The Vale of Shadow (Part 4)

[veraka]

Hearing the thud in the ground, Veraka relaxed a good bit; "What the Hells are you made of. . . nevermind, don't answer that question," he quickly spoke.

At the ranger's witty 'good-looks' humor, the aasimar laughed a good bit; "wait. Are you telling me that the two of you are long lost twins; it's just that you got the looks and the blades?" he asked in his usual, high-spirited sarcasm.

Then, hearing Zek's comment on the rogues, Veraka went serious again; unsheathing Marala Vharc, he marched alongside the vengeful drow, fully intending on making sure that everyone in his path to get to Inrii either ran or ended up dead.

Suddenly the aasimar stopped just as Aurora's ears perked up; looking over to his left, he saw something coming from a rather large building.
"Ranger, I need you to do a favor for me," he said through gritted teeth.

[Zekafae]

Chuckling slightly" Hardly. As for what I'm made of? Years of training as an assassin.. I know the tricks, I know how they think and work. And being Drow you learn to trust the paranoia." Nodding at seeing the building watching he was mentally going through his repetoire of spells to find one for the occasion. Of course fire worked for him really but so did his bow. Sheathing the daggers the bow left his back and he notched an arrow." What kind of favor."

[veraka]

"Use that mobile artillery piece of yours and shoot anyone who either flanks me while in there, and once done, take up a watcher roost on the top of the building or top floor and nail anyone who comes in there. In layman's terms, do what you do best, kill people from a distance." With that, Veraka stalked over to the door of the large building.

Aurora looked to the ranger; [i:2m9vuafp]Zek, I'm gonna assume that you've never been one to appreciate young girls being used as sex slaves against their will?[/i:2m9vuafp] She had a look on that said she wasn't.

[Zekafae]

Looking at the two of them the grip on the bow tightened as he listened. This was not a good sign in the least. Aurora's comment sealed it. " No, and I'd slowly dismember each of those who force innocents into it starting from the loins." As Veraka stalked over to the large building he pulled the bow string back with the arrow notched. The sounds of the dragon horns and the bow creaking clearly showed the strength of the bow, and the ungodly level of cruelty formed behind the bow. Muttering to himself" Vent thy fury east." Catching movement from one of the clients to the place try to sneak in was rounding the corner. The String was released and the arrow flew quick and silent as death when it found its mark. A thud resounded as the man was pinned, via the neck to the corner of the building. Motioning to veraka" there's your knock on the door."

Motioning to Eli" You know what to do, scratch their eyes out." Looking to Aurora" I'll keep your back and his safe, have fun." Quickly both he and the cat leapt up and climbed up to their positions. It would be a festival of death in the city, and zek just saw this as another addition to the job. He learned to separate morales from consciense knowing when your job was an assassin, emotions did not help.

[veraka]

[i:28xvivk5]Glad to hear it,[/i:28xvivk5] Aurora growled her acknowledgment. Then she padded over to Veraka right as the aasimar cannoned onto the doorway. What the two of them saw inside mortified them; young women, all of them in bondage, were just sitting there with quite a few bigger, well-muscled brutes watching over them. The females were of almost all races; elven, half-elves, human, hells even a few half-drow girls were in there.

Veraka had barged in just to see a man, probably a 'client', dragging one of them up a stair-case, even as she pleaded for sisters to help her, though they could do nothing.
[i:28xvivk5]Some of them are even with pups-to-come,[/i:28xvivk5] Aurora said, mortified. This statement caught the aasimar's attention. She was right, some were carrying children in their wombs. Veraka felt the berserker roaring, howling against his mental chains that he usually strapped it down with. He simply unlocked those 'chains', for Veraka himself had triggered the berserker, Aurora's observation was the final straw.

The aasimar snapped, his eyes going crimson red, like a demon. He let loose a guttural howl of rage, and charged the asshole dragging one of the girls up the stairs. Ramming Marala Vharc through the man's chest, the frenzied aasimar lifted him off ground, his near superhuman strength given by his rage. Veraka then proceeded to slam an armored fist into his stomach, then his head, then his groin. Every time the barbarian-raised aasimar struck, a painful 'UHH' came from the man's mouth.

