77 The Slavers - Part 5

How would they get out of this one? That was the single thought that passed through Octavia's mind as she looked at the hulking man in the doorway.

The lantern at his feet, having been dropped by the first man, but still intact, illuminated him so that his shadow appeared on the ceiling making him look even more menacing.

How would she beat this guy in a fight? She had taken only quite a bit of damage from when he burst into the scene, and he looked a lot more difficult than anyone she had thought before.

At her side, the other man was slowly coming to, all the while holding his side where Sylvia had stabbed him. Octavia would have liked to have taken him out before going into this new fight, but it would seem she had to leave him to Sylvia.

It was clear the massive man was focused on dealing with her, so she had to leave Sylvia to deal the final blow to the injured one. He had been hurt quite badly in that single stab, and so while Sylvia had no combat experience, Octavia hoped she could deal with the man while he was hurt.

Octavia just hoped that she wouldn't end up hurt herself during it. If only there was some way she could help her. But she was sure that if she did, the massive man would stop her.

Before she could carry on that train of thought…the massive man moved.

He quickly entered the room and swung his club right for Octavia's face.

She barely had enough time to dodge his first attack when the man swung the other way, causing her to duck yet again.

Having been able to dodge the man's swings so easily, she began to wonder if maybe this might not be so difficult after all. A thought she ended up regretting, as while the man was finishing his swing with the club, he brought his fist into play, smashing it right into Octavia's jaw.

The pain was horrible, which everyone in the room could tell given the cry she let out, and that was just from his fist. Grated it had hit her in her human half, so this sort of pain was to be expected, but still.

She had toppled to the ground after the impact, but after shaking away the feeling, she righted herself and got back into the fight.

The man swung again, but this time, Octavia ducked while spinning her lower half towards the man. He didn't expect it, and as he finished his swing, he was welcomed by the end of Octavia's tail smashing into his side. It just wasn't long enough to reach his head, sadly.

The man gave a short ouch at the impact, a much tamer and weaker response to hers from being hit by his fist. But while it hardly did any damage to him, it was clear that the hit had steeled the man, reinforced his will and need to take down Octavia.

The man then went on a rampage, swinging left and right with speed a precision as he tried to hit Octavia.

Being on the receiving end, the only thing Octavia could do was use all her concentration to dodge his attacks, having to move backwards as she did.

She couldn't look to see, but as she moved, she moved past Sylvia and the other man, who were very much in a different situation. They were locked in a stalemate, where they each traded blows with each other. The man was growing weak from the stab wound, but it did not look like he would be dying of blood loss quickly. He now swung his dagger that he had taken from his waist, having lost his sword like Octavia her dagger, to the darkness. He did this however with his less dominant hand as his other was at his wound.

He knew how to fight, but with his situation, he was now quite evenly matched against Sylvia, who with her reflexes being a beast-kin was able to easily dodge his attacks.

Sylvia also fought back against the man, where in the pauses where he winced and lost focus, she swung her blade trying to get a hit. But, with his skill, he ended up dodging quite easily.

And so, that is how they ended up in such a stalemate.

…

Octavia on the other hand, was being pushed back down the room, all the while making sure she did not get hit by the club. But, all good things must come to an end. Not that things were good, but considering she hadn't been hit since the first blow, that was pretty good.

The worse part about this was that she didn't have a weapon she could use. The dagger was somewhere on the floor, she couldn't spare any time to find it. There was the poleaxe on her back, which while would be awkward to use, would be better than nothing. But, with the speed of the man and concentration she was using, there just wasn't any time to take it off.

As she continued to be pushed down the room, the inevitable happened, and with her focus on the dodging, she didn't notice it coming.

Her back pressed against a hard surface, it being one of the wooden barrels. This meant she was right at the back of the room, and in her surprise at this, the man managed to finally get a hit with his club.

Octavia was still focused on dodging his blows, so while it was not perfect, she did managed to get most of her body out of the way. What ended up being hit was the side of her stomach, where the wooden club, hit the skin and skimmed across it, tearing away at it with the rough texture his weapon had.

Octavia hissed a the pain, knowing that she couldn't lose her focus lest more of her be damaged by this man.

The smile on his face told her everything, and she knew she needed to do something. Something to deal with this man.

She went to swing her tail, hoping to get another hit on the man. It could be enough to distract him, let her slither past him so she didn't have her back to the wall.

But it was too late. Her attack fell flat, hardly doing anything to him and the next thing she knew she had taken at hit to her side, possibly breaking some of her ribs. The worse was to come as this was then followed by the man's hand being wrapped around her neck.

Then she found herself being lifted off the ground.

She struggled, clawing away at the man's hand. But with all that, the man barely made any sign that he felt her attacks.

She then went to swing her tail again. Being higher now, there was a chance she could get him right in the head.

But, the man knew enough about how she attacked that he easily saw it coming, and ended up holding her tail at bay with his club.

"Now we ain't going to be having any of that." The man said as he just pitifully looked at her tail. "It don't hurt much, but it's a real annoyance."

The man's grip grew tighter, causing Octavia drop her tail, giving up on trying to hit the man with it.

She was losing oxygen, and struggling to breathe. Yet the man either didn't care or didn't actually realise.

"You are a pretty little thing ain't you. Shame about the snake tail, or whatever that is. That does put me off somewhat. But, dealing with a load of ugly beast-kin all day, having a good-looking one like you is quite the present, tail or not."

To her side, Sylvia was trying to make her way over, but the other man was blocking her, keeping her in the same stalemate as before.

Octavia's vision was going blurry and she could hardly understand what the man was saying.

This might actually be the end of her. How could she get out of this?

…

As things were going dark something odd entered her vision. It looked pale. Almost like the same skin tone that the man had. But why would that be right in front of her face?

Not being in the right mind to figure things out, her whole body just went on instinct. As…whatever it was moved over her face again, she lunged out with her teeth.

Biting into it.

The man yelled, and as soon as her teeth had entered, they were torn out.

She then found herself able to breath again, but also felt the air rushing by her.

The grogginess and the spots in her vision were still receding as the pain from choking was replaced by the pain of smashing into something.

…

Everywhere hurt.

Octavia did not know what was going on now.

So much had happened in such a short amount of time.

Opening her eyes, she could still see. Which was definitely a good sign.

What she did see, however, was not.

The man from before was staring right at her, anger across his face.

As she watched him, he was slowly coming towards her. Why he wasn't just running or walking properly for that matter she didn't know. As her vision grew clearer, she finally saw what was going on with the man.

It was almost like he was dragging half of his body along as he tried to walk.

One side was completely frozen, and so when he stepped forward with one leg, he then had to drag the other one in order to make the step.

That is when it finally hit her. Her venom.

She had hardly bit into him, but it was enough to seize up half his body. Wow, it was quite potent.

But, even as she realised this, she could see that the man was starting to move his arm very small amounts, meaning that it was wearing off quite quickly. With his size and hardly having bit him, it made sense.

The problem now was, how to fight back against this man.

There had to be something she could do to even the odds between them.

She had to either grow muscles very quickly…or make his disintegrate.

Okay enough wishful thinking, but still there had to be something.

"…"

"…"

Then that is when it hit her.

Thankfully it wasn't the man's fist or club hitting her, but an idea, as out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something.

Something she had just dismissed because it appeared helpful. But as she thought about it, it was only helpful to two people in this room.

…

The lantern.