08-29-2015, 12:02 AM
I stood ramrod straight at the edge of the misty swamp, my eyes watching like those of a sentry. I'd heard nothing but rumours about the place; the Swamp of Sadness, a site of despair and utter hopelessness. Those who traversed into the vision-obscuring marsh experienced the deepest sorrows and fears within them. Even I was a tad scared, but Alice... Alice was a whole different tale. The vampire clutched onto my still-torn singlet, pulling herself uncomfortably close to my body, her own shaking and shivering with every respiration, shallow or deep; her fear didn't discriminate.
I held my closest friends (Caelum and Infernum, of course) at the ready, prepared for the horrors that lurked in the smoky haze of the Swamp. Granted, weapons generally wouldn't do shit to help my own mental state in there, if anything they might ruin it further... But they gave me something. Not power, not protection; they gave me drive, a sense of hope. They weren't just mindless weapons to me; I cherished the two as if they were my own hand-raised children. Many a time they had spoken to me through holy and unholy energies alike, and that wasn't going to stop in the fog...
At least that's what I liked to think.
-----
[spoiler]
Before I could bat an eyelid, a set of cracked and flayed jaws lunged for my face, or more so my nose in particular, and I raised my claws to fend off the rancid assailant, but all that emitted from the palm was a small spark - hardly enough to light a cigarette if I smoked. I raised my arm as a visor and leaned away, Alice's weight on my shoulders wrenching me back...
But my face was saved by the whizzing of a projectile, namely an arrow, and I raised my anticipating eyes to see the undead with a well-aimed arrow through the left eye. I extended my hand and poked a finger to the creature's chest, causing the statue of a zombie to fall to the earth. I spun around to look to my saviour; a young elven girl with very light hair, wielding a bow. I waved my thanks to her with my 'human' arm while the demon claws retracted and reformed into light flesh and nails.
That was when the expense hit. The strain of keeping my demon form, if only on my arm, had prepared its aftereffect on my body; I felt my side split, right where the green creature from the other night had impaled me unceremoniously. The wound wept heavily, and I clutched it with my right hand, attempting to apply as much pressure as possible to the tear. I heard a pair of feet, pitter-pattering rather than tromping, approach my location. My eyes gazed up into the beautiful blue sky - no, wait, they were the elf girl's eyes. Why had I made such a comparison? There was no time to dwell over such petty notions, though.
She grabbed the crook of my left elbow and helped me get up, wary not to let my precious cargo fall. She was extremely gentle in helping me out, and once I was comfortably back on my feet, she guided me through the hordes of undead, letting an arrow fly every few seconds, hitting her mark with astonishing accuracy. Before too long, we broke out to the flying horse from before, who seemed to be holding her own just fine. I showed my appreciation to the elf girl with a warm smile, and I crouched down, flipping out Infernum and slinging his body over my arm, careful with the blade. I began to nail the dead with crackling flames, and after getting into a rhythm, I spoke.
"Thanks for the help. That was mighty nice of you." I finally voiced my gratitude to the girl, and the horse seemed to approve with a high pitched, but hushed 'hah'. I nailed an extra three that came so close I could literally feel their infested flesh, then continued. "My name's Grave, and this is Alice." I introduced us, and the horse was quick to reply; the elf was occupied with skewering zombies.
"Private First Class Raw Onion!" she replied, her voice sounding as if it was bouncing. "This here is Lyra. Nice to meet you... Grave..." her voice trailed off as she said my name.
Yeah, I was wondering when someone was going to realise how grim my name was.
My eyes creaked open agonisingly slowly, almost groaning like to pairs of rusted gates. Dim touch line filtered through my glittering eyelashes, and my vision stood on the fence between focused and completely out of it. With due time, the former reigned supreme, and my eyes darted around the makeshift infirmary. Why was I there? One moment I was blasting zombies to bits, and the next I was lying in someone's best attempt at a hospital bed.
I mustered my drowsy strength to push myself up to a sitting position. My arms felt like twigs that would break at the slightest movement, and my side was still split; I could feel the sticky red substance under the ramshackle gauze. A for Effort, at least. My dart wound was also killing my muscles. They felt like that were tightly contracting into a small knot around the wound. I tiny giggle snapped me from my vortex of thoughts, and my view spun ninety degrees to see Alice in a similar bed adjacent to me. The paralysis seemed to have worn off, as she was laying comfortably on her side.
"Evening, Grave." She greeted me, her flushed lips shaped into a sweet grin. "The flying horse patched is up as well as she could."
That explains the beds and gauze.
