To A Thief - Chapter 8: Warchief Wreckers, Part 2

The two thieves have made it into the final floor of the outpost. What lies ahead could be anything from triump, to death.. Will they succeed?

Trivia: A "Sneak Attack" in the Final Fantasy XI universe is an ability used by thieves that basically supercharges their next attack and is shown to be a big ball of light(energy) forming around their hand for a split second before disappearing. The fact that it only works when striking the enemy from behind, particularly in a surprise attack, is most likely the reason for its name. 

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Entering the open area of the final floor, the two scanned around while hidden. There was a rather large tent at the left that led deeper into the orcish base, branching off into a section known as Fort Ghelsba.

If you stood over the ledge at the northern section of this floor, one could see how high up this floor really was. The streams that ran through Ghelsba looked like little lines from up here. It sent chills to the bone knowing there was nothing but instant death upon slipping off this ledge.

"It's quiet.. I don't see him." Stiff said, walking over to Draven with an anxious look on his face. "Do you think he might've retreated into the fort?"

"I doubt it. The bridge from here to the fort is supposed to be unfinished, though he could have gotten there through some kind of tunnel.." Draven replied. Having lived in San d'Oria all this time, he knew many facts about this location.

But just before the two could say anything else, the doors from the large tent in the area was shot into the air. Whatever was inside the hut knocked the massive door right off its hinges.

A certian orc began making its way down from the ramp, surprising both Draven and Stiff. It was massive in size, about the size of the tower they had used to take down the Orcish Warmachine the other day. Its nostrils flared through an armored helmet.

Thats right, even with the tough skin orcs were known to have, this thing was covered from the torso and up in what looked like iron armor. In its hand, it held a huge darksteel axe; seemingly heavy enough to make this monstrosity of an orc have to carry it with both hands.

-The ground felt as if it rumbled with each of its steps; its iron gaze looking directly towards the two thieves that had brought so much ruckus to its base.

"He wasn't retreating.." Stiff gulped. "He was simply preparing.. waiting for us."

"Here he comes." Draven said, unsheathing his steel dagger and readying himself.

"Looks like our weapons alone wont be enough to take this one down.. he's heavily armored." He thought aloud, scanning the area quickly once more to confirm what he had seen earlier.

"Our surroundings: Some tents, the fort it came from, and the watch tower over yonder. I wonder if we can find anything in these tents.."

The two thieves parted from each other's sides, circling the Warchief as it let out a ridiculously loud, roaring howl under its helmet.

The howl was so loud it could be heard from all floors of Ghelsba, causing the knights posted on the other three floors to stagger in surprise.

Warchief Vatgit was ready to fight for his base.

"Looks like they have begun.." Moku spoke in a hesitant voice. That didn't sound like the Warchief he knew.

It seemed.. different.

"You sure about this..?" Avondale asked, turning to him with a look of concern on his face.

"Not anymore I'm not."

Stiff had his eye stuck on a particular surrounding that he noticed upon entering this floor. It was the incredibly steep ledge at the north end.

"Draven.. how about that ledge?" He called out.  

Draven glanced at the ledge, then back at the warchief. "Actually, yeah.. that'll do just fine. Now, how to make him fall over.."

The Orcish Warchief let out a loud cackle. "Puny hume plan.. not work on Vatgit!"

That voice took the two thieves by utter surprise.

"These things can speak!?" Stiff stumbled.

The warchief  slammed its axe hard onto the ground, causing the floor to crack and crumble under its weight and making small crevices that could upset the agile thieves' footing were they caught in such an attack.  

"These orcs have been living near San d'Oria for so long, its not much of a surprise they've picked up on some of the local tongue." Draven replied as he jumped out of the way from the crumbling floor.

The warchief rose its axe once more, howling out as it swung it down at full force.

The ground crumbled again, sending a crevice breaking open towards the slope that led down to the third floor. Because of this, the walls along the narrow slope's path crumbled forward, breaking into large boulders that caved the opening in.

After wards, the warchief turned to Draven and began its relentless assault.

