Re: The Relentless Slaughter [Round 1: Untitled-1]
03-16-2011, 01:39 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by engineclock.
Gannet fumbled blindly, fingers scratching uselessly at the slippery flesh surrounding him. His body was pressed awkwardly against the insides of the massive octopus, and it was dark, it was too dark, what was he doing here, how did he- k-kill it infect it I-I-I I don’t c-can’t- what was crushing him? It was everywhere; blood was filling his mouth, his nose, he felt it soaking his clothes and his skin and it was black, blacker than night but filled with blood and he couldn’t smell anything or see it at all. His limbs were being crushed under a living weight and he couldn’t move, he was trapped, he was going to die here in this place-
Desperately he scrambled for a grip on something, anything, and plunged the tips of his nail-and-bone claws into the inside of the octopus blindly. It screamed, loud, too loud, he could hear it resonating somewhere above him and he felt the creature shudder with agony and lurch from side to side. The motion would have made him nauseous if his mouth wasn’t already filled with blood, flat and dull tasting and fake. He tightened his hold on the twitching muscles and felt them ripple in response. It was alive, though it shouldn’t be, it smelled and tasted wrong, all wrong. Agonizingly, he dragged himself further inwards and upwards though somewhere in his head a voice was saying no no air is back go back go back/ go forward kill it for us kill it go faster kill it tear it apart- what was he supposed to do?
Under his skin he felt a rush of nerves, like a net of ice spreading over his muscles and pulsing with light and air and water- always water…. he felt his eyes starting to roll back and shook his head frantically. Blue lights flashed in the back of his head and filled his vision; there was no black, there was no blood in his mouth and throat, it was water, only water. Thick and reeking of life and the dead and the bones of fish and the screams of gulls, Gannet remembered the sea’s scent and it cleared his head.
He had killed an octopus once. It had been white, and small, and its suckers clung to his arms even after it was dead and he was eating it and it would not release him though it had no will left to do so. He remembered the way it had struggled when he pulled it from the water and how its eyes were bright even in death. There was no difference between that one and this.
The ice under his skin flexed and he wrenched his claws sideways, pulling himself further upwards, pushing down on the shredded muscles he left behind him. The octopus roared again, longer and louder this time, and through the blackness of its insides and the blood filling his nose he smelled its sickening terror. The rubbery flesh he was slicing apart spat still more of the creature’s life onto him; dully he felt its pain and confusion raging around him as he burrowed deeper and deeper into its quivering body.
It wouldn’t be far now, the blood and the water told him. All things that live have a means to die.
“Easy there!” Zimmer cried as the tentacle he was standing upon suddenly jerked sideways and the titanic beast below him bellowed in pain. By some miracle of God he hadn’t managed yet to slip off the seething body of the sawctopus, and he prayed that he would hold divine favor for at least a little while longer. The damned thing’s skin was slippery, and it was taking all his concentration just to stay upright without it lurching all over the place like a drunken housewife. As long as it could stay steady enough for him to reach the head-
As if in response to this thought, the sawctopus groaned and veered sideways, swinging through the air towards a huge and sinister-looking castle that was assembling itself from nothing. Zimmer suspected the creature was no longer making clear decisions, if ever it had been; in fact, it had started to pull its arms in towards itself, tangling them together in a thick, coiling knot. In doing so it carved huge, raw slices into its own flesh with its now-reckless blades, as it had done when newly drawn, though it gave no indication of noticing other than the occasional, earth-shaking shudder- no doubt, Zimmer told himself, the result of having a certain unstable individual placing his entire person directly into its body.
The arm he was standing on started to descend, and the alchemist half-breathed a startled prayer before noticing with a pang of dread that its glittering saw had begun to slice through the air above him erratically, making huge sweeps in his direction and arching high over the creature’s body like a scorpion’s tail. Apparently it hadn’t entirely forgotten him, then, and if the beast was looking for a fight then by God he’d be more than pleased to deliver.
Planting his boots squarely on the massive tentacle, Zimmer carefully took aim at the serpentine shape towering above him with his pistol. In the half-second before he pulled the trigger, he saw the beast pause as well- its arm, long and slender, hung in the air with the tension of a bridge about to collapse and shook with tremors of pain. Slowly, almost mournfully, he felt a roar build up through the soles of his boots, the sound emerging as a huge, terrible scream of agony and fear as the saw started to fall.
