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[Story Hour Sampler] Post Your Favorite Story Hour Installment
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<blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1871750" data-attributes="member: 812"><p>....and this is from <strong>Wild Stewardess Action</strong>, one of my OTHER Story Hours. This one takes place in the same setting (believe it or not) as Barsoom Tales, but the connections between the two are few, and they are separated by a hundred years and a few thousand miles...</p><p></p><p>The players are mostly Air Canada flight attendants that my wife cajoled into playing "just one" session to see if they'd like it. I am now subject to regular demands from them for more. I don't mind too much. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>*******************</p><p></p><p>The inn rested a few yards back from the road, a ramshackle affair of bamboo slats, thatch roof and rickety railings around the verandah outside. Smoke curled from the stone chimney in the dusk air, rising slowly and steadily and revealing the stillness of the atmosphere. Wei-Yong, Mau Li padding silently at her side, frowned as they approached.</p><p></p><p>"Not enough birds."</p><p></p><p>"I can hear birds."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, but there should be more."</p><p></p><p>Lin Lin nodded, trying to be serious. "Yeah. Okay. More birds."</p><p></p><p>Soon they were close enough that the music coming from within the roadhouse drowned out any number of birds. And the delicious smell of roasting meat was making even Ming-Wa's mouth water. As a group they strode up the steps and threw open the doors.</p><p></p><p>The music did not stop upon their entrance. They found a wide common room, floored with rough planks, centered around a large firepit that fed into the chimney overhead. A crowd of barbarians sat at one end, weaving back and forth as they played their instruments or banged their fists on the low tables, keeping time with the young woman singing. Several turned their heads to inspect the new arrivals, a couple grinning at the sight of five women suddenly in their midst.</p><p></p><p>"Ah! Respectable guests! Beautiful ladies! Welcome, welcome!"</p><p></p><p>An elderly Tianese man, grinning toothlessly, bowed his way up to where they stood. He gestured, keeping well clear of Mau Li.</p><p></p><p>"Please, sit down, and be welcome. All are welcome at Kam's. Please, please."</p><p></p><p>The five Angels (and the wolf) followed and sat at a table as old Kam indicated. Shan asked for wine and food and the old fellow tottered off, only to return in seconds with cups, a loaf of bread and skewers dripping with fat, fresh from the fire.</p><p></p><p>Long experience together had taught the women that being polite only meant Shan would eat everything herself, so for several minutes there was no talking while they satisfied a days' worth of hunger. As Ming-Wa was wiping her fingers on the hankerchief she always carried, somebody stepped between her and the fire. She looked up to find the barbarian woman staring down at them all. She held a throwing axe in either hand.</p><p></p><p>"Strangers. This is a peaceful place. If you have come seeking trouble, I promise you you will find it."</p><p></p><p>The five women watched in silence as the barbarian twirled her axes around her wrists, sending the sharp edges whirling in a deadly pattern of flashing steel.</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong nudged Shan, "Show her yours, Shan. Yours is better."</p><p></p><p>The barbarian jumped back as Shan started to draw her sword, but Fa restrained her friend with a gesture. She turned to the visitor.</p><p></p><p>"We are servants of the Goddess, barbarian. We seek trouble only for her enemies."</p><p></p><p>Shan and Wei-Yong tore off chunks of bread and held them at the ready.</p><p></p><p>The woman eyed the Angels suspiciously, but nodded.</p><p></p><p>"I have heard of your Goddess. We are not her enemies."</p><p></p><p>Ming-Wa tried to begin a sermon, but choked as Shan and Wei-Yong stuffed the bread chunks into her open mouth.</p><p></p><p>The barbarian woman sat down.</p><p></p><p>"I am Haan Shi. Perhaps you are seeking the stranger who came here two days ago?"</p><p></p><p>Fa nodded. Everybody ignored Ming-Wa's half-verbalized comments as she tried to swallow the bread. Haan Shi studied the group, then nodded, some decision made.