Abysmal Souls Chapter 1: Soul Eater

[Nanami Touko]

The snow had stopped; the forest becoming deadly silent. Ormis and Adrian stood, ready to jump at anything that popped out, expecting bandits. Nothing was moving though, and that was the most disturbing part. "I... don't think the bandits made that noise, Ormis" Adrian said, after they had waited a few moments. "Listen, we should keep walk--" he began, before he noticed a shadow jump from behind a tree. He quickly turned toward it, drawing his sword. "I'm sure that I saw... Never mind, it's nothing." No, there was something there. I'm sure of it. As soon as he had begun to put away his sword, the shadow moved once again, losing itself among the trees. "I knew it!" He shouted, running towards where he had seen it last. Dammit! We were just supposed to be dealing with bandits, and this is no bandit. Not like any bandits I've seen, at least!

He lost whatever he was chasing into the thick of the woods, cursing under his breath. He noticed blood scattered all across the snow, though, and a large amount of it seemed to have been where the shadow was last. A small crash in the distance perked his interest, though, as he smiled. "I've got you now.." he said under his breath, running off towards the noise. He came upon Scarlet and a man in green. The two of them seemed to be having an exchange... and she was covered in blood. Is she hurt? If she is, I've got to help. Letting his naivety get the best of him, he leaped between the two of them, sword drawn. "Who are you?" He asked to the emerald knight, "and what did you do to her?" He, of course, didn't look back at her to see that it wasn't her blood, or at least that she wasn't bleeding. He was too impulsive to have accurately assessed the situation.

Edited April 5, 2011 by seph1212

[CT075]

Ormis hardly noticed the snow stop. After a few moments of dead silence, Adrian said something but he didn't really hear. At that moment, he heard movement, and spun around in time to see a shape dart behind a tree.

"I'm sure that I saw... Never mind, it's nothing."

The boy didn't quite buy that Adrian really believed that, because a few seconds later, the chef also took off into the trees. Ormis followed, making sure to keep as quiet as he could.

Bandits my ass. There's no way they could come up with something this elaborate just to lead us into a trap... at least, I hope not.

Keeping his sword at the ready, Ormis stopped when he heard Adrian speak. Taking to the shadows, Ormis watched the exchange between a man clad in green, and that other girl. And she was covered in blood! Ormis took one last glance before sliding back behind a tree.

Oh, boy. What have we gotten ourselves involved with...

Edited April 5, 2011 by Camtech075

[ReformBlade]

Grant's eyes narrowed, "What did I do to her? I just ran into her, she busted her foot it seems." Grasping the hilt of his sword and pulling it out, he laid the tip on the ground, "If you wanna make a mistake based on no information be my guest, kid. But honestly, I don't have time for your god damn accusations, unless of course you're the ones causing all the trouble in these parts, which I doubt but I can't rule anything out. Now then, can I ask why she was running as I walked by? You do know this woman, right?" Oh lord, if he doesn't know her yet jumps to her defense... I can't deal with this right now, I can't.

[Nanami Touko]

"Tch..." Adrian grunted, getting backlashed by this guy. You don't need this? I'm just trying to help someone from my group! "Yeah, I know her. We're in the same merc group. We were sent out to deal with the bandits in the area." Wait a sec, why would she run from us? Adrian started thinking this over, sheathing his sword as he did. She's covered in blood, and if she's wounded, wouldn't she have come to see Susan, if she'd seen us? Adrian glanced over his shoulder, seeing her covered in blood, but without any obvious cuts or gashes. He backed away from her, quickly, a little shocked. "Well... If it's not her blood, whos blood is it?" This is what I get for jumping into things without thinking. He kept his hand on his sword, not very trusting of either of the two right now. "You're right, shouldn't have assumed..." he said, speaking his mind, a little dazed at the situation.