Aurora mean while kept the big asshole's busy, weaving in and out of their attacks. Her super-keen wolf senses picked up nullified thumps outside; Zek was definitely doing his job, as the number seemed to steadily increase; [i:28xvivk5]My, these bastards must want these girls a lot, or . . .[/i:28xvivk5] she didn't need to finish the thought as Veraka moved out of the stair-way, withdrawing Marala Vharc and hacking the chains to young woman to pieces;
"Wait with the others!" he shouted to her.
Right then Aurora bolted up the stairs, seeing if any more females were up there. Veraka knew there would be.

Howling with an unearthly power, he flung the bleeding man into some of the enormous guards; some of them were Veraka's size. The berserker didn't care, it only to kill them all, an indulgence that Veraka more than welcomed. A couple of the goons had managed to unsheathe their weapons and charged the raging aasimar.

Veraka reacted by pulling out one of his new throwing knives and hurled it at the left enemy. The knife spun through air, and lodged itself dead center of his throat. The goon fell to the floor convulsing as his jugular had been penetrated and his wind-pipe was partially blocked. The other goon made it within striking distance and slashed down hard. Veraka took the hit full on, letting the find a notch in his armor and sink into his skin; he simply didn't give a flying fuck.

Smashing the goon in the face with a hilt-strike, Veraka then drop-kicked him, sending him stumbling backwards. The aasimar got to his feet quickly enough, as he saw the guard charging him with his weapon raised. Veraka launched himself into another drop kick at the brute; grappling him with his legs, the aasimar twisted his body in mid-flight, using the twisting leverage topple the goon. Recovering faster than the guard, Veraka brought his sword up and over into the loins. The guard screamed in pure agony. The aasimar then hammered on his skull until it was a pile of crumbled bone, oozing brains, and pooling blood. Sensing something definitely not good, he looked to his left, saw quite a few baddies approaching from outside the building, as well as straight through door way. He counted at least 20 incoming, probably thugs hired to keep the building from unwanted intruders.
"RANGER, YOU'VE GOT INCOMING!!!" he roared to Zek.

[Zekafae]

Zekafae watched the scene, as eili watched his back, there was the reow which was all but shrieked as she was clawing at someone a couple spells firing off scorching the man which flung the cat. Seeing her fly off in the corner eye there was the twitch in the muscles before he sheathed the bow. The blades were unsheathed and he quickly dispatched the man in a horrid flurry of blood. Arms and legs were instantly severed and the throat slashed to near decapitaiton. Dashing off of the rood, he leaped off doing a flip and landed next to eili whom was a hurting cat. Kneeling down he checked her over whom meowed softly. Using a large portion of his healing skills both natural and magic he gently slipped her into one of the bags." Don't worry.. I'll make them pay." With that he bolted off towards the building. (think the scene from Lineage 2 dark elf vs light elf.. fast and meaning business) When he reached the mob he went right in it didn't matter what the blades hit, they were cleaving. Parrying and countering with a fierce speed and force that belied his physique.

The blades were vicious but the kicks were ruthless, sending a man twice his size into the nearby wall zek lunged up pinning him against the wall with blades imbedded in the man's chest and pulled back to do a rather classic fall back and throw move. After the man was thrown into a pile of wood being impaled he was getting up and slammed the dagger into a man's groin hard. Using the force and momentum of the man's movement he threw him over and once on the ground zek proceeded to stomp and kick the man's throat and groin hard until a resounding thud was heard by his fist slamming into the chest, the impact stopping the heart instantly. He did not waste time moving inside to have both aurora's and Veraka's back. He wasn't beserk, no he knew how to kill and the movements were calculated several steps ahead and always changing.

