Subtle subterfuge

Job Description:

Aayla had been finally been taking a break from her slaver hunting, choosing to lay low for a while so that people might stop looking for her, or think she simply fled the country for fear of being caught by the slavers she was working so diligently to take down. She had managed to gather up just enough coin to rent herself a nice room in one of the fancier looking hotels within the capital city.

She didn’t say much when renting her room, and even less when she left for the day to purchase herself some food to eat. Truthfully, Aayla had never felt so at peace before… blending into the crowd, not having to worry about anyone holding a whip to your back and instead just acting like a regular citizen.

While it was relaxing, she still felt like she was missing something… in all this peace she lacked guidance… she needed someone to help her get around in this crazy world as she had been taken out of it for her whole life… beyond this peaceful, meaningless trip from the food market to her room, she really didn’t know what else to do with herself.

Once she was fed, Aayla decided to take a walk towards the palace once more. She always enjoyed seeing it, all of the guards diligently going about their business… today however, there seemed to be an increased presence of guards, and Aayla wasn’t able to get very close at all. People were being kept at bay from the palace for some reason, which Aayla found was odd.

“Please hear us out! We need to build better shelters! We aren’t protected by the Empire at all are we? You’d rather feed us to the wolves!”
A woman cried out against one of the guards, causing Aayla to raise an eyebrow. The guard seemed to be about ready to get aggressive with her, but Aayla quickly made her way through the crowd and over to the woman, stepping between her and the guard.

“Please forgive her, my friend is just upset, she didn’t mean to be offensive… I’ll talk to her.”
She assured the guard as kindly as she could, turning to face the woman and taking hold of her wrist and pulling her out of the crowd. It seemed she wasn’t the only one displeased with being kept out of the palace, but she definitely seemed to be the most vocal at the time.

The two spoke with one another once they were safely away from the guards, and Aayla agreed to help her and her village to build shelters for them to protect them against the brewing trouble. She assured her that she definitely had the strength for this sort of job, and the two were quickly whisked away to a caravan that took off for the small hamlet just outside of the capital.

Once there, Aayla easily fell into the routine of helping the locals build better and stronger shelters, using her strength to help cut and carry the wood and supplies. The first day went by pretty uneventfully, the second however began to show signs of trouble. People would come into the small town to harass the villagers, threatening their neutrality by trying to convince them to join Gao Yuan Zu.

At first, these men would try to convince them to join Gao’s side with words, but as the villagers resisted them, attempting to maintain their neutrality, they became more violent. The third day that Aayla was there helping them build their shelters, the men would show up with weapons, seemingly willing to use fear to convince them to join Gao.

This was where Aayla put her foot down. It was one thing to try and use politics to gain someone’s favor, but she wouldn’t stand back and watch these men endanger this village… especially not for a the man she opposed. She had kept her opinions to herself, but Aayla supported Emperor Yoshiro’s claim to the throne. This was just a convenient excuse to take out a bit of the opposition.

Aayla had stepped away from her work when she saw them coming, moving to stand at the edge of the village moments before they would attempt to step into it. Of course, she could easily have been flanked, but for now, she would deal with the two man standing in front of her.

“I think these people have already given you their answer plenty of times. Please leave before I have to make you.”
Aayla stated seriously, though judging by the laughs of the two men, she knew she didn’t look as intimidating as she felt. She frowned as she gripped her hands into fists.

“What are you going to do princess? That sword looks mighty nasty but I bet you can’t even pick it up!”
One of them taunted, leaning against his companion as if laughing had knocked all the wind from his lungs.

“She’s not even worth recruiting as a fighter. Hahaha she’d be more suited to warm my bed tonight! What do you say girly? Lets skip all of this unpleasantness and I;ll make sure to keep you warm tonight.”
He sneered, taking a step closer to the girl as he attempted to wrap his arm around her shoulder, only to receive a sudden, powerful knee to his gut [b]. The wind was suddenly knocked out of his lungs and he fell to his knee’s, clutching his gut as he tried to gasp for air.

The laughing suddenly stopped and the man still standing raised the metal pipe he had brought along with him, lunging at Aayla to attempt striking her in the head with it. Aayla was still faster however, raising her sword with both hands in an attempt to knock the pipe away. However, as her sword was so large, she moved a bit slower than she had thought, and so when she swung up she severed part of his arm from his body. The metal pipe dropped to the ground, and the man stumbled backwards screaming.

Something inside of her fluttered at the sound of his scream. She clutched her weapon tighter as a smirk passed her lips. Was she enjoying this? There was a certain thrill to this she hadn’t expected… sure cutting down slavers was one thing… but this man wasn’t a slaver… Still, once this adrenaline was pumping through her veins, she embraced it. She stepped forward, closing the gap between the two and watching him panic as he stumbled away from her, trying to grab at the stump of his arm to stop the bleeding.

However, Aayla showed no mercy, suddenly lifting her blade and running him through with a [b]powerful thrust. There it was again, that exhilarating sensation… she wanted to feel it again, and she knew she could… before she could turn on the man she had kneed moment’s ago, he had whipped his chain at her legs, striking them powerfully and causing her to yelp as she stumbled forward. She found herself cursing lowly as she fuelled magoi into her blade and launches a blade of sharp air straight through the second man.

“That hurt… ahh…”
She groaned, leaning down to rub at her already bruising legs. She saw her hand trembling as she touched the bruise, now instinctively moving away from the chains. The mix of adrenaline and sudden fear was almost too much for her to handle just then… good thing two more of these idiots showed up.

Taking advantage of her position the two men would run up from her back and simultaneously start punching her repeatedly. She gasped as the pummeling forced her fully down to her knees, bringing her hands up above her head to make sure they didn’t hit her there. Taking another deep breath, she screamed, very very loudly. The scream sounded like an angry roar, the sound so powerful it staggered the two men, causing them to stop their assault in favor of covering their ears as they were already feeling disoriented.

That was all the opening she needed. As soon as she closed her mouth, she gripped her sword tightly again and swung it out in an arc, cutting off one man’s legs, and cutting deep into one of the seconds. She pulled it back, only to swing it down on her opponents heads, ending the confrontation.

The villagers seemed completely taken aback by the brutality of Aayla’s methods, and even after explaining herself and pleading her case, she was ushered out of the village, feeling they would be safer if they had nothing to do with the woman who chose to kill Gao’s men….

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WC: 1480
Supporting emperor Yoshiro by killing Gao's men.
cut down all 4 men with

Hurria: