[Ranarath] Good Grief, Lady

Aredil turned and lashed out with his meaty fist, catching the little human in the diaphragm and shoving him back several steps, and pursued quickly. He leaned his heavy axe against the concrete of the wall beside him, dropped his apron on the ground, set his hammer on top of it, and leaned into his next punch. The little human man dodged nimbly and slipped his hands into what was apparently the perfect position to do something scarily effective to the big elf attacker.

“Ugh!”

The human heaved mightily and literally tossed Aredil a ways further into the otherwise empty alleyway, the strain on his body obvious and understandable, then followed. Aredil landed heavily on his shoulder and skidded to a quick stop. He was barely phazed. Punk, he thought, pushing up from the ground and wiping the smudges of dirt and what was probably some kind of motor oil onto his trousers. After less than a moment of cautious approach, the little man leapt forward with a howl---“Haaaa!”---and met with a stern downward slap. His less-than-powerful body snapped downward with the force of the blow, which hit him in the corner of his neck and shoulder, and he fell face-first into the dust.

“Hup!” he shouted, leaping back to his feet and taking a fighting stance.

“Does that help?” Aredil asked. The little man nodded seriously. “Oh.”

The little man stepped forward and struck---“Ha!”---and Aredil didn’t even try to mimic the fancy move he’d gotten hit with earlier. He leaned to the side and slid his feet forward, leaning back against the hit. It hurt, sure, but he ignored it and clobbered his opponent. The hit took the human in the face and he dropped like a stone, probably unconscious before he actually hit the pavement. Aredil stood over him for a moment, grunted, and landed a needless kick in his side.

The acrid smell of burning oil stung the woman’s nostrils as she walked down the street. Tiah was certainly used to machines, her life centered around them, but this was the smell of machinery that was ready to break down. She let out a sigh. It was a shame to see people treat technology without respect. And, of course, when the machine breaks down, those persons blame others for it instead of their own carelessness.

But that doesn’t have anything to do with me. She just finds the technology. Let others deal with selling it to the public. Which was why the Salvager was walking down this dilapidated area. Someone wanted to see what she had managed to find and was willing to pay for anything good or interesting. Not that it would be much money but, a paycheck was a paycheck, regardless.

Tiah turned down into the alley that lead to the merchant’s shop just in time to see what was apparently the end of some brawl. The victorious man straightened and the woman took a step back. He’s... huge! The axe and hammer he was carrying certainly added to his ferocious appearance. Glancing down at the unconscious man and then back up, she laid both hands on the grips of her pistols. The human stared at the elf, trying not to let her fear be completely obvious, “Look, I just want through.”

“Another one,” he rumbled, straightening to look down at this newcomer with all the friendliness of a wolverine.

The girl looked taller than the man he’d just smacked unconscious, about as fit, and seemed a lot less capable. He spared a glance down at the now-moaning body of the martial artist or whatever he was, then looked back up at her and wondered whether letting her past was really going to be a hindrance to him. It probably wasn’t. He didn’t know her, she didn’t know him. There was the risk of her running off to law enforcement or security or whatever it was they called the government bully-boys here. With the almost corpse-ified body of an upstanding and human citizen at his feet, that just made it more likely there would be police action.

Aredil very meaningfully looked at his axe. He hefted his hammer, as if testing the weight, and glanced quite obviously at the unconscious body he stood over, then looked quite calmly back at the woman. He flattened his eyebrows to produce extra menace, then took a slow, purposeful step into the center of the alley. With his bulk blocking the way through, he tossed the hammer back to the apron and set the butt of his axe between his feet. The message was clear enough: no.

“Going to tell anyone about this?” he asked, his tone and manner making it epically clear what his opinion was on that course of action. He frowned down at her and rested one arm between the heads of his axe, a gesture that was deceptively casual.

Tiah did manage to keep her mouth from dropping open at the man’s obvious answer. It wasn’t odd for her to meet someone who was rude, but this was... well, it was certainly beyond rude. She slowly drew her guns, “Maybe I will.” Actually, more likely than not, people would starting coming to them once she started firing bullets and he started swinging those massive weapons around. This fight would in no way be discrete.

The woman looked him over once more. Between his huge physique and large weapons, her mouth curved in a smile as a thought dawned on her. Jeez, I hope we aren’t compensating for something here.

She was amazed at his reflexes. As soon as the Salvager had raised her guns and started firing, the elf’s axe was up and deflecting the bullets. And even from his relaxed position. Tiah had thought that maybe he would be a little slow with his weapons. Apparently not. Still shooting, she ran towards the metallurgist and, just as she reached him, the human dropped and used her momentum to slid between his legs. Maybe I can take him down from behind. At least that was the plan until a hand reached down, grabbed one of her arms, and hoisted her into the air.

She was quite the bundle. He'd lifted men twice his size and done things to them that could make a warrior cringe—notably because a warrior would know exactly how crappy those things would feel. This woman was something like half his size, but she was feisty enough in her squirming that he had to work at it to keep his balance without ripping her shirt off. Admittedly, ripping her shirt off wasn't a big worry of his. As a matter of fact..., he thought, grinning savagely at the very thought as it came to him. He shifted his grip to put all of the strain on just the collar of her shirt and jerked his arm.

Up.

Down.

Rrrrrrip.

