She was quickly pushed back as one of them took a swing at her with a club, which she was able to block with the end of her poleaxe. The other moved in with his weapon of choice, a flail, of which she managed to dodge, falling back a little.
The flail user swung for another attack, going for her left side. She brought her poleaxe up in defence to that side and managed to rebuke the studded ball, as it bounced off the shaft like the sword had, which was quite the feat in accuracy.
But, defending against two people at the same time was very tricky to do. Her defence against the flail left her open to the club wielder, who managed to swing and catch her side. The side which had the sword wound.
She cried out in pain, falling back from the hit. The hit sent a searing pain through her, and she was sure it caused a whole load of blood to drop to the floor. Things were not looking good, and she didn't know how long she had left before it caught up with her. She had to keep going and do it quickly, as these men would be after Sylvia and the former slaves once they had taken her out.
Now at a distance from them, while it had been from her being pushed back, it now gave her an advantage. The men started to move towards her, but Octavia quickly pulled her poleaxe back, keeping her hands lower down the pole, and swung towards the men, aiming a slash at their chests.
The first man, had his arm outstretched when he had seen her attack. He had just enough time to pull his body back, but the weight and movement of the club left it lingering just long enough that the blade of the axe head managed to just graze his hand, causing a cut to appear an inch or so into it.
For the flail wielder, being on the left, and Octavia's swing coming from the right, meant he had more time to think and was able to back away in time, so the blade just passed him by easily. He then moved into range and swung his flail overhead again, hoping to catch Octavia as she recovered from her attack.
Octavia was, however, able to resist the momentum of her poleaxe better than most could. With her increased strength, she was able to recover from the swing and bring it up for another block. But things did not go as intended for either of them.
Whether it hadn't occurred to the man that this would happen, or that it had always been his plan, Octavia did not know, but the chain of the flail ended up wrapping around the shaft, linking their weapons together.
The man then pulled his weapon back, either to try and release it or to try and disarm Octavia by pulling her weapon from her grip.
What the man did not expect, however, was for Octavia to not budge at all, and that if anything, when she pulled, it sent him hurtling towards her.
The club wielder at this point, had ended up dropping his club to the floor from the wound on his hand. It was more the shock of it that caused this, rather than the wound itself. After he had shouted out from the pain, he had fallen to the floor to retrieve his weapon, only to find it being pushed around as the Octavia and the flail wielded moved about in the scuffle.
The flail wielder was locked in with Octavia, and they ended up face-to-face. He tried everything he could to try and pull away from her, even going so far as to try and punch and kick her as she moved him about.
She was too busy trying to keep steady and stop his hits from landing by moving herself, all the while keeping her grip on her weapon, which meant she couldn't even use her tail to hit the man. This put them in quite a stalemate. That was until she realised the position her weapon was in.
His flail was still wrapped around it, but in the scuffle, her poleaxe had straightened so that it was completely vertical. The man continued to try and free himself from his opponent, while Octavia with her eyes down and having seen an opportunity, lifted her arms up, and then slammed them right down.
The ear-splitting scream that she heard told her she had hit her mark. What was confusing, however, was that it sounded like there were two cries of pain from the single blow.
Looking down, she saw that the spike on the end of her pole axe had made its way through the man's foot as she had intended. But it also seemed that the club wielder had been in the process of stretching his hand out over the man's feet to reach his club on the other side when she had slammed down, meaning his arm had been over his foot when Octavia stuck.
This now meant he no longer had a good hand to play with his club anymore.
Pulling the spike out, caused another scream from the men. The ex-club wielder rolled away and gripped his newly damaged arm with his other hand, but that only caused him further pain. He then tried to stand up, pressing his hand against the ground to do so but that only further increased the pain he was feeling, with the pressure passing through his limb. If that wasn't bad enough, his hand slipped, the mix of blood and mud, not being a great surface to find purchase on, causing him to fall flat on his face, which ended up knocking him out.
The flail wielder still had both his hands available, and from the struggling, he managed to free his weapon from the poleaxe it had so desperately clung to. Now back to form, albeit with a limp, he got back to swinging, hoping to bring about an end to this fight. He winced and squirmed with every step, and ended up taking much shorter strides because of the pain in his foot. By this point, Octavia hoped he would just give up the fight, as she wanted it over soon as well. Even more so when she felt her injury start to cause problems.
The flail swinger, took a shot at Octavia, aiming for her head to take her out. Octavia saw this and went to block, but as she did, her vision blurred and she stumbled, the blood loss showing itself. She did however manage to evade his attack, the stumble taking her out of its range, but luck can only take you so far. His flail connected with her poleaxe, and with the lacklustre grip from the sudden dizziness and the bout of weakness she felt, his hit sent the poleaxe swinging down, with her hand twisting along with it.
"Ahhhh," she cried out as her hand was practically wrenched and twisted almost out of its socket with the hit and the man's follow-through. But it was enough to break her out of the dizziness momentarily.
The man pulled back on his flail, it having only partially wrapped itself around the poleaxe, and moved to attack yet again.
Octavia brought her poleaxe up, hearing creeks and clicks in her hand as she did, and got ready for her own blow at the man, going for speed rather than strength. Pulling back a short distance, she lunged with the point at the end, hoping to stab the man and take him out of commission.
The man saw this and ended up switching gears, pausing his attack to dodge the blow.
Octavia lunged, and the man was able to shift the side just enough that it flew past the side of his body.
But before he could do anything else, Octavia pulled back on her poleaxe.
The spike may have missed, but there was a hammer and an axe on the end, that was just large enough to hit the man as she shifted it back towards her, trying to keep it as close to him as possible.
The man tried to move out of the way, seeing what she was doing, but Octavia kept the pressure on, swinging it towards him as she pulled. But, her injury saw this as the right time to intervene, sending another, and longer dizzy spell her way.
As she pulled, she stumbled again, all the strength in her tail failing her. So much so that she fell backwards, while still holding onto her weapon.
"…"
Thankfully the slicing, squelching and eventual scream, was all she needed to know that she had managed to get the man. And get him with the axe head rather than the hammer.
Two thuds were heard by the crowd, one of Octavia slamming to the floor, and the other of her adversary. Her weapon fell to the side, and her head spun.
It was an odd feeling, and she was sure she heard what sounded like her name being shouted. But in amongst the many other voices of the people around, she couldn't be sure.
What she was sure about, however, was that the sky looked beautiful.
It was a shame that the sight had to be ruined by the face of the first man she had fought. Blood from his side fell onto her body, and the ground around her, likely mixing with her own that was seeping into the dirt.
But the worst part of it all was that even with his wound, he still had the strength to lift his weapon.
Well, he had sustained it later than I did, was Octavia's thought.
She reached for her weapon, not wanting to be done in like this, or at all even. But, when she felt nothing, she just sighed. She hardly had the strength to do anything. She couldn't even panic at the situation.
The last thing she saw before her eyes closed, whether it was from the weakness due to blood loss, or accepting her fate, it mattered not, was the man lifting his sword high into the air, and getting ready to swing it down.