Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-3293219-20140308235607/@comment-3293219-20140319224746

Kaizen stood on dive rock, looking for any signs of this ‘bandit camp’ on the horizon. From what that weasel, Delvin, had told him, they had a sizable operation set up and likelihood is; that it could be seen from miles off.

Hmm… nothing…

They weren’t the minotaurs of the Jerall Mountains, most likely they had a few tents set up in the forest, with patrols on the outside of their perimeter, as was customary with bandits.

Still, The Black Argonian saw nothing, perhaps they were hiding in the more wooded areas of Cyrodiil, hiding amidst the trees. He sighed and glanced away, turning back to begin his descent; he’d have better luck if he searched the woods.

   -

Kaizen continued to stroll through the woods; it reminded him of his search for the minotaurs, a few weeks prior. The only difference was that this time he sought to destroy the ones he sought. The assassin had hoped that they would be easier to find, as he wasn’t exactly fighting fit the last time he did hours of searching. It didn’t help that he didn’t get much rest before having to fight King Ogdar, though he at least got a few moments to catch his breath, here he could be dropped in it.

Although, last time it was against a minotaur king and this time, it was against a bunch of adolescents with sticks, toy bows and arrows. He could take care of them, even without weapons.

Of course, he did note the mention of ‘C’larom’ a Khajit warrior, with quite the reputation. Surprisingly this actually brought some comfort to him, as he was in for a chance to face a worthy opponent, provided that the stories behind him weren’t just conjured up bravado. Still, it would be somewhat entertaining to break him and expose him for the weak coward that he was, though he’d prefer the former to be true.

-

The Black Argonian wandered the wilderness for several hours, vigorously searching section by section of the map as he tried to find the location of this ‘Magna’s’ camp. By now he had explored the wilderness, just south of the Silver Road in the Heartlands. He would have seen the encampment, if it was anywhere near Lake Arrius, so it had to be between the two roads, the only place he didn’t bother to look for the minotaurs was the area just north of the Blue Road and just East of the Silver Road, around Harm’s folley.

As he grew closer to Harm’s Folley, he heard the trees rustle above him as several crows flew over head, cawing out for something. He watched as they all flew in formation, curious as to why their number had increased since his day. He couldn’t think of any logical reasons for this change in their number and he didn’t care enough to try and think of one, he had to keep focussed on the task at hand; he was an assassin, not a bird watcher.

The Argonian was broken from this trail of thought, when he heard the sound of snapping branches. He looked up, expecting to have walked into an ambush but instead, he saw two young men, who appeared from behind a tree. They hadn’t noticed him as they were too busy talking…

The first of was a bosmer, who had short, spiky, brown hair, it was obvious that he put a lot of work into it, whereas the other one, an imperial, just had his head shaved, it was obvious that he didn’t seem to care. Their hair was the only thing that differentiated them as they were both wielding crossbows and wearing the same armour.

They stopped in front of the spot that Kaizen had been stood in, moments ago. The Black Argonian had already slipped away and hidden behind a tree trunk, behind them, listening in to their conversation.

“No way in hell…” The spiky haired one said, cockily as he swaggered about the forest.

“I’m telling you, I saw it!”

“Oh really? And where did you see it?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“O-On the Gold Road… Between Skingrad and the Imperial City!” The Imperial protested, sounding sure of himself.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Uh huh…” The bosmer replied, disinterested.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Elsi said that it was just a T5, with some fancy bodywork but I said ‘no, because the T5 doesn’t have that round front fender, which gives it that classy look…” The Imperial then stopped, as he noticed that the bosmer didn’t seem to be paying attention to him.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Of course, the only ones who can afford the new T6 models are the military. Can you imagine the importance of the people in that car?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Nope…” The Bosmer replied, no longer paying attention at all as he looked around for any signs of game.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Are you paying attention?!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Whu? Er… Y-Yeah…”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Imperial just groaned and rolled his eyes, the bosmer just didn’t understand the implications of the existence of the T6. The reliability of the T5, combined with the classy look of the T4…

<p class="MsoNormal">Well, classy in his opinion anyway…

<p class="MsoNormal">And for it to be deployed, some serious official business must have been going   on in one of the cities, most likely skingrad as that and Cheydinhal were havens for magic users as they were incredibly old fashioned towns.

<p class="MsoNormal">He just shook his head and stepped forward; he gave up trying to educate the bosmer and followed him, deeper into the woods.

<p class="MsoNormal">This was Kaizen’s chance…

<p class="MsoNormal">Before the Imperial could blink the argonian grabbed hold of his face and wrapped his fingers around his mouth before pulling him to the floor. The Imperial looked up, not putting up much of a fight, as he was too startled and weak to do so. All he could do was watch and scream into his assailant’s hand as he drew a cloth from his back pocket and lowered it onto his face.

<p class="MsoNormal">-

<p class="MsoNormal">The Imperial awoke with a start, gasping for breath as he pulled his head up, panting heavily as he looked around to try and recognise his surroundings.

<p class="MsoNormal">He appeared to be in some sort of wooden shack, some hunter’s home maybe? Maybe the argonian, who grabbed him, was some sort of hunter?

<p class="MsoNormal">But why would a hunter want him? They hunt animals, not human beings…

<p class="MsoNormal">Unless…

<p class="MsoNormal">What if he was one of those cannibals? The ones that The Mother told them about?

<p class="MsoNormal">He quickly looked around, trying to find some clue as to where he was but by the looks of things, this cabin looked abandoned…

<p class="MsoNormal">Only the things that someone couldn’t   have made off with remained, a table and a chair, apart from that the room was completely empty, with no signs of life.