But then it hit me. Us? "What do you mean 'us'? What happened to you? What happened to me?!" I inquired, my voice already impatient. She cocked a blond eyebrow at me.
"You really don't remember, huh? A Darkspawn smacked you across the noggin, and you fell like a lumberjack's timber, taking me with you. I fractured my wrist," She raised her left arm with a half-decent cast over it, "and sprained my ankle. You on the other hand... You look like crap." Alice stated the obvious. I raised a shaking hand to my head, and could feel the rough, papery material of a bandage, tightly wrapped around my head. I breathed out a sigh and laid back down in the bed.
"That girl, Lyra popped in to see you, too, you know." She told me, attempting to tease my weak mind, but I wasn't that concussed.
"Yeah? That's mighty nice of her." I replied, tactfully avoiding Alice's bout of mischief. I turned my head on the half-dead pillow and looked at her. She scowled at me, and I grinned back.
"She's really nice, you know... And pretty..." Her voice began to trail off. I left it for a moment, before taking a deep breath, drawing her attention back to me.
"Alice... This time and place, is not the right time and place to be thinking about things like that. Sure, I might end up getting caught flirting with one of the women, but that's not me being serious. We need to keep our heads out of the clouds, Alice, the world isn't free right now." I explained, my tone dropping to a more somber one. All Alice could do was sigh, and I could have sworn I heard her mumble something about 'old days'.
I whistled 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' as I strolled out of camp to chop some firewood. There were a few really crappy trees that were already torched or hacked down, but it didn't prove to be too difficult a task to discover the good ones. One of said good trees stood in front of me, towering above me by about a foot. I unfolded my two weapons and began to chop away at the wood. Left, right, left, right, I continued the pattern in my head until all that was left was the giant mes of leaves.
I crouched down, feeling my knees crack in the empty forest, the sharp sound echoing throughout the trees, and scooped up a couple of the pieces of wood. I turned to return then to camp, but a slow, shambling movement caught my eye...
It wasn't that damn zombie from before. No, it was nastier; it was that alien creature, but now with horridly decaying flesh and fur, and sacs of infested body fluids hanging grossly from all her limbs. The poor girl, she got bitten by one of the Darkspawn. I gently dropped the wood I was carrying and stalked towards the alien, watching her shamble along, watching my st-
CRACK!
Ohhhhhhh, shit, I'd stepped on what was probably one if the worst placed twigs ever. The alien's dead eyes stared at me, before she rushed the tree I was standing behind, bolting straight at it. Being a zombie, her fighting must not have been so deadly...
That theory was soon busted when she went to kick me in the ribs. I raised an arm as a wall, and her weak, decayed leg collided with it, but she used my arm as leverage to swing herself around and slice open my chest with her claws on her feet, before dropping back. I stumbled away, grasping the bleeding scratch across my chest. When I looked down, though, it wasn't just bleeding; the scarlet wound was pulsating with a black gunk, pieces of solid infection clinging to the flesh and... Spreading?! I panicked, I didn't know what to do. Should I have cauterised it? Left it? I don't know what clicked in my mind at the time, but my response was to claw at my chest and tear the flesh off the top, ripping the infection away like velcro. I screamed into the open air; there was beyond a doubt that someone heard me, but I couldn't tell if they had.
The alien pushed on, and I fell flat on my ass after tripping over one of the chunks if wood I dropped earlier. My primal, human instincts kicking in, I reacted by scrabbling for the wood and picking it up, before sinking the edge hard into the zombie's head, and she fell to the grass; not dead, only unconscious. I breathed a sigh of relief, and made the wise decision to not touch the body, instead gathering the wood and transporting them back to 'town'. I had a story to tell Lyra and Raw.
The three of us shared a moment of silence after I told Lyra and Raw about the horrible fate of our ally. I managed to keep my mouth shut about the infection, but Lyra wasn't so blunt; she saw through the guise.
"Grave... Why's the chest of your singlet torn and bloody?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow curiously, and Raw leaned close for the answer. "The chest was fine just earlier." I should have known the archer wouldn't miss a detail like that. I was stupid to think I could evade her metaphorical (and possibly literal) sights.
"U-um... Well... You see... I- uh- she... It... Augh..." I spluttered around before taking a deep breath. "Zora kicked me, and her claws carried the infection. Even though she's mindless now, she still has her natural instincts of how to fight like she used to." I elaborated, pulling the chest of my shirt down at the same time. I revealed a raw, slightly bleeding slab of flesh, and Raw's eyes sprung to the size of cupcakes.
"Grave... Let's get you patched up, shall we?" She offered with a grin, but it seemed rather crooked, like she didn't really want to do it. I understood why.
"I was just confiding in a friend." 'Oh, bullshit you were!' was what I wanted to shout at Clayton once he finished his accusation of the little green man. I kept my back pressed heavily, keeping my ears keen. I could tell the General had already noticed me, but the hunter, on the other hand, was just too blunt.
"Tch." I clicked my tongue and began to walk away. Why is he trying to get the goblin kicked out? There's no reason for him to go, I pondered. People can redeem themselves, and so can creatures. Clayton was that one snake in the grass; sly and slippery, waiting for someone to come along to infect with his venom. That guy pissed me off. I was going t-
"Oof!" I grunted as I accidentally bumped into someone. I reeled back a few steps and raised my vision up, and came face to face with another zombie. No, not the ones we had been massacring before, the one Blondie had her gun pointed at when the whole thing started. I cleared my throat.
"Sorry about that." I apologized, before extending a hand out. Sure, he was decayed and all, but I didn't mind shaking hands with him; he was an ally. The zombie moaned for a moment, his eyes meandering a tad, before he slowly raised his hand up and placed it in mine. I made sure to be careful when shaking it, just in case his bones were decayed too. I didn't want the poor guy to lose a hand just like that. "My name is Grave. I see you understand me, right?"
The zombie nodded... Or at least I think he did. Hard to tell when the movement's so slow. His eyes seem to widen slightly at the name 'Grave'. Oh. Shit. Didn't realise that. I cleared my throat again. "Come for a walk with me, hey?" I asked as I began to walk past him.
I had to keep my pace slow so the shambling man could keep up. Yes, I said man, not creature. Unlike zombies I'd seen, this guy had his humanity. He could control his hunger, he knew what he meant to say, knew what he meant to do, knew exactly what he was thinking... It was only his infected body getting in the way of the execution of his thoughts. With this in mind, I began to spark a one-sided conversation, speaking slow enough for him to register.
"I don't trust Clayton one bit. He's the wolf in sheep's clothing." I explained, and received a low gurgle in return. From experiences with zombies, I've managed to translate a couple of their growls, but not too many. "You heard him too, huh? Good to know I've got someone on my side. I don't think the goblin's done anything that should get him exiled. How about you?"
He seemed to think for a moment, before letting out a slightly more high-pitched moan. "I see... I believe in redemption, you know. He might have been a part of that attack, but he managed to help his group through the temple, I'm sure of it." I told him, and his growl became low.
"Glad to know that you now share my opinion." I finished, a soft smile across my cheeks.
I wiped the sweat off my brow as I reared back from the giant log of blackened wood. How long had it been? Not carrying the log, I mean, how long had we been in the area? Weeks? Months? It had felt like forever...
"Come on, Grave, just a little further." Jan egged me on from the other side of the log. A half-asses smile crossed my lips.
"Easy... for you to say... colonel." I panted. "You're a soldier, you're built for strength. I'm a bloody twig. Cut me some slack, hey?" I asked.
"That's no excuse." He shut me down. Ouch, the guy was cold. I breathed a sigh of exasperation, and went to pick up the log again... But only until I heard a pirate singing a sea-shanty. The corners of my mouth curled.
"Put him in the scuppers with the hose pipe on him!
Earlye in the mor-nin!" I chimed in, and more and more members of our ragtag workforce joined in. I picked up my end of the log, and Jan and I made headway towards the inner camp, still singing the sea-shanty. The good Captain knew how to lighten the mood.
Where the hell did they come from?! Orcs were attacking yet again, and they were much stronger than before! Not to mention wearing some kind of gold paint. It didn't suit their skin tone in my opinion. I raised my gunblades up in a cross to catch the massive, cruel weapon one was wielding and gave it a hard kick to the gut...
But it did nothing. The Orc grabbed my wrist and slung me through the air. I felt the back of my singlet tug as Alice extended her wings out, catching my fall and slowly dropping me to the earth. She folded her wings back up and hid in my singlet once again. I charged the beast and brought Caelum around from my right, the blade of light phasing through the thick-skinned flesh. I passed by the monster, before it fell in half and collapsed. Standing up, my sight was drawn to something awful...
I was stunned. I couldn't do anything, couldn't move, couldn't help. I was powerless. An Orc had lodged its crude weapon deep in Lyra's chest, blood pooling around the blade and dribbling to the earth, painting it red. The beast unsheathed his blade from the elf girl's chest and she dropped to the ground in the pool of her own blood as the Orc minded his own business.
