Realistic or Modern Bastard's Tale

[Mewmewcatfish]

Rose stepped away from the window as Shaun mentioned keeping the doors shut, grabbing some heavy wood to slam through the door handles. She grunted, moving over to one of the broken windows that was in a lower area. Just as she reached it a Jackal's head popped up, looking to bite what it could get. Rose decked it almost comically as she moved to grab a pew, huffing as she propped it up to block the entry. It was at this point she heard Saxa yell, and pulled out an axe preparing for an ambush when Shisa could be heard from outside. Hearing that she had been bit she looked at Shaun, not sure if these creatures were poisonous or not.

She headed to the window she just blocked and yanked back the pew, hitting the ground with a roll as she pulled out her second axe. The jackal she hit before was waiting and snapped at her ankle, hoping to drag her down. Rose felt his teeth catch on her pants and screamed out in fury, as she kicked the animal away, pulling her axe back to slam it heavy into the creatures back. It crumpled, trying to skitter away in agony. Rose let one more swing fall to end it's suffering before she got back to the task at hand. She peered around the house noting Saxa rushing towards the church. She headed the young girl's way immediately smelling the copper from her now torn up the arm. She yelled at her, "That's one hell of a beauty mark, love! The doors barred, come this way."

She ran over towards the hurt girl and covered her as they ran to the window. She offered assistance to help her through, turning to look at the fence, "Damn creatures are an abomination! Brave girl with that cellar though!"

 

[TheAdept]

Jesse continued shooting the approaching animals as the others secured the church. They hadn't been there an hour and already they were swarmed by enemies. Granted these weren't human enemies, but perhaps they carried more human characteristics than some of the Eastern cannibal tribes. Jesse covered Rose and Shisa as they entered through a window.

"Block all but one window. We will limit entry points and gun them all down." Jesse called to the others. Why were there so many of these creatures? Did the Daimyo, the Impaler, or some other Lord have anything to do with this?

 

[ScalpelsNSaws]

While everybody was fighting in the main hall, Shaun had advanced into the left portion of the church, behind the Priest's altar. There was a doorway without a door which a jackal leapt through at him. Shaun sent it flying back through that doorway with the blast of his shotgun. Shaun saw a flight of stairs going down into a dark area...Shit. Shaun doubled back to the wood fire Ethan was making, grabbing a burning plank and returned to descend into darkness.

He could hear them moving, their jittery Yips and barks echoing off the old stonework. There were many racks limiting his field of view, each mostly bare but there was still a few bottle tops poking out of some. A Jackal ran at him from behind one of there shelves, and Shaun was knocked to the floor by it. He ended up wrestling with the maddened creature, its jaws snapping shut inches from his face repeatedly, but eventually kill in it by driving his Bowie knife through its eye. Shaun righted himself in time to shoot another Jackal that fell through the storm cellar hatch outside, then it snapped shut. He was trapped in the dark, possibly with a Jackal. He could hear one scampering, but couldn't see it. He'd lost his fire, it could be anywhere, and he couldn't see the way back out. It was too dark and the shelves seemed to close in on him.

He felt paws hit his back, knocking him down onto his back. The Jackal was on top of him. It looked down ready to bite him when it... stopped, began sniffing him, growled, and darted away. Shaun saw its silhouette dart past his burning plank back-up the stairs. From down here he could see under the shelves, and the exit. "Why didnt it kill me?" Being the question that dumbstruck him as he felt around for his shotgun, he grabbed the plank and returned to the surface.

 

[Corvid15]

"Thanks. Help, I can't walk, really."

Shisa and Rose made their way inside, Shisa taking them to her room. She had plenty of medical supplies, but she couldn't do anything like this. Her upper arm was torn apart, and her ankle got a good bite too. More broken bones, more pieces of her soul lost.

"Get Shaun. I need help."

Shisa sat down on the floor, taking off her clothes and shoes to make it easier to inspect the wounds. Rose helped her down. Damn, these jackals got her good. The one bite was on her upper arm, but it tore down to her elbow. Her arm was shredded, blood spraying from it. It probably hit an artery. The other one was on her ankle, the jackal had crunched her ankle when she had climbed the fence. She used her shirt to try to stem the bleeding for now, she might bleed out soon. And who knows what kind of diseases those things carried. She was already getting woozy, those things took good chunks out of her. The adrenaline was starting to wear off, the pain setting in.

 

[Mewmewcatfish]

Rose helped Shisa as best she could through the window. Lucky no Jackal got smart with her as she hefted herself inside. Shisa told her where her things were and Rose brought her there. Grabbing some spare blankets to make her comfortable. She sunk down to her knees inspecting the wounds quietly,"Yeah..these are a bit out of my expertise. Keep those blankets on it. I'll be right back."

She paused looking at Shisa with determined eyes,"You are gonna be just fine. I promise."

She patted the girls good leg then went to hunt for Shaun finding him on his ass in the cellar,"You better not be wounded as well. Shisa's pretty ripped up. She needs your help!"

