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Rule of Darkness -Book II Chapter 3 Last Update 19 June 2008- Book I Completed
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<blockquote data-quote="Ghostknight" data-source="post: 3366287" data-attributes="member: 15338"><p><strong>Rule of Darkness- Updated 26 February 2007</strong></p><p></p><p>The four sat in silence; Gruzz, Jeria, Gyv and Mekior looked at each other with no one willing to break the silence. The creaking of the door as it opened caused all heads to turn in its direction; four pairs of eyes followed the halfling that entered the room. Instantly recognisable to them all as Delire, her small steps carried her across the room rapidly.</p><p> </p><p>Delire took a seat opposite them, looking at them one by one before talking.</p><p> </p><p>"Thanks, all of you. By now the three of you have heard Gyv's story, how she was bitten by a tainted squirrel, found herself outside the forest, and tried to commit suicide by using the testing pin." </p><p> </p><p>"It would seem that the pin did not kill her, but did destroy the taint. Mekior, you inspected her, tested her, would you agree?"</p><p> </p><p>From where he sat, Mekior leaned forward, a large smile on his face. "Oh, yes. I can happily confirm that I detect no trace or taint of the fiends about her." </p><p> </p><p>At his side, Gyv cringed inwardly, but remained outwardly calm. She saw all the faces around her; Delire who had come to interrogate her and find out her story; the two Outwalkers that had found her and brought her into the city; and the Fiend Hunter that had inspected her and declared her free of taint. If I'm so pure, what is the laughter I hear every night? Why can I not speak of that face, that voice, the laughter that resounds within?</p><p> </p><p>Gyv came to, noticing that the conversation had stopped, that everyone was looking at her. "Sorry, I, uh, just lost track of what was being said."</p><p> </p><p>"It's ok Gyv, you're still recovering. I was just asking if you wished to return home or remain within the city?" Delire got up, stepped forward to pat her hand, her child size hands rough against Gyv's skin, the calluses from training with the sword spoiling any illusion of childlike innocence. "You are welcome to stay here as long as you need. Knowledge of your work has come to us, and we are honoured by your presence." Delire backed off, sitting back down on her chair, her short legs swinging above the floor.</p><p> </p><p>Gyv bowed her head, thinking. Could she go home when she was unsure of herself, when she did not trust herself or her dreams? She was better off here, in a city with all the protections that her simple home in the House of Souls lacked. She looked up, opening her mouth to tell them her decision, and then unbelieving, listened to what her own mouth was saying. "Thank you; I miss my home, my husband and children. I do not know where I am, though. Your city is but a rumour where I live, and I do not know where I left the forest, how I got within, or how I will get back."</p><p> </p><p>"That is why we are gathered here. Gruzz volunteered to escort you. He offered his skills in your service; my guess is that he just wants to get out of the city. Jeria is apprenticed to Gruzz and will go where he goes." She turned to Mekior, looking him in the eyes, "I need to know if you will accompany them. Gruzz is knowledgeable on the outside, as is Gyv, but if there is trouble an extra sword may be needed. I want you to go with. Provide your skills with sword, and, more importantly, your ability to detect the fiends before they can be seen."</p><p> </p><p>Mekior looked at Delire, and than at Gruzz. He knew them both by reputation and trusted their instincts. The woman and half-fiend were unknown quantities. He trusted the woman's reputation, but he doubted the half-fiend and feared facing the unknown with one such as him at his side. Then there was the outside. The tunnels were comfortable enough: known, sheltered, part of home and the environment he knew. The outside was, well, the outside. Unknown, dangerous, fiend ridden, the last decided him.</p><p> </p><p>"I'm in. Lets hope we do run into some fiends, I have some scores to settle." He settled back, letting the others talk, plan the trip. He would go along with them; his bow at the ready, his sword there to cut through fiendish skin should any show themselves. The conversation washed around him as he dreamed of fiendish blood pooling on the ground below.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>The gap to the outside stood before them. Gruzz had gone first to check on the area outside, to ensure its safety. The rest stood and watched Mekior as he stood before the gap. Sweat came down his face, his hands gripping either side of the gap, knuckles white. He looked back at them, his eyes showing panic. He backed off from the gap, shaking his head.