Winterfall

After the brief encounter with Marcel, I figured it was best to curl back up in bed. Can I watch your world for a while? I asked Theoden in hopes to distract me further. At least until I was tired enough for bed. So he and I could do magic training in our dream escape.

Of course. I was just about to do a round with Quinn.

Thank you dear.

Mhm.

I pulled into his vision so I could see my kingdom through his eyes. Something I often did as my own life could be pretty boring from time to time.

~Theoden Point of View~

I waited for Quinn to arrive at my office as our next round was about to start. “Ready captain?” Quinn's voice range in my office.

“You bet.” I said as I grabbed my equipment, slipped it on and headed out the door, locking my office behind me.

It had warmed up since my training with Maria this morning. It was still a bit brisk but not terrible, since the sun was shining brightly above the kingdom.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky today, which made the cooler temperatures more bearable for those who were not used to them yet. The blue hues of the sky mixed with the yellow from the sun painted a brilliant landscape.

We walked to the edge of the outer nobel ring first. And began our run through. Her on one side and I on the opposite side of the ring. Overlapping in the center, as we pass each other.

We did each ring this way. This way proved to be the most efficient way of doing rounds. Two guards per round. Each round occurs every thirty minutes. By the time we hit our thirty minute mark we are in the middle of the seven rings. Which is around the fourth/fifth ring.

The more inward we went, the more we slowed our pace as we knew crime in these rings occurred almost every single day. The fiends entering the kingdom did not help and thankfully with the help of the demon tracker we have been able to eliminate most of them without cause of alarm.

Today was no different. Once we reached the fourth ring, the charmed ruby diamond on the bracelet began to glisten as it marked that a creature from hell was close. I slowed my pace and moved in all four directions to see which would make the gem glisten more.

As I moved north, nothing. South, nothing. East nope. It was in the west that the hellish creature was located. Quinn, follow me. There’s another.

I sent Quinn a telepathic message to alert her to come to me as quickly as possible. Within minutes she fell in step beside me in the shadows.

“What do you think it is this time captain?”

“Could be anything. Let’s just hope it's not another Lesser Devil. That last one was a bitch.”

Just yesterday the bracelet had detected a creature. And to our surprise it was a Lesser Devil. These fiends hold less power than that of a Devil Lord or a Greater Devil but it was still a pain in the ass to deal with.

“Agreed one hundred percent.”

With me having this bracelet, I had started doing a lot of my rounds strictly with Quinn. As she knew more than the others at this point and I did not want to take a chance on word getting back to Marcel about the tracker.

As we moved in a westward direction the glistening grew more and more. Showing that we were getting closer to the creature. Upon arriving at the final area, we split so we could attack from two sides instead of just one.

I watched before I snuck closer, seeing with my own eyes a hag-like creature conducting a deal in the middle of a crossroads.

“Stop!” I shouted as I bolstered my command spell towards her. However, in a blink of an eye she quickly vanished then reappeared ten feet behind me.

“You….think….you…can…stop me?” She spoke in a hideous voice. A voice that cracked and was almost too broken to make any sense of.

“Stop!” I tried command one more time, in hopes to avoid fighting the grayish looking woman.

I saw a glint in her greenish eyes as the spell failed once more. Her hand slowly raised as her broken language range in the air, “How….dare…you…stop…me!” A flash of greenish liquid flew from her palm and smacked me in the chest.

I felt a burning sensation as necrosis was taking effect. Fighting it off, I used restoration of form to fight back against the burning of my flesh. As both spells fought each other I used my action to create my barrier, over channeling it as this fight seemed like it was going to be a promising one.

“Weak…pathetic…fool.” The hag lashed out. She waved her hand and cast the same spell once more. However, my barrier blocked it from consuming my skin.

“Quinn! Now!” I shouted as I had seen out of the corner of my eye that Quinn was finally in a good position to give her the most advantage on her strikes.

“Yes sir!” Quinn shouted as I watched her lunge herself off a nearby building aiming her long sword straight to the hags head.

Her impact was successful as blood spewed from the gash as the sword remained sticking out of her skull. However, despite that being critical, the hag was still breathing.

“Again Quinn! Combo attack!” I shouted at her urging her to use her second attack against the hag to finish her off. Instead of attacking this turn, I used this turn to heal my body. Allowing the first hit against me to cease and dismiss.

“You got it captain!” Quinn shouted with a grin as she yanked the sword out of the hag's head and with her own weave of magic, she sliced right into the hag’s neck. Spewing blood onto her sword.

“Yuck! These creatures of hell leave a disturbing taste.” Quinn said as she used her abilities to distinguish some of the hag’s traits.

“Well?” I asked as I shot a few rays of liquid ice towards the hag. Finishing her off with a chill.

As the hag fell, I walked over to the both of them and picked up the dead hag and flung her body over my shoulder. “Her blood definitely indicates hell. The sulfur that was present was not tasteful.”

“Another one of his attempts to take souls I can only assume.” I shook my head. I began to feel the blood drip from her down my back, however, I couldn’t let that phase me. We needed to quickly dispose of her body and fast.

“I also learned that she was a decent caster. We just didn’t give her the chance.”

“It’s a good thing you got that critical on her then.”

I gave Quinn a smile, as with these hellish creatures, it had started to really help shape her skills as she got more training out of it.

“Thanks!” She grinned, “What do we do with this one?”

“Incinerate her?” That was the only option for them right now. We kill then burn their bodies in hopes that they don’t return.

“The morgue it is then.”

We walked our way to the morgue and hurried inside. The morgue was thankfully located in this ring, and just a few blocks away. A few people had stopped and glared at the body I was carrying over my shoulder but being captain non bothered to question why.

“Another one sir?” The mortician asked as his eyes went wide as I dropped the body on the metal table.

“Yes.”

“How are you finding all of these creatures?” The mortician asked as he started up the incinerator and shoved the hag’s shriveling body into it.

“We have our sources. Remember Martian, no questions asked.” I reminded him of our deal that we made. Everybody I bring to him to be burned, he gets paid, as long as he doesn’t ask questions or tells anyone about it.

“Right, sorry sir.” He said as he closed the door and latched it shut.

“Good.” I said and gave him one hundred gold for burning the body.

“Anytime sir.” He responded as he went back to work.

“Let’s finish our round then I am going to clean up.”

I still had a trail of hag blood dripping down my back. However, I needed to finish rounds first before I went and took a quick shower.

“Yes captain.”

With that, we went and finished our round without further issues. “See ya in a few hours!” Quinn said as we had made it back to my office.

“You bet.” I said as I closed the door, locking it behind me. I decided to use one of my teleports today to teleport to my bed chambers for a quick shower and change of clothes.

Once I got to my room I noticed she was still watching me, Maria. I didn’t mind her looking in on me when showered but I did want a bit of privacy this afternoon.

Fine…I guess I won’t watch the show any more. She grumbled through the bond.

Her response made me chuckle, you can watch the one after I get done with work. This is just a quick rinse.

Fair enough.

I felt her pull out of the bond allowing me to have my privacy I desired.