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Post by Afterburner on Mar 8, 2010 14:54:24 GMT -5
"SHIT! ANATOLI! GET BACK!" The warning came too late. The grenade exploded right next to the mercenary, throwing him back. He saw the mercenary trying to lift his arm, but falling unconscious. Dodging a flying boulder which was flung at him with amazing velocity, he got to the mercenary. He was unconscious. All of a sudden, he remembered. Precordial thump
It was well over a month of spec-ops training. First aid class. He could clearly remember what the instructor was saying about recognizing cardiac arrest and the ways to help the victims.
"Quick, short thumps on the left side of the chest. If this doesn't work, then there is little hope left."
He got to the mercenary and punched him in the chest. He did not move. He punched him again, but to no response. He lifted his fist for the last time, bringing it down forcefully on the mercenaries' chest. He opened his eyes "VASILY! SCA! GET HIM OUT OF HERE NOW!" The scientist was nowhere in sight. As adrenaline rushed to his head, he lifted Anatoli on his back and tried to get him to safety...He saw a jet of fire rush to his face...This time, he felt something boiling inside him. It was fire. And it was telling him to kill. He dropped the mercenary on the ground and drew out both of his pistols. His entire world darkened, the only light being a reddish mist floating a few feet in front of him...The voice inside his head whispered "KILL!"And he did. He started firing wildly at the mist, which started to bleed. It was alive! "SO YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH FIRE? LET'S SEE HOW BAD WILL YOU GET BURNED!" His senses returned to him...No ammo. His last chance was his knife, and he wasn't sure about it actually doing anything.
Day 37 of mercenary training. Fighting without a gun. Burner approached an instructor who was explaining how to throw a knife
"Put momentum on the knife...Hold it by the blade if you want it to rotate...Try to visualize the distance between you and your target. Throw!"
He took a particularly sharp knife and threw the blade, which whizzed through the air. It bounced off the target.
"You're throwing it too slow, come on, feel the throw."
Burner grabbed a different knife with a blue handle and a serrated edge. He tried to visualize the trajectory of his knife and threw it. The knife had gone through the target and hit the wall behind, still vibrating.
"Excellent throw! You can keep the knife."
And then he returned to reality. He saw the pyrogeist bleeding, still bursting jets of flame around the clearing.He also saw an bright, clear arc, leading straight to the monster. He took the blue blade and flung it at the monster. The flames stopped immediately, and he saw his knife floating in midair. A violent explosion roared through the forest. The only thing he saw was the knife buzzing towards him, followed by bloody chunks of flesh...And then, it hit his chest. His world went black again.
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Post by Διμι on Mar 8, 2010 23:05:45 GMT -5
Thor quickly grabbed a flying branch hurtling towards a mercenary, using the momentum and sheer brute strength to heave it directly back at the electric cloud that had sent it flying. Several arcs of lighting and gouts of blood sprang as the weighty projectile pegged the poltergeist into a tree.
Before the creature could free itself with its telekinesis, Thor had already dove for his target, pinning it down to the ground. The mutant's protective cloud erupted in sparks as it sprang back into the visible state, struggling to throw the Freedomer off. It was a short, ugly thing, but surprisingly muscular, Thor thought as the monster kicked and bucked under him. Finally, he clasped a single hand around the creature's throat, crushing its windpipe as his other augmented metal fist smashed into the monster's face once. The skull instantly popped like a balloon, blood and bits of brain squirting everywhere as the poltergeist went limp.
Thor stood up, brushing the organic matter off of his fist. Immediately, he sensed movement behind him. An enormous boulder had taken flight, threatening to crush him as the last poltergeist hovered in the clearing. The rock was hardly twenty feet away, he would never make it in time, only to be crushed to a bloody pulp along with his exoskeleton, Thor thought.
Before he could move or brace vainly for impact, a deafening shot rang out across the clearing. Several mercenaries dropped to the ground, holding their ears at the tremendous explosion. The stone dropped like a stone as the poltergeist guiding it exploded into meaty bits, bits of torso and a whole head landing all over the area.
Sokol blew the smoke away from the barrel of his enormous rifle. "I'd say that'll be the last of those buggers" he said, flashing a sardonic smile.
