The Dominion

[i]Woooosh[/i]

The sun rose through a dark, misty sky over the former Somnus Imperium city of Nanstolm. Through its broad, empty city streets and crumbling deserted structures, a hooded figure seemed to leap from roof to roof, moving swiftly through alley ways and through the long abandoned homes. 

The figure made a sharp turn down an alley and then dove through the window of a building. Outside, a host of ragged men with loose clothing and improvised weapons ran, chasing that shadow down the alley. The figures heart was racing and was doing its best to not breath too loudly. After a few moments, the men had passed and  silence overtook the city once more. The figure decided to stay there until sun down as rest was sorely needed at this point. The figure slowly made its way to the roof and gazed upon the city from the cover of darkness. At this moment, safety seemed assured. Pale hands slowly lowered the hood revealing a female with long white hair and pale blue skin. Her name, Morinth. 

As the moon rose and the city darkened, she became active again. Morinth would move quietly along building ledges, careful not to alert the crazed cultists gathered around fires below. Chants with words she couldn't understand filled the air. Perhaps if she were a scholar, one could figure it out but her role wasn't that noble. She was of a far more devious profession. Morinth was the highest agent of the council, the most renown killer they've ever heard of. Just her name would cause many people to shake in their boots. Tales of her exploits, be the true or false, have given her a nasty reputation as a calculated huntress of what ever the council deemed worthy of her attention, and this mission may be the highest priority yet, for an object of potentially immense power. 

Maybe thirty years ago the distance from the outskirts of the city to her goal would take an hour but ever since the plague had turned the inhabitants in to monsters, even a creature of the night like a Jonite, has taken so much longer. She had slipped up three times already. There was no invisibility cloak and the creatures here seemed unbelievably observant, This place was dangerous, even for a beast like her.. 

She found herself walking along the ledge of a building, ahead was a man looking out in to the distance. [i]A sentry maybe?[/i] From what she had seen, the cultists had never been that organized. But this was very near the center of the nation and anything was possible. She crouched down and became perfectly still. Behind her, she drew out a small one handed crossbow. She pointed it at her target and took a deep breath. There was no sound from the shot, no whizzing or a bang.. just a dead body hitting the floor. She was quick to pull another bolt out and draw the string back. After her bolt was ready, she aimed the weapon towards the door behind the body, waiting to see if there was any one else. Luckily, no one would come up to check on the lone sentry so Morinth moved on.

Near the end of the night, she stumbled upon the strangest of structures, one that stood out among all she had encountered so far. She went from roof to roof until finally reaching the structure. She wondered if this was where her goal was. Perhaps it would be but upon reaching it, she knew it wasn't. Above the door though, she could make out two words among the charred stone, "Krax" and "Paladin" Could it really be? A Krax Paladin chapter house in front of her. She knew this wasn't the structure she was looking for but nonetheless, it was getting close to day time and there could be some useful information inside.

The first area she moved through was a large entry way and hallway. Attached were a few offices and a set of sleeping quarters. Moving through these yeilded nothing of interest. The sleeping quarter had been sacked and abandoned. A few swords and a helmet, some torn pillows and splintered wood showed clear signs of struggle The offices she moved through were nothing but burnt stone, broken wood and shattered glass. This was obviously intentional, the paladins making sure nothing important remained behind as they left.

Moving forward, foot steps could be heard. She snapped back in to her assassin mode and began creeping down the hallway with her back to the wall. She pulled her hood up and drew a short knife from her boot. One of those crazed cultists came around a corner, breathing heavily and gripping a blunt weapon so hard that blood was dripping from his finger nails. She leaned over and saw that there was no one else around... and then lept to action. Her movements were fluid and precise.

There wasnt but a second for the man to react before her hand was over his mouth and knife dug deep in his heart. "shhhhhh" she whispered as he squirmed, her hand muffling his cries for help "shhhhh".. She felt the life leave his body and she slowly let the body down and pulled the knife out. There wasn't even a second thought as to what had just happened. Like someone slaughtering an animal.. there was no humanity in her actions, just another object in her way. She moved on to the next room and it was just as empty and lifeless as the last. The room was an armory, filled with well-crafted paladin weapons that were still in their racks, untouched in the last twenty years. It was strange to her as to why they remained.. all these dark beings had such a versatile arsenal right under their noses. 

As she moved through the armory, a small room caught her eye. It had heavy metal doors that were seemingly battered open. She slowly moved through the room towards the door and then peered in. There were five paladins inside, along side at least fifteen unknown men. They were all long dead but the feel of the battle could still be felt. Dried blood and broken weapons on the floor was the sign of what would be an epic close quarters fight that was ultimately futile. What were they guarding.. why would they bother locking themselves inside this room when the rest of their men fled the city. 

Inside, she saw something that would be most prized among the Paladins, a very small stone tablet, light enough to hold in a bag without adding much burden to a person but its importance was obvious.. A completely intact Krax Honor Code Tablet. She looked around the room and then gazed outside the room to make sure she wasn't followed. Outside she could hear whistling wind through the buildings empty hallways. There was some commotion outside and knew there wasn't a lot of time to waste at this point. Morinth gently took the tablet and wrapped it in a cloth before putting it in a small backpack she had been wearing. 

