Hunting the Hunter Ch. 04

To her consternation the figures near her side of the passage halted at the bend in the corridor...they must have someone casting similar spells. To hell with that noise. She tipped out her bow and cursed softly as a rather impressive fireball scorched the wall facing her. She was lucky they were using fire, it had been big enough to let her feel the heat of it, and had she been anything but Dunmer the backlash would have hurt like nobody's business. She let out a groan of pain, then turned to wink at Feric to let him know it was for show. If they thought fire was working they might keep using it. He nodded and crouched low. She held up two fingers and pointed to his passageway indicating the lights she saw moving in towards them from that direction. Luckily most of them seemed to be coming up her way. She tipped out her bow again and another fire ball came winging down the aisle.

"Feric," she whispered. "If things get ugly, I'm going to yell 'I give up,' after I do that you'll have four seconds to get your ass down one of those corridors and as far from here as possible." She noted his expression. "Trust me, I'm going to make a mess, and you don't want to be in the middle of it...K?"

He made an affirmative nodding gesture and she cocked her head at the fading lights coming up his alley. They both got ready.

She turned her back, and slid down the wall, tipping an arrow into a vile she'd found on one of the bodies near the entrance. She was no alchemist but she could usually ferret out the difference between a potion and a poison by smell, and this particular item smelled none to healthy. She adjusted the bow and stuck a hand out, waiting for the sensation of a nearby cast to come, then twisted into the corridor before the flame even hit the wall, knowing the mage had yet to recover and would be blinded by their own light as the spell exploded behind her. She fired into the middle of the robed figure and watched just long enough to see them go down. She readied another arrow even as she ducked behind the wall. Another fire ball came and she repeated the shot, noting the mage was still kneeling. She made for a head shot and fell into a crouch as the two big figures came around the other corner. One came at her, the other went down as Feric leapt on his back, his teeth burying soundly into his throat, ripping it open with a single, violent twist.

In a mind-blowing stroke of bad luck the three that she had detected behind the door chose that moment to join them, no doubt hearing the shouts. Feric whirled to meet them. She offered him what help she could, sending her next arrow into their midst, but taking a nick to her shoulder in the process as the hunter who was originally going to get the arrow got his stay of execution. Luckily most of it was deflected by her armour, but it still didn't feel too hot. She caught the next blow with her bow, using the ebony curve to turn the blade as she caught one of her daggers up in the other hand to slash the big warrior across the face. His heavy armour didn't give her many options so she jumped at him as he was stumbling back, clawing her fingers towards his face, letting her fire sear through her fingers. They went down in a pile, rolling away from each other, him whimpering in pain and searching for something on his belt, her already reaching for another arrow. Feric was pinned back against the door, snarling and trying valiantly to dodge lunging swords, taking swipes at them where he could. She lodged an arrow in to the back of one skull giving him some space, and he used it to lunge at the leg of a khajiit with a long spear. He got his leg, but he also took a nasty looking wound from the spear as well.

A holler behind her and the sting of an arrow tearing at the flesh in her leg made her turn from the scene. A bow woman, also Dunmer, was loading up another shot, and the mage she thought she killed was closing in as well, looking a little worse for wear, but still on his feet. Behind them were at least another two bodies worth of backup.

She dodged the next arrow only to find the big knight she'd grappled with back up and slicing at her with his sword. The khajiit was behind her as well, though on the ground and bleeding profusely. She snapped up the spear from his weakened grasp and thrust it up to block a powerful overhead swipe from the knight. She managed to keep her head, but was forced to her knees. She twisted the spear, sending the blow off to the side and swiping it down to catch one of his legs, taking him down just long enough for her to whirl the spear towards another attacker. She knocked another blow away by a second hunter and was about to make a thrust when a fiery blast hit her from the side, tossing her rag-doll style into the wall. It hurt, but it didn't kill her. She was up a moment later, the spear still in hand, thrusting the shoddily made thing into the nearest soft body. She'd do just about anything to have a decent chitin spear right about now. It hit home, despite its inferiority, and she jerked it back, pulling said body toward her and using her free hand to finish the job with a lesser dagger, seeing as her good one was already lodged somewhere in some one. The manoeuvre did the trick but at the high cost of leaving her flank open.

