Dark Cradle Falling RP

"The Finder"
Picture
Augments:

• Caustic Needles: A set of regenerating toxic projectiles used for precise, long-range damage.
• Shadow Cloaking: All light that strikes the user is absorbed and turned into shadow. Not very effective in well-lit situations.
• Oral Soul-Energy Transfer: Basically vampirism. Don't let her bite you.
• Adamantine Claws: A set of retractable claws that, for all intents and purposes, cannot be damaged or destroyed. Useful for melee combat.
• Lift-Assisted Motion: A pair of wings that, while incapable of providing flight, are useful for boosting top speed or making sudden dodge maneuvers.
• Dark Disguise: The ability to temporarily take on any chosen form or appearance. Gameplay note: I will never power-play your character, so if you see me using someone with your character's name and appearance, it's the Finder in disguise, not your character.

The Finder is a corrupted, pitiable being tormented by the Dark Matter flowing through her. Her goals and intentions are lost to time, but her methods are not; in combat, she is merciless and brutal, with a good memory and a strong vengeful streak that makes it impossible for her to forget those who have harmed her. She has never been heard speaking in her true form, but she seems quite capable of intelligent speech when taking on a disguise. While not the most intelligent schemer, she can create effective plans well-ahead of execution time.

The Finder tends to hunt any sentient being on Cradle, but strangely enough, she has been spotted leading small bands of individuals from time to time. Researchers are totally baffled by this behavior, and a few of the lucky ones were able to track her during such expeditions. The results were somewhat inconclusive; sometimes, the beings under her command were hardly any different from her prey, leading researchers to believe that race or species was not a deciding factor in her choice of underlings. Research is still ongoing on this subject.

Name: Armori

Race: Knight

Weps: Blades. That's it. If he has to put poison or fire or magic (if that's allowed) on his blades then he'll do it. For long range he uses bayonets (not on a gun, but Alexander Anderson style, like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLJ5fdkU_CM - at 30:31). For close range, he can use the bayonets, but has a sword with a blade which is 3 feet long and 2 inches wide at the hilt. He also has a bow for when he really needs range, and he has bayonets modified to use with his bow.

Armor: He wears fibre pads which deflect blades and bows, but with iron pads at the following areas: heart, knees, elbows, and fingers (so he can pack more of a punch). He also wears a Roman style iron helmet, and steel boots.

Description: Armori is 16, tall and muscular. Arrogant, but concerned about others to a point. Believes he can face anything with minimal help. He's also very smart and not very combat-oriented. He is good at it, but only does it if he believes he has to.

Background: Orphaned at age 8, Armori wandered through Cradle, shunning his knighthood, providing for himself by stealing and occasionally, taking up bounty hunter jobs. The sword he uses was some long-lost relative's own before, Armori saw it and took a shine to it. He discovered the iron pads, which are almost unbreakable, and he does have spares, on his frequent visits to Almire. He brought in a notorious criminal and the Duke of Almire rewarded him with remarkably workable, yet strong iron. Armori discovered it strength increased with smaller size and so made it into pads. He discovered the bayonets while on the run with a uncharacteristically violent Owlite, who then taught Armori everything about using bayonets before he was killed by some sort of wolf-creature. Since then, Armori has really just wanted to be able to settle down.

Name: Leo Teou

Age: 19

Gear: Short sword. Scavenged Cobalt armor and a plain chapeau(like the one Barrus wears) also has a small supply pack. Finally his Crossbow, probably his most prized possession, its a customized medium range crossbow with a simple foot stock to reload. Leo has modified the bow to shoot almost any size bolt with different results. He prefers a crossbow because he can retrieve a bolt, but one can't really retrieve a bullet.

Description: Leo is slim, and not very tall. He isn't the one to stand out in a crowd. He has very little morals, and does what it takes to survive.

Bio: Grew up normally, joined the military and took up the rarely used crossbow because it suited him. In his training he learned survival techniques and basic melee combat, but he always focused on his bow. Not much else is special about Leo's upbringing.

Note: Leo starts with five crossbow bolts in his quiver.

Ares, you're in.
Thin- overall, I don't have a problem with your character. I probably should have re-detailed this, but I was originally going for no magicish stuff. The whole Dark Matter, corrupted, that's all good. Just, if you want powers, explain them with machinery, gadgets, etc.

