The Chronicles of Outsider: Humble Beginnings by Justin Wayne
Chapter Twenty Nine: Comfortably Numb
Breathing controlled and movements chained together, Outsider weaved through the attacking force with such fluid grace several guards froze mid-stride; allowing him to sneak in quick strikes that dropped them flat. Recovering quickly the others moved to block him in and held their weapons up in a wall of points. Outsider dropped to his knees and slid the last several feet and between two of them, his knives slashing their hamstrings on his way past.
He rolled to his feet and narrowly avoided their retaliatory strikes that tore at his cloak. Spinning on his heel he turned a complete circuit and leaped sideways over a low arcing blade and caught the man’s arm, bent it toward himself until the sword fell, then used the man as a shield when crossbows were fired. Several bolts pierced the man’s chest and he went limp in Outsider’s arms.
The elf tossed him into those closest then parried away the one he missed with his human missile until he managed to disarm him. He took advantage of the pause to dodge his way over to the crossbow wielding guards and struck down one down before they could reload. A bolt bounced off his greave with a scrape and narrowly avoided wounding him as he found his way back to the main group to use them as cover against their crossbow fire.
“Surround him quickly!” their captain ordered and waved his sword about. “Don’t give him any room to breathe!” Following his command desperately the guards bustled about to close the elf in against the back wall. Outsider pushed back and was promptly thrown backwards off his feet.
He rolled away from them then stumbled through the open cell door as nothing appeared behind him to break his momentum. Expecting them to lock him inside, Outsider pulled the door inside the cell on the opposite side of the hinge and stood before the door.
The captain looked from one of his men to the other. “Well? Go on in after him!” Two guards glanced at one another nervously then waned as they were pushed forward. “Well go on!”
They came at the door and struggled against one another to push the other in first as there was only room for one to fit through at a time. Before long the captain kicked one through who was thrown back out with his throat slit. Then the other followed suit, causing the group to back away.
“I swear, if this city didn’t have so many other forces protecting it, it would have already destroyed itself.” Blaine chided and shoved his way through. “If he refuses to come out of there and you can’t survive against him one on one, then use your crossbows and shoot him!” he screamed suddenly.
Realizing his reprieve was at its end; Outsider dusted the frontline of guards in his powder concoction and charged forward at full sprint. They struck out at him just as he slipped to the side causing their blades to strike one another and ignite the explosive. The men, alarmed that flames were crawling across their skin, panicked and thrashed about until their line fell apart. The hunter leapt onto his back and slid across a doubled over man into the center of the crowd.
He lashed out with his full fury focused through control. Both knives sang out a deadly song as they sliced between plates of armor and found the soft flesh beneath. The scraping ring of metal on metal steadily rose as the guards began to catch up to what had transpired and struggled to turn around and face the attacker.
Then as soon as they did, he threw his last pouch of Inksmoke; depleting his current repertoire. Outsider dropped to the ground and wrapped himself in his cloak as the men began to strike out with abandon within the impenetrable darkness. Fear peaked and panic fully settled in, the guards slashed away and felled one another.
The elf could feel the miniscule pressure of blood falling against his cloak then was buried by a dead body. He shoved it off and rolled head over heels until he emerged into the light, when a boot crashed into his face. Blasted off his feet, he fell flat on his back, gasping for air as the wind was knocked from him and his already broken nose burned like fire.
A heavy axe whistled toward him and thudded into the stone an inch from his face as he twisted out of the way. A spin of his feet had the man pressed away just long enough for him to jump up.
Outsider and the man stared each other down, both waiting for the first move. He glowered at the little elf before him and flexed his muscles in anticipation. Towering over him with an axe the size of his torso, he spun it around like a toy and grinned a toothless smile. “You hear that?” he asked and only the screams and sound of steel striking steel echoed in the hall. “That’s the sound of death, and it’s coming for you next.”
“Then I’ll be sure to listen for it.” Outsider replied and ducked the heavy strike he knew was coming. “But I’ve never been good at listening.” Then with two thumps, flicked both knives into the man’s chest; hilt deep. The sheer strength of the man however kept him on his feet. He stared blankly ahead for a second in surprise, then smiled viciously and threw his axe at the little attacker before him. Outsider managed to dodge out of the way but hit the wall, sending flashes of colors before his eyes. The man gripped him by the throat and heaved him off his feet, choking the life out of him.
Lightheadedness began to sink into his limbs like lead and his strength ebbed away. He hit at the man futilely with arms so heavy he felt he could hardly lift them. The heaping man laughed and shook the elf. “Silly little elf, you can’t kill me!” Lungs burning for air and semi-conscious, Outsider knew he was about to die but couldn’t muster the energy to care.
