Open Chronicles Demonic Cow Men

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Nathanael McCallister

Werewolf Monster Hunter
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(One of the islands connecting Amol-kalit with Cerak At’thul)

This town.... it was quiet. Too quiet. The grass had over taken the dirt path that once existed and now went as high as he knees. Vines overtook the wooden homes and stone walls. Many of the buildings had holes in their walls or roof while others were just decimated. Animals made their home where people once were and he could have sworn he saw a few little fox pups running around.

But where did all the people go?

Nate looks around at the former town, this was no simple dissertation. The last contact with a living member of the town was almost a momth ago, it was as if something else was at work here. As such, there was no way a town would get to this state so quickly.

Looking around some more Nate finds a huge hoof print, so big he could probably lay in in comfortably but whats more, is its outline was burned as if it was on fire. The monster hunter tilted his head as many monster names went through his mind.
 
A stop by the village would be a perfect place to resupply. If the villagers were willing to trade that is.

The rushing wind and the beating waves gave way to the shallows and a small boat escorted the Furstin of Monterossa to the shore. But the Lady in the blue greatcoat was not graced with a bustling village, it was only desolation.

A bit further out was a man in a pelt, seemingly inspecting something on the ground.
She might as well ask what happened here.
»Oi, Hello there,« she called out in common, her Epressan accent was thick and distinct.
 
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Nate sighs and sniffs the foot prints again, burned scent. Fucking gods damn it. One of those beasts, those fiery bastards. But which one was it?

The hunter hears footsteps behind him, they were too light for a huge monster so he turns around standing up. After examining her, he notes her half arm.

“What do you want?” Nate asks her holding the hilt of his sword ready to act if needed. He had no idea what or who caused this village to go down the way it did. So as a result he was suspicious of everyone, even if this person appeared to be a traveler.
 
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"Hey Nate!" Jane called. She stepped back onto the overgrown dirt path (hardly distinguishable from the untamed grass around it), sword unsheathed and wielded low in her right hand, heater shield held in her left.

When Nate had told her he was heading out toward the Cortosi Coast, the Akea'oma'o Sea, Jane just had to come along. A small little homecoming, in a way. She'd sailed these seas before, visited some of the islands and skimmed the coastline of Mainland Liadain. Those were fond days. Find a nice ship to board, a small village near the shore to raid, capture some sacrifices and plunder what you can, and take it all back to the Black Bay--and all the Sisters of the Citadel rejoiced and the Dark Ones were pleased.

But those days were over. Still, it felt a small bit like a return to familiarity. Nothing against the Mainland and their ways--they did what they did just like Cerak did what it did--but it was undeniably nice to depart for a while. For Astra, this time, coming around here again. Of course. Who knew, might even run into The Redeemer once more, should he still be haunting these seas and these islands.

Today, however, seemed to be hunting time. Nate's keen senses detected something...amiss about the town they'd come across on this particular island. Namely, where the fuck was everyone. And also, nature seemed to be running rampant already through the roads and the houses and everything else. Jane had gone off for a moment to get another look around the town by herself. And now, she rejoined Nate, who found something noteworthy.

She smirked, seeing him by the huge footprint with the singed edges. Tapped her blade on the steel of her pauldron and said, "You got the nose, Nate. Found a clue before I did. I'll buy you beer."

And she knew damn well a beer wouldn't do anything for him. But wasn't it the thought that counted? Astra would approve. You know. Gift-giving, selflessness, that was all well and good, wasn't it.

Jane eyed the extent of the footprint (hoofprint? maybe) and glanced back to Nate. Said, "So what are you thinking? Demons? I hope so. A fire elemental would be a pain in the--"

Oh look, they were hailed by someone else. Hm. Town wasn't completely abandoned or disappeared then. Or it was, and this woman was a happen-uponer like Nate and Jane. Also, what in the immortal hell happened to her arm? And, uh...would she mind if Jane offered to help her out and remove a portion of her other arm? For symmetry's sake, only.

Nate asked her what she wanted. Jane just nodded in greeting. Said as well, "Jane. And you?"

Might as well get names out of the way. Figure everything else out as it came along.