</p><p> </p><p>"I can't do it. Outside. It's too big, too much."</p><p> </p><p>He collapsed, head held between his hands, tears of frustration falling from his face. "I can't do it. Forgive me."</p><p> </p><p>Gyv stood, looking at him, frustrated. Jeria pushed forward, moving Gyv out the way, knelt beside him.</p><p> </p><p>"I went out for the first time a mere six days before I met you. I stood at this gap, felt the air from the outside and wondered how I could exist without the comfort of the cavern, the soothing presence of rock around me." He stopped talking as he saw Mekior turn to him, look at him. He started again, aware that the Fiend Hunter was fixated on his words. "I don't know how I did it, I took that one last deep breathe and forced myself out, breaching the gap, entering the world outside the way a babe must leave its mother womb. Once out, it was a revelation. The air is different, sweeter. And the trees, they are wondrous, not the small little things that you find within; out there they are amazing, huge, beyond your imagination. Just stand, walk to the gap, breathe in and walk out." Jeria stopped, hoping that his speech had been effective.</p><p> </p><p>They waited, watching as Mekior stood slowly, gathered himself, breathed in deeply and virtually dived out the gap. Jeria followed quickly, knowing he was breaking the exit order they had agreed on, but deciding he needed to be there to see how Mekior handled the outside. He found him hugging the ground, rigid in terror; eyes wide open at the empty sky overhead. Behind him, he heard Gyv coming out, stepping up beside him.</p><p> </p><p>"Just chuck him inside and let us get moving. He's going to be useless to us." </p><p> </p><p>Jeria looked at her, saw Gruzz come up to the couple standing over the rigid Mekior.</p><p></p><p>"Jeria, take his arms, lift him up. Get him under cover; we’ll give him until morning to get out of this. If he's still like this in the morning we'll send him home." Gruzz watched as Jeria lifted the close to catatonic Mekior to his feet, half dragging him to the cover of the trees. Gyv followed, automatically erasing the tracks they left. She felt cleaner, safer under the trees, once more on her way to her home; but she feared the voice that had spoken for her, that had changed her choice to stay away from those she would not endanger.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>The morning light arrived. Jeria had climbed into the upper branches of a tree, from whence he watched as the golden orb lifted above the canopy of the forest, as the sky went from black, to turquoise to alive with golden fire. He watched, elated, loving the way the sun reflected off the clouds, the way the trees changed colour in the light. He watched for as long as he could and then, with a sigh, descended to the ground, to where Gruzz stood with Mekior and Gyv.</p><p> </p><p>With the light, and the canopy of the forest overhead, Mekior had recovered. He looked at the rest of the group, his face a mask of misery knowing how these people had all seen him in his moment of weakness. Worse, the half-fiend had been the one to push him, to move him, to get his courage up. Mekior felt shamed, a failure, one of his enemy better than he. He walked behind Gruzz, his mind working on the problem, worrying that if they should leave the canopy of the forest he would be paralysed by the sight of the open sky yet again.</p><p> </p><p>The group stepped quietly through the shadows, the occasional beams of light that shone through the leaves overhead illuminating the forest floor in patches, giving it an eerie quality. They travelled mostly in silence, their thoughts company to their silent march. Mekior worried at his weakness, fearing his fear of the open might betray him, Gruzz worried about the path, unknown, moving into territory he did not know intimately. For Jeria it was fear of the fiends, never met but always lurking on the edge of perception. And Gyv? She feared the voice she heard every night, the laughter that haunted her sleep and stole her will. She looked back over her shoulder, at the mountain peak that was fading behind her. If you asked her why, she would not have been able to tell you, it just felt right, a compulsive action that helped her to orient herself as they moved deeper into the trees that soon hid the sight of the mountain behind them.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Two days travel passed uneventfully beneath the green canopy, ears strained for the sounds of movement, for a glimpse of anything that may prove threatening. They saw nothing and the silence was only occasionally broken as Gruzz took time to point something out to Jeria, to teach him some of the vast lore and knowledge of the outside world he had accumulated over years of travel. Gyv fell into the same pattern, pulling Jeria aside, pointing out plants, small insects and creatures, and telling him of their properties; which were useful and which to be avoided. Even Mekior occasionally dropped his hostility towards the half-fiend to point out the minute details that provided clues as to what was, and was not, tainted. The other three often thought him crazy, not seeing what he said was obvious, but never doubted his word.