"LYRA!" I cried into the air, my call most dominant over the warcries of the Orcs, and the grunts and screams of the other members of our group. A blade cleaved the air in front of my face, and turned to my right, passing Infernum to my left and driving my fist right through the monster's abdomen like a jackhammer. I threw the Orc away before switching Infernum back over and taking aim at the other, blasting it right in half. I began to run to Lyra. She had no reason to die, she just couldn't...
I skidded to a stop some ten meters away from the dying girl, and ducked behind a tree. The goblin, now hosting gold flesh, was holding Lyra close to him. What had happened between the two? The little man was crying over Lyra's dead body. He caused all this chaos... Yet he was upset over the death of our allies. Before long, his head perked up, as if something ignited within him. He rushed off, and came back a minute or two later with a strange, glowing artefact. He focused his mind into the object, and light streamed from it in slow waves of brilliant light. I held an arm to my eyes as a visor to the blinding show.
When I looked back, the goblin was gone, and Lyra was still laying there. I broke from my cover and slid along the earth, stopping beside her. She was breathing; the goblin had saved her life. Genuine tears began to roll out of my eyes, little sparks of holy light contained within each one. I could hear Alice squeaking into my singlet, too. I slid my arms under the elf-girl, one under her knees and the other under her shoulders and neck, and lifted her up, carrying her like I had carried Alice through the temple. I made a beeline straight for the larger group of Secondaries. I don't know how many times I've said it or how many more time I will say it, but I want to just send Omni to hell.
My eyes fluttered open, and my head perked up. I'd seriously just gone and nodded off in my seat. That was poor etiquette. I looked down at the elf-girl laying in the bed beside my chair, and her eyes began to open up. Her blue eyes darted around for a moment, before focusing on me. She gave me a soft smile, and I returned one.
"Morning, Lyra." I greeted her. "How are you feeling?" I asked her, trying to refrain from letting tears out in front of her.
"Sore. Otherwise I'm okay. I don't really remember much, though." she explained. I had to think carefully about my words.
"You were hurt in the battle and... Passed out. I managed to get you out of there. The damage was pretty bloody bad, I have no idea how you survived." I lied to her face. "I volunteered to watch over you while you recovered. We're heading out for the Swamp of Sadness tomorrow. Raw and I will stick with you, alright?" I reassured her, and she nodded with a weak smile.
I broke my policy of making promises I can't keep.[/spoiler]
I looked to Lyra in front of me and gave her a nod. I was going to stick with her, no matter what. Raw stood in front of Lyra, so we had the elf-girl covered. Our single file began the march through the thick white mist, where unknown horrors lurked, waiting to attack any one of us.
Alice clung even tighter to my singlet as we trudged through the muck. "Don't leave me behind, alright?" She asked, her voice quaking. However, my body went rigid, and voices filled my head, jumbled words filling my vision.
I gasped sharply, and released my head. I stared at my fingers, and blood had stained my nails. What the fuck was that?! Who's José?! I could feel Alice's dainty hands on my cheeks, but paid no mind to her, as there was only one thought running through my head; Omni, I promise you, I will fucking murder you if you don't give me answers!
I held my closest friends (Caelum and Infernum, of course) at the ready, prepared for the horrors that lurked in the smoky haze of the Swamp. Granted, weapons generally wouldn't do shit to help my own mental state in there, if anything they might ruin it further... But they gave me something. Not power, not protection; they gave me drive, a sense of hope. They weren't just mindless weapons to me; I cherished the two as if they were my own hand-raised children. Many a time they had spoken to me through holy and unholy energies alike, and that wasn't going to stop in the fog...
At least that's what I liked to think.
-----
[spoiler]
Quote:Flame after flame after flame sailed through the clogged air, each one's light dying further and further. I aimed my shots carefully, as if one wrong calculation would detonate the decay filling all of our lungs. I sure hoped the infection didn't happen to hand the ability to pass on through the air. With the hellfire forming at my demonic palm, I cleared my immediate area of mindless, decaying minions.Lyra, Raw Onion
Before I could bat an eyelid, a set of cracked and flayed jaws lunged for my face, or more so my nose in particular, and I raised my claws to fend off the rancid assailant, but all that emitted from the palm was a small spark - hardly enough to light a cigarette if I smoked. I raised my arm as a visor and leaned away, Alice's weight on my shoulders wrenching me back...
But my face was saved by the whizzing of a projectile, namely an arrow, and I raised my anticipating eyes to see the undead with a well-aimed arrow through the left eye. I extended my hand and poked a finger to the creature's chest, causing the statue of a zombie to fall to the earth. I spun around to look to my saviour; a young elven girl with very light hair, wielding a bow. I waved my thanks to her with my 'human' arm while the demon claws retracted and reformed into light flesh and nails.