This was absurd. She couldn't fight locked in like this. Did she look like the muscle? No, no, she didn't, thank you very much. No, he was busy playing pin cushion in another corner somewhere. Screw this noise. She parried another thrust and went for the legs, trying to make a move for the door to find some more room for this Punch and Judy show. She was almost ready to make a dash when a terrible sound or pain rang out, reverberating through the halls and making her innards twist in disturbing ways. She turned and saw Feric rolling away from an opponent, a swath of red cutting across his side in a way that made her nothing less than sick to her stomach.

That moment of distraction cost her and she felt the tip of a blade make itself at home in her back. She thrust the butt of her spear backward and into her attacker, twisting to wrench the offending blade out with a shock of searing hot pain. She felt it all the way to the ends of her hair. She let out her own terrific shout, though hers was a battle cry as she lunged at the fresh bunch of hunters cornering Feric again. They both started at her shout and turned to face her, one paying for it as claws tore into her back, another going down beside her as the spear whipped under his leg. She whirled again, letting Feric finish them off.

She gazed wide eyed at the crowd choking the hall. There was still at least half a dozen of them, seemingly manifesting from thin air, and a few of the injured seemed to be reaching for potions as they crawled to safety. She could feel her own body weakening with pain and blood loss, and knew that wound of Feric's wasn't going to let him keep going for much longer. She took a deep breath and shouted.

"I give up." The two nearest her paused in surprise. One-one thousand. She lunged at them, sword in one hand, spear in the other. Two-one thousand. She batted away a sword with the spear shaft, only to have the damn thing break under the force. Cheap imperial garbage. Three-one thousand. She tossed the fractured butt into one hunters face, ducking under his arm as he swatted it away, and swiped wildly at another with the sword, forcing them back. Four-one thousand. She tossed herself back into the corner she'd just tried to escape. She wondered if they were confused yet.

Her darting eyes couldn't find the tawny gold hide anywhere. Now or never.

She took a deep breath, raising her hands over her head and thought hot thoughts. Something sharp and painful came down on her arm, and something heavy slammed into her ribs. She forced herself to ignore it, easy now to do as she felt every square inch of her flesh light up with molten heat, filling her mouth with the taste of flame, blinding her with its light. It was only seconds but the build felt like ages. There was so much of it, and so hard to control, it took every ounce of her will to contain the swelling blast, not to mention the murmur of a cast. Yeah, it was that kind of spell, too big to just feel it out. Somewhere in the distance between the depths of her mind and the outside world she heard a call of alarm, slow and deep as if through water.

She blocked it, blocked everything and opened her eyes. She opened her eyes and let go.

It raced through her, spilling out of her. She could feel the heat of it, knew by its intensity that if it hadn't been her own heat, it would have seared the skin off of her in seconds. She was still too blinded by the massive explosion to know what it had done to anyone else, all she could do was hold on as the spell ripped through her endlessly and at lightning speed and filled the space around her, forcing its way down the two facing passages. She prayed hard that Feric had made it far enough down the third.

She couldn't tell how much time had passed, how many seconds or minutes, but it did pass, and eventually the last courses of power whisked suddenly from her body, deflating her instantly and dropping her like a master-less puppet. She crumpled against the wall her head lolling in a sick and dizzy way. She was groaning. She knew it only because the sound was giving her a head ache.

She slowly opened an eye, expecting the sight that greeted her, but still having to swallow hard to repress the urge to gag. The smell didn't help. She got to her knees and crawled her way out of the corner, trying to turn her mind toward finding Feric, keeping her eyes away from the broken black and red skin, and holding her breath against the unappetizing scent. The ones closest to her had taken the brunt of it, and it showed. She made it as far as the entrance to the side corridor before she had to stop and rest against the wall, her breath coming in short painful gasps. She was shaking and realized quickly that she couldn't really move one of her arms. Broken. She felt up her arm and found the break. It seemed like a sharp, clean break. Things were looking up.

Riiiight.

