Thread: Worlds Collide [HeavenSundered x Inwiththebooks]

Izumi was at the limit of her patience by the time that a group of guards appeared to retrieve her several hours later, presumably after the festivities of whatever holiday was being celebrated had ended. She was tempted to struggle at first as they pulled her out of the cage and forced her to walk, holding her firmly by both biceps, but she forced herself to show restraint in favor of conserving her strength for when she might stand a better chance of escape. After being led through a few of the palace's well-lit and spacious halls, Izumi soon found herself walking down a much dimmer and narrow passageway. It wasn't even wide enough for her and the two men holding her arms to walk abreast, so they had to reposition themselves in front and behind her. Even in the low light, Izumi noticed the uneven marks left on the walls. Judging by how shallow they were and how they were spaced, she could only guess that they were made by previous prisoners clawing against the walls, lending the passageway an even more ominous quality as if it hadn't had enough of that already. Izumi didn't waste her effort clawing at stone, but the though of what awaited her at the bottom of the winding passage definitely had her heart pounding with trepidation in her chest. When they finally reached a door and the guards pushed her inside, what she saw may as well have come straight out of a nightmare. Several torture devices that she recognized, more that she could only guess the function of, and many of them stained with blood - some of it relatively fresh. Izumi shot the Empress a quick glance, but before she'd been given a chance to communicate anything through the translator who she'd noticed was also in the room, the guards were already dragging her towards one of the chamber's walls. As soon as they unshackled her wrists so that they could bind them to the manacles on the wall instead, Izumi decided that was the best chance that she was going to get. When a third guard undid the lock to free her hands, she tried with all of her might to tear herself away from the two others holding her, growling ferociously as she struggled in vain against their superior strength. The Antarans wore heavy armor to protect their upper bodies, but their lower halves were left more vulnerable by their leather skirts, something which Izumi had noted and exploited already when they'd first confronted her. While the men were busy trying to restrain her arms so that they could get them into the wall manacles, she delivered a short but lightning quick and precise kick to the rightmost guard's knee, just above the metal greave covering his shin. Her position was too awkward to strike hard enough to shatter the man's kneecap, but it did succeed in making him falter enough so that she could free her right arm, which she used to strike the guard on her left in the throat with her fingers extended. He let go of her instantly, stumbling back as he clutched his crushed windpipe before falling on to his back, wheezing with desperate and futile attempts to draw breath. The one who'd unlocked her manacles must have been threatened after seeing his comrade go down, because he foolishly tried to draw his sword, receiving a brutal elbow that bloodied his face before the blade was more than an inch out of its scabbard for his efforts. The first man that she'd kicked was still down on one knee as he tried to grab her, but Izumi was able to evade the clumsy attempt and drive her knee through the opening of his helmet, sending it flying off of his head and clattering against the stone floor while he fell flat like a sack of rice, completely unconscious. Izumi heard heavy shuffling and the clinking of metal behind her as the pair of guards posted at the door rushed her now, but unfortunately she'd taken perhaps just one second too long in fighting off the first three. She never saw it, but she definitely felt the vicious strike of a gauntleted fist as it struck the back of her head. Her vision suddenly went dim and blurry as pain spread through her skull and she stumbled forward down to her knees, leaning against the wall with both hands, trying to use it to pull herself back up. Managing to get back on her feet despite still being heavily dazed, Izumi was met with a brutal backhand across the face that busted her bottom lip open from the guard whose nose she'd broken. Her head snapped violently to the side as all of the remaining fight was taken out of her, but the guards behind her caught her before she could fall and quickly secured her to the wall before dragging their fallen comrades out of the chamber, one dying and the other with a heavy concussion. Izumi most likely had a concussion of her own from the unexpected blow to the back of her head, and she'd still yet to recover, breathing heavily as she hung limply by her wrists which were attached high and wide on the wall above her head.