Zimmer fired; the bullet hit almost instantly. He had just enough time to watch the red flesh flash creamy white before the arm smashed down like a world collapsing on itself. It rushed past him, missing by a mere few feet and ruffling his hair with the wind of its passage, and he heard the horrible crunching sound of it breaking into a thousand pieces on the beast’s own head.
The noise the sawctopus made was the sound of something so overwhelmed by fear and pain that it has left the realm of reason entirely. A huge black pencil swooped in and began to redraw the newly lost limb, but the creature swerved away in panic and began to lope awkwardly over the landscape, crushing walls and trees and odd, grinning sculptures under the loops of its frantic arms. Zimmer was helpless to do anything but try to remain atop the maddened thing, and quickly leapt from the stump of its arm to just above a massive, glaring eye. Its skin was slick with blood and he nearly fell as the sawctopus continued its maddened rampage, wailing without pause. He noticed with brief interest that it had actually began to swing at the darting pencils with the few arms not occupied by fleeing, though its aim was far too poor to actually connect. Was the cursed thing rebelling against his Lord? What kind of sick test was this turning out to be?
No matter, he reminded himself, angling the pistol’s barrel down into the sawctopus’ skull. His Maker wanted the beast dead, and he was in no mood to argue.
One of the Tormentor’s lower right eyes twitched in annoyance at the scene playing out on the tablet before him. Run away, would his little pet? Damn. He’d been so fond of it too. Oh well, he told himself. There was always more to torment where that one came from. He’d let it see how it liked faring by itself against this pair, and when he felt like drawing more of it he’d remember to make them a little less susceptible to pain, as boring as that would be. Maybe he’d add guns to the next ones… yes, and with poison bullets as well! Might as well give them armor, too. Can’t have one’s contestants getting lazy, now can we?
Smirking, he gave up on trying to attach laser chainsaws to the ends of the octopus’ arms and searched elsewhere for a new victim to play with.
Under the walls of shaking muscles and agonizing flesh, Gannet gasped for air amidst the torrents of blood from the sawctopus’s wounded innards. His arms burned as he clawed for leverage; things gave way and broke under his hands and surely the blood was everywhere now, it was in him, around him, everything he could see and the only thing he knew. He was starving, burning, buried alive in the body of a tortured animal, Oracle help him he was dying and he was soaked to the bone with the blood of a monster. Impossibly he smelled smoke again, no longer water this time but fire and glass and knives- he was hungry but felt no hunger; all he wanted was blood and it was on his tongue and burning him and eating him alive, it wasn’t his, never his, no no couldn’t be no no no stop stop stay away you said it wouldn’t touch us you said it wouldn’t touch where are you going WHERE ARE YOU GOING DON’T LEAVE ME HERE DON’T LEAVE ME-
His hand plunged into something soft and the screaming renewed and the world was moving and bleeding and dying and the gods were howling for mercy, all things above and below must die in their time but not I-I-I- I am the mouth of the gods and you will do as I say and you will kill what I tell you to and you WILL END THIS NOW YOU WILL DO AS I TELL YOU AND YOU WILL TEAR OUT THE HEART OF THE GODS THEMSELVES MY ACOLYTE YOU ARE MINE ONCE AND FOR ALL
DO IT
Zimmer held his breath and pulled the trigger at the same time as a blackened claw tore through the sawctopus’ other eye, its fingers slicing through the soft tissue with a wet ripping sound and a narrow arm following it out. The flesh under Zimmer’s feet turned white and cracked; the eye under him went milky and shattered. Blood welled up from the wound but calcified immediately as Zimmer fired four more rounds straight down. The damned beast was still fighting even in its death throes, surely a fifth of its head must be eggshell by now, though that might not be enough to finish it off-
Someone gasped behind him and the alchemist whipped around to see none other than Gannet staggering from a massive hole where the sawctopus’ other eye should have been, his entire form soaked with the beast’s ichor. He watched in horror as the other man freed his leg from the last few tendons still clinging to it and spat out a mouthful of blood, coughing and wiping the fluids from his eyes. Underneath them both, a high sort of whining sound started; it resonated through the massive body of the dying beast like a plucked guitar string, gathering more and more strength until it was at a pitch that seemed like it would split Zimmer’s head in half with its sound and its rage, higher and higher until it broke into a last, terrible roar that shook the beast’s form for one last time before fading slowly, agonizingly, into a deathly silence.
