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"The Warrior's purpose."

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Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

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Torva felt himself grow incredibly weary. His legs buckled. He fell to the ground, mud and grass invading the side of his mouth. He lay on the ground, blackness taking him. Was it all over? Was that it?

Could there now be peace?

***
The three sets of eyes watched the event unfold. From the mage’s death, to the hundreds of demons that were instantly sucked away, back to their uninhabitable home worlds, where they would no doubt be ignored by Zaros and left to die in famine and squalor.

Zamorak was the first to speak. With a low, long whistle, he commented, “Don’t see that every day, do you?”

With a smile and added. “Well, I mean, you probably do Hazeel. Being used to the constant failu-“

Zamorak felt his mouth shut against his will. With another low hiss from the beast, Zamorak lowered his head and stayed silent.

“How many demons have we lost from that?” the beast commanded from Hazeel.

Hazeel, quietly, admitted, “I left two-thousand under the human’s control.”

“Two-thousand, lost ever since the campaign to take this area began.” The beast repeated.

“Zamorak.” It suddenly said, turning its’ attention to the silent third.

Zamorak regarded the monster, but said nothing.

“You now have the task of destroying the villages of our enemy. With most of their defenders dead, I give you one night to complete this task however you see fit.”

Zamorak nodded and bowed.

Hazeel now dared speak. “What of the last human? He seems to be still alive.”

The beast narrowed its reptilian eyes as it stared back down into the viewing orbs, focusing on the unconscious human.

“Yes. What of the last human, indeed?”

Hazeel swallowed. “Please, allow me to slay-“

02-Apr-2013 13:12:30 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 16:53:48 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The beast cut Hazeel off. “You will do no such thing.” Hazeel fell silent instantly. The beast, on its strange, bird-like legs, stalked over to the orb, looking down at the human. “I am… interested by this human, I believe.”

Both Hazeel and Zamorak looked with startled eyes towards the beast, but neither said anything.

***

Torva dreamed. He saw not his village or wife again, but felt himself floating in the same black void. Floating aimlessly in empty, silent darkness.
Suddenly, a laughing child Torva had never seen before ran out from the black, her smiling face regarding Torva. “Come on, Torva! Come on! She’s waiting!”

The child laughed again and ran off, disappearing into the void. Torva tried to call out again, tried to ask the child what she was talking about, but found he again had no voice.

He did, however, feel his legs move. He followed. Though the world around him was completely dark and lacked any direction, Torva felt himself move along a path he seemed to inexplicably know.

The child appeared again, her head poking out from the darkness, as if she were hiding behind something unseeable from within the empty plain. “Torva! Hurry! She’s waiting!”

Torva ran after the child, who darted back into the darkness. Now her voice called out from nothing, urging Torva on. “Hurry! Hurry! She’s waiting for you, Torva!”
Finally, Torva came upon a second figure. His wife.

She sat in the darkness, her head lowered. Her long, soft hair obscuring her face.

Torva felt his invisible mouth smile. She approached her. The words “She’s waiting” still rung out, softly. Like infinite whispers.

Torva bent down to regard his wife. She looked up at him.

Torva screamed.

In place of her face was a twisted, evil visage. Like some sort of devilish reptile. Her eyes glowed dimly with sinister light in the darkness. Torva backed away, still screaming.

02-Apr-2013 13:12:44 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 16:56:23 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
It rose, but now it seemed to shed the form of his beloved wife and took on a body of freakish twists and turns. Wings stretched from its out-held arms and it’s crooked, raptor legs stepped forward.

The soft chorus of “She’s waiting” turned into a blaring alarm, pounding into Torva’s ears.

Torva found himself unable to move all of a sudden, as the beast walked towards him. His eyes wide with fear, it opened its mouth, exposing rows of sharp, needle teeth.

Torva screamed again, and awoke.

He was no longer on the battle field, but stood now, in the forests surrounding his village. Falling to his knees, Torva gasped for air. The blade still clasped tightly in his hand. The forest was dark with gentle night.

Torva wiped his sweating mouth with the back of a dirty hand. As he calmed down,

Torva noticed a strange, illuminating glow basking around him.

With weary eyes, he looked up, and saw Hell.

His hill-top village was on fire, the homes that were nearest to the crest of the hill seemed to dance under their clothes of flame, spiked fingers of fire poking up and down on the walls, across the roofs. Grasping the buildings in fists of entrancing inferno.

With a wheeze and a sharp pain in his side, Torva picked himself up and ran towards the Village, cutting out onto one of the main roads that lead into the village as soon as he could reach one.

He refused to let himself realize he saw no fleeing villagers as he ran towards his home.

As he entered the small hamlet’s borders, he was assaulted with heat and blinding light. Almost the entire village was ablaze. Torva cried out in incomprehensible words of crazed panic.

A man suddenly appeared to his side, an elder. His wrinkled face wet with sweat and his eyes full of fear and worry. “T-Torva.” He said. Torva turned to the man.
Torva reached out to give the man, who was clearly frail and out of energy, a hand.

The man stretched his own hand out.

And it fell to the ground.