With his last seconds of consciousness ticking by, his eyes roamed the hall and he saw Blaine, dragging away a small figure, a small figure that kicked and fought but to no avail, a small figure that called out for him.
Thom?
“Outsider, kill him!” the hobbit screamed then crumpled to the floor as Blaine struck him over the head. His face went blank as he was dragged away by his shirt, and Outsider could see the bloody rings around his wrists where his manacles had been.
“Good work Mateo, now finish him.” Blaine mentioned as if bored. “I’ll be entertaining myself with this one’s demise.”
Thom.
With his final ounce of resolve, Outsider gripped Mateo’s hands around his throat and curled his legs up to his chest. He struck out with both feet and kicked the man in the face, shattering his nose and busting both lips. Mateo cried out in a snarling growl and dropped him, then howled even louder as Outsider caught the two knives imbedded in the man’s chest as he fell and pulled them straight down with him.
He rolled to his feet as the large man collapsed and turned to find the remaining guards standing several feet away from him, eyeing him warily; half a dozen lying on the ground. He stared back and held his two knives at the ready, despite the shaking in his muscles and inability to stand up straight.
“You can kill me now, but I’ll take plenty of you with me.” he promised and wiped blood from his busted lip on his sleeve.
“Just..just get out of here!” a young soldier hollered as he supported the captain’s head in his arms. He cradled his dying brother as his lifeblood poured out from the several wounds he sustained in the dark while the other guards checked the fallen for survivors. “No amount of coin is worth this. Just leave!” the sergeant cried and tears seeped from his bloodshot eyes.
Outsider turned away immediately and took off down the hall. He spun around the corner and barreled through the last door without slowing. A flight of stairs rose before him, all the lanterns leading the way extinguished. Outsider closed his gray eyes and when he opened them they were glowing with darkvision; the black fading to a dim blue and giving him perfect sight. He made his way up the stairs and emerged on the roof through an open trapdoor.
The chill night breeze felt good against his face and ruffled his hair. The stinging cuts along his nose and chin settled slightly in the wind and he breathed in deeply. The smell of blood clung to his clothing and filled his nostrils until he could taste it. He spat and wiped his mouth on his sleeve when he heard it.
He spun on his heel just in time for a dirk to pass th
“Somehow I just knew, yet again mind you, that you would survive.” Blaine smiled and nodded knowingly. He stood straight with his arms folded behind his back. His deep purple cowl fluttered in the breeze like bat wings along his length. “So the culmination of all your hard work and my intensive planning arrives upon us at last!”
Outsider watched impassively as Blaine glared at him vehemently. “So what will you do, Outsider? Will you kill me and be free from the past you so scorn? Fully turning your back upon everything you are and will ever be? Or will you fall and succumb to the superior ways of those you could have been?”
“Tell me Blaine,” Outsider took a single step forward. “How can you hate me so? Have you really devoted the last five or so years since my escape just to track me down? Are you truly that empty?”
Blaine bridled at the comment and sneered. “I have devoted the last few years of my life to pursuing my greatest enemy, my brother’s murderer, and the taker of my hand, to prove I am the last great warrior to escape Duskenbaijan.”
Outsider cocked an eyebrow. “Escape?”
Blaine scowled further then until his face was so masked in scorn he was nearly unrecognizable; resembling something demonic more than a dark elf. “I escaped death in the Shadowverse as surely as you, all because your parents were too foolish to accept their place and had to leave; hence the life you had killing your kin.”
It was Outsider’s turn to lose patience then. “You know I had no choice! You know full well they forced me to fight no matter how much I tried to escape it. And Blaide volunteered for the arena for a chance to—“
“How dare you speak my brother’s name you filth? He was a champion! The best fighter in all of Duskenbaijan and everyone knew it until you cheated your way to victory.”
“Cheated?” Outsider asked honestly surprised. “What are you talking about?”
Blaine’s face contorted in rage and his eyes bulged furiously. “You know full well what I’m talking about! You took my hand just to distract him then stabbed him in the back. Even in Duskenbaijan where chaos and deceit reign, that was a pathetic and cowardly move.”
“I took your hand because I had the opening. You honestly believe I had the time to plan ahead for such a thing? We were children! He volunteered to gain your clan favor and you followed suit with your blind devotion. What was I supposed to do with the two of you against me?”
“You were supposed to die!” Blaine screamed and rushed forward with his dirks drawn. Outsider met him head on with both knives and deflected the blows before sending a kick to Blaine’s abdomen that sent him reeling.
“Just give up Blaine, you know you can’t win.”
Blaine laughed and tapped the side of his nose. “Oh but I can and will. Aside from the fact that you’re exhausted and I’m fully rested, I always have a backup plan; an unbeatable combination.”
