a bounty worth death? (Closed to Izvilvin.)

[Camella]

This is the final chapter in Camella's struggle to get the bounty on Izvilvin. Chapter one was called 'The hunt'. It can be found here: http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=2112

Chapter two was called 'Deadly Persistance' It can be found here: http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=2750

Camella had been real hesitant about going after Izvilvin again. She had made a promise from last time they met that when she returned, she would kill 190 citizens of the town before coming for him. She always kept her promises, but up until now, she had not had the courage, ability, or heart to pull off the task. However, recent events had changed all of this. She knew exactly what she had to do.

Camella headed into Fallien without much of a care. It would soon be a city of blood. It had been nearly 5 months since she had last graced these streets, so most of the townspeople had forgotten who she was. The few that remembered her were quick to die by her blade.

"1, 2, 3, 4... 13" Camella counted to herself.

She wanted to kill exactly 190. No more, No less.

Camella headed into the medical center. If she was going to kill 177 more citizens, her best bet would be to attack people who couldn't defend themselves. It was the middle of the night, so Camella had no problem getting in unnoticed. Her first order of business was to kill the nurses and healers since they could defend themselves. She killed the 5 on the first floor by stabbing them while they slept. She then went on to kill the 62 patients on the first floor in the same manner.

The last one had heard a disturbance and had enough time to call for security before getting his throat slit. This was a problem that Camella hadn't counted on. She still needed to kill 110 more. She headed to the second floor. A few guards rushed in. Camella recognized one of them as one of the guards that had nearly caught her last time.

"Oh Fuck. You are that assassin, aren't you?" The guard said when she saw Camella.

"You got it. When you reach hell, tell Satan I said hi." Camella replied with an evil smirk.

The guard turned to one of her soldiers. "Get backup, Now!!!"

Camella slashed off her head as soon as she spoke and threw a dagger into the back of the neck of the soldier, before he made it out the door. She jumped backwards and threw 2 more daggers to eliminate the other two guards. After grabbing the three thrown daggers, she continued up the stairs.

The next floor seemed to be devoid of healers, so camella went straight to work killing the 75 patients there. It wasn't as easy as the first floor, because now everyone had been alerted to her presence, but she managed to kill them without too much trouble.

"31 more." Camella said to herself as she started to leave. Suddenly Camella felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder as one oft the nurses shot her with a bow and arrow she had pulled out of who knows where.

"Excuse me, you missed my heart." Camella said as she rushed in and slashed her head off in rage.

On the 3rd floor, Camella saw the rest of the nurses and healers hiding off in a locked room. Taking pity on them, she moved into the room where the patients were and killed 30 of them, fulfilling her quota. Before she left, though, Camella used her last victim's blood to spell out the word "IZVILVIN" on the floor and all four walls.

As she was leaving, she decided to make one last stop. She pulled the arrow out of her arm and cut an opening in the locked doorway big enough for her to get through.

"One of you had better heal this, or else you all will die!!!" Camella yelled.

Needless to say, that the wound got healed. Camella exited the room, turned invisible, and ran out the door. She headed into the sewer system and waited for morning to arrive. When it did, she would continue to hunt for Izvilvin.

[Izvilvin]

The sun of the Fallien desert rose especially early, and with it came the townspeople of Irrakam, who were among the most productive of Althanas’ people. By the time the bodies were discovered, it was early morning. Irrakam awoke to the screams of a wife who had come to check on her ailing husband, only to witness the remains of the night’s massacre. When she stumbled out of the door, the woman had been changed forever – she would never smile again.

Izvilvin was always among the first awake on the island, and had been taking his morning walk around the perimeter of Jya’s Keep as he did every morning. Each step brought the sun higher, and it always lifted the Drow’s spirit for the day ahead. Even when he paused before Palmer’s greatsword, shoved deep in the dirt atop a grassy hill behind the keep, and recalled his two fallen friends, Izvilvin felt no sorrow. He had generations left to live, but knowing he’d never forget them made him feel real.

The woman’s scream pierced the sky, so quiet was the island. Izvilvin heard her clearly, his acute hearing picking up the sound even from so far away. He pulled himself away from the grave and ran as quickly as he could around the keep, bolting toward the town. If a squad of harpies had attacked, he would be one of few soldiers awake enough to deal with the threat.

