Dante's Demise (For Honor)

Dante's Demise

This was it. Dante's office. The young warden ran her armored fingers over the wooden door, savoring the moment before she did what she'd been dreaming of for years. It would be glorious. It would be satisfying. It would be right. She squeezed the handle of the longsword in her hand, took a deep breath, and lowered her visor. She brought up her boot and...

Dante's guards jumped back when the door came off its hinges and collapsed to the floor with a crash. Recovering, and seeing the armored and armed warden in the doorway, they drew their arming swords and charged as the robed Dante stood and scrambled for his poleaxe hanging on the wall behind his desk. He was in the judiciary wing of the castle, and he obviously didn't wear his armor to his office. That was why he had so many layers of guards in the way. How had she gotten past all of them, and without any commotion until now?

As he lifted the mighty weapon off of the wall, he heard two screams of his men in quick succession and sharply turned around with the poleaxe in his hands. He saw his soldiers both topple simultaneously to the floor, one of their heads rolling away, revealing a surprisingly short warden holding a bloody sword.

"How did you get all the way to my office?!" he demanded, wishing he had his helmet on so his voice sounded more imposing through its visor. In fact, he wished he had his entire set; he felt awkward holding the great axe without it.

"How did you get all the way to your office?" she replied, startling him with her young voice through that helmet. She sounded no older than sixteen. Stepping over the corpses of his guards, she raised her sword and pointed it at his chest. "You're coming with me."

"To hell with that!" he brought his poleaxe around to knock the sword away. The warden pulled the sword back momentarily as the poleaxe swung down and slammed into the wood floor, sticking there. Then, stepping over it, she thrust the sword forward, pushing the tip against Dante's chest, forcing him to let go of the polearm and to back into the wall behind the desk. It was almost comical; a tall, imposing man wearing judge's robes pinned against the wall of his own office by a teenager with a sword and a suit of armor across the desk from him.

"I said, you're coming with me." She said through her teeth. And with that, she pulled back the sword, brought up her shoulder, and used it to ram the desk off the floor and into the lawbringer, sending splinters everywhere. Before he could recover, she smacked him in the head with the pommel of her weapon. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

The perks of being a Warden in the Iron Legion were not many, but today, this particular warden had needed to use almost all of them. In the end, she'd been granted the authority she needed: discretion to arrest the Lawbringer Dante, and to do with him what she wanted. The judiciary in her way were either unaware, bribed, or on her side, like Cross, and they'd left the path open to his office, leaving her to do as she wished. Some of them glimpsed her dragging his unconscious body with one hand from the castle, but the soldiers knew better than to question a warden, especially one so small compared to the man she was arresting. The blood on her sword didn't hurt in getting the message across that she was not to be trifled with.

After exiting the castle's front door into the city streets, she made her way through the crowds, pushing and ordering people out of her way. Soon enough, though, people cleared without having to be told, seeing the Lawbringer Dante's limp form being dragged by one hand, and her sword held in the other. They made a path for her, but now she pushed her way through countless stares and whispers instead of bodies.

"Is that Dante? The lawbringer?"

"He looks a lot less impressive without his armor on."

"Who is she? She's awfully short for a warden."

"What could Dante have done to earn such harshness? What is she going to do with him?"