Speech = "….."
Thoughts = […...]
º
Snipet
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"And what about you Peruere...?"
"Me..?" The girl asked softly, tilting her head barely up to meet her own gaze as the albino seemed to struggle inwardly on what she was meant to do.
"Yep, you drew something with Clervie right? It surely must be something awesome.."
"Awesome?" The word sounded strange in the white haired girl, as if she had never heard it before...or perhaps….never directed at her own work. To be honest she did not know what was sadder. Anyway, not allowing such sad thoughts to taint her enthusiasm Crucabena put her thumbs up.
"It means that its great.."
Clervie smiled kindly at her mannerism while Peruere blinked a few times, shifting her gaze back to the paper her small hands were holding onto.
"I...don't know about that"
She felt a pang of pain at the sound of those words [Oh you poor thing….you really need a boost in your confidence]
Placing a hand over the girls head she slowly patted the strands of white and black hair. "Well, we wont know until we see it, but I am sure it will look great no matter what.."
"And if….not?"
"Then mother will help you make the best drawings in the world..pinky promise.." She said with a smile before she knelt to her level and offered up the small finger to her daughter. Peruere looked at her curious, confused and left without words.
It really must looked really weird the entire situation
Even though she would have been hurt by the girl rejecting or ignoring her, she would have understood.
But..
Slowly…
She saw the girl mimic the gesture and wrap the small blackened finger around her own, her attempt shaky and cautious, her eyes locked with hers as if trying to discern something beyond them like a child would. And yet, she could only feel her heart beat a little more faster.
She had not been rejected...
[Oooooooh so cuuuuute….!]
Then, Peruere showed her drawings and….
And...
A cartoonishly large droplet of sweat slid down her scalp as she tried to get through her skull what was on the page.
[Oh god…]
[Oh dear god….]
[Those are a lot of spiders…..]
[Those are way too many spiders...!]
"Mother?"
"Peruere…"
"Yes mother?"
"You have the Tim Burton style maxed out, I am proud of you.."
"Eh?"
º
º….Fontaine outskirts….º
Hilichurl camp
º
She tried to breath, but she could not….as her body remained trapped in shock.
The air struggled to push out from her lungs, adding to the pain the sensation that she was drowning on nothing as tears continued to stream down her eyes, sliding down her cheeks and chin as they fell down into the rocky surface of the cavern
It had been so sudden.
To quick for her mind to picture what it was.
In the darkness of the cavern she had not see it coming…..but she definitely could feel it. The explosion of agony that had racked her away from the dread of a mystery about to unravel into a world turned red.
She tried to move, feeling the rocky terrain scrap against her knees as she tried to crawl away in almost near darkness now that she had lost her torch.
Her shoulder
It hurt…..
It hurt so much..
She bit her lip trying to quell another cry into a whimper. It felt like it was burning from the inside out...even though the dark liquid streaming down her clothing told her that this was not a burn of any kind.
"W-why?"
She croaked weakly as she tried to fight against the dark spots that were attempting to claim what little she could see. Her eyes shaky and terrified as they locked gazes with the creature that had attacked her. Standing tall and menacing, a massive shadow that the flickering light of the torch could barely reveal.
its shape was of a Hilichurl...but its size was wrong as-well as the colouring of its hair a dark blue, two large horns that protruded from the top of its head, glowing with some sort of emerald hue, and its claws a scythe.
With blood..
Her blood….
The blade had been meant to cleave her head in two….her turning around had made him miss by just a thread, but not spared her from the mess that it had led to. In one hand it was surprising that she had not lost the entire limb at all like any other human should have by now and instead end up receiving a rather shallow cut that did not cut through bone.
However it was a hollow relief.
"Why..?"
She croaked again, more strongly, wanting to know why she had been attacked when she had done nothing to warrant it.
It did not reply back.
Instead it lunged forward and grabbed her by the neck, silencing her gasp by slamming her down against the cold, hard floor. She almost lost consciousness by that alone, but the terror of knowing what would happen to her if she ever did kept her from it.
Panic
Fear
Confusion
Pain
She did not know what was going on or why this was happening
That did not stop her from trying everything on prying him off her, scratching and hitting him his arms and chest. She would have been crying out in terror or throwing obscenities non stop too if the hand in her neck were not threatening to snap it in two.
When she saw him raise the scythe back up with its other arm she felt her blood ran cold.
Just as the blade descended once again, this time ready to finish what it started she would find her salvation amidst her squirming as she end up kicking the Hilichurl right in its groin. Making the blade miss...but scratching her cheek in the process
All things considered a small price to pay to remain alive.
However her relief was short lived as the creature lunged back with a vengeance by wrapping both its hands around her throat and trying to squeeze the living shit out of her. The added strength of its arms robbing precious seconds of time she could have spent breathing.
Her eyes barely able to get glimpses of her assailant as the only source of light flickered on the ground, encasing in brief light followed by intervals of darkness between their struggle.
It was a terrific scene.
