Together, weapons firmly in hand and Viconia filled with a crackling aura of raw power we made our way through the darkened entryway into the undercity. Normally stifling and claustrophobic in nature, darkened depths such as caves and tunnels were welcoming to the darkness infusing my soul. Within a heartbeat of entering into the depths my eyes adjusted unnaturally and pulled the shadows from my sight. Perfectly carved and placed marble blocks had been hewn from the stone or been built into the tunnels, filling the halls with the strange elegant beauty that seemed to fill all Ayleid constructions. Engraving thousands of years old covered every wall, statues stood silent vigil over ancient halls and every room held few clues to the majesty of the long succumbed race. Whatever had been capable of rotting and corroding had long since lost the battle against the march of time, and even the ancient stonework was hidden under layers of dust and creeping roots from trees nestling in the ruins above. Despite the age of such a place there had been little scavenging and everywhere ancient relics lay in the litter of the floors, rusting in places or glinting in fragments that provided no answers to their original owners.
Our way into the depths was surprisingly wet lit, as gleaming stones were placed in regular intervals that although faded in potency still provided enough light for unenhanced vision. Some lay fallen and cracked on the floor, others seemed to fade in and out as though representing the dying heartbeat of a city long since lost to mortals. They illuminated enough for us to know that the tunnels were a home once more.
Through the dust and piled into some of the branching tunnels and rooms the collections of the minotaur herd had been left to add to the decay of centuries. Fabric, weapons, agricultural equipment, bones, hides and broken glass as well as long rotted plants could be found everywhere. With most of the steps we took we had to ensure we didn't tread through the piles of stools that had been left heaped on the edges of the tunnels. The overwhelming rank odour of the enormous creatures that had made their home in the depths would have been enough to make us gag if the memories of our journey into Oblivion were not fresh in our minds.
Checking each room and collapsed hallway in turn we made our way deeper into the depths of the central catacombs, feeling the cloying semidarkness and smells of a minotaur clan wrap around us even tighter with every step. We were in the lowest levels of the ruins now, a region that had been surprisingly untouched by time, looters and scavengers but still deep with layers of dust. All of the passageways seemed to lead to this one hall, closed off by a single pair of enormous stone doors that would not have looked out of place in a castle gatehouse. Eight metres tall and curved to a point, they had blocked all attempts to access what laid beyond over the centuries until someone of impossible strength had broken through after a sustained assault.
Gingerly we entered the room beyond the smashed doors, picking our way through the rubble of their destruction and finding ourselves in a massive expanse that could only be a throne room. Life sized statues lined the hall, each representing a long dead Ayleid ruler or champion lost to the ashes of history. The craftsmanship was masterful, every line and crease and tiniest detail etched out in stone in the attempt to capture the life and personality of those that it represented. Looking over the statues with a strange sense of awe I could see the same strange flowing shapes of their blades matching the one clenched tight in my fist, and although elegant they appeared to be little more than poor imitations of Sunchild.
The rest of the enormous expanse was large enough for a crowd of hundreds to line the walls and face towards the raised throne on the far end. Alcoves and recesses were placed at specific intervals and behind the throne of polished and perfectly carved granite a pair of closed doors separated the hall from the handful of rooms beyond. The throne itself was a masterpiece of stonemasonry, engravings of such detail and skill that only when you were looking at it from centimetres away could you behold what was depicted. The deep grey-black of the granite was a stark contrast to the white marble and was another simple, if effective technique of directing the audience's attention to whomever was powerful enough to claim such a position.
Piles of trinkets and collections of random items and vegetation was scattered about the hall, piled up against the statues mounted on their pedestals and in the darkened recesses along the hall. Such alcoves were failed to be illuminated by the glowing Welkynd Stones mounted in the stonework but it was enough for both Viconia and I to note that there was potential of wealth scattered about the room.
There was however, no real sign of our quarry other than the traces of the creature making such an expanse it's lair. The herd had obviously been stockpiling for the coming winter months and their attempts of gathering such a prodigious amount of food had led them to the village and the bounty the surrounding farmlands had offered.
There was a scrape in the darkness and both Viconia and I froze in place, glancing between ourselves and searching the room for a trace of our quarry. For several heartbeats I began to believe that my ears had been playing tricks on me in the dark until I heard the sound again. A deep, dull scrape of an undefinable substance on stone as something enormous moved in the depths of the ruins and I felt the skin of my face tightening as my vampiric instincts once again came to the surface despite my efforts to suppress it.
"Shar dormagyn udossa." Viconia whispered, her eyes widening in the dark as she suddenly froze with the first signs of fear appearing in her eyes.
I stopped and gazed into the dark, staring to the far end of the room in the attempt to see whatever it was that had left the slightest tremble of fear course though her. For a moment and even with my eyes I couldn't seem to see anything until one of the pillars seemed to move forward with the same sound of scraping echoing through the room.
Fear exploded behind my eyes and I stood, gaping at the realisation at what I was seeing. My suppression of my vampiric side had allowed me to see in the dark but didn't provide the full ability to hunt by heartbeats alone. In the second it took to realise the size of the monstrosity that we faced I was already cursing the way how I had suppressed the one skill I had to detect it in advance. What I had initially believed to be a pillar was instead an enormous muscular leg, hoofed and reverse jointed and as thick as a tree trunk. The alpha male of the minotaur clan was half the size again of its breeding females and its thick pelt was a dark grey rather than deep brown, rippling with enormous strength that had allowed it to smash its way through metre thick doors with only the slightest of effort.