</p><p> </p><p>Jeria absorbed it all, his thirst for knowledge of the outside world insatiable. He found himself lying awake at nights, peering through gaps in the trees trying to catch a glimpse of the stars above. The world was a revelation to him, so much more than the stone halls of his world before; so much more alive, more bewildering. His ancestry meant that he did not need the same amount of rest as his compatriots; he used this unnatural stamina to stay awake for long hours, conversing with Gyv and Gruzz as they sat on guard duty. He used the time of Mekior's watch to get the sleep he needed, knowing that this, too, marked him as different to the Fiend Hunter, and added to the sense of otherness that the Fiend Hunter hated within him.</p><p> </p><p>It was just after midday on the third day when it happened. Gruzz led them through a thicket of thorn bushes. The group was careful to make sure no one was scratched; Gruzz had noted the reddish sap clinging to the points of some thorns as they approached, and Mekior had agreed with his assessment that the bushes were tainted. None noticed that Gyv, as she went through last behind the rest, carefully placed a thorn just under her nail, her eyes gleaming slightly in the dim light as she did so. Gyv herself did not notice, forgetting a scant few seconds later that she had done so.</p><p> </p><p>Beyond the thorn bushes was a small clearing, all entrances similarly covered by the tainted plants. Within the centre of the clearing was a small altar, the sides stained with blood, the ground around it reddened from a recent sacrifice. The smell of dried and rotting blood reached their nose, and they instinctively stepped back, looking about the clearing for whoever tended to the site.</p><p> </p><p>Gruzz knelt down, scanning the area, carefully noting the placement of every strand of grass, every root that he could see. The silence remained unbroken save for the sounds of small insects rasping and the occasional bird calling out its territory. Everything seemed in place, peaceful; only the altar and its bloody remnants any indication that this was different to the myriad other clearings they had marched by, and through. Eventually he stood, moving forward slowly, the group following behind as he skirted along the edges of the clearing, keeping his distance from the bloodied altar. </p><p> </p><p>Half way round the circle, with the altar to his right, the air shimmered, and the temperature in the air rising as if a curtain had been lifted into Hell itself. Standing on the altar, with a smile upon its face, stood a fiend. Easily nine feet tall it had massive, heavily muscled arms, thick gold and platinum bracers upon its wrists, and an armoured skirt around its waist. Faint flames danced around him, dying away as he jumped down, landing with catlike grace on the grass.</p><p> </p><p>"What, passing by without saying hello? How rude!" The fiend's voice was melodic, cultured. It looked at the group, its face betraying no warmth, though it stood with a smile upon its face. Then his lips moved, to reveal rows of sharp fangs, his hands came up in front, claws rhythmically clacking against each other, making an odd noise. The stand off did not last long.</p><p> </p><p>From where he stood Mekior saw the fiend, saw the hated enemy standing there, a cold smile upon its face. His war cry was inarticulate, but his actions more than eloquent enough! In one smooth motion, he jumped forward, closing the gap to the enemy, his sword being drawn in mid-air, striking down at the fiend as he landed, the momentum of his movement providing devastating power to his blow. </p><p> </p><p>And from behind he heard laughter, the image in front of him flickering, dying away. He moved just in time, he ducked and rolled away, nimble despite the confines of his armour; his sword spinning round with the rest of him, blocking the claw that had appeared from behind, that had been swung with enough force to decapitate him with a single strike. The claw clanged off his sword as he twisted his body around, and brought his sword back to a ready position before him. Mekior saw Jeria charging forward, his axe at the ready with Gruzz close behind and Gyv drawing her bow.