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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerulean_Wings" data-source="post: 5203787" data-attributes="member: 55060">Here's an update, in which things complicate even more for our poor Aghemer. I'll admit that combat scenes aren't my strength, but I believe that the more I write 'em, the better I'll get with them. Please bear with me here...---Dan stopped faking his snores after a while and stayed quiet long enough to make sure the monster lay still. He hadn't been able to get enough poison from his buddy close to town, but apparently it was enough to make the big guy next to him pass out. For how long, only the Goddess knew, and Dan wasn't going to risk it, no sir, and he made it outside his cabin without making too much noise. It was midnight, but it made no difference to the blind man. He found his way just fine like he had done so in the past countless times, and reached the meeting place, a small clearing in the forest. Six men armoured in studded leathers waited there, all strong and skilled in the use of the weapons they carried, blades of all kinds. One of them was taller than the rest, almost seven feet, and wore a distinctive helmet with two horns on top, along with a large two-handed morning star on his back. They all shared one thing in common: red tattoos all over their skin, especially their faces, giving them a savage look."It was about damned time, Danny," one of the men said dryly, leaning against a tree, arms folded. "We were told to meet you here at midnight, and there you go making us wait. Us Blood Wolves don't like waiting, Danny, funny you'd forget that." The others shook their heads and "tsk"ed in feigned disappointment. They were all in their thirties, save for the tall one, who had an extra decade. Old man Dan's hands shook a bit, and he clasped them together."I-I needed to make sure it was asleep!" he protested lamely. "It would've killed me if it had noticed me leaving - I don't think it's that dumb.""Neither are we, old man," the warrior with the horned helm spoke. "We're not gonna charge you a penny for this deal if the monster we heard about just happens to be sleeping in your home - we can probably sell the thing's corpse for enough money to retire early. But if it turns out you lied to us, or even worse, that the monster is ready to fight..." he said, letting the threat hang in the air. The other five gave deadly glances at the old man. Dan shivered, recalling stories of people who had crossed the Blood Wolves. He raised his palms in an attempt to calm them. "No! No-no-no, nothing of the such will happen, I swear to you! The creature - whatever it is - should still be sleeping soundly with the poison I put in the food. If your band goes now, he'll be done for."The Blood Wolves shared looks that revealed little of what they were thinking, and then five heads turned in unison to face their leader. He looked at his men in the eye, one by one, and then punched his open palm in front of him. "Let us hunt," he said, like he had always done before a fight.---The very first thing I did when I awoke was throw up, right on Dan‘s bed. I wanted to blame the food I had eaten, or possibly my stomach, which was unused to it, but my instincts told me otherwise. Old man Dan had given me a lot of food in a basket that he hadn’t had before, and barely ate any himself. And after a quick glance around the cabin, I could see no trace of him. “Bastard,” I swore under my breath, wiping my mouth clean of vile, and stood up in a crouch. Or at least I tried, for a wave if nausea hit me hard and I almost fell on my behind. The cabin wasn’t quite spinning, but my vision blurred a bit. I could see from the window it was completely dark outside, so some hours had gone by. Since I had been poisoned (again, in less than a week), I could safely assume Dan would be back with reinforcements. Whether they would be enough to threaten me or not was besides the point - I didn’t need more battles. The decision to flee from before things got any worse was taken from my hands when I heard the distinctive footsteps of four to seven humans coming towards the cabin.Well. I wasn’t going to just run again; the more witnesses I left alive, the more chances I could be found again, or to have others alerted of my presence. The last thing I wanted right there and then was a bounty on my head. Hm. I wonder how much a big city would offer for someone like-damn it, I need to focus. There was little time, and if I wanted to pull off a counter-attack, I needed to think fast.I looked around the room for ideas, and when my eyes found my sack, I smiled. ---“Darius and Vikke, you two head inside,” the Blood Wolves’ leader said in a low voice without ceremony, and the mercenary pair did so without question. They were all positioned right outside the cabin without a single source of light - they didn’t need one, after all. As the pair prepared to enter by the door, the rest of the band readied their weapons and entered battle stances. The burly Alpha Blood Wolf swung his heavy morning star around to warm up his muscles, the weapon’s head moving too fast for something that heavy.After Darius had listened carefully against the door, and heard only deep breathing, he signalled to Vikke, who opened the door slowly and snuck a glance inside. The place looked fine, except for the thing covered in several sheets on the floor, next to the old man’s bed. There was also some foul-smelling stuff on the bed, but they didn’t care too much about it. The monster wasn’t moving, and that was good enough. Vikke made a hand gesture to the leader to indicate all was well, and he nodded for them to proceed. The two men readied their axes to strike the creature down in one swift attack, and stepped closer and closer in complete silence, stalking their prey like their namesake. Once they got close enough, both men raised their axes and made them descend in unison over the creature’s head, splitting it nearly in half.Or at least that’s what they had intended to do, for the creature had different plans.