Not really been able to see the face of the one killing her, yet left with the knowledge that he was there.
Her hands clenched around the creatures wrists, desperation drawing delicate fingers to clawing and scratching at anywhere she could reach, leaving bright lines of arterial red where even the thick skinned layers of the creature gave away rather easily under the unnaturally force of her hands.
And yet it did not stop.
It slammed her down again against the ground, the rocky terrain clawing at the back of her scalp and shoulders as it did.
So she decided to kick it again
And again
And again..
Each and every time her boot connected with its hind legs made a horrid sound as something felt like was about to break, but the bastard did not relent. It reached the point that the sound of their fight started to dim down even to her own ears as he brain was starting to lose too much oxygen to continue to work as intended.
And that could only mean one thing
She was running out of time
"!…."
She was about to die
"!….t...f"
Here
"….th….if"
Alone…
"!...t...gif"
It wasn't fair
"!….thgif"
It wasn't bloody fair...
"!...thgif, uoy nmad thgiF"
That time she heard it.
º
º
Her eyes opened wide even thought they could not yet see, but they did not need to when the target of her vexation was barely a breath away, a malicious glint resurfacing from their depths never thought before to ever exist.
It felt like fire was been breathed into her bloodstream, healing what was hurt, empowering what had weakened.
Almost as if to taunt the creature her body slowly started to rise from the cold embrace of the floor against the brute force of the Hilichurl, the paws strangling her shaking uncontrollably as they tried to keep her down and failed.
His force meeting an ever greater one instead
The following thing she knew she was doing was stop uselessly trying to pry his hands off...and instead she warped one hand around its mask.
And then she clenched it
Hard…
In an instant the mask cracked like a glass, it's bone like frame becoming a mess of barely held together shards now stuck and embedded on the sweet soft flesh underneath it, a feat hard to believe to be brought by such delicate looking hands .
The Hilichurl screamed in pain, but she could barely notice its screams as she continued to cave the mask into its skull, her fingers already clawing at the flesh underneath, digging….deep.
The way it started to squirm was music to her ears..
She could almost smile as she tried to imagine the sound of its agony
And then….she ripped the creatures mask from its face.
The muffled sound of flesh and bone been torn apart as what was never meant to be taken off was pulled away like a rag echoed dimly in her skull. It did not compared though when her other hand found the torch and jammed the burning end of the thing into whatever the creature had for a face.
That..freed her from its grasp for good.
But not as much as she stabbed the creature with the fucking torch over and over again until the bloody burning thing popped out of the back of its now mushed skull and overcooked brain with the sound of a wet sack or a rotten egg, the flames still alight at the other end... licking and setting aflame the blue messy mane in the process.
Soon the smell of burnt flesh would fill everything and everywhere
A smell that would not leave her for a while.
Dark blood smeared over her face and with her chest heaving up and down and her muscles clenching not from the exertion...but the actual command to stop did the body finally fell limp now that life had finally and so abruptly left its now empty husk. The dead weight of its frame sliding away from her grasp as with a grunt she shoved it to the side before she started coughing for god's beloved air.
"Fucking hell…."
Never before she had felt so damn happy to breath in at her hearts content. The adrenaline coursing through her body was also a hell of a painkiller or she would have not been that cheery.
However, such things were not meant to last long when they were born in darkness nor in the company of a freshly deceased being as its blood started to sip into her gloves, raining the fabric.
What she had suspected was now a reality and it was a horrid realization.
They killed people.
Men
Women
Children…
They had killed them, they had eaten their bodies and taken their staff as theirs….as if they were animals instead of sentient beings with thoughts and feelings, with families and friends that would mourn them. Parading their clothing like trophies while discarding what they did not like somewhere dark and forgotten.
Bringing forth more victims not through strength or violence...but guile.
Such an insidious thing.
Her mind could not help but conjure even darker thoughts as the attempt on her life had not left her in a rather stable peace of mind. How many….how many people had become victims because of such cruel use of kindness and trust? How many gentle or souls or jerks that had been more curious than they should were led into the slaughter by what appeared to be inoffensive creatures..? Ten? Twenty? Thirty? She bit her lip, wishing she could shut those pestering thoughts into the darkest depths of her mind and throw away the key...but it did not matter.
No matter the number she could come across...
The loss of a single human life was already a tragedy.
She balled her hands into tight fists, her nails digging into her palms at the sheer injustice that had been done, of how she had been wronged by those she had tried to believe. Yet the fire brewing in her veins was short lived as her stomach churned with disgust as she now could see the blood slid and drip down her now bloodstained palms.
Blood she had spilled so…..easily
So wantonly.
She knew it had been a necessity..but that did not stop her from feeling the tears start to prickle at her eyes as a bile started rising inside her throat, leaving a burning sting all the way.
This was not her..
Could not be her…
She...she wasn't someone that could kill a fly
It was not in her nature...
Her heart started beating faster just as burnt brain matter started to slid down closer to her by the pool of blood coming from the body. Her reflection in the blackened liquid nothing but a poor bloodstained dishevelled mess.
