Pandemonium Mists Across the Sands

[Aletheiar Alazar]

Out from the mists the lupine beasts charged, jaws wide open and slavering. Blood and saliva flowed freely from their gaping maws, and their claws tore fiercely at the earth, hungry to rip open not soil but flesh. Immediately Kassa Lia knew that they sensed her blood, heard her heartbeat, and craved to feast upon her. But did she fear them, the four beasts whose eyeless senses fixed upon her life?

No.

The dirk she held she switched to the left hand, the right forming into a fist with the index and middle finger held together and up. Eyes closed, she held this hand close before her face, and the shimmering aura around her increased in strength and ferocity. Now it pulsed in time with her own heart, and the earth around her feet trembled. Then it stilled.

Her eyes shot open, and her eyes flashed with the power within her. The ground below the three creatures bounding toward her erupted. As the initial wolfish monster died at the hands of Kreyadis, howling a scream unlike any other beast, the three were assaulted by black ropes surging from the earth. A deep, stygian black that seemed to warp and repel the oppressive sun itself, the whip-like arms wrapped themselves around the hunters, binding them fast.

Two of the hunters struggled in their bindings, snarling and snapping. A third, bigger and stronger than the others, broke free near Lionel, and in a rage charged the pale man in a blur of decayed flesh and rotten fur. Trusting the man to prove he was no owlet, Kassa Lia focused on her two prey.

“Confringetur super rotam.”

The ropes around the hunters stiffened, and suddenly twisted around themselves, forming into a wheel that turned, rotating, and the lupine creatures, limbs interwoven in the spokes, squealed as their limbs cracked and broke. Kassa Lia smiled.

“Spicae.”

Spikes erupted from the wheels, impaling the creatures from all sides. Then the wheels dissipated into impotent smoke, the damage done. The two wolves dropped to the ground, twitching beside the first that had met its end by Kreyadis’s sword.

She eyed Kreyadis before turning to Lionel and his opponent. “No weapons, dear.”


1 (Broken on the wheel)
2 (Spikes)

 

[Lionel Armon]

The hounds attacked, focusing in on the living woman. Her skills in magic were considerable and three of the hounds fell to her powers. But one escaped and in blind rage attacked him. These creatures were a horrid sight, but he had seen and fought far worse. From what he could tell, these were demon possessed corpses recently inhabited since the arrival of the mist, the fleshly decay a byproduct of the possession.

He wasn't overly concerned, especially when he saw the competence of Kassa and Kreyadis. But what concerned him was that these hounds were not the humanoid shape of the shadow he saw on his end. Which probably meant there was a leader of this pack, and he would have to deal with an attack from his flank imminently while his back is turned in dealing with this lone hound.

Kassa said, "No weapons", and that made him smile. He had no intention of using his blade, and silver had little effect on these demons anyways.
The hound was attempting to rake him with its savage claws, and therefore was lunging recklessly in its blind rage. As the demon gave a high lunge at Lionel he sidestepped the lunge and missed the claws. Before the hound could land he caught it by the scruff of its neck and yanked it back at whiplash speed counter to its already considerable momentum. The pull was so forceful that the decaying bones in its neck snapped. The demon would continue to be able to move the hound to its will, but its head would be useless... That is, until Lionel put the possessed body out of the fight for good by holding it in front of him and separated its head and front legs from its tail and hind legs. Dropping the broken corpse to the sand the demon had little to work with and so passed on.

Lionel could hear the patter in the sand behind him and knew that the other hounds were now approaching his flank. Basic pack tactics. But this pack had no interest in slowly bleeding out their prey. A drop of blood now stained the cuff of his sleeve. He regarded the tainted wolf blood for a moment before turning to face his next opponents. His face an absolute mask of cold determination.

 

[Kreyadis Nightwing]

Kreyadis' ears twitched as the sounds of paw on sand pitterpattered through the darkness encompassing the land, his face furrowed with concentration as he began to hum, low and rhythmic, picking up pace in the beat of the chant as the transgressors came closer. Drawing a quick circle into the dirt about him, he transposed a pentagram of which he stood in the middle, at each of the five points a different rune. The sounds of the beasts in the distance encircled the group of three, snarls of a great many beginning to drown out the calm whispers of the breeze. Kreyadis noted the number between as many as eight to twelve, unsure of the absolute total due to his clouded vision, and the fact that while these were not alive, they were also not undead. He realized then, too, that these were demonic forces, something of which he grimaced at as he pointed towards the Lord's backside, one of the pack lunging for the humanoid blood drinker. The attempt was thwarted by a grotesque spike of bone-like structure ripping through the back foot, which caused it to stumble and stall, yet not completely apprehend the beast towards death's embrace as Kreyadis suddenly moved back to complete his spell.

The final rune drawn, his humming grew furious and sporadic, as his body began to twitch and convulse, undoing the straps to his armor which began to fall about him. After the last greave was discarded, he thrusted his arms towards the sky and let out a stomach curdling gurgle as if he were choking on his own vomit, his lips displacing venomously black bile which dripped down the corners of his chin. He bent forward before his back doubled backwards, back and forth, back and forth, as if his mind was now also controlled as these demonic dogs were. He began to seize uncontrollably before the skin atop his body rippled, brightened from the ashy grey to swirling strands of pink, as if the muscle were replacing its outer shell of protection. His back bones were the most rigorously transformed, sprouting out a pair of wings coated with a thick mucus-like membrane as they expanded into the air, his hands covering his face as the sound of what could be mistaken as sobs were muffled by long sprouting claws. He continued this charade a moment longer before he removed the long digits from around a grotesquely pressed face, as if someone slammed a cast iron into the bone structure, skin stretched tight and nose pressed flat, his once white hair now a jet black. His lips looked nonexistent, seemingly merging straight into the gums which anchored jagged rows of shark-like teeth in the maw of his.

