User blog:Psychomantis108/Daggerfall: Chapter 19 - The Reward of Death

Agatha ducked down and rolled aside, yelping as the Lich’s blade missed her by inches, prompting her to blast at its legs with a frost spell or what would be counted as its legs at least...

“Ags!” Dodger cried out, getting the Breton to look around as an ice spike flew straight at her, hitting her square in the shoulder and coming out the other side, causing her to howl in pain as she stumbled backward.

The Bosmer scowled, drawing her explosive arrow from her quiver and shooting it between the two liches, causing it to explode on impact and knock them aside, shattering the lower half of the right lich and killing it instantly, the other one was forced to pat itself down to douse out the flames.

Agatha wrapped her hand around the Ice Spike and yanked it out, crying out in pain, once again as she felt it slide out, taking quite a bit of muscle and soft tissue with it before she finally tossed it to the ground and wrapped a healing hand around it.

Dodger drew her arrows and began pelting surviving lich with them, going and going until they resembled a walking pincushion.

Well... A hovering pincushion anyway...

The two of them stepped closer towards one another, standing side by side as they saw their three, powerfully magical foes march towards them, spells at the ready. Dodger readied another arrow, taking a few deep breaths to prepare herself.

“Next time we send a letter to Mannimarco, we’re sending it by pigeon!” The Bosmer grumbled, getting Agatha to sigh heavily as she shook her head.

“Pfft... We’ll send it by arrow, express delivery, right to his asshole.” Agatha countered, getting a faint grin from Dodger.

“Now you’re speaking my language!” She grinned before firing off the first of many arrows. The first of the arrows hit the Lich between the legs, where its genitals would be if they hadn’t rotted away, centuries ago.

This didn’t seem to be much of an imposition for him as he slowly gliding towards the two of them, lifting his hands that were glowing with various energies, that he eventually blasted at the two of them, with a lighting spell.

Agatha blocked the lightning with a ward, prompting Dodger to lift her bow and fire and arrow in retaliation, hitting the lich in its theoretical neck and causing it to groan before he slowly leant back, before conjuring some sort of spirit to assist it.

“Argh... A ghost, just what I fuckin’ needed!” Dodger grunted, drawing an enchanted arrow and firing at it.

Agatha glanced back, seeing that the two necromancers threw a barage of fireballs at the two women, prompting Agatha to step in and lift up a ward, deflecting the fireballs as they came.

“Argh, they’re trying to exhaust me!” The Breton scowled, looking back to Dodger.

“Think you can look after yourself for a second?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“A second!? Fuck no, I can’t look after myself for half of that!” The Bosmer called back, firing another enchanted arrow at the ghost, causing it to disperse.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well, you’ll just have to improvise!” Agatha called back, morphing into a crow and taking off. The two mages tried to knock her out of the air with lightning spells but the Breton was able to swoop out of the way each time, until she eventually reached the first for the two necromancers, flying straight into her hood, clawing furiously at her face with her newly acquired talons.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Necromancer shrieked, stumbling around as she tried to shield her face with her hands, unable to protect herself as the bird furiously pecked at it, cawing furiously as it did so.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Get it off, get it...” She stopped to shriek, loudly in anguish as the bird managed to tear through her eyelid and destroy the eyeball underneath on her left eye. Agatha took the opportunity given to her by the Necromancer’s lack of resistance to move onto the other eye and do something similar, tearing her eyes up entirely before feeling a sharp surge of energy blast through her entire body, causing her to morph back into her human form and fall down to the ground, with the blood weeping Necromancer.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Breton squirmed as she felt the wet blood staining her robes, she grabbed hold of her head as she flailed around, trying to adjust to having her eyes suddenly ripped out by a small bird. As she pushed, the second Necromancer slowly approached her, staff at the ready as she lifted it up and pointed it at Agatha’s face.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You will make a fine thrall, witch!” She decided before an arrow flew straight into her head, causing her to tremble before keeling over and smashing her head on the altar, killing her instantly.

<p class="MsoNormal">Agatha sighed, finding herself relieved that Dodger was so quickly able to dispatch the Lich and the other necromancer by herself... She should probably give her more money than she promised for doing that kind of a job.

<p class="MsoNormal">She got free, shoving the fallen necromancer off of her torso as she stumbled back, panting heavily.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Thanks... Dodger...” She whispered, giving her a faint smile but noticing that it wasn’t Dodger who fired the shot. Dodger was on her knees by the side of her true rescuer, an Orsimer man, carrying an Orcish bow. He had half of his head shaved and the other half in a sort of quiff...

<p class="MsoNormal">He grunted and stepped aside, so that his commanding officer could get a good look at her, said officer stepped forward, smirking a little as the Orsimer woman clapped her eyes on Agatha.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well, shit...” Urzoga said, baring a grin.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Now this makes the trip worth it!” <p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt; padding:0cm;mso-padding-alt:0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm"> <p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">Agatha sat, with a large blanket, draped over her shoulders, she seemed quite bothered by the cold but not as bothered as Dodger, who shivered furiously. She wasn’t so bad, while she was hiking but was especially bad now that they were forced to sit still in the snow.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Y’know...” Urzoga began, stepping up behind them, her heavy frame crushed the snow beneath her feet, making a loud ‘crunch’ sound with every step. She waded over to the two of them and took a seat to Agatha’s left, leaning forward.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I really wasn’t expecting to find you there.” She admitted, giving them a faint smirk, prompting Agatha to shrug and fold her arms.

