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[color=gray][sub][right][color=white][b]Location:[/b][/color] Uhladein, Eastern Marches
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Rain’s back hit stone as a trio of the skittering voidlings pinned her to the wall. One needlelike limb speared her shoulder, another dug deep into her thigh, and she felt two or three more clawing at her kicking feet. Pain flooded her, but it was an undercurrent in the burning deluge of her Gift. There was no way in hell she was about to admit these fuckin’ things were actually hurting her, not a [i]chance[/i]. Gross. 

Pincers clacked inches from her face, behind them a gnashing maw of razor shadows. Hungry little shit. She would have spat at it, cursed, told it to take a number and get back in line cause she hadn’t eaten all day either, but the spear in her shoulder twisted just right, and her words turned to a pained gasp. 

Alright, fuck this. If it wanted to eat so bad, she’d feed it. 

Rain let go of one limb, conceding it to scrape into her back, and jammed one gauntleted hand into the thing’s mouth. The furnace within her growled, flared beneath her skin, and for a brief moment the creature’s throat was bright as lamplight. It screeched, or started to, but she yanked her hand up and through its body with all the resistance of melting wax. It fell back, another clawed through its ashen body to take its place. Rain dipped to the side and slammed it into the wall, then sunk her own teeth into the back of what she guessed was where its head would be. Another shriek, something crunched and squished as her jaw snapped shut, and she spat ash onto the ground. The last one was crushed under boiling foot. 

In the momentary quiet, she realized the slowpoke on the outskirts had caught up at one point, and carried on further into the keep. Between the rain and the hellbeasts, she hadn’t gotten a good look at her, but even distracted she was sure there’d been some weird shit going on. Regardless, the sounds within Uhladein were myriad and terrible—the party was moving again. 

No way was she gonna let whatsherfuck have all the fun. 

As Rain dug claws into stone and scaled the wall like a [i]normal[/i] freak of nature, she heard screaming—different screaming, not the kind that was literally all around her, this was a [i]collective[/i] deal. Once she was atop the ramparts, she scanned what she could see of the keep, and in the flashes of lightning, she thought she saw what had caught her ear.

Not terribly far away, a handful of guards were getting their shit [i]rocked[/i]. No wonder though, cause the voidling doing the rocking was hands-down one of the biggest creatures she’d ever seen, and it was accompanied by a swarm of smaller, uglier little bastards too. Whoever it got its hands on didn’t last more than a few seconds, and those who were falling back weren’t going to get far before the void goblins caught up to them.

Far above, she heard a screech so loud it dwarfed the thunder. She looked up, hoping to spot some massive silhouette in the storm clouds, illuminated by the lightning, but was too late. Fighting something in the air, now [i]that[/i] sounded like fun. Better than spiders and goblins and ogres. But she couldn’t get herself to move. She heard the guards scream again, and scowled up at the rain. Technically speaking, she wasn’t here to protect the guards, just the ember. It was their fault, really, for being so far out from the inner protections this long into the siege. Papa had said this is what happened—the void attacked, and people died. Not [i]Rain[/i] obviously, but other people who weren’t as awesome as she was. It was just the way of things. 

[COLOR=92278f][i]“Ughhhh…fuck."[/i][/color]

You know what, being in the sky was overrated. Besides, she could get airborne any time she wanted, so really, if she thought about it, fighting some dumb void bird in the sky was actually way lamer than facing off against a giant with an army of violence at its heels. 

Yeah, this would be cooler. Rain would know, she was kinda the leading authority on cool things. 

Leaping back down, Rain shot off just before she touched the earth again, and made a B-line for the remaining guards. She dragged a claw along the dirt, and kicked up a wave of hot dust and shredded stonework between them and the goblins, before planting herself directly in their path. The voidlings hesitated, just for a moment, but if the guards were smart they’d capitalize on it and get their dumbasses further into the keep. If not, oh well, right? Not her problem, she was just here for a good time. 

[COLOR=92278f]“You fuckers better make me look good.”[/color]

The voidlings came rushing in answer, and she met them with tooth and claw. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew this was too much, knew there were too many. She’d only been a hunter for a few months now, and she’d seen more void in the first hour of this siege than she had in her whole life, and nothing nearly as deadly. 

But what did deadly matter? It wasn’t like she could [i]die[/i], right? Papa said so. No matter how much she got hurt, as long as she didn’t give up she’d just keep healing. Just keep fighting. Dying scared her, sure, but if all she had to do to avoid it was take a little pain, then there was no problem. She could take it. 

She didn’t have a choice.[/indent][/indent][/indent]