As two demonic dogs from the pack surrounded them he thrust his wings into the air, displacing some of the mist with a powerful gust created by imposing appendages. Kreyadis immediately swooped down and picked both of them up, one in each clawed hand, carrying them high in the sky before dropping them back below into the foray of the swarming pack animals. He swooped down into the mist directly after them, the howls of stricken animals condensing into a single mass of sound.

 

[Aletheiar Alazar]

By now it was clear these wolf-like creatures were of the infernal kind, demons drawn up along with the crimson mist from whatever realm such things came from. Kassa Lia could almost smell the fire in their blood, the curse in their very being, twisting through their veins and arteries like a foul poison. But whereas the normal man or woman might quail at the sight and sound of these demonic beasts, she smiled as more of them bounded out of the fog.

Their claws ripped at the ground, their teeth gnashing together as their ragged fur stood on end along their twisted spines. They were large, bigger than their already slain kindred – those before were merely scouts, omegas of the pack. These were the hunters, perched high in the chain of authority and power. In the black depths where their eyes would have been were orbs of steaming, smoking red, glowing with malevolence. Kassa Lia counted silently- at least ten, perhaps more.

Kreyadis was completing his pentagram as Kassa Lia narrowed her eyes at the growling predators, now circling around them, watching for the right time to pounce and maim. She spread her hands wide, and the dirk which she grasped was released. It floated in the air, coming to a halt behind her. She breathed in deep as two wolves leaped at her.

Focus.

Violet beams of black light burst from the dagger, screaming high-pitched shrieks. They seared into the wolves, and the beasts fell back with scorches on their chest. They howled and whined, pawing at the bleeding burns, but their deaths were yet to come.

The dagger, now completely black, grew. Its sharp edges dulled as the length of it expanded with the hilt, until it towered over Kassa Lia and her foes. It was a cross, with the arms slanted upwards like the crucifixes of old, where criminals and the innocent alike were left to hang and die.

She snapped her fingers, and all at once the cross burst apart into a flock of crows and ravens, a great myriad of carrion eaters. Their cries were the sound of steel against stone, of despair and torment as they took flight, their wings shedding black pinions as they swirled around the two wolves. The beasts snarled, slashing and biting at the crows, but their teeth and claws passed through them as if they were naught but smoke. The wolves’ howls turned into unearthly screams as the crows descended in full upon them, and when they departed but an instant later, nothing was left but patches of gore and bloody bones. Not far away, two other wolves crashed to the ground, the transformed Kreyadis following close behind.

 

[Lionel Armon]

Lionel faced the circling hounds on his flank. Yes, the demons were mimicking a pack mentality of the dogs they inhabited. His allies were doing well for themselves, so he didn't have to worry about keeping them safe. He only spared a glance, but Kreyadis's transformation was especially impressive to him, though he worried that the mist would blind him and cause him to have a much too sudden reunion with the ground. And Kassa's magic seemed to be very effective against the possessed bodies of the hounds. Confident in their abilities his only duty for now to simply keep the wolves from attacking them from behind. Back to back was the best formation when surrounded, so Lionel did his best to keep that formation wordlessly with the others.

From his angle he would have to deal with three or four at a time at most if they chose not to attack one at a time. And of course he could hear more behind the visible hounds in the mists. So when he killed one he knew it would always be replaced by another. And these new hounds were not small.
And speaking of which, here they come now.

Two hounds broke off from the circle, bolting forward to attack. They came in low, going for his legs. To punish them for the animalistic tactic he caught both of them behind their necks and pushed their faces brutally into the sand, driving their momentum downward and pushing himself back a couple of feet in the sand as well. He held them down for a moment, their jaws snapping at him and their twisted limbs trying to reach him from their prostrate position.

If the demons thought to have a chance against any of them, they needed to adopt intelligent tactics. These spiritual type demons were not dumb creatures. They are old and eternal beings, fallen angels cast out of heaven. They have watched the world far longer than he or any of his kind has. So once they found out that their prey wasn't going down easily they would put that ancient knowledge to use. And they had to be ready when they did.

The undead possessed bodies held little blood, but what they did have he made use of. The hounds scratched and squirmed futilely under his grip. His magic may have left him... But this power would always be his. The still blood inside their deteriorating bodies bent to his will, soaking into the possessed flesh of their hosts. Once the blood had a presence back in most of their vital parts he made an alteration, manipulating the blood with a thought and the entire chest cavities of both hounds exploded violently as their own blood tore them apart. He then ripped the heads off the prostrated and ruined animals to assure that the corpses were useless to the demons.

Of course his distraction with the two made him open to the attacks of two more. He saw this coming but could do little to fully prevent it. But he was not about to allow them past his position by dodging out of the way, so he was rewarded with one wolf biting deep into his upper arm and the other locking its teeth through his boot and calf. Both of them fought and twisted savagely, attempting to tear off pieces of him.

He grunted... It had been a while, but yes... He still felt every bit of the pain...