Nameless: The Siege

[Day 7 of Blaugust 2015!]
[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

The enemy army was not easily dissuaded by the large shards of broken glass along the path. While Chaya and the others exchanged arrows with the opposition, other soldiers ran forward to shovel a clear path to Tea Kettle's gates. In front of them was a mobile wall of shields on a log stand that protected many of them from the incoming fire. Every so often Jasmine could break this wall with her magic, but there seemed to be an endless supply that they would simply bring up.

A loud explosion followed by a scream from the opposite side of the village startled the defenders. "Go," nodded Chaya to Jasmine and the sisters of the sand. "I'll handle things here." Leaving their bows and arrows for whoever could man the wall, the girls quickly made their way to the source of the noise and were horrified to find that monstrous creatures had managed to dig their way in and were now tearing into the few defenders they had left. These giants looked like a combination of half-man, half-scorpion similar to the creatures they first encountered in Dagolar's laboratory. This was no coincidence.

Without wasting a moment the gladiatrixes rushed into the fray, slicing and hammering the monsters to death only to find more of them emerging from the hole despite Jasmine's best attempts to collapse it. A loud grinding noise and a strange shadow caught Nerith's eye for a moment and time seemed to slow down as she turned her head to see a massive stone golem about to land on the hapless blonde mage. With a ground shaking splat, pieces of Jasmine flew everywhere. Nerith's hands shook as she looked down to discover one of Jasmine's eyeballs on her palm.

Indas flew into a rage, attacking the ugly stone construct and with a mighty swing of her hammer shattered one of the golem's stubby stone fingers. Despite her size she was too fast for it to swing at and with another strike Indas had destroyed its right knee. As she came in to finish it off the golem somehow grabbed a piece of a nearby hut and threw it right into her though - sending her flying right towards the hole in the ground.

Nerith could do nothing as she watched her friend try to get to her feet, only to be stabbed in the back by one of the scorpion stingers as the creature grabbed one arm in each of it's black pincers. A second scorpion monster quickly stabbed her in the front too while grabbing her muscular legs, then in unison they ripped her limbs apart in a shower of blood.

At that point something pulled Nerith away, back towards the center of the village. It was her sister.

"We need to get out of here," Nessa said, but Nerith was in too much shock to hear.

Nameless: A Step Ahead

[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

"I'm sorry for your loss," said the smelly old man solemnly as he and the remaining Sisters of the Sand watched the last of the sewer folk escape through Dagolar's tower and into the darkening wasteland beyond. "I have nothing to offer you but our thanks."

"Where will you go?" asked Nerith quietly as she shifted her gaze to the sunset on the horizon.

"I've heard of villages out in the wastes - villages formed by escaped slaves no less, the most successful having the most ludicrous name of Tea Kettle," replied the geezer. "You girls would do well to find one and live free. Don't worry about me, my leg will only slow you down."

"It's dangerous out there," began Nerith but the old man cut her off.

"More dangerous if you go in an unprepared, large group like that lot," he said ruefully as he looked at the fleeing sewer folk. "That's just asking to be caught again, or worse. Come now, it's time for you to go. Besides, nothing is going to eat something that smells as bad as I do."

Nerith felt a pang of guilt leaving the old man behind as the trio made their way out into the desert, packs of food and supplies on their back. It occurred to her that they had never even bothered to ask old man's name. After more than two hours of hiking after the sun had set, the girls were making their way through a narrow canyon between two rocky cliffs when a familiar voice called out from in front of them.

"Going somewhere?"

Not these guys again.

Nessa, who was in the lead, stopped suddenly as a line of six soldiers previously hidden by the rock face marched into the canyon, blocking their path. Another half dozen soldiers began marching into position behind them, and atop the cliffs a trio archers stood up with bows drawn. From the safety behind his soldiers, the green garbed arena announcer grinned at his prey.

"Surrender now slaves, and I may yet be merciful."

Nameless: Ashes to Ashes

[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

Their patience had finally paid off. Ash, Indas, Nerith and Nessa had not only successfully ambushed a squad of Dagolar's guards but by using their armor as a disguise, managed to infiltrate and quietly clear the underground watch post just outside Dagolar's domain. Now all dressed in metal scale and armed to the teeth they approached the huge, black double doors decorated with eye balls that seemed to move on their own accord. As they drew near all the eyes suddenly focused on them and after a few, disturbing seconds, the doors magically creaked open by themselves.

Gripping their weapons tight, the girls entered the huge hall adorned with iron cages all along the sides. Each cage contained various forms of misshapen beasts, often in  a deteriorated or dead state, and beside each cage was a small table atop which sat parchments upon parchments of notes. Before Ash could examine any of them the doors suddenly slammed shut on their own, blowing out most of the lit candles and torches.

"Welcome," boomed a voice from the darkness. "What fine specimens all of you are."

"Show yourself and surrender, Dagolar. All your guards are dead!" threatened Ash.

"At least we hope all of the guards are dead," muttered Nerith under her breath.

The voice laughed as the room suddenly grew very cold. Dark figures began moving at the edges of the fire light, darker than the shadows themselves. One of them suddenly spirited towards Nessa who instinctively sliced through it with her sword. The blade sailed right through it as the creature touched her shoulder, like a freezing cold lightning bolt that suddenly sent her flying across the hall. Filled with concern her sister Nerith bolted right after her, with Ash and Indas following close behind.

