Burn it Down: Colossal Battle

The night brought about a chill to the spring air, something that made many doubt the change in seasons. If you looked closely, you could even see miniscule snowflakes descending from the clouds.

Red wasn’t bothered much by all this, she was used to it actually. The others with her didn’t seem to mind much either, mainly because the Corva, Ziigwan, had lit them a fire to keep warm. Ragwort, the Hawk, stood close to it. She often preferred more solitary environments, ones that were… much warmer. She’d only obliged to come along because there had been promise of good finds and maybe a bit of chaos thrown in. Of course they hadn’t even started their journey to the location to start their scavenging for the night, but still, a promise was a promise.

Red took one last look over their stuff, situating the nearly empty satchels strapped to her tail and thigh properly.

“We ready to head out?” she turned to the other two, who were still huddled around the fire.

“I suppose so, yeah.” Ragwort stood up, curling her scorpion-like tail off the ground, while Ziigwan simply nodded and grabbed his own satchel.

The trio put the fire out by smothering it with dirt and wet leaves, then two of the three called their companions over to them.

Red let out a shrill whistle, while Ziigwan cawed melodically. A moment passed until two bats came fluttering into view. Once they were close enough, they perched on the bodies of their respective partners.

The two bats were nearly identical, save for one being bigger. Otherwise only their partners could tell the differences between them.

“Ready Spooks?” Red cooed to the bigger of the two bats that was not perched on her back. Spooks chirped back happily, munching on a large bug he’d found while away from the group with Ziigwan’s bat friend.

Once they were situated, they began their journey. Across a field, over a river (or through it, in Red’s flightless case,) and through a rocky valley. Finally, the two fliers could see something on the horizon. Something… strange. Red and black smoke was billowing up from above a treeline ahead. Flames could be seen licking the sky, in the midst, the occasional destroyed building.

Ragwort, who was in the lead by a good margin, stopped and hovered for a bit.

“Woah, hey guys! There’s a fire up ahead!” she couldn’t take her eyes off of the glowing horizon.

“Really?” Red, mildly out of breath, called from below. Ziigwan caught up swiftly, finally catching sight of what Ragwort had spotted.

“Yeah, there is! Should we investigate?” Ziigwan questioned.

“I mean, I don’t think scavenging is worth ignoring a potential disaster, is it?” Red reasoned.

“Let’s hurry then, I think I saw some buildings amidst that fire.” Ragwort resumed her flapping, if not a bit faster now. Ziigwan hurried to catch up, while Red raced through the forest below the fliers, keeping her eyes focused on the two above her and the path ahead.

Soon enough the trio began to smell and taste the smoky air, coughing occasionally. The heat grew stronger as they approached. It was clear now that this had been a city at some point, but now it was engulfed in flames, something rather large and dark darting between crumbling buildings.

Ziigwan’s little bat friend had long since made itself at home inside his satchel, safe from the smoke and flames, Spooks having done the same with Red’s satchel. As the fliers continued on, Red was forced to a halt on the ground. The forest came to an abrupt end, leading off into an open training field, trashed with huge footprints and gouges in the earth.

“What in the name of the gods happened here?” Red muttered to herself.

The two in the sky had continued onwards, right up until the edge of the city. The smoke from the flames made it too hard to continue by air, forcing them to dive towards the city’s wrecked gates. Red quickly made her way through the carnage of the field to meet with them.

“Guys! Over here!” Red called as she caught up, motioning to the destroyed field.

“Woah, what could’ve done that?” Ziigwan asked. Red wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to that.

As if on cue, a thunderous roar echoed throughout their surroundings, seeming to come from every direction.

“What the hell…?” Ragwort said, breathlessly. Before anyone could do anything further, however, a new light shined from above. Something bright and artificial from the sky. Looking up, the trio were left in awe as a huge, seemingly mechanical monster resembling a stryx made its way over the city’s downed gates. Whirrs filled the area as it landed amidst the wreckage, only its head able to be seen from where the trio was situated behind the city’s outer walls.

“Don’t just stand there, get in here and help us!” A sudden voice shook the three from their shock. A city defense general had appeared at the gates, motioning them inside. Without thinking twice the trio scurried to follow, eager to see what was happening inside, and why that… thing had flown down.

As they entered, it all became clear.

The city, now mostly fallen, was engulfed completely in red hot flames and red and black smoke, making it hard to breathe. Looking out towards the horizon proved to be impossible due to the presence of a huge shadowy beast blocking their view. It oozed a viscous black liquid from its jaw, the light from the fire glinting off of its teeth. It gave off an unnerving aura, one that sent shivers down Red’s spine and filled her with dread. Luckily it was too big to even care about them, but something else had caught its attention.

Turning towards the direction of the artificial light, Red recognized the strange mechanical stryx from before. It let out a clanky bellow, teeth unsheathed, spreading its mechanical wings with a loud series of clicks as joints snapped into position.

“What… is that…?” Ragwort said breathlessly, looking up at the artificial beast.

“Only the gods know.” Red said in a similar manner.

Suddenly, the shadowy beast opposing the mechanical one let out a shrill hiss, lunging towards the opposer. The mecha-stryx did the same, electricity coursing through the coils adorning its back and tail. As the two collided with a bang, the shadow beast lurched back as a devastating show was sent through its body from the point of contact.

Red and Ragwort stared on in awe, completely missing the fact that Ziigwan had been helping the defense general for the last 15 minutes.

“Little bit of help over here?” Ziigwan grunted as he struggled to lift a fallen beam from a building. Underneath the rubble shuddered as the ones trapped underneath squirmed.

Red and Ragwort leapt to help, trying to ignore the sounds of combat from behind them.

Red grabbed hold of the burning wood, forcing herself to ignore the searing pain in her claws as she did so, and Ragwort lifted from above, beating her wings as hard as she could to lift the beam.

Once it was pushed to the side, they began tearing at the smaller pieces of rubble to reveal the civilians trapped beneath.

Another cry of pain forced Red to look back at the battle taking place between giants. The shadow beast had taken quite the beating already, but it wasn’t quite done. With a bubbly hiss, it opened its wretched mouth and launched a stream of burning black acid at the mecha-stryx, who just narrowly dodged. The acid landed on the ground nearby, sizzling as it instantly began to burn a hole into the place it settled.

With a defiant, high-tech roar, the coils adorning the mecha-stryx began to glow with generated electricity, before it launched a glowing lightning bolt from its beak straight at the chest of the beast.

With an agonizing scream, the monster convulsed under the shocks wracking its body, falling to the ground with an earth-shaking thud.

The mecha-stryx closed its jaw, the coils beginning to dull. The monster, free from its electric prison, failed to get back up. Instead, it vaporized, black and red smoke rising from the rapidly disintegrating non-corporeal body.

Red

1384 words- 23

Extra Stryx-3

Bat companion included-3

Scavenging-3

Flockmate-3

Personal-3

Total= 38 AP

Ragwort

1384 words- 23

Extra Stryx-3

Nokt Wo'a (in Nocturnal setting)-2

Flockmate-3

Scavenging-3

Total= 34 AP

Ziigwan

1384 words- 23

Extra Stryx-3

Bat companion included-3

Scavenging-3

Total= 32 AP

Frame ID: K-13124

649 words-12

Extra Stryx-3

Total= 15 AP