#and immediately pick up that beast killer with a hammer kill . was so good. she did SO WELL

[wizling]

had the dreamiest smoothest first attempt clear of chapter 12 on my current lunatic file (i know chapter 12 isn't THAT difficult. but still) where everything i wanted to do was executed perfectly and it was all thanks to sully holding the central choke with a beast killer while sumia handled the entire left side with a thunder tome and her beloved killer lance from donnels paralogue. thank you women

[paxpaxpax-3x]

Lamina {Chapter 3: The Hunt}

25 years ago

A Sana Hunting expedition

An Oasis in the Majinn Desert

My father and I sat low in the bushes, watching an Addax drink from the Oasis pond. “Do you remember what to do Kanya?” My father whispers, a small smile on his face as he pulls his bow from his shoulder and readies an arrow.

I nod, doing the same, though fumbling with the arrows and the quiver, struggling to string it properly, going flush with frustration until it finally rests on the string, smiling up at my father who returns the gesture. “Okay, on the count of three, shoot for it’s heart. One...two…”

My shoddy spear hits the side of the Addax, sending it down with hardly a noise from it’s mouth. It had been weeks since the soldiers came here and the last time the Old Man came to visit. Any longer and I’ll start getting my hopes up.

Walking came easier now, and the pain wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been before, a few aches and pains that need tending to but it wouldn’t be long before i could leave the oasis and make my way...somewhere. Stalking over to the Addax, trying not to scare off any game that may be around. I grab the spear, a long sturdy tree branch with a sharpened rock, and yank it out before grabbing the horn of the beast and dragging it behind me.

Haven’t hunted in a long time, guess starving helped me remember. Hunting had always been a thing i liked. At least up until I left the clan and Majinn behind. Ever since than it had been hunting to survive rather than hunting for sport and some extra food. Things like that are never fun. Stars, I could go for a hand of cards and a drink right about now. Enjoy the little things. Especially after dying. My train of thought is interrupted by talking near the falls as I draw closer. I drop the Addax and crouch down, setting down the spear in favor of the Yataghan set on my side. Poor choice to leave my leathers in the cave.

“Signs of him anywhere?” I hear a voice ask, low, raspy, guttural almost, and another one responds with close to the same, though a bit higher. A man and a woman from what I can tell “None, little shit must have thrown our scent.” not looking for me, that’s good. I think as I edge closer to a rock and peek around the corner.

The things I see are nothing close to human, even if they can speak. Their mouth divided into four different mandibles, sharp teeth all along the insides of them and goat like eyes and scabbed over skin from the necrosis and rot that makes them look closer to snakes than humans. Mampurus demons. Things that have been reduced to eating human flesh and shed their skin, becoming walking demons. “There’s another scent though, dead it seems. Close by.” Me? “I smell it too, an animal. It won’t satisfy us. Best either continue our search or look for something else to eat.” The woman says, taking a quick look around, nearly catching me in her sight before turning back to the falls as a man comes screaming out of the brush on the other side, soaked in water.

So that’s how you threw them off then? Should have kept running friend. I think, watching the male Mampurus grab him by the throat while the other grabs his arm and tears it off with hardly any effort. The man howls in pain, but only for a moment until the male twitches his hand, snapping his neck, the noise audible from my hiding place. No one can fight a Mampurus alone, especially not two. Takes a dozen just to kill one. The female Mampurus cackles as she picks up the arm as if it were a mutton leg and takes a large bite of it “Lean, but good enough. Let’s get back, the others will want a bite or two as well.” The male one nods and with a snap of their fingers, there’s a sound of lightning hitting the ground followed by an echoing boom and the sound of the fabric of reality tearing as a portal opens beside them.

I don’t see much of what the other side of the portal has to offer besides blood and a dimly lit room along with the screaming of men, women and children echoing from inside of it until the boom sounds again and the fabric of reality shuts once they’re through. I breathe a sigh of relief, not even realizing how hard and fast my heart had been beating until now. I look over to the Addax as I begin to stand and freeze, a grimace on my face as I see a crocodile latching onto it’s head and drag it back into a murky pond. “Fucker.” I mumble, slowly backing off and back to the path leading to the falls.

