#essek weeeeekkkkkkkk! gosh im excited

[ayzenigma]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Essek Thelyss, Fjord (Critical Role) Additional Tags: Combat, Essek Week 2021, Alternate Universe Words: 831 Summary:

Essek is unfamiliar with practical combat, but there’s a first time for everything, even if he is less prepared than he would like.

written for @essek-week 2021, day one: whiskey // battle

(also functions as a sort of prequel to this ficlet. not necessary to read for context)

Read on Ao3 or here below!

Things had been proceeding quite well, right up until he bumped into a mercenary who was most definitely not part of the plan, at least not part of the plan in this particular time and place. Essek had expedited his schedule specifically to avoid the mercenary group that had been hired to investigate and protect against the series of heists happening lately. 

The “Mighty Nein” as they called themselves were not supposed to start until tomorrow, which is why Essek is here now, but something must have changed, because Essek finds himself staring right at the chest of one of their number. 

Even floating as he is, he has to look up to meet the eyes of the half-orc he recognises from his research on the Nein. Fjord, no last name. Sources say he is something of the face of the group, a smooth talker.

He is definitely the one Essek had least wanted to meet. 

Essek, for all his time doing this, is unfamiliar with practical combat. He much prefers keeping his work far from the front lines—he knows his strengths lie in gathering intelligence and secreting things away with no one the wiser. 

He likes to think he is, at least in theory, prepared for and capable of doing well in battle—knowing his opponents’ strengths and weaknesses and how best to counter them goes a long way, and Essek is nothing if not thorough.

Unfortunately thoroughness does not make up the difference of a simple lack of existing information. The Nein as a group are a chaotic bunch, beholden to no one but themselves, leaving mostly confusion in their wake and few to comment coherently on their capabilities. 

Fjord in particular is an enigma, as he carries no visible weaponry, yet wears more armor than auy mage should be able to handle. 

And not knowing what he does, Essek does not know how to counter him most effectively. It will have to be a trial and error process, then. Less careful calculation and more action and reaction. 

Still trying to process this unfortunate surprise and figure out his next course of action, Essek misses whatever it is Fjord is saying to him, asking him. Which is maybe a mistake as, next thing he knows, a sword—where had that even come from? The man in front of him had been clearly unarmed mere seconds ago—is swinging towards him.

Essek just barely manages to duck the first hit, and with a flick of his wrist he brings up an arcane shield that deflects the next. 

It seems this Fjord is a swordsman. Essek can work with that. Step one is to get some distance.

With that, he misty steps thirty feet away and fires off a ray of frost for good measure. 

The ray hits its mark, and Essek smiles a bit at the curses that follow. It doesn’t hurt much, but the slowing effect is what he’s really after. Now Fjord won’t be able to close the distance and he’ll have some room to breathe.

Except, he was not prepared for the cry of “Eldritch blast!” and three beams of crackling green energy flying right at him. 

Another shield blocks the first blast, but the next one catches him in the shoulder. The third goes right by his head, though by the trajectory it would have hit as well had the impact of the second not caused him to lose his float.

Perhaps he had been too quick to assume where Fjord’s capabilities lie. Both a caster and a swordsman, now that’s interesting. And dangerous. It also changes things, because if Fjord has even more tricks up his sleeve, Essek does not want to stay around and find out with himself as the target. 

As Fjord tries to close the distance between them—so he does prefer to be in close quarters, it seems—Essek begins his casting of teleport. It is of a higher level than he had wanted to use tonight, but preferable to the alternative of sticking around now.

The familiar sensation teleportation flows over him as the spell takes hold, and with a blink he is back home, safe and secure in his towers. 

A gesture brings up his pocket dimension to confirm that his quarry of the night is indeed still within his possession. His generic elf disguise is also still up, so unless Fjord also has truesight within his toolkit, his involvement will continue to be unknown. Overall a successful night, really.

He may not be able to say he thoroughly bested his opponent in that battle, but he survived and managed to get away not much worse for the wear. Plus, this interaction has given him a bit more insight into Fjord’s particular talents, which will be useful should Essek encounter him or the Nein again.

Not bad for his first foray into actual combat, even if it was just barely a taste. He’ll count it as a win.