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 9, 2010 4:56:25 GMT -5
Karc held his ears as Sokol fired, watching as one of the beasts was torn to shreds, pulling himself out of the hole he looked about, The mercs were largely uninjured, except for Anatoli he was slumped holding his head, Burner had a knife sticking in his chest. Karc wondered over to one of the intact Poltergeists, giving it a nudge. Nothing.
He stood checking his surroundings, the forest had a haunting and inviting look to it. He felt drawn to something deep within it. Shaking his head, Karc turned back to the group, they had climbed out of the hole and were crowded around the injured. He sat down while they tended to the injured. Rolling up his left trouser leg to check where the fuel can had taken a small gouge out of his shin just below the tattoo on his leg. He carefully wrapped a bandage around it. Just another scratch for the collection.He thought.
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Post by Afterburner on Mar 9, 2010 5:29:44 GMT -5
In all the chaos, Dimitri barely managed to see where he was heading. He saw Danilov shooting wildly through the treeline, barely hitting anything. The rest of the men were busy with their own troubles, as the poltergeists proved to be much more cunning then he expected. The Freedom member called Thor was wrestling a poltergeist. A boulder was heading right towards him, and as he turned, he noticed Sokol who was pointing his AW-50 at something which looked like white mist. He managed to get a few shots at it before the Sokol's bullets totally annihilated the monster's head.
Borisov was crawling on the ground, trying to get to safety. Running up to the man, he lifted him up and carried him up to the pipe, where he sat down.
"Borisov, come on, stay with me, Borisov!"
The man was barely conscious...He had already lost too much blood.
"Where's that damned scientist? DOCTOR! I NEED YOUR HELP!"
Burner was floating in mid-air. Everything was dark again. He felt some tingling in his chest. Was he dead? Was he really dead this time? He had cheated death many times before, but this time, he didn't know. And why did he feel cold? Is his skin healthy again? Where was the fire? The tingling in his chest turned into pain, and the entire darkness collapsed. He saw Anatoli covered in blood, standing over him. He was holding the knife with the blue-handle in his hand, still shaking. The blade looked searing hot, reddish and smoking. And then, Burner passed out again.
Anatoli approached Seth
"Round up the survivors, the base is about a few miles from here. From what I've seen, you're no rookies, and screw that blindfold rule. Y'all are coming now!"
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Mar 9, 2010 19:44:21 GMT -5
Tossing a medkit to Anatoli, Vasily said "I assume you have some first aid training? Staunch the bleeding and get him to your base as quickly as possible. Go!" Running over to Dimitri and the mortally wounded Borisov, Vasily knelt down next to the ex-soldier. The man had a terrible wound in his chest, just inches away from his heart. Peeking into the wound, Vasily could see the gleam of metal, but it was quickly covered by the blood pooling onto it. Grabbing the Mica out of his belt, he used just enough of it to slow the bleeding. "The shrapnel cut one of his arteries, I can only keep him in this state for a few more minutes."
Come on, Dammit! Think, think! Vasily racked his brain, he needed to repair the artery, but he had no surgical tools, no spare flesh or replacement tubing to use. Suddenly, he thought back to treating Burner's wounds, the slices of the Meat Chunk artifact! "Someone! I need a Meat Chunk, NOW!"
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Post by Διμι on Mar 10, 2010 23:08:47 GMT -5
Seth took a quick glance around. The entire area surrounding the merc squad and his own group had been scorched completely, not a blade of grass remaining. One of the mercenaries had been wounded by shrapnel from the exploding grenade, another bashed to bits by flying objects. Burner was unconscious on the ground. One of Dimitri's men had also received a flying piece of flak into the sternum, and was quickly bleeding out.
The Freedom leader quickly pulled out one of his Koloboks and tossed it to the mercenary standing over Burner. "Stab him with the thing" he instructed "the secretions should regenerate and stiffen the damaged tissue," Seth waved Sokol over, grabbing the other Freedomer's Mica. "Use this to stop the bleeding first. It looks like a clean wound, and the blade seems to have missed any vital organs and blood vessels. Our friend will have to live with a nice hole in his chest lined with scar tissue until we can get our hands on a Meat Chunk or Soul."