The body of the sawctopus sank to the ground, the few arms still left airborne crashing to the ground and plunging their blades deep into the earth. It softened underneath their feet, the tension leaving its form along with its life, and Zimmer turned back to Gannet proudly.
“Job well done, I’d say,” he said cheerfully, placing his pistol back in its holster and adjusting his coat. “We make quite the team; I daresay you’ve rather got a knack for, er- handling these sorts of creatures. Bit reckless, but I’m not complaining about it. I still can’t quite believe you managed your way through the entire beast’s body, though, my deepest commendations.”
Gannet blinked, then grinned back, his teeth stained with blood. <font color="#345557">“I have done as the Oracle commands. You were of much assistance and it is good to have you.” He gestured around the body of the sawctopus, drops of blood flying through the air and landing on Zimmer’s coat, who pretended not to notice. “I cannot smell anything but this dead being. I am not sure what lies around us.”
Zimmer glanced around; the sawctopus’ fall had destroyed a section of the castle he had seen before, all black stone, sinister towers, and random, disconnected walls. Someone screamed, far off- possibly a female or high male voice, though it was difficult to tell. No one else was immediately visible, though for a second the alchemist thought he saw something spindly lurch past a wall at the corner of his vision. Quite likely it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Stress and all that. No need to worry about things that weren’t immediately available to deal with, hm?</font>
Beside him, Gannet tensed. The scent of blood and death had started to clear just enough for him to catch something new, something far worse… the chemical man’s smoke cloud, already filled with new colors and a strange pale glow, condensed with interest as he noticed Gannet’s staring. He said something that the blood-soaked man didn’t hear; he was already striding past the corpse of the sawctopus. Something was wrong, there was something wrong, he felt it, it was getting clearer and clearer, he could smell it now, stronger than ever-
“Gannet! Gannet, what in the name of God are you doing?” Zimmer called behind him, having to run to keep up. “Damned fellow’s going to get himself killed, running off like this.” With a frightening burst of speed he saw his strange ally duck around the corner of a wall, still without explaining himself. What had gotten into the man? Perhaps the beast they’d slain had some sort of toxin in its blood, or Gannet had hit a poison sac in its organs somewhere; it would certainly explain why he was acting so strangely. Stranger than usual anyway; he wasn’t willing to place any bets on what this fellow considered “normal”.
He rounded the wall to find that, much to his surprise, Gannet had stopped and was standing before a startled-looking young man who, upon closer inspection, appeared to be wearing a bizarre set of partial armor and missing half an arm. He was also naked except for a pair of blue shorts. Zimmer didn’t see how this was at all appropriate to the situation, but then he supposed that the gentleman had his reasons, however odd they may be. His ally seemed to have him cornered, at any rate, and from what he could tell the armored fellow was none too keen on this fortuitous meeting.
Gannet stared down at Martin, tilting his head slightly forward to sniff carefully at the air, though he was sure of the scent now. He had had to chase it but he had been right, he was always right, the Oracle would not gift him a sense that was not perfect. He bared his teeth at the figure before him and told it, “You are dead.”
Martin blinked and slowly prepared to run. <font color="#666666">“Look, calm down-”
“You are dead.” Gannet clicked his thumb and forefinger together in front of the thing’s chest sharply. “Your heart does not beat, you have no blood to flow. You move but you are not living. You breathe but it is not air.” He narrowed his eyes. “You do not smell of the living.”
He grinned suddenly, fiercely, and took a step back as an idea struck him. He should have come to it sooner, but he had to know what it was first, had to be sure of this for the Oracle. He was a good Eye unlike some, he did not assume things that were not true, he did not lie about things because he was not sure of them. He was better than a Tooth to be certain. The Oracle had every reason to grant him this journey.
