[Flashback] Blood from Honor (Nira'lia)

[Eridanus]

Day 22, Winter of 506 AV
Evening
The Kelp Bar

Eridanus smiled charmingly at several women who fawned over him, though he had to continually but gently keep their hands off him. It was the typical racial hazard of being an ethaefal. When night came, his unruly mortal seeming turned into the echo of his celestial self. Flawless skin, a surrealistically beautiful visage, and a fae glamor in every action, every movement and every word. It was all natural and unintentional, and the reason why the other mortal races interpreted it as such was due to their feeble minds attempting to grasp the true concept of divinity and infinity - no matter how slight - that existed in the ethaefal.

He was there for a reason, though not for the typical reasons people went to bars for. Instead, he was trying to pick up information about the new batch of merchants who had arrived in Zeltiva recently. Magecrafting was expensive, and so it was better to guarantee a sale rather than to randomly create something. That came in the form of contractual requests, which would at least guarantee the exorbitant costs of the operation even if the customer backed out halfway.

Wejerx had told him to scout for information for anyone interested in high quality enchanted products, for this skill was invaluable to any profession - not just magecrafters. He had strode into the bar with that intention, but somehow found himself surrounded by adoring, if vapid, ladies. Some of them belonged to the families of the merchants though, so he just had to sieve out the brainless gossip and retain the related information.

Suddenly, there was a loud shout and Eridanus found himself being stared at by a brash looking young man surrounded by other tough looking fellows.

"Get your hands off my woman!" That man roared, to which Eridanus shrugged, replying, "Tough if you can't even control your own woman properly."

Glaring at the ethaefal, that man strode forward and grabbed a surprised brunette by the wrist, and she protested, "I'm not yours, Jokan you bloody brute! Let go!"

Unfortunately, her protests went unanswered as the fuming youngster dragged her out of the bar. The rest of the occupants looked on with interest, but soon returned to their drinks and conversation, leaving a dumbfounded ethaefal in its wake.

Do they not even care?

Shaking his head, he stood up abruptly, giving a practiced beaming smile to the remaining fans, "Sorry ladies, gotta keep the peace and all. Conscience and honor, y'know?" The charming act disgusted him, but he knew that he had to keep up the casanova image if he wanted any sort of social standing at all, and social standing meant better access to valuable information.

Striding out of the bar, he scanned the surroundings quickly, recognizing the last of that man's entourage entering an alley nearby, and he sighed, jogging in order to keep up.

[Nira'lia]

The wound had been cleaned, and now Nira'lia was leaning beside the boy and stitching the wound shut. It was a long and deep gash that ran down the boy's shoulder. The boy, barely ten, had tripped earlier that day. The resulting wound was deep enough to prompt his mother to call their Konti friend, who had enough knowledge in medicine to stitch a wound close. Nira'lia focused at the task at hand, drowning out the sermon that the boy's mother was giving to her son. As she pierced the boy's skin again, she gave him a smile to calm his panicked expression down. She was almost done; all she needed to do was tie the thread into a knot. When she was finished with the small knot, she grabbed some scissors and got rid of the excess thread. The Konti took a final look at her work to make sure that she had done it correctly. "Please don't do anything rash for a while," grinned Nira'lia as she grabbed some bandages and wrapped it around his arm. She clasped the bandages together and pulled away – her task was done. The boy's mother handed her some coins which she didn't accept -- they wouldn't account for much, and anyway, she didn't see the point. Carefully, she took the gloves off her hand and tucked them neatly in her bag, along with the other tools she had used to suture the wound. Aside from hygiene, she was always careful to wear gloves when dealing with patients. As much as possible, she avoided her involuntary Konti gift when it was unnecessary. Bidding them farewell, she waved her hand and head out the door. The night was cold, causing her to shiver as she walked through the quiet streets. In the distance, she could hear noise coming from the nearby Kelp Bar. The Konti quickened her pace -- her house was on the other side of the city, and this was a part of the city more notorious for trouble. She could hear some noise from a nearby alley. It seemed like some people were arguing, but she didn’t think too much of it. However, a couple of steps away from the alley, a woman shrieked. Worried that someone was hurt, she hurried to take a look. The sight that met her was one that she didn’t expect: a group of thugs were harassing a girl in the alley. Nira’lia knew that it wouldn’t be wise to get involved, but her wits went against her. She just couldn’t let anything bad happen. As she was debating in her mind what exactly she should do, one of the men noticed her. ”What do we have here?” growled the man. She gulped, backing away – she could see the devious and bad-intentioned expressions they had, she knew this wasn’t going to end well. A figure appeared on the entrance of the alley's other side. Nira'lia looked up and saw a horned creature. She was in a state of panic and the alley was dark, so she couldn't get a good look at him -- but she safely assumed that he was not part of this group of thugs. "It's you!" screamed the girl that the men were harassing. "Help!"

