✂ (24 is very murderable)
✂️ - Kill my muse
Sabre had been stalking his prey for the last week and a half, it didn’t help that the ongoing war between the Imperial Guard and Orks had been so intense as to nearly reveal his presence on several occaisions. Next time the War Hunter would simply wait for a battle to begin instead of drawing both sides together for the sake of a single trophy.
That being said this one seemed rather tenacious. Skilled clearly, fond of her beast and seemingly unrelenting in combat. The Predator would have a good fight out of this one yet. Making the past week of subterfuge worth it.
He had planted his trap within a ring of destroyed buildings on the far flank of the battle, away from the major hot zones. Bodies both ork and human had been strung up and skinned to draw attention, and so the Yautcha waited patiently. Blowing the heads off any who came close that wasn’t his target, and adding their bodies to the gore fuelled display.
askthepredator:
24hourstilldeath:
24-WLF yelped hard, the sound somehow audible despite the mask. Huldra remained still however, temporarily sluggish as her augmented body got used to the dose. This too proved to be an undoing. The glaive was weirdly heavy and weighed both rider and mount down. Off balance, 24-WLF was forced to slide from the saddle, landing in a semi controlled fall. It couldn’t be helped. Both her arm and the weapon was now useless. She let it fall from her grip, painfully rolling to her feet so she could find some cover.
As for Huldra…well, staring at the monster for all of a second, the rider slapped Huldra on the rump and finally let the still sluggish mare charge for him. While Huldra clattered awkwardly forward, 24-WLF righted herself and went for the splintered remains of the wall, dragging his glaive with her. If she yanked it free now she would be dead in minuets, but leaving it in there would just add on ten extra pounds she could not handle.
The woman decided then. She would rather let herself bleed out having stolen this thing’s blade then let him have the final blow. Petty, but it was something she allowed herself. Grinning, she pulling off her mask, breathed in the smell of her own blood then yanked the glaive free in a single motion. The woman did not bother muffling her scream.
Sabre scoffed at the human’s bravado. Sending it’s beast to die to buy themself a handful of seconds. The Predator prowled slowly towards his prey, the pale light of the sun filtered through the dust and rubble, wreathing the towering xeno in a curtain of glowing mist. His momentum barely slowed as he grabbed 24’s quadrupedal mount by the horn and simply tossed it aside like nothing more than common trash. For a moment it seemed he would ignore Huldra as he continued walking unabated, yet the last thought the Hunter gave towards the loyal mount, and the last 24 would ever see of her beast, was an uncaring throw of a decorated ceremonial dagger. It’s gilded blade landing with a thump and a squelch into the eye socket of its mark.
Sabre kneeled next to the female, watching her crimson blood staining her fatigues, her face growing paler as the moments went by. The wound was fatal, there was no questioning the severity of the situation. Sabre looked down at the glaive she had yanked out of her shoulder, scraping it into his upturned palm and retracting it, having done the job. The Predator took note of the sheer disdain upon 24’s face, noticing clearly that she had decided to take her own life. A decision not made lightly. Sabre felt the need to respect this, and stood from the hunched figure to retrieve his dagger from the horse-like creature that lay not a few metres away.
Calmly, the prey counted her heartbeats as they pumped hot in her chest. Each passing second they seemed to tick slower and slower, her skin growing cold despite the layers of heavy clothing and armor. She smiled, proud. She would get to sit at the table of the Emperor for denying this xenos a proper kill.
Huldra gave a weak cry as she died, the needle thin dagger puncturing through the orbital bone and then into her brain case. Her master gave no expression at this, only a small prayer that the steed would get to join her at the Emperor’s side.
Then the beast approached. He…it was a towering thing of muscle and what she could only assume were scales. Like some sort of chaos creature bred by unwholesome means for hunting, but this was clearly some natural species. Disgusting. It simply stared at her for a moment, its expression unreadable under the angular mask it wore. It didn’t matter.
He was standing again, apparently going to get his dagger back with no haste. She snarled softly, struggling more, hoping to bleed herself out quicker. At this point her vision was blurring, her body shivering as its means of warming itself was literally leaving out through her split arteries. Death loomed perhaps only a minuet or so away.
“I am not…prey.” She said to it in a hiss, barely above a whisper. “A wolf would never let the trap be the one to kill it.”
Sabre heeded the words of the fallen woman. He had to concede the point, perhaps at a stretch this could be considered a failure in the eyes of a Clan Leader, and even despite the great distance between him and their reach. He felt the judgement of their teachings upon him always.
The Predator drew his knife out of the lifeless corpse in front of him, dragging it through two extended fingers to wipe it clean of the blood that had coated the blade. He placed it back into it’s small sheath on his leg. All the while his chosen prey sought to end it’s own life all the sooner. Sabre had felt it’s harsh gaze on him, he knew the rage they felt, but did not feel sorry for them. After all if he were to face death it would be upon him to take his own life as this human did now. There was a pale reflection of his tenacity in this prey. It felt almost too good a hunt to finish himself. Despite it’s brief nature.
And so Sabre simply decided he was finished here. The human would die as they all did. There was no further glory to be gained on this field of battle. Its heroes were remarkably disappointing beyond the one half dead that lay less than a meter from him. The Predator rose, gave a last glance towards the guardsmen. His visor informing him she had seconds left in her life. Then turned his back on her, and walked silently from the ruins. His cloak shimmering and enveloping his frame once more. Shielding him from view as he made not so short journey back to his ship in order to leave this wretched planet behind for the foreseeable future.
