The tall man sat in a chair with his feet propped up on the table in front of him. While he sat there, with his bored expression and high metal boots -the only armor he apparently wore-, he toyed with a small hand crossbow that was almost certainly the work of dark elves.
The mayor continued pacing nervously. He started talking while he paced, his comments directed at the sitting man.
"I'm very glad that you've offered your help, very glad indeed. You see, I'm speaking for the Society of Church, a very prominent organization in these parts, and we've had trouble as of late."
The man continued to wind up and fire the empty hand crossbow, hardly seeming to notice the mayor at all.
"There's this giant, you understand, who has been raiding the chapels set up in the more rural areas of the county.
"He calls himself Mudung Rublanguished, and he has taken up residence in a cave a short distance to the north. The locals call the cave 'the Helmed Abysses'. I cannot fathom why..."
The mayor continued pacing, and the man continued winding the crossbow and pulling the trigger.
"Look... The guards are busy with the upcoming faire, and the count hung up his armor years ago. You're our only ho-eeEAAGH!"
The crossbow wasn't empty that time. The mayor stood as stiff as a board, quivering in a fashion similar to the wickedly barbed dart sticking out of the ground right where the mayor was about to put his foot.
"Stop that damned pacing before my head gets strung too tightly and explodes."
The man stood up, his steel boots knocking the wood loudly as they touched the floor. He raised himself up to his impressive height, and walked over to stand in front of the mayor.
The mayor stood frozen, still quivering, waiting to feel a bolt sinking into his soft skin.
"Alright. I'll do it."
The man walked out of the meeting hall, leaving the mayor still stunned by the recent turn of events. After a few moments had passed and the mayor had reassured himself that the man was not coming back in to kill him as an afterthought, he let out the deep breath he had been holding, causing his frame to deflate comically.
"Well, that went smoothly." He said to himself, and walked outside to find Gren, the innkeeper. He needed a drink, and after that he would go and pray to Esmin Zenithdrove, thanking him for providing the courage to deal with that mercenary.
At the north gate, Baron Ballista'em, clad in his favorite shirt and boots, walked out to deal with the giant, Dungmud or whatever it was called. He really didn't care what it called itself, and neither would it once it was dead.
The Baron neared the cave, and thought about just how messy reclaiming an empire could get at times. The "cave", as the mayor had called it, was a sinkhole in the wet silty clay of the landscape. The Baron's boots squelched with great smacking pops as he trudged through the clay and dropped himself into the hole, trying not to get silt on his new shirt. It was a futile effort, of course.
He made his way through the cave for a short distance, and he was just about to curse the mayor when he heard a rumbling from farther down the tunnel he was in.
"I AM MUDUNG THE MIGHTY, SLAYER OF HUMANS! COWER BEFORE MY MIGHT, PUNY ONE!"
Baron Ballista'em cocked his bigger crossbow. Bigger enemy, bigger crossbow. Good reasoning.
He was just putting a bolt into the slot when the cave walls trembled, and Mudung began charging down the corridor. Without so much as blinking, the Baron brought the crossbow up and fired straight into the giant's lower arm.
The giant bellowed, and the steelhead bolt pumped up and down as the giant flexed his impressive musculature.
Seeing that the creature was too close to get another shot off, Ballista'em instead threw his crossbow at the giant and then leapt at the great beast.
They wrestled with each other for some time, neither one doing much damage to the other. Mudung yelled at the Baron in his anger;
"Stop dancing around, pixie! I want to pop you eyes between my fingers!"
To which the Baron calmly replied,
"I'm gonna hurt you so bad you'll wish I'd never been born."
And they continued to throw punches at each other and swing kicks that didn't connect with anything. The giant finally roared with anger and charged with a full-on charge with his head lowered and his feet stamping the ground as he ran. The Baron stepped aside and allowed he creature to run head-first into the cave wall.
There was a loud *THUMP*, and small chunks of clay dropped down from the roof of the tunnel as the giant collided. Stunned, the giant staggered for a few moments and fell onto his back, panting heavily and trying to clear the bursts of light from his vision.
This provided the Baron with more than enough time to pull out the smaller hand crossbow and load a bolt. He aimed at the creature, and sank a darkelf-made bolt of tearing into the giant's stomach.
The giant started to scream, but was cut off by a gurgle as a mixture of vomit and blood coughed its way up his throat. Ballista'em loaded and fired another bolt, this one into the beast's arm.
Gasping, gurgling, and now with an arm lying with the skin flayed open and the muscles underneath displayed for open viewing, the giant was in no position to defend itself as the Baron stepped behind the creature, lifted its massive head up with a grunt of exertion, and then swing his full body behind snapping the giant's neck.
The satisfying crackle of shredded vertebrae marking the completion of the Baron's task. With another grunt, the Baron pulled off the creature's head as proof of the deed, and then set about picking his stuff up from around the cave.
With the collection part of the job done, it was time for the delivery. And after that, it was payday. As soon as he got that paycheck he could move on to the next town down the line... Something that he wanted very, very much.
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Topic: Death and Glory! (Read 58251 times)