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Enter Sandman (Emeraldknight)

Started by Eckhart_Von_Musel, January 12, 2018, 04:00:59 PM

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Eckhart_Von_Musel

Wallace ducked as he ran, rock barely missing him by inches. The sound of the mob behind him was one he had grown all too accustomed to as of late- this was the third time this month he'd been run out of the village he'd been staying at. Gripping his stave tightly, Wallace ducked into an alley. "Gotta get out of here," he thought numbly as the mob dispersed, presumably to try and cut him off at the other end. "Gotta get out of here, Mayor Appletooth will have my head if don't."

What had Wallace done wrong? He only wanted to help the mayor rebuild the town hall, what was wrong with that? He even told Mayor Appletooth not to freak out before he created the zombies! I mean sure, the mayor didn't know Wallace was a necromancer before hiring him, but that's no reason to call him a freak! And how was Wallace supposed to know that one of the bodies he resurrected was the mayor's great-grandmother? He had tried to calm things down by explaining that a body is nothing more then the shell a soul inhabits, and that it wasn't really Granny Beatrice, but Mr. Appletooth would have none of it. And then Wallace had given him his name, and Appletooth realized whose son he must be...

Reaching the end of the alley, Wallace sighed in relief. His pursuers hadn't gotten there in time to cut him off it would seem, giving him a chance to escape! Rushing out of the alleyway, Wallace turned to the right...

And immediately slammed face first into somebody. 

emeraldknight

"Argh!". The man cried out as he fell to the ground, cold stone grazing his behind. As Blood Diamond got up, he glanced up at the oddity before him, instinctively grimacing a little at the ugly complexion before him.
"So you're the necromancer everyone's been talking about!"
Just barely four days ago, the wanderer who called himself Blood Diamond had arrived in a small village in the north of Serendipity. Recently, Blood Diamond had been in combat against some outlaws, and after finding himself in a sticky situation after throwing his sword right at their leader (In an attempt to make a grandiose entrance onto the scene) he decided that maybe he should learn how to magically draw his sword back into his hand. Unfortunately, after a week of trying, there hadn't been any progress made. And so, he sought out a mage to teach him, and what better place to find one, than Serendipity? Unfortunately, this was not quite the mage he intended to run into. Blood Diamond grabbed the talk of the town by the arm and drew his sword with his free hand, just as the crowd of townspeople stopped to gaze upon the unusual sight. It seemed the terrible necromancer had been caught, but by who? He certainly didn't look from around town, and his clothing was quite spectacular, seeming to catch every stray beam of light and reflect it back unto them. The less-hated of these two men spoke with a great sense of theatricality in his voice, and a bright gleam in his eye:

"Villain, I am not without honor! take this chance to prove your worth... In a fair duel!"

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"Gah!" Wallace gasped as he fell over. Looking up, he saw he had run into some sort of... mercenary? He was wearing a strange set of armor, and the necromancer briefly wondered what kind of protection a suit with holes in it could feasibly offer. He had a sword strapped to his back as well, but it seemed paper thin- as if it'd break of it so much as brushed against another blade.

Before Wallace could offer an apology, the gaudily dressed man grabbed him by the arm, dragging him before the crowd he'd been fleeing from. "Wait! Stop!" the necromancer protested, but it got him nowhere- the man had challenged him to a dual. The angry mob cheered excitedly, and Wallace whimpered timidly as he was thrust to his feet. 

"Crap!" he thought, shaking with fear. "How do I get out of this?"

Wallace clutched his stave tightly to his chest. "B-but..." he stammered nervously. "I d-don't have a weapon..."

emeraldknight

Blood Diamond had challenged the foul necromancer to single combat in order to excite the crowd, and to show them that he could defeat any opponent. Of course, considering the town's reaction to this grotesque young man and his villainy, Diamond expected a fair amount of resistance. And thus, he was shocked when the man stammered out that he, in fact, had no weapon. No weapon!? He had challenged the vicious necromancer to a duel, and now he said he had no weapon? The mob of townsfolk looked on curiously as the man in shining red pointed his index finger at his opponent's stave, proclaiming loudly that it certainly looked like a weapon. "There will be no excuses! Either nobly stand your ground, or admit defeat at the hands of the vigilante hero, Blood Diamond!" He then paused, gazing out over the crowd, disappointed at the lack of rabid cheering and applause. Discouraged, he continued nonetheless: "No matter what, the result shall be the same. But at least let the people you have wronged witness the power of a hero".

With that, Diamond held his sword up high, making sure to face the flat of the blade towards the light of the setting sun, so as to help the carefully-polished blade catch all of the incoming light and fling it back into the eyes of everyone near. "Finally", he thought to himself, "Finally, I will receive the favor of a village, finally they will realize that I am the hero the people need and deserve!" Gazing out at the awed faces of the crowd after seeing such a show of light filled the hero with a renewed sense of vigor, and with that he decided to truly make "The Day Blood Diamond Came To Town" truly a legend people would speak of forever.

