The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Okor]

Okor grunted as the shimmering blade descended upon him once more, its energized tip biting deep into his vambraces, another notch upon the abused armour forming as it scorched the festering flesh beneath. The corrupted chivalry that had been present in the mockery of a man before him had all but vanished, frenzied blows crashing down with terrifying speed, each blow seeking to sunder the septic sarcophagus encasing the Plague Marine.
 
He’s better than you, whispered the choir inside the fragments of his mind, a thousand lesser personalities jockeying for position, picking carrion from the walking corpse of Okor’s psyche.
 
Crack. A wrenched neck. One more corpse for the abattoir-altar rising within the wastelands of his mindscape. Nine hundred and ninety-nine left to go. He was not Okor the corpse, Okor the slave, Okor the blasted shell.
 
He was Okor. Motherfucking. Paleblood.
 
The glaive gutted him during his momentary internal crisis, a scream of triumph issuing forth from the creature’s mouth, bubbles of black tar pouring forth from the broken-toothed maw. The force of the impalement drove him upwards, boots lifting off of the ground as his malformed figure was silhouetted against the roiling chaos of the violent violet sky above their battle. He coughed translucent blood into his helmet as his claws wrapped around the polearm piercing his abdomen, the blaster at is base slowly whirring as it prepared to release its energized payload into the pestilential paladin.
 
”You w-w-will burn. Kindling to Nebula’s eternal flame.” Stuttered the synthetic centaur, milky-white eyes run through with violet veins, the beast’s teeth shattered and broken into fangs that bled a dark purple oil, staining their now-unnaturally pale skin. Upon the creature’s back, the dreamer went to work, sinking their short blade into every inch of exposed flesh they could find, a task made easier by the cracks and fissures formed by the armoured hunter’s searing spear of power. Madotsuki looked up from her perch upon the cyborg centaur’s flank, blood staining her scarlet sweater, nodding as she drove her knife downwards towards the Nebulous warrior’s shoulder, eliciting a warped scream of pain. The mechanical monstrosity struck out blindly, a near-instant motion sending Okor flying from their fiery blade, another blur of movement forcing the Dreamer from her position.
 
”Shut up,” spat the septic soldier, pushing himself off of the new-churned earth, miasmic drippings creating new ecosystems of predatory parasites where he once walked. Another hammering blow descended upon him as he rose, shearing a chunk of ceramite off of his pauldron, failing to throw the ascending ancient warrior off his balance. Madness gleamed in the centaur’s corrupted eyes as it raised its blade once more, its gaze fixed upon his own throat, fixated on the destruction of the derelict warrior.
 
Okor beat the centaur to it. His own mauled stomach tore itself apart, a blossoming maw of ruined flesh and fangs gnashing at the air as twisted tendrils surged forth, his innards repurposed into weapons, barbs and thorns shining under the sunless sky as they rose. They tore at the exposed flesh of the beast, flaying what skin was present free from its proper position, locking themselves around armoured joints as they sought to drag him down, down, into the ever-hungering maw of their master.
 
They would not succeed. The centaur bucked and fought at every turn, tearing itself apart as it started to shrug its bonds, darkness made manifest pouring from tainted veins as it laughed madly, its victory still certain in its blind eyes.
 
Perhaps it was not wrong. Its blaster came to bear, a stream of energy bursting from its tip as it began to scorch and scar at Okor’s armour, each blast penetrating further into the ceramite, burning at the flesh beneath as a monstrous grin spread across the Centaur’s face, knowing that success was firmly within the grasp of their newly formed claws.
 
”Hiro!” Okor called out, as his ribs began to slowly shatter under the constant onslaught of corrupted energies.

804 words according to the site.