He made his way over to Borisov, whose situation seemed a whole lot more hopeless indeed. "Meat Chunk? Where the hell is the one I gave you?!" the Freedomer whispered furiously to Vasily. "Let's face it, unless our mercenary friends can come up with at least a Stone Blood to make up for the lost blood, this guy is a goner!"
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Mar 10, 2010 23:39:22 GMT -5
FUCK! How could I have forgotten? "Hold this right here," Vasily said to Dimitri, placing the captain's hand around the artifact, "If it moves even a faction of an inch up or down you will either cause him to bleed to death, or cause the artery to become clogged." Standing up and turning to Seth, "Don't worry about the blood, I'm sure we can find a few Mercs of the same blood type who are willing to donate. And that's not what I plan to use it for anyways!". Running over to where he had set down his pack, Vasily dumped the contents onto the ground. There it was, the smiley pinkish red chunk of compressed mutant and stalker meat.
Grabbing up the artifact, and running back to the soldier Vasily placed the Meat Chunk on a flat rock, pulling out his knife, he cut a small round out of the center. Cutting the small cylinder of the artifact down to the size of the gap in the man's artery, he hollowed it out. Picking up the small tube gently, he turned towards the soldier, "Seth, I need you to hold open the wound for me." With the Freedomer holding open the wound, Vasily carefully placed the tube into the gap in the artery. Within a few seconds, it had completely melded to the surrounding tissue. "You can move the Mica away from him now," Vasily said to Dimitri, "He should be fine, but he will be very weak until we can get him to the Merc base and find a few people willing to donate some blood. He shouldn't walk, so we'll need to carry him."
Piling the rest of his gear back into his pack, he slung it across his back and turned back towards the now healed soldier. Borisov was slowly regaining consciousness. "Make sure he doesn't try to stand up," Vasily said to Dimitri, "It wouldn't do to have whats left of his blood pouring down into his feet and not being able to make it back up."
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Post by Afterburner on Mar 11, 2010 17:49:17 GMT -5
Dimitri sighed with relief. The fact that Borisov was safe took a load off his chest, but something told him that the whole situation wasn't over. He turned his attention to the mercenary who was lying limp on the ground, staring blankly.
It looked like he had been possessed...Dimitri saw his eyes..."There's something behind that mercenary which is just out of this world...". He could have sworn that there was fire raging behind those eyes.
He tried to take the blue-handled knife which was lying besides him, only to jump back. The serrated blade was red hot.
" How peculiar...It seems like the poltergeist did something to this knife..."
And then, he saw something lodged in the man's chest. Taking it out, he realized, to his horror what it was.
"WHO IN THE RIGHT MIND STUCK A KOLOBOK IN HIS CHEST? IT'S PUTTING PRESSURE ON HIS HEART! IT STOPPED WORKING! THIS MAN NEEDS DEFIBRILATION NOW! NOW! WE NEED ELECTRICITY!"
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 13, 2010 0:24:09 GMT -5
While everyone was milling around Burner, Karc decided to check the tunnels and what the commotion with Torch was. Jumping back into the tunnels he clicked on his light and looked around. There was a splatter of blood on the wall and floor trailing into the darkness. Following it and expecting the worse, Karc came upon the body of his late companion, a large chunk was missing from his neck. Karc stooped down and checked the body, dead, It had been so for a while, he'd obviously bled to death after something had struck him.
Picking up the body of his late companion, Karc carried the body to the entrance of the pipe, and hefted it up, out on to the road, climbing out Karc checked over the corpse, taking Torch's LR300, MP5, PDA and his blade. Placing the guns in his pack, he pocketed the PDA, holding the blade in one hand he looked around for a suitable place to leave the corpse. Spying a smallish hole he lugged the body over to it and placed him in it. Filling in the hole, Karc stepped back, it was evident someone had been buried there. Jamming the blade into the ground at the head of the grave, Karc walked back to the group, who were still trying to figure out what to do with Burner.
