Marius

Marius’ arrow struck Big Guy in the shoulder, and he hurtled towards the ground with a thud that shook the bowels of the earth. Marius dodged towards another position just behind a shadowed Crocarchnid corpse, only looking back once to register the bleeding wound that now dripped from the hulking behemoth’s flesh:

Sneak Attack (Level I): Success

DMG: 10 (5x2)

Target HP: 36

Marius grinned through his sweating lips. His surprise attack had made a dent in the monster, sure, but he still had almost double Marius’ own HP.

He wasted no time in aiming his next shot straight at the howling Berserker’s head, just as his hand flew to his shoulder to dislodge the feathered projectile like it was a pesky mosquito.

"You made me bleed?" he called out to the dark. "You made me bleed?"

Marius looked on in horror as his assailant stretched his lips in a gnarled smile and thrust his index finger into his open wound.

His head suddenly jerked up, like he was listening to someone.

Marius took the chance. He loosed his next arrow and sent it flying true straight into Big Guy’s bulging right calf. In the final moments, his aim had wavered, but it had no less found its mark.

Sneak Attack: Success.

DMG: 3

Target HP: 33

Wait, what?

Marius could no nothing but stare from the shadows in disbelief as his opponent plucked up the arrow from his leg and thrust it into his arm, breathing in and chuckling maniacally as he did so, like he was injecting himself with some powerful narcotic.

Big Guy…you sick fuck.

Then, as usual, more bad news came:

Appraisal: Success

Target Status: Enraged (Level II)

New RES: BLDG, PRC, SLSH

New RES…the thought echoed in Marius’ increasing dulling mind. Then, confirming his suspicions, he looked down and appraised his weapon’s damage type again:

DMG: 1-8 (PRC)

The big bastard had just thickened his skin.

Marius watched as he rose to his full height, letting his axes trail on the ground beside him. He cracked his neck and licked the blood from his blistered lips, never once letting his almost childish smile of triumph leave his face.

"Go on," he said as he crept right towards Marius’ hiding place. "Show me your skills, little man. I want to watch."

Fuck.

Marius cursed every shivering bone in his body as he drew his next and pulled it back in his bow.

Fuck.

He felt his blood quicken as he looked into that snarling face filled with glee and still licking at its wounds like a rabid dog.

Then he made a new realization: he wasn’t as brave as he thought he was.

Fuck!

He loosed the arrow then ran, not even looking back to see the damage that had been done.

Hasty Retreat: Acti-

But before he could make it to his next shadowed crevice, he felt a meaty hand grab the back of his hair and pull him back with such force that he dropped his bow and, seconds later, felt the sharp impact of a cave wall against his back.

HP: 17/20

He got up steadily and immediately tried to concentrate on Stealth again, needing just a moment, just the right –

A stout kick in his stomach lifted him out of his thoughts and pinned him right back against the cave wall. Then a punch delivered by what felt like a slab of refined iron smashed itself against his face.

HP: 12/20

He cried out in pain as he fell to the floor and tasted blood gathering in the corners of his mouth.

"That’s it?" he heard from above him. "Aw, come on, you need to do better than that!"

Another kick sent him flying towards the Crocarachnid Matriarch and he smashed right through her plated face and broke off two of her mandibles before he rolled away from her and gasped desperately for breath.

HP: 9/20

His chest felt tight. Constricted. Like there was something broken deep within him. A punctured lung, a ruptured cartilage. Something that wasn’t working right. Something that stopped him from taking in what little oxygen remained in this place.

Then, scrambling around like a floundering seal, he felt something sloppy and viscous running under his fingers. Something that was seeping out from the Matriarch’s torn mandibles.

"Go on!" Big Guy cackled again, bathed in red, walking forward with a stroller’s stride and kicking pebbled out of his way with nothing more than a passing fancy.

"Show me some more of your tricks, thief!"

Marius looked up with a grimace. Through all the pain of his screaming organs, he still smiled.

"Alright."

He threw both mandibles towards his foe who slashed them to pieces instantly. In so doing, however, he became coated with the Crocarachnid secretion that had been both the great blessing and curse of this shit-filled tunnel.

