Re: Shapeshift Town - CHAPTER 2
Crunch...Crunch...Crunch...CrunchCrunchCrunchCrunch...Crunch Crunch, Crunch Crunch-Crunch, Crunch-Crunch, Crunch!
The gravel path made satisfying onomatopoeia as he galloped onward, arms pistoning. Behind him, the worm, a loose term, dragged itself along behind him.
Fight! Stigmata demanded.
Khang shook his head.
"That..." He wheezed, "thing, too strong."
Weakling! It hissed at him.
"No...Mortal.." He hissed back.
He felt even his disease-fueled body lose momentum. He was meant for power, not speed. He slowed to a jog, then stopped. He would fight, like a true beastman, not run like a coward. Stigmata agreed, the blood-stained mace sucked in the blood covering it, ready to be wet anew. The worm slowed, rearing up on it's split tail. It was a hideous creature, spawn of the mad clay of the warp. It didn't look anything like a worm, it gained the name from the way it could teleport via tunnels through the other world. The beastmen used them as shock troops in their raids, but sometimes a Alpha would emerge. The beastmen had to put them down quickly, before it could subdue a flock for itself.
This one was big, even for one of their usually large kind. It was shaped somewhat akin to an arm, the front splaying out into seven fingers, tipped with talons dripping acid. The "hand" was a mass of rotted flesh, covered in thick fur. Its "wrist" a split tail lined with teeth, that could act as a single body to slither and writhe, or tentacle-like legs. It's mouth was located on the palm, a ovular orifice lined with canine-teeth, all the way down the throat.
Khang hefted Stigmata, who gleefully began to scream, a shrill, piercing sound that had no effect on the worm. It distended it's talons and let out a gurgling roar in answer. Khang himself gave a chirpy grunt, and charged at it, Stigmata raised. It mashed it's tail together, and brought each of its talons together, a half-formed fist, intending to smash him into the ground. Letting out a warcry, he stopped.
It hit the floor, jarring Khang almost off his feet. The talons had missed him by mere inches. He casually grabbed one, and hoisted himself onto the top of the worm, holding Stigmata in one hand. Grabbing a tuft of hair, and raised Stigmata.
"Ride!" Khang yelled triumphantly.
Bash it's brains in! Blood!!
"I'm having fun!" The worm bucked beneath him, attempting to raise itself underneath Khang's weight. He slung Stigmata up, using both hands to hold on, whooping wildly. It settled down, gurgling furiously.
"Haha! Onward, ne-" A deep cracking sound interrupted him. Khang cautiously peered over the "knuckle area", and regarded the now reversed joint talons staring back at him. Before he could leap off, they shot forward, embedding themselves deep into his arm. He growled in pain as the acid touched his skin. A normal acid would have done nothing to his already-tainted skin, but this stuff was pure warp, defying reality to scour his flesh. He almost had time to yell the plea to Nurgle, before the two talons lifted him into the air. He was swung over, and hung upside down, as the talons reverted to their original position. He was suspended upside down, with two acid-drenched claws stuck through him, Stigmata berating him for not killing the thing while he had the chance. The worm lifted itself, and tossed Khang into its parody of a mouth.
Teeth scraped along his armor, helmet. He tried to punch, kick, but the throat was constricting, trying to deprive him of air, so it could pick him apart at it's leisure. Khang tried to speak the words of the Plea, but saliva dripped thickly all about him. He couldn't move, couldn't breath, couldn't speak. Stigmata screeched as the claws rent the leather binding its shaft to Khang's belt. It slipped and tumbled further down the beast's throat. A red fringe encroached on his vision. His mind started to go, random thoughts crossing his brain as it screamed for oxygen in sync with his lungs.
A pulse went through the worm, and the constriction stopped. His sense of balance was disrupted as the worm rolled, nausea invading. The worm body juddered violently, as if impacting, and rolled once more. Khang almost lost his lunch. The rolling stopped but the movement continued, in a sliding motion. A final bump, and it came to a stop.He breathed in the fetid air, his head thudding after being starved for so long. was tightly packed, but the throat was still, the saliva dripping in thick strands. Gripping one of the teeth, he began to pull himself back up, somewhat awkwardly, as he was doing it legs first, but there was no space to right himself.
The dead worm lay palm up, rain pattering against it's slick gray underbelly. The talons jutting into the air, throat spasming slightly as Khang levered himself out of the cursed thing. He gulped in the non-monster throat back draft air greedily. Taking a second to clear his mind, he looked around. It was raining quite heavily, the neat tiled floor covered in puddle. Several ornate fountains(one of which was smashed to bits by the worm's fall. It must have fallen at an angle, smashed the fountain over, and skidded to a stop against the next one in line) were lined up in rows, each almost overflowing with water. That was another thing, this was not the Chaos Wastes. The rain was not blood, as Stigmata underlined with a dissatisfied hiss. He turned around, and a large, sprawling castle curled around the courtyard.
Khang bent over the dead worm, reaching into it's throat. He grabbed one of the fore-teeth, a thick specimen, covered in dry gore from it's last meal. He gave a tug, and it came free with a wet tearing sound. Picking at the gore on the end of the tooth, and palming it into his mouth, Khang started towards the castle.
(Summary: A lovely atrocious slaughter of prose, as I had no idea how a mace was going to hurt a giant demon hand from the warp, and an awkward idea with clippy sentences of a fight scene. A warp ride later, with unimaginative sentence begins, like a broken record, and funky descriptions and segways, Khang is in the courtyard! Deus ex plotdevice! Not my best, but I stopped procrastinating and churned out a post without inspiration. My last posts took too long for me to get to the Cult Quarter and required posts in other threads, so I decided "Eh, Chaos gods, destiny, n' shit." and BLAM! Straight to the action. End Summary almost as long as the post!)
(Summary Summary: Khang fights a Warpworm chasing him. He's swallowed, and ported through the warp to Iwaku. Lands in the courtyard, destroying a fountain in the process. Tears off a trophy and starts towards the castle. Not my best.)