"It blocked the path?" Stiff staggered back as he watched the rocks topple over the only exit they had.

"It wants to make sure we don't have any means of escape." Draven confirmed, furrowing his brows as the warchief swung at him.

"Damn, he's fast.." He thought diving out of the way.

The large axe just barely missed Draven's head, plunging into one of the orcish tents and knocking it down completely with one swing.

Stiff saw that Draven was in trouble and quickly ran over to intervene, but was swung out of the way by the sudden incoming massive warchief's tail. It felt as if a galka had just tackled him with all his might, sending him tumbling far backwards and straight through another tent.

Nearly knocked unconscious, he shook his head and looked out of the tent in a daze through the hole his body had made on the tent cloth. He saw what looked like three warchiefs in the distance, charging straight at him.

"Look out!" Draven shouted, forcing Stiff out of the tent by the collar of his doublet and quickly climbing up a ladder over to a high ledge against the mountain wall.

Stiff scrambled dizzily up the ladder, just barely making it in time thanks to Draven pulling him up by his arms as the warchief smashed the ladder to bits with a shoulder tackle. 

"This thing is unstoppable.." Draven grunted in frustration as he looked down at the warchief that now began to charge at the mountain wall while looking at them. "We definitely can't harm it with mere weapons because of that armor.. not to mention he's too large and fast for us to get too far before he cuts us down.."

Stiff finally caught his bearings, holding a hand to his forehead and quickly shaking away the blurryness in his eyes before crawling back up onto his feet. "So what the hell are we gonna do..? All we've got to work with is that ledge."

Draven's eyes scanned the far side of the current floor they were in and looked out at the ledge for a moment before his eyes lit up with an idea.

"That's it! Stiff, I've got an idea.. it's a bit risky, but it should work." He said as he crouched down and began explaining.


The idea was simple, but very dangerous.

Basically, one of us would jump off the ledge at the right moment and catch Vatgit's attention. Upon doing so, said person will run ahead towards the ledge at the northern side of the floor with the enemy tailing him, giving the second person still on the ledge the chance to jump down and run behind the warchief.

Person #1 will then jump accurately down the ledge and latch onto it before they could actually fall down. With the warchief's massive weight and speed, this tactic could easily cause it to fall off the ledge and plummet to its death. To ensure this happens, Person #2 will remain behind the enemy until that moment and force the beast off the ledge.
 

Stiff felt his heart thumping rapidly as he listened. "A BIT risky? That's nothing BUT risky.." He thought, gulping down. "Although it sounds very full-proof.. seeing as one of us will shove him off if he was to stop just at the edge."

After a moment's thought, Stiff cracked his knuckles and pursed his lips readily. "Alright then, I'll-"

"I'll go first." Draven cut him off. "You took a hard hit from his tail there.. you might still be too shaken up to make it work properly. You just focus on forcing him off the edge, should he stop."

Stiff rose a brow, turning to him. "What? No way! I'm fine! Listen, you don't-"

Before Stiff could say anything else, the wall finally began to crumble.

"!!!"

The warchief wasn't just assaulting the mountain in rage. It was deliberately attempting to crumble it with each hit, forcing the two to drop down in the rock slide that would shortly ensue. Neither of them had time to react as they tumbled down with the crumbling rocks.

Stiff felt a large rock nab him hard on the side of his forehead, feeling the warm blood begin to drip down his face. After that, he saw nothing but stars, and black out the moment he hit the ground.

When he came to, he saw a battered up and semi-unconscious Draven being held up by the large orc as it lifted him up high by the throat, letting out a snorting cackle.

The two were greatly damaged from the rock slide, so the warchief had decided to take his time and "play" with his victims.

Blood dripped from the corners of Draven's mouth, his body limp although still in one piece.

"Draven..!" Stiff choked out a gasp as he dragged himself out from under the piles of rocks on top of him and crawling onto his knees. Pulling out his dagger and attempting to pull himself up, he felt his legs give out and force him back down on one knee. ".. S**t.."

The warchief let out another laugh as he tightened his large grip around Draven's throat, nearly crushing it on the spot.

