| abstract | - Shisou crept down the dark tunnel with Lucky close behind him. These tunnels and caves and chambers had been used by all manner of smugglers and mages and warlocks over the centuries. Essentially anyone who wanted to stay hidden wound up settling in them eventually and a few had even expanded on the underground structure. They now expanded to form a vast catacomb under Silvermoon completely unknown to the populace above. He wasn't sure how the Syndicate had found out about them but sure enough this was where they had chosen to hang out. The tunnel was nearly pitch dark and steep as fel but that didn't seem to be a problem for Lucky. She didn't have any eyes so he figured she had some sort of magic forsaken vision. He could see well enough in what little light came dimly from the hideout below and it wasn't like he hadn't been down this way a dozen times before. They both faded into the shadows as they approached their target. Two guards were standing outside a large, rough wooden door that was bound together by heavy iron. Over their heads hung a pair of arcane lamps, casting a pale blue-white glow over the chamber. The rogues crouched just out of the light and exchange looks. Even in the dimness Shisou could read Lucky's expression. This was his show. She probably wanted to see what he could do first hand. Well this would be one gorram test he wouldn't mind. He gestured at her and pointed to the guard closest to them. She nodded, sliding past him and behind the unwitting guard as he slipped a throwing dagger out of his bracer. Krelle could barely see a damn thing in the tunnels but she wasn't about to admit it. The only thing visible to her was Shisou's very palely flaming eyes when he would turn to look at her in the dark. She kept a hand on the wall beside her and walked softly, following the sound of Shisou's footsteps along the damp stones. She did not enjoy being in small, dark, enclosed spaces underground by any means but Shisou's request for backup on this particular job had come at an opportune moment and there was no one else in town. Well, aside from Facet, but he was busy being visible and playing "legit shopkeep" down in the Bazaar. Part of her plan with the Syndicate was to keep a low profile for the Tong. For now. It was convenient that Shisou had fallen into the company at that time and she intended to use him. She tried to ignore the way the dank corridor reminded her of the pit and focused on the job at hand. She suppressed a sigh of relief as they finally approached a light source. Two guards - and a cheap door. They would have to take them out silently so they didn't alert those inside. The guards were slouched where they stood and chatting idly in common, neither one particularly alert. She cocked an eyebrow at Shisou. He indicated for her to take the closer one. She nodded and silently drew her daggers. Keeping the shadows tight around her the small forsaken slid into position behind the blond human on the right. She glanced up to make sure that Shisou was ready. He had one of his simple, balanced daggers pulled back and ready to fly at a moment's notice. Both humans died with the same stupid, astonished looks on their faces. The thick door was devoid of a lock but from the look of the hinges it would screech to all fel when it was pulled open. Luckily there were a few inches between the floor and the bottom of the door, just enough for them to get a good look at the chamber beyond. It was a squat rectangular hall with a large arcane lamp suspended from the roof for lighting. Tables, chairs and cots made up the only furnishings in the room and between them moved at least twenty humans in cheap black leather. They showed no indication of knowing their companions on the other side of the door were dead. Their weapons were scattered about, not all at hand. Most of them were kicking back and quite a few were drinking. You would think with their smaller nests disappearing one by one they would at least put up a decent guard. Stupid humans. They probably did not expect anything to hit them here. Seemed like everyone who occupied these catacombs always forgot that other people would know about them too. Shisou looked back at Lucky after surveying the room. She watched him attentively as he gestured out his plan in silence. They would have to burst through the door, take out the lamp, and wreak havoc in the dimness. The lamps in the entry chamber here would provide plenty of light for the two of them to see by while the shadows and confusion could only play in their favor. With the plan laid out they wasted no time in executing it. Shisou took a running charge at the door and barrelled it open as Lucky winged a shuriken at the lamp. As two score eyes turned towards the door, the lamp shattered, raining glowing blue motes down on the room and casting everything into a hazy darkness. Shi let his momentum carry him forward into a roll and sprang up from his hands to plant his feet into the jaw of the closest Syndicate. Blood gushed out of the human's mouth as he bit through his tongue. The elf continued the same motion, following on the human as he toppled, pulling his twin swords from their sheaths on his back and giving the human a crimson grin as he moved along to the next victim. Krelle vanished back into the shadows as the lamp shattered. The humans were stunned as Shisou pulled of an incredibly acrobatic throat-cutting and she took advantage of their distraction. Poisoned blades in hand she slipped up behind a huge man with iron-grey hair. Twin thrusts to the kidneys took him to his knees so she could reach his throat. In the confusion that surrounded their entrance she and Shisou were able to kill several men before the others were able to gather up their weapons and fight back properly. Every time they would surround him he would feint towards one, dash into another, leave a bloody trail in his wake, and get surrounded again. There just did not seem to be an end to them. He parried a blow with his left sword and struck with his right. A human cried out as his face was split from temple to jowl. Fun. He ducked under a swing and came up, left sword slicing air... and then slicing crotch. Stupid humans. Was this the best they could do? They were all so slow. So pathetically slow. He jumped back from another swing, spinning into the motion and skewering a human on the blade. He continued the spin, sending blood flying through the air as the sword pulled free of the man's stomach. A female felt the edge of the other sword as it carved across her torso and a kick sent another man to his knees. The blood elf grinned wickedly, caught up in the rapture of it all. Krelle fought beside Shisou at first but they soon became separated by the melee. The forsaken kept moving, ducking and weaving as she leapt over chairs and rolled under tables to keep the syndicate's blades from finding her. Her own daggers spun in short, deadly arcs as she maneuvered. She scored many small nicks and cuts as she danced between the humans' blows. Nicks and cuts were all that was needed. As she leapt from a cot to a dining table two men collapsed in increasingly violent spasms as bloody foam poured out of their mouths. She