Nathanael McCallister Ermengarde
 
Ermengarde waved her hand in a friendly but passive manner. Of course, she was only one-armed.
funny how suspicious still people were at such times, but then again, an entire village poofed into nothingness and he clearly looked not like a local, even less so his friend that came out of the blue.

»Hey hey, I'm only here to trade for supplies for my crew back at the port. I'm not here chasing boys. But it seems that plan has gone to bust.« The woman smirked but did not proceed to move further, taking on a more relaxed stance instead.

»So you're Nate?« The duellist tilted her head to the guy, then gazing at the lass, »The Name's Ermengarde, Furstin of Monterossa, « she even bowed oh so slightly. She was sort of tehnically a princess, but seemed more like a cadet than anything else.
 
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Nate gives out a slight cheer, oh the taste of beer was so nice! Particularly if it was cool beer! He could drink it all night if he wanted to! "Well, when your family is in my line of work then you start to pick up a trick or two along the generations. And my gut is telling me the demon of some sort, maybe someone failed to fulfill a contract and ended up this way." He explains to Jane not having himself take all the credit.

He'd listen to the young armless woman and sigh quietly, "Well so long to keeping the fucking namesake out of the business..." He whispers to himself before giving Ermengarde a bow, "That is Nathanael of Clan McCallister, I recommend you leave this place before me and my partner," The hunter motions to Jane who was seemingly trying to figure out the woman as much as he was, "Find the thing that caused this and chaos ensues. After all, I do not want the hounds and the angry men fo Monterossa nipping at our heels if something happens to you., bad for business." Nate's eyes were all serious as most of the time they were. Only people that knew him so far when he wasn't on the job outside of the family was probably Jane for the most part.

Nate gives the armless woman a nod and turns around to start following the trail, "There is no ware for you and your people here!" He motions to Jane to come along.
 
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A Furstin. Sounded like more Mainlander speak that Jane wouldn't know. There were so many different titles that Mainlanders loved to give themselves. In Cerak, there was Master, and Captain. Slaves didn't get shit, neither did the common sailor. Nor the rabble and riff-raff of the general town.

Nate was Nate about it. Concern vaguely for the woman Ermengarde, but mostly for his business. Wasn't wrong. If a Furstin was actually someone important and things went sour and something got misconstrued, Nate's second favorite pastime--questioning the hell out of locals whether they had a monster problem or not--could be made a little harder. Jane could buy him enough beer to sink a ship, but that wouldn't really assuage his wounded sense of duty if that transpired.

So that was Nate on the subject. How'd Jane feel about Ermengarde?

"Do what you got to do," Jane said, grinning, shrugging a little, and turning to follow after Nate as he started down the trail the huge smoldering hoofprint pointed toward.

Either she'd come along. Or she wouldn't. That was up to her. Heh, maybe this would be like Emery all over again. And Jane would get a kick out of that: she loved it when Nate was flustered and angry about something. He was just so teasable--especially when it was over and Jane casually reminded him about said something he'd been worked up about.

Jane said to him as they walked, speaking on his hypothesis about demons and a failed contract, "Another Guillotine. Ha, excellent, I loved that place. By Astra, it had everything I could have ever wanted packed into one town."

Nathanael McCallister Ermengarde
 
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»Oh, I don't think myself so cowardly to let down an opportunity for a hunt,« Ermengarde nattered with a slight wink. Though her visage at first glance might be everything but fierce, her facade was that of tenacity and that elongated blade by her hip was anything but new and untrained.

»I would find it a shame to just leave without figuring out what happened here first.«
 
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Nate sighs, "If the demon eats you then that will spell hell for my family and our trade. But I won't hold the demon at fault." He warns Ermengarde as she followed them he would imagine.

It has been a bit since he had been at Guillotine. That is where he and Jane met while the town was being ravaged by demons brought on by the town's now dead lord. Something about men and demons always seemed to mix in such a way it almost always ended so wrong.

"Yeah, that wasn't so bad until that demon shot its pain ray at me. Those were the worse few seconds of my life and I've been through a good few of those." He reminds her and was thankful they both made it out of there alive, unlike a few of the townsfolk. Oh well. You can't save everyone in this endless battle.

