"CHARGE!!!" Sacorax quickly drew his sword and leaped to his left, gliding to the edge of the path before jumping again, flanking the bunny on it's right. "This thing is so absurd," he told himself in thought. "Well, if a few of more humans die in the fight it'll be worth a little effort." Sacorax stood prepared, ready for the beast as the talkative human launched arrows at the monster. "Too bad he's smart enough to stay away for now, I wish he'd have gotten eaten next." "Hey, you two, use some magic or something!" Sacorx shouted at the mages which had joined them. Then he watched as Basch was eaten by the rabbit. "Two down," Sacorax thought to himself.
Tenes watched as the captain was devoured by the monstrosity. "Well, wasn't that anticlimactic." He said, and closed one eye, aiming for the monsters eyes, and shot. The monster did not fall, but it did flinch. It was going to be tougher than he thought. How did a rabbit get like this? What was corrupting the simple forest animals? And with that thought, he reloaded his crossbow and aimed again.
The hellspawn tossed the tangled mess of metal, blood, and flesh towards the woods, where it inpacted a tree and plopped down onto the side of the road. The arrow hit it perfectly between the eyes, and it let out a feral roar and changed at the troops. It head was soon filled with arrows from several people, but it ignored them and leaped at Chalybs with bloody teeth.
leaped at Chalybs with bloody teeth. Sacorax was about to charge the beast but paused for only a second before dashing towards the beast. He knew he wouldn't reach the beast in time to save the talkative human. That guy either had to die now or be one hell of a lucky man. But Chablybs seemed to be the kind of guy with a trick up his sleeve. Sacorax figured he'd be lucky if Chablybs died. But he raised his sword, ready to strike the beast when he made contact.
"Dam* it! I said don't charge!" Chalybs said as he watched their commander being eaten. The arrow hit it perfectly between the eyes, and it let out a feral roar and changed at the troops. It head was soon filled with arrows from several people, but it ignored them and leaped at Chalybs with bloody teeth. "Crap!" Chalybs hardly had time to grab his other metal chunk and meld his bow into a massive 8ft spear. He hardly had time the brace himself near to the ground before the beast was on top of him.
"I don't suppose there's any chance of reasoning with it..." Chalybs hardly had time to grab his other metal chunk and meld his bow into a massive 8ft spear. He hardly had time the brace himself near to the ground before the beast was on top of him. "I suppose not..." I sigh, draw my sword and, while the beast is distracted with Chalybs, leap atop the rabbit-monster.
Van stood aside, watching the battle, trying to understand what they were up against. He was still near Chalybs, who was doing quite well with those metal arrows. Having no long-range attacks of his own, Van played the role of strategist instead and tried to formulate a plan, especially considering their captain had shown his ineptitude by charging at the beast. Then the beast decided to come for them, Chalybs in paricular. Van couldn't allow that. He drew his hilt and the shattered fragments of his sword automatically formed up into a complete blade. The monster was upon Chalybs, jaws open, poised to devour him. Van approached from behind and buried his blade into the monster's backside, just as 'King Quoten' jumped atop it. Between the three of them, this thing wasn't going to escape.
Red blood spewed out of the wound and onto Van's armor, yet it seemed to not even notice. Milliseconds before being ripped to shreds by the horrid monstrosity leaping at him, Chalybs managed to get a long spear between him and the monster. Uncaring of the obvious obstacle, the bunny leaped at him and impaled itself on the spear. However, it seemed completely unaffected by the metal now puncturing the back of its mouth. The massive jaws slammed shut, expecting flesh but instead receiving the clang of metal. Seeing its prize right in front of it, it continued to struggle forward, it jaws continuously slamming shut.
I try to stab it in the brain but, since a rapier isn't made for stabbing through bone, I only manage to slice off its ears before it bucks me off. I stand back up and run back over to the monster.
Van didn't flinch, even as the monster's blood sprayed in his face. Even with five feet of blade buried in its hide, the beast dragged on, hell-bent on senseless death and destruction. It bucked off the King, who managed to do a little damage, but not nearly enough. Van wanted to end this fight as cleanly as possible, but he knew it was time to put some actual effort into this. With a twist of the hilt, the blade broke free. Van took a step back, leaving it buried in the demon-rabbit's flank. He focused his mind, taking control of the severed blade. It scattered into thousands of tiny fragments, spreading throughout the creature's insides, shredding whatever organs it could find, before exiting its body and returning to the hilt. He couldn't tell exactly how much damage had been done, but hoped he'd hit something important. The heart, perhaps.
The beast began to slow, and the CLANG of its teeth hitting the spear became less and less pronounced in the unnatural silence. After a minute of half-hearted thrushes, the beast went limp and slid off its skewer.
Quoten pokes it with his sword to make sure it's really dead. "Well, I for one am glad that's over with." He offers Chalybs a hand up.
