Don't Fear the Reaver

Sammy was right, this thing really did burp gas. “Sorry.” She covers her nose, not really taking a liking to the smell of fuel exhaust and finds herself clung to Sammy’s back as the thing did not have the comfortable and predictable rocking pattern of a horse that she could sit… rather it just kind of went. It kind of felt like she was being thrown in a continuous direction. The world whirred by her, not necessarily faster than she was used to, just way more smoothly, which she did eventually release her deathgrip from the back of Sammy’s jacket and just take in the strange sights, sounds and smells.

As they neared the bridge her nerves coiled up, itching to fight. She caught herself staring at the large structure with malice as there was definitely something evil in there. It took everything in her not to jump off this bike and just go straight to smashing it… good thing she only had one thread of restraint and it showed.

“Your world likes big buildings… too big. Lots of hidey holes for bad things.” She mentions, swinging her leg over the bike to stare up at the massive bridge, no manner of glamor shielding it from her sight. She saw it for exactly what it was, a hell hole absolutely overrun with demons so badly their stink actually sank into the area, desecrating it. “I have my scythes. They kill things just fine. I do best with big things or things that are a bit tougher. Sometimes they wear armor.” She notes. Her usual job as a colossus slayer was to cut down goliath foes… or to shred the armor off tankier builds and let others finish the job. She did not know exactly what Sammy did or what he would expect of her, but she assumed it was information he’d want given he was questioning what she used to fight.

The tattooed woman apologized, and he could hear a modicum of sincerity within her tone. It was fine, the dent could be bumped out later. He tried not to think too hard on it. Instead focusing on the demons they were going to be hunting. A small nest settled under a massive bridge, protected by many layers of wards he imagined. Seeing through it required beyond simple sensory, something that only took a quick scribe of a rune to see through. Most humans would have been turned away, seeing it as uninteresting or being turned away through discomfort.

She spoke up, saying something about his world and their love for big buildings. ”Humans tend to be that way. Once they learned enough to build that big they just set gaudy buildings like these wherever they could. Guess this isn't an entirely new thing though,“ Just a glance at The Pyramids was enough to see that human ego never diminished, only found new avenues to express itself.

”Scythes huh? They work on demons? Some die easy enough to steel weapons but others need something extra,” His dagger for example, a thing enhanced with a few runes along the edge. Divine and damned alike, done in a way where they didn’t entirely cancel the beneficial properties out. It cost him a pretty penny to get done but it was worth it. The silver he had learned manage to do most of the leg work. Sometimes he wondered if the only real benefit was that it was blessed silver with a little demon scribbling.  He huffed softly, contemplating how they could get up there.

The edges of the glamour likely reached here and that meant most humans weren’t going to be staring. ”Mind if I carry you up there? Save us the climbing?” As he was saying this, Samael removed his jacket revealing a simple white wife beater below.  Slits were cut into the back, which allowed black feathered wings to slip between them and flex outwards. ”I can fly, so that might make it easier,” He offered, and when she seemed to agree he lifted her up, arms  wrapped around and took off.

Wind whipped his bangs around, eyes focusing within the shadows of the bridge.  Within the span of a couple of seconds they were landing on the exterior of the nest. The ground below was formed from taught threads, smooth yet lacking the stickiness that caught prey. Samael set the reaver down, folding his wings close to his back and slipping his jacket back on. Shadow skittered in his periphery, likely the architects of the structure keeping all things around them up.

”Be careful, don’t know how many are here,” With a flick of the wrist his dagger went flying, pinning a spider the size of a small dog to one of the thread formed little structures. It let out a little squeal and went still.

Rai gives a light shrug. “I believe these constitute ‘something extra’. I cleaved an arm off a pit fiend with these things in a siege once.” With contentment, she beams, seemingly remembering the casual dismemberment of one of the stronger denizens of hell with underlying glee. “It’s okay. He didn’t have to do without it for long.” Rai states as though that made it better. “To be honest though. To demons my entire existence is ‘extra.” She contemplates as she moves closer to allow for easier carrying.

As far as Rai went she was cold like a corpse and her skin lacked the softness and give anyone living would have. Just one step softer than stone, and modicums lighter. Rai was built for speed and agility, meaning lifting her was incredibly simple. She perches up rather easily in Samael’s arms, less shy than she should be as there were demons deserving to be erased from the census. The thought crossed her mind, why could Samael fly? It was a thought she entertained for a moment before remembering the human world was full of red bloods, many of which had some very strange arrays of abilities.

As soon as her boots hit the web it was like watching the hackles rising on a dog looking to get into a fight. Her posture drops into a crouch, her outline radiating with ghostly green energy. The second Samael’s dagger goes soaring she all but ignores the spider, instead scanning the surroundings. What was obscured by the exterior of the nest to everyone else was just space filled to the brim with demons to her. “As we enter, Five to your left, Three straight ahead of us and five to my right. Also one directly above us. There's more but that’s what’s close.” With that a sound akin to an alligator yanking some poor creature into a lake she dashes through the entrance and straight up scythes catching another, large spider that seemed to be attempting to get the drop on the pair but rather caught a scythe to the undercarriage. It’s chitin splitting with almost zero resistance. As it squealed and curled in on itself, it’s body was thrown to the right with a hard kick to the carapace, barreling straight into a group of bug-like demons wielding scimitars in each of their four arms. Seems they didn’t expect their pet to end up barreling into them, and then a pissed off reaver following behind. The entrance cleared rather handily for Samel of follow suit.