Rose moved down a few steps and saw he was fine thankfully. She noted his questioning face, curious as to what he was thinking. She choose not to ask now, as she brought him to Shisa,"I'll go get you some fresh water, and some cloths."

 

[TheAdept]

"Someone guard this entryway," Jesse ordered as he finished boarding up and blocking entryways, limiting entry to only a single window.
"Shaun will want to see that wound." He said to Shisa. He heard commotion coming from where Shaun went, and figured he may as well help out if there were more jackals.

A shot rang out knocking over a jackal sneaking up on Rose as she walked in. It stood back up with a snarl and a gaping wound in it's cheek. Jesse shot three more times in frustration, blasting it's head to pieces. Then Jesse spotted Shaun on the ground looking confused.

"What the fuck is up with these things?" Jesse asked Shaun "Anyway you want to see Shisa. She got bit."

 

[ScalpelsNSaws]

"Shit, take me to her." Shaun put flatly, taking Rose's hand. He ascended out of the cellar with her and saw Jesse shooting the ever-loving shit out of the jackal that came from the cellar.

He went over to her room and secured the door behind him, sidling down beside the wounded woman. Shisa has been hit badly and he would have to try and fix it somehow. "Shhh, its gonna be ok. Youre gonne be ok, I'm here now." He said, trying to comfort the agonized woman. Shaun took off his belt, putting it around her arm by the shoulder joint and pull in it into a tourniquet, causing her to scream in pain. It would slow the rate of bleeding, but there was already so much blood! Shaun poured his canteen over her arm so he could see the damage properly. The flesh had been torn down to the elbow from just beneath his bootleg tourniquiet. Shaun could see ripped muscle, a couple stretches of exposed bone. However, Shaun could see her Arteries intact. Thank God. He wasn't a surgeon, and didn't have the tools or time to learn to make a shunt if it was damaged. Shaun also tore the undershirt he was wearing around his body, making one long strip of cloth, which he tied around her leg, below the kneecap.

He had to get the bandages from their medical supply crate, and darted out to get them, returning shortly after. He packed the bandages round the shredded limb and applied pressure. He had her reach up and grab the edge of a table to keep her arm elevated. "There we go, you're doing great...everything's fine." Shaun kept speaking to her. She was slipping in and out of consciousness by that point from the pain.

"Jesse! Get me some fucking pain meds, and spirit booze! Right damn now!" Shaun called out. He could definitely be heared, it was the loudest some of this group have ever seen him be. He was now working to stem the bleeding on shisa's ankle, which wasn't as bad. Only a compression puncture, rather than a mauling.

 

[KotaKotsu]

As the group began to settle into the church with the jackal on the inside now eliminated, the wind was carrying the sound of something quite large. Given the sound, it must have been something of metal, or some machinery being jerked about. The howls of the other jackals had gone dead silent, to add to the unease.

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.

The noise echoed around the church. The group trying to take cover, couldn't see much of what was going on outside, but eventually the noise would stop altogether. Before anyone could ask what it was, or go outside the barricade put in place to check, a resounding boom echoed through the church.

The statue of Jesus that had been watching over the party had come crashing forward, catching the decrepit chandelier and causing that to careen down, shattering into glass shards and dust. The building had started to rumble unnaturally, while in the back, Shisa's horses whinnied, bucking at the door that they were behind, kicking it down, sprinting toward the new opening.

The head of the Jesus statue had flew toward the barricade at the front entrance, smashing it open, as the group filed out. Ethan and Jesse carrying a wounded Shisa as the building crumbled in front of them. The dust and debris had engulfed the group, forcing them to cough and sputter. Jesse would realize that he had dropped his gun during the heat of the moment as he reached for it instinctively and found it to be unholstered.

After the dust settles, the group would find themselves surrounded by cloaked and hooded figures armed with weapons of crude nature, including firearms.

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.

The noise could now be located toward the hulking mass of muscle wearing metal armor covering their face and a scrawny man with rotted and black teeth. The thin man held something familiar to Jesse in his long fingers. It was his weapon of choice.

 

[TheAdept]

Jesse was not only unimpressed, but irritated by the skinny ugly old man's attempt at terrifying them. He had Jesse's revolver, with a massive metal man beside him. So many morons in Culrud, surely they knew metal armor won't block bullets. Besides the metal man the men were all wearing dark hoods. How dramatic.

Jesse knew a Crystal Cultist upon looking at one, they had destroyed his home village after all. Now here they were attacking him again. These men were about to die.

"Pfft." Was the only sound that came out of Jesse's mouth as a second later a bullet knocked the gun from the old man's hand. Jesse was carrying a second gun hidden in his light jacket, he always carried a backup weapon, and this backup weapon popped the heads of two of the cultists he saw brandishing guns before Jesse centered the gun back on the old man.

"You picked the wrong fight with the wrong people. Who sent you?"

