possibly broken. At that, Malkala gives the woman a confident smirk before barking, "Now move, Zrak!"

Zrak feels his feet moving before his brain registered her words, his nerves and senses still feeling unsteady from the massive hit he took. But, he was able to hear her next words, "Remember the potions!"

That order was soon drowned out by a roar of great rage, so great that it is unbelieveable that it came from a woman's throat. But, Amiri does not stop yelling as she steps forward, her massive greatsword held down by her legs. But it does not stay as she tenses her muscles to swing it upward at the leader. Her blade is parried off of the leader's axe's haft, getting deflected despite the axe's seemingly thin haft. The barbarian woman growls as she prepares to charge forward again.

Linzi sees how the battle can quickly turn if they are not careful. She starts playing another tune on her lute. While it is different than the first, it conveys the same feeling of heroism and courage. She then takes a step back, making sure she is out of the immediate reach of anyone before she turns to Zrak. The tune she plays rises in tempo and intensity for a brief measure as she casts a spell on the ratfolk. He feels as if his senses are heightened, his confidence in his next attack rising.

"Go get them, Zrak!" She yells, her voice mixed with strain, concentration, and fear.

A swerving stream of blood flows down from Zrak's body. The greataxe had cleaved through his armor and skin with shocking ease, nearly flaying the leather off and exposing the rest of his furred body. Though he can hear his allies, all that he feels is a constantly thumping pain, screaming at him for revenge.

Red-stained teeth shatter as he looks up and toward the assassin leader with a scathing growl. All of a sudden he dashes forward, ignoring Malkala's mention of potions and scurrying under Amiri's legs. The agile ratfolk leaps upward, grabbing and swinging off the top of the door entrance, landing to the assassin's side.

The ratfolk's stance is that of a wolf, limbering down on his bone-thin feet and on one hand; the remaining limb reaching outward. When he speaks, his voice grinds between teeth as if he's possessed by a demon. "I'll butcher you, you bitch!" His seething words foreshadow his immediate attack, sweeping swipes with his claw-like hands before diving his jaws at the leader's knee!

As Zrak sweeps his claws and teeth across the leader's body, he can smell an aroma that should not be possible in the burning manor assault: nature. True nature that one can only find in the center of a forest. Wind seems to bring the smell of rich soil and fresh flowers as it flows around the ratfolk, guiding his blows to deal the most damage possible. The woman growls as she holds her ground, even as Zrak attempts to pull her down. Yet, he can taste the blood flowing from the woman's leg.

"All of you were supposed to be dead already." She snarls, preparing to bring her axe down upon Zrak's head.

Behind the fierce battle at the dueling chamber's entrance, Jamandi rushes forward with her blade in front. The flaming sword slices upward, aiming for the giant's wrist, and cuts deep. The giant lets out a cry of pain and reflexively lets go of the massive greataxe, its weight causing a large boom to echo among the chamber. With a smirk, Aldori then spins the blade in her hand before thrusting it forward while the giant still recovers from the disarm. It sinks into the giant's chest, nearly missing his heart, but still dealing critical damage. As she pulls her blade back out, Aldori dips back into her defensive stance, ready for whatever attack comes next.

"Stop moving, bitch!" The giant yells as he takes a step backward to get out of Aldori's range.

Once outside her reach, he rears his fist backward, throwing it forward to crash into the tiny form of Jamandi. If it hit, there would be no part of her body that he hit, his fist being so large. But, Malkala knows the stories of Lady Aldori, and all of the foes she has faced as an adventurer, and a giant barely reaches the list of strongest. The swordlord of Brevoy darts to the side, not even bothering using her blade to parry the punch aside. However, the giant was not new to combat either, and already had his other fist coming for where Aldori landed. And it was close as Jamandi had to leap and climb onto the fist in order to completely avoid it. But she succeeded, leaping back off of the giant before he took advantage of her position.

