ConteAmarula

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

@Astarael42 Whats with the "ba" at the end of your post? Did something get cut off or are they just some errant letters?

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Lily's head throbbed painfully as she slowly regained consciousness. She was aware she was sitting up and could tell someone was near her. More apparent was the heat from the fire she started that continued to spread. Lily opened her eyes ever so slightly but all she could see was a wash of colours and brightness. Her head throbbed horribly when she opened her eyes so she immediately closed them which soothed the pain somewhat. She could hear yelling and screaming near-bye; some of the sounds she recognized as belonging to Adam and her fellow society members, the others to the beast which she had set alight.

Worse than the pain in her head was the embarrassment over what she had just done. In her fear of the creature she had acted on a foolish idea and hurt herself, while also putting everyone else in danger. Her only reprieve from her embarrassment was the smell of burning flesh and animalistic screams which suggested that her fire was at least damaging the beast in some way. But it was not the time for self pity, a beast needed slaying and Lily was not about to sit uselessly on the ground while everyone else did all the work. She took several deep slow breaths until the pain in her head dulled enough for her to try and open her eyes again. Once again her vision was blurry but there was far less pain and after a few seconds her vision coalesced into identifiable shapes. Her vision corrected itself in time for her to see Adam kick the beast in the shoulder causing it to miss with its attempted attack on a member whose name escaped her.

Lily turned her head slightly to see who it was that was near her and was surprised to find Ren. She was even more surprised to see his hand shaking somewhat, suggesting he was just as afraid as she had initially been. Lily wanted to tell him to forget about her and join the others but decided against it for the moment

Taking a deep breath Lily calmed herself and pushed the pain she felt to the back of her mind. She observed the creature, how it moved, how its body reacted to being struck, how it's muscles flexed as it moved. It was a patchwork doll, a mass of scraps Iseabau liked, thrown together into an inhuman construct of flesh and sinew. The blood that ran through its veins was a cocktail of chemicals and bodily fluids, some of which Lily could identify by the smell they made when they burned and the colour of the fire. Nothing stood out as a potential weakness, beyond the basics of what would disable a human. Remove the limbs, damage the senses, destroy the brain or the heart. These were tactics that would no doubt work, but the beast was proving formidable to the group, it would not allow itself to be destroyed so easily. Which meant they needed to find a way that didn't leave the creature with any other choice but to die.

Once again, Lily cleared her mind and began massing every relevant detail she could think of.

-- Possible chemical component of blood: Cytoplasm -- Creature's screams do not seem to be from pain, but rage. Conclusion. Doesn't feel pain -- Isabeau did not kill Adam immediately to harvest his parts. Freshness must be a factor -- Beast is uncoordinated and easily distracted. Brain function operating on basic level -- Bullets seem to do little damage. Muscle mass providing protection to inner organs -- Familiar sound. Hiss of fluids on heated metal. Conclusion. Metal framework used to bolster bone strength --

Lily picked out the parts that seemed most relevant and willed her mind from her body. In an instant her semi-ethereal body was standing over her physical one. She retrieved some items from the few pouches that remained on her person and charged after the others and the creature. Being invisible allowed her to circle around quickly without getting in the way or risking being hit. Unseen or not getting into position was a difficult task as the creature charged after Adam, who continued to do his best to avoid the brutes attacks at all costs. Waiting for the right moment Lily charged forward and fire one of her pistols at the creatures face, relying on law of averages and the abundance of projectiles coming out of the barrel to hit her target rather than proper aim. Not wasting time to see if she managed to blind the creature Lily tossed the pistol aside and moved in close to the beast. Her form could feel the heat of the fire though she only recognized it as stimulus and not something that could hurt her. Once she was close enough she set to work using the other item she brought with her, a razor sharp scalpel; a small blade but one built for cutting flesh. With it distracted by Adam and the others Lily was able to start attacking vital areas. Tendons, arteries, and joints. Many of her slashes simply left deep, but not deep enough, cuts. But she could tell a few were able to sink deep enough to hit main arteries as the creature began to bleed more and more of the strange liquid. While it didn't work exactly like a human the fluid was undoubtedly important to the creature; Muscles still needed oxygen and other vital chemicals. The less inner fluid the creature had the less able its body would be able to sustain it's functionality, making it easier to fight.