 

[KotaKotsu]

One cultist goes after Jesse with a spear while he aims at the old man in the white lab coat, two other cultists whipping out cattle prods to taser Jesse. The old man in the white lab coat shakes his hand at having the gun shot from it, staring at Jesse during this altercation, and produces a rough looking pipe pistol, with his eerily long fingers creeping in and out of his coat.

"Two men now gone, a shame, but that's the nature of these jobs. We're looking for you. A contract for the last living Bastard." Cocking the gun over to Shaun's direction while he was holding Shisa, he smiled down the barrel at them with crooked blackened teeth. "And the Defector."

Hawk puts himself between the aim of the man in the white lab coat and Jesse. It was clear he was protective of the man in the lab coat. The man began to speak again.

"Did you think what happened in Boulder went unnoticed? There's a bounty on your heads now, and we're here to collect."

 

[Corvid15]

Everything was moving, the walls were vibrating and the world didn't seem right. Shisa could vaguely hear Shaun talking, but she couldn't really tell what exacy he said. His voice was calming, but it was like she was going further away from him, then back towards him. Sometimes the world would shut off, then turn back on.

She felt calm, drifting in and out of sleep, it wasn't too bad. She didn't know exactly what was going on, but Shaun was screaming. Suddenly there was banging, crashing, yelling. She was being moved, bridal carried, running? More crashing. Weapons drawn, more yelling. A large man, and a small one. More people?

Shisa was slipping in and out of consciousness, and when she was awake everything was pain. She was semi lucid, hearing something about bounty and a fight. Shisa managed out a few words, her world spinning and wavering.

"Powder, bag, get, throw." She meant her bag of nettle powder, but she didn't have the words or mental capacity to say it. She just had to hope someone understood.

 

[TheAdept]

Jesse leaped out of the way and ended it with a roll as the cultists were closing in on him with what he knew was electrical prods and rag tag spear with a jagged tip. It was a mistake to come into melee range with Jesse, but he had leaned his sword on the wall in the church and now it was somewhere in the wreckage. All he had for melee fighting was his knife. Jesse still found it a bit irritating the metal man seemed to think bullets couldn't get to him, but now was no time to swell on that.

There wasn't really any place to take cover and buy time to reload a gun right now, so Jesse was frugal with what was in the chamber of his gun. A hole appeared in the forehead of the spear bearer, then Jesse shot the chest of the metal man. Surely then he would learn something. Jesse then drew his knife in preparation for the tweakers brandishing prods (so to leave bullets in the chamber of his gun for an emergency.)

A foot knocked one back, then Jesse ducked a swing from the other and came back up with the knife that was then inserted in the cultists neck where it meets the chin. Jesse then shoved the bleeding meth head into the one he kicked.

"So you know about Boulder. I'm sure you know about the Blood Eagle I gave Santos then." Jesse said smugly "You fucked up big time takin on this bounty."

 

[ScalpelsNSaws]

Shaun was sitting, shielding the downed Shisa with his own body from the crowd of armed cultists. Shisa didn't have to explain further, sticking his Han into her satchel and feeling a soft bag. The nettle sack. Shaun opened it slightly, and readied to throw it. He threw the powder in an arc, covering two cultists in powder, as well as the hulking man in metal armour. It didn't get on his skin, but managed to get through his face covering, causing him to inhale some up his nose filling his sinuses with extreme pain.

The two cultists dropped screaming, scratching and slapping themselves, only spreading the powder more on their bodies, causing more pain. The big man seemed to stumble around blindly, grunting. Shaun then took off his coat and rolled Shisa onto it, starting to drag her to safety.

 

[Lyth]

Saxa wasn’t really sure when things had begun going South, though she was positive the moment she stepped onto the mainland could be blamed. Perhaps even agreeing to be part of a crew that chose to scout deeper into unknown and actually go beyond where their precious Tycho had scouted. Beyond that ridiculous bunker they droned on about at the Rig.
Someone had actually floated the idea of sending them without the elite Echo scouts and now she was tucking and rolling out of a crumbling church while the jackal threat morphed into the seventeenth thing she would struggle to describe. From the hordes of animals and insane raiders they dealt with while slogging through the dark, to the bizarre settlements and monuments they had walked though. Saxa knew a memoir wouldn’t make any type of sense at this point and would likely be chalked up to the ramblings of a mad woman.

Carefully sliding down to crouch, she could hear the commotion of the others rushing out of the front, hopefully signalling their survival. Shifting slightly as she kept herself low to the ground and well concealed, an opportunity flashed before her as she realized she was out of the line of sight, a building had collapsed between her and the rest of the group. If she moved quickly she would be able to get herself to safety and leave the entire circus behind, her survival instincts were absolutely screaming for her to get out of there.
Unfortunately her stupid moral compas was practically dragging her towards the fray, she couldn’t see harm come to the others, even if she had been given a less than stellar introduction to the gang.

