Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-3293219-20140217201750/@comment-24123288-20140227221802

 The Soldier monitoring Petra saw she was alone, and it took the opportunity. "In charge, are we...?" A voice came, seemingly from nowhere.

“No. Not at all.” Petra mumbled, her back turned towards the shadow, thinking it was just a guard. “I’m just a farm hand heading home…”

"Is that so... Petra...?", said the disembodied voice of the Soldier.

Petra froze and kept her hood up, face forward, as she reached for her swords. “Petra? Who is that? No…my names…Cerasus..”

"Well, then, 'Cerasus'... Where's your Argonian boyfriend?", the Soldier said with a chuckle.

“I…wouldn’t call him my boyfriend…” Petra mumbled under her breath. “I’m just there for whenever he needs someone…”

"Suuure, Assassin...", the Shadow mocked. Even though it was incapable of emotion, it was startlingly good at faking it.

“I’m not an assassin either!” Petra snapped, turning round to face the person mocking her. Her hood fell off with the momentum and her gingery red hair spilled out as she gasped when she saw the Shadow.

"Surprised, Assassin?", the Shadow taunted yet again. "It was only a matter of time..."

Petra backed up along the road a few steps. “I’m not…not an assassin! Although, I am surprised…”

"The contract has been signed, with your blood. Whether you like it or not, now you're an Assassin for life."

Petra sighed. “You got me. I’m an assassin now. An assassin who hates killing and fancies a lizard.” She scoffed. “I’m sure Sithis has a special place in the Void just for me!” She added with a touch of Sarcasm.

"Atop your lizard?"

Petra bristled at that emotionless taunt and backed up the road some more. “N-no…” She mumbled, looking away. “It’s been nice talking and all, but I’m afraid I have to leave…”

The Shadow sank into the ground, and reappeared in the shadow of a tree directly behind Petra. "What, so soon?"

Petra sensed the shadow reappearing behind her from the cold almost metallic atmosphere it emits and she whirled round again, not letting it out of her sight. “Why are you even here!?” She snapped.

<p class="MsoNormal">"Just to tell you how your best friend's doing. Or do you not even care anymore." There seemed to be no end to the Soldier's taunts, and it seemed amused at Petra's reactions.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra scowled and turned away, hands on her swords. “My best friend? I don’t have one…”

<p class="MsoNormal">"She wanted to learn the powers to save you, y'know...", the Soldier said, not at all intimidated by the swords.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Save me?” Petra scoffed, keeping her back towards the Shadow as she took a few slow deliberate steps forward. “You mean she wanted to keep me stuck in that house for the rest of my life. Keep me hidden away from the world while she goes out to have all the fun? Pff…” She turned as she scoffed again, drawing her swords. “She didn’t want to save me at all! But…” She raised her swords now with a smirk. The one blade enchanted with the power of the sun itself, strong enough to burn away any creature was pointed directly at the Shadow, her other, unenchanted, blade resting on her shoulder. Her hair fell in front of her face as Petras smirk grew wider.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Kaizen did.”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier drew its own sword, seemingly out of nowhere. However, this one wasn't like most of the other Soldiers' swords. The blade was completely straight for about 10 inches, then one side became serrated. This serrated edge continued for about four more inches, until it came to a halt, followed by the other, still perfectly straight and razor-sharp edge, about 2 inches later. The whole blade appeared to be made by some stronger form of steel, before it was Corrupted. Smirking, the Soldier held its unique blade by its side.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Nice sword…” Petra admitted, tilting her head and beginning to pace round the Shadow, imitating Kaizen, hoping it would give her a confidence boost. “Tell me, who did you have to kill to get that?”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Shadow rapidly shifted its position; it wasn't about to let anyone stand behind it with a drawn sword. "We created it, from the remnants of our creator's weapon."

<p class="MsoNormal">“Your…creator?” Petra asked, continuing to pace round in a circle, she twirled her enchanted sword while she walked. “What kind of…arsehole was he?”

<p class="MsoNormal">"The kind that saved Nish and Eilonwyn's wedding.", the Soldier retorted.

<p class="MsoNormal">“How…commendable. I’m sure they were happy for that before he killed them right? Or did Veneficus get the story wrong?” Petra asked, her eyes never leaving the Shadow.

