1st of Glade, 4622
With a disappointed sigh, Arkash cast the broken fire sword to the sand. The elf that had wielded it against him had broken it in the lock between his sword and hers… Though it was obvious which weapon came out on top as Arkash knelt to collect his Blood Sword.
The entire thing had been cut in two, with the other half of the blade dormant in the sand. Arkash shook his head, then returned his eye to the remainder of the blade from the handle. The blood had bubbled as if it was boiling while it was held to the body of the burning blade, and had lost a lot of its magical sharpness as a result.
The elf had made it useless, he resolved as he tossed it to the floor and discarded it. A shake of his head followed as he lifted himself to his feet, then collected both the elf and the human rifleman from the sand, then dragged them toward the center of the camp before he dropped them beside their comrades. One by one, or even two at a time, Arkash gathered the Badlanders he’d slain that night and dumped them in a pile before the pyre. Those that were the last standing toward the end of Arkash’s explosive use of Blood were largely left in place while he sat down and began to eat through the spoils of war.
His mind wandered while he effortlessly chewed through bones with his gruesome jaws, and he found himself thinking back to Izzy. Had she stuck around to watch the death of her gang? Did she turn tail and flee when Arkash had fallen? It wasn’t any concern of his, he supposed. His eyes fell upon Sky Stealer, the rifle that had eliminated the rooftop snipers early in the fight while he chewed, then swallowed. The weapon was his again, just waiting in the arms of a corpse to be reclaimed… Soon.
As Arkash took another bite, the door of the facility flung open with a crash that startled the Cardinal and brought him to his feet with a sudden spin that flung the half-eaten cadaver from his body. His mouth was full while he peered at Izzy, who stormed from the stone building with an enraged glare in her eye. She briefly met Arkash, then moved her gaze to the pile of bodies. There, her one eye flicked through the corpses, then continued her wrathful march toward the broken people. Arkash resumed chewing while he watched her, then returned to sit down beside the fire, and pulled that corpse back into his lap to continue feeding.
Eating as a cardinal really was so much easier; it felt as though his throat had widened, and the crushing strength of his jaws made short work of bones. Quite happily, he made his way through the cadavers, and flit his gaze to Izzy as she sifted through the corpses. Some distance away, she paused while looking down, then spoke “where is it,” at a volume that was out of earshot for regular mortals, but Arkash caught it fine. With his interest piqued, he listened in and chewed slowly through his meal.
“Isabelle…” Returned a voice, weak. Arkash was hard-pressed, but he recognized it as the voice of the woman to have given the order to fire at the start of the scuffle. Was she the leader? “Did you… do this…?”
“Tell me where it is and I’ll make it quick for you,” she spoke with no shortage of anger despite the underlying compassion in her voice.
A broken, weak laugh flowed from the lips of the other, and Arkash could almost feel the tension in Izzy’s form as she grew angrier and angrier. “Just let it go…” Told the voice. “You’re much too… SentimMNNH-!” Came a cry of pain as the half-elf twisted the blood spear that was embedded in the woman’s stomach. Arkash cringed a little, then took another bite from the corpse.
“Where… The fuck… Is it…” Izzy snarled, the curl of her features audible in her voice.
“It’s gone-!” the woman’s voice choked. “They already took it… I-”
“You mean they BOUGHT IT!” She called, much more audible in her rampant aggression. “WHO?!”
Silence came the reply, and that silence only stretched on into the quiet of the desert’s night beside the crackling fire. Arkash had stopped his chewing entirely by the time Izzy pulled the spear from its resting place, drew a small, dagger-like instrument, then stabbed the woman’s corpse through the chest. Arkash rose a brow and rose a little from the sand to get a look of what was happening, and watched with perfect clarity as the body of the woman began to shrink. It was the most bizarre thing, to watch as flesh steadily hardened and broke apart with the distinct sound of shattering glass. Cautiously, Arkash returned to his meal and listened into the quiet night as Izzy seemed to collect and store those pieces.
A sigh flowed from his lips while he reveled in the coppery tang on his palette, the rich thickness and volume of the warm blood as he swallowed. For a moment, he lost himself in the haze of his feeding. Bone, cloth, skin, and hair were all devoured without pause. The metal he bit through was crudely plucked from his jaws and tossed aside; the odd buckle or button to get in the way.
It was only when his disappointed companion emerged from the field of corpses that he snapped from his feeding frenzy and looked up at her with a glint in his eyes while he continued to feed. The image seemed to make her pause, and she hesitantly swallowed as she collected her wits and pulled her gaze away from the display of mortal innards as they painted his front. “Ulen’s wrath…” She cursed as she sat some distance from him, and let the satchel of crystals rest against one of the logs that surrounded the fire. “Do me a favor?” She called and caught a pause in Arkash’s feast. “After you eat that one,” she spoke as she pointed to one of the corpses on the pile, “make sure you shit him out in the most corrupted shithole you can find, yeah?” She asked with a certain lightness to her tone.
