A Friendly "Chat"

[Elloria]

Josk kept his face neutral as he watched his lieutenant kick the door in - literally. It was quite an impressive feat, even for an elf, if only because you didn't see elves going around kicking in doors on a regular basis. He had little time to marvel on it as he followed her in. Vencari was immediately on the attack, taking on two of the four guards at once. He would have watched her go at it, but there were still two others that were going to take a stab or two at her back and he couldn't let that happen. The fury of the Hive wouldn't do him much good if it was directed at him, after all.

He swept his arms up and slightly crossed, flicking his hands back so that the lotus needles could fly free. At the same time, he pulled twice with his middle finger on the threads connected to the cartridges in the braces. He was pleased when four needles flew out in rapid succession. They easily drove through the leather armor of the guard, burying deep into his torso. “Losna.” There were no screams this time, only an eruption of blood from the guard's mouth as the lotus needles bloomed - shredding his lungs and probably several other internal organs. All within the span of a few heartbeats.

Even as he murmured the spell, Josk continued moving forward to meet the second guard. He was inside the elf's reach before the other seemed to realize it. By then, it was a bit too late. Josk had jabbed a scalpel into the elf's gut, earning a grunt of pain from him. As the elf struck back, driving a dagger of his own into Josk’s side, Josk brought his right arm up to the other’s temple. Gritting his teeth against the pain flaring where his kidney used to be, he tugged on the thread and murmured, “Losna.” He stepped back as his last enemy fell with a muffled thud. He jerked the dagger from his side, dropped it and pressed his hand against the wound. “Waíse heill.” As magic flowed down to heal him, Josk leaned down and wiped his hand off on the guard's shirt. He then straightened up and moved to look down at the other guard he'd taken down. The elf was currently drowning/suffocating, from what Josk could tell - incapable of even whispering a spell that would save his pathetic life, for he could draw in no air. Josk briefly contemplated ending the elf's misery before deciding against it. This fool deserved to suffer for siding with filth like Círdan.

“Seems that Círdan's guards are as inept as he is.”

Josk turned his head to consider Vencari. She seemed to be pleased with how things were progressing, so he relaxed a little. He offered her a grim, but delighted smile in response before stepping away from his latest victim and sitting on the floor. Crossing his legs lotus-style, he took a deep breath and replenished his energy from the large pool in the ring on his finger. “He is a fool. But I can here the others approaching quickly now. Please keep them at bay as I attempt to breach his mind.” He wasted no more breath on words. Remaining tapped into the power in the obsidian ring, Josk closed his eyes and brought to mind his brother Niko. He focused on the memory of Niko’s laugh - how it had always brought a smile to his own face - as he quickly thrust his mind at Círdan's. Unsurprisingly, he encountered a seemingly impenetrable wall composed of some happy memory of the idiot's. It wasn't from anything Josk recognized, so he assumed it was from earlier in Círdan's life. His brow furrowed in concentration. For Josk, at least, the battle had now truly begun as the two elves began attempting to tear down the defenses of their opposition. It was a battle Josk had no intention of losing.

[Kite]

*Amelia could most definitely hear the others, and by others she means the guards, running down from the higher levels to disrupt the violent battle of the mages that was now taking place. She reaches down to one of the elves that they had already defeated and takes a knife of one of them, and then she moves to the stairs that lead upwards. The stairs are a bit narrow, and that’s the reason that they are coming full force, the front two pushing forwards with shields to try to force her back and allow all of them to engage her at once. This was not going to happen, not to her, and she springs into action in response.