That was when the expense hit. The strain of keeping my demon form, if only on my arm, had prepared its aftereffect on my body; I felt my side split, right where the green creature from the other night had impaled me unceremoniously. The wound wept heavily, and I clutched it with my right hand, attempting to apply as much pressure as possible to the tear. I heard a pair of feet, pitter-pattering rather than tromping, approach my location. My eyes gazed up into the beautiful blue sky - no, wait, they were the elf girl's eyes. Why had I made such a comparison? There was no time to dwell over such petty notions, though.
She grabbed the crook of my left elbow and helped me get up, wary not to let my precious cargo fall. She was extremely gentle in helping me out, and once I was comfortably back on my feet, she guided me through the hordes of undead, letting an arrow fly every few seconds, hitting her mark with astonishing accuracy. Before too long, we broke out to the flying horse from before, who seemed to be holding her own just fine. I showed my appreciation to the elf girl with a warm smile, and I crouched down, flipping out Infernum and slinging his body over my arm, careful with the blade. I began to nail the dead with crackling flames, and after getting into a rhythm, I spoke.
"Thanks for the help. That was mighty nice of you." I finally voiced my gratitude to the girl, and the horse seemed to approve with a high pitched, but hushed 'hah'. I nailed an extra three that came so close I could literally feel their infested flesh, then continued. "My name's Grave, and this is Alice." I introduced us, and the horse was quick to reply; the elf was occupied with skewering zombies.
"Private First Class Raw Onion!" she replied, her voice sounding as if it was bouncing. "This here is Lyra. Nice to meet you... Grave..." her voice trailed off as she said my name.
Yeah, I was wondering when someone was going to realise how grim my name was.
Quote:Alice (Solo)
My eyes creaked open agonisingly slowly, almost groaning like to pairs of rusted gates. Dim touch line filtered through my glittering eyelashes, and my vision stood on the fence between focused and completely out of it. With due time, the former reigned supreme, and my eyes darted around the makeshift infirmary. Why was I there? One moment I was blasting zombies to bits, and the next I was lying in someone's best attempt at a hospital bed.
I mustered my drowsy strength to push myself up to a sitting position. My arms felt like twigs that would break at the slightest movement, and my side was still split; I could feel the sticky red substance under the ramshackle gauze. A for Effort, at least. My dart wound was also killing my muscles. They felt like that were tightly contracting into a small knot around the wound. I tiny giggle snapped me from my vortex of thoughts, and my view spun ninety degrees to see Alice in a similar bed adjacent to me. The paralysis seemed to have worn off, as she was laying comfortably on her side.
"Evening, Grave." She greeted me, her flushed lips shaped into a sweet grin. "The flying horse patched is up as well as she could."
That explains the beds and gauze.
But then it hit me. Us? "What do you mean 'us'? What happened to you? What happened to me?!" I inquired, my voice already impatient. She cocked a blond eyebrow at me.
"You really don't remember, huh? A Darkspawn smacked you across the noggin, and you fell like a lumberjack's timber, taking me with you. I fractured my wrist," She raised her left arm with a half-decent cast over it, "and sprained my ankle. You on the other hand... You look like crap." Alice stated the obvious. I raised a shaking hand to my head, and could feel the rough, papery material of a bandage, tightly wrapped around my head. I breathed out a sigh and laid back down in the bed.
"That girl, Lyra popped in to see you, too, you know." She told me, attempting to tease my weak mind, but I wasn't that concussed.
"Yeah? That's mighty nice of her." I replied, tactfully avoiding Alice's bout of mischief. I turned my head on the half-dead pillow and looked at her. She scowled at me, and I grinned back.
"She's really nice, you know... And pretty..." Her voice began to trail off. I left it for a moment, before taking a deep breath, drawing her attention back to me.
"Alice... This time and place, is not the right time and place to be thinking about things like that. Sure, I might end up getting caught flirting with one of the women, but that's not me being serious. We need to keep our heads out of the clouds, Alice, the world isn't free right now." I explained, my tone dropping to a more somber one. All Alice could do was sigh, and I could have sworn I heard her mumble something about 'old days'.
Quote:Ghoul Zora
I whistled 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' as I strolled out of camp to chop some firewood. There were a few really crappy trees that were already torched or hacked down, but it didn't prove to be too difficult a task to discover the good ones. One of said good trees stood in front of me, towering above me by about a foot. I unfolded my two weapons and began to chop away at the wood. Left, right, left, right, I continued the pattern in my head until all that was left was the giant mes of leaves.
