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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3596493" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 475: Experience[I cannot seal the hallways fast enough, my lady.]    “Really?!” Marix growled out loud without thinking the better of it. The last thing she needed right now was Andrea to start crying again and she was still on the verge of it...Marix showing her own tension didn’t help.  In itself, this whole idea of getting Andrea to keep her eyes shut seemed altogether strange, but for some reason she had said it...and she was serious about it. Marix had never really understood why parents foolishly protected children from the harsh realities of life. It had never made sense.    Of course, then she’d had the twins and Marix found herself doing things she never understood. Truthfully, she still wasn’t completely sure of the real purpose for toys or play, but she had ended up just giving in to Jyren’s constant statements that it was what it was. The fact that he couldn’t explain it was frustrating, but at least he didn’t get angry with her for not understanding anymore. But with the situation she now found herself in, Marix had made a quick decision that had followed a line of thought that had begun many years before.    Children deserved a choice in life.    No one had any right to take a child and make them into something. The child deserved to grow up to an age to make the decision themselves. It was the driving reason behind why she had freed the Tam’Day’U. All of them chose to join the Knights, which wasn’t a surprise, but they had the choice not to. They weren’t forced. And Andrea was not going to be forced into a life of fighting if she didn’t want it. For all Marix knew, little Andrea would end up being a healer like her grandmother.    Marix suddenly heard the sound of a weapon firing. Or at least, she assumed that was what it was, as it was unlike any weapon she’d ever heard before. But analyzing the origin of the sound wasn’t nearly as important as moving, and Marix quickly stepped to the side as she was running, nearly pressing against the wall.    A green blaster-bolt-like-beam shot past, hitting the ceiling not far away that got lower at the staircase. As Andrea made a loud noise of surprise(it had been close and very loud), Marix glanced over her should to see one of the three Mrrakesh that were after her approaching fast. He was slinging a large rifle over his shoulder and withdrawing a sword as he got closer to her.    Reaching down to her belt, Marix retrieved the vibroblade that had been there since leaving Ryloth. However, she didn’t turn around. Stopping and fighting meant the others would catch up to her, and while Marix felt confident enough to handle three Mrrakesh herself...she knew the distraction of Andrea would make that impossible. Even one of them would be difficult, as she had to make sure her daughter stayed safe. What she needed to do was to slow them down when they caught up.    Speaking of which...    As Marix reached the stairway down, the heavy footsteps behind her got too close to simply ignore. Stopping at the edge of the stairwell, Marix spun around, making sure to keep Andrea as much behind her as was possible. In front of her, the Mrrakesh was charging in leaps. He took one more powerful step and then lunged at her, metal sword slicing down.    Marix reached up and swung her own blade to parry the sword, but knowing she wasn’t nearly as strong as the Mrrakesh, simply used the momentum of the swing against him. Her blade caught his and she was dropping low and sliding to the side, not pushing against his blade but instead redirecting his strike away. Using the Force, she helped to propel him, and in a flash, the fast dive took the Mrrakesh hard into the wall of the stairwell where it wrapped around. He was already getting up by the time Marix was sprinting down, but she had a few more seconds again.    [One of the Mrrakesh is cutting through the floor above.]    She had reached the next level down by the time the Palace warned her, and it was in time so that she wasn’t actually surprised to see a Mrrakesh drop down from the ceiling just a few meters in front of her. Marix stopped in her tracks, knowing that the other Mrrakesh was behind her and the third one...was somewhere.    In front of her, the Mrrakesh took two large steps forward and swung his sword to take off her head. Marix ducked and swept at his legs to take him to the ground, but the huge creature actually jumped up and over the sweep.    