Flashback [Solo] The Drums of Death

[Slaughter]

72nd of Summer, 509AV Western Kalea It was a relatively still night that found two Zith brood-twins flying through the high passes of western Kalea, their wings beating to a rhythm that carried them down through the wide canyons they had frequently visited in the past. Two large black creatures, covered in fur with bat-like wings that sounded a terrifying warning to all who heard them: there was danger in the air. Such things were a common occurrence amidst the peaks of Kalea, but that did not make the signal of incoming Zith any less frightening. Slaughter's eyes scanned the night, keeping his eyes out for any signs of prey be it beast or man. Rare was it to find travelers stupid enough to climb this high up, but there was the occasional fool who tried to brave the treacherous gorge in an effort to reach Lhavit that much quicker. Such morons usually carried lanterns to light their way, making them even more visible to the predatory Zith that stalked the mountains. One way and the other Slaughter's eyes moved, looking into the copses of pine and fields of stone that littered the mountainsides. He could see the trail winding up along one of the gully walls, tapering off into an even path through the tight gorge, but there were no bobbing lights that signaled the presence of a sentient being trying to traverse the passage. It looked as if Slaughter and his brood-brother would have to settle for more mundane game tonight. Speaking of whom, Savage was already spiraling away, gliding down into an arc that took him back through the pass the two Zith had emerged from. Slaughter flapped closer, joining his brood-twin in their return to more familiar hunting grounds. "Is everything alright, Savage?" the archer asked. Savage sniffed the air, as if trying to smell for prey. It was one of his quirks: for all the advantages the Zith had over their game, intense sense of smell was not one of them. "I am going to go back through the pass one more time from the other side," he replied, black fur rippling in the wind. "I cannot be sure, but I think there's prey down there. Too far too see from up where we were." Casting a doubtful look at his brood-twin, Slaughter shook his head. "I know well enough to trust your instincts, brother. I will follow you for another pass. If your instincts prove right again, then I will say again how amazing it is." Savage smirked, raising his voice to be heard over the sound of his wings, which had intensified as he hurried through the pass. "It isn't instinct, brother!" he called. "It's trusting my senses. I thought I saw movement down on the pass of the gorge the first time around, so I want to see if we'll get any fun game tonight." Following close behind, Slaughter too intensified the rhythm of his wings, keeping up with his brother with as much speed as he could. They had been flying for some time, but they could go for some time more before either of them tired. Once more, as they tucked their wings in and dove into another turn, Slaughter thought how blessed it was to be Zith.

[Slaughter]

Down in the gorge below, very little appeared to be moving. That was likely because there was very little there that could move, it being devoid of trees and grass and wildlife. Although the most direct and possibly shortest path for land-bound races to take to Lhavit, it was certainly not the safest - and not because of potential Zith raids. It was high up above the stream that ran through the gully on either side of it, and the path itself was narrow and hugged the cliff face. So long as one could see it would be relatively easy to navigate, but at night it was a risky thing to attempt. Which was why it surprised Slaughter that, when he focused his eyes on a point along the trail, that he could see two figures moving along it without a light. "Are they insane?" Slaughter wondered aloud, keeping pace with his brood-twin Savage. Though it was difficult to do so while in flight, Savage made the effort to shrug in order to convey his complete indifference. The two Zith softened the intensity of their flapping, deciding instead to cruise slowly at a decent height above their prey. While both Zith could see the travelers on the trail below, neither traveler could see the Zith in the air above. Few land-bound races had eyes that could see that far at night, and the moonlight was barely enough to see the trail on which they fumbled. Such lunacy puzzled Slaughter greatly, but eventually his curiosity had to resign and join Savage's disinterest. Whatever reason the travelers had to pick such a treacherous route at such a treacherous time, its result was the brood-twins getting some entertaining game. "I'll take the one in front," Savage spoke intensely, licking his lips as he eyed his claimed prey. A look had come into his eyes that Slaughter knew all too well. The hunt had already begun. Maintaining his silence, Slaughter reached behind him and unslung his bow from its position on his back, taking it in hand as he spiraled downwards. Savage followed shortly thereafter, and the two brood-twins dropped deeper into the gorge toward their prey. Thus was their signal to start. Once they had approached their game and were closed enough to be heard, both Zith spread their wings out and caught the air, making them snap and carrying them in a sudden glide toward the cliff face. Each flap of their wings was loud and intense, and it was not long before they were on the hapless travelers. They had heard the commotion and turned to see what had caused it, and when they saw both appeared frightened from the sight. Savage landed ahead on the path, his toe-claws scraping against the stone trail as he ground himself to a halt. The black Zith jolted a bit at his landing, but his recovery took no more than a tick and he turned to snarl at the land-bound creatures, bearing his fangs and claws. His approach was akin to a tiger stalking its prey, although when Savage inched forward he was in plain sight. Honestly, that might have been more terrifying for the humans, who got to see Savage's grisly visage without any barrier. Angling himself upwards, Slaughter slowed down his approach and changed the pattern of his flapping so that he brought himself into a somewhat stable position roughly a dozen yards away from the game. With his orientation upright, he reached behind him and unlatched the top of his quiver, drawing from it one of his normal arrows. Nocking it against the bowstring, he drew the arrow back to the best of his ability and began to aim. Though not the first time firing while flying, Slaughter still was not quite good to hit exactly what he was aiming for - even at this distance. Accuracy was not too important however, and without much delay the Zith fired at the group on the ledge. The arrow bounced harmlessly off the face of the cliff behind the rear traveler, but it did what it was intended to do. Frightened by the sudden attack, the second human looked to see Slaughter flying and aiming another arrow. With Savage approaching from the front and Slaughter taking potshots, there was little chance of the travelers making a clean getaway. A grin tugged at the edges of Slaughter's mouth, exposing a row of sharpened teeth. This was going to be fun.