Edited April 5, 2011 by seph1212

[roymbrog]

When the bang sounded Susan instinctively turned and bolted towards the noise. She didn’t make it very far, however, before she faceplanted into the tree right next to her. Dazed, and more than a little embarrassed, she stumbled back holding the growing bump on her forehead. “Ow… Yes, I heard that,” she mumbled. Back home noises like that usually meant her brother had caused a fire or explosion, this was the first time she heard something like it on the job. She made a mental note to untrain her habit of rushing to help.

“W-Wait for me!” Susan shouted as she realized the two mercs were running off. Her vision was still blurry from her earlier collision and she almost ran into several more trees during her blind dash to catch up. Eventually she did catch up… and ran right into Ormis. She scurried to get up off the snow and tried to help Ormis up. “Sorry, sorry! I couldn’t see and was trying to catch up to you guys and then I tripped… You’re ok, right?”

[Zsword]

Zwool fallowed the trail to a bloody, charred corpse, his entire left chest had been blown off and open. He did notice the others jogging around, and a few were gathering over not to far off, but that wasn't important right now. Hmm, this man... was this the noise that I heard earlier? Most likely... odd ... there was definatly fire involved...

He looked over to the group that was slowly gathering. He stretched a little as he watched the snowy surroundings. I wonder if The One of Red Hair didn't predict this... or maybe she caused it... odd that she would mention fire, and then... this...

[CT075]

"Oof!"

Ormis had almost heard enough when something collided with him from behind. Immediately he reached for his sword, but stopped when he realized it was Susan.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Shh..."

Without much hope of continuing unnoticed, Ormis took one glance at the pair of swordsmen, then turned back to Susan.

"Ugh... Yeah, I'm fine. Are you alright? You look like you have a pretty nasty bruise there." Without really waiting for a response, Ormis continued in hushed tones, "Scarlet and Adrian are out just a little farther ahead with some other guy... I don't know if we've been seen or not, but if any of them are even slightly competent then we have been. Either way, get ready to fight."

[roymbrog]

“Yeah, yeah, I’m alright,” she said quietly. Was the bruise that bad already? While Ormis spoke she formed a small sphere of water in her glove and pressed it to her forehead where it began to glow softly. In few moments the bruise and swelling were gone and she flicked the remaining water off her glove. She then quickly peeked out from behind to tree to confirm what he had told her.

“They haven’t traded blows, have they?” she asked, unsheathing her dagger. The blade began to glow a soft amber hue as she activated the gems in the handle. “If they’ve noticed us already I say we just go out there.”

[CT075]

Ormis almost didn't notice Susan healing herself. Either way, though, the situation in front of them was more pressing than a girl healing her own bruise.

"They're just posturing for now, but from the looks of things that knight in green armor appears to have the advantage. I don't think that's Scarlet's blood, but I dunno if either of them know that."

Adrian would probably vouch for us as being part of his group, but that doesn't mean a lot... Oh well.

"You're right, but let's just wait for a sec. You can go out if you want, but I'd wait to see if he's hostile."

[Kanami]

Carrion really wasn't interested in the two bickering, she knew that the chef boy, Adrian? Had only gotten himself involved because he'd thought she was in trouble, but it wasn't as if she'd asked him to be her knight in shining armor.... Or maybe he was more like a puppy following it's owner around, as he clearly lacked the skills of any knight she knew.

Her eyes met with two pairs of eyes in the distance who were looking on at the exchange, clearly belonging to the other mercs in the group she'd arrived with. How she'd managed to be foolish enough to get surrounded was beyond her, though she'd never really been any good with forming plans, that was her... nevermind, he wasn't here to do that for her anymore, no point moaning about it.

Trying to take advantage of the situation she tried to limp away, but once she figured that the two weren't willing to just let her wander off, she looked back and sighed. "He's nothing, just some stupid man wandering around in the woods" she stated, indicating the man in green. She stared at Adrian for a moment noticing the look in his eyes before scowling at the man "I work alone, we may have come here together but I don't recall agreeing to work with you."

