BRAWLER: CH-4 Brawn And Bloodshed

The wind howled at the peak, the impact of its cold strands jolting the zealots awake. 

The commander felt their doubts and raised a hand. An ethereal force erupted from his palm, a small red veil that washed over his troops, calming their nerves and anxieties. The zealots' beliefs ensured that they stood tall. 

"What crawls from that horrid shine is merely a test, it is a design from the divine above, all those too weak to stand and kill their foe shall die forgotten like the worshippers at the decrepit shrine, their prayers to the false deity unheard"

"Fulfill your divine purpose, SLAUGHTER THEM ALL"

The cheers of the zealots broke through the howling gale, and the tirade and stampede of boots upon the weathered rock roared. The shrine answered with violence. Windows shattered, doors flung wide, and a deafening scream echoed from within.

Kade clasped his fists over his ears as the furry of the abominations resonated, the two uproars clashing against each other, foretelling the carnage to be and grimacing from the outburst. Kade followed the zealots behind, gritting his teeth and roaring beside them. 

The nightmare creatures that had shown themselves were a fearsome group, containing fast amounts of hounds covered in lashing wounds and broken jaws. They were too tall starved humanoid abominations, clawing at their brethren to reach the zealots first. 

The two tides of violence tore across the battlefield, and with a crash, they burst at the seams, the agonizing screams of newly injured abominations, shared by the laughter and joy as exuberance from the worshipers, spears sinking into rough leather and claws tearing through metal. 

'Both sides are monsters, even without the commander affecting them'. Kade hurridly remarked, the cold air entering his lungs as he lunged forward into the fray, instantly getting welcomed by a wide hook from a humanoid, with Kade just managing to duck before it took his head. 

"Shit that was close" 

Standing his ground, he watched the same humanoid break apart from the new spears embedded in its flesh, reaching out towards a zealot and easily twisting their head off, and using the surprised soldier's head to hurl it at a younger warrior next to Kade. The crumbling body of the zealot fell beside him.

In a battlefield like this, there was no time to think or watch, and before Kade could even process, a hound broke from the ranks of the army, scattering under the legs of his fellow man, and leaping at his neck. 

Instinctually Kade lashed out, getting into a quick stance before delivering a powerful right hook to the side of the beast's head, sending it hurling into the stone, it cried out in pain, and he rushed to finish the job, stomping his foot down upon it, he leveraged his weight and pummeled its head into the stone. 

He felt its skull bend and give away to his fists, but it wasn't enough to finish the job, so again and again he repeated the task. Its skull cracked. And the stone drank deep.

[you have slain dormant beast, tortured hound] 

Wiping the blood from his face, Kade scanned for his next opponent—he didn't have to wait long. Three more hounds burst through the line, rending flesh from bone. He charged, kicking one off a fallen zealot before leaping high and driving both boots down onto its neck. A wet crunch. The spell whispered confirmation.

Is it just the adrenaline... or something else? Kade thought. 'Could it be my attributes?' He was tearing through beasts that would have terrifying foes for an aspirant with no memories—and doing it with terrifying ease.

With his heart bumping against his chest, he scoffed. 'Maybe I am lucky' Before slamming his fists into a charging wolf. With the whimpering beast lashing out with its claws, the keratin sliced against his skin, reaping blood from him, but not cutting deep enough to stop him.

Kade retaliated by raising his left leg, dealing a devastating axe kick to the monster's snout, stunning the beast for enough time that a zealot could impale it with his polearm. The battle was too fast for any kind of strategy or planning. So Kade weaved between the zealots, his experience in various gang fights helping him forge his awareness, as he sought more enemies. 

As Kade darted between death and carnage, the blood rushed to his head, caught in the war between the two sides, he allowed his more reserved survivalist view to the side, as pure focus and vigor drove him. 

It was the environment he grew into, the brutal conflict and clashes of violence, the tool he had sharpened better than any other. Even with the variable of the nightmare creatures, not to mention the far more visceral deaths of each side. 

Kade perhaps knew it better than most aspirants. 

The bloody war continued, each side sustaining vast casualties, with the mundane soldiers losing ground quickly, only holding on thanks to the commander and his small squad of awakened. Aspects are raining down and supporting the force against the swarm. 

Kade found himself bruised and riddled with cuts, still deep in the fray with his group of squires, they seemed to be aided by the commander's aspect, allowing their steps to be quick and to stand their ground, but it wasn't going to be enough.

The more of them fell, the more focused on Kade.

"They want a piece of me huh!" he growled, another pack of tortured hounds charging at him and his allies. Their saliva-dripping broken jaws opened wide to feast. His muscles strained as he battered two of the incoming attackers, with one of the remaining three biting into his calf.

"ARGH—dammit!"

The glass-like canines of the beast tearing through his flesh, pain erupting in his legs, and disgust of the putrid teeth sinking into his leg. He quickly used his other leg to repeatedly stomp down on its head; with each strike, he felt the teeth grate against his muscles that screamed in agony. 

