THE FOOTSTEPS OF EVIL

CHAPTER 2 Den of Evil

Telindhra stalked silently across the plain, her hunting bow at the ready and an arrow already nocked. Already she had shot down some zombies and a few Fallen. She already knew from a previous outing, the location of the cave that housed the monsters. She was the one who had found the cave on one of these outings, the ones that she hadn't told her superiors about, that is until she found the cave. They had been disappointed and angry with her for going out alone without the approval of one of the elders, but she hadn't been punished because of the intelligence she had brought back.

However, the Elders refused to act on her information, even though she had found and enemy advance base so close to the camp. From there, it was almost guaranteed that they could stage and attack the camp soon unless they dealt with the threat. Well, there was nothing to it. If the Elders refused to act, she would. She would destroy this Den of Evil by herself.

As she approached the cave, a voice sounded out from behind. "Fine day for a nice little stroll."

Telindhra froze, then straightened. She did not, however, turn to face the source of the voice. "I was wondering when you'd show yourself."

"So you knew I was following."

"Of course, I am a Rogue, after all." Suddenly, she whipped around, an arrow pointing towards the man's heart.

He was standing there, his arms crossed, his sword sheathed and his shield slung across his back. He stared at her boldly, his long hair black, tied back to a warrior's tail, waved slightly in the breeze. He was slightly taller than her, and she was considered tall among her people, where the tall Rogue women often stood even to their men, and taller than most men from other lands.

He in turn studied her. She was slim, slightly but not overly muscled. She was obviously quick and controlled, and he sensed, gifted among her people. Her long brown hair framed her beautiful face. He would have found her attractive, were it not for her sharp gaze staring black death at him.

"Why are you here?" She demanded.

"I saw you leave. Figured it must be something exciting, for you to sneak out like that." He said. "Might have even been something naughty."

If possible, her stare became harder. The bow sharply came up to point at his face. "Are you accusing me of betraying my people? How dare you!"

He shrugged, "I didn't know, but you can never tell, you know. Looks can be deceiving."

Her gaze narrowed. "So a lowdown mercenary like you thought that I might be your ticket to finding someone willing to hire you around these parts? Well you can forget it, I'm not a traitor, so you might as well go back."

Again, he shrugged. "I suppose I should. But if you don't mind, I figure I'll tag along with you. You look like your ready to kill something bad, and I think I might as well come."

"I don't need your company." Telindhra snapped.

"So shoot me," he returned, "Otherwise lead the way."

Fury raged across her face, but he knew that she wouldn't shoot. Eventually she lowered her bow and stalked towards the cave.

He jogged to catch up. "My name is Arcsaur deQuester, by the way."

She didn't even turn his head. "Telindhra" she snapped furiously.

He grinned. "My friends call me Arc, so feel free."

She turned to look at him, smiling sweetly. "My friends call me Telin. You, however, will call me Telindhra."

Arc was still chuckling as they entered the cave.

Soon they were fairly deep into the cave. Despite the lack of light, they could both see fairly clearly. Telindhra tapped her ring, indicating it was enchanted with a light radius spell, a spell that allowed all creatures within a certain distance of the object to see a certain distance, as though the object was a light source, though the object itself did not give light. Thus, any creature not within the distance was not effected, and thus could not detect any light, nor could see the wearer.

Arc nodded and tapped his shield, indicating it held a similar enchantment.

Soon they heard guttural voices in the distance. Both warriors immediately muttered the command word to cease the light enchantment. Three Fallen turned a corner up just ahead, one holding a torch, illuminating them. Telindhra waited, then leapt out and shot her bow, taking one in the throat. Shocked, the two others hesitated, costing one his life. The other ran shrieking back, but before he could turn the corner, took an arrow in the back.

Telindhra relit her ring and turned and saw that Arc had yet to even draw his sword.

"Scared of wetting your sword? Or perhaps you don't know how to hold it?"

Arc smiled. "You obviously had a handle on the situation. You needed none of my help."

Telindhra smiled back icily. "But you didn't even try to help, obviously lacking of gentlemanly virtues."

Arc rolled his eyes. "I am a swordsman, you are a bowman, or woman I guess, so you don't need me obstructing your shot, and I have no need for your arrow in my back as I fight. We are a team. You shoot, and I'll fight if they come to close. I thought that was painfully obvious."

Telindhra didn't reply, instead stalked off down the corridor. Arc followed just behind. He wanted to be able to leap into the fray quickly without getting in her way if she had to shoot quickly.

They came to a rough side corridor but chose to follow straight ahead. A little ways ahead the corridor opened up to a large room. There was a fire and a large band of Fallen and zombies inside.

"About half a dozen Fallen, two shaman and three zombies" Arc whispered as they shut off their enchantments and crept closer to the opening. All enmity forgotten in battle anticipation as Telindhra nocked an arrow. With the element of surprise and her bow to even the odds before the battle started in earnest, they should be alright, she thought, as long as this ruffian doesn't panic at the sight of battle.

Just as she raised her bow, there was shouting from behind. Four Fallen had come from the side passage and had raised the alarm. She pivoted and let fly, shouting for Arc to guard the opening as she took care of the rear.

Fallen tend to run at the prospect of death, so she easily scattered the pack with a quick kill and picked the other three off in rapid succession. She spun, fearing that Arc would be overwhelmed, or perhaps even betray her for his own life….