The Force screamed at Marix and she tucked Andrea in tighter and rolled to the side, knowing it would hurt the girl some but much less than the sword that struck the ground from behind her. The Mrrakesh in front of her had landed, but before she could even looked up to see where his next strike would be aimed, Marix’s knife-arm slashed outwards and cut across both of the Mrrakesh’s shins.    There was a growl of pain as he lost his footing, and as the Force continued its constant barrage of warnings, Marix this time rolled forward, avoiding another strike from behind, and jumped to her feet, hitting the ground at a run.    [How many levels to the nearest courtyard?] Marix demanded of the Palace as the Mrrakesh again pursued her. She would have a few seconds before they caught up again...even the injured one would likely be attacking swiftly again.    [You are three levels above the main courtyard, my lady.] the Palace didn’t seem to feel any urgency in the situation, despite the pain it was definitely feeling from all of the cutting at it.    Marix looked ahead of her, seeing a break in the hallways that went two directions. She had to make a choice very quickly. A part of her mind was still trying to figure out where the third Mrrakesh was, but the majority of her focus was on the moment...and doing her best to not let Andrea’s crying distract her.    “Kslath!” the growl from behind her sounded almost mechanical coming through that odd mask the Mrrakesh was wearing.    Spinning around and planting her feet, Marix saw the uninjured Mrrakesh already over her, sword coming in at a low angle to cleave her into two. Marix’s right arm suddenly changed form, and there was a loud clang of metal striking metal. Her eyes caught a flash of surprise from the Mrrakesh, and she used this to her advantage by twisting around the blade and striking out at the Mrrakesh with a strong kick.    Her foot caught him in the jaw, sending the large Mrrakesh stumbling back, trying to figure out why his blade hadn’t simply cut her arm off. But his companion, who was leaving a small trail of blood from the wound at his shins, simply pushed him out of the way and dove over to pounce at Marix, sword thrusting forward to simply run her through.    Marix had time to sidestep the thrust, and there was a loud thud as the Mrrakesh landed hard. And he landed attacking again, a free hand swinging out to catch her in the face. Marix ducked and twisted to keep Andrea away. The odd maneuver left Marix open, and the Mrrakesh took advantage of the situation by driving his knee directly into her face.    For a second, her vision went black and all her ears could pick up was a strange, heavy thrumming sound. When her vision returned, Marix realized her head had snapped back and she’d hit the wall behind her. Andrea was near screaming, but Marix was doing everything she could to keep her alive without hearing the sounds coming from her shoulder. And then she saw movement in front of her. It was a fast, bright flash, and she knew it was the sword coming at her left shoulder...Andrea!    Her reactions slowed from the blow to the face and with little room within the hallway to move, Marix found only one thing she could do.  She shifted her body to the left as quickly as she could, and suddenly a very sharp pain dug straight into the right side of her chest. She only made a grunt, gritting her teeth against the extreme pain as she was pinned by the sword to the wall behind, but the Mrrakesh made a sound that was almost a laugh.    Typical, arrogant creatures...    Through the pain, Marix’s body quickly began remorphing around the blade. Seeing this, the Mrrakesh made a satisfied noise, twisted the sword to the side to cause Marix to violently thrash against the pain, then removed the blade from the large wound. He saw what he had expected as her body continued to remorph...the metal took over. Instead of flesh forming, the wound turned a silver colour and it expanded outwards.    But then it stopped. A moment later, the metal changed back to the flesh colour from before and the Mrrakesh immediately knew something was wrong.    That was also the moment Marix’s still-metal right arm hit him hard in the face, getting a satisfying thud from the Mrrakesh’s skull as he stumbled back. But Marix didn’t let this one recover. She ignored the shadow-pain in her chest, stepped forward and revered the blade that was in her metal hand, which was remorphing to its normal form already, and thrust her vibroblade up under the exposed neck of the Mrrakesh.    Withdrawing the blade, Marix saw that the other Mrrakesh was already coming at her again. She ducked under his strike, which was so hard that the blade actually got caught in the wall behind her, and used the moment that was open to turn and sprint away again, doing her best to alleviate the panic that was running through Andrea. The little girl had felt the sword through the Force, and Marix was doing her best to soothe her daughter while trying to also figure out exactly what to do next.    