Champions Vol. 01

"Good. What about witnesses?" Shadowmaster Whisper inquired.

"Taken care of. We began moving people out of the area as soon as we received word that the group was on the move."

"Excellent. Now focus on the objective. Reports indicate that the sorceress is quite powerful and will be the hardest to take down. The acolyte is not a full priestess, and is magically insignificant, and the man carries no long weapons, only a few knives. Keep your distance and take them out with archers, only close in if you have to," the Shadowmaster issued their final instructions.

"It will be done my lord."

***

Laurena was tired, bored, and irritated. She knew the odds were against her, but she simply had to try to convince the Champion to go to another worship service, the sex was just too good. But he wasn't interested, and she was irritated because he was now the first man to ever turn down an opportunity to receive a Blessing from her. Lost in her own ruminations, she did not notice David's pace slow as she turned down the alley that was the shortest and most direct path back to the temple.

David had closely observed their route earlier, because it was how his mind worked now. Between the training he received from Mr. West and his experiences in combat, he could no longer walk around blindly oblivious of his surroundings. Every person was a potential threat, every piece of trash on the roadside was a potential IED, and every narrow alley was an ambush point. And this particular narrow alley was a truly epic suckfest. No alcoves, overhangs, or containers broke up this part of the eight foot wide and one hundred foot long path. The adjacent buildings were all two stories tall, and there was no cover to speak of. He had decided that there was no way in hell he was going to walk it twice, and had informed the women after they had passed through it earlier in the evening that they would not use it on the way back. But he was so busy scanning the area with his NODs that he didn't realize where they were until after Laurena had already turned down the alley.

"Shit," he cursed.

"What is it David?" Sapphire asked him.

"I told her we weren't supposed to walk back this way," he replied in annoyance.

"LAURENA," Sapphire yelled to the acolyte, "REMEMBER WHAT DAVID SAID EARLIER. WE ARE WALKING BACK A DIFFERENT WAY TONIGHT."

Frustrated the acolyte stopped walking. She had been moving at a fast pace, and was already thirty feet down the alley. "WE ARE ALMOST BACK. CAN WE JUST USE THE QUICKEST PATH? IT IS LATE AND I AM TIRED," she called back loudly.

Sapphire cast a questioning look at David, but he didn't notice it because he was carefully scanning the alley and rooftops with his NODs. He thought he saw a small motion atop a building about halfway down the alley, but when he looked closer he couldn't see anything more.

"David?" Sapphire tried to get his attention.

"No," he finally answered quietly. In a voice just loud enough to carry to the acolyte he continued, "No Laurena, we are taking a different route. It will not be much longer."

Even more annoyed now, she walked back to them in a huff.

***

"Sir, they are avoiding the trap," the dark figure said.

"Damn," Shadowmaster Whisper cursed. "Attack them now. Move your ground team to intercept and have the archers move along the rooftops. Don't let them get away."

His subordinate nodded and hustled off to carry out his orders while the Shadowmaster cursed his poor luck. This unknown man was becoming a major annoyance. They had carefully watched the group's path to the tavern, and identified this location as the perfect ambush site. There was no reason for the threesome to take a different route back, but it seemed that the man was determined to do so. If any of his men had given their position away he would kill them.

***

Laurena rejoined the pair on the main road, and David was about to continue his walk to the next cross street when he saw movement on the same rooftop as earlier. Turning his NODs back to the location he saw a pair of men carrying bows running towards them across the building tops on the left side of the alley, and another pair running along the roofs on the right side.

"Shit, we got company," he told the women, drawing the pistol from his right thigh holster.

When the pair turned to see what he was looking at, all three heard a door banging open to their right. Turning to the sound, David raised his pistol and braced his firing hand with his left. Without the NODs he was not able to see as well in the moonlight, but the four men pouring from the doorway twenty feet away weren't exactly hard to spot. They were carrying swords, axes and daggers, and charging directly at them.

"Motherfuckers," was all David said before the fight began in earnest.

