The man is barely standing after taking the precise strike from her Riposte, and the sudden backlash from her counter catches him across the forearm, causing him to drop his weapon and clutching at wrist, sinking to his knees with suppressed groan of pain.<br/><br/>The crowd cheers slightly and claps warmly as Annette secures the win, in as cheery a manner as would be expected from such elite, but somehow the sound she hears seems louder and more intense, like it was from much closer. Blood rushes to her head in elation, as it seems encouraging somehow.<br/><br/>As if on cue, a ghostly image of a hooded robed figure appears before her, handing a wand's handle backwards to her, with some device mounted on it. Whether she dared take it or not, the image would move towards the defeated man, touching him and then they both disappear, dropping the wand on the ground before her if she had not taken hold of it.<br/><br/>"And it looks like Lady Gabelle has triumphed with a splendid performance of Aquilion flair!" Darion's voice is heard again, with some dry humor. Depending on her state of mind, she might or might not realize the lower half of the robed image's face resembled Darion. "Let us give our dear Lady some time to recover before her next challenge arrive."<br/><br/>It would not take a genius to figure the wand could be activated with ease via the attached device and helped to mend her leather laces, even as fatigue and pain faded. But it would not be too long before the unseen announcer continued.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad259/zyraen/5042f70a3b9794a2ae2010664c23aa29_zpsna7je9m9.jpg)</div>"And now, two plucky challengers for our contestant!" She would hear whirring sound of the bridge extending over the very shallow fluid, on opposite sides of the pyramid, letting in on each side two halfling that moved with an easy light step, bare-feet, bare-handed, dressed in what seemed regular clothing and with tousled blonde hair. They each scaled the stairs and stopped before the top step, one waiting for the other until each was one stair from the top. They then bowed to her direction together and stepped in, bared palms ready, which didn't look very damaging, but the two looked like they were used to working together. There was also something oddly gleeful in their smile though as they stared at her.<br/><br/>INITIATIVE<br/>11 Halfling A<br/>07 Halfling B<br/><br/>OOC : please feel free to indicate any specific position Annette may adopt, as she can see them coming. In any case, since they come from two sides, I will assume she is no further than more than 30' from the nearest halfling. If you go first, do note AC 14.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Rolls</div><div class="spoiler_body">Summary: At 2017-05-25 06:41:18, Melendrith (uid: 61033) rolls: 2d20 Result: 8 (https://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=103472)<br/><br/>Full Result: Melendrith rolled: 2d20<br/>Comment: Inits Halfling A and B vs Annette<br/>Result: 2, 6, <br/>Total: 8<br/></div></div>