Karc would of helped, but knew there wasn't much he could do. Why did I sell that bloody Sparkler? He cursed himself, he flicked through Torch's PDA, transferring the funds into his PDA. Thought about chucking it away but decided to keep it, turning it off and placing it in his pack he walked over to the group, "Torch is dead, if you were wondering." He said. There wasn't much of reaction. Ah well, seeya buddy. He thought as stood waiting for someone to do something.
Karc acquires... 1 - LR300 1 - MP5 6875ru
[Torch is officially deceased.]
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Mar 13, 2010 0:59:18 GMT -5
Glancing up at the mercenary, Vasily said "What a pity, now if all of you would give me a few seconds of silence. I need to think." Returning his gaze to the quickly dying merc, Vasily selected what he would need. Let's see.. he thought, Two moonlights should suffice, and I'll need some wire and something to jump-start the current... Sudden realization hit Vasily, "Karc, did you keep Torch's PDA?" The merc nodded, "Give it here." Vasily said. Catching the PDA, Vasily pulled out his knife and broke the casing open. Pulling out all of the wires and the battery, Vasily connected the artifacts with some of the wire. Placing the glowing spheres on Burner's chest, he took both ends of one of the wires and touched them to either side of the battery.
There was a small flash, and then nothing. Vasily grabbed the merc's wrist and felt for a pulse. It was there, faint, but definitely there. Picking back up the artifacts and discarding the wires and spent batteries, Vasily picked up the still unconscious mercenary and turned to Anatoli, "Well then," he said, "Lead on."
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Post by Afterburner on Mar 13, 2010 16:55:53 GMT -5
Floating in mid-air, Burner felt relaxed and content. There was nothing bothering him, he was alone, again, without any troubles. But, there was no fire around. Strange. "What is this thing pulling me? Huh ? What the?"
.He turned, only to see a bright, fiery vortex. Only this time, the fire didn't seem comfortable at all. He tried to get away, grabbing away at the darkness, but to no avail . As the vortex dragged him in, he felt searing pain all over his body. His skin was turning red, cracking, only to turn black. It started to shed again. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and he saw his wound opening. He got thrown into the vortex,twisting and turning in agony, only to...Wake up.
He tried to open his eyes, but he felt weak. Barely breathing, he tried to open his mouth. His body felt oddly limp, and, as he tried to move his tongue, he saw the dark again. This time, he wasn't going to let himself fall unconscious . He had a feeling that he was being carried by someone, but he couldn't see anything. Again, he tried to open his eyes.
He noticed they were walking through a clearing in the forest. He tried to remember where it was, but everything looked the same to him. He heard a familiar voice saying
"We should be nearing the exit...That path leads to the old mine, and the mine itself is pretty close to Limansk... We have two choices, to try and go by the coast which would take a bit longer, or to go through Limansk and face all kinds of freaks in there. I'm not sure about the city, as there's been all kinds of shit reported in the last few days over there, but it might save us the few precious hours we need to get the men through. I'm voting for the coast. It might be longer, but it's much safer."
That was Anatoli! Which way should they go? The safer, but longer coast, or the infamous bandit and Monolith-ridden city? Gathering every single bit of strength in his body, Burner murmured
"Limansk..."
He felt limp again. "I will not let myself black out !"
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Post by Διμι on Mar 13, 2010 19:15:20 GMT -5
"We're going through Limansk," Seth spoke "not only will it make the trip shorter, but it'll slow down and throw off our pursuers." Rurik's group was still out there, and Seth doubted the squad would stop at Yantar once they found him long gone.
The forest was awfully quiet, the Freedomer thought. Usually, all sorts of mutants swarmed in when interlopers reached this deep into the woods. But this particular day, an awkward silence descended over their surroundings. Not a living thing could be heard.
He gripped his rifle tightly. Nothing good could come of this, he thought. The stillness unnerved him. One could always count on the Zone to reveal its intentions through the most minute of things - a snapping branch, a gust of wind, a howl of a mutant in the distance, but Seth had never encountered a complete lack of life of this sort. The twisted, gnarled trees lining the path were completely still.