The air became oppressive in her mind
It hurt...to be here.
She..
She needed to get out….
And so she did
She ran, blindly through the darkness towards the only distant spot of light she could barely see through the darkness shrouding her from every angle. Grunting in pain when she stumbled in the process as the pebbles and shards in the floor were now slick with the freshly spilled blood, making her fall over the large pool of blood and stained both her hair and body with the still warm liquid.
Pushing through the pain of her own body and the way rocks and shards bit into her body and the disgust of the ichor liquid now dripping down from her once clean clothes she crawled and then sprinted towards the exit of this nightmare she had found herself trapped within.
It felt like hours, but it did not took her but a moment to find herself back at area of the tent, with its cool air brushing against her, a stark contrast from the stale stench from that place.
She should have stopped there
Take a moment to breath in and out...if only to plan or think things through before she did anything else from that moment forward.
However in her haste she did not stop to even consider it, her legs carrying her with a mind of their own, sprinting through the curtains that covered the only entrance to the tent leading her outside where the brightness from the world bereft from the darkness of the underground cavern blinded her for a few seconds.
However by the time she readjusted her sight...she was met with a problem.
What problem you ask?
Nah...nothing grand…..
Just that there was a fucking army standing in-front of her
"Fuck me…..." She muttered in a ghastly whisper as she could not help but take a single step back in both awe and fear, though who could blame her as her eyes switched from creature to creature faster and faster.
Shields
Axes
Bows and crude looking clubs…
There was a hundred masks bearing their gazes down on her from almost all directions and then there was...well, just her to look back. Also, had she already said that they did not seem to be very happy to see her there? No? Oh, well having her very much alive was clearly not part of the "plan" with all things considered if the little "prank" downstairs had anything to say about it.
Or at least a voice in her head whispered as such.
She found herself clenching her jaw as a droplet of sweat now stained with the black coloured blood slid down her face. God dammit, she liked attention as much as any other gal in the world...but wasn't this a bit too much...?
She tried to look for away out, to spot a small crack in the wall of flesh and weapons before her.
But there wasn't….
[Fuck, fuckfuckfuckfufuckFUCK! Why does everything turn to shit at the first chance it gets..? Fuck you Murphy…!] She cursed inwardly to whatever gods could hear her and was responsible for this stinky luck of hers.
However, the worst part of all was the utter lack of noise about it. Like one of those western movies no one was moving a bloody inch while the wind blew by between her and them. It was nerve wrecking trying to think who would take the first step towards her.
If only she had a gun…
No, forget the gun, a Bolter….she would two Bolter's for this mess.
Between a curse and a sigh she extended her hand forward, desperate fingers tried to clutch the nothingness that stood before her for a few seconds that felt like an eternity...until a glow of light popped out from thin air at the edge of her fingertips as a blade appeared now in her grasp.
A sword against a hundred or so was not much of a change of her situation.
But…. she felt a little better for some reason just by holding it. Well, she better be because it was in that moment that they started to approach her.
With her heart throbbing in her hand in panic she tried to squeeze her brain for answers.
[Think, think! What can I do?]
She could not jump over a rooftop...because there weren't any rooftops to land on. Going through them? Forget it, there easier ways to kill herself. And of course she could not slip away could she? Going back to the cavern would be even more stupid than trying to take them all on by herself-it was then that a thought crossed her mind.
A foolish thing
A stupid idea
But perhaps…. stupid enough for it to work
[Gods, please don't let this end up poorly..] She begged inwardly though she doubted that if it did she would have much time to be worried about it. And so.. she took a step forward, a hand to obscure half of her face while the other pointed the gleaming blade at the multitude, clearly copying a villain from a comic or something.
And then-
"STOP..! All of you, STOP right now or I will bright down judgment upon you all!"
The sound of her voice was exaggerated loud even to her own ears, but it was done to both hide her own insecurities but also to try make herself heard by all at the same time. At the very least it was loud enough that the creature stopped marching for what few brief second that was
Which suited her just fine.
Without missing a beat she took another step, her hand gripping the blade even more strongly while she extended her other bloodstained palm to the sun itself in a rather over-dramatic fashion before she pointed an accusatory finger at the crowd.
"Yes, you fuckers….you picked the wrong gal to mess with. For I AM THE FUCKING KNAVE..!"
In retrospective she would think that her chosen words were a bit….corny, but she was a Knave in training after-all.
Cut her some slack.
"Yes, yes that's right. if you dare take approach...nay, dare take another step I will use the power granted to me by the gods to destroy you..!"
She was glad she decided to bring with her both artefacts to test her abilities earlier, though she did not know if the delusion and vision were capable of wiping an army like that. She hoped she did not need to find out
The only thing she did was pray they bought her bluff.
The ghost of a smile was about to appear on her lips when she spotted the creatures starting to stare at each other in confusion, but...like all things her relief started to die when one of them..either too stupid or bold for this world did "dare" try his luck.
And took a step forward.
