literature

Chapter 02 - Ty Lee, Jericho

Deviation Actions

T5R-Kyzo's avatar
By
Published:
289 Views

Literature Text

~Ty Lee & Jericho~



Jericho was leaning against a wall, his hood pulled down. The red irises of his eyes contracted around small pupils as he eyed Halo critically.

“I think you're going about this entirely the wrong way.”

“Yes, I know how you feel about the situation, Mage. I think everyone is aware of how you feel. You make damn sure of that.”

“I'm just saying that if you're too weak, scared, noble, or enigmatic – whatever it is you are – to kill the man, hand it over to her care. She'll see it done.” He watched Halo pacing thoughtfully.

“I will not give up the efforts until I am sure he can be of no use.” Halo's silver eyes were screwed up in concentration. “He runs the most widely feared covert ops group in the Realms. Even the Black Rabbits don't dare get directly involved with the likes of him.”

“And did you even take half a second to consider that circumstances change? He is no longer alone. He took a ward, something the man we'd gathered intelligence on would never have done. What's more, he doesn't seem to be readily submitting to your methods.”

“We have to hold him, now. Doubtless, his comrades have already noted his absence. He's no longer much use for anything but a hostage.”

Jericho shook his head, “You know, for such an accomplished man, you're such a fool. I wonder if your success because of your stupidity, or in spite of it. You're headed down a road that many have traveled, and every time the same thing stood at the end of it: Atila. He and his precious little band of heroes.”

Sneering at the thought, he started walking out of the room “Just pray that when the man's Sword descends to lop off your head, she will be there to block it in time. Recruiting us was probably the smartest move you've made in a while.”

Outside the Lifesworn Citadel, Jericho spotted a hooded figure sitting atop a black horse. Beside the mounted figure stood a second horse, auburn haired, with red eyes. His horse. When he approached the horse and hoisted himself up, the figure turned and spoke. Her voice was light, but not overly feminine. It was sure and strong, the voice of practiced patience.

“Did the Lifesworn decide what to do with Alucard?”

“No, the fools are keeping them until they know there is no use for him. They don't remember what you do. They forget that he is known for his ability to resist control and subjugation.”

“They'll learn all too soon if they don't watch out. What else did you learn?”

Jericho pulled his red robe's hood up and sighed, “Dreadfully little. It seems that even the great Halo Lifesworn has got no idea what his plan is now that he's caught this snag. If I were him I'd leave Cypress. Head for Abyss, it's much safer, given the fact that half the Vampire families live out that way. Not to mention the Temple. He'd find much safer harbor than some church. There are those of us who don't hold the sanctity of their sanctuary so dear.”

Ty Lee laughed, her face momentarily showing beneath her hood. Half of it was a glimmering material that seemed to contain an entire galaxy within. “I'm guessing you mean other than me? Because I'm the least of his worries, unless he decides to make me his enemy.”

Jericho shuddered, remembering tales he'd been told of his Mistress' exploits. Ty Lee was a Slayer, specializing in hunting down and killing all those who had even the slightest drop of Divine blood coursing through their veins. He was unaware of what lit the flame of seething hatred that she held for the Gods and their subjects, but she had taken it out on not a few of them. She was feared worldwide, and her name was known to all.

Her twin weapons, the Bane of Hopes and Dreams, and its sister-blade Light's Demise were almost as famous as she was. The Bane had Destruction and Inner Energy woven into it during its forging, and Light's Demise was forged with a lacing of Nightmare and Blizzard Magics. Jericho could see the Destruction Magic pulsating and shuddering within her right arm, as the blades expanded forth from her arms when she willed it. The right arm was a misty Blue swirl, with deeper Blue bolts of lightning shooting around it every so often.

Those weapons had helped her in some of her most daring and notorious conquests. Marching up the steps of Silent One temples, sacking Jedeoheim itself for a short time, and even dancing with Nova, the most feared Mage in the Realms. It was partly Nova's fault that she'd earned that distinctive material that made up half her body. Silently, he thanked Ruins, the god of Magic. Rumor had it that Nova had perished some time ago. He did not relish the thought of having to face both Atila and Nova.

They rode in silence for some time, Ty Lee enjoying the scenery and Jericho pondering Ty Lee. She sensed it was strange for him, to be riding with her. She smelled fear. She always smelled fear, wherever she went. She wanted the Realms themselves to tremble in fear when she walked. She wanted to leave a legacy of her own sort when Allanna finally came for her. Allanna herself. Ty Lee would simply kill any of Death's servants. And when the goddess of Death called upon the door of Ty Lee, it would be Ty Lee escorting her to the next life, not the other way around.

Ty Lee had always been ambitious. She hadn't always been so devious, so dark... But she had always wanted more power. More than once, to achieve these ends, she had found herself on the side of the heroes, fighting against villains such as the Ghostwalkers. Now, however, they'd sooner recruit Wrasslin than her. Not that she cared. Now, she was powerful enough that she didn't need them. And if a new threat came into the realms, she'd side with the threat, then when the fighting was over, if those threatening the world were victorious, she'd kill them and take the victory for her own. If the Realms won, as they so often did, she would simply flee and save her own skin.

She had no illusions about honor or courage. She was by no means cowardly, but she was a survivalist. She wouldn't die for anyone. Not even herself. She would live, and continue to do so until such a thing were out of her control. With all the power she'd gained, it would remain in her control for a very, very long time.