---I rose with a mighty roar that shook the cabin momentarily, swinging my fist at both warriors from right to left. To their credit, they jumped back in the nick of time, despite looking completely shocked at my sudden attack. I would be shocked by my reaction, too, if I hadn’t taken one of the antitoxins I brought with me, courtesy of Enizu. Only one more in my sack, now.“It’s fighting back!” one of them shouted, and the other swung at me horizontally with the axe to cut at my ribcage. I sidestepped, nearly crashing against the wall on my right, only to notice that it had been a feint that allowed the pair to flee the cabin. So these men knew how to fight… this pleased me greatly. If I was going to fight, at least it would be a challenge. I heard faint sounds of multiple feet moving outside the cabin, and then nothing. I flexed my muscles, cracked my neck a couple of times, and headed outside, actually bothering to use the door.The night was fresh and cool, the perfect weather for a fight. Much to my surprise, there wasn’t a single fire outside. Not that it bothered me and my darkvision, but it made me reconsider my earlier assessment of these human warriors; were they going to fight blindly? I had expected them to be in a semicircle right outside the door, and attack me all at once, but there wasn’t anyone in sight. Maybe they thought better of attacking a very much alive Aghemer, and fled. I was quite surprised when a considerable weight fell on my shoulders from behind and nearly made me go down. The human’s arms went for my neck, attempting to strangle me, and partially succeeded. I tried shaking my body in quick, jerking movements, but he wasn’t letting go. So I reached for his skinny human arms with my own hands to throw him off. That’s when he let go of my neck and two of his companions rushed me from either side, weapons drawn and ready. Where the hell they had come from, I wasn’t sure. They were both fast and stealthy, something that I hadn’t expected humans to be able to master so well. It wasn’t anything on the level of Irmella or her followers, not by a mile, but it had caught me off-guard, and I was going to pay for it. The flanking duo attacked me with practiced coordination, and I had to choose which of them would hit me - I couldn’t avoid both. I sidestepped while facing one, and the other’s blade bit into my back. It wasn’t a deep cut, thanks to my hide, but they could wound me. The third warrior, the one who had jumped on me, slashed at my leg, leaving a long and thin wound that made me grit my teeth. I was surrounded by a trio of experienced fighters, and there were more out there, waiting for their turn. I needed to change things, and quickly. The three surrounding me started moving sideways, circling me to find the best way to attack. So I leaped forward to the nearest one and broke into a run, turning my body to the side. The man didn’t see the bull-rush coming, and he went flying six feet horizontally before landing on the ground. My leg hurt from the movement, but I could manage.“We need all of us!” one of the warriors cried out, not in fear, but in understanding. Nothing cowardly about realizing one is at a disadvantage, in my book. From the dark forest, two more figures appeared, armed similarly to the three I was fighting. Five, in total. This was going to be bad for them in the short term, bad for me in the long term. I couldn’t let them surround me again - I rushed to the nearest tree, gave it a hug, and lifted like I had never lifted before. Uprooting a mature tree turned out to be harder than I had expected, but I managed to do it before the humans got close enough. Oh, the look on their faces, when they realized I was about to swing at them with more than ten feet of solid wood. It wasn’t the easiest thing to aim, but I didn’t need to; with one horizontal attack I knocked down two of them, and when the rest rushed me, thinking me unprotected, I swung back the other way, faster than they had expected, and smashed into the remaining trio. What can I say, I’ve the strength of my mother and father. The humans were down for the moment, hopefully more hurt than stunned, and all I could hear were groans of pain and curses thrown in my direction. I couldn’t really do the tree-swing trick all night, so I let my trusted weapon fall to the ground with a mighty thump. Time wasn’t on my side - if I let them recuperate from the attack, I would be back where I started. A short run took to me the nearest human, who was still prone, clutching his torso with both hands, breathing with great difficulty. His eyes went wide when he saw my foot descending on his face.One down. There was another man nearby, getting to his feet. He wasn’t in fighting condition, I could tell after piercing his neck with my claw when I walked by. Three to go. One bastard came at me from a bush, hidden until that very moment, and managed to land his sword on my shoulder. That actually hurt, so I snatched his arm and flung him against a tree next to me, his yelling ending on the collision. There were two more humans out there, probably considering whether to fight or flee. I needed to find them quickly before they went for the latter and complicated my life any more.