The Deep (pygalgic & Ecchi Kunoichi)

[Pygalgic]

One of the first things Legitimate was taught after being accepted into the monastery--after his father's generous contribution of sheep, wheat and a few acres--is that if you must do something, you must do it with the most absolute focus. Do not think of meditation when you must eat; do not think of scything the field if you must be practicing your forms. Now he was doing his utmost not to dwell on how he was caught cheating in a gambling den while running for his life from a group of albino orcs. Hopefully one or two of the poor suckers he had been caught with were standing and fighting the orcs. That should slow them down.

The itinerant monk's bare feet hit the ground in long, bounding strides that ate up ground quickly. He was quickly outrunning the orcs, which while excellent, did not mean he was outrunning their mounts. The creatures that appeared eerily similar to naked mole rats, except they were the size of ponies. The way the two orc outriders were laughing was particularly disheartening.

"Fuck!" Legitimate came to a skidding halt. In front of him was a sudden drop, a rift. Behind him were two albino orc outriders on giant naked mole rats. If he had not stopped and had known it was coming he might have been able to make the jump. But now? All that was left to do was fight. At least a few of the others were not far behind him.

 

[Ecchi Kunoichi]

As the orcs bore down on the cornered man with their giant naked mole rats, one would suddenly growl in discomfort, but made no other move.. in fact, he seemed not to move at all, as if he were frozen where he sat. The other would look over questioningly before a figure appeared behind him, the naked mole rat making a noise and starting to buck around as someone stood on its back behind the orc. A blade swiftly made its way around to the front of the orc's neck, slicing its throat open. It gurgled in pain before slumping and falling off to the side. Now the rogue stood visible to Legitimate, the one who was part of the group that had been rounded up. Most of them were strangers to each other, but they all had one thing in common.. They had each been caught cheating in the gambling den run by that crime ring, and then pulled together against their will into a group, and told they were being sent down to the deep to gather enough loot to pay their debts, plus interest, or die trying. If any came out empty handed, they would be killed by the group's assassins.

Shaera was a rather unique breed, a small race of Elves that originated in a mixing of Wood Elven and Drow, creating a rather exotic new breed of Elf, typically simply called Dark Elves, due to their Drow origins, and their excellent sight in the dark. She, like most of her rare kind, had a deep caramel tan color to her skin, silvery hair, and deep violet eyes. She wore an outfit befitting her class as a rogue, leather belts and straps over a layer of leather armor that wrapped around her chest and abs, leather bracers, boots that reached up to her mid-thigh, and a belt that held her twin short blades, as well as various pouches for her other supplies. Those blades were of a typical elven craft style with curves in the blades, and were too short to be true swords, yet too long to be considered daggers, putting them somewhere between. Under the leather she had a dark red tunic with long sleeves, and which ended above her navel. Around her hips was a uniquely styled skirt garment of the same dark red material, which was designed to leave a strip of fabric hanging down to her knees at the front, and back, leaving the sides open. Between the tall boots, and the open sides of the long loin-flap like skirt, her tan upper thighs were visible, with straps belted around them holding a number of throwing daggers. The same sorts of daggers were also strapped to her upper arms, and at various points around the leather armor she wore on her upper body. Her face from her nose down was covered by a scarf-like mask of similar dark red material, and over her head she wore a hood, again of that dark red fabric, that was part of a cowl draped over her shoulders and upper chest.

She sat herself down on the large naked mole rat, where the orc had previously been, her short blade sheathed again. She reaches a hand out to Legitimate in a gesture to help him up onto the creature as well, her other hand holding the reigns. "Come, let's go before the other one regains his motor control." Her plan seemed to be taking the now dead orc's mount so they could outrun any others and make their escape.

 

[Pygalgic]

Never one to pass up an opportunity, Legitimate grasped Shaera's hand and lightly jumped up onto the back of the naked mole rat. "Thanks, stranger. My name's Legitimate--it's a long story. Now, let's get the fuck out of here." He was slightly embarassed by how put together this elf woman was. He, on the either hand, had not fared so well. Stubble covered his face and his hair was in a disarray. His normally pristine silk tunic and trousers had rents and questionable stains from being forcibly taken from the room he was renting by thugs. Legitimate would never have been caught were it not for the raging bender he had been on for the previous three days off of his winnings. He was skilled enough with his art that it was difficult to take him without his permission, though he preferred not to practice that side of things.