A huff made her look up from her arm. Feric was padding, or rather limping down the hall toward her. She started to smile, more grateful than she could say to see him still on his feet. Her relief faded fast when he looked up at her and she saw the fog of pain that dulled them to a dismal grey colour. His eyes rolled a little and he shuddered, his body transforming in slow motion, as if it took all of his energy to do so.

"Feric?" she called softly, moving to go to him, but finding her body too broken to let her. He was on his hands and knees, panting softly in pain. He shifted so that he was leaning in a half sit against the now slightly blackened wall behind him, opening his eyes to gaze into hers from across the hall.

"You look like hell warmed over. I thought you said you were invincible?" He rasped, giving her a weak smile which contorted rapidly into a grimace.

She would have laughed, but something in her chest hurt too much. She lifted her unbroken arm and pressed lightly into the firm leather. Oh, god, there it was. Broken rib. She was lucky her lung was in one piece. She breathed in, and squeezed her eyes shut against the terrible aching, throbbing... fuck it, maybe she'd just die here and leave it at that. Then again, her ancestors would never let her hear the end of it. Fetchers. They'd have all of eternity to rib her about it too. She opened her eyes and appraised Feric. He was bleeding. A lot. Her stomach turned violently again at the sight. She whimpered and coughed.

"Yeah well, I usually work solo. I would have been just peachy...if I hadn't been watching...your...fine ass." She managed a half smirk. There was so much blood.

He snorted. "Well, thanks ...for watching it then."

"My pleasure."

His eyes darted over towards the chaos of bodies. "What...what did you do exactly?"

"Something a friend taught me...invented. Effective...but exhausting" she grunted and let her head roll against the stones. There was a long pause filled with the sound of laboured breathing.

"Let's...let's not do that again."

She nodded weakly. "Agreed. Feric?"

"yea?" He gasped out through another wince as he tried to move against the wall. He left a smear of bright red across it as he moved. She swallowed hard.

"Can...can you" she paused to take as much a breath as her ribs would allow her, "heal?"

He furrowed his brow and closed his eyes for a few seconds before snapping them open with a soft moan. She felt the sound somewhere deep in the center of her. She dug deeply into her own mind, reaching for whatever will might yet be dredged out of it, but it lashed back at her making her head swim. Tapped out.

No.

No, no, no, and no. This was not going to go down like this. HE was not going to go down like this. She turned her eyes to the group of bodies. Alright. She could do this. Someone had to have something. She would have taken a deep breath to steel herself, but the effort might have killed her. She rolled over onto her knees and let out a shocked cry of pain when her right hand touched the ground. Oh that's right, broken. Inanna felt the overwhelming urge to just scream the pain out until she just lost consciousness. She was panting almost to the point of hyperventilating, which did little to ease the pain in her chest. She just couldn't win could she? She needed something, something to distract her from the pain.

She dug into her hazy shattered mind and found a thought. An old Ashland poem, it was the first thought that came to her. 'Good enough.' She recited it to herself. She recited it again. And again.

She was at the first body, leaning on her left arm. Dammit, an archer. She'd only have God damned poisons. There was another close by, big, lots of armour...oh that's right, him. Good, that was good. She dragged herself over to the body, using her legs to push herself and her one good arm to pull. She leaned against this body as well, propping herself against the charred ridged plate mail. If it was hot to the touch, she couldn't tell. A wave of nausea washed over her and her vision fuzzed in unsettling ways. She let out a low groan. She must have over extended her will. As if confirming the thought, her head pounded unkindly. Dammit, and she lost the poem. She reached for it again, but it was gone. Everything was gone but the blinding pain. She'd just have to do this the old fashioned way...grit her teeth and bear it.

She started searching the body, looking for a pouch or belt, grunting and whimpering through the pain. Oh, thank the gods, any of them, all of them. She tugged the little pouch open. There were two small vials. She grabbed one and popped the top with her teeth, tears trickling down her face as a whole new pain made itself known. She ran her tongue over her teeth after letting the stopper fall into her lap. None were broken...it must be her jaw, she twisted it. Well it wasn't broken at least, fractured and bruised maybe, but not broken or dislocated. She sniffed the potion. It didn't smell too bad, but she wasn't much of an alchemist, especially not with foreign ingredients. She tipped a little into her mouth. It didn't taste too bad either. A little medicinal, but that was expected. She waited a moment, swishing it in her mouth as best she could before swallowing. The new throb in her jaw seemed to dissipate slightly. Well that could have been in her head, but she wasn't feeling any worse. 'As if that's possible.'

