Arthur
How We Roll Winner
Dec14
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-Scars that Transcend-
~An Alternate Lore Fanfic~
It’s a strange feeling, to know you are there but not quite there. I don’t expect you to understand my meaning, at least not until I’ve recounted to you my experiences over these past four weeks. But before I do, let me introduce myself to you.
My name is Alere Ecksey and I am a Caster, that is a Fighter specializing in using a variety of deceptive arts and enchantments to engage in combat and I am one of many populating Lore. To the common Lorien, we are mages or rogues but to those with a better eye for such arts, they know better.
What you hold in your hands is my journal wherein I have maintained a word to word record of all my experiences beginning from my first days as a Caster. Should you in any case manage to locate another of us Casters, kindly hand this journal to him or her as it contains information most valuable to our class. But for the time being, do read on.
***
5th of the Second Winter Month, Night
This was our very first night on the outskirts of Willowshire and five of us, Maven, Aram, Lisa, Argen and I lay in wait by the barracks when the Lieutenant would hand us the contract paper and we would carry out the assassination.
“What a dirty pig, eh?” Maven, the cheery one announced rather loudly beckoning to the barrack door, a wide smile on his face.
“Hey,” Lisa, the level-headed woman with auburn hair intervened, “In our line of work, we do not ask questions. If he wants his superiors murdered, then so be it. As long as we are getting paid, I don’t care if they send us after Alteon himself.”
“Funny world, eh?” Maven remarked as he looked up at the night sky.
As I stood with my back to the barrack wall, I wondered if the whole world was so. Now that I faced such a contract as this, there was not a doubt in my mind that the next contract we are handed might’ve been that of a mother turning on her own son, or daughter.
“What are you thinking, Alere?” Aram quietly asked. He stood next to me, away from the others. “A lot of things, I presume?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Just wondering about people and things like that.”
“Wondering how a lieutenant can draw a contract on his superior’s life?”
“Yes. But in a more general sense.”
“Don’t worry.” He said looking up at me, his blue eyes twinkling. “If I start to give you a record of all the contracts we’ve faced in the past, you might crumple to the ground in a fit and not get up for the next two days.”
For an instant, a flash of regret crossed my mind. Why that happened, I could not gather but what happened next was even more of confusion. A horseman came galloping out of the forest at breakneck speed, his steed, a plain warhorse foaming at the mouth. Turning an edge, he snapped his reins and headed right for us.
“Brothers, beware…!” Lisa raised her hands to the side, as if shielding us. She was our leader for this particular assignment.
I narrowed my eyes to get a better look at the horseman. A seal, royal or otherwise would have given him away and before he could even move a muscle, a dagger to his throat would’ve ended him then and there. But there was none. He rode clean and as he neared us, we saw that he wore a forest green cloak and a hood. A sword hung from his hip.
“At ease, Assassins…!” He shouted as he drew his horse to a stop near us. “I bring you news.”
Lisa looked at the horseman in amazement before walking up to the dismounting man.
“Just how many of you are in on this contract?” she asked him.
“More than you can imagine.” He answered promptly before drawing forth a faded, yellow piece of paper from one of the horse’s bags and handing it to Lisa.
“So it’s a conspiracy. Brilliant…!” Aram announced rather loudly only for Argen to shush him.
Lisa took a while to read the parchment’s contents before she folded it and stashing it into her satchel, turned to us.
“We are late.” She started. “The captain’s caravan is already in the middle of the forest and heading here. If we don’t take this shot at her before she is out of the forest, we’d have lost our prize money.”
We all nodded in agreement.
“But wait…” Lisa stared blankly in the distance. “Where’s the lieutenant?”
“Dead.” The horseman announced from behind her. “You don’t think you are the only Assassins in the night, do you?”
“What do you mean? Who’ll pay us if the contractor is dead?” Lisa demanded whirling around to face the man.
“Fret not. I’ll be paying you as soon as you are done. Now remember, this is the outpost that’s closest to Willowshire. You cannot fail. Now go, time is short and your path, longer.”
Lisa seemed to be shaken by this sudden revelation. Regardless, she turned once more and nodded at us.
“Game on!” Maven announced with a smile before he literally disappeared in a flash. The other two followed suit so that only I, Lisa and the horseman were left standing.
“Good.” The horseman’s stern face suddenly erupted into a wide smile.
Wait, what? I thought squinting at the horseman in the darkness.
“Alere, what’s the matter?” Lisa turned to look at me. “Go, I’ll shortly be there.”
