I do not own Dragon Age or any of the characters.
Failure
Cries of desperation. Of fear. Of pain. Of grief, and loss, and rage. The world around Theron echoed with them. They drowned out even the roars and snarls of the Darkspawn Horde, the crackle of flames, the metallic clashes of blades and shields, the shrieks of armor giving way to blade and blood. All around Theron, Death reigned. And he himself fought and strove to become its apostle. With the staff he himself had forged and trained tirelessly to wield, he spun and twirled through the ranks of the Darkspawn. His, sleeveless, padded, leather armor was drenched in blood. His normally loose, black pants were so soaked in blood they clung to his legs. His body, while still more slender than a human's body, was more filled out than the average elf's willowy frame. His legs were muscular from near-excessive physical training, his arms toned with lean muscle from years of training with his staff. He could hold his own against the average human rogue or warrior.
The orange, slightly-blocky blade of an Enchanted Dagger on the bottom end of his staff carved through Darkspawn easily, armor and all, its enchantment, one to keep the blade from breaking, proved its worth as it kept the blade sharp and extended to the wooden staff and the spiked, polyhedric morningstar affixed to the top end. Said morning star worked in concert with the blade to shatter bones and armor, rip flesh open, and shatter shields. The weapon was as unconventional as Theron's fighting style. He never remained still, he never stopped twirling the staff, and he never struck the same foe more than twice to kill it. He'd worked hard to master the style he'd created, but it was effective. He flipped and spun, twirled and jumped, wound and wove through the battlefield, slaughtering all enemies who stood before him. He had to reach the king. Had to warn him. He was betrayed. Teyrn Loghain was a traitor. He meant to abandon King Cailan.
As Theron stopped long enough to look around, to see if he could spot the king, a Human-sized Hurlock roared from behind him, charging with its sword held above it and a handful of Hurlocks and Dwarf-sized Genlocks behind it. However, before it could reach him, Theron's companions, his entire team, flooded from the path Theron had carved for them. The girl in the lead, an Elf like Theron and his sister, was yet a few months shy of eighteen. Theron himself had only turned eighteen a month ago himself. But where Theron fought with a truly unique fighting style using his home-made staff, his sister fought in a more common, though still rare, style of wielding a pair of knives in reverse grip, her choice of weapons being a pair of knives made from a black metal with smooth, double-edged blades, no guards, grips wrapped with red cloth, a ring pommel, and runes carved into the sides of the blade at the base, the runes sustaining an enchantment to protect her knives the same way Theron's staff was.
The rest of their group were humans, two bearing a sword and shield, one wielding a pair of plain daggers, and one with a greatsword. Together with Theron's sister, Amelia, they tore through the Darkspawn swarming Theron from behind. Like Theron, Amelia's fighting style utilized a lot of spinning, though whereas Theron killed in one or two strikes, Amelia's style involved many relatively shallow cuts, shredding her opponents flesh, as often as only a couple of strikes to fatal points. However, she was cold and efficient with the style, killing three Darkspawn herself as the others each killed one, except for the greatsword wielder, who killed two with a pair of devastating swipes. Just as they felled the last of the Darkspawn, Theron spotted the King. They were surrounded, and an Ogre was stomping toward them. Theron swore, taking off at a sprint, his sister and their team chasing after him. However, even as Theron tore through the Darkspawn, he knew he'd be too late. To save Cailan, he'd have to use it. He'd have to stop holding back.
He flipped over a Hurlock Alpha, signified by its dark brown, horned helmet, and spun, slashing its head off as he was upside down, then landed in time to drive the top end of the staff into a magic-wielding Hurlock Emissary's blindfolded face, stunning it before spinning and slashing it across the chest, severing its heart. As he stepped around it, a trio of Genlocks leapt at him, their crude daggers pulled back, just as the Ogre reached Cailan and the head Grey Warden fighting alongside the king, Duncan. With a roar, it swatted Duncan aside. Theron spun, using the blade on the base of his staff to deflect the Genlocks' daggers before whipping the other end around, the morning star colliding with each Genlock's head, caving in their skulls and shredding the flesh, killing them all. But then, as Theron's gaze fell on the Ogre again, it was holding Cailan around the torso in its right hand. Then, it roared in his face before squeezing, instantly crushing Cailan so violently that Cailan's body ruptured, blood spraying out of him, drenching his body and the Ogre's forearm. Then, it cast him aside.
