COUP DE GRÂCE - SIEGE PART II

[Maleficent]

A look of disquiet passed over Nasira’s face, briefly, and disappeared. Her mouth moved wordlessly. She began to say something, then stopped.

Maleficent felt her own mien slack and realized she too had been careless.

"You son of a bitch." Nasira's eloquent wind chime had shifted to a demon trying to escape its vessel.

Maleficent wondered how long would it be before her powers regenerate. It could be mere minutes or as long as an hour. They did not have an hour; they did not even have a minute. Clopin was already here, intent on chopping them to pieces.

Maleficent could have laughed. Even with those odds, she found the idea preposterous.

They were so focused on the Rogues that neither of them saw Nereus coming. The mer creature suddenly skidded in front of them and hissed.

"Oi! Leave the undead boss lady alone!"

Maleficent could not help but find the apprentice's courage admirable. Not many of their apprentices would have stood up to the likes of Clopin.

"Ha. That's not likely."

Nasira's mouth twisted in mockery, and she gave a humorless laugh. "Ha! FI-nally!" Maleficent heard the necromancer rejoin. "Something we agree on!" 

Taylor brandished a dagger, but the back of Nasira's free hand came hard and fast to smack some much-needed humility into her. Maleficent's mouth curled into an unconscious sneer. "That will be all," Nasira went on mildly as if nothing had happened. She did pretend to wipe her hand on her dress, making a show of it. Her dark eyes flickered from Taylor to Clopin himself. "Your king and I have unfinished business."

Was that self-assurance or bravado? Capable as Nasira was, Clopin was tenacious in combat, fighting only to kill, indifferent to any wounds he received. With a kind of wry envy, Maleficent realized that Nasira was actually looking forward to fighting the Rogue king. The woman she had made her vizier was staring intently at Clopin with nothing but the vilest contempt. All the better.

Maleficent sprang from Nasira's arms. She deftly opened her wings to slow her fall and landed on the marble floor, claws clicking. Maleficent turned, careful to keep the Rogues in her line of sight, and folded her wings.

Despite her experience, Nasira searched Maleficent’s face for approval, and in response, Maleficent gave her a small but unmistakable nod. "What was left unfinished will be finished now," Maleficent promised in a voice cold and sharp as steel. She pretended she was just speaking to Nasira and Nereus but turned her molten gold gaze on Clopin and Taylor.

"Cut their throats."

Clopin went for Nasira, but she sidestepped cat-quick and send a thick torrent of fire from her open palm.

[Rungnir]

Blood drips from his grey tinted jaw and muzzles as Rungnir rips through the enemy soldiers. Licking his lips the dire wolf stalked through the crowd of battling soldiers, taking down any attacker who got in his way which was like two or three nameless at most. Rungnir spots the flying reptile and large feline from afar and charges forward eager to take down the black-blood lion. The lion had rolled out of the way of the winged creature and with it’s attention on the it Rungnir struck from the side jaws clamping down on its thick shoulder ripping into it. The dire’s momentum hopefully tackling the lion onto it’s side.

“Frei!” The dire barks out, calling for the reptile to help try and finish the feline.

[Nereus]

    Whoever these intruders were, they were not backing off. Nasira and Maleficent were going after Clopin, so that left Taylor wide open for her to attack the rogue. That was fine by her! She was looking forward to hopefully biting into her to show that she wasn't all bark, but also plenty of bite. Lots, and lots of bites, considering that bear trap of a mouth of hers with plenty of sharp teeth.

"Cut their throats." 

    That was all the confirmation that Nereus needed from Maleficent to go for the kill. Clopin looked plenty dangerous with that scythe of his, and his lithe movements were too fast for her at that moment. But the lighter skinned human was slower, and more out of the way, and well... The undead boss lady and Main Boss Lady had claimed their kill, so she would claim hers. It was only respectful to stay out of the way.

    "You're going to die today!" Nereus all too happily hissed before she crouched, glared towards Taylor, and pounced towards her lower limbs, full on open mouth to try and at least get a bite in. Take out the limbs and something is less likely to escape. 

[Thomas]

Morren's bloodcurdling scream made Thomas jump out of his skin. The glowing cord ignited the gunpowder in the firing tray, and there was a flash and a bang. Thomas staggered back. Did he hit it?

