*Drip*
*Drip*
*Drip*
A mixture of green and black blood dripped from the fingers of a pair of mangled golden gauntlets. The rhythmic pattering of its drip was the only sound aside from the breeze.
Gwin scratched his neck. Perched high up on a ruined spire he had a good view of this quarter of the city. His lavish shroud the [Moonlight Sonata] flapped in the air behind him. He closed his crusty eyes and listened. The black stone shingles underfoot groaned under his weight accompanied by the haphazard creaking of the dilapidated tower. Its structure swayed slightly in the wind.
In a burst of movement he soundlessly leaped high in the air landing weightlessly in an empty street a house away from him. He skidded on the thin layer of loose stone coating the street and fell to one knee.
'Hahhh…..damn.'
He sighed and braced his hands on his knee and tried to stand but fell again this time to his hands and knees. His golden half plate armor had a layer of muck and dirt marring it. He closed his eyes again and pressed his ear to the cold ground.
*Rumble*
*Rumble*
*Screech*
*Clop*
*Crunch*
The regular noises of the dark city greeted him. He rested his body on the ground finding its dirty coolness soothing to his burning temples.
'A small nap wouldn't hurt….'
His muscles refused to relax. His eyes shuddered open taking in the light of the grey sky. The sounds of the city continued playing in his ears at varying distances, this close to the bright castle the abominations were more sparse.
'Yeah a nap sounds nice…..'
The sound of rushed human voices entered his ears.
"Run! Don't look back!"
"What about Doran's leg?"
"Leave it!"
His eyes widened and he pushed himself from the ground to stand. He took a deep inhale smelling the scents of the city. Festering blood, rancid abominations, ancient dust, cool stone, and the sickly sweet scent of human blood. He gritted his teeth in a snarl and rushed towards the building closest to him. Four translucent wings shot from his back and began to whir. Their obnoxious hum was silenced by the black shroud.
His boots scraped against the ground as he jumped. The wind whipped into his bleary eyes as he shot to the top of the building. He navigated the vertical maze of outstanding window sills with several dexterous zigzags. His golden feet landed on a rotten support beam with a damp squelch. Thankfully it held. Gwin looked forward, on his right was his goal the bright castle and the left was where he could still hear the shrill human voices. His eyes shuddered close and he swayed slightly. His armor felt like a hundred, no, a thousand pounds on him. Its silken interior was like a lavish prison on his weary body.
His body leaned in the direction of the bright castle and its promise of sleep.
'I can go a bit longer…'
He bent his knees and jumped. The rotten support beam snapped with a damp thump. He went from rooftop to rooftop like a grasshopper. The sound of human voices became closer and closer till he could see the noisy suspects. Gwin landed atop an ancient statue in the middle of a ruined street square in the direction they were heading. Its body consisted of dull brown iron. Its features had been erased by time and the elements but he could tell it had been male. Tall stature, wide shoulders, and straight posture, it had to have been a warrior of some kind. It stood as if receiving a medal. He perched high above the ground on its shoulder, a fall would have been fatal for a normal person given that its head was level with the surrounding buildings roofs.
His fingers twisted into claws and clung to the back of its head with a skin-crawling screech. He left a bloody handprint on its surface, none of which was his. His golden boots slid on metal before claws tore through the front of his boots holding him in place and mangling his boots just as his gauntlets were. He winced at the sound of wrenching metal.
He swallowed the spit in his mouth while looking at the street. Two sleepers ran towards him supporting someone in between them. All three had pale faces. Their eyes were wide and bloodshot. He found the source of the smell of blood, the sleeper in the middle's leg had been torn off at the knee. A red trail of metallic pungency led behind them to an alleyway they had likely run from. Gwin looked behind to see what they were running from but saw nothing, he definitely smelled it though. The pungent smell of a wild animal hit his nose as one of the buildings on the left side of the road exploded outwards onto the street in a rain of debris and dust.
His jaw clenched as their pursuer revealed himself in all of its grizzly horror. A towering boar covered in patches of wiry brown fur. It stood at three meters tall. Its hooves were jagged and it possessed two long tusks that stretched out before it like curved swords. There were hundreds of thornlike spikes peeling from the main tusk. On the very end of one of its tusks was the bottom half of the bleeding sleepers leg speared through the calf on one of them.