Outsider swung his cloak off to the side and rolled his shoulders. “Then let’s test that theory.”
Four blades clashed in a shower of sparks, singing a deadly symphony of push and pull as they shared control of the battle. They rushed back and forth amid the metallic ringing and matched each other blow for blow; the extra length of a dirk paralleling the speed of a knife.
From Thom’s perch at the corner of the roof where he was bound, the sounds woke him and he watched the two in awe as he struggled to keep up with their blindingly fast movements. One second Blaine was pressing forward with furious stabs that kept Outsider off balance, the next the tide would change and Blaine would be on the retreat from Outsider’s sudden slashes. He dreamed of one day being able to move like that.
Blaine could feel the match beginning to slide opposite his favor when his defense became his only action. Blocking and parrying determinedly, fear beginning to settle in, he decided to shake it up and leapt back. With a new distance, Outsider’s next swing missed and he carried himself forward into a roll to keep his momentum and sprung up from it to a leap.
He slashed at Blaine’s neck and felt a bite before the attack was deflected; sending his knife plummeting off the roof. Blaine recoiled and slapped his hand over his neck then checked his palm, a small line of blood running down his collar which then split; dropping his cloak to the ground.
Blaine snarled and reached into his pocket. “Plan B it is.” He removed a small black vial and shook it by his ear. With a menacing laugh he poured an oil-like substance onto his dirks that clung to the blades with alarming viscosity that didn’t drip a single drop. Outsider didn’t like the way the liquid shone with a deep crimson at one angle and emerald green at another.
“You like it?” Blaine asked happily as he noted the concern in his foe’s eyes. “I had it made by a team of alchemists specifically for you.”
“Aww, for me? You shouldn’t have.” Outsider teased and gave him a little smirk. “I’m so flattered I just might blush.”
“Oh you won’t be blushing for long.” Blaine grinned and smelled the blades. “Smells like cyanide. You know, kind of like almonds…I wonder if you would be so kind as to tell me how they taste?”
Outsider spun his remaining knife with his fingers and positioned himself to leap aside if necessary. “Only if you ask nicely.”
A pitch black cloud of Inksmoke so thick even dark elves couldn’t see through it descended over Outsider. “Please?” Blaine called and charged into it. Thom could only listen in suspense as the sounds of blades ringing with shrill metallic tones hummed in the night. Sparks flew from the dark here and there and occasionally he could see an arm or leg as they battled back and forth.
Outsider controlled his breathing and slowed his heartrate as long as he could, but steadily his limbs refused to listen as exhaustion set in. His lungs shuddered and his heart pounded in his ears. The louder it boomed, the less he could hear of Blaine’s movements. Then his broken nose began to bleed as his pulse rose to a fever pitch and made his eyes water.
He willed his arms to move. Striking high, low, left and right; wherever he sensed it was necessary. He ducked a slash and pivoted on his heel to the left then struck out low. Nothing but air tugged at his blade so he quickstepped around and unleashed a sudden flurry to block the retaliation he knew was coming.
He wiped the blood from his nose on his sleeve and caught a kick to the stomach then stumbled backwards. He fell flat as he heard Blaine’s approach and rolled to his feet with his defenses set. But his arms were lead and his blade stone. He grit his teeth and forced them higher just in time to block a blow.
However the force was too much for his weakened limbs and he fell backwards. Knowing time was running out and that he had to end things soon, he slipped out of the smoke and stood a few feet back.
Blaine called from within the darkness. “What’s wrong Outsider? Too scared to face me head on now?” Blaine craned his head to the side and strained to hear his voice.
“Oh no, not me Blaine. I just want to see your face when you lose again. And I won’t spare you this time.” he replied. A dirk flew high into the air through the top of the cloud. “You starting to lose your touch?”
“Not at all. Just a new trick I learned while trying to hunt you down through the Shadowverse.” Blaine replied and laughed.
A second poisoned dirk hurtled straight at Outsider from the Inksmoke and was sent wide by a parry just in time for the first to descend from its parabolic arc and strike him in the shoulder near his collar bone. Outsider shuddered against the blow and cringed in pain at the tug he felt as it dug in deep and hit bone.
His fingers went numb a second later and dropped the knife with a clatter he didn’t hear before collapsing to his knees. Blood dribbled down his chest, warm and sticky, then dripped to the stone. The wound stung like fire but his arms were dead and hung limp at his sides. Thoughts raced through his head like a colony of ants in his skull then slowed to a snail’s
His glazed eyes turned toward Thom apologetically.
Thom stared in horror as he watched Outsider’s head loll to the side then the other as if trying to roll his head around. Blaine emerged then and cracked into maniacal laughter immediately, bringing the thought of someone in pain to mind. He strode over to his most hated rival and threw back Outsider’s hair.