Lily, unnoticed by the creature as it lacked the cognitive ability to imagine an invisible enemy, continued her assault on the vital parts of the monster. Just as she managed to slice through the Achilles tendon on the left leg she felt a bullet slam into her shoulder, followed quickly by a slash across her back; the downside to being invisible was that while enemies could not see you, neither could allies. Neither attack caused her pain or dealt damage, however it shocked her long enough that she was unable to avoid the beast as it swung one of its arms back in rage. Lily's semi-ethereal body was thrown backwards over a dozen meters. Her lack of body mass allowing the hit to send her father than was feasibly possible under normal circumstances; mid flight she lost her scalpel. As her body hit the ground she willed herself back to her body and looked to the creature to see the results of her handy work. Though it was gushing the strange jelly like liquid profusely, leaving pools of fluid all over the field, the loss of vital plasma hadn't seemed to effect it yet. The damage to the tendon on the other hand, while it hadn't brought the monster down, seemed to have slowed the creature as it began to favor its right leg more.

Lily wasn't sure what more she could do as fighting was not her forte, and the majority of the items and equipment she could have used to help had been destroyed in the blast. Looking again to Ren she realized that the best thing she could do at that moment was let Ren know she would be alright.

"Ren... I'll be fine. The fighting is no where near me and I have strength enough to crawl away. Go. Help the others. Help Adam."

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

I am more than game to stick around.

Also, working on a post. Been busy the last few weeks. School is ramping down which means work is ramping up.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Lily stood a few feet from Adam, starring at the beast before her. She was no stranger to oddities, deformities, gruesomeness, or gore. But the creature was something else entirely and even Lily found herself petrified with fear. Shakily she raised her pistol to bare on the creature that was several times her size in hopes that perhaps her simple weapon could assist in bringing down the foe. Lily, however, very much doubted that had she a proper pistol it would do much good. Besides that, her forte was using her brain, and all though her primitive urges told her she needed to attack the beast or run away, she knew survival hinged on a calm mind and a good idea.

Taking some small comfort in the fact that the monster's attention had been focused upon Adam, Lily put her pistol away and focused all her energy into thinking of a solution. She pulled every thought that seemed relevant to the issue at hand to the forefront of her consciousness and created a massive web of thoughts and ideas all to answer one question. How do bring down the beast.

Lily was no stranger to the resurrection of the dead. She had experimented in the idea for several months a few years ago. She made several small successes involving a twitching frog and a blinking pig head. However she had ended her experiments do to a mix of moral apprehension and a basic lacking of the kind of mind required to tackle such a topic. Regardless, the small research she did gave her enough insight to come up with several possibilities as to how Isabeau created her beast. Based on the equipment Lily saw at Isabeau's home she was able to narrow down most of these, and the natural laws and plain logic narrowed down more. The few theories that were left standing gave little insight however into a method to kill the creature.

Lily's next line of thought involved taking in the capabilities and talents of those left in the field and attempting to formulate a strategy. This yielded poor results as she barely knew everyone's name let alone their talents or areas of expertise. Based on the garb, stances, and tools carried by some she was able to make guesses as to what roles each could fill but it was not the time for guesses, even well founded ones.

Idea after idea flew through her head and all were quickly dismissed. In Lily's mind she had spent several minutes on the task but in reality had been barely 5 seconds. In those 5 seconds though the creature had begun to charge at Adam. Lily frantically scoured her mind for even the most desperate of ideas. Her mind settled on a book with a familiar topic and a creature who feared fire, which at first seemed the most useless of thoughts, however; As this thought passed through her mind Lily took notice of the stitches that held the monstrosity together like a quilt that had been patched far too many times. Though many things could be said about the stitching, its gruesome appearance, the quality of the thread, the clear expertise of the person who had done the stitching. There was only one fact of the creatures tenuous method of attachment that Lily cared about, which was that thread was flammable, and how much could the creature do when that which held it together was burned away.