Her first move is to gather upon the power within her and concentrate on the dagger in her palm, using the ancient language nonverbally to move it out of her hand and sending it up above the men and then casting it down into the first man’s head, causing him to crash to the ground make something of a road block and constricting the space that they can move through that much more. She then slams the door shut against the oncoming men and jams it shut the best she can as they move around their fallen brother before turning and pulling a sword from the men fallen behind her, feeling the unfamiliar weight in her hand and swinging it a little, hoping to give Josk more time with her fairly unskilled use of a sword once the adversaries open the door once more using force, and she readies herself, calming her mind and shaking off the slight droop in energy her magic use has cost her as she begins to hear the cracking of hardwood that accompanies the elves’ attempts to break the door down.*

[Elloria]

Josk paid no attention to what his lieutenant was currently doing. He was certain she would keep whatever lackeys were here occupied while he dealt with the more pressing issue of Círdan. In his mind's eye, he and the fool were grappling with one another - Círdan's sharp, angular, dark features and white hair a sharp contrast against Josk's softer lines, pale skin and raven locks. He was intensely amused by Círdan's desperate clawing at his defenses, letting that amusement give him the strength to repeatedly jab at his opponent. He had lost this battle of wills only a handful of times in his relatively short life and he wasn't about to add to that list tonight. He battered at Círdan's memory, whispering about the flaws of it, how the fool would never know happiness like that again, how no one of true noble blood respected him and his upstart ways. He brushed off the idiot's own attempts to shake his confidence - how his brother had abandoned him, how Niko loved only the dragons now, how the younger twin couldn't even bother to visit the elder, that he would never hear that musical laugh ever again. He'd heard it all before and that was why he used Niko. No one knew his brother like he did, so he was supremely confident in using Niko as his defense. Just as he had when they were children. He didn't hear the crashing of the door to the next levels. He barely felt the rush of magic as Vencari used some small spell. He was almost through. Just a little...more... There! With the rapidity of a lightning strike, Josk slammed against the weak spot he had finally found in Círdan's armor. It held at first, but Josk simply battered against it repeatedly. It was crude, but sometimes crudeness was better than eloquence.

[Kite]

*The respite Amelia experiences is not long, but she uses it to take a quick glance back at Josk to see if he awakens yet, but finds that he hasn't, and braces herself, looking back to where the men are now opening the shattered remnants of the door that once held them. She holds her sword with both hands and raises it horizontally to block the first strike that comes her way and spins on one foot while pulling down into a crouch to dodge the second man's swing and sweeps her sword low, under his shield and cutting a leg out from under him, and follows the motion up, standing and striking out at the man, catching him with a stab deep into his side as he turns to face Amelia, his legs going out as the blade angles into the lower spine. She takes a long stride forward, over the body she just created, and pulls her sword out of him before turning to see the other guards. One, with a shield, is backing up slightly, and the other with a spear is facing her defiantly, the point towards her chest as he exits the stairs. She smiles at him and drops her sword as the guard thrusts towards her, catching the shaft with her hands as she side steps and pulls on it, the elf coming off balance slightly, and she delivers a hard kick to his soft spot, and he falls to his knees with a groan, letting go of the spear. She pulls it to her and holds it correctly, before delivering a blow to the head of the guard with the haft of the spear. She then smiles and waits for the guard that is still on the stairs, who seems determined to hold the spot, protecting his master. Amelia smiles up at him, and waits for him to charge, or Josk to finish with his own mental fight.*

[Elloria]

(OOC: I can't remember if this is supposed to be the final post or not. Just let me know tomorrow, Don. ^__^)

Unconcerned of the battle occurring mere feet from him, Josk kept up his furious assault on Círdan's defenses. He could feel the elf quaking behind them. He was certain that any moment...Yes! He shattered through the armor and pinned Círdan's consciousness down. Eyes flaring open, Josk was on his feet in an instant. He quickly took stock of how many he needed to take care of - two. Vencari had taken care of business quite admirably and brutally. “Malthinae!” The magic fled from him once more, this time to bind the last guard holding down the staircase and Círdan still sequestered in his room. He felt exultant. Once again, he had bested a magic user who had countless years of experience on their side. He let that emotion envelop him, creating a new source for his own defenses. He turned his delighted and proud gaze upon Vencari. A pleasant grin graced his face. “I don’t think he will cause us any further problems.” He strode across the room, stepped over the collapsed and bound guard, and proceeded up the stairs to finish the first part of the ‘clean-up.'