[Mithryn Outpost - The Fields]Crow Hunting Part III

by **Ball** on May 14th, 2014, 4:44 pm

35th of Spring 514

The bird at first took notice at the three inch squire holding the pointed weapon against one shoulder as it devoured the freshly produced food. Scavenger! Foolish agent. Ball took no hesitation as he lowered Thorn into a position best positioned to land an attack against this massive winged demon. Killing this beast was going to take some time, Ball had a feeling just by looking at the creature. It was a massive bird, several times larger than the crows and the bone crest upon it's head was going to prove a very big pain in his clay arse to overcome. No head attacks this time.

Charging Thorn first at this beast as it bent to take a bite of crow Ball came within several feet before the bird swung it's head up and with a sound similar to a rough hoarse cough spewed green gunk at the pycon. It landed on his right leg and the pain was immediately crippling. Ball tumbled forward, landing hard on his front and skidded another half a foot before him and Thorn came to a halt. His leg was agonizing in pain. Releasing his grip from Thorn Ball sat up and tore at his leg blindly, the front of his head always watching the large bird as it's wings buffered the clay ground at him in large whirlwinds.

The clay wasn't enough to stop the pain as Ball's leg tearing results in the pain from the acidic bile the bird released on him to be replaced by the searing and intense pain of the squire removing his leg. Tearing off his leg left a ragged ending that worked hard to restitch itself and form a thinner version of it's former self. As the leg was pulling mass from the rest of his body Ball struggled to stand up just as the peg leg his leg was replaced with finished it's length. It was a poor replica of the former leg but that leg was useless...

Feeling the weight of his former leg in his hand get heavier Ball could see it turning into a hard gray substance... Stone. The bird hadn't quite lifted off yet to take it's attacking from the air, Ball was far too small for that. Picking up Thorn Ball squared himself up against the Kriital, even without an eye this small squire was clearly pissed off.

Tossing Thorn up slightly Ball snagged a hold of the shaft so he was holding the lance as if it was a spear. In his other hand the pycon held his petrifying leg, whatever the bird vomited all over the pycon's leg made it unsuitable for reattaching. Pulling back Thorn Ball took aim yet he held off on throwing it at first, instead he pulled back his other arm and then threw his stone leg at the creature.

The bird cawed at Ball as the stone smacked the crown of bone and then bounced off, the creature was unharmed and yet it did exactly what Ball wanted it to do. As the bird leaned forward, cawing loudly in frustration the Pycon released Thorn, throwing the lance as hard as he could at the open maw of the bird.

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Ball** on May 14th, 2014, 5:34 pm

The Kriital clamped it's mouth shut and tilted his head forward just enough for Thorn to bounce off the bone crest that protected its blasted skull. Petch! There wasn't any time to waste now, the bird's buffering wings finally gained enough air underneath them to start lifting off, maybe the stone leg didn't do enough to daze the bird, but it did slow it down neough for Ball to scoop up his lance in his charge and just as the bird's legs dangled above his head Ball jumped and grabbed a hold of one talon, wrapping half his arm around the foot's claw Ball hung on for his life as he and the bird went airborne.

Watching the ground spread out around him in a spiral was unnerving, almost as much as the rocking ships on the shore of Sahova. Petching Hai am I facing the air version of the Lagool? He sure hoped not, this thing was already several stories in the air and Ball was dangling by a foot with Thorn gripped tightly in his other hand. Every few seconds now the bird tipped a wing up or down as it rode the thermals that Ball could feel roaring around him. The unnerving sound of the winds scared the poor pycon yet he had to hold on, it was paramount that he held on. This was when the bird decided to turn the attack onto Ball, clawing with its other foot the Pycon had to swing Thorn clumsily to ward off the attacks.

Several swipes of the talon and return swings from Ball with Thorn and the Kriital finally started to drop altitude, there was a cave opening on what appeared to be the precipate of a cliff several miles from the outpost. Shyke Ball released his grip and landed on the hard ground just outside of the cliff and stared upward at the opening into the mountain. The smell was atrocious and if Ball had a stomach the contents – or just bile – would find themselves coming up in a vicious puddle, fortunately the pycon had no need for stomach so that ended that situation quite aburptly. Watching the bird swoop into the cave Ball started in after it, his small leg slowing him down to a trot instead of a charging run.

The inner air of the cave was crowded with more stench, heavy with decay and rot Ball couldn't imagine how this place went unnoticed, there were no creatures around the squire noted as he stepped into the cooler air of the cave, Thorn at the ready. The ground was sticky and soupy. The stench appeared to be coming from that, the walls, the whole cave. Yet the squire ignored his want to turn tail and run. No, this beast was going to fall, here and now.