"It over.. puny hume. I crush neck! NOW!" It snorted as its grip began to tighten even more.


Draven coughed out some spit mixed with blood as he clutched the orc's wrist armor.

Stiff's eyes were wide and blood shot as he witnessed this, trembling.


This was all just too familiar..

This feeling of helplessness..

Blackness began to surround me as it did back then. I was enveloped in it; blanketed in it.

All of my emotions suddenly disappeared as they had before..

I was reminded once again of the lives that had been lost in the past; lost to the war.

I could see two shapes among this darkness being cut down by an orcish silhouette.. I couldn't quite tell who they were, but I felt completely attached to them. Seeing them being cut down like this began to fill me with anger..

As these shapes vanished into nothingness, I saw the shape of a woman also being cut down by the same silhouette. It had chucked its weapon at her and gotten her straight through the back.. an all-too-familiar scene. Even more anger..

And now, before me.. stood the orcish shape holding up Draven by the throat. The image of Draven began to turn into another colorless; faceless shape.. dying slowly.

At this point, I had gone from feeling completely helpless.. to being completely enraged.

What happened next was much like what happened back then.. unexplainable.

...I'm not going to let this happen again!


Stiff narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth hard, feeling them grind together as he glared at the orcish shape in front of him.

Gripping the hilt of his dagger tightly, his palm twitched and suddenly let out a burst of what appeared to be light; a massive white ball of light that shot into his dagger's blade like an explosion and was about the size of Stiff's entire upper body. It let out what sounded like the sound of a cyclone running through a narrow path.

This light cleared away all the darkness that had blanketed Stiff. The darkness left his sight as well, now able to clearly see the warchief who was about to kill Draven.

Warchief Vatgit was distracted by this sudden, loud burst of light he caught glimpse of from the corner of his helmet and turned to look.

There stood the other puny hume thief on one knee, looking up ever so menacingly at him through bloodshot eyes and arm trembling with this large burning white sphere surrounding the blade of his dagger.

Countless red streams of energy began to surround this white light as a strong blast of wind was emitted from it, causing the side of Stiff's hair facing the energy to flow upwards, the blood still running fresh down his face.

In a way, the red streaks on the white sphere resembled his pale face that was streaming with blood.

Draven had fallen unconscious by now, his body dropping to the floor as the warchief lost interest in him now and stood to face Stiff, snorting and wheezing curiously.

Without wasting another moment; completely oblivious as to what he was doing, Stiff dashed as fast as he could towards the warchief.

Just as the thief sprinted towards the massive orc, the blockade of rocks that had been blocking the slope down to the third floor burst open thanks to a strong Aero spell that Moku had cast.

There, he stood with Avondale and quickly looked around the area through the dust that had built up. Both of them would gasp in surprise as they witnessed what was happening.

"Th-that technique..!" Moku stammered as he witnessed Stiff's new ability.

"Isn't that.. a Sneak Attack? By Altana, I've never seen one of such magnitude..! Why, it looks just like..!"

The orc stood his ground heavily, holding up its massive darksteel axe in front of itself as the young thief dove at him in full force.

Stiff let out a loud growl, using every ounce of his might within this attack.


The technique hit hard, shattering the darksteel axe's handle and shooting straight into the warchief's armored chest, exploding into a large sonic boom of red and white that sent Stiff flying backwards a few feet and knocking him entirely unconscious because he had already been so weak.

The blow sent Warchief Vatgit flying countless feet off the ledge of the mountain. He roared and howled out as a stream of blood followed in its wake, plunging downward as the beast plummeted to his death.  

After that, nothing else.

The two thieves lay sprawled across the cracked earth of the fourth floor, bloodied up and damaged..

.. and successful in the last part of their training.

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The final objective was a success!

But how will Stiff and Draven fare when they come to?

And what of Stiff's new ability!?

Find out in Chapter 9: Setting Out

Author's Note

I updated both Part 1 and 2 as a single chapter earlier this morning but then realized how long it actually was.. I guess I got carried away! I decided to split it into the two parts you see now.

As for those who read it as it was before, there's nothing different!