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Chapter 2: Outpost Garrison, Part 1

Chapter 2: Outpost Garrison, Part 1

The six men you now face down may have been caught unawares, but are by no means impotent in battle. They form a line, arcing around you in a semicircle, baring any weapons they possess against you. You figure you might need to keep track of them all, and decide to give them labels.

Soldier A is the farthest to your left. He is unarmored, clad only in cloth, but wields a large metal club. Soldier B is to his left, and seems more wary of you than the others. He wields a pair of daggers, and is clad in leather armor, but you see him eyeing a crossbow on the table nearby. Soldier C is next in line, and appears to be of higher rank than the others; he is fully armored in plate armor, befitting of a knight, and is wielding a sizable sword. He stands closer to you than the others. Soldier D is next, and is half-dressed in chain armor, with the left half of it draped over his shoulder and the right side fully worn, and wielding a smaller sword. Soldier E follows, and is clad in the same raggedy armor as the two you recently slew on the wall, and is currently unarmed, holding up his meager fists against you. Soldier F wears chain armor as well, and has his arm outstretched to grab a nearby spear.

The room you find yourself in is small, roughly five meters (sixteen feet) to a side. What little space is available in the room is cluttered by four rectangular tables, each with two benches positioned on the long sides, that take up roughly sixty percent of the floor space. Wooden bowls, plates, and mugs, each littered with crumbs of leftover meals and undrunk liquid, dot the tables. The walls are lined with weapon racks, upon which numerous armaments lie. To your surprise, there are no stands for armor here- it would seem the soldiers positioned here have brought their own armor in from elsewhere.

"Charge!" Soldier C shouted, cementing his position of authority. You think to yourself whether it would be more efficient to kill him first, and break the morale of the others, or safer to avoid him until his underlings are dealt with.

Your thoughts are brought to a close as Soldier A leaps at you- quite literally, feet off the ground, club overhead, leaps at you. His club scrapes against the ceiling as he bears down on you, but naturally such an obvious attack can be easily avoided. You take one step to the side, and he lands harmlessly to your side. You raise your weapon to run him through, but are stopped as a bolt embeds itself in your stomach. You do not recoil, but instead take stock of the situation, and scan the soldiers. Of course, who else but the fidgety B, currently in the midst of reloading. Two of the other soldiers- E and D- sprint at you, but you give them no time. You run towards B while arcing around the two of them, outpacing them with your bestial speed. Soldier B panics, stepping backwards and raising his crossbow in a futile attempt to block your attack, naturally to no effect. Your sword pierces his chest cleanly, emerging from the other side as the soldier coughs blood.

In the shadows cast by the lanterns above, you see the shadow of a man behind you, a sword raised overhead. As the shadow begins to bring the sword down, you react in a flash, and flip yourself over the soldier's shoulder while withdrawing your own blade, landing on the table behind him as the other soldier's sword splits open his comrade's chest. You spin around with arm and sword outstretched, hoping to decapitate whomever stood behind you, but to your surprise as you wheel around, you see the captain- Soldier C- reel backwards and out of reach of your sword.

A spear embeds itself in your neck. You clutch at it, and follow the path of the shaft down to the hands of Soldier F, whom you had previously written off. The rest of the soldiers seem to cheer among themselves- clearly, they are unaware of what you are capable of. You feign death, falling to one knee, and smile to yourself as the soldier withdraws his spear from your throat. At that moment, you leap at him, wrapping your fangs around his neck. You dash with all the ferocity of the beast you are, clear to the other side of the room, and in one swift motion devour the neck of the man whole. His head falls to the ground with a thud as you feel the hole in your neck mend anew.

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Soldier A falls backwards in terror, landing on his ass, while Soldier C attempts to regain control of the situation. He raises his sword into a fighting stance, and steps forward towards you. As he does, Soldier E steps backwards towards one of the weapon racks- though the myriad of weapons prevents you from inferring which he is going for- and Soldier D steps forwards to join his leader. You dash at Soldier C, who raises his blade to intercept, but the moment you would get into range of him, you instead take a sharp turn and dive at Soldier D. The soldier is unprepared for the attack, but not entirely so, and blocks the attack only barely, your blade pushing his against his exposed left side. You slide your blade back towards yourself, and make another cut at Soldier D, who attempts to parry it- were it not for the fact that the blow was not aimed at him at all, but instead a feint into an attack aimed right at Soldier C's neck. The soldier raises his sword, but is clearly burdened by the weight of his weapon and armor, betraying a degree of inexperience in the process, and your blade finds its hold between the soldier's helmet and breastplate. The soldier behind you- Soldier D- cleaves his blade into your back, but you bear him no mind. As your back splits open, your blade slices cleanly between the pieces of armor, and the commander's head flies off his neck.

"Dannon!" Soldier D screams, emboldened by the loss to your surprise.

He impales you from behind, running his sword through your gut, but you fear nothing now. You reach your arm over your shoulder, and grab the man by his chain armor and throw him over your shoulder. He holds his grip on his sword as best he can, attempting to split you in half as you throw him, but his grip is weaker than your flesh, and with some effort he falls over your shoulder and onto the ground, his head pointing towards you and his feet away from you. You raise your sword, pointing its tip towards the soldier's exposed face, but right as you would begin to thrust- your arm disappears?

You look to your side, at the severed stump of your shoulder, at the puddle of blood that was once your blade, at your arm lying on the ground, and at the great axe that divides the two of you, wielded by Solder E, who you had forgotten about. Perhaps now you should begin to worry- you start to wonder if there's enough blood here to heal you completely. The soldier abandons the axe, withdrawing a sword from his side that he seemed to have brought in expectance of this exact scenario. As he does, you stomp on Soldier D's head, crushing it.

You hunker down, entering a feral fighting stance with your one arm as the soldier readies his sword against you, pointing it right at your heart. You quickly glance to the side, searching for Soldier A, in case the man had found his resolve once more, but fail to find him. This window is all the soldier needs, and he lunges at you, driving his blade through your chest. Unfortunately, he played right into your hands- or hand, for now- and you wrap your arm around the man's neck, burying your claws into his throat. The man perseveres, his chain mail preventing your claws from gaining any purchase. You slide your leg between his, and with a swift blow knock him and yourself onto the ground, pinning him on his back. You pull back, releasing your grip on his throat and using your one arm left to rip open his chain armor's leather straps, exposing his chest to you. Soldier A watches in horror as you open the man's stomach and devour his innards, regenerating the wounds across your chest but not your arm.

You rise from the man's hollowed chest cavity, and walk over to your severed arm. You grab it, and hold it against your stump as you move towards Soldier A, who fearfully kicks himself away from you as best he can, but to no avail.

You finish your meal, drinking down the last soldier's grey matter from his skull like fine wine from a chalice. Your arm has been comfortably reattached, and you stretch it out to be entirely sure. You see that the room opens in one direction, and open the door. You find yourself in the middle of a hallway, stretching to the left and the right towards a closed door on either side. You decide to first walk to the left, and place your ear against the door. Inside, you hear nothing, and so you go towards the right, and place your ear against the door. You hear a voice in prayer, and kick down the door.