The Aubeanic Reign: Dead Man Walking

An introduction: I found this on my computer, last night, whilst I was looking through some old material. This is one of the few pieces that I never got to publish in Aubeanic Reign/ Legend of Nirn and the reason for it was that I couldn't really find a good enough place for it.

I considered implementing it at some point in Aubeanic Reign, when Rollertrack inflicted another one of his lovely fucking gang rape scenes on us. I considered slapping this pie together to link the two things together but I found myself to be so frustrated at the time that I knew that I couldn't really give the scene the emotion that it deserved.

This scene takes place before Aubeanic Reign, I'm not exactly sure when but I think it's around fifteen years before but don't hold me to that. For those of you who don't know or if you've forgotten, this scene follows Set's origin story.

Set lived with a group of travelers and fell in love with a girl in the village, a Bosmer by the name of Miri. They grew close over time, they fell in love and even planned to marry but this was taken away from him, when Set angered a rival clan, causing them to unleash their own psychotic little pawn, Fareed.

Fareed killed everyone in Set's camp, leaving Miri until last, he decapitated her before Set's eyes and then shoved the Bosmer's face into the camp fire to finish him off. Set obviously survived and proceeded to follow the group, tracking them across the county as he drew in on them, hungry for revenge.

Dead Man Walking
Fareed was a dead man.

Set didn’t know his name back then, he didn’t care to. Fareed was a walking corpse and that was all that Set needed to know.

Nothing else mattered, because the man was dead...

He just didn't know it yet...

They had a day’s head start and some bad weather, serving to their advantage but Set was able to catch up, relatively quickly. This was thanks to two things, one he didn’t eat and two he didn’t sleep nights, by now he was like a member of the undead, his only desire was to find the man who took his life from him, who came into his life, held his lover at sword point and murdered her before his eyes.

That was horrific enough to Set but the Redguard didn't even give the Bosmer a chance to protect her, to at least die trying. Of course, he wouldn't have died until she was safe, if it was necessary, he would have died ensuring her safety.

Yet... He failed... She was dead and he still lived, if you could call the shallow husk that he had become 'living.' The skin on the left side of his face was charred and blistered, bright red blood glistening in the moonlight, biting pain as the harsh unforgiving breeze hit it at full pelt.

Though it was agony, to the point that it was almost debilitating, Set embraced it. The pain kept him human, even if it was only a little bit, it kept his standing, served as a constant reminder of what his purpose was in life and why. Even as an instinct driven zombie, Set still needed to remember that he was angry, he needed to become more angry to numb the pain and push past it.

He needed the anger to hold back the tears...

Set eventually reached the camp, he could see it down below, as he stood on the hillside, staring down at the flickering orange light in the distance. The fuckwits seriously thought that he was dead as they sat around laughing, joking and drinking.

The Bosmer stared at them from afar, emotionless and cold before he slowly descended down into the camp...

He drew the sword, an iron shortsword that someone had dropped at the camp, he couldn't remember if it was one of his people or the bandits but to him it didn't matter, so long as it was sharp. After he rose to his feet and straightened his back he slowly moved in, he didn't run in as running would waste what little energy he had. He didn't try sneaking in, since he wasn't afraid of being seen...

He continued to shamble on, his sword hanging limply from his side as if he had died with it in his hand and didn't realize that he was holding onto it. To be honest, this wasn't far from the truth...

As he drew in closer to the camp, he quickly found that his heavy breathing gave him away…

He couldn't do much to control his breathing right now as he was in a great deal of pain, he was exhausted and he wanted to kill. He wanted to kill so badly, like it was an itch screaming to be scratched.

One of the bandits, a nord, in fur armour was sat eating something on a spit, Set remembered the smell that the meat gave off to be that of cooked squirrel meat at the time, though it could have been anything.

“H-Hey boss… There’s someone here.” The deep voiced Nord pointed out, prompting the group to turn around as Set continued to approach. He was obscured by darkness, though they knew that he was human, judging from his shape and breathing pattern.