With a sense of great pride, he swung his sword through the air, not at the necromancer he had challenged, but at the mild wind blowing in from the east. With this, even more light danced around the gleaming sword, blinding the villagers once again (Though even if they could see this dramatic dance, they no doubt would have been confused as to why the one they had been hunting was not yet dead, or otherwise incapacitated). As his blade cut through the air, Blood Diamond used larger, more sweeping strikes, despite being just meters away from the wall of an old tavern. With one last effort to gift hope to the hearts of the pure, and fear to those of the evil, he raised his prized sword above his head, it's silhouette cleaving the image of the sun in two, and swung down. "Have at thee!"

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Watching the self-proclaimed hero show off his swordsmanship cause Wallace to shrink back, grimacing. "Yeesh, That's not good!" he thought. "I won't be able to reason with him, will I?"

What options did the young man have? Running was out of the question, and there was no way he could bring himself to harm the mercenary. However, if he could prove his mettle without harming him...

In the light of the afternoon sun, nobody would be able to see the stave's centerpiece emit a dim glow. Wallace could feel the tiny carapaces reforming, feel the miniscule wings reattach and take flight once more. As the aggressive man brought his blade down, he'd find that his sword hand had attracted a small swarm of flies. The undead bugs made an unearthly crinkling noise as their lifeless shells crawled up and down the mans arm, and even Wallace shuddered at the sight of it.

"So..." the necromancer began slowly. "If I disarm you, I win, right?"

emeraldknight

After his dazzling display of swordsmanship, the ever-growing crowd of townsfolk was both bewildered and confused. Blood Diamond looked out upon them watching them intently, listening to their conversations. "Who is he?", "Where is he from?". These questions whirled through their mouths and ears, a rising storm of questioning voices growing ever more desperate for answers. At least that's how he saw it. However, just as he was about to defeat the villainous necromancer and save them from near-certain demise, he felt a small, tingling sensation on his right wrist, followed by more in various locations on his arm. He halted his movement, daring to chance a look down, and what should he see but an ever-growing crowd of flies, crawling over him, more dropping onto his sword arm every second. As Diamond began to panic, he nervously glanced around him, stopping and staring in disbelief at the black insects rising from the cracks in the street, slowly unfurling their tiny, fractured wings. The sight was unnerving, to say the least. Before the hero could ask, his opponent spoke slowly, but loudly, "So... If I disarm you, I win, right?"

"What are you doing?" The plague of flies kept coming, weighing down on his sword in hundreds. He attempted to swing his brilliant blade, but it reflected the sun no more, tainted by the black mass surrounding it. So this was the extent of his necromancy! As more piled on, he felt his sword grow heavier, becoming much harder to swing, and making the task of balancing on top of it rather easy for the miniature army, crowding into every available spot, standing atop their fallen comrades. They may not have weighed much individually, but with their indescribable numbers together, they felt like lead, and the wanderer's weapon slowly sank to the ground, as the strain on his wrist became too much. The sword would have to travel the last few inches to the ground in freefall.

"I've been defeated". This was the time that he would show them who he was, the time that  everyone would see not just a lunatic in an odd costume, but the hero known as Blood Diamond, their savior! And yet now, he stood there, hunched over from the weight of the flies, as they too crumpled to the ground, hollow shells, bodies without spirit. But above all of the loss, all of this missed opportunity, there hung a dilemma. "What do I do now?". He had never lost a duel like this before, and now he was faced with a conflict in his own values. If he let the criminal go, he would fail, and the evil sorcerer would triumph. However, if he picked his sword back up and disarmed the man anyway, forcing him into a prison, then his honor as a hero would be forever tarnished. Either way, he could never earn the respect of the people living here. All of his life, Blood Diamond had imagined his mother and father watching over him from a distance. Yet now all he could envision was those dear parents' faces obscured by their palms, disappointment oozing out of every orifice. Before making a final verdict on what to do next, he wanted to know one thing: "Who is it..", he spoke softly, his eyes making only half an effort to look up, fearful of catching those of the victor, "That has defeated me?"

Eckhart_Von_Musel

It was every bit as awful as Wallace imagined it would be. A woman in the crown screamed as the man's arm was enveloped, panic spreading through the civilians like wildfire. The necromancer's heart sank. Even when he used it non-violently, his power was still terrifying to those not used to it. He relinquished his control over the insects as soon as the man dropped his weapon, hoping to prove himself not to be a threat.

When the swordsman asked for his name, the necromancer gingerly stepped forward. "It's Hope." he said with a nervous, extending his arm to help the man up. "Wallace Ho-"

"You suck!" a voice from the mob called. "You call yourself a hero? You have no talent!"

