Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Before the surprised slavers can react, Isaku's gargantuan right hook swings across the room, taking two men out with one punch. They fly back a few feet, their faces torn open by the ruthless spiked fist. Another two fall victim to a surprise barrage as Lynette's knives hit them in with precise aim. The other clutches his windpipe as a long, thin blade sticks out from it, the other having a similar knife in the back of his knee. Nina can really spot the differences these two have in their styles, Isaku aiming to end things fast, brutal and with as less pain as possible, Lynette making it a point to cause as much pain as possible with surgically precise incapacitation attacks to key parts of the body.

Taking a look around her, Nina notices a man coming at them from the corner. Lynette must've not seen this man as he was in the corner where she was not likely to see

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Nina saw the man approach from behind them and her eyes hardened. It was time for her to do her part.

"One from behind!" she yelled. "I have him!"

She brought her sword down upon the man as he skulked up towards them, slicing at his neck, hoping that a well placed nick would end the threat quickly.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

13 vs 1

Nina's impossibly sharp blade flashes out, not quite hitting the man's throat, but giving him a cut on the shoulder still. Before he can recover, Lynette's chain flies out, wrapping around his neck. The maid falls down the other side of the window, pulling the man up into a brutal strangle with the chain. As the man struggles, Lynette strikes the sickle blade into a nearby wooden beam, leaving him to choke away as she draws a pair of knives from her thigh holsters.

On the other side, Isaku is getting multiple attacks from the nearby slavers, but his quality armor is up to the test. No weapon as much as scrathes the surface of the finely constructed suit as the giant man strikes another opponent away, nearly bowling over the cage as the body smashes against it

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Nina shakes her head. They're both so skilled... far far beyond anything I can do.

She turned to look at the choking man while Isaku and Lynette finished cleaning up the mob. She could see the fear and pain in his eyes. He probably deserved it. She wondered if he had strangled young girls in his years of slaving? She shook her head, forced the imagined vision away quickly. Don't change who you are, Nina. Finish him. He may not deserve to live, but he doesn't have to suffer.

With a swift cut on the immobilized man, she opened his throat and let the lifesblood flow from his jugular. Then she turned to see if her companions had finished their work. Then she expanded her field of vision to look for the two captives Lynette had mentioned. Where were they?

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Turning away from the now dead man, Nina can see the cage in the corner of the room, two young girls dressed in ragged robes cowering inside as the swirling melee rages near them.

Lynette continues with her torture tactics, avoiding a blow aimed at her and replying with knives to the elbows, preventing him from using a weapon anymore. She furthers the attack with a brutal bootcap to the groin, taking the man out for now, but not without leaving him to suffer. Another slaver tries to take a swipe at the temporarily distracted maid, but his attack is interrupted by Isaku's arm which takes the sword without too much trouble. Not wanting Lynette to be in further risk, the guard brings his other fist down on the man's head, the spiked gauntlet sinking in a few inches as the scum falls.

In a matter of moments, the number of opponents has fallen from 11 to 4, most slavers being incapacitated or dead now from the surprise attack

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Nina moves to confront one of the remaining four slavers, keeping herself relatively close to Isaku. She wanted to go to the captive girls and free them, but doing so before all the enemies were defeated might complicate matters unnecessarily. She tried to not think about the blood spray and the gruesome death all around her. This game's violence was certainly more emphasized in this encounter that it had been with the monsters in the tomb. The problem was it was so very real in ways that went beyond mere sight alone. She could smell the gore, taste the tinny spray in the air threatening to make her retch. The floor had become slick and slippery with not only blood but spilled entrails and the bile of the dying. The moans of the tortured men were also chilling on Nina's ears.

Should she have come here? Had she made a mistake?

To counter her doubts she channeled them into a focused attack, charging at a slaver foe with her sharp blade. Could she bring this man down with a single blow? She slashed with all the might she could muster, hoping it would be enough.

[attack one of remaining slavers]

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

5 vs 14
16 vs 12
10 vs 3

Nina moves forward to attack one of the four remaining slavers, but the man blocks her strike with his axe. Pushing her back, the man's return strike cuts her shoulder before Isaku's punch turns his head over the usual limit. More screams coming over the other side suggest Lynette's going to town on the remaining three people

This turns out to be the case, but Lynette too has gotten wounded, holding her abdomen as the final man goes down when faced with her blades.
"You just had to give me trouble.." the wounded maid says to a random dying slaver as her boot is driven into the man's forehead

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Nina curses silently at the wound in her shoulder, and at her own failure as a swordswoman. How she wished she could be at the level of the maid and gatekeeper. She felt like a guppy amongst sharks.

