We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boot... [Perun/Finished]

[Perun]

Not seconds after Donovan praised his idea, he was off putting it in action. However, his friend was apparently going to grab a new sword, and for some reason Perun couldn't understand, picked up the leaf shaped one which had made Perun look like a bumbling buffoon. More surprisingly, he managed to pick it up. "Yeblat..." Just as that began the domino effect of Perun being thrown into a rage, the spider crashed just in front of him.

The giant had no time. He couldn't run, his feet were flat he'd never make it away in time. He could throw his bow aside, but by the time he wrenched his axe free of his belt he'd be dead. His mind raced, but as the mandibles in front of hiss face spread apart he realized he looked into the jaws of death.

Then the Spider was sent hurtling away, and crashed into a pillar far off in the ruins, next to a half crumbled wall. Perun looked over at his young friend, and saw that he hadn't moved his feet. Looking back at the spider, he saw that it had yet to lift itself, and though it stirred its movements were slow. Perun quickly lifted one of the ancient arrows to the bowstring, and drew it back, his muscles ripping through his back as he aimed the crackling lightning at the Spider's ugly form. Once more his fingers burned on the arrow they gripped, as lightning crackled around them. He held the arrow as long as he judged it would last before burning up, then let it fly. When he loosed, a small noise of Thunder sounded, like a whisper in his ear.

The arrowhead once more landed without its shaft, the burnt wood now dust in the wind. However, the arrowhead landed in the ugly beast's body, and a wave of lightning dispersed around the wound. Before the thing could rise, Perun sprinted towards it, letting Fail-Not fall to the ground. He hurried around the pillar, and put his back against it. Setting his thick legs up against the wall, Perun pushed with all his might against the ruined mass of stone. Grunting all the way, after a moment, he rolled aside as the Pillar came crashing down, leaving two of the spider's legs beneath it. As he drew his axe and hurried away, the wretched thing ripped it's body away, now sporting only five legs, and only able to drag itself along the ground at a fraction of its former speed.

[Donovan]

The Silver Tongue Stood in shock as Perun ran over to the rickety pillar and shoved it onto the spider. Pressing his legs into the pillar as he put his bodies weight into the nearby wall. The great stone slab crushed two of the Bael’s legs and Perun hurried away with his axe drawn. Donovan raised the sword in triumph, confusion, and fear and shouted, “WHAT IN THE RUTY ******* HELL WAS THAT ABSOLUTE ******* ********!? I MEAN DID YOU ******* SEE THAT ****!? WHAT IS EVEN ******* HAPPENING? DID I DO ******** MAGIC? **** **** ********!” His language was foul, but he didn't care. How could he? He'd just done ******* magic!

But despite Don’s thinking the fight was actually over; the great, jumping Bael once again showed a tenacity and horrifying resilience. Ripping it’s pinned legs off so it could continue to fight. Of course, the problem being that the creature only had 5 legs left, and the right side only had 1 of the 5. While it could certainly no longer jump - or easily move for that matter - at the duo, it didn’t mean that it wasn’t still deadly. They were lucky to have avoided it’s pincers. Who knew if the creature was poisonous. And it’s 5 remaining legs were still incredibly dangerous.

“Right, then. Should we go for another hit?” Don readied the strange leafed blade. It was light. Insanely light. At least as light as Duma’s brave sword, and there was a stranger sensation as he readied it for the fight, as if the air around the sword was completely restless. Constantly moving, turning.

The Bael clawed its way forward, trying to get within striking distance. But Don tried to make sure that it couldn’t get close enough. It’s enormous, bulbous back making it nearly impossible for it And then a thought occurred to the mercenary. “Perun! We have to get on its back.” He looked at the staircase where the swords skeleton still lay and began to run toward it to get onto the second story ledge. “You ready for this one, big guy?”

[Perun]

As he ran back, ready to go back in on the spider with his axe in place of his bow, Donovan let loose a stream of curses in the outside language. It was a lot, even for the Silver Tongue. However Perun could see his point. He had no explanation for what his friend had done, and though Perun hadn't seen it, magic would have given something. The Giant was still in shock that his bow had been everything those little mages talked about, so in his mind, the weapon of sinew being empowered by the mystic wasn't too heavy a shock. Still, if it had been the sword, the power of the blade was incredible. It blew Fail-Not out of the water, something the tall warrior found hard to believe was possible considering his bow captured the very thunder from the sky.

