Untitled Project 1

A/N: This is just a snippet of what's to come. Still need a name for it if anyone wants to throw out some suggestions.

Blood welled up and over his fingers as he stifled a cry of pain. The long jagged cut started at the center of his waist and ripped its way across his hip bone. His pants were drenched and he could feel himself beginning to drift off as the bloodloss made him woozy. With his other hand Tyler rummaged through the medical kit that was strewn across the ground at his side. 

The golden haze of the Shroud was so thick that he couldn’t see further than ten feet. The density of the Shroud in this lost realm was stronger than back home, creating a flow as the Shroud leaked out of the portal and into the world. A current of power that he even an Untouched like Tyler could feel. 

His free hand finally ran over the top of the package of bandages. Secured in a waxy paper his blood slick hand couldn’t open it. With a mumbled curse he pulled it to his mouth, the iron taste of his own blood staining the package. Tearing it open with his teeth, he pulled the thick bandages free. A coating of pus-yellow healing salve was pasted across the front of the bandage and it burned like fire as Tyler pressed it into his open wounds. 

The alchemical concoction would start coagulating the blood and speed up the healing process while at the same time promoting blood replacement. It wasn’t as powerful as a healing potion, but it was much cheaper. He just needed it to keep him alive until he could escape the lost realm and head back home. 

Lieutenant Joffrey’s heavy pistol sat next to him. The bright chrome revolver was smeared with the Lieutenant’s blood, but Tyler was grateful that it was fully loaded. The officer hadn’t had a chance to use it before the monsters had landed on him. He could still hear the scream as the proboscis-like tongue had impaled the Lieutenant through his chest. 

The gun handle was slippery with his blood but he squeezed tight and looked around carefully. The Shroud would hide the monsters until they were to close, but he wanted the sense of safety the heavy pistol gave him. 

It had all been a terrible mistake. The lost realm wasn’t supposed to be this strong. It was easily an A-Grade realm. Early warning equipment had estimated it being only E-Grade, something that they should have been able to handle without a Gifted. 

Now they were all dead. Or dying. Tyler couldn’t tell. The gunfire had stopped and the screaming finished not long after. The impenetrable veil that was the Shroud hid him from any of the harsh realities that he knew were true. His squad was gone. He just hadn’t seen their bodies. 

A shape flew by. A shadow against the light, far overhead. It wheeled around, circling the camp, once, twice, then it descended like a lighting strike. There was no sound of it landing, just a singular powerful beat of the wings and the faint stirring of the fog around him. Tyler cocked the hammer of the revolver back and lifted it, aiming in the direction of whatever it was that had landed. 

His heartbeat like a drum, pounding a desperate rhythm. Adrenaline mixed with the pain and he struggled to hold the heavy pistol still. Shroud fog swirled and danced on invisible currents like the sea. A shape pushed forward, dark and ominous it towered over him, even if he had been standing. 

Wide bat like wings and hunched shoulders. It teetered forward on clawed feet that tore at the soft ground and left deep gouges with every step. Velvety black, its body looked thin and fragile like a bird. Fuzz coated it and Tyler watched as the fog was slowly drank in by the creature. With every breath more of the Shroud was whisked away into the creature's lungs. 

An elongated oval head sat perched like a rickety boulder on its shoulders. Beady black eyes peered out soulessly as a strong, pink, tubular tongue hung to its knobby knees. It was the same type of monster that had killed the Lieutenant. 

Tyler lifted the pistol, sighting down the barrel as he aimed the heavy hand cannon at the creature's long face. His arm was steady as a rock and his heart stilled as the creature kept its slow but inevitable approach toward him. The moment he squeezed the trigger, the rest of its swarm would be on him. He was going to take at least one of these ugly freaks down with him though. 

Cra-BOOM, the hand cannon exploded forth in fire and flame, spitting destruction out as the silence was destroyed. The monster fell back, its head blown apart in a spray of gore and bone, nothing left but a crimson ruin. The echo of the gunshot rang in his ears; but as the moments stretched out, he could begin to hear better, the sound of flapping wings.