Arkash grinned if only internally. “I don’t shit,” he spoke between mouthfuls of muscle and skin. “Haven’t shit in years,” he added.
“Well, fuck…” Izzy continued with a shake of her head. “I bet you save a fortune on plumbing then.”
Another pause in his feast saw him swallow, partway through his fifth ribcage. “Plumbing...?”
“Oh, y'know! Like them folk in greata’ Daravin,” her dialect returned. “Yeah, they’ve gor’ toilets an everyfin’ that flush shit away an’-.“
“-Why are you faking an accent?” Arkash interrupted.
There was only a brief pause while she was caught off guard before she answered with a snappy “same reason as you, I guess.”
With a raise of his brows, Arkash continued to eat his way through the corpse in his lap. “Fair enuff,” he spoke with his mouth full and swallowed after very briefly chewing the scraps of heart. “What was all that about then?” Arkash began with a gesture to where she’d stood not long ago.
“What?” Asked Izzy. “Uhh, nothing, just a disagreement,” she dismissed with a shake of her head.
The sound of Arkash’s feeding filled the quiet night while he thought about her answer. “…Didn’t sound like nothing,” he spoke with a raise of his brow in her direction.
“It was just a disagreement,” she asserted again.
Arkash nodded before he shut his eyes and swallowed a larger chunk of bone. “…Don’t suppose it’s the reason you asked me to kill them all, is it?” He asked with a frown and lowered his half-eaten cadaver. The point was to show a more sympathetic side to her, an expression that he wanted to help… Given her permission.
The girl briefly met his eyes and quickly looked away. Whether it was because his ploy worked or the fact that he was dripping in the gore of her past comrades was unclear. “…Yeah,” she clarified. “It was.” Before Arkash could try and pull more from her lips, she opened up a little more. “We’re Sunderers, or at least we were… Unlicensed practice is a death sentence out there,” she spoke with a motion of her head to Greater Daravin. “The agreement was that we sell the Relics we make and divvy up the proceeds, but I brought one with me and just kept it secret…” She shook her head while she looked on at the fire. “’Course they found out, and that big fucker took it from me,” she spoke with a motion to the corpse that she’d shared specific interests in disposing of. A deep sigh deflated her lungs while she stared out at the darkened dunes. “Now it’s gone… They sold it, and the bitch took the buyer’s name to the grave,” ended her explanation with her head in her hands, propped by her knees.
With a disappointed sigh, Arkash cast the broken fire sword to the sand. The elf that had wielded it against him had broken it in the lock between his sword and hers… Though it was obvious which weapon came out on top as Arkash knelt to collect his Blood Sword.
The entire thing had been cut in two, with the other half of the blade dormant in the sand. Arkash shook his head, then returned his eye to the remainder of the blade from the handle. The blood had bubbled as if it was boiling while it was held to the body of the burning blade, and had lost a lot of its magical sharpness as a result.
The elf had made it useless, he resolved as he tossed it to the floor and discarded it. A shake of his head followed as he lifted himself to his feet, then collected both the elf and the human rifleman from the sand, then dragged them toward the center of the camp before he dropped them beside their comrades. One by one, or even two at a time, Arkash gathered the Badlanders he’d slain that night and dumped them in a pile before the pyre. Those that were the last standing toward the end of Arkash’s explosive use of Blood were largely left in place while he sat down and began to eat through the spoils of war.
His mind wandered while he effortlessly chewed through bones with his gruesome jaws, and he found himself thinking back to Izzy. Had she stuck around to watch the death of her gang? Did she turn tail and flee when Arkash had fallen? It wasn’t any concern of his, he supposed. His eyes fell upon Sky Stealer, the rifle that had eliminated the rooftop snipers early in the fight while he chewed, then swallowed. The weapon was his again, just waiting in the arms of a corpse to be reclaimed… Soon.
As Arkash took another bite, the door of the facility flung open with a crash that startled the Cardinal and brought him to his feet with a sudden spin that flung the half-eaten cadaver from his body. His mouth was full while he peered at Izzy, who stormed from the stone building with an enraged glare in her eye. She briefly met Arkash, then moved her gaze to the pile of bodies. There, her one eye flicked through the corpses, then continued her wrathful march toward the broken people. Arkash resumed chewing while he watched her, then returned to sit down beside the fire, and pulled that corpse back into his lap to continue feeding.
Eating as a cardinal really was so much easier; it felt as though his throat had widened, and the crushing strength of his jaws made short work of bones. Quite happily, he made his way through the cadavers, and flit his gaze to Izzy as she sifted through the corpses. Some distance away, she paused while looking down, then spoke “where is it,” at a volume that was out of earshot for regular mortals, but Arkash caught it fine. With his interest piqued, he listened in and chewed slowly through his meal.
