The Chess Match

The Hunt

Leonis stalked through the streets, his spear casting a faint blue light on the crumbling walls around him. What had happened here? Towering walls and the remnants of a palace crushed by boulders were in the distance. Skeletons, old as time and as far as the eye could see. This city had once been magnificent, that much was clear. Picking his way through the rubble, he stopped, listening as ominous footsteps fell in a slowly loudening pattern. He crouched, creeping towards the intersection formed by the decaying stones paved by a civilization long dead. As Leonis neared the cross, a scraping could also be heard. Steeling himself for combat, he rounded the corner. Entering his vision was a lumbering behemoth, clad in armor of iron and easily dwarfing some of the ruined walls on the street. A green mist curled out of the beast's face grate, curling into a wing-like shape that trailed behind it as it walked. The source of the scraping could be spotted by even the most inebriated of men. A massive greatsword was dragged by the massive creature, easily as tall as Leonis and glowing green as opposed to the blue of his weapon, and carved with those same unknowable runes. As the creature looked up towards Leonis, he felt a pang of terror that would have incapacitated a lesser man. The blade of his foe flashed and Leonis lost track of him, before seeing a qlint and turning, deflecting the blow of the beast with his spear, cracking the pavement. The smaller man quickly danced to a safe distance, evaluating the weaknesses of his opponent. Then, he turned backwards and launched himself towards the giant from the wall. Moving with an inhuman speed, it dodged and tried to counter attack but was caught by a kick from Leonis. They traded blows, spear against sword, man against beast, metal gleaming in the weak sunlight of the early evening. Knowing he couldn't match the raw power of his opponent, Leonis danced and evaded, deflected and counterattacked, maneuvering the limited sun into the eyes of his enemy, assuming the monster even had one as it didn't slow in the slightest. Ducking a slash from the lumbering knight, Leonis jabbed at the inside of its elbow, cutting the fabric. The cut revealed not skin and blood, but necrotic and worn flesh and gnawed bone. Reacting to this, the creature stumbled back and clasped his blade with both hands, bringing it around in a massive strike to cleave Leonis in half. This time, he met the blow with the tip of his own spear, which stretched at around 3 feet in its own right. The clang was deafening, and a cyan lightning crackled around them both, seemingly empowering Leonis. Suddenly, the weight on the spear moved from equal throughout to focused on the butt, forcing the sword of his opponent down into the road, slicing into the Earth like cake. The other end of the spear was sent into the helmet of the knight like figure, denting before it was followed by the spear blade sliding cooly between the collar bone and helmet of the man, propelling it off and exposing his face. The face had been melted and baked by the sun, the armor acting like an oven. It had congealed into one, smooth and grayed surface, oozing green mist from no discernable source. As the creature raised its head once, now on its knees. When Leonis met its eyes, he received flashes. Of the symbols, of what they meant, of two incomprehensible figures at the end of time, of gods, of death, of what he held, and of what had happened to this place. He understood, and just like that it was gone. All of it, swirling just beyond his reach in the mind of a mortal. Leonis thrust his spear through the face of his enemy, dispatching the creature forever. Within him bumbled an unknowable rage, and yet he knew not why he was angry. Leonis had lost something, but he was not sure what, nor why it had caused the whirlwind of emotions just beneath the surface. There was one thing engraved in his mind, however, set above all others. He must find and destroy anything with those symbols.