The Eyes Above – An Incarn28 Story Battle Report

Carvus looked up at the eyes, they watched him closely. He had thought from youth that they were the gods, watching over him, but in truth no one really knew. No one knew why the sky was covered with them. No one knew their purpose. No one knew why their giant tears of blood that belched forth from prolapsing ducts, fell like artillery shells on the cursed earth. No one knew very much, but Carvus grasped his mace tightly, he knew the weight of it, and that would be enough for now.

Carvus gathered his men, along with the local Fief Lord. “Deathbeast ahead” pointed Guard Mondane with the tip of his spear.

“Good good” clicked the Lord from his long beak. “My people have suffered enough at the hands of that deviant.”

“Forwards!” barked Carvus but reality split open instead. A tentacle faced being emerged from gaping void, and while cackling a dark chant threw the blade of its axe at the governor. Chief Guard Andraid’s portshield glowed brightly as the blade passed through the Lord, but instead of bisecting the avian, its cut struck Andraid’s chest plate. The force threw him to the dirt, while the backlash of his elemental physiology threw the would be assassin into a nearby wall. Carvus helped his comrade to his feet. The thing that attacked them spluttered black blood onto the dried mud. “It should have died” Carvus puzzled as his most of his men readied themselves for more attackers. Carlo instead tapped the button on the side of his skull to activate his excruciator and gasped as pain flooded his carnality giving him focus, he raised his rifle slowly and took a shot at the Deathbeast. The crack of a well aimed round echoed out across the arid landscape and the creature slumped to the ground, its grey matter now more out than in.

Reality rent again, and a beam of dark energy split across Carvus’ ranks. Andraid’s portshield again sparked brightly illuminating the world with a neon green. The death energy was swiftly captured and directed back struck the attacker, throwing the new assassin to the ground, its large skeletal face clattering on the rocks. Guard Balkain advanced and spotted the black shape of enemies amassing on the horizon he fired his rifle, albeit ineffectually. “Sacroscum!” he spat, “Three or four ahead!” A bolt stuck back and caught him in the shoulder. Balkain knelt in the dust and ripped the obsidian shard from his bleeding flesh.

Carvus and Andraid swung to their right and made ineffectual attacks against the agile cephalopoid Assassin. The two Guards felt their arms strangely weakened by its presence. It clicked its tentacled maw with glee.

Two screaming Court Guards emerged from the ruins on the left flank, and called out to Carvus. He turned as Andraid held off the assassin. “There’s too many” the men cried, “leave this place, our patrol was devoured!” Behind them Carvus spied a fleeing figure, “Smugglers…” he muttered. “We’re these Guards to be trusted?” he thought.

Shaking suspicion from his mind, he put all his force behind a large arcing swing and caught the Assassin in the ribs as it leapt away from Andraid’s jabs. The beast crumpled, wheezing violently as it gasped desperately for air with a pulped torso.

It was in that moment he heard Balkain scream and then fall silent as another black shard struck him, rending his guts, and spreading his bowels across the field.

The eyes above all shut. There was a flash of darkness, and Andraid was gone. Carvus span attempting to spot the other skull faced Assassin, but it was gone too.

Taking advantage of the momentary confusion the two strange Guards leapt on the Lord and pulled him to the ground. “Spies!” cried Guard Mondane as he ran one through with his spear. The skies blinked again, and Mondane was gone. Andraid reappeared grappling with the skull faced Assassin. Carvus stumbled, shaken and nauseous by the rips in time. It was then he heard the Assassin’s weapon discharge and Andraid was eviscerated by dark energy.

Another blink, and existence faded into a milky blue. Carvus hung in a vast rectangular chasm. Thousands of feet below him he could see nothing but and endless plain of spotless cobalt. He tried to swim through the thick and suffocating air but was unable to move. His feet were fused to a large green disc. His body frozen in a moment of time.

Blink.

He was back in the world again, be he felt as if he had lost his soul. The skull faced Assassin blasted the Fief Lord and the avian fell, like so many of his comrades. His enemies seemed to fade as quickly as they had appeared, and in an instant all was lost.

Carvus looked up at the eyes again, and then down at his mace, it was no longer enough.