“Die, monster!” The war cry came from two opposite sides as the remaining warriors charged me. They looked better than the others, despite the hit they took from the tree, and well enough to give a good fight. And a good fight they gave me: a minute later they were both on the ground, one with his chest crushed, the other with his neck snapped. In exchange, my body sported five more cuts, each deep enough to slowly bleed. It wouldn’t be lethal if I found a place to rest and took care of them, so I went back to the cabin, satisfied by the night battle. In front of the cabin was a man much bigger than the rest, wearing a horned helmet that set him apart. He carried a heavy morning star on one hand, the head resting atop his shoulder. On the other he had my sack. "Looking for this?" he asked, his voice surprisingly not condescending, but casual. I nodded slowly after a moment, and he dropped it two feet to his left. The man had the look of a seasoned veteran, someone who had fought for years, if not decades, and thrived in the field of battle. I respected that."You killed my men," he said, his voice even. I nodded once more. His eyes were analyzing me from foot to head, considering the extent of my wounds, my energy, and my combat prowess. "You don't seem as... hostile as other creatures I've slain in the past," he said, almost to himself. I shrugged - what was there for me to say? The veteran let his weapon’s head fall to the ground while holding on to the shaft."If taking your head back to the city wasn't worth a house and a half, I'd let you go. But it is. So now I need to finish what my men started. This is survival, I'm sure you can understand that."I did. It was his survival versus mine. Only the stronger would make it, and the loser would become carrion food. No regrets for either. I really liked this human, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. He gripped his mace with both hands and entered a battle stance. "I'm Ulunay, the Alpha of the Blood Wolves.""Aghemer," I said simply as I spread my legs wider and lowered my waist, hands to the sides. We stared at each other for ten seconds, and then we charged at exactly the same time. Ulunay swung his morning star as I threw a straight punch. My chest exploded with pain when the spiked head hit me with a sickening crunch, and my fist twisted his head to the right when it hit its side. There was a one-second pause for us to assess our respective injuries; one of his eyes was swollen shut, and his jaw didn't seem to be in place anymore. As for me, breathing became a conscious and very much painful affair - blunt weapons don't care a lot for my tough hide, and the bones inside caved in to the pressure.And then we were at it again. Ulunay swung first, I blocked the attack with my arm, and countered with my other one to punch his stomach. He twisted his body so that I merely clipped his ribs, and spun in a tight circle, bringing the heavy morning star along with frightening speed. I reacted too slowly, and the weapon got me squarely in the shoulder, nearly dislocating it. I threw another punch at his face using my good arm, this time very sluggishly, which he dodged easily, and came at me once more with the morning star in a horizontal swing to my ribcage. Ulunay had fallen for my feint. I changed my hand’s trajectory and gripped one of his arms, stopping his attack, and allowing me to step forward and head butt him on the face. He grunted, sounding distant, and stumbled back several steps. Good grief, this human was tough. Most beings I assaulted like that had their skulls break instantly. I stood my ground, observing Ulunay's unsteady movements; he seemed on the verge of collapse, but showed no interest in doing so. His one good eye told me the message his mouth wasn't able to give:"It's not over, Aghemer."This was it, the final round. I had one arm to end the battle with, and Ulunay had his face nearly crushed. We charged again, as if our injuries had been passing dreams, small pittances that bared no paying attention to, and exchanged blow after blow, grunting and growling like beasts. And as quickly as it had started, it ended, and Ulunay collapsed to the ground, unable to push his body anymore. I limped over to him and knelt down to reach his neck with my mouth, and bit hard, ending his life.I wasn't sure how to feel, having just killed the one human who understood me. Now I had to find a place where to rest, so that my injuries would mend. Ulunay had managed to injure my leg, and moving with only one is harder than you think, and I made it to my sack after half a minute, even though it was barely ten feet away. With my sack in hand, I considered my next move, and found it difficult to concentrate thanks to the pain in my whole body. The cabin was out of the question; too many corpses in the area, and that damned old man was still around. Sigh. If I didn't find him soon, he would tell even more mercenaries to come after me. I needed to hide, and moved slowly but surely away from the cabin, feeling less stable and conscious with every passing second.In my daze I didn't notice the abrupt hill in front of me. I went down, hard, and landed at the bottom some twenty feet later. Damn it all, I couldn't get up with one good arm and leg. My breath escaped me, and I couldn't get it back. Darkness began to claim my vision, and sensation faded from my body.I almost died that night. But when I think of everything that happened to me in the surface world since that day, I almost wish I had.</blockquote>

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