Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

NighT

The Lich


Swiftly flowing through the night, the harsh after taste of the Merchant's Purses concoction racking his taste buds Petty clambered up to the roofs and quickly spotted what he was looking for.

The Maiden which had caused such a s not long ago, was not far ahead but once more defined her looks with and speed at which she moved through Moorgates streets. Moving ahead of her, Petty dropped back down to street level and waited.

"Psst!"

Stopping much to Pettys relief, The maiden looked about with curiosity shining in her eyes and smiled
"Hello?"

"I…..wish to obtain some information from you"

"Ooooooh! But lets see ya pretty little face first" Her smile growing wider so to show the world her fangs. Obvious to Petty she was enjoying this, the feeling not at all mutual to him, silently he cursed himself for not thinking ahead, he should know that it wouldn't be that easy to obtain information from anyone, not like people just tell you things just because you ask.

"…..heeeello? ....still there?....Hmpf! I'm going now, I really am…" slightly hesitating her movement, she turned and took one step and grinned as she heard what she wished to hear.

"..Wait!" Petty blurted, cursing slightly to himself again for this show of need of the Maiden, he was sure she had picked up on this, a sinking feeling dawned on Petty, he had lost control of this encounter and was now playing on her grounds.

Clapping her hands together rather like a child but also with a hint of a business like manner

"Sooooo? Gonna show me?" her joy of this event seeps from everything about her.

The Maiden found something fun after the unfun tavern, and to Petty despair it is he. Cringing he stepped slightly out of the shadows and cringed more as his ear were assaulted by a squeal from the maiden "Ooooer!! Such a cutie, my night seems to be looking up after all!" Smiling with shear delight of the fun she had uncovered, she moved towards Petty, who stepped backwards as she came within his 'safety' area.

"I don't bite!"

Pettys only response was a glare as to say I know differently!

"Don't look at me like that! Fine, I do bite, but I'm all full up already. I won't be biting you anywho! Wouldn't waste you like that" a devilish grin plastered across her face "Sooooo, what ya wanna know?"

"…. Lich,…I"
Petty's words cut off by the maiden.
"Shuuush!!" as she peered about "No talking about that kinda stuff so open like!"

Craning her head to oneside, she leans forward as indicating to Petty to whisper into her ear, who nervously did so and as he asked his questions she nodded.

"I think I can help you there! But why…OH DEAR! No no! I hope you not planning to find him, are you? Oh no, that is no good! I can't help you then!"

"Fine…I'll find a someone who will be willing to help"

Petty turned to leave and grinned to himself as he heard what he wished to hear behind him.

"Wait!, I'll help, just as long as you promise to be careful?" sighed the maiden

A side ways tilted glance from Petty meet her question
"Promise me!" she huffed.

Unsure of the motives of the maiden and why she seemed to be concerned for his safety Petty hesitated his response much to the displeasure of the woman before him.

"…..I am always careful!"

"hmm, Ok" The maiden leaned forward towards Petty, who responded in turn to lean away. still hesitant at having anyone this close to him but from this distance Petty notices things about the maiden. Her complexion was near perfect, pale white and all together appearing to be around 20 years of age, in looks anyway. Her eyes though seemed to clearly contradict first looks as they held pools of knowledge and events past what her near perfect physical body described to people.

The maiden stood hands of hips.
"Hey! Don't you want to know? I have to whisper it to you, how can I do that if you don't let me eh?"

"…." Petty nodded and the maiden once more learned forward and whispered to Petty the answers to his questions and leaned back again when finished.

"Anymore questions?" she smiled.

Petty shook his head as the Maiden turned her back to Petty and seems to get back her composure.

"Okies! How about a kiss for all my help" she giggled twirled back around to Petty and stood hand of hip, peering about before sighing and flowing off into the night.

Much to the maiden displeasure, Petty had left as soon as he had obtained the information he needed.
He still was in confused over why she was so concerned about his safety, shaking off his thoughts he turned and headed out towards the city graveyard.

