Champion of a Lost Cause

Effruin leaves the concealed hollow behind, cloak drawn close as he moves beneath blood-red leaves. Eve and the wounded rebels remain hidden among the roots, while he travels alone toward Tahu.

At a narrow trail, Remi the Phalanx, a medium-sized athletic orc woman with dark green-gray skin, shaved black hair braided atop her head, and a round shield, steps from behind a stone-hard trunk.

Behind him, Braugarth blocks the rear path. The hulking adult gnoll's tawny fur is matted with travel dust, his quarterstaff planted beside him, his broad jaws wet as he watches.

Remi raises the writ just long enough for its second seal to show: an ancient bow sigil pressed in dark wax, unmistakably belonging to Matriarch Harvess.

The threat settles beneath the red leaves, but neither hunter yields. Remi lowers the writ, and Braugarth shifts his quarterstaff across the trail.

Remi steps forward to narrow the trail. Braugarth circles wide, but his heel grinds loose stones aside, exposing a steep cleft between the roots behind him.

The warning has failed to frighten them, yet their advance opens that rough descent as the only unguarded break. Beyond it, something unseen rushes in the darkness.

Effruin lets his gaze pass from Remi to Braugarth, then down into the dark cleft. His remaining hand settles near his weapon, calm as a grave-marker.

He shifts one step toward the descent and makes the meaning plain: the rushing water may carry two corpses before dawn.

The threat fails to make them yield. Remi advances behind her round shield while Braugarth plants himself squarely between Effruin and the cleft, sealing the descent.

Loose stones tumble beneath Effruin's heel into the unseen stream. The hunters now watch his feet as closely as his hand, denying him the sudden escape he displayed.

Effruin lunges toward the cleft, forcing Remi's shield aside with a sharp feint. Braugarth's quarterstaff catches his advance, and the three stagger against the crumbling edge.

The bank gives way beneath Braugarth's weight. He drops hard to one knee, claws scraping stone, while Remi seizes Effruin's cloak and drags him from the collapsing lip.

The cleft's exposed wall splits open, revealing a narrow shelf descending beside the rushing water. It is too tight for both hunters to guard together.

Remi does not shield Effruin. She drives her round shield straight toward his chest as Braugarth swings the quarterstaff low, the two attacks timed to crush him between them.

Effruin twists aside, but the shield clips his ribs and the staff smashes against the stone beside his foot. The impact rings through the cleft, and pain steals his breath.

The threat has reached them. Neither hunter treats the rushing water as empty scenery now; both keep their assault trained on Effruin, wary that one reckless opening could make either of them the corpse.

Remi advances with another shield strike while Braugarth closes from the opposite side, forcing Effruin onto the narrow shelf above the dark current. His ribs throb, but their fear is plain.

Effruin folds with the shield's momentum, then springs through it in a flurry of drunken motion. His foot finds Braugarth's planted staff as a step.

He vaults past Remi the Phalanx's shoulder and lands behind the gnoll on the narrow shelf. The rushing water roars below, swallowing the scrape of his landing.

Effruin drives his heel into the back of Braugarth's head. The hulking gnoll pitches forward, quarterstaff spinning from his grasp as he collapses against the stone.

Braugarth catches himself on one clawed hand, stunned and sprawled across the shelf. Effruin now stands between him and the cleft's deeper descent.

Remi the Phalanx wheels toward them, shield raised. Behind her, the opened route remains clear, while Braugarth struggles to recover beside the black, rushing current.

Effruin's remaining hand snaps to his flask. He drinks a sharp mouthful, then whips the spirits outward in a sudden drunken arc toward Remi's uncovered face.

The liquor splashes across Remi's eyes. She recoils with a strangled curse, shield jerking high as both hands rise instinctively toward her burning vision.

Her advance breaks apart. Remi staggers against the cleft wall, blinking blindly while the rushing water hammers below and leaves the narrow shelf briefly open.

Braugarth claws himself upright, empty-handed and unsteady. He squares his broad frame toward Effruin, but keeps one foot braced away from the crumbling edge.

Effruin closes the gap in a drunken blur, shoulders slipping past Remi the Phalanx's raised shield as his feet weave across the narrow shelf.

His remaining hand becomes a storm of short strikes, fists, elbows, and open palms landing hundreds of times within a few heartbeats, each blow arriving from a crooked angle.