</p><p></p><p>"We didn't see him, but Kam told us about him. Perhaps it was he who denied me my betrothed. Chow Siu-Keung was to come and meet me here last night so that we could be married in the manner of my people. He did not come, and so I sing here, hoping he will come to me."</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong scribbled a couple of notes and waved the elderly innkeeper over. Several of the barbarian men were trying to catch the eyes of the Angels. Lin Lin smiled at everyone, while Shan sized them up like a breeder looking over the latest batch of puppies.</p><p></p><p>Kam nodded as he joined the conversation.</p><p></p><p>"That man... Yes, yes, he came here, two nights ago. He was strange. I did not like him, but I was afraid. He stayed overnight, upstairs. The next morning he went on -- the village is only a few more hours up the road. I was glad he left."</p><p></p><p>The old man's eyes lowered and his face seemed to sink in upon itself.</p><p></p><p>"Until I found Hsu Ki. She was wandering on the road, crying. She said, she said that everyone joined the stranger. They... tore down the statue... "</p><p></p><p>Ming-Wa touched his hand.</p><p></p><p>"What statue, sir?"</p><p></p><p>"The statue of the Goddess."</p><p></p><p>"Where is this Hsu Ki now?"</p><p></p><p>"Dead."</p><p></p><p>Fa stood up.</p><p></p><p>"I knew it. Spirits. Come on, let's take a look at this room he was in."</p><p></p><p>They had crossed perhaps half of the room and were between the firepit and the haphazard staircase to the second floor when both Wei-Yong and Lin Lin stopped in their tracks.</p><p></p><p>Bowstrings went taut outside then released.</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong recognized the sound a split-second before Lin Lin did. She threw out an arm and slammed Ming-Wa to the ground, kicked over a table and dropped prone next to her startled friend. Arrowheads thudded into the tabletop.</p><p></p><p>Lin Lin flexed her legs and leapt straight up to snatch the bottom of one of the banners dangling from the rafters. She flipped herself up just as barbed shafts bulletted through the room, splintering the bamboo walls and buzzing angrily through the air.</p><p></p><p>Fa stood unmoving, not flinching even as one buzzed past her face, but Shan grunted and swore at the impact of an arrow breaking itself on her breastplate. She looked once to make sure Ming-Wa was safe, shoved Fa at the steps and ran for the doorway. Wei-yong leapt up and joined her friend. They threw open the doors and looked out at the torchlight yard.</p><p></p><p>Eight swords hissed out of eight sheaths. The tall bald man, bulging with muscles, gestured with both fists and his minions roared and charged the doorway.</p><p></p><p>Shan grinned.</p><p></p><p>"I thought we'd never have any fun up here."</p><p></p><p></p><p>*****</p><p></p><p></p><p>"Fools! Return the Codex at once! Bring it forth and we might not slaughter you where you stand!"</p><p></p><p>The big bald guy laughed as his minions neared the inn.</p><p></p><p>Although Shan and Wei-Yong tensed for the onslaught, neither drew a sword as their opponents charged. Shan frowned in disappointment as six of the eight approaching thugs veered off and crashed right through the loose bamboo walls to either side of the door. Slats bounced across the floor in a rattling fury as the attackers split up, swords waving, and drove for the other occupants of the inn.</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong flipped an arrow out of her quiver and snapped up her bow, releasing the thin shaft without apparent effort or care. A sudden ringing cut through the general cacophony as the warrior's sword sprang from his hand, knocked away by her careless shot. The weapon sparkled as it spun through the air to land point-first in front of the bald man where he stood, glaring at the two women. The suddenly disarmed thug's glare lost a good deal of its fire and he froze for just a second.</p><p></p><p>Shan's frown turned into a gleeful smile as another swordsman charged her. She leaned back just enough to let his blade cut deep into the doorframe beside her face, and then her expression turned fierce enough to startle the man. He stood frozen, sword embedded in the doorframe, as she whipped her katana up and out in a back-handed cut that opened him up from his waist to his shoulder.</p><p></p><p>He sputtered and fell backwards as Shan flicked the blood of her weapon and smoothly resheathed it. The sword was back at her hip before he hit the mud in the yard.</p><p></p><p>She sneered.