Petty stood at the entrance of the graveyard surveying his surroundings. The entrance was rather over grown with plant life, weeds were probably the best word to describe them. Then again, they might meant to be here removing the weed label, chains and locks adorn the graveyard, as to keep things either in or out, both thing which Petty wish to be able to do, enter and leave, alive most preferably.

Inside the graveyard a light fog twirled around and added to the already macabre feel of the place, in the distance the Coven house stood, an impressive monument in the gloom. No light shined from within it's foreboding body but Petty was sure that inside held great knowledge to any who had the strength to find it. Knowledge which Petty wouldn't mind getting his hand on to, Knowledge, which Petty would not get, much to his displeasure. The dark tower was a training ground for the witches and warlocks of the lands, and Petty had no aspiration to become a warlock or mage of any sorts. Magic was powerful but just as dangerous to the wielder, too risky Petty thought.

Pulling away from his admiration of the Coven house, Petty moved on through the gloom, carefully following the instructions of the maiden, It was told that the graveyard played tricks on those who couldn't concentrate on the task at hand and lead them astray to impending doom within the gloom.

Shadows flickered about Petty, darting here and there, but Petty trudged on, ignoring the shadows that would spell his fall if he allowed his concentration to slip..

Time passed and Petty finally found his target, a stone structure, maybe a crypt of sorts thought Petty as he fished in his pocket and pulled out a black mask. The mask not to hide his face, natural skin tone of jet black helped with that, but rather to hide his snow white hair which would most certainly stand out. Petty had came a long way and wasn't going to take the risk of being spotted by the occupant of the crypt now.

Slipping on his mask, Petty now blended perfectly into the gloom, removing a Dirk from his sheath, Petty checked it over and replaced it, then silently removed two concealed blades from his wrist sheaths, checked them over and replaced them once again.

Everything seemed to be in order to Petty as he took a deep breath and spoke the words which the maiden had instructed him to speak at the entrance of the building.

The stone door of the crypt creaked open and slowly Petty stepped forward…

The interior of the crypt took Petty by surprise as he surveyed the dank, dimly light room he found himself in. The room apparently appeared to be a place of social gatherings and merry making, that latter being rather missing from the bar at this time.

The very little light which illuminated the room came about from candles on tables dotted around the room, most likely for the not so adapted to night vision among the undead patrons or just out of habit.


The patrons of the bar were few, most seeming to be lowly undead who just wanted a place to drink in safety from the zeal of holy crusaders out to rid these 'dirty heathen' from the lands but one table caught Petty's attention and pulled it in with force.

Wanting to get a better view of the table in question and also to remove himself as a obstruction to the entrance of the bar in case a customer decided to enter or leave, risking his exposure. Petty moves swiftly around the outside of the room, the welcomed, comforting chilled feel of shadowy tendrils encasing him. Petty wasn't sure how this worked, if it was a deep-seated ability from his magical elven roots, a higher power protecting him or just the properties of the guild armour the wore. Which ever it was Petty was thankful for it, it had proved to be very helpful in past situations.

Close enough now to identify the creatures situated at the tables, which piqued Petty's curiosity upon entrance to the bar, Petty counted 4 undead sitting around it, each quite different talking to each other in low murmurs, growls and shrikes, the contents of the words lost to Petty.

A hairy, half-man half-wolf creature sniffed and glanced about before growled to a Banshee who in turn shrieked across to the other two members of the table. One a bandage covered mummy, who mumbled slowly and a tall man, apparently the head of the table who just nodded.

A small smirk crossed Petty's lips, from the description given to him by the maiden, he came to a conclusion that in front of him sat his target, a lich.

