[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909715047918497815/1037211200871731300/Umbri_banner6.png[/img]


Umbri hunched beside the wall, her gun bobbing between actors on the scene she’d played witness to. The collapsing, headless prey and its demonic hunter. The hunter did not breathe. Umbri caught breath for the both of them...

The fight that had stood between her and death was an oddly quiet one. The monster growled and flailed against a completely silent opponent. The blows that landed on it held no weight, gliding through the thresher’s tough flesh that even a bullet could barely penetrate. Umbri’s eye couldn’t keep up to her defender. It was as though the monster were fighting a phantom. Her head jerked up as it landed on the wall above her. Green rings lit up from the shadows, revealing the vaguest outline of a demon’s face. Her body flinched in fear. Against all logical thought and reason the idle thought solidified - [i]it [b]is [/b]a phantom![/i]

But phantoms weren’t made of the metal she now saw glinting in light. The hunter stood before her wearing sculpted, tight-fitting armor - no, those were synthetic muscles shifting underneath the red plates: he was a robot. She subconsciously looked for the brand or name of his make, the cyberware company he owed allegiance to, and came up with only the name: [color=#DC091C][b]Temujin.[/b][/color] [i]She knew that name.[/i]

It was grumbled over games of poker she was privy to from her seat on the lap of a gangster. Said in hushed tones in the corners of Hysteria, usually accompanied with admiration or fear. His name had only recently been known among the Rogues of Northbridge, but the path the demon had cut through the settlement had been [i]so [/i]bloody and ruthless it was known to every Northbridge citizen with even the slightest darkness to hide - that was everyone. Umbri didn’t know he was a robot. [i]Then what corporation was behind him? Who had programmed him?[/i] Questions that would never be answered as he was shredded to pieces. A gruesome, bloodless death.

And she was back to the way she'd been, alone, but torn out of the peace she had made and the memories she’d held like her childhood blanket to ferry her into her final sleep. She wobbled up onto her feet, pushing herself upright with a hand on the wall. What a horrible, [i]pointless [/i]way to go.

[i]Whoosh.[/i]

Her back smacked against the wall with a gasp. Down tumbled the monster’s head. About as big as the one used as a BBQ pit at that satay shop in the markets. A fresh bounty of prime meat cuts Northbridge could only dream of followed it down.

Umbri was shaking and sweating a fever, looking like she’d gotten caught in a freezing rain. The nerves screaming [i]"danger!" [/i]were not calming down and she couldn’t tell, as the aim of her gun switched between them, if it was from fear of the monster rising from the dead or if it was [b]him.[/b] Her mind retraced her steps to a memory of fire.

Her gun lowered.

[color=#A4303F][b]“There…”[/b][/color]

She limped a step from the wall, further into the street light. Her make-up was melted, mascara running from her eyes and mixing with glitter, joining the state of her blue lipstick smear. The lingerie showed off every scrape and bruise she’d earned running. Even the pink jacket couldn’t hide her limp, overextended arm, nor her clear heels disguise the swelling of a broken ankle. She swallowed down the impulse to scream as she tried speaking again.

[color=#A4303F][b]“There were two of...”[/b][/color]

Words that almost faded as something took his attention above her. A dark coiled shape, rearing up. Segments lit up along its serpentine, almost aquatic body, red and neon green, starting from its tail and curving up to its mandibles. It lit up the street with its glow. [i]Click click click click… [/i]It opened a fanged mouth, looking down, its entire body taut with the intent to strike. Its throat swelled up with a red hot glow.

[color=#A4303F][b]“... them.”[/b][/color]

[url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/03/9b/3d/039b3df3b0be787d0f6845b341dc4f3c.jpg]The snake[/url] snapped forward, unleashing a cone of fire down at them.