<p class="MsoNormal">The boy didn’t have long to figure it out before he heard the footsteps, they came from behind… He closed his eyes and began to mumble his prayers to the divines as his captor appeared from his right, he didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry as he pulled up a chair and took a seat in front of him, sitting the wrong way around, so that he could rest his arms on its back. He gave him a stern look as he tried to work the kid out, not that he needed to, he knew everything about him, from his first glance.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Imperial pulled his face away, growing uncomfortable as Kaizen stared at him, unable to avert his gaze from his eyes as they looked right through him.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Wh-Who are you?” He finally stuttered; he hadn’t found the courage to move yet, so he was still leaning back.

<p class="MsoNormal">Kaizen smiled and ran his fingers across the back of his chair; he wasn’t going to answer that question.

<p class="MsoNormal">“It doesn’t matter who I am…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“D-Does to me…” The Imperial said, instantly regretting it as he was sure that this argonian could kill him with one punch to the face.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well, it doesn’t matter who I am, that’s not what’s important…” The Black Argonian said, firmly, as he gave a cold look into the boy’s eye.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Then what is?” His prisoner snapped, growing in confidence. Kaizen liked it when his prisoners tried to defy him, with over confident outbursts; they often made mistakes as they tried to prove themselves. Fear just made people cautious; confidence is everyone’s worst enemy, disguised as their best friend…

<p class="MsoNormal">“So… What’s your name?” He decided to start with, hoping that he could track his base down with it, if he had to…

<p class="MsoNormal">“Jomar…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“How old are you?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Sixteen…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Where do you live?”

<p class="MsoNormal">There was a silence, Jomar was a lot smarter than he looked and this pleased Kaizen, stupid people are too easy…

<p class="MsoNormal">The Argonian sat back, glancing around the room as he sighed, pretending to be disappointed…

<p class="MsoNormal">“Alright, I’ll ask again… Where do you live?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Again, silence…

<p class="MsoNormal">Kaizen tutted as he got up, dragging the chair across, to his desk as it would just be an obstacle, that got in his way. He went over and retrieved his mace, going back to the boy as he continued to stare, looking more fearful as he realised what was about to happen.

<p class="MsoNormal">Without warning, Kaizen struck down at the boy’s knee and a sickening crunch was heard as he cried out in pain. He threw himself forward, gritting his teeth and trying to move in an effort to cradle, the seemingly broken limb.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Bastrrdd…” He groaned as The Black Argonian stepped around, grabbed his hair and yanking his head back.

<p class="MsoNormal">“If you want to be able to walk out of here, I suggest that you swallow your pride and tell me where your camp is!” He snapped, taking a tighter grip of Jomar’s hair, causing him to cry out even more. He decided to ease off, giving him a chance to think as he asked his question again…

<p class="MsoNormal">“Where is it?!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I-I…” He swallowed his fear and his pain and continued to resist, he could never betray The Mother…

<p class="MsoNormal">“If you don’t tell me the location in your camp, within the next five seconds, I’m going swing this into your face!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“N-No!”

<p class="MsoNormal">Kaizen rolled his eyes and slammed his mace down onto the other knee; next he’d smash his teeth in… Again, the Imperial screamed out, shuddering as the pain shot through him and his will to resist weakened. As his teeth, slowly, calmed and stopped chattering, Kaizen loomed over him and raised his mace again, he didn’t even bother asking this time.

<p class="MsoNormal">“S-t-t-t-op!” Jarol stammered, prompting Kaizen to lower his weapon as the boy began to weep.

<p class="MsoNormal">He stood, patiently, as the fool broke down in front of him, he’d won now, so he could afford to wait for him to recover.

<p class="MsoNormal">After a few moments, the Imperial looked up, with tears rolling down his face; this didn’t bother Kaizen at all. The Black Argonian had killed so many people, some of them younger, some of them died in more brutal ways, he no longer showed any consideration for the age of his victims. In his eyes and nature’s, nobody was too young to die, he’d learned that valuable lesson years ago…

<p class="MsoNormal">He sighed and put on his façade as a professional interrogator, showing his more ‘friendly’ edge, he dragged a map off of the table and showed it to the boy, in case he had forgotten.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Where is it?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“There!” He cried out, letting out another pained sob as he glanced up again. “Just below Silver Tooth Cave!”

<p class="MsoNormal">Kaizen nodded and made a note of it; he dragged his finger across one of Jarol’s cuts, causing him to wince and used it as ink on his map, marking it with a small dot.

<p class="MsoNormal">“There…

<p class="MsoNormal">Y-You got what you wanted…

<p class="MsoNormal">You’ll let me go now?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Kaizen pocketed his map and reached over for his hand axe, dragging it across the table and letting it drop to his side. He turned around and faced Jarol for a few seconds, watching his hopes of being cut loose grow stronger as Kaizen stepped closer to him, raising his axe. The Black Argonian stopped in front of him and slammed his weapon down, driving it through the boy’s head, sending it crashing through his skull and into his brain. This caused him to spasm and shake violently before keeling over to his side; his bonds stopped him from falling out of his chair.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I don’t recall that being the arrangement…” He muttered, placing his boot on Jarol’s knee and retrieving the axe, it was buried pretty deep into his skull, so quite a bit of force was required.

<p class="MsoNormal">He shook the axe to his right, prompting for some of the wet blood, skull fragments and brain matter to flick off, to make his weapon look more presentable as he walked to the exit of his cabin, ready to find this ‘Mother.’