The Hunting Grounds III - Second Most Dangerous Game

[ThirdEmperor]

[Mess Hall]

Painfully thin. It's only fashionable.
And in his present sad circumstances, sadly affordable.

"Of course I'll leave something for their troubles. Still, it's an egalitarian way for a town to run. Everyone for the greater good along with their own." Very admirable for a bunch of 'savages' who live in a dead beast's chest. It makes sense in it's own way, when you consider how vicious even the cities of the Nexus can be.


[The Hive]

The sword chips her armor as the Queen startles back, but cuts no deeper than the chitinous shell.
With a hiss she brings her claw out one more time, to strike his nasty little blade away with all her monstrous strength, and lunges forward in the opening. She tries to sink her 'teeth' into the warrior, fill his veins with the acidic saliva that drips from her razor-sharpened mandibles.


[The Hidden Grove]

The creature draws itself sharp, it's spiderweb of limbs collapsing in with a force that hurles it forwards as something nasty and serpentine and sharp. Bladed limbs scuttle over the roots of the forest floor as it throws itself towards Brandon, it's head curving to a beak like a vicious blade, crackling with pale and ghostly fire.

[Shadowcaller]

Huntside Mess Hall

That would be acceptable, so long as they are small. Perhaps you could tie it to the side of my collar? That would be a close enough place to a humanoid wrist. Xun pauses. Still, it might be best if we wear the charms I have. Just in case, they will heal anyone too close to death.

Huntside Mess Hall

"Healing charms? That sounds more than useful to me madame. I'd take one of those, and perhaps even more afterwards if they're for sale." Vallery declares with a smile. "I'd think I would have evaluated their usefulness after we're done after all." She then reaches into her pocket and fishes up a napkin. "This shall be my herald!"

[Morty]

[The Hive]

Wenomir keeps backing away, swinging his sword in front of him in short, vicious arcs to break the tempo of the attacking mandibles and build up a rhythm of attacks and defences. After a moment, he makes a sudden stop, jumps backwards until his back is against a tree, and then makes a sudden surge forward. His sword becomes an eye-watering blur of steel, striking at the mandibles with tremendous force and surgical precision, trying to cut them off.

[Deathkeeper]

Mess Hall

To be fair, the Town Hall really doesn't have any living space in it. Really the only person who definitely lives in that skeleton is Cielnoir, who lives in the skull.
"Well, you haven't seen what we charge for half of our services. It adds up. Plus we give the hunter the choicest bits of what he takes, but they usually let us take everything else. And trust me, on the bigger critters, that is a lot."

[Recaiden]

[Deserts]

An odd sight crosses the sands, though maybe not stranger than many hunts seen in this realm.
A white wolf, what even with its pale fur would normally be panting under the heat, racing lightly across the dunes. Where its feet fall, patches of glass fuse and solidify, for in its footsteps and creeping from the corners of it's mouth are traces of the intense black flame fearblaze.

Makes it easy to follow, if nothing else.

[Ionbound]

[Deserts]

And, watching the wolf, a young woman lies in wait. Wearing an orange hunting jacket over a dark green blouse and blue jeans, thick glasses correcting for severe astigmatism, and armed with a large tranquilizer rifle, she carefully takes aim and fires with a whumping sound at the unusual wolf, aiming for it's neck, trying to tag it quickly and easily so it can be tracked for further study.

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

Orange is for when other hunters of your race are the most dangerous thing around.
It is rather less ideal out here.

The tranq dart finds the wolf's neck, just above the shoulder. It goes 'ting' and bounces onto the ground, and the beast turns, yipping in pain.
It doesn't howl, for it is alone here. It just leaps into running full-tilt towards her.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

The scientist's eyes widen, and she opens her mouth to scream, but snaps it shut, swallows her terror, and chambers another shot, firing again, this time aiming for the wolf's presumably open mouth.

If she can't fire before the wolf is on her, she tries to ram her gun in it's mouth while delivering a rather nasty kick, empowered by desperation, terror, and adrenaline to the wolf's throat.

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

Just before she fires, the flames dance up before the wolf, and it twists to the side, taking another painful but ultimately fruitless hit to its side.

It slows as it gets close, and tries to start circling the scientist. Now, the flames don't die out as it passes away, but start building up into a ring, a wall.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

The scientist slowly starts trying to back away, gun held defensively as she tries to escape the area she predicts the ring of fire will encompass. She swallows nervously as she simply waits for the wolf to make a move or, hopefully, back off.

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

The wolf follows, skittering along to extend the ring, going to be more of a loop, at best. It would wait for the scientist to tire, but here there will be more dangerous hunters, happy to eat them both. It will need to act more quickly. But for the moment, it continues its strategy.

No, this isn't working.
Just leaving a line of flames; the woman is too quick to be easily encircled. It picks up its pace, trying to edge closer as she backs away. It's bold, as if knowing that the gun, threatening though it looks, has no dart in it.
Ready to lunge if she changes her pattern of backing away.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

The scientist keeps backing off, reloading her weapon as she-Uh-oh. Well, that's not good. In her nervousness, she actually just dropped the gun. This really isn't going to end well for her, is it?

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

Not really good for her, no. The burning wolf bounds up, placing a paw dramatically on the dart gun, which should heat up fairly quickly, as it gathers itself and spring at the scientist, trying to lock its teeth on her arm and drag her down onto the sands.