The rest of the day is spent with me hunting scorpions and lizards, any large game missing after the exit of the Feeders, making my spear useless except for to hunt crocodiles, and no matter how hungry I am, I would rather not go toe to toe with one if it don’t hit the right mark. Starting the nightly fire, I begin to cook the Lizards and Scorpions, keeping an eye on the shadows just in case the Feeders come back.

A twig snaps behind me and I’m on my feet, Yataghan in my hand and whirling around in a wide swing. I hit nothing, aiming for too high for what was behind me, knocking down the same child that I had saved a few weeks prior. The child stares wide eyed at me, scared as can be and breathing heavily, eyes flicking from my face to the blade in my hand. He’s thin faced, sunken eyes and gaunt features, probably starving.

I stare down at him for a moment longer before sheathing the blade and kneeling down in front of him with a groan. “Didn’t I tell you to run you little shit?” I ask, reaching behind me to hand him a skewered lizard from the fire. He looks at it, swallowing saliva before snatching it away from my hands and munching down on it hurriedly. “Your parents ever teach you to announce yourself when you’re coming up on a stranger's fire? Or to say thanks when a stranger offers you food?”

The child takes the last bite of the skewer and shakes his head “They told me not to talk to killers.” he says plainly, scooting past me and closer to the fire, taking another skewer and munching down on that one. I roll my eyes and sit across from him at the fire, taking a skewer and eating it before speaking again “Is this the first thing you’ve eaten since you were here last?” he looks at me from over his skewer and nods. He should be dead by now, guess he’s got a strong will to him. “You got a name kid?” Again he nods.

“You actually going to tell me or am I going to have to keep calling you ‘little shit’?” he takes another bite and with a full mouth he mumbles his name “Aman.” I tense slightly at the name but try not to show it. I nod, relaxing a bit and finish the skewer, leaving the rest for the child “You lost your parents then?” Aman nods, looking over at the large burn pit a ashen mound that somewhat resembled an arm with a bracer around it poking out. “Almorran soldiers killed them during a raid. Got everybody.” He seems rather numb as he says it, probably too young to have it fully sink in or smart enough there’s nothing he can do but survive now.

“You want to kill them?” I regret asking the question almost as soon as I finish asking it. He stops mid chew and looks at the Yataghan on my hip before nodding once more. “Don’t, let the adults take care of it kid. If you start now, you’ll end up a monster like me. Trust me, you don’t want that.” Aman certainly wouldn’t want that. The child grimaces and throws the skewer at me, or at the very least attempts to, throwing it in the fire and grabbing the rest of the food before marching off into the darkness. Even has tantrums like him.  I stand, kicking sand into the fire and walk back behind the falls, not bothering to look for the child. He’s smart enough to find somewhere warm to sleep.

3 years ago

Third campaign against the Morsian navy

The sea of the dead

A year after joining the Cer’embala military

“Goddamn Kanya, still getting seasick after all this time?” Naime asks clapping me on the back as I lean out over the railing, losing my already light breakfast. I glare at her and wipe my mouth before growling out “It doesn’t fucking help that our captain is a mad bastard who finds storms enjoyable.” I say, looking up the captain, a mad man by the name of Nile sporting a wild beard and missing an eye. Damn near close to deaf too.

“Get over it ya shit, we got about an hour till we catch up to that Morsian scout and destroy them, can’t have our formations being spilled by some gutless scout.” I nod and heave as a large wave rocks the ship unpleasantly, and lean back out to vomit again. I wait there a moment, feeling my stomach churning and staring into the water when I see something, just below the surface of the water.

It shines in the sunlight, reflecting just below the water. It’s a helmet from what I can tell, a Morsian one. Someone abandon ship maybe? A head pokes out from the water, screaming up at me along with several others, 3 heads, all mandible like mouths screeching up at me. I jump back, drawing my blade and scream out as I back away from the railing “Mapurus!”

Everyone on the deck scrambles for their blades as the demons come climbing over the rails, all screeching and snarling as they speed through the first few to get to them. One comes right for me, arm held out and reaching for my throat in an attempt to strangle me or break my neck, neither one being more savory than the other. Both ending in death for old Kanya the Dead. I swing my blade at the hand of the demon, cutting off the top of it’s hand, fingers no longer there to grab my throat.

But, as with most things, it has two hands. The second hand, balled into a fist strikes me in the ribs, almost immediately breaking them and sending me to the ground as I gasp for air, blade still clutched in my hand. I turn to face the thing with a smile, spitting blood in it’s direction as it wails at me “That fuckin’ hurt.” I say before instantly regretting my words as it comes down on me.

