System Hunt: Regalia

Sam and Yoko startled awake at once. A chilling shriek woke them from their cold, uncomfortable slumber. Yoko drowsily rose from where she fell off her stump and laid behind Sam, her hair was a mess and her cheeks had leaves and sticks stuck to it.

Sam was already on his feet, three of his glass lances unveiling themselves from the gym bag as he searched for a threat. Despite adrenaline fuelling his sudden alertness, there was nothing threatening to be seen.

A wail of pleas carried through the forest followed by another, a sharper, piercing voice that continued to scream. He snatched the backpack of provisions and snatched Yoko’s arm, dragging her along.

“Come on! We have to go check that out.” Sam said and emptied the gym bag of his lances so all nine of them hovered near or above him.

Yoko groaned, scrubbed her eyes and yawned as Sam dragged her along. She bit of a clipping of her fingernails and tossed it over her shoulder. A bright light enveloped the summersaulting fingernail as it grew, bulged and transformed into a perfect replica.

The newly fashioned clone then hauled Yoko’s bag of weapons and Sam’s empty gym bag, following behind as they ran. As another terror filled scream jostled their eardrums Yoko cursed, “We shouldn’t have come into this forest.”

“Oh yeah?” Sam panted, his head swerving all around as he tried to navigate his way to the people in need.

In his haste they delved further into the forest and even if he looked back he couldn’t recognize the path out any longer, if there was one. So he marched forward with Yoko in hand and the blind momentum quickly made it so that the screams grew louder and closer. He could hear the pleas of the person in danger as he dashed past a cluster of thick, long grown trees.

“Please! Don’t hurt her any more, please no! No!”

Those pleas must have fallen on deaf ears because another strangled scream echoed, there was a gurgling of fluid and cough behind it. A strained, pain filled voice muttering last words that were promptly cut off by a sudden, oppressive crunch and a squelch. The sounds projected a visual horror that Sam could imagine from sound alone.

“Nooo! No! No! No!” a man’s voice cried.

Sam and Yoko broke through the woods and happened upon the clearing where the horrified screams resounded and as expected, there was death, monsters and man on his knees.

The first thing Sam did was lobotomize three of the seven green-skinned, club wielding monsters that stood over a woman’s fresh corpse. Their bodies followed their heads as Sam’s lances impaled three of the Belua to nearby trees.

Yoko stepped out and fired, the Holy bullet from her pistol tore through one Belua’s back with explosive force. Blood splattered as the green fiend fell over, its spine severed so completely it might have been cut in two by the bullet’s explosive force.

It was then their presence was known and recognized. Sam ran straight for the human man weeping over a woman with a club lodged in her face. Both humans, dead and alive, wore clothes Sam could only describe as poor.

Sam stood by the man and recalled his bloody lances to his side as Yoko and he cornered the Belua. They were familiar looking. Many of them were thin and stringy, including the ones he lobotomized. The few that were fat were so in excess Sam wondered if they were the same species.

Green, ugly, sharp featured creatures standing on two legs and sporting a tail. Their eyes were a sickly yellow and held vertical pupils within them. The one Sam glowered at licked its lips at Yoko and sniffed deeply from a snout-like nose.

“Ew, Kobolds.” Were her only words as she fired another bullet that blasted off the creature’s shoulder. It screeched and fell to its knees before them, Sam examined the rest and found their reactions odd.

“Are these really Belua?” Sam muttered. There were two small ones left excluding the one that just had its shoulder torn off. The two remainders backed away with a genuine cautiousness that Sam hadn’t witnessed in any Belua they’d come across.

Yoko shrugged and took aim at the others only for them to abandon their spiked-clubs and flee. She chuckled but didn’t bother moving from her spot even though her Regalia vanished from her face.

A round of shots echoed beyond Sam’s sight and once they’d died down Yoko’s Regalia reappeared on her face. He smiled at her, “You could have let your clone do that.”

She didn’t smile back, instead her eyes fell onto the disfigured corpse of a woman behind them. The man’s voice had faded away, leaving him with only painful, silent sobs.

“I know Kobolds, they’re evil in their own right and should never be left alive.” She looked at Sam, a weak smile on her lips, “That’s what my Paladin would say if this were a campaign but I never thought I’d be saying it in real life, with real consequence.”

Sam inhaled, “Yeah, I know that feeling.” He crouched beside the weeping man, placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him even slightly, “Hey, mind telling us who you are, where we are and what happened?”

The man, clothed in a simple hemp twined shirt and trousers looked up at Sam and Yoko, his puffy eyes leaked more tears at the sight, “You are…Invaders aren’t you?”

“Huh?” Sam

Before any more could be explained a heavy grunt was heard behind them, Sam readied his lances and Yoko her gun but it was too late. Behind them was the Kobold Yoko shot in the shoulder, it had ripped its arm from clinging onto its shredded shoulder and wielded its bleeding edge like a brush.

It heaved and breathed heavily with a grin as its devious yellow eyes taunted Sam and Yoko. It cried out a word and made to speak another but a lance soared through its mouth while a Holy Bullet blasted a hole in its rotund stomach.

Blood pooled everywhere. So much that the scent of iron and burning— Burning? What?

“Thank you for my life but I cannot help you!” The weeping man said just as the circle of blood the Kobold drew ignited. An explosive force blew dirt, dust, blood and leaves in their faces.

“Watch out!” Yoko yelled out in from somewhere in the dust, quickly enough for Sam to bring two of his lances to guard.

They met resistance instantly as a giant, wide blade cut through the dust and grinded against his glass, inches away from taking off his nose. Sam wisely fell back and searched the tree clustered clearing for the man they’d saved but found nothing.

Yoko leaped out at the giant peering out from the settling dust, her pistol aimed at its horrid, horned face. She fired and stole a chunk of bone for her efforts before falling back with three more clones having been summoned beside her.

With the dust settled Sam looked upon the creature that had taken the place of another, its eyes hummed with unfettered rage and bloodlust. It stood twice, perhaps even thrice taller than the Kobold’s they’d dispatched and its body was plated with a natural, spiky brown bone armour.

“What is that thing? An ogre?”

Sam shook his head, “It doesn’t matter, send one of your clones after that man. He’s going to be our guide through Domus.”

Yoko squinted at him but nodded, “I’ll leave you with these two then!” She and a clone dashed away, leaving him with two clones, each wielding a heavy and powerful Holy Pistol.

“Alright then, perhaps there are more monsters to play with than Belua, but you…you are certainly Belua aren’t you?”

The thing didn’t answer, it rotated its neck for a series of loud cracks and then whipped the large blade— a broad and rusted sword that it treated more like a club— and dashed out towards Sam who had his lances posed to strike.