</p><p> </p><p>The fiend moved, it flipped itself over, striking with its feet at Mekior while, somehow, managing to twist itself so that Jeria’s axe passed harmlessly by. Once again, Mekior found himself forced onto the defensive, his sword sweeping up to block the taloned feet, keeping the wickedly sharp edges from his face. Gruzz’s axe crashed into his sword, sending vibrations up his arm. With a look of despair, Gruzz caught Mekior’s eye; the devil had manoeuvred the two to perfection; Gruzz blocked the line of sight from Gyv, stopping her from releasing her arrow for fear of hitting the massive half-ogre, Mekior's blade had done double duty as shield for the fiend.</p><p> </p><p>Frustrated, Gruzz reversed his swing, sending his axe low, while Jeria cut high, Mekior's sword slashing through the centre. All hit nothing, stumbling off balance as the fiend disappeared, laughing as it reappeared atop the altar. </p><p> </p><p>"Ah, all the poor little heroes can't hit one little devil?" It spread its arms wide, releasing darts of flame that shot out at the three. They dodged aside, scattering in all directions, Gruzz cried out in pain, engulfed in fire as three of the darts shot into him. Mekior ducked beneath the darts that shot towards him, rolling beneath them and feeling their heat as they passed above him, setting alight some of the dry thorn bushes behind to send billowing sheets of foul smelling smoke into the air. He came up with his sword and stabbed into the gut of the devil, spilling its entrails to the ground, leaving the altar slick with its blood. Jeria, in turn spun out, allowing the flaming missiles to pass him by. They singed his hair, leaving red, inflamed skin in their wake. He swung out with his axe, the momentum from how he had dodged the missiles imparted to the axe, the blade a blur as it chopped into the fiend and sent its arm, trailing a stream of blood, into the night. </p><p> </p><p>Gyv, her bow lowered to the ground, watched as the fiend collapsed and felt a clutch of horror. She was sure it had looked at her, had winked as it went down. She felt cold, fearful and still could not tell the others her fears, how the face laughed mockingly at her in the night. She looked at them, hoping that they would see the despair, the inability to communicate, upon her face. Neither of the two said anything, engrossed with the damage done to Gruzz; they moved across to where Gruzz’s body lay and they looked at the body burnt and blackened, unrecognisable if they had not already known who it was.</p><p> </p><p>The three stood there, Gruzz’s burnt body at the feet of Mekior and Jeria, the gutted, dismembered corpse of the fiend just a short way off. They moved off into the forest, stripping the devil of its items, taking the corpse of Gruzz to bury nearby. The night was cold, the stars uncaring as the three sat, contemplating their loss; and the altar in the forest that seemed to have no reason for existence.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ghostknight, post: 3366287, member: 15338"] [b]Rule of Darkness- Updated 26 February 2007[/b] The four sat in silence; Gruzz, Jeria, Gyv and Mekior looked at each other with no one willing to break the silence. The creaking of the door as it opened caused all heads to turn in its direction; four pairs of eyes followed the halfling that entered the room. Instantly recognisable to them all as Delire, her small steps carried her across the room rapidly. Delire took a seat opposite them, looking at them one by one before talking. "Thanks, all of you. By now the three of you have heard Gyv's story, how she was bitten by a tainted squirrel, found herself outside the forest, and tried to commit suicide by using the testing pin." "It would seem that the pin did not kill her, but did destroy the taint. Mekior, you inspected her, tested her, would you agree?" From where he sat, Mekior leaned forward, a large smile on his face. "Oh, yes. I can happily confirm that I detect no trace or taint of the fiends about her." At his side, Gyv cringed inwardly, but remained outwardly calm. She saw all the faces around her; Delire who had come to interrogate her and find out her story; the two Outwalkers that had found her and brought her into the city; and the Fiend Hunter that had inspected her and declared her free of taint. If I'm so pure, what is the laughter I hear every night? Why can I not speak of that face, that voice, the laughter that resounds within? Gyv came to, noticing that the conversation had stopped, that everyone was looking at her. "Sorry, I, uh, just lost track of what was being said." "It's ok Gyv, you're still recovering. I was just asking if you wished to return home or remain within the city?" Delire got up, stepped forward to pat her hand, her child size hands rough against Gyv's skin, the calluses from training with the sword spoiling any illusion of childlike innocence. "You are welcome to stay here as long as you need. Knowledge of your work has come to us, and we are honoured by your presence." Delire backed off, sitting back