The Wasteland

Chapter Six: Blood & Meat

Flamenco swiftly dodges the incoming metal object, skillfully tossing it aside. However, his respite is short-lived as a pale fist strikes him across the face. Undeterred, Flamenco quickly recovers and retaliates by seizing Moonshot by the throat, effortlessly lifting him off the ground. Moonshot's eyes widen in a mixture of shock and agony, wondering why his opponent isn't succumbing as easily as before. As he gazes into the eyes of the formidable adversary, he senses an overwhelming surge of pure hatred. With his life hanging in the balance, Moonshot must act swiftly to outmaneuver this crimson menace. In a desperate moment of recollection, he recalls a tactic he employed during his fateful capture. Slowly and cautiously, he raises his hands, concealing his impending counterattack. He closes his eyes and feels his burns surge with magic and they pulsate. A Moon opens his eyes, he realizes he is in the air and his burns pulsate vigorously. He looks back down to Flamenco and notices that he's getting back up off of the freshly cracked and destroyed ground. He looks at his left arm examining his burn marks, they give off a slight glow. He starts to fall back down to the ground, noticing this he straightens his legs and puts them together aiming for Flamenco. 

Flamenco looks up at Moonshot, slightly concussed. He lifts his arm just in time to catch Moon by the leg and throws him into a wall. Moon slams into the wall and slides onto the floor, his body is exhausted. He weakly stands up using his knee and the wall he was thrown into for support. He sniffs the air for a moment and smells sulfur, his eyes snap over to Flamenco readying his breath weapon again. His eyes fixate on his throat for a moment, planning, suddenly he grabs a small rock from the wall and chucks it towards Flamenco's throat. It takes a moment for the rock to collide with the scaled neck of the Dragonborn but when it does, Flamenco panics and puts his hands on his throat, however, the damage is already done and his flames fire out of his mouth prematurely most of it shoots up at the ceiling but he's able to gain control and fires the last bit of it toward Moonshot. Moon quickly rolls out of the way dodging the small bit of fire. 

"Aw, the big bad dragon can't kill a lowly elf!"

Moonshot playfully taunts Flamenco, who looks angrier than ever. Scanning his surroundings, Moonshot spots the guard's charred clubs - the perfect weapons. As Flamenco motions for another attack, Moonshot slyly conceals another rock. When Flamenco charges, he is met with a surprise rock to the face. Moonshot narrowly avoids a punch and inches closer to the club. Flamenco, frustrated, throws another punch, missing as Moonshot edges towards the club. With a clever plan in mind, Moonshot prepares to take a hit. Bracing himself, he anticipates a punch but instead feels Flamenco's foot connect with his body, sending him crashing to the ground. As Moonshot lands with a thud, he spots the club nearby. Flamenco approaches menacingly, standing over him.

"It's over, mud elf. I've been waiting to do this since you came here."

Flamenco finishes speaking and swiftly readies his fire once more, wasting no time. Moonshot patiently waits for the perfect moment, observing Flamenco's every move. As soon as Flamenco opens his mouth to release his fiery attack, Moonshot seizes the opportunity and grabs the club, forcefully thrusting it into Flamenco's throat. The dragon recoils in pain, clutching his throat, allowing Moonshot to rise and prepare for another strike. Moonshot firmly grips the club with both hands, pulling his arms back for a powerful swing. With every ounce of strength, he delivers a mighty blow to the Dragonborn's face, resulting in a resounding "crack!" Numerous scales fly off, one of them as large as a dagger. Moonshot follows up by striking Flamenco once again, causing the dragon to retreat further. Discarding the club, Moonshot seizes the fallen scale, holding it like a dagger in his scarred hand. Flamenco, though still recovering from the previous blows, locks eyes with Moonshot once more. His gaze then shifts downward, noticing the scale in Moonshot's hand. With a scoff, Flamenco quickly readies his fire again, this time protecting his vulnerable throat. Moonshot swiftly flips the scale, positioning the sharp point downwards. He lunges towards Flamenco, closing the distance before the dragon can unleash his flames. In a swift motion, Moonshot delivers a powerful punch to Flamenco's face using the hand holding the scale. His fist glides across the dragon's face with elegance before ascending and forcefully driving the scale into the side of Flamenco's neck, piercing the soft tissue. Amber-colored blood begins to seep from the wound. As Moonshot releases his grip on the scale, a burst of fire erupts from the hole, the accumulated flames within Flamenco's neck finding their escape.

Moonshot gazes at Flamenco, permitting himself to release the surge of adrenaline coursing through his veins. Flamenco remains motionless, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on Moonshot. As a minute passes, the flames cease to seep from the stab wound, and Flamenco's gaze becomes vacant. Moonshot strides forward, extracting the scale from the lifeless Dragonborn's neck, only to discover that the intense heat has transformed it into a sleek dagger. A mischievous grin spreads across Moonshot's face as he discards the now-worthless heap of scales.

"Requiesce in pace, scale bag."

Moonshot swiftly retrieves the discarded club and gently places it beside the lifeless body. With a sudden burst of energy, he pivots and sprints frantically toward the explosion's origin, only to be halted by the piercing yelps of a hyena. Moon recognizes these noises as a cry for help and follows the noises until he is in another cell block full of bodies guards, and prisoners alike. He walks until he finds himself in front of an unopened cell with a giant hyena-kin male inside; a Gnoll. He looks famished almost starved.

"Food, does elf man have food?" The Gnoll says quickly, beggingly. He gets close to his cell bars and visible drool leaves its jaws. Moonshot backs off momentarily noticing the drool and then gets closer noticing a peculiar branding on the hyena's neck. "So hungry, so so hungry." The Hyena drools more as he examines Moon. Moonshot gets even closer and figures out that the branding is the G.A.S.T logo! He can't believe it, a surviving soldier.

"What's your name, big guy?" Moonshot softly says while presenting his hand for the Gnoll to sniff. 

The Gnoll does get close to the hand and sniffs heartedly, "Spatulla. Do you have meat? So hungry so hungry." The hyena says, quickly. "You smell familiar, elf." 

"Who did you work for before you got into prison, Spatulla?" Moonshot says; however, before he can ask another question he is quickly interrupted.

"MEAT. Give me food." Spatulla says intimidatingly, before going to bite at Moonshot's hand. Moon quickly pulls his hand away, his eyes wide in shock. 

"What in the gods? They were definitely starving you." Moon exasperatedly says as he grabs the corpse of a prisoner and brings it close to the Gnoll's prison. As soon as the body gets close to the bars the Gnoll's hands shoot out between the bars and start ripping at the corpse tearing the meat from the bone. Spatulla devours the clumps of meat like a rabid dog in the streets of a major city. Moonshot continues to watch the Gnoll eat with, what seems to be, an unsatiable hunger. He looks around for a moment and finds a guard's body that has keys, Moon scrambles to his feet, lumbering over to the guard's corpse, and rips the keys from his side; flipping through the keys he finds the cell key. Moon turns and weighs his options, either releasing a potential ally or a potential threat, he quickly walks towards the cell door slides the key in effortlessly, and turns the key.

Before Moonshot could even pull the key back out Spatulla bursts out of the cell and slams Moonshot onto the ground. The Gnoll snaps his jaws trying to bite Moonshot while the Wood Elf uses his left arm to push against the Gnoll's neck making sure he can't get close enough.

"MEAT."