The whole room went quiet after Lord Desmon said that. A good deal of the nobility was just quiet as they tried to work out how he could sound so confident. But the rest, the higher-ranking nobility all had slight smiles on their faces as if they knew something no one else did.
Octavia had no clue on her end, and a quick look at Sylvia told her the same thing about her comprehension of it all.
"Oh, and what's that, old man"
The man at the front, who was obviously the leader of the group, standing in front of Lord Desmon missed the change in atmosphere given his reply. Where he should have been weary of what and how Lord Desmon spoke, the leader just saw it as an old man's bravado. He saw it as him putting on a brave face. And so decided to goad him.
"That there is something you should always do when you meet your betters. You. Should. KNEEL!"
With his last word shouted at the top of his lungs, the whole room became even more deadly silent. All of a sudden this was broken by the sound of metal hitting the floor.
Everyone in the room looked over to where the sound was a found an odd sight.
One of the men that had his blade against a guard's neck dropped his weapon. It had fallen to the floor with a clatter, and none in the room, aside from a few, knew why.
What followed was even more clattering as all of the men in the room, and what sounded like a few outside the room, dropped their weapons as well.
It was a startling sight to see them all frozen and for some reason lose their grasp on their blade.
The ones walking around had their sword in their scabbard, having been holding bags full of jewellery and gems, but that too ended up falling to the floor.
The leader at the front suffered the same fate with his sword falling by his feet.
It was very odd to see. But what happened next, topped that.
The men around the room all started to shake and struggle as if they were trying to pull away from someone that had an incredibly strong hold on them. Some ended up looking like they were spasming.
But then, they all fell to the floor, with one knee against the ground, and the other upright. One hand touched the floor and the other crossed the upright leg. Then lastly, it ended with their heads bending down and looking at the floor
All of the people that infiltrated the ball were kneeling.
What a shocking sight it was. Octavia obviously knew that it must have been what Lord Desmon said that made them do it. What sort of magic was that though, to make men follow an order like that? It was also impressive how it was only the bad guys affected. Even though she only had her experience on Earth with games and shows, she figured it was hard enough having magic affect a whole room, but for you to then pick and choose people in the room much be incredibly difficult.
The man at the front ended up in the same position, but where his face should have been in shock or worry, all he showed was a smirk.
"Interesting. To think nobles had this kind of power. That is surprising."
"Yes, I'm sure it is to someone like you. Now, I will just be taking th-"
As Lord Desmon went to grab the sword the leader had dropped, the man managed to quickly move his hand over the hilt, before grasping it, which shocked Lord Desmon to no end.
"How-"
"If you think a little magic is going to stop me and my group, you are very much mistaken."
Lord Desmon had moved back in fear of the man swinging his sword, but nothing came of it. He did nothing for a few seconds but after that, he managed to lift his head up. It seemed that under whatever this magic was, he could move, but only in short bursts, with a short amount of time between each one.
"We have been training our whole lives. Even domination magic will not stop us from achieving our goals."
Lord Desmon looked to the crowd and saw a few of the men reaching their hands to their blades, albeit slower than the one in front of him had, but it would not be long before they succeeded. They had to stop these men.
"Grab their weapons quickly. If you can fight, help protect the ones who can't. Take these men out now!"
It took a while for it to sink in, but eventually manage to break everyone out of their stupor and get to work. Many of the nobles ran as fast as they could to the ones nearest to them and took hold of their swords. A few had already taken hold of it, so all they could do was try to stop them from using it when they could move freely again.
Some of the nobles were no strangers to a fight or even war in some cases, so seeing these men take hold of their blade, they quickly opted to barrel towards them to knock them down and grasp their hand, trying to pry it from them.
At the front, Lord Desmon had done so himself, knocking the leader down while still frozen, in order to get the sword away from him.
All of the nobles knew that these men had not threatened their lives per-say, but it was clear to everyone that no good would come from having let them do what they wanted. If the robbing wasn't bad enough, the physical assault just made them sure. Both of which were crimes that are punishable by death.
Because of that, the veterans of war had no qualms about killing these men, even the ones that had failed to grab their own swords.