As the Spider began to scrape its ugly form towards the two of them, Donovan gave Perun the idea on his mind. Perun shouted, "Yes Dono-ven." As the Silver Tongue started running, Perun was right behind him. Climbing the steps, Perun looked over his shoulder, and saw the spider coming towards the ledge they were running for now. Perun gave himself some distance once he reached the platform, then sprinted off, sailing in the sky for a moment with a massive, "rrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAACCCCCGGGGHHH!" He landed on his knees, causing a great pain to shoot through his legs, but his weight sent the spider's small body crashing to the ground. Perun began to slam his axe's edge deep in the flesh of the ugly beast, almost vomitting from the disgusting smell as green blood covered his axe and spattered on his front.

[Donovan]

The pair scurried up the stairs whilst the wounded Bael dragged itself toward them. They reached the top landing and before Donovan could even get another quip out, Perun had sprinted and leapt with all his might, landing heavily on the bael, it’s legs buckling out from beneath it as it was squashed by his weight. Donovan cracked his neck, took a deep breath and ran as fast as he could. His foot landed at the lip of the ledge and he pushed off with all his might.

As he soared through the air, he saw Perun already hacking viciously fat the Bael’s back. The enormous warrior’s axe cutting deeply into the creature’s exoskeleton and leaking rancid, stinking blood. Don landed on the spiders back hard, rolling and nearly falling off the monstrosity’s back. His only saving grace being one of the holes Perun had slammed in it’s back acting as a hand hold.

“St. Elmine’s Fire!” The mercenary exclaimed, dangling off the back of Bael. He plunged the strange old sword into it’s back and pulled himself onto the top of the creature. He looked at the Giant and laughed wildly. “Good idea. Let’s just keep smashing it.” And smash it they did. They smashed it real good.

The mercenary’s blade moved faster than he was accustom to, and seemed to cause more damage than the iron sword he’d been given by Flynn. As they hacked away, the spider began to howl in pain. Its cries sounded like nails on a chalkboard, screeching that wracked at Donovan’s eardrums.

Finally the mercenary raised the strange blade above his head, pointing it at the head of the Bael and felt a strange sensation twist along the ancient weapon. He plunged the blade into the creature’s neck and with a sudden, violent jerk, the hole from his sword began to grow as the air around the sword violently rotated churning and tearing and spewing viscus green blood everywhere. The silver tongue mercenary dropped the blade in shock. It went spinning away, flung aside by the torrent of wind it had conjured in the creature’s back. The strange weapon clattered to the ground at the bottom of the staircase. Donovan leapt off of the Bael’s back, he rolled as he did, crashing into the ground, his torn back screaming in pain. He landed on his hand and knees and looked up at the Giant still on the creature’s back. “Finish it!”

[Perun]

The axe of Perun cut deep into the disgusting heap of innards now leaking from the massive spider. Even when Donovan landed next to him, Perun kept bashing the axe into the thing as it shrieked and tried to scrape itself faster to shake the pair off. In answer to his friend, he shouted, "SVAROG'S FLAMES!" He was tempted to simply shout that Elimine's fire wasn't strong enough to kill a child, let alone the spider beneath their combined weight, but Perun was aware that Donovan had shouted his exclamation more out of shock from his almost falling from the back of the titanic bug. Of course, Svarog wasn't real, or if he was, he wasn't going to let the hammer fall to squash the spider against his anvil as the flames dragged it into the deep. The only ones there who could do anything against the beast were Donovan and Perun. A liar and a giant, the Silver Tongue and the Thunderbolt. A pair of mortal men, with an axe and a sword. Backed against the wall with dawn hours off, Perun would rather fight next to his young friend more than any thing in the world true or legend, he didn't need divine intervention. He had his friend with a sword, and he had his axe. They could smash it, smash it damn good.

However, almost an instant after plunging his sword into the neck of the creature, Donovan flew off of the spider's back, and Perun roared as he began to let his axe fall faster and faster. He was soon given word from his friend, sating the giants anger, but the call to finish things spurred the giant on. The giant shifted his weight and began quickly to rise to a standing position. As he went, he raised his axe over head, sliding his off left hand down the haft of his axe as he went as if he was chopping wood. The axe fell into the black heart of the spider, and with a final cry, it fell dead, the shock of it hitting Perun taking him to his knees.

Prying his axe from the beast, Perun rolled off the back of the spider so that he slid down the side to lay on his back. Nexting time Duno-ven. We are should being bring giant fly for Spider to be eat."

