The Oracle (An AQW Original Series)

Chapter I: The Good, The Bad, And The Chaotic

Swerve right, avoid arrows and incoming steel.

A skeleton soldier will try to ambush me. Block and smash.

Repeat until I near the gate.

My future vision is working at full force trying to predict every probable outcome in this burning war zone that is Swordhaven.

It is in worse condition than I originally anticipated. By the time I arrived from Battleon, the war was already in full effect a few hours earlier than what was originally predicted. Much of the residential homes were razed to the ground, leaving great clouds of soot and ash to fill the once tranquil air of the great city, which was already teeming with the undead. This, in and on itself, is very unnatural, as my visions were ever rarely this inaccurate. I can already tell that something has gone terribly wrong.

A soldier will try to decapitate me. Duck.

"Watch your head!" I instinctively ducked and nearly avoided a rusty axe to the neck. Giving it no time to counterattack, I twirled around and decapitated the offending undead instead, leaving its head to be crushed by the nearby soldiers around me. Turning to the source of the voice, I grinned brightly as the visage of a familiar armored brunette ran up to me with his signature golden axe.

He is as youthfully dynamic as I remembered, with his unfaltering smile, horrible sense of humor, and goody-two-shoes personality. The Paladin's goodly nature is infectious in the best possible way, and that is why I am honored to consider Artix Von Krieger as one of my best friends. Even when I can practically hear his soul scream for the darkness from whence he came, he doesn't need to know that.

Yet.

"Thanks for the literal heads up, Artix!" I yelled through the cacophony of voices, and he gave me a matching grin and a thumbs up.

"No problem, friend! Do you need some help getting to the drawbridge?" As he asked, he swung his axe down behind me, taking out another incoming skeleton. I barely reacted at his sudden attack, and only smirked as I proceeded to push him aside to swipe at two other incoming soldiers.

"That would be much appreciated!" As the two soldiers laid dead on our feet, I cocked a challenging eyebrow at the Paladin and tilted my head towards the steadily increasing stream of undead soldiers coming our way, "You take the left horde, and I'll take the right!"

With matching grins, we charged in tandem at the incoming hoard, hacking and slashing away in perfect sync of one another as we have been doing for years. Bone dust and weathered limbs filled the air as we ran and whooped in our excitement to get to the castle moot first.

"By the way," I called out to him as I stabbed through another bony menace, "Where's Robina? I usually see you guys partner up in these sorts of things."

"She decided to head first into the castle, royal business and all that!" He replied back with a leap, crushing the heads of a few clustered skeletons and paving the way for both of us.