Draknor The Web Of Creeta

C2

Draknor had lived alone out in the wilds for many a long year, he had mastered the art of resting while being aware of his surroundings. The hardened warrior could not say with certainty what roused him from his sleep, but his yellow eyes opened, and he sprang to his feet.

From the shadows, he could tell that things were creeping towards the two dracoz. Draknor saw no reason to shout a challenge: anyone or anything making a stealthy approach in the wastes did not have friendly intentions, of that he was certain. Draknor's sword flashed through the air and he felt the blade bite into something, and there was a chittering cry in the night.

There was another shadow and Draknor slashed again, cleaving into something, a body fell at Draknor's feet and the dracoz could finally discern what their unknown attackers looked like. He had never seen these types of creatures before in all his long life.

The head of his foe was undoubtedly like a spider's with six eyes: All circular with two large and four smaller pairs running in a row. Great mandibles were still twitching, along with smaller inner teeth. Its body was dark and hairy, with four arms ending in clawlike appendages. A stone mallet lay beside the creature, attesting to its intelligence. A loincloth was the only clothing it wore aside from bracers on its arms and the pair of limbs that acted as legs. It took but seconds for Draknor to analyze his fallen foe. He was back on the attack soon enough.

A stone spear was thrusted towards his head. Draknor turned the point of the spear and retaliated with a fearsome downward chop into his foe. The shriek, was all he needed to know that the enemy was no longer a threat.

Ylla was screaming and trying to be useful as she chunked rocks at the encroaching foes, as chittering cries were coming from all sides. Draknor growled in pain as he felt his tough hide grazed by a jagged flint knife. A pivot on his feet and Darknor lopped off the head of his latest foe, the body fell to the ground on its back, twitching for a while as it lay prone.

Draknor kicked aside a club-wielding spider creature and skewered a second one through the thorax. Draknor roared and pressed on - he couldn't afford to stop or stay in one place for long.

Strike, move, strike, move, Anything to keep himself from being surrounded.

The dracoz's task was made all the more difficult as he had to keep Ylla protected too. The dracoz scholar was fighting with her claws as one of the spider creatures was attempting to grab her.

"Unhand me you brute!" Ylla shouted as she clawed at her attacker.

"Ylla!" Draknor snarled as he made for her slashing at the spider creature's as he advanced. A spear slashed his leg, Draknor roared and struck through the shaft and then cleaved the spider wielding it.

Draknor found himself forced back by a sheer wall of spider creatures. They'd found a vulnerability and were now exploiting it. Draknor kept up the fight, his blade slick with goo from his foes. But he soon found himself forced to the edge of the cliff.

"Draknor!" Ylla screamed as he saw her being carried away by two of the spiders.

A roar from Draknor as he carved into another spider, and started forward, only to receive a blow to his head, right between the horns - courtesy of a club. The mighty dracoz staggered before he took another blow and found himself falling off the cliff edge, rolling like a barrel down the cliff, hitting rocks and shrubs along the way.

He landed with a dusty thud on the ground below, face down in the ground, sword lying beside him. Draknor growled as he tried to rise up but slumped down. The wounds and pain had taken their toll.

For hours Draknor lay on his belly on the ground. It wasn't until the rays of the morning sun began to warm his back that he began to stir. With a groan Draknor opened his eyes, his whole body in pain from the wounds he had sustained from the fight and tumble off the ledge.

If he were human he would likely be dead.

A pair of vultures hissed as he stirred and hopped away, disappointed by their meal being denied. Slowly - ever so slowly - Draknor rose, his nearly naked body caked in dust. The spider creature's had assumed him dead and left him to rot. That would be their mistake.

His eyes glanced at his sword as he slowly picked the weapon up, and then he remembered.

Ylla.

They had taken Ylla. What would they do to her? Was he too late to save her? A snarl and Draknor started the slow arduous climb back to the top, made all the more difficult from his wounds.

As he crested the cliff he could see the landscape littered with bodies and discarded weapons from the night before, with vultures and various other scavengers already feasting upon the unexpected banquet.

"They leave their dead where they lie," Draknor observed as he looked for signs of where they had taken Ylla. His nostrils flared, catching the strange scent of his foes and the familiar scent of Ylla, but he was hardly the best tracker in the lands.

His keen eyes took in the badlands. After a moment, he could see signs that his foes had passed by, such as blood from the wounded. It was a weak trail, but he intended to follow it. If he was lucky the spider people hadn't gone too far.

If they were anything like spiders, they liked to dwell in dark places close to the surface so they could venture out. There were likely numerous caves and caverns tucked away in the ancient stones.

Undaunted by the odds, Draknor set out in pursuit of his new foes. He hoped Ylla was alive, he prayed he wasn't too late to save her from whatever they intended to do to her.
"Wherever you are Ylla, know that I am coming for you. They shall not get away with this. This I swear." Draknor made his declaration aloud. Only the animals, spirits, and gods above heard his proclamation, but Draknor would keep it.