He blinked through irritation more than anger, and only then did he see Marius lighting his torch and tossing it towards him.

The roar of a small firestorm thundered through the room, knocking Marius back and into yet another stalactite-strewn cave wall. But he ignored the pain of the impact. Filled with fire, the room’s shadows were now bathed in light, and it was through that same shimmering Hellfire that Marius saw something stand at the epicenter of the explosion:

Big Guy stood up and brushed ash from his shoulders, spitting out excess spume into the fire and laughing as it sparked.

Target HP: 28

Marius suppressed the gulp of helplessness that was rising in his throat.

…How?

Big Guy patted his loincloth and beamed at Marius, wreathed in a cloak of still burning flame, and the errant thief, champion of Raava the shroom, cursed his own lack of foresight.

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He hadn’t appraised the brute’s weapons or armor.

Only now did he see the truth unfold before him in flickering lines of onyx chalk:

Armor: Hellstalkers’ Shawl

Bonus: RES (PYRO) +30%

Marius dropped to his knees, embracing the sight of the warrior resuming his steady walk towards him with unblinking eyes.

"The big bitch knew I was strong, see?" He chuckled. "The voice told her. The voice told me she’d give me a prize to ‘aid me in my quest’ to kill this fucking thing."

He gave a stout kick at the Matriarch’s broken body before stepping over her dismembered torso and licking his lips again.

"But I knew you was coming, thief," he snarled. "I knew you’d be here. The voice told me that, too, see? Every hour I asked it 'when?' An’ every hour it said, 'soon'."

As Marius staggered to regain his composure, he saw the berserker roar like a beast and charge at him again. He tried to leap out of the way, but his body simply wouldn’t respond. Instead, he broke into a roll and tried to strike at the freak’s underarm. He had nimbleness on his side. He could do it. He could still at least cripple him and make it out alive. He’d just draw his dagger and-

In the second he made his move to strike he felt his wrist snap and entire right arm buckle against the strength of Big Guy’s axe tearing through his dagger like it was butter. The blade broke away in his hand and sent him reeling back, but not before the hulking brute drew his other axe across Marius’ chest and sliced clean through his leather armor.

HP: 5/20

The darkness of the cave began to creep in on all sides again. Marius saw the world go blank as he fell to the ground, feeling his arm go limp, and his chest pulse with fresh blood. His blood.

Then he felt something hard kick against his side.

"Get up."

Marius’ whole body felt like a piece of tenderized meat.

"Oh no," the voice betraying animal rage growled above him. "You can’t be done yet. Our game’s only just started."

A hand grasped Marius’ whole face and drew him up till he felt weightless, his feeble legs kicking at air.

"What’s wrong, thief?" Big Guy asked. "No more jokes? No more stories?"

The fingers of the monster were like the claws of a bear, digging into the soft skin on his cheeks and forehead, piercing through his flesh like tiny needles cutting through sandpaper.

Now, Marius did scream. He screamed as small rivers of blood cascaded down his face, through his torturer’s bulging hands, and onto the dry palette of the Everloft’s floor.

"Shame!" he heard Big Guy shout as his consciousness started to fade. "You had so much to say for yourself, up there!"

HP: 4/20

As his remaining life drained from him, Marius stopped flailing, focused on the one salient thought he had left, and kicked out to make his next attack.

Dirty Trick: Activated.

His foot met resistance as it made contact with his assailant’s undercarriage.

No response.

He did it again. Again. Again. He kicked out relentlessly praying that, at least once, the gambit would work.

All the while, the Big Guy did nothing but laugh. Like the kicks only tickled him.

"Oh, come on!" Marius roared, his cry of desperation muffled by the hand that kept squeezing the life out of him. Then, once again, he felt himself fly through the air as his face was smashed into the ground and he bounced away – nothing more than the ragged beast’s plaything.

HP: 1/20

He could only now dimly make out the snarling smirk of the beast as it ambled over to his inert body.

He felt heavy. He felt numb.

This is how you wanted to die, Marius?