The trio walked deeper into the dilapidated ruins of the town. Following the large footsteps and at the same time, Nate followed the stale scent. "Hopefully we can get a good offering to Astra or your other gods for you Jane. They would be pleased I would imagine." He tells her looking back at Ermengarde.

"What are you doing this far south? Other than trading, not to mention traveling on your own? There are pirates about along with more demons on the loose than usual around here." He motions to the huge footsteps as they went the scent slowly getting stronger until they came upon a huge cacoon like structure.

The cacoon itself was made out of disgusting purple goop, some of it was red. It hung from two pillars with purple tissue matter. Blood dripped from the cacoon into a blood-filled fountain. Not to mention things were writhing within its flesh. The stench was bad enough Nate himself felt a bit dizzy, for once he wished he was an unaffected human still as he stumbled back shaking his head.
 
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Ermengarde was coming along. Excellent. Nate didn't really share the feeling for reasons already stated, but Jane saw the merit in it. Provided she didn't stab them in the back (they were in the waters known for that, weren't they), Ermengarde could at the very least be--as Jane had heard it put before by a cheeky pirate--"opportunistic ablative armor." The idea was simple: Don't want to get shot with a crossbow bolt? Bring some friends. The more the merrier, and when the boarding starts, less chance for you to catch said bolt in the face. Replace "crossbow bolt" with whatever it was that your current foe threatened you with, and the concept of opportunistic ablative armor applied to every combat situation.

Nate was on the trail--both the one Jane could see and the one she couldn't--of the supposed demon, and Jane followed. This town...heh, Jane had never seen anything like it. Now that they were walking through the town proper, looked less like nature was intruding on civilization and more like civilization was trying and failing to intrude on nature, overgrown as it was. Seemed like it had been abandoned for years, not months.

To Nate, "Yeah. I hope so too. Astra knows I've got a hell of a debt to pay."

And then they came to...the Thing. The Thing Jane didn't know the word for.

Jane frowned and brought her shield-arm up to pinch her nose. What a fucking smell. She had smelled some thoroughly unpleasant things back in Cerak--how could you not--but this was something else. Like a vicious attack upon her nostrils, enough to make her eyes water. Sure, there was some weird insect-like Thing (reminded her of Havilah) hanging from the pillars, and a Guillotine-invaded-by-demons type blood fountain, but that took the silver to the stench's fucked up gold.

Jane rolled her head to the side. A wry look. A nasally comment, "Nate. I don't envy you right now."

Nathanael McCallister Ermengarde
 
Ermengarde let out a deep chuckle as she approached the duo, having a look around this place. »And are you two some kind of monster hunters?« Why else would they be so interested in.
Seems like some wicked thing overrun this place didn't look like any normal hoofed critter at least. Too big.

»From Epressa? Trade, mostly trade as you've figured out, no other reason but blind greed and pirates are nothing compared to a well versed pyromancing sharpshooter.« Ermengarde said dryly, but with some pride at the end.

She would have continued speaking but dear lord dear lordy lord.
Now wasn't this a stunk comparable to a week old pig carcass left in the sun. Ermengarde spat out before looking back at the mass.

»quite a pleasant sight this is.«
 
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“We are, she’s in it for her gods,” He motions to Jane, “I just do it because its one of my kingdom’s main exports. Gotta do the family proud.” Nate tells Ermemgarde as they walked before they came upon the smelling cacoon making Nate wish he was dead almost.

"Nate. I don't envy you right now."

The monster hunter’s eyes were closed as his eyes were watering he he swore a headache was coming on, “Don’t remind me Jane, we’re taking a long fucking bath at the end of this.” He manages to tell Jane, “No amount of perfume will be able to cover this up.”

He takes a few deep breaths through his mouth, but he could sort of taste the smell also. But it was a bit more better than smelling it.

The cacoon was still writhing with things underneath it, and a large squirt of what seemed like dead bidy fluid spewed out of it and... an cow’s leg poked out of it. Gods it was opening up!