But found to be quite mistaken. Three Fallen had charged simultaneously and had flailed their swords out almost in unison at Arc. Arc had seemingly armed himself instantly, slipping his shield off his back and into place, then drawing his sword fluidly. As the Fallen reached him, he advanced, parrying away sword strokes with broad, sweeping shield parries of his own, before a lightning thrust of his long sword, followed by a backhand stroke ended the three Fallen in the space of a breath.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Telindhra turn after finishing the first four. "Take the Shamans!" He yelled as he charged the group. Indifferent swordwork and slow zombie attacks were no match for a swordsman such as Arc. Easily fending off the other three Fallen with both shield and sword, Arc waited for the expected opening. As it came, he neatly sidestepped to his left, bashing his shield into the left Fallen, knocking it from his feet, while simultaneously slashing the throat from the center Fallen. As the other Fallen fled, and the other knocked down tried to stumble to it's feet, he decapitated that Fallen with a wide sweep and leapt forward, greeting the first of the slower moving zombies with a spinning slash.

Telindhra was busy concentrating dodging Fire Bolts from the last shaman and also returning fire coherently from her bow that she almost didn't notice the last remaining Fallen fleeing towards her. At the last second she noticed it's raised blade and leapt back from its slash. Annoyed and a bit embarrassed at the close call, she slammed her bow into its face twice with all her strength and then stabbed the arrow she was about to fire into its eye.

Arc, meanwhile, easily dispatched the slow moving zombies, just as Telindhra's arrow slammed into the Fallen shaman's chest.

Arc sheathed his sword and motioned for them to continue. Without a word Telindhra followed, feigning disinterest in Arc's show of power and expertise. Yet inside, she was reeling from awe to joy. Truly, he was one of the most spectacular warriors she had ever seen. Originally her intention was to hit the Den, forcing the evil ones into premature action, or perhaps the elders into more decisive action, or perhaps to die in battle rather than to live in shame, hiding behind walls as her lands were ravaged.

Yet with this mysterious warrior, she dared to hope that they could win.

Hours passed as Telindhra and Arc roved through the tunnels like two vengeful spirits, smiting down all that stood. While no less than a band of 4 or 5 good Rogues could clear this cave, Telindhra marvelled at the ease at which these two defeated all opponents.

While most Rogues were excellent archers, unparalleled in the world, they were woefully inexperienced in close combat, being little better than common soldiers in hand to hand combat.

But Arc was good to his word. They were a team. Telindhra could wreak fast, deadly havoc from a distance with her expert precision, while any that approached were no match for Arc's lightning blade.

Finally, they reached the end of the line. Squatting behind some convenient boulders further up the corridor, they studied the door guarded by two great behemoths.

Telindhra popped up from behind the boulders and began to launch a volley of arrows at the two behemoths. They roared and charged, but Telin kept up her deadly barrage and soon it was over. One almost came within striking distance, but a quick charging attack from Arc ended the threat quickly.

"Arc, I have a problem."

"Hmm?" Arc queried absently, studying the door.

"I'm running out of arrows. I had counted on recovering these I just used, but these behemoth hides are damn tough and I don't think I can reuse any."

Now Arc turned around. "How many?"

Telindhra shrugged "Four."

"Oh well," Arc sighed. "This is the last room, and I don't know about you, but I don't feel like leaving now. Just pick your shots carefully, then after that, use this." He drew a dagger from his belt and handed it to her.

She sniffed. "Maybe if they had a roasting pig in there I'd know how to use this." She said derisively. "Hang on."

She quickly ran back the way they had come, visiting the last room. There Telindhra retrieved a dropped javalin and a crude buckler, so as not to restrict her initial bow work.

As she returned, she found Arc standing next to the door, ear pressed to it.

"They must have heard the behemoths die, but they haven't come out yet," he whispered to her. "They're trying to be quiet but I can still hear them. They're setting a trap."

She shrugged "Fight." He kicked the door in and dove into a forward roll in a diagonal direction to the door. Telindhra covered the right side of the room, targeting Fallen and Behemoths. Arc came up out of his role on the left hand side, right in front of a group of about seven zombies. At the back of the pack came a chilling voice. "Now you face SpectreFire, and you shall perish."

While the other zombies of the cave were stupid, attacking individually, these zombies were guided by their leader, and all six circled and attacked coherently as a team and the leader watched. Arc backed away, putting his back to a wall, and was using all his speed and skill to fend off the coordinated attacks.

Telindhra expended her last arrow downing a Behemoth and charged into the room, slamming her bow into the face of the nearest Fallen. Seeing Arc in trouble, she hurled her bow at one of the zombies before drawing her dropped javelin and attacking the last couple of Fallen.

The bow hit one of the Zombies in the back, providing all the distraction Arc needed. As a few Zombies turned to the distraction, Arc broke to his right, leading with a sword stroke that downed one of the Zombies. Breaking out of the circle, Arc was suddenly in the right position again, facing zombies as a group in front of him, instead of having to worry about his flanks and back to defend. He wasn't about to lose that advantage again.

Before the Zombies even had a change to realize their prey had flown, he charged back into the fray, with swift combination slashes and stabs that decimated the zombie ranks, as the last zombie fell to pieces, Telindhra moved to join him to face SpectreFire.

But Arc motioned her back "I'll take this one." Telindhra started to object, but realized that without her bow, she was just an average fighter. Reluctantly, she stepped back.

SpectreFire started forward with a sweeping claw, but Arc never gave him chance. A quick body block with his shield was followed up by a sharp backhand shieldbash that put SpectreFire off balance. A mid slash, followed by a sweeping downwards cut took SpectreFire's left leg under him, bringing him to his knees. The shield again flew across to knock a feeble claw thrust aside, and Arc responded by a thrust that pierced the zombie's chest.

Suddenly weary, Arc sheathed his sword and turned to face the Rogue. "So that's that then? All cleared?"

"Not just yet." Telindhra said, winking. "This room was they're command center, but it was also their treasure room. As joint victor, you get to help me carry this stuff back to camp."

Arc groaned.