The beast refused to let go. Grappled and isolated as the battlefield shifted around him, Kade was more vulnerable than ever. A humanoid from nearby realized that its skinny gaunt bestial form rushing to him with a high-pitched scream. 

Despite his brutalist stomping, the hound refused to release his calf, Kade quickly bent down to pry the beast's jaws apart with his own two hands, "LET GO!". The stomping of the quickly approaching abomination grew louder with each stride.

Kade desperately strained his muscles and parting the jaws from his foot he then grabbed the bloodied hound, using his back he tossed it by the snout, the creature dangling its legs in the before impacted harshly against the humanoid. 

The thin behemoth powered through the canine barrier and straight at Kade. Taking a boxing stance he quickly darted from its haymaker, his calf oozing with blood at the stress, but Kade kept his footwork strong and shifted back to dodge another swing. 

Kade took deep raspy breaths as he quickly took in his new opponent. 

"Hey skinny, let's go for a round or two" 

The monster responded in kind. "RAAAGHGHHH!"

Kade kept his distance, with agile steps and glides, he let the abomination's long limbs pass him bearly, dashing back and forth between its furious assault like a fencer, taking any advantage, he could get in a quick jab against its gray-bony flesh. 

Each jab sent a jolt up Kade's wrists, the impact reverberating through bone and muscle. Even with his enhanced strength, his strikes barely fazed the monster.

Meanwhile, the abomination's wild swings were getting faster, closer—too close.

Kade grimaced.

Maybe the zealots weren't so crazy after all. I'm the idiot boxing nightmare creatures bare-handed.

His thought barely finished before one of the creature's wide swings connected with his guard. The sheer force cracked through his arms like a falling boulder, blasting him off his feet.

He hit the ground hard, skidding across the blood-slick stone, limbs aching and vision swimming.

The moment the blow landed, the beast was already leaping toward his prone form.

Kade, still reeling, scrambled for anything — anything — to survive. His eyes locked onto a blood-slick spear just out of reach, fallen beside a dead zealot.

Gritting his teeth, he forced his battered body to lurch forward, pain screaming through his limbs. His fingers wrapped around the haft.

As the monster descended, Kade thrust upward with all he had.

The spear pierced the humanoid's shoulder, the metal sliding into the bone with a sickening crunch.

The creature shrieked — a high, soul-rattling sound — as it collapsed atop him, its weight slamming him back against the stone.

Still, he held on, straining against its fury, forcing the spear to stay wedged between them like a wall.

The spear was a quickly breaking wall — splintering down the middle, only moments away from giving in and letting the abomination tear him apart.

Then, with a sharp snap, the spear broke in two.

The humanoid lurched forward. Kade barely twisted his head aside in time — the creature's fists crashed into the stone beside him, shards of rock and freshly broken debris slicing into his cheek.

As the beast pulled back, ready to strike again, Kade felt it — that surge of strength he'd only just tapped into.

His muscles burned at his command.

Grabbing the jagged bottom half of the broken spear, he drove the splintered wood up into the abomination's throat. It screamed in pain, the long limbs of the beast reaching for its neck, desperately trying to remove the object lodged in its throat. 

Kade now free from its assault propped up, steady on his two feet as he watched in thrive in pain, his breath heavy and blood on his tongue. "You are a nasty bastard arnt you" 

The creature didn't respond, still writhing in agony. 

Feeling the hard stone support his feet, he pushed forward against it. Dashing forward to his soon victim. With a swift motion, he sent a devastating right hook to the skull of the creature, reining back in a daze. 

In a fury, Kade followed the assault, with a left then a right rapidly, knocking its head back and forth, his knuckles bruised and blooded against the abomination's head, in the bewildered state it swung its arms, but Kade dodged and weaved, keeping up the barrage of punches. The impacts of each blow reverberated in the chaotic battlefield.

And sure enough, with an uppercut, the foe fell back, covered in bruises and blood, its horrific life withered away from its wounds. The spell commemorates its final breath.

[you have slain Awakened Beast, Broken devout] 

[You have received a Memory...]

"good riddance" Kade muttered, the aches and cuts tugging at his mind, yet he ignored the pain. In the violent battle between him and the devout, Kade had somewhat separated himself from the main area of war, and now looking from a safer distance he saw that there were still plenty of nightmare creatures left. 

While the zealots had lost about half their numbers. Their corpses mixed with the enemy, their wide blank eyes sharing a death bed as their companions stood over them in a bloody fight for life.

Sighing, kade stretched his bruised body, walking back to the epicenter of the carnage. The smart thing to do now would be to hide and wait it out, with the hope that the zealots managed to defeat the remaining nightmare creatures.

Kade covered in blood let out a sigh "I could go for a right smoke now" Normally after a victory brawl, he would reward himself with something nice, yet there was still plenty of fighting left for him. Not to mention a lack of any modern confections. 

So with the shimmering blue light of a summoned memory emerging, he walked back into the carnage.