She hesitated before continuing "Plus, I'm not stupid enough to work with someone who's afraid of a little blood"

[Nanami Touko]

Still a bit shocked by all of the blood, he was brought back to the real world when Scarlet started talking. "Some idiot, huh? I doubt that." He stated, sending the same glance that Scarlet had given him back at her. "And I-I'm not scared. It's just blood. I want to know who it belonged to." Yeah, good lie there, Adrian. She'll totally believe that. "I didn't hear you say that, no." He took offense to her insult though. "Yeah, well, I'm not stupid enough to work with someone who twists their ankle at the smallest of falls." He'd noticed her limping, and was actually surprised that she'd twisted it, though, he really didn't know how she did.

Susan and Ormis were rather obvious, at this point. He probably wouldn't have noticed them if Susan hadn't knocked into Ormis. He sighed, wondering if they'd ever be good at keeping hidden, even though he wasn't that good himself. "Guys, you can come out. We all know you're there." He'd rather have two people he trusted out here with him, rather than two he didn't. Maybe they could help if he got attacked by these two. "So, how'd you get covered in all that blood? Get to close to Greg while he was massacring all the bandits?" he joked, trying to bring the smallest bit of levity to this situation.

Edited April 6, 2011 by seph1212

[Kanami]

Carrion just glared at the man for a few moments before shrugging his retort off, "It's settled then, you weaklings leave me alone, and I don't burden you with my fragile ankles." It was obvious that the man was unnerved by the sight of blood, but as long as he wasn't going to stay away from her, or intefere with her goals, she didn't really care what he was afraid of.

She took a few steps away again, apparently the man was calling his friends over, which spurred her to get away before she was surrounded by people who'd be eager to kill her, or at least restrain her. But before she could get more then a few feet away, the man asked her the question she really didn't want asked.

Letting out a sigh before answering with one word, "Lunch"

[CT075]

Ormis cursed to himself as Adrian called him out. Picking up his sword and sheathing it, he walked out from behind his tree. He still didn't quite trust this knight in green armor and so kept one hand underneath his cloak on his sword.

"Yeah, well, I've heard about enough anyway."

Trying not to look embarrassed that Susan had revealed him to the other three, Ormis walked up a bit behind Adrian, ready to draw his sword at the slightest provocation from either the other man or the witch. Truth be told, Ormis wasn't quite at ease around the blood either, but he wasn't going to show it.

Ormis could almost remember the rumors he'd picked up from hanging around with the elder mercenaries in the tavern after a mission (though he never drank himself) regarding the fearsome Crimson Witch and her return to life.

"Lunch? What the hell does that mean? Please just tell me you killed some deer or something and ate that..."

If my bad feeling is right, then we just might be up against something more fearsome than bandits...

Edited April 6, 2011 by Camtech075

[Kanami]

Carrion was planning to ignore the boy, but flinched a few moments after his comment turned around and planted herself in the snow, not really caring that her backside was now freezing in the snow. A freezing backside beat the pain of a swelling ankle, and by the looks of things she wasn't getting away if she wandered away by herself now anyway.

"Hmm?" she responded to the question, suddenly seeming much more talkative, "I haven't seen any animals about here yet, have you?" she asked nearly coyly "Only thing I've seen are tree's snow and foolish mercenaries wandering about, I wonder which one is the tastiest?" she finished, a sick smirk on her face, her features seeming all the more dangerous due to the streak of blood that had dried (frozen?) on her face.

Faye? she inquired in her mind, as she finished talking to the others.

I need my ankle healed now, use whatever Prana you need

[roymbrog]

“Told you we should’ve gone out…” Susan mumbled as she followed Ormis out from hiding. “What’s going on here? Who the hell are you?” she said, directing the last part at Mr. Green Armor.

However, the crimson haired girl was definitely acting off now, especially when she said the blood was from lunch… Susan was not uneasy about the blood itself, but that much of it with no injury to the girl herself, well, excluding her ankle, was bothering her. Had she killed someone in the woods? And why the hell was she threatening to eat them?!

