THE MOSIAC

the MOSIAC
EPISODE 9

It had been a morning to shake the mountain of heaven.

The sun stood high in the sky as Gahnt and Whisper made their way back to the Blunt Cutlass laughing and drunkenly swaying. 

Despite it being relatively early in the day, especially for those two, each reeked of strange and exotic scents and cheap wine. 

Their nocturnal activities from the previous night had gone off smoothly for a change and both had wanted to blow a little of their newfound capital on various pleasures in town that morning in celebration. 

Uncharacteristically, Nynko had abstained from the merryment. 

While the chaos priest rarely turned down an opportunity to burn through ill-gotten money on a good time, there had been unusual rumbling in the chaos pantheon recently.  The short priest had wanted to find out what was going.  The moment they had gotten back to their room and dumped their gear, Nynko prepared himself for spiritual journey with various hallucinogens.  Without so much as a word to his friends, he went into a trance in corner of the room facing the wall without bothering to remove his armor.

Whisper just shrugged to Gahnt and the two went on to embrace the morning with a pocketful of coin and a desire to melt their brains and morals gloriously.

As the two stumbled around the corner onto their street with their goal accomplished, they saw a flash of green light from the window of the room they rented above the tavern that served as their home. A moment later, Nynko came flying backwards out the window like a ragdoll, shattering glass and taking out much of the wall in the process. He landed in a crumpled heap in front of Whisper and Gahnt, his armor showing numerous dents and blast marks.

 

"...ouch..." came a weak moan from the injure priest before he passed out.

"Balls!" Gahnt cursed as Whisper started to move forward to help their friend.

"KEEP YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM THAT TRAITOR!"

Whisper and Gahnt both looked up to see a huge shadowy figure standing in the hole where their window used to be. Almost the size of Whisper, the massive figure stepped forward into the light. The blond haired, giant man wore an armor that was almost identical to Nynko's save it was of the brightest silver and unlike their companions, clean and undamaged. In his hands, he held a huge hammer, it's stone head burning with green flames. He raised the warhammer high in the air and with a mighty warcry,  jumped forward, hurtling downward toward the injured priest...

...only to be caught midair by the mother of all lightning bolts which blasted him back through the hole, through the roof in an explosion of wood and stone and then out the backside of the building.

"Go fuck yourself." said Gahnt to the rapidly diminishing figure, casually blowing the smoke from his fingertips. Whisper blinked rapidly trying to regain his vision.

"A little warning next time..." the druid rumbled.

"Sorry bro, one of those spur of the moment th.." was all the wizard was able to get out.

Suddenly, there was a small explosion of air to Gahnt's right and the huge figure appeared in his smoking silver armor, swinging his immense warhammer unbelievably fast, catching the startled wizard dead center in the chest. Whisper eyes went wide as Gahnt's body seemed to cave in around the hammer. The impact sent the shirtless mage sailing far across the street, ricocheting off a building, before landing on the ground, unmoving and silent.

For what seemed an eternity, the huge druid and the giant man stood staring at each other, sizing each other up.  Whisper's hand went to his massive blade.

The man licked his lips nervously.

"I don't know what you are and I don't care. I'm here for him. The Goddess demands the betrayer's heart." the armored man said, pointing at Nynko. "Stay out of it and you won't get hurt."

Whisper looked at Gahnt's prone body and then at Nynko's and snarled.

"I don't know what cheap bitch you worship, but you fucked with the wrong people this time." he growled, drawing his blade.

"Your priest is unconscious, your wizard crippled...I don't think you can defeat me alone demon." the armored man said, his eyes narrowing dangerously and glanced at Nynko before looking back to Whisper. "Walk away, that piece of shit isn't worth dying over.  I don't what crap he sold you on, but there's nothing about that one worth saving."

"He's my friend.  That's all the reason I need."

The man nodded and raised his hammer. "So be it.  I'll make this quick."

Whisper threw back his head and howled.

Whisper's eyes rolled into the back of his head. Muscles ripped, bones snapped and reformed, bone spikes began protruding down his spine, his shoulders, his arms. His growl deepened as his chest swelled. Long and wicked claws extended out and his teeth and horns grew longer and sharper. He screamed in fury as all he was, all his thoughts, were lost in a primitive red haze. All that was left was the anger, the rage and the smell of blood.

"I...was...thinking... the same thing..!" came the barely understandable growl.

Whisper roared and blurred into motion, claws and teeth shining like razors, his blade a thing of bright beauty as it arced high against the noonday sun...