[WarKitty]

Huntside Mess Hall

"Healing charms? That sounds more than useful to me madame. I'd take one of those, and perhaps even more afterwards if they're for sale." Vallery declares with a smile. "I'd think I would have evaluated their usefulness after we're done after all." She then reaches into her pocket and fishes up a napkin. "This shall be my herald!"

Xun shifts a little. They're not something I make but I can give you where I got them. And, um, do you happen to have a ribbon I could use? I don't exactly carry fabric around much.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

The gun deforms under the wolf's pawn, and when it lunges at the scientist, she instinctively raises an arm, trying to defend herself which is a bad move to make as it allows the wolf to easily gain control and wrestle her to the ground.

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

Well, at least it protected her neck.
The injury doesn't burn much, for the flames are no longer lolling from it's mouth.

The wolf hesitates.
This thing is harmless without that tool, isn't it? Unsporting.
And it's a human. Humans are to be pitied, it remembers, though not why. Why is too complex an idea.

The beast steps away, growling, and wills the circle of flames to finish surrounding the scientist. On the inside, it's just a warm, friendly heat, a fireplace at a comfortable distance.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

The scientist pants, terrified of the wolf. She's completely stopped moving, and is simply waits for it to finish her off, injured, defeated, and unable to run as she is.

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

The wolf attempts to leap out through the wall of flames.

Time passes.

But if the scientist is still there in a little while, the wolf will hop back in and drop a dead jackrabbit at her feet.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

The scientist swallows, unwilling to risk her luck and flee, simply waits for the fires to die down. When the wolf returns, she simply looks at the jackrabbit and says, "You're not my cat, you know...Why are you being so nice to me?"

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

The wolf is totally a cat.
It pushes the food-animal towards her with a paw. It would chew it up to regurgitate for the poor flat-toothed human, but it's a bad provider, all told.
The flames all lean towards the wolf as it returns, and vanish, leaving just a ring of cooling glass.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

Susan shakes her head and says, "Look, if you want me to eat, just let me go. Why are you keeping me here?"

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

The wolf lies down, unresponsive to Susan's questions.

Guess she'll just have to wait.

And if she does, it won't be long before the moon rises over the distant mountains.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

Susan frowns, but sits and tries to examine the wolf from a distance, curious to it's nature.

Once the moon begins to rise, she stares at it and shivers, blood beginning to run cold, and mutters, "Damn...When did it get so cold?" In addition, a few patches of scales appear on her face, not that she's able to see them.

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

The wolf is white-furred, average size, with a long scar on its left foreleg. Flames are always burning at its paws, occasionally in its mouth.
Then it feels the moonlight on its skin, and stands up to run away.

Stay warm, Susan!

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

Susan scooches closer to the flames, trying to warm up. She swallows and blinks a few times as her eyes become slitted and her vision gains a thermal overlay as two small pits appear under her nose containing sensory organs, which gets a mutter of, "What the hell?" as the scales spread along her body from her face and arm, bite mark long gone. But she still doesn't but two and two together.

[FireFox]

[The Hidden Grove]

The creature draws itself sharp, it's spiderweb of limbs collapsing in with a force that hurles it forwards as something nasty and serpentine and sharp. Bladed limbs scuttle over the roots of the forest floor as it throws itself towards Brandon, it's head curving to a beak like a vicious blade, crackling with pale and ghostly fire.

Brandon drops to one knee and takes careful aim at the creature's greatest concentration of mass before squeezing the trigger twice. Two rounds of .223 Boat-tail hollow-point, about 5 grams with roughly 1,800 joules each. And then a quick third squeeze and one more barely-aimed bullet, a snapshot at the beak right before it hits him.

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

The wolf stands a good hundred yards distant. It howls, fearblaze dramatically silhouetting it against the rising full moon as the new weresnake transforms for the first time.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

Susan swallows as she watches the wolf howl, and that connects, possibly with the aid of awakening therianthropic instincts, what happened to her. But instead of terror now, her mind has been changed enough that she views the scales spreading along her body with growing excitement.

Quickly struggling her way out of clothes that now she realizes would be useless, Susan watches as the brown and grey patterned scales, with a prickling feeling, grow over her body. Her face pulls back as her hair falls out and melds with her neck, causing her to fall forwards as teeth recede and are replaced by two hollow fangs, barely able to catch herself with atrophying arms. Her legs undergo a similar process, quickly becoming vestigial as a powerful tail grows from her elongating spine. Her mammaries disappear, and more ribs grow along her body, as a snake's movement scales slide out along her now flat chest and belly. The bitter taste of venom fills her mouth as the new weresnake's venom sacs grow in.

Transformation now complete, Susan hisses at the moon, mirroring the wolf, and slithers towards the fire, seeking shelter from the chill of the desert night.

[Recaiden]

[Desert]

Hurry up, snake who isn't Susan! They need to find something to kill. Or at least bite productively.

The wolf races up to the top of a nearby dune, looking, smelling, listening.
Then, frustrated, it races down and tries to flip the snake up onto its back. It will carry the useless new person.

[Ionbound]

[Desert]

Snakesusan does attempt to follow the wolf to the top of the dune, but is, indeed, rather slow, and hisses appreciatively when she is tossed onto it's back, wrapping herself around it's belly once to secure herself as she rides the wolf to wherever it might go.