Thom’s eyes welled with tears as he saw the blank stare upon his face.
“Well, well, well, what have we here?” Blaine crooned. “You have no idea how long I have waited for this moment. And I must tell you: it..is..sweet.” He stroked the scar that spanned across Outsider’s face with his finger. “I remember giving you this.” He chuckled and pushed his head away before taking Outsider's knife. “Maybe I’ll give you another one; a matching set, just before you die.
“Theoretically that is, because I’m not going to kill you just yet.” He leaned down close and stared into Outsider’s unfocussed gray eyes. “You see, that poison I had made for you is specifically formulated to take away everything that makes you who you are.” He stood straight then and began counting off on his fingers: “Your focus, your voice, your senses…your mind. Of course it was only tested on humans, but I imagine it’s close enough.”
Thom gasped then covered his mouth when Blaine rounded on him. “Oh yes, I’d forgotten you were here. Perhaps you’d like a taste? It would be interesting to see how it affects hobbits.” he threatened and looked around for his other dirk. “Now where did that thing go? Oh well, I can always just..” With a twist he jerked the blade free from Outsider’s shoulder and for several moments couldn’t tear his eyes away from the crimson stain upon the blade.
He stalked over to Thom exaggeratedly and relished the terror blatant on the hobbit’s face. “There’s still some of my concoction on the lower half of the blade, so I’ll just have to dig it in deep.” He lifted Thom’s face up to the blade until he could see himself in it. “You probably won’t have much time to feel its effects on account of the depth, but it’s all the same in the end.”
The blade loomed above Thom when Blaine’s hand fell to the ground twitching and pulsing blood. The dark elf cried out in agony and stumbled onto his back, clutching the scarlet stump with his other hand. With wild eyes he raked the roof until he turned around and saw Outsider standing there behind him, Darkbane drawn and dripping; blade glowing like white fire.
The shock on his face stretched it thin. “How are you..?” He started then shook his head miserably. “Something somewhere high has its eye on you…won’t let you die.”
“Oh I think your poison worked to a degree.” Outsider observed as he felt the wound near his neck. “I can’t feel a damn thing.” He shivered again and held his arms out to steady himself, swaying dizzily.
Blaine’s black eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped. Tears ran down the creases of his face and he cursed everything he could name, even himself. He pounded the floor with his hand and stump, splattering blood all over himself until he lacked the strength. “To Hell with you Outsider! When you killed my siblings and took my hand we lost favor and respect. The gods turned on our brood and demanded a sacrifice, so they took my mother and cut out her heart right in front of me.” he spat. “Of course I didn’t love her, I can admit, or my brother and sister. But it signified the fall we were all doomed to face.
“My home fell the day after you left. I only survived by fleeing into the Shadowverse…to chase you down and avenge them to regain favor. I always knew I would and when I finally did I could return home and take my rightful place as a noble…but every time I get close, something keeps you alive.” He spat dark blood and shook his head again feebly. “Tell me…who…do you pray to?”
Blaine’s voice began to fade away and his body grew pale and limp. Outsider crouched beside him and shrugged. “I don’t, I just acknowledge how much pain there is in the world and how much belongs to me; to take and to give.”
Blaine stared at him a moment longer then scowled. “I will kill you..” With a last shudder and breath, Outsider’s blade pressed into his chest, and his body shook then went still. Outsider turned from him and cut loose Thom from his bindings.
“Are you alright?” he asked genuinely worried as he looked at the several bruises and scrapes adorning Thom’s round face.
“I’m fine, really. I just can’t believe you came for me. You took on like a hundred soldiers!” he exaggerated and wiped away his tears. “Thank you, Outsider. I’m sorry I’ll never be able to repay this.”
Outsider smiled then paused to inspect his wound which still felt nonexistent. “Well we’re not out of this yet…I really can’t feel anything.”
“What do you mean?” Thom asked and glanced back at the poisoned dirk lying across the roof. “Like, you can’t feel the cut?”
“As in, I can’t feel anything at all. No pain, not the cold, not the wind, not any of my clothes..nothing. If not for the muscle memory, I wouldn’t even be able to walk, let alone fight.” He stumbled then and fell to one knee with a groan. “I need to stop the bleeding before..” Outsider tumbled then and sprawled out on the roof with Thom standing over him trying to help; attempting to staunch the flow that soon grew to a crimson stain.
Thom stared down at his reflection in the pool of blood before him; a combination from Outsider and Blaine mixed as they both fell from their battle. Blood spilled in the give and take of war the only bridge between the two dark elf bounty hunters who had completely opposite views of the their kind, the world, and how they fit into it. In it, Thom could see the desperate hopelessness etched on his face and knew deep down there was nothing he could do to save his friend.