<p class="MsoNormal">“The Emperor wanted my help, figured it was in my best interest to help him.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh, not you. I mean, I knew you’d come running, with a wagging tail, the second that the Emperor called but...” She paused, looking to Dodger, with a bemused smirk.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You? I really didn’t see you coming on this... mission of her’s. Would’ve thought you’d be at home, with... What was her name, Linn?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Lexia... No, I... decided to do something useful.” Dodger shrugged, getting a grin from the Orc as she turned to Agatha.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You erm... Cast some sort of spell on her?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“You’d think so.” Agatha shrugged before turning back to the Bosmer, who stuck her middle finger at the two of them, with a scowl.

<p class="MsoNormal">“She’s... Been a good friend out here, I’d probably be dead without her.” The Breton admitted, giving her a faint smile.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Probably? I’d say definitely be dead without me!” Dodger grinned before succumbing to the cold again and shivering some more.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Seriously, how do you people cope!?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Here.” Urzoga shrugged, passing Dodger a bowl full of stew, that she was going to eat but given how whiney the One eyed cannibal elf was, she’d be glad to give it up.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Eat this, hopefully it’ll make you less of a pussy.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Dodger glanced to her before sighing, taking it from the Orsimer’s grasp and taking a large gulp of the stuff, warming up her throat and chest, all in one.

<p class="MsoNormal">“So, what’re you out here for?” Agatha elected to ask, glancing up to the Orc, looking rather puzzled.

<p class="MsoNormal">Urzoga glanced up to the castle as Agatha asked her question before shrugging and looking around.

<p class="MsoNormal">“We were looking for a place to sleep as we travelled down south, to Daggerfall. Wanted to make sure that the dignitaries made it to meet the Queen and hopefully have our worries put to death... I mean, put to rest.

<p class="MsoNormal">We sent letters but none of them made it, most likely intercepted. Couriers went missing... It ain’t exactly easy getting them there, when half of our people have ditched the civilized cities in Wrothgar and started founding strongholds all over the damn place.

<p class="MsoNormal">Me and my people are the last bastions of hope for civilization, ain’t that a bitch?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh... I heard about that, aren’t a lot of Orcs going... well, tribal?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Nah, they’re more like over glorified bandits. Like, the hillside Bretons are tribal but these guys are just thugs, shitting in a cave don’t make you a cave man. Having thirty or so wives in your tent, that don’t make you a chieftain. Say what you like about me but I never claimed to be something I’m not.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Except a cannibal.” Agatha smirked, slowly meeting the Orsimer’s gaze.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Would you have preferred that to be true?” Urzoga asked, rolling her shoulders back.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I told people that shit, to make them pay up their ransom faster, not to impress people or to make people feel sorry for me. These guys pretend to be mighty chieftains, like the ones of old but they even got shit on me. They lie to get sympathy and they don’t attack half as much as they could, because every time someone dies on their watch, someone else asks why the fuck they’re doing any of this.

<p class="MsoNormal">So, if we see any of ‘em, on the road? We kill ‘em and bring the leader’s heads to the King. King will pay depending on the value of the head... So far we have... a thousand Gold’s worth of heads.

<p class="MsoNormal">More than reasonable, if you ask me. Don’t know many people who’d pay that kind of money for garbage.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Agatha chuckled, she hadn’t changed, Urzoga. Still the same woman she was fifteen years ago, when she first encountered the group.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hmm... We’ll be going back to Daggerfall, maybe we should travel together?” Agatha offered, getting Urzoga to shrug, indifferently, though, in truth, she would like nothing more than to walk in eachother’s shadow again.

<p class="MsoNormal">Urzoga didn’t seem too bothered, either way, sigh slowly rose to her feet and shrugged, stumbling to the side.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Alright… If we are, then we should get moving.

<p class="MsoNormal">Dodger’s going to freeze to death and I’ll get bored.” She decided, getting up to her feet.

<p class="MsoNormal">Agatha nodded quickly before looking back to her companion, helping her to her feet.

<p class="MsoNormal">“C’mon, up and at ‘em…” Agatha sighed as Dodger was dragged to her feet, Urzoga slowly stepped past her former Breton companion and slapped a hand on Dodger’s back, pushing her away.

<p class="MsoNormal">“C’mon, let’s get you some real furs before you turn into a Dunmer…”

<p class="MsoNormal">Agatha chuckled faintly as she watched them walk away, though her smile quickly faded as she looked down to the ground, glancing back up to the castle, that lingered a few hundred yards away…

<p class="MsoNormal">Mannimarco…

<p class="MsoNormal">It’s really you…