[Eridanus]

As the situation in the alley began to present itself, there was a nagging feeling of dread in the ethaefal. Before his mind could comprehend, his body already knew what was going to happen through sheer experience. Accordingly, the adrenaline in his body began to pump, for it seemed like it was going to be a typical incident of human brutality through testosterone-filled bravado.

He began to extract djed from his body, though he knew that he would not have time to protect his entire body. The thugs had just noticed another innocent arrival who chanced upon this scene, and soon he would be discovered too. He had to act soon or he might live to regret it.

Instead, he positioned the clump of djed on eight spots on his body, his fists, elbows, knees and feet. Shaping these eight clumps of djed with his mind, he imagined an armor plate or a glove-like substance forming a protective cover around the eight parts.

Next, he used a single template of the shield first, mentally weaving the appropriate instructions in the shield's djed structure. He implanted the first task to be that of absorbing djed, followed by the second instruction to absorb impact. The secondary tasking was slightly tricky, for it involved absorbing energy or force that made its way towards his limbs, but did not block such energy going out. In other words, it was similar to wearing a boxing glove that protected his skin from wear and tear but still managing to inflict damage. With this template, he implanted this similar instruction template onto the other seven parts, imprinting them firmly systematically as his mind printed the same pattern repetitively into each small shield.

When he was done, the group in the alley was already well aware of him.

"So... pretty boy decided to make it here, eh?" The young man who seemed to be the leader of the group exclaimed.

"And we have another pretty girl to join us! Riv, Jok! Get her!" He gestured towards the nearest two of his lackeys that was closest to Nira'lia. The distance and darkness was still too far for Nira'lia to make out Eridanus' features properly, and vice versa, thus the ethaefal could only see her figure and not recognize her.

Eridanus surveyed the alley, it was wide enough for a group to stand comfortably, but not enough to wield a large weapon effectively without hitting each other. Thus he could be assured that no large weapons would be in play. His long swords were in his dorm room in the University for he did not expect to run into such problems in the civilized Zeltiva, so all he had was his body, his wits, and the assassin's dagger hidden in his robes which he would not take out unless his opponents had similar weapons. If they had, they kept it hidden for they seemed confident in their large frames and numbers.

There were a total of eight lackeys, excluding the leader. Two of them were pinning the Zeltivan girl against the wall while the young man had his hands all over her. Two of them headed towards the konti. The other four were scattered loosely in a vague circle, though the nearest one was grinning at the ethaefal menacingly.

The young man sighed, then gestured at the lackey nearest to Eridanus, "Show our guest what happens when he messes with my girl. Bon, show that wimpy pretty boy a lesson."

Bon was a huge and muscled laborer, and his confidence in his strength showed. Cracking his neck left and right, he approached the ethaefal, who sighed and muttered, "We really should talk through this. Do you know what happens when something is hit really hard?"

The thug seemed to find it amusing, and he snickered, "Time for you to find out, small fry."

Those were his last words for the day, for just as he approached Eridanus, the ethaefal dashed forward nimbly, using the momentum in his speed to propel himself forward. At the same time, he directed a stream of djed into his arms through flux, and together with his formal unarmed combat techniques he slammed a powerful blow into Bon's chest.