The Dark Disguise is the only one of her powers that's magic-related. Her needles are chitinous structures created by her body, and her energy transfer ability is really just blood sucking; her biology allows her to draw an individual's life force directly from their blood. Shadow Cloaking is a direct physical consequence of bringing dark matter to the surface of the skin, and is a trainable ability. Her wings use the physical air properties to provide lift and thereby drop her effective weight, boosting her agility.

And suddenly, The Finder seems like a cross between a vampire and a something.

Nah just a vampire. Just watch Hellsing.

Is Hellsing good? I've seen commercials. It seems like everyone here is really into anime except for me :P. Also, is anyone on the level 3 Skywatch mission in Destiny? #HATETHEHIVE. I can't beat that level D:
Anyways, my character
Name: Erebos B6G786Y
Details: Male, Blue personal color, 13
Bio: (Sorry if I make backstory a little crazy) Erebos was an experimental clone created to combat all threat of the cradle. They gave him special gauntlets to use as weapons. He shunned his psychological programming and delved to the deepest depths of the Cradle. He found some pieces of the Skylark hull and created several vicious daggers and throwing knives out of it. He has 5 of these daggers and 20 of these tiny throwing knives. He originally had 30 of the throwing knives, but he traded ten for a set of light scale mail armor with chainmail underneath (Chainmail http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs30/f/2009/251/7/a/45_Degree_Chainmail_Vest…) (Scale Mail http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/320/e/b/scale_short_sleeves_by_d…) He wears no helmet.
Abilities: He has can use lightning in a similar way to Count Dooku thanks to special nanobot gauntlets. He also can move with incredible speed. If this WAS DnD, than his dexterity stat would be maxed. He is an incredible pickpocket. Erebos can also pick locks with incredible ease. His gauntlets can also produce the things that a battle sprite can make. He has a small modified Scuttlebot as a pet.

@Saucce- I've only watched like 4 series tops. But anyways, Hellsing, and for the sake of being specific Hellsing Ultimate (which follows the manga more than the first series) is, absolute magic in animation. And it actually has serious character development and a killer plot. Not to mention the fight scenes are badass. They do curse in it though so I don't know if that's a turnoff for you. But it's great.

((Colray, you are accepted.))

The young Knight sat with his back against the tree, playing a haunting melody on a reed flute. Beside him lay a staff, carved with symbols. His tattered cloak fluttered lightly in the breeze. Underneath, he wore a simple shirt and pants, with light boots.
He finished his song, watching as a Wolver cub bounded out of the bushes, a Chroma in its mouth. The Knight rubbed the pup's head fondly, removing the Chroma. He pulled a long knife out of his belt, and quickly prepared the meat, before starting a fire. Soon, the smell of roasted meat filled the area.
The Knight turned to the pup. "Well, we'd best be getting on. The Swarm Knights can't be far behind us." He sighed. "What I wouldn't give for some company..."

((Please start your character near mine. Also, just a little clarification. All OOC should be in double parentheses. Also, Swarm Knights have varying degrees of "sentience." The farthest stages are essentially zombies. Newer infected tend to retain some motor skills. They can still use a sword, but it's more of unskilled swipes.))

Leo sat in a tree and plucked the drawcord absentmindedly. Wandering alone was not much bother to him, but it did get quite boring sometimes. Suddenly the smell of cooking meat made its way to his nose. Oh that smells good... He got up from his sitting position and hooked his bow on his back.

Traversing through tree branches is a very annoying thing. The branches seem to be everywhere you don't want them to be. A couple minutes later, Leo peered through a criss-cross of branches and saw a Knight sitting at a campfire. Maneuvering himself, Leo dropped down from the tree he was in neatly, and poked his head into the clearing. He saw a Wolver cub and wondered about it briefly, but the smell invaded his mind.

"Do I smell meat?"

Armori had no idea where he was anymore. Not that he had before either. He had just been taking random paths to see where he would end up. Following an entrancing tune off of his chosen path would not have been his first guess. Absentmindedly, he sharpened a few of his bayonets while he got closer to the source of the music, hoping it would be something he could exploit at least a little. He cut through a particularly stubborn tangle of vines and stepped into a clearing. There was a Chroma being roasted on the fire, a live Wolver, and two knights. Armori couldn't care less about the two knights at the moment, so instead his greeting was:

"Are you gonna cook the wolver too?"

