Author: Gaius Anseriph, Posted: Fri Dec 4, 2015 3:06 PM, Post Subject: Ambush [P]

Blood and sinew painted the air with that vivid alien hue, teasing the nostrils with the metallic stench of triumph. In the next moment Gaius was wearing the spray on his damp leathers and matted hair, glimmering darkly like so many sickly borealis scars. With his blade still lingering at the ready, the warden allowed himself a moment to watch the aftershock of his makeshift ally’s impeccable double-blow. The kobold’s head seemed almost to grunt as it bounced, bodiless, down the mossy slope, percussing beneath the shifter’s victorious cry.

It was so frank, the words so artfully artless, that the heavy-browed mountain man felt himself laugh. The noise rumbled low, its sound not unlike the last trickle of stones that fell from his rock-armor spell.
 
The fallen creature, its head still attached to its neck, reached through a daze for the leverage to stand. With a smile still hanging from the corner of his mouth, Gaius spun his halberd instinctively toward the futile effort. A swift downward jolt ended the monster’s misery, thusly erecting a fresh staff for leaning on. The warrior used his other hand to test the wound at his back as his eyes followed the fleeing tail of the last kobold.
 
It had been foolish of him to let them get so close, much less fall into such a paltry ambush. It either meant that he had dissuaded a scouting party from recommending the mountain to their pest friends, or that he had stumbled upon an established settlement that needed exterminating. Both notions elicited a tired sigh from Gaius Anseriph, self-proclaimed protector of the highland villages. He never regretted his mission, but he liked to moan about it nonetheless. The old echoes of the other man’s words resounded between Gaius’s ears, reminding him of the adrenaline that still pumped loudly in his restless heart.
 
His low voice churned and cracked as if it had not been used in a very long time.
 
“There are surely more,” he replied, almost hopefully.

Author: Shade, Posted: Tue Dec 1, 2015 10:56 AM, Post Subject: Ambush [P]

The untouched kobold had thoughts of getting in one last lucky stab before following his friend and bolting from these fiends, but its motivation to stay was weak and its thrust had no power behind it. It was easily turned away by Gaius’s armor. It decided to cut its losses and flee now.

The halberd came down just as the kobold turned away and drew a bright line across its back. 

The kobold shrieked something in its native tongue and clambered to get away. The wound, however, impeded its progress and slowed it to a limping gait.

The other two kobolds next to the goliath knew that if they did not do something, this fight would be over soon. The one that had been the focus of most attacks set its remaining good eye upon the monk and lunged at him with the last reserves of his strength. Shade was taken off-guard by this last ditch attack, and the stone spear slid along the shifter’s muscular belly.  

Shade withdrew from the blow and moved diagonally to become perpendicular to his armored companion. From there he leapt up into the air and kicked out both legs, hitting both kobolds on either side of Gaius. One emitted a pathetic death rattle as he fell backwards, but the other was met with so much force that its little reptilian head was knocked clean off its body, spraying the group with multi colored viscera.

"By the gods, did ya see that one?!" Shade yelled triumphantly.

Author: Gaius Anseriph, Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:18 PM, Post Subject: Ambush [P]

Gaius wasted no time wondering who his mysterious new ally was. Neither did it occur to him that the strange clawed man might be his enemy. His only thoughts were for the pain in his side and the elimination of the creatures who had caused it. Only after it was all said and done would he look back and chuckle at how the kobold was juggled between the two. From the shifter’s fist to the goliath’s blade it faltered and flailed, punched then skewered then tossed aside. As he unsheathed his halberd from the sticky green flesh, he pulled it around toward its comrades.

Another stone spear was lunging for his leg. Before it could hope to break the layer of armor there, it clanged loudly against a second: where the draconic blood had been spilt, the terrain bubbled and grew into a thick crust of dark rock around Anseriph’s ankles. The earthen husk climbed swiftly up and around the goliath’s body, melding with the inhuman growth of stones that could be seen on his exposed face, until he was completely encased in the protective shield.

Almost involuntarily, the same kobold that had attacked him shifted away from his failed attack and began to stumble warily up the mountainside. Gaius took the opportunity to swipe at its turned back, but his new suit of armor must have slowed him just enough to let the little monster get away. The rocks were already crumbling off of him, only encouraged by his movement. Without lifting his feet he turned defensively toward the last kobold, its scaly skin pure of a fresh wound, as it no doubt eyed for a crack in his shell.

Author: Shade, Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 8:35 AM, Post Subject: Ambush [P]

Despite his appearance it seemed that the kobolds' tactics were to quickly overwhelm a single opponent, but they erred in judgement when they decided to focus on the larger man. Shade was already moving fluidly into a new position. With both arms raised and facing the combatants, the silver haired monk retreated just outside the reach of the spears and around to the back of the kobold who had struck the goliath.

In a quick moment the small creature found himself trapped between the two warriors at an extreme disadvantage. Shade took a moment to grin down at the lizard-faced rodent before exploding into a flurry of limbs. The kobold was not prepared for the forcefulness of his fist as it connected, shattering the creature's jaw and knocking out sharp little teeth.

