Iris knelt beside her fallen foe and pulled the bottomless bag from his head. Her stomach turned over at the sight, his head was twisted around backwards and his lifeless eyes stared back at her in permanent horror. His face and head were marked with deep red circles, and his neck was ringed with marks from the bag's constriction. She looked down at the bag in her hand, both thankful for its help and more wary of its nature than ever.
Thoughts were beginning to swirl in her mind. She was a murderer -- an executioner. It had been self defense. It wasn't what she wanted. Could she have avoided it? She shifted her weight, and a pulse of pain cleared her mind. She was still bleeding. The bag was reaching out towards the corpse with its drawstrings. She grimaced, unable to deny that it made sense to loot the body, at least for potions.
"Okay," she whispered to the bag, gently placing it on the ground before twisting and taking a seat beside the corpse.
Each movement hurt more than the last, and she was certain she was making the blood loss worse. With a grunt, she pushed the body onto its back, unstrapped the chest plate and set it aside. The bag immediately began trying to devour the armor piece, but she was in no condition to help it. Patting around the man's chest, she felt another flask and a pang of hope shot through her. Quickly, she popped off the lid and took a swig. She tasted whiskey, and spat it out.
"Fuck," she whispered, replacing the cap and tossing it near the bag.
She continued searching, but found no more flasks. There was a small pouch of coins tucked into a pocket, which she added to the pile, and a few folded papers with the ink thoroughly washed away by the rain, which she tossed aside. Giving up the search for potions, she began ripping off long shreds of the man's robes. her face contorting into indignant snarls as she worked. With a handful a cloth strips, she rose to her feet and wrapped them around her abdomen, stuffing smaller scraps into the wound before cinching them tight with the longer strips.
As she looked down at the man, his twisted head hiding his face from view, she felt resentment -- anger. She was mad that he would kill her for experience points, but furious that he made her kill for his greed. She felt indignation that even in death he spited her, that she had to desecrate him to bandage her wounds, that this would be a moment she would remember.
She crouched down and stripped the gauntlets from his hands, then the pauldrons from his shoulders and the greaves from his legs, crying freely and yelling as she yanked off each piece. She tried to don each of them, testing their fit against her limbs in hopes to recoup at least some advantage from her actions, to somehow justify it or make it worth it -- like a hunter using every part of their kill. It was all far too large to fit her, and got tossed to the bag. She picked up her staff and stood, looking down upon the corpse as emotions roiled in her body -- fleeting, unfulfilled satisfaction perverted by abundant guilt, sorrow and frustration.
The bag finally managed to pull the chest plate into its mouth, which shrunk to regular size as the last of the plate slipped into the void. Then it turned on the collection of smaller items Iris had scattered around it, using either end of the draw string like tendrils to eagerly grab and shovel in each of the items. Iris leaned on her staff while it swallowed the loot, allowing herself a brief respite to smile softly at the hungry little bag. When it was finished, she reached down a hand for the bag to grab hold of.
"Come on, lil' guy."
The bag hopped. It bounced once, then twice, then leapt from the ground up to Iris's waist, where it grabbed hold of her belt and cinched itself tight. Iris looked down at it with raised eyebrows.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
"You are just full of surprises, aren't you?"
The bag said nothing.
Iris kept much of her weight on the staff as she trudged back the way she had come. She found her sword and sheathed it into the bag, then soon found her wizard hat crumpled and drowning in a puddle. After doing her best to dump the water from its folds and push it back into shape, she placed it firmly on her head and continued on. It occurred to her that she didn't actually know where she was continuing to, but that didn't matter much. Right now she just wanted distance between herself and the man she had killed.
A burst of lightning struck high above somewhere behind her, she guessed atop the cliff from which the egg had fallen. She quickened her pace and started blipping. A gust of wind blew through the trees, forcing her to hold down her hat and take cover in the crevice of a trunk. The next gust was stronger, the wind whistled and roared as it ripped leaves from their branches and threw forest litter like debris from an explosion. The rain was blown away, and the clouds above parted before it could return. For the first time in days, Iris saw raw sunlight piercing through the canopy. Then something else blocked it, plunging the forest into darkness once more, and an impact shook the ground so hard it hurt her bones. Her hearing left before she registered the sound that shattered her ear drums. Her vision went black and she collapsed.
----------------------------------------
The Shark Titan leaned on the starboard railing. The splatters of slick blue blood of the Hydra mixed with the scarlet red of adventurers across his skin. His deep blue captain's coat, now saltwater soaked and badly torn, flapped in the wind. Distant lightning flashed in the dark skies which loomed above.
The still remains of adventurers and countless chunks of hydra floated in the waters like buoys and the mixing bloods stained the waves an ominous purple. Thunder rumbled, and yet more lightning struck in the distance. Ahead of him, the last seven heads of the Hydra hissed and gnashed, whirling and whipping around in the rain, illuminated by flames, explosions and the flashing colors of magic.
These were the smallest heads yet, with slender, agile necks and narrow, snappy jaws. Rows of razor teeth sliced through leather and flesh without effort, while those in heavy armor were thrown or dragged below the surface to drown. The long-ranged adventurers had served as artillery from the beach, but the battlefield had grown smaller alongside the Hydra, and any further attacks would be danger close. The only adventurers still directly engaging with the Hydra were highly skilled, highly mobile Champions who could sustain a fight in or on the water.
One adventurer dashed around kicking off air, twisting to dodge a near-instantaneous strike from the Hydra, then slicing at its neck with thin silver blades. Other Champions flew with wings of various types, circling and swooping for strikes. Some walked on the water itself and weathered the waves like ever-shifting terrain. One adventurer had no flight or water powers at all, yet darted around suspended above the dark waves by kicking off and running along the hydra necks, wherever she intersected with the hydra she left splashes of blood in her wake.
More lightning. This time a cluster of strikes hitting one after another somewhere near the Spine that separated the deep forest from the Craggs. This caught the Shark Titan's attention, firmly drawing his gaze away from the battle for the first time in hours. Each strike sent waves of aura reverberating across the lands, an aura that matched the beacons Commander Bridge had warned him of. This was the second such burst to occur, and the Shark Titan was forced to acknowledge it might be something of his concern. He leapt from the deck, a jet of water rising up from beside the ship and surrounding his legs to carry him high. He was launched far above the deck and landed in the crow's nest with a splash. From his new vantage he looked out across the redwoods to the horizon.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the storm clouds parted where the last of the lightning struck. Rays of sunlight cut through like the heavens themselves had ripped open above the forest. From the tear in the clouds came a sight that plunged the Titan's soul into depths of terror he had never known. The dragon landed amongst the forest, crushing redwoods like weeds beneath its feet, its wings spread wide and the skies rumbling like thunder in their wake. Its long neck curled as it looked down upon one of the plateaus that jutted up from the horizon.
A deep voice swept across the lands like an announcement from the gods, each syllable cracking through the skies carrying stronger winds than any storm had ever offered, "fin-al-ly!"