When Ninjas Attack

((This is a collaborative work between Krelle and Shisou. Since Wiki is a collaborative tool I thought we'd use it to coordinate polishing it up into a finished form. Likely we'll both be editting it until sometime tomorrow when it shall be declared finished and this notice removed. If this is not an acceptable use of the Wiki-age, please let me know.)) --Helpdeskninja 00:51, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Shisou crept down the dark tunnel with Krelle close behind him. These tunnels and caves and chambers had been used by all manner of smugglers and mages and warlocks over the centuries. Essentially anyone who wanted to stay hidden wound up settling in them and a few had even expanded on them. He wasn't sure how the Syndicate had found out about them but sure enough this was where they tended to hang out. Emphasis on the past tense.

The tunnel was nearly pitch dark and steep as fel but that wasn't a problem for Krelle of course, since she had some kind of magic Forsaken vision. He could see well enough in what little light came dimly from the hideout below and he knew the tunnel well. They both blended into the shadows as they approached their target. Two guards were standing outside a large, rough wooden door, bound together by heavy iron. Over their heads hung a pair of arcane lamps, casting a pale blue-white glow over the chamber. They crouched just out of the light and exchange looks. Even in the dimness Shisou could read Krelle's expression. This was his show. She probably wanted to see what he could do first hand. Well this would be one gorram test he wouldn't mind. He gestured at her and then gestured to the guard closest to them. She nodded and he slipped a dagger out of his bracer.

-

Krelle could barely see a damn thing in the tunnels but she wasn't about to admit it. She kept a hand on the wall beside her and walked softly, following the sound of Shisou's footsteps along the damp stones. She didn't enjoy being in small, dark, enclosed spaces underground by any means but Shisou's request for backup on this particular job had come at an opportune moment and there was no one else in town aside from Facet who was busy being visible and playing "legit shopkeep" down in the Bazaar. Part of her plan with the Syndicate was to keep a low profile for the Tong. For now. It was convenient that Shisou had fallen into the company at that time and she intended to use him. She tried to ignore the way the dank corridor reminded her of the pit and focused on the job at hand.

She suppressed a sigh of relief as they finally approached a light source. Two guards - and a cheap door. They'd have to take them out silently so they didn't alert those inside. The guards were slouched where they stood and chatting idly in common, neither one particularly alert. She cocked an eyebrow at Shisou. He indicated for her to take the closer one. She nodded and silently drew her daggers. Keeping the shadows tight around her the small forsaken slid into position behind the blond human on the right. She glanced up to make sure that Shisou was behind his own target.

Both humans died with the same stupid, astonished looks on their faces. -

The thick door was devoid of a lock but from the look of the hinges it would screech to all fel when it was pulled open. Luckily there were a few inches between the floor and the bottom of the door, just enough for them to get a good look at the chamber beyond. It was a long rectangular hall with a large arcane lamp suspended from the roof for lighting. Tables, chairs and cots made up the only furnishings in the room and between them moved at least twenty humans in cheap black leather. They showed no indication of knowing their companions on the other side of the door were dead. They're weapons were scattered about, not all at hand. Most of them were kicking back and quite a few were drinking. You'd think with their smaller nests disappearing one by one they'd at least put up a decent guard. Stupid humans. They probably didn't expect anything to hit them here. Seemed like everyone who occupied these catacombs always forgot that other people would know about them.

Shisou looked back at Krelle after surveying the room. She watched him attentively as he gestured out his plan in silence. They'd have to burst through the door, take out the lamps, and wreak havoc in the dimness. The lamps in the entry chamber here would provide plenty of light for the two of them, and the shadows and dimness could only play to their favor. Plan laid out they wasted no time in executing it. Shisou took a running charge at the door, barreling it open as Krelle winged a throwing star at the lamp. As two score eyes turned towards the door, the lamp shattered, raining glowing blue shards in a circle. Shi let his momentum carry him forward into a roll and sprang up to plant his feet into the jaw of the closest Syndicate. Blood gushed out of the human's mouth, he must have bit his tongue, and the elf continued the same motion, pouncing on the human as he fell and giving him a crimson grin across his neck.

-

Krelle vanished back into the shadows as the lamp shattered. The humans as he pulled of an incredibly acrobatic throat-cutting and she took advantage of their distraction. Poisoned blades in hand she slipped up behind a huge man with iron-grey hair. Twin thrusts to the kidneys took him to his knees so she could reach his throat. In the confusion that surrounded their entrance she and Shisou were able to kill several men before the others were able to gather up their weapons and fight back properly. -

Everytime they'd surround him he'd feint towards one, dash into another, leave a bloody trail in his wake, and get surrounded again. There just didn't seem to be an end to them. He parried a sword with his left sword and struck with his right. A human cried out as his face was severed from temple to jowl. Fun. He ducked under a swing and came up, left sword slicing air... and then slicing crotch. Stupid humans. Was this the best they could do? They were all so slow.

