Into the Dark

[Atelos]

A branch from a nearby tree flew itself against the Spartan’s head, twirling him around and barely letting him keep on his feet. Hades woozily swayed on his feet, with a loud, ringing in his ears. In his blurred vision, two Shang Tsung’s came to his side. Hades turned his head to see a large Drider coming right at him and prepared for the impact. He closed his eyes and tensed his muscles before he heard a loud thud. He turned to see a large orange wall cracking beneath the drider’s attacks. The two Shang Tsung’s came to one and the ringing sound had diminished quite a bit.

“Gather your wits, I can’t do this all day,” Shang spoke with a strained voice, obviously using an enormous amount of concentration to maintain the construct.

“It might be fun to see you try,” Hades attempted to banter with the sorcerer. He drew his spear and readied his shield. “I’m sorry but it seems like these Drow want to play with me. I’m sure you can handle the Drider, Sorcerer.” His voice was thick with sass and sarcasm, prodding at Shang. With that final sentence he started to execute the Drow that wanted Shang’s blood. Shang still fought to keep the Drider at bay, a crack continuing to spread across the wall.

“Spartan!” A sense of urgency was clearly in his voice as he tried to keep the Drider contained.

“Busyyyy,” Hades cheerfully replied, stabbing Drow that had begin to back away from the spreading sea of Drow bodies Hades had created. He took great pleasure in taking the Spartan’s body and murdering with it.

“SPARTAN!” Shang cried. Hades turned his head from his spree to see the Drider break open the wall, knocking Shang over as if he had been struck himself. The Drider flourished its weapons and advanced towards Shang, clearly upset at its delay.

“Fuck,” Hades turned to deal with the Drider as Shang recovered. The half-spider half-drow abomination swung its plethora of swords at the Spartan. Holding up his shield, the drow’s blades clattered useless against it. However, the torrent of blades didn’t stop, one slash after another. One of the blows swung his shield to the side, allowing for a sword to slash across his chest. Steaming black ooze began to seep out of his wound. Hades made no hesitation and reached inside the wound to gather some his blood and toss it into the Drider’s face. The monstrosity screeched in pain as the blood began to sear it’s Drow face. Hades took this time to run beneath the Drider and smack his shield into its one of its rear legs. The exoskeleton snapped at the pressure of the metal, forcing the Drider to rebalance itself on its other legs. Hades looked at Shang, happily contending with the drow, with much less effort than he.

He mumbled to himself, watching as the Sorcerer easily dispatched the oncoming Drow. Hades only had a moment to do so as the Drider swiftly turned to his attacker, wiping the caked blood from his burnt face. The Drow opened its mouth to let out a sound that could only be described as a nightmarish cicada. It’s sword descended quickly onto Hades, however this left a pause for Hades to attack. He moved his shield to the side and quickly jabbed his spear into the Drow’s abdomen but the Drider spit a green bile onto him, burning his skin and weighing him down. Hades, furious at the grotesque monster’s attack, threw his shield into the Drider’s face, letting a sweet, solid clang before the shield fell to the ground. Hades ran underneath the beast and brought up his spear through the soft underbelly of the spider. Green blood spurted out and he dug the spear in deeper, grinding it against the monster’s internal organs. The Drider screamed out in pain before falling over on it’s side, passing away unceremoniously.

Hades retrieved his shield and attempted to get the thick bile off of himself as he saw Shang finish off the rest of the Drow. A sword pierced through Hades chest, right through his heart. The Drow priestess stepped from behind Hades and kicked him off the blade, letting him sink into the ground. She scoffed before muttering incomprehensible elvish to herself. Shang finished off the last of the Drow to see the Spartan collapse to the ground. The Drow Priestess laughed to herself as she met Shang in the battlefield, preparing a spell in one hand.  

“You stupid humans should never have come here. The Drow rule this land.” Her tone was filled with racist arrogance, obviously harboring a large distaste for other species. Shang’s eyes darted to the movement behind her. Hades brought himself to his knees, his legs wobbling underneath the pressure. A fire was lit in his eye that was less playful than before but more a combination of pure rage from both Atelos and Hades. Thick blood poured out of his chest and into the palm of his hand, sizzling as he bled. The two made eye contact and Shang gave him the look to stay still.

“Your scouting party was the first of many to die. You have gotten too bold for your kind and us Drow will cull your numbers until you are afraid to leave your precious city of Darkshire.” Ironically revealing her plot as if she were a movie villain, she raised her arm to cast her spell. Shang beat her to the quickdraw, a claw emerging from his ring, grasping her arm tightly, preventing it from moving. Hades took this as his cue and took his handful of blood and poured it over her shoulder and onto her body, sizzling the flesh as it trailed down.

Her screams of pain echoed through the forest, sending many a crow flying out of their nests.