The Lost Worlds

Chapter 7: When the Dead Hunt...

The best prey of any hunt is the one that has the ability to kill you.

-Screaming Arrow, on the topic of the Top Ten Hunts

Sombra laughed wickedly as he smashed the face of a Serpony warrior into its skull with his flanged mace, causing blood and brains to splatter all over his armor.

“How are you doing, Helm Lunar? Need any help?” the former Crystal Empire king shouted as he swung his mace again, crushing a warrior's neck, snapping the vertebra and causing the bone to stick out of the warrior's skin.

Helm swung Helheim, decapitating five Serpony warriors at once. He responded, “I’m good,” then gripped his sword’s blade and brought down the crossguard onto another Serpony warrior's head, piercing its skull. The Lunar king then turned and swung the crossguard at another warrior, smashing the warrior's head to paste.

Helm planted his sword and watched as prince Xander of Nohr cut down many warriors that were stupid enough to challenge him. The dark blade Siegfried cutting through bodies like a hot knife through butter.

Xander raised his sword and bellowed a battlecry that caused Nohrian regulars and Lunardite soldiers to surge forward, brutally cutting their way through the Serpony army. The leader of the army and personal retainer to Empress Lyra herself, Gold Hoof, was frantically calling a retreat. Her warriors were getting massacred, and her soldier's weapons barely scratched the heavy armor the Nohrians and the Lunardites wore.

Helm gripped the sword handle in his teeth and galloped towards Gold Hoof, leading the charge that will ultimately crush the Serpony force sent to make sure the Lunardites didn’t interfere with Equestria.

The Lunardites really didn't care about Equestria, only a good fight to the death would rose their interest.

Helm caught up to Gold Hoof, (which wasn’t really hard despite the armor, because he had four more legs than she did,) and swung as hard as he could, slicing Gold Hoof’s right hind leg off with ease. The blood squirting from the severed leg spattered the king’s armor, making him seem more demonic. As Gold Hoof squirmed and screamed in pain, Helm towered over her, his sword point hovered over her head.

“Let’s see your god save you now!” Helm cried as he plunged the blade of his sword into Gold Hoof’s head and pinning it to the ground. He let the sword sit there as he watched the Serpony army flee.

Sombra, who had just finished reducing a skull of a Serpony warrior to mush with his flanged mace, trotted up to Helm and asked rather excitedly “do we give chase?”

“No, prince Xander will reduce the fleeing army to tatters. It is time that Lunardom comes to the aid of Equestria,”

Helm turned and pulled Helheim out of the corpse of Gold Hoof, making a sickening suction sound. Sombra followed him, grinning about the war he has always dreamed of.

(бфб)

“Hurry, the son of a bitch is still on our tail!”

“He has dogs… oh gods, he has hunting dogs!”

“Ghosts of hunters! No… no! Stay away! Nooooo!”

Every surviving soldier from the recent battle involving four different gods were running from the most experienced, the most vicious hunter that Equis has ever had, Cernunnos himself, with Lurtz leading the hunting dogs. A storm formed with dark crimson clouds rolling in to herald the wild hunt.

As the soldiers try to escape the dogs, they were being shot down by arrows.

Unfortunately, the heroes were with them.

“Come on! Hurry!” Braveheart cried as he tried to lead the group of heroes. Ryoma was carrying Applejack on his back after she got struck with one of Cernunnos’s arrows as they tried to retreat from the battle. It was a rib shot, a shot that nearly went through her completely. She was in excruciating pain, but Ryoma was shouting words of encouragement to make sure she didn’t fall asleep. Normally, Sakura would heal such a grievous wound, but if she stopped galloping, she will be the next trophy mounted on Cernunnos’s wall.

Luna and Celestia stayed on the ground, knowing full well that Cernunnos or Lurtz could easily pick them out of the sky with their bows. Aether ran in the rear of the group, his shield was making a barrier behind them so they would not get hit with a stray arrow from behind, or from one of the dead hunters Cernunnos had summoned.

Luna cut one such hunter down with Moonbolt as the group continued to gallop for their lives. She made the mistake of looking to her right to see one Equestrian soldier fall before a pack of hunting hellhounds. The demonic dogs began to tear out the soldier's throat, his guts, his muscles, everything that was edible in the wild was now their dinner. She saw the hounds beginning to feast on the corpses of the fallen, looking up from their grisly meals, copious amounts of blood dripping from their snouts as they growled at the group of heroes.

Luna though she was gonna puke.

Celestia was in tears. She absolutely refused to see her own soldiers becoming dinner to the most demonic hunt. She looked at the ground to contain her sanity as she heard the bones snap and the flesh tear from the bodies of her soldiers as the dead hunters and hellhounds feasted.

