The action began. As the red skinned warriors leapt, Odroughs men rose from behind theirimpromptu defences and unleashed a volley of arrow at point blank range. A few red warriors staggered but most seemed to barely feel the barbed arrows sticking in their flesh. They tore at the netting with a wide variety of weapons and a terrifying ferocity.
Odrough watched a third volley of arrows slam into the attackers with no visible effect and waved his sword above his head. "Have at them with the pikes lads!" He roared.
While the crew grabbed their pikes Onslaught tested his enemies magical defences. They were very strong, like fighting a whole army of Rune Lords. However Onslaught knew it was imperative that casualties were inflicted on the attackers and so in the first few moments of the assault he used the spiritual sword of Humakt to sever five of their souls from their bodies.
Renna hid behind a bail casting sleep on the attackers to no obvious effect. Their magic was too strong. The violence of them was palpable in the air and left Renna feeling weak and drained. The huge, muscular redskins frothed at the mouth while the crew yelled back with desperate defiance and Onslaught stood ready like a Harbinger of doom.
Odrough's charge met with some success. The anti-boarding pikes had large crosspieces that forced the skewered attackers away from the netting and half a dozen of the red warriors were pushed back with serious wounds.
But it wasn't enough, in moments they were through the nets and the deck filled with crimson killers.
Onslaught moved in among them, trying to aid Odroughs men. The crew were seriously outclassed, even Odrough, master bladesman that he was, barely held his own against only one warrior. His crew were cut apart like gutted fish. Those that didn't die outright were clubbed senseless and captured for reasons unknown, It didn't seem likely that the red men did it as an act of kindness.
In moments Onslaught knew he'd found a fight worthy of his steel. The first red warrior launched into him with stupendous speed and almost caught him off guard. Not only was the attack blisteringly fast but it had a weight of arm behind it that Onslaught had never encountered before. It drove his parry down and struck sparks of his armour. As surprised as Onslaught was, it was as nothing compared to the shock the red warrior felt as his throat was torn out by a deceptive back handed blow that evaded his quick, but out of line parry.
Three more fell before Onslaught before they grew cautiousand sent forth a champion. A warrior standing over seven feet in height leapt at the Humakti with a greatsword that could have held up a building and been mistaken for a girder. Knowing the strength needed to weild such a blade, Onslaught slipped the massive blow with fading footwork and closed for a gutting axe strike against his lightly armoured foe.
He was nearly beheaded by the returning greatsword as the red warrior brought in the huge weapon on a gliding back-swing with no discernable effort. Onslaught reflexively dodged the next attack though his eyes still saw sparks from the glancing blow he'd recieved. Changing tactic, he feinted with his own sword and spun in a tight circle, his foot lashing out and downwards into the knee-cap of the big red killer. The pop was audible over the sound of battle as his leg bend backwards at an angle like a marsh cranes. Onslaught cut through the back of the falling warriors' kneck as he slipped past him and rammed his sword through another attacker.
Renna crawled in among the bales of Karse wool and hid while the final moments of the one sided battle played themselves out. Odrough fell bravely, killing two of his foes before a colossal axe stroke cleft him from brow to pelvis. He was the last of his men to die, true to their word, defending their ship.
Only Onslaught still stood and fought. A ring of red warriors came at him from all sides to take hime down, he ran at one warrior as the ring closed, leapt into the air with his magical jump, kicking his foe in the head so hard that his skull burst on impact with the iron boot. Onslaught tumbled from the impact, rolled in the air and landed like an acrobat. In moments he was back among them again, killing and killing.
Finally even the red warriors, in their fury, saw sense and they pulled back. The big Humakti stood at bay, surrounded by his foes. Two dozen spear were readied to be cast at him and magics filled the air for the final onslaught on Onslaught.
Then a voice broke the brief silence. It was a female voice, potent and sensual that spoke in a throaty language that neither Onslaught or Renna had heard before. The red warriors responded immediately, putting up their weapons and drawing a corridor through them for the speaker to walk through. Though restrained, their hungry eyes never left Onslaught for a moment.
The speaker was a woman. She was vitually naked, blue skinned and stunningly beautiful. She stared at Onslaught with a burning intensity. "What manner of man are you?" She asked clearly in trade tongue.
Onslaught felt stirrings he'd thought long buried at the sight of her but with decades of iron discipline he spoke evenly and without inflection. "I am Onslaught, a Sword of Humakt."
She moved closer to him, the power of her presence seemed to draw strength from him and replace it with desires he had forgotten existed within him. She moved within his weapon range and touched the think blood caked all over his armour. "You slew a score of my kin, an unheard of feat yet you are just a mortal, doomed to die like all the cattle. Come with me warrior and I can give you life eternal! Come with me and weild your sword for ever in war,
death and plunder!" She burned with the fires of her passion and need. Onslaught spoke stiffly. "Death comes to us all for it is sacred and notto be avoided but revelled in. It is what defines our lives and gives us meaning. If I were immortal the gaining of my skill would mean little for who could not with centuries to practice?"
She laughed, a rich bell-like sound. "Foolish mortal! How I love to hear you excuse your miserable existances and to revel in the suffering you endure! We live for ourselves and suffer only at our whim, only if it brings pleasure. Join with us and see eternity clasped in my arms as we inflict our whims on the world around us. You can be my consort-king, the war leader of my Reds and my lover forever!" She held her arms out in further invitation, the power of her voice sunk deep into Onslaughts brain, seeking out his weaknesses, the human side of him that wanted to live a life of pleasure and to grasp this vision of beauty in his arms and to forget his rigid geas's and iron bonds of loyalty for ease and momentary pleasures..
She saw his inner struggle, saw his self-doubt, knew that he was hers. A smile lit her radiant features, a smile of triumph and insatiable lusts. A smile that never left her face, even after Onslaught cut her head off.
"Sorry lady, you ain't my type." He said quietly into the silence. His
words were punctuated by the thunking noise her head made as it hit the ground.
With a roar of primal fury the Reds assailed him once more and Renna watched as blood sprayed the decks till it ran in little rivers down the planking, till the roar of death filled her head and threatedned to make it burst.
Renna screamed and staggered to her feet. She called out to her Goddess, called out to end the suffering and she gave of herself to end that suffering. She poured out her life so that others may live and the goddess heard. The Goddess responded.
Renna awoke with a start as cold water splashed in her face. Onslaught stood over her. He was heavily wounded but didn't seem to notice the blood seeping through the riven armour. "Are you alright?" He asked.
"What happened?" She wondered aloud as she shakily made it to her feet.
The deck was covered in bodies, that she'd seen already but among them were
dozens of shrivelled red corpses, shrivelled as if all the juices had been
sucked right out of them.
"I don't really know. I was fighting, ready for a good death one moment
and they all keeled over the next.. They're all dead on the ship too. I heard
you calling on Chalana Arroy to heal them. I thnk thats what she did."
"Healed them.....but why are they dead?"
"Like a wound thats infected, some say it has a life of its own. You
heal the wound you kill the infection. I think you healed the wound but they
were the infection."
Renna nodded wearily. Her soul was drained and her connection with the Goddess that she had felt every moment of her priesthood was distant, a feeling she hadn't had since being a lowly initiate all those years ago. "What do we do now?"
"The crew are all dead, we're on our own. The shores not far, I'll
unhook a boat and we'll row. I checked Odroughs maps. Seems we're off the
coast of a land called Ramalia. I wonder what its like, sounds like fun." Said
Onslaught cheerfully.
Renna groaned and felt the blackness close in on her once more.
Martin Laurie
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #125
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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