[2005/01] Assault

[Ziv]

[turbine]

http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=337

Tirenia shoved her blade into the Shadow's throat and watched as its corpse fell to the floor. She had no time to savor her victory. The cloaked ones were upon her.


"Soldiers of Dereth! To me!" she cried. The Queen's Royal Guard, scattered and battered by the sudden attack, converged on Tirenia. They wore a patchwork of armor and cloak. Many had been asleep when the Vault had been breached. None of them had ever expected an attack in this most secret of locations. Now they paid the price for that arrogance.


The creatures swarmed through the portal. Virindi, Drudges, and Shadows clawed their way forward, slicing through her soldiers with fearsome savagery. Her men screamed and died. Surely, they were being resurrected at the Queen's palace. The Queen must know of the assault. Surely, reinforcements were on the way.


"Fall back! To the warehouse!" Tirenia's men turned and ran. She decapitated a Drudge who had the bad sense to turn his back to her, then followed after.


But her retreat did not last long. A great boom sounded behind her. An explosion of some sort flung her to the ground. She lost her grip on her sword, and it clanged away across the stone floor.


Tirenia turned and looked back at the portal. Something else had just arrived. Something large. She could scarcely believe her eyes. What new alliance was this?


The creature reared back, and threw.


Tirenia tried to crawl out of the way, but she was simply too slow. The massive boulder dashed her brains across the Vault floor.


*****


Cyphis Suldow stepped out of portal space and entered the chilly, northern town. He had tried his best to clear the spot of its filthy inhabitants, but he simply was not the warrior he wished he was. He had often attempted the path of the blade, but had always met with failure. His mother had told him many times that he would amount to nothing in his life, and thus far he had proved her correct.


But the time to show that damnable woman just what sort of man he was drew nigh. He had a plan. A grand, glorious plan. And if he wasn't strong enough to carry it out, then by Pwyll he would find someone who was.


*****


Acid and bile seared his flesh. The screams of the beasts assaulted his ears. The stench of fear hung from his fetid form like a shroud.


He clawed his way past a pile of chitinous corpses with scarred, bloodied hands. The monsters raged behind him, a clash of beasts more fearsome than any he had dared imagine on Ispar. Their attentions were focused on each other for now. They did not notice one frightened man in his desperate bid for escape.


He had hidden in these tunnels for months. Fleeing from the Knights. Fleeing from the beasts. But they had found him. They had tried to kill him. Luckily, the insects had intervened.


He used the battle to his advantage. He ran. He dug. He hid.


It had been so long. So many months beneath the earth. So many months of blood and bile. He did not remember the sun. He did not remember his home. He barely remembered his name. All he did remember was her face. That face which he would never see again.


Carlo clawed past the corpses. A wall of green, hardened ooze plugged the hallway ahead of him. He pried it apart, and fled into the dark beyond. Deep within, he spied something he had not seen in months. Something beautiful. Something wonderful.


*****


Loh-Gann Huhjj traversed the sun-baked Dires with his vassal Ghunjara bint Dulsama. The two had been hunting for hours, though they had yet to find one of the weapons Krilian Starstone had told them about earlier that morning. Weapons much deadlier than any they had found in any of their previous hunts. Krilian bragged that he was able to outpace even Loh-Gann's formidable hunting ability with these new weapons.


Loh-Gann did not take kindly to such jests. He prided himself on being the most skilled warrior in his allegiance. He knew other monarchs who were content to merely provide their allegiances with weapons, armor, and spells. But not Loh-Gann. He was a leader. He was the one at the front of the pack in every battle. He was the one with the most notches on his blade. And he would let his vassals call him a lying blue-skin before they could claim to be a better huntsman than he.


Loh-Gann unsheathed his blade and plunged into the Justicar's back before it even knew a threat was upon it. In a matter of moments, the Lugian was dead. Loh-Gann rifled through its pack and tossed aside the usual assortment of jewelry and worthless armor.


"Doesn't look like there's anything there," Ghunjara said bitterly.


Loh-Gann picked a tattered leather coat out of the creature's pack and flung it over his shoulder. He turned to leave, but a glint caught his eye.


There, beneath the scattered remains of the Lugian's inventory, gleamed a bright, silver blade.


Loh-Gann smiled.

[Ziv]

[turbine]

http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=341

There was no warning. Daryam was on the way to his shop when the huge, bulbous thing floated overhead. The creatures on board pelted him with a barrage of feline screams, jolting the man out of his morning reverie. He fell to the ground, dropping his bag of precious gems. Covering his head, he cowered in fear of the death which would surely rain down upon him.


But after several moments of waiting, that death did not come. Daryam dared a peek. The flesh-covered thing floated above the desert and disappeared over the sea. Daryam had seen many strange things in his time, but this was something new entirely.