Nava shoved Timothy off to the right as the three dwarves moved around to surround her flanks. He stumbled for a few steps before regaining his balance, turning around to watch the scene unfold. Nava looked from side to side as she smiled in anticipation of the fight to come, cracking her knuckles. The crowd moved off to the sides, giving the four of them room for the upcoming skirmish. The bard on the stage stopped playing when he looked up to see what the commotion was about.
Nava continued to stare at the dwarf in front of her waiting for them to make the first move, while Timothy stood off to the side watching the other two. There was a thump of what sounded like a percussion instrument from the stage as the bard started slowly banging on the soundboard of his lute. It was subtle, only building pressure to the situation as he used the nuts holding the strings to adjust their key.
Timothy could feel his heart beating to the pace set by the drumming, his adrenaline pumping, he grasped his staff. Issuing an ounce of his will into the cat’s eye gem his vision shifted allowing him to see the magic in the room. He saw that there wasn’t much as his gaze panned over the combatants and the crowd. There was a faint magic emanating from the lute that the bard was holding that drifted through the air to him and Nava. The other two sources of magic came from Nava’s right hand that was pulsing with a brownish light, the dwarf behind her had a hammer in a holster on his right side.
The dwarf’s right hand moved toward the hammer in the holster, and this was the point where Timothy decided he had to move in. He took a step in the direction of that dwarf and reached out to halt his hand, but the dwarf noticed his approach. He side stepped and lashed his hand out, slapping Timothy in the weak spot of every male. Timothy stumbled back again and dropped to his knee in blinding pain, his breath coming in short bursts. Just then the drumming was accompanied by the sudden sound of a low chord from the lute filling Timothy with an anger that allowed him to push through the pain.
Nava took the opportunity afforded her by the distraction caused by Timothy to take a step into the dwarf in front of her. She grabbed his head with both hands and pulled it into her knee as she drove it into his face. Blood erupted from the dwarf’s nose and his eyes watered but neither seemed to faze him. He grabbed her leg and tried to lift it above his head to throw off her balance as she stood there on one leg. She wavered a bit, struggling to stay upright when the dwarf to her left punched her in the left side throwing her center of gravity off. She started to fall backwards when her back pressed into a wall, a wall that she knew was not there.
Timothy got back to his feet in time to see the dwarf behind Nava pull the hammer out of its holster and raise it up to strike her in the back. He uttered a quick spell, the purple gem on his left palm lighting up, visible through his clenched fist. He could feel the fundamental powers of the universe move through the gem and into his body, shaping and empowering it with his mana.
“Shield,” he barked.
He poured as much mana as he could into it without using his resolve, the shield shimmered into existence at Nava’s back just in time. The hammer struck the shield causing rainbow sparks to explode from the point of contact just as Nava’s back pressed into the opposite side of the shield. Timothy twirled his staff and set it into a guard position and took up a fighting stance, learned from his years of martial arts training.
He extended the staff, trying to wrap the dwarf on the thigh but he misjudged the length and his blow fell short. It didn’t matter, the intended effect was achieved, the dwarf turned to face him with a drunken expression of rage on his face. He howled wildly as he charged in with his hammer above his head, ready for a strike on Timothy’s skull. Timothy twisted his staff and deflected the blow to the side, causing it to slam into a small table breaking off one of the corners. With the dwarf’s back exposed to him he swung the staff around and smashed it into the lower back of the dwarf, causing him to arch his back and scream in pain.
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The music grew in intensity as Nava put a foot on the shield behind her and pushed off with all her strength and tackled the dwarf in front of her to the ground. She used her bodyweight to drive her opponent onto the floor as hard as she was able to, and she heard a crack as he exhaled and began gasping for breath. She felt a thump in her left side again as the other dwarf kicked her, but she was able to shrug off the hit with her damage reduction. She pushed off the floor and stood to face the smaller man, clenching and unclenching her fists as she stared at him.
The dwarf lunged at her smashing his shoulder into her knee with a loud pop and the two toppled to the floor, Nava grunting on her way down. She regained her composure quickly with the aid of the magical music pumping adrenaline through her veins. She grabbed the dwarf’s head with both hands and headbutted him in the nose, breaking it with a crack, blood flowing out and over the two of them. The dwarf recoiled, holding his nose and cursing at her as he rolled off her and to the side when she felt the heel of a boot hit her in the right temple. The first dwarf had recovered enough to thrash his leg out while the two were on the floor and catch Nava when she wasn’t ready.
The dwarf bent over the table after Timothy’s struck his back and flashed his right arm out, throwing his hammer at Timothy’s chest. The hammer smacked into him with so much force that it knocked him off his feet causing him to spin in the air before falling to the floor. His chest hurt, feeling like it was on fire after the blow and left him short of breath. Fortunately, the music continued to play and sounded like it was picking up the tempo allowing him to once again push through the pain. He pushed himself up off the floor, catching the dwarf’s foot as he tried to kick him in the face.
Timothy held the foot in both hands for a moment before twisting the dwarf’s foot, causing him to spin and collapse to the floor. He tried to slide forward to position himself to drop an elbow into the dwarf’s solar plexus, but he moved at the last second causing Timothy’s hit to glance of his side. He rolled back and tried to land a backhand fist to Timothy’s face, but Timothy had already rolled out of the way in anticipation of a counter strike. The dwarf’s fist hit the floor and Timothy rolled back towards him, trapping his arm under Timothy’s body. Timothy used the roll to add to his momentum and drove his fist into the dwarf’s lower jaw, the dwarf fell limp.
Nava’s hand went to the side of her head as she rubbed the spot where she had been kicked. Two to one and they both had broken noses, but she was pretty sure her knee was busted, with her options running short she let her anger take control of her. She screamed a howl of rage and sat up, grabbing the dwarf whose nose she just broke and grabbed him by the chest, lifting him off the ground. She threw him up to the ceiling and rolled over on top of the dwarf that just kicked her. She raised a fist as a brown light emanated from under the red sash wrapped around her wrist on her bracer. Her fist turned to stone and she smashed it into the first dwarf’s face, causing lacerations throughout and blood went flying everywhere, his body went limp.
The other dwarf dropped from the ceiling and landed on Nava with his knees, knocking the wind out of her. Even though she was struggling for breath she grabbed him with her left arm and slammed him into the floor of the tavern. He started to roll over to make another attempt at Nava before his body gave out and he rolled back over, sprawled out on the floor.
Nava lay there, sprawled out as well as she calmed herself down and caught her breath. The music was dying out, leaving her spent when she looked over at Timothy and saw that he was laying on the floor of the tavern as well. His chest was rising and falling rapidly as he tried to regain his composure, the third Dwarf brother lying motionless at his side. She looked over at him from his laying position, Timothy felt her gaze and looked back at her. Nava rolled her eyes and shook her head as she sighed.
“Okay… You can stay.”