The Plague Part 2: The Shrouded Stalker (Darius/Solo)

The member 'Sith' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

It had only been a day since Darius had left to go on that extraction mission for those strange purple plants, and other than the ongoing services that he was providing for the herbalist, there wasn't much to do here. Other than the local inn and drinking, there were no specific places to have fun...or at the very least, have Darius' version of fun—drinking, sex, gambling, fighting, etc. It was a relatively quaint town, it's scary plant problem probably being the most interesting event going on in the town at the moment. The young swordsman sighed as he opened the duffel he used when he was travelling, retrieving his favourite pipe and packing some mint herbs into the bowl to go smoke outside.

Darius' room was upstairs from the inn and was currently being rented through the herbalist's payroll, as the herbalist would need the swordsman for his experiments and protection. The young mage walked down the staircase and called out to the innkeeper, "Hey James, I'll be outside smoking."

"Darius, Dr. Pomas told me that he needs you, says that he wants to talk to you about something," the bartender responded.

Dammit, just when I was about to go for a god damn smoke. Damn geezer. Darius sighed and nodded, thanking the man behind the counter for informing him and walked back upstairs to place the pipe down on the table, before heading out again.

As he was walking, however, Darius overheard the soft sound of shoe meeting grass, headed in his direction. The Requip mage looked back out of curiosity, furrowing his eyebrows and thinking, must be hearing things...unless, however, Darius dismissed the thought from his mind. But, as Darius kept walking, he continued hearing the occasional light footsteps following him. He bit his lip, realising what was going on, I think someone is following me.

Darius whipped his head backwards, his eyes darting around the surrounding area, searching for this strange stalker. However, he could find none. Despite Darius feeling like he was overthinking, he kept his guard up just in case.

Once he arrived at the herbalist's house, the elder, hunched gentleman opened and gestured the young swordsman in. In sharp contrast to the herbalist's hospitality, Darius ordered, "Speak quickly, doctor."

The herbalist seemed confused, but nodded and responded, "Well, I conducted tests on the samples that you brought me and it produced some...noteworthy results."

Pomas gestured Darius to a table, where vials and experimental equipment lay. The sight of Pomas' alchemical table was a source of confusion for the mercenary, as Darius wasn't well-versed, or versed at all really, in the alchemical art. The table contained many flasks, many connected to each other through tubes and the like.

"As you can see, I've done many experiments using my lab equipment...but...I'v found out through trial and error that these plants are highly caustic and corrosive." Pomas left the room to pull out a round flask, except the plants roots seemed to have broken the thing and had started to spread throughout the piece of glassware, "They break down physical matter and spread its roots...this is very forboding, Darius. I feel something malicious is at work here,"

The herbalist's words immediately echoed back to the possible stalker Darius felt like was encroaching, "Tell me about it."

"I even contained the roots in metal, the strongest container I had and..." Pomas looked to a metal box, one which Darius could only discern was a metal box through the fact that the roots around this container hadn't fully enveloped the thing. Furthermore, purple plants had started to grow on this metal box.

The swordsman grit his teeth, "Well, shit."

"Don't worry, Darius, I fully intend on eliminating these samples within the next week to avoid further growth, but this worries me."

Something caught Darius' eye, however, barely reaching the blindspot of his peripheral vision, he caught someone stalking them through the window. The swordsman uttered a single word, "Fuck."

"What?" Pomas asked.

"Get in the kitchen, NOW!" Darius yelled, before he sprinted and dived out the window, glass shattering everywhere as the young swordsman rolled onto the ground, looking up to see a shrouded figure right next to the window.

"Shit, I've been spotted." The stalker spoke with a gravelly voice.

"No shit, asshole, now tell me what you're doing here and I might let you live," Darius leered at the figure, whose face still hadn't been revealed yet.

Instead of complying, however, the figure drew a long black rapier and Darius groaned, "God dammit, why does everyone who fights me with a sword have to use a fucking rapier."

"You're unarmed." The stalker said in a seemingly satisfied tone.

"Guess again, bitch." Darius smirked, a red magic circle appearing near his hand. The swordsman reached in and pulled out a saber glowing with a blue aura.

A battle ensued as the shrouded figure charged at Darius, the opponent's attacks being precise and deliberate. The Requip mage blocked and parried, but remained on the defensive as the rapier proved to be faster than his saber. However, when the shrouded figure found an opening in Darius' defence, and jabbed the tip of the rapier into Darius' shoulder, the man growled in pain, jumping backwards and swearing in a foreign language before saying, "Alright, let's end this quickly."

With that, the Desierto swordsman activated his superior combat intuition. The shrouded figure paid no heed to the talkative man's words and proceeded to attack again, using the same precise blows that he was using before. However, something seemed to have changed with Darius: he was dodging every attack. The requip mage was easily predicting the movements that his opponent was making: manoeuvring left, right in very fluid and natural movements. Frustrated, the figure attempted to be faster, but all of the attacks were missing.

"My turn," Darius grinned, before beginning to go on the offensive.

Darius began to slash at the opponent, and even when the figure tried to attack, Darius would simply pivot away. The requip mage sent a wave of magical energy at the opponent by slicing his blade, the attack striking the opponent and causing them to move a few steps backward, unbalanced. Darius took advantage of this by mercilessly slashing at the opponent's chest, and the shrouded figure was a durable fighter.

However, eventually, after inflicting several slashes, cuts, and deeply cut stabs into the hooded figure, the opponent got onto his knees, bleeding in many places, and asked, "I surrender..."

Darius sighed and nodded, turning his back from the opponent. In response, the hooded figure was just about to draw a hidden dagger from his waist, but was cut off when Darius spun around and...well, cut off the hooded figures head. As the dismembered head rolled away, the victorious swordsman heard the herbalist cry out, "Oh my god!"

"Sorry about that, gramps. The asshole was just about to draw a hidden dagger on me." Darius then crouched down and began to rummage through the corpse's belongings.

"What the hell are you doing, Darius?!" Pomas exclaimed.

"Seeing if there's any clues on him that can tell us why he was following us." However, all Darius found was a burnt match, and a strange silver coin with a hand imprinted on one side, and a skull on the other.

The swordsman raised the coin up to the herbalist and asked, "Does this mean anything to you, doctor?"

"No...no I've...never seen it before." The herbalist responded, still shaken at the corpse laying on his property.

"That's a damn shame, I don't know what it means either."

Although mortified by Darius' killing of the stalker, however justified, Pomas scratched his head and stated, "Thank you, Darius, I don't know what would have become of me if you weren't there to fight him...I'll offer you a bonus for this."

"Now that, is something I like to hear." Darius grinned, before recalling his saber back into his pocket dimension.

"I'd like to keep you in my employ, I think we may have gotten ourselves into something big." The doctor offered.

"Hey, as long as the coin keeps on coming, you can keep me as long as you like." Darius then looked down at the corpse and the head that lay around him and said in an annoyed tone, "I'll uh...I'll clean this up."



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