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Post by Orcus on his Throne on Apr 28, 2018 4:09:16 GMT
Noontime. Darkness had long been conquered by the rays of the sun, leaving nothing but brilliant light to engulf the surrounding wilderness near Sund. Stalking through the wilderness, sniffing about to find a human trail, were the shapes of several hound-like creatures. It seemed as though the hunt had gotten disoriented upon arriving at its destination and had to get back on track.
It does not take long for the creatures to find their way into the town once they find a scent to follow. Stalking into the shadows of buildings, the pack splits into two groups. One half patrols the western sector to keep on the lookout for possible affluent targets to single out; the other, led by the large alpha, stalks toward the central square, seeking to disrupt the goings-on and perhaps find a fitting target to capture...
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Post by Stage on Apr 28, 2018 5:05:01 GMT
Deep in the scummy heart of Sund, the door to a bar flew open, and a ragged, dirty figure tumbled out. The figure, either a young adult or teenager, hit the ground heavily and rolled into a puddle. Mud flaked heavily off him as his clothes were soaked and the sheen of alcohol spread across the water. Wiping his messy, brown-blonde hair from his eyes, the young man groaned and staggered up.
"Stay out," rumbled the giant of a man who had filled the doorway behind him. A small pair of horns parted his hair above his eyes. He likely had the blood of the fair folk from the cursed forest to the east in him.
The young man snarled at him, but did not make an attempt to shove past him. Instead, he shot the giant a rude hand gesture then turned to stalked away.
"Damn freaks," Troc muttered to himself angrily. Ever since that varul bitch had soured the Cloak & Dagger for him, he had not found a suitable replacements. The rest of the bars he had visited had something he had never faced there: standards.
First the varul, now some fairy bastard. Were the freaks banding against him?
Kicking puddles and glass bottles to vent his frustration, Troc made his way towards town square. Maybe he could find someone to rough up for silver pieces there. The fairy freak had thrown him out after he paid, the son of a bitch...
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Post by Orcus on his Throne on Apr 28, 2018 5:46:45 GMT
The pale, eyeless forms of the hounds stalked through the darkness of a nearby alleyway. A potent scent had caught their attention quite quickly; it smelled pungently of a mixture between sweat, dirt, and alcohol. The lesser hound glanced toward the alpha, who seemed poised to strike towards this potent, fetching scent.
However, a low bay that resounded like the hoot of an owl quickly caught the attention of the duo of hounds, who seemed to react immediately and appropriately to this information. The duo quickly phased out from sight in a flash of eldritch light, startling some nearby beggars and societal dregs. A second flash of light appeared near the second set of hounds, who locked their focus on a particularly interesting quarry.
It seemed they had managed to track down someone who seemed somewhat affluent; their scent stank of fanciful perfumes and foods, indicating some level of importance. The hounds hissed and spat, before the alpha stepped in to put them back in line. In order to catch their prey, they had to be quick about it.
Suddenly, in a flash of light, two of the hounds made their move. The affluent individual didn't even get a chance to react before the two predators were upon him, biting down on him with powerful jaws and needle-like teeth. Waves of agony washed across his body as their bite did their work. Panic broke out across the town square and townsfolk scattered, fleeing from the monstrous, hound-like creatures...
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Post by KayKay on Apr 28, 2018 17:55:12 GMT
It was the screams that woke her.
In the second story room in a tavern just off the town square, an asian woman sat bolt upright in bed. A heavy weight in her gut told her these weren't the shrieks of intoxicated partygoers. She scrambled out of bed and hurried to the window, peering out into the darkness.
Wolves. Wolves unlike any she had ever seen. It was difficult to make out their appearance in the dark, but she was quick to realize they weren't normal animals. She watched them phase in and out of sight in brief flashes, and she reached for a pistol on her bedside table.
The door flew open behind her and she whirled around with the gun raised. She was met with two pairs of hands raised. "Madam Zhu, it's just us," reassured the larger of the two figures, a burly man in a grey soldier's uniform, a ballistic vest strapped to his chest and an angular pack strapped to his back that hummed with electric power.