Pulling an arrow and carefully moving around the perimeter of the building, Saxa watched quietly as the groups exchanged some words and Jesse impressively shot a gun out of the hands of the man before him. She seemed to be learning more about the group every second, filing away as much as she could while hoping the group wouldn’t be shattered by the impending fight. Surrender was far from likely as something about a bounty was brought up, she was instantly cursing herself for signing on with a group that had attracted so much attention. The duel had come across as a show of strength back in the market, now Saxa was recognizing it as something of a red flag. Still she needed a group that was half capable of survival to get her to the next point, the quiet caravans wouldn’t entertain crawling these hills and any merc group was a gamble and a half.

Quickly things seemed to move as two men with strange devices surged towards Jesse, leading Saxa to line up her shot and bury a composite arrow into the throat of one of the men. The projectile was quick enough to surprise its victim, piercing through his jugular and trachea, a satisfying hissing sound leaving him as he dropped to his knees holding the shaft of the arrow and struggling to breathe. Luck would have the object stemming the blood and airway fracture enough to leave the man slowly suffocating, panicking as he struggled to yank the arrow free. Red foam collected at the corners of his mouth, causing enough of a distraction for the group to take up their own arms and fight back.

Saxa had already moved by now, well aware her best chance at survival had always come from outright vanishing into the frey. Competent with a bow and carrying something of a chip on her shoulder due to several months of back to back trauma, the scavenger wasn’t about to let her story end at the hands of some overblown mutants. Things were happening far too quickly for her to follow now, relying on her sharp ears to keep stock of her environment. Luck had shouts of panic and thundering footsteps keeping the cultists focused on the now revolting group before them. The petite redhead once more slipped to her next cover and carefully shifted to kneel, her next target locked in and unaware of the true direction of their demise. A deep breath was pulled in as the string was drawn back and Saxa felt her focus snap into place as she released the arrow and watched it plunge deeply through the chest armor of her next target. Like a flash she was gone again, moving quickly to completely change locations once more and keep her head down. From the sounds of chaos spilling around the ruins of the church, her new companions weren’t about to give in so easily. Part of her was heavily going over the duel in hopes she hadn’t witnessed dumb luck over skill, she wasn’t going to stay still for long enough to watch the fight and risk being spotted.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Hawk had steeled his body, ready for the impact of any bullets. He had taken note of everyone on the field, like a big arena filled with prey. The man in the white coat spoke as one cultist had gotten an arrow through their neck.

"Remember, we shan't kill them, you can play with them though."

No sooner than he had finished his sentence, Hawk had caught a bullet with his chest and had gotten a large whiff of nettles that caused him to hold his face. He pulled his hand away to see blood and feel it going down his face. His chest also had the same red substance coming from it. The blistering of his skin caused Hawk to see red.

An unintelligible roar of anger erupted from the monster's maw as he picks up two of the now dead cultists and holds them close to his body, making himself smaller by hiding more behind the carcasses. The blade on his wrist sticks fast in their torsos to give him a true meat shield and his first target is Jesse.

Jesse is assailed by this buff man tackling into him with the corpses, another one being dragged in his free hand to slam Jesse with. He swings with the cadaver at Jesse's torso and downward in case he had tried to roll out of the way again as he previously had done.

If successful, he would slam the body hard against the hand that carried the revolver in an attempt to knock it out of his hand and into the mud, and would drop the body on top of it. If unsuccessful or sucessful, three cultists would make their way over to Jesse, picking up the cattle prods, fixing them to spears for more distance to taser him in an effort to incapacitate him. His next target would be the meddling nettle man.

Hawk charges forward again, keeping the bodies in front of him as he watches another cultist get an arrow shot into their chest, making note of the direction of the arrow. He grabs the dying cultist and attempted to hit Shaun hard with him. The burning along his flesh and nostrils fueling his anger even more while the bloody nose kept pouring. If successful, upon attacking, he would injure Shaun's left arm by slamming him hard with the body.

The arm would be injured, but more than likely a really bad sprain if anything, but still would be enough to cause Shaun to cry out in pain and be debilitated to a degree. If unsuccessful, the other cultists would try to tase Shaun with cattle prods or try to attack him with their weapons, save for the two who were nettled, still holding their face and bleeding noses.

Though they were incapacitated themselves, this would make it easy for the remaining cultists to incapacitate Shaun with cattle prods as well. The hulking behemoth, his meat shields being held outward in front of his exposed flesh, knew his next target would be the person shooting arrows and charges toward the trees in the distance.

 

[Mewmewcatfish]

Rose brought Shaun some more water, her fear that she didn't get to Shisa in time apparent on her features. She knew how much she meant to Shaun and she also was growing quite fond of the young woman herself. As the church began to shake and groan and more shit hit the fan, Rose helped Shaun as best she could get the wounded girl out, kicking away items in his way and breaking down an entrance. Once she saw what was happening outside she sunk down, pulling up her hood and slinking back. She eyed each of the cultists, a sigh escaping her as she realized that surprise surprise, they weren't friendly folk. As Jesse began to talk, Rose slunk down even further-reaching for her shoe. She dug around for a few moments, grabbing a match and a cig. She brought it to her lips, lighting it quietly as the fighting started. This was bad. Shisa was in critical condition, everyone was probably tired after the jackals and they seemed to be outnumbered.