“Hey buddy? You lost?” A familiar voice asked, causing Set to stop in his tracks. Fareed appeared, slowly emerging from his tent as he made his way to the center of the camp, his men, one by one, stood up and began to draw their weapons.

“He looks a little drunk…” One of his men noted, a Bosmer, who was very similar in appearance to Jaryl, what little Set could remember of his at the time... In truth, he remembered little of anything as Jaryl was like everything else that wasn’t Fareed and Set’s sword… white noise, in the back of his head.

Set took another step forward; the flickering light of the campfire fell on his face, revealing the horrifying charred mess and striking fear into Fareed’s men. They gasped and stepped back, placing their hands on their swords but finding themselves too scared to draw them.

“Th-The fuck man!?” The Bosmer spluttered, looking back to Fareed.

“I-It’s him, the one we-“

“Yeah… I know who he is Mel, thanks for pointing that out to me…” The Redguard grumbled, stepping closer.

“Well, I got to hand it to you; I’m impressed. When we left you, you were dead as a doornail...” He then paused and looked around, placing his hand on his Katana.

"Look like I'm gonna have to have a word with throat cutters..." He added, quite light heartedly as he did so.

Set said nothing, he just took another step, closer towards him and his leg shook violently as he put his weight on it as his heart was practically throwing itself at his ribcage as if it wished to escape and enact its own murderous desires. Set continued to glare at him, his eyes hurt from the fire’s light but it didn’t cause him to break eye contact.

“So now you have some fight in you…

Too bad you weren’t able to save, I’m sorry, what was her name?” He asked, looking around for a hint before looking back to Set.

This prompted Set to take another step, his breathing grew heavier, though there was no anger in his eyes… In fact, they were completely vacant, Set was driven by instinct now, he had been for the past three days and his thoughts and feelings had been smothered in it. He was hungry, tired, exhausted but instinct won, knocking his body in line and keeping his heart and brain silent.

“Alright Mel, show him out, he isn’t worth our time…”

“Yes sir.” Mel said, stepping forward and grabbing for Set’s sword arm. Set moved back, hissing at Mel as he raised the iron sword and drove it down, into the Bosmer’s head.

“Woah, fuck!” A bandit cried out, as he and his comrades stumbled, helplessly watching as Set brought Mel to his knees, blood gushing out the side of his head and trickling down his neck as he spasmed until Set pressed his foot against his chest and pulled the sword out, flicking it up in the air and flinging blood upwards, making a small shower of Mel’s blood fall on his ‘friends.’

“Sh-Shit man, he… he killed Mel!” The Nord snapped, drawing his hammer, whilst the others joined him.

Set’s eyes looked back to them; he stood awaiting the next contestant as they hesitantly took a step forward before moving back. They were beginning to suspect that this guy was a walking corpse. The burned, untreated face, his movements, the lack of a soul in his eyes…

It was this that gave Set his edge as the others were all intimidated by his ghastly appearance and his inhuman brutality. The Nord decided that he’d be the brave one, stepping forward and bringing his hammer above his head. Set didn’t need a show for this one; he just swung his sword, putting in every bit of strength that he could muster as he sliced across the bandit's stomach.

The blood splattered, all over the grass as his entrails slowly began to protrude, followed by an ungodly amount of blood, that spewed out all over the floor in front of him as he doubled over and fell on his knees. Within seconds the guard lay down to the side, either dead or dying, it mattered not as both were practically the same with wounds like that. Set just closed his eyes, reveling in the sound of the bastard's stomach contents oozing out into a heap on the floor splattering against the soil.

He looked up to the others, as he awaited his next challenger. He wasn’t confident, just in a hurry to kill Fareed before he himself keeled over dead. This prompted the other bandits to look to one another, though none of them were brave enough to step up. Set took the only logical course of action, he decided to take the fight to them.

The Bosmer slowly began to shamble towards them, taking a tighter grip of his sword as he did so and prompting the bandits to all move back. However, Fareed put his hands up, against his back and pushed them back forward.

