Whiterun (Battle Pits)

Lennie had been allowed to keep her weapons through grit. The others had been given their weapons back, but even though Lennie was wrong, she still felt justified in her efforts. They didn't know who these people were or what they did, and Lennie wasn't going to be killed or lose another Roman because she wanted to make friends.

Overhead and standing above them was a massive man, it was clear he held authority just by his stance, and beside him stood their not-so-kind captor. Many of these Viking-looking people stood around, looking down, and the air reeked of excitement. For the ones above, anyway, for Lennie she felt anxiety, but she pushed it away. Focus is key, after all. She let her strength take down her weakness.

The style reminded her of a Roman arena, but instead of being build up, they were in a pit, and cement or some kind of stone paved it's way up. It was simple, but still left Lennie staying on her toes. The man above spoke.

"The rules for you two are simple. No matter what your bond was prior to this moment, you are brothers in arms now. You win this fight together, if it isn't together, you didn't win at all. Prove your worth, and you are worthy of Toft Kift. Show us that you have what it takes for glory." The man spoke, his voice rang with rugged and jagged authority. It was as though, despite talking over yelling, his voice could be heard in the whole settlement.

Lennie only had time to give Cassia a look before the gates in the stone walls opened. She wasn't exactly excited to be paired with Cassia. The chemistry between them hadn't been to well, considering she'd simply done everything Lennie was going to do before Lennie could.

Cassia was drained and the thought of fighting in a pit right now was not her first choice, but she had to force herself to keep going. She had to keeping moving and getting going against all odds, she had to see him again she had to know she could be a competent older sister and do what she needed to for her younger siblings.

The gate started to open, and honestly she didn't know what her first move was going to be, she was too drained to use any of her fire powers that she had right now, but she might be able to create some ice daggers like she had before. They weren't as frail as normal ice was and was a pretty good way to stall something.

The daughter of Vulcan began to try and conjure up some of the ice daggers as she kept her watch out for herself and for Lennie. Lately since Christian had been pronounced dead she could tell Lennie was off from it, but how could you not be? You got out on a quest and then come back the only survivor, Cassia couldn't even begin to imagine what that'd be like.

Lennie could see a minor rust buildup on the gates that surrounded them, but she figured it was natural, it wasn't like they had any compounds or chemicals to clean it up with. There were details on them, taking a closer look. Marks, small bends, and Lennie could put together what these things held. What could have potentially been teeth marks on a gate far from the Centurion became a distant memory as a horrible sound came from a gate behind her that was opening up. The screech was high pitched, and it caught Lennie's attention immediately.

When she turned back she saw what she could only described as a small herd of mini velociraptors. They stood roughly four feet tall, and instead of scales had dark furs and antlers, but their teeth were as intimidating as their prehistoric brethren. There was around half a dozen, and they moved quick. They circled, and weaved, and Lennie felt apprehensive to not have anything significantly ranged with her. She had pilums, but they weren't practical to hit a target moving so fast, so she went forward with her hatchet instead.

One had stopped, attempting to get a nibble out of her. She bobbed away from it, and another came from her side. She quickly realized the tactics of them, and swiftly brought the head of her axe to the head of the creature, which delivered a swift death, and then the one in front butted her with its head, and her axe flew out of her hand.

The high pitch screech was enough to make Cassia want to end this fight as soon as possible. These things were nothing like she had ever seen before, they were like velociraptors but had antlers and fur on them. It was a slightly terrifying combination when she really put her mind to it and she knew that no matter how many books she had read these things would have never came up in them for different weaknesses.

The daughter of Vulcan knew she wasn't the greatest at fighting, but she knew she could make it out of this alive, especially with Lennie here too. They were going to have to work together to get this done. The brunette flung a few of her ice daggers at the three that was coming after her to at least hold them off while she grabbed out her gladius and thrusted the blade forward and into the throat of the one coming up closer to her and tossed it to the side as it was dead at this point.

She realized what had happened with Lennie who was not too far from her, she began to conjure up more of the ice daggers and she started to fling them at the ones swarming Lennie, "I'll hold them off until you can get your hatchet back." She called over to Lennie before giving a heavy kick in the face to one of the ones running up to her. Cassia could feel one of them on her back, but she brought the blade of her gladius back and with as much force as she could she jabbed it in the face to knock it off of her.

Lennie let out a sharp and ruthless curse at the force on a furry head into her collar. The antlers had knicked her head, but direct impact would have been much worse from the prickly antlers. Lennie's hand dug into her back pocket and she pulled out a sharp tanto-pointed thin piece of Imperial Gold. She had her pugio, but her other arm was too astray to make the quick snag. The only was she could describe her backup weapon was a slashing shank.

