//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Ending the Beginning // Story: Nomad's Requiem // by Shadowflash //------------------------------// Nomad’s Requiem Chapter 1 - Ending the Beginning Written by Shadowflash Edited by: Eldorado Gunsmith Narlepoax III Pre-read by: Ghoswriter95 RainbowBob MisterMissusMaster My name is Nomad. Just Nomad. No last name, no aliases, no nicknames. I prefer Nomad and only Nomad. If anyone calls me by something else, then I’ll gladly introduce them to the sharp end of my staff. I’m sure you’re also curious as to what I look like. I’m just some bald guy, seven feet tall, who wears custom leather armour and enjoys having a scarf wrapped around his neck. Good enough? No? All well, that’s all I need to explain to you at this moment. The land–no. The plane of existence that I am currently existing on is referred to, by the inhabitants, as Gielinor. The name is stupid; I could barely pronounce it when I came into being. Gell-in-orh? Is that how it is? Whatever, the name is dumb, easy to understand. It’s referred to as Gielinor and it was founded by a man who came here through a giant portal. I know, original, right? But, I’m sure you want to know a tad more about me. Can’t hold everything back. I’ll give a brief summary: I manage a game where people fight to the death for prizes which is mildly amusing and I had to build up an arena myself. Yeah, life ain’t easy when you have to build stuff yourself. While creating the arena, I discovered a... Peculiar thing. It was a cave entrance to an old temple, remarkably still intact. Who knew how long it’d been there, but I decided to adventure into it. While doing so, I found a demonic looking device. It had a giant demon didn’t see that one coming! with twelve arms hanging over a pillar of white light. Streaks of electricity were flowing into each of the clawed hands from the inside of the pillar. Or perhaps the other way around? Around the pillar of white light, there were four blocky supports, all having a face that looked like it was screaming in agony, or pain. I took it upon myself to investigate further and realize that this device was attached to many sections of the arena I designed. It appeared to me as if it was feeding power to its throne and I had to test this theory. So, I sat on the throne. What, wouldn’t you do that? C’mon, I trust the first demon-like structure I see in a very ancient temple the second I see it! But, anyways, while sitting upon the throne, I felt a surge of new and rejuvenating energy! It felt fantastic! So, after my little “test run”, I decided to finish my arena building and let idiots fight to the death so I could get back to building my power levels. Sadly, I just have to be interrupted by children! Don’t they have respect for their seven-thousand-year-old elders? Sigh. Anyways, yes, I was interrupted by two would-be heroes who thought they were top of their class. Which they weren’t. They probably weren’t even in classes for all I know.They just thought being a tad power-grabby in this “world” was evil. Last time I looked over Gielinor’s constitution, it wasn’t against the law to enjoy a bit of power. ~ “You have to pay your dues to Lucien!” An Elite Black Knight barked at me in my own lair. At this point, I realized that These heroes their names were Xavier and Zandrelia caught me whilst chatting it up with this wonderful warrior. However, I ignored them to give a fair warning. To both the heroes and my little knight friend. “Oh, and what are you going to do about it?” I laughed. “Seriously, one guy?” Two others showed up from seemingly nowhere. Is this temple this easy to breach? Honestly. Still, only an Elite Ranger and Elite Mage. Nothing bad. “This is all there is of you? I thought there’d be more of a challenge,” I mocked them. Serves them right. “Attack!” They yelled in unison. Oh, they’re so stupid! I immediately froze all of them with my ice magic. Then, I casted a simple fire spell upon the Knight and he died immediately. The other two, well, they teleported. Cowards. I think it’s a nice time to address my guests. “Leave now. If I see you down here again, I guarantee it will be the last mistake you ever make,” I warned them fully and then left. But... They persisted. Those little brats made their way through all the traps I set up, defeated a personal little creation of mine a giant undead monster, to say the least and destroyed my barrier between them and the throne. Gods be damned, heroes piss me off. They don’t even know the reason why I’m doing this. I watched them “prissy walk” to my throne like little schoolgirls and only smirked under my massive scarf at their idiocy. They