Susan backed away slowly, her blade still drawn. “I’m not sure what happened to you, lady, but there’s no reason to threaten us. I thought we were on the same team here, or something…?”

[Nanami Touko]

Adrian was glad that Ormis and Susan were here. He never did like being alone. Noticing the girl start to limp off, he chuckled "Come on, you're seriously going to try and walk away with your ankle like that?" He kept chuckling to himself until she made her comment about 'Lunch'. "L-Lunch?" Ormis mentioned a deer, which Adrian agreed with "Y-Yeah, it had to be a deer, or something." But that's absurd, Not even killing a deer would have covered her in that much blood, unless she crawled into its carcass. And then Scarlet started talking. The more she went on, the more Adrian started to realize what she'd done. His eyes were wide in horror now, his face beginning to pale, as he backed away from her, drawing his sword. "Y-You're a monster!" He was scared. Scared for his life, and if his legs weren't shaking, refusing to move, he'd be running.

Edited April 6, 2011 by seph1212

[Kanami]

Carrion glanced over at Susan and let out another sigh "As I just told your pale friend over there, we came here together, and we work for the same employer, that doesn't mean I have to be your best friend lady" she would have continued but Adrian's stuttering caught her attention.

"I prefer the term Devourer or Crimson Witch, after all, the kind people of Astarte pretty much raised me to the point of being a legendary being, would be rude to just pass of something they fear so much as a mere monster no?"

Carrions eyes kept flickering from the people she was talking to, to the tree's nearby. As if she were looking for a good time to flee, her ankle had healed stopped swelling and turned into a small red lump already, and she'd be able to make her escape soon.

[CT075]

Ormis almost noticed Scarlet's ankle heal. He noticed that her ankle seemed to be a lot less swollen, but he passed it off as a side effect of the cold snow.

"The Crimson witch? Gah..."

Every muscle in his body wanted to just lunge at her, to take out her heart and kill her for good. Beside him, Adrian seemed to be too frozen with fear to do anything. As it stood, Ormis didn't think he could defeat the dreaded caster that stood before him either.

"You can't possibly beat all four of us," he stated in a braver tone than he really felt. Ormis included the knight in the four only because he was in just as much danger as the rest of them, and only a fool would turn down the help of two fighters and a healer against such a frightening foe. As he spoke, he drew his sword, gleaming silver in the moonlight.

Oh, god. I don't want to die, not yet...

Ormis would have really enjoyed having Greg's presence at that moment. As much as his arrogant nature annoyed the boy, Greg's strength and bluster would probably up his morale quite a bit at this point. Ormis could almost feel the temperature drop as he unconsciously grew paler.

[Kanami]

"I can't take all four of you?" she asked rather slyly, "Guess my feats in Astarte weren't as widely known as I thought, I've taken on whole platoons before 4 ragtag mercenaries is nothing" she stated before rubbing her ankle, then standing up, her ankle showing no signs of injury now.

"Plus, even if I were to die, I'll just come back like last time, and I'll wipe out any family and children you have." she said shrugging as if it were the most logical thing in the world.

"Though I've just feasted, not really hungry at the moment" Pulling out her tome, she looked the group over, "Really don't see any reason to fight you, but if you insist, I can't actually let you kill me, it sort of hurts"

Faye:Maybe you shouldn't be so mean to them?

Carrion shook her head to clear her mind, This is why I didn't want to take this job Faye, one moment they'll be preaching that we're on the same side, the next they'll be trying to stab holes through me.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Kanami

[ReformBlade]

"Lunch...?" Of course, the god damn Crimson Witch, of fucking course i'd have to run into her. I should really just end her now, that pitiful excuse for a human. Grant ignored the question thrown towards him as his gaze shifted from person to person then landing on Carrion last.

"Plus, even if I were to die, I'll just come back like last time, and I'll wipe out any family and children you have."

This tipped the scales for Grant, he wanted blood now. Without another thought, he lunged at the woman, aiming to plunge his sword straight through her heart. Anyone threatening his family forfeits their life to him.

