The Hunt
(Based on in-game events, keeping the others identities secreted lest they wish otherwise can express such in PMs)Valiant followed the man and the woman into the mouth of the cave, they seemed innocent and unsuspecting and weak enough to strike. They spoke cryptically which further piqued Valiant’s interest, the man telling the woman not to speak anymore upon entering. It was a pain sticking to the shadows whilst following them down the winding and criss-crossing web-work of lichen-encrusted tunnels.
Eventually, the dark man settled into the shadows directly behind where the altar and the pair were huddled over. The air was thick and musty in this particular patch of cave and it took alot of effort not to breathe heavily. Some sort of sermon.
“I am his servant and he blessed me with his presence.” The man with black, inky tattoos smearing his face said.
“And he blessed me with life, what difference does it make.” She replied.
“I will not make myself subject to a man.”
Valiant scratched his bald pate, perhaps she was in trouble. . . bah what difference did it make. He shoved the vigilante part of himself deeper into the burning void inside himself.
“It makes a big difference! We, malarites, must stay together and grow strong if we want to prevail.”
Valiant: “I have a better solution. You help me rob this man and I won’t make you a hacked-up corpse like he is soon to be if he resists.”
“Then respect me as an equal, I will not stoop down because a man said so--is this the one who hides in shadows?”
“That is the one. He chose his moment to part with his life.”
“Why have you come?” She asked.
“The least I could do for him.” The man chuckled evil.”
“I am Valiant the Mad. Heed what I say, I have little time for considerations and my gold supply runs thin.”
“You were foolish to come after me.” Tattoo-man said, violence already creeping into his hate-filled voice.
“Why would I listen to a mad man?” She tried another question.
“It appears there is not just one mad man in the room,” Valiant said.
“I am the predator! I am the one who stalks!” The man screamed with authority.
“I’m afraid your mistaken,” blood rising in Valiant’s cheeks.
“Why did you bring me into your quarrels, hunter?” She turned to look at the hunter.
“And I did let you to come here. . .To sacrifice a worthy prey to my Lord.”
Valiant’s eyes widened, “Where’s the money?!”
“Run and make me chase you or die where you stand.” The man’s voice.
Valiant brought out his scrollcase and used a few magics before stopping dead in his tracks. The two were shape-changers, the man transforming into a powerful, brown dragon and the female a huge, vicious-looking bear, fangs all salivating. The bear roared loudly, standing on her feet.
Valiant had seen enough and started to flee, “SCREW THIS!”
Valiant pounded down the tunnel but sharp flame needles punctured into his back, he twisted his ankle reactively and could only totter. He could not see the bear but still heard it’s roar.The dragon was right on his heels, even when he disappeared into shadows the dragon was nosing his scent, was on the threshold of seeing him. . .
More fire burst into his back and chest and arms and he fell over, unable to move as sudden sleep fell over him.
“Bring him to the altar.” The man’s voice cutting through the darkness.
She nodded and grabbed him by the arms to drag him. As he was dragged his face was clubbed against the ground repeatedly.
“A hunter that fails deserves his blood to be spilt. So this is what this is for, offering in praise to our lord? Those that defile us. ” Her voice was cold and cruel.
“To show the Beast Lord that we are not the prey. Place him on the altar.” The man said in turn.
She tried lifting but had trouble lifting the heavy man; dropping Valiant and cuffing his eye alongside the hard edge of the altar.
The man grew frustrated, “Wrr. . . I will do it myself.”
A silence. The man tried and failed. “Mind you helping me out! Or your just gonna watch me trying!”
She lifted Valiant at the legs and with effort they eventually placed Valiant on the altar.
The man kneeled and broke into speech: “It’s for you. . . my Lord. . . I couldn’t get that sword you wanted. . . I failed and will repay my mistakes till the end of my life.”
Valiant stirred, agony and pain shot up through his arms and legs, a broken and miserly thing, half-alive.
The man looked at Valiant, checked for a pulse. “Hmm? Fantastic. . . He is alive! Little Bear!”
“Yes?” The woman asked.
“Give him the pain he has never felt before.”
Valiant let out a croaking cough, eyes breaking into realization of his situation as he struggles--too weak to move.
The man’s voice was full of sadistic desire, “Slowly untill he fades into darkness.”
“If I am to do it, I would simply slit his throat.”
“Rip his blooded skin off him.”
“Ah. Slice him entirely open?”
“That is not the way of our Lord!”
Valiant managed to give his thought sound, “Wait.”
“Hush fool,” She snapped.
“I can be of. . . assistance. I know things.”
She quickly drew a knife from her side and stabs him in the palm. “I said to quiet yourself.”
The man’s voice ringing in Valiant’s ear now, Shh. . .you will know nothing but the pain. . .”
Valiant lets out a howling like a wolf and bites down hard on his jaw.
“Our Lord teaches us brutality and bloodiness of the beasts.”
“ Now, how is this to be done your way,” She inquired.
“More! More of this! I want to see him looking at his own ripped flesh!”
Valiant merely stared in disbelief. . . despair. . . loss. . . anger all flashing across his expression.
“Be the claw of Malar, young bear!”
“He has armor on, what do you expect me to do.”
“Grr. . let your anger fill your body. Rip him apart!”
“But I have no anger against this man.”
The hunter shook his head in disbelief at that.
Valiant looked up hopefully a moment.
“Do it! It is the necessary sacrifice.”
Valiant thought the man sounded more like a barking dog.
The woman seemed to be agreeing, “If it is to please He who guarded me.”
Valiant hacked out a dark mass of blood, his armor charcoaled pretty good the dragon’s fire earlier.
The woman roared viciously, with patches of hair sprouting out of her skin, she drops the knife, as she grows in size, and inhumane. She drops to the ground on all fours, finally shaping into a bear.
The hunter, the man with wild, inky-black tattoos began to laugh maniacally. “Ahahaha. That’s right, little bear!”]
She slams her paws on the man’s neck and chest to keep him still as she feasts upon him. Valiant tried to grab the bear’s jaw but his right elbow cracks and a bone juts out at an odd, terrible angle and his hand is crushed thoroughly.
She began to claw at his face. Red lines fill his face and he seems almost past the point of screaming now. . .
She soon phases back to a human, her mouth full of blood and flesh, she coughs heavily. She looks down at the grisly mess. At the murder she had just committed.
She looks at her fellow hunter and asks, “Is that enough?”