Parting of the Ways

With each pain filled stride, the hunter moved over the volcanic ashen wastes, passing the mounds of the devoured. Ten, twenty, thirty, and sometimes even forty bleached skeletons of animals he had no name for were in each pile that sank in the relenting dunes. Diseased rodents moved between the remains of the monster's former meals, but burrowed in when the warrior came into view. Even in his wounded state, he still cut quite the imposing figure. His armor was broken in various places, webbed with impact cracks and ruptured by the claws of the beast.

Ike, called the Hero of the Blue Flame, snarled as he looked for the creature who he owed a debt of blood and fury. He had come to this unnamed waste, far from the light of civilization on nothing more than the rumors of the furthest flung wolf laguz caravan traveler. Seeking a creature spoken only as a nightmare to scare little children. A nightmare that some said was all too real, a creature that would surely be the one to test Ike's skill as a fighter. There was no real name for the monster, for it had never been seen except in dreams.

Ike had encountered the beast previously and was caught off guard. He had only seen the shadow of the beast, as it attacked him. It tore open old wounds that had begun to heal, and gave many of the new lasting damages to his armor that he now sported. He was able to wound the beast, however, and had spent that last three days stalking the trail of blood and other tell-tale signs of the creature. And now it had led him here, and he searched for the creature.

He didn't have to look much longer. It was in the rough stone corner surrounded by piles of rotted meat and other filth, sitting there as if it had anticipated the arrival. Vile green scale covered what could only be described as slimy leather, three baleful red eyes glared at him. The thing stood on two squat and well muscled legs, while two sets of limbs sporting scythe like claw sat the end of almost borec like hands. Wounds and a collection of sickening scar tissue covered a bit of the creature, bearing injuries from previous warriors who thought they could slay this nightmare.

What was this creature, Ike wondered to himself as he drew Ragnell from it's sheath on his back. What horrors had it caused? Was it only part of a greater species or the last of it's kind that had passed long ago from recorded history? Did it have this malicious intent in the heart that beat in his chest or was the monster simply driven to do such things because of survival?

It didn't matter. It had caused the death of many wolf laguz and almost added Ike to the tally. Ike could see that the creature knew that there was only one way this would end. With one of them dying in the ash beneath their feet. It flexed those claws and Ike prepared himself for the fight. The two stood there, waiting to see which one would strike first. The winds kicked up the ash, tossing it around in the air as the sun made it seem as if a hundred thousand diamonds danced between each other under the vermilion sky. "For Crimea!" Ike bellowed as he charged to cover the distance between the two. Though he had not set foot on Crimean soil for almost four years, it still carried him into battle. As it probably would for a thousand more battlefields.

The beast reared above him, almost twice as tall as Ike. A forked tongue lapped out from the fanged orifice, and flexed the claws which could render his armor as if it was little more than thick parchment. It's jaw snapped open and shut, showing the terrifying tearing incisors that filled the mouth. Any sane and normal man would reconsider charging the great beast, but Ike was no normal man.

Ike slammed into the beasts flanks, cutting and slashing with Ragnell at the wounds that other hunters created before they were slain. He was stronger than the others, and faster too it would appear. He darted back to avoid the claws and drove back into the beast with such ferocity that it would look to the casual onlooker, it would have appeared as if Ike was nothing more than a cerulean blur.