Match of the Millennium

Description: Zach Glenn was out on a jog, when a random monster decided to rampage. Despite the warning Kagura Mutsuki had given him, Zach opted to intervene.

[CLIO]
The cold light of a new morning dawning on Southtown. The villages, distinct from the bustle and roar of the Downtown area, have had their more placid existence torn by war and strife. Though now they settle with a return to a sense of normalcy, there are things waiting in the wings to capitalize on the chaos of the situation.

Scraping sounds whine. Metal on metal. Scratching and creaking. A great snorting, grunting and groaning. A figure from beyond the veil moving along with a pained, lumbering gait. A figure pushes aside the tender trees of a copse within a park ground location. Huge, the creature's hunched shoulders roll aside the young trees, and snaps the older ones in its wake. A boar's skull, rent of skin and most of its muscle, hangs off the shoulders by tight sinews that drip with ichor. It's body somewhere between a giant boar and a gorilla, hunched as though its very existence was agony. It appears flayed and torn, its ribs exposed and inside of it a still beating heart pumps a dark fluid that spreads in blackened veins throughout its bared musculature. Heavy hands end in twisted claws that scrape and grind against each other as it walks on its knuckles. A ragged beast of blood and bone and torn flesh amalgamated into a grotesquery. Hungry and rage-filled at finding itself slipped into this realm from whatever hell it crawled from.

The jaw of the boarshead hands as the thing makes a mockery of snuffling sounds, looking with sockets that burn with a faint ember's glow. The beast carves furrows in the ground as it starts to walk forward again, toward the Southtown village where it can sense and smell an array of prey to torment and indulge upon.

COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Zach Glenn       0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Boarshead has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Zach Glenn       0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0        Boarshead

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach Glenn had been out for a jog. The love of his life was in Hokkaido cleaning up that mess, and his own home was Yokohama, but Zach kept active in Southtown. It was a hub for all manner of things he was involved in, even if the psychic volume of the place grated on his nerves even on the best of days.

It's the sudden spike of fear that stops him short. He glances around quickly, listening, searching for the source of that fear. The breaking of the trees around him echo, but he singles out the location after a second. *Shit,* he thinks as the monster busts into the clearing he was standing in. No armor, no guns. Not even a good knife, really. The conversation with Kagura Mutsuki was still fresh on his mind. Glenn knew that taking on this monster would cause some... friction with the city's new keepers. On the other hand, if left unchecked there would be larger problems. And a body count.

Not much choice, really, and it's not as if Zach Glenn is completely without weapons for this fight. Zach reaches for that place in his mind that he goes to every time he is on the job. A gauntlet of psychic energy ripples around his left hand, the edges of the armor near his elbow fraying and crumbling even as it replenishes itself. In his right hand, a sword. A claymore with a white hilt that immediately erupts into a flame that does not burn, resembling something like a shaft of sunlight in his ready hand.

"Hey!" Zach yells at the monster, hopefully getting its attention. "You! Big, tall, and stinky! Come get some!" The flame that surrounded the weapon seems to engulf Zach's whole body as he prepares for this fight!

COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn gathers his will.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Zach Glenn       0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0        Boarshead

[CLIO]
The beast ceases its lumbering with the sound and sights of Zach's approaching challenge. It's fiery pinprick eyes twist with the sound of bone on bone grinding. The jaw hangs lose and the creature snuffles the air, breathing in the scent and sensing the building of power in its vicinity. The great beast digs a furrow in the ground with its clawed hand.

It lumbers forward. It lumbers again. Then it begins to pick up a furious pace. Each stride chewing the ground beneath its monstrous claws and the twisted hind hooves. Earth flies up in the beasts wake with each gallumphing stride. As it nears the man exuding the power and energy, it rears up upon its stocky, short legs. A massive claw, a row of scything nails reaching to the sky.

With all its monstrous weight, it descends. Downward toward the defender of the Southtown villages. A single swipe to raze all hope of fending off this ragged and bloody beast.

COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn blocks Boarshead's Monstrous Hammer.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Zach Glenn       0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0        Boarshead

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach snarls, thrusting his empty hand upward at the incoming claws. He strikes the monster's plam, diverting most of the force of the attack with a short burst of psychokinetic force. Already, he has a timer running in his mind. Partly to gage NOL's response time, partly because he knows that he does not want to be here when they /do/ arrive.