As is always the case in combat, multiple things happened at the same time. David quickly aimed at the nearest target, and fired two rounds center mass into the charging man. Laurena cried out in fear and ran behind him, and Sapphire began chanting a quick spell. Shifting his aim a few degrees to the right, David pumped two more rounds into the next closest target, and then he had to dive to the side and roll away from the third and fourth attackers, because they had closed the distance and their attacks were trying to occupy the same space where his head had just been.

Laurena was frozen in terror. She was suddenly right back on that mountain trail, tied to a pole, and was waiting for the unspeakable acts to begin. She had managed to move a few steps behind David, but then she had stopped, cowering in the street petrified by the sudden attack.

Sapphire was pissed. She was remembering the ambush that had taken her father. She refused to lose David the same way. As she gathered the power to violently defend him she smiled viciously as he quickly killed two of the attackers. Maybe he didn't really need her help, but she was damn sure not going to sit this one out either. Casting forth a spell of telekinesis she was surprised to find it far more powerful than she was used to. But as she used her magic to try to knock the attackers from their feet the spell just washed over and past them, having little effect.

"They're protected from magic," she alerted her companions.

Ducking a sword strike aimed at his head, David then threw his body into a backwards roll to avoid the second attacker's horizontal axe swipe speeding towards his neck. Despite hearing Sapphire's warning he had more important concerns at the moment than their magical defenses. Dropping his NODs from his left hand he drew his new enchanted blade from its sheath on his vest, and prepared for an opening to either use it or the 9mm in his right hand. The two men were attacking him furiously, enraged at how quickly he had downed their compatriots. Unfortunately, fighting angry is often the same as fighting stupid, and when the swordsman missed again, his friend with the axe had to jump back to avoid the follow-through of the swing. That was all the opening David needed. Shooting from the hip, he pumped two rounds into the swordsman, one chest and one hip, and then shifted to fire two more rounds at the axe wielder. The man hopped to the right, away from his mortally wounded ally, so the first hit him in the left thigh and the second grazed his left side. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his thigh and screaming in agony.

Unconcerned with the downed adversary, David scooped up his NODs from the ground and tried to reacquire the location of the archers on the building tops. He spotted them, and not a moment too soon. They were kneeling on the edges of the rooftops nearest the trio, and were already drawing back their bowstrings.

Turning he ran to Sapphire and half pushed, half carried her to the doorway as four arrows landed near where she had just been standing. He hadn't even made it a third of the way to the door before he heard Laurena's scream in fear from the arrows that had struck not far from her.

"Fuck!" he cursed. Holstering his pistol he shifted the knife in his left hand to his right, not having the time to try to stow it safely, pocketed his NODs, and then pulled a frag grenade from his vest. He hated to use one of the three he had left for this, but he needed to incapacitate or distract four archers, at night, in the next few seconds, or Laurena was going to end up re-classing as a pincushion.

Pulling the pin with his teeth hurt, but he figured if he fucked up any of his dental work he could deal with it later. Lobbing it to the top of the roof nearest his location, he dove into a roll hoping that these archers hadn't learned to draw and fire an arrow more accurately than he could. His best time was six seconds, and their last shots had been about that long ago. Fortune smiled on him, because all four had assessed Laurena's cowering form as a non-threat, and had decided to shift their aim to him. As he dove into the roll all four fired within two seconds of each other, and only one of them adjusted his aim enough to account for the soldier's movements. The arrow struck the back of his IOTV after he had finished the roll and gone prone, awaiting the blast of the M67. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for putting his ceramic plates back in yesterday morning, which had stopped the arrow from penetrating. As the mental timer in David's head counted down from five, he began to lament the fact that the best the Army could do was a grenade with a fuse that was 'about 3-5 seconds'. When he hit zero, he got worried, but before he could count further...

BOOM!

It didn't matter how many times shit blew up around him, that crap was still LOUD! Shaking his head he counted to three to allow the airborne debris to land, then jumped up and ran over to Laurena. Grabbing her upper arm he dragged her up and hauled her toward the doorway where Sapphire was waiting. He heard shouting, cursing, and painful screaming coming from the rooftops, but no more arrows came his way before he made it inside the building.