</p><p></p><p>Behind her, inside the inn, the swordsmen had met equally stiff resistance. Fa, standing at the top of the stairs, turned her imperious stare on the two charging for Ming-Wa. Inky tendrils of shadow oozed around her as she summouned the dark power that served her will, and the two men froze, their swords banging off the floorboards. Across the firepit, two others had run into the barbarians and the clash of steel told of an issue still in doubt.</p><p></p><p>Shan heard a familiar growl behind her and casually leaned away from Wei-Yong. The fellow her friend had disarmed turned his amazed stare from Wei-Yong to gape over Shan's shoulder. A split-second of terror and then he disappeared in a flash of grey fur as Mau Li cannoned into him, two hundred pounds of angry wolf digging in and holding on as he flew off the verandah, screaming.</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong beamed.</p><p></p><p>"Good girl."</p><p></p><p>Fa called from inside.</p><p></p><p>"What's going on out there?"</p><p></p><p>Shan yelled back, "Bald guy wants his Codex."</p><p></p><p>"His what now?"</p><p></p><p>"Hang on, I'll check."</p><p></p><p>Shan nodded at the now-fuming bald man. "Hey. What's this Codex? Got any more friends?"</p><p></p><p>He stamped, throwing up a great splash of mud. Neither of them paid the slightest attention to Mau Li's ongoing mauling of the unfortunate thug off to the side.</p><p></p><p>"My mistress will tear you apart! She is not one to forgive easily and you will die deaths of agony as she tortures you. Return the Codex, thieves, if you wish to live."</p><p></p><p>Shan leaned back in through the door. "He won't tell me."</p><p></p><p>Four unarmed men, all bald, all impressively muscled (though not so much as to outshine their leader), stepped out from behind the big guy. They clenched their fists, then exploded in a sudden rush for the inn door.</p><p></p><p>Neither Shan nor Wei-Yong had time to react with anything other than pure unconscious reflex. Which in Wei-Yong's case meant she put an arrow in either eye of one of the new fellows, while Shan nearly cut another in half. The two surviving leapt right past the women at the door to land in front of the fire-pit. They both struck poses and opened their mouths to begin long, intimidating shrieks.</p><p></p><p>Shrieks that were unceremoniously cut off when Lin Lin let go of the banner and landed on their heads. Giggling.</p><p></p><p>The girl bounced to her feet, lashing out in a blinding kick, and a sudden flurry of fists and knees and shins and foreheads blurred back and forth between her and the two men, who managed to circle around and flank her. Lin Lin's eyes were nearly closed, an ecstatic grin on her face as she deflected one attack after another, weaving and ducking between her opponents.</p><p></p><p>Nearly everyone watching stood in fascination, watching the contest. Except for Shan, who heaved a sigh of boredom. She noticed that there were two of these guys, and only one Lin Lin, and after a bit of math decided that was one bad guy too many.</p><p></p><p>Shan couldn't accelerate too fast, but she had enough steps between where she stood at the door and where the fight was happening in front of the firepit that she could build up considerable momentum. Shan in motion was pretty nearly an irresistable force.</p><p></p><p>Two steps into her charge, Shan saw Lin Lin send one of her opponents flying into the firepit. She chuckled and poured on the speed, leaning forward and extending her arms.</p><p></p><p>Both Lin Lin and her remaining opponent noticed the onrush of muscle and armour. And both stepped back to let it by. Shan screeched to a halt on the very lip of the firepit, windmilling her arms like mad as she attempted to avoid a faceplant into hot coals.</p><p></p><p>Lin Lin grabbed a ridge on the back of her friend's armour and snap-kicked herself into the air, planting her left heel solidly under her opponent's chin. His head snapped back and he dropped to the boards without a sound as Shan stumbled back from the edge.</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong leaned against the doorframe, keeping one eye on the now-enraged bald man watching his minions get dispatched with such ease.</p><p></p><p>Ming-Wa got to her feet and set about tying up the swordsmen Li Fa had immobilized. She looked up as the barbarian woman, her embroidered cloak flying, feathered turban flashing, stormed by to stand next to Wei-Yong at the door.</p><p></p><p>Haan Shi spat noisily and shook her fist at the bald man.</p><p></p><p>"Leave us in peace, smelly Tianese trash!"</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong nodded in approval.