AC 2021 - Final - Storm Veritas

[Storm Veritas]

In fact there were two arrows, one hitting the wizard above his right knee, the other puncturing the wolf somewhere around his ribs. The beast fell to a slide on his own right side, sending Storm Veritas sailing off in a terrible skidding role, body battered and beaten. A second terrible scream of pain roared from his leg as he felt the arrow snap, leaving four or five inches of thick wood protruding from his lower thigh as he slid to a stop. Immediately, he was forced to roll as a familiar black axe came smashing down towards his head.

Fast. Be fast.

Without hesitation, he conjured a small plume of magnetic energy at his feet, sending him backwards some ten yards roughly, every nook and cranny about his body howling for the sweet release of death. His head rolled as he struggled to focus, cold sweat dripping from his hair and obscuring his vision as a single massive demon approached menacingly.

Shit. Bad draw.

Great lower fangs extended up a full inch from the lower jaw of this nine-foot hulking goliath, a scarlet-skinned nightmare which seemed the visage of evil itself. His barrel chest was littered with long, serpentine scars; a could-be map of countless battles apparently won. His eyes glowed black, an awful image that would be seared in Storm’s brain long after he was freed from the Tular Plains or mortal plane. A long, saw-like bone sword hung from his hand like a carving knife, and he strode forward upon thick legs with confidence and decisiveness. Storm raised a dagger in defense, and the monster effortlessly batted it away with a single swipe. The blade bounced away harmlessly, and Veritas found himself unable to conjure the energy required to recall it. With his barrage of magic, he was completely exhausted.

“Pride goeth before the fall”, as the saying goes, and the famous Serenti Champion no longer hung taut to foolish pride. He flopped lifelessly to his left as the blade came by, narrowly averting bisection. The bone sword crashed and shattered the ground, and was dragged from the rocky soil in his direction, quickly slashing across his chest and shoulder, a foot-long wound that felt to cut clean through his torso. Flailing backwards, Storm felt the pain in his leg once more as he landed on his side, the arrowhead twisting and tearing through the flesh on his right leg as the shaft struck the ground. He kicked himself back once more, retreating into gods-knew-where.

Undeterred, the great vile monster made two strides forward again, closing the gap between them effortlessly. He hoisted the sword high overhead between both hands quickly as a snift-crack sound whispered through the air, cutting above the countless bedlam noises.

A perfectly placed arrow had struck the demon in the side of the head, sailing clean through behind the eyes and into the brain. The left eye pulsed out of the dead skull and the goliath fell, his own bone sword crashing down to the ground. Storm slid desperately to his dagger as he spun his head to the direction of the arrow.

Charging at him now atop a familiar auburn horse was a fierce elven warrior with a shock of wild silver hair.

“Cazri!?”