[IC] Godless Ichor (Dark Fantasy/Action)

[CadenGallic]

There were no Ents in sight, just the thick treeline surrounding him and the grass under his feet. The sun was rising above him as a somewhat dreary cloudy sky passed over... but something alerted him. Amidst the trees, he caught the sound of growling... faint but clear growling. And following the growling, he could see a pair of glowing eyes amidst the darkness of the trees, locked onto him.

[Eklispe]

Eldarin turned to face the glowing eyes. Well it could be the fox. Or another bloodthirsty animal that wanted to kill him. Well he wasn't very well going to jump into the bush with open arms so he decided to adopt a defensive stance just in case. He crouched slightly, buckler and torch in one hand, sword in the other, leveled like a spear. "Here foxy foxy foxy." he called out, low and soothing. What was that dratted things name again? That was it! "Here Tinder, be a nice little animal."

[CadenGallic]

Slowly, the owner of the eyes prowled from out of the trees, its head brushed the branches aside as it entered the clearing. It was certainly vulpine looking, its fur covered in mud, dirt and twigs, turning whatever colour fur it had into a muddy green and brown. It walked upon clawed paws, leaving marks on the grass, its teeth were bared and snarling, its eyes bore a ferocity beyond any ordinary quadruped animal. It eyed Eldarin over with a low growl before it turned slightly toward a nearby tree. It twisted its neck and grabbed the tree in its maw, 1using an immense tug of strength to rip it out of the ground, held in its teeth like a makeshift club. It started to approach him, slowly, deliberately. This beast was spoiling for a fight.

[Eklispe]

Well if that was Tinder he wasn't about to come back peacefully and was much larger than his brothers and sisters. "Now that's not being a nice little animal." Eldarin said quietly to himself as he slowly backed away while facing the thing. Obviously running was out of the question, the thing would hunt him down with ease. Getting hit with that tree would be no fun either, he needed to get rid of it ASAP. Launching a fireball willy nilly however was probably just a waste of energy. There was cunning in those feral eyes, it would guess what he was after and avoid it. Maybe a bit of lightning would do the trick, but using that magic torn up his arm even with his, admittedly only leather, armguards on and he was reluctant to do so. "Alright little animal, let's play." Eldarin whispered and stood his ground, standing light on his feet, ready to dodge the blow from the tree he knew was coming. Even taking that on his shield would probably crack a rib or two. This would be no easy fight. Despite this a small grin was on Eldarin's face, what was life without a little challenge?

[CadenGallic]

The feral beast snarled again as it made the first move, leaping toward and getting right up close to him before swinging its large tree club at him, flecking bits of torn earth and twigs at him as it swung.

[Eklispe]

Predictable. Horizontal swing as was easiest to preform. Eldarin rolled to the side with the swing and as he was on his back and the tree passed over him Eldarin let out a whoosh of breath, repeating his display from earlier. Fire rolled out from the torch, liberally splashing over the tree and some of it reaching the beast's muzzle. In another moment Eldarin was on his feet and running towards the beast, sword lashing out at the monster's eye, if he could blind the creature while it was surprised by the sudden flaming state of its weapon then this fight would be that much easier. He really hoped this wasn't tinder, he'd hate to disfigure someone's pet.

[CadenGallic]

The beast snarled as fire licked up its weapon and onto its muzzle. The tree was still fresh so its burn was slow, but it was clear just holding it was hurting the large animal. But it was content to go for another attack as it made a deft leap to the left of him and this time came at him with a more diagonal swing.

[Eklispe]

The feral snarl drove a shiver up Eldarin's spine. He cursed as sword clove through empty air, the animal was more agile then he hoped. Eldarin couldn't dodge the same way or the trunk would smash him into so little paste. So Eldarin decided to do something he would normally consider very stupid, but this wasn't the time for thinking. Knowing the beast would anticipate a repeat of his motion before Eldarin crouched and leaned slightly to the right, as though he was going to do so. But rather than roll Eldarin exploded upwards into the air, launching himself towards the animal with the aid of a quick prayer to Reyval, and over the flaming tree. If all went as planned Eldarin would be unharmed and his sword would plunge into the monstrous beast's head, which would probably cause some damage to both parties but hopefully more to the beast. Otherwise if the fanged beast managed to anticipate his jump or the following plunge Eldarin would likely be in quite serious trouble.

[CadenGallic]

With the aid of the god of storms, he was able to avoid the feral animal's next blow and dig his sword right into its forehead, causing it to yowl loudly and drop the tree from its teeth. From the wound, slight trickles of a thick viscous gold substance dribbled out into the beast's matted fur. Quickly the beast flung its head from side to side to throw Eldarin off. If he kept a hold of his sword, he might be able to pull it out, or he could leave it in.

[Eklispe]

With not time to breathe a sigh of relief Eldarin held onto the sword with grim determination, the blade sawing into the monster's skull with every shake of it's head. However it also loosened the sword's hold, and with not wish to be left with only a torch and his magic for weapons, Eldarin pulled back on the sword in conjunction with a head shake, sending him soaring through the air. With only a brief roll to regain his footing Eldarin whirled and faced the creature once more. With burns and a bleeding skull, this battle was already over. The only question was if Eldarin could survive long enough for the thing to figure out it was dying.

