Bloodknight
The Artist
For some people, forests can be beautiful places, especially on Dathomir. Exotic greenery carpeted the rich soil between high rising trees whose branches reached up into the sky. Their many leaves cupped the sun's rays and allowed only a few shafts of golden light to fall upon the life below. The scurrying insects, running animals and soaring birds that made up the beautiful and colorful ecosystem.
But not to Andreas Wintergreen. To him, these colors were lost--turned to shades of pitiful stony gray by his damaged eyes ever since they were burned in an accident all those years ago. Since then, everything was black and white unless it was a shade of red, most notably blood red, which he saw as pretty much every color in the visible spectrum and then some fading or swirling into others in an ever moving pattern. One of the few things in Andreas's life he could still call beautiful. To him, the forest was a depressing mass of contrasting dark and light shapes looming around him.
The experienced hunter kept this in mind as he held onto the back of the rampaging rancor. The towering beast tore through the forest, slamming into (and through) trees and thrashing about, trying to get Andreas off of it's wide, scaly back. The rancor had lost an arm and had several vibro-knives embedded in specific areas on its body and as such was--to Andreas's amusement--spilling and splattering its blood over much of the forest. His matukai robe blew behind him like a banner in the wind as he continued to plunge a long bladed vibro-knife into the neck of the rancor repeatedly, flinging the variegated blood of the creature around his ashen surroundings as if it were a canvas.
When the rancor finally did grasp Andreas in its remaining hand and tear him from its back, they were both surprised to see that the ground was no more. In the split second before gravity's invisible hand yanked them down, Andreas looked back over his shoulder to see the edge of the cliff the rancor had just ran them both off of. He screamed then, but it was drowned out by the frightened roar of the Rancor that held him. A grappling hook sure would've been useful then.
After he had gotten free of his compulsion to scream for his life, Andreas set to work getting free of the giant, clawed hand that gripped his midsection tightly. He slashed and stabbed at the wrist until it jetted blood and the creature loosened its grip enough for him to rip himself free of it. Now in a free fall, Andreas plunged the vibro-blade into the rancor's chest and spread his other limbs out to make himself as un-aerodynamic as he possibly could. A dynamic duo of gravity and aerodynamics did the rest for him. The still-screaming rancor's yell turned into a roar of surprise and intense pain as its faster falling caused the blade in its chest to slice down its abdomen, opening it up like a zipper to let its intestines come curling out like spaghetti. As the vibro-knife reached the creature's pelvis, Andreas broke the blade off in the bone as he used it to pull himself forwards and and grasp the rancor's neck in his powerful hands.
The two of them hit the water of a rushing river hard, sending them deep under. Andreas resurfaced later in a much shallower part of the river, using the power of the rushing water to aid him in dragging the beast to shallower waters. He was taking deep breaths and even though he had used the force to increase the tensile strength of his body in order to survive the earlier fall, there were cracks in the plates and tears in the scalemail of his Practical Suit. There was the sound of grunt from behind him, an impact to his back that gave him the distinct impression that he'd never walk again and then he was airborne and flying down the river. Thinking fast, Andreas tucked and rolled and, stopping at a kneel, leveled his .55 Caliber Messenger at the rising rancor. The beast was charging at him and held its tangled guts in with its only hand and roared hoarsely as it tried to bum rush the hunter.
A loud, earth-shaking boom resounded throughout the forest and the creature's right kneecap was no more. Another and there was an impressive sized tunnel leading from its neck and out the back of the head. Andreas resisted the urge to yell "timber" as the rancor fell into a lifeless heap in front of him with its back to him. In the hands of your average gunslinger, the extremely high caliber pistol would have flew out of the hands on the first shot, but because Andreas was a Firrerreo and an accomplished Matukai that can use the force to passively increase his strength far beyond what he is normally capable of the gun back flipped out of his grip after the second shot. It was gone now and Andreas didn't feel like looking for it. Instead he drew the vibro-sword from his back and poked the rancor with it to see if it actually died this time.
After seeing that it did, Andreas Wintergreen, the bounty hunter more commonly known as Hazard, sat down in the shallow stream, rested his sword in the cool water and leaned on the back of the rancor. He took his helmet off and dropped it, the chromed durasteel glinting in the sunlight as he lit a deathstick and watched the rancor's kaleidoscopic blood color the cool cinereal water. He activated his holoprojector and began taking selfies with the dead creature, smiling to himself for an exciting hunt well done while his wounds rapidly healed themselves.
