The hunter knew a lost cause when he heard one. Kadrin had managed to defeat Jaeger when he had all his gear and was ready; now the man was more than half a monster, spewing claws larger than most daggers. He had also managed to decimate the others even when wounded; now the man stalked forward, claws out, ready to disembowel him.
Jaeger had only one option left, the chains. He had hoped to use them only as a support, to hide their greater potential, but that was before the situation got so bad. Now he didn't care, secrets didn't matter if he died here and now. He thought about what his chains could do, to reassure himself that they would work as he needed them to.
He summoned his chains, but instead of letting them flow freely, he made them appear wrapped around his hands and arms. Not only would this give him the best defense against those claws, but the less Kadrin knew about the actual power of the chains, the better.
“I said no more tricks, but what else can I expect from someone like you?” Kadrin spoke, uncaring of his hypocritical nature. “I will be the bigger person and allow you to do this; not that they will help.”
He swung his arms and watched them move before nodding and walking towards Jaeger. Due to his oversized arms and slender body, his gait was hunched, cumbersome, and more apelike.
Jaeger ran forward, doubt and fear had no place in his mind, everything came down to this.
Soon the two men clashed, claw meeting chain. The bones in Jaeger's arms creaked under the strain, but he held on.
Loosening his chains, the bounty hunter's arms slipped forward and struck Kadrin in the jaw. The cracking blow stunned the human monster, who blinked rapidly.
Taking advantage, Jaeger tightened the chains again and struck twice more, hitting the man where his heart used to be, the scabbed and ugly wound bright against an otherwise pale body. The scarred flesh a target of opportunity, Jaeger figured it must be a weak spot.
A howl of pain and the slash he ducked under confirmed his thought.
Not letting up, he ducked and dodged two more strokes and closed in again. He struck the area again, trying to rip and tear away the scabbed skin. He succeeded, but at the cost of taking a blow to his other hand, breaking it. In exchange for a broken arm, he managed to get a grip on the scabbed wound and rip it free, revealing a lump of wrinkled flesh underneath a gush of thick, cold, sticky ichor. It had to be Kadrin's heart, or whatever hellish thing he had now.
He loosened the chain from his broken arm, leaving only enough to hold it steady, and lashed out with the rest. Kadrin, while not ready, was not blind, and managed to block the lashing chain by holding one of his hands protectively over his vulnerable area. The thick flesh, muscle and bone of the limb managed to block the blow entirely. So the bounty hunter changed targets.
He whipped the chain forward and down, hammering the metal into the creature's hand. Once, twice, three times, he whipped it back and forth, dodging blows and aiming only at his opponent's hand. Metal was stronger than flesh, Jaeger knew this above all else.
A cascade of silver struck Kadrin. Each blow seemed to take something from him, he couldn't figure out what, but he knew that something was leaving him; some unexplainable piece of his strength. He tried to retaliate, to strike at his opponent, but with a hand covering his heart, he was limited. All he knew was that if something didn't change, he would fall here, a situation he found untenable but undeniable. He just couldn't find a way out, cursing the foul patchwork woman for destroying his sword.
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The hunter hopped back and then forward, building momentum for a heavy swing of his chain that arrived in an eye-blurring arc. It slammed into the monster's chest, only to be blocked again by the human monster's hand. Jaeger felt he was at a stalemate and knew that time was only working against him as the effects of the numbing jelly began to wear off and he felt exhaustion creeping up on him. He had to change his strategy.
Then inspiration struck.
He whipped the chain toward the monster's chest, smirking as the monster's free hand went to intercept it, and then he released the second chain. This one he lashed at Kadrin’s face. As it struck, he roared and twisted his head away, and acting quickly, Jaeger struck again.
This time he turned and wrapped the chain around the man's ankle like a snake wrapping around its prey; then he lifted. Kadrin stumbled and fell, sprawling. The bounty hunter rushed to his fallen opponent and reached his head.
Acting quickly, he wrapped a length of chain around the man's throat. Kadrin's eyes shot open and he pushed to his feet, forced into a crouch as the chain tightened around his throat, preventing him from fully rising; lest he choke himself unconscious.
Unable to stop him, Jaeger could only hold on, barely managing to maintain his grip. He pulled back, tightening the metal links, forcing them to bite into the fetid flesh. Kadrin struggled around, desperate for salvation, and caught a glimpse of hope. With the bounty hunter on his back he stumbled forward, his arms outstretched for salvation.
