The Dead Fields [Tyrion/Toba]

A small creature bounded up and down in the forests in Harrogath. A dwarf bounced with each step to see above the grass and bushes and other plants that grew up over to the height of a normal man's waist. There was a loud hiss as his steam vents boosted him above the grass-line to see around. He would hover for a second until the charge of steam dissipated and he gravitated back to earth slowly at first, then falling down at a skip jump. He looked around and saw nothing but wood and foliage.

He cursed his Fathers. With no knowledge of the surface dwellers, he did not know of this wondrous innovation that would have helped him navigate the world called "Roads." He knew navigation only as he did as a Dwarf: Tunnels and excavations. There was nothing to obstruct your view, unlike this damnable grass that grew before him. The only time something did get in the way would be when a cave-in occurred. When such a occasion happens, the dwarves quickly decide if they need to clear the collapse, or abandon it, depending on the traffic here.

And how do these crust walkers get around? The mud and rabbit-holes, and endless trees kept him from making any sort of distance. He bounded again, with steam screaming once more from his boot. There was a rhythmic thumping as a seven foot golem lumbered behind. Wet, disgusting sounds occured as the feet of the construct lifted its feet from the moist ground. For all of the obstructions in the way, it was keeping pace quite well. It was pretty fast for a lumbering hulk. A few times trees were smacked down to make way for his course of action, nothing got in the way of Rocky. Rakust looked behind as another tree fell to the giant, making sure the lumber did not tip over on himself. There was wood splintering, crashing branches and the wet smack as the wood hit mud. Rakust did not take his eyes off of it until it stopped moving, always pressing forward as he observed.

After the timber, he stopped, bent his knees, and jumped high, activating both feet this time. This time he hovered above the ground. He took a good look around and saw a light a little to his right, away from the tree that fell, but about the distance the tree fell at its tip. He tipped his feet backwards to glide back to Rocky and clambered on top of it. He told the golem to raise his arms to defend the low branches and march towards the light. And it complied, without a complaint or question.

He arrived to an oil lampost right outside the main gates of the city. Above the gates was a sign in a language he did not understand, (Mind you he is literate in written only in dwarven) But however, there was a compass sigil on the sign, with west signified as the largest of them all. "WEST-phal" He said in amusement of the pun.

He walked in, looking around the hamlet style architecture and the culture of the place. It was clean, cobblestone roads, with grass patches kept clean in many flowerpots. The city was circular in architecture and lead to a center well. Again melded in with the same stone of the roads. There was something off of this town, it was quiet. It was late in the day, but not enough to call it a night. So there should be the lower class walking about, the squires getting their dismissal from their masters, the apprentices getting off of work from their crafters. But none of this was happening. The place was dead silent.

And oh the irony!

He approached the well, looking up and around. Something above perhaps? But as he looked down the well he was mortified. Something burst out of the water in the well and grabbed his left arm. This was some bony hand, muscle and sinew kept it from falling off. He took a look at the face. Bloated and rotten from water, it looked as if it was about to burst. He tried to wrench his hand free, but it was surprisingly strong. He wanted as far away from that creature as possible. He reared his right hand and with a steam powered punch, he punched the undead man back into the well. The momentum and the still gripping hand almost took him with him. If it were not for his steam vents pushing back, he would have been doomed. The splashing water drenched him, his vents making disgusting sucking sounds as it absorbed it. He took to run out of the city, and get as far away from here as possible. Not looking where he was going, he just wanted to make as much distance as possible.

Tyrion was moving through the forests of Harrogath at a quick pace, or at least as quick as he could with his armor and sword. The tall trees stood around him as he breathed in the fresh scent of the area. He loved this place already just due to peacefulness of the area. He continued on his journey toward Westphal and began to feel his boots sink into the muddy terrain. "How annoying.." He mused aloud as he began to trudge through the mud as he came upon a strange sight. Multiple trees seemed to be torn down as something walked through the area. He couldn't tell how far away the creature was but he knew it could be dangerous. He wanted to make sure that whatever it was wouldn't be a harm to the denizens of westphal so he began to follow the trail.

After about an hour of trudging through the forest he came across a strange sight. A strange mechanical golem and a dwarf were running through the foliage trying to escape from something. He was about to call out to question as to what in the world had them so scared. The golem was obviously the one who created this tree lovers nightmare of a path and so he surely couldn't be defenseless. He then saw what they were running from. He didn't know if the dwarf could tell he was being followed but a good five or six of the ghastly undead forces were chasing after them. His eyes widened a bit before he ran forward, putting his hand on Hyperions hilt for a quicker draw and moved to intercept the undead. "Cease running and fight my friend, you do not fight alone!" He called to the dwarf as he reached the first of the undead and drew Hyperion, levering it over his shoulder to increase the speed and power of the strike as his opening attack slashed through the undead creature in the first blow. He knew full well the other wouldn't be that easy, he had the advantage of the speed and the draw on the first. The creature now circled around him in an attempt to confuse him. He suddenly smirked and activated Hyperions secret.

