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Not changing my speed of the way I was walking, I made some half-hearted gesture into the darkness and mumbled something that was inaudible and sounding name-like. |
The trio sitting near the tiny campfire and sitting on blocks of stone repurposed into seats turned and looked my way, and all bar one did little more than shrug and turn back to the fire. While the night wasn’t cold, they too were rugged up under their cloaks in an attempt to ward off the hundreds of flying insects h... |
"What the oblivion are you doing?" said the first, still squinting as I ambled my way casually over to them. "Shifts not swapping over for a while yet." |
"Couldn’t sleep. Fucking bugs." |
They all shared a collective chuckle that was dark and filled with understanding, especially when one slapped himself in the face loudly and grimaced as his hand came away with a spot of blood. "Fuck this place." he growled, wiping the mangled bug that had been biting into his cheek onto the front of his gambeson and ... |
"You got that right." Agreed the third of their group, a woman by her build and voice. She was so rugged up that there was barely any trace of her underneath the folds of the cloak and hood but the bitterness was obvious. |
As I moved much closer, the bandit who had first spotted me twisted and spat into the darkness, idly scratching under the cuff of his armour at what was undoubtedly insect bites. His expression was also bitter and consumed with annoyance, but as I moved almost within arm’s reach of them it turned to confusion as he ma... |
The bushy eyebrows frowned in puzzlement as his cursory glance turned into a careful one and I knew that he had seen the way that my legs were covered in mud and still dripping with water. Covered by my acquired cloak all that was visible were my legs from the knees down and it was enough to make him suspicious. I cou... |
In a flicker of movement my arms appeared from within the folds of my acquired cloak, gripping him by the shoulder tightly and plunging my dagger to the hilt in his temple. There was a fleshy thud and the slightest hint of bone crunching as I jammed the blade into the depths of his brain and the second before I twiste... |
The other two reacted with all the speed of tired men and women who had spent months within the depths of the Blackwood. There was shock, surprise and realisation as their comrade toppled over and even before their conscious minds had grasped the situation they were reacting. Through the curse pumping through my veins... |
It was not from the sounds of fighting or dying or even a scream or shouted cry but from the way the third and last bandit flailed away from me as I hurled myself at him. With a half cut off cry he fell backwards off the chunk of stone he had been using as a seat and it was the metallic clatter of his equipment and ar... |
Knowing that there was no time to spare, I ripped one of the burning logs from the fire and began waving it into the sky, twisting it back and forth for the rest of our group waiting in the marsh and on the other side of the tiny strip of land. The shouts and questions from within the fort grew louder, more urgent bef... |
"You never seem to be able to do anything the easy way, can you mrannd’ssinss?" Little more than a shadow, Viconia seemed to appear from nowhere and joined me by the tiny fire and the trio of dead and dying bandits. In the darkness before us it was as though a nest of ants had been kicked as some of their number began... |
A quick glance over my shoulder was all that I needed to tell me that the others were going to be some time before they could reach us. My vampirism allowed me to see Weebam-Na and Bejeen pushing their way up onto the banks but the others still had over fifty metres of waterlogged ground to cover in full armour. And t... |
Without a further word, Viconia broke out into a jog across the ruined gatehouse as easily as it had been a grassy plain, Dragonbane already gripped in one hand and the tinge of magicka beginning to form in the palm of a hand. My dagger had found its way back into its sheath without conscious effort from myself and sh... |
A dozen silhouettes were moving towards us, calling out and shouting their queries into the night as were charged them. Whether it was the last shreds of sleep releasing its grip from their minds or the instinctive hope that it was all a misunderstanding they were slow to react. The first who crossed my path died on S... |
The tumbled stones of the gatehouse were treacherous and I was nearing the bottom when my boot skidded on a patch of moss made slippery with blood and I fell in front of the nearest foes. Only saved by my vampirism I somehow managed to roll tightly, feeling my shoulder groan in response even as I came up swinging. It ... |
More and more of the bandits were swarming, writhing out from their beds and sleeping arrangements in bleary eyed groups that struggled to understand what was happening. The tent I was near disgorged a pair of half-naked individuals and I blocked a clumsy slice of a dagger with one of my own that cut a hand away. Scre... |
