Jordan retrieved his second hammer from its holster as the two men that were standing guard outside of the door leaped over their boss' battered body and charged toward the smiling half elf. The larger of the two led the charge, unsheathing his sword and clumsily swinging it down toward Jordan's head like he was trying to split a log. With a simple yet nimble sidestep, Jordan gracefully dodged out of the wya before delivering a quick counterattack to the bumbling guard's knee.
A loud crack echoed throughout the massive room, and the yelp of pain that followed almost made Jordan feel sympathetic. While his larger compatriot fell in front of him, the smaller guard swung his sword across his body in a panic, nicking Jordan's shoulder before he rolled away at the last moment.
"Hey, be careful now, you'll poke someone's eye out with that thing," Jordan said sarcastically, popping to his feet and pointing his hammer at the smaller guard. "I'm sure you're not used to actually hitting people when you swing that thing, but it's a real risk," he quipped, barely containing his laughter as he saw a vein of annoyance immediately become visible on his opponent's forehead.
"Shut up!" The guard shouted, recovering from his miss and charging forward as he clumsily thrust his sword toward Jordan's heart. He lazily leaned to the side, allowing the blade to pass by him harmlessly before he followed with a swift crack of his hammer aimed at the center of his opponent's blade, sending both it and its wielder crashing to the ground. Try as they might, the pair of guards that had been assigned to guard Forest were simultaneously shaking as they attempted to stand.
As they struggled to get back on their feet, Jordan adjusted the grip on his left hammer before forcefully tossing it at the man's head. His violent throw was delivered directly into the large guard's temple, and he fell back to the ground with a massive thud, though this time his movements ceased. Jordan turned to see the smaller guard slowly attempting to stand, his skinny legs wobbling under the weight of his own body. Jordan quickly walked over to him and hit his head casually as if he was hammering in the nail to hang up a picture frame, knocking him out immediately.
With a sigh, he nonchalantly walked over to the larger guard, retrieving the hammer he had thrown that was lying next to his foe's dented helmet. As he stood up, he could hear the sounds of shouting and hurried footsteps from the foyer, and he walked out into the hallway to investigate.
Stepping carefully over the remnants of the door that he had sent Forest through, he saw that the gnome had managed to muster the strength to escape, noting the trail of bloodstains on the carpet from where he had landed. He couldn't look too much further however, as several Red Knuckles spotted him once they turned the corner into the hallway.
"That's him! You heard Forest, kill on sight!" The lead human shouted.
Jordan attempted to take a count of the mob as they approached, losing track after 15 and shrugging his shoulders as they came within striking distance. The sea of matching red pants that approached him certainly displayed a sense of unity between them, though Jordan couldn't exactly say that he felt intimidated.
"Hey guys, we don't have to do this," he said as a long sword came jutting toward his neck. He ducked, allowing the blade to sail over his head before swinging his hammer up in an uppercut-like blow to his opponent's chin. "He came at me first, you guys all saw!" Jordan shouted as he ducked under the falling guard, his unconscious body falling behind the half elf with a thud.
He dashed forward and immediately came face to face with a trio of enemies thrusting spears at his torso. As they came within inches of his face, he used his momentum to fall to his knees and slide, colliding with the central attacker's lower body and knocking him off balance.
"Thank god I rolled these down past the knees," Jordan said, looking down at his pants before cracking his hammers into the knees of the 2 members closest to him. "That's a degree of rug burn that I don't think anyone could recover from," he said, frowning as he noticed all of the fibers from the shag carpet that had gotten stuck to his clothing. The two guards beside him fell to the ground, and the remaining spearman reversed the grip on his weapon before directly thrusting the point toward the half elf's throat while he picked at the purple fibers on his pants.
With speed that the guard's eye was unable to track, the tip of his spear was blocked by Jordan's left hammer as he popped to his feet in an instant, knocking the guard off balance and leaving his ankle open for the right to crack in with a loud crunch. While the three behind him fell, Jordan looked up to see the remaining guards ahead of him begin to hesitate, and he smiled as he launched himself at the half giant wielding a wooden club toward the forefront of the group.
The enormous man's eyes widened in fear, and he haphazardly swung the makeshift weapon in a panic once he saw that he was being targeted, missing badly as Jordan ducked under the clumsy strike. A swift counter attack from his right hammer to the half giant's rib cage caused him to stumble backwards in pain, and he collapsed into 3 of his comrades with a massive crash, destroying a display case of bejeweled plates in the process. The pileup did nothing to deter Jordan from continuing forward, and the remaining Red Knuckle Members began to retreat down the staircase as he came closer.
Once he reached the top he could see why, as at least 20 more armed members filled the entirety of the foyer, and Jordan sighed as he took in the sight. While Forest did seem like a terrible man, Jordan couldn't knock him for diversity, as several humans, goblins, giants, orc, and elves were all standing together with a common goal. It was just unfortunate that this display of camaraderie was for the purpose of the hostile takeover of an innocent village.