Even as the flux streams receded within the ethaefal once the attack was over, there were several cracking sounds as the thug's skeletons took the blow, and his entire form heavily flew several feet, landing in a collapsed puddle a few inches away from where the young man was standing.

The shields that protected Eri's fists from the massive impact shimmered briefly - though it could not be seen in the dark - as it absorbed the impact and strengthened accordingly, protecting the ethaefal's bones from cracking.

[Nira'lia]

The konti's mind was in a state of panic. She considered simply turning around and running, but she knew she wasn't fast... they'd get to her before she was able to get anywhere. And she knew that they wouldn't let her go now, she was a part of it already, and they didn't want any witnesses running off to scream for help. “C’mere, girl...” said Riv. He had a mischievous grin on his face that frightened Nira’lia. The men named Riv and Jok were approaching her slowly, as if she were prey that would dash off if they made any sudden movements. Riv reached forward to grab her wrist, and instinctively, she backed away, keeping herself out of their reach. This seemed to anger the man, as he growled in anger and grabbed her arm, pulling her forward. Nira'lia's eyes widened as soon as he gripped her arm. It happened in just a second to everyone else, but to her, images flashed before her eyes. Involuntarily, she was sent to the past, to a scene of a young boy with a woman -- his mother. Nira'lia felt something warm ebb in her chest... it was the feeling of a mother's love. When her mind returned to the present, she was in shock. Her Konti gift often did that, and it took her a while to focus back to what was at hand. Gasping, she saw that a huge man, the man they called Bon, had lunged at the horned person. He was massive; surely such a move would strike such a powerful blow. The sounds of breaking bones caused the konti to shudder. When the man named Bon fell to the ground, Nira'lia stood with her mouth agape, staring at the Ethefael. The other men, even the women they had been harassing, looked startled as well. The konti was much closer to the fallen man now, and she found herself staring at him. Then she looked back at the Ethaefael... such a situation was not normal. But he had nothing with him, no weapons, and Nira'lia couldn’t help but wonder how he had done such a feat. The other woman gave a shriek as she was thrown at the ground. She landed with a thud, and struggled to get to her knees. The man who had her pinned had discarded her as if she was nothing but an object with no value. The group of thugs were pissed of now, furious at the fact that they had underestimated the new arrival, furious that one of their members was now yelling in pain. "Get him!" yelled the leader as he pointed an angry finger at Eridanus. His expression was fuming, and his followers wasted no time to listen to his order. The man who was gripping Nira'lia's arm let go of her, and she found herself rushing to the side of the other woman. "Are you okay...?" she asked the girl. The girl ignored her question, more focused on the fight before them. Nira'lia turned her head to the men, and saw that about half of them were lunging forward at Eridanus. This was not good, Nira'lia thought... he was outnumbered. He obviously had tricks up his sleeve, but would it be able to withstand the odds? "Look out!" Nira'lia found herself screaming, worried. It was silly because he could very well see that they were going at him, but Nira'lia didn't know what else she could do. There was fear in her eyes as she prayed that the Ethaefel would win against the odds.

[Eridanus]

There was silence as the leader considered the unexpected turn of events. Their heavyweight, Bon, had been defeated by a single punch from a frail pretty boy. That single punch had even made him fly several feet away. His eyes narrowing, the leader flung his current captive to one side.

"Get him!" The young man cried, "Everyone except Riv and Jok, get him! First to take him down gets to taste our new pretty girl, after I'm done with her, of course." Leering at Nira'lia, the man gestured for the two thugs who had captured the innocent witness to stand guard beside his two captives to prevent them from escaping. He watched with interest as his other five lackeys advanced on the horned figure.

Eridanus sighed again. It seemed that violence always ended with violence. He had hoped to end it all with that impressive show of intimidation, perhaps encouraging them to flee from his supposed supernatural might. It seemed that it did not work, instead inviting more to attack him.

Somehow, he wished that he had his blades with him. Even if they were all armed, he was pretty sure he could take on that number simultaneously without breaking a sweat. His eyes constantly flicking from one side to another, he shifted his position such that it would be the least favourable to the approaching thugs. This was one of the basic tenets when fighting outnumbered. Positioning was key.

