Grendel slammed against the wet rock, shattered rubble coming down at him and bouncing off into the surrounding muck.
With a brief struggle he got back on his feet, growling in exhausted anger, his back on fire from the sudden pain. The rain had gotten so intense it was covering all within sight, a living curtain of fog and blur. Black clogged skies roared and flashed with power they could barely hold, and combined with the incessant tapping of water drops they drowned every other sound.
But even so, Grendel would not be deafened. He would not be blinded. His target was before him. Enkedu. The upstart that dared to challenge him. The clown that didn’t know his place. The fool he had to break.
From that distance it looked like he was encased inside a enormous bubble, but that was no bubble; it was wind, a vortex of wind, swirling and whirling all over Enkedu’s body, shielding him from the rain. The rival himself was moving towards Grendel, that warped excitement still in his face, his spear held high and proudly on his hand. He really acted like he owned the place, and that only inflamed Grendel’s wrath even further.
“Haaaaaahaaaahaaaaaa!!” He laughed, loud and high so Grendel could hear “What’s wroooong Outlaw? Don’t tell me thaaaaaat’s all!!”
As soon as he had finished those words the scarred squamataur lunged towards him with a mighty rush. The water level just kept rising and rising, and it was getting harder to move quickly, but still Grendel managed to reach his foe. The clash was brutal and loud and fierce, glinting of claws, cracking of bones. But no matter how hard he would strike, Grendel would find the barrier of wind would cushion the attacks. And thought he was sure he managed to land some blows, Enkedu was quicker and nimbler than him, and with speed and spear he would block what came to him.
Then suddenly a howling, invisible push, and Grendel got thrown to the sinking bog in a massive muddy splash. And more quickly came in a burst of violent flailing, as much out of a need to breathe as it was of sheer frustration. The barrier had thrown him again! Again!! What the hell was he doing??
He could still hear Enkedu’s gloating, even as the grimy scum got inside his ears
“Ahaaahaahaaa, yeeeeees, this is sooooo fun Outlaw! I’m having sooooo much fuuun with ya!! Thing is, ya could’ve avooooided all this, yanno? We’re the same, you and me! Aaaaartists of the fight!! Loooords of the kiiiill!! All ya had to do was to live with them idea I’m the strooooongest ever!!! But naaaaaah, you had to play dumb an’ proud! Stiillll have to thank ya, though! Ya giving be a BLAST of a show!! And da cherry on top will be when I cruuuuush ya!”
“Shut up!!” Grendel suddenly barked, and he once again rose from the churning mud, boiling with fury. His eyes were irritated, bloodshot. His maw frothing with rabid, red foam, exhaling vapour like a steam machine on overdrive “Shut up shut up SHUT UP!!!!”
And before Enkedu’s surprised eyes, the swamp threw itself at Grendel. Bubbling masses of mud and rock, algae and drowned vegetation, creeping up the squamataur’s human half and congealing in semi-solid shapes. Muscular, scar-crossed arms disappeared under earthly dripping claws. Wrathful eyes peered from under the horned mockery of a fanged skull.
“YOU’RE NOT STRONGER THAN ME!!” He roared with a voice to wake the dead “NO ONE IS STRONGER THAN ME!!!”
The iguana-taur didn’t seem to get the message. Instead he was shivering in place, chewing his fingers in sheer excitement. A face like a child with a new toy
“Woooooaaaaaahhh!!” He yelled “Hooooot daaaaammn!! Yer fuuuuulla surprises, Outlaw!! Waaaa ha ha ha ha haaaaa!!!” It certainly looked like he couldn’t contain his joy, for he had started to alternate between slamming the swampy floor with his hands and swing his long apear vigorously “Yeeees, yeeees, yeeeeesss!!! This is a fraggin’ riot!!! Aaaaaa ha ha ha!!! Come on, show me a good one!!!”
This time it was he who began the assault, scrambling more than running, screaming like a lunatic. Grendel was all too eager to answer in kind, giving his own deafening bellow. The mud gave him better covering from Enkedu’s wind magic, and the fight only increased in savagery. Both rivals were throwing themselves all over the jagged swamp, beating and clawing and trading the most heart-stopping beastly cries. Blood and water flowed equally under the crackling skies
Then Grendel ripped Enkedu’s spear from his grasp and hammered it against his head. At the third blow it was but splinters.
