Lay On Hands Ch 01

[pre-story]Disclaimer: All characters are 18+

Content Warnings: Violence (not sexual), Blood (not sexual), no sex (yet), futa.[/pre-story]

Lay On Hands: Chapter 1

Rhuno Sunheart's iron-shod hooves scraped across the bare stone floor as he sank into a combat stance, the tauren's massive, silver-and-gold-armored frame lowering as he braced himself. On one arm, he bore his sheild, a massive disk of silver, large enough for an orc to stand behind it barely peek over the top, with a gleaming golden sun-disk at its center, thin rays of gold extending outward in all directions, running all the way to the rim. With a flick of his wrist, he gripped the handle of his mace and brought it up, calloused, three-fingered hand closing around a steel shaft as thick as a man's forearm and raising the head, a golden orb the size of a watermelon, like it weighed nothing at all. His sapphire eyes narrowed, peering through the slit of his helmet as he looked over the edge of the enormous shield at his opponent. "Are you ready?" He asked, an eager grin spreading across his lips, thankfully hidden by his helm.

"I'm eager to see how a Sunwalker fights." Pyrista replied. Rhuno's gaze wandered up and down his opponent for a moment. The draenei woman before him stood on hooves of her own, but where he was planted solidly, she bounced on them, ready to spring forward at a moment's notice. While he placed his trust in the thick and heavy layers of plate and chain that covered him horn to hoof, hers was aggressively trimmed down, leaving most of her skin exposed, the reduced coverage augmented by powerful enchantments. Then there was her weapon. She held it vertically at her side, a two-handed blade that looked to be made of flickering, shifting blue flames, a glowing ball of flames on the back, near the tip. He'd never fought such a weapon before, and was curious to see it in action. Would it be solid? Would it be weightless? Would it cut like steel, or simply burn as it passed through its target? Would its edge shift and reshape as the tongues of fire danced, or would he find it as rigid as any steel blade?

Her armor, what little there was, gleamed a soft blue-green in the light, studded here and there with glowing golden stones. She more no helmet at all, leaving her long, silver-white hair to flow freely, swept back from her face, parting around her sweeping horns as it flowed down her back and over her shoulders, a crown of dark metal studded with four glowing blue crystals hovering above her head, wreathed in blue flames as it slowly rotated in midair. Her hands and feet were the most armored, a pair of sturdy gauntlets and bracers protecting her forearms, while teal plates guarded the lower joints of her legs. Small plates hung off an armored belt around her waist, guarding her wide hips and running about halfway down the outside of her thighs, leaving the smooth, supple inner thighs exposed, her modesty preserved by a slender strip of tough material that ran down between her legs. From what he'd seen earlier, it did little to hide her ample backside, the material barely managing to avoid being pulled into a thong and disappearing between the twin globes. And speaking of twin globes, she had quite the ample chest, as well. Her chest was protected by a literal breastplate, twin round metal shapes that looked more like a bikini than armor, cupping and supporting a pair of sapphire-blue breasts the size of grapefruit. The armor also extended over the shoulder enough to mount a pair of large pauldrons made of rough-hewn, blue-green crystal.

Suddenly, the tall, pale-skinned Draenei that had inserted herself as the referee brought her hand down. "Fight!" She shouted, a wicked grin on her lips. A cheer of excitement went up from the dozen or so paladins and squires that had come to watch.

Rhuno blinked in surprise, but Pyrista had been waiting for the shout. She threw a hand out, and with a shout, a hammer of light suddenly dropped toward Rhuno from above, striking his helmet with a clang and disappearing. The blue-skinned draenei sprang forward on her long, double-jointed legs, cloven hooves clacking on the stone as her long strides closed the distance between the two of them in just three bounding steps. As she rushed forward, she let her blade of sapphire flames lag behind, until she leapt toward the tauren, putting her entire body's momentum into a leaping diagonal chop, the flames of her blade burning brighter for a moment as she swung it forward.

Rhuno looked up from shaking off the hammer's blow just in time to see the blue-skinned woman in the air, bringing her blade down. He barely had time to react, shifting his shield up to hopefully catch the strike. The blade struck the edge of the shield with a resounding clang, bouncing back, drawing a grunt from Rhuno as the force of the impact drove the shield down. Pyrista landed on her hooves, but like a good paladin, she didn't let one thwarted attack spoil her assault. She pivoted, turning around, conserving the reflected momentum of her attack and turning the blocked blow into a spinning horizontal slice, coming it at his chest level on his unguarded side. Rhuno managed to drop a shoulder just in time to catch the blade on a gleaming silver-and-gold pauldron, instead of in the arm, and the blade struck his armor with another clang. As the strike landed, that glowing ball of fire flashed, and Rhuno's eyes widened in shock as a wave of searing heat engulfed his entire right side, like a miniature fireball, and he let out a sharp cry.

