Her bangs swayed to the side with the tilt of her head, hovering over her cold, gleaming eyes.
Although her appearance radiated the glow of a calm angel, her demeanor stirred fear.
Without batting an eye, she crushed the skull beneath her foot, then turned to Armin.
Armin's blood boiled with anger and indignation. For the fact that she fearlessly killed one of his knights in his presence, he felt insulted.
How dare she? A mere concubine! A mere slave to a foolish scum. How dare?!
The knights, including the ones holding Koul in place, freed him to launch toward Arista for daring to insult their prince.
But the moment they freed Koul and he slumped to the ground with a thud, they all froze in place.
Their feet were rooted to the floor. And although their hands and bodies could move, they couldn't take any step. Their feet felt glued to their spot.
"This sl*t!"
Overridden with rage, Armin lunged at Arista, mindless whether or not she was a woman. He drew a tight punch, ready to ram it into her.
But with graceful calmness, Arista propelled her sword upward slightly, rehandled it and drove the hilt into Armin's stomach before his punch could land.
Armin crashed to his knees as pain seared through his torso. He groaned lowly, hunched forward as he covered the place of his injury with his hands.
"Curse it!" He growled, spit bursting vulgarly from his mouth as he tried to endure the pain.
With elegant practice, Arista flicked blood from her sword and sheathed it back. Then she stepped forward and—
WHAM!!
She drove a devastating punch into Armin's cheek.
Armin whipped to the side from the impact, and collapsed sideways to the floor.
Turning to glance at the unconscious Koul, Arista saw Seira had already took to examine him. She knelt low on the bare floor, laying Koul's head on her laps.
"How's he?" Omaya asked before Arista could.
"Severely injured," she responded. "His damage isn't anything small. He appeared to have been tortured on top old injuries."
Wordlessly, Arista turned back to Armin who reeled on the floor from the combo she gave him. Crouching, she reached out her hand and grabbed him by his cloth.
And with effortless ease, she dragged him across the cold floor, slamming him against the thick walls. Next, she pulled him up by the neck, lifting him off his feet with sheer strength and keeping him pressed to the wall.
"Tell me about his injuries," she said quietly, her voice drifting loud and clear in the cold night.
"In detail," she emphasized.
Seira nodded, returning her gaze to Koul who laid unconscious on her laps.
"There's a large bruise on his chest, likely from repeated punches. I think three?" she started.
Before she could continue—
POW!
POW!
POW!
Arista delivered three brutalizing punches into Armin's chest. At first he screamed, then he cried as it got to the last.
Armin groaned in pain, blood spilling from his mouth as Arista pinned him to the wall by the neck.
After the three punches, she stopped, waiting for Seira to continue.
"There's a stab wound by his rib cage," Seira continued.
Without hesitation, Arista drew her sword with one hand and stabbed into Armin's rib cage. It elicited an ear deafening scream from him, but she didn't care….. none of the three cared.
"Three of his ribs are cracked as well."
Arista sheathed back her sword, then POW! She drove a power packed punch into Armin's rib.
"Seira, look here," she requested calmly. "See if I got three of his ribs."
A smile bloomed across Seira's face, her face bright like they weren't in a dreadful mood and situation.
"Don't worry, you got five! Hehehe!" She giggled loudly.
"Continue," Arista urged, allergic to time waste.
"There's a stab wound on top of his shoulder," she continued.
Again, Arista unsheathed her sword and stabbed down on Armin's shoulder, ignoring his cries.
"And his shoulder seems to be dislocated. It appeared to have been fixed but then re-dislocated."
This time, Arista paused. She turned to Seira all while still holding Armin to the wall. Her gaze which simply turned blank any time she gazed at the girls turned cold.
Seira shivered, panic etched clearly on her face.
"I think you've made a mistake, Seira," Arista said quietly. "Judging from how he is, he definitely dislocated his shoulder first before stabbing into it to cause him maximum pain."
"Is it not so?" She asked for clarity, staring coldly at Seira.
Seira glanced breifly at Koul then back at her.
"Y-yes, it is so," she let out awkwardly, tensed.
Arista's gaze was piercing and heavy. But not with eyes she would regard an enemy. It was more like a big sister scolding her younger one.
Though she wasn't older than Seira.
"Make sure to get it in the right order. I have to give back the maximum pain they exerted on him."
"Sure!" Seira threw up a peace sign.
Arista grabbed Armin's shoulder carefully, and with a lethal precision and gathered strength, she cracked it, dislocating it.
Armin screamed aloud with his mouth agape, tears streaming down his face as he flipped his head side to side in agony.
Arista paused breifly, speaking to Armin's girl, Koul's said ex-wife.
"Keep the barrier strong, Yumi. We wouldn't want the outside people hearing us now, would we?"
Yumi had long since fallen to the ground, trembling with red eyes filled with raw fear. Hearing Arista address her directly, she swallowed hard, her heart pounding heavily.
"I mean, it was you who opened a portal to his room and brought him here, true?" Arista asked but without waiting for a reply, she continued.
"That bothersome ability of yours."
The knights still remained rooted to the floor, unable to move an inch. Even when they drew their swords and swung it around, aiming to do some harm, they couldn't reach anyone.
Arista turned her focus back to Armin, speaking softly like one soothing a child.
"I'll have to stab your shoulder again because we got the order wrong," she excused before stabbing her sword into Armin's dislocated shoulder.
His cry of agony was loud but it only rang in her ears like a soothing lullaby.
"What again, Seira?"
"A punch. His face appears to have been punched and his features are broken."
Before Arista could deliver, Seira spoke again.
"But you can pass on this one because you already punched him in the face."
"As if!" Arista drew her punch, gathering strength into it. "That punch was for his insults toward me. This one….. is for our man."
POWW!!!