Foam dripped from Its twisted, snarling mouth.
Sweat, dirt, and blood coated its course blue-black fur.
Blood?
Goblin? No...Rabbit? It's own?
It didn't matter. It was not enough.
It was never enough.
It had tried to fight the urges.
It had failed...
It had tired cattle...
To no effect.
It had tried bear.
Nothing still but hunger.
Everlasting and insatiable hunger.
It knew...
It knew very well, at the back of It's ragging and swirling mind what It had to do.
It caught movement to Its left as Its mind refocused on the hunt.
The lone Watchman was blissfully unaware of how very little time to live he truly had.
The monstrous beast threw Its head back and let loose an ear-splitting howl and lept from Its perch atop the short, hastily built wall, then from there it pounced, landing nimbly atop the thatched roof of a small, shabby hut. If the howl hadn't scared the piss from the Watchman's bladder, the sudden appearance of the Ware-beast certainty did. This was not the first time he had seen such a creature. While out on patrol, less than a tenday ago, he had spotted something very similar in shape, build, and smell even!
He was more than sure that the beast had spotted him as well.
It had fled, and he had not given chase. Why the Hellz would he!?
It was large.
Slim, yet verily muscled.
Even hunched over, it appeared to be at least 6 feet tall at the shoulder. It would more than likely tower over the man up close.
Apparently, today was the day that he would fack around and find out.
The horrid creature wasted little time.
Just as soon as the watchman had looked up and caught sight of It, It struck.
The man's head rolled across the damp grass.
The body fell away in the opposite direction.
The beast caught the corps as it fell, and clamped Its massive jaws down on the gaping wound where once there had been a head.
It drank deeply.
Blood.
Sweet.
Hot.
Delicious HUMAN blood.
It dripped from Its fangs and drenched Its upper chest.
The beast was very nearly sated. It needed little more than a single meal a month, and this man's fine blood would keep him full for at least that amount of time.
Give or take.
It wasn't really sure... The thing that... He had become.
This monster.
This cursed mindlessly hungry thing.
The man trapped inside had yet to learn all of the ins and outs...
It...HE didn't want to.
He wanted nothing more than to be free of It.
He wanted nothing more than to die.
------------
From across the courtyard, around half a dozen other huts, the remaining 11 Watchmen were spread out.
Watching.
Waiting.
They had not intended for the young Watchman to die.
To be a lure?
Yes.
The Ware-beast had taken his head from his shoulder with such speed, such strength...
Just seconds before that, It's roar had fully paralyzed the lot of them.
Genric was in charge here.
He dreaded that fact right about now.
But this night, nor situation had no room for his personal fears.
Over the past tenday his pair of interchangeable Scouts had been returning with more and more reports of half eaten rabbits, deep claw-like scratches found on trees, and even the corps of a dead bear! His initial thoughts had been of wolves.
Maybe rather... eccentric wolves?
A roaming pack or something along those lines. He was a simple man with simple thoughts. He, nor any of the men among his village guard could have ever been mentally prepared for what had arrived that night. With one man down, and fear threatening to freeze the bones of those that remained, he knew that he had little choice but to rally his men as best he could and attempt to follow through with what they HAD planned.
"CHAAAARGE!"
He cried, leaping out from the shadow of the hut that he had been behind. At once all of the remaining 11 men moved.
As did the beast.
Genric was fast, but he had a few among his men who could match or even best his pace.
Tonight, they matched it, gladly letting him lead.
No one wanted to engage the monster.
Genric sighed.
"Oh well."
He thought as he mentally prepared himself for death.
He lifted his shield and let lose a battle cry as he brought his sword to bare.
The gap was closed.
And battle met.
Genric's left arm nearly went numb from the impact of the beast's swing. It's right... hand? paw? had shot forward before his sword could land it's blow, and the force of the impact had been jarring.
Sparks flew as It's claws rent several clean tears in Genric's iron kite shield.
He spun with the blow and used the momentum to come about swiftly with his sword in a 360 degree spin.
Up and over him the Ware-beast leapt.
It landed a couple of yards behind him among his group of surprised men.
Before they could react, the monsters arms crossed over It's chest in two clean swipes.
Two throats yawned open with near perfect precision slices.
9 men left.
Genric turned on his heel and was just in time to see two of his best men fall away to either side of the beast. Their heads were attached still, but barely.
He didn't want to meet those claws up close... But he wanted less for his men to have to do so either.
"ENCIRCLE IT!"
He shouted to his remaining men as he turned and quickly snatched one of the mounted torches from the wall behind him.
"READY THE FLAIRS!"
With this, the group of 8 set into motion.
Four of them surrounded the Ware-beast with long, Silver-tipped spears.