Still grinning, Gannet spoke more softly. He did not want to alarm this being if it could be helped, though without the scent of fear he could not be sure if he already had. “I ask for you to forgive me. I caught your scent and I had to know… You are the dead-that-walks. I see this now.” He blinked slowly, content. “It is good to see that you have not yet been destroyed.”</font>
Gannet fumbled blindly, fingers scratching uselessly at the slippery flesh surrounding him. His body was pressed awkwardly against the insides of the massive octopus, and it was dark, it was too dark, what was he doing here, how did he- k-kill it infect it I-I-I I don’t c-can’t- what was crushing him? It was everywhere; blood was filling his mouth, his nose, he felt it soaking his clothes and his skin and it was black, blacker than night but filled with blood and he couldn’t smell anything or see it at all. His limbs were being crushed under a living weight and he couldn’t move, he was trapped, he was going to die here in this place-
Desperately he scrambled for a grip on something, anything, and plunged the tips of his nail-and-bone claws into the inside of the octopus blindly. It screamed, loud, too loud, he could hear it resonating somewhere above him and he felt the creature shudder with agony and lurch from side to side. The motion would have made him nauseous if his mouth wasn’t already filled with blood, flat and dull tasting and fake. He tightened his hold on the twitching muscles and felt them ripple in response. It was alive, though it shouldn’t be, it smelled and tasted wrong, all wrong. Agonizingly, he dragged himself further inwards and upwards though somewhere in his head a voice was saying no no air is back go back go back/ go forward kill it for us kill it go faster kill it tear it apart- what was he supposed to do?
Under his skin he felt a rush of nerves, like a net of ice spreading over his muscles and pulsing with light and air and water- always water…. he felt his eyes starting to roll back and shook his head frantically. Blue lights flashed in the back of his head and filled his vision; there was no black, there was no blood in his mouth and throat, it was water, only water. Thick and reeking of life and the dead and the bones of fish and the screams of gulls, Gannet remembered the sea’s scent and it cleared his head.
He had killed an octopus once. It had been white, and small, and its suckers clung to his arms even after it was dead and he was eating it and it would not release him though it had no will left to do so. He remembered the way it had struggled when he pulled it from the water and how its eyes were bright even in death. There was no difference between that one and this.
The ice under his skin flexed and he wrenched his claws sideways, pulling himself further upwards, pushing down on the shredded muscles he left behind him. The octopus roared again, longer and louder this time, and through the blackness of its insides and the blood filling his nose he smelled its sickening terror. The rubbery flesh he was slicing apart spat still more of the creature’s life onto him; dully he felt its pain and confusion raging around him as he burrowed deeper and deeper into its quivering body.
It wouldn’t be far now, the blood and the water told him. All things that live have a means to die.
“Easy there!” Zimmer cried as the tentacle he was standing upon suddenly jerked sideways and the titanic beast below him bellowed in pain. By some miracle of God he hadn’t managed yet to slip off the seething body of the sawctopus, and he prayed that he would hold divine favor for at least a little while longer. The damned thing’s skin was slippery, and it was taking all his concentration just to stay upright without it lurching all over the place like a drunken housewife. As long as it could stay steady enough for him to reach the head-
As if in response to this thought, the sawctopus groaned and veered sideways, swinging through the air towards a huge and sinister-looking castle that was assembling itself from nothing. Zimmer suspected the creature was no longer making clear decisions, if ever it had been; in fact, it had started to pull its arms in towards itself, tangling them together in a thick, coiling knot. In doing so it carved huge, raw slices into its own flesh with its now-reckless blades, as it had done when newly drawn, though it gave no indication of noticing other than the occasional, earth-shaking shudder- no doubt, Zimmer told himself, the result of having a certain unstable individual placing his entire person directly into its body.
The arm he was standing on started to descend, and the alchemist half-breathed a startled prayer before noticing with a pang of dread that its glittering saw had begun to slice through the air above him erratically, making huge sweeps in his direction and arching high over the creature’s body like a scorpion’s tail. Apparently it hadn’t entirely forgotten him, then, and if the beast was looking for a fight then by God he’d be more than pleased to deliver.
Planting his boots squarely on the massive tentacle, Zimmer carefully took aim at the serpentine shape towering above him with his pistol. In the half-second before he pulled the trigger, he saw the beast pause as well- its arm, long and slender, hung in the air with the tension of a bridge about to collapse and shook with tremors of pain. Slowly, almost mournfully, he felt a roar build up through the soles of his boots, the sound emerging as a huge, terrible scream of agony and fear as the saw started to fall.
