116 Shear is A Glutton
Trouncing through the jungle were a group of monsters that looked like pigs with human bodies. They were clearly unprepared for this sudden downpour, as evidenced by the somewhat irritated snorts they were releasing. The meat they were carrying was already soaked from the rain, making this hunt seem like a total waste of time and effort. Snap! Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience
Suddenly, the group of six paused when they heard the distinctive sound of a tree branch being broken. Looking around for the source, they found nothing at all. Only the drizzling sound of rain bouncing off the thick green leaves overhead, and falling to the ground below. Thunk. "Hru?"
The group of orcs heard another strange sound and broke their necks looking for the source. This time they found something but it didn't really make sense. It was a sole pack like the one their tribesmen carry, dropped onto the watery ground with no sign of its owner. "Chinpa?" No matter how much they searched, they couldn't find any evidence of their missing sixth member. It was like he just evaporated after leaving all of his stuff behind. Splash! Suddenly, a figure appeared in the center of all of the creatures. Before any of them could react, he unsheathed the two handheld spears from behind his back and stabbed the orcs closest to him in the chest. The remaining three had only managed to lay their hand on their weapons when gleaming silver daggers left the belt of their attacker and embedded themselves in their head. All five of them fell down dead at exactly the same time, and Malachi cleanly wiped off the blades before returning them to his back. 'Gotta admit, that's some pretty nasty shit...'
The two orcs that he'd stabbed with his handheld spears were undoubtedly the worst off. 15:59
The area that came into contact with the blades was already starting to rot right before his very eyes, becoming a muddled mass of chunky grey-ish brown liquid. As cool as it was, it was also unbelievably morbid and gross. "I wonder which of these guys had it worse." Glancing up high into the trees above, he found Shear with her prey already in her hands, long dead and with his head bitten clean off. It looked like she was taking a bit more time to savor her food than normal, as she still hadn't gotten to the lower half of the body yet. No doubt the addition of magic power in her meal was making it a much more pleasant experience. "Guess I'll just stick these in the fridge for later then..." Malachi waved his hand and the bodies lying on the ground sank into the shadows around them. The main part of their goal for today was to fill her stomach, as well as stock up on food for the future as a convenience. Items stored in Mal's shadow storage do not rot or age and he was willing to bet that the magic inside would not dissipate either. Once Shear noticed that her food was disappearing, she appeared beside Malachi in a flash while making frustrated clicking noises. "Calm down would you? I'm saving some for later when you get hungry again." "Hungry...now..!"
"Christ."
The nightmare stopped eating long enough to watch Malachi's next actions carefully, slightly curious over what he was about to do next. Malachi's eyes suddenly started to glow gold, and a fiery lotus flower appeared directly in front of his face. That one became five, and then twenty, and then sixty. Normally, something like this requires an abysmal amount of tie and concentration but with Shear's field active, he had plenty of time for both. He dispersed the flowers out amongst the slow moving orcs and placed them so that each one was resting delicately atop their heads. With a casual snap of his fingers, Malachi finally started the show. BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOOOOMM!!!
One by one, the golden flowers exploded into columns of heavenly fire that so easily blew the roof off the shallow cavern overhead. In the aftermath of the explosion, small petals floated throughout the jungle, unaffected by the rain. It was truly a beautiful spectacle, something that couldn't be seen anywhere else. Malachi wiped his brow of sweat as he looked towards his contracted partner to see her reaction to his display. "..."
"...For real? Nothing?" Shear simply went back to eating not long after, not truly understanding why she had to stop eating to watch that. Malachi decided to get even and took away the last of her corpse to store it away for later. "Hissss!!" "Yea, yea, hiss all you want but you aren't getting anything else for the rest of the day." Malachi started to turn around and walked back towards the entrance without looking back. "You coming? Let's go home and see Anna." Annalise is the only person that Shear seems to like as much as Malachi. When she heard her name, the nightmare teleported to his side without a second thought. Malachi was just a little bit jealous over the fact that Shear was so obedient when it came to her, but in the end he wasn't that upset about it. All that really mattered to him was that all of the people and creatures in his life were happy. The two of them walked casually side by side as if they were the best pair of friends imaginable, leaving only a still smoldering pile of rubble in their wake. Y’all ever have a day so terrible that when you go to sleep you hope you don’t wake up?
AnathaShesha