Deanamaid Dannsa - let’s dance

JP with Alexis and Gonyaul:

For the time being Alexis opted to evade the forceful blows rather than to parry them, giving no outward indication she had noticed the spear wielder’s approach.

When he made his move she speedily dropped down to one knee, letting the swing sail over her head and leaving the club wielder to deal with it in her stead.

The mercenary made good use of her time on lower levitation to take a heavy swipe at the club wielder’s leg before rolling to her right and back onto her feet again, facing her attackers.

Her professional grade move took both men by complete surprise. The man with the bone club was greeted across the neck and lower jaw by the forceful swing of the others spear. The sound of his jaw breaking could be heard on impact followed by a gargling noise as it sent his upper body downward to get a great view of Alexis sword slicing through his upper quad muscles; having masterfully found a less protected spot.

Blood shot from the wound. It was a deep cut, having struck an artery. He was going to have time to think about his misdeeds in life as his leg buckled and he sank to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

The other man, with the spear, had a flash of guilt for hitting his partner and putting in motion a chain of events that ended his life. Enrage, he regained the balance of his spear, raised it high over his head and brought it crashing down. He was aiming for Alexis’s right collar bone and shoulder region, in an attempt to break her bone and render her sword wielding arm feeble.

The other Odenine arrived, his bone club was smaller than the man Alexis just ended; however, he had one in each hand. He came at her as well, anticipating she would try and dodge the spear blow and swung to close off her escape from it.

Bereft of the option to simply sidestep the spear coming down on her she instead turned sideways on her left foot.

“Gun toir am Fear Mòr thu!”

she hissed as she grabbed his arm with her left and pulled, hard, adding to his momentum forward, bringing up her knee to meet his groin.

His spear missed yet again and bounced hard off the ground, causing his calloused hands to sting from the vibration traveling down the pole. He was wrenched off balance and crumpled into a fetal position onto the ground after the blow between his legs. His stomach lurched and he violently vomited his midday meal into the ground at Alexis’s feet.

The two bone clubs were a second away from connecting with her side. The attacker fueled with confidence she was out of tricks.

Alexis knew she would take a blow somewhere along the line. All in all two club guy was the preferable one to deal it. Still dealing with spear wielder, she could only move enough to evade one club, but not both.

Thankfully gambesons were made to protect from exactly hits like this, and while it most certainly hurt, a lot, the actual damage was limited.
The mercenary could deal with pain. She had a plethora of scars to attest to that.

So when she stepped to face her triumphantly grinning assailant, she did not even grab her hurting side.
Alexis just smirked back, darkly.

“Proud of yourself, are you? Deanamaid dannsa.”

He was actually and her taunting cheered him on. He windmilled his arms around and changed his angle of attack. One club was heading towards her face to shut up that pretty mouth of hers. And the other to the iliac crest of her hip.

The spearman had stopped throwing up and was struggling to get back to his feet. His watery eyes made it hard to see clearly as he was reaching around for the spear he had dropped.

The mercenary had promised a dance, she would deliver.
He probably expected her to step back. But why should she?

She jumped forwards to his side, pirouetting around him in way the brought them back to back, grabbing her sword with both hands and stabbing backwards with considerable force.

He had picked up on her pattern to do something unexpected and was waiting for it. No longer were they treating her like a helpless damsel, or a mediocre fighter. The gloves were off and harming her was now an acceptable loss.

He likewise pivoted so at the moment she thrust backwards he was no longer back to back, but in the process of spinning front to her back and parrying her blades to the left and down. He then stepped forward charging into her with his body so she wouldn’t be able to get her weapons around in time and brought an elbow flying to her throat.

The spearman had regained his feet and was reorienting himself by gripping his weapon tightly in his hands.

For once glad she had left her trusty shield in favour of a free hand, Alexis let herself fall backwards, grabbing his elbow and pulling forcefully as she did and forcing him to fall with her.

Pushing both her knees into his stomach, she used his amplified momentum to have him sail over her, jumping to her feet again right away.

The man felt the wind get knocked out of him as he went flying over top of her from the pressure she put on his solar plexus. The angle of entry back to earth resulted in a crash landing. He dropped both weapons to protect his neck from snapping.

Seeing Alexis on the ground and having recovered back to her feet, the spearman engaged with a thrusting of the blade end at her.

The spearman’s expression went grotesquely pained and then slack. The spear suddenly dropped from his hands. And his body was soon to follow to the ground. Standing behind him was Malacost, who had just strategically anchored his pickaxe into the man’s spinal column.

Malacost ripped the mining tool from the man’s back, unnecessarily pulling out a third of the backbone. There was a very subtle shimmer of enjoyment before he put his acting skills back on and looked like a helpful old man in a team fight.

Alexis committed that display to memory for later inspection, but nodded at Alcuin in acknowledgment of his aid.

She then moved to deal with the remaining Odonine in immediate range.

The man on the ground had rolled around and was scrambling to pickup his two bone clubs.

Alexis grabbed his leg and pulled him back in a jerk, away from his weapons, giving an idea of her actual physical strength.

She proceeded to move forward pressing him down by pushing her knee between his shoulder blades and brought her sword handle down on the back of his head.

They had made such a critical error thinking Alexis wasn’t a threat. It was there undoing. His body went limp as her sword knocked him unconscious.