To Capture a Captain's Heart (closed)

[KieranSoares]

"No," Christopher shook his head slowly. "I won't be a King... but I won't leave Norway. I won't ever have to, because tonight you and I are going to sit down to a nice dinner together and forget about all of this, just for an evening." He drew her just a little closer for a kiss, not caring if anyone saw. "I'll watch over you, love... no matter what happens." And thinking of her request for a quick death, he murmured, "I won't give Monomakh the satisfaction of killing you, Kayla. Not after we promised our lives to each other." He couldn't believe he was promising to take his love's life should she not be able to be saved, but he couldn't stand the thought of anyone else doing it.

"Go, love... make Norway proud, no matter the outcome." Christopher finally stood back, and Monomakh awaited Kayla in the middle of the hall.

 

[heartofcourage]

His kiss calmed her nerves and she let out a long, slow breath to steady herself. He had confidence in her that she could win this battle and she knew that he would not let her suffer if things suddenly turned for the worse. That meant the most to her. He would kill her himself than let her suffer at the hands of Monomahk.

"I love you, Chris." She murmured softly before she turned to look at Monomakh.

She stepped towards him, her sword held at the ready. She had learned from Christopher and Ashien that she needed to wait and gauge what his strategy would be. This was a game of wits that might turn very deadly.

 

[KieranSoares]

Monomakh advanced with confidence, but after his first meeting with Kayla and her brother, he wasn't being reckless. His sword touched to her own and he smiled quite politely. "Ah, a fencer. Very elegant, milady." He could tell by her stance and the way she held her sword. By his own stance, he looked to be trained like a heavy-armored knight, which was certainly why he used a longsword meant for horseback use. He drew back, testing her with a short swing and a lunge.

 

[heartofcourage]

He was toying with her, testing to see what she knew and just how skilled she was. She didn't talk to him as he touched his sword to her own, teasing her for the fencing stance that she took. She was light on her feet, trained well by her brother and she easily moved away from his short swing and his lunge. She could feel Christopher's eyes glued to her, watching her form as well as watching Monomakh.

 

[KieranSoares]

Monomakh seemed satisfied with her form after a few more testing strikes, and then she saw his smile fade when he began to concentrate on her. Just as Christopher had predicted, he didn't use light swings or lunges, only heavy and harsh. When they did contact with Kayla's small shield or her blade, a couple sent slightly painful shockwaves up her arms.

 

[heartofcourage]

The bones in her arms were screaming in pain when a particularly harsh blow came, but Kayla never let her pain show. She moved around Monomakh, letting him tire himself out by pummeling her with harsh strikes. Her eyes flicked from time to time towards Christopher, searching from any sort of encouragement that she was doing the right thing. She had to wait for her moment.

 

[KieranSoares]

Christopher was watching Kayla intently, his hand clenched tightly on the handle of his dagger at his hip. He gave her a quick nod the next time she looked at him after Monomakh had begun to breathe a bit harder than usual and he was drawing his blade back for what would be a slow but powerful lunge. It was a good opening to his left side, and Christopher's blade in her hand was plenty sharp enough to cut through the leather armor.

 

[heartofcourage]

When he drew back to lunge, Kayla acted. It felt natural as she attacked his left side, lunging and striking like a coiled snake. She pierced through his armor, drawing the first blood before she pulled away and out of the danger that his lunge might have posed to her.

 

[KieranSoares]

Monomakh let out a startled snarl, her blade piercing a couple inches into his side just under his ribs. His own lunge ending up sloppy and missing her completely as his blade point hit the stone floor. Monomakh's men were watching in absolute astonishment, while Kayla's let out a cheer for their queen. But Monomakh, as Christopher had noted, had a high pain tolerance and even as blood stained his left side, his form didn't suffer and he began slashes and sweeps that were in much quicker succession, intending not to give her an opening again.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kayla blocked with her shield, protecting herself from his lunges as he came at her with an anger that was nearly astonishing. When a hard hit came to her shield, she threw his heavy long sword to the side, lunging again as she stabbed into his upper thigh. She was panting heavily, sweat beading on her brow, but she knew she had to injure him further.

 

[KieranSoares]

Kayla's second strike did noticeable damage when Monomakh had to begin putting more weight on his uninjured leg, and it left him just a little slower to pace about, but he found his first chance to get back at her, reaching out to strike her shield out of the way and slash at her unprotected left ribs.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kayla let out a yelp of surprise as the sharp blade of his sword cut into her side. She backed up quickly, the blood from the shallow cut soaking her shirt. Looking over Monomakh, she knew what her next move was going to be. She lunged twice towards him, getting him heavily on his uninjured leg. On her third lunge, she slipped past his shield, her blade cutting heavily into the back of his uninjured leg.