Suddenly, he dashed forward to the nearest thug, his hands moving quickly to parry and redirect the inevitable punch. Even though he had only absorbed a minor amount of the blow, having deflected the rest as per his unarmed combat style, the sheer strength of the brute caused his arm to vibrate a little. He was pretty sure that if his bones were made out of metal they would have rung like a tuning fork.

Ducking another block, he slammed several lightning fast blocks into various weak spots on the man, causing him to stumble momentarily. Utilizing the compass pace that he learned in his swordsmanship footwork, he sloped his way to his opponent's other diagonal, putting his back closer to the wall and away from the rest of the group and preventing himself from being caught unaware.

He unleashed another fury of blows, strikes and jabs that sought to make contact. Directing blows as they were aimed to him, he blocked and followed up efficiently, dealing a series of elbow strikes and palm fists at the neck, throat, ears. If he could not reach for those parts without overextending himself, he aimed for the shoulder joints, the elbows, and the parts of the muscles combining the biceps and the triceps.

The man howled with pain, leaving himself open for that one opportunity where Eridanus lashed forward with a snap kick that forced the thug on his knees, and he slammed down with an elbow strike that crumpled his opponent motionless to the ground.

The other four had been half-heartedly angling their way to get at Eridanus while watching their comrade in battle with the ethaefal. Whatever thoughts they had that the engagement with Bon was a fluke was now gone. They bristled in anger, and rushed forward at the ethaefal.

[Nira'lia]

The expressions on the men were difficult to understand. Fright and nervousness were dominant, but there was also a certain hint of determination and fury. They still believed that if they charged forward with their numbers, the ethaefal wouldn't be able to do much. However, it took a while for them to move forward, each one fearing that if he went first he would receive the most pain. Their leader was screaming in terror, angry at the evident looks of fear in his lackeys. He was obviously scared as well, and it could be seen in the way that he had lost his previous cockiness. All that was left was a panicking young man, obviously regretting that he had underestimated the 'pretty boy'. The girl beside Nira'lia screamed as she was pulled up by the one they called Jok. He, along with Riv, had been the last to move forward... and he had decided that instead of lunging at Eridanus, they had another option. He put a tight grip around her, and he held a knife up to her neck. "Don't move!" yelled Jok, threatening Eridanus. There were some strangled words from some of the men, as if they didn't approve, but that didn't change anything. Even their young leader looked content at Jok's actions, seeing it as an easy escape. The prize didn't matter to him anymore. Horrified, Nira'lia saw that Riv was coming at her again. He had the same idea in his mind, and the konti found herself staggering backwards until her back was flat against the wall. Riv made a move to reach for her, but before she knew it, she raised her foot and kicked him squarely in the stomach with as much force that she could muster. She was not a strong woman, but he had not been expecting that, and made no move to block and left himself wide open. He fell to his knees, coughing and cursing. Jok, who was holding the other woman, yelled in pain. Apparently, the woman he was holding captive had bitten his hand when he wasn't looking, causing him to drop his knife. The woman wrestled her way out of his arms and pushed him away, and then punching him right in the face. It was a powerful blow that sent Jok to his knees, and Nira’lia realized that this woman was actually stronger than she was. "No!" shrieked Nira'lia when Riv, in a hazy but angry choice, reached out again to grip her, this time by the ankles. Instinctively, she brought her knee up and hit him flatly right under the chin. He fell to the ground, and Nira'lia ran from him, towards the other girl. These two men, Jok and Riv, were the only ones close to the girls -- the others had been focused on Eridanus completely, although they did see the events unfold. One of them turned to go to the women, but the young leader stopped him. "Forget those useless women! Get that man! The man!" screamed the leader. They were lessening in numbers by the minute, and he wanted the most dangerous person to be concentrated on. The woman beside Nira'lia grasped the konti's hands. Nira'lia gasped as for the second time that day, images flashed before her -- images that she chose to forget as soon as they cleared. The konti shook her head, seeing so much images was a strain to her mind, even if she did feel something warm within her -- happiness that was misplaced in such a predicament. "It's okay," the konti whispered to the girl. "He's obviously strong, we'll get out of this somehow."