Zach immediately brings his left hand down to summon a second sword, this one composed purely of psychic energy, before slashing out with it to try and sever any muscles or tendons that may still be operative before leaping away. Being in close quarters is both foul smelling and a bad idea.

COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn successfully hits Boarshead with Swift Blade.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Zach Glenn       1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0        Boarshead

[CLIO]
The energy blade slices through the beast with relative ease. The blackened ichor drips from the wound, a tendon in the beast's forearm pulls inward before hanging languid and slack. The creature lurches to the side, stumbling and stepped. Emberlight eyes flicker and follow Zach's motions away from it. The reeking stench of the bloody thing nearly more overpowering than itself.

And then, the dead tendon pulls back into the body, it stretches back out once more and articulates about the exposed bone of the beast's wrist. Once more it starts to move. It circles Zach, heavy limbs displacing the ground. It's heart thumping underneath its exposed ribs. The creature's veins bulge, muscle growing turgid and straining under a moment of pressure as the viscous fluid pulses through its body. It stares down at Zach Glenn. A wretched cunning in its firelight eye as it realizes this prey is not to simply be hewn and consumed.

COMBATSYS: Boarshead gathers its will.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////      ]
Zach Glenn       1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1        Boarshead

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach turns to keep facing the monster as it sizes him up. Stalling for time seems like it'd be a great idea, really. Zach *knows* that this is Southtown; there are plenty of badasses who could show up at any moment and help out with this thing. But it'd probably be better if Zach handled this one here and now.

Gripping the white hilt of Dyrnwyn in both hands, the psion leaps in a high arc before bringing the ancestral blade down on the beast's collarbone!

COMBATSYS: Boarshead Toughs Out Zach Glenn's Heavy Strike!

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Zach Glenn       1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1        Boarshead

[CLIO]
The Boarshead stands sentinel. Silent but for the sawing rasp of its scraping claws and bone on bone grinding that seems to be constant in the malformed creature. It stares and steadies when the human leaps up into the air. The ancestral blade in his hand. The defender of the people soaring to skewer the porcine beast.

And the blade does indeed strike true. It buries deep into the creature's shoulder. The black ichor, brackish and reeking of decay spews forth from the deep wound. Snapped bone and sinew twitch and writhe, still moving despite the cleaving strike. Only for the ravaged flesh to begin knitting back over the wound. Vein and tendon grow and twist and tie. Threatening to consume the blade as it remains embedded in the creature's flesh. The torn boar's skull of a head turns slowly to look at Zach Glenn. It's hanging jaw a mocking grin as the light in its eyes grows to a fiery fury.

So close to it, caught for the briefest of moments, and the Boarshead goes into a violent frenzy. Gnashing bone, scything claw. Leaping forward to drive the human to the dirt and to gore him with all the glee of a child tearing into a present on their birthday.

COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn blocks Boarshead's Monstrous Beatdown.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Zach Glenn       1/---====/=======|=------\-------\0        Boarshead

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach dismisses the sword in a spray of light as he lands. The beast charges in, and Zach summons more of that amber light over his arms. A gauntlet forms over his right hand, matching the left, as he enters into a sequence of blocks and parries to stave off the worst of the attack.

His instincts are screaming to return offense with offense. Every trainer, teacher, and instructor he has ever had tells him now is not the time. Not yet anyway. Zach presses in quickly, bringing his left hand down before whipping it directly at the boar skull head. The three-quarters uppercut, should it land, will unleash the energy contained in that guantlet with explosive force!

COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn successfully hits Boarshead with Explosive Strike.
- Power hit! -

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Zach Glenn       1/-======/=======|======-\-------\0        Boarshead

[CLIO]
Offense meeting offense is what is indeed needed in the moment. The gauntleted fist crashes up against the Boarshead's skull. The explosive energy blasts outward. The skull, with its grinning jaw and wicked eyes is razed in the blasting strike.

Skull and jaw fragments rain down in pieces, scattered dribs and drabs of gore spatter on Zach and the placid park grounds all around. Half the jawbone embeds into the earth near the great heaving creature.