</p><p></p><p>The bald man looked in danger of exploding from apoplectic rage. His face turned red as he shrieked, "The Jasmine Witch will not be denied! You will return the Codex at once or die!"</p><p></p><p>"Are you watching the same fight I'm watching?"</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong looked on as Haan Shi yanked out her throwing axes and went through the same impressive routine she'd used before, spinning the hafted weapons around in a blur of steel before releasing both.</p><p></p><p>The axes whirled through the air, deadly and true.</p><p></p><p>And he caught them. Both.</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong's eyes widened. She turned back just in time to see both axes hurtle back and plunge themselves into Haan Shi's torso. Knocked backwards by the impact, Haan Shi crashed to the floor and sat staring at the weapons embedded in her front. She gave a quiet groan and collapsed.</p><p></p><p>Two arrows flew from a single string before Wei-Yong had even consciously acknowledged the event. She seemed to turn to the bald man just as he weaved aside from the shafts.</p><p></p><p>"Mau Li! Take him down!"</p><p></p><p>The wolf looked up from the corpse she was still tearing at, followed Wei-Yong's gaze and hurled herself at the man standing there.</p><p></p><p>And crumpled up with a yelp as his fist connected with her skull.</p><p></p><p>Ming-Wa heard her friend's cry of anger, and looked up in time to see Shan and Lin Lin fly out the door as Wei-Yong unloaded a stream of arrows, her hands blurring between the quiver and the bowstring.</p><p></p><p>They had done this a million times before. Shan felt Wei-Yong's arrows buzzing past her head, and brandished her sword, yelling as she charged straight at her opponent. As she neared him, she felt a sudden press against her back, and grinned as Lin Lin leapt onto her shoulder and then tumbled up and over the startled bald man. She plowed into him swordfirst, and lost herself in the ever-thrilling dance of combat, peripherally aware of her friend on the other side, Wei-Yong's shots somehow finding clear space and nicking his arms and face, Lin Lin's shouts and giggles as she kicked and punched and spun like a crazed toy.</p><p></p><p>Shan wasn't precise like Wei-Yong and she wasn't fancy like Lin Lin. Her sword moved in simple, predictable arcs. Arcs cut with such power that her opponent was forced to retreat, stumbling back from blows so strong the sound of the blade cutting through the air was as loud as Lin Lin's yells. As he back-pedalled, he kept running afoul of Lin Lin, who nearly tripped him flat several times.</p><p></p><p>He broke free of them both and staggered back a few steps, real fear in his eyes.</p><p></p><p>"My mistress will boil you alive! You have incurred her wrath and you will pay!"</p><p></p><p>Wei-Yong lowered her bow, exasperated.</p><p></p><p>"Would you stop it? You're embarrassing yourself."</p><p></p><p>They all took a step back as he brandished what looked like a small black bead.</p><p></p><p>"You have not seen the last of me!"</p><p></p><p>He threw the bead to the ground and vanished as shadowy darkness coiled up from all around.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, we're not done with you!"</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="barsoomcore, post: 1871750, member: 812"] ....and this is from [b]Wild Stewardess Action[/b], one of my OTHER Story Hours. This one takes place in the same setting (believe it or not) as Barsoom Tales, but the connections between the two are few, and they are separated by a hundred years and a few thousand miles... The players are mostly Air Canada flight attendants that my wife cajoled into playing "just one" session to see if they'd like it. I am now subject to regular demands from them for more. I don't mind too much. :D ******************* The inn rested a few yards back from the road, a ramshackle affair of bamboo slats, thatch roof and rickety railings around the verandah outside. Smoke curled from the stone chimney in the dusk air, rising slowly and steadily and revealing the stillness of the atmosphere. Wei-Yong, Mau Li padding silently at her side, frowned as they approached. "Not enough birds." "I can hear birds." "Yeah, but there should be more." Lin Lin nodded, trying to be serious. "Yeah. Okay. More birds." Soon they were close enough that the music coming from within the roadhouse drowned out any number of birds. And the delicious smell of roasting meat was making even Ming-Wa's mouth water. As a group they strode up the steps and threw open the doors. The music did