Unbroen

I originally wrote this as a text adventure type game thingy, but got bored with both the coding and attendant bug-whacking, so I figured I'd just be lazy and make it a story instead :)

Hope you enjoy!

--[::]--

The day,

Raeda thought sourly,

had started so well.

And for some, it had indeed. Few of them had been among the forces the city-state of Uplal had brought to the field, but since better than half of them lay dead on that same field by now, she really didn't give much of a damn about them.

Though there had been that one guy... Lord Something, I think he said his name was. Fought well, even wearing all that metal.

A slow smile curved her lips as she recalled that fight, and the way he'd given her an entertaining challenge - made even more so by how unimpressive the ones she'd disposed of before him had shown themselves to be. Still, she'd proved why plate armour wasn't as invulnerable as its wearers liked to think.

Throw in the almost offended look on his face as her blade had slipped past steel, flesh, and bone to carve his heart in two, and he'd been the high-point of the morning.

Heimrad. That's what he said his name was.

A twinge of pain flickered up her arm, and she turned a cold-eyed gaze on the helot that was busy channelling mana into the wound that fight had left her with. The small man, bundled in his untidy grey robe, didn't seem to notice, far more intent on using his magic to knit closed the inches-long gash that marred the pale elven skin of Raeda's smoothly muscled limb.

A minute or so later, that skin was pristine once more, no trace of the injury Lord Heimrad's sword had left her with, and a rolling flex of the arm told her that all trace of pain and impairment was gone as well.

Now his job was done, the helot fell away from her list of things to give a damn about, and Raeda rose from the somewhat uncomfortable camp chair she'd been sat in and strode gracefully barefoot toward the table that took up a good half of the amount of space the large canvas tent she was inside had to offer.

More than a few eyes darted her way as she started moving, and not just from the humans gathered in a sullen mob on the far side of the table. The

nature

of the looks varied a bit, though, and that was hardly surprising. Her fellow elves, across the table from the defeated opponents, were fully able to appreciate the lethal elegance of her figure as she moved, understanding her confidence in her skill that was on display to all in the way her long, blood-red hair flowed down her back and covered about as much of her lithe body as what little armour she bothered to wear.

The humans, of course, would only be seeing someone whose every breath seemed to ooze contempt for them into the air, though one or two of their looks flickered with a proper awareness of the fact that she might have been an elf, but she was

definitely

female.

And a damn fine example of one, if she said so herself. Elves were had far more inherent beauty than the cruder forms of humans - let alone something as brutish as an

orc

- but Raeda was exceptionally good-looking even for her kind. Only a single flaw marred the perfection of her form, and even that had a kind of majesty to it: the scars across her midriff, courtesy of her encounter with a helldrake that had come within a hair of laying her open like a trout.

One human in particular seemed to be taking the time to run his gaze over her sleek, toned body, and she returned his frank appraisal of her curves with one of his own.

Not too bad... for a human. A little hairy for my tastes, but they do have their compensations - and after this morning's exercise, I could definitely go for riding a nice, fat dick into the ground.

Once he understood what his place was, of course, and that failure to properly please her would result in the remainder of his short life being very,

very

uncomfortable. Oh, and bathed. Thoroughly.

"

Mae govannen,

Raeda," one of the other elves said politely, acknowledging her arrival beside him at the table as a pair of others, lower ranking than either of them, smoothly made way for her. "Nice of you to decide to join us."

There was the faintest note of irritation in Kollogher's tone, but that was only to be expected. He'd never really liked the fact that Raeda, as well as the rest of the

gwathel'ndakro

who'd come along with her, may have been here with his army, but they were far from part of it - and thus free to ignore his orders should they so desire.

"Would you like me to introduce anyone?" he asked her, gesturing across the table to the humans.

"If you wish," Raeda replied with a tiny shrug, not

especially

interested, but willing to play along with the customary civilities. For the moment.

