83 Ymiden 719 | Ulric | Gulltown in the Etzos area
"Are you ready?" Arthur asked from the other end of the alley they were in as he banged his stick against the blackened wall of the general store ruin. He seemed satisfied with the sound the stick made but swung it in front of himself a few more times just to be sure. Ulric was doing similar things only he seemed to twirl the stick around himself a little more than he bluntly waved it in front of himself.
Ulric fought with a certain flair... or maybe it was rhythm?, that Arthur did not.
"Yes." Ulric replied as he turned to Arthur and assumed a fool guard- or at least that was what Corvus had called it when he taught them. He pulled the handle of his stick to his waist and pointed the tip downwards towards Arthur's feet. Arthur drew his right elbow back and brought his stick up overhead, pointing the tip of it down at Ulric's face. The two men nodded and Arthur lunged forward stabbing his stick towards Ulric's chest. Ulric batted it aside with a quick swipe of his stick and then lunged inwards believing Arthur wouldn't be able to bring his stick up back in time to block.
He was right.
But he didn't his Arthur either. Arthur used the momentum from Ulric knocking his stick aside to move away and create a little distance. Then he resumed his ox stance with his 'sword' overhead and pointing toward Ulric's neck. Ulric swiped the ground in front of himself a few times before suddenly getting an idea. Ulric lifted his stick above his head and held it with the shaft roughly at a forty five degree angle. This time Ulric pressed forward and feinted and overhead swing. Arthur lifted his stick to block a strike that would never come.
Instead Ulric pivoted quickly and kicked Arthur's leading leg out from beneath him. Arthur stumbled, and then Ulric whacked him on the back with the stick and Arthur fell to the ground. "Rest assured that when I posses you, your skills are improving." Arthur coughed on the ground and slowly pushed himself up only to drop to his side and kick Ulric's legs out from under him.
"Maybe, but my footing gets worse." Arthur mocked and suddenly Ulric was filled with rage. Bad footing was a sore spot for him. He fell to the ground and hit his back. His whole body caved in slightly against the earth but as Ulric rolled over and pushed himself back onto his feet his body began to fade into a more transparent appearance. Ulric reached out with his arm and a tendril manifested from his hand, lashing out and wrapping around the now standing Arthur's throat. Arthur's eyes widened in panic- he could not see the tendril, no one could- and so he wasn't exactly sure what was happening but he knew he was choking. "Ulric-"
Ulric tightened the tendril and thought for just a moment that it would be fine to break Arthur's neck, but then he remembered those he hated more and how Arthur was taking him to them. The tendril dissolved and Ulric lowered his hand. "Never say that again." He grumbled before walking out of the alley and smacking his stick into what was left of the inn wall so hard it snapped in half. He came out into the main street in the remains of the city and Arthur trailed slowly behind him. Arthur generally did a good job of letting Ulric wander but remaining within thirty feet.
"What was that?" Arthur asked as they walked down the road.
"A mistake. Leave it at that." Ulric replied quickly. He would not apologize for what he had done. He did not feel sorry, but he recognized he should not have done it. His eyes drifted up to the leader house as Arthur began to reply
"But what did I-"
"Movement in the window." Ulric interrupted the moment he saw a the lighting shift in one of the leader house windows. Arthur's hand dropped to his sword quickly and Ulric stepped closer to Arthur. He was going to solidify and fight but decided it would be best take over the man's body in a moment of need. They were still a bit of a distance from the leader house but every step they took toward it now they took with a little bit of anticipation. Someone was using the ruin of the settlement as a home, or a base. Someone Ulric was eager to meet.
As they drew closer and closer to the building, Ulric placed and hand on Arthur's shoulder and entered his body. The transition was quick and with Arthur willingly allowing Ulric to take over, it was not nearly as taxing on his ectoplasm as it had been in prior attempts. Once Ulric was in control he pulled Arthur's sword from it's scabbard. The blade sang with a soft hum as it was freed. Ulric clenched his fingers around the handle of the sword and felt the weight of it. It had been a long time since he held a sword with the intention he had now. A long time since he'd actually fought in a living body.
As Ulric drew closer to the leader's house he noticed that the buildings around it seemed to have suffered the worst of the burns. Maybe they had been a threat and when the leader refused to give Corvus what he wanted, Corvus burned the rest. Then again that didn't line up with Arthur's story and Ulric knew Arthur was telling him the truth... or at least the truth as Arthur honestly perceived it.
As the two of them stepped closer to the house a meek voice cried out commanding them to halt. Arthur wanted to but Ulric took on step further and then stopped. A small boy holding a heavy crossbow pushed open the leader house door and stepped out. Ulric tried to peer in and see behind him but didn't get a good glance at the interior. Ulric got a good glance at the crossbow though and he noticed something he assumed the boy wouldn't want him to see.
"We don't have anything else! Go away!" The boy shouted as he lifted the crossbow to point at the two men... well the one man and the ghost. Arthur raised his hands but Ulric didn't. He wasn't forcing his body to materialize so the boy had seen his incorporeal form. The boy knew that Ulric wasn't human... but maybe he was too young to process what Ulric really was.
"We aren't here to steal from you." Ulric shouted to the boy. There was a faint mixture of Ulric's voice with Arthur's when he shouted that you couldn't notice when he was speaking normally. Normally he just sounded like Arthur.
"You're lying! Go away or I'll shoot you!" The boy shouted back, slightly worried by the fact that Ulric had said 'we.' Ulric didn't step forward because he wasn't entirely sure that he was right about the crossbow from the distance.
"You couldn't. You don't have a bolt in that crossbow." Ulric shouted back to the boy who looked down at his crossbow quickly and then panicked and slammed the leader house door shut. Ulric rolled Arthur's eyes and walked up to the doorway. He banged on the door a few times, "Open the door! I can help you."
"Go away bandits! Shoo!" The boy shouted from the other side of the door. He couldn't have been older than thirteen and that was one of the few reasons Ulric was being so patient. Children didn't deserve to live afraid in this world. It wasn't justice. Then Ulric got an idea.
Ulric pushed himself out of Arthur's body and placed his own spectral hand against the door. How many times had he seen a ghost move through a wall? "What's the plan?" Arthur asked as Ulric began pushing his hand against the wall.
"I'm going to talk to them." Ulric said as his essence fused with the door and his hand began to slip through.
