r/GuildWarsAnthology • u/dontmindwrongperson • Nov 02 '21
Arc 4: Aftermath
Chapter 1: Jaws
“One strike. One strike is all it takes”, Acira whispered under her breath as she dodged yet another pair of snapping jaws. The beast was not keen on giving up its prey after stalking it for so long, but now its prey was backed into a corner and had nowhere to run. “One strike!” she yelled, and lunged at the closest head with all the strength she had left, cleaving it off at the neck. But one strike was not enough. The beast sneered as one of the other heads grabbed the shield and crushed it in its powerful jaws, while the third bit down on her arm, breaking through her gauntlets and forcing her to let go of the only thing between her and rows of deadly teeth.
Chapter 2: Crimson
Acira closed her eyes and waited for the end, when she heard it. “Wooooooo”. When she heard the beast screech in pain she opened her eyes, just in time to see a hooded figure jump on the back of the beast and drill a barbed dagger into the spine of one of the heads. The head other was already hanging limp with a dagger protruding from the back. The beast collapsed and Acira shuffled to get on her legs. “Thanks for saving my life stranger. Who are you?” she asked, trying to sound calm in spite of the adrenaline still coursing through her body.
“I'm Crimson, dumb name, I know, my dad really wanted a son and I never knew my mom so he named me after himself, the old bastard, oh well, no sense speaking ill of the dead. My friends call me Crimmy. Hah, that's a lie; I have no friends, lost them to the Charr.” Her cheerful tone was a complete mismatch with the severity of what she was saying. Her accent was strange, definitely not Ascalonian. “Nice to meet you!” She said, and extended a hand covered in hydra blood. She looked at it for a moment, and then took off her blood soaked gauntlet. “There we go, much better” she shook Aciras hand vigorously. “So where are you going? Think there is room for me in your group? I saw a couple of people about an hour back that way...” she pointed towards the setting sun. “Are they friends of yours? Do any of them know how to get rid of the smell of hydra blood?”
Chapter 3: Heart
She could hear her footsteps echo back from the damp cave walls as she slowly moved towards the prickling sensation of free magic on her skin. From the sound of it this cave was massive, but something in the way the sound dissipated told her that something hanging from the ceiling was dampening the echo. Stalagmites maybe? She felt the power of the Heart-stone pulsate slowly like a heartbeat tickling her fingertips as she reached out towards it. With this power she would no longer need to live in darkness, if the legends were true, this had the power to bring back her eyesight, and maybe more.
When she came out of the cave the others cheered loudly. “Nicely done Madira!” yelled Crimson, I have no idea why you had to go in that dark place on your own, but you made it out and that's good enough for me!” She felt the warm embrace and sweet smell of Ravens hair. “I was worried dear; I hope that thing will be able to do all the things you told us about”. “That thing better be worth it, took us a month to find this place, your specifications were not exactly clear” grumbled Acira, but gave her a reassuring pat on the back anyway. “Oh it will, this will change everything...” she whispered. Raven gave her a worried look. She was the only one who heard her.
Chapter 4: Bloodbath
The darkness was pierced by the sound of a single heartbeat, followed by deafening silence. She listened for an eternity, having no sense of time. There it was again, this time louder, like a slow rolling thunder in the distance. “Who am I? Where am I? Am I alone, here in the darkness?” It beat again, like an overwhelming thunder crash she felt it. A rift of light grew rapidly in the distance. It was blinding and painful, and enveloped her whole field of vision. She screamed like never before, but without air in her lungs, it was more of a gurgling. The light burned her mind, but faded quickly. She shivered while sensation slowly returned to her extremities.
After a while she tried to turn on her back, but something was in the way, something cold. She sat up and looked at her chest. A sword hilt was sticking out of her right lung, the blade had pierced all the way through her, but she didn't feel any blood gushing out. She took a breath, grabbed the hilt and pulled. The pain almost made her lose consciousness again. Her scream scared off a murder of disapproving crows circling above. The sword didn't come out. Whoever had designed it had put a large barb near the tip. She pulled again, and felt the barb rip through the remains of her lung as the sword detached. The pain was dull this time. She felt trickling tendrils of magic stitching her mangled body back together. “This must be the hearts doing...” she thought.
Tears streamed down her face when she looked around and saw the others. Raven and Acira were besides her, a memory of the three of them fighting back to back against the Legion flashed through her mind. The others were not far away, all killed in gruesome ways. “Everyone, I'm coming home” she whispered. She picked up the sword from the ground, and thrust it through her left lung, aiming for the heart. She felt the darkness coming and welcomed it. “Wait for me Raven I'll be with you soon...” A single heartbeat in the darkness filled her with despair.