Vinyl and Octavia were guarding the sides, striking down any hellhound that tried to take a bite out of the group. They were absolutely terrified as the witnessed the entire thing. Chione was way behind the group, trying everything at her disposal to slow down the Hunter of the Bloodmoon. She summoned ice upon ice, but the ice evaporated into thin air. She could see the glowing red-eye sockets of the Alpha Predator, and she was terrified.

Even Aether’s hoplites were getting torn apart as the hellhounds tear off their limbs so they can take their sweet time prying off the bronze armor.

Braveheart pointed towards an edge of a forest, “we need to reach Whitetail Woods. The white tail deer there can help us!”

“Um… Braveheart, that is a forest, A FOREST! Mr. bow and arrow behind us likes forests because it is his domain!” Aether yelled as he smacked aside a hound with his dory.

“Trust me!” Braveheart yelled back. With little other choice, the group headed for the treeline.

Braveheart looked back to see that all the soldiers that were part of the battle were dead and being eaten. Almost every single soldier that fled with them died, save some surviving hoplites that were behind the heroes. Chione was with them, blasting anything that moved with icy winds and miniature blizzards

Aether stopped in his tracks, then gave one last look at Braveheart.

He seemed to say, “see you on the other side.”

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Braveheart yelled.

Aether turned around and galloped at the remaining hoplites, ready to stand with his soldiers.

Braveheart turned back toward the tree line, praying to whatever gods were out there that they would make it to the trees, and Aether be granted a quick death.

They reached the forest and galloped heir way through the brush, leaving behind the carnage and the fallen as they continued to gallop, not looking back.

(#^#)

Luna collapsed on the ground, Weary from all the galloping they had to do to escape the hunt of the dead.

“I need to gallop more,” Celestia said as she sat next to her sister.

Luna nodded, breathing hard as she looked at their surroundings. It was almost dusk, but the storm made the sky darker and even more ominous with the red color.

Luna looked over to the rest of the company. Sakura was next to Ryoma, the latter gently letting Applejack slide off his back. She was unconscious, her breathing hard and the wound Cernunnos gave her wasn't gonna close. Luna could sense a fell power preventing the wound from closing.

Vinyl and Octavia were resting as well, their legs felt like lead when they lay down.

Braveheart was observing his surroundings as well. He turned to the rest of the group and said, “we need to reach White Tail villages before the sun goes down. If we don’t, we are as good as dead.”

“But Applejack can hardly move!” Ryoma protested as he and Sakura trotted over to Braveheart, “Sakura’s rod broke when she was trying to heal Applejack, so her wounds are healed halfway. She can’t move like this, it is causing her pain.”

Braveheart fixed Ryoma with a cold stare, “if she can’t move, then she will be the first to die in this unforgiving wood. The forest is not like the Everfree, but dangerous creatures also roam here at night too. On top of that, Cernunnos will track us down if we stay.”

Ryoma assumed a power stance, “I say we stay. We need the rest, and Applejack needs a painless night of rest as well.”

“You don’t get it, do you?! By nightfall, the hounds of Cernunnos will kill us off, one by one!” Braveheart spat, “If we don’t move, the arrow wound will be the last thing she has to worry about.”

Ryoma was going to counter his argument when something rustled the bushes.

In a flash, a velociraptor sprang from the bush, screeching bloody murder.

With quick reflexes, Ryoma drew his Raijinto and slashed at the dinosaur’s neck, and Braveheart used magic to cause the creature’s ribcage to shatter, causing Braveheart’s eyes to glow green for a second. The headless and broken body flopped to the ground.

"Sugrotl's Trackers! They must have folloed us from the battlefield!"

Luna raised her eyebrow, “i'm rather curious Braveheart. Where did you learn that kind of magic?”

"A Velociraptor sprang out of the bush, so you choose the subject of my magic before thinking about moving deeper into the forest so they don't kill us?!" Sighing, and knowing that he was caught, Braveheart came clean. “I learn some dark magic when I was Sombra’s prisoner during the time we spent in the Crystal Empire trying to defeat him before the Mane Six save me and my company's asses.” He gave Luna a rather hostile stare, to let her know that it was a sore subject.

“Regardless, that kind of magic is forbidden,” Celestia said, “if this were a normal day, I would have to arrest you for it.”

“You have to understand-”

Applejack’s scream pierced the air. All the heroes turned to see her getting dragged away by another velociraptor, its fangs deep in her hind leg. The velociraptor looked at them with its… unusual eyes. Eyes that seemed to intelligent, even for a velociraptor.

Ryoma immediately sprung into action, and tackled the dinosaur. As the two crashed to the ground, the velociraptor was forced to open its jaws to use them on Ryoma, causing a gasp of pain to escape Applejack’s mouth. As Ryoma wrestled with the terrible lizard, Braveheart unsheathed his katana, deciding that one blade would be enough, shot into the air and came back down, causing the blade to protrude from the creature’s belly, mere centimeters away from hurting Ryoma. Braveheart jumped off, and Ryoma bucked the creature off of him.

