Steel Burner

Memories skirmish

Omior was slashing back and forth as the bug like creatures attacked, wave after wave. He was covered in cuts as he struggled to stay upright.

These things didn’t want to kill him he deduced as he staggered back from another swipe that got through his defense.

‘If they wanted to, I would have died by now from the sheer number.’ He thought to himself. ‘They must be trying to exhaust me. Whatever they have planned probably won't be any good too. Damn, if only Ahingor was here, they would be dealt with already with his help.’

Sweat pooled down his body, feeding the plants that had begun metamorphosis of color into a glistening shade of crimson, shining in the daylight.

Omior swung his sword in a wide arc, catching a few changelings mid attack. Most of the ones hit died from the damage, but a few managed to back away in time to gain only minor damage.

Another changeling caught him in his blind spot, leaving a rather sizeable wound on his back. Omior cried out and stumbled over himself attempting to do some damage to the changeling that attacked. The samurai’s vision was getting fuzzy as the sweat and tears ran over his eyes. He dared not wipe them away, lest the enemies get another opening to attack.

The changelings were closing in, but at the same time kept their distance to avoid permanent damage. This kept them from completely overwhelming him any faster, but it did save their numbers from dwindling too much.

Omior’s strength was nearly gone, he knew this just had to be it. He noticed they had begun to sense it too, and started to close the distance by a large quantity. He swung his weapon and it got stuck into a changelings side, it reared back in pain and fell onto its side that had the sword stuck in. This caused the sword to go deeper in, where it cried out even more in agony. The changelings ignored their own brethren’s cries for assistance and instead, blocked Omior’s path to the changeling where his sword was sheathed into.

“Dammit.” He muttered under his breath before the changelings closed in the final few steps, blocking all view of the samurai.

********** Vigil

The door was mysteriously cracked open when Vigil arrived. The entire time he couldn’t stop feeling as though he were being watched. No matter how much he tried to think otherwise, he couldn’t expel the feeling. A voice from inside the house broke his inner musings and permitted him entrance, to which he obliged, the incentive of the much needed monetary gain driving him forward.

Vigil went into the house to see that it was much bigger on the inside. Hallways lined left and right to a downslope into what the unicorn could only guess as underground housings. The voice beckoned him forward into the upstairs though, asking him to come up and greet the voice.

The stairs caused Vigil to falter slightly at the sight of it, the decrepit and dusty stairs had long since been out of use and could use some replacement steps. The wood creaked and groaned with so much as a feather falling upon the wetwood held by long rusted or much damaged nails.

Vigil would most likely get his money’s worth out of this....

He carefully gave the steps a few test steps and found that it groaned a painful sound that one would cringe at, but held nonetheless. Again the voice called to him, the raspy nature adding to the painful moan of the aged wood.

“Will you please hurry up, sunny? You are here for the job are you not? I’ve half a mind to do it myself by how slow you are!”

The unicorn picked the pace up as he climbed the perilous stairs, he thought of how the stairs’ age could rival that of the regal princesses. With an inner chuckled at his humor, he stole his nerves and continued up the stairs, gathering piles of dust on his hooves.

He reached the top of the stairs and saw an open door at the end of the hallway. At the opening of said door was an old stallion with an exasperated look. The old stallion had a dying grey coat that turned white near the bottom of his hooves and edge of his face. His hair obviously falling out from the stress of the daily life he probably endured (as an old stallion that is). His eyes were blue with a slight tinge of a yellow glow, Vigil chalked it up to the lighting in the house he was in, or perhaps a spell he had not heard of.

“Good, you’re here. Now let me show you what you need to do.” He carefully turned around and, with obvious arthritis, walked inside the room.

Vigil lost sight of the stallion as he made his way into the room. A hardly noticeable flash of yellow hit the unicorn in the corner of his left eye and before he could register what it was, the door slammed shut; the sound of the lock could be heard jamming together, Vigil realized two things.

One, the stallion that would have been behind him was dead in front of him and two, whatever was behind him was probably going to seriously fuck his shit up.

“....Well fuck me.” Vigil said, he turned around in time to see his attacker swing a heavy object into his head, effectively knocking him the fuck out.

Grabbing at Vigil’s legs, the changeling began to drag Vigil to a window that led to a fire escape of sorts. The changeling looked out the window and noted that nopony was in the alleyway it was directly connected to, and that it was just dark enough to sneak a body down without being noticed.

The changeling pushed the unconscious unicorn out the window, and unceremoniously started dragging him down the steps of the fire escape. Vigil’s head hit the cold metal hard every few steps when a limb of his got stuck on something. The changeling just muttered to himself and continued on his way with the rather ‘stupid vomit colored unicorn who weighed more than he should at that size.’