<p class="MsoNormal">"He was forced to kill them, by none other than themselves." This wasn't a complete lie, as Eilonwyn had requested her death by Tyranil himself.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Right…” The Imperial muttered, losing interest. “I still say he’s an arsehole. An arsehole for listening to their cowardly requests for death!” As her tone raised, Petra stopped pacing and stood still, spinning her sword round once more before pointing it at the Shadow again.

<p class="MsoNormal">"Hmph. Well, looks like I'm to answer yours as well!", the Soldier taunted yet again, raising its sword, almost meeting Petra's.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I don’t want to die.” Petra said calmly, stepping forward so their weapons met then stepping forward again, not even flinching at the screech caused by them crossing. “You’ll be answering a question that hasn’t even been asked!”

<p class="MsoNormal">"You accepted death when you signed up to be an Assassin. Now, will you accept it calmly, or will you foolishly delay the inevitable?"

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’ll stick with living thanks…” Petra muttered quietly.

<p class="MsoNormal">"Very well then..." The Soldier shoved its sword to the side, taking Petra's with it. Out of the Soldier's free hand, which was now raised, came a bout of black flames.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra was quick on her feet and brought her other sword round, crashing it into the Shadows shoulder. Moving back, she held them both out horizontally, her mind rushing to think of a witty line to say.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier staggered slightly, but quickly recovered. As the sword that had collided with its shoulder was not the enchanted one, it was hardly hurt. The Soldier stabbed its sword in the ground diagonally, cracking its knuckles as a taunt, and quickly pulled the sword out with an uppercut.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra rolled her eyes at the taunt and relaxed, placing the unenchanted sword on her shoulder again. “You know…I still can’t quite believe Mikasa gave herself to you.” She began, pacing back and to casually. “She isn’t usually drawn to weakness.”

<p class="MsoNormal">"Then it's most certainly odd she was drawn to you for the many years you spent together..."

<p class="MsoNormal">Petras grip on her enchanted sword noticeably tightened. “I’m not weak…” She muttered. “Far from it.”

<p class="MsoNormal">"Crying for a week over the death of a barbaric creature? No, you're not weak at all..." The Soldier now started examining its sword slowly, still spotless despite having been stabbed into the ground moments ago, as if it were bored with Petra.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra looked away. “It prob’ly had a family. Friends…” She looked up, directly at the Soldier. “But you don’t!” She screeched, running forwards and leaping into the air before swinging her weapons down towards the Shadows face.

<p class="MsoNormal">"You’d be surprised..." The soldier swiftly countered her sword with an uppercut.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra felt her feet land on the ground and she wasted no time in shoving her, small, weight against her weapons. “You have friends?” She scoffed, glaring into where the Shadows eyes would be.

<p class="MsoNormal">"Perhaps not, but family exists within the Shadows." The Soldier went back to examining its weapon, checking for scratches. After all, it was the only piece of Tyranil the Soldiers had left.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You…seem to like that sword an awful lot.” Petra mused, swinging hers away from the weapon with a loud screech before attempting to strike the Shadows arm. “Your “mother” make it for ya?”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier quickly ducked under the swing, just barely. Getting up just as quickly, the Soldier slashed left with the sword, trying to get the serrated edge to connect with Petra's left arm.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra flung her left arm away from the sword, only narrowly avoiding a nasty wound. Quickly, she swung with her right arm, the enchanted sword blazing through the air as she stumbled backwards slightly, almost losing her balance.

