A Killing Stroke or Three
Holy moly it is dark down here. I cast a weak light spell I'd learned. About five feet ahead of me there wasn't anything there, as far as I could tell. Hmm...dripdrops of what I hope is water confirm to me one thing: this place is a run-down piece of crap. I slowly make my way forward and down a set of stairs which I hope isn't going to suddenly be broken. No, the staircase is short. I go forward, meet a wall, and turn and follow it until I find another wall. I go along that one and find a doorway with a rusty gate. When I pull, the gate creaks and I think I hear somebody gasp.
There shouldn't be anybody down here. Caleb himself had said nobody would be here.
I go through the gate and it looks like there's light at the end of this corridor. As I move towards it, I realize it is light, and is in fact a torch. I'm getting real close to this torch, and I'm able to see quite a bit, although I might've preferred not to; the hall was decorated with skulls and other pieces of skeletons. Did I enter a necromancer lair?
My question was answered with a resounding "no" a few seconds later, but the answer wasn't any better. A Xivilai swung its ebony hammer at me. As I ducked (and subsequently fell on my ass), I could see someone in a robe turning the corner down the hall to run away. The monster yanked the giant hammer out of the wall, spraying dust into my face. I hacked, essentially smacked myself in the face, and then rolled sideways a couple of inches to hit a wall.
"AH, PISS!" I screamed and rolled the other direction. But there was no impact anywhere. I looked up. No Xivilai. I then realized that the monster hadn't been a product of Oblivion, but was conjured by whoever I saw running down the hall.
Making so little sound that even I couldn't hear it, I went down the mildly-well-lit hallway after pulling out my dagger. Somebody was breathing fast, but then they suddenly stopped after I inched forwards some more. I'd forgotten about that whole thing where people cast fucking shadows. You're probably saying, "oh you must have fried your brain on Skooma," but this is not a mistake I normally make. That Xivilai had panicked me, and I was still trying to calm down completely.
"RAHBLAGBLAGBLAGBLAG!" A scamp leapt out from around the corner, prompting me to act as a reflex and drive the dagger into it's skull. Footsteps were kathooming and kaslapping down the hallway as the summoned scamp faded away. I turned the corner and started to run down the Gloom and Doom Tunnel. This dude was slow. Even though he was velocity-challenged, he almost reached a giant staircase descending even further below the ground. I yanked the back of his cloak, prompting the magician to fall on his ass. The next thing in the order of operations was for me to slam him against a wall.
The third step would normally be to put the knife right athis throat, but this time the step was stopping. The conjurer was a girl. Not a bad-looking one either. I'm sure if she wasn't in shoddy light and scared out of her wits she'd be pretty damn enticing. But this was not the case as she seemed certain I was about to pound her head into the wall until her skull turned to mush.
I would never do that.
"What's a pretty girl like you doing down here, aside from...yanno...trying to kill me?"
"I think I should ask you that question, instead." She said at just a pinch of a whisper.
"Oh. Well...that's classified," I sounded like a friggin creep, "but thanks for calling me a pretty girl."
"Classified? Oh! Well if I'd known that I would have never attacked you!" She was almost shouting.
"Sh. You'll wake up your pets," I warned her. She scoffed.
"I can't keep things summoned that long, as you may have noticed."
"I'm sure that scamp would have lasted a real long time if I hadn't killed it," why am I comforting her on her abilities?
"Well that's very sweet of you," she said blankly and continued staring at me like she was trying to light my head on fire. My grip tightened on her as I realized she might be capable of that.
"How many more of you are there down here, Conjurer Lady?"
"Just a couple..."
"Are they better than you are?"
"Yes, sir, they are."
"Oh, well fantastic," nobody was supposed to be down here. I got an idea, though.
"It's been nice talking to you," I said and stroked her arm, actually casting a strong charm spell I'd made. It was basically as far as my magic went, aside from the light spell and a couple other things.
"But you should go," I continued.
"Ok..." She resigned, dejected.
"I'll meet up with you later," I promised. Chances are, if I come back through here on the way out like I'm supposed to, I will see her again. She'll probably be pissed, too. I headed down the stairs while she sulked away. Finally I got to the bottom, where it's dark. I cast my light spell again and try to open the door. It's stuck on mud or something, there's about six inches of water on the ground down here. "Maybe I should knock" absurdly crosses my mind. Trying again opens the door like it should have in the first place. Rude piece of s—
Metal scrapes and I stand petrified at what I'm seeing. There's a dremora right there. It's got a Daedric short-sword (nice and sharp, too!). If I can survive this encounter, I'd love to have that. But now the demon roars and I remember to take out the glass long-sword I've been supplied with. I know its not the time to think about something really off-topic, but I can't help but think...
I am fucking dead.