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Ball** on May 15th, 2014, 3:27 pm

The inside of the cave was dark, moist due to the cooler temperatures and no light gaining entrance, and the gods' be-damned foul odor. Ugh spring cleaning eh? Ball grimaced as he watched the bird shuffle towards what could only be it's nest... It was the carcass of a dead bear, the stomach was torn wide open and the entrails were apparently removed. Ball could see what appeared to be flies and maggots crawling about the poor bear's remains. Shifting on his peg leg Ball's gaping mouth became a scowl of disgust at first then Ball could hear the weak sound of cracking shells.

Oh shyke. Ball steeled himself against the sound of the hatching eggs as he stepped forward, his smaller leg going first in the motion landed on the brittle rib bone of some poor animal from the woods below. The snapping bone echoed loudly, alerting the bird – Mother Bird – of his presence and that didn't bode well for the pycon squire. A roaring screech from the bird as it once more released a spewing stream of acidic bile at Ball.

Smarter now for the attack first occurring miles away Ball rolled to in a forward diagonal out of the way of the bile. Upon rolling up to his feet Ball took the growing momentum to his advantage and lunged with a hard thrust with Thorn at the bird's left leg. As Thorn's chosen path slide the weapon past his chest, thus guarding it from the wing-talon swipe from the Kriital. It was a close call for that matter, but Thorn made contact with the meat of the Kriital leg, biting hard as it sank a quarter inch inward. The attack caused the bird to yank it's leg back and cry out in pain, the tug pulled Ball forward further too, off his feet.

With the lance sliding free from the bird's leg Ball turned in time to bring the weapon in a diagonal position that covered a large portion of his body as the bird's beak came down to peak and tear at his clay flesh.The beak bounced on the round edge of the weapon, sheer luck at that. But Ball wasn't as lucky as he hoped, the bounce of the beak brought it back down into his gut. Luckily there were a few mizas stored within his inner body to stop the beak from penetrating through and through.

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Ball** on May 15th, 2014, 4:22 pm

Ball groaned in pain, screaming wasn't going to be to his advantage at this point and the squire knew it. Grabbing a hold of the beak Ball roared as he pushed up on it. The Kriital's beak slide free easily enough and Ball used this opening to punch the bird square on it's tongue as the beak popped open enough to screech and do who the knew what.

The sudden tongue punch threw the bird for a loop, the sudden pain was enough to pull away from Ball and Ball knew that he needed to sacrifice his hand in order to survive being thrown. So as the bird started to clamp its beak shut, Ball grabbed a hold of the tongue hard and ripped his arm clear off his hand.

With all the acidic vile found within the bird's mouth his hand was quickly turning to stone he knew. Bastard. Ball knew the stone hand he now lost wasn't a heavy weight compared to his leg, but it was attached around the bird's tongue thus giving it one hell of a struggle. As the Kriital was busy trying to extract the clenched stone hand Ball grabbed a hold of Thorn with his only intact hand left and using the opening in the bird's chest as his target charged forward hard.

Even with the bird struggling with hand-on-tongue it wasn't making these attacks easy and Ball has force to abandon his attack as the bird's wing swiped across it's body, the claw on the wing was longer than the squire was and the mass behind it was tremendously more then his own, this swipe attack forced Ball has to immediately put the brakes on his charge and come to a sliding halt just a hair's width from the wing-talon.

Using his lance as a bat Ball swung hard at the wing, the target was large enough to require little aim so unless he was blind and couldn't hit a barn with guidelines, this attack wasn't too likely to fail. And fail it didn't as Thorn connected with the bird's wing Ball could feel his full weight pushing the weapon forward. Using both the uneven grip, the position he was holding it, and gravity the weight of Thorn and the force behind it was enough to let out a cracking sound the sounded as if bone cracked beneath the feathers. The scream of pain from the bird only furthered the bone crack as Ball pedaled his legs backwards hard and applied distance between himself and the now wounded bird.

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Ball** on May 15th, 2014, 4:23 pm

Not entirely invincible I see. Ball watched, the bird was trying to lift it's wings to buffer in the air again but each attempt only let one wing rise and the other cause the bird to shriek in pain and lower the other one down. It was then that Ball noticed that it was guarding the bear carcass and the eggs within. Petching Hai. It is a mother. The tall tale sign of retching was coming from the bird and Ball returned his attention to the bird, even though the stone hand of his was still clenching the vile creature's tongue like a vice Ball knew it wasn't going to be able to withstand the bath from Hai it was about to receive.