<p class="MsoNormal">Fortunately for the Soldier, Petra's slight loss of balance meant that the blade narrowly missed its chest. It could feel the heat of the blade passing by, missing it by millimetres. However, now that the swords were out of the way, and Petra had stumbled, the Soldier attempted an uppercut to try and send the sharp end of the sword straight through Petra's head.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra gasped and fell backwards once more, narrowly avoiding the stab. This time, instead of falling, she moved to the Soldier’s right side and lunged at the soldier with her blades, aiming to stab it in the side.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier was, once again, very fortunate. As Petra fell to the right, the hand holding the enchanted blade was on the outside, and reached just slightly less than the other one. The Soldier was stabbed by the unenchanted blade, but it hardly even felt the injury. The enchanted sword, narrowly missing the Soldier, would have caused a far greater injury. Taking advantage of Petra's grounded position, the Soldier swung its sword down.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra rolled out of the way as the sword got stuck in the ground. She panted and nodded to herself, lunging forwards wildly and stabbing with her right handed sword.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier merely stepped back at Petra's wild stab, and followed with a right slash to her outstretched arm, using the sharp edge of its beloved sword.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra’s eyes widened as the sword came flying to her right. She moved backwards, trying to dodge the blade but got her arm caught on the end slightly. A large gash appeared on her arm and the Imperial cried out as she instinctively went to grab it, dropping her unenchanted sword on the ground in the process.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier smirked, raising its sword for another swing.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra looked up and saw the Soldier readying its blade for another strike once more. She shook all thoughts of fear from her head. She had a job to do after all. Swiftly, the Imperial ran over to the Soldier and leapt into the air, stabbing downwards with her enchanted sword, light blazing from it.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier had little time to react, and so did not to it very well. As it leapt back, the enchanted blade caught the Soldier's foot, pinning it to the ground. It writhed in pain as the enchanted blade burned its foot, but it eventually managed to sink into the ground, if only to wait out the pain.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra was surprised that the enchantment on her blade was that powerful.

<p class="MsoNormal">Kaizen really is something else…she thought, rushing over to pick up her other sword in the process. She stood still after that, knowing that the Shadow would just pop up behind her when it was ready…

<p class="MsoNormal">However, the Soldier did not reappear above Petra as expected. Rather, it reappeared out of sight within the shadow of a nearby tree, and teleported a few inches above Petra, coming down with a downwards swipe of its sword.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra looked up quickly and dodged back to the side, sending the massive sword into the ground again. She kept it held down with her unenchanted blade and smiled at the Soldier, stabbing its arm with her enchanted one.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier had anticipated the attack with the enchanted blade this time, and quickly flung its arm to the opposite side, dodging the blow. It then sank back into the ground, taking with it the blade on which Petra was holding some of her weight, and rose up behind her with an uppercut.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra stumbled forward when the Soldier sunk into the ground and used her momentum to spin around 180 degrees. She had just enough time to block the blade with her own two, but her arms shook from the unexpected strength behind the uppercut.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier saw its opportunity when Petra staggered a little bit, to try a new spell it's been working on. The moment it landed from the air time from its momentary uppercut, the Soldier charged forwards, leaving behind a blur of itself as it moved, at superhuman speed. When it reached Petra, in the span of less than a second, it tried to grab the Imperial's chin.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra was not ready for this. She still tried to avoid the Soldiers grab however, but her reaction time was incredibly off from the sudden burst of speed. Instead of grabbing her chin, the Soldier managed to grab her face, suffocating her as she was raised off the ground, her arms and legs flailing everywhere as she struggled to break free from his grip.

<p class="MsoNormal">A dark, demonic laughter echoed through Petra's mind, as she saw a vision of Mikasa, about to strike her down with the Soldiers at her side. Satisfied with its work, the Soldier pulled Petra's face over its shoulder and slammed it into the ground, breaking into a laugh as it put its boot-clad good foot on the hand that held the enchanted sword.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra cried out as she was slammed into the ground, the familiar tears of pain and betrayal springing up in her eyes, visions of Mikasa standing over her, ready to kill her without remorse swimming through her mind. The Imperial breathed deep and groaned as the Soldier placed his weight down on the foot pinning her wrist, and by extension, herself to the ground. “Just leave me alone…” She whispered, gripping her plain sword tightly in her free hand, jabbing it into the Soldiers ankle, praying it was deep enough for him to move his foot away.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Shadow's ankle merely warped around the sword, as it had done before. This Soldier was advanced, capable of complex magic, and plain metal did little to it. However, it was more interested in the enchanted blade that Petra carried. It reached down to grab it's unenchanted hilt, still keeping it's foot pressed firmly on Petra's wrist.

<p class="MsoNormal">''No way! You aren’t getting this!''

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra began struggling ferociously when she saw that the Shadow wanted her enchanted sword. She tugged her pinned arm, trying to pull her wrist free. When she saw that wasn’t working, the Imperial began to slash wildly with her other sword, a rare burst of anger welling up inside her.

<p class="MsoNormal">''Kaizen will never forgive you for losing this! Get free! Now!''

