[img]https://txt.1001fonts.net/img/txt/dHRmLjExNi5hY2FjZWYuUTJ4aGJtTjVJRkJoZEhKcFkycy4x/burn-out-fade-away.regular.webp[/img] [@Punished GN] Aaron & Flora [@Atrophy] Sully [@NoriWasHere] Jasper
[code]No Man's Land, aka Kari Wilson's (Wrecked) Yard[/code] [hr]

[color=goldenrod]“Kid..”[/color]

"[b]..SHOOT HIM![/b]"

A cacophany of voices were upon him from all sides.

[color=goldenrod]“...kid!”[/color]

"[b][i]That [u]thing's[/u] not a kid! [u]TRUST ME![/u][/i][/b]" 

Clancy felt the ground giving way beneath him before he felt the impacts, one foot sinking further into the mud than he'd expected.  Someone with a beard closed in his periphery, skidding in the mud too late - [i]Sully.[/i]

Was the man trying to save him? His thoughts shifted back to the yard.

It was for all intents and purposes a No Man's Land. The descriptions of pockmarked, waterlogged muddy fields portrayed to him by history books and old neighbours who spoke of the war.

This wasn't a yard anymore; it was a war zone. And he was another casualty, it seemed. Half a magazine dumped into him, most punching through his mid-section if they didn't miss. One bolt caught him in the mid-section, bedded where his heart should've been. A second through his throat - like a medieval tracheotomy. The third lodged itself just below his cheekbone, and sank deep, the fletching just edging out in his peripheral vision. 

[hider=something to fear][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyIFK3NRaro[/youtube][/hider]

[b]"Idiots,"[/b] Clancy growled, his one free hand touching at his face as he crunched down on [i]something[/i] with his teeth - and another round punching through the back of his wrist like a crucifixial as Aaron continued to dump the remaining contents of their magazine, [b]"It. Doesn't. [i]Work![/i]"[/b]

The word was emphasised by an inhuman, guttural echo that overlapped his own voice. 

Sully had been too late to stop either shooting, and truthfully, he was [i]glad[/i] for it, because Ashley had referred to him as an old friend. Clancy stepped over the man, and his fingers tightened around the shaft of the bolt lodged in his face, twisted and broke most of it away with the fletching. A moment later, he spat out the remaining length of the bolt, the mangled tip sinking into into a growing puddle beneath him. 

Overhead, the invoked cloud formations had caused the sky to darken enough that it was loathe to relinquish any form of light, natural or otherwise. The punctures to his smouldering hoodie were all too clear, but no blood stained his clothes, nor did he double over like he had that night at the club. 

There was no need to put on the [i]show[/i] anymore, because they [i]knew[/i]. They'd see, soon enough.

[b]"She's [i]using[/i] you,"[/b] Clancy warned, a guttural intonation in his voice. His attention had briefly shifted on the girl with the bat and hockey mask, the only one of the three who hadn't attacked him, [b]"Leave-"[/b] he was interrupted by a crack sounding off behind them, followed by a second as he forced himself forward. It took a moment, to see the girl in the mask [i]crumple[/i], that he realised that it waasn't intended for [i]him[/i]. 

Truthfully, he didn't know the girl or her capabilites, but of the three, she was the only one who hadn't attacked him. [i]Yet.[/i] And she was out of focus for now. 

But the other two...

Fingernails parted, then the tips themselves [i]peeled[/i] back, like a reptile shedding a portion of its dead skin. Sharper digits pushed through the gaps,thin stalactites formed of oily, black shadows in a third-dimensional representation, inches-long. Clancy's eyes were two flinty chips of ice, locked on Aaron as his claws snapped away the remaining two bolts lodged in his windpipe and torso like dead twigs.  

The bolts hadn't hurt him, [i]harmless splinters to be pulled out.[/i] Bullets were an [i]annoyance[/i], but far from the worst he'd taken. But the man who pulled the trigger had [i]known[/i] he was a threat without having met him before. 

Bypassing Sully, who was a few feet behind him at this point, Clancy lunged towards Aaron, slashing outwardly with those long black digits.

[b]"Now you're just [i]meat[/i]."[/b] The depth of his consciousness spoke outwardly, with a voice that wasn't entirely his own.