The smaller one, a dark skinned woman dressed in similar attire, lowered her hands nervously. "We need to get you out of here, ma'am."
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Post by Stage on Apr 29, 2018 2:10:38 GMT
tap tap tap!
Someone was knocking frantically at the window. The second story window.
Troc clung for dear life to the ledge below Zhu's room. He had scrambled up the various signage and ledges of the building after seeing the wolves- or whatever the hell they were- tearing through town square.
"Let me in, you bastard!" the crass young man roared. "I know old man Raul rented out this place out to someone! Well, he's dead now, so open up!"
TAP TAP TAP!
"Please let me in!"
His voice had begun to crack with fear. His grip was weakening...
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Post by Orcus on his Throne on Apr 29, 2018 5:19:55 GMT
The hounds, having sufficiently crippled their original quarry, did something unthinkable: they broke off their attack. In a flash of light, the hounds vanished from sight, and with them, the bleeding and weakened form of their prey also vanished. Confusion and fear still crippled the town square, but it seemed as though things had calmed down.
That is, until the second set of hounds made their move.
Emerging from the darkness in a flash of light, the larger alpha and his compatriot sprung their attack. From the alpha's jaws, a cloud of white, milky smoke rolled out from its jaws, washing over a crowd of fleeing individuals. Screams of pain and agony filled the town square as several were left crippled in pain, helpless as the lesser hound moved in to search for a fitting quarry. Finally finding someone whose scent caught its fancy, it grabbed the person, this time an older woman, before vanishing in a flash of light.
But the alpha was not finished. Catching the pungent scent from before, its monstrous, eyeless face turned to face towards Troc. Drool dripped from the hound's jaws before it loosed a frightful bay, akin to a mix between a dog's howl and the scream of a man, before it began to rush towards him...
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Post by KayKay on Apr 30, 2018 1:41:41 GMT
The blast of a gunshot intermingled with the shriek of shattering glass, and the stone in front of the alpha exploded, stopping it in its tracks. Shards from the window rained down over Troc, slicing small cuts into his hands and cheeks.
Above in the room, the dark-skinned woman cursed at her missed shot, readjusting her rifle.
"Klar, stand down!" the other soldier ordered, pulling her away from the window before she could fire. "We can not afford to jeopardize Miss Zhu for the life of some drunkard."
"Thank you, Marvulli," Zhu replied before Klar could answer, pulling on a dark jacket after she strapped her pistol to her belt. "I'll be having a word with Bolek about hiring an undisciplined private as a bodyguard."
Klar looked down at the floor, and felt her cheeks grow hot went Murvulli grunted in agreement.
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Post by Stage on Apr 30, 2018 3:19:06 GMT
The near miss sending a new shock of adrenaline through him, Troc found the strength to not only reaffirm his grip, but to launch himself up to the window. He hardly felt the glass slicing through his hand as he used the window sill to flip himself into the room, landing heavily on his bottom.
"Hey," he said breathlessly, back slumped against the wall as he heaved. He was looking at Zhu. "I recognize you. Y... You're the trot who was making bedroom eyes at that varul's muscles. You-"
His derision degraded into a yelp when there was a heavy THUMP! against the wall behind him, causing him to spring up as if catapulted. One of the hound had decided to follow him. It clung to the same ledge he had with twisted claws. Hollering in rage, Troc drew his side sword and stabbed down, though not at the hound. He thrust his blade instead into a narrow gap between the ledge and the brickwork below it. The filthy young man wrenched his sword outward, like a lever, and the ledge peeled away from the wall with only a few cracks of distress, sending it and the unfortunate hound tumbling to the ground.
Troc laughed victoriously. "Old man Raul finally being such a cheapskate finally paid off!"
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Post by Orcus on his Throne on Apr 30, 2018 4:08:39 GMT
But the hunt would not be so easily bested. The lesser hound fell back, seemingly frightened by this turn of events; however, this was merely a ploy to regroup, the alpha now seeing their foes had long range weaponry. The two hounds that had left originally had now returned, and the pack regrouped. The alpha loosed a string of guttural hisses and growls, before the pack dispersed once more.