[Fuck...]
Never before the silence had been so deafening, yet it did not stopped her from noticing how the crowd stared at their fellow kin...and then at her.
[Oh you have to be kidding me…]
Noticing how the situation was about to go from bad to worse in no time she tried to find a more "visible" tool to put the fear of god in the savages as her free hand went down to retrieve her vision and delusion from their comfy rest.
Only...for her fingers to brush nothing.
Confusion dawned on her eyes at the surprising lack of presence of the two artefacts that had been hanging from her waist for several hours by now. Looking down she realized why
They were not there any-more
The Vision and Delusion were gone
"W-what..?"
It was as if the entire world was crumbling around her as her heart missed a beat.
[No,nononononononono dont tell me I dropped them somewhere!? Why God, why are you doing this to me!?]
Foolishly she tried to search harder as if her previous attempt to find the items had been found lacking in intent, looking left and right or even behind her to see whether they had fallen down in her haste, but that was not the case when she felt a peculiar and awfully familiar glint at the edge of her sight caught her attention.
There…
Among the bunch of hillbilliess...
Was a pouch wearing Hilichurl….and in its grasp two things that should not have been in his possession.
Her mouth went dry when she recognized who it was...and what he held between his grasp. "How did he-.." She started to speak as she tried to turn her head around the thought that "Jack" had her stuff or when in the archons name it had managed to do so...
Only for her words die in her throat as realization struck harder than a wrecking ball.
The hug..
It had stole them from her when it had hug him.
That moment she had thought was weird but wholesome been nothing but treachery hidden under a false white flag. And she had take the bait, hook line and sinker like a bloody idiot.
..
..
..
As the dozens of Hilichurls sprinted at her she could not do nothing but bit her lip to the point that blood started to slid down her chin.
"JACK YOU SON OF A BITCH…...!"
º
º
Why…
Why was this happening...?
To her?
What had she done to deserve this..?
Was one of the many despaired filled thoughts that plagued her mind as steel kissed flesh and torn through muscle and bone like a wet bag, the sound sickening but not as much as the dark blood splashing everywhere, staining her face in a never ending wave of warm disgust that did not cease to drip down the rest of her body.
There were some people that said that sometimes what you did in a past life could come back to bite you in the arse in your following one depending on how much you screwed up things for you and those around you
If that was the true then she had screwed up big time.
With a spin to the left even the stubby end of her boots punched through hind legs like they were nothing, gasps for pain and broken bones dimly echoing in her head when she followed the bloody mess by rising her legs up like a dancer and STOMPING some brains out into the grass fields.
Still, wasn't this mess going way overboard..?
Wasn't this been just petty at her..?
Cruel even..?
Burly creatures took a swing and slashed at her, yet her body moved on its own almost as if possessed, dodging each and every strike with contemptuous ease, treating them as singular strikes rather than the shower of violence than they actually were…..before replying in kind a thousand fold.
A part of her told her that she could picture each and every minute detail of the monster standing betweem her and the peaceful quiet, yet at this point they were just foggy shadows that were blasted apart a second before she switched targets in the next. Less time consuming and more practical to her senses in a sick and twisted way.
Almost...as if practised.
..
She bit her lip, the bitter taste of blood...both her own and not too strong to ignore.
She did not want this
She did not want to hurt others..
But….
They did not gave her a choice…
A bloodstained hand got a hold over the horned mask of one of the Hilichurls, uncaring of its grunts of pain before she started to spin around on her own heels, using his body against his own fellow kin like a flesh born breaking ball until either the mask of its body gave in to the punishment.
Even as she pleaded for them to stop
They did not listened to her..
Even as she somehow managed to cut one down after another to her surprise in swift and clean cuts that separated both flesh and bone like they were made of butter much to her astonishment and horror….they did not stop coming.
They kept coming
They kept throwing themselves at her…
And dying
Frost flowed through her veins as she stomped the ground with her boot, the kinetic energy that could create a small crater spreading the accumulated elemental cryo power through the pools of blood around her, freezing them in a heartbeat...and anyone and everything caught standing on them. Leaving behind eerily well made statues of once living beings., before she smashed them to pieces.
And those were the lucky ones…
So...looking at the desolation around her it was no wonder that at a certain point something broke inside of her. Also...for some reason she had found that tent poles made for excellent spears for impalement. With how there were it was like shooting fish in a barrel...or harpoons the size of a one floor house in this case.
Slowly, as heart throbbed painfully in her chest with each step taken forward, she tilted her head up to meet the group of four "beasts" that she had got stuck at the other end of the stick she was clutching alongside her after pulling it off from its original place.
Groaning and weakly thrashing their limbs…, their blood smearing down the pole and her like a gentle dompour...
A rage not her own..
A pride not her own…
All mixed together under these precarious circumstances left nothing but a mud hole of a mess that she could not yet grasp where one started and where the other ended.
But did it mattered? No, no it did not...not when this sight…..soothed her
..
..
..
Gods….what is she now? Vlad the impaler..?