[Nanami Touko]

Adrian was shaking all over, his legs buckling under him as he fell onto his backside, sword barely in his hand. He couldn't even fathom what she had done to whoever she'd killed to cause that much blood to come out, but it was certain they weren't alive anymore. Ormis noted his fear, stepping up to the witch. Adrian cringed. Come on, body, move! You're just gonna sit here and cower like a small child?!

"Plus, even if I were to die, I'll just come back like last time, and I'll wipe out any family and children you have."

He shook his head, grabbing the hilt of his sword tightly in his hand. That's right... I have a family to save, and if I freak out during one of my first real battles, how will I be able to do that?! He pulled himself back up, legs still shaking a bit, but he could deal. Before he could say anything, though, the emerald knight lunged at the witch, Adrian's mouth agape at this feat.

[Kanami]

Carrion jumped swiftly away from the first swipe, it wasn't as if she'd expected these people to talk things over, and whether it be temporary or not, there were probably still nobles in Astarte that would pay for her head.

The second swipe wasn't that hard to dodge either, it was clear that the man just wanted her dead and wasn't thinking about much else, no tact at all, probably had let his emotions take over. But not being a combatant herself, she wouldn't last too long against a man who would quite easily overpower her at any moment now. The sight of one of the mercenaries caught her eye, and while he seemed afraid, he'd probably be joining in the fray at any moment now.

Lifting her tome she was about to blast the guy away when she realized that she couldn't. "Tch" she dodged another swipe which scraped her arm drawing blood.

How long were those guys just going to stand there and watch? she thought as her eyes flickered to the tree's she'd been eye'ing earlier when she caught sight of something that shouldn't be there.

"Faye get me out of here, the contract with that bitch is over" she shouted not even realizing that she'd spoken out aloud.

Nearly done a voice replied inside her head sounding as panicky as Carrion was.

Hoping that she'd be able to buy herself some time, she summoned three balls of fire around her body, launching 2 of them at Grant from different angles.

[roymbrog]

That Crimson Witch?! She knew she had disliked this girl, but that never even crossed her mind. This was definitely the worst situation she could be in right now and she had no idea what to do. Then her words spurred her into action.

"Plus, even if I were to die, I'll just come back like last time, and I'll wipe out any family and children you have."

There was no way that was happening if Susan had anything to say about it. With concrete threats and no doubt the Devour intended on killing them, all fear vanished and she started preparing her spells. Many small spheres of water gathered in the air around her and she began directing them with her gloves to form one large mass of liquid above each hand. When the fireballs were brought out she was ready, and whipped a length of water at two of them, dissipating one and barely missing the other. It was bad luck the witch decided to use the one thing she could counter, she supposed.

"Your threat means nothing, witch," she said, voice ice cold. "If I'm able to kill you once I can do it again, and you won't lay a finger on my family."

[ReformBlade]

With one fireball taken care of, Grant dove out of the way of the second one albeit barely. He could feel the intense heat of it as it roared by him. At least I've got some company on my side here he thought, seriously glad it did not become a four on one situation due to some massive misunderstanding of the situation. He saw the third fireball, he knew she'd launch it when he'd least expect it, so he waited. He got up, clasped the sword in both hands, letting the tip fall to the ground again to his side, ready to lunge again at a moment's notice, or jump to anyone he thought could be harmed.

[Kanami]

Carrion smirked as the man calmed down, it didn't bode well for her at all, but at least he was on the defensive now. Well, sort of, the man looked like he'd tear her apart at any moment, but that didn't matter as a small voiced echoed in her head.

Faye: "Ready"

This was it, she focused summoning a dozen balls of flames, giving this attack everything she had, if this failed then this might be the end of her. She hurled one ball of flame at the legs of the each member present, melting away the snow that covered the ground, revealing the brown soil that lay hidden underneath.

Immediately following it up with hurling the remaining balls of flame in random directions away from the group.