Though, suddenly his smile faded as he heard something...
@[member=Bestala Vizsla]
But not to Andreas Wintergreen. To him, these colors were lost--turned to shades of pitiful stony gray by his damaged eyes ever since they were burned in an accident all those years ago. Since then, everything was black and white unless it was a shade of red, most notably blood red, which he saw as pretty much every color in the visible spectrum and then some fading or swirling into others in an ever moving pattern. One of the few things in Andreas's life he could still call beautiful. To him, the forest was a depressing mass of contrasting dark and light shapes looming around him.
The experienced hunter kept this in mind as he held onto the back of the rampaging rancor. The towering beast tore through the forest, slamming into (and through) trees and thrashing about, trying to get Andreas off of it's wide, scaly back. The rancor had lost an arm and had several vibro-knives embedded in specific areas on its body and as such was--to Andreas's amusement--spilling and splattering its blood over much of the forest. His matukai robe blew behind him like a banner in the wind as he continued to plunge a long bladed vibro-knife into the neck of the rancor repeatedly, flinging the variegated blood of the creature around his ashen surroundings as if it were a canvas.
When the rancor finally did grasp Andreas in its remaining hand and tear him from its back, they were both surprised to see that the ground was no more. In the split second before gravity's invisible hand yanked them down, Andreas looked back over his shoulder to see the edge of the cliff the rancor had just ran them both off of. He screamed then, but it was drowned out by the frightened roar of the Rancor that held him. A grappling hook sure would've been useful then.
After he had gotten free of his compulsion to scream for his life, Andreas set to work getting free of the giant, clawed hand that gripped his midsection tightly. He slashed and stabbed at the wrist until it jetted blood and the creature loosened its grip enough for him to rip himself free of it. Now in a free fall, Andreas plunged the vibro-blade into the rancor's chest and spread his other limbs out to make himself as un-aerodynamic as he possibly could. A dynamic duo of gravity and aerodynamics did the rest for him. The still-screaming rancor's yell turned into a roar of surprise and intense pain as its faster falling caused the blade in its chest to slice down its abdomen, opening it up like a zipper to let its intestines come curling out like spaghetti. As the vibro-knife reached the creature's pelvis, Andreas broke the blade off in the bone as he used it to pull himself forwards and and grasp the rancor's neck in his powerful hands.
The two of them hit the water of a rushing river hard, sending them deep under. Andreas resurfaced later in a much shallower part of the river, using the power of the rushing water to aid him in dragging the beast to shallower waters. He was taking deep breaths and even though he had used the force to increase the tensile strength of his body in order to survive the earlier fall, there were cracks in the plates and tears in the scalemail of his Practical Suit. There was the sound of grunt from behind him, an impact to his back that gave him the distinct impression that he'd never walk again and then he was airborne and flying down the river. Thinking fast, Andreas tucked and rolled and, stopping at a kneel, leveled his .55 Caliber Messenger at the rising rancor. The beast was charging at him and held its tangled guts in with its only hand and roared hoarsely as it tried to bum rush the hunter.
A loud, earth-shaking boom resounded throughout the forest and the creature's right kneecap was no more. Another and there was an impressive sized tunnel leading from its neck and out the back of the head. Andreas resisted the urge to yell "timber" as the rancor fell into a lifeless heap in front of him with its back to him. In the hands of your average gunslinger, the extremely high caliber pistol would have flew out of the hands on the first shot, but because Andreas was a Firrerreo and an accomplished Matukai that can use the force to passively increase his strength far beyond what he is normally capable of the gun back flipped out of his grip after the second shot. It was gone now and Andreas didn't feel like looking for it. Instead he drew the vibro-sword from his back and poked the rancor with it to see if it actually died this time.
After seeing that it did, Andreas Wintergreen, the bounty hunter more commonly known as Hazard, sat down in the shallow stream, rested his sword in the cool water and leaned on the back of the rancor. He took his helmet off and dropped it, the chromed durasteel glinting in the sunlight as he lit a deathstick and watched the rancor's kaleidoscopic blood color the cool cinereal water. He activated his holoprojector and began taking selfies with the dead creature, smiling to himself for an exciting hunt well done while his wounds rapidly healed themselves.
Though, suddenly his smile faded as he heard something...
@[member=Bestala Vizsla]