There was no opportunity for anyone to say another word, however, before a shattering explosion of noise erupted outside, the walls of the tent shivering with the force of its volume, and the formal meeting that had been intended to establish the terms - if any - of Uplal's surrender took an unscheduled break as everyone in the tent started in surprise.

Almost

everyone, at least.

Raeda was moving almost before she realised what had happened, dashing for the tent's entrance and grabbing the spear she'd left stuck point down in the dirt beside it. The human that had caught her eye was only a pace or two behind her, and she was mildly impressed at not only how fast he'd reacted but how quickly he was moving in his armour as well.

Aside from a reflexive awareness of where he was and what he was doing, however, Raeda lost interest in him completely as she stepped outside the tent and got a look at what had caused that detonation of sound.

"What... the...

fuck

...?"

"Good question," Reada observed in reply to the the human's soft. almost awed, exclamation. The reason for it hung over the battlefield, maybe half a mile distant but massive enough to dominate the sky.

Whatever it was, it was

huge

, its shape reminiscent of some kind of bird of prey... if such an animal came with iridescent metal skin and that much sheer size. All around, the two armies - or one and a half, anyway - were reacting to events as well, weapons coming to hand, units gathering themselves into order, and a certain number of those present already putting as much distance between themselves and the monstrous metal apparition as possible.

Raeda's expression tightened as she committed as many of the elven faces she could make out among those cowards as possible to memory. They'd be dealt with later, but for now, other matters were more pressing.

Without warning, a lance of lightning flashed out from the looming thing's flank, connecting it to the walls surrounding Uplal itself for the briefest of instants... and leaving nothing but scorched, shattered and thoroughly broken stone in its wake when it vanished once more. That, as far as she was concerned, answered the question of whether there was likely to be a fight in the near future, and when a twisting shimmer in the air nearby left a bunch of armed and strangely armoured figures behind it, that answer just got reinforced.

Only a handful of seconds had passed, but they'd been enough for the human beside her to apparently reach much the same conclusions, and there was a rasp of steel on leather as he drew his sword. An action that nearly got his throat sliced open on general principle, but he seemed far more intent on these newcomers than her.

Maybe she'd have some competition when it came to disposing of them.

"You got a name?" she asked him with a glance, and for a moment he didn't respond, blue eyes locked onto the new arrivals as they, in turn, scanned their surroundings and readied themselves to attack.

"Kurt," he answered finally, sparing her about as much of a look as she'd given him. "Kriegsraan."

The name sounded familiar for some reason, tickling at the back of her mind as if it was something she should probably know. Before it had a chance to bug her any further, however, he blew a stray strand of blonde hair away from his face and flashed her a tight smile. "

Prince

Karl Kreigsraan."

Right. Son of the guy who

used

to rule this city. Explains the shiny armour.

Not that she cared enough for it to have any effect on her opinion of him.

"Huh," she grunted carelessly, but he didn't seem to take offence and she flashed him a predatory grin. "How about you show me that your people have at least

some

skill."

She didn't give him an opportunity to respond, simply shifting her grip on her spear and dashing toward her chosen prey.

They saw her coming, of course, and half a dozen or so moved to intercept her - a decision that, as far as

she

was concerned, just made things all the easier for her.

From the first strike, it was clear that these guys were

good

. Certainly better than any of the idiots she'd butchered so far today.

Clad in leather and the same sort of iridescent metal as the... whatever it was... still hanging overhead, they moved with confidence and skill, and Raeda's first lighting-swift strike was parried with what looked like ease.

It may have

looked

like it, but the shock of the clash told her how much effort the blank-masked man had put into that defence, and it had been far more than it might have seemed. He put notably less into countering the second strike, but that was mostly due to the fact that it slipped past his guard and straight through his neck.

With a crimson spray, Raeda dragged the speartip free, dropping to one knee and spinning to slash across the gut of the next-closest target. He doubled over as the spear raked across the bottom edge of his breastplate, and as his face came down, one of Raeda's feet surged upward, smashing his head backward with the grisly crack of a snapping neck.