The cultists for the most part seemed to ignore her, focusing on Shaun, Jesse, and Saxa who seemed like a ninja in the fog. Of course they would though, they were the most powerful targets. Rose shut her eyes, ignoring the one or two shots that luckily went past her and let out a drag before she reached for her axes, her finger's tightening around the wood as she spoke through grit teeth, "I'm too old for this shit."

She ran towards some occupied cultists trying to aim for Saxa, and used the rain-soaked grass to thrust her forward as she slid onto her legs as if she was trying to hit first base. She slid right between them, pulling her axe vertical so she could trip them into the dirt. She used the momentum of the slide to quickly turn on her feet. She threw one of the axes up in the air as she used both arms to slam an axe down towards one. She stood back as the other managed to get to his knees, hoping to shoot her. She pulled out her cigarette letting out a cloud of smoke before pointing to the sky. The second axe falling down with a heavy thud as blood spluttered up her body. She collected it, and noted a small scraggly beast man go after Jesse, whilst a behemoth went for Saxa. She noted the lab-coated old man seemed free for a scrap and figured she should take her shot. Nothing to lose but a few more years of kicking ass and making friends anyway.

She stood up to her full height and ran at him, jumping over the corpse with an arrow in his throat. She began twirling her one axe in a circle before she threw it at the man with an accuracy that came from years of practice. She then came over swinging her second axe straight at him like a baseball bat, her strength surprising for someone as old as she was. She stood her ground, growling at the man before speaking through clenched teeth and a smirk, "Alright you old ass motherfucker! TAKE ME TO CHURCH!"

She howled, twirling the axe in one hand as she prepared for what he had to bring, getting up close as she let out another swing this one uppercutting as she aimed for his chin.

 

[ScalpelsNSaws]

Due to the fact he was already shying away from the fight trying to protect Shisa, Shaun was luckily missed by the Mountain of a Man's attack. He was not, however so forunate regarding the cultists, two of whom lunged foreward with their cattle-prod spears. The shocks racked throughout the man's body causing his joints to lock and him to scream in pain. The muscle around where the rods had hit him left him limp and unresponsive. Shaun fell incapacitated next to Shisa, his bowie knife in hand. The two who tazed him quickly set about grabbing his legs, trying to drag him out the rubble into the middle of the street.

The cultists who had Shaun almost made it half way to the tree line with him through the fray, before a few fearless jackals showed up again, pulling one of the men into the shrubbery and beginning to maul him. The other struggled with another jackal, locked down on his forearm. Shaun was trying to crawl back to the others, making pathetically little progress. Wether he was noticed by the others or not was anybody's guess, there was a lot going on. The Metal clad man was the center of a lot of people's attention at that time. If he hadn't been seen being dragged away a couple yards, he was stranded in front of the church without any help, Jackals darting around him fighting the two cultists. These creatures had bloodlust for them, and he'd been forgotten by the black pelted animals.

 

[Corvid15]

Shisa was wrapped in something, something around her to protect her. She could hear commotion, gunshots, yelling, screaming. Shaun screaming next to her, two men with spears. They moved toward Shaun, one stepping on her ankle. Shisa let out a bloodcurdling scream, before fading back out of consciousness.

In and out, in and out. Everything was going wrong, but she couldn't do anything. Each time she saw what was going on felt shorter and shorter, each period inbetween becoming longer and longer. She swung her head in one of her waking moments, the antlers on her mask tripping up one of the men with spears.

Everything hurt, she couldn't move. If anything the fading out moments were a relief. Was she dying? Had she failed her mission, to die alone and uneaten? She heard a voice next to her, one unfamiliar.

"The witch..."

Shisa faded back out again, into her calm dreamless sleep. The outside world was gone, just painless sleep.

 

[TheAdept]

The corpse tackle knocked Jesse back and the corpse swings came too quick and covered too much are for Jesse to dodge. His revolver was luckily in his holster where he put it when fighting the cattle prod men but he still only had two rounds in the chamber and no opportunity to reload. Just like in the fight with Santos, and many other times before, Jesse accepted the pain from the blows with little reaction, but a corpse bone, likely an elbow, slammed into Jesse's hand with a crack. In all his time, with all the druggies he ever fought, Jesse had never seen someone so strong as Hawke.

He thought about drawing his gun and shooting the last two bullets in Hawk's head, but Hawk had run off after someone else as other cultists closed in on Jesse with their stun rods attached to poles. It was clear their intentions weren't to kill, but rather to capture. Jesse didn't like being captured very much.

