Trials of Hircine VIII

The group is much more cautious than the last two, as true followers of the Daedric Lord of the Hunt, they seem to know exactly what they are doing and have come prepared.

Carefully and methodically, they move throughout the streets and buildings of Solitude, making little more the a whisper as they make hand gestures to one another and various animal noises to hide their presence from their prey.

They split into three groups of six, each taking five Foresworn and one Briarheart as they break away to cover more ground.

The first group comes upon the burnt shop, they disble the crude traps and search for clues as to where their prey may be.

The one Foresworn motions to the archer that followed him in, to a trap that had been laid at the staircase. Before looking around and seeing a faint trail of blood leading to the backroom of the shop.

The first Foresworn carefully opens the door and disables a tripwire trap that had been placed at its entrance with his bone blade.

He finds a vial of fire salts and frost salts prepared to drop from the ceiling had the tripwire been activated.

He gives a somewhat impressed look to his companion before motioning to the trap he had just disarmed, before entering the room and taking the components of the trap and searching the bodies that have been left inside.

The rest of the group, two warriors and one archer along with one briarheart are searching the rest of the building carefully.

The briarheart seems impatient and appears to be dissatisfied with the lack of prey in the area, just as he is about to turn the corner out of the building and into an alleyway beside the building, an arrow shoots out from a darkened corner and pierces him in his heart quickly ending it's slow and faintly glowing rhythmic beat as he clutches his chest in shock before falling to the ground.

Somehow sensing something wrong with their leader, the other foresworn quickly rushed out of the building in search of what had happened.

Making some loud and peculiar vocalizations as they surround the body of the dead briarheart, calling the two foresworn inside the shop before drawing their weapons and looking in the direction the arrow had been shot from, as if sensing the perpetrator before running towards that direction as quick as they could.

Another three arrows are shot from the shadows of the alleyway, two hit one warrior, first in the chest then in his neck, quickly killing him while the third arrow is nimbly dodged by the archer who quickly rolled to the side for a crate left in the alleyway to use for cover.

With one warrior down the archers take up position firing arrows in the direction where the opposing archer must be while the other two warriors quickly cross the alleyway and arrive at the end of the end of the alley to see an orc putting away his bow and holding up his hands as if to surrender.

"We have you trapped now!" One foresworn gloats with pride.

"Oh? Are you sure it is you that has me trapped?" The orc says with a smirk as both his hands glow and a wall of earth and stone emerges behind the warriors, cutting the alley in half and blocking the archers from the fight.

After saying that, the orc draws his sword and lunges at the first Foresworn, pushing him against the wall before punching him with his free hand, breaking his guard before giving a quick slice with his sword across the warrior's neck and jumping to the side as a strike from behind just misses him.

Twirling behind him he brings his sword across the back of the second warrior's undefended neck quickly ending his life...

After several moments the wall crumbles away and the archers are left starring at a now barren alleyway, save for their now dead companions.

They quickly inspect the alleyway for their assailant only to discover they seem to have disappeared without a trace.

With the realization that their prey has escaped, the two Foresworn archers quickly flee the alley to notify the rest of the hunters as to what they've learned about their prey...

After several moments of silence, one of the crate's lids slowly creak open and an orc crawls out before moving on to his next hunting area...

The second group is composed of a warrior briarheart and five Foresworn warriors, who are exploring the Temple of the Eight Divines.

"Destroy them..." The briarheart warrior orders the foresworn who proceed to smash the remaining seven shrines of the Divines in the temple with their weapons.

After destroying the shrines, the briarheart warrior studies the aftermath of battle that are strewn about the temple...

Destroyed benches... Axe marks... Dead bandits...

"It seems that our prey is strong... Tricky... Keep ready..." The briarheart warrior orders before a Foresworn archer barges into the temple.

"We've found the prey! He-" The Foresworn archer starts to shout excitedly before an arrow tip finds itself protruding from his neck. Gripping at it in shock before falling to the ground.

"The prey is here! Charge forth!" The briarheart warrior orders his men to charge out of the temple into the direction the arrow had come from.

Seeing an orc who begins firing arrow after arrow as the warriors charge towards him without fear.

Only felling two Foresworn before the three remaining warriors descend upon the orc while the briarheart warrior stands back and studies the orc and his fighting style.

The orc smirks as the three Foresworn charge at him together, before bringing his foot down and releasing a massive shockwave that disrupts the charge of the Foresworn long enough for the orc to switch over to his sword and cut down one of the Foresworn before he regains his footing.

The other two warriors rush forward aggressively slashing and cutting at the orc with incomparable eagerness and vigar as the two begin to press him back with their teamwork.

(Author's Note: Hey, everyone I'm sorry for the late upload, and even more sorry for this announcement. I'll no longer be able to keep up with my promise to release two chapters a week. I've currently returned to school to pursue my master's degree while working full time, and I'll have to cut the time I dedicate to this passion project of mine. But don't worry, I'm confident I'll be able to maintain one chapter a week going forward and I'll work on mass releasing chapters during school and work breaks. I want to thank you all for your comments and support! It has kept me motivated to keep writing and improving myself as a writer. I hope you all continue to enjoy this story, but I understand if you need to take a short break in order to binge read at a later date, don't worry I do the same.)