He looked back the way they had come and saw that the albino orcs had trussed up or killed the rest of their group. The greedy creatures were looking back in their direction with obvious interest. "We still need to deal with the orcs... I think there's a bend we can take. About twenty feet back, looks like it curves down."

 

[Ecchi Kunoichi]

The rogue helped pull him up onto the creature, and turned it away from the cliff to begin riding off at a brisk pace. "Shaera. Hold on." She pushed the creature into a full run, bounding along as she held on tightly with her legs. She nods at his mention of the bend, heading that way now to get to it, hoping for a clean escape from the orcs. "We just need to put enough distance between us.. Once we get out of their territory, they're unlikely to keep chasing us." Once they reached that bend, she took it, heading down along the path it gave them, hoping the orcs would decide they weren't worth pursuing.

 

[Pygalgic]

"Pleased to meet you, Shaeeeerrrraaaaaa!" As it turned out, the bend in the tunnel that followed was steep. Very steep. The giant naked mole rat they were riding lost its footing and tumbled, sending the normally sure footed Legitimate slewing down the steep slope after it.

When he finally managed to get enough of a group to control his slide he began trying to halt it in its entirety when it seems they found the rest of the albino orc slaving and hunting party. All thirty of them. Definitely too much for a monk, a rogue and a confused naked mole rat to contend with.

Three of the orcs charged at Legitimate and Shaera. Without thinking Legitimate kipped up to his feet and ducked a blow, sent his shoulder into an orc's groin and then heaved the creature behind him and down onto its head. That move elicited a response from the creature's head that sounded like nothing so much as a log of wood being split. He leaped forward, foot coming up on an orc's outstretched knee and sent a flying elbow into the bridge of its nose, sending green blood spurting out of its face.

The remaining orc lunged at Shaera, attempting to get hold of her tunic and throw her.

 

[Ecchi Kunoichi]

Shaera spit out a curse in a language that resembled Elven, but certainly seemed to be a dialect unlike that of the typical Elvish tongue, as the naked mole rat lost its footing and sent them tumbling down the slope. It took her a moment to gain her own footing and then stop her forward momentum. The instant she saw the orcs, her twin blades were out and at the ready, slipping into a fighting stance. She looked over to see the monk knocking two of the orcs around, rather impressed with his skill, glad in the knowledge that he wasn't useless, and she was wise to help him out.

She allowed the sight to distract her a moment too long, the orc that came for her grabbing at her sleeve. She felt him twisting, lifting her from her feet, and all she had time to do was plunge her blade into its forearm as it tossed her. Her sleeve tore under the strap that held her throwing daggers, baring part of her caramel skin on her arm. She tries to hold on via her blade, but the weapon simply sliced down the orc's arm before slipping free, sending her tumbling to the ground. Now there was a roaring, very pissed off orc with only one good arm staring her down and charging at her. She quickly dropped one of her blades to grab at a few of her throwing daggers, tossing them toward the orc's feet to try and trip it up.

 

[Pygalgic]

The albino orc's noise Legitimate had smashed like an overripe tomato gave a vast, chilling roar in time with its companion battling Shaera. Legitimate recalled one of his later lessons. It had been called "Fetching the Twig." He had been forced to spend months quickly grabbing and pulling a stick hanging at different levels while other disciples and monks battered his fists and forearms with rods.

Now was one of the few times he was going to utilize that particular drill's real function. The monk's open palm shot forward, grasped the orc's neck and pulled, physically ripping out the orc's Adam's Apple. For his trouble, Legitimate was sprayed with green vitae. Another trio of orcs came rushing after him as the one in front of him tumbled in a pool of its own life fluid.

Shaera's flying daggers found their marks. One cut into the rampaging orc's foot, while the other pierced his ankle and made short work of his Achille's tendon. The orc toppled mid step, cracking its head open on the hard ground. One of its fellows charged after her, physically throwing itself after her to try and wrestle her to the ground.

 

[Ecchi Kunoichi]

Shaera, seeing the charging orc stumble and drop to the floor, grabbed up her dropped blade again and started to get to her feet again, only to have another orc lunge at her. Rather than completely stand, she remained crouched, and ducked into a roll as the orc came flying at her to try and roll out from under it, hopefully letting it simply fall flat onto the ground without a Shaera pillow under it.

If she managed to evade the tackle, she would roll up to her feet and spin to face the orc, assuming that it would be getting back up to come after her again. She held both of her blades ready for the inevitable fight, glancing aside to see the monk at work on another orc, and making sure no others tried to get the drop on her.