One at each direction
Front, back, and either side.
The four that remained quickly produced hand lanterns from their packs and set them ablaze. These lanterns were specially constructed with extra Aether vents. Vents that were meant to lessen the magical pressure that was produced alongside the light itself. An Aether byproduct if you will. These could be overloaded in order to make the lanterns give off more light when needed. More light meant more Aetherial output. The Ware-beast, or any living thing at that, would have a hard time dealing with one of these lanterns at close range, let alone four.
In unison, the men hooked the lanterns onto the ends of their spears, and each of them joined a fellow Watchmen in the now completed ring around the intruder.
The beast was fully surrounded. It roared in pain as the Aetherial flames blazed brightly around it. It was now up to Genric to shift the tide of this battle.
------------
The beast hadn't planned on encountering so much resistance.
The beast hadn't planned really at all.
To consume had been It's one and only goal that night.
One human is all it would take.
One human, and It would be able to maintain It's own human form for another month.
Just one human.
From atop the shabby hut, It had leapt down and taken the mans head.
Swiftly, and with one clean swipe of It's horrid paw.
The man had left this world with little to no pain.
All was well. The man hadn't even had time to scream and raise the alarm.
It hadn't thought about the howl It had let loose in It's blood lust.
Regardless, the beast drank deeply of the crimson life juice that flowed from the hole in the neck where the Watchman's head had once been.
Just one human.
A shout rang out from somewhere to the right, off into the darkness.
It was time to leave.
The body flopped to the ground besides it's owners head.
It turned to make for the wall and be off, but before It could take more than a few steps, the first of the charging group was upon him.
The man come on with fervor.
His sword glinted in the light of the moon as he launched his attack.
The beast leapt forward, not to engage the man in combat, for that was the last thing It wanted. More NEEDLESS bloodshed.
It was sated, and It's curse would be held at bay for just a bit longer.
Another month that It could use to try to undo this shit of a curse. To try to find some means of a cure...
Or...
Or It could simply let these men kill It.
That was also an option.
One that It initially was not so apposed to.
The past 3 years had been hellish beyond anything that It had ever experienced.
This all started with a terrible secret.
Every month It was forced into seclusion out in and about the forest of Northern Zentram. It never crossed the boarder into Naeri. The last thing It needed was to be hunted by two kingdoms at once...
Alone in the deepest, thickest parts of the forest there was very little human life.
This was of course both a pro and a con.
A pro in that It was less likely to be spotted in It's Ware wolf form.
A con in that the curse required It to consume human blood and only human blood, least It loose all control over the tiny bit of humanity that resided in It while It was in the form of the beast.
It knew that should this come to pass, It would never have the chance to find a cure, or any form of peace.
It knew that should this come to pass, the very world around It would be torn apart.
It's "secret" had quickly become an entire second life.
It didn't remember much of It's human life.
It seemed that with each transformation, it retained less and less of the knowledge of It's past.
This had gotten so bad in fact that whenever it came time to revert, typically about an hour after It had fed, the beast HAD to end the process at or near the same location that It had went in order to transform initially. If It did not, the next couple of days would be a blank, or blurred mess of half memories. In the past 2 years, It's memory had continued to worsen to such a degree that the beast had taken to writing and keeping journals while in It's human form in order to remember nearly anything.
This was a fact that could come to aid many others much further down this road IF It were to escape It's current situation.
On the other hand, this was a fact that could also cost It dearly if those journals were to fall into the wrong hands should It let Itself be slain here this night.
A rock and a hard place, as they say.
The first mans attack had been easy enough to handle.
The beast had simply avoided it and him.
It lashed out with a brutal swing to deter his pursuer, the strike tore the mans shield but he was persistent... the man skillfully spun on his heal and...
The beast didn't see the last part.
It did not care.
It's main objective was to be away from both these men and this village with all haste. It kicked off with It's muscular legs and jumped up and over the fighter who was left reeling.
It quickly came to the conclusion that the rest of the Watchmen would be a bit harder to get away from without more undo violence...
Just as the beat had landed, the two men who were nearest to their charging leader were swiftly dispatched with a clean swipe of each clawed hand.
Their blood coated the long muscled fingers and unnaturally sharp claws of their assailant. They were dead before their bodies hit the cold, hard-packed ground.
The rest of the men had quickly encircled It with long spears and lanterns.
Fire would not harm the beast for long, but Aetherial fire was a different story.
It couldn't count them all...
It's animal-like brain lacked the ability to do so, but It knew that there were to many of them. It knew that to stay here would inevitably mean death.
The circling men all took several steps back, their eyes and weapons trained on the monstrous, dog-like creature.
And from behind the beast, a single man stepped forward and joined It on the ring of combat. As he did so, the men had split the circle just a bit, to make room for him to pass. In that second, the beast had saw It's escape.