He couldn't stay on the defensive. Gritting his teeth through the pain, he brought his shield up between the two of them and lunged forward, slamming his shield into the draenei like a wall of steel. Rolling his shoulder, he swung his shield arm, throwing it up and out, thick slabs of muscle flexing as the motion pushed the draenei woman back a step, giving him the breathing room he needed to growl out a word of taurahe and drop a hammer of light on her, in turn. Already off-balance, the sudden impact of the hammer of judgement on one of her crystalline pauldrons kept her that way, forcing her to stumble to regain her footing. The tauren pressed the advantage, growling another taurahe word, the golden head of his mace suddenly igniting, glowing with golden light so bright it was hard to look at, a miniature sun. He stepped forward, following Pyrista as she stumbled, and brought it swinging up and across, aiming for her midsection.

Layers of magical protection shimmered over the Draenei's skin as the impact strained against them, absorbing the bulk of the force of the blow, but it wasn't enough to stop it entirely. Pyrista gave a sharp cry as the mace's head slammed into her ribcage, the golden sphere searing her flesh where it touched. She sprang back, out of his reach, her hand already glowing as she brought it up to the wound, healing magic soothing the pain. Rhuno wasn't going to give her the chance to rest easy, however. He shouted something in taurahe, and his shield began to glow. With a swing of his arm, the massive disk detached and came flying toward her, edge-on. She pulled her hand off her wound and brought it back to the handle of her weapon, bringing the blade up just in time to deflect the oncoming disk and send it ricocheting harmlessly off to the side. Unfortunately, that also knocked her weapon out of position to do anything about the massive figure of steel and muscle that barreled into her in the next moment, one reinforced pauldron slamming into her stomach and forcing the air from her lungs.

Pyrista staggered back a step, trying to catch her breath, but Rhuno pressed the attack, swinging that brightly-shining mace for her in a wide, sweeping motion, forcing her back another step as the weapon glanced off the magical protections of her torso. Then again, she was forced to bounce back to as he brought it back across in another powerful sweep, catching his shield with the other arm, the disk snapping into place on his forearm like it had never left. She saw an opening, and even if she hadn't qite caught her breath yet, she couldn't let him keep her on the defensive. She suddenly pushed forward, inside the sweep of his mace, and brought the pommel of her blade down with both hands, slamming the blunt end into the top of the tauren's helmet, the metal ringing with the force of the impact.

Staggered, it was Rhuno's turn to back up, and Pyrista took the chance to raise her blade high once more and bring it down in a powerful overhead chop. Rhuno shook his head to shake off the stunning impact, looking up just in time to see the weapon of flame come down, just inches to the side. Suddenly, a lot of things happened all at once. His head was violently yanked down on one side by a great force. There was a sound, a dull 'thunk', followed shortly by a sick cracking noise. There was pain, sudden, excruciating, and burning. There was the nose-curling smell of charred blood. Pyrista's expression twisted, turning from triumphant satisfaction to wide-eyed horror, and she recoiled, yanking her weapon back.

"FUUUUUUUCK!" Rhuno bellowed in pain, doubling over.

"By the light, are you okAYY!" Pyrista gasped, her tone of shocked concern voice turning to a yelp as the tauren swept his mace low, taking her hooves out from under her and dropping her to the stone floor on her butt.

Before she could regain her composure, Rhuno was looming over her, his mace's light extinguished as he held it over her face, keeping her down. The tauren looked down at her through his visor, chest heaving, blood still dripping from his broken horn. "Never. Assume. Your opponent. Is down." He half-growled through gritted teeth. "Always. Make. Sure. If I was... a demon... you'd be dead." He warned, breathing heavily, then lowered his weapon. "That said... Never forget that empathy. It's what makes you a paladin, instead of just a brute." He added.

Pyrista nodded, and having said his peace, Rhuno quickly dropped his shield and mace, muttering the word in taurahe to dismiss his helmet. He winced as one hand wrapped around the still-bleeding horn, squeezing the split back together. "Earthmother's TITS that hurts!" He cursed through gritted teeth.

"Are you alright?" Pyrista asked, pushing herself up to her feet, leaving her weapon on the ground, and Rhun raised a hand, gesturing her to relax.

"It hurts like felfire, but I'll live." He replied with a grunt, the hand on his horn glowing softly. "Just point me to a healer. I can stop the bleeding, but I'll need some extra hands to set it. Don't want it to heal crooked." He explained.

The tall, pale-skinned draenei who'd been watching the fight jogged over as he spoke. "There are some healing rooms over in the east wing." She explained, then gestured him to follow. "Come on, I'll show you." She offered, and the three paladins began to make their way over toward the east wing, the crowd of onlookers slowly dispersing as they muttered amongst themselves.