Nate growls and runs at it, stabbing his sword deep into the cacoon and a bunch of screams uttered from it. It sounded like a horrendous mixture of a human and a cow screaming. Such a horrible sound which Nate would gladly forget. Just as quickly as he had stabbed it he slashed it open revealing about four cow-like bodies with human like heads with hair still on them.They’re backs seemed to be breaking from whatever the transformation was.

Nate was in complete surprise as what he was seeing, “Jane... any ideas?” He asks as the poor people were gasping for air covered in their own decayed flesh’s liquid. He would quickly put them out of their misery with a swift stab to the heart. It reminded him of certain monsters that used humans to produce their brood.
 
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And are you two some kind of monster hunters?

Nate, yes; Jane, no. As far "officially" went on the Monster Hunter front. Huh, and how about that. After all the time they'd been traveling together, now Jane knew why Nate was a Monster Hunter. His reason both did and did not make sense to her. On the most basic level it didn't because she had no family of her own and couldn't relate to that aspect. Though the idea of making someone "proud" was a touch insensible to her as well, she was familiar with pleasing others: the overseers so she wouldn't get beaten, the Sisters and the Dark Ones to gain their favor, and Astra now because of (the Redeemer) what she'd done before.

There. Nate was pleasing his family by hunting monsters--that was the way Jane could understand it. Good on him.

Now Ermengarde's reason for being this far south were easily sensible. Blind greed--Jane understood that with no problem. Good on Ermengarde.

So with all that straightened away...the Thing. The nasty, squirming, reeking Thing.

...we’re taking a long fucking bath at the end of this...

"Yes. Yes we are," Jane said. "Also, what's perfume?"

Fluid burst from the fleshy sack and...was that a cow's leg? Jane had a passing familiarity with livestock--yes, there were people crazy enough/enslaved enough to farm on the islands of the Black Bay. But this seemed...unusual, despite her inexpert knowledge.

Nate wasted no time, and didn't let that awful stench slow him down. Now what was inside, that looked like something that was the work of the Dark Ones, or if it wasn't directly than something that would (topically enough) please them. Some inspired Sisters of the Citadel did some mild rearranging of their own with their sacrifices; Jane didn't care for that.

Jane sauntered forward, up to the sliced open Thing with the four (ostensibly) slain Cowmen inside. Stood next to Nate. Just stared at the hideous creatures with an "I'll be damned" sort of smile--which didn't last long. Damn stench made her pinch her nose again with her shield arm.

She glanced over her shoulder and said, facetiously, to Ermengarde, "You're going to have a rough time trading here."

Then to Nate, "Can you smell any more of these...sacks? Around the town? Hate to make you do it--I'll buy you twice the beer. But if we can kill these monsters before they come out, all the better."

Won't help them figure out what exactly happened here, but it ought to make said figuring easier. What with a lack of Cowmen scrambling after them.

Nathanael McCallister Ermengarde
 
This was absolutely abhorrent of a sight. Like out of a nightmare.

»Some kinda wizard messing with transmutation? « Ermengarde stepped back, holding her nose as the cowmen perished. »Heard there was some body-stitcher back in cerak at'thul not that long ago. « Though, mot likely not, that craftsman had some sort of....legal business.
and this didn't look stitched.

Her only free hand reached for her rapier at the side. Perhaps the best choice of action. Though by now it seemed, is this preventative measure or some consequence of the missing villagers?
Ala did the village disapear first or did the cowcacoons come first.
 
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Nate listens to their suggestions wiping his blade clean in the grass, "Maybe..." Nate just responds deep in thought. "Unless the other ones have already emerged from their cocoon."

"If it is a body-sticher also... I hope his death was swift in the end if there was one."
Nate says quietly taking a match out of his pocket and setting the sack and it remains alight.

At least it smelt better to him than the disgusting smell of the cacoon, the smell of flesh for once was a relief to Nate and his nose.

He'd step away from the grotesque scene and when he gets far enough away he takes a few quick sniffs of the air. Then groans covering his nose as he points towards another path.

"Gods help my sanity." He grumbles as he walks towards the even worse stench, it took a few minutes but eventually the hunter sighs, "Okay ladies, this is going to take a moment to get there. Got any stories to tell?" He asks them climbing over a caved-in wall and into a ruined home that actually seemed it was pretty nice once.
 