Morinth spared no time escaping the structure and darted to the street in front of the building. Outside, Cultists had become active and were actively searching for anything that wasn't familiar to them. For a time she was able to evade their sentries but it was only a matter of time before she was spotted. The city was crawling with the servants of the unknown benefactor and with the sound of a blood curling horn, they began their assault on the single, now cornered Jonite. She had no choice but to show her teeth and fight these new enemies.

She found herself outnumbered by at least ten foes with the sound of rushing humanoids in the distance. There was no time to play around as the longer she was delayed here, the chances of her survival would decrease rapidly. With that, she sprung in to action within seconds. Her long blow was slung around from her back to her hands and it was almost in the blink of the eye. She quickly put her hand on the bow string and a strange barely visible arrow appeared. She pulled the string and let loose a powerful bolt that hit with incredible force, sending the first enemy flying backward at least six feet. She drew another which upon contact with the unlucky foe, had literally caused his head to explode from sheer force of impact. She pulled another, sending a bolt clean through an enemy and piercing the one behind. Four bodies now littered the street but these cultists had no fear it seemed.

Behind these cultists, five more opponents had arrived and were closing the gap fast. She had to think fast and use what little time she had. Without a thought, she sent another bolt flying towards an unlucky recipient, ripping his arm from its socket and sending the body spinning to the ground. It was at this point that the initial six had gotten too close for the bulky bow. She slung it over her shoulder and pulled two snub Amakus pistols from behind her. These had a special cap over the barrel to keep the weapon ready to go at a moments notice. With an unnatural precision, she fired the first pistol, killing a crazed woman instantly. With the other, she pierced a male attacker right through the upper thigh, dropping him to the ground in immense pain.

She hurried and holstered her now empty pistols and withdrew her hand crossbow which still held a bolt, a bolt destined to pierce a woman's face, right between her eyes. With her ranged weapons now expended, she backpedaled a bit before drawing two, one and a quarter foot fighting knives. The first enemy had reached arms length, his weapon was a strangely shaped hatchet and he used it with ferocious zeal. His initial strike was enough to send one of the knives flying from her hand but she had luckily blocked with her other. Before she could recover, another with a long sword was rushing up behind. With incredible force, she kicked the hatchet wielding beserker right in the chest as he rose his weapon. He fell back on to the long-sword, sending the swordsman on to the ground with a fresh corpse on top. 

Morinth took the initiative now and rushed towards the body and rapidly shoved a knife deep in to the swordsman's right eye, killing him and then moved on. The next had a pike of sorts. With how fast she was moving, he had one shot to stop her before she closed the distance. His strike was swift but her movements were far quicker than the unwieldy weapon of the enemy. She hopped in to the air and landed on the incoming foes shoulders. Her knees was on his shoulders just long enough for her to twist and snap his neck before hoping back off and preparing to face the next foe.

This one was armed with two swords and rushed at her. Against two swirling swords, her single knife wouldn't be enough so he had to do something quick. She hopped back as he slashed left and right before flipping her knife around so that she was holding the blade. As the berserker swung again, she threw the knife which hit him in the chest. The pure adrenaline from the crazed cultist kept him going but he was slowing down. In his rage, he unknowingly let his lower guard down and she took advantage of this, kicking his feet out from under him. As he fell, she moved forward and punched him in the throat. Ahead of her though, she noticed one of the cultists readying an arrow. There were only seconds before the archer let loose so she grabbed the choking dual wielder by the shoulders and used him as a shield, blocking three arrows with the body. 

Things were getting dangerous now. She had no ranged weapons and this archer was persistent. Morinth was pinned and left in a knelt position, using the body as best she could for cover. She needed to close the distance so she slowly started pushing the body towards the archer who was still letting arrows loose. After a few moments, the arrows stopped flying. The guy had run out. She dropped the body and ran towards the archer who was now preparing to use his bow as a bat. She rushed him so fast that he didn't get a chance to swing. Morinth grabbed his shoulders and kneed him hard in the gut then pushed him back then kicked him as hard as she could in the groin, sending the man to his knees in incredible pain. 

She stepped back and took a deep breath before grabbing his neck and snapping it. The combat had ended and she was out of breath. As she leaned over and placed her hands on her knees, she could feel the sweat rolling down her cheeks and forehead.. but this moment of rest wouldn't last long so she hurried up and grabbed her knives and walked slowly to the cultist whom was shot in the thigh. As Morinth walked up, she spoke. "What have they done to you.". The beast moaned in pain between angry growls. He was lost to the world so she granted mercy. She kicked him on to his back and then stomped his neck.

Before she could even collect herself, another group of ten had began rushing. She took a deep breath and softly spoke, "fuck." before reaching in to her cloaks inner pockets. Morinth smirked a bit before withdrawing two iron balls. She then took a match and lit the fuses on them and then rolled them towards the incoming men before turning to flee. The explosion from the bombs wasn't big but it did send hot iron pieces in all directions, piercing multiple incoming foes. It was enough of a shock to halt the others which gave her time to dive through a window and take off running through the building. 

Her heart was beating hard now and her armaments were dwindling. She had to get away from there to reload her pistols and regain some energy. Luckily, this building had a ladder to get to the roof so she climbed and then pulled the ladder up with her. She was trapped on the roof but this gave her some time to catch her breath. At this point and with how fast she had ran, there was no telling if the pursuers had even caught her trail but for now, she was safe.