The Riches of Power

Close Call

POV Ryder

We were quickly up and out the door. We ran on our toes down the long corridors that never seemed to end. Elaina cautiously approached each corner. I have no idea why we decided to follow her, but I sure as hell wasn't going to be the only one who stayed behind. We passed many black, heavy, wooden doors on our journey out. Every few doors you could hear a scream or an unnatural laughter. We were coming up to another fork in the hallway. Elaina pushed up against the nearest wall and we stood there silently. Her eyes widened. "Someone's coming." She whispered. She pushed open the closet door, and began ushering us in. She then closed the door. I turned around to inspect the room we barged into. There were three people in the room. Two had a masculine physique and the other was a woman who was chained to a couch. One of the men had a green tint to his skin and his muscles definitely weren't humanly attainable. Sharp spikes tore through his clean, purple and black suit. The spikes ran up his arms, legs, and back. He was sitting on the coffee table in front of the woman who seemed only agitated and sent hateful glares towards the man. Behind the couch stood a large grey creature that seemed all muscle. His torso and arms were the size of wine barrels. Its long, black hair was in a ratted pony tail that hasn't been touched in at least the last year. Its hostile, angry, barbaric gaze met ours. It's mouth that had hung open with drool escaping the corners started to growl.

In the few seconds of silence the woman pushed herself against the back of the sofa, hard enough to make it fall. She rebounded back up and pulled the chain over leg of the fallen piece of furniture. She screeched as she hurled herself at the well-dressed creature. She had the chain around his neck and they had begun wrestling around the room. I decided that it was time to step in when the brute in the corner started pounding over to the two fighting. I unfolded my weapon. Two long metal belts crossed over my chest. Extending off of them was a long row of throwing knives.

Following my lead the others, prepared themselves to fight. I grabbed three daggers in each hand and with unfamiliar skill threw them at the behemoth. Three landed vertically on its spine while the other three hit his arm, shoulder and the side of his head. It stopped in its tracks and I expected it to fall and die. Instead, it slowly turned around, growling. He turned and brushed off the knives on his arm and shook off the ones on his back. With the one in his head he yanked it out with one of his large, beefy hands. All of his wounds began to smoke and so did his hand. I only supposed that it must be because of the daggers. He threw the dagger back at me. My eyes were wide, and next thing I knew I was on the ground. I blinked a few times and realized that Riley had pushed me out of the way. I turned to the wall in my temporary shock and saw that the dagger would have hit my forehead, or at least close to it. Riley was already up and she was shooting at the large creature with the others. It began to charge at us its size and speed comparable only to a bull. The only difference was that this bull walked on two feet, and hand hands that were bigger than my head.

Trinity and Riley shot the monster multiple times in the chest, his face was clouded by the smoke coming off of the sizzling grey flesh of its chest. They both dived for opposite sides as the creature clomped closer. The Brute had run head first into the wall. Unlike I suspected the wood and plaster of the wall only cracked. 'This definitely isn't a normal house'

The creature stumbled clumsily back onto its feet. Using the creature's lack of balance to her advantage, Karen swung around it with her scythe leaving long curved gashes in its side and stomach. The momentum had pushed the creature back few steps giving Charles and Calvin enough time to slash at it. Calvin gave one last decapitating blow to the neck, stopping the gurgling cries of the abominable monster. The corpse began to turn into a bubbly goo before it evaporated into the air.

POV Pieper

When the fighting began I had focused on the two that were rolling around on the floor. The male had just flung the woman over his shoulder, both of his hands grabbed his own neck. He gasped for air and when he removed his hands to lift himself up off the oak wood floor, you could see the imprints the chain had left around his neck. His purple skin around the imprint began to turn darker and even black, some of his skin had been ripped off it splotchy patterns. Black blood started to dribble out of the small wounds caused by the chain.