Hey guys, this is my second piece. I'm still waiting for Lineage2 website to put my submission in the fan fiction section, hopefully they'll do that.
This is my 2nd piece so here's the link to the first piece. You kind of have to read it to get the background of this one.
http://boards.lineage2.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=602022&page=1&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#602022
Qayuus watched from a distance, while on his back with blood streaming through his eyes, as the King Arachnid’s pincer descended. The pincer seemed to slow; it seemed to Qayuus as the pincer was descending about an inch per second, the King Arachnid, twice as tall as a horse and four times as wide as a traveling wagon, towered over Firaas the Paladin. Firaas was down on his stomach attempting to get up and crawl, his left leg dangling at an impossible angle with dirt, mud, and blood streaming down his face. Qayuus’s heart was pounding and his blood was rushing that he barely heard Firaas scream, “Run ****it”. The pincer was falling. Qayuus summoned all of his strength and jumped from his position on the ground to a sprint, his dual Elven long swords out to the sides on outstretched arms, from a distance it appeared as if a cross was running towards the cottage sized arachnid. The pincer kept falling! As a ferocious war cry erupted from Qayuus, “By the honor and the dual blades of house Esh-Shareef”, the pincer hit the intended target. Firaas twitched violently as the pincer entered the base of spine and erupted spewing bone, blood, metal, and chain from his midsection and pinned him to the ground.
Qayuus was only a few paces from his target and started focusing and preparing himself for a triple slash. The Elven long swords flowed from their horizontal and out position to one up and to the right and one low and to the left. His goal was to sever the pincer attached to Firaas and at the same time sever one of the big legs of the spider to hamper its movement. As he swung the blades, the monstrous spider raised Firaas’s limp and grotesque body as a shield. Qayuus was in such a battle rage that he closed his eyes to ensure maximum effort and quickly opened them when the sound of severing was not heard, but the sound of enchanted metal cutting through enchanted metal, skin, tissue, and then bone. He opened his eyes to embrace the shredded breastplate of Firaas encompassing mangled and twisted ribs and viscera.
Qayuus looking at the chelicera and the eight eyes of the spider, it felt like the spider was smiling at him if a spider could smile. There was something definitely different about this spider. Qayuus’s father once told him that a spider will attack with the short pincers closest to its chelicera. This spider at the onset of the fight used one of its longer legs to thrust and hurdle Qayuus through the air. It seemed to notice that Qayuus was the more dangerous one, then the spider feigned an attack from up high and used a pair of legs to viciously break Firaas’s leg through his majestic greaves and then leg thrust him down at the same time.
Summoning all his strength and channeling unique, sacred, and secret magic intrinsic to the Esh-Shareef lineage, he focused his energy and let forth a concussive metaphysical burst, as it could only be perceived as a burst. If someone were to watch from the outside, it would seem like the air around Qayuus had stretched, contracted, and then violently pulsed. Dirt tossed 15 feet into the air in a circle around Qayuus. The mighty spider was thrown back as it was preparing a complex attack with its pincers raised and its forward legs rotating back while his rear legs coming forward for a thrust attack. This concussive blast would daze a regular sized enemy for a few minutes, but Qayuus had no idea how long the spider would be dazed for.
Qayuus drained of energy, grabbed an amulet, a special heirloom from Firaas’s lineage, and did something he has never done in his life, with a quick prayer of forgiveness to Firaas and his Father Qaymaan, he fled . . .
Qais carefully entered the tower sized dirt mound. He was attempting to recover a spellbook hidden in the ant nest for Wiseman Casian. Qais cautiously walked into the beckoning entrance of the nest. At once a foul decaying odor hit him in the face, he had to collect himself and concentrate before he could proceed. Walking through the smelly dark muck of the ant nest he finally started hearing the innumerous clicking, shuffling, and slithering of the retched inhabitants.
Rounding the corner he spotted a huge brown and red ant feverishly grooming a few wiggling semi-animate larvae. Qais remembered a small bit of advice from his father, “Never attack an enemy if you do not have to, another encounter is another chance at death”. Qais slowly and stealthily avoiding the oblivious ant; as he descended sounds of digging and furrowing started to be heard. Qais entered a large room with a number of ants larger and a slightly brighter color. These ants were digging into the wall, in places it seemed as if they were breaking down the wall, in other places it seemed as they were making sconce-like furrows into the wall. One of the ants further down the shaft and away from these working ants caught his attention, this ant wasn’t feverishly working, it was going around, using its antennae to probe the surroundings, it was patrolling if one could say a giant ant could patrol. Eventually the ant would come into close proximity to him and the number of ants. Qais remembered the advice his father told him about attacking unnecessary enemies and grinned. This ant was not going to be an unnecessary enemy. This ant was going to reach his position eventually, if it sensed his presence amongst the furrowing ants he would be in trouble, so Qais descended towards this ant.