came prepared, though. Both wore runite armour and were wielding abyssal whips. Well, Zandrelia had a whip, Xavier had a godsword. Where the hell did he get that? Kind of made me feel tingly in my groin at the thought of whips, though... But, nevermind, they were prepared for battle. I was sure they’d fail. “Nomad!” Xavier yelled at me. Ow, a banshee was quieter than him. “You must be incredibly stupid, or very, very brave to bother to follow me,” I growled. “Let’s go farther than that, Nomad. You’re performing evil acts here, and we will not let it go without punishment!” Zandrelia barked at me. Typical naive girl. “Ha. Evil? Seriously? Gaining a tad bit of power is considered ‘evil’? Gods forbid you idiots even bother to grow a brain and look at reality,” Honestly, I felt dumber just from telling these idiots this. “Shut up! This ends now. We’ll send you and your reign of power to hell!” Xavier was growing some cojones, huh? “Fine. You want to fight? So be it.” I stood up from my throne and bounced off, smacking my staff at the ground in front of them. Good thing they dodged it. They might’ve been hurt! The girl attacked first. She attempted to swipe her whip around my legs, most likely to pull me from my defensive stance, but I smacked her out of the way and watched her body fly towards one of room’s walls. Knocked out immediately. Typical women, always so weak. They never know how to train and become a warrior. The boy swung his sword at me, moving it back like a baseball bat and then proceeding to attack me. I blocked his stupid attack, nonetheless. In my humble opinion, a monkey could fight better, and I’ve been to an island where it’s only populace is monkies! Decided to smack him away from me, too. He, surprisingly, stood his ground. Now, what happened next was an entire game changer. And we barely even started. I watched him pull out a vial filled with black liquid. He drank the blasted thing and I swore I saw him shaking in pain. Decided it was time to strike, so, I brought up my staff and... I swung it down upon him, only for our two blades to clash, and sparks to fly everywhere. He then quickly grinded his blade against mine, making me stumble a bit and booted me right in the gut. I think his boots had studs on them, because it hurt quite badly. Finally, a challenge. “Good on you, boy, for being able to hit me. Let’s have a little fun, shall we?” I watched him nod with a typical young-adventurer smirk on his face. We basically just swung blows at each other with our melee. He would parry my blade or I would parry his. Jumping around him would really put him off, though, seeing as he was a slow warrior like all warriors are. Sadly, I got really tired of a boring, repetitive process, and mixed it up a little by tossing some magic at him. A simple water spell. Boy, did he ever scream in pain. I love the conductivity of runite! Idiots with melee never cease to amaze me! At any rate, I watched him use some dumb healing magic and took the time to use a new move in all this. I summoned little mines called “Vortexes” around me. They basically explode into a massive heat wave and then bring it all back in. Now, imagine a fire igniting, then imagine that same fire being pulled back into where it was ignited. Two times the damage! Sadly, Xavier only hit one or two, but was able to come back and fight me with the same old process. We traded blows again and again. I couldn’t help but use my magic more often, avoiding his attacks with my agility rather than parrying. He would scream less and less every time I cast a spell at him. When he finally got used to the pain, I thought it’d be sadistic to introduce a new tactic. Cloning. Yup, that’s right. I used my magic to duplicate myself. The clones all attacked him with weaker magic attacks, including myself, but it confused him. I watched his eyes dart to every single one of me whilst we continued to cast our spells. “Stop your tricks, Nomad!” Xavier yelled. “Oh, please,” all of “me” said. He attacked every clone as fast as he could. It was hilarious because he was so slow to do it. When he hit one of them, my clones and I would just laugh at him and the expression on his face was that kind of “buh-huh?” feel. When Xavier hit another clone, his confidence seemed to grow a bit more. I kept the taunting up though as the rest of my clones disappeared. He finally found me and turned himself around and gave me the silliest of glares. “You’re adorable when you’re angry. Does your girlfriend think so, too?” I chuckled at him, only to get charging roar in response. I struck him with some ice magic so he couldn’t move. I watched as he struggled to break the bonds of the