No time to waste; you grab the dead noble and catch a quick glance of a mountain of some sort before returning to the battlefield. Bolts of red lightning arc across the battlefield, cutting through the still-alive fighters who collapse holding their heads. They head for the second dog, which crashes onto you trying to get away. You grab it before it can run.
' We need to take this thing down, now!' you shout, but the dog-creature just keeps whimpering in terror. It's not gonna be of any use anytime soon.
' Look... tell the Bureaucracy what's happening here. Tell them to send help, okay?'
The dog slips from your grasp and disappears mid-jump; you're not sure if it will follow your orders.
The Wraith, seeing everyone else has fled the field, turns it's attention to you. Another bolt of energy surges forward, but you quickly bat it aside with your claymore and start running towards it. The Wraith snarls, and, in the bat of an eyel, is right in front of you, claws ready. You try to bring the claymore up, but it sends you flying with another lightning bolt. You get up in mid-air and grip your claymore tighter. The Wraith looks faintly surprised, if anything can be told from it's nigh-expressionless face.
It moves confidently, starting to speak something in a language you don't understand. Before it can finish, you leap forward, claymore aimed at it's neck.
The Wraith laughs again, swiftly moving out of the way. You land behind it and spin around as fast you can. The claymore cuts a deep gash across it's back, sending it tumbling forward in surprise.
You know this is the best chance you have and charge after it. This time your blade connects with a shifting shield of lightning, but your second strike already breaks it and finds it's mark in the flesh of the Wraith behind it.
The Wraith's wounds leak some kind of black gas, but it doesn't seem overly bothered by them yet. Both you charge forward. Claymore meets claws in the air, and cuts straight through. It doesn't stop there.
The Wraith falls over, head cleaved in two and gushing more gas into the air. The energy filling it's body begins to lash out wildly, then disappears completely.
The Wraith is dead.
You find the body of the first dog in the middle of the battle, unseen by any of the combatants. It's head has been separated from the body, probably by those claws.
You take the body in your arms and head back to the realm of the Bureaucracy.
As you enter the cavern-like world, a swarm of Psychopomps surrounds you. They're all clad in full combat gear and shifted into fearsome forms. You spot the second dog sitting atop a rock some distance away. They all talk at the same time, but you gather they want to know what happened.
' I got it.' you simply say and watch with satisfaction as the worry on their faces turns into relief and surprise. They cheer a bit, and then disappear wherever. You can guess what they're thinking; not their problem anymore.
The dog-creature comes over, quite obviously ashamed. ' Uhh... thanks for... returning his body. I kinda panicked back there. I'm, uhh, Erres. Yeah... yeah, uhh, see ya.'
He quickly disappears into the bowels of the cavern.
The last person to come talk to you is your superior, and as always, you are startled by his appearance. He likes to take the form of an enormous cloud of insects, for some reason.
' Good work there, Yggda. Not many Guides can defeat a Wraith on their own. I... this is quite troubling. These past two weeks, the amount of Wraiths appearing has been steadily increasing. We...' he pauses, as if just realizing perhaps it was not so wise to speak to you about such matters.
' Well, it doesn't need to bother you. Just continue your work.'
Interesting... you'd like to know more, but perhaps it would be for the best if you'd just let the pull take you again. Also, you feel quite tired after that fight, and resting here for a while sounds pretty good.
[BUREAUCRACY RELATIONS IMPROVED BY +30!]
(Blegh, sorry if seems rushed or anything, I'm not feeling too well right now.)
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Topic: Psychopompos (Read 22164 times)