Paladin3
From Toosigma
i love this and hate this...
Andrew woke from his sleep and sat bolt upright in his bed. Looking around he recognized his location in a flat, up inside a multi-level building that was out side of the protected area, they must be on mission. Carmen caught his attention from across the room she was sitting on her haunches and about to stand. Drew was used to her beating him to the punch when they showed up. She had been at it slightly longer and was better tuned to their presents. He nodded at her and rose slowly. As they watched each other in the gloom what little light that was in the room slipped out escaping from under doors and out of sight. “It’s big.” Carmen stated, mostly in order to convey her location to Andrew as she walked from the wall to the center. Cold air punched Andrew’s chest causing him to pause for a moment, in the darkness his eyes or the etherials created patterns that became forms that faintly reminded him of whirling human shapes. One of them looked so much like Jen. A sudden flash of light exposed the room for how it really was, and Andrew realized that Carmen was already fighting. Reacting quickly, ashamed that he had lingered in their spell for so long, Andrew rushed to her side.
Suddenly Carmen was in front of him and the room was bathed in a light that wasn’t the true warming light that had already escaped, but a hazy unclarity that made everything seem somehow less real. Carmen was still in the center of the room, wielding a sword. Black sooty dust, rain of a slain shadow, floated in the air around her swiftly turning body.
Shoulders slumped, Andrew let out a groan of disappointment; he missed it.
Carmen turned the first kill wasn’t the one that she had been after when she first noticed their presents. It was only an Imp and had acted well as a distraction. Confused she spun quickly expecting the true enemy at her back. With relief her eyes meet Andrew’s, his forlorn expression of disappointment surprised her, almost as much as watching him crumble to the floor did.
Andrew had seen the confusion in Carmen’s eyes, and wondered what the cause was until he saw Jen there with them standing only a foot or so behind Carmen. Knowing the danger he attempted to force the impossible vision out of his mind, but as he forced his eyes away a claw forced it's way through the apparition of Jen pulling with it ripped apart bits of her intestine dangling from it's black fist, his mind turned off in shock.
The vision of Jen was in the room with Carmen, blood oozing from her mouth as she stumbled towards the fighter, her bowels clutched in her fists, the claw was gone. Jen’s arms made maddening movements trying to stuff her guts back in but only pulling more out as her eyes pleaded. Carmen didn’t hesitate as her sword passed solidly through Jen's neck. The figure disappeared.
Groaning and head aching Andrew forced himself back to his feet. They got him, how could he be so stupid. Random and sporadic flashes of light illuminated the room for microseconds at a time, standing quickly Andrew shifted back to the ethereal plane. The fight was long and all in all the pair did well, but when it was over Andrew knew that he had fought far below his normal ability.