I crouched down, feeling my knees crack in the empty forest, the sharp sound echoing throughout the trees, and scooped up a couple of the pieces of wood. I turned to return then to camp, but a slow, shambling movement caught my eye...
It wasn't that damn zombie from before. No, it was nastier; it was that alien creature, but now with horridly decaying flesh and fur, and sacs of infested body fluids hanging grossly from all her limbs. The poor girl, she got bitten by one of the Darkspawn. I gently dropped the wood I was carrying and stalked towards the alien, watching her shamble along, watching my st-
CRACK!
Ohhhhhhh, shit, I'd stepped on what was probably one if the worst placed twigs ever. The alien's dead eyes stared at me, before she rushed the tree I was standing behind, bolting straight at it. Being a zombie, her fighting must not have been so deadly...
That theory was soon busted when she went to kick me in the ribs. I raised an arm as a wall, and her weak, decayed leg collided with it, but she used my arm as leverage to swing herself around and slice open my chest with her claws on her feet, before dropping back. I stumbled away, grasping the bleeding scratch across my chest. When I looked down, though, it wasn't just bleeding; the scarlet wound was pulsating with a black gunk, pieces of solid infection clinging to the flesh and... Spreading?! I panicked, I didn't know what to do. Should I have cauterised it? Left it? I don't know what clicked in my mind at the time, but my response was to claw at my chest and tear the flesh off the top, ripping the infection away like velcro. I screamed into the open air; there was beyond a doubt that someone heard me, but I couldn't tell if they had.
The alien pushed on, and I fell flat on my ass after tripping over one of the chunks if wood I dropped earlier. My primal, human instincts kicking in, I reacted by scrabbling for the wood and picking it up, before sinking the edge hard into the zombie's head, and she fell to the grass; not dead, only unconscious. I breathed a sigh of relief, and made the wise decision to not touch the body, instead gathering the wood and transporting them back to 'town'. I had a story to tell Lyra and Raw.
Quote:Lyra, Raw Onion
The three of us shared a moment of silence after I told Lyra and Raw about the horrible fate of our ally. I managed to keep my mouth shut about the infection, but Lyra wasn't so blunt; she saw through the guise.
"Grave... Why's the chest of your singlet torn and bloody?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow curiously, and Raw leaned close for the answer. "The chest was fine just earlier." I should have known the archer wouldn't miss a detail like that. I was stupid to think I could evade her metaphorical (and possibly literal) sights.
"U-um... Well... You see... I- uh- she... It... Augh..." I spluttered around before taking a deep breath. "Zora kicked me, and her claws carried the infection. Even though she's mindless now, she still has her natural instincts of how to fight like she used to." I elaborated, pulling the chest of my shirt down at the same time. I revealed a raw, slightly bleeding slab of flesh, and Raw's eyes sprung to the size of cupcakes.
"Grave... Let's get you patched up, shall we?" She offered with a grin, but it seemed rather crooked, like she didn't really want to do it. I understood why.
Quote:Urg
"I was just confiding in a friend." 'Oh, bullshit you were!' was what I wanted to shout at Clayton once he finished his accusation of the little green man. I kept my back pressed heavily, keeping my ears keen. I could tell the General had already noticed me, but the hunter, on the other hand, was just too blunt.
"Tch." I clicked my tongue and began to walk away. Why is he trying to get the goblin kicked out? There's no reason for him to go, I pondered. People can redeem themselves, and so can creatures. Clayton was that one snake in the grass; sly and slippery, waiting for someone to come along to infect with his venom. That guy pissed me off. I was going t-
"Oof!" I grunted as I accidentally bumped into someone. I reeled back a few steps and raised my vision up, and came face to face with another zombie. No, not the ones we had been massacring before, the one Blondie had her gun pointed at when the whole thing started. I cleared my throat.
"Sorry about that." I apologized, before extending a hand out. Sure, he was decayed and all, but I didn't mind shaking hands with him; he was an ally. The zombie moaned for a moment, his eyes meandering a tad, before he slowly raised his hand up and placed it in mine. I made sure to be careful when shaking it, just in case his bones were decayed too. I didn't want the poor guy to lose a hand just like that. "My name is Grave. I see you understand me, right?"
The zombie nodded... Or at least I think he did. Hard to tell when the movement's so slow. His eyes seem to widen slightly at the name 'Grave'. Oh. Shit. Didn't realise that. I cleared my throat again. "Come for a walk with me, hey?" I asked as I began to walk past him.
I had to keep my pace slow so the shambling man could keep up. Yes, I said man, not creature. Unlike zombies I'd seen, this guy had his humanity. He could control his hunger, he knew what he meant to say, knew what he meant to do, knew exactly what he was thinking... It was only his infected body getting in the way of the execution of his thoughts. With this in mind, I began to spark a one-sided conversation, speaking slow enough for him to register.