“Lisa…” My voice came out in a weak whisper as I looked in horror at the shadow creeping up on the head assassin from behind. “Lisa…”
“What?” she looked at me with concern. “What’s wrong?”
I lifted my hand, so weakly, so slowly only to point over her shoulder. But it was already too late. Before Lisa could move a muscle, a glint of steel signalled the deadly dagger’s descent and the head assassin just stood there as the jet black dagger impaled her right through her chest.
A sharp gasp escaped her mouth as sheer disbelief spread upon her beautiful face. Treachery was at hand.
As if with a sheer burst of effort, she turned her face to me and mouthed.
“Run.”
“Signus…!” The “horseman” chanted casually and at once, Lisa’s body erupted into a thousand flowers before scattering into the winds, flying past me and away into the sky.
Signus, an immensely powerful disintegration spell that was forbidden by King Alteon’s orders himself. I was one of the few who knew how to cast it and all because my father was a practitioner of Old Magic.
Angered by this treachery, I threw back my cloak and drew forth from the back of my belt, Avonyn, my foot and a half long dagger that had a cobalt blue blade and spell amplification properties.
“Ah. The young assassin is angry.” The traitor chimed still smiling after his last kill. He casually twirled his black dagger.
“Signus Reminus...” I cast as I moved my forefinger along Anonym’s blade chanting a lingering variant of the Disintegration Spell. Once I had completed it, the blade then glowed scarlet at the edges.
I jumped into action as I dug my heels into the ground and dashed at the assassin opposite to me. Nearing him, I switched my dagger from my right to my left hand for longer, more balanced movements as opposed to my right arm which offered killing force and nothing else. Owing to the spell that I had just enchanted my blade with, I need only touch the man with my dagger to initiate its deadly effects; no amount of force was required here. I twirled the dagger in my left hand bringing it around in a forward facing position, tip extended outwards.
My opponent at once braced himself and throwing back his dagger arm, launched his blade at my rapidly incoming body.
Smart move, I thought, but so very predictable.
I didn’t slow down, nor did I make any sign to shift my line of dash. Rather, I sped up even more and once the dagger was within an inch of my chest, I lifted my legs up causing my body to drop below the incoming projectile. My head however, was right in its line but I made up for that by levelling my body with the ground, flexible as I was.
The deadly dagger harmlessly passed over my head and I rolled on the ground again straightening up to regain my former speed.
I was now upon the assassin and I knew that he wasn’t so foolish so as to stand there unarmed and I wasn’t wrong as it turned out.
He grabbed the hilt of his bigger, more cumbersome sword and timed himself to draw it at the instant that I was within his reach so as to cut me in half.
I swung my hand back and bringing it back around, launched my dagger at his foot as I hoped against hope.
With a thick schlock, it lodged itself in the mud missing his toe by an inch even as I cursed myself. But I realised that I had little time to worry about my offensive tactics when my opponent was already halfway through drawing his blade.
Using all my strength, I dug my heels in the ground mid-run and jumped up into the air just as the sword was out of its shield and coming at me. Twisting my body in the air, I curled out of the sword’s reach barely missing its edge by an inch all the while moving over the assassin’s head and behind him.
I landed on my feet after twisting once again and crouched behind the opponent. Standing up, I grabbed him tightly by his shoulders and kicked his left foot at the heel forcing his shoe right into the bare blade of Anonym that was sticking out of the mud right in front of it. He flinched when the blade neatly sliced through leather and skin slicing his toe.
The magic of Signus began to take its effect slowly spreading through his foot. There was no stopping it now. First, it was his toe that disintegrated into ash that blew away in the wind, and then slowly and gradually, his lower leg undertook the same effect slowly turning to ash. I knew it wasn’t long before his whole body met with the same fate.
As I staggered back, a hand suddenly gripped my left forearm tightly.
“Not… so…fast.” The assassin slightly turned his head to a side to glance at me standing behind him.
He held up his right hand and clenched it into a fist slowly edging it towards. I noticed, much to my surprise that his eyes were closed and he was chanting.
“Wait, what are you doing?” I blurted out in horror as I tried to break free of his iron grasp.
In the distance, I could hear strange sounds, someone was shouting, I couldn’t hear what but I wasn’t concerned with that at the moment.
The assassin had finished his chanting and had opened his eyes. A malicious smile spread on his face despite the affliction having reached his upper torso.
All of a sudden, without warning, he rammed his palm right into my chest and a vicious cold spread throughout my body numbing my senses.
“See you in the next world.”
My eyes felt heavy as all went black.
“Alere…” Someone shouted.
“Alere…!!”
< Message edited by Arthur -- 9/26/2013 7:01:48 >
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