Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-24123288-20150325215538/@comment-3293219-20150328122321

Arrietty tugged, desperately at the doors of the Bannered Mare as they were a lot heavier than she remembered. For a moment or two, she feared that they were locked but thankfully, her fears were put to rest as soon as they gave way and she was finally able to force them open.

She quickly turned around and saw that Emeric stood between her and Asgarne, defiantly blocking the hulk's path. The foolish Vigilant was little more than a pest for the spectre, who proceeded to snatch the Nord's neck, in one powerful swing of his arm.

He slowly lifted him up into the air as he crushed his windpipe, glaring up, unsympathetically as he watched the Vigilant squirm, tilting his head as if it was a point of fascination for him before tossing him aside, into one of the stalls.

His gaze shifted upwards as he saw Arrietty run into the tavern, he feared that she knew a secret passage, out of the city and that he would lose her once more. He quickly marched up the stairs, after her, unlike the Breton, he had no difficulty opening the door and simply booted it open, with his foot.

Even though she was expecting this, Arrie still managed to be startled, she jumped up and turned around, shaking as she did so as she stared up into the deep, dark eye sockets of Asgarne's mask. Asgarne did as he always did, he slowly shuffled towards her, his expression uncertain, his motive more certain.

As soon as he was in range, he immediately swung his blade at Arrietty's head, prompting her to duck and scream out as he did so. The Breton continued to slowly move around him, hoping to stay behind the Nord as she drove the pommel end of the sickle into his back. This caused Asgarne to stumble slightly before spinning around and throwing another horizontal swing at her. Arrie jumped back as she was constantly on her toes, her heart was pounding, head was aching and she felt like a living being for the first time since this whole mess had begun as she embraced this feeling of fear.

Asgarne quickly drove his blade down, prompting the Breton to jump to the side, so that the blade would miss her and get lodged in a wooden floor panel. The Nord scowled or the closest thing to a scowl that he could achieve as he quickly tugged at the blade, not seeming to notice Arrietty, who was already calculating her next move.

She jumped up at him and wrapped the blade of her sickle around his neck as she swung around to his back. The Breton and Nord were now back to back, with a small hook being the only thing keeping Arrietty up in the air, her legs were curled, so that she could keep her feet rested firmly on Asgarne's back for support. The Nord, almost instinctively snatched for Arrie's forearm and swung her around, like a ragdoll, throwing her across the tavern, against the front door.

Arrietty didn't even react, at least not vocally as she wasn't expecting it at all. The Breton flew into a torch, dislodging it from the wall and causing it to fall down to the floor, next to her, igniting the wooden decking of the Mare and starting a fire.

Arrietty lay next to the eruption, seemingly unconscious...

Asgarne slowly reached up for her sickle as he ripped it out of his neck, the Nord looked down at the simple piece of farming equipment and broke it like a twig before discarding the blade and handle before he went to retrieve Arrietty.

Arrietty's eyes slowly opened as she felt the intensity of the heat on her face and the constant flickering of orange light, being emitted by the flames. She grumbled as she came to before her eyes widened and she quickly shuffled away from the fire, dragging herself unknowingly towards Asgarne. She tried to pull herself up, with her left arm but she quickly found that she couldn't move it, it lay limp on her stomach, completely dead.

The Breton shuffled away from the flames for a few moments before she heard the heavy boots and felt the overwhelming presence of her foe. She slowly looked up and saw Asgarne, bearing down on her. She shivered as he reached down for her and grabbed her shirt, slowly lifting her up and wandering across the tavern and eventually slamming her down onto the counter.

Arrietty gasped as she felt the unforgiving pain of the wooden counter being driven into her back, with brute force. She tried to hold her arm in place as she was lifted again and slammed back down, again and again. She screamed the third time as she felt her entire body rattle and felt a surge of pain in her upper back, she may have even broken a rib.

Asgarne, growing tired of this, quickly dragged her across the counter, knocking everything aside as he did so before he threw her across the room again. This time it was into the cooking pot. The pot was thankfully empty and the fires, that boiled its contents were out but it was not what anyone would call a 'soft landing.'

The Breton was too injured to react meaningfully to being thrown a second time, she landed hard on the wooden floor and rolled over, several times before coming to a stop on her back. With a dislocated shoulder, cuts all over her hands, a gash on her cheek, a bloody nose, broken ribs and possibly broken fingers on her right hand, the Breton wasn't entirely optimistic about her chances. In fact, she had all but given up...

She lay, staring up at the ceiling as she heard Asgarne's boots, slowly approach her as tears began to form in her eyes. At least he'd stop the pain, that is, if he didn't feel like having some fun with her first but he wasn't really a torturer, so she doubted it. She watched as the blurry vision of Asgarne appeared above her, staring down on her, with that emotionless smock. There was no pity or sentiment in his eyes, in fact, from where she was lay, there was nothing. This wasn't far from the truth as Asgarne felt little, cared for even less. All that Arrietty saw were two vacant holes in his mask, a dark void, where his eyes should be, it hid the few traces of humanity that he had left.

Her eyes slowly moved down his face and came to his neck, seeing the nook that her sickle had left. It had dug deep into the flesh, almost taking his head off... Well... It could have, potentially taken his head off, though it wasn't much of a risk for him as the blade was fairly useless.

She glanced up and gave him a weak smile, somehow knowing that it would come to this. She'd lost so much to get here, they both had...

"I'm... Sorry..." She whispered, slowly curling her fingers as she forced a smile.

"I... Couldn't... Let him... have it..."

