Lyrra…
After witnessing the conversation between Cole and that bastard Marcus Wright, she had vowed to find a way to defeat him if at all possible. She watch his battles closely and see if she could find a chink in his armor.
She found the story he used to manipulate Cole’s emotions to be too convenient and wanted to get to the bottom of it.
For now though, she would have to wait until after she had won her fight today to observe him.
While she was on her way to the waiting room to be called on for her fight, a brutish man with a shaven head and flames for eyes left the room and sized her up.
Seemingly unimpressed he turned around without saying a word and left down the hall as another man went past him just as he had finished his own match.
From just his appearance alone, he seemed rather ordinary, with brown hair, pale skin, and green eyes. There seemed to be nothing remarkable about the man save for a black iron ring on his right hand that emitted an unusual pulse of energy and a singular earring hanging from his right ear in the shape of a pointed cross.
For her, it was rare to see men sporting jewelry of any kind, even more so if it was used for a fight, but she decided not to be too judgmental.
However, as she was opening the door to waiting room and was about to step inside, he walked past her and she caught a whiff of his scent.
It seemed faint but she could smell Marcus’s scent on his body.
Her head spun around suddenly as she stared at him, to which he immediately noticed.
He glared back at her and said, “The fuck are you lookin at?”
“I…I smelled something familiar about you, that is all. Something that bothered me,” she said in a careful tone.
She had no idea who this man was but something about how he talked and acted felt familiar to her as well.
“Oh yeah? Well I don’t know who you are so why don’t you quit you’re fuckin staring huh?” he said rudely.
Deciding to take a chance for some information, she went ahead and asked him, “Are you from Terra?”
His eyes narrowed with suspicion which told her that he was obviously from there just like Cole and Marcus was.
“Yeah, though to me its just Earth. What’s it to you?” he asked.
“Then do you happen to know the man Marcus Wright?” she asked with a neutral tone.
Upon hearing that name the man’s face slowly twisted in anger until it mirrored the same bloodthirsty look that Marcus had when he threatened to rip Rosanne's arms off and beat her with them.
This man then took a step towards her and his right hand tightened into a fist as he asked, “What does he mean to you huh? Are you one of his friends?”
Lyrra put her hands up and quickly said, “No! No, far from it! I hate Marcus and it looks like you do too, don’t you?”
The man in front of her paused and his eyes looked away as if contemplating what to do.
“Why do you hate Marcus?” he asked.
“Because…,” she paused as she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to share Cole’s story with this man who she didn’t know but she wanted answers so she pressed forward.
“Because he killed the parents of someone I love,” she said.
Hearing that, the man was surprised to hear that and replied, “Really? Wow, I figured he would have given up killing people when he came to this world. I guess old habits die hard.”
Lyrra tilted her head in confusion before she said, “No, I mean, Marcus killed his parents in Terra. The man I know was from Terra like you and him. He killed them when he was still just a kid.”
The man’s eyes stared at her as he took in the information and held his chin in his hand as if he was thinking deeply about the subject, but for some reason his face was completely unreadable. She had no idea what was going on through his head but she decided to press him further for information.
Before she could speak though, he asked, “This friend of yours…his last name wouldn’t happen to be Mohr, would it?”
Lyrra blinked in surprise at the fact that he knew Cole’s last name.
“How do you know that?” she asked him.
Just as she was starting to feel hopeful that maybe this man would be able to help her, the expression on his face twisted into something disturbing.
His lips twitched in such a way to try and mask his smile but failed as she caught it.
“That’s very interesting…,” he said in a strange manner that seemed more amused than sympathetic.
What is going on with this man? she thought to herself.
“I take it that you and this Mohr guy want revenge?” he asked with a cold tone.
“I…well, Cole gave up on revenge but I haven’t. I want to make that man suffer for what he put him through,” she said with a sense of determination in his voice.
“Hmm…ya see, I have a bit of a problem with that,” the man said as his mouth turned into a frown and his eyes seemed to bore a hole through Lyrra’s head with his stare.
“W-What? But I thought-” she tried to say but the man’s left hand wrapped around her throat in an instant and started to crush her windpipe as he pushed her into the waiting room.
As he pushed her further into the room, her body slammed into the stone wall as he pinned her against it.
In a flash of anger she tried punching him to get him off of her but her fists stopped just short of reaching his skin as if blocked by an invisible force, or rather slowed down. Even so, she kept trying to punch him but he stood unbothered by her.
Eventually her attempts to fight back started to annoy him as he pulled back his right leg and slammed his knee into her gut, knocking the wind out of her.
Even as she was choking from the lack of air he did not lessen his grip on her throat as he pulled her back and slammed her head into the wall making her head throb with pain and dizziness.
He slammed her head into it again and again until she could not raise her arms to fight back.
Once she had been incapacitated by the repeated attacks, he pulled her up by the throat once again and said, “Marcus is mine to kill, not yours. What gives you the right to try and take that from me?”