Lost in her ruminations, she had not noticed the party coming up before her. Jericho nudged her and pointed to them. They seemed to be a party of eight. Three were tall enough to obviously be males. Four were indiscernible, and one was either a very small man or a woman. Flicking between her normal sight and aura sight, she saw two Magi; the rest did not show an Ether signature. Utterly unconcerned, she merely rode on beside Jericho.

As they approached, one man called out in a booming voice. “Oi, there! What have we got here?”

Ty Lee ignored him and moved to ride past him, but found herself barred by the shaft of a spear. She snatched it with her left hand, pulsating Blue, and she turned her face into the moonlight, glaring with both sides. She closed her fist around the wood of the handle, snapping it effortlessly.

“That was my best spear! You bitch!”

Without warning, she lashed out with a punch with her right hand, vaulting simultaneously from her horse. As the punch landed, the Bane slipped from her arm and buried itself in his head. As soon as contact was made, his head exploded in fire, blood and flesh. With a roar of fury the rest attempted to surround them.

Jericho leaped from his horse and took a deep breath. He took a deep breath, glowing read, and landed heavily in the middle of the remaining seven highwaymen. Two took the brunt of the blast, their feeble swords melting in their hands, their flesh doing much the same. The small party member began glowing, a Purple aura surrounding her as she powered up. He spun around, dragging the earth around him up and encasing him in earthen armor.

The Purple Mage stood ready, and Jericho spoke, “Nice to see our kind lowering themselves to common thieves.”

She grinned and threw a stream of lightning at him, but it got absorbed into the earthen armor. Jericho lashed out with a blast wave of fire, but it was deflected by a wall of water, as the other Mage, a mountain of a man, came barreling down on them, firing jets of water against Jericho's armor.

Meanwhile, Ty Lee was locked in battle with the other five remaining combatants. One was wielding a short bow and firing shot after shot, which she was deflecting easily. Two brandished spears, and the other two wielded long curved scimitars. They moved to surround her, the spearmen moving behind her. She flipped back, catching an arrow with her off hand and throwing it straight into another arrow, splitting it down the middle as it came near her head.

The spearmen lunged, aiming high and low, and she answered the attack by kicking the low one away and deflecting the high with the Bane. She then slid in close, sheathing both swords and delivering quick strikes at their necks and below their arms. They showed no sign of damage, and indeed they didn't even lose consciousness, but they dropped their weapons without warning. She then slid around them and kicked their knees out. Dropped to their knees in front of her, she turned and smiled wickedly at the swordsmen and the archer, staring at her and the spearmen.

She raised her fists, clenching them for dramatic effect as they glowed with the stormy colors of fire and ice constantly at war with one another. She knelt beside them and whispered “Give Allanna my regards” into their ears in an almost seductive voice. Then the Bane and Light's Demise surged forth from her arms and she drove each one into their chests, right through their hearts. One's torso immediately exploded, showering everyone with blood and gore, the other froze completely before shattering into a million pieces, some shrapnel hitting the swordsmen, but the archer was far enough back that he could dodge out of the way.

The swordsmen hesitated, and then fled, the ranger sprinting after them. Ty Lee turned to watch the mages fighting Jericho, an amused look on her face as she eyed Jericho, who had begun to glow an intense red. The Blue mage and the Purple attempted to fuse their attacks as the Blue shot a cannon of water, and then the Purple shot it with a strong blast of lightning.

Suddenly Jericho released his built up energy, earth flying outward and the air itself combusted into an inferno. The explosion rocked even Ty Lee's footing, and she stumbled slightly. The Purple mage had attempted to blink past the explosion, and had failed, blinking right into the heat of it, and getting incinerated. The Blue had built himself a shield to try and survive the explosion. It had, for the most part, worked. His shield took the brunt of the attack, but he hadn't the power to weather the entire thing. He was bruised, burnt, and bloody, trembling feebly as the last of his strength bled from a thousand lacerations.

Jericho walked up to him and knelt, tracing the man's body shape with a finger in the dirt. Slowly, from the lines, an earthen coffin rose around him, encasing all but his face. He then made spikes rise from the coffin all over.

“Who are you, and why have you descended upon my Mistress and I?”

The man's face shook slightly as he laughed. “You will answer for your many crimes... Mage.”

He took a stone hammer and smashed one of the spikes, driving it into the coffin and impaling his leg. The man screamed, and blood leaked from the spike hole in the coffin.

“Who are you?” he repeated, “who the hell are you?”

“It matters very little who we are, on the precipice of your death, little insect. But since you made the mistake of crossing us, you should know who you dealt with... I am Jericho, master mage of Destruction, and my mistress, here, is Ty Lee, the bane of the gods themselves.”

The man spluttered a fountain of blood as a spike was driven through his heart. Jericho stood, drafted himself a new robe of fire which smoldered into a robe of cloth once the fire died, and purged the blood and dirt stains from the battle. Ty Lee merely brushed herself off with her left hand, the blood and grime freezing and simply falling off at her touch.

They made their way back to their headquarters, unfazed by the interruption.
Third installment of the Madness of the Lifesworn fan fiction! Here, you're introduced to the feared and powerful Ty Lee, a slayer of terrible reputation, and her companion, a powerful mage.
© 2013 - 2024 T5R-Kyzo
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In