"Yeah!" another voice cried. "I bet you let the necromancer win!"

"The air was soon filled by the sound of jeering as the mob began to advance towards them. "Gah!" Wallace moaned. "Why can't things ever go right?"

emeraldknight

"Wallace Hope", he thought. "A necromancer named Hope". He couldn't quite place a finger on it, but something was definitely ringing a bell. However, before he could figure out exactly how he knew this mysterious man who had so easily defeated him, an uproar began, crowds of people jeering, outraged, from all sides of the wide street. Clearly, the congregation were hungry for blood, and with that need left unsatisfied by the outsider's failed attempt at showing off, it seemed they would soon take matters back into their own hands, redistributing their newly-bolstered wrath between the two pariahs. Although this was not the first time Diamond had failed, it was definitely the first time a whole town had turned on him in such a way.

He slowly brought himself to a standing position, rejoining his hand to his sword, and thrusting it outwards threateningly, but not at the evil he had tasked himself with combating in the first place. That man had proven he had no intention of hurting the hero, and a loss was a loss. At least by sparing him he would save a small amount of dignity, a commodity that was about to be rapidly spent. Vowing to deal with this "Hope" character later, Diamond declared to the townsfolk, "I know I have failed you. You have much reason to be angered." At this, everyone's yelling subsided a bit, ears curious above their rage. "However, I cannot simply let myself be murdered here, with full knowledge that my purpose on this earth has not been fulfilled!" The hero trembled a bit, partly because he was still reeling from the shock of his loss, but mainly because of what he was about to do. Unable now to even muster up the courage to say it in an audible voice, he half-muttered, half-whispered. "I hope you can eventually understand..." And with this, he thrust his blade into the sky, catching the dimming sunlight and reflecting a bright light across both sides of the polished silver and into the eyes of the commoners. Unable to see clearly, they blindly threw rocks in the general direction of the two, hoping that just maybe one of them would find a target. But no-one could hear the sound of the rapid footsteps over the commotion, and as the light cast by Blood Diamond dissipated, one thing immediately became clear: They should have thrown those rocks before he made a run for it.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

The man stood up on his own, ignoring Wallace's hand. The young necromancer grimaced. "His pride is hurt." he thought, feeling a sudden rush of pity for his attacker. "Loosing in front of a crowd couldn't have been easy."

Then the swordsman addressed the crowd, raising his weapon into the air once more. Wallace pulled his hood over his eyes, unable to look directly at the shimmering blade. The crowd wasn't so lucky, and most of them seemed to have been blinded by the spectacle. Rocks were thrown aimlessly, and in the confusion Wallace decided to make a break for it. "Welp, looks like I'm back at square one..."

Looking over his shoulder, Wallace saw he wasn't the only one making a break for it. The swordsman had used the opportunity to flee, and was heading in the same general direction as the necromancer. Slowing his pace slightly, he began running next to the man. "Hey!" he panted. "No hard feelings, okay? I just-"

"There they are! I knew they were working together!"

emeraldknight

Diamond ran as fast as he could, his destination being wherever the mob weren't present. As he ran, he spotted Wallace up ahead, slowing his pace to talk. "Hey! No hard feelings, okay? I just-" As  he spoke, a voice called out from the crowd, something along the lines of "I knew they were working together!"

"You really do like to make everything worse, don't you?", the swordsman called out over the rabble. He kept running through the long street, barely managing to keep ahead of the rocks pelting his ankles. "What injustices did you commit unto them to cause this reaction?!"

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"Hey, I- ow!" Wallace said as a pebble bounced harmlessly off of his head. "I was trying to make things better!" He ducked, a larger rock sailing over his head. "I just thought my zombies could hap with their construction project, that's all!"

The crowd was slowly but surely catching up to them. Beginning to panic, Wallace racked his brain for an escape route. Finally, it hit him- it was something he had already done earlier in the day.

Once more the man's stave began to glow. The crown panicked as the black mass of dead insects swarmed beneath their feet and towards the two being pursued. "Hold on!" Wallace cried to his unlikely ally. "I'm getting us out of here!" 

The insects enveloped the two men's feet, carrying them forwards at a much quicker pace...

emeraldknight

"Trying to make things better!? Are you joking?" Before Diamond could audibly express his exasperation at this ludicrous claim, the necromancer's staff began to glow. "What could he possibly be doing now?" Then he felt it. The same feeling as when he was disarmed, only centered on his legs. "Is this man trying to trip me up?"

Suddenly, he felt a weightlessness, and the roar of wind as he sped up. It was only a few seconds later when he would process the fact that he wasn't running anymore. No, he was riding a black mass of flies. Riding forward, the crowd of angry Serenians became less and less of a problem. What was a problem was the house straight ahead. Diamond looked over at the man who, not one minute ago, had been his enemy, and made a decision.

