The Savage Brawl [Round 5: Battletopia]

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

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Ziirphael holds on tightly as the beast tries to shake him off again. It seems impotent to actually get him off as long as he keeps a tight grip. Ziirphael's primary concern is what happens when he decides to let go. This creature, although difficult to discern much about from this angle, is huge and fierce; a veritable behemoth. His current form was best suited to melee combat and he figured that against a creature like this it would be ineffective. He just needed a moment when he wasn't being shook violently to inscribe one of his arms with a different weapon. As he thinks this the shaking stops, the creature perhaps becoming aware that it was not helping. Ziirphael takes this opportunity, he lets go with his extra arms and starts to apply a complicated rune to his right arm. Beneath him there's the sound of bones clicking together and there is a sense of disorientation as the ground beneath him appears to get closer. Suddenly the beast wasn't underneath him any more and Ziirphael collapses to the floor, his rune incomplete. He quickly rolls over to face where the beast had been and there stands an innocent looking black dog, wearing an unusual collar. Ziirphael quickly notes the wounds on the dogs back, significantly scaled down. Come to think of it what had struck him before as a bloody roar seems much more likely to be the ferocious bark of a behemothic dog.

Ziirphael suddenly screams involuntarily, startling the black dog back towards the wall. His body is throbbing. His bones are twisting. Ziirphael is used to pain but this is worse than anything he had endured before. His arm twists in it's socket and bones scythe through his skin in erratic patterns. Veins and muscles snake out along his arm entangling at an odd angle. His hand snaps back in a rictus grip as more bones explode from his clenched fist. Ziirphael writhes helplessly as his nerves sing with pain. This had to be that rune. His arm is trying to arrange itself into a shape that had not been inscribed correctly. He retches violently forward, spewing out nothing but air. For a moment he kneels there, head down, arm throbbing and just gasps for air. Then from in front of him a yelp from the dog. Ziirphael looks up to see it begin to transform. It's body expands, the noise of it's bones snapping and reforming into new shapes clearly audible. It continues to grow until it is twice his size, it's teeth and claws looking decidedly more threatening at this absurd scale. It has become a hulking menacing beast, practically foaming at the mouth, it's body matted with it's own fresh blood.

Ziirphael desperately tries to overcome the pains in his arm. He climbs falteringly to his feet and stopps, staring the dog in it's crazy eyes full of anger and confusion. He didn't want to make the first move, but as the skin of his arm rips itself apart he knows he has to move now or else collapse from the pain. His first instinct is to flee into the park proper, but this thing was fast, he won't outrun it. He needs to get into one of the buildings. There he would have time to regroup, to sort out the mess that was his arm. The problem is that the dog stands between him and the buildings. He starts to the right, towards a gap in between two buildings. The dog is on him almost immediately, barrelling into him, knocking him off balance. As he collapses he swings his pincushion of an arm at the dog's face, agony shooting through his body as it connects. He tries to pull back from the pain, pretends for a moment that this is just like all the other bodies; a temporary vessel. Quickly he climbs up and continues to sprint towards the gap, not daring to glance around behind him. The monstrous dog hangs back for a minute or so. Ziirphael reaches the gap before it resumes it's pursuit, it's face dripping with it's own blood.