Through choking fits as she struggled to breath, she said, “I…I wasn’t trying-”
“Shut up!” he spat in her face as he punched her in the gut.
She tried to use her magic to heal from his beatings but something was blocking her flow of spiritual energy.
“I don’t care whatever bullshit you have against him but I’ll make something clear to you right now. Marcus is my prey to kill, and if you ever get the idea of trying to go after him again then I’ll come after you myself. I’ll make sure that what I’ll do to you is seared into your memory for the rest of your life.”
“Why-” she tried to choke out but could barely breathe as his grip tightened on her throat again.
“Why? Because what satisfaction will I get if I have to share? I want him all to myself, and his little whore of a sister too,” he said as her vision started to fade.
Her eyes started to roll into the back of her head as she was feeling her consciousness leave her but then he loosened his grip on her if only slightly to let her breathe.
“No no, I don’t want you passing out on me right now,” he said as he brought his face close to hers.
“Who…who are you?” she managed to choke out.
“Its funny that you ask that because I have to say, you really shouldn’t have been so open to tell me about your friend Mohr. You see, I knew about the whole deal with Marcus killing his parents. Do you want to know how I know about that?” he asked with a twisted smile.
As an Orc woman, most people would have given her quite a wide berth and not bothered to treat her the way that his man was right now. Most humans were to afraid to even attempt to do so, or at the very least were more honorable. Many others even saw her race as monsters, of which she had always been fine with as long as she had Cole.
No man had ever so completely reduced her to such a helpless state and it made her tremble in fear.
By comparison, even Marcus had been more fair and lenient with her.
Through shuddering breaths, she asked, “How do you-”
“Because it was my father who ordered Marcus to kill them!” he shouted into her face.
“S-Stefan Romano…, which means...you’re-,” she realized as he finished her thought.
“I’m Julian Romano, his son.”
Hearing him confirm her worst fears made her blood go cold as Romano was the name Marcus spoke of when Cole talked to him. Marcus had even said that Stefan had killed his mother as well.
Despite her how much she hated Marcus, right now she hated this man even more but needed to confirm something.
“Did…did Stefan Romano really kill Marcus Wright’s mother?”
Hearing that made Julian paused as he seemed shocked to hear her mention that. So much so that he let go of her throat as she slid to the floor and started gasping for air.
She looked up at him as stared at the wall in silence.
While he was distracted by his thoughts she tried to crawl away but he stomped his foot on her hand and broke it, causing her to let out a weak sound of agony.
He then reached down and picked her up off the ground by her hair and said, “I don’t know if what you said is true but if it is then that would explain a lot. Even so, the fact that Cole Mohr is still alive means that Marcus failed to finish the job by letting that kid live. Maybe I should finish him off,” he said to provoke her, which worked as anger filled her body and she got her second wind.
She grit her teeth as she tasted blood in her mouth while she tried to fight back against him once again.
Seeing her flail wildly against him made him laugh as he pinned her against the wall again and said, “Here’s the thing though…you’ve made a big mistake in thinking that Marcus is who you should be worried about. That coward never wanted to kill Cole’s parents. I’ve known him since he was still a kid, and hell, he never wanted to kill anybody. If it were me, I would have finished off the whole family in one go and been done with it. I’m the one you should be afraid of, not him.”
Lyrra collected the saliva and blood in her mouth and spat it in Julian’s face.
He flinched slowly and smirked as if he was barely bothered by it as he looked at her with a look like that of ravenous hunger.
“I don’t mind if my women fight back a little, but sometimes I have to remind them who’s in charge,” he said as he looked her up and down before he continued, “I’ve never been with an Orc woman before. I wonder if you taste the same as the other women I’ve taken to bed.”
Before she had time to think about what he meant, he grabbed her face with his rough hands and forced himself on her as he kissed her.
He held her there as she struggled against him and continued to kiss her until he pulled away before quickly switching his hand as he pinned her against the wall with his left hand wrapped around her throat while his right hand pressed against her groin.
Just as it seemed like he was going to tear her clothes apart and rape her then and there, the announcer’s voice sounded for her to appear for the next match.
Julian pulled away from her as he clicked his tongue in disappointment.
“What a shame…I was so curious too…,” he said as he backed away from her.
Just as it seemed that he was about to leave, he said to her, “If you tell anyone about this, I’ll find Cole and put his head on a pike for you to find.”
With that, he vanished into thin air and she collapsed as the adrenaline keeping her awake faded away.
With her body beaten and her thoughts hazy, she couldn’t focus on trying to heal herself as her body slid down the side of the wall until she hit the floor.
Whatever it was that Julian had done to keep her magic from working on its own to heal her, it was still affecting her.
She only barely had enough strength to keep herself propped up and awake, but could not move.
While the announcer continued to call for her appearance for the next match, the next contestant, Sir Charles, arrived and was shocked to find her in the state she was in.
He quickly rushed to her side and gingerly picked her up before rushing her to be healed.
She had no idea what to make of the situation anymore as she blacked out in the old soldier’s arms.