down on her chair, her short legs swinging above the floor. Gyv bowed her head, thinking. Could she go home when she was unsure of herself, when she did not trust herself or her dreams? She was better off here, in a city with all the protections that her simple home in the House of Souls lacked. She looked up, opening her mouth to tell them her decision, and then unbelieving, listened to what her own mouth was saying. "Thank you; I miss my home, my husband and children. I do not know where I am, though. Your city is but a rumour where I live, and I do not know where I left the forest, how I got within, or how I will get back." "That is why we are gathered here. Gruzz volunteered to escort you. He offered his skills in your service; my guess is that he just wants to get out of the city. Jeria is apprenticed to Gruzz and will go where he goes." She turned to Mekior, looking him in the eyes, "I need to know if you will accompany them. Gruzz is knowledgeable on the outside, as is Gyv, but if there is trouble an extra sword may be needed. I want you to go with. Provide your skills with sword, and, more importantly, your ability to detect the fiends before they can be seen." Mekior looked at Delire, and than at Gruzz. He knew them both by reputation and trusted their instincts. The woman and half-fiend were unknown quantities. He trusted the woman's reputation, but he doubted the half-fiend and feared facing the unknown with one such as him at his side. Then there was the outside. The tunnels were comfortable enough: known, sheltered, part of home and the environment he knew. The outside was, well, the outside. Unknown, dangerous, fiend ridden, the last decided him. "I'm in. Lets hope we do run into some fiends, I have some scores to settle." He settled back, letting the others talk, plan the trip. He would go along with them; his bow at the ready, his sword there to cut through fiendish skin should any show themselves. The conversation washed around him as he dreamed of fiendish blood pooling on the ground below. *** The gap to the outside stood before them. Gruzz had gone first to check on the area outside, to ensure its safety. The rest stood and watched Mekior as he stood before the gap. Sweat came down his face, his hands gripping either side of the gap, knuckles white. He looked back at them, his eyes showing panic. He backed off from the gap, shaking his head. "I can't do it. Outside. It's too big, too much." He collapsed, head held between his hands, tears of frustration falling from his face. "I can't do it. Forgive me." Gyv stood, looking at him, frustrated. Jeria pushed forward, moving Gyv out the way, knelt beside him. "I went out for the first time a mere six days before I met you. I stood at this gap, felt the air from the outside and wondered how I could exist without the comfort of the cavern, the soothing presence of rock around me." He stopped talking as he saw Mekior turn to him, look at him. He started again, aware that the Fiend Hunter was fixated on his words. "I don't know how I did it, I took that one last deep breathe and forced myself out, breaching the gap, entering the world outside the way a babe must leave its mother womb. Once out, it was a revelation. The air is different, sweeter. And the trees, they are wondrous, not the small little things that you find within; out there they are amazing, huge, beyond your imagination. Just stand, walk to the gap, breathe in and walk out." Jeria stopped, hoping that his speech had been effective. They waited, watching as Mekior stood slowly, gathered himself, breathed in deeply and virtually dived out the gap. Jeria followed quickly, knowing he was breaking the exit order they had agreed on, but deciding he needed to be there to see how Mekior handled the outside. He found him hugging the ground, rigid in terror; eyes wide open at the empty sky overhead. Behind him, he heard Gyv coming out, stepping up beside him. "Just chuck him inside and let us get moving. He's going to be useless to us." Jeria looked at her, saw Gruzz come up to the couple standing over the rigid Mekior. "Jeria, take his arms, lift him up. Get him under cover; we’ll give him until morning to get out of this. If he's still like this in the morning we'll send him home." Gruzz watched as Jeria lifted the close to catatonic Mekior to his feet, half dragging him to the cover of the trees. Gyv followed, automatically erasing the tracks they left. She felt cleaner, safer under the trees, once more on her way to her home; but she feared the voice that had spoken for her, that had changed her choice to stay away from those she would not endanger. *** The morning light arrived. Jeria had climbed into the upper branches of a tree, from whence he watched as the golden orb lifted above the canopy of the forest, as the sky went from black, to turquoise to alive with golden fire. He