Suddenly the large blade split into two, Tyrion now held two long sword, single edged Hyperions in his hands, this allowed him to defend as well as attack in this situation, which he greatly needed. He counted the monstrosities before him in his mind -one...two...three...four- He thought as he readied blades, he knew these couldn't be the only undead in the area, there were always more. He knew now that needed to remove this problem before it got fully out of hand. He also knew that undead tended to not work together like this, they have no higher brain functions so this meant that for them to surround him and coordinate this much, someone had to be controlling them.

He suddenly put his right sword behind his back in a diagonal angle over his right shoulder and blocked a clawed hand from an undead behind him, his sheer instinct is the only thing that saved him from the strike, though he was confident in his armors ability to defend from such a blow, it was slightly thicker in the back to deal with such assaults. He quickly shifted his right foot forward and thrust his left blade back, stabbing the creature in the arm, severing instantly. He heard the creature howl in anger and he jumped aside so that all four of the enemies were now where he could see them. This would take time at this rate, and if he were to eliminate the threat he would need help.

He hoped the dwarf turned around soon, his back would be to him now. He breathed in deeply and focused intently on the undead before him, three them were at full fighting strength while the fourth was missing an arm, he would need to play defensively to get out of this situation with harm. He waited patiently for their strike now, knowing that it would come soon.

Rakust ran almost into a man clad in armor. Pausing only enought to take a quick glace at if he was a threat, and tried to dart past to the right. He was also muddied from the trip to the city. Rakust heard sentience from this man, unlike the creatures from the well.

"Cease running and fight my friend, you do not fight alone!"

He was not a Zombie, nor was he alone, he had forgotten even his own friend, Rocky was being clambered upon by a zombie, but it did nothing to get it off of itself. It had not the command to get them off of him and it stood there motionless. But that did not stop the flee. What did stop his retreat is the shambling corpses that were approaching in from the gates of the city. He stopped to look at the man who told him to fight. He was wearing full gilded crystal armor, Crystals project from his pauldrons in a sunburst pattern, and the joints of his armor of his pauldrons and vanguards. He looked like a walking crystal cluster he dwarf found in his Jewelcrafting searches. His head was bare, no armor to support it. His face was fair and his complexion a healthy tan of many hours a day spent in the sun. A solid gold cloak of hair ran down to his back shining the light off the sheen. His Sword looked like nothing more than an extension of his armor. Crystals upon crystals jammed into each other to make a heavy broadsword in a crude representation of a sword. To Rakust, all he saw in the weapon was a pretty penny. Wether or not he wanted it, that was what he thought of the equipment this knight donned: Shiny and expensive.

Rakust stopped just passed the knight. Frozen and trapped in as more zombies crept around from the surrounding area. He tried to count them, wondering if he could make a beeline out of the city, and escape this abomination, or could he trust this literal knight in shining armor, and fight his way through. The longer he hesitated, the window of the former choice was shutting fast. Just then he heard a click and scrape of metal upon metal. The dwarf looked towards the sound, up and to the left, the knight pulled the sword around his shoulder, utilizing his pauldouns as a wedge to use the sword as a leverage to gain momentum for a quick solid strike, which came true to a solid wet smack. The dwarf knew what happened. He killed a man, or something LIKE a man. He dared not look, but his eyes betrayed him they drifted to see half of a torso one way and the rest in the other direction. He could hear footsteps coming from the gates. Rakust froze in fear, "here comes the other guys from the gate" He thought. And as he watched the knight, he grabbed the sword with both hands, and with a click and scrape, he broke it apart. Rakust would have been impressed by the device if it were not for the current emotion in this situation. He watched as the man used one of them to stop the grasping arm of an assailant with one and spun his position, allowing the other sword to cut the arm off of it as well.

Rakust looked in the direction where the knights back was at, And sure enough there were two coming after him. There was no time to call Rocky. There was too much distance to cover, instead he left it inactive and raised his left hand to point at the knight and the right over his head protectively. "P-Protect me! B-b-but not h-him!" He half stuttered, Half Yelled, All loud. At his command steam burst three small bronze pods boosted themselves off of him. With a loud whirring and clicking sound they sprung to life, eight long spindly sharp legs protruded from the pods. A large number of tools protruded from the place where the "Mouth" was. And like clockwork, two of them moved forward to intercept the two chasing after him. They paid no heed to the constructs. They wanted living flesh, and this was far from it. Their negligence, however organized, was their downfall. They wrapped their legs around theirs and switched their tools to a saw-blade to literally cut the legs off. Once they fell, they turned the tools to an automated chisel, and drilled at the head, rendering them useless in a matter of moments. The third one moved behind Rakust, protecting him from an unexpected ambush he did not forsee. It crouched its legs, lowering the body, and jumped landing squarely and solidly on the head of a third. Using the spikes on its legs to pierce the head multiple times making it drop as fast as the drone jumped.

