Mercenary Prompt #2 Dicenne's Perspective
Nothing was going to get into the Incontinental Hotel if Dicenne had anything to say about it, but these Black Blood monstrosities were no joke. His weapons slashed into the viscous goop, threatening to get stuck or sucked in, and he wasn’t sure he was even doing any damage to these things. Freezing and shattering them seemed to work well, but the magic folk were quickly depleting their energy in an attempt to keep up with the swarm.
He took to chopping off chunks at a time, creating smaller blobs that were more manageable, but those had an easier time wriggling through the cracks to get inside the hotel. With a forceful, forward thrust of his sword, he pierced one of the more enormous humanoid-shaped monstrosities and sliced upwards - essentially cutting it from groin to head. Once the blade was freed from the substance, he bashed his shield against it with the full force of his unnatural strength. The miscreation immediately exploded upon impact, sending a downpour of syrupy black blood directly atop his person, then splattering in various directions.
There was no way they were going to do this without getting dirty. Maybe the effects would take a while to take hold. Maybe his thick skin would come in handy and he wouldn’t be affected at all. For now, he had to keep fighting, there was no other choice but to protect all the innocent lives inside the building. They were counting on him.
He wiped the back of his hand across his face to clear his vision, spitting out anything that may have gotten into his mouth as he kept pushing onwards. Squinting, he tried to spot the remainder of their group behind the crowd of monstrosities, but despite their slightly translucent appearance, he saw nothing.
He just had to keep going. He had to keep fighting and be strong. Eventually, it had to end. Nothing would get past him. He would protect them.
A flash of rainbow caught his eye across the street through a small break in the swarm. He blinked and returned his attention to the battle ahead of them. Talonoa had rejoined the fight at some point, a concerned look about him. Dicenne wasn’t certain if that look had anything to do with his current ooze-covered appearance, or what was going on inside that he was unaware of. He spotted the flash of bright colors once more in the same place as before, shaking his head a bit before rubbing at his eyes. Something was wrong.
The memory hit him like a truck when he realized what it was that he was seeing. He recognized that tacky, brightly colored shawl waving in the middle of the crowd. His wife Linalia donned the gift every time he returned home from war so she could easily be spotted. She was short in stature but loud in beauty, and as their eyes met he smiled and felt old, familiar emotions begin to well up. It had been so long. But what was she doing out here?! Enemies surrounded her and looked as if they were going to attack at any moment! He had to get to her, he had to save her!
Abandoning all sensibility, the black blood’s madness overtook him.
He dropped both his sword and his shield with a *clang* before he began to muscle his way through the crowd of…what was this? Who were these people? Why was everyone so resistant to him getting to his wife? She was in trouble, couldn’t they see that?! “LINALIA!” He cried out, ripping arms and legs free of whatever was trying to hold him back. Fists clenched at his side as he exhaled a bellowing *ROOOOAAAAAR*, fists pounding into the nearby obstacles, sending them flying backward. Lowering his shoulder, he dug the toes of his boots into the ground and pushed off, slamming forward into everything in his path and carelessly flinging it aside or trampling it with heavy footfalls.
These things grabbed and slashed at him, tried to knock him over and trip him, but it was to no avail. He had become an unstoppable force in this berserker rage and plowed his way through the throngs of things trying to stop him from getting to her. He broke free from the crowd and she opened her arms to welcome him home, only to vanish the moment before he made contact.
He spun around in a panic, spotting the brightly-colored rainbow shawl on the ground nearby. He picked it up and held it to his chest, calling out, “LINALIA!” She was there again, ten feet in front of him, looking panicked. He dashed to her and she disappeared yet again. She was now atop a nearby building, screaming at him! In one giant leap, he was up on the second-story balcony and from there clambered the rest of the way only to find her gone. Now she was in the middle of the road crying, about to be run over by cars rushing past! With a running leap, he jumped! Feet SLAMMED hard against the ground, cracking the pavement where he landed what should have been a few feet away from her - yet she was not there. He was growing more and more frustrated, why couldn’t he reach her? Eventually, he would, he just had to keep going! But now he was growing so, so very tired. Feet began to drag as his vision blurred. Arms flailed out in front of him in another attempt to grasp his wife, but again just empty space. He stumbled and fell to his knees, legs too tired to work anymore. He began to crawl, but even that felt like an arduous task at this point. Collapsing onto his side, eyes focused on the rainbow shawl in front of him that wasn’t actually there. “I’m sorry…”, and then the world went black.
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