Acting quickly Lily tackled Adam out of the way of the charging beast. The two of them hit the ground just barely out of range of the monster's assault. Scrambling to her feet, Lily pulled out the lantern she kept with her and with a powerful twist and snap ripped the oil reservoir out of it. As the beast turned Lily unscrewed the wick from the top of the reservoir and threw the reservoir as strong as she could at the beast. Luckily the monster's size and alarmingly close proximity made it easy to hit her target. The Reservoir impacted the monster's chest and spilled an acceptable amount of oil all over the creature. The reservoir landed on the ground between the bests legs and the contents continued to drain into the grass, filling the air with the stinging smell of lantern oil. Knowing the beast would move to attack and step out of the pool of oil forming at its feet, Lily leaped forward to stand before it. The creature seemed surprised at this maneuver, though it was hard to tell what emotion the beasts patchwork face was attempting to show. It's confusion barely lasted a second and it raised both hands into the air in great fists like a gorilla, clearly intent on slamming them down upon Lily which would no doubt crush her pathetically. The monster's moment of confusion and raising of limbs gave lily just enough time to pull a lighter from one of her pouches light it, mercifully in one strike, and toss it at the beasts chest. Instantly fire bust into being as the lighters flame made contact with the oil. The creature seemed to forget about its attack and screamed out, either from pain, surprise, or anger, was unclear. The lighter continued on its journey as it fell to the ground, causing more flames to burst into being under the beast. It was at this point Lily regretted standing as close as she was as the oil had spread much farther than she thought in such a short time, in fact the puddle was both under the beast, and under her. The flames that burst out from under her caused her to scream out in surprise and pain. The flames quietly set her dress a lite. Lily made to move away from the beast and extinguish her own fire, however before she could the flames that now clung to her dress had quickly made their way to her pouches. There was a sudden explosion as the fires made their way into a pouch filled with the sorts of things one would normally make a point to keep away from fires. The explosion was not that large but it was enough to send Lily flying backward several feet into the wall of the mill. The wood planks resisted the flying woman and she fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of her and her head spinning and unable to focus. The fires on her dress had found the pouches filled with notebooks and hungerly ate them to grow much larger. The fire on Lily's body also began to spread through the grass and up the planks of the mill's exterior.

Lily's head spun and she found it difficult to focus, but thankfully she was coherent enough to still remember her current burning situation. Using the wall of the mill as support she stood up and retrieved a knife from an unburnt pouch. She cut away the pouches that were aflame and cut through the top layer of her dress and kicked it away. Though the fire had began to burn through the second layer, that part of her dress was thankfully not on fire. The remains of her discarded dress were now a massive fireball.

Lily looked to the beast to see if her attempts to harm it had been in vain. Everything around her was blurred, however the trashing glowing orange form a rather large individual revealed that Lily's plan had worked. The beast was burning, and even if it's skin survived the fire the stitches would not, and the creature would fall to bits.

Lily stumbled backwards away from the fires and managed to get a few steps before falling back to the ground. As she hit the ground everything went black. Before her mind plunged into darkness, Lily couldn't help but wonder if basing her plan off a 50 year old work of fiction was the sort of brilliant idea Adam was hopping for.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

@kapuchu
Well at the moment what I plan to do relies rather heavily on what Isabeau is currently up to. So I'm currently waiting to see whats happening in that regard.

And no need to worry about being a hypocrite. We've all taken long to leave a post at some point. Its all good.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

@kapuchuWhich will make it all the more surprising when it shows up in front of me. Shoulda brought a bigger boom stick.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

@Astarael42That creature is way too close for comfort...

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Going to make a small edit to my last post so events match up with MacabreFox's last post.

Edit: I added a short few lines near the end. I highlighted it in green so its easier to spot whats been added.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

@MacabreFox

Your post looks good however Johanna wouldn't be able to see Isabeau and Adam. They were further in the forest hiding to avoid anyone, obscured by a combination of darkness and foliage. Johanna would only be able to see Lillian running past into the forest.