Lennie whizzed her wrist forward into the neck of the thing in front of her. It let out another awful sound, but Lennie stayed determined and removed the blade before stabbing it again, and it went limp. Lennie removed the blade, before she turned back to Cassia. She was grateful for her broader range of attacks, even if the ice daggers weren't lethal, they were great for keeping them away. That was important.

Lennie could feel blood dripping down from her forehead. "It's not important." She communicated to Cassia. She'd rather wait for the right moment to get her axe. It wasn't comforting to her seeing it stuck in cement. It would take her a week to get sharpened right again. Three were down, and that left three more to take down. Lennie stood her ground, waiting for another to approach. She kept her back to Cassia, so that they had full sight lines.

When one charged, Lennie tugged on Cassia so she knew to dive. Lennie followed her own lead, but not before she made a slash at a leg, and promptly heard an awful sound. Still, she could feel the vibration from it slam into the concrete walls. She could hear newfound wails and yells from above them, as if they were cheers, and it angered Lennie. She got on her feet again, making a strong effort to stab the downed creature in the skull.

Cassia nodded when she heard Lennie saying it wasn't worth to grab right now. She began to concentrate on making the ice daggers to fend the monsters off from biting her or trying to attack her. It was helpful that it'd give her better range to make a move on one of the things. It was so bizarre that Cassia wished that she had time to study the creatures habits and fight patterns. Maybe if she stayed here long enough she would be able to see it.

The brunette dove down with Lennie as she had made the motion and just as she could hear Lennie take something down on the other side Cassia herself was being charged by another one. She stuck out her gladius to try and pierce the monster in front of her, which had been successful, but she was still impaled with the antlers a bit before she punched the thing off of her and kicked it before standing up and stabbing it in the skull with force.

Lennie was feeling confident, there was one left, and if they had already killed five, then what was one more. Lennie braced herself to make the move, until suddenly, a loud yawn could be heard. It sounded like an old man yawning through a loud-speaker, and it was from the gate behind them. The creature had been trotting by the open gate, as a suddenly massive hand grabbed it from the darkness. It definitely put Lennie on edge.

Suddenly a massive humanoid shaped being stepped out from the gate. It had to lean to get out based on it's size. It measured a solid 23 feet if Lennie had to make an estimate. The creature in it's hand squirmed and struggled frantically, like it was a hamster stuck in a human's grip. Then, suddenly, the orange-hued leathery creature roared, before whipping the creature at the pair. Lennie dived out of the way, which was a relief, based on the awful thud that came from the now lifeless creature that had been thrown. At least it was one less, Lennie figured.


"Any ideas for that?" Lennie asked Cassia. She'd never fought anything this big.

There had been many books that Cassia had read on the various monsters. From her standpoint she had always been more of the text book learner, all the knowledge she knew on how to do things and fight things had been pure textbook, none of it had been from actual experience, she hadn't been out enough to get the experience she would need. Ever since having to follow the ship that had her brother she had been putting her knowledge to the test a lot more.

Cassia dodged the creature that had been thrown at them, she was fairly sure that if she had been still standing there it would have been close to game over for her if not game over at that point. She looked over to Lennie for a brief moment before her eyes went back to look at the giant in front of them, she could only remember a small handful of information about them and she wasn't even sure if it would be helpful in this state. She had never seen anything too close in resemblance to it.

"We can try to take it out at the knees to get a better vantage point on it. The eyes and temples on the head are most likely to be the weak points on this guy, but it is still hard to say for sure. If you can get your hatchet while I try to freeze his feet to the ground we may just be able to do it." Cassia said to Lennie and to be completely honest, she wasn't entirely certain on whether or not her plan would work, it was a theory for a plan and it could completely backfire for all she knew.

Lennie figured Cassia probably didn't have the best chance to freeze it's legs if the monster was already paying attention to her. Lennie put her blade back where she'd taken it from, before drawing a pilum from her few and bracing it onto her shoulder. She wasn't the shot with it that Christian was, but then, he never put the same force in it that Lennie had been able to. "Better plan than no plan." Lennie commented, giving Cassia the nod to start.

Lennie plunged her pilum through the air and into the throat of the giant, which didn't seem to make him very happy. Lennie didn't stop to see his reaction, though based on the sounds, he was infuriated and probably bleeding a lot. Lennie swiftly brought her legs to a sprint as she went for the wall her hatchet was in. 

Lennie gripped it with both her hands. Why she hadn't gone for a gladus was unknown to her at this point. Lennie heaved, and it wasn't as much trouble as she thought it would be to get it from the wall, but the top half of the blade was extremely dull, much to Lennie's dismay. She turned back, hoping she wasn't about to be checked.