The leader of the assassins was prepared to send her axe downward toward Zrak, potentially ending his life. Yet, she noticed how Malkala took control of the battle quickly, able to get her allies into position and deal the most damage. There is a moment where she seems to be deciding who to go for. A decision is made, and she quickly changes her stance slightly. Instead of coming straight down, she turns the blade to the side and sweeps it across an arc, starting at Zrak and ending at Malkala. However, the group of adventuers had seen the power of her greataxe. Coupled with Linzi's inspiring song, they were all ready once they saw the hesitating moment of the leader's attack. Zrak, already low to the ground, ducked down lower, still feeling the slight breeze helping guide his motions. The axe sliced through a few of his head furs as it then traveled across to Amiri.

The leader's plan was obviously to cut through Amiri and just continue the path to Malkala. But, as Zrak knows, it is folly to try and underestimate a raging barbarian. Amiri simply changed the momentum of her greatsword from her previous attack and brought it down to stop the greataxe cold. Sparks fly as metal hit metal, the force of the attack something that would have cut the greatsword in half if it was not built for a giant. All that remained on Amiri's blade when the greataxe pulled away was a minor scratch along the flat of the blade. Her anger and annoyance rising, the leader then went for Malkala anyway. But by that point, the attack was slow, not able to keep up its momentum, and Malkala easily parried it away with her dueling sword.

At that, Zrak and Malkala can hear Aldori letting out a bark of laughter, "Well done, Malkala!"

The assassin with his leader was starting to fear for the fight. The power of Aldori is clear to him, and while they were able to get one good hit on Zrak, neither he nor the leader was able to hit the adventurers again. Not only that, but his leader had taken a lot of damage in the last turn. Yet, Zrak and Malkala see a fearful glint in his eye, as if he would rather die by them than face his leader after the battle. His dagger flashes in the torchlight as he thrusts forward toward Malkala in a storm of metal. Two of the strikes hit, one glancing off of the dragonborne's scales, and the other thrusting into her side. The third, however, is parried like his leader's axe, nearly sending the dagger out of his hand.

Malkala sighs slightly under her breath as she sees that Zrak managed to survive another few seconds of the fight. But she does not follow the leader's example and hesitate before she rushes for the assassin in front of her. If she could get him out of the way, she could step forward and assist Zrak with the leader. The first strike lands, leaving a gash across the assassin's arm. Yet, the strength required to parry the greataxe was greater than Malkala thought, and the next to strikes against the assassin were easily dodged.

Quickly, she calls to Amiri, "Focus the assassin and flank!"

There is a moment of confusion for Amiri as she does not quite understand Malkala through the rage haze, but she turns to the assassin to cleave him in twain with her greatsword. The assassin was unable to dodge with Malkala harrying him, and with a quick effortless slice, Amiri did cut the assassin in two. She then steps to stand over the corpse and swing her blade again, this time mimicking the leader as she tries to overhead smash the axe-wielder. Once again, though, the leader manages to parry the strike with the greataxe, locking Amiri in place with it for a moment before shoving the blade away.

Linzi sees how close the fight is, and keeps playing her lute, the music intensifying as the battle seems close at hand. As she does, she hits a hard chord again, and one of the teeth from the hanging trophies flies toward the leader. Despite it hanging from the wall for a long time, the tooth is still sharp, and it digs into the leader's forearm. She growls in pain, and the adventurers can see that she is wearing down. Only one or two good swings will finally bring the beast down.

Zrak's chest nearly touches the solid dueling floor, leaking blood with the quiet pit and pat of drops, as he continues scowling at the assassin leader. Every part of his furred body twitches in pain, suffocating from the blood loss. He can barely watch Aldori fight like a master: flicking enemies to her and leaping upon the giants as if it were mere terrain.

And yet with each passing moment, Zrak appears more ravenous. Hesitation has no place among barbarians; wounds are but an excuse to stop fighting; victory is always in your grasp while you move!