Qais thought about Master Auron’s teaching about the anatomy of insects and determined that the ant would be the weakest at the junction between the head and thorax and at the node, the very thin junction between the gaster and thorax. He brought up a small green vial to his lips, this vial would purportedly lessen the weight of the weapon while maintaining the potency. Qais was careful to keep his blade sheathed, as the bright luminescent blue glow of his loaned Elven long sword may give his position away, rumor says that it had been enhanced a remarkable and unheard of 12 times.
Before entering the cave, Qais sang a battle hymn that would increase his concentration and lessen pain from injuries. Waiting for the right moment, Qais cried, “By the honor and the dual blades of house Esh-Shareef,” and charged the patrolling ant. The ant realized the intruder as the bright blue of his sword illuminated a charging Qais. The ant reared a bit on its latter four legs, clicked its mandibles and charged. Qais kept his eyes on the junction between the head and thorax. He started to focus on that one spot and as he reached the ant he veered to his left. The ant lunged to Qais’s left to grasp him with his pincers. Qais expecting this moved jumped to the right. The left mandible of the ant sliced through a layer of his Brigandine gaiters but missed grappling Qais. As Qais was jumping to his right, the ants head was brushing past his gaiters exposing the area between its head and thorax. Qais blocking out every distraction, brought his sword down on to the critical spot. With a thunderous crack of enchanted steel on chitin, the ant twitched and kicked out with one of its legs. The leg caught Qais in the rear and pushed him past the injured ant.
Qais in his single minded focus of the patrol ant, did not realize that there was a smaller ant not too far behind the patrol ant. The smaller ant was already rushing to Qais as he had reacted to the thunderous crack of the blow that Qais leveled the ant. The smaller ant, the size of a bull nonetheless, opened its pincers to attack. Qais with his sword arm across his body and his shield still in front of him had no other choice but to put his shield in front of him. He slammed shield first into the mandibles and pushed. Qais felt the resistance from the ant lessen. He was shocked and relieved that his shield had done that much damage to the ant.
His relief was short lived as when he looked up he saw the ant’s mandibles, the ant had hit him head first and then immediately tried to climb over Qais’s shield. Qais could hear the previous ant still thrashing and scuffling about but his mind was on this ant. The weight of the ant climbing over his shield was starting to bear him to the ground.
From the corner of his eye he saw another ant crawling towards him from the right, he must have heard the commotion and come to investigate. Quickly thinking, Qais slid his shield to the right and pushed from right to left and moved forward. His strategy was to lift the ant up slightly to the left where he could roll to his right and expose the latter junction between the thorax and the gaster. As the opening appeared he noticed that the investigating ant had spotted him and was rushing towards him. This wasn’t an ordinary ant, it was larger then the oblivious ants but smaller than the ones he was fighting at the moment. Needing to quickly finish off the attacking ant, Qais adeptly changed his position into a more vicious stance, allowing him to use his shield hand as well as his sword hand. Having the ant off balance and the critical area exposed, with both hands Qais chopped down.
This time there wasn’t a thunderous crack of steel on chitin, there was a small metallic click and then a muted ripping sound and ichor spewed forth from the thorax of the ant as the gaster went rolling away. No time to revel in his temporary victory, Qais spun around and ducked. He held his shield up and as he ducked he twirled his sword around coming in from a low oblique angle and when he felt the force of the mandibles of the newly attacking ant hitting his shield he came out of his duck and brought the sword out from its low and wide arc and slashed vertically from low to high. Right between the pincers his blade streaked. Ichor splattered the ceiling. Despite the great weight of the ant, the force of his Elven long sword slicing through the head of the ant lifted the ant a few feet. Qais side stepped as the convulsing and twitching ant thrashed about.
The ant that had its gaster severed from its body was slowly turning around to face Qais, the other ant that was stunned momentarily had turned around to face Qais on unsteady legs and uncoordinated movements, still dangerous. Qais remembered another piece of his advice his father had told him, “When you have an advantage, first check if it is real, then turn that advantage into the enemy’s demise.” Knowing the power of his blade he knew that the first ant was probably not feigning his disorientation and there was no questioning the other ant’s current and perceived state. Charging quickly to the first ant that attacked him, he feigned to his right, the injured ant’s reflexes were slowed, that the feign was a wasted move. By the time Qais reached the left position, the true attack position, the head and mandibles of the ant had barely moved. There was no thunderous crack this time, just flowing ichor, a soft thud and the sound of an object rolling that was never meant to roll.
