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The Beastridden

Part 8

Senryul escaped his lover's grasp, slyly retreating along his back while his mate and goddess incarnate Shiriya laid along their beddings, her eyes on him, amusement and interest softening her face. Their eyes met with mutual delight, and Senryul began to dress himself.

"What dominion does my love desire?" the mystic beauty asked. Senryul nodded at her query.

"I have a capital to crush, dearest muse." the hybrid warrior said, tieing his belt sashes together and taking a step toward the entrance of their den.

"My retainer has a gift for me, assumedly made of gnarled bodies, stone and wood, maybe some metal if I'm lucky..." Senryul chuckled, amused at the thought of so much death, freely given by the landshark Xarieos.

"He REALLY means to see me made a Council member.." the hybrid mused, before grabbing his sword, "Sunderer". As he began to seat it in his belt, he felt the tension of the scabbard's curve until it met the functional adornments that marked its appropriate length when worn.

Once more he and his mate shared initiated glances, and for a moment shared all the feelings connected to it.

"Oh, my love.." he said, with a soulful sigh. The pristine lynx closed her eyes in feline affection, and her mate smirked, and left in a burst of Beastridden speed.

*** ***

Senryul had traveled a great distance in an instant, but stopped as he noticed how nice a day it was. The calm of the area told him little of the impending massacre he carried, and the cool air felt good on his fur. Along with these, he felt free of a burden he hadn't known relief from.

"Let's see how we fair against the scattering mites and worms." he said darkly. With another step, he blasted off once more, aiming to topple his adversary for the world to see.

*** ***

Futoranda trudged toward the shaken city of Hornstrel, watching structures collapse into hills of loss. With his Beastridden senses, he could hear frantic scurrying and screams, which brought a smile to his face, partially from sadism. But as he approached the gates his face hardened, and he saw people fleeing the city and its damned state. Some passed him before he reached for a yellow cloth package he wore on his back, and with a swift twist of his wrist he freed his weapon, resulting in someone's severed arm flying into another individual's body which also bore a deep wound in its chest. The person with the chest wound also flew back toward the city gates, and those running past him began to cry out in fear of their deaths as Futoranda began to expertly wield his lithe weapon, whirling its fearsome ends into and against many others around him.

The bear wound two sections around a victim's wrist and wrenched them to the ground then freed them, whirling that end briefly before its blade ripped through their neck. He then shifted with a twist of his waist and reduced his height by bending his knees as he brought the end held in his left hand to guard his right side, whirling the free end about his left side. He blocked two attacks this way; an armed blow from a smaller enemy, and the whirling end blocked a volley of arrows from a skilled archer. Pressing his left hand just over the hand of the smaller foe he trapped his weapon against an angle, and with the whirling free end reset his weapon to resemble a bolt of lightning, he spun his weapon into a deadly disc that shredded his melee combatant multiple times vertically. The enemy with the arrows wretched at the sight of his momentary comrade, and Futoranda took three menacing steps forward while spinning his transparent weapon to quickly catch an end and deliver a devastating whip from above. The archer observed as the attack seemed to lack the reach necessary to harm him, and smirked as the weapon crashed into the dust, scattering clumps of dirt and bits of stone through him with incredible force. The corpse kept smiling, even though by then it was long dead.

Winding his weapon at the joints to reduce its reach and return to a two-handed grip, he swept his weapon in a huge arc, flaying and rending flesh once more before he resumed his walk into the city, heedless of his own terrible, masterful work.

Shortly after he savaged those fleeing for their lives, the bear was joined by more, many more of Senryul's Beastridden who all wished to participate in the massacre of Hornstrel.

*** ***

Cajo, Jonas, and a few others watched around them as the tremors seemed to cease.

"Beware'o aftershocks.. The ground's unstable after so much disturbance." Cajo stated, and Jonas kept his attention to the bowels of the hole Knuckle had entered.

"Or.. Y'all might wanna get a bit closer, 'cause here comes more trouble!" Cajo barked. Jonas and the others with Cajo looked to where directed, as a surge of outsiders entered the gates of the dying city, led by the bear who was party to their capture days before.