"God, I didn't want to have to try today," he groaned as he interlocked his fingers and stretched his arms above his head before he began walking down the steps, the popping of his joints echoing throughout the tension filled mansion. "Any of you guys can leave now if you want to," he said as he slowly lowered his arms, his fingers inching toward the hammers currently sitting in their holsters.
While he saw a few eyes dart around, no one audibly took him up on his offer, and Jordan shrugged his shoulders as he came to the bottom of the gaudy staircase. The half orc that stood at the front lifted his axe hesitantly, and Jordan launched himself forward silently, shattering his foe's flimsy breastplate with a single blunt strike. The hulking man went down without even swinging his axe once, and Jordan barely even looked as he leaped into the air toward his next opponent. Like a tornado, the small half elf tore through the group of thugs, his hammers connecting with jaws and limbs multiple times per second, the cacophony of cracks making the mansion sound like more of a demolition site than a battlefield. While a few of the thugs managed to get a glancing blow in, every one that faced Jordan directly was quickly knocked out or too injured to move. The will to fight left the group a bit more each time another one fell, and within a minute he had cut their numbers in half.
"This doesn't feel fair really," he said as he smashed his hammer into the skull of a skinny human, his longsword clattering to the ground next to him. "I feel like you guys made a bad judgement call though, that gnome you work for is a loser, did you see that suit?" he asked as he turned to the members who remained standing. While their weapons were rattling in their trembling hands and no one was stepping forward, they were not obviously surrendering either. He shrugged, crouching into his combat stance as the remaining guards fearfully raised their weapons.
"Stop right there, you idiot!" A croaky voice shouted across the foyer. Jordan paused and turned around, knowing that the thugs were much too scared to try to attack him. He looked at the top of the staircase, seeing a panting and injured but still standing Forest. "Do you have any idea what you've done?!" He shouted.
"Oh, hey Forest!" Jordan said with a sarcastic wave and smile. "I hope I'm not in too much twubble," he said, poking his cheek with his finger mockingly.
"You ignorant child!" He shouted, and Jordan noticed for the first time that he appeared to be holding a glowing, metal cube in his hand. "Do you have any clue who we work for?!" He screamed as he began walking down the steps.
"If the orders from them are to destroy homes and families to buy the ugliest furniture I've ever seen, then I don't think that I care," Jordan said, glancing at a stuffed brown bear standing in the corner of the room. "I have no way tell what style you're going for, it's all over the place," he said as he began to look around at the entire room.
"Alright, that's enough!" Forest shouted, Jordan's last comment seemingly being his last straw. He raised the device in his hand above his head, and the entire room immediately began to shake with violent tremors. Shouts of panic could be heard from the other gang members, and Jordan turned to see the thug he was just about to fight shouting at Forest.
"You can't use that in here, boss! The kickback will make the entire building collapse!" He shouted, though this warning clearly fell on deaf ears as Forest continued to stare at the device in his hand with a gleeful smile.
"Shut up, I know what I'm doing!" He screamed angrily as the hand that held the device began to shake violently.
"What is he holding?" Jordan asked the thug who had spoken up. He stared at Jordan for a moment, hesitating to give information to someone that was just a few moments ago trying to hit him with multiple hammers. However, as the ground continued to shake beneath him, he quickly relented.
"It's a doom cube, an experimental model from a lab in Tenkumachi. We were supposed to protect it, not use it, since it's powered by an experimental source. It's extremely volatile, and I have no idea if the building will survive what Forest is trying to do," he said, the terror in his eyes making Jordan believe him to be genuine. "It'll go off within the next 5 seconds if we can't break it," he said as he began sprinting toward the stairs.
Though it appeared that he was running as fast as he could, Jordan could tell that he would not be anywhere close to Forest within the time frame that he needed to be. He had started much too far back, and the size of the tremors were increasing by the second. The radius of the glow that surrounded the device had grown to a concerning size almost immediately, and he sighed as he crouched down with his hands on his knees.
In the moment that the thug was halfway up the steps and Forest's expression of joy turned into one of fear, Jordan's legs became alight with a brilliant orange glow. Just as the cube was seemingly about to detonate, the half elf's head shot up with a matching orange glow in his eyes. With nearly imperceptible movements, he dashed all the way to the top of the stairs in the span of a few milliseconds, jumping several feet above Forest's head before he could even blink.
"Kamakiri Crush!" Jordan shouted, twisting his hips as an explosion of iruyori detonated from the bottom of his feet, rocketing him hammer first into the device that Forest was holding.
The doom cube shattered upon impact, and a ring of bright orange energy erupted from the blow, knocking Forest off of his feet and flat onto his back. Jordan landed next to the fallen gnome, breathing a sigh of relief as he realized that the tremors around them had stopped.
"I don't really know what I would have done if breaking it didn't work," he muttered to himself before turning to look out at the foyer. While many of them were already unconscious, a few of the Red Knuckles still stood, though with their mouths agape and weapons clattering to the floor instead of the more aggressive demeanor they had taken on earlier.
"So…who wants to give me a tour of the basement?" Jordan asked as he lightly kicked the groaning gnome by his feet.