Trials of Hircine IX

Though despite the pressure, the orc seems to revel in the clashing of their blades.

Blocking and parrying their strikes with his Imperial blade as he looks for an opening in their attacks.

"FUS!" The orc shouts, pushing back one of the Foresworn warriors before focusing his blade and a torrent of flame on the other cutting him down as he screams in agony before turning to the final Foresworn warrior and cutting him down just the same.

This just leaves the briarheart warrior, who instead of fleeing carefully eyes the orc before approaching.

"You fight well orc, you are worthy prey for this hunt..." The briarheart warrior commends the orc, before drawing his greatsword and charging at the orc with inhuman speed before slashing diagonally towards his chest.

The orc brings up his blade to meet the briarhart warrior's strike, but the force is too strong and pushes him back with relative ease.

This prompts the orc to begin using his torrent of flame to try and damage the briarheart warrior from a distance, but the briarheart warrior anticipated this and turns his blade sideways, so the flat of it is facing the orc's flames, making a temporary shield out of the great sword, capable of at least diverting the majority of the flames.

With it taking the brunt of the attack, the briarheart warrior is able to push through the flames and then strike at the orc once more, this time succeeding in making a deep cut across the orc's leather, Imperial chest armor and causing the orc to grimace in pain before jumping backwards.

While jumping backwards, the orc drops his sword and begins launching ice spikes at the briarheart warrior with both hands slowing his advance as he's forced to block the ice spikes.

That is until a strange light phases through his blade and strikes his chest directly.

Alarming him that his heart may have been struck he stops advancing to check his wound while focusing solely on defense.

His relief at being uninjured by the strange attack is shattered when a copy of himself strikes his undefended back.

Wincing in discomfort from the unexpected attack, the briarheart warrior quickly turns to cut down his pale imposter with a single stroke.

Only to turn around and be impaled straight through the heart by an ice cycle that was much longer and thinner than the ones the orc had previously sent.

The briarheart warrior starred at the orc in a state of disbelief, though no sign of regret or anger could be seen on his face... Instead a deep calm seems to wash over him as he falls to his knees while holding the long ice cycle.

He turns to the orc before giving a differential bow of his head and saying, "Good... Hunt..." Before falling to the floor, dead.

"Damn... That was one tough bastard... We're Foresworn always this fanatical? Shit... I really need to find a healing spell..." The orc talks to himself before looting the bodies of the Foresworn and making his way to his final group of pursuers after his health naturally regenerates.

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The final group of Foresworn, composed of one briarheart spellcaster, three Foresworn archers, and two Foresworn warriors, are exploring the Blue Palace, when the briarheart spellcaster comes to a conspicuously locked door.

"Something wrong, Gifted One?" One of the archers asks the briarheart spellcaster.

"Hmmm... I sense great madness contained within this place... We should find the prey quickly before we are tainted by its presence." The Gifted One directs the hunting party away from the door when a Foresworn archer barges into the main hall the hunting party had returned to.

"Gifted One! The prey is strong this hunt! Warrior Heart was struck down by his arrows, and then the rest of our band was split up and broken, before the prey slipped away! I and Short Pine were the only survivors, we split up to warn the others!" The archer hurriedly explains to his tribesmen.

"Excellent! We should prepare for his arrival! Archers! To the stairs!" The Gifted One orders excitedly, leading the party to the main entryway of the Blue Palace.

The archers take up position on the staircase while the warriors go to the entry door while Gifted One takes up a commanding position at the top of where the split staircases meet and prepares to summon a companion to the fight, patiently awaiting the arrival of their prey, ready to spring the trap as soon as he enters.

Several minutes pass...

Minutes turn into two hours with all the archers arms begin to tire as they await their prey's arrival, some lowering their bows as a sense of dissatisfaction washes over them.

"Are we sure that the prey is coming to us, Gifted One?" One of the Foresworn warriors ask after turning away from the door.

"Hmmm..." The Gifted One ponders if the prey has gone after the other hunting group and if it's possible that they've been defeated or if the prey has simply fled.

And just as their guard is down, the door to the entryway of the Blue Palace is briefly cracked open as a green hand throws out two bottles of glowing powder that crash and mix on the floor making a loud WHOOSH as steam fills the entire space blinding the last of the Foresworn.

Before they even know what is upon them screams of pain echo through the palace as they are quickly silenced by the sound of two bodies hitting the floor.

Reacting quickly the Gifted One summons a frost atronach who's innate frost cloak chills the steaming mist making the room visible once more.

Though in that short time, both Foresworn warriors were cut down and some how one of the archers on the staircase had been knocked off the edge and appears to have broken his neck when he impacted the ground.

But despite the carnage surrounding them, the perpetrator remains unseen and the remaining Foresworn archers and the briarheart spellcaster are put on edge by their prey's unconventional tactics.

(Author's Note: Sorry for today's late upload, got caught up doing some yardwork. Hope you enjoy!)