For a moment, the thing looks dead. Or at least motionless. Headless, it goes still and standing. Stench raising off of it as it sits still.

Thump. Thump. Thump. The heart beats once, twice, three time. Headless of not, the beast bears onward. It lashes for Zach in a wild swing. A brutish hammer of blow to simply fling the human aside like a toy.

COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn endures Boarshead's Brutal Hurl.
! VENGEANCE !

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Zach Glenn       2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0        Boarshead

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach hops slightly to ride the throw somewhat, before slamming his back into a tree. The trunk shatters as Zach lets out a gasp of pain. That was a /terrible/ idea, he thinks as he lands on his feet. He's running short on time, and getting into a slugging match with this thing is proving to be a horrible idea.

Time to finish this.

Zach thrusts his hands out at the shoulders to both sides as he reaches into the ether, into the collective soul of the town. He grasps some of that energy, shaping it, molding it to fit his needs. A vertible armory of swords appear dangling in the air by their hilts. The swords are mostly of Japanese make, but there are also a few European weapons mixed in there. A matching set of wakazashis are the first weapons in Zach's hands as he charges the boarshead. Zach drives these into the monster's knees before gripping a rapier and an epee, which are shoved at the monster's hands. Two katanas are taken up, and aimed at the shoulders. Half a dozen knives are sent into the exposed ribcage. Zach finally takes a claymore, not unlike the one he started the fight with, and slams it up under the beast's chin.

COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn successfully hits Boarshead with #Claiomh Solias+#.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >                                ]
Zach Glenn       0/-------/-------|=======\===----\1        Boarshead

[CLIO]
The now inaccurately named Boarshead is not a creature of great swiftness. It isn't a thing that dodges, ducks and dives. It merely moves through. And headless as it is the heart still beats. It barely mounts a resistance to the armory being swung and slicing into its heavyweight bulk.

Each slash belches forth more of the brackish ichor. The beast silent as its ribs are pierced, puncturing the heart and spilling forth a cascade of dark fluids spilling out onto the ground. Covered in blades, still and standing. It moves with nothing more than a faint memory of the beast's raw strength.

A sweeping claw. Halfway between unaimed motion and actual attack. Sweeping to cast aside Zach to move forward. The blades stick in its forelimbs and hunkered shoulders fall from it like pins in a cushion. It merely gets a few steps before lurching and falling to the ground with a shaking thud. It's component parts splitting and distending as the corpse of the thing lay on the ground and ooze outward.

COMBATSYS: Boarshead can no longer fight.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Zach Glenn       0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Zach Glenn just-defends Boarshead's Monstrous Catch!

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Zach Glenn       0/-------/-------|

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach takes a half step back, and slaps the back of the incoming hand to throw the whole thing off. He waits another moment or two to make certain the thing stays down, before dismissing the pent up energies back into the ether. He considers for another moment before looking around.

No cops, no NOL yet. The forest is... interestingly devoid of any other presences however. It was a fairly quick fight; there should have been /some/ people either paralyzed or rubber necking still. Zach decides to see the data gathering through, and finds an intact tree to sit again as he pulls out his cell phone.

It would not do to leave this corpse unattended, and the thing /was/ pretty strong. He's not entirely sure it's dead just yet.

[CLIO]
Zach doesn't have long to wait before the morning brings some people to the park. Among them, NOL guardsmen to cordon off the area and hold it down for the officers and higher ups to arrive with directive and with Library intelligence to document and dispose of the creature for their own study and information.

The Boarshead does not move in the time it takes to get it clear. It seems that, despite the head being destroyed some time ago, it was the heart that kept the bloody thing moving onward like a freight train. And in death, its still frame unmoving is a showcase for how luck the people in the village were that Zach Glenn chanced on the scene first. Even with the swift response time for the NOL, the beast would have been able to claim lives had it reached the populated areas of the village.

Only through luck was a greater situation avoided. Next time, and into the future, however, it may not be so lucky that the beasts from beyond come at such convenient times and convenient places.

Log created on 13:13:35 01/01/2018 by Zach Glenn, and last modified on 15:42:51 01/01/2018.