Burned Circle - ThirdWizard's Dresden Files Game

Keira

“I will. Promise.”

Then Keira turns to Logan:

“Did you see that, too? Guess it's best we go take a look, right?”

While she speaks, the young woman is already on her way to the door.

Logan nods to Mara, then focuses on the glass door as he spots the shadow. He grunts at Keira's question and levers his large frame up from his seat. "Mara, get somewhere safe. I've got a bad feeling all of a sudden." Maybe he was overreacting, but it never hurt to be too safe. He follows Keira to the door, eyes and ears on high alert.

The ghoul snarls, throwing the bat across the room where it strikes the wall and clatters to the floor. He curls his claws in front of him. "As you humans say, It is the hard way," is his response.

Without another word and in an instant ghoul barrels forward at Juno. Ghouls are supernaturally fast, and this guy is no slouch. Whatever the effect of the threshold is on the creature, its barely slowing it down as its claws slice through the air toward Juno, who barely has time to duck underneath, catching the ghoul's bony wrist against the top of her head. It isn't enough to inflict any real damage, but it knocks her back a bit and stings like Hell. As she manages to straighten herself up, the ghoul is so close she can smell it's breath - a putrid smell of spoiled meat. It stares her straight into her eyes as it prepares another onslaught, nothing but rage and hunger behind its own eyes.

There was still a little corner of Juno's mind that panicked with disbelief when something like this happened. Since her blood had awakened, she'd fought more than one terror from beyond...some more successfully than others...but she hadn't quite gotten used to it. The confidence she projected was still partially swagger.

But she'd learned, fast. Most critters from the nightside had one big exploitable weakness, and that was overconfidence. With her it usually lasted exactly one punch. So she tried to make that one punch count.

Heat flowed out from her heart through her veins like molten gold; a faint echo of the legacy of the warrior-kings of old. Her gift was still young within her. Even so, her uncle had helped focus it in conjunction with her athletic pursuits. It was very much a power of the body.

Even with her head still ringing a bit from the blow, Juno moved with the precision of long practice, shoving the ghoul's oversized arm up and out of the way with her left forearm, then driving her right hand, palm-forward, into its center of mass with all the strength at her command. For an instant as the blow landed, there was a suggestion of a light around her, like an aura. The impression of a jaguar overlaid over her, its spots dotting her arms and face. Blink and you'd miss it.

The force of the strike knocked the ghoul backwards and air came rushing out of its lungs. It staggered for a moment, then recovered. The hate in its glare had somehow magnified, but was tempered now by something else. Not fear, exactly, but a reassessing.

Juno locked eyes with it and put her hands out to guard again.

"I dunno...doesn't seem too hard so far."

Malcom was surprised by the surging speed of the Ghoul and couldn't help but feel he had understimated the creature. the blade in his hand moved quickly, slashing down at the creature on the ground after its claws grazed Juno across the top of her head.

The sudden movement had thrown off Malcom's aim, and his blade cut nothing but air as it sailed harmlessly past the Ghoul. Malcom cursed under his breath. The threshold that was grounding some of his magic either wasn't effecting the ghoul or not slowing him down fast enough for a conventional fight.

He could remember his father's words ringing through his head as he brought his sword back around. Malcom's face stiffened with resolve as he brought the blade back to a defensive position.

Rule one: Wizards Cheat.

Keira

“I guess I don't need to tell you to be careful...” Keira remarks, as she opens the sliding glass door and heads outside.

Stopping just a few steps after, her keen eyes scan the dark street for whatever dangers lie ahead.

"Nope. But reinforcement never hurt." The half-ogre heads out the door with Keira, keeping an eye out, but he's definitely more focused on what's going on next door...

The second ghoul hid himself outside among the pine trees, watching and waiting. He had just patrolled the back yard for any more investigators, but it looked like there were only four total. That wouldn't be a problem. He licked his lips. Perhaps after they learned all they could from the humans they would eat them. There was no harm in that. He was hungry after all.


As the two others come out of the back door of Mara's house there is the scream of the ghoul's partner, his facade ripped away by the threshold of the mortal. A fight is on. With a seething anger, the ghoul rushes forward at the man in the rear, attempting to take him by surprise. Just as the ghoul is about to rip into his head, however, Logan's ears prick up and he turns around at the last moment. Eyes wide he almost subconsciously thrusts his hammer between himself and the ghoul, enough to save him.

While Logan is shielded from the full force of the blow, he can feel the power of the stroke through the haft of the weapon reverberate through his arms to his body and knock him back several feet. The ghoul jumps back a half step, crouching down and ready to pounce again. He expected shorter work than this. Interesting. "Perhaps this prey will be more fun than expected," he addresses the two more as food than sentient beings. A smile spreads along his face, teeth exposed.

Logan grunts as the strength of the blow drives him back. "Oh, yeah, Ugly. We'll be tons of fun." He lifts the sledgehammer and steps forward with a heavy strike coming for the ghoul, but is a bit too slow to catch the monster.