[Donovan]

With the ferocity only available to the Giant, himself, Perun raised his axe and dispatched of the monstrous beast. The head of the weapon burying itself deeply into the hole the strange, ancient weapon had created. The Thunderbolt landed on his knees as the ball fell to the ground, dead as a doornail. “Next time, maybe we should just let the Preacher find his own damn way back,” the mercenary said, unsure how much of his words were truth and how much was sarcasm. The mercenary pushed himself to his feet and walked over to his friend whilst marveling at the behemoth they’d killed. Donovan offered his hand to help up Perun and, with great effort due to the wounds on his back, helped his friend to his feet.

“How in the hell could a spider even get so big. What unnatural patch of forest is this?” The Silver Tongue stared at the dead monster with his hands on his hips. “And what the hell was with that sword? It was like… a gale was coming from its blade. Almost like I could control the air itself.” The mercenary wandered toward where the sword lay on the ground and gingerly picked it up, examining it closely for the first time.

It looked old. The design almost otherworldly. Its blade was leafed, with either side bearing a razor sharp edge. Arcane ruins and symbols he had never seen before and could not understand were seamlessly stained into the odd metal of which the sword was made. Donovan glided a hand over the metal and could feel a cool breeze emanating from it, though the air was still everywhere else. Its hilt was dark, nearly black, made of horn that seemed to have a touch of emerald in the light. It was contrasted utterly by the stark white silver of the blade, which seemed to emit a faint green aura.

“I’m f***cking keeping this one.” Donovan announced before heading up the stairs to relieve the scabbard from the sword’s previous wielder. “You should grab some more arrows for Fail-Not before we head out. Who knows what else lurks in this godforsaken forrest. Plenty left in this poor bastard.”

[Perun]

Taking his friend's hands, Perun rose from the ground, making some effort to help Donovan but perhaps not as much as he could have. He'd just killed a giant spider, he was allowed to move a bit slow. As the Giant took his feet, he brushed the back of his pants off, then cracked his neck by taking his head in his massive grime covered hands and twisting it. He sure as hell wasn't ready to fight another massive spider. A massive lady-bug or ant, maybe, but not another predatory insect.

Placing his hands in his back, Perun hurried to scoop all of his things off the ground. He unstrung his trusty bow and his massive magical one, and scooped his good arrows back into the quiver. With the way they seemed to burn up when he fired them from the Lightning Bow, he'd need to be careful about how often he used it, he liked to collect his arrows after a fight, it wouldn't do to run out anytime he tried to go hunting.

"Iz no being big sooprise to Perun Duno-ven. Fail-Not iz just being shoot arrows being full of thunder lightning. Sword which iz make gale winds iz make sense if giant spiders are be being jump around." Finally assembling everything. Perun smiled when Donovan yelled that he would be keeping the sword. Then he nodded at Donovan's advice.

"Yes Duno-ven. Would be being better for Perun to be use old bad arrows than good ones." He then hurried up the steps and pulled three arrows from the poor body's armor. The fourth arrow was an odd sort, it's shaft was some sort of glassy substance, and it was deeply embedded into the armor. Pulling with a grunt, Perun dislodged the shaft, but also tore the plate off of the skeletal warrior. Pierced to hell, resting in the plate once it hit the ground was an odd piece of cloth that caught Perun's attention.

The behemoth scooped to pick it up, and unfolded it once it was in his hands. It was a wildly undetailed drawing of Elibe, the only thing besides the shape that made it recognizable being the drawing of the central mountain range that looked almost identical to the ones on modern maps. Written in a forced blank space on one of the mountains in the very center was a single word, which of course Perun couldn't read. He shifted so the Donovan could see it, and said, "Duno-ven. What iz being say?"

The word read in an ancient script, "Perun."

[Donovan]

What the giant found on the body of the old sword’s dead wielder Don could note quite explain. It was a map, a very old map. Donovan was surprised that the cloth had not rotted through already, as old as it was. He did recognize the writing that squeezed into the tiny space of the mountain, though it took him a moment to place it. It was Lycian. Old Lycian. Specifically a dialect from Pherae. Donovan could only interpret the language because so many old plays were written in the long since archaic language. It took him a moment to make out the symbols “ΠΕPYN”.