At least it kind of pertains to the situation. Enough with the sarcasm. The hellspawn runs at me and swings its sword, under which I duck and slash at his legs. My sword doesn't do anything against the armor it's wearing. I roll around to its side and leap up, slashing at its unprotected head, and the freakin thing bends over backwards and snaps back up with really disturbing agility. It side-steps away from me and then launches back, kicking me in the chest.
I would have screamed and cursed and threatened, but I couldn't breathe. Instead I was glad that it was wasting time laughing at me, in spite of the humiliation it caused me. Rolling over onto my stomach was really hard, but by God I did it. Got to my hands and knees, and then stood up. When I turned around the Dremora beckoned me. Just Bring It. I walked forward resting my sword on my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. It made a thrust straight at my gut, and I moved aside just enough to dodge it as I deftly stabbed down into it's hand. The monster cried out and pushed me away, and just before something bad happened, it switched the blade to his other hand.
After The Switch, my light spell turned off (the aforementioned bad something). I'll try to paint a vivid picture for you. Imagine...pitch black. There you have it. I was suddenly hit in the head with brute force and tossed aside, indicating this terrible thing could see in the dark. I turned the light spell back on and turned from leaning against the wall with my shoulder to leaning on it with my back. This saved my life, as the monster's sword got stuck in the earthy wall where my head had been taking a minor vacation. Glad I haven't met you yet. I capitalized and swung my blade furiously, and its head neatly flopped off.
I wiped my hand slowly down my face and I suppose it probably would've looked quite comical, but I was in a land where hurt followed you everywhere, and anger rode your back and said things like "Giddy up!" and "You suck!"
I should go back. This is obviously a set-up, or something. I don't know. There weren't supposed to be Dremora down here. Or any type of Daedra for that matter. Actually, there wasn't supposed to be anything down here except for maybe mud crabs and rats. Did they figure I was a dangerous criminal that needed to be killed so that I wouldn't threaten society? I'm not that bad. That can't be it. Why else would they send a lame sidekick? I bet that guy's dead now. Well, that's two strikes. One more and I quit.
I walked through the splish-splash of tunnels, killed a big mud crab on the way, and got to a weird spot. There were some torches on the wall where the ground dropped off and water went really deep. After swimming across I looked back and saw a slaughterfish spazzing out in the water. It had been so close! Damn that human! Damn him for getting away! AW CURSE THE GODS AND THEIR CRUELTY.
To end its annoying rant, I stabbed it with my brand spanky new Daedric short-sword. I turned away from the cranberry-juice water and looked at the path. It was amazing. Never would I have thought this could happen...the trail went up. I followed it, transfixed, disbelieving. I can actually get out of this mud hole? Hallelujah!
Trudge trudge trudge. Up and up it goes, spiraling around with little paths leading away from it here and there but I'd rather go up. Finally I see some brick, what used to be a wall. The wizard guy must have had to knock a hole in it to get through when he was making this passageway. Next I saw a Dremora walk out and then face the other way. I got pissed. There's your third strike. But I saw the doorway up at the top of a set of stairs past him. The secret doorway I'd been told about. I went up behind the monster and swung my sword down, making sure to turn my head away this time upon the gory impact.
I'd already gotten enough blood on me from the first one. The sword had gone really far for me to try and pull it out, so I had to kind of...saw my way back out. I won't go there. Let's just say next time I'll be more careful.
After wiping demon-brain from my sword I put it back in its sheathe and went up the stairs ahead. Miniature pillars in the wall on either side of the door space could be pulled to make the indentation of the wall go down into the floor.
The last surviving member of the Bravil Fighter's Guild was standing in front of the rope bridge going to the castle. A Dremora assassin-type had gotten inside. It had two short-swords (Daedric, of course) and black clothes which were mildly thick. On its head was a red bandana, which had four green ribbons that trailed down behind and fluttered this way and that. The Fighter's Guild member, Carter, had a spear and a dagger.
The assassin cast some type of spell on itself and then started spinning its blades around in front of it, beginning to jog towards the human who was still much out of range. It picked up speed, Carter grinned and prepared to skewer the cocky demon. Just as it reached a sprint and Carter pulled his spear back a little to thrust forward, it jumped up into the air and he missed miserably. The Fighter's Guild member was landed on by the assassin, who kicked him to launch itself off. Carter tumbled to the ground as the monster gracefully did a back-flip and landed far on the bridge without rocking it nearly at all.
The Fighter's Guild member sat there for a second, his spear was sideways under him. An idea formed. As discreetly as possible, Carter broke the spear and made it look like it had broken on accident. The human stood up and looked pleadingly at the spear pieces, as if they might fuse back together out of pity. His face hardened as he tossed down the broken weapon and reached to get his dagger. The assassin started to smoothly stroll towards his prey from his position, nearly halfway across the mildly lengthy bridge. It's eyes widened and it tried to run to the end of the bridge, but Carter cut one of the ropes to hold it.
The assassin screamed and grabbed the rope on the side, dangling off the uneven bridge.