"An undead mage of considerable power, main schools of magic lies in Necromantic, dark and death, but control of elements such as cold and electric also not unheard of" Petty thought over in his mind as he moves closer to his target, forming up a plan of attack…

Slowly Petty stalked to the right side of the table, never removing his cold stare from his target, even his heartbeat seemed to slow and quiet in this time of need for complete silence…seconds seemed to slow to minutes then hours.

Petty slid his right hand down to his Dirk's handle, ready to quickly attack and flee. The plan was to deprive the lich of his head, Petty found this to be commonly a needed body part in creatures and if it failed to kill the lich, it would give Petty time for leave the scene to safty..nothing like a missing head to add some confusion to a situation.

The Dirk slowly, silently lifted from it's sheath, coated in foul poison which lined the sheath allowing Petty to keep it poison coated at all times to his left he passed the Mummy sitting at the far end of the table, opposite the lich. In front of Petty the Werewolf came next for him to pass by before reaching his target.

As Pettys approach continued, the Werewolf sniffed the air once more and growled to the lich who nodded, in turn the rest of the table nodded.

Petty carried on his approach when suddenly the werewolf gave up a terrible growl, leaped from his chair and clawed wildly at Petty. Obviously attacking blind, the werewolf's stroke were off mark, as Petty turns to avoid one more mad swing, one of the razor sharp clawed hands of the werewolf's tears deep into Petty's arm. Petty lashed back with his Dirk, in anger of his plan failing and disdain for this filthy animal causing him harm. The werewolf's body crumpled up on the floor, sporting a fatal neck wound, crimson pool slowly growing around its inanimate body.

Petty, though pleased with dispatching the werewolf, quickly knew the damage cause was great to him, not just that his arm, now bleeding profusely but his whereabouts obviously now exposed to the crowd in the tavern.

With a quick glance at the table before him, Petty sprung backward onto his hand on his good arm and brought himself back onto his feet again a small distance away to a more open area, allowing Petty freedom of movement, He came here to kill a lich, kill a lich he will, dying trying wasn't a option!

Surveying the area, Petty concluded that the only threats were the ones directly in front of him, the other patrons of the bar apparently didn't care much for fighting, but were more into watching, Petty swore he could hear odds being shouted out behind him.

What ever odds they have on me, they better be ready to pay out

Straightening up, Petty stood, silently, composed and bleeding. The pain of the wound on the arm wasn't apparent just yet adrenaline suppressed it. Before Petty the lich remained seated at his table, shadows covering his face, the mummy was slowly shuffling his way out of his seat, the banshee though, was hurtling toward Petty with rather surprising speed, screaming as she moved, a hideously deformed, white hair blur. Petty gritted his teeth, and cringed, the scream of the banshee was horrendous to his ears, his head felt like a pressure cooker, He felt his legs getting weaker, fretting to buckle, all from a scream of the banshee. In a attempt to compose himself, Petty fixed a cold stare on the banshee as she closed in, a complete sense of disdain for the banshee flooded Petty, he hated what was before him, the thing before him didn't even deserve to be in such close proximity to him. The hate inside helped Petty to withstand the mental bombardment of the Banshees wail.

The banshee closed in, still Petty stood, The banshee was within striking distance, with a clawed hand she lashed out as Petty spun around the banshee and they passed each other and silence….

Moments past, Petty stood himself up from his final position and looked back at the banshee as she fell to the floor, distinctly in two halves, a top and a bottom.

Turning his attention back on the remaining two threats, Petty found himself staring at a wall of bandages, glancing up at the hulking mummy before him, Petty promptly stabbed his Dirk into it's abdomen. As Petty removed his Dirk to strike again, a slow but powerful right hook by the mummy stoke him square in the chest and Petty went sprawling across the Tavern and crashed behind the bar, smashing bottles and glasses of red viscous liquid in the process, as his Dirk falls to the floor in front of the mummy.

Shaking off the impact of the hit, Petty slowly brought himself to his feet, leaning on the bar heavily for support and glanced over to the bar keeper who just shrugged and looked over the mummy then Petty.