[Inriiaynrae Jaelre]

((ok so to get this right, yall have busted into a place in daggerfalls and are rescuing a bunch of underage girls...?
i'll have a temp NPC- good or bad, you'll have to wait... ))

((since i would assume it would take a bit of time to find me, this is assuming some time has passed, so this is like a bit in the future))

Inrii made no move as the Darkmasked made his way to her. he circled her like a vulture. what was it about this group and doing that? he stared leering at her, despite the beatings she had. apartently it made her more desirable to him. a female drow weak and bound unable to do anything and at the mercy of a male. he did notice she was a bit emiceated and even scrawnier than usual. Inrii glared at him, hate seething from her crimsom orbs.
"now now. it is not I who keeps such a pretty thing like you here. had you been mine i would have already found some use for you. oh the things I could do..." he said as he knelt down twords her. her hands were still chained tho looser than they had been. a magical gag had replace the material one now as a magic dispeller hung in the air. she still made to move to cower away even tho she knew exactly what he was thinking. she would kill him if he dared, one way or another. the male was confident and let the gag fall away.
his boney obsidian hand roughly grabbed her face, fingers digging into her cheeks. another hand whipped across her face leaving a sting worse than Alya's men had. deep down their was a slight bit of terror, but she forced the rage building up in her. the Darkmasked jerked her head one way then another as if inspecting a dog.
"well girl. have you nothing to say? has your resorseful wit ran out already?" he laughed.
"suck a toad," she said thru clentched teeth, "and choke on it while you do."
of course it brung another slap across her face. Inrii responded by spittle flying twords him. his hand then went around her throat and began squeezing.
her chains didnt allow her attempt to stop him. his laugh continued as Inrii tried to force air in, her lungs burning and screaming for oxygen. just before she could pass out he released and pushed her back. the drowess gasped for that precious air as she laid their on the floor.
he crept closer to her as she just laid there.
"any other bright ideas?"
she said nothing, just waited for a right moment.
"that one."
her feet, tho chained, were aimed for his groin and face. and she hit what she aimed at.
--
she made her way thru the city watching the stupid rivvin try to out out the scattered blazes. ahead the small group entered a building. as she neared she heard the voices and shouts of a battle. a cold smirk spred upon her thin lips.
the female entered unsceen and cloaked in a blur of shadows. up in the rafters of the building she sat and watched. the fight was a bit unbalanced it appeared. but no doubt they could handle it.
"perfect!" she thought.
her lavender hair was neatly pulled back and tied up in an elaberate style and held together with gem encrusted pins. each one with its own magical poperties. her dress was of sleek form fitting jet cloth (think sorta like catwoman w/o the head piece). as she moved along the ceiling in utter silence, it moved with her like her own skin. her eyes tho were like pools of liquid gold and silver swirled looking on as the battle continued below.
and she watched in amusement.

[veraka]

((To Inrii-yes and no; We busted into a place, and are kicking the shit outta every male in the place; no- the girls in the building are more along the lines late teen, early twenties. That and I've been itching to write a good fight scene, so there it went.))

Veraka sent a fourth thug sailing through the wall by himself, the fool landing with a groan was the amount of force behind the aasimar's was ungodly. By this time the remaining guards that had been toppled by Veraka's first throw had recovered and were on the aasimar in seconds. The berserker-crazed warrior merely smiled, and met them head-on.

With the berserker at an all-time high, and his own anger and rage still fuming like an erupting volcano, Veraka slammed into one of the morons, shoulder charging him into the floor. The raging aasimar then started to bash him in the skull with hilt strikes, armored-fists, and elbow smashes. The man finally howled in pain as Veraka grabbed the man's greataxe, raised it over his head, and slammed it into the asshole's groin.

The aasimar looked at the red axehead with a raised brow; "now that's what I call a 'squirrel axe'." He dropped the chopping weapon and reverted back to Marala Vharc.

Veraka heard several screams emanate from upstairs. He also knew that those screams were more from surprise than pain.
"Aurora's obviously found some; now the question is how many is she gonna have to sink her teeth into to vent her anger." Winter wolves were some temperamental creatures by far. Soon those surprised screams were followed by ones of agony.
"Well, looks like she found some unfortunate bastards after all."