While the alpha and his lesser compatriot seemed to circle around, waiting on the bottom of the building in the shadows, the other two hounds suddenly vanished from sight, a flash of light signaling their disappearance. In what seemed like less than a second, the duo of hounds appeared in the upper story room where Troc and the others had hulled up. With frightening speed, the hounds lunged, one aimed to chomp down on the closest gunner and the other down on Troc...
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Post by KayKay on May 1, 2018 6:11:17 GMT
Klar couldn't react fast enough. She felt her rifle shudder as powerful jaws clamped around the barrel. The weight of the beast knocked her to the ground, and sickly cold paws scratched at her chest. Then the sharp crack of a gunshot overpowered the screams of the hounds, and bile and gore exploded from the abomination's flank. The beast slumped to the ground beside her, and she felt Marvulli's rough hand grasp hers as he pulled her to her feet.
"Let's get out of here!" he roared, pushing her and Zhu out of the room to leave Troc to his fate.
As they hurried down the winding staircase of the Tavern, Klar glanced down at her chest to inspect the damage. The claws had left small gashes in the fabric of her vest; it seemed the electromagnetic screen of the bulky HEIRESS strapped to her back had protected her from more serious wounds. For the first time in her life, Klar found herself thankful to be lugging around its heavy weight.
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Post by Stage on May 3, 2018 7:06:46 GMT
Troc was more fortunate. With his sword already in hand, it was almost on instinct alone that he caught the bite on its blade, teeth grinding against metal. With a frightened yell and an adrenaline-fueled heave, he dragged the blade not just out of the hound's mouth, but clean through its head, dropping it instantly.
Shocked by the sudden explosion of sound though, he dropped to the floor as well at the sound of the gunshot.
Head bobbing up just as the others were evacuating the room, Troc's dirty face twisted into an indignant snarl.
"You bastards!" he shouted after them as he staggered out of the room himself, only tripping over the bodies of the dead hounds one time each. Instead of following them down the stairs, he ran towards the opposite end of the hallway. Kicking in the opening to the laundry chute that sat there, its once silver gleam faded to a dull gray, he clumsily swung his legs in and began to slide down, trying to control his descent with his open palms and balled feet.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Troc chanted in a mix of fear, pain, and anger as he approached the ground floor. If he beat that bitch and her lackeys there, he was going to bar them inside.
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Post by Orcus on his Throne on May 4, 2018 3:57:52 GMT
As Troc scrambled to the laundry chute, he could make out the mangled shape of the hound he cleaved with his blade limply attempt to get to its feet. It stumbled about forward two steps toward Troc, inky black blood splattering all over the floor of the room, before it collapsed in a bloody heap, dead.
From outside, a terrible howl, like the scream of a man mixed with the yelp of a dog, filled the tavern. A terrible hiss filled the air of the lower story of the tavern, before another hound warped into the stairwell that Zhu and her underlings were located in. The hound snapped its jaws around Klar's leg, seemingly focused entirely upon her, before it tugged hard, attempting to use its own mass and strength to send the woman tumbling down the stairs...
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Post by KayKay on Jun 3, 2018 1:46:12 GMT
The woman cried out as she fell as an alien wave of pain rocket up her leg. The shock alone was enough to cause her to fall, but this time as she fell her arm lashed out. The blade of her knife sliced into the beast's snout, forcing it to let go as she crashed down the staircase. She heard Marvulli shout a warning, and only saw a brief flash of clothing as her companion pressed Zhu against the wall. She fell past the pair and hit the floor hard.
Though the pain from the bite was not yet subsided, Klar's HEIRESS system had dulled the impact of the fall itself. She saw the muzzle of Marvulli's rifle flash, but the hound disappeared into the shadows before he could make a killing shot – the bullet blasted through its flank instead. "You okay, Klar?" he shouted as he all but shoved Zhu down the stairs in front of him.
Klar couldn't muster an immediate response, it felt as though a thousand needles were penetrating her leg at once. It was all she could do to keep from crying out and attracting more of those wretched monsters. Seeing her expression, Marvulli knelt down beside her to inspect her leg.