Remi the Phalanx's shield jerks uselessly between them. Effruin's flurry batters her balance and drives her against the cleft wall, forcing her arms inward as the assault continues.

The barrage ends with a twisting palm strike that sends Remi the Phalanx sprawling onto the stone shelf. Her shield clatters away, and her spear slips from her grasp.

The impacts thunder through the cleft, and the noise carries along the rushing water. Effruin's emptied flask swings uselessly at his belt, while his bruised ribs flare with every breath.

Effruin launches from the shelf in a drunken blur, twisting his body sideways as his remaining leg drives forward in a powerful dropkick.

Both feet strike Braugarth squarely and hurl the hulking gnoll backward. His claws scrape sparks from the stone, but the force carries him over the cleft's edge.

Braugarth crashes into the rushing black water below and vanishes amid the spray. His quarterstaff spins after him, clattering once against the rock before the current takes it.

Effruin lands hard on the narrow shelf, one hand catching the wall. The drunken momentum carries him into a low crouch beside Remi's fallen shield.

Remi blinks through watering eyes and reaches blindly for her spear. Below, the current roars through the cleft, carrying Braugarth away into darkness.

Effruin surges through a drunken weave before Remi can recover her spear. His fist drives forward in a one-inch punch, aimed at the shield beside her.

The blow strikes the round shield with a deep iron crack. Its face buckles and splits along the grain, but the reinforced rim holds, denying him its destruction.

The impact still tears the shield from Remi's reach and drives it spinning against the cleft wall. Its broken straps hang loose, leaving her without a guard.

Remi's searching hand closes around her spear at last, but the shaft remains trapped beneath the warped shield's rim. She must wrench it free before striking.

For one breath, the narrow shelf belongs to Effruin. The ruined shield cannot protect Remi, and her spear is pinned, opening a clear route deeper along the water.

The fractured shield wedges spear and stone together, its warped rim trapping Remi's weapon. Its face is ruined, but the reinforced edge still holds.

Remi abandons the spear's pinned shaft and releases it, twisting her body sideways beneath the cleft wall. Her free hand reaches for Effruin's cloak.

Effruin's drunken flurry keeps her grasping fingers short. He slips past the broken shield, shoulder brushing stone, while the narrow shelf groans beneath their shifting weight.

Remi tears herself free of the trapped spear and lunges after him empty-handed. The warped shield remains behind, wedged across the shelf and blocking her clean pursuit.

Ahead, the shelf bends deeper beside the black current. Behind him, Remi is forced to climb over her own ruined guard before she can follow.

Effruin pivots back toward Remi instead of taking the passage. His drunken stance collapses inward, then launches him across the narrow shelf.

His one-inch punch strikes the shield's center. The impact obliterates the round guard, bursting wood, rim, and straps into fragments that scatter across the stone.

The shattered shield no longer separates them. Remi stands exposed beside her trapped spear as Effruin lands within arm's reach, his body already turning into another crooked motion.

Effruin's drunken fighting overwhelms her rhythm. He slips beneath her grasp, clubs her reaching arm aside, and drives her backward along the shelf with relentless, unorthodox strikes.

Remi's heel finds the stone's edge, and her balance breaks. The black current roars below as Effruin remains over her, denying her spear and keeping the killing distance closed.

Effruin's drunken rhythm fractures into a deadly storm. He slips past Remi's grasp, strikes her balance away, and drives her backward from the shelf's edge.

Her warning comes too late. Effruin twists through her desperate guard, each crooked blow following the last with greater force, denying her spear and any space to recover.

Remi's footing fails completely. Effruin's final attack lands, and the bounty hunter dies on the narrow shelf before the black current below can claim her.

Silence returns in broken pieces: rushing water, falling splinters, and Remi's spear striking stone as her grip releases it.

Effruin remains alone beside the shattered shield. Behind him, the trail toward the forest stays open; ahead, the cleft bends toward darkness and the road to Tahu.

Effruin takes Remi's spear and stands over her fallen form. He sets the point, then drives the weapon down in a final attempt to separate her head from her body.

The spear strikes stone beneath her instead, glancing hard and tearing free from his grip. Remi's corpse rolls toward the shelf's edge, but the weapon has not completed his purpose.