Rakust heard the body fall behind him and he spun to find out what happened. He was grateful of these drones, perhaps they were not so useless as he thought after all, they had enough sentience in them to understand how to make do with impromptu commands. He then looked at the knight, and stuttered "Ah-um-uh, w-w-what is g-going... On?" He said at first, and the volume drained fast, making the last word barely a whisper. In the midst of combat, It was sure that he would not hear him.

"P-Protect me! B-b-but not h-him!"

Tyrion heard him and knew he was on his own and sighed is dismay. He still had four targets to deal with despite one of them missing an arm. He knew more could come at any possible time and he thought about his options quickly. If they didn't find the source of this problem quickly they were both going to die, as well as anyone else trying to travel through to the area. He took a deep, steady breath as he analyzed the situation. Four targets, one with a missing arm, unknown amount of possible reinforcements, obviously being controlled, and they were obviously being watched. He knew whoever was controlling these things was nearby, and that they knew they were there. He yelled out to the dwarf in frustration "Look you, if we don't work together here than you, me, and anyone else who decided to wander through this area are all going to die. We can't afford to be cowardly here and we certainly can't afford to try to go at this alone. We don't know how many there are. But I do know someone is controlling them. If we kill him this should all be over instantly." He called as he kept a wary eye on the four undead. Suddenly one of them attacked him, this one wasn't the one with only one arm. He quickly timed his slash and cut the attacking arm off at the elbow and with one more quick spin slipped his sword straight through it's neck. The blade went through and through with almost no resistance. The creature then fell to the ground in a heap as Tyrions eyes went back to the three other threats.

He knew this had to end quickly and that he was out of options. He quick combined his swords into it's great sword form and spun around to gain momentum, as he finished the spin the creatures jumped at him but he had gained enough momentum to increase the force of Hyperions strike, the great blade slashed through all three of the creatures at the waist. All three of them fell to the ground in a heap of bones and decayed flesh. They're undead, yellow eyes staring up at him as the life force that was returned to them was extinguished. He turned toward the dwarf "My name is Tyrion and we have to end this problem now or more people with die, you can either help me kill the one responsible, or you can save yourself and run. You're choice, either way the man controlling this is probably in westphal itself." He said as he put Hyperion back on his back and began to travel toward the town

He couldn't believe the little creature told his constructs to only defend himself, after he jumped into combat to save HIM. It was a massively selfish thing to do and he fully expect the dwarf to run and leave him to handle this mess alone. He didn't know if he could fight so many of these creatures without some form of help. He sighed knowing he would simply go in and try to solve this problem anyway. He continued his trek toward the city, keeping a wary eye for for anymore undead, or even the one summoning them. He however highly doubted the one responsible would be outside the city.

He soon came near the town and hid himself in the surrounding woods as best he could to observe the undead in the area. They were patrolling in regular intervals, further proving that they were under control. He studied the lay out of the town and saw that the inn was in the exact center of the town. That would be where the one causing this mess would be, in the center of the area where his control would spread the furthest.

"Look you, if we don't work together here than you, me, and anyone else who decided to wander through this area are all going to die. We can't afford to be cowardly here and we certainly can't afford to try to go at this alone. We don't know how many there are. But I do know someone is controlling them. If we kill him this should all be over instantly."
His savior said in a hostile tone, rakust looked at him. All he could see was the fire of irritation in his eyes, and his darted away in shame. He then turn to take care of an immediate threat that Rakust paid no heed to. He only watched one of his drones make sure the threats were dead.

"My name is Tyrion and we have to end this problem now or more people with die, you can either help me kill the one responsible, or you can save yourself and run. You're choice, either way the man controlling this is probably in westphal itself."

The man turned his back to Rakust, and somehow one of the drones must have picked up on the hostility of Tyrion and with a whirring sawblade, it moved up and in front of him. It spun its blade in an intimidating manner, trying to tell this man off. Rakust saw what would happen if he didn't do anything, The drone would have done as commanded: "Protect rakust, not Tyrion." This was a problem, since Tyrion hurt rakust feelings, however justified, the machines considered Tyrion a threat that must be protected from. Rakust started running forward, the other two drones walking backwards behind him to protect his flank. He darted in front of the attacking drone and spread his arms wide to protect Tyrion.

