Completed A Sea of Sorrow

[Mercer Alwin]

Mercer followed her team quietly, the blood already starting to dry on her skin. Zephyrine had taken point, and was calling the shots for now, though Thraah seemed to have her own agenda. She seemed to be fueled purely on emotion, something Mercer couldn't comprehend. Battles were supposed to be logical, strategical. Thraah threw that all out the window, forcing Mercer and Zephyrine to react differently than they'd like.

Zephyrine went one way, up the stairs of a watchtower. Mercer wanted to follow, but Thraah launched herself at the next target without a thought behind what she was doing. Mercer growled in frustration; they needed a plan. Mercer scrambled after Thraah, the need to back her up winning over developing a substantial plan. She swung her chakram at the lamia, parting the flesh of its leg, causing it to howl with an atrocious clamor. It swiped at Mercer with a clawed hand, and unfortunately found purchase, sending Mercer flying and to the ground in a heap.

Thraah Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

They did not follow.

Zephyrine curled her fingers into fists, throwing her weapon that was still ablaze into the waiting ocean below the tower. Anger spewed into her being, firing up her bitterness that she was let down by her team mates.

I should have been alone. I shouldn't have made friends.

She was deaf to the screams near the tower, unaware of the bestial sounds as a life was claimed. Zephyrine stormed down the stairs, curling around the tower, until sharp nails curled and pierced into her shoulders, dragging her back to fall. Pain registered to her, but only after the shock wore off as the lamia dragged her over every rise of the steps, scraping against her bones and muscles. Zephyrine kicked out her legs, giving herself leverage, but the nails were wedged deep into her flesh. No no no no no no no.

Zephyrine let out an angry scream, shutting her eyes tight and releasing a burst of her magic. An audible squelch sounded, warmth dripping all over her face and front. Tawny eyes opened with difficulty as blood ran into her vision, the back of her hand doing her best to clear them. Each movement of her arms caused her to wince through her teeth, nails still embedded into her shoulders.

Above her, the lamia had been impaled by a large spike of stone, made from the steps at the top of the tower. It kept the creature upright, slackened and dead.

Zephyrine could not help the hot, pained tears that fell from her eyes then. There was eight nails curled into her flesh, raising the skin from sinew and muscle in angry red marks around the puncture points. She whimpered, reaching a hand to begin slowly prying out the first nail at her left, but the pain was too much. She flinched, winced at every move.

The call for help died at her lips, lost in a pained breath.

Thraah
Mercer Alwin

 

[Thraah]

Zeph's weapon had extinguished and Thraah's heart stopped.
Her head snapped and the fire ended.
There was a third one, she hadn't seen it but Zeph had.
She abandoned the current one.
Mercer, whom she did not care for, had also fallen but Thraah did not see her now, the other Initiates would take care of her, or the monster would get her. Either way.
"ZEPH!"
She was at the shoreline, not far, not far.
Her lungs pumped sand.
Her limbs stung like they were being torn off.
"ZEPH!"
She saw the monster first and nearly fried it but it was still now, dead.
Her body carried herself over to it, to a whisp life. The monster looked like it was cradling her, Thraah felt suddenly very cold.
Zeph was hurt, bad.
"Fuck, Zeph. Why did, how... fuck!"
She put her hands on the monstrous claws.
"I'm sorry... I'm gonna take these out, okay?"
She pulled two out quickly.
"I didn't mean to leave you..."
Another claw left Zeph's body.
There was a lot of blood now. She passed her hand over the wounds and seared them closed. Two more came out and she closed them too. Better healers would clean this up later, leave her without Thraah's burns.
"I won't do it again, I promise..."
It clearly hurt Zeph to have the claws pulled and again to get burned but it was all she had.
"I'm sorry..."
The last few she did quickly and when the wounds were closed she fussed over Zeph. Combing her hair back with her hands.
"You'll be okay, ya hear? You're gonna be okay."
Under the shadow of the monster Thraah looked out at the boats at the people on the shore.
Everyone was so frightened.
She was so afraid.

Zephyrine
Mercer Alwin

 

[Mercer Alwin]

Mercer had fallen to a heap, seemingly unconscious. For many heartbeats she lay, broken and defeated. Then, as if on marionette strings, her body lifted from the blood-soaked earth, and inhuman howl ripping through her throat. Her flesh seemed to bubble, burning from the inside out, her skin turning black and sloughing off in a sickening display.

Left in the wake, a demon of flesh and flame. A deep and throaty laugh left it's dripping maw, eight feet of malice and corruption flexing its fingers and testing his grip.

"Finally."

Black eyes stared fixedly at the still fighting Lamia, and with unnatural speed he reached it. Clawed hands ripped and tore into the beast, flames licking at living flesh as he ripped it to shreds. He brought mouthfuls to his face, eating as much as he tore away piece by piece.

Thraah Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

The removal of the curved nails was excruciating. Zephyrine tried to steel herself, but there was eight of them. To have that over and over being pried out from herself? It was agony.

Tears mixed with the blood of the lamia on her face, tawny eyes looking upwards before searing pain burned her. The scream that emitted from Zephyrine was like a banshee. She groaned through her teeth, seething with pain as Thraah cauterised the wounds.

The smell was the worst.

Zephyrine could not hold it, turning the other way and releasing her empty stomach. Bile burned her throat, and when she was done, her eyes found Thraah. She was fussing over Zeph now, brushing her hair from her face.

