work on the woman's injuries, taking some paste and cloth and wrapping them around the bruises.

As she does, Jaethal sighs in relief, "Thank you."

Linzi steps forward and kneels down, "Are you alright, Jaethal?"

"Yes," the pale woman says, "just some bruises both on my body and ego." She sighs, "I don't think I'll be able to assist you-"

"Don't worry about-" Linzi starts but Jaethal raises a hand to halt her next words, "But I can tell you that I overheard them say that 'The lady of the manor has been cornered in the dueling pit by the boss and those two giants.'" As she says 'dueling pit,' her head tilts toward the door to the west.

During that conversation, Amiri calms down from her rage and steps up to the wall. She bends down and picks up an object. As she approaches Zrak, he can see that it is some kind of talisman: a beak shaped bone attached to a bronze chain. With each movement, Zrak can see that it drips with a barely noticeable trickle of blood. Amiri holds it out to Zrak, "This dropped from that beast's head during the fight." Her thumb points back to one of the animal heads on the wall.

Zrak is still bellowing breaths with his twitchy green eyes as Amiri approaches. It takes him a moment to regain his composure, feeling the blood from his shoulder and then a deep breath of... disappointment? It is as if he wanted to fight the wolf-like enemy more.

Quietly, he takes the strange talisman in his hand. His slim, hardened fingers run across the beak-shaped bone material. How well-crafted, as if masterfully carved from a falcon's bones. There's something about it which feels special, but he can't place his damned claw on it.

"Thanks," he says, slinging the talisman over his furred head and around his neck. "I ain't got a clue what it's good for but it might be handy." With the battle done, he then looks over his fallen foes. The one with the wolf-like style intrigued him in a way that makes his stomach churn. Something about this leaves him uneasy, twitching for moments before finally looking away.

At least, with the Dueling Hall ahead, the night may soon be over.

"Then we can't keep her waiting," he squeaks, moving to Malkala's side and looking at Jaethal. "We've cleared the way back if you can walk to the Great Hall. Just mind the gnome." His eyes look over to Malkala with the dagger still embedded in her chest. "You, uh, going to get that out?" He asks as he looks at the wound, though now bloodless thanks to the dragonborne's potion.

Malkala looks down at her chest, "Oh. I kinda got distracted." She is about to pull it out, when a pale hand lands on her wrist.

"Wait," Jaethal says as she starts pulling out her own healer's tools, "I got it."

She then takes the time to quickly start patching each person in the room, including herself. When observing Malkala's medicine work, Zrak sees that it is slow, methodical, cautious. When working to heal others, it is not something to take fast or else you face mistakes. At least, that seems to be Malkala's thought process. With Jaethal, however, she moves fast, confident in her ability, as if she has worked as a battle medic before. When Malkala would have carefully wound cloth, Jaethal quickly snaps it tight. When Malkala would make sure that the stitches were as tight as possible, Jaethal just made sure the skin was able to reconnect with healing.

Yet, she was not able to get everyone healed fully. While she was able to do patch work for Zrak and Malkala, it was not much. For Linzi and Amiri, though, she was able to completely close all of their wounds. But, as she was working on the final two, Malkala started working on herself and Zrak, hoping to get them ready for what was supposedly waiting beyond the door.

Unfortunately, the massive dagger wound within Malkala's chest is stubbornly not healing, but she was able to work on Zrak's shoulder, getting him to complete health. After that, she lets out an annoyed growl, "This night has not been my night."

But she simply shakes her head and takes a pull from one of her last three infused elixirs. Most of her wounds close with that drink, only minor grazes and scratches remaining. As her wounds close, she turns to Jaethal, "I need to learn how to work as fast as you do."

The pale woman gives a small smile, "Maybe if we get out of this."

Malkala nods, "Get back to the hall. There is still smoke in the hallway, but you can get through fast. Get through the privy and you'll make it." She then steps to the door and turns back to Zrak, Linzi and Amiri, "Ready?"

Staying still and patient, Zrak lets Malkala wipe the blood off his shoulder and clean the bloody mark. The simple patch wrappings cover hastily over the wound, which he takes with barely any discomfort. "I'll be fine," he insists, eyeing Malkala's more grevious injuries.

The ratfolk stands on his bone-thin feet, looking over the room and then following Malkala to the door. "I'm ready," he insists. He sniffs the air, attempting and failing to catch a scent of something beyond the door.

He can only wonder what the dueling hall is like. If it wasn't stained in blood already, it soon shall be.

