Bound Evil

The loose dirt around them shook, knocking over crumbling mounds of long abandoned tunnels. The Bruins moved into the space with savage fury, like two cats finding a field of mice. The sweet scent saturated the air stronger than just moments ago.

Even before the Bruins had picked a direction to lumber in, Kael took off on his caramel mount and pulled a barbed spear from his back. Both creatures tracked his position as he separated diagonally from the frontline. With unnatural grace, Kael rose to his full height as he stood on the back of his mount. Neither Bruin moved until Kael launched his spear with unnerving accuracy, causing it to fly overhead and sink into the scales just below the left Bruin’s eye. The high-pitched wail that followed shook the skies and all hell broke loose; the creature lunged after the slender mount at full speed.

Kael remained calm and made a yanking motion causing the afternoon sun to reflect on a wire connecting to the spear briefly. The spear yanked free of its prison in the Bruin’s flesh and hurtled back to Kael’s hand. Yet another scream of pain went up, but now the rider and his mount rushed away pulling the first Bruin deeper into the burrows. The other was about to join the chase when Gerade stepped forward and swung something above his head releasing a large set of bolas.

The distance was far but his aim was on point as the spinning cord cracked into the side of the other Bruin and wrapped itself around its snout causing it to stop and try to shake the projectile off.

With Kael still widening the gap, the two beasts were rapidly separated.

“Now’s our chance! Team two move in!” Marth yelled

This entire maneuver had been hazardous but paid off, in that it separated the Bruins on two fronts.

Marth charged in with his team and collapsed onto the still-flailing creature. Emily swung her legs off Mist’s side, cushioning her landing by bending her knees. Alex glanced back at her and nodded before taking off toward Atticus. Though they were few, Emily had already noticed the odd elf hedging in like vultures from the trees.

Cupcake moved beside Emily as she stared at the furry titan.

Emily could feel she was worried for the pups and wanted to dive in to help them.

“Atta girl, but stay close to me. Only attack if you see a good opening otherwise fall back.”

Emily searched for Ashe but couldn’t see her nearby so she must be with Selia. She did however spot Nox. He was using several rapid hand gestures to call winds around himself and send forward sharp projectiles of air.

Though they had good accuracy their impact left only minor damage to the scales.

Emily could see Marth challenging the Bruin directly with a sword and shield, as though trying to keep its attention while the rest of his men piled on it from the sides. Stabbing and slashing at any opening he could give them.

While their numbers were far greater, Emily could see an immediate problem. Even their strongest of attacks and weapons were doing little damage to the Bruin on the whole.

Unfortunately, Gerade’s bolas gave out at this point unable to handle the expansion of the beast's neck muscles. Freed from the restrain it focused on Marth and lunged forward using its center mass to directly impact his shield. Seeing this coming, a red sheen coated Martha's body and shield. When the two collided there was a concussive sound as Marth’s legs gouged the earth below him.

Emily’s eyes widened he managed to bring the beast to a complete halt, not only that but his sword arm snaked around and plunged into the eye socket. Emily expected a scratch but when the only sound was of metal scraping thick hide she realized the beast had shut its eye and protected the organ from the worst of the damage.

Seeing this Marth disengaged and jumped back.

Emily moved towards the battlefield as she saw Gerade’s wolf bound overhead and land beside the beast.

Even as massive as the Rime wolf was it was like comparing a labrador to a grizzly. However, that didn’t stop it from sinking its fangs into the Bruin’s front leg and tearing it backward at an odd angle. This caused the beast's balance to waver as it crashed to the side. At that range, Gerade threw smaller net-like bolas that seemed to glue themselves to the Bruin’s fur, further restricting the beast's movement.

While it was still struggling against that, Emily began to move her vitality from her chest and condense it in her arm. At this range, she needed something with good speed and the most piercing power she could manage.

Cupcake danced forward and went for one of the beast's hind legs. The majority of the creature's power was loaded into its upper body so the creature screeched at the top of its lungs when it lost another stabilizing limb.

Emily kept her focus on her blood as streams of it began to pour out of her hand and forearms, chased from the pores in her skin, coiling into a long shaft of dense crimson. The spearhead took shape, closely resembling the one Emily had just seen Kael using, and extended to nearly two meters. Emily shoved as much life force into the spear as she could spare. The problem with this technique was that unless she had ample time to charge it up, it left her vulnerable to attacks. But now with people distracting the beast she shaped and hardened her blood to the extreme.

