He’d killed her, and many more besides. So letting out a scream that counted enough to activate her buff, and with the vague recollection of something about a plan, Estaria rushed in with her men, her greatsword held tight in her hands. Zarh barked some order in an unknown language and then his men charged against her own line. But Zarh, he stood separate, and there was a nice clear path to hm. Something he would quickly regret as Estaria picked up the pace and then, with the flucity of quicksilver, slid off to one side and raked her greatsword across his side. The shriek of metal grinding metal ripped through the air, and his armour was scored, but not punctured, and his luck damaged more than anything.

“Are we sure I am the Khornite here?” Zarh asked, his tone full of sarcastic humor.

“You killed me! I think I am justified a little anger, here” Estaria replied, pulling out Giant-Drenger and firing off both bullets. Zarh moved in his shield like a whip and both rounds bounced off it. The second volley with Quick Reload also went the same way, but that was fine because then she sheathed her pistol and rushed him again, throwing her greatsword with all the formidable strength she could possess.

Pressing hard after the inital blow, Estaria placed an armoured gauntlet on the blade and pushed, biting deep into the shield. Though it was a very thick shield, and Es couldn’t puncture it fully before being pushed off, Zarh using the shield to smash her backwards. Her armour soaked a lot of the force, so she only stumbled backwards, but it was still going to be an annoying fight if that shield didn’t go.

“Bah, you move like a Slaaneshi! This system is devaluing Chaos” Zarh exclaimed. He was, when you fought him properly, a very chatty Khornite, it seemed.

“Chaos deserves devaluing. What does it do except kill people and give them warp-boils?”

This back and forth banter was as much a fight as the actual fight, as important as blade on blade. But the actual hitting him part was important, so Estaria leapt into combat, initially going for a downward strike, but then quickly reangling to bring the force of her leap down on the same marked portion of the shield she had cut into last time. This time she took a larger chunk out of the shield, cracking it at the edges and splitting from the strike. Zarh took this opportunity to strike back while Estaria’s blade was in his shield, and the axe carved a chunk out of her luck bar, then a second as he booted her in the chest. Still, Estaria ultimately came off better, as Zarh looked to his shield and gave a vexed growl before tossing it aside, the limply hanging top half beginning to bend under its own weight, and then split apart as it hit the ground. Drawing out a second axe, the actual fight started there.

Having dealt with his shield, Estaria could now strike at the man, but his second axe did double his damage potential. The two rushed each other and Estaria’s Double Strike was deflected by the armour, while his two axes struck low and buckled the plate around her hips. Both low on Luck, neither pulled back, and Estaria even threw forward, smashing her helmeted head against Zarh’s, and then using the flat of her blade as a bludgeoning weapon to ring his helmet a second time. It was all very unorthodox fighting, and any trainer would be frothing at the mouth to see it. Zarh was not against such tactics and after recovering his balance he through his entire armoured bulk at Estaria, ramming her off her feet and barely missing an axe strike as she rolled backwards with system-given alacrity.

“Hardly the first woman I’ve had on her back!” Zarh exclaimed, standing back up and flourishing his axes.

“Is that why you are so angry? The women see the dagger you’ve got and start to laugh?” Estaria cracked a grin and then hopped up, lashing out one foot to crack against his breastplate as Zarh charged, and throw her backwards, throwing off his charging momentum and putting her well outside his grasp. There she then pushed inwards again, using all her incredible speed to blitz past him and open a hole in the armour - and the leg - that supported him. Blood spilled in an arc, and continued to leak out of the wound, her swords’ “Bleeding” effect getting to work.

“Gonna need that back, woman” Zarh exclaimed, turning to Estaria, who felt strange and sort of painful. The source of that was an axe in her side, just above the hip, where Zarh had hijacked her speed to punch through the armour and stick his axe into her side.

“It’s mine now” she replied, pulling the damn thing out. While removing a weapon wasn’t the best of plans for a wound like this, keeping it in would make it far too awkward to fight properly. Tossing the axe far enough away that it would be a struggle to reclaim, Estaria exhaled. Between nicks and glances chipping away small portions of their health, this decisive blow marked a turn-point in the battle. Zarh tossed his axe at Estaria who barely managed to deflect it, before locking blades with the greatsword of his own that he had drawn. Thicker and more viciously serrated around the edge, it was of lesser quality to Estaria’s own. But that wouldn’t stop it from killing her if she was careless.

Zarh’s brute strength was overwhelming, and pushed Estaria back towards the ground, until she managed to shift her weight and lash a Quicksilver Viper strike, sub-targetted into his groin. The reaction was immediate, and Estaria took advantage of it to get out from under his sword and regain her footing. To recap, she was bleeding, reaching exhaustion, surrounded by the enemy, facing a superior foe, and still couldn’t remember the bloody plan she had made for this whole fight. Though this was normal bleeding, as no popup came to tell her she had the Bleeding debuff. What the difference was, she couldn’t really tell you though…

Zarh recovered from his groin-stun, and his eyes flashed red, the blood flowing from his leg seeming to thicken and stop before a hellish roar erupted from him and he rushed Estaria, a berserk charge with no care but for the slaughter of one’s enemy. Estaria set herself, grasped her greatsword, and then thrust it forward, puncturing his chest plate and driving it deep into his sternum. Not, that that really stopped him as an axe punctured her helmet, sliced open her forehead, and sent her sprawling with the force of the blow. Laying on the ground, after she had finished rolling from the blow, she felt cold, weak, and pretty much like death.

Critically wounded

Ahh...so this is what a Critical Wound felt like…She felt somewhat bad about the people she had given one to now. Stubbornly, she forced herself up to her feet, and looked to Zarh, who was currently also dying of his own Critical Wound.

“Gonna….need that….back….man” Estaria gasped, fumbling for her sword and pulling it out, only to drop it and have to get it off the ground. There was no reply from Zarh, just a growl of a half-conscious man. Estaria couldn’t see out of her right eye anymore, the blood just pissing out of the wound and pouring down her face beyond her eyebrow’s ability to soak. Gritting her teeth and getting her footing back, Estaria sluggishly lurched towards Zarh. While it was a quick run for most people, for Estaria who was suffering the severe mallus of a Critical Wound, it was like wading through water.

Zarh responded to her presence with a sudden axe swing, and she felt the wind against her face as she dodged it by a hair’s breadth, and then, with a roar of zeal and passion, swung Ulric’s Fang. The blade’s stats and her “Mercy Of The Wolf” buff were sufficient to slice clean through the man’s thick neck and bisect bone. The heavy helmeted head flew off from the force of the decapitation, and thudded loudly onto the ground. Her great rival, dead.

You have won the duel

Fatigue at 100%. Activity suspended until Fatigue reaches below 50%

She could think of better places to pass out than the middle of a Khornite warband. But, her thoughts didn’t matter, she had lost her Furious Zeal ability when her stats got the Critical Wound hit. And so her heavily armoured body hit the ground with a loud crashing thud.