The mummy's lack of speed was apparent to Petty, but now without his Dirk, Petty would have to fall back onto his concealed blades to do the damage, but in his weaken state, Petty was uncertain of the damage he could inflict on the mummy, if it would be enough. The lich seemed content on watching, but would he stay contented? Would he enter the fray? Petty was positive that he couldn't win over such odds of the mummy and lich attacking him….

Even if you defeat the mummy, would you have the strength to defeat the lich?

No! Theses are not my thoughts, I can do this, no doubt at all…

With that, Petty spurred into action. Quickly vaulting over the bar, rushing head on toward the Mummy, pulling two concealed blades from his wrist sheaths as he moved, the strength in his left arm wasn't done with yet, he would get every inch of strength out of it, he had to!

Bring his right arm over to his left, Petty quickly slashed upwards on the mummy, cutting deep across the mummy's chest, spinning around bring the left blade down on the mummy, a huge X now adorned the chest. But didn't cease with that, his almost twirling dervish dance of destruction on the mummy continued, blow after blow struck the mummy, before he could look down on Petty, Petty twirled and struck again.

Petty wasn't sure if his attacked had much of an effect on the mummy, but it was tiresome for a less than on par Petty, as each blow landed on the mummy. Petty slowed, movement became sluggish till following through on a hit with his left arm, Petty stopped, as his arm wouldn't move much more than a few inches. Panting Petty looked up at the slash marked adorned mummy before him, growling out in frustration at the still seeming able to fight mummy, Petty leaped up and planted a right kick to the side of the head of the Mummy with a which might be final burst of energy.

Petty thudded to the floor heavily, as the head of the mummy sailed across the room, but Petty could have a moment of peace as the hulking body of the mummy swayed and began it's descent towards Petty as he laid.

Petty scrambled out of the way of the corpse just before it hit the floor, causing a heavy indentation.

Dust covered, bleeding, bruised and battered, Petty straightened himself up as much as he could and turned to face the lich. The lich who had sat quietly observing the carnage, now it was his turn to die, Petty hated this lich, all this time he was being bashed, cut, screamed at it sat there and watched, most likely enjoying.

"Well done on defeating my consorts, seems a pity to kill you after you entertained me so well" The lich's voice a harsh hate filled rasp

Raising from his seat, the lich seemed to grow immensely compared to what would been guessed by his seated height, almost unfolding upwards. Slowly Petty walked forwards towards the lich, who seemed unconcerned about the slowly advancing Petty.

"I do wonder why you are foolish enough to come to this bar, kill good friends of mine and delude yourself you could escape alive, Mortals! I think you have shown me a lifetime of stupidity only to surprise me with yet a great…."

A low thud interrupted the lichs speech as a blade lodged itself into its shoulder.

"SHUT UP!" screamed Petty with utter hatred

The lich narrowed his eyes on the young drow before him.

"YOU THINK I WILL LET YOU SIMPLY DIE NOW!? HA!! Death would be too kind to such a pathetic impudent being such as yourself, I will trap you between life and death, forever in torment to be my slave now," Rasped back the lich as he simply removed the blade from his shoulder and threw it behind him with not even a wince.

Petty continued his advance, striding towards the lich, his left arm drooping to his side but defiance shone in his eyes.

Reaching the lich Petty swung his blade but the lich simply grabbed the arm, and pulled Petty up to face level by the neck and spoke through clenched teeth

"Some are scared of death…but you will soon find out the pleasure death would be compared to eternity stuck between the two.." then slams Petty down on the near by table.

Unable to move, Petty had no options left as he glanced up at the maniacal lich who smirked down at Petty. He was going to die. The lich began chanting words of which Petty assumed to be magic, a dark wind flowed around the lich as his chatting became faster and loud, faster and louder and louder still. So loud was the chanting that Petty almost didn't here a softer, more feminine chanting emanating from near the entrance of the tavern.