 

[KieranSoares]

Monomakh fell to one knee at that, his leg giving out for a moment, but that didn't stop him from bolting forward to bash against her shield to stagger her. But he stumbled back, lifting a hand as he gasped for breath. "A respite, your Majesty... to catch our breath." His gaze showed her he was quite impressed with her, and he wasn't going to take her nearly as lightly anymore.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kayla backed away as he asked for a respite, moving towards Christopher as Monomakh's own squire came to tend to his master. She glanced towards her husband as he wiped her face with a cloth, cleaning off the sweat that had gathered and started stinging her eyes.

"If I can get at his sword arm, this might be over with." She murmured softly as he started to check over her armor again, making sure that there was nothing on her that might be left open to an attack.

 

[KieranSoares]

"He knows that. There's metal armor under the leather on his sword arm, I can see it by the way it moves when he swings, Christopher whispered in return. He opened up her cuirass to check over the wound in her side, glad to see it wasn't deep, just bloody. He pressed a bandage over it for the time being. "Your form is perfect Kay, but he's started to purposely aim for your shield. He's trying to break your arm or dislocate it. Try to dodge and parry as much as possible, and try to get behind him, but keep your head down or he'll try to spin around and take it off." He glanced to Monomakh, who was talking quietly with his squire and a knight at his side, likely suggesting their own tactics.

"See the joint in his armor at his elbow?" Christopher murmured. "Aim a lunge at that. If you get a good enough hit, you could make his arm useless or even sever a tendon." When Monomakh rose, bandages tied around the wounds on his legs and one over his side, Christopher looked to Kayla once more. "You can do this. If there was any doubt before, there isn't now." He brought her to her feet and gave her a gentle kiss.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kayla took in all of the information that Christopher was giving her, glancing towards her opponent as Chris pointed out something or a weak spot in his armor. She nodded silently, knowing that she had a very good chance as long as she stayed on her feet and kept her wits about her. She could barely even feel as he pressed a bandage against the cut on her side. She was so in the moment that there was nothing else around her but Christopher and her opponent.

Returning his gentle kiss, she turned to meet Monomakh once more, her sword and shield at the ready. She never once trained her eyes towards the weakness in his armor. She attentively watched his legs, the muscles bunching to move, the stiffness in his arms.

 

[KieranSoares]

Monomakh paced in circles with Kayla, and spoke to her, "I apologize for doubting you, milady. Your wit and strength carries your family name well." With that, he snapped forward to purposely strike her sword, moving it out of the way while he drew back for a powerful downward slash.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kayla let out a gasp as he struck her sword out of the way, a hard slash coming towards her like lightening. She threw her shield up to protect herself, the sound of metal crashing against metal loud in the hall as she stumbled backwards and struggled to keep her feet.

 

[KieranSoares]

The shield was badly dented, and Monomakh kept surging forward to keep her from getting a solid footing, attacking her at all angles until one slash whipped past her neck, only an inch or less away from her skin. Christopher had jumped forward, but held himself back when he saw Kayla unscathed.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kayla had never seen someone fight with such fury. She struggled against the attack, ducking just in time to save her head from behind separated from the rest of her body. He was much too close to her to do anything but an overhand swing and Kayla took her chance. She dodged to the side, lunging towards his shoulder as the sharp blade bit between his armor pieces. She twisted the blade when it sank into his skin, struggling to inflict as much damage as she possibly could on him.

 

[KieranSoares]

Monomakh finally let out a truly painful cry, but his response made everyone cringe as he purposely pushed onto the blade and lodged it between the pieces of armor, and his own blade swung outward under Kayla's sword arm to try to inflict just as much damage right back to her.

 

[heartofcourage]

The sword was ripped from Kayla's hand and she felt a moment of true panic. She dodged as he swung up under her sword arm to rip at her skin as badly as she just had. The blade cut into her tunic, slicing her skin but she didn't feel any further damage as she pulled away from him. She was desperate as she lunged towards him once more, swinging her shield upwards and into his chin in a struggle to knock him off his feet in order to retrieve her sword.

 

[KieranSoares]

Monomakh stumbled back as the shield caught his jaw so hard that he couldn't see straight, his sword clattering to the floor along with her own. He fell to his knees, too dazed to keep his balance. Reaching out with his good arm, he was seeing double, even triple, so his fingers fumbled for his blade.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kayla moved towards his dropped blade, stepping on it to keep him from pulling it out against her again. "I will give you the chance to ask for mercy, my lord." She said, praying that he would take the chance.

 

[KieranSoares]

Monomakh looked up at her with both surprise and malice. He took hold of his blade and yanked it out from under her boot, though his balance was so off by her last strike that when he stood, he stumbled to the side and couldn't even see which Kayla was real as his vision blurred and doubled. By the blood coming from the shield cut on his jaw and from his lips where she'd probably knocked out some teeth, it was clear that the strike had done Monomakh in. He made a wild swing at her, unable to keep from stumbling again.

"Don't let up yet, Kayla!" Christopher called to her, knowing she'd have to much more seriously wound Monomakh if he would ever surrender.