"It doesn't look broken," he told her. "The bite is shallow, but-"
"Poison!" Klar finally managed to gasp. The pain seemed to be subsiding. "Its bite – shit! – something in it."
Marvulli's face had gone pale. "It's okay, Naomi. We'll have you treated once we're clear of–"
"Marvulli."
It was Agent Zhu. The wiry woman stepped closer to the man and placed a hand on his shoulder, but her eyes darted around every corner of the room. "She'll slow us down. Leave her."
Her words hit Klar harder than her fall. She felt a sick, heavy weight grow in her gut that rooted her in place.For a moment the pain in her leg was forgotten as the feeling in her extremities went cold and numb. She gasped as she tried to respond, but her throat had clenched uncomfortably tight. Her eyes met Marvulli's. "Ja... Jason?"
Marvulli didn't respond, not to her or to Zhu. Klar began shaking her head. No. He couldn't. He wouldn't. She and Marvulli had served together for nearly a year. He had been there from the beginning, personally training her when she had first joined the Saberdex military. She knew Marvulli better than this pencil-pushing bitch ever could. Her eyes left Marvulli's and gazed up to the agent with a cold, hard glare. If her and Marvulli's roles had been reversed she would have bruised Zhu's pretty face right then and there.
As if on cue, Marvulli rose to his feet and turned to face Zhu. Klar couldn't help but smirk. She had always been a better shot than her superior, but Marvulli's physical strength was enough to inspire tale tails among his fellow soldiers. She leaned to the side for a better look, eagerly awaiting Marvulli to teach that high-strung bitch a lesson.
"We can make it to the lake if we run," Marvulli said, grabbing Zhu's wrist as he pulled her out of the room. "Stay behind me and watch your six."
"What?"
For a moment Klar didn't realize the words had escaped her mouth. She sat in stunned silence as she heard the creak of the main doors and the gunshots of Marvulli's rifle, then the footfalls of the two racing out onto the street.
Then, nothing.
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Post by Stage on Jun 3, 2018 2:52:28 GMT
Klar's numb silence was shattered by a loud, metallic crash from somewhere below the main floor. Not long after, Troc came stumbling up from the belowground laundry room, tossing aside the chute that had been wedged around his broad shoulders.
"Well, well," he sneered when he caught sight of the injured woman. He drew his side sword with a flourish and twirled it clumsily. "Where's your fur faggot boss? If she likes varuls so much, I'll chop her up and send her northwest to some in a box."
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Post by Orcus on his Throne on Jun 3, 2018 3:13:18 GMT
Troc's sentence was punctuated by the sound of an eerie growl, akin to the snorting of a man fused with the snarl of a wolf. An eerie, wolf-like shape emerged from behind the bar of the tavern, its eyeless face fixed intently on the downed form of Klar, though it seemed to be aware of Troc's presence, as it moved slowly and deliberately towards her.. Blood dripped down from its gunshot wound, and eldritch drool fizzled against the floorboards of the tavern.
The two, now that the creature had revealed itself in a less strenuous situation, could now more easily make out the monster's appearance. The creature looked like a man's body distorted to stand on four legs. Its arms were snapped and elongated to support its weight in a quadrupedal stance, while its back legs remained mostly the some, albeit more gaunt and skeletal. The creature's fingers and toes were warped and fused together, with a set of nails twisted into razor sharp claws. The creature's face appeared akin to that of an eyeless, hairless wolf, though its jaws appear as a swirl of muscle split into four separate section. Its teeth, upon closer inspection, appeared to be broken and sharpened human teeth, and the back of its head was rounded with tufts of hair sticking out. One could make out the remains of a human ear fused to this part of its head. Truly, the creature was a monster... ___________________________________________________________________
But their escape would not be so easily achieved. With a bellow like that of an enraged ape, a burly shape the size of a lion tore its way out of a nearby alley after Zhu and Marvulli. The creature looked like the hound-like monsters that had been slain earlier in the tavern, but significantly larger and bulkier. A layer of supernatural ice seemed to cover the monsters' torso and extremities like a set of armor, as a cloud of ethereal smoke surrounded the monster's jaws. It looked like the monstrous creature was rapidly gaining on the two, tearing its way through the town square after them...