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That warmed Jane's heart, hearing a near complete stranger talk about Cerak. She didn't know about this body-stitcher herself--made sense, if "not that long ago" meant within the last few years, when she had cleared out of the town proper and joined with the Sisters of the Citadel. And "body-stitcher" was easily in the plausible purview of services available in Cerak. So long as dues were paid to the Black Fortress, anybody could set up shop and do anything.

Nate with the sobering thought. Hey, possible up-side: "Maybe the Cowmen won't stink as bad once they're out of the--what'd you call it, Nate? A cocoon?"

Maybe they ought to bring some of that stuff Nate was talking about. "Perfume." Get some sacks full of it and just strap them to their faces, like a feedbag for a horse. Better than having to wallow in this reeking agony for the whole time they were out here hunting. Poor Nate. He was really going to need some relaxing time after this.

Jane glanced to Ermengarde and then followed Nate down the ruined street of the town. He took an unenviable sniff of the air and turned down an intersecting path. Jane had a bit of trouble getting solid footing to climb over the rubble of the caved-in wall--the three-inch heels of her sabatons not helping. She used her sword as an impromptu walking stick and eventually got over the collapsed wood of the wall and the tangle of vines overgrowing it.

Into the ruined home. Motes of dust were plentiful in the air, highlighted by spears of sunlight through windows or similarly damaged and degraded sections of the wall. Some puddles had accumulated in the shadowy sections of the room that the light had trouble reaching--rainwater that had leaked in and was now the sole resident. The green of grasses, vines, leaves, and weeds had overtaken the room they walked through, consuming the floor and walls and parts of the ceiling and the furniture and overall obscuring what the room's purpose had been before it had fallen to ruin.

"I've got a story," Jane said, following after Nate in a lackadaisical way, glancing at the surroundings of the ruined home as she talked. "I befriended a Dreadlord once. Only reason I knew he was a Dreadlord is because everybody in Cerak hates Vel Anir. Anyway. I was with a raiding party of my Sisters somewhere up on the Cortosi Coast. Turns out, the village we came across was going to be annexed by the Anirians. They wanted to get rid of some "problem" villagers. We showed up and were a convenient solution. 'Oh no...raiders came and captured half your village, better let us Anirians protect you.' I actually shook hands with the Dreadlord once we made the deal; he showed me how. And that's the story. The basic version."

Nathanael McCallister Ermengarde
 
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»Not on my end, « Ermengarde remarked to the tale-telling, shrugging.
Her rapier, however, did not go sheathed. Hard chance she'll get ambushed...by dear lord, whatever abomination lies in wait.

Down the street and through some loops. Though some rubble and some dirt.

»Quite a tale, not much of a good plot. My uncle always embellished his tales with a decent amount of frivolously innocent lies.«
 
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Nate chuckles, "It doesn't work that way Jane, they're still bodies and all bodies decompose in the end but they never smell as bad at this. Whatever the thing that cause this was is not a good thing."

He did not know how he felt about Jane dealing with the Dreadlords, for one thing for sure they hated elves and were racist. So if he ever met them and they find out what he is, he had no idea what they could do to him. Or if they would do something to him. Not to mention a few of his fellow monster hunters were elves, gnomes, and other non-human species.

"Why sprinkle lies in the story? If it does get written down by the same person it occurred, I much rather be reading the actual version, plain, and simple." He asks Ermengarde as they approached a clearing. Once again the stench wafted over the trio as they walked closer to it, but it did not look like the other cocoon.

The cocoon was gone, and what sat there was a human flesh skinned cow, it's front for legs were a grotesque mixture of hooves and hands, its rear was the same except with feet. It would look up and reveal a humanoid head with sharp huge teeth and large red eyes that bulged like a cow's eyes. Standing up the ground shook and the human/cow-like body of the beast was revealed. The ribs were oddly human-like and it slimmed down the further down the body one would look.

The creature sputters and coughs, spit drooled from its mouth and its eyes closed and opened looking crazed as it watches them.

"For fuck's sake..." Nate backs up some and hurls somewhere else in the back. The stench was even worse than the original cocoon!!

The cow groans and its bones crack as it quickly charges at the trio, looking ready for a bite to eat.
 
