Board Thread:What Would You Do?/@comment-34263048-20181103194639/@comment-36855838-20181105040317

I set down the binoculars, my damn glasses are bumping into them again.

Taking them off, I look again. Sure enough, I saw it right.

"Sound the alarm! Monsters, with women's bodies! Spread the word, and put all women indoors!"

Bells clang and clatter all around the wall, and soon the gatse are closed, the runes of sealimg suffusing main street with a purplish incandescent glow.

The archers take position, longbows in hand, and those who can man the ballistae.

I pull out my throwing dagger, the ring of my grandfather melted into the handle, my grandmother's ring on my right hand.

As I put on my glasses, the beasts come into range, met immediately with a wall of arrows.

Every arrow and bolt we fire falls ten feet short, and through my binoculars, I spy a white-haired woman with long, curling horns, which pierce back into and out of her own skull, working backwards like some odd swirling filligree.

She sits in deep concentration, her arms outstretched, carried by what must be four dragons.

The bolts keep flying, enchanted shafts and tips employed, they begin to punch through!

Mere seconds later, a roiling, weaving wall of serpents forms, blocking every shot with their thick, glistening scales.

The progress of the army is slowed greatly, but they're still approaching.

"Watchers, Report!"

I stand and salute our commander, captain of our town guard.

William and I hastily update the commander, and a deep-set scowl overtakes his visage, a scowl which perfectly uses all of his deepest wrinkles.

"We'll need a rear assault team, Matthew, gather your men, I trust your order of the sightless will be able to bring us our victory?"

I bow deeply.

"If not, we will certainly buy time for our reinforcements."

I hurry off, leaping to a rooftop and making my way to madam Angelica's tavern.

Plucking a blade of grass from the planter on the attic windowsill, I send out the cutomary call to action.

Soon, the others have assembled in the street below. Clad in ceramic charms and cloth talismans.

I snap thrice, a "follow me" command.

We quickly make our way around town, passing through the only doorway through the barrier.

Pulling out the paper runes which had let us pass, we swallow them whole.

We bandage our heads tightly, my glasses still sitting in the watchtower.

Quickly, we travel behind the company of monster warriors, ready so strike, our sightlessness accompanied with normally useless spells and cursed charms which blind the users and hide them from view.

Positioned optimally, we wait and listen, observing the chain of command, while their mana is empty, and consumes that of their surroundings, they are still easy to sense, shadows against the blinding backdrop of the city.

Our targets confirmed, our blades raised, we begin the attack.

Amelia, our second youngest, strikes first her blade cutting deep into a large furred creature with the body of a spider, showering herself with blood.

Dimitri is next, his blade cuts deep through an odd, wet creature whose shadow feels not unlike the earth, solidifying her.

Annabelle is next, her fist plows straight through a womanly shadow who sits next to the leader. Her weight lifting really paid off!

My dagger already soars through the air, striking straight through the back of the white-haired demoness's head.

Her body goes slack, we retreat into the shadows, the whole attack having taken ten seconds.we pause to observe the effect on their command structure.

Reaching a small hut built under a tree, we hide out while the enemy panics.

Removing our stealth charms, we examine each-other.

Amelia is completely uninjured, her clothes soaked only in the blood of her mark. Dimitri has also remained uninjured, though his groin is caked with mud. I have no stains or marks on my body, having stood back far from the action.

Amelia gasps.

"Annabelle is not with us!"

I screw my eyes tightly shut, stalking to the exit. Outside, Annabelle sits right where her target had been, wrapped in groping tendrils, the shadow slowly overtaking her.

I also see the beast Amelia 'killed', looming over Annabelle. And the one Dimitri struck down is still alive too, holding his slowly darkening blade aloft.

I hold out my palm, the dagger flying back into my hand without being seen, and return to the interior.

"Her target has eaten her, there is nothing we can do."

Dimitri begins to cry, Amelia moving to console him.

He shoves her off, and she crashes into me, her body radiating an intense heat.

She begins fanning herself with a fan-folded parchment, removing her top to better cool off.

She slowly advances on me, and when I blink, I see shadow enveloping her frame, closing towards her center ever so slowly.

And at her center, deep within her soul, sit small dark spots.

She leans against me, and though she breathes quickly and hotly, her skin turns blue.

She lifts her legs, hopping up to straddle me, but I feel no weight on my shoulders, a massive, furred spider torso occupies the space behind her. Pushing on, she smooshes me into the far wall, trailing gentle kisses up and down my neck, the few grazes by her now razor-sharp teeth letting me know why. Her lips grow much softer and slightly plumper, her hands sprout fur and then claws, finally becoming paws.

By all accounts, she's become a monster, an ache churns deep within my stomach, I wait in utter agony for the final slice, the tearing of my throat, the rending of my limbs from my torso.

But it never comes, and I soon find myself drifting off to sleep inher gentle, powerful arms.

I wake to birdsong, seeing a crying Dimitri held gingerly in the arms of the arachnoid Amelia, her voice gently cooing words of comfort and kindness.

I see through closed eyes that she is merely a shadow, that his light flows into her, the shadow traveling into him as she holds him.

He is not overtaken, though. The darknessmerely dits stagnant at his edges, his inner light only shining brighter for it.

I try to sit up, an odd squishy sound echoing through the room.

The visage of Annabelle rises from the floor, sculpted to perfection from purple sludge, an odd glowing sphere seated behind her now ample chest.

She rushes me, tackling me into a large hug, and laying a similar amount of even soggier kisses all over my face, avoiding my lips the same as Amelia.

I hold her close, not wanting to let go, not daring to hope that she's really in my arms.

"I'm sorry, Im so so sorry, I thought I'd lost you for good, I thought I had killed you, sent you to die, that it was all the same. Please, forgive my foolishness, please, tell me you're alright, ple-"

"Stop it, you old worrywart, you'll turn into a puddle like me if you keep thinking like that!"

She giggles and swoops around behind me, picking me up and carrying me onto the back of Amelia.

Dimitri joins us, and Amelia crawls slowly out the back exit of the den, where our carriage is stowed.

We arrive to a scene of suscpicious serenity, order flags sit torn and burned, henging all around the city, the eerie quiet pervading the very essence of the air.