CHAPTER 2 - Massacre at the Mountain’s Base

A shriek rang out and resounded within everyone’s minds. A demented cross between a newborn babe and a horse’s neigh. Even as the echoes slowly died out, they all could tell what it meant.

It meant they were screwed, big time. Somehow the beasts had found them.

The original group of over a hundred had been whittled down to just twenty strong just to meet their end today. At the base of the once Appalachian Mountains, death would come to them in the form of grotesque monsters.

The monsters stood a good two heads taller than even the tallest in the group, who had hit six foot five. Rough, mangy fur covered every inch of the creatures that only split where jagged spikes jutted out like swords. Eight legs covered in a bug’s exoskeleton met the body of the almost horse torsos.

The worst part of the creatures though were their eyes. A kaleidoscope of hexagons that shined from within. A dark essence seeped through and fogged around their faces.

One terrible look from the beasts caused stiff legs and an immediate seizing up of limbs.

Of course none of this affected her. In fact, the looks of fear upon everyone’s faces actually brought a smile to her own. She almost couldn’t hold back the laughter which threatened to explode out. Her grin about to break her small oval shaped face. Even the purple within her hair seemed to glow just a bit more than it had a minute ago. Was this her chance?

But no, she couldn’t help but think the scene before her was too sad. The group composed of well traveled men and women shaking in their boots, and all it took was a measly pairing of grotesques to show up.

Couldn’t they remember that the low number of beasts was the exact reason they had chosen to go this path at night? They’d all heard the horrors of swarms of horned creatures which attacked from the sky in the morning. Unicorns, they called them. The thought too hilarious to really believe. Of course they also knew full well that even if they wanted to go in the morning the vast majority of them would die doing so.

Even she would be included in that number, not by choice but by consequence. The damned makeup of her new body.

It wasn’t all bad especially considering-

Ugh, how irritating. Can’t these guys do anything but scream? If they don’t shut up soon it’ll be their fault if I end up unable to hold myself back.

A good minute of screaming continued on as the grotesques bit into the flesh of the nearest vict- travelers. The group losing more and more of their numbers until eventually, Oh well, it can’t be helped. If. I. Just. Let. Loose. Right? A small head tilt rolled as the last word went through her mind.

Before the word even finished, a large weapon appeared out of nowhere into her hands. Upon one side was a large warhammer which was impossibly balanced out by a scythe on the other end. Where the two parts came together was a spears head. The weapon’s grip perfectly fit within the nooks of her hands. It’s weight fell just in time with each swing as she then proceeded to ‘let loose’ upon the crowd.

She never stopped moving for even a second as flashes of red splattered around her. A swing of her arms here. A thrust there. And when she was feeling especially ‘loose’, a smash. And then another. And another. And another, until eventually she was fully immersed in the feeling.

A laughter eventually woke her from her stupor.

“Who dares to laugh in my presence?” she hissed out. Only noticing that after she asked the coward stopped.

In the end, she walked off without a single glance at the mess she left behind. All in order to find the disrespectful voice from before, not once thinking the voice might have been her own.