Name: Koutetsu

Age: 17

Description: A somewhat short knight, with short messy black hair. He has fairly decent morals, and wont kill someone unless he needs to. He's usually kind, and will attempt to help people in bad situations. He has a somewhat humorous inner monologue, but usually keeps it to himself. He also hates demons due to an encounter he had previously as a knight, and will probably attempt to stab anything demonic looking when he can. Or he would, if he wasn't terrified of demons as well. Kinda like that friend you knew that had a bat farm at home so he could make superbats despite being scared of bats.

Armor: He has a set of body armor that looks like eastern samurai armor, although it's hard to tell because it was made out of rusty scrap metal and scratched leather. Due to a lack of resources, he has no shield or helmet.

Weapon: He has a decently sized chunk of wood, sharpened to a point to resemble a stake, and a chipped, nearly broken sword resembling a katana.

Bio: Not too much is known about his origins, but what is known is that he had a terrible encounter with some form of demons in the clockwork, giving him his few and hatred of demons. He is believed to be from an Eastern part of Isora.

Am I in?

The young Knight turned toward the first voice. "Plenty to go around." He turned to the second. "No, the cub is not food." He let out a low growl, and the cub trotted over, laying its head in his lap. "My name is Lann. Welcome to my fire. Plenty of roast Chroma to go around, help yourselves. What brings you to this secluded forest?"

"No, the cub is not food," the knight replied to Armori. Disappointed, Armori considered leaving right then, but he could do with a little rest.

"My name is Lann. Welcome to my fire. Plenty of roast Chroma to go around, help yourselves. What brings you to this secluded forest?" the knight asked.

Armori looked at the roast Chroma with some distaste in his expression, mainly because his stomach was set on Wolver. He didn't see how that Wolver was going to be useful anyways. Then he replied to Lann.

"I actually have no idea where I am. Haven't been in any towns for a while, I've just been wandering around. I heard flute music and followed it here. Why are you here?"

"Thanks," Leo regarded the other newcomer, listening what he had to say before continuing.

"The name'a Leo, nice to meet you Lann."

He turned to the armored newcomer, "What's your name centurion?"

While he was waiting for an answer, he reached out and helped himself to some roast chroma. He sat down slowly on the edge of the same log Lann was on. He watched the Wolver cub a little, then looked to Armori for his answer.

Armori realized he hadn't introduced himself, and they probably regarded him as intrusive.

*Bah. Who cares what they think?* he thought.

The other knight, who introduced himself as Leo, turned to Armori.

"What's your name centurion?" he asked. Leo helped himself to some roast Chroma, which Armori was still eyeing with distaste, and sat on the edge of the log Lann was on.

"I'm Armori. So why are you out here?" he replied to Leo.

Armori seemed like a wierd name, Leo wondered briefly if it was a nickname.

"Me? Oh I was just passing through, wandering. Like you." Something about Leo's tone felt like he was hiding something. Leo took a bite of Chroma and chewed thoughtfully.

"Where'd you gef tha armo'? Leo gestured at Armori's armor. Realizing he sounded muffled, Leo swallowed, "I mean, it looks in better condition then mine at least.

Leo opened his cloak and pointed to the mish-mash combination of cobalt and fencing chain mail.

Armori was skeptical of Leo's explanation, but decided not to press him on it. He didn't even know the guy, for all Armori knew he always sounded like he was hiding something.

Leo asked him something about armor, but Armori couldn't hear him well through all that disgusting Chromalisk.

*When will people learn etiquette? I taught myself proper etiquette when I was 9..* Armori thought, disgusted. ((By now you should be able to see Armori's a bit of a...u know))

Leo seemed to have read his mind, as he swallowed first then continued.
"I mean, it at least looks in better condition than mine," he said.

Armori had to supress his laughter at the mashup of materials that Leo was calling armor. Chain mail, if not the same throughout, was bound to let you down sooner than later. Armori took a deep breath (so he wouldn't laugh) and replied to Leo.

"The fibre I got from an Owlite friend. All the iron and steel, I made myself with metal and fires from the Duke of Almire."

Then he added,

"You might want to look into better armor."

He walked over to the fire, gazing into it as if it held the solutions to his problems.

"Owlite? Last I heard they all died because of the Kat Klan and all that. And isn't the duke of Almire an undead crazy guy with a mace?"

Leo raised an eyebrow at Armerio, then had to suppress some laughter of his own.

