Quiver Quarell
November, 2011
A rather lanky lonesome figure sat on a clearing in Coulton Wood. He twiddled his thumbs, as he looked up into the night sky. Fascinating, was his first thought, overcome with ennui. The moon was full and served only to illuminate his prey. He never knew so many stars existed in one night. But then again it's been awhile since he'd had the luxury of looking up and expecting something. There was just something about the darkness and its glows that made him wish he'd have time to stay longer. To find peace.
He growled, as a memory overcame him. Peace wasn't exactly the best word, and it pained him to have to sit this long to let down his guard. Before he drifted into misery however, his target had finally made an appearance from the deep wood. A girl.
"...lost?" He began, slowly reaching for a weapon strapped behind his back.
"Not really," the lady said, surprisingly non-chalant. She turned to him and gave a weak smile. The moon though full, merely shone an incomplete visage of the man's face, as opposed to her. She was in full view almost as if the moon was a spotlight to her grand entrance. Despite what it looked like, the man was clearly waiting for something. Or someone.
A smile began forming around his face.
"I take it you understand what's to happen. I'm your opponent for tonight,"
The figure's silhouette reeled back, poised for an attack of some sort when the young lady suddenly replied in turn.
"I give up."
"Pardon?"
"You heard me," she was grinning now from ear to ear. "I'm leaving this place. I'm leaving the RHG. It's just gotten so boring, and well...," The lady turned her head slightly and listened to the trees around her. She could've sworn someone else was watching. "...I just don't see the point anymore is all."
The girl paused, wondering if she should reveal her intentions to a total stranger. The truth was she didn't have the time nor the luxury, and the note she'd left wasn't about to go to waste. She'd already say her goodbyes, what was the point of walking back?
"Look, I'm glad you took the effort to track me down. And normally, I'd be ecstatic but I just. I can't deal with you right now so--"
A resounding THWAK warned her a second too late, as the ground beneath her blew up, knocking her a few feet back. She looked up to see the man, unmoving in his aim despite having fired his shot rather impetuously. How did he reload so fast?
"You WILL fight me, Rhami."
"How did you know my...?" But before she could inquire further, another THWAK caused her to instinctively roll away as the ground before her was swept away in a torrent of dust. She quickly picked herself up only to gasp as two more rocket propelled projectiles were headed her way. "If you don't, then this is it for you. You're my target for tonight. And right now, I need you to do what the RHG wants you to do. Fight."
Rhami stepped back, drew a few quivers and whirled around launching two shots at the same time. No sooner did her arrows pierce the open air, did they explode into a green mist. Rhami held her breath, furthering her distance as the man's rocket-like projectiles fizzled away into nothing. The man squinted from the shadows, seemingly impressed.
"An acid arrow. Interesting," he mused. "To fire two at once in one shot---" Something in the wind flashed in that split-second as three bolts suddenly materialized from the corner of his eye, striking him down dead center and knocking him to the ground.
"Who says I fired two?!" Rhami beamed.
The Olive Archer paused a minute for any sudden movements, then slowly approached the figure with her bow in hand. Her mind flashed back to her imminent demise when those rocket-propelled projectiles almost caught her off-guard but now having the time to think about them, they were clearly arrows by nature. Even more unsettling was she could've sworn she'd have seen them before...
"What an excellent bow you have there," the man suddenly said, sitting up suddenly. "If you don't mind, I'd like to add it to my collection. It's only fair since you've already broken one of mine."
Rhami froze. Collection?! What's this guy talking about??? She stepped back in surprise, and noticed the man's bow clearly split in half. Realizing though that he was unarmed in that moment, she took a chance and readied two arrows at point blank range; no less than a few inches from the man's face. The cracked bow only confirmed her fears. No normal person could take three clean shots in a row, much less isolate the impact to just the bow itself. Two possibilities immediately came to light: either he had some kind of hidden ability, or he himself was a very experienced archer, enough to know the stress points of his bow and use that to his advantage.
"Who are you?" Rhami said, unwavered by the strange man's deceptively defenseless stance.
"A legend." he simply answered. The man calmly stood and dusted himself off. Rhami eyed him like a hawk and remained steady. She wasn't even supposed to fight today. Thoughts about shooting a healing arrow to the man's head and fleeing continuously pervaded her mind, but there was something about the man's tone that implored her to stay. Have they met before?
"You're silly. I've never heard of you."