Pushing Laurena inside David swapped his knife back over to his left hand, sheathed it, and then drew his M9 from his thigh holster and swept the room. It was clear. Loading a fresh clip into his pistol, and pocketing the half empty one, he started looking for a different way out.

"Over there," Sapphire said, pointing to a door that led further into the building.

Nodding he moved to it, and tried the handle. It opened easily, and he swept the new room, making sure there were no threats as he moved inside. Seeing another door that probably led to an adjacent alley, he made a quick decision.

"Both of you get in here," he ordered the women, closing and locking the door behind them. Looking into their eyes, he conveyed the seriousness of the situation with both his tone and his expression. "We need to get to the temple. I have no idea what the hell these people want or why, but I damn sure intend to ask them later. Right now I just need to get you two dropped off, and grab my heavy lumber from my room."

"What do you need me to do?" Sapphire asked him.

He cursed the fact that he had never bothered to teach her how to use one of his pistols. He could really use an extra shooter right now. Hell, he would have given his left testicle for a Ranger battalion right now. "Do you know how to use a knife?" he asked her.

"Of course. You put the pointy end into the other person," she replied sarcastically.

"Close enough," he sighed, moving to hand her his non-enchanted knife.

"I'd rather take the throwing knives," she requested with a smirk.

Not having the time to wonder about the request, he pulled them out and handed them to her. She stowed one in her belt, and held the last two in either hand, testing their weight and balance.

Turning to Laurena, he could see her fear was still significant, but was no longer paralyzing her. "I need you to stay between us," he told her. "I'll lead, you will stay two steps behind me, and Sapphire will be two steps behind you. Stay quiet, don't slow down, don't get distracted, and do everything I tell you to. Clear?"

She just looked at him for a few heartbeats, clearly overcome by the seriousness of their situation. Finally she slowly nodded in agreement, and he just sighed. That was probably the best he was going to get. Turning to Sapphire he asked "Ready?" to which she nodded in reply. Moving cautiously, he went to the door and cracked it open, peering out. He didn't see anyone in the alley, in either direction, so he stepped out and moved quickly towards the temple, drawing his enchanted knife from its sheath. He walked in a smooth heel-to-toe manner, pistol raised and steady. He was making more noise than he would have liked, but he had never been good at walking in the quieter toe-to-heel method. Whenever he tried to use it his weapon swayed too much. He scanned everything from his nine o'clock to his three o'clock, both rooftops and street level, while his knife hand supported his shooting hand. Behind him Laurena and Sapphire followed along as quietly as they were able.

*** Chapter 30: Pursuit ***

252048MAR13 DW

Back Alleys, Exitibus, Erosius

The ambush had been an abysmal failure. Claudius, a.k.a. Shadowmaster Whisper, wanted to blame his people, but he knew the fault lay elsewhere. The information he had received indicated that the major threat would be the sorceress, and they had taken steps to protect the ground team with the best enchantments they could. That part of the plan had worked, and she would have stood no chance against the four man team; especially with the archers in support. But the man, David, was far more powerful than he had been told. The man had killed four of his best enforcers in a handful of seconds! The Shadowmaster didn't know what kind of magic the man possessed, but he was damn sure that none of his people were prepared for it.

Resigned to the fact that this endeavor was going to be more costly than he anticipated, he cast a spell of light on an arrow and fired it into the air. The improvised flare alerted his back-up teams to move in along the path near the temple. He had been instructed to use two teams, and avoid taking any action near the temple. However, as far as he was concerned, his guidance had been open to interpretation. So he had stationed two additional teams between the ambush location and the temple, in case the trio took a different route or managed to break through the ambush. His people thought his preparations were beyond overkill, but he had learned over the last year that you could never really be over-prepared.

As the current Shadowmaster Whisper, his dominion was extortion and enforcement. His predecessor, the last Whisper, had been an over-confidant fool. The man's failure to plan ahead for every contingency had resulted in a number of failed assignments, and had eventually risked the exposure of the entire organization. The Night Lord's 'termination' of his employee had been an object lesson for his replacement. Claudius had never failed an assignment for his Lord since taking over, and more than a few of his successes were the result of refusing to underestimate a target. His information on tonight's assignment had been less than useful, but he would not let that break his streak.