The iguanataur almost fell on his back. He yelled out in pain, covering his face with his hands, and for the first time in the battle he stumbled on the mud. His magic was failing
His larger opponent saw his chance. With most of his mud armor falling apart, Grendel leaped with open jaws and outstretched hands, straight to the neck
A dozen blades in his chest
“Yaaaaaaarrrrghh!!!!” Grendel crashed on the half-submerged rock below him, screaming in agony. The sharp, searing pain wouldn’t let him focus on anything else. He had broken his stupid spear! There was no one else left! How..??
Before he could do anything else, it struck him again. And he barely did as much as plant his palm in the rubble when it came back. And again. And again.
Something heavy landed on top of him, adding to the torture. Enkedu had leaped on his side, keeping him from raising his right arm, sinking wiry claws on his human half. Their faces met, and Grendel could see him clearly again. The blazing red hair was utterly soaked and hung like chlaena tentacles. One of his eyes was swollen and partially closed, and he was missing several fangs. A trickle of blood poured from his forehead. And that forced grin, so big now it could split his face.
“Ya see now why they call me the Sliiiicin’ Whirlwind now huuuuh? Hah!!!”
Grendel exploded. The wounded giant writhed and flailed in place, cracked his tail, swiped his claws, snapped his jaws, roared and cursed with the voice of pure wrath, struggled with every inch of his being to get up and fight, to reach the bastard pinning him down. But Enkedu wouldn’t give him any opening, bringing down current after current of razor sharp wind that cut his flesh open and sent his blood spraying. And as if that wasn’t enough he bit and scratched on the exposed skin, whipped his long and equally sharp tail against every possible inch of the larger squamataur’s body, making sure he suffered. The tables had truly turned in this fight, and it wasn’t ending any time soon.
“The game is ooooooover, Outlaw!! And the great Enkedu has won agaaaaaaaaaiiinn!” The bastard said triumphantly enough, rocking back and forth on his fallen opponent “Like ‘twas meeeeeeant to be! I get them faaaaame, the POOOOOWERR!!! And you, Outlaw, you get paaaaaain!!” Once again he has lowered his human half to get close to Grendel’s, while still firmly keeping him bound with his lizard part. “Haven’t been this oiled up in aaaaaaaages I tell ya! Yer reeeeeeeal good to break!!”
His words went largely ignored, for the scarred giant was practically drunk with pain. Enkedu’s razor-wind just wouldn’t cease, a thousand claws flaying him alive and leaving the below with excruciating torture. Countless cuts infested his body from one end to another, so crowded and so fresh that it was being painted a dark crimson. All the relentless fighting of that day was taking his toll and the blood loss made him feel increasingly tired. His head was half-submerged in the mud, and he could barely raise it to breathe properly. The rain raging all over still wouldn’t let him see or hear around him….
And still he wouldn’t. Shut. Up.
“But!” Enkedu continued suddenly, wallowing in his perceived victory amidst the sprays of blood “Gotta say, I don’t think I’ve quiiiiiiite heard ya scream enough!” There was a sudden, different kind of pain; the prick had grabbed Grendel’s hair and yanked it, enough for him to lift his head “So, c’mon Outlaw, why don’t ya give a laaaaast favour to the amazing Enkedu? Screeam again, will ya? Screeeeam!!”
He felt him clamber through his side, just as the razor wind changed direction, in order to be closer to his face. Now he was just inches away, the maniacal yellow eyes fixated on him under the drenched hair.
“You…..” he growled between gritted teeth, bile rising in his throat.
“Yes, me!” Enkedu replied casually enough. His grin was now strangely twisted, the front teeth biting his lower lip. He clearly couldn’t hide his expectation “C’mon, loser, screeeeam for me! Screeeeam!!”
He got even closer, dying for the moment. The pressure on his arm felt lighter in that moment. It was as if the painful wind was receding, even
He was getting careless
“Do it, Outlaw!!” he barked again, vapour bursting in a small cloud from his mouth. He had started to pull at Grendel’s hair again, forcing him to do it. His expression was now desperate, almost needy. “Screeeeam for the great Enkedu!! Screeeeam, Outlaw screeeeam!! Screeeeeaaaaaaammmm!!!!!”