He continued on with his bloody work, just killing and killing and killing, not caring which goon came at him, just as long as he stayed down, preferably with a pool of red beneath him. Two more large guys jumped Veraka from behind, one of them getting a grapple on the aasimar, the other starting to wail on the aasimar. Veraka took punch after gut-imploding punch, when a low, and very real, growl emanated from behind him. The man punching the snot outta Veraka raised his head to have a look, only to have a very pissed 450 lbs white wolf tackle him and lock her razor jaws onto his neck. Aurora may have a been a chaotic good creature, but when her younger aasimar brother was threatened or some whom he believed was innocent, she became the exact reason why winter wolves are feared.

Seeing Aurora make mince meat outta of his gut-puncher, Veraka grabbed one of his tantos even as he grappled with brute, whose arms were locked around his neck. Flipping the armor-penetrating knife in his hand, the aasimar rammed it behind him, and hearing the asshole scream out in pain, pushed with all his might when he felt the knife meet resistance. The arms loosened and went slack behind him as the fool had taken the tanto to the eye; Veraka had merely given him a blind reason to die. Shoving the tanto back into its sheath, Veraka stopped when he heard a scream.

"Give up, barbarian, or the wench dies," came a guttural yell from Veraka's six. The aasimar whirled to see the first asshole whom he tackled had a gotten up and now had a decent size blade to one of the girls neck. Veraka noted that the girl was one of the few carrying-child. That fact made him seethe hatred, getting to the point where it almost became tangible. The aasimar radiated wrath, vengeance and rage at the bastard.

Veraka grinned manically as he realized that he still had one ace up his sleeve. Within two seconds, that ace sent an unnaturally powered arrow at the man's sword-arm. The missile hit dead on, shattering the bone and cutting through half the skin and tissue, effectively leaving the arm hanging by the joint like a piece of meat. Veraka glanced over to Zek and nodded, then returned his attention to the now pain-struck goon.

Veraka, his eyes still glowing vengeful red, stalked over to the goon, grabbed him by his dangling arm, and whirled around, shearing the forearm from the rest of the body. Blood sprayed as the bastard hit the floor. Tossing the piece of meat aside, Veraka walked over to the man, grabbed him by the throat, and raised him off the floor. Looking into the man through his celestial vision, the aasimar roared with pure hate as he started to tighten his iron-grip on the asshole.

The man half-wheezed, half-gurgled something to the raging aasimar; red trickled down between Veraka's finger's, painting them a deep red.
"You don't deserve to even die, you shouldn't even [b:ug4o51gp]exist[/b:ug4o51gp]," Veraka growled to the suffocating fool in his death-grip. With a howl of guttural rage, the berserker surged and tore out the man's throat, blood spilling onto the armored aasimar. The berserker simply released the now piece of dead meat, and let it crumple to the ground.

((sorry I took control of Zek for a little time, but it was too perfect to pass up ))

[Zekafae]

It's alright not a problem.)

Zek watched quietly at the blood shed as when Veraka was dealing with the man, he went to work on releasing the girls. Moving to each of them he undid their binds and spoke to them as he went. At the half drow girls he felt his stomach churn. Disdain, but also pity sank there heavily. He spoke to each of them in the Drow tongue whispering it and common to each of them as he gave them some coins and directions to go to have a better life. With that done, he moved to the hatch door to the basement and went down. The scene that followed irked him to a level, that if there was more dragon blood in him it probably could have erupted full fury and if possible force his body to change shape. As much as he hated his fellow drow at times, this was a level that he abhored.

