CH vs Lily Round 1: Void vs Kede

[Tobias Stalt]

To the north, the bleak and dark forest looms. A strange and massive trail of destruction through the woods left a path cleaved a path to this clearing, a scar in the very earth surrounded by evergreens. Broken trees and the corpses of fallen animals litter this place. It is unclear if whatever caused this destruction is gone, or if it lurks nearby...

You have 48 hours until this battle starts, and 2 week until it ends. No time-frame on daily posts.

[Void]

It was sprawled, on its side and on the ground. It had four legs; the front right one was reared up, so the knee butted the nose, and the front left was in the same position beneath it, but with a broken ankle. The back right was straightened, apart from the toe which was slightly facing inwards to the belly, and the back left was folded up all the way behind the animal, so it lay half covered by the dirty straggly remains of what had been a fine black tail. The back was in some form of angular curve, forming a slithery shape with the neck and head which then suddenly ducked down, with eyes wide open - eyes distant, empty, lost, emotionless, containing nothing. One side of antlers was off from the proud head, snapped off fiercely and brutally on account of the jagged breakage that would rip flesh easily if one dared touch it. All of this was crowned by the pool of dried and congealed blood splattered around the form, mainly coming from a deeply gorged wound in the abdomen of the beast, and it speckled like cherries against a handkerchief on the frosty compacted snow.

Over this corpse a small man crouched, though he was as elegantly formed as the next elf-being. White hair stuck to his slate grey cheeks as his hand speedily moved across the face of a sheet of parchment. Altogether he had the appearance of a madman, taking feverish notes on the decaying of the stag's corpse, making precise measurements and drawing diagrams, and anyone who came across him might immediately think that. They would see a halfling sized strange dark elf with glowing golden eyes and a savage grin, one who poked the dead eyes and giggled with amusement. They would shiver in their boots as they watched him wrench apart skin, flesh and bone to see what lay underneath the wound, grow disturbed when he bent down to flavour the old blood with a lick of his long pink tongue, and perhaps screech as he sat back, licked his lips and said, in the quietest but most haunting of voices.

"Dead, one week. Male, has had sex seventy times. Was twenty years of age, was killed by a monster."

Once satisfied with his assessment, Yakob de Void bounded to his feet. Tucking the parchment into his jacket pocket, he blinked beofre turning around and looking at the other bodies littered down the pathway. His head titled curiously to the side, judging the distance between sides of the path, and looking up to see the heights of the toppermost broken branches. Some trees had been entirely felled, others had simply been snapped in twain like the ankles of the deer. With quick estimated measurements he came to the conclusion that the beast that had caused this could be anywhere in size from a bumbling baby chimera, to a frigging giant land dragon. Either was intersting to him. Either was satisfying to be around.

Hissing a chuckle to himself, the halfling twisted around and ran into the tree cover, careful to deliberately stand in the blood as he did. Trailing crimson footprints in the mottled white and dirt brown, he made a path for his probable approaching adversary to follow. Blood and gore they would gasp at, but these footprints they would laugh at. Thinking Yakob foolish they would follow him into the wood, singing their bravery away, before then being surprised as he shot at them from behind a tree.

The Voidling through his pack by a root before kicking off his bloody boots and running to take his position. A fight, a war, they had all said, and he had volunteered before anyone told him who it was against. He still didn't know, but he didn't care, for it was an opportunity to kill. An opportunity to commit bloody murder in a place where no one would complain.

Pew, pew, pew. The sound his crossbow would very soon make.

He hid behind a tree, shoeless, but so bloodlustful that he ignored the frost. After all, the cold had never bothered him anyway.

[Kedeshah]

The cold bit despite her preparations. She’d eschewed her normal summery attire for pants, thick woolen sweater, and a jacket. Her wide-brimmed hat seemed out of place with the darker ensemble, bright yellow ribbon that adorned it glowing in the winter sunlight. Her feet were numb from frost that had soaked into her flats, and as she stopped and took in the destruction before her, it felt very much as if she had made some bad decisions along the way. When she’d heard the Gilded Lily was in need of healers for the upcoming war, she’d felt it was only her duty to support her fellow workers. Now she was alone in the snow and the feeling of protective comraderies had melted away.

It didn’t help that the woods before her were decimated. Snapped trunks reached to the sky like broken teeth. Something angry had swept through, carving it’s path through the forest by force. Samiria hoped beyond hope that she wouldn’t find out what it was. Picking her way through the destruction, rowan staff moving and sweeping aside debris and fern fronds, she slowly made her way along the makeshift path. Soon, among the coat of snow on the ground, more tracks joined the cacophony of destruction before her. She stopped and examined them a moment, before brown eyes widened.

The prints were small, all blood and bootscuff. Samiria didn’t know the first thing about tracking, but she was sure that it was a child’s step that she was seeing moving through the snow crust. A child that was possibly hurt or in danger, at that. Her lips tightened into a hard line, and she steeled herself for what gore she might find ahead. Walking faster, she followed the tracks. She’d come to provide healing to members of the Lily, but finding them took the back burner when faced with an innocent child hurt in this mindless fighting.

[Void]

He only sat there for six minutes and seventeen seconds before someone passed by his way.

Standing there, behind the tree, his sight was limited, but at least his ingenius was exposed. The tree provided cover, it gave a short little intriguing wonder before the secret was revealed and Void could pop out, all small and cute looking - but beyond childlike. Those teeth he had, he had especially sharpened for today. His nails he had likewise filed to points and his grey skin he had dirtied to make him look like one of those fiendish warriors. As snow began to fall around him, he raised his left arm where Cravasse sat in, that makeshift crossbow that was neither just his arm nor just a weapon but something in between. Sounds began to come to his ear from the direction of the makeshift path, sounds of pattering feet and light breathing; sounds of an enemy.

Yakob lifted up the crossbow that had replaced his hewn off hand, and waited, patiently. Ducking right into the side of the tree he become one with it, or something like the tree itself, finding what little shadows he could to merge into them. His skill was to be beloved of the Void, and the Void with him, and so together they were one. If someone saw him from the front direction they would see his body begin to be streaking with invisibility as the tiny shadows of the bark attempted to let him hide in them.

He saw a whisper of that light red hair they called 'ginger' but Void liked to think more of fire. The height and the curve of the chest told him it was a 'woman' like his acquaintance Philomel. But all Void knew was that today this was his enemy. He had been sent here, after all, told to come here by someone in that Assassin's Guild to just kill, without word or explanation, but it was something Void was always happy to do - to wreak havoc. As soon as he saw her he let loose an iron bolt. It would fly towards her, to her side likliest of all, and then death games could really begin.

[Tobias Stalt]

Closed for judging.

[Tobias Stalt]

Gonna call this one Void just for being last to post, for the sake of the overall tally. Insufficient posts for judging, nothing to be awarded.