The mirth of her thought was lost to her as she gripped the pole tightly and threw it aside like trash and continued to slowly move through the ruined remains of the camp. Stepping over still twitching bodies without a care in the world. When one dying soul grabbed her by the leg she merely threw a shard of ice at its chest almost by reflex, sending it back in a loud thud
She tried to wipe away the blood from her face….yet the only thing she managed to do was smear it more. Cursing her luck she desisted in such endeavour.
However, it was then that she noticed something.
Or...someone
A smile warping on her lips, yet the looks in her eyes betrayed the lack of warmth in the act.
A murderous glint in her eyes as the pupils dilated to the size of pins.
Her fist clenching so tightly that the metal of her blade protested.
"Ah...there you are…..rat"
The seething tone of her voice was like a whip as her eyes could not move an inch from the figure of the one responsible to land her ass in this place in the first place who was trying to crawl away from her. The blood-trail pouring from its missing leg showing that it had been one of the few to avoid some of the Cryo attacks she had spammed a while ago even if it costed its leg.
Bold….but foolish, not that she cared as she stomped its still remaining good leg into powder, eliciting a loud shriek of agony from him.
[Good, suffer you bastard...]
"I trusted you Jack…."
He tried to swap her away from him with a punch...only for her to grab it and squeeze his limb between her fingers until nothing but paste came out.
"I gave you a cookie..."
It started to cry….but all that she heard were excuses.
"A hug..!"
The rage, anger and sadness in her voice did not stop.
She felt dirty
She felt used…
"And this is how you repay me..? THIS...!?
No answer would come to her…, no words that would managed to clean her conscience from this day or soothe her nerves that she did the right thing And she knew it.
And she hated that.
She hated to want for him to give her an answer to why he did this to her.
To them..
She bit her lip, her face creasing ever more. The weight of the blade in her hand reminded her of its presence, her gaze becoming temporary lost in the blood dripping through its length as a dark thought started circling around her mind, preying on the still raging furnace that her heart had become.
It would be so easy
So simple to ram her blade through him
..
..
But he did not deserve such mercy spoke another voice in her mind.
"You chose the wrong bitch to mess around..."
And with those words she leaned closer to him and grabbed his mask, tearing it off its face and revealing the ugliness beneath.
One that finally matched his interior.
"Suffer you bastard, suffer…." She told him with all the venom she could muster before she broke the mask under her feet and walked away from his broken body, making deaf ears to its cries of shame or how it tried to shield its visage from anything around him.
He deserved this…
For what he did to her
And to everyone else...
Now, the only thing that awaited for her….should be go back home and try to forget under a pillow what happen-She dodged to the side when she felt a shadow loom over from behind her, a second later something heavy struck the ground, hard, dispelling air and dust everywhere in the following shock-wave.
It was such that she had to close her eyes and raise an arm to protect herself from the soil.
"Now what...?"
She cursed, annoyance dripping in her voice at these new found source of aggravation, as the dust started to settle the shape of the culprit behind the attack started becoming clearer until there was no doubt that it was none other than..
Than..
Her eyes widened as she found herself having to tilt her head up if only to meet the HUMONGOUS thing in-front of her and the house sized Axe it was carnying with it
It had to be more than 18 feet tall...
"Wow….you are a big one..." She muttered as she stared with both fear and awe at what could only be a Mitachurl enter into the fray. Its form clearly similar to its smaller kin, yet the size in the game did not made it justice.
Not one bit.
And oh dear did she not know whether to be happy or afraid of it.
The fire in her blood decided to speak in her stead.
"That must mean you must HUGE GUTS...!
For some reason the creature physically flinched at that. Though...if she could see her own crazed look alongside her form covered in the blood of all of its kin it would have explained a lot of things.
She took a step forward….only for it to step back
And then….it ran away.
..
..
..
She blinked.
Did it…
Did it just bailed on her..!?
..
It had…
It really had
"Hey come back! Hey..!? HEY come back! HEY, get back here! Hello..!?"
She called it out, but it was no use…
Clenched her teeth and for some reason she started sprinting behind it.
"You are the monster, YOU DON'T GET TO RUN AWAY! COME BACK HERE AND SCARE ME!"
º
º….From a hill nearby….º
º
As a member of the Fatui... Archios was used to the sight of strange things.
Weird things
Stupid things
Confusing things
Things…
Perhaps by now the thought of joining the biggest and strongest military organization that Tevat had ever seem in order to avoid dying of starvation on the streets of Snezhnaya was not as appealing as it had once been.
However once thing he had learned by raising on the ranks from mere pawn for target practice to operative was that you never procrastinate at ear reach of your boss unless you wanted to be sent to the next meat-grinder they could find as a "volunteer".
And having a gun in your hands felt good.
So yeah, whatever grievances he had he would rather keep them to himself, which suited the organization just fine.
However, the one thing they never tell you at the recruitment halls is that most of your day is either spent training yourself to death or being bored to death. None of that could have been more true to all the poor saps like him with too much anger for one's own good that were looking for a fight and instead they were thrown in this lame-ass peaceful place called Fontaine.