He sidestepped a prod-spear thrust and the cultist holding that prod ate Jesse's boot at the cost of a few teeth. These men were numb to all but the most extreme pain from the Crystal, but joke was on them as they were brittle from malnourishment. Jesse ducked a swing, then grabbed the former cultists arm and kneed the elbow, snapping it. Jesse then grabbed his knife and stabbed the cultist in the side of the neck. A cattle prod got to him from behind, and he couldn't help but be stunned and sent to his knees. Then again. Jesse's eyes started to close as one of the men felt confident in grabbing his arms. The other one also ate boot when trying to grab his legs, and the one that had his arms ate elbow. Again they felt no pain but were knocked back and surprised. With another diveroll Jesse picked the knife out of the dead cultist's neck, then throw it lodging it in one cultists head. He picked up a prod-spear as the surviving cultist pulled the knife out of his friend's head to try and throw it himself, but he was prodded in the stomach, then in the head, then when this cultist had fallen to the ground, Jesse prodded him in the eye making it explode. These cultists only felt extreme pain. Exploding eyes were extreme pain.

While this cultist was on the ground screaming, Hawk was occupied with Shawn and now some jackals while his old man buddy was being attacked by Rose, Jesse thought about what could take down the big guy. Everyone in his group had been separated from some of their things when the church collapsed, but assault rifles and grenades were what they needed right now. While the cultists seemed occupied with his friends and some jackals at the moment, Jesse ran over to the crumbled church and began digging through the debri with his one hand looking for grenades, rifles, anything. Even his sword would be useful right now.

 

[Lyth]

‘You don’t stop moving, even when you hear nothing you keep moving’ A loop of reassurance would keep Saxa moving, changing direction, always keeping herself light on her feet and focused on her breathing. For six months she had survived traveling into the unknown and for two she had been completely alone in the wild, caught between nobility and other unpleasantries.

Dying to a creature that couldn’t sneak up on a cemetery wasn’t something she could allow, the sounds of resistance coming from the rest of the group told her more than half hadn’t been taken out of the fight.
A low growl would distract her as she realized she had been a little too focused on the louder sounds of battle, not watching her surroundings as closely as she could. The jackals had stuck around despite the noise, something just downright bizarre for any animals she'd come across. Fortunately they would scatter before even revealing themselves, unfortunately it would be due to the sounds of thundering footsteps and snapping branches. Metal clanking and an even gate ruled out any type of vehicle so Saxa was almost certain the rock hurling monster was coming after her.

Still for too long now, she could practically hear the scolding pouring from her instructor as adrenaline began surging through her. Her fight reflex fully triggered with the sounds of thunderous clomping coming closer. Regretting not being able to predict the creature's path well enough for a trip wire, Saxa resorted to the next survival protocol, getting something of a vantage point. Climbing was out of the question so instead her eyes settled on a rusty grate that lay just beyond the path of the charging mountain. Saxa pulled herself as tightly behind one if the larger trees as she could and waited, arrow ready, praying she still held a level enough head for this wild estimate. Hawke wouldn't be able to follow her into that opening and he likely couldn't rip solid stone apart quite as easily, she just hoped the path would lead somewhere.
Drawing back as she heard Hawke approach, Saxa spent her precious few moments aiming for the beats eyes. Hoping to at least trigger some need to protect it's own vision or strike good in blinding him. She couldn't wait for the follow through, throwing herself wildly past the charging behemoth and slamming into the rusty gate. Two wild kicks would follow before the metal gave way and allowed Saxa to drag herself through, opening nasty cuts on her arms and legs as she wrenched her body through. The tunnel was dark, narrow, and thankfully just wide enough for her to crawl through. Misfortune would arrive several meters in as Saxa found herself dropping at least ten feet onto cold concrete and deeply bruising her shoulder at the very least. Several arrows snapped on impact and one lucky point would curve up enough to drive into Saxa's side.
Slapping a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound of pain, the petite girl felt as though she might black out for a moment from pain. Gasping as the torn flesh practically screamed, even with the adrenaline still pounding through her system.

A cough would leave her instead of an outright shout if agony, the wind completely knocked out of her from the unsuspecting fall. Her left shoulder would surrent twice as she struggled to push herself up, nauseated from the fear of breaking an arm and being completely helpless. Saxa was almost relieved when she managed to pull herself up, her legs cut and bleeding but functional.
She needed to keep moving, to get herself out of the dark and at least near some kind of exit. The water flowing through a groove on the floor proved there was at least some kind of exit, though she was almost certain she was already back under the church. Low sounds of chaos could be heard down one pathway of solid darkness, Saxa would carefully move forward, her good ark raised to feel along the stone wall. She needed to get back to the others, or at least at survivors.

 

[KotaKotsu]

The cultist standing near the man in the white lab coat swipes twice at Rose from her sides, they flip the spear in their hands to come down diagonally aiming to take the aggro off the man in the lab coat. This made it clear the man was of importance, given that both the behemoth and this cultist were defending him. This cultist was more trained than the others, it seemed. A serious look in their eyes showed they were unwavering to back down as they parried the attacks of Rose and began to attack her back.

The man in the white lab coat cocked a wide grin with his mangled teeth revealing themselves as he aimed the gun up to Rose with a wild look in his eyes.