In that second, It let it pass.
It was tired of running.
Killing.
Suffering.
The transformation, though it occurred only once every month, was complete and utter torture...
It's human teeth would be pushed out but It's growing animal teeth and fangs.
It's skin would stretch and rip, as It's muscles doubled, then tripled in size.
It's bones would bend, break, and reshape themselves into the gruesome form that they currently held.
This whole process would take very nearly an hour. And for what?
Was all of that just for him to murder some innocent farmer or soldier or child in order to what?
"Retain his humanity?"
He was no longer a human.
He...no IT was just that.
An IT.
It didn't deserve to live after all of the evil and cruel things that the beast's hunger had driven him...It to do. For that reason and more, It felt as if It was truly and fully done dragging this stupid curse on.
Tonight would be the night It let Itself be killed.
Tonight was the night that the beast would die...
But of course IT would not go without a fight.
As the lone man stepped forward and readied his weapons, the man within the beast gave in. He let the beast take what was left of his humanity.
That last shard that had been a speck of light in the dark.
It decided then and there, with the last of It's dwindling sanity, that It would be sure to give the few men who survived this night one Hellz of a story to tell their decadents.
------------
Genric stepped forward, and into the ring of spearheads and flames that he had ordered his mean to create and maintain.
He tossed the torch that he has taken from the wall to the moistened ground between them.
The flame hissed and sputtered as it died.
It landed in a puddle of blood.
The ever-pooling blood of the murdered Watchmen steamed in the cool night air and made each and every breath taste of copper.
He wanted, and would attempt to engage the thing on his own terms, and solo if he could help it. More loss would be unacceptable, yet a part of him knew that he would lose at least another pair before the bout was done...
Their poor wives...
-Fack! MY poor wife!-
He shook the thoughts from his head as he took stock of the monstrous thing before him. For the first time, he could see it in it's pure foulness.
The Ware wolf -for that in fact is what it was- was every bit of seven and a half feet tall. It's fur was a deep midnight blue, matted with blood, dirt, and it's own saliva. It's arms were longer still than they should have been, so much so that it's finger tips would surly brush the ground if it's arms were at it's sides.
Those arms had muscles.
So many, large and defined muscles.
It's legs were not dissimilar in size and proportion to that of the largest wolf that he had ever seen.
Appropriate he supposed.
It was truly a thing to behold.
It was a beast from somewhere deep within the recesses of a child's nightmares.
But alas he, nor any of his men were asleep, and that beast from that distant dream world was here before them.
At this point in time, Genric sorely wished that he was any place but here.
"BAH!"
He spat in his mind.
He had to focus!
He had to push any and all negative thoughts aside and remember his training!
He knew that the last of his men, and beyond that, the entirety of this small village were depending on him. He had no doubt to, that many were watching from the shadows of their quaint homes. Watching and waiting for him, no for THEM to win. This wasn't about his own fears anymore. He has no choice but to best this thing. Here and now.
So yeah... no pressure.
He locked eyes with the beast and measured his steps mentally as they slowly circled one another.
The seconds seemed to slow to a crawl.
The men surrounding himself and the beast seemed to fade away, and for a moment, it was just those two.
The Man and the Monster.
He stopped his own circling once he noticed that the beast had it's back to the wall from which it had come once again. He planned on killing it, not capturing it.
But in the event that it did manage to break out of his ring of men, he would have them push it towards the wall, with hopes that it would just flee. This wasn't his ideal plan. He didn't care to have the thing roaming freely out and about where it could and most definitely would target another village it's next time around...
Nonetheless, at this time, here and now, he had to do what he could for HIS village.
Any other village was not HIS village, therefor not HIS problem.
The people HERE depended on him and his men. They were his only prerogative.
Genric squared his shoulders, spread his feet, and lowered his stance.
His right foot slid back and he brought his sword to bare, its fine tip pointing over the rim of the upraised shield that was strapped to his left arm.
He forced his voice to steady as he made his proclamation, just loud enough for any onlookers to hear.
"Your path of bloodshed ends here monster!"
He shouted with as much conviction as he could muster.
Across the ring from him, the beast threw it's head back and roared towards the sky. Genric could feel the air vibrate with it's power. A clear sign that it either didn't understand what he had said, or more likely, it simply didn't care.
He wasted little time.
The fighter shot forward and swung his sword in a clean swipe for the things throat. Unfortunately it was a fair bit faster than he was.
It cut it's howl short and back stepped.
Once.
Twice.
Dodging his first blow and it's follow up with ease.
The third step backwards was where the beast had miscalculated.
