Instead of chopping down with the axe, Anaya took a few quick steps and smashed the end of its haft in the captain’s face, most certainly at least breaking his nose as he fell down with a surprised, pained growl. She knew that despite his looks and demeanour the captain was one of the best swordsmen in the guard, and so had to be taken care of quickly. Another pair of quick steps had her swinging down the axe but aimed between the witch’s ankles rather than the neck, severing the ropes binding them together. She yanked the woman on her feet as she noticed that the captain was already trying to prop himself up with his right hand, all the while blinking and wipe away blood from his eyes with his left hand. She stepped up to him and before he could do anything about it stomped her boot heel on the fingers of his right hand, breaking a number of fingers against the planks that comprised the stage. Another scream ensued. Good luck using a sword with that hand any time soon, she thought vengefully.
All of that had taken mere seconds, but the other guards were finally recovering from their surprise, and the crowd was yelling and panicking. Luckily that distracted some of the guards, but Anaya knew she had to be fast.
“Can you run?” she asked while pulling off her executioner’s hood. She looked at the prisoner, expecting a nod or a shake of the head, but instead the woman was looking at her, smiling. The gag was gone, and her hands were on her hips, the rope lying on the stage, despite at a glance looking intact. Anaya’s heart didn’t seem to know whether to skip some beats or do some extra as she took in the sight of that smiling face from such a close distance.
“Thank you, but do not worry about me,” the woman said, her voice gentle but also… amused? Anaya wondered if the woman had lost her mind given the situation they were in. Though she could ask the same about herself, for more reasons than one.
While she was momentarily distracted, the guards had finally started closing in, and fast. She figured she’d have to take the witch at her word and focus on worrying about herself. She sprang toward the closest guard, who was approaching from the direction of the ramp that they’d all used to climb to the stage. Wielding the meter-long axe haft like a short staff she parried a sloppy and overconfident thrust by her opponent, and quickly retaliated by using both arms to ram the shaft in his face, causing him to fall backwards much like the captain had. But she had no time to follow through before two more guards were on her. She threw the axe at one to buy time while barely in time unsheathing her sword to block a swing from the other.
It wasn’t optimal. She would’ve preferred using the blunt axe shaft. As much as she hated most of these morons, she didn’t want to kill them. In terms of fighting them it would’ve made it easier, but if she did… assuming they got away in the first place they’d probably be hunted for who knows how long. Escaping with a prisoner was bad enough, but that really would be a whole other level of trouble. To prevent that, it was time to put her father’s teachings to good use. He’d not been the guard’s premiere swordman and sword instructor for nothing.
She blocked a series of concerted attacks from the two guards before launching a combination of attacks herself, paired with some swift movement. That ended up with one guard behind the other, and before they could remedy that she’d already disarmed the one on the front and proceeded to kick him, causing him to stumble against the one on the back.
Anaya took the opportunity to glance where she’d last seen Rue, and what she saw now caused her to freeze where she stood. Several guards were entangled with what appeared to be tree roots, or sprouts… apparently emerging from the stage planks, as crazy as that seemed. Another was frantically clawing at his eyes while obviously in pain; Anaya had no idea what the cause might’ve been. As she looked, Rue turned her way and with another smile and pointed. Anaya realized that she’d wasted too much time taking in the unexpected sight, and the two had recovered, including the first one having retrieved his sword. She cursed as she blocked an attack, locking swords with the attacker for a brief moment before redirecting both their swords to the side, stepping forward and punching the man in the face with her steel gauntlet. She was rather confident in her skills, as otherwise she wouldn’t even have tried something as suicidal as thing, but it seemed she’d even overestimated her fellow guards. Clearly, they’d become sloppy. With a disgusted grunt she punched again, and the man crumpled just as the other one attacked. She sidestepped the reckless vertical swing without bothering to parry, kicked the man on the side of his knee. Contrary to the guard code of conduct he was not in full armour and had none on his legs. As such, the kick connected directly with his knee, the sideways impact causing it to buckle from under him. Right after he landed hard, Anaya was on him and stomped down on his groin. No armour there either, she thought and allowed herself a satisfied little smile as the man rolled on his side and doubled over.
A quick glance around revealed that Rue had incapacitated all but two of the remaining guards, the two in question having been further delayed by the panicking crowd while trying to make their way to the ramp at the rear of the stage. Climbing to the stage from another position while wearing armour would’ve been a tall order. Anaya sprinted towards the ramp, intent on intercepting one of the two before they could join forces, seeing as they were approaching from opposing sides. She reached the top of the ramp just as the first of the two to arrive had almost reaching. Without stopping she jumped, and the guard, surprised by this manner of attack rather than one with her sword, got kicked in the chest. It didn’t really do any damage on its own due to the armour, but it did send him falling backward, just as the second guard had reached the ramp. The two collided and fell in a heap.
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