not stop upon their entrance. They found a wide common room, floored with rough planks, centered around a large firepit that fed into the chimney overhead. A crowd of barbarians sat at one end, weaving back and forth as they played their instruments or banged their fists on the low tables, keeping time with the young woman singing. Several turned their heads to inspect the new arrivals, a couple grinning at the sight of five women suddenly in their midst. "Ah! Respectable guests! Beautiful ladies! Welcome, welcome!" An elderly Tianese man, grinning toothlessly, bowed his way up to where they stood. He gestured, keeping well clear of Mau Li. "Please, sit down, and be welcome. All are welcome at Kam's. Please, please." The five Angels (and the wolf) followed and sat at a table as old Kam indicated. Shan asked for wine and food and the old fellow tottered off, only to return in seconds with cups, a loaf of bread and skewers dripping with fat, fresh from the fire. Long experience together had taught the women that being polite only meant Shan would eat everything herself, so for several minutes there was no talking while they satisfied a days' worth of hunger. As Ming-Wa was wiping her fingers on the hankerchief she always carried, somebody stepped between her and the fire. She looked up to find the barbarian woman staring down at them all. She held a throwing axe in either hand. "Strangers. This is a peaceful place. If you have come seeking trouble, I promise you you will find it." The five women watched in silence as the barbarian twirled her axes around her wrists, sending the sharp edges whirling in a deadly pattern of flashing steel. Wei-Yong nudged Shan, "Show her yours, Shan. Yours is better." The barbarian jumped back as Shan started to draw her sword, but Fa restrained her friend with a gesture. She turned to the visitor. "We are servants of the Goddess, barbarian. We seek trouble only for her enemies." Shan and Wei-Yong tore off chunks of bread and held them at the ready. The woman eyed the Angels suspiciously, but nodded. "I have heard of your Goddess. We are not her enemies." Ming-Wa tried to begin a sermon, but choked as Shan and Wei-Yong stuffed the bread chunks into her open mouth. The barbarian woman sat down. "I am Haan Shi. Perhaps you are seeking the stranger who came here two days ago?" Fa nodded. Everybody ignored Ming-Wa's half-verbalized comments as she tried to swallow the bread. Haan Shi studied the group, then nodded, some decision made. "We didn't see him, but Kam told us about him. Perhaps it was he who denied me my betrothed. Chow Siu-Keung was to come and meet me here last night so that we could be married in the manner of my people. He did not come, and so I sing here, hoping he will come to me." Wei-Yong scribbled a couple of notes and waved the elderly innkeeper over. Several of the barbarian men were trying to catch the eyes of the Angels. Lin Lin smiled at everyone, while Shan sized them up like a breeder looking over the latest batch of puppies. Kam nodded as he joined the conversation. "That man... Yes, yes, he came here, two nights ago. He was strange. I did not like him, but I was afraid. He stayed overnight, upstairs. The next morning he went on -- the village is only a few more hours up the road. I was glad he left." The old man's eyes lowered and his face seemed to sink in upon itself. "Until I found Hsu Ki. She was wandering on the road, crying. She said, she said that everyone joined the stranger. They... tore down the statue... " Ming-Wa touched his hand. "What statue, sir?" "The statue of the Goddess." "Where is this Hsu Ki now?" "Dead." Fa stood up. "I knew it. Spirits. Come on, let's take a look at this room he was in." They had crossed perhaps half of the room and were between the firepit and the haphazard staircase to the second floor when both Wei-Yong and Lin Lin stopped in their tracks. Bowstrings went taut outside then released. Wei-Yong recognized the sound a split-second before Lin Lin did. She threw out an arm and slammed Ming-Wa to the ground, kicked over a table and dropped prone next to her startled friend. Arrowheads thudded into the tabletop. Lin Lin flexed her legs and leapt straight up to snatch the bottom of one of the banners dangling from the rafters. She flipped herself up just as barbed shafts bulletted through the room, splintering the bamboo walls and buzzing angrily through the air. Fa stood unmoving, not flinching even as one buzzed past her face, but Shan grunted and swore at the impact of an arrow breaking itself on her breastplate. She looked once to make sure