 

[Pygalgic]

Legitimate moved to the side to avoid a swing from an albino orc with a notched, rusty oversize cleaver. He brought an elbow up and shattered his opponents hand, then slammed two fingers into its eye. The monk twisted his fingers and brought it brought, slamming his knee into its floating rib and sending it slicing into the beast's lung.

The next orc managed to clip him in the side of the head, sending him sprawling, slipping in the blood of the orc whose throat he had ripped open. He curled up and with an explosive, "Ki-ai!," brought both feet out, shattering his aggressor's kneecap.

The orc that Shaera felled brushed against the elf's legs as she rolled away, managing to get a couple meaty fingers around the belts that held her equipment and yanked. The charging orc bellowed, throwing a net hanging from its side at Shaera.

 

[Ecchi Kunoichi]

Shaera had felt that yank to her belt, and once she'd gotten to her feet looked down to see her belt was now missing, held in the orc's clutches. She glares, but has no time to deal with that as the net is tossed at her. It wraps around her, and immediately she goes to work with her blades, cutting at it in a flurry of motion to slice her way free. She'll need to get free and get her belt back from the orc that had snatched it if she didn't want to be down here without provisions. Her rations, money, and medical supplies were all in those pouches, and she wasn't about to let some orc get away with them. She only needed to finish cutting her way through this net first.

 

[Pygalgic]

Legitimate scrambled out of the way as the orc that nearly chopped his arm off fell shrieking, giving him a punishing stomp to the neck for good measure as he quickly got up. His eyes widened as he saw Shaera cutting her way through the net with her supplies off of her body and sprinted forward, yelling at the top of his lungs to grab her assailant's attention.

"FUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOU!" He screamed before bodily leaping onto the orc. His legs twisted around its torso as he quickly unleashed a flurry of blows on its head, cursing the creature's thick skull. When it was dazed he bent back until he was parallel to the ground and crunched up, slamming his interlaced fists over its curled ear. It staggered once, and then again when he gave it one last full bodied blow.

This bought Shaera enough time to escape from the net, but now there was a orc coming at legitimate from behind and another four coming in. Their backs were against the slope and the naked mole rat was quivering in terror. One of those threw a net around Legitimate and he was taken to the ground, slammed into stunned unconsciousness.

One of the orcs closing in on made a grab at her tunic, yanking on it with his fist held high to strike her down.

 

[Ecchi Kunoichi]

Shaera slashed her way free of the net, and turned to face the nearby orcs. Her blades are held up defensively as she watches Legitimate being netted after taking down one of the orcs. She turns as one of the orcs grabs at her, ducking it this time and dodging the strike from above. Her blades come together and up to its throat, creating a scissor motion as they cut. That orc gurgles and drops to the ground, bleeding to death.

She turns then as another orc rushed toward her, ducking another strike and slashing at its gut. She moves swiftly over as other orcs are moving to drag Legitimate off, leaping as she brings both blades down to drive them into its spine, sending into convulsions before it drops to the ground. She turns to the other then to face off against it.

It was then that the rest of them seemed to grow tired of watching this dance, and rather than just leaving it up to the few of them, more rushed in. They'd done well so far against a few at a time, but with Legitimate unconscious, she couldn't handle the whole group. One of them finally got in toward her with a thick club and landed a blow to the back of her head, and everything suddenly went dark...

 

[Pygalgic]

When Shaera woke up, Legitimate was next to her. He had been beaten. Badly. Dried blood covered his nose and mouth--two of his fingers were wrong. Mangled. Worst of all, he was laughing, giggling, curled up on the mossy floor of the cave they were in. The monk could not help himself.

"Did..." His hands went up to his face. "Did you know..." Two of his fingers went up his nostrils, his eyes momentarily rolled back. "Did you know that the masters of my order have such focus. Such total and complete-"

Krrrsh-kik. The grinding was from the way he wrenched his nose back into position, "Focus. They have true mindfulness. I was good at that, you know. That singleness of intent, that total," he grabbed his mangled fingers an yanked and pushed. The sound of bone and bone was overpowering. "Total commitment."

He laughed and laughed.

Shaera had been stripped down to her undergarments, all of her tools removed. Legitimate, likewise, had been stripped down to his boxers. There were two orc guards stationed outside the cave with polearms crossed over the entrance.

