Tales of Ruuin - Homecoming

Well ... done.

The pleading question, if you could call it that, dropped from the alchemist's lips as a blast of foul breath almost blew his skullcap away. Now Echser was not a squeamish man – you can't rummage through the insides of corpses all day long without acquiring a healthy resistance against smells, after all. Point and fact, he had hardly noticed the prevailing stench of decay in the warren, which, granted, might have something to do with their odyssey through the canalization. The Matriarch's breath, however, was something else. It not only made his eyes water, but it also threatened to burn them from their sockets. He actually threw up in his mouth, which turned out to be an improvement.

Black tears oozed from the Matriarch's eyes. "My boy! You killed my boy! You monster!"

"Me? Monster?!" That was what Echser wanted to say, but without air, his mouth full of sick, he only managed to squeeze out something that sounded like, "Mugh."

Oh, the injustice of it all...

It was enough to make a grown man cry. He had half a mind poking the abomination in the eye in a last gesture of defiance but soon forgot all about it. His already bulging eyes went wider still as almost invisible seams running from the top of the matriarch's skull down to her throat split apart. A horrendous sound followed, then her whole face opened like a fleshy orchid, revealing a teeth-studded maw.

Echser blinked, then blinked again, the scientist in him fascinated by the secrets that lurked within the matriarch's flesh, the rest of him close to screaming like a little girl. Oh no... oh no, no, no.

A fat, rope-like tongue flopped about wildly inside that vile abyss, snaking towards him, saliva dripping from hundreds of needle-sharp tiny teeth. He almost fainted. Almost – if not for Craven's unobtrusive cough. "Ehem."

The matriarch froze, the top of her head flapping back together, then a gasp – foul beyond imagination – came from that hideous throat. Echser gawped. Amidst a truly mindboggling carnage of dead ghouls stood Craven, smiling like the proverbial Kitari that had eaten the Kanari. Stefan kneeled before him, the blade of that dreadful bone saber resting on his shoulder, the saw-toothed edge pressed against his bulging jugular. The look on the young undertaker's face as he stared at that length of bone was one of profound horror; the one on Craven's features one of pure delight.

"My my, "the bounty said, "what a couple the two of you make. As a rule, I avoid interference in the affections of a young couple, especially one in the grip of such obviously devouring love. Alas, I still need the services of this man, my lady. Would you thus be so kind as to unhand him? Lest, I fear, I might be forced to prune your family tree even further."

"My... my boy," the matriarch wailed. "Don't hurt my boy!"

She dropped Echser like a hot potato, and he landed with the same elegance. Pain shot through him, the landing knocking air from his lungs and sense from his skull. All became dark, and he only realized that he had lost consciousness when the world suddenly snapped back again.

He let out a heartfelt "Auuu..." and gazed about, his agony quickly abating at the sight that greeted him. Craven and the Matriarch were locked in a ferocious battle. The giantess screeched in hatred as her clawed fingers swished through the air, trying to rend the ducking and dodging bounty killer apart. For a twelve feet tall monster that had to drag her distended belly over the floor, she was fast. Well, her attacks were, claws cutting through the smoke-filled air.

"My boys!" she screeched. "You have murdered my boys!"

Craven just laughed in obvious glee, ducking under a strike that almost took his head off, his saber lashing out and severing one of the giantess' breasts. Her screech was loud enough to crack the glossy walls, the severed piece of flaccid flesh flying through the air, trailing blood or perhaps milk after it. It fell to the ground like a discarded wineskin no two feed from Echser's face, black stuff with all sorts of wriggling things spilling out.