01-11-2021, 04:50 PM
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While she can’t see the creature’s flesh ripping from itself, she can feel the warmth of its lifeblood spill onto her head, and she can hear the sound it makes. It brings her intense pleasure to finally connect her prongs with an enemy’s blood and tissue; her rapture surges even more when she hears the Queen click in approval. It has been a long time since Nexu has listened to her native tongue, and even longer since an elder had given her appreciation.
Fueled by her newfound delight, the smaller queen backs away to observe the way the beast scrambles desperately. It is surrounded and frightened, and the muscled, armored shadows that battle it seem motivated and fed by the terror that begins to bleed into the air. Nexu’s slitted nostrils flare as she inhales the scents of blood and tissue in the air, and her dark eyes dilate even further as she senses their victory drawing closer.
Yet the creature attacks the smallest again, and Nexu feels confusion poison her adrenaline as its clawed forelimb moves through the head of her kin. She can only assume it is a trick of the beast’s — like Partner’s ability to melt into water or pull moisture from the air around them — and tries to ignore the shriek that comes from the smaller Predator. With a rough shake of her armored head, Nexu launches into the final attacking blows.
It doesn’t take Nexu long to recognize the Queen’s strategy, and she moves easily to the creature’s side to trap it. When a curved horn nearly severs the limb, Nexu is quick to completely shred the tendons from the rest of the body. It flies to the ground, its landing silent compared to the wild, defeated shriek of the beast. So engulfed in the battle, she almost doesn’t notice the smaller Predator stumbling into the darkness. But she can smell her fear and pain, clinging to every leaf and rock as if gallons of oil have spilled from the sky.
Whether she decides to follow the Predator or not, Nexu will decide later. For now, she keeps her attention on the monster and her ally. The creature is staggering, its energy quickly drained by the amount of blood (and though it is dark, the blood is even darker — so black it seems endless) that spills onto the soil. Pieces of flesh hang in tatters on the monster’s deformed, foreign frame, and its glowing white eyes seem to flicker.
From what she has tasted, its meat is unique, prickling her tongues and warming the empty corners of her belly, and so Nexu chitters to the Queen. This monster’s death is an invitation to a meal (even if it is at the cost of a Predator’s existence, the melting of armor to tender skin and the fullness of thought and emotion).
It doesn’t take them long to finish the beast, nor to leave only a few scraps upon the blood-slicked ground. The clawed hand lies untouched just past the mess they have created, curled in a final attempt to defeat predators it, quite frankly, stood no chance against. Satisfied by the spiced, heavy meat, Nexu turns her attention toward the Queen and peers curiously at her. Where, exactly, has she come from? Why have they never met before? Where is the rest of her hive?
Fueled by her newfound delight, the smaller queen backs away to observe the way the beast scrambles desperately. It is surrounded and frightened, and the muscled, armored shadows that battle it seem motivated and fed by the terror that begins to bleed into the air. Nexu’s slitted nostrils flare as she inhales the scents of blood and tissue in the air, and her dark eyes dilate even further as she senses their victory drawing closer.
Yet the creature attacks the smallest again, and Nexu feels confusion poison her adrenaline as its clawed forelimb moves through the head of her kin. She can only assume it is a trick of the beast’s — like Partner’s ability to melt into water or pull moisture from the air around them — and tries to ignore the shriek that comes from the smaller Predator. With a rough shake of her armored head, Nexu launches into the final attacking blows.
It doesn’t take Nexu long to recognize the Queen’s strategy, and she moves easily to the creature’s side to trap it. When a curved horn nearly severs the limb, Nexu is quick to completely shred the tendons from the rest of the body. It flies to the ground, its landing silent compared to the wild, defeated shriek of the beast. So engulfed in the battle, she almost doesn’t notice the smaller Predator stumbling into the darkness. But she can smell her fear and pain, clinging to every leaf and rock as if gallons of oil have spilled from the sky.
Whether she decides to follow the Predator or not, Nexu will decide later. For now, she keeps her attention on the monster and her ally. The creature is staggering, its energy quickly drained by the amount of blood (and though it is dark, the blood is even darker — so black it seems endless) that spills onto the soil. Pieces of flesh hang in tatters on the monster’s deformed, foreign frame, and its glowing white eyes seem to flicker.
From what she has tasted, its meat is unique, prickling her tongues and warming the empty corners of her belly, and so Nexu chitters to the Queen. This monster’s death is an invitation to a meal (even if it is at the cost of a Predator’s existence, the melting of armor to tender skin and the fullness of thought and emotion).
It doesn’t take them long to finish the beast, nor to leave only a few scraps upon the blood-slicked ground. The clawed hand lies untouched just past the mess they have created, curled in a final attempt to defeat predators it, quite frankly, stood no chance against. Satisfied by the spiced, heavy meat, Nexu turns her attention toward the Queen and peers curiously at her. Where, exactly, has she come from? Why have they never met before? Where is the rest of her hive?
@[Ripley]