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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spider_Jerusalem" data-source="post: 2399016" data-attributes="member: 5507">"You shouldn't ask a lady that"Errilinth stood motionless, watching with trepidation as the child that she had been charged to defend all those years ago left her side of his own free will. Clasping the pendant around her neck with a gnarled hand, Errilinth gazed past the scattered beams and the burnt timbers to the gallery of frightened faces huddling against the far wall. All their eyes were now on the woman in red standing alone in the centre of the town hall. She watched them for a moment. Their fearful eyes, their burnt clothes, their shrivelled hope.Turning away from the cowering townsfolk, Errilinth followed Merrick into the light, lifting her hand to protect herself from the glaring sun. Squinting out across the skirmish below, the townsfolk had circled a dead ettin. Their frenzied attacks dared not slow to see if the beast was truly dead. Their leader was a halfling who slid his blood-slick shortsword into the fallen giant again and again. Merrick jogged towards the fray.She will know soon. Errilinth stood calmly at the top of the steps. She had let Merrick act as he wanted, only guiding him as a dam can redirect water. What was about to happen was inevitable, she had known that right from the beginning. But it didn't make it any easier, and her chest stung with loss already.- - - - - - - - - -Torious staggered his attack again, driving Freedom’s Edge hard into the belly of the creature. Dropping away a step, he found himself back to back with the woman in the red armour. The ettin began to move defensively. One of the heads lolled useless and dead on its chest. “Who are you?” grunted Torious as his shield guided a flailing blow from the ettin into the ground.“You shouldn’t ask a lady that,” came the clipped reply as she sidestepped to her right, purposefully knocking against Torious, “who are you?”Torious gritted his teeth as the ettin bellowed again and lumbered forwards, “I’m Torious Mangrane. I am a descendant of Tyr the even-han…”“Great,” interrupted the woman in red as she suddenly spun to face the Aasimar and pulled herself dangerously close to Torious, “I’m Vaerana Hawklyn. Pleased to meet you.” Vaerana grinned wickedly at Torious then thrust away from him with a powerful kick, sending the bewildered Torious skidding onto his back with a crash. A second later the ettin’s huge club thundered into the ground where the two warriors once were. Vaerana landed in a crouch, then immediately darted forwards to attack the stooped giant. But she was stopped short as the ettin collapsed in on itself in a cascade of crystallised ice.Thalin stood haggard on the mound of smouldering rubble around him; his hand outstretched towards the frosted ettin. His eyes glared at the sundered corpse of the giant with a blaze of vengeance, “Bastard”. His energy spent, Thalin wavered once then toppled sideways with a gasp of pain.Closer to the town hall, the workers of the village stood in a silent circle around the felled giant, weapons held awkwardly as they watched the cold fury of the halfling.Milo thrust the blade downwards again, his small hands painted red with the ettin’s blood. His eyes focused, breathing steady and hands tight around the hilt of Vampire, Milo continued to strike methodically into the dead giants back. Hushed words were exchanged between the villagers, and Merrick pushed through the crowd, his hand outstretched to the halfling as if to hold him back,“Halfling, halt. The beast is dead and gone”.Merrick approached cautiously. Everything was silent save for the soft crunch of his boots in the snow and the rhythmic schlick schlick of the halfling’s sword. Milo abruptly halted his attack mid strike and twisted towards the young man. A viscous line of blood trailed from Vampire and swung like a pendulum between them. Merrick halted and looked into the blood-spattered eyes of the halfling. Milo's pupils were alien pin pricks, swallowed amid a network of pulsing red veins. Milo's face was expressionless as Vampire flickered forwards in a liquid arc, the blade sliding neatly into Merrick’s mouth and out the back of his neck. Blood fountained over the assembled crowd. At the top of the town hall steps, Errilinth screamed.</blockquote>

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