She was on them like a lion into a herd of zebra’s landing right onto one of the bug demons, scythes cleaving straight down onto it’s articulated neck, sending it flying. The group moves to counter, scimitars hitting the leather armor, one even cleaving into the back of her shoulder, but it only seemed to make the reaver even more lost in her fervor. The natural pressure a reaver gave off only disseminated further and became more oppressive. The smaller spiders that were coming at the pair, stopping to consider before choosing to go for Samael instead, losing their nerve in the face of what only registered to them as a natural predator. Meanwhile Rai was busy slamming her horns straight into the armored head of another mantis-like creature, stunning him from impact and yanking him by one of his arms, braving a cut to the throat herself and hauling him back into his two friends who were nursing wounds from a sweep of the scythe. The remaining mantid found itself missing both arms on one side of his body and a compound eye cleaved from it’s stalk. “They’re bugs. There’s a whore queen somewhere shitting out eggs.” Rai shouts over her shoulder, voice ringing out amongst the carnage clearly. “My guess is straight up.” She continues, splitting the chest piece of another mantid in half and stepping back to dodge a desperate scimitar stab from a blinded demon as it found itself grappled and yanked down. Rai crunched her elbow into the chitin of the back of his neck, digging in and tightening her grip as it cracks open, leaving him bleeding to death as she moves to rejoin Samael, thoroughly coated in demon blood and still thirsty for more. The awful energy of an angry wraith followed only growing with intensity each moment she wasn’t in the direct fray.

As soon as they hit the webbing everything about the woman changed. Before she seemed...lackadaisical but now there was something about her. Like an arrow drawn, bowstring taut and ready to snap at any moment. He had seen this kind of change before, yet despite that every time was a massive surprise. Enough to bring about a change within himself. The yearning for violence that bubbled to the surface, harsh enough to bring a sharp iron taste to the back of his mouth. It took all his self control not to fly off the handle, hunt down every demon and butcher them in the most painful way possible. No, to kill anything he could get his hands on.

In a split second the woman was gone after noting where these demons were. A blur he could barely perceive, which was followed by the cracking of carapace and ripping of the soft flesh underneath. They were insectoid in shape, and even composition which meant they died much like them.  The ones she wasn’t attacking quickly appeared from the shadows, it was enough to realize that his shadow control had little effect with almost no light. So he moved into action, ducking under a sharp multi-sectioned lag and rammed a silver coated knife between the joints. In panic the demon reared back, ripping the leg further and spattering the demonic blood everywhere.  In his periphery there were two more, one shallowly stabbing into his back. Pain blossomed from the point of impact but he tried to ignore it.

The mangled leg of one came off with a sickening pop. Samael lurched forward, and spun; using the broken leg as a lance. It caught the offending demon through the eye, reducing the face to a bloody ruin. Pinning its quickly dead body against the tough, non-sticky webbing that served as the floor.

That left two. One reeling from the mutilation and the other raising its rear to shoot webbing. He was half way through swinging his dagger when it caught his arm, sending the cambion reeling back against one of the metal support beams. Enough to trap him really, but also not enough to fully do so. Still it skittered forward, lashing out with sharp legs. Slashing across his arms and torso, enough to bring with it searing pain.

In panic he called upon his claws, which ripped through some of the webbing and made the rest easier to tear off. Bringing down a fist which caved in its skull. Samael flipped over the spider demon and slammed both feet onto the abdomen of the remaining one. Ichor spattered all over his legs and the flooring. Energy buzzed through his veins like fire and electricity,  invigorating every cell. The pain in his back slowly faded, though he had the feeling it would persist for a minute or longer.  ”It might be deeper in the nest, though they likely sensed the deaths of their...family,” Samael noted, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a silver blade lined with demonic runes. It would slice through demonc flesh like butter.

”These are the sentries of this place. The warriors will be stronger,”

Rai’s eyes were pinned to the ceiling, watching and seeming to be tracing the movements of some unseen enemies. The hive was buzzing to life as wingbeats filled the air. “More coming down the hive, some looping around to try to cut us off.” Deep down she knew they’d be swamped eventually and once the swarm came they’d likely be delayed before the drones escaped with their queen, they had to stay on the move and not get stuck on the first layer of the hive. These things were created in sheets of silk, lawyers being sealed off as the drones worked to try and trap threats in the hollow spaces between what looked to be the paper combs of a wasps nest.

Rai crouches. “Be ready to jump, we’re going to make them chase us instead of letting them stall us.” Her spaded tail lashes as her outline flares in green glow. All at once she seemed to disappear, blurring with speed into the ceiling. She raked her scythes across the larvae and egg filled combs twice before landing. She was almost through as the buzzing grew louder. One more dash and another swipe of her scythe later and a rift was torn through the barrier. And all at once she was deeper into the nest and upon an attack drone, scythes burying itself between the wings as it desperately swung it’s scythed blades about. The warriors are caught completely by surprise by a batshit crazy reaver jumping from drone to drone and turning armored carapaces to ribbons.

She’d slaughtered five before the remaining ten were able to come together to react. A scythed arm swings and bites into the flesh of her throat with enough force to send a man’s head flying from his shoulders but luckily it only left a nasty gash bleeding dark blood at a much lower rate than a jugular hit should bleed.The warrior didn’t get it’s arm back after all as she caught it on the back swing but she had caught herself in a mess. The worker drones were spitting sticky silk at her, flowing her reaction earning yet another gouge to the back, which she seemed to be ignoring in her fervor, but one could only suffer so many bone deep cuts before it was too much.

A heavy sweep later and 7 warriors had been struck enough to gouge through their armor and send them scattering away due to the pressure slowly building around the reaver. She steps forward before realizing her left boot was stitched to the floor with spider silk, locking her down, unable to pursue. “Samael!” She calls as she pulls again to free herself.