Theron's body went cold. It was over. The king was dead. They'd lost the battle. He was too late. Already morale was plummeting with the death of the king. It was like his death had sounded a death knell for their forces. What had been a nearly even battle almost instantly became a one-sided slaughter. The Darkspawn were reinvigorated by the Ogre's victory. Their savage ferocity multiplied, then grew further for every disheartened soldier they felled. Theron found himself swarmed, along with his sister and their team. They were being pushed back rapidly. Theron looked toward the Ogre again to see Duncan climbing its torso with a pair of daggers. For a brief moment, he thought that maybe they could rally, but a moment later, after he'd slaughtered a handful of Darkspawn, he looked back to Duncan, only to see him kneeling beside the fallen king. His strength was gone. His resolve. His will to fight. Duncan was finished. And then, a moment later, Duncan was dead. A Hurlock Alpha had slaughtered its way through a group of soldiers and reached Duncan at a sprint. Without ever slowing its stride, it brought is blood-stained battleaxe down in a diagonal strike to Duncan's face, splitting it entirely and shearing off the top right half of his head. And just like that, the battle had ended for nearly everyone. The king's forces were broken, fleeing. The only group still standing their ground were Theron and the others, and that was partially from a lack of choice.
In their rush to reach Cailan, they had separated themselves from the rest of their forces, and now, they were completely surrounded. As they fought savagely, heading north, away from the bulk of the Horde, more and more Darkspawn realized their presence. More and more swarmed inward, but for more that swarmed, more died. The Hurlock Alpha who'd killed Duncan burst from the edge of the circle they'd maintained and swung its axe hard, shattering one of the others' shields, only for Amelia to dart forward, spinning and spiraling around him, severing muscles and tendons to stop a follow-up attack before targeting chinks in its armor to start it bleeding. In under a second, the Alpha collapsed, but the damage had been done. Without his shield, their companion's ability to survive was crippled. He snatched up a fallen dagger, but he had never trained for it, had never trained for anything but a sword and shield. Within seconds, a pair of Hurlocks tackled him, killing him. Theron's greatsword-wielding ally slew them both, but his sword shattered. He snatched up the Alpha's axe, immediately planting it into a Genlock Emissary, only for the collapsing body to rip it from his grasp. A swarm of Hurlocks and Genlocks charged him instantly, only for Theron to pass the man, spinning and flipping and twirling as he slaughtered the Darkspawn, beating back the tide. As the charge faltered and broke off, Theron snatched up a fallen Darkspawn Greatsword, a crude, cruel, jagged blade with the blade split in two from the middle to the end, which was squared off, made for chopping rather than stabbing. He shoved the long hilt into his disarmed ally's hands, and the man immediately took the weapon up, turning and sweeping it around into a wide, lethal arc, slaying a trio of Hurlocks. His abilities with the crude weapon were far from artful. It wasn't akin to a trained soldier. It was more like a butcher. A butcher who was carving and chopping up slabs of meat. But it was enough.
They continued to fight and to flee, laying low anything that stood in their way. Theron led the effort, his staff and his rapid, difficult-to-counter style of fighting serving him well. Amelia followed just after him, killing few in Theron's wake, but finishing anything he left behind and dissuading anything that wished to cut the others off. Behind her charged the butcher, hacking and chopping anything that got in his way, keeping the sides clear. Bringing up the rear were the last shield-wielder and the Rogue with his daggers. One blocked and the other struck with his daggers while the shield wielder covered the counter attack with his sword. However, the two were falling behind. They couldn't simply turn and run because the Darkspawn were too numerous and would overtake them, but at the same time, the sheer number of forces they had to contend with were slowing them too much. Theron stopped periodically to circle back and give them room to breathe, but it was becoming apparent they couldn't hold out.
"Theron, it's time!" Amelia finally shouted as she spun around a Hurlock, opening his body along a dozen new seams.
