Carten Manos, The dusk elf or sometimes called moon elf mercenary, is at the barracks in the Elven Kingdom. He rises from his bed as his long black hair falls over his face. He pulls back his hair to show his angular thin face and sharp light red eyes. He walks over to the corner and puts on his bulky looking armor and looks through his organized numerous long bows constructed of differing materials.
For a moment he glances to the bow in the far corner with a bulky build and a reinforced body that looks extremely inflexible. The elf sighs and takes one of his more typical bows and his quiver of elven arrows. He looks out the window to see the setting sun, marking his signal to begin his position as the night sentry.
Carten passes by his tower elf colleagues that have put him up in return for his marksmanship. He had hoped to learn from his distant cousins, but alas like all others, he outmatched them handily. Once atop the tower in the center of the courtyard he begins to stare over his position, looking for prey.
He notices a human and a vanara, two new prisoners for him to watch for and merely wound rather than shoot to kill. Slowly the night comes and Carten's red eyes shift and form into a pair of bright crimson eyes, letting him see through the dark of the night. As he looked about he noticed a few of his fellow elves taking a load off.
"Figures, these prissy tower elves had become lazy since I arrived," now he looked down to see a few of them taking a rest in the middle of the...
"Hold on a moment." Silently remarks the archer as he takes a closer look at the elves.
They weren't resting, they were sleeping. Carten leaps off the tower and grabs onto his rope he placed there since his arrival around a week prior. He slid down the rope and lands in the courtyard before dropping to a crouch and moving over to examine the sleeping elf.
Upon reaching the elf he noticed that nearby was an arrow that looked to have nicked the elf's arm. Carten snatched up the arrow and questioned silently, "Poison? Strange he doesn't look paralyzed, but how could sleep be forced upon us?"
The elf sniffed the arrow head and he took in the scent of light, but flavorful alcohol. He smiled and began examining the arrow while whispering, "Enchanted fey wine, clever, using pleasure rather than poison or magic to get past elven resistances. Looks to be an arrow made by a human."
Just as Carten continued to piece together his foe, he heard the telltale light snap of tightened string on leather and he leaped back. Fluidly like he'd done it thousands of times he honed in on the sound as he lept and let loose an arrow of his own. He looked to the wall around the courtyard. He only caught a glimpse of the target's flamboyant, and extravagant hat as he saw them duck and flee over the wall's edge.
Carten snickered as he ran toward the wall and, with the grace of a leopard, he scaled the wall's side. He stood atop the wall surveying for his target. It took him some moments, but he spotted the hat behind the cover of some rocks, and Carten shot it down, piercing it down through the top. The Archer hooked a grappling hook from his belt to the side of the wall and slid down to see his prey.
"WHAT!?" Shouted the Archer as he looked to see the hat was left behind and pinned into the ground by his own arrow. Carten looks around for his target, sure that he must be here.He was feeling his own panic that he may be ambushed, but he let that thought go. He thought to himself about where an archer would go for an edge. Then he spins back to aim at the top of the wall, where a man aims back at him with a white longbow.
"Damnit." Curses Carten as he and the archer exchange shots. Carten couldn't make an progress as is with the disadvantage of his position though, so he decided to use the cover of night to his advantage. Carten waited until the enemy ducked one of his arrows, then in a sudden burst of elven speed, he reversed direction and silently hid in a bush.
The enemy looked out at the area and Carten now got a better look at him. He did look to be a man, with the frame of an elf as well, the interesting thing was that his eyes held no pupils. While Carten looked to the man's face he aimed his bow true, to hit the man square in the head. He slowly moved his bow into position, but he was not ready for what came next.
The man closed his eyes, and his pale grey eyes shined silver, the sign of dark-vision. Carten let loose his shot before it was properly aimed and nailed the man in the shoulder. The man fell from the wall, and Carten heard the thud as he hit the courtyard ground. Carten rushed to the gate and opened it up, noticing that the guards at the entryway, also were asleep.
When Carten looked to where the man must have fallen he only saw his arrow, left on the ground. he ran to see if there was a trail of blood to follow, and there was, but only for a few meters. Carten smiled as he began scanning the higher areas of the fort.
"He can heal as well, this keeps getting better." Carten quickly retreated inside and scaled the stairs to reach a better vantage point. Once up there he remained motionless, scanning around the hidden sections of cover and sniping positions. This was a fight he could win, he knew the terrain better than this intruder. Minutes pasted before Carten began to give up, but just as he started to lose hope he reaffirmed.
"This man is skilled. He knows I'm looking for him, so I just need to think where I would go."
With that Carten began to scan the far side of the base, far enough to where a shot would be dicey to attempt, and just like that, there he was. The man was slowly crouching along a rooftop, too far for a kill shoot, but, an opportunity presented itself there, a chance for a lure. Carten let loose and arrow far into the night air.
The arrow landed with a loud thud, but no where near the man. instead carten had hit the left side of a target for archery drills across the way near where the man skulked on the roof. Now Carten merely had to wait for the man to try and sneak a little closer then he'd take him out. The man looked off into the direction the arrow came from, but rather than approach the man notched an arrow of his own and fired similarly to how Carten shot one, only with one difference. The man hit his training target in the bull's eye.
The man smiled and lept behind the wall out of Carten's view. Carten smiled, now resolved to wait the man out. This was a contest of wills, and the elf would not lose. What seemed like an hour past before Carten spotted the man again, only this time, his guard was down. The man was walking out into Carten's courtyard, easily in sniping range.
Carten notched his arrow to fire the killing shot, but he realized something troubling. The man didn't seem to be looking for him, he was just standing there, resolved. Carten squinted at the man, lining up his shot, but a pang of dread stalked his thoughts.
"What is he doing?" The archer worried.
Carten could see the look of defiance on the man's face, almost as if he was saying, 'Do it, you coward.' Making Carten's hand shake, He could end it right here, but this man was just... waiting for the attack.
"He can't think to find me by my shot? He'd be dead by then, no human is that quick."
The elf fires his arrow and the arrow impacted, missing by at least a meter. The man flicks out his bow and fires back in response, but Carten ducks inside the building. Carten's world was upside down. This man was using another level of skill even with... No, possibly better than Carten's.
The elf sat there in a cold sweat as he heard the enemy ascending the stairs to meet him, but Carten was done. He had lost the fight when that arrow hit the ground. The elf lept out the window and across the roofs he made it back to his room, throwing his bows into a Bag of Holding before leaving the elven fort, with a new target to aim for when he was ready.
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