Iscah tried to scream again as a throwing star buried into her shoulder, but her throat was too raw for anything but a hoarse croak. She braced up against the trunk of a tree and reached around with violently shaking hands to yank it out, dropping it to the ground and hopping onwards on one foot; the other dragging uselessly behind her. Nezrial had sliced her achilles heel when she had tried to run away from him the second time on his command, leaving her too crippled to make any legitimate progress so that he could follow her along at a leisurely pace. A long tear down the backside of her dress exposed a thin gash that ran the length of her shoulder to her hip.
She made it as far as two more trees before collapsing, dragging herself to hide behind the roots. It was of little use though, her labored, irregular breaths gave her away all too easily.
Step. Step. Step. Each footfall closer, each one causing her to twitch as she cried hopelessly. She covered her ears with her hands, trying to block out the sound of the undeads approach.
The rogue bent over her, placing a gentle hand beneath her chin and forcing her head up to look into her terrified gaze. He laughed as a dark spot spread across her dress as the mage pissed herself in fear, poising his dagger over her swelling eye he had punched earlier.
"Such a pretty color, I think I'll keep one more myself and eat the other while I watch you hobble through the forest."
He struck, but a metallic clang shot his aim sideways so that it cut a line from her temple into her scalp. He jerked back and unlocked daggers with Apoch, blinking in surprise.
"I be changin my mind, Nezrial. Sorry."
"An unfortunate choice. I was having so much fun," the rogue replied, standing out of range of the trolls weapons. "This doesn't change the fact my debt to you has been repaid."
"Understood."
Neither moved. A bird cried somewhere off in the distance, it's lamenting song echoing off the ancient redwoods surrounding them.
"So it comes down to this."
"I can't be lettin ya live now dat you know."
The undead smiled macabre, unsheathing his other dagger slowly so that the troll could see it's irridescent green sheen; it was covered in poison. "You're out of practice, Apoch. And me? I'm in my prime."
Apoch nodded somberly. "Yeah mon, I know."
Both rogues vanished at the same time, Iscah bracing herself against to try to get to her foot and looking around to see which would get the first hit.
Apoch flashed into view suddenly, slamming against the tree right beside her before rolling away, flecks of bark raining down in her face as the undead tried to impale his exposed chest.
Nezrial left his dagger in the trunk to duck Apoch's counter for a moment before wrenching it free, crossing his weapons to block a wave of attacks, the troll pressing him back away from the mage. There was a few seconds where neither made any progress, the low light flashing off the metal of their blades as they dodged and parried each others assailments.
Nezrial snarled as Apoch threw blinding dust into his eyes, the troll vanishing out of view and reappearing behind the undead. Nezrial ducked and his slash cut through empty space, sweeping his feet out from under him. Apoch rolled backwards with the movement and into a low crouch, balancing himself on the pads of his feet as he raised his daggers into a defensive cross.
"You're bleeding," Nezrial crooned, stance taking on the ease of a known victory.
"It happens."
Nezrial snorted a laugh, launching himself back at the other rogue with wide sweeping strikes, baiting his adversary though Apoch knew better. He realized this quickly and changed his style, shortening his thrusts but it proved a fatal move, the trolls arm twice as long as his own snaking out in an intricate dance to weave past his guard and catch him in the side, spilling his innards. He faltered and Apoch advanced with a burst of force, slamming his shoulder into his exposed chest while his other hand arched the blade up and under Nezrial's breastbone into his heart.
Apoch unwound himself from the corpse and pulled his weapons out of the now fully-dead body, snapping his wrists to shake the blood and bits of flesh off the metal before quickly moving to Iscah.
She tried to hop away but her useless leg wouldn't allow it and he caught up with her quickly, ignoring her weakened attempts to dislodge him; Nezrial had pointed out the cuts he had managed to get on him because of the poison coating his blade. He knew he would survive, but he would be useless with pain until at least the afternoon as his body fought the effects.
Quickly checking her wounds he pulled out the salve, rubbing it across her exposed achilles tendon and the more major damage that Nezrial had done, swaying slightly as his head began to reel with vertigo and vision blacking in and out. When the ointment was used up he sat back heavily, looking up to her as she crawled away to glimpse a face that was tinged with fear of him.
"Iscah, wait-"
His abdominal muscles contracted in an agonizing spasm that made him curl up, catching himself on a flexed arm and turning his head to retch violently. Iscah struggled to her feet as the salve mended her wounds and bolted into the deeper woods, leaving him writhing in the dirt in agony.