The group walked on in silence for several more minutes, before a commotion could be heard ahead. The brush alongside the road quaked violently as something truly huge moved through it with incredible speed. Every single stalker walking down the path grew still and raised their guns, waiting for the creature to emerge into the open. Sokol pulled back the bolt on his .50 BMG sniper rifle, ready to blow off the head of whatever was making a commotion in the undergrowth.
A giant mutant erupted from the bushes, its leap landing it into the center of the path into the group. It was a chimera, one nearly as large as a fully grown rhino and nearly the size of a pseudogiant. Seth immediately held his hand up, urging everyone to hold their fire. The two headed monster was known for its bloodthirst, but was rarely known to attack when surrounded by a group as it was now.
But something was terribly wrong with this beast. The smaller head gave a slight whimper as the larger one hang limply, devoid of any signs of life. Profuse amounts of blood and pinkish tissue dripped from the large mouth, which was hardly surprising, given the size of the monster's teeth. But the same red substance leaked and flowed from both the eyes and ears of the huge head, clearly signifying that it was dead.
The small head gave another whimper, as it looked back down the path it had come from, and the numerous guns pointed at it from the opposite sides, evidently unsure of where to go. It shifted about, and took a step away from the group, as if it wanted to go back. Then, in the blink of an eye, it gave a huge leap, flying clear over the group of stalkers before disappearing into the brush behind them, fleeing from some unseen foe before anyone could even bring their gun around to fire.
Seth peered down the road, in the direction from which the chimera had come from. The sounds of the creature slamming through the brush behind them had subsided. Evidently, it had chosen to risk being shot to pieces rather than go back to face whatever had attacked it. The Freedom leader was mystified. It was as if something had boiled one of the creature's brains right inside its head.
A small gust of wind blew from the depths of the forest, gently caressing Seth's face. The forest before him seemed to sway in his vision, blur and distort before shifting back into its regular state as the wind subsided. Along with the whistle of flowing air, Seth could swear he had heard something else: an otherworldly sigh.
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Post by Karcentric on Mar 14, 2010 10:06:59 GMT -5
Karc jumped slightly back from the chimera as it landed in the middle of the group. Raising his gun to shoot Karc stopped when Seth put his fist. The creature seemed more intent on escape than getting a meal out of the group. There was a strange whispering sound, Is that the wind? Or is there some sort of mutant out there about to attack? Karc thought to himself.
Looking from the direction that the beast had come from, he looked at the pool of liquefied brain matter that had dribbled out of one of the heads. And then in the direction the beast had vanished. "What the fuck was that all about?" Karc asked quietly. It had gone silent again, the wind had stopped blowing. Looking around Karc looked at the forest, it seemed so inviting again, almost pulling him in. Shaking his head, he realized he was looking at some sort of mirage. Or was he.
"Is the forest moving or is it just me?" He asked the merc standing next to him, the man was gazing into the forest too, his eyes seemed glazed over not quite aware of his surrounding. Nudging the man gently, he turned to look at Karc, "Sorry, what were you saying?" he mumbled, "I think I'd better have a closer look." He didn't move however looking back into the forest.
"What the fuck is going on? There's some sort of mirage. Do we run, or do we take up a defensive position of some sort?" Karc hissed at the the experienced members of the group. Looking around uneasily Karc felt as though something very bad was nearby and getting closer by the second.
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Post by Διμι on Mar 14, 2010 14:27:25 GMT -5
"Guys," Seth heard Anatoli begin "I think we're up to our necks in shit, and sinking fast." he looked cautiously down the road. The forest had grown still once more, but the silence seemed somehow even more oppressive.
"Mind stopping the cryptic comments and actually explaining what the hell we're walking into?" Seth snapped "I've never seen something like that done to a chimera that size. Even a controller wouldn't stand a chance once the second head decided to attack. It's as if something the beast at bay." The Freedomer looked around anxiously, searching for any movement or telltale sign of a psychic mutant.