The collar of the shirt ripped almost immediately under the combination of her weight and the force of her flailing, slipped out of his hand, and fluttered a bit. It'd ripped about to the middle of her back, not in a straight line, and it made him very amused to think what would happen if she tried some acrobatics or sliding around with her skin bare like that. As a matter of fact, he was willing to bet it would be very interesting to see her do just about anything with her skin bare like that. She was actually pretty good looking, for a dirt-crawling human.

"Little girl," he said, his voice a low rumble. It was given flat like a statement and had a whole bunch of shades of derision in it.

Aredil tossed the huge axe up and caught it mid-haft, tipping it over so his other hand could grab closer to the butt, and swung it out in a wide arc that encompassed that entire side of the alley. Subtlety wasn't really his game. Anything higher than his hips was going to get halved.

This time, Tiah’s mouth did drop open. My, my shirt! She frantically reached around and patted her back where there was a slight breeze now. A huge chunk of her clothing fluttered to the ground next to her. Furious, the human turned up- and then dropped to all fours to avoid having her torso chopped off by the giant axe. The weapon tore through the building next to her, showering the area with bits of plaster and brick.

Rustling came from inside the building. “What the hell!?”

I kinda feel sorry for whoever is in there. Tiah literally crawled back from the metallurgist, wanting to put a little more distance between her and that axe. Back at the entrance to the alley, she got to her feet. The elf was smiling wryly at her. He started ambling towards her, swinging his weapon back and forth slightly. The Salvager glared at him, brought up her guns, and started firing off shots as fast as she could. Behind her, she could hear people gasping and a couple of shouts at the sound of gunfire.

The shot that grazed his arm was a taste of the one that impacted at his center of mass. Scarlet pain lanced through his shoulder and he spared the straight-line gut an annoyed grimace as he threw himself away from the path of the bullets and towards the gunman—gunwoman? gunperson? whatever. The other shot hit him in the lower left quadrant of his body and he grimaced at the sharp fire of tearing pain as it came to an abrupt halt in the muscles of his abs. Any less physically fit and that shot would have made him a paraplegic, not that he knew it. All he knew was that there was a damned wasp tearing up his mid-section.

He hissed an obscenity.

Aredil jerked once against the shot and continued pushing forward, ducking under the salvo and heaving his axe out of the concrete wall by sheer strength. If a few chunks of concrete and a rain of gray dust accompanied the rasp of nickel-iron superalloy, he didn't notice it. The heavy weapon spun heavily as he brought it under-arm towards the barrels of the guns in an arching slice with enough range to take her wrists off if she wasn't careful.

Despite the fact that she’d emptied both clips on the elf, he didn’t stop. If anything, he seemed to come faster. The human only saw the axe at the last second and backpedaled in an attempt to not lose her hands. There was a clang as the axe knocked the pistols out of her hands, along with a smaller crack that forced a whimper out of Tiah. She looked down at her right hand to see her index finger bent in a very wrong direction. That hurts.

The woman rolled to side as the axe came down, creating a large gouge in the street. Even as she kept her attention more on the weapon than the wielder, Tiah did notice something reassuring. A circle of blood that was staining the metallurgist’s shirt. That wound would certainly slow him down eventually. Now if only she could survive the current onslaught.

He came after her again, his axe flying in a sweeping arc. The woman moved to the side, thinking of dodging under the great weapon and make a move for at least one gun. At the last second, though, the tawny elf flipped his axe to the side and slapped her with its flat side. The world was a flash of white and then she found herself on the ground and starting at the sky. The only coherent thought her mind could create was, What?

Aredil spun his axe as easily as a tennis player spins his racket and smiled with predatory glee. He took a moment out of his (very) busy schedule to paw a bit at the sickeningly sticky stain on the front of his shirt and frown at his shaking hand. Am I going into shock? he wondered. He didn't feel the pain quite enough to make it a tactile overload, which was usually what was supposed to happen when something punctured the skin. He frowned and reached around behind his back to check on whether the bullet had come out there and kept an eye on the dazed girl lying on the ground in front of him. The bullet hadn't come out the back.

He straightened and tipped his axe over so the head was pointed at the ground, then took a mostly controlled step in her direction. The axe head he set down so that each of the oversized blades were sitting on the side of her ankle, effectively pinning her foot from moving side-to-side. Then he pushed down with all the absurd strength he was allowed to use. The concrete made a loud noise of protest, cracked, and the axe blades sank into the ground until the haft was right up against her leg. The elf smiled down at her while she blinked confusedly. She's going to have one hell of a bruise tomorrow, he thought.

"You okay, girly?" he said, not quite in a drawl. It wasn't like he was concerned for her safety. She was far from dying. In fact, he actually failed to insert the correct note of mockery and scorn that he'd been after. He frowned at that and put on a wide grin. "You just got schooled, you know."

Her mind tried to process the elf’s question. School? I’m not in school. She couldn’t quite figure out why she couldn’t move her feet, either. In fact, the more she tried, the more her ankles seemed to hurt.

“The only thing you’ll accomplish by doing that is breaking something,” the person standing over her stated.

Her mind finely clearly, Tiah looked to see the metallurgist’s axe pinning her in place. She looked up at him and scowled at his mocking smile. The pain in her hand was still throbbing. That’s going to cause trouble down the road. The Salvager glanced around and saw that her pistols were far out of reach. She wouldn’t be getting out of this with them. Actually, from what she saw, there wasn’t any obvious way for her to get free. The elf had her firmly in his clutches, which was embarrassing.

He was still grinning when she looked back, reclining against the handle of his axe. She pouted, “Well, are you going to let me up anytime soon?”