Theron swore harshly as Amelia darted to the pair and yanked them backward from the Darkspawn seconds away from overwhelming them completely. Then, Theron spun around the trio, frost crackling as it gathered on the morningstar head of Theron's staff. Then, as he swept the head across the ground, icy magic erupted outward from the contact trail, a huge wall of enormous, deadly icicles exploding from the ground and spreading outward in a wave forming a half circle. It impaled more than two dozen Darkspawn several times over each, killing them all, but it did nothing to slow the Horde. It flooded around the icicles, but now, Theron was no longer holding back. Flames danced to life in his left hand before he flicked it out to the side as he stalked away from the icicles, casting a fireball the size of his head into the Darkspawn. The fireball erupted into an enormous explosion, slaughtering them as Amelia and the others fended off the right side. Electricity crackled along Theron's staff, and he jabbed the head of it to his right. In an instant, a bolt of lightning connected his staff to one of the Darkspawn as it leapt toward Amelia, and then from it back and downward into two more, then four, then eight. All of those struck were sent flying backward, most of them charred around the impact point. As soon as the lightning blast had finished, Theron spun his staff in a circle, stepping ahead of the others, then slammed its head into the ground. With a deafening boom, a semicircle wall of pure force exploded from his staff, slamming into the Darkspawn around him and sending them flying, the closest Darkspawn's bodies broken and the organs of any inside of fifty feet from Theron ruptured.
"Run, now!" Amelia shouted.
The shift from combat to full flight was instantaneous and they all tore along the road to Lothering. Darkspawn swarmed after them, but Theron held them at bay with a series of Telekinetic Bursts and Repulsion Seals, allowing them to begin pulling away. And then, a series of loud snaps reached Theron's ears and he swore, grabbing Amelia and pulling her close to him as he raised his staff. A domed shield flashed into existence around them, shielding them from the incoming rain of arrows. The others weren't as lucky. The Rogue and the warrior with the greatsword both died. The warrior with the shield survived, but was crippled. Theron held out his hand, blue light shining from his hand, a matching light shining from the warrior as his wounds sealed. The arrows in his body were forced out, and after several seconds, he was running again, but he wasn't healed fully. Jasper didn't have time for that.
"Come on!" Theron snapped at him. "Push through! We have to reach Lothering!"
Finally, as they were passing a place where abandoned carriages and cliffs formed a bottleneck, the man stopped.
"Keep running!" he shouted. "I'll hold them as long as I can!"
Theron and Amelia turned and fled, but "as long as I can" turned out to be barely a few seconds. Before they'd taken their fifth step, a Hurlock Emissary had sent a bolt of lightning into the man, his charred body sailing past Theron and Amelia. Both swore, pushing themselves harder. They couldn't sprint all the way to Lothering, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to save anyone, much less the family they intended to save without ever discussing it. They'd grown up friends with one specific family in Lothering, two brothers and a sister. Each had learned a different method of fighting. One loved stories of knights and Grey Wardens and became a warrior who favored a greatsword. One had been born a mage, and had learned to keep it hidden while first her father, and then Theron in secret, trained her to use it. And one, the eldest, had spent his life hiding the fact that his sister was a mage and supporting his family. He'd taught himself to fight, to pick locks, the art of deception and persuasion. He'd mastered the perfect, friendly laugh and forged himself a charisma that none could deny. He was the perfect Rogue. And he was also an on-and-off ex of Amelia.
"Horses!" Amelia shouted, pointing to a pair that had been abandoned still strapped to a pair of carts ahead.
"Thank God!" Theron groaned. "Let's go!"
He spun, using another wave of massive icicles to delay the Horde, allowing them to reach the horses. They leapt on, cutting the horses free, then spurred them away from the Horde. The horses accepted their saviors readily, carrying them away from danger at a sprint. But as the Horde fell back, breaking off their pursuit, it became glaringly apparent that it was far from over. Darkspawn began to appear from around them, out of the trees or behind large rocks. Together, they were more than capable of dealing with them, with Theron using either his magic or his staff's blade, and Amelia using the stock of multiple dozen identical, spare knives she carried, which she could throw with pinpoint accuracy even from horseback, but it became clear instantly that the Horde had advanced further than they'd realized.
