Chapter 169: Trials of Hircine IX
Though despite the pressure, the orc seems to revel in the clashing of their blades.
Blocking and parrying their strikes with his Imperial blade as he looks for an opening in their attacks.
"FUS!" The orc shouts, pushing back one of the Foresworn warriors before focusing his blade and a torrent of flame on the other cutting him down as he screams in agony before turning to the final Foresworn warrior and cutting him down just the same.
This just leaves the briarheart warrior, who instead of fleeing carefully eyes the orc before approaching.
"You fight well orc, you are worthy prey for this hunt..." The briarheart warrior commends the orc, before drawing his greatsword and charging at the orc with inhuman speed before slashing diagonally towards his chest.
The orc brings up his blade to meet the briarhart warrior's strike, but the force is too strong and pushes him back with relative ease.
This prompts the orc to begin using his torrent of flame to try and damage the briarheart warrior from a distance, but the briarheart warrior anticipated this and turns his blade sideways, so the flat of it is facing the orc's flames, making a temporary shield out of the great sword, capable of at least diverting the majority of the flames.
With it taking the brunt of the attack, the briarheart warrior is able to push through the flames and then strike at the orc once more, this time succeeding in making a deep cut across the orc's leather, Imperial chest armor and causing the orc to grimace in pain before jumping backwards.
While jumping backwards, the orc drops his sword and begins launching ice spikes at the briarheart warrior with both hands slowing his advance as he's forced to block the ice spikes.
That is until a strange light phases through his blade and strikes his chest directly.
Alarming him that his heart may have been struck he stops advancing to check his wound while focusing solely on defense.
His relief at being uninjured by the strange attack is shattered when a copy of himself strikes his undefended back.
Wincing in discomfort from the unexpected attack, the briarheart warrior quickly turns to cut down his pale imposter with a single stroke.
Only to turn around and be impaled straight through the heart by an ice cycle that was much longer and thinner than the ones the orc had previously sent.
The briarheart warrior starred at the orc in a state of disbelief, though no sign of regret or anger could be seen on his face... Instead a deep calm seems to wash over him as he falls to his knees while holding the long ice cycle.
He turns to the orc before giving a differential bow of his head and saying, "Good... Hunt..." Before falling to the floor, dead.
"Damn... That was one tough bastard... We're Foresworn always this fanatical? Shit... I really need to find a healing spell..." The orc talks to himself before looting the bodies of the Foresworn and making his way to his final group of pursuers after his health naturally regenerates.
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The final group of Foresworn, composed of one briarheart spellcaster, three Foresworn archers, and two Foresworn warriors, are exploring the Blue Palace, when the briarheart spellcaster comes to a conspicuously locked door.
"Something wrong, Gifted One?" One of the archers asks the briarheart spellcaster.
"Hmmm... I sense great madness contained within this place... We should find the prey quickly before we are tainted by its presence." The Gifted One directs the hunting party away from the door when a Foresworn archer barges into the main hall the hunting party had returned to.
"Gifted One! The prey is strong this hunt! Warrior Heart was struck down by his arrows, and then the rest of our band was split up and broken, before the prey slipped away! I and Short Pine were the only survivors, we split up to warn the others!" The archer hurriedly explains to his tribesmen.
"Excellent! We should prepare for his arrival! Archers! To the stairs!" The Gifted One orders excitedly, leading the party to the main entryway of the Blue Palace.
The archers take up position on the staircase while the warriors go to the entry door while Gifted One takes up a commanding position at the top of where the split staircases meet and prepares to summon a companion to the fight, patiently awaiting the arrival of their prey, ready to spring the trap as soon as he enters.
Several minutes pass...
Minutes turn into two hours with all the archers arms begin to tire as they await their prey's arrival, some lowering their bows as a sense of dissatisfaction washes over them.
"Are we sure that the prey is coming to us, Gifted One?" One of the Foresworn warriors ask after turning away from the door.
"Hmmm..." The Gifted One ponders if the prey has gone after the other hunting group and if it's possible that they've been defeated or if the prey has simply fled.
And just as their guard is down, the door to the entryway of the Blue Palace is briefly cracked open as a green hand throws out two bottles of glowing powder that crash and mix on the floor making a loud WHOOSH as steam fills the entire space blinding the last of the Foresworn.
Before they even know what is upon them screams of pain echo through the palace as they are quickly silenced by the sound of two bodies hitting the floor.
Reacting quickly the Gifted One summons a frost atronach who's innate frost cloak chills the steaming mist making the room visible once more.
Though in that short time, both Foresworn warriors were cut down and some how one of the archers on the staircase had been knocked off the edge and appears to have broken his neck when he impacted the ground.
But despite the carnage surrounding them, the perpetrator remains unseen and the remaining Foresworn archers and the briarheart spellcaster are put on edge by their prey's unconventional tactics.
(Author's Note: Sorry for today's late upload, got caught up doing some yardwork. Hope you enjoy!)