The kobold stumbled backwards, but had nowhere to go but into the huge man with the polearm. Knowing that its life was almost to an end, it gripped its spear tightly and shrilly screeched defiance.

Author: Gaius Anseriph, Posted: Sun Nov 1, 2015 4:13 PM, Post Subject: Ambush [P]

The blade came into delicious contact with the creature’s side, slipping out of goopy green viscera alongside a satisfying wail of surprise. For a moment, Gaius though that his own technique had startled his would-be ambushers; the kobold seemed to have leapt toward him in a foolish attempt to dodge his reaching halberd. But as his enemy fell away and his weapon swept toward the rock below, another face rose up into his awareness.
 
There was no time to investigate, or even to speak. The halberd was already twisting reflexively upward, headed for the shadow of an approaching enemy. His shoulders turned before his head did, and still his unseeing eyes gave a short look of shock when he felt nothing make contact. The kobold he didn’t hit shifted expertly over the rocky slope and toward its stumbling, injured brother. Stepping between them, it thrust a stone spear toward Gaius’s middle.
 
He managed to step outside of the crude weapon’s path, the weight of his own weapon scraping unceremoniously against the gravel between them. Gaius had lost his momentum and with it, his form. He only needed half a moment to get the iron shaft of his halberd back into both hands, but fate would not even grant that much.

The third kobold was already primed to press his spear into the stone man’s turned back, ripping through the leather armor and spilling forth blood and angry grunts. Anseriph staggered forward, knuckles white on his weapon, and swiveled toward the one that had broken his defenses.

Author: Shade, Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 8:42 AM, Post Subject: Ambush [P]

The guttural calls of the stampeding reptilian creatures were carried on the sweeping wind and came to the ears of another creature further on up the mountain. The pungent scent of the kobolds’ crude, unwashed clothing hung heavily in the moist air and whirled up the nostrils of this predator seeking prey. His clawed feet flung the dirt high as he sprinted downhill.

The shifter monk came to a skidding stop on the edge of the clearing, plainly alerting the entire area of his presence. His vibrant yellow eyes betrayed feelings of frustration at this lack of stealth, even as his body fell cleanly into a readied stance.

The kobold closest to the monk shrieked and turned towards him, spear raised and ready to charge. The  shifter took two large steps and sailed through the air, his right leg extended with his left tucked tightly behind it. His foot connected with the scrawny torso of the kobold and it was flung backwards violently. The tiny creature’s flight was abruptly halted by the sharp blade of Anseriph’s weapon. It tore across its back and opened a deep wound that spouted a blue-green liquid.

Shade looked around the battlefield and smiled when his eyes fell upon the goliath. His mouth opened once to speak but a sudden, confused expression came across his face.

“Wait, I had something for this. Oooh, it’s on the tip of my tongue! Damn it!”

Author: Gaius Anseriph, Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2015 10:17 AM, Post Subject: Ambush [P]

The little yellow flowers bowed under the weight of a relenting rain, heavy with moisture and weary of the dark noontime sky. Even in autumn’s apex they splayed their bright petals to the moist grey air, happy filaments radiating like the unseen sun over low grasses and drenched mosses. They had plenty enough to celebrate. It was late in their season, nearly time for the last of them to be sucked up and chewed down so that their roots could sleep through the long, cold winter. But these had somehow escaped the appetite of their herbivorous predators, and the pollinators didn’t fly to that height anymore; the dispersers were hiding from the rain. There was only the slick mountainside and the lonely spray of hyperieum.

Until, suddenly, they were rent from the rocky soil they had once called home. Their delicate stems shriveled in the rigid grasp of the hand that abducted them, petals flailing as bits of damp dirt spilled from their naked roots. They were brought up to a pair of scrutinizing brown eyes, pollen clinging where the cloak of rain had since been shaken away. There a wisp of warm white air steamed over them, masking the figment of a word that did not quite make its leap from the plunderer’s tongue. Then they were stuffed promptly into the close darkness of a small leather pouch, and forgotten.

The man took the next moment to pause in his ascent, looking over the path he had taken as he caught his breath. The river, and the thick of trees that huddled around it, had shrunk into a distant dark smattering where it had once been a tangled mess of obstacles. As the torrential rain ebbed, the highlands had assumed a familiar grey haze—and yet it was weather like this that somehow made the way a little clearer, the sky a little closer, and the trees and little greener. The herb he had picked would go well in a warm tea, if he could find a deep enough hollow to light a fire in. He was pretty sure there was a good one just beyond this nearby outcropping, but the mountains had a way of making everything seem closer than it was. The only thing to trust was instinct, and the only thing to do was press on.

He raised a hand to pull the sopping hair away from his brow, revealing a telling outcrop of little oblong stones protruding from his hairline. It was only then, hindsight allowing, that the high-pitched hiss of an enemy revealed peril where there had once been only flowers. As soon as he knew to look for them, Anseriph saw every one: three kobolds, their pickled scales the color of mountain grass, charging into a belated ambush. And as he pulled a thirsty polearm from its back-bound sheath, the earth seemed to rumble beneath his feet.