"Don't let go!" Carter called out in mock-concern. He smiled devilishly as he slowly started to put his dagger to the other rope. The demon screamed again, this time in helpless frustration; if it let go, it'd break it's legs on the rock below and possibly hit its head hard enough to kill it. The human slashed through the rope.
Assassin and Carter alike screamed, one in serious horror, the other enjoying his acting prowess.
Slice
"Ooooh, yowch!" Carter said as the monster smacked into the rock wall of the pit, bashing its head violently against a jutting out piece of rock. Half the head stayed squished up onto the wall at a slight angle while the lower half of its head and the conjoined body fell to the bottom of the ravine with a splunch (combination of a splash and crunch). The monsters eyes stared blankly ahead as the bandana tails continued to float in the breeze; blood trickled from the ends of the tails. Before Carter knew what was happening, his head had been bashed into a post and he was taken away in a daze.
"Hi, I'm Garrett." I said as quietly yet cheerily as I could. How am I supposed to show this girl I don't mean any harm? The Wizard's old bed room had been transformed into her holding room. Obviously the Daedra had no idea about the secret passage.
"How'd you get in here?" The seventeen-year-old asked. I pointed back over my shoulder at the secret doorway.
"Why didn't anybody tell me about that?" She asked incredulously.
"Nevermind. I have a quick question for you. Why the hell was I dragged out of my house to come here and save you? What are they planning on doing? Why are you so special, other than that you're the Count's daughter?"
"That's not a quick question, genius."
"Yeah, well, you know," I sighed.
"Basically, I'm Cyrodíílic royalty. If they can mix royal Daedra blood with mine, a gate can be opened again through a procedure I don't want to describe."
"Daedra have no gender," I said blankly.
"Literally mix blood."
"Well they sound kind of fucked," an observation that apparently made her mad.
"And why is that?"
"What kind of royalty do they have here?"
"Menta Na?" She asked in annoyance.
"Menta Na is here?"
"Not yet, no."
"Oh, well good. I can get you out of here, but I wanna see a few things first. Follow me, don't make a sound. Stay far enough back that you're not right by me, but not far enough that I won't notice if you go missing, ok?"
"Uh, ok?" She asked but I was already heading for the door.
I picked the lock quickly and looked through the keyhole. Didn't look like there was anybody there. The door opened very smoothly and mercifully quiet. Ahead, the hall only turned left, which was good for me. I wouldn't have to worry about two guards in two different places. Invisibly, I looked around the corner. A guard was there, but the thing wasn't wearing a helmet. Instead, it was taking different food from a platter, trying it, spitting it out and gagging, then complaining to itself about how bad our food is. I took out my dagger and held it tip-first. A turn and throw later, the Dremora found that there was something lodged quite deep in its head. When it turned to go to the infirmary, it simply tripped into a wall and slid down to the floor. I started sneaking down the hallway.
The girl following me is namedElizabeth. I suddenly stopped and went back over to her.
"Why did they pick you? Why aren't they going to use your father instead? I mean, being the Count...he's probably kind of more royal or something, isn't he? And why are there Daedric guards in here when the Daedra are still fighting outside the city, trying to get in?"
"Everybody who can fight is out fighting, the ones who can't were brought into the castle. A few of the Dremora managed to sneak into the castle. The few bodyguards in here were no match for them."
"Well, what about your dad?" I asked. This question piqued her interest in the floor, as she couldn't seem to look away from it.
"He and my brother managed not to get seen by the Dremora at first. While they were still hidden, they dressed up as regular people, and then went to fight them. They died, the Daedra have no idea it was them. I told them my dad left before they attacked."
The door the head-shotted Dremora had fallen by opened a little and hit its body.
"Come on!" I hissed. We dashed back to the room and I realized as we closed the door behind us that I'd put the wall back up behind me. Loud thumping was coming down the hallway, along with this weird...scraping noise. Elizabeth yanked one of the pillars back and the door went down. She jumped through, already grabbing the pillar by the time I was halfway to the door. The door behind me sounded like it basically exploded, and the young royalty screamed and shoved the pillar.
I stopped at the wall, and turned around.
"Oh, Jesus," were the only words that seemed to fit here. Menta Na stood a few feet away, seething. I noticed a line was trailing behind him and figured out that the scraping noise I'd heard was him dragging his club along in boredom. Another thing I realized was that this probably meant Bravil had fallen: I was doomed.
Well, I'm dead either way. Let's see if the guy can bleed.
I threw my short-sword at him.
"AUGH!" Menta Na cried out.Holy shit! It hit him right in the eye! The monster swung around blindly and got an indirect hit, but it still knocked me out.
A/N: Hope this was okey dokey. Hope too many words didn't get smushed together, although some were supposed to be. Like dripdrop. Warning: As of next chapter, this'll be M. I should switch it to M now, but eh. What-ev.