Sailing out of the night like they had during the battle in the village, a spear as long as his staff punched into his chest, ripping him from his feet and throwing him backwards in a tumble of limbs. The first spear was joined by a second, and a third thudded into another bandit’s thigh near Viconia as Weebam-Na and ... |
There were dozens of the Black Bows within the fort but our only real advantage other than our surprise assault was that these were even more poorly equipped and trained than those who we had fought in the village. Wearing little, and not just because of being caught unawares during the night they were limited to boil... |
But whether they had been designed for war or not mattered very little as they were still more than capable of taking lives. A dagger could slip between armoured plates and penetrate chain link, poleaxes could hack through armour and wooden mallets could break bones through armour if struck correctly and with enough f... |
So I fought for space. I fought for time. I fought for enough seconds to allow the other half of our group to wade across a thin patch of sunken dirt covered in ankle deep water while wearing heavy armour. I cut legs and hacked at faces. I sliced Sunchild across at head height and forced the dozen or so untrained band... |
I fought for the Nine. |
The thought that entered my mind made me blink and almost miss the spear-thrust aiming for the thinner armour of my groin and I only barely managed to parry it away at the last second. The spearman blanched at the sight of me flicking the spear away, reaching forward and ripping him off his feet with my left hand whil... |
For almost two decades I had fought for a number of things. I had fought for bets or in tavern brawls, served the Empire and received the Emperor’s Septim for crossing blades or loosing arrows into anyone or anything deigned to be a foe of Tamriel. There had been so many years and so many battles that I had fought whi... |
My laughter echoed over the cracks of metal on wood and metal on metal, and even over the screams of hatred, fear and pain. It was loud enough that it drew Viconia’s attention for the briefest of moments and she too began laughing in her own way and for her own reasons but it was drowned out as I kicked a foe away and... |
"For the Nine!" |
A trio of bandits wielding spears tripped and fell as their hammer wielding comrade I had kicked fell onto them knocked them down. They and the others who were threatening to surround me all flinched away from my voice as much as my sword, but their eyes were pulled from me as my cry was answered in kind. |
Scrabbling and sliding with far more grace than I had managed Detane and Alexi joined the fray and almost leapt into the bandits streaming from the canvass tents and interiors of the fort. Alexi returned my shout with one of his own but it and whatever cry that parted Detane’s lips was drowned by the dual roars from a... |
Roaring Talos’ name into the sky, Falid clenched his fists with one brandishing the enormous length of his greatsword to his side. The sheer force of his voice despite the strange muffling from wearing his great helm sent a ripple of shock through the press around us. From their position at the base of the slight rise... |
Mazoga had also appeared but unlike the rest of us she hung back momentarily, looking across the crowding enemies with narrowed eyes. The famous battle-lust of her kind was driving her one but she was hunting rather than charging and her battle cry joined the rest of us in its emotional fury. When she reached the roug... |
A trained force of adversaries would have been able to take advantage of their numbers and hem us in and surround us until we tired but the Black Bows were incapable of doing as such. They fought as a pack of individuals that tripped, befouled and otherwise hindered each other unintentionally. Their attacks were spoil... |
They did however have the advantage of being able to concentrate on us as individuals and even as the battle fully joined we found ourselves the target of arrows. Some of them had the clarity of mind to gather their namesakes and find positions to loose arrows at us through the darkness and chaos of the fight. The odd... |
Outnumbered, fending off anywhere between half a dozen to a dozen foes each it should have been a quick and decisive fight upon the part of the Black Bows but instead they were wavering. Within the first minutes of the battle we had killed or otherwise crippled and wounded a score of them and with every death the thre... |
Left partially out of the fight, Weebam-Na and Bejeen didn’t have the skill, training or equipment to get into the middle of what was almost a brawl and so they were left lurking around the edges. They would dart in with a spear or retrieved javelin, kill, wound or otherwise harass our foes before darting away into th... |
Over the screams, clashing metal and shouts I heard Alexi’s name shouted from a baritone voice a few seconds before a sour faced man dressed in tarnished plate rushed him from the press. Appearing well into his fifties, the bandit chief and Alexi suddenly found themselves in the centre of an opened space as the rest o... |