Ming-Wa was safe, shoved Fa at the steps and ran for the doorway. Wei-yong leapt up and joined her friend. They threw open the doors and looked out at the torchlight yard. Eight swords hissed out of eight sheaths. The tall bald man, bulging with muscles, gestured with both fists and his minions roared and charged the doorway. Shan grinned. "I thought we'd never have any fun up here." ***** "Fools! Return the Codex at once! Bring it forth and we might not slaughter you where you stand!" The big bald guy laughed as his minions neared the inn. Although Shan and Wei-Yong tensed for the onslaught, neither drew a sword as their opponents charged. Shan frowned in disappointment as six of the eight approaching thugs veered off and crashed right through the loose bamboo walls to either side of the door. Slats bounced across the floor in a rattling fury as the attackers split up, swords waving, and drove for the other occupants of the inn. Wei-Yong flipped an arrow out of her quiver and snapped up her bow, releasing the thin shaft without apparent effort or care. A sudden ringing cut through the general cacophony as the warrior's sword sprang from his hand, knocked away by her careless shot. The weapon sparkled as it spun through the air to land point-first in front of the bald man where he stood, glaring at the two women. The suddenly disarmed thug's glare lost a good deal of its fire and he froze for just a second. Shan's frown turned into a gleeful smile as another swordsman charged her. She leaned back just enough to let his blade cut deep into the doorframe beside her face, and then her expression turned fierce enough to startle the man. He stood frozen, sword embedded in the doorframe, as she whipped her katana up and out in a back-handed cut that opened him up from his waist to his shoulder. He sputtered and fell backwards as Shan flicked the blood of her weapon and smoothly resheathed it. The sword was back at her hip before he hit the mud in the yard. She sneered. Behind her, inside the inn, the swordsmen had met equally stiff resistance. Fa, standing at the top of the stairs, turned her imperious stare on the two charging for Ming-Wa. Inky tendrils of shadow oozed around her as she summouned the dark power that served her will, and the two men froze, their swords banging off the floorboards. Across the firepit, two others had run into the barbarians and the clash of steel told of an issue still in doubt. Shan heard a familiar growl behind her and casually leaned away from Wei-Yong. The fellow her friend had disarmed turned his amazed stare from Wei-Yong to gape over Shan's shoulder. A split-second of terror and then he disappeared in a flash of grey fur as Mau Li cannoned into him, two hundred pounds of angry wolf digging in and holding on as he flew off the verandah, screaming. Wei-Yong beamed. "Good girl." Fa called from inside. "What's going on out there?" Shan yelled back, "Bald guy wants his Codex." "His what now?" "Hang on, I'll check." Shan nodded at the now-fuming bald man. "Hey. What's this Codex? Got any more friends?" He stamped, throwing up a great splash of mud. Neither of them paid the slightest attention to Mau Li's ongoing mauling of the unfortunate thug off to the side. "My mistress will tear you apart! She is not one to forgive easily and you will die deaths of agony as she tortures you. Return the Codex, thieves, if you wish to live." Shan leaned back in through the door. "He won't tell me." Four unarmed men, all bald, all impressively muscled (though not so much as to outshine their leader), stepped out from behind the big guy. They clenched their fists, then exploded in a sudden rush for the inn door. Neither Shan nor Wei-Yong had time to react with anything other than pure unconscious reflex. Which in Wei-Yong's case meant she put an arrow in either eye of one of the new fellows, while Shan nearly cut another in half. The two surviving leapt right past the women at the door to land in front of the fire-pit. They both struck poses and opened their mouths to begin long, intimidating shrieks. Shrieks that were unceremoniously cut off when Lin Lin let go of the banner and landed on their heads. Giggling. The girl bounced to her feet, lashing out in a blinding kick, and a sudden flurry of fists and knees and shins and foreheads blurred back and forth between her and the two men, who managed to circle around and flank her. Lin Lin's eyes were nearly closed, an ecstatic grin on her face as she deflected one attack after another, weaving and ducking between her opponents. Nearly everyone watching stood in