Marix made her decision quickly.    [Open the nearest outer wall.] she ordered the Palace just as she was approaching it, knowing exactly where the wall should open.    Where normally it would have hesitated, the Palace simply did as she commanded, and the wall that had been at the split in the hallway opened up to the air outside. Marix ran straight through it and jumped out the opening. Three levels up as one thing to say, but seeing it was something else entirely. But Marix had to ignore the ground, as she could feel the Mrrakesh was almost literally on her tail.    She spun herself around mid-fall, gripping Andrae tightly as the little girl’s claws dug just a bit deeper, to see the Mrrakesh drawing a small blaster-like weapon from his belt as he fell just a few meters behind her. Marix didn’t give him a chance to even take aim. She immediately threw her blade at him, and it caught him square in the face.    Three down.    Still unsure of the last Mrrakesh that was likely about to appear at any second, Marix turned again to see the ground nearly already upon her. She called upon the Force again, beginning to feel tired from the constant exertion but letting the adrenaline fuel her and push her on more, Marix slowed her descent and landed softly...and a few seconds after the Mrrakesh’s body.    But then she heard another loud sound behind her and knew exactly where the last Mrrakesh was. It had just been a few steps behind.    She spun around to see a sword coming at her face. Marix ducked, then immediately twisted to the side as a knee came up to meet her. Her right arm swung in, catching the extended leg of the Mrrakesh and throwing him to the ground onto his back. But the second he hit, the Mrrakesh lashed out with his leg again, forcing Marix to jump up and back and giving him time to reach his feet again.    Marix was given no time to regain her balance, as the Mrrakesh was immediately in front of her again, sword swinging. In a flash of movement that Marix was proud to admit involved no use of the Force at all, she ducked, jumped, spun, and twisted out of the way of an amazingly fast series of swings of both sword and fist from the Mrrakesh.    And then Marix planted her feet, dug in as much as she could in the micro-seconds she had, and raised her right arm up in a guard position. Again, metal caught metal, but this Mrrakesh didn’t seem surprised at all.  However, it was a sudden stop and that alone was all Marix needed. She forced the blade away, then stepped inside the Mrrakesh’s reach and punched him hard in the jaw. The blow was enough to send the Mrrakesh back a few steps before recovering.    However, the blow was also enough to cause him to lose his grip on the sword, which Marix immediately grabbed before it even hit the ground, spun around in the tight grip of her metal hand, then swung with all of the strength she could manage, removing the Mrrakesh’s head from his body before he even had time to completely see what had happened.    And then the only sound was the crying of Andrea.    Marix quickly let the sword drop to the grass at her feet and loosened her grip on her daughter, gently stroking the little girl’s hair to attempt to calm her. [Are there anymore Mrrakesh?]    [It is...hard to say, my lady.] the Palace sounded pained. [I can detect nothing near you, however the injuries I have sustained makes it difficult to...to concentrate.]    Having gotten her bearings and knowing exactly where she was, Marix began to head around the palace to another section of the courtyard where a Kanyak would likely be. Not Loki, as he was on the opposite side of the Palace, but everything couldn’t be perfect.    [Tell the remaining Knights to search everywhere and make sure the Mrrakesh are gone. Focus your efforts on healing your wounds...when it is safe, I will make sure the Redstars help as much as they can.] she told the Palace as she swiftly rounded the corner to see a small Kanyak exactly where she expected it to be.    Heading that way, and keeping her entire senses alert just in case, Marix realized what she’d just done. Four Mrrakesh. Four. And she was fighting while protecting a terrified jai. She could remember a time where fighting even one Mrrakesh would have meant death. A part of her quietly commented that motherly instincts were behind a great deal of it, but Marix still didn’t like that voice and simply chalked it up to experience.</blockquote>

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