Was she feeling guilty? That abandoning her caused this to happen. The pain only spurred Caddel to push Thraah away and get up. She descended the stairs, numbing herself to her pain by walking to the docks.

What she saw was monstrous.

Teams of Initiates, Dreadlords, and the Guard were fighting to bring down what she could only call a behemoth. Bodies were strewn across the wet timber of the docks, and blood. Zephyrine knew the difference even in the dark.

No scrap metal would work for her. Not for this.

Zephyrine lowered herself to one knee, fingers stretched to touch the wood. She listened to the gentle waves three feet below, dropping the wall of containment inside her to reach the deep well of her magic.

It burned hotter than Thraah's fire at her wounds, it seared her very fingers, but she kept them there.

The docks began to move.

Wood creaked until it splintered as each plank came loose, carried by the magic Zephyrine wielded. Splinters and chippings fell for multiple planks, fashioned into large stakes.

Zephyrine locked her gaze onto the lamia, waited until she could stand and release her monstrous weapons.

One... two...

...

Three.

She loosed. The stakes soared towards the creature, the first missing it and embedding into the sea marshal's office. The second impaled it's stomach, and the third was caught by the beast.

Thraah
Mercer Alwin

 

[Thraah]

Thraah lost only a moment in not going after Zeph.
"Wow, wait..."
Down the went and then the monster appeared.
"OH COME ON!"
She exclaimed at this new, even bigger creature bent on their destruction.
She had a hard time believing a creature of such size subsisted solely on hearts.
Zeph went down again and for a moment Thraah feared she was just going to die but she was doing something worse.
She was still fighting.
About to protest Thraah heard the mighty creak of wood as it grew to impale the thing, killing it quite dead.
(There was some property damage but who cared?)
Thraah hoped that was the last of them.
"Shit Zeph how the fuck did you do that?"
Thraah knelt beside her, wary that she might actually faint. She had lost a good bit of blood.

Zephyrine
Mercer Alwin

 

[Mercer Alwin]

It was dead, and no longer entertaining. The demon released its quarry without further thought, dark eyes following the activity of the docks, toothy maw dripping in blood and saliva. A deep laugh rolled over the expanse of the night, coating those closest with an unexplainable fear.

He could have moved faster, intercepted the girls that had gone ahead. Instead, he moved slowly, deliberately. He watched as the loud one chased the smart one, watched the smart one wield incredible power. Finally, as the beast took a stake to its chest, did the demon bring himself to tower above the weary initiates.

If it wasn't for the tug that tethered him to Mercer, he would have delightfully ended them. She would not allow it, not while she still lived. A frustrating piece to their arrangement.

"You may have killed it, but you are weak, and you have failed." Clawed fingers reached for Zephyrine, a mocking laugh echoing between the two girls. "You're lucky I can't make a meal of you, you don't deserve to be alive."

He was cruel, for that was his nature. Mercer would take control once more, but his words would be corrosive forever.

Thraah Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

...the third was caught by the beast.

Zephyrine waited a moment, breathing heavily as her brown eyes watched as the beast did not falter in it's steps, the caught stake gripped tight as it now stalked towards her.

Stupid girl, it hissed within her mind, your magicks are too weak against the spell from which I was casted from!

Zephyrine did not move, did not back away as the beast locked it's stare onto her. It raised it's bleeding arm, stake poised to be thrown, but the Initiate now shifted to kneel, hands still coursing magic into the wood and drew on much more from her well of power. It burned, agonising her wounds that did not heal beneath the cauterization, causing her to scream. It was release, and the entire dock separate from the second where the evacuations were still being made, Zephyrine brought it all down before her in an eruption of splinters and stakes. She kept the dock in tact a foot from where she knelt, eyes fixated on the charging creature that now fell from sight.

The creature fell, lost into the black waters, and the other Dreadlords, Initiates, and Guard waited on bated breath to see if the creature would return. Moments passed, some began to breathe, but there was a stillness that unsettled the silence. Zephyrine gasped, falling forward with a groan as her body ached. She felt faint, almost as if drained of energy and power, and unable to support herself. Her skin was pasty, a cold sweat forming.

Commotion. She could hear footfalls and shouts, see shadows form and dance by the edgeline and one last mighty roar before the night came to standstill. At least, that was what she had thought as her consciousness receded like the waves that pulled back towards the sea.

The creature, brought down. The town, now in motions to repair and heal. They did good, saving the children and families from further plight.

 

[Thraah]

"AGH. YOU..."
When the thing moved again Thraah threw every swear she had at it plus a gout of fire for good measure but it only singed the hide a bit.
Then Zeph erupted the deck. Splinters flew out from all sides in all directions as the monster crashed through and was taken by the sea.
"Fuck! SHIT!"
There was no time for disbelief because Zeph had dropped and Thraah was just about able to catch her.
"Shit, fuck Zeph... you fucking got him!"
Zeph was breathing, out but alive.
Thraah kept Zeph's hair out of her face and lifted her up to get inside.
Around them the folk and remaining Anirian's began the work of putting the destruction to rights but Zeph had earned her keep.

Zephyrine
Mercer Alwin

 

[Mercer Alwin]

The demon watched, he made no move, just stood with his soulless eyes. The creature was brought to a painful end, to sink beneath the depths, a feast for the gilled. Silently, he turned away. Mercer would return to control in a while, until then, he had his own agenda.

He left the seaside town, not a word spoken, leaving nothing but ash in his wake.

Zephyrine Thraah