The moments had passed by quickly and it didn't leave a lot for thinking about reaction times, Lennie had gotten her pilum ready and at that point Cassia figured it was time to focus her ice powers on something other than ice daggers, because she could see clearly that they wouldn't help her in this case and they wouldn't even make a dent in on this guy. Cass had continued to concentrate on her powers until some ice could be manifested from her hands.

The brunette brought her hands down to the ground and had the ice run along until they reached the giants feet. It took a bunch of straining on her focus and brain to make sure she was getting enough ice to hold him in and keep him in place long enough for Lennie to get the hatchet and hopefully it could work in taking out the giant's knees, or at least slice it enough to make the tendons useless.

Cassia watched as the ice began to cascade over the giant's feet and lock his feet up so they couldn't move. Just for some reassurance she continued her powers until she felt it bought them at least a few solid minutes until the giant broke free because the ice wouldn't hold him forever. Shakily the centurion lifted from the ground, her hands were still shaken and she felt completely drained, but her fight didn't end here and not with this thing. She was getting into this damned place. Cassia pulled out her gladius and began to move as quickly as she could manage to try and get to the back side of the giant.

When Lennie turned her head, she was pleasantly surprised to see things having gone as well as they could have for their situation. Her axe was only going to be useful for higher attacks and drives, but she'd make due. Lennie could feel the blood in her veins awakening, something she would feel during occasional War Games and long monster encounters. Her arms and legs felt light, like she could lift anything without breaking a sweat, yet her blood felt heavy, as though it condensed to be more thick than slime. Her pupils didn't disappear, but turned blood red, along with her eye-lids.

Lennie rushed forward, her legs lifted higher than normal, her speed was faster than she'd ran before. She slid on the ice, and under the legs of the giant. The bottom of the axe stuck into the groin of the giant, who let out a clearly non-appreciative roar. She used the kinetic energy to grapple up, slicing through part of the giant to free her axe, and fly upwards. She turned herself around to be facing the back of the giant, and drove her axe downwards into the skull of the giant. The roars were loud, but Lennie's focus was only on the enemy.

Lennie's axe was inches into the skull, and the giant twirled and whirled, Lennie kept a death grip on her axe, and threw her body down, in front of the giant. The body of the beast came with her, falling to the ground. The sound of it's legs clearly twisting in ways they shouldn't could be heard. It's head and body were on the ground, but it was fighting it get back up. "Cassia!" Lennie roared out. "Finish it!"

Cassia was catching her breath as she watched Lennie go into battle mode. She had nothing seen something like it before, the way she had moved around had been as if she had been doing it since the day she was born and she was one of the most skilled fighters there was. Cassia couldn't help, but have a lot of respect for the way Lennie could wield her hatched and the way she could fight, it was far more impressive than what she could do.

Something was a little different about it, Lennie didn't seem completely like herself in the moment, but the daughter of Vulcan wasn't about to complain with the work Lennie was doing on the giant. It was only a matter of time before the giant began to fall and Lennie had roared out for her to finish the giant. Cassia fumbled with her gladius for a bit, but she had managed to get a good grip.

She walked over to the head of the giant and she drove the blade as hard as she could into what she knew was the weakest spot in the skull and killed the giant. Pulling her blade back out wasn't fun, but she got it done, she had hardly noticed anything outside of the pits at this point and honestly she had forgotten that people had been watching them the whole time.

Lennie had hardly registered what was going on. It was like every warrior that came before her was acting for her in her place, but it was her still. By the time Cassia plunged her gladus into the temple, Lennie could feel her blood begin to cool down. The sensation was strange and foreign. It was stressful, but not destructive of her concentration. It felt like her blood was a red-hot piece of steel taken out of a forge and dipped into cold water. And as her blood began to cool, her hold on the dead giant's head became weaker. Lennie didn't even know how she'd been lifting in in the first place.

She let the head hit the ground with a thud. She gripped her axe with all of her might, and it came loose. Lennie's eyes glared at the axe. It was going to be a real hassle to get it back to a worthy state. Lennie gave Cassia a glance. Her eyes began to fade from the deep red color they were in back to normal, with white eye lids and dark brown pupils. She could feel her eyes feel much heavier as they returned to normal. Whatever it was that happened, Lennie liked it.

Her axe stayed in her hand, Lennie never wanted to let go of it again. "Are we done?" Lennie called out in defiance. Her voice roared, but not quite the same as it had before.

One of the gates lifted, but nothing came out. Lennie could see the figure of a massive man stand in the gate, the same one that had explained the rules to them. "If you wish to be done, yes." He spoke. "Otherwise, welcome to Toft Kift."