Asgarne couldn't care less for the Breton's irrational fear of some weak fool, the Amulet belonged to Asgarne. Out of the two of them though, he considered Arrietty to be the worthier rival but that was only because she had the sense to flee with his stolen property.

The Nord quickly ripped his blade out of the ground, it seemed to be much easier from his angle. He wrapped both hands around its hilt and slowly lifted it, making sure that the point would pierce Arrietty's head. After lifting it a few inches into the air, he drove it down, at full force.

As the tip of the blade drove down, towards Arrietty's forehead, her dazed expression quickly snapped into a cunning smile before she threw her head to one side. Due to her injured state, she wasn't as fast as she had thought and the blade cut through her left ear. It stung like hell but the Breton knew that she had more pressing matters right now, Asgarne's strike had driven the blade of his sword into the ground and jammed it into the wooden floorboards once more.

Arrie rolled over, onto her stomach and quickly scrambled to her feet, with only her right arm to support her as she went. She quickly jumped up and stumbled back, looking over to Asgarne as he desperately tried to pull the blade from out of the ground.

This was her chance, the Breton quickly knelt down and grabbed a broken table leg before she immediately looked up to the Nord, who was slowly turning his attention on her. Arrie tightened her grip on the leg as much as she was able to, with her hand being in the condition that it was in. She screamed out as loud and fiercely as she could as she proceeded to swing the table leg at the Nord and hit him as hard as she could across the head with it.

The impact caused the chair leg to splinter as it was driven into his mask and his head overall. The Nord didn't expect such a display of strength and didn't really prepare for it, causing him to stumble to the side, reaching up for his face. Arrietty wasted no time as she rushed over to the sword, grabbing its hilt and tugging away at it, hoping to release it from the ground as Asgarne stumbled around, clawing at his mask.

Arrie, after a lot of tugging, was finally able to pull the giant's sword from the ground, causing her to stumble back as she lifted it and got ready to strike. It was a lot heavier than it looked, especially with one hand but it was all that she had.

Once more Arrietty cried out and swung her weapon, this time she swung the blade at Asgarne's legs to bring him down. The blade dug deep into the cadaver's left knee, causing it to immediately buckle. He reached down for the blade that narrowly escaped his grasp as Arrietty pulled it back, getting ready for the next swing.

She tried to aim it just right, though she knew that she wouldn't be capable of pinpoint accuracy in her condition. With another scream, she swung her blade once more and drove it through Asgarne's neck. The blade dug deep, to the point that it was inches away from his throat. As a result, he violently spasmed as he tried to reach up and prevent any more damage from being done but he quickly found his arms failing him.

Arrietty tried to saw through his neck but that would take way too long. Instead she dislodged the blade, pulled it away and gave another swing with her tired arm, doing half of the damage that she was capable of before.

Asgarne's dark red blood trickled down his neck, chest and turned his armour into a dark shade of crimson. It even took its toll on his body as he could no longer move his arms or any part of his body, in fact, he may have gone into shock. It was at this moment that she caught a glimpse of his eyes as it was the first time that they had been close enough to see them. She saw something inhuman in them, deceased, decaying, confused, lost... The Breton was only reminded of what little she knew of his plight, none of it she wanted to know as she couldn't help him...

Arrie's eyes finally shed the tears that they had been holding back as she let out one final scream and swung her blade once more and with one last almighty swing, she cleaved the head from Asgarne's shoulders. It flung a few feet into the air, spinning around as it did so before landing, with an almighty thud as it went bouncing across the room.

The Breton panted heavily as she watched Asgarne's corpse keel over and hit the floor with an even harder thud that almost shook the earth beneath her feet.

She looked down to her left arm and cradled it, sighing heavily as she did so before she looked around as she saw that the fire was raging. At this point, she knew that she would be over faced with the smoke, if she stayed. She had to get out of here...

Arrie quickly ran off, towards the front entrance, Asgarne's sword still in her hand as she left his body to the inferno...

-

After throwing herself hard enough against the door, she was able to break it open and release herself from the burning tavern. She stumbled out, onto the streets of Whiterun, followed by a trail of black smoke as she did so, that flew up into the sky.

Though Arrietty had managed to win the fight, she was also broken, battered and bruised. She may even be dying... She could feel the pain over facing her as she slowly staggered down the steps, her vision dimmed and she began to feel light headed. She could feel herself going, she could feel herself being embraced by something and she was certain that it was death.

Eventually, she found it impossible to keep going and support herself. She eventually collapsed to her knees, however, to her surprise, she was immediately caught into someone's embrace.

She smiled as she fell into their arms, one of which slowly grazed her back and wrapped around the back of her knees as she was slowly scooped up. She curled up and smiled, dimly as her eye met the one on her rescuer's breastplate, she curled her fingers up and drifted off to sleep as Cato carried her away, into the night.

-

The Bannered Mare continued to burn, the fires inside raged, dancing aggressively as they slowly consumed the building and its décor. At the center of the blazing building lay the headless corpse of Asgarne of which the flames hadn't gotten around to consuming. The head of Asgarne lay a few feet away, it to hadn't become a priority for the fire yet and lay, with its eyes staring straight ahead, fixated on the darkness of death...

Though it was mostly deafened by the roaring flames, the song had returned to Asgarne and his fingers began to twitch. He quickly regained all feeling in his right hand and even began to move it. He slowly scraped his arm across the floor, needing to feel the harsh, wooden surface beneath it to see as he slowly placed a firm hand on the floor and began to put his weight on it as he rose to his feet.

The doorstep of the Bannered Mare was darkened once more as the titan slowly emerged from its dark, smoky halls as he marched into the darkness, carrying his own severed head in his tight, bear-like grip as he vanished without a trace.