Welcome to Gaia! ::

Toroto nimbly dodges Razorclaw's massive maw. causing to creature to take a large bite out of the earth. However. the warrior did not escape scot free. As Toroto ran towards the back of the monster, he felt a sharp pain across his shoulder blades. Razorclaw had whipped his head around and launched his long whip-like tongue at him, which struck Toroto across the back.

However, this attack was not nearly enough to slow the determined warrior down. Toroto's four-hit slash cut deeply into the monster's backside and severed several of the monster's numerous legs. Razorclaw reared back once again and roared in pain.

Now Corsica made her move. With cat like agility she springs onto the monsters back. Drawing a dagger from her leather shorts, she slashes wildly at the monster's eyes. Razorclaw thrashes about, trying to reach the girl with his claws. Corsica continues to hold on for dear life as she blinds the creature and shouts to her comrades. "Strike him now! Cut out his heart!"

At her sister's encouragement, Ying rushes forward and drives her spear deep into the monster's underbelly, but she seems to have missed her mark.

Clive continues to lay on his back in the bush, seemingly still unconscious from the earlier blow struck against him.

Running up the monster's back proved to be a precarious move. The chitinous armor on its back was much thicker than elsewhere on its body, making it difficult to strike a decisive blow. Also, since Toroto wasn't using his whole body to grip Razorclaw the same way Corsica was, the monster quickly threw the man off his back as he flailed about.

Razorclaw managed to get a claw on one of Corsica's legs and ripped the girl off his head, throwing her against a tree. Ying ran over to her sister's side, but Corsica, amazingly, didn't seem much hurt.

Razorclaw scurried to one corner of the clearing and turned around to face his attackers. He was now blind in half his eyes and suffering from numerous lacerations and puncture wounds. Still, the enormous monster looked to have a lot of fight in him. He let out a mighty roar and began to charge at the group--then suddenly stopped. A change seemed to come over the creature. His twitching appendages began to move more slowly and erratically. He almost seemed to be in some sort of daze.

Clive came crawling out of the bush clutching his head. A trickle of blood was running down his face. Still, he wore a big grin on his face. "Not feeling too well, eh, beastie? That should teach you to wallop me like that!"

Corsica borrows Ying's spear and begins to charge Razorclaw However, Toroto notices he is the closest one to the beast, so his attack will definitely hit first. Clive, despite his bold words, still seems to be a bit out of it and makes no inclinations of making an attack.

Corsica rushes past Toroto and attempts to thrust her spear into Razorclaw's chest. She is met with surprisingly little resistance from the dazed monster and manages to pierce her weapon deep into the monster's chest. Razorclaw roars in pain, but makes no other move. Corsica grunts to herself. "Hmrph, this beast must have more than one heart!"

Clive smiles and makes an upward motion gesture with his hands, causing a large spike of earth to shoot up from the ground and impale the creature. Razorclaw bellows again, but doesn't move--he is pinned where he stands by the spire of earth.

After these two brutal attacks Razorclaw is still alive, but there seems to be no fight left in him. The creature is dazed and his movements are growing slower and weaker. It seems he is just barely holding on.

Toroto's blades easily find their mark and he slashes down the entire length of Razorclaw's right side. The creature's side splits open and his steaming guts spill out onto the ground. Razorclaw lets out one more anguished roar before collapsing to the ground dead.

Corsica removes her spear from the beast and begins to clean off its edge with some leaves. "Well, it is done. Razorclaw is no more. You take what you need to prove your kill. My sister and I will be harvesting what we can use as well." Corsica buries the butt of her spear in the ground, standing it up, then draws her dagger from her belt. She then looks over at Clive. "You. You poisoned him, did you not? I recognized the effect. There is no other reason he would stop like he did."


Clive moves over to the monster's corpse and removes his dagger from it. He shrugs his shoulders at Corsica's question. "Perhaps there was some poison left on this old blade. What matters is we won, right?"

Corisca casts Clive a shrewd look. "You should take what you need and leave quickly from this place. There are many more dangerous creatures in this forest and they will be drawn to this place now. You'd best hope the scent from Razorclaw's blood proves more appetizing than your own."

Clive reaches up and tenderly touches the wound on his head. "Duly noted, my lady. Toroto, let's take our trophy and get out of here. What do you think will make for the best presentation back in town?"