His steps slowed as he neared the center of town, where a crowd had gathered. Voices were chattering, voices that wavered in an out of pitch, clearly fearful. So entranced were they that Izvilvin was not noticed until he was within a few feet. The first person to see him was an olive-skinned man with a shallow beard, dark curly hair running down his face to his chin. When their eyes met, the human turned quickly away.

Before the Drow could question it, a woman broke off from the pack and walked up to him, strangely calm despite the look in her eyes. She was distraught, eyes dancing in the light of the sun. Anyone could have seen she was frightened, though of what, Izvilvin was anxious to know. “Sir,” she said tentatively, carefully enunciating. “You should go inside.”

Izvilvin did so, and caught the scent of blood as soon as he entered. The medical center was a three-story building with a central hall on each floor, with branching rooms which housed patients and facilities. The main hall on the bottom level had streaks of blood on the floor, footprints stuck to the marble. He rushed from room to room, stopping only for a moment within each to see the bodies of the slain. Everywhere he went he saw death, not one breathing form.

On the third floor he found a closed door with a wide whole cut out of it. Looking at it, Izvilvin wondered how much time it must have taken to carve, considering how small the cuts were. If a typical blade did it, it must have taken hours, he thought. More interesting was what he found within: two men and four women, huddled together in the corner with their eyes trained on the door. Izvilvin began to step inside when two of them screamed. Deep breaths accompanying him, the Drow backed off and carried on with his inspection.

The final room he inspected was at the back of the top floor. His name was written in blood across the floor and walls, in the common tongue. A sick, heavy feeling came over his gut, the realization that this all had to do with him, and he left the medical center.

Outside, Izvilvin felt cold despite the sun. Was this Step’s doing? It didn’t make any sense if it was, considering that he’d done everything asked of him. He hadn’t relayed any information back concerning Fallien and the Jya, however, for his loyalties had changed. That didn’t justify such a response from the organization.

So what was it?

“Izvilvin,” called someone from the group ahead, who were still gathered in the square. It was a young woman of perhaps thirty, with dark hair and tanned skin that was typical of the desert folk. “We’re frightened. We trust you, but we fear for our lives. How can we be safe with such things happening?”

The Drow didn’t know how to react. “I will do something,” was all he could say. How someone so menacing could cross the river to Irrakam without getting the permission of the guards of the Outlander’s Quarters, he didn’t know. Better yet, how did the city guards not notice?

The day passed by slowly, but by the time late afternoon came, there were several posters about the town. Each had no more than two sentences written upon them, with no pictures or indications of any kind.

“I will be outside of the city gate for the night, by the west end of the river. Settle your business with me there, forever, and begone. – Izvilvin.”

He was worried about spectators, but the Jya assured him there would be guards to keep the citizens safe. When nighttime came, he was where he was supposed to be, weapons at his belt. His eyes and ears were attuned to everything around him.

[Camella]

Camella came out of hiding and started to search the streets. She had overslept, so it was nighttime when she started searching for her target. There was quite the commotion on the street even at this hour, making it tough to walk around unnoticed, but Camella managed to do this by walking around in the back alleys. Eventually she found Izvilvin just outside of town.

"So, you came? How many soldiers are waiting to take me out this time? 10? 20?50?" Camella said, hoping that Izvilvin was alone this time. Camella waited for a while, Studying her surroundings. There were very few hiding spots. At most there was enough room for 10-20 soldiers to hide.

Camella pulled out two of her daggers and spun them around in her hands. "So, you ready? Cause here I come."

She rushed in and was about to slash at Izvilvin's neck, but when she got close, she jumped over his head and attempted to slash him from behind. She knew her mistake from the other two times she attempted to get Izvilvin's head was turning invisible too early in the battle, and she was not about to make the same mistake again. She had depended way too much on her invisibility and color-changing skills as of late. It was time for her to mix it up and show her true skill.

[Izvilvin]

The night was silent, save for the calming wash of the River Attireyi against the side of Irrakam. Izvilvin was in the calm zone he generally found himself in before an important fight. Camella couldn’t be allowed to kill a Fallienite again, it was as simple as that.

He heard her approach long before she spoke, but didn’t turn from the horizon. He could still see the orange light of the sun as it dove behind the waves of sand. The moon was already high and bright in the sky.

“No soldiers,” he said as he turned to face her. Seeing her wretched face put a wrathful scowl on his face, an expression so foreign to him that any of his friends would have been afraid of it. “Dosst vlos orn kri'sha l' xar'zith velve d' ussta abbil,” he growled.