It was too bright..
The weather fucking sucked
And the food tasted bland in his mouth.
How could other Fatui agents wish to be relocated here went beyond him.
In fact, he would do anything but have someone shooting at him right now, better yet, have somebody for him to punch a hole or twenty into their body's. There was just so many times that a man could patrol over a hill before becoming sick of it.
So... he prayed
He prayed so fucking hard to the archons to send something, a signal of sorts if only to disturb this boring day. He didn't care what it would be as long as it brought something to disturb this meagre boring day. He had never expected his dream to come in the form of his boss taking a stroll into a Hilichurl camp. Or at least….what was possibly meant to be one before its occupants decided to poke at the wrong animal.
Yeah.., he did not need to even try look at the bloody remains through the help of his scope to know which side had won in a one side slaughter.
Now, normally as a grunt having another pair of eyes to watch out ahead for any source of danger even though if said danger was incapable of harming their charges was never a bad idea. If nothing else it was better than staying all day at the barracks, putting a bullet between the eyes of anything that walked was just a bonus.
But it wasn't like there were any remaining targets to shoot at when they all laid in fucking pieces on the soil. Which was quite the bummer…but he had survived worse.
Now, things started to get real interesting when the big boy came to play….perhaps drawn by the sound of fighting or whatever it ran in their primitive heads as it loomed over his boss with that big fucking club over its shoulders.
He wondered how many seconds would it take for its furred face to end up mounted on a wall.
10 seconds?
20...?
One seemed ludicrous….but one never knew with Harbingers.
However the last thing he had expected was that instead of fighting against his boss... it chose to fucking run.
A mindless beast decided to ran.
A creature that towered three times over a person decided to ran from his boss like a little girl.
[Yeah buddy, that ticket sailed, crashed and sunk a fucking long time ago] He thought to himself as he holstered his rifle back on his back
If he had not been so shocked by it he would have been laughing his ass off…..a notion that was only reinforced when his boss the Knave sprinted after it.
He had never known someone with heels could move so fast
That was a Harbinger to you.
Scary
"Should we... try to help?"
The voice of his patrol companion drew reluctantly the attention of the pyro-slinger away from the howling sounds of pain and agony that echoed over the hills towards the hammer loving weirdo that he had tagged along with him today.
He almost had to take a double take on what he had just said.
"Who? The Mitachurl...?"
He asked scathingly, almost making sure to let known his doubts about the cognizance of his companion. And not a moment sooner did another wailing screech of pain echo louder than before from not very far away, making the idiot flinch as if it was his body been the one been torn apart.
"Yeah...dumb question…"
Archios shook his head with annoyance
They really didn't pay him enough to deal with this shit.
With an inward sigh he started to descend from the crest of the hill he had been standing...and walking in the opposite direction from where that poor old bastard was torn apart.
He wanted action, but he was not suicidal enough to bother someone else's kill….
Especially when they were the ones paying him his salary.
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-º…..A few painful minutes later….º-
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"You know….after all the shit you lot put me though for no FRACKING reason….I was kinda expecting a far more epic final battle between mortal and monster..."
She muttered softly, almost a whisper to her own ears even though a tinge of disappointment bled into her words while she started wiping away a small bead of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand before her gaze landed on the now inert body of the Mitachurl.
Her lips twisting a little bit downwards...
"Not such anticlimactic loony toons chase..."
It may be the blood still pumping loudly in her heart from this near death scenario she had been thrown into that had turned fear into thrill.
It could have been that madness had finally claimed her mind and she was just delirious
Whether it was one thing or the other, the truth was that the weight in her shoulders and the way she had become a blood dazed murdering spree maniac that had surely traumatized her even though she was not yet feeling it had somehow been pushed to the side when her mind had become fixated on the mithachurl.
Truth be told, when the bloody thing had appeared she would not lie that a small part of her had been scared shitless, the other…..well, not so much. Still, to say that it was bigger than her would be an understatement.
It was huge!
In fact its hands were as wide if not double the size of her own head. It was a massive tower of muscles and bones with a bad temper and a pair of bull horns to boot, holding a flaming axe that would surely cleave a tree like it was nothing.
That alone should have made any rational minded person ran away
And yet…
And yet the bloody bugger had decided to ditch her off right from the start..! What kind of monster or npc does that...!?
The idea that something so big was afraid of someone as small as her had literally killed her immersion.
The shock had been so great that in a matter of seconds she went from been rightfully afraid for her life…. to be strangely super annoyed and pissed off at such disrespect for a boss battle. It was a strange feeling born deep in her heart, like the very fact that it had turn tail and flight from her was an insult to her character, and so, before she realized she gave chase.
She had been scared of it too but she had not decided to ran for fucks sake!
True, she had been a bit drunk in adrenaline back at the time…
But that did not mean she felt no fear.
