Bladenheart
Voyse hurried through the final halls until he came across a room with two stairwells that headed up into a room above. Each were separated into narrow hallways, so he couldn’t see into the room. A strange cubical hole was near the opposite end of the room, with railing surrounding three sides of it. Voyse looked up into the high windows of the room to see that he sun was just starting its decent. It was early afternoon, and he had more than enough time before the night would begin. He took in a deep breath, smelling the cooling air from the windows. The summer was over, and fall was setting in. He returned his thoughts to the time before he started his hunt. He obtained the legendary Adept’s Stone and lost it in less than a day. A grim frown crossed his lips as an image of Draven crossed his mind. The man who took his artifact was likely in the room ahead. Voyse tightened his grip on the sword he held and hurried up the staircase closest to him.
As the assassin drew near the top of the steps, he spotted an upraised stone. He smirked at the sad and obvious trap as he easily avoided it and made his way into what appeared to be a throne room. To his surprise, Draven stood staring at Voyse, turned as if making his way towards the throne.
“Ah, good timing Voyse…you move faster than I thought,” Draven said with a grin.
“A throne room? What a justifying place for our encounter…After I kill you and take the stone, I might just take your throne as well,” Voyse suggested, bringing his sword up to bare.
“That’s unlikely to happen. I beat you once; I can do it again, easier now with the Adept’s Stone!” Draven countered, pulling the stone from a pouch on his belt.
“I’d not depend on that artifact so closely…” Voyse said quietly, fingering the necklace he obtained from the tower that could stop all magic.
Draven quickly put the stone away and pulled out his knives. He lunged at Voyse with an eager grin on his lips. Voyse parried both knives easily and sent his scimitar slicing upward at his foe. Draven rolled to his right to avoid the slice and lashed out at Voyse’s legs. Voyse skip-stepped over the strikes, chopping down with his sword. Draven rolled backwards, bringing his knives over his head as he did so to block the blade. As he set his feet on the ground, he pushed off with all his might and went springing up at Voyse, who held up his sword and dagger to guard as he spun out of the way. The two locked blades and began trying to shove the other backwards. Suddenly, Draven seemed to spot something behind Voyse, and gave the assassin a quick kick to get out of the way. He received a small cut across his left arm from Voyse’s scimitar for the move, but managed to gain some distance. Voyse stepped forward, but quickly turned his attention behind him when he heard a familiar voice shout, “Get him!”
Voyse fell into Draven’s shadow just in time to avoid a fireball being thrown at him. Draven threw one of his knives in the air and held his free hand open. A vortex formed in his palm, sucking up the fireball with ease. He caught his knife and stabbed down at his shadow in one solid movement. Voyse leaped out of his shadow before the knife hit. He looked over towards the source of the fireball to see Asher and Omurai charging up the steps, barely missing the trap block. Omurai whipped out his wakizashi and tanto and threw himself at Voyse, slashing with rapid speed and ferocity. Voyse countered the attacks and began to force Omurai back. The wind adept suddenly rolled backwards, and it took Voyse a second to understand why. Asher came charging forward, easily leaping over his rolling friend and crashing down hard with his full blade. Voyse leaped back, almost being hit by the massive sword. Asher pulled his sword back up and stepped back as Omurai regained his footing and came speeding around his friend. He leaped up and slashed his two blades as fast and hard as he can over and over again, but the dark adept was able to parry each blow. As Omurai’s feet touched the ground again, Voyse used the hook on his dagger to wrap around Omurai’s tanto, disarming the weapon. He pulled his dagger arm back and punched forward, landing a blow right on Omurai’s forehead. The assassin quickly realized his mistake when the wind adept stumbled backwards, not hurt at all, while Voyse’s hand throbbed from punching the metal headband.
Omurai dove for his tanto, coming up a little ways from Voyse’s left side. Asher gave another chop at Voyse, who spun around the blade and got right beside the fire adept. Asher grinned and held up one hand, a fireball instantly springing from it. Voyse had no time to react, and had to spin around, wrapping his cloak around him defensively. The fireball hit him head on and sent him flying towards the window on the other side of the room. Omurai, directly in the path, fell flat on his back to avoid the flying, fiery assassin.
“Goodness, Asher…watch where you’re throwing those!” Omurai shouted, climbing to his feet again.
“No time…we can’t give him even a second to counter!” Asher replied, pulling up his sword.
Voyse caught himself by slamming his dagger and scimitar into the wall around the window and planting his feet against the lip. He looked down to see Thalys climbing up the wall a few feet below. Thalys looked up with a surprised expression.
“You again…” Voyse gasped, but quickly turned his attention back at the room inside as Thalys just grasped the lip of the window.
The assassin dove back into the room diagonally, just as a giant blade slammed into the window lip, causing part of the weakened wall to fall away, including part of it that Thalys had been holding. The edge of the blade dug into the lip, stopping just above Thalys’ head. The nobleman whimpered slightly, trying to find a new hold for his right hand. The blade was pulled away and he could hear more fighting inside. He climbed up and into the room, giving a sigh of relief as he did so.
Thalys turned to see another fireball flying towards Voyse, who’s cloak was already burnt mostly away. The assassin, having more time to react, held up a necklace and muttered something. In a flash, everything in the room turned black and white. A dome of a magical dead zone enveloped the top of the tower, reaching above and below the room they were in. Everything seemed to freeze for just a moment, and then things started to move again, slowly at first, but finally reaching back to normal speed. The fireball that had been flying towards him was now gone, and a look of confusion crossed Asher’s face. The alchemist grumbled and slashed at the assassin. Voyse, who was surprised by the fast reactions of his bounty hunters, held up his weapons in a meager defense. The blade slammed into his weapons, shattering his dagger but his scimitar held. Voyse was shoved backwards, falling down the steps. Omurai dove after him, the two falling in a heap of clashing metal. Asher laughed and ran down after them. Thalys turned his head to see Draven watching the whole thing, an amused look on his face.