[Slaughter]

All of a sudden, the front traveler reached into his cloak and pulled out a blade. It looked to be a relatively short curved sword, held in one hand before him to ward off the predator before him. Both Zith could hear the metal slide against leather as the friction between blade and sheath caused the weapon to vibrate a little. It was a familiar sound, one that neither Zith was particularly surprised to hear. No animal, sentient or otherwise, would go quietly into the next life. The rear traveler reached behind his back beneath the fold of his cloak. When the hand returned to Slaughter's view, he saw that the traveler was bringing a crossbow to bear against him. The weapon was slightly larger than a forearm, with two slender wings at the front that acted much like Slaughter's bow. He was aware of the basic idea behind crossbows, but never had the Zith ever had the opportunity to actually look at them up close. However, he did know that the darts they launched hurt quite a bit. Tucking his wings in, Slaughter dropped sharply down the ravine as a crossbow bolt flew through the air towards where he used to be. It was difficult to ascertain the accuracy of his prey, but it didn't take an expert archer to know that it was harder to hit a moving target. So Slaughter peeled away back along the cliff face, following the path back toward where the game had come from, then abruptly flapping off of the mountain and circling back around from a different angle of attack. Slaughter's finger-claws clutched tightly the quill of the arrow, pulling it back against the bowstring and hearing the cord vibrate as it was drawn far past taut. Then, with a brief aim, Slaughter let loose the arrow, waiting until the moment he had reached the peak of his flap when he was as still as could be before firing. It soared through the air toward its target, though was noticeably to the left of it. Even so, the arrowhead passed so close to the traveler's ear that he stumbled as he tried to crank his crossbow to reload, nearly dropping it down the ravine. Slaughter was glad that his prey managed to grab onto the weapon before it slipped, for if it'd been lost then Slaughter would have lost all the remaining fun he could get from toying with this poor sod. After all, it wasn't fun if the prey didn't think they had a chance of surviving.

[Slaughter]

Shooting by his prey at high speeds, there was only a small window open for Slaughter to take a damaging shot. Yet at this point the Zith had become quite good with his timing in such situations, and even if he missed the shot would still frighten his prey. Once his flight carried him right beside his target, Slaughter waited until the he reached the peak of his wing flap and fired the arrow in the traveler's general direction. At this speed, timing was more important than accuracy, and Slaughter was confident in his ability. The bowstring made a sound as it snapped taut, and Slaughter went careening away as a cry of pain pierced the night. It vibrated through Slaughter's ears and into his heart, making it beat faster and making him feel more alive. A toothed grin stretched his lips as he flew away. When he turned back to see the result of his efforts, Slaughter was rewarded with the sight of the human clutching at his left arm, which was required to load or even hold his crossbow. The arrow wasn't punctured in his arm, but rather had torn through the cloth and skin covering his bicep and went into his cloak, indicating that Slaughter's release had been a little on the late side. That didn't bother the Zith though, for he was always improving his skills. Slaughter pulled out another arrow and nocked it against the bowstring, drawing it back to somewhere between his shoulder and cheek so as to avoid getting injured with the arrow's flight. Now that he was approaching his prey head-on, he slowed down his flight slightly so he had more time to line up a shot. Since the traveler had only one hand to operate a two-handed weapon, there was no risk of counterattack, so Slaughter could take his sweet time lining up a shot. With his left hand, the Zith aimed the bow at his prey's torso, compensating for the arc of the arrow by raising his bow by only a millimeter. It wasn't until the arrow was already in flight that Slaughter noticed that the traveler had pulled a smaller, single-handed crossbow out of his cloak and aimed it at the Zith. Both had fired at roughly the same time, meaning both predator and prey had sharp projectiles coming towards them at high speeds that would injure them severely. For the Zith it was especially dangerous, for a serious injury during flight could drastically affect his ability to flap. Fortunately, the fact that Slaughter was in flight also gave him an advantage, for all he needed was to quickly stop flapping and tuck his wings in to lower his altitude significantly. He wasn't dropping like a rock, but he'd dropped enough that by the time the crossbow bolt neared him it was sailing harmlessly over his head. Once the danger was past, he unfurled his wings once more to catch the wind, flying back up to higher altitude and spiraling around to regard the game once more. The traveler fared much more poorly without such maneuverability. Propped against the cliff wall, there was now an arrow in a gullet in addition to a gash in his arm, rendering him ineffective at even the single-handed weapon now. A feral grin of victory lit up Slaughter's face, and he dashed forward for the kill smelling blood and fear on the wind. Both wings flapping as quickly as possible, the Zith shot toward the cliff, only slowing himself once he got close enough to make out the expression of terror on his prey's face. Suddenly his wings stopped propelling him and acted like drag chutes, catching the wind and slowing him so that his landing on the path didn't break his legs. Perched at the edge of the trail, the Zith caught onto the stony ground with his foot-claws and grabbed tight, bending its knees to take some of the shock out of his legs. Then he stood up, tall and imposing, towering over his cowering prey.