 

[Ecchi Kunoichi]

Shaera woke to the sounds of Legitimate laughing, and talking. She wasn't sure if he was talking to her, or just rambling to himself. She groans as things come into focus. Slowly, she sits herself up, her hand going to her head as she had a pounding headache at the moment. She looks at the entrance of the cave, seeing the orcs standing guard outside. She then looks over to the man, seeing him putting his fingers back into place, and noticing he seemed to be in his underwear. This made her look down, realizing she had also been stripped down to her under garments. She sat now in nothing but what seemed a leather thong, and a leather strip wrapped around her chest, like a tube top.

She sighs softly, sitting with her knees up and resting her head in a hand. "So, we've been captured then.. And now I'm half naked. Lovely." She turns her violet gaze over to Legitimate. "Any ideas then? I don't plan on remaining a slave to these beasts."

 

[Pygalgic]

"Oh, slave? Uh... Somehow I don't think they're going to keep us as slaves. Wouldn't they put us in with the other slaves?" His neck creaked when he moved it to glance over at Shaera. She was interesting looking for an elf. Didn't seem quite like the rest. Maybe a wood elf of some kind?

"So, what's your story? I've never really met Fair One," one of the more respectful names for the elven folk, "that looked quite like you before."

 

[Ecchi Kunoichi]

Looking her over, he may notice she had markings on her tanned skin, red ink tattooed in various tribal designs going around her upper arms like rings wrapped around them, some on her upper chest, that led down to a thin trail of designs that went down through her cleavage, and down over her belly and down quite a ways further. The same sort of pattern was repeated at her back, with a larger design spreading over her shoulders and upper back, then trailing down in a line that seemed like it went right to her ass. Her thighs also had designs wrapped around like rings, similar to her upper arms.

She thought about his words, giving a shrug. "Well, I can only thing of two reasons they would want to capture us alive. One, being as slaves.. the other being... they're saving us for dinner. Fresh meat. I really don't want it to be the latter, so I'm assuming slaves to stay positive." She sighs softly and lays herself back now, staring up at the roof of the cave while she tries to think of some way out of this.

She turns her gaze to him again when she hears his question. "I am of a lineage of Elves.. unlike most other surface Elves. The stories of our people speak of a meeting of our forest kin, and our kin from below the earth. As they came together, our.. unique people, were born. Most of the humans in our lands just call us Dark Elves."

 

[Pygalgic]

"Interesting," he said. He had no idea that Drow had ever come to the surface and left a legacy of what, he hoped, was love behind. His eyes followed the swirls of the red ink. Must mean some warrior thing. Shaera looked like a warrior to him, a lithe one, for sure, and a rogue--but definitely a fighter.

He was lucky she had got him on the naked mole rat. "Thanks. For coming for me. I appreciate at..." He took a deep breath. "Think we'll ever see that rat again? I liked him. I'll call him Pervy."

Just then a group of orcs tromped in. These were more well attired than the ones that Legitimate and Shaera had been waylaid by. The ivory beasts wore black armor of beaten iron, covering their chests and shoulders. They came in with nets and tridents. They threw them over their prisoners and hefted them out, the business ends of the tridents pointed painfully close to them.

They were thrown into a wide, deep pit in the ground covered in bones. There were several rows deep of albino orcs feasting on what smelled suspiciously like gnome flesh, drums being pounded on in a haphazard approximation of music. There was an orc chieftain sitting in a throne at the head of the arena. "Youz in OUR landz, humiez! Youz are ourz! But, youz clobbaz da huntaz. Da best a da best! Now you FIGHT fer yer weak humie livez!"

 

[Ecchi Kunoichi]

Shaera nods to him. "No problem.. Not that it helps us now anyway." She sighs softly, as she lays there, her hands folded under her head. She sits up though when she hears footfalls approaching, eying the new orcs with a hard glare. She struggles for a moment when she's netted, but the trident quickly makes her calm back down as she's dragged along.

The dark elf grunts lightly as she's tossed into the pit, looking around as she quickly gets up to her feet. Hearing the drums, seeing the crowds of orcs all gathered watching them, and seeing the throne with the chieftain, she wonders what's going on now. Then she hears what he says, and she frowns deeply. She mutters some curse under her breath in that language of hers. "This can't possibly end well... Don't we even get weapons to fight with?" She looks over to the monk then. "Though, I guess you don't need any.." With that thought.. she inches closer to him, putting herself behind him.