"He's on his own and half fucking dead, just fucking kill him already!" The Redguard's patience was wearing thin as he began to wonder why he'd hired half of these fuckwits in the first place. Set wasted no time as three new challengers were pushed directly in front of his face. He raised his sword, above his head and drove it down. It clashed with a Breton Bandit’s sword, prompting Set to smash at his block again and again, furiously as if he wished to punish him for having the audacity to block the Bosmer’s attacks and not just die like the vermin that he was.

Set continued to strike, long after the bandit’s guard had failed, driving his sword into his forearm and eventually his shoulders and upper body as he violently hacked him apart, smiling as his screams grew more and more horrific.

He continued to drive his sword into him, into his shoulder, his chest and eventually his head. He did this repeatedly, until there was nothing left of either, until he was forced to throw him to the ground, to deal with the next guy.

An orc approached him, getting ready to get even with the Bosmer for his fallen comrades as he got ready to attack him with his mace and hand axe. He raised the mace in the air, getting ready to strike it down, with a bone crushing force but he was interrupted as Set swung his sword first, slicing through his left wrist and cutting his hand off. The Orc dropped the mace and clutched at the stump as blood came gushing out, he didn’t have much time to react before Set brought his sword across his neck, slicing it open and causing him to fall to the floor, spilling blood along the grass.

It was at this point that Fareed's men began to realize that this guy was too good to take on one on one, so a Khajiit, a Dunmer man and another Breton all rushed at him at the same time. The Khajiit slowly skipped around him, as did the Dunmer as they tried to attack him from all sides.

Set dashed forward, with as much athletic ability as he could muster, which turned out to be a shambolic stumble towards the Breton as he quickly shanked him with the iron short sword. Set wrapped his arm around the Breton's body before shoving him forward, straight into the piercing blades of his companion's swords.

The Breton screeched as he was ran through by two other swords, doubling over them as he puked up a mouthful of blood down the Khajiit's shoulder, causing him to wince as it trickled down his back.

The Bandits quickly jumped back, letting the dead Breton slide off and roll to the side, trying to avoid making eye contact with him as he rolled onto his back, staring into the abyss, with his bloody mouth open, forever preserving his silent scream.

The two bandits rushed over to him, screaming in rage as they both swung at the Bosmer at the same time. Set was only able to block one of the attacks as jumping out of the way was currently out of the question, he ignored first one, aimed at Set's stomach and held his sword up, wincing as the Dunmer's sword cut through his shirt and left a pretty deep scratch on his midriff.

Set stumbled back as he felt the sharp sting of the cut seep through the nullifying feeling of his currently zombified state, his legs could barely move and the Bosmer thought that he was going to fall down to the ground but thankfully he was able to stop himself, by repeatedly moving his feet.

The Bosmer's free hand immediately found itself pressing against the wound, suppressing the pain from the deep wound that he had sustained as he winced, letting a slight shimmer of humanity seep through as he nursed it.

However, this grimace quickly turned into an enflamed rage as he grit his teeth heavily and scrunched his eyes up, curling his fingers up as he dealt with the flow of pain and anger that followed.

"F-Fuck!"

The Bosmer's head quickly snapped up, staring the two bandits down as he built up some more strength, his anger and his desire to kill Fareed overcame everything else. The Bosmer screamed and rushed forward, slashing horizontally, with as much force as he could muster.

The Bandits quickly panicked, realizing that they had only managed to piss the Bosmer off at this point, they quickly regained their stance and raised their weapons. Set charged in and began to hack and slash at them, no longer caring if he hit them or not. His strikes were erratic and quick and as a result, they were very difficult to anticipate, the Dunmer managed to block one, deflect two more but quickly found that one of them broke through his defence and cut his arm. He cried out in pain as he stumbled back, nursing the wound as he looked up and saw that Set's blade was coming in for another strike, swinging horizontally, straight for his neck.

This was the last thing that he saw before his head was swiftly removed from his shoulders.