Effruin catches Remi's body before the current takes it, but the spear shaft cracks across the rock. He cannot use it as a stake, and the broken shelf will not hold another violent blow.

The fracture widens beneath the fallen shield fragments, revealing a narrow black opening where cold air rises from below. Water threads through the crack toward a lower passage.

Remi remains beside the shattered shield, while her spear lies broken across the stone. The cleft's hidden opening offers a way deeper, but Braugarth's fate remains somewhere downstream.

Effruin stands at the split shelf with the broken weapon at his feet. Behind him lies the forest trail; ahead, the newly exposed passage descends beneath the road to Tahu.

Effruin lifts the broken spear over Remi the Phalanx's fallen form and drives its point down, attempting to sever her head before he leaves.

The spear meets stone instead of completing the act. The shaft cracks sharply, and the impact rolls Remi the Phalanx's body toward the shelf's edge.

Effruin catches Remi the Phalanx before the black current takes her. The broken spear tears from his grip, useless as a blade or stake.

A fracture spreads beneath the shattered shield, opening onto a narrow passage below. Cold air rises through it as water threads into darkness.

There is no sound of Braugarth nearby, only the current carrying its secrets downstream. Remi the Phalanx remains beside the broken shelf, beyond any further arrangement.

Effruin leaves the failed weapon at his feet. Behind him lies the forest trail; ahead, the newly exposed passage descends beneath the road to Tahu.

Effruin retrieves the broken spear and kneels beside Remi. The rushing water masks the small sounds beneath the cleft's red-stained darkness.

He completes the beheading out of sight beneath the shelf's shadow, then lifts Remi's head and fixes it securely atop the broken spear.

The ruined weapon stands upright beside the trail, its grim burden plainly visible to anyone following the current or searching the cleft.

Effruin leaves Remi's body near the fractured shelf and wipes the spear free of loose debris against the stone.

Below, black water carries Braugarth farther into darkness. Whether he lives or dies, the marked spear now waits as Effruin's message.

Effruin turns from the grisly sign and enters the narrow passage beneath the road to Tahu, leaving the forest trail behind.

The passage descends beside the buried stream. From below comes a wet cough, followed by claws scraping stone. Braugarth still lives in the darkness.

The current has carried Braugarth into a broad underground channel. He clings to a jutting ledge beneath the passage, battered but conscious, his quarterstaff wedged nearby.

Beyond him, water slips beneath a rusted iron grate whose bars have collapsed inward. Torchlight glimmers faintly past it, and distant bells answer from the city above.

Braugarth sees the spear's grim silhouette behind Effruin and bares his teeth, but his grip remains fixed to the ledge rather than reaching for a weapon.

Effruin springs from the passage in a drunken blur. His jumping dropkick catches Braugarth squarely, tearing the gnoll from the ledge and plunging him into the black channel.

Braugarth surfaces choking, claws scraping for purchase. Effruin follows, one hand locking around the gnoll's throat as the current batters them against the stone.

Effruin's drunken motions keep Braugarth's struggling body pinned beneath the water. The channel roars over them until the gnoll's resistance slackens and the current bears him limp against the ledge.

Effruin hauls himself onto the stone and drags Braugarth after him. He leaves the gnoll facedown beside the wedged quarterstaff, then turns toward the rusted grate.

Beyond the collapsed bars, torchlight trembles across a low tunnel. The bells of Tahu sound nearer now, muffled by earth and old masonry.

Behind him, Remi's grim marker remains above the stream, while Braugarth lies silent below. Effruin steps through the broken grate toward the city's lower quarter and his family's trail.

Effruin passes through the broken grate into Tahu's lower quarter. The tunnel opens beneath cramped streets, where rainwater, coal smoke, and stale spice drift between leaning buildings.

He searches without asking, following the signs of wealth among the squalor: fresh carriage ruts, imported incense, and guards wearing dark red cords stamped with an ancient bow.

A veiled courier slips from a doorway, a slight adult woman in a mud-brown cloak, her copper earrings and gloved hands the only bright details in the passage.

At the Black Sluice, Effruin finds the family trail plainly: Harvess's seal pressed into wax, beside three room keys and a guard roster naming Andreas and Caroline.

From the stair above, Matriarch Harvess appears with Andreas and Caroline behind her. Their presence confirms it: Effruin has found his family in Tahu's lower quarter.