Wrenching his ally's staff from his hand, the vigilante lobbed it like a spear at the window in front of them. It was a fair bit heavier than his sword, but that wasn't saying much. The staff glided through the air, shattering the delicate glass through. As the swarm of flies approached the newly-created opening, Diamond grabbed the necromancer's arm and dived through. "Wallace Hope", he thought, "Please don't slam into the wall!"

Eckhart_Von_Musel

The amount of concentration it took to control hundreds of miniscule undead bodies at once made it very difficult to watch where one was going.

Wallace very nearly lost control when the mercenary snatched his stave away. His eyes, which had rolled into the back of his head, snapped back into focus. "Wait, what?" he cried in confusion as the staff shattered the glass window. "What's going-OOF"

Being pulled through the window was not fun. Wallace sat up groggily, rubbing his head. His stave lay on the floor a few meters away, and he quickly crawled over and snatched it up. "Be careful next time!" he snapped, examining the (thankfully undamaged) crystal centerpiece. "I need this to do magic properly, and it's an antique!" He hugged the stave close to his chest. "It's probably worth more than this house!"

emeraldknight

His heart was running laps around his gut, all the quick movements and adrenaline forcing him to retch. Blood Diamond was not happy, another chance at heroism tossed into an empty old home. This home in particular seemed to accentuate the annoyance he felt at the occasion, stones loose in the walls, chairs strewn about carelessly, and a perfectly ripe apple sitting atop a pile of trash. Normally, he wouldn't have minded, but the fact that the attitude of the citizens towards him seemed to apply to everything in their lives just sickened him further. Most of them had nothing, and yet when they found something that could help, they just threw it away!

By this point, he had remembered Wallace, and found him in the center of the dust and insect-ridden floor, clutching his stave to his chest while indignantly prattling about its importance as if the world would end without it.

The would-be hero paced angrily around the room, now over the adrenaline rush and subsequent sickness, and pressed his middle three fingers on each hand to his temples. "Why didn't you just lose? With those powers, how hard would it have been to be defeated and then break out of prison with your army of flies? You could have faked death, flown away, I would have been a hero!"

With this, he strode to where Wallace knelt, staring down harshly. "You know the value of your stave, but what about the value of respect?"

Already, Diamond felt apologetic. The Necromancer had only attempted to help a community and defended himself passively. Still, he wasn't extending niceties until he had an answer.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Wallace stared up at the man in shock, his eyes like dinner plates. "B-but..." he sputtered, body trembling. "Y-you had that sword! You w-wanted to kill me!" The necromancer frowned, beginning to grow angry. "What does respect have to do with any of this? I could have left you behind, you know!"

emeraldknight

He paused. Wallace was right. Throwing his head into his palm, he spoke somberly: "I misjudged you. I can be sorry for that. But you.. You..."

He had no words, not an excuse that could leave his mouth in good conscience. Instead, Diamond extended a hand. "It seems our plans were both derailed. You do not seem to be a bad person, so tell me why you are here, and perhaps I can help you. It's what a real hero would do."

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Wallace stared at the man's hand, then at the ground. "Thank you..." he murmured. "People aren't usually nice to me like this..."

The necromancer took the man's hand, pulling himself up. "Do you think... Somebody like me could be a hero too?"

emeraldknight

The swordsman paused. No-one had ever asked him that question before. Racking his brain for the correct answer, he panicked. "Uh... um..."

Blood Diamond breathed deeply through his nose, closing his eyes for a moment to clear his head. "I believe that anyone can be a hero. It takes only courage, justice, compassion, kindness, justice..." He tried to think of some of the other virtues he'd been taught, but at the moment, nothing came to mind. "Why don't we find a way to show them your intentions without giving them a chance to harm you?"

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"You... Really mean that?" Underneath the acne and greasy locks of hair, Wallace seemed to glow. He smiled brightly, at the mercenary, eyes tearing up. "I-I don't know what to say..." he said, cheeks beginning to turn pink. "I- thank you!

Wallace grabbed the man's hand with both of his ow, shaking it vigorously. "I, I, I never got your name, sir!" he said happily. "I think I told you mine, right? It's Wallace! Wallace Hope!" He released the man's hand. "I, er, how will we show them? Do you really think we can do it?"

emeraldknight

"My name is Blood Diamond, wandering vigilante and vanquisher of evil!" He struck a pose, a fist held high in the air, and smiled brightly at his new friend, glad to have redeemed himself at least in part. However, he knew an apology would not be enough to fully compensate for the trouble he'd caused, and so he began formulating a plan to sway the public in Wallace's favor.

"Let's start at the problem, Wallace. Why are they so scared of you? Dead bugs rising from the ground, obviously, but anything else?"

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