Exton

I'm having a fine old time tonight, cutting down Drow with every sweep of my blade, getting splashed with arterial spray... I wouldn't drink Drow blood on a bet, but it's still nice to see it on the outside instead of the inside. My friends are far enough away that I can just hack at random and be assured of cutting a Drow to bloody ruin - but then I see Raina get hit and go down, bleeding.


"RAAAAIIIINNNNAAA!" It comes out as a deep-chested roar. Now I'm cutting my way to her side, uncaring of the blades that slash at me, every slice a mortal wound. I don't have time for subtlety; I kill and kill and kill, opening a way between me and my lover, sending the Drow to the Hell they deserve almost absentmindedly.

My only thought is for Raina. If she lives, I have to protect her, get her out of here; if not, I have to avenge her and make sure to retrieve her body so the Drow can't mutilate it.

A part of me is screaming, another part is killing with utter detachment. When a dark elf knocks Johnny from my hand, I rip his throat out with my claws and continue on, now tearing bloody chunks from the bodies of those who oppose me. I call Johnny back when the crowd thins a bit and scythe my way to Raina's side. The Drow pull back a little, appalled, I'm sure, by the look of utter rage on my face, the gore covering me from head to toe. I kill them all before stooping to raise Raina to my shoulder in a one-handed fireman's carry. I'm stabbed in the back then, but I pluck the blade from my shoulder and stick it into the first eye-socket I can find. That discourages them for a second and by then I'm moving forward again, now moving toward the exit, killing Drow with every step. I can feel the heat of Raina's breath - shallow, but still there - and a slow, barely perceptible heartbeat. I roar my defiance, letting them see the full length of my fangs, Johnny slick with blood and sticky with thicker things. Arrows flash past me, thudding into the Drow on either side; quieter impacts tell me Ky is deploying her darts. Searing heat skims just past me as Erik releases Phoenix to join the fight. His axe and sword make a bloody circle of steel and every time he strikes, someone dies. Tannr leaps in to cover my back, his face a mask of rage as fierce as my own. There's a flash and a whiff of acrid smoke some fifteen feet away and suddenly Inari appears behind their lines, an avenging spectre in well-worn leathers, dealing out red retribution with every slash of her blade.

There's the harsh music of a hunting horn and Herne's Riders thunder into the fray, splitting the Drow's ranks, wearing their nightmare semblance that might cow fiercer fighters than any we've seen today. HellHounds take out the stragglers and the wounded and that big bastard Guunnar is in the thick of it, grim as Death, killing with a terrible passion.

I can relate.

I don't recall exactly how I made it to the Gate; I can vaguely remember handing Raina to someone - one of the shifter kids, I think - with orders to get her to the Manse. I may have added a threat in there somewhere, I don't remember... Then I put my back to the Gate and wait for the next wave.