Set didn't even look as the head spun through the air, three hundred and sixty degrees before landing with a small 'thud' on the floor, splatting some mud up into the air as it rolled away. Set didn't care to see it, as he was already too focused on his next target.

The Khajiit looked from side to side, suddenly growing a little less optimistic with his chances as he backed away. After a few seconds of thinking on it, he decided that his life was more important than glory and quickly dropped his weapon and fled the scene, only to run straight into Jareed's blade.

The Redguard didn't tolerate deserters and simply ran the cat through, digging the blade in as deep as possible before shoving him away, leaving him to fall on his back and spasm as he bled his pathetic, treacherous little life away...

He slowly moved into position and looked up to Set, who now stood opposite the Redguard, covered in the blood of his men, nursing the cut in his hand as he did so as he panted heavily. The Redguard merely stared at him for a moment, falling silent as he looked down to the maimed bodies of his comrades, who less than ten minutes ago were laughing, joking and drinking the night away.

He slowly looked back up to Set, who stood stationary, like he'd malfunctioned, though he was more likely fuelling his rage to put as much force as possible into his first strike. The former Blade simply smirked at him, chuckling with a spiteful 'heh'...

"Well, I guess this makes us even then... Right?" He said, his hand still wrapped firmly around his sword's hilt as he stood there, smirking like the prick that he was. The Bosmer's hatred was solidified by the fact that he didn't seem to give a shit...

Of course, he was completely wrong, they weren't even until his decapitated head fell to the ground, where it would remain until some carnivorous beast came along and ate it.

"Look... I couldn't just let what you did to the kid be ignored, his Father was a good friend of mine. He died in the attack, so it's not like I got anything out of it..." Fareed explained, in a mock attempt to appease the Bosmer or antagonize him further, he could work with either.

"I'm not going to lie, you're skilled." He added as he slowly stood up tall, wondering if he was talking to a brick wall at this point.

"Your... Technique, it's like fencing isn't it? Quick and fancy, like a rogue but you're able to put more force into your blows, like a true warrior.

Yet you're throwing all of that away with such random acts of aggression, don't get me wrong, what you did was impressive but what does this really do for you? You and I could be something, we could be unstoppable.

I'm telling you, I could make an excellent blade out of you, make you a true Akavir warrior, the most feared bandit in the County.

What do you say?"

Set remained perfectly still, continuing to stare him down as he loosened his grip on his sword. He said nothing as he continued to stare, his gaze softening as the ignition turned on in his head and he slowly began to think a little.

He remembered the weight of Miri's head as it fell onto his lap, her dull, lifeless expression, that stared upwards at him. The overwhelming pain and emptiness in his stomach as the realization hit him, feeling like his soul was being shanked and filleted with a knife...

He wanted it to end...

"C'mon..." Fareed insisted, moving his foot a step closer to the Bosmer as he sighed.

"She was only a girl man, just let it go..."

Those words quickly activated the kill switch in Set's head as his eyes shifted back up to meet the Blades and his grip tightened on his sword. He saw an end in sight, the only end possible, that was with this prick lying face down in the dirt as Set rammed his sword straight into his ass.

Set immediately charged forward, swinging his sword with both hands at the Redguard, screaming in rage and despair in the process as his opponent sighed. Within seconds he drew his blade and used it to block Set's attack, not even flinching as the Bosmer's almighty swing caused their two blades to clash.

"Predictable move..." He mocked before ducking down and doing a sweeping kick, knocking Set's feet form underneath him and knocking him straight to the floor, landing heavily, in the mud on his cut.

Set griped as he hit the floor and the pain from his scratch shot through his body and his fingers began to throb as they were crushed under the weight of his sword. Fareed slowly approached him, his eyes glaring down on the Bosmer as he showed a look of amusement.

"Hmm... Perhaps I was wrong afterall..." He shrugged, wrapping his hand around the sword's hilt as he got ready to bring the sword's point down on the Bosmer. Set quickly snapped out of it as he heard the Redguard speak and quickly took a tighter grip of his own sword as he desperately swung it up into the air, knocking the blade from Fareed's hands.

Fareed looked up, with a look of surprise on his face as his katana flew several feet away from him, clattering as it hit the floor and slowly began to roll away, bouncing off of every surface in its path before it got stuck in the mud.

Set tried to take advantage of this by pulling the sword back, as he got ready to shove the blade into Fareed's crotch, however, the Redguard quickly noticed this and kicked him in his wound to stop him. The Bosmer cried out in pain as he felt the toe of the leather boot dig into his stomach, flaring up the wound once more and making him writhe as the Redguard knelt down over him and forced the Bosmer onto his back.

"Well, guess I'll have to do this the hard way now..." He sighed, driving his left fist down into the burned side of Set's face, with enough force for the strike to echo throughout the nearby wilderness.

Set would have screamed out in pain, were he not so shaken by the blow to the face, he felt it sting and go numb before it violently prickled as the tender flesh flared up, like he was being reintroduced to the flames again. Fareed just grinned as he saw the pain that he was inflicting on the Bosmer, encouraging him to throw another punch and another, mercilessly beating on his opponent, slowly losing the urge to kill him as he desired to see him suffer some more.

Set began to shiver as the pain overcame him, he felt like he was going into shock from it all and he was almost certain that his face was going to swell, which would be a terrible combination. Still, he was powerless to resist it as Fareed continued to inflict as much pain as possible onto him, repaying him for the kindness of ridding him of his men.

In truth, the Bosmer began to embrace death, it was an end, no more pain. He'd be able to join Miri, wherever she now dwelled and all of this would just be a horrible memory. Besides, he doubted that he would survive this anyway, he knew that he would likely keel over and die, the second that Fareed fell to the ground.

Though, wasn't that a good thing? Revenge and peace, folding into one? Yes...

No Oakvale just lay there and took it, his father would spit on him if he saw him like this. As much as he hated the old fucker, he was right about this. Set owed Miri some vengeance, Fareed needed to be extinguished so that he couldn't take anyone else like Miri from the world, ever again.

That would be his redemption.

Set's eyes opened once more as he lowly turned his head to look up to the Redguard as he got ready to land his fifth punch onto the Bosmer's face, he simply shrugged before proceeding to do so but quickly found that his hand was caught by his opponent's the Bosmer's fingers wrapped around the former Blade's knuckles as he stopped him from hitting him again.

This just annoyed Fareed, prompting him to punch Set with his free hand, a punch that was nowhere near as forceful. He was either growing weaker from exhaustion or he was completely useless with his left hand, either way, Set liked those odds.

The Bosmer quickly shoved the Redguard's hand away and grabbed hold of both sides of his head and pulled him closer as he swiftly gnashed his teeth towards the Blade's throat. Fareed was obviously panicked by Set's attempts to rip his throat out and quickly moved back, looking over and jumping towards Set's sword.

Set quickly brought his knee up and drove it into Fareed's face, prompting him to cry out in pain as the knee dug deep into his eye socket and knocked him onto his back, allowing Set to reach over for the sword.

Fareed slowly pulled his hand away from his eye as he began to blink rapidly, watching as his vision came back into focus, he then slowly looked up to see that his opponent had his hands wrapped around his iron shortsword and was now trying to shambolically rise to his feet.

The Redguard just snarled as he pulled himself to his feet, it was time to end this. He quickly managed to pull himself upright before marching over to the Bosmer, shaking off the pain of his recent shiner as he got ready to finish the bastard off. Set, however, had a similar plan in mind and began to shuffle over to the Redguard, slowly lifting his sword.

As Set and Fareed met at the center of the battlefield, Set tried to take him down with a clumsy horizontal swing, a swing that Fareed was easily able to avoid by simply stepping back and letting it swing past him as the tip of the blade missed his chest by mere inches. He then punched Set, once more, straight into his burn, seeing it as the perfect weak spot before he raised his boot and kicked the Bosmer, square in the chest.

Set stumbled back before he fell down to the floor, landing with a thud on the floor as his sword clattered by his side and his opponent loomed over him.

"You're weak Bosmer... You always were weak and that's why your whore lies face down in a ditch!" Fareed informed him, raising the sword over his head and driving it straight down. Set made an effort to roll out of the way as the blade was brought down, he wasn't fast enough to completely avoid it's point but resulting in him getting a sharp graze on his back, from the sharp edges.

As Set looked over to his right, he noticed something that looked like it could give him an edge in this fight. One of the bandit's weapons lay, just out of his reach, if he was fast enough, he could reach it...

"For fuck's sake!" The former Blade snapped, truly losing his patience at this point as he snatched hold of Set's shoulder and forced him to roll onto his back and face him.

"Die!" He bawled in Set's face, pressing the edge of the blade against the Bosmer's throat as he got ready to put the full extent of his bodyweight on it, hopefully cleaving through Set's throat.

Set was quick to react and immediately snatched at a nearby rock, quickly swinging it straight into Fareed's face, straight into his mouth. The Redguard's head shifted to one side as he spat a great deal of blood to the side, he sprayed it across the camp as he felt several of his teeth loosen in his gums.

He slowly swayed from side to side as Set brought another blow to his teeth, knocking him off of his body at this point and rolling over to the side. The Bosmer quickly scrambled to his feet and crawled over to Fareed, smashing the rock into his face again and gain, turning the Redguard's mouth into a bloody pulp as he rid him of his teeth, somehow it felt good, it felt right inflicting this much pain onto the bastard.

After several blows, Fareed looked incredibly dazed as he went into shock, the multiple blows to the head had likely resulted in brain damage and his mouth was just a mass of bubbling blood and bile as his jaw loosely hung and he dribbled thick, red blood from his lips. The Bosmer looked up and noticed that the Redguard's sword was but a few feet away from him and so, he decided that he'd finish the fucker off, with his own sword.

He dug the weapon out of the ground, carefully taking it by the hilt as he slowly approached Fareed, who lay completely out of his tree, his head slowly rolling from side to side as he tried and failed to process the world around him. The Bosmer quickly pulled him to his knees, having to double him over, to stop him from collapsing again as the Redguard's head hung limply in front of him.

The Bosmer slowly lifted his blade up, his face cold, dead and lifeless as the reflection of the flickering embers of the campsite reflected into his eyes, causing him to squint and look away.

For Miri...

With that, Set looked up with some new found determination as he swung his sword, one final time at the Redguard's neck, slicking straight through it like a hot knife through butter and sending his head flying off.

The Blade's head flew several inches into the air before falling back down onto the neck stump, followed by an eruption of blood. Fareed's cheek bounced off of his neck and knocked the headless corpse onto its back before it rolled away from him.

As Set watched the Redguard's lifeless body fell, in a heap on the floor, signifying the end of his journey, he found himself feeling...

Nothing...

He felt nothing...

Fareed was dead, like he needed to be, the fucker lay rotting in the dirt, like he should but... Set wasn't satisfied, the numbness and the pain didn't go away and Miri... She didn't go away either, the gruesome images were still in his head, now more vibrant as the recent carnage brought him back to them.

Part of him felt like Miri would return to him, once he had performed this task, that he'd be able to return to his tent and crawl into the Bosmer's sleeping bag. She'd worry over his injuries and play nurse for the next week, reading him her stories and sharing her plans to go to the city...

A dream that will never come true, one that Fareed had taken from her. He didn't even give her a burial or at least try to dress the body respectfully, he left his wife to rot to achieve this, he left her decapitated corpse to be eaten by the birds, so that he could murder some more people.

Everything that had happened still happened, his failures were still failures, Miri still lay dead and he had scars on his face and possibly the rest of his body that would always remind him of that.

Set's attention slowly turned away from Fareed's body as he slowly stumbled through the camp, being careful not to trip over the bodies as he drifted off into the wilderness, towards the nearest road, still clutching the Redguard's katana in his hand...

He didn't care where the road took him now, he cared even less for what was waiting for him, because it was all over...

Everything...