Drow girls shackled, some pregnant, some already dead from forced abortions or ending the pregnancies by removing the half drow children out. There were some bodies, it was clear they were doing this for a long time. The boys were either to be shipped out or killed and the girls trained here. There was of course some brutes that needed to be dealt with. Zek moved in slowly blades drawn, his temper seething, no it wasn't the temper but just pure wrath and malice towards those cowards. Pulling one of them away hard, the resounding pop was the joint being dislocated. It did not take much force to destroy the body's joints. Less than twenty five pounds force to any joint would cripple it. The blade slammed into the throat and ripped across angrily. He went through the men taking them down before they could 'train' the new girls. Muttering" Human filth... touching my kin... Drow should never be subjected to this." He spat on one of the bodies before clearing the basement out. Releasing each of the girls he told them where they could go. He knew of settlements far south and to the east where they could reform their lives.

The next stop was the containment cells for the newest girls. Moving to the gate he unlocked it and before he could open it, he felt a piece of metal at his throat. Moving slowly he eyed the half orc and muttered something in a combination of drow and common that caused the brute to strike him. The strike didn't land, instead it hit the iron bars in which zek proceeded to literally torture the man to death. unlocking the door he gave the girls back their clothing and motioned." All of you band together, get clothes and leave. Now." He watched them leave and actually heard his name whispered amongst them. Damnit... his reputation still was there... of course what he heard whispered amused him.

Heading back to the surface floor he shook his head watching the leave. He knew he saw something down there that he didn't want to see, one was the scene but also something he was trying to process. Looking to Veraka" How is upstairs?" He asked deadpan, all business.

[veraka]

Veraka was glad the ranger had this side to him; it meant that he wasn't the complete silent, stone-cold assassin that he said he was. The towering aasimar merely let the ranger help the young women out and then proceeded to the downstairs as the ranger led the way.

Mimicking Zek's response, the aasimar gritted his teeth, but let the ranger take the out the garbage, he too was still a being, and as such, needed to release his anger. After letting Zek assist the drow females in there, the aasimar saw him release more young women from their cells, and to Zek's smirking face, heard the ranger's name mentioned among their ranks. When the ranger came out, Veraka was giving him a lop-sided grin and was shaking his head.

Veraka headed back upstairs to the middle floor; at the ranger's question, he replied "I believe Aurora said the girls up there were fine, some though might be a bit shaken. Come on." With that, the aasimar made his way to the upstairs and immediately came upon Aurora's gruesome, but effective work. In one room, a man lay there his face a in a surprised and frightened expression. Half of his throat was torn out, and was tossed across the room. The warrior and ranger made their way to each room.

Veraka stumbled upon two young women, one drow, the other, a half-elf, in one room together, the half-elf was pregnant; the drowess was shielding her from the aasimar, though she had a nasty cut on her arm. The aasimar raised his hands, said in common that he could help them escape; she immediately took his arm and led him to help the pregnant half-elf. She had taken a stab wound to the chest and had passed into unconsciousness.

"Zek, find the others; I've got a wounded one here," he called out into the hall. Kneeling down next to the bleeding young woman, Veraka calmed himself and forced himself to remember his paladin training. Though he himself hadn't used many of those abilities in years, didn't mean that he had lost them. Placing both of his armored hands on the young woman's chest, he focused his energies and called down [b:2ekjdlte]Lay on Hands[/b:2ekjdlte].

Platinum colored energy surged around the aasimar and into his armored gauntlets, before finally flowing into the young female. Her wounds began to seal up, the blood stopped flowing, and after a few seconds of being wrapped in the platinum energy sphere, the young female half-elf opened her eyes.
Veraka breathed a sigh of relief, though he was surprised when the drow girl wrapped him in a tight hug; the two mus have been really close. He led them outside and downstairs, telling them to stay near the big white wolf. Aurora made sure they were comfortable, but still kept an eye out.

With that Veraka went back up stairs and continued searching with Zek.

[Zekafae]

He noticed the look and muttered." Not a damned word.." Nodding to the answer he headed upstairs with him seeing the look. Shaking his head slightly he saw the two women and then nodded to him as he went to check on the others and ushered them out.