"New armor? Just where might I find some of that? I'll gladly go get some if you got any recommendations, or is Vanaduke all tied up this weekend?"

((Clashing personalities are fun,))

What was so unbelievable about where he got his armor? Armori didn't like ((what he perceived)) being laughed that, and so took a defensive tone.

"Well if you must know I got my armor years before any of that happened. Obviously the Owlites wouldn't have been dead yet, and the fate that befell poor Almire hadn't happened yet," he said.

Just like that, Armori was reminded why he didn't converse with his own kind much. There was a rustle in the bushes, and Armori was lightning is his reaction, throwing a bayonet to the source of the disturbance. The bush yelped. Armori went to claim his prize, an Alpha Wolver.

"Hope this wasn't yours too," he said to Lann and Leo.

Allrighty then, if you say so. Leo shrugged vaguely and took another bite of Chroma. He watched Armerio go reveal an Alpha Wolver. Then ask if it was any of theirs.

"No' mine"

He looked at Lann to answer, the flute player had been very quite during their exchange.

Lann grinned. "Nah, not mine. It was probably hunting the cub. So, now that everyone's introduced, why don't we think about the Swarm Knights that are undoubtedly heading this way? They seem to be more common than ever before."

DAMMIT STOP POSTING WHILE IM IN SCHOOL

((NEVER))

"What? How-" Leo thought for a second, it did make sense. Swarm knights pretty much had free rein over cradle since the knights were out of commission.

"Ok.." Leo unhooked his Crossbow and put his foot in the stirrup to pull back the drawcord. Loaded, Leo lay a bolt on the bow and held it loosely, ready to aim and fire at any time.

"What should we do?"

Koutetsu sat against one tree of many in the forest he was in, peering down at the small amount of wolver that he had caught. It wouldn't be the most filling, but it would keep him alive. As his stomach growled more, he sat up to get some branches from the tree he was leaning against for a fire. Raw wolver was neither healthy or tasteful. As he ran out of branches from the bottom of the tree, he did his best to climb up the tree to get a few more branches. His best wasn't very good unfortunately, as noted by his back shortly meeting grass once again. He sat up, and sat against the tree again, feeling pain in his leg. He had pulled a muscle in his leg, so he probably wouldn't pull the rest of himself up anytime soon. He put the branches in a small pile and lit them by rubbing a few together. He skewered the wolver on a stick and held it close to the fire, wanting to cook it to a healthy eating point as fast as possible, in hopes of not attracting any attention from other knights or other monsters in the forest.

((Question Thin, how long would it take the Finder to suck out all the blood from a target?))

((Most people have a little over a gallon of blood in their bodies. You can lose a couple pints before going unconscious. Since I don't know of any human-sized creatures that can chug over a gallon of fluid non-stop, I doubt Koutetsu would be in much danger of that. The real danger would be in the blood loss resulting from a severed limb or major blood vessel.))

Erebos walked into the clearing.

"Anything I can eat?" Erebos asks, clearly famished.

Lann had mentioned Swarm knights coming to the clearing. Armori, unconcerned as ever, simply snickered.

"Swarm Knights? Please. I could take down a dozen of those lumps with one bayonet, and have time to remove the infection from the blade," he boasted. Through his tone it was evident there was some truth to this statement, but it could not quite be determined how much there truly was.

"Don't tell me you're scared of them?" Armori scoffed at his companions. He had already started commencing skinning the Alpha Wolver, as it wasn't identified to be owned by either of them.

Then someone else walked into the clearing asking,

""Anything I can eat?"

*Well, aren't we lively today?* Armori thought, rolling his eyes. But the knight was clearly dizzy from hunger. So he did something he didn't usually do, which was offer his things, at least somewhat.

"So those two are roasting Chroma, and I have a Wolver here. If you want some of the Wolver however, you'll have to cook it yourself, I like my meat raw." Then he added, "Introduce yourself first though, can't give food away to a total stranger." He then proceeded to devour a whole chunk of warm, bloody, Wolver meat. Delicious.

"My name is Erebos," says Erebos "Now can I please have something to eat?"

Leo ignored Armerio, "Well isn't everyone in the forest today? Hello Erebos, my name is Leo, and here is some roast chroma."

he held out a chunk of the stuff.

*Did he just ignore me?* Armori thought, sniping a quick look at Leo.