Sacorax approached the beast, slashing it with his sword two more times through it's neck to ensure it's death. He pushed the beast over with his foot then, seeing it sprawled out, obviously dead or seconds from those cold clutches. "The job is done," Sacorax announced. "Lets go back now." He began to walk, there was no reason to mourn their two lost human companions.
A rustle pierced the silence and everyone tensed, ready to fend off another one of those hell-spawn. However, from out of a bush the blue-robed wizard's head appeared. "I-I-Is it d-dead?"
"The job is done," Sacorax announced. "Lets go back now." Van lingered for a moment as the lieutenant walked away. But he couldn't hold his silence for long. "Excuse me, sir. Permission to collect the bodies?" he asked before putting away his sword. "Do they not deserve a proper burial? Each of them battled as best he could, sir."
"I agree with him. Those who died alongside us in battle should get the same respect we would expect." Tenes said, strapping his crossbow to his back. The way the bodies were destroyed was gruesome, if not nauseating. The horrific 'bunny' was a corruption of something that had once been...well, normal. Was this the first one? Would there be more? The sun had gone enough up in the sky to stop blinding Tenes with every other move. This was going to be a good day.
"We should at least give them a proper cremation. And we could make use of this beast too. There must be at least 10 fur jackets and a weeks worth of rabbit stew here." Chalybs had been taught that any creature killed should be given a proper funeral or be eaten, or at least skinned. He doubted anyone wanted to give it a burial so he chose the later.
"You idiot!" Sacorax shouted, he pounced over to the bush where the blue robed mage had been hiding. He quickly kicked the man in his chest, sending him falling to the ground. "Magic could have helped save us from that sticky situation. Now since you can't save the lives of your comrades, you can bury them instead!" He looked to the rest of the group. "We'll rest for a moment while this sorry excuse for a wizard cleans up the monster's mess. Then it's back to camp," Sacorax stated a little too harshly. He sighed and then added, "You all did well."
"Y-y-yes s-sir!" He stuttered, scrambling towards the bloody mess that used to be Basche. The purple-robed wizard, who had attempted to kill the bunny with fire but found that he had forgotten the spell required, walked up to the bloody corpse of the bunny. He examined it, paying particular attention to the head and eyes, which still glowed crimson. "This is unlike any magic I have encountered before, and I've seen a lot. The only known beings powerful enough to make such a radical transformation so quickly are the archmages of the Circle of Archmages, and I highly doubt they'd let such a vicious experiment, or whatever this was, to roam free. On top of that, the Arcanium is hundreds of populated miles away from here, and I doubt this beast would care if it attack here, there, or anywhere. And, even the archmages can't make such a seamless melding of normal flesh and magically enhanced flesh. AND, this beast shows no sign of magical tampering, which is impossible even if the entire Circle combined forces and did the best to cover it up." He looked at the bleeding mass. "We should send this to the Arcanium for further study. This may be bigger than we suspect."
"He's a jerk" Chalybs thought to himself. "At least this gives me a chance to skin this beast." He thought as he took his sword separating the two chunks and making one into a knife so he could skin the beast. "I'll be taking orders now. Who wants a hell bunny fur jacket?" We should send this to the Arcanium for further study. This may be bigger than we suspect. "wait, how come it can't just be some strange creature? and can we skin it before we send it away?"
The pruple-robed wizard looked at Chalybs in alarm. "No! Do not damage this specimen further! We must send it to the Arcanium for further study immediately!" The priest walked up to the beast, bent down to get a better look at it, and said, "I know what this is."
"Good luck carrying that thing," Sacorax told the purple robed wizard. "I'm not carrying it. Besides, it was the job of my company to kill a beast terrorizing citizens. Not delivering science experiments to archmages."
"This is unlike any magic I have encountered before, and I've seen a lot. The only known beings powerful enough to make such a radical transformation so quickly are the archmages of the Circle of Archmages, and I highly doubt they'd let such a vicious experiment, or whatever this was, to roam free. On top of that... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...." "I hate magic," Van muttered to himself. The only reason he had his magic sword was to even the playing field. Fighting monsters used to be so simple, but these days everything seemed to be magically-enhanced. Things were so much more complicated. What should've been an easy mission somehow turned into a bloodbath and now they had two men dead. The mage was taking his time cleaning up the mess and Sacorax and Chalybs were only slowing things down. Van grumbled and took a seat under a nearby tree. They might be here for a while. He had nothing to occupy himself, so he just sat there, with his head bowed, clearing his mind, while staying sharply in-tune with his surroundings.
No! Do not damage this specimen further! We must send it to the Arcanium for further study immediately! "So we can't skin it? What a waste of an animal." Chalybs said with disappointment.
"Do not touch this animal, it is tainted." The priest said after a whispered prayer. "It must be burned with holy flames, and its ashes blessed and thrown to the wind."
