61st Zi'da 721
So... Rakvald reflected, as he stared at the over-sized mantis, its pincers and long bladed arms dicing into the bodies of the poor slain scouts. They want me to acquire this things totem... or?
He'd been briefed on the creature's special properties. Its exoskeleton had a powerful property that rendered singular attacks mostly inert. Its exoskeleton hardened upon impact, but it did have a weakness, as far as he was informed. It could be killed by multiple strikes from several directions at once. Thus their strategy was clear before them.
Rakvald had a strategy of his own, one that would secure his freedom of these forsaken soldiers. But at the moment, he kept these plans well to himself.
He turned his head back, while bearing the countenance of the Dubaebo. The wolf-like creature spoke in a gravely voice toward Lew and his scouts, "We attack in a pincer formation, all at once, on my mark."
Lew seemed to chaff at this suggestion, but reluctantly agreed with a nod of his head. Rakvald grinned at him with the Dubaebo's teeth, then he began shifting into his gestalt totem. The mix of the Lotharro and Mer. Once he attained the form, naked as it was, he willed the armor he'd assimilated and the robes to emerge from his flesh. They were donned just as easily as that, and further, the embersteel warhammer was pulled from the skin of his tentacle. Now, fully armed and armored, he was ready to give the signal.
The mantises were gorging still, mutilating the corpses further. Rakvald held them back however, holding his hand high for a few more moments, almost morbidly curious about the insectoid's appetite. Did they always hunt humans? Or had they been provoked? He supposed he'd find out just how timid they could be, when the fight commenced.
With a drop of his hand, the scouts nad Lew jumped to the fray. Lew with his bow, attacking at a range but standing slightly ahead of Rakvald. Meanwhile, the rest of the scouts closed, spears in hand, toward the mantis.
They made a valiant showing. They even scared the second mantis into routing, running from the humans who'd beset their feasting companion. The mantis that had been eating the corpses was rightfully disturbed by having its meal interrupted, and began swinging its blade-like arms this way and that, heedless of the uneven blows that they rang down upon his exoskeleton. It was a marvel to watch, as Rakvald stared on, almost frozen in awe.
The creature moved with all the mechanical precision of a machine, or a well-crafted contraption. Its bladed arms severed several of the scouts' arms in a few moments. Their spear blows were largely useless against the creature's hide. Lew shouted at them, "Hit the monster all at once, you idiots! Hit..."
Rakvald wanted to run then, to abandon the men to their fate. But he had a better idea. Why just abandon them to doom, when he could abandon them to doom, and then create a potent totem from the Mantis' flesh? This was his course he'd decided, and so he stood by, and watched as the rest of Lew's scouts got slaughtered.
Lew cursed, and spat at Rakvald, then turned to retreat. "Fuckin useless mage! Get ye gone!"
And just like that, the scout abandoned his charge. Now came the time for selfish profit.
But it wouldn't be easy. Rakvald had armor and weapons, but what he lacked was a solid plan to subdue the mantis long enough, and without any outside help or superior numbers, penetrating its exoskeleton would be nigh impossible.
So he did something he hadn't in a few arcs. He prayed to his deity, Unity. Bowing his head momentarily, as the mantis shuffled from side to side, trying to get a good angle on him, he conjured the sleeping dust in his tentacled hand. The dust formed a pile there, as he rubbed his fingers together. With a swift extension of his arm and a running leap, he engaged the Mantis.
It's reaction was swift. The caught him on the armpit, with one of its large scythe-like arms. Then with the other tried to disembowel him, only to clink against his breastplate, which protected his abdomen adequately enough to put aside that blow. By then, he was within an arm's reach of the mantis' maw. With one swift motion, he pushed the sleeping dust into its face, holding it there to try and obstruct its other methods of taking in air. A few moments later, the creature began to lose its hold on consciousness. It's arm holding up Rakvald's weight fell, and then it crumpled into a pile of green, skinny limbs. An insectoid ragdoll.
Once he was sure it was fast asleep, he began his work. He wouldn't try to finish it off, no that would only wake it. Instead, he knelt by the pile of insectoid flesh, and with his tentacled hand, began kneading the exoskeleton and the flesh beneath it, willing it to form a egg-like shell of its exoskeleton, with the flesh and bloody ichor of the creature itself. The process took a few minutes, and then, Rakvald took the egg, and began meditating over it. He had more than a few breaks before the thing would wake, and begin its habitual stalking of men again. That was more than enough time for the master becomer to dedicate the totem.
As he meditated over the piece of flesh, at first unknown to him, his mouth began trembling with corruptive energies. The magic inside him was forcing a paradigm shift. His bat-like features twisted beneath the cover of his mask. From his nasal crease, to all along and around his mouth a set of tentacles began to grow, the same color as his skin. Their pink suction cups providing grip as he held the spheroid totem of the mantis before his eyes, concentrating on them. Unwittingly forcing the overstepping that would reshape his entire countenance.
Breaks later, after meditating over the totem, which looked suspiciously like prayer, he assimilated the object into the palm of his hand, taking it into himself. He thanked the ascended mantis silently then, and stood up shakily from his meditation. "Good show, mantis. That's some mighty fine exoskeleton you got."
Smirking to himself beneath his helmet and the tentacles, he walked off into the wilderness. Ostensibly, a free man. He still hadn't quite noticed the tentacles that grew from his face.
Of course, the way was not easy, at least in terms of finding the direction he'd need to go. However, with some rudimentary fieldcraft knowledge, knowing the side of the tree the moss grew on, in relation to the cardinal directions on a compass, he was more or less able to make his way far enough south to find the river. From there, he followed it toward the southeast, careful to avoid any potential patrols of men.
As luck would have it, none of the Forbidden Post had taken to seeking him out. No, he made his way to Foster's landing a free man, and wholly alive. A minor miracle, and a gifted fate that he would not over-examine, for fear of developing paranoid tendencies. There were many charters available at Foster's landing, and given Rakvald's considerable wealth that he was able to command, and his even more valuable services he could provide, he was able to negotiate passage aboard one of the pirate vessels making berth in the Landing.
He shook hands with the first mate, grinning beneath his helmet. The empty sockets in his helmet must've shown the smile lines, as the man returned his grin, and patted him on the back as he came aboard. "A medic, and a pair of strong arms and legs will be useful aboard our vessel, but we expect you to pull your own weight, y'hear?"
Rakvald nodded, "To be sure, mate. I'll get started right away, if you have anyone in need of an extra limb?" The monster guffawed.
The first mate just gave him a wildly skeptical look, before shaking his head and turning away. About half a break later, the ship was underway, moving into the waters of Foster's Bay and then beyond to the Orm'del Sea. Rakvald had gone through hell to get all this way, from chasing an errant monstrous King Crocodile, to losing one of his most steadfast companions, to imprisonment in an abandoned fort, and then the ordeal with the ascended mantis and subsequent massacre. Finally, he was heading to a familiar place. He was heading home, to Scalvoris.
It would be good to be back in a civilized area again, and Rakvald fully expected his family to find their way to his home island as well.