[Eridanus]

The remaining four rushed at him, intent on attacking simultaneously to maximize their own chances of success. Yet, their aggressiveness was on-hold, and their movements were measured, for there was the niggling fear within each of them that they might reach first and thus possibly become the next victim like Bon or the most recent one knocked out. As a result their rush was a careful tango, each making sure that they advanced the same distance together, each unwilling to rush forward with unbridled aggression.

That costed them. That would cost them the chance of victory.

Eridanus began to mutter, properly setting the framework of the djed flow within his body. He foresaw the use of both of legs and arms, and thus he could not do a simple flux transfer where he directed djed from point A to point B. No, he needed the streams to be adaptable, and thus began pooling the streams closer to his centre of mass. Drawing the djed streams there, the central gathering point of the djed streams would allow him to direct them via the shortest path to whichever limb needed them.

The time given to him by the uncertainty of the thugs allowed him to do so, and by the time they reached the engaging status he had draw the flux streams up to his arms, enhancing the speed of his punches. Instead of focusing on one guy, he let his eyes relax, taking in the sight of all four opponents at the expense of detail. Their arms were large anyway, he did not need detail to fight.

They punched simultaneously, though to the trained eye there were still differences in timing. To the naked eye it was simultaneous, but the thugs did not train together enough to ensure a perfectly synchronized attack. That worked to Eridanus' advantage, for his highly enhanced speed allowed his arms to move in a blur, intercepting and responding to each strike in lightning fast succession. His attacks were a blur, offence and defence flowing one after the other smoothly, relying on pure instinct and muscle memory with only his gut feeling to direct his next attack and the next technique.

His quick counter-attack pushed his opponents back somewhat, and he quickly pushed down the flux streams back down away from his arms, and towards his central mass. From there, he pushed it down further to support his thighs, and he turned around running up the wall and flipping gracefully over his opponents' heads.

His powerful leap allowed him to sail quite cleanly over them, but as he passed by one in mid-flight, he reached out and jabbed sharply at one of them, striking him cleanly at the top of his head. The momentum of the force, augmented by gravity and his wall flip, caused a large enough concussion to knock him unconscious.

Landing behind them, he pulled the flux back up to his central mass, looking around wildly when a sudden scream was uttered. It seemed that the girls were having their own victories, having knocked out Riv and Jok on their own. One of the remaining three thugs moved to help subdue the girls, but the young man that was their leader screamed at them to take out the ethaefal instead.

"First one to take him out gets the first taste of our new pretty girl and a hundred gold mizas!" The man screamed desperately.

Oho... so it's one of those rich princelings who think himself a mafia gang leader, eh?

The promise of that large reward bolstered the courage of the remaining three, and this time they rushed forward with unbridled aggression. That was the tipping point needed to push the scales in their favour.

Their attacks were fast and powerful, and Eridanus only had time to pull upwards some of the flux streams before being engaged. He defended himself as quickly as he could, but this sudden burst of energy from all three men derailed his plans, and he suffered his first blow, a glancing blow on his cheek.

It stung, and he winced as he tried to ignore it. The dim lighting in the alley did not help as well, and it caused him to miscalculate strikes, and amidst the exchange of blows between himself and his three assailants his fist collided head-on with the fist of the guy in front of him. The shield shimmered briefly as it absorbed the impact from both sides, and it shattered, unable to handle taking so much force in one instance.

Eridanus swore, and quickly retracted his arm fast enough to block a backhand swing from his left opponent, but his right opponent decided to respond in a snap-kick, catching the ethaefal in the stomach as he stumbled backwards.

Normally he would not have fared so badly, but he was already exhausted from the previous battles, and these men were not inexperienced weaklings too. They were strong, muscled and had their own share in street fights and intimidation. Magic could only help Eridanus so far, for his skill at hand to hand combat was nowhere as great as his swordsmanship.