Two wickedly sharp spear tips pierced the creatures back. Two of the eight Watchmen that surrounded the dueling pair had level their weapons just as the beast had drew close.
Though shallow, the wounds were painful beyond the beast level of comprehension. It's growl caught in It's throat with shock.
Normally such attacks would do very little real damage, and whatever damage was done, was usually healed by the cursed magic of the beast within a matter of seconds.
Not tonight.
The beast had in all of It's days, never encountered a blade of silver.
The magically attuned metal sank effortlessly into and through the creatures thick hide and tore at the muscles below.
It threw a half thought out straight kick with It's left leg that connected with the man before him and glanced off of his shield. The blow was not full-on, yet the power behind it was staggering.
Genric's shield took most of the edge off, but he still slid backwards several feet before he could thrust the tip of his sword into the ground to slow his momentum.
Coming to a stop, he launched off again, unrelentingly charging head long for his target.
With the kick thrown, the beast had daftly spun and swiped at the tips of the spears, enraged at the pain that they had inflicted. That pain blinded it with anger and thus further bumbled it's actions.
Genric was upon it!
A horizontal slash connected with the beast lower spine.
It roared again in pain and spun with the attack, coming around 180 degrees with a powerful downward slash of It's right clawed appendage.
Genric snapped his shield up and over his face just in time to catch the claws of the extended limb on the shields edge. His strength was no match for the beast.
He knew this.
He let the power behind the monsters swing force his shield low and he jumped, letting the momentum of the blow force him into a series of quick horizontal spins. A risky maneuver indeed.
Genric pulled both his sword and shield arm in close in mid-air and let his body spin to gain momentum.
He would need all of the power that he could get.
He would only have one shot at land this blow, but if he COULD land it, he was sure that it would be the last and only one that would be needed.
On the forth rotation his right arm shot forward, and he thrust with all of his might.
His blade was neither made of nor tipped in silver like the spear blades around him. This made his attacks -in this situation- not as effective, but he could move and swing his lighter steel blade that much faster.
His sword connected.
It's blade struck solid bone as it glanced off of the rib cage of the mighty beast only loosing a bit off momentum before it slipped between them and plunged into its chest. So thick were the beast muscles, that Genric's blade stuck fast, and as the towering beast retreated in pain, the fighters sword was unceremoniously yanked from the mans hand.
----------
The beast was in a bad place at this point by the looks of it.
It struggled to keep It's balance as the sword protruded from It's massive chest , and It's thick, oozing blood continued to leak from the pain of not-healing wounds on It's back.
With some effort, the beast reached up and took hold of the pummel of Genric's sword in an attempt to yank it free so that It could began to heal.
The blade had missed It's heart by just an inch, yet in truth, even if it had landed, the odds are that it wouldn't have been immediately fatal. Just very, very problematic
The swords blade was not silver.
Conversely, and unfortunately for the ragging beast, the pummel, guard, and hilt of the weapon were in fact forged of silver.
Upon contact with the blades handle, the beast palms were seared.
Yelping like a pup, it quickly released the evil thing and crouched low to steady itself. It was a trapped animal.
Realizing that the sword would have to be removed later, the beast resorted to It's final and most desperate option. At first It had wanted to avoid causing to much of a din. But now? Now It was beyond such things.
----------
Genric crouched low and drew a thin dirk from the sheath at the small of his back to use alongside his battle damaged shield.
He could tell that the monster before him was on it's last legs.
It's head hung low.
It's shoulders rose and fell slowly with the exertion of breathing, and it fell to it's knees, weak from blood loss.
His sword protruded from it's massive, heaving chest.
It was time to finish this.
With a sharp whistle, the signal was passed.
The ring of Watchmen closed in a single step.
The ring or spear tips tightened.
Genric took several slow and cautious steps towards the beast.
It was almost finished.
In the gaps between the seconds that passed as Genric closed the distance between himself and the thing, a pair of questions shot to the forefront of his mind:
To capture?
Or
To kill?
----------
Hello all!
And welcome back to the gates.
I always seem to be saying hello on the way out lol
Thank you all so much for your support and continued loyalty to my series!
I will continue to write and post for as long as I am physically able! you have my word. Not that I am ill or anything, but life happens you know?
I hope you all have enjoyed this newest entry just as much as I have enjoyed creating it for you. It is a going to tie into another tale, just as the all will with time. I hope you come to love and understand Genric and the lumbering beast before him who calls himself "It" for lack of its humanity.
I have soooooooo much more work to do, but for you all? it is very worth it!
Also feel feel free to join the One Last Knight Facebook page as well where even MORE content and near-daily updates and post from myself will be made!
As always, I will see you all next time here in the world of Enverdolmol!
Stay safe.
Stay healthy.
Stay vigilant.
-Redd.