Moving to support his remaining teams Claudius thought about the damage David had done in such a short time, and resolved to search the man's body himself after he was dead. He wanted that power for himself.

***

Moving along the alley, David tried to look everywhere and listen to everything all at once. He knew it would be safer if he only had to worry about a single sector of fire, but the reality was that he couldn't trust either of his companions to spot danger in time. He needed to get them off the streets and stashed in the temple pronto.

They were traveling at a good pace, and had made it to within a few blocks of the temple when the next attack came. A door to David's left opened, and he spun quickly to sight in on it. He realized there was no one standing inside the doorway in the same second that he caught motion in his peripheral vision from his right (the direction they were traveling). Turning his head, he had just enough time to recognize the posture of a man standing roughly twenty paces away throwing something at him. Gambling, pulled his nearside (pistol carrying) arm up and tucked his head behind it. He realized it was the right move when he felt the throwing knife pierce his deltoid, the upraised arm preventing the attacker from burying the knife in his intended target, David's jugular.

"Motherfuckers," he roared in pain. He was no pussy, but the damn knife buried two inches into his arm fucking HURT.

Turning to engage the knife thrower he was able to fire a single shot at him, but the pain in his arm threw his aim off enough that he missed his target. Shocked by the sound of the gunfire, the man dropped the second knife he was preparing to throw and jumped behind the side of the nearest building.

"David!" Sapphire yelled, trying to alert the Champion.

Turning back he saw that the previously empty doorway was now pouring out reinforcements only a few feet away from him, and there were a fuck-ton of them. Hastily David adjusted his position and snap-fired at the man charging him. He got off six shots before the nearest opponent reached him, and four of them went into the man's chest. His sword had slid from now nerveless fingers, but the man's momentum was too great to be overcome by four 9mm slugs. His mortally wounded body clipped David on the way down, knocking the Champion to the ground and bouncing the knife in his upper arm against the hard surface.

David roared in pain as the knife twisted to the side and was driven deeper into his arm, the tip lodging in the bone. He lost his grip on the pistol, and didn't give a fuck. These assholes had severely pissed him off. Rolling away from the fallen man, he did a reverse somersault into a crouch, and then charged the nearest attacker. It was time to kick ass.

Meanwhile, Sapphire was facing a dilemma. David had told her to cover the rear, but he was injured, knocked down, and was being rapidly surrounded by the three attackers still standing. Turning to look behind her, the decision got a lot easier as two men charged her from the direction they had just traveled. Throwing one of her knives at the one on the right, she gave it a little extra help with her telekinesis magic. She felt vindictive satisfaction when the knife buried itself into the man's throat. He dropped to his knees, choking out his last breath. She drew the spare knife from her belt and faced off against the remaining adversary. She just hoped David could handle his fight alone.

Laurena was terrified. She had witnessed more violence in the mountains, Wolfsvale, and now here, than she had ever even heard of before. Now she was afraid of what would happen to her when the obviously overmatched warrior was killed before her eyes. She did not want to lose him, but she was more afraid of what they would do to her once he was dead. As the three attackers surrounded David, she watched, horrified by what she believed would be his final moments in this life. Instead, she had a front row seat to an epic ass whooping. The fight rapidly became a whirlwind of destruction, with David in the center.

The man in front of him didn't expect David to charge, so his axe swing was poorly timed and easy for the warrior to block. But David had no intention of fighting defensively this time. Striking out with his knife, the Champion sliced into, and then through, the elbow of the man. He had planned to sever the nerve cluster there, causing the man to drop the axe. Instead his enchanted blade cleanly severed the arm, and the man looked at the remaining stump in shock. Using this to his advantage, David stepped to his right and spun around the 'disarmed' attacker, placing the man between himself and the other two. As they split up to follow him, he reversed direction, moving in on one of them. He noticed the man carried a dagger, but didn't seem to have any idea about the proper way to use it. He was holding it out in front of himself, with his empty hand cocked back at his side. Fucking amateur. Changing to a reverse grip, he moved into striking range and baited the novice into a strike.