With an agonizing twist, he pulls out the dagger-and-ball weapon from his back. And rather than approach her, he spins the familiar weapon like a windmill before launching it towards the assassin!

And just as the chain extends its furthest, the ysoki pulls it back to him sending the ball behind, around, then back again to the leader once more!

The ball cracks forward, slamming once again into the leader's face. This time, it leaves a nasty bruise on her forehead, and Zrak could have sworn he heard bone crack. But, she stands despite that she is clearly on her last legs.

When she lands from the giant's fist, Lady Aldori does not pause. She takes a step forward and takes advantage of the fist right in front of her. She swipes twice at the knuckles so quickly that the adventurers, if they were paying attention, could not see the blazing metal in motion. It cut through the giant's fingers, severing most of them clean off of his palm. A scream of absolute pain threatens to crumble the walls as the giant pulls his fist back. Just like the assassin's leader, it is clear that the giant is almost dead, and Aldori would have done it all on her own.

But the giant is not going to run. If he is to die, he will die on his feet. He grabs his greataxe from the floor and holds it in both hands as easily as possible. With a yell, he brings it down upon Aldori's head. Again, Jamandi effortlessly parries it aside. In a full fury, the giant swings twice more, but with all of the pain and not being able to get a good grip on the axe, Jamandi barely needs to even move to avoid the attacks, each of them cracking in to the stone and leaving large gashes.

As for the leader, she seems to know how this battle is going to turn. Especially with the two rage monsters flanking her. So, she does what she can to at least take one of the adventurers down with her. With a yell, she lifts the greataxe up and brings it crashing down upon Zrak's head.

While Zrak was able to avoid an absolutely fatal blow, he was not fast enough to avoid the attack entirely. He feels the axe cut across his torso, creating an imperfect X on his chest, and that is it. Consciousness starts to fade as he falls to the floor. But before he loses his senses, he hears a voice in his ear. It is a soft, feminine voice, one that seems to bring the breeze and smell of treebark with it. It is a comforting voice as it says, "You are not done, yet. Hold on to life, and you will return."

Malkala watches as Zrak falls, and there is a moment of absolute panic that rocks her body. So much so that she is barely able to tense against the leader's next attack against her. The greataxe cuts deep into Malkala's torso, leaving a near level horizontal arc in her stomach. The pain is immense, and she has to work to avoid being taken to the ground.

"Focus, Malkala!" Lady Aldori barks out, breaking through Malkala's panic through sheer training and authority, "He is not dead!"

The dragonborne shakes her head. Lady Aldori was right. All Malkala had to do was get to Zrak and she could give him one of her potions. He would awaken immediately. But how to get the assassin out of her way? Duh.

"Amiri!" She calls, "With me!"

The barbarian woman lets out an affirmative raging yell, something Malkala never thought she would ever hear. Both women rush for the leader, blades ready to end the fight. The leader was able to block Malkala's strike with the axe's haft. However, as the dueling sword cuts into the wood, the multiple heavy strikes against it finally causes it to split in half. Which gives Amiri the chance to run her blade into the leader's chest. Ribs crack and break, and blood explodes out of the leader's mouth splattering across Amiri's face. But the barbarian woman does not care as she, in a rage, digs the blade deeper before swinging it to the side, sending the corpse of the leader flying.

Malkala did not watch. She was already at Zrak with elixir in hand. Watching the ratfolk's breathing slow down further and further, she forces his mouth open and nearly shoves the vial in, trying to get all of the liquid in his body as fast as possible. It takes a moment, an agonizing moment, as the liquid travels through Zrak's system. Then, his wounds start to close. Not by much, but enough to stop the flow of blood and keep him stable.

His eyes flutter open. As they do, he can hear the breeze start sliding away, their job done. But before they are gone, he hears a voice on the wind, "Told you. You both are just who I am looking for."

At that,