It flopped to the ground, but was still alive. Braveheart withdrew his katana from its back and stabbed it through the throat, causing blood to spurt out.

It roared in pain, but was still alive. Braveheart took his katana out of its throat and stabbed it in the head, piercing its head and skull and brain.

It was still alive, and its wounds began to close.

Braveheart transformed his katana’s sheath into a second katana with a press of a button, and prepared himself for the fight of his life.

Instead, a spear flew through the air and pierced the velociraptor’s skull with so much force that its neck snapped like a twig and brain matter splattered all over Celestia’s face. The creature was still and its breathing stopped.

Braveheart was glad that the beast was dead, but now, they had something else to deal with.

White Tail deer began to reveal themselves to the group of heroes. The deer had them surrounded and their weapons pointed at them.

The White Tails had varied shades of green, brown, grey and reddish fur. The bucks had antlers of different sizes and points and had their faces decorated with elaborate green war paint. The does had a slender body build and slender legs, and some does had some war paint on, but only spirals and triquetra completely cover their right hind legs. The rest of their bodies remained unmarked. And even Braveheart had to admit that there was some pretty attractive does that were aiming spears and arrows to pierce his heart if given the command.

A single buck strode forward, his massive, twelve point, metal-coated and carved up antlers gave him the appearance of authority and power. He also had wings that were three times the size of normal Pegasi wings. His coat was a deep, rusty red.

Celestia muttered under her breath, “great, their leader is a Peryton.”

Braveheart turned to her and asked, “what the tartarus is a Peryton?”

“A winged deer that eats and hunts prey, and they have been known to eat any lost ponies that happen to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time.” Luna answered.

The Peryton buck spoke, “what do we have here? The royal princesses of Canterlot, descendants of the Ancestor who destroyed our gods and tried to eradicate our way of life through mass genocide.”

The deer stomp and pawed the ground and shouted war cries, a clear display of a challenge of authority and a warning that things will turn ugly.

Braveheart turned to the two princesses, saying, “seriously, how many races and ponies did your ancestor piss off?”

Celestia and Luna sighed and said in unison “a lot.”

The Peryton began to sneer, revealing his razor sharp teeth that can puncture steel plate armor and said, “I never tried royal flesh before. Tell me, do think that if I cut them open with my antlers it will spill out sunlight and moonlight?”

The bucks and does bellowed war cries in approval.

The Peryton lowered his antlers and said, “let's find out, shall we?”

The Peryton charged, and Braveheart got in his way and blocked his charge with his twin katanas, using magic to do so.

The Peryton smiled and said, “is that the best you could do?”

The Peryton sharply turned his head, causing the antlers to snap both katanas in half. While Braveheart was stunned, the Peryton clamped his jaws on Braveheart’s right mechanical wing and tore it off. Braveheart then received a sharp kick to the head, nearly knocking him on his ass and nearly knocking him out.

Braveheart felt the blood trickle over his left eye, from the cut the kick gave him. Braveheart staggered back on his hooves and prepared to give his life up to defend the princesses.

“Braveheart, catch!”

Braveheart, without taking his eyes off the Peryton, caught an unknown object from the air that Applejack, despite her pain, managed to throw to him. He used his magic to awaken the dark blade from its slumber in the rectangular hilt.

Braveheart spun the Darksaber around his body and said, “come on prancer, let's see what you are made of.”

Luna’s and Celestia’s eyes widened. Because you never, ever, call any deer a prancer, unless you want to die a painful death.

The Peryton charged again, intense rage filled his eyes.

As soon as the Peryton got close enough, Braveheart flicked the blade with his magic, shearing the metal coated antlers off the Peryton. He then jumped over the Peryton and landed on its back. He then plunged the Darksaber into the Peryton’s back, causing it to screech, then drop dead.

Braveheart pulled the Darksaber out of the corpse of the Peryton and then used his magic to point the blade to the other deer, shouting “who’s next, huh?! Who wants to try and kill the princesses?! I fucking dare you to try!”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Another Peryton appeared. He looked just like the Peryton that Braveheart just killed, except that this Peryton had grey coat.

“Mind if I ask you your name?” The grey Peryton said.

Braveheart narrowed his eyes, “only if you give your first, dickhead.”

The Peryton rolled his eyes and said “fine, i’ll give you the curtesy. Oak Feathers, that is my name.”

“i’m general Braveheart of the Equestrian army.”

Oak Feathers looked at the rest of the deer group. “You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Can’t you see that they have a wounded mare with them?”

The deer’s whole demeanor changed. They stopped what they were doing and ran at the group. Instead of attacking, they picked up Applejack and began to run off with her.

“Hey! What do you thin-”

Oak Feather said, “no time for explanations. I know what hunts you, and we must prepare for it, to fight it at three in the morning.”

“What game are you playing here, Oak Feather?”

Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

Oak Feather replied, “the game of survival. The game of tag, the grand game of the hunt.”