She gripped the open vial in her teeth and grabbed the second one before swaying up onto her knees. She pulled the second vial out of her mouth and shuffled awkwardly on her knees to where Feric lay half propped against the wall. His eyes were closed. There was even more blood. Far too much blood.

"Feric?" She called as firmly as her body would allow without knocking herself out with the pain. Nothing.

"Green?" Her insides roiled, and she had to work to keep her hand steady. She was still moving toward him, but the last few feet may as well have been as vast as the Sea of Ghosts itself.

"Feric!" She practically hollered, ignoring the pain, as well as the tears that ran freely in streaks down her face, "open your fetching eyes, god damn it!"

And he did. She let out a gasp of relief...but the relief was short lived when she saw his eyes. They were so dark, staring, focused on nothing. She crashed down next to him and dropped the stopped vile into her lap, awkwardly lifting the open one to his lips with her left arm while the other lay useless beside her.

"I need you to open your mouth and drink." He made a murmuring sound.

"Drink." She insisted pressing the lip of the tiny jar against his mouth. He murmured again and something like 'can't' came to her ears.

"Fuck that. Drink damn you. Open." She grunted and slid back onto her knees. Her heart was slamming hard into her throat, as fast as a rabbit's. She was hyperventilating again. She wasn't going to stay conscious much longer like this. There was...just too much pain...

"Drink!" She cried desperately. "You are not dying on me you son of a bitch. I am NOT dragging your sorry corpse back to your daughter. Drink! Please...don't do this to me Serjo." She breathed this last thought out with a choked sob of pain and frustration.

His lips parted, just a tiny bit, just enough, and she tipped the vial and shoved her arm under his chin, forcing it up. He choked and coughed, but eventually it went down. She grabbed the other off the floor from where it had landed. Her vision was spinning wildly now. His face was a blur, just smudges of colour, she uncorked the vial, feeling the cork out with her lips and yanking, pointing the business end of the vial at him before stopping herself. She spat out the cork and brought this one to her nose and lips. It smelled and tasted the same, she thought, but then she could hardly see or think, oh Azura...don't let her kill him now. She blinked the stars away and aimed for the long straight smudge of dark colour where she thought his mouth should be. Her fingers brushed along it. It was warm, slightly damp. She felt breath, that meant his lips were still parted, she hoped.

She swayed once, then steadied herself. She couldn't really feel much for the moment, it was like being really, really, sick drunk. That wasn't good. She was shutting down. Poem, poem, where was the poem. Stay a-wake. She tipped the vial a little, her fingers making sure it went in. Some words came to her "weal and woe" she whispered in Dunmeri. "two souls...in faith...with never..." no that wasn't right. She tipped the vial all the way up. Her fingers were on his jaw. She could feel the warm skin, but she couldn't really see it any more. Stay awake you stupid chit, don't go passing out now. "To bind two souls..." yeah that was right. That wasn't the first line was it? "First and last?" No, that was the last line...how Did that stupid thing go again?

There was something warm on her face.

"Ina?" A voice...careful...shaken...male.

"What is it?" She asked still murmuring in Dunmeri.

"I...I don't understand you...are you...can you hear me?"

"Hmm? Yes." She frowned, what was he speaking? "Yes." She answered again in common. "Can you hear me?" Her eyes were open again, she was looking at a shifting blur. A shifting blur with stars. It might have been pretty if it didn't make her want to throw up. A short, disbelieving laugh.

"Feric?"

A sigh.

"Thank Lady Kyn."

"Heal yourself."

"What about..."

She frowned hard at the blur. "You're no good lame...heal yourself, before I ...really put the hurt on... you." She threatened lamely.

"Woman,you're mad, you know that?"