Late afternoon sprawls across the mountain range south of Harth, the deep orange of the sun slinks past a dormant volcano that slightly dwarfs the other landmasses. Birds and wyverns flap their wings across the sunset sky. For the moment all seemed calm….until an unholy sound shattered the ambience.
A screech echoed throughout the mountain range, causing every living creature to flee from the volcano's vicinity.
Deep within the tunnels of the volcano, a panicked voice booms through its halls.
"RUUUUUN!"
A figure runs toward the exit of the tunnel system, desperately trying to reach the fading light as two others follow closely behind him.
"This was supposed to be a simple Agnaktor quest, Xandris, how on gog's earth did we end up waking that THING!?" panted the man garbed in Artian armor and hefting a greatsword in back.
"We can't worry about that, Bailyn! Just keep running!" a woman wearing Volvidon gear and a longsword beside the lancer answered.
"Tingravord, where is Iridius? I couldn't find him amongst the commotion." Bailyn questioned the person who was running ahead of him and Xandris.
The one known as Tingravord, a male cloaked in Lavasioth armor and bearing a lance did not answer. The lack of an answer from him only added to the poignant dread of the three hunters' current predicament, and immediately peaked when an ear shattering roar boomed through the tunnels.
"It's gaining on us!" Bailyn shrieked as he turned his head back, noticing the tunnel they'd recently fled from no longer was illuminated by the ambient lava of the volcano, but enveloped in an ominous darkness as rapidly slinking footsteps reverberated throughout the tunnel system. The trio soon picks up the pace, and their efforts are rewarded as the light at the end of the tunnel begins to expand as they get closer and closer to the cave's entrance. However just as they are nearing the exit, they notice something…off…The reverberating footfalls behind them had all but ceased, and it was soon replaced with a strange…warmth…
"Something's wrong, the heat shouldn't be so stro-AAAAAAH!"
These were the last words to escape Bailyn's lips as intense flames engulf the entirety of the tunnel the hunters traversed and scorch him to a crisp. The flames were strong enough to propel Tingravord and Xandris out of the tunnel, the two hunters landing twenty feet away from to each other as the intense flames billow out.
Trying to breathe in the clear air of the outside world, Tingravord attempts to get up, blissfully unaware he had internal hemorrhaging until the pain hits him like a raging Diablos. To help his breathing, he removes the smoldering remains of his helm, revealing two pointed ears that betray his identity as some run-of-the-mill hunter.
His race, the Wyverians, tended to pride themselves more as scholars, and to find one as a hunter was rare.
To Tingravord's misfortune, the statistic was likely to change for the worse, but his own death couldn't be further from his mind.
"Xandris…are you…" Tingravord pants as he starts sputtering blood as he lay in serious pain.
"I…don't think…I can move," she pants just before an unearthly growl erupted from the mouth of the cave. Though Tingravord couldn't see the monstrosity come out from the cave, the eyes of Xandris were enough of a gauge to let him know that the beast was closing in…and there wasn't a thing either of them could do. As the beast narrowly enters his line of sight, Tingravord watches in terror as the beast walking over to Xandris, circling her as her limp body trembles in fear. Her panicked eyes turn to Tingravord's. Unable to move, Tingravord can only console her by mouthing the last words she'll ever receive.
'To One…with Life….'
Xandris shivers out an understanding nod before a red and black hand grabs her limp body, lifting her to eye level with the fiendish beast. The amber glare of the creature's crystalline eyes narrows upon her as an intense growl escapes its jaws. Xandris panics at the sight before her, desperately trying to struggle out of the fiendish creature's grip. She pauses after a few attempts when she realizes the monster's maw had opened wide and closes her eyes, bracing for the pain of teeth tearing through her body. She shivered in fear, waiting for instant death…one that never came.
After a few moments, Xandris opens her eyes and lowers her guard, only for a torrent of flames to bathe across her being. Her screams were silenced within seconds. Xandris' body was first to melt, her boiled remains bubbled as the clear air touched her skin. Her armor while, heat resistant, could not withstand the constantly increasing inferno expelling from the beast's jaws.
Tingravord's eyes widened at the horrific sight of his comrade's nearly liquidized remains as the fiendish Elder smelted her corpse across its own body, the sickening imagery could make any sane man upchuck their last meal.
Against all odds, Tingravord savored the dignity of keeping his meal in his stomach, regardless of the pain he felt when doing so. To him, it mattered not how harsh the pain was. Tingravord was no fool, for he knew as soon as the accursed fiend made its presence known, he was already dead. Despite the veil of death looming ever closer with the demented fiend now turning its attention upon Tingravord, his regrets lied elsewhere….
The dragon slinks towards Tingravord with a sinister glare upon its face. Looming over its latest victim, it licks its chaps as it applies a forearm onto Tingravord's already damaged abdomen. The Wyverian hunter coughed profusely as the pressure mounted, but refused to release any screams for the spiteful monstrosity.
The beast lowered its head to face Tingravord and snorts in fury, yearning for the Wyverian's screams. With its demands not met, the serpentine monstrosity preps to destroy Tingravord with a blast from its fire. Before it could immolate its dying prey, a breeze causes it to stop in its tracks. The breeze blew by Tingravord's body, carrying his scent to the fiend's nostrils as well as….something else.
The flames in the beast's throat died down, and it lowers its head upon Tingravord once again.
"What're…you waiting…for…" the Wyverian said meekly.
The beast ignores him, only lowering its snout upon him in order to take huge whiffs of him to clarify what it stumbled upon before.
Its mind raced as it identified multiple scents….The dead Lavasioth the insignificant was wearing…no...gun powder…no…..dung...certainly not.
After a few moments the beast had finally identified the scent it was looking for, and if Tingravord's eyesight was fooling him, he could have sworn it started to grin. What followed shortly after was as clear as day to have been an eerie bestial version of a cackle. It was then that it began to click to Tingravord he and the beast currently had the same line of thought.
It was concerning his progeny.
"N..no!" Tingravord rasped as he desperately tried to lift a finger in defiance.
The hellish beast ignored the dying rattles of the Wyverian hunter, walking away from him in order to take flight. It snarls as its wings unfurl, strong flaps lifting its lanky body to the sky before it smoothly glides along the wind heading to its destination: El De.
Tingravord crawls slowly towards a ledge with little regards to his injuries, reaching out to the disappearing image of the cursed thing as its roars echo throughout the sky. Tingravord tries once more to push himself towards the beast's image, but with little fight left in him, he can do nothing to stop what was to come.
"Dreigul…." Tingravord utters, collapsing to the ground as a pool of blood spilled from the wounds finally catching up with him. With his final breath, he could only pray for his progeny's minimal chance of survival. His death was only met with the sun's disappearance from the horizon, and the arrival of the night.