Delmechia
In the shadow, you remove your dark cloak and cast it into the street. The cool rain strikes the pores of your pale green skin and cools the spherical globe of your head. You raise your dagger feeling invigorated, like a thing woken from deep slumber.
As you step out from the wall, the spindly beast comes down again, with its back facing you and swipes at the man. He rolls to the right, but one of the front claws of the creature passes over his side, dividing the skin like warm cheese.
Without time to spare, you charge at the creature and before it even takes notice of your footfalls, your dagger is flying through the air; twisting in circles along a wide parabolic arc. The beast begins to turn, and more by luck than anything, your dagger strikes one of the many naked joints of its back leg and the blade slips under one of the light armor plates, so that only the hilt is left sticking out where the limb bends. The horrible spider tries to keep turning, but as it tries to straighten its leg, the dagger jammed into it prevents the joint from bending and it nearly collapses, catching itself with its other limbs.
The man gets up to his knees and starts to crawl away, holding onto the gash in his midsection as if he's afraid something might fall out, but the spider swings a leg through the air again, and he dives back to the ground, letting out a yelp as he lands.
You run over to the corpse of the other guy, and immediately find what you need; the pistol is clasped loosely in the wet and soggy fingers. You pry it away, just as the beast bends its immobile leg far back and then snaps it straight, breaking the dagger at the hilt and freeing its limb.
With surprising speed, it throws the leg directly at you, just missing as you roll to the side. It shrieks and you fire the gun at it. An explosion of sound fills your ears as one of the thick plates crinkles around what would have been a hole, had the material been any lighter.
It bounds once again up into the air, almost too quick for even your own sharp eyes to follow. You revolve on the spot, just as the other man had done earlier, and try to follow the movements of the beast; first it slides up the corner of one abandoned building and then it leaps and silently appears on another, the speed so great as to seem impossible.
As it crawls and jumps upon the walls above, your mind races. You know not how many bullets these heavy guns carry, but you suspect there can only be two or three shots left. There's a faint flash of red at it moves, and suddenly you remember the creature's small red eyes. If you had been in a clearer state of mind, you might have taken a shot at them the first time.
Still trying to watch the movements as the spider slowly lures you into a state of dizziness, you draw out the gun with both hands and try to steady yourself as much as you can. It appears at the middle of the building before you, you try to pin the sights on the red eyes, and you fire. Before you even pull the trigger, you know the shot is a miss. The beast winds around again as the sound of your bullet striking the building brick is delivered to your ears.
There's a flash of metal through the sky, and suddenly the spider leaps at you like a cricket on crack. You drop down on your back just in time as bladed legs slice the air above you.
As you lay, the beast shrieks down, standing over you, and you notice once again, the beady red eyes. Stuck by inspiration, you reach up your free hand and bend all of your will towards opening the small pores that reside there. For a moment, there is nothing. Then, just as the beast prepares to leap and crush you like bag of bones, a jet of water sprays from your hand and strikes the glaring eyes.
At first, the beast still attempts to jump, but then it falls back and shrieks a high-pitched noise into the night; temporarily blinded and mostly surprised. For the second time, it almost comes crashing down on its legs. You look into the exposed underbelly of the thing, catching a brief glimpse of what looks like knotted wire and rotating cylinders and chips, and fire two more shots into the mess. This time, the spider actually does come down, landing on the belly with the legs splayed about and writhing.
You watch from the ground, hardly able to move, and after a few timeless moments, it stops wailing and the limbs slowly force the body back up. A tiny tail of black smoke issues from underneath its metal shell. You hold the gun, which you know could very well be empty, in your shaking hands and prepare for the worst, when suddenly the beast leaps back up only a brick wall, it's claws digging into the brick to support its great weight. You wait for it to swing around and come back at you, but it just leaps away, moving more slowly. At last, you see it come to a far building, swing around the corner, and disappear from sight.
You take a few seconds to just lay and breath, when you suddenly remember the injured guy. Stellwetter's man, no doubt. You sit up and see him sitting against the brick of one of the buildings, where the alleys intersect, with one hand resting across his cut and his dark eyes cast on you.
"I'm dying," he says absently, as if it's a thing of no great significance. "Fucker almost unraveled me on the spot."
"What was it?" you ask standing up. You slowly walk over to where he sits. The rain still coming down and the wind ruffling the gray hair of his temples.
"Ambushed us. We hit the shooter from back at the bar. Billy there."
He gives a weak nod in the direction of the corpse and then closes his eyes; perhaps recalling this scene. You kneel down next to him.
"Did the shooter get away?"
The man shakes his head, with eyes still closed.
"Don't know. Cornered him here; limpin' and all. Strange looking guy. Spider came down out of the rain. Didn't even try to slash him. Just ignored him. About five seconds and it had Billy's throat. Didn't even get a shot off."
He opens his eyes and looks at you.
"I'm dyin'." he says again.
"I'm sorry." you say, but he just shakes his head again, breathing heavily.
"Don't know what your kind was doing around here, but you did alright. The water trick there."
You don't say anything.
For almost a full minute you sit there and then the man's breathing finally stops, leaving only the sound of the wind and the rain and the thunder.
You get up, drop your gun back by the first corpse, and take a brief look at your surroundings. Just two corpses and some fine gashes in the pavement.
After you retrieve your soaking cloak, you stand and think for a moment. There's only really two options: you can either continue to track down the murderer or you can go back to you clan. Before long, people are going to be arriving on the scene and the last thing you want is to be found next to the bodies of two men.
