Violence of action has never been just a mortal trait.

Violence of action has never been just a mortal trait.

This flicked through H’zrael’s mind as he rolled his shoulders under the trench coat, his left hand twitching with anticipation. He breathed in the air, hoping to catch the hint of something as primordial as the bald rock that yawned all around him. It called to him in its way, leaving breadcrumbs to draw his ilk out. Its spoor was as simple as it was grotesque.

Bodies. Lots and lots of bodies.

He glided across the streets stained with churned clay and blood. He pressed passed thatch houses which drooped with shattered doors, fresh cairns for its torn inhabitants. He guessed forty three dead now populated the village. Plus whatever caused the carnage.

A splash warned him he too had been marked. He spun low as eight blades ripped through his coat and transformed it into tatters. He sprung backwards and tossed a grenade to the ground. It vomited smoke, fire, and shrapnel as he landed ten meters away. Flexing his wings, H’zrael manifested a golden scimitar. A guttural roar burst through the twisting smoke followed by a long snout full of fangs.

“Come now, Beast! I’ve waited a long time to claim your hide!” He bellowed in response.

The creature stalked out of the smoke. It licked at the blood on its lips and along its teeth. “I’ve thirsted for your blood, Outcast.”

H’zrael studied its muscled and furred body. He noted no lacerations on the grey and white frame and adjusted his grip on his weapon. The Warden had sired no runtling in this primeval badger. The atmosphere around him began to glow and burn. “You’ve confused me with the more foolish of my kind. A costly mistake for a mere beast.”

It laughed, a husky mix of growl and human mimicry. “No, Visitor, that makes the drink all the sweeter!”

The Visitor and the monstrous honey badger leapt at each other, eager to clash blades and fists. Explosions and howls rang off the mountain slopes as the two met midair. Each strike from the winged warrior’s fist bore the weight of what mortals crudely called force. H’zrael knew it better to be authority as he crushed ribs with a flurry of strikes. Despite the pain, the beast slammed its claws around his chest and squeezed. The blades scraped along shimmering breastplates harmlessly, even while H’zrael’s insides screamed with pain. The badger snapped for his neck and found a flaming blade caught in its teeth. The Visitor launched higher into the air as the vicious primal clung and pressed with its considerable might trying to pop his honeyed skin like a grape.

With a thought, he dispersed the blade and invoked the same authority he contained. The air exploded around him as it tore into its components. The giant badger hurtled through a roof fifty feet below engulfed in flames. The building kindled as its broken timbers collapsed inward with a sigh. The warrior hovered and waited for the aroma of cooked meat. Instead, a wall erupted as the creature stumbled out of the makeshift oven. A sheared plank hung between exposed bone on its side. It lifted its ruby gaze towards its burning adversary.

“Come claim your feast if you dare! It will cost you yet, huntsman,” it snarled.

“Huntsman, indeed,” H’zael laughed as he reformed his scimitar. “Tonight I will hang you in the Warden’s house. The First Beasts have no place in this lost world.”

The honey badger coughed blood as it uttered a crude curse in the Visitor’s own language. The golden fire around H’zrael crackled in holy rage. He flashed down as a shaft of honed lightning straight for badger’s throat. The beast opened its eager jaws ready to pierce his glowing body. Then the real battle began.

Art Source: "Ramiel vs Honey Badger," by JakeEKiss
Story and Characters: (c)/by Corey Blankenship

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