"I don't trust Clayton one bit. He's the wolf in sheep's clothing." I explained, and received a low gurgle in return. From experiences with zombies, I've managed to translate a couple of their growls, but not too many. "You heard him too, huh? Good to know I've got someone on my side. I don't think the goblin's done anything that should get him exiled. How about you?"
He seemed to think for a moment, before letting out a slightly more high-pitched moan. "I see... I believe in redemption, you know. He might have been a part of that attack, but he managed to help his group through the temple, I'm sure of it." I told him, and his growl became low.
"Glad to know that you now share my opinion." I finished, a soft smile across my cheeks.
Quote:Crow, Jan
I wiped the sweat off my brow as I reared back from the giant log of blackened wood. How long had it been? Not carrying the log, I mean, how long had we been in the area? Weeks? Months? It had felt like forever...
"Come on, Grave, just a little further." Jan egged me on from the other side of the log. A half-asses smile crossed my lips.
"Easy... for you to say... colonel." I panted. "You're a soldier, you're built for strength. I'm a bloody twig. Cut me some slack, hey?" I asked.
"That's no excuse." He shut me down. Ouch, the guy was cold. I breathed a sigh of exasperation, and went to pick up the log again... But only until I heard a pirate singing a sea-shanty. The corners of my mouth curled.
"Put him in the scuppers with the hose pipe on him!
Earlye in the mor-nin!" I chimed in, and more and more members of our ragtag workforce joined in. I picked up my end of the log, and Jan and I made headway towards the inner camp, still singing the sea-shanty. The good Captain knew how to lighten the mood.
Quote:Grobdum, Lyra
Where the hell did they come from?! Orcs were attacking yet again, and they were much stronger than before! Not to mention wearing some kind of gold paint. It didn't suit their skin tone in my opinion. I raised my gunblades up in a cross to catch the massive, cruel weapon one was wielding and gave it a hard kick to the gut...
But it did nothing. The Orc grabbed my wrist and slung me through the air. I felt the back of my singlet tug as Alice extended her wings out, catching my fall and slowly dropping me to the earth. She folded her wings back up and hid in my singlet once again. I charged the beast and brought Caelum around from my right, the blade of light phasing through the thick-skinned flesh. I passed by the monster, before it fell in half and collapsed. Standing up, my sight was drawn to something awful...
I was stunned. I couldn't do anything, couldn't move, couldn't help. I was powerless. An Orc had lodged its crude weapon deep in Lyra's chest, blood pooling around the blade and dribbling to the earth, painting it red. The beast unsheathed his blade from the elf girl's chest and she dropped to the ground in the pool of her own blood as the Orc minded his own business.
"LYRA!" I cried into the air, my call most dominant over the warcries of the Orcs, and the grunts and screams of the other members of our group. A blade cleaved the air in front of my face, and turned to my right, passing Infernum to my left and driving my fist right through the monster's abdomen like a jackhammer. I threw the Orc away before switching Infernum back over and taking aim at the other, blasting it right in half. I began to run to Lyra. She had no reason to die, she just couldn't...
I skidded to a stop some ten meters away from the dying girl, and ducked behind a tree. The goblin, now hosting gold flesh, was holding Lyra close to him. What had happened between the two? The little man was crying over Lyra's dead body. He caused all this chaos... Yet he was upset over the death of our allies. Before long, his head perked up, as if something ignited within him. He rushed off, and came back a minute or two later with a strange, glowing artefact. He focused his mind into the object, and light streamed from it in slow waves of brilliant light. I held an arm to my eyes as a visor to the blinding show.
When I looked back, the goblin was gone, and Lyra was still laying there. I broke from my cover and slid along the earth, stopping beside her. She was breathing; the goblin had saved her life. Genuine tears began to roll out of my eyes, little sparks of holy light contained within each one. I could hear Alice squeaking into my singlet, too. I slid my arms under the elf-girl, one under her knees and the other under her shoulders and neck, and lifted her up, carrying her like I had carried Alice through the temple. I made a beeline straight for the larger group of Secondaries. I don't know how many times I've said it or how many more time I will say it, but I want to just send Omni to hell.
Quote:Lyra
My eyes fluttered open, and my head perked up. I'd seriously just gone and nodded off in my seat. That was poor etiquette. I looked down at the elf-girl laying in the bed beside my chair, and her eyes began to open up. Her blue eyes darted around for a moment, before focusing on me. She gave me a soft smile, and I returned one.
