UPRISING IN THE CAPITAL

ROYAL REPUBLIC

There was a monstrosity being erected at the town square. It stood tall for three years straight since the beginning of its construction, ordered by the tyrant. At its base rested sculptures resembling human hearts. From the base spiraled a set of stairs leading to the top, almost sixty feet high. There was a room, at the top of the structure, where Ladzgery would isolate himself in it for hours.

Tyndale controlled his breath, taking his time to inhale the tainted air grimed with smoke originating from his mysterious tower at the town square. He could smell treason assorted into the air, he waited for the sun to go down and see who would be the first to open the doors. True to his prediction, Lora opened the doors, minutes before midnight. Soul magicians were rendered powerless when a full moon reached its peak. At that exact moment, Ladzgery’s magic was ineffective, Lora thought it would give them a fair chance of defeating him. Little did she know of the beast they were about to face.

Moments later Jrue walked in, carrying his two trusty blades with him. Although Tyndale was aware of their presence, he did not flinch. He took one last long breathe and exhaled lightly. He then rose to his feet, anchoring the weight of his galactic body by resting his palms on his knees and pushing himself upwards. He rolled his shoulders, relieving them of exhaustion.

“Finally! I was waiting for your arrival,”

The two siblings looked at each other briefly, reassuring themselves.

Ladzgery turned to face them. His face expressionless, “Any last words?”. He asked, slipping off his sleeve from his right hand and placing it over the candelabra beside him. He turned his back to the siblings once more, reverting his attention towards the candelabra.

“I knew this day would come. I felt the unrest brewing for some time now. It was just a matter of time before the boat rocked too violent and capsized. The only problem is, you two are the ones that are trying to capsize this boat and as the captain. I am not letting it go down without a fight!”

He moved insanely fast for a man of his stature. All Lora felt was an unrealistically powerful force driving her to the ground. She landed with a thud, her head bouncing off the moldy floor. Needle-like pain reverberated across her skull. She lost her orientation, the world began spinning. As she tried to straighten to her feet another powerful blow landed across her frame, knocking the air out of her lungs, sending her spinning and spiraling across the floor. She collided with the wall, breaking her momentum.

Jrue swung his twin blades with malicious intent. Though it wasn’t him succumbing to all those terrifying blows they were so brutal that he felt the impact of his raw strength. Before his blades could gain momentum he was rudely picked off the ground with an inhumane tackle. He was driven to the wall, the impact so violent it pushed the bricks out of position. Once he was pinned to the wall a flurry of punches started coming his way. The iron-like knuckles dug into his face, he felt like a hammer pounding his cheeks. His mouth filled with blood. The relentless attacks were halted by a deafening sound of a metal bar striking Tyndale’s skull.

It seemed to have less of an effect on the ravaging beast. Lora was overpowered to the ground once more. He was moving so fast the two siblings felt like they were being attacked at the same time even though both of them had been flung across the room.

His furry boots stomped Lora’s guts relentlessly. She was almost passing out from the unbearable pain. Jrue managed to regain his balance and picked up one of his blades. Lora knew he was going to turn his attention towards his brother and prevent him from recovering. She clung to his left leg and disrupted his attack, giving Jrue just enough time to engage. Tyndale looked down and saw Lora wrapped around his leg, and for a slight second, he had his guard down, exposing a small window of opportunity for Jrue to manage an attack.

He reacted a moment too late, and the arm he lifted to serve as a shield was incised with the blade deeply. Jrue tried to add weight to the blade to deepen the puncture and render his arm unusable, but the other free arm reached out, his neck was caught in a strangle, and the man’s fingers dug deep into his throat.

Lora was catapulted into the air and as she was floating above the room’s floor her brother collided with her. They came crashing down hard. At that point she could feel her shoulder was out of place, perhaps it was dislocated.

Ladzgery looked down at the gushing wound on his forearm and smiled. Nobody knew what was going on inside that sadistic mind of his, but the results of his thoughts weren’t generally known to be good things. He walked back to the candelabra and picked up a glass of mead he was drinking earlier on and poured it over the wound.

Lora tried her best to get up, but she could not even see a few feet further from where she was. Her right eye was completely swollen, blurring her vision. Her ribs were aching with every breathe, she was sure a couple had fractured under the immense force of the hit she took earlier on. Jrue on the other hand seemed to be in better shape than her, despite receiving a thrashing worse than hers. He was the first one to his feet.

As she tried to orient herself, a dense object was sent flying towards their direction. Jrue was sharp enough to duck and dodge it but Lora’s eyesight was still blurry. The table swept her off her feet, landing a hit across her chest and sending her flying across the room. The closed doors broke her flight. She hit her head hard on the wooden frame, splitting splinters from the door frame.

The mammoth had picked up the table with one hand and thrust it towards them. Fear was creeping in and Jrue was re-evaluating his options. A retreat would seem reasonable at that point. Lora had been completely taken out of the equation.

“Well! I am Waiting!” Tyndale barked, his voice full of excitement. Jrue charged towards him. He wasn’t that good of a fighter in tight spaces but give him an open field and he would perform his acrobatic stunts that surprisingly packed a punch. He sought to tilt the odds to his advantage by taking him to an open field, and there was only one way he saw how.

Running full steam ahead he tackled Tyndale and they both burst through the window, shattering the glass and falling three from a height three stories high. There was no object below to cushion their landing, so they sprawled to the hard ground. Jrue landed on his chest, breaking a bone or two. Tyndale landed on the shards of glass. They dug into his back, yet he seemed not to feel irritated by the pain. Before he could get up Jrue rushed over to him and impaled his leg with one of the blades he accompanied himself with.

He had miraculously picked it up before they fell from the window. The blade was in so deep it stuck to Tyndale’s bone. Tyndale once again stared at his leg, unresponsive.

“This futile attempt of yours to slow me down is not working! I am no mere mortal.”

Jrue tried to speak through his crushed throat but he could not utter a single word. His mouth was still bleeding and his ribs were aching with unbearable pain. Tyndale tried to lift his leg but somehow he had lost a feel for his legs and arms.

It took him a while to realize what was going on.

“...oh, I understand now. You never intended to engage me in a fistfight because you know I would win. So you decided to poison me with your blade! Very very intelligent of you. That is why I made you my lieutenant.”

“Shut up you old fool! Your time has come to an end here!” Jrue said, wheezing after every word.

Tyndale’s body completely shut down. He fell frozen to the ground, unable to move a single muscle. Jrue crawled up to him and yanked out a small dagger from the top of his shoe.

“A paralytic Poison. I see I taught you well my son…”

“Don’t you ever dare call me that again!”

He picked up his right arm and slit his wrist across, doing the same to his left hand. Jrue wanted him to suffer. He wanted him to bleed to death knowing that he was powerless, unable to do anything about it and save himself. He left him outside and limped back into the house. All the soldiers guarding the house had evacuated, deployed to handle the uprising of the slaves in the mines, giving the two siblings all the time they needed to execute duties assigned to them by Anato Strider as part of their escape plan.

He managed to reach the room where the fight had begun. He shook her sister to wake.

“Lora, Lora! Wake up, it is done!”

Lora struggled to open her eyes. As she came to the pain hit her once more, causing her to wince. Her brother had his hands rested on her shoulder, and as she looked at them, she could see the slave emblem she drew on his hands covered with blood. Scared that it might come off and wear down the spell she quickly wiped the blood off with her top…