Greagious was not the only champion and leader of the Black Bows, and from the ruins a handful of others appeared. The four of them were as impressive as their kind usually were; all tall, heavily muscled and well experienced in the art of using their physicality to order lesser beings about. Unsurprisingly one was a ... |
Making a conscious decision, the group looked between the members of our party and chose to face me rather than my companions. In a way I didn’t blame them, as I certainly didn’t want to try to contend with the giant black armoured warrior cutting men and women into twitching pieces, or the dark elf killing anyone who... |
At least, they tried to. The bandits around me fell back as their armoured commanders moved in my direction but before they even made it a handful of paces a bellow ripped through the night. |
Catching sight of one of the Nords approaching me, Mazoga redoubled her efforts at killing everything and everyone in between them. There was a hesitation from them as a crushed corpse was thrown into the air from a powerful underarmed swing and the bandit commanders paused in mid step. |
The powerfully built Nord with his beard matted into greasy dreadlocks shrugged and gripped his axe tightly as Mazoga began shouldering her way towards him. "Kill this fucker quickly, I’ll deal with this bitch." |
Heedless of the weapons that chopped down onto her heavily battered and dented armour and the arrows and spears punching through the gaps, Mazoga gave another spittle ejecting roar and smashed her way through the last of the bandits with as much force as a destrier. With shield and axe in hand the Nordic commander of ... |
"You’ve come a long way to die." Proclaimed the brutish orc dressed in his cobbled together armour. He outweighed me and his armour appeared to be even stronger than mine if I ignored the fact that mine was forged from ebony and mithril. Like many living such a lifestyle, his weapon of choice was brutal, cheap but dan... |
His fellows were also impressive specimens. The other Nord was large and heavily tattooed, his forearms bare and showing a wrestler’s physique while the Argonian was equal in weight with claws, fangs and horns looking sharp enough to carve through leather. Three against one wasn’t entirely sporting odds but for the mo... |
Glancing over the enormous flail, the clubbed polearm and the enchanted blade that the Nord, Orc and Argonian were carrying respectively I pulled my mask down and grinned fiercely. I was covered in mud and gore, dripping with moisture and feeling the numerous insect bites from the countless marsh species across my bod... |
"Oh? Surrendering already?" mocked the Nord with the flail, swinging it back and forth in preparation for the enormous, bone shattering swings as he moved to flank me. "Have your balls shrunk so high that they are caught in your throat?" |
Grunting, the orc stepped closer brandishing his enormous club while rolling his impressive shoulders. It would have been intimidating if not for the fact that I had just spent a week travelling with a man who made everything smaller than a minotaur seem weak in comparison. "When you get to Oblivion." He growled, twir... |
Laughing in his face, I reached up behind my head and drew the Light of Dawn in a quick, but steady motion. "It’s funny that you think you can take the hero of Kvatch." |
My title sent a shiver of recognition through the group and while most were entirely incredulous or disbelieving it was this tiny hesitation that I had been counting on. The shimmering length of the Light of Dawn cut through the night and the darkness, twirling it as I gripped in it both hands and swiped at the flail ... |
He saw my attack coming and reacted, ripping the heavy weighted ball from where it was dangling in a movement that against a regular weapon would have tangled it in the chain. It was a movement that would’ve resulted in the effective disarming of an opponent but the Light of Dawn cut through the links like they were m... |
The shock of his death didn’t register for him or any of the others watching and before he had begun to fall apart I was already moving, turning on my heel and launching myself at the Argonian wielding the enchanted blade. I could feel the cold emanating from the blade as the lizard’s eyes widened in surprise at my mo... |
Incomparable and flawless in design and its edge to any other mortally forged weapon, the enchantments bound into the skymetal of the Light of Dawn couldn’t contend with other magically bound items. Since I had nearly been disarmed against the Xivilai the night I assisted the rangers, I had tested the Light of Dawn an... |
Against the Argonian’s sword of frost it resounded with a clang and left a tiny chip in the stolen blade. Without giving the lizard a chance to react, I pushed in closer before twisting my wrist and running the Light of Dawn down the entire length of his weapon. The folded metal of the blade itself may have been encha... |
As he hissed in surprise and agony, I twisted my attack in mid motion and turned the slice into a powerful stab that transfixed him through the chest and folded him over. Only a handful of seconds had passed since I had launched my attack against the bandit commanders and already two were dead and the enormous "Black ... |