Kadrin choked out almost unintelligible words as he lifted something, whatever it was blocked from Jaeger's view by the emissary's bulk. Jaeger cursed as he saw something sharp thrust at him. He began working the chain back and forth like a saw in a frenzy.
Kadrin began to thrust quickly behind him, a frantic motion. Once, twice, even three times, Jaeger managed to dodge the blows, but each dodge caused the chain to loosen, and when he tried to tighten it back up, he couldn't get out of the way.
Finally, a thrust caught him proper, piercing through his coat and under armor before skittering along a rib. The blow caused him to relax his grip enough that Kadrin could lurch forward, pulling Jaeger off balance.
Stumbling, he was unprepared for another thrust, which managed to pierce his broken arm, loosening the chains around it. With even more slack, Kadrin managed to get a hand under the chain and began to pull it off. The sudden slack caused Jaeger to slide down the emissary's back, and he had to fight to hold on to the ever-loosening chain.
Kadrin continued to struggle forward, each lurching, jerking step designed to throw his opponent off balance. Without seeing, he stomped forward, unaware of his mistake. The bounty hunter struggled, pulling back against the inevitable forward momentum until his foot struck a hard object. Glancing down, he found his axe on the ground, dropped by Kadrin as he freed his staff.
Jaeger smiled, a dark and bloody promise of vicious victory. He had fought without his full kit, using unfamiliar weaponry, now though he had everything he needed.
Taking a deep breath, Jaeger's next steps were light leaps forward, giving Kadrin enough slake to hang himself; an opportunity the emissary did not miss. As soon as he noticed the slake, the sword-lord turned decaying monstrosity stood up straight and tall. Had the bounty hunter seen the look of relief and joy on the bandit's face, he would have laughed.
“Fall!”
With two fierce stomps of his feet and digging deep into his last reserves of strength, Jaeger double-fisted the chains and pulled them down and back. Caught off guard, Kadrin falls again, this time onto his back. The wind and a fair amount of ichor-like blood knocked him unconscious.
“Looks like second times the charm.” Jaeger muttered.
Pulling his good hand back, he unfastens a length of chain to grab the axe before swinging it at Kadrin's prone form. With a mighty roar, Jaeger brings the chain down and smashes the axe into the man-monster's chest, splitting the withered and scarred heart within.
“AAAHHHH!!!”
A scream of unearthly agony came from Kadrin. His monstrous arms tried to grab the axe, but it was too deep. Struggling, the fallen man could do nothing as his unnatural half-life slowly came to an end. Not one to wait, the bounty hunter strode up to the screaming man, stopping just short of his head.
“Come to gloat, just know my…” Jaeger stomped down once.
“You foul.” He stomped again and felt something begin to give.
“Have you no honor!?!”
“Can’t eat honor.” The bounty hunter knew that honor had no place in a line of work like his.
Jaeger planned to stomp and stomp on Kadrin's head until it was nothing more than an unrecognizable lump. He would have preferred to decapitate his enemy, but he didn't want to risk removing his axe from the man-monster's chest, lest the damage begin to heal. He considered using his pistol, but the supreme exhaustion that ran through his body told him that drawing any more mana or magic would kill him. So he continued his grim and vicious work.
It didn't take long for the man to draw his last breath and expire; more like wheeze and gurgle, Jaeger thought. He gave the body one last kick and then collapsed to the ground. His chest rose and fell like bellows as exhaustion set in. So tired that even the sound of approaching figures couldn't rouse him to more than a half-hearted sitting position.
“The hero rises!”
“An absolutely vicious ending, he deserved nothing less than that.”
“I am glad the abomination is dead. Give me a moment and I will retrieve your axe and his heart. You have not left enough of his head to bother with.”
“Oh boy, you don't look too good. Now that the battle is over, let me take a look at you all. Jaeger first, blood should not be stained with this color.”
The freed and alive adventurers gathered around. Troy and Brad, bruised, battered, bleeding, and limping, but ecstatic, collapsed beside Jaeger as they congratulated him. Emilia nodded at him as she limped over to the body and began her messy task. Sivly hurried over and began treating the various wounds and injuries sustained during the battle.
Jaeger hadn't experienced this level of camaraderie in years, working alone for so long. As he sat there, letting the Otterkin mage look over his wounds, he decided that working with others once in a while wasn't so bad.
