Tales of Ruuin - Homecoming

Un-united

Stefan screamed his sanity away while the ghoul matriarch howled as only a mother could who bore witnessed the death of a beloved child. Her keening had an unearthly, sickening quality, the horrid screeching soon picked up by dozens of throats, the combination worse than a hundred fingernails clawing over a chalkboard.

Echser clasped a hand over one ear and added his voice as well, just to drown out the horrible chorus. The infernal noise seemed to come from all around, echoing down the tunnels, cascading from the many openings. Everybody screamed – everybody but Craven. The bounty killer shook himself like a man waking from a pleasant dream, muttering something, his words lost in the madness.

Screeeecchhh!

Echser almost soiled himself as an enormous ghoul accompanied by several smaller ones barreled towards them from the darkness of the main cave. The alpha! It came directly at him, part of his mind screaming, Why me? I haven't done anything! Mostly he was just screaming though, was still doing so when Craven suddenly appeared at his side.

"Hold this!" The bounty killer slapped his torch into Echser's sweaty palm, and a brutish pistol with a very wide muzzle appeared as if conjured in Craven's gloved hand. He was smiling – the lunatic was actually smiling – as the hulking abomination launched itself at them, its cave of a maw wide open, displaying more teeth than any skull should ever hold.

Craven pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

Flames and smoke roared from the trumpet-like muzzle, and for an instant, Echser saw it all: dozens of ghouls crawling from their holes like an army of spiders; Stefan, still screaming, cradling the head of his dead brother; the matriarch attacking a crazed looking Hornbach, a teeth-studded tentacle shooting from a mouth in her palm. Yet most important of all, he saw the alpha's skull explode like overripe fruit. Then all was grunting, and screaming, and smoke, and the screeching of monsters.

"Oh no..." Echser cowered down, back to the wall, making himself as small as possible. His eyes! He could hardly see due to the flash of gunpowder and the subsequent smoke that now filled the chamber, not that he actually wanted to see. Madness! Madness! His heart hammered in his chest, his lungs straining for air, but seemingly unable to get any. Craven? Where is Craven? His head jerked left and right. There!

His first thought had been to stay close to the bounty killer, but he quickly abandoned that thought. Craven moved so fast, and with such agility, he seemed to disappear at times, only to reappear somewhere else. Often that would be several steps away, his large saber hissing through the air, sending heads and limbs flying every which way.

Echser swallowed hard: a monster that was fighting monsters.

Madness! Utter madness!

He watched, spellbound for a moment, then something dripped onto his skullcap. He froze. Wishing – preying it would not happen again – but it did. Of course, it did. It wasn't water either had too much substance for that. "Oh no..." Against his will, against his better judgment, like a man drawn inexorably toward the rim of an abyss, he raised his head – and almost screamed. The ghoul was but a yard away, crawling upside down like a horrific spider, its beady black eyes radiating hunger the way ice did cold, its hole of a mouth convulsing obscenely in eager anticipation of fresh meat. His meat...

Echser's eyes filled with tears. "Oh no..."

An obscenely long, teeth-studded tongue came forward, ready to strike and penetrate his skull to get at the juicy brain inside. To get at his brain – the most marvelous brain in the entire world. Then – quite unexpectantly – the ghoul had a torch stuck in his mouth, flames licking up to scorch his face. It choked while Echser screamed, part out of fright, part in surprise as he realized that he had shoved the torch into the abomination's maw – and he was still holding on to it!