06-21-2014, 09:19 AM
There was a scuffling sound. Armande froze in place and lowered his lamp. As he stared into the darkness of the tunnel, he could feel his pupils stretch wider to drink in what little light there was: reflections off bits of metal or drips of water. Eyes were insights into the soul, so taught the Church, and Armande's glowed with knowledge as he searched the surroundings.
Giovanni waved his light back and forth. Armande used its beam rather than his own. He wanted to preserve the dilation of his eyes to better see. Finally, the beam struck something solid and a hiss of pain followed.
Armande knew the light-induced pain. The shape that made it was on two legs but hunched and draped as though freezing cold. When it dashed away from the light, they could tell how thin its skin was stretched on its face. The bright blue lines of veins crawled beneath. Its eyes were black rocks jabbed into its sockets. It screamed rage at the light, but fueled by a hunger to dive through it, it came forward. When it threw up its hands, claws curled away from its fingertips. A dreyken, sickly and weak though it was, would be a formidable foe as even a physically disadvantaged dreyken was still clever. Their minds were as sharp as their claws.
Armande drew a wand from his back pocket and stepped into a defensive stance. With a flick of his wrist, the wand telescoped into a blade, the steel interlocked like a series of overlaid arrowheads stuck end to end. The graze of his fingertips activated an electrical current that aligned quantum spin of the metal and sealed the metal into a single blade.
As the closer of the two men, the dreyken came for Armande first. Perhaps the creature thought the one with gray coiled through his hair and lines set to his face would be the easier of the two prey. Little did it anticipate that Armande lashed into a series of strikes to divert the dreyken. A keen observer might note his moves were purely defensive. As he was not trying to actually kill the creature, merely warn it that he was not the easiest prey. When the tip of the blade met that papery skin, the dreyken hissed in pain and recoiled its arm. It snarled at them, and turned on Giovanni instead.
Content, Armande stepped away to let the dreyken have at its prey. After feeding, dreyken must crawl away to sleep. The warmth of fresh blood drove them into short hibernation and that was always the easiest time to slaughter one, or more, if it led them back to a nest. With the state this one was in, it seemed it had not fed in some time, perhaps it was cast out of a nest for one reason or another. It would be a shame to lose his conversational companion, but Armande would always choose the greater good when necessary. One less dreyken in the world was always the greater good.
He lowered his defenses and watched as the Dreyken lunged after Giovanni, and made no move to interfere. He assumed the student would not survive the encounter.
Giovanni waved his light back and forth. Armande used its beam rather than his own. He wanted to preserve the dilation of his eyes to better see. Finally, the beam struck something solid and a hiss of pain followed.
Armande knew the light-induced pain. The shape that made it was on two legs but hunched and draped as though freezing cold. When it dashed away from the light, they could tell how thin its skin was stretched on its face. The bright blue lines of veins crawled beneath. Its eyes were black rocks jabbed into its sockets. It screamed rage at the light, but fueled by a hunger to dive through it, it came forward. When it threw up its hands, claws curled away from its fingertips. A dreyken, sickly and weak though it was, would be a formidable foe as even a physically disadvantaged dreyken was still clever. Their minds were as sharp as their claws.
Armande drew a wand from his back pocket and stepped into a defensive stance. With a flick of his wrist, the wand telescoped into a blade, the steel interlocked like a series of overlaid arrowheads stuck end to end. The graze of his fingertips activated an electrical current that aligned quantum spin of the metal and sealed the metal into a single blade.
As the closer of the two men, the dreyken came for Armande first. Perhaps the creature thought the one with gray coiled through his hair and lines set to his face would be the easier of the two prey. Little did it anticipate that Armande lashed into a series of strikes to divert the dreyken. A keen observer might note his moves were purely defensive. As he was not trying to actually kill the creature, merely warn it that he was not the easiest prey. When the tip of the blade met that papery skin, the dreyken hissed in pain and recoiled its arm. It snarled at them, and turned on Giovanni instead.
Content, Armande stepped away to let the dreyken have at its prey. After feeding, dreyken must crawl away to sleep. The warmth of fresh blood drove them into short hibernation and that was always the easiest time to slaughter one, or more, if it led them back to a nest. With the state this one was in, it seemed it had not fed in some time, perhaps it was cast out of a nest for one reason or another. It would be a shame to lose his conversational companion, but Armande would always choose the greater good when necessary. One less dreyken in the world was always the greater good.
He lowered his defenses and watched as the Dreyken lunged after Giovanni, and made no move to interfere. He assumed the student would not survive the encounter.