Forced on the defensive, he continued directing the flux streams up to bolster his arms, ducking down to avoid a powerful hook while using both hands to deflect an incoming knee strike. He had drawn enough djed to support his arms that his legs would be too weak for kicks.

Moving backwards, his attention was stretched to the maximum, having to handle all three opponents simultaneously. Suffering a blow out of every five exchanges, he was now defending himself, only getting the rare strike through. The thugs were encouraged by this turn of events, and this bolstered their morale, causing them to push their offensive forward viciously.

What would the girls do? They were alone with their leader, who perhaps held the key to stopping this aggression.

[Nira'lia]

"He's losing!" the woman beside Nira'lia frantically said. She looked at Nira'lia with horror, as if the konti could do something about the situation. Her grip on Nira'lia's hands was painful, leaving crescent marks on the konti's iridescent skin. “Do something!” “What... what am I supposed to do?” asked Nira’lia, her voice weak and strangled. She didn’t know how to fight, didn’t even have the strength to hit a man effectively unless it was a lucky strike. She wanted to ask the woman, why don’t you do something?... she knew this girl in front of her was stronger than she was, but the fright in the girl’s face also said that her mind was more muddled than it should be. The konti was at a loss as she stared at the scene before her. Nira'lia was not used to being amidst trouble and having the choice to do something about it. She had been a slave half her life, she was accustomed to simply standing there and watching painfully, because that was all that was expected of her. At his point, however, she needed to think of an alternate route. She didn't know if the horned man could bounce back to be on top of the fight once more, but she assumed that this wasn’t going to occur at the way the situation was unfolding. "Stop! Stop!" the konti said suddenly as she pulled herself away from the woman. She scrambled to get to the leader. The leader was now grinning at the turn of events, joyful at the fact that the ethaefal was finally losing control of the fight. He turned to look at Nira'lia. "You just wait your turn, after we're done with him, you'll have your fun," he said to her, his eyes glinting with evil. "No, you have to stop!" begged Nira'lia, her voice pleading with desperation. The young man looked at her, finding joy in the desperation of her actions. With a smirk, he shrugged and pushed her aside with his gloved hands, causing her to stumble as she backed away from him. He cheered his men on, telling them that they were soon to get their prize. The konti would make for a great prize, he kept repeating. The idea made Nira’lia frown with disgust. He was obviously not going to change his mind any time soon, and no words from Nira’lia could convince him otherwise – especially not when he thought he had the upper hand now. Nira'lia grimaced to herself as she took a look around, searching for anything useful. Her mind was working as quickly as it could, as she tried to make do with what was around them. The narrow alley was dark and she couldn't see very carefully, but she did see a plank of wood near the other woman. The konti hurried to get it, inspecting it as quickly as she could. The other woman looked at her with much question, and the konti chose to ignore her expression. Nira'lia quickly rushed back to the young leader, and with all her strength, swiped it at the back of his head. There was a resounding thud and the young man fell to the ground, unconscious, and his cheering was cut off mid-sentence. That got the attention of the other men who were assaulting the ethaefel. As soon as their leader stopped yelling, their concentration was dimmed. They stopped their assaults in an instant and quickly turned to see what had happened, and as soon as they saw the young man on the ground and the plank of wood in Nira’lia’s hands, they knew. Hopefully, that break in their concentration was what the ethaefel needed to gain the upper hand once again. But in all honesty, Nira’lia had not been thinking about the consequences of her actions. Her eyes widened as the closest brute started cursing at the konti and dashed at her, and she clutched the plank of wood as if it would actually be able to help. When he pulled back to punch her, she shrieked and put the plank up to cover her face. The man’s punch hit the wood, the pressure causing it to break. However, it did serve to keep Nira’lia away from his attack. Splinters went flying, and she fell to the ground, terrified. The thug continued to advance to her, and in a moment of desperation, Nira’lia found herself looking at the ethaefel, pleading for help.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus blocked a blow, following up with a jab, only to have it blocked by his opponent, and suffered another jab at his shoulder. His movements were slowing down, and his strength was fading. He was only mortal after all, he could not keep up at a high intensity for a long time. Magic could only help so so much, and even now it was beginning to fail him.

