The hideous beast on top of Hilda had the body and head of a ninetales, but it looked as if it was decomposing. The right ear and right eye were missing, a large triangular strip of flesh was missing from that side of the ninetales' face, exposing the skull. The eye that still remained the creature's eye socket was black as night with black sludge escaping from the tear duct. That same black sludge escaped the creature's maw, dripping onto the dwarf's face. The most frightening thing about the creature was in place of its canine legs, there were instead human arms. The creature tried biting off Hilda's face, but she held it at bay using one hand tightly wrapped around the ninetales' throat. The dwarf screamed as she pushed the short sword into the monster's ribs. The blade slipped in between the beast's ribs, cutting up the mushy black organs inside. The monster let out a horrific screech as it tried scratching at the dwarf's face with its mutilated human arms.
"Thea!" Hilda yelled out a split second before seeing the alakazam slam her heavy mace straight into the side of the beast's head. The monster's head suddenly split apart from the impact of her blow. Half of its canine skull hung off the right side of its head, only supported by a thin thread of flesh. Brain matter dripped all over the dwarf's face and clothes whilst the body of the creature went limp. Instinctively, the dwarf pushed the beast off herself.
"Hilda, were you bitten?!" Thea quickly asked her as she watched the dwarf wiping the black stuff off her face.
"No... Ugh! I fucking stink!" The dwarf yelled out as she looked down to the dead monstrosity. Raising her foot, she brought it down violently onto the dead beast's head, mashing up the undead creatures already messed up brain. Even as the two men ran into the room, she kept stomping on the creature's head. "Bastard!" She yelled before then kicking the creature's jaw.
"What is that thing?!" Janus quickly questioned the two women.
"It is fucking dead is what it is! It popped out of the crate like some kind of infernal jack in the box!" Hilda shouted as she stormed out of the room, walking back out into the courtyard. She was breathing heavily, looking down to her short sword that was covered in black stinking sludge. The smell filled her nostrils, making her want to vomit. She held back that need to spew. She had a strong stomach, having seen plenty of blood and guts in the past.
Thea walked out of the room, walking towards Hilda. The monk still held the mace in her right hand, the black blood still dripping from it. Every drop that touched the muddy ground corrupted it a little more. Her grip on her weapon was still tight, feeling very tense after the surprise attack on them. "Hilda, are you sure you want to keep going?" She asked, noticing how worked up she seemed.
"I don't really have a choice, so yes! I want to keep going." Hilda sharply replied, wanting to just keep on moving and get through this before more of those beasts came.
Robin walked out with Janus, both men had their weapons ready just in case. "That beast looked as if it had been put together using pieces from a human. Now we know what to expect. It is best we do not split up, stay together no matter what." He told the others.
Even Janus agreed to that, but as usual, he couldn't help but open his beak. "Yeah, that's great and all but shouldn't we take a moment to talk about the unholy abomination that attacked them?! I mean, that seems like something we should talk about, and not just pretend it is normal because I have never seen anything like that before!"
Thea had a theory on what was going on, but she didn't want to scare anyone. She felt like the spirits were angry here, maybe the evil spirits had taken control of the corpses that rest here. At least that is what she thought was going on. "We should pray before continuing." She suggested, knowing that no one here was religious, but she believed it could give them some sort of protection.
Janus chuckled for a moment. "You do that, I am sure that will stop these blood hungry monsters." He sarcastically replied.
"Do you always have to be such a bastard?! Stop shitting on her religion and stop with the smart ass comments! They aren't funny!" Hilda yelled back to Janus, glaring right at him.
Janus glared right back at her, stepping towards her before Robin suddenly jumped in between them before they started a fight. "We're all a little tense right now but we can't lose our damn minds already. We came here to do a job, not fight each other. Like it or not, we all need each other, especially if there are more of those things." The gallade told them all.
"Just keep that shit stirrer away from me." Hilda replied as she turned her back on Janus.
Janus couldn't help but feel a little happy about annoying her so much. Annoying other people always did bring him quite a lot of joy. "Someone has to stir some shit up around here. You would all get bored without me."