Qais turned to the remaining ant. He expected to the see ant facing him and twitching. What he saw was two eyes, a mouth, and black mandibles clicking in a frenzy hurtling towards his face. Without thinking he moved towards his right. Pain exploded from his left shoulder, the left mandible of the ant had sliced through his brigandine tunic and cut deeply into his shoulder. The shock of the blow made him drop his shield and his sword. The attacking ant, bearing a little less weight, hurtled past Qais and when it landed scuttled around and was preparing to lunge at Qais. Due to the bright blue glow of Qais’s sword, he found where he had dropped his blade and lunged for it. He felt a tremendous pressure on his legs and when he looked back his leg was in the mandibles of the ant. Qais knowing that if he didn’t reach his sword his lineage would die with him lunged with all this strength. His fingertips reached the hilt of the sword. He was violently jerked back. If an observer were to watch this encounter it would see a dark insect like shape lacking the common bulbous tail with ichor spewing from its back, another dark humanoid in its mandibles with an outstretched appendage and bright blue majestic sword at the opposite end. As Qais was jerked back he twisted his body around, put both hands on the sword, contorted his body to reach the head and chopped down. The first blow made a thunderous crack but the enraged ant kept attacking with its mandibles trying to reach a vulnerable point in Qais’s armor. The thunderous cracks kept coming more frequently. Qais now bleeding heavily from his shoulder and from numerous other cuts felt himself becoming weaker. He kept hammering down on the ant’s head without noticing the sound change from a thunderous crack to a wet slurpy sound.
Qais injured but still strong in resolve quaffed down a red potion he brought from the grocery store. Feeling his shoulder heat and knit itself and checking his movement and fighting ability deemed himself fit to go on. Qais descended the ant’s nest a little less confident than before.
As he turned the corner he saw the largest ant he had seen yet, this ant was almost as tall as him and easily larger than the others. This ant wasn’t patrolling or working, this ant was moving his arms and antenna in clear and concise movements. Qais slowly approached the immense ant perplexed at its behavior. His foot stepped on a spent molt casing creating a small crunching noise. The behavior of the ant stopped for a second, the head swiveled to Qais’s position, then the behavior continued again. Qais felt relieved that the ant had not detected his position since he was feeling slightly weaker due to his minor injuries. Even at full strength this ant would be an even battle.
The crunch of molts caught Qais’s attention, he saw the immense ant was charging him now and followed by two slightly smaller ants but still larger than his previous foes. The ant did not go back to its bizarre movements, it was signaling to other ants to join him in the attack!
Qais still slightly wounded started toward the ant and then stopped. He knew that these ants were more powerful than the previous three ants he had faced. Also, he had faced the three previous ants sequentially and not all at once. Qais grabbed his family heirloom, a necklace in the shape of the Esh-Shareef house and said in an increasingly choked voice.
“Dear Father, I am sorry, I have shamed our lineage, but I cannot fight this fight.” Qais fled from the ant nest, past the dead ants, into another shaft a different one from which he came from. He saw ants busy at their furrowing work so he was relieved none would join the chase. He could hear the clicks and scuffling of the three massive ants behind him. Much to Qais’s chagrin two of the worker ants, rather large one,s looked up from their work and started the chase.
Qais could feel that the ants were almost on his back, one slip and he would die. He took out another red vial but in his haste dropped it. That left him with one more, a large one he was hoping to use only in extreme cases. He took that while running madly away. Tears were coming down his eyes. “Am I even worthy to carry the Esh-Shareef blood in my veins? Would my father Qayuus ever run from battle? What about my promise to Wiseman Casian?”
Qais kept running and he finally made out of the ant nest but there was still pursuit, he looked back and noticed that the more massive ant was at the entrance, not pursuing him but eying him. His two minions were still in pursuit but stopped at the gestures of the large one. He kept running as two of the smaller ants that were furrowing were still chasing him. Qais infused with shame and rage, bellowed out his war cry and charged the two smaller ants. His heart was pounding in his head, tears were coming down his face, sweat was glistening, his shame was a halo around him, his rage, a palpable force.
Twenty seconds later, Qais lay on the ground panting, tears were still streaming down his face. Ant body parts and ichor were surrounding him in a putrid mosaic. Twenty minutes later as the vultures gathered around the gruesome mosaic, Qais stood up, and slowly walked back to Gludin, tears were still running down his face and he was muttering. “Am I worthy of my own lineage.”
Later that evening, in the middle of a sleepless night.
“Dear scions of house Esh-Shareef, Qayuus and Qaymaan, I vow on the honor of our blood to return to the ant nest and to make it rain ant. I will eviscerate them and decorate the ground with their pieces. Their ichor will flow to the bottom of the nest to drown their queen.”
The next morning Qais joined Polarity and his lovely wife Larnea for breakfast at the Curvacious Dragon Inn in Giran. Qais had an intense look in his eyes. Polarity asked, "Qais, why the serious look in your eyes? Qais responded, "I'm going to be known amongst the ant-folk as the murderous spider." With that response, Larnea sighed, shook her head and mumbled under her breath, "Male bravado". Polarity smiled and giggled, "Can I come?"
Moments later, Qais inexplicably screamed, "AFLAC". (just kidding).
Qais son of Qayuus son of Qaymaan Esh-Shareef
*From the Chronicles of the Gladiators of House Esh-Shareef
AS AN UPDATE, MY CHARACTER QAIS, IS CURRENTLY LVL 36.6244 AND I'M PLAYING 100% LEGIT AND I'VE ALREADY ACCUMULATED 723k in adena with another 500k+ in sellable assets and a big thanks to Homiside (used to be Tezra) and Polarity and Larnea.
-Qais from Hindemith server