Zimmer fired; the bullet hit almost instantly. He had just enough time to watch the red flesh flash creamy white before the arm smashed down like a world collapsing on itself. It rushed past him, missing by a mere few feet and ruffling his hair with the wind of its passage, and he heard the horrible crunching sound of it breaking into a thousand pieces on the beast’s own head.
The noise the sawctopus made was the sound of something so overwhelmed by fear and pain that it has left the realm of reason entirely. A huge black pencil swooped in and began to redraw the newly lost limb, but the creature swerved away in panic and began to lope awkwardly over the landscape, crushing walls and trees and odd, grinning sculptures under the loops of its frantic arms. Zimmer was helpless to do anything but try to remain atop the maddened thing, and quickly leapt from the stump of its arm to just above a massive, glaring eye. Its skin was slick with blood and he nearly fell as the sawctopus continued its maddened rampage, wailing without pause. He noticed with brief interest that it had actually began to swing at the darting pencils with the few arms not occupied by fleeing, though its aim was far too poor to actually connect. Was the cursed thing rebelling against his Lord? What kind of sick test was this turning out to be?
No matter, he reminded himself, angling the pistol’s barrel down into the sawctopus’ skull. His Maker wanted the beast dead, and he was in no mood to argue.
One of the Tormentor’s lower right eyes twitched in annoyance at the scene playing out on the tablet before him. Run away, would his little pet? Damn. He’d been so fond of it too. Oh well, he told himself. There was always more to torment where that one came from. He’d let it see how it liked faring by itself against this pair, and when he felt like drawing more of it he’d remember to make them a little less susceptible to pain, as boring as that would be. Maybe he’d add guns to the next ones… yes, and with poison bullets as well! Might as well give them armor, too. Can’t have one’s contestants getting lazy, now can we?
Smirking, he gave up on trying to attach laser chainsaws to the ends of the octopus’ arms and searched elsewhere for a new victim to play with.
Under the walls of shaking muscles and agonizing flesh, Gannet gasped for air amidst the torrents of blood from the sawctopus’s wounded innards. His arms burned as he clawed for leverage; things gave way and broke under his hands and surely the blood was everywhere now, it was in him, around him, everything he could see and the only thing he knew. He was starving, burning, buried alive in the body of a tortured animal, Oracle help him he was dying and he was soaked to the bone with the blood of a monster. Impossibly he smelled smoke again, no longer water this time but fire and glass and knives- he was hungry but felt no hunger; all he wanted was blood and it was on his tongue and burning him and eating him alive, it wasn’t his, never his, no no couldn’t be no no no stop stop stay away you said it wouldn’t touch us you said it wouldn’t touch where are you going WHERE ARE YOU GOING DON’T LEAVE ME HERE DON’T LEAVE ME-
His hand plunged into something soft and the screaming renewed and the world was moving and bleeding and dying and the gods were howling for mercy, all things above and below must die in their time but not I-I-I- I am the mouth of the gods and you will do as I say and you will kill what I tell you to and you WILL END THIS NOW YOU WILL DO AS I TELL YOU AND YOU WILL TEAR OUT THE HEART OF THE GODS THEMSELVES MY ACOLYTE YOU ARE MINE ONCE AND FOR ALL
DO IT
Zimmer held his breath and pulled the trigger at the same time as a blackened claw tore through the sawctopus’ other eye, its fingers slicing through the soft tissue with a wet ripping sound and a narrow arm following it out. The flesh under Zimmer’s feet turned white and cracked; the eye under him went milky and shattered. Blood welled up from the wound but calcified immediately as Zimmer fired four more rounds straight down. The damned beast was still fighting even in its death throes, surely a fifth of its head must be eggshell by now, though that might not be enough to finish it off-
Someone gasped behind him and the alchemist whipped around to see none other than Gannet staggering from a massive hole where the sawctopus’ other eye should have been, his entire form soaked with the beast’s ichor. He watched in horror as the other man freed his leg from the last few tendons still clinging to it and spat out a mouthful of blood, coughing and wiping the fluids from his eyes. Underneath them both, a high sort of whining sound started; it resonated through the massive body of the dying beast like a plucked guitar string, gathering more and more strength until it was at a pitch that seemed like it would split Zimmer’s head in half with its sound and its rage, higher and higher until it broke into a last, terrible roar that shook the beast’s form for one last time before fading slowly, agonizingly, into a deathly silence.