watched, elated, loving the way the sun reflected off the clouds, the way the trees changed colour in the light. He watched for as long as he could and then, with a sigh, descended to the ground, to where Gruzz stood with Mekior and Gyv. With the light, and the canopy of the forest overhead, Mekior had recovered. He looked at the rest of the group, his face a mask of misery knowing how these people had all seen him in his moment of weakness. Worse, the half-fiend had been the one to push him, to move him, to get his courage up. Mekior felt shamed, a failure, one of his enemy better than he. He walked behind Gruzz, his mind working on the problem, worrying that if they should leave the canopy of the forest he would be paralysed by the sight of the open sky yet again. The group stepped quietly through the shadows, the occasional beams of light that shone through the leaves overhead illuminating the forest floor in patches, giving it an eerie quality. They travelled mostly in silence, their thoughts company to their silent march. Mekior worried at his weakness, fearing his fear of the open might betray him, Gruzz worried about the path, unknown, moving into territory he did not know intimately. For Jeria it was fear of the fiends, never met but always lurking on the edge of perception. And Gyv? She feared the voice she heard every night, the laughter that haunted her sleep and stole her will. She looked back over her shoulder, at the mountain peak that was fading behind her. If you asked her why, she would not have been able to tell you, it just felt right, a compulsive action that helped her to orient herself as they moved deeper into the trees that soon hid the sight of the mountain behind them. *** Two days travel passed uneventfully beneath the green canopy, ears strained for the sounds of movement, for a glimpse of anything that may prove threatening. They saw nothing and the silence was only occasionally broken as Gruzz took time to point something out to Jeria, to teach him some of the vast lore and knowledge of the outside world he had accumulated over years of travel. Gyv fell into the same pattern, pulling Jeria aside, pointing out plants, small insects and creatures, and telling him of their properties; which were useful and which to be avoided. Even Mekior occasionally dropped his hostility towards the half-fiend to point out the minute details that provided clues as to what was, and was not, tainted. The other three often thought him crazy, not seeing what he said was obvious, but never doubted his word. Jeria absorbed it all, his thirst for knowledge of the outside world insatiable. He found himself lying awake at nights, peering through gaps in the trees trying to catch a glimpse of the stars above. The world was a revelation to him, so much more than the stone halls of his world before; so much more alive, more bewildering. His ancestry meant that he did not need the same amount of rest as his compatriots; he used this unnatural stamina to stay awake for long hours, conversing with Gyv and Gruzz as they sat on guard duty. He used the time of Mekior's watch to get the sleep he needed, knowing that this, too, marked him as different to the Fiend Hunter, and added to the sense of otherness that the Fiend Hunter hated within him. It was just after midday on the third day when it happened. Gruzz led them through a thicket of thorn bushes. The group was careful to make sure no one was scratched; Gruzz had noted the reddish sap clinging to the points of some thorns as they approached, and Mekior had agreed with his assessment that the bushes were tainted. None noticed that Gyv, as she went through last behind the rest, carefully placed a thorn just under her nail, her eyes gleaming slightly in the dim light as she did so. Gyv herself did not notice, forgetting a scant few seconds later that she had done so. Beyond the thorn bushes was a small clearing, all entrances similarly covered by the tainted plants. Within the centre of the clearing was a small altar, the sides stained with blood, the ground around it reddened from a recent sacrifice. The smell of dried and rotting blood reached their nose, and they instinctively stepped back, looking about the clearing for whoever tended to the site. Gruzz knelt down, scanning the area, carefully noting the placement of every strand of grass, every root that he could see. The silence remained unbroken save for the sounds of small insects rasping and the occasional bird calling out its territory. Everything seemed in place, peaceful; only the altar and its bloody remnants any indication that this was different to the myriad other clearings they had marched by, and through. Eventually he stood, moving forward slowly, the group following behind as he skirted along the edges of the clearing, keeping his distance from the bloodied altar. Half way round the circle, with