“Well, thank you for the warning…hopefully he won’t be showing himself here again,” the younger man said.
“If you tell us which way he went, we’ll make sure he doesn’t make it back alive,” Asher promised grimly.
“He said he was heading to Aggwool, just north of here at the foot of the mountains,” the older man answered.
“Thank you, sir. We shall see to it that justice be served,” Omurai said, turning to walk away.
Asher nodded in agreement and fell into step behind his wind adept friend.
**********
Voyse looked at the massive bridge laid out before him across the second part of the valley that wrapped around the single hill he stood upon. Just across the huge bridge was the village he sought, Aggwool.
Upon further inspection, Voyse noticed soldiers in full black armor moving in and around the village. A sick feeling suddenly came to the assassin. Could it be that Draven knew of the same artifact he was looking for? Could he already know its whereabouts? Voyse’s time just seemed to disappear and a sudden urgency came over him. He speed across the bridge as fast as his wounded foot would permit.
As he began to reach the center of the bridge, a single figure became obvious to him. He slowed his pace, until finally halting ten feet away from a young woman clad in a dark robe, the hood back to reveal her light brown hair and tattooed face.
“I was told you would be making your way here, but I hadn’t imagined you could do it so quick in your current condition,” the woman teased.
“Who are you? What is going on here?” Voyse demanded, his hands slowly wrapping around the handle of two daggers.
“You can call me Rory. As for what is going on…why, I was ordered by my superiors to guard this bridge from any travelers. I knew you’d be coming because my commander saw you fiddling around in the valley earlier. She told me to watch out for the masked assassin known as Voyse. Well met,” Rory said.
“So, you’re the only thing that stands between me and Aggwool?” Voyse asked.
“Do not underestimate me, if that is what you are trying to infer,” Rory warned, holding up her hands as they began to glow with dark energy.
“You work for Draven…don’t you?” Voyse asked.
“That I do, and be praised to Bladenheart,” Rory said with a laugh.
“A dark mage working for Draven, eh? This should be interesting,” Voyse said.
With that, Rory sent a ball of dark energy straight at Voyse, who quickly dove to one side. Another ball crashed into the ground in front of the assassin, and he knew it was time to be moving.
Voyse began to run around the dark mage as fast as he possibly could with his wounded foot, barely avoiding a barrage of flying balls of dark energy. When the barrage ended, the assassin stopped to see what would come next. A huge orb of darkness blasted into the ground right in front of him causing shards of the bridge to fly into the air. Voyse snatched at any of the sharp shards he could and tossed them at the mage, who gave out a quick scream and covered her face with one arm. Just as the shards would seem to bite into her flesh, a wall of darkness enveloped her, destroying all of the shards.
Rory gave a victorious shout of glee and closed the shield to see an airborne Voyse falling right at her, two large shards in his hands. Rory gave out another yelp of surprise and jumped back, barely avoiding the nasty downward chop. Voyse flowed his attack by swiping both shards upward, once again to fall short of the leaping mage. He hacked down with the right shard, going across with the left, leaving a bloody line across Rory’s left shoulder and her stomach. As Voyse advanced to attack again, she launched a ball of darkness at him, but all it hit was two falling shards. Voyse fell back in a roll, coming up on one knee.
Laughing, Rory began to charge a powerful attack. “Is that all you could do to me? Just a few grazes!? Take this!” she screamed, throwing the charged energy into the ground. A quick shudder ensued, and then spikes of pure darkness began to jut out of the ground, creating a line of them heading for the kneeling Voyse. Quicker than Rory could expect, Voyse leaped into a backflip from his prone position. He hit the ground and dived to one side. The spikes continued in their straight path, missing him completely.
Voyse put a hand to his right ankle, cursing at his condition. If he didn’t stop such movement, he could hurt his ankle worse. He’d have to end it soon. Determination once again fueled the assassin, and he stood straight up, a dagger in both hand. With a flick of his wrist, he sent both flying at Rory. Reacting on instinct, the dark mage created an orb of dark energy over both of her hands and held them out before her. Closing her eyes in fear as the projectiles came in, relief filled Rory when she felt both blades bounce off of her energy. She opened her eyes to see a charging Voyse, catching both of the flying daggers and leaping at her with amazing grace. She snapped out a hidden dagger from a wrist sheath on her right arm and brought the blade across to defend. She managed to parry the first dagger, but the second came in unhindered, digging deep under and around her lower right rib. Rory grunted as she fell back a step. Voyse retreated his step slightly, expecting retaliation.
The dark mage stared down at the protruding hilt, blood slowly wetting her robes. Filled with outrage, she began to summon up a large amount of energy. Voyse, sensing the increasing energy, rested his free hand on the hilt of Devil’s Sin. Soon, the assassin’s entire body began to shake from all the mounting energy. Upon better thinking, Voyse realized that it wasn’t he who was shaking, but the entire bridge.
Rory held up both hands, and a massive disk of dark energy appeared. Voyse recognized this attack instantly, for he had used it once before when the Adept’s Stone had been in his possession. If this girl could summon up such power, what else could she do? Voyse did not have the time to ponder on this. He drew Devil’s Sin, and he instantly fell into a state of ferocity.