ELNRIC ARE YOU OKAY WHAT HAPPENED TO VRAYAN‽
(The limeblood known as Elnric is currently unable to hear the voice of the faceless. However, you may watch. If you'd like.)
The limeblood reeled back once more as wood met skull with a sickening crack and a shower of splinters.
In the lime's hands, a shattered wine bottle dripped with lime, cerulean and whatever hues between as the blood mingled in the splatters.
His left eye was swollen shut, the contact that kept his lime colored irises cloaked in grey had long since fallen out. He was bleeding pretty heavily from a gash in the side of his head, and was heavily bruised all over. His gifted clothes caked in dirt and blood.
His breathing was heavy and labored, but determined as he clutched the bottle tight.
----------------------------------------
Twenty minutes prior, Elnric sat at the counter of a dimly lit bar on the edge of town. To his side, a brightly grinning Vrayan sat close. The two had just finished up a viewing of a cheesy action comedy that was about as bad as they'd both predicted it to be. They enjoyed it all the same; deciding to make a quick stop by the bar on the way home. The lime had been hesitant about the idea, but those pleading eyes, he simply couldn't say no to at all and relented.
The duo were both half a glass down and having the night of their lives when the lime's expression did a swift one eighty. From behind his grey contacts a soft pulse of green light was Vrayan's only tip off as his smile became a very serious frown, his entire body language tense.
Vrayan had seen his future sight kick in many times in the past. She knew it only did so under serious circumstances, and immediately an unsettled chill ran down her spine as she placed a hand against his shoulder. ''Eln... What is it?"
"Wait thirty seconds after I leave, then go home." His voice was barely above a whisper as his left hand scooted an unsupervised bottle of wine from the counter as the olive tender's back was turned.
"Run. Home." His voice was uncharacteristically harsh and stern. It wasn't a request, and it wasn't a suggestion. It was an order, that he expected her to follow. "Repeat it."
"Repeat it." He insists again, cutting her off with a simple side glance that cut deeper than any blade could.
"... Run home." He seems to relax just a little as he hear the words leave her mouth. With his unoccupied hand, he squeezed a fist, nails digging deep into his palm, just enough to cause a trickle of lime to glint in the candlelight before he stood up and started for the front door, bottle in hand.
Vrayan watched him go with concern and panic. Her heart was beating a mile a minute as she eyed a group of large trolls from the corner raise from their booth and make a swift exit of their own. Cerulean. Indigo. Indigo... Purple. The last one managed to dig the pit in her stomach deeper than she thought possible. She closed her eyes as Elnric's voice rang in her head alongside her anxieties.
>{[Thirty seconds.]}< "Help him" >{[twenty five]}< "Please." >{[Twenty.]}< "You can't leave him." >{[Fifteen]}< "I can't." >{[Ten]}< "He needs you." >{[Five...]}<
The second the number one had passed through her mind she'd tore out of the building, right out the front door in a rush. To her right, the way home. To her left, specks of lime dripped in a purposeful pattern right around the side of the building and into an alleyway. Muffled voices and scuffling barely audible from here. A choice lay at her feet.
----------------------------------------
Elnric was really regret having not brought his old revolver with him. Though he couldn't even say if it would still work after all these years without firing it. The limeblood stood at the end of the alleyway, bleeding from one hand as four figures blocked off the only exit from the dark and damp alleyway.
He takes a deep breath as he turns to face them. >{[Four of ya, huh? Well don't I feel special. To what do I owe the honor?]}<
The purple blood gives a disgusted snarl at the disrespectful use of sarcasm. She smelled no fear from this small, frail mistake. His bold demeanor was either bravery, or stupidity. They both pissed her off all the same. "Y°u'✓e g°t a l°t °f nerve sh°wing y°ur filthy mug r°und these parts. I must say, I'm alm°st glad th°ugh. Was starting t° believe y°ur r°t up°n °ur species was actually purged c°mpletely bef°re I g°t the chance t° spill that trash fr°m y°ur ✓eins myself. I-"
>{[Now hold on, hold on. I'm gonna let you finish in a moment. If it's all the same to you, I am parched.]}< The purple opens ger mouth to speak again, an attempt to reclaim control over the situation, but Eln just keeps speaking. >{[So, before you continue with your daily spew of purist bullshit-]}< The lime interrupts, holding up a finger to the purple's flustered outrage, clearly not used to being cut off.