"We've been doing scans over sections of the forest in the immediate vicinity of Limansk." the mercenary squad leader replied "our sensors discovered a large mobile psy-field shifting location all over the Red Forest. We initially suspected it was a controller of some sort, but no controller we've seen has a psychic cloud of that kind of magnitude. We sent in investigation squads with all sorts of protection, but none of them ever made it back. When we went in to check on their remains after the psy field shifted out of the area..." Anatoli shook visibly "what we found was almost unimaginable. There were heads blown into a fine red mist and nothing more, bodies mauled by teeth and claws beyond recognition, as it they were attacked from every side by a dozen mutants and torn apart somehow. We found some of our men alive too, but zombified, muttering something about a white beard and white wolf... Strangest thing is, nothing of the sort had ever been reported here before."
"You mean," Thor interjected "this was Leshiy?"
"Leshiy?" Anatoli replied, raising an eyebrow. "As in, one of our squad leaders who went over to your faction last year?" the man seemed positively bemused.
"No, not that Leshiy," Thor shook his head, annoyed "I mean the 'Leshiy' Leshiy, Forest Keeper," he added to clarify. "The night that the Clear Sky faction was apprehended at the Chernobyl Plant," Thor began "there was a blowout like no other. All you mercs were holed up in your HQ, safe. But everyone in the Red Forest was either zombified or mutated from the radiation level." the went quiet for a moment "we drove out Duty from the western barrier between the Red Forest and our territories shortly before this, so it became our responsibility to take care of the Forester who lived there ever since the Zone sprang up. After the blowout ended, we went to check up on him, only to find him gone. His rifle was still in the house, and everything was in order, but the old man was gone." he stopped once more, as a shiver went down his spine "Ever since, we've been getting reports from the Freedom daredevils at the barrier who dare venture deeper into the forest. We were told of a 'forest spirit', or Leshiy of some sort. Hallucinations, psychic effects, multiplying white wolves, the whole nine yards. We strongly suspect that Forester's still keeping watch over his forest, albeit in a changed form." The Freedomer ended his tale.
Sokol kept quiet throughout the dialogue, looking through the powerful scope on his rifle down the road. He could still see nothing up ahead, so he put the gun down. Suddenly, he could feel the forest twist once more, his vision dilated suddenly, as his mind seemed to pull itself out of his body and fly down the road ahead. He could soon see two tiny figures in the distance, growing larger and larger with every second. The first was a tall, trenchcoated man, his face hidden by shadows left by his brimmed fur hat, only two bright white eyes glowing from their sockets. Walking by him was a wolflike pseudodog with grayish white fur, and the same white eyes. The man gave a slight, hellish cackle, and the wolf dove forward, bounding down the road in the direction of the group. A second later Sokol was flying back down the road towards his body, snapping out of his momentary trance. The rest of the group seemed unaffected, still looking about apprehensively.
"Yo!" Sokol shouted, drawing everyone's attention "We've got problems. Some psy thing just pinged me, it's about a mile ahead, and closing in. We've got some sort of a white wolf, and a trench coat dude in a fur hat." he described his vision "wouldn't be surprised if it was that Forester guy you were talking about." he tossed to Thor, who furrowed his brow. "What the hell do we do" he asked, turning to Seth.
"What do you think we usually do?" Seth replied, grinning "we send the mutant to hell, and make no fuss. Everyone get ready for a fight!"
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Post by Afterburner on Mar 14, 2010 18:28:49 GMT -5
Dimitri frowned."Psychic mutts, old creeps...This is going to hell in a hand basket real fast..."
"Danilov, you planning to sit this one out?"
The short man cackled
"If I have to!"
Dimitri smiled for himself
"Excellent...Time to kick some mutt butt! Mind supporting Borisov then? Hold him here, you don't want him to bleed out before we get to wherever we're supposed to go..."
Despite his size, Danilov was not weak, but he nearly collapsed under Borisov's weight. He set him down carefully by an old oak.
"Everything's going to be all right, buddy, we'll get you some help, now breathe in deeply and slowly, yes, that's it!"
As Dimitri turned, he noticed something strange. Something was in the bush. A large, ugly hound jumped out, snarling, charging straight towards Danilov. Before anyone could react, the monster sank its large, ugly teeth into his arm, and as he tried to struggle, he managed to take out his knife. To his horror, the blade sank through the monster's head which simply made a poof, disappearing into thin air.
And then, there was that strange noise again.
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