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier smirked at Petra's attempts, for they were in vain. Its shadowy form once again curved around the sword, leaving the Soldier unharmed. It grabbed the sword from the ground, careful not to grab the hilt as far as possible from the blade. It resisted a strong urge to slice Petra's hand with the sword as it picked it up. Still holding down Petra's wrist, the Soldier held with both hands, appearing to be in deep concentration. The hilt turned black quickly, but the blade took a much longer time, as the pitch black corruption slowly crept up, fighting the bright magic and eventually turning the rays of light that the sword emitted into a black aura. Smirking again, the Soldier stabbed its newly acquired sword into the ground, deep enough that it would take a strong arm to pull it out, and released Petra.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No…!” Petra gasped in regret, loss and a bitter resentment seeping through her tone. She immediately scrambled to her feet and began to try and yank the sword up from the ground, hoping it would fix itself if she could free it.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier stepped back and laughed, before summoning its new sword.

<p class="MsoNormal">As Petra was trying to pull it out of the ground, the sword disappeared and reappeared in the Soldier's left hand.

<p class="MsoNormal">“My blade…” Petra mumbled, holding her head low and her face in her hands. “I’m gonna get beat up for this…Oh gods…” Her free hand tightened into a fist as she gripped her other, useless, sword tighter. “You got what you wanted huh? Just leave…”

<p class="MsoNormal">"Oh, no, not quite yet..."

<p class="MsoNormal">“Why? What else can you even do to me…” Petra said with a shaky sigh, trying not to cry. Kaizen wouldn’t, he’s probably never cried at all. So why should she? Her hands shook as the wind picked up, whipping her hair round her face, as if the Nine were telling her it was alright.

<p class="MsoNormal">"As an Assassin, you are either an ally, or a doomed enemy. Make a choice...:"

<p class="MsoNormal">“An ally? Why would I even want to ally myself with the…things that drove Mikasa insane?”

<p class="MsoNormal">"Because you've allied yourself with a heartless murderer... the lesser of evils, Petra..."

<p class="MsoNormal">Petras grip noticeably tightened as she turned away from the Shadow. “He isn’t heartless. He freed me from myself…He’s more than a murderer! I’ll never betray him!”

<p class="MsoNormal">"Did he free you from yourself... or just put you in a different cage?"

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra nodded to herself, reassuring her mind that she was definitely sure of her feelings. “He freed me. Joining the Brotherhood has given me a family that love me no matter what. They watch me grow with pride, not worry that I may leave one day.” She began to look at her sword, voice lowering to barely a whisper.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’m freer than I’ve ever been…”

<p class="MsoNormal">"Yeah, and you think Mikasa wanted you to leave? Look at what she's been reduced to without you..." This was a bluff, of course. The Shadows' pride mimicked that of their Altmer creator's.

<p class="MsoNormal">“That was her own fault. She’s obsessed with getting power! I’m not…”

<p class="MsoNormal">"Really? And did your beloved Argonian tell you why Mikasa left to get the power she has?"

<p class="MsoNormal">“He didn’t need to. She told me herself. She wanted to get me back. Keep me locked away in that cage without bars.”

<p class="MsoNormal">"No, she wanted to save you from what she though was your death... And now that you've sided against her..."

<p class="MsoNormal">“You’re lying…” Petra muttered. “Trying to get me back to her. Well tough! I’m staying with the Brotherhood! They actually appreciate me!”

<p class="MsoNormal">"In that case, your Contract is still applicable, and your death is nobody's fault but yours..." The Soldier raised Petra's former sword.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’m not dying today…” Her arm seemed like it was moving of its own accord as it moved to point her sword at the Soldier. She had barely moved position. “I’ve got a job to do!”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Soldier briskly kicked Petra in the back of her legs, causing her to fall upon her knees. Just before it slashed at her, it disappeared, the only things indicating its former presence were a small cloud of smoke, and a collection of cold laughs that mocked Petra for a few seconds, before they faded away.

<p class="MsoNormal">Petra landed hard on her knees. They were probably grazed. She kept her head bowed as the laughs echoed around her as she wrapped her arms around herself and squeezed softly, once again pretending she was in the strong arms of her Black Argonian. After a few minutes like this, and once she had calmed down, Petra stood up and continued on the road to her original goal.

<p class="MsoNormal">She still had a job to do.