…
As time continued, more and more men were taken out with either a blade, a blow to the head or ended up restrained. Many of the nobles got involved, not being people to let insults just lie and feeling the need to truly fight back against these people. But this also meant that the men were starting to speed up, enough so that some could react in time to some of the attacks.
One such man was about to be killed by an overhead swing of a sword from one of the nobles but managed to move his body to the side and reach out to grab the noble's arm. These men were truly skilled as he was able to position his hand to grab the noble's arm mid-swing all the while having been frozen just before.
The noble tried to pull his arm out of the man's death grip, to no avail. Whether it was the fact that the man who had grabbed it was exceptionally strong, or that the time being frozen for them meant it couldn't be loosened, he didn't know. But thankfully, he didn't have to worry too long as another Lord saw it happen. Dashing over, he held his sword aloft and swung down severing the man's arm at his elbow, freeing the noble.
In other areas of the room, they had sped up enough that they had been able to bring their swords to bear enough that some of the nobles were stabbed or slashed with the blade. It was turning into quite a blood bath.
For Octavia and Sylvia, they too were helping to restrain the men. They assisted other nobles in tying the tapestries from the walls around their wrists and feet. She had been unable to grab a sword so this was the best she could do. She did however bring her tail to bear in order to keep some of the men from moving their sword hands when they manage to move.
Lord Desmon was still trying to wrestle the sword from the leader, but as time went on the time between unfreezing was shortening considerably. Their fight was the centrepiece, where Lord Desmon, held a tight grip over the man's hand, stopping him from being able to wield the sword. With his other, he proceeded to pummel the leader wherever he could. Blood poured from the man's now broken nose as he was beaten repeatedly. When he could move, he brought his hand up to his face to defend himself, but that didn't change much as Lord Desmon turned to try and break his rib cage.
With his family so close, this was the only thing he could think to do. The rest of the leader's men were scattered around the room, and it didn't appear any would be making their way over to him, so only the leader was a real threat. He hoped that with enough damage he would either knock the man out or weaken him enough that he was no longer a threat. Barring that, he would end up just killing him. While not his preferred option, with the crimes they have committed, he had no qualms about removing this man from the world.
…
But then things got worse.
Whatever Lord Desmon had done at the start, wore off.
For the leader, it wore off first. With his reactions back to where they should be, he was able to put his hard learnt training to use, allowing him to stop Lord Desmon's attacks with his free hand. He then proceeded to flip them over, and restrain him, before getting a few punches in himself.
Lord Desmon's family were helpless to do anything as they saw it happen. Sure they could have rushed over, but everyone knew that would likely end with them receiving the same treatment, or worse.
The rest of the men that were still alive, were starting to gain the upper hand again. The ones that still had their swords, were able to easily fight back against the nobles, injuring and in a few cases killing them in the process. The others that had lost them were in the process of disarming the nobles that had taken their blades, allowing them to take them out in the process.
Things were going downhill fast.
At the doors to the hall, a few more men entered and joined the fray, knocking out any nobles that were fighting back.
Back at the front, the leader was picking himself up from the floor, all the while looking at Lord Desmon, who was laid out battered and bruised, with disdain.
"If you had just listened to me and given me the girl, none of this would have happened! This is all on you!"
Lord Desmon groaned in pain as he heard him speak while trying to stand up himself.
"Forget about them. Get the Lamia!" the leader shouted out to his men as he turned to the crowd and pointed to where Octavia was having finally spotted her.
The remaining men then went on to hunt down their original prey, even as they defended and took out other nobles.
Lord Desmon in his damaged state, turned his head to see the destruction and saw how they were in a losing battle. He could see that Octavia and Sylvia were still in the room trying to help as much as they could, but they needed to escape. So he turned his head and called out to them.
"Octavia…Sylvia…run!" were the words he shouted, before coughing his guts up as the leaded stamped on his back.
In the crowd, the two he had spoken to heard him loud and clear. While they had been trying to take these people out, they too could see it was a losing battle. Many of the nobles that had been fighting had been taken out. Whether it was by being restrained, knocked out or killed, it didn't matter, as fewer and fewer people were available to actually fight back.
With her being the one they were after, she knew she had to get out before the chance to do so was lost, such as the men finally surrounding her. So, turning towards the door, they set off, hoping that they could escape from this horror.