Her three lackeys seemed just as unsure of the situation. Typically lowbloods and mutants skip straight to the pleading and begging with this lot, or try to barter. Elnric takes one looong swig from the wine bottle in hand, downing a good bit of it. Before wiping his mouth with his sleeve. >{[Ah. That's good shit. Aftertaste is a bitch though. Ahem. Right. Now. Where were we.]}< He asks, taking a casual stroll forward in-between the group. Eyeing them up from lowest to highest, before settling on the purple blood. >{[Ah. Right. Right. We were somewhere around here]}< The sound of glass shattering filled the alleyway as wine bottle met cheek, causing the purple to stumble backwards with a pissed growl.
"Tear his limbs from his b°dy!" She cries in rage, causing the cerulean, the quickest of the three, to spring into action, shoulder checking the lime into the alley wall. He gives a pained grunt, but retaliates quickly, digging the jagged teeth of the broken bottle into his shoulder blade.
He bites back a curse as he digs his clawed hands into Elnric's arm, pulling hard and swinging him towards the waiting fist of one of the indigos. That he narrowly ducks.
The purple having regained her composure, barked out orders as she fumbled for her concealed weapon at her side. An ornately crafted pistol, clearly made for the sake of decoration more than actual practically. It was encrusted with jewels, glistening gold, and painted with extremely tacky clown faces. A flash of lime eyes jolted Elnric back into the present, ducking just in time as a wild swing from an obsidian dagger flashed just above his head. He drives a hard elbow back into the indigo's ribs, causing him to drop his his weapon as the wind was knocked from him.
"Elnric!" A voice cut through the chaos that brought eyes to the front of the alleyway again. Elnric's heart sank to his stomach as he took in the sight of Vrayan held up by a wrist. She was kicking madly at the purple who was eyeing the third party. The familiar click of metal froze both the lowbloods in place as the barrel pressed firm against Vrayan's skull.
"l°°ks like the filth has a friend wh° just c°uldn't stay away." The purple sneers, eyes flicking to the indigo on Elnric's left, who swiftly grabbed the lime by his arm, pinning him to the blood speckled concrete below. "Such a shame t°. Such a pretty °ne. Tempted t° keep this °ne f°r myself." She mused, letting the gun barrel trace the tear stained cheek of the mutant, relishing in the rage filled glare the lime was giving her. This was much better. "Ah well. Dime a d°zen." She adds with a twist of Vray's arm that made such a loud cracking sound that the mutant almost passed out from the pain alone.
Elnric gave an enraged shout of >{[STOP]}< only to be met with a fist into the side of his face, plunging his eye into darkness. The struggle seemed to amuse the purple enough to lower Vrayan a bit as she took the time to give a hearty chuckle.
Through blurry vision, Vrayan's eyes managed to meet Eln's ine good one. He was holding direct eye contact with her. His eyes were determined and focused. It was then that she saw that lime pulse once more. The lime blood's gaze flicked aside to the gun in the purple's hand before meeting Vrayan's again. He gives a pained nod of his head and she understands exactly what he wanted.
Witha swift motion, she turns her head snd bites down hard on the armed hand. The purple yells out in pain, wrenching her hand away and bumping the trigger. The sound was deafening against Vrayan's ears, the blast knocking her hat free to let her hidden mutations show. The bullet went wild, ricocheting off the wall and finding a target with a splash of indigo as the troll holding Elnric down reeled from the pain of a newfound hold in his bicep, releasing Eln in the process.
The purple shouts a series of swears as she drops Vrayan and aims the gun at her once more, but Elnric was already in action. The lime rolls to the side, scooping up the dropped dagger from earlier and with a perfectly arced throw, edge met flesh as it pierced the purple's hand. Another misfire as she dropped the gun.
Vray gives another look to her matesprit, battered and surrounded still. She hesitates a moment before a loud, commanding >{[Go!]}< forces her body into action, as much as her mind screamed against it. only one thing was clear to her as she bolted clear of the alleyway and made her escape. She had to get Nyctea.