There was a sudden thud, and the cheers of the leader was cut short. The thugs jerked back in reflex to find out what happened, but Eridanus did not. No, he was far more disciplined than that, and he knew that one must never get distracted in a fight.

Using this momentary distraction to his advantage, he lashed out with a flux-enhanced punch at his left opponent, striking the man's head soundly and knocking him out even before his unconscious body hit the ground. Not giving them a chance to realize what was happening, he leaped from his position, pushing some of the flux back down to his feet for the extra leg power.

The added force increased his velocity, and his elbow strike on the middle opponent's ribs impacted with a sickening crack. The thug stumbled, and the ethaefal responded quickly with a follow-up palm on the back of the thug's head as he was bending over in pain, crumpling him to the ground.

He began to push the flux streams back to up his arms, but even now he was beginning to feel clammy. The djed streams within his body began to feel sluggish, and he feared that he was soon at his limit. Ignoring the flux, he decided to rely on his own, even if fatigued, strength now, and engaged the last opponent just as he was running towards the konti.

The remaining thug attacked the konti who had apparently somehow managed to knock out the leader. She blocked with a plank of wood that shattered with a punch, and Eridanus used his running to leap from the ground, aiming a powerful kick at the man's back.

"Get out of the way!" Eridanus yelled at the konti just before he impacted, and as his mass slammed into the man's back, the thug was pushed forward against the wall, his head knocking against the thick concrete, leaving bloody trails on the wall as he slumped down.

He was too tired to recover from that landing acrobatically, and instead landed quite ungracefully on his butt, wincing again as he did so. There were several cuts and bruises throughout his face and body, and the shields that he had thrown up to absorb the impact of his punches had long been shattered from prolonged and rigorous use. His knuckles bled, his elbows bled, his knees bled.

Panting, he continued to explore the parts of his body that he could not see with his cold, clammy fingers, checking to see if there were any other open wounds that he did not notice.

"You alright?" He muttered. Even as he was injured his eyes searched the two girls questioningly, to see if they were harmed in any way.

[Nira'lia]

When Eridanus yelled at her to get out of the way, Nira'lia did so as quickly as she could. She scrambled to get away from the two men, ducking for safety. The ugly sound of breaking bones could be heard, and she shuddered, looking back at the mess. There was a heavy trail of blood on the wall, a sight that Nira'lia didn't want to see. As soon as the last man was unconscious, Nira’lia couldn’t help but catch her breath, happy that it was finally over. She took a glimpse at her surroundings and saw all the fallen men. Something in her felt sorry for them, and another part knew that they deserved it. She gave a sigh of relief -- they were safe now. The other woman was catching her breath as well, still shaken from everything that had happened. Nira'lia looked at Eridanus and saw that he was examining himself, and saw the numerous cuts and bruises on him. "I'm fine..." replied Nira'lia. She looked at the other girl, who nodded to say that she was alright as well. Nira'lia was fortunately unscathed, and the worst that had befallen her was the mud and dirt that stuck to her skin and dress. The ruckus was finally over, and despite the darkness in the alley, Nira'lia finally got a good look at him. She just sat there silently for a few moments, gaping at him. He was an ethaefal. It wasn't common to see one, but when you did, you knew. An ethaefal's beauty was undeniable even if he was exhausted and wounded. The konti stood up and approached him. She looked down at him for a while before kneeling before the ethaefal. "I have some medicine and bandages with me... but are there any serious wounds?" she said, gesturing at the bag that she had with her. The konti looked over at him and grimaced at the blood on his knuckles, wondering if it was mostly his or the other men’s. "I'll go look for help," the other woman said as she stood up and quickly rushed off. Nira'lia blinked at her retreating figure. Surely other people had heard the noise -- she found it doubtful that she would be able to find anyone who cared. The konti looked back at Eridanus. She had no idea that she had already met this person a few days earlier since he had been in a different form. "Maybe we should get you to the infirmary as soon as possible?"