"He ain't here to make friends, Ah'm sure of it." Cajo said as he watched them make their way inside the city walls and terrorize whoever they could catch. Amongst them, Futoranda sighted the wolf and otter.

"HelllLLLOOO! Got some bad news for you guys!" the bear roared, smiling, with a bit of fury peppered in.

"Gonna send you to my boss in a tiny box! Or whatever I can get of you to fit in it.." he said, and Cajo's ears stood tall as he was keenly aware this would not be an easily won victory.

"Y'all need to run, and take rudderbutt wit'ya. Ah'll deal wit Teddy-gore.." Cajo whispered. Jonas gasped in surprise, but the red gator with them disagreed.

"We're Beastridden too. Let us fight with you!" he said, earnestly. The gazelle nodded in affirmation, and Cajo briefly thought the scenario through.

"Alright. But don't slow down, and protect yer own lives!" Cajo shouted, and the group leapt from their partial floor to land in the crowd.

*** ***

Cajo landed between two reptilian foes, and the one to his flank swung an axe toward the wolf's head. Cajo stepped toward the enemy and blocked the attack by turning his side, stopping it with a pillar of a vertical forearm guard while drilling an elbow deep behind the enemy's nose. Then he took the reptile by the arm and head and shoved him toward the other enemy ahead, before dropping into a roll to travel backwards, and ending it with a handspring that put him in a group of three. At once they attacked, brandishing their weapons to attack Cajo, who jumped at the same time one enemy did. With a cannon of a snappy straight punch Cajo simply reached into his opponent, and froze a small area of flesh around his fist. While unseen to onlookers, Cajo had the sequence of events under his control. His fist clenched, and surrounded with hellish cold, he grinned as an enormous snowflake grew from around the ice of Cajo's fist. While he fell, an enemy took quick initiative and threw his handaxe at Cajo, suspended from disengaging his spectacular offense. The wolf fell, and the axe flew toward him in slow motion as Cajo felt momentarily exposed to being struck..until he caught the axe, and raised it high above his head with both hands. Ice began to form around the small weapon, growing into a much larger, much more menacing version of the weapon, and swung it downward.

"RAAAAAAAAGH!!" Cajo roared, the sheer size of the axe head smashing them doing damage before Cajo detonated the weapon upon impact, scattering ice shards everywhere in a huge burst, leaving a chill and a jagged, glistening new landscape.

Jonas wasn't aware of the depth of his new powers, but he found a strong wooden pole near a toppled well shed that was as long as he needed it to be, and without hesitation he lunged ahead, thrusting its end into the stomachs of two enemies, rushing them back before switching his grip on it to allow him leverage. An enemy approached his rear and Jonas toppled him with a swift sweep of the pole. Another advanced with large, dangerous claws drawn, and Jonas rammed the end of his pole into its face. His reactions were impeccable, even as he felt he lacked the ability to truly vanquish his foes. His short size, however, was a godsend as they all tried to strike from the point of their height. He parried and swept his foes swiftly, slowly finding the confidence he needed to push back.

The red scaled alligator landed easily on his short legs and twisted on his toes to begin a rotation. As he twisted he jumped backwards, angling his head up so he formed a drill that burrowed into the ground with great force, after boring through an enemy viciously. He surfaced with a burst of dirt and stone, moving like a dolphin in water as he found another enemy to drill through and landed in a stable whirl. While he was coated in blood, the rotation shed most of the heavy liquid and he gained a terrifying appearance from the mix of blood and dirt on his reptilian body.

The gazelle in gaudy dress found herself surrounded instantly. She quickly glanced around her and delivered a sharp stomp to the foot of a stealthily advanced enemy, driving straight through it like a pneumatic press. The enemy collapsed, groaning as she whipped her hoof across his face, gouging flesh with the hardened material. One remeining enemy was caught off gaurd by the gazelle's ability, the other smirked. Armed with a greataxe he swung his weapon with skill, fighting the gazelle with well-timed blocks with the haft. At one moment the enemy combatant caught the gazelle in the gut with the haft of his weapon. He grinned as he drove it deep and watched her receive the attack, to which the gazelle, with a rotation of her body outright dodged the attack. Horribly overextended, the gazelle took hold of the weapon and roughly delivered him to the ground, then viciously buried a hoof into his chest, his eyes wide with shock and surprise. The remaining enemy shrank back, gasping aloud and turned to run, and was immediately felled by the invisiblly fast blow from a master swordsman.