…...or perhaps she had been wrong
As much as she hated them for what they had forced her to do… of the fact that their blood was still dripping down her body and clothes as if she had taking a fucking bath on their guts…., dealing with the mobs had been a flash of excitement and adrenaline that had intoxicated her heart like the sweetest of drinks now that the dread and guilt had washed away enough to not be so noticeable in her thoughts.
Yeah…
She had to be delusional to be even contemplating the thought that anything good had come from this…
She did not need the reminder of her stomach churning inside of her to reminder of that ugly truth, of what she had done. Killing was killing, no matter what form it took it just felt wrong, she was wrong….wrong to feel a slight sense of accomplishment from the entire ordeal, that a part of her felt satisfied with this aftermath. It was sickening...and yet, she could not help but want to cling to that feeling that felt pleasant to her.
Desperation or need it was better than to believe she was a monster instead of a victim. The amount of times those thoughts ran in her head trying to rationalize what she had done to make it right in her eyes could not be overstated.
..
..
..
"And so….here I am now. Scoffing at the corpse of the big guy as if it could hear me yet..."
Yeah, she was definitely leaning into the crazy talk.
Looking at the body she could only shake her head in disappointment, at who? She did not know, perhaps herself. It had yet to disappear in a puff of smoke like the others had, though perhaps that probably was because each and every npc body was not the same, with their own kirks and things.
Thinking about it, it….kinda reminded her of a zombie bite...? Ok, bear with her this idea. Some people turned in seconds, other lasted days, surely this was working on the same rules.
"I mean….it should be like that..."
This was total uncharted territory.
It would be weird for it to be the other way around, but anything could go for all she knew.
Pondering about the absurdity of it all made the utter mess of her mind to be pushed to a side burner. Her eyes slid down his botched form, ignoring the spots where dark blood oozed still from the graphic wounds of its body into the grass below, noticing the sporadic spams of fingers trying to grasp onto something that was not actually there from nerves that were not yet dead enough to finally stay still.
It should have scared her.
It totally should have made her stomach churn at the soft, yet still audible sound of blood leaking out.
But whether it was the fact that it was not human at all, had tried to kill her or just the adrenaline still pumping on her veins it did not. In fact, she felt a sense of...pride and satisfaction.
Strange, wasn't it?
However, given her previous near heart attacks from her meeting with the Ludex and Petronila, and the near feeling of helplessness of feeling so small among such important characters without previous preparation...having a moment to stroke her own horn was probably not that bad.
"At least no one had gotten hurt because of it..."
..
"Ok, no one that mattered had gotten hurt..."
Besides, it at least had shown her that she was not a damsel in distress and could actually defend herself if push came to shove instead of just posturing and use words.
Yeah, that may not sound like much, she was a Fatui Harbinger for fucks sake after all.
Top of the top.
Cream the la cream.
The Boss girl.
And perhaps many more of those silly titles and all that came from been a member of the evil side of a fantasy world. However, knowing was not seeing. Reading a book of how to make a plate did not made you and expert at cooking.
And now?
Now she knew, now she knew she was a god damn baddass!
However, as those jubilant thoughts crossed her mind and she started to laugh for some reason like one of those anime cool villainess with a hand underneath her chin her eyes that had continued to gaze at the fallen Mitachurls body ended up their trip on the cheap, dirty piece of loin cloth the creature wore between its legs.
It was a simple rag
Nothing fairly noticeable or interesting even though it was its only piece of clothing he and the others wore in their monstrous forms if she were to ignore the amount of human clothing they had stole prior. Its colours already worn down either by time or grime that had gotten stuck to it so it was hard to know what it had previously been.
It almost made her question if it was a game mechanic that the Hilichurls and their cousins seemed capable of creating camps, fortresses, weapons and armours of sorts...why they seemed ignorant about fashion? Well, not this lot she had stumble on..but she was sure they were an oddity and the rest of the species were not as obsessed with such vexation.
"Ok, perhaps that was not exactly fair in hindsight..." She muttered
Hilichurls were monsters…., these things were not supposed to be "smart" like a person perse, they were more akin to goblins from a certain series that tried to emulate in some way after a far more brutal work of a particular "black sword man" with severe anger issues.
Simple, primitive, yet with a small knack for simple things.
Could they communicate, the answer to that would be yes...at least as far as the game was believed to be, though she had her doubts whether they all could or even wanted.
That did not explain why every single one of them wore matching loincloths though. Her face creased in confusion at that little detail.
How was that even possible? Did each and everyone of them stole from the same shipment of clothes and decided to share it with the tribe? No, screw that, how did the loincloth disappeared with them when they turned into a puff of smoke..!?
It made no sense
None
The only thing that came to mind as an explanation was that they were born with it, and as such, when they were vanquished that too disappeared along with them.
...
..
.
A small droplet of sweat slid down behind the scalp of her head. Yeah, a pretty stupid explanation if you thought about it for more than two seconds. Too bad that she did not had any better explanation for it though.
She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment from all these nonsense.
