Sonnet: The Broken Cities of Steam, Brass, and Aether

Chapter Seven

Vilgis was sitting peacefully on a stump with his eyes closed when he heard the loud, heavy boots that he knew were his brothers; they were trudging through the forest stomping across the distance towards him, from what Vilgis could tell he was still very far away.

However, he was moving at a furious pace, and was that something behind him?

"Cmon, it's time to get up! Let's go!" He heard his younger brother's deep and gravelly voice hollering out to him.

There was definitely something following him, and it sounded huge; Vilgis finally opened his eyes, just in time to see Desmond roll across the ground and past himself. What the hells?

Damn it! There was a blasted minotaur chasing after him! It was currently on all fours, gouging up the earth with its enormous tusks. It was tossing mounds of dirt, rocks, shrubs, and trees while it ran, nothing was able to withstand the destruction it left in its wake.

The hulking brute was easily ten feet tall and must have weighed more than a ton. It was covered in black fur that had begun to turn grizzly, which meant that it was old. Maybe even older than the start of the war, he wasn't sure how long minotaurs lived for. Decades? Centuries?

The creature was snarling at them with its bullish snout, shaking its head back and forth in an attempt to intimidate them with its horns; which were shaped more like a ram's horns than a bull. They curled over and over on themselves until the points were facing outwards in a threatening display.

It wore nothing across its chest, with two finely crafted pauldrons upon its shoulders. They looked as if they were made specifically for the creature, he couldn't imagine a normal human bearing those massive things. Wrapped around its waist was a single, thick iron band; holding a loincloth above its nether regions. There were spiked, leather pieces wrapped around each of its calves.

Of course. His brother had managed to find a deformed minotaur no less. This one had been touched by an aetherstorm, and as a result was warped into a mutated form; this specific one boasted four arms instead of the regular two.

It had a large, two-handed, double-sided axe held easily in the palm of each upper hand. The lower hands were currently smashing into each other in a threatening display, clearing making a declaration that it was going to smash them.

It took its lower hands and reached them up to the upper two, grabbing one end of the axes in either of its hands before gently tugging. The double-bladed axes each separated, until it was left standing with a hefty single axe in each of its four hands.

"You went and found this damned thing on purpose didn't you?"

"Well you said you didn't want to go looking for a hunt, so I brought the hunt to you."

Damn it Desmond, you know I said that because I don't wish to hunt Faye at all. It can't be helped now I guess...

The minotaur began to chuckle, it sounded like a deep, menacing demon that had escaped from the pits of the hells. The arms of it began to spin in a methodical motion until it was spinning each of them around his body with deadly precision.

Red energy started tracing along the limbs of its body at rapid speeds, originating at the head before travelling down the length of the chest and torso. No doubt that was remnants of the aether coursing through its body.

"Seriously Desmond. You are gonna get one of us killed doing this eventually." Vilgis began to rise from his seated position while quickly going over a mental checklist he always went over pre battle.

He twirled his spear behind his back, dragging the blade along the top of his aether pouch; silently coating it with an immense, sonic energy, before holding it out towards his front in defense.