"Guess now you know," Big Guy growled above him, towering over his fallen prey in triumph. "Some of us are just built different."

Marius heard his voice, but it was his own internalized tormentor that was feeding his dwindling brain with dying thoughts:

So close to actually accomplishing something, just to have it taken away. Déjà vu, huh?

"I’m made for this place," the beast continued, picking Marius up by his neck and staring into his dying eyes. "You? You’re a whelp who only got this far on dumb luck."

He’s right, you know.

Marius felt the bear-grip tighten round his neck like a vice.

And now your luck’s ran out.

As his final grains of life were choked from him, he watched the Big Guy’s smile widen till it encompassed almost three quarters of his face, stretched like a serpent’s jaw over his features.

"I’m gonna enjoy this, little thief," he said. "I’m gonna make it nice an’ slow, like. So’s I can watch the light leave your eyes before I pop em out."

He’d imagined some grand and intoxicating vision to appear before him just before his death. Wasn’t that what the knights said as they perished? ‘My life is flashing before my eyes!’ Wasn’t this moment supposed to be something holier than thou? He was supposed to see his grandparents waiting for him ‘on the other side’, with Amarata waving to him and giving him a little wink and come-hither vibes.

But all he could feel was the pain of his neck as his lungs were emptied, and his scrabbling hands finally fell to their side and hit the hard stone of the ground, limp and useless. The smiling face of his blood-smeared opponent began to disappear.

Well, Big Guy, I hope you enjoy yourself down here.

Marius’ eyes closed.

If you’re up there, Amarata, give me a slutty Tigran girl when I get there, please and thank you.

Then, as he felt his last sliver of health began to tick away, something shone in the dominion of the dark.

A color he’d known and loved all his life. A color that meant something to those little magpie eyes.

Gold.

Big Guy let him go. His eyes opened only slightly as he watched the brute stagger back, blood suddenly spewing from his mouth in a geyser that pooled beneath his feet.

The beast screamed and sank to his knees, feeling the gash that had just been drawn across his back, breathing in deep as he had done before, savoring the sensation of the pain.

"Now we’re talking!" he bellowed – his surprise dimming, replaced with jovial rage. "What was that, thief? Another trick you had up your sleeve?"

The flash of gold came again as Big Guy lunged with his axe to finish Marius off for good, and, in the instant the haze of brilliant light rescinded, Big Guy stood with unblinking eyes as he watched the upper portion of his right arm detach itself from his body.

"AHHHHHRGH!"

He stepped back, clutching at his broken limb, watching what remained of it spurt with blood as it emptied his fluids onto the cold stone ground of the cave.

Then, from behind, Marius heard a voice.

"Will you sheath your weapon?"

Big Guy snarled with the unchecked fury of a rampant bull knocking against its handler’s pen.

"Who the FUCK are you to come between me and my new toy? Huh? Who the hell are you?!"

No response from the new challenger. Instead, more ramblings from the Big Guy that confirmed, even to the addled Marius, that he was in fact quite insane.

"G-Guardian?" he sputtered, clutching at the chunk of flesh that remained as his arm. "But you – you never said…"

He trailed off, suddenly confused, and Marius felt something solid grab his shoulder and press down, hard.

He then felt the blood quicken in his veins as life flowed back into his body.

Guardian’s Ward

HP: + 10

HP: 11/20

He watched the world slowly resolve into being once more, feeling the cavity in his chest simply patch itself up – the torn flesh below his neck knit itself back together again.

Miraculous.

He stared unblinking as his body patched itself up, watching the threads of golden ribbons that flowed from his shoulder. He followed them to their origin – a gauntleted hand gripping him, holding him steady.

Attached to the hand was an angel.

She was an angel with a face pale as the first moon of Averix, and eyes like two bobbing blue sapphires floating in an ocean. Her blonde hair stood on edge, the life-giving power flowing from her in droves, depositing itself in all the holes and punctures Marius’ body had sustained in his whole sorry time down here.

The angel’s other hand kept her silver blade steady, pointed directly at her flexing foe.

"Thief," she said. "Can you stand?"