Stowing away her injured pride, she sheathed her sword and moved to help the captive girls out of their cage.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Noticing a keyring on the slaver that wounded her, Nina takes it and releases the two from their captivity, the girls being happy but somewhat scared still. They thank her graciously before heading over to Isaku's side, turning away their gazes from the brutality going on still

Nina finds herself looking at possibly the most gruesome scene she's ever seen, not made any easier to watch as the wounded Lynette sits on a dying slaver's chest, flipping a knife around in her fingers as she does so.
"So, enjoying yourself?" the maid asks the man, her face becoming one with a sadistic glee as she slowly pushes the thin knife into the man's eye. Not wanting to stop this soon, she jerks the handle around a few times to get more cries of agony from him. Eventually withdrawing the blade, she then does the same thing with his other eye before waiting a further moment to stab him through the neck, just barely missing his windpipe
"Does it hurt?" she asks before getting back to her feet and finally choking the man to death with a boot pushed against his neck.
"Hmmm, there's still a few of you left..." the maid ponders as she goes towards the next man

Isaku keeps the girls away suggesting they go back to their homes before they see something overtly terrible happen. But the huge man doesn't try and stop Lynette from doing what she does.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Nina also encourages the girls to appreciate their new freedom and go home swiftly before anything more horrible occurred before their eyes. Nina keeps her back to the scene behind her and attempts to drown out the dying screams.

"Are these slavers working on their own?" she whispered to the giant guardian, "Or are they a part of some larger organization?"

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

"I don't think the gang here belonged to a large group, they are much more organized than a little operation like this" Isaku tells her, before holding Nina against his chest.
"You're not liking this, I can tell. Try to endure it, Lynette will not be ready in a while" the giant man continues, holding his arm over Nina. As he holds her, the maid's laughter can suddenly be heard
"Guess I'll just cut you all over till you expire..." the voice says as another long serenade of tormented cries starts sounding across the storehouse

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Nina puts her arms around Isaku and holds herself to him tightly, resting her forehead on a less bloody part of his chest plate.

"So, she was tortured by slavers then? What happened that she should become like this Isaku? Or do you know? And what does she think about you, with your past? You've become a good person, haven't you? Aren't you proof that some of these men should be convinced to change their ways rather than be so ruthlessly put to death?"

A man's prolonged scream wailed through the building as Lynette did something unseemly that Nina could not see.

"...and in such a manner as this?" She peered up at the tall man, questioning his own feelings with her gaze. "Why should this be? Why are we not better than this?"

In her own mind, Nina cried out at Lynette's obvious pain. Such cruel things must have come to the maid in her past to make her this way. Nina wished there was some way that she could sooth the woman's pain. The game was hitting her with heavy subjects, going well beyond what she had expected from this sort of game. It was not a bad thing, but it was certainly forcing her to confront some shocking moral dilemmas she might never have run into during her normal life.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

The gate guard takes lifts his mask up and looks down at Nina, a sad look now on his scarred features.
"The group that kidnapped Lynette some years ago was the one I was in. I was the one who grabbed her off the street that fateful day. They tried their best over the course of a year to break her and make her a mindless sex slave, but she resisted all the torture they subjected her to. Seeing all her suffering firsthand was the thing that made be break out from the business. We've been together since that, I've tried numerous times to talk some sense into her, but she's never gotten over that period of time. When we entered into the Lady's service, Lynette was eager to practise with the numerous weapons stored in the mansion's armory. Soon enough, she was begging the Lady for a chance to hunt down any slavers coming here, which she got permission to as the Lady is not tolerant on the practise of slavery. I was hesitant to go do something like this first, but what my actions caused.... I can never truly pay her back for the suffering she had to go through.."

A few tears roll down the big man's cheek, who quickly proceeds to return the mask to his face
"I think there's a chance of redemption within all of us, but Lynette... she can't think that way... She only knows this..." Isaku finishes, turning his gaze away from the scene of absolute carnage going on near them as more chilling laughter and screams of torment ring in their ears.
"Maybe I should just carve your heart out? Make you crush it with your own hands? This is FUN!"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Nina stretched her hand up to brush away Isaku's tears. She wondered what Isaku had said to Lynette to make him spare her. Obviously the maid trusted him enough to work with him on these missions. Something to discuss later on perhaps, but not right now... not even after this was over. Nina knew that there must be something she could do to heal the psychotic break Lynette had gone through. Otherwise she would go on to become something worse than the slavers who had made her this way, and Isaku would be forced to keep up this self-imposed penance.