Hawk, charging toward the tree line while hiding his body behind his new meat shield, would be looking for the person that had killed the two dead cultists. Eventually, the snapping of branches and twigs would lead him to cornering the red haired woman, bow primed and snapping at him before he could react to block.

Arrows smashed into Hawks metal helmet, tearing it free from the beast's face. Saxa, catching a glimpse of the man's face, noted it to be oddly familar, if, covered with blood dripping down his nose and mouth now caked in dry blood. After Saxa collects herself in the underground passageway, and she begins to think with a more calm mind, she finds that behemoth to look like someone in the party.

It may have been Saxa's imagination, but to her, Hawk seemed like someone she had seen before.

Off in the distance, the white lab coated man, sees someone traveling in the distance that he seems to recognize. With a look of annoyance, he looks out to where the behemoth had run and calls out loudly. "HAAAAWK!"

The behemoth crashes through the woods, the jackals attacking the cultists near Shaun ran off, carrying their new meal deep into the woods. Hawk leaps over Shaun and Shisa's bodies, running straight toward the man in the lab coat.

Jesse manages to find his sword, after the blade cuts his hand. Jesse notices the other group of people slowly approaching, but finds his gaze fixed on Hawk. His sword in hand, he began to have flashbacks of the raid on his village.

Hawk pushes past Rose and the other cultist trading blows, grabbing the cultist by the back of their robe and the man in the lab coat, running off with them, retreating in a hurry.

 

[Mewmewcatfish]

As Rose prepared for another round with the crack-head scientist, another cultist interrupted them, a cattle-prodded spear coming at her side. She very narrowly dodged the first strike, the second coming up to meet her axe. She re-set her footing as she came up against this new foe, her eyes staring straight at his as they began to block and parry each other blow for blow. He was strong and seemed to be more apt with his weapon than the rest of the cultists. Rose parried to the left and then to the right, trying to get past him. She came around to where her second axe was, dropping low as she narrowly dodged a strike. She grit her teeth leaving an opening for him to attack her straight in the chest. As the spear came her way, she crossed her axe heads sliding them in opposite directions so that it caught the end of the spear keeping it in place. She rolled to the left, using the momentum as a means to break off the cattle prodded end. She swiped it away, getting back to her feet as she continued to fight the cultist blow for blow. At one point her first axe hit the spear high, her other axe lifted up to be thrown at the leader when she noticed the gun pointed at her.

She narrowed her eyes, just about to pull off her greatest and last axe toss as soon as he pulled that trigger. Her walk towards the moonlight was put on hold though when the younger man from earlier brushed past her, grabbing both her enemies with a tremendous amount of strength, she hadn't seen before. Rose yelled after them, "FUCKING COWARDS!!"

She took a step to follow when she remembered Shisa. She growled, turning to look back at her group. She noted Shaun laying beside the wounded woman and swore, "Shit."

She ran first towards Shaun, dropping her axes as she leaned down beside him, clearly distraught, "Shaun!!! Jesus, you better not be dead you asshole... Oh, thank god. Are you okay?"

She looked over to Shisa, noting the girl had completely passed out now on Shaun's coat, "Shisa's out cold..."

Rose looked for the rest of the group, noting Jesse was near the church a sword now in his hand, but no Saxa. Her head darted around as she called out, "SAXA??"

She waited, hoping that the girl was alright, along with Ethan, Aurora and Mos.

 

[TheAdept]

Jesse felt a long sting across his hand as he grabbed something metal and familiar. It was his sword! Positioning his hand correctly, he was able to pull it out. When he was in stance for battle, however, he saw the big guy running away with the other cultist cowards. He swiped with the blade then brandished it at his side.

Then it happened as it always did. A memory so vivid Jesse almost physically saw it. It had happened in the last fight with the Crystal Cult. The crackheads stalking through the burning buildings. Blood dripping in the snow. Yells and agonized screams echoing through them mountains. The young attempting to flee only to be dragged away.

The fire of hatred burned deep in his body. These toothless, shit-caked, inhuman creatures had been trying to kill him his entire life.

"Get the FUCK back here! What are you afraid of me now?!" Jesse yelled, swinging his sword wildly in the air, before sheathing it and running back to the rubble and sorting through the debris. The moment he pulled a rifle out, however, he heard a click.

"Mind explaining why you have a gun, peasant?" A squad of Nobles had arrived. This time they wore an eagle on their uniforms.

"We're mercenaries for Lord William." Jesse shouted, remembering the two houses were allies.

"We're a scouting party for the Caesar Todd. We demand proof of your mercenary claim." The Noble stated, him and all his fellows with SMGs trained on a different member of the group.

 

[Lyth]

The corridor was too dark to make out anything, leaving Saxa to carefully feel her way down the passage in the direction of a breeze. A light wind she hoped was coming from an exit rather than a crack in the wall, she needed to pull herself out of this dark pit if she hoped to survive the night.
Her wounds were bleeding but not completely out of control, though she was forced to leave the arrow jammed into her side to avoid bleeding too severely. Passing out wasn’t an option, she might never find enough strength to crawl out of there without the others and she was well aware they were not the type to linger.