"Quite false," the man replied. "Everybody's heard of me." He calmly reached back for what seemed to be another similarly-shaped weapon; another bow, but one more refined and distinct. A moonlit gleam in Rhami's eye caught onto one of the weapon's defining features---blades attached to the front sides of the bow. Once again, familiarity filled her thoughts but drew a large blank in turn. Was this guy systematically hunting down only archers?
"You're not taking anything from me!" Rhami yelled as she fired both arrows.
The man lunged unflinching, bearing his bladed bow. In his mind's eye, time simply slowed and the bolts barely blazed by. A swift sidestep and he was easily able to parry one of the arrows away, only for it to dematerialize and fizzle into contrails of smoke. Flabbergasted, he tried to swat the air away but the resulting smog soon began to cover his field of vision as the other arrow landed squarely between his legs much to his surprise.
Rhami smiled wryly. Payback was sweet.
"Explode."
A vacuum imploded from within the forest battleground, as smoke hissed in every direction. She turned towards the forest and shot a single arrow into the treeline. Within seconds, Rhami had teleported onto the nearby branches. She knew these woods like the back of her head, and a vantage point was what she needed. She grabbed three arrows this time and plunged two on a nearby bark, while aiming the third towards the sky. Her eyes scanned the mess she'd made just moments before but despite her quick senses, a chill went down her spine. There were no signs of quick movement of wisps within the smoke. Maybe he was already...
"Simple tricks cannot defeat me, child."
Rhami gasped, gripping her bow tighter and releasing the single arrow into the air out of impulse. It was a second too early, but she didn't care at that point. The arrow sparkled underneath the night sky, illuminating some parts of the smog. Dozens of birds flew out in cacophony, as hundreds of smaller arrows rained from the sky, piercing through the mist and smoke she had earlier created. It was her desparation move. Amidst the chaos, she turned to grab the two arrows she'd set aside earlier, when a deafening sound reached her eardrums. It was sonic in nature, and sounded like a dropping atomic bomb except it was going sideways...in her direction.
BAM! A single shot ruptured an immense shockwave throughout the forest, as Rhami found herself falling faster than the trees all around her within a five meter radius. She tried to regain her balance but it was all so sudden; like a bomb had gone off. Moments later she was on the ground rubbing the pain on her sides, pinned by what seemed to be an ancient-looking branch. She turned her head to spot a chunk of the tree trunk she was on, gone. A few degrees to the left, was the man making his way towards her. Through the moonlight, a third bow could be seen. It was unlike any other, towering twice the size of any normal bow and was as tall as the man himself. Rhami attemped to squirm free but it was no use. A clean, blue arrow soon met her gaze. It was aimed straight at her face.
"I win this game." the man simply said.
It was the first time Rhami had seen the man up close. Immediately apparent were the bruises and cuts everywhere, even in places she'd never even considered. They were old and scarred as if proper care had not even been attempted to treat them. His face which towered over her, resembled a grizzled relic of the past. His unique perma-stubble relegated to the fact that he was old, but the man looked like he was just in his twenties. He was a lifeless shell of a man, as far as she was concerned. But the most unsettling part was the unshakeable feeling that she had definitely seen this man before.
Rhami stretched her fingers as far as she could, only for the man to easily kick away her prized possession. She shuddered in utter disbelief. Of all the days to leave and lose Astor, this was definitely not one of those moments.
"Creativity might be your forte, little miss. But precision is always key. Take it as an honor that your bow will be put to finer use. With this, I may finally have a chance---"
"Give it back NOW!" Rhami screamed in futility. She tried to budge her other arm, numb as it may seem, only to feel something suspiciously sharp. It was one of her enchanted arrows.
"I'm afraid I can't do that. You've already broken two of my bows. You've already wasted all that time I spent fighting that reckless fool and that pretentious demon," The man chuckled, not once relaxing his aim. "He may have been a demon, but I've been through actual hell. I've been there, and I've come back! And now it's my turn to give and take..."
"Stop! The archer is coming with me...archer."
Rhami's eyes widened, moreso than her in her current predicament. He had found her in record time! If only she'd just run away from all this and never looked back. If only she had her priorities straight. There was no time to think now, however. No matter what, she had to get away now.
"What's this?" the stranger perplexingly said. "It's certainly been awhile, hasn't it. Are you still in the business of...?"