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Maybe Nate was right. About the cocoon and the bodies and the decomposing. Can't say she didn't try to cheer him up. But with a nose that powerful, silver-lining thoughts and hopes weren't going to amount to much anyway, she supposed.

Heh. Ermengarde. Jane just shrugged it off and said, "That's what happened." Erm's uncle was probably a better storyteller than Jane, honestly. All Jane really did was report facts. This happened, here. End of story. Hardly anything of an entertainer, and she didn't know how much better or worse she got when she was drunk, on account of difficulty remembering. Typically. Astra surely didn't approve, but when Jane got to drinking, she got to drinking.

They stepped out of the ruined home and out into a clearing. And a wall of godawful reek slammed into them again. Enough to make Jane immediately dry heave twice.

She looked up once done, hearing some coughs and sputters that didn't belong to either Ermengarde nor Nate (though Nate--poor Nate--was going to have his own problems). And damn, was that Cowman repulsive. A perfect servant for the Dark One Nebbatt. Maybe Dark One Halch or Dark One Therg. If it wasn't for the abominable smell, this might actually be enjoyable--causing that mess of a creature pain.

"Hey Nate," Jane coughed, her voice made thin and strained by her attempts to not breathe in that stench, and the raggedness of her earlier dry heaving. "We're gonna by Astra find out if this thing is a demon or Dark One spawn."

To Ermengarde: "Ready?" A slight grin, spoiled momentarily by a retching expression, and recovered a second afterward.

Jane raised her shield and held her sword out far to one side. Golden lightning-like energy rippled down the blade as the power of her Smite enveloped it. Then she held the blade over the top of her shield, like a spearman in a phalanx might. If this Cowman was indeed one of her Favored Enemies, then the Smite would have a powerful and explosive effect on it. If not...meager, at best.

She stood her ground and waited for the Cowman to get closer. Waited. Waited...

And thrust her sword forward as soon as it came within range.

Nathanael McCallister Ermengarde
 
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» Because it's fun. You're either recounting history or telling a tale. And even in that case, it's good to admit that most sources of fact are biased opinions,« she might have sounded serious, but lastly gave a good chuckle to lighten the mood.
This was no time to be pleasant, a monster appeared.


»READY? « She almost asked, lunging forward with her rapier in full extent. The cow-thing chopped at Ermengarde but only got the sweet taste of metal pierces through its palate. The cow recoiled backwards before it pierced anything important.

Ermengarde backed off, slightly behind Jane's defensive 'line'. The cattle beast guzzled blood beside the mucus now on its next approach.

»Wish I had a damned boar spear right now.«
 
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The cowman gurgles some more lumbering towards the two women, the other one had stabbed it within its mouth. Not really nice was it? The beasts gurgles even more and charged, its hand-hooves gripping the ground as the first behind it is kicked up.

Nate, on the other hand, felt like death. He lost his lunch, and now he had a killer headache. BUT the monster hunter must carry on! He takes a few steps forward before a wave of dizziness hits him forcing him to take a knee. They got this, who knew that Father's gift was also this sort of weakness. Oh, he was going to have a talk with him later.

As the cowman charges and ends up getting hit by Jane's smite. An explosion comes from the cowman, a hunk of its shoulder is blown off and it staggers back some then raises its hands.

With a flurry of blows ( 4 if you roll) slashing wildly at the two women as it charges them. Snapping its jaw as it does.

The explosion of light causes Nate to stagger back some also blinded by the holiness of the smite.

If only Jane knew for gods sake!

"NOT...Helping!" He growls once again losing his lunch from the disorientation.
 
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Jane smiled with a wild ferocity as her Smite was unleashed to its full potential: Ah ha ha, she loved it when that happened! The only thing that would make it better was if the Cowman would scream in pain, grimace in the same, flop or roll about, oh just a little something, a little delicious feedback from her strike. But, alas, the beast was too beastly. Nothing of the sort, aside from some consequential staggering.

Oo, a boar spear. Ermengarde knew the score. Heat it up, poke holes in people, a twist here, a twist there, excellent torture device--Jane loved it. If only she did have one. Maybe the Cowman would've reacted to that.