[Slaughter]

"You do well to make it so hard for me," Slaughter informed his prey, using Common so that he could be understood. "Alas, the hunt is over. You have lost. Now it is time to end." While the injured traveler looked up at Slaughter and tried to shrink away, causing the Zith no small amount of enjoyment, a series of loud shrieks to his right caught his attention. Turning to see what was happening, Slaughter caught sight of his brood-twin having a little more trouble with his prey than Slaughter had with his. Although Savage was undoubtedly stronger than Slaughter as well as many humans, the traveler had drawn a small sword on his brood-twin and was managing to keep Savage at bay with it. The other Zith shrieked in annoyance, flying in semicircles back and forth around his prey, after presumably having tried repeatedly to charge up front. He was managing to scratch the arms and head f his prey, but Savage was still taking time to end the fight totally. Not wanting to steal the kill from his brother but at the same time not wanting to dally, Slaughter retrieved another arrow from his quiver and nocked it against his bowstring. In one fluid movement, he drew and release the weapon, aiming it at the cliff wall generally behind the traveler. The projectile collided with the stone, creating a loud impact that stole the traveler's attention away from Savage just for a moment. That was all the Zith needed. In one brutal movement, Savage used one arm to shove aside the shortsword and the other to burrow his finger-claws into the traveler's eyes. Screaming in pain, the human tried to bring his sword to bear, but Savage had reached his claw out and grabbed onto the wrist of the weapon arm, sinking his finger-claws into the flesh. The human was in a hopeless situation, but that didn't stop him from struggling with all the strength he had left in his muscles, even as he was forced back against the cliff wall and dropped his sword along the way. Savage kept pushing his claws in, and now that his prey was against a surface all he had to do was give one more violent shove with his finger-claws. The human went limp as the claws penetrated past his eye sockets and into his brain, the hand that was trying to force Savage off of him falling to his side. Satisfied, Slaughter turned back to his own prey and was delighted to see that the grisly display off to the side had frightened the pathetic human so much that tears were beginning to leak out of the corners of his eyes. Grinning bestially, Slaughter retrieved his final arrow from his quiver, drawing it and pointing it right at the human. "And now," the Zith said, "you." Then Slaughter released the projectile, and it plummeted into the human's skull, piercing his forehead and brain and maybe even the rear of his head. Immediately the eyes went blank and the breathing halted, living no more. With one monstrous claw, Slaughter reached out and grabbed hold of the arrow lodged in his prey's skull, giving it a few yanks. When it was clear that it would take more effort than that, his grip adjusted and he began applying gentle pressure to the shaft of the projectile, pulling on it firmly as it slowly made way through the tissue of the head until it finally came out. "Hey," came a voice to Slaughter's right. He turned to see Savage walking towards him with an arrow in one hand, the one that had been fired at the cliff wall. Nonchalantly tossing it, Savage then went about eating the eyeballs off his finger-claws like a chicken skewer. Slaughter caught the arrow without reply, picking up the other one that had only grazed his prey. After retrieving the last one from the man's gullet, Slaughter returned them to his quiver. "Quite a hunt, wasn't it brother?" Savage nodded in reply. "Indeed it was." And then the feasting began.

[Neologism]

Slaughter

Observation +4
Socialization +1
Endurance +1
Hunting +3
Stealth +1
Weapon: Bow +4
Intimidation +3
Acrobatics +2

Searching for humans
Trusting Savage's senses
Hunting humans in the Unforgiving
Trapping travelers on the trail
Enjoying the hunt
Usually prey fights back
Weapon: Crossbow
Acrobatics: Dodging arrows in flight
Aiming: Compensating for distance
Bow: Point-Blank shot

Note: Great hunt! Don't forgot to edit your post in the request thread as 'Graded'. PM me if you have any questions or concerns.