Out came the bile and to the left went Ball, rolling hard until he was stopped by what appeared to be the cripple remains of twigs and sticks that appeared to once have housed the eggs... It was a nest! Grabbing a hold of the top edge of the nest Ball hoisted himself onto the old egg hovel and turned to face his enemy and the 'queen' of this cave.

The Kriital wasn't entirely weaponless, it had it's other wing and that awful projectile vomit in it's arsenal and speaking of the projectile weapon the bird was preparing for a second spew fest. Ball decided to put an end to that god awful attack now. Roaring loudly he leaped at the bird, bringing his full weight to bare against the bird's upper beak Ball landed hard on it and scrambled intensely to grab hold of something to stay on. The bone crest was the only thing with anything worth a purchase so Ball used that. With a firm hold Ball was forced to pin Thorn down with his body to keep from losing it. It was his longest reaching weapon, there was no way Ball was going to lose that weapon now! This bird already outreached him even with Thorn.

Forming a hook end on his handless arm Ball latched the hook to the curved edge of the crest and took a hold of Thorn once again. With its beak closed the retching vile that was suppose to be a weapon against Ball became a weapon against itself. Forced to either choke on its own vomit and die or swallow it and suffer the acidic pain the Kriital swallowed, Ball could feel the gulping sound and grimaced. Digusting.

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Ball** on May 15th, 2014, 4:40 pm

Giving a grunt as he pull up on the crest Ball pulled himself onto the crest and turned to stand up and stare down at the bird. Looking right into the eye of the bird Ball held up Thorn as if to make it clear as to what he was planning on doing. The eye went large and Ball had to squat and hold tight as the bird thrashed around, smashing into the wall of its home to dislodge the squire. Ball had managed to lock his hook-hand into place and plant himself pretty firmly into place that the only thing the pycon did was shift slightly into a more useful position.

When he was out of sight, and he assumed feeling, Ball stood again and shifted his hand hold on Thorn's shaft. In the name of Sylir, honor, and duty I hereby sentence you to die. A grimace twisted his mouth as Ball brought Thorn down hard into the right eye of the bird.

The bird released a sound not far from a howl as the point of Thorn entered the pupil, plowing through the lens and out the backside. Thorn severed the optic nerve of the Kriital's eye and lodged itself firmly into the bird's brain.

Twisting Thorn hard to the right Ball gave it his all and put his weight into the weapon and pushed in deeper. The caw of the bird's pain anguished and then died. The bird's whole body rocked to the left and then teetered towards the right. Ball had to release Thorn and push off the crest to ensure he wouldn't be thrown out of the cave. Jumping off to the left meant that Ball pushed off the bird's head from the right, luckily for Thorn Ball's jump from the bird's head offset the initial fall pattern and the Kriital's head twisted towards the right and landed hard on the ground. Reaching up to Thorn Ball paused and looked at the beast in it's entirety.

The Kriital was a massive bird, nearly eighty times his weight and at least a hundred and a half times his height. It's eyes alone were his height and then some. The crest he was holding onto was a fairly worn lengthy piece of the bird's head. It was a large bone that extended from beak to the top of the cranium. That would make a worthy helmet for Imass maybe? Yanking on his weapon Ball slide it out from the bird's eye socket and turned to the remaining problem at hand-- the cracking eggs within the bear carcass.

He felt weak as he stopped before the gashed open bear and stared in at them. He could see there was only two eggs, one was cracked and the squire could see the bird struggling to break free of it's shell. Gripping Thorn hard the clay of his knuckles went from a deep earth brown to a pale sandy color nearing white.

They were harmless birds, babies really. Yet Ball knew that if he didn't do what he was about to do they would grow up and cause the havoc he had seen miles away in the fields of the Outpost. Just as the first egg had a hole cracked out of Ball swung hard on the small bird within. It's short life ended just like that, a flash of metal crashing down on it's poor being in the second it breaks free of the 'womb'.

The second egg hadn't started cracking yet and Ball wasn't going to stick around and allow the bird within to have it's first breathe before he dashed it's brain with Thorn. Shifting his position from one death to the egg that still contained life Ball raise Thorn up, the flash of the cave entrance produced enough light for Ball to notice something was amiss about the Kriital... It was breathing!

Turning hard Ball lowered Thorn a bit to counterbalance himself.

What. The. Petch.

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Nightmare** on May 15th, 2014, 4:49 pm

Ball :

Additional Comments: Things are really heating up for Ball! Very exciting. Enjoy your grades!

Please PM me if you have any questions or concerns.

Skills	Amount
Weapon: Thorn	+5
Tactics	+3
Endurance	+2
Acrobatics	+3
Running	+1
Unarmed combat	+1

Shield Points	Amount
Shield points	+4

Solo [Mithryn Outpost - The Fields]Crow Hunting Part III