“Gaia’s fire, Vairsing, shut up already,” Zysovra growled. His red eyes looked angrier within the deep red of his body.
Vairsing flashed his best award-winning, golden, shit-eating grin. “You’re just mad because I’m right.”
“No, I’m annoyed because you’re a buffoon.”
“Wah wah wa- hey!” Vairsing pouted at Ibex from underneath the brown paw planted on his head.
Ibex sighed. “Please. We have a monster to hunt. Focus.”
It was then that Vairsing’s little robotic companion, KREB, scuttled out from the fluff of the red and gold mane and gently snipped at Ibex’s paw. Ibex quickly withdrew, frowning at the colorful metal crab as it seemed to laugh at him in its strange, keening chitter.
“Focusing is for schmucks. Just follow that ugly blood scent and we’ll find the monster soon enough. Or the air colors. There’s a lot of air colors.”
“...You mean the miasma?” Zysovra asked, sighing.
“Yeah. I guess so.”
The three had met perhaps an hour ago, after word through the grapevine traveled to the Core, and they heard a tip about one malevolent creature’s whereabouts. One that trailed destruction and combat wherever it went. Some of the kiji had begun to call it a spirit of war, or of conflict. Other spirits, by now, had been dubbed those of famine, plague or pestilence, and death. Whatever they were, Gaia’s warning about their dangers were far from understated, and many kijikaiaku were now out in force hunting these otherworldly beings down.
“We ought to pick up the pace,” Ibex suggested, a ripple running down the fur of his spine.
“I’d love to,” Zysovra stated, and pointedly glared at Vairsing, who was picking something out of his teeth with a claw.
“Huh? What?” Vairsing asked, noticing the stare.
“Move it, Vairsing!” Zysovra snapped.
Vairsing yipped a laugh, and bounded along ahead. “Fine! Last one there’s a rotten egg!”
“I- What-” Ibex stuttered.
“Let’s move.” Zysovra didn’t waste anymore time, and hurried after Vairsing.
Ibex followed suit.
--
They ran through trees and then a meadow for what seemed to take the better of two hours, without rest. It wasn’t much longer before they came across a human-looking figure clad in red armor atop an equally red horse, and from a distance it was unclear if the glistening stuff on it was blood or shining metal. Perhaps it was both. The human figure held a reddened, smoldering wicked blade in one hand, held out like he might strike at anything that came near.
Zysovra instructed Vairsing and Ibex to crouch in the tall grass of the golden-brown meadow and observe the figure. Vairsing rolled his eyes, but kept quiet and hunkered down, and Ibex crouched without complaint.
As they prowled closer, more of the figure’s details became clear in the dawn’s light. It, and its horse, were clearly hurt, sporting various injuries that each recognized as having been caused by fellow kiji claws and teeth. The sword dripping so much ichor and other things, however, drew Zysovra’s concern. How fared their brethren? he briefly wondered. An issue for later.
They couldn’t inch any closer, however, as the horseman finally turned and stared them down where they hid. He raised his blade, and swung, and an arc of bright red energy shot forth.
The trio barely had time to leap out of the way, each taking a separate path, and then the fight was on.
Zysovra wasted no time jumping at the rider, claws spread as he reached out.
Vairsing circled around the horse, and pulled KREB out of his mane, and once he was sure his aim wasn’t going to go wide, launched the little robot at the center mass of horse and rider. KREB landed on the horse’s shoulders, and immediately scuttled up onto the rider’s leg where the armor had a gap.
Zysovra landed on the horse’s back, behind the rider, and bit down on the already-wounded shoulder.
Ibex went for the horse’s legs, seeking to topple it, and the horse sidestepped to try and evade. Ibex won that short contest, and both horse and rider went sideways as the black-and-brown kiji rammed into them.
Zysovra nimbly landed on all fours, and dove back in to tear at the rider before he could get back up. He felt the sharp blade cut into his side, and he backed off a few steps before the metal could go too deep.
Vairsing helped Ibex assault the fallen horse, though despite all his blustering about being an experienced fighter, it was clear he didn’t have an idea in his head about how to take advantage of a prone target. He followed Ibex’s example, though, and raked his claws down the horse’s sides and neck while Ibex damaged its legs until they ran ragged and bloody.
The rider finally freed himself from his fallen horse and rolled away from the scuffle, and turned all his mounting fury on Zysovra. Fire burst from his form, and a mass of blades jutted up from the ground. Zysovra neatly danced around or between the deadly protrusions as they appeared beneath his paws, but he was finally forced to give ground and put distance between himself and his quarry. He bared his teeth in a snarl and growled.
Though the horse was currently disabled, the rider was not. At least, until KREB snipped a vital tendon behind the rider’s knee, having clung to him the entire time. The rider howled and his stance faltered.
It seemed to the trio of kiji that the fight had reached the halfway point, but the truth remained to be seen.