10th Ashan, 720
immediately following this.
immediately following this.
Having fought off the ramernickels and killed the massive wormanickel, Vega was clambering through what was a sort of short tunnel. She figured that it was probably created by the worm, which was incredibly hot. It was only the fact that she was immune to fire which had allowed her to get to this point. Small ember-like sparks flew off her and Vega was aching all over. She had various cuts and bruises on her, but she had no time to pay them any heed. Equally, she could tell that the floor - the walls, too - exuded heat, but she just had to get on. Snuffles, her Warden Diri, was a companion Vega had become used to and she worried about the little creature. "Speakin' o' little creatures, Xiur an' Qylios," she whispered. "Look after Arlo, won't you?" Her husband was off on his own adventure and Vega knew that, if he could be here he would. So, she prayed for him and hoped her father-in-law might also keep an eye on his son. She didn't pray to him, though, he might get some funny ideas.
There was a sensation of going downhill, but Vega wasn't sure whether that was just because of being discombobulated due to being underground. She held her nerve and kept going and, there ahead, there was flickering. Her heart seemed to beating more loudly than normal and the silver of her blood glowed in this darkness. Yet, Vega kept moving forward, her prayers now silent, although she kept up the internal dialogue she had. Her prayers, as always, were conversational but incredibly heartfelt.
And it attacked.
The creature was small, maybe a third of her height, but it was made from flame, as far as Vega could see. It leaped at her, small claws of fire ripping her flesh. It took Vega by surprise as it, and another four pumpernickels appeared - all attacking at once. She cried out in pain as she felt the claws scraping, digging into her flesh and then Vega's instincts kicked in. Silver blood poured from the wound in her arm and she stepped backwards, her back against the wall.
Then, she fought. Her eyes were - should anyone have been there to see - solidly red. It was rare that Vega's eyes were one colour, but she was completely focused. "You ugly short little fireplucker!" Vega yelled at the small flame creature. It was making a noise and she recognised that, it was speaking "Yer a bossanickel, ain't you?!" She kept pushing, trying to attack the shorter creature, but there were wolfernickels and blobernickels and she couldn't get to it. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Vega knew that she had to get to the boss-anickel, but she also knew that she couldn't. The use of blobernickels was ingenius, because they knew and had known for some time that, when those creatures died, they exploded.
So. Vega made a decision.
"Sorry Arlo," she said, and she let out a roar of fury. Then, she went all-out attack on the blobernickels and wolfernickels. She paid no heed to her own defence and she cried out in pain as she felt sharp claws dig deep into her side. However, the impact of that was ignored by the arguably mad woman, and she focused on killing one of the blobernickels. It was relatively easy, she'd killed a lot of them now and she knew how to - so she drove her sword deep into the creature, piercing through the eye and then, momentarily, the world went first white, then black, then red.
As they did - as they always had - as she was relying on - the blobernickel exploded. Vega had fought the creatures, knew it and knew what happened. It damaged the other creatures, it killed the blobernickel. But this new guy? This short-but-boss-er-nickel? Vega had seen, as they fought, that it seemed to heal itself with flame. When she'd hit it with her sword, the cut had been deep but it healed. So, Vega had to get rid of the other creatures. Which she did.
But, as the blobernickel exploded, Vega felt herself lifting off the floor and impacting against the wall. She slid down it, fighting to hold on to consciousness, and biting back a scream of pain. Her vision blurred and the ringing in her head matched the way that her sight fluctuated. But it worked. The other creatures were equally damaged by the blast and the enclosed space.
Which left Vega and the 2-ft-tall bossernickel.
Far from harming it, the explosion - the fire - strengthened it and Vega knew that she had seconds to act. She had to push aside the pain she felt, had to force herself to concentrate on what was happening. As she held out her hand for her sword - which flew into her grip thanks to the magic of it, the boss-er-nickel attacked her. Claws and teeth assaulted her and she screamed in pain, but then, her fingers closed around the hilt.
"GERROF ME YOU DWEEB!!" Vega did not shout, she roared. She was sitting on the floor, and she knew that if she took the time to stand it would damage her more, so she fought it in that position. Her sword moved as much from instinct as anything else and she didn't yet feel the pain she was in. It breathed fire over her, but it did nothing except burn her clothes, and Vega screamed as she held her sword with two hands and plunged it straight through the creature. "HOW'D YOU LIKE THAT, BOB!?" Had Arlo been there, he'd recognise the terror which manifested as fury. "WANNA SEE ME DO MY PUMPERNICKEL ON A STICK TRICK!?" She didn't let go of the sword, she didn't pull it out. Instead, she used the creature's small size and the relative lack of space to just keep swinging the sword - with the creature on it - against the wall. Then the floor. "COME ON!" She cried out, "YOU CAN'T WIN, YOU STORMIN' LOSER! WILL.. YOU... JUST .... SHURRUP!" Every word she punctuated with a swing of her sword, bludgeoning it.
She didn't stop until it was very, very dead. Then, she stood up and kicked it. Again. And again. She didn't accompany those kicks with words, but with furious feral snarls of pain. Finally, she stopped and she bent down and grabbed hold of the body. "C'mon Bob," she said, her voice slurred and her vision blurring. "Lets go introduce you to Jack."
Dragging the corpse behind her, as she moved towards the light at the end of the tunnel - ironically - Vega was aware that she could smell burning, but she assumed that it was just a side effect of what had just happened.
She was cut and bleeding, her hair matted to her head and Vega knew that Jack was going to give her all sorts of grief. She also knew, however, that the ... thing.... in there had been a major kill. She stumbled out of the entrance, her mind reeling. Normally, she might have noticed more quickly that the wormanickle that she believed she had killed earlier was not there. She didn't notice, however, until she saw the Thunder Priestess. Why was she laying there, like that? Come to that.... the others were all laying down too.
"What happened?" Vega asked. But they didn't answer, of course, because they were dead. The realisation that she was looking at the site of a massacre slowly - oh so slowly - filtered its way into her conscious mind. The fourteen others in her group were there. Some were indistinguishable because of the burning. That explained the smell, she realised with a low moan. Yet, she saw Jack. He was laying half-on and half next to the corpse of the worm. The enormous flame-worm which she hadn't killed at all. She'd injured it but she hadn't checked. Too busy - too quick to assume she'd won.
Looking at the place where what would become known as "the Storm Wastes Massacre" had taken place, Vega could see that they'd fought. Ramernickels had, eventually, been defeated, but it had been the worm. Jack had, in desperation, attacked it at close quarters and that, combined with the injuries she'd given it, had killed it. But they were all dead.
All of them.
And Vega knew that she now had a choice. Did she bring back them - or one of them - or ... did she bring back the corpse of the strange and new creature? There was no question, because she knew that the survivors in Storm's Edge needed this.
Tears poured down her face, leaving trails which revealed clean skin beneath the grime and caked-on silver blood. But she turned her back on her companions and, dragging the corpse of the small, but very deadly creature, she started the stumbling walk back to Storm's Edge. Because they had to win.
They had to.