"Ah... I... Uh..." he stammered, looking this way and that and trying to back away from me without appearing to do so. The others around who had been watching were staring aghast at how effortlessly I had killed two of their number considered to be their champions. |
"Yield." I hissed threateningly, all the time moving towards him with the Light of Dawn clasped tight. |
"Sure. Whatever you say. I surrender to the better man." |
To anyone not expecting it, the blow that he tried to land would have been something of a surprise but I had seen it coming. I had fought and trained with some of the greatest fighters that Tamriel had to offer even before I had deserted and this particular bandit couldn’t have made his duplicity any more obvious even... |
Spurting blood from the thick stump of a neck, the surprised expression on the orc’s face rolled off into the darkness as the entire body dropped nervously to the ground. The three bandits were dead and I had almost managed to kill them with a single blow each. Those around me who had been watching and not drawn into ... |
Greagious and Mogens had fared as equally well against Alexi and Mazoga in their respective duels. The leader of the Black Bows lay on the ground turned sodden with blood and shit while bleeding out from the impressive wound in his throat, and Mogens was pressed face down into the ground with an orichalcum boot in his... |
In the end all it took was one of the surviving number to look at the number of dead and wounded scattered about, the fact that we all were still standing despite the handful of injuries we had sustained and how effortlessly we had killed their leaders for the last strands of courage to snap. A spear clattered loudly ... |
As quickly as it had begun, the battle in the ruins was over and we were suddenly faced with several dozen prisoners and the fact that most of our group had suffered injuries. Many of the bandits had been injured, crippled or outright killed but it still left us with a group that still heavily outnumbered us as prisone... |
For several long seconds the call for further bloodshed thundered through my mind and the blood-wet length of the Light of Dawn trembled in my grasp as I forced the darkness away. Every tooth in my head was tingling, as were my jawbones in the desire to continue killing and inflicting pain and it was with difficulty a... |
"Who’s not dead?" |
My voice echoed startlingly loud in the night air now that there wasn’t a chorus of screaming and the clashing of metal. As my heart threatened to burst with a combination of adrenaline and finally stopped hammering as Viconia called out and I was somewhat surprised to hear our entire party respond to my shouted quest... |
I was covered in bruises, insect bites and several of my bones felt like they were creaking where blades and blunt weapons had failed to penetrate through my armour. As always, the Moonstone chainlink and daedroth scales riveted to it was incredible at dispersing blows but it was not infallible. There were several pai... |
Viconia had broken her hand, either through punching or striking at a foe or being struck in turn and while it wasn’t obvious she was favouring her left leg. An enormous gash ran down the length of Detane’s forearm from a dagger or edged weapon ripping through his poor armour but otherwise he was none worse for wear. ... |
Our two Argonian scouts were the least injured from their hit-and-run tactics during the battle and while they were cut and bruised they were far better off than the rest of us. The worst off by far was Mazoga, who stood over the whimpering and badly injured Mogens with blood running down from a multitude of injuries ... |
A spear was lodged in the side of her chest, the shaft broken away like a handful of arrows and bolts that had managed to penetrate through her armour. She was also sporting a deep gash that left a chunk of her scalp hanging loosely and drenching the side of her head in gore from a blow that had nearly cloven her head... |
Turning away satisfied that we were all still alive for the moment, I turned to the bandits shifting into a group away from their fallen weapons and took several steps in their direction. They to a man were terrified and rightfully concerned at what our next actions would be, and I knew that it would not have been too... |
"I am Kaius Desin, and you are all now our prisoners. Resist and we will finish what we began. Comply, and you will live." |
Looking over the group of them, I fixated my gaze on one of the nearest of the group, seeing myself framed in the wide eyed expression of a rough faced woman with hair long since turned into dreadlocks. "You." My finger pointed at her with as much force as a sword thrust and she flinched away from it. "Is any of your ... |
"A f-few. Some of our prisoners are healers." She stammered urgently as though even a fraction of a second of hesitation would cause my swords to be unsheathed. |
"Fetch them immediately." My growl sent her scurrying off in the direction of one of the portions of the fort that was still standing and I nodded after her after catching Weebam-Na’s eye. He followed her as she almost broke out into a run in her haste to obey my command and I turned back to the rest of them, stabbing... |