By the time that second kill was crumpling to the ground, Kurt was there too, carving down another of the attackers with about as much grace and finesse as a gargant in heat. There were still plenty left, though, and they were piling in fast.

Either to avenge their fallen comrades or just for the hell of it, she didn't much give a damn.

Darting forward, Raeda met the charging attackers head-on, Kurt more or less by her side, though he stayed wisely out of immediate reach of her spear, and struck down the first one she got to in a flickering dance of steel.

The ensuing clash was fast, brutal, and deadly, leaving at least half a dozen enemies on the ground by the time the remainder stopped coming within reach. Not all of the fallen had done so to her, either, with a few meeting their ends at the hands of the less proficient, but still competent enough, human who'd joined her.

It had not gone entirely Raeda's way, however, and her opponents had proven their mettle by managing to get a number of strikes through past her guard. Not enough to do more than draw blood and cause some pain, but enough to leave her thinking that this was going to be a challenge.

A thought that failed to displease her.

Another shimmer in the air a short distance away had Raeda shaking her head and wondering just where these people were

coming

from. The thing overhead, sure, but other than that... A detail for later, she thought wryly, given that the new arrivals were joining the remaining ones that she'd already played with.

The battle so far had

definitely

been invigorating. For a

gwathel'ndakro

, this was what they lived for, the thrilling rush of conflict, the test of skill against skill, weapon against weapon, and there was only a single prize that could be claimed from such a contest.

Since she was still alive, and those she'd fought so far weren't, it was pretty obvious who'd claimed that prize in every clash so far.

Numbers, though, as well as skill, counted, and Raeda was forced to admit that her opponents had both on their side. Not enough to have defeated her, but her pale skin was marred by cuts and gashes that stung firecely, blood slicking her flesh as she ignored them and carried right on killing.

Kurt, in a typical display of humanity, had stopped fighting. Mostly, she saw, because he was on the ground, shaking his head groggily after a hit from behind that had clubbed him to his knees. At least he'd managed to take a fair number of their enemies before letting himself get blind-sided that way.

Pfft. Weakling. Now, about

these

assholes...

The continued fight she was expecting didn't materialise. More bad guys did, but Raeda caught a fleeting glimpse of someone behind them, someone that looked very different to the people she was fighting.

Another detail for later, less important than the opponents facing her, and readying her weapon once more, she gave the approaching mob a cold smile.

"Vrine'winith."

The commanding feminine utterance, incomprehensible to

her

, obviously meant something to the men she'd been fighting. As one, they stopped advancing, coming to some sort of attention as the figure Raeda had glimpsed stepped between them and came into view.

She looked human, but there was something about the way she moved that put Raeda in mind of a cat. And not one of the cute ones, either, but one of the ones that stalked the undergrowth of a jungle, talking its prey. Even in the midst of the battle raging around her, she had to admit that she was... intrigued.

The newcomer had the golden skin of one from the Eastern Isles, and the shimmering ruby silk dress was the sort of thing that came from there, even if it was of a thoroughly alien style that seemed to hug her body whilst still giving her plenty of freedom to move. Dark hair was fixed up behind her head with ornate pins, their colour matching the eyes gazing levelly back at her, but if this woman wanted to fight her, she seemed rather lacking in weapons. All she held in her hands was a delicately painted fan, of all things...

"You just going to stand there?" Raeda asked challengingly, eyeing the woman with a measuring gaze that mirrored the one coming right back at her. The only answer she got was a tiny little smile, but that was fine - opponents that talked too much annoyed her.

The newcomer may have

looked

effectively unarmed, but when the clash occurred, the armoured men watching in silence, it turned out that Raeda had gauged that one a little... wrong.

The women eyed each other for a few seconds, barely a muscle moving between the pair of them, until the new arrival moved in, closing to deliver an almost blindingly fast attack. Strikes and parries came

fast

, Raeda's spear darting, spinning and flashing as it sought to meet her opponent's flesh, whilst hands and feet did the same in a dazzling display of skill. Whilst she'd been clearly better than everyone else she'd fought so far, it appeared Raeda had met her match this time, and it was the tiniest of slips, a foot skidding on a patch of grass made slick with someone else's blood, to open a minuscule hole in her opponent's defences.