All four of them walked towards the big open wooden doors of the fortress. The monk, the dwarf, the archer and the gallade all looked into what looked like some kind of a main hallway. It was dimly lit by the daylight coming in through the tall yet slim stain glass windows. The walls and floors were cyclopean, made using massive irregular blocks of stone. In this kind of light, it seemed as if everything in the hallway had a slight hue of blue to it. There was a red carpet leading towards a large staircase, that then split off to the left and right. This hall was so massive in size, eight huge columns were erected to help support the sheer weight of the ceiling. It would be very beautiful, if there wasn't an immense sense of dread washing over them.
"This place feels wrong." Thea said as she tried to breathe in less. There was something wrong, it was in the air. It felt thick with some kind of unspeakable dark force.
Hilda scrunched her nose up a little in disgust. "I can't tell if that vile smell is in the air, or clinging to me..." The noisome fumes of the black ooze that spewed from the beast's head wasn't leaving her nostrils. The smell was so offensive, she felt as if she could taste it. The dwarf spat on the floor, trying to get that taste out of her mouth.
"Hmm, guess that answers the spit or swallow question." Janus thought to himself as he walked on with the others.
Hilda quickly glared at him once again. "Ha ha, real funny. Cunt." She replied as she pushed on, walking deeper into the hall.
Robin walked out in front, holding his halberd tightly. The wooden shaft of the halberd provided great reach, so he was usually out in the front with Hilda. Silently, he moved along the red carpet, his head constantly looking side to side as he pushed forwards. Just as things seemed clear, a small click rang out in the hall. The click would usually be silent, but in this hall, the smallest sound seemed so loud. The gallade froze in his spot, as did everyone else. "I heard something, did you?" He asked.
Hilda nodded as she looked around, suddenly seeing something running behind one of the big columns. Whatever it was, it was small, looked like it had a tail too. Her heart was starting to thump away heavily in her chest, adrenaline flowing through her veins once again. She felt like just yelling out to draw whatever beast was hiding behind the column. "I am going to tear it apart, whatever it is." She muttered to them as she then carefully started moving towards the column. The sound of chainmail gave her position away as she looked around the corner of the column.
An extremely disturbing creature was looking right back at her. The hideous demonic thing was actually an upside down human head with what looked like six extra eyes all lodged into the forehead. It was clearly a woman's head, her long black hair brushed over the ground. The expression on its face alone was absolutely terrifying. The face contorted into expressions of deep anguish. All that kept the decapitated head off the ground were the many fingers that were fused to the scalp. What she assumed was a tail was actually a long spinal cord. It opened its mouth before it began ululating, letting out an ear breaking howl.
"AHH!" Hilda let out a yell of her own as she covered her ears and ran right up to the strange thing. She slammed her foot into it, kicking it out into the view of everyone else.
Janus let his arrow loose, sending the arrow into one of its many eyes. The same black sludge that filled the mutilated ninetales now oozed from the torn open eye. The sound of the dead creature's howl still reverberated throughout the hall, but the sound eventually died out.
"What kind of twisted architect would construct such a creature?!" Thea yelled in absolute disgust. The fact that such a being existed seemed like some sort of unholy insult.
Janus could agree that the thing seemed disgusting, but he wasn't complaining. "Cheer up, it could be worse. The thing could have attacked us! Good thing all it could do was scream." The blaziken happily replied as he walked over to the dead head. He rested his foot on the foul thing's jaw. "Please don't bite..." He thought to himself as he bent down and pulled the arrow out of the skull it was lodged inside. Thankfully, it wasn't broken.
Robin held his halberd tightly with both hands. "Something isn't right." He told them as he started feeling very uneasy. He did not yet realize that the reason he felt uneasy was right in the room with them. It watched, its fangs dripping with venom as it prepared to strike.
Author's Note: Monsters are attacking, but what is making them? And why? Heh, hope you are all enjoying the story so far! I know I enjoy writing it. :)