A hammer, the size of a large rock you would throw down on an enemy during the siege, flies over my head and into the Mapurus’ mouth, the sound of it’s jaw breaking and crunching as its mandibles wriggle around the hammer head. Captain Nile, ruined beard and missing eye in all brings the Mapurus down to the ground, cackling all the while before he looks back at me. “What’re you? Some fucking lazy prick? Get off your ass and cut this little shits head off would ya?!” He shouts before stomping on the good hand of the Mapurus.

I groan, standing as quickly as I can and bring my sword high above my head before bringing it back down on the demons neck. It’s wailing doesn’t cease, nor does its flailing until I bring the sword down a second time, it’s body going limp and skin almost immediately going a deep black before it turns to ash. I turn to Nile and begin to say something before he pushes me out of the way and moves towards the rest of the fighting.

The two other demons had begun to tear through a large majority of the crew, though they were starting to slow down. Missing hunks of flesh and armor in tatters as more than a dozen flood around both of them and get pushed back or killed from the two demons. I run for the closest one, a man's now headless body flying past as I make it to the group.

This one was a woman, probably once attractive before becoming what she is now, tearing off a swordsman's arm off before battering her head with an open hand so hard, her head turns to face the rest of us. The Mapurus screams in delight as she comes for the rest of us now, grabbing a corpse by the ankle and swinging it through the crowd as if it were a club. I duck under as it nears and come up face to face with it, throwing my head into the bridge of its nose, making it stutter step back just enough to thrust my blade into it’s chest, right where its heart should be.

The demon stops and looks down to the blade in her chest, a clicking sound in her throat being made as she stares at it before starting to laugh. Dropping the body and grabbing my blade instead, she drags the blade through her chest, carving out a large hole before throwing it out and towards me, a gaping hole in her chest as she pushes the flesh out, revealing nothing but terrified soldiers behind her.

“We, The Enlightened Mapurus, have no hearts. Nor organs. We feed to feel full.” She starts to cackle once more, charging for me with hands out and splayed for my throat. Can’t run, too slow. Have to go for it. I grab my dagger from my side and rush at her, my dagger hand thrusting into the Mapurus’ mandibled mouth and thrusting up towards it’s brain as she bites and claws at my arm. I look around at the gawping idiots around me and growl “Help you fuck wits! Cut off her fucking head!” I shout, thrusting my sword into her again, this time up to the hilt.

The smell of rot and flesh is almost overwhelming being this close to the thing, it’s goat like eyes angry and staring into mine with one of the most intense looks of hatred I had ever seen. It’s mandibles clamp around my forearm, it’s hands grabbing at my shoulders and starting to pull. I can feel the shoulder of my sword arm dislocate and start to tear before the first swing at the demon's neck hits. My dagger arm does the same by the time the second hits and more people start to hack and stab at it until it’s grip loosens. It’s body falling limp as its body turns dark and then into ash as it’s falling.

It’s head stays on my forearm a moment longer, It’s eyes still blinking and angry at me until it turns black and fades to ash, both my arms falling limp as the second is slain, Naime holding its severed head up as it fades to ash. The cheers of the crew and soldiers are few and quiet. Most of our troops laid about missing limbs, most of them dead or too wounded to fight.

“Damn Morsians, using demons to do their dirty work.” Nile says, watching the scout ship sail into the horizon. I nod “Effective but dirty. We won’t be chasing them anymore, even if they are a scout ship. We lost to many in just that one fight.” I say, rolling one of my shoulders until i can feel and hear the painful click of it resetting. “Any idea where the Major went?” I ask, looking to Nile and then around on the ship's floor, looking to see if the Major's body was one of them.

“Thrown overboard missing half his face. One of the first to die.” Naime says, walking up and sheathing her blades, sporting a new set of scars on her face and neck. I huff and set my other arm, wriggling my fingers as I sheath my own blades “Guess that puts you in charge Naime.” She starts, looking around and groaning after a moment before looking at me “Fuck you Kanya. I hate it when you’re right.” I wink and shrug “Just don’t die. I don’t feel like being in charge alright?”