Icicle was drawn into his right hand, the mist of the blue blade licking up like steam from a pot. In his left he drew a sai. A hundred and ninety dead men and women were in his memory, dead on the floor of medical centre. Camella would get no more chances.

Izvilvin didn’t bother to fall into a stance as Camella rushed him. He was relaxed and calm, feeling the battle before it even begun.

Her agility was amazing, perhaps inhuman. The Drow had never seen a humanoid jump so high, especially in sand. He ducked slightly and watched as she soared, twisting in the air to somehow maintain her footing upon landing. She slashed at him while he was still facing away. Like a participant in some beautiful dance he spun, white hair whipping about his head. Icicle slapped Camella’s dagger aside expertly, and he stepped into her stance to bring himself close. He reversed the grip on his sai and put all his strength into a quick, driving stab toward the side of her body. Fueled by his anger, the strike would have been strong enough to break between Camella’s ribs and potentially pierce her heart – if she had one.

The beauty of Izvilvin’s fighting was that though he was angry, every movement he made was as composed and graceful as the ones he made when he wasn’t emotional. The emotion merely fueled him, putting him in a position to end Camella’s murderous ways forever.

[Camella]

Camella smiled as her attack got blocked. She really didn't want it to be that easy at this point. She didn't want it to all end in one attack this time, when every other time she fought him he had matched her move for move. She wanted him in top form so that she had something to brag about when she finally beat him. If she had managed to hit him with her first attack, it would have thrown her off her game. She was thrown off her game for a bit because of the sand lowering the height of her jump somewhat, but she had fought Izvilvin in these conditions at least once before, so it really didn't bother her too much.

As Camella landed, she saw Izvilvin attacking her from the side. She quickly ducked underneath the strike and went for a fake sweep kick. Camella knew all to well that if she had really done a sweep kick, her foe would have more than enough time to counter-attack for the kill, so halfway through the kick, she rolled around to his left side and to her feet attacking with a high slash and a low slash at the same time. Her reasoning was simple, it would be easy for Izvilvin to block one of the attacks, but she doubted that he would have the time to bring the blue blade in his right hand around in time to block the other. Even if he did block both of the strikes, it would be hard for him to counter-attack seeing as how both his hands would have to be used to block her attacks. Camella was still wary, though. She had underestimated this foe twice already. She was not going to do it again.

[Izvilvin]

Izvilvin followed through with the strike, bringing his arm around and flipping his sai back into a forward grip. He spread his feet apart in the sand to bring himself lower and to grant more balance to his stance, preparing to standoff with Camella face-to-face.

Her kick came in low, and the Drow prepared to meet it with a steady leg, putting all of his weight on it to overpower and stifle the sweep. It was a feint, however, and a clever one at that. Camella rose with great speed and slashed from both the left and right, one dagger high and one low, having rolled to Izvilvin’s left. He squared off with her, and with speed borne of his determination, pulled Icicle up to meet her high blade, lifting it even higher and over their heads. At the same time, his opposite hand caught the dagger between the left and main prongs of his sai. With a twist, the Drow directed her hand aside and away from his body.

Camella, the assassin, was not high in her stance, but was around Izvilvin’s waist level in order to grant her reach both high and low. Without giving her a moment to recover – or himself, for that matter – Izvilvin abandoned the ground and threw his right foot forward in a devastating kick aimed for the side of Camella’s head.

The attack brought him to the sand, but was swift enough that it might have caught her off guard. If not, they were both low and Izvilvin would have an opportunity to rise before being capitalized upon. It was a risk he, in his aggression, did not have a problem taking.

[Camella]

The kick hit Camella hard, sending her to the ground. She hadn't expected it to be easy though, and as such, she was able to get right back to her feet. Izvilvin was just as good as she remembered, if not better, but she hadn't come all this way just to fail. She stared at him, looking for a weakness, but found nothing.

Camella charged towards Izvilvin again. With her trusty blades in hand, Camella attempted make a slash at her opponent's knees. She needed to slow him down, and that was the quickest way to do it in her mind. She knew that he could easily counter-attack her, but she was ready to dodge him at a moment's notice.

Sorry about the short post. I promise to make the next post longer.

