Dantes moved through the corridors at his usual pace so that he wouldn’t warn his followers that he knew of them tracking his movements just a few chambers behind him. He started to have individual roaches and rats cross their paths, or make loud noises. At one point he even had a few roaches fall from the ceiling onto them. The older of them managed to stay calm, hiding any impact the actions of the vermin had on him, but the younger let out curses under his breath, barely managing to keep himself from jumping at shadows.
Dantes made his way straight for his garden. He drew the rapier he’d taken from Reivare’s corpse, and speared a ripe apple off of one of the trees before bringing it to his mouth for a bite. The juices from the apple flowed down his chin like blood, and he began to spread his awareness out across the entire garden. He felt it practically roar its hunger for blood back at him. He let the entirety of the garden’s hunger wash over him, from the largest peach tree near the entrance, to the smallest sprig of grapevine creeping across the ground, and accepted it. The feeling he broadcast back to them was simply, ok.
The elves entered the garden boldly, with weapons drawn, but their confidence wavered when they saw Dantes staring directly at them, eating an apple skewered through with their former leader’s own blade.
Dantes swallowed. “Welcome.”
The elves stayed silent, and spread apart slightly, their steps wary as they looked around the chamber. They were doing their best to hide it, but Dantes could see their amazement at the plant life that surrounded them. He could also sense their every step as they touched the roots of trees or the bodies of vines with the soles of their well worn boots. He began to tighten his will.
“Grimald sent you to discover the source of the fruit I assume?”
They stayed silent but exchanged a quick glance, continuing to separate further in an attempt, he assumed, to set up an attack.
“Come on, no reason we can’t talk. No reason this has to be violent.” Dantes gestured with the rapier across the garden, removing what was left of the apple’s core from the blade with a flick of his wrist. He wasn’t very experienced with blades longer than daggers, but his natural dexterity made the gesture simple enough. “You must be curious about all of this. Even if you do decide to kill me, wouldn’t it be better to have your questions answered?” Dantes was moving rats and roaches into position as he spoke. He’d been practicing dividing his attention for months now. He still had trouble doing it while he was walking, but while lying, biding time, or bullshitting? That came so naturally he barely needed to focus on it at all. He could put all of his energy into his abilities.
The older one was the one who spoke first, surprising both Dantes and his companion.
“How?” He almost involuntarily reached out to touch a tree trunk with his bare hand.
Dantes smiled. “I developed a new set of skills, very shortly after Reivare decided to have me killed. I’m not sure what all they entail, but from what I understand I’m a druid.”
The older one blinked. “A druid!? Here!?”
The younger one looked at him, surprised at how animated his mentor had become.
“What’s a druid?”
The old elf shook his head, running a finger down his scarred face. “You only ever lived in the city, it makes sense you wouldn’t know. Druids are blessed by the Mother with the power of the wilds to grow and protect her children and their homes. Forests, jungles, mountains, druids can exist in any of them, but they are very rare. In my home, before I came here, I knew of a druid who maintained the forest next to ours.”
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The younger of them’s face scrunched up. “Why would there be druid here?”
The older one looked at Dantes, also curious as the answer to that question.
Dantes shrugged. “Fuck if I know, but here I am.” Dantes filed away what he’d just heard. He chose to reveal what he was on the off chance they’d reveal something more for him, and they’d done exactly that. He wasn’t worried about them knowing, it wouldn’t matter soon.
“Even knowing that, it doesn’t explain this garden. I’ve still never heard of druids having this type of power.”
“The druid you knew couldn’t do this?”
“I don’t think so… but he was a dwarf, so the clan shunned him when we saw him.”
Dantes frowned, that meant he likely wouldn’t be able to get any more information about that from him.
“So, I answered your question. Let me ask mine again. Did Grimald send you, or is this some fresh attempt at revenge?”
The young one spoke this time. “Yeah, he sent us. The revenge is just a bonus.”
Dantes nodded. “Thank you. Any chance you might be willing to work for me instead of him?” The offer wasn’t genuine, but keeping them off balance had value.
“In a vacuum, we would have no issue working with you, but after what you did to the Kings, you must die.” said the older of the two.
Dantes smiled, everything was in place, he’d bought all the time he needed.
The older Elf’s mouth opened. “Wait, a druid in a garden.” he turned around. “We need to lea-”. As he completed his turn toward the exit, he saw an army of rats and roaches standing at the exit, calmly watching him. He adjusted quickly, “We need to kill him first!”
As he began to turn around, Dantes unleashed the will he’d been building within himself and the garden responded. Vines moved to coil around the elves’ ankles, branches moved to block their path, and roaches and rats moved to swarm and distract them.
The younger one managed to jump onto an outcropping of rock before he could be entangled, but the old one wasn’t so lucky and began attempting to hack his way free as he became covered in all the nature Dantes could muster. He fought calmly, even as roaches began crawling across his eyes.
The younger one leapt toward Dantes, swinging his long dagger in a wide arc as he landed. Dantes was too quick though, and he rolled toward the garden before he even landed, raising the rapier's point as he landed to keep it focused on his unencumbered opponent.
The elf charged him, and Dantes was thrown into the defensive by his enemy’s superior skill, backing away and parrying, but unable to respond with attacks of his own. He was in better shape than his last fight, but he was never a straight up fighter. He continued backing away, using wide swings to keep his enemy at a distance, and had a number of roaches crawl up to his hand, which he then threw towards his opponents face. While he was distracted, Dantes had the vines at his feet tangle him causing him to trip. Once he was on the ground, Dantes took the rapier and drove it into his back.
The older elf cried out, and used all of his strength to briefly break free of the vines, trees, rats, and roaches to try and launch himself at Dantes, but in less than a second he was covered again. Dantes had focused most of his energy on subduing him over the younger one, he could tell that he was the greater threat. Now that he was the only one left, Dantes brought the fullness of his attention to him.
Dantes took a moment to draw the rapier from the dead elf’s back, and walked casually toward the other one who had dropped his weapon in an attempt to tear a rat from his face. The rats, roaches, and vines cleared from his path as he moved, instinctually understanding that was what he wanted them to do.
He raised the rapier and readied himself to strike. He wanted it to be clean. “You know, it's a shame this is how things worked out. You both seemed levelheaded and capable. I’d have traded a few of my current allies for you two in a heartbeat.” He shrugged. “Don’t worry too much though, I still have a use for you.”
He drove the rapier through the writhing elf’s chest, killing him near instantly, then withdrew the blade and wiped it against the nearest tree. He checked his ratmark and roachmark. Both had taken a heavy dip, as was always the case when he used the powers in a way that risked their lives. The marks were still more than halfway full though, which gave him a good amount of wiggle room, though he’d have to wait even longer to find out what happened when he filled the ratmark.
He slid the rapier back into its place at his side, and sent his awareness over the garden and all of the vermin within it.
“Rats, roaches, the meat is all yours, just leave both of their right ears for me. Garden, you crave blood? Gorge yourself.”
The vermin and the garden responded with enthusiasm.