*Well I probably am coming off as abrasive and arrogant, I should be ni- ahh screw it. Noone in Cradle had ever cared about being nice to him* he thought again, somber now.

Armori devoured another chunk of Wolver, he had been famished for a while now.

"So i've been out of the loop though, what's the deal with Haven?" he asked. "Has it been taken over?" he sat expectantly, waiting for an answer as he twirled his blade.

Erebos snatches the chromalisk meat and starts eating.

"You could've cooked this a little longer" he comments

Koutetsu removed his meal from the fire after the meat became lukewarm, and stomped the fire out with his good leg. He took a bite out of the undercooked late wolver and sighed. The wolver tasted absolutely terrible, and his stomach would probably hate him for it later. After he finished his unappetizing mote of meat, he tried to stand, only to be met with a sharp pain. He sat back down, and rubbed the source of the pain coming from his upper left leg in an attempt to make the pain dissipate. "No good staying here, someone could have seen the smoke from the fire. I should get a move on." He thought. With that, he unbuckled his sheathe that held his katana, and use it as a cane to avoid walking on his left leg. He recalled seeing a small body of water earlier, and started to head there so he could get some water. The path was rugged and covered by heavy foliage, so he could barely see where he was walking. He slowly and carefully tried to manage his way through the foliage, but didn't make it too far being tripping and pricking his right hand from some thorns on the way down. Painfully, he sat himself against a fallen over tree and rested. He thought to himself, "Aren't I lucky today? I bet somewhere in this forest there's a handful of people eating well cooked meat and sharing stories while I'm struggling to even catch food!"

Lann looked over at Armori with interest and a hint of contempt. "Haven't you heard, Haven has become a major hive for the Swarm? Thousands of Swarmers are guarding it. I saw a lot when I was apprenticed under Desna's Rangers, but Haven's worse than all of it. It's a lost cause. About the only safe places are Emberlight and Moorcroft. The Grand Colony seems to be fighting the Swarm as well."
He grabbed his staff, jabbing it into the ground as pulling himself up on it. He looked at the other Knights, idly twirling the staff through his fingers. "Well, I'm off. You're welcome to follow Mactire and I if you want. I suppose Moorcroft is the best destination."

As Koutetsu rested against the tree, another creature watched him from the shadows. Deftly, silently, and swiftly as the midnight wind, she leaped to the forest floor from her perch on a tree branch and slowly crawled her way around and behind him. Unfortunately, a twig snapped under her foot, and in the dead silence of the night, her prey would almost certainly hear it. She froze, deciding whether to strike or to flee.

Or, perhaps, do neither and hope for the best. But the dark voices living in her head were not so patient. If she didn't find some fresh meat soon, they would torment her once again.

And she would do anything never to hear them again.

Anything.

How long has this guy been outta the loop? Especially if he's seen Almire before it fell...

"Yeah? I heard the Apocrean Cult that was gaining popularity before the attack is still in haven. Made a pact with the Swarm."

Leo turned to Lann, "I'll come with you, got nothing better to do."

Seeing no danger at the moment, Leo plucked the bolt from its spot and replaced it in his quiver. He eased the drawcord back into resting position and hooked it on his back again.

He sighed and looked at the back of his right hand. A small, yet steady stream of blood trickled out of the wound. He reached for a leaf so he could temporarily stop the bleeding, but was interrupted mid grab by the distinct sound of wood snapping behind him. His curiosity told him to check what it was, and his instinct told him to run, but he realized quickly it wasn't his choice because of his leg. He managed to whimper out a weak, "W-who's there?"

Feed us! Feed us!

If she didn't act soon, the tormenting would begin. Her prey had formed a question, indicating that he wasn't 100% certain she was there. That was good. She could work with that. She finished crawling behind the tree trunk and moved her arms to each side of it, preparing to grab him by the throat. But if the knight was armed, she would risk losing a few limbs. It was a risk she was willing to take at this point.

She threw her hands around his throat and held on tight for dear life.

Armori watched Lann and Leo leave, munching on his Alpha Wolver. But he had the oddest sense of foreboding all of a sudden, like there was something dying to send him to reunite with his Owlite mentor. He wasn't afraid of Swarm, hive mind stuff he could deal with.. But the atmosphere in the forest felt.. Dead. And Ethereal.

Armori decided to leave his meal and follow the others, at a distance.