[Izvilvin]

The kick connected, and Izvilvin hit the sand with some satisfaction. Amazingly, Camella was already moving to rise. Finding footholds in the sand, the Drow rose as well, and was quickly low in a defensive stance.

The woman approached with speed and brought her attack low. Seeing it clearly, Izvilvin met the dagger with Icicle, halting the blade before it came close. As he slid his sword along the dagger, it left a thin layer of ice upon the metal. Before retracting his sword, the Drow flicked it forward in a quick attempt to nick at Camella’s face, more as a way to deter her than anything else.

He pressed onward, swinging Icicle high for the very top of her head. Expected a duck, Izvilvin brought his opposite foot up through the sand, kicking a sea of sand toward Camella’s face in an effort to temporarily blind her.

[Camella]

Camella looked on in surprise as part of her blade got an icy new layer. Her opponent's sword was certainly more than it seemed. Her foe managed to nick her face immediately afterwards, but it wasn't enough to make her lose focus for even a second. There was something else that was able to distract her from the fight, though.


She could have sworn that she saw some onlookers off in the distance, but when she turned her head to check it out, there was nothing. By the time she turned back to Izvilvin, she had almost no time to dodge his attack. She had little choice but to block it at this point, and when she saw that he had kicked sand at chest level, she was happy she hadn't ducked.

Suddenly she saw four figures off in the distance. They appeared to be talking with each other while they were watching the fight. Camella could tell that they were not Izvilvin's soldier's, but she couldn't figure out much more than that at the moment. For instance, She was unable to figure out that they were bounty hunters like her. She was also unable to see that three were male and one was female. Heck, she couldn't even hear what they were saying to each other. If she could, though, this is what she would have heard.

"My, my. Luck does appear to be on our side today. Two wanted people in one place, and they appear to be fighting each other, let's take them out."

"Hold on, Lily. Let them fight it out. Whoever emerges victorious will be too weak to fight all of us off."

"Keep it down you two, I think she noticed us."

"We can't have that. I will take her down with one arrow."

"I said no, Lily. These two are both considered extremely dangerous threats, able to take on a whole army with ease."

"Fine, Max. Have it your way, but If she takes one step towards us, I will fire."

"By the way, you sure this is the right woman? She looks weak."

"Appearances can be deceiving, Gato."

"I said keep it down"

"Shut up, Monty."


Camella made a mental note of where the mysterious people were as she attempted to kick Izvilvin in the kneecap, followed by a slash to Izvilin's chest.

"Take that."

[Izvilvin]

Despite being momentarily distracted, Camella was able to block Icicle’s heavy strike with her dagger. Izvilvin couldn’t remember her being so capable the last time they fought, so it came as a bit of a surprise to him. Despite it, he kept his composure, knowing that she couldn’t keep up with his pace forever. Considering that Izvilvin had been fighting in the sinking sands for over a year now, and Camella lacked that experience, having to pull her feet from the sand would surely tug at her energy reserves.

Even if not, the Drow didn’t doubt his prowess. He was a fighter on a separate level than most, had slain stronger warriors more powerful than kings. Izvilvin had to keep his mindset focused on such things, if he wanted to end this.

He had one advantage, and that was his awareness to the four figures far behind him. He couldn’t understand them, but their tones told him that they were interested in the fight that was going on. Izvilvin couldn’t imagine that Camella could hear them, unless she possessed hearing on his level. Few humans did.

The Drow figured he had some time before the people behind him made their move, if they made one at all. He kept an ear focused on them, but his eyes locked onto Camella, determined as they ever were.

Her kick came in fast, but a twist of Izvilvin’s leg sent her foot flying just past his knee. Her dagger came in quickly after, but the Drow turned into the strike, moving past her hand and catching the woman’s arm between his side and bicep. He squeezed hard, trying to keep her close. His free hand, gripping Icicle, came in as hard and as quickly as he could manage, driving for her side.

He released her quickly afterward, pushing himself away from her daggers in order to keep the range advantage he had. He slashed once as he separated, for her neck, then feel into a defensive stance once more.

Icicle granted him range, but Izvilvin didn’t like the way the fight was going. Despite being short, the sword some heavy and cumbersome at times. He sheathed it and drew a matching sai, planning on engaging Camella in her own close-range battle style. Izvilvin was confident that his was better.

Behind him, the bounty hunters were chatting again. Izvilvin decided to pretend that he couldn’t hear them as clearly as his Drow ears allowed him to.