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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Visage of Morrowind
Episode Eleven - Back in Action, Shimmerstrike!
Theme: Road to Viridian City - www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=iFYpORcRp6M
Eso: Haha. Aren't you clever. That theme would be hilarious if you used it one chapter ago. Retard.
Soldiers are trained to kill people. Not only that, they're trained to believe killing people is okay. No matter what time period or dimension you're in, it's always going to be like that. For that reason alone, the first several fights of the arena weren't worth talking about. A couple punches there, a swift orc-kick every once in a while, and they went down. They weren't even worth discussing...
"You fucking suck," Owyn complained, daring to throw his ugly afro in my face. "You think you're a big deal because you beat a couple people?"
"No. No I do not. I in fact never even said anything to you."
"...Oh. Okay. Well yeah. You still suck, and other encouraging insults."
"Whatever makes you feel better."
Althea and Dread giggled behind me.
"Mouth off all you want to, Argonian. You're at 350 gold right now, do you want to step down?"
Was he kidding?
"No," I said with a sigh. Althea let out a small cheer.
"Alright then. Now that you're a Myrmidon, your next opponent is going to be a Bosmer. But he's not your regular, useless Bosmer fighte-"
Dread sneaked over to my right and glared at Owyn.
"...All three of you are weird. I'm throwing it out there right now."
"Hey now, Dread here could probably drop you quicker than I could, watch your tongue around her," I warned him.
"Less banter, more money," Althea sneaked on to my left.
"Fine, fine. Your next opponent is a Bosmer, and he's not using a bow."
"Oh no," I rolled my eyes.
Owyn sighed. "He's a pretty mediocre fighter but he uses an enchanted dagger, probably the only reason he's still in this tournament."
"...Alrighty then, let me iron this out in my head. God forbid I wear my armor dedicated to stealth, but if I had an insta-death dagger that's perfectly legal?"
"Yeah, sounds about right."
I forced a sigh as loud as I could, turned to both Althea and Dread for a quick meeting of eyes, and made my way out towards the battlefield. "Hurry up to the stands you two, this won't last long."
The two of them nodded.
"Good people of the Imperial City, welcome to the Arena!" The announcer shouted into his mic.
I stood behind the caged bars on my side of the dusty arena, after climbing the winding stairs from the Bloodworks. I couldn't see much from the distance, but the Bosmer didn't look so bad. Completely topless, exposing my bare chest and scarred torso, my arms crossed over my breast in impatience. The hood was all I needed, the cape adding dramatic fashion with every blow of the wind.
"The Yellow Team's combatant has slain many opponents with his magical dagger, Shimmerstrike. Let's see if the Blue Team can end his winning streak!"
"Go, Eso!" Cheered Althea and Dread from the front row stands, standing on top of their seats just to appear louder.
The gates slowly began to lower, and I stepped out of my cage the moment I could, and the Bosmer did the same. The two of us slowly walked towards the center of the field, my arms crossed and his arms ready. Getting my closer look, I could see he wasn't much for looks. Black hair, light yellow raiment, his dagger in hand and a humorous facial expression. I doubted he took me seriously, but I doubted that I cared.
"I was told my opponent was a washed-up war hero. What are you supposed to be?"
"I'm an Imperial, I'm just hideously deformed. And what are you, an adoring fan?"
"Please," He laughed, lowering his body into a lame stance, flipping his dagger around his palm so the blade pointed up.
"I'm doing this for you, Althea!" I screamed into the audience, too lazy to actually look at her. You know the feeling.
Time to get serious, I suppose. Reaching to my belt, I pulled both of my dwarven daggers from their holsters and hissed a bit for the show. On one end of the spectrum, I was actually pretty bored with this. Nine fights into this arena and I have no money and no challenge. On the other end, I was kind of excited to see this dagger do its thing.
He charged at me.
The tip of his dagger found itself caught between an X formation of my own daggers, blocking it from my skin and keeping it still. The man threw all of his weight into the stab, and I could feel him still pushing back. He grit his teeth into a smile and held his position. The blade began to shine in the stalemate.
"That scar on your body... Let me add to it!" He screamed, adding in one final thrust with his dagger. The shining blade broke through my daggers, completely shattering them at the hilt, leaving only their handles still within my grip. Everything seemed to slow down in life threatening situations, almost to a stop. I could see his dagger coming for me, I could feel its light shining against my chest, but I couldn't think of what to do. There wasn't enough time to throw my body either direction...
I grabbed his wrist. Duh.
The tip of the blade had damaged my skin, and pressed hard enough to make me bleed, but my grip prevented any farther damage. He threw his fist at me with the other hand, and the blow to the face knocked me back and released his hand. I stepped back with the blow to lessen the force and dodged several repeated slashes at my body. When I got the second to myself, rolled to the side along the soil to put distance between us. I held the two dagger handles out to my sides. Frost seeped from between my fingertips.
"Cold touch..." I whispered.
"Stop running from me!" The Bosmer cried, charging at me once again to close in the distance.
The frozen touch of ice connected with my palms, and a crystalline blue glimmered in the sunlight as he approached. My closed fists slowly began to open, making room for an ascending spike coming from the handles. Three feet each, I estimated the thin stakes to be. They weren't smooth or artistically formed, but they were sharp at the point, they were dangerous and threatening. They were pure ice...
I threw one of the stakes at the Bosmer to slow him down, and charged with the other. He easily knocked the ice away with a slash of the dagger, showing me the damage resistance of my new toys. The two of us thrusted our blades at the other, and mine was destined to hit first because of its size. My blade connected with his chest, and his extended arm could almost reach me. He was determined to hit me. He was determined to kill me with his dagger. Instead of stopping, he continued to charge, pushing back against the point of my stake and I pushed against him just the same. I pierced his chest, his blood tainted the clear color of the ice, and he forced the blade even deeper into his body. He inched closer and closer, and the tip of his dagger managed to kiss my flesh, but by then, the blade had pierced through his back...
His arms lifelessly fell to his sides, his dagger slipping from his fingers and hitting the ground. The Bosmer's body fell against the ice, and once I refused to support him any longer, I let go of my own weapon. He fell back against the dust, the stained ice dripping against his corpse, absorbing the crimson liquid from hitting the ground. I knelt my head down to allow the hood to conceal my gaze. I turned my back and walked away from the corpse, not even waiting for the announcer to congratulate me on my victory. The audience roared with sadistic cheers; Althea and Dread cheered for me as well, hugging each other in victory. I waved back at them before disappearing into the stairwell, counting the steps I took into the Bloodworks.
"Good people, we have a winner! All hail the combatant from the Blue Team!"
Yeah. All hail me, a trained killer murdering a naive man. I wasn't happy. I felt no guilt, no remorse and no mourn for his death. I didn't feel a thing. Not a thing but unsatisfaction.
ES4O Visage of Morrowind is back with its second arc lowly approaching. I'm only going to write Arena battles significant to the story, if I wrote one chapter for every fight I would be writing 22 chapters of Arena with no advancement in the story. After a break I probably didn't deserve, I'm hoping to get back into it all. Wish me luck and support the release of new chapters.