fascination, watching the contest. Except for Shan, who heaved a sigh of boredom. She noticed that there were two of these guys, and only one Lin Lin, and after a bit of math decided that was one bad guy too many. Shan couldn't accelerate too fast, but she had enough steps between where she stood at the door and where the fight was happening in front of the firepit that she could build up considerable momentum. Shan in motion was pretty nearly an irresistable force. Two steps into her charge, Shan saw Lin Lin send one of her opponents flying into the firepit. She chuckled and poured on the speed, leaning forward and extending her arms. Both Lin Lin and her remaining opponent noticed the onrush of muscle and armour. And both stepped back to let it by. Shan screeched to a halt on the very lip of the firepit, windmilling her arms like mad as she attempted to avoid a faceplant into hot coals. Lin Lin grabbed a ridge on the back of her friend's armour and snap-kicked herself into the air, planting her left heel solidly under her opponent's chin. His head snapped back and he dropped to the boards without a sound as Shan stumbled back from the edge. Wei-Yong leaned against the doorframe, keeping one eye on the now-enraged bald man watching his minions get dispatched with such ease. Ming-Wa got to her feet and set about tying up the swordsmen Li Fa had immobilized. She looked up as the barbarian woman, her embroidered cloak flying, feathered turban flashing, stormed by to stand next to Wei-Yong at the door. Haan Shi spat noisily and shook her fist at the bald man. "Leave us in peace, smelly Tianese trash!" Wei-Yong nodded in approval. The bald man looked in danger of exploding from apoplectic rage. His face turned red as he shrieked, "The Jasmine Witch will not be denied! You will return the Codex at once or die!" "Are you watching the same fight I'm watching?" Wei-Yong looked on as Haan Shi yanked out her throwing axes and went through the same impressive routine she'd used before, spinning the hafted weapons around in a blur of steel before releasing both. The axes whirled through the air, deadly and true. And he caught them. Both. Wei-Yong's eyes widened. She turned back just in time to see both axes hurtle back and plunge themselves into Haan Shi's torso. Knocked backwards by the impact, Haan Shi crashed to the floor and sat staring at the weapons embedded in her front. She gave a quiet groan and collapsed. Two arrows flew from a single string before Wei-Yong had even consciously acknowledged the event. She seemed to turn to the bald man just as he weaved aside from the shafts. "Mau Li! Take him down!" The wolf looked up from the corpse she was still tearing at, followed Wei-Yong's gaze and hurled herself at the man standing there. And crumpled up with a yelp as his fist connected with her skull. Ming-Wa heard her friend's cry of anger, and looked up in time to see Shan and Lin Lin fly out the door as Wei-Yong unloaded a stream of arrows, her hands blurring between the quiver and the bowstring. They had done this a million times before. Shan felt Wei-Yong's arrows buzzing past her head, and brandished her sword, yelling as she charged straight at her opponent. As she neared him, she felt a sudden press against her back, and grinned as Lin Lin leapt onto her shoulder and then tumbled up and over the startled bald man. She plowed into him swordfirst, and lost herself in the ever-thrilling dance of combat, peripherally aware of her friend on the other side, Wei-Yong's shots somehow finding clear space and nicking his arms and face, Lin Lin's shouts and giggles as she kicked and punched and spun like a crazed toy. Shan wasn't precise like Wei-Yong and she wasn't fancy like Lin Lin. Her sword moved in simple, predictable arcs. Arcs cut with such power that her opponent was forced to retreat, stumbling back from blows so strong the sound of the blade cutting through the air was as loud as Lin Lin's yells. As he back-pedalled, he kept running afoul of Lin Lin, who nearly tripped him flat several times. He broke free of them both and staggered back a few steps, real fear in his eyes. "My mistress will boil you alive! You have incurred her wrath and you will pay!" Wei-Yong lowered her bow, exasperated. "Would you stop it? You're embarrassing yourself." They all took a step back as he brandished what looked like a small black bead. "You have not seen the last of me!" He threw the bead to the ground and vanished as shadowy darkness coiled up from all around. "Hey, we're not done with you!" [/QUOTE]
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