Odsier Survivor Attacks

JP with voah, winteroak and Gonyaul.

Gonyaul’s was in the lead, playing along with the tactic Voah suggested of a man being in the front. As he rode atop Amu, he got a higher vantage point of the devastation. His eyes were already watering from this awful sight, but would have anyways from the stinging acrid smell.

When he saw the older Odsier man, covered in blood and anguish, cradling a pregnant woman the tears began flowing like rivers down his face. Gonyaul felt a wave of emotion wash over him as if he could feel the pain and loss that was lingering all around them. Why? His soul grieved. Why did people do this to one another. Life was hard enough as it is naturally, but to willingly choose to do things that made it worse? It was hell on earth.

Gonyaul wiped his nose, the silent crying had made it start to drip a little. It was then he made eye contact with the man.

The Odsier survivor had risen and like a berserker was running towards them aggressively with an axe in hand. The last thing Gonyaul wanted was for more violence to happen after so much already.

Without hesitation he dismounted swiftly, to be less threatening. Of course Gonyaul didn’t know how to fight from horseback anyway. He hoped what he did next would stop the man from the attack.

Gonyaul with crying eyes, pleaded with the man in a empathetic tone. “Erewhon … erewhon … Erewhon” he kept calling to the man over and over again. He knew the word he heard the man say, you can’t attend an Odsier bonfire festivity without hearing that word, not to mention braiding most of the women in the tribe’s hair without hearing it as well. He didn’t know much about the word, other than he knew it was important to them.

In one hand he held up his water skin in offering. His other hand reached under the collar of his Arisha Ikeburer and pulled out a necklace to show the man.

Since he gave his necklace to Voah, he had taken the tokens of bones that the Odsier women had braided into his hair and made a new necklace of it.

Gonyaul had a few things going for him as well. One, he didn’t look like any of the other races and ethnicities from Helias or Arcadia. But he did have some similarities to the Odsier, more than Voah, with his long dark hair, skin tone and eye shape. Second, he was unarmed. Third, he was wearing an outfit which would look nothing like any of the attackers for sure.

Voah knew only a few words in the Odsier tongue but the first thing that came to mind was the exact thing the man was shouting and Gonyaul instantly defended with.

The smoke stung her eyes and she made sure there was no one else around before approaching further.

Litany was fidgety and nervous so she had to avoid the corpses of a couple of fallen animals and round to the side of the man and Gonyaul before dismounting about 5 yards away. She put her hands in the air in front of her showing she had no ill intent.

She tried to think of the word for stop or wait but she came up short.

“Erewhon.” she said with deep empathy. This was an awful sight to behold, one that she knew would be all the more frequent if the Duke had his way. The sight of a mother on the ground was almost too much to bear. She had never been part of this kind of killing. It just seemed wrong.

Voah was still poised to grab her blade and run if the man didn’t stop.

He wasn’t stopping. Why wasn’t he stopping? There were numerous and evident clues of their peaceful intent. Gonyaul wondered if this meant the man was no longer in his right mind, or would he have attacked them regardless.

Gonyaul’s cries of Erewhon began to fade as he neared. It obviously had zero effect on the man. He let go of his necklace and let the water skin drop, he would need his hands free.

Gonyaul reached back to Amu and quickly retrieved a blanket. He spun it into a tighter form and readied himself. He held it with one end back and one end forward, prepared to snap it at the man like one would prank a person with a wet towel. Yet, should he get close enough to to swing his axe, Gonyaul planned to use the item to wrap up the weapon to defend himself from the blade.

Foolishly, Voah thought her demeanor might have some yielding effect over the grieving man, but he didn’t even pause. Realizing that the man wasn’t going to stop, Voah drew her blade and jumped over some of the smoking ruin toward the attacker but he would reach Gonyaul first.

Gonyaul remained motionless as the man, with a fire in his eyes, came upon him. Just before he swung his axe, Gonyaul performed a subtle split step downward to get his momentum moving.

The swing came at roughly a forty five degree downward arc from out to in. Taking into consideration the length of the man’s arm, speed, length of the handle up to the blade, and angle of attack, Gonyual with the sudden speed strike of a snake spun inward and tight into the man’s centerline. He simultaneously brought up the blanket to catch the weapons blade. As it wrapped around the weapon, helped by the continued force of its weight and motion, Gonyaul lowered himself into a flat back and pushed up under the man’s center of gravity; his left leg moving into a step between the attackers legs.

Gonyaul was now right next to the man, the blade of the weapon was too far out to strike anything. In addition, the unorthodox movement happened so unexpectedly fast that the Odsier had no time to slow down his charge. He was lifted off his feet as he rolled over top of Gonyaul.

As soon as Gonyaul felt the man’s weight rolling overtop, and feet no longer in contact with the ground, he pushed upwards with his legs making his body act like a springboard. The Odsier went airborne and outward over the top. The axe, once he flew the distance of a blanket length, was wrenched from his hands, since it was wrapped in the blanket Gonyaul was still holding fast too.

Gonyaul stood up as the man landed hard to the ground, very much surprised but angrier still. Gonyaul took the axe out of the blanket and threw it away to the side.

“Erewhon” he shouted with urgency again to try and wake this man up from his frenzy if still possible.

As she rushed forward, Voah watched Gonyaul’s hidden talents in full action. She had seen bits and pieces of his evasive and disarming techniques before, but the rapid movements he displayed now made her worry less for his safety.

She was impressed and in awe, but that didn’t stop her from putting herself between her beau and the attacking Odsier man.

“Stop!” she shouted in common.

Of course that didn’t stop the man either and the man removed a couple of wicked looking daggers from his leather straps.

He came at Voah with a ferocity of violent vengeance which she recognized immediately. He didn’t care who they were, he was a damaged man unraveling and unleashing his emotions on whoever and whatever he could.

She blocked and parried his attacks, not wanting to hurt an already broken man.

Voah to the rescue. The man’s strokes with the daggers were desperately vulgar and telegraphed, compared to the elegant precision of Voah’s sword play. He was pressing the attack and lucky for him it appeared Voah was biding her time to find an opening to stop his nonsense.

Gonyaul moved in a wide arc around their skirmish. The blanket was prepared again for launch. Gonyaul would dart into striking distance like a mongoose, whip the back tip of the blanket upwards at the man’s face and neck. At the closest, Gonyaul was a blanket length away at all times. The idea was to create visually annoying distractions that would give Voah an advantage.

Maybe killing the man would be a mercy he deserved? What was left of him if he lived? Unless the woman he had been cradling was still alive… or the child she carried inside.

Gonyaul’s improvised whip was like poking a bear but it was effective in giving her the chance to strike.

Using her skills, Voah kicked the man backward out of such close range then spun around to kick the dagger out of his left hand.