None More Than One

"You die now, heretic!" Inim-En cried out, charging at Zanashu with his letter-opener clasped by both hands. He tore through intervening cubicles, literally smashing apart a divider with his bulk, and contemptuously barging aside a filing cabinet. Whoever emerged victorious, the slaves were going to have a hell of a time cleaning this place up. At this rate the Office of Ceremonial Calculation may not be back in full swing until next cycle.

Zanashu was decades younger than him, but he was twice her size, and everyone knew the tale of how Inim-En had slain a full host in Mot-Tertium with just his bayonet. He was not to be underestimated. Still, he was untrained in the weapons of bureaucratic combat. He was treating his letter opener like a sword -- when he slashed at her, he badly overestimated his reach. Zanashu sideswiped leftwards, then rounded her stapler into the side of his head, boxing him about the ears. Alas, she lacked the musculature to do more than daze him. He fumbled at her with his right hand, leaving the letter-opener hanging slack in his left. Disastrously, he found her throat, and roared as he roughly pinned her against the wall, raising her off her feet as he choked her life away.

"I take your skull in his name, pity only that you have but the one to give!", He growled into her ear, taking malicious joy in seeing her die slowly. Which is to say, he had finally come in close and let his guard down. Zanashu had him right where she wanted him.

Putting all her strength into the exertion she raised her stapler to his face and put a mark into his eye. He screamed in pain, and as he fell away she gathered the now dropped letter-opener from the floor. "Blood for the blood god!" she rasped out, spitting her blood into his remaining eye before stabbing him repeatedly through the neck.

As Inim-En's convulsions ceased, a polite patina of applause came from the edge of the room. The lights were turned back on, and wardum set about clearing up the mess and removing the body.

"Most satisfactory, most satisfactory indeed," Shulgi said in warm tones, a fatherly smile upon his face. "I must say I rather suspected you were correct in this matter, but I am glad to have Khorne confirm the judgement through trial of Might."

"Thank you, vice-assistant-liege, third order" Zanashu responded, genuinely pleased to have the approval of her respected manager.

"Still, work must go on. See that you get cleaned up, then you may return and begin adjusting the accounts in line with this result. Let it be known," -- here Shulgi raised his voice, ensuring the returning logisticians heard the ruling clearly -- "regarding the xenos fought on the recent Hydratum campaign, despite their multi-headed form, we are to calculate ritual efficacy based upon lives taken, not per skull. Each is to count for one, and none for more than one."