System Hunt: Regalia

Lithe on her feet and critical of her steps, Yoko snuck through the foliage and crouched behind a conveniently large rock three yards away from the entrance where the same Kobold frequently stepped out of.

“6…4...2…” she counted six minutes down to the second and right on cue the Kobold strolled out, slapping away the curtain of vines used to cover the entrance.

It carried another hefty bucket of blood and guts, his jolted, callous movements had it spilling over before he stopped and tossed the contents into the purple river. The river’s current swept away intestines, eyeballs and other parts Yoko had ground numb to seeing.

She snatched a sizeable stone from nearby, palmed it to feel its weight and then lobbed it at the Kobo from behind her rock. The smelling thing shrieked in surprise and annoyance. Its feet dragged and snapped thin roots as it approached, mumbling in some guttural language.

If it even is a language. Yoko thought, she was hoping that it even if it were its comrades were too far to hear it cry for help. She pressed up against her rock and rounded by its side as the Kobold sniffed its way closer to her position.

Yoko felt her heart raced. The crunch of its steps was the only sound she listened to, gone was the distant rumble of the river and the moans of the slaughter within the cave. She took a breath, timing her next move. In one swift motion, she darted from behind the rock.

It heard her coming and was already turning around to face her but that was only to Yoko’s benefit. Her Holy Scimitar drove straight through it like a burning knife through butter.

It let out a silent, agonized gasp as against it fell forward, leaning against Yoko for her to dig the Holy Scimitar even deeper till she felt the bone the blade scraped against melt and watched the steaming glint of her Scimitar poked out the Kobold’s thick green back.

Satisfied, she yanked her Scimitar away and let the Kobold fall—

257RGP Awarded!

— ignoring the ping Yoko hurried through the cave’s curtain. The dank, pungent smell of death, urine and faeces was the first thing to offend her. The bleating, screaming and even barking of animals drowned out all sound her footsteps would make in the cave.

Her fists clenched her Holy scimitar and pistol as she strutted right in without hiding. There were few places to hide in the first place, the cave was large, open and wide enough to contain a crowd with only two stone pillars keeping up the chequered roof. It had a smooth wall and natural stone steps that led into its centre where blood pooled from slaughtered animals.

In her direct line of sight there were twelve Kobolds moving back and forth between the cages that lined the cave’s walls. Roosters, rabbits, rats and even larger animals like a pair of incessantly barking wolves, a cow and a grievously injured bear were trapped in various sized metal cages. The confines were less than humane— stacked and lined up close to the cave walls— but how could they be, these were Belua farming them.

She’d studied their movements earlier and found they were harvesting eggs from the few hens spared a crowded cage and distributing feed to the rest. The wolves, bears and such other carnivores got nothing, they were the first to lay on the Bone Ogre’s butcher table.

“Rah!” one of the Kobolds yelled, finally noticing her presence.

The Bone Ogres among them were similar to the one they’d faced the night before. All three stood before blood soaked tables laid with large animal carcasses they carved through with cleavers and other butcher tools.

It was a sickening sight, seeing a Bone Ogre, but more so seeing it behave barbaric in such a human way. What other species uses tools to cut prey open and makes waste of the undesired spilled guts?

“Hey! I’m right here!” Yoko whipped her pistol and fired a Holy Bullet at all three. The loud noise silenced the animals and even startled the Kobold’s from committing to their brave approach. The bullet blew of chunks of their bone armour and riled their full attention.

The first to see her grew a bone blade from its wrists and roared. The Kobolds jumped to action and ran out to tackle Yoko. She slashed and shot her way out with ease, ignoring the quaking of the earth as three Bone Ogres chased her out of the cage with and frontline of Kobolds hot on her heels.

Yoko sprinted through the vine curtain, leading a trail of angry, bloodthirsty Belua after her. The Kobolds were particularly nimble and one managed to leap in through the trees and cut her off as it leaped from a branch to challenge her with a small stone hammer in its clutches.

Unprepared, perfect. She didn’t waste a bullet and buried her scimitar in its skull once it got too close. But its worthless life might have given its peers the seconds they needed to catch up with her.

Another Kobold lunged at her, coming up with momentum from its charge it swung at her jaw with a spiked club. Yoko nearly tripped over the first Kobold’s corpse as she backed up and instantly blew the second’s stomach apart with a near point-blank range shot of her pistol. The Nuclei-charged bullet did wonders against the Kobolds green, unprotected body.

But they weren’t done and she had wasted more time. More and more flooded after the other, the hefty thumps of Bone Ogres not far behind them and even creeping faster as their roars shuddered leaves from the trees.

Yoko’s heart was pounding, but her mind was sharp. Every step was calculated as she sprinted out of the cave, the chaotic shouts of the Kobolds chasing her into the woods. Then, up ahead, she spotted the familiar foliage where her trap was set. A smirk tugged at her lips.

She skidded to a stop and faced the incoming Kobolds, three sprinting toward her on all fours, their teeth sharper than the blades some of their kin held.

All three leaped at her, mouths wafting of rotten meat and salivating for a taste of hers. Two lances skewered through and a Holy bullet blasted the last from behind, splattering Yoko with blood. She groaned in her clone’s direction perched atop a tree and switched.

Mind Swap Successful

Yoko’s vision blurred for just a moment as her consciousness snapped into the clone's body. She blinked rapidly, adjusting to the sudden shift in perspective, and drew a deep breath to steady herself. She had moved into the head of one of six clones hidden amongst the foliage and this one wielded a scoped bolt action shotgun. Now perched on a high branch, she scanned the battlefield below, eyes locking on the incoming Bone Ogres.

There are more of them. She noted a separate mass of Kobolds followed after the Bone Ogres as they close in beneath her. The clone she left got back up from Sam’s lance strikes and dispatched more daring Kobolds with the scimitar.

Yoko let loose a whistle and got one back. The first Bone Ogre stepped into the trap and all focus shifted. The air hummed as more of Sam’s glass lances shimmered into view, their crystalline bodies rapidly hardening. Yoko watched with satisfaction as the lances grew denser, the glass multiplying within itself to form a sharp, jagged surface. They hovered in place, poised like deadly spears. Then, with a quick whistle from Sam, the trap was sprung.

Yoko gave her clones the order and under a flurry of Holy gunfire the Bone Ogre’s armour chipped and broke off in multiple places. The Bone Ogre roared defiantly, its voice rising above the relentless gunfire. It staggered back under the assault but remained standing, its bone armour cracking and splintering. As the last shot rang out, the onslaught paused, and in that brief silence, Sam's fortified glass lances glimmered.

With deadly precision, they soared through the air and punctured the giant Belua’s chest, each lance driving deeper as if cutting through nothing but air. The Bone Ogre let out a pained, guttural gasp and dropped to a knee. Its body held more glass than flesh or bone now.

But Sam wasn’t finished.

The lances began to tremble vibrating with an eerie intensity, each lance within trying to escape the confines of the Ogre’s torso. The Bone Ogre’s body, already weakened and hollow, shuddered under the pressure and for a moment, everything stilled. Then—

Boom!

The Ogre detonated in a violent burst of bone and blood.