“You…just….don’t….get it….right?...”
“SCREEAM, OUTLAAAWWW!!!!!”
“Stop….calling me….OUTLAW!!!”
Everything happened in a heartbeat. With a strength that wasn’t there minutes ago Grendel rammed his head against Enkedu’s, a blow so potent he was plummeted to the bog. The cold rain suddenly pouring down indicated the wind magic had been broken.
But it wouldn’t end there. Grendel was back on his limbs in a second flurry of motion and made a dash towards the disoriented iguanataur, the flooded swamp exploding in heavy waves in his path. Before he knew what was going on the great predator barrelled down on him and punched him with all the force his aching muscles allowed.
And punched
And punched
And punched
And punched
And he could only make the most pathetic gurgle from the hole of blood and broken teeth that was his mouth when Grendel clasped his pulpy face and roared straight at it. The sound of unrestrained rage, primal and heart-stopping. And what do you know, it was Enkedu who screamed, higher than any other scream he had ever heard before. Frozen at Grendel’s grasp, absolutely horrified at this creature he took for a loser, now such a monstrous apparition.
Grendel then pulled his arms upwards, and the still screaming opponent was lifted to the pouring skies, twisting helplessly like a headless snake. To another furious roar he was slammed against an overhang of jagged rocks. Not sooner had he dropped that the raging squamataur bashed him again, this time face first. And then a third time, and a fourth, until Enkedu’s body had slipped from his grasp and fell to the pale brown waters like a rag doll.
The punished iguanataur was surprisingly quick to emerge, fighting to breathe, coughing blood and bits of enamel, clutching his now red and raw chest. In a frenzied haste he scrambled, splashing his way out of there, trying to flee into the rain-clogged beyond. Where was all his bravado now?
He didn’t go far. One of Grendel’s claws had already stomped down on his back, pinning him in place, almost sinking him underwater. The mud became a bubbling, churning mess as the horrified Enkedu flailed hysterically, yelping and gasping and retching for freedom.
Then Grendel reached for his whip-tail, splashing in a mad blur, and with the strain of knotted muscles and the crack of bones it was broken in three different spots. The screams that followed were in an entire new level, like lungs that were going to burst.
Yet again the maddened creature tried to escape, and Grendel’s answer was to lunge at him, flinging the coward to the submerged ground. Huge hands seized the exposed head and shoulders. At that moment Enkedu must’ve realized what was coming, because his eyes widened and his arms went to Grendel’s in twitchy panic.
“No!! No!! No! No!!” He parroted endlessly, begging for dear life. He kicked and splashed, swung his human half from side to side, pushed and scratched with his arms in an attempt to break Grendel’s hold. “ No no no no no no no!!!”
But this only filled Grendel with disgust, and he bashed Enkedu’s face hard to silence him. That was it, really? All that yapping of being the best, of how tough and mighty he was, and he squeals like a fairy when his luck is down? Scumfilth.
“Ye-ye-ye can’t do this to me!” Enkedu yelped weakly, shivering like ooze, face contorted in desperation and fear, cheeks streaked in rain and tears “We-we are them same….”
“No” The great predator cut him off with a loud snarl “We are NOT. Because you are terrified. And I…”
Grendel’s dirty, bloody fingers dug on Enkedu’s head. Another weak scream.
“I…TERRORIZE!!”
And Enkedu’s head wrenched back.
It took a day for the dridder explorers to find the site. And when they came back, they couldn’t give credit to what nightmares they had seen.
They told of dozens of bodies, of nagas and squamataurs and even dridders like them, littering the swamp, all shredded like they were made of wet paper
They told of a battle that tore the rocks and cleared the mud as if from a supernatural force
And they told of the squamataur corpse they found further away, mangled and savaged, with flesh missing like it had been half eaten. But most horrifying of all, its entire tail had been ripped from the seams and shoved down the broken throat, pushed so deep it was this close to bursting the reptilian stomach.
Thus another tale was added to the legend of the dread Grendel, and a warning to whoever met his bloody path
There would be no mercy for who challenged him.
Subject: Duel 5 
Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:57 am