"No! Stupid machine! I meant 'Attack everyone of those things you just killed, not that guy!' Gah can't you use some common sense?" He said with a voice almost akin to a toddler throwing a tantrum. With a sickining scrape of gears grinding into place, it stopped its sawblade just as it was it jumped. Oh it jumped, almost halariously off to the side and upside down into a bush nearby. It scurried its legs about, whirring and clicking about. It shoved itself to this side and that, uprighting itself after several attempts.

Tyrion moved to the surrounding woods with Rakust and his drones right at his heels, almost uncomfortably it would seem to him. As they moved Rakust started up an apology, "Um t-tyiron... I-I am..." There was a small pause, "sorry that my... D-drone almost. h-h-hurt you." He managed to finish, his eyes closed as he said the last word. Unable to see, he tripped over an exposed root in the woods. He tumbled full force to the ground shouting in surprise as he went. But he managed to get his grips together and clamber back up and towards where Tyrion was hiding. He was watching the zombies prowl about, especially at a building near the center of the town. Rakust flipped a gear on his goggles, turning them into the telescoptic focal. Correcting his sight he managed to find the building of interest, and sure enough, he could see someone in the top floor of the building, and it did not look like a zombie. He decided to make up for his transgressions of sorts and took off the goggles. He handed them to Tyrion saying "T-Take a look. y-y-you c-can see... Better than n-normal. I-I can see someone on the... t-top floor."

He only hoped that whatever He did to make Tyrion mad would be made up for here.

As Tyrion was trying to get a better look at the building in town he heard the dwarf stutter out "Um t-tyiron... I-I am...sorry that my... D-drone almost. h-h-hurt you." He nodded his head in acknowledgment, last in though of the situation. He saw the dwarf fiddle with his goggles for a moment as Tyrion himself was trying to get a handle on their patrol patterns. At that moment the dwarf passed over his goggles "T-Take a look. y-y-you c-can see... Better than n-normal. I-I can see someone on the... t-top floor." Tyrion took the goggles from him "Thank you my friend, this is most helpful" He said as he held the goggles before his eyes and look at the top floor. Sure enough someone was up there using magic. He knew these lesser undead couldn't possibly use such power so it must be the controller. He passed the goggles to the dwarf beside him and then stood to his full height. He drew Hyperion up, knowing he couldn't sneak in. He would have to cut a path to the tower. "Cover me as best you can my little friend, I shall do the same for you. We have no chance of sneaking in, so that leaves the direct approach." He said with a small grin at the prospect of battle.

Tyrion held Hyperion with one hand and held it behind his back. He could use the weight of the blade to increase the power of a downward swing this way to end a few of them with the first strike. He then charged forward as quickly as possible. As he ran forward he could hear his armor clinking and knew the enemy knew he had come. They began filing out of the village in droves and attempted to overwhelm him. As the first group of four ran up to him Tyrion swung Hyperion at a diagnol angle downward, the extra weight and gravity it self causing the blade to easily pass through all four of the creatures at once. He quickly separated Hyperion his a click and held his twin swords. He moved as fast as possible, using the blades the counter and slash at the foes.

He held ground in the middle of the village square, the inn mere yard away from him. He would wait for the dwarf. They would have higher chance to make in as a team and now all of the undead had their attention on him. They would never see the dwarf coming. He felt a weak blow against the back of his armor and grinned as his sheathed one of Hyperions twin swords into the creatures chest. His armor was too much for these creatures to assault. He would however, not allow himself to get cocky. No armor can withstand too many hits, and his head was unprotected. He ducked at that precise moment as a swipe came at said part of his body and with a flick of his wrist and flourish of his blade the offending creature found his head separated from it's body.

Suddenly a terrible feeling pricked at the back of Tyrions mind as he felt the hairs his neck stand on end. Sheer instinct from this point was the only thing that saved him as he ducked and a ball of magical energy obliterated a few undead that had been in front of him. He turned up toward the inn and saw the controller in the window with a snide grin on his face. The man had heard Tyrion and decided to try to attack him from behind. Now he would have to combat the undead and dodge the mages spells in order to survive this ordeal. Tyrion got a good luck at the man however. He looked to be about twenty-five and had medium length, pulled back brown hair and a large goatee that included sideburns. He had an evil glint in his eye like he caught a valuable rat in his trap and got ready to fire another ball of magic.

Tyrion slashed his sword outward to give himself room to dodge, none of the undead creatures saw it coming and a few lost their heads in the process. Tyrion then dodged to the side as the magical ball of energy came down and obliterated three more of the creatures. He briefly wondered how many people had he resurrected from this town and then realized with a sick feeling that their had to be a graveyard somewhere. This meant the man could have hundreds more of the undead creatures running about and he knew this man needed to die, and quickly. He took a deep breath and held his ground, ready to dodge the next assault when it comes.