"Morning, Lyra." I greeted her. "How are you feeling?" I asked her, trying to refrain from letting tears out in front of her.
"Sore. Otherwise I'm okay. I don't really remember much, though." she explained. I had to think carefully about my words.
"You were hurt in the battle and... Passed out. I managed to get you out of there. The damage was pretty bloody bad, I have no idea how you survived." I lied to her face. "I volunteered to watch over you while you recovered. We're heading out for the Swamp of Sadness tomorrow. Raw and I will stick with you, alright?" I reassured her, and she nodded with a weak smile.
I broke my policy of making promises I can't keep.[/spoiler]
I looked to Lyra in front of me and gave her a nod. I was going to stick with her, no matter what. Raw stood in front of Lyra, so we had the elf-girl covered. Our single file began the march through the thick white mist, where unknown horrors lurked, waiting to attack any one of us.
Alice clung even tighter to my singlet as we trudged through the muck. "Don't leave me behind, alright?" She asked, her voice quaking. However, my body went rigid, and voices filled my head, jumbled words filling my vision.
Quote:J̗̳͚̮̈́ǫ̝̫̭̻͉̻͌̎͛ͥ͂͒s̛̈́̈̚é͇̖̼͙̭̰̋̓ͪ͑ͧ̚,̮̜͓̠ͯ̎ͫ̕ ̲̺̞̼̋̆ͩ̊͡d͎̟̟̺̪̊̾ͯ̎o̮͈͉͓̜ͯ̚n͇̥̘̉'̛̼̮͈̩͒ͯͯ̆̿t̪̤̲̲̬̗̅̇͊͌̿ͨ ̮͇́̈̃́ḛ̢̯͉̖̩̟ͦͦͨ̈͛v̡͐̋̔ͯȅ̟̓ͫ̒r̓́̐ͮͤ̓̀͜ ͍̥͐̓̋ͧͥ̅͒ḷ̭̹̜͓̿ͫ̚eͬ͆̀a̽̌ͨ̋̒̏͘v̙͔͚̯̥ͦ̈̌͂e̵̫̊ͣ͋̿͑ ̦̤͓̺͓̖̄ͤ̊ͨ͛̓m̬͖̥̪̃͢e͇͍͕̳͈͂ͅ,̹̤͕͉ͯͭ̀ ̆ͥ̈́p̶̥̳͕͋̑̿ͥͦͥ̈́ḷ̙̻̖̍̂̈́̉ͥͥ͟ȇ̃͐̉̌͊̈͞ͅa͚͎̻͚ͪͧͨͧs͔̀̎͘e̩̪͑̽?̸̟͖̗͓̅̑ͥ
̝̫̲̫͐ͧ̏̏̋
̺̼̅I̸͖͔̦̹̼̠͙̒͂̊̐͊̓̚ ͔̖̝̦̻̬͛ͪ͜w̢̬̗̞̙̟̟̞ͫo̹̩͓̳͔̾ͫ̏ͣ̊ͫ͠ͅn̟̗͑̆̎͜'ͪ̃̇̐t̛̟͈́͒̓̐͆̃.̗̻͍̺͎̭͔͑̌̈̇̌ ̙̣̩̳̌ ̛͓̝͚͍͓̟́̾̚I͇̣͔ͬ̇ͥͯͯ ̞̪̝̠͖̘̤s̮͇̺͘w̰̎̌̓̍̇͟è̮͕̜͇̞̝́͢a͓͚̦̺̯̯ͦ̆ͧ͆̿̅r͇͕̫̱͖̤̐ͤ̐̿ ̟͓̑̎͐͛̀ó̜̲̭̰͎̲̜ͫͪͣ̐̚͠n̰̞̭̓̔ͦ͊̓ ̃ͥ͂̂ͫ͗ͅm̠̯̾̒ͯ̃̉̑̔y̭̥̞̣̩̦̭ ̪̄ͅg̡̘͎̹͙ͫͮͩ͌͑͛r͔̦͍̻̱͕̰̍͑̌́a̹͇̟̤̲͉̞ͬ̿̉͗̉̚͢v̝͂ͭͦ̾̀e.̹ͨ͂̌ͤͅ
I gasped sharply, and released my head. I stared at my fingers, and blood had stained my nails. What the fuck was that?! Who's José?! I could feel Alice's dainty hands on my cheeks, but paid no mind to her, as there was only one thought running through my head; Omni, I promise you, I will fucking murder you if you don't give me answers!
Quote:Longest... Thing... I have ever... Written... On... This site...
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Quote:"Nothin's gonna stop Team RNJR now!" - Ruby Rose, RWBY Volume 4