Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20160808020912/@comment-24685738-20160812005027

As Diana was dragged out of the cage and led away, she had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that if she went to her father, neither she nor her friends would make it out of the Legion camp alive.

The two guards dragging her along were alert, and on guard, so she knew she couldn’t outright attack them. Instead, she made herself as limp as possible in their arms, making it more difficult to drag her along through the camp. As they struggled, she drove her toes into the dirt, making it even harder.

“Oh…” She moaned. “Oh…”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” One of the guards demanded, and he raised his gloved hand and hit her across the face. The other guard looked at him, angrily, and loosened his grip on Diana. “Don’t you know who this is?” The second guard demanded. “This is Diana Lassin, the Lord Commander’s daughter!”

“Oh, I-” The first guard was cut off as Diana wrenched her arm from his grip and swept her legs around, knocking the second guard off of his feet. The first guard grabbed her arm again and yelled something she couldn’t quite make out, but she struck with lightning speed…

Sinking her teeth into his wrist, biting so hard and so fast that coppery taste of blood filled her mouth. He released her, gasping in pain, and she took a step back, blood dribbling from her lips.

“You bitch!” He roared, drawing his legion sword, circling around her so that he was next to his friend, the second guard, who was just getting up, rubbing at his head.

He lunged at her and slammed his shield into her shoulder, causing her to stumble away. She knew that if she screamed at them, it would bring the whole camp running to her location. Instead, she took a more elegant approach and ran at the first guard, crazily.

He raised his shield to intercept her, but at the last moment she dived into a roll, knocking his legs out from under him. She quickly wrenched his sword from his grasp and drove it down, into his stomach. The second guard roared and ran at her and swung her sword at her, but she blocked it with her own.

She drove her fist into his crotch, earning a moan as he doubled over in pain, before she drove her stolen sword through his chest.

She stood up and wiped the bloody sword on their tunics, taking the second sword. She glanced around, making sure no one was watching, before she dragged the bodies behind a small sand dune, out of sight.

Diana crept through the camp, quietly, trying to avoid being spotted before she could get to her prize and end this once and for all. She only had a few close encounters, when Legionnaire guardsmen walked by her. At most points she simply dived out of the way, and they kept going.

However, that wasn’t always the case.

At one point she had been creeping between tents, and one of the Legionnaires, a young man, barely more than a teenager, had spotted her. He had opened his mouth to scream for help, but Diana was faster. She lunged at him and span with her swords, one of them slicing open his throat while the other disemboweled him.

The boy barely had time to emit a small gurgle as blood filled his throat, before he collapsed on the floor. She felt a bit sorry for him, as he had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time, but she needed to make sure she could get to Marius before any of them got to her.

She continued her slow crawl through the camp, finally ending at a large tent made of red-and-white fabric, obviously made for a rich man, or a general.

She drove her sword through the skull of the guard outside before he could even react. She stepped inside, blood dripping from her blades, and called, “Marius!”

The stunning Imperial turned around, sweeping his dark hair from his eyes as he looked at her with a raucous grin. “Diana!” He laughed, glancing at her two blades. “I expected you to want to come to my tent, but not so soon.” He joked.

“I assume your father cleared you, so the washing’s over there, if you could take it to the other women.” He said, cheerfully, gesturing to his laundry. Diana cringed.

“You’re a terrible human being.” She muttered, stepping forward, though the tips of her two blades were still pointed at the floor, as she hadn’t raised them up yet. Seeing her intent, Marius reached behind him and grabbed his claymore, drawing it from its leather sheath.

The sword was stunning, like an oncoming storm, made of a shimmering, silvery metal. The crossbar was made of gold, with what appeared to be red magic sliding around inside it. The hilt, however, was simply wrapped in brown leather.

“You like my sword, hm?” Marius said, with a small smile, placing the long blade in front of him. “This is Chrysamere, the Paladin’s Blade and the Sword of Heroes. I have never lost a fight with this sword, Diana, and I’d prefer not to have to prove that to you.” He locked eyes with her. “Run along back to your dolls and dresses, girl.”

“You’re a pig.” Diana retorted, crossing her swords in front of her as she began to circle around him. “And you’re not much of a hero, seeing how you blindly follow my Father into your own destruction.” She struck like a panther, lunging in and swinging her sword at the General.

However, Marius was just as fast as she was, if not faster. It should’ve been impossible, given how those with the potential for Augmentation were naturally faster and stronger than regular people, but Marius moved faster, blocking her strike. The sound of steel hitting steel resounded throughout the tent.

“You see?” He laughed. “I cannot lose.” He slammed his sword down on hers, sending her sprawling backwards, away from the man. He advanced on her, and she rolled over the desk, narrowly avoiding a strike that left a deep gouge in the table. As he struggled to get the claymore out of the desk, she lunged around it and sent a sonic scream his way.

Marius dragged the blade out of the wood just in time and raised it in front of him. Diana was stunned when the scream just dissolved against the blade. Marius grinned at her, amused by her attempt. “The blade protects me, Diana.”

“I acquired her in Elsweyr, you know. Shortly after you were taken.” Marius said, glancing down at Chrysamere. “I have spent so long with it, searching for you. It is extremely unfortunate that the blade that was my hope will be the blade that ends your life.”

He swung it, down at her, and she leaped to the side. He recovered quickly and swung it sideways, leaving a long cut across her arm. She screamed at him, again, to occupy the sword, before she lunged in, swinging her sword at him, cutting a gash across his chest. He jumped backwards, ensuring that she didn’t disembowel him, and the pair circled each other once more.

“One of us isn’t going to leave this tent.” Diana warned him, keeping her swords in front of her in case he made an attack.

“I know.” Marius said, coolly, showing a crack in his jolly exterior for the first time since they arrived. “And trust me, Diana, your blonde head will be rolling around on my carpet.” He lunged forward and swung at her midriff, but she dived down, out of the way, rolling so as to knock his legs out from under him.

Now that the two of them were on the ground together, and Chrysamere was too large to swing around, Diana lunged at him with her swords, but he blocked the attack with his two bracers, before kicking her away.

He lunged on top of her and used his hands to hold her down. “Pretty Diana…” He whispered, slowly beginning to use his knees to hold her instead of his hands. He wrapped his palms around her pale throat and squeezed, and Diana quickly began to see stars.

Her hands weakly scrambled about for something she could use to get him off of her, until, at the last moment before she knew she would pass out, her hands closed around something solid, made of wood. She swung the object, hitting him across the face, causing him to fall off of her. She scrambled away, desperately, only to feel him dragging her back.

Marius stood over her, holding his blade, Chrysamere. “Goodbye, Diana.” He growled, before driving his sword down. Diana closed her eyes, to prepare for the blade, but then Marius let out a cry of surprise.

Chrysamere was wobbling in his hands, an inch from Diana’s face. She looked at it in shock, as did he, confused as to what the Paladin’s Blade was doing. He struggled to push it down into her chest, before Diana grabbed her own sword and swung it upwards, through his stomach.

Marius gasped, and fell over. The sword stood there, shivering in the air, for a moment, before it too fell on its side. Diana stood up and dusted herself off, striding over to the General who lay, moaning, on the floor.

She paused, seeing him in such a state. She had once loved him, she remembered. They had been engaged to be married. Now, she just looked at him in disgust as she picked up Chrysamere and drove it through his neck.

As he shivered in his death throes, Diana stood up and hefted the claymore over her shoulder. “The Sword of Heroes, huh?”

She calmly stepped over his body, towards the door, making an effort not to step in the blood that was now pooling out of Marius’ neck, spilling out all over the rug. She shrugged and left the tent, heading for the real head of the Legion.

The walk through the camp took her less time than she thought it would. Most of the Legion must’ve been busy, or they had been alerted to Marius’ death and were rushing over there to investigate. Diana didn’t really care, either way. It mattered little to her, so long as she didn’t have to kill more people than necessary.

She had grabbed the keys to the cage from Marius before she had left, so that she could rescue her friends when she got to them. If she got to them…

Diana made her way to the largest tent, which was made of purple and gold silk, like one would give to an emperor or king. However, she was a bit shocked to find no one guarding it. She glanced around for anyone, before she headed inside.

The blind Lord Commander sat on a purple rug, with his back to her. He was speaking to himself, and Diana paused to listen in.

“...I love her so much.” He said, jovially, clapping his hands together in excitement. “She is my pride and joy, my golden-haired daughter. I love her as much as is humanly possible, and I thank the gods every day that they sent her to me.” He giggled, a slightly disconcerting sound for one like him.

“I remember when she was a girl, running around the castle. We used to have so much fun together. I would chase her th-through the stone halls, and when I caught her… How she’d scream with laughter and we’d collapse on the floor, and how she’d say ‘I love you daddy.’” He giggled again. “She had the most lovely voice… Like silver bells…”

Diana’s eyes filled with tears. This man, as insane and confused as he was, he was still her father. Despite everything he had done, he had done it for her. He loved her.

And with a jolt, Diana realized that she loved him, too. They had so many great memories together, and they all came flooding back to her. He had taken her to the lakeside when she was so much younger, and they would swim around and just talk. Sitting across from each other at Dinner… Listening to his old war stories… eating cold fruit together on hot days…

“...It’s a shame I’ll have to kill her.” He giggled.

Diana was jolted out of her thoughts by that one statement.

“I don’t have to make it slow, do I?” He murmured, cocking his head as if someone was talking to him, offering advice. “No, she’s Draci’s bitch now. Draci killed her mother, and she stayed with him… N-no…” He giggled again, insanely. “I’ll make it slow. Maybe I’ll flay her, first, peel her skin from her bones… And then I can decapitate her. She’ll see it as a mercy by that point…”

Diana slowly approached him, her sharp intake of breath shattering the silence that was with him.

Ajax Lassin whipped around, searching for her with his blind eyes. “Diana?” He whispered, hoarsely, a complete change from the voice she had just heard.

Diana shut her eyes as she swung Chrysamere, feeling her father’s blood spatter onto her cheek.

She fell to her knees and sobbed, crying for all that it was worth. She had killed her own father, a father who loved her. She was a Kinslayer.

Diana wiped her tears with the back of her hand, after a few minutes of sobbing. Had it only been a few minutes? It felt like an eternity that she had sat there, beside her father’s headless corpse. She stood up, shakily, her hands weakly gripping Chrysamere.

The way back to the cage passed in a blur, as she knocked out any Legionnaire that crossed her path. When she got back to the cage, she screamed so high and so loud, those nearest to her, the Legionnaires guarding the cage, passed out from the sheer pain.

“H-hey, boys…” She said, weakly, drawing out the key and inserting it into the keyhole, opening it up. “We’re f-free to go…”