-

Krelle and Shisou fought beside each other at first but soon became separated by the melee. Krelle kept moving, ducking and weaving as she leapt over chairs and rolled under tables to keep the syndicate's blades from finding her. Her own daggers spun in twin deadly arcs as she maneuvered. She scored many small nicks and cuts as she danced between the human's blows. Knicks and cuts were all that was needed. As she leapt from a cot to a dining table two men collapsed in increasingly violent spasms as bloody foam poured out of their mouths. It turns out that messah and deathweed have a lovely synergistic effect.

Three men were circling the table. She hooked her foot into an ale pitcher's handle and kicked it at the closest. He dodged it with an oath, throwing him off balance as Krelle jumped past him, nicking his shoulder. He spun on her but was already beginning to lose muscle control. [i]This really is an excellent poison,[/i] she marveled, stepping up to a chair and hopping back over the table as the other two charged her. One human bellowed something frustrated in common as the other lunged over the table to try and grab at her legs. She dodged and kicked him in the head, stunning him. The shouter swung his sword in a long arc but she parried with both blades. Sparks shot out as she lunged forward, her knives following his weapon back to his hand. One caught on the crosspiece but the other sliced a gash into his hand. She grinned and danced backwards down the long table, out of his reach again. He moved as though to come after her but stopped with a look of horror at his hand as the tissue started to swell painfully. The kicked man was getting up, shaking his head to clear it but the one she'd cut wouldn't be able to back him up in a moment.

Her gaze flicked over the room as she waited for the dazed human to come to her. It was then that she noticed the mage.

"Shit!" she yelped as a fireball streaked towards her. She dove behind the only cover she had: the half-dazed human.

-

The fireball had lit the room like a Winter's Veil celebration, and in close quarters like these that just wouldn't do. He could see the mage by the door, preparing another spell. Three more men were charging Krelle and she had that fried corpse to deal with. Quick move that. A human lunged at him and he jumped, placing a foot in its face and leaping higher in the air. He slipped the swords in their sheaths on his back and grabbed the metal frame that had housed the arcane lamp. His momentum carried his feet to the roof and he released the frame, letting it fall to the floor in a clatter, and sprung from the roof as one would spring from the ground. The mage looked up at the last second to see the wild eyed sin'dorei spiraling towards him through the air. He knocked the mage clear off his feet and his hands wrapped around mage's head. The pull of pure mana was just too strong. He opened up and devoured it. His eyes became turquoise furnaces as the mage's screams filled the chamber. So pure. So rich. He couldn't stop, pulling more and more energy until all that came out of the tortured mage's throat was a death rattle. Then he dropped the dried, withered husk to the floor and smiled at the remaining humans. He must have made a terrifying sight, a lithe dark shadow against the light; blazing eyes promising death with a grin.

Krelle was dancing down the table again, corpses all around her, some still twitching. Four humans were after her but so far she was eluding their desperate swings. A grunt from behind him brought Shisou's gaze to the other end of the chamber, where a human was rising to his feet and bringing a crossbow to bear. There was no time to think. The bolt was aimed for Krelle and he leapt instantly to intercept it. He felt the hit in his left shoulder. It tore through flesh and bone alike; nearly taking him off his feet. A split second later and the dagger left his fingers. Running high on mana and adrenaline he didn't even feel the pain of the bolt protruding through his shoulder. He grinned as the human fell with steel protruding from between his eyes.

-

Krelle's back was to Shisou, her attention focused on the last of the men before her. They were staying out of her short range, trying to position themselves around her so one could get a solid hit. She foiled their plan by moving constantly up and down the length of the table, making them reposition. One had the bright idea to get a polearm from the rack on the wall and swung it like a lumberjack. Krelle leapt straight up as the shaft whistled through the air beneath her. The instant her feet hit the table she sprang at the man, raking both knives across his face as he tried to recover the heavy weapon in time to block. She dropped a flashbomb, closed her eyes as it went off, then spun around behind the next man. She slipped a dagger between his fourth and fifth ribs, pulling it out in a gush of blood as his heart pumped its last futile beat. The blood spattered across her face but the mask kept it out of her eyes. She grinned like a pale little blood demon and leapt for the third man. He turned to run but she was faster than him.

Krelle jumped back up to the table, daggers ready. Where had the last one gone?

-

Shisou turned to check on Krelle and found himself facing a human poised to cut him down. His left hand shot for its sword, but he knew he wouldn't get it out in time to parry. Instead of swinging, though, the human froze with a sudden look of horror on his face. He coughed once, spraying blood in the air as it foamed and ran over out of his mouth. And then he fell, revealing a smiling, slightly singed, blood-covered Krelle standing behind him. Maybe he'd ask her later how she did that. He looked around, finding all the humans were dead. That was when his brain realized that there was a piece of wood sticking all the way through his shoulder and he dropped to his knees with a gasp.