02-Apr-2013 13:13:34 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 16:57:22 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The man fell back, not even screaming as his arm was severed from him. Torva stood, his mouth gapping, as he watched the man simply fall back, hitting the ground hard enough to break his old body.

Torva was shocked and sick, but his soldier instincts wouldn’t allow him to blunder. He backed away, trying to get his bearings.

Around him, there were other bodies of village people, cut into two or more pieces. What was happening?

Demons. It was demons.

Everyone was dead, Torva realized. All of them. The butchered, small bodies of children lay next to adults. The feathers of chicken littered the roads ominously. Every building in sight was burning.

Torva screamed.

***

Within the trees, still secluded by darkness, three figures watched.

“Your ripper-demons were weak, Hazeel. Mine were able to sneak into the village with ease.” Zamorak said smugly.

The beast made no bother to silence the gloating.

“Now, I fear they’ll make quick work of the human, with my apologies.” Zamorak said quietly, nodding to the beast.

“We shall see what happens.” It hissed, staring on intently.

***

Torva felt a rush of air slip past him. From the corner of his eye he caught barely visible jolts of movement. Whatever these demons were, they were unlike anything he’d ever fought before.

They moved lightning fast. They could cut him down, but instead, they were sizing him up. Did they know who he was? His hands held his blade tightly. It was likely.

They’d attack soon. He’d have to be ready.

Torva shut himself off from the rest of the world. His fears for his village, and his wife, left him. Panic escaped him. He focused only on what mattered at the current moment. Killing the demons.

He did*’t know how many there were, or if they’d attack him one by one, but he stood, watching the bobbing shadows from building and corpse around him as the fires burned on. Sound shut off as the world around Torva became mute.

02-Apr-2013 13:13:54 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 16:58:34 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
He stopped breathing, tensing himself. He could feel an attack coming.

He backed up slowly, keeping his eyes on the dancing shadows. Suddenly, from the corner of his vision, he saw a shadow grow, sprouting across the dirt.

With a blind swing, Torva felt his blade pierce something. The ripper-demon howled in pain as the blade cut through its stomach, its beady, red eyes full of shock. The human had caught him.

With a grunt, Torva ripped his blade through the demon, sending it falling to earth, turning to ash before it hit the ground.

***

“Impressive.” Both Hazeel and Zamorak said in surprised unison.

The beast said nothing.

***
Torva kept silent and calm. That was one. How many more were there?

Torva’s ears caught almost silent padding of rushed steps behind him, sounds that would have normally been drowned out by the cackling of fire, had Torva not been so focused.

Without even fully turning, Torva swung his blade around behind him. He felt the body of the demon crash into him as its’ own momentum impaled itself on Torva’s blade. The demon choked before falling to ash on Torva’s body.

Now, the demons stopped, hunched down in their shadowed hiding places. This human was very different. One jolted out suddenly, jumping from a tall building, its form exploding from out of the fire. Torva felt the demon descending, and spun.

The demon missed Torva, its giant, scythe-like claws sticking only into the dirt.
Torva spared a brief moment to look upon the demon, its hunched frame clothed in loose rags, only its long, thin arms topped with sharp, deadly claws visible. It was a ripper-demon, Torva realized. The same kind that would stalk the forests, to pick off those who dared venture by themselves.

But no ripper-demon he knew moved so fast, so silently. Without another moment to spare, Torva sunk his blade into the back of the demon before it could free itself from the earth.

02-Apr-2013 13:14:57 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 17:00:27 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The last three demons watched their third companion fall. This human was very, very different. They shifted uneasily, not wanting to attack for fear of death, but knowing that to be idle and to not attack would mean death as well.

With a low, piercing call, one of the demons sounded out to its brothers. Torva, of course, heard the call. The call was low in pitch and sort of whimpering, as if out of fear and desire to retreat.

Torva tensed himself again. He would not be fooled by the cries. The demons were coordinating an attack.

Without answering back, the other two prepared themselves. They would do what Rippers rarely ever did. A tactic saved only to kill the most dangerous of opponents, often reserved for the angelic, high-ranking Icyenes of Saradomin’s armies.

They would attack together.

***

Hazeel and Zamorak watched in stupor. Zamorak’s ripper-demons were among the elite of demons, the six Zamorak sent into the village alone had carved hundreds of blessed Icyenes to bits. Now three were dead and the other three were employing something that was almost seen as forbidden among ripper-demon culture.

Hazeel’s eyes wandered to the beast, who’s powerful claws were dug deep into the bark of a large tree, the beast’s mouth shaking.

Hazeel’s eyes grew wide. Was… was that excitement he saw on the beast, as it watched the ripper-demons fall to the human?

***

Without wasting another moment, all three demons sprung at once.

Torva felt the combined attacks, the subtle vibrations in the ground. He closed his eyes. Three of them.

A gust of air blew across his sweat-matted hair. He struck out. The demon shrieked.

To his back, he felt a second suddenly come to a stop. His blade still buried in the first, he tore his sword downwards, between his legs, catching the crouched demon straight in its face. Both fell to ashes.