The two hour ride at a calm pace to only an hour and a half, ending rather abruptly as an Ogre charged from the right. Its horns impaled, and instantly gored, Theron's horse, lifting it into the air and hurling Eliaz to the ground. At the same time, its left hand struck the side of Amelia's horse, killing it instantly and knocking Amelia to the ground. Theron's horse was still alive, for a few more moments, at least. Theron grit his teeth, guilt flashing through him as he raised his hand, turning his horse into a Walking Bomb. A moment later, as its heart stopped, the horse exploded apart with enough force to blast the Ogre's head to ribbons. They turned to Lothering, barely a quarter mile away, only to stop, staring in dismay.
Lothering was burning. Darkspawn were charging around, slaughtering the last of Lothering's inhabitants. There was no sign of the Templars that should be defending Lothering. Theron shook his head, glancing at Amelia, and she nodded. Together, they sprinted into Lothering. Darkspawn charged them, but together, they slaughtered everything. Theron didn't even need to resort to his magic. The Darkspawn here were scattered and operating individually. They were monsters in the middle of pillaging, not soldiers formed into ranks. They attacked in clusters of three or four, not nearly enough to stop them, especially since they weren't passing through the center of town. Within a matter of minutes, they had reached their destination, a small house on the outskirts of the town, far away from the Chantry. However, the house was abandoned. The Hawkes were gone.
"Where'd they go?" Amelia asked worriedly.
"Carver and Gabriel were in Ostagar," Theron recalled. "They were near the back of the formation, so they'd have been among the first to retreat if the battle became unwinnable. They can't have beaten us by much. They'll have taken Bethany and their mother and fled north."
Amelia nodded, and Theron ducked into the house. He knew the Hawkes. He'd been careful to get to know them before revealing who, and more importantly what, he was. He knew everything about them. Where Bethany kept her grandmother's wedding ring. Where Carver kept the Recruit's Band of Distinguished Service that he'd gotten after facing bandits alone to protect a town and several fellow recruits while still in training. Where Gabriel kept an enchanted Silverite chain belt left to him by his father. Within a minute, he had rejoined his sister and they were heading North.
They escaped the village without any more of the Darkspawn noticing them and began to follow a trail of dead Darkspawn. More Darkspawn appeared around them, many of them coming from the north, but Theron and Amelia rapidly slaughtered them, continuing after the trail of corpses. Then, finally, they were forced to veer off. A flood of Darkspawn charged at them from off to the side, driving them away from their chosen path. Theron hurled a fireball into the flood, slaughtering multiple of them and allowing himself and Amelia to flee up a narrow goat trail to the top of a cliff. Theron formed a wall of icicles to block off access, then sprinted to the opposite edge of the cliff with Amelia. Below them, a battle was raging. Carver, Hawke, and Bethany were strugfling against a flood of Darkspawn coming from the south, but as Theron and Amelia reached the edge of the cliff, an Ogre roared as it stomped up a low hill onto the wide, open area where the Hawkes were struggling to survive.
Bethany formed a fireball, hurling it at the Ogre, but she was running low on mana. The spell burst apart into a large ball of flames, but it lacked the force of a true explosion. The Ogre roared in anger, snatching Bethany up just as Theron hurled himself from the cliff.
"Theron!" Amelia yelped.
Theron's left arm snapped out as the Ogre raised Bethany to slam her down. A bolt of pure Arcane Energy flashed from his hand, slamming into the Ogre's head. With an agonized roar, the Ogre dropped Bethany. She grunted in pain, but immediately scrambled out of Theron's way. And a moment later, Theron blunged the blade of his staff down into the Ogre's right shoulder. He swung on the staff, his downward momentum partially dispersing before the staff snapped, sending him crashing and rolling across the ground. A moment later, Amelia reached the Ogre as well, driving a pair of plain daggers down into the Ogre's back, knocking the Ogre to the ground before landing in a mildly graceful roll herself. Theron glared at her, pushing himself up and scooping up a Darkspawn dagger, which was nearly the length of a shortsword, from the ground as more Darkspawn began to approach.
"There's no end to them!" Gabriel growled, spinning a pair of Crow Daggers.
"Can you fight with that?" Bethany asked.