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Six metres tall, it stood with its head hunched down due to the fact that it's enormous curved horns would scrape the ceiling if it straightened, and a head with a mouth filled with shovel like teeth capable of biting a man in half. A creature of such size must have struggled to travel through the relatively tiny confines of the tunnels leading to the surface and I realised almost immediately that it had been living down here and relying on its herd to keep it alive and fed. In the years since it had smashed through the doors into the throne room it had grown larger, until it was no longer capable of leaving its subterranean home.
Its hands were large enough to grip me entirely around the waist and chest, fingers as thick as my arms and everything was rippling with primal strength that seemed fully capable of picking up a knight and his warhorse and crushing them without any undue effort. It was enormous, overwhelmingly powerful and extremely angry at our presence.
Snorting with rage, eyes narrowed and bloodshot it stomped forward, making the earth shake with every step. Three tonnes of muscle and bone moved towards us, reaching out and grabbing one of the statues with both hands before ripping it out of the floor, pedestal and all.
"Gi'vith!" Viconia shouted, diving to the side as the angry minotaur titan rushed forward swinging the three metre length of sculpted marble like a club. The impact rocked through the ground and up into our bodies with the sheer force and I felt dozens of stone fragments bounce off my armour as I too dived for cover.
For such an oversized brute it moved like lightning and struck with the full power of a hurricane. Even wielding such a mass of stone it was only my vampiric abilities and Viconia's elven grace that allowed us to survive more than a second against it. Ducking down and sliding across the floor I felt the buffeting winds of the impromptu bludgeon miss me by less than a metre as it pulverised the floor where I had been standing in another explosion of marble shards.
The crackling, surging energies surrounding Viconia illuminated her in a gleaming halo of witch-light, her eyes blazing with the power that she called upon in a series of gestures that looked more akin to a dance than incantation. Unfortunately, the threat that she posed was not lost on the semi-sapient creature and ripping its club from the floor it turned to face her.
Roaring with the power of the spell she thrust her hands out, fingers twisting and weaving through the air as she directed a blast of energy right into its face and chest. I watched, awestruck by the power that she had at her command as the minotaur rocked back from the impact, shielding it's face with its free hand and bellowing as its flesh began to sizzle. What would've killed the others on the surface or utterly obliterated a human did little more than infuriate the titan that redoubled its efforts to kill us both.
She dived out of the way again as it swung the now ruined statue and pedestal, utterly annihilating the two she stood between and only just missing her by the narrowest of margins. Sprinting as fast as she could she weaved between the other statues, putting as much cover between her and the charging creature as possible. It barrelled through everything in its path, legs pumping like pistons and shattering bricks under its cloven feet with earthshaking force. Before I knew what I was doing I found myself sprinting after it in an attempt to catch it before it caught Viconia, matching its roars with vampiric ones of my own.
Ducking into an alcove she narrowly missed being pulverised into nothing by a wild swing, instead sliding into cover as it's makeshift cudgel shattered in its grasp. A fist larger than my chest slammed into the tiny hole, missing the Drow only because of her agility and struggling to grab her lithe body. Slicing away with the gleaming edge of Dragonbane, a finger fell to the floor but the owner of the digit didn't even seem to notice it's loss. However, it did feel the fact that one of its legs suddenly went limp and nerveless.
Hacking into a massive calf muscle like I was swinging an axe into a tree truck I slammed Sunchild deep until it was stopped by bone. Its hamstring severed, it suddenly dropped to a knee bellowing with such force that my eardrums nearly burst and my chest vibrated with the sheer intensity of the sound. Realising the threat it swiped across the ground, flinging the ruined remnants of yet another sculpture across the room but missing me as I moved closer to its enormous bulk.
As it fell to its knees with a second hamstring severed another roaring wave of energy hit it in the face again, exploding an eye into jelly and shattering a horn at the root. Viconia was violently powerful, matching the creature's brute strength with unrestrained power, calling upon her magicka reserves as I attacked it with Sunchild.
Caught between the two of us the creature finally succumbed to the injuries being heaped upon it. Both legs had their muscles severed, arms were cut and gashed deeply and Viconia's magical assault finally began to wear it down until it finally collapsed from the pain and damage wrought upon its body. Both Viconia and I were left panting and kneeling with exhaustion as it finally died, the twin points of Sunchild and Dragonbane lodged deep into heart and brain and blood pooling in thick, hot lakes ankle deep between the shattered statues and ruined stonework.
"Nindol eighinn usstan gultah ulu dos isto'sunduiri." Viconia gasped through heaving breaths. Tiny streams of blood trickled from the minor cuts and abrasions from flying stone on her face and one of my ears was bleeding from the creature's roars, but otherwise neither of us were seriously injured.
I tried to rise to my feet but failed to do so the first time, pushing up with my hands on my knees and sucking in the dusty air that was clogged with death and the smell of minotaur. "That is not something I want to go through again."
Viconia's laugh was open but honest and sent a ripple of pleasure up my spine. It was a laugh of relief and surprise at finding oneself alive against all odds and she regarded me with a strange expression.
"Neither do I, but I am glad that we both are effective in battle."
"You're putting that mildly." We both laughed for a few moments as I managed to drag Sunchild from the tree-trunk of a torso. "Who do you think killed it? Me or you?"
"Me of course." Her usual arrogance reappeared once more but there was the tiniest amount of amusement in her eyes. "Don't worry yourself too much. I will tell everyone we meet that you helped."
I chuckled darkly and she watched with interest as I hacked into the creature's throat after pulling her own blade from an eyesocket. It took a considerable amount of effort but finally I managed to separate the enormous head from its bullish neck.
"I hope you don't expect me to help you carry that." She said simply, watching as I groaned under the weight from simply moving the head away from the body and coating myself in gore.
"No. I'll carry it. But you will have to help carry something else." With a wicked grin I drew my tiny skinning dagger, and set to work shearing off a considerable chuck of pelt from the creature's muscular back.
