Order Bat #1

Karni Bouthillier, L.Mouse 2, 2, 4, 5, 2 (1)

Karni’s vision was good enough to spot the movement of the enemy forces, the Large Mouse counted on her heritage enough that she appreciated the lack of the ability in her enemies. Such as the ones looting and sacking the city. Her city. The once noble city was nearly rubble. The deprivations of the ancient Enemy had weakened it enough for the ambitious to seek advantage. She didn’t fight off snarling abominations just to let human and mamono looters pick through the wreckage. She sighed as she made a series of hand gestures to signal the rest of her mischief. The rest of the mischief consisted of her sisters, though not all were fellow mice. Living in a shattered city made strange bonds, but they’d been forged with the fires of more than a dozen skirmishes like the one soon to take place.

A faint movement in shadows, darkness upon darkness, drew her keen eyes. As if sensing her gaze, it vanished into unnatural stillness. Karni felt her fur twitch and shuffle by some primal instinct. With another glance at the looters, who she was certain her sisters could handle, she made her decision. The few hurried gestures signaling her withdrawal to the others didn’t cause any chiding from the others. Karni was the oldest, despite her childlike height, and she often went to stalk the larger prey to spare the others. Something deep inside knew that this would be dangerous prey. Her tail coiled and twitched in anticipation as she soundlessly leaped through the dilapidated remains of houses and businesses.

Swiftly circling to another vantage on the same position, there was the faintest ripple of black in shadow.  Karni felt a squeak of excitement building inside, she let her restlessness spill into her busy limbs as she followed. The building she last saw the flutter of dark cloth vanish into was so damaged that it looked half finished. The roof was mostly open, and less than 3/4ths of the walls were still standing. It was filled with shadows. Karni gave a fast acrobatic leap into the building, her pair of knives sliding into her furred hands before she even touched the ground. As soon as she felt the dusty debris covered floor beneath her, a sharp swishing of air sang out to her perked out ears.

The Large Mouse sidestepped the rush of air approaching her, able to make out some dagger-sized black spinning object as she dodged. Her eyes widened as she saw two more of the objects spinning to intercept her, her knives met them with the metallic clang of metal on metal. Beneath the loud sound was a thunk, and the feel of a blow on her shoulder. Mere seconds after she’d entered the partial building, she could now see her prey clearly. It was a man, she could tell. He was dressed all in black, his armor, his cape, even his face was masked in darkest black. His hands were held before him, lowered and seemingly empty.

Karni’s mind took a moment to process what had happened. She had leaped inside and dodged one of his missiles, and he had thrown some to where she was going to dodge? Her coiled restlessly as she mentally shook off the nonsense idea. He must have thrown all of them at once. With a shrug, she began to move towards the stranger, only to stop upon noticing her right shoulder felt heavier than it should. Her eyes still on the silent man, the back of one of her hands was touched to the spot.

She felt something hard and sharp embedded in her shoulder. Adjusting her fingers around the hilt of one knife to let them dig the thing out, she felt a burst of pleasure as she wiggled it free. Demon silver. Karni grinned to herself, it seems like both of them got lucky tonight. She must be losing her edge to have let that one get through. With fast movement of her hand, she hurled the sharp bent thing, still sticky with her blood, at the silent man. He didn’t even move. It didn’t strike him, as it curved in the air before it would’ve hit him, instead ending up sticking into a weathered wall with a thunk. Karni gave a huff of disappointment, of course he’d be using magic. A girl born and raised in an Ares governed area didn’t have to hope for a good fight, but Karni was old-fashioned that way.

Magic was a fact of life, and approved by the Gods and their Order. Even Ares approved of it, Karni knew a few spells of Ares, herself. But Karni felt there was a massive difference between fighting while using magic, and whatever the hell the man was doing. He didn’t wave or speak to cast his spells. Even worse, he couldn’t keep his throwing knives straight and un-bent. She knew human senses were worse than mamono, when unaided, but the curve in the odd shaped daggers only added to her disappointment. Ares was quite serious about weapons care. Karni assumed she must have gotten her hopes up while she was appreciating a display of stealth so refined, that she could only catch a glimpse of his cape while chasing him here. Well, already he was more interesting than the average looter, so there was that. Expanding her senses, she could smell the scent of him, he didn’t reek of any sort of magic. Just a sweaty man, who reeked of odd chemicals.

Karni wasn’t very strong, but she was very quick. Dashing forward with knives out, she easily dodged one of his stupid bent throwing knives. She slashed at the hand of his that briefly ducked beneath his cape around waist level. There was the clang of metal as his hand drew out a short sword just in time to block her strike. But he hadn’t been able to draw the blade out to full extension, it was still half-way within it’s scabbard. Karni smiled, she’d dodge his stronger force as he drew it out fully, and stab him with her other knife while he was off balance. She shifted to the side as he drew the short sword out forcefully, knocking her first blade aside. But now his left side was wide open to eat her other dagger. Right before she thrust forward, she was stopped by a blow from behind her, right between her shoulder-blades. Her mind went foggy with lust, and there was something heavy on her back. She skipped back out of his range, her face twisting in frustration as her feet did her bidding so clumsily.

Her head turned back as she skipped backwards, but she saw no one else in the poor excuse for a building. The man re-sheathed his short sword with a quick movement of one hand, and like a magician, his other hand fanned out another trio of the odd bent knives. Fuzzily, Karni’s mind groped for a connection before the frustrated and lusty mamono decided to just rush him. His curved daggers weren’t faster than her, and she’d discovered how badly they were weighted for throwing. With that though, she rushed forward as he threw the trio. His aim was so bad that she only had to deflect one with her knife, the other two swished past her as she sprang forward thrusting. She could feel that she was a fraction too slow and heavy, but she was still faster than a human.

There was the screech of metal as one of his forearms deflected her first slash, her second thrust from her other knife filled the gap with thrust into his shoulder. He grunted as her Demon blade penetrated, but rather than fall into pleasure spurred unconsciousness, he seized her and half twisted her body. Her hand trapped by his so that she couldn’t move the knife still in his shoulder, she prepared to make an awkward stab with her other knife. Her turned head made out the sight of the two bent whirling daggers that came out of nowhere. It wasn’t enough to let her dodge them, and the thunks of them striking and sinking into her chest made her moan and shiver.

She lost her grip on both daggers as the heaviness on her back pressed into her more firmly, her body hot and flushed with lust, small spasms of pleasure beginning to take her. Her voice broke into a moaning squeak as she cursed about magical daggers. She wasn’t long in his grasp before the pleasure overwhelmed her into unconsciousness.