"Anyway…, what is it with having loincloths? Aren't you lot covered in fur anyway..? You couldn't have more hair even if you asked.." She said as she put her hands on her hips, a frown appearing on her features.
If there was a definite way to describe these creatures apart from their peculiar mask was the mass of unshaven, untaken care off ball of hair that literally seemed to pop up from their collarbone, covering everything to their arms and chest in black fur….and that was without taking into account the legs and thighs and hips!
Perhaps it was Hoyo reminding the world that the Hulks indestructible pants were a thing even in anime.
A silly rule that had become a meme as the years went by.
Love it
Hate it
The Hulks pants would always follow you.
..
..
..
Unless...
"Wait...could it be...there is ACTUALLY something underneath..!?"
She could not help but gasp at the implication. It was something as ludicrous as someone telling you he was the son of Vegeta from an alternative timeline or finding a 40K orc sitting in the golden throne.
It was by all means a stupid thing to consider…...so why was she not walking away from this?
Was it because she believed that given the madness that was her life now this too would b-She rose a hand to her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. "No, no, don't think about it…..surely there are more important matters than...that" She muttered through her teeth, annoyed at how inappropriate her imagination was at times. What she needed to do now was just go back to the House and take a long, calming shower.
Too bad that her eyes were still glued on the Mitachruls lower hip.
With a body that big…the parts surely had to-
"...I mean…..it could be anything" She faked a cough, feeling a warmth spreading on her face that surely not the blood from her latest victim in her "self-defence"
Yeah..
Perhaps there was nothing…
There was no need to be so worried about something like this at all, right?
Her legs decided for her as she moved closer to the body.
One step
Two steps..
Three steps..
By the time she stopped only the length of her arm remained to separate her from it. Even when down on its back, the sheer thickness of its body reached well above her knees.
Her eyes continued to be glued at the hidden spot of its crotch. It was like the Schrödinger cat dilemma, whatever she was "clearly" not thinking existed down there would not exist until she decided to brave on and take a look for herself to confirm that it "indeed" did not exist.
It was easier said than done though...especially given that this time around it was not a cat what she was trying to find out whether if it existed or not but an actual dong. Also, were Hilichurls monsters that existed previously in Tevat before Khaneria or were they all the people that were turn by the cataclysm..?
It was hard to remember right now which one was the right answer.
Were there any though..?
Not knowing, she slowly knelt to its side, clenching her hands and biting her lip. The stench of something that had not taken a bath in several lifetimes making her stomach churn, but it was not enough to deter her as thing, graceful fingers shyly moved forward and almost fearfully took a good grasp of the dirty rag.
S-she should not be doing this.
It….it was immoral!
So wrong, so wrong in so many things…
Those were some of the thoughts that were going in her mind, but hey, in for a penny in for a pound right? After all, why should she write a line in the sand about peeking but not about down right genocide..? It would be a bit hypocritical in her part if she did.
That did not mean that she was sick in the head.
What? Y-you don't belie me? How dare you...!?
She-she wasn't a pervert a-alright!? She just...she just wanted to make sure to see if such a thing was r-real or not and not just the horny, hot steamed product of a dirty imagination born from a few artist on the internet which a near death situation had temporally given her free reign to wander without inhibitions
It was and experiment for science, surely a lot of girls had wondered about this too one day.
She was just doing her duty as a good citizen to find out for the betterment of Tevat.
Y-yeah..
For science…
And with a final prayer to ask for forgiveness….she pulled the cloth up.
..
And then drop it.
The world would never know, but there was an intense mix of emotions running amok behind the depths of her eyes as the heat on her cheeks that had turned redder than her hair started to die out.
Bafflement
Shame
Relief
Disappointment..
Of all the things in the world
Of all the strangest thoughts and ideas one could have come across.
The idea that Hilichurls had to be the cousins of nier automata androids had never crossed her mind. Why? Because the lot of them were fucking Ken dolls!
"Dammit! All those wise pieces of literature LIED to me..!"
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A/N
grifman275 :
I did say that I was planning to include into the story side-stories that are short 1 chapters about things either fun or smut or whatever comes to mind about events that take place at one particular moment in time but never truly addressed when in the story (left for one to more or less pinpoint when they think happened).
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Oh, don't worry. The dad jokes are only the beginning, no mortal or archons will be spared!Funny enough I made an avengers reference in a snippet with Signora that no one seemed to take notice..huh
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Forget the Traveller, Yae and Bena working together will be the Shoguns true enemy.
Like Human Torch and Spiderman trolling poor Ben.
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She almost got goblin slayered….but it really puts into perspective how much of a beast Arle is going to be given that a fully grown creature of the abyss could barely put a cut a finger deep in her shoulder with a huge scythe
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The vacation idea seems interesting, it could serve as a break off the situation in Fontaine and the Fatui if only for a brief moment before everything goes wrong again.
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I also had an idea of using the song Emberfire in the story, including it in two chapters, one wholesome and other bitter. I will let your imagination come up with theories of what context they will take place :)