Bejeen moved over without hesitation and began supervising the handful chosen to shift what wounded they could and I felt rather than saw the enormous presence of Falid at my shoulder as he moved closer. His greatsword was returned to its place down his spine and there was a collective muttering as they beheld the arm... |
"Are you wounded?" |
I saw the way that he shifted at my question and the heavy clanking of his armour as he shook his head. "Negligibly Sir Desin. I will supervise these." |
"Good. Have them start collecting the dead and help the others with the wounded as needed. My skills are needed with the others." |
"It will be done Sir Desin." |
There was no mistaking the way that the group before us looked amongst themselves as the Black Knight stepped closer and began issuing orders in a voice so deep that it could be felt in their guts but I was already turning back to the others. The sight that greeted me was several score meters covered with blood, gore ... |
Seeing Viconia cradling her broken hand and hissing in her breaths in the vain attempt to ward off the pain, all other emotions and instincts were brushed away and I moved over to her to the exclusion of all others. She did not fail to recognise my actions and while her face was pinched in agony there was still scorn ... |
"Triage you jaluk. There are others worse than I." |
Feeling my embarrassment even as I gently cupped her injured hand in both of mine I willed the healing magicka between them and forced myself not to look into her eyes. "We need every one of us who are able to lift a sword in case these lot become unruly." |
Not for a moment did she buy my excuse and for a moment her uninjured hand caressed my face. "Shcrten wael. I can recognise a broken slave when I see one. They will not give us any trouble." |
"I hope so." Quickly checking over my handiwork I saw how although it would be a few days before she regained strength in her hand it was no longer entirely broken. "Are you well?" |
"Where is Mazoga?" |
I received a nod in return as she moved over to assist Falid with supervising the bandits shifting the dead and wounded and I saw Mazoga limping and staggering her way towards a portion of the fort’s interior. Between the overgrown stonework and the mud covered cobblestones that seemed to fill the expanse inside of th... |
For the few seconds that it took for her to step into the shin deep puddle and put her boot onto his chest she was silent and appeared not to have heard me at all. With a sick fascination I watched as she forced him back into the water, forcing him down by her bodyweight alone and holding him with her foot despite his... |
"You know there are easier ways to kill a man than that." |
"Yeh." She replied, ignoring the way that he broke his fingernails scrabbling on her armoured leg and simply pressing down harder. "But they be too quick." |
By the time that the bandit’s frantic movements had ceased and she had been satisfied that he wasn’t faking anything it was obvious that she was becoming light headed with blood loss and pain. Only when she reached down and checked the body lying on its back in the puddle slowly turning reddish brown from blood for a ... |
"It’s over." |
Taking shaky steps out of the pond, the last reserves of her considerable willpower finally ran out and she fell to her knees with a squelch. The corpse of the Nord bandit was bobbing lightly in the bloody puddle but she no longer had any interest in him and knelt with her eyes closed. |
Whether she initially registered my presence I was uncertain but for those few moments that I began looking over the myriad of injuries she had sustained during the battle she knelt there quietly. It was as though she was feeling the wind and the cool night time air on her flesh for the first time even as it caressed ... |
"He was obviously the reason why you came to Blackmarsh?" I said as I began shifting her armour as best I could and determine which of her injuries were the most serious. By rights she shouldn’t have been able to stand at all from the pain alone and while her flesh was pale and waxy she was still conscious at least. |
"Yeh. Been hunting that bastard for three years." |
Digging my fingers into a split seam in her plate armour I felt the weakening pulse of blood from the gash in the armpit and sealed it as best I could with a burst of magicka. It was taking a lot of my concentration to call upon my magicka after such a battle but at that point I knew that without treatment she could s... |
For the most part she put up with my ministrations, barely reacting as I sealed some of the more grievous injuries with restoration magicka that I knew from experience felt like someone pressing an icicle into the wound. Taking a couple of deep breaths as I carefully pushed the flap of skin hanging from her head and h... |
"I didn’t grow up in Orsimium, never knew who my folks were either. Whoever they were, they dumped me shortly after I was born. The only reason why I’m still breathin’ is that I was found by a Khajiit Caravan." |
"So you were raised by Khajiit?" |
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