"Leave him be!" screamed the voice

The lich had little time to react as a hail of ice, sleet and snow pounded into him, causing a lose of concentration and the dark mist subsided. Flinging his arms up to protect his head, the lich quickly chanted a word and with a horrendous shout sending a dark ball of negative energy coursing through the air back at his assailant. The lichs attack struck home, sending the woman reeling back against a wall with a thud.

Turning his gaze back on where Petty was, The lich had no time to do anything as a enraged Petty had managed to get to his feet and leaped at him, bring a blade down with all his remaining might towards the lichs head. The blades bite gouged a deep ravine down from the top of the lichs head to the base of his neck, slicing through flesh, tendons and bone alike, Pettys descent added weight to the attack.

Both Petty and the corpse of the lich fell to the floor. Tripping over the corpse, Petty went sprawling and just regained his footing, if a little wobbly.

Stumbling across the tavern, Petty went and retrieves his Dirk from the floor where it was lost during the conflict with the mummy. Looking about the tavern for signs of second blade, of the matching pair which normally were housed in his wrist sheaths, Petty sighed and gave up hope for finding it,, it would cost him a fair bit of gold to replace it but he was much more willing to pay than venture among the undead in the tavern for it.

Finally, Petty turned to leave the bloody Tavern, just to see a woman regaining her legs from the lichs retaliation and offering up a smile and wink to Petty.

Bouncing happily the Woman spoke
"Don't we make a great team, don't we don't we? I was like get away from him whoosh and you was like all BOSH BASH!!"

"……"

Undeterred by the silence she glanced over to the motionless corpses littering the tavern

"Yick! That is messy, messy! Teach them to mess with us though!"

"…….could you move?" Petty spoke slowly, the words not coming easy but exertion was apparent in his voice, as it slightly trembled despite Pettys best efforts to cover it up

"Ok, okies!"

The woman moved past Petty, lightly brushing against him, as she did, Petty winced in pain from his still badly bleeding arm.

At this point the woman stopped dead, blinked and licked her lips….

"You're…bleeding" She said light headedly

"yes.."

Shaking away the feeling, the woman recomposed herself and sat down at a table and turned her head towards Petty again

"Might want to get that covered…..up" The woman's voice trailing off as she looked about the tavern for a sign of Petty then muttered under her breath "not again"

"Madam? The usual?" the barman spoke sombrely as he eyed the once moving customers of his

"No, not tonight.." she replayed, looking down a the blood trail which lead out of the tavern and into the night

Nodding the barman sighs " shame…they were good customers too…." And heads back to his bar

***

Staggering through the streets of Moorgate, Petty found himself taking the long way back to his residence, not that he wished to but he found himself in great difficulty to walk let alone clamber onto the rooftops using one of the guilds footholds.

Down by the harbour, Petty stood beside some stacked up boxes, which would allow him to make himself to the roof without too much effort.

Clambering up onto the boxes, Petty found that each movement in itself a great effort and exertion of energy. The pain of his injures were becoming more and more apparent as the adrenaline which had pumped through his vein, keeping him able to fight was now slowly drain out and losing effect bring forth the full realism of the conflict, colliding it with Pettys senses

Each step sent shock waves of pain coursing up Petty's leg, each breath drawn in slow and laboured before expelled. From roof to roof Petty moved, slowly, eternity seemed to pass but still Petty didn't get near to his destination. A couple of times, Petty stumbled, nearing a fatal fall to the streets below, only to just regain his footing and labour on.


Finally Petty's efforts paid off as he found the entrance to where he lived. Almost falling through the roof entrance, Petty thudded to the floor and fell on one knee.

A wet nose was felt on Petty's neck as Shadow Vein came over to greet his master.

"…..Good… night…..dear…..friend!" mumbled Petty as his strength failed him and he fell to the floor, out cold

  <--- --->