Stumbling somewhat on the uneven floor, Saxa could hear thundering footsteps overhead, though she wasn’t quite sure of the direction they were headed in. At least the monster had stopped looking for her, though she did worry it had returned to massacre the others out of frustration. Her use of the church and trees for cover had caused her to quickly lose track of the group, something that vividly reminded her of the skirmishes she’d faced crossing the country initially.
Regrouping after the fight to find out who hadn’t survived was always the more agonizing part of the battle, they hadn’t even been able to offer proper burials to half of the team. Leaving the dead behind after scavenging from them had always sat wrong with her, even if it was the most logical choice.

Saxa felt a crunch beneath her boot and stilled as the familiar clattering of dried bones could be heard, crouching with a groan of pain to feel around for what she might be stumbling through. Her fingers found long, human bones and the fragments of what might have been a skull, ratty old material and the sensation of old canvas that caused some excitement to leap up. She was certainly standing on a corpse but it was someone who had likely died post war, due to the overall state of the bag she was unzipping in the pitch black.
Disappointment would read up as she only felt a few glass bottles and an empty water bottle, no matches or any means to make light to navigate the dark. Someone had obviously sealed themselves up down there to drink to death, something of a pleasant option compared to what waited outside. She needed something capable of keeping a flame, rather than sending off sparks with her flint and steel.

Something better would find her, the sound of her own name being shouted from above, just clear enough to let her know she was somewhat close to the source. Her eyes would find a slim line of broken light, barely visible and almost fragile in appearance, not bright enough to be anything more than the slit under a door.
Rough old stairs would soon be found, leading her up towards the thin slice of light and fresh air. The heavy door waiting at the top didn’t budge at first, though she soon discovered the heady wooden bar resting across the inside of the door and keeping it shut. To say it was difficult to lift one handed was putting things lightly, she was certain her shoulder was dislocated rather than broken but that still left her unable to use her bow until it was reset.

Finally managing to wrench the bar loose, the old wooden door blessedly creaked inwards and Saxa suddenly felt the cold night air spilling into the stagnant basement she would soon learn were the crypts.
She carefully crawled through the gap and found a mountain of rubble before her, though she could actually see the sky. Voices speaking and an overall lack of gunfire had her convinced the battle was over, or her companions were dead, until she heard Jesse shout out his own challenge, sending a fresh wave of relief through her. At least some of them were alive, though it would seem the behemoth had fled.

Dragging herself higher up the debris, Saxa soon managed to glance over the crumbled wall and felt frustration quickly overtake her relief. Nobles had appeared, serving no purpose other than to make her life more difficult and impede her attempts to get home, or at least thats how she’d begun to feel. The state of the world was outrageous and Saxa was growing quickly tired of playing nicely with funded bullies.

Once more out of the line of sight, her mind was racing again as she saw the group of armed scouts standing between her and the people she needed to get her home. She was quick to pull open the ratty rucksack she’d found down in the tunnels and felt about ready to cry with joy when she saw the words ‘grain alcohol’ written on one partially drunk bottle. A full payload would do better but she was simply working with what she had, tearing the old bag apart and stuffing the strips deep into the bottle of flammable gold.

Dragging the flint out of her pocket, Saxa pulled her knife and struck it quickly, well aware she was risking grabbing a fair amount of attention despite being behind the nobles.

Once the flame caught, the redhead would take a breath before standing and throwing the hastily made molotov at the backs of the nobles, she was relying on the sudden burst of flames causing the group to turn and offer her companions a new opportunity to defend themselves.
Her toss would go a bit long and actually strike close enough to one man to cause the highly flammable liquid to splash up the back of his legs and take light.

Injured and unable to move as quickly, Saxa would flatten herself again and pray the others were with themselves enough to take advantage of the distraction.

 

[ScalpelsNSaws]

As shaun lay at the threshold of the church, Rose talking down to him. "Just...winded A bit...I will be ok." Shaun said to her weakly, using a fallen beam to sit himself up. Shisa still needed her wounds sterilized and the tountiquets removed. If they took too long and Shisa survived, there would be serious issues.

Shaun turned his head over to the party of nobles arriving in the area. Shaun let out an audible groan. Their uniforms grey in markings, signifying Caesar Todd's troops. Shaun was getting sick of seeing new faces, he just wanted to go back to the Cistern. But that can't happen. Shaun pulled his lame body over to Shisa, checking her pulse. Weak but alive.

He gently rolled her and removed his shotgun from his coat holster. It was just as well, as a Molotov flew over the shattered stonework and ignited one of the scouts. He lazily lifted his shotgun in one hand, coving shisa's unplugged, skyward facing ear with the other. He fired it, peppering one's freshly exposed back with 12 gauge buckshot. At least he could still shoot straight, even if the recoil damn near just dislocated his wrist. It was one thing after another with this lot, and Shaun sometimes wondered if he chose the right rabble. He racked it again, preparing to blast another.