The victory was short-lived. Jane got a chunk of the Cowman's meaty shoulder, but it didn't lose any of its ferocity. It came rushing at them, flailing powerful arms, and Jane couldn't withstand it: the heel of her back foot was planted poorly and didn't brace into the ground. She had her shield raised but the force of the Cowman's blow slammed into it and--with a strength that likely made her failure to brace negligible anyway--sent her stumbling back hard and falling onto her ass and then flat down onto her back. Dazed.

And poor Nate was still having a rough go of it. That nose of his was going to cause him to empty his stomach before this was over.

Ermengarde Nathanael McCallister
 
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»Thrilling, « Ermengarde blinked a few times, raising her rapier further in the air, it's point viciously aiming downwards at the beast.
How was that thing still standing?
the duellist at least felt like, oh it's going to be one of those fights, like the bullfights. Seems like Jane will have to suffer the brunt of this one.

The woman sidestepped aside as the Bullman collided with the shield, the best she could do was stab it deep across its backside to cause deep bleedings.
 
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Nate looks up and sees Jane get slammed by the cowman and the duelist managed to side step its attack. But she used a fencing weapon, meant for poking. He did not trust those weapons, they were not good hunting weapons against such a large beast. If it was a humanoid or smaller then he could see it being of use.

The hunter, against his stomach’s and nose’s judgement, jumps and catches Jane as she stumbles and makes she she is okay at least other then dazed. With his sword he tries to drive it over the beast’s chest. The cowman snorts unphased Nate jumps back as it stomps around trying to decide who to go after. Nate stood closer to Jane while she laid dazed, the other woman had one arm but was agile.

With a loud roar the beast’s eyes begin to split, juices spilled all over the earth. The sound of acid hitting the ground came from the blood as its skin started to split down its back and more human like muscle structures started to emerge from its back.

This thing was getting grosser by the second. Even for Nate who ran at it and bring his sword down on the beast’s main neck. He did some damage but not enough as acid splashed on his arm and ate through his brades onto his skin. The human growls and jumps back to safety as he starts to yank and tear off the clothing and bracer around his acid burn.

The cowman’s skin was now melting away revealing muscles and blood under it, with a completely different skeleton underneath as other human-cowmen poled out of its back looking around with their many eyes and long clawed hands.
 
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Ermengarde showing off the merits of being light of one's feet. Jane, meanwhile, suffering the consequences of not. Never had been particularly nimble on her feet, though, so a shield and armor went a long way.

Nate had her back. Literally, as it turned out, as with a not-so-surprising quickness he managed to save her from spilling down onto the ground completely. Hey, that was nice. She gave a little nod to show that she was alright (at least as much as she could be in the immediate moment after taking a colossal blow to her shield and body), and Nate went right to work as Jane sat and blinked hard and sought to collect herself.

Jane groaned and turned over and planted the hands of her sword-arm and shield-arm on the ground. Got her left foot flat on the dirt and pushed her up and got her right foot stable during that motion. And when she turned back around to face the beast it had...well, holy hell, it had become something grotesquely different, hadn't it.

What was wrong with it's blood? It hissed like a snake and steamed like fire and seemed as hungry as a sailor freshly returned to port, save that it ate through Nate's clothing and not some whopping tavern meal. Jane had never seen anything like it.

Jane strafed toward Nate after he jumped back, coming to stand beside him while not turning her back or side to the Cowman. Ermengarde was gonna have to watch her ass, out there by the Cowman more or less on her lonesome.

And when Jane clapped her sword against the side of her shield and both became illuminated in the crackling energy and glowing light of her Smite and Holy Shield, she felt instinctively that she was drained. This was it, maybe enough divine favor left for a single Blessing, but otherwise this was it. She had been derelict in her penance as of late, and Astra certainly wasn't going to go around rewarding bad behavior. Time to make do.

"Think we can take off its head, and that'll kill it?" she said, taking a second to strategize. Then frowned in a frustrated way and elaborated, "All of its heads, I mean. You go for one, I go for the other, Ermengarde pokes the hell out of it in the meantime?"

Nathanael McCallister Ermengarde
 
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Reactions: Ermengarde