Zanikia laid stretched out under a tree. He yawned lazily and sprawled out even more. Then he picked his head up and sniffed the air. Then he licked his lips and thought to himself that he was starting to get hungry. Zanikia pushed himself up with his large hands. His claws raking across the ground leaving marks in the dirt. He stood up slowly and shook himself off. The dirt and leaves flew off of his thick brown fur as he shook. He looked around to see what direction we was going to go to find prey. He sniffed the air again and turned to his left and walked in that direction. He crouched down when he saw a deer like creature nibbling on fresh green shoots of grass. Zanikia shifted on his feet and crept in closer. The prey picked up its head for a second and flicked its ear. Then it bent back down and started eating. Zanikia pushed off the ground and landed directly on top of the herbivore. His weight over powered the creature and it dropped to the ground. He clamped down on its neck with his massive jaws. He jerked his head once and heard a cracking noise. He could feel the vertebrae snap in his mouth. He laid the animal down on the ground gently. He bowed his head as in the give thanks for the meal and the life that he had taken to get it. Then he started to pick at the tender meat on the shoulder.

Upon examining the chew marks, he thought of it to be of an familiar animal, but couldn't figure out which one since the chew is covered in rotten flesh and couldn't make it out completely. The scene told an little that this creature had an eager behavior to feed on the corpse as it was still fresh perhaps at the time, but the creature may have traveled miles away by now since most predators with this kind of behavior would look for more food. Toroto kneels down before the corpse in hope of finding more evidence of the creature, looking for possible foot prints of the creature he was against.

He start walking around the corpse, starting to ignore the foul stench which filled his nose. As he searched, he managed to find something which was slightly covered in moisture, It look like an big paw print which is slightly faded away because of the Teraxis' blood. It maybe the creature's paw print, but he couldn't clearly make out what kind, It could be an big fox or some sort of big Canine. Unsure of what it was, Toroto gets up from his close examination, he said "It could be an canine or an vulpine (I don't know what gives him the Idea of it being an fox, maybe exaggeration because both have slightly similar paw prints), but why would one be so big, also If It's an canine then why is it away from it's pack?". Still no matter what it is, Toroto will deal with it.

In the past, Toroto had encountered both types, but not this big which makes Toroto wonder how would an canine or vulpine (which is less possible) get so big. He had been attacked by some wolves and foxes at seperate times throughout the years , which weren't this big and he doubts an vulpine would be capable of breaking the flesh of an Teraxis. Also an wolf wouldn't be able to handle such an task alone neither. "What could it be?" Toroto said to himself, then hears noise of something moving around in an bush. Out of caution, Toroto turns around toward the bush, thinking of it being an threat *he draws out his sword "Wolf"*.

Toroto doesn't know what it is because of the shade of the trees shadowing over the bush, It may be the creature? What happens next? (I hope it's not directly the Wolf, maybe it's an small animal or creature. This is just an suggestion.)

((OOC: All right, I feel like I need to clarify a few things. There's currently quite a distance between Toroto and Zanikia. Zanikia can smell the Teraxis corpse, but he's still a half mile away. Also, there are no canine looking paw prints around the corpse. However, since Toroto did inspect the area for animal tracks, I will tell you what he finds.))

As Toroto checks the clearing for tracks he would immediately find footprints that he would recognize as his own, Clive's, and those of two wild women. He realizes most of the tracks in the area are from the fight they had with the Teraxis just the day before. However, there are a few new tracks in the area, and although they are faint, they look identical to the marks Toroto saw on the side of the barn in Lupa. What's more is there is another set of strange marks different from the first. They obviously come from some enormous multi-legged, insectoid creature, but there was no telling what it is beyond that.

What is even more odd is the lack of any other sort of tracks around the Teraxis corpse. No natural scavengers or predictors had come to visit the area. It seemed odd for such a large amount of food to go untouched by the denizens of the forest. It was almost as if something was keeping them away.

Suddenly, Toroto hears something rustling in a bush behind him. As he turns and draws his blade, the rustling stops. It was impossible to tell what it was, but Toroto got the feeling it couldn't have been more than some small forest creature. Something must have spooked it, though. Before Toroto could even begin to ponder what it might it have been, he gets his answer.

He hears rustling in the forest behind him, but this time it was much, much bigger. It was still some distance away, but he can hear the trees groan as something heavy brushed by them. As the rustling sounds got closer, Toroto can see the tops of certain trees shaking along the canopy line, but there is still too much thick underbrush to see the source of the disturbance. Just as it seems the creature is about to be on top of him, the sound suddenly stops. Several moments pass without any noise being heard, then the face of a young, blond woman can be seen timidly peeking out from behind a tree. Toroto will instantly recognize her as Ying. When Ying spots Toroto in the clearing she comes out from behind the tree with a surprised look on her face. "T-toroto....what are you doing here? It's dangerous to be in the forest by yourself!"


Zanikia's growled demand to the forest was met with silence. If there was something watching him it was not making itself known. One thing was for sure, there was indeed an odd smell coming from something far away. The wind must have changed directions, for the smell was coming in so strong now it was beginning to dull the other scents around him.