02-Apr-2013 13:15:55 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 17:02:16 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The third, however, swung one of its clawed hands down hard. Torva tried to shift himself out of the way, but the three long, sick blades bit into his arm. Torva let himself fall, and he quickly grabbed hold of the demon’s arm before it could slice into him anymore.

With strength not even the demon could deny, Torva snapped its forearm.
The demon wailed, but readied its second arm for attack. Torva abandoned the blade, and simply punched the demon in the chest.

The demon coughed up black, mud-like blood. It stumbled back. Torva tore his gaze into it, the demon fell over, coughing, unable to move.

Torva slowly stepped toward the disabled demon, the latter of which kicked its legs helplessly, attempting to flee. Torva’s reality sunk into him as he regarded the demon. His home was dead. His friends were dead. His wife.

She was dead.

Torva stood over the demon, who gasped in air for a moment, lying there, like a lamb before a lion. It scowled, and swung its good arm at Torva.

Torva caught it, and despite the lethal claws at the end, maintained his hold. The demon struggled to free itself, but Torva overpowered it with ease.

“They’re all dead.” Torva said, silently.

“You killed everyone. All of them.”

The demon struggled still, unable to understand Torva’s words, attempting to slice Torva with its hand, to no avail.

“It was my purpose to protect them. To keep them safe. And now all of them dead.”

Torva cast his gaze into the demon’s eyes, and the demon froze with fear.

“You killed them.”

Torva’s grip tightened hard on the demon’s arm, so hard, that the ripper screamed with pain, jerking harder and harder to try and free itself.

“You killed them. All of them.”

Torva felt tears run down his dirty face.

“Die. Die like a demon.”

02-Apr-2013 14:47:14 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 17:03:41 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
He pulled the demon towards him, kicking it hard. It coughed and cried as bones within it snapped and cracked.

Torva was over top of it now, pummeling the ripper-demon with his bare fists. Each punch shattered the demon more and more, as blood from Torva’s ripped knuckles mingled with the dark blood of the demon.

The demon cried out, as if begging for mercy.

Torva responded with relentless blows.

Even when the demon was beaten to death, Torva did not stop. He pounded the broken body over and over again, screaming and crying. Finally, he stopped, completely out of breath.

He looked over the fires of his village. He looked at the desolate corpses. The corpses that were once people. People who only wanted to live their lives, to be happy. To grow and prosper. Lives that were taken by monsters that cared nothing for them. Who were motivated by greed and selfish desires.
His life was robbed from him, now. His purpose. He had failed himself. He had failed them all.

***

Hazeel suddenly outburst. “That filthy human! He’s ruined everything!”

In a flash, Hazeel was before the human. The beast lowered its head, watching everything closely.

***

Torva stood, silent and stoic as Hazeel appeared before him. Hazeel’s alien face that was so close to a human, yet nothing alike it, stood with anger. The face made only more bizarre by the shadows cast upon it by the fires of the village.
Torva simply stared, and picked his blade up.

Hazeel shouted in tongue that Torva could understand.

“It’s all your fault, swine.” He began. “You’re the cause for all of this, you insect! You’re nothing, nothing but a problem!”

Torva readied his sword again.

“A problem I am ending. Now.*

Torva sensed that whatever this new comer was, he had no chance against. It would kill him, and end his life.

That worked for him.

Hazeel conjured a large orb of black, cackling energy. Torva did nothing.

02-Apr-2013 16:25:37 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 17:08:28 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The energy exploded, but not on Torva. It detonated harmlessly before the man, ripping only at the empty air around it.

Before Torva, now, stood a beast. The same beast from his nightmare.
Torva did nothing.

The beast regarded him as a serpent might do, bobbing its head back and forth as it
approached Torva.

“I-“ Hazeel began, but was cut off as his mouth was forced shut and burning pain invaded his mind, causing him to stumble to the dirt.

The beast ignored Hazeel and walked directly up to Torva.

Torva, did nothing.

After a few moments of standing, the beast spoke.

“I am Nex.” It spoke, in a serpentine voice, laced with vile intentions.

Torva said nothing, but let his eyes run up and down the nightmarish creature before him. Torva was a tall man, himself, but he barely made it to the creature’s chest. It must have been a good nine feet tall; and it all but radiated power.

“Your name is Torva.” The beast spoke. Torva’s eyes flashed slightly as the monster spoke his name, but still did nothing.

“Your village is gone.” It spoke. Torva’s mouth tightened, still he did nothing.

“You defended it. Now it’s gone. You’ve nothing to defend.”

“You have no purpose.”

Torva’s head jolted upwards at this, and he looked the strange creature in the eyes. What did it want with him? Was it going to mock him like this, before slaying him?

“I am not going to kill you.” It spoke, as if reading his mind.

“What do you want.” Torva demanded, emotionlessly.

Nex’s mouth seemed to peel into an ugly smile. “I am impressed by your strength, human. I believe you could become… even more.”

Torva ignored the beast, his eyes narrowing. He turned his back, and walked away, into the inferno.

“Come to me, then, human. Come when you are ready for a new purpose.”

Torva let himself be taken by fire and night.

02-Apr-2013 16:25:46 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 17:09:28 by Ghondor

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