Isyra: The Last Outpost

"Crap."


Aeolus muttered to himself as he hid behind a corner, his prized Gunblade in his hands. He was never without it while on a mission, it was the one thing he had carried with him since he abandoned his homeland while his empire was collapsing under the stress of invasion and a dead emperor.


He swallowed hard and looked over to a young woman beside him, her long blond hair matted down with dirt, sweat and filth that she didn't even want to think about. Her green eyes were wild and glaring at him, half crazed from the time she had spent there;


"Now why did you have to go and do that?! IT'S PISSED OFF!"


"Well what did you want me to do; ask it in a nice, mature way to please not EAT US?"


They'd been stuck in that hellhole for days now, and every waking moment he didn't spend running for his life he questioned why he even thought it was a good idea to come here. What's more, why was it even a smart idea to bring his sister along for the ride? But he knew the answer to that question already, it was pretty simple when he looked beyond all the reasoning he attempted to apply to it.


He had been thinking with the wrong head when he brought her along; a few months apart was a little too long for him to handle. Well, handle himself anyway.


"I think that would have been a better idea than shooting it in the testicles, you idiot! How would you like it if I did that to you, huh?!"


Enki, her God help her, but sometimes she thought he wasn't as smart as he seemed to be. Whatever possessed him to give away their position by aiming for the damned things balls and then squeezing off a round she'll never know. He didn't look at her then, his eyes were focused on the glistening metal of his weapon; there was just enough light for him to get a half decent reflection of the beast as it skittered about while searching for them.


It was a damn good thing he'd managed to let loose a surge of plasma straight up its nose a few days before; without its sense of smell they were actually pretty safe. But even so, the sheer size of the monsters body --not to mention the teeth that were as long as he was tall, if not even longer-- and amazing movement speed despite its huge bulk made it dangerous, regardless of being nearly blind and unable to smell anything.


"I wasn't aiming for its balls, Ilythia; I was aiming for the fuckers hind right leg. It just moved at the wrong time and I got right in the nuts. But by the looks of the thing moving it sure as Hell hurt; he's not moving all that fast. Maybe it'll even bleed to death and we'll be free."


He didn't look at her at all, his eyes were locked on the reflection in the sharp upper portion of the bladed casing for the gun barrel. He was trying to be somewhat optimistic; it was so out of character that she thought him sarcastic.


"And if it just makes the thing want to kill us even more? What then, dear brother?"


Aeolus could hear the sarcasm in her voice; oh it annoyed him so much. Over the past few days he had come to hate Ilythia with a passion, always whining and complaining about the situation. He did too, but she seemed to go over the edge with all her bitching. If he were any less of a man, he'd of punched her already.


"At that point I'll let you come up with the plan. I mean, since you BITCH SO MUCH about whatever I do, I'm ever so sure you have some brilliant and epic plot to get us out of this. Right, dear sister?"


He spat it at her with frustration and greater sarcasm than he meant to, but it felt so good to let it out. Ilythia growled at him; that was never a good sign. When she growled it meant bad things would happen to him; he was suddenly more afraid of her than of the beast as it blindly stalked about, the hole where its balls used to be slowly bleeding it to death.


Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if he let the giant mole rat eat him...