She might have well been Lady Amarata herself. She had a voice that cut through even the Big Guy’s insane ramblings.

"Yeah," Marius mumbled.

"Okay," the angel replied. "Then listen carefully: The Warrior is about to charge. When he does, I will relinquish my grip on you and feint right. You must run. Run to the shadows and hide. You have managed to make him spend most of his rage. Wait now for him to use the rest of it up."

Shit, girl, Marius thought. You saw the state I was in. You don’t gotta tell me twice!

"You says it would just be the thief!" Big Guy was bellowing, smacking the side of his head till he drew more blood from his already battered skull. "You told me he was mine!"

It was anyone’s guess who he was talking to. Marius got to his feet and braced himself. Standing beside the angel, he could feel the power radiating from her. Like an aura. An aura with a scent.

One he was all too familiar with.

He risked a sidelong glance at her focused eyes - nothing but pure, raw precision being held within them. But he couldn’t mistake it. He saw what she’d just done to him.

She had The Glance.

"You won’t," Big Guy was snarling, reeling up like a bull and holding his only remaining axe at the ready. "You can’t have him. He’s mine. My toy. My prey. No little bitch is gonna get in my way. You hear me, girl? You stand with him, and I’ll put you down!"

In response, the angel stared back at the hulking beast calmly, as unyielding as the walls of this cavern themselves.

"Put down your weapon," she said again. "And you may pass in peace."

"Peace?" the cackling mass of muscle and madness laughed in response. "Peace? Fuck the word, and fuck you, too!"

He sprung forwards in a charge just as the angel had predicted, and in the next instant she let Marius go and threw him away, her other hand flying to the hilt of her blade as she dove to the right and turned to meet the advancing predator.

Marius made it to cover just as he heard the sound of the air being sliced – an arc of force cutting through the dark abyss that surrounded them all and for a second the entire cave lit up with brilliant luminescence. Then, he heard the Big Guy cry out in pain.

He turned to see the brute kneeling on the ground of the cavern, trying to keep his intestines from spilling out his opened abdomen.

Yet still, to Marius’ horror, he held on to his axe and twisted his broke body round to launch the weapon at the waiting angel, poised at his back, ready to deliver the killing blow.

"YOU LITTLE CUNT!" he screamed.

The angel ignored the blunt battlecry, and smacked his axe to the side with one swift strike of her blade. She then rushed forward – a haze of gold trailing behind her – and the next thing Marius knew she was standing right on top of Big Guy’s shoulders.

"I’m sorry," she said, as their eyes met and locked – Big Guy’s mouth lolling open as what remained of his strength died away. The crimson haze that surrounded him was now gone entirely, replaced by the aura of the golden warrior.

"May your soul find peace with Amarata," she said. "And may the dark within you return to its vile prison."

As the Big Guy hurled a scream of defiance from his lips, he threw up his hands to block her descending blade. With his rage drained, her sword simply pierced through both his palms and buried itself within his throat.

She twisted the blade, let his body spasm, and then kicked him away and wiped the fresh coat of crimson from her sword.

"And thus," she said with sorrow. "I take my second life."

She knelt beside his still twitching corpse, uttering a series of silent whispers that may have been prayers judging by her solemn stance. For Marius, the last few minutes had stretched on like a searing eternity filled with the brightest light he’d ever seen in this place – the same light that was now dimming around the chanting figure of the sword-wielding angel.

He slumped to the floor of the cave, a wave of relief only now washing over him, the shock of seeing himself carved up and knitted back together like a dog’s chew toy only now overcoming him. His eyelids were heavy, but when he saw the figure of the blood smeared warrior’s march up to meet his slumping form, he struggled against the urge to let himself fall into a much needed slumber for at least a few more seconds.

This is no Amaratian cherub, he thought as he cast his eyes over her scorched battledress and crimson-caked boots.

This is an angel of death.

"Who…" he muttered, looking up at her. "Who…are you?"

Before his eyes finally began to close, and the world dimmed to nothing once more, he heard the angel speak one word in the deep dark of The Everloft’s abyss:

"Yelena."