Free Web NovelChapter 252: Treasure amongst the trash
"What pig? Bring to me. I want taste." A raspy voice slithered out from underneath the Chief’s shawl, each word sounding like a task to get out as if it didn’t quite grasp the language, and that its vocal cords weren’t used to speaking at all. The fact that it could grasp language to any such degree caused Belladonna to stop in her tracks and frown in surprise, staring at it as if she had just heard a Chimpanzee speak.
"You speak? Now that is a surprise. Although by the sounds of it, I doubt that you would be able to effectively beg for your life.
Not that it would really change anything if you could... but it might be nice to hear nonetheless. At the very least its better than the mindless screeching of the small ones."
Belladonna spoke casually, regaining her composure after the momentary surprise, as she sauntered into the room like she owned the place. She took long, slow steps, dragging her claw-tipped hands across the walls and drawing groves in them, as she stalked her prey.
Her eyes darted around the room, checking it for any secret passages or anywhere that reinforcements might come pouring in through. But other than the door, which stood out like a spaceship in medieval times as it absolutely did not suit the rest of the environment, Belladonna could see no other entrances.
Just the door, and the passageway she came in through. It seemed they were entirely alone, but she was not going to believe that it was just the way it seemed.
"Where little ones? Why no chains?" The Grimshawl Chief asked, finally noticing the errors with her presence, causing Belladonna to chuckle. It once again showed, that the ability to speak truly did not make one intelligent. freewebnøvel.coɱ
"They’re dead, obviously. I have no chains because I am here to kill you, and take your source. So either you can lay back and take it like a good piggy or-" Belladonna never got the chance to finish her ultimatum, as she had to lean to the side and let the Chief’s fist sail passed her face and slam into the wall.
He had extended his arm to three times its length and punched a sizeable dent into the stone. It would make most commoners tremble in fear, but any reasonable low level party would be able to take it down.
As for Belladonna alone, it just made her laugh and shake her head as she muttered, "Well... The hard way it is then. I was hoping you would say that."
Her usual devilish, blood thirsty smile spread across her lips as she swept her hand upwards. Her claws easily glided through the skinny, liqourice black arms, severing it completely with nary a hint of resistance.
The Chief let out a screech that was the same as his kin, causing Belladonna to sigh, before he did something the others did not. While he pulled back his severed arm, the other five arms dove underneath his shawl and started to pull out objects, tossing them at her in desperatation.
It was a surprising attack, to be sure, but a moment of surprise was all it had going for it.
The Grimshawl was just grabbing anything and everything that it had stored inside of itself, which was essentially a pile of random, slightly shiny looking objects or whatever it had previously eaten. Hammers, Swords, random scrap metal, bits of armour, gemstones, polished stones, bones of various animals.
It was a veritable hoarder, tossing anything that it could get its grubby little hands on.
Belladonna wove around the random items that were being lobbed at her, having to cut a few of them down as a few smaller Grimshawls were added into the mix although she was sure that was not a strategy and it had just forgotten it had them in there.
Ducking under a gemstone covered wagon wheel that flew over her head, Belladonna dashed towards the Chief as her claws melted over her hand, dyeing it pitch black before she rammed it into the Chief’s chest, along with its other hands.
Her face twisted in disgust, as she immediately felt like she was shoving her hand into a dumpster filled with half eaten food, which was yet another thing that filled this space.
"God... Did you have to be such a damned hoarder." She muttered as the Chief seized up in pain and confusion, his body not knowing how to react to the violation.
Meanwhile Belladonna was frowning deeply as she rooted around inside, feeling around with both her fingers and her mind.
’I was sure that this one would have it, but there’s nothing. I must be missing something... But what? Oh... Ohhh of course. Val you idiot. It has to be dead to drop a source.’
She wanted to slap herself for missing such an obvious answer, but in her defence, their bodies did disintegrate on death, so she could hardly be blamed for thinking she had to get it when it was alive.
But Sources, or more accurately Source Remnants, could only be created by a dead body. They were the left overs of a living creature’s actual source, that crystalized upon their death. So all she had to do was kill it whilst her hand was in there.
Of course her hand was technically part of its body at the moment, as the two had melded together, so if she wasn’t quick enough pulling out then she would completely lose her hand. Oh no... Anyways, with her other hand, Belladonna made a finger gun and pressed it against the Chief’s head.
"Wait!" It pleaded, sensing her overwhelming bloodlust.
"Nope!" She replied happily, and with a smile on her face, before blowing a hole through its head. A shudder travelled through her arm the next instant, as the body immediately started to lose its structure and dissolve.
She could feel it happening in her own arm, as the form started to become incredibly hard to maintain as it simply wanted to fall apart, and so started doing so. But Belladonna ignored those feelings, and instead called out with her mind, calling to her prize.
As soon as she felt something brushing against her fingertips, she grabbed hold and yanked her arm out, holding it up as if she was holding it to the light for a better look. But even if there was no light, and she was in complete darkness with nothing but dark vision to let her see, Belladonna could never miss the glorious sight.
Resting in the cradle of her half disintegrated hand, which was already starting to heal, was a pitch black crystal that radiated a dark power. Her treasure amongst the trash.