"After all, they seem like they know where they're going." He said to the air.

No reply. Koutetsu leaned over to grab his katana so he could retaliate, but was too late as the attacker had already started to suffocate him. He grabbed the hands of the attacker and just barely managed to pry them off, and shoved the attacker, quickly reaching for his weapon. After re-acquiring his weapon and turning around, he saw the one who had attacked him for the first time. Quickly, a sense of hopelessness and paralyzing fear rushed over him, almost causing him to drop his weapon. He tried to talk with the thing, and barely managed to spit out the words, "W-W-What d-do you w-want?"

No! He got away! No no no no NO! Her breath became uneven, and she fidgeted impatiently. She just had to consume someone's blood before the voices took over once more. She eyed his sword warily and tried to determine the optimal way to attack without getting struck. Almost immediately, an idea occurred to her: she grabbed a handful of dirt and sprayed it in his face.

Then, with her claws extended, she lunged for his legs.

Koutetsu's previously clean face became slightly dirtier with dirt as the creature had attacked him. Before he could recover from it, he felt a pain as he tried to crawl away. Within the small area he could see through the dirt, he saw several long streaks of red on his left leg, giving him further pain to the same area. "What are you doing!? Can you not understand me!?" he shouted, hoping to at least get some response before his probable death.

The creature vaguely heard her prey shout something in the Common tongue, but she was too busy knawing at his leg to care. Her fangs shot into his leg and began drawing the blood from his veins. Within moments, a wave of relief washed over her; the voices were satiated for now. She sucked up a little extra just to be on the safe side and darted away back into hiding.

Her relief was shortly replaced with shame when she realized what she had done. She had assaulted a human being and drank his blood. If they would just leave the creatures of the Clockworks alone, she wouldn't have to resort to such extreme measures! Didn't they know what they were doing to her!? She had to flee human civilization so many eons ago in order to avoid having to attack them, yet here they were, in her territory, taking away her only means of survival!

Bunch of idiots, she thought to herself. She clambered into her favorite tree and fondled the little straw doll she made for herself. It was poor company, to be sure, but it was better than nothing. "You understand me, don't you?" she whispered to the doll. Of course I do, she heard it say. You're the only person in the world I care about.

The girl glanced back in the direction of the human she recently preyed on. She could just barely see him through a break in the trees, nursing his injured leg. For a moment, she almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

Pain. Pain was the only thing he felt at that moment. And fear, that was also the omnipresent thing in any situation as this. He let out a small moan of pain before thinking about why she did that. "Why? Did she need blood? Was that *thing* a vampire? Could that thing understand language? Did it need the blood to quiet voices she kept hearing in her head? Nah, couldn't be that."

He took a quick second to observe the state of his body aside from the pain, and found himself a bit pale, fatigued, and hungry. Since in the condition he was in he would, without a doubt, not be hunting, he would likely spend the rest of the night, if not the next day as well hungry and healing his leg. From where he was sitting, he gathered a few sticks and lit a small fire for warmth, so he could get a jump on the night time which would probably come soon. Shortly after lighting the fire, the only thing on his mind was the attack. The scenario brought grim reminders to him of the attack he and his squad had when he was a younger knight.

Sad and stressed, he brought his knees close to him and started to cry a little

A minute later, the girl heard a sound resembling the cries of a tortured gremlin. It was a truly hideous sound to her ears, and worse, it was coming from her former prey. She plugged her ears and prayed that the noises would stop.

Koutetsu shortly remembered why he had come through this area to begin with. He stood up, and used his katana as a cane again. He kept the small fire brewing, and unwillingly left a small track trail of blood for him to return with. Never once seeing where the Finder had run off to, or seen her in the trees, he nearly walked under the tree she was now accompanying, with his head in his sleeve, suppressing his tears and cries.

The human's attemps to suppress his weeping only made matters worse. Instead of sounding like a tortured gremlin, he now sounded like a dying piglet. Thoroughly annoyed, the girl shot him a few loud, gutteral barks to shut him up.

"YAK! YAK! EEP!"

Koutetsu, now seeing the girl again, wasn't sure whether to become curious or afraid again. On one hand, he could annoy it and see what it would do AFTER it ate blood, which would probably make him end up with some adamantine in his heart. On the other hand, he could run and probably never see the monster again. His more peaceful curiosity came over him and made him ask, "Can you understand me?"