Gwin's eyes narrowed as he summoned the helmet to his memory. A smooth helmet with slits for his eyes and a sharp point at the chin appeared in a rain of sparks. Its surface was engraved in vines and flowers that started at the point of the helmet's chin. The top of the helmet was adorned with two golden flowers made of golden feathers as their petals. His long and wild hair draped down his back from up under his helmet. It was dirtied and clumped together and ended near the middle of his back. It started in tan roots then turned a charcoal black towards the end.
The scene before him reflected in his golden eyes. He unclenched his jaw which had grown painful from the pressure. With his identity now hidden he empowered himself with his aspect and leaped. The statue groaned as he did. His hands sprouted black fur and the same fur sprouted from any gap in his armor it could find. A raw and primal strength filled him as he soared through the air. His eyes burned from the rushing wind and he felt another headache forming that threatened to blow his eyes from their sockets.
Below him one of the sleepers tripped dragging the other two down with him roughly onto the cold street. The smell of blood grew even more stomach turning. The street rumbling with the boars charge sending loose rubble flying. Gwin landed just in front of them and dismissed his cloak. The boar's frenzied gaze locked onto him as it squealed.
'It's not fallen at least.'
He chewed the inside of his lip as the boar closed the distance between them in large strides that shook the street. Behind him the three sleepers had not stood up to keep running yet. He looked back at them and saw they were looking at him like lost puppies. Their legs were limp and their hands shook like they were in a blizzard. One grasped aimlessly at the bricks of the street while another's bottom lip quivered as if to say something, or maybe cry.
'So pathetic!'
He turned back to the boar and braced. It was already mid charge and taking the full force of its momentum would be an idiot's game but they were right behind him. His mind went to a move Seishan had used on him once while sparring. He took a wide and sturdy stance with one leg farther back than the other.
There was thirty feet between him and the boar.
Twenty feet.
Ten feet.
Five feet.
Gwin's hand flew out to meet the boar's tusks. The bore lowered its tusks to gore him but instead Gwin caught them in his hands. His hands ran down their length getting cut in the process but avoided being gored. Instead of trampling over him the boar was suddenly upside down in the air. Its tusks were pointed to the ground and still in Gwin's hands. Its noxious breath blew down on him from its mouth of rotting molars gusting his long and messy hair wildly.
"GRAHHH!"
He roared beneath his helmet and summoned his strength. His body practically burst from his armor as it grew in size in just a split moment. The metal of his armor creaked and groaned under the sudden shift. A long black wolfish tail shot out from his back. Time seemed to stop as Gwin's own blood ran down his forearms and the boar hung in the air in discombobulated stillness. A single ray of sunlight pierced the veil of clouds framing them like a statue depicting a great hero, or maybe a cursed hero, slaying a monster. The warm light faded as quick as it came and as it did time resumed. Gwin twisted with all he had and slammed the bore into the empty street behind him.
He avoided the still gobstruck sleepers who had sweat and tears running down their dirty faces. The bore slammed into the ground with the force of several tons and shook the ground, sending cracks running through the street and even toppling one dilapidated building. Its back end made a litany of wet snaps that could have only been the bones of its hind legs shattering.
"REEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
It squealed while trying to trap him in its festering maw. Its rancid breath assaulted his nose and eyes, making him wince.
"GRRRR RRROEPH!"
Gwin responded with a snarl and bark of his own as he let go of its tusks and raised his fists above his head. The boar surged forward with the help of its front legs that spasmed and tore trenches in the street with its jagged hooves, although not as far as it would have wanted. It's first lunge stopped just short of gobbling Gwin up and it wouldn't be getting another. A quick sidestep to the left put him out of reach of its mouth and tusks and right next to the top its head. Its frenzied and glossy eyes watched in great detail as his fists came down on its head like furry golden hammers shattering its iron hard skull open as if it were a ceramic vase. Its eyes shot from its sockets with a wet pop and a jet of blood shot from its mouth painting the ground with a sheen layer of metallic grunge. The contents of its head spilled onto the ground as a steaming and rancid pile.
[You have slain an awakened monster: Briarbane Squire]
[You have taken your claim of blood]