was fond of this poison - it had turned out that messah and deathweed had such a lovely synergistic effect. It was satisfying to finally see it in action. Three men were circling the table. She hooked her foot into an ale pitcher's handle and kicked it at the closest. He dodged it with an oath, throwing him off balance as Krelle jumped past him and nicked his shoulder. He spun on her but was already beginning to lose muscle control. This really is an excellent poison, she marveled, stepping up to a chair and hopping back over the table as the other two charged her. One human bellowed something frustrated in common as the other lunged over the table to try and grab at her legs. She dodged and kicked him in the head, stunning him. The shouter swung his sword in a long arc but she parried with both blades. Sparks shot out as she lunged forward, her knives following his weapon back to his hand. One caught on the crosspiece but the other sliced a gash into the flesh of his forearm. She grinned and danced backwards down the long table, out of his reach again. He moved as though to come after her but stopped with a look of horror at his sword arm as the tissue started to swell painfully. The man she had kicked was getting up, shaking his head to clear it, but the one she had cut would not be able to back him up. Her gaze flicked over the room as she waited for the dazed human to come to her. It was then that she noticed the mage. "Shit!" she yelped as a fireball streaked towards her. She dove behind the only cover she had: the half-dazed human. The fireball had lit the room like a Winter's Veil celebration and in close quarters like these that just would not do. He could see the mage by the door, preparing another spell. Three more men were charging Lucky and she had that fried corpse to deal with. Quick move that, leaping behind the human and letting him take the flame for her. A female lunged at him and he jumped over her, placing a foot in her face and leaping higher in the air. He slipped the swords in their sheaths on his back and grabbed the metal frame that had housed the arcane lamp. His momentum carried his feet to the roof. He released the lamp-frame as it finally tore loose of its moorings and sprung from the ceiling as one would spring from the ground. The mage looked up at the last second to see the wild-eyed sin'dorei flying towards him through the air. Shisou knocked the mage clear off his feet and his hands wrapped around mage's head. The pull of pure mana was just too strong. He opened up and devoured it; ripping and tearing it out of the prone human. His eyes burst into violent flame as the mage's screams filled the chamber. So pure. So rich. He couldn't stop, pulling more and more energy until all that came out of the tortured mage's throat was a death rattle. He dropped the dried, withered husk to the floor and turned and grinned at the remaining humans. He must have made a terrifying sight - a dark silhouette against the hallway's light with blazing eyes that promised death. Lucky was dancing down the table again, corpses all around her, some still twitching. Four humans were after her but so far she was eluding their futile swings. Motion to his left brought Shisou's gaze to the other end of the chamber where a human was rising to his feet and hauling up a crossbow to bear and training it at Lucky. There was no time to think. His feet moved before he told them too, carrying him back into the room and directly into the human's line of fire even as his fingers reached under his bracer... The steel dagger left his fingers a split second before he felt the impact in his right shoulder. The bolt tore through flesh and bone alike nearly taking him off his feet. Running high on mana and adrenaline he didn't even register the pain yet. He grinned as the human fell with steel protruding from between his eyes. Such a stupid human. Krelle's back was to the elf and her attention focused on the last of the men before her. They were staying out of her short range, trying to position themselves around her so one could get a solid hit. She foiled their plan by moving up and down the length of the table, constantly forcing them to reposition. One had the bright idea to get a halberd from the rack on the wall and swung it like a lumberjack would swing an axe. Krelle leapt straight up as the shaft whistled through the air beneath her. The instant her feet hit the table she sprang at the man, raking both knives across his face as he failed to recover the heavy weapon in time to block. She dropped a flash-bomb, closing her eyes as it went off, then spun around behind the next man. She slipped a dagger between his fourth and fifth ribs, pulling it out in a gush of blood as his heart pumped its last futile beat. The blood spattered across her face but the mask kept it out of her eyes. She grinned like a pale little blood demon and leapt for the third man. He turned to run but she was faster. A moment later Krelle jumped back up to the table, daggers ready. Where had the last one gone? Shisou turned to check on Lucky and found himself instead facing a human poised to cut him down. His left hand shot for its sword while the right hung uselessly but he knew he wouldn't get it out in time to parry. Instead of striking him, however, the human froze with a sudden look of horror on his face. He coughed once, spraying bloody foam in the air and dropping his sword. He spasmed once and fell, revealing a slightly singed, blood-covered Lucky standing behind him. Maybe he would ask her later exactly how she did that. Shisou looked around, finding the room empty of living creatures but for the two of them. That was when his brain realized that there was a piece of wood sticking all the way through his shoulder and he dropped to one knee with a sharp gasp. The bolt had gone clear through him. The fletching stuck out his front while the bloody metal tip head protruded from his back. Lucky was there and he felt one of her hands brace against his back. "Fel and nether," she muttered. "Hold still..." Before he knew it his tunic and shirt were cut off, revealing a lean torso crossed by an old scar and tattoos down the shoulders, now covered in blood from the hole in his shoulder. "Brace yourself," she said curtly. It was the only warning he got before she yanked the bolt the rest of the way out of him. His mouth opened to scream but nothing came out. Pain washed through him, replacing the euphoria of freshly feeding on pure mana. Lucky bandaged the wound quickly and efficiently, wadding padding against either side of the hole and wrapping long strips of netherweave cloth around his shoulder and chest before tieing them off. "Don't try to move your arm," she warned him uncecessarily. "Can you walk? All right. Let's get out of here." Bloodied but victorious the two made their way back out into the tunnel. This time Lucky led the way, either because she remembered or because his eyes burned brightly enough to provide some light. Shisou limped behind her, right arm hanging at his side and his left arm holding his weight against the wall. With his tunic and shirt tucked in his belt there would be no sign of their presence beyond a room of corpses.
|