“Isabelle…” Returned a voice, weak. Arkash was hard-pressed, but he recognized it as the voice of the woman to have given the order to fire at the start of the scuffle. Was she the leader? “Did you… do this…?”
“Tell me where it is and I’ll make it quick for you,” she spoke with no shortage of anger despite the underlying compassion in her voice.
A broken, weak laugh flowed from the lips of the other, and Arkash could almost feel the tension in Izzy’s form as she grew angrier and angrier. “Just let it go…” Told the voice. “You’re much too… SentimMNNH-!” Came a cry of pain as the half-elf twisted the blood spear that was embedded in the woman’s stomach. Arkash cringed a little, then took another bite from the corpse.
“Where… The fuck… Is it…” Izzy snarled, the curl of her features audible in her voice.
“It’s gone-!” the woman’s voice choked. “They already took it… I-”
“You mean they BOUGHT IT!” She called, much more audible in her rampant aggression. “WHO?!”
Silence came the reply, and that silence only stretched on into the quiet of the desert’s night beside the crackling fire. Arkash had stopped his chewing entirely by the time Izzy pulled the spear from its resting place, drew a small, dagger-like instrument, then stabbed the woman’s corpse through the chest. Arkash rose a brow and rose a little from the sand to get a look of what was happening, and watched with perfect clarity as the body of the woman began to shrink. It was the most bizarre thing, to watch as flesh steadily hardened and broke apart with the distinct sound of shattering glass. Cautiously, Arkash returned to his meal and listened into the quiet night as Izzy seemed to collect and store those pieces.
A sigh flowed from his lips while he reveled in the coppery tang on his palette, the rich thickness and volume of the warm blood as he swallowed. For a moment, he lost himself in the haze of his feeding. Bone, cloth, skin, and hair were all devoured without pause. The metal he bit through was crudely plucked from his jaws and tossed aside; the odd buckle or button to get in the way.
It was only when his disappointed companion emerged from the field of corpses that he snapped from his feeding frenzy and looked up at her with a glint in his eyes while he continued to feed. The image seemed to make her pause, and she hesitantly swallowed as she collected her wits and pulled her gaze away from the display of mortal innards as they painted his front. “Ulen’s wrath…” She cursed as she sat some distance from him, and let the satchel of crystals rest against one of the logs that surrounded the fire. “Do me a favor?” She called and caught a pause in Arkash’s feast. “After you eat that one,” she spoke as she pointed to one of the corpses on the pile, “make sure you shit him out in the most corrupted shithole you can find, yeah?” She asked with a certain lightness to her tone.
Arkash grinned if only internally. “I don’t shit,” he spoke between mouthfuls of muscle and skin. “Haven’t shit in years,” he added.
“Well, fuck…” Izzy continued with a shake of her head. “I bet you save a fortune on plumbing then.”
Another pause in his feast saw him swallow, partway through his fifth ribcage. “Plumbing...?”
“Oh, y'know! Like them folk in greata’ Daravin,” her dialect returned. “Yeah, they’ve gor’ toilets an everyfin’ that flush shit away an’-.“
“-Why are you faking an accent?” Arkash interrupted.
There was only a brief pause while she was caught off guard before she answered with a snappy “same reason as you, I guess.”
With a raise of his brows, Arkash continued to eat his way through the corpse in his lap. “Fair enuff,” he spoke with his mouth full and swallowed after very briefly chewing the scraps of heart. “What was all that about then?” Arkash began with a gesture to where she’d stood not long ago.
“What?” Asked Izzy. “Uhh, nothing, just a disagreement,” she dismissed with a shake of her head.
The sound of Arkash’s feeding filled the quiet night while he thought about her answer. “…Didn’t sound like nothing,” he spoke with a raise of his brow in her direction.
“It was just a disagreement,” she asserted again.
Arkash nodded before he shut his eyes and swallowed a larger chunk of bone. “…Don’t suppose it’s the reason you asked me to kill them all, is it?” He asked with a frown and lowered his half-eaten cadaver. The point was to show a more sympathetic side to her, an expression that he wanted to help… Given her permission.
The girl briefly met his eyes and quickly looked away. Whether it was because his ploy worked or the fact that he was dripping in the gore of her past comrades was unclear. “…Yeah,” she clarified. “It was.” Before Arkash could try and pull more from her lips, she opened up a little more. “We’re Sunderers, or at least we were… Unlicensed practice is a death sentence out there,” she spoke with a motion of her head to Greater Daravin. “The agreement was that we sell the Relics we make and divvy up the proceeds, but I brought one with me and just kept it secret…” She shook her head while she looked on at the fire. “’Course they found out, and that big fucker took it from me,” she spoke with a motion to the corpse that she’d shared specific interests in disposing of. A deep sigh deflated her lungs while she stared out at the darkened dunes. “Now it’s gone… They sold it, and the bitch took the buyer’s name to the grave,” ended her explanation with her head in her hands, propped by her knees.
Image source.