The woman was lucky, in a way, because the elf's spear wasn't in

quite

the right place for the razor-edged steel of its head to slip through that gap. Instead, there was a sickening crunch as the shaft slammed into her jaw, nearly unhinging the thing completely, and

that

bought Raeda the instant needed to press home a lethal lunge - a lunge that would have driven a foot of spear tip through the woman's throat if she hadn't snapped her delicate-looking fan up, catching the spear's head between the ribbing before yanking most of her body around in a sharp move that tore the weapon completely from Raeda's grip.

"Nice move," the elf spat tightly, a pair of daggers already leaping into her hands as she pressed the attack, only to find herself having to leap backward to avoid the gleaming tips of the blades that fan now seemed to have sprouted. Not quite quickly enough, however, and a searing line scored itself across the top of her breasts as the blades bit into her flesh, but she managed to avoid anything more damaging - and her counter-strike would have opened her opponent from throat to crotch if

she'd

not managed to just barely dodge back in time.

As it was, the woman's dress hadn't gotten off as lightly as she had herself, and Raeda could have sworn there was a hint of wry resignation in her opponents eyes at the fact that the garment was now hanging open, barely clinging to her shoulders and giving the elf a fairly clear look at the slim, toned, and naked body underneath.

"Naut myar," her opponent muttered with an almost subliminal nod, but if Reada hadn't let the rather tantalising glimpses past that ruined dress distract her, the words stood no chance at all. She also wasn't going to get a chance to take advantage of the hanging fabric, it seemed, as the other woman simply shrugged her way out of it and launched herself into a furious assault that should have been physically impossible for the human she looked like.

Even elven reflexes were hard pressed to match the sheer speed of the attacks coming her way, but any thought of what that might result in was concentration Raeda couldn't spare. Not until a spinning kick that felt more like a stampeding anvil connected with the side of her skull and sent her sprawling, dazed and fighting to even stay conscious, into the dirt.

After that, the blow that slammed her into blackness was almost an anticlimax.

--[::]--

Coming back to consciousness was not the most comfortable thing Raeda had done recently, but it beat the alternative. Especially as it proved that the people who'd attacked, whoever they actually were, had less intelligence than was probably good for them.

Far smarter to have simply finished her off than let her wake up again. Dead elves, after all, couldn't kill you as thanks for your mercy.

Blinking fuzzily, she shook her head and bit back a curse as the world went into a slow spin around her, but she was awake enough to be aware that these people weren't

totally

stupid. Her hands were tightly bound behind her back, tight enough that she could barely move her arms at all, and she was fairly sure that there was only just enough blood reaching her fingers to stop them simply dropping off. They'd also done nothing at all for her injuries, which meant that when the opportunity came to get back to murdering people, she wasn't going to be at her best. Irritating, but not insurmountable. She'd fought wounded before, after all.

Her movements caught someone's attention, and she let out a hiss that promised an eternity of suffering as she was dragged to her knees by a strong grip that showed no concern at all for any of her hair that it might be pulling out as she was hauled more-or-less upright. That pain wasn't the

only

reason she shifted her legs, silently cursing the fact that her ankles felt like they were tied as well, to get herself steady on her knees, but it was a factor. Even more so when whoever had a handful of her mane was showing no sign of letting go again now she wasn't on the floor.

She had a better view of things now that she wasn't down there, however, and she frowned slightly as she saw that she was back in the tent where the meeting had been about to start before all this kicked off. She wasn't alone, either, and not just because there were at least a dozen of the guys she'd fought in sight even without moving more than her eyes. A number of others were gathered in a circle in the middle of the tent, near enough where the table had been before it had been dragged off to one side, and she recognised every one of the elves. Including, she was oddly annoyed to notice, Kollogher.