Chapter 170: Trials of Hircine X
The Gifted One scans the room looking for where their prey could be hiding...
"Come now... Do you really want to spend the rest of your days hiding from us? Is it not better to face your foes head on?" The Gifted One calls out, hoping to get a response, but is greeted with silence.
After several moments, the Gifted One motions to the three remaining archers to descend the stairs quietly and to begin searching around the pillars that make up the periphery of the rounded entryway.
"I must admit... You're an impressive hare for this hunt... Perhaps the best in all the hunts I've been on..." The Gifted One continues to prattle on as he watches the archers circle the pillars one by one until they reach the final pillar and prepare to circle and attack any thing behind it with everything they've got.
A smile creeps across the Gifted One's face as he can almost taste the victory on his lips as he calls out for a final time.
"But... At the end of the day, you are the hare... And we, your hunt-" The Gifted One starts to gloat before a feeling of immense dread and danger overwhelm him and he's barely able to raise a barrier spell strong enough to direct the icy spear launched from above him away from his heart and into his stomach where it impales him.
Looking upwards from the ground, the Gifted One is greeted by the sight of an orc balancing precariously on top of a chandelier with another ice spear in his hands, launching himself from the chandelier, he turns in midair, launching the spear into the chandelier's anchoring chain, causing it to snap and come crashing down on the Frost Atranoch that was standing in the center of the room.
The commotion, quickly draws the attention of the three archers who begin rushing to the falling orc who casts a strange spell before landing on the ground without issue before sprinting up the staircase and cutting down the summoner with his Imperial blade after closing the distance while dodging the ice spikes the summoner would hurl at him.
Dodging and cutting through them as if it were a dance, and with the death of the summoner their Frost Atronach that was crushed beneath the chandelier also begins to fade away as the archers take aim and begin loosing arrows at their target with impressive speed and accuracy, forcing the orc to take cover behind the railing of the large staircase as the archers pepper his position with arrow after arrow.
Though, in the archers rage and desire to suppress their prey they forgot one critical detail...
One... Then two... And eventually, all three archers ran out of arrows leaving them with just the daggers they have equipped at their sides in case of emergencies.
The group splits, with two rushing up the right staircase, while the third archer rushes up the left staircase.
The third archer is greeted with a deafening, "FUS!!!" As he makes his way to the balcony where he losses his footing and is sent tumbling back down the staircase before the orc turns his attention to the other two coming up the right staircase.
And just as the first archer reaches the top of the stairs the orc lifts up his leg before kicking the archer back down the stairs and into the the final archer with a deafening *Booom* as the orc shouts at the top of his lungs...
"THIS! IS! SPARTA!" Before leaping down the stairs and swiftly dispatching the three injured archers.
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"God, I always wanted to do that..." I say to myself as I loot the bodies when a notification pops up.
[Wave 3/9 Completed... You have 1 hour to prepare for the next wave...]
"Damn, this is gonna take forever-" I start to complain when an eerie *creeeaaakkk* echoes throughout the empty palace.
"I wonder what that could be, definitely shouldn't be the next wave..." I mumble to myself, quickly wrapping up my looting before investigating the source of that noise.
And then I see it... The door to the Pelagius Wing is wide open... As if calling me to enter...
"I'm sure this is just a coincidence... Right?" I tell myself as I draw near.
"I'm sure you wouldn't be able to visit another Daedric Lord while doing the trials of another... But... It wouldn't hurt to check... I mean, especially if I get to see one of my favorite Daedric Lords? Yeah... Just a quick peek, I'll definitely be back before the next wave..." I try to assure myself as I cross the door's threshold and feel a strange pulling sensation as if I'm being pulled in half before snapping back together like a taught rubber band and I find myself in another familiar setting within Solitude.
The mind of Pelagius III, the Mad King... And I see the tyrant sitting down and having a pleasant meal with the Deadric Lord of Madness himself, Sheogorath...
"And then I said, 'I'll rip out your entrails and use them to jump rope!' And they said-... What's that mortal doing over here? I told everyone I was going on vacation and to not be disturbed unless they want me to rip out their entrails and skip rope with them!" Sheogorath starts to tell a story but up on noticing me quickly goes off onto an entrail tangent.
"You there! Mortal! Yes, you with the ugly face and handsome jawline! How did you get here? I could have sworn I locked the door into here from the plane of Nirn?" Sheogorath questions me with a look of intrigued confusion.
"Well-" I start to say before he cuts me off.
"Wait, wait, don't tell me! I want to guess... Hmmm... You're an orc... So, Malacath must have sent you to me for another sparing match? Or was it Trinimach, that man and his multiple personalities, not that I can judge... But what's this?" Sheogorath questions before popping next to me and taking an uncomfortably long whiff of my hair.
"My suspicions were correct! You definitely smell like wet forests and wild dog, so Hircine must've sent you for a game of fetch, ah bless his accursed deer heart! Alright, Fido, go get the cheese boy! Go on!" Sheogorath says, grabbing a cheese wheel and rolling it off the table.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
10 Power
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