"Fucking sorcerers," muttered Nessa groggily as she got back to her feet.

Ash saw another shadow racing towards Indas from behind her so she hurled her spear at it but missed, instead hitting one of few lit torches on the pillar next to it. Surprisingly, the monster seemed to evade not the spear, but the light itself as the torch fell to the ground. That wasn't enough to stop it though as after circling around the creature jumped onto Indas' back and using its painful touch, sent her screaming and stumbling forward into the darkness.

"Use the light!" screamed Ash as she grabbed the nearest lit torch and leaped to Indas' rescue - driving off the shadow creatures from her quivering, curled up form. They had got her good in those few brief seconds. Ash suddenly realized the room was growing brighter as Nerith and Nessa had begun lighting up the room with not just other torches but anything and everything that could hold a flame. She decided to do the same, taking her torch in the opposite direction as from the other two.

Just as Ash lit up her second torch she suddenly found herself standing in front of a bald, bearded man with a ludicrous mustache and a cruel smile, holding a large glass cube.

"SURPRISE!" yelled Dagolar as he opened the container towards Ash. Almost instantly a greenish slime sprung forth knocking her off her feet and to pinning her to the ground. To her horror, it also began to burn painfully as her armor quickly began to corrode and melt. She cried for help desperately as Dagolar just stood there laughing manically, watching as the slime began entering her mouth and covering her face - silencing her for good as it began melting her flesh.

"Ash!" yelled Nerith, as she and her sister rushed from the other end of the hall. They would not make it in time.

Dagolar's laughter was suddenly ended as Ash's spear flew into his chest, sending him sprawling back. It had been thrown by Indas who was by then, back on her hands and knees wracked by the pain caused by the shadow creatures. Dagolar's demise did cause the shades to dissipate, but the greenish slime which had just finished feasting on their friend was still in the room, slowly advancing towards the injured giantess.

Thinking quick, Nessa motioned to her sister to help with a nearby large, burning table that they tossed upon their liquid foe. Her guess was right in that the slime could not consume the flame which instead burned it into a bubbling mess before vaporizing entirely. Whatever means the smoke from the torches previously escaped the room was now overloaded, and the remaining girls began coughing from inhaling too much of it. With no time to spare the sisters dragged Indas back the way they came and into the sewer, leaving the bones of Ash behind.

Nameless: The Magic Number

[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

The sewers were much bigger than Ash thought they would be, so tall in fact that Indas could actually stand upright in most places. She was just glad that the huge, muscular woman could actually fit through the garbage pit near the arena's kitchens. It had been a few hours of walking blindly through the smelly, maze like tunnels since then but what was around the next turn would make all of them stop in their tracks.

Small campfires, makeshift tents from refuse and filthy, disheveled people going about their business - until one by one, they too suddenly saw their new visitors and stopped to stare. It occurred to Ash that having four women wearing close to nothing might cause some problems so she instinctively readied for combat with her companions following suit. It never came though as all the strangers just continued to stare silently with more than one leering pair of eyes scrutinizing every inch of their flesh. After a long, awkward silence an old man with a long bushy beard and plagued skin hobbled forward on his table-leg cane.

"Hello, fine ladies!" he coughed out with spittle spraying out of his mouth. It was hard to imagine how he managed to smell worse than the sewers they had already been traveling through. "It is rare that we get any visitors to our little community down here. I assume you are ... or were gladiators of the arena, yes?"

"We're just... passing through," answered Nerith from somewhere behind Ash. "Do you mind pointing us to the way out?"

"I'm sorry my dear," shrugged the old man. "You have just traded one prison for another. You see, there are only three ways out of here and all of them are heavily guarded, the first of which being where you came from."

"That doesn't make sense," interjected Nessa. "I thought the sewers ran through the entire city?"

"Not these ones," grinned the old man as he leant heavily on his cane. "These were special built. Weren't you curious as to why the guards didn't pursue you down here? It's because there is no need. They simply keep us in here for Dagolar."

"Dagolar?" asked Ash.

"He is a sorcerer working for King Tectuk, as you might expect since the Wizard King made it a point to execute all the sorcerers that refused to work for him. Dagolar is also our host, if you can call him that. He ensures we get food down here. Scraps really, but there's only so much one can forage here. In exchange a few of his guards take some of us every so often. Those that are taken are never seen or heard from again. That also happens to be the second way out."

"What's the last way out?" asked Nessa quickly. It was clear she didn't like the old man's odor.

"The tunnel to your left eventually leads to the farm land just outside the city, but as I said that too has no shortage of soldiers guarding it. Too many even for us," the old man gestured to the camp behind him.

"We still have to try," muttered Nessa as she began heading for the left tunnel.

"Ness wait," ordered Ash. "We can't just leave these people here!"

"Why not?" Nessa hissed back. "They've clearly already given up."

"Would you want to be stuck here forever?" countered Ash. Nessa let out a sigh of defeat.

"So tell me old man, how many guards does Dagolar send here at a time?"

The old man feebly raised four fingers and grinned.