Arlin watched the scene with rapt attention.   He silently studied the poachers below and found them wanting, to say the least.  Their gear was basic but serviceable, if not sorely lacking for hunting anything other than beasts.  Discipline and martial skill was sorely lacking as well.  The wood elf found himself staring in wonder upon the woman’s transformation.  A moment of envy even flittered across his mind. Yeah, yeah. She gets all furry and bitey. Let me out to play and we can get all slicey and stabby. She can envy us, no? Arlin shook his head slightly and tried to ignore the knocking he could feel on the walls of the cage within himself. 

The teleporting newcomer was more intriguing given the abilities he showed in those few moments.  However, Arlin’s hearing was extremely acute.  The snippets of conversation he gleaned from the man and woman indicated the man was detestable, merely some chauvinistic imbecile whom had no concept of what respect meant.  See, brother.  This is why we kill people. Let me play… please?  A low growl escaped from between his clenched teeth.  No. Do you really think ten fools and an asshole are worth your time?  The elf readied himself in his crouch as his eyes locked with Morsilme’s again. The black wolf lay calmly in his cage still, despite the door being open.  He had lain down and was resting his snout upon his front paws.  Those two ice blue eyes waited and watched.  Morsilme knew the safest place was in the cage right now, but might contemplate helping his comrade if the fight took too long. Hmm… You may be right… Call me if ten more show up. Arlin felt the pressure in his mind stop, eliciting a small sigh from him.

Unsheathing his bastard sword, the wood elf’s lips lit up in a grin at the prospect of a fight.  The Chained One was not the only being around that enjoyed a good slaughter.  He waited until the men had passed his location and were approaching the shapeshifter. As the last one moved forward, Arlin dropped silently.  His sword plunged deep into trapezius muscles of the man’s shoulder.  Death was upon him before Arlin’s feet hit the forest floor.  The grin widened.  He stepped forward and with a exhaled breath brought his sword down in a forty-five degree arc.  Keen metal sliced cleanly through leather, skin, and muscle of the closest poacher’s back and the man died with a cry of pain.   Poachers turned to see their two fallen companions and a smiling red-haired elf facing them.  Oh well.  I didn’t want to kill them all from behind anyway.

“GET HIM!!!” The order was followed by a battlecry as three more poachers shot towards Arlin.  They fanned out and attacked in a three-pronged formation.  Well, look at them.  Not as stupid as they appeared.  Arlin let out a hearty laugh and charged to meant the front poacher.  His feet kicked up dirt as he shot forward.  Seeing the glint of steel out of the corner of his eye, Arlin craned his neck to the left abruptly as a sword from the right poacher whistled by his ear.  Lashing out with a riposte that took the man’s sliced off the sword hand, the fell back into a controlled slide as cudgel came flying from the left aimed at where his stomach had just been.  Leaving the wounded man and cudgel-wielding poacher behind, he came up gracefully from his slice.  The bastard sword followed suit, displacing air in a quick swoosh.  The front poacher didn’t have time to lower his sword to guard before the blade cut him from groin to throat, dropping entrails and a deluge of blood to the ground. 

Arlin spun on the ball of his left foot and brought his sword across in perfect timing to catch and redirect the cudgel aimed at his side.  Off-balance, the poacher’s eyes went wide in fear.  The elf’s sword severed his neck a second later.   He turned to find the wounded man fumbling with his sword in an unaccustomed left-hand grip.  Smirking, Arlin stepped forward and swatted it aside before plunging his blade into the man’s gut then twisting the blade.  “Die, human.  But not too quick.”   The man dropped in agony as he kept his intestines inside with his hands.  Arlin turned to look at the remaining poachers, one eye ice blue and the other crimson red.  

Arlin grimaced. I said no!  I told you could not come out. Awww, but brother… You weren’t doing it right.  Killing is fun but butchering is exquisite.  You have to infuse them with dread. Make them shit themselves in fear.  Introduce agony into their final moments.  And THEN you can finally take their souls.  Have you learned nothing?  The elf growled as he wrestled control back, and turned his gaze to the cages to see where the wolf demon was.
 
 
 

 

Backtalk was all the woman had to give him. Especially for the thanks of eliminating one of the poachers for her. She had the gall to tell him he should apologize to her when her wolves had surrounded him. Anything he had said to her, she deserved. Zek was almost peeved when she looked away from him, but he realized what situation he had gotten himself into. His vision greyed out when the beast of a woman tucked her legs in for a kick. He appeared, crouched, on top of the cage she was in and watched the frozen cage door hit the man in the chest.

Zek was not sure if the woman intended to attack him or the person formerly behind him. For a time, he kept his position on the cage and watch the events unfold in front of him. All doors of the cages were pulled off by her spell. She warned him about her next move, but he ignored her without a second thought. Her humanly figure discontorted into a giant wolf. The next few action packed minutes revealed how savage she was. It was exciting to see the raw brutality of the woman, and it was hard for him to keep his composure. He his ankles were giddy, bouncing up and down without ever leaving the ground in his crouched position.
"One question, before you threaten me after seeing what I did to that poor sap over there." Zek replied to her threat. "How far of a fall do you think you can survive?" He couldn't believe after his small showing that she would threaten him. Maybe it was too quick for her to see or comprehend, but in less than a second that man was already dead, it took her significantly longer to finish of one man. Though her show of brutality was impressive.

"I will admit, you are ferocious wild woman. If I was an ordinary man, I would be afraid of you." Zek replied, "I don't think you understand the simplicity of how I fight. I vanish, I reappear next to you. I touch you. We disappear. Reappear high in the sky, and then I disappear while you spend the last moments of your life watching the ground come increasingly closer to you before you crash into the ground." Zek's attention switched from her to the oncoming men, but it wasn't the men that were a part of the poachers gang that took his attention.

An man dropped from the trees and in a minutes took five men out of the ten that came after the wolf lady. Zek disappeared from on top of the cage. "Such beauty, such skill that man has. Far prettier than your act." Zek whispered by the woman's ear as he appeared next to her. He was gone by the last word of his sentence and appeared halfway between her and the group of men who had stopped moving.

"Watch this." Zek held up his left hand with all fingers outstretched. In the other hand a greyish-white orb appeared. "Five seconds." He said as the orb took the shape of a cutlass. "Five." He disappeared and reappeared behind one of the men with his cutlass ran through his chest. His thumb folded into his palm. "Four" He disappeared again and this time he reappeared in front of one with the blade through the man's skull. His pinky folded in, "Three." and he appeared to the side of the next one with his sword through his neck. His ring finger folded in before he disappeared. He reappeared by the next man, his cutlass stuck in one side of the man's rib and sticking out of the other side. "Two, and…" He said before he disappeared again.

"One" Zek grunted behind the last man, his cutlass was gone and a snowflake decorated battleaxe in his hands. One fell swoop the man's head cracked open like a coconut and his legs gave out. Blood poured and sprayed out of the five men, especially the last. Each time Zek had teleported he had reappeared with his cutlass already inside the individual. He was showing off what he could do; to prove to the woman that he was not someone she could brush off.

"Listen. I don't really like all this killing." Zek straightened up from his attack. "But whomever either one of you are." He had to pause for breath, even though teleporting for him came natural to him. Teleporting a sword into someone and out was draining. "Don't underestimate me, Zek Del' Shone. Journeyman Artificer, and a gods damn aberration of humanity."