Elbows pressing into his sides as if to make himself as small as possible, Thomas saw the monster move and feared the bullet had missed. The matchlock had only a single barrel. A properly trained soldier could load and fire two rounds per minute. Thomas could not even do one. His own throat would be torn open like a Christmas present before he could light the priming powder.

Then Thomas saw something that turned the tables. Cherry red blood gushed and oozed from one of the monster's back legs. Unlike a modern bullet, a musket ball can push bone out the back because it punches a hole in as opposed to cleaner cut. It was unlikely the monster would ever use that leg again. He did not miss after all!

The monster did not seem to know what had hit it. In fact, it did not seem to have noticed him at all.

Morren took aim.

Thomas pulled a paper cartridge from his pocket and bit the end off. He used it to fill the pan full of gunpowder and snapped it shut. He rushed, not bothering to blow or shake off any loose powder.

After depositing the remaining gunpowder down the barrel, Thomas put a musket ball down and after it, the paper of the empty cartridge to act as a watch.

He then grabbed his scouring stick, reversed it and scoured home his charge.

Almost...

[Tucker]

The large police dog bolts down the corridor of the palace passing various battle soldiers both from his own side and the enemy line. The dog skids to a stop as he reaches a large open space. He glances back realizing his lost Ben during his run.

“Ben?” Tucker called out, looking around for his fellow canine and in doing so spotting the young male lion, the same one who had attacked him at the oasis. Tucker frowned, realizing that the dungeon must of been totaled from the rouges attack on the palace. “You!” Tucker’s shoulder scar seemingly stings at the thought of the lion before racing towards Kopa with a savage snarl and leaps in front of his path. “Where do you think you are going prisoner?!” He demanded

[Kopa]

Kopa took a sharp spin to the right as he was cut off by a Blackblood. Kopa had to stop himself from skidding and turned towards the other. He glared as he noticed who it was. It was the Blackblood who he had attacked before getting knocked out. He decided a sarcastic approach was best. "Who, me? I'm getting the heck out of here, duh!" he said bluntly.

He had no intention of being nice in this situation. Kopa really had no time to talk to him and tried to bypass Tucker. He needed to get out of here as fast as possible before things got crazier than they already were.

[Tucker]

“No, the other lion we have who is a zombie!” Tucker snapped back sarcastically before he lunges forward as the lion tries to get passed him. Teeth bury deep into Kopa’s back as Tucker hangs on, scrambling his claws into the lion’s fur to find a hold if any could be. The canine attempts to balance on the big cat’s back while ripping into him as best he could. “You’re not getting away alive!” Tucker’s muffled voice grunts out.

[Kopa]

Kopa felt himself get angry as Tucker tried to attack him, but then realized something. He hadn't eaten or slept for literally who knew how long. He literally had no idea how long he had been captured for. And this set panic in the young lion. How long HAD he been gone? None of the guards ever told him. No one told him. So he didn't know. His thoughts were interrupted when the other warrior told him he wasn't getting away alive. Hmm, like had hadn't noticed he might not. "I think I am," he growled, swerving his body in order to throw off the other.

[Maul]

        The beast shook herself and cackled, gladly throwing herself back into battle. This was what she always wanted to be -- for her beloved -- he would have nothing short of a demon. Maul would prove herself. She reared, aware of her hind leg slipping, but ignored it. Maul began to gallop forward, though she limped heavily and quickly came to rely on only three of her legs.

        Tiny pupils dilated further and she breathed rapidly, passing the wolf and heading straight for the humans. Chisel-sharp teeth glimmered at the front of her face, poised to slice through soft flesh and tendon. Maul waved her face back-and-forth in a crazed excitement.

        Shunk!

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{tw: gore}        

        The arrow point pierced flesh -- once -- twice. A sting was felt across Maul’s cheeks and she went to close her mouth. Her molars hit against a rod. Maul swung her head, feeling the thing stuck in her face briefly touch the ground. The arrow had flown through the side of her mouth, between her parted jaws, skewering both her cheeks and coming out the other side.

        Shock threatened to take her. But no. She bit down on the thing lodged between her jaws, blood spraying from her nostrils and her nails scrabbling. Maul lived for the kill - she would die for the kill. She tried to keep running forward.

[Amy Dearly]

Amy was hiding in the wings waiting for someone to fight her, she was waiting patiently.