Moving further more he entered a room leaned against the door frame for a moment." I wonder if this is more Ayla's doings. Her being an albino must have been thrusted out. I see no other reason why so many Drow would be here. And hated in the city." Shaking his head he felt eili stirr cursing about pains and being sore. The cat emerged and jumped up on the bed sitting next to a girl whom was quivering with fear. Shaking his head slowly." We're not all here to hurt you. We're here to help." Getting some bit of his rations he set it down on the bed and a waterskin. He saw the few others cowering knowing or rather fearing drow. Shrugging to this he walked out as eili followed. They of course started to all but devour the food and the water. Moving to a ladder he climbed up it some and saw that there was a lock." Attic.. I wonder what is up here.. Hey did you notice any of them with keys or should I just pick this?"

[veraka]

Looking at the ranger as he came upstairs again to see the young girls devouring the food that Zek had given them, Veraka gave them the same instructions as he did the others.

Looking to Zek, he shrugged, "I don't know, but I do know it gives me all the more reason to hunt her down to ask myself."

"As to that," he pointed at the attic in question, "I believe these are what we're looking for," he said smiling, pulling out a key-chain from his belt pouch. He tossed them to Zek.

"Have at it, I'm gonna make sure that all the rest of the females are safe and downstairs."

[Zekafae]

Nodding he caught the keys and unlocked the lock and pushed the bulkhead up." Alright, I'llsee what's up here. Hopefully no more of the girls trapped." Moving up into the attic he'd make the full walk through examining everything and didn't find much until he went to the back part of everything." Ahh... I see." Kicking the shuttered window open he started to heave crates, boxes and sacks of clothes out of it letting them fall to the ground and open up. When he emptied the area out he double checked everything and did a sweep of the building as he went down. Seeing Veraka" Found their belongings. All up in the attic put away. Hopefully they'll get their clothes get into them again and be on their way. Then we can scorch the place."

[Inriiaynrae Jaelre]

((a quick break...that now is gone as i hit post...

i never really intended alya to be involved in something like this. mainly b/c their in the process of planning an attack against lolthites, soon.))

the shadow followed them, still up high and hidden. for as long as their was the slightest bit of darkness or shadow she would stay hidden from all eyes. her grin pulled her lips back to pearly whites and slightly elongated canines. to another rafter she slightly made her way watching the group. she did not recognize any of the dead males or any of the being rescued females. she didnt even know something like this went on in this tiny rivvil city.
she waited and watched, for her moment was coming soon, just had to wait for it...

--
the man fell down clutching the injuried area. he cursed as he attempted a spell. Inrii's feet were already moving to get the chains around his neck.
she squeezed, much like he had her, and the copper haired male tried to fight her off. Inrii only squeezed harder. finally the Darkmasked managed a spell and Inrii was frozen in place by a blasted paralyze spell.
"you stupid little..." he started while grasping for air. Inrii tried her best to spit out a retort, but his spell held her good.
he chuckled, now knowing why Alya was trying to break her down. the young sorceress had some uses, if only they could control her.
another spell dropped her to the floor. luckily for Inrii it wasnt that high as she hit left side first. a quiet cracking pop was heard, yet she could do nothing about it. white hot pain seered, but she pushed it away.
"you make this so hard on yourself," he decided to switch tactics. for no matter how much they beat her, she would not break. the girl was stubborn, more so than he had seen before in his whole 6 centuries.
psychological was the key.

--
her hands began the correct pattern in the air and she traced the sigil skillfully. another flick of her thin wrist aimed it at the males still standing and tending to the girls.
her bodied poured down like an overflowing cup to the floor below.
she had to halt them, by whatever means. and that would be determined on her own mood at the moment.

[veraka]

Veraka nodded as the ranger went up and searched the attic.
When he came down and reported what he'd found, the aasimar nodded his agreement, particularly about setting the place a burning.

"I agree, the sooner they get dressed and outta here the better. . . " he stopped mid-sentence as his barbarian-attuned senses flared to life. Trained for nearly two decades under the Uthgardt barbarians, Veraka's reflexes were near super-human to unseen threats.

"We've got company," he said in a low tone to Zek.