Trials of Hircine X

The Gifted One scans the room looking for where their prey could be hiding...

"Come now... Do you really want to spend the rest of your days hiding from us? Is it not better to face your foes head on?" The Gifted One calls out, hoping to get a response, but is greeted with silence.

After several moments, the Gifted One motions to the three remaining archers to descend the stairs quietly and to begin searching around the pillars that make up the periphery of the rounded entryway.

"I must admit... You're an impressive hare for this hunt... Perhaps the best in all the hunts I've been on..." The Gifted One continues to prattle on as he watches the archers circle the pillars one by one until they reach the final pillar and prepare to circle and attack any thing behind it with everything they've got.

A smile creeps across the Gifted One's face as he can almost taste the victory on his lips as he calls out for a final time.

"But... At the end of the day, you are the hare... And we, your hunt-" The Gifted One starts to gloat before a feeling of immense dread and danger overwhelm him and he's barely able to raise a barrier spell strong enough to direct the icy spear launched from above him away from his heart and into his stomach where it impales him.

Looking upwards from the ground, the Gifted One is greeted by the sight of an orc balancing precariously on top of a chandelier with another ice spear in his hands, launching himself from the chandelier, he turns in midair, launching the spear into the chandelier's anchoring chain, causing it to snap and come crashing down on the Frost Atranoch that was standing in the center of the room.

The commotion, quickly draws the attention of the three archers who begin rushing to the falling orc who casts a strange spell before landing on the ground without issue before sprinting up the staircase and cutting down the summoner with his Imperial blade after closing the distance while dodging the ice spikes the summoner would hurl at him.

Dodging and cutting through them as if it were a dance, and with the death of the summoner their Frost Atronach that was crushed beneath the chandelier also begins to fade away as the archers take aim and begin loosing arrows at their target with impressive speed and accuracy, forcing the orc to take cover behind the railing of the large staircase as the archers pepper his position with arrow after arrow.

Though, in the archers rage and desire to suppress their prey they forgot one critical detail...

One... Then two... And eventually, all three archers ran out of arrows leaving them with just the daggers they have equipped at their sides in case of emergencies.

The group splits, with two rushing up the right staircase, while the third archer rushes up the left staircase.

The third archer is greeted with a deafening, "FUS!!!" As he makes his way to the balcony where he losses his footing and is sent tumbling back down the staircase before the orc turns his attention to the other two coming up the right staircase.

And just as the first archer reaches the top of the stairs the orc lifts up his leg before kicking the archer back down the stairs and into the the final archer with a deafening *Booom* as the orc shouts at the top of his lungs...

"THIS! IS! SPARTA!" Before leaping down the stairs and swiftly dispatching the three injured archers.

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"God, I always wanted to do that..." I say to myself as I loot the bodies when a notification pops up.

[Wave 3/9 Completed... You have 1 hour to prepare for the next wave...]

"Damn, this is gonna take forever-" I start to complain when an eerie *creeeaaakkk* echoes throughout the empty palace.

"I wonder what that could be, definitely shouldn't be the next wave..." I mumble to myself, quickly wrapping up my looting before investigating the source of that noise.

And then I see it... The door to the Pelagius Wing is wide open... As if calling me to enter...

"I'm sure this is just a coincidence... Right?" I tell myself as I draw near.

"I'm sure you wouldn't be able to visit another Daedric Lord while doing the trials of another... But... It wouldn't hurt to check... I mean, especially if I get to see one of my favorite Daedric Lords? Yeah... Just a quick peek, I'll definitely be back before the next wave..." I try to assure myself as I cross the door's threshold and feel a strange pulling sensation as if I'm being pulled in half before snapping back together like a taught rubber band and I find myself in another familiar setting within Solitude.

The mind of Pelagius III, the Mad King... And I see the tyrant sitting down and having a pleasant meal with the Deadric Lord of Madness himself, Sheogorath...

"And then I said, 'I'll rip out your entrails and use them to jump rope!' And they said-... What's that mortal doing over here? I told everyone I was going on vacation and to not be disturbed unless they want me to rip out their entrails and skip rope with them!" Sheogorath starts to tell a story but up on noticing me quickly goes off onto an entrail tangent.

"You there! Mortal! Yes, you with the ugly face and handsome jawline! How did you get here? I could have sworn I locked the door into here from the plane of Nirn?" Sheogorath questions me with a look of intrigued confusion.

"Well-" I start to say before he cuts me off.

"Wait, wait, don't tell me! I want to guess... Hmmm... You're an orc... So, Malacath must have sent you to me for another sparing match? Or was it Trinimach, that man and his multiple personalities, not that I can judge... But what's this?" Sheogorath questions before popping next to me and taking an uncomfortably long whiff of my hair.

"My suspicions were correct! You definitely smell like wet forests and wild dog, so Hircine must've sent you for a game of fetch, ah bless his accursed deer heart! Alright, Fido, go get the cheese boy! Go on!" Sheogorath says, grabbing a cheese wheel and rolling it off the table.