*** *** ***

"AAGH!! ITS YOU!! THE ONE WHO GOT THE SHIT WHIPPED OUTTA ME!!" a jolly voiced bellowed. Cajo looked around through the cage of icicles with the help of his farsight, actually boosted by the presence of the ice. Just briefly, he scanned the area and found exactly who was speaking to him, who had found a clear line of vantage to him. Cajo instantly resumed regular vision and found his new opponent had leapt to attack him from his position, his vicios weapon arcing high to lash and rend him in half. Cajo swiftly turned to avoid the blow, but Futoranda turned to grab the other, buried end of his weapon, squatting a bit as he did so. The plumage of his armor extended dangerously, and Cajo evaded with a swift hop backwards.

"Y'all all out here to pick on my cousin.. One thang y'all never knew was... My cousin is CALLED Knuckle 'cuz'o his proficiency of our method back home." Cajo began, holding firm as the bear turned a full 360 to look him head on.

"Oh? He's your cousin huh?? That why he was so good in the colliseum?" Futoranda asked.

"Nah, that's his Beastriden power doin that. Just like ours will ." Cajo said.

"One thang he ain't got is.. He ain't mean. He's equal parts effective and flashy: the harder he tries the better he does. But you know what he lacks?" Cajo gruffy, amusedly asked the bear just a short distance from him.

"What would that be then?" Futoranda asked, exhausted from the bravado.

"Cruelty!" Cajo shouted, then charged the bear, hopping ahead with a raised foreleg to guard the bear's predicted attack. The bear stepped to the left a bit and wound the closest end in a full circle, which Cajo evaded, planting his his feet early and swing his left heel at the bear's nose, and smashing into it hard. The bear's eyes bulged, and he thrust the end of his weapon at Cajo's exposed side, but Cajo evaded and drove and elbow deep into his side instead. The bear saw stars, but instantly picked op the pace as he brandished his weapon into a flaying sphere, protecting him from anything outside the reach of his weapon. Except for two icicles that Cajo threw at him from outside his range. Futoranda glanced down, surprised. They both stabbed deep, and the bear staggered back, and Cajo appeared above him in the air to drop an elbow that he couldn't dodge. Thankfully the bear tripped and fell to his back, Cajo standing above him with two more icicles, ready to bury them in his hide. The wolf raised his hands, full and ready, when the bear actually saw his death.

"MAKE LOVE NOT WAR!!" he shouted, and Cajo stopped in his attack.

"What?" the wolf asked, totally disarmed. The bear continued.

"I'm through with this!" he shouted, groaning as he took his footing, and slowly pulled the ice shards from his body.

"I'm not supposed to get my ass kicked!" the bear complained. Cajo shrugged a bit, trying to hide the smile on his face.

"Because anyone who beats YOU 'Randa, must be treated very carefully." a dark voice said. Futoranda instantly went pale.

"Worry not, I'm here to HELP you." the voice continued.

Senryul appeared rounding a corner, carrying the forms of two fighters that Cajo recognized: a red alligator and a gazelle. For a moment he was relieved Jonas wasn't among them, then he recollected himself before the new threat. He threw them both from his shoulder to the ground, and Cajo looked at the bear who hadn't come to his own senses yet.

"'Randa, together now..." Senryul said, as he took a swing from his sword at Cajo's collarbone, who then caught the blade between the palms of his hands. Catching the blade was easy, but trapping it was the test. Senryul withdrew his sword and re-pressed his attack, thrusting at Cajo who was left only to dodge the fast attacks.

[KNUCK] Cajo thought to himself frantically. [WHERE THE HELL ARE YA!?]