The body of the sawctopus sank to the ground, the few arms still left airborne crashing to the ground and plunging their blades deep into the earth. It softened underneath their feet, the tension leaving its form along with its life, and Zimmer turned back to Gannet proudly.
“Job well done, I’d say,” he said cheerfully, placing his pistol back in its holster and adjusting his coat. “We make quite the team; I daresay you’ve rather got a knack for, er- handling these sorts of creatures. Bit reckless, but I’m not complaining about it. I still can’t quite believe you managed your way through the entire beast’s body, though, my deepest commendations.”
Gannet blinked, then grinned back, his teeth stained with blood. <font color="#345557">“I have done as the Oracle commands. You were of much assistance and it is good to have you.” He gestured around the body of the sawctopus, drops of blood flying through the air and landing on Zimmer’s coat, who pretended not to notice. “I cannot smell anything but this dead being. I am not sure what lies around us.”
Zimmer glanced around; the sawctopus’ fall had destroyed a section of the castle he had seen before, all black stone, sinister towers, and random, disconnected walls. Someone screamed, far off- possibly a female or high male voice, though it was difficult to tell. No one else was immediately visible, though for a second the alchemist thought he saw something spindly lurch past a wall at the corner of his vision. Quite likely it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Stress and all that. No need to worry about things that weren’t immediately available to deal with, hm?</font>
Beside him, Gannet tensed. The scent of blood and death had started to clear just enough for him to catch something new, something far worse… the chemical man’s smoke cloud, already filled with new colors and a strange pale glow, condensed with interest as he noticed Gannet’s staring. He said something that the blood-soaked man didn’t hear; he was already striding past the corpse of the sawctopus. Something was wrong, there was something wrong, he felt it, it was getting clearer and clearer, he could smell it now, stronger than ever-
“Gannet! Gannet, what in the name of God are you doing?” Zimmer called behind him, having to run to keep up. “Damned fellow’s going to get himself killed, running off like this.” With a frightening burst of speed he saw his strange ally duck around the corner of a wall, still without explaining himself. What had gotten into the man? Perhaps the beast they’d slain had some sort of toxin in its blood, or Gannet had hit a poison sac in its organs somewhere; it would certainly explain why he was acting so strangely. Stranger than usual anyway; he wasn’t willing to place any bets on what this fellow considered “normal”.
He rounded the wall to find that, much to his surprise, Gannet had stopped and was standing before a startled-looking young man who, upon closer inspection, appeared to be wearing a bizarre set of partial armor and missing half an arm. He was also naked except for a pair of blue shorts. Zimmer didn’t see how this was at all appropriate to the situation, but then he supposed that the gentleman had his reasons, however odd they may be. His ally seemed to have him cornered, at any rate, and from what he could tell the armored fellow was none too keen on this fortuitous meeting.
Gannet stared down at Martin, tilting his head slightly forward to sniff carefully at the air, though he was sure of the scent now. He had had to chase it but he had been right, he was always right, the Oracle would not gift him a sense that was not perfect. He bared his teeth at the figure before him and told it, “You are dead.”
Martin blinked and slowly prepared to run. <font color="#666666">“Look, calm down-”
“You are dead.” Gannet clicked his thumb and forefinger together in front of the thing’s chest sharply. “Your heart does not beat, you have no blood to flow. You move but you are not living. You breathe but it is not air.” He narrowed his eyes. “You do not smell of the living.”
He grinned suddenly, fiercely, and took a step back as an idea struck him. He should have come to it sooner, but he had to know what it was first, had to be sure of this for the Oracle. He was a good Eye unlike some, he did not assume things that were not true, he did not lie about things because he was not sure of them. He was better than a Tooth to be certain. The Oracle had every reason to grant him this journey.
Still grinning, Gannet spoke more softly. He did not want to alarm this being if it could be helped, though without the scent of fear he could not be sure if he already had. “I ask for you to forgive me. I caught your scent and I had to know… You are the dead-that-walks. I see this now.” He blinked slowly, content. “It is good to see that you have not yet been destroyed.”</font>