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Post by KayKay on Jun 23, 2018 1:11:16 GMT
Klar didn't dare take her eyes off the creature, but she knew her firearm was still on the stairs where she had dropped it. Her knife however had fallen at her side, but the sick intelligence in the beast's eyes told her it would pounce the moment she reached for it. Her HEIRESS system wouldn't protect her from the alien pain of the creature's bite. If she went for her knife she would need to strike fast and lethal – she would only get one chance.
Behind its petal-shaped jaws she analyzed the back of its head, where the neck met the skull. That was her target. Klar didn't know how tough the creature's skull was or if her blade could pierce it, but if she could sever its spinal chord at the neck and leave it paralyzed she would be able land a more permanent blow.
With a howl as pain flared up her injured leg, Klar lunged for her weapon...
–
"Keep going!" Marvulli shouted as he stopped to fire shots at their pursuer. He reached out with one hand to push Zhu onward, but the woman hadn't even slowed down. Cursing, he leveled his rifle and aimed a shot towards the beast's right shoulder...
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Post by Stage on Jun 23, 2018 3:28:48 GMT
Troc, who had begun to creep towards the main doors, paused when he caught sight of the look of Klar's face. The focus. The intent. It was entirely different from the empty, dumb look he had first caught her with. No, it was even stupider. She was planning something. When the woman lunged, Troc leaped too: not towards the door, but at the horrible creature.
"Fuck!" he shouted, more at himself than the patchwork creature.
Though it was begrudgingly, almost as if it were someone else's body and he was only along for the ride, the young man danced towards the ghastly beast, whipping the point of his sword wildly. He was not aiming to harm the ugly thing as much as only to keep it away, to give the woman the chance to accomplish whatever idiotic idea she had in mind. Troc had no good answer to the question of why he had chosen to help, but settled on being able to ask where that stuck-up bitch with the varul fetish was.
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Post by Orcus on his Throne on Jun 23, 2018 3:47:17 GMT
Troc's sudden approached caught the beast's attention, which whipped its head towards the approaching swordsman with a feral snarl. Before it could make any moves, however, the blade of Klar's dagger found its home in the base of the monster's neck, eliciting a startled yelp in the process. In a second motion and a sickening shnk, the blade cleaved its way through the hound's flesh, severing its spinal cord from its skull. The creature's head flopped loosely within its body, as it twitched about uncontrollably for a few moments before falling limp in a meaty heap...
The rifle round struck the beast's shoulder in a sound of thunder, cracking the thick armor-like ice surrounding the hound's body, sending shards scattering across the courtyard. The rifle round, though slowed by the armor, still found itself at home in the beast's shoulderblade, sending a geyser of inky black blood squirting from the wound. The impact caused the massive hound to lose its footing, before it tumbled across the ground, leaving black smears of blood with each of its impacts...
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Post by KayKay on Aug 4, 2018 11:41:12 GMT
Groaning as new waves of pain raced up her leg, Klar slumped over the body of the creature. The stench alone made her feel sick, but nausea was the least of her concerns for now.
"Th– Thanks," she grunted. Wet blue eyes glanced up at the man. Though Klar's face was contorted with pain, she sincerity in her gaze was unmistakable.
–
Lowering his rifle, Marvulli took off after Zhu. He could see the docks ahead, no more than a hundred feet away, by his guess. Anchored there, an anomaly among the rest of the vessels docked at Sund, was a small modern day yacht, only a little larger than a motor boat. It was their ticket out of this blasted town...
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Post by Stage on Aug 4, 2018 21:32:47 GMT
Troc sneered as he sheathed his side-sword after wiping its silvery blade clean. "Yer just lucky I forgave you for not opening that damn window for me. Anyway, the only reason I helped you was to ask where that bitch boss of yours is. I'm gonna hit her over the head so hard, she'll feel it in her feet. Her toes'll blow off. Cunt makes a habit out of leaving people behind, doesn't she?"
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