Malkala, obviously impatient to sneak, throws open the door. Through the doorway, the group can see a room that was designed to host combat events. A large recessed area sits in the floor of this enormous chamber. Racks containing practice blades and stands holding suits of padded armor line the north and south walls. Covering the floor of both the pit and surrounding room are the corpses of mercenary and guard alike. Zrak estimates around ten assassins, two ogres, and all eight of Jamandi's bodyguards litter the floor. The only ones standing are two frost giants, their heads easily visible despite standing in the pit.

At least, that's what it looks like at first. The four adventurers hear a feminine voice bark out before one of the giants screams in pain and goes to one knee. Then, the form of Lady Aldori leaps up, her flaming dueling blade glowing brighter than any of the torches of the room, and sinks her weapon into the giant's shoulder. The giant lets out another cry, this one loud enough to strain eardrums. As she rides the giant for a moment, she turns to look at the group through the doorway.

"Wonderful!" She calls, a fighter's grin on her face, "Their leader will be here in a moment once they see you've arrived. Take care of her as I finish this!"

As if on cue, the doors to the northwest and southwest burst open. From the north, two assassins step forward, their daggers ready to taste blood. From the south, a single woman appears. In her late twenties, her auburn hair is caked in blood which her large greataxe matches. Her pale blue eyes dart between the four intruders of her fun, her scarred chin twitching in frustration. The metal of her chainmail under her long leather coat shines in the torchlight as she hefts her greataxe, preparing to kill whatever got in her way.

Before she moves, though, Lady Aldori shows how she became the swordlord she is today. Zrak and Malkala watch, the latter in awe, as the noble swordlord dips into a defensive stance, with her blade held out first, ready to parry any strike large or small. She then moves faster than Zrak or Malkala can see, becoming a blur as she dives through the legs of the northern giant, not giving him a chance to stop her. Her motion ends with her on the steps of the pit on the other side of the giant, elegantly removing the flanking maneuver before she lunges forward with her dueling sword. The blade sinks deep into the giant's back, severing the spine neatly with barely a sound, and instantly cauterizing it as it is pulled out. But the giant doesn't notice the wound as he falls, instantly dead.

The second giant is stunned for a moment, unable to move due to the sheer ferocity that the small woman showed as she flicks whatever blood didn't evaporate from her blade before she returns to her defensive stance. However, with a roar, he charges forward, axe held high. Halfway to her, though, he takes a deep breath before letting loose, a massive cone of arctic air billowing forward toward Aldori. She ducks down, allowing most of the frigged air to course over her. But, the adventurers at the door can tell that she took some damage from that, her breastplate and clothes underneath frosted over. Once he reaches her, the giant then slams down with his axe, hoping to cleave the tiny woman in two. But the swordlord was ready and slipped to the side, letting her blade parry the axe away neatly as she did.

In a mirror to the giants, the leader of the assassins charges forward with her greataxe high in the air. It is a long trip to Zrak, but she makes it faster than expected with the weight of the weapon. Once in front of the ratfolk, she lets out a roar and brings the axe down in a mimickry of the giant. And it is effective, as while Zrak was able to dodge the blow a bit, most of it came down, leaving a large gash across his chest.

The assassins from the northern door move next, their light steps barely giving them away. The first one was smart enough to move outside of Lady Aldori's reach as he moved around the pit. It takes all of his energy to reach Malkala, but he is ready to Strike in a moment. The second assassin, however, stepped too close to Lady Aldori, and she took advantage. Effortlessly, she flicks her blade out toward the assassin, and what landed a few feet after was two halves of a cleanly cut and cauterized assassin.

The leader lets out a curse, "Fucking idiot."

Malkala sees the flow of blood from Zrak's chest and hesitates a moment. She cannot lose him. He needs to move! But, he can deal some damage before he does. With a bark of absolute authority, she calls, "Zrak, attack!"

His senses are dull and slow. It feels like everything is far away from him. But, the primal instinct in him knows what to do anyway.

Together with Zrak, Malkala goes for the leader's throat, her blade flashing out as Zrak's combat lure shoots forward. Malkala's blade glances off of the leader's chainmail, sparks flying and a couple of rings of mail breaking off. But, the point was not for her attack to land, though it would have been great. Her attack distracted the leader enough for Zrak's combat lure to smack the auburn haired woman in the face.

The axe-wielding woman staggers backward, nearly falling into the pit behind her. When she looks to Malkala again, the group of adventurers can see her nose bleeding and possibly