"Well enough," Theron growled, twirling the dagger in his hand. "I liked that staff. If we all survive this, I have gifts for you."
"If we survive?" Amelia snorted. "We'll survive just fine."
"Such confidence," Gabriel smirked. "Maker, I missed you."
"Oh, please don't start!" Carver groaned.
"Times up," Theron growled. "Should have kissed while you had the chance."
The Darkspawn had reached the clearing, and as one, they all charged. The Darkspawn met their charge, clashing with them ferociously. Theron flipped and spun, but without his staff, his fighting style was severely hampered. Finally, he hurled the dagger into a Darkspawn's chest, then snatched up a Darkspawn's longsword, turning and carefully carving through more Darkspawn. He ducked around a Hurlock, slashing again, only to swear as his blade shattered. He rolled under a leaping Genlock, snatching up a pair of daggers in time to stab one of them into the Genlock's back. A pair of Hurlocks charged at him from the front, but Gabriel passed him, shredding them. Off to the left, Carver was carving his way through Darkspawn rapidly. But then, as Theron looked to the right, a scream pierced the air.
Bethany was surrounded. She'd accidentally fought her way to a wide path, and the Darkspawn were swarming her. Amelia alone had noticed, and had gone to aid her, but as Theron's gaze found them, a Hurlock's sword tore across her back. A roar of rage and terror split the air as Theron tore across the battlefield. He drove his borrowed dagger into a Hurlock as he passed it. Behind him, he heard several more Darkspawn die, hearing Carver and Gabriel chasing him, but they couldn't make it in time. But then, Elais didn't need to make it in time. He wasn't a soldier.
His right arm snapped up, a bolt of electricity flashing out and striking one of the Darkspawn around Bethany and Amelia. The bolt forked over and over, clearing the pair room to breathe, but it wouldn't last. Already, there were dozens more Darkspawn approaching up the path. Theron hurled a fireball to his left, blasting a handful of Darkspawn as his right hand rose over his head, swinging in a circle. Flames began to fall from the sky, enormous fireballs blasting groups of Darkspawn around the girls and further away, scattering the approaching Darkspawn on the path. All but one.
As Theron used the Telekinetic powers of a Force Mage to pull the Darkspawn around Bethany and Amelia away from them and into a cluster, an Ogre scharged up the path, heedless of the fireballs raining down around it. Theron swore as he noticed it, the same moment he was hurling a fireball at the pile of Darkspawn he'd created. He was too late. He couldn't cast another spell in time. Bethany would die. The Ogre was about to trample her under its feet. And then, it would die. Except, it wasn't Bethany the Ogre reached. Amelia, coated in blood and with one arm hanging limply, covered now in numerous gashes, shoved Bethany out of the way. And a moment later, the Ogre slammed into her, knocking her to the ground and trampling her. For a moment, her body bounced along as it kicked her. But then its foot landed on her directly.
Theron could see the moment her ribs broke. The moment her organs ruptured inside of her. The moment her flesh ruptured. He watched it all in horrifyingly slow motion. And then, he roared. Screamed. Wailed. The noise that left his mouth had no true description. But it sent even the Darkspawn scrambling. All but the Ogre. That received Theron's full, unrestricted attention. He threw a left-handed punch, and a massive, blue, spectral fist the size of the Ogre's entire upper body collided with it, sending it crashing into a cliff face. Theron's other fist swung down, a matching, spectral fist slamming a mirrored hammer strike down onto the Ogre, crushing it into the ground. Then, the hands grabbed the Ogre, lifting it, and Theron roared in effort as the hands yanked outward, tearing the Ogre into pieces, several of which scattered into the air.
"Maker!" Bethany gasped. "I had no idea you're so strong!"
She looked back to Theron, only to find him on his hands and knees, drenched in sweat and panting for breath, sobbing at the same time. He didn't go to Amelia. There was no point, and he knew it. Bethany walked over to him, kneeling and setting a hand on his shoulder, only for Gabriel to shout a warning. Theron pushed himself to his feet shakily, raising his hands. And then, the battle was over. In a massive, red, shrieking, roaring blaze of flames, a dragon swooped down from a cliff above them, laying waste to the Darkspawn.
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