Before the man could finish his sentence, Rhami quickly clenched the enchanted arrowhead in her hand and intangibly rolled through the log pinning her down. Realizing this too late, the man rolled to one side as a surprisingly rapid flurry of arrows whizzed past him. He swiftly picked up Rhami's bow and ran in the opposite direction, taking refuge behind one of the nearby trees. "Yep, that answered my question." He said, wiping the sweat off his brow. He snuck a peek at the interloper and eyed him from head to toe. Truly, it's been years but he never forgets a face.
"This is an unsanctioned RHG battle. Repercussions will be applied as necessary."
"Oh put a sock in it, Wei-En. You talk too much," the man said, excitedly clutching the olive archer's bow.
Rhami in the meantime took refuge behind some shrubbery, still nursing her injuries. She still couldn't believe it. Wei-En, the dual-wielding repeating crossbow user, was hunting her down! The himself was cold, almost mechanical in nature, and had never lost a single battle. He was the epitome of order in the RHG and one of the top ranking fighters, responsible for abducting potential 'candidates' and maintaining them. And she was apparently on his to-do list.
Wei-En ran towards the forest as his Visor began glowing to life. "Subject required," He fired blindly around the trees as the stranger ran from one trunk to the next. "Subject detected. Scanning history." The chase continued in an erratic pace, as Wei-En kept his distance, zipping away behind the trees, cornering him with each step.
The strange man in turn, continued to run recklessly, until finally resting behind a large petrified oak. "Oh c'mon Wei-En, you don't even remember me?" His face suddenly turned serious, as he whipped out his enourmous longbow. "You were practically there to approve me. We shook hands."
Wei-En ignored the man's taunts, as he let his visor finish up the research.
"Last known activity: One year, thirty-seven days, and two hours. Current standing: Zero wins and One loss. A forfeit."
As Wei-En silenced his visor, a distinct red arrow shot through the wood. He tried blocking with both crossbows but the sheer force of the projectile knocked him from under his feet, effectively destroying one of his arms and knocking the other one a good five meters away. Despite all that, here merely shrugged off the pain and stood, visor crackling into disrepair. Several feet ahead, the man was already preparing to fire another red arrow. Wei-En remained still, raising an eyebrow as he dictated the last bit of info before his Visor gave way.
"Status: Deceased."
The red arrow fired as Wei-En braced himself. The bolt hit him hard as another thunderous shockwave rippled throughout the forest, even knocking a little wind from Rhami who was several meters away. She looked intently as the smoke cleared to find a good chunk of forest decimated. In the center of it all stood Wei-En, heavily panting from exhaustion. From the outside it looked as if he'd just took a strong blow and walked it off. But the vibrations of such a powerful force took every ounce of his strength to withstand even apparently from his kinectic absorption. Rhami thought back to when the man knocked her off in one shot. It was apparent that it merely took a fraction of what happened here! He was a monster.
Wei-En quickly made for his other crossbow, even stumbling on the way. He grabbed it in a panic and began firing erratically. His Visor was gone, his vision blurred. Despite his attempts to shake off kinetic energy, every bone in his body was now ringing and vibrating from the pressure, reverberating an intense pain from within.
"I know you," he concluded, falling on one knee. "The fall... We all saw---"
"What you all saw was a show, put for your benefit." The man said, stepping forward through the debris, wearily dragging his longbow through the ground. "I made one mistake, and the world thinks I'm over and done with. Others praised me for my efforts but in the end HE would be hailed as the best of the best. In the end, it's all about who lives, I suppose."
"How...,"
"Ah yes, the story. How did it go again? There I was...," the man sardonically relayed, looking up once again to the night sky. It did pain him as before, but only because it had reminded him of that day. His first and last job. The target was one of the RHG's finest: the jet-sword wielder himself! He carefully recounted the fight as much as he could, as clearly as anyone remembered. "...finally that son of a bitch jettisoned my bow into the abyss and I had no choice: he was getting away and I had one shot. I dove for that bow of mine and made my fatal mistake. I fired a light arrow. At that moment I realized I could fire a heavy arrow instead, and save me from the fall. But I wanted him so bad, and I was a brash and cocky bastard. I fired and I KNEW he would parry. I knew! And I still fired! And in that moment, I had already given up. I let go of my bow and let gravity do the work. I was ashamed of myself, and mad at him. He was right to leave me for dead..."
Rhami listened intently, and for the first time since their meeting she was finally able to see the man for who he was both physically and figuratively. She didn't know how she couldn't have recognized him thus far but she almost kicked herself for not realizing it. He was a man who had lost everyt