"You're not the person you were, Isaku. You understand redemption. By being who you are now, thinking the way you do... the process is already complete. Lynette may not think that way now, but we can convince her together. All of us in the lady's household. We'll be there for her. And maybe one day we can convince her that there's something other than this to live for."

Nina gestured around her without looking, then held the big man in her arms once again, until Lynette was finally done. A tear rolled down her cheek as well as she felt for Isaku and Lynette's tale.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

"That's what I've been hoping since we entered the house. But it's been four years, and she's only gotten worse over time..."

Finally, the cries of the tormented and dying cease, leaving the trio into a blissful silence for a moment. Then, Lynette's footsteps can be heard as the maid starts going around the room to collect her thrown knives from the bodies. But a final act of mutilation is still coming. Heading towards the hanged man, Lynette drops the body down before starting to hack the head off with the sickle.
"Give me my chain back, scum." the maid says to the corpse as she starts to collect the chain into a proper, portable bundle at her belt. Kicking the head away, Lynette turns away towards the exit, the signs of her crying visible as she briefly faces them. The blood-soaked maid walks out, leaving Isaku and Nina alone in the scene of carnage
"We better head back, Elise is probably waiting for us. Those wounds you two suffered need to be healed" Isaku says to Nina as he let's her go

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Sighing and gripping her wound to staunch the flow of blood, Nina followed Isaku and Lynette back to the mansion. The maid was showing more emotion than mere sadism, and that was something at least. Nina wasn't much of a psychologist, but she knew that if four years had yet to temper Lynette's rage, then there was something deeper at work within her.

It had been a sad and gory night, and Nina looked forward to bathing and trying to forget. Still, amidst the horrible scenes of torture and death, she'd gained insight into two of her housemates, and she was glad of that at least.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

On their way towards the mansion, Lynette stops some distance away from Isaku and Nina, her gaze dropping as quiet weeping can be heard. When the two of them catch up, Isaku spends no time to pick the maid up, holding her gently against his chest.
"Calm down now, they're gone. No threat to the town or the house." he whispers to Lynette as they keep on going towards the house.

Some time later, the group are back at the doors of the mansion, where Valkenhayn and Sister Elise are already waiting. They enter a guest room where the gore-covered maid lays down on a bed, still holding her stomach from the cut she received.
"Such a brutal show it must've been.." the curvy priestess muses as she starts to flex her fingers, a soft blue light soon appearing around her hands. Lynette's uniform is pulled up just enough for the wound to be visible before the Sister starts moving her hands over it. The wound slowly starts to close under the healing touch of the priestess as she applies her energy to the gash. Before long, the wound is completely healed, leaving only a small white line where it used to be.

The priestess turns to Nina, her hands still glowing with power.
"Can I see that wound?" she says, pointing to Nina's shoulder

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Nina nodded to Elise and craned her neck to the side as she parted the gash in her bodysuit to reveal her own wound.

"It's not as bad as my previous cut, I think."

Nina looked kindly at Elise as the priestess tended the wound. "Thank you again, I suppose. We're lucky to have a healer living at the mansion with us. Say, Lady Einzbern mentioned you were a guest in this house. Does that mean you don't intend to stay very long?"

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

"No it doesn't. That cut was pretty deep, this is not near that level of severity" the plump priestess tells her, finishing tending her wound before taking up further conversation.
"Oh, you must've misunderstood. I don't live here, I have a small shrine near the center of town. That's where I reside, with two novices under my care. They care for the shrine when I'm away on these kinds of visits." she continues, turning towards Isaku next. But the big man shakes his head.
"Thanks for the offer Sis, but I don't have any wounds on me." the guard tells them before going for the door
"I'll be going to the armory now, and get out of this armor. It's heavy"

The three women are now the only ones in the room. The light fades away from Elise's hands as she's done with healing them.
"Hmmm.. bathing time then, I suppose." the priestess says, clearly wanting to use the bath.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nina (BlueSlime)

Nina nods. "Yes, a bath would be best. I need to get the smell of blood off of me."

She spared a glance at Lynette before returning to talk to the priestess. "I suppose I did misunderstand. That's nice then to have you visit from time to time. I hope you don't just come when one of us is cut up. That would probably sour your visits."

She offered a smile and placed her hands behind her back as she walked besides Elise on their way to the bath. When they arrived, Nina would strip and ease her way into the hot water, sitting down slowly with a long sigh. She'd invite Elise and Lynette to come in and sit next to her.