[CadenGallic]

The creature growled again, looking him down as the golden viscous blood seeped into its fur... its eyes seemed to notice it and it paused for a moment... was it thinking? The beast made a quick hop to the left as it grabbed the burning tree it had used for a weapon, tilting its head before tossing it at Eldarin like a caber. After it's throw, the beast leapt backwards and into a patch of wet earth, digging its forepaws into the mud and slathering it upon its open wound... it was actually patching itself up to stop the bleeding!

[Eklispe]

Eldarin cursed at the sight of the large, flaming projectile hurtling towards him and managed to barely get out of the way and watch it crash into the tree's behind him. Well if he hadn't caused a forest fire yet it seemed that he was going to now. Which meant there was no reason to hold back anymore. Eldarin looked at the beast again to see it attempting to roughly band aid itself. Reacting on instinct Eldarin infused the torch with magic, the amount of it ripping through his hand and causing jagged lines to appear on his skin, just before the point of outright bleeding, and hurled it at the beast. When it landed the torch would behave much like a grenade, that is it would explode with a surprising amount of violence. Eldarin recklessly followed the torch, buckler guarding his face as he charged the beast. As soon as was close enough to attack he would do so, striking the beast as fast as possible where ever possible.

[CadenGallic]

The beast was patched up enough to stop its bleeding, looking up to see the flaming projectile coming its way, leaping to the left to avoid it, but not ready for the explosion, damaging the right side of its face and causing it to stagger as Eldarin approached. The beast met him head on, attempting to snap its sharp teeth upon him.

[Eklispe]

Eldarin was beyond caring for the safe and steady route to victory. Like a battering ram he recklessly plunged forward, slamming his buckler into the beast's snapping mouth while driving his sword forward at the monster's face. One good thrust through the eye was his goal and this fight would be finished off in a single moment.

[CadenGallic]

This attack proved dangerous as the beast's teeth were sharp and snapped onto his buckler, digging past it and into his arm, leaving a few gashes in his wrist and forearm. But his blade dug into the beast's soft and exposed eye, digging in and causing more viscous golden fluid to leak out as the large beast staggered back, yelping in pain with the sword stuck in its eye, unable to recover from this attack. It staggered a little longer before finally it pitched over onto its side and slowly fell still and quiet.

His enemy was slain.

[Eklispe]

Eldarin took deep breaths and stared at the creature for a moment, shield ready in case it got back up. Several terse moments passed with no movement from the beast, and Eldarin relaxed a little. Eldarin carefully removed his blade from the creature and took a step back, avoiding the torrent of golden fluid that poured out of the stoppered wound. Eldarin looked regretfully at the shattered remains of his torch, it would've been nice to have kept it in case he met more Ents. He considered taking a prize from the wolf, but realized it would just weigh him down. Shrugging to himself Eldarin walked onward wondering where the hell Timber was. Gawds both his arms were hurt, one by his torch magic, one by the wolf's vicious fangs.

[CadenGallic]

"Tinder..." as he was about to leave, he heard a familiar voice from the woods as the cloaked visage of Sorreau apppeared, a woeful look upon her face. She approached the downed beast and sank to her knees before it, taking its muzzle into her lap and stroking it gently... she bore no tears but the sadness on her face could break even the strongest of men's wills.

[Eklispe]

Eldarin turned in surprise at the gentle voice and couldn't help his jaw from dropping. Son of a titanite demon that was Tinder?! He stuttered and stopped in an attempt to deliver an explanation and took a moment to compose himself. Why and how was she here? Had she followed him past the distracted Ents? But why? To ensure he made it through safely? Or some other, darker reason? That thought fled his mind with a single look at her face, that heart-wrenching sorrow was undoubtedly genuine.

Eldarin grasped the red filled flask in a pocket in a flash of hope and then released it. There was no way the fluid contained in there could save Tinder. He'd stabbed the animal through the eye for heaven's sake. Well he couldn't very well leave her all alone, if one of the Ents came she would be here defenseless. "He-", how could he explain that it had been a matter of life and death between her pet and him? He wouldn't have killed it unless he'd had to. "I'm sorry, I had to defend myself." was all he could say in a remarkably steady voice. His arms hung weakly at this sides as he waited for her to say something. He had betrayed her trust in him, regardless of the reason for doing so, he would do whatever it took to redeem himself.

[CadenGallic]

"...it is alright..." Sorreau said quietly as she stroked the deceased beast's muzzle slowly, inspecting the golden pool leaking from its eye. "The poor fox... he must have grown so thirsty he drank from the river..." she sighed sadly and looked from the beast to him. "I know... you did what must be done... a Godless can never return to what they once were... doing this..." she choked up a bit as she slowly rose to her feet. "Doing this was... merciful."

[Eklispe]

Eldarin noted her statement carefully. So drinking from the river had turned the little fox he had seen earlier, into this? That was what being Godless was? That man was right then, drinking from the river would've been a mistake. "I'm sorry. Is there anything I could do to make up for this?" He asked calmly. His heart felt like a rope, brutally yanked back and forth between the women's sorrow and his own reasoning that there was nothing more he could've done. If only he could've done something different. Now that his adrenaline was slowly fading he could acutely feel the pain of the twin wounds on his arms. Eldarin really needed to bandage them if he didn't want them to get infected, having only one arm would make life much more difficult and he had no desire to find out just how much.