“Give me a second. This is… tricky. Pi. Epsilon. Rho. Upsil — No way. That can’t be right.” The letters were different. They made a slightly different sound. The Rho had always particularly confused him growing up, since it looked like a P, but he was certain. “It says ‘Perun’.” Donovan looked up at the warrior, his face filled with confusion. ”What’s your name doing written on an old Pheraen map?”

That was when they heard the screams, and the loud crash of massive bodies slamming into the huge oaken door that lead into the halls of the castle. The mercenary pulled the scabbard from the body of the fallen hero and looked at Perun. “I think that might be our cue. Shall we?” The Silver tongue sheathed the sword and headed straight down the staircase as fast as he could, but halfway across the courtyard, one of the massive doors pushed open.

From the dark, two dozen long, spindly legs began to pull themselves into the sunlight. Donovan stopped in his tracks. There couldn’t be more of them. They’d never get away from them. Not when they were already hurt. But suddenly, one of those sets of legs were pulled viciously back into the darkness. Two Bael scrambled out of the door, their heads following their legs into the sunshine, before another of them was pulled violently back into the castle. They’re trying to run. the final Bael managed to get halfway through the door when it erupted into a primal, terrifying wail. A tendril of darkness wrapped around the creature’s head and plunged into its chest. With a final shudder, the spider fell to the ground dead, before it was pulled slowly into the dark.

Donovan was paralyzed. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t move. He had no idea how such creatures had died so easily. And then a hand emerged from the abyss. It was withered, nearly skeletal. Grey skin pulled taunt over its bones. It gripped the oak made door and pulled slowly, deliberately. And the door closed. Separating whatever was in there from the mercenaries on the other side. "We can't be here."

[Perun]

The Silver Tongued swordsman struggled through a series of noises that made less sense to Perun than any of the usual words out of his mouth. Then however, Donovan said a noise quite familiar. "It says Perun." That came as a shock to the giant. That an ancient map would be marked with his name in its odd script. He felt an air grip him that was even more tense than the atmosphere on their approach to the ruin, as his face grew cold with a fear at what must have been coincidence. It was difficult to convince even himself, as half of his rage battled the other, reciting the prophecy of his name. "Perun iz not being knowing Duno-ven. Maybe iz be old city name."

In his heart, Perun did not believe it. For the first time in a long while, he felt as if the gods moved his piece across a map to do their bidding, and it would have burned him up inside had not the fear rising in him covered him in a fit of cold. His mind swirled at the map, and Perun could give no further explanation to his friend on any of this. Maybe he would need to tell Donovan of the curse born with his name, but now was not the time.

Without a word, the giant chased his friend down the steps, and watched in horror as the door crashed open to the sight of the hideous beasts fleeing... something. The Ilian was left dumbstruck as to what could send such monsters fleeing. Then the fiends were somehow dragged back, and a human sized hand closed doors that made Perun wonder if he could close them by himself. "Yes, we are should being run now." With that, the giant turned, and began his own retreat from the ruin.

[Donovan]

They sprinted as fast and as far as they could on the ancient road that lead them to the cursed castle. Don made sure to keep his eyes open for the ancient stones and statues that marked the path as they made their escape. Though when they stopped, finally reaching the main road, out of breath and suddenly very tired Donovan realized that nothing had been chasing them. Whatever had been in that castle had either not known they were there or had allowed them to leave without a fight. He looked up at the large gray way stone that lay flat on its side and leaned against it. They were often markings of the old roads in Lycia, roads that became obsolete and lead to forgotten towns and the like. His family had always considered them good luck on their travels. Somehow reaching them now made him feel safe. Like the monsters they’d met had all been a foreign dream. He might have believed that, too, had it not been for the ancient sword that remained in his possession.

“Do you… Think Remus went that way?” Donovan sputtered through ragged breaths. “I’m gonna vote no.” He sat on the ground with his back pressed against the cool of the way stone. Like all of its kind, its surface was smooth, weathered by years of wind and rain. He wondered if they had ever had anything carved into them or if they’d always been so devoid of markings. It took them a while to recover their breath. He didn’t know how fast they’d run, but the fear of what they saw in that cavern made them run farther than what he’d thought was possible. The mercenary’s thoughts wandered toward the map they’d found. Buried under the armor of the man who wielded the ancient sword that seemed so unaffected by rust and ruin.

Why had there been so many bodies in that castle? Why were they the first to apparently find that place and leave with their lives? Why was Perun’s name written in ancient Pheraen on a map of Elibe? They may not find the answers to the first two questions. But they’d be damn sure to find out the answer to the third.

[Close Thread]