Zilo rose back to his feet to get a measure of the three men in their western attire. The first was fairly sturdy looking for a human with short brown hair and a distinctly angry face. He was the one who had struck him and who had apparently taken offense to Zilo's dance with Kasumi. Clearly, he was a laborer of some sort from his dirtied blue robes, but his stature was nothing compared to his friend on the left.
The leftmost man had a shaved head and stood at least 2 meters tall with a square jaw and muscles from that could rip off the head of an Ox. His gut was also rather pronounced, making his green worn away robes cradle his body awkwardly.
To the right was a man with tied up hair in a loose braid that was held together atop his head. He wasn't as large as his two other allies, but his eyes looked the least trustworthy and his face resembled the features of a mouse.
Zilo stood again and put up his hands saying, "Look, guys. It was an honest mistake, I'll just be..." The angry man motioned on his side for the mousy man to attack, which he did with a sucker punch to try and knock Zilo off his guard. Luckily the bard bent back and avoided the strike and spoke, "Well, I tried."
The bard snapped his hand up and his Violin returned to the air and began to play a chorus of quick-paced rhythmic snappy tunes that fit right in with an old fashion fist-fight. The bar crowd began shouting and hollering as the bar fight commenced. As they did Zilo flung his leg around and forced the mousey man to continue toppling away. As he did the other two began to approach.
The large man tried to grab at the bard, but Zilo was far too quick and ducked under. The angry man tried to hurl a haymaker, but Zilo blocked left and jabbed him in the face with his right, knocking him back a step. The bard spun since he heard felt the big one coming again.
Zilo hit the solid meat of the man's gut, and the large man didn't even flinch. Zilo was stunned in shock long enough for the large man to slam his massive arm into the side of the bard's head, throwing his hat off in the mix. Zilo wobbled a bit but managed to regain balance at the edge of the raised foundation.
He was just in time as the other two were coming in for another round. Zilo sidestepped a punch from the angry man, but in a flash he got a fist slammed into his face by the mousey guy. Before Zilo could reassess he felt another punch into his adam's apple from the mouse.
Zilo couldn't breathe and he got socked on his right side by the angry man. Zilo turtled up his arms, not able to do anything right away. After a few more blows he got his feeling back again, and he whipped his arm down and around another punch from the mousey guy.
Zilo punched out at the angry man, more to push him back than fight, and spun counter-clockwise, taking his trapped mouse opponent with him. He ended his spin slamming the small man into the wooden stud in the middle of the room, and letting him fall to the ground. Zilo himself kept the spin going and kicked into the angry man's gut, forcing him back and making him trip backward off the wooden foundation to the smoothened out ground.
Next came the big guy again, and with no real plan to take him out yet, it was all Zilo could do to avoid his wide-sweeping blows. He might have been the biggest, but he was also the slowest. Zilo finally began to get a rhythm for the giant fighting when Zilo felt a sharp guttural pain from below. The mouse had Zilo in a vice grip and was holding him tight.
The pain left in an instant, only to be replaced with the large man tackling Zilo off the foundation and slamming him into the ground. He was pinned with no real way out as the lumbering enemy slammed into Zilo's hopelessly guarded head. Zilo's eyes glanced away for a moment and reached out to his left.
In a flash, the large man was cracked across the skull and off Zilo, as the bard held a cracked table leg. He smiled and tossed the leg aside and in a throat crackling voice said. "Table leg, while annoying to move with, you're a lifesaver in a panic."
The large man was down, but stirring, and the angry man was on the other side of the bar, leaving only the mouse to deal with right away. Zilo lowered his left arm and rose his right, to avoid any more dirty strikes from this guy.
The little guy tried to throw a haymaker, but Zilo blocked and backhanded the man away before moving in to add a follow up to the man's retreating jaw. The mouse flew back, trying to recover, only to trip backward over the big guy on the ground and tumble onto the ground before slamming the back of his head into a table.
Zilo turned to his left to see the angry man leaping up off the foundation for a high flying haymaker. Zilo stepped lightly to the side, grabbing the attack in the air before flipping the man forward into the wall upside down. The man slunk down to the ground.
Zilo looked to see the large man sitting up again, so to ensure he was out the bard bolted forward, gripped his head and connected a solid blow with his knee into him. The large man wouldn't wake for another hour or two now. The mouse had by now risen up and saw as the bard took down his friendly giant.
The little man darted in and swiped at Zilo. The bard hopped back, only to have his head forced back forward along with a sharp head pain. The mousy little cheater had snatched Zilo's ponytail out of the air and yanked him back. The following punch made Zilo spin back, only to once again be yanked over.
Zilo managed to block the second attack and grabbed onto the mousey man's wrist that was pulling the bard's hair. Zilo snapped his hand up for an attack to the face. The little mouse reeled back, releasing Zilo's hair as he held his hands to his eyes.
Zilo grinned holding up his middle and index finger. The bard spoke with his voice nearly restored, "Unfair is fair in your book right?" Zilo lurched forward planting his boot in man's center of mass sending him back and slamming his back into the edge of a table before he fell in a heap on the floor.
Zilo sighed with relief but was suddenly grabbed from behind with two arms slunk under his own and connecting behind his neck. He could feel his arms forced back and his head lurched forward. He struggled to free himself, but the angry man's grip was too strong.
The bard began to lose feeling in both his limbs and his head, the ground he was forced to stare at began to look fuzzy. Suddenly he heard the sound of a shattering pot and some liquid coating his head and back. He was released and his head began to take in the world again, he could hear the sounds of shouting behind him begin to rise in volume.
Zilo rolled from all fours onto his back to see the angry man, covered in some sort of liquid arguing with Kasumi, who was holding the broken spout of one of the serving bottles. He couldn't quite make out everything, but the two of them stormed out of the tavern, stepping over Zilo and the other unconscious fighters.
All of those punches to his head were beginning to take their toll as the grapple from before and the pain of his bruises faded the bard in and out of consciousness. He tried to rise, but his arms still lacked any feeling from that grab. The best he could do was flail them up and around.
As he tried he heard a familiar voice speak to him, "You did your best, Zilo." And the bard tries to focus his eyes to see Aria, his love reaching down to help him up. He threw up his arm and was yanked up from the ground slowly and hoisted onto her shoulders before the sweet black sleep of unconsciousness took him.
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