the altar to his right, the air shimmered, and the temperature in the air rising as if a curtain had been lifted into Hell itself. Standing on the altar, with a smile upon its face, stood a fiend. Easily nine feet tall it had massive, heavily muscled arms, thick gold and platinum bracers upon its wrists, and an armoured skirt around its waist. Faint flames danced around him, dying away as he jumped down, landing with catlike grace on the grass. "What, passing by without saying hello? How rude!" The fiend's voice was melodic, cultured. It looked at the group, its face betraying no warmth, though it stood with a smile upon its face. Then his lips moved, to reveal rows of sharp fangs, his hands came up in front, claws rhythmically clacking against each other, making an odd noise. The stand off did not last long. From where he stood Mekior saw the fiend, saw the hated enemy standing there, a cold smile upon its face. His war cry was inarticulate, but his actions more than eloquent enough! In one smooth motion, he jumped forward, closing the gap to the enemy, his sword being drawn in mid-air, striking down at the fiend as he landed, the momentum of his movement providing devastating power to his blow. And from behind he heard laughter, the image in front of him flickering, dying away. He moved just in time, he ducked and rolled away, nimble despite the confines of his armour; his sword spinning round with the rest of him, blocking the claw that had appeared from behind, that had been swung with enough force to decapitate him with a single strike. The claw clanged off his sword as he twisted his body around, and brought his sword back to a ready position before him. Mekior saw Jeria charging forward, his axe at the ready with Gruzz close behind and Gyv drawing her bow. The fiend moved, it flipped itself over, striking with its feet at Mekior while, somehow, managing to twist itself so that Jeria’s axe passed harmlessly by. Once again, Mekior found himself forced onto the defensive, his sword sweeping up to block the taloned feet, keeping the wickedly sharp edges from his face. Gruzz’s axe crashed into his sword, sending vibrations up his arm. With a look of despair, Gruzz caught Mekior’s eye; the devil had manoeuvred the two to perfection; Gruzz blocked the line of sight from Gyv, stopping her from releasing her arrow for fear of hitting the massive half-ogre, Mekior's blade had done double duty as shield for the fiend. Frustrated, Gruzz reversed his swing, sending his axe low, while Jeria cut high, Mekior's sword slashing through the centre. All hit nothing, stumbling off balance as the fiend disappeared, laughing as it reappeared atop the altar. "Ah, all the poor little heroes can't hit one little devil?" It spread its arms wide, releasing darts of flame that shot out at the three. They dodged aside, scattering in all directions, Gruzz cried out in pain, engulfed in fire as three of the darts shot into him. Mekior ducked beneath the darts that shot towards him, rolling beneath them and feeling their heat as they passed above him, setting alight some of the dry thorn bushes behind to send billowing sheets of foul smelling smoke into the air. He came up with his sword and stabbed into the gut of the devil, spilling its entrails to the ground, leaving the altar slick with its blood. Jeria, in turn spun out, allowing the flaming missiles to pass him by. They singed his hair, leaving red, inflamed skin in their wake. He swung out with his axe, the momentum from how he had dodged the missiles imparted to the axe, the blade a blur as it chopped into the fiend and sent its arm, trailing a stream of blood, into the night. Gyv, her bow lowered to the ground, watched as the fiend collapsed and felt a clutch of horror. She was sure it had looked at her, had winked as it went down. She felt cold, fearful and still could not tell the others her fears, how the face laughed mockingly at her in the night. She looked at them, hoping that they would see the despair, the inability to communicate, upon her face. Neither of the two said anything, engrossed with the damage done to Gruzz; they moved across to where Gruzz’s body lay and they looked at the body burnt and blackened, unrecognisable if they had not already known who it was. The three stood there, Gruzz’s burnt body at the feet of Mekior and Jeria, the gutted, dismembered corpse of the fiend just a short way off. They moved off into the forest, stripping the devil of its items, taking the corpse of Gruzz to bury nearby. The night was cold, the stars uncaring as the three sat, contemplating their loss; and the altar in the forest that seemed to have no reason for existence. [/QUOTE]
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Rule of Darkness -Book II Chapter 3 Last Update 19 June 2008- Book I Completed
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