Two large explosions in close succession rang out around the city, alerting codename Six to the disturbance. He looked back, seeing the sight of a woman falling down from the skies with a large chandelier above her.
Six squinted his eyes, realizing that it was none other than one of his comrades in the Stone-Cold group. He realized something happened to her.
And just as he was about to go towards her, he heard a faint tapping sound.
…bu to to…
"What the hell was that?" he muttered under his breath, looking around to see nothing but an empty street around him lit up by dim oil lamps.
Unnerved by that strangely rhythmic noise that seemed to be a product of his imagination, Six ran towards the direction where Three landed.
As he ran, the subtle sounds of rah ta ta became drowned out by the sounds of his hurried footsteps.
Once he ran out the corner, Six slowly peeked out of the street and saw Three buried in a crater in the middle of the stone brick road. Above her was the metal chandelier, pinning her in place.
He was about to move towards her, when he realized that she was not alone. There was a dark-blue scaled demi-human standing above her with a sword above his shoulders.
"Dragonborn…" Six muttered. "That means both of them are finished."
Learning about the defeat of the two of the strongest fighters in their Stone-Cold group truly put the fear inside Six's heart.
Only now did he feel stupid for actively trying to call out a Dragonborn to face him.
After all, if Two and Three couldn't even put a scratch on their scales in an ambush, then that meant that he, codenamed Six for being the weakest out of everyone, probably won't even survive a single second of meeting those demi-human monsters.
Fortunately for him, Jaku didn't seem to be walking towards him at all. The dark blue Dragonborn only said the words, "Have fun hunting," before leisurely walking the other direction, whistling as he did so.
Six took this chance to bolt the hell out of there.
He ran through streets, dark alleyways, and backyards trying to make it back to the HammerStone headquarters where he could at least ask for some backup.
But as he ran, the hairs on his neck stood up. He quickly turned his head to the side, thinking that there was someone closely following behind him.
There was nothing there but empty crates and soil buckets.
…bu to to…
…rah ta ta…
There it was again. Those rhythmic tapping and strumming that he kept hearing through the night. Angry, Six took out the large hammer strapped to his back and smashed the crates, exploding into a thousand splinters.
He looked back, turning around in the dark alleyway alone.
"Who are you?!" he shouted, his voice echoing back at him. "Show yourself!"
Holding the warhammer with both hands, Six swung his weapon all around him, hitting the stone brick walls around him before shouting "HAA!" to scare off his stalker.
He looked like he had paranoid schizophrenia.
Six closed his eyes and took deep breaths before laughing at himself. He thought himself crazy for thinking such thoughts. His fear of the Dragonborns seemed to have made him a little bit on edge.
He strapped the warhammer to his back, but as he looked down on the ground, he saw two large shadows right next to his own.
Two large beings were standing directly behind him.
"HAAA!" Six shouted, swinging his warhammer backwards.
Yet, it hit nothing but the air. There was no one around him.
He looked back down on the ground and saw that the two large shadows he saw seemed to be nothing more than a visual illusion from the two street oil lamps in the street.
"What the hell is happening…" he muttered under his breath.
Six began running at top speeds back onto the open street before finally seeing the familiar bridge that led straight to the HammerStone headquarters.
He realized that the bridge was shrouded in mist, but he didn't care. He ran straight through it since he knew the directions instinctively.
The sound of the river below him let him know that he was crossing the bridge safely.
And a few moments later, the mist subsided as he stepped off the stone bridge.
However, as he looked forward, he saw that same bridge again in the distance.
He looked back and saw that he was right back where he started, where he ran from.
"What the fuck?! An illusion spell?"
A cold sweat poured down his back. Was there a Dragonborn that they didn't account for?
Six raised his warhammer, casting the spell [Imbue Snowy Mountain], which created a perfect mound of rocky ice on the two flat ends of his weapon.
"[Destruction of Winter]!" he shouted, bringing down his warhammer towards the nearest building in front of him.
The weapon broke through stone brick corners, sending rubble and powder flying everywhere. The frost then began to spread all around the unaffected area, turning everything extremely brittle.
With another swing, the very front wall of the residential building began to collapse in on itself, sending snowy powder floating in the air.
"Show yourself or I'm gonna destroy this whole neighborhood!"
Just then, a subtle voice echoed.
"We're already behind you."
Six quickly turned around, warhammer in hand, and saw two different Orc species standing side by side in front of him.
Seeing the true appearance of his stalker, Six couldn't help but laugh.
"I can't believe I got scared by a bunch of Orcs," he said. "There are no Dragonborns here in sight to help you. You should have just let me leave."
The two Orcs stayed silent, allowing Six to take initiative and bring his warhammer towards them.
He swung his weapon overhead, creating frost that turned the very air around it brittle.
As Six brought down his warhammer, the air around it exploded into icicles, which created a domino effect that eventually reached the two Orcs.
Needle-like icicles exploded in between the two Orcs, impaling them with thousands upon thousands of holes in their meaty flesh.
Six ran up towards them, dragging his warhammer in the stone road before swinging it horizontally, hitting the hairy Orc on his side and sending him crashing into the spiky Orc.
But as the Orcs' body got destroyed, it turned into nothing but shadow flames that eventually dissipated in the air.
It was another illusion.
"Damn it! Stop with all these tricks! You're just mere Orcs!"
Just then, Six felt a stinging pain in his stomach that override his every sense.
He looked down and saw a gaping hole in his abdomen, with an Orc's fist covered in flame-like shadows sticking out of it.
Slowly, he felt his consciousness fade into nothingness.
…
But then, he woke up. Six looked around and found himself back in the empty street as before, with the bridge right in front of him.
There was no destruction of property, there was no gaping hole in his stomach, and there were no Orcs around anywhere to see.
But…the pain he felt was real. So real, that he didn't think it was an illusion.
…bu to to…
…ra ta ta…
He looked behind and saw the same two Orcs standing perfectly still, with shadows flickering around them.
Six finally realized it.
He was stuck in an illusion.
In the real world, his true body was already knocked out cold in the alleyway, with the two Shadow Orcs standing over him coldly.
They were just letting him experience the pain of death over and over again, not letting him leave the hellish illusion of perpetual death.
From the moment he heard the rhythmic sounds of bu to to and rah ta ta, the fight was already finished. He was already caught in their spell.