ice. Now it was time for him to feel pain. “I can give you one last chance to leave, Xavier. Never return here again,” I offered. Maybe kindness will let him piss off. “I’ll fight you until I die, Nomad! Your evil and you’re reign must end!” He responded quite audibly. Ow, my ears. “Boy, we’re a little over seven feet away. Stop yelling,” I growled. “Anyways, you don’t even know the reason why I’m gathering this power. Where in the world is your evidence upon me doing anything bad, too?” “I don’t need evidence when the proof is right here!” I watched his hand point up at the throne’s demonic face. Damn kid, stop yelling. “Oh, wow, you’re really stupid. Whatever, you want to die? So be it,” I lifted my hand into the air, focusing on the energies emanating from the throne. “I’ll do whatever it takes to stop you!” Xavier, shut up. The energies soon formed a spiralling cylinder around my forearm. It was a beautiful white colour and it fit perfectly for what I was about to do. “Let’s see how much punishment you can take!” I released all the energy and watched him scream in agony. I saw the ice break and him rear back, nearly dropping his stupid claymore. His mouth spit globs of blood onto the floor and I couldn’t help but laugh. He should be dead soon... But, he was alive. I watched him use his healing magics once more and stand back in perfect posture. “You cease to amaze me,” I growled under my breath and charged at him once more, repeating our earlier engagement of melee to melee. We continued to swing blows until, suddenly, he swung his claymore at one of my exposed sides and the force of said sword violently bashed me against the floor. I laid there for a second before realizing Xavier was swinging at me again. Quick and back to my feet, I pushed him away and decided to pull out a special trick of mine. “You’re tougher than I thought... Time to even things up!” I used my own healing magic to rejuvenate my body. This boy just kept pushing and pushing. I released a torrent of vortexes and clones, and even froze him. At the same time! He broke free of the small ice prison, he slid around my vortexes and killed all of my clones without a single hiccup! Well, he did step on another vortex and I watched his platelegs turn black... But, this was the point in time when I needed to act fast. I was getting weaker and he was getting stronger. With pure, warrior instincts that I despise, I used all adrenaline to focus on killing this boy. “Enough! This. Ends. NOW!” I attacked him as fast and as hard as I could. I swung my the blade end of my staff at his sides, usually hitting him, but never making him take a critical blow. I would push him back, slide a few spells in, even throw crotch shots! Sadly, I felt my energy going down and the throne was no longer helping restore it. Dammit, I didn’t want to lose! This kid wouldn’t understand the ramifications if I did. I felt the flat end of his blade smack my sides before he swiped his sword across my chest. Sigh The pain was unbearable. I’ve never felt pain like this in my life. It was like I had my muscles ripped from my body, throne in fire to turn to ash and then they were all replaced with singed or burnt muscles. And to top it all off, it’s worse than a nine-tailed whip that would smack against my back to leave a constant, burning, pain! All of my energy from the throne all of my normal energy gone. Just like that. This kid... He doesn’t understand it. “You... You have doomed this world...” That’s all I could say to him as I fell to the ground... What, you think I’m dead? How am I telling this story if I’m dead? Damn, you’re stupid. No, I was just knocked out. I’m Nomad. The Nomad. I’m not letting a hero kill me off like that! No, I just played dead in hopes he wouldn’t cut my head off. He didn’t, thanks to his own stupidity, but I managed to overhear a conversation between him and Zimberfizz, an impling helper of mine. “Wows! Ya’s did it, guys! Guess ya weren’t lyin’ ‘bout it!” Zimberfizz laughed... Oh, boy, I wanted to kill him. “Yeah. Well, no more evil will go on here. But, who’s going to run Soul Wars?” Xavier questioned. Stupid kid. “I wills! So, no worries there, bub! Anyways, let’s get topside and I’s give ya a reward!” That’s when they scuffled out of my damn temple and I never heard from them again. I stood to my feet and made sure I would bring hellfire to them. I teleported out of there pronto to find a safe place to recuperate in. Sadly, Gielinor’s teleport matrix had a different idea. Rather than sending me to some city in the Western lands, I appeared in a forest. Whatever, not a big deal. I hoped, anyways. “Ugh... Going to be a long day...” I groaned.