Unfortunately, good things never last. Even with both team leads locking down the Bruin it was far larger than anything here so when it pushed off and tucked into a death roll. There was nothing anyone could do but get out of the way.

Gerade and his wolf jumped away safely but the same could not be said for team two. Three men nearby only managed a scream of horror before they disappeared beneath the Bruin’s large mass and the ground.

Marth shouted for everyone to retreat as he was knocked flying by an errant paw. Cupcake had enough sense to release her hold just before things went to shit, so she managed to dance back and out of the worst of it.

Emily’s spear was now completed but the beast was thrashing around too much to even make out its vital points and the technique was getting harder to control.

“Somebody lock it down!” Emily yelled over the sounds of battle.

Gerade glanced back and spotted her, he clicked his tongue causing the unattended Rime wolves to converge on him.

The moment the Bruin came out of its spin he whistled sharply and his entire group crashed into its right side arresting its movement.

No sooner had its head stopped moving than Emily unleashed her blood spear, which whizzed through the air with deadly intent.

When it hit, it did not make contact with the creature's skull like she’d first intended, but instead sunk directly below that into its neck. Piercing out the other side. She figured the area was likely full of bone and hide, so she aimed for the next best target.

The moment the spear had bored through the scales Emily deployed her blood like the closing of a trap. The spearhead of the attack flared out into the wound anchoring it there. While the base shot down into the ground and sunk into the soil.

Tethering the Bruin to the ground.

The soil was soft from recent events, so Emily had to work fast reeling it in.

Unable to resist being pulled in such a manner the Bruin's head crashed into the dirt as it thrashed about.

Emily widened her stance as her legs sunk into the soil under the weight of the beast.

It couldn’t even scream as she blocked its airways but with the raw power it held it was only a matter of time before the spear ran out of power.

“Kill it now!” Emily ground out as it writhed against her control.

Gerade didn’t need any convincing when his wolf sunk its fangs into the weakened hide around its neck. Making sure the steer clear of the things snapping jaws.

Emily held onto her fraying control as its struggles grew more desperate. If this was anything else she was certain her initial attack would have killed it, but somehow it just refused to die.

It took another two whole minutes for Gerade’s wolves to rip through the throat of the beast and for it to finally die. By the time Emily finally relaxed her control her hands were shaking from the effort. When the light finally faded from the creature's eyes Emily felt a wave of euphoria the likes of which she’d never felt before. The spear had easily used eight blood bolts worth of power but the Bruin’s death made up for that and more. Still managing to fill reserves with tens times what an Elf was normally worth.

Emily swallowed as the warm buzz left her mind. Glancing over for the second threat Emily was greeted with the sight of Kael sitting atop the body of the Bruin. He rested there quietly against his spear as he stared at them. His eyes came to rest on Emily for longer than she liked.

Beneath him, the Bruin looked like a ragged piece of meat with many wholes weeping dark blood.

Emily was first impressed by the sight, but then immediately scowled as she realized she’d not been in range to collect the Bruin’s life force.

Kael closed the distance by hopping onto his mount and returning with group one. Which Emily was now realizing was half the size of the rest of the teams.

As Kael got within earshot his voice rose to shatter the quiet.

“Alright let's get our injured to the Doc. Marth, I need a head count of your men. Atticus see what you can salvage. We’re heading out in ten, no need to hang around”

No sooner had these words left his mouth than the area exploded into activity as the teams scatted to do one thing or another.

Emily was still panting when Kael approached.

“Well I’ll be damned, you weren't lying when you said you can fight. You’ve got a good battle sense. Now I can’t wait to see Alexander put to the test.” As he said this he gazed at the elven corpses littering the ground nearby.

Emily spotted Alex who had moved over to inspect the Bruin corpses and even began cutting away pieces of them.

“What are they doing?” Emily asked without thinking.

Kael hummed.

“Just looking to get the most coin out of our losses.”

Emily glanced over to the area where she’d seen those men disappear under the Bruin. As things went it was a cheap price to pay to take down two of these beasts.

Of the three men that were crushed, Emily had felt only two of them die. The other was still hanging on as Marth carried him over to Healer Yishmal.

As Emily was watching this she noticed Cupcake heading towards her.

Kael watched as the she-wolf plopped herself down next to Emily still panting raggedly.

“I can see why Gerade didn’t say anything about her. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was domesticated from birth. Anyway, I have a lot to do. Good job out there. I look forward to seeing what else you’ve got up your sleeve.”

Emily nodded to the man as he left

“Right old girl, you did a good job out there. How about after this we see if we can’t find time for you to meet the little ones.”

Blood points: 33