The Outsider Act 2: Shadow - Chapter 3 - Lucius

• Posted by Soneca the Exiled November 2, 2013 - 869 views

  -Well this will be a lovely mourning exercise –

  A Nord man, tall, and a vampire. He has a small stubble of hair over his chin, light brown hair combed backwards and with a small bang hanging over his eye. He wore fine clothes, a regal outfit; decorated leather vest with an emblem attached to it. I would recognize that emblem anywhere. He began to walk towards me, and he froze the water beneath his feet to walk across the lake.

   

  -I trusted the bounty hunter to take care of you’re pitiful family, guess she was right, I imagined my hands would get dirty with your blood – he said

   

  We began to circle each other slowly, and his eyes were locked on Ruby. He stopped as both of us got close to the estate’s house. Gently rubbing his right hand on the wooden wall. He began to hum a soft melody, and slowly followed its course until it developed into his song. As he sang he stared at my companion, deeply into her soul, analyzing her.

   

  - Our hero, our hero, claims a warrior’s heart. I tell you, I tell you, the dragonborn comes – said Edward as he ran his fingers through the wooden wall of the house, weaving his magika and frosting the wall as a ice formed around his hand – With a voice wielding power of the ancient Nord art – he continued his song as he began to move towards me.

   

  I began weaving and releasing my own magicka as I slowly picked up speed heading towards him. Soon my hand was crackling with lighting, pulverizing part of the wall as I went by. As we started to get close to each other the house was an absolute wreck, and as he finished humming his melody our magic clashed. The house got bad after that, shock and frost exploded as our hands met and destroyed the front of the estate. The explosion pushed both of us backwards; both of us knew we were only testing our opponent’s strength with this first burst of magika; the real battle would begin now.

   

  -Wonderful! You certainly haven’t gone dull over the years Lucius, but how about your friend here; I wonder how well she fights – said Edward

   

  After he said that he closed the distance between Ruby, created a sword made of ice and swung at her with full force. If she was a regular human she would have been cut in half, but because of her vampiric speed she was able to duck and avoid his blade. Her mace was still sheathed, and seeing it is a heavy weapon she was not able to draw it in time for his second strike. He managed to get a small cut on her elbow, but luckily her armor was enough to block that, right after that she managed to draw her dagger and locked blades with the other vampire. I took advantage of the situation and readied a lighting bolt in my hands, with my superior vision I managed to avoid Ruby and hit Edward. He was fast though, and had his blade absorb the shock, but destroying the icy blade.

   

  I turned my gaze to Ruby, she was sweating, the sun was already casting long silhouettes from our bodies into the ground, and it was already taking effect on her. Edward showed no signs of exhaustion though, knowing the kind of training he received and the enchanted trinkets he had, it would be a long time before the sun started to tire him. My own shadow started to move as I noticed him sprinting towards Ruby. It quickly connected with her shadow and formed tendrils around her, deflecting both of his newly formed ice blades.

   

  He quickly noticed that was an exercise in futility, so he jumped in the air above the darkness and cast a destructive rune in her feet. I noticed that, but she did not, so she raised her hands and cast a ward in his direction, I was disappointed. In the nick of time I managed to hit her with one of my protective tendrils and move her away from the blast. She started to get up but Edward was already closing in on her. I was faster than him though and managed to raise one of my shades from Ruby’s shadow and defend her from his blades. The shade that was quite big, he held his blades in place while I summoned another one from his own shadow. He was without options, but managed to jump backwards and let go of his swords to avoid the dark claws of my other shade.

   

  -I guess I underestimated you a bit old friend, time to get a bit serious now – he said while he kept that annoying smile on his face. Then he regained his position and tore out his right sleeve, revealing a large chain around his arm.

   

  He began to extend the chain, and when it was at a satisfactory length he began to spin it around himself to deflect the ice spikes that Ruby threw at him. The chain extended as he swung it around himself and into my direction. I dodged the first strike easily enough, but he used the hooked tip of the chain to pull himself to me. My sword was not drawn, so I pulled my shadows upwards and into my hands, forming gauntlets around my fists. That was enough to block the strikes of the icy daggers he formed around his hands. He continued a relentless attack against me, and as he looked for new unprotected parts in my defense my eyes followed his lighting fast hands and created armor pieces made from pure shadows around me.

   

  Ruby began to look for an opening, but in her weakened state she dared not face Edward’s blades. Good. Feeling confident that my attacks would not hurt her I covered myself with shadows, forming a complete plate of darkness around me. The shadows beneath my feet started to rise, forming wings of darkness at my back, these wings were not for flying though, and at a closer inspection he noticed they were completely made from shadow stabbers, the shadow mage’s own version of bound weapons. Ruby kept her distance when she saw those massive wings made purely from blades, and I used this opportunity to advance, slowed down by the protective set of shadow armor, but cutting to shreds everything in my path.

   

  He was much faster than I predicted. I expanded the wings and used their flurry to corner him against the now ruined house. But once he was with his back against the wall of the estate he started to weave a spell in his hands, pointing it directly at Ruby. I instinctively tried to protect her, but when I moved in and completely surrounded him with my razor wings he unleashed a concentrated lighting explosion between his hands, creating a strong flash of light that dissipated my wings and armor in an instant.

   

  Seeing his opportunity he jumped up and attempted to whip me with his chain, I was faster though, and when the chain was about to hit me I managed to whisper a word of power.

   

  -“Fein” (Fade) –

   

  The chain went straight through me, and now away from danger I pulled my cape and sent a swarm of ravens in his direction. The ravens were only an illusion though, Edward had fought me in the past, and he knows I am a master illusionist that used my eyes to put the people who looked into them into powerful hypnosis. But he was careless; looking into my eyes for a split second I was able to hide my throwing knives in the form of a swarm of black birds. He fell to the ground shortly after, since he was in mid air he was unable to dodge my knives, and was now bleeding.

   

  -Enough of this bullshit, time to finish this! – He said, finally wiping that stupid smile of his face.

   

  Edward quickly stood up and threw two of the knives that were stuck in his arm, one towards me and the other in Ruby’s direction. She was not in a good shape; the sun was starting to bother Edward, and Ruby was almost falling to the ground due to exhaustion. I worried about her safety first, and formed the shadows around her into a protective arm that deflected the knife. My reflexes protected me well enough, and I managed to catch the knife in mid air. That was only a distraction though, and when I dropped the knife to the ground I saw his chain being thrown directly into me.

   

  The chain wrapped around me, immobilized me, and then started to squeeze, hurting my bones. He regained his smile; the situation definitely seemed in his favor, Ruby was almost fainting, and his chain immobilized me. But as soon as he began to feel confident again I managed to use a replacement technique, creating a large shade trapped in his chain and freeing myself from his grasp. The shade that replaced me was much bigger than myself, he easily held Edward’s chain were I wanted it. Perfect. I put my hands together and weaved magika around them. Quickly before he could pull his chain form my shade’s grasp I touched the weapon, releasing the energy I trapped in my hands.

   

  The chain started to change, as a strong light coursed through Edward’s weapon. After the light faded the chain looked different, instead of the gray color of strong steel it was now golden. Before he could pull his chain back I used the shadows at my feet to create a shadow stabber, which I used to cut the weak golden links to pieces.

   

  -Time to end this – I said – Pride, Envy, Lust, Greed, Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, finish this fool… - as I spoke these words the shades split themselves from me as their names were spoken, Edward now saw a group of eight dark swordsmen surrounding him.

   

  -Hehe, she was right indeed, seems you finally succeeded. I don’t intend to die here Capran, I’m off – he said as he concentrated a large amount of magika around him, he was surrounded by a strong purple light, and soon after it faded he was no longer there.

   

  My shades returned to me and merged themselves with my body, repelling that oh so familiar feeling of emptiness. Ruby barely could stand now; I approached her and gave her my cloak. Then I helped her to get up.

   

  -What… what was that Shade… - she said with a tired voice

  -Don’t worry; I will explain everything to you. I suppose I owe you some answers after this. I own a property here in Riften, we can rest there, and when you wake up we will talk…