As you step out from the wall, the spindly beast comes down again, with its back facing you and swipes at the man. He rolls to the right, but one of the front claws of the creature passes over his side, dividing the skin like warm cheese.
Without time to spare, you charge at the creature and before it even takes notice of your footfalls, your dagger is flying through the air; twisting in circles along a wide parabolic arc. The beast begins to turn, and more by luck than anything, your dagger strikes one of the many naked joints of its back leg and the blade slips under one of the light armor plates, so that only the hilt is left sticking out where the limb bends. The horrible spider tries to keep turning, but as it tries to straighten its leg, the dagger jammed into it prevents the joint from bending and it nearly collapses, catching itself with its other limbs.
The man gets up to his knees and starts to crawl away, holding onto the gash in his midsection as if he's afraid something might fall out, but the spider swings a leg through the air again, and he dives back to the ground, letting out a yelp as he lands.
You run over to the corpse of the other guy, and immediately find what you need; the pistol is clasped loosely in the wet and soggy fingers. You pry it away, just as the beast bends its immobile leg far back and then snaps it straight, breaking the dagger at the hilt and freeing its limb.
With surprising speed, it throws the leg directly at you, just missing as you roll to the side. It shrieks and you fire the gun at it. An explosion of sound fills your ears as one of the thick plates crinkles around what would have been a hole, had the material been any lighter.
It bounds once again up into the air, almost too quick for even your own sharp eyes to follow. You revolve on the spot, just as the other man had done earlier, and try to follow the movements of the beast; first it slides up the corner of one abandoned building and then it leaps and silently appears on another, the speed so great as to seem impossible.
As it crawls and jumps upon the walls above, your mind races. You know not how many bullets these heavy guns carry, but you suspect there can only be two or three shots left. There's a faint flash of red at it moves, and suddenly you remember the creature's small red eyes. If you had been in a clearer state of mind, you might have taken a shot at them the first time.
Still trying to watch the movements as the spider slowly lures you into a state of dizziness, you draw out the gun with both hands and try to steady yourself as much as you can. It appears at the middle of the building before you, you try to pin the sights on the red eyes, and you fire. Before you even pull the trigger, you know the shot is a miss. The beast winds around again as the sound of your bullet striking the building brick is delivered to your ears.
There's a flash of metal through the sky, and suddenly the spider leaps at you like a cricket on crack. You drop down on your back just in time as bladed legs slice the air above you.
As you lay, the beast shrieks down, standing over you, and you notice once again, the beady red eyes. Stuck by inspiration, you reach up your free hand and bend all of your will towards opening the small pores that reside there. For a moment, there is nothing. Then, just as the beast prepares to leap and crush you like bag of bones, a jet of water sprays from your hand and strikes the glaring eyes.
At first, the beast still attempts to jump, but then it falls back and shrieks a high-pitched noise into the night; temporarily blinded and mostly surprised. For the second time, it almost comes crashing down on its legs. You look into the exposed underbelly of the thing, catching a brief glimpse of what looks like knotted wire and rotating cylinders and chips, and fire two more shots into the mess. This time, the spider actually does come down, landing on the belly with the legs splayed about and writhing.
You watch from the ground, hardly able to move, and after a few timeless moments, it stops wailing and the limbs slowly force the body back up. A tiny tail of black smoke issues from underneath its metal shell. You hold the gun, which you know could very well be empty, in your shaking hands and prepare for the worst, when suddenly the beast leaps back up only a brick wall, it's claws digging into the brick to support its great weight. You wait for it to swing around and come back at you, but it just leaps away, moving more slowly. At last, you see it come to a far building, swing around the corner, and disappear from sight.
You take a few seconds to just lay and breath, when you suddenly remember the injured guy. Stellwetter's man, no doubt. You sit up and see him sitting against the brick of one of the buildings, where the alleys intersect, with one hand resting across his cut and his dark eyes cast on you.
"I'm dying," he says absently, as if it's a thing of no great significance. "Fucker almost unraveled me on the spot."
"What was it?" you ask standing up. You slowly walk over to where he sits. The rain still coming down and the wind ruffling the gray hair of his temples.
"Ambushed us. We hit the shooter from back at the bar. Billy there."
He gives a weak nod in the direction of the corpse and then closes his eyes; perhaps recalling this scene. You kneel down next to him.
"Did the shooter get away?"
The man shakes his head, with eyes still closed.
"Don't know. Cornered him here; limpin' and all. Strange looking guy. Spider came down out of the rain. Didn't even try to slash him. Just ignored him. About five seconds and it had Billy's throat. Didn't even get a shot off."
He opens his eyes and looks at you.
"I'm dyin'." he says again.
"I'm sorry." you say, but he just shakes his head again, breathing heavily.
"Don't know what your kind was doing around here, but you did alright. The water trick there."
You don't say anything.
For almost a full minute you sit there and then the man's breathing finally stops, leaving only the sound of the wind and the rain and the thunder.
You get up, drop your gun back by the first corpse, and take a brief look at your surroundings. Just two corpses and some fine gashes in the pavement.
After you retrieve your soaking cloak, you stand and think for a moment. There's only really two options: you can either continue to track down the murderer or you can go back to you clan. Before long, people are going to be arriving on the scene and the last thing you want is to be found next to the bodies of two men.