I wake up in the middle of the night, something looming over me in the dark. I stay as still as possible feeling for the dagger under my side. “I know you’re awake thing.” The voice is familiar, from earlier today. Fuck. I grab the dagger and swing for the ankles of the male Mapurus from this afternoon. It jumps over my swing and promptly kicks me in the side of the head, sending me up into the air by a foot before hitting and rolling on the ground to a halt. I groan, clambering up to my knees and looking at the dark figure.

“Figures as much. I don’t have enough good luck to avoid being sniffed out by a couple of Mapurus.” I say, standing and pressing a hand to the side of my head and grinning at the demon, it’s glowing goat eyes staring at me from the darkness. “We caught your scent before we left. We were unsure if it was another of our kind or something else.” What? How could they confuse me for one of them? It comes at me, a blade glinting in the moonlight through the waterfall, too fast for me to comprehend.

The blade sinks into my chest, right where my heart should be. I should be dead, I should be dead, I should be dead. I blink, the pain is incredible, but i’m not dead. I’m not fucking dead, not again. I grab the demons wrist and wrench it and the blade away from me, howling as I do so. “Now!” the demon shouts, three more Mapurus coming from the shadows and beyond the waterfall.

More blades hit me, sinking deep and into where my vital organs should be. My lungs, stomach, liver and my heart once more as the first comes at me swinging for my neck. Just like how you’re supposed to kill a Mapurus. I howl again, grabbing one of the demons at my side by the arm, lifting and throwing it at the demon swinging for my neck, sending both of them back into the cave. How the fuck am I still alive? I reach behind me and grab the hair of the one with the blade through my chest and bring him above my head and down on the ground in front of me hard enough to shake the cave and crack the floor. The fourth and last backs off, leaving the blade in my side and through my lungs.

I stand there heaving, three blades through the most important parts of my body and stare at the Mapurus as they gather in a cluster in front of me, hissing and clicking at me. I look down at the one in my chest and groan, grabbing the blade with both hands and wrenching it forward and out, the hilt and handle of the thing coming through the back of my body and out again. “Fuck that hurts!” I scream, tossing the blade to the ground as Ilook down at the rather large hole in my chest, blood oozing out from the edges, though not nearly as much as there should be.

“How?” One of the demons says, blinking from the whole in my chest “How do you not have a heart but continue to not be one of us!?” It shouts. I tense and recall the words it had just said before grinning and looking back up at them. “I take it this means we’re on the same level?” That makes all of them hiss and screech as they charge me. One grabs my throat and throws me out from the cave and into the pool below as the other three follow. One sends a kick to my side, ribs cracking and breaking once more as a second tears the blade from my gut and swings for my neck while the third does the same.

I push off the ground, just in time for the two blades to clash against each other and grab a hold of the one who had kicked me. I throw my fist into the side of its knee and can hear the immediate snap and tear of bone breaking and tearing through skin and the cloth of its pants, sending it sprawling into the pool of water screaming in agony. I stand as fast as I can, stumbling back as I turn to the two with the blades.

They both charge me, one aiming for my eye and the other aimed for my neck. I hold my hands out, one guarding my eye and the other reaching and grabbing the blade going for my neck. One blade pierces my hand and nearly pierces my eye before I can move it away as the second blade nearly causes me to loose my pinky as I grab its hilt. In a swift motion, I guide the blade of the Mapurus who had been going for my neck into the others neck and wrench through it’s spinal cord, its head hanging by a shred of skin for but a moment before it turns to ash.

I wrench the Mapurus, who is still clinging to the blade for dear life at this moment, towards me into my knee, tearing it’s blade from its hands and cleaving it’s head off. The fourth one, standing in the pool beside the one with broken leg cackles and claps “Well done! You fight as if you were one of us already! Perhaps you are worthy of the gift impersonator!” it turns to the one with the broken leg and kneels down, tearing its head off in a swift motion with just its hand.

“Its a shame, these ones showed such potential when it came to the gift. Perhaps they could have become something more just as our master has.” it says, sighing for second before standing once more and turning to me. It stands there in silence for a moment and in an instant, it’s on me. Standing no less than an inch in front of me, a hand grabbing my face and lifting me in the air in a smooth motion.

“You are an interesting being impersonator, I will bring you to Al’Jahmal and he will be your executioner.” It says, slamming me into the ground and kicking me in the head once more, my vision blurring and going dark as I think. Something about that name is familiar.