Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-768817-20160530212729/@comment-5543592-20160531041245

The woman, older, a mother, a woman who had been around the block, held her grocercies close to her chest as she moved down the sidewalk. The city streets were silent, and dark.

They usually were now, at night. And she had been around the block, but she hadn't seen everything.

She passed under high rooftops, with alleys leading back into darker areas to her left. There was a noise. She held the bag closer.

"Hey, lady." The elf said, standing in the shadows, slightly blanketed in the dark. "Come here a minute."

She tucked her head an kept on walking.

"Come here." He said, again reaching out and snagging her arm. She screamed and began to struggle immediately, beating at the elf, the bag of produce falling from her arms and crashing to the ground, wine and margarine spilling out onto the pavement like blood. "Come here..." The elf said gripping her around the waist.

"Just-"  There was a rush of air and she was suddenly shoved to the ground, the elf roughly torn away. She swung her head around in the direction of screaming, the screaming of a male now, just in time to see a figure in black armor beat down the struggling elf--violently, the man's armored knuckles pounded on his victim's face--before disappearing with the unconscious body further into the alley.

She watched with wide eyes from her spot on the ground, before rising to gather her food.

"Damnit, Nedala, what did I tell you." The robed Altmer said, waving the dagger in her face, causing her to flinch and wince. "You were supposed to go in there and lure those bloody Blood Falcons out."

"I'm sorry." She sobbed, backing up towards the carriage that the Thalmor had waved down. An operative, not high-ranking, but with an important job. "I'm just not cut out for-"

"Shut up." Thelidis, the Thalmor, snapped yanking open the carriage door and shoving her inside, before climbing in after her, then slamming the door shut.

"I'm carving the gold getting the location of this meeting costed me out of your face."

"Please I-"

"Oh come on!" The driver of the carriage protested, looking back through the open panel. "I just got the seats cleaned!"

"Shut it and drive." Thelidis growled, pulling out a pouch of Septims and shoving them towards the Imperial driver. The man frowned, and then turned back to his reins.

"You know, Nedala,"  the man said, raising the knife, "I think you need a third nostril."

The door to the carriage was door open, one of it's hinges splintering.

"The hell do you think-"  Thelidis said, turning sharply, the dagger held outwards.

He stared down at the figure in black, before stabbing forwards. It was a casual gesture that the armored man did to slap the knife aside and then force it into Thelidis' own shoulder. The elf screamed aloud at the sudden and unexpected pain before the warrior yanked him from the carriage and onto the cold street, impacting hard onto the pavement.

The elf looked up, briefly aware of what was happening before the man stomped on his throat.

"Oh come on, come on..." The driver whined, trying to get the horses moving, but they had been spooked by the screams, and were bucking, remaining in place.

The man walked around to the front of the carriage, and extended his hand out to the driver, not speaking a word. The driver hesitated a moment, before handing him the coins.

The armored man dropped them to the ground and stomped them into scrap while the driver looked on dully.

He was gone a moment after that.

"Ielia, can we get out of this rain?" He asked, shielding his head.

Ielia, the short-haired Breton woman, looked around, before gesturing down the light corridor. "Come on, this way."

"Down there?" Ulius asked, slightly apprehensive. "The Boys hang out down there."

"You scared, Ulius?" She asked.

The Imperial furrowed his brow. "N-no." He muttered, before marching ahead with Ielia at his right.

It was very long before, suddenly, each torch cut to darkness. The patter of the rain suddenly seemed much louder.

"Oh great, Ielia, now look."

"I'm sure they'll light back up in a minute." She said hesitantly.

"Hey look at that." A voice called from the darkness, revealed to be a grubby, thin young man with body percings.

"Two dinners." A second said, similar in appearance to the first, but on the other side of Ielia and her Imperial friend.

"Slice and dice." A third voice said, this from behind them. They both spun around, and caught two more of the pierced men behind them.

Each had a wicked looking blade in their hand.

"Gunna cut you up." One mumbled, the first. "Cut you up real good."

"Hey!" Ielia protested, feeling out of breath for some reason, "Just stay-"

A man burst from the shadows to her right, a dagger in his own hand. She screamed and ducked, but he didn't come for her.

The long, thin, rectangular blade in the stranger's hands flashed, and one of the Boys fell. A second cried out rushing forwards, point of his blade extended. The man stepped around it like the breeze parting over a rock and delivered one smooth chop to the gangster. Ielia wasn't sure where the blow had hit, but the Basin Boy hit the ground hard.

The remaining two circled the stranger, a man in dark armor of an unfamilar design, his armor dominated by dull highlights that seemed to be made of a blue stone. From behind the mask of his helmet, she could see two icey blue eyes that calculated each movement the gangsters made.

One stepped forward, side stepping inside the stranger's guard, and delivering a stab to the man's stomach. The armored warrior didn't even bother to dodge-- the dagger harmlessly raked over the sturdy plate of his armor. With one brutal motion he slashed the dagger through the air, and blood splattered across the ground and walls as the Boy's throat was cut.

The last gangster had taken the opportunity to flank the stranger, and drove an aimed stab for a cink in the armor. Without even looking, the warrior turned casually, as if he was away to admire something that had caught his eye, and the gangster stumbled as he lost his footing, all his weight having been behind the attack.

The warrior knocked him off his feet and drove the wakizashi down into the young mans' chest with both hands. Ielia could hear the bone crunch. He rose, tucked his dagger into a sheath, nodded to the boy and girl, before walking off.

"Holy shit." Ulius muttered, one of his shoes planted in a pool of blood.

"Look at that." The young guard mumbled, watching as two men disappeared down a side street, and a squad of Thalmor officers followed. They undoubtedly were going to rough those two men up.

"I'd rather not." The older guard replied, his mouth full.

"These city has gone to Oblivion.  Thalmor running the streets.  Us, simply sitting around as figure heads.  I mean just-"  there was suddenly frantic motion across the street as the Thalmor suddenly broke from their ranks and drew weapons. One of the officers was on the ground.

"Look at that..." The young guard mumbled again, shocked by what he was seeing. A second officer suddenly twisted violently, as if struck, and hit the ground on his face. Metal flashed in the air, and a third officer went down.

From a side street a block back, a man in a full suit of black armor dashed out at a sprint, a katana in one arm a dagger in the other, both weapons held extended out at his sides.

"Look at that!" He said louder, nudging his older friend. The older guard looked up finally, to see the warrior come into action among the officer, spinning this way and that, parrying blows with uncanny finesse and grace.

"You've just lucked out son." The old guard said, smiling and folding his arms. "I sense it's going to be quite the show."

Vestulf slapped a sword slash away with his own weapon, before kicking out with boot, driving it into the officer's knee. The man cried out as he went down, and Vestulf decapitated him with a swift stroke. Footsteps quickly behind him. Vestulf ducked in a deft move, crouching slightly as a sword passed over his head, and as he turned he drove both blades out in a paralell stabbing motion, sinking them into his attack.

It was nice of this elves to not bother wearing armor. Made his job much easier.

He turned again, raising his wakizashi this time to parry a blow he only saw out of the corner of his eye, and sliced horizontally at the Thalmor officer. The elf followed the trajectory of the blade before hitting the dirt.

Horse hooves echoed down the streets. Word of his antics had gotten out. They were hunting him down now.

Vestulf slammed his swords back into their sheaths and dashed for an alley way, kicking a downed Thalmor as he passed-- he swore he'd seen the elf flinch.

The alley ended in a garden, a manhole sitting in it's center. He dropped to a knee next to the manhole and, with a grunt, shoved it aside.

His arms were sore from the fighting, and he felt short of breath. He was old, old and out of shape. He touched his side were a blow had knicked him, but a fair amount of blood had been pumped out. That had been a careless move of him, ignoring that thug with the knife. The hooked blade had gotten in between the plates.

The